your word of the week from the journal…

cynical

“a: contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives b : based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest”

as in- i would call what’s going on in new orleans shameful, but really it’s just human nature in effect…civilization is an illusion…that the smallest geologic/cosmic/atmospheric event can tear it away…asteroids…hurricanes…earthquakes…ice ages…magnetic polar shifts…these kinds of things are common…on the human scale they can seem like the end of the world…so…greed…and survival…come to the fore…rule of law be damned…the problem with the concept of civilization is that it’s in denial…of the human animal…we want to believe that the beast has been tamed…can be tamed…our entire culture is built around a handful of fallacies…this is one of them…ultimately…the lie will always out…

5 blogs for blogday…

occassional reads that are due notice…

karmagrrrl

killer weblog

EmptyFree

this is all your fault

the rub

Johnny Cash Loves You!

i love the dmv…really…

i know it’s a pain in the ass if you have to be there…you have to take at least a half day off from…whatever you do with your life…and you get to deal with surly gov’mint employees…but think about it…if you want to know what the people in your community are really like…and you’ve got an hour to kill…head down to your local dmv…you’ll find…real people…regular everyday citizens…take a look around…take it all in…look at the men…are they a dockers and golf shirt crowd…jeans and t-shirts…or shorts and sandals…on any given day…especially during the summer…every dmv will have at least a handful of teens…what are they wearing…are they there with their parents…are they there with their own children…how many languages are being spoken…are people reading…are they reading books or magazines…

all i’m sayin’ is…you could learn a lot about where you live…and the people who live there…

better than the airport…bus…or train station…people there are doing one of three things…passing through…coming in…or leaving…great people watching…sure…but not a great place to get know…where you live…

check it out…

i could…icould…i could…

i could tell you all about the delicious dinner i had with my wife and her parents…i could tell you how i always manage to overeat at the best thai restaurant in town…i could say that afterwards we went to a party with friends…and drank from many…many…bottles of wine…i could write about how i was social…gregarious…friendly…that would be a lie…i could give insight on why i retreat inside my self…i could complain about how…once again…i was the only black man in the room…but i didn’t care…i was happy…and surrounded by good people…i could exlain what makes me the guy who just wants to lay music…for everyone to enjoy…i could try to illuminate the joy of expressing myself….with other people’s songs…i could tell you the lesson of the evening was to not be the sweaty guy at the party who doesn’t wear deodorant…i could tell you that there is always someone who takes a big stynky dump in the bathroom…i could be funny and sad about how a ghost presided over the whole night…i could flashback to the flings…of fucking for 30 days…and then realizing that there is nothing else there…and…i could be happy…that those days are over…i could…

this is the kind of thing that makes me love…and hate…this place…

Dan over at East Colfax has managed to perfectly capture what makes denver such a frustrating…and lovely…conundrum…

Johnny Cash Loves You!