She appears twice in the movies.  Once in Coffee and Cigarettes and once in an even littler known Nowhere Fast.  Both times she plays herself.  In Coffee and Cigarettes, a movie consisting of a variety of short films during which actors who play (sometimes minutely distorted or extorted versions of) themselves, Renée (whose segment is titled, 'Renée') sits as you see her (above) at a small diner somewhere/somewhen in the United States reading a gun catalogue and smoking a Marlboro.  She is repeatedly accosted by a bumbling waiter, who fills up her cup (literal) before she has a chance to tell him not to.  "I really wish you hadn't done that."  She says, in a way that denotes the mildest of inconvenience, her tone seeming to wax as harsh as need be considering the obvious magic she has over this inept young man.  After this initial snafu, the 'plot' thickens as the young man returns to her table- first to apologize, then to guess her name, then to offer her something else with her coffee, taking the time to admonish her for having such an unhealthy lunch.  "It's not my lunch, OK?"  She says, placing a hand over her cup each time he comes by, in case he sees fit to brandish the pot he so nervously wields in the direction of her perfectly adjusted brew.  Everytime he leaves she stares after him momentarily digesting, it would seem, the entirety of his petty being.  The look on her face could be described as the dimmest glimmer of flattered bemusement and/or annoyance, and her probing glances round the bar indicate she's used to this and is trans-existentially weary of it in a graceful sort of way.  Then the short ends.  That's it!  That's all we get to see of her.  Moving right along, as they say, except I didn't want to.  Theoretically, overexposure may have rendered the tingling encounter bereft of its gaping novelty and intrigue.  But still!  Where, now, can I find her?  Where can I get my fix of Renée French, whose contained sexiness and vast allure is relegated to four minute+ short?

QUESTIONS:
- Could this beautiful creature be all that holds the Universe together?

- Could there be something in her captivating manner that elucidates the fabric of feminity more authentically and holistically then ever before?

- Might she be just as beautiful now, as then?

- Does she have this effect everywhere she goes? 

- Is she just too earthily sensual and unbearably distracting for any director to work with her for longer than five minutes?

- Is she in therapy for this phenomenon, or is the grace with which she handled the advances of an anti-apt pupil during the movie characteristic of the way she handles life?

- In a Universe filled with women, is she the greatest of them all? 

- Is there really any way to adjudicate that, considering even the word 'adjudicate' has different meanings to different people, let alone the vast realm of aesthetic priority necessary to diffuse before anything remotely resembling a synthesis as to who or what can be considered, 'greatest', is acheived?

- Is her appearance here, and her corresponding lack of apperances elsewhere, a deliberately anagolous approach on her behalf- invoking the idea that earth-shattering brilliance is like golden butter to be spread over tiny amounts of toast?

- God?  - Are You Listening???

There are times when I feel like, as opposed to generating genuine friendships, I am merely accruing associations, inside of which I put forward the proper responses to proffered stimuli, responses devoid of any emotional accompaniment, in an effort to perpetrate a sadistic voyeurism-within-relationship.  I achieve this cloaked, witnessing intimacy by utilizing the medium of e-mail or instant messaging where there is much room for what can only be described as vibrational promiscuity.  Vibrational promiscuity is what happens during a conversation when the words being exchanged go unsupported by the word-issuer's subtle body; a sort of disingenuous genuineness that is heartrendingly hilarious.  It’s promiscuous because the word-issuer’s subtle body doesn’t have to be reflecting the opposite of her words, but is merely freed to rove drastically.  ROVE, I SAY!  I do this a lot, going so far as to get local acquaintances to believe me to be an amazing man of (way) beyond superfluous generosity so long as our transcript is solely relegated to online spheres.  Then I can never back it up in person.  Of course I can't!  I imagine a correlative rift is activating when I get random urges to walk away from someone while they are speaking to me.

Most of us are aware of the the indisputable fact that the Virgin Mary revealed herself in a piece of grilled cheese.  It was an odd thing to do, most definitely, on the part of the Holy Mother, who evidently bears at least a passing resemblance to Catherine Zeda Jones.  Sold for 28,000 dollars, the toast has been around for several years.  Make that thirteen years, and it hasn't fallen apart yet!  Weird, eh?  Anyway... the reason I bring it up now, three years after the 'item' became more public and emblazoned its way into the pop culture history books, is because I am going to draw an analogy between this toast and the indie music industry.  But before I get to that, allow me to say that

A. the seller Mrs. Duyser, looks kinda like the opposite of a Christian, and

B. she obviously took a bite out of Mary's right breast- does this give her unnatural long life or super-powers?. 

And, furthermore, I project: what would happen if someone ate the sandwich? 
And, furthermore, were you aware that this holy artifact was bought by a casino??!  I mean, doesn't that just strike you a little bit as sacreligious?  How did all of this happen?

But, about the indie music industry: it seems to me as though the indie music industry began as a load of sad, banal, deconstructed audial tinkering, and has now progressed into the sort of unconsciously exploited- no less sad, banal,  but mildly reconstructed audial tinkering- that drives me absolutely crazy*.

Similarly, the e-bay toast, which started as a sort of genuine attempt to disseminate the pure love of the Virgin Mary, who blessed us all with a greasy sign, has now progressed into a long string of people selling their unholy crap on the online aution.

This naturally, leads me to project that human nature is, obviously, as the Bible has it: sinful.  And perhaps that's what the unplundered mama of my home-dog J-boy was trying to communicate all along.

*- the selling-out of a genre dedicated to a heads-up-their-butts version of authenticity, is not something I can be definitive on, as it is the sort of evil ironic twist that threatens to take the very heart of me!

Abolish the vilifier!  Annul the vitriol!!!

And then Brian David said to himself, "It's 3:26 AM.  Time to get on to other things."

(topic stolen from ~C4Chaos blog)

I believe I would have dinner with Alanis Morisette.  She's Canadian, she's smart, and she's incredibly good looking.  She also has that super-subtle effervescent attractiveness.  Of course I would be missing out on writerly chit-chat with the Chrichton, and philoso-film chat with the Larr-man.  Some other time, no doubt.

The idea, you see, is that if I chatted with Alanis I would come away with an experience.  Our meeting would not be about exchanged content, a mascuilne fare I would be hard-pressed to avoid in a conversation with Wachowski or Michael; rather it would be about shared content, and the content would not be exculsively cerebral.  It would be a holistic coax of emergents and submergents, gradually surfacing and relaxing into a conversational tapestry.  Enrichment would be the result.  And though I would be no less enriched by M.C. or L.W., I would be less filled.

The idea, you see, is to fall in love.  ;-)

Did I ever mention that I am in love with baseball?  The ponderous rhythm, the temperature of the grass (cold) commuting from across screens, the cloaked strategies, the rigorous history.

For me, there is no need to romanticize or make ironic my connection with the sport.  To do so would be difficult, a difficulty borne out of inauthenticity and undue glorification.

Baseball speaks for itself.  And it's telling me, 'Log on to mlb.com and catch the Cubs game, you silly ass.'

(GO SOX GO!)

Ok, let's admit it.  If I were to take a trip down postmodern lane and chum it up with the highly sophisticated individuals that populate the imaginary liesure establishments dedicated to furthering human potentials and dicourse, I might be met with some resistence if I were to whip out a speech on ways in which a certain culturally adopted, pseudo-memetic center of gravity fostered certain developmentally enactive intelligences and ostracized (or colonized) others.  Of course, I would be speaking about the rise of modernity in the West and its wholescale dismissal of progress on a spiritual front.  Ancient, important history (though the historocity of the topic would not be a deterrant to its positive reception, nor the verbosity with which I may or may not present it).  Hypothetically, I would be better received if I framed my perspectives in the words and mindsets of dead people who did enormously important work furthering the conceptualization or reification of various modes of thought and action, but never bothered with synthesis.  Essentially, to deal in 'oranges' and 'blues' and 'second-persons' of 'God' would be mildly damning, initially at least.  (Maybe not?)

Why?  Here's my theory.  Let's look at all information as preparatory data.  Preparatory for what??  Exactly.  Do you want to reflexize or (excuse the necessary/horrible semantic blunder) post-formalize your viewpoints to succeed at micro-progressive banter or do you want to streamline your conversations with discursive models and perhaps end up not only discussing things, but progressing discussion? 

PS: Clearly I'm not advertising the adoption of jargon, having avoided it throughout, though I don't see a problem with that.

PPS: No doubt KDub doesn't need me to legitimize or de-legitimize him.

In an effort to be the change I wanted to see in my breakfast pallette, I converted myself to a delicious piece of bread.

The English language is both restrictive and enabling.  The argument could be made that it restricts in areas such as emotion and sociosensual awareness and the particulars of ambient intuition, and enables fluid descriptions of technological processes and jargonal exports from noospherically inclined establishments (universities, etc..).

So... if you're trying to write a particularly, er, vibrationally compelling tale- and are focussed less on the narrative and more on the laden minutiae of morning coffee and midnight cannabis then is the trajectory of your artful lifef and the inherent excellence of your prenatal project rendered testicularly bereft (or, in other words, nuetered) by your primary language?

This is the question I face.  Sort of.  Sometimes I just wish I had grown up with Gaelic.

Is overvaluation the key to love?  It's a good question, I think.  Of course, it's also a terrible question because of the ambiguity of the terminology.  What is meant, here, by 'overvaluation' and 'love'?  Overvaluation of what?  And love??  What's that?  Love as a equanimously sustained relationship between humans(?), love as an Erotic pole to which one is continually drawn(?), love as an regulative ideal(?), etc...

Let us say that the original askers of this question, is overvaluation the key to love, meant a mutual or one-sided overvaluation of the compliant presence of a desired human in relational context.  Let us say that the degree to which this relationship flourishes or withstands time's test against it's inimitable substance, it's innate passion, it's goo, is what is meant by Love.

Taking the above as given, then, why is this type of overvaluation such a rare characteristic* and what might foster it's occurence in subjects?  And is it truly desirable, this type of enduring Love, founded on overvaluation, or is it merely an unfortunate circumstance wherein a negatively conditioned person finds themself, by virtue of their history, hopelessly paired with someone who will never appreciate them as much as they are appreciated.  After all, the word 'overvaluation' implies that something is askew with the internal lens in charge of issuing valuations; a flake or mote in one's perceptually discerning glass, based, likely, on a devaluation of one's self and a neonatal(esque) need for the recurrent or constant introduction of an other. 

Still, I am of half a mind to conclude that if two individuals found one another and both of them were keen and perky with the practice of overvaluing one another's influence in their lives, you might find a good match.  Even if, from outside, those equipped with a 'tuned-in' valuating lens considered the pair to be equally duped lackeys munching trecherously from one another's genitalia.

*- I am taking the rarity of the overvaluing personality to be given, as the priorly given definiton of Love appears to be sparsely observable.

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman)
Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)
Malone Dies (Samuel Beckett)
Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
On Chesil Beach (Ian McEwan)
The Craft of Verse (Jorge Luis Borge)
More Die of Heartbreak (Saul Bellow)
The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
The Shining (Stephen King)
Riding Between Worlds (Linda Kohanov)
Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality (Ken Wilber)
My Life (Bill Clinton)
The Future of the Body (Michael Murphy)
V for Vendetta (Alan Moore, David Lloyd)
Sandman, Preludes & Nocturnes (Neil Gaiman)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (David Foster Wallace)
Middlesex (Jeffery Eugenides)
Moral Disorder (Margaret Atwood)
The Gum Theif (Douglas Coupland)

Strikeout, means I'm all done.

So... What do you think?

My gift to you. Also check out: http://pianosociety.com Isn't classical music simply amazing?

STEPHEN KING (from The Morning Show; click the blue to watch for yourself):

...Stanley Kubrick called me on the phone one day.  My wife said, "It's Stanley Kubrick on the phone."  I went to the phone and [Stanley] said, "Stories that have to do with the supernatural are all quite optimistic aren't they?"  And I said, "Well, what do you mean?"  He says, "Well, they presuppose the idea that we survive after death.  So that's quite optimistic, isn't it?"  And I said, "Well, what about hell?"  There's a pause on the other end of the line, he was in England, he was in Brightwood Studios or Stanwood, and he said, "I don't believe in hell."  And I said, "Well, what if some people die in such agony or in such bad mental condition that they come to on the other side and they're insane?"  There was an even longer pause and then he said, "Very nice speaking to you, good day."

...I'll tell ya, I met the man later and he was missing a can from the six pack.

(Stephen also recounts the tale here, but I prefer the version he tells on the Morning Show, the version I transcribed, because of the additional comment about post-death insanity and mainly because of the British interviewer(s) simultaneous, totally culturally-typical reaction; fast-forward to the 7:11 mark)

Recently I read V for Vendetta and Volume 1 of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. 

While I was aware of how awesome comics are for some time now I always refrained from purchasing them.  Now I am on a spending spree.  Of course, I don't have any money for them, but over time I will accrue a massive collection (for instance, the Absolute Sandman, containing all of the volumes in the long-running series, is coming out on October 31st, and I'll be there when it does).

The medium of the graphic novel or 'really long comic' is as nuanced and literary as the written word.  The stories are gripping, adult, and as rich as the author's mind will allow.  Characters come to life, evoking exhileration.  What can I say?  If you like stories, you like graphic novels, and if you aren't in the practice of reading them I suggest the work of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  Get to it!  Worlds await.

If my Life were one big montage, this would be the loud music muting the sped-up rendition of my daily activity. Enjoy!!

November is the month when everybody writes novels. Not everyone, but enough people so that it is noted. In fact, a lot of these people get together and hang out with one another from time to time at various social functions. I am going to write a novel in the month of November, and finish editing it by Christmas 07. I'll tell you all how it goes.

I am reading the Koran.  I'm hoping for some instructions on how to do good and be right.  I know that when I read the Bible, it took a while, but eventually I got just such instructions.  Along the way there were a lot of beautiful stories.  Perhaps I will experience the same thing while reading the Koran.  So far it has said that, "This book is not to be doubted.", and I said, "Ok."  Then it said, "As for the unbelievers, it is the same whether or not you forewarn them; they will not have faith.  God has set a seal upon their hearts and ears; their sight is dimmed and grievous punishment awaits them."  And I said, "What?"  If God has seat seal on the hearts and ears of unbelievers, then how can He expect them to become believers?  And if He has has been tampering with their belief systems, and has directly influenced them to blocking out His counsel, how can He bring down grievous punishment upon their heads?  Later I found another passage, "...when [unbelievers] are told, 'Believe as others believe,' they reply: 'Are we to believe as fools believe?'  It is they who are fools, if they but knew it!"  This verse seems to be just a little more reflexive than the Bible.  Here the Koran seems to indicate that a typical non-believing response is, "Are we to believe as fools believe?" and what strikes me about this is that it really is a timeless unbeliever's response.  I can't tell you how many times I've been to a bar and heard religion come up and someone say, "Are we to believe as fools believe?"  And the Islamic response is, "It is they who are fools, if they but knew it!"  Which seems to be a daringly foundationless claim.  In any case, I'm aware there are a lot of ways to read the Koran and for every verse there are a million translations and interpretations and interpretations of translations, which, alone, spawns a calculus too infinite for me to diffuse or speak authoratively within.  Instead I will read the Koran as I once read the Bible: as absolute truth.

I've almost finished reading a book by the name of God's Harvard.  It's a terrific book about a Christian College which caters to homeschool kids who are interested in becoming active politicians.  It's incredibly enjoyable to read, and it takes me back to the days when I, too, was restricted to playing video games from the 1980s in the 1990s.  When I wasn't allowed to watch any movies with sexuality or violence in them.  When prudential living outweighed biblical living.  Think of it, an evangelical climate fostering practices too strict for even the Bible to endorse.  It took me back to the days of biweekly, mandatory chapel.  To the days of slandering evolutionary theory, to the days of 'frick' and 'heck'.  To the days when religious texts circa the seventeenth century were valid sources and guides on a treacherous path and often served to relax the tension of the modern world by advocating ancient techniques for abating impure thoughts.  Books like, the Mortification of Sin, or My Utmost for His Highest, and the like.  To the days when everything from pleasant weather to ample amounts of food on the table was entirely contingent upon God's willingness to Provide.  To the days when, were you to be coerced by the ineffable coolness of a secular movement or personality, you were forced to bite your lip ruefully and resign yourself to either attempting to convert the source of your infatuation or seeing them in Hell.  And do you know what I feel when I look back at all that experiential territory?  Hopeless longing.  I want that old structure, the rules, the certainty.  I want the segregative judgments, the binary approximations, the timid propriety.  I want to never know my soul's standing with my Creator.  I want to be in constant terror of dying in sin.  I want to do bad things and feel like I am sneaking one past my Savior.  I want to huddle into a mass of prone bodies and petition Heaven long into the night.  I want to have endless arguments, over soda and chocolates, about Jesus and the Word of God and Creation.  I want to Save my fellow men.  I want to chastise my sisters for being a temptation.  I want to hold my brethren accountable to God's path, and I want them to the same for me.  I want to steer clear of secularized media and worldly intellectual property, for fear of the corruption of my body in Christ.  I want to adopt conservative politics, I want to break down crying in the offices of piety, saying that I am having trouble ascertaining God's will.  I want to, in essence, be totally and completely Christian again.

"Real is anything you bump into."
     - E.J Gold, American Book of the Dead

"It's High.  It's Deep.  It's Gone."
     - Traditional (baseball)

On Hallowe'en
the old ghosts come
about us, and
they speak to some;
to others they
are dumb.
     - Eleanor Farjean

Can you hear them celebrating?  I can hear them celebrating.  In their sweet pods of christened delight.  There is really very little commentary to add.  Somehow sports cliches such as, 'We did the little things, and we got through it', are more appropriate descriptors to Championship attainment than a prosaic approach, 'With somber crepscular brilliance, the flush soak of patiently strained Bosox attempted and succeeded, with fastidious warmth, to assail the keepdom of blood pudding that is: ultimate victory!'  Poetic approaches are insufficient as well.

    set in polyclonal drift
    in main of happy flesh
    there to test the american guess
                                                                             there to assess and redress the tress of civic gift


So instead of all that crap, I'll just say, Can you hear them celebrating?

The way they get it on you, the smell.  The way the smell lingers, a souvenier.  The way they oblige, the service.  The way they turn up, the eyes.  The way they flutter into coy, the mouth.  The way it envelops, the music.  The way things it produces, the money.

There is one way to get your time's worth out of the strip club.  Resign yourself, in an almost Zen-like capacity, to dropping bills to get skin in your face.  Accept the monetary loss as a priori to the venture.  Accept the service as a package deal, a commodity with wiggle-room for diverse outcomes.  Abandon the tingling despair of the act.  Abandon to grounded levity.  If you do nothing else: smile.

If you're looking for a good graphic novel, I suggest reading this one.  Not an entirely unprecedented or novel suggestion, but I thought I'd offer it anyway.

Here are some other recommendations:

"A work of ruthless pyschological realism, it's a landmark in the graphic novel medium."  -Time
"Watchmen is peerless."  -Rolling Stone
"Remarkable... The would-be heroes of Watchmen have staggeringly complex psychological profiles."  -New York Times Book Review
"The greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced."  -Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof

So what do I say?  Pretty much what "they" say.  After reading it all in one prolonged go, with my breath held, I thought it was terrific.  A story with a compelling, dark center of gravity, a world unto itself, relentless in its moody realism, sharp as December rain...  All that jazz.  It was fun to read and impossible not to linger on.

I've finally hopped onto Second Life and breezed through a few of the intruductory tutorials.  While it seems like a bit of effort to get going, it also seems like that effort will be rewarded in due course.  One of the more enjoyable features of the (pre)game is customizing the appearance of your avatar.  I've had a lot of experiencing customizing characters, as I play a lot of role-playing games, and I'm not stranger to the amount of time that can be dropped fluctuating between attempting a realistic aspect to seeing how ridiculous you can make a character look within the graphics and design limitations.  Because Second Life is very accomodating of a plenitude of body-types, and because the interface is very forgiving and accomodating (allowing you multiple characters and the ability to alter your main character at any time), I let myself go.  While I initially indulged the pretense of generating a true-to-life avatar, the allure of creating somthing that would draw a consistent chuckle as opposed to a consistent air of neutrality proved irresistable.  Now that I've birthed this fellow, I only wonder how he (she?) will be received in various communities.

Aren't those gloves awesome?
Check out the shoes.
Custom undies.

the Following is a list of books I own and keep in my room.  I've been collecting books since the age of 14.  I have read every book you see listed.  Highlighted are the books that impacted me hugely.  In most cases, you may consider the authors of these books 'influences'.  In some cases the selections in question are highlighted because the act of reading [the book] proved acceleratedly poignant for me due to the various, situational pressures that assail one in the radically transitional days of youth.  In these cases (such as Dreamcatcher, Stephen King, which was the first grown-up book I read, but is not necessarily the best Stephen King has to offer) the appeal [of the book] lingers as nostalgia, and, consequently, as you cannot possibly share my nostalgia, circumstantial as its genesis is, the recommendatory nature of the highlight is waived.  Of course, I've left you not tools to differentiate. 

Enjoy the list!

Next on the docket for Brian David is the work of the Following authors:
(William Gaddis
Philip Roth
Samuel Beckett
Saul Bellow)

Thomas Pynchon
Jorge Luis Borges
Franz Kafka
Cormac McCarthy
David Foster Wallace
John Barth
William Faulkner
Neil Gaiman
Stephen King
Alan Moore

But as for what's in my past, well, check it out:

A Brief History of Everything, Ken Wilber
Boomeritis, Ken Wilber
Integral Spirituality, Ken Wilber
Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality, Ken Wilber
One Taste, Ken Wilber
A Sociable God, Ken Wilber
A Theory of Everything, Ken Wilber
The Simple Feeling of Being, Ken Wilber
Jewish with Feeling, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi
In Defense of the Guru Principle, Andrew Cohen
My Master is My Self, Andrew Cohen
Enlightenment is a Secret, Andrew Cohen
Open Mind, Open Heart, Father Thomas Keating
Consciousness and Healing, Marylyn Schlitz / Various Authors
Spiritual Traditions, Timothy Freke
Lucid Living. Timothy Freke
St. Therese of Lisieux, Father Thomas Keating
The Gnostic Gospels, Various Authors
The Complete Conversations with God, Neal Donald Walsh
Wrapped in Holy Flame, Rabbi Schachter-Shalomi
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers
the Bible, Various Authors
A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle
No Death, No Fear, Thich Naht Hahn
Awakening to the Sacred, Lama Surya Das
Towards an Integral Vision, Peter McNabb
The Mystery of Love, Marc Gafni
Soulprints, Marc Gafni
Night, Elie Wiesel
Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
Gratefulness and the Heart of Prayer, David Steindl-Rast
Art & Physchis, Leonard Shlain
Sex, Time, and Power, Leonard Shlain
Awakening Intuition, Frances Vaughan
Love Smart, Dr. Phil
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
The 72 Names of God, Yehuda Berg
A Code of Jewish Ethics, vol. 1, Joseph Telushkin
Many Ways to Nirvana, the Dalai Lama
How to Know God, Deepak Chopra
Soulmate, Deepak Chopra
Book of Secrets, Deepak Chopra
The Return of Merlin, Deepak Chopra
Teens Ask Deepak All The Right Questions, Deepak Chopra
The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, Deepak Chopra
The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis
American Book of the Dead, E.J. Gold
Integral Spirituality, Ken Wilber
Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality, Ken Wilber
The Future of the Body, Michael Murphy
Golf in the Kingdom, Michael Murphy
Robin Hood, Henry Gilbert
Tales from King Arthur, Andrew Lang
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Well of Eternity, Richard A. Knaak
The Demon Soul, Richard A. Knaak
The Sundering, Richard A. Knaak
The Day of the Dragon, Richard A. Knaak
The Last Guardian, Jeff Grubb
The Lord of the Clans, Christie Golden
The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson
Monument Rock, Louis L’amour
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R Tolkien
The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien
I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
Spiderman 2, Peter David
The Feminists Go Swimming, Michael Collins
Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson
The Hellfire Club, Peter Straub
The Lion, the Witch, the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis
The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis
Perelandra, C.S. Lewis
That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis
The Paradise Snare, Ann C. Crispin
The Hutt Gambit, Ann C. Crispin
Rebel Dawn, Ann C. Crispin
Middlesex, Jeffery Eugenides
Eragon, Christopher Paolini
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
The Black Stallion, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion Returns, Walter Farley
Son of Black Stallion, Walter Farley
The Island Stallion, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion and Satan, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion’s Blood Bay Colt, Walter Farley
The Island Stallion’s Fury, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion’s Filly, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion Revolts, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion’s Sulky Colt, Walter Farley
The Island Stallion Races, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion’s Courage, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion Mystery, Walter Farley
The Horse Tamer, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion and Flame, Walter Farley
Man o’ War, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion Challenged!, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion’s Ghost, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion and the Girl, Walter Farley
The Black Stallion Legend, Walter Farley
Saturday, Ian McEwan
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
Revenge of the Sith, Matthew Stover
The Boomer, Marty Asher
Oblivion, David Foster Wallace
One Mississippi, Mark Childress
Skipping Christmas, John Grisham
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
2006 Best American Voices, Jane Smiley / Various Authors
Ethics, Mel Thompson
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
The Cruise of the Dazzler, Jack London
White Fang, Jack London
Move Closer, Stay Longer, Dr. Stephanie Burns
Rage, Richard Bachman / Stephen King
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman / Stephen King
The Running Man, Richard Bachman / Stephen King
Farmer Giles of Ham, J.R.R Tolkien
Leaf by Niggle, J.R.R. Tolkien
On Fairy Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
Impulse, Nora Roberts
The Best Mistake, Nora Roberts
Most of My Patients are Animals, Dr. Robert Miller
America, Jon Stewart
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Canner Row, John Steinbeck
Sweet Thursday, John Steinbeck
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Red Pony, John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
The Moon is Down, John Steinbeck
The Peal, John Steinbeck
Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Hard Times, Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy
Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
Tess of the D’ubervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
George Washington, Zane Grey
The Geraldi Trail, Max Brand
Matagorda, Louis L’amour
The Desert Plot, Max Brand
Valley of Jewels, Max Brand
Flint, Louis L’amour
Sharpe’s Havoc, Bernard Cornwell
Sharpe’s Rifles, Bernard Cornwell
The Winter King, Bernard Cornwell
The Enemy of God, Bernard Cornwell
Harlequin, Bernard Cornwell
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
Moral Disorder, Margaret Atwood
Ender’s Shadow, Orson Scott Card
The Lone Rider, Max Brand
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Roald Dahl
Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
West of Dodge, Louis L’amour
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
More Die of Heartbreak, Saul Bellow
Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Illustrated Man, Ray Bradbury
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
Sylvie and Bruno, Lewis Carroll
Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
The Watchmen, Alan Moore
V for Vendetta, Alan Moore
Sandman, vol.1, Neil Gaiman
Dreamcatcher, Stephen King
Cell, Stephen King
Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King
Faithful, Stephen King
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Drawing of Three, Stephen King
The Wastelands, Stephen King
Wizard and Glass, Stephen King
Wolves of the Calla, Stephen King
Song of Susannah, Stephen King
The Dark Tower, Stephen King
Four Past Midnight, Stephen King
From a Buick 8, Stephen King
Skeleton Crew, Stephen King
The Shining, Stephen King
The Stand, Stephen King
Needful Things, Stephen King
The Colorado Kid, Stephen King
Night Shift, Stephen King
Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Stephen King
Black House, Stephen King
The Talisman, Stephen King
Bag of Bones, Stephen King
Everything’s Eventual, Stephen King
The Green Mile, Stephen King
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King
Lisey’s Story, Stephen King
Blaze, Richard Bachman / Stephen King
Different Seasons, Stephen King
The Gum Thief, Douglas Coupland
Hey Nostradamus, Douglas Coupland
Eleanor Rigby, Douglas Coupland
JPod, Douglas Coupland
Timeline, Michael Chrichton
Next, Michael Chrichton
State of Fear, Michael Crichton
Eaters of the Dead, Michael Chrichton
Transgressions, Ed McBain / Various Authors
All Creatures Great and Small, James Herriot
All Things Bright and Beautiful, James Herriot
All Things Wise and Wonderful, James Herriot
Every Living Thing, James Herriot
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
Falling Man, Don DeLillo
Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne
Master & Commander, Patrick O’Brian
The Far Side of the World, Patrick O’Brian
God’s Harvard, Hanna Rosin
Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman
M is for Magic, Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
Stardust, Neil Gaiman
Caroline, Neil Gaiman
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
I Am America (And So Can You!), Stephen Colbert
Blood Meridian (or the Evening Redness in the West), Cormac McCarthy
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
Malone Dies, Samuel Beckett
The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
Keeping a Horse the Natural Way, Jo Bird
The Joy of Horses, Joy Roberts
The Nature of Horses, Stephen Budiansky
Cutting, Leon Harrel
The Hank Weiscamp Story, Frank Holmes
Natural Horsemanship, Pat Parelli
True Horsemanship Through Feel, Bill Dorrance
Raise Your Hand if You Love Horses, Pat Parelli
True Unity, Tom Dorrance
Imprint Training, Dr. Robert Miller
Little Horse of Iron, Lawrence Scanlan
Wild About Horses, Lawrence Scanlan
The Tao of Equus, Linda Kohanov
Riding Between Worlds, Linda Kohanov
Seabiscuit, Linda Hillenbrand
The Schooling of the Young Horse, John Richard Young
The Horse Doctor Is In, Dr. Brent Kelly
Horse Sense For People, Monty Roberts
Health Problems, Dr. Robert Miller
Ride Smart, Craig Cameron
Dressage, Henry Wynmalen
Horsemanship, Waldemar Seunig
Western Training, Jack Brainard
Horse Tamer, John Solomon Rarey
The Revolution in Horsemanship, Dr. Robert Miller
On Horsemanship, Xenophon
Dancing With Your Dark Horse, Chris Irwin

I plan on celebrating by watching horror movies and drinking English cider! Perhaps I'll go for a little ride on the D. Maybe I'll have a nap, read some book, and wake up at 12:01 to kick off National Novel Writing Month. I am happy to be a consummate loner. Happy Halloween!!!!!!

1. Name someone who made you smile yesterday: Hugh Laurie. The actor who plays House on the popular FOX TV series: House. 2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning? I was cleaning my room. I don't have a garbage can in my room. This leads me to throw all of my garbage (popsicle wrappers, soda cans, kleenex) onto the floor. Every two weeks I pick all that garbage up off the floor, collate the dirty dishes, and organize the heaps of variably usable clothing. 3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? I was listening to an audiobook by Neil Gaiman called M is for Magic. Listening to audiobooks by Neil Gaiman or Cormac McCarthy is pretty much a staple for me these days. 4. What was something that happened to you in 1992? I drew a picture of an alligator in 1992. A is for Alligator, in day 1 of kindergarten (my first exposure to institutionalized education). I brought the coloring home and my mom put it up on the fridge. I colored the Alligator red because I wanted to be avante-garde. I was so sick of this narrow-minded green color that haunted reptiles everywhere. It was a very stylized coloring, but the concept of School confused me. An adult insisted I, 'make sure I didn't have any white spots' on my page, other kids kept asking me if I wanted to be a fireman or a cop when I grew up, as if those were the only two options, and "they", the infamous "they" then so new it was held in awe, enforced a strict policy of mouth-washing and afternoon-napping. I had no idea at the time I would continue to wash my mouth and nap in the afternoon all my life. 5. What is your mom's name? My mother's name is Faith. 6. Use three words to explain why you last threw up: Booze. Wild. Dancing. 7. What color is your hairbrush? I don't brush my hair! This is a capitolist country for Christ's sake! 8. What was the last thing you bought? Two litres of Strongbow Cider. 9. Where do you keep your money? In a chequing account 10. What was the weather like today? Beautiful. 6 C. 11. Where did your last hug take place? Just outside the door of my room. 12. What are you excited about? Writing a novel! Drinking my two litres of Strongbow! Listening to audiobooks! Riding my horse! Watching a movie called, 'Gerry' by Gus Van Sant. Honestly, you have no idea how awesome Gus Van Sant is. Unless you do. 13. Relationship status? ...With who? Myself? My landlord? My cousin(s)? My horse? Certainly there is no one else. 14. Miss anyone? Yes. Unfortunately for the snoop inside of you, dearest reader, my group of missed persons is a private democracy. Elections are held each moment, moods and situations are the voters, and the President is always changing. 15. Are you very random? This question causes me, in turn, to question the integrity of the individual behind the survey. If there is sincerity in spontaneity, there is also danger. 16. Do you want to cut your hair? No, not particularly. I'm growing it out! I don't know why. Why I stop liking the way I look after a shower, I'll shave my head. 17. Are you over the age of 25? No. 18. Do you talk a lot? Whenever the person I'm standing beside has finally stopped talking, I begin. 19. Do you watch The O.C.? Of course I do! So many exquisitely intoxicated evenings, spent toasting the follies of that beloved cast. 20. Does your screen name have an "x" in it? No. 21. Do you know anyone named Kelsey? Yes I do. An Evangelical musician, who sings beautiful songs about pain. Pain. Pain. Songs set to soaring piano and heartrending strings. Pain. Pain. Pain. And love. 22. Do you make up your own words? Absolutely. It's called neoligism and it is possible for a postmodern artist or novelist to become renowned for his or her brightly conceived neoligisms. 23. Are you ticklish? No one has tried to find out, in a more experimental capacity, for a very long time. I'd like to keep it that way. 24. Are you typically a jealous person? Yes, I certainly am. Fuck you. 25. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter V? I hesitate to say I don't have a friend whose name starts with the letter V, so I'll say I have a lot of relatives whose surname starts with the letter V. And a real good pal who I may never come in contact with again, Joe Vance. 26. Who was the last person to call you? The bank? I honestly don't remember, but you can count on the fact that it was tragically uninteresting. 27. Do you chew on your straws? I don't use straws. Ever. 28. Do you have curly hair? I don't curl my hair. Ever. Neither is naturally curly. Neither do I entertain thoughts of what it would be like if my hair did curl. I merely love curly hair and get on with my life. 29. Where did you go today? Upstairs. Downstairs. To the bathroom to piss. 30. What is something you say a lot? "That is special." (unsarcastically) 31. Have you seen the movie Donnie Darko? I have, yeah. I watched it before I dropped two hits of A! Bad idea. Good idea? I can't decide anymore. Not since that day. 32. Do you have to work tomorrow? In a manner of speaking, my dearest loving companion, I do. I do. 33. Who was the last person you said I love you to? I love you. You. 34. What should you be doing right now? Pulling my pants up, listening to an audiobook. Maybe reading Moby Dick or Bleak House or The American Book of the Dead or e-mailing some friends back. 35. Do you have a nickname? Yeah, some people call me Brondu. 36. Are you a heavy sleeper? Yes, I surely am. I once slept through the Second Coming. I think we all may have... Whoops! 37. What are you listening to? Love in December - Ace of Base (i know... i know...) 38. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks? Well if you ask me again in a few hours I'll say, "Gerry!" By Gus Van Sant! With his delectable medidative resonance and unbearably quiescent voice bespeaking poignance without end. Honestly, watch his movies. 39. Is there anyone you like right now? Are you referring to a sports team? A canine? No, I don't think I like anyone right now. 40. When was the last time you did the dishes? This morning! I love doing the dishes. Doing the dishes is one of the few activities available to the human being that transcends the grueling torture of the calculus of torment. It one of the few things you can do to alleviate the collective suffering of mankind. When you are doing dishes, you are at ease in second-person dimension. You are paving the way for renewed sustenence. Do it selflessly, and it will do you. 41. Did you cry today? Not yet. But I'm going to watch "Gerry" and I'm going to be loaded. So... just you wait, friends and sinners.