Rick and Vance's dream ride..

I just put a down-payment on "Sneekers", a wolly yak. The two-up saddle is being crafted as we speak. I'm sure with Rick's writing career about to take off, we should be in Nepal by next September. I can see it now, the prayer cloths flapping in the breeze, the Tibetian villagers running out to greet us with hand-made trinkets and bricks of hash. Rick and I always dreamed of going to Nepal, but I can't remember why. We wanted to go to Nepal and rent a flat in Dorchester, England for no aparent reason. This is the kind of shit that happens when you ditch class and hang out in doughnut shops.

"After leaving a show one night, I told the cab driver to pull over, I gotta' yak. And believe me, that dosen't mean that I have a long haired buffalo living in my back yard." - Ron White

Old motorcycles

The adobe garage in the old backyard in Albuquerque was my small workshop for two of my favorite old motorcycles. The Norton and the BMW. Both bikes came to me by way of trades. First was the Bimmer. I traded my 1978 Honda 750 for the BMW to a guy on the west side. The BMW was a 1975, R75/5 in excellant shape. The bike never gave me a minute of trouble and I ended up selling the bike to Joe, a paint and body shop owner in town. The Norton was the result of trading my 1970 International Travelall to "Buster" out on South 14. The bike was stored in a corn silo and buried in 3 feet of cowboy boots. Don't ask me how that came to be, I really don't want to know, I just wanted the Norton. We struck a deal and I came up the following weekend with fresh gas and a battery charger. After several hours on the charger, the bike came to life. I rode the thing back to Abq. with no lights, no brake light and marginal brakes. Anyway, I got it to the garage. Wow, I was so happy. Rick, my next door neighbor at the time was also happy. He owned the Metaphysical bookstore in a house that is no longer on the corner of Lead and Harvard. He rode a BMW and actually offered to fund the opening of a repair shop for motorcycles if I was game. I respectfully declined but would tinker on Ricks bike when he needed a hand.

Jobs we've had: Unclassified

I was packing up a moving van in preperation for the move to the new Moonpie Chronicles Western Region Offices next week, and I came across this photo taped to the bottom of a desk along with a note demanding $15.75. I recall that one of Vance's first jobs after high school was that of Bat Man (or possibly "Batman." Though at the time he claimed he was working as a "Bait Man" down at Isleta Lakes.... Or maybe he was dating Justine Batemen. I don't remember any more)

I am confused as to why he is wearing no mask, why he's tied up, and why he's smiling.

Jobs We've Had: Pharaoh of All Egypt and the Upper Nile

"And it's Egypt land, Egypt land and we're all working for the Pharaoh." ~Richard Thompson

"Nyaaa! Where's this Moses fellow now, see?" Edward G. Robinson

I got this gig through a temp services place back in '84. It didn't pay a lot, but it kept me in beans and tortillas. By some trick of the time-space continuum, they also managed to get me jobs working as the two other guys shown here. We used to go out drinking together after work on Fridays.

The job petered out after J.C. Penney bought out the whole Egypt concession and turned it into a semi-modern 2nd world country. The temp-services place didn't have any other Pharaoh jobs, but I did get to play Santa at the mall later in the year.

It's Official

I've always been a big fan of the word Official. But like in the "Official Secret Decoder Ring" sense.

But today's news is Official, but not in that sense. Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from the director of the Creative Writing Program at UNM to let me know that I'd been accepted into the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts)for next fall. This was a huge relief for me as I'd been sweating it out.

The next step is to somehow get awarded a teaching assistantship, which means that A.) I won't pay any tuition, B.) I'll get paid about $20K for two semesters, and C.) I'll have health care again. In other words, I'll get paid to get a Masters degree. Of course I will have to teach English to a bunch of college freshmen, but hell. I can do that.

I hope.

Rick's Dream car

This is the one I never had, but always wanted. Fortunately, the new esposa is also int Karmann Ghias. Our plan is to one day buy and restore one. Or just buy one that someone else has restored.

One of the best features is that there is no room for the kids.

I also want one of those old wooden motor boats from the 1930s. Those things are bitchin'.

Bull wrangler

In the post about Mexican cows and 'shit', Rick spoke of the angry bulls that would chase us. Luck was on our side due to the fact that 'Fiddlesticks', a local wrangler, was usually near by on those close calls. He would simply lure the beast into his convertable and drive the bull to the "north 40".

Two great quotes

I (Rick) don't want to use this as any sort of political forum, but I just loved these two quotes from The Daily Beast regarding the president's speech...

"How much of this can we believe? Personally, I’d like to believe all of it. [...] But I can’t. He lost me in the first five minutes. Americans, he said, are 'the hardest-working people on Earth.' And he said it with a completely straight face."

~ Tucker Carlson, MSNBC Correspondent
..., and its laughable follow up by the wooden and inarticulate Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal...

"You only had to watch Bobby Jindal's hopeless effort to be the new, racially inclusive face of the Republican Party-it was like having Dougie Howser, M.D. follow Hugh Jackman MC."

~ Tina Brown, Editor, The Daily Beast

Pulling shit out yer ass..

When Rick says he's "just pulling shit outta his ass", he's not kidding. Here is the only known picture of Rick and I that "one" summer when we worked as women at a dairy farm in Belen, New Mexico. Rick has never bitten his fingernails since.

Celebrity Girlfriends: The early years

Diana Rigg, A.K.A. Emma Peel in "The Avengers." Hot stuff.
It seems I saw her in something years later and she just didn't have the allure. Of course, she was only 27 when she was on this show.

Moonpie One: Pages 21 & 22

Here's part three on threefer Tuesday. (Threefer Madness?! Hah!)
Anyway, here is where things get going. We start with a diagonal continuance of the last sentence

"[...]I wouldn't be able to take it. Rick, Dammit!"

And I guess that kind of is the point of all of this Blog. Well, except for the goofy shit, but part of it is an examination of friendship and why thing are the way they are. I'm really just pulling shit out my ass right now because my allergies are killing me and I feel like clawing my eyes out of my fucking skull...
Ummm. Sorry. Sorry everyone. (He killed my auntie!) Sorry!

Anywayyyy..... these three pages needed to get posted first so we can discuss them.

And continuing on, we can see that at least three pages were ripped out of the book. Vance writes and explanation (obviously later, hence the blue ink.)

"These pages were ripped out soon after writing them. I (Vance) must've been really stoned/depressed. All the stuff I wrote made me sound gay for Rick. I was not confident enough then to leave the writing alone. Sorry. Vance."

On the next page, held in with photo corners, is a signed bet that Vance and I made regarding the status of Vance's mustache. This was made when I finally did come home on leave in October of 1976. The bet reads

"On oct. 29, 1976, A bet was made. Rick sez that Vance will not have a half way decently full mustach. Hench! on October 29, 1977, the loser owes the winner $10.00."

and it's signed by Vance and me. Above the note, we see that Richard Cleary put up $1 on the bet and it is signed by Vance and Richard.
Below the note, I added (years later) that

"Vance lost and didn't pay up until late '83."

I'd also like to note that as of the posting of this here post right here, The Moonpie Chronicles Online has broken the 500th Unique visitor mark. And all the people said "Amen."

Moonpie One: Pages 19 & 20

Three-fer Tuesday continues here on Moonpie with a continuing sentence from the previous postHere, Vance only writes one thin line across the top of the page, continuing from the previous page

"[...] any reason to live. I almost joined the Air Force, but I knew[...]

Vance can comment on this, though he has, I think, previously commented on the whole Air Force thing. Or that may have been on the phone. So he can tell about it here. Now. Do it.

Moonpie One: Pages 17 & 18

It's Two-Fer Tuesday at Moonpie. Mainly because there isn't much on these first two sets of pages I'm posting.

This first spread is actually a continuation of the previous page, where Vance said he had hoped I'd be coming home after boot camp. Here he's written in very large letters the word

SHIT!

and below that we read

"He didn't. I've become mentally fucked. I no longer have"

Note that this was probably written in late July, early August of 1976. I was in Basic Training at Ft. Dix, NJ and ended up going to Cook School in the same place. They just loaded a few of us in the back of a truck and drove us to the school -- no vacations for the weary.
Continued on next page...

Just a test

This is just a test to see if our posts are forwarding to our Tumblr blog. But just so you don't waste your time reading this, here's a lovely bit of poetry by Roger Waters

All alone, or in two's,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.

And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall.

"Outside the Wall" from the Pink Floyd album, The Wall

Vance wanted to see this photo

Vance was wondering about the source of a previously posted photo. THis it am. I'm guessing by the youthful scrawniness of Mr. Deniston here that this was the meth-80's-- I mean Mid80's. Vance sent me this photo in the mid 90's, when we reconnected after a briefly long hiatus.

Oscar for special effects goes to...

Patty and Janet Kowalski from Yazoo, Mississippi won a Oscar for best special effects for the movie "Redneck Heaven". A movie based on a true story of two girls who's parents passed away and left them $8,000.00 and a mobil home. The hi-jinks are non-stop as these two orphans find their way in the modern world outside of Mississippi. Their good fortune leds them to Arkansas were they spend their days in another mobil home but this time they have a pit-bull.

Oscar Night: A Tribute

In honor of tonight's Academy Awards presentations, I wanted to share this rare photo with you. This was one of our own great Oscar wins back in the 80s. Vance was in his "Benadryl Chic" period here, looking a little skinny and strung-out. Plus he's wearing pearls and some sort of black lace dress. To understand Vance's career at that time, you have to think "Bastard lovechild of Johnny Depp and both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson. Vance won Best Actor for his role as Ronald Reagan in "Bonzo goes to Hooters." My wins -- I got 4 that night -- were not quite the caliber of Vance's Best Oscar, but I did pick up Best Friend, Best Rug, Best Western Motor Inn, and Best Wiener. It wasn't until years later when I went to pawn the coveted trophies that I found out that, not only were there no such categories, but that my Oscars were, in fact, nothing more than old G.I.Joes that had been spray-painted gold.