Talking Bird

It's November, but it's already Christmas in our apartment.

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:27:50 -0500

Last night, Celia and I were doing what we sometimes do - that is, talk about the world and the people in it - and we wondered what makes people so pretentious as to think that their weblogged opinion matters? Mostly when it comes to music and other forms of “art.” And since when is “Indie” a genre, anyway?

Last Friday, the band I was in, Duffy, played our final show. It was a bittersweet night. I had a lot of fun playing music with those three guys.

Oh, this is where I’ll be on New Year’s Eve, too.

How come I’d never seen this music video before? Paul...

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:14:31 -0500

How come I’d never seen this music video before?

Paul McCartney - “Dance Tonight”

Chicken Police Break Up Rabbit Fight Animals are funny.

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:24:00 -0500

Chicken Police Break Up Rabbit Fight

Animals are funny.

"If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a..."

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:35:15 -0500

“If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?”

- Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

Music has the ability to transcend time and space like some sort of deity, fully enveloping its...

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 03:54:50 -0500

Music has the ability to transcend time and space like some sort of deity, fully enveloping its listener and envoking joy or peace or sorrow in a way that is not fully explainable. Man’s creation takes on a self-awareness, exciting emotions with its crecendos and digging memories long forgotten with its rhythms and rests. Music giveth and music taketh away.

"I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job."

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:57:04 -0500

“I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

- The ever-conservative John Wayne, commenting on the election of John F. Kennedy

...

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:44:04 -0400

Guinness Book of Records recently made it into the Guinness Book of Records for being the book with the most world records in it.

Think about that.

Sometimes

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:28:44 -0400

I’m unreliable.

Wow.

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:37:28 -0400

Wow.

Reconciling Sufjan Stevens: Religious Hipsters and The Inevitable Queerness Of Christian Music

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:05:52 -0400

Reconciling Sufjan Stevens: Religious Hipsters and The Inevitable Queerness Of Christian Music: This was an interesting read.

Seriously. Wonderful. More about Pete.

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:04:00 -0400

Seriously. Wonderful.

More about Pete.

Seth Bernard

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:17:52 -0400

Seth Bernard: …is a really good musician.

"Jill, that’s why we became parents…so we could tell our kids what to do. If we..."

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:35:00 -0400

“Jill, that’s why we became parents…so we could tell our kids what to do. If we can’t do that, we’re just the tallest people living here.”

- Tim, on a rerun of Home Improvement I watched last night.

celiabeth: “smell the diesel, rub the grease!” can’t get enough...

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:15:18 -0400

celiabeth:

“smell the diesel, rub the grease!”

can’t get enough of him!

We need more people like this guy.

For My Memory

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:37:00 -0400

Jon: Word.
Bill: Woot.
Celia: Sup Red.
Jon: This was the most awkward exchange between the three of us.

Sarah Silverman is Un-funny.

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:15:00 -0400

Not just not funny, rather she is the antithesis of funny. Think about everything funny encompasses. Laughter, smiles, general good-feeling. Now think of the opposite. Crying, frowns, the same feeling you get when the dentist is drilling your tooth and didn’t quite give you enough novocaine.

Sarah Silverman is the opposite of funny.

She’s probably the opposite of cool, too.

Seriously. I can’t stand Sarah Silverman. She’s so far from funny that she makes her boyfriend, Jimmy Kimmel, look funny. Do you know how much work that must take? Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno are funnier than Sarah Silverman. Heck, I’ve laughed more at John McCain than I have at Sarah Silverman.

I could probably list 1,000 people I’d rather listen to than Sarah Silverman.

I’m not alone, either, but I was more respectful than these people.

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Steve. No matter what happens...

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:56:54 -0400

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Steve.

No matter what happens tonight, you can sleep it off tomorrow, roomie.

America

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:23:00 -0400

They’ve all come to look for America… - Paul Simon

I get this feeling, sitting here on a college campus in the month leading up to the Presidential election, that the idea that “America is “the last, best hope of Earth” (Barack Obama, April 2007) is creeping into the minds of many Americans, specifically young people. With the current financial crisis and the injection of fear by our government that a total economic meltdown is just around the corner, I can see why it would seem that our government is the only thing that can save us now. I mean, why not? It seems like we want the government to cater to our moods, save us from ourselves, and save us from itself. When we’re prosperous, we want the government to get the heck out of the way so we can make more money, but when we’re poor, we want the government to create more jobs for us, or give us some money to get us back on our feet, that way we can tell it to buzz off again once we’re rich.

Why can’t the government save us? Or the world, for that matter? The government can’t change minds. It can desegregate, but it can’t end racism and prejudice. It can ban abortion, but it can’t prevent young women from getting pregnant. It can prevent discrimination, but it can’t require tolerance. It can legislate against hate, but it can’t legislate love.

I proclaim myself to be a libertarian (mostly philosophically, rather than practically, I guess), and part of the reason why is because I feel a government which attempts legislate love and morality and ethics rather than protect us from each other only causes its dissenters to grow stronger. Those who feel that welfare programs simply promote a culture of laziness and government-dependence will only feel more resentment if the government continues these programs. Their attitudes won’t change. I’m not trying to make a case against welfare, or social security, or any government program, for that matter (although I could), instead I’m saying that the amount of faith and hope that is put into the government to change and fix the world is ridiculous. Suddenly, Barack Obama has been turned into Jesus Christ, and once George W. Bush is no longer our president, everyone in the country will have a job, a home, healthcare, and we’ll no longer have to fight any wars.

The government won’t fix everything. The government won’t bring us world peace, a green planet, or and end to hate. Instead of relying on Washington, why don’t we rely on something greater? Christ’s message has become so grossly misrepresented by human beings that I bet most people don’t even know what it really is. Neither Republicans nor Democrats could run on a ticket based on God’s love and Christ’s teachings. As Barack Obama boldly (and correctly) said in a speech in which he sarcastically asks which part of the Bible should be applied to public policy, “…should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount - a passage so radical that it’s doubtful that our Defense Department would survive its application?” I contend, yes.

Living love as God commands us is the only way to change minds. Allowing Christ to be experienced by others through us is the only way to change lives. Being a reflection of the divine in an otherwise murky existence is the only way to change the world. Republicans are not the last, best hope of morality. Democrats are not the last, best hope of peace. God’s love is the last, best hope of Earth.

"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God;..."

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:06:12 -0400

“

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

”

- 1 John 4:11-16

Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You So beautiful. I’d...

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:22:00 -0400

Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You

So beautiful.

I’d swim across lake Michigan
I’d sell my shoes
I’d give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room

To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost

To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me you went up on the tree

I’ll never know the man who loved me