sean's Xanga

Haboob

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:01:35 GMT

We got creamed by another haboob (sandstorm) yesterday evening.... this time I took video of the approach:

I was slammed by flying sand right after the point where video ended. I was out in it for only a couple of seconds, but that was long enough to get sand and dust thoroughly up my nose and in my hair and ears. I think I'll stay inside for the next one!

Sundown

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:41:37 GMT

The sun, coming down from behind a storm cloud... bird in the foreground just below right of center

All in the family..

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:45:29 GMT

Yesterday I fed my monthly music addiction with a new round of stuff from eMusic. After I downloaded everything, I realized that everything I got this month came from musical families:

Sorrythankyou by Unbelievable Truth - this band is fronted by Andy Yorke, the younger brother of Radiohead's Thom Yorke. You can hear the family resemblence in the vocals, but the comparison stops there. This has a much more mainstream feel to it than anything I've ever heard from Radiohead. Whether that's good or bad is a matter of personal taste.. I think it's okay, but not spectacular. (edit: well, ok it's kinda spectacular)
Fables by Immaculate Machine - Immaculate Machine's lead singer Kathryn Calder is the niece of New Pornographers leader A.C. Newman. She also sings in New Pornographers, where she is knows as "not Neko Case, but the other one". (Seriously, it must suck to not be Neko Case.. I really don't like country music, alt or otherwise, but Neko weakens my resolve. What a voice!) So far, I'm indifferent to this album, but I think it will grow on me.
EP by The Fiery Furnaces - Still my current favorite band ever, The Fiery Furnaces are a brother-and-sister act. EP has less of a learning curve than their other albums, so if you're thinking about trying them out, this might be a good place to start. Of course, this means that the songs on this album lack the epic storylines prevalent in their other work, but it's still great stuff.
Sunny Border Blue by Kristin Hersh - Kristin Hersh comes from Throwing Muses, which she started way back in the 80s with her step-sister... yes, my family theme is getting pretty thin here. Excellent music as usual here - I've never been disappointed by any of her work.

Thundustorm

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:41:15 GMT

A humungous dust storm blew in ahead of the first thunderstorm of the year... the dust in the background is about 5 miles away. heading directly towards us. o_O

Edit: apparently this type of dust storm is known as a "haboob."

Today's box of awesome...

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:48:53 GMT

...is brought to you by Laughing Squid, without whom I would have never seen this completely awesome mashup of William Shatner's cover of "Common People" plus classic animated Star Trek:

I'm sure that there are things cooler than this, but at the moment, I can't think of what any of them might be.

Merdle

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:09:13 GMT

Here's a Wordle of my ruminations on mettle:

Some of the random groupings of words here are really striking, IMO...

"implications apparently eventually discovered"

"sleeping adult heart"

"human incompleteness essentially complete"

... it all seems meaningful in a random, refrigerator-magnet-poetry sort of way.

Classic photos... in LEGO

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:33:52 GMT

Via Ned Batchelder, we learn of some completely cool LEGO re-creations of classic photos.

Music update in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2..

Sat, 24 May 2008 16:26:24 GMT

It's been a while since I talked about the music I've been buying lately, and there's been too much of it to go into detail, so I'll just mention the high and low points..

High point: The Fiery Furnaces - this band has been ruling my life lately, and it hasn't been easy. Enjoying the Furnaces is a privilege earned only through repeated, extended listening while your friends and loved ones shake their heads in confusion (at best) or run away screaming (at worst). This is music with a learning curve - but that's a good thing :)
Low point: Kelli Ali and Sneaker Pimps - these disappointing purchases can be illustrated mathematically: (KelliAli + SneakerPimps) > (SneakerPimps - KelliAli) > (KelliAli - SneakerPimps)

Still digging Monsur's Song A Day blog - give it a look, and a listen, when you've got some time to kill.

Come on, you know the words....

Mon, 12 May 2008 19:35:57 GMT

Old skool:

Less-old-but-not-new skool:

I don't know why, but this still make me laugh. I think if you took the dude from the original and put him with the pink muppets from the later version, you'd have the ultimate "Mah Nà Mah Nà" mashup.

Possibly little-known nugget of info: this song was originally used in an Italian softcore porn film. Consider yourself enriched!

Mettle

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:28:50 GMT

Last week I watched a movie called Into The Wild, a film adapation of a book about Christopher McCandless.

McCandless gave away nearly everything he owned shortly after graduating from college and began wandering the US, just for the experience of living a selfless life without attachments. His ultimate goal was to journey into the Alaskan wilderness to live in complete solitude, to truly discover himself. He eventually made it there, but was woefully unprepared, and discovered that his true self was, apparently, a 67-pound emaciated corpse in a sleeping bag. :(

I thought it was a great movie... his journey was fascinating, and if the portrayal of him was accurate, he truly was an essentially good person.

But that is not my point.

If you read the Wikipedia entries I linked to up there, you'll see that there is a general consensus that, in addition to being a wonderful human being, McCandless was a colossal idiot for going into the Alaskan wilderness unprepared. I'm sort of in agreement with that, assuming the information is correct. But colossal idiot or not, there's no denying that Christopher McCandless tested his own mettle before he checked out.

I'll be 41 years old this year. I served in the military for six years. I've seen more of the world than the average person, I suppose. I've been in a lot of really stressful situations and I've come out OK time and time again. But I don't think my mettle has ever been truly tested.

I don't even know what mettle means.

If you put me on the witness stand, held up a Sean doll, and asked me to point at the mettle, I'd look away and squirm. If you threatened me with contempt, I'd point at the doll somewhere roughly halfway between my brain and my balls, which I guess puts it in or near my heart, and the poetic implications of that are so galactically corny that I don't even want to think about it.

But I can't help thinking about it. By the numbers, I'm in the third decade of my adult life, but I've never really felt like what I thought being an adult would feel like. I'm certain that's got to be a very subjective feeling, but I know I'm not feeling it. And I know I'm not a "child at heart" kind of person. I feel a strange incompleteness that I don't think I should be feeling at my age, and I think that feeling is due to a surplus of untested mettle.

I guess this is the onset of my midlife crisis. As a younger man, I would joke about things like this, but now that I'm here, it's not so funny. I really feel like I need to do something about this, but I haven't the slightest idea what that should be.

My inner colossal idiot is telling me that it should involve real, physical, consequential danger, and in the absence of any suggestions, I'm inclined to agree with him.

Got any suggestions?