The Moon & Antarctica

This morning I accompanied my happy drive to work (read the previous post for more details) by listening to Modest Mouse's classic and excellent album the Moon & Antarctica. This CD is riddled with goodness, and while Good News for People Who like Bad News really took Modest Mouse to a rediculously new level of fame and fortune, this CD remains, to my mind, the definitive album by this band. If you have no idea what I'm talking about or are unfamiliar with this album, it is very much worth your time. Notable great tracks include Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, I Came as a Rat, and 3rd Planet. This morning I was also enjoying the song Wild Pack of Family Dogs... one I never paid tons of attention to before, but a fun and short little tune. Pitchfork review of this album.

Bluejay of Happiness

I had a very colorful start to my day.

Just before leaving for work, I found Lyndsey getting a final few minutes of rest before hopping on a phone interview. She was in bed and OJ, her wonderful orange cat had his head on her leg... because he knew that she wasn't feeling well and he has a habit of taking care of sick people.

I walked out the door to get into my car and the first thing that I spotted was a tree full of very yellow leaves. There were yellow and brown leaves all around it on the ground, and the sunlight made it all look pretty amazing.

I hopped in the car and got out onto the road, and about two minutes into my drive a bluejay flew across the street about 10-15 feet in front of my car and swooped down just beyond a fence on the far side of the road. This vision was pretty amazing, and definitely put a smile on my face.

Later as I was about to hop onto I-95 for the ugly highway stretch of my drive, I saw a brilliant red tree. I know I've alredy hit the whole colorful tree thing. Anyway, this was not intended to end up as a primary color-themed post, but I put this all up by way of saying that it seemed to me that this morning, in spite of the gray sky, the world was trying to tell me that it was going to be a good day.

Democrats unveil new direction for Iraq

Today it became clear exactly what Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer etc. have planned when they talk about a, "New Direction" in Iraq. What they really mean is Chuck Norris! That's right, the man who can win a game of Connect 4 in three moves is going to straigten everything out in Baghdad, Fallujah, etc. No worries folks. It's all taken care of. Whew.

In other Chuck Norris news: Chuck Norris will attain statehood in 2009. His state flower will be the Magnolia.

Wedding Photos Series

Gorillapod Matt
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This is the first in a series of wedding photos I'll be posting over the next few days. This is another like the first I posted that I took with my nifty new Gorillapod the evening of the rehersal dinner. This is my favorite one that Matt appears in. It's pretty low-light but when I pulled it into photoshop I didn't want to make it too much brighter because color just went crazy as soon as I started playing with levels on this one.

Anyway, that all aside, I think this is a fun, great picture of my brother on the eve of his wedding.

Happy Monday!

Laughter

Laughter
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... I'm glad to hear rumblings about other pictures being available via the internets from Matt & Kristi's wedding because I, as usual, took lots of random pictures. There are more to come because I've got a bunch up on Flickr right now, but this is one I really liked. Sure... neither of the subjects is actually looking at the camera, but who needs to bicker about such details!?!!?!

Look, it's my happy auntie Melanie and my happy bro on the eve of his wedding. What a great and fun time we all had down in Florida... perhaps we should just all go back down this weekend! Any takers?

Grrreat Distractions

Last night Lyndsey and her mom, Jane, and I went to the movies. It was early in the evening and we all felt we could use to avoid about 2 hours of non-news about the election, so we went to see Running With Scissors. Now, I have started reading the book but I got distracted by the whole being-in-Florida-for-my-brother's-wedding thing so I haven't gotten very far, but the movie is GREAT! It's strange and funny and intensely sad on many levels, but it's really very good and I highly recommend it.

Also, recently, we went to see the Prestige, which is also AWESOME! It's captivating, well done, and ultimately a bit of a puzzle to top it all off. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I recommend both.

HOLY GUACAMOLE!

So... a little under 30 hours ago I was at a polling station here in CT and I was voting my heart out... er... what the heck does that mean? Anyway, I voted and it was great. I got to use of of the old chunky lever machines... exactly as satisfying as it seemed when I was a kid. It made big "Chunkity-chunk" noises when I pushed tabs or pulled the lever at the end. When I went inside to start voting it closed a curtain around me with a clinging bell. Good stuff. Now, 30ish hours later... what do we have?

Let's pretend it all happened in the voting booth itself, so before hand I'll go "cling" and the curtainc closes...
House: Democratic (please note the cheesy music and goofy animation... love it!)
Senate: Looking more and more blue
Rumsfeld: Gone
"Chunkity-Chunk..." and for now, we're done! More to come in the next few days, I'm sure... but HOLY GUACAMOLE!

What comes next? I can't believe it's raining up here in Connecticut because today's results feel like a weight lifted to me... like clouds parting. I'm beside myself wiht hope for the future. That and very dramatic prose.

Honestly, though, I'm really happy. I hope you all are too. Great day. Great results... good times to come! I can feel it.

Awesome!

I just saw this great article on 8 Important Lessons Learned from 80's Cartoons on Fark. I never realized that the Smurfs were responsible for my lefty comunist leanings... but it all makes a lot of sense now. I'm sad the Gummy Bears weren't on the list of influential cartoons.

Joseph Matt John

Joseph Matt John
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

It's funny... about a year ago I went up to Philly for Joseph's sister Kristen's wedding and we got a pretty great picture of Joseph, Matt & I, and this is one from Saturday night after Matt's wedding. I was down in Florida this past weekend for my brother's wedding, and I think it is truly fair to say that a good time was had by all. Joseph was in the US from Japan and it was amazing and awesome to see him.

It was also amazing to see his Neice Kassidy who is beautiful and wonderful. As if such things were not enough there was an amazing and joyful gathering of friends and family, beautiful weather, a perfect setting, and just all around a happy and great handful of days. I only wish we could all have stayed for another week and kept enjoying the surroundings, the great company, etc.

Beyond the social events there were also dolphins flopping around out in the waters off St. Augestine, there were happy doggies walking around in the streets. There were tasty pastaries to start our days, and wonderful dinners to help us wind down in the evening. I could go on and on, but for now I'll leave it at that. More photos to come!

I'd buy an $8 ticket for this one

I'm actually more-or-less echoing my friend Nate when I call your attention to the fact that Mike Judge's (Office Space, Bevis & Butthead, etc.) new movie is being bulldozed through theaters with no fanfare by Fox. The movie has gotten some great reviews, and sounds like it will appeal to basically everyone who has gobbled up copies of Office Space to such an extent you can now buy it in varying forms at any given Target store nationwide (the super Flare edition, "get a room you two" edition, "Nagheenanajar, it's not that hard to say" edition, "why should I change my name he's the one who sucks" edition... okay so I may have made these up but you get my point). Anyway, Nate covered this ground pretty well so feel free to visit his comments here, or the LA Times' review here.

Mile-high Railway

Saw a very cool article about the train to Tibet in today's SF Gate. Interesting read. I'm actually still working on finishing it myself, but felt like sharing right away! Here it is.

Back from Flordia!

Lyndsey and Kristi
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This is one of a handful of evening flash-less pictures I took while Lyndsey and I were down in Florida for Matt & Kristi's wedding. I used my happy new Gorillapod (groomsman gift from Matt!)... a tripod that's posable and flexible so that you can use it sitting on a flat surface or wrap it around something... it's very cool. Anyway, I thought posting a picture of these two lovely and happy ladies was a good way to mark getting back up North in one piece!