Third Revolution Straight

Yeah, I know it's very cliche to rave about this album right now, and it probably belongs on Stuff White People Like, but I seriously can't get enough of the new Animal Collective. Here's a video for the song that's been stuck in my head all day. "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status, I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls." That chorus is so sticky!

Great day? Bad day? Not sure.

The good news: I wasn't one of the 160 teachers in my district to be given a pink slip today. It looks like I'll have a job next year, and I feel as though I managed to dive under a moving truck without being hit.

The bad news: 160 teachers in my district are facing unemployment. Among the casualties is Jeff, an excellent English teacher with a mortgage and a pregnant wife. The only reason I'll be able to dream peacefully while he will surely endure a sleepless night is because I was hired a year earlier. I want to praise God, but I know Jeff serves the same one, so I realize I have to praise him simply because he's God, not because of my circumstances.

Mondays are the only weeknights I'm at home; I teach on Tuesday and Thursday nights, go to church on Wednesday nights, and Friday, well, you know how Fridays are. So I really should blog on Mondays, and I usually think about it at work that day, but once evening rolls around I'd rather read on the porch, immerse myself in a record, or hammer something together. Since I appreciate it when friends keep their blogs updated, I really would like to be consistent, but, well, I don't feel like being on the computer right now and it's a good night for putting on a hoodie and taking a walk. Wait, was that a blog entry? Done.

Favorites from SFMOMA

I'm drawn to imperceptible moments made perceptible.



The poodles have been interpreted by some as guardians and by others as villains, but why would guardians face opposite the danger? And Chris, consider the Manichean significance! The poodles are obviously evil.



Magritte is my favorite Surrealist, so seeing an original up close was pretty exciting.



There were about 15 guys working on a huge mural.

This video isn't new, but it never gets old. When one of the most beautiful sights (a girl on a bike) is combined with one of the creepiest sights (masked men in a dark forest), and set to a pretty great song, the result is WIN.

"Big clumsy flies bumped into my face, swarmed on my neck and wiggled in my underwear. Blundering and soft-bellied, they had been born before they had brains. They had spent a year under water on legs, had crawled out on a rock, had become flies and copulated with the ninth and tenth segments of their abdomens, and then had died as the first light wind blew them into the water where the fish circled excitedly. They were a fish's dream come true - stupid, succulent, and exhausted from copulation. Still, it would be hard to know what gigantic portion of human life is spent in this same ratio of years under water on legs to one premature, exhausted moment on wings."

"He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all."