I See (Inside) Dead People

I don't know what Bill Gates (care of the NY Times) is so crazed about, but last night I went on a voyage into the world of the human body. That's right, I visited the Body Worlds (2) exhibit at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature last night. This German guy Gunther von Hagens has figured out how to preserve and seperate the various systems of the human body so that one can look at and be slightly to mostly grossed out by our insides.

From Wikipedia: Body Worlds (German title: Körperwelten) is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner organs or structures. The exhibition's developer and promoter is a German anatomist named Gunther von Hagens, who invented the plastination technique in the late 1970s...

Indeed.

come on ride The Avalanche, and ride it.

Is my writing a post about the new Sufjan Stevens album The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album the most predictable thing that I could possibly do at this juncture? I submit that it is. The album came out today, and is available on emusic. That's just one more reason to love the good folks at emusic.



Pitchfork gave Avalanche a 7.2 on the Richter scale. They also said this, which I don't understand in the least, though I would probably write something similar in an attempt at turning a phrase:

"He'll never come to our houses and weep on our shoulders-- but he'll write songs about coming to our houses and weeping on our shoulders."

Wicka-wicka-what?! I'm looking forward to the three additional versions of Chicago (including the multiple-personality disorder version). But then again, aren't we all? I'm in Colorado this week visiting my family and sundry other people and places. I suppose that The Avalanche fits in a bit better here than in the great state of Illinois. I wonder if The Avalanche is kind of like what would happen if Illinois lost its job and took a road trip to Colorado? I wish my emusic download would hurry up and finish so that I could know.

In other Sufjan news, a tour was just announced, including two dates at Austin's Paramount Theater during ACL weekend. Level ORCH Section R Row N Seat 8, I'll be sitting on you soon.

today we celebrate our independence day

I'm home.

After a six week jaunt overseas, it's good to be back in the states. I'll go ahead and admit that a return on the eve of the 4th of July makes it a bit difficult to ease back into this place. Independence Day is America set to high contrast, with the best and worst on display side-by-side. There is much to love and celebrate about our United States - the equally valued oft competing values of unity and diversity, the vision of life and liberty, and the courage of the many men and women who have defended such idealism with their noble lives and humble deaths. There's also, though, a lot to mourn here - the ways in which the value of independence from tyranny has degraded into a value of independence from anyone else, the tarnishing of freedom as the chance to do what one wants instead of the ability to do what one ought. It's a fight to enjoy the light of a day like this one, bright as the light is, when the darkness is so stark. Celebrating the good while pursuing the better is a tough tension to hold - on one side of the spectrum it's easy to become complacent, and on the other side it's easy to lose the joy that is the seed of future hope. There is love in this tension, somewhere right between the extremes.

"A new country seems to follow a pattern. First come the openers, strong and brave and rather childlike. They can take care of themselves in a wilderness, but they are naive and helpless against men, and perhaps that is why they went out in the first place. When the rough edges are worn off the new land, businessmen and lawyers come in to help with the development - to solve problems of ownership, usually by removing the temptations to themselves. And finally comes culture, which is entertainment, relaxation, transport out of the pain of living. And culture can be on any level, and is." - John Steinbeck, East of Eden

It's great to be back.