Monday, January 07, 2008

2008 is happening.

Lake Caravan

That was a healthy break, there. This muddy looking image is from a few days before new year's at the in-law's lake place. The lake had been free of snow for a few days before and like glass and you could see the bottom like a window, like summer was still happening down there. You have to wonder if fish have any idea at all, where the boats go, where the worms go. I know a guy who walked out on the ice and found a fishing lure he'd lost last summer. Now he just needs to remember when he comes back in July.

What else.

I'm the first person I know who doesn't love Juno. And I don't have a cell phone. That makes me extremely rare, I think. There is something going on now where young whippersnappers want to use soundtracks as substitutes for film-making. Wes Anderson does it, and this movie does too, all over the place. Oh, and Garden State. It was well done in The Graduate, but that movie makes it look easy.

Still, the baby-birthin' scene made me tear up at the end of Juno. Once you're a dad, I guess, every time you see those you say "let's have us another one of those babies!" And then you snap out of it somewhat, or you don't, but you know that you have to stop having the babies at some point in life, let other people have some of them. It's hard.

Here is a new year's resolution: learn to juggle 4 things. You have been juggling 3 things for what, many years now? It is understandable to not know how to juggle, but to know how to juggle 3 and not learn 4 after 15 years or so just looks lazy.

Good news today is that Silver Jews have a new album coming out in late '08 and I had no idea. So excited. I love this excerpt from the Pitchfork interview with David Berman where I heard about the new album. They ask him what he does when he's not working, and he says this:

DB: I read a lot. I read, like, ten hours a day.

Pitchfork: Sounds perfect.

DB: I figure that's what I'm supposed to do when I'm not working. I think that I'm supposed to keep learning, in order to be useful in the event of an emergency, I don't know. I still have to learn how to make knots and all of that stuff. And why France collapsed so easily in 1940. There's a million things I have not caught up to.


I know the feeling.

Anyway, hello, 2008.
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10 comments:

LetsGoThrow said...

What did you think of out stealing horses? I ordered it along with Savage Detectives the other day - they should come tomorrow. I'm glad you captured my enthusiasm for Barack at Pitchfork so it doesn't look like I'm jumping the bandwagon now...

sarahjane said...

What a nice photo. I hadn't heard about the Jews either! Hooray. Excited for our little chat Saturday--I have a stack of books ready for the next vote. Wes thinks I should make the reading of the votes all suspenseful like Survivor. The kid's been watching too much TV.

Meg Marie said...

i teared up a little bit at the end too. my boyfriend made fun of me. there were some funny parts, but overall it wasn't a great movie.
are you taking any other classes at ipfw? i'm going there full time this semester and i'm definitly nervous.
Get un-lazy and learn how to juggle 4 things

countvonsexy said...

Oh, David Berman.

I love how many SILVER JEWS fans there are in Fort Wayne.

I don't think I've ever had a drink at THE BRASS RAIL without hearing "Random Rules" on the jukebox.

LOVE, DAVID

POST SCRIPT: Only a few more days 'till the new MAGNETIC FIELDS record.

Unknown said...

I blogged a few days ago on Juno and how it's inexplicably overrated.

Good taste, Hill. Good taste.

Mr. Hill said...

Cath really liked Out Stealing Horses, and I enjoyed it. The writing annoys me at times, but I don't know how much of that to put on the tranlsation.

As far as I'm concerned, you established your Obama cred when you totally smacked down the Ron Paul zombie that accosted us.

SJ, we could even do some kind of video confessional booth for the voting process. It could film me saying something like this: "Eric, I know we had an alliance to vote for Gould's Book of Fish, but you took the last cranberry scone, so I'm going behind your back and choosing A Child Called It."

Mr. Hill said...

Oh, and M-M, I'm taking another poetry writing class on late Monday afternoons.

Nervous? Really? Just be sure to pledge a popular sorority and everything will be super-duper.

sarahjane said...

If you ever mention "A Child Called It" again in reference to our book club, you're out. I mean it. Now I'm really getting excited to talk Saturday b/c I had a feeling the writing style was going to be an issue for people. Should I order a carafe of coffee (in case we're there all night)?

Mr. Hill said...

Man, I'm always getting thrown out of book clubs.

And yeah, Old Crown would be great.

Unknown said...

Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about, but even I laughed out loud (lol) at the Child Called It reference.

My mom's read that book like twelve times.