to laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. this is the meaning of success.
--ralph waldo emerson
snow, mason jars, gathering, wandering, pop, single speed, heart, soffritto, caffeinated scribbling, luthiers, thrifting, listening, bendix carburetors, new nieces and nephews, going and going, dumpster diving, laughing, visalia, falling, digging, rolls of undeveloped film, pleiades plus two, vegetarians, geological biases, fucking, setting suns, mechanical pencils, whispering loud, rewilding, reading in the face of danger, . . .
freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. this state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.
--leo tolstoy, war and peace, 1862
a bicycle does get you there and more . . . . and there is always the thin
edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. and getting there is all the fun.
--bill emerson, "on bicycling," saturday evening post, 29 july 1967
I'd like to meet:
the real deal.
unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better. it's not.
--the lorax
Music:
allman bros, american analog set, fiona apple, arctic monkeys, azure ray, badly drawn boy, devendra banhart, beatles, beck, béla fleck, belle and sebastian, belly, ben folds five, beta band, beulah, bill monroe, andrew bird, björk, black heart procession, books, david bowie, breeders, bright eyes, brightblack morning light, broken social scene, jeff buckley, buffalo sprinfield, built to spill, david byrne, cake, calexico, camera obscura, neko case, johnny cash, cat power, chieftains, cocorosie, counting crows, cranberries, csny, dave matthews band, miles davis, dear nora, decemberists, ani difranco, doors, nick drake, durutti column, bob dylan, explosions in the sky, feist, ella fitzgerald, flaming lips, fleetwood mac, flogging molly, foo fighters, four tet, bill frizell, g love and special sauce, galaxie 500, gomez, grandaddy, stefane grappelli, gratefull dead, great lake swimmers, vince guaraldi, guided by voices, gypsy kings, emmylou harris, billie holiday, mississippi john hurt, interpol, iron and wine, chris isaac, etta james, elton john, jack johnson, jurassic 5, carol king, kaki king, king crimson, kronos quartet, lanterna, leadbelly, led zeplin, aimee mann, bob marley, mars volta, mates of state, meat puppets, modest mouse, bill monroe, van morrison, mark mothersbaugh, mountain goats, my morning jacket, joanna newsom, sinéad o'connor, roy orbison, phish, edith piaf, pinback, pink floyd, pogues, pixies, portishead, louis prima, queen, rademacher, radiohead, rage against the machine, magnolia electric co, rainer maria, rasputina, red house painters, lou reed, django reinhardt, rilo kiley, rolling stones, rem, sachmo, sadé, sadies, ravi shankar, shapes and sizes, shins, silver jews, simon and garfunkel, smashing pumpkins, elliott smith, smog, son/ambulance, songs: ohia, son volt, squirrel nut zippers, ralph stanley, steve earl, cat stevens, sufjan stevens, talking heads, toots thielemans, tool, travis, u2, the vaselines, sarah vaughan, the velvet underground, the ventures, vernal falls, rufus wainright, tom waits, weezer, gillian welch, the who, widespread panic, wilco, stevie wonder, yes, yo la tengo, yo-yo ma, neil young . . .
i believe that when i die i shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. i am not young, and i love life. but i should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
--bertrand russell
Movies:
12 monkeys, a mighty wind, about a boy, ace ventura, baron munchausen, ai, alien, all the real girls, almost famous, amelie, american beauty, american history x, back to the future, devendra banhart, baraka, batman, beetle juice, before sunrise/sunset, bell book and candle, benny and joon, best in show, big lebowski, black cauldron, bladerunner, boogie nights, boondock saints, bottlerocket, the breakfast club, brick, bubba ho-tep, caddyshack, charlotte's web, christmas story, a clockwork orange, the constant gardener, constantine, contact, the crying game, dangerous lives of alter boys, the dark crystal, dead man, dead poets society, devil probably, donnie darko, edward scissorhands, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, fargo, fear and loathing in las vegas, ferris bueller's day off, fight club, fire walk with me, fountain, french connection, garden state, ghostbusters, ghost world, good will hunting, goonies, habla con ella, happenstance, happy accident, hard eight, harold and maud, hedwig and the angry inch, high fidelity, i heart huckabees, igby goes down, wallace and grommet, indiana jones, jay and silent bob, the jerk, karate kid, ken park, kids, kill bill, labrynth, leon the professional, lock stock and two smoking barrels, lord of the rings, lost in translation, love actually, love liza, magnolia, the man who wasn't there, the man who would be king, memento, mindwalk, moulin rouge, mulholland drive, napoleon dynamite, nightmare before christmas, nuns on the run, pecker, the phantom tollbooth, pi, princes bride, pulp fiction, punch-drunk love, raising arizona, reservoir dogs, rocky horror picture show, romeo + juliet (baz luhrmann), royal tennenbaums, rushmoore, schindler's list, science of sleep, secretary, seven, el sexo y lucía, sexy beast, shaun of the dead, sideways, silverado, sin city, sisters of bellville, sixth sense, snatch, star wars, la strata, super troopers, time bandits, trainspotting, tron, twin falls idaho, v for vendetta, waking life, willow, wind in the willows, wonderboys, y tu mamá también, young frankenstein . . .
i hold it true, whate'er befall; / i feel it, when i sorrow most; / 'tis better to have loved and lost / than never to have loved at all.
--alfred tennyson
Television:
3-2-1 contact, athf, are you being served?, arrested development, cheers, combat sheep, cosby show, curb your enthusiasm, da ali g show, daily show, dr who, family guy, farscape, fraggle rock, freaks and geeks, futurama, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, home movies, homocide, inspector gadget, jim henson hour, late late show with craig, late night with connan, mash, mcguyver, monty python's flying circus, mr rogers, the muppets, northern exposure, office, prime suspect, prisoner, quantum leap, ren and stimpy, salute your shorts, samurai jack, seinfeld, simpsons, six feet under, smurfs, southpark, sportsnight, squidbillies, star trek, the tenacious d show, thundercats, venture brothers, x-files, young ones . . .
"don't worry, it'll clot," said josh.
"you're such an optimist," said lennon.
--on the patio, october 2004
Books:
authors: abbey, asimov, bellow, berkmann, bookchin, bradbury, chomsky, clemens, de bouvier, de claire, emmerson, frost, goldman, gorey, kerouak, leopold, márquez, quinn, russell, sagan, singer, steinbeck, thoreau, updike, vonnegut, zinn . . .
ask youself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves--or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
--ayn rand
Heroes:
you and me and every one who struggles with what they see.
if we are trespassing, so were the soldiers who broke down the gates of hitler's death camps; if we are thieves, so were the members of the underground railroad who freed the slaves of the south; and if we are vandals, so were those who destroyed forever the gas chambers of buchenwald and auschwitz.
--unattributed
i prayed for twenty years but received no answer until i prayed with my legs.
--frederick douglass
