God, I’m loving how much damage President Obama (something I never get tired of saying) is undoing just in his first week of office. He really means to get shit done, which is a shocker in Washington.

I too am a little afraid of the day when I think, “Oh, Barack, you’ve dropped the ball.” But an amazing book that really put everything in perspective was “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin–a book that Obama has said he is basing his presidency on. It is a rather epic history of Lincoln’s primary campaign and the way that he composed his Cabinet from his main rivals in the Republican primary. Then it details how he held everyone together during the Civil War…simply amazing. There were tons of pro-slavery people who thought that Lincoln was too radical, and tons of abolitionists who felt that he didn’t go far enough, so he really got it from all sides. So every time someone on Daily Kos starts ranting about how Obama is a big fat liar because he’s not doing the most liberal thing possible at this very second, I think about how Lincoln very carefully weighed his actions and worked really hard to get disparate groups of people working together. For revisionists who point to Lincoln’s not-so-progressive views of African American equality, this book reminds us that he ultimately gave his life for civil rights. Basically this book reminds us just how kick-ass Lincoln was (because with all the memorials and his face on currency, it’s easy to forget the man behind the icon) and will make it seem beyond belief that the Union ever won the Civil War. Incompetent generals back in the day before they picked Grant…sheesh.

I saw the movie “Once” last night, and it reminded me so much of you! And not just because Glen Hansard has red hair…

How did you know I was repairing vacuum cleaners now?

Actually, the new Acoustic Gothaxe is pretty similar to the Takamine in that movie…

Have you figured out your setlist yet? And when are you ever going to be online again?

1. Setlist is slowly coming together. The buddy I’m doing this with has been out of town so I’ve been adapting tunes and programming the SWEET ASS drum machine in the meantime.

On deck so far is “Closer”, “N.W.O.”, “Dope Show”, either “Blasphemous Rumors” or “Policy of Truth”, “Blue Monday” or “Bizarre Love Triangle”, and some version of “Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty of Infidelity” (which just happens to be the best song of all time, incidentally).

First L’S original is entitled “Frankenbuckle”.

2. Not anytime soon — not much time to be on AIM when I’m working on stuff I’m invested in during the day. :-)

Oh yes, I forgot, you’re all FULFILLED these days. Well, you’re going to have to start emailing me regularly, or I’m just going to have to tell the world about the weird dream I had about you last night.

So I dreamt that you came to visit me, except I was living in Northwest Indiana with my mom. And I meant to show you all around Chicago, but I was working, and you had some class to take, so we only hung out at some parish carnival in my hometown. And you were like, “Well, this has been nice, but it’s just a suburb.” Which was frustrating for me because I thought, “Of course it’s a suburb, it’s northwest Indiana!” Then I had to drive you to the airport, and I couldn’t figure out exactly how to get there for some reason, and you were getting all cranky on me. And we missed your flight, so you were on standby, and we both apologized and made up.

After you left, I was hanging out in the city where there was a monument made out of human bones. And the living could walk through it as long as they stayed on a certain path. I strayed from the path and was being chased by a human skeleton and a dog skeleton, and the dog skeleton was biting me, until I shooed it back into its area for the dead. The end.

Your setlist sounds great…please do keep me posted on when you’re playing. Matt and I will have enough frequent flier miles after we get back from Ireland…

Acoustic Gothaxe?

Um, I have an e-mail, you have picture of said axe. hit “send”