After last night's disappointing SNL, I decided to make a cigarette run. I pulled out from the fill station and drove around Lansing because I didn't feel like sitting around the hotel any longer. I drove down Cedar, and headed downtown to check out the skyline for a minute, and then headed in the general direction of the airport just to get my head straight. I saw some wierd lights in the sky but they were pretty faint because of the light pollution. I drove out to the country and saw an amazing episode of Aurora Borealis. Light was flying all over the sky in waves and the electrical storm was most intense directly overhead, almost taking on the shape of a nebula. It took me a while to find a place to pull in and park because of all the florecent lights and trees obstructing views of the sky, but when I finally found a place I pulled in and sat there in the wee hours of the morning watching the storm while the sun began to rise, slowly chasing it across the sky and then finally swallowing it whole. There's something about it that has a pacifying effect over me; my head gets clear and I can't help but feel overwhelmed with happiness; all worries of time and place are filed down to nothing by pleasant reverie. Last night was my second experience with the northern lights.

The first time, four years ago, I watched the northern lights while lying in a hayfield surrounded by a wood, camping in the back country near Cadillac Lake. Amazingly enough the earth passed through a stream of asteroids that weekend and the Aurora Borealis danced with a meteor shower. Lying on a blanket freezing my drunken ass off I fell in love with a girl who fell in love with me while the sky blazed.

I think I might head down to Chicago tonight to see Deerhoof at The Empty Bottle. (1035 N Western Ave, 773.276.3600)
$10