YouTube

I have this theory that a large majority of the videos posted to YouTube are from middle school boys that land on the Autism spectrum somewhere. There are so many bizarro clips of video games with voiceovers that it's the only theory that works for me.

I'd like to get my music out there more (whatever "out there" means) so I thought YouTube might be a good place to start. I didn't realize that I've had a thousand some views on the five videos I've posted. Two of Eden when she was a baby, one of my niece Harper singing, and two of me playing a show a few years ago. Before I had that pesky nodule removed. More than half of the thousand fews (that's 500+ if you have trouble with division) are from the video of my niece. So, I'm not blowing up or anything ridiculous like that. But, I thought I'd start posting some videos of some songs I've been working on.

Here's the problem: It's super awkward to play in front of a computer for no one. I think I'm going to track down some stock video clips just so no one has to watch my weird mouth movements. But until I figure out how to do that:

Public Reading. Is it a weird idea? I'm undecided.

I have never been to The Loft, but I've heard great things about what it does for the literary community in the Twin Cities. I had a story published last spring in Grey Sparrow Magazine and, after finding out that they were based in St. Paul, I asked if they need any help. Diane, who runs the magazine, is a retired welfare worker and a phenomenal human being. She said I could help by doing some precursory reading for her and I jumped right onboard. It's good to have friends and Diane is a good friend to have. Grey Sparrow won the Best New Literary Journal of 2010 at last year's MLA shindig and it couldn't have gone to a sweeter woman. Or a better magazine. Lots of excellent stuff in there. ANYWAY: Thanks to Diane and Grey Sparrow, I'll be participating in my first literary reading. I'll be reading my short story, Painting Elephants, that first showed up in Grey Sparrow. I'm looking forward to it and if you think you'd like to experience a reading (I'll be a first-timer too) just let me know and I'll get you the details.

October 21st

7 PM

Grey Sparrow reading at The Loft in Minneapolis.

North Woods Hymnal

I'm a little too back and forth for the blogging experience. I get bored with the title and I change the URL and I make sure nobody can find my stuff. Not that there are hoards of people lining up to read it.

I'm going to stick with North Woods Hymnal for a while. I think. It's the name of my thesis, of my next record, of my (hopefully) first book. Now it's the name of my blog. In fact, I would even think of playing in a band called The North Woods. I could do that.

Regardless (or irregardless if you're someone who thinks that word exists) this is where you find me now.

And now that I'm basically a stay-at-home dad (who happens to teach four sections of Freshman Comp), I'm the perfect candidate to blog. And post tons of videos of my children on facebook. And complain about laundry (Does it ever end! No. Unless you die naked in front of the washing machine.).

So maybe I'll be better about it. No promises though. I save those for big deals. Like getting married. Which I already did, so I'm basically out for now. And now I'm basically out.

Guitar Solos

I caught my son staring at a guitar solo this morning. We were up early, earlier than usual and he was eating his usual breakfast of Honey Nut Crispy Oats (Thanks Aldi!) and a banana. I was folding laundry and drinking coffee and listening to this record by Jason Isbell called Sirens of the Ditch. It has this unbelievable song called Dress Blues about war and young men and death and I've been a little obsessed since I heard the song. So I found the rest of the record and we were listening to it this morning and the first couple songs are full of country guitar solos and Judah would stop what he was doing, just sit in his chair with a fistful of bananas, and stare at the computer. It was awesome. I've never been much of a guitar solo guy myself - although it is why I love that Counting Crows happening of the mid 90s Recovering the Satellites - but I was overwhelming happy that Judah was so enthralled. I cleaned up the bananas and his hands and let Sprocket clean the rest and we went to the back porch and I played the guitar while he smiled. He's still out there right now, staring at the guitar, trying to turn the knobs and flicking the strings. And I couldn't be happier. Here's to a decade of Turn It Downs.

Age ain't nothing but a number

My last post was September 26th, so if anyone is still out there reading this, I'd like to officially blame the birth of my son. Moving on:

The subject line is from a super creepy R. Kelly song. I do think there are some important laws about age and what you can and cannot do at certain ages and I'm glad Mr. Kelly spent some time in jail for violating, but at some point age does just become a number, right? I turn 29 next week - my last year in my twenties for those of you who are awesome at math - and after a trip to the doctor yesterday and some general dissatisfaction about my job situation and my ability to do the things I love to do, I've decided to buck my personal belief that age doesn't matter much at all and proclaim a couple personal declarations of benchmarks I'd like to meet by the time I turn the big 3-0. The quick question that ought to follow this is: Why make it public? First of all, this blog is hardly public - if a tree falls in the yada yada yada. But secondly (is that a word?), I've spent the last 29 years with myself and it's been great and full of wonderful ideas and little follow through. Maybe this is a lesser version of a marriage vow for me.

1. Thirty by Thirty. This is where is started for me. I'd like to lose thirty pounds. It's like a half a pound a week and I think totally feasible. I don't like to talk about weight mostly because I think it doesn't really matter all that much. But I'm a little handicapped what with a bum pancreas and everything. And now I have two stinkin' cute kids.

2. Thirty Percent. I currently have thirty percent of my thesis published in small corners of the literary world. I'd like to double that.

3. 30k. I don't think we are what we make. I think I've been pretty adamant about that in my life. And I don't want to make 30k just because I think I'm worth that - there's a good chance I'm not and, in the global scheme of things, there's a good chance nobody is. But here, in America, with some of the monetary choices I've made (cough*amplifiersandguitarsoncredit*cough) I think it would be nice if my wife didn't have to work so much and maybe we could spend some more time together. And with the kids. Like all of us together, instead of three-quarters at a time.

4. I've run out of 30s, but I'd like to finally complete a record and be proud of it. I have one song that's 80% done that I'm really proud of. Sarah said, "It sounds just like you're supposed to sound." I think you'd all like it. I'd like 10 songs like that.

5. Novel. I worked on a novel for something like seven years and I got to the end and was glad I had done it but I knew that it was mostly terrible and I cut some of it up in to stories and threw some of it away and maybe some day I'll fall in love with some scraps and bits of it, but right now I can't fix it. So I'd like to start over. I have one that pushing at the sides of my skull. I just have to take the time to put it all down. In a year.

Doesn't everyone feel better now that I've got that off my chest? I sure do.