BoldUlysses.com

for something I knew that I would get to keep

The utter joy of BT’s “The Emergency” is infectious. The song is propulsive, driving, leaping, bounding forward with energy and far-ranging sight. Here at work, while listening to it on my earmuff headphones, I briefly turned up the volume while pushing the headphones more snugly over my ears. The bassline and harmonics completely filled my ears. I need to listen to it at that volume more often, and in a place where there isn’t the danger of not being able to hear a summons from another part of the office. Yep.

One thing I appreciate about the pastor of our new church is his humility. He preached an excellent sermon yesterday, beginning a new series in which he’ll be drawing parallels between the life of Joseph and that of Jesus, an entirely appropriate and good thing, since

1. The Bible is first and last about Jesus, and He is the foundation of the entire meta-narrative, and
2. Too often the applications from Joseph’s story are reduced to mere narcissistic moralizing (e.g. “How can you be ‘a Joseph’ today?”), when the whole point of his life was to point to Jesus,

two points which the pastor alluded to in his opening remarks about the sermon series. He moved on by highlighting the correlation between Joseph’s brothers’ response to his dreams and the religious leaders’, His society’s, and by extension our own response to Jesus’ person and teaching. The connections were divided into two categories:

1. The ways in which they/we are condemned by our guilt, and
2. the ways in which they/we are condemned by His glory.

Without rehashing the entire sermon, I was struck by (among other things) how the pastor chose to emphasize his experience of being rightly condemned before a holy God, in the midst of the sermon’s application for the congregation. I don’t recall the specific example or examples he used, and they probably wouldn’t bear repeating here even if I did, but I will say that it was refreshing to have the dose of application, not shoehorned into the text, underscored by the pastor’s reflections from his own life. And all of this in a sermon that could be characterized as a teaching sermon, which can often be devoid of application altogether. I appreciated it very much.

Diane and I watched Tron: Legacy last Wednesday. Overall, we enjoyed it. I hadn’t seen the original in 20+ years, and even when I did see it, I wasn’t all that into it (this being the “cartoon era” of my viewing life, which meant I had little use for live-action films). The new movie’s visuals were very impressive, as was the soundtrack, which I’m currently listening to.

I was a little concerned that due to all the advances in special effects and digital filmmaking since the original came out, we would be too “jaded” to appreciate whatever the new film had to offer, but visually, I think they genuinely pushed the envelope and offered something, if not entirely new (there are homages to / ripoffs of other movies everywhere), at least dynamic and fresh. There have been huge cultural shifts in the years between the original and the sequel; computers have become ubiquitous and much less “exotic” than they were in the mid-’80s, so the new film had a lot of work to do to overcome that familiarity. There were a number of approaches they could have taken with the plot, characters, and visuals, and I was a little disappointed they decided to do pretty much a straight update instead of something more creative and ambitious. They tried to shoehorn in a few more current themes, like the ongoing open- versus closed-source software battle, and the more immediate nature of virtual reality vis-à-vis what it means to be human, but unfortunately, they were just window dressing on a fundamentally conventional and convoluted action flick. But at least the movie looked and sounded great. I’ll choose to focus on that. Very eager to see what they do with the upcoming animated series.

What with the snow we had on Monday night, Luke’s been out of school all week, going bonkers cooped-up inside and driving Diane nuts. I’ve been at work all week except for a two-hour delay on Tuesday morning, something Diane was very grateful for.

Driving to work that morning was a bit of a different experience, given that the roads were clearer of traffic than they usually are, and there were different programs on the radio. I usually listen to NPR on the way in, just to have something to wake me up and shout at (Marketplace Morning Report is the most liberal show of economic reporting I’ve ever heard). Tuesday morning just before 10 a.m. was time for the BBC’s news hour, and it was near the end of the show, when they cover the cultural news.

That morning the reporter was discussing “the end of rock n’ roll,” her name for the fact that the fewest number (3, I think) of traditional rock songs occupied spots in the British hit charts since the heyday of rock in the late ’70s. Two pundits weighed in, a British editor from NME and an American writer. I didn’t care for the British bloke’s opinions very much, as he prattled on about rock not really being dead, but just being incorporated into today’s pop music, or some such. I’m sorry, but adding a guitar or two to a Katy Perry song doesn’t make it rock any more than adding a banjo to an orchestra makes them play bluegrass. Rock is about the sneer, the rebellion, the anti-establishment attitude. And to that point, the American writer made an astute observation: Rock music was the “social network” of the pre-Internet youth world. It conveyed so much: Not just about sex, but about politics, ideas and values. Artists were still commercial, but albums were held in higher esteem; they were more of a milestone in a rock group’s career than they are now. Now, the convenience of just buying and downloading the songs you like is easier (and cheaper) than having to commit to the whole album, which, as an art form, is suffering the effects of that shift.

The main point of the American writer on the BBC show was that the conversation venue for political issues, ideas and values has moved from rock music to the Internet. Young people use other means to communicate their rebellion, their anti-establishment sentiment. And the only thing that leaves for popular music to convey is sensuality, sex. That jives completely with any cursory scan of the radio dial; I commented to Diane the other day that the theme of 90% of the songs of the radio could be summed up thusly: “Let’s rut like rabbits.” Not to put too fine a point on it, or anything. Hahaha.

It just digusts me, honestly. I know that polite society (of which I consider myself a part) and rock music have had their ins and outs, but the debasement of rock, the stripping away of anything substantial—I’ve railed against it for years, and it just gets worse and worse. There’s no authenticity, no honesty there… Even if I disagree with your ideas, I can appreciate the earnestness with which you deliver them. But now, even though there are many artists and groups out there bravely soldiering on with rich, thoughtful rock, they no longer occupy the focus of the public eye. They used to. Now the radio waves are filled with saccharine, oversexed, barely literate dreck.

by the stars in the southern hemisphere
and he walked his days under african skies.
this is the story of how we begin to remember.
this is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein.
after the dream of falling and calling your name out,
these are the roots of rhythm and the roots of rhythm remain

I’ve got a lyric, some time here at work (it’s a slow day), but nothing to write about. Well, scratch that; I’ve got plenty to write about but nothing’s springing to mind at the moment.

The lyrics are from Paul Simon’s strangely affecting “Under African Skies.” I’ve always liked the song. I love Simon’s lyrics in any context; he’s got a real flair for capturing moments and emotions with sparse collections of words that intersect the event being alluded to at oblique angles. The effect is to catch you slightly off guard, enough to want to unpack the lyrics, but they aren’t so abstract or off-putting that they drive you away. In other words, they’re accessible but profound, like good poetry.

I think a lot about how my writing tapered off somewhat after I got married, and about the brief, sporadic stints of heavy journaling I’ve had since then, and what that all means. The most obvious thing the situation reflects upon is my motivation to write in the first place. It’s not much of a stretch to make a connection between my frequent journaling in the past and my desire to meet someone I could be with. I always suppressed that connection, denied to myself that that’s why I wrote as much as I did, and tried to channel that motivation in support of subjects I really did think and care about, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor at all. Fortunately, by the grace of God, I think I was able to “harness” the emotional élan that feeling of longing provided in service of more diverse topics than simply moping about being single, or posting a continual series of “sweet nothings” intended to attract a potential bride. It was buried deep down, again, to the point where I didn’t openly admit to myself it was a factor, but it certainly did “kick start” more than one philosophical or introspective essay.

And of course, once we’ve established that as a piece of the “motivational pie,” it follows that once I started dating and got married, the longing I felt was rightly satisfied in Diane, that particular emotional boost evaporated, and the net result was that my posts became less frequent.

I think there’s more to it than that, though. We’ve been married for four years now, been through a fair share of ups and downs with respect to our life situation and level of busyness, and my stints of frequent posting (most significantly the one at the end of ’08) belie the notion that the longing was a necessary component of those spates of activity.

Also, I can completely deny any connection between the frequent posting any the state of the emotional connection between Diane and me. In other words, it’s false logic to assume that because I post more since we’ve been married, the sense of longing has returned, driving some kind of need for self-expression unfulfilled by Diane. No—I am completely satisfied in her; she hears everything first, and what follows in here is no reflection whatsoever on the “state of our marriage,” or what-have-you.

More than anything, as mundane as it sounds, I honestly think it comes down to habit and practice. This has been borne out time and again throughout the roughly 10 years I’ve been blogging. Once I have some momentum under my belt, the lights come on the parts of my brain accustomed to expressing my thoughts in writing, at a certain speed, and the words just come. Simple as that. It’s incumbent upon me to keep it up.

Recent musical discovery: Sleigh Bells. Diane and I have really been enjoying their rock-techno-melody-turned-up-to-eleven sound. One reviewer made the observation that it’s like they took the best riffs and sequences of rock songs we really love and made whole songs out of them, and it feels true. The juxtaposition of the distortion-laden crunch and ethereal female vocals is done really well, and the lyrics demonstrate a level of detachment and acerbic commentary on the state of pop culture rare for music with such potential to be popular. It feels less like a guilty pleasure and more like music with actual artistic merit. Diane made the comment that a lot of it is actually quite beautiful in the purity of its expression, and I’m inclined to agree.

My coworker Charlie pointed me to a podcast of a concert they performed at, and I listened to a few of their songs this past spring, and enjoyed them. However, since then, they’ve come out with a full-length album, and hearing their sound further fleshed out has just made me more of a fan.

You can listen to some of their music here. My favorites are “Tell ‘Em,” “Infinity Guitars,” “Rill Rill,” “Crown on the Ground” and “Treats.”

It’s hard to believe I’ve seen OtR in concert. For a band whose songs have intersected with my life at so many key moments over the past decade or so, to have seen them, living, breathing, singing, playing not 20 feet away was positively transcendent. We’d been trying to see them for some time now, and circumstances finally aligned so that we were able to go to a show close to Valentine’s Day. The set was all too short, and they only did one encore, but brief as it was it exceeded my (admittedly lofty) expectations. They sang a mixture of old and new stuff, with 3 or 4 brand-new songs mixed in, songs I can’t wait to hear on their upcoming album. Bands who play unreleased stuff at shows have the potential to shoot themselves in the foot if casual listeners tune out songs they’re unfamiliar with, but in this case I can’t imagine anyone in the room, even those who hadn’t heard a single OtR song but were dragged to the show by their dates, would have minded if the band decided to play a whole set full of new songs. Perfect. Karin’s voice was the definition of flawless and Linford lost himself in baroque stories between songs. I want to see them again.

Charlie sent me a trailer for this movie over lunch today. He’s a Beatles fan, like me, and thought I’d find it interesting. I do, and the film looks promising (Kristin Scott Thomas in particular is always good), but it touches on a perennial annoyance of mine about the Beatles, and specifically John Lennon fandom. I appreciate the fact that he was incredibly talented musically–he was witty and deft and crafted some of the best music ever–but the bottom line is that personally, he was a jerk. Just utterly devoid of character, and not just during the Ono years. His attitude toward the women in his life was appalling and he was callous, vindictive and nihilistic in his personal philosophy, regardless of how people try to spin “Imagine.” I guess it just bothers me that he seems to be the one the most press and artistic attention is lavished upon, since he’s the most “interesting” personality in the band, not to mention the fact he died early and acquired, as all celebrities in that situation do, something of a mythic status, a la James Dean, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Elliott Smith, Michael Hutchence, Keith Moon, John Bonham, etc. As far as Lennon is concerned, is it possible to give his music its due without glorifying the man behind it? Probably not, and that’s depressing.

13 minutes of Thursday morning perfection: The Delphininum Days Mix of BT’s “Blue Skies.” Tori Amos on vocals. Excellent.

Sitting here at work, adding an outer glow to the center graphic of the ARC display to simulate LED lighting, listening to Richard Marx’s “Angelia” on my headphones. I’m on an ’80s pop kick this morning. First Peter Cetera, then Phil Collins, now this.

Saxophone solo!

1. Listened to Pauline Croze‘s “Quand Je Suis Ivre” a few minutes ago, and was freshly struck with how poetic the concept of drunkenness is in French, as opposed to English, something obviously tied to the loveliness of the word itself—contrast ivre with drunk. Pronounced correctly, the French word just slides off the tongue in a tumble of decadent grace… And the English word crashes through my teeth in a crumpled heap.

   The word and concept reappear in Rufus Wainwright’s “Complainte de la Butte:”

   et sous ta caresse
   je sens une ivresse
   qui m’anéantit

   Clearly, it’s much more artistic to be drunk in France than in the English-speaking world.

2. The Ares I-X launch occurred a couple of days ago. From all accounts I’ve read it was completely successful. It’s the first launch of the next phase of the US space program, the sequel to the ill-conceived Shuttle. I’m pleased and hopeful the next steps will go well and see us on our way back to the Moon, and beyond.

to let the rivers wash over me

Well, to start posting in here, more like. I’ll move my posts from LJ and Blogger over here eventually, so I can have one uninterrupted journal. For the most part, at least—there have been gaps here and there, most recently in the past six months or so. I was doing so well around the beginning of the year, too. Moving onwardly…

This is my new blog. Diane will be taking up residence on another domain, still being set up. We considered sharing a blog, but thought better of it since she’s upwardly mobile in the conservative blogosphere, and having an overtly political blog cluttered with various car-related posts and space exploration rants/meanderings by the husband wouldn’t fare well, or at least wouldn’t be taken as seriously as it would otherwise. So we’ll adopt the arrangement settled upon.

For those of you wondering about my URL and site name, it’s from an Over the Rhine song lyric:

my love is a fever
my love is a fable
my love is jazz licks
improvised by toddlers
bold Ulysses by nursery rhyme
and firelight

You can view a live performance of the song here. I love OtR like nothing else, really. We have got to see them live.

1. BT’s new song "Rose of Jericho" is slightly disappointing.  It’s like he’s trying to merge the more classical, experimental leaning of This Binary Universe with the more commercial-friendly ventures of the previous albums.  It sounds good on paper, but in reality it just doesn’t work too well, sounding like less than the sum of its parts.  One thing I’ve always appreciated about his music is the creativity within the song itself–the variety of beat structures and vocals dancing around one another.  His more straightforward house stuff is well done, but it’s never been very interesting to me.  Maybe the rest of the album, when it comes out, will be more varied.

2. Luke is coming up, within the next month or two, to his first experiences in a class setting.  At this point we’re planning on homeschooling him, and we’ve enrolled him in this curriculum/program called Classical Conversations.  He has homework to do throughout the week, and once a week he and all his "classmates" meet and go over the material they’ve learned.  We’re more than a little apprehensive about how it’s going to go since Luke has exhibited some noted developmental delays, especially in the social arena.  We’ll see how it goes.  If he just isn’t able to handle it we’ll try something different, but it seems like a great program and we hope it turns out well.