Sorry for ignoring the blog for so long... I've found myself wrapped up in the Olympics in a bad way lo these many days... And I've also become somewhat disenchanted by much of what I've seen, even though there have been so many awesome things. Let's see:

Awesomeness:

- Michael Phelps. Eight races, eight golds. Enough said.

- Dara Torres. 41 years old, two silver medals in swimming, including an incredible last lap in the 4x100 relay. Like nothing I've ever seen, out-swimming girls literally half her age. Champion.

- My personal favorite Olympic moment thus far, on the first day of the Games, the finish of the Men's Cycling Road Race. Ridiculous. A chase group of three riders, including Fabian Cancellara, catches the three race leaders, including Andy Schleck, in the last hundred meters, with two of the chasers (Cancellara and Spaniard Sam Sanchez) taking bronze and gold, respectively. Unbelievable finish. It could make a cycling fan out of anyone.

Did I really just see that?:

- Natalie Coughlin. US backstroke specialist. Won something like 10 medals over the last two Olympics, but is interviewed by NBC and explains how swimming isn't the most important thing in her life, and that she'd much rather do other things... Wait a minute... You mean to tell me that for some unspeakable reason God has decided to reach down and bless you with other-worldly talent, but you'd prefer to spend your time doing other things, rather than honing your skills? Maybe if you took practice more seriously you wouldn't have continuously bumped the lane markers in your two biggest races, jerk.

- Armenian-born Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian throws his bronze medal down on the podium in protest of a judges decision relegating him to the bronze medal match. Not only does the IOC take back his medal, but they kick his sorry ass out of the Games. Turn about is fair play as far as I'm concerned. The Olympics is all about fair play and sportsmanship, and this clown forgot that last part. Speaking of sportsmanship...

- Usain Bolt of Jamaica hamming it up before his 100 m sprint made me sick to my stomach. He might have noticed that no one else was acting like a pompous ass, but it didn't matter. Then, as he is blowing the field away, he slows down and starts celebrating with 15 m left in the race. He then proceeds to react to the win like he'd never won a race before. I can understand the celebration afterwards, I mean, it is the Olympics, but the posing and chest-thumping before hand was way too much. What a dick.

Remember folks, I love the Olympics. I just kind of wish that things could be a little bit more than an ego-fest.

“what develops tastes, is it merely exposure or a value system that is developed through some Oedipal experience or is there something deeper there... was I always meant to grow up adoring Brahms Symphony no. 4 in F movement 3?”- Great question Handy… you make me think…

My brain says exposure, because, for me, it’s clearly not an environment thing. If it was, I would suppose that means I should love Matchbox 20 and Sugar Ray, right? I mean, white kid who grew up in the suburbs in the 90s, it wouldn’t be my fault. That’s not how it seems to have worked out though, as my tastes more lay in the realm of classic rock. I would like to tell you that it was as simple as putting the needle down on Zeppelin IV and hearing Plant wail, “Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move…” and the rest is history. I don’t think it was as simple as that, though an 11 year old with a copy of Zeppelin IV and a working turntable can be a dangerous thing.

I think more a likely source for my taste was the never ending litany of long car trips in my youth. From Houston, Texas to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with my Dad when I was 5, numerous trips from Pennsylvania and Connecticut to Massachusetts for holidays… more time in a car then I care to remember. The news is not all bad of course, I got to spend hours, literally days of my life, with some of my best friends: Hendrix, Clapton, CSNY, the Beatles, the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne, the Kinks, Simon & Garfunkel, the Moody Blues, the Who, I mean the list goes on and on and on… They were (and still are) the soundtrack to my family and, ergo, became part of it. Yes, Zep started it, but it was so much more than that… The permanence of this music draws me almost as much as the sound itself. I could never bring myself to listen to pop or hip-hop because it’s just so damn disposable (though Jay-Z has grown on me recently). I can’t bring myself to really want to be a part of something so ephemeral, it's probably the history scholar in me, who knows?. Perhaps that’s not fair, there’s talent everywhere of course, but it’s not all for me I guess.

I don’t know if that really answers the question, and maybe my tastes are more narrow, and my thinking more pedestrian, but it is what it is… Hope I could further your dialogue.

Working on the work story... its kind of long, so cut me some slack.  In the meantime, enjoy this painting by Kazimir Malevich, the first Russian Suprematist, but you probably know him as a geometric abstract painter.  Anyhow, this one is called "Red Cavalry at Full Gallop" and it happens to be my favorite painting.  Enjoy: