Pinguistic background distinction

Rare is the case when i do not find stop-motion animation endearing. It is quite simply magic. Magic is great. You know what else is great? Yup, penguins. Imagine my sheer delight when we stumbled upon Pingu, the clay animation import from switzerland, while browsing netflix instant viewing options. Olivia has never sat mesmerized by anything on a screen for that long without being distracted or bored. After six consecutive 5-minute episodes our family has become borderline obsessed with the antics of this adolescent penguin who, along with his family and friends, speak a gibberish penguin dialect not unlike that of our friends at comedy sportz.

Upon further research i discovered even more fascinating information regarding this apparently controversial series which was produced by the pygos group. According to that expounder of great knowledge, wikipedia:

A few episodes of the show were removed from rotation or edited due to perceived offensive material. One episode was Pingu's Lavatory Story, which contained graphic depictions of uncensored urination and alcoholic references. Pygos was unable to censor the urine, leading to the banning of the episode in 1990, the year it was produced. 

I know, right? And if that isn't enough to make you quit your job and get on the Pingu bus, check out was else this darling little animated powerhouse delivered us... 

Before you say anything else, you're welcome.

Or else what?

I could think of myself a victim of my own folly if not for grace and mercy. I find or rather have found myself time and time again torn between listening to your voice and giving in to the illusion of such. My condition demands confession. It may be more for myself to die to those wrong perceptions than anything else. I guess for a very long time we have tried to manufacture a freedom in regards to living in your love instead of simply living at first in that freedom.

I am in a place where i feel somewhat yet not utterly alone. Perhaps we (and by we i mean me) have allowed ourselves to be placed beneath the tyranny of the expectations of our man-made institutions rather than found at the feet of grace listening for the voice belonging to only you. I'm coming to the realization that this letter could be thus far defined by the rathers. Is 'rather' the word which best describes my existence thus far? That may be a bit melodramatic. However, I can't deny that i've spent a great deal of my life declaring, whether by word or by deed, that i'd rather my predicament look a bit different. I am speaking of purely selfish things here. Sometimes these desires are rooted in the depths of complex emotions. Often they are strictly self-serving and trivial.

I imagine a great deal of folks who talk of or claim allegiance to Jesus find themselves compromising that devotion for their own ambitions. If we are living in that space between Christ's victory and the healing of all things then what does that mean for the church? What does that mean for those who align themselves with Jesus? What does that mean for you and me? Where do our stories fit into God's story? The thing is that the more i think about those questions, the more i believe that the answers mean a great deal. They matter a great deal, not because we are all destined to be gameshow contestants or rock stars or astronauts, but because our stories are a part of God's story. They matter because our stories are connected. Your story and my story fit together into the story of God's love and creation and redemption and recreation of all things.

We should matter to one another in ways that we often don't allow ourselves to matter to one another.

(photo credit: zack bent)

What you see is not an orb

What you are seeing is real. This is a picture of real people and not unpeople or phantom orbs bouncing from plane to plane. This has recently become a topic of great concern for those whom consider themselves members of the prestigious but non-exclusive group of pseudo scientists collectively known as Ghostonians. Leave your orbs at the door please. We scoff at at your reflective light spots.

Srsly though. The previous photo was snapped prior to a hallway pizza party in celebration of Papaw's new leg. We got to watch him take several steps from his room at the rehab house to the front porch for a breath of fresh sunshine.

On a quasi-unrelated note, our daughter has a rather keen ability to sense a dog within at least a thirty yard radius.

Well i'll be.

Ooooooh sheeeeeeit

Mostly i've been listening to a whole lot of the Velvet Underground lately. Then what i did was listen to Beck's record club take on the entire TVU & Nico album. What happened next was that i dug pretty hard on what Beck accomplished with the likes of Wilco, Leslie Feist and Jamie Lidell, etc. which just so happened to be reimagining Skip Spence's opus Oar. I then decided to revisit Spence's original recording and was particularly captivated by the haunting vocals and instrumentation of "Weighted Down" on my way home from the Strange Brew. Upon arriving home i happened upon the video of the record club's version again...

Yes y'all. Yes.

Brewing

The dawning of a new era in crafting fine beverages for the public has arrived. As i was settling in, i was pleasantly surprised by two young ladies whom i miss participating with in the daily routine of slinging coffee at hurried customers to the end of fattening the wallets of others.

Sigh.

Together, we gathered behind the fish tanks discussing half-lizards encased in ice cream sandwiches, sugar-induced water retention and the like. More importantly a collective formed to out-ghost-hunt those other poor excuse for ghost-hunters. Boo indeed.

Ideas are in the hopper including but not limited to:

• casting pods
• sesame substitution
• purging 'n' shelving
• cutting ties

As usual, there are no guarantees. However, here are a couple sure to be shortly realized...

Tile and all

(Clockwise from upper left: wet saw, simian jammies, tiled in, corner coffee)

For the past so and so days, we've been constructing a ginormous ceramic floor puzzle of which we've finally completed the placing of each temperamental piece. Soon we grout and replace our (gulp) front door frame. Yikes.

A prelude to completion...

Spam of the day

Hay Hi! to your new huge pole

People i tell you

Flipping haggard homes is in my immediate present and our possible future. Much of this is thanks to soul brother jackson numero uno. Not only that, but he's also got me creating fliers with a license to puzzle.

Holla?

That was that and this is the other...

Stay tuned, cos aye still got mo' t'sho ya.

The one what got away

Way back in the year twenty ought nine, i swapped some lukewarm cash from years of birthday savings for a barely touched boss digital recorder. At the rockey home, we seem to have the worst kind of luck with desktopial computing systematics. On the srsly tip, if you have a working desktop computer which you would like to see suddenly malfunction beyond repair, just bring 'er on by our place. We'll take care of things. Oh yeah and if you (yes you) are the person who had the audacity to staple your home computer repair sign on our gorgeous privacy fence... We've got your number pony boy.

Back on track...

I created some sounds and spoke some voices into the previously mentioned digital recording device and what happened was this...

Back in the day, those in the biz would have referred to this one as an EP. Look it up youngsters. This particular EP is made up of the following four songs all handcrafted at the rockey home:

1. orange moon
2. darling, regardless
3. tonight's the night
4. panacea

You can download this digital piece of wax for free right here. If you'd prefer, you can check it out at bandcamp.com. Either way, thanks for listening. Never stop dancing.

Neighbors to the neighborless

Months have passed while the houses on either side of us have remained vacant. There appears to be some activity behind door number one. We hate to get our hopes up so we use our imagination. Meet Dave. He's made of snow and compost. He gives Olivia the creeps.

The weight of words

Todays playlist

The Muppets + Weezer =

It's where you hang your heart

Breakfast in bed, tiny gifts, squeaky clean.