Merchants of Cool...

a friend down the hall...let's call him shannon...clued me into this really good and intriguing documentary called The Merchants of Cool on pbs...now i know what you're thinking, 'nothing good's on pbs'...that's what i was thinking...well, i mean besides that wonderful show the mcclaughlin group, which just sounds like it will be packed with fun...oh and there's sesame street of course and everybody loved mr. rogers...i was all about mr. rogers when i was little...the trolley and daniel tiger...i will cut this tangent short right here...as soon as i go feed the fish... anywho...this documentary is worth the watch...it's as if, in a twisted way, marketing corporations make better parents than most parents. it's worth the watch if you have time, which we all have loads of as graduate students...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/

silence...

desiring the redemption of a relationship that has broken into pieces when the other is gone never to return hurts much deeper than the hounding desire to have everything back to the way it used to be...

what hit home just a bit deeper today...

...i learned a little more about how broken the world is...how the dignity within us is violated and crushed so deeply and how so many people are lost in their ruins...i felt the strong desire to detach from what i experienced today in class.

i learned a little more deeply that in grief we allow ourselves to feel loss...and we spend so much time denying the deep loss in our lives. The danger of relational isolation struck a little closer to home today and i felt a little more deeply that i am lonely...i wept just a bit in class...and a little more as i listened to Kite by patty griffin...

The Sunday after there was laughter in the air
Everybody had a kite
They were flying everywhere
And all the trouble went away
And it wasn't just a dream
All the trouble went away
And it wasn't just a dream

In the middle of the night
We try and try with all our mights
To light a little light down here
In the middle of the night
We dream of a million kites
Flying high abovethe sadness and the fear

Little sister just remember
as you wander through the blue
The little kite that you sent flying
on a sunday afternoon
Made of something light as nothing
Made of joy that matters too
How the little dreams we dream
Are all we can really do

In the middle of the night
The world turns with all of it's might
A little diamond colored blue
In the middle of the night
We keep sending little kites
Until a little light gets through

bustin' a sag...

so ever since the last time i made my way to portland i've had this growing suspicion that all my jeans are a bit out of style...namely they are old and baggy enough to fit two of me into. so, i've been on a search for jeans and it is turning into a bit of a saga really...well...mainly the saga entails i really need to go look for jeans and it just will not work out. But, that isn't completely true...you see...i could have gone by myself already and searched for jeans but then i would pick out the same 'out of the 90's' jeans that i still have in my closet. I seriously still regularly wear jeans from highschool...let's just say i haven't purchased jeans in a long time and leave it at that...

Anyway...so today another page of the saga continued. I was in school today (elementary school that is) wearing the only pair of jeans in my repertoire that has not been officially named as stylistically problematic...the short of it is that i like these jeans. So i'm wearing these jeans and a little second grader walks up to me and says, "mr. j, are you bustin' a sag?" I was completely stunned and all i could reply with was a, "what??" He continued, "you know...are you saggin' your pants?" well, all i could manage to do is look down and check out whether or not i was indeed bustin' a sag. I was hoping we could both come to a concensus on the issue but my little friend got sidetracked by the fact that i was wearing boxers when he indeed was sure that tighty whities were the way to go. so, we never came to a concensus on anything because how can you trust a 2nd graders choice of undergarments? i mean really...his parents buy his underwear...that totally hurts his argument. And now i am left to wonder...do i bust a sag???

portland.michael.eden.and.aluminum.foil.art

so the plan was to head home this weekend but that didn't happen...plane ticket compications... work complications...my inability to think ahead complications...etc. Instead I went to Portland with Michael and Eden this weekend...what a blast. We talked of moo moo's and hit up the Montage for dinner...it was so cool...they wrap up your leftovers in aluminum foil turned into art...michael's leftovers looked just like this...


...except for it was aluminum foil and filled with biscuits, sausage and gravy...other than that...identical. Cathy's leftovers were an alligator and my leftovers turned into this giant sword, which was pretty cool...i wanted to challenge the guy whose leftovers were transformed into a life size battle axe...i so would have kicked his butt.

One of many of the highlights of the weekend though...perhaps my favorite was that we listened to Eden Smith's new cd before it hit the press. It is beautiful...we spent hours of our car ride enjoying her music, asking questions and listening to her heart as she shared her songs with us...it was priceless...Rest and Beauty.

disruption with a k otic twist

okay...so i'm getting called out by my sis...it's a good thing she's on the other side of the country...or we'd have serious beef. Anyway, it's been a wild couple of weeks over here...works been insane...school...insane (not bad insane...there can be insanity that leads to growth and good right?). For example, I wrote a research paper on adolescent female cutting. Somewhere in the process I spent about several hours watching youtube videos about the stories of different adolescent girls purposefully mutilated their own bodies and almost no one knew...it was so sad...i can't put words to what was stirred in me.

so as i sit here and gear up to write the final set of papers for the trimester i wanted to post another k os video...the dancing and choreography is pretty amazing. The song is called, Man I Used to Be. There is such a deep interplay of identity, victimization, story and aimlessness weaved throughout this video.

k os for a k otic week

so this week is short on time...not that we usually have tons of time here to shoot the breeze or chew the fat. I will be typing all week and perhaps be the recipient of some spit if it's a good day at work. Anyway, I've been meaning to post a video from my new favorite hip hop artist...so good...

True life will only find its roots in the crevices of our lives that have first been cracked and laid bare. Only where there is death will there be the hope of resurrection and redemption.