Ben Grimm

My arrival in Portland Oregon on August 8th after living in Cleveland for 25 years was terrifying but I'm starting to extricate myself from my hermetic tendancies. I used to identify as Buddhist but I met a guy named Wes who devotes himself to that practice fully and, as a result, I think it is more accurate to suggest that I am enamored of the buddhist concepts that I am aware of-trying to live according to the framework of those notions. Painting was my major in college but I ended up playing music more of the time. I own too many guitars. I started playing mandolin last winter. I'm still wrestling the Pedal Steel... I love to play and sing more than anything else but my self critical nature keeps me from sharing it in a public context very often. 5 years of drawing and painting every day effected my love of all things visual but recently I've been feeling the urge to paint and draw comics again-and thus I have. Check out my comics page if you are so inclined
I would like it very much if I were less of a judgemental freakazoid sometimes. That being said; I admire mastery and pursue those things that by "exquisite art or engine" have attained their highest echelon of quality.
I have this set of ratios that I use to evaluate culture: 90%-8%-2% The "Ninety" is stuff that is by and large dreck and detritus: quotidian banalities which fail to impress because of their ubiquitous nature or tragic underdevelopment. The "Eight" is on it's way. It is either close to being worthwhile or somewhere in the vast grey purgatory of rotating ones hand in the "eh?" motion. The "Two" is where life's promise ignites like a rescue flair in a vast obsidian sea of the typical. This is where I want to be all the time.
There is a little grey cat that I love-McDowell: my furry Son. People either worship him as if he were a tiny deity or plot his demise with elaborate schemes
Fortune has gifted me with several close, wonderful friends who make traversing the country a worthwhile endeavor. They are the family I have "chosen." I envy other men's beards. I like words. I dislike platitudes. I'm a Vegetarian and a Liberal who doesn't read enough. I quote movies that I like despite my best efforts to avoid it. I don't believe that true intimacy can or should exist without love.
My spelling and hand writing are horrifying. One of my favorite professors took me aside once and told me that my handwriting was so bad that it reminded him of the sort of crude markings he had only seen elsewhere in a set of ancient texts that required the extensive knowlege of multiple scholars, including himself, and several years to interpret.
I also should mention that I have no interest whatsoever in Professional sports. I cannot stand them on tv at all-my favorite time of year is that brief window between seasons of hyberbolical athletic drollery that happens around october in Cleveland. An aside: I find that at 25+ my perspective on the nature of identity and relationships with other humans is veering towards the noir' I wonder how the rest of you feel? I used to be chipper and now I can be critical and self doubting. I want to start skateboarding/die trying.
I absolutely abhor "Jazz Vocals"
I have decided that I am like a candy bar; sweet, crunchy, good at first but ultimately unsatisfying. You should have an apple instead
I discovered this quote recently and it reflects my feelings on diplomacy and truth:
"A gentleman is never unintentionally rude." —Oscar Wilde
And then this one sums up my perspective on how I like to spend what time I am allotted:
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."-Teddy Roosevelt