Over the line!

It seems that parking at work is always a mess. Today, however, I managed to find the humor in the daily struggle to wedge my little Civic into an overly skinny spot, thus risking driver-side dings and the consequent ulcerative angst. As I cozied into a narrow space, I realized that the excessively beefy truck beside me was parked completely crooked and was fully over the line defining its proper allotment.


The phrase in my head triggered a cinematic memory from none other than the 90's cult classic The Big Lebowski. As they compete (in league play, mind you) at their home bowling alley, Walter played by John Goodman bellows at a graying, ponytailed hippie named Smokey, "Over the line! I'm sorry, but you were over the line, Smokey." Lebowski tells Walter to calm down but that's not in Walter's realm of capabilities. He takes his bowling seriously (especially during league play) and so too should we with parking.


Be you soccer mom, Southern beauhunk, or just plain ol' Joe Public:

Stay between the bloody lines!

Social living is the best...

The title of this post comes from a song of the same name by the reggae artist Burning Spear (a.k.a. Winston Rodney). Somehow, I'd listened to the song for years without ever realizing what it actually meant. Maybe I never had any way to relate to the message of the track. Now, it seems, I'm becoming familiar with the essence of the lyric.


These past years have been a concentrated time for me and my partner of five years. They've been good years but ones with the requisite struggles. One such struggle has been the challenge to branch out into the thriving social scene where we live, an art/pop/rock/university scene with more than its share of hipsters and critics. Even so, it has been a decent place to live and truly one of the only urban places in which we could ever live in this state.



Remarkably, after many months of malaise and near petrifying self-consciousness, we're venturing out into it again. It feels good to meet people, find some commonalities, and realize that you can't 'click' with everyone, that not everyone has a judging eye. I may be the one with the critical bent, frequently sizing up and then internally cutting-down passersby and acquaintances. It happens much, much less with the latter as I discover the individual talents and interesting quirks that almost all of these folks possess to some degree.


As Winston Rodney sings, "Social living is the best". His way is the way of our nature; to talk, look, relate, laugh, listen, think and smile...together. So, in the context of a real society is where I'll endeavor to live, facing insecurity daily and surmounting fear just as much.

The rotating name 'round here...

If one were to only occasionally visit this spot, it would become clear that the name of the site keeps changing. The name change is not a daily occurrence, but so far I've gone through a few. The reason is to reflect a particular mood or message and to also expand my limited Latin vocabulary.

To begin, it was - bioelectrics in statu nascendi - a very literal reflection of this blog at its start which I took to mean - brainwaves in the state of being born.

Then came - panem et circenses - a phrase that I thought particularly appropriate for times in which we live. Its translation into English is - bread and circus - an ancient Roman trick used to divert the attention of the populous away from more pertinent political scandals.

Now we have - a posse ad esse - one with a distinctly Portuguese ring to it. This one means - from being able to being - which I take to me that when once I was able to envision a blog of my own, now I have one in actuality.

So, there you have it - the name game explained!

A strange way to spot a friend...

I had a pleasant discovery today as I sit listening to Pandora. After hearing some guitar work by one of my favorites, Michael Hedges, I began to think of an old friend who also has the chops to play in that modern, talent-intensive style. His name is Chris Stefanciw and, last I heard, he was living in Liverpool, a noteworthy musical environment itself.

As it turns out, he has shown up on at least one recording by a fairly high-profile young artist in the UK. Her name is Sarah Dickson and you can hear her tunes at the link below. Chris is playing guitar, but I'm not sure on which tracks in particular.

I did find another instance of his name in the credits of a recording project by a group called Sanagi. I have no way to confirm that this is indeed more musical evidence of Chris's prowess on the guitar, but I'll bet that it was him on this last, as well.

It was very cool to discover and then listen to this friend's recent work, all at once. Life in the Internet age can indeed be instantly gratifying, this time in a good way.

http://www.sarahdickson.co.uk/