Rainclouds and Cigarettes: Hungover and Hungry

10-15

Hungover. A rainy morning in Cleveland. Didn't write anything last night, too busy staying up with an impossibly pretty punk chick named Lauren, drinking beer with the boys and listening to Blatz.

Columbus was weird. Some drunk moron punched Doyle in the back of the head. This story doesn't deserve to be elaborated upon, but I'm not stroking my own dick when I say I handled the situation expertly.

A kid named Frank showed us around Columbus yesterday. He had lived on the streets, in and out of jail, for about twelve years, and had the jittery mannerisms and general physical appearance to prove it. His face was covered with tattoos, dominated largely by a criss-cross of railroad-track stitches to give the impression of a sad little sewn-together ragdoll.

The rain seems to be following us again after several days of relative sunshine.

The thought of a warm meal dominates my thoughts and dreams. I walk around gas stations staring at the rotating hot dogs, the gross little cardboard trays of fried chicken. Timmy and I sat at the bar in Chicago, watching television for the first time in weeks, and we had to turn away at each commercial for food. Heartbreaking. We take warm meals for granted. You have no idea how good a hot Sonic cheeseburger can make you feel until you've spent the previous two days living on almonds and oatmeal bars.

I've been completely out of money for about a week and a half now, but today in Athens I'm picking up a couple of paychecks as well as getting some money from Ian. I am salivating at the thought of a warm meal, all fat and grease and salt, paid for out of my own pocket. Reminds me of "Hunger", by Hamsun, and the protagonist driven mad by hunger, chewing on scraps of wood to try to satiate his panging stomach.

Lydia Loveless (Columbus, OH)

Linden (?): jolly fat kid from the rockabilly band (Rockabye Ransom? maybe?), said he'd help out with Cleveland shows.

15th House - Columbus DIY venue/punk house. Timmy and I got stoned as hell smoking resin with a cute little girl with Clash tattoos named Morgan. She plays drums in Rag Rage.

10-13

Surreal moments: Listening to opera while watching the Indiana landscape swing wildly between lonely and serenely dull countryside and the fire-breathing industrial wasteland.

the Pogues - Hell's Ditch