Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Time, Relativity, Beauty, Childhood, Nature, Poetry, Love, Wonder, and Jack Johnson

I believe there are truths that transcend our current tools of language. Shades of meaning that can be captured in a painting, song, or shared experience.

Why is Jack Johnson's little "Spring Wind" ditty so moving??? It's clearly not the chords: D-G-A-D-G-A-G-D-A-Bm-D-G-D-A-Bm-G-A-D. I can play these chords without being paralyzed with emotion. Although they do seem to resonate with something deep inside.


G D G
All my friends are getting older,
A BM
I guess I must be too.
G
Without their love and kindness
A
I don't want I'll do
G D
Oh the wine bottle's half empty
A BM
The money's all been spent
G
We're a cross between our parents
A
And hippies in a tent.

G D
Oh, Love calls just like a wild bird
A BM
It's just another day
G A D
Spring blew my list of things to do away.

G,D,G,D

G D G
In a mucked up lovely river
A BM
I cast my little fly
G
But I look at that river and I smell it and
A
it makes me want to cry, Oh
G D
To clean our dirty planet
A BM
Now there's a noble wish
G
Now I putting shoulder to the wheel
A
Cause I wanna catch some fish, Oh
G D
Love calls just like a wild bird
A BM
It's just another day
G A D
Spring blew my list of things to do away.


I'm thinking about dissecting this, because there was a lot I had to say about what this song evokes (see title), but the interesting thing is, when I use the analytical part of my mind to try to pick the song apart, it's like the feelings are no longer accessible. Weird.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Joe vs. the Volcano

I think Joe vs. The Volcano was brilliant, and I don't care who knows! Perhaps there has never been a more powerful portrayal of a meaningless, miserable office life.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Secret, off-the-grid babies

So I asked my doctor wife (not my doctor- she is my wife and she is a doctor that sometimes helps bring babies into the world), "Do babies come out of their mommies with Social Security Numbers?

If not, do you know when they get a birth certificate, and when they get a social? I'm contemplating the pros and cons of having an "off-the-grid baby." Once I know when they receive socials, and if they can bypass this when born at home, I can ask dad about property ownership and bank accounts, as well as IRS law.

Health care and education might be a problem, too, but there is home schooling, and Jehova's Witnesses, the Amish, and Christian Scientists have pioneered the "no healthcare" waters, right?"


To which she replied, "i don't know how birth certificates work, really. when i deliver a baby, i have to sign a paper certifying the birth, but that paper then goes to some administrative office and the certificate that mom and dad get is issued to them several days later. as far as social security numbers go, i do know that parents have to apply for that separately, and children aren't required to have them."

So, this leaves many unanswered questions. Primarily, I wonder at what point a U.S.-born person is required to be documented. I mean, wouldn't be a neat gift to a child to give them the option of citizenship and tax payment?

Why am I wondering this? Because of the immigration debate, and thoughts about representative government. Do undocumented immigrants always want citizenship? If not, why?

Friday, November 17, 2006

My Hands are Bananas

I applaud My Hands are Bananas. Great concept, but a little tiring towards the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO10s_HK6d0&NR

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The Famous Rebecca Bryant

[just discovered this gem while doing some HDD housecleaning]

My sister, Rebecca Bryant, has officially surpassed me in "airtime," while I still hold a comfortable lead in the blogging category. Speaking of "lead," the reason for Rebecca's new found fame has to do with Architecture, Green Building, LEED Certification, and stuff that generally makes the world a better place.

Check it out:

  1. article (linking to webcast) here: http://cr0ck3tt.com/blogs/crockettdunn_blogspot_com/Rebecca_Bryant_Leed_Certified_Green_Architecture/KUHF City Buildings Go Green (2004-06-23).htm
  2. webcast (live), here: http://www.kuhf.org/upload/multimedia/green-building.ram
  3. webcast (archived wav file), here: http://cr0ck3tt.com/blogs/crockettdunn_blogspot_com/Rebecca_Bryant_Leed_Certified_Green_Architecture/Rebecca Bryant- LEED, Green, Sustainability.wav

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Darwinian Seasonal Allergies

I think there might be a Darwinian explanation for the survival of acquired (second + exposure) seasonal allergies. If I can go somewhere else in the country with different allergens, then I might feel better. If I went to that other place and reproduced, my genes might be more fit for survival. So maybe allergies are designed to keep us moving and mixing...

Sunday, October 15, 2006

North Korea

You know, I have heard the rhetoric about North Korea and its isolation and poverty, but I didn't grasp the extent of its government's people-controlling propaganda efforts- until last night, when I watched the documentary film, "A State of Mind."

The film follows participants’ training leading up to the Mass Games, a huge show that I couldn’t help relating to Nazi Germany’s Nuremburg rallies, in that both were efforts of desperate governments to impress and unify their people.

Anyway, the scene that caused me to nearly fall out of my chair was this: a teacher is quizzing grade school students. The format is that the teacher asks a question, and the class answers in unison.

TEACHER: How many types of greatness does the Great Leader [Kim Jong Il] have?
STUDENTS: Three.
TEACHER: Firstly?
STUDENTS: Greatness in ideology.
TEACHER: Second?
STUDENTS: Greatness in leadership.
TEACHER: Third?
STUDENTS: Greatness in aura.

Friday, October 06, 2006

The Banana Was Never Recovered.

Today I lost my cell phone and a banana for 30 minutes. I eventually found my cell phone in my car, hiding in its black leather phone case against the black leather seat, snuggled between the driver's side door and driver's seat.

The banana was never seen again.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

???_why_???

kids...

NEVER never NEVER never NEVER NEVER NEVER

never stop asking, "WHY?"

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Hello, I'm AWESOME

OK, I found this sticky name tag, and I haven't been able to stop chuckling to myself since.

I have seen name tags that read, "Hello, my name is..." But this one is different. This name tag is special, because it reads, "Hello, I'm."

One can use not only names, but also adjetives, gerunds, short phrases, and more!

The comedic possibilities are endless!

Hello, I'm AWESOME.
Hello, I'm drunk.
Hello, I'm RIDICULOUS.
Hello, I'm your worst nightmare.
Hello, I'm not.
Hello, I'm SUPER, thanks for asking.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Music for the soul

I played guitar for 45 minutes just now, and at some point I became lost in the sounds and rhythms. I experimented with new thumping and fingering without fully fretting (like a harmonic but not above one of the "good" sounding frets), and I think, for over 1 half hour, my analytical mind turned off, and I was an animal human, without worries- like a dog at the dog park, raising its ears and cocking its head at a curiousity. That peace is all I could ever ask for out of life. Freedom from the analytical, neocortical mind.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Love Quotes


  • "If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?" - Lily Tomlin
  • "All you need is love." -The Beatles
  • "Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart. Why are we here and where do we go and how come it's so hard?" - Jack Johnson
  • "A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth — that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way — an honorable way — in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, 'The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.'" - Victor Frankl

Friday, August 11, 2006

Friday night surreality

It's 11:30 PM in Pasadena, CA. I swear to god I just walked outside into the twilight zone. OK, so there was this crazy screaming squawking chirping fighting sounding noise outside. My dog was barking like mad it it. It sounded like a squirrel and a parrot fighting or something.

I went outside to see if there was something dying in the street, because the screams and squawks were so anguished sounding. As I walked closer to the street, it became clear that the noises were coming from accross the street in bushes and trees. Clearly something was upset that a sprinkler was wetting its home. OK, but that's not the odd part.

As I cautiously approached the street, concerned for my saftey (because of the mystery squawks), a large meteor made a THICK red-yellow stripe horizontally accross the sky as it burned out in the atmosphere, and at the same time a single rider on a tandem bicycle rode by. All the while, the squawking continued.

I wonder, what are the chances of the mystery squawking, shooting star, solo-tandem-rider combo ever occurring again on a full moon night?