quaker cannons

alright heres to another thinly veiled allusion

today ive been thinking all nostalgic like about this story i came across in one of my sc revolutionary war books. william washington (george's cousin) is one of my favorite characters of the war. commanded light dragoons, tarleton had to chase him all around the state, a chase which eventually led to cowpens, my favorite battle in history (full disclosure: nate byars (relative of mine) owned the land during the battle).

anyway, before that battle, december 1780, washington was outside of camden when he came across 150 or so loyalist militia in a barn that they had fortified. (seems like 150 is a lot to cram into a barn..exaggeration mayhaps?). so washington had about only 60 cavalry, no artillery, and no way of getting these guys out. but of course you cant leave these guys in the barn, cause theyll track you down. youve got to deal with them. washington, or someone, came up with a pretty genius plan if you ask me. the cut down the biggest pine tree they could find, cut a section down to about an 8 foot length painted it black, and slapped it on a wagon axle and wheelset from a nearby farm. they rolled the thing just close enough to the barn to be visible to those inside, but not too close as to give away the ruse.

anyway it worked, the loyalists thought they were about to be blown to shit out of a cannon that had somehow made it through the backcountry, and dutifully surrendered. wonder what they thought when they got close enough to see what it was in actuality? can only imagine. so many stories. local solutions to local problems.

this is the definition of my life...

interesting night. hit most of the places. had rise above by black flag/dirty projectors on repeat. specifically the dirty projectors one. really like that album. longstreth re-recorded the black flag album, which he hadnt heard in somelike 15 years. interesting guy really. interesting. prolly put some stuff on here before.

got some positives on the grad program. looks like i can be doing resource usage in post natural disaster rural communities. when i think of that my mind starts running. i like that feeling. plenty of options. wish i could do it with Klein though...somethings are too much to ask/do. to be fair i wouldnt want anything different....



hahah. couldnt resist. hooks...

funny thing i heard today in the implan lab-

a:''i really wish i was in engineers without borders or something so i could help out in real ways in haiti''
b:''you could if you went to u chicago''
a:''what do you mean''
b:''theyre pretty good out getting economists into disaster zones....''

itll be interesting to watch for sure...

at least the dark dont hide it 2,3,4?

you know those phrases that pop in to your head, seemingly inconsequential, likely relevant, always necessary? aphorisms, as juxtapositions, they just happen. and thats what it is, just. for me there is the title of a magnolia electric co song. also the convenient title of this post. i deleted all of it from before this sent. . its what happens. both our losses really. this is the song. talked about when i get this song in my head. thought i knew the talks that send it, dont really. just gotta take it for it. go it.

waiting for something thatll never arrive

quite a macabre post, especially when things are good. thats why i'll write on the future, such that it is. went home this wknd, saw some aunts/uncles and the like and avatar again. gave my uncle a crash course in depression economics, which i rarely if ever get to do. but thats all well and good and fun.

i like the new vampire weekend less than the first now that its finally out. try to do too much. dont do that. plus they look different know. weird. dont like it. no.

on the topic of remembrance, briefly

i just read all my posts from 2008. holy shit. i was angsty as hell.

in your boots

last night i remember people
throwing glass bottles at me.
i also remember walking.
this morning i woke up and my right eye hurt-
as did my left thigh.
i dont care how this happened.



ill say nothing more on the subject.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/books/review/Dyer-t.html?em

you know what the sun's all about when the lights go out.

damn its cold.

ive got nothing to say so ill say it.

i feel like that came from a song but i cant be certain.

right so its a new year, although thats really just semantics i tend to believe.

did anyone see northwestern's qb kafka, with that fitting performance? pretty funny i thought. couldnt have it any other way.

i feel like i should reflect on 2009, cause i really havent yet. do a playlist or something. thatd be interesting. probably wont do it like that though. ill turn on some frightened rabbit and see what happens.

done a lot, seen a lot. cant believe at this time last year i was prepping for flying to LDN and for making my way northward. in hindsight that run up was one of the most exciting things ive done. its weird feeling life youve got a life on standby 4,000 miles away. theres this interminable sense of well, life, thats just sitting on the back burner, but still stirred. thats probably a pretty shite way of cooking though, especially when the recipe doesnt call for it. in re reading that i didnt intend for it to sound macabre, if it in fact did. i pretty much pulled a macarthur so its no crisis.

i guess you gotta talk about the bush legacy. those guys were so ass backwards that they werent even good at covering their tracks. we were able to find out all the shit they were screwing up pretty fast and in pretty good detail, i think wed agree on this, though theres some stuff we're never gonna know about. this was obviously a very good thing for us. nowadays, im not confident if i do know what all is going on. i mean im led to believe that nothing undermining our civil liberties is occurring and i have an infinitely higher level of trust with this administration-- but the reality is that i really have no freaking clue anymore and it scares the shit out of me. that might be just me though, i always enjoyed being the burden of what would probably be considered the antagonist. course i dont think of myself as that, but the fact that i thought of it is probably pretty damning to my case. seeing the obamas and the bidens waving goodbye to the bushes and cheneys flying off in that helicopter was one of hte happiest moments of my life, but i definitely didnt fully realise the implication.


enough of that shit, ive been on a pretty big hill country/memphis blues thing of late...... but i can never resist sam and dave and stax records in general. and dont forget chess, man lables when they were good...


theyre just so good. and so is otis.








and this is incredible.