Music Movies Books?!

Music:
Battles - experimental rock music, nonsense lyrics that just add to the audio complexity. Experimental in the easy to listen to sense, rather than the what the hell am I even listening to sense.
Battles - Atlas

Movies:
Great World of Sound - Super enjoyed this movie. The best way I can describe it is a mix of Death of a Salesman + The Office (but the old ones, where it was all weird and awkward, and real-feeling, and great) + those bad American Idol auditions at the beginning of the season. Has a documentary-ish feel, due to the way they filmed it ("With hidden cameras, the interaction was recorded between the lead actors and the unsuspecting musicians." -imdb). The cast was spectacular, even though mostly unknowns.
Home Movies - ok, not a movie, but one of the best shows that's been on tv in pretty much forever, even though it's not really on tv anymore (or maybe it's on Adult Swim? I dunno, I haven't had cable in ages). I've been watching the poo out of it on youtube, and it's just so so excellent.

Books:
Seeing Redd (The Looking Glass Wars) by Frank Beddor - book two in the Looking Glass Wars series. It's been a while since I read book one, so it took me a chapter or two to catch up, but I'm enjoying this one at least as much as One. Kind of a grown-up version of the Alice in Wonderland story, probably best described as 'fan-fic.'
Sacred Threshold: Rituals and Readings for a Wedding with Spirit by Gertrud Mueller Nelson & Christopher Witt - This book was absolutely not at all what I was expecting. And I love it. The single best book on wedding/ceremony planning I've read thus far. It's also the first book on wedding planning that I've actually finished. The authors present different wedding traditions, tell where they come from and why we do them, offer variations, and give their unveiled opinions on the stupidity of some of them. Having planned the wedding easily enough, I was having trouble even knowing where to start in the planning of the ceremony; this book has been invaluable.

Broken Record

This is something that seems to be a prevalent issue right now... I feel like a broken record, because this has been my advice to so many people recently. I'm not sure if it makes me cold-hearted to hold this viewpoint, but nonetheless, here it is, conveniently on the internet so I can refer people to it rather than repeat myself.

You are a grown up. You can no longer use your parents' mistakes (or what you view as their mistakes), how people treated you in the past/your bad relationships, or even your own past bad decisions for who you are from now on. You are the only one who can change your life, your personality, your reputation, your future. You are solely responsible.

It is not productive to blame other people. It does nothing to help you grow as a person. It doesn't change any of the problems. It only gives you a weak excuse to continue in bad behavior.

Take responsibility. Make a change.


"When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:11

August 12, 2008

so obviously i've been slacking off a bit here. or rather, more than a bit. i guess the momentary appeal of documenting every waking moment of my life, or at least the entertainment which i fill it up with, has quickly worn off. there may be a future point at which i will resume updating with either entertainment type things, or something altogether different, but i think in the meantime the blog will be going on hiatus. apologies to anyone who might feel like this is leaving them out of the loop or something, but direct contact continues to be my favored form of communication.

you can live life, or you can document it, but it seems to me it's one or the other.