God Grew Tired of Us

I saw this film last night as part of a fund raiser for the IRC Boise. It was wonderful and sad and inspirational.

The film follows a handful of the lost boys of Sudan, male children displaced by the war and violence in Sudan over the last decade and a half or so.

They most of them were routed from their homes in the middle of the night by militia who killed their friends and family. Many escaped and headed to Ethiopia, and then Kenya, where they stayed in refugee camps for ten years or more.

Some of them made it to the US with the help of the IRC and other agencies, and this film follows their progress here.

See it if you can. It should be an inspiration to us all.

Notes on The Road

Late last night I reached the end of Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Road. It was a terrible ending, filled with dread and death and a foreboding sense of facing the unknown in a harsh and violent world. But, somehow, it was hopeful, pointing toward a thin thread of humanity and compassion in the face of the end of the world.

I'd been anticipating this book greatly, looking forward to again entering a dark and awful world as created by one of my favorite living novelists. I hoped for a return to the nightmare worlds of Blood Meridian, and The Road did not disappoint.

This was different, of course, pitting a father and son against the apocalypse and its effects on their fellow men. Frightening, depressing, and often seemingly void of hope or good, this world no longer seems fit for habitation.

By the end it hadn't changed much--except maybe to get worse--but McCarthy finds in close human interaction that which he cannot in society. That there is hope anywhere in this novel, let alone at the end of it, is testament to both his abilities as a writer and his faith as a human.

I expect to return to this subject in the future, as this is a book that refuses to leave my mind. But for now, get hold of this and read it if you've got the patience and the stomach. It's not a terribly long read, but it's one that demands your attention and your willingness to go places most of us would rather not.


Update, 3.12.07 9pm
Perhaps the theme that held me so rapt with fear and interest and revulsion was the presence of a total innocent in this wild hell. The boy in the book, the son, had been born into the post-apocalypse. He had no memory of the world as it was. To him, all had always been destruction and fire.

There were no trees that did not burn and fall to the ground. There was no water free of the threat of poison. There were no other good guys. All other humans were to be feared, mistrusted, even killed.

That a horrible fate could befall this character was a constant possibility. The evils in this book are no trifles, and they loom around every turn along the road through the wasteland.

It is through the innocence of and threat to this character that the place of McCarthy's novel gains its huge ability to affect. It's not just a description of a charred landscape, it's the end of all future, the destruction of all the past. It's a lack of a hope that never existed.

But still, that's not the whole story. Somehow we find beauty and hope in this place, through these people. That's an amazing feat in itself.

SXSW Again

Yep, it's that time again.

Wanna be really pissed that you're not headed to Austin this week? (Or wanna gloat some more about the fact that you are?)

Check out the band list at the SXSW site. That'll get the ol' mouth agape. Really, it's just too much to even think about.

And if that ain't enough for you, here's the encyclopedic listing of all the daytime parties. Sheezus.

Neon Bible

The new Arcade Fire album has hit the shelves of your local record store, and in my opinion, it's worth the trip. I've been excited for this record, so while one may think I'd be biased in favor of it, one would be wrong. I was just as excited for the new CYHSY release, but have held off on the raves. That one's good. This one's more than that.

The Arcade Fire have built themselves into more than just a band, and this album will further that mythic status. Big, powerful songs, full of hope and crushing emotional turmoil at the same time. Win's voice is strong as ever, here more buoyed by that off Regine Chassagne. They work well together.

Front to back, this is a powerful piece of work. Even the clunker lines of the overblown arrangements (there are some of each) do not detract from the whole.

I'm only 3 listens in, so I'll defer further examination until later. For now, though, this looks to be a record that will stay in the heavy rotation for some time to come.

AF Tomorrow

The new record by The Arcade Fire comes out tomorrow, and I'd be lying if I denied being giddy as a schoolgirl about it.

Early leaks have been promising, if not overwhelming, but I believe the AF works best in the long format. So I'll wait for the whole shebang before forming opinions.

Here's a couple bones:

There was a wonderful article in the NY Times Magazine about the band and the road to recording and playing the new record. A great piece.

And here' s the Pitchfork review, as well as a link to download the album's first track.

See you at the Rx tomorrow.

AP Update

So far, it's gone as well as can be expected. Or better.

Tony was out of the hospital and at home by 8pm Friday night. And he was out walking around the hood the next morning.

Apparently the possible negative effects of the surgery can take up to a few weeks to emerge and make themselves known, but the docs are confident and Tony feels good. So for now, that's good enough.

AP: Last Time's the Charm

Today, Tony goes in for what we all hope is to be his last surgery. It's a big one, a 12-hour procedure wherein the doc will bombard a tumor wrapped around his brain stem with intense radiation in hopes of wiping it out or at least keeping it from being able to grow.

And it's big not only in duration or in how nasty it sounds. The repercussions here outweigh anything he's yet come up against. There's a very good chance the vision in his good (left) eye will be damaged, and he'll suffer loss of some peripheral or outer vision. There's a lesser but still good chance that he'll lose vision in that eye altogether, ostensibly rendering him blind. And there is a far lesser but still present chance that he will not wake up from this surgery.

Of course, we hope for the best. We hope he comes out of this at the end of a very long day looking and feeling as he did yesterday, vision intact, brain freed from the ravages of foreign bodies. But no matter what happens, we hope that he survives it, and that from here on out he can build his life into something he hasn't had for over a year now: A life free of surgery and MRIs and putting everything on hold so he can battle health issues. As he'd be the first to agree, it's high time to put this behind him and move on to building a new life.

Even if that life is drastically changed, even if he's not in Boise, moving on and forward is the thing.

Think good thoughts and send them toward Idaho.

The South Face

On Sunday, I went up to Bogus again, this time with Derek and Sarah. The results: My best day on the snow, ever, bar none.

I was able to take everything I'd learned and mustered on my previous outing and apply it to some amazing powder. We had first tracks on Mary's Ridge, in deep soft powder, an experience like no other I've ever had. It was simply amazing, floating through this stuff up to my thigh in some areas, weaving through trees and down quick steep slopes that I never thought I'd be doing at this point, if ever.

I did all of Upper Paradise for the first time, and hit one of the sweetest chutes at the bottom of it that I've ever seen. And this time, I was able to nail most of my runs without falling half a dozen times on the way down. I fell, sure, but as often as not I was able to roll out of it to my feet and get going again. So cool.

At the end of the day, legs burning and face hurting from all the damned smiling, we hit the South Face on the way back to the front side. The South Face at Bogus is a steep rocky slope at the top of Shaffer Butte. After the first big slope, it levels off just a bit and bombs into the trees for a long windy run out to the bottom.

Epic.

The snow was perfect, the terrain somewhat untracked, and to be honest when I got to the top it scared the bejeezus out of me. But I pointed downward and went. I put a few decent if shaky turns together before overcooking a lefty and, in Derek's words, hitting that "downward stabbing motion." My ski bit, tip first, and propelled me upward. As my body twisted with the launch, my left ski popped free of my boot (sparing both ankle and knee) and took a dive into the deep powder as me and the other ski did a full cartwheel, plowing another 15 feet down the slope. I unburied myself, stood up, and then had to find the ski.

About 10 minutes of crawling up the steep slope and digging in the powder, I hit solid material and dug out the ski. It was fine so I popped it on and headed down to join Derek and Sarah where they waited for me, about 100m below, no doubt enjoying the show immensely.

From there it was a blast into the trees and down a few drops and out to the main lift area.

An amazing day, unlike any other snow experience I've had.

Off-Piste

Yesterday up at Bogus I skied in the trees. This was my first real off-piste adventure in the alpine setting, and I have to thank David and Derek and Tim for their patience and their instruction.

There are many many people in the world of alpine skiing who refuse unabashedly to ever wait for or ski with anyone slower than they are. Understandable, sort of, and fine for them. But these are not the people to ski with in the same way that they would not be the people to bike with, or hike with, or boat with. I tend to think of them as the ones who'd hike right past a dying man on the way to a summit because it's the guy's own fault for not being strong enough or whatever. Understandable, but pretty shitty.

Lucky for me, at least so far, this does not apply to my ski partners of yesterday. They took me around a hill I'd become familiar with--on the groomers anyway--and showed me places I'd never seen while taking my skiing (in scope if not in skill) to the next level.

All along the backside, between the Pine Creek and Superior chairs, we dropped off path and into open slopes and treed slopes and gullies and groves and all the other parts of the mountain I'd not been brave or skilled enough to enter. And while I started out with no small amount of anxiety about it, by the end of the day I'd made a transformation. I moved from understanding why people love skiing to understanding why people can become addicted to skiing.

It's a whole new world in the trees, especially when there's a good 5" of new powder on the slopes and turning is easier and falling doesn't hurt so much. And fall I did, at least a dozen times. But every time I got right back up and attacked the same line I'd been on when I dumped.

I'm sure my moves were not so graceful, but I think by the end of the day I'd made big progress. I could do it without falling too much, and I learned a few new paths along Mary's Ridge and around the Superior lift line that I know I could do on my own.

This skiing thing, I tell ya. I think I might be hooked.

Tour of Cali

The Amgen Tour of California has begun, and after the prologue and the first stage, our man from Disco, Levi Leipheimer, has the yellow jersey.

However, it don't come easy.

A major pile-up in the finishing circuit brought him and a mess of other riders down. Commissaires decided to neutralize the finish, a questionable decision that helps Levi retain the lead.

The next stage is today at 11MT.

Darkness Approacheth

For Valentine's Day, of all things, my lovely wife bought and wrapped me a copy of Cormac McCarthy's new hardback, The Road. It's an apocalyptic tale of a father and son wandering the burned American landscape, to what end I know not.

I think the cover says it all, don't you?

Needless to say, I look forward to starting this book, though I do not do so lightly. I've not cracked the cover yet, as I know from reading Blood Meridian, heretofore considered by me to be both his masterpiece and his darkest work of all, that when I do so I need to be prepared to spend the reading's duration in a very unlovely and disturbing place of waking unsettledness and terrible nightmares. Really, you can't help it.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I await the time of reading eagerly, though with some caution. I'm still visited by horrific images from both Blood Meridian and Outer Dark, and I read both of these years ago in a very different place, both geographically and personally. From all reports, this book could be his best ever, his true masterpiece.

Soon.

Kris Doty CD Release

Tonight, local indie singer-songwriter Kris Doty has a CD release party at the Neurolux. Her new record is called Smoke in the Mirror, and while I've only heard a few tracks, I'd guess it's pretty damned good.

Doty's got a unique and peculiar style, building slow and delicate melodies into powerful delicate melodies, her guitar a gentle hint of structure and her voice wafting between a fluid croon and a warbly screechy demand. She's captivating to watch, and her performance gets better every time I see her.

If you're here in Boise, check this show out. No doubt she'll be out in full force with cello, drums, and guitar accompaniment. We don't have a ton of great music or musicians here, but the ones we do have are pretty fantastic.

Shins or Shinola

I'm intrigued but still on the fence about the new album from The Shins. Wincing the Night Away seems to me less exciting and dynamic than their previous efforts, but then both those records took a bit of growing to grab me, so maybe this one will too.

They're playing here at the Egyptian on Saturday night. I waited in line for over 2 goddam hours, so this better be good...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Persistence Pays Off

After years of dismissal, of disparagement, even, I think I finally got it.


That Voice has kept me from being able to tune in to the music of Radiohead. Thom Yorke's lofty warble of a whine has been a brick-wallish impediment to what many people have called some of the best indie rock out in the last 10 years.

BS, I'd say.

Thing is, though, I really tried. I listened to Pablo Honey, and The Bends, and Kid A, and OK Computer, again and again, and it only got worse. The songs were overwrought and unoriginal, the mix of electronic and instruments just didn't do it. And that voice, my God.

Strange that what did it for me was, of all things, a Thom Yorke solo CD. The Eraser is a spectacular album, full of minimal electronics and sparse melody-based songs, and plenty of that voice to go around, of course. But for some reason it grabbed me rather than repelling me. So, what better time to give Radiohead another try. It'd been a couple years, so why not.

This time, it worked. Kid A made sense, and the blending of organic and inorganic music seemed brilliant, and the voice didn't grate nearly as much. A little, maybe, but have you listened to Doug Martsch sing lately?

So this week I've been spending a lot of time with Kid A and OK Computer, and both of them have finally opened up to me. I'll keep working my way through the catalog, happy with the knowledge that, though I missed it first time around, I've got all this great "new" music to explore now!

Bah

Bears end season with superbowl loss.

NFC champs ain't so bad. Thanks, Bears.

Bear Down

XLI

I Heart Deerhoof

Choo
Choo-Choo-Choo
Beep Beep

Choo
Ch-Ch-Choo Choo

Choo
Ch-Ch-Choo Choo

Choo
Choo-Choo-Choo
Beep Beep

(+81)

And So It Is Written

Climate Panel Issues Urgent Warning.

That's the lead story in The Times this morning. Lead para:

"The world is already committed to centuries of warming, shifting weather patterns and rising seas from the atmospheric buildup of gases that trap heat, but the warming can be substantially blunted by prompt action, an international network of climate experts said today."

Hundreds of scientists from all over the world have determined with over 90% certainty that human activity is the main driver in warming.

"If carbon dioxide concentrations reach twice their pre-industrial levels, the report said, the climate will likely warm some 3.5 to 8 degrees. But there would be more than a one in 10 chance of much greater warming, a situation many earth scientists say poses an unacceptable risk. "

It's likely we'll have more than double this concentration, the panel says.

Unacceptable risk.

In all reasonable quarters of the world, the debate on global warming is indeed over. But, we will continue to politicize it, to waffle over it, to wring our hands as we hop into our Hummers, to drive our cars every time we need to go more than a hundred yards at a stretch, to build horribly outdated power plants, to waste in the most ridiculous ways.

Thing is, we can do something about this. We can do a lot about this. We just have to be thoughtful in our consumption. We have to make some sacrifices.

We're not terribly good at doing that, but it's getting to the point where we have no choice.

Sorry for dumping blame here, but The Greatest Generation has failed us miserably. It's time for the next generations to stand up and solve this problem.

More to come on that. For now, read the report, think about what you can do every day to change this. Because that's what it'll take: Normal people doing many small things every day. That's me and you.

Molly Ivins

Outrageously liberal and hilarious and insightful Texas political columnist passes from the Earth.

Hers is a voice that will be missed.

From The Guardian, The Times, The Post, and The Star-Telegram.