from the garden...

my grandfather has passed on

it was a long week this week. on friday i got the news that my grandfather, known as grampy to a few and mayor olexia to others, had passed away in his sleep. it's been a tough week, filled with many tears and sorrow. i went back to mingo junction, oh with my sister and stepped back into time... into a small steel town once vibrant but now lifeless and rusted out.

it was my first funeral as an adult. i saw my grandfather in his casket. he had deteriorated terribly in the past several weeks, but they did the best to give him the appearance of the man we loved and knew.

but to me, that wasn't the point. he could have looked absolutely like himself, but that really wouldn't matter. i wasn't looking at the man i knew, it wasn't the spirit and personality and energy that made grampy... grampy. that is the person i miss. call me religious, call me whatever, but i just don't see how someone can believe that death is the end. there is more to life than what we see, i do know that.

Check out these links:

A Newspaper article honoring my Grandfather

Obituary

So, As Grampy said, Let the good times roll. And just take it one day at a time... life can end any moment, so live each day richly.

-me

WISH LIST:

uh oh... the pumpkin is attracting attention...

Today I was surprised to receive the following email from a complete stranger...
I guess he is pretty serious about his pumpkins:

--- "Lee" wrote:

> Rusty: A neighbor and I were concerned last night
> when we walked past your plot and saw your very
> obvious, gorgeous, huge pumpkin. This is the season
> of theft and pumpkins are favorite targets. I used
> your plot sign and some squash leaves I found in
> your path to try to cover the pumpkin. It needs to
> be hidden very well and my job may not have been
> good enough. I used to cover mine with loose dry
> grass. It also needs to be harvested as soon as it
> is ready. Anyway, it was still there this morning.
> Lee , Plot #415

So, hovering on the line of sarcasm and sincerity, i sent him this reply:

Lee,

Thank you for the kind note. This probably all goes
back to my birth in Circleville, OH - home of the
world's largest pumpkin festival. I'm sure God has
known about this particular pumpkin for a long time.

You're right... The pumpkin needs to be harvested as
soon as it is ready. But if I'm going to grow
Colorado's biggest pumpkin of 2006, then I guess it
won't be harvested for at least another month (maybe
two?!). I'll devise a system to cover it up, thanks
for the warning. I would hate to see it get stolen, so
I'll figure something out... maybe a booby trap?
haha...

But seriously, thanks for the suggestions on how to
cover it up. Loose dry grass sounds like a pretty good
idea. I appreciate your concern and for taking the
time to contact me.

Take care,
-rusty


it's crazy out there in the garden plot. people don't play around when they're talking about their organic veggies...
later.

ps: the pic is of the circleville pumpkin festival

WE ANSWER TO A HIGHER AUTHORITY

Woke up today and decided to organize one of many areas of my life that need organization. hmm, room, kitchen, etc... but this morning i decided to spend some time at the garden. i drive over alone in my 97 toyota camry. it's not the old green one, but rather the silverish one that took me to california for the first time, along highway 1 on the coast, to san francisco, humboldt county, and through the rocky mountains to telluride and everywhere in between. anyway, it's a great car. but i digress.

the garden is beautiful and makes me relax and think about life. i have a pumpkin that is the size of a basketball. if the zucchini got any bigger, i could probably break your kneecaps in a single swing. the sunflowers are more than 10 feet tall, and i am not shitting you. so, this morning i spent 2 hours picking weeds, thinking about my life in boulder, thinking about my career, and thinking about what the future may hold. but i also thought about picking each weed, because they are so numerous that i could easily get overwhelmed and call it a day (which i did after 2 hours).

i'm listening to ray lamontagne right now. daniel (maniel dankovitch) calls it a masterpiece. "You Can Bring Me Flowers", on the new album, is my favorite track.

Also, above is the great zandokahn grilling some hebrew nationals. now, i am really not a fan of hot dogs. but hebrew nationals are certified kosher (phew, everything is ok... now i'm eating "kosher" beef and pork parts... awesome). anyway, try them for yourself. they're fantastic if you make them chicago-style. also been called "shit dog" style by nate and steven. anyway, just trust the Hebrew National slogan... "we answer to a higher authority". Buy some Heebs.

peace

keane is better than coldplay

feist, donovan frankenreiter, and keane on the same bill...

this just might be the show of the year.

so, just when i was getting sick of the whole brit-rock thing... sick of all the coldplay soundalikes and how boring coldplay has become and how meaningless and sterile all the lyrics are... and how emotional but devoid of technical talent they can seem...

well, along comes keane.

mind you, keane isn't anything now. i had their 4 song EP when I lived in Nashvegas 2 or 3 years ago. but tonight, i saw keane perform at the fox theater here in boulder. and man can tom chaplin sing and perform. he makes chris martin's jumpy dancing thing look like childs play. he's a showman! it's not that keane is just better, but tom chaplin can sing like no other. in the hundreds of show's i've seen, i have never seen someone sing with such range and such power and yet sing absolutely pitch perfect on every song. his voice just blew away chris martin and jon foreman and pretty much every rock band i've ever seen. he sang hard, long, and spot-on.

not only that, but the trio lineup was sick (triple sic)... a drummer and two people on keys. not one stringed instrument the entire show. it was incredible. keane puts on an amazing show. brit-rock has been redeemed. i guess now it's time to wait for the new travis album in the fall.

also, donovan frankenreiter put on the grooviest show of the year... jess, jenna, daniel and i were getting down. and feist was superb... who knew she was such a confident guitar player? mushaboom mushaboom...

time to go to bed!

you should really buy this

I am currently listening to what could be my favorite Daniel Lanois song... "Frozen" from the album "Belladonna". I'm in the middle of my workday, amid salary negotiations and keeping pretty busy. But when I hear Lanois play that pedal steel with the syncopated reggae beat in the background, all I can do is simply stop in my tracks. The pedal steel is heavenly... the melodic accents swoop in and out and flourish with moments that make you tingle, and the drums sound like they are played on the desk next to me.. lively and full of electricity. I'm not sure I've heard a better Lanois instrumental track... It's crucial.

Try it for yourself, buy the track from itunes (click here to buy). It's track number ten.

If you don't like it, I'll give you your dollar back. There it is... the Rustified Guarantee.

Peace

24 hours in boulder

BOULDER is one of those small western liberal towns filled with, well, conservative white liberals. If you can find a dive-bar in Boulder besides the Outback saloon, I'll give you 20 bucks! But underneath the expensive eateries, beautiful mountains, and craft breweries lie many stories to be told. Stories of trips to the emergency room to get stitches after defeating a mountain lion with my own two hands, crazy friends with thick eyebrows, eastern european immigrants and their food in denver, and deer chasing falafel. Here we go...


MIKEY "HE LIKES IT" SUN
Friday - 9:00 PM... err, 10:00 PM... maybe 11 PM?
He loves everything, you can't bring him down, and if you're talking about living the crazy life - look no further than my friend Mikey. Mikey works at the Southern Sun Brewery (previously mentioned in another post), and is quite possibly the jolliest man I have ever met. Seth Williams, watch out! Not only is Mikey always happy, but he always gives me free beer. Score. Oh, and when he says his birthday party is starting at 9 PM, he actually means that it sure as hell won't start at 9. I think it's a mysterious formula that actually decides when the party starts, a formula involving illegal substances... and I sure as hell know not to show up at 9, or 10, and hmm... maybe 11 if I want to start the party. But you have to love Mikey, b/c, well, he's Mikey!


MOUNTAIN LION VICTORY - TAKE ME TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM
Saturday - 12:30 PM
So, yeah man, I was, like, climbing this gnarly mountain, and this huge giiiinormous mountain lion crept up on me... let's call him APACHE and i slit his throat and he retaliated and swiped his claws through my flesh and i, like, pulled out a this rad knife I bought at REI with this sweet serrated blade and razor hook and lifetime warranty and I totally gouged his eyes out, choked him with my bare hands, and then dragged him a whole effin mile down from the mountains and and through my neighborhood and then drank hoppy beers with my friends on my deck while we celebrated with national camera crews taking pictures as I raised a toast in honor of my mighty victory. Actually, I was washing dishes and a pint glass broke, slit my palm, and required 5 stitches at the emergency room.



ORTHODOX FESTIVAL - FOOD, EASTERN EUROPEANS, MORE FOOD
Saturday - 5:00 PM
Four hours after accidentally slitting my hand, I'm ready to hit up the Orthodox food festival in Denver. By Orthodox food, I mean Eastern Orthodox... like Russian, Serbian, Polish, and most other Eastern European ethnicities. Also, Greek and African Orthodox thrown in b/c they attend the local parish. See, I am the product of 2 Slovak immigrants (my great-grandparents), so I grew up eating staple eastern european foods like pierogis, cabbage rolls, and kielbasa. So, when I get a chance to have some good "hunky" food, I am all over it! And let me tell you right now, it was carpathian heritage bliss. Not only the food, but I stepped inside the local Orthodox churched filled with all it's icons, rituals, incense, and eternal time (as our friend said, when you step into the church, your watch doesn't mean anything - you're now on holy eternal time). This was the faith of my great grandparents... the faith of my people, and it was good to be home. And that hot Serbian girl... now we're talking... she can make my food, shares my ethnic and faith heritage... can we just get married or what? I'll see her next Sunday, uh huh.


IS THAT A DEER EATING MY FALAFEL?
Saturday - 8:30 PM
After returning from Denver, I stopped by the garden plot to water my plants and pick some zucchini. What I ran into was a group of new friends drinking mojitos under the makeshift mountain gazebo and a deer taking an evening stroll looking for some falafel (it's Boulder!). I had a drink, met some new people, and ran into some local wildlife... i gotta say it was a good day. Oh did I mention I went fly-fishing this morning? And I'm making garden- grown zuchini parmigiana?

That's 24 hours in Boulder...

i have the hops for hops

For some unbeknownst reason, I currently have an insatiable thirst for hops. Maybe it's the hot summer and the search for the perfect thirst quencher... maybe not. Anyway, hops gives beer flavor. For example, pale ales are beers with a lot of hops... an example of a standard pale ale is sierra nevada. it's not super bitter, but definitely has a bite.

So, with that i recommend the following three beers for your enjoyment. Try them and let me know what you think... you should be able to find any of these at a specialized liquor store.

1. Stone IPA from Stone Brewing
2. Hazed and Infused from Boulder Beer
3. Hop Ottin IPA from Anderson Valley

PS: I guess colorado is like grad school for beer lovers. it seems to be the case. damn hippies!

hot as balls

it's been hot in boulder this week. very hot.

as a middle-aged irishman once said to me at the old brazenhead pub in dublin...
him: you know how hot it is in arizona?
josh and i: how hot?
him: (pause - looks us in the eyes) it's ... FECKIN hot!
so, that's how hot it has been here: absolutley feckin hot.
104 feckin degrees hot.
i live in a kiln.... anybody have a schmock? what?

it's been a while since i've posted anything, so here are some thoughts:

1. i'm getting a promotion at my job (tech company). this should be a good move for the time-being, and will allow me to pay off some bills (this one goes out to los angeles!) and save some money to be used for a very noble activity (travelling!) of my choosing.

2. real estate. not many of my friends in boulder or los angeles own houses... it's all about renting b/c they are so expensive in these markets. but nashville... even if i never move back there, it seems like things are growing like crazy and i should seriously look into this as an investment. we'll see.

3. snowboarding. so, i'm struggling to replicate the benefits of surfing. i think it was the one exercise that i actually enjoyed. basically, besides getting on occasional streaks of sit-ups and pushups, i'm not that into pushing myself to run or whatever. not very fun. so, i'm thinking about some options. water polo. anyone ever play? it's competitive, you swim a alot, it looks pretty exciting. right??? but definitely snowboarding... i'm thinking of getting a season pass this year and trying my hand at transitioning from the water to the snow... but this won't start for 3 months or so.

4. amante coffee. one of my new favorite places (could it be the very fine ladies?)... it's a bar, they serve coffee. it's a coffee bar, they serve liquor. hip enough to visit at night, chill enough to relax in the morning. love it. http://amantecoffee.com/

5. revision. screw a feckin house. i could travel the world with that kind of money. shit... toss the house idea. i'd rather spend a year hitting up every place from new zealand to the blue coastline of croatia, to eastern europe checking out my roots in slovakia, drinking absinthe in prague, finding the ralston clan in paisley scotland, taking taxis in the neon glow of tokyo... now we're talking! let the good times roll!

well, take care everyone. come out to boulder and visit! plan that boarding trip!

PEACE

Cops Arrest Bridge Trolls in Boulder

Here is why the rest of Colorado thinks Boulder is crazy, check the link below.

Boulder bikers, joggers confront bridge trolls

Excerpts from the article include:
"several joggers encountered a modern-day variety of bridge trolls in a park"
"he was a troll and claimed the bridge as his own "
"apparently having neither a piece of gold nor a goat "
"Boville told police he had taken a single tab of LSD, and Hibbs had taken two tabs. "

Wow. Bring some gold the next time you visit... this is ridiculous.

mini photo gallery

hello my people,

here are some pictures that i took that you might enjoy.

click to enlarge.






the ryman
(nashville, tn)
2003




erie aflame
(port clinton, oh)
2006



the residents of the windsor
(nashville, tn)
2003



j.r., griffin, caroline, donnie
(nashville, tn)
2003


blame it on the elevation
(telluride, co)
2006