Fort Building

We made a fort that looked something like this yesterday and slept in it:



It's amazing what some bed sheets, a few brooms, and some dental floss can create. Our fort was a vessel for music listening, candlelit ambiance, Pop Rocks candy, wine, and the sharing of horrific news stories and wonderful ideas. Further proof that genuine fun is generally free, or at least quite inexpensive.

SXSW 2010, European tours, The Rosebuds

Although tickets cost nearly $700 USD, the music portion of SXSW 2010 is March 17-21 and I've been itching to go for a couple of years. If only money grew on trees in my backyard and I was the chief harvester. I will have to check out the Bonnaroo, Coachella, APW et cetera, et cetera line-ups to see which one will reign supreme.

Just a note on my not-so-recent trend in perceptions of bands lately: if a band omits North America from their tour, I suddenly value them twofold. This is likely an extension of my unremitting attraction to those who are emotionally aloof.

Lastly, I liked this acoustic version of "Life Like", give it a little view:

(turn off the HD on the right hand side of the video if viewing problems arise).

The Rosebuds "Life Like" from Jason Arthurs on Vimeo.

Ambivalence Avenue

Bibio makes me giddy. It's the kind music I can put on, listen to the entire album, and when it's over, wonder where that hour or so disappeared to (and then proceed to press play and listen all over again). Stephen Wilkinson flooding my ears when I walk induces a subtle smile and bounce in my step that only serotonin could rival. He draws much inspiration from BoC, who I've never been blown away by, but Bibio adds a folk element and antique sound that puts him in a class of his own. Better yet, he has been producing albums every six months over the past year, and his evolution seems to be in a positive direction. His new album "The Apple and the Tooth" comes out in November.

Tomorrow, in a Year

Could there be a better combination? The Knife and a Darwinian inspired opera? (My new found enlightenment still pins Darwin as a genius).

Take me! Take me! Take me!

What's so dirty about dirt?

We spend a profuse amount of time attempting to "wash" the dirt off us when really most of the things we put on us or in us are dirtier than dirt, in an inorganic sense.

It seems I was intrinsically nonspiritual until about four weeks ago. Preaching Dawkins, placing science on a pedestal, and stubbornly insisting that scientific reasoning must provide the singular answer as to why so many individuals across the world seem to be inflicted with the "disease" of religion (see here). Now, a light switch has turned on.

As with most things in my life, inclusive of religion, I am an all-or-nothing/black-or-white type thinker. Religion made no pragmatic sense to me and my rational beliefs, actions and morals. This changed however, when I discovered the simplicity in the "grey" of spirituality I never knew existed.

John Hogue

"You can't have your past and your future, too," says Hogue. In other words, you cannot fully embrace the exciting and daunting possibilities that loom ahead of you if you also insist on immersing yourself in the pleasures of the past. You can either have the old ways or the new ways, but not both.

The sweet taste of insight.

Dichotomies, Dichotomies

"Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that my instincts were right. I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top.

At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles- a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other- that kept me going."

-The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson

White Rabbits

Shoot me with these bullets anyday.

White Rabbits "Percussion Gun" Music Video from White Rabbits on Vimeo.

Burning Man aka Too Excited to Write Full Sentences

- Finally.
- Gone to Mars from Aug 29 to Sept 9.
- T.O.----airplane---->L.A.----shortbus---->Black Rock City.
- My notebook and I will report back (maybe not to you and you, but to me and me).
- Theme = Evolution (!!!)
- 39 degrees in Reno.
- Totally unprepared.
- I want to live like Marie and Marie.

Lengthwise

When you're here I sleep lengthwise,
And when you're gone I sleep diagonal in my bed.