Character II (Saturday Life #11) 29 June 2013

Tomorrow is Father's Day so it feels right to write briefly about the guy.  I just spent a few days with him and my stepmom and their generosity and forgiveness knows no end.  My dad never had a formal education but I still consider him a bit of a genius.  

We took a trip to central/eastern Washington on Monday, June 10th.  We took the scenic route and I believe the above photo illustrates why.  On the way up, we stopped for gas, a quick breakfast, and we finally arrived at our destination of Cashmere, Washington.  The prize, a very nice '57 Chevy pickup that has been the apple of my dad's eye for quite sometime.

Started this a couple of weeks back.  Time I finish.  We started out pretty early and arrived ready to go, purchased the truck, and were on track to get back to Washington about 7pm.

30 or miles outside of Cashmere, with me following close behind the truck, my dad blew a tire out of the new prize, crossed the oncoming traffic lane and we wound up - on either side of the road -with a flat tire, no real way of repairing it it, yet nothing but our pride hurt.  There was no jack (the car's didn't really stand a chance), and as my dad attempted to maneuver, the pin holding the accelerator pedal together with the engine (already very loose) decided it would be a good time to fall off in the crab grass and vanish.  Major setbacks, even in our age of super-technology, yet my dad forgot his cell phone and mine had long since died taking the previous pictures and playing games and having not brought my car charger.  Our lengthy yet potentially fun excursion had turned into a comedy of errors.  We tried to figure out our next step, knowing one of us had to find a towing company and the other had to stay watch over the car and truck.  

It took my dad a while to find a somewhat reasonable tow back to Cashmere, and we finally got back to Toutle Lake around midnight, but I had a great time spending time with my dad.

Sunburned (Music #11) 11 June 2013

Not much to report here.  The new Deafheaven, Sunbather, is quite good.  That's about all I've got.  More next week.

Safe words (ALATWA #12) 27 May 2013

I am at a loss for words. This doesn't happen much. Exposure to okcupid may be the culprit. Being someone who has met people online for over half of his life, this shouldn't happen, but it inevitably does. You talk to someone with somewhat similar interests, in fact more in common than someone you've met in a long time. Sadly, the more you talk, the more you really become annoyed with the motifs that run through their conversational repertoire.

Sometimes you push to see if maybe they're just having a bad week or three and perhaps they'll pull out of it or let you in so you can understand and at least remain friends. Other times they just become tedious and need to be jettisoned. They think they've offended you and they keep apologizing; in reality, their thought patterns are destructive, depressed, or simply old hat. Often, it is all three. But life goes on.

This week should be fun. The DIVA film is Douglas Sirk's written on the wind, and I get my car keys in the mail. Wednesday I have a date in Corvallis with what appears to be a normal girl (whoa!) and I hope I get to hang with my friend Jannae. Going to play trivia at Murphy's. Then trivia at Rogue for the last Friday. It's going to be weird playing trivia in eugene on Thursdays. Also hoping to take a couple of loads of DVDs to my storage unit. I'd like to see the zombie movie Warm Bodies at the dollar theater as well. Maybe tonight?


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Location:Clark St,Eugene,United States

(Friday Life #7) 10 May 2013

"Then came the five brief, impassioned, jubilant, enigmatic years. At the gates of our own world, there was Vietnam, of course, and the first major blow to the powers that be. But here, inside our wales, what exactly was taking place? An amalgam of revolutionary and antirepressive politics? A war fought on two fronts: against social exploitation and psychic repression? A surge of libido modulated by the class struggle? Perhaps. At any rate, it is this familiar, dualistic interpretation that has laid claim to the events of those years."
Foucault, intro to Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

I wander the "stacks," an insider term for the giant bookshelves that create literary hallways out of giant floors stretched-over with industrial office carpet. This is a familiar haunt. I'm trying to remember phrases from poems I read and wrote in and about my time in a library in my youth.

I was a page for two years and my memories of the place are oddly structured. I've yet to the Madeleine cookie to engage the cerebral flood but there are sketches I can produce.

The break room was downstairs, as was the hub, the offices, the central nervous system. Most of my coworkers inspired, at worst, stoicism and oftentimes much better...

More later
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Work and then some more Work (A Look at the Weekend #10) 2 May 2013

I'm pretty sure most week plans got obliterated.  I'm headed to my dad's to work and pay my stepmom back and try and try and raise money for getting caught up on my student loans.  Fun stuff.  I was planning on seeing Broken Arrow with Marie and more maybe and was also looking forward to hanging with Maddie.

"Coming back around.." (A Look at the Weekend #11) 13 June 2013

Friends are on the move, life is super busy, and I am following suit.

New friend Maddie is headed to Europe for nearly a month, Marie has new, if temporary, digs, not sure what Mike and Angie are up to, and I need to get in touch with Loren and Angie.  

There are some pretty amazing films happening in Eugene this week, new films by the younger Miyazaki (From Up On Poppy Hill), Ken Loach (The Angels' Share), Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers), Susanne Bier - who I am not at all familiar with (Love Is All You Need), Steven Soderbergh (Side Effects), Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha), and Sam Raimi (Oz, Great And Powerful), a new version of the film that brought Sam Raimi b-movie stardom (Evil Dead),  along with a just-missed film, Renoir, about one of my favorite film makers, Jean Renoir.  Also some entertaining movies, The Croods, my first Antoine Fuqua film, Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion, and 42.

Gotta make a point to see a couple of those this weekend.  I have a coffee date at braille's on Sunday.  Should be a fold weekend.  Going to bring loads to storage as well.  

 

Coda (Weekend Review #9) 7 April 2013

I had breakfast with Jim Friday morning and we talked a good deal about life. I've been reading a lot lately and I want to read even more.

Trivia was nice, as usual, and Saturday brought the final four. No real analytical thoughts here though I am wont to express my dissatisfaction that once again two larger schools made it, and Cinderella died. She has a rough time of it, despite her statistical advantage, rendered through ubiquity.

My computer is on the fritz, no longer starting, so tomorrow I bring it in for repair, after Dylan and I give it a go.


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Location:Kincaid St,Eugene,United States