have the day off from work. gonna spend it hanging around, taking nicholas to the park, and perhaps the office to show him off. as a dad now, i can understand and appreciate a parent's impulse and desire to show off his/her child. that is one of the reason's way i enjoy tom raworth's photosets so much, that it is not incompatible to be a first-rate poet, or in my case just a poet, and also be a loving father, grandpa and hubby. the same goes for poet daniel f. bradley who has another blog to showcase his daughter oia.

so i read in the paper this morning a story that claims grey hair is the new blonde. i guess it started with richard gere last decade, moves on into anderson cooper's silver tresses, and is now presently located with some guy that won the american idol singing extravaganza. shit, i've been losing my hair color since i was a teen. it is now pretty solidly salt and pepper, heavy on the salt. cooper and i are the same age, if that tells you anything. but grey is the old grey and not the new blonde. my age, since i'm a goofball and overall idiot, confounds some people cuz i act retarded, like a 15-year-old boy, but look like an old man. it's just as well. when i started grad school almost 10 years ago , i colored my hair with some stuff that would gradually wash out. it did just that, however instead of the pepper and salt combo i got purple hair. that, along with my gold hoop earring, made me look like some emo-boy. i think, i dunno exactly what my professors, classmates and coworkers thought. but i sure didn't like it, so grey it went and greyer it is going. there.

gotta run. nicholas is waking up. tom orange has posted his list of influential albums of the past 20 years. check it out. i love lists like these, and when i have a bit more time i'll riff off orange and post my own highly subjective, idiosyncratic list of films beginning with the 1970s.

peace out