my dad’s pretty awesome. yesterday, after driving my mother to the airport (ventura to lax), he continued south on the 405 and came to the beautiful city of san diego. in tow he brought along my bed and bookshelf for my cozy, pre-war, plaster-walled art studio apartment.
the return of my bed launches the beginning of consistent, restful sleep for the first time in months, and the shelf the overdue organization of my studio. both are in place. time to organize.
chad and mellie: can i borrow your vacuum again, please?
just read this at a website for a non-partisan foreign policy think-tank in an article about what obama’s foreign policy may look like.
it’s interesting. i think i believe most of it.
- Wars should not begin until the last possible moment and ideally should be initiated by the enemy.
- Wars must be fought in a coalition with much of the burden borne by partners.
- The outcome of wars should be an institutional legal framework to manage the peace, with the United States being the most influential force within this multilateral framework.
- Any such framework must be built on a trans-Atlantic relationship.
thanks for the link, phillip.
i’ve now read four books by cormac mccarthy, and this is by far his best. such a good read. i gave one to my mother for her birthday last week, one to matt jensen b/c he’s pretty much my daddy (i have actually sent him father’s day cards), and let kyle borrow my copy with the words - “you must read this soon.”
i’m saying i really liked it. it’s post-apocalyptic (spelled it right on my first try!) america - i pictured it in south carolina - as a man and his son try to survive the brutal winter with ash falling all around them. their goal: to make it to the coast, though they don’t know what awaits them.
i cried. admittedly, i am a crier. this is fairly well known. i routinely cry while watching sportscenter. seriously. any touching, truthful story or testimony and i’m a mess. movies? forget about it. but not when i read books…or at least not that often. the story of this man and his son battling to survive; the sweetness of their relationship - the man’s sole existence to save his son, the boy’s tender faith in his weary father. it’s so well written; so brutal and lovely and compelling. i finished it in four days.
only nine bucks on amazon.
Posted by mike on Feb 20 2008 under books
that’s what they do here in ecuador. not all of them, but quite a few. it is considered a delicacy. tasted like fishy chicken. super-gamey. but i’m glad i did so. it’s the ecua-thing to do.
i am at the jensen’s, battling my stomach, “watching” the laker game online, listening to jack johnson, contemplating the two messages i’m to give tomorrow. i’m the spiritual emphasis week speaker here at alliance academy, in quito. there is a chaplain team that all work through youth world, the organization that matt and marlo jensen work with. the chaplain team is working really hard this week with videos, games, a band (gedeon), and myself. God has been gracious, as always, and today was our best day yet.
nathan has asked me numerous times to make sure that i am taking pictures - but i haven’t been. maybe in a few days.
halftime and the lakers are beating the suns 64 to 57. go lakers.
Posted by mike on Feb 20 2008 under travel
see it. rent it. buy it. now.
a modern musical. a boy and a girl. irish and czech. phenomenal music. wow. bought the sound track halfway through the movie.
Posted by mike on Feb 06 2008 under movies
okay. if you haven’t seen this movie, go do so immediately. hurry.
this was one of the best films i have ever seen. very little music. great, new characters. perfectly cast. incredible cinematography. eerie. beautiful. captivating. great dialog. funny. the coen brothers did an incredible job. more on the movie eventually.
after seeing the film, i read the book on the tardy recommendations of two trusted friends. the book did not disappoint. it fills in a few small gaps that the film doesn’t mention - though the film is almost word for word, line for line. mccarthy is a master.
Posted by mike on Feb 04 2008 under books
after seeing no country for old men, i was really excited to learn more about the author, cormac mccarthy. i spoke with both craig and ryan about it and they both raved about how good mccarthy is and that they had both, seperately read all of his work…and never mentioned him to me. so i asked craig which of his books would be best to start with. blood meridian. in the story, you follow the kid as he travels with a group of mercenaries, hired by the mexican government to kill indians in northern mexico during the border wars of the mid-nineteenth century. the story is brutal; it’s very dark. the storytelling is excellent. having since read two more of mccarthy’s works, i wouldn’t recommend it first - the road is amazing, but more to come on that - but it was a great read. took it with me to austin and finished it on the flight back. if you don’t know mccarthy, go get the road.
Posted by mike on Feb 04 2008 under books
i want to write again. haven’t done so in a long time - almost two years. i began reading again just in december. a step. my soul is returning. since it has been so long, i took a picture of me in case you were wondering a) if i still existed and b) what i look like. this is a wonderful opportunity to introduce you to my california flag that is over my bed.
i put the flag there to replace the amazing pseudo scrolling florescent waterfall and cranes picture case that i relocated above my bookshelf. enjoy the closeup.
to begin, i’ll write a post for every book that i read. my friend kyle has been trying to do a set of push ups after each chapter he finishes in a book. this seems wise, unless you read books with really, really short chapters. that could be problematic. i will write a few postreadamously - meaning event though it’s been a little while.
also, i’m starting to do puzzles. this is a picture of my first puzzle. not ever, but in a really long time, and certainly since i have come under the conviction. i spent the new year’s at my friend ellen’s house. and she was excited about doing a puzzle. so i bought one. then i told my friend kyle that i thought it would be cool to have a closet filled with old puzzles, and saturday when he went old mug hunting at garage sales he bought me these:
naturally, when i saw that a 100 piece glow in the dark puzzle of a unicorn was included, i took it to kyle’s house and completed it right away. matt bet me that it would be missing at least seven pieces…but they were all there. hallelujah. i may need to frame my glow in the dark unicorn puzzle.
ben folds IS a potty-mouth and special thanks to phillip orchard for making me love his music while driving to/from vancouver. another shout to phillip for inviting me to go backpacking this week - enjoy the lost coast without me bro.
my W key is broken. or semi-detached. and i have no idea how to resolve this. except to google “fix my keyboard”. but i won’t. i’ll wait for nathan or some other computer savvy blog-reading friend of mine to educate me. learn me right, friend. whoever you are.
derek webb. if you don’t love him, go get his mockingbird album immediately. and thank you paul for your continued and recently successful efforts to help me fall for the ex-caedmon’s frontman.
playradioplay. check them out. or him. the kid’s like seventeen years old and is putting out some sweet electronic pop (?) similar to the postal service. but new.
coolest experience of this week (not including a fabulous tri-tip and roasted vegetables fourth of july dinner with jason, jen and kayla hall - holy homemade hummus batman): friday night i saw knocked up (very funny yet very too-much-nakedness) and then felt like playing my guitar. so i headed to the beach around 10pm, took a couple black & milds, my larrivee, and plopped down on a dune. smoked. played guitar. three girls walked by and one screamed “thank you SO much for doing this - i think it is so amazing that you are doing this - thank you!” after politely saying your welcome (you never want to be rude to girls at the beach, no matter the time of day - this is one of the basic tenets of the universe), i continued to play. then they came back. and sat down. they had been swimming. but they asked if i would continue to play. i did. then one began to sing. they were from reno visiting for a wedding. i explained that they must go to the pier (the ventura pier. my pier. shared with the world in little miss sunshine. that’s my pier.) and they eventually scampered off. the whole thing was cool. but weird.
but i enjoyed playing my guitar at the beach at night. with or without the reno girls. though i do aim to please. the ladies.
now go buy some good music.
