get inspired?

I need to be writing more, just been busy living...
I will leave you this, to reflect on, from a good friend of mine's blog...

"Someone asked me today if I still kept a blog, to which I laughed and said NO. They responded that that was a shame, because they thought it was good for me, and that I was a good writer. I don't know about either of those things, but maybe to an extent they're true. But what do you write about? What do you not write about??- That's the one that always did me in.

You write about anything, but you write it as seen from your eyes, from your perspective, and you don't pussyfoot around it, you don't soften it, you don't name names, you don't be malicious, but you don't lie. And you gotta make them laugh every once in awhile, or else they'll just keep on browsing. So maybe I'll give this thing another try, hop back on the horse, stop worrying about the reactions and just be myself. And whatever they take away from it is up to them."

A kiss before I go

A short clip of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals playing "A kiss before I go" last night at NORVA.

Birthdays are signs of vitality...

and so a picture of me today
Brendan, aged 28, this day in 2006, tries to grow a beard and look sophisticated while at the same time holding his reputation for occasional lasciviousness and disorderly conduct; balancing the perceived successes of life with the persistent anxiety of purpose and calling, he fools many a friend and foe. Nevertheless, at the close of day, he supposes a happy stance on it all.


...and these, just for fun.

A night out in rural Suffolk.

The calm before the storm...




Dave's best 'blue steel'


Billy Jean is not my lover.

Enjoy the life...

Enjoy the life...
Originally uploaded by marciakd.

I now live in a deliberate and thorough way. A well thought out, intentioned and orchestrated way. A disposition that comes to most of us, I imagine, at some time or another. I no longer can remember how I used to be. I like things how they are now, but also wish for things to be different sometimes. Life is like that I suppose. You can have one, not the other and the other with the one, but not the other, or vice versa and versa vice. Everything works out in the end. Well, sorta…

I understand that time is immutable and almighty, the same for everyone; but I want to grasp it and be at ease with its unsuitable effects. I wonder when and if that will ever happen. I do remember a time when I was free, and I would walk about and have these pretty little thoughts. These times come and go I suppose, with more down the road, I’m told.

Why must we always analogize life with a road anyway? Why not a field, a desert, parking lot or a stadium. A valley with peaks and plateau’s seems so much more fitting.
Life has been good to me, overall and always, and for that I thank my lucky stars.

some slender rest

"There is a certain monotony about mankind. Most people toil during the greater part of their lives in order to live, and the slender span of free time that remains worries them so much that they try by every means to get rid of it. O Destiny of Man!"
-"The Sorrows of Young Werther" Goethe

ystrdys nws tody (prt2)

oh limeade! how i love thy sweet sweet taste!

Getting on in the city

For you regular Lifehacker readers, this might be second hand news, but otherwise, I thought this was pretty funny stuff for a quick look (click the picture for bigger viewing).

Rules of the road: (1) No raking women with your eyes; glance quickly and respectfully. (2) Offer to share a taxi rather than fight over it. (3) Babies in strollers get right-of-way—until they abuse it. (4) Still no ogling girls—c’mon! (5) And skateboarding, are you kidding me? (6) Not everybody loves your dog as much as you do. (7) No bicycling on the sidewalk unless under the age of 6. (8) Pedestrians can die of secondhand smoke, too.
(Photo: Photomontage by Peter Rad)

Full article here.

Another interest...

"The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us."
-G.K. Chesterton

This quote can be found on the opening page of the book above, which depicts in graphic detail, the troubles that lie ahead of us, as an "industrialized world built on cheap energy" falters. As the in-sleeve tells us, "Industrial civilization is in big trouble and the American people are sleepwalking into a future of hardship and turbulence."
After watching the "End of Suburbia" the other night, I was led to check out a couple books cited in the movie on the central issues of the documentary. Though it is doubtful that I will get through any of them, I find them suitable for browsing and an overall awareness of some of the problems we are undoubtedly going to have to face in the future.

The Long Emergency is written by James Howard Kunstler, a rather radical, but intelligent and perceptive, American author and social commentator.

ystrdys nws tody (prt1)

Amy and Rich, as depicted in acrylic, anniversary present, 2006

The Drunkards Two

and newlyweds too...


homeward b o u n d.