Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

This Charming Man

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1207-morIt probably comes as no surprise to long-time readers that Morrissey is a favorite singer/songwriter of mine. His hauntingly depressing music touches the souls, I imagine, of most bears. I was pleased to read in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (near an article titled, and I’m not making this up, “So You Want To Buy Your Own Vineyard”) that he has come up with his Autobiography Here’s a snippet, which strikes me as Pure Morrissey, as he speaks of his days as a schoolboy:

Its wearisome echo of negativity exhausts me to a permanent state of circumstantial sadness. I approach school each day with renewed fear, over the asphalt, treading underfoot, the flattened remains of people’s lives, and bigger and blacker the school’s edifice rises above its bludgeoned parish like a rat refusing to die. We small kids see no warm lights to welcome, and no hope in the literal darkness.” (more…)

Jonathan the Sloper

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Maybe I’ve been hiding in a cave and everyone else on Earth has seen this, but I tripped across it by accident this morning for the first time. The clip below is along the lines of the “Susan Boyle” video, but I like this one better. You’ve got two teens – one pretty girl, and one obese boy – coming out on stage. You get the typical smirks from the audience, and then – blammo – they (particularly the male, Jonathan) blows everyone away. He’s magnificent. (more…)