G's never say die.

Drove down to Seaside, Oregon last week with my brother and his fiance. Stayed at this ridiculously nice hotel (bro's fiance hooked it up through her work). Full kitchen. Got a queen sized bed all to myself. The balcony had a gas grill. Press start to fire it up. Cooked a lot of phony baloney. Took a swim in the pool - first time in about six years. Went to Cannon Beach and had some peanut butter-chocolate ice cream. Watched two movies: August and Live Free or Die Hard. Have to agree with my brother and say that I'd rather see a crappy action flick I can laugh at than an average indie-film that's going to put me to sleep. Turns out the 25th anniversary celebration for The Goonies was taking place in Astoria. Couldn't find any bully-blinders for sale. Managed to scope out Bram and Mikey's house, the large ocean rocks which Mikey matches with the "key", along with a windy road that I am pretty sure the kids ride down while Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" plays. All in all, it was good to get out of town for a few days.

Finished Neil Gaiman's Stardust. For a fantasy novel, it's deceptively conventional. Yes, there is the unlikely "hero" who embarks on the impossible quest, receiving help along the way from inventive array of characters, to ultimately complete said quest. But the book does a few things differently from the standard LOTR copycat. The heart of the story really isn't in the played out conflict of good vs. evil. While the hero has couple of run-in's with those who look to deter him from his quest (who might be considered "evil"), ultimately there is no grand culmination of this conflict, which works because a halfway intelligent reader would have seen it coming from the beginning and questioned the necessity of reading all the way through to get to something foreseen so far in advance. Instead, the conflict is ditched for more of a coming-of-age realization, where the hero achieves his original goal but comes to understand that the implications of his success are much different than they seemed when he first set the goal - a time when he was a little younger. There are no constants in the world (even a fantasy one); reality and perception of it is always shifting. And that's nice to encounter in a genre that mainly thrives off steadfast archetypes (elves are good at this, dwarfs are bad at that, etc).

Decided to clean out my desk. Tossed a bunch of accumulated garbage from years gone by. But also found a few interesting items in the process.

Old pictures of my dad. I'd never seen these before. He must have been in his 20's when they were taken, which is kind of a trip since he just turned 62 yesterday. I will refrain from taking cheap shots at the photos. That'd be cold-blooded on here. Just know that fashion changes over time. My grandma is some of these too, with a dark head of hair that I undoubtedly inherited but was born about 15-20 years too late to remember.

Tolo pictures. From my freshman year in high school. Wore khakis and a Hawaiian shirt - definitely her choice. Her? Nicole Olsen (what up, girl). She's holding a stuffed-fucking-Tigger in the shot. It's okay. We were both nerds.

Rolling Stone: 35 Anniversary Special. Has a cool section on some of the most notable "American Icons". Springsteen, Warhol, Jordan, Homer Simpson, Chuck Taylors - amongst other people and things. Unfortunately, it also has a small blurb about Avril Lavigne with a headline that proclaims she shows a surprising amount of edge, which is described as "having no light show [and] a simple black curtain emblazoned with a gigantic TRY TO SHUT ME UP slogan and three giant TV screens running real-time footage of Lavigne." Now I remember why I stopped reading this magazine.

Saves the Day - I'm Sorry I'm Leaving. Ah. I do recall a story behind this one. The first Saves the Day song I heard was "Sell My Old Clothes, I'm Off To Heaven", from a Vagrant Records compilation (the one with the Get Up Kids cover of "Beer for Breakfast"); it ripped about as much as emo/pop-punk can rip. So I went off to Circuit City to pick up either Can't Slow Down or Through Being Cool but this EP was the only thing in-stock. I took a gamble on it, not knowing it was all acoustic. Got home and was disappointed to hear Dashboard Confessional pump through my speakers. Well, only slightly disappointed. I was into that dumb shit back then.

Atticus: ...dragging the lake. Grabbed this comp because it had a new Glassjaw track on it. Turned out to have other good songs (some unreleased) by Alkaline Trio, The Movielife, Rival Schools and American Nightmare. Though there is a fair share of crap on there: Finch, The Used, Simple Plan, Sugarcult. Again, I was into some bad stuff at 17 -18. So there are tracks on here by Midtown and The Starting Line that I still know the lyrics to. Catchy like herpes.

A stamp with my name on it. I really don't know what this was for. I did have atrocious handwriting as a kid. But I wasn't an invalid. I could write my own name. My best guess is that I used it for marking ho's on the playground - had to let 'em know.


Clean out your desk, dresser or closet. See what wonders you find.