Pig Badger

Laura and I returned from a much needed romp to Wink, TX and back. We saw lots of family, ate well, and had lots of good conversation.

Highlights:
+Having my entire new extended family together (my brother and I recently got hitched)
+Talking with Laura’s great aunt and uncle who live in Colorado City
+Rocket, my dad’s new pup (imagine, if you will, a dwarf pig badger)
+Laura starting Harry Potter 7 for me by reading it out loud in the car
+Some brilliant discussions ranging from politics to hierarchy to road trips
+Some spicy shrimp and sausage


Rocket

Go West Young Man

Laura and I are traveling to West Texas this weekend to visit my brother who is also flying in (though, we are secretly going to see my mom’s new Corgi puppy). I leave everyone with an excerpt out of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden:

A child may ask, "What is the world's story about?" And a grown man or woman may wonder, "What way will the world go? How does it end and, while we're at it, what's the story about?"

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so that we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well - or ill?...

...And in our time, when a man dies - if he has had wealth and influence and power and all the vestments that arouse envy, and after the living take stock of the dead man's property and his eminence and works and monuments - the question is still there: Was his life good or was it evil? - which is another way of putting Croesus's question. Envies are gone, and the measuring stick is: "Was he loved or was he hated? Is his death felt as a loss or does a kind of joy come from it?"…

…In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror. It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.

We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.

Abraham

This is a watercolor that I just finished. I’ve been thinking about this story a lot lately, trying to wrap my mind around its inherent complexities and contradictions. Laura has an agnostic friend who cannot find the love and the justice of God in this story. It is also interesting that the Jewish community has a harder time dealing with this story then we do. Our advantage being we can see God’s higher purpose through the symbolism. But still there is the question of Abraham as an individual being commanded to murder for the sake of symbolism. I guess what I really want to know is how Abraham explained the situation to his son as he was tying him up and if this situation affected their relationship afterwards.

Sufjan Steven-Abraham
Off his album Seven Swans.

"Abraham, worth a righteous one

Take up on the wood

Put it on your son

Lake or lamb

There is none to harm

When the angel came

You had raised your arm

Abraham, put off on your son

Take instead the ram

Until Jesus comes"

Crazy Japanese

And I thought my lifeguarding job a few summers back was hard:

http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/tokyo-summerland-wave-pool-manages-to-fit-in-some-water/

Museums

Laura and I had a very relaxing weekend full of bookstores, Central market, and Fort Worth museums. Both the modern and the Kimbell have excellent exhibitions going on right now, so here are some descriptions:

The Mirror and the Mask: Portraiture in the Age of Picasso
Kimbell Art Museum

This is one of the best out of many excellent exhibitions that I have seen at the Kimbell that actually teaches me how art has developed from the classical to modern. It takes the subject of portraiture which is perfect for showing the changing attitudes in art. This is highly recommended to everyone I know, especially anyone who wants to get a better grasp on a piece of art history. Lots of Picasso (showing his wide range, not just cubism), van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne, Modigliani, and a lot more.




Ron Mueck
Modern Art Museum at Fort Worth
This was an interesting exihibition as Mueck sculpts photo realistic people at extremely small or large scales. Pros: a modern artist who actually cares about craft and detail is hard to find, the scale difference really disorients you in a good way, and there is a film that shows his process (which I was definitely wondering about, I mean how do you go about making a baby as big as an SUV have pores on its nose). Cons: It is hard to put my finger on it, but most modern art takes a pessimistic view on life. This is not completely the case here but the subjects generally seem angry or frightened.

On a side note: There is defiantly clear warnings that it contains mature subject matter including nudity but there were a lot of children at this exhibition. Laura and I got on a conversation on whether or not we would bring our children to such an exhibition. It would probably depend on the age but at the very least we would go see it first and then decide on whether to bring them back. Anyway, as usual any thoughts are appreciated.

Tagged

Anything to waste time at work.

4 jobs I have had:
-Gas Meter Mechanic (grunt work for my Grandpa and Dad)
-Landscape Caretaker (mowed the lawn for a rich lady in Odessa)
-Lifeguard (saving 3 out of 4 drowning kids ain't that bad)
-Construction Worker at a Girl Scout Camp

4 films I could watch over and over:
-O Brother Where Art Thou
-Braveheart
-Pi
-My Neighbor Totoro

4 Places I have lived:
-Comstock, TX
-Odessa, TX
-Arlington, TX
-Irving, TX

4 Favorite TV shows:
-Samurai Jack
-Futurerama
-Cowboy Bebop
-LOST

4 Places I would love to be:
-with Laura
-a very high place (top of a tree, cliff, building, airplane...)
-backpacking through Europe with close friends
-the Kimbell

4 of my heroes:
-Bill Waterson
-C.S. Lewis
-Daniel
-My Parents

4 Favorite Carlos Scarpa Buildings
-Castelvecchio
-Brion Cemetery
-A church in Switzerland that I can never remember the name of
-Olivetti Showroom

4 Favorite Natural Places Where I have been:
-Big Bend (west Texas)
-Redwoods (northern California)
-Tivoli (central Italy)
-Cozumel (Yucatan peninsula)

4 Best Bookstores:
-Stout Architectural Books, San Francisco
-Recycled Books, Denton
-Green Apple Books, San Francisco
-Half Price, Various locations in Texas

4 Favorite All Time Comic Books:
-Fables
-Earth X
-Ultimate Spider-man
-Ultimates


4 Favorite Mollusks:
-Giant Squid
-Octopus
-Cuttlefish
-Nautilus

4 Favorite Dinosaurs:
-Diplodocus
-Deinonychus
-Brachiosaurus
-Styracosaurus

4 Favorite Theological Discussion Topics
-Effects of the Fall
-Determinism
-Design (Intelligent or otherwise) and Aesthetics
-Role of the Church

We're Back

Just to let you know that we have returned home safely (we actually have been back since Saturday night). I felt fine the whole trip and we both had a great time exploring Northern California.



For those wanting wedding pictures, go to http://www.mikelewisweddings.com/gallery/ljww/



I have also put up pictures of both the wedding and the honeymoon on facebook (hopefully we will get them up on Laura's photo site soon for you non facebook people). For now here is a small sampling of the honeymoon pictures:

Laura with our convertible along Highway 1

Me in front of Sea RanchView from the window

Redwoods!

San Francisco

Architectural Book Store in San Francisco