Guatemala Again

Yeah, okay, Ben wanted me to write about Guatemala, and has been annoying me about it for several weeks. Here it goes. It might be a tad bit of personal arrogance on my part, but part of me was actually kinda surprised that the place was still there despite me not being there for a year. I mean, I know it sounds trivial, but this realization actually meant a lot to me. First of all, all of the crappiness that I saw there the first time was still there when I went this week. It would seem to follow that it is still there now. The thing is, it will always be there. I can leave, but it does that life there is any different. People are still struggling to eat, they have no real chance for social betterment, they still live in corn stalk houses surrounded by garbage that never gets cleaned up. They still hike several miles into the mountains to work on a small plot of coffee trees or to gather wood. I guess all of this never really hit me when the experience was new and exciting. Of course, I realized it, it just never sank in until this time around. As a result of this, I guess, I started noticing the Church more and gained a newfound respect for the priests there who are working to make a difference, giving their lives, and in at least one case literally: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Rother (Kinda like Oscar Romero, but not killed in mass, and wasn't an archbishop).
Okay, so that was the over-exaggerated white guilt part of me. Honestly, its not all that bad, and people there are on the whole surprisingly happy with life. And its seriously a fun place to visit. The people who I went with this year were a lot more fun to be with, and I was a lot closer to all of them. It was also Holy Week, so we really didn't do that much "work", we kinda just chilled and watched the processions, which was cool. We went around the lake in a boat a couple of days, and shopping, where I bought hammocks, a blanket, and a few other things. It was all pretty cheap, of course. We went to this really sketchy bar one night, that was fun, but I swear, Guatemalans are the lamest partiers ever. It was mostly just guys, and they all just sat around being nervous around the handful of women or drunk off their asses. We were the life of that bar. The band was playing American and British songs from the 70's. It was pretty sweet. We went hiking up the mountains a couple of time, and seriously can't wait to hike a lot more. This summer, guys: hiking. Seriously. Cynda is the only one with a valid excuse not to hike. The last night, we ate tacos from some really sketchy street vendors. I think I got a little sick as a result, but totally worth it. Um, so yeah. That was pretty much it. I'll put pictures up eventually.

Tortilla Flat

This is my favorite Steinbeck book:



[I have only read East of Eden, Mice and Men, and Grapes of Wrath. I hear Cannery Row and The Pearl are good. I also hear birds.]

This is a fun little bit of a book with good heart and its own lacksadaisical little world to get lost in. Apparantly, though I wouldn't have guessed it, its loosely based around the Knights of the Round Table. It tells of the lives of a group of rascally friends in Tortilla Flat, just outside of Monteray, California after World War I. They have some pretty amusing and unscrupulous antics, but make each other into better men as they share a small home and their lives, as if Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and their gang got to live together forever. Its the best, the humblest, I ever seen Steinbeck write, with a tender affection for these characters and their exploits as if he was the bemused guardian angel taking care of them that he mentions once in the book. You could read it in one day, easily in two, and you won't regret doing it.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

So I was going to start doing book reviews over the summer, even sketched a few out in my old moleskine (since disposed of) and somehow couldn't find the energy to put them up here. Pretty weak.

I've been meaning to read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius for a long time, since before I read You Shall Know Our Velocity!. It always cost too much at Powell's, and was checked out at our library. So I finally recalled it a week ago. And I am here to briefly inform you that you need to read it. Need. You know I wouldn't say that lightly. I've never even told anyone they need to listen to any album, some particular songs yes, but never an artist or album. So please believe me when I tell you that to be a member of our generation, you must read this book. This book is from our older brother Dave Eggers; a call-to-arms from the next evolution of Holden Caulfield. This novel is all-encompassing, all-pervading, all-true. It is everything you need to hear, exactly as you need to hear it. It is post-media, post-sensory over-saturation, post-cynicism. It is the manifesto for a group who know this is all bullshit, and want to transcend, but know their limitations, see their pride and self-aggrandizement, feel the pull of duty to family and friends and believe they can fulfill this, and beyond. That they are golden gods, capable of feats not yet seen, ready to will their dreams into existence and form. This book is a human, an extraordinary human exposed, cut and made real in order to summon you to his side. It is all bullshit and completely bullshit free. It is everything.






The story follows Dave as he raises his much-younger brother after both his parents die in short succession. He struggles with their loss, their shortcomings, as he becomes their replacement for his brother Toph. He attempts to be the super-parent while starting Might magazine, that which will reveal his generation to itself, will sound the horn for an age ready to be real and strong. You will laugh at his anecdotes with his brother and feel his righteous rage as he struggles between impulses to tear the world apart and become the world-healer, the broad-shouldered one who takes care of his friends, his brothers and sister, his life. Yet throughout he is aware of his actions shaping the story he is making, is cognizant of the artifice he is creating, is self-rebuking yet sure that he is doing the right thing, sure that while it may appear to injure him and the people he cares about, it is a blood-letting, a sacrament to move on and reach the heights of which they are capable. This book is not perfect, it drags in a few places, but it is closer than anything to the Great American Novel than I have ever read, because it is closest to the Great American Life as anything I have ever read. We are orphans, we are triumphant, we have no history, we have no future, we are what the world wishes to be. Pick up a copy.

This is kind of trippy

I recommend Audio-Surf which is a game based on your music. It's like guitar hero meets tetris.

New SF Music Festival Has Good Lineup/Maybe We Could Crash With Nancy or Ken or Doug's Crazy Uncle/Let This Not Distract You From the Below Posts

A bunch of these bands (Wilco, BSS, Tom Petty, Drive-By Truckers, Devendra, Regina, Two Gallants, Black Mountain, Beck) I've been wanting to see and won't be at Sasquatch. Music festival movie? I hope a certain little fella isn't late.

PS
Ouch! I didn't check the price until just now. Quite a bit for three-day passes, no word on when single-day passes will be available.