Concrete Seconds

- "Concrete Seconds" by Pinback, from Blue Screen Life (2001)

Fantino

This morning I went to an enormous booksale with my mom. (If you're interested in going for yourself, here's the website for the Wesport Half-Price Books, which has more info.) It was, quite simply, a giant expo center filled with $2 books. While 25% of those books were Twilight, I still found a few needed nuggets, including White Tiger by Aravind Adiga and a collection of John Ashbery poems.

In the name of early rain, reading, and chugging coffee, I'll leave you with some quiet morning music.

- "Fantino" by Sébastien Tellier, from L'Incroyable Vérité (2001)

Learning to Bartend

When I first saw this as a seven-year-old, I thought it was the pinnacle of comedy.

Fifteen years later, nothing has changed.

- From Late Night with Conan O'Brien, 9/28/2001

Out of Hiding

One of the best gifts I think I ever received was a framed copy of this poem. It supervises my bookshelf in red velvet, paper torn, and is one of the only pieces of writing I see daily.

As always, thank you for reading this.

"Out of Hiding"

Someone said my name in the garden, 

while I grew smaller
in the spreading shadow of the peonies, 

grew larger by my absence to another,
grew older among the ants, ancient 

under the opening heads of the flowers,
new to myself, and stranger. 

When I heard my name again, it sounded far,
like the name of the child next door,
or a favorite cousin visiting for the summer, 

while the quiet seemed my true name,
a near and inaudible singing
born of hidden ground. 

Quiet to quiet, I called back.
And the birds declared my whereabouts all morning.

by Li-Young Lee, from Book of My Nights (2001)

On the Low

Today: rain, cold lighting, wool socks, broken umbrellas, formica conversations, body aches, amusingly scary paintings, breathing.

- "On the Low" from Bavarian Fruit Bread by Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions (2001)

The Perry Bible Fellowship

I now present you a few strips from the Perry Bible Fellowship, a series overseen by a man named Nicholas Gurewitch. It was started in 2001, and though it's still kickin', it's only updated once in a blue moon. The archives have a few hundred strips from years past, many of which have little hidden jokes and references within themselves, which I love. It's like a secret search for funnies.

Because formatting is hard, you should click on these strips to enlarge them before you read them. May you enjoy them even half as much as I do:

"Dinner Time Machine"

"Post Apocalyptic"

"Bad Apple"

The Great Intoxication

"The Great Intoxication" by David Byrne, from Look Into The Eyeball (2001)

This song has been flitting around my head quite a bit today, so I thought I'd share the gift of David Byrne's nimble dance moves in this YouTube video.

Again-ver

That was a pretty unsuccessful pun on the proper noun "Denver," huh. About as unsuccessful as our day was successful. This morning, I woke up and went for a run around Grand Junction, got a few rolls of film developed by the friendly folks at Snap Photo (which I'm posting here on Flickr), and hit the road with my dad (who drove the entire day, and rather attentively, if you can believe that). We stopped in Glenwood Springs and walked around town a bit, which was cool. There was a textile store which donates its profits to improving living standards for developmentally delayed adults, some of whom work at the store as weavers.There was also a sweet bookstore, Booktrain, and a tasty little bistro called Daily Bread, where we ate some Polish food and some artichokes.

Aside from our adventures in Glenwood Springs (which, by the way, it's totally legal to sell firearm ammunition at Rite-Aid; who knew?), we spent a lot of time simply driving through the mountains. My dad told me about working in Georgetown after he'd been fired from his first job in radio, and the Wichita State plane crash (Wikipedia, again, is a lovely thing), which happened right after my dad moved to the area.

There were plenty of mountain storms, and the temperature got as low as 46 degrees Fahrenheit while we were cruising to Denver (where we find ourselves this evening), which is nuts considering that it was 102 degrees yesterday in Utah.

But enough talk of the weather. (The Weather?)

 

-From Ancient Melodies of the Future (2001)

No but really, here are a few photos from today.

El Padre in Glenwood Springs

Glenwood Springs, again

Brindyl the dog (according to her collar, that is)

Colorado River rafters

This exists on I-70

Eagle, Colorado (I wish there were more cows in this photo)

Moody sky

Really moody sky

Incredibly, unbelievably moody sky