26 February 2012

Random Thoughts from 33,760 feet above Kansas

I will always be grateful for Louis Vega and Kenny Dope’s “The Bomb” and “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun.”

Working 80 hour weeks and giving up one’s life isn’t sustainable or satisfying, no matter how much money you’re making.

Travel planned and executed at the last minute always costs a lot and is rarely satisfying, regardless of the purpose of the travel or the class of the accommodations.

Graham’s right:  “Another Green World” sounds like music for trans-human Morris dancing.

Dithering can make for good blogging, and even better tweeting.

The older I get, the more I miss the comforts of home.

The older I get, the more I need to clean house before I leave for travel.

LCD Soundsystem’s “All I Want” and Brian Eno’s “Over Fire Island/St. Elmo’s Fire” are written from exactly the same place, 30 years apart.

I’ve been flying in airplanes for 46 years.  Familiarity breeds contempt.  First world problems, I know. 

For almost 20 years, I’ve bought a copy of Automobile, the Economist, and Vanity Fair before any flight.  It’s been an almost fetishistic ritual.  I’ve changed it now, and buy Automobile and the Harvard Business Review.  I can’t explain why I’ve changed the ritual.

Watching 15 minutes of “Jersey Shore” on the seatback feed made me feel real shame for humanity and a desire to erase New Jersey from my experience and family history.

Even at 50, I occasionally amuse myself with the thought of having children with Graham (minds out of the gutter, people.)  I know I’m old enough to be a grandfather already.  I don’t think I can pull off a Jack Donaghy, and I’m pretty sure that I’d regularly find myself in a white hot rage dealing with the issues Washington-area parents regularly deal with.

I’m less and less interested in white tablecloth, full service restaurants, and more satisfied by imaginative, well prepared food in modest surroundings.  Portland rocks that trope hard: Kenny and Zuke’s, Bunk Sandwich, Le Pigeon, Beast all come to mind.

My rental car is an SUV.  It was cheaper – by far – than a hybrid.  Don’t hate me.

Whatever happened to MC Solaar?  Ya gotta love Senegalese rappers name-checking Fred Astaire and Reddy Kilowatt, and sampling Public Enemy.