Perhaps you would like some music

I have recently become obsessed with a musician named Jeffrey Lewis, and I have decided to share that obsession with you, internet.

Let's first dip our toes into his most 'commercial' song and video:
To Be Objectified

Now, my personal favorite:
Anxiety Attack
(The lyrics to this one do a good job of summing up my own thought processes.)

Something else:
Life

A short song about Ramen noodles:
Ramen


A "Low Budget Documentary" about the history of Communist China (set to music):
It's Awesome

A "Low Budget Detective Flick"
Even More Awesome

The rest of the best:
Don't Get Upset
Seattle
Whistle Past the Graveyard
Back When I Was 4
East River

And lets wrap things up with a catchy ditty about suicide:
Couldn't Take It Anymore

A Thought About Perspective

When you are a kid, birthdays are events. They are something to celebrate and look forward to. When you get older, they cease to feel important. They simply mark the passage of time. They only have the significance we choose to impart on them.

I've heard it said that life is a collection of moments. A collection of events. I prefer to think that life is the time between those events. That time is when we chose how to perceive and interpret those events. Life is the time you spend waiting in a dentist's office for your name to be called. The act of getting your teeth cleaned does not have a large impact on your life. However, the time you spend in the waiting room, thinking about your day, your week, your future - that time shapes your life. Those free moments when we are driving to work, or jogging, sitting on the toilet are when we reflect on all the events we consider to have been important in shaping our lives.

But like birthdays, our perception of other events changes over time - as our emotions change, as our memories fade... as we have more time to see things in perspective. The older we get, the more events we can experience and compare to other events. Suddenly, getting a new videogame is no longer the best thing that has ever happened. Getting snubbed in the lunchroom is no longer the worst. And sometimes, events occur that give us a profound clarity about things that happened in the past. People often refer to these events as 'turning points.'

But the events are not the catalyst. What turns us is how we react to those events. We are not robots that record our experiences in one long column that adds up to some definitive sum. We interpret and reappraise and second-guess and predict and regret and hope and deny. We think, therefor we are.

Which explains why you're reading this instead of doing work or kissing someone or accomplishing something. But just because the quiet, thoughtful moments are the ones that shape our lives, that doesn't mean you should wallow in them. Take them in, consider their significance, and then go out and live life.

Boring Post is Boring

If any of you out in internetland care, I'll be out of town this weekend, starting tomorrow.

I've been doing some research for some nonfiction comics I'm thinking about doing. I've got enough sources for about five so far. But I've noticed that a lot of the stories I've looked into take place in wartime. Like, all except two of them. I'm gonna have to branch out my research a little bit.

Things I Learned on Wikipedia Today

The CIA worked with a Mafia man named Roselli on plans to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Prototypes of flying cars have been made (and successfully tested) since the 1950s.

Many of the early computer programmers were women, including Ada Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron), considered by many to be the first programmer.

Iron pyrite, also known as "fool's gold," was used as jewelry in the 1800's.

I have too much time on my hands.

Pretty Pictures

I went to the opening of the Portrait of the Artist show at the Charles H. Taylor in Hampton.
The show runs through October 17.
125 pieces by Hampton Roads artists.

Here are some pictures:














Mallory Jarrell's piece! I have met her in person.
She gave me cookies once.














I was going to vote Mallory's piece "best in show" until I saw this. It's almost as tall as me, and the yellow parts are actually gold in person. You should see it.

I have to go pretend to be busy now.