Post About A Low Key Week

Pretty interesting week so far. The layout of our office is finalized. Now we're clearing the last of the boxes out. Our kitchen is basically complete. Bedroom's good. Our living room is well worn in too.

I basically became a master chef Tuesday when I made a huge batch of my marinara sauce from scratch. Jackki wanted to try making a sauce straight from the tomato. It didn't end in tears and now we've got a pretty killer sauce. Herby did his share too.

He bled to make our meal taste better.

Herb's doing fine by the way. I was worried after trimming and re-plotting on the same day, but he recovered like a champ after a few rough days.

I cleared the background check at Starbucks. My first day is July 11th. Which means I get the 4th off for the first time in years.

Speaking of America. Prop 8 being dismissed and DOMA getting the axe is pretty cool. I mean it's frustrating that it's taken this many years to get Americans to agree to what boils down to common decency. And of course it's frustrating that what amounts to being a huge accomplishment, has really only fixed a sliver of of the problems inherent in American society. ENDA? Public education? Immigration reform free of racism and xenophobia?

Which reminds me, today the Senate sent a bill to the House that includes a 13 year path towards citizenship. That we consider waiting for 13 years to become a citizen generous makes my teeth clench.

Herby ain't got shit on this.

Fresno continues to share its secrets with me during canvass walks. I encountered these apartments on Weldon where rows of buildings faced each other with paths down the center. The residents have dug out the grass and grown some pretty impressive vegetable gardens. I was struck by the rampant poverty though. Are these gardens a necessity to feeding these families or do they just like fresher veggies? Maybe it's both. A water hose haphazardly patched with several rags and rope throughout its span said a lot. The fact that the walkways were submerged in about 4 inches of water did too. I couldn't really communicate with the residents, but it was an experience I'll remember a long time.













I encountered a kind of chicken I've never seen before, she was shy so I could only get a blurry pic.




Let's steer this back to me. People who I have hung out with. I'm sorry about my hair the last few weeks. It has been out of control. I finally visited Ruben's in Tower.

It's short and looks good. Perfect for the weather too.

Now that I've got you under my watchful gaze, let's talk music and movies.

Bosnian Rainbows and Smith Westerns both put out really cool albums that I've been enjoying on Spotify. Amon Amarth also put out an album but I haven't been able to get my viking metal fix in.

I finally saw Man of Steel, and while my buddy Andrae gave it a score somewhere between a B and a C, I actually really liked it a lot. I wasn't loving the idea of slogging through another origin story, especially a Superman one. Who doesn't know how he came up? Seriously though, the flashbacks were surprisingly powerful, and the main characters were all well acted. I have a feeling that Zach Snyder has a directors cut that will flesh Zod out a bit more.

Anyhow, that's a lot, my biggest post so far. Thanks for reading.

tl;dr Derek did stuff in Fresno and had a good time doing it.

Sometimes Elote Happens

I am not fun to be around when I haven't eaten. I get grumpy and a little overly aggressive.

That was the case today. I was headed out to canvass by the old airport on Kearney. Jackki stayed home, she was safe. It was a genuinely beautiful day and this area on Kearney is packed with beautiful trees. But I didn't care about blue skies or any fucking trees.

I felt like crap and I wasn't looking forward to knocking on the next door, let alone sixty more. But oh say did you hear? That majestic honking? I didn't lift my head to see, I didn't have that much hope yet. My eyes looked up slowly, seeing road and sidewalks, but then... then they saw the Elote Man. Honking his horn, peddling his food bike. I felt blood rush into my cheeks. I felt my lips pull back and my cheeks met my eyes. I was smiling.

Epic.

My Green Thumb Has Hulk Veins

Meet my basil plant, folks.

I call him Herby.

I saved this little dude from the clearance section at Fresh n' Easy for a cool $0.75, he was limp, parched, and fading. I didn't take any pictures then, but I assure you, it wasn't pretty. Buuuut once I stuck him in a mug with a little water, and presented him with a little sunlight he perked right up.

But a mug is no kind of home for a plant. I know this, Jackki knew this. So today she surprised me with a bag of potting soil and a sweet new planter pot. 

By the way folks, today's lesson is this. Even if it sounds like a really good idea, don't replant stuff at the kitchen table. Potting soil... potting soil everywhere.

So Herby's got the room he needs for root growth, and I've got a fresh source of basil for my marinara sauce.

Sweet dimebag, Breh.

After I got Herby potted and watered, I did a little harvesting.

See? Symbiotic relationships are are cool, my dudes.

Rub This On Your Eyeballs.

This trailer is good. It's so good.

I was never any sort of wizard Legosmith, my creations were ugly but my imagination worked overtime. This trailer is what every one of my epic building sessions strived for. It looks like a blast.

First Post?

So Sigur Ros. The instruments sound the right way, they're unconventional and jangle like they're supposed to, but it doesn't really have the same appeal to me anymore. I don't know if that's because I've grown out of post-rock or because it just isn't as good as it used to be.

This isn't a post where I have the answers.

So yeah, Sigur Ros. They have a new album Kveikur coming out tomorrow. It's alright I guess. It isn't Takk... which is not actually a crime, but hard to get around none the less.

When I heard Takk... for the first time, I didn't really know Sigur Ros at all, I had heard a song of theirs in the Vanilla Sky soundtrack and that was the scope of my familiarity. It was very much an impulse listen. Nobody had suggested it to me, I hadn't read a review. I just saw their name in text on a website and clicked download.

That album opens with the title track like a blooming flower and then assaults you with moody splendor, depth, and beauty for it's running time. My musical sensibilities were in flux and it was... just the right album at the right time.

Again I don't know if it's the music or if it's me. I know that 8 years is a long time to be listening to the same music. But 8 years is also a long time to love the same album. That's significant, right? I just don't feel the newer material like I felt "Glosoli". That track builds from tender intimacy with this... this immediacy, this sense of significance until it chugs on into a crescendo that demands you feel... well, everything at the same time. Joy, pain, hope, sadness, it's an intense song.




It isn't lost on me that I mentioned a new album and dismissed it almost immediately. It's not fair, nor is it fair to judge it for what it isn't. The main point is, while the new album is pleasant, it just doesn't demand my attention like Takk... does (halfway through this post I put on Takk... instead). It's not all bad though right? Having to live up to an album like Takk... is a good problem to have right?

So this is a weird first post. Not a review for a new album. Kind of a review for an 8 year old album. And kind of a post about how unfair time is. I could probably do worse.

Update: It's good, it's just different.

In fact it's great. My own prejudices kept the hooks on this album out of my reach, they're there, just different. These songs have a faster tempo, they're a little dancier. The breakdowns and dramatic builds from Takk... are muted, subtle, or gone altogether. In retrospect, by changing, they've ditched tropes from post-rock that have staled. And maybe that's the lesson--Just because they did it well doesn't mean they should do it forever. In an alternate reality would I be complaining about their failure to change? Hopefully this blog doesn't become a series of updates about things I've changed my mind about.

I've included a spotify link for the lazy, I recommend "Stormur". Listen to it here.