musicbyryan.com

The Beltway

i’ve been wanting to write this post for many months now. i’ve been trying to let the idea sit and brew in my mind so that i can with utmost accuracy describe the sensation i experience each time i drive on the capital beltway. these thoughts are like a fog unless i am actually in the car travelling, and then they are sharp and clear. nonetheless, here you are.

i have lived here in northern virginia for 2 years and 8 months and i have had what has felt like a lifetime of experiences that i never thought i would have, wanted to have nor anticipated i would ever feel. life to me back home came somewhat with ease. i had trials and difficult times, yet i always found hope and energy to get through a difficult time and emerge on the up. seemingly every circumstance i am involved in, i find difficulty and strain. there is something ominuos, oppressing and threatening about the district and that tends to seep or crawl out into the surrounding areas. the city, or downtown is spectacularly beauitiful. the design and the layout of the city really is a must for every american. i almost feel that every american should be required to see it for themselves. perhaps in middle school or high school on a school trip. i have no suggestions on how this adventure could be funded, i simply feel it is a must for americans of all sorts. if one considers oneself and american, then they must see the national mall and the capital. this brings me to the topic of this post.

interstate 495. the loop of highway encircling the district of columbia is 64 miles in length and is at most points 4 lanes on each side, in some cases 3. every time i travel anywhere using the beltway i am overcome with the sensation that it is an enormous iron arm full of strength, power, and control. it is to say very little, quite an intimidating feeling. sometimes i marvel at the fact that as many people travel that road every day do. during many, many hours every day, including weekends, it ceases to be a highway and it becomes a parking lot. poeple just sit there every day in traffic with their radios turned on and their brains turned off. i personally know someone who lives an hour and 10 minutes from her work with no traffic. her commute each morning and evening ranges from an hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes or so depending on the day, holiday, friday or the like. the traffic delay alone is nearly as long as her drive would be at 2 or 3 in the morning. recently i traveled against traffic (going away from the city headed to baltimore) at 6am and traffic was terrible starting at the virginia/maryland border all the way into maryland on 95, a stretch of 13 miles or so. the people coming from that way had 13 miles plus to look forward to sitting in stand still and stop-n-go traffic, and the sun wasn’t even up yet! every morning that is how things are. i like to think that i can understand things or reach and understanding of things philosophically, but the fact of how people here live, and the fact that what is “normal” here is not only accepted but even expected, blows my mind into little pieces. in the entire time i have been here i feel i have been able to make sense of almost nothing. my resultant thought can be said like this.

if you wish your life to be quiet and be filled with the peace of God, do not, unless led by the Almighty Himself, ever entertain the thought of living here.

July 9.2006

what an indescribably insane and overwhelming day. my first born child was born, we gave him the name elijah john. the world cup final was also played, in case you were sleeping the whole weekend, bringing the 2006 world cup to a close. i have had such a wash of emotion in the last few days. i don’t understand this fact, but for some reason no man that i have ever known has taken me aside and told me what it was going to be like to be a married person and then to have kids, told me what i can look forward to or expect to experience. my dad didn’t do it, and no other male that i have ever spoken to has told me. i don’t think it is a case of having to experience it to really understand it. i think there are things that can be shared that can help the next person be a little bit prepared for their experiences. a little understanding is immeasurably better than no understanding. if you have the time and the interest, i’ll tell you sometime. i don’t know how this enormous thing just happens everyday hundreds and thousands of times and everyone just acts like nothing major happened and then 6 months to a year later they start saying, “i think i’m ready for another one.”

write it down, i won’t be saying that. i am ecstatic with the family that God has blessed me with right now. if i spend the rest of my life perfecting my ability to lead, care, love, and provide for the two people i am responsible fo today, i will be singing God’s praises for all time. i believe there may be two more, both girls, in our future and i will welcome with an open heart those or any further blessings He desires to bring into my home, but wow!!! is this emotionally super-saturating.

2006 world cup, kind of smelly.

i spent nearly the entire first 5 months of this year and a good portion of last winter, due to the lack of snowfall, looking forward to the 31 days between june 9 and july 9 and the football that was to be played. i had so much anticipation and excitement. there were some definite high points, italy v usa, spain’s 3 group games, the 6 argentina put up, and the france v spain match was spectacular, probably the match of the tournament for me, but all in all i feel very let down. perhaps i was too excited. coming off the champions league semi finals and final, which were chock full of excitement. i really thought these teams would come and and just go for it. the only teams that came out and looked even interested were spain and argentina. argentina lost a tough one against the hosts and spain came up against an inspired zizou and a well functioning france team.

the #1 commentating team of dave o’brien and marcelo balboa were a waste. i truly wish there was a button on the remote that muted the commentators but allowed the sound feed from the arena or stadium to come through. adrien healy and tommy smyth for my money were the best team. not surprisingly they are both from the uk and they both commentate the european matches all season. they were used sparingly as the #4 team, which boggles my mind as to why. the great thing about commentators from europe is that they let the action do the talking and they aren’t afraid to not talk for a spell or two, it really is wonderful to watch european football on the television.

zidane’s head-butt was one for the ages. they’ll be playing that clip for 50 years and beyond whenever it is a world cup year. i’ll be telling my kids about that one. zidane was out of line but i believe that the italian way of playing dirty, play-acting, and causing incidents like the elbow on brian mcbride and the head-butt in the final, is the real problem. zidane’s mother is in hospital and materrazzi insulted his mother and sister and zidane said he heard him say it once, twice, three times and he said at that point he could no longer control himself. the world cup is interesting because you have all of these cultures coming together in one place and in many ways the style of play and the demeanor of the teams is to a degree, representative of the country as a whole. that being said, there isn’t one thing about the italian team, aside from fabio cannavaro’s work ethic that i feel in accord with. in some ways it’s fitting to me that they won the cup because the world cup was lackluster and a lackluster team won it. france wasn’t much more exciting, especially with henry going awol for all but maybe 30 minutes of the entire tournament. sure, he got called on a ton of offsides, which means he was trying, but there wasn’t anything but two goals to show for it. the goal against brazil was spectacular, but he didn’t make it, zidane free kick and brazil’s lack of marking did. he just finished with precision. henry has to be more inspirational and the form he demonstrated in arsenal’s champions league run was nowhere to be found.

all in all i’m left feeling like henry looks in the picture below, anticipating something big, but being let down.

what can i say? as exciting as it was to watch the football and know it is the world cup, and know this only happens once every 4 years, it just left me, well, again feeling like henry looks below.

on a sad note,

saturday, august 19 will mark the official end to highbury being known as the home of arsenal. they will play their first leaguegame at their new 60,000 seat digs across the railroad tracks at ashburton grove. highbury was one of if not the last art-deco stadiums as they are called. it has marbled halls and huge white facade on the east end. it stands in a residential neighborhood of row houses and has so much character and heart. one of the very few regrets that i have in my life is that i didn’t travel to london last year in time to see the stadium while it was in use as a football ground. it is being largely dismantled and turned into high priced flats with the pitch being turned into a communal center garden area. if you happen to be in london any time soon, you’ve got to pop round and see it. take plenty of pics and be sure to send them to me.

alas, there won’t be anymore photos like this one.

the new logo

this is the newly designed official Ryan logo. you will see it in the address bar of both this blog and my music website, www.musicbyryan.com. i had been thinking for several months on what logo i wanted, and with the help of my in-house designer. i’m pretty stoked about it. let me know what you think.

i am officially an employee of the starbucks corporation.

i was hired several days ago, and have a full week of training under my belt. i worked today and if you told me that everyone in fairfax came in today, i wouldn’t doubt you. we were absolutely slammed. it was often only myself and another person on the floor. i was on register and i’m not that good yet. it was a crazy day.

it has been a very eye-opening experience working for starbucks. the people that i work with are some of the most interesting people i have met in a very long time. i’m fairly certain that the level of uniqueness that my co-workers possess is heightened by the level of caffeine in each of their systems, nonetheless it remains an adventure each time i arrive and clock in.

i’m telling you, there’s either a screen play to be written and a movie to be made or a case study to be perform about coffee shop employees and the regular patrons that frequent the shop. i’ve worked a little more than a week and its been a whirlwind of experiences.

if you’re in the area and want to get hooked up with some coffee, stop in.