I experienced a perfect music moment last night on my walk home.
The Gotan Project's "Diferente" on their Lunatico album (on repeat this week) has a great beat that kind of forces you to walk in time to it. Tackling stairs and flat ground alike to this quick rhythm, it felt like the world was listening to the same track. Then in the last minute of the song, I noticed a guy walking toward me to the exact same beat making every one of our steps in sync. He kept up this relatively odd pace for the entire 100 feet or so it took to reach and pass me. This may sound like a weird thing to get excited about, but it was one of those moments where everything feels like it's moving on the same wavelength as everything else as opposed to bumper car effect of the poorly aligned multitude of wavelengths that usually exists.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Shashin...
time out on market day...market flowers...
the capitol...
madison gas & electric at sunset...
on willy st...
a room with a view...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
My Evening Walk
On a typical evening in the life of moi, assuming that I haven’t convinced myself to take advantage of this city’s vast plethora of potentially scintillating activities, I make dinner and head to the Ground Zero Coffee. There, I sip sip on tea (I switch the flavor up from night to night to make it exciting) and putz around on their Internet.
My walk to said 喫茶店 (coffee/tea house) begins with interesting characters that inevitably inhabit the corner in front of my apartment. I then pass the Come Back In bar where chugging contests occur loudly in the back garden followed by the Essen Haus, which invariably smells like sauerkraut, and then tiny concrete island, the crossing to which nearly ends in a collision with moving vehicles every time. After waiting several minutes, posed and ready for the small white-lit man to indicate my turn to cross, I beeline it across the street in a desperate effort to clear the heavily trafficked street during my allotted 10 seconds. Once safely across, I breathe a sigh of relief and continue past the small gawking boy outside the Vietnamese restaurant who watches me surreptitiously with a shy curiosity that questions my existence as a believable resident of his world. Finally, after passing the day-care center, which I have yet to see a child at (yes I’ve passed this place during the day), and forging my way through the spider colonies that stretch across the sidewalk from bush to tree, I reach my destination.
Sitting near the window will typically afford you a good view of an interesting variety sights. In fact, tonight I had the pleasure of watching a man drive by on a golf cart decked out with the removable tarp window one might find on a Jeep Wrangler.
My way home is much the same as the way there. This time without the small boy and when I reach my corner, aforementioned interesting characters have leased their space to two or more people just itching to fight. Who would have thought there would be so much to say about a block and a half walk…
My walk to said 喫茶店 (coffee/tea house) begins with interesting characters that inevitably inhabit the corner in front of my apartment. I then pass the Come Back In bar where chugging contests occur loudly in the back garden followed by the Essen Haus, which invariably smells like sauerkraut, and then tiny concrete island, the crossing to which nearly ends in a collision with moving vehicles every time. After waiting several minutes, posed and ready for the small white-lit man to indicate my turn to cross, I beeline it across the street in a desperate effort to clear the heavily trafficked street during my allotted 10 seconds. Once safely across, I breathe a sigh of relief and continue past the small gawking boy outside the Vietnamese restaurant who watches me surreptitiously with a shy curiosity that questions my existence as a believable resident of his world. Finally, after passing the day-care center, which I have yet to see a child at (yes I’ve passed this place during the day), and forging my way through the spider colonies that stretch across the sidewalk from bush to tree, I reach my destination.
Sitting near the window will typically afford you a good view of an interesting variety sights. In fact, tonight I had the pleasure of watching a man drive by on a golf cart decked out with the removable tarp window one might find on a Jeep Wrangler.
My way home is much the same as the way there. This time without the small boy and when I reach my corner, aforementioned interesting characters have leased their space to two or more people just itching to fight. Who would have thought there would be so much to say about a block and a half walk…
Monday, August 18, 2008
Lanterns in the Motoyasu River: Hiroshima's 63rd
So it's a little late, but I found this image on Time Magazine and thought that it was beautiful. It was taken on August 6th, 2008 near the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima. The lanterns were lit in remembrance of the atomic attack made on Hiroshima 63 years ago.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Little Things that I Love
(in no particular order)
1. the wind in my face
2. smiles from strangers
3. the perfect lighting for an evening walk
4. the thoughts that make you smile to yourself
5. the unexplained bubble that wells up around your heart when you simply look up and realize how great the world around you is
6. listening to music outside
7. swinging
8. random acts of kindness
9. when kids grab your hand to lead you somewhere or just to have a hand to hold
10. getting new music
11. listening to people talk about what they're passionate about
12. the sun setting in the trees
13. feeling like you have a soundtrack to your day
14. linking arms and walking in a row down the street
15. holding hands
16. laying in the middle of a big road in the middle of the night when no cars are around
17. hello's in the middle of the day, just because
18. having the sounds outside sync perfectly with the music you're listening to
19. getting to the bottom of a tube of chapstick
20. seeing people get off an airplane to the welcoming arms and warm smiles of those that have missed them while they were gone
21. second-hand images (shadows and reflections)
1. the wind in my face
2. smiles from strangers
3. the perfect lighting for an evening walk
4. the thoughts that make you smile to yourself
5. the unexplained bubble that wells up around your heart when you simply look up and realize how great the world around you is
6. listening to music outside
7. swinging
8. random acts of kindness
9. when kids grab your hand to lead you somewhere or just to have a hand to hold
10. getting new music
11. listening to people talk about what they're passionate about
12. the sun setting in the trees
13. feeling like you have a soundtrack to your day
14. linking arms and walking in a row down the street
15. holding hands
16. laying in the middle of a big road in the middle of the night when no cars are around
17. hello's in the middle of the day, just because
18. having the sounds outside sync perfectly with the music you're listening to
19. getting to the bottom of a tube of chapstick
20. seeing people get off an airplane to the welcoming arms and warm smiles of those that have missed them while they were gone
21. second-hand images (shadows and reflections)
Monday, August 11, 2008
New post New post!!!
Alright, so in the last (and only post) I said something along the lines of not discussing my everyday mundane life, but let's (and by 'let's' I mean 'i') admit that my everyday life is pretty damn sweet and eeeveryone wants to hear all about it.
That said... I HAVE A JOB IN MADISON THAT ROCKS MY CHEESE HEAD OFF!
oh, and did I mention that this city is fantabulastic? It's like the city version of Grinnell College, which basically means that everybody is awesome and I am very happy.
So far, my friends include me, my stereo, my camera, and all the people I send silent hello's to, but who don't know I exist, but I am confident that these fabrications of human connection will soon evolve into healthy face-to-face conversations...just so long as I remember to stop tripping on every shadow of an obstacle because my head is too far up in the air to look down.
Otherwise, I've checked out the Saturday market (delightful people watching), the outdoor Jazz fest, the National Slam Poetry Contest (so amazing, props to all those who competed or dreamed of competing), State Street in all its glory, I am a contented member of the Willy St. Co-op, and a soon to be regular at Tango Wednesdays at the Cardinal (my new apartment building). Hoo-rah!
After 10 days of mooching off of Grinnell Alumni (neither of whom I have met), I am finally in my new apartment. All of my "stuff" is within my leased boundaries so all I need now is to sabotage the offensive plug-in air freshener in the hallway and get my hands on a kitchen table, couch and bed. But I'm not worried about the furniture. With Hippie Christmas coming up, the good people of Madison will surely produce some fine fixable furniture freebies for the finishing of my fumigated forum (er, apartment).
and if you're wondering what Hippie Christmas is, it is a wonderful oportunity for those with no money and no household furnishings to take from those with too much of said furnishings to deal with. It lies between the 14th or August when everyone in Madison is kicked out of their homes and the 15th when the are permitted to move into their new ones. This gap wherein most of madison is homeless for about 24 hours usually results in discarded goods left on the streets for scavengers to come by and furtively (or not so furtively) reassign into their own possession....in fact, afforementioned act is in the process outside the coffee shop window as I type.
If anyone is looking for something to do next weekend, I'm currently in the market for borrowed muscle as I hunt for furniture to call my own.
That said... I HAVE A JOB IN MADISON THAT ROCKS MY CHEESE HEAD OFF!
oh, and did I mention that this city is fantabulastic? It's like the city version of Grinnell College, which basically means that everybody is awesome and I am very happy.
So far, my friends include me, my stereo, my camera, and all the people I send silent hello's to, but who don't know I exist, but I am confident that these fabrications of human connection will soon evolve into healthy face-to-face conversations...just so long as I remember to stop tripping on every shadow of an obstacle because my head is too far up in the air to look down.
Otherwise, I've checked out the Saturday market (delightful people watching), the outdoor Jazz fest, the National Slam Poetry Contest (so amazing, props to all those who competed or dreamed of competing), State Street in all its glory, I am a contented member of the Willy St. Co-op, and a soon to be regular at Tango Wednesdays at the Cardinal (my new apartment building). Hoo-rah!
After 10 days of mooching off of Grinnell Alumni (neither of whom I have met), I am finally in my new apartment. All of my "stuff" is within my leased boundaries so all I need now is to sabotage the offensive plug-in air freshener in the hallway and get my hands on a kitchen table, couch and bed. But I'm not worried about the furniture. With Hippie Christmas coming up, the good people of Madison will surely produce some fine fixable furniture freebies for the finishing of my fumigated forum (er, apartment).
and if you're wondering what Hippie Christmas is, it is a wonderful oportunity for those with no money and no household furnishings to take from those with too much of said furnishings to deal with. It lies between the 14th or August when everyone in Madison is kicked out of their homes and the 15th when the are permitted to move into their new ones. This gap wherein most of madison is homeless for about 24 hours usually results in discarded goods left on the streets for scavengers to come by and furtively (or not so furtively) reassign into their own possession....in fact, afforementioned act is in the process outside the coffee shop window as I type.
If anyone is looking for something to do next weekend, I'm currently in the market for borrowed muscle as I hunt for furniture to call my own.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
to begin a blog
Having never posted my ponderings on an online forum I am not quite sure how to go about beginning. This is the kind of first impression that either makes or breaks your audience, right? If my first post is some drippy sentiment about how no matter what life throws our way we must embrace it all and sally forth into the unknown it might seem as though all proceeding postings will contain ambiguous, aloof, and all-together cliche beliefs on life copy-and-pasted from www.quotesaboutlife.com. Then if I begin this with some rant about how long the returns line at Marshall's took the other day I may give the impression that I am perpetually with my panties in a bunch and that my blog would consistently reflect that. Or maybe I should just leave the whole blog blank, but still check it everyday to see if anyone felt compelled to comment, at least to tell me that my blog is lame.
I do not pretend that www.quotesaboutlife.com is not bookmarked on my Firefox or that my vocabulary doesn't support the needs of a good rant or even that I don't assume that everyone I ever knew should be thinking about comments to leave for my "delightfully surprised" discovery all the time.
It would seem, however, that this beginning that I have chosen in contemplating the best way to start quite effectively illustrates the constant multitude of possibilities running through my cranium. I suppose this will do. From here on, I will muse. Hopefully you'll come back for more.
I do not pretend that www.quotesaboutlife.com is not bookmarked on my Firefox or that my vocabulary doesn't support the needs of a good rant or even that I don't assume that everyone I ever knew should be thinking about comments to leave for my "delightfully surprised" discovery all the time.
It would seem, however, that this beginning that I have chosen in contemplating the best way to start quite effectively illustrates the constant multitude of possibilities running through my cranium. I suppose this will do. From here on, I will muse. Hopefully you'll come back for more.
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