Requiem: college-era tape player.

I bought this tape player at BEST–a store that seems not to exist anymore–right before I left for college. I was excited at the duo tape and the high speed dubbing. Many, many mix tapes were made on this player. Over the years the radio has started to fade out and I rarely listen to my tapes, so it was time for this to go to the great electronics recycler in the sky.

Red Rosie is gone


I just sold my road bike.

It needed to be done. I’ve got the blue bike, the workhorse, and the road bike was taking up space I don’t have. I put her up on Craigslist at 4:00 and she was gone before 8:30. I’m $125.00 richer, which is nice, and I hope that the woman who bought her likes her as much as I did.

I bought her in the winter of 2002-2003, when I was getting serious about long distance road biking. I wanted a lighter frame than my mountain bike, and also toe clips and to be bent over the handlebars, like a serious long distance biker. We went on a lot of long rides around Portland, while I was increasing my distance. I named her Red Rosie as we rode over the St. John’s Bridge and the first time I saw the Kenton Neighborhood, I was with her. We were resting on a bench on a beautiful day in a park and I looked around and thought, “There are some nice houses here. It would be really nice to live here.” The park was Kenton Park which is just down the street from my house and I walk by that bench all the time.

I loved how clean her lines were, how light she was and how she had that old school Trek logo on the front. I loved how I felt fast when I rode her and how she continued the tradition of my owning and loving Trek bicycles. I love that she had old-school down tube shifters, because she reminded me of a bike my dad had growing up, and it was like she was something that was handed down to me, rather than bought, shiny new–though I actually did buy her at City Bikes.

She hung in my studio downtown, in the apartment Matt and I shared, and most lately in our house, where she had her own shed. She took me all over Southwest Portland when I trained for the triathalon and then 18 miles during the triathalon and I can still remember how good I felt when I conquered Hillsdale and Multnomah Village’s steep grades early one morning while training before work. When I first bought her I walked two blocks to an incredibly boring job, but when I went to graduate school, I rode her every day to my two student teaching placements. First we traveled just over the Hawthorne Bridge to Environmental Middle School, then farther across the Broadway Bridge to Grant High School. I looked at her longingly when I had my post graduate school boring job–too far away to bike commute–and we were happily reunited when I rode the one and a half miles each way to The Emerson School, and then 4 miles each way to from the new house.

In the end, she was just a little bit too big for me. When I rode her my neck was at an angle that was just a little bit wrong and I ended up with chronic pain. During those last few months, it was hard to ride her at all, both because it hurt and because she needed a tuneup. We were both in need of something new. I hope she likes her new owner and the new owner likes her. I will miss her.

Three sentence movie reviews: The Other Guys


This was hilarious–I knew Will Ferrell was funny, and now I know he also makes a very good straight man. But who knew Mark Wahlberg was so funny? This movie also includes a very clever take on the “drink all night” scene as well as the best role I’ve seen Michael Keaton play in years.

ps: watch all the credits. You will get a good education about what financial reform bought us.

pps: Even if you only watch the opening scene you will laugh. The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson make excellent over-the-top buddy cops.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/other_guys.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Plenty

Actually watched on 7/25/10, but somehow missed being chronicled in order.

I get the point of this move, but man was it long, drawn out and boring. Meryl Streep did her acting thing which was good, but ultimately, this movie was just not that interesting. Sam Neil and Sting briefly (and boringly) appear and if it weren’t for Tracy Ullman I’m not sure I would have made it through the whole thing.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1985/plenty.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Maid in Manhatten

Actually watched on 7/24/10, but somehow missed being chronicled in order.

I got this because John Hughes wrote this and I hoped it would be good. Instead, it was incredibly predictable and mediocre. Amy Sedaris was in it, though, which was fun.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2002/maid_in_manhattan_ver3.html

Three sentence movie reviews: 500 Days of Summer.


Actually watched on 7/18/10, but somehow missed being chronicled in order.

We watched this so Matt could enjoy the perfection of this movie. I was again bedazzled by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the best ever use of a song I don’t like. It lost nothing in a second viewing, and if you haven’t watched it yet, please do.

Poem for July: Love Song, I and Thou

Love Song: I and Thou
Alan Dugan

Nothing is plumb, level or square:
the studs are bowed, the joists
are shaky by nature, no piece fits
any other piece without a gap
or pinch, and bent nails
dance all over the surfacing
like maggots. By Christ
I am no carpenter. I built
the roof for myself, the walls
for myself, the floors
for myself, and got
hung up in it myself. I
danced with a purple thumb
at this house-warming, drunk
with my prime whiskey: rage.
Oh, I spat rage’s nails
into the frame-up of my work:
it held. It settled plumb,
level, solid, square and true
for that great moment. Then
it screamed and went on through,
skewing as wrong the other way.
God damned it. This is hell,
but I planned it, I sawed it,
I nailed it, and I
will live in it until it kills me.
I can nail my left palm
to the left-hand crosspiece but
I can’t do everything myself.
I need a hand to nail the right,
a help, a love, a you, a wife.

I’m right now listening to Peter Sagel (12/26/2003) talk about this poem and his story of meeting this poem is great. Plus you get to hear Alan Dugan reciting it.

And now that I’ve heard him read his poem, I have to say that I prefer the way I recite it.

I think I squealed with glee when I first read this poem. For a literal standpoint, I am often mid-project, working a bit beyond my abilities, and somewhat frustrated. I’ve got three unfinished projects going–or rather stopped–right now. I’ve often found myself “drunk on my prime whisky: rage” and feeling rather martyrish. It’s at this point that Matt usually talks me down, or peps me up, if that’s what the situation calls for. I think every Amish-type, project person needs a counterpart to keep them going, or resting, if need be.

I’ve never been a fan of the big, extravagant wedding, because I think the vows that really matter are the ones that are said repeatedly in small ways over a long period of time. I believe that helping with projects, whether physically or emotionally is one way that makes a couple solid and actually married.