peace banjo.

/GET HAPPY/

This song gets me every time. It hooks you in with the presumably "The National" inspired 4/4 (or 3/4?) time. The piano chords take over silently with radiohead-quality recording. It starts off small. The lyrics are simple, but they do their job, painting a picture of that age. Boys and their cars, girls and their feelings. The really impressive thing though, is Andrew Huculiak. Keeping a band together with steady 4/4 and triplets simultaneously is not easy. And he does it with incredible confidence. I love how they go back and forth between emphasizing the two signatures. The ending switch especially gives me shivers every time. So huge. You know Cayne and Andy are standing at their instruments at this point. You can't get that much sound sitting down.

A Conversation with Ernesto.

Every authority has a procedure for suffocating a whistleblower. In Canada, it's paperwork and lawyers. In Syria, it's literally suffocating them; torturing or killing them. Ofcourse, we cannot compare. Here we have tomorrow. In Syria, there is no tomorrow.

planting our own garden.

My friend Mark has a has an overgrown garden. This weekend I'm going to clean it up. What should I grow? Beans, blueberries, corn, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach. Anything else? We'll mull over it.

I would like to make a book.

I'm watching a video about the history of Eames Furniture Company, and pictures form in my head of a book about my grandfather's business or our family's recent history, focusing on the 20th Century. Choosing text, layout, and photos I think would be the most interesting part of the project. Making a clean, concise, coffee table book filled with stories and photographs of these people I have grown up with and loved; I would like to accomplish this.

Your Ideas Are Not Stupid.

Your ideas are not stupid.

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David.

Reading Psalm 55, I noticed part way through that David turns his attention to his companion. The directness of his comments are cutting.

"If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God."

Then, as if overcome by anger toward this traitor, he says, "Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave, for evil finds lodging among them.

"But I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me. God, who is enthroned forever, will hear them and afflict them-
men who never change their ways have no fear of God."

I think the line that really caught my attention was that last one, "men who never change their ways have no fear of God." That statement is true. It gives me fear.

He turns his attention back to his companion after that, saying, "My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant. His speech is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords." Does that not sound like most people? I'm afraid that it sometimes sounds like me.

"Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. But you, O God, will bring down the wicked in to the pit of corruption; bloodthirsty and deceitful men will not live out half their days. But as for me, I trust in you."