american idle

Wisdom’s a gift, but you’d trade it for youth Age is...

Tue, 07 May 2013 18:34:53 -0400

Wisdom’s a gift, but you’d trade it for youth
Age is an honor - it’s still not the truth
We saw the stars when they hid from the world
You cursed the sun when it stepped to your girl
Maybe she’s gone and I can’t resurrect her
The truth is she doesn’t need me to protect her
We don’t know the true death, the true way of all flesh
Everyone’s dying, but girl - you’re not old yet

"The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at..."

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:49:14 -0400

“The government is afraid of the guns people have because they have to have control of the people at all times. Once you take away the guns, you can do anything to the people. You give them an inch and they take a mile. I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control.”

- Timothy McVeigh

"There was only one guy in the whole Bible that Jesus ever personally promised a place with Him in..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:23:28 -0400

““There was only one guy in the whole Bible that Jesus ever personally promised a place with Him in Paradise. Not Peter, not Paul, not any of those guys. He was a convicted thief, being executed. So don’t knock the guys on death row. Maybe they know something you don’t.””

- Neil Gaiman, American Gods

The Subconscious Mind

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:05:48 -0500

Backstory - I woke up one morning and found this bit of free verse in my phone notes. I had written it the night before. The catch? I don’t remember waking up to write it:

“This town.
It’s lost all semblance of charm.
With the dip spit sheen teasing
and bouncing
the light through every dark alley and stairwell,
those hostels for lost dreams.
Rain drip,
gutter slide,
collecting,
pooling in the embrace of concrete and curb.
That right angle
That right angel
has long gone,
‘Flown the coop.’
Look to see your reflection
distorted
when the surface is broken.
Oh, who those ripples might touch.
For sooth, how far will they reach?
Those ripples
left when your dream is distorted by the shuffling footfalls of the nonchalant
corporate
ruffians,
the ball point,
felt tipped,
renegade
militia.
This town.
On the brink.
Just a few factory fires away from being a post-apocalyptic.
Time to leave.
‘Flight 1096 now boarding.’
Time to reconvene in Eden.
All in favor, say ‘why’
To trade qualms for palm leaves.
We will live
forever
with nothing but our dreams
to sustain us.
Lotus flowers in my tea.
I’d quicker give in than give up
Merrily,
merrily,
merrily,
merrily
Life is but a dream.”

Girl Scout Sessions - EP

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:18:15 -0500

Hello, it’s Dylan and Leslie. We recorded more music for you. We hope you like it. As usual, just click the link at the bottom of the page - you’ll be taken to the MediaFire page where you can download fresh jams to help you get through the Nor’easter. We put a lot into recording these diddies. With the release of this EP, Leslie and I have officially recorded and released 10 songs together. Here’s to 10 more.

“We’re releasing this on Grammy night…probably some foreshadowing in there somewhere.” - Leslie Gile, iMessage, 2.10.13

Girl Scout Sessions - EP

1. Jolene, originally by Dolly Parton
2. Everything Has Changed, originally by Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran
3. The Banjolin Song (Single Live Take), originally by Mumford & Sons

http://www.mediafire.com/?wo0afokh22a2bmj

Photo

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:19:07 -0500

The State of the Union

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 22:35:12 -0500

Poetry. We live in a world completely devoid of poetry.

Rhetorical flourish is dead. Beauty has given up the ghost. Color for the sake of light has been erased. Light for the sake of hope has been snuffed out. It’s all politics now. Politics and policy. No right brain, no left brain. No brains at all – just the “left” and the “right.” With a capital “L” and a capital “R,” respectfully – and with all due respect. But, the right is wrong and the left has left reason for intrigue, and rightfully so. Reason is unreasonable in a time when we can no longer tell right from wrong. In a time where the intellectual has been usurped by the analytical.

Words are my trade. Business doesn’t boom as it once did. It taps like a ghost at the door. It howls at the window, a perfumed wind of a time long passed. A time when a library card was more powerful than an automatic weapon. When the mind was a shield, the tongue a blade, and a drone nothing but a sound.

We have become a nation of carnival barkers, inviting the rest of the world to our show. They’ll come, they’ll laugh, they’ll clap us on the back and give us their money; but, we only have ourselves to look at in the mirror once the show is over - slowly taking off our clown makeup in the dark.

Poetry. We live in a world completely devoid of poetry.

This is her No regrets I embrace your defects to confess you...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:35:00 -0500

This is her

No regrets

I embrace your defects to confess you were my every wish

I admit that I will never feel alone

Once I call you Home

Coheed just released one of the better love songs I’ve heard.

If the tide is high for too long, you forget what the steady ebb and flow is hiding. Once the water...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:31:00 -0500

If the tide is high for too long, you forget what the steady ebb and flow is hiding. Once the water recedes - returning back into its own ever-changing embrace - all the life and treasure buried in the sand is once again exposed. There are periods of time in which I completely forget I have this. But, once the water recedes and the shoreline grows again, it find it sitting just where I left it. What follows is a frantic attempt to compose something worth reading. What results is me completely wasting your time with a pointless attempt at maritime rhetoric.

New Year’s Resolution - Do better.

Thanks.

Click here to download HQ mp3s of CMT Crossroads: Mumford & Sons and Emmylou Harris

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:40:44 -0500

Click here to download HQ mp3s of CMT Crossroads: Mumford & Sons and Emmylou Harris:

mumfordandsonsblog:

CMT Crossroads featured Mumford & Sons and Emmylou Harris in an episode that originally aired on September 27, 2012, and now you can add these tracks from their performance to your collection:

If I Needed You

Interview I

Awake My Soul

Interview II

The Road

Interview III

Angel Band (Excerpt)

Interview IV

The Cave

Interview V

Orphan Girl

Interview VI

Where Are You Now

Interview VII

The Boxer (orig. Simon & Garfunkel) [audio preview here]

Click here to download these tracks now. Please note that if CMT makes this collection available for purchase in the future, this download will be disabled.

Click here to watch the full episode of CMT Crossroads: Mumford & Sons and Emmylou Harris.

Click here for pictures from the performance.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, music fans.

"Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have..."

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:19:46 -0500

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.”

- Gandalf/The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I..."

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 02:48:17 -0500

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other ambition so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

- Abraham Lincoln, age 23

Thunder Cats Are Go - EP

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 23:17:39 -0400

Oh, hey. It’s The Night Vines - or Leslie and Dylan, however you want to address us. We couldn’t wait until Christmas to release more music, so we put together a little 9 minute EP called Thunder Cats Are Go to tide you over. We figured it was time to do a few covers. There will be more where this came from, but, being children of the dot com era, we’re all about instant gratification. This time around, we decided to do a single live take of one of the songs - so it’s out there, mistakes and all; we wanted you to feel like you were sitting there with us as we made our way through a new song. Click the link below. It will take you to a MediaFire page where you can download a .zip file.

http://www.mediafire.com/?1cgjx6dvx789nxv

Thank you for listening. It means more to us than you know.

Thunder Cats Are Go- EP

1. Barton Hollow - Originally by The Civil Wars

2. Untitled (Instrumental) - Originally by Ben Rector

3. I’ve Got This Friend (Single Live Take) - Originally by The Civil Wars

Photo

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 14:41:27 -0400

Balthazar's Song

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:52:09 -0400

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.

- William Shakespeare/Much Ado About Nothing

Forrest & Dylan Do History: Lincoln's Assassination

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:31:12 -0400

Dylan: Pres. Lincoln was all, “Man, I luv dis pl BAM,” & Mary Todd was all, “u missed the best part cuz ur dead now! Lol I’m crazy”

Forrest: Abe Lincoln got shot while watching a play an that’s sad and ish but like don’t talk during the movie ya feel me?

D: Abe prolly got capped cause he was all “SPOILER ALRT, this play sux. lol I saw dis at the White House like 2 yrs ago. lmao” DON’T SUPPORT THE ARTS lol

D: Wut if MaryT packed a lunch n goes, guess ill leave it at the theater cuz he cant eat it & THAT FOOD IS STILL JUS CHILLIN?!?

F: nah bruh cudnt be cuz Booth was prolly like “aye M gimme day lunch too I gotta mad horse ride after this tho”

D: BUT THEN HE’D GET LINCOLN POWERS THO smdh. 2 bad u got caught n a barn LOL

D: 4 real tho, dude shot abe, got his leg broke jumpin, then yelled latin .. -___-

F: and folks was conflicted an stuff cuz they was like well he shot the bro Abe but he hurt his leg tho idk

D: half of em were all “what’d he say lol?! I’m not latin! rofl” booth shoulda been “its part of the play,” then GTFO.

F: real tok most folks ain’t even kno it was a real crime tho they was like “ahh damn they broke the 4th wall but I’m into it”

D: I kno, rite? then they were all, “yo, dis play is next level ish” then they see lincoln n go “I got priors” & run

A Rhapsody for One. One minute on a Friday night. One minute on...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 02:55:58 -0400

A Rhapsody for One. One minute on a Friday night. One minute on a Saturday morning.

"More than any time in recent history, America’s destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 15:18:29 -0400

“More than any time in recent history, America’s destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people’s strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive.”

- The West Wing, “20 Hours in America”

animalsbeingdicks: Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Hey Kristin. Hey...

Thu, 03 May 2012 15:24:16 -0400

animalsbeingdicks:

Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it.

Hey Kristin. Hey Kristin. Hey Kristin. Hey Kristin.

What the storm blew in...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 21:21:00 -0400

Oklahoma decided to have a few tornadoes today. As usual, they kick-flipped over the main OU campus. However, this doesn’t change the fact that the university community was still in a state of panic. Rushing to get cars into parking garages before the hail started, completely devoid of any semblance of traffic law knowledge.

Long story short, I ended up having to spend a lot of time in the student union. My house isn’t exactly tornado friendly. So I, along with dogs, undergrads, faculty, staff, and a group of high school students in the middle of a speech & debate competition, hunkered down, fusing like a make-shift family. After I completely gave up on getting anywhere on my Civil Procedure outline, I decided I would risk the weather, leave the safety of the air-conditionerless union basement, and head back to my house.

On my way back, I noticed I was sharing the sidewalk with someone. A skinny, tall for his age, thirteen-year-old kid in a tie. He was out taking a walk to clear his head before his competition round. I didn’t catch his name, so let’s just call him “Kid.” This was our conversation…

Dylan: “So are you here for this big debate competition?”

Kid: “Yeah. I’m a Freshman, so this is my first year I’ve been able to do it.”

Dylan: “That’s pretty cool. You know, when I was your age I took speech and debate. Don’t you love it?”

Kid: “Yeah, it’s pretty fun.”

Dylan: “I’m from Lawton, do you all have any teams here from that area?”

Kid: “You mean over by Ft. Sill?”

Dylan: “Yeah.”

Kid: “No, I don’t think so.”

Dylan: “Eh, I didn’t think so. Lawton isn’t really known for its awesome speech and debate teams. We’re more of a sports town.”

Kid: “Yeah, I tried sports a bit. Baseball, tennis… it turns out it wasn’t really my style. I’m not really the athletic type. I’m a lot better at stuff like this.”

Dylan: “Same here. I tried sports, too. Seventh grade, eighth grade. Not really my style either. You know what though?”

Kid: “What?”

Dylan: “When all is said and done, you’re going to have a good head on your shoulders. It won’t matter if you letter in any varsity sports in high school or not. People are going to value you because you’re the guy who knows what to say, and when to say it. You’ll be the witty one. “

Kid: “Plus I get to walk around in a tie.”

Dylan: “Exactly. You know you’re going to have to go to law school now.”

Kid: “Are you in law school?”

Dylan: “I just started. Let me tell you, for guys like us, who like stuff like we like, law school is pretty fun. It’s right up your alley.”

Kid: “I’ve thought about it a few times. But, well, I have about 7 years left, so I’m not in any hurry.”

Dylan: “More power to you. Enjoy those seven years, though. They feel like they last forever, but then you wake up one day, and everything’s different. It’s not your mom driving you to school, it’s you driving yourself to a job interview. Time runs away from you like that.”

Kid: “I will. Well, hey, I’ve got to get back and start preparing for my round. Thanks for talking to me. Good luck with everything.”

Dylan: “No problem man. Sorry about this weather. Good luck tonight, you’re going to rock it.”

Kid: “Thanks. See you around.”

Dylan: “Oh, and hey… hang in there. You’re going to be fine.”

It was almost as if, in the wake of the tornado, a hole had ripped in time, and I was given the opportunity to talk to myself at thirteen; a kid that managed to sidestep bullies by telling them jokes, who always wanted to sit at the adult table because they had better conversations, who never truly mastered the art of throwing a spiral, or hitting a home run. I got to see how far I’ve come, and what a little faith and perseverance can do. Most importantly, I realized that, through everything, I have always remained true to myself.

So, to Dylan, that skinny, tall for his age, thirteen-year-old kid roaming the caverns of my past…

Thank you for hanging in there.

Thank you for never giving up.

Things didn’t turn out half bad, did they?

I hate to say I told you so.