so i went with the stock option. i don't like the header, so i may try to figure out how to change that sometime.

i checked out a graphic novel today called i killed hitler. the title caught my eye as i was pulling the available holds for the past two days. the cover art immediately brought spiegelman's maus to mind, not only because of the relative subject matter but also the idea of portraying the actors of the period as animals. the book was published by fantagraphic books, which by coincidence has a storefront in georgetown, seattle about a block from where we played, jules maes saloon, on our last tour, so i met the owner and talked to him at length about shag, a print of whose i was planning to buy at the time, but in the end the guy decided he couldn't pre-sell any prints up for the next evening's show opening despite me explaining that i would be playing in portland or olympia (i can't recall) the next evening and that i lived in another state. alas i still need to get me something of his. i even thought about seeing if i could get him a show here, but i don't know how those things work really. anyway, all these things compelled me to check out the graphic novel, so maybe i'll post about it tomorrow, as i'm sure it won't take long to read.

new background...

i think i need a new background for this. i wonder if i can figure out to put whatever i want for it or if i have to just choose some stock option...

new bike...

so i finally finished my new road bike...

it's an old bianchi frame joe, adam and i found last summer in a trailer park. we talked to the owners for a while, then joe bought it, somehow crammed it in the trunk of the mercedes and took it home where it was dismembered. i ended up with the frame and turned it into an awesome free-wheel single speed. joe gave me a couple wheels, a stem, brake calipers and a seat. the rest i scrounged from the bike collective, disorderly house, fishers, cyclesmith and wasatch touring. there were snags along the way, mostly because bike shops aren't open 24 hours, but it finally came together, and i LOVE it! i rode a lot this weekend - so much so that my butt was still a little sore monday, but i suppose that's par for the course, especially when i haven't ridden in quite a long while. i need to take a photo and post it. in the meantime, let's start planning this summer's rides to the gallivan summer concerts and midnight films at the tower and the saturday morning farmers market, etc... :)

jesus camp...

i'm about 15 minutes into jesus camp right now, and i think i have to stop it at this point. i don't think i can handle anymore of this...

"And if reality weren’t permeated by anomalies, what good is it after all?"

reality, permeated, anomalies, good...

those would be apt tags if one was to tag such a statement as if it were a video on youtube. instead they are the key words (note the separation of "key" and "word" as to differentiate from "keywords" - why? i can't legibly explain, but it makes some sort of negligible difference to me) from the title statement as originally penned by the great academic, dr. brikena ribaj, which stand out to me. personal reality is based primarily upon what our brain expects, like when one sees words which are not in a text or when one cannot find his/her keys because our brain views mostly small portions of what it expects and fills in the gaps with other expectations based on experience, knowledge of things considered to be facts and the like, which is why key words are so important. they're kinda like soundbites in that respect, only even more minute. considering these things together (what our brain allows us to witness and the anomalies that disturb that plan), this statement is quite keen. the anomalies shake up what one normally expects, and by doing so, they make life infinitely more interesting. it is when these anomalies become non-anomalies that they are absorbed into the brain as expectations, thus rendering them less interesting or less significant in the standard reality...

once...

after many different fallen-through plans to see it, i finally saw once monday evening. i'd say that pretty much every musician should see the film. i was blown away. it's certainly one of the best films i've ever seen. if you leave the film not in love with the nameless characters and the music of the frames, then i apologise for our apparent difference in taste, but i honestly doubt that will happen...

the professor and the madman...

so i finally started to read the professor and the madman yesterday. i got about halfway through the book last night before retiring for the evening. it's quite the interesting story. i'll give you the basic story... the oxford english dictionary was compiled over the course of seventy years with the help of many submitters/contributors. one of those contributors was a united states civil war veteran, doctor william chester minor. minor went to england in an attempt to cure his insanity, and ended up killing a man with his service revolver one evening. the court found him innocent by reason of insanity and sent him to broadmoor mental asylum in rural england. it was during his residence there that he sent in thousands of defining entries still included in the OED. fascinating, eh?