And I haven’t been since December. For the first time, I don’t for for a .edu or a .org. And I’ve never been happier.

It’s kind of a weird feeling.

This is the place that used to be Pontiac. I love the Pontiac. It was so dirty, so run down. It was the best place to start your evening in Wicker Park. When it closed, it was another nail in the coffin of the dirty rock & roll feel in that neighborhood. Double Door is still there, and so it Estelle’s. But the rest of the neighborhood is so clean, so child friendly. It’s different, and I don’t like change, because it reminds me that I”m getting old.

So tonight, I’m going to Big Star. I’ll eat a taco, and it will be fantastic. But it won’t be the same, and I’ll complain about it. Because that’s how I roll.

I’m absolutely fascinated by the Lawrence Welk Show.

Hear me out.

It’s totally square. It’s totally uncool. It’s completely Wonder Bread with mayonnaise. But it’s also what was really going on during its era, which was the late 50′s through the early 70′s.

We all want to think that we’d have been the cool ones. You totally have bought a first edition of Coney Island of the Mind, right? Probably not. You’d have been watching Lawrence Welk, and driving your American made sedan into the city, because you would have wanted to be Mad Men, not a dirty damn hippie.

So when I saw this on YouTube (probably linked from BoingBoing), it blew my mind.

How absolutely fucking hilarious is this? It’s something that would never happen today, because any PA on any television show could tell you what toking means, and was probably out in the alley demonstrating what toking means just minutes before you asked. But in 196whatever? It wasn’t in the vernacular.

So here’s when I watch this, I picture some teenager, trapped in the house, being forced to watch Lawrence Welk by his parents. And maybe he’s a kid that’s kinda on the edge, leaning away from white bread America, listening to the rock & roll & growing his hair long. And maybe he’s heard the real version of this song, and maybe he knows exactly what it’s really talking about. What’s going through that kid’s head? I would die.

Lawrence Welk thought the song was a spiritual. It’s such a great example of the divide between the everyday & the underground, but we don’t look back fondly on him or his show.

Which is a shame, because that dress she’s wearing? Pretty hot.

See also: We Can Work It Out, or pretty much any Tom Waits album.

Part of this complete breakfast.

So I know you’re totally curious, you totally wanna know, so I’ll tell you.

The bone I would least like to break is my tibia.

But I think Anita Hill is a very brave & very awesome lady.

First off, how weird is that word?  Ukulele?  It’s fun to say, right?  Try to spell it, without looking at it.  You totally can’t.  It makes no sense.

Tonight I’m going to a ukulele jamboree or rodeo or open mic thing.  I have no idea really.  I was just told there would be ukuleles & I said “I’m in.”  That’s about all it takes, the promise of a ukulele.  I’m not a lady with what you’d call “high standards” or even “low standards”.

Not convinced that ukuleles are awesome?  Check out this good shit.

The World Weekly News has published a book about the Bat Boy.

Because we need to know the truth.