11 January 2008
It’s All About Meme

Filed under five

Five on Friday
Primary Colors

1. When is the presidential primary in your area?
   September 20.
2. Do you plan to participate? Have you participated in the past?
   Unless Penny and Grace say they’re both not doing it, not only will I participate, but I will work at one of the precincts as a poll official. I have voted in every primary election I’ve been eligible for since I turned eighteen. Voting is a precious, precious thing; it is one of the things that makes this country what it is. I do not judge people who don’t participate, and I can’t say that I will always feel as strongly as I do, but right now, I feel very, very strongly about it. It is better to vote irresponsibly or ignorantly or for all the wrong reasons than not to vote at all. Participation in the process is more important than any results.
3. Do you identify with a single party or do you consider yourself independent? Has that changed over the years?
   I consider myself fiercely independent, but I do identify myself as a Libertarian. That’s what I sign next to my name in the pollbook officer’s signature space.
4. In your opinion, what are the major issues this year’s presidential candidates must address? Which is most important to your vote?
   There is nothing more important than what the heck we’re going to do with Iraq. Unfortunately, I don’t honestly know what we’re supposed to do with Iraq, so I can’t decide whose answers I like best. Of all the major candidates, I sense the most competence with John McCain, however. Does this mean I will vote for McCain? Probably not. First, I don’t think I’ll vote in the Republican primary, so I couldn’t. But I don’t like war. We never should have gone in there in the first place, and McCain was in favor of going in there. I don’t think the solution is simply to pull back, but if people like McCain hadn’t gotten us in there in the first place, we wouldn’t have this issue to deal with, at least not with the complication of an actual war.
5. How do you get your information about candidates at this time of year? What media and messaging impacts your opinion of the candidates the most?
   I will confess that, although I am an intelligent reader of several media, my primary sources of information are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Sue me.

Friday Fill-In #54

1. My favorite album of 2007 was probably Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full, but I’m still thinking about that.
2. I’m most tempted by my own laziness.
3. Today I want to get lots of sleep. I didn’t get nearly enough this week.
4. The last thing I took a picture of was first base at the baseball field near my school. It was for a Frisbee golf activity I led.
   
5. You and I have memories probably of my saying something really stupid and hurtful before I considered my words. It is a failing of mine, and I apologize.
6. The most recent movie I’ve seen that I really enjoyed was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to getting a lot of sleep; tomorrow my plans include my first unconference, though I’m not sure I’m actually going to show up, and Sunday, I want to record my podcast!

Friday Fiver

1. Where do you like to walk?
   I enjoy walking through Waikiki. Also Clement Street in San Francisco.
2. What does your hair look like?
   It is down to my waist. Black and very wavy. Shiny. Sometimes greasy (I intentionally don’t wash it for a few days once in a while to keep it rock and roll).
3. What are you jealous of?
   I know a teacher who always, always, always comes up with a more creative Halloween costume idea than whatever I come up with. One year, she was an identity thief. Another year, a web server. I am very jealous of her creativity. I don’t mind not being the most skilled instructor, or the most organized, or the most entertaining, but I do want to be the most creative. Also, she has nicer hair than me.
4. What kind of promises do you make?
   I make too many promises in all earnestness that for reasons of my own limitations, I cannot fulfill. It is another failing of mine, and I apologize for that, too.
5. What makes you stare?
   Long, straight, shiny black hair.

Friday 5

1. Under what conditions can you have the perfect nap?
   There are two different conditions that have equally perfect results. One is mid-day, when it’s dark and raining outside and I have my Mexican blanket and clean sheets. The other is when it’s warm outside and I have the windows on and my patchwork blanket. I need to be shirtless in both cases; other clothing is optional.
2. Under what conditions can you let most of your guard down?
   When I am with the guys: Don, Reid, Gregg, Byron, Charles, Todd. It is not all the way down, but it is pretty close. Some crap happened a few years back that made that difficult for a while, but I have always believed that would pass, and I think it is getting back to normal. Of course, not two of those guys live on the mainland and one’s married. This is a big deal for me. I don’t let it down for anyone, and it took YEARS for me to get that comfortable with these guys. Living with Reid helped (Wow. I didn’t think I’d ever say those words), and it was sometime during that year that it sorta happened.

   I had a really good college roommate in Hilo with whom I felt almost as comfortable. Captain Daveman. I think we knew when to leave each other alone, which is really an invaluable feature in a relationship. When there’s nobody else around, I also very, very nearly get there with JB. When people are around, it’s different for some reason. But when we’re in a car driving somewhere, I am about as close to unguarded me as I get.

3. Under what conditions can you do your best writing?
   In a cafe, when the house music isn’t too loud and I’ve got the iTunes cranking something metal. Usually in the post-work hours when my body is tired but my brain still has something left. It also helps to have some kind of goal in mind, like wordcount. For poetry, I need a spiral notebook and I need it pretty close to quiet. Strangely, some of my best poetry has been written in church. Ssssh. Don’t tell the pastor.
4. Under what conditions would you give away everything you own?
   I have a lot of stuff that’s valuable to someone who appreciates it, but not in a monetary kind of way. Some of them are CDs that are hard to find, or LPs signed by dead people. If I met someone who would value it as much as I value it, I could easily get rid of it all. “And all the silly sightless people came and looked — and called it junk.” Shel Silverstein.
5. Under what conditions would you kiss a stranger?
   This is in my 43 Things, actually. I want to kiss a stranger. So it would have to be one of those conditions where the stranger and I were both feeling it, ’cause I’m not putting my lips on someone who doesn’t welcome it! I think she might actually have to make the move, too. I’m just not that assertive. Do these kinds of things happen? I need to find out, because I have other things that could fill that space in my 43 Things if not.

Top Five on Friday: “Perfect” albums (albums that you can play all the way through without skipping a track)

Choosing a top five for this topic is going to be tough, because there are so many, but here we go.

1. 
   T Bone Burnett, T Bone Burnett. As you know, my favorite musician in the world is Bruce Cockburn, but BC’s always got a couple of songs I don’t love on each album. T Bone, perhaps by virtue of his seldom releasing albums, never has that problem. This is my favorite of his albums. It is quiet and simple and each song feels like exactly the right companion for the others, making this a true album. “Poison Love” and “No Love at All” and “Shake Yourself Loose” and “Annabelle Lee” are good places to start.
2. 
   The Choir, Circle Slide. This album is so well-conceived and so well-written that it shouldn’t have gaps between the songs. The band was never as good as it is on this album. Lyrically, it is wistful and poetic and wry and just slightly silly. I love just about everything this band has recorded, but this is its masterpiece. “Come on, let’s ride…the circle slide.”
3. 
   REO Speedwagon, Hi Infidelity. Doesn’t have a weak song on it. Side 1 is perhaps the best album side I’ve ever heard, in fact. And Side 2 begins with that great “Alfalfa? Would you swing me on the swings?” “Why shore, Darla!” “Hey wait a minute, Romeo! What about your promise to the He-Man Woman-Haters Club?” “I’m sorry, Spanky, but I have to live my own life!”
4. 
   Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon. As an album, it is the unsurpassed jewel in the Pink Floyd crown, and contains the lyric I might want as my epitaph: “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.” Joining the songs together so that the album is basically one thing was brilliant here. I need to take this to Space Mountain before I get too old!
5. 
   Asia, Asia. I was trying to think of a Yes or Rush album that fits the “perfect” description, but as much as I love those bands, there’s always one song on their albums that I sorta endure until the next. This, however, led me to Asia, and its 1981 debut album. This thing rocks and never gets dull. The drumming, especially, is great (Carl Palmer), and all the musicians really play well, but the HOOKS, oooooh, the hooks! You’ve heard “Only Time Will Tell” and “Heat of the Moment,” but have you heard “Wildest Dreams” and “Time Again?” Hello!

Also-rans: Styx’s Paradise Theater, Journey’s Escape, the Seventy Sevens’ Drowning with Land in Sight, Cecilio and Kapono’s Elua, Amy Grant’s Lead Me On and Age to Age, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced?, Led Zep’s IV, Def Leppard’s Pyromania, Rush’s Signals, Carole King’s Tapestry, Tonio K’s True Confessions, John Mellencamp’s Again Tonight, Cake’s Fashion Nugget, and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA.

And the people who bring you the Top Five on Friday also bring you Tuesday Tunes. This one’s a word-association activity.

• Cruel: Sam Phillips’s Cruel Intentions, which I think was her second album after she changed her name from Leslie. You know she’s T Bone Burnett’s wife, right? She was also the speechless villain in the second Die Hard movie, which I still haven’t seen.
• Drunk: Jimmy Buffet.
• Scared: Ronnie James Dio. The first time I saw his Holy Diver album cover, it really scared me.
  
• Cover: I just acquired (through legal channels, I assure you) a cover of Fates Warning’s “The Apparition” by Steel Prophet. I was never particularly interested in Steel Prophet, but I am very interested in seeing what other bands have done with this influential song. It’s a good cover, but it doesn’t sound as good as the original.
• Color: “I see your truuuuuuue colors shining through.” Burl Burlingame of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote a great review of Cyndi Lauper’s New Years Eve performance in Honolulu a couple of weeks ago. I really wanted to check her out and would have, if it weren’t that night. She’s just got a great voice and I love what she does with it, and that’s a good song.
• One: “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do…”
• Young: Triumph. “Magic Power.” “I’m young, I’m wild, and I’m free: I’ve got the magic power of the music in me…” I used to think that sounded a lot like Journey, but now I can’t believe it ever sounded like Journey.
• Punk: One of my really good karaoke songs is Dead Milkmen’s “Punk Rock Girl.” “We’ll travel ’round the world, just youuuuuu and meeeeee punk rock girrrrrrrl!”
• Age: “This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius, age of Aquarius…” My dad really digs the Fifth Dimension, so I heard quite of bit of this growing up. I always kinda liked Marilyn McCoo.
• Believe: There’s this song on Steve Taylor’s I Predict 1990 album called “Harder to Believe Than Not To.” I think of it all the time when people tell me that believing by faith is the easy way. It’s always a puzzle to me, because I believe something I’ve experienced and felt. They BELIEVE in the nonexistence of something, when everyone knows you can’t prove that something doesn’t exist, making the belief in the nonexistence of God itself a leap of faith. “And if they call it a crutch, then you walk with pride; your accusers have always been afraid to go outside. You shivered with doubts that were left unattended, then you tossed away the cloak that you should have mended. You know by now why the chosen are few: It’s harder to believe than not to.”

2008-01-11  ::  me