some thoughts from uncle fred

from whistling in the dark...

All "isms" run out in the end, and good riddance to most of them. Patriotism for example.

If patriots are people who stand by their country right or wrong, Germans who stood by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich should be adequate proof that we've had enough of them.

If patriots are people who believe not only that anything they consider unpatriotic is wrong but that anything they consider wrong is unpatriotic, the late Senator Joseph McCarthy and his backers should be enough to make us avoid them like the plague.

If patriots are people who believe things like "Better Dead Than Red," they should be shown films of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, and then be taken off to the funny farm.

The only patriots worth their salt are the ones who love their country enough to see that in a nuclear age it is not going to survive unless the world survives. True patriots are no longer champions of Democracy, Communism, or anything like that but champions of the Human Race. It is not the Homeland they feel called on to defend at any cost but the planet Earth as Home. If in the interests of making sure we don't blow ourselves off the map once and for all, we end up relinquishing a measure of national sovereignty to some international body, so much the worse for national sovereignty.

There is only one Sovereignty that matters ultimately and it is of another sort altogether.

Frederick Buechner

to quote the bard...'Twas a rough night.

so i entered full-blown insomnia last night - couldn't fall asleep and then once i did doze off for about 23 minutes, i woke again, unable to fall back asleep. so much for going without the sleep aids i have. i read for a while, watched arrested development for a while, walked around the neighborhood a while, caught up on some correspondence for a while and then went to prayers and started my as usual day. must have been something in the air last night - lots of friends on facebook late last night, saw a couple different postings that people had difficulty sleeping. wonder if some thing was affecting our collective unconscious. i'm feeling ok right now, but am a bit concerned about tonight's flash fiction and being completely brain dead by the time 7PM rolls around. i probably should avoid taking a nap today, but not sure that will be possible. will have to see how i feel this afternoon.

ok, we'll call this next section things i've wanted to write about, to catch up.

first, tom was amazing. definitely ranks up their in my favorite concert experiences. he's the consummate showman and leaves it all on the stage. by the end of the show, his entire suit was drenched in sweat - you could watch the stain slowly creeping down his back. i know a lot of people have trouble with his voice, but it's the instrument God gave him and he knows how to use it. it is a force of nature and the power and emotion he brings to every song is a wonder to behold. definitely worth the price of admission and then some. so glad i got tickets.

brian and i got there a little after 7, about an hour and a half before he came on stage. good thing, since it took us almost that long to get to the front of the merch table. tom doesn't usually sell schwag at his shows, so everyone was getting something, many people buying multiple options. i'm sure ebay is littered with them, unfortunately. i, too, took advantage and bought a shirt (just one) while brian bought one of each design (but he'll wear them). great moment: as soon as brian and i go to the front, the guy manning our part of the table declared it for credit card customers only, even though he'd been doing both previously. frustrated, we made our way to another side of the table. when the guy came over, another fan let us go first, probably after hearing us complain to the merch table guy. we thanked him profusely for his kindness, which turned out to be a good thing since he ended up sitting in the seats right next to us. we then turned around and passed it on, letting some other fans go into the theater before us. quite the eclectic mix of fans, from younguns in shorts and t-shirts to guys and girls dressed to the hilt in true waitsian fashion. the crowd was well behaved (other than the drunk/stoned guy behind us who got a bit belligerent during the show - i thought brian might jump up and bitchslap him) and quite responsive, which tom rewarded by giving us two encores.

tom did a great variety of tunes, leaning heavily on his more recent songs, understandably. the live arrangements were great to hear. his reed player was amazing - like having an entire sax section in one guy. he played tenor and bari at the same time, and played them well, which is impressive to say the least. the other players were solid - nothing terribly flashy, but then they weren't the focus - tom was. favorite moments: cold, cold ground, cemetery polka, eyeball kid, lie to me and of course, time. i've already picked up a bootleg copy of the show - not the best quality and there's some overly enthusiastic woman screaming occasionally, but nice to have a memento to remember the evening by.

wow. that went on much longer than i anticipated. maybe instead of trying to squeeze this into one post, i'll do a couple of others over the course of the day - at least it will keep me awake.

need to walk down to the post office - spent part of my insomnia time this morning writing a couple of postcards to friends i've lost touch with in hopes that snailmail will work where email has not. figured it couldn't hurt to try, right?

will be back later (unless i end up comatose, drooling in my comfy chair) with thoughts on our house church discussion of marriage and divorce and my upcoming trip to the great state of colorado. mmm...mountains....Æ

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Now playing: Priscilla Ahn - Dream
via FoxyTunes

i've entered the 21st century

i spent too much of my day online, researching digital cameras. with my trip to colorado swiftly approaching, i figured i'd better pull the trigger if i hoped to have it to use on the trip. did lots of research, trying to figure out what i wanted, what i needed, how much i wanted to spend. it's not like i'm a serious photographer - though i like to take pictures, i usually find myself too caught up in moments to take the time to photograph them. so i figured i should get something small enough i could keep in my pocket and pull out, instead of something i had to lug around in a separate bag. i found one i liked and decided i wanted to see it in person before buying, so i drove over to best buy and talked to their guy and looked at the camera. in the process, i looked around at some other cameras, ones i hadn't looked at online. the camera i wanted wasn't available at the store (plus, it was cheaper online), so i came home and looked up another camera i'd seen in the store. and to make an interminable story abbreviated, it was cheaper and had the features i wanted and liked, so i bought it.

my new toy

i know, i know. i was supposed to get a canon. but what i saw and read led me to believe this was the camera for me. here's hoping i didn't screw it up. guess i'll just have to wait and try it out. and i promise i won't turn this into a photo blog, though i'm sure there'll be more pictures than there usually are. at least there better be after i bought the thing.

as you can see, i'm still not sleeping much. i hate the machine and the pills ruin my mornings, so i'm kind of back at square one. right now it's not a huge problem, but i'd like to find something before august rolls around. we'll see.

more non-consumer, non-sleep related stuff later. i have all these thoughts during the day i think about writing down, but by the time i stop in here, i've lost momentum. i'll try to do better. Æ

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Now playing: Southeast Engine - Pursuit of Happiness pt. 1
via FoxyTunes

ps i am loving the above band. found them through last.fm. see, good stuff can come out of dayton...

it's the little things that mattter (from 6/27)

like directions to your friend's house where you intend to spend the night. oops. not too worried - i have 7-8 hours to figure it out. first i'm going to kill a couple of hours watching Wall*E. opened today, so i have no idea what to expect except for the brief glimpses i've caught in previews and teasers. been a while since i've seen a movie with little to no prior knowledge.

i'm at the marcus theater in pickerington. last time i was here was with jeremy and friends. not sure what we saw - some guy movie i'm sure. he was in my dreams this week, doing what he did best - being uncomfortably naked. i miss him.

spent lunch with laurie and mel at some bbq joint. decent food, much better company. mel just got back from europe, so i'm not talking to her. laurie had wonderful stories about the girls. lovely, lovely time. catching up made me realize i need to not wait so long between visits. life comes in and fills up the moments when your not watching, leaving you with no place to squeeze in what's most important.

movie's starting. more later.
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mcdonald's, outside port columbus, waiting for brian to call, tell me he's arrived. spent the first hour in my car, reading murakami's norwegian wood. enjoying it more than kafka - not that kafka was bad, i'm just tracking with this story and character more.

i enjoyed Wall *E immensely. a remarkable feat of storytelling without words. i predict it won't be as successful as other pixar flicks, not because it's not as good, but because the public has high expectations for them and are no longer impressed by their animation, which is a shame because it continues to be flawless. i also imagine those on the right will object to its environmental message, even thought that's not the main story line and in all honesty, the weakest part of the film. i could see using this film as an example of showing, not telling. the scenes with Wall*E and Eve were far more powerful and meaningful without words than the talky human scenes. quite the relationship built sans words.

there's part of me that feels the need to despise disney. they're supposed to represent everything bad about entertainment. yet i can't stop the giddy feeling i get when the logo comes up, the yearning to return to a simpler time. i was fairly obsessed with all things disney as a kid, right after my second trip to disneyworld. i was 10. there was an old roll top desk in my room i turned into a disney shrine. souvenirs from my trip. paraphernalia mom picked up at garage sales. i even remember ordering a special set of stamps from some distant country just because they had disney characters on them.

see, my tendency toward obsession started early.

though there's much to hate disney for - their squeakifying of stories and history, their over-commercialization, their decision to abandon hand-drawn animation - i will always have a soft spot for the role they played n my own childhood. which i suppose is what makes them so insidious - they insinuate themselves into your memories, co0opting them. it's probably not as malicious as i make it sound. they're no worse than where i'm sitting right now, though that's faint praise indeed.

brian just called. he's still at o'hare, which is unfortunate isnce he was supposed to arrive here 20 minutes ago. i wonder sometimes if short jumps are worth it - as he pointed out, if he'd started driving when he left for the airport, he'd be here by now or at least closer than he is. i think i'm ok here for now - the cashier told the older gentleman in front of me they don't kick people otu fo the dining room if they're here before it closes. i should go grab my book though - not sure i could keep writing for an hour straight - thought it might be good to try, i fear what drivel might come out.

just walked out to my car - almost too nice out to sit in a/c and wait, thunderstorm watches be damned. yet here i sit, the vinyl seats making the back of my knees sweat. i have no one to blame by myself.

after the movie i went to goodwill to find something to wear to the show. i found a cool blue dress shirt and a wide tie to go with it. i kept this simple idea in mind - what would brian wear? not really sure how i'll change before the show, but i'm sure we'll find an accommodating bathroom somewhere before the show.

currently listening to my 80s playlist, the primary reason for spending hours this summer looking up release dates on wikipedia (all together now...GEEK!). already found a couple of errors - i'm sorry, but cracker did not release kerosene hat in 1989 (that's what i get for trusting gracenote or whatever online database pulled the info). the music makes me a bit wistful, even the songs and bands i didn't discover until after the 80s were over. wish i could say i was listening to galaxie 500 and the jesus and mary chain in high school, but i was too busy extolling the musical genius of stryper. silly, silly boy. according to my ipod, i have 2,885 songs from the 80s, which means a little less than 20% of my collection, compared to 36% for both the 90s and the aughts. but i guarantee the stories connected to my 80s songs are deeper and more meaningful. for instance, right now "wasn't that a party" by the irish rovers is playing. i distinctly remember lying in my bed, listening to my clock radio play this song early in the morning. some radio station from my childhood played it regularly for a while, though i only ever heard it in the morning. strange how memories work.

tired of writing. i'm sure you're tired of reading. off to read some more murakami. Æ

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Now playing: Pulp - Disco 2000
via FoxyTunes