SLC Haiku Bar Reviews: Lumpy's Highland Drive

The Cigar smoke hangs
Sordidly over our heads
Breathing is flavored

"Of my past only the sadness stays"

Ootischenia

What we're buying

What we're buying
Originally uploaded by Theorris.

From back to front The Be Good Tanyas: Hello Love and The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder. Purchased at Orion Music in beautiful downtown Sugarhouse, SLC, UT. I even took the freaking bus there.

SLC Haiku Bar Reviews: Lumpy's Downtown

Meat market simply
You go and you sit and watch
Never caring. No.

Middlebrow is upset

Middlebrow is upset
Originally uploaded by Theorris.

Blogfest/flickrfest 2007 has achieved the full satisfaction that one can expect.

I bowled horribly.

Middlebrow, despite this picture bowled well.

Surprise stars of the night were The Historian (q.v. Hightouch Megastore) and The Croin, who is having an MRI as I speak due to a very quirky pupil, and I'm not talking about the student kind.

TEAM ENGLISH showed rather well, despite my poor performance. Dr. Write and Hightouch kicked ass, and Running Son has a spinner that is none to compare.

Shamed, I am.

Shame.

Shame.

Don't make me stop this car and turn around.

I will.

Don't test me!

I will!

Let's go bowling and get some fries.

What a difference a day makes

What a difference a day makes
Originally uploaded by Theorris.

Yesterday it was one of the warmest February days I think I've ever experienced. Today we have snow. A lot of it.

Wallace Stegner

Well what do you know? It is Wallace Stegner's birthday today. I used to not really like Stegner that much until I read his simple story which I can't really remember the title of. In any case the story is about a faculty party where, it seems, the faculty are getting progressively more drunk, more gloomy, and more disturbed. The story ends with the main characters peering into the dark abyss of an arroyo that is cut into the rock just off the patio where the characters have slipped away from the bustle of the inside world to confront with some sort of existential, essential angst. The simplicity of the event and the unimportance of the characters contrasted against the dark chasm (of Nature) struck me as a rather clever way of capturing the essence of that anxiety and uncertainty to life.

I rather liked the story and his other short stories. The novel Angle of Repose is interesting too. I have not yet cracked Big Rock Candy Mountain, however, but might just do it this summer.

Introducing the book

"If it were that simple I wouldn't have called Helpdesk!"

Like you could ever know

The speaker spoke
The listeners moaned agreement
He sat
silent
diffident
wrong

Salt Lake Bus Route Redesign

It is about freaking time: General Info

Don't fuck with TEAM ENGLISH!

TEAM ENGLISH RULZ!
Originally uploaded by Theorris.

That's right.

Uh huh.

That's right.

So what's it going to take silver shadow believer?

Fun times.

Since I still can't post proper bowling events on the Bowling Syndicate, I'll do it here.

Captain Fireball is still breaking in.

Homer bowled a 215!

Look on ye mighty and despair! With a spare!

Sarahbellum accidentally joined us, so it was the first official Bloggerfest 2007 SLC.

Pictures to follow in the usual place.

Why I will not write a ubiquitous Valentines Day post

I have nothing to say.

Why I won't write on the Trolley Square horroshow

Dear God: 5 people senselessly killed. How many more wounded? How many more lives ruined?

Trolley Square has many fond associations for me and not just with the woman that I loved so much that my heart breaks just thinking of the time that we danced in the rain with no music, right where two people were slaughtered on a Monday evening.

I am shaken.

Bodies cast down.

Life gone.

Happiness over.

"Consider the lilies of the field...."

A quotation for you:

We choose..."a life of action over a life of comnsumption...engendering a life style which will enable us to be spontaneous, independent, yet related to each other, rather than maintaining a life style which only allows us to make and unmake, produce and consume." (Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society, 52 as quoted in The Everyday Writing Center: A Community of Practice, Geller et al, 71)

Discuss.

Ego surfing in the gates of hell

Woo hoo! I have a critic:

Out of curiosity, I wondered if anyone had used this phrase as inspiration for web sites, and if so, what those web sites might be like. So it was that I found SoundAndFury.com and SignifyingNothing.com.

Interestingly enough, there’s not actually anything at either domain name. Both point to other web sites.

SoundAndFury.com takes readers automatically to MusicMania.com, a site that in turn directs visitors to other web sites that sell things like MP3s, MP3 players, and sheet music. SignifyingNothing.com takes readers to an online publication that includes a blog and several MP3s that are no longer available.

Of the two, I’d say that SignifyingNothing.com has more actual sound and fury (even if its sounds are gone). At least the webmaster there has something to say. SoundAndFury.com signifies nothing to me. A web site ought to be a lot more than just a conduit. (Irregular Times: News Unfit for Print � Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing On The Web)

The choice of signifyingnothing.com wasn't arbitrary. Basically I am punning off of "tale told by an idiot" given that I am the idiot. Ultimately, I do believe life signifying something. Macbeth is deluded because of his own bad choices and/or fate. He denies meaning to life simply because he is caught in his lie. He is stuck and can't get out.

One makes one's significance in this life. Meaning derives from intentional living.

Signify!

"So let it be written! So let it be done!"

Ok, we've bandied this about enough, my droogies. I now present to you TEAM ENGLISH : CafePress.com. To quote from the site, "You teach English and love poetry but you are no namby-pamby panty-waist! You ride your bike up 6% grades with ease and have a killer outside jump shot. You split infinitives and undangle modifiers with glee. You bowl consistently over 90 and love to talk shit about those wimps in the Philosophy Department."

The only question I have is who is going to be the one to buy Stephen the shirt?

We definitely need to have a TEAM ENGLISH day. Hightouch? Is this a 5 Year Plan Committee mission?

Bowling, anyone?

Lyrics stuck in my head (February 2007 version)

I'm just a happy kid
Stuck with the heart of a sad punk
Drowning in my id
Always searching like it's on junk
No matter who I hang out with
I can hear the clack-clunk
Of the chains that pull the cars up
The roller coaster mountaintop so high
When it comes down it shoots back up
Straight back to the sky
I gotta laugh and then I'm asleep
And then I walk around and wanna cry
Out at night to do the strand
The little candles make the bottles glow
Got ink all over my right hand
Getting crushes with no chance to grow
It's like I'll never ever land
There's always too much sun
Or too much snow
I get slow days and no days
I get rusty and it's hard
But I get notions that oceans
Are coming to my call
You can learn to get along

And I'm just a happy kid
Stuck with the heart of an old punk
Drowning in my id
Always hungry like it's on junk

I'm just a happy kid

It is a Nada Surf song ("Happy Kid") and I've been singing it to myself all morning.

Wookie headbutts in the news...

Hah:

"In front of the famous Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd, dozens of people make a living by dressing up in costumes and asking tourists for money to have their photo taken with them. You'll find Elmos, Supermans, Jack Sparrows, Darth Vaders, and Chewbaccas sidling up to tourists from all over the world and then demanding money when a photo is taken.

On Friday, a 6-foot-5 man in a Chewbacca costume allegedly head-butted a tour guide after the guide chastised him for being mean to two female Japanese tourists. He was arrested." (Boing Boing: Unruly Chewbacca personator head-butts tour guide)

We should get this guy to join the Bowling Syndicate, I think.

Meet Captain Fireball

Meet Captain Fireball, originally uploaded by Theorris.

My new ball finally arrived. This is a pin's-eye view, if pins had eyes and zoom lenses.

Look on ye mighty and despair!

You will find my trunkless legs about 2,000 years from now towering over Olympus Hills Bowling Alley.

Note: I would have posted this in its proper place on the Bowling Syndicate (q.v.) but suddenly since I upgraded to the new Googlized Blogger I am not allowed to post there. Oh mighty Sleepy E despair! Captain Fireball will crush you for this insult!