Portishead-gasm!

I've just absorbed Three, the new album from one of the seminal trip-hop bands. It's their first studio album in eleven years. And I've gotta tell ya...they haven't missed a beat. This will be in my regular rotation for awhile. If you liked older Portishead, Massive Attack, etc., I highly recommend this one.

Man, that made my day. :) Nothing quite like having high expectations met. Speaking of expectations being met or exceeded, Game 1 of the Spurs-Suns 1st round series was in-effing-credible. I was able to watch the fourth quarter and both overtimes at work (I stayed a half-hour late to watch it in the break room). This has been one of the best NBA season in my lifetime, and the 2008 playoffs have been as anticipated as any in memory. And the first game of the first series between these two teams was among the best games I've ever seen. The ceiling for this post-season has officially been removed. To pervert a line from Palahniuk, "On the mountaintop, in the light, what we build could be anything." I doubt he'd appreciate that, what with his obsession with rock-bottom. But I think he, and most everyone, forget the limitless possibilities of rock-top.

Speaking of things that make me ecstatic, I'm Not There (the Bob Dylan 'biopic', if you dare to call it that) was incredible. Just a perfect representation of what Dylan means to so many people, maybe even himself included. Cate Blanchett, already on my top five list of favorites actresses, is absolutely stunning. I could not love her more at this point. I also finished Spook Country, which did not disappoint. I love Gibson's tech-savvy and cultural relevance, paired with his minimalistic wit and sharp wordplay. Now my focus shifts to Alfred Bester and The Demolished Man. You can likely find a previous blog post about The Stars My Destination in my archives. Bester is simply one fo the finest science fiction writers ever. Period. Already, TDM has pulled me into its world. Bester just seems to have a passionate, sex-on-the-beach kind of love for words. He just...dances.

I feel...light. I believe it is because I have gotten stronger. Or perhaps returned to my previous strength. As I always try to remind people who never quite seem to get it, do not let the fact that I carry it well deceive you into believing that the burden is light. I have stumbled, and the weight did show, somewhat. But it only confused people. As the naked truth often does. I always mused that the allegorical Fall from the Garden of Eden, where we gained knowledge of Good and Evil and felt compelled to clothe ourselves...that this was when we started needing the truth to be dressed up for us. Or as Virginia Woolf told me, "...candied over with art."

Anyway, I'm in too genuinely joyful of a place to be caught up in such musings...at least until it's 3am and I'm at work...silly graveyard shifts. :) I will sign off today with this, my definition:

"I learned to walk - since then I have learned to run. I learned to fly - since then I do not need to be pushed to move from my place. Now am I light, now do I fly, now do I see myself beneath myself. Now a god does dance within me." - The Smirking N.