Some more shots from our Grand Marais excursion. This one is of Cascade Falls which we found along Highway 61. Next year, we hope to see it with the trees in full fall color. 

A calm spot at Gooseberry Falls. 

Gooseberry close up. 

Here I am at one of the most beautiful places in all of Minnesota, Gooseberry Falls. It's hard to believe that this is the first time I have ever seen this place... 

A few geese at Split Rock lighthouse. 

Along the Lake Superior coastline at Cross River, the Cross River Falls are an awesome site. Check out the massive pines. 

Lake Superior shore near Beaver River. The rain from the night before made the whitecaps, creating an ocean-like feel to the lake. 

Over MEA weekend, my wife and I drove up north past Duluth to Grand Marais. Along the way we stopped at breathtaking Gooseberry Falls, where we climbed along the rocks and enjoyed the aroma of pine. 

The Killers vs. Duran Duran

A few months back, I was listening to my favorite local station, Drive 105 FM, and they played a song called "Somebody Told Me" by the Killers. I listened for the song each time I was in the car, shower, etc., and liked it more and more. So I decided to take a chance and buy the album. Now there's always a danger in purchasing an album when one has only heard a single song from said album. I've been burned in the past. A number of times. But I've also found some interesting new groups and singers. Case in point, Muse. I had only heard one of their songs before obtaining Absolution and since then have been in pursuit of all of their albums. Of course, the only one that's even come close to Absolution's greatness is Showbiz.

Anyway, I went nuts and bought the Killers' album Hot Fuss. (Why it has this ludicrous title, I don't know.) And since, I've had a hard time taking it out of my CD player. I've made copies for the car, the job, and the livingroom. I can't get enough of it. Love it, love it, love it. Though none of the songs are quite as driving as "Somebody Told Me," they all have something catchy about them. I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite tune, though "Andy, You're a Star" and "All These Things That I've Done" stand out a bit for me.

What makes this band even more intriguing for me is due to an article I read in some entertainment magazine yesterday. Not only did this article compare The Killers to Duran Duran, who in the 80s were rock'n'roll geniuses in my book, but the article also mentioned that my hero and personal god David Bowie attended The Killers concert. Bowie has just finished his own tour, not to mention heart surgery, and to hear he's taken an interest in a band I'm interested in really...oh, pitiful me...it validates my music taste. There, I've said it. Why I would ever rely on the opinion of someone I don't know is so 15 years old, but David Bowie is "special."

The thing that sticks out in my memory about the article, aside from David of course, is the comparison to Duran Duran. I've liked Duran all along. Even through their sticky Power Station/Arcadia phase, and all through the last fifteen years when they haven't been ultra-spotlighted. One of their best albums was Medazzaland from 1997.

Well, the point is that I was thrilled that Duran Duran has a new album called Astronaut and got it yesterday. And...well...The Killers are better...Okay, okay, maybe I need to give Astronaut a couple more listens, but The Killers had me right away with Hot Fuss. I think the problem might be that Duran Duran has reassembled all of its members. I think they were strongest when it was just Simon LeBon, John Taylor, and Nick Rhodes. The other two Taylors kind of muddy the waters, in my opinion.

So, The Killers win for now.

Egyptian Mythology

I'm putting together a new unit for my Mythology class. It has seemed strange to me that Egyptian Mythology is not a part of the course, so I thought I'd add a unit about the Egyptians. So for days now, whenever my mind wanders away from reality, it ends up thinking about the Egyptians. Not by choice, really. It's just in my head. Last night I worked on some overheads for the afterlife. Fascinating. I knew some of it already--the bit about the brain pulled out throught he nose and that they didn't think the brain was a useful organ. And the canopic jars housing some of the other organs. I knew the Anubis was in the underworld, but I always assumed he was the god of the dead.

He isn't. It's Osiris. And I knew a little about the Osiris story because my wife mentioned in once when we were watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There's an episode called "The Judge," I think, that has a demon who has been dismembered and his parts buried in different areas of the world. This is just what Set did to Osiris once he turned up in the chest again.

So Osiris is the god of the dead and Anubis is sort of his henchman, I gues. Because he's the one who leads the dead to the gods for judgment and he's the one that puts the heart on the scale for weighing against the feather of Ma'at. It's ironic, in a way, that he is Osiris's helper, since he is the son of Set and Nephthys. But then, Nephthys did help Isis to recover Osiris after Set tricked him into the chest.

It's interesting stuff, though I'm not sure how much the students enjoy it.

Another thing I was making overheads of was the pyramids. I traced the Great Pyramid at Giza and the bent pyramid, for which they allegedly ran out of supplies and funding and had to taper it in at the top. The Great Pyramid is the only one that has a burial chamber above ground. It's odd in that way.

I also made overheads of pictures of various things--the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, the mummification performed by Anubis, the judging of the dead, canopic jars, and some coffins as well. I hope in time to get them done at Kinko's in color, but for now they're just black and white.

Anyway, that's what's on my mind. Egyptian Mythology, but mostly the afterlife because that's what I've most resently been researching.

October 2002, my friend Chris and I select pumpkins to carve. We've had a carving evening in each October. This year will be our fourth. 

Ladder 49

It's been more than a month since I've seen a movie in the theatre. Something about too many time commitments, too little time. So Sunday seemed like a good day to go. I naturally did not have my work done and hadn't written anything in my current novel, but damnit, I was sick of watching movies go by without my seeing them.

So we chose Ladder 49, despite the fact that other movies that had been out for longer were still calling to me, though their cries came with little enthusiasm. The loudest was Cellular, but its bellow for attention was quickly cancelled out when my wife said she preferred Ladder 49.

It's a well-put-together movie. It starts with the ending scene, essentially. Joaquin Phoenix's character Jack Morrison is saving a man from a burning building. The fire is intense and will destroy the building, which is monstrous--some sort of factory. The man and Morrison are on the twelfth floor and Morrison has to lower him down the outside of the building to a cherry picker where two other firefighters await. As he lowers him, the floor beneath him collapses, and he falls two or three stories down. The rest of the movie contains flashbacks to his joining the fire department, finding his wife, having his two children, losing his best friend, taking a more dangerous position at the fire dept., all interspersed with the opening scene as he fights to make it to firefighters who are searching for him.

Now, I enjoyed the movie. I liked the way it was assembled with the flashbacks. I thought Joaquin's acting was great--I personally think he'll be a modern day Hoffman/DeNiro after a few more films. But I don't know that I liked the movie. The ending, though wildly foreshadowed, was too disappointing for me. Of course, it's the kind of ending I would write in my own work. It's the ending that was anticipated. But still, I didn't want it to happen.

It was better than watching Law and Order reruns on TNT, though.