i'm getting a home made gift from brittany, which means i'm going to make home made gifts for the first three people to comment on this post. THE CATCH IS THAT IF YOU GET A GIFT FROM ME YOU HAVE TO MAKE GIFTS FOR THREE PEOPLE. ready set go

i don't know what you're doing to me

I've not been using this outlet enough, so I am making a January 21st resolution to do it more. Beware, January 21st resolutions are not nearly as effective as new years resolutions, so nothing may come of it. 

I'm working on a long post about that trip that we took to Cedar City, but it's headed for the trip log blog, and I think that's where it belongs. I admire Dave Kincaid for blogging about ideas whenever he blogs, though it is more rare than we'd like. 

There's a new sheriff in town, and I hope Barry makes good on his promises, he's got some tall boots to order, or some other mixed metaphor like that. 

I read a pretty terrible article about how legislation is not really like sausage making because you don't actually combine the disgusting parts of the pig into a wonderful delicious treat. I felt bad for the poor writer who didn't have enough self-awareness to at least admit that he was taking the analogy in a completely different direction than was originally intended. 

I'm blogging from Rachel's new MacBook. 

Shake it in the mornin' til you get it all right. 

School is for fools, I'm glad that I'm still on vacation. 

sing it as you please

My friend Evan Carpenter made a documentary this summer about musician Gabe Dominguez, a really great American folk singer/songwriter who is from Utah. It's still in production, but I got to see a fairly recent cut and was really impressed by it. It still needs a bit of cleaning up, but the message of the film was really impressive to me. My only experience with Gabe was seeing him play a really cold live show in April up near Sundance, and while I enjoyed the music, I didn't know much about the guy other than anecdotes here and there from some friends who were acquainted with him. The movie is called Sing it as you Please.



The whole film, at least for me, made it really easy to identify with Gabe as a person, and though the premise of a bike tour is a little wacky at first, you quickly get used to the setting and it seems both romantic and ordinary at the same time. I thought the tone of the rest of the movie followed that, I was surprised at the ease with which Gabe made things that might sound strange, wacky, or depressing (e.g. the story about being arrested for protesting) into more easily digested anecdotes that, while not initially shocking, were thought-provoking.

What struck me the most about the movie is that over the course of the film, I felt more and more empathy with Gabe. His friends, in a non-derogatory way, are a bit stranger than he is, and somewhat more difficult to identify with. This lead me to see Gabe, even as stranger information was revealed about him, as the most like me. What hit home at the end of the movie, in a shot of Gabe in a U-haul that they had rented, talking about the way that people see him from outside, and listing things like plowing up part of the yard to make a garden, or riding your bike more, or going to teach in inner city schools, as impetus for those that call him and others "crazy." As he talked about that it dawned on me that the film made me see his way as so natural that it was frustrating to think of those people that would derogate it without understanding the love that he puts into his decisions. The last exchange is Gabe saying "Just like Gandhi said, 'First they call you crazy,'" and at that moment, you feel that you'd much rather be called crazy with Gabe than be doing the calling.



Maybe I'm especially vulnerable because I sold all of my motorized vehicles in favor of bikes, but I really think that the movie can go a long way toward helping people understand that Gabe's lifestyle isn't just interesting or different, but desirable, even if they are not ready to do quite so much.

In any case, I loved it. Keep it up Gabe, and keep it up Evan. You guys are doing good things.

Report: Vermont Is Healthiest State

for some reason that title was in the autocomplete of my blog title li'l box.

austin hasn't blogged in a long time. i know it is because he is very busy. my capital letters voice is on vacation right now. if anyone wants to help me to write 5-7 pages about marx's views on modernity i'd appreciate it. <3 y'all.

hey look it's tiny london

this is something that i want to do for my future children

http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com

a quick moment in irony

from the people who are angry that "money from hard working people gets given to lazy people who are poor" comes a corporate bailout to the tune of $700,000,000,000. It's taking $2333 from each hard working american man, woman, and child(it's about $10,000 from the average household) and putting it in the pockets of investors and banks who purposefully made high-risk decisions. People who have been making hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars from their decisions. They're who the american people need to sacrifice for. Damn those welfare queens to poverty and death, they should just get a job. 

call it off

Today was one of the most genuinely great days of my life. Waking up this morning to the sunlight through my small window, I had no premonition of greatness. I didn't think it would be much more than a trudge through class, then work, then class, then homework, and then maybe a bike ride in the evening. That's the magic of the world though. It doesn't have to warn you, and it's probably better if it doesn't. I have no more consumer debt. Or fossil fuel powered transportation. It's liberating. It's one of those positive moments that I want to be able to look back on, so bear with my giddiness. 

Feeling free is the best feeling that you can have, I think. And being able to feel free with your friends, not having to escape them to feel free, is great. I think that is the appeal of the Gospel for me, when you are really doing things right, you really do feel free. More free than any other experience that exists. Add some fresh air, and you might never stop smiling. 

The weather has been perfect lately. I'm learning more interesting things than I ever thought that I could in college. The world is a pretty interesting place, even when it's having problems. 

Riding bikes is pretty much the best, and it barely even costs money. You just have to eat more pitas and hummus than you normally would. The colors are starting to change outside. I'm not sure if you've noticed or if you're too busy reading your rss feed, but you should really go outside and check them out. At night, it's starting to get cold enough that you don't feel your fingers if you stay out for too long. The days are getting shorter and sweeter. They aren't brisk yet, not by any means, but they are more pleasant. Look around; I just did and I wish that someone had reminded me to earlier. 

Take some more pictures and share them with me. I want to see your life. I want everyone to see how great everyone else's life is. Even when they're hard, there's a lot of greatness, of magnanimity in everyone.