Wars and Windmills

29 January 2007

Unwilling Hunter

This something I drew for Dan, and he was kind enough to scan it and send it back to me. I enjoy drawing from time to time to pass time, time after time, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme...even though I am by no means an artist.

On another note, I killed a deer on Saturday.

Now, I have friends who hunt. They dress in full camo and sit for hours in muted patience only to be thwarted by a change of wind, or a snapping of a twig, and the would be prey gracefully bounds off never to be seen again. That is if the hunters were lucky to see a deer at all.

I, on the other hand, unwillingly used a different technique; I opted for a loud, bright, and fast, weapon that apparently lures the hapless animal directly into its oncoming path. I can not comprehend how such a wily creature, one that can easily evade my friends, will with no warning jump in front of a moving car. And, nonetheless, a car that was alone on the road, no one for miles in front or behind. But at the exact moment that we pass it the deer bounds to its doom.

The beast had its revenge however--it rendered my car un-drivable. I realized this as all the engine fluids spilled out on the road and steam was spewing forth like an angry volcano blocking all from view. I pulled to the shoulder and there we sat, dear meat and fur in the grill, freezing cold and shaking from the recent adrenal workout we just went through as we waited for a highway patrol man and tow truck driver Woodie to come to our rescue.

It was a very surreal evening.

So, if we can learn nothing else from these dealings, we can see that I have the worst luck known to man, and that killing deer doesn’t need to be as difficult as one might think. Just think: loud, fast, bright, and dent-proof…but you don’t have to take my word for it! Ba Dum Dum!

17 January 2007

Well Said

I really love when things are written or said well. I came accross this list while i was rummaging through some old documents hidden in a fake can of spray and wash. The assignment was for my poetry class we were told through the course of the semester to compile 50 quotes that were deep fried gold.


These are a few of my favorites:

"I am tired of hoping for the next best thing. It is like the paradox of hedonism: when you're not looking for a good time, it seeks you out like a badger and bites your ass in the night." --Joseph Griffin

"They hung a sign up in our town: IF YOU LIVE IT UP, YOU WON'T LIVE IT DOWN..." --Tom Waits

“If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.” --Manic Street Preachers

“The optimist builds himself safe inside a cell and paints the inside walls sky-blue and blocks up the door and says he’s in heaven.”--D. H. Lawrence

"…I saw him looking up at her
and what she was doing
the way that the eyes of saints are painted

when they are looking up at God
when he is doing something remarkable,
something that identifies him as God."
--Billy Collins from his poem Love

“… I am sure that there is a greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean unpatched clothes, then to have a sound conscience.” --Henry David Thoreau

“What good is eternity to a man who can’t make good use of fifteen minutes?” --Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Ultimate hope and daily grumpiness are clearly not reconcilable.”--Neal A. Maxwell

“To believe in something and not to live it is dishonest.” -- Mahatma K. Ghandi

“It seemed like only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I would shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed."
--Billy Collins from his poem On Turning Ten

“It had nothing to do with morality…I would go to the war—I would kill and maybe die—because I was embarrassed not to.” --Tim O’Brien’s character in The Things They Carried

“ …a soldier who smiled as asked if I’d been traveling long. I said, “Yes,” just so I wouldn’t have to say anything else.” --Albert Camus' The Stranger

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons…” --Speaker in T. S Eliot’s The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock

“...as if you could kill time with out injuring eternity.” --Henry David Thoreau

16 January 2007

Rouge Leader Standing By

These are my favorite Star Wars themed images, each desreving of time on the desktop background. So for those in whom the nerdery flows dark and thick, enjoy.



















10 January 2007

Top 50

Inspired by the great James Best Poet Extroidnaire (a name renowned for its informative nature as well as its length) I too read with disdain the top 100 songs of 2006 served up with hot supposed definitiveness by The Rolling Stone and consequently (mostly...no no entirely from reading James' blog) decided to make my own list of top 50 songs from 2006. Now, like James, i admit that many of these songs were not necessarily recorded in 2006, but are merely, and this distinction is important, my top 50 songs i enjoyed this year. i will try my darndest to keep the majority of the list comprised of songs from this year, but i will not try even a shade of darndest to put them in any particular order.

  • 10 Dollar Ascots--Tapes 'N Tapes
  • Hope There's Someone--Antony and the Johnsons
  • Song Song Song--Final Fantasy
  • 10:1--Rogue Wave
  • All Hands the Cook--The Walkmen
  • Gideon--My Morning Jacket
  • Curtains--Smoke
  • Old College Try--The Mountain Goats
  • King of Carrot Flowers Part 1--Neutral Milk Hotel
  • Me and Mia--Ted Leo/Pharmacists
  • The World Spins Madly On--The Weepies
  • Heartbeats--Jose Gonzales
  • Maybe Not--Cat Power
  • Prayer for the Paranoid--Mojave 3
  • The Artic Circle--Final Fantasy
  • Killing Armies--Wolf Parade
  • We're No Here--Mogwai
  • Insistor--Tapes 'N Tapes
  • La Da Da--Low Flying Owls
  • He Lays in Reins--Iron and Wind and Calexico
  • You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son--Wolf Parade
  • Wordless Chorus--My Morning Jacket
  • Your Hand in Mine--Explosions in the Sky
  • A Comet Appears--The Shins
  • Wake Up--The Arcade Fire
  • Dirty Girl--Eels
  • Dying of the Pines--The Gourds
  • Bad Education--Tilly and the Wall
  • Story Board--The Album Leaf
  • Club Foot--Kasabian
  • Restless Sinner--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
  • Home By Saturday--Hayden
  • I Summon You--Spoon
  • Right Where It Belongs--Nine Inch Nails
  • Mercy--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
  • Moving Pictures Silent Films--Great Lake Swimmers
  • This Year--The Mountain Goats
  • Crosses--Jose Gonzales
  • Death of a Salesman--Low
  • Girl in the War--Josh Ritter
  • The Moon--Cat Power
  • The Trapese Swinger--Iron and Wine
  • Chinaberry Tree--Mew
  • Young Folks--Peter, Bjorn, and John
  • Mushaboom--Feist
  • Glossoli--Sigur Ros
  • Modern World (Origional Recording)--Wolf Parade
  • Danny Says--Tom Waits
  • My Only Friend--Deadsy
  • When I Go Deaf--Low

I know i promised to try and keep most songs from 2006, but i don't think it ended up that way as there are many from '05, '04, and even one not yet released in '07...oh well...try is so very relative.

You may be happy, or feel i am insane, to see that i have omitted Sufjan Stevens from my list. I have grown tired of him and ache in my joints like an old man sitting in a creaking rocker on the porch predicting bad weather when I think we still have 48 more state albums with accompanying 20 song EP's to look forward to (as said previously in a comment on James' blog, but i felt needed repeating).

If you are upset by my anti-Sufjan sentements let me attempt to cheer you up...focus on the elegance, grace, and magic of this beauty and you'll be feeling fine in no time: