I heard this today on a Diane Rehm Show podcast. The guest was the guy who’s performed all of the Harry Potter audiobooks – lovely English guy, very funny. He said this poem has been an inspiration to him. I liked it, so here it is:
Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew.~ Christopher Logue, English poet (1926- )
I grew up in a small town — Tooele, Utah. Since we were in a very fundamentalist Christian church, we didn’t have TV growing up – my parents thought it was evil and worldly. So, we read. A lot. (In fact, I tried to read the epic 1260-page Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich that was in our home library when I was 7 or 8 years old. Didn’t really work out.)
So, some of us kids would put on these super old-skool WWII-era Army backpacks my parents got from Army surplus with rigid metal frames and heavy duty army-olive canvas bodies, and head down to the library. Our house was probably about 3 miles from the city library, and I have vivid memories of walking the hot pavement in the middle of the Utah desert summer past the Taco Time (which sported the snappy marquee slogan – “Seven days without a taco makes one weak” for at least 3-4 years running without a change) and the dentist office (which I only visited once) and the funeral home (which I was in once for a service for someone I don’t remember).
We would lose ourselves in the coolness of the library’s A/C and the tall rows of books where we discovered all kinds of heroes and villans: The Last Mohican, Old Yeller, The Great Brain, and my favorite – Tarzan. In fact, they had the entire Tarzan series, all the way from Baby Greystoke’s parents being murdered by Kerchak and his adoption by Kala to his journeys to the center of the earth. I probably read almost, if not all, of the 24 Tarzan books that Burroughs wrote.
The best part was heading home. Our backpacks were heavy with books – sometimes 17-25 at a time – and we knew that at the end of the long hot trek was an evening of getting wonderfully lost in our reading with a big fat stack still to read after each book was done. In fact, I taught myself to read while walking just because I couldn’t wait to dive in. I got so fast at reading that during the long no-school summers I could go to the library, get 25 books, and head back 5 days later to get more.
Writing about it is bringing up that old craving – the long slow days as a kid of having nothing to do but kick back with a huge stack of magical new finds and old favorites and feeding your enormous imaginative appetite.
User habits change the way that the business of web design gets done. There is a whole industry that’s developed measuring user data about where they look on a page, what they click on, and what their browser and browsing conditions are. One question clients always have on design is “do you have to fit everything into the main browser window to capture users before they click away?” (Read the rest of this entry…)
I’m at a changing point in my life. I feel that I’m at a crossroads between the largely unconscious exploration of my initial 36 years, and looking at a vast unformed horizon of the next part of my life – a horizon that I want to deliberately choose and create. This has given me a strong urge to connect with my past and a feeling that in order to move forward that I need to look back and write down, examine and understand the circumstances and choices that are a part of who I am. Maybe that will help me know more about where I’m going, or at least more about who the “I” is that will be making these important decisions…
I’ve added a “Memorabilia” category, and I’m going to start posting bits and snippets at a time of things I remember, as honestly as I can. Hopefully among all the embarassing, noble, ugly, spiritual, mundane, and bizarre bits I can find some informative patterns and shapes.
The newsletter I got today from Veer featured Nick Shinn from ShinnType. He describes typography as “the junction of word and image, at the heart of culture”. I think that’s an excellent way to put it. The artistry of type design stirs my imagination, both in my love for words and the miracle and craft of language as well as the visceral and evocative impact of art and design.
Odile
If you’re a writer researching a book or paper or column or whatever, this is the must-have online accessory of the year. It’s called Zotero, and it’s a digital version of the 3×5 note cards to help you keep track of your ideas and research. Come across a great item that you want to catalog, take notes on, remember for later, make searchable? Just flag it with Zotero right in your Firefox browser window where it’s searchable any time. You can even download online content to your machine so that you have the info you need if the site changes or goes down.
Amazing tool. Janece turned me onto it today and we were both geeking out about it. If any of you readers (all three of you! 
are starting in on book writing, take it for a spin and let me know what you think.
 Get the very excellent Firefox browser.
Get Zotero. Developed by researchers for researchers.
Just six short years ago, thousands of people died in the collapse of the Twin Towers in NY and the world – literally, the whole world – mourned with us. How do you turn a grieving world into a distrustful world, grieving Americans into angry Americans?
 Angry yet? If not, why not?
Great stuff from Mark Bodnar, who is apparently in LA hard at work on a pilot episode for the Cartoon Network. He also does commissions.
Found this on the reliably entertaining Pixelsurgeon.
It tells the future, guides us through the wonders of nature, celebrates the best in mankind, shows you exotic places, gives you chills, teaches useful survival skills, and makes everything bigger than life!
Oh yeah, and it reminds you that there’s always a lot left to see.
(Other cool collections of stuff here.)
It turns out that there’s more evidence for what I posted about Obama’s facility with language. A really smart guy named Drew Westen has written a book called The Political Brain dealing with why people make the decisions that they do in the voting booth. (Read the rest of this entry…)
Steve Ruetschle ~ Thaddeus, 5′x4′, Oil & Canvas
My friend Steve Ruetschle is many things – a musician, a senior pastor in Manila, a father of two amazing boys and husband to an amazing woman, Michelle, and yes, an artist. About a decade ago or something, he did a series of paintings of all 12 of Jesus’ disciples. “Thaddeus” has been on extended loan to us from another friend who is a bit of gypsy – seemingly always on the move. This friend is now on the move again to Portland and wants Thaddeus back. We’re sad to let it go, not only because it’s an amazing painting, but because it’s been a tangible a link across the many miles of ocean between here and Manila to Steve and Michelle. When and if our finances ever work out, I’d love to commission a piece from Steve.
Here’s a bit of background on Thaddeus for the curious:
Jude, Thaddeus, or Lebbeus, son of Alpheus or Cleophas and Mary. He was a brother of James the Younger. He was one of the very little-known Apostles and lived in Galilee. Tradition says he preached in Assyria and Persia and died a martyr in Persia.
Jerome called Jude “Trinomious” which means “a man with three names.” In Mark 3:18 he is called Thaddeus. In Matthew 10;3 he is called Lebbeus. His surname was Thaddeus. In Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 he is called Judas the brother of James. Judas Thaddeus also was called Judas the Zealot.
By character he was an intense and violent Nationalist with the dream of world power and domination by the Chosen People. In the New Testament records (John 14:22 NIV) he asked Jesus at the Last Supper, “But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Judas Thaddeus was interested in making Christ known to the world. Not as a suffering Saviour, however, but as ruling King. We can see plainly from the answer Jesus gave him, that the way of power can never be substituted for the way of love.
It is said that Jude went to preach the gospel in Edessa near the Euphrates River. There he healed many and many believed in the name of the Master. Jude went from there to preach the Gospel in other places. He was killed with arrows at Ararat. The chosen symbol for him is the ship because he was a missionary thought to be a fisherman.
The thing that jogged my memory about posting the Kwoon video was a link I got tonight from my friend Scott — the Arcade Fire doing a song called “Neon Bible” in an elevator with some melancholy looking musicians.
This extraordinary video was created by an animator named Yannick Puig for song called “I Lived On The Moon” by Kwoon. Yannick created a page full of lovely sketches and background on his work, and should you want to save a nice high-quality version of the video for enjoyment later, there’s a link to that, too.
Jewels like this that artists create are generous little gifts to humanity. I’m an artist, but for some reason I’ve only recently become really aware of what a necessary and nourishing activity art is for the human spirit – both for those who create it and those who receive it. Enjoy, and thanks, Yannick.
I ran across Marie’s blog a while back. She’s questioning the Christian faith she grew up with – asking lots of good and tough questions. And she’s recently grappling with the big one – What Is Suffering?
I ask that question every time I read a gut-churning post like hers or like this one from Michael Yon. I don’t have an answer, but I’m more at peace with that than I was. Here’s the comment that I left for Marie: (Read the rest of this entry…)
Geez. Just when I thought news pundits couldn’t get any sillier, Bill “Spin-Free And Loofah Ready” O’Reilly jumps the shark. He just had a segment on his show with an “expert crime analyst” named Rod Wheeler who claims that there are “violent lesbian gangs” roaming our streets, randomly attacking youths and forcing them into sex acts. Reason Magazine has a good head-shaking summary, and you can see the whole lurid “expose” here:
I’m truly speechless. I didn’t know that the right wing noise machine could be so much fun. Now I’m thinking about switching parties. I mean, lesbian gangs toting pink pistols. That’s like a Tarantino movie. Who wouldn’t want to live in Bill’s America?
I’m not much of a rah-rah patriot guy. But over the past few years, I’ve grown more and more grateful for the extreme good fortune I’ve had to be a natural-born U.S. citizen. Last night, Drew told me “I don’t really know if I love America.” I know how he feels. This country does everything to excess, and that includes being excessively frustrating and embarrassing. But it has an excess of wonderful, too. (Read the rest of this entry…)
I’ve been friends with Tim Reece and Drew Plymale since my days playing guitar with them in Via Satellite seven years ago in San Diego. They’ve been touring with a great band called The Album Leaf for a few years now, and I got to see them play at Neumos on Capitol Hill last night (for free on the guest list, no less — thanks, guys!). They have become great musicians in these last years. Tim is primarily a drummer and Drew is primarily a guitar player, but they’re both multi-instrumentalists. They’ve gotten to tour and play with a lot of great bands, including Sigur Ros.
Anyway, it was really great to see them both. We haven’t been in close contact, but we’ve stayed close and it was fabulous to catch up and be a part of their lives again for an evening. I got to meet Drew’s excellent girlfriend Megan (sp?) who he says is a great vegan chef, and I got to meet a friend of theirs who came to the show who is the drummer for Sufjan Stevens and attends Mars Hill Church, apparently. (Just being near all these guys raises my indie cred a couple hundred points…)
The Album Leaf put on a great show, both in visuals and music. Their music is really good – kind of post-modern soundtrack music, but with very intelligent songwriting and unexpected surprises. You can download their music on iTunes or any other fine online digital music distributor — a sample is below.
The evening was not without sadness. It was depressing to think about all of the time I’ve spend pursuing everything but music over the last years since Via Satellite. I told Janece that here I am, seven years later, just as broke and overworked as I was when I first met Drew and Tim, and they’ve had all these great musical and touring experiences. You can’t second guess your life, I suppose, but last night these last few years felt like time wasted.
Song Samples
The Album Leaf song “Brennivin” is from their Seal Beach EP. Drew put out a personal project under the name Drew Andrews called Answering Machine a few years ago the song “Teleprompter” is one of my favorites.
I was talking with my friend Drew last night about presidential candidates. He asked me who I was currently favoring for President in ’08. I told him that I was favoring Obama and when he asked why, I gave him two answers and today I thought of a third:
