alright well I've got my own apartment in San Diego here for the next week almost. Great balcony.

There was a night that I ran like I was swimming in deep back water, but quieter. When I ran past other dogs, dogs I knew, silhouettes now or just legged bushes of black, they looked hollow. Samson's eyes, ice-blue in the daylight, were white and reflective. I went by as if carried by a current, not feeling my feet grabbing at the wet wet grass.

I was running why because I wanted to feel the air cool the gaps in my fur. The sky was that gray-blue it is when there are clouds out after dark. The houses bent over me and I curved around trees. Damn I'm a fast dog!

It's so tiring to hear people talk. I hear everything they say, all at once. I mean, every time one of them opens their mouth, I hear them all talking, and hear everything they've all been saying for so long, and it's so much all the same thing, one long angry shrugging complaint. But I say: Hoooo! Hooooooo!

You know how cheetahs run - how you never see their feet touch the ground? That's me, man - only when I run, my brain is circling my body at the same time - a hula hoop hooping around my head as I run like a hovercraft!

I'm just in love with all this.

//

(DO'M)

BLEED:

Hey you guys: here's a video of me and Maddie being goofy in central park with 600 strangers and costumed people (I'm at 00:46 and 7:11)

And there's a writeup here.

And here's a picture of Jerry Springer's back (in pink):

I love to close my eyes for minutes at a time

Dear Everyone:

I'm safe and happy, in case you were wondering. I'm living in New York City this summer, doing things that I love to do and things that I've always wanted to do. I'm young, but I'm standing up straight with my chin up and I'm really getting by fine. Living. Growing. Breathing deep all that this city has to offer (excluding drugs). Life is really overwhelmingly wonderful for most of us.

II

You guys!

There is a picture of me online at the very instant that I saw Mario (the real Mario!) for the first time in my life. This moment came outside the Nintendo World Store late last night, after I had been waiting in line for hours. I am the very leftmost person in this picture, with my hand in my pocket and a red backpack on. You can see the nice guy in front of me in line (Michael, a graduate student in psychology from upstate New York who wants to be a therapist some day) pointing up at Mario, not pictured (the Mario who is pictured is just a fan dressed up like Mario).

I think it's important (and great fun) to be passionate about things, even if some people think those things are just for dorks.

Prefuse 73, Wolfmother, Snow Patrol, Tapes 'n Tapes, Castanets, Pink Mountaintops, Cat Power, Dungen, The Aisler's Set, !!!, The Starlight Mints, The Octopus Project, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, The Eels, Smoosh, Tilly & The Wall, We Are Scientists, Band of Horses, Nine Inch Nails, Pedro the Lion, Martha Wainwright, Keane, Feist, The Streets, Calexico, The Fiery Furnaces, The Futureheads, French Kicks, TV on the Radio
The Walkmen, Echo & the Bunnymen, Seu Jorge, Belle & Sebastian, Mates of State, Broken Social Scene, Okkervil River, Yo La Tengo, Electric Six, Stars, Danielson, The Hold Steady, A Silver Mt. Zion, Bloc Party, Secret Machines, Sleater-Kinney, The New Pornographers, RJD2, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It's going to be a busy summer.

www.petergarfield.net

Sent off by the applause of a room full of friends and strangers, I leave all I know for the Big City. Let me know if anyone wants me to bring them back any sounds (e.g. love, longing, butterflys).

Will update here and at www.ericmai.net. I love you guys.

//

New York is initially lonlier than expected. Celly broke today, kind of.

Man, I just have to say that I'm sick of all this bird flu paranoia. Oprah was on today making analogies, showing Katrina footage. This is ridiculous! Her guest is telling us that we're not prepared at all for a major epidemic, we only spent $4 billion on vaccinations instead of $7 billion, etc etc.

Hey:

1. If you're given $4 billion, don't whine that it's not enough (because nothing will ever be enough), do the best you can with it because that's still a lot of money. Also, get rid of all of this bureaucratic corruption and it'll go twice as far.

2. There are thousands of people today warning us of asteroids, earthquakes, cloning, global warming, Martians, tsunamis, homosexuals, Y2K, El Nino, and 100 other things. So once one of those happens, everyone gets to say "I told you so" and feel righteous when in reality there's no way we can prepare for everything, and we really shouldn't be expected to.

3. And furthermore, this whole thing is doubly stupid because all of these historical epidemics that people keep bringing up happened before we developed modern sanitation!

A bunch of housewives are getting scared and duct taping up their windows right now just because:

1. The media wants to scare people to get ratings.

2. A bunch of scientists want to feel important.