In other news, Elle and I have very recently become addicted to American Idol. We had managed to make it until last week without ever once watching that program, but suddenly we find ourselves actually looking forward to it. For what it's worth, we appreciate the fact that it is the single most pompous television show ever produced, and the comedy value is quite high. I spend the whole time watching it in stitches I'm laughing so hard. Why didn't anyone tell me this show was so funny?

In other news, work proceeds on the next Micronaut album. As I mentioned previously, it's going to be a double CD, and I'm working primarily on the first disk right now, which consists of actual songie songs. The track I just finished, "Title Theme For An Unmade Steve McQueen Movie," is well-named, because that's exactly what it is. (For what it's worth, I briefly flirted with the idea of a concept album which would be, in its entirety, a soundtrack for an unmade Steve McQueen movie. However, I don't have the musical skill to pull something like that off, plus we wouldn't be able to sell any tracks to MTV then.)

So, the first disk is about 1/3 done at this point. If I had to hazzard a guess, I'd say that it'll be available c. July, barring unforeseen circumstances.

1) If you don't mow the lawn, it doesn't necessarily grow that fast.

2) If you mow the lawn, and the next day it rains all day, you can actually see the grass grow.

3) Mowing the lawn sucks.

4) When I own a house, I fully intend to pave the entire yard.

Back in the casa after our trip. Elle was feeling a bit under the weather so we didn't go to the play, but otherwise, our mission was accomplished. Thoughts about Ashland, in no particular order:

1. Deer wander about in the town. Photographic evidence of same is above. I didn't use the telephoto lens on that pic.

2. It amazes me that Ashland and Hermiston are in the same state. It's the difference between a town entirely run by Democrats and one entirely run by Republicans. The former is a beautiful tourist mecca, incredibly wealthy, clean, and culturally significant. The latter is a franchise ghetto wedged in among heavy industrial plants and regional trans-shipping freight yards. The towns are almost exactly the same size. Well, I guess somebody has to load the Wal-Mart trucks. It might as well be the fucktards I went to high school with.

3. We can't afford to buy a house in Ashland, at least not this year. Median home price is around half a million. But gods, the houses there are nice. Really nice. And the views? Forget it.

4. There's a ski resort not 20 minutes from down town Ashland. This is the view from the parking lot; that's Mt. Shasta. Ashland is right on the California border, and has much different weather than here. We usually get 90" to 120" of rain a year. They get 20" in a wet year. The rain here doesn't bother me any more; I hardly notice it. But I could get behind some more sun, for sure.

5. I could easily live in a town like that the rest of my life, and not have a single complaint.

Anyways, back to our normal scheduled programming.

Last night, we finally went to see 300. I now know that most everyone in the country is fucking stupid. That movie sucked, no two ways about it. It _looked_ fantastic, but it was all hat, no cattle. I mean, if you're gonna take so many liberties with history as to make it an "inspired by real events" kind of thing anyways, you might as well go whole hog and give it, like, a plot and stuff.

During the movie, some teenagers sitting near us decided it was a good time to have a conversation. Talking in movies, along with tailgating, is one of the few things that will put me over the edge almost immediately. So I turn around and hold out a fin to the dude sitting nearest to me and say "hey, will you run to the snack bar and pick up a large cup of SHUT THE FUCK UP?"

This seemed to work, then afterwards in front of the bathrooms, they were verbally pondering whether I had the balls to actually back up my attitude. I put that line of questioning to bed pretty quickly, and was gonna go the whole way, but Elle pointed out to me that it wasn't worth it because the guys had those rubber band things in their mouths, and were like 17 or something.

In any event, the stupid movie and ill-mannered children aside, this area is fucking fantastic. We were noting the fact that Ashland, Oregon, and Ashville, North Carolina, are incredibly similar. The former relies on acting to pay the bills, while the latter has art galleries, but otherwise they're more or less the same town. Kind of pricey, but just a top-flight living experience all around. And Jacksonville? Don't even get us started.

So, home tomorrow night and back to business as usual. See you then.

Anywho, leaving in the morning; we'll be back late Saturday. I will no doubt post at some point while we're gone, assuming anything interesting happens. (And when, I ask, does it not?)