April Afternoons

I am writing again...

The seed of a new year's resolution to become more creative again has finally come to life almost three months after planting it in my mind...

What was momentarily forgotten and wilted has spawned new roots and hopefully branches out to provide another canopy of thought for someone to find comfort in, even if just for me.

 

I am somewhat free for a while from one of the ties that make work frustrating and devours a great amount of time during my off days. Thank God these office audits happen only once a year and I don't need to worry everyday around 3pm for that call telling me that my office will be audited the next day. So I get a little freedom back every afternoon for the rest of 2008.

Maybe I haven't written in a while because there was nothing much to write about. I have afternoons back in my life so I can have a life now..

* * * * *

One of the things that I've been anticipating since last year was the release of April, the new album from Sun Kil Moon (Mark Kozelek). In my opinion the best unknown artist/songwriter out there, I've supported all his work. The album isn't released until April 1 through his own label Caldo Verde. This past Monday I waited past midnight for the Caldo Verde site to update so I could purchase the pre-release download; I couldn't help myself. Mark now has my money twice since I already pre-ordered the CD last month.

You're wondering why I rave about this guy so much. For one thing he's been making music for over 15 years but remains indie and local. If you check out his back catalog from Red House Painters and his solo stuff you'll find that his songs are really narrative (he writes the most honest and heartfelt lyrics) and epic with songs commonly running around 8 minutes long. And if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, its kind of fun to hear some of the geographic references in his lyrics. 

Go to the Sun Kil Moon MySpace page. Hopefully its still there- the entire April album is available to stream.  Check out the last track Blue Orchids, a 6 minute acoustic track that changes mood and tone 3 times. 

The first track, Lost Verses, might start out slow but the 50 seconds from the 3:53 point, and the 6:40 point to the end is probably one of the best pieces of music and chorus that I've ever heard and just makes you feel great for listening and living...

I see you well and clear

Deep in the moonlight dear

Your radiant August eyes

They are the suns that rise

They are the light that guides

They are in these lost verses...

 I feel you oh so near

When morning doves appear

And ghosts of April rain

Echo the refrain

Soon finding a place

In these lost verses

They fill the foggy day

That hide the hills away

That steal our time

They are the picturesque nights

The casting city lights

On the bay flowing

Into the ocean glowing...

This is lazy spring afternoon music.

I have mine back now to enjoy this.

America and Journeying Into the Wild

Last week I dragged Rho and Jon to watch Into the Wild... a true story capturing two years in the life of Chris McCandless, a college grad in the 90's who dropped the luxuries of life we know today to trek through America and to set forth on his "great Alaskan adventure".  I read the book almost a decade ago and his travels intrigued me... living in the barest of situations and appreciating what is life around us taken for granted...

Working in corporate America stinks but the sweet taste of winning in a consumer steering society has me staying for superficial reasons. Money is great, but the Chris McCandless story has kept me yearning for years to live in the simplest of ways. This is a lot coming from a guy typing on a Macbook Pro, checking work e-mail on a Blackberry, sending text messages on an iPhone, and planning to watch the 2nd disc of Heroes on HD-DVD tonight. Technology and luxury is nice; not knowing the existence of these things or being able to drop it all for a moment for unbound life is God-like.

It probably explains my frequent hikes through the hills of Los Altos, my weekend coastline drives through Highway 1, through the sloping curves of Skyline Boulevard in Woodside, listening to the organic sound of Mark Kozelek and the Red House Painters, or My Morning Jacket when night time turns into sunrise, riding off the effects of a couple of shots of Maker's Mark. I think the appreciation of Americana and rural life is lost behind the big shadows of places like where I live. The highway to Silicon Valley seems to be the final destination people are satisfied with; the back roads of America are long lost and untraveled.

I remember growing up reading the books of John Steinbeck and being intrigued with the way of life during the great depression. Where one's situation almost always equaled financial discontent, the big picture in my eyes seemed to be that simplicity remained to be beautiful. A huge part of me still thinks that a tractor driver in a vast field hundreds of miles from a mall has a more satisfying life than an iPod listener riding public transport on the way to his dot com job. Where some plan a weekend trip to live like a rock star in Vegas, I would much rather be fly fishing off a desolate bank on the Colorado River. As many have found out, I am easy to please and know I want nothing from you when you ask.

Say Hello To My Little Friend...

Last nights dinner turned out pretty damn good: I love cooking, especially when its putting what I want in my food instead of what someone else tells me to. I had Foghorn Leghorn over for dinner... actually he was dinner...

Preparation 1:

-Butterfly Foghorn Leghorn: just cut Foghorn's backbone off with a pair of kitchen scissors and open him up like a book. Butterflying makes him cook faster...

-1 lemon cut in half

-Suffocate the spineless Foghorn in a large Ziploc bag with the juice of the lemon and stuff the squeezed lemon rinds in his heartless cavity.

-Refrigerate Leghorn Foghorn for 3 hours

Preparation 2:

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees

-melt 3 tablespoons of butter and add some olive oil, add the juice of one lemon

-Place Foghorn on a roasting pan with lemon rinds still in his heartless cavity and underneath each breast

-rub dijon mustard on Foghorns flesh under his skin and sprinkle some thyme

-pour butter and lemon concoction on Foghorn and add ground pepper

-Place Foghorn in the oven for about 45 minutes and baste every 15 minutes

-As soon as Foghorn's skin is golden, sprinkle some salt and thyme on his skin. This will absorb some moisture and make his skin nice and crispy while he sits for a few more minutes in the oven.

Elmer Fudd should stop huntin' wabbits.

Waat The?

I shopped at the devil's superstore today to buy some shelving for my room... while browsing for some toy's for my son, I saw this handheld game thing. Wait a second... doesn't this thing look exactly like a Wii Remote with a little LCD screen up top?? Looks like Walmart is selling some South East Asian quarter an hour sweatshop manufactured handheld gaming unit resembling the controller of probably the most sought after Nintendo console. Imagine playing with this thing with it's eye squinting screen. Looks like a racing game that should recognize hand movements like the original Wii remote... must be hard to watch a tiny screen while your hand is moving everywhere to move around a race track..

Dig

Digging through my iPhoto library, I found some pics I took in the Philippines a few months back...

Jesus is Lord. Does He reside in some Secret Place Club somewhere in Tarlac City, Philippines? Follow the arrow to God. "Yes, there is a Lord..." chants the San Miguel titty viewing drinking crowd.




Umm, apparently the obese aren't allowed to ride in normal public transportation or private vehicles as discovered at a toll booth heading to Manila. Pork rind munchers unite! You have a special vehicle when traveling to Manila!




Found this pic while catching up on my daily dose of news on digg.com. Some cool facts but consider yourself warned... you might be better off not knowing.



Wow, more men wash their hands!

Thriller!

...as performed by inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center including a man playing the role of the girl!

Oh shit!

Is this game the shit or what?