a little soul rest for my head ...

off to maine for a much needed looooong weekend. going to good old great pond in the belgrade lakes region outside of waterville. simple, relaxing, unwinding, slow, and exactly what i need right now

how about an original idea ...

tinsel town is about to ruin a couple of classics for all little boys and girls. this fall we are going to see the release of the films for 2 of my all time favorite childrens books, 'cloudy with a chance of meatballs' and 'where the wild things are'.

im not really all that excited about the prospect of having some of my favorite books that focus on the different aspects of make believe and imagination are going to be realized on the big screen. sentimentality surely plays a big part in my disgust at the un-originality of the current film making biz because i am much more upset at the thought of an animated version of my favorite childhood story directed by the actor/star of 'clone high' than i am at the thought of a cgi saturated 'wild things' from spike jonze. im just really not excited about a high school clone tackling the 'land of chew and swallow'. where/how can justice be served to this amazing piece of childrens literatur??

please please please do me (and more importantly yourself) a favor and buy or borrow these books in the coming weeks and read them to yourself, a child, nephew, niece, grandchild, cat, or dog so you can experience incredible imagination, creativity, and originality before someone else's interpretation is thrusted onto you this fall at the movies.

confession and concession of the consummate carnivore ...

with all the buzz surrounding the recent (relatively) release of the film 'food, inc.' ive begun to dig a bit into the whole anti-factory farm, pro-sustainability, anti-processed food movements. for anyone who knows me you would know that i have spent serious time with all things meat; both in a professional sense and in a consumer sense. cheeks, loins, tails, toungues, ribs, stomachs, and of corse livers have all been on my plate at one point or another, so immediately i went into this investigative process with a healthy dose of skepticism.

what i found was interesting. the 'slow food' movement has gone mainstream. the basic principles of 'slow food' is fresh, healthy, and natural production of all foods. this toally includes meat. fish, beef, pork, and poultry are key elements in 'slow food' and are staple diests for all americans. the problem that 'food, inc.' is trying to pinpoint and tackle isnt cant be found in the 'slow food' movement, the problem is found in the consumption driven commercial food industry.

ive never been a big advocate of fast food or chain restaurants, but even the most basic research reveals that these are the main industries that have the greatest amount of influence over the way farms are run. with this in hand i spent the last weekend in the nations capitol with a good friend of mine who turned me onto the eco-concious, uber liberal, but rather pratical movement called 'meatless mondays'. its simple: obstain from meat on mondays and you help cut down on the use of water, gas, emissions, antibiotics, etc ...

i figured id take my friends advice and try out what it woul be like to be a veggie for a day. it wasnt so bad. very do-ible, but something that i would only want to keep doing for a day. the other six weeks ill be eating beef, assorted poultry products, and anything else i can get my hands on. ill let you know how it goes ... 1 meatless monday is already in the record books.

1st meatless monday ingedients included: peanutbutter, squash, eggplant, fettuccine, arugala, mozzarella, and pinenuts.

here is a video from earth day that had something to do with the meatless monday movement

band of more brothers ....?

holy crap ... i mean anyone who hasnt lived under a rock and was born after like 1995 should have seen the result of these filmmakers/producers foray into the historical miniseries genere: 'band of brothers'. this is one of the best miniseries of all times and i am a little excited to see what they have in store for us with 'the pacific'. marines instead of airbourne? blistering beaches instead of snow covered fields? guadalcanal instead of bastogne? the only miserable thing about this is that we have to wait until 2010. i think it will be worth it though.

NPR-ockstars ...

since ive made it back to the states, and now find myslef in my car for nearly 10 hours a week fighting traffic between the baltimore and dc beltways, ive been treating my ears and mind to some wonderful new tunes, catchy mixes, and a plethera of podcasts from good ole 'ivan the ipod'. i find myself dabbling in ira glass's weekly radio powerhouse 'this american life' evey monday on my way to and from work, and its because of mr glass an co. that i stumbled upon the subject of this post and the 1st in my 'npr-ockstars' series; 'npr's planet money'

i 1st heard the 'planet money' folks on 'this american life' when they were brought on during the wall street panic that struck in the fall and sunk lehman brothers, put american insurance group (aig) on the ropes, and almost took down the global finacial system as we know it. if you can recall that time back in spetember the finace folks were talking about the sky falling and the end of the world while you and i were strolling around completely unphased, and its was this exact dichotomy that alex blumberg tackled in his shockingly easy to understand and follow account of the credit crisis and how close to disaster we were.

ever since then i have become a loyal listener to the 3 times a week podcast put out by mr blumberg, the darling ms chana joffe-walt, et al. th podcast is quirky, funny , and informative all at the same time. their 'indicators' moment for instance is almost always a laugh, but always strikingly relevent. the podcast has become a easily accesible way to understand what is happening around the global economy and why it is happening. 'planet money' is a hip alternative to cnbc/bloomberg/wallstreet journal which all of a sudden is making the likes of erin burnett, paul krugman, and jim kramer look like a bunch of squares.

the 4th: an american tradition and its institutions

all of you out there are either a.) at work counting down the minutes until you can click your phones off, set up your 'out of office' email, and scurry away for a long weekend or b.) you are near some water, beer in hand, sunglasses on, and without a care in the world. i mean after all its the 4th of july, america's 223rd birthday.

the 4th is a very large birthday party (i cant remeber when 300 million people took off of work to celebrate me ... although my 25th birthday did have a boat full of sushi) that has become more than a holiday, but rather its turned into an institution. this institution consists of sunburn, bodies of water, charcoal, bathingsuits, beer out of a can, fireworks, and always corn on the cob.

i love it. you love it. we all love it. thats why we all pack cars, coolers, and boats and set out to high five, cheers, and sometime punch each other in celebration of a revolt. i want to offer you a glimpse into my mind when i think of the 4th of july ... see if you can follow along ...

when i think of the 4th i think of sunshine, and sunshine makes me think of summer, summer makes me think of vacation, vacation makes me think of widespread panic, widespread makes me think of high school (1st time experience), and high school makes me think about the last day of school right before summer vacation ... which leads me yet another american institution ... dazed and confused. im serious, when i think of the 4th i always think of richard linklaters kick ass bicentennial teenage drug enduced celebration.

so if you find yourself with out epic plans this weekend all you need is $5 and a blockbuster (i prefer netflix, but good luck getting that ontop of your queue and sent to you over a public holiday weekend - geesh) in order to enjoy this movie for your 1st or 1776th time.