Coffee drinking Mike checks in

I got an e-mail from my friend Mike the other day.

I remember one morning at college I was riding my bike on Main Street in Newark at 7:00 a.m. putting up flyers for my band and I saw Mike walking to work.

He was drinking coffee. Since then I've always associated him as being a coffee drinker.

Some people associate Mike as the dude who tried to break a baseball bat by slamming it against a telephone pole. Of course, the bat bounced right off the telephone pole and back into Mike's face.

Anyway, here's what Mike had to say:

"Just thought I'd tell ya Fran and I saw Nels Cline the other night, quite impressed. I never thought that monkey'n around with yr effects pedals could garner a crowd -- and he did it w/ a jazzy style, very inspiring.

It reminded me of shite that occasionally burbles out of my amp here at home with Debbie going "that's weird" and me digging it but thinkin this would never hit it off w/ the kids at clubs.

Fran and I have started a new two-piece project doing some of the mellower folk-psyche-noisey Lettuce Prey material. We jammed last weekend and it sounded damn good. He's using two floor toms, kick, snare hat, cymbals and I'm using two amps through some crazy-ass effects I've collected over the years. We hope to incorporate Debbie on accordion. Sounds like a more lively Dirty Three meets Sonic Youth meets VU and Donovan (not his candy-ass shit though).

Heard Zen Guerrilla is releasing a new record soon -- anxious to hear that. Not sure if the new Zen record will be live or if they recorded new material. I doubt the latter. Andy is going to send me a copy soon -- I'll let you know.

Debbie and I plan to get a new dog after we move and have a park or backyard. I think Ben would dig it too. We miss Stevie so much, but as George says "All things must pass."