Da Bears and other assorted goods

Enjoying some bro-man-dude time with Monday Night Football. Green Bay and Chicago. I've always been a Bears fan. This can first be evidenced from an elementary school class picture where I can be seen posting up hard on the Big Toy, decked out in Bears gear (I'll have to track this one down). I don't know what it is about them. I was too young to remember their prominent years with Jim McMahon and William "The Refrigerator" Perry. Though I do remember Ditka coaching. And I put in serious time on the original Tecmo Bowl for the NES, breaking off huge runs with Walter Payton. There is just something captivating about that navy blue and orange.

The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily
by Dino Buzzati

Another cool thing involving bears - this one in the form of an Italian children's book. I use the word "children's" hesitantly, because there's a lot of text, filled with words like "incredulously" and "bivouacked". Add the presence of advanced concepts like national history, cultural/individual identity and a narrator who can be a tad misleading and this one might end up beyond the scope of the ragamuffin who is content with booger nourishment. So feed them another Curious George. Keep this essential read for yourself.

B Is for Beer
by Tom Robbins

Another "children's book". Well, only if you consider the story of a six-year-old girl who gets drunk and then receives a visit from the beer fairy appropriate for that age range. Regardless of how you want to categorize it, in addition the magical journey detailing the glorious combination of grains, barley and hops, Robbins examines a kid's difficulty to make sense of the complicated and contradictory adult world. The fact that its written as if it were for young'uns is rather funny, considering most adults who drink beer (myself included) couldn't even begin to explain the process in which it is made. But yeah, this one's pretty unique.

The Last Picture Show
by Larry McMurtry

Ever hear old people talk about the past with wistful romanticism? A time when innocence prevailed; Leave It To Beaver was an accurate representation of life. I never really bought into it. Moreover, after reading McMurtry's tribute to his home, Texas a.k.a. "God's Country", it's clear that even people back in the day were teeming with deviance. Kids drank. Kids fought. Kids fucked. And I'll be damned if a couple of them didn't take an impromptu road trip down to Mexico in order to bang a pregnant whore and watch mixed species pornography. All of this before the existence of a Bret Easton Ellis novel.


CURRENT FAVORITE

A Tribe Called Quest - The Love Movement

Tribe has been an all-time favorite of mine for quite some time now. Since I was about 14 - which is when this, their final album, came out. Giving it a few retrospective listens, it's clear that it doesn't exactly warrant swansong status. (But the competition is tough, sharing a body of work with genre classics like The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders.) Still, there are a number of feelgood jams here. Bottom line: you can't go wrong with smooth beats and butter rhymes.

Prarie Sludge

Sounds like Neil Young jamming with dudes from Sleep and Earth. Drive the herd, catch the vibes. Seriously though, this is good.

Observations and musings

Seahawks home opener: Testosterone was a given. Though there were a surprising amount of Snookies flossing Tatupu jerseys, as well as grown men drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade. The other surprise was that the Seahawks actually looked good.

Jordan Young in 2010 displays flashes of Jordan Young circa 2003/2004. My sides are a little sorer for it.

A Confederacy of Dunces: Could be the funniest book ever. But the parallels between Ignatius J. Reilly and myself are the source of much distress (Proud owner of a worthless liberal arts degree which fosters an archaic and unhealthy ideological worldview that ultimately leads to misanthropy and cripples the ability to function socially and/or professionally within the greater commonwealth. He also lives with his mom.).

Boneshaker: An entertaining read. Felt like the author, Cherie Priest, watched 28 Days Later and played Fallout 3 before writing it. Unfortunately, a lack of character development and sequences of terrible dialogue keep it from being anything "literary". But who really cares about that? Maybe the guy in the paragraph above. So it gets my approval.

Found out my cat - The Murph - has liver disease. To diagnose the specific type would require an ultrasound and subsequent biopsy. Ultimately, the treatment is a daily regiment of medicine, regardless of which strain it might be. Having already been through force-feeding The Murph pills for prior ailments, we (my family) are deciding to forgo the diagnosis and treatment; better that his remaining days are peaceful, rather than living in fear of having things shoved down his throat.

Facebook. On one hand, it's the main way in which I stay in contact with my friends. But thanks to the voyeuristic nature of social networking, that permeable barrier between "friend-of-friend"...I end up unintentionally seeing things that are detrimental to my psychological and emotional well-being. Things that make an individual not into the cardio drive up to the local middle school to run five miles on a track at 7 o'clock at night. There might be a sad metaphor to be found in a guy running 20 laps with hopes of trying to escape/forget something. Good thing I don't pay those literary devices any mind. My legs, however, are in definite pain today.

Here's to brighter days. Don't have to be straightedge to enjoy this one. Love seeing my friend Kevin launching off the monitors. And goddamn those drums sound good.

Have 12 minutes to kill? Sure you do.

Supergroup featuring members of Mogwai, Electric Wizard and Iron Monkey - so obviously I'm jonesin'. Don't worry, this one doesn't bite. Grab some headphones and chillax.

What's crappening

First off, a much belated thanks to Stephanie and Cameron for the reception gathering at Whidbey Island. Good friends and good food: two things I certainly appreciate. Another thanks to Jordan and Jaclyn for transportation, a place to stay and the rollicking session of catch - may we do it again soon.

Kicked off my two week break correctly on Saturday with an old soldier, Matt, at Big E's to watch UFC 118. Even if the card was a little weak, MMA and microbrews isn't a combination to be dropping qualms on. So here's my brief fight-by-fight breakdown that you probably don't want to read.

Nate Diaz v. Marcus Davis - This was easily the best fight of the night. Diaz, known for his jiu-jitsu/submission skills, displayed far superior striking in his hands. He turned Davis' face into something out of Dick Tracy, before submitting him via guillotine choke towards the end of the third round.

Kenny Florian v. Gray Maynard - Despite fighting in his hometown and walking out to the awesome "For Boston" by Dropkick Murphys, K-Flo looked uncomfortable, getting handled in all three rounds by Maynard - who took the unanimous decision.

Demian Maia v. Mario Miranda - This fight was reminiscent of the Jon Fitch/Thiago Alves fight from the last card, where there wasn't a lot of excitement because one fighter successfully neutralized his opponent by controlling them on the ground. It was Maia this time around.

James Toney v. Randy Couture - Boxing legend meets MMA legend - a total joke of a fight. This sideshow played out exactly like most of us had predicted: someone competing in MMA with little-to-no background in wrestling and/or jiu-jitsu is going to get dumped on their ass and submitted with the quickness. To be a one-dimensional fighter is to be worthless. Thank you Randy Couture for proving the haters wrong and hopefully bringing a little more respect to the sport.

Frankie Edgar v. BJ Penn (2) - Huge bummer. This was supposed to be Penn getting redemption for the last fight with Edgar, proving he was still one of the greats. That did not happen. Instead, it was basically the same fight as before, with Penn not doing what he does best (shooting for takedowns) and Edgar outworking him for five rounds (he looked as fresh in the fifth as he did in the first). I don't know whether it was poor conditioning or an issue with cutting weight, but this was not the Penn of (even recent) past. I sincerely hope that he's not finished. I don't want to be stuck remembering him through reruns of the Joe Stevenson fight (see below - don't be a wuss) on Spike.

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Recently finished a couple of books: Slumberland by Paul Beatty and both Wise Blood and half of A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor. Josh, I already talked to you about these and since you're the probably the only one taking interest in what I read, I will refrain from any lengthy redundancy. If you're new to Beatty, start with The White Boy Shuffle - the stereotypes he's playing with will be more identifiable. If you're new to O'Connor, be well-versed with Christian theology and start with A Good Man is Hard to Find - she was a better short story writer than a novelist.

Dusted off OutKast's Aquemini last night for the first time since...I'm going to guess high school. Talk about a fine wine. I've always claimed ATLiens was their best (probably because I had my mind blown at age 12 by the video for "Elevators [Me & You]"), but I think I'm going to have to go back on that now. Aquemini is a rare specimen of an album that set an artist on the road to stardom without representing a compromise. It's sort of psychedelic and distinctly southern without being obnoxiously "dirty" (even if they use the word "dirty"). In short, it brings the funk. Even the instrumental/spoken word track (see below - don't be wuss) is dope as hell.

So two weeks off. Got some reading to do. Some projects to help the parents with around the house. Have Architecture II and Engineering Graphics II next quarter. Will probably be more intense coursework than I've had in awhile. But I've got less than a year to go now with my CDD degree. And from talking to a couple of people in the industry, the combination of this degree and my bachelor's degree gives me the opportunity to get a decent job. Finally, there's some light at the end of the tunnel. The chance to comeback from nothing to something. The return of self-worth and pride, never to let them be taken again. Or like The Jealous Sound said, there is hope for us.

Real post coming soon

I'm finishing up school for this quarter, so I'll get something legitimate up here next week. But in the meantime enjoy this little diddy I put together.

If I were a superhero, I'd be this guy.

...if Bruce Banner looked like this guy.

And when this song played...


...super-villains would already be shit-out-of-luck. Oh look, the transformation is starting...

HULK SMASH!

From the diary of some dumb teenager

You're born into this world alone.
And you die in this world alone.
No family.
No friends.
Just you and what you make of your life.

Stay cold.