something so wild turned in to paper
The streets are empty Sunday morning before 8 am, ‘cept for me and my dog. The sun is high and hard but the temperature is frigid. The ground’s still damp from yesterdays rain. I think of you, asleep in the bed that won’t be ours for much longer, the one I’ve been crying myself to sleep in everyone and you don’t know. Pretty soon I’ll never have occasion to step foot in this neighborhood again and I’ll say good riddance. No more sirens. No more theft. No more pot smoke from the downstairs neighbors. And no more hard twisting of my heart to get along with you, to get you to marry me and start a family. Who was I kidding, we can’t even talk to each other.
So I’ll turn all the memories and emotions into prose, get into a good graduate school and have the career I always dreamed of, but I won’t have you, barring a sea change, in you, in me. And my friend will say it’s better that way. And I’ll look around my new home and I’ll smile because something in me will have settled. I’ll find conversation, I’ll find sex and when I find someone I want to love as much as I have loved you, maybe this person’s heart will be open and we’ll say all the things I wish you and I could have said to each other. And maybe this person will keep all their promises.
But first let me be concerned with the ones I made to myself.
Filed under personal | Comment (0)kevin drew — fucked up kid
I saw Broken Social Scene recently and it was an exhilarating experience. He has the most beautiful male voice I’ve ever heard live. I’m in love with a man who can sing for three hours straight and show no strain in his voice at all. And he’s in love with a fucked up kid, apparently. This happens to be my favorite Kevin Drew song. Check it.
Filed under music, video | Comment (0)death cab for cutie on the tonight show
I can’t wait to see DCFC live again. I know it won’t be in the front row at Cat’s Cradle after meeting Ben Gibbard or even jammed into 9:30 between adolescent hipsters fighting about why they aren’t dating anymore, but the boys put on one hell of a show. I was excited to tune in to the Tonight Show a couple days ago not only to see my favorite character from 30 Rock but watch my favorite band ever.
And it was wonderful. The mix was amazing which is sometimes a pitfall of television programs. “Cath” sounded crisp and powerful and Benjamin Gibbard wiggled his way through the song while all the other boys leisurely hit their riffs, chords and drum patterns. But wait a minute…something’s amiss.
Ben Gibbard has never been a skinny dude. He’s always had an athletic build, broad shoulders, thick chest, narrow but manly waist. And while I haven’t been a fan of the huge Woody Allen glasses he’s been sporting lately, I affectionately got used to them. On this Tonight Show appearance, Ben almost looks like a different person; twenty pounds lighter and ten years younger with long hair and sans the spectacles. I can’t decided if I like it. I loved the meat on his hairy arm as I held it while we were talking, I would have loved even more to hug his burly frame and give it a proper cushiony squeeze. Maybe a mid-life crisis has forced him into pilates classes and warned him away from a proper haircut. Surely he isn’t going all Amy Winehouse on us. Or maybe the camera was just playing tricks on me.
You may judge for yourself:
You’re getting older, boys. And so am I.
Filed under music, reviews | Comment (0)take offs and landings pt one
Not many people arrive at the airport at 4:30am. Not many people are up for a conversation that early, so I won’t take it personally.
After checking in, first order of business was to use the restroom. I was foiled by a lack of toilet paper in the first stall, so I pulled my pants back up and started to exit. But, apparently my boarding pass wasn’t far enough inside my huge red carry-on and dropped stealthily into the toilet. I recovered it just as the automatic flushing mechanism kicked in and took a deep breath, hoping that would be the only snag in my short trek from Richmond VA to Tampa FL.
I caused a fight between two Caribou Coffee employees when I ordered iced coffee. Instead of making sure the person getting my coffee knew exactly what was going on and helping her, the employee taking the orders simply moved on. The more seasoned woman working the cash register wasn’t afraid to let her know that was the wrong thing to do, especially in a line that was only getting longer.
I sat on an aisle seat beside a marine who is close to reaching his twenty year mark in the service. We talked the duration of the hour flight about Iraq, about politics, about kids these days and how he can’t wait to retire and take a cushy state job. He had spent over a year in Iraq in 2006 and wished he would be deployed there again to see what changes had occurred. While he was there, he trained Iraqis to be police officers. I asked him how that went and he said, “Not good.” None of the tactics he had originally tried to use worked so they reverted back to war tactics. Either way, he said, we’re handing them everything on a silver platter and it’s not good. Pulling out is not the answer, that’s for sure, he said. I asked him if it was a ‘you broke it, you buy it” situation and he laughed and said that was exactly it. While he had no particular opinion on who should win the election in a few days, he said generally it’s better for his job for a Republican to be in offer and he agrees with me that Ron Paul is an odd person to support if you want this war shored up. He currently teaches at the academy and is as flabbergasted as I am about the work ethic of young kids these days. Should I be concerned that the same kids fighting for my country are the same kids I fire from the bookstore? Another interesting thing he said was how the armed forces have gotten so political. He used the term “good ol’ boys’ club” then shrank back a little saying that he was being a bit of a hypocrite because they’re times when he benefits from that sort of situation. As I’m writing this, I realize I could have asked him so many more questions, but we were riding on a plane together no involved in an interview.
I said goodbye and wished him a safe trip to Houston, TX and commenced running across the Atlanta airport. My flight to Tampa was uneventful, mostly consisting of me getting kicked lightly by the kid behind me and listening to the songs that had been bouncing in my head all morning because I chose to have a conversation instead of listening to my iPod.
Fly AirTran. They have brand-new Boeing 717s with XM radio and really night flight attendants.
Next on modulation/moderation…my first art lecture at USF with the talented and adorable Brody Condon, John Paul Bichard and some really sweet and talented Italian guy I’m going to have to ask Jordi the name of.
Filed under personal | Comment (0)2008-10-22 barack obama
Barack Obama in my backyard? Yes, please!
Doors opened at 10am. Morgan, Owen and I elected to get in line at 9:30am. By the time we walked over, the line had stretched across one block and was heading down another. Apparently the people at the front of the line had been there since three in the morning! There were quite a few people selling things. There was even a gentleman who warned us that not buying a t-shirt equaled a vote for McCain. Merchandise ranged from official to homemade shirts, buttons, hats, bumper stickers, cards and even an action figure.
Then a truck drove by selling something else: a pro-life, anti-Obama agenda. Let me list off all the things that are wrong with this picture. Not all Democrats are pro-choice. There are people who are personally pro-life who understand the importance of a woman’s choice. Furthermore, I’m quite certain no one who is pro-choice <3s abortion 4L (older folks read: hearts abortion for life). There were plenty of kids present at the rally and while I'm sure they wouldn't have been able to string together the tiny ribcage, the syrupy blood, they still didn't need that in their visual memory. The truck drove around the block quite a few times but the joke was on him; pretty soon people started buying bumper stickers specifically to decorate his truck while it was stopped at the light. Much cheering ensued. There was also a man who decided to stand in front of the truck and have a word with the gentleman. He held up traffic for about two minutes while those of us in line cheered. Our hero for the day, even if the man in the driver's seat was well past the point of reason.
All in all we waited about three hours to get inside. Owen was an extremely patient baby during all of this, probably because he has an amazing mom with a remarkable way of keeping him engaged. The cookies and the water that were offered to him by other members of the line helped,too. When we reached the final leg of the line, on the overpass next to the Colesium, he stared down amused, asking, "Where'd the car go? Where'd the car go?" Grade A adorable. The adults filled their time with conversation. We reviewed the reasons why our guy should win. We replayed Sarah Palin's greatest/worst hits from her first step on to the scene to her one-night stint on SNL. As I looked around at all genders, ages, races and backgrounds, it hit me like the most beautiful ton of bricks that it's not just Obama's "charisma" that's gotten him this far, it's his ability to let everyone, not just Hockey Moms and Joe Six-Packs, know that he cares about US and that he's fighting for US.
Security was main offender for our long wait time and I appreciated it until I heard tale of my glorious picture-taking old flame sneaking into the rally. I hope these aren't the same people who will be protecting President Barack Obama.
We sat on the second tier in front of the stage, past the photographers and the men and women from the news. As we waited, nearly every empty space in the Colesium was filled. I don't know if they ended up turning people away, but by the time I reached the front, the line was four times as long, stretched up and around a couple more blocks.
I'll be honest and say I live in a bubble where there is an amazing about of support for Barack Obama and their has been since day one. You listen to the polls and the new stories about how Obama is a celebrity, but when you see so many people united for this man and breaking into spontaneous cheers of, “YES WE CAN!” and “OBAMA!” you know the truth, you feel it in your liberal, socialist, babykiller bones. (Just kidding.)
After funny and warm introductions from Governor Tim Kaine and Former Governor (currently running for US Senate) Mark Warner, Obama joined us. It was short and sweet but inspiring and amusing. Don’t take my word for it. Check out my pictures here and go see B&W photos by PJ Sykes. Watch the video here: