Rob Lifford

It’s really hard to write the next post after something terribly sad happens, but today is a particularly good day to do it, I suppose, since it marks the two-year anniversary of the blog here at greasy elbow. Of course, it was a plain old “personal website” for quite a while before that, but it’s nice to note the date anyhow.

And as it turns out, today we did something that I actually couldn’t wait to blog.

This afternoon, Cheris was perusing the Austin Chronicle for art shows we might want to check out, and read something about Cracks in the Pavement: an international, multi-phase project that involves artists hiding works in the places we live, work, and play, to be found by ordinary passers-by or by treasure hunters who follow the instructions and maps on the project’s website.

So, we put on our best treasure-hunting cargo shorts, strapped Violet into her car seat, and set off in search of the art hidden near us in south Austin. Besides the map, the best clue we had to go on was this image from the website:

We followed the map to Garrison District Park, and it was clear to see that the tree the artist had used as a clue was directly across the street from the park entrance. We parked, crossed over, and began to explore the grassy strip between the tree and the small stand of woods that served as a barrier for the neighborhood on the other side. For some reason, we expected that we’d find something in the tall grass right at the edge of the woods, and after searching in vain for a few minutes we started to suspect that someone else had beaten us to it.

Then it occurred to me that we hadn’t really explored the tree itself closely enough. I approached it again and my eyes were drawn to the main divisions in the trunk, which would be perfect places to stash something.

When I got close enough, something was clearly perched there, just above my head. Since my lovely wife had proposed this little expedition, I called her over to do the honors of fetching it down, and snapped a picture of it before we took it down to have a closer look:

It was a small, primitive-style clay humanoid sculpture. Not the most striking work of art the world has ever seen, but getting there was at least half the fun.

Thanks to the artist, George Huffman, and all the Cracks in the Pavement organizers for making this afternoon a little bit out of the ordinary. We may just do some more treasure hunting in downtown Austin tomorrow…

Goodbye, Mike. We love you and miss you terribly already.

Bunker obliged me with the musical baton meme I passed him recently, and now he’s hit me back with a movie chain. Fair enough!

Total number of films I own on DVD/video:

Less than 20, all of them gifts or hand-me-downs. Never been big on owning films.

The last film I bought:

See above. I have actually never bought a movie, as far as I can recall. Odd.

The last film(s) I watched:

• At home (last night): Ocean’s Eleven (2001). We caught the original 1960 Rat Pack version a few weeks ago and had to compare. (Both had major flaws; both were pretty fun anyway.)
• At a theater (last weekend): Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Five Seven films I watch a lot, or that mean a lot to me (no particular order):

• Bob Roberts. Introducing the rebel conservative.
• The Hudsucker Proxy. Another Tim Robbins starring role, but it’s really the Coen brothers who get most of the credit for this one. I could put almost any of their films on the list, but this one still jumps to mind first.
• Magnolia. If aliens came to earth and asked, “what kinds of personal problems do humans have?” I’d show ’em this. This movie taught me to really, really respect acting.
• Short Cuts. It’s just not fair to rave about Magnolia without mentioning this one.
• Blazing Saddles. Still just plain wet-your-pants funny.
• I can’t make a list like this without any action movies… and although I’m definitely a Star Wars generation kid, I always think of Raiders of the Lost Ark when someone asks me about my favorite action/adventure flicks. I would love to see this get a full theatrical re-release for its 25th anniversary next year.
• I also can’t make a list like this without any Hitchcock movies: Vertigo is a particular favorite.

SO hard to not just keep listing great movies… Someday I’ll have to do a series of top-5 lists by genre, I guess.

I don’t want to bug the same five people as last time, and can’t stay awake thinking of who to hit next right now, so I’ll break the chain here.

Keith passed me this musical-baton meme that’s been going around… I’m game:

Total volume of music files on my computer:

6.4 GB. Bringing discs in from the living room very slowly; not really buying anything online but the occasional must-have standalone track.

The last CD I bought:

Calexico, Feast of Wire. Actually, my amazing wife bought it for me. Thanks again, kiddo, it’s a good’un.

Song playing right now:

“Clandestino,” by Manu Chao

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:

• “Living With the Law,” Chris Whitley. First song off the first album by the artist who’s probably changed how I view music and musicians more than any other.
• “The Battle of Who Could Care Less,” Ben Folds. I will never forget driving down Tioga street in Ithaca, NY, and the “damn, who is that?!?” that went through my head and down my spine when that tune came on the radio.
• “A Day In the Life,” The Beatles. It really doesn’t mean much of anything, does it? Then how did they make if feel so overwhelmingly meaningful, you know?
• “Positively 4th Street,” Bob Dylan. Imagine if “the middle finger” were a song. How’d he do that?
• “Out of Range,” Ani DiFranco. Just gotta drive.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:

• Both Jon and
• Sarah, with whom I have the distinct pleasure of working every day;
• Anthony, who will soon re-join that team and I’ll be pleased to get to know better;
• Brian, who, like me, may occasionally need to be nagged to blog more; and
• Bunker, who will likely bring a fresh perspective, considering the folks I’ve seen participating in this one so far have far and away been from the 35-and-under set.

Feel free to add your own responses in the comments if you’re not on that list. I actually didn’t expect to enjoy doing this writeup nearly as much as I did (thanks, Keith!) and hope it’ll be the same for those five I’ve tagged if they have a chance to play along.

Lots of new pictures have made it up to our Yahoo Photos site recently:

• 2005.03-04-05 (from CJL’s camera): as you might guess from the title, pictures from Cheris’ camera including Uncle Tom & Aunt Regina’s Easter Sunday visit (think good safe thoughts for Tom, who’s back in Afghanistan) and Dave & Michele’s visit.
• 2005.04-05 more April/May (Rob’s camera): again, the title is pretty much self-explanatory!
• 2005.05.05 – Violet’s nursery: in a very productive mid-week visit early this month, Granny Annie went to town on Violet’s nursery, painting the room, assembling the crib, and moving all the other furniture in while I was out at work and Cheris was taking care of the little girl (thanks, Ann!). She loves it and sleeps like a, well, a baby.

Check ’em out. In other interesting news: my band, Out of the Blue, is on a bill with Arlo Guthrie! We can’t really call it an opening slot, since we’re not technically even on the same stage, and we’re playing at 1:50 pm as part of an all-day event — Arlo’s at 9 pm — but it’s an honor and a privilege nonetheless. I saw Arlo once years ago in New York City and he is one charismatic and hilarious fellow once he straps on a guitar and steps behind a microphone.

OK, we’re all moved in at the new host, but I’ve been very lazy about getting the site running again. This is just sort of a test post to see that I’ve re-configured everything alright, but while I’m here I might as well note a few things for the record:

• Violet is doing fantastic — laughing and smiling a lot, holding her head up, growing like a weed, and sleeping through almost every night. We can’t believe how lucky and blessed we are.
• We just enjoyed a great, great visit from dear old pals Dave and Michele.
• I have a new band that I’m having a really good time with; more details on that will have to get onto the site real soon… For now, I’ll just say that we’re called Out of the Blue and you can check out an mp3 track of a fiddle tune medley we recorded (without a fiddle, but there’s some real nice cello on it!) right here.