An uncool view

This is my view this week just for some contrast to lobiwan's view.

I bought Raul Malo's new cd. I broke my boycott on Hastings once again. So much for one girl's attempt to change the world through an unspoken protest. The cd is mostly remakes that make you feel like you should be slow dancing. Not really a necessary feeling, but it's not a bad feeling either. I had to request assistance from my junior high science teacher who works part time at the store in order to locate the cd. She still makes me feel stupid when I talk to her.

• "You're looking for who?"
• "Raul Malo's cd".
• "Never heard of him. What kind of music is that?"
• "I don't know. Maybe country or pop".
• "Is he new?"
• "Not really"
• She types into the computer. "Oh, he's rock". She sighs.

I know. I'm still not cool. You don't have to still be exasperated about kids not being cool. We're not at school. Your computer is an idiot by the way.

Thinking about language and books

I've had no recent adventures except a regular week. Regular weeks are a little tiresome. After a trial with a Somalian traffic infractioner, I looked up languages of Somalia and it seems that the infractioner and his friend were mostly likely speaking Somali. Everyone mocked me at the office when I asked what language was spoken in Somalia. I don't know everything.

I've also been pondering literature that has been tagged as questionable. I remember reading Catcher in the Rye during the STD pep assembly my senior year of high school (ok there was no cheering). Frankly, I was pretty thankful for that book and having something to focus on other than the enlarged photos on the slide show. I read Brave New World, Catch-22, The Fountainhead, Slaughterhouse 5, and so many others which ought to be banned by certain criterion. I am so glad that I read those questionable books. Restricting the human mind is the beginning of destroying the creative spirit. Who would I be without the creative? Some ideas may be distasteful, but I know what I believe is solid because it's been exposed to other ideas of how the world should work. I read some Jean Paul Sartre last year and I disagree with everything he believes, but what a lovely time I had letting him challenge me. Maybe some wayward high schooler will be aroused out of his mental slumber by these controversial books. People who only enjoy them for the salacious material are perhaps a lost cause already, and they wouldn't read David Copperfield even if it were assigned.

I try not to be controversial and I hope what I said isn't very. Some days I think being a Christian is just about fighting for my right to think. I know it isn't, but golly, a lot church types believe not thinking is faith.

Clerks 2 got great reviews

We went to see Lady in the Water last night. I loved it. It's almost comical the way this movie was panned. It adds to the story. If you read the reviews they are griping about the very things that the movie was intentionally doing as though no movie should ever intentionally do these things. It does have a quality of being made up as it goes along. This is what makes it genuine as a bed time story. The movie itself warns you along the way that you have to be little kid to listen to the story. You have to let go of your expectations of what a story should or should not be before it begins. "Once upon a time there was a very good man who was sad and lonely because he missed his family. One day he finds a beautiful girl. The beautiful girl was scared and so the very good man decides to help her." Maybe I'm just an M. Night fan and everything he does is good. Here's the thing about being an M. Night fan, hardly anyone makes anything because it's "good" anymore and for some reason he is. There is a wholesomeness to his movies that is authentic. You never have to pretend that the main character is good like you do in so many other movies. Anyway, you may not like the movie either, but I thought I ought to defend it since I enjoyed it.

I won't turn up my radio too loud.

I'm trying to make a fun summer mix cd. Any suggestions? I'm really trying to make something not country and not melancholy. It's a little tough considering my musical preferences.

Vague and Melancholy

It seems like a lot of things have happened this week, some not really blog appropriate, but I feel sort of edgy because of it all. The temperatures just melt your cares and fuse them together into a more connected and powerful mass. I've felt like an observer and never a participant--good considering one of my observations was a drunk driver running a stop sign at about 60 mph into a long gully of sand. Last Thursday my dui trial pled out and I was so aware of myself that I can tell you my thoughts for almost every moment of that day. This Thursday, today, I was so unaware of my thoughts. It's strange how losing yourself is such a better moment to be in than those moments when all you do is think about what you're saying and what everything means. I hope this weekend is a lot of nothing. I hope it's not too hot. I hope I don't get that much done. I hope that I'm not alone all weekend. I hope that I don't have to see a bunch of people.

Yet, Friday has its requirements. Evidence: What will show the voluntariness of this moment?

Linda afraid this study might not be a scam.

A recent study suggests that asthma might be related to swimming pool chlorine.
Allergies and asthma are so closely that I'm afraid I may have to consider this one. I remember on several occasions the chlorine at the indoor pool being so strong it burned your eyes when you walked into the room. I just thought you recent parents might be interested in it.

Exploring because it's the only way to eat good pancakes

I haven't written about our adventure to Lucas from last weekend which was part of my first Kansas Explorers' Gathering. The trip there included:

• Eating breakfast at Judy's in Jetmore which has "spill over the plate pancakes" which don't actually spill over the plate which was the fear of Betsy the Explorer. It was a tiny restaurant was filled with regulars discussing prices and rain, but we still felt very welcome. And hot pancakes are always wonderful.
• The 75 lb raven's nest made entirely of barbed wire at the barbed wire museum in Lacrosse.
• Highway 232 north of I-70. It's a scenic by-way and I concur.

Actually being there consisted of a potluck picnic, my niece being photographed like she was Britney and feeling like a VIP having arrived with Abby, Betsy's sister. Abby picked all the drawings including next year's gathering location which will be NE Kansas. Highlights from Lucas, Kansas included:

• Flying Pig Gallery-- Whimsical ceramic art with other typically wingless animals flying about with wings.
• The Grassroots Art Gallery-- Honestly, I think that I'm never going to be a big fan of grassroots art, but it was fun to see the wackiness all in one place. The guy who has all the political statement art made out of welded pieces of old machinery on Hwy 50 west of Mullinville had a little display in there. It was funny because I usually speed up to avoid reading any of it, but it's hard to scamper through an art gallery like that. I did enjoy the pull tab motorcycle and the motion machines from the man in Manhattan. The courtyard connected to it was lovely.
• The Deeble House-- I'm not sure how to describe this except to steal from Marci Penner's book and call it "jaw dropping". Mri Pilar's art is in the house and I think I missed a rock garden.
• Tea at Nancy Jo's-- That was a stop at her house to see her snowdome collection and have a glass of tea, and her hospitality was certainly a good highlight.
• The Garden of Eden-- I remember looking at it from the outside with Shauna once. It was nice to take the tour. I wasn't nearly as spooked by the whole place this time. Our tour guide really cared about S.P. Dinsmoor, its creator, and so it made everything a little more human and not just a series of scary concrete statues.

The trip home included a stop in Victoria at St. Fidelis Church which is awe-inspiring. The vision it must have required to take on an endeavor so grand is humbling.

It was a successful trip. We spent money and enjoyed the journey to a strange little town with lots of strange offerings. It was an interesting, ordinary day in Kansas.

But the DA said he was the one

This morning on the way to the dui trial (which plead out at 8:15, trial to begin at 9:00) I listened to "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan. Glad it was just DUI today. (I don't have time for more than one song on my drive. Maybe I shouldn't be driving).

Cash, DUI, Feminine Misogyny, and Cursing

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"You Jack Me, I Jack You Up"

So Matthew and I went to see a screening of a movie called Jack's Law. No need to tell you about the movie, but these are the cute shoes I wore to the screening and Matthew anticipating Jack's Law. We were very bored waiting for the movie to start. Apparently the big wig movie star below, Danny Trejo, was booked on the silly local flight to GC that first lands in Liberal. ( I hate those double landings. Although the double landing flights have been the only flights that have caused me to clutch the barf bag and that is an important experience.)


After the movie Danny Trejo answered questions from the audience. The director also asked for criticism which was a pointless request to make of this smallish town audience. As a whole, publicly criticizing anything is foreign and mostly everyone said things like, "that was neat how you made a movie". The cowboy-hatted man in front of me also wore a silver star. I think he might be the law or maybe just one of the Jack's Law Posse. He asked a lot of questions and made a lot of comments. The girl sitting next to him had a number of colors in her hair, none of which seemed to have been place there by God.

This is a picture of me with a famous girl I've never heard of. I enjoyed being told by the director to take my picture with her because she was a famous movie star. I am not sure that he knows what the word famous means. Although, I think it's very nice that she is getting to make movies, and that she convinced the director to film Jack's Law 2 in Elkhart. I especially like that I look better than she does in the picture since as a movie star it is her job to look better than regular people. She was ludicrously skinny so she is doing a good job at that part of her job. Maybe we should have to see all of the skinny actresses in real life because I think we would give $0.10 a day to sponsor meals for them. Hope you enjoyed the low quality pics, one day I'll own a camera other then my cell phone.
PS Did you know that my keyboard does not have a cent sign? I hate inflation.
PPS Please comment on the previous post and the songs... I just had time today on account of our nation's independence to write on the blog.
BTW These events occurred several weeks ago... I was reminded last night that I needed to blog about it.

The band in my head is taking requests

Have you ever been driving listening to a random classic country cd and wondering if God was speaking to you through Lynn Anderson? I think it means that I'm tired, but "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" should never cross your mind as being a message from the Almighty. Any suggestions for a good old country song to go through my head tomorrow that will make me feel like God is on my team?

Warning

Raul Malo has a new album on July 25, 2006. Whoever rides in the car with me to Colorado has been warned.