Wish You Were Here

This is what the world looks like for Ray Speen these days. This is what happens when you spend all your time at The Liquid Hideout. Can it really be since MAY that I wrote anything. It would be nice if "The LH" went wireless, but for now we'll just have to settle for rotgut tequila specials every evening happy hour (from noon until midnight - that's some happy hour!) And no there isn't a bathtub at The Liquid Hideout, though it would also be an improvement. This place is a hole of the grandest degree, but it's the best and only place in "The Point" worth leaving your buggy, moldy, airless, reeking room for. The only question is who will win the race to the bottom, Ray Speen or The Economy?

So Much For The Union

Everyone says the economy is bad, but what does that mean, really? Is that along the lines of: we have to suspend all civil liberties in order to protect us from the terrorists, and we have to attack Iraq because they have weapons of mass destruction? I moved to Union Point because of the strong tradition of labor rights and organization here. What I've found is that the Unions have been, for the most part, dismantled, and I'm facing a new world of work, with longer hours, lower pay, and no breaks. I guess that's what I get for all my years pursuing little but liver damage, while things changed around me as they inevitably will. The rich will get richer and the poor poorer, and the middle-class will disappear, then we'll have a revolution, and things will get even worse for everyone, then better for awhile, then slowly worse again. The only question is how fast, and will I be able to afford to live through all of this, and if so, will I be drinking Southern Host or huffing tar cleaner? Will I get my liver replaced or will I have to carry it around with me in a shopping cart? If they replace it, will the new one come from victim of the revolution, or will I get David Crosby's old one?

Liquid Hideout

To my delight, I have found, in my new home town, Union Point, a bar called "Liquid Hideout"!!! As many of you may have known, I used to spend most of my waking hours, and many not very awake ones, when I wasn't at the Bally Total Suckass, at a bar called LIQUID HIDEOUT in South Milwaukee. Especially after Lloyd's Luncheonette closed their doors forever. I have no idea if this place is a chain or not. I really don't think so. That would be crazy, right? Anyway, what a stroke of luck! Anyway, that is where you can find me, on a stool, or sometimes, two stools (not that often on three stools, but occasionally) near the beet pickled hard boiled eggs, far from the video poker, looking at the help wanted classifieds, and wondering if my phone, at home and lonesome, is ringing off the hook, or was accidentally left off the hook.

I Have Moved!

Thanks to the hundreds, indeed thousands* of you who expressed concern about the lack of postings on this particular online journal. Sometimes the truth is a difficult thing to write about, and this case it isn't, but rather, the truth is just to boring.

The truth is, I moved to a different town and have started a new life here. Some people say that moving is one of the most stressful things you can do. I don't know about that, but I have found it this time to be about as hard as making my way across a vast desert with two broken legs carrying a huge trunk full of a lifetime of "to do" lists.

But now I am here, in my new home, Union Point. So far things are going okay, except for nagging illness, bugbites, my health insurance getting cancelled, and no jobs. But I faced worse before. And, I keep telling myself, people all over the place have it MUCH worse than me. I don't know WHY I have to keep telling myself that, it's something that I should just KNOW. But, you know, I'm basically a moron, so...

More adventures soon!



*actually, 27

The War on Drugs

That was a movie, right? No... That was the war on Roses. What does anyone have agiant roses, I wonder? If war on drugs was really a war, which it isnt. Why do I persist? I presist a lot more in the summer than the winter. It must be the humidity. Wild Irish Rose is not Irish. NOt close to Irish. And who is this Richard? I have to aks for him. Myabe Keith Richards Tripple Peach. I used to be in a band called Triple Peach. People thought we were fond of ice cream. We had a song called Hop on Pop, after the kid's book. It just occuredd to me if that book was called Hop on Mom, it would have been a banned book! You drink a lot, even for an Irishman, someone said. Not to me. I'm not an alcoholic, I'm just from Ohio, I liek to say. And then I hurl.

Secret Headquarters

I apologize for making myself scarce lately, but I've been spending most
of my time at LIQUID HIDEOUT, my new favorite Wisconsin phenomenon.

My Vocaton

I just got an annual checkup at the doctor, something I do once every ten years or so, and to my surprise, health care is now like going to a cafeteria where you walk along and look at the various food options, with the prices on them, and pick out what you want and what you can afford. It turns out I can no longer afford the colonoscopy, the complete blood work, or that deal where the doctor hits your knee with a little hammer. I miss that one!

One bit of advice my doctor did give me was to start drinking again. In fact he asked me if I wanted to go out drinking with HIM! No, that's not true. I'm just practicing my lying. I'm not very good. Anyway, he is a she, and she didn't-- IN SO MANY WORDS-- suggest that I start drinking again. But when I reviewed, in my mind, later, everything she said, it was quite obvious to me, when I read between the lines, that she was suggesting that I start drinking again. If there is anything I'm good at, it's reading between the lines.













Okay. So I'm not so good at reading between the lines! But I'm pretty good at writing between the lines. It's what I do.