Tuesday, April 27, 2010

No 2-4-Tuesday


I don't have the time or brain power to come up with a 2-4-Tuesday today (maybe I'll do something later in the week), but I thought you all might like some music for this overcast spring day. Michal has a habit of listening to country music in the spring and I have kind-of picked that up... though, instead of Kenny Chesney or Diamond Rio I prefer good country:

Lyle Lovett:



Thursday, April 22, 2010

Ashley's First Art Post

This is the first picture that I made in art class. I liked that we cut out egg cartons and colored the insides to make them look like Yucca pods.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

2-4-Tuesday: G.Love Vs Jack Johnson


As I have been doing some remodel work in my basement I have been listening to a lot of Pandora radio. I have two stations that I love; one is based on Bob Dylan which pulls in songs by the Band, Jimmie Hendrix, Johnny Cash and Loudon Wainwright III, and the other station is based on Mason Jennings which pulls in Bob Dylan, Xavier Rudd, Ben Harper and Jack Johnson.

I can't stand Jack Johnson.

This may come as a surprise to some of you since I used to love his music and listened to him all the time. True, I do love the album Brushfire Fairytales and like On and On but ever since that Curious George thing I just can't listen to him. Well, maybe you agree? Let's find out:

Rodeo Clowns


Jack Johnson



G.Love & Special Sauce



Vote


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Make up...

To make up for not posting a 2-4-Tuesday this week I hope you will accept this:

Free as a Bird



Friday, April 09, 2010

Not A Dlog

Daniel & Zion

You may remember these two from such classics as The Christmas Break Dance and ZionEats. Now see them in their brand-new feature: Daniel & Zion 2010!

Relphy’s First Adventure

William Crum                                        4/8/010

Relphy's First Adventure

    The year was 1842. Relphy was out in the yard chopping at the hard, arid soil with three or four chickens pecking around him when a wind from the north came swooping in and knocked him down. While the icy wind pierced his eyes and whirled through his ears like a tornado, he saw a peculiar thing zipping through the air. When the light brown rag landed on his lap he stared at it in amazement. In golden letters written on the top left-hand corner he read, "Captain Alburt's Map to the Lost Treasure of Gormon." So, it was the treasure map of the greatest pirate, sliced in two, probably by a cool, steel blade in one of his adventures. But wait, it had been cut in two, but only one half was there. "The Captain of the Sea, Alburt the Great, must have the second half of this map," said Relphy, "and I must set out on a journey to find it."     

    Tom, Relphy's neighbor, who was a gardener, heard his plan and called after him. "Oy, you wait! I heard what you plan to do. Why don't you let me go with you? There should be enough treasure for both of us. I know a man with a ship. He could help us out."

    "OK, you can come," said Relphy. "Let's sail off to Oregon to the home of Captain Alburt."

    The cool, fresh wind on the ship, The Fifth Glory, was a relief from the icy wind of the previous week. Unlike most gardeners in California at that time, Tom had many friends who were sailors. Relphy, Tom, and a crew of about twenty men helped on the ship. After a few days they reached Oregon. Tom, Relphy, and two other men with ragged clothes and scruffy beards went to find Alburt's mansion. Relphy, who was a white dog, wearing nothing but a long, sharp sword and a ship captain's hat, went first. Then Tom, a tall man with a pouffy-sleeved white shirt and pitch-black pants, followed behind with his sword. The mansion was in view. The two buff men scuttled the guards while Relphy and Tom crept inside. They could see Captain Alburt sitting in front of a warm fire. He was a short, white cat with a big head. Alburt had an enormous black beard and a pirate's hat.

    "Look at that, Relphy," Tom whispered. "It's the legendary Murray Darling."

    Murray Darling was one of the greatest pirate thieves ever seen. Like Relphy, he was a dog. But unlike Relphy, he was black, scruffy, and had a dark brown eye patch covering the place where his left eye had been.

    Tom asked, "How are we going to get a half-torn treasure map from the two richest...."

    "Shhhhhhh!" said Relphy. "I'm trying to listen to what they're saying."

    Alburt was talking. "It was three to five weeks ago when I was on the Dark Wing heading toward Gormon, the lost Hawaiian island, when that scalawag who tried to maroon me, cut the map in two just before I drove my sword into his heart. I have one half, three floors up, but the other half blew out to sea."

    "So, he doesn't know we have the other half?" said Tom.

    "Of course not," said Relphy. "C'mon upstairs."

    Relphy and Tom were thankful for the thickly cushioned carpet on the steps because the sores on their feet from the splintery deck of the ship felt so much better on the soothing texture. Also, it masked the sound of creaking. The only problem they had was the lack of time: time to get upstairs, time to find the map, and time to escape without being caught. Thankfully the second room Tom entered had a desk and the other half of the map was on it. Instead of going back downstairs and sneaking out the door, they used rope Relphy had found to let themselves down through a window. Relphy, Tom, and the other men ran back to the ship.

    Back at Alburt's mansion, when the guards woke up two days later, they ran inside to tell Captain Alburt all that had happened to them. Murray and Alburt burst into the map room, and when they pieced together what had happened Alburt boomed at the guards, "Get ready the Dark Wing to set sail tonight."

    On The Fifth Glory, sailing to Hawaii, there were many problems. The main problem was the whole crew were cry-babies. One man was angry all day because he lost his tooth and the tooth fairy didn't leave him any money. Another man jumped overboard because no one knew it was his birthday. He wasn't the only man they lost. About five more died when a terrible storm came and swept them off their feet and over the side into the water. When the storm had ceased, Tom somehow put the map back together.

    Captain Alburt's ship was the fastest in the Pacific and it wouldn't take as long to sail to Hawaii as The Fifth Glory.

    Two weeks after they had left Oregon, a watch-out on Relphy's ship called, "Land, ho!" It wasn't Gormon, but with the map Relphy knew how to navigate to the right island. After being delayed by several fierce storms, one day later, Alburt saw land, as well.

    "I don't know exactly which island it is, but if we hurry we can spot their ship before they find a cove to hide it in," said Alburt.

    From far away, Relphy couldn't see the island of Gormon. Even when they were close the island looked blue. The circular island was a mile in diameter. There were no palm trees; there was no grass, but there was a well exactly in the center of Gormon Island. Men spread out to start digging because there was no "X" on the map. After a while of digging, the men got thirsty. They all thought that instead of going back to the ship to get water, they would try the well. Just as they lifted the empty bucket, a man on The Fifth Glory shouted "Ship ahoy!" The Dark Wing had found them. Men ran back to The Fifth Glory. Half of them died, getting hit by falling cannon balls. Having never fought in their lives, Tom and Relphy went down the well. The bottom of the well was unlike any well they had ever seen. There were five passageways going in different directions.

    "They must be underground tunnels," Relphy said. "C'mon, let's warn the others."

    They popped their heads out of the hole, just to be inches away from the back of Murray Darling's head. Murray Darling was fighting with a crew member. Looking the other way, Tom could see men spreading gunpowder on the deck of The Fifth Glory.

    "No!" he cried, which caused Murray's head to turn around. Quickly Tom and Relphy slipped back down the rope. Murray Darling slid after them. When Tom hit the ground, he drew his sword.

    "Run, Relphy!" he yelled.

    Still up above, on the island, Alburt called, "Evacuate the Wing. Search for that treasure, all of you!"

    The tunnel seemed to go on and on until Relphy came to a stop. It was a dead end which had a hole in the ceiling. He ran back just to meet Darling in his tracks. Relphy drew his sword.

    "Where's the treasure?" Darling asked.

    "Boom!" The explosion distracted Murray Darling. Relphy turned and ran back down the tunnel toward the dead end with Murray Darling after him. When Murray reached the dead end, Relphy was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly Relphy jumped on him from the opening above. Relphy ran back toward the well. Tom was gone.

    "Relphy," he called from another passageway.

    "Comin'," Relphy yelled. "The treasure?"

    Tom was sitting next to the treasure with one bloody shoulder.

    "Look Relphy. Another well up above."

    "You're right. C'mon!"

    Luckily, the well led up right next to an anchored rowboat not too far from the Dark Wing. Tom and Relphy hoisted the treasure up the well and set it neatly in the boat. The sound of victory calls on the shore and the pillar of smoke from the bay, told them everyone else from The Fifth Glory was dead and their ship had been destroyed. So they rowed to the Wing. No one was aboard but Captain Alburt himself. I do not want to tell you what they did to him first, but afterwards they threw him overboard and he swam to shore. To this day Alburt and his crew have been on Gormon Island.

    When Tom and Relphy got home, they told their wives all that had happened. The wives insisted they return the treasure to the men it first belonged to. This turned out to be a great idea. Many of the owners gave them generous rewards, but the best reward of all was a new treasure map.

The End

Mom vs New York

Check out this clip. Notice the seen where Mom's favorite game attacks an office building... awesome.

Great visuals, good camera work, and nice sound:

Pixels


Tuesday, April 06, 2010

2-4-Tuesday


A truly odd match-up for today. Sting vs. Johnny Cash.

Sting's original version certainly stands on it's own, but Cash lends a sense of authenticity. But you don't have to take my word for it...

I Hung My Head


Sting



Johnny Cash



Vote


Friday, April 02, 2010

Part IV

Initially I planned on splitting Edwardo's final letter into two parts (Harry Potter Style). After much thought I decided that it would be unfair to you the reader, and considering that we are in the midst of a contest I changed my mind. So without further introduction, here is the last correspondence my elder brother sent to me from his trip to Patagonia...


8.12.2009

Dear Brother,

This time tomorrow I will be in the sky somewhere over Brazil. I believe, much to my surprise, that I am going to miss this place. Everything feels somehow older here, kind of how I imagine Europe must be. Even though exploration and conquest touched these lands later than the Northern continent, somehow the effects here were not as complete. Back home truly is the New World, nothing remains the same... even Nature has been protected and controlled. But here, the very air I breathe is full of life, an ever present reminder of this land's untamable wildness. Perhaps I had too much to drink last night. I'm honestly surprised to be in such good shape with such clear thoughts this morning. The prospect of a nice, quiet day here in my cottage overlooking the ocean, seems like a perfect way to conclude my time here in Argentina.

I finally wrapped up the business thought brought me here in the first place. Last night marked the first time that all five of us have ever been in the same location together. I had never actually met Steven before, and I must say the whole encounter was quite surreal. We all knew that this actual meeting was merely a formality, all the details had been ironed out and agreed to over a year ago. As you know I had set this whole thing in motion back in 2004, and what I like to call a "guerrilla PR agency" had been creating buzz about the project since the Summer of '07. I had asked Jimbo early on to take the public lead, really he had the least to loose as far as reputation and standing in the community. I had laughed off the suggestion that I keep the top spot. I guess either I'm not thick skinned enough, or maybe I'm just too smart to desire that spotlight. During our meeting last night I recounted some of my recent run-ins with fame... The abduction to the mountain jungle villa and the harrowing episode that has unfortunately separated me from beauty incarnate. "No" I said, "I don't regret for a moment letting Jimbo take the credit for this one". I don't think Steven, Frank or M-Shizzle (that's what Steven was calling him) quite understood my position on this matter, but they toasted me just the same. The remainder of the evening consisted of finalizing some marketing details, and unfortunately quite a bit of adult beverage consumption. Jimbo thought it would be funny, so all night we were downing blue-raspberry Jello shots. I guess it was around 1:30 this morning when I finally took my leave and stumbled back to the cottage.

Perhaps my final letter before seeing you would have been more interesting had I filled it with other experiences of the last eight or nine days. My round-about search for Butch Cassidy's Chilean hideaway, and what I found there. Or maybe the three days and nights I spent with "The French Cannibals", a tribe of natives that exclusively eats French people. (I'm not going to tell you what common household condiment the like to dip French priests in, or why). Instead I felt like an honest depiction of my closing hours here in this beautiful, lush, timeless country would suit this correspondence best. I'll probably phone you from California before this letter arrives, so what point is there in writing any more?

Love,
Edwardo

Welcome Home David and Thomas!