the unlikely orange

no, this isn't my halloween costume. its napoleon. napoleon dynamite. (wait, your name is napoleon ?). i finally saw this little campy creation. so i thought i would reflect on it for a moment. weird. i mean, i get it. i get that he is sort of a gen-x/y shoegazing computer geek who reminds us of ourselves in some ways. i see my awkward adolescence in him. i see my moments of social ineptitude in him. but beyond that, what is this story telling us? frankly, nothing. it is a loosely connected group of skits featuring the same characters throughout who deliver ridiculous lines of script in a deliciously deadpan manner. it's funny. it's just not all that meaningful. not that everything has to be all that meaningful. it did make me laugh. just not as much as i thought it might. and my biggest complaint: the ending. it just frizzled out. it reminded me of Monty Python's Holy Grail in this way, like they ran out of money or thought the film was getting too long. so, i wasn...

i was wrong. the steelers season is over. they looked pathetic in a disasterous loss to the raiders last night, sinking to 2-5, and effectively ending any realistic hopes at repeating their super bowl run of last year. so, i'm in a bit of a funk this morning. now, many of you may not care about this football team from the steel city. or you may not care about football at all. even as i write this, i am aware of your skeptical eyes skimming over these words, wondering to yourselves, "what is the big deal about football, and why is he so into it?" in fact, i can see the look on your faces as you wonder about it. i can see the look because i saw it on the face of the woman at the table next to me last night. i was at chelsea's, a steelers bar/restaurant about ten minutes from my house in new jersey (there are rabid steelers fans everywhere). it was a 4:15 game but i didn't arrive until almost 5:30, and the place was packed with black-and-gold clad steelers fans. i h...

its been a while since many of you have seen me, so, i thought, i would put a few pics up so that you will remember what i look like. or, if you have never seen me, you can now commence with making snide comments such as, "wow, that is one ugly dude." actually, i don't really think i am ugly at all. i just enjoy self-deprecating humor. there's nothing like it. this picture here is from a date i had with j-lo. unfortunately, everything went wrong that night, and it became clear that we just weren't going to work out. she called me once after that, but, thank God for caller i.d. i mean, she is obviously exceptionally hot, but, i just couldn't handle all of the photographers and paparazzi. i like my privacy. But, in all seriousness, here i am. in sepia. in all kinds of tones and hues. i am shaded and varied and colored. i was thinking about how there are many people that i haven't really seen or talked much to since high school, and i wonder if i am the same...

so i guess its a bit more conventional to start with a preface. but i choose a proface. a preface is a face before. a proface is a first face. and i, of course, want to put my best face forward. so, what is my first face? today, of all days, i begin this little cyber-journey to maybe put some pixels together, some letters together, into a kind of first face. i want to fill this space with discoveries and disappointments. i want to be honest about my most hidden hopes, and leave space for the holy hushes of mystery and magic. i want to wander through my thoughts and ideas and dreams (both day and night) and expectations. and so i don't begin this blog with a theme so much as with some questions: what can it mean for me to share these words with you? what is up around that bend? can we find community in the midst of a culture of consumerism? can a thing be Christian? what makes art good? or bad? or sacred? or profane? who is the greatest steelers linebacker ever? where do we go whe...

it was a very harsh realization: i am the only person without a blog. so, i am blogless no more. welcome to agentorange, which i hope will be a collage of thoughts and struggles and hopes and ideas and fears and dreams and celebrations and sorrows and letters to life from my little journey here. i hope to update it regularly, so check in often. if you are here just once, or a thousand times, welcome. if you are just passing through, or you are walking with me for awhile, welcome. welcome to this little corner of cyberspace that i am using to muse and moan and meander. sit down. grab a mug of coffee. i'll throw on an old johnny cash record. or brubeck. and we will put our feet on the furniture. and we won't use coasters. welcome.