I can't believe Samantha and I have been married for almost a year. It has been a tumultuous past few months as Sam and I have struggled with what it means to be married while dealing with the stresses of work and school and everything else that has come along. It has been a rough year, but I am so glad that Sam and I got married. She has been so patient with me as I have pushed the limits of our relationship and she continues to surprise me every day with her kindness, grace and wit. I feel like we have begun to grow into one another in a way that has only recently begun to take shape.

posted by ryan_pants | 10/07/2009 12:45:00 AM | 0 comments

wedded

Samantha and I got married on Saturday. Samantha is so wonderful and I feel so lucky to have her as a partner. Everything was beautiful. All the loose ends I was had gotten myself so worked up about completely ceased to be important as we walked up the surprisingly dark path through the woods into the beautiful glow of the chapel spilling over with our loving family members. The party turned out great and we both had a really good time. I'm so ridiculously happy right now I could fall over. I cannot wait until our honeymoon. In about two weeks, we are making a road trip to Marfa and it will be great to spend some focused, alone time with Sam in the desert. I wish we were there now. I'm so excited and hopeful about our future. Samantha and I are such a great team I can't wait to see what we come up with.

posted by ryan_pants | 11/25/2008 12:37:00 PM | 0 comments

pick up stich

This is appearently a new trend in street art its pretty wonderful. Seeing all this colorful, swirly yarn adorning lamp posts and street signs and bike racks like in the image below reminds me of a few silly-surreal music videos from Michel Gondry director of films like Be Kind Rewind and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.


More knitted street installations in Chicago from the Microfiber Miltia

posted by ryan_pants | 11/13/2008 11:40:00 AM | 0 comments

more than a warlock

Sam and I are both very excited about tonight's presentation by Super Size Me filmmaker Morgan Spurlock at UNT. I like Spurlock and his Michael Moore-esque style of Direct Cinema and also his sweet biker mustache. I really enjoyed Super Size Me and 30 Days, the doc/reality show he produced for FX (canceled after its third season as of this month), and so when we found out some organization was screening his newest documentary, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, we decided to check it out. I had heard some interviews with Spurlock on NPR about this project and honestly it sounded pretty crappy.

It seemed at the time like one of those super-ambitious, globe trotting sophomore projects that filmmakers often undertake to prove themselves after having a successful first film. So going into it I had pretty low expectations. It felt like sort of a mash-up of several cultural tolerance themed episodes of 30 Days and Farenheight 9/11 with its efforts to point out the hypocrisy of the past 50 years of US foreign policy especially where the Middle East is concerned. All in all it was pretty good albeit spending a lot of time to get to the pretty obvious message that terrorists are extremists and do not represent all Afghanis/Muslims/Arabs/etc. Similarly the distinction was made by many of the men-on-the-street interviewed that the people of the USA are fine folks despite the actions of the US government. This is pretty much the theme of every episode of 30 Days and its a message that needs to be hammered home these days - people are all basically the same and have similar goals: to live a peaceful life, take care of their kids and hope they have a better life than their parents.

posted by ryan_pants | 11/13/2008 11:14:00 AM | 0 comments

plunderphonic party music

I am so old now. Keeping up with new music often feels like chore. Goddamn it I know what genres I like and what bands I like and I only want to hear more of that. I frequently catch myself settling into the comfortable zone of music I listened to either in high school (grunge and indie hip hop mostly) or the stuff I would spin during my brief tenure as a college radio DJ (instrumental hip hop, indie rock, downtempo beats). Finding new stuff for me lately has mostly consisted of realizing a favorite released a new album (usually a few months after it hits the street). I only mention this because I used to spend hours and hours researching music, finding new artists, investigating their influences and oh lord, the downloading! Now I can rarely find the patience for such efforts. Which is why when I find something new and interesting, I feel the need to TELL EVERYONE and listen to it until I'm so tired of it I want to puke.
Today's find is GIRLTALK (which as a further illustration of my elderlyhood, I first heard about this guy on NPR yesterday). Girltalk is a one-man mash-up machine. Mash-ups are nothing new. DJs have been playing Metal guitar solos on top of whatever gut-twisting shout-rap of the moment for what seems like ages. GirlTalk refines the mash-up into an esoteric orgy of musical excess spanning four decades. I want to develop a smug sample naming drinking game and get drunk on my own self satisfaction. The component parts are so well-layered and linked and the juxtaposed bits, especially the 80's pop and 90's hip hop shit makes my little short attention span heart flutter with refreshed Adderall beats. Oh Girltalk you know what white males, aged 18-28 really want.

Check out GirlTalk's myspace and listen to the whole album for zero dollars.

posted by ryan_pants | 10/30/2008 02:20:00 PM | 0 comments

ABOUT


(no expression)

My name is Ryan & this is my severely neglected blog... I'm a twenty-eight year old layabout in Denton, TX. I plan on figuring out what I want to do with my life soon. I have an amazing wife-to-be, two dogs (a Bassett hound & a Jack Russel terrier) & lots of time for naval-gazing.

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