Mann's World

 I saw Corey Parker again Friday for the first time in several months. He's got a new bass player -- local poetess Shirlette Ammons, who it turns out is a pretty fine funk bass player. Still it was hard to miss the old bass player who was a fucking phenomenon. Anyway, the undisputed highlight of the evening was when Corey's famous father Maceo Parker joined the band for a few songs. And, miracle or miracles, I actually managed to get a fairly decent camera phone photo to document the event.

Afterward, I ended up at The Office where Monty was hosting another d'n'b show with Dieselboy.

I haven't been writing much because I'm dealing with this Flash class, which is completely killing me. The frustrating thing is I feel like I'm getting it, but the tests are so complicated and intimidating that I end up panicking and screwing up completely. And they're open-book tests, so I have no real excuse for doing so badly. Right now I'm taking a break from working on my final project, which is going to be a Flash database showing all the military personnel from N.C. who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of my jobs at the paper is to maintain this list, which can be emotionally difficult, especially when you read about the children they left behind, their dreams for life after the military, the messages they wanted sent back to their loved ones as they dying. But the other day I had the first truly gut-wrenching moment when I found a photo of one young soldier on our list smiling as he held his infant daughter. He was very lucky. So many of the bios I have to compile mention children that the dead soldiers and Marines didn't get to meet before shipping off.

On a totally different note, Mr. D, who normally brings me roses every time he comes to visit, outdid himself this time by bringing me a copy of the new AC/DC DVD "Family Jewels." This DVD supposedly includes every video they ever made, including the infamous Australian TV clip with Bon Scott dressed up like a tarty schoolgirl.