May 2012
6 posts
Mistakes were made
This is how the last half-hour played out.
I was reading a book, drinking incredibly strong coffee, and, like most of the time when I’m reading a book, I was desperate for a distraction. I settled on the old standby, the classic “I’ll just grab a quick snack.” After all it had been hours since breakfast, and I was famished—famished?—ok not really famished,...
WatchI turned on the TV an hour ago in a lazy effort to deflect looming responsibilities and stumbled across this Bill Moyers interview with Luis Alberto Urrea, a writer I had never heard of but whose incredibly coherent, compassionate, and compelling understanding of the Mexican/American experience had me glued to the television. In the ten minutes that have passed since the interview concluded I...
April 2012
5 posts
“There’s a time and a place for everything. The time and place for extra...”
– Me quoting me texting Kendall whose artwork, featured in the last post, you should buy all of.
This sums up tonight's show pretty well. →
I finally put a stop to the nonsense when I said, “I did not drive all the way from Austin today so I could be the background music to you hula hooping.”
Goddamn hippies.
March 2012
12 posts
TOUR! TOUR! TOUR!
I’ve decided to break from tradition and start playing solo acoustic shows after the band I fronted broke up. It’s a new and unique idea I know, but I think it could work. I have one of those hands free harmonica holder things.
Come watch this new crazy idea in action here:
April 3: Knoxville, TN at Longbranch Saloon
April 4: Springfield,MO at Lindbergs Bar.
April 5: OKC, At...
The Slow-Books Movement →
Read Books. As often as you can. Mostly classics.
Here’s a great short article in the Atlantic that piggy-backs on the success the slow-food movement and asks the question: Shouldn’t we be at least as concerned about what we put in our minds as what we put in our bodies?
Spoiler alert, the answer is yes. But read it anyway. Then go read something terrifically arduous and...
WatchOne of the more interesting Ted talks I’ve seen in a while.
“Oh, he went to sleep, wishing he knew more things.”
– John O’Hara, Appointment In Sammarra
I'm going on tour.
Here’s the deal. This past Christmas I was too poor to buy a plane ticket and fly home to see my family. That was a bummer. This upcoming April my brother, a fighter pilot in training, is getting his wings from the Air Force. This is happening in Texas. Many of my family members will be in attendance. And since I still haven’t even met my nearly 1 year old niece, I figured...
“It’s best not to think too closely on what Elizabeth’s and...”
– David Rakoff, Half Empty
This is one of those sentences that stands out immediately as witty and clever but then endures as shockingly relevant to most things.
February 2012
11 posts
goodgoodgorilla asked: Oh how I hate myself for knowing all this, but the Family Guy gag of "Stewie can't pronounce wh- words correctly" has been going on since 06 and Hot Rod came out in 07. The episode aired in December 06 and the movie came out in August 07, which means it must've been shot by the time the episode aired, so maybe everyone is Carlos Mencia, and we're all doomed.
Is Family Guy the new Carlos Mencia?
Because first there was this:
And then many years later, this happened:
wHHat the hell?
What It's Like to Be President, Metaphorically... →
“It’s like cartwheeling naked through a cactus field.” — Woodrow Wilson
“Someone always needs rescuing, yet there’s only one person who ever seems to understand you. It’s a lot like being Lassie.” — John F. Kennedy
This whole list is as entertaining as it is an interesting insight into the personalities of various presidents. Also, there’s a bit of good advice concerning the summertime...
WatchOh great, now I have to buy this stupid book because of how funny it most likely is. And it costs as much as a good twelve pack of beer too. So there goes that. Then again, maybe I’ll just buy some beer and drink it while waiting for the paperback to come out? Though, given Michael Ian Black’s ability to not get shows renewed, my guess is this thing doesn’t make it past the...
Watch“If you’re willing to kill it, you should shut the fuck up and be willing to eat all of it”
- Chris Cosentino
I love this quote, and it sums up perfectly the change I’ve been trying to make in my diet recently. In the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to eat a ton of offal, probably more than I have in my entire lifetime prior, and you know what, when done...
“…if the studies are right, brainstorming has achieved nothing—or, at...”
– Jonah Lehrer, from his very interesting New Yorker article, Groupthink, where he argues for a creative process better than brainstorming.
January 2012
12 posts
“That men should cling so tenaciously to dogmas they have invented or accepted,...”
– Aldous Huxley, Ends And Means
“…and for the first time he realized the pain inevitable in any human...”
– Graham Greene, The Heart Of The Matter
This is the type of quote I underline in books I’m reading…which leads me to believe that it’d probably be good for me to stop reading books for a while.
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your...”
– Earnest Hemingway
Exactly.
It seems like the longer I read through Rules For My Unborn Son, the straighter I sit.
Shit I say.
Stop it! Please god stop it with the fucking “Shit _____ say” videos. And I’m not even saying this as a shitty hipster that is “like, sooo over _____.” I’m saying this as a son who is desperately trying to convince his dad not to, please dad don’t, make that “who let the dogs out” joke again. Because it’s not, dad, a joke. Anymore....
“Suppose, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. (Really, it is quite impossible to...”
– Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground
December 2011
12 posts
WatchThrough the end of the year two very generous people are matching donations to These Numbers Have Faces, meaning that whatever you give to help Alutho and others like her defeat systemic poverty through education will be tripled.
Easiest way to do that is to text Give 5891 to 80088 and you’ll automatically give $10 (which becomes $30).
It’s simple, takes deductible, takes...
WatchFucked Up - David Comes to Life (live in its entirety)
I’m calling this my favorite record of 2011.
