L.A. Story 3: Rock Star Treatment
This past weekend, I was treated to an all-expenses paid trip to Los Angeles to play my part, literally, in completing the follow up to Good or Suck!, the long-in-coming and highly-anticipated sophomore album by Real Can of Yams, CODENAME: Koala. The title was determined around the same time Good or Suck! was finished in 2001, but it's more appropriate to say work began on the album three years ago instead of eight, for 2006 was when K. Steeze began work in earnest. And though R.C.Y. is a five-member band, His Steeziness has put forth eighty to ninety percent of the work himself: writing most of the songs, performing both guitar and bass guitar, and producing and mixing the whole shebang. Blue Tree Whacking is a mutual admiration society, but in this case all the admiration is owed toward he of the blue and orange, our fearless leader, K. Steeze. Wherever you are, at home or at work, alone or in a crowd, give him a round of applause; he more than deserves the hand, it and so much more.

For only the second time in my experience, air travel proved bothersome. Many people have complained about Northwest Airlines over the years, but I always found the service to be highly satisfactory. However, the merger with Delta Air Lines has proven detrimental to service; three of my four flights ran significantly behind schedule, by an average of fifty minutes. I understand that the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry and I am not unsympathetic to the problems that must face such a major enterprise day-in and day-out, but I am also a judgmental cur who does not take kindly to being inconvenienced. My intention is never again to fly Northwest or Delta, and I have informed them of this intent in writing, or at least electronic writing.

The Dreadful Sick
My condition is much improved from yesterday, though I am not yet back up to snuff. I pretend to neither strength nor stoicism, I detest being sick and whine incessantly when suffering the slightest ailment. My attitude toward illness is a modification of a timeless line by Daffy Duck, "I'm not like other people. I can't stand pain, it hurts me." My throat began burning on Sunday, and I awoke Monday with a headache borne of clogged sinuses, a minor but persistent dizziness owing to the same cause, and an occasional but quite violent cough. I could feel that my lungs were not as they should have been. Most of all, I was seized by a profound lethargy. I turned in very early last night and slept fitfully. I awoke many times in the night and early this morning, which is most unusual for me as I normally sleep like the dead. Nevertheless, the fever of yesterday is significantly reduced if not totally subsided and I feel much more like myself, though still a version of myself with a stuffy nose that is yielding disquieting quantities of snot, and one still plagued by an occasional though far less violent cough. Oh, I hate being sick.

Teddy's baptism into the heretical Lutheran church is this weekend and I must appear to be the picture of good health if I'm to have any chance of holding my infant nephew. Heal, man, heal like the wind!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Fountains of Wayne, "Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim" from Traffic and Weather (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: As anyone who has ever witnessed my air travels can attest, my luggage is quite distinctive; I never experience the slightest difficulty in identifying my suitcases on the baggage carousel. Hoorah for customization.

Also, alas and alack, this Michael was traveling alone without the delightful accompaniment of a lovely and charming Heather.