I feel I am very structured

in my writing and usually have a very specific subject, but every once

in while, I guess all of us need to rant incessantly on whatever is on

our minds. So with no Elian Gonzalez-sized crusade to attend to, that

is what this week's column is about, ranting.

As shameless self-promotion,

I am playing guitar and singing this whole month at Don Pablo's in Peachtree

City. On Tuesdays I will be in the bar from 7:30-9:30 doing music and

humor and on the weekends (on alternating Friday and Saturday nights from

6:30-10:30) I am playing/singing acoustic music, covering the likes of

Jimmy Buffett, Beatles, James Taylor, Cat Stevens, etc., as well as a

lot of new pop radio stuff. For complete dates, surf to my website ebilly.net

and click on "gig schedule."

I am voting the Ralph Nader,

Green, populist party for president. I have never, ever publicly divulged

what party I belong to (I belong to no one!) and this stuff is normally

too boring to even share. I wouldn't want anyone following my lead anyway.

Yet, if you are sick and tired of nothing but politics and pandering and

rhetoric, you should at least check out this party (Start at www.ralphnader.com).

I am so far away from the liberal-minded

environmentalist that I thought this group represented, but they are really

about bringing power back to the people instead of our country being run

the frying pan, not realizing he is being boiled, we need to wake up as

a collective congregation of people and realize Big Business is running

the country as well as the two candidates most people will vote for in

this election.

I had a pleasant experience

this week. I had written a piece about customer service weeks ago on Office

Depot. I had a great meeting with one of their managers (Beverly). I really

got the feeling that they are concerned about customer service. She assured

me that my incident was an exception. Whether or not that is true, I give

them credit and applause for the effort. Because, that is what we all

want, just some effort. I would never expect a company to be perfect or

for there never to be mistakes made, but it is all in the attitude. I

think that is how we all feel.

As much as I love movies, this

summer has been a bad one for anything memorable. As filthiness has been

masquerading as comedy and everything else has pretty much fallen flat,

going to the movies has been more about an excuse for me to eat chocolate

than anything else. A bright spot was "The Exorcist," though.

I read the book when I was barely 14 and saw the movie right after that.

Now to see it again, was a great rush of nostalgia. The weirdest thing

about it was the clothes they wore were perfectly fashionable to today's

standards (if you can call them that).

Enough blathering.