song from me

spaghetti

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:39:00 EDT

via my sister eli, who does not blog

the one after the giant pool of money

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:25:00 EDT

remember the giant pool of money?

here's part two: another frightening show about the economy

santa on tv

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:18:00 EDT

zena and i were interviewed yesterday, by the fox news detroit health personality, about mazzy and this saturday's buddy walk (zena is the p.r. rep for the event). mazzy wore, variously, her princess/fairy dress and her santa suit.

we'll likely air tonight (10/2) on the 5 o'clock news (around 5:50 or so, they say), tomorrow morning on the 11 am news and Saturday on the 8 or 9 am news. update: it's online -- watch!

we have no television in the home -- dvr it, folks!

and if you'd like, join us saturday at kensington, 10 am, for some serious buddy walking.

book/bus

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:14:00 EDT

i love my public transportation time, because i'm usually free to read a book (or whatever).

but this morning, i realized that i dislike finishing a book on the bus (see 52books). i think its because that period just after finishing a book is kind of like an eddy in time, where the book and its ending and the moment are sort of swirling around in your brain, and there's a stasis that's really precious. and being on a bus just kind of messes with that, probably because of the forward motion; it kills the eddy and starts time flowing again.

i like to finish a book on the couch, at night, after everyone else is asleep.

also, last week, i discovered that i actually kind of enjoy the (far-away) smell of a skunk, on the highway or wherever. because it reminds me of scratch-n-sniff books when i was a kid. but when a skunk is up close, man, there's no getting over that.

atreyu!

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:31:00 EDT

un-freaking-believable

Neverending Story Sweded from Barkley MDFX on Vimeo.

infjst

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:08:00 EDT

i finished infinite jest for the second time. 'infj,' perhaps, in shorthand, which corresponds to my meyers-briggs profile. the author, david foster wallace, committed suicide while i was working my way through this novel again.

if you followed that link, you know that infinite jest is about the nature of addiction. the book deals with two main protagonists (among dozens of semi-pro- and an- tagonists), hal and don; hal is descending into addiction and don is ascending out of addiction. the narrative is bookended by snapshots of hal's and don's arc: hal, at the beginning, has been rendered inutile by his marijuana addiction; don, at the end, during a fever dream, remembers his absolute peak high on an exceedingly-hard-to-score substance called 'sunshine,' which delivers him into temporary oblivion while all around him various dangerous lowlifes reenact portions of 'a clockwork orange' and just generally go off the deep end, substance-use- and violent-impulse-entertaining-wise. (that is, don's absolute peak high was also his absolute moral nadir, a kind of zenith of self-destruction).

if you read this blog, you probably know i'm working through my own issues with addiction. this book has been tremendously helpful to me, in terms of having someone cast a fierce eye on the nature of addiction and then explain it, and then explain the process of recovery, in a way that makes sense to me. that wallace himself succumbed to (presumably) some of the self-deluding ways of thinking that he so clearly articulates in this novel is just pathologically tragic.

but i have two things now, here on the other side of this novel. one is a clear, clear picture of exactly where i can expect to get to, if i continue to indulge my addictions and my inclination for escape.

the other is a real hope for change, not only because wallace left behind this impressionistic roadmap to recovery, but also because i know that

life with jesus is transactional.

a transaction is taking place,

where jesus is willing to substitute his life and power for my own, if i'm only willing to give up my life

(and his life and power are most assuredly the opposite of 'inutile'),

and where exactly did my life get me in the first place(?), is something to consider when considering this transaction.

just a little, you know, like, confessional blogging for the day.

F

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:54:00 EDT

"F for fast," Nielsen wrote in a column. "That's how users read your precious content."

my guess: you'll skim that article, but you'll feel guilty about it. for at most half an hour.

d.f.w.

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:31:00 EDT

if you're a reader, that's not an airport.

david foster wallace confirmed dead by suicide.

what horrible, horrible news.

diversions

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:38:00 EDT

i just racked up the interesting internets today, so i figured i'd consolidate a little:

some politics perspective

an awesome video featuring short dialog clips from 100 movies, counting down from 100, in which each clip features the sequential number in question

revisiting whiskerino for fun and nostalgia (how, alt)

why have i never heard this?

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:22:00 EDT

dear god this is awesome: come on feel the illinoise acapella.

i strongly recommend you check out more of this group's covers on their site.