Targhee New Year

Tim and I and the hounds are off to Driggs today after work. For the second year, Sarah's family has been kind enough to let us stay at their cabin out there, so in Cathy's absence, I head off for a weekend in the snow.

And I mean snow.

Tons and tons of snow.

We'll be skiing and running the mutts ragged all weekend. A little beer, some good food, lots of reading.

Happy New Year

Rummy's Number

Keith Olbermann's got it.

Sure, he comes from the SportsCenter PrettyBoy journo past, and he is prone to self-righteous rants, but once in a while he nails it.

This time, he's gunning for Rumsfeld, and it's a hell of a piece.

Check it out here.

Love Winter

When the snow's on and the sun's out, I remember why I do love winter.

Will and I headed up to Bogus mid-day on Friday, and it was fantastic. A little bit of new snow and plenty of sunshine. Definitely the nicest weather I've ever skied in.

This weekend will be a series of meals and ski trips.

Merry Christmas.

Creeping Crud

Stuck in that sluggish middle ground between being sick and being healthy.

I had one bad day, last Thursday, when I was sick enough to skip work and sleep til noon-thirty. How often do you get to do that anymore? The next day I worked at home, feeling better enough but not wanting to cough whatever this was all over the office.

Over the weekend I flipped between being better and getting worse, never really doing either. And today, Wednesday, I'm still much the same.

I'm not riding hardly at all--only to work a couple times. I'm skipping the Y, and I'm laying around a lot. But still, the same crap. And it appears this is some sort of epidemic, spreading among co-workers silently and slowly. And the bad thing is, this is one of those illnesses where you mostly feel ok enough to come to work, so everyone does, and we keep spreading it around, and it'll take forever to go away.

Blah blah blah. I hate this shit and I'm ready to be done with it. The holidays are about here and I've skiing to do.

Ah, the bachelor life...

Loud rock music in the morning.

Bread baking at odd hours.

2-sided conversations with the dogs.

Omelets full of elk sausage for dinner.

Dumb, dumb comedy DVDs.

Reading a magazine at every meal.



Things are getting a little out of hand around here...

The Best of 2006

Everyone's doing it. So I am, too.

Here's another list to dump on the pile: The Top Ten Albums of 2006.

It's been a hell of a year.

Top Ten Albums of 2006

1. Califone ~ Roots and Crowns
2. Silversun Pickups ~ Carnavas
3. TV on the Radio ~ Return to Cookie Mountain
4. Cat Power ~ The Greatest
5. Band of Horses ~ Everything All the Time
6. Cut Chemist ~ The Audience’s Listening
7. Tapes n Tapes ~ The Loon
8. Electric President ~ Electric President
9. Yo La Tengo ~ I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
10. Gnarls Barkley ~ St. Elsewhere


Also, in pretty particular order:

Great stuff from old faves that just missed
The Flaming Lips ~ At War With the Mystics
Sonic Youth ~ Rather Ripped

Bright new big future stuff
Snowden ~ Anti Anti
The Black Angels ~ Passover
Art Brut ~ Bang Bang Rock and Roll

Big surprises--for me, anyway
Thom Yorke ~ The Eraser
Ms. John Soda ~ Notes and the Like

Women I love who should be on the list
Beth Orton ~ Comfort of Strangers
Neko Case ~ Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

How the hell did this not make it?
Built to Spill ~ You In Reverse
The Hold Steady ~ Boys and Girls in America

Also almost, but not quite, for one reason or another
The Evens ~ Get Evens
Ray LaMontagne ~ Til the Sun Turns Black
Psapp ~ The Only Thing I Ever Wanted
Yeah Yeah Yeahs ~ Show Your Bones
Brazilian Girls ~ Talk to La Bomb
Tom Waits ~ Orphans...

The Islam Dichotomy

Nicholas Kristof in today's NY Times makes a valiant attempt to address Western stereotypes of Muslims in an honest and direct manner. Kristof is one of my favorite columnists, and as he usually does, he presents a sympathetic and multifaceted argument.

But in the end, he leaves quite the white elephant sitting in the room. And it's a big one.

He makes the point that sure, many Muslim societies grab headlines with extremist political action or shocking personal retribution or reprehensible treatment of women.

But that's just the Arabs.

"Riverine or coastal" Muslims, like those in Indonesia, are a different sort. He says that while he finds stereotypes of Muslims profoundly warped, they are only so because, "Those stereotypes are largely derived from the less than 20 percent of Muslims who are Arabs, with Persians and Pashtuns thrown in as well. But the great majority of the world’s Muslims live not in the Middle East but here in Asia, where religion has mostly been milder."

So rather than debunk a stereotype, he localizes it, moving it offshore to the desert regions.

To be honest, I find it hard to fault this logic. Not that Indonesia is free of problems or extremism--think back to Bali in 05 or 02--but Kristof finds them to be more tolerant of other religions and of the women in their midst climbing the social and professional and societal ladders. And if we take a look at the direct interactions between America and Muslim societies, the problematic ones tend to follow Kristof's model.

In the end, Kristof offers us no easy way out of this dichotomy; indeed, no way out at all.

"There is a historic dichotomy between desert Islam — the austere fundamentalism of countries like Saudi Arabia — and riverine or coastal Islam, more outward-looking, flexible and tolerant. Desert Muslims grab the headlines, but my bet is that in the struggle for the soul of Islam, maritime Muslims have the edge."

I have to admit, this troubles me. Because the point of debunking a stereotype is in the end to defeat it on exactly that basis--that it is a stereotype. It's an extreme relativist pose, but it's the only one possible if we are to avoid the descent into action defined by prejudice. Not that I'm suggesting that's where Kristof takes this column, not at all. But that idea rises out of the other ideas presented here, and there's no refutation to be found.

Like most of the problems we as Westerners face in the rising clash between Islam and the West--if indeed those very terms have meaning any more, which is a topic for another day--there is no easy answer to the problem, if even an easy definition of it.

So in avoiding the predictable end to his column, Kristof maintains the dichotomy, leaving us to wonder whether he does believe that desert Islam is the problem, but that in the end they will lose their edge, and coastal Islam will become dominant.

It's an interesting proposition. It's something to think about both in watching the relationship unfold to see if he's right, and in examining our own thoughts and beliefs about the intrinsic value of Islam--even of religion itself--in its many forms.

Impending Departure

This Saturday, Cathy leaves for Myanmar.

She'll be there, traveling with our friend Christina, for about a month. Christmas and New Year's will both slide by before she returns.

Some are baffled by the fact that we often travel separately. Others are totally mystified as to why anyone in their right mind would want to go to Myanmar. I mean, Burma? WTF?

The answers are simple. We travel separately because we are adults who love to travel and our schedules, plans, and desired destinations don't always match up. We both traveled before, and we both continue now. We feel it makes our bond stronger.

And why Burma? Because. We were both captivated by SE Asia on our honeymoon, and it just happens that I couldn't swing a trip of this magnitude right now, while Cathy could, and this trip fit the bill that Cathy and Christina have been trying to fill--a good trip to take together--since they met in Zimbabwe many years ago.

I'm jealous, plain and simple.

This spring Cathy and I will travel together to Jamaica and NYC. Possibly to Amsterdam in the fall. And next year, I'm looking for a big extended outing to New Zealand. Hopefully. If I don't travel to Spain for a trip around the Vuelta.

It's nice to make plans.

But, back to the point of this post: I'm about to be without my wife for a month, including during the holidays.

It's a total drag, but I know she'll have a blast and I know how happy we'll be to see each other when she gets back. And a trip to Driggs over New Year's will soften the blow a good bit.

Happy, safe travels to her.

Weekends of Winter

These are the days of bread baking and late morning lingering over coffee. When getting through an entire New Yorker is justification enough for a Sunday well spent.

I've adjusted. I've accepted the loss of the frantically productive and recreative summer weekends, when not a minute can be wasted, and am enjoying the slower, calmer, more cerebral days of this season.

Last night the BCRP had a practice new year's eve party that was a great success. We had a great crowd, a solid lineup of live music and DJs, and a most decent haul at the door. And it's paved the way for more and more successful fundraising efforts, as we get our name connected in the community's mind to events like these.

And if we're out hobnobbing and fundraising all night long all weeekend, taking in tapas at 11pm on Friday night after the IRC event or downing a good share of Newcastles at the Bouquet all night Saturday, the days are slow and wonderful, long walks with the dogs in the Military Reserve, and copious amounts of coffee throughout the day.

Practice New Year's Eve

Tonight at the Bouquet in chilly downtown Boise, the Boise Community Radio Project will host a Practice New Year's Eve Party. We'll have a bunch of live bands including the wonderful Kris Doty as well as The Universal, who I've been meaning to catch for a while now.

Between sets we'll have RadioBoise DJs, and some special guests, spinning tracks from progressive decades as we count our way down to the current year.

This promises to be a hell of a fun night. If you're in town, come check it out.

Snow on That Thar Hill

Winter is officially here.

Bogus has a couple feet sitting on it by now. They opened for business on Wednesday.

I haven't been up yet. Wanted to go today, but work won. I'm hoping to get up there during the week next week, as I've sworn off weekend skiing up there after last year's experiences.

I'm looking forward to my first turns of the year. See what I forgot, and see if I can turn into a decently sub-par skier by the end of the year.

Wahoo.

Thanks Gave, and On with the Month

Seems we've hit a brief downhill slide.

That's always a weird turn of phrase. In one sense, all being downhill from here seems like a bad thing. As if things can only get worse.

But then again, when it's all downhill, it's all easy going, coasting, no work left, just enjoy the fruits of what you went through to get to the top of the hill. So let's take that meaning here.

Ma Hess is out of the hospital and recovering in the comfort of her own home.

Grandma K got out of the rehab center not only to eat Thanksgiving dinner with the family, but the next day for leftovers as well. "That's the best part," she said, so they sprung her and brought her home for a sandwich.

And AP is also home recovering quickly. He's still got a short ways to go to get out of these particular woods, but hopefully the end is in sight.

Me, I ate a lot, rode a bit, and laid around more than I can remember doing in quite some time. It was nice, but it's nice to get back to it as well.

Aaawwwwwwwww...

Isn't it cute?

I've got to send my iPod in to Apple for service. After I get an estimate, I have to send it on to Visa for some action. The Pod is out of Apple warranty, but still covered by the credit card I used to buy it.

Anyway.

All of this goes to tell why I bought this ridiculous little thing. I can use it in the meantime, while the big unit is off getting repaired (or, hopefully, replaced). I can use it in the gym or on rides instead of carrying the big'n and risking it getting messed up. And I needed new earbuds anyway, which cost $50 on their own. This thing, refurbished, was $59. Seems like a no-brainer.

Surgery Every Day

And today the matriarch, Ma Hess, heads to hospital for her own procedure.

Scaring the crap out of her entire family, the docs not too long ago found a tumor in the Moms. Nothing too serious, they assure, not the C word. We just gotta go in and take it out.

So today, they go in and take it out. From all accounts the procedure will not be nearly as hard as the few days of prep and fasting she's endured leading up to it, but still. There'll be 2 to 4 days of hospital time afterward to make sure the whole GI tract is intact and working again.

But that's all just precautionary. No worries.

So good luck, Ma, hope it all goes quick and smooth.

And then can we all just be done with hospitals for a while? Please?

Update:
Flying colors. That's how the Moms came through this surgery. The report from Dad is in, and all is well as expected. Excellent.

One More Time

This morning, one last time, AP goes under the knife.

Dr. Little will re-enter at the site of the very first brain surgery, from way back this time last year, to remove the tumor on the third cranial nerve.

This time, the whole nerve will come out. That means eyelid function, eye rotation, and pupil dilation are all lost. So the eye is shut.

But, neither will there be a chance of the tumor returning. So, no more surgery.

It's been a long road to this point, and we're all hoping this is where it stops. Return to health and life and work and certainty. No returns to the hospital.

Cross all yer fingers. Good luck Tony.

Update:

The surgery went well and AP is recovering nicely. According to the doc, this stubborn bastard of a tumor has spread and grown more than they thought, attaching itself to the brain stem. That is what they call "inoperable," as they won't operate on it due to the sensitive nature of its location. The answer? Radiation, a one-shot heavy-duty blast during surgery, to come in 6 to 8 weeks. We hope this will neutralize or kill it. For now, let's be content with a speedy recovery from the surgery. First things first.

The Morning Commute

I returned from Alabama to snow-capped foothills and chilly morning rides. There's a bit over a foot of snow on the ground up at Bogus already, and the mountains of Central Idaho have a good bit more than that.

Early yesterday morning was my first glimpse of it, and it's always a shock and a wake-up call to see it for the first time.

This morning, though, it was glorious, the whole sky painted pink and orange and the white snow reflecting all of it.

Seems winter's here.

Anyone wanna plan a ski visit?

Sweet Home Idaho

Back last night from the Dirty South, as it were, after having a very nice visit with the parents and extended family. Nice to be there, as we got to spend some good time with the Brow clan as well as Grandma Kleaver.

I must admit I was a bit nervous rolling into the rehab facility where the OG was staying, and our first foray into her room did nothing to dispel that nervousness. In fact, I was a bit shocked at seeing her. We often hold in our minds images of friends and family at their best, or at least at their most familiar, and this was a conflicting image: small, frail, on oxygen and a bit confused.

But, it seems we woke her from a deep sleep, and after having a few minutes to gather herself and get into a wheelchair and out into the common room, she was practically as I'd remembered. Hell, who IS at their best when woken from a deep sleep?

Turns out she's just as sharp, funny, and cantankerous as ever, it just takes a little longer for the exchanges to happen. She's doing better and all hope to get her back to her normal assisted living soon.

It was great to hang with the parents, too. They seem happy and healthy and are firmly entrenched in a growing community of family and friends. That's good to see.

More than one conversation turned to the fact that we are all so far flung, that wouldn't it be nice to live in the same place, especially with realistic grandkid conversations now in the realm of the happening. And it would. It'd be great. But it just doesn't seem possible at this time. Whatever my opinion, they're settled there in Montgomery, and I honestly can't imagine a single scenario that would get me to move there. If they love it, fine, great even, but there's just nothing there for me and the wifey.

But at least it was a nice visit. We'll cross the rest of these bridges as we come to them.

Hardcore Montgomery

I'm in Montgomery, AL, visiting the 'rents this weekend. Eric, John, and Tamara have come here for the weekend as well, so it's nice having the big family gathering before all the holiday insanity.

Last night, after yet another amazing meal, and after sitting through the end of the Spongebob movie (hilarious), Eric and I headed out to sample the city's nightlife. We often end up at a joint called Head on the Door, a dark little pseudo-punky craphole off the Eastern Bypass.

After sitting in the smoke-loaded room for a beer we were on the verge of breaking out, the air just too thick to manage, a couple of the kids shoved the pool table into the corner and started carting in gear.

A band? In this tiny room?

Yup.

They were called The Death Defying Die'ers, and they turned out to be a totally passable hardcore band. Who'd a thunk it? They did 2 sets and it wasn't horrible--at a couple points, it even sounded ok. Sure, they were often off, beats dropped and guitar lines flubbed in a way even obvious in that sort of music, but they pulled it off and provided a totally unexpected diversion for us. They pulled out a cover of the classic rock staple "She's Not There," which was very cool--until they did it the second time, when it became a bit stupid.

Still and all, a nice night out.

Think Nationally

As the day wears on, I'm losing the edge of my gloom about last night and thinking more of what can be accomplished on the national level.

We've got the House, and we damn well may get the Senate. That's fantastic, and it's a lot of responsibility.

To change the course of the nation and get right what's been got so wrong is the ultimate goal. And it's possible. Raising minimum wage, re-addressing our strategy in Iraq, putting the country's resources full-tilt toward developing green energy--this is where we should start. Let's hope.

So, in the dark of the fall's early evening, I can feel a bit more content about the state of things. And finally we can look forward to working to make things better.

All But the Shouting

This morning brought that tired, slightly down feeling that usually comes after something so long anticipated has past.

The elections are over--most of them, anyway--and now it's time to look past the horribly depressing local results to the national results for consolation. The good guys took the house, and there's still a chance they'll take the Senate. That's good.

But still. Butch Otter is our new governor, and Idahodians should fear him even more than ineffectual dipshit Dirk the Jerk. Otter's dangerous. Likewise Bill Sali. Too close to call? He's a nutbag who even members of his own friggin party can't stand, but we in Idaho would be proud to call him congressman. Sure, the election's not truly counted and done, but just the closeness is disgusting.

Far as I know, the Ada comissioner spot is still too close to call, so we don't know if Paul Woods pulled that one out or not. Risch won, as did Simpson. Neither of those is a surprise, but they're still terrible results.

The people have spoken. And if this is what the Republicans get as payback for their fuckups of the last 6 years, then we should truly be worried about becoming a single-party government.

This is no revolution. It's not even a sweeping up. It's the minumum possible change for a country so mired in partisan politics that we can't even see what's good for us. And it all boils down to what people do in the voting booth when confronted with the little D's and R's. They choke. They don't follow through with any sort of bold move or decision based on conscience. They tow the line.

We get what we deserve, right?