Beck

beck
Originally uploaded by ehiggin.

I may not be much with my book learnin' or rithmatic, but I know a few things. One of those things is that one of my favorite artists on the planet is Beck. His new album comes out tuesday, March 29. It's called "Guero". I haven't heard any of it, but I'm going to be in the store early to grab my copy. If you've never heard Beck, you should check him out on AllMusic.com.

He also has an official web site, just click here.

One of Beck's favorite web site is a site called slow wave. You can submit dreams you've had, and artists will illustrate it.

Quakers really know how to party

I grew up Baptist. I still consider myself Baptist, although my faith within that Baptist context is an organic journey. I crave constant growth and expansion, spiritually. I think on some levels, everyone does.
In college I had an assignment to go to a church that was a different denomination for a Christian History class. I went to a Greek Orthodox church. It was quite a strange and incredible experience that changed my life. I can blog that later. That got the proverbial ball rolling. I began exploring other denominations, and visiting other churches. On paper, I knew myself to be partly Quaker. My beliefs line up with a conservative Quaker view, for the most part. There’s an amazing test you can take on beliefnet.com. You take the Belief-O-Matic test, and it tells you what religious/spiritual belief you most closely align with. After taking the test, I aligned mostly with the Quaker faith.
Not having studied Quakers much, I sort of took a crash course. One of my professors, Dr. Lee, is a Quaker. I went to his meeting house, and it was an incredible experience.
Without explaining too much Quaker history, here is modern Quaker belief in a nutshell: since all Christians are equal through the Holy Spirit, there are no appointed "pastors" or whatnot. Every Christian is supposed to lift each other up in a communal way, without relying too much on a ceremonial or elevated person. Definitely, natural leadership abilities and talents will rise to the surface, and people will take their natural places in society. That’s the idea. A Quaker meeting is not referred to as a "service" in most cases. It’s a meeting. Quakers are also known as the Society of Friends. When they meet on sunday, rather than having a program, music, singing, sermon, or ceremony, they do quite the opposite. They sit in total quiet. It is a time of communal meditation. Anyone can speak, if they feel lead to speak. But otherwise, everyone meditates in total silence. In the Quaker meeting I was in, the room was almost all windows. There was a beautiful panoramic view of the lush green woods. There were skylights, and a gentle cieling fan clicking quietly. Everyone, as their name implies, was genuinely friendly. I was with three or four friends. The seats were arranged in a square fashion, with everyone facing each other.
As we first entered the meeting, I was apprehensive and awkward about sitting still in front of everyone. However, the Quaker Friends at the meeting were long time experieced Quakers, so they didn’t take special notice to us. Some had their eyes closed. Some not. Some were teenagers, some old. Once you enter the room, you must maintain the silence, unless lead to speak. At first, I was distracted and thinking of my surroundings. However, it didn’t take long to enter a deep and genuine state of meditation. God spoke to me in an incredibly deep way during that silence. It’s one thing to be alone, but there’s a wonderful power when you’re meditating with a group of people. There’s a certain energy.
The time drifted and, as cliche as it sounds, seemed to stop. Observing nature, and listening to the inner Spirit, I honestly honed my focus. It was amazing. About 45 minutes or so into it, a woman in the corner suddenly began speaking. She said she had a garden, and she had been trying to make a certain plant grow. It kept being overrun by weeds. She kept trying to pull all the weeds, but they kept overtaking her. Eventually, she gave up and let the weeds grow. When they bloomed, they were an astonishing and beautiful bud. She looked it up in one of her flower books, and found that it was a rare type of plant. She used that as a lesson that God has better plans than we do. Amazing.
The Quaker experience was incredible, and I wish this blog did it justice. If you want to learn more, you can go to beliefnet.com and take the test for yourself.

A Rose by any other name...is still a weird story

Working at Universal studios gave me a unique opportunity too meet interesting and diverse people. Through one of the girls at Starbucks, I got to meet her boyfriend, the lead singer of Green Jelly. There are probably only 17 people in the country who would care about that. For me, it was exciting.

As anyone who knows me knows, I'm a huge hit with the ladies. Sometimes I even shock myself with how awesome I am. Um...or, not. I get delusional.

I don't know how to be "smooth" with the ladies. I see other guys with the lines, and the cologne, and the "right stuff." I don't know how any of that works. I'm just a simple guy who wants a relationship. Is it ever that simple? Nope.

Universal is where I met Rose. She worked outside the movie theater, selling this movie/dinner deal. There are two requirements for this job: you have to be female, and attractive. No skinny white nerds. I think Rose was from Puerto Rico, or Venezuela, or something. But, she was very beautiful, and to my surprise, friendly. She had a nice smile, and she turned a lot of heads. I was happy to learn that she had a college degree, and she wanted to be a lawyer. That made her even more attractive to me. I began talking to her, (and all the other girls who worked outside the movie theater). It didn't take long before I realized I was interested in this young lady. Why not ask her out, right?

After seeing her on multiple occassions, mostly while "working", I decided the moment was at hand. Rose's friend was my relationshp liason, and a little devil on my shoulder. She kept telling me to ask Rose out, she would go for it. So, one day, the moment of truth arrived. I felt like a nervous 16 year old dork asking a girl to a school dance, or something. My palms were sweaty. I walked over to Rose, where she was "working." (By working, I mean standing outside the theater one afternoon, bored.) and I started some mindless chit chat. I tried to organically move the conversation toward me asking her out, but it didn't happen. I was running short on time, and I knew I had to act fast. So, I began stammering. "Um,...you know,...I was just wondering, since we only see each other at work,...there's this place...could eat lunch,...or..."

It was the most awkward moment of my life. She was clearly uncomfortable. She tripped over her words nervously as she replied. "Um...I have to check my schedule. So,..I don't know."

Check her schedule?!? I walked away in humiliation. That line, "check my schedule", is worse than "I have to wash my hair." That's awful! So, in my embarassment, I walked away in defeat. I guess there's no such thing as a sure thing.

In the days following, I prayed that I wouldn't see Rose at work. I was afraid it would be far too humiliating. One afternoon, my relationship liason, Rose's friend, approached me.

"Evan! Rose was really happy you asked her out the other day. She said she wishes you'd been more confident, though. She really did have to check her schedule."

What?!?

"I think if you ask her out, she would definitely go with you. You just have to be more confident."

Um...okay. So, it wasn't just a line? Well, I guess that was good news, at the time. It's what I wanted to hear. So, the next time I saw Rose at work, I quickly approached her.

"Hi, Rose. So,...I know things were somewhat off-track the other day. It's just that, well, since you don't work tomorrow, we should have lunch."

"Um...I already told some friends of mine that I would have lunch with them. Sorry."

"What about the next day?"

"Oh,...um,...I'm busy. Sorry."

Shot down. Twice. That's miserable.
A few days later I flew to Tennessee for a wedding, and when I came back to L.A., Rose had quit her job. So, I guess I'll never see her again. It's probably for the best, though.

Plus, one time I saw Drew Carey at Bob's Big Boy.

rad contest

Ladies and gentlemen, earlier I posted a blog called most rad. I asked anyone to vote for which of the following was the most rad:

Michael Jackson - Bad album

Growing Pains - sitcom

Harry and the Hendersons - delightful family/comedy movie

So far, I've got two votes for Growing Pains, and 0 for anything else. I can see it, though. Kirk Cameron is amazing, and I saw Alan Thicke (Dad on Growing Pains) on Celebrity Fear Factor tonight. I love hokey sitcoms. It's tough to compete.

But, don't forget, Michael Jackson's Bad album contains such hits as "Bad", "Smooth Criminal", and "Man in the Mirror". It was also the time when Mike busted out the black leather outfit. Martin Scorsese directed the "Bad" video. It was definitely the late 80's, in full force. Scary.

Harry and the Hendersons still has cheese-ball appeal, and low budget acting legend John Lithgow. And don't forget character actor, Emmet Walsh. He was kind of a friendlier John Voight. And then, of course, we have Big Foot himself, Harry.

So far: Bad - 0 Growing Pains - 2 H and the H - 0

It's still anybody's game. If you want to vote, leave it in the comment, or email me.

mediocre schlock

I can now say (somewhat proudly) that I have seen all the Oscar nominated films for Best Picture. All the ones I had seen were teriffic. There were only two on the list that I probably would not have seen without Oscar exposure. Million Dollar Baby I might have seen, but I'm not sure. The one film I definitely would not have seen, or probably even heard of, is Sideways. It looked like a really interesting film based on all the buzz. And, the fact that it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture, really sparked my interest. So, yesterday I went a little out of my way to take a chance on a film I would not have seen otherwise. My reaction was clear.
In the past few years, there have been a few controversial picks for Best Picture, like Gladiator and Erin Brokovich. Some of these movies just don't seem to have what it takes to actually be Best Picture. And, of course, some films that should get acknowledgement are overlooked.

Sideways is terrible. I guess Thomas Haden Church's performance is worthy, or whatever, but I don't fully understand the Oscar love. I think it's simply Hollywood trying to make a point by proving that they have a keen eye for indie films, or something. To me, this is a dark film about broken empty lives sinking even deeper into disaster and loss. It has the kind of bleak outlook on life that many critically acclaimed indies have. It's a gritty "realistic" style that appeals to Hollywood types. However, the nomination of this film is just proof that Hollywood has a cynical artsy perspective of life. I felt so drained when I walked out of the theater, I wanted to purify myself of such a sad experience. So, I drank RC cola and listened to Michael Jackson. Hey, it doesn't work for everyone, but it did wonders for me.
I mean, I can understand the acting acknowledgements. I really can appreciate it. But, the writing didn't seem that great, and Best Picture? Um, no. And I know what you're thinking at this point: "Evan, you're obsessed with this Oscar thing. What's the big deal?" My answer, is, I dunno. I think it's just that the Oscars sort of objectify what Hollywood stands for. These are the films, and the people, that Hollywood chooses to bestow importance upon. But, not everyone in Hollywood agrees with the Oscars. And, the American public certainly doesn't. That's why movies like Dude Where's My Car, and Old School get made. Not that these are bad, or that Oscar films are wholly superior. I just think the Oscars are, or should be, somewhat of a reflection of American pop culture. What do we value? What do we say is important? One thing The Passion of the Christ taught me is that many good and valuable films transcend the importance of having awards. And, I learned the same lesson when a yuppie nightmare film like Sideways was so highly praised.
All the other Best Picture nominations were great, even though Million Dollar Baby was bleak, too. It didn't seem as dreary as Sideways, though. Anyway, all the other ones are great. So, I don't know why Sideways is so bad. But, this is probably all I'll have to say about the Oscars this year. I'm done. I can return to regularly scheduled programming after this.

the net

Ever feel "out of the loop"? Don't trust biased News sources? Ever feel like you don't exactly know what President W is up to? I know the feeling. I found a terrific government web site, White House.gov. It keeps you up to date on what the President, and the White House, is doing every single day! It's cool. I particularly like the Press Briefings you can read.

Are you a music junkie? Feel like you want to get plugged in to new kinds of music? I discovered an incredible site called All Music. When they say "all music", they really mean it. You can look up any genre, any mood, any style. They have chart history, album discographies, and reviews. I also particularly like the "mood" descriptions they give for each artist and/or band.

I found an average site about poetry. Here's a poem by John Keats.

This Living Hand
This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed--see here it is--
I hold it towards you.