SB 17 M 4

There are some movies you see as a child that stick with you for various reasons. Barbarella was one such film for me. For many males of my generation, the first time they really realized that there was something about the fairer sex worth looking into, came when they first saw Princess Leia in the slave girl outfit.* It was the same for millions of adolescent boys in 1983: They collectively tilted their heads to the side like a dog does when confused, and quietly uttered a single word: wow. It became the basis for many a fantasy from then on. As I grew older, I realized that we all had this in common, but we rarely spoke about it. It was always under the surface somewhere. What we didn't realize, and I didn't know until a few years ago, was that many a girl from our same generation had similar feelings for Han Solo. Maybe not as strong, and certainly not for as long, but it was there.

I was no exception, but I got a deeper dose of sci-Fe sexuality when my dad took me to see Barberella during a re-release at the local art-house sometime around 1985. Based an an extremely racy French comic book, Barberella was about... well it was really about Jane Fonda put into as many situations as possible where she could either get nekkid and have sex in a weird locale, or change her extremely skimpy psychedelic quasi-futuristic outfits.

It did make quite an impression on me. On the whole, it is a bad movie, but I love it anyway. For what it is, it is the best. The movie has had long reaching influence, the most obvious being where Duran Duran got their name. I you watch Arena, the "plot" of the concert vid concerns the Duran Duran from the movie exacting revenge on the band for stealing his name.

I have to say that 1968 was a wonderful year for film. Some of my all time favorites were made or take place in 1968. Night of the Living Dead, The Itallian Job, 2001: A space Oddessy, Bonnie & Clyde, The Graduate, Rosemary's Baby, Bullit, Planet of the Apes, the list goes on and on...

Page two:
The Missus has gone to Dallas for the weekend, and I have the boy to myself all weekend. I think we are going to go to the dog-parade. He'll like that. We may check out Celebrate Stillwater, but I don't know. I don't know if we'll have the time. Cody is leaving town for the weekend as well, so we can't take Jackson to the coffeeshop pretending to be a gay couple with an adopted kid. I know it works better with an Asian baby, but you've got to work with what you got. Had Jackson came out as an Asian baby, his mother and I would have had to have words. So that's all I have planned, but that's enough. If you want to stop by and say hello, and maybe watch him for a sec while I pee, feel free to do so.

Page 23 is up.

*One notable exception, is a friend of Jen's who's first thoughts of the opposite sex came while watching Wonder Woman as a child. He was young enough that he didn't really know what he wanted to do with Wonder Woman, but he thought it would probably be nice to sit in her lap.

Celebration on the Hill

Hi, all. Jen and I just spent the week in our nation's capital. We traveled with Jen's co-worker Karen, the second most rockin' girl at ACS. And the second shortest. These two distinctions were won through hard work and determination. Don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't be the second shortest person where you work. Unless you are Jeremy Turner.
The first thing I notice about leaving the mid/south/west/"heartland" is that nobody serves Dr. Pepper. I don't know if they don't serve it because nobody drinks it, or if nobody drinks it because they don't serve it. . All I know is that Mr. Pibb is a very poor substitute. Mr. Pibb never went to medical school. He's just some dude.
The second thing I notice is that where I live is really... white. I know I'm coming from whitey white Stillwater, but even Denver was pretty white. This is why most of the ethnic food I've ever eaten in the mid/south/west/"heartland" is sub-standard. Diversity is a good thing.
The third thing I notice is that being in airports and airplanes all day sucks ass, unless you have a really good book.
We got into DC around 5:00, and had to fight rush-hour traffic from Dulles into the city and to our hotel, the Marriott in Westpark, next to the Zoo which we didn't realize until we were on our way home. We got checked in, and took a cab to the kick-off event for COH. We got registered, and schmoozed a bit, then went in search of ethnic food. We found an awesome Thai food right by our hotel. We both got Pad Thai, and spring rolls, and ate every bit. They did not serve Dr. Pepper. We then crashed.
Day two:
We started with showers. The funny thing here is that we both took showers the night before after traveling all day. Off to the Ambassador breakfast for our region. For no adequately explored reason, Hawaii is part of our region, prompting a lot of "Aloha Y'all!" all day. The breakfast was yummy for hotel food, and we met a bunch of people who we'd be spending the day with. We then boarded the Metro en masse, pissing off the locals late for work. The Metro let out at Union Station, and we walked down to the Capital, where the giant stage was. After opening ceremonies, there was a parade, and we went to work. What we mainly did was man the booth, and visit others. But in the afternoon, we got to go meet with the politicians from our local districts. The point of the whole thing was to get a massive amount of people from all 50 states and provinces into Washington to show support for cancer research. Each state had ambassadors to meet with every representative and congressman who would meet with them. Jen and I were on the teams to meet with Rep Lucas and Senator Coburn. Lucas was very open and honest, and was all for what we were doing, happily signing the promise to help get funds back from reappropration, and to take a leadership role in getting more funds sent that way. Coburn, on the other hand was not so eager. I have never liked Coburn, so let's just get that out of the way. He violently pro-life, and extremely homophobic. He was the one caught doing a crossword puzzle during John Robert's confirmation hearings. What I do like about him, is that he has made it his mission to cut pork barrel spending in The best-known of these was an amendment to the fiscal 2006 appropriations bill that funds transportation projects. Coburn's amendment would have transferred funding from the infamous Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to rebuild Louisiana's "Twin Spans" bridge, which was devastated by Katrina. It was because of this that he wouldn't sign. Morally, he won't sign things just for photo ops, that he doesn't intend on working toward. He said that if he signed it, and it didn't get done because of Washington bureaucracy, he'd be held accountable. Which is true. That was the whole point. But the fact that he'd rather not sign and stay safe than sign and try was weird. Especially for a two time cancer survivor. Better luck next time.
We went on to the Wall of Hope, and as the night was getting chilly, we wanted coffee. After about a half an hour looking for any coffeeshop, a local walked us the three blocks to one that was in a hotel near the Holocaust Museum. I found all the locals I met, with one very drunk exception, to be extremely nice, eager to help, and just a great bunch of people. Armed with hot choc and lattes, it was on to the Luminaria celebration: a ceremony where white bags lit from within by a candle, representing a loved one effected by cancer, are lined up along the reflecting pool in front of the capital. It was massive and beautiful, and I have no pics of it. After closing ceremonies as the night was winding down, a bunch of staff members ducked out and went to Murphey's Pub. There was live music(a large Irishman with a guitar who did a great cover of Down Under by Men at Work, au=amung others), and we all sang and danced and drank and ate cheese sticks. Then we climbed the way too steep hill back to the hotel and went to sleep (after showers).
Day Three:
Day three was the really fun day. Day three was the sight-seeing day. Day three was the day we all went rogue, not bowing to anybody else's time tables. Day three was the day of the trolley. The trolley takes you to almost every significant monument or touristy thing in the city. All for a mere 30 dollars. They take you there, telling you interesting historical facts en route, and trying hard to be funny. In this fashion we saw most of the main monuments of DC. My favs were the Jefferson and the Lincoln monuments. They had a lot power behind them. They don't make monuments like that anymore. The sad thing that I noticed is this: After 9/11, they put up temporary concrete barriers around all of the monuments. These prevented anybody from driving a vehicle within a certain distance of any one monument, as they blocked the drive-ways that were used to unload busses and what not in front of each monument. Well, this "war on terror" has become a seemingly permanent thing, as they are slowly creating permanent barriers, or in some cases, removing the streets that were brigaded. I think they thought these things would be up for only a short while, but the sad truth is that they have to make lasting plans. But I digress.
I was moved by the sheer size of Arlington. That place goes on and on, and they just bought a bunch more of the surrounding land for expansion, another sad fact. I also really liked the Korean War Memorial. That wasn't there when I went as a kid. When we were waiting on the for the trolley to take us back into town, as we were all really hungry by this point, we were accosted by a bum. I'm not sure what his main point was, but whatever it was, he backed it up the assertions such as: "My black ass was born in DC" and "You need to get your white ass out of here". I tried to tell him that I was waiting for the trolley to do just that, but he wasn't buying. Through a barrage of insults, pointings, profanity, and gin-spittle it was determined that I was a fag, and he seemed satisfied with that, and staggered on down the road. Of course, the trolley was 30 minutes late, prolonging our temporary friendship. When the trolley did come, all we wanted was food. Not so fast there. First you have to wait while they block traffic for the president's motorcade to go by. Cops and black cars and giant SUVs carrying men in suits with machine guns drove by for about 10 minutes. The two attractive Norweigans on the trolley with us had a hard time wrapping their brains around that one. They asked us if that's how he traveled every where, even to the market. Well, he doesn't go to the market. They seemed astonished by this. Then we had to fight all the backed up traffic to get to a restaraunt. ANY restaraunt. We ended up in Chinatown, and I had some awesome sesame chicken. The bill came in Chinese, which made it hard to figure out who owed what, but hey, it's Chinatown.
After that we got back on the trolley to see the national cathedral, embassy row and Georgetown. Here I parted ways with my companions to go have dinner with my friend Ann whom I had not seen since Blur played the Ogden in '96. After a bus ride, and a Metro ride into Alexandria, she fed me lazagna and Newcastle, proving that she is indeed a wonderful friend. Jen and her crew had some dinner, and went to Hotel Washington to see the view. They got to see The Prez fly over in a helicopter, the second sighting of the day. We all made it back to the hotel in one piece around 2:00 am, and decided it was a good day, but now it should end. The guys at the hotel told the girls that it was a good thing they came back late, because the president of Pakistan was there that night with a truck load of entourage to have dinner with Cheney and Condoleeza. Off to sleep.
Day Four:
The last day. We only had time for a few things before we had to go to the airport. We chose The Holocaust Museum. A good choice. Everybody told us that if we could only see one museum, to o that one. They were right, and I offer the same advise to everybody else. It was very moving. We were there a good three hours, and I still didn't see everything I wanted to. We started walking back into town, stopping for pizza, and to get a closer look at the Whitehouse. The Snipers on the roof also got a closer look at us, which was a little unnerving. They don't like it when you wave at them. We did some shopping, and headed off to the airport. The flight back seemed longer than the way out, but at least I got to sit next to Jen this time. We watched Poseidon on the tiny TV screen, and read, and did a crossword, and napped. The lay-over in Denver was too long, but no long enough to go into town to see friends. So I ate a sammich instead. We got into Tulsa around midnight, and headed off to the Grandparents to collect our son. We missed him so much, it was all we could do to not wake him up when we got in.
So ends our trip to DC. We had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to bring Jackson there when he is old enough to care.

SB 16 M 3

Hey there! Here is a Reservoir Dogs sketch for ya.
A fine film. I watched it again the other day. I hadn't seen it for a while but this post got me iching to see it. I wish people would stop giving Quinten loads of money so he'd be forced to make more creative movies again.
In other news, Jackson decided that this was the weekend to start walking. Grace was here visiting, and at some point, Jen and Grace and Jack were in his room playing, and he just tore ass down the hallway. On foot. Laughinh hysterically the whole time. He's very proud of himself. He'd been holding onto furniture and stuff like that for months, but this was a bit of a surprise. Now he won't stop. He's all over the place and he's friggin' fast. We now enter a new level of containment and surveillance.
As I mentioned earlier, we're going to D.C. tomorrow for the COH.
Jack is splitting his time between the grand-parents, and they will have their work cut out for them with him walking. I don't envy them. The trip will be fun. I've never done anything important or political while in D.C., so this will be a blast. I haven't been to the east coast in forever, either. We're going to do some lobbying, some sight-seeing, and some old-dear-friend visiting. Probably in that order. See ya afterward.

S -15 / M - 2

Here is last month's calendar drawing. I for got to post it a few weeks ago. Another of the movie sketches. Kill Bill is an enigma for me. I like it a lot, but there is something missing. Tatantino used to do really stylish things because he didn't know any better. He just shot things in certain ways either subconsciously, or as a direct homage (read: theft) of something else. Now it seems he makes things overly stylish because that's what he does, and he knows that people expect it. Like how there is always a shot from inside a trunk, and a long steady-cam shot somewhere in all of his films. I think he is a lot better with scripts that he's come up with himself. A great example is the utter turd that is Jackie Brown. Getting horrible performances out of both Sam Jackson and DeNiro can only be attributed to Director error. And what the hell was Bridget Fonda doing in that movie? One thing I love, is that this was made during the time when Tarantino was the poo, and everybody was crazy about him. Less than a year later Steven Soderberg makes Out of Sight, based on another Elmore Leonard book, and manages to out-do Tarantino. The funny thing is that Michael Keaton plays the same character in both. I love that movie, and I'm glad that JLo made it before she went nuts. She'd never do something that cool now.
Okay, enough about that. Um... so Jack slept through the night on Monday. We almost shat ourselves. He was down from 7 to 7! No drugs or anything. Unfortunately we kept waking up every few hours or so, expecting him to be awake, and running in to check for SIDS. So it wasn't like we got that much sleep. We were hoping it would be an ongoing thing, but it seems that it was a one time deal. It did set a precedent, so we'll be sure to mention that to him. He got right back into the swing of waking up every two hours the last two nights.
Next week, I get t go to DC to participate in the American Cancer Society's Celebration on the Hill. We get to lobby politicians en masse to get some of the funding back that they have steadily taken away during the last, oh 5 or six years. Personally, I think the stem-cell ban is one of the worst things the Bush administration has ever done. It puts a screeching halt to a lot of research in America that now has to go outside the country, taking jobs and talent with it. Bush likes to surround himself with the "Snowflake Children" whenever he speaks about it. Saying that these kids couldn't be here if they had used their embryos for stem-cell research. But he misses the point that these kids wouldn't be there without extensive stem-cell research. Idiot. Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic companies get to test on live animals in gruesome ways all day long, but we can't use a few stem-cells from an embryo that has a 99% chance of being destroyed anyway and has a higher potential for useful information gained. Seems odd.
Enough soap-boxing! Get back to work!

Sketchbook #14 (movie #1)

I'm on this weird kick lately of doing sketches based on my favorite movies. Here is a Shaun of the Dead one. If you haven't seen that movie, please do so. Pegg is a genius. I have a deep love of Zombie movies. I think the first one I ever saw was Night of the Creeps, and that ended up being the worst one I ever saw. My Dad watched it with me, and soon made me watch all the Romero stuff, "'cause he got it right", and I love him for that. I love the new direction Zombie movies have taken. Fast, mean bastards, not the slow-pokes who can be easily out-run and only pose a threat in really large numbers (which they usually have). They pose way more of a threat now.
So this weekend, we had a little dinner party, and were graced with the presence of my good friend Sarah, as well as the one and only Cody Dopps. We had a lovely time. I grilled a tenderloin, some fillets, asparagus, and ginormous mushrooms. Jen made some scalloped potatoes and some awesome garlic bread. For desert, some carmelized pears atop vanilla ice-cream. yum. Cody brought wine, Sarah some beer, and I nursed a half dozen jack 'n' cokes (actually Evan Williams and Dr. Pepper, but it doesn't sound as cool). We yapped about travel and politics and why Enid is such an utter shithole. Sarah is excited to move to Las Vegas, although why she ever left Boston is a complete mystery to me. Jen hit the sack, and around 1:00 or so, the guests left, and about 1:30, Jackson woke up screaming his head off about how his head was spontaneously creating new bone in the form of teeth, and that said bone was making it's way to the surface in a most mean-spirited way. He got back to sleep about 3:30, but woke up at 6:00 wanting breakfast. I think I was still a little tipsy, making scrambled eggs through bleary eyes.
Saturday, we cleaned and went with cousin Ryan to the city to help Jen's sister Grace move. We were hoping to leave at noon, and it ended up being 4:00. They have successfully escaped the horror that is Parsons, KS and made it to a city. A real city, well sort of. They both landed jobs ay OSU OKC, and should be sitting pretty for a while. Lonny is considering switching from the KS National Guard to OK, but since he is up for Captain, he might stick it out in KS for a while. We had a nice dinner at Abuelo's, came home, and after moving, fighting a hang-over all day, and more beer, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Sunday we did very little.
Today is 9-11, and although I feel very deeply for all those who lost loved ones, or died themselves, I am very weary of the political posturing that will go on today. I really hate the way the Bushies take these opportunities to tell us over and over again that we are much safer than before 9-11, but that an attack is possible ay any moment. Go shopping, but keep an eye on the sky. It is a stupid scare tactic, that contradicts itself, and people lap it up. I'm staying away from it. I usually listen to NPR or sutchlike most of the day, but today I'll just listen to all the music I downloaded over the weekend. I got lots to listen to. Some OK GO, Racantours, Gnarles Barkley, and other stuff that I am WAY behind the curve on.

Stay smart.

PS- This, is really cool

Labor day

Page 21 is up.

A relaxing weekend. Not really by choice. We're kind of broke right now, and that forced us to be home bodies for the weekend. We went to the park, took a few walks, and watched the start of college football. A bunch of Jen's family came by before the OSU game, and we had a good time hanging out with them. Jen's step-mom who wasn't going to the game, offered to watch the boy so we could go get a bite to eat, which was nice. I downloaded a butt-load of music and stuff, including the new Decemberists album, which is awesome. I truly love bittorrent.

We finally rented V for Vendetta. I had been wanting to see it, as I was a big fan of the comic. It was really good. I hope that some people take to heart the message of not giving the government unlimited power. The original was a criticism of Thatcher, and pitted fascism vs. Anarchism, but the movie makers managed to update the story nicely. They made it a bit more about neo-conservatism vs. Liberalism, but since it is set in England, the parallels to the American political landscape are a little more hidden. Jen was put off a bit by the very comic-booky opening, where Evey is saved by V in a dark alley where she was attacked by thugs, but after the plot really started rolling, she got into it.

I hadn't read the book in a long time, yet I have some very strong memories about the time that I did. Here is the story: (kind of gross)

Back in the day, I had moved out of my parents house when I was about 15, due to some... um... "Domestic Issues". Mom was totally on board, by the way. It was best for everybody. That is a long story. For a while I lived with friends, so I could still get to school and what not, and most weekends I stayed with my brother, who had an apartment downtown, having moved out at a similarly early age from my Dad's house. This paticular weekend, I got a ride from my mom to my brother's house. I usually took the hour long bus ride that picked up at the aurora mall, so I was happy to get a ride. Since I was showing up early, I wasn't sure if he was going to be home. If not, I was to go by the Mayan two blocks away and get his keys, let myself in, and amuse myself until he got off work. The place he lived in was an old Victorian that had been converted 4 separate apartments, and Jeff lived on the top floor (what used to be the attic) with his buddy Lorne. There was one long staircase that went all the way to the top, and as I was going up, on the second landing, there was this big dude banging with all his might on the door to #3. He was very agitated and screaming something about how he left his jacket in there, but really he just wanted in. He wanted to kick some ass. I got past him with a "what's up?" and went up to see if Jeff was home. He wasn't, and the whole time I'm waiting there, the Guy is still screaming and banging on the door. I pushed past him again and hopped back in the car. Mom and I run to the Mayan, get the keys, and head back to the house. I told mom all about the weirdo in the car, and she was worried about me, so she wanted to come up with me. Good thing, too, because when we opened the main door, there was the guy. Sitting on the stairs. Holding his face in his hands like he was crying. He may have been, but we couldn't tell because of the massive amounts of blood all over his hands and on the carpet and on the walls. I said something like "dude, you okay?", to him and when he looked up, half his face was gone. Just not there anymore. Mom and I freak a little, then run upstairs. I tore the apartment apart looking for a first aid kit or anything that could help while mom called the cops. I go back down there with a roll of paper towels, to try to stop the bleeding. I remember seeing his eyebrow dangling in front of his eye and wanting to just stick it back where it was supposed to be. Pretty quick, the cops showed up, and I retreated back up to the apartment. We heard the guy telling his story, and saw him through the tiny front attic window carefully led to an ambulance and taken away.

Soon after, the cops tried to get into apartment #3. They knocked politely, the inhabitants turned up the stereo. They banged a little louder, and raised their voices slightly. They got a firm "Fuck you!" from inside. They bashed the fuck out of the door and stormed the place. There was a lot of commotion, a lot of yelling, and then through the tiny window, we saw the neighbor and his girl get violently tossed into separate police cars and taken away. Thinking the crisis was pretty much over, and having some place to be, mom left. She had to get a cop to move his car which is a chore in itself.

Then the real commotion started. Seeing something like this from beginning to end was a pretty surreal experience, and I didn't realize at the time that there is a lot of post incident work that goes on. Keep in mind that this would have been the early '90s, well before the rise of all the CSI type procedure shows that I never watched anyway. So the detectives, firemen, media, police photographers, and whoever else start stomping in and out of the building doing whatever it is that they do. I poke my head out, and tell one of the cops that I saw the whole thing and that it was me who called the cops. They had been looking for me, and lead me to a cop car, where I spent the next 45 minutes sitting in the front for once, giving a statement, and then writing that whole statement down on official looking carbon paper.

When I was done, they said I couldn't go back in, because they were busy in the hallway. Great. Now what? All my stuff was inside. I decide to go to the Mayan and see Jeff. I told him and the rest of the very interested staff the story, and decide to just hang out there till Jeff got off. He had a copy of V for Vendetta and a few other comics in his bag, and I sat in the upstairs cafe drinking coffee and read the book from cover to cover twice. When Jeff's shift was over, we went to Mary and Lou's (God how I miss thee) for a burger and then back to the house. We got up stairs, and decided to start drinking.

Now, one thing that CSI never shows is how all those people stampeding throughout the building never clean up after themselves. They leave that to you or to who-ever owns the building. So we get back and there is bits of paper, bits of medical supplies, bits of door to #3, and bits of the guy's face and circulatory system all over the place. They never even closed the door to #3, and there was so much blood every where, that the carpet made a little squishing sound where ever we stepped. It stayed that way for a while, like a few days, until somebody decided to call the landlord, who had no idea that anything had even happened. The carpet was eventually shampooed (badly) and the door jamb fixed, but rather that cleaned off the blood from the walls and door, they just painted over it. You could still see where the blood used to be when Jeff moved out a while later.

I never got called to testify or anything, and #3 was rented to somebody else pretty quick, actually, to our friend Eric if I remember correctly. In retrospect, I don't know why that wasn't a clue that everybody should move. Jeff and many of his friends stayed in that house or the one next to it for quite some time, and weird shit was always going down. Maybe the corner was cursed or something.

Probably not.