Few words, Deep Thoughts

Austin has posted again, this morning on Southern Gothic

GO EAST


By not exalting the talented you will cause the
people to cease from rivalry and contention.

By not prizing goods hard to get, you will cause
the people to cease from robbing and stealing.

By not displaying what is desirable, you will cause
the people's hearts to remain undisturbed.

Tao Teh Ching
-Lao Tzu


I have only just begun to read this work.
This is the beginning of the third chapter.

I have nothing really to say about it,
except that it has, in a very brief period,
already had quite an impact on the way I
treat people, myself, how I understand my
beliefs, concerns, and convictions.

The way I organize my life, or un-organize it,
the way I hurl myself through space, or just
let myself be hurled.

I think everyone could take away something
from this writing. :)

your faithful servant,
wild turkey


The way I organize my life, or un-organize it,
the way I hurl myself through space, or just
let myself be hurled.

Something about this sentence that connected, there is something strangely freeing and wonderful when you allow to be un-organized and letting yourself go with the whatever happens. In both the process of doing it, and after you've done it. Maybe it is naive and presumptuous for me to interpret that sentence.

While there are things in your life you must organize and plan and have goals, there are other things that giving up control and allowing them to happen let you find something even greater than you ever imagine. And the first word that comes to mind is love.

Can love be control? Organized? Planned? Maybe I just the spout the words of a hopeless romantic but I say no. Love is ultimate expression being unorganized and allowing to be hurled around by it and surrendering to it. There is no rhyme or reason to who we love or why we love them it just is what it is. But it is not just eros love, but storge (affection), philia (friendship), agape (unconditional) as well.

But the sentence also shows a creative approach to life as well. There is something creative in the way your let life and patterns find their own way to you. Some of the best thoughts I've ever had were when in what some would come from the randomness of two or three things that coming together in a way I or no one else has ever thought before. Like creating art or creating a performance. Ok, well maybe I am now just justifying my disorganized ways. ; )


Again, another post from a man who uses few words that speak volumes.



The Tao Te Ching is fundamental to the Philosophical Taoism and strongly influenced other schools, such as Legalism and Neo-Confucianism. This ancient book is also central in Chinese religion, not only for Religious Taoism but Chinese Buddhism, which when first introduced into China was largely interpreted through the use of Taoist words and concepts. Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and even gardeners have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside East Asia, aided by hundreds of translations into Western languages.


* Dào/Tao 道 literally means "way", or one of its synonyms, but was extended to mean "the Way". This term, which was variously used by other Chinese philosophers (including Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, and Hanfeizi), has special meaning within the context of Taoism, where it implies the essential, unnamable process of the universe. Tao also means god, and peace.

* Dé/Te 德 basically means "virtue" in the sense of "personal character", "inner strength", or "integrity." The semantics of this Chinese word resemble English virtue, which developed from a (now archaic) sense of "inner potency" or "divine power" (as in "healing virtue of a drug") to the modern meaning of "moral excellence" or "goodness". Compare the compound word dàodé (道德 "ethics", "ethical principles", "morals," or "morality"). Te also means love.

* Jīng/Ching 經 as it is used here means "canon", "great book", or "classic".

Shark Bait

One Tree Hill has had some of the most over the top storylines on TV. Murder, fratrecide, prom-night hostage crises, getting to the NBA through starting out in career of playing SlamBall, virgins gone wild after too much whiskey, a psycho nanny bent on kidnapping and torture by keeping Dan hostage in an exact replica of a hospital room while slowly torturing him, then using him to lure his grandson Jamie into her clutches with a of bonus keeping his first heart transplant, a dog literally eating the second heart Dan was supposed to get transplantated.

At 22-23, they have had best selling novels, successfully launched record labels, and Brooke has dated half of Hollywood while having time to not only launch a clothing line, a store, a magazine, but estrange herself from her mother, taken care of a baby waiting for a heart transplant and become a foster mother to a girl who's (now) boyfriend's brother was the one who attacked her and killed the gang's high school friend oh and meet a Hollywood producer who already been to Sundance and wants her and her foster daughter to move to LA.

OTH doesn't just jump the shark - they ride it .

Shooting starts up in about 7 weeks and the writers will be soon back there old tricks. And its tough to keep it fresh in the 7th season and flesh out a recurring character into a regular. But OMG knows Austin and the parts he's played better than anyone, so why not give your best suggestion and help the OTH writers out with a Julian storyline suggestion.

Perhaps like:

Waterskis to save Brooke from pirates off the coast of Tree Hill trying to hijack her clothes line and restoring her relationship with Victoria before their secret wedding

Takes Haley's place teaching English at Tree Hill High has half of school loving him or confusing the rest in their identities
Play a tennis champion at Tree Hill Country Club for the chance to go to Wimbledon and bring back the McEnroe look singular handedly.

Gets caught in a freak natural disaster in a library with icy walls, a pack of wolves and a smiling blue eyed stranger as they try to build a utopian society with the fellow survivors while waiting for Dennis Quad and the U.S. Geological Society to save them.


Secret thumbsucker secret shame



Discovers a hidden goldmine underneath waters Tree Hill with the help of magic dust, some dolphins and two twin elves (wait that's the Olsens)



Sleeps with Brooke, Victoria (Brooke's mom -Daphne Zuniga), Chase and Owen in a love quadangle set to 90's pop hits.



Becomes a Vestiphobic

Performs Dan's heart transplant using only a plastic spoon, a box cutter, a stapler and the heart from the stalker who was after ex girlfriend Peyton, with Lucas torn over his feelings between him saving Dan and and saving Peyton and holding the still beating heart.

Paul is not his father, but stole him as an infant from a monastary only to have them come back to take Julian in order fulfill the secret prophecy of Samuel



Julian is John John is Julian as told by Neal Cassady to David Milch in an acid flashback



Go for it and give your best and most outrageous shot at a Julian storyline - the OTH writers will thank you for it.

Getting the heck out of Dodge(r town)

Clearly a very happy Jake as he heads into LAX.
Never can get enough of the real deal smiles.

Now just getting out of LA maybe enough to make him grin but maybe there's some other reasons he might be grinning.

Top Ten Reason Jake's smiling leaving LA.

10. It's pleasure not business.

9. Grinning in his new found fame as The Cheese Boy of Spinal Tap.

8. Maggie and Peter are getting married! That means Austi, Asti Spumante, Perseco!

7. Red Sox swept the Yankees!

6. Had an entire bottle of Rescue Remedy on the way to the airport. Another bottle for the plane.

5. Maggie and Peter are getting married! Get to break out the Riverdance. Somebody else got dibs on the Chicken Dance.

4. Julian vs. Martin who's hotter? Hell....both

3. Spring Break !! Woo Hoo! Padre Island, Horseshoe Bay, somewhere in Texas with someone from Texas.

2. Maggie and Peter are getting married! Thinking about his plus one.

1. Four Christmases is no longer on the movie list on American Airlines.

Mix It Match It?

Looking good does not come cheap. Just asking our coordinating bike riders. But are they telling more not by what they're wearing, but how they are wearing it?



First things first and channeling a red carpet reporter - "Who are you wearing?"

Rapha is the answer. (with Jake a little bit of Livestrong on the bottom)

Jake has been mentioned in the several articles about being a fan of Rapha line of cycle wear in write ups up about the fashion meets function line. And it looks like Jake is making a Austin a fan of them too.

Rapha is a small London company with ambitions to restore taste to cycling clothes. Rapha was started by Simon Mottram, a former brand consultant who advised luxury companies like Burberry and Davidoff. He started in 2004, holding a Tour de France viewing party for cyclists on Brick Lane in London and unveiled a few jerseys. Since then, Rapha has reached "a worshipful cult-level status among riders despite minimal advertising, selective distribution" and prices that would make some jaws drop for clothes for a bike ride.

Their signature Sportwool Jersey (the one's Jake and Austin are wearing) costs $195 is about three to four times the price of a plain spandex top and a pair of their bib riding shorts is $205. Their most popular item is their $25 merino socks. Their jerseys come in the more classic basic black or white, with some having understated accents, the colors of the Belgian flag, a dash of Giro d’Italia pink at the zipper, or a hidden label describing a classic bike climb.

Rapha's cycling gear is only sold in 8 shops in the U.S. (Austin, New York City, Central Valley NY, Greenwich Connecticut, Palo Alto CA, Portland Oregon, Boulder, Colorado, Mill Valley California) or online.

But here's what 's really interesting where the two riders and Rapha come in. The description on the web site for the signature Sportwool Jersey is: Lock down, fully lined zips. 3 Large cargo pockets. Pump pocket. Zipped, waterproof valuables pocket. Bite Grip. Side panels for race fit. Gripper at hem. Comes with brush-lined, breathable arm warmers with contrast piping.

Colours:

Black (with white arm warmers), White (with black armwarmers)

Jake wearing the Sportswool jersey the Rapha way.

See that's what jumped out. It looks like a little mix and matching might have been happening on bike riding day.

So what do you think,

They texted each other the night before about wearing their matching jerseys and how they could switch arm warmers?

OMG! lets!

Met up to go riding and took one look at each other and said let's switch arm warmers?

I can't believe we showed up in the same stuff. But both we can't be black and white and black, it'll look like we called each other.

Thought it looked better black on black and white on white when they were getting dressed at the house?

Hey those are my arm warmers.
I like the same colored ones with the jersey
What am I supposed to wear?
Come on you know. Mine. Look in the drawer where I got these.

And I heard that. They're not going to be too long.


Rapha

Out Spotlight LXXII

Today's Out Spotlight is Lou Tharp.

Lou Tharp is the swimming coach at West Point, the United State's Army Academy. Tharp is gay, openly gay. His bosses know it. His athletes know it. Everyone knows it. And how has this panned out for him and the West Point swim team? Under Tharp’s tutelage, the Cadets have become a national player in men’s collegiate swimming.

The Army, still practices Don't Ask Don't Tell, though being gay has never impacted Tharp at West Point. He made it clear from day one that he is gay and that he is not a supporter of the Army's stance toward and gays and lesbians.

But before getting to Tharp at West Point you need to get to know more about Lou Tharp. Tharp was a a 45-year-old , 280-pound gay man, overworked PR executive with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a sedentary lifestyle. A successful businessman and community activist was more than hesitant to take his first plunge into the pool. But his desire to "not grow old feeling the way I did" won out. In 1996, with the help of a medical team and Terry Laughlin (founder of the Total Immersion swimming program), Tharp dove into his new passion. Within six months, he was winning local and regional meets. By 1998, Tharp, became a swimming fanatic and lost nearly 100 pounds, he was a World Masters bronze medalist. He also earned two gold and two silver medals at the 2006 Gay Games. Tharp, became a swimming fanatic and lost nearly 100 pounds.

But how do you go from that to becoming a swim coach who transforms a lackluster triathlete team into a national contender?

He joined a swim team in New York and, he says, "accepted a new identity for myself. All of a sudden I was a fit, active competitor. I got up at 5:30 every morning, to get in a 90-minute workout. My forward momentum perpetuated itself." But New York City pools were crowded and expensive. Eventually, Tharp discovered a pool at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., 35 miles from his home. It was seldom open to the public, and the environment was not particularly welcoming, but the head of the West Point physical education department liked Tharp's spirit and gave him passes to the pool.

"I was an outsider, but I got to know the academy culture," Tharp says. "Everyone had a great work ethic and was highly respectful." He shared the pool with cadets, many of whom "swam very poorly." One was so bad that Tharp abruptly stopped and said, "You're driving me crazy." Tharp showed him some basic techniques, and he immediately improved. He was like most cadets, Tharp says, "a sponge. They're driven to excel, especially when they're around people with expertise."

The next day there were two cadets and the following week they invited him to their tri team swim practice. A few weeks later the cadet in charge asked if I would consider being their swim coach. My first reaction was yes, since I'd never coached before in my life, and a Division 1 school isn't a bad place to start. My next thought was, "I'm gay and we'll have to come to terms with it." In 2005, he was hired as a part-time coach.

Within two years, the team placed fifth in a national meet, just five points from first. Tharp had propelled the Army squad to national prominence - and he did it as an openly gay man.

When he was first asked to coach, he had agreed - on the stipulation that he could be completely out. "I won't put up with anything less than complete acceptance," he told the officers.

"I didn't know what to expect, and their reaction was totally unexpected. I guess we tend to think the worst because the bigots yell the loudest so we think everyone agrees with them. We forget that the vast majority of people are very gay accepting.

The reaction was a resounding, "So what?" The officer in charge had no problem with it, and when I said I would have to tell the team, he said I must have had to tell people this before so I should know how to handle it. Period."

Tharp's coming-out process to his athletes was similarly upfront and natural. Describing a swimming technique, he likened it to a baseball swing. "Now you might think a gay man doesn't know anything about baseball...," he told them. And "that was it," he recalls now. "No one said anything. It wasn't a big deal."

He took his partner, Jim, to a team party. "West Point is a difficult school to get into," Tharp says. "Cadets have to be adaptable, intelligent, and aware of their surroundings. Every cadet there made it a point to talk to Jim - and really get to know him. Cadets are truly interested in meeting new people and asking questions about the world. That really blew us away."

Institutionally, Tharp knows, West Point is "a very antigay organization." But, he says, "the rank and file is way ahead of the senior officers."

Tharp wrote a book, Overachiever's Diary, How The Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders, recounting his experience coaching the cadets at West Point.

Tharp lives in Upper Nyack, New York, with his partner of over 25 years, Jim Bumgardner.


"My experience is that overall there are two considerations to keep in mind regarding the mindset of certain straight people. First, gay issues are not on their radar screen. They have no idea we can't pass our assets tax-free to our partners when we die as they do with their spouses, or that we are not protected against employment, credit, education and housing discrimination in two-thirds of the states or by the Federal government, or that America is the only country in the Western world that does not protect its LGBT citizens. Second, they tend to hear anti-gay messages and accept them as fact. So when they get to know a gay person, there is massive conflict between what they've been taught and what they're experiencing. We get to untangle this mess for them. Our job is to educate good but misinformed people. All it takes is getting to know people and helping them understand that what they've heard is wrong."


Lou Tharp Facebook

Overachiever's Diary, How The Army Triathlon Team Became World Contenders by Lou Tharp

Spy vs. Spy?

Is Jake chasing Matt Damon ?

First it was David Fincher's movie Torso, which has had both Matt and Jake's attached to it. Torso is the story of Eliot Ness chasing a serial killer who held Cleveland captive as the killing continued. Matt and Jake were both in London this past December at the same time director David Fincher was, and speculation was that maybe they were negotiations and meetings before time ran out on the option.

Matt's acting has been an influence on Jake's performances and he has mention many times how he would like a career like Matt's.

Promoting Rendition, Jake mention he turned more to movies about C.I.A. for inspiration than talking to actual field agents to find the emotion for play Douglas
Freeman. Saying, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, which is a merging of the alcoholic and the spy, literally and in the movie. And then also, The Good Shepard actually, which I think, just a little shout out to Matt Damon, that’s a pretty incredible performance. More about the less he does, then the more he does and that’s the kind of performance that I look up to. So, I just tried to copy it."

So after the picture of Jake meeting with Steven Gaghan yesterday, got someone at /Films (Slash Films)to wonder this: "the only announced project that Gaghan is currently working on is an adaptation of the Jon Stock spy novel Dead Spy Running, the first of a possible trilogy of films/book about a newly trained spy who goes on a globe trotting adventure to exonerate his father. Gaghan is writing the screenplay for McG to direct. It is more than possible for an interested star to be involved in the development of the screenplay. And I’m not sure about you, but I can certainly picture Gyllenhaal in a Bourne-style spy action thriller."

Talk about being Bourne. You can see why Jake would want have a career similar to Matt's. But have ever realize how much they do have in common?

Matt Damon vs Jake Gyllenhaal

Blue Eyes
Great Grins

Red Sox Fan
And walked the walk in NYC

Been to Martha's Vineyard

Have BFF's who are actors
and they're know together by just first names

Dropped out of Ivy League School
(Matt- Harvard Jake - Columbia)

Known for supporting charities

Played CIA agents

Played a character who's gay.

Subject of many Datalounge discussions

Played soldiers in movies about Desert Storm

Co-starred with Heath Ledger

Co-starred with Gwyneth Paltrow

Played a guy named Donny

Have donned the Spandex.

There is just one thing that Matt has,
that no amount of work Jake does
he'll always be a little behind. ; )

To play yesterday's fanmix. Just press play on the Ipod player in yesterday's post and enjoy.

Happy Birthday Mr. Nichols

Every decade brings something different, but your twenties is something different completely. Full of dreams, chances, leaps, rewards, life defining moment. Finding your future, doing it your own way, making your mark in the world.

Here's to:

the charmer,
the devil, the angel,

the liar, the thief.

Finish it in style Mister

Happy 29th Birthday!
From Austin Nichols Journal and Oh My Godot

Spooky and I have been wanting to do something together, what's more perfect than something for Austin's birthday. Lots of email, many hours, and lots of fun, together we created joint post with a fanmix to share with all of you to celebrate, complete with our own twist on the visual interpretation for each track. So check out both Austin Nichols Journal's and OMG's birthday post and help us send him best wishes for the coming year.

Thanks Spooky!!

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

The Player is loaded with all the songs on the fanmix, click through and you can listen to one or all. The links below are there for you to download at make your own copy.


This Charming Man - A Fanmix Front Cover



This Charming Man - A Fanmix Back Cover


Track 1: Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
Lyrics



Track 2: The Kinks - See My Friends
Lyrics


Track 3: Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
Lyrics



Track 4: Nick Lowe - All Men are Liars
Lyrics



Track 5: David Sylvian - Forbidden Colours
Lyrics



Track 6: Echo & The Bunnymen - Make Me Shine
Lyrics



Track 7: U2 - One
Lyrics


Track 8: Kaiser Chiefs - Love is not a Competition (But I'm Winning)
Lyrics



Track 9: The Smiths - This Charming Man
Lyrics



Track 10: Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs - Maps
Lyrics



Track 11: John Lennon - Look at Me
Lyrics



Track 12: Zero 7 - Destiny
Lyrics



Track 13 : Michael Penn - No Myth
Lyrics


Track 14: Univ. of Texas - Eyes of Texas
Lyrics



Bonus Track : The Rubinoos - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
Lyrics

Miss(ing) Informers

We saw a little bit of behind the scenes of Informers when it was being filmed, but know as the movie comes out we are finding out more about what happened behing the scenes. We knew that they cut out Brandon Routh's (the vampire storyline) part in Informer even before shooting started, but looks like that they edited more than that.

In an interview with The Cult, author Bret Easton Ellis says that there many different cuts of Informers.

DW: Were there other cuts that were floating around at one point?

BEE: Yeah, many cuts. Even some that they showed. Personally, I prefer longer cuts. There’s about forty minutes that I think are missing from the movie. So it feels… (pauses)… I don’t know, it’s just that, there are endings to a lot of these stories that just aren’t in the movie now. There was like four or five more very long scenes…

DW: But important scenes?

BEE: I think very important scenes. Simply within the Chris Isaak / Lou Taylor Pucci father / son Hawaii scenes that comes to a head.

DW: I forgot how that storyline ended?

BEE: Because it doesn’t.

Read more of The Cult interview here.

Talking to the AV Club Ellis says there are 45- 50 minutes of it that you won't see.

AVC: How much does the finished film resemble the script?

BEE: Very little. [Laughs] Gregor would have to admit that too, and so would Marco. This is not me complaining. That’s the fact. The 95-minute version of The Informers is very different from this sprawling, epic movie that Nick and I had in mind when we wrote the script. For some people, that probably sounds like its own kind of hell, but there’s a lot more resolution in our script, and it was also kind of lighter, funnier, more Altman-esque. This is a very different creature. I like the movie. It is very different in terms of tone and style from the movie we were thinking of when we were writing the script. There’s also literally 40 or 50 minutes missing from it in terms of stories being resolved, and…

Read more of the A.V. Club

While many have wondered if some of Austin's less than dressed scenes were editing to get the MPCAA's R -rating, now you wonder if there are more scenes of Austin's that were in those 40-50 minutes. Wonder if it will show up on DVD. ; )

What we do know is that Martin is sleeping with Laura, friend Graham's mother, Graham's girlfriend Christie, and Graham himself. He's a Billy Idol fan (had to get that in there). And is a music video director.

We had pictures of them filming this scene when they were in Uruguay, and now we see what they were filming.

Party scene

Martin and Graham

It's been hot this week in LA and it looks like things are heating up for Austin too.

Signing a two year contract for a One Tree Hill (and you know it he made sure it was pay or play), The Informers opening nationwide in the U.S. (which unbelievably which is the first time since Glory Road) , and oh yeah and he's the big birthday guy tomorrow , and as a diva who shares the same birthday put it best, "hello gorgeous." (name that picture)

The Cult

A.V. Club

Check out more clips trailers and pictures from The Informers over at Austin Nichols Journal