Leia, still got it.

Here it is, opened only seventeen years too late: the time capsule I stuffed, sealed with a few pieces of duct tape, and forgot about for 27 years. It was one of those things where, when my mom told me on the phone she had found it, I had no idea what she was talking about--but when I saw it, the whole thing came back to me. I can remember 10 year old me, the kid in the photo above, thinking "I can't open this for ten years? That'll never happen," like the future was impossible or something. It was, kind of, because we all forgot about it and it didn't get rediscovered until, like I said, seventeen years after I was supposed to crack it.

We saved the opening for my boy's 3rd birthday because my folks all wanted to see it, so that was kind of fun. Here is the last line of the letter I wrote to myself: "Time is of the Essance remember." So true.

That Leia figure is from the very first "pressing" or whatever of Star Wars figures ever. You had to mail away for them. No, I lost her blaster, so she's probably not worth too much. But to me, she's priceless. Obviously. If I really played with her much, I would never have put her in the time capsule. Han Solo and the stormtroopers had important business on my bedroom floor and couldn't sign up for time capsule duty. But Leia did, and now she has survived the years looking fabulous.

The letters from my parents to me were pretty priceless, too. They were only two or more years older than I am now when they wrote them, and it's, I don't know, impossible to describe what it feels like to read their speculations about my future.

One cute excerpt from my mom's letter: "Last night at our second baseball game, and our second loss (she was my team's coach--she knew nothing about baseball except how to make everyone play equally), you threw a picture book throw from way past second base to Mitchell (my best friend) to get a guy out at home plate. I will forever remember that throw. Your coach screamed and jumped up and down hysterically. I'm afraid I did show my prejudice at that point."

Ahhhhhhh, Time. It's a funny thing.

Favorite Dan Deacon Vid

The sound is so awful here you can't hear a thing, but that's not the point at his shows, really--it's more about the energy of the crowd. I do like his songs, tho. This video comes the closest of any I've seen to conveying what it was like seeing Deacon this summer, except the dancing wasn't as funny as it is here. I just keep watching this over and over.

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day.

That faint smile on my face is a fake--it's me trying to put on a good show though I'd just completely bonked on the first day of the Hilly Hundred this past weekend down in Bloomington. For some reason, they stopped breakfast early on Saturday so all C and I had was a small banana each, and that wasn't enough. It was too bad, because I love riding my bike up and down hills, but all day my legs just had nothing.

The next morning, we erred on the side of eating too much by going to the Runcible Spoon, which, along with the Trojan Horse and the Book Corner comprise the remaining unchanged parts of Bloomington--the parts that still look the same as they did when I went to school there. As usual, I ordered two of the huge Runcible Spoon pancakes and only ate one, and that was just the fuel I needed for a nice day of hill climbing. Totally different experience. The best part was drafting up a hill behind two farmers in this jeep/atv kind of thing full of firewood. They kept looking back and laughing at me as I pedaled along, passing all the punters who couldn't hitch on.

And the low of the weekend was passing the dude lying on his face in the middle of the road groaning. We'd been riding with his group earlier in the day but C and I could tell that they clearly didn't know anything about riding as a pack, so we stopped for a bit and let them get away. Sure enough, not more than an hour later, we pass them all huddled around their comrade asking if he was okay. There but for the grace etc.

Down with Waiting

Man, what's up with the In Rainbows download site being down? Did they not anticipate demand or something? I like their plan to bypass the majors, but this looks amateurish to me. Maybe it's just that, since the advent of broadband internet access, I hate waiting for anything. What's weirder is that I'm not even that much of a Radiohead fan--but I listened to Nathan's copy a few times today and was getting into it, so now I'm bummed.

UPDATE: I think it sounds like U2.

Too late to see this.

Took the family to the Mississinewa 1812 reenactment today, but because I was both too late and without a memory card for my camera, I was unable to see, let alone document, the scene here. I borrowed this from their web site just because I thought it looked cool. No names of the photographers are credited on the site, so I can only direct you to the link.

The last of the guns were firing as we made the long walk from the grassy parking lots down to the river banks where, I'd wager, there were almost a thousand tents scattered. Totally different scene from the Johnny Appleseed Festival, which I am more familiar with. More hard core, or hard corps.

I thought it was fun. Very pretty part of the river. Lots of folk dressed as Miami, though I don't think I saw any true Miami. The reenactors actually paint themselves to darken their skin, and that sounds like it might be too much like the old days of people going in black face, but, to me at least, it came across as dignified rather than cartoonish. Actual Native Americans might disagree, though.

On our way in, I tell B "we're going to see some Indians!" and he says "I like Indian food! Rice!" So I say, "no, it's a different kind of Indians" and he goes "Oh--hey I see some different-Indian food!" I thought it was funny.

My favorite part might have been this old-timey entertainment couple called Clockwork and Clown Co., led by a self-deprecating guy who eats fire and a sidekick who plays a mime-ish clown who shows him up a bunch. She was totally cute. That's right, today I developed a crush on a clown, face-paint and all. Somehow, she disappears right in the middle of the act--not like it's a disappearing act; you just get distracted somehow. And then the next thing you know she's literally packed inside the tiny crate you see in the background here. I love stuff like that. The guy opens it up and she's stuffed inside and he winds her up so she can start juggling. She juggled four at once, something that's a lot more difficult than just three, which really isn't all that tough. I was impressed. Good times.

YoutubeyoU

I've been caught in some kind of endless Youtube loop tonight, bouncing between random Michael Cera videos and live Grizzly Bear. Man, they were so Best--do people still say that? Did they ever?--at Pitchfork this summer. This song, "Deep Blue Sea," is some traditional sea shanty or the like that they adapted and it's on "repeat" in my head right now. I wish I had a Grizzly Bear t-shirt. I would feel closer to them.

Wes, I need tab for this, too. Capo 3 with a weird tuning. Thanks in advance.