meeting producers. meeting girls.

showed up late. the gate was open and bruce was waiting by the door. must have heard my car.

i woke up with a splitting headache, he tells me as i come in.

greg mcclellan sent me the word files for 'those days' and 'space cowboy' and i sent him a reply e-mail. i don't know who is involved here at bruce's house and i want to learn more before i start stirring up the pot.

bruce says there are some publishers he wants to contact. groth at fantagraphics. tawd dorenfeld at last gasp in san fransisco.

tawd introduced bruce to some guy at disney. martin olsen. he invited bruce to submit a proposal for a children's television show. this was back in september. the story idea was pirate mike.

also, dark horse publishing is interested in something. mike richardson is familiar with his work. he says they might be able to help him with the joker story.

he called dark horse and told them he wants to break into comics. he knows who i am. i used to do work for frank zappa in the 70s. they said mike will be back monday.

we start working on pirate mike. several hours later, we got tired. i check the stranger for that 'i saw you' my ex-girlfriend told me about.

it is the second one about me this winter. same girl, i suspect. she probably got drunk with her friends and couldn't stop talking about me and her friends probably encouraged it. they might have written it themselves.

bruce asks about the pictures of girls in the classifieds and then says the world is a dangerous place, that so many people in new york has venereal disease.

i ask him if he wants to keep working and he says he has a brian block.

he recalls a story from 4th grade. he had a mean teacher who humiliated him in front of the class. the teacher had a reputation for being cruel.

he often said 'you ought to be beaten until the oil boils out of you.'

luckily, the administration had stopped him from literally beating students but he had always been a verbally abusive monster.

after sitting next to me for a long time, bruce complains about the circulation in his legs and he moves from the wicker chair to the concrete kitchen floor.

the cabinets and things are all painted army green and the house somewhat resembles a forest ranger outpost, overlooking kent and renton and tuckwilla.

rugs cover the floor. they collect all the dirt. they are older than he is, he says. grandma made this one and that one was in the old house. he has memories of it as a kid. rug memories.

before i leave he has me pull up the stranger lovelab again. he tells me he looked up brooke shields pictures and speculates how much time she spends on her hair and looking good. and having her picture taken.

one of them didn't look so flattering, he said. she must have had a bad day. i think she was pregnant.

he clicks on a picture of a teenage girl with black hair and blue eyes and matching kjeffiyeh. everything was urban outfitters. he laughs a bit as he gases on.

she wants to meet boys for dancing? no dating. and she wants to meet the president. well, good luck! everyone wants to meet obama.

any sites like this for women interested in old animators? he asks me. sorry bruce, i am not sure if there is a big market out there.