Day 17: Want

Name three things you want, and don't you dare feel guilty while doing so.


1. The AVID "Diva II" Turntable, $1,800

2. Swag menswear

APC Jeans

Hamilton 1883 Oxford

UNIS Chinos

The Hill-Side Pocket Square

Barbour Jacket

Finally, a pair of Aldens

3. Oh, and a new bike (steel is real.)

Yep, I'm super greedy.

Day 14: Bandwagons

What bandwagon have you yet to jump on? Why?

Menswear edition.

Double Monk Straps. I just don't see why they're such a big deal. They look goooofy.

Also, cargo pants are back. But WHY??

The double breasted suit. It'd be kinda classic, but then again, I'd have to keep it buttoned up all day. I sweat too much for that noise.

Day 12, Day ((14-1) (I'm superstitious, not religious))

What are you admitting defeat about? Is it really too late to turn it around?

Starting center for the Minnesota Lynx. 10 years of tryout rejections signals that it's probably time to hang up the ole gym shorts and call it a day.

So, Lent!Blog! participants, what’s your guilty pleasure? Really now, make it embarrassing. Make it count.

I was going to write a post about how my guilty pleasure is reading Chuck Klosterman essays. Especially Chuck Klosterman essays about how it's wrong to label guilty pleasures as "guilty pleasures," but I thought that too meta for a Lent! Blog! Challenge, so I abstained. But Gina, take a gander at the Klosterman essay -- it seems as though you two share a love, be it guilty or not, of Ashlee Simpson...

I actually think Klosterman can be kind of annoying, so I decided to throw my latent hipster aside and embrace the fun definition of guilty pleasure, sans ironic detachment.

So I thought about name-dropping some early- to mid-80's movies that are cited as "MOVIES YOU HAVE TO WATCH BEFORE YOU DIE/GUILTY PLEASURES," in bars across the country among twenty-somethings in the know. But I was such a shut-in, cable-less turd growing up that my movie touchstones are the not-yet-cool blockbusters that still need to age a decade or two before I feel comfortable naming them as definitive cultural moments of my childhood. Sorry Independence Day, Armageddon, Cool Runnings, Little Giants, Rookie of the Year, Twister, Men in Black  -- your time has not yet come.

Then I thought about what's most embarrassing but gives me the most pleasure in life. And then it struck me like a hard-hitting Andy Cohen (of Watch What Happens: Live!) Real Housewives of New York (Bethanny v. Kelly) Fight Reenactment (starts at 4:00) --  I love watching Bravo!. I used to explain it away as, "Just the channel Top Chef happens to be on, so I reluctantly watch it," when my roommate questioned my manhood upon finding the channel switched to the network that brings you the Rachel Zoe Project ("ah-mah-zing") when all he wanted was to get his Sports Center on. After a few months of this humiliation, I decided to bite the bullet for the other 5 straight guys who watch non-Top Chef fare on Bravo! and admitted that I do, from time to time, tune in to see Jackie's trainers go crazy on Workout, or Patti talk about how the "Picker Picks" (it's true) on Millionaire Matchmaker, or watch Jeff Lewis, well, flip out on Flipping Out. What can I say? Watching Bravo! lets me turn my brain off for a sec and live a life I'll (thankfully) never live. And isn't that what guilty pleasures are all about? 30Rock seems to think so...

Days 9/10/11

What is one change, big or small, that you've had to deal with lately? Was it hard? Why or why not?

I've been trying to wear pants that fit me better. It's hard (wait, was that a joke question, Gina?) because I have short legs. If my legs were an animal (living or dead) appendage, they would be T-Rex arms for sure. Except my legs can support my body weight (i.e. I can walk); T-Rex surely could not do arm-stands. That being said, I'd say that trying to find pants that fit me is one of the big changes in my life that I'm trying to deal with right now. I'd appreciate some distance right now, thanks.


What is one recent sign that you're really and truly an adult?

I'm also trying real hard to run a marathon. I've signed up for a race (Stillwater!), got myself a training plan, and found a group of occasional running buddies, and bought myself some new shoes. The last time I ran one was when I was 20 and so full of spit and gumption that I didn't run at all the month before the race. I just drove to Duluth, slept at a buddy's house, and ran the fucker. I definitely paid for it with some bloody nips and the inability to walk for a few days, but I did it. Now, persistent aches and pains (most recently, bouts with achilles tendonitis) that flare up when my training ramps up have made me realize that whatever youthful vigor I possessed is now long-gone. I feel as though I may be destined to bring up the rear of the race, with the nice older ladies and their cheerful balloons, chatting me up as I wave at the tiring crowd as the sag wagon bears down on me at a glacial pace, the bored teenage drivers inside the wagon throwing me eye-daggers as I stagger towards the finish line. My time: DNF.

I complain to my dad and he just laughs, "Just wait 'till you're 50."

Also, the girls I tend to date all seem to think that I act like an old man. So what if I like to go to dinner at Perkins at 4:30? The wait is shorter and the waitresses are older at 4:30. Plus, my dates get to hear war stories over decaf coffee -- what more could a girl ask for?

What is one recent sign you're not so grown up, after all?

Two words: poop jokes.

Three more words: lots of them.

Day 9: Act Like Your 8th Grade Self

What song lyric have you been loving lately?

I recently realized that, had I been interested in getting a tattoo at 18, there would've been an 85% chance that it would've been a lyric of a Dave Matthews Band song. Needless to say, I'm glad that I had no desire to get a tattoo at 18, but it's a good indicator of my constantly shifting musical tastes. Hopefully it's not cyclical.

But there are a few song lyrics that withstand the test of time. Here are some of my favorites.

"There are ghosts of the eyes of all the boys you sent away, they haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets, they scream your name at night in the street, your graduation gown lies in rags at your feet, and in the lonely cool before the dawn, you hear their engines roaring on, when you get to the porch, they're gone, on the road, so Mary climb in, it's a town full of losers, I'm pulling outta here to win." "Thunder Road" by Bruce Springsteen



"The deacon caught a draft, the priest just kinda laughed, she crashed into the Easter Mass with her hair done up in broken glass, she was limping left on broken heels and she said, "Father, can I tell your congregation how a resurrection really feels?" Holly was a hoodrat, now you finally know that." "How a Resurrection Really Feels" by the Hold Steady [so yeah, that's why my blog has the title it does...]



"The salty lips of the socialite sisters with their, Continental fingers that've never seen working blisters; oh, I know, they've got their problems, I wish I was one of them." "New Lace Sleeves" by Elvis Costello

Day 7/8

Yeah, I got more "/" than Kordell. That, and I'm a lazy poster.

What's one buzzword you hear at work that you're so over?


"Winning." With a close second being the troll/warlock distinction.

What is one sign of the apocalypse you've seen lately? When you see things like this, do you laugh, cry - or both?

I love vinyl records; specifically, listening to them on a dedicated turntable with a decent system (speakers and amplifier). I get a lot of crap for this interest of mine, but that's fine. Let the h8ers h8, as my grandmother always says. Part (most?) of the problem comes in the form of mass-produced (read: cheap) equipment that has undoubtedly made up most of my friends' listening experiences thus far. Hearing a scratched, dusty record on a cheap player, through cheap speakers and a boombox is not the ideal way to listen to records. Kind of like how Red Lobster, cheddar biscuits notwithstanding, is not the best place to form your final judgement on seafood. 

So it kills me to see that Best Buy and other retail outlets are selling these cheap USB turntables that plug directly into your computer. Two things are especially irksome:

1. I have nothing against portable music -- I'm a pretty voracious consumer of music blogs and my itunes library dwarfs my record collection (about 750 to 450). However, I own only a few duplicates of albums in portable and vinyl form. For me, my records and my mp3 collection represent mostly non-intersecting bubbles in my Venn diagram of music. The intersecting albums are usually newer ones that I like a lot -- enough to get the physical copy (recently, Joanna Newsom and Destroyer made this esteemed list). My theory is that some music is best listened to in one format or the other (new stuff on mp3, old stuff on vinyl, generally). But even if you would like to have one of your records on your computer, USB turntables are NOT a good way to make your records portable. Here's why:

2. USB turntables are really shitty, with maybe one possible exception. If you have a pile of records sitting in your basement and you want to enjoy them, go onto ebay and find a nice, vintage Denon direct drive turntable, refit it with a quality cartridge, and hook it up to your receiver or amplifer. It's more legwork, but I guarantee that it'll be well worth it (and only a little more expensive). Doing it the "hard way" might also change your views towards vinyl. They won't be simply an antiquated piece of technology that's currently holding your favorite music captive. Record players will be a gateway into the magical world that is vinyl. 

So the sign of the apocalypse is that the idea of making ridiculous things like USB record players available for cheap purchase, under the misguided rationale of, "Hey, records are cool -- young people love them! But they also have short attention spans and love computers. Hey, we sell computers, too! Let's sell record players that plug directly into your computer!"is crazy. It subverts the whole reason records are so enchanting and actually probably turns people off the medium, thus reinforcing the popular notion that records are popular simply because hipsters like (well, hipsters never "like" anything; maybe "permit the existence of" is a more accurate term) them. No, records are popular because they sound amazing.

Anyone interested in possibly acquiring a full set (record player, receiver, possibly speakers) should let me know... I really have no need for two systems in my tiny apartment.

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Internet hunter-gatherer.

Day 5/6

Day 5: Name at least one good thing you've heard, seen, or done lately. Seriously, this isn't a trick question. Anything that doesn't have a downside. Go.

Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover aka Troy Barnes from "Community"). Seriously, no downside.



Here's the counterweight to CG's occasional rap-inspired misogyny ... Sweden's Lykki Li



Day 6: When you blog, what's off limits? Why?

I try not to post anything about anyone who isn't going to read my blog and who, if upon reading said post, might get offended by what I wrote. It's not fair to them.

I also try not to post too many things about my personal life. One, because it's really, really boring. Two, because this is a forum for ideas, even insignificant ones; it's not an online diary. Gina basically says what I'm trying to say here. She's great.

Day Four: Dream Big

What was your big childhood dream? Are you still pursuing it? If yes, how? If no, how did you reconcile that within yourself?

When I was 8 or 9, it had become a parlor trick of sorts for the neighborhood kids to ask me what I was going to be when I grew up because my answer was so ridiculous.

My stock answer: "I want to be an engineer, paleontologist, meteorologist, naturalist, professional baseball player, and conductor."

God, what a geek. I guess some things never change.

Today, my answer would be something like: "I want to be an engineer, lawyer, environmental/energy policy analyst, climate activist, and professional baseball player."

The strands that bind my 9 year old self with my 24 year old self are, I think, mostly related to discovering things about the outside world. Paleontologists dig deep and piece together history. Policy analysts do the same with disparate pieces of information to weave together a narrative of what the best courses of action might be.

In 15 years, who knows what my answer will be -- whatever my future aspirations, it's a good bet that being a professional baseball player will still make the list.

Lenten Blogging Challenge: Day 3 (Recommended Reading)

What's a great book you wish more people had read? (Sell it like you're the publisher, or you know we won't read it.)


Great question, Gina! I have two related great books that everyone should read. One is more political and makes my blood boil/teeth gnash/skin crawl, etc. and the other weaves in a historical narrative of the quest to find the invisible. Both, unsurprisingly, involve science. 


Book 1: The Climate War - by Eric Pooley
Reading the NYT or watching MSNBC regularly is a good way to keep track of the biggest stories of the day, in bite-size forms. Political coverage can be quite extensive, but unless you read The Hill or obsessively follow Politico, you're not likely to get the full story of the political wheeling and dealing that goes on behind the scenes. To add another layer, think of the coverage of climate change legislation. Pretty awful, right? Now, imagine combining the best political coverage with the most pressing issue of our time (besides, of course, the creeping socialism of Barack H. Obama, blah blah blah). The result is The Climate War, by Eric Pooley. Pooley recounts the past 20 years of efforts by industry and environmental leaders to achieve progress in combating the effects of global warming. Spoiler alert: the electric power industry, particularly BIG COAL, is against action on climate change and has systematically weakened efforts to pass meaningful legislation and push bad science by throwing money and confusion into the mix. The bastards. Pooley's book takes the reader to the ground level dealings of the leaders of industry and environmental groups as they struggled to appease their bases while tackling solutions that might actually work. This is an especially interesting book for anyone with an interest in politics and/or science. Working in DC on climate and energy issues during the passage of the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the summer of 2009 was a special experience, but it seems like all of that hard work was for naught.


Book 2: The Four Percent Universe - by Richard Panek
This is a less-depressing read than the previous book and one I actually just read for fun. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to read about science history. If you don't know me well, then yes, I am a nerd. The title of the book comes from one of the most remarkable discoveries of science, ever. 


Imagine the following exchange between you (reader of the book) and a random passerby. 
YOU: How would you weigh the Universe?
PERSON ON STREET: Like, the ENTIRE universe -- planets, stars, black holes, comets -- everything?
YOU: Yes. The entire universe. All of creation.
PERSON ON STREET: Simple. You would weigh the universe by weighing each individual, tangible object that exists.
YOU: And after weighing each of these tangible objects, would you expect that you would've thus weighed the entire universe?
P ON STREET: Umm, yes -- weighing all of the stars and planets and dust particle in the universe would mean that you have weighed the ENTIRE universe.
YOU (taking appropriate care not to sound too pretentious. This is, after all, some random person on the street, not a Cal Tech professor...): Would it shock you if I told you that by weighing all of the tangible objects in the universe, the total would only add up to 4% of the universe?
FLAVA FLAV (turns out he was the person on the street all along! (the clock necklace should've been a dead giveaway but you were too wrapped up in the beauty of the science knowledge you were about to drop on this innocent bystander to notice): "Yeeeaaah booyyyy! I'm SHOCKED."


I was shocked too, to learn that we can't see 96% of our universe. We tend to think of celestial objects as incomprehensibly immense. It's awesome in the original sense of the word to think that the shining carpet of stars we see on a clear night only makes up a meager percentage of all "matter" in the universe. 


What makes up the rest of the universe? Dark matter and dark energy. I'm not going to try to explain it here, because it's way over my head. But basically, the laws of physics, prior to the 1950's, said that the expansion of the universe was slowing down, losing energy after the Big Bang only to eventually come back together in a cycle after gravity overcame the initial force of expansion. The balloon of the universe was eventually going to lose its air and we'd be back to the beginning. The notion of a cyclical universe, of a series of Big Bangs, can be comforting. But it's wrong. What scientists found confounded these fundamental notions of science -- the universe is actually accelerating in its expansion. The balloon is infinite, and something much stronger than gravity is propelling it outward in all directions. The thing is, we can't see the dark matter and dark energy that scientists believe is causing this unbridled expansion. 


For me, it's less about detecting neutrinos than examining the struggle of humanity to understand our past, present, and future. Religion is not capable of achieving this task (Lenten blog, whaddup!) and so science must forge ahead if we are ever to discover who the Creator really is. Science has made it possible to peer over 13 billion years into the past, to a time when the hot mess (the Charlie Sheen years, acc'd to NASA terminology) of gas began to form stars and universes, just 480 million years after the Big Bang (for context, it took much longer than 480 million years after Earth's creation for life to form; just 480 million years after our entire universe formed, galaxies were already taking shape (i.e. in just a blink of a cosmic eye)). 


The quest for knowledge defines our species and this book captures the magic of discovery and makes me more optimistic that we can do the same for issues like climate change in the future.

Day Two: Song

Preface: This is Day Two of the Lenten Blogging Challenge! A repository of ideas related to (or not) the time of the year that lapsed Catholics feel the most guilty about the state of our religious affairs. So what are we giving up for Lent, save for our dignity during the times we happily (?) surround ourselves with our Catholic friends? (1) Only our time and sanity to blog every day during the holiest of holies! In the spirit of my personal lapse, I have neglected to start this blogging challenge on day one, but I'm coming on strong on day 2.

From the guru herself, the prompt: Song: What have you been jamming out to lately? Why?


Shit. This is a toughie. Luckily, I have the perfect Lenten song. It's off of the new album from lo-fi guitar wiz Kurt Vile and it's called "Jesus Fever." You can download the song here. Some pretty, shambling guitar work and vocals that sound like the memory of loss Vile is singing about...




(1) (selected excerpts from guilt-ridden convos over the years: 
Pious: "You're eating red meat! But it's Friday, Joe, aren't you supposed to be eating fish like everyone else who's going to heaven?" 
More Pious: "I'm giving up sweets for Lent. What are you giving up? Oh, right, I forgot. You're not..."practicing" anymore." 
Most Pious: "So Joe, what you're telling me is that Jesus died and then went through all the trouble of resurrecting, etc. so you can be sloppy drunk on a Sunday?" Me: "Yes, precisely.")