Der Flugplatz

Studio Magic

2010-08-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

So there's a chance that the Morning Benders will be stopping by the Moscow/Pullman area, or possibly Spokane. And here's another video from Yours Tru.ly to get you excited.

Yourstru.ly Presents: The Morning Benders "Stitches" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

The Mountain

2010-08-19T21:58:00.001-07:00

Seven Devils

2010-08-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Ahoy there, Amy and I took a little trip to the Seven Devils last weekend, and here are some shots. I hadn't been in the area for about 6 years, and it was totally awesome to be there in the heat of summer to be able to jump in Sheep Lake. We made our way in through Goat Pass, which turned the normal 9 mile hike in into a 2 hour scramble which left us with plenty of time to relax, swim and walk around the lake. The next day we attacked He Devil, then packed up and got out just as a sweet mountain thunderstorm hit. Perfecto!

Cedar!

2010-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Howard Jones and his magical shop of woodworking wonders, I've been able to try tackling a few other projects in addition to the occasional mustache. This is my latest, a window planter made of some reclaimed cedar shelving. Home to basil and cascading Fountain Crimson and Trailing Sapphire.

New Horse Feathers

2010-06-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

The fruits of an Idaho upbringing.

Horse Feathers | Belly Of June | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Mustache #3!

2010-04-02T23:36:00.001-07:00

There you have it. The third installment of the Mustache Saga. For sale at the Storm Cellar.

A Good Argument for Creationism

2010-03-09T15:48:00.000-08:00

Observe and compare.

Stage Two

2010-03-04T15:49:00.001-08:00

Rad

2010-02-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Movies Are Becoming Collages of Other Movies

2009-12-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

So The Matrix, I Am Legend, and Blade 2 were all hanging out in the park.....

First Stage of Restoration

2009-12-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

Yosh

2009-10-14T21:21:00.000-07:00

Who wants to go see Thao and the Get Down Stay Down in Spokane on the 24th? New album's out, and here's the first video from it that I know of.

Hiking

2009-10-02T08:13:00.001-07:00

We're heading down to the Seven Devils this afternoon for one last trip before the snows come. Weather's looking pretty bad, rain and under 50 degrees, but that's what Gore-Tex and goose down are for. Enjoy these pictures until we get back.

Stream That, Out on the Flo

2009-09-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

The new Avett Brothers album, I and Love and You, is currently streaming for free on the NPR website. I've given it a single, distracted listening and my initial concerns remain; too tame, too ballad-y without the usual gripping lyrics and hooks that make their previous Gleam EPs soooo good. I'm definitely going to be listening to this a lot for the 7 days that it'll be up on NPR, and hopefully I'll discover the hidden gold.

Photo cred to Volker Neumann, who I found on flickr.

Mo' Building

2009-09-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a flexible farm and cleaning schedule I've been able to take on a few extra projects this summer/fall. This here's the shop I'm lending a hand to just outside of Princeton, ID. We worked on the rafters most of the past few weeks, and last Thursday I cut and placed the blocking between trusses in order to connect each independent section of the roof together.

Something wild about building that I've been made more aware of recently is the strength of small things in large numbers. That roof is divided into five separate bays, each of which is only supported by what's under it with no side to side support. The blocking I'm putting in consists of an 8 inch piece of 2x8 secured by 4 nails. Looking at the thing you realize it's smaller than your dinner plate. But when you place 20 of them in good spots, it's all of a sudden bomb-proof. Neato.

Project Update

2009-09-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

The Woodshed. Is there a better DIY project for the American male living the great Northwest? There can't be.

I'm trying to go super cheap with my materials but super classy with my style. Reading lots of homesteader's books on building has grown a certain fascination with wood-joining, so I did a bit of notching for my support braces. Greg Albrecht also introduced me to the wonderful world of building with timber poles cut yourself, which I used for the front braces. So far I've only spent money on the lag screws, washers, and 4 ten-foot 2x4s. Next step is the rafters, which I started cutting with birds-mouth notches today. We're hoping for 3 cords to fit in this bad boy. Exciiiiiiting.

Rainier, Round 2

2009-08-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

So we're back and alive from our Mt. Rainier attempt. Once again blessed with (mostly) great weather, we had a great group push for the summit last week. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for now, maybe a full post to come. But, you know...

Leapin'

2009-06-28T14:17:00.001-07:00

New Avett Brothers

2009-06-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

This is a shot from the Portland show we went to back in May, not taken by me. Credit goes to Jonathan Colman for the good eye. The REAL news is the free new single posted here at Spinner. I'm still a little unsure about the Butch Vig produced album that's due out soon, but hey, it's the Avett Brothers.

There is Beauty, Though Cliche, in the Mundane

2009-06-23T22:36:00.001-07:00

It Lives

2009-06-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

Interesting tidbit over at the (re-opened!) Cedar Room.

Weeds as Icebergs

2009-06-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

This little guy is pretty typical for thistle. A little nub poking out of the dirt, and five times that underground. The barn is in the shot for scale.

So far summer squash, cucumbers, broccoli, pumpkins, sweet corn, sweet peas, and pole, goldrush, black turtle, and anasazi beans have started showing themselves. It still seems a little like magic, to just poke some hard little lumps into the ground and see (roughly) orderly little greenies pushing up.

Produce won't be ready for another month or so, but start looking for us around the beginning of July at the farmer's market selling "natural beef." It would've obtained the coveted Organic label, but there aren't any organic certified butcher shops around. Other than that, the cattle are all grass-fed on pasture that's been certified organic, so unless the butchers are injecting the beef with, I don't know, CFCs or something, you're basically getting organic beef.

Palouse Organics is the name, Frank Hill is the man behind it, and LaVon and Grace Wagler are heading up the operation. And I'm the gardener.

Feel Like You're in a Photo Rut?

2009-06-10T22:02:00.001-07:00

Well just stick an inchworm onto some beer labels and tequila bar coasters! Walla!

Where The Wild Things Are

2009-03-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

This looks really good, and apparently the Arcade Fire is on the soundtrack.

And They Deemed It RAD

2009-03-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

The Decemberists are releasing a new EP on March 17, The Hazards of Love, and put on an open invite poster contest to advertise their live playing of it at the SXSW music bonanza in Austin. The winner, a Kathryn Rathke, wonderfully incorporated both Ladybird and Lyndon.

Heartless Bastards and the Avett Brothers open starting at 10pm Texas time, March 18, and for those of us unwilling or unable to make the trek, NPR will be broadcasting it live. Check it.

Panophoric Farm

2009-02-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

A Joy

2009-02-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

I love doing this.

Amy Gaither, photo credit.
Douglas Ballard, chainsaw credit.

I Work on a Farm....Again

2009-02-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

After a few years away from tilling and working the earth, I have returned. Not to Flannigan Creek Farms, but Palouse Organics, a bigger operation owned by Frank Hill and operated by a handful of folks which now includes yours truly.

In a few ways it's the perfect job for me right now. The day Amy and I returned from our wedding I got a call from my boss who informed me that due to the deflated economy, I and three others from Terramark had been laid off. Work had been slowing down before we left, and more often than not, I'd found myself "volunteering" to take the afternoon/day off because of the lack of work. After shoveling a few roofs and other odd jobs I got a call from Frank who asked if I'd be interested in working on his farm until March 22. I'd never met Frank before, he only knew of me through the gracious compliments and recommendations of Jordan Smith, Brian Points, and James Arrick. So while only temporary work, it's still about a month and a half of consistent, good-paying work. And the work is fantastic.

My first day there I was instructed to haul a dead horse "over the hill" with the old Kubota tractor. Having just learned how to drive the thing an hour ago, I hooked a chain to hind legs and took off up the hill and through the snow. At the top I could see a ton of the Palouse, the Bitterroots to the east, and the tops of the Seven Devils to the south. After delivering the horse to its final resting place next to an eyeless steer that had died earlier in the year I trekked back to the barn and learned the intracacies of dairy cows.

Shufford, the master of the farm until recently, showed me the feeding and watering routine for Flower and Lovey, the two milk producers. He tossed some hay from a bale on the ground into a wheelbarrow with the afternoon sun coming in full from the open barn door behind him, and I almost went out of my mind with agrarian delight as the chaff and dust flew through the air thicker than snow. It's the kind of stuff you can breath in, almost choke on, and want more.

The Rich Coast

2009-01-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

Please to enjoy some photos from Costa Rica.

Two Gems From the Inauguration

2009-01-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

Alice Walker, speaking of Michelle Obama:
I like how she is so naturally elegant. I like how she dresses, also.

Alice Walker:
Is that Ethyl Kennedy behind Michelle? Look at the nose...
Amy Goodman:
Actually......I think......That's Joe Biden.

The Nietzsche Family Circus

2009-01-11T18:58:00.000-08:00

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Thoughts are the shadows of our sensations -
always darker, emptier, simpler than these.

Blast From the Past

2009-01-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Well we are back from Costa Rica and totally married. Pictures of our luna de miel to follow this coming week. In the meantime, check this out. It's the long-awaited, finally-created official page for Expedition, the backpacking and rock climbing branch of Kanakuk where Amy and I met. We got to work on this site, write a lot of the content, and contribute photos so it's pretty rad to see it up and running on the Interweb.

New Hotness

2008-12-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

Soooo, Amy got me a Nikon D40 for which to play with. Perfect timing on her part, as I was lamenting my lack of a decent digital camera for our trip to Costa Rica following the wedding. This here's a little shot I took with it yesterday before the blizzard hit.

I've had similar thoughts as Davis on my lack of thought and writing as of late, but I feel that things have been building in my mind for a bit and that I'll be back in the swing of things soon. Most of my free time during the past few months has been devoted to fixing up the house that Amy and I will be living in, and learning the hard way (read as: REAL way) a lot about building and home repair. I've had tools and materials on the mind, to the point of getting trapped in Moscow Building Supply just wandering around and ogling the many manly contraptions and gizmos, as well as getting excited about brackets and handsaws.

All this to say, I'm looking forward to getting back into something of a rhythm of writing and posting. So hold on dear reader, and your wildest blog fantasies will be realized in a wizardly cloud of 1's and 0's. Whillikers.

Can You Put a Price on Security?

2008-11-28T18:04:00.001-08:00

This is amazing.

C&L

2008-11-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

I'm usually a big fan of the C & L Meat Locker, and man, that smoked salmon we had last night was the best ham I've had in a while.

"But There's More. There's MUCH More!"

2008-11-09T21:00:00.000-08:00

So the lovely Amy K. Ballard and I have been engaged for about two months now, and for those of you who haven't heard the story and would like to, here goes:

We'd been looking around at road bikes for Amy ever since she moved up to Idaho in January, usually by stopping by bike shops and taking different styles out for a test ride. Bike shop owners are surprisingly cool with letting you ride out of their store on $5000 worth of equipment with nothing but your driver's license as collateral/evidence.

I'd had the idea of proposing on a bike ride for a while, and had even thought about the one-two punch of surprising her with a bike, going for a ride, and asking the Big One midway through. Not finding any good deals and wanting to have done the deed before we both went to Wisconsin, I opted for the test-ride freebie deal. I suited Amy up in one of my racing kits from UI, she hopped on a Giant OCR-3 from Paradise Creek Bikes, and we took off down the Latah Trail towards Troy.

The ring was tucked into my jersey pocket and I'd hoped to find a nice spot in the wheat fields to stop. We turned off of the trail and headed into farm country 7-8 miles from town. Amy was doing so well, and really enjoying the views along with the challenge. We started climbing a good sized hill that I was a little worried about, but she powered up like it was nothing. A bit longer found us on another hill and Amy mentioned it starting to get pretty hard. I suggested turning around after we got to the top. to which she agreed with a laugh.

At the top, we got off our bikes stretched a bit, and I started getting the Nervous. I repeatedly told her how glad I was that she liked biking, and scratched/rubbed my head. I then told her that I wanted to buy her a bike, which she thought was great. This not being the climax of the afternoon, I threw my hands in the air and said,

"But there's more. There's MUCH more!"

Boom.

Mawage

2008-10-18T01:09:00.001-07:00

Idaho

2008-08-20T18:51:00.001-07:00

A Change of Seasons

2008-08-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

After 5 merry years at the Malebox/Wisconsin House pt. 2, I'm moving on to a little house down the hill. Triple the billz is worth a home that can be clean, quiet, and free of television.

Sooooo, Chris Aberle, Drew Nicholas, and Jordan Smith are looking to fill my spot ASAP here on Polk St. Four bedrooms, wood stove, two living rooms, huge kitchen, and bidet make it a castle among shacks in a college town. Asher is staying in NY through January, and would also appreciate roommates to ease the rent burden on his end. If you or anyone you know of is looking for a place, there are two openings.

New Pictures

2008-08-02T23:14:00.001-07:00

Hola, just posted some new shots on flickr from my time in Colorado with AJ. I had the great opportunity to take a group of guys out from Wisconsin on a three day trip in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. It's, you know, scenic...

The Palouse Cup rages on, we're currently 1-1 with two games to go tomorrow.

Vocab

2008-07-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

The Book Club, consisting of Nate Wolff, David Hoos, and myself had its first meeting last night. We discussed Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables a bit, and made plans for our next reads, which will probably include some Tobias Wolff short stories, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory. Yes, we set out to read some Catholic writers.

Besides the learned words listed below, we talked about the sometimes insultingly obvious tools many classic authors employ in relating themes. For example, much of THOT7G is about generational sin and curses. In order to make sure we hadn't missed it before, Hawthorne goes to great lengths to tell us how a descendent of the cursed ancestor bears an uncanny resemblence to the orginal Pyncheon. This led me to revisit one of my old gripes about middle/high school literature programs that tell kids that the classics are simply too dense and difficult to understand. Oh, and they also were written too long ago to have any bearing on a 17-year-old who drives a Mazda and has an iPod. The fact is, many of the classics function as textbooks on Themes in Writing. Dickens, much to Nate's frustration, will carry you along a nice little theme in his novels, show you bits and peices here and there until you are comfortable and fairly pleased with having gleaned something from the text, then say something like 'And the wooden table was a metaphor for the Clark family.' To which the appropriate, Wolffian response is to bring an open hand to the forhead, hold it briefly, extend the hand and cry "Dude."

Words I've learned:

lugubrious - ridiculously, excessively mournful.

Daguerreotype - an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor.

matutinal - pertaining to or occurring in the morning; early in the day.

escritoire - a writing desk.

obstreperous - noisy and stubbornly defiant, aggressively boisterous.

piquant - agreeably pungent or sharp in taste or flavor; pleasantly biting or tart.

dromedaries - the single-humped camel, Camelus dromedarius, of Arabia and northern Africa.

approbation - official approval or sanction.

effulgence - shining forth brilliantly; radiant.

physiognomy - the outward appearance of anything, taken as offering some insight into its character.

alacrity - cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness.

testator - a person who has died leaving a valid will.

propinquity -

1.	nearness in place; proximity.

2.	nearness of relation; kinship.

3.	affinity of nature; similarity.

4.	nearness in time.

augury - an omen, token, or indication.

And I'm only halfway through...

Lewis on the Lazy

2008-07-14T00:25:00.001-07:00

Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.
It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self - all your wishes and precautions - to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call 'ourselves', to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be 'good'. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way - centred on money ore pleasure or ambition - and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing by grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown

From Mere Christianity

Return

2008-07-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Back from Estes with pictures to come soon. I ended up not only taking out a backpacking group, but helping the rock climbing guides on their two trips as well. Moody Bible Institute did a little write-up on First Adventure that you can read here.

Check It

2008-07-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of foam-core and mat board left over from the Spring Gala. If you have photos or art that you would like matted or mounted onto foam-core (or both), let me know and I'm sure we could arrange something. I haven't had a chance to do much in the way of photo-ing or writing since starting at the TerrorMark, but in exchange I'm now relatively wealthy. So I'd love a few projects to work on.

In other news, I'll be down in Colorado this next week helping my good friend AJ Dudek start his guiding company, First Adventure. A group of guys from a church back in Wisconsin are coming out for a week of climbing, backpacking, and fly-fishing and AJ has asked me to guide the backpacking trip. We'll be tramping about just south of Rocky Mountain National Park in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and Roosevelt National Forest. Hopefully some good pictures to follow.

Hancock: Probably my least favorite Will Smith movie , but hey, that's like describing the least delicious ice cream. It's all tasty.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

2008-06-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

When first the Fox saw the Lion he was terribly frightened, and ran away and hid himself in the wood. Next time however he came near the King of Beasts he stopped at a safe distance and watched him pass by. The third time they came near one another the Fox went straight up to the Lion and passed the time of day with him, asking him how his family were, and when he should have the pleasure of seeing him again; then turning his tail, he parted from the Lion without much ceremony.

Bands and Galas

2008-05-10T21:05:00.000-07:00

So I have a few pictures of Jared Dunn's newly renamed band Lafayette up on Flickr, as well as some shots from the Spring Gala. Enjoy.

Mo' Pics

2008-04-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Just got around to scanning some B&W film from the past few months. Adventures in homebrewing, canyoneering, local music, and Mormon wackiness, all captured in two-tone wonder.

Artsy Heartsy

2008-04-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Yes yes, Thee Malebox Spring Gala is set to kick off this Friday at 6:00 with the above schedule of music and readings. We'll be wrapping up music by 10:00, but all day Saturday will be devoted to art showing, with contributions from Paula Gibbs, Vicky Trochez, Austin Storm, Laura Blakey, Mark Beauchamp, Paul Tong, Asher Weinbaum, Yours Truly, Tara Oar, Liz Hall, Caroline Jones, Evan Wilson, Nate and Alexis Stevenson, and Bethany Hoyt.

Hope to see you there, email, post, or call with any questions. If you're reading this and have a site of your own, perhaps you'll mention it?

Rock

2008-04-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Bon Voyage, Von Submarine will once again delight your senses this Saturday at Thee Gallery on Washington, across from City Hall. Also enjoy the alt-country sounds of Whitebird Canyon, the frantic folk of Paul Tong and the Anymore, the electro-stylings of "Josh" (Stevenson), and a possible appearance by Mike Siemens. Show starts at 7:30 and will be $3 or donation.

More Nonsense That I Find Hilarious

2008-04-04T15:57:00.001-07:00

For their families of diseaseful brats. They had fierce in
disposition, unlovable, and impervious given unto him by
the celestials. Dhananjaya seated i make no answer in fingersigns,
as needs must disappeared into conjugal obscurity, but ayesha's
had bristled up to prevent them from retracing all very
charming to behold. Artificial woods enthusiasm into imaginative
fact, has woven a david kirke was much dissatisfied with
the agreement, host, terrible to behold, the kaurava marched
hostess. The play was given, he said hoarsely, coffin was
clumsily covered with too short a pall, girl betsey sits
between him and her father. That yudhishthira, having listened
to this excellent near the presence of the king? Mel. I
did. Cal..

People Who Look Like Their Names

2008-03-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

1. Wilford Brimley

Under Blackpool Lights

2008-03-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

If you're a fan at all of the White Stripes, I highly recommend the "Under Blackpool Lights" concert DVD. It was recorded around the Elephant era and they rock through 26 songs from all three albums they'd released at the time plus a few covers.

Jack White can shred that toy guitar.

Utah

2008-03-24T13:35:00.000-07:00

Another great trip to the canyons of Utah. Pictures to follow.

Live

2008-03-11T12:22:00.000-07:00

Maybe we could change our name to The Facelesses...

It is a Yoke

2008-03-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

I have been getting the most hilarious spam emails, promising me all sorts of, you know improvements... Ahem. But the really funny part is the engrish-like quality of the writing, which shows up not only in the description of the product ("You will be a giant of Bad!"), but in small stories(?) included in the email. I give you example:

Like an enthusiast in his profession and john, failure. You
served me well enough, but you were going without my preparing
you with explanations lawrence succeeded in leading ashore
a body of 'you went to the shed, then? How did you get the
glory be! She exclaimed. Leaning over the rail, have come
with a keen desire to get back to the (fig. 44), which retired
many centuries ago towards on the last syllable. Ta coot
peoples up in ta like, and couldn't make nothing of him
but the sons and poirot said, you mean, i take it, that
aloud for help. Malcolm was already at the north transcripts
of the french 'archives des colonies,' and i don't want
to play with ellie and essie, did happen. She was nearly
frantic. What was she.

Introducing...

2008-03-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

Our first show is tonight...

2008-02-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

I was searching through all of my old photos and came across some gems. Mormons dancing at the African Children's Choir, my old stickered Telecaster, an amazing sign in Wisconsin, my first car, the world's largest Indian in Michigan, and pole vaulting in high school.

A Charred Aorta

2008-02-19T22:09:00.000-08:00

NYC - After years of strife between acid-reflux sufferers and the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, a breakthrough early this week may have settled an age-old dispute. Rolaids in fact does not spell relief, alphabetically or otherwise.

The lab results came in from the Bureau of Intestinal Affairs late Sunday night.

"We'd always thought there was something fishy about...that product" said Dr. David Crosby, whose research led to the breakthrough discovery on the medical end. "But hell, who am I to say what spells relief? I'm a doctor, not a...a word guy. We just know that it don't work."

Andrew Heuser, a self-proclaimed wordsmith, had heard about the struggle and offered his linguistic talents to the support of these belching brethren and the confused medical field.

"I didn't have any trouble with the product personally, but when I heard all these complaints from people, I started looking into it. I don't want to say that what I found necessarily won the argument, but when I came into that meeting with my findings I could sense a feeling of...of... despair in those corporate monkeys."

Heuser, whose tireless efforts have won him world-wide recognition in the field of Idle Academia, is credited with the first documented proof that no matter how you slice it, "relief" can't be spelled from Rolaids.

Some staunch supporters of the archaic claim began a rally outside the BIA, wearing shirts promoting the popular antacid and touting signs reading "Relief is a State of Mind," but disbanded shortly after a lunch catered by El Sombrero amongst a whisper of tearing foil and chalky crunching sounds. No comments were offered for the group's departure.

Zie Germans

2008-02-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

I think that this is hilarious.

Moscow Mountain

2008-02-17T17:18:00.000-08:00

More fun with Gimp, I took five shots here at the end of Orchard Street and stitched them together, adjusted the contrast and saturation, and gimped out a few branches and stitch lines with the oh-so-handy clone tool. The slight fish-eye effect seems to come with the territory of stitching.

Tonight...

2008-02-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

As Long as it's the Goodest...

2008-02-13T21:52:00.000-08:00

The Slow Descent

2008-02-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

1. The Dress T-Shirt - These are the shirts that are unblemished and fit appropriately, usually with that soft feel you can only get with that 15 year-old blend of cotton and polyester. If they do have irregularities, they add to the overall charm and hipness, as I see it. Often used as an undershirt; in the off-chance that the outer layer must be removed, fashion will remain.

2. The Work T-Shirt - Shirts that have suffered a permanently disfiguring moment, or were never really that dear to my heart, but that I still find cool enough to wear outside of my home. This group is rife with the once awesome ringer-t.

3. The Only Wear to Sleep T-Shirt - A few have made it to this category after starting as a Dress-T, but usually these shirts are the ones that had that neckhole that was just a bit too large, the sleeves that kinda poofed out and further humiliated my poor arms, or just didn't have a humorous/retro enough design.

4. The Now You're a Rag Cleaning My Bike Chain Shirt - Avalon for t-shirts. They never die here, but are instead put to a final, never-ending task. The lucky ones enter this blissful state immediately following an arm or head being put through a hole that didn't exist at the shirt's birth.

If You're Into That Sort of Thing....

2008-02-11T16:01:00.000-08:00

There are a pair of wing-tipped Beatle-boots at the Goodwill that are just a hair too small for me. My guess is about a 9.5, for $14.99. And they're in the normal spot where all the great men's shoes are found: the women's shoe section. Also, if you're the tiniest man/boy in town, there are some amazing Levi's "Sta-Prest" slacks that sport faux-corduroy and perma-creases and a 28-inch waist. I couldn't quite pull them off and not feel like an indie metro. But hey, if you can rock em or like dressing like a girl, hit it.

For myself, a new translation of Anna Karenina for .99 and a pat on the back for my most heavily hyphenated post to date.

Scuttling Tick

2008-02-04T11:08:00.000-08:00

What the deuce is this?

Racism Revealed

2008-02-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

We kicked off Black History Month with a viewing of Song of the South last night. I think that now I understand where all the controversy over racism in the movie came from, and I must say, I am a bit offended. I mean, didn't Disney know that they could be stigmatizing an entire race of people for generations to come? Sure, we crackers may have worn knickers and lace collars in the past, but now we've got it together, man. It's not fair to judge us by our lameness back then. SotS unfairly portrays white people as spoiled, obnoxious brats with little to no sense of style, and I have to overcome that obstacle every day I stand in front of the mirror before leaving home. Sometimes all I can see is a privileged, unhip sucka, and it's almost too much to bear...

Also, found this satire of Song of the South on the Wiki called Coonskin. Looks crazy.

Repelled

2008-01-31T22:47:00.000-08:00

Asher, Amy and I were soundly beaten back from Stanley hot springs yesterday by waist deep snow about a mile from the prize. After today's additional foot, I can't imagine getting in there until March, even with snowshoes. I sank to my chest with them on at one point, then decided to throw in the towel. Sigh.

Record snows I hear, the most in Moscow since 1996. I love a real winter.

From All Over

2008-01-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

I've scanned some more film. These are from the Austin wedding, College Station, home in Wisconsin over break, a few leftovers from Eagle Cap and Moscow, and two from our road trip between Texas and Idaho. The black and white wedding photos were shot with Kodak TMax 400, and the others in Fuji NeoPan 1600. The bus and Eagle Cap were Fuji 100.

Hardy Har

2008-01-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

I heard one of the best expressions of disgust with Christ Church today:

"They're just so...inclusive."

We Dare to Disagree

2008-01-28T13:56:00.000-08:00

After much thought and discussion with Amy, I can safely say that The Golden Compass was the worst movie I saw in 2007. My interest in and opinion of this movie enjoyed quite the roller coaster ride, which ended up being far more enjoyable than sitting through the movie itself. I began with a low opinion when I first saw the gigantic banner at the Village Centre Cinemas this fall, and thought “Lame. More child-oriented fantasy schlock that somehow looks even cheaper and more derivative than the Harry Potters. And somehow Daniel Craig got roped in.”

A few weeks later I read an article on the books and coming movie in the Atlantic which stressed the anti-Christian vibe of the books, and the Hollywood diluting of said vibe. While the article was somewhat interesting, I still haven’t finished it and Pullman’s whiny complaints that his books haven’t caused as much controversy as Harry Potter stirred up, did little to entice me into the theater.

And then I read Joshua’s thoughts. While I don’t usually notice the same things he does in films, the overwhelmingly positive (and interesting) review was too much to resist. Amy and I saw it in Texas over the break, and we have yet to think of one good thing about it, with the possible exception of Kate Bush’s hilarious song over the credits (Lyraaaa, Lyraaaaaaaaa…..and her face….full of grace).

First off, Lyra’s character was embarrassingly unsympathetic for me. I just can’t handle the “sassy and defiant child hero/ine,” who always knows what’s best beyond her years, and is constantly flying in the face of authority to “teach them a lesson.” I don’t know if it’s the sheer annoyance of kids who are actually like that, but think that their rebellion against doing chores is a worthy cause, or the fact that bratty know-it-all kids being heroes is tired news in movies. Meh.

Josh’s review noted a number of ways that the movie inadvertently glorified Christian principles, which sounded like an interesting nugget lodged in an attempt to humiliate Christianity. I went into it knowing that I probably wouldn’t feel as strongly about these moments, but was prepared to look for them. When the credits rolled however I found myself not only lacking the conviction of themes seen, but flat out disagreeing with a few, specifically the line that, “all human beings are composed of dust and when humans die, they become dust again.” It was during the witch attack scene (?) that I realized that the human bodies were dying and lying cold, while the animal-soul vaporized into dust. To me, that spoke more of a direct connection between a man’s body dying and his soul vanishing into nothingness.

While we’re on the subject of witch attacks, it was moments like that that really ruined the movie for me. I really wouldn’t have minded if Jesus wasn’t jumping out of every character and situation if they had at least put together a show that didn’t feel like Eragon, that is, written by a 13-year old. Why did witches have to appear? Well, to defeat the crazy-ass Icelandic army that similarly came out of nowhere. And even if these leaps in the story remained, aesthetically the movie was one of the hardest for me to sit through. I thought the CGI was absolutely wretched compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. As with Narnia, I felt that the CGI just looked awful in lots of light. Peter Jackson’s films came off almost spotless because of the gloom and, of course, the forgotten arts of costume, makeup, and camera angles instead of CGI.

CDs Acquired in the Last Few Months

2008-01-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

The Lonely H - Hair
Apollo Sunshine - s/t
Fruitbats - Spelled in Bones
Beulah - The Coast is Never Clear
Muse - Absolution
Albert Hammond Jr. - Yours to Keep
The Apples in Stereo - Discovery of a World Inside the Moone
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist
The Stills - Without Feathers

Goodness

2008-01-24T15:08:00.001-08:00

Wha?

2008-01-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

Well Will, I suppose after so many years of being the Fresh Prince something like this was to be expected. And I'll probably watch it.

Rad Pictures of the Packer Game

2008-01-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

This looked like the game to be at.

Beeeeeyoouuuu

2008-01-02T13:13:00.001-08:00

While I maintain that I Am Legend was great, I have been thinking a bit on one of it's flaws/shortcomings/whathaveyous:

Computer Generated Imagery - CGI use nowadays in film might be likened to the use of synth in 80's music. "Why use a guitar/drum kit/human voice? We can just hit this key!" It seems that the excitement at the possibilities of electronic elements proved too great a temptation for most. There have been countless times I've heard a great 80's song covered by some guy and his guitar that sounds way better than the soulless, bleeping original. I'm all about electronic beeps and hums thrown in to augment a great rock song, or electronically based music (sometimes) but the problem seemed to be the forcing of a perfectly good rock song through a Casio mold.

Likewise with CGI in movies, there's definitely a way to use it that doesn't feel like an obnoxious keyboard solo, which is sometimes what the special effects in Legend felt like. Could they really not find someone to lie on a table with makeup on and breath quickly? Or someone else, again with makeup, to run out of a dark doorway and frown at Will Smith? Why did it ALL have to be CGI? I'm actually surprised that Sam the dog was real. Sure, there were a few times that the Darkseekers were pulling some crazy shiz that necessitated some computer help, but it should have been by far the exception. This is one of the areas that The Lord of the Rings excelled in. Wherever possible characters were living, breathing, often slime-excreting characters. CGI was used to create vast numbers of them, or to render a creature that probably couldn't be physically created realistically enough to blend with the film. Legend, with a youthful Tom Cruise, is another example of what costuming can pull off, and that movie was made in 1985.

I think that much like we look back on 80's music and laugh (or I do anyway) at the excessive use of electronics, we'll look back at movies of this time and chuckle at the excess of CGI. And not because the effects will look out of date or "old," just like we don't listen to an 80's hit and think "Man that fake trumpet sounds sooo fake, we could totally make a fake trumpet sound way better now." Thankfully we came out of the era of replacing instruments with synths and returned to using a snare drum where a snare drum would sound good.

So, like Mr. Gibbs, I'm kinda looking forward to more guys in rubber suits in the cinematic future.

I Am Legend, Round 2

2007-12-29T19:39:00.000-08:00

After my second viewing of I Am Legend, three things are certain to me:

1. I Am Legend is a legitimately terrifying movie. I was scared the first time I saw it, but chalked it up to the fact that I avoid creepy movies because I scare easily and feel like an idiot when I look over my shoulder in the dark later at night. But after watching it with my sister (a scary movie connoisseur of sorts) and seeing her reaction, I am convinced.

2. Will Smith rules. I knew this before seeing Legend again, but a victory lap is always nice.

3. I Am Legend is much better the second time around. I went into the theatre knowing I'd probably like it better since the edge would be taken off of the scare factor. This was true, although I still found myself wanting to look away from the screen at certain scenes. Having that first viewing under my belt made the second go considerably less stressful, and that alone would have made it a more enjoyable watch for me. But I also had the pleasant experience of noticing little nuggets in the film that had escaped me.

Fred the Mannequin - When I first saw Fred, coupled with the look on Will Smith's face, I though that the "Darkseekers" had ventured outside during the day by donning clothing. I was prepared to be furious at such a cheeseball bit of writing that allowed the infected to become more dangerous to Smith, but fortunately that wasn't the case. The second time I saw this scene I caught what had given me my initial impression. Fred's head moves to look in Smith's direction when he stops the car. And after that, every time the camera cuts away and returns to Fred, he's in a slightly different position.

Smith's "love interest" in the video store is in the porno section. And he put her there.

Most folks probably caught this the first time around, but I didn't; when Smith wakes up from his suicidal night on the town and walks into his kitchen, Ana and Isaac(?) appear as his wife and daughter.

Also, wasn't it amazing to see Smith frantically trying to convince the infected of their illness and his ability to fix them while they screamed and flung themselves against the glass to tear him apart?

Intimidating for Jesus

2007-12-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

This is incredible.

What Ho, Mr. McConnell

2007-12-11T21:55:00.000-08:00

A splendid day of photography and visiting at the McConnell Mansion can be viewed here.

Engrish Slays Me

2007-12-10T13:06:00.000-08:00

Need help staying up late studying for those finals, suckers? Try Marxism!

Compound Interest

2007-12-09T00:04:00.000-08:00

"Though Christian charity sounds a very cold thing to people whose heads are full of sentimentality, and though it is quite distinct from affection, yet it leads to affection. The difference between a Christian and a worldly man is not that the worldly man has only affections or 'likings' and the Christian has only 'charity'. The worldly man treats certain people kindly because he 'likes' them: the Christian, trying to treat every one kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on - including people he could not even have imagined himself liking at the beginning.

This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become - and so on in a vicious circle for ever.

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."

~Clive, Mere Christianity

New Guy Ritchie Flick

2007-12-07T10:01:00.001-08:00

Two nights ago I watched Revolver, Guy Ritchie's latest movie that came out in October 2005 over in jolly old England. I was actually lucky enough to be there when it did and caught it on the big screen in Oxford. Everywhere around London and Oxford were posters claiming it to be Guy Ritchie's "return to form," the form being Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and not the travesty that apparently was Swept Away.

Revolver definitely has some of the Ritchie stylization, but more so visually than in the dialogue. Jason Statham stars (with hair!) and gives a great show as he always does with Ritchie at the helm. There's a bit of metanarrative writing that can feel a little tired though, along with a FightClubish dilemma that may turn some folks off.

However, those issues aside, the movie is more than worth watching for Ray Liotta's performance alone. I just saw on the apple trailers site that it's being released in the US today, but nowhere around Moscow/Pullman yet. And yes, that's Andre 3000. Check out the trailer.

Victoire!

2007-12-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

After many hours spent tinkering, the 4Runner once again glides down the road with power steering. Yosh.

DIY (for amusement only) or Jack of No Trades

2007-12-04T00:33:00.000-08:00

In a flurry of hobby activities this past month I’ve had light shine on an aspect of my character. A breakdown of what I’ve been up to with my boatloads of free time:

The Toyota: Always a project to work on, sometimes crucial, sometimes cosmetic, the 4Runner’s 20 some years have been surprisingly kind with no major problems to date. The current task is fixing the power steering system, which blew a pressure line minutes before driving down to Colorado in May. I recently had a new one made for my quirky setup of a 1988 Supra engine fitted into the 86 4Runner body, and plugged it in. While attempting to loosen the pump in order to slide the belt back onto the pulley, I inadvertently removed part of the casing of the pump, exposing an O-ring fitted to a gasket which proceeded to dump ATF fluid everywhere, including my brake which now has a wonderfully high pitched shriek.

After replacing my mistake, I got everything else back together only to find no power steering. Many automotive forums and email conversations later, still no luck. Not only no power steering, but a slight leak from my early endeavor with the pump that I thought I’d pinch off by tightening what I thought was a loose bolt. The bolt stripped the inside of the bolt hole so I found myself searching for a new pump. Found one on eBay for $45 (normally $115), and got it Saturday. This afternoon during a break in the rain I pulled out the old pump and discovered a missing air control valve on the new pump. The valve is fused to a bolt that threads into the pump and runs one line to the engine and another to the air intake. I managed to take the good valve off of the old pump, but was unsuccessful in removing the broken one from the new. Then I wondered if that valve is supposed to come off at all. Then the rain started up again.

It sounds like I know a lot about cars, right? I mean after all, I’m talking about valves and pumps like I know what’s what. It’s true that I’ve learned a ton about cars by taking on all these projects by myself or with a knowledgeable friend’s help. But when the day is done, I’m still left with a car that doesn’t have power steering.

The Sears-Kenmore: My Mom was good enough to let me take her old Sears-Kenmore sewing machine back to Idaho with me after a swell time home for Thanksgiving. We spent an evening working out the kinks and she showed me step by step how to thread the thing, load a bobbin, and perform minor miracles with needle and string. I even took pictures of the process to help me get started back here.

Well this morning I decided to have a go at patching up my old Carhartts, which are fashionably worn through at the thighs, but pow’rful cold lately. And sometimes you just don’t want to wear the overalls, you know? So I brought up my tutorial pics, threaded that mother, loaded the bobbin, and ran a practice stitch through some scrap cloth. Perfect. To the task of wrestling burly duck cotton under the pressure foot without snagging the needle. Things weren’t going so smoothly so I removed the pressure foot and needle, positioned the pants and patch in place, and replaced them. Now there’s some crazy voodoo that happens on sewing machines where the thread from the top travels via needle to the underworld of the machine and returns with a loop of bobbin thread. I don’t get it, but it has to happen to get a decent stitch. Once the foot and needle were back home, the bobbin loop wasn’t jivin’ for an infuriating 45 minutes. I finally removed all thread and replaced everything, had it working for about 3 minutes before breaking the needle. Then to the truck.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve had a revelation, but these failures on both extremes of Manliness and Domesticness have caused me to really look at my rag-tag assembly of “skills” and how I spread myself over too many interests and hope to be master of all of them. I want to write well, take great pictures, be a strong bike rider, fix cars, know about music, play music, write music, make clothes, hike, and read everything. It’s not happening.

Hi-Def Holidays

2007-11-29T13:31:00.000-08:00

I've been reading up on and experimenting a bit with high dynamic range photography lately, and also thinking of creating some Christmas cards this year. So it's only natural that the two would come together eventually. This is just some preliminary experimenting with a tonemapped HDR image of some Christmasy looking foliage that I collected and photographed in a little makeshift studio. I'm still trying to think of a nice arrangement for both the leaves/berries, and a general layout of the card, so if you have any suggestions....

You Like Laugh?

2007-11-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

New Read

2007-11-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to alternate my reading between fiction and non right now. Having just finished Steinbeck's The Pearl I'm now on my way into C.S. Lewis's Studies in Words. I just got through his 24-page introduction which, in classic Lewis form, laid out quite clearly where he was and wasn't gonna go (girl). Not surprisingly, he's isn't concerned with the detailed etymologies of every word or comparing phonetics in order to make connections. His focus is, like most of his writing, on the practical; how language and words affect and are used and misused by Joe Simpson down the street (or Neville Galvin in Lewis's case).

I'm especially interested in if/how he treats the tendency we have to interpret phrases like "I don't like butter" as "I have a thing against butter." He touches briefly on the taking of disinterested as "bored" in the introduction, so I'm hoping for some mo.

I'll leave you with this little bit:

Of course, any man is entitled to say he prefers the poems he makes for himself out of his mistranslations to the poems the writers intended. I have no quarrel with him. He need have none with me. Each to his taste.

One More From Percy

2007-11-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

This passage reminded me of Salinger, not because the writers are similar, but in Percy's description I saw any of Salinger's neurotic, affected characters:

The romantic sits across the aisle, slumped gracefully, one foot propped on the metal ledge. He is reading The Charterhouse of Parma. His face is extraordinarily well-modeled and handsome but his head is too small and, arising as it does from the great collar of his car coat, it makes him look a bit dandy and dudish. Two things I am curious about. How does he sit? Immediately graceful and not aware of it or mediately graceful and aware of it? How does he read The Charterhouse of Parma? Immediately as a man who is inthe world and who has an appetite for the book as he might have an appetite for peaches, or mediately as one who finds himself under the necessity of sticking himself into the world in a certain fashion, of slumping in a acceptable slump, of reading an acceptable book on an acceptable bus? Is he a romantic?
He is a romantic. His posture is the first clue: it is too good to be true, this distillation of all graceful slumps. To clinch matters, he catches sight of me and my book and goes into a spasm of recognition and shyness. To put him out of his misery, I go over and ask him how he likes his book. For a tenth of a second he eyes me to make sure I am not a homosexual; but he has already seen Kate with me and sees her now, lying asleep and marvelously high in the hip. (I have observed that it is no longer possible for one young man to speak unwarily to another not known to him, except in certain sections of the South and West, and certainly not with a book in his hand.) As for me, I have already identified him through his shyness. It is pure heterosexual shyness. He is no homosexual, but merely a romantic.

-And this is where it gets really good-

Now he closes his book and stares hard at it as if he would, by dint of staring alone, tear from it its soul in a word. "It's - very good," he says at last and blushes. The poor fellow. He has just begun to suffer from it, this miserable trick the romantic plays upon himself: of setting just beyond his reach the very thing he prizes. For he prizes just such a meeting, the chance meeting with a chance friend on a chance bus, a friend he can talk to, unburden himself of some of his terrible longings. Now having encountered such a one, me, the rare bus friend, of course he strikes himself dumb. It is a case for direct questioning.
He is a senior at a small college in northern Wisconsin where his father is bursar. His family is extremely proud of the educational progress of their children. Three sisters have assorted PhDs and MAs, piling up degrees on into the middle of life (he speaks in a rapid rehearsed way, a way he deems appropriate for our rare encounter, and when he is forced to use an ordinary word like "bus" - having no other way of conferring upon it a vintage flavor, he says it in quotes and with a wry expression). Upon completion of his second trimester and having enough credits to graduate, he has lit out for New Orleans to load bananas for a while and perhaps join the merchant marine. Smiling tensely, he strains forward and strikes himself dumb. For a while, he says. He means that he hopes to find himself a girl, the rarest of rare pieces, and live the life of Rudolfo on the balcony, sitting around on the floor and experiencing soul-communions. I have my doubts. In the first place, he will defeat himself, jump ten miles ahead of himself, scare the wits out of some girl with his great choking silences, want her so desperately that by his own peculiar logic he can't have her; or having her, jump another ten miles beyond both of them and end by fleeing to the islands where, propped at the rail of his ship in some rancid port, he will ponder his own loneliness.
In fact, there is nothing more to say to him. The best one can do is deflate the pressure a bit, the terrible romantic pressure, and leave him alone. He is a moviegoer, though of course he does not go to movies.

The Raddest Self-Portrait I'll Ever Take

2007-11-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

Walker Percy

2007-11-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Over the summer I read The Moviegoer by Walker Percy in brief installments on trail. Whenever I had heard about Percy from friends it was always in relation to his rejection of Protestantism in favor of Catholicism, similar to T.S. Eliot. While this decision is still interesting to me since the trend is certainly in the other direction, I didn't catch a whole lot of that choice in his novel. It was actually more enjoyable to read as a collection of well-worded statements than as a cohesive plot. Here's one of my favs:

My first idea was the building itself. It looks like a miniature bank with its Corinthian pilasters, portico and iron scrolls over the windows. The firm's name, Cutrer, Klostermann & Lejier is lettered in Gothic and below in smaller letters, the names of the Boston mutual funds we represent. It looks far more conservative that the modern banks in Gentilly. It announces to the world: modern methods are no doubt excellent but here is good old fashioned stability, but stability with imagination. A little bit of old New England with a Creole flavor. The Parthenon facade cost twelve thousand dollars but commissions have doubled. The young man you see inside is clearly the soul of integrity; he asks no more than to be allowed to plan you future. This is true. This is all I ask.

And another:

Everyone on This I Believe believes in the uniqueness and the dignity of the individual. I have noticed, however, that the believers are far from unique themselves, and are in fact alike as peas in a pod.

Someone Take This to Your Next UI Class

2007-11-11T17:50:00.000-08:00

Because it's toooooooo good.

Green Day

2007-11-10T18:22:00.000-08:00

I came across this blurb quoting Billie Joe commenting on Briney Spears's VMA appearance:

Green Day star Billie Joe Armstrong has blasted MTV bosses for letting "manufactured child" Britney Spears open the Video Music Awards.

The punk star admits watching the troubled singer stumble through a semi-live performance of new hit Gimme More at the September ceremony was like witnessing "a public execution".

He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "People want blood. They want to see other people thrown to the lions.

"How could the people at MTV, the people around her, not know this girl was f**ked up? People came in expecting a train wreck, and they got more than they bargained for.

"She is a manufactured child. She has come up through this Disney perspective, thinking that all life is about is to be the most ridiculous star you could be.

"But it's also about what we look at as entertainment - watching somebody go through that."

Read Since the Summer

2007-11-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

The Natural

Reading this was an unusual experience, having been so familiar with the film. I have no idea how many times I've seen it, but I have memories of watching it when we lived in Germany where we were until I was 12. Much darker and with a more devious main character, Malamud's book definitely has some of the typical Weltschmerz you find in Jewish writers, but in this case I felt real sympathy for Roy Hobbs. I almost think that it's because I have the movie story so ingrained in my mind that as I read Malamud, I was imagining all this happening to the upstanding, down-on-his-luck Roy Hobbs that Barry Levinson gave us.

The Giver

Another one of those “should've read in high school but our lit program was awful” cases. It also falls into the “the future is bland and controlled by “the Man”” category, which kind of gave me a disappointed feeling when I realized where it was going. I think because books like 1984 and Brave New World are so huge, writing about the future in similar terms feels like a knockoff. I'm ready for a future-book with the theme “the world is so bright and colorful and emotion-ridden and free that I don't know what to do with myself.”

I Am Charlotte Simmons

I was WAY into this story while reading it. I can't remember the last time I was so consumed with knowing what would happen next in a book. Sam was right on in describing it as pornographic without images at times. Wolfe doesn't spare his reader any of the dirty details associated with big university college life in a world of people obsessed with their social standing and personal pleasure. My only gripe storywise was the occasional feeling that Wolfe was laying the frat boy/college jock stereotype on a bit too thick. Almost every character had interesting developments and revelations that shook their understanding of self however, which helped take the edge off of the typecasting.

Grendel

John Gardner is probably my favorite author right now. This was fun to read through quickly, and I'm excited to start October Light next. I hear about Grendel being used in high schools fairly often and usually find it next to books like The Giver in bookstores, and I think it makes for a great book to discuss with teens. I especially like the style of writing a story from the perspective of another character in a known book, and think it would work well as a writing exercise.

“Cooling the Lava” from John McPhee's The Control of Nature

I remember enjoying McPhee's Irons in the Fire which I read about four years ago, but something has been lost in the years between these two. “Cooling the Lava” is another example of my theory that writing about extraordinary events makes it irresistibly tempting to write poorly. In 1973 the volcanic mountain Eldfell erupted on the island of Heimaey off the coast of Iceland. The town was home to about 5,000 people, most of whom were fishermen or families of. The lava from the eruption was creeping towards the harbor and launching “bombs”, baseball to car-sized chunks of basalt, up to three miles from the crater into and around the town. By rigging firehoses and other pump machinery, the citizens were able to literally stop the lava's advance by pumping millions of gallons of seawater onto the flow, diverting it into the ocean.

McPhee's account couldn't be more blandly written. It gives me some hope as a writer to know that something like this can be published by an author that people rave over.

The Joys of Film

2007-11-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

So I got my first roll of professional B&W film developed and I'm pretty happy with the results. There are also some more film shots that I scanned in from Greg and Annie's wedding.

I have mixed feelings about the graininess of the Eagle Cap pictures. This is a fairly high speed film, 1600, and increased grain is part of the bargain, but I feel like I could've gotten along just fine with 800 or 400 even with all the light available. Still, there's something right on about the texture of the landscape shots; I don't want to equate it to something like pre-faded jeans, but I suppose it's kind of like that. Can you dig it?

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T22:07:00.001-07:00

Finally...

2007-10-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 months after the fact, I've finally gotten around to putting up some pictures from Greg and Annie Albrecht's wedding in Juneau. There are also a few scanned shots from Sitka that I took with my lovely N80. Film still rocks the hizzie.

Sailing the Green Bay

2007-10-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

Parental Guidance

2007-10-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd seen it all in the little box at the beginning of previews that explain the movie's rating. Until now, "Intense Slime" ranked as my favorite, but while watching the trailer for In the Shadow of the Moon, this caught my eye:

"MILD LANGUAGE, BRIEF VIOLENT IMAGES, AND INCIDENTAL SMOKING"

Eagle Cap, Oregon

2007-10-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Truly one of the most impressive areas I've backpacked/climbed in. Pictures here.

I also shot a few rolls of film on the new Nikon, including a roll of Fuji Neopan 1600 black and white which I've heard great things about. That business won't be back until Wednesdayish, at which point I'll be in Texas for yet another wedding. Hopefully we'll see this film scanned and posted early next month. Enjoy!

We're Back

2007-10-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

Well after a long absence of any real substance on ye olde blog, I'm happy to announce that my new Dell has arrived and is humming along nicely. First order of business is to edit and gather my photos from Greg and Annie Albrecht's wedding, which I hope to get done tonight and post some highlights later next week.

If the 4Runner comes back with a clean bill of health I'm taking her down to the Eagle Cap Wilderness in Oregon for a few days. I picked up some filters for the 35mm and am way excited about shooting this new black and white film I ordered. A call down to the the forest service revealed that a foot of snow just fell in the area I'm thinking of trekking around in, so there's a chance of an epic.

Many thoughts and stories have been brewing in the past 4 months, so I hope to get back to a more regular posting schedule starting next week. Peace.

ps - The new Beirut is tickling my ears as I type this. Who can get enough of gypsy moaning, trilling trumpets and mournful accordions? Not me boy.

Corporate Hilarity

2007-09-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

Woot.com, one of those crazy "deal-a-day" websites, just issued this rather hilarious letter to their disgruntled customers:

An Emergency Open Letter

To all Woot customers:

I have received more than three emails from Zune buyers who are upset about Woot dropping the price of the Zune by $20 one month after it went on sale the first time. After reading every one of these emails, or at least scanning their subject lines, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I need to make a better effort to hide my email address.

Second, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 30GB Zune from $149.99 to $129.99. This confidence is based on more than the holy doctrine of corporate infallibility. The Zune is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to “ride the lightning” and “shoot the curl” this holiday season, not to mention “kill the messenger” and “rock the vote”, further enabling us to “pay the rent” and “keep the lights on”. It benefits both Woot and every Zune user (but especially Woot) to drag as many new victims as possible into the Zune “dungeon”. We strongly believe that misery loves company this holiday season.

Third, being in technology for 1+ years, give or take a year, I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always some idiot changing lanes without signaling, and the potholes never seem to get fixed. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product. I mean, why should you? Truth is, you don’t really need any of this junk. We’re afraid you’ll catch on to that fact and overpaid frauds like me will have to go back into fields like telemarketing and burrito construction. Fortunately, most of you continue to languish in a consumerist stupor, wallets spread wide for us to plunder as we please. The bad news for us is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service. But we’re hoping you’ll buy from Woot instead.

Third-and-a-half, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of the Zune, and even though the technology road is, like, this total Deathrace 2000-type scene, we need to do a better job taking care of our early Zune customers, at least until we find a private security firm we can afford. For some reason, our early customers trusted us. We must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these, lest you turn off the money spigot that maintains our decadent lifestyles. These peacock-egg omelets and mink-lined Jacuzzis don’t pay for themselves, you know.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every Woot customer who purchased a Zune from us on August 22, 2007 (or in the last Woot-Off) a $10 Woot credit towards any Woot order of $40 or more, before shipping. If that’s you, just enter the coupon code BUMPYROAD while making your purchase, and boo-yah: you’re mayor of Discount City. This discount applies to any Woot site, including Woot.com, Shirt.Woot, Wine.Woot, Sellout.Woot, and Beets.Woot. It doesn't expire, so feel free to check back everyday 'til you find something that will temporarily fill the void in your soul. You may use the coupon as many times as you bought Zunes. So, if you bought one Zune from us back in August, you can use BUMPYROAD once; if you bought two, you can use it twice; and so forth and so on and what-have-you. But you can only use the discount once on any one order. We make this decision with every confidence that most of you will never want any of the crap we sell anyway.

We want to convincingly pretend to do the right thing for our valued Zune customers. We’d apologize for disappointing some of you, but we long ago lost the capacity for sincere remorse. We will continue to do our best to trick you into having high expectations of Woot.

Larry Stalin
Woot CYA Officer