recent tracks:

This one time I told Mike

that all the best things start with foo: food, football, and the Foo Fighters. This entry will concern, at least in passing, two of those three things. Actually, let's make it three: I busted out my old copy of The Colour and the Shape (the cd, not my original casette copy. Yep, I was still listening to casettes in '97.) and listened to it in the car the other day. I think it might just be the emotional context, but it still gives me chills at parts. Now onto the post as it has developed from this and that thought:

Aha! Two good movies:

Broken Flowers
I realized I usually like Bill Murray movies. He's excellent when it comes to deadpan and comedic understatement. In this one, he's an aging playa who receives a note from a carefully concealed former flame notifying him that a son he's never known existed has set out to find him. In response, he sets out to catch up with the suspect flames. Murray is the focal point of the film, and as he drifts into and out of the lives of these long lost lovers, he becomes a complex and interesting character faced with hilariously awkward situations. But I feel like the above doesn't convey the mood of the film appropriately, so just disregard it and check it out.

Remember the Titans
Ok so two things right off the bat: (1) anyone who knows me should be absolutely SHOCKED that I saw this movie for the first time LAST NIGHT when it came out in 2000, and (2) football is like a big ol' master key to my emotions. So I've been waiting six year to see this and it absolutely did not disappoint. It has the rare distinction of having inspired me to immediately add it to my amazon wishlist after it was over and I had finished fighting back tears. A white potential state-hall-of-fame coach is ousted for a black coach as an alleged means of making a statement and trying to ease the integration process in a newly mixed high school. I don't even want to mention anything else except that if you haven't seen it and you value anything then you should see it. That may be an overstatement, but I don't think so and this is my internet web blog so too bad.

I've been drafting an outline for the paper which will serve as my law review application. I am trying to save all my skill in prose construction for that so again I would be sorry for the quality of this entry but this is my internet web blog so I don't have to be. Ha! Anyway, I am not permitted to discuss specifics under penalty of the ironic torture of being trapped in a small concrete cell in an inch of standing water as the high note from Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" plays on loop. Ouch. But suffice to say I'm enjoying myself. Summer is heading into super-intense-study mode with comps looming, but we still found the time for a lovely mid-Saturday spat of activity, first a garage sale where, just after I'd said I was interested in reading on the subject, we picked up a couple of African history books. Next was the standard Johnny B's--thankfully, they'll last in their current home at least through June--followed by a plant sale to benefit Southside Community Land Trust (an unorthodox conservation land trust rather than the housing trusts to which my attention is devoted). We wound up with (1) johnny jump-ups (which Petey has decapitated), (2) sweet william, (3) common mint, (4) a jalapeno pepper plant, (5) a cherry tomato plant, and (6) a bonus chrysanthemum, to join our existing family of jade, cilantro (grown from seed!), potato, and crazy-thing-with-tons-of-leaves. Our windows are now well-stocked. Then as we worked and waited for the chicken to thaw for dinner, we decided instead to go out for Chinese, but the Chinese place had like totally just closed down (OMG) so we got low-key Lebanese instead.

I've yet to muster a return to my previous running form, but have instead spent every other day of the last month or so lifting and regaining some of my lost shot put strength. Not that that was anything to write home about, but I was starting to feel pretty puny, and I've managed to transition without putting on any weight, so I still feel in very good shape. Between the spring/summertime and watching Remember the Titans, I could really use a good game of football.

I also just watched LeBron and co. fall to the Pistons. The first half was pretty great; the 3rd quarter started to get a little frustrating as LeBron got completely shut down and his teammates couldn't do anything--Eric Snow, who used to be like ice for the Sizers, was missing free throws left and right. I love Ben Wallace on the Pistons; every time I've caught a Pistons game over the last few years I've taken note of his passionate play and excellent defense (along with a low shooting percentage outside the paint--if I could actually make a basket from inside the paint, and if I were 7 inches taller, and if I ever actually played basketball, that'd totally be my style). But Ben didn't stand out too much in this game--the twig-like Tayshaun Prince dominated for the Pistons, and I don't especially enjoy him or Chauncey Billups or Rasheed Wallace, so once LeBron was mobbed and the rest of the Cavs were left to miss every shot, the game got significantly less interesting to me. I ended up switching back and forth between that and an Arena Football game (in which the winning QB was Matt Nagy, whom I used to follow at UD--crazy that! Stat line: 9 TDs, 0 INTs).

Perhaps this sports litz is happening because my disbelief at not having participated in any sports the last year (other than those few 5ks, which I should really get back into) was cast into suspension by finals, which are now over. Aiyiyi.

Now this week I'll be trying to hit up the Social Security Office for a new card, the PD for a VIN check, the DMV or RMV or whatever they call it here to attempt AGAIN to transfer the title, and re-register the Bonneville so it'll be legal. I was worried that it expired in a week and a half, but it turns out it's good through June 30. Joy of joys. Also I want to try to find a dentist in town. I think one of my teeth is being funky.