My Roller Coaster

For those of you who know me you'll know that my life as of late has been a bit of a roller coaster. Ups and downs, all around (you can see it in my blog posts) - but hopefully, all with a better purpose in the end. Living in Vietnam, the novel The Quiet American bears an omnipresent resonance here. In my search for a picture of a roller coaster, I came upon the blog of My Cocaine, a literary critic in Arizona. His/her account of The Quiet American is here:

"In a work like The Quiet American, the roller coaster is much different. Greene wants us to go down, down, down psychologically, corresponding to the up, up, up of a roller coaster like The Superman, that rises seemingly indefinitely until it plummets back to the surface. It’s during this free fall that we realize with spine-shuddering certainty the mess we’re in as human beings, the mess Greene is trying to present to us. The regret – no, the sadness that Thomas Fowler expresses in the final paragraphs is the same sadness we sometimes realize when presented with the world in all its miserable, desolate glory. The book, in other words, does not move even slightly into the realm of optimism at the end, but remains firmly entrenched in the pessimism that humans are and always will be wretched creatures."

And it's interesting, with the weeks I've had, that I do not agree with this interpretation of the human condition. I fundamentally believe that we are all essentially good and our sorry, painful and loathsome spirits are only ignited in the pursuit of that goodness. And that's how I will exit this week. With hope. With love. With dedication to improve my condition. An that of those around me. I understand the reference to Cocaine in reference to blogging. This is my drug. My addiction. My healthy obsession. Thanks for coming along for the ride. This is the only place I can go to seek total refuge from the world around me and I'm happy you all choose to share it with me - my sanctuary - my cocaine, as well - my roller coaster of life.

Todd Rundgren To Release 'Arena,' - First Studio Album In 4 Years

Sept. 30August 22nd, 2008 7:00pm EDT



Multi-faceted and celebrated recording artist/producer Todd Rundgren is set to release his first full-length record of original studio material in 4 years, entitled Arena on September 30th via newly launched music venture Hi Fi Recordings. Rundgren has been on the road in support of the release on a 20 + U.S. city tour this summer – which kicked off with a week-long celebration in Hawaii, culminating with the first-ever live performance of Arena in its entirety on Todd's birthday, June 22nd. Rundgren will also hit the road in support of Arena this fall in Europe and the UK where the album will be released simultaneously to the U.S. A sneak peak of an exclusive album track 'Mad' will be available on MySpace.com starting on July 15th.


Arena, recorded in Todd's current home state of Hawaii, is yet another notable addition to Rundgren's remarkable career as a performer, songwriter, and producer. The album showcases his unique songwriting style and sonically captures the essence and energy of "arena" rock with bombastic, guitar-driven tunes like "Mountaintop," "Strike" and "Mad," while the anthemic song "Mercenary," transports you to a stadium with its epic chorus, "How Do You Like Me Now?," resounding to every seat in the house.


"I found myself just going out and doing this sort of guerilla guitar quartet thing around the country and around Canada," said Rundgren, "So when it came time to make a record, I thought maybe I'll just continue in that vein and write something that is appropriate to the guitar, since the fans seem to be enjoying it so much."

"So when I decided to write a new album, I knew beforehand it was going to be this kind of old-school guitar-rock record."


Known as a man of musical innovation, Rundgren's latest release draws from his vast and impressive career experiences as a performer, songwriter and producer – including notable achievements on the cutting edge of music and technology such as: the first live nationally broadcast stereo radio concert (by microwave), which linked 40 cities around the country in 1978; the very first two commercially released music videos, one of which was nominated for the first-ever Grammy awarded for "Best Short Form Video" in 1983; and the launch of PatroNet, the world's first direct artist subscription service all of course; and of course there are the timeless hit songs, including 'Hello It's Me', 'I Saw The Light', 'Can We Still be Friends', and 'Bang The Drum.'


With ground-breaking accomplishments under his belt, Rundgren's career boasts additional credits to the aforementioned roles he is most well known for, including video pioneer, computer software developer, conceptualist and, most recently, interactive artist (re-designated TR-i). Given this incredible history and his constant creative state-of-mind, there are undoubtedly many more imaginative horizons for Todd Rundgren to discover.


Listen to the first single, "Mad" (Quicktime)
More Todd Rundgren:Starpulse PageOfficial SiteMySpace Page