More picture(s) of building(s) (but not food).

Cleveland may not have a reputation as a first class city, but the controversial Marcel Breuer (Bauhaus) building always seemed more fitting for a Soviet concrete wasteland than the post-industrial demise of what once was the United State's 6th largest city, and home to Rockefeller and Carnegie.

Maybe beauty isn't only in the eye of the beholder, but the angle of the beholding.

The album is on iTunes

Years in the making, PFOC on iTunes.

My progress on the next album has been slow, but for a few more days I'm not going to worry about that.

Who knew the Grammys were so cheap?

PFOC bassist Tim Luntzel won a Grammy for his work with Loudon Wainwright III, but he didn't get a statuette, in fact, if he wants a certificate he has to send them $25.

And her screaming decay...

In an effort to get me outside of my head more, my psychologist gave me the assignment of trying to sense more. I've always meant to take more pictures than I do, and being that I'm never in much of a hurry, I've started carrying my camera much more often.

Think twice before going to the ATM in your VW Jetta

As a kid, my family owned most of the cars that the term 'lemon' was coined for. AMC Pacer? Check. Ford Pinto? We drove one from California to Ohio, and for years after. But a problem I've experienced three times with two Jettas was completely new to me, and everyone I've ever spoken about it with outside of other VW owners.

From what I have learned about the inner-workings of Volkswagen door windows, they are held up by 5 clips, that at least as recently as 2001 (the year of my Jetta wagon) were made out of plastic. I don't know much about plastic, though I did have a junior year chemistry lab where we were assigned the task of trying to identify a variety of plastics by the way they burned, which was both cool (some dripped flames) and I suspect highly carcinogenic, but I do know that plastic often doesn't stand up to significant changes in temperature well. Twice on days that were well below freezing, and once on a suffocatingly hot day, these clips have failed and a window has fallen into the door.

The first two times this happened, it was covered by warranty, or extended warranty. Yesterday, when it happened a third time as I pulled away from the ATM in Lakewood, Ohio, I thought I knew just what to do. I dropped by home to let the dog out, pick up the lap top, and place calls to find out if any of the Cleveland area VW dealers could get to the repair that afternoon.

A windowless twenty mile drive across town in twenty degree weather later I found out that Volkswagen decided their willingness to stand behind their product had run out for my 2001. The bill came to $228, the replacement clips cost a total of $7.50 for five.

If by chance you're a designer of cars, or you count beans at a car company and are always looking for ways to save a few pennies, listen to me, the consumer. I would much rather have paid an additional $30 at purchase than to crossed Cleveland windowless in winter, sat in a dealership waiting room for hours, paid hundreds of dollars, and now live with the fear that another window may go at any time.

If you're thinking about buying a Volkswagen, think twice. Besides the window, in the past year I've had the windshield wipers fail while driving on a highway during a torrential nighttime storm. In VW's infinite wisdom, they decided that access to the wiper motors should be through the steering column (a move that allows them to install massive amounts of cosmetic plastic around the engine that inevitably adds time to any repair), that repair also involved a relatively inexpensive part, and more than $300 in labor.

It's not all labor with Volkwagen repairs either. A catalytic converter ran $700 for the part, many times the cost for most vehicles.

Customer Service at VW seems to exist only to read you a script and tell you that they'll send a report on to someone they won't let you talk to. I've submitted forms to the Attorney General's Office and the Better Business Bureau, and I hope to one day be notified that I'm eligible for a share of a class action lawsuit, but I suspect the only power I have in this fight is to sling a little mud VW's way.

Dear Elected Officials:

I believe the economy, foreign affairs, health care, the environment, education and on an on are all more significant issues than campaign finance reform, but it is becoming all too obvious that campaign finance, for candidates as well as ballot issues, is the flood gate standing in the way of the will of the people.

I urge you to draft a reform bill that is simple and clear, one that is accessible to the average citizen, and one that can be passed without months or years of debate and gridlock.

This is America

This is America, and it is both our birthright to spend money we don't have on whatever we deem fit, and to make money off other people spending the money they don't have...it's our birthright to look at Bill Gates and see that the most remarkable thing about the man was that he dropped out of college, and look at ourselves and see that we too can drop out college, even if we're dropping out as a result of drinking too much and waking up every day wondering if the sun is coming up or going down.