hands across elizabeth

To commemorate the 19 year, 3 month, and 5 day anniversary of Hands Across America, I will be hosting Hands Across Elizabeth an event of solidarity, celebrating the human spirit and the power of community. Community is really about being a good neighbor, and neighborhoods are the setting of most communities. With that in mind we will gather together and stretch down my street (Elizabeth St.), to remind people of the power of asking others, "Won't you be my neighbor?"



During this solemn gathering, we will also help the residents at 704 Elizabeth St. (myself included) in their move down the street to 1400 Bouldin. We will stretch out over the 0.2 miles of this course and pass boxes of prized (and not-so-prized) possessions from one house to the other. The 704 house is purple, the 1400 house is blue, so if you come please wear a red shirt. We're taking out the red. We're going blue.



Music, food(?), drinks(?), and a communal bond not easily broken. Interested? Meet us at 6pm on Tuesday, August 30th. Let the fun commence.

hooked on phonics worked for starbucks

I'm back from Oklahoma. It was good times with good people up in Native America. Oklahoma will definitely introduce mixed feelings into your life, if you don't already have some. On the upside it's such a friendly place. Everyone is nice, hospitable. On the downside it's cheesier there. Apparently happy people tend to be cheesy.



I spent a day in Branson (Missouri) then a day in Tulsa before moving on to Oklahoma City, where Dan and Meghan's wedding was. Oklahoma City (which is not, as its name suggests, the only city in Oklahoma) has an interesting downtown area called Bricktown. It reminds me of Austin's downtown a bit, because they've taken old brick buildings and restored them, complimenting them with new buildings - also made of brick. The mix of old and new is what reminds me of Austin's downtown. Bricktown's fault lies in it's borderline cheesiness. I only need cite one example: Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill. You're so close Oklahoma, and then you go and totally un-redeem yourself.

I went to Starbucks while I was in Oklahoma, because I usually default to Starbucks on the road. It's corporate, I know, but I trust it. It's kind of like the McDonald's of the coffee world. There's something comforting in the fact that I can walk into a McDonald's anywhere in the world and get too salty french fries.



Apparently, Starbucks thinks my name best without it's second "T". I'm in no place to argue, but what's that about? I thought Bret was the female version of Brett. Is Starbucks trying to take a stab at my manhood? (I drank my coffee black, just in case.) Or are they just taking the phonetic approach to names now? Henre, Jayson, Mikeall, is that what we're in for?

Support your local coffee establishment. Save your name.

All that to say, congratulations Dan and Meghan. I wish you all weren't living in Ft. Worth, but I wish you a ton of years of happiness and a relationship that gets deeper each day. I hope that you love each other, even when it's difficult.

the futura is now!

-OR- the punnery continues... -OR- Brett pretends to be obsessed with some very small cultural artifacts in order to garner both laughs and pity. -OR- I wish we could open our eyes to see in all directions at the same time.

I was looking at the cover of the new Death Cab album Plans, trying to be a good indie-yuppie, when I noticed something. I noticed the continuation of a trend:


Death Cab


Royal Tenenbaums.


Royal Tenenbaums, again.


Royal Tenenbaums, again, again.



Starbucks. The Life Aquatic.



The Austin Stone, my church (and possibly yours).

Which of these things is not like the other? Well none of these things. They're all like the other. Death Cab, Wes Anderson, Starbucks, The Austin Stone. Each uses the font Futura. I think it must be trendy. Trendier than say, Times New Roman, or maybe even Arial.

I am a font geek.

To make up for it here is a track off of Plans. I've heard mixed reviews, but I like it thus far:

I Will Follow You Into The Dark [care of daily refill]

I'm going to Oklahoma tomorrow. Dan's getting married this weekend. Capital!

trapdoors & accordions

I saw Alex Dupree & The Trapdoor Band play last night at the Lava Lounge. Don't go to the Lava Lounge. It's weird. Do, however, do whatever it is you can to see Alex play. He's a great songwriter, and I think he'll be around for a while.



Alex & Band are planning an album release party out in Llano on August 27th. It should be a good time. Here's a lyrical taste for you, from Sarah Is Rising (off the new album):

"Catalog maturity / rocking chairs for softened feet / tapping shoes to quick regret / picture shows and cigarettes / evenings in the cyclone park / in beginnings of the heart / heroes grow in looking back / in old cassettes and photographs / all the good has all been used / but Sarah is rising from under the moon"

My other musician friend Seth Woods and his band - The Sad Accordions - are playing an Inside Stage Show at Emo's on the 29th (of August). Get in on that as well, if you can.

Seth's starting a side project, tentatively called Whiskey Priest, featuring a bit of an old-country/folk sound. Look for that to debut at Alex's album release party. "Whiskey Priest" comes from the book The Power and the Glory, written by Graham Greene. I will be reading this book, as I must find out what a whiskey priest is. That is intrigue at its finest. I bet The Power and the Glory would have sold quite a few more copies if it had been entitled The Whiskey Priest.

Was this post as unnecessary as it now feels?

a cardinal hits the window

I don't claim that this is original in the least, but I have been really into Sufjan Stevens of late. Come On And Feel The Illinoise is quite possibly the best record of the year. In fact, according to Pitchfork it is.



As you might know, Sufjan has begun an ambitious project to record an album for each and every state of the union of states known, incidentally, as The United States (of America being optional). Being a Texan, and also a person, I found what Sufjan said in a recent interview to be fairly hilarious:

"I've been working on songs for Oregon and Rhode Island and New Jersey lately, just based on information I've read about their histories. And I'm solicited all the time by people who are proud of where they're from. Texas seems to be a favorite. Everyone's always asking, 'What are you going to do about Texas?' Like it's a big problem or something. People are like, 'What are you going to do, Sufjan? Someone's got to do something about Texas.' Like I'm suddenly responsible for that whole new empire down there."

[MTV care of stereogum]

Oh Texas. In other (Austin) Texas news, The Real World: Austin is positively terrible. Not that I'm watching... MTV is murdering souls.

Speaking of murdering souls, here's a lyric that excites me about the new Ryan Adams album coming out in September: "Oh Jacksonville how you muder my soul / How you hold my dreams ransom / Jacksonville how you play with my mind / Oh my heart goes back suffocating on the pines."

Sufjan's Illinoise has a great song entitled Jacksonville, which brings this post full circle. It's kind of like the circle of life.

a brief thought...

Blogs turn good, healthy people into good, healthy narcissists...

a dead blog is a healthy blog.

Now that I've driven you all away from my blog by not posting for six weeks (out of the country) and then posting a few times (being a tease) and then not posting for a few more weeks, I feel free to say whatever it is I'm thinking. No one to impress, no one to listen, just me and my thoughts all alone...for everyone with a computer to read. Who am I kidding? Definitely myself.



Well by way of explanation I'm going to give you some possible reasons my blog is dying. It's going to be in the form of a multiple choice question, because I've been conditioned to think that life is really a multiple-choice test, and that I just need to find the answer key.

Why has Brett been content to disown his blog, as though it were dead to him?

A. Blogs have been trendy for a while and Brett only likes to be involved with trends when they first start. In fact Brett can hardly say or think the word "blog". It makes him cringe in the worst of ways.

B. Brett spent too much time out of the country, and doesn't feel like "anyone really knows him anymore," in fact he's not sure he "really knows himself anymore," either. His blog was just propping up the sinking ship that was the Brett of yesteryear. Sink ship, sink.

C. We live in the "Information Age" where there's lots and lots of, well, information. As a service to the rest of mankind, Brett has decided to stop informing people about things. There's just too much information out there, and if you're not a part of the solution you're just a part of the problem. As Smokey the Bear would say, "Only you can prevent forest
fires." *

D. Brett is dead.

E. Brett is lazy.

F. A & C

G. D & E

H. None of the above.

Feel free to vote, or to just not care. I'll try and post more... probably.

* Now we all know that other people can also prevent forest fires. In fact, once a forest fire is underway, it's probably best to let the professionals - with their masks and their shovels - handle it. Smokey is just trying to remind us that the best way to control forest fires is to stop them from ever happening in the first place. This responsibility is mine just as much as it is anyone elses, and I can really only control my own actions anyway. The buck stops here, if you will. Of course, there's always that guy wandering around the woods with a lit cigarette and a leaky can of gasoline. That's Smokey's problem.