i dreamed the best spike ever. multi-media. spike is more than just a magazine, it's an exhibit/installation. an apparently circular building, with the exterior in the familiar cover style: black and white photography, in this case of some rough stone-work with metal brackets and stuff (taken by rajaa, i was told), with the title in colored (dark purple) text: "wessler." oh yes, mr. nate's life-size image was also in the photo. part of this exterior could slide away to reveal another circular layer with more b&w imagery, including pictures of sam and gerrit, with a caption like "these guys are too random" (except, it was funnier than that.) maybe one more layer and then you enter into a medieval interior, all stone and laid out like a small church with a few extra chambers, but set up as a museum. visible down the first main corridor, some life-size (and full-color) statues of swarthmore students (incl. a. scarborough, i don't remember who else) and other non-color statues, images on the walls. you could walk through and look at things, and there were tensabarriers and directional signs but not really any clear way to progress. the exhibits that were set up throughout the space were mostly not particularly funny, although some of them had good ironic captions. i guess it was mostly just really impressive as an endeavor. and the gift shop area was neat. this was outside, behind the circle building (which was actually ashton house, completely transformed.) they had lots of nice t-shirts for sale (in sizes from XL to "hoochie"), and a little area where people had made altarlike 3-d photo collages of themselves with clothespins and various sort of votive objects. i think addie had made one. and there was a textual edition of this issue of spike too, although it might have consisted of a moosewood-published cookbook by elisabeth rozin with lots of writing but only one recipe.

anyway, i thought it was pretty amazing.

alright. i'm back in swarthmore now, after a standardly nice weekend in wanakena. we made a valiant show of using up much of the $30 worth of produce junction produce i had brought (=a heck of a lot of produce) - highlights were peach-and-blueberry pie (although the fruit could have been riper), much guacamole, and karl's krostini koncoction. it was so green up there, i felt like i'd never seen it that green. maybe i just haven't been there at this time of year in a while. karl drove all the way up and back (around 7 hours each way, with stops and detours, although i think it could be done in not much more than six under ideal conditions.) i really enjoyed hearing his tapes: criminal minded, mecca and the soul brother, jawbreaker, a doc watson live album, and a guitar heroes mix tape with hefty doses of jeff beck - it's cool when folks are just as into music as i am but our specific interests somehow manage not to overlap very much. we also took turns sitting out on the fireplace patio playing our guitars in the mornings - he played "i want you" and "over the hills..."; i was playing some early wilco stuff and warren zevon.

i'm hoping to go to new york this thursday, so if you are in philly and want to see me it should be before then; conversely if you're in new york it will have to be after.