HEY BRAIN

but not to west virginia. 

and not really home, either.

… to north carolina and my family reunion, though… you can take me there. 

it has been a busy and frustrating couple of weeks.  i don’t really feel like getting into too many details, though.  it hasn’t been that interesting, honestly.  so, here’s the highlights:

• all the bass lines are done for the album with the exception of two songs which i couldn’t do because they were nowhere near ready for bass lines.  after saturday, though, they will be.  the album is finally picking up a lot of steam.  very exciting.
• i had to get my throat stretched again.  for those of you who missed it, the first time was one of the most traumatic events in my life so far.  THIS time i took the advice of a nurse friend of mine.  she said, “listen chris… you OBVIOUSLY don’t respond to anesthesia as quickly as most people, because you’re not supposed to remember the tube in your throat.  tell them to give you extra time for the drugs to work this time!”  good, solid advice.  thank you melissa.  i did as advised and i am happy to report a much less traumatic experience.  no memories of the procedure.  also, less muscle strain from struggling since i was actually out of it this time.  all in all, a win, i think.  i did have some bruised eye sockets for a few days after though… i looked like a crack-head.  it was great.
• i’m training the new employee at work.  this is the main reason i haven’t been posting a lot lately.  it takes a lot of my time and then i have to catch up with everything else going on here.  luckily, i really enjoy training.  it’s one of the few things i miss about my last job as a retail store manager. 
• the bbc is having their “annual photo challenge” and the theme this year is “blue.”  i’m thinking of submitting something this time.  may the photos of the lightbulbs through the tungsten correction filter… i dunno.  take a look through my flickr page and tell me what you think!  the link is on the sidebar at the bottom.  over there –>
• next week is going to be one of the busiest of the year, i’m afraid.  not only is christy coming back into town (huzzah!), beth is getting married, and i have a family reunion to attend in north carolina.

and we’ve come full circle.  on wednesday, the fourth of july, i will be driving to cashiers, north carolina… which is, according to their website, beautiful.  it’s also five and a half hours from nashville.  but, it’s a family reunion and i haven’t been to one of those in… well, at least eight years.  it’ll be fun… grilling out, catching up, whitewater rafting, etc.  good times.  i will be leaving early on saturday morning however, even though the festivities continue another two days.  but, beth is getting married and there’s no way i’d miss that!  no way in hell.  also: though i love them all and my immediate family will be there to keep me sane, some of my extended family can drive me up a wall.  i think that’s normal.

here’s the deal, though.  i’m gonna be spending many many many hours with just me and the ipod and the road.  so i need some listening suggestions.  specifically podcasts and free, downloadable audiobooks.  also, suggestions on good driving music wouldn’t hurt, though i think i’ve got that one covered for the most part. 

whadda ya say, folks?  what’s good?

that’s right.  flugtag.  it’s coming to nashville.  saturday. 

flugtag.

that wonderful, whimsical, wacky event where otherwise seemingly sane people fling themselves from a high platform wrapped in the most improbable of “flying” contraptions to plummet to a wet, soggy, crashlanding in the cold water below…

flugtag.

where sheer outragousness and showmanship mean just as much as (or more than) engineering prowess or quality craftsmanship.  where every launch is a full-blown event with theatrics and theme music. 

flugtag… FLUGTAG!!!

will you be there?  of course you will.  i mean… you will, right?    what do you mean, “why?!”  because it’s frackin’ hilarious, that’s why!  it’s flugtag!!

go.  and look for me.  i’ll be there.  i’m having an invasive medical procedure done the day before (more on that later), and i STILL won’t be missing flugtag!!  no excuses!  look for me.  say hi.  watch people crash and splash.

good times.

from this   to this?

follow this link…

you dropped a bomb on me… baby… you dropped a bomb on me… but you turned me out…

oh, the gap band… you were simply giving us a glimpse of the future… 

how did this play out in said random researcher’s head, i wonder…

 ”hmmm… how do you make a bunch of guys not want to fight?  get them all drunk?  no… the irish fight drunk all the time… hmmm… what would make ME not want to fight… what do i like more than fighting… OH!  f**king!  i’d much rather f**k than fight!  who wouldn’t?!  we just need a bomb that makes dudes wanna f**k!  man, i’m so smart!  oh.  oh, wait.  they’d probably all be dudes.  dammit….

…waaaaitaminute!  what if they were all GAY dudes!  THEN they would wanna f**k instead of fight!  BRILLIANT!  ok,  so i just need a way to make a whole army into an army of gay dudes.  let’s see… if i do my math right… carry the one… that’ll only cost around $7.5 million… i bet i can get funding for that…”

this is so idiotic on so many levels that you can’t help but laugh.  thanks to cole for pointing this out for me.

this past friday i did one of those “a day in my life” photo projects where i took a camera with me wherever i went. i took about a hundred pictures, but, not only is that way too many pictures, they didn’t all turn out so hot. i cut it down to thirty-three, don’t worry.

unfortunately, wordpress sucks for photos, so i’ve had to host it off-site. at the moment it’s on an angelfire site… so, apologies in advance for the ads and pop-ups. i’ll get it moved elsewhere as soon as i can. for now, go check it out and tell me what you think.

*UPDATE*

i’m off of angelfire now.  no more popups and banner ads!  i got some free hosting at freehostia!  it’s awesome, go getcha sum.

it’s true, too. imagine what it’s like, for a moment… you have left your country of origin, your birthplace, behind to persue a better life in a country full of promise. you believe in the idea of america so strongly that you have left everything you’ve ever known behind. you work hard at your new life, but you struggle to understand the languages being spoken around you… english, spanish, arabic, french, german, swahili, indian, chinese, japanese… not only all of the mother tongues of the world, but distorted and bastardized versions of them.

and then, as you are beginning to put your new life together, someone comes along and tells you that, though you are a citizen of the united states, you are no longer fit to receive the same courtesy as them. your voice is no longer fit to be heard in the public spaces and your language is no longer good enough to be spoken to the public servants of your country. someone who’s family has been in this country for so long that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be a new american… someone who grew up in so much priveledge that they’ve forgotten what america stands for has decided that you are not good enough unless you speak on their terms…

… someone who’s forgotten…

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

- exerpt from “the new collossus” as inscribed on the statue of liberty

… someone who’s forgotten…

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

… someone who’s forgotten the hope, freedom, and opportunity that america means for new americans.

i’ve written before about my great-grandfather and my grandfather, but i have to pull them in here again. my great-grandfather believed in america so strongly that he left france – the france that he had fought and bled for, the france that he had lost friends and family for while fighting during the resistance to nazi occupation – to start all over again here. he passed that belief to his son, my grandfather, who believed in america so much that he, though his family and friends – his life – were in france, invoked his dual-citizenship and joined the united states military to fight alongside soldiers who shared his ideals as they bled and died in vietnam and korea.

they didn’t come to take our jobs. they didn’t come to mooch off of our healthcare system. they came because they believed in what america stands for… equality, freedom, the opportunity to make a better life for yourself and your family… liberté, égalité, fraternité… and they lived those ideals. they didn’t have to learn english to be american… they were american through-and-through.

don’t you see? immigrants make the best americans… because they BELIEVE in america in a way that most americans just can’t seem to grasp. they believe in america so much that they leave behind everything they’ve ever known to come here. what do you believe in so much that you would give up everything to pursue it? how dare you say that they aren’t good enough to have their voices heard in the municipal buildings and public spaces of their own country. how dare you say that, though the majority of natural-born americans can barely speak their own language, anyone who comes here must at least be bi-lingual? double-standard much?

and that’s what english-only legislation says. it says, “you are less american than me. your rights don’t go as far as mine. you deserve less consideration than me because you haven’t been here as long. you are less than me.” where’s the égalité there, sisters and brothers? where’s the equality? it’s un-american is what it is… it’s just un-american.