Things that occur to me:

* The show Saturday was great. I think all us Junkers were worried about what was going to happen, but Ed came through with flying colors. It is, to quote Evita, a new Argentina.

* There is a lot of negativity in the world. Let me illustrate with an anecdote from the King Club show: Because I wanted to buy some water, and because being in the nightclub before the show makes me nervous, especially if attendance is spotty (attendance ended up being very healthy), I left the bar about half an hour before the show. As I was returning, a group of four young men were walking by the King Club. I watched them in hopes they would enter, but instead one of them gestured derisively toward the club and sneered, "What the FUCK is the King Club!?" I hope that later he found, to quote Poe, surcease of sorrow. But the mere fact of the King Club's existence seemed to enrage him. Curious.

* The #1 Dad show last night, on the other hand, was slow, but I'd wager not our slowest. If that's consolation. My favorite moment came when, before we played "You Never Even Called Me By My Name," I introduced it by saying we were going to play one of the few David Allen Coe songs that is not racist, sexist, or homophobic. In response, a voice came from the back of the bar: "BOOOO!"

* I installed the bracket shelves in the bathroom this morning. These have been sitting in a corner since late August, but today the spirit moved me. Maybe it was reading yesterday in the Times about the genesis of PBS's "This Old House" and the home-improvement-show juggernaut that followed. (Speaking of which, I was surprised recently to learn that "Home Improvement"'s Jonathon Taylor Thomas once played a hustler in what looks by all evidence short of actually watching it to be a forgettable indy flick.) Stuck to the brackets were some pesky stickers, and these I took off with 80-proof Jim Beam rye. This came from a bottle Ereck received as a birthday gift in October 2001. In earlier times (so to speak), a fifth of rye would not have lasted a day in this household, much less a year, and it would not have been used toward home improvement; quite the opposite.

* Celebrities who appeared in my dreams in the last week: Richard Gere; Beyonc� Knowles.