Golden Dandy Lions

I have a WordPress blog started: http://goldendandylions.wordpress.com/ I'd love for you to check it out if you've come across this blog.

Jack Kerouac

"What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -It's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."

my memory of a extraordinary camp

Almost ten years ago, I went to a week-long camp during two summers with some kids from my school. It wasn't an average camp; we went there to help mentally handicapped adults have a good time. It was really difficult for some people who didn't know what they were getting into. It was a life-changing experience, but ten years later, it feels so long ago, that it sometimes doesn't seem like it happened. An essay I read this morning brought everything back though. It's Henri Nouwen's "Adam's Peace." It's about when he got to know a mentally handicapped man named Adam. Henri went from teaching at Yale, Harvard, and other ivy-league schools, to working at L'Arche in Toronto. He learned more about life from Adam than anything else he was ever taught in school or elsewhere. It brought back so many memories of spending those two weeks with the people at that camp. The first two days were so difficult because what you came to expect was nothing at all like it was. It was so much more difficult than we ever thought it would be. It was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. You came and did what you could, but I always felt like we couldn't do enough. I know they came to the camp every week, but they had different people caring for them each week. Of course the staff on hand was consistent, but it's hard to build up a relationship with someone and then have to leave at the end of the week. The most wonderful part about the whole time I spent there, was one look that the woman I was helping gave me. She was incapacitated and couldn't speak to me. But the whole week I talked with her, took her on walks in her wheelchair, fed her, and just sat with her watching the sunsets. At the end of the week, she looked right into my eyes. Without her saying anything, I knew that it was her way of communicating how much she appreciated the time I spent with her. In Henri Nouwen's essay, he describes that Adam taught him that the only way to find true peace, is to look not of this world. God is the only being that can give peace that transcends all things. I could definitely feel God at work at that camp, and I would go back in a heartbeat.

back at it

well I haven't posted in a long time. It's already April. The month of my birthday and now there's only two more months of school, thank goodness.
I was just reading my previous posts and some things have changed since I've been on here!

1. Radiohead DID put out a new album: The King Of Limbs. Unfortunately I don't quite like it. The second half is listenable/enjoyable; but overall I am very disappointed.
2. I bought a Fender P-bass special. It cost me 600 bucks, but it was WELL worth it. I didn't realize that it would actually be that good: that paying more really DOES get you a better guitar.
3. I received The Royal Tennenbaums for Christmas. I love that movie.
4. I just bought White Light/White Heat on vinyl today at Electric Fetus along with the Sex Pistols and The Velvet Underground both on cds. And both very reasonable. Yes, I would say I did not need any of them, but I had to add to my collection.

Life has been very busy; I have felt very anxious lately. I need to get caught up with school, or else I'll really be struggling in a month.Unfortunately I just don't care that much anymore. I've put in four years; I'm ready to be done.

sufjan stevens

I really listened to Sufjan Stevens' song "Impossible Soul" for the first time today. I never gave it much of a listen because it's 25 mins long and I heard some people who hated it because of the auto-tune. Well... I absolutely love it. Honestly, not all of it, but there are parts that I have fallen in love with. I had three other songs from the new album "Age of Adz" that I hadn't listened to before, so now I've listened to those too, and all of this has rekindled my love for Sufjan. He is just so cool. Now I wish I would have gone to his concert when he came to town back in October or September.

radiohead

When will Radiohead put out a new album? It better been friggin early next year. And they better be touring very soon. Like, this summer.

things

These are some things I would like to have if money were not an issue:

-iPad (next generation though)
-Cast iron tea pot
-Fender bass guitar
-A good pair of noise canceling headphones
-A plane ticket
-The Royal Tenenbaums DVD (I never can find it on sale and I don't find justification for spending over $12 on a movie)
-A new outfit from Anthropologie
-Vinyl records/Cds (I have spent SO much money on music in the past year, it makes me sick)

These are what come to mind at the moment.