Flight of the Conchords

December 30, 2005

I just watched a clip from the Late Late Show (with Craig Ferguson) and saw the greatest folk-humor-duo since Tenacious D.

In fact, considering how tired Tenacious D got once all the frat guys in St. Cloud latched onto them, I feel as if these two might be better.

Go now; experience Flight of the Conchords.

In fact, go now to experience their hit song: “Hiphopapotamus v Rhymenocerous”. You’ll have to download the song once you get there. Choose the one from September 2005, once the song had been fleshed out and has a live audience backing it.

Hilarious.

Tags: Music |

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Power and glory

December 29, 2005

There’s something I’ve never understood in life: the desire for power and control for their own sake and not as a pleasant byproduct of added responsibility.

A young gentleman that I was talking to the other day mentioned to me that he hated not being in control – not having any power. I’m not sure how it came up, but we had just been talking about his brother, is being sent to Iraq in early January. Eventually talk got around to the danger involved in being in Iraq, and he said that he liked the idea of being in charge, of having a gun and stuff like that. Then he said seven words that started my wheels rolling.

“That’s why I want to be a cop.”

There are a lot of reasons to go into the law enforcement business: maybe you’re the type of person who always followed the rules and hates to see anyone take advantage of the system, or maybe you’ve been wronged in the past and you have a desire to execute justice – to make sure that the lawful and respectful are kept safe. Maybe you’re just mindful of how dangerous of a world it is and recognize that order must be kept in order for out lives to be free of fear.

The thing that I’m afraid of is that there is a group of people that choose their job solely for the power and control that is offered by it. I assume this is what leads to the scandals and crookedness that we see so often in the law enforcement field, in politics, and in the courts.

I know that in my managerial role I’ve taken numerous surveys that ask the question “do you have a desire to get back at someone,” or have read a reminder that begs “do not use this position to exact revenge on a co-worker/resident/customer.” This is all common sense to me. I took these positions because I was getting added responsibility, because it afforded me a little more income-wise, and because I enjoy doing a wide and varied amount of things rather than the same lower-level tasks.

I never took a managerial position because I wanted more power. In fact, if you ask anyone I know, I’ve mentioned that I’d rather do what I do without the power, without the responsibility of being “in charge.” That’s not an option, and so I do what I can to become a better manager. I don’t, however, do what I can to gain more power or control.

I understand that others are different, but I just think it’s a hard thing to swallow – the idea that there are people out there that want to become cops, or judges, or politicians simply for the power that they will accrue.

As if the perusal of a smooth running system and safe city streets aren’t motivation enough.

Tags: On... |

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Thoughts on Christmas 2005

December 26, 2005

So, how was your Christmas?

This year the usual shuttling from house to house ended as we decided to take things at a more leisurely pace. With work barring a full out celebration, Kerrie and I moved from family to family by the day instead of by the hour.

My father came over Tuesday for a Christmas dinner that also doubled as a promised “thank you for helping us haul rocks, branches, and dirt to the dump” meal. Christmas Eve was spent with Kerrie’s family where egg rolls and oyster stew filled me up before a late night shift at the Relay center. Christmas day was at my mothers, at least until 2 when I went home and took a nap.

All in all, I found Christmas to be a little more fulfilling than it has in the past. There’s a lot to be said about relaxing and enjoying your time without rushing from place to place. We’ve vowed to cut rushing out of our diet, and we successfully made our holidays this year fit our schedule.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you’ve got to fit everything into one day. That’s poppycock. We managed to spread the Christmas cheer, a cheer that I unexpectedly found emanating from my mind in mid-November, over the entire week. It was great.

The only thing that hampered my Christmas was the knowledge that my grandfather isn’t doing as well as we all would expect. His bout with cancer is certainly taking a lot out of him. They’ve given up on it being operable – that was the case back in the fall – and now they’re just trying to make his life comfortable for the rest of his time on the earth.

It’s been incredibly trying for us in Sioux Falls. We’re hundreds of miles away from the situation, and we feel helpless – as if we couldn’t assist even if we wanted to. It’s hard to see a man that was such a strong influence in my life brought down to such a weakened state, but it’s even worse hearing about it via a phone line that betrays his actual condition.

My grandfather sounded great when I talked to him on Christmas. He was in a good mood, he didn’t sound tired or in pain, and for a few minutes I had myself fooled that everything was going to be okay and that he’d be with us forever, just like I had when I was younger and hadn’t really grasped the idea of dying.

I wrote him a letter a few weeks ago telling him all that I’ve wanted to tell him since he was diagnosed. Believe it or not, but I’m a complete shut-in when it comes to communicating through any medium aside from writing, so I had to take the easy way and spell out exactly what he had meant to me. He told me on Christmas that it was the first time I’d made him cry. I didn’t bother telling him that his disease had been bringing me to tears off and on for the past ten months.

We’ve got something special planned for him that I can’t divulge just yet for fear that he’ll hop on the Internet and the surprise would be revealed. I do know that all he wants in life right now is to be around his family. I can also say that one of the only things I want right now is for him to be peaceful and comfortable.

As of today he’s back in the hospital. My grandmother is a tired wreck. My aunt is keeping things going in Idaho while my mother is doing what she can here in Sioux Falls.

When people ask me if I got everything I wanted for Christmas, I usually say, “Yes, I got cash. I don’t trust Santa Clause with my personal shopping.” Of course, this hides the truth – the only thing I truly desired for Christmas was something that was impossible: for my “grandpa” to be well, for him to live on and continue being that strong pillar that I’ve always braced myself upon.

Not even Santa could wrangle that up.

Tags: Grandpa Boyer |

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Merry Christmas, everyone

December 25, 2005

I hope everyone has a merry, safe, and stress-free Christmas.

From all of us at Black Marks on Wood Pulp — namely, me: Merry Christmas!

Tags: Random |

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On being a young reader

December 24, 2005

Something I’ve noticed while sifting through the glut of “best of 2005” book lists this year is that I’m utterly unfamiliar with 80-90% of the titles. Actually, it’s not just the titles; it’s the authors themselves.

I consider myself a pretty well read person, someone that has been able to fool a multitude of people into thinking I’m an accomplished book-reviewer and worthwhile critic. But, if you scratch the surface of most of my articles, you’ll find I’m only aware of the bare minimum of the literary world. When it comes to hidden gems and critic’s choices, I’m at a complete loss.

I’ve wondered how so many great books could have slipped past me – you’d think that, by chance alone, I’d have stumbled upon some book that no one had ever heard of – and how I’ll ever be able to create my own “best of” list that doesn’t include a horribly mainstream and pedestrian set of books.

There are two answers to this worry. Number one, I’m a young reader. This is to be expected. I’m only 27 years old, and though I’ve been reading all of my life, there have been great gaps in my consumption. I never did much reading after college (at least not until last spring), only making it through 6-8 books per year. During college wasn’t much better, as I had other things to occupy my time, like school and work. Therefore, I’ve only been a serious reader for about one year.

Secondly, I’m not privy to the inside track. I don’t possess any first hand knowledge; I’m not yet a bookseller and I’m not able to access the resources that many avid readers can take advantage of.

Those are my veiled excuses. To tell you the truth, I see this as a challenge. Now I find myself both unaware of new hidden things and fight to catch up with what I missed. This is how I work – my mind doesn’t rest until I become a self-proclaimed expert on a subject.

It’s rather sick. Ask my friends about the following pursuits that occupied my college years (in chronological order): second-wave “emo” music, professional wrestling, video game consoles, NBA basketball (and later, sports in general), and now books. Some of these can be chalked up to some jobs; others can be chalked up to having a group of friends that helped feed the demon. All are obsessive.

At least books are widely accepted, and give the air of being intelligent.

I’ve done a lot to widen my horizons. I used to find myself exhausting an author that I liked (Bill Bryson, for example) then moving on to the rest of that author’s field and eventually exhausting it as well (travel literature), then saying to Kerrie “I can’t find anything to read.” Now, thanks in part to my new Pocket Penguin 70th Anniversary box set, I’m spanning genres I’d never have even glanced at before.

My goal is to have it all read, all 70 of the 55-page books, by the end of January. I’ve already found at least five authors (P.D. James, Jonathan Safran Foer, Marian Keyes, Hari Kunzru, and Simon Schama) that I’d never given a second look but now see as great literary talents that should have filled my bookshelves years ago. And I’m only 22 books into the set!

So. If next year you find my “best of 2006” list lacking any hidden talents or breakthrough novels, don’t fret. Don’t hold it against me. Don’t consider my reading as base and uninspired. Consider this instead – I’ve got hundreds of years of the written word to try to catch up with. I only discovered John Steinbeck this year. Someday I’ll be at a literary level of those professionals that get paid to talk about books.

Consider this as well: I still like what I like. Just because a book is unknown, or written by someone who is a star on the rise, doesn’t mean it’s going to be good. It also doesn’t mean it’s going to get worse if I don’t read it when it comes out. I’ll still include J.K. Rowling on my list, regardless of how marketed her books are.

Let’s just say this. I know I have a long way to go before I’ve sampled everything. But until then, I’m trying as hard as I can.

Tags: Books, Literature |