stuff and people I kind of love today

in the storm's bad eye
here is what keeps me afloat
these and only these

1. The Little Star.
2. my children
3. "Pachuco Boogie," Don Tosti's Pachuco Boogie Boys, a.k.a. Cuarteto Don Ramon Sr.
4. Amy's brand Black Bean Burritos
5. the idea that Los Lonely Boys have a big pop hit, although I'd be a lot happier if it was one of their better songs and if I didn't suspect that it's really only a hit because crazy Christian groups have embraced it
6. Zinedine Zidane barfing on the pitch right before nailing a free kick, I used to do this in high school track meets, but I wasn't a world-class athlete, just a kid with a queasy stomach. I was fast, though
7. the fact that "Dodgeball" is getting better reviews than "The Terminal"
8. this amazing website, which in itself justifies Duke University
9. Funkadelic's first album, freakiest psychedelia + funkiest grooves
10. wearing my sandals despite the appalling condition of my feet
11. being snide during t-ball games with the only other parent who understands the importance of irony
12. the Brewers still being over .500, annis mirablis
13. birthday morning phonecalls from my brother taunting me for being old, the bastard
14. my new "Brasil '63" shirt from Target, $9.99, hilarious because there was no big tournament in 1963 as far as I can tell, just frontin'
15. talking about the arrogance and incompetence of the Bush administration with my father on the telephone, dude owns guns and hates unions but he's spreadin' the word in northern Cali (Redding represent)
16. the way Alexandre Vargas and Alfredo Moura make their guitars sound like a sped-up Thin Lizzy song on the live version of Daniela Mercury's "Salve-Se Quem Puder," like maybe Phil Lynott went back to his Brazilian roots
17. how sometimes the sunset, viewed through a bedroom window, is the most beautiful thing in the world
18. the Trailblazers will have three first-round picks this year