- Listening to Led Zeppelin 'I' w/ fresh ears. Solid block of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tracks… all 6.5 mins. long at least. What an entrance! #
- "Things happen for a reason" often a cop-out. That said, there are always lessons in misfortune. Gratitude for good fortune, for instance. #
- Runners: enjoy a run down the frozen St. Croix from Marine to Stillwater under the full moon next Saturday night – http://bit.ly/5MV7SM #
- It's gray and snowy and frozen and all that outside, but it's also quite light out at 5:00! #wintermakesyoutalkcrazy #
- I hate clichés as much as I hate tech hype! "The Cliché Expert Testifies on the Apple Tablet" (New Yorker): http://bit.ly/dvwJiu #
- Retribution Gospel Choir Wikipedia page is a mess! Who's up for the job?http://shar.es/aViwm #
- I just unlocked the "Newbie" badge on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/a9CBuH #
- I'm at Isaac's Cafe (Larpenteur Ave E, St Paul). http://4sq.com/83lO34 #
 Posted: January 25th, 2010  Topics: We saw Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” on Saturday night. Very enjoyable. I didn’t find the themes I’ve found common to his other two works I know best, “12 Monkeys” and “Brazil,” primarily surreal ultra-bureaucracy, but there was more of the Monty Python in this, including a startling but hilarious dance number. This, the last work we’ll ever see from Heath Ledger, made me mourn his passing all over again. He really was a tremendous actor with great breadth of skill and immense promise. This bit of an interview with Gilliam added to the sense of loss, knowing that the possibility of many more collaborations between Ledger and Gilliam can now never come to pass:
Sam went to the Banff Film Festival last night in Bozeman and alerted me to a movie that he thought would be up my alley. “Finding Farley” is about a young couple and their two-year-old son’s journey across most of Canada to visit legendary writer and ecologist Farley Mowat (“Never Cry Wolf”). The family travels most of that way by canoe. It looks like a lovely flick about family, wilderness, writing and understanding the natural systems we live in. It won this year’s Grand Prize at the festival. I first saw the film “Never Cry Wolf” when I was a kid. Revisited it again a few years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s as funny as it is a study of place and the wolves that live there. I read the book on a BWCAW trip a couple years ago and, though it was enjoyable, this is actually one instance where I think I enjoyed the film more. But both are great works about the Arctic, wolves, and man’s relationship with the land.
This new 90 page magazine-book hybrid, subtitled “Nowhere Else But Here,” is based on a project I undertook last June, writing every day for the whole month (one of Minnesota’s finest months). For the project, I observed the progress and passing of June using the Japanese form haibun. That’s a fancy word for something that is simply, beautifully, the combination of prose and haiku poetry (you know, three lines of five, seven and five syllables, respectively). In this collection, the prose tells of the journey through the season, and the haiku are images captured on that journey. I think I’ve produced a high-quality publication and I’d love it if you’d buy a copy. I am hoping it would be good for your soul during these dark winter months to read these daily entries about days of sun and swimming in the river, nights of fireflies and driving home with your hand out the window in the cool, damp air. The tales find me traveling from Minneapolis to the St. Croix River, from the northern forests to simple morning walks around the lake. In addition to the the 30 haibun, “Nowhere Else But Here” also features my photos on the front and back cover, both taken in June in the St. Croix River valley. And, as a bonus, there is a prologue to the chapbook that includes some of my favorite previous writings on summer in Minnesota. You can get your own copy for just $12. Ordering online is quick, easy and safe. Thanks! Buy “Esker — Volume 2″ » |
I grew up in Stillwater, MN and have primarily lived in St. Paul and the surrounding area for the past 10 years. The outdoors are a big part of my life, as are music, film, art, and my lovely wife and dog. More...
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