It's midnight in George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Sam just returned from his fruitless search for food and has settled to watching YouTube lambastings of Dragon's Lair. Eight more hours until we board Continental Flight #1024 destined for la Ciudad de México.

We've slipped in to the dark night of the soul.

The plan is to overland southbound ( Read more... )

It’s been a while since Vienna. Even longer since New Zealand. And, it will be even a while more until the Darién Gap.

I missed you.

This mixtape is a kind of love letter. After coming home, my most important task became reconnecting with my friends. Each of these songs hit rotation because I was enjoying them with someone.

Sadly, due to a hard ( Read more... )

You know the urban legend about how German was almost the official language of the United States? Well, I took that as a launching point to understand how the modern “melting pot” was born from the ethnographic salad of the colonies. The hope is to better predict how Europe’s cultural landscape will fare, post-Schengen Agreement, against modern ( Read more... )

Jay-Z is releasing a new album: The Blueprint 3.

Three!

The release date is September 11th, 2009.

Seriously, Jay-Z? Seriously?

It’s important for me to handle my responsibilities before I traipse off into the dark continent. And, so it seems mixtape number seven is a go!

The only new artist is a local: Lisa Crawley. I’ve been stuck on a couple tracks off her debut EP “Shoot the Night.” (Which, you might notice, is totally downloadable!)

Even better is she just came out ( Read more... )

A man, unexcited by his own possessions and increasingly confused as to why he collected all these things in the first place, decides to hire someone else to live amidst his books and clothes, DVDs and framed photographs, so that he can learn how another person might more intelligently put it to use.

Every time I move, I find myself carrying ( Read more... )

I’m in New Zealand. And, I had to send money to a friend in the States. My bank refused to make that possible. I went back and forth with them for several weeks. No, I didn’t and can’t leave a pre-authorization form for wire transfers at my local banking center. No, I’m can’t drop off (or mail) a transfer slip. No, there is no one cosigned on my ( Read more... )

I haven’t been keeping my mixtapes up to date. It’s one of those things that, once you excuse yourself the first time, you just continue to let slide. February’s excuse was a lack of variety. And, since March, it’s been sub-par Internet access due to travel. Lame. Lame. Lame.

This is a real shame, as I have made new friends through posting them.

( Read more... )

Remember the renewed literacy initiative? It’s reaching the end of its course. I left the well-known titles (Black Like Me, Mein Kampf, The Kingdom of God is Within You, etc.) for the end, so that I could dovetail into more popular literature.

But, I’m uncertain as where to turn next. What have I learned from these banned books? Well, contrary ( Read more... )

It’s fun to think about behavior in terms of control systems. Considering enthusiasm this way gives an orderly model for what feels like irrational behaviors. Of course, whether those models are actually correct is another thing entirely...

But, consider being hungry and getting food. It isn’t a simple cause and effect chain. For starters, “being ( Read more... )