What's New?

Answer: Back in May Emily and I closed on our first home, a nice three bedroom ranch style home located on Bloomington's south side. We, with the help of Nate, spent several days painting before moving our things, with the help of a lot of our friends, from our apartment into our home. I have been enjoying the larger space, the un-ending number of design changes, and like that I now have a lawn to mow. Grandmother and Grandfather have stopped by, as have the B-town brothers, and we're looking forward to William's visit. He will probably be more interested in our puppy, Chipper. For Emily's birthday I decided to get her a little Rat Terrier. When we got him he was about 8 weeks old and weighed 4-5 pounds. He seems to be growing bigger every day and already weighs 10 lbs. He loves learning new tricks, looks forward to his meals, and especially loves playing tug with his cousin Coach Suhr. We will be sad to leave Chipper behind for a few days next week as we will be headed to the Barrow family vacation in Door County, Wisconsin - Emily's mom's family.
Emily has instructed me to bring my video camera, so be looking for a new video soon.

Wired Podcast

Here's a podcast of some new-ish music for summer listening from Wired.com:

Playlist Podcast: Episode 11

Some of the Asian Pop is a little odd, but some cool beats.

This year has been full of surprise when it comes to music. Both Dave Matthews and Wilco have just put out their best albums ever.

If you like anything by Wilco than go out and get this album. In fact, if you like anything about good music, than go out and get this album.

Transparency

Apparently "Openness" and "Transparency" mean something different in the Obama White House. The video below is from a press conference in which Chip Reid (with the help of Helen Thomas) debate the legitimacy of an upcoming 'Town Hall' meeting in which the audience is pre-screened (invited) and the tech-savvy questions (twitter and facebook) come through a screening process before they reach the President.

Ima Same Ima Sound of Moccasin (or) I Was Saved by the Sound of Michael's Song

The younger Crum children have only heard stories about the acrobatic skill that used to take place on the living room floor when the "Thriller" record was put on the turntable (that's an old-timey listening device, predating CDs and tapes (small casettes with ribbons of tape that could record sound and play on stereos)). The carpet became a dance floor, break-dance floor, as Peter would back-spin and twist to Beat It and Matt would break it down to Billie Jean. As I recall crotch grabs were not in vogue with the Crum kids (nor allowed). Ben and Mom would duet on PYT and Pop would chime in for the Vincent Price dialogue on Thriller, great memories to reflect on this past weekend as the world said farewell to the King of Pop. As a pre-teen I remember Jamming with Peter to the Dangerous album, and looking forward to network TV premiers of MJ videos... Remember the Time and Black or White to name a few. As Michael began to change, not just in appearance but also his personality, I lost interest in his newer music. Several years back I witnessed Jim Hogue do a dang-good impersonation of Michael's dance moves and remebered that when I ran into him in Wal-Mart on Friday, we chatted briefly, talked about the loss, and I asked him if his wife (Annie) was O.K.
Over the weekend I added a few MJ songs to my iTunes library (for you old folks that's a computer program that stores MP3s (digital music files) for play on my iPod (a hand-held device that can hold thousands of songs))... the Bad album and a few of his newer hits.
The Man in the Mirror may no longer 'Be There but he can still Rock My World. The Way he Makes Me Feel encourages me to Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. The Bad news is it isn't all Black or White. The Thriller, the Smooth Criminal is Gone To Soon, but I can still Remember the Time. Who is it?.... Shamone!!!

Heroes and Fools

Today is the anniversary of Custer's Last Stand. Back in 1876, close on the heals of the Civil War, Custer and his regiment were gunned down in the Montanan territory by a combined force of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne indians. I don't think I ever considered Custer a 'hero', but there was always a sense of awe regarding his bravery and courage. I don't really want to get into a discussion about the idea of the 'noble savage', the modern thought that indians, being 'one with all of nature' were somehow more pure than 'the savage white man'. I know that terrible crimes were committed against the primitive natives, but what I really want to look at it is that magnifies a man to the level of 'hero'.

For our wedding a woman from Mongolia gave Michal and me leather wallets. Michal's has a beautiful floral pattern and mine has a stamped image (now fading) of 'Chingis [Genghis] Khan'. Growing up I had only heard the name 'Genghis' in association with barbarian, tyrant, and monster. The history, as I knew it, was that this leader expanded his empire by brutal conquest. The truth is, he did.

Does that make him a monster? Maybe. But can a man simultaneously be a monster and a hero? I think the answer is yes. George Washington, hero or traitor? Abe Lincoln, hero to the freed slaves, or unjust tyrannical oppressor and constitution breaker? In our modern American way of thinking we are quick to dismiss any 'white oppressor' as simply being a tyrant, a monster, but we forget that all heroes to us must be someones Kahn.

Khan [wikipedia]
Custer [Wired.com]

Picture of the Day or "How to Become an Instant Nerd"

From [site]

What is this? (you might ask). Don't ask.

If you can't figure it out, you are way cooler than the rest of us.