Tyrannosaurs in F-14s

I was listening to "I saw three ships come sailing in" on Sufjan Stevens' Christmas album, and looking for more information.

I found an old carol, mentioned for its similarity:

All sons of Adam, rise up with me,
Go praise the Blessed Trinitie, &c.
Then spake the Archangel Gabriel, said, Ave, Marie mild,
The Lord of Lords is with thee, now shall you go with child.
                                        Ecce ancilla domini.
Then said the virgin, as thou hast said, so mat it be,
    Welcome be heavens King.
There comes a ship far sailing then,
Saint Michael was the stieres-man;
    Saint John sate in the horn:
Our Lord harped, our Lady sang,
And all the bells of heaven they rang,
    On Christ's sonday at morn, &c.

There's something magical about the imaginative willingness to place saints, disciples, Jesus and Mary in a boat, as sailors and musicians! It's a conglomeration of favourite images, bundled together out of sheer delight, with no regard for any kind of organizing principle. Oh God, awake my imagination, and let me delight in you and everything you have made, realistic or not!

Spenser

Here's the newest member of our family: Born on Sep 23, 2005, Spenser is a black Standard Poodle. He's adorably cute, and the sweetest thing ever.

Why do you work so hard?

Hmmm. Why do you work so hard?

Skype?

Does anyone out there use Skype? I just installed Skype, and I'd like to try it out to see whether it works on my computer. My usernam is zellynhunter

Long Time No Post

Okay, since I haven't posted for a while, and since I haven't thought about Sufjan for a while, here's a couple of articles that I found interesting:

• tikkun.org
• observer

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We had a fabulous but busy weekend. On Friday, we took Marta to Atlantic Station, Atlanta's new close-to-downtown outdoor mall, a cross between a couple of city sidewalk blocks and a shopping center. Right now the perfectly regularity of the brick facades, as they change colour and texture from building to building in an attempt to simulate a real grown city is a little creepy, since it's all brand new. The effect is something between Disneyland and a model railroad prop version of a city district. I'm guessing they went with a cheaper architecture firm, and should have been more daring. Of course, that would have cost much more.

Perhaps surprisingly, it's not as bad as it sounds, and I think it will grow into itself over time, especially as it gets busier. The Atlanta skyline definitely helps. It was fun to take public transport and walk, instead of driving.

We were there to see H.P. That's Harry Potter for you non-teens. The auditorium was large and full of kids and teenagers, which was fun. The movie was pretty good - I think I may have to buckle down and read the books at last. Damn.

On Saturday, we helped Nathaniel and Shauna (Bevin's brother and his wife) a little as they put new floors into their house before the baby arrives, and then went to a church fellowship, where we sat outside and roasted marshmallows and talked. Yesterday, we skipped church, had brunch with Rob and Mindy. It was great to see everyone.

Now we're ready for Thanksgiving, which is interesting, because all plans are tentative: we have no idea when Ian Sims will be born! We're going to be Uncle Zellyn and Aunty Bevin for the first time, so we're very excited.

Halloween in East Point/College Park

This year's halloween showing in Eagan Park was a little disappointing compared with last year's - we have tons of candy left over. However, we did get to see some cute princesses and spidermen and crocodiles and vampires, and hand out a good number of treats.

Since things were kind of slow, we decided to go on over to Rugby Avenue in College Park, where they have thousands of kids trick-or-treating. We saw a corpse in a coffin, got attacked by zombies, listened to a halloween choir singing "The Twelve Days of Halloween," and people-watched all the way down the street and back up. Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera, so you'll have to make do with 126 words.

Baby Got Book

Okay, I promise this is not just going to turn into a video link blog. Nonetheless, I think you should check out Baby Got Book.

Back Dorm Boys

I guess it's going to be seen by half the people on the internet, but somehow the Back Dorm Boys video gives me hope that people are pretty much the same everywhere.

There's a site with lots of Back Dorm Boys videos.

This Evil Supervillain Video is pretty cool too.

Sufjan Stevens Christmas Volumes

My friend Chris Dillon just sent me a link to these Sufjan Stevens Christmas Songs!

Another Great Album

Until yesterday, I had temporarily forgotten how fabulously great the album "Playing the Tan Doll" by Reeve Hunter was. For those of you lucky enough to possess a copy, you know what I mean.

I think my music listening powers have been maturing lately, because the songs sounded twice as good as they ever had before, and I felt a new appreciation for the instrumentation - I felt I could hear the intent through the shifting and changing technical limitations.

I can't wait for new stuff from My Korean Friends.

Seldom: Romance

If you're depressed enough to connect (then), or happy enough to resist (now), Seldom: Romance is a beautiful-sounding album. I found an opulently written review.

Serenity and Sufjan Stevens

This past Friday, we finished up Firefly Disc 2 by watching the last episode. Then, at 9pm, we went to the video store, rented Disc 3, and watched all four episodes, back to back, until 1:00am. On Sunday, we decided skip the park (it was too hot) and watch Serenity instead. Being lazy for an entire weekend was exactly what we both needed - we've been running about like crazy for weeks now.

Serenity was completely entertaining. More action, less character development - but that's what 14 episodes of Firefly are for! Anyone who was complaining about the low (only 40 million) budget special effects should have been concentrating on the story. I noticed the effects only once near the start, but the almost uninterrupted action soon prevented me from thinking about anything else. I am now watching the box office results, desperately hoping that the movie makes enough money to justify more episodes!

Two weekends ago, we went to Athens to see Sufjan Stevens and the Illinoisemakers in concert, with Half Handed Cloud as the opening act. Athens was fun and exciting - every bit the college town. As we drove around looking for parking, waited in line, bought a couple of drinks, watched the opening act, our excitement mounted.

Unfortunately, as we waited over half an hour for the Illinoisemakers to come on, surrounded by what seemed to be some of the tallest people in Georgia, packed into the insufficiently air-conditioned 40watt club like sardines, getting hot and claustrophobic, our excitement started to plummet, soon hitting the "please let me out of here, now!" level. Part-way through the concert, we realized that the crush and heat were much less away from the middle, but it was too late. We escaped the club for a song or two, and made it back in for the last song.

Looking back, and ignoring how terrible we felt, it was an amazing show. The band was hilarious, interspersing fake football-game style cheers between songs. They also rocked out pretty seriously on a couple of the songs. And the crowd was absolutely psyched - hand claps from the entire crowd perfectly timed from the first bar, and people seemed to know all the words. That part was exciting.

So: We enjoyed Half Handed Cloud. Sufjan and company put on a fabulous show. I highly recommend seeing them anywhere except the 40watt club. People are just too tall nowadays for flat floors and low stages to work. I, at least, was tall enough to see most of the show; Bevin saw a lot of the back of one particular black t-shirt.

ps. Yes, I'm pretty sure all this complaining about heat and crowding makes us old, boring, and totally non-hard-core. Oh well.

Long live the redneck south

Today on the way to work, I passed a black pickup truck with the right window duct-taped in place. On the back of the truck were my two new favourite bumper stickers:

Please don't tell my folks I'm a trucker... they think I'm a piano player in a whorehouse

and

Every Day Of My Life Forces Me To Add To The Number Of People Who Can Kiss My Ass

My previous favourite bumber sticker is:

Fish tremble when they hear my name

Firefly

One of the fun things I've seen on other people's blogs is when their wives or girlfriends get them geek/guy/just-because-they'd-love-it presents. Well, "me too!"

Inspired by the remember-why-you-loved-it-when-you-were-little attitude of Seth Worley's recently resuscitated (undead?) blog, Awakeland, my beautiful and wonderful wife rented the first DVD of Firefly and left it sitting there with a note when I got home. (Oddly enough, I had a presentiment that she had left a card or letter or picture for me as I walked up to the door of our house, and was strangely disappointed until I found the movie with a note on it!)

I watched the first episode yesterday evening. After an hour or two of non-stop action, my stomach was twisted in knots, hoping the goodies would get away from the baddies, and the ones I liked would turn out to be goodies, and that it would not end anytime soon, except that I had to cook dinner for Bevin, and I wasn't sure whether I could endure the tension! I found myself desperately hoping the captain would relent and accept the... but nevermind, you should watch it yourself!

Imagine if you'd taken the best elements of the old Star Wars movies, the ones you wished they'd kept in the later movies: cocky swashbuckling, shooting first (from the hip), smart-mouth lines. Then imagine you'd made the characters flawed and complicated. Mix, shake well, and apply heat and pressure.

...I suppose we'll have to watch all the Firefly episodes before Serenity comes out.

[Update, after finishing the first disc, and watching the first show on the second: So far, it stays excellent (and hilarious). I can see why people like Tivo - watching a single episode without commercials in the evening is so much better than regular TV. Also, episodes with Reavers can be quite scary and disturbing.

I am now the lucky recipient of:

1. 30 years of life on this planet
2. Come on feel the Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens
3. The best wife in the whole world!

We are going to see Sufjan Stevens and crew at 40 Watt Club in Athens, on Saturday, September 24. You should come too.

Promotional Videos in other languages are weird. I have never played Katamari Damacy, but I think I would enjoy it!

We watched My Architect on Wednesday night. If you're easily bored by documentaries, you'll probably hate it. I wasn't bored for a second. A really interesting documentary.

Have you heard about the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory of intelligent design?

"Fifteen minutes later, I suggested that we sit down and write detailed field notes, before we'd had a chance to think much about what we had seen or to confer with each other.

"As he finished his notes, Harrison sat down on a log, put his face in his hands, and began to sob. 'I saw an ivory-bill,' he said. I stood quietly a few feet away, too choked with emotion to speak," Gallagher said.

Later, Harrison said, "I have always believed that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker still lived, and finding one has been a dominant force in my life for more than three decades. Finding an ivory-bill was a 33-year dream come true for me."

Seven Sightings of an Elusive Bird

I independently discovered Sufjan Stevens while listening to Radio Paradise the other day. Here are a few of his freely downloadable mp3s. I find myself strongly affected by his music. Eventually I will get my courage up to write and perform such delicately beautiful songs, wearing my heart on my sleeve.

After the neighbours, then Bevin, then a coworker and his family, I finally caught whooping cough. I have barely left the house for two weeks. Thank goodness I can work from home.

We are now converts to the church of IKEA. Soon, we will be able to have people stay at our house. On a lovely Swedish-style sofa-bed. Come visit us!

Random link of the day. Some of these are cool. link

infallibility

Confirmation: Your message was sent

Your e-mail message was sent to:

• George W. Bush, President
• Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senate
• Johnny Isakson, U.S. Senate
• John Lewis, U.S. House

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http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

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Dear Sir,

As one of the American citizens you represent in Washington, I would like to express my concern over the imprisonment without fair trial at in Guantanamo Bay. We believe in the rights and treatment guaranteed to us as Americans first because we are created equal, and second because we are Americans.

The imprisonment without fair trial for years, while subject to - if I understand it correctly - intentionally degrading treatment makes me less proud to be an American. I feel like the imprisonment on non-American soil is designed to deny people access to our courts, and the quirky "unlawful combatant" classification is designed to get around our own rules and the Geneva convention rules.

I understand that the Geneva convention only applies in limited circumstances, and that we cannot extend our courts to the entire world. But this sidestepping to obey the letter of the law while denying its spirit makes a mockery of the reasons for the laws. We cannot quibble our way out of believing in our principles.

I trust that you are doing everything in your power to safeguard our reputation, and to bring our behavior into line with our principles and deeply held beliefs, and I thank you for your efforts. I hope that the clearly stated opinion of one more of your constituents will provide you with a little more fuel!

Thank you for serving us,

Zellyn Hunter

Sweet!

If you don't already read Trevor Romain's blog, then you should.

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is one of the strangest books ever.

New email address: zellyn (a) gmail . com

Let me know if you want a gmail email invitation.

Someone tell Seth Worley to read this.

Trent, check out the Dirkon Camera.

The Old Negro Space Program is one of the stranger videos I've seen recently.

Being married is sweet!

404-419-7222. We just got a telephone line at home. It runs over the internet, so it's only $23.95 a month and we can call anywhere in the USA or Canada for free!! England is 3 cents a minute, and Germany is 4. Prepare to be called!

Bevin is sick at the moment, with a fever, so she's staying in bed all day watching videos. Sounds pretty good, huh? Actually, she's feeling pretty awful, and is sore, so it's really not worth it. Give her a call and cheer her up!

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Just got back from the Corner Tavern in East Point, where tons of friends and all our families met each other, hung out, played pool, ate burgers and onion rings, and generally had a fantastic time.

Tomorrow, I have to work on the wedding ceremony itself, and then go to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Bevin has a bridal luncheon too - I think the guy gets off easy with weddings!

Two days to go!!!

Hahaha. I just realized that most of the people that read this blog were actually at the Corner Tavern tonight. Thanks for coming, guys! I had a great time!

So, six days to go! I finally asked my last groomsman yesterday. Yes, I procrastinate. Bevin tells me it's not unusual for the guy to do that.

We've been running around finding ties, ordering catering, buying furniture, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. We're both tired, but it's actually fun, and we're getting excited!

For those of you who are wondering, which seems to be pretty much everyone, we're registered at Crate and Barrel. Hopefully there are enough items on our registry to satisfy your desire to give us stuff.

Alright, enough info for now. I've got a ton of stuff to get squared away at work before I leave.

For those of you who don't yet know...

...Bevin and I are getting married on Sunday, March 6th, d.v. We've been very busy, but it's exciting and fun too!