Saturday, March 31, 2007

A Trip

Tomorrow, my family and I leave for a week's vacation. We are going to Ohio and Maryland. Yes, I'm sure that neither Ohio or Maryland sound great vacation destinations, but we are a family that likes to do things that educate and edify. So, we are going to go to some of the presidential homes in Ohio and I am going to go to the football Hall of Fame in Canton. I'm looking forward to that. Its one of those places I've always wanted to go.

Then later on in the week we will be going to western Maryland. Western Maryland is what I consider to be my "home." William Carlos Williams once wrote in his long, book length poem Patterson "Roots? Everybody has roots." I am the son of a minister and, as a result, I moved a bit when I was a kid; but when I was in sixth grade we landed in Accident, MD. We lived there for nine years, so, as a result of that I consider Accident to me hometown. I am from Accident, MD.

I think it'll be good to get away. Have you ever just reached a point where you need to "disconnect?" To "make yourself scarce?" The last couple weeks I have started to get that feeling. I just need a vacation. So, my mom, dad, and I are going away.

Friday, March 30, 2007

A Possiblity?

the world flies
by me faster &

faster

i feel like Tati's M. Hulot
more & more every day

i am the very embodiement
of the wrinkled trenchcoat
the crushed hat
& the too short highwater pants

but it is the pipe
that jutting pipe
jaunty, almost,
that i strive for

there must be some light
in the befuddlement i feel
& that pipe is the
the key

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Wine

I just finished reading a book about a wine tasting that turned the wine world on its ear in 1976. The book was called The Judgement of Paris,by George Taber who was a reporter for Time Magazine. In fact, he was the only reporter at the taste testing. Long story short, there was a wine tasting in Paris in 1976. It was a "competition" between California wines and French wines. No contest, right? The French wines should of trounced the California wines. If that had happened there wouldn't of been a book. No, the California wines took the competition.

I found the book to be not only interesting, but informative. The wine industry in California, like the beer industry, was decimated during the great expirament they called Prohibition. It was in shambles when Prohibition was repealed. Matter of fact, I learned that in the Prohibition Law there were provisions for "sacramental wine" and things of that nature. I learned quite a bit, actually. It was one of those books that "jumped" out at me as I was working in my section in the bookstore. Those are usually the most interesting books.

I like wine. I, like a good many Americans, discovered wine after seeing the movie Sideways. I started trying different wines here and there. I would buy a bottle and drink it and enjoy it. I discovered that I like Shiraz and Merlot. But that was it. I bought wine by the label. If I thought the label was cool I bought the wine. So, naturually, I bought a bottle of Fat Bastard Wine, though, for the life of me, I don't remember what kind it was.

I particularly like the Little Penquin brand. I am, at present, as I write this, enjoying a glass of their Pinot Noir. As I look at their website, it appears that the Pinot Noir is a new for them. Its good, full bodied, and not sweet... aka "dry?" It comes from Australia.

I also have a bottle of 3 Blind Moose Merlot. I'll open that eventually.

Sadly, though, I don't much about wine. I'd like to learn more. I'd like to learn what wine goes well with what food.

If there are any readers to this blog, feel free to suggest wines for me to try.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Sport talk

It's another quite night at the circulation desk in the law library. Its Friday night, what do you expect? There are a few baby lawyers about, but they pretty much keep to themselves. There mustn't be any tests on the near horizon because none of the baby lawyers have that drawn out, thousand yard, i've-been-studying-torts-too-long look.

I haven't been able to get to a tv all night, so I wasn't able to watch the hardwood battle between Butler University and Florida State, but I logged onto espn.com and was able to keep track of the game. Sadly, Butler lost 65-57. The computer updated itself every 30 seconds, so I was able to see the changing score. It appeared that one of two thing happened: 1. Butler fell asleep in the last three minutes or, 2. Florida really turned it on. I have a feeling it was more the latter as opposed to the former. Either way, all the Indiana teams (Hoosiers, Nortre Dame, Purdue, and lil ol Butler).

So who to root for now? I'm tired of hearing about Greg Oden, das basketball-wunderkind, and Florida, well, they beat the last Indiana team, so seeing how Indiana is my newest adoptive home, I can't very well root for Florida-- besides they won last year.

I am going to root for Memphis State, this I know. The reason being one my friends/former co-worker (who takes me with him to IU basketball games) is a graduate of Memphis. So, I feel I should root for them. I don't know much about the team, but I'll root for them.

This is actually the first year I have ever really paid that much attention to the NCAA basketball tourney. Last weekend I watched as many games as I could and I found myself yelling at the tv. I really got into it. It was tremendously fun.

I have never been able to play basketball. It has something to do with the fact that I can neither dribble the ball nor run at the same time. I also have a hard time getting the big rubber ball into the round, orange hoop. I'm just not that athletic. (To be perfectly honest: I can't play baseball, football or volleyball, either).

I do enjoy watching sports, though. Well, most sports. Golf and tennis I can't abide. And the "sport" of NASCAR... I'm sorry. I just won't go there, though I've tried. I have in the past forced myself to watch the Daytona 500 or one of those inane round and round they go races.

Speaking of sports: there was an interesting Op-Ed in the New York Times today (why, yes, I do read the NYT daily). In case you didn't know this the Cricket World Championships are being held in Jamaica right now. This is a big deal. Supposedly, that 3/4s of the world that used to be British Colonies are rabid for the sport. I guess it is a big deal, because there was tragedy recently. The Pakistani cricket coach was found murdered in his hotel room after a loss.

It seems that, according the Od-Ed writer, we Americans are a crass bunch that don't understand the finer things in life like, well, cricket, and baseball is for the ignorant. Ever try an explain baseball to a Brit? Its easier to herd cats.

All I know about cricket is that 1. it is a small insect that makes a lot of noise in the summer, and 2. there is a group of Indian students here on campus that play cricket on Friday afternoons. Oh, and the "field" that cricket is played on is a "pitch," and they use a flat bat to whack the ball and that the game can go on for not hours, but days. Let me say that again: games can go on for
days.

So, now that Butler has been eliminated I shall wait expectantly for the start of that most barbaric of games: baseball to commence. My Mets take on the St. Louis Cardinals on April 1st in St. Louis. It will be on the boob-tube on ESPN2. Sign me up, I'm there.

Me, I 'Spose



If'n the 3rdWerstPo-it can do it, so's can I.

Rain Walk

Its not snowing or cold right now, but it is raining. I didn't have my afternoon class today so I decided a nice stroll around town would be in good order. First stop, was Victory Field where the Indianapolis Indians play. There the triple-a farm team for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I try to go to a couple games a summer. After that I preambulated to the center of town I didn't have any place in particular I wanted or needed to go, but I just felt like wandering a bit. It was a nice day, albeit somewhat on the humid and muggy side, but a nice day for walkabout regardless.

As I started walking back to campus the rains, they did begin to fall. It was a steady drizzle at first, but then the drizzle turned into not so much a shower or torrent, but just a heavier soaking drizzle. So, I hold up under a pedestrian overpass and watched as little rivelets of rain water made inroads on the sidewalk, truthfully it was quite interesting to watch, though, I'm not sure why.

I eventually mosied into a small Starbucks located in one of the big hotels here in town, sat a small round table, drank a grande coffee and re-read yesterday's paper. Funny thing is this: it wasn't any more interesting today than it was yesterday.

Long story short, I left the Starbucks and walked back to campus and got rather wet in the process. Yes, it is my fault Virginia, I didn't have an umbrella (I usually don't seeing how I find umbrellas to be somewhat silly). So the sweater I wore today, a heavy misshapen blue thing, is heavier and more misshapen now than before.

I am sitting in the reading room of the law library sitting by the big plate glass windows watching a sodden world.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

A Response, of Sorts

A friend of mine, who likes to be annonymous, but who I consider to be one of the greatest writers and bloggers of all time wrote a great entry about being a copyright infringer and pirate. I'm sure my man Siva would have something to say about it, too, but there's something about the mix tape that just, as another friend of mine would say "rocks my face off."

I am of the generation when the mixtape meant something. It was an artform. To make the perfect mixtape meant you had to really think about what you wanted to say. Granted, the mixtape more often than not was designed to let someone of the opposite sex know how you felt about them (or at least in my case it did). You had to think about flow and message. You had to keep in mind that if you had "alot to say" you might need to get the 90 minute tape (45 minutes each side), or you might able to get away with an hour tape (30 minutes each side). Then you had to back time the tape. If a song was five minutes and change long you had to back time to figure out that you had less than 40 minutes left, that was about 8 songs, or so for that side. And then you had to make sure that you didn't have a whole lot of dead air/space at the end of a side. Some took care of the dead air/space by talking or reading a poem or something. I never did that, I always packed that tape full.

I used to make tapes for myself, not because I was lonely, or narcisistic, but I would take my Walkman with me where ever I went, much like my iPod now and it was a pain to take all my tapes with me. So, I would make these "to go" mix tapes. And then I'd give them interesting titles.

After I read my friends latest blog post, I went to my closet and dug around and found a box that has all my cd cases and a bunch of tapes (those that have survived various pogroms and holy wars and fits of decluttering) left over from my yonger days. I have been listening to one tape I made. I comes from my college days. It is quite an amalgamation of music tastes. The songs range from Pink Floyd, to Metallica, to Ministry, to Inxs, NIN, U2, to Seal (Seal! For crying out loud!) the Beatles (White Album), Bob Marley and the Wailers, to the Violent Femmes (the Violent Femmes were must for my generation of college student). The tape I'm listening to is titled Act II. I vaquely remember thinking that it was clever because it was a play on Achtung, an homage to U2's album Achtung Baby, which had some serious rotation in my tape deck/cd player in college. Actually, now that I think about it, these tapes were probably made from CD collection. I didn't have a portable cd player at the time, that came later.

Okay, I'm not sure why I have Harry's Circumcision by Lou Reed on here. Actually, the album it came from New York was very good, I haven't the foggiest idea why I got rid of it. I think it was kind of depressing... yeah, I'm sure that's it... this song is depressing as hell.

I just opened another mixtape case and pulled out the insert I made. Yeah, I even made inserts. I would cut out pictures from newspapers, tape them to blankpaper, and write something, and then photocopy it, fold it and tuck it in the tapecase. Here is what I wrote on the inside of a tape I called "your-mother-is-a-hampster-and-your-father-is-made-haddle-berries: the compilation album (part i)"-- obviously I was influenced to a degree by Monty Python. Well, any way here is what I wrote.
This taped compilation was recorded over a week's time. From January 2-Jan. 9, 1996.

The compositor acknowledges that he stole copyrighted material. He is proud of this fact and would do it again, in a heartbeat.

He would like to thank Zippy the Pinhead for guidance & the slug named Flash for inspiration.

He feels that without the guidance of Mitch the Bowling Ball or Pete the 30-30 Shotgun this project could never have been completed

It is important to note thatthe academic world in no way supports or condones what the compiler has done. He received no grants or stipends per diem to complete this task.

At this time he feels that he should tnak all artists and copy editors from whom he stole, but he prefers not to, so he won't. All he asks is that this be listened to in good faith.


I almost kind of want to go back and find out what the 23 year old me was thinking about.

Monday, March 19, 2007

How To Find Me II

empty gas tank cold days
white zombie - la sexorcisto site:blogspot.com
pornguy
hard track pedal to the metal download
how many miles on a empty talk of gas
poem about a church usher
released on own recognicence
dicks sporting goods

key words... search terms...

Yeah... Beer... Good...

karl beer

Friday, March 02, 2007

How You Find Me, Keywords

2 15.38% lcms the message bible
2 15.38% up to my ankles in mud
2 15.38% confessinal lutheran what is
1 7.69% lcms, i was there to here your borning cry
1 7.69% empty gas tank
1 7.69% penny diary sex
1 7.69% current celebratie gossip
1 7.69% white zombie - la sexorcisto site:blogspot.com
1 7.69% why gas tank always empty
1 7.69% full throttle gas tank
13 100.00%