merry christmas japhy brown.

i got higher in my walkin'.

dust dog.

this is a goodbye kiss, you dog.

iraqi journalists are so much more exciting than american journalists.

as-salāmu `alaykum.

egypt - words can't describe, so i'll just give you pictures instead. but, of course, it's nothing like being there... especially nothing like being there with your brother.



links to photos are below, and not in any particular order - some locations have multiple links/pages (there's like 600-plus photos). enjoy!


pyramids01, pyramids02, pyramids03


abu simbel


aswan01, aswan02, aswan03


cairo


temples01, temples02


luxor01, luxor02, luxor03

note: i swear that's not my gut you're seeing - i've got a money/passport pouch-thingy under my clothes (in fact, i think i may have actually lost some weight from the day and a half that i was sick). but yes, my beard is getting pretty white...

egypt-bound.

someone pretty cool told me this is what egypt is like:



looks like i'm in for an awesome trip.

take my word i'm a madman.

don't you know?

dignity.

i'm all alone so are we all.

yup.

that about sums it up. i'm getting a little too old for this bullshit.

see how they run like pigs from a gun.

the best part is at the beginning, when paul points at ringo before the drum fill.

33.

damn, really? some say it can be a tough year.

honey badger vs cobra.

yes we did.

i am overwhelmed by the fact that this has actually happened in my lifetime and i got to be a part of it.

great. not this shit again.

well, my day just got worse.

never gonna give you up.

hey ladies.

now who's the bitch, bitch?

health (s)care.

apparently, john mccain had a stroke last night immediately following the presidential debate.



poor old, old, OLD guy. hopefully he'll hang on long enough to give himself a $5000 healthcare tax credit.

guess this means the pig-in-lipstick is one step closer to the white house.



gooooooooooo sarah! napalm that glass ceiling!

consider yourself unfriended from my myspace and facebook, wiseguy.

if you wanna live, treat me good.

the greatest american hero.

"what are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? suspend being president? we've got a guy like that now!"

the rich man heaven is the poor man's hell.

off to the great gig in the sky.

r.i.p. rick wright.

truth is stranger than fiction.

"never saying never again again."

ridiculously high standards.

even though i could kill you with a tray if i so wished.

another john doe.

it was foretold...



and now finally you are here...

the first full-length album from dhani harrison, son of the late great george harrison. years ago, i was really into sean lennon's first album -- i saw him play live many times, a few with the group cibo matto. it was a great collection of eclectic music, soft electric alternative with a sometimes-jazz, sometimes-latin flavor. and then, sean's second album (and an appearance as a guest vj on mtv) really threw me for a loop. too orchestral for my tastes. and sure, zak starkey is great when he plays with the who. and, well, alright -- too late for goodbyes IS a great song (probably because julian sounds much more like george than his father). but this debut by dhani's group, thenewno2, is THE album from a former beatle's offspring that we've been waiting for all these years.

gee it's hot, let's go to bed.

sweet cherry pie.

it was cold and it rained so i felt like an actor.

smoothies are turning americans into shitheads.

fire in the hole.

when i'm 25 or 64.

sitting cross-legged on the floor... you'll be older, too...

next stop.

the battles of this fashioned war.

ain't what we've been fighting for.



it's only the end of may, but i think the best album of 2008 will be black mountain's "in the future." it came out a few months ago, but i only just got it last night -- picked up a copy on vinyl which conveniently included a password to download free mp3s of the entire album. love when bands do this because i love vinyl, but also like to listen in the car, on the ipod, etc.

the band has really upped the ante since their debut album. they've taken all the best elements of black sabbath, rush, led zeppelin, pink floyd, and neil young and mushed them all into thick, gooey, prog-tastic pleasure.

yes, yes -- there has been other great stuff out this year from bands that i love -- like the new black angels for one -- but like my choice last year for the best (the warlocks' "heavy deavy skull lover"), "in the future" is just a hands-down no-brainer. even the album cover screams awesome-ness:



i only wish i'd seen the band live this spring, but i'm sure they'll be around again.

tears of the feeble, hands of the slaves.

i'll be going down for the rest of the slide.

what's going on?

be on my side.

i'll be on your side, baby.

flaws.

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

- Kurt Vonnegut

co-star of "Back To School," renowned author

you are the ultimate american.

you are what we look up to.



all of you.

and i got a glimpse of my innocence.

got back my inner sense.



baby got it, still got it.

i'll be your mirror.

i'm starting to think you just might be.

church going.

Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence.

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new -
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

-- Philip Larkin

people are strange.

when you're a stranger.

two steps ahead of him.

wwjd?

what would japhy do?



he would climb to the top.

german chocolate, apple, and key lime.

this is what we did tonight.

a blizzard baby grows up.

he sure does.