soccer movies

i just saw the new will ferrell movie KICKING AND SCREAMING with my mother and curtis. i thought it was a bad bad movie. don't let the previews or your soccer enthusiast friends fool you. ladybugs starring rodney dangerfield, jackée, and jonathan brandis was far superior. i am for real--as real as the mild case of pink eye that i possibly developed today.

new spoon lp

i just picked up GIMME FICTION, spoon's newest release. it sounds all right. anyways, i made a vow that the song "i summon you" (heard here in demo form--you must click on the "bonus" section first, though) will constitute a large part of the soundtrack to my summer, thus securing a solid spot on any mix i create as well.

a champagne supernova in the sky

nasa satellite captures birth of black hole. to quote a report from nasa's official website: "Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second." an animated, artistic conception of the event can be seen here. big whoa

back in kc

after finishing a paper, spending a night in chicago, and driving across missouri with my lovely mother, i returned home to prairie village on saturday evening--my dad had some minsky's pizza waiting. along the way, though, i ate sushi at a byob restaurant in chi, saw a dude drinking a bud heavy while cruising down the highway, felt at one with the scenery while driving through rural missouri and listening to iron and wine's first lp, and stopped at a dairy queen with moms so she could get a root beer float and i a chocolate chip cookie dough blizzard. mother's day brought big meals: one at mission hills country club with the rest of the young and old suits; the other at la familia in lawrence with brother jay. today, i went to the doctor and bought $50 worth or records. now i go to shoot hoops with brother curtis and his neighborhood friend, jim. tonight, game one in the pistons/pacers and mavs/suns series. nothing super interesting here, but i'll leave you with a quote from the book i'm currently reading entitled SPEED AND POLITICS by paul virilio: "western man has appeared superior and dominant, despite inferior demographics, because he appeared more rapid. In colonial genocide or ethnocide, he was the survivor because he was in fact super-quick (sur-vif). The French word vif, "lively," incorporates at least three meanings: swiftness, speed (vitesse), likened to violence--sudden force, abrupt edge (vive force, arete vove), etc.--and to life (vie) itself: to be quick means to stay alive (etre vif, c'est etre en vie)" (47).

rising gas prices

the amount of money i just paid to fill my car with regular unleaded equals the current temperature here in ann arbor: 42. qué caro--qué frío. come friday, though, i'll start my drive back to the land of precious haircuts and curious dresses, otherwise known as lawrence, kansas, making an overnight stop in chicago. the next morning my mother will fly to chicago and, together, we'll drive the rest of the way from there. i'm feeling better, but the pain has not totally dissipated. in other family news: dog bites boy. yes, i guess our dog, abby, bit our homedog, curtis, yesterday evening on the cheek while jumping together on the trampoline. he's okay, but had to go to the er for some stitches.

the elders

Originally uploaded by rswells.

grandpa and mr. wilson relax after a long day on the hacienda.

comes a time

i started to muse on my own mortality yesterday afternoon when a sudden pain surged in my chest, leaving me inexplicably unable to breathe deeply. i didn't know what a heart attack felt like, but i considered that i was suffering from one at the age of 23. my roommate drove me over to the university health center, where i explained my condition, along with the family history of heart complications, to a nice doctor. all heart signs looked fine--they even gave me an ekg--and she diagnosed me with some sort of acid reflux disorder. she said that the best part of my outlook is that i do not smoke. the prescription: a few pills that won't work right away and a change in diet. i could not sleep last night, however, and sat upright on the edge of my bed shortly after 6am, my airways constricted, cursing, clutching the left part of my chest, and musing once again. indeed, the pills were not working yet. my temporary condition has forced me to postpone my plans to drive home this weekend with what would have been friendly stops in chicago and milwaukee along the way. this afternoon i bought a neil young record, "comes a time," to try and help expedite the recuperation process.