external monologue

creative discovery museum

this is the first photo i've really taken since last weekends wedding and music shots. i was leaving downtown, passing another of my favorite buildings, the creative discovery museum. for those of you not from chattanooga, it's a children's museum with really wonky and fun (read non-rectilinear) architecture. i've actually never been inside either, though i'd love to go sometime. i suppose i've been waiting for some family with kids to invite me along, but maybe a group of us "adults" should plan an outing. (fun fact: that website for the museum is one of the first websites i ever worked on, back in the summer of 1998 during my internship at three:HD. i think it may have been where i learned to do rollovers. strangely it looks like no one's touched it since...)

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louis menand, one of my favorite new yorker contributors, has a fascinating piece in the latest issue. he writes about the average american's lack of understanding of and concern for politics. being someone who is slowly developing an interest in politics after years of total apathy, the opening paragraph caught my attention. ("In every Presidential-election year, there are news stories about undecided voters, people who say that they are perplexed about which candidate’s positions make the most sense...") the point of the article is that elections usually aren't decided on the issues that are being bandied (sp?) about, but instead often come down to gut feelings (as with most things in life, IMHO): "Voters go into the booth carrying the imprint of the hopes and fears, the prejudices and assumptions of their family, their friends, and their neighbors. For most people, voting may be more meaningful and more understandable as a social act than as a political act." even if you're not interested in politics, its worth the read merely because menand is such a fine writer and thinker.

free-friday-mp3: "Norfolk & Western is both a defunct rail line from Virginia and a band from Portland, Oregon." or so their website claims. i found them this week via the decemberists because Rachel Blumberg plays in both bands. here's terrified, from their newest album.