I realized that I can blog in spurts.

Finished two easy books since the mind-numbing Cryptonomicon. First, I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was all right. I mean it was well-crafted and smart, and I liked the whole Oriental fighting techniques bit. But you know, how far can a pastiche go?

Then I finished reading Black Hawk Down. I didn't realize that reading historical accounts of war, campaigns, and soldiering was an age thing (think dads and their shelves full of WWII books), but I'm willing to accept it. It's a genre that I enjoy. I liked Band of Brothers and Generation Kill. So so far, I'm in the 20th and latter era, modern warfare. But I have a Civil War book and a Battle of Thermopylae book pending. We'll see how that turns out.

When you think about it, Lord Of The Rings was a war book too, except that it was, well, fantastic.

do you hear what I hear

My brother and I, despite a five-year age gap, get along on many things. We both like the same Star Wars trilogy (sequels, damn the prequels), and we both enjoyed reading Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy plus the succeeding duology. In fact we like Star Wars so much that, one time, while having the car tuned up, we got into a full blown argument over the Force, whether it functions as a religion in the SW Universe, and if that's a good or bad thing.

We like other stuff the same way too. Like this 90's Civil War movie, Glory. We both enjoy quoting from The West Wing, and we have annual viewings of the whole series, usually over greasy pan pizzas. We both grew up reading The Chronicles of Narnia, and took turns sharing our one copy of The Lord Of The Rings.

Even if he is younger, I try to get his opinion on a lot of stuff ranging from hair product and politics. We see church in the same way (a waste of precious weekend downtime), and I can ask him if my tie matches my suit. We both like eating except he works it all off while I... play poker and run NBA fantasy leagues.

Anyway, we both think of each other as fairly rational, level-headed people. We have mutual respect for how the other thinks, arrives at his conclusion, and expresses his opinion.

But, I cannot, for the life of me, understand his choice in music. And the confusion is mutual. He likes Justin Timberlake, Jason Mraz and Maroon 5. I like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and The Magnetic Fields. He says he loves pop and is proud of it. I say he loves pop and I hold his choice in contempt. I say I like my independently-produced alt/folk/electronic/shoegazer/displaced era music, and he calls it obscure and hipster. He likes the craftsmanship and production value of his music, I like the raw authenticity of mine. Hell is other music.

The only possible common ground is some OPM. Most of the time, it's relatively peaceful. Until we're in one car with one iPod hook-up. Then there can only be one.

look at the stars

I'm glad to have met you. Bye Cory! I'll never forget.

the Records

Max Records, the kid who plays the kid in Where The Wild Things Are, is interviewed on We Love You So.

Max is also the son of Shawn Records, the photographer.

If my last name was Records, I'd name my kids Hit and Broken. Hehe.

Sleepyhead

Passion Pit "Sleepyhead" from MySpace Transmissions


You can download the songs from this session from the Myspace Transmissions site.