Amnesia

So I totally forgot to write about last weekend, because I had to write about the Goth wedding from the weekend before. So I'm a week behind. I'll do a two for one today.
LAST week Jason, Jennifer, and Jackson received a visit from Cody, Kindra, and Cori, who were in Stillwater as part of their world-wide alliteration tour 2006.
As Jenn graciously stayed home with the increasingly cranky and tired boy, the rest of us got Chinese food and bubble tea. The conversation of the evening was some of the best I had had in a long time, and I hadn't made somebody shoot egg drop soup out their nose since I was a little kid. They had all watched almost all of Spaced the night before, so many a reference and/or quote was made about that. There was far too much conversation time devoted to tapioca in my opinion, but Cori just would not shut up about it. We also all agreed that Kindra is terrified of silence, and that the waitress was not very good. The table next to us had a little girl who did not like the obnoxiousness of our little party, and kept making faces at us, but then Cody did that thing he does where that thing comes out of his head and it scared her away. I always have to laugh when he does that, because I mean, what is that thing?
We then went to the coffeeshop, and the poor small town girl behind the counter just could not wrap her head around the meaning of Cody's T-Shirt. She was all like: what's beautiful about suicide, and Cody was like: it's in the eye of the beholder, I guess, and she's all: I guess I don't get it, and he's all: BLARRGHH!! And he does that thing with he head again, and we all laugh. Cori did not get coffee because she still had bubble tea. Then we went home and gave Jenn her Chinese food, and watched her eat it like she just got out of Guantanamo. Then we yapped the night away. Hanging out with them and meeting Cori did make me a bit homesick though. I don't meet really cool people like that any more, much less get to just hang and yap with them into the wee hours of the morning. When I do meet people like that, they end up being from Denver.
So there! On to this last weekend
It was a very collegiate weekend for us. On Friday, after giving Jackson a not that great, trial and error, keep going until it looks okay home haircut, we went to OSU's Walk-Around. It is a sort of reverse parade where the floats are stationary, and you get to walk around and look at them all. They are really intricate, and have moving parts and things. The two best involved a robotic undersea adventure and a robotic version of Chutes and Ladders. There is lots of live music and food and stuff, and Jackson had a great time in the snuggly, for which he is way too big for. We retired to Cousin Ryan's house and drank some beer while watching Jack and the Pug 'play". Saturday morning, we went to the actual homecoming parade for OSU, and Jackson had a great time there as well. He really like marching bands in general, and the drums in paticular. We found this out because every time a band came by, he would start shaking and giggling hysterically. Later, Jenn's parents came up to watch the boy so we could go to the OU homecoming game against the Colorado Buffaloes. This required a drive to Norman, OK with out the boy. It took about an hour and a half, and I kept looking in the back seat, thinking Jack was there but asleep, as I do every time we go anywhere with out him.
The game was fun and cold, but the tix we were given turned out to be really good. We had access to this little lounge where you could sit in the heat and eat without you or your food going cold. The game itself was kind of boring, but being there was great fun. We left a but early, and still hit the horrible traffic. Horrible traffic usually happens when a hundred thousand people all want to go somewhere at the same time. Just so you know.
We ended up at Robin's house. We stopped in because we were "in the city" and she had beer. There were a few people there already, and Jenn's sister and her husband showed up as well. We stayed there until about 1:45, which was dumb, because we still had an hour to get home. But home we got, and Jack actually slept until a little before 8:00, so we got to "sleep in" a little. Sunday we hung out with the fam and ate chili. A whole freakin' pot of chili.
After the coma subsided we just bummed around the house, and I got lost in Wikipedia for several hours, having wanted to find out something mundane about the French Revolution.
That was it. See what boring lives we lead? Why do you keep reading these things?

Goth Wedding

Alright, here you go. ---->
The Goth wedding was a lot of fun. The flickr set is here. Begona made this weird lace-up thing with a bunch of flowey fabric all over, and made the groom wear a top-hat, which I am convinced only Jack White and Slash can really get away with these days.
The affair was held in Begona's back yard, giving it a very bar-b-que feel, only with a bunch of darkly clad ne'er-do-wells instead of hillbillies. You could tell that even though the sun had set, they were a bit uncomfortable being outside. I'm sure they had a hard time deciding when to hold the wedding, as October (the gothiest month) had a full moon, a Friday the 13th, and of course, Halloween. They opted for the full moon. Cooler parties on the other two.
The funny thing about it was that the ones who dress like that every day, just came dressed as if they just happened to drive by, and saw a party, and the ones who don't dress like that every day tried really hard to sift through their wardrobes to find any and all black attire, and just put it all on. All of it. Then they just over-did their eye-make up and called it good. There was a third contingency that rolled in just looking for free food.
The ceremony was Wiccan, and very nice. Basically the same as any other kind of wedding. Actually kind of an amalgam of other types of weddings. They lit candles and jumped a broom. The officiant wore fake horns and was draped in a pentagram flag obviously purchased at Hot Topic. No devil worship, no bloodletting, no sacrifices, which was kind of a disappointment. It was all very nice and tasteful. For a wedding wear people wear horns. My favorite Wiccan participant was the guy with the shaved head, jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt reading: Wanna see my broomstick?
I have been around the punk/emo/goth culture my whole life, but had never been to a wedding that went all out. It was great fun. We ate small sandwiches and drank cheap beer, and chatted and mingled until we decided to go. We had left the boy in the care of his Aunt Grace, and when we returned to collect him, he was still up and at 'em. He slept very soundly on the ride back to Stilly.
In other news, I find that as the election season gets into full swing, I am simultaneously entranced and disgusted. Much like when a deadly car accident throws a dead body through your living room window: You have a personal stake in the outcome of these events, but you can really only watch what happens from the side and hope your house gets fixed eventually.*
We are going to the walk around thingy at OSU this Friday, and then going to the OU football game on Saturday. I not the biggest fan of football, but in my opinion, going to a game is better than TV, and college is better than pro. Jen scored some awesome tix in a boot or something somehow, and they are playing Colorado. So there's that. Her parents are gonna come up to watch the boy, and that means we can go out after the game.
I'm getting excited for Halloween.
Page 25 is up.
This guy is a douchbag.
That is all.

Stupid stupid stupid

So I keep meaning to post pics of the uber-goth wedding we went to over the weekend, but I keep forgetting that the camera is still in my wife's car, and she keeps having to drive really far away for meetings and the like. So I'll post those on Flickr and here when I get a chance. Suffice to say it was a lot of fun, and I haven't had an excuse to break out the goth gear since I moved away from Denver (nobody has a "goth night" in Oklahoma).

Remember back in this post when I said I would vote for McCain if the GOP put him up? Well that's out the window. Yesterday, McCain, playing the Rove card, said it was all Clinton's fault that North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon.

"I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the
Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's
administration negotiated was a failure,"

This seems to be the new rallying cry of the republicans. Even though it has been 6 years since Bush took office, and four since all three branches of the government were put under GOP control. You would think they could have done something about it during that time. Constantly blaming Clinton is a total cop-out, and they know it. The sad thing is that a vast majority of the populace will believe them,because they are too lazy to look into the situation. Well, I did. Turns out that Clinton'ss policies were working just fine until 2002 (the same year Bush gave them 95 million dollars). The deal was that they would stop making plutoniumm. Bush cut off talks when he found out they were enrichingg uranium instead. A dick move on North Korea's part. But from 1994 to 2002, they did not produce any weapons grade material, never tested a bomb, and allowed IAEA inspectors into their facilities. When Bush walked away in 2002, it allowed them to start up the plutonium production again, kick out the inspectors, and continue the uranium enrichment, and spend the 95 mil on whatever they wanted, not on food for the poor. How is that Clinton's fault? Truth is, just like with 9/11, this happened on your watch, republicans. You should have seen it coming. Here is what Kerry said (the first concise, intelligent thing he has said in a long time):

"The truth is the Clinton administration knew full well they didn't have a
perfect agreement. But at least they were talking. At least we had inspectors
going in and we knew where the (nuclear fuel) rods were. This way, we don't know
where the rods are, the rods are gone. There are no inspectors. Ask any American
which way is better," Kerry said.

So why the paradigm shift, Mr. McCain? Could it be that you don't think the party faithful will put up a centrist? Is that why you gave the commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty University this year, after bashing him and his ilk six years ago? Turning away from your ideals for votes is a quick way to loose the center, the independentss like me. Bad move.

Once again, off the soapbox! Back to work!

My Name Is Michael Caine

The Caine from the '60s is far superior to the one we have now, I think. Don't get me wrong, he's still awesome. But his string of tough-guy movies were some of the best. I kind of wish he'd revisit one of those characters like Terrence Stamp did in The Limey. Now that was a good film. I think that what I like about a lot of British tough-guy movies is how unpretentious they are. From Get Carter on up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and even L4yer Cake. They just kind of do their thing. Most don't even have a love interest, or if they do, they aren't used as a MacGuffin or some other lame plot device. The best are the independents. Once studios start getting involved, you get James Bond. I love Bond, but there is far less style in those movies. I have high hopes and low expectations for the new Bond. I dig Daniel Craig, and I love that they are thinking outside the box and reinventing the franchise, but I am weary of the studio involvement. Looks like it was shot well.

Also, The new Thom Yorke album: I wouldn't say I am disappointed, because I saw it coming. I don't really like it though. Remember when the Pixies broke up, and then The Breeders started doing their thing, and Frank Black started doing his thing? I could tell who had done what in the Pixies, and could see how "creative differences" came into play after the band members parted ways. I thought Frank and The Breeders did some awesome stuff, but neither did anything close to what they did as the Pixies. Well, the same thing is happening here. Eraser is filled with everything I didn't like about the direction that Radiohead took after OK Computer. Again, a lot of what they did was bloody brilliant, but certain aspects of it I didn't jump on board for. Listening to this album it is easy to see that the rest of the band may have kept reeling him back and insisting there be actual drums and guitars in their songs. I think there are some good parts on the album, but the further Thom gets into the electronic stuff, the further away from OK Computer he gets. It seems like OK Computer is smack dab in the middle of this album, and Pablo Honey, right where it should be. I think that may be where I like them the best.

The Fall Season

I don't think my head works right. Did something big change and I missed it? I feel like I was anticipating something, and then I missed it, and then it turned out to be really anti-climactic anyway. So there is a bunch of residual anticipation that isn't directed anywhere. Maybe it's hockey season. Maybe it's The new fall TV season. I did miss a bunch of premiers when I was in DC, and a lot of those were extremely anti-climactic as well. Maybe that was it. That'd be kinda sad, though. If my mind was subconsciously excited about the fall TV schedule.
Some of the new shows I didn't really get to see except Heroes. That show I really liked. They did a good job of showing what it would be like to suddenly realize you had super powers. Most of us would freak out, but the comic book nerds would be overjoyed.
I never got into CSI or Law and Order or Lost or any or the ten billion stupid reality shows that are on network TV. Some of the more obscure reality shows I like, though. I have a few geeky shows that I watch like Smallvillee and Doctor Who, and now Heroes. Smallville and my secret guilty pleasure Gillmore Girls (a show I have been watching since day one and not telling anyone about it) are both on the new CW station, a merger of the WB and UPN. I'm sure the W is for Warner, but I don't know what the C is for. This was a good idea, as both networks had a heap of crap, and they seem to have done a good job of keeping the good (or at least the most successful) shows. I liked Veronica Mars, but there was always a scheduling conflict, but now I can watch it. OLN has picked a lot more Avalanche games this season, so that's good. Most of the time I don't even really watch TV. I mean like sit and stare at the screen for the whole show. I do that with movies, but with TV, I'm usually doing something else, like drawing comics or surfing the net, or blogging, or making dinner, or playing with my boy. It does always seem to be on though. At least after Jack goes to bed.
I had one awesome weekend. It was just me and the boy, as Jen was in Dallas. We had a good time. He is getting to really enjoy specific people and specific activities, and when you get around the things he likes, he's just as happy as can be. We got haircuts, went to the park, a lot, and generally just played and farted around Stillwater. It was a lot of fun. He's slowly starting to get easier to manage a night, so that's good. He still wakes up at 4:45 ready to start his day, but at least he sometimes sleeps straight through till then. Sometimes. We and a good time.
I rented The Proposition. This is the Australian Western that Nick Cave Wrote. It was very good, and very violent. No the Die Hard cartoony kind of violence that we usually get stuffed down out collective throats, but really mean, brutal violence. Violence that serves the very well written plot. Check it out.
Well, that's all I got for now.

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.

Random #3

New NGV5 is up. The Slug Zombies have arrived!

Um... What else? The weekend was hawesome! Jen's parents came up to Stilly to watch Jackson for the weekend so we could get a break. We thought we were going to go to Wichita to pick up a drafting table that I had bids out on ebay, but some fucker outbid me by a buck at the last second. So instead we went to Tulsa and just stayed in Jen's parents house. They were up here with the boy, and we were down there on our own. It was glorious. We ate out, shopped, and slept in. Basically became slugs because we could. So nothing really to report, which is a very good thing.

Random thoughts:
-This whole Jonbenet thing is retarded. I knew from a mile away that guy was a) a creepy little shit, and b) not the killer. If he was so gung-ho about confessing, and felt so bad about it, he would have done it a lang time ago. And BTW, a known pedophile goes on the run and nobody thinks to check Thailand? Idiots. He was even using his real name. And there was something very Lee Harvey about how they kept parading him around.
-A year after Katrina and nobody has learned shit. Bush said yesterday that he's not giving anymore money out and that it is up to the locals to make it work with what they have. What they have is Jack and Shit. And Jack left town long ago. dick.
-We finally saw Brokeback Mountain last night. I was waiting for the hoopla to wind down, and to forget about what I had heard about it. It was a very good movie. Being in the middle of Homophobistan, which is full of cowboys, I thought it was a nice comment on tolerance.
-This is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen.

That is all.

Esquire.

So this post by ELB, (take your time, I'll wait...) made me have a pang of nostalgia. Though I never worked in a video store, I did work in a movie theatre. An art-house one at that. Most of the people in the neighborhood were convinced that we were a porn theatre.
I started there the week reservoir Dogs opened, and left the week, years later, that reservoir dogs was re-released for some festival or double feature or something, making for good book-ends to that career. For a bunch of kids on minimum wage, we sure had a lot of fun. We threw parties every few weeks centered around the arrival of new movies, these started as employee screenings, but degraded into debauchery until every few months the management would tighten the reigns, and only allow employees for a while, but it would always go south sooner rather than later.
And the sex. Holy shit was that an incestuous bunch. It seemed like every body was banging somebody else who worked there. For a while, we had the honor of having the most gay employees, and were dubbed "the Esqueer". There was even one infamous instance where one girl joined in on a couple's wedding night.
I got held up at gunpoint there once. We had just emptied the lock box, and these two guys came in, waving guns. By "waving", I mean discretely hidden in coats, and held low, but hey, a gun is a gun. They got the a night's cash for some French movie, and my manager's wallet, who in his gay little way went prancing after them, and they shot at him. They didn't hit him. Or his giant Freddy Mercury mustache.
Erin's post concerns, partly, getting really stoned and fucking with the customers. This was a fond past-time of ours as well. The projection booth must have had a permanent layer of THC on the walls. The upstairs theatre was converted from the old balcony, and the screen sat in front of this little curtained area that we had a bunch of junk in. For a while we had a James Bond Standee up there, positioned so that when the light on the screen was right, it looked like a guy with a gun was hiding back there, behind the curtain. That lasted about a week before somebody complained. I think the projectionist adapted the idea to have a head on the film platter, so that if you happened to look up there while the movie was playing, it'd look like somebody was up there nervously pacing.
We had this massive stock pile of movie posters in the basement of the Mayan (part of the same chain, and although we technically worked for one theatre, we really worked at all of them.), My brother was put in charge of getting them in order one slow summer, a daunting task, given the piles and piles on posters there, form every movie any of the theatres had shown for the previous 20 years or so. Jeff decided to exact his revenge for such a menial task by alphabetizing all of the posters by the second letter of the title. Jeff could find any poster you wanted in a matter of minutes, but it took everybody else hours. I'm not sure they ever figured that one out.
By far, our favorite people to fuck with were the Rocky Horror Picture Show people. I mean, come on. They're asking for it. They're like the nerds of the band fags. How can you not? We did some really horrible things to them.
First off, the last movie of the night usually went in about 9:30 or so. It would take us about 20 minutes to do our side work, then we would lock the doors, file into the booth and get fucking shit-faced. Every once in a while, we'd poke our heads out to see if anybody needed to be let out, and to make sure nobody in line was setting anything on fire. To minimize their exposure to "real" customers, we started the line around the corner on 6th ave, and every week, we'd inch that velvet rope back just a little more, till the line almost started in the alley. The show was supposed to start at midnight, but we would rarely venture out of the booth before 12:30. THEN we'd let the "cast" in to set up for a while, THEN we'd start letting the idiots who actually paid good money week after week in, and start the show around 1:00, pushing back the 2:00am show, if we had one, even further. NOBODY was let in before we said so. That meant that if some poor sap was in his Frank-N-further garters and it was -10 degrees and snowing, he still had to wait. He should have brought something other than a cape to cover himself. We'd make them go get us pizza or send them to the grocery store for stamps. One of our favs was that even though we had a cleaning service, we'd make them clean the theatre of rice and toast and toilet paper before they left. The weird thing was that they were happy to do all of it, because we were the cool kids, and they desperately needed our approval. The even weirder thing is that in the circles we ran in, we were NOT the cool kids, and we desperately sought approval from everybody else.
It was a fun job. No responsibilities, very little politics. If it weren't for the appalling pay, I probably would have left later than I did. For a while I worked there in the evenings and at the coffeeshop in the mornings, but I was making far too much at the coffeeshop to warrant a second job, so I quit. After a while, they stopped calling me for employee screenings, and that was that.

The Nothing and a rant

So usually at the begining of the week, I regale my two readers with tales of weekend shenanigans. But this weekend we didn't really do anything interesting. At least not to you two.
Jack had some live viruses injected into his chubby little thighs on Friday*, and that in conjunction with the three teeth that are cutting made for a very cranky baby indeed. For the most part, he either slept or whined all weekend. This was also the first weekend in a while that we didn't have a major obligation an hour's drive away, so we spent a lot of it cleaning a very dirty house, and trimming the yard's hair.
So what should I write about? How about a few little things that are creeping and crawling around in my head. 1) I am slowly getting more confident in the country. More and more people are starting to see that the Bush administration in paticular and the Republican party in general have been corrupted by absolute power. These mid term elections will be a good test to see how much total bullshit the country can take. That is, of course, if the Democrats don't fuck it up like they usually do. The thing about the Dems is that they hardly ever really fuck up them selves. They just don't fight back when attacked, so the general populace figure whatever the GOP said was true. And they don't have any balls. The Repubs went after Clinton so hard for a seemingly crooked land deal in Arkansas that they ended up being exonerated for, yet they cried impeachment because he got a hummer from tubby. Bush has done so many horrible things that are WAY worse, and the deems sit on their haunches afraid that if they say anything they will be called a traitor. But they are pulling out of that. They are gaining ground as the Repubs slip.
That being said, 2) I really don't want Hillary to run in '08. Not a good idea. I think she's a good politician and that her heart is in the right place, and she would make a good president, but she's not electable. In the same way that Obama isn't. They are too green, and the demographics of the people who actually vote are still to old school** to open their minds that much. So I think Gore should run again. Stop laughing and hear me out.
-He's already beat Bush, and anybody that they put up (except McCain, whom I would totally vote for) wouldn't be anywhere near Bush's crazy crazy, tipping the odds heavily in Gore's favor.
-In the 2000 election, all of Gore's mud was already slung. They already dug up whatever they could dig up on him, and nobody seemed to care that much.
-I really like what he's been doing with his time off. The web stuff*** and the environmental stuff have been top notch, and I think a lot of people have seen that.
- He's tall, good-looking, and Nader isn't running.
- He's not in the pocket of the oil companies.

I don't think he'll do it, but if he did, and if he was for some reason up against Hillary in a primary, I think the same thing that happened to Lieberman would happen to Hillary. She'd get swooped by the one guy more left than her. I would totally vote for him. Again.



* He also went to his first day of pre-school. He wore a dinosaur outfit. He was really cute.
** (racist redneck chauvinists)
*** The only beef I have is that he fired Layla Kayleigh, who was a correspondent on Current, after she did a Maxim shoot. That wasn't cool, but she's on AOTS now, which is cool.

Bowling and Sleep Deprivation

Here is an actual conversation I once had with one Aaron Taylor, after showing up unannounced at his house, and finding him in the back yard:

J: What the hell are you doing?
A: Well, this tree died.
J: So....?
A: So I'm painting one half of it red, and the other half blue.
J: Okay.

Man. As some of you know, Jackson does not sleep through the night. Never has. He only recently decided that naps were a good idea. For ever he just didn't sleep. Not at night, not during the day. There were a few times when we had to take him to the grand parents for the weekend, just so we could catch up with our friends in dreamtown, but it never worked, because our minds have programmed us to think that if he doesn't wake up every few hours than something is wrong. Well, he is making slow progress to remedy the situation. He sleeps now, but likes to get up around 4:30 or 5:00. Jen the saint usually gets up with him and lets me sleep for a little while. So once she's up and moving and has some caffeine in her, Jack decides it's time to take a nap. Usually around 8:45 or so. I think just to piss off his mommy. He's a sly one.
The point of all this is that before, if we wanted to go out, we knew he wasn't going to sleep anyway, and if he did sleep, it'd be from 3 to 9 or so on the weekends, giving us about 5 hours, which is pretty good for us. So we went out this weekend thinking that. We roll in from the bar at 2:30 or so, a little tipsy, pour ourselves into the bed, and get a whoppin' 2 and a half hours of sleep before he wakes up. Jen the saint once again took care of it, and made his some early morning eggs. I love that woman. She got a little nap later in the day, but I think she needs about three days of uninterrupted sleep to really catch up. I'm implementing a new thing where, on Saturday, I get him up and fed and out of the house as soon as possible, so Jen can sleep. We'll be spending Saturday mornings at the coffeeshop now, so if you want to come keep me company, please do so. I'm the guy with the funny glasses and the sleepy mug.
That isn't to say that we did not have a lovely weekend. This we did. Friday, Cookie joined us for some Chinese food and what we call "porch time", which is exactly what it sounds like. Saturday we dragged cookie kicking and screaming to Tulsa to attend another one-year-old's birthday party, and for that, I am truly sorry. We had a good time inspite of the heat.
We then met up with him and his new girlfriend to eat some awesome Italian food. It was muy yummy. The off to go disco bowling for Gretchen's birthday. There were about 15 of us, and we were all really bad at it, which made it a lot more fun. Jen and Alison were the surprise winners. Who knew? On to Caz's to finish up the night. There was some sort of event going on. They raffled off a Heiniken chimenia during a burn ban. I don't know why. I did walk out with a little pile of PBR swag.
Sunday was spent recuperating and eating red meat.

Robot with knick-knack

I missed the calendar thingy this month, but here is a detail because it was the only thing I drew on it. That robot's gonna mess you up.
So we finally had a weekend at home. A three day weekend for me due to an uninvited migrane. I got to work Friday morning, and felt pretty crappy, and had a bit of a headache, but I just could not stop sweating. It wasn't hot in the AC, and I was pouring buckets. Then a mythical being hit me in the back of the head with a sledge-hammer and I almost passed out. So I decided to go home and sleep it off. That took till 2:00, and I was pretty groggy the rest of the day. Jen was having a garage sale, so I just stayed inside with the boy, so he wouldn't get heatstroke, and I wouldn't fall over.
Friday night, we ended up having dinner with a bunch of sorority girls. I'm still not sure how. But, we got a lot of offers to babysit Jackson, so that was good. We now have this massive list of girls to call when we need to go get shit-faced. Always handy.
Saturday was the rest of the sale. We got totally cleaned out, and that was including a bunch of stuff that cousin Ryan dropped off. We had to close down at 12:30 because it was 106 degrees. At 12:30. Not even the hottest part of the day. Fuckin' sun. God hates us. We spent the rest of the day trying to stay places that were air conditioned. We finally got to leave the house and go for a walk around 9:00, when Jack should have been in bed and right when all the bugs come out. I'm still itchy. I think all we did on Sunday was housework. We were really starting to get cabin fever. Poor Jack would look out the window at his little swing that I put up in the tree for him, and whine. It was very sad.
In other news, the Cheerleader comic that Jeff and I did got published. It is in a cheesy goth themed rag, but hey, published is published. Always nice to see yourself in print.
I leave you with this random thought:
Why the hell can't Fruit Stripe Gum last longer? So good. So fleeting.

Whiners

So NPR did this story this morning about the awful heat wave going across the country. They were making this big deal about how some place was having trouble coping because for 10 days the temperature had been above 90 degrees.
Above 90! That's horrible!
If you click the pic to the right, you will see that Stilly had exactly zero days under 90, and only 5 that were under 95. Oh, and do me a favor and click here.
You see that? Forecast is another week of above 100, and another month of above 90. John on KEXP Seattle's morning show was so happy because the intense heat (88) was finally over and it was back into the 70s for the rest of the week. I wanted to leap through the internets and throttle his throat.
This heat makes me cranky and sick to my stomach. My electric bill may as well be another car payment. It would probably be cheaper to get another car, and just sit in it with the engine idling, blowing the AC all over me. It can't be any more expensive. I wish I had the money to go live in Australia or New Zealand where it is winter right now. We need to make a really cool city somewhere where it is really cold year round, like Siberia or in ANWaR. If millions will flock to Vegas, they'll come to my new city.

Who's with me?

Hella busy

So this was the weekend of Birthday parties. As we celebrated the 1 years old birthday * of the wee Jack, back in Denver Jeremy and Carrie, two of my favorite people of all time celebrated their spiraling decent into their 30s. I wish you both the best, and I am truly sad that I was not there to watch the pair of you defile yourselves. Cookie was not on hand, due to a previous engagement of a family reunion, celebrating his decent into insanity, I imagine.
Our weekend was (as the title suggests) hella busy.
Let's start on Friday. Jen had an event, so she took off early for that, having to drive to Tulsa, drop off the boy at the babysitter, then venture way up North to the event. I, after a full day of work, had to book it home, collect the dogs, and motor to Tulsa myself to pick up my mom at the airport. We then went to The Grandparent's house and hung out for the remainder of the evening. The house was full of guests including Jen's sister and her husband. We ate fajitas. Jen rolled back in about 2:30 am, and Jack woke up at 5:30, giving her a really nice, full night's sleep. So as not to wake up the rest of the house, we went to the coffeeshop, and then to a park for the morning.
Around 11:00, Lonny and I had to go help cousin Preston move. That was treat in the 101 degree heat. We were the first to arrive, and did the bulk of the heavy lifting, Lonny with a bum thumb (a result of a "combat injury" suffered in Iraq during a particularly intense volley ball game). We got them moved, however, and after some wonderfully cold beers and tacos, Lonny and I headed back over to the house to prepare for the festivities.
Streamers, balloons that popped every two seconds, snacks and goodies, extra chairs and tables, the cakes, the splash-pad, and a bunch o' grillin' meat. Done in time to take a quick shower that I was still in when the first guests arrived.
It was a "pool party" of sorts. More like a splash-pad party, but hey, nobody really complained. I think the older kids were a little disappointed, though. The whole thing was vintage cow-boy themed, and I think it went off really well. Jack tore into the strawberry cake after a few test jabs, and had a hell of a time. Then presents. That kid got more stuff on Birthday #1 than I did on all of my childhood birthdays put together. Craig and Heather got him the coolest items by far. They really went the distance with a little boy's cowboy cut button up shirt, and a really cool t-shirt, coupled with a really awesome print of a cowboy for his wall. People really want that kid to read, as he got so many books, we have to go and get a a new bookshelf just to put them all on. The Walkers each got him a copy of their favorites books from their own childhoods, and inscribed each with a personal note, which I thought was really sweet.
After the guests dwindled and we cleaned up both ourselves and the house, and after Jack crashed from the MASSIVE sugar high he was on from the cake, we decided to go to the bar.
The Nelson's and The Powers headed to Caz's, and had to turn around and go back to Sapulpa to get Jen's ID, because she forgot it. When we got back, Craig and Heather had already left, but forgot a half a pack of cigarettes on their table, and we assumed they were a gift, so we happily puffed away the night on their dime (thanks, guys!). The One and Only Andrea was there and we all chatted away till closing. We got home sometime after 2:00, and Jack woke up at 5:30, giving us another night of rest and relaxation. Jen lost it, and went home to sleep. I stayed up with the boy until my mom woke up, and we packed up and left around 11:00. We got back into Stilly and all took naps while doing absolutely nothing** for the rest of the day.
There was an awesome gift waiting in the mailbox, though. This was the new Evildoers CD, and a bunch of other swag that I had designed for them. I've done CD covers and buttons and things before, but there is always something really cool about getting your hands on the final product for the first time. Joey also included a shirt for Jack. All of this enclosed in a pop-corn box.
I think we all went to bed around 10:00, which was good, because Jack woke up at 5:30 again, and we were all a little less likely kill anybody.


* Blogger's picture thingy isn't working for me, so go to Flickr.

**if you conceder watching a bunch of Sealab "nothing"

Nostalgia

So Cookie and I were talking the other day about band names. This got me thinking about all the bands I was in during high school, which was a surprising amount considering I can't play any instruments nor read music. But not very surprising if you take into account that it was usually the same basic group of guys. We rehearsed basically never and only ever played one "show" at Mike's birthday party while his parents were out of town. We went through a plethora of names and corresponding ideologies. My memories of these events are shrouded by a haze of recreational drug use,so if any of you old-schoolers are reading this, please feel free to correct anything that you remember better than I do.

(in no particular order)

The Puritans: It was under this moniker that we played our one and only "show". That night was more important to our group of friends in that it was the first real house party of our youth. We had others, but this one had a band. It was also important for me because it was at this party that I hatched my evil plan to steal Mike's girlfriend as soon as he left town the following month. I dated her for quite some time, but that really had nothing to do with me "stealing" anything. It was all her doing. It usually is. The Puritans played mostly covers of late '80s mopey new wave, although we did do an original written by Isaac, which I believe had something to do with kidnapping. I did this drawing of Hodge Podge from Bloom County for the drum kit.

100 foot limit: This started out as a very fIREHOSE inspired skater band. That was about as far as it went. We got the name from a sign on the flag pole at school that Joey and I stole one day, and resided on his base drum for quite a few years till he sold his kit for rent money. He kept the sign, though. We did this awesome sped-up version of Bela Lugosi's Dead that rocked the house, um basement.

Big Blue Tugboat: Later shortened to just Tugboat. Later shortened to non-existent.

Katharsis: (with a backwards K) This was the industrial band. Very Skinny Puppy, very Thrill Kill Kult, hence the backwards K. This was a band that formed out of us meeting a guy who was really good with a keyboard, and his twin brother who could play guitar. Before that, we just had a weird collection of what we called "insult and injury songs". These, as should be painfully apparent, were either about injuries: phlegm ball (in the corner of my eye), a rock ballad of sorts, and the ever catchy Smoke in the Eye. Or insults: Yo, bitch or Fuck off and Die, which went something like this:

Fuck off and die!
Fuck off and die!
Screw you, bitch!
Fuck off and die!
Blow it out your ass!
Blow it out your ass!
Fuck off and die!

Deep, I tell you. That song, much like the rest, was about one minute long. This was my favorite band to be in, because all we did is hit play on the keyboard, and pound on our instruments, much like Skinny Puppy.

Soon, we all graduated and went our separate ways. Only Joey ever made anything out of his musical ability. Partially because he had more drive, but mostly because the rest of us didn't have any musical ability. I became resigned to designing gig posters for for the few bands that I knew, and still do from time to time.

A break in the heat

Finally! Although usually 97 degrees isn't a break, but it is 10 degrees cooler than what it's been around here. So that's good. I guess.
We got a new car a few weeks ago, and I have to tell you, it wasn't a moment too soon. The crappy black Jeep with the bum door and the shitty air conditioning, would have killed both itself and Jennifer and probably Jackson with all the driving in the 100 degree heat Jen had to do this week. So kudos to the Xterra for being comfy and cool.
Big Jack is loving being a year old. It's a big milestone. He got to turn his carseat around to face front, he can eat nuts and strawberries with no fear of possible future allergies, the next level of Baby Einstein videos are at dis disposal, and we get cheaper rates for mommy's day out babysitting. He doesn't know it, but he's very excited. He tore into his little carrot cake with reckless abandon, and threw the singing candle on the ground for the dogs. I got him a t-shirt that reads: Mommy wants a new president. Fun stuff.
What else? I watched the entire first season of Arrested Development last night. That is some funny shit right there. They got all the right guest stars and everything. David Cross is hawesome, and this is Jeff Tambor's best work since the Larry Sanders Show. Thanks ever so to Cookie for lending it to us. He has a date tonight
Page two: The whole stem cell thing just really pissed me off. Jen too, given who she works for. They now have to send a bunch of that research out of the country, and that means more expense and Americans won't get the credit. And now his horrible foreign policy has come back to bite him in the ass. I really can't figure out why people keep letting him fuck up like that. Over and over.
Butch and Sundance is on. Man I love that movie. That's one of those movies where I'll watch it no matter when it's on, or on what channel. Commercials, edited, I don't care. If I just getting out of the shower, and it happens to be on, I'll sit bare-ass naked on the edge of the bed till its done.
Well, I obviously have nothing to say, so I'll go now.

Hot.

<---- I mean, seriously. What the Fuck?

A letter to my son on his first birthday.

Dear Jackson,
What can I say? It has been a wonderful, terrifying year. You have become such a light in my life, I can't even describe it. A year ago today, as your mother lay in the hospital bed awaiting your arrival, I was nervous. Constantly wringing my hands and drinking massive amounts of Dr. Pepper, smoking like a chimney, and peeing every 3 minutes or so. I didn't eat or sleep. All of this due to my anxiety not about having a kid, because I was resigned to, and actually looking forward to that, but about being a father and about your mom's well being. She was in labor for a long long time, and when the doctor told us that you were just too big to come out, and that struggling to do so was taking it's toll, I got a new level of anxiety added on because now a major surgery was going to be involved. There is a lot that the father can't do during both the pregnancy and the birth. I felt a little helpless. I could not truly sympathize, and I couldn't really help. All I could do was watch. Boy did that change.
After the paper suit, the waiting in the hall for an eternity watching my own hair turn gray, the hot spots, the too much anesthetic, the extra big hole, the massive amounts of blood, the really weird man who kept going on about how he wears a different ball cap every day instead of concentrating on what he was doing, the doctors handed you to me. I didn't know what you were going to look like, but now I can't think of any other way that you could. I felt such amazing joy at seeing you, and such sheer terror at what they had done to my poor wife, that my brain shut down and I just stared at the wall for a while, just to make sure there was something concrete and real in the world. Then Jen asked to see you, and she touched you with such tenderness through the haze of drugs. Then they whisked me with you in my arms to the nursery, where I spent another long while watching them poke and prod you. Then they wrapped you up like a burrito and told me to take you to see your mom, who was sewn up, awake, and anxious to see you. For a few hours, all we really did was stare at you, amazed that you were actually there. We rocked you and fed you and I sung you songs by Belle and Sebastian when I thought nobody was watching.
The next few month were spent watching you sleep, and trying to keep you happy and healthy, and little bits of your personality started to creep out as you sopped up the world with those big blue eyes of yours. We started to find out things like how you love it when mommy dances her bad '80s dances and how you hate peas and how my glasses are still a mystery. You have become a very independent, happy, curious, bright-eyed little boy, and if you would only sleep through the night, so mommy and I could get some rest, you would be perfect + 1.
I used to not fear death. Not in a try anything, Xtreme sports kind of way, but in a way that if it happened, it happened. I wasn't scared to pass from one world to another. I was secure that the world would continue, and that things would eventually even out. I've never really told anybody that. But I'm telling you because now I am. You and your mother have put the fear of death in me in the best possible way. Now I think that if I went, I would truly be missing out on something.
We have changed jobs, moved to a new city, settled into a decidedly more small-town lifestyle, and I am loving every minute of it. My toy buying habit is a little more justified, and I have realized the usefulness of things like the internet, digital cable, drive-through coffee bars and chairs with straps. I live vicariously through you, remembering things that had been pushed aside by life, seeing them anew through your eyes. I am back to college levels of sleep without the drug habit to support it, and I don't care. Anything to keep you happy and healthy.

I love you, little man. Happy Birthday!

-Dad.

"I love you, I've a drowning grip on your adoring face
I love you, my responsibility has found a place..."


Pears

ugh.

Creepy sadness and a lot of thoughts on frugality.
Yesterday, Brian posted this very sweet message to his baby on his first birthday. I got all teared up because my kid turns a year old on Monday. Brian is a much better writer than I, and seemed to sum up a lot of very similar feelings that I had, only more succinctly. Then I find out last night that a girl I knew from the coffeeshop, whose husband went to high school with Jen was in a terrible accident, where her 5 year old kid was killed. Everybody else is okay, but the little brother is already asking about it. How does one deal with their own grief, and explain it to a little kid at the same time? This on the heels of another tragedy where a guy from work's 18 month old son drowned in the tub at the babysitter's.
Normally I wouldn't empathize that much, but having a kid of my own has changed my perspective on a lot of things that I hadn't really realized. I spent the first few months of his life just trying to keep him happy and fed. Now I realize that my main job is to keep him alive. I said before that 90% of parenting is surveillance and containment, the rest is engagement. I've stopped myself many times from making a big deal when he bonks his head or falls over (when minor) because getting knocked around a little bit is part of life. These things happen, and if I don't make a big deal out of it, neither will he. It seems to have worked so far. Jack is a happy, curious, mischievous kid, and seeing him figure out the world has been an awesome thing to watch. But he is indeed a fragile little thing, and there are any number of outside influences that can harm him. What the fuck am I supposed to do about that? I can't put him in a baby sized gerbil ball, or keep him locked up in the house because that's no way to live. I want him to see as much of the world as possible, and I guess I just need to come to terms with the fact that shit happens. That doesn't mean I can't take precautions, but I can't freak out either, like those women you see in the grocery store that dip their kid's toy in bleach every time they drop it on the floor. That just makes the kid scared of the world, and too timid to venture out in it on their own. I guess a balance will naturally reveal itself, and I should just embrace that.
I do love that little weirdo.

It's Like Looking into the Future..

HAHA!---->

Anyhoo... We are about to go eat chili at cousin Ryan's. friday we went out to see a guy Jen went to high school with play some art-school ambient music. I like ambient music, but I prefer it to be ambient. Just sort of in the background. Something you don't have to think about while you are doing more important things. All this I realized while watching a bunch of it being performed live, which can be the musical equivalent of watching paint dry. Maybe these guys (there were 4 bands) just weren't any good. Perhaps it can be entertaining, but this really wasn't. I do have to say that I had a great time anyway, mainly because of the awesome group of people I was with. Jens parents came up to Stilly and stayed the night so we could go to the OKC for the shin dig. About 10 of us showed up, and since the music was so gawd-awful, we just drank and chatted. Then we hit ihop at 2:00am, and I don't need to tell you how entertaining that can be. Especially since all the bands showed up about a half an hour after we did.
In other news, we bought a new car. The old beat up black Jeep Cherokee will be sold tomorrow to a very nice little emo girl named Stormy. She is hella excited, and we are glad that it sold in one day. We have purchased a 2000 Nissan XTerrea, with 48k miles on it for a song. I'm serious. We got a screaming deal.

okay. Time to go eat chili.

Things blowing up in the sky

So it rained like crazy all day Tuesday. We went to Cookie's parent's for 4th celebrating, and had a wonderful time. Turned out that the fireworks display in Stilly was canceled, so they moved it to last night, so we went to that with Cousin Ryan and his very skittish Bassett hound Roscoe. We sat on the bank by the spillway at boomer lake, and were pretty close. Closer than I have ever been to a fireworks display, other that the one in my bedroom when I was 14 that sent me to the emergency room.*
Jackson loved it. Things blowing up in the sky is always a fave among small boys, BTW. He would point up at them, very Lenin-like and go "ooh ooh", like he was giving a speech. Speechifyin' is him new deal for some reason. He does it all the time. Roscoe took the most giantest dump ever. I guess the show literally scared the shit out of him.
Tonight Cousin Ryan and I are going to go see the new Pirate movie. I am actually more excited to see this than I was for Superman or X3. Both of which were vaguely disappointing. The Pirate movie seems a little safer. They should have a pretty hard time screwing it up, since there isn't all the history and expectations that a super-hero movie has. Speaking of which, the new Spider-man trailer is awesome. This one will see a bit of a departure, and I'm worried about that. The first two had plot points that were (however far-fetched) explained by science or nature. This one has the potential to go into either the super-natural, or into space. Both of these are harder to suspend disbelief with. I can believe all day long that Spider-man got his powers from a genetically engineered spider, but Venom getting his from a symbiotic space creature is something else. At least in the movies. It's fine for the comics, but when you put a real human's face to the character, then that reality needs to extend to the rest of the film. The first two X-Men films did this brilliantly, and I hope Spidey doesn't jump the shark with this one.




* I remember having on a Sisters Of Mercy T-shirt, and the ER doc saying: "Hey, I used to work a Mercy Hospital!"

Wacky Weekend Fun

So this is cool. After I entered a contest at Scary Go Round, John Allison posted all of the submissions on his website. I didn't win, but I made the top ten, and he seemed to like it.
I hope I get some hits on my site from it. My big dream is to just do a web comic, and to sell t-shirts and stickers and things to pay the bills. I doubt this will ever happen, but I can dream, dammit!
I went to Craig and Heather's wedding this weekend, and I have to say that it was one of the most enjoyable that I have ever been to. I was honored to stand with Craig as a groomsman. If you ever want to see what true love looks like, spend a little while with these two, because they have it down.
Yesterday, as promised, was Cookie day, and we had a fab time. I made him watch 8 hours of Spaced, deep into the night, and we both felt it was worth it.
Today we went to breakfast, had some coffee, visited a head shop, and sent Cookie packing, so he could feed his rather sizeable cat. I think we may drive up there tomorrow to watch some things explode in the sky.

Sketchbook # 13

New NGV5 page is up. And this---->
Is a weird guy in a haz-mat thingy. He has hard work to do. Or that suit is keeping him alive, I don't know which.
Holy crap am I ready for a long weekend. I have a wedding to participate in, for my buddy Craig. That will use up tonight and tomorrow. Sunday will see Cookie return, perhaps just as triumphantly as Superman did. COOKIE RETURNS now in theaters! That would be awesome.
I took Monday off, so now I don't have to go back till Wednesday. There WILL be whiskey in by belly at some point in the mean time, just to warn you. Weddings are generally great sources of whiskey, and I fully plan to take advantage of that. I don't know what I doing for the 4th, so if anybody has any ideas, let me know. I hope to see several things explode in the sky*, and this year I just might get my wish. That is, if mean ol' Mr. Chinese Dragon God of things exploding in the sky isn't still mad at me about that hooker.

SuperJack

I think Jackson will grow up to be a super man. I saw the movie last night. I liked it. Muy fun. The bits with the kid were a little cheesy, buy could have been a lot worse. Routh seems to have channeled Christopher Reeve from beyond the grave. He was a dead ringer in almost every way. Except the haircut, which kind of bugged me. It looked like Clark Kent had the same stylist as Franz Ferdinand.

Yesterday, a bunch of baby armadillos visited us. There were three of them, and I snapped a few pics, and video taped them romping around in utter cuteness for about two seconds until Sadie dug her way under the fence and tore after them. I think she got one of them on the tail before I could catch up to her in the woods and grab her. They ran under a big brush pile and never came back out. Sadie is a terror terrier. She'll get you. The woods behind our house are nice to look at, but I found a tick on me this morning after I was only out there for a few minutes, adding to the list of reasons to not go out there. I dropped my video camera when I ran after Sadie, and now it doesn't play right.

sad.

Gone to Pot

We had a heckuvah busy weekend, and it is still technically going, as I have not been back yo work yet. Jen had an event, so I did the same thing I always do on relay weekend: I drive to Tulsa, get the boy from the babysitter's, visit the relay for a while, spend the evening with him at the grandparent's house, and fight to get him to sleep. Then the boy and I amuse ourselves on saturday while Jen sleeps it off. We went to the coffeeshop, saw some friends, and poked around Target. Saturday night,we had a lovely meal with B&G, and went back up to Stilly. I had to bag out of Craig's batchelor party because I was too tired. Sunday was an eventful day, sort of. Jen had to prepare for a procedure she had today, which involved taking laxatives and clearing out her bowels. It sucked. If she wasn't asleep, she was in the bathroom, and wee Jack was getting sick, so I had to deal with a cranky baby all day in the midst of mowing and cleaning the house in preperation for Jen's dad coming up to watch the boy while we went to the hospital. whew! Somehow I managed to watch the entire box set of Spaced (I had to order a duped copy from England via ebay), and Shaun of the Dead, as I have recently become a HUGE Simon Pegg fan. His bit in Doctor Who was awesome. Today was the hospital. All that prep, and the thing only lasted like 20 minutes. We've been relaxing and doing chores and taking care of a sick baby all day.
Off to Wally-World!

Sam Houston was a tall man

66 feet tall if you believe the statue. I went to the city named after him this weekend for a family reunion (of Jen's family). We (Us and Jen's sister and her husband) drove a rented mini-van all night Thursday, so that Jack could just sleep the whole time, which he did. We met a very stoned, very butch tweaker-girl at one of the various gas stations along the way. She clamed she was looking for her friend Crystal, and we figured out hours later that this was actually a drug reference, and we all felt really old and out of touch. We continued on our way, arriving around six in the morning. We handed a fully rested baby off to the grand-parents, ate some greasy-spoon breakfast in Baytown, and slept it off at a really shitty hotel. This was after showers and switching rooms due to an undisclosed liquid being on the bedding. Could have been salsa, could have been blood. All we knew was that it was red and that we didn't want to sleep on it.
On to the reunion. Lots of family, lots of catching up, lots of passing Jackson around for people to scream "Isn't he CUTE!" and make loads of snap judgments about his life, pleasent and future. My fav being that he must love all things round like balls and knees because they remind him of boobies. We are a heap of barbecued burgers and hot-dogs and mac and cheese and salad.
The next day was much the same. Sitting around and yapping, although this time the cooked an entire pig on a giant spit. That was cool to watch, but the the meat wasn't very good. Kinda gamey and under cooked, even after being over the coals for most of the day. We checked out the bay, and sat through a series of torrential rain storms. Sunday we drove home, and Jack was a bit more perturbed about it, but slept most of the way, meaning he was fulla energy all night long, so I'm a little sleepy now. On the whole I had a good time but the drive wore on everybody after a while, and we were glad to come home.

Viking

This is a playmobil Viking. Everyone thinks it's lego, but it isn't. Playmobil is cooler. Maybe not cooler, but I like them more. They are a little more inventive. They don't allow the player to be as inventive as legos, but they are different kinds of toys, so that's okay.
Tonight, we are traveling to Houston (actually Baytown) for a family get-together. We are traveling at night so that Jackson can hopefully sleep through the 8+ hour drive. He doesn't ever sleep through the night anyway, so I don't really see why he would this time, but maybe being in the car will help. The Powers and The Nelsons will pile into a rented mini-van and stare at the Texas landscape. I'm really tired from Jack not sleeping last night, so hopefully the Nelsons will do the driving in the wee hours of the morning. Driving through Houston can be a pain, but I have driven in L.A., and Lonny has driven in Iraq, so we should do okay. We have ipods and good company to help out.

In other news, look how friggin' cute my kid is-->
I mean really. This kid is the cutest cutie in Cutesville.

Okay. Enough gushing. I'll post a report of the weekend on Monday.

That is all.

Sketchbook #11

I'll have a new NGV5 page up later today I hope. This is our hero, Steve. He winds his way through the silly futuristic/Old West world that I have put him in. He's fun. I guess he just got shot here. Again. He should have that looked at.

It be Monday. I had a good weekend. Went to Tulsa's RFL for the American Cancer Society. It was nice for both of us to be there to just enjoy it, and not be running around the whole time putting out proverbial fires. We had a good time. Jack's cousin Lindsey was staying the weekend with Jen's parents, so they came to the relay as well. Lindsey dragged Jen into the Jupiter jump, and Jen's body has been telling her what a bad that was ever since.

Saturday it was 107 degrees. We tried to stay places that had air conditioning. We did not succeed. After the heat subsided. We went to Enid America to see Cody "Cookie" Dopps and his family at a pool party. I had a really yummy bratwurst. Jack made friends with Cookie's niece London. Cookie's family is down to earth and really friendly. We had an awesome time.

Yesterday we did nothing*. Grocery shopping, the Pita Pit, and some serious lounging. About 2:00, I got a wild hair up my ass to thin out some of my crap, so I went through all of my books, movies and CD, and took a big pile down to Hastings, and got about $100 worth of trade, that I spent all but ten bucks of right then.

And now it is Monday. Most people hate Monday morning, but I kinda like it. My boss doesn't show up till noon, so I usually surf the whole morning. There is usually a new Homestar, post secret, many a web comic, and the big thing is that somebody has usually posted the new Doctor Who that aired in England over the weekend. Yay!

update - The new page is up now.