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Everything is Illuminated

I got this book for xmas and when I read the first few pages I loved the voice although I wasn’t sure if I could stick with it for a whole book. Turns out the story switches between several voices. I’m not sure how to explain this but there are certain well respected literary voices that I have had a hard time following. A perfect example would be Salman Rushdie. Others: Tom Robbins, Maxine Hong Kingston and Jack Kerouac. I don’t know what it is but I have a hard time concentrating on the words long enough to follow the narrative and there is one “voice” in Illuminated where I had this problem. So for 50 or so pages I was bummed that maybe I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to. Turns out it gets hilarious in the middle — also some very tragic stuff — but the voice is so charming and funny. I loved it in the end.

Today I went to my first presidential caucus and it was awesome. We met downtown at one of the government buildings where four local precincts were meeting. The room was way overpacked — so many people cared enough to be there at 10am on a Saturday morning– I was impressed. Everyone clapped when Brian Baird (HR) came in and several local government reps were also present.

Lots of people were saying that it was their first caucus. Lots of people brought their kids. The representation was full spectrum — all ages, looked like even split on gender. Our precinct was one of the smallest ones and I’m not sure if that has to do with the way the precincts are organized or suggests an apathy among our neighbors. I’ll go for the former. We walk almost every morning and it was fun to recognize other walkers that we see all the time and wave “hello” and exchange small talk with.

When Hairbands Ruled the World

I had the TV on VH1 for the Alarm so I caught this show about when Metal Ruled the World which was basically an hour program about my life in the late 80’s. It showed the whole Sunset Strip/Cathouse scene — all the bands, the flyers, everything. Those were some fun, crazy times. I’m glad I was there. But as I watched I realized what’s wrong with Little Friday is there is zero sex and drugs in it. There isn’t even a lot of alcohol in it. In terms of my personal experience in Hollywood there was zero sex and drugs (well, to be honest, slightly more than zero, but still a very miniscule amount in the bigger scheme of things) which is a bigger statement about my social failings than my moral values. But the whole scene was defined by the hedonism of its heroes. For LF to be a successful story about the times — it could use more juice. I don’t know. I love the story and think it stands on its own the way it is — I love the naivete of my wannabe rock star. Regardless, I don’t plan to do anymore writing on this exact project. I still have some 80’s stuff in me and I’m still working out what I’m going to do with it.

Bands Reunited: The Alarm

I taped the show on Thursday night and watched it yesterday afternoon. I liked it way more than I expected. Usually VH1 is so much filler. I don’t remember being an Alarm fanatic, but I liked them a lot and had some of their records. Weren’t they sometimes referred to as U 1and1/2 (as in less than U2)? I didn’t remember until Erin mentioned it, that we saw the Alarm in Santa Barbara (Sunday, Dec 1, 1985 — I just went and found the ticket stub) at the Arlington Theater. I saw REM and Dokken at the Arlington, too. (Not at the same time, in case you were wondering.) But back to the Alarm — it was sad the way they melted down — I had long moved on and gotten into the hairband scene by the time they broke up in 91. The coolest part of the show was seeing the fans — when the band played it was this room filled with people my age (mostly guys?) going apeshit and singing every word.

Oscar Nominations Today

Bob put the TV on so we could watch them live. Keisha Castle-Hughes! I am so thrilled. I’m excited about a lot of the nominations this year. And I’ve actually seen a decent number of the movies. We saw In America over the weekend. It skates on the edge between something wonderful and something heart-breaking the entire time. We were wrung out at the end. And before that we saw Big Fish which is another fine film and heart-wringer. We still need to see Mystic River and Barbarian Invasions — and those don’t look light-weight either.

I know — what is this? Maybe 3 posts a week for eons and now 4 posts in one day. I have more, too. I have a whole thing about Tex Hall’s State of the Indian Nations address. I think I might start an Indian blog. More on this later.

But this is a Yoda blog. Yoda is my iMac. I bought him in March of 99 which makes him about 110 in computer years. He’s a 266 MHz lime G3 with 64 mg RAM and a 6 GB harddrive of which I’ve used about 2.85 GBs — I’m just getting the whole music on the computer thing and I got a digital camera for my birthday so my HD demands are rising. Poor Yoda — he can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. I’ve used him pretty much every day since I bought him and he’s been great but we ordered a new computer this week.

On 2/11/89 I bought my first MAC (I have extensive PC experience at work and can state with real authority: I hate windoze) — a Mac Plus which I still have. I think it came with a half MG of RAM — Erin upgraded it to a whole MG — I think. I’m not really a power techno-geek. The new computer will only be my 4th MAC. The Mac Plus was The Good Mother. Then I got a 520 Powerbook which was Lestat. Then Yoda. The new one is going to be an EMAC named Frodo. I want a new machine but I’m always sad about ditching the old one. It seems rude to even write about it on him.

Sex Advice from Cowboys [Warning: explicit — but hilarious.]

“Where’s the best place to engage in outdoor sex?

Just about anywhere. I’ve done it in the creek, I’ve done it on horse blankets. I’ve done it in the long grass, got thorns in my ass. Hell, once I smoothed out pine needles and threw her down right there.”

It is Martin Luther Return of the King Day weekend at our house. We started Fellowship extended version on Friday and finished it yesterday and then watched Two Towers extended. This afternoon we’re going to see Return of the King on big screen. Bob hadn’t seen FOTR or TT and he kept saying, “I can’t believe how good this is.” I loved all extended stuff and can’t believe some of the stuff that got cut out (although I understand why). Like that whole extended Boromir/Faromir scene in TT. None of the extra stuff felt like padding to me.

I thought I was having some sort of allergic reaction to something. I’ve never had an allergy and didn’t expect one to pop up at this point in my life but I’ve been sneezing with watery eyes and endless runny nose. I’ve been at it all weekend and now I’m wondering if it might be a cold. I’d almost be relieved if it was a cold because then I could be sure it would go away. But it doesn’t feel like a cold.

The latest snow report is that we only have a few lingering patches. Otherwise we can see lawn again. Our backyard plants don’t look bad at all and I swear the grass and weeds have been growing under all that snow and ice. The front Rhodie needs chopping and will be much shorter in the future and the hedge-thing next to it will turned to compost. Also our front rain gutter is drooping. We went for our first walk in two weeks yesterday and saw all the damage to the trees in our neighborhood. Wow. One of our neighbors had such a lovely yard and he lost 2 trees completely and one he whacked back to a trunk. It looks so sad.

Liz Woody has a story Simple Customs of Salmon Nation in the Pantagonia catalog.:

“Salmon were the first to teach us of wealth.

“In the Longhouse the host family offers gifts in honor of loved ones in birth, naming, achievement and, finally, in death. It is called a Giveaway. …”