All growing up I remember being wrapped up in clothes I’d never seen before … I had no idea where they came from … and my family, along with thousands of Norwegians from all the boroughs would converge in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to march down 3rd Ave in celebration of our pre-independence. There are women adorned just like my mother in the picture pushing baby carriages with little infants dressed accordingly, red white and blue streamers (our Norsk colors, don’t get them confused) hanging from the handles … both my grandfathers carrying little flags and dressed to the nines, the inky gloss of their well-buffed shoes swallowing light and blinding the rest of us.

This year I celebrate my Norwegian heritage by playing a rock show at a coffeeshop/bar in Vermont. Come see it– I might be dressed.

If you’re in NYC, the 52nd Annual Norwegian Constitution Day Parade takes place on Third Avenue in the heart of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn. Two visiting marching bands from Norway will participate.The Parade theme this year is ”Norwegian/Americans honor the Family”. The guest speaker will be Finn Kristian Marthinsen of the Norwegian Parliament. Entertainment and the crowning of Miss Norway at conclusion of parade in Leif Ericson Park. The Parade starts at Marine and Third Avenues, and concludes with a program at the Grandstand, 6th Avenue amd 67th Street, Brooklyn, NY. The parade starts at 1:30 pm, program at Grandstand at approximately 3:30 pm. (212) 531 4877.

The fucked up thing about the parade is that its on the 18th … WTF?

Work from 9 to 6
go to Kinkos and cut up some shit for the new 3″
package em up with Cooley at our cold white table
write this
go to job #2 until just about 4am.

Yeah Mom. This is why you did it. Good to see that Christmas has always been your favorite holiday.

Here’s the first thing I found tonight. My mother is in the lower left corner, 16 some-odd years old. Today, at 63, she’s in a nursing home in Ohio, blind, deaf, divorced, and beautiful.

1. vinyl first, if possible, unless the vinyl is ridiculously expensive (I felt like a real chump paying $24 for that last Boards of Canada LP)
2. must buy the record upon first sight, meaning have the money for the record and be able to purchase it the very first time you see it available in the store.  If you see it elsewhere first and don’t buy it, the record and your devotion to it are tainted.

Buying records on the exact dates they come out also helps me remember dates and times when things in my life and the world in general occurred.  For instance:

GBV’s “Alien Lanes” and Pavement’s “Wowee Zowee” came out around the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.  I was working at the Peking Duck House with Kochalka and playing bass in The Fags.  Spring, 1995

Breeders’ “Last Splash” came out when I was in-between apartments, depressed about possibly having to live with my mother again, depressed at her choice of new live-in boyfriend, depressed that my friends were doing heroin, happy that I was working at a movie theater, happy there was a new Breeders CD since the Pixies had broken up 7 months earlier. September, 1993

Sonic Youth, “Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star”…got the vinyl a week before the official release date.  Super-hot sunny day, living with a couple of burgeoning junkies I had recently met, record collection growing, getting into Half Japanese, Boredoms, Daniel Johnston, etc.  Mildly disappointed with the new Sonic LP.  Later that night our building burned to the ground. May, 1994

Sonic Youth, “Dirty”, Helmet, “Meantime”…fun, good summer…first “Real World” all over MTV as well as Pearl Jam and Nirvana.  High school was over and this would be the last summer living at home with parents.  A few weeks earlier I had gone to NYC for the first time, to see Sonic Youth preview their new album at a free July 4 concert in Central Park with Sun-Ra.  I was in the front row (incidentally, Mr. Eric was also at this show, didn’t know him then) and caught a banana Thurston threw into the crowd.  In my rock-star worship mode I stuck the banana in my pocket.  After the show we saw actress Julie Hagerty on the street.  A week later the show was on MTV news (SY getting promoted cuz these were Nirvana days) and you could see my little brown head bobbing to “100%”.  A few more weeks after that I lost my virginity.  July, 1992

Pavement, “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”…making a pathetic Valentine’s day card/mix tape for this girl I was in love with.  Pretty stupid.  Yeah, I’m one of those mixtape guys.  I was living with a couple of morons I knew from high school…one tried to beat me up because he thought I was fucking his ex-girlfriend (my best friend was) and the other ripped me off for months rent and many utility bills.  A few months later we’d be evicted.  I was getting into CCR around this time.  February, 1994

See how it works?  I could go on forever.  But I won’t.