Currently

Currently reading Although of Course you end up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, by David Lipsky. I was about to write it’s Wallace unfiltered, but if you’ve read that much Wallace, you know there isn’t much of a filter. It’s pure Wallace, just like his nonfiction is, except just in conversation with a journalist who is clearly becoming a friend over the five days they spend together.

Here’s a brief passage, where Wallace and Lipsky just landed in the Twin Cities. Still on airplane. Over the PA system comes a voice:

PA: (Engines cycling down, that big, deep, vacuum-cleaner sound) Just a reminder: The airport here in the Twin Cities is a smoke-free environment. Smoking only is permitted outdoors.

(Corrects her) [Wallace] “Permitted only outdoors.” It’s not the only thing that’s permitted outdoors.

[[Lipsky]] [Irritated as a grammarian and as a smoker]

Currently obsessed with: The Suburbs, by Arcade Fire. This album has been out for a while now. Arcade Fire already won a Grammy for it, but I just picked it up two weeks ago and it is getting heavy rotation. It reminds me of discovering Neon Bible when I was working at a magazine in Denver and doing the drive from Longmont and just rocking out to “No Cars Go.”

Farmington, The Last Frontier

My dad jokes that Farmington is the last frontier. After learning that even Greyhound is discontinuing service to Farmington, that there are no emissions tests required for cars in New Mexico, and after seeing that it is customary to leave every car you have ever owned in your front yard like your own personal carhenge, it's hard to disagree with him. However, it does have its beauty, whether that's a beautiful sunset or an expansive junkyard or an 1100 -year-old city. Here are some pictures of the last frontier.

Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

A series of very short doorways for Hobbit-sized people. Apparently, even Chacoans had to duck some.

Turns out, walls start to bow and do what they feel like after standing for 401,500 days.

Vulture. Chaco Canyon.

Flying at sunset.

Clouds. Sunset. Farmington.

The last frontier and its expansive sky.

Fungus hanging on to a tree near Durango, CO.

Sunglasses and a Skoal can left in a car, which is part of this massive junkyard on the edge of town.

Broken windshield. Cars to horizon.

Ford Ranger. God Bless America sticker.

Even the school bus comes here to be picked apart over the years.

When you are all picked over, you become the ideal surface for paint swatches and paint balls.

Kyle's Bachelor Party Pics

Cliff jumping in the Poudre Canyon. This is Chris.

Kyle, on the left, and Erik jump at a spot we have been going to for 8-10 years?...I don't know when we first went here, but it was a while ago.

The man of the weekend.

The view of the Red Feather Lakes area from the cabin we stayed at.

Not a bad sight.

Catching up and drinking by the fire.

Aforementioned fire.

6:30am.

The morning after. Bachelor parties don't end well for everyone. Luke flew ten feet before landing in a dirt road on his nose and knee.

Time for Another Bachelor Party

Doing the Impossible

The FINA World Championships are on TV every day this week (NBC Universal Sports). In between sessions in Shanghai, Universal Sports has been playing a lot of highlights from the Beijing Games. Last night, exactly one year before the London Games begin, the channel showed a two-hour long special on Michael Phelps, which included all eight of his gold medal-winning performances at the Water Cube.

Like I hadn’t seen them before, I glued myself to the television for all eight races, reliving the moment when I watched them live in Milwaukee three summers ago. I sat at the edge of the couch. I jumped, clapped, and cheered like I didn’t know the outcome. But I did reflect more this time around on the impact of Phelps’ accomplishment and the difficulty of it, no, the impossibility of it. It just doesn’t seem possible. There were too many close calls from the 400 free relay in which Lezak swam the fastest 100m free in relay history to run down the trash-talking French in the last 10m to the 200 butterfly in which Phelps’ goggles filled up with water and then, to the ultimate, .01 victory over Milorad Cavic in the 100 fly. The 7^th gold was the most impossible. Cavic and Phelps could have tied and they would have both received gold, but that wasn’t good enough. Fate had other plans and Phelps just had to win by .01.

Being as unbiased as possible, Phelps’ accomplishment is the greatest in all of sports history. The only thing in my mind that comes relatively close is Lance Armstrong’s string of seven Tour de France victories. And one thing Phelps certainly has going for him that a lot of great accomplishments in sport suffer from, is that his accomplishment isn’t covered in a shroud of doubt. Whether you think Armstrong doped or not, enough people have come forward saying he has that it gets you thinking and, if you are like me, it gets you worrying because you hate to see any great victory in sports be called into questions because it was achieved by unnatural means. Phelps’ eight gold medals aren’t spoiled by that.

Never again will Phelps or any other swimmer attempt 17 races in one Olympic games. Never mind the schedule being too grueling, there just aren’t swimmers out there as diverse as Phelps. The only one that could come close now is Ryan Lochte, but for him to win the 100 and 200 lengths of backstroke, the 200 and 400 IMs, the 200 free, and all three relays it would take some incredible turnaround swims in London and that is just not going to happen. I don’t think Phelps’ record will ever be broken or tied.

Can you think of anything more impressive? I am trying to view Phelps’ victories through an objective lens and I still just shake my head in disbelief every time I see one of those swims. Everything aligned in 2008. It’s not going to be the same in 2012. Phelps will get more gold, but Lochte is going to be closer, having now defeated Phelps at Worlds this week in the 200 free and 200 IM. But I’m ready. One year from today, it begins again.

The Shrinking Avenue to Readership

I suppose, like some of you, I have made a special trip to Borders this week to see if there are any good deals in their clearance sale. That’s right, ironically, if you don’t read, you may not have heard. Borders is going out of business. I have always enjoyed going into large bookstores. Outside of Portland, that leaves you with Borders and Barnes and Noble for the most part. When I was younger I flocked to Borders. I even worked there for five days, but that’s a different story. As I have aged (a little bit), I prefer Barnes and Noble. It seems more astute, more bookish. Maybe it’s the interior. I think it’s a little darker with higher bookshelves and I feel more likely to run into someone reading or writing some great tome in the corners of a big Barnes and Noble than in Borders.

I digress. I am getting way off point here. I go to Borders at least once a week since there is one in the building I work in. However, I did pay a special visit on Saturday to see what kind of deals could be had. There wasn’t much to be found, at least not yet. Those might come a little later with just days to go before Borders shuts down forever. But I did notice the people. They were everywhere. The place was packed. The last time Borders saw this much traffic was when the last Harry Potter book came out. My first thought at seeing the crowds was how much better the world would be if bookstores were always this crowded. And, how sad it is that it takes a closing of a bookstore to bring out the throngs. There were clearly a lot of readers there, snatching up armfuls of books that must have been on the “to buy” list, but had never made it to the “bought” list for some reason or another. Perhaps, in this economy, they were just too expensive.

What stores are left after Borders? How long will Barnes and Noble last? I don’t know, but I pondered those questions as I strolled through the aisles while making mental notes of the things people were grabbing at. A lot of DVD boxed sets, 2012 calendars, and board games. I stopped at an oft-ignored display of Moleskine journals, found one my size, and joined others in line. A $5.99 copy of Kindergarten Cop tempted me right before checking out. I could take it home and watch it and perfect some new Arnold lines. Not enough work. I settled with the Moleskine and it’s pliable leather cover and blank pages.

My One Winehouse Post

From February 2008. Sad story, her death is. So much wasted talent and this happens all the time.

To Touch Snow

We took our niece up to RMNP and Trail Ridge Road so she could see and touch snow for the first time. The scenes were amazing, minus all the dumb people from Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc. We just drove over or around them. No worries.

Right before I took this picture Brooke had no concept of snow. Snow was an empty word with no memory attached to it and no feeling. Now she knows many things about it, its shocking sting, the numbness and its glare.

Here I used the miniaturize setting on my camera. It's sort of cool. It would look better on different subjects, but from the day this was the best option. Some guys, desperate to ski in July, couldn't pass up this half-mile run at the top of Trail Ridge.

Instagramming Summer

...Courtesy of my wife's iPhone...

Our niece and nephew share a hug.

Prior to dinner at the Chart House.

Larimer Square.

Nate at the park.

The view from dinner at the Chart House.

We just had to go.

South Beach, CA.