The St. Paul paper, The Pioneer Press, told me this morning that today is actress Roma Downey's birthday. As if it could hear my mind working, it then proceeded to let me know just what Ms. Downey is best known for. She was, of course, the star of TV's "Touched by an Angel."
It saddens me that someone is still best known for that program, especially since Ms. Downey has been in a movie dubbed Funky Monkey since her "Touched" days.
In times like these, we need to allow everyone, including oddly popular Christian themed television show stars, the ability to move on from their mistakes.
P.S. I'm back bitches.
5.06.2009
4.08.2009
gringo Done Made Some More Music...
1.23.2009
Where in the World is gringo?
For those of you wondering "hey, where the hell did gringo go?"
Asia.
That's where.
As such, he may be found Questing for Panda-Gators.
He may pop in from time to time.
Asia.
That's where.
As such, he may be found Questing for Panda-Gators.
He may pop in from time to time.
1.06.2009
Prep Work
Whew, what a past couple weeks. In the hustle and bustle of Asia preparing, both the washing machine in my house as well as my laptop decided that working properly was no longer really required. As such, both have been relegated to the status of "Really Frickin Broken." While we're waiting on the repairs to be completed for the washing machine (a replacement transmission is on its way), we fixed the other problem by purchasing me a new laptop.
Truth was, I needed it. The G and H keys on my old one weren't working well, and as of lately it had been occasionally shocking my lap. Both of these things, I believe, qualified me for a new one. It's fairly wicked sweet.
The last.fm account for My Own Monster still exists, but I would personally recommend, for those of you aching to hear my music, cheking the MySpace page instead. It can be found here.
Speaking of music, I finished my second song of winter break today. Since most of the songs recorded and posted on the above mentioned MySpace page took months to complete, I feel like I'm doing well. I want to write one more in the next couple days (this last song took only two days to complete). That would give me seven originals complete by the end of this break that I want to record upon my return. Maybe factoring a song or two from Asia (I'm buying a guitar while there), I just may have enough for a full album. Creativity kicks ass!
Other than writing, I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I spent one day, a week or so ago, watching two of the most depressing movies I've seen in ages. I had never seen American History X before, though I had been warned of the content, and it was powerful. I did chuckle to myself when I noticed that the boy typing throughout most of the film never clicks on the space bar. Go figure. Than I watched Gone Baby Gone, which is far less depressing that X, but still packs a punch. Casey Affleck was surprisingly real.
As for theater visits, I've already witnessed Doubt, Milk, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all of which were incredible. Still on my list are Frost/Nixon, The Spirit, Slumdog Millionaire, and (maybe) Valkyrie (though I've heard it's not very good). We'll see how many of those I can cram in before take off. I'm still pissed about missing Notorious. And Defiance.
My top albums of 2008 list is up on Mockingbird Music. Check it.
Truth was, I needed it. The G and H keys on my old one weren't working well, and as of lately it had been occasionally shocking my lap. Both of these things, I believe, qualified me for a new one. It's fairly wicked sweet.
The last.fm account for My Own Monster still exists, but I would personally recommend, for those of you aching to hear my music, cheking the MySpace page instead. It can be found here.
Speaking of music, I finished my second song of winter break today. Since most of the songs recorded and posted on the above mentioned MySpace page took months to complete, I feel like I'm doing well. I want to write one more in the next couple days (this last song took only two days to complete). That would give me seven originals complete by the end of this break that I want to record upon my return. Maybe factoring a song or two from Asia (I'm buying a guitar while there), I just may have enough for a full album. Creativity kicks ass!
Other than writing, I've been watching a lot of movies lately. I spent one day, a week or so ago, watching two of the most depressing movies I've seen in ages. I had never seen American History X before, though I had been warned of the content, and it was powerful. I did chuckle to myself when I noticed that the boy typing throughout most of the film never clicks on the space bar. Go figure. Than I watched Gone Baby Gone, which is far less depressing that X, but still packs a punch. Casey Affleck was surprisingly real.
As for theater visits, I've already witnessed Doubt, Milk, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all of which were incredible. Still on my list are Frost/Nixon, The Spirit, Slumdog Millionaire, and (maybe) Valkyrie (though I've heard it's not very good). We'll see how many of those I can cram in before take off. I'm still pissed about missing Notorious. And Defiance.
My top albums of 2008 list is up on Mockingbird Music. Check it.
12.18.2008
My Own Monster Is Born
At the request of reader Tay, I have set up a last.fm account for my musical endeavors. I have also come up with a name to play under, My Own Monster. Though I have recently found out that this is the title of a Katy Perry song, I dig it. It's based on a poem I wrote a few months ago. Anywhoo, the site is up, running, sparse, but active. Check it out at:
http://www.last.fm/music/My+Own+Monster
The Gringo Demos are placed there, free downloads of course. So if you didn't get a chance to download it before, feel free to get it there. Seriously, be my guest. Hopes are to record an EP including full versions of the tracks off of The Gringo Demos, as well as a couple new tracks. Look for that in the coming weeks, both announced on this website as well as last.fm.
http://www.last.fm/music/My+Own+Monster
The Gringo Demos are placed there, free downloads of course. So if you didn't get a chance to download it before, feel free to get it there. Seriously, be my guest. Hopes are to record an EP including full versions of the tracks off of The Gringo Demos, as well as a couple new tracks. Look for that in the coming weeks, both announced on this website as well as last.fm.
12.11.2008
"Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen is a haunting record
Whew, that was a hell of a month or so. My procrastination based lifestyle has a tendency to come back to haunt me around finals time every year and, big surprise, it happened again. For the second semester in a row I ended up churning out well over 4o pages of fiction/essay/response/other academic bull crap in the final three or so weeks of school. But as of about 8:30 last night I am officially done. I submitted my final essay, a beast of an essay on Emily Dickinson's "A Light Exists in Spring," threw together a couple last minute online forum postings, and kicked back to enjoy my final couple days on campus. I picked up some extra hours at the library, and I have a few tasks to take care of for my Writing Center job on campus before I can take off. Not to mention all that packing and moving I have to do, what with going abroad in a little over a month.
I finally have a solid idea for my independent study while I'm in Asia (although I still haven't had a chance to meet with any professors to get it approved). The (tentative) plan is to write a poem a day on a postcard and mail them (a week or so at a time to save on postage) to my good pal Dexter back here in Iowa. He did this same program a couple years ago, and has been a big component of my writing over the last couple years. Also, he's responsible enough to hold onto them. Who knows, someday maybe he'll make a boat ton of money off of those things.
Since last we spoke I've come to the conclusion that I don't actually want to become a high school English teacher (a career I had chosen many years ago). I was sitting in a high school classroom, working with many students on an essay they were writing, when I realized that I don't want to teach people how to write, I want to help them with their writing. The strict functions, the proper grammatical structures of composition aren't what interest me. The liveliness, the breath of writing is what gets me going. I want to help people allow their writing to breathe. As such, I am beginning the grad school search, looking for a good creative writing program in hopes of eventually becoming a creative writing professor. St. Louis seems to have some good ones, but I'm still on the look.
Speaking of St. Louis, there's a lady there. She's wicked cool.
I finally have a solid idea for my independent study while I'm in Asia (although I still haven't had a chance to meet with any professors to get it approved). The (tentative) plan is to write a poem a day on a postcard and mail them (a week or so at a time to save on postage) to my good pal Dexter back here in Iowa. He did this same program a couple years ago, and has been a big component of my writing over the last couple years. Also, he's responsible enough to hold onto them. Who knows, someday maybe he'll make a boat ton of money off of those things.
Since last we spoke I've come to the conclusion that I don't actually want to become a high school English teacher (a career I had chosen many years ago). I was sitting in a high school classroom, working with many students on an essay they were writing, when I realized that I don't want to teach people how to write, I want to help them with their writing. The strict functions, the proper grammatical structures of composition aren't what interest me. The liveliness, the breath of writing is what gets me going. I want to help people allow their writing to breathe. As such, I am beginning the grad school search, looking for a good creative writing program in hopes of eventually becoming a creative writing professor. St. Louis seems to have some good ones, but I'm still on the look.
Speaking of St. Louis, there's a lady there. She's wicked cool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
