words of my neighborhood

HeavenSide -- «The Game»

heavenside — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:36:28 GMT

"HeavenSide"

/ Kind day! My name is Eugen and I from a city Rivne that on Ukraine. Recently I created the musical group and named "HeavenSide", I very like English but I it not very much know well. And it one of my songs... I very want to visit your edges and especially to develop the group. If We interested you, write an answer to us... We to get a dear help advice from your side! Thank you for understanding! Expect an answer!

«The Game»

You are standing on my road and looking at me
A number of your room is 73
You want to get in to my head
But I can feel, this is not a simple game

And all the time you traveled and made me sing
You were needed for the sky, you were needed for the love
But now you want to get in to my heart
But I felt it, I had expected it all the time

You stay! You play! You somewhere fly among my clouds
You will give your tears to me and we open the sky, tonight
You stay! You play! Your smile is needed for my life
I will see your blue eyes in the sky, tonight.

After the dark night, in the sunrise of spring
We live together in the city of our dreams
You will make an attempt stop our time
My heart, you need all but cry!

Your tears are the drops on my hands
The song you may sing all the world understands
The words you may say (wisper) bring the light in my heart
The game we can play is the flight in the sky

You stay! You play! You somewhere fly among my clouds
You will give your tears to me and we open the sky, tonight
You stay! You play! Your smile is needed for my life
I will see your blue eyes in the sky, tonight.

This is the place we were taching the moon
It was so cold and it was wonderful
It was a game played by us and the moon

You are standing on my road and looking at me
A number of your room is 73
You want to get in to my head

You stay! You play! You somewhere fly among my clouds
You will give your tears to me and we open the sky, tonight
You stay! You play! Your smile is needed for my life
I will see your blue eyes in the sky, tonight.
You stay! You play! You somewhere fly among my clouds
You will give your tears to me and we open the sky, tonight
You stay! You play! Your smile is needed for my life
I will see your blue eyes in the sky, tonight.

Photo Stamps

larrygassan — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 05:03:23 GMT

…And wouldnt it be nice if they had stamps honoring Ralph E Meatyard as well?

PS The "Sarah Shroud" photo is heartbreakingly lush.

olive is a name — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 04:58:26 GMT

It will be good, not to worry

Here's Luck!

ototoro — Mon, 15 Jul 2002 04:54:00 GMT

Before we get back to the Princeton saga, a brief detour for some additional revisitation of high school reverie...

For the sake of brevity (and don't laugh, because the three-part magnum opus with postscript really was brief compared to what it might have been), a few very significant people from my junior high and high school years were left out of the A Better Version Of Me story.

One of those people was T., who sat next to me in Geometry class in eighth grade when I would get driven over to the high school for my math class at the end of the day, and again in Precalculus class the following year.

We shared a tendency to be impatient with the actual class material, so we amused ourselves by exchanging notes, poems, literary fragments, and other bits of text appertaining to the life of the young self-styled writer and/or the young angst-ridden teenager. Which, in our case, were generally one and the same thing.

As much as I ever had friends at the time, T was one of them. When I bailed out of high school early, she was on the short short list of people I actually missed. My flight from Temple was mostly gleeful and untinged by regret, but in her case, I made an exception and missed her very much.

So, I was delighted to serendipitously stumble across her recently and catch up one decade later.

Now she is a teacher, and a poet, and webmaster of paper cup, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan site characterized by a perfect mix of intellectualism, whimsy, and cool music videos. And prepositions. Prepositions over, under, in, and through the whole site.

You want to go there.

That's all I have, really. Another one of those people who means much more than they know, or than one even realizes at the time.

T still rocks, one decade later. I love how people turn out!

Note: This entry has been subsequently edited for the sake of perfectly-reasonable concerns on T's part about the online personal/professional divide. No change has been made to the content other than the removal of T's full name. And removing a broken link to a poem that had her name on it, which is a pity, because it was a good one.

The Innocence Mission

pascal72 — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 17:48:28 GMT

Hi Jonathan,

I'm Pascal from Switzerland and I contact you because I read on your weblog you're a fan of "The Innocence Mission" (I guess where the title of your weblog come from).

The new album from The Innocence Mission is going to be available this fall :

Jazz-tinged and dreamy, this new offering from the innocence mission collects standards and traditional songs that singer Karen Peris has sung to her children as lullabies since they were born. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to organizations working to aid impoverished children throughout Africa.

"After hearing Bono speak this past May at my brother's college graduation about the plight of orphaned children in South Africa, our plans to make another benefit record were strengthened and propelled and we worked more quickly and spontaneously than usual. We recorded most of the songs over a three week period this summer, late at night, and it was really great fun. A lot of the singing was done live to Don's guitar playing. The spaciousness of the arrangements allowed for piano and pump organ and Mike's upright bass, " says Karen Peris.

Jonathan, would you like to do something to advertise the album, support the band and try to make a few more sales for the children ? For example, you could help spread the word in various on-line forums, deal with P2P or talk about the CD around you.

Their record company will also have posters available in a few weeks. Maybe, you would want to try and hang some at book stores, music stores, children shops... in Austin ?

If you're interested, please, share your ideas and visit The Innocence Mission forum here :
groups.yahoo.com

The song "What a Wonderful World" is already free for download here :
www.badmanrecordingco.com

We'd be glad to have your help,

Pascal

Life and death are just things that you do when you're bored

ototoro — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 20:52:00 GMT

I'm still alive. Maybe I'll start posting here again.

hello from an old friend

otoguest — Fri, 09 Apr 2004 02:01:19 GMT

jonathan

i'm working late again; but still not as hard as I should (clearly)
so i've never visited a blog before
looks like you haven't come round for quite some time

i've been skipping the prescription lately
i seem to feel better when i do -
the prescribed observances usually make me ill

as for corporations
i'm trying to limit my consumption;
not always succeeding

patriotism, strictly defined
is love of one's country
a patriotic act is therefore
an act of love

love and duty are not the same thing
true love cannot be rehearsed

i think
i hope
somwhere in a box
i still have all those sheafs of your poetry
that you gave me
years and years ago

it's been lovely to find your site
enjoyed the photos

Recession

ann_agan — Fri, 18 Apr 2003 02:52:26 GMT

But what do you do when you can not find a job and the life change demands it?

Thanks for including my song! =)

serenamatthews — Tue, 05 Nov 2002 18:13:18 GMT

Hi there! I have no idea how I stumbled across this page.. Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise to see my name on a CD list with so many of my favorite artists, like Damien Jurado, and Robert Johnson and Gillian Welch! =)

So I just had to pop in and say hello~
hello!~

Warm regards,
Serena Matthews

Re: New album coming from Sigur Ros

fixxlevy — Thu, 31 Oct 2002 06:42:33 GMT

The apparent austerity attached to '()' scares me. I love the lush, almost extraneous depth of 'ágætis byrjun' and can't imagine anything other than.

I'll need to hear '()'.

B-day

riddle — Sun, 20 Oct 2002 16:01:20 GMT

Very sorry I couldn't make it to your birthday party, it sounded like devilish fun. I raced back from funeral solemnities in Houston only to find that I couldn't get a sitter. Drat! I had even been practicing for my minimalist costume. My intent was to wear black, drape a couple of cameras around my neck, and say "I haf come to take ze fotos of ze beautiful women, ja?" And see how far that got me...

Re: B-Boy

otoguest — Thu, 10 Oct 2002 16:54:08 GMT

happy birthday :) i'd link you to my photolog.

tiara.

Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

memo — Thu, 19 Sep 2002 15:32:13 GMT

Interesting---good luck! BTW, have you had a chance yet to check out Noah Grey's Photolog ?

Re: Proof that I am occasionally evil...and a second place finish.

va — Tue, 17 Sep 2002 16:27:34 GMT

We used to do that when I was in the Air Force, but we called it Road Rage. The last time we did it, one of the clues was in a graveyard *inside a broken crypt*. Eeeeek!

Re: Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

klkross — Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:35:34 GMT

Hmm. Good advice, but too late for me. ;)

Re: Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

ototoro — Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:15:32 GMT

Haha. Very observant, Sherlock. It does.

I took some with a clean glass, but I think the dusty one actually came out better—the dust diffuses the light and makes it look more solid. Less like a glass.

Not that you care, anyway, as you're just leaping on any opportunity to criticize the cleanliness of my humble abode.

Word to the wise blogger: Never give your URL to any smartasses who visit your house on a regular basis. ;-)

Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

brucelev — Thu, 12 Sep 2002 16:14:36 GMT

this glass looks like it needs to be washed.

We've got so far to come...

ototoro — Wed, 11 Sep 2002 14:33:00 GMT

Listening on repeat to Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away...

In your own time, in your own way, as you need it, do what you have to do.

This is my recipe for dealing with grief, tragedy, or just plain everyday life.

I don't need television or newspapers for that, especially today. I imagine you probably don't either, but if you do, that's okay. In your own time, in your own way.

I suppose that's what bothers me about all the media coverage—it's a mass prescription for a very diverse set of people, some of whom may be made worse by the prescribed observances, or allergic to them, or simply enjoy no noticeable effect.

In their own time, in their own way, America's corporations are also recovering as they need to. Mostly they need money, and they need ratings & readers to get money. Hence the onslaught of memorial coverage. Watch it or ignore it, in your own time and way.

I don't want to talk about politics here. I don't want to discuss my ambivalent ease / disease with the patriotic displays and rehearsed sentimentality.

In my own time, and in my own way...

I want to say I love humanity, and all its million million unrehearsed sentiments transpiring on this day.

I want to take a little time with my friends, to unwrap the gift of the present moment.

I want to thank you for being here, even if I've never met you, because the world is better with you in it.

I want to listen to this Stevie Wonder song over and over, as much at ease / disease with my patchwork religious feelings as I am with patriotism, but feeling these things anyway:

Why can't they say that hate is 10 zillion light years away?

We've got so far to come.

But in my heart I can feel it.

Proof that I am occasionally evil...and a second place finish.

ototoro — Mon, 09 Sep 2002 19:54:00 GMT

Saturday night I ran the first of a potential series of scavenger / race / treasure hunt games called Midnight Madness, put on by an acquaintance of mine commonly known as "Party Matt".

If you've seen that television show The Amazing Race, you have the general idea of how the thing works. You go to a place, you get a clue. Solve the clue and follow it to the next clue.

My team consisted of myself, Bruce, Lyndsay and Colin in the road team, with Karin, Randy and Peter manning the Internet via cell phone.

We breezed through the first several clues at a decently speedy clip, matching the pace Matt had indicated he expected the first-place team to make.

We were the first team to arrive at checkpoint 4, the O. Henry house, but another team arrived as we were still looking for the clue. We managed to get maybe a 30 second head start away from the O. Henry house, but it took us some time to solve the clue for checkpoint 5. At last we determined that it was the walkway of the 360 Bridge, and began making our way there.

It was en route to the bridge that I gave proof that I am, indeed, occasionally evil. There was some discussion of which bridge it was, what it looked like. "It's the big red arch." "Oh, the one over the canyon with all the hills and cliffs and stuff." Someone mentioned that the bridge was not lit up—"it's totally dark; we'll need flashlights."

To which I replied, "Yes, and if the three boys get out to find the clue, it will be Dark Canyon and the Three Musketeers."

Rampant groaning ensued.

When we arrived at the bridge, we were 30 seconds behind Team 4, who had been 30 seconds behind us at the previous checkpoint.

We breezed through a couple more clues before hitting the final clue, which required so many flying leaps of logic (or more aptly, illogic in some parts) that a flying squirrel would have balked at the prospect of completing it.

We made a total of three calls for hints, racking up 10, 20, and 30 minutes of penalty time respectively. We finally finished half an hour after Team 4, who had only called twice. However, due to the extra penalties, we actually finished 58 minutes behind them. Without the extra penalties, and the time wasted between calls 2 and 3, it might have been a very close race. Still, the as-yet-unofficial result is that we finished in a very respectable second place.

It is worth noting that the final clue required phone calls from every team, making the outcome of the race strongly dependent on the equitable dispensation of hints by Matt. With 15 teams in the race, even the most well-meaning race organizer is going to have trouble providing equitable assistance 15 times and keeping mental notes of all the hints given. There were also a couple of instances in which certain teams were apparently meddling with the course.

Still, one can only do so much to ensure fair play, and for the first run of this event, I'd say it was for the most part a great success. Up until the last clue, we were having great fun—challenged, but never utterly disillusioned.

Assuming our second place stands up in the final counting, I'm happy with our outcome.

Bruce and I are even giving serious consideration to running the upcoming Urban Challenge in Dallas.

If we do, I'm going to have to start running every day, though—unlike Saturday's race, this one allows travel on foot or public transportation only.

New album coming from Sigur Ros

ototoro — Mon, 09 Sep 2002 18:32:00 GMT

One hopes that it will actually be a good album, otherwise all this wilful inscrutability will look a bit silly, won't it?

A real-life Ralph S. Mouse...er, Hamster!

ototoro — Mon, 09 Sep 2002 13:51:00 GMT

Did anyone else read those Beverly Cleary books about Ralph S. Mouse, the driving mouse, as a kid? He had a little toy motorcycle and a helmet made out of a ping-pong ball, and he made the motorcycle go just by making a "Pbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb" noise. In later tales he had a car instead of a motorcycle.

Well, anyway, those stories have actually come to life, after a fashion, across the pond in England, where a hamster was found driving a little car, under his own power, through Cleveleys.

Go Speed Racer, Go!

"Bored with being British.
Worn out with cynical, subtle and sparse." says Martin Amis

ototoro — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 16:22:00 GMT

Author blogs now have their very own Weird Al, in the form of Lying Motherfcuker, a blog in which your favorite authors, many of them dead, blog about what they're really thinking.

Consider this from Martin Amis:

"Don't need a Booker. Am successful, well-adjusted, straight-toothed Writer of Renown with valuable contracts and great hair.

Shit. Shit. Shit."

Or Edward Gorey: "Crows and stray cats following me everywhere. Someone has been sneaking offal into my coat pockets. Again."

The most recent entries spoof Neil Gaiman's Sandman characters: "Beset by clouds of amorous pigeons, Dream and Death begin to regret their decision to shill for AquaNet hairspray." (see visual aid)

Much of the humor is of the low variety, but it's an enjoyable guilty pleasure for booklovers all the same.

Thank you, Memepool, for making my day!

ototoro — Fri, 06 Sep 2002 14:31:00 GMT

The tireless surfers over at Memepool have completely brightened my day with this juicy little link.

I used to keep a couple of bonsai trees myself, until they were stolen from my yard—one of the least fiscally damaging, but most thoroughly irksome crimes of which I have ever been a victim.

I miss those little trees, and the surreal whimsy of CrashBonsai makes me miss them even more. Hee-hee!

Re: My cat has a web presence...

otoguest — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:24:13 GMT

What a gorgeous cat!

-a nonny mouse

Re: My cat has a web presence...

otoguest — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 23:14:12 GMT

What a beautiful kitty! I love your photograph.

Mrs. Hungus

words of my neighborhood

HeavenSide -- «The Game»

Photo Stamps

Here's Luck!

The Innocence Mission

Life and death are just things that you do when you're bored

hello from an old friend

Recession

Thanks for including my song! =)

Re: New album coming from Sigur Ros

B-day

Re: B-Boy

Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

Re: Proof that I am occasionally evil...and a second place finish.

Re: Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

Re: Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

Re: "Flower", a photojunkie contest entry

We've got so far to come...

Proof that I am occasionally evil...and a second place finish.

New album coming from Sigur Ros

A real-life Ralph S. Mouse...er, Hamster!

"Bored with being British.Worn out with cynical, subtle and sparse." says Martin Amis

Thank you, Memepool, for making my day!

Re: My cat has a web presence...

Re: My cat has a web presence...

"Bored with being British.
Worn out with cynical, subtle and sparse." says Martin Amis