August 2008

Craig in New Orleans

I mentioned this earlier in the day, but seriously, go read New Orleans Metblogs. Craig, one of the bloggers there, is disregarding the Mandatory Evacuation order and staying through it, and blogging the whole thing. From a post earlier today…

A hell of a lot of us have managed to wrest a living and a life out of what was left at the end of 2005. We’ve managed to do it with the help of family, friends, neighbors and, in a lot of cases, mysterious folks who just seemed to want to help. Note that I didn’t mention “government” in there. We’ve done it despite our government(s). And it’s not done yet. It likely will never be “done.”

Now we have to deal with this latest threat. We have put too much into what we have (personally, professionally, physically) to simply sit in a motel room someplace and watch it all get washed away again. We wouldn’t be “in our own home.” I agree that to stay is a type of madness. But it’s preferable to the madness we felt in our Being Away the last time.

And he just followed up with a new post, as things are getting underway…

We’re actually SMOKING in the dining room, which would be a violation of state law if we were open. Ha fucking ha. I bought new cigars yesterday, so I’ll fire one up in a little while and break out the bourbon. We’re already missing ice — though we froze some in advance that we’re saving for later if we really, really need it.

We have loaded the guns, though we haven’t shucked shells in the chambers yet. We have also posted a sign in the front window, saying WE ARE HERE INSIDE AND HEAVILY ARMED.

The only traffic outside is police, usually going the wrong way on our one-way part of Magazine. We’re also seeing the occasional Guardsmen and it’s good to have them back in force. I was joking with one officer earlier today that what they need to do is park at the top of the Crescent City Connection bridge and keep any Westbankers from walking across the bridge into New Orleans. He shot back, “Yeah. We’re afraid they’ll clean the place up. We’ve got our pride.”

Breaking Radio Silence

I’ve been too quiet recently. Not on purpose, not for any good reason, but I’ve been very busy with a handful of projects as well as going through a lot emotionally and professionally coupled with moving and being extra introspective and that’s lead to me thinking rather than blogging. Of course this hasn’t gotten me anywhere and after a few conversations with friends in the last few days I’m reminded that my best thought sorting always happens in public where I’m forced to solidify thoughts at least to the point that form sentences which is leaps and bounds ahead of vague collections of muck flying in circles inside my head. Even it it makes no sense to you, it helps make sense to me. I’ve done this for as long as I can remember actually, originally on paper and later online but it helps me sort things and it’s a form of self therapy. I pulled back and a few people kicked me and reminded me that I need to keep moving so I’m going to make the effort to do that.

I want to let you know how important it is to me that you even read this. I frequently have to remind myself that someone out there is listening, because if left to my own I quickly convince myself that there’s no reason anyone would give a shit what I had to say about anything and it’s really overwhelming that many of you all do. I really mean that, and I couldn’t have gotten through much of the things I have if it wasn’t for bouncing ideas around here and talking to many of you online and off. I’ve been using my twitter account a lot, and I don’t plan to change that, but it’s not a substitute for this. Soul searching doesn’t happen in 140 characters or less. That’s great for casual updates, random thoughts and coordinating but actually pouring it all our and trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing and thinking, not so much.

I say I’m going to write more right now, and I mean it right now, but a week from now I might get busy and slack and that’s where you come in. If I go 24 hours without writing something here, and I don’t mean just a few links or pointing to something someone else is up to, but actually sitting down and hashing out some bit of a topic, it would be a huge motivational help for me if one you to kick me. Leave a comment here, send me an e-mail (my name at gmail), dmsg or @reply to me on twitter, or something – but don’t let me get away with pulling back. I need to talk through things to figure them out and I need you to force me to do that.

So just what is it I need to talk about? An easier question would be what don’t I have to talk about. I’ve got a text file sitting on my desktop with a list of things I need to write about or think about or process to some extent and it’s over 2 pages long now. It grows every day and only shrinks when I write so that’s what I need to get through. Life. Love. Dating. Speaking. Moving. Metblogs. Bikes. Blogs. Being wrong. Being influential. Communities. Chaos. World changing. Revolution. I’ve got a lot on my mind. So yeah, that’s my plan.

Lion Fights Tiger

My first roommate and one of my oldest friends Jon Resh just released the first song from he and his wife’s newest musical project called ‘Lion Fights Tiger‘ as well as this graphical video to go with, check it out:

Jon played me a rough version of this early last year and I’ve been anxiously waiting to see where it lead and I’m happy to say it’s everything I hoped it would be. I’ll get the SPOKE reference out of the way quick and say that since Jon is singing there’s a touch of familiarity but that’s about where it ends – everything else about this is fresh and interesting. That’s not shocking honestly, I would love to rattle off a list of things Jon’s done that would impress the fuck out of you but that list would just be too long and I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I will say that Jon has been an inspiration to me since the day I met him and no matter what he sinks his teeth into – writing, designing, or making music, he does it with his own style and usually smokes everyone else in the room in the process, while somehow becoming close friends with each and everyone one of them. I’m rambling now, but what I’m trying to say is I think very highly of the guy. But back to this track…

Here’s a higher res version of the video, and if you want to download the MP3 and read the worlds longest liner notes for a single song then check out lionfightstiger.com. There’s promises/threats of a full 21 song album which will be available online (for free!) later this fall. Congrats Jon and Melissa!

links for 2008-08-22