We're like living in the 90s, or something

It's been a slow month for blogging. I apologize for that. I've probably had some increased readership after our Christmas letter pointed its recipients to this site, but I'm not taking advantage of it like I should. Things have been hectic at work and at home. The fast pace of life unfortunately leaves little time to reflect on it. Etc.

We went to an Ani DiFranco concert on Saturday night in Philly. She's not an artist that I particularly connect with, but she put on a good show at The Electric Factory nevertheless. This is the third concert we've seen at that venue, and each one has been a great experience. The sound quality is excellent and we always manage to get up close and personal with the performance. It's the kind of venue that puts stadiums to shame.

Ani is probably to my wife what The Smashing Pumpkins are to me: one of those bands/artists that you listen to as a teenager that captures feelings and emotions from the time and sticks with you throughout life. If I ever want to revisit those memories -- good and bad -- through the music's close association, all I need to do it take a listen and it all comes flooding back. It's not something I want to do very often, but when it happens it can be a powerful, inspiring experience. I've been listening the Pumpkins again lately, as a matter of fact. I've been sticking to their newer stuff and their more obscure stuff because putting the big albums in (i.e. Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie, Adore) takes too much of my attention and is, frankly, too overwhelming to listen to very often. When I get around to writing my screenplay, I will play these preserved, aural memories back and I'm sure I will find plenty of material from my past to harvest. That's not something I want to take on while I'm configuring insurance software during the day at work.

Ani, Pumpkins, My So-Called Life, Twin Peaks -- R and I are definitely going through a 90s phase right now. Maybe we like remembering a time that was a little less hectic, a little less complicated... when the world seemed fresh and ready for us to conquer. But, really, did that time ever exist? Why do I have a feeling that 10 years from now I'll be looking back at the 00s with the same bittersweet fondness and wonder what I did with all of my free time?

On Sunday we attended a chili cook-off in New Hope, PA with the group pictured above. It was all the chili you could eat from 10 different participants and all the beer you could drink from Triumph Brewery, and let me tell you I ate and drank all that I could. Can you believe I did not get the hiccups? It's true.

Last night we attended our first book club meeting. I'd like to start out by saying that I love the idea of this book club. Finding a group of people that enjoy reading and discussing books has been a goal of mine. That said, I didn't even attempt to read the book for this month. There was no way I was going to get through 560 pages in 20 days or whatever I had. R was able to finish, however. They read a book called Freddy and Fredericka. I still attended the discussion (although I had to bring an extra bottle of wine for not finishing the book), and threw in an occasional comparison to television shows and movies (my expertise). I'm going to try to my hardest to read the February book, which is The Kite Runner. Our upcoming plane rides to and from New Zealand should provide me with the necessary time to read it.

The premiere of the fourth season of Lost is on this Thursday, and I have to miss it! I'm going to a celebration dinner for work, and the chances of me being home by 9:00 are very slim. After waiting this long, I guess I can make it one more day to see how last season's cliffhanger is resolved (or how it is continued, as the case will likely be).

Have you seen the new "street view" option that has been added to Google Maps? It's rather stunning. Now you can walk through a city without leaving your house. And this, I'm sure, is just the beginning. 90s, eat your heart out.

Return of the Sneaky Peek

Our local independent movie theater discontinued their monthly Sneaky Peek a while ago, and I have been missing it. Their movie selection process could have used a little work, but the concept was grand: Everybody shows up to watch a movie, the title of which is not announced ahead of time. The audience doesn't know what they are watching until the opening credits give it away. Ah, the suspense!

To make up for the lack of anonymous entertainment in Wilmington, R and I hosted our own Sneaky Peek last Wednesday night, albeit on a smaller scale. We had 8 people over to have a few drinks, to eat some popcorn and various dips, and to watch... Primer. It's a movie that can lead to some major discussion and possibly some minor headaches because of it's circular time-travel logic. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. I think it was a good pick for a group that was more than half engineers. The movie was actually made by an engineer who quit his job, made the movie for $7000, and brought it to Sundance to win the grand jury prize.

I'm hoping our friends decide to host their own Sneaky Peeks in the coming months. It would be fun to pass it around and see what other people decide on for the group to watch. I'm going to start working on my next pick already. These are the kinds of things that give me a thrill.

Spring is/was here

It was 66 degrees in Delaware on Tuesday. Not bad for January. It makes me want to hop on my bike, but there's not enough daylight for that yet, at least not during the week. My Ultimate Frisbee games have been continuing on Saturdays though, so I am getting outside a little bit.

There's not too much new happening around here. We had some guests for a few nights last week. An old family friend and his girlfriend stayed with us for part of their east coast tour. It was good to catch up with them over a couple of dinners.

My job has been crazy again, yet also strangely exhilarating. I don't mind the work or even being so busy while I'm there. It's the overtime that bothers me the most. If I put in an extra 15 hours during a week, that's 15 fewer hours I have at home. I didn't get anything creative done this week, and I'm lucky we didn't have any plans to go out because I might have missed them. Our social calendar picks up during the later part of this month, so hopefully work calms down by then.

Currently digging:

Music
The Shepherd's Dog by Iron and Wine -- my second favorite album of 2007 and the artist's best to date.
The Reminder by Feist -- See, I do listen to female singers once in a while.

Television on DVD
Flight of the Conchords -- I'm absolutely loving this show. Very funny and rewatchable.
My So-Called Life -- R's choice but I didn't object. Classic, sometimes cheesy, sometimes poetic, 90s TV that I didn't catch the first time around.

Movies
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World -- The best looking/sounding movie we've watched on our new home theater. A perfect example of why we don't go out to the movies much anymore.

Books
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -- I'm a little behind the times but am really enjoying this so far. R and I recently joined a book club, and I'm worried it's going to get in the way of my reading of this.

Bud Light Film Crew #13

I know, I know, I know. I said I was done with the BLFC for a while so that I could work on other projects (and so that I could take a break), but when I got an email to do the January video and heard that nobody was able to fill in for me, I didn't want to leave the producer up a creek. It was not easy to fit into my schedule since I was going to be gone for such a large chunk of December, but I ended up shooting the video the weekend before we left and editing it after we returned on New Year's. I purposely didn't shoot much footage in order to save editing time, and the effort was successful -- it took me about a third as long to do as usual. I also used my new camera, and anything it captures ends up looking great, with a lot less effort than before, so I had that going for me too. The only downside was that it was raining the night of the shoot, and I didn't dare bring the camera outside to get some shots I would have liked. I might have been more daring with the old one.

The fact that the video came together so fast is reassuring. Maybe I can keep doing these for the money, if nothing else. My passion for them is fading, and my friends and family have probably stopped watching them because -- even I'll admit -- they are becoming repetitive, but hey, I feel better about buying equipment when I have this little bit of extra money coming in. If I do one video, there's a new shotgun microphone, just like that. Actually, I need to finish paying for the camera first.

As usual, here's the link: http://www.budlightfilmcrew.com/

I'm dreaming of a gray Christmas

They’ll find us here here, here in the guest room
where we throw money at each other and cry, oh my

-from "Guest Room" by The National

I almost forgot how often the sky is gray in Minnesota. Over the course of ten days, we probably saw the sun for a total of ten minutes. Not that I mind; sunny days are overrated anyway. It would take a lot more than some gloom to ruin our bi-annual binge of food and family. The backdrop of frosted trees on gray sky was actually welcoming; it looked like home.

I had a hard time saying good-bye this time, knowing that everybody will be six months older the next time we see them and at that time we'll only see each set of family for two or so days until our next visit six months later. And then we'll repeat. The whole time we are there we are saying good-bye. I'm afraid of missing out on things and losing touch and realizing there's nothing to talk about anymore. Moving around the country is such a great experience that is giving me tons of perspective, but I don't want it to last the rest of my life. At a certain point we may have to quit waiting for a logical reason to bring us home.

Thanks to our families for the hospitality and the great gifts. We received some camping gear, a sauteuse pan, gift certificates, continued XM radio service, and the list goes on. One of the things R got me is Twin Peaks on DVD (yay!). I'm going to consume it like a large gourmet cookie: slowly, deliberately, and with immense pleasure.

2008... that's starting to sound like the future. Have a good year, everybody.