Fungi Hunting, Sub-Life, Chestcold, Old Friends, and Why I Hate Christian Homo-Bashers.

So sunday and monday I went edible mushroom hunting. Although mostly unsuccessful I learned a lot and had a great time being out in the woods.

Sunday I went with my friend mark to some trails at tiger mountain summit. We were on the hunt for chantrells but found mostly inedible russula (cascadensis). We did stumble upon some really good oyster mushrooms on a log and mark took one for sample. I also got to identify many poisonous fungi and learn about a lot of really cool identifying practices, as well as seeing some 10 plus year old polyspores.

So yesterday, when I again didn't get called for work I decided to go on a Point Defiance hunting adventure. I found a lot of really cool stuff. I again found some impressive polyspore shelves hanging off old trees. I found my own batch of late season oyster mushrooms. There were so many of them I could have picked bags. But instead i decided to let them be as I was alone and needed a second opinion.

I found some and identified the fishy smelling russula very abundent and yellow right now in rotting cedar logs.

I also was able to locate quite a variety of boletas and some other unidentifiable specimens. Either way I had a really good time and my eye for finding my fungi friends is getting better quickly. More research and hunting trips should help. Maybe by next year I'll even be ready to start keeping some for delicious gourmet dinners!

The only reason that I got to go on this little trip is because there just aren't that many substitue jobs out there or I just don't know the tricks to landing them. I haven't been working much at all. Instead lazily pursuing my own interests and relationships. I admit its not the most ambitious lifestyle, but it affords me a lot of time to do what I want.

Substituting is a lame lifestyle, kind of feel like a prostitute. I have my little sub number, people can call and request me, or I can go out on the corner and hustle a job. Either way, I don't have health insurance, income assurance, or any real teaching opportunities, just 50 minute babysitting blocks. In all honesty, I'm becoming less and less interested in teaching at all. But what would I do instead?

Maybe its just the fact that I subbed for a really sick lady on thursday and friday last week, and must have picked up what she had from her computer (as I searched feebly for more subbing jobs) because today I woke up coughing and phlegming and hurting deep in my chest. Luckily there are no sub jobs so I was able to lay in bed all day and watch Freaks and Geeks. I hate being sick, as if I needed a reason to be even lazier.

But, some great things, I got to hang out with an old friend last night that I haven't seen in a long time and never thought I'd get to talk to again. It was really nice catching up and it felt good to be around someone so passionate and positive.

Tonight hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out with another friend I haven't seen in a long time (my high school best friend since 7th grade). When you get to see these people who used to be so central to your life and catch up, it kind of helps you see where you're at in life. Are you lost too, are you on track, are you just as skrewed up as me, are you also totally confused, or broke, or depressed or anxious or did you crack the code and finally become one of those "happy" people we hear so much about?
So Lastly, I'm sitting in Old Town Tacoma at my favorite internet/mate' latte spot writing this little blog and this group of christian blowhards is just sitting right next to me going on and on about how they can no longer allow homosexual couples to attend their church as a "couple" but will permit it if the couples come as "friends." I want to scream at them. Its frightening that three different races of people are in this ridiculous group, I didn't know that people who come from discriminated cultures could discriminate another so badly. What a bunch of wacko's. I mean they are sitting here next to me talking about how embarrassed members of the church are to admit to their business associates that homosexuals frequent their church and that they are plotting a serious plan to remove them from their church.

First and foremost, I don't know why anyone who has taken so much guts as to come out to the world and proclaim who they are would ever want to go to a bunch of judgemental delusionists church and bend to their ridiculous backtalkling opinions, and rules. Secondly, this same group of nutbars is sitting here going on and on praising the barista for how amazing the coffee drinks he made are, the very openly GAY barista! So a homosexual can make a great cup of coffee but not attend your church. And Thirdly, apparently homosexuality is only allowed in the church if its secretive and between a preacher and alter boy. What a world. I'm pretty sure this is not what Hayzeus intended.

I don't mean to go all activist on you all, but I simply can't stand by and take this anymore when its sitting right next to me drinking a pumpkin spice latte and ruining my perfectly pleasant tuesday coffee shop time with pointless drivel.

My name is Kale. I'm an athiest. And I if gay people or gay couples want to come to my woods and walk around enjoying them on sunday or any other day, they are more than welcome.

Peace.

The Sweet Aroma of Tacoma

It was recently brought to my attention by a long time reader that one of the more interesting aspects of my former blog Radiate Warmth was talking about day to day life in Alaska. Although I don't live there anymore, the place I live now is pretty amazing too. Just different. So in order to do more of that you should get to know the new place I habitate

Tacoma Washington. Oh you beautiful stain of the world. To most northwesterners Tacoma is just the smelley pit stop on the I-5 corridor between two infamously "Cool" towns, Seattle and Portland. The phrase "Aroma of Tacoma" is due to the fact that a very stinky paper mill used to sit right next to the freeway giving everyone who drove through a nice sulfer surprise. In this blog post I will argue that the aroma of Tacoma is much sweeter that most people will ever know. (and the paper mill is gone).

Now lets get one thing straight. Tacoma is not Seattle. And just because the airport is called Seatac (Because Tacsea would be confusing) doesn't mean they have anything in common really. Yes they both rest on the shores of the Puget Sound. Yes they both have humans living in them. But thats about it. Seattle is the Jewel of Northwest metropolis-hood. Big Business, sports teams, commerce, suburbs, universities, art, music, you name it they got it done big. They also have the University of Washington which is a breeding ground for the exact type of Seattle mentality I despise. Yuppie Scum. Enough Said.

Tacoma has a rich yuppie district, the north end. But its small and limited. The majority of the city is working class blue collar people of all races and backgrounds. Real people just trying to make it. Tacoma as a community mentality is a "Take me as I am" or buzz off. In tacoma you don't have to worry about what kind of car you drive, or your job, or what you look like. You can be yourself. Ghetto people hang with art kids and rich UPS students as well as regular people and hippies, older folks and business workers.

On top of that Tacoma has great and distinct districts/areas. Downtown is on the upswing with new shops and galleries and museums and a great farmers market. The light rail and new schools are recent additions there and its instilling a sense of pride in the community. The ghetto is still the ghetto next to the Hospital but it too is improving as Martin Luther King Avenue grows and improves with more community programs than I've seen there before. The sixth avenue district is exploding with nightclubs and restaurants providing more music opportunities and nightlife activities. You have the proctor district which is a small unique community with good grocery stores and shops. Also there is Ruston way, a long strip of parks and restaurants like west seattle but cheaper. Right off of that is Old Town Tacoma/North End with a cool little intersection of the Puget Sound and the Upperclass. The Stadium district/North Town district has little pockets of establishments and amazing old houses to rent and own.

Finally there is the Antique Ruston town that I live in. Its fighting annexation into tacoma and barely holding on to its roots. It has the famous Salmon Beach Hippie community, the antique shops downtown, the Vashon Ferry terminal and marina, and most importantly the largest urban inclosed natural habitat west of the mississippi, Point Defiance Park, Zoo and Acquarium, and 5 mile drive providing endless woodland activities.

Tacoma allows you to drive around much easier than seattle and still experience the feel of many different neighborhoods with personalities and mini cultures. The housing is cheap and affordable. The views are breathtaking, you are much closer to Olympia and the Olympic Peninsula and never more that a ten minute drive from the water.

People have "I Heart T-Town" sticker's on their cars. And they wear shirt's that say "Tacoma, 400,000 alcoholics can't be wrong." And although many people leave this little city they often come back because it feels like home.

My favorite thing about tacoma is that it is part of one of the themes of my life: "Picking the Underdog." I went to the poor other side of school town Peninsula who battled the yuppies of Gig Harbor High School. It was a school where everyone could get along rich or poor. I then went to Washington State the poor farming redneck school in eastern washington. We battled the yuppies of the University of Washington and everyone got along, building a distinct family pride in being a COUG because we all lived in the middle of nowhere and had to! Now I live in Tacoma the stinky little city with a bad reputation, where everyone can and does get along and just can be who they are.

Seattle is great, if you're a seattle person. I love to visit don't get me wrong. But me, I'm all tacoma.

So as I sit in a coffee shop in Old Town Tacoma writing this, I think about if I want to run on Ruston Way or around Point Defiance. Or maybe I'll go up to the Vegan Jamaican restaraunt on Hill Top for dinner. Or maybe just maybe I'll go play open mic at the Antique Sandwhich Company in Ruston.

Its not alaska, but its my new home. More to come...

Beyond the Bridge Cafe Success.

The show was a great success.

The Beyond The Bridge Cafe was a relaxing and hip place to play and crowd was a wide range of people from high school to some my parents age. The bands were fantastic and although I was nervous and started out shaky I quickly settled in and kicked some ass.

My friend Kyle came and recorded the whole set on digital recorder and is going to help me with a live cd.

Needless to say I had fun and think that it went really well because I got asked back next month.

Now I gotta work on some new songs.

Hopefully the Sub office will get my account figured out soon so I can get some work.

THAAAAAAATS RIGHT!!!! My Gig Is Finally Here.

The Venue:
Beyond The Bridge Cafe
13624 Valley Ave E Sumner Washington.

If You Google It On Maps it can give you directions!

The Line UP!
Fox 45
Sarah Palin's Backyard
Kale Iverson
Karina Thorpe
The Black Sails

You can also Find them on Facebook and MySpace

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sumner-WA/Beyond-the-Bridge-Cafe/89050351579

http://www.myspace.com/beyondthebridgecafe

My Setlist for tonight.

Down the Road
Clean Fresh Brand New Start
My Little Life ==>Such A Good Feeling (Mr. Rogers Cover)==>My Little Life
Eutaw (Old Crow Medicine Show Cover)
Long Way To Go
Love Over Grown
The Otherside ==>With A Little Help From My friends.

I know may of you can't make it but I'll be playing for you too!

WISH ME LUCK I'M SCARED SH*TLESS

Hmmm...No real reason to write.

Yeah, I don't really know what to write about. But some of my best posts have started this way. I guess I have a need to exercise my brain right now.

I don't know what words can really describe how I've been feeling lately. There is a healthy dose of exhaustion from an entire summer on the road doing crazy fun adventures. There is a heaping cupful of boredom as I still have to wait two weeks to get to work. There are a few teaspoons of anxiety and nervousness about finding a cool place to live and a real job. And there is a small constant sprinkle of regret and sorrow for leaving Alaska, I hear about my kids and friends and feel sad. Maybe if things worked out like I had planned it would all be gravy. But down to a letter the plans almost certainly did not get followed.

I left Alaska mostly because I was tired of being alone and of being alone all the time. And now, I seem to find myself alone almost as much. I get to visit people a lot which is definitely an improvement. Visiting is different though. I need a COMPANION. Someone on my wavelength thats around more that just once a week. That's the kind of lonely I'm talking about. It could be a girl but I would also take a best friend. Everybody is doing their own thing. I want to be doing OUR thing. Is that so weird to just want to have a companion? To have someone that wants to be around me as much as I want to be around them plutonic or romantic, where I can say "Lets go" and they jump in and finish the sentence with "rent a movie and make Indian Food!"

Things will settle I guess. I have lots of awesome people in my life. One of them is going to step up I just know it. Its just hard right now, everyone around me seems to be in survival mode, I think we all are, everyone is moving, or starting school, or looking for jobs, or god knows what, that is why I welcome the bone numbing cold of fall and winter, its slows people down.

I am very slow today. I am so sore from running the other day that I can feel every strained muscle in my body. Thats when it dawned on me. I'm turning 27 this year. How the hell did that happen? I'm old. Old and dorky. I need to get my shit together. I was feeling very young and strong just last week till I realized this fact. I gotta get that back. I'm young still, its all in the head.

Dammit, this post isn't really going anywhere, and I'm not even talking about Good Things I'm talking about Life Things. Life just keeps on going on around me and I seem to be in some sort of vortex of not mattering much. And I'm not even throwing a pitty party for myself, I'm fine, if I learned anything in Alaska its that I can endure a lot of shit and abuse and make it through. The confounding thing is how do you deal with life when you seemingly have everything anyone would ever want and you're still not happy. I feel like a whiney baby. Probably because I am a worker bee, I like to have a purpose and a project and after three months of goofing off (which was more work that you can imagine) I'm exhausted.

HEY UNIVERSE GIVE ME A JOB I WILL KICK ASS.

oh and ...

HEY UNIVERSE GIVE ME A COUGAR WIN THIS WEEKEND.

Sorry for the mega personal probably should save this one in drafts post but GOOD THINGS wouldn't be so good if there wasn't CRAP THINGS. I just keep scratching my head at this summer and thinking about what kind of life lesson I was supposed to learn from this one. I mean I can look back on lots of things that didn't go so well in my life and extract the wisdom from it. But what will I look back and get from this humdinger of a year. Jesus 2009 I'm frightened to see what else you got in store.

Is it just me that thinks this is a weird year?

Ok, the sun is shining, my roof is calling me for a yoga session...alone...so I will go for now.

Have a great weekend with someone you love.

Fall Is Here and Life Moves On

The air is getting crisper around the Puget Sound these days. That means the legs are gonna burn a little hotter when running Five Mile Drive around Point Defiance (something I did for the first time today with out stopping go ME!) I was able to keep up with my strong little brother the whole way and once I recover I will do it again. With all the free time I've had lately I've been making a lot of time for practicing music, working out, and trying to meet new friends.

This weekend at Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge was really actually very pleasurable. Yonder Mountain String Band got skrewed and had to go on first and only played about 45 minutes which I thought was pretty lame. G. Love and the Special was very good especially during their Saturday Night set where the played to the backdrop of a double rainbow and sunset after 8 hours of rain all day. Dave Matthews was pushing his new album so he repeated like 5 songs all three nights which I thought was kind of cheap and commercial. But to his credit he let MY NEW HERO Danny Barnes from the Bad Livers and also Yonder Mountain String Band play two of his own original songs from his album "Pizza Box." The songs "Side of the Road" and "Cave Man Song" had sorority girls, fratboys and younglifers who were attendance confused and pissed which was not only comedic to me and my bluegrass friends but also very satisfying knowing that on sunday those same Danny Barnes haters left the show singing the hooks from the same songs. GO DANNY BARNES!!! DMB more like DBMB (Danny Barnes-Matthews Band).

I got to go with my friends Mark and Kelsey and we had a blast all weekend long. I made some very very cool new friends and also got to play late night ukulele for a crowd of about 25 singing my popular party hits like "I like Big Butts," "Ice Ice Baby," "Regulators," "This is How we do it," "A Little Help From My Friends," and the ever popular "Cane Toad Melody," a song that I haven't played in 2 years.

OH OH OH!!! I forgot to tell you. I got my first real gig! I'm going to be playing a bar on the 25th of September with a few other people. I don't have the details yet but as soon as I do I will let you all know about it. I know most of you won't be able to make it but its pretty cool right?

I finally got some semblence of a job today too. I got hired as a substitute teacher for Tacoma Public School District. I have orientation in a couple weeks. Its a start right? A little cashflow never hurt anybody. I am a great sub too. I know that it will lead to a job if I don't get hired for something else.

Hal got a job at Harbor Greens a local produce place and is interviewing for an elementary PE position on Monday which basically means that I have job, he has at least one job, and my friend Kyle has a job. WHICH MEANS we can start looking for a seriously awesome three bedroom place in tacoma. Our goal is to get a place with a place to set up a band practice space and recording studio and really go for it with the music.

And Cougar football has begun. Cougs lost (duh...). But get to see my first Coug game in two years this saturday at Quest field in Seattle. I'm so freaking excited!!!! Everyone's gonna be there!

So, summer festivals are over, getting in shape, substitute teacher, new place on the horizon, cougar football, and sweet sweet northwest fall.

Good things!

...summer wind down.

I'll try to write about meltdown and weddings some other time. Now that summer is winding down I'm feeling a little down. Mostly because it started off so amazing and has been such continual high of great things, reunitions, love, family, music, nature and possibility. And if I know anything, as a Washingtonian this level of activity and joy can't (meteorologically, romantically, logistically) last forever.

While there is still many sun filled summer days to enjoy, fall is coming, and my heart has been a little bit heavier than it has been in a long time. Luckily for you blog readers (if any are still out there) crappy weather, solitude, and a melancholy heart seem to make this blog jump to life. So I apologize for the constant bragging about my awesome summer, just know that behind all those infinite smiles of GOOD THINGS I portray sits too, a mortal man with feelings and challenges and problems.

I do have some very GOOD THINGS to look forward too though. Here they are

TONIGHT: Playing my first open Mic Night at the Antique Sandwich Company in Ruston, WA since returning to the area. This was something I had planned on doing weekly but never seem to find the time for.

THURSDAY: Flying to Reno, Nevada with my family to sit by the pool at the Sands Hotel and to eat at the mighty buffets, and to try to strike it rich like so many before, and to soak up +90 degree weather, should be fun!

Next SATURDAY: Good things! Dave Matthews, Yonder Mountain String Band and G. Love and the Special Sauce at the GORGE! I'm going with my favorite human being and allstar of the summer, my brother Hal. Without him I think I would be a pretty sad person.

EVERY SATURDAY: Can you smell it? Can you? Thats right its College Football season and that means Cougar Football is on the way. My family (mom) has acquired tickets to every home game this year and a downtown motel room in pullman. That means pullman hear comes the Iversons!

And some promising job opportunities on the way.

SO although I've been better in some departments of life, I can feel that things are going to be ok. And ok is fine by me.

Enjoy the last of summer out there. Here are some lyrics to one of the songs I'm playing tonight.



If you need a little bit of attention,
then all you need to do is mention
that all you got is nothing but time
and I'll be right there, I'll be right there, waiting, waiting in line

But right now I am mending,
and the summer's ending,
and depending on weather or not you're coming back soon
or sometime after that, maybe in the afternoon
or maybe that in fact you don't really know
so for then I'm gonna move on down the road.

You and me we'll wait and see what our lives will turn out to be
If you need a little bit of space, I'll keep walking let me pick up my pace
don't you come chasin after me, I won't go chasin after you
we'll get through this eventually
and a hell, a well you always gonna do what you gotta do

But right now I am mending,
and the summer's ending,
and depending on weather or not you're coming back soon
or sometime after that, maybe in the afternoon
or maybe that in fact you don't really know
so for then I'm gonna move on down the road.

Good Things #6: Big Bottom, Phish at the Gorge

Boy oh boy I have been a busy summer lover this month.

Three weeks ago I went to Big Bottom Festival up near Packwood. I forgot my camera but spent 3 and a half days with a great group of about 250 people gathered on private property to camp, eat, play and watch Olympic Sound Collective funk our brains out with their amazing horn section on a really cool stage that overlooked the Cowlitz River. It was hot, and beautiful and I'm glad I ran into my Big Bottom Festival Friends.

Two weeks ago I went to see Phish at the Gorge. Not only was the weather amazing so was Phish. I had never seen them before and was actually really skeptical. Fortunately they were unbelievably good. I can see why people follow them around for years and years, they are that good! Friday night was good and many veteran Phish fans liked it better than Saturday night. I however thought Saturday was amazing and funky. I am all about the funk these days. I just want dirty, filthy funky base lines and funky guitar riffs, and the more horns the better.

Another cool thing about the Phish show was that I got to see my very first "Shakedown Street." This is where a bunch of illegal vendors create a sort of mainstreet for selling their products, wares, and bootleg merchandise. You can get food, stickers, music, clothes, art, and even see the second "Further" Bus driven by Ken Kesey and the Mary Pranksters. I got to meet and shake hands with Zane Kesey his son and that was pretty damn cool.

I spent the whole weekend with my brother and never left his side, we had a total blast. I got to meet up with my best friend from Australia (from NY living in San Fran) Jeff and his buddies Chauncy and Ames, as well as hang out with a bunch of revolving festival friends from summers past. I felt so at home! We went with Sam and Sharon, Met Mark and Kelsey, and saw Stephie and Liam. It was a great weekend.

Except for the new owners of the Gorge "Live Nation" they absolutely have turned the place into a corporate disasters and they staff were kind of jerks. Oh well their crappy management can deny the beauty of the venue.

Up Next: Good Things #7: Flowmotion Summer Meltdown, Weddings, Lake Cabins, Dave Matthews/YMSB/G. Love

I did make some progress on jobs, they HR Department from Tacoma School District called to check on references and found who they were looking for. My former principals gave me good recomendations and the HR guy said to make sure I check for new jobs implying that maybe they were interested in me.

I am definitely ready for work to start back up. All this summer fun has been great but I'm starting to feel a little restless about it all. I got my last paycheck from LKSD this weekend. I'm doing fine in the money department I just wish I had something to do. At least a substitute postition would be something.

Today I'm at a coffee shop all alone, writing blogs, checking emails, paying bills, job searching and later I'm going to buy some wedding/interview clothes. I'm feeling a little melancholy and a little lonely after 5 weeks in a row surrounded by so many friends and family and love. I guess you could call it a Lonely-Hangover.

Anyone still out there reading this? Enjoy the end of your summer!

Good Thing #5: Family Camp Conconully 2009

I could write a blog post about this amazing weekend camping with my family but my mom already did and it is a great blog post.

Click HERE to see it!

Anyways, off to see Phish at the Gorge tomorrow with the whole crew, Sam, Sharon, Stephie, my bro, and even my best friend from my Australian adventures Jeff is coming up from San Fran. My first Phish show!!!! WHoooooopeeeeeee!

Next week is Flowmotion Summer Meltdown with Hal, Sydney, Leslie, Kali and lots of other awesome friends. What a summer!

Still no job...