The collapse

I nearly had heart failure when I heard of the news of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsing yesterday. The reason: Heidi was in Minneapolis yesterday and at first, I wasn't sure where that bridge was in relation to the airport and when the story first broke, I wasn't certain of what time the bridge collapsed. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out that the bridge collapsed shortly after 6PM, and Heidi's flight left at 7PM, so there was little doubt that she was safely in the airport and through security when the bridge gave out. (pictures via CBS News)

Still, this is a big deal. There are a lot of people that are injured and the number of people that died is still a bit of a mystery. The reason for the collapse itself is an even bigger mystery. But thank goodness that there were lane closures on the bridge - otherwise, it would have been an even bigger tragedy.

And here's some quite shocking footage of the collapse itself.



Prayers go out to all affected by this. It may not seem like a big deal in the wake of 9/11 and Katrina, but for us in the Midwest, it's a big deal.

The new living room

Wil Wheaton was discussing The Simpsons Movie on his blog today and in doing so, touched on perhaps my biggest pet peeve of all: the people that cannot, for neither love nor money, shut the hell up at a movie.

Years ago, I used to go to movies all the time. Heidi and I are fond of saying that when we were first dating, we went to everything. I mean, we saw Girl 6 (GIRL SIX!!) in the theater for Pete's sake (and it actually wasn't that bad, believe it or not.) But since we had a kid, it's been harder and harder for us to go to movies. I always joke about how I can't go to a movie in the theater unless it has talking animals, and while it's a gross oversimplification of reality, there is a certain element of truth to it. It also does not help that first-run movies are now prohibitively expensive. I make a pretty decent living, and I have no idea a family can afford to take their kids to the movies anymore. For us, it's 20 bucks just to get in the door. And then there's food on top of that which is a part of the moviegoing experience for Anna.

So you pay all this money, and then you get to go into the theater and sit amongst people who, thanks to years of home video, think that they are still at home in their living rooms. They answer their cellphones. They talk to each other while the movie is playing. They carry on conversations at normal volume with no regard for the people sitting around them. They chomp on popcorn and slurp on pop as if they were at the movie for the sole purpose of eating rather than watching the movie. The arrival of nachos and hot dogs at movies was the final straw for me.

Anymore, it takes an EVENT movie to get me to see it in the theater. Transformers was one of those movies. But so far, it's been the only summer movie to get me into the first-run theater. I will go to the budget theater here in Ames without even thinking twice about it. If people are rude, at least I only paid a buck and a half to get in the door.

I think that instead of the animated cat arriving at the movie reminding everyone to be courteous and turn off their cell phones and not talk and pick up the trash (that's another one - how effing hard is it to pick up your own trash and put it in the receptacle!?!?!), perhaps theaters need to be more direct. I would argue for blaring Barbra Streisand singing "SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" if people start talking during a movie if that, in and of itself, were not such a horrible interruption. The cure is (almost) worse than the disease.

Like I said, I blame home video. But it's sad. I pretty much will wait for everything to come to DVD or the budget theater these days. And I never thought I'd say that kind of thing!

(image via)

Up up and away

...or at least she will be tonight. Around 7ish local time, Heidi should be about to start her adventure as she wings across the Atlantic to London. We dropped her off at our friends Barb and Chip's house last night who live southwest of Minneapolis. When we were getting ready to leave, Anna was most upset about leaving the horses and other farm animals, but as we made our move, the reality of her mom being gone for a whole week really hit. And she sobbed. Not an inconsolable sob, but the sob that I'm expecting on the first day of kindergarten. It was a sob of "this is change and I don't like this." She waved and hugged and kissed through all the tears and as we drove down the road, all I could do was tell her that it was okay to cry and to cry as much as she wanted.

We stopped in Mankato at Hy-Vee to get root beer and chocolate - as Anna said, you always feel better when you have chocolate. The Starbucks was closed, damn it, but it worked out all right because I had coffee in the car anyhow. The drive home was incredibly long, but after stopping we were listening to her favorite songs on my iPod and changing lyrics left and right - usually the new lyric involved underwear or Cheeze-Its.

Me? I'm still a bit nervous for her. This is how I feel whenever anyone I love gets on an airplane, no matter how short the trip or how many times they've flown. She's a big girl that is world-wise but for those who are so inclined, think of her as she crosses the pond tonight. And hope that she can get some sleep.

She must sleep, because Mike is going to help her with the story. The book that I just finished moments before we left yesterday. And it's fucking fantastic. A bit long, and there are problems, but it is fantastic. I am biased, I know, but these people are people I want in my life. And I hope that someday, when the movie is being made, everyone will be able to say "I knew her when..."

Traveling mercies, my love. Have a wonderful time in England and watch this spot for developments on the home front.

Rise of the machines

As Bill Cosby (or, more accurately, Bill Cosby's wife) might say "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!!" This is a day that I would really just as soon forget.

The electronics in our house are rising up and revolting, I swear to God. I went to put in a DVD for Anna earlier today, and the damn thing didn't open. Didn't turn on. Didn't do anything. It did not help that just two weeks previously, our other DVD player up and quit in the middle of The Illusionist, necessitating bringing up from the basement my sister's DVD player that she left after she moved to Canada. The loss of that particular DVD player was especially sad as it was our region-free player. Without that, what would we watch our Series One Doctor Who discs on? More of an inconvenience than anything else, but still annoying. And as far as I could tell, there was no way to unlock my sister's DVD player, thus making it region free.

Well, when that DVD player died today (are you keeping up with which DVD player is which?) we had a bit old *sigh* moment and decided that there are very few things in the house that we can't live without, and a DVD player is one of them. So I did a little investigation and found a cheap one at Best Buy that I could unlock to make region free. Thirty bucks. No problem. Heidi went out and bought it. I set it up, unlocked it and we were all back to normal. The part that I didn't mention is that the one that had died previously (my sister's, not our former region free one, which was given away at the garage sale to an intrepid soul that thought he might be able to make it work) magically started working again. Let's pour a little more salt on the wounds.

We contemplated taking the new one back, but honestly, we do like our region free DVD player so we kept it. We sat down tonight to watch a movie and it was working fine. It started to get late and Anna was getting tired so Heidi got up to help her brush her teeth. I started pushing buttons on the remote control and inadvertantly pushed the button that changes it to progressive scan. This totally FUBARed the DVD player to the best of my knowledge. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to fix this. I can't get it to work. Motherf*ck.

So finally, I decided, screw it. I set up the old one. I boxed up the other one. I dug through the garbage to find the receipt. It's going back to Best Buy tomorrow after work at which point they will either tell me how to fix it or they will take it back and refund my money. A part of me doesn't want a DVD player that temperamental as Anna is not always the most careful when it comes to her DVD remote control manipulations. So who knows.

I know that I'm being dramatic, but there are so many things going on around here these days - the general anxiety that everyone has surrounding Heidi's upcoming trip, the fact that I have to work at all during the time that she's gone, necessitating a lot of driving around to try to get Anna to and from my mother-in-law's. It is also coming off the craziness that was the garage sale. Overall, this weekend has been far from relaxing. Thank goodness I have Tuesday and Wednesday off.

In any event, I'm sitting here listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter's live cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" which is, simply put, lovely. It is calming me a bit. However, I am going to go take an Ativan and go to sleep. Here's hoping tomorrow is a bit better than today has been. Or at least less stressful.

Figure 8 as double 4 (8 random facts meme)

I was recently tagged by a fellow blogger (V over at Gravity & Fusion) for the 8 random facts meme. Initially I wasn't tagged, but it seemed like fun so I thought I'd do it anyway, commenting as such on his post. After that, I was officially tagged. So here goes.

1. first, post these rules
2. post 8 random facts about yourself
3. write a blogspot about those facts
4. tag and name 8 more bloggers
5. tell them that they're tagged at their blog

Fact 1: As a child, I flunked dunkers.

My parents spent (and wasted) a lot of money on swimming lessons for me as a kid. I remember being afraid of the water as a kid, but the story that sticks out in my head was when I was in the "dunkers" class. All you had to do to pass dunkers was put your head under water. Do you think I could manage that? Not a chance. Since then, I've lost my fear of the water but I'm afraid I'll never be much more than a passable swimmer and will never fully shake my fear of drowning.

Fact 2: I love daisies.

Daisies are the most perfect flower, with their yellow centers and long white petals. I'm trying to grow a daisy plant in the backyard flower bed and I'm just hoping it doesn't get choked out by weeds.

Fact 3: I have a severe soft spot for Diet Mountain Dew.

And lucky for me it's Diet Mountain Dew and not regular (which one of my coworkers at a previous job referred to, rather uncouthly I might add, as "diabetic piss") I don't know if it's the caffeine, the carbonation, the flavor or some combination of the three, but it is a serious weakness. When I was purging caffeine a while back, it was the Diet Mountain Dew that I missed the most, not the coffee.

Fact 4: It took me 32 years to get on my first airplane.

And it was only my brother's wedding in Phoenix that did it. Although if it hadn't been that, my date with Madge for the Re-Invention tour would have delayed my first flight by a mere 10 days.

Fact 5: Despite all my efforts, I simply can't get into Mika.

I just don't get him. At all. Sure "Grace Kelly" is catchy, and I really love "My Interpretation" for it's kiss-offness and attitude, but I don't get the rest of it. He seems like yet another pop star by committee with not an ounce of spontaneity and that really gets under my skin. I was waiting at Best Buy today to do a rapid exchange of my THIRD iPOD of the summer and the "Love Today" video was on. And it just didn't do anything for me.

Fact 6: Even though I am an introvert, I am always looking for new people.

And it's not because the newness wears off of the people in my life and I feel compelled to seek out something (or someone) shiny. I don't think that I could have stayed married to the same woman for 10 years if that were the case. But I guess I really think that if we get only one go around in this world, why not have as many people touch your life (and vice versa) as you can? You can't have the same intensity of relationship with all of them, naturally, but it's ok.

Fact 7: I am giving some thought to going back to being clean shaven.

My biggest reservations: 1) Anna has no memory of me without a beard (other than from photos from when she was a baby.) 2) Heidi really likes it. and 3) The maintenance on a beard is so much easier than on a clean shaven face. Plus it saves money on razor blades like you would not believe!!

Fact 8: It may sound crazy, but I am thankful for the internet because it has allowed me to find my community.

If this were 15 years ago, I wouldn't have the privilege of knowing so many of the people that feel like family to me. It's been so wonderful to be able to find a lot of people that have similar interests but also expand my horizons. Now I just have to figure out how to transfer some of that community into real life flesh and blood. Reading Heidi's book that she just finished there is this colorful cast of characters that are always supporting each other and there for each other. And yes, I realize it's fiction. But certainly that exists somewhere, right?

And I'm generally shitty at tagging other people as even the unpopular kids don't talk to me. ;) But if Caryle, Yuri, Lucas and Paul wanted to have a go at this, I'd be eager to see their lists!!

Garage sale surivival

I had every intention of blogging the garage sale from yesterday, but I'm going to save myself the trouble and just direct you to Heidi's blog. It sums it all up perfectly.

And the light that shines through the shining night

Would you just LOOK at what Anna got at Target today?


Why, it's a blue lamp! The blueness of it does not come across all that well in the picture, but it is a beautiful shiny blue that she loves and I think is gorgeous. Now I want a blue lamp even more than I did before. I actually had a blue lamp in college - long before I realized the significance of the blue lamp, but alas, it was garage saled or junked long ago.

And speaking of blue things, when I was cleaning out my office the other day, I found something that I had plum forgotten that I even had! It's my 7" limited edition blue vinyl pressing of "True Blue." Behold.


I am thinking of having it mounted and framed as I'm not likely to ever have a record player again, and even if I did, why would I play it? Additionally, a quick eBay search showed that it was really not worth very much, so it's not like I'll sell it. And besides, even if someday it became the most valuable Madonna collectible EVER I would probably still not consider selling it. It's probably the one true collectible item that I actually own.

So we'll see what happens. The garage sale is tomorrow and people had better buy some of the stuff we're selling. I survey the stuff that we're trying to hawk and I think to myself "who is going to buy this stuff?" But as someone at work pointed out to me the other day, you'd be amazed at what some people will buy for a quarter. Or less. Seriously, this stuff is priced to sell.

Delayed? Again?

Well, word from Arjanwrites this morning is that Debbie Harry's new CD has been pushed back to JANUARY of NEXT YEAR which I realize is just a delay of a few months, but WTF? I know that I'm probably one of about 10 people eagerly awaiting this release, but still!

And for those who doubt the genius that is Debbie, head over to Arjan and download "Two Times Blue" for free (and guilt-free) - it's my song of the summer, topping even "Umbrella" (I know, blasphemy.)

Long time gone

I was bound and determined to NOT let July slip by without updating this blog. I think summer breeds blog-breaks (cue a "we were on a break!!" joke.) I have no real excuse for not blogging - I have had several topics I've seriously wanted to blog, some that I really need to blog, but for the most part, I just have not been moved to do so. Part of it is I have been caught up in my Netflix these days. We have had some very rapid turnarounds on Netflix these days which is good because it makes up for the times that you get one and it sits around for a month and you've just gotten to pay 25 dollars for the privilege of it gathering dust on your TV.

We're also getting ready for a garage sale this weekend and the act of getting rid of the JUNK in this house has been so liberating. I threw out so much stuff yesterday while I was cleaning out my office, it was unreal. We had so much trash on the curb for the garbageman this morning - Al Gore would have just shaken his head and walked away. I must admit to feeling a bit bad about all the trash, but what was I supposed to do? As a blogger friend pointed out to me, my soul is undoubtedly lighter for it and I will never miss any of it.

I have also been undertaking a "ceiling project" in my office. My ceiling is extremely pourous and also very ugly, so when I first moved my computer and all the accoutrements into this room, I started tacking up various pictures and things on it - mostly things that Anna has drawn for me and pictures that have a lot of meaning for me. My ultimate goal was to cover the whole thing and have it be an always changing reflection of me - who I am, where I've been and where I'm going. Well, I ran out of staples at one point and was too lazy to go and check with Heidi to see if she had any. And then there was ***insert excuse here***. Well no more. I'm trying to get a picture ready for what I've done, but it's not ready yet. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this teaser.

More to come later, I promise.

Vineyards

I think I'm going to come back as a grapevine in my next lifetime - they seem so peaceful. We spent the afternoon at Prairie Moon Vineyard and Winery today. They have live music and spirits every Sunday afternoon all summer. It was blazingly hot (only because the sun spoke with such authority) but once it went behind the trees, it was very pleasant and relaxing. There was a nice breeze and we brought one of Anna's friends with us so that she would have something to do other than be bored.

But look at this grapevine? Doesn't it just look happy to be there? (shamelessly stolen from The Amazon Iowan)

It's nice to just relax on a Sunday, especially when you have the specter of a work week before you. But for now, I'll just try to live in the moment and not in tomorrow - as there will be plenty of that then.

In the meantime, if you can't feel like a grape vine, at least feel like Blair here. I swear, he's still living, just a contortionist.

This is a man's world

Nestled in between Cher's 80's cheese bombast (not that there's anything wrong with that cheese bombast) and her subsequent rebirth as a dance diva for the end of the millenium is an album that is nearly forgotten. And this is a crying shame, because in my estimation It's A Man's World is one of Cher's best efforts. The album is an interesting bridge between those two phases of her career for it is neither cheesy nor dancey. It is certainly one of my personal favorite Cher albums - even though sometimes even I forget about it.

Cher's approach for this album was pretty simple and straightforward. It's basically a pop rock album with several covers of songs originally recorded by male artists - Don Henley, James Brown, The Walker Brothers, and Marc Cohn among them. And it actually works quite well - a female covering songs originally performed by males. She takes the songs and really makes them her own. It helps that some of these songs are not the best known songs in the world - much like Annie Lennox's Medusa - so the ghost of the original is not as pronounced. However, even on well known songs - especially "Walking In Memphis" - Cher takes the source material and gives it her own unique Cher stamp, giving the piano driven mid-tempo song a hint of a dance beat.



Doesn't Cher just look like a spider in that bus doorway? Like she should come crawling out with eight legs or something!!

What you REALLY need to know about this album - besides that it is an exceptional one - is that there are two versions of it. The version released in the UK contains 3 extra tracks - "The Shape Of Things To Come", "Don't Come Around Tonight" and the hilariously titled "I Wouldn't Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me)" - the latter of which turned up on the "One By One" maxi-single. It also contains the ORIGINAL album versions of 5 songs including the first single "One By One." All of these original album versions are so much preferable in my opinion than what was to come with the US release of the album. By the time Reprise got around to releasing It's A Man's World in the US, it was decided that in order to better market the album, some of the tracks needed to be remixed, stripping them of their pop-rock influence and giving them a R&B vibe. You have to bear in mind that this was the mid-90s and R&B was HUGE at that time. However, the decision to do this was ill-advised. For example, the Don Henley track "Not Enough Love In The World" DOES NOT AND SHOULD NOT need an R&B arrangement. You don't get much more pop-rock than former Eagle Henley, and when I finally heard the original version (thanks to the now defunct allofmp3), well, I basically don't ever need to hear the US version again.

Similarly, "One By One" is so much better in its original incarnation. While not offensive in it's remixed form, I love the almost "industrial" sound of the original. The original mix of the chorus is also SO much better than the remixed version. For so many years, I was convinced that it was a completely different vocal take but the more I listen to it, it's just the instrumentation around it that makes it seem different.

This was also one of the first Cher albums that I recall having CD maxi-singles aimed at clubs. "One By One" was remixed by Junior Vasquez and the follow-up single "Paradise Is Here" had several top notch remixes, the best of them being the Eurodance Mix.

Paradise Is Here (Eurodance Mix) - Cher (mp3) - Limited time only folks!!

While this album did not have the worldwide smashing success of Believe, it is so worth a listen. Matthew Rettenmund recently said on his blog while discussing Deborah Harry and her upcoming album:

I am going to cherish every out-of-the-ballpark performance, wobbly note, triumph and failure because at some point, she is going to stop performing and a chapter of my youth will retire with her.

And that's pretty much how I feel about Cher. She's 61 and at some point, the music will stop, be it because she just is tired of doing it or because she has died. And that will be a sad moment for me. It will probably take a while for me to come to terms with the fact that, when that inevitable day arrives, there will never be a new Cher song or record again. I have a feeling I'm going to cross that bridge with many artists that I admire as they (and I) get on in years. All the more reason for Cher to record a new album, and soon.

But even when that day arrives, we'll be able to look back on an amazing body of work, warts and all. And believe me, there are some big old verucas in there. But It's A Man's World will stand as an underappreciated gem of a record. And one all fans of Cher should search out. Just make sure you get the highly superior UK version.

(props to xo for urging me to post this and providing additional inspiration. And thanks for helping me replace those tracks!)

So much for "the war on terror"

Despite the fact that we've been at war for practically 6 years now, a new government document says that al-Qaeda is now better poised to launch a terror attack than it has been since pre 9/11. Great going Bush. Way to keep us safer.

What a putz.

When will this nightmare of a presidency be over?

A ghost picture

One more quick blog post before bed (I work at 7 AM tomorrow - as Paul would say, boo you whores!) Look at this picture:


This is a picture that seriously freaked me out as a kid. This photo was taken at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England in the late 60s. The staircase is called the Tulip Staircase. What started life as an innocent photo of a gorgeous spiral staircase takes a decidedly X-Files turn. WTF is that? It looks like it has three eyes. And is the body human? Or animal? Or what exactly? Needless to say, this is a very famous ghost photo, and one that was in all the books I ever checked out as a kid on ghosts. No matter how many times I see it, it still gives me the heebie-jeebies as if I were still 10 years old. I don't know why, but it does. It's kind of like I don't know exactly why I was scared by The Grudge, but I was.

What is even freakier is that the negative has been examined and it shows no signs of tampering. When I die, I hope that this mystery (along with the several conspiracy theories I'm dying to know the real story behind) is solved for me immediately.

I may have to blog more to push this picture a bit further down the page. Sorry Heidi!

Turning turning twisting

Sorry for the lack of updates recently - I have no real excuse other than the muse has not moved me. Perhaps I needed a break from blogging - I think that this is one of the longer breaks I've taken in recent months. Back when I started this blog, it wasn't uncommon for me to have weeks and weeks with no updates.

But here I am. I have to say that the week has been relatively exciting in some rather mundane ways. I have given up pop (or soda or Coke depending upon where you're from) for now in attempts to severely limit my caffeine intake. I realized how poorly I'd been sleeping and figured that the massive amounts of caffeine that I'd been taking in during the day probably played at least a small role in that. I seriously would drink pop all day long - which is not good for circadian rhythms, teeth, or my pocketbook. So that's been good. Instead of replacing pop with coffee, I've replaced it with water and I'm doing pretty well so far. As Sheena Easton would say, so far, so good, I've been moving right along just like I should. It's not like I'll never drink pop again, but I am feeling a lot better for not drinking it all the time.

I have been a bit overwhelmed by the fact that so many jobs around the house that really are my responsibility have been left undone. I still have to recaulk the upstairs tub, and all I can think of is how there has got to be water running down the walls. Seriously, I don't think it's that bad, but you know me, Mr. Worst-Case-Scenario. And then there's the whole thing with Anna headed to kindergarten this year. I cannot remember to call the doctor's office to get her an appointment for a physical which she NEEDS before she can start school. It seems like the only time I can remember it is times like now when it's 10:45 PM and well, you just can't call the doctor's office at this hour. Part of it is me bucking the system because I just hate having to schedule appointments because it just feels like they're herding cattle when you go to the doctor. But my indignation will be small consolation when it comes time for kindergarten to start and she can't go because she doesn't have the proper shots. So tomorrow, I shall endeavor to remember that.

And then, I come across news tonight that Debbie Harry's new record has been delayed by 6 weeks until the end of September. DAMN YOU SALAZAR!! Of course, the word from Debbie's site is that the new release date was "necessary" to allow Debbie to work around some previous committments. I suppose I can believe that, but it still sucks. When I told Heidi that it'd been delayed by 6 weeks, of course the line "they won't be able to send us the inventory invoices for Ajax Warehouse for another 4 to 6 weeks" immediately jumped to mind.

So it's been an interesting week. If you've been stopping by and there have been no posts, I am truly sorry. I'll try to be better. Hopefully we'll be back to regularly scheduled blog programming soon.

Happy Independence Day!

It is the Fourth of July here in the U.S.A. aka Independence Day. It was always one of my favorite holidays as a kid. But I haven't truly enjoyed it in the way I did then in quite a long time now. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I a truly ashamed by what this country has become under George W. Bush and his circle. However, I am still proud of the ideals upon which this country was founded and hope that someday, hopefully soon, we can get back to those ideals and (as Susan Powter would say) STOP THE INSANITY. Hopefully, it happens before we go to war with Iran.

In the meantime, here's MY favorite version of the National Anthem.



I don't know what it is - I think it's Cher's understated performance that really does it for me.

Happy 4th to everyone - play hard and play safe.

(inspired by Yuri - happy Fourth buddy!)

Wading...for you...just wading

Since I had today off, I took Anna to the wading pool down at one of the city parks this afternoon. She is truthfully getting a bit big for it - I think that she would probably enjoy a real pool more than just a simple wading pool, but this is cheap and easy and there's very little chance that she will drown in (a maximum of) 18 inches of water. So to the wading pool we went. She was ready to go long before I was - complete with goggles in case of a flash flood.

Anna is a giantess among the kids down there, even though she is not all that much older than some of the kids there. Sure, there are a lot of really little kids - 2 and 3 year olds, but there are a few 4 and 5 year olds from what I can tell. But she literally towers over all the kids there - so much that I'm sure the other parents are looking at me disapprovingly, muttering under their breath "why is that 8 year old here with all these little kids??" It's because she's TALL, that's why. It will serve her well later, even if she will be unable to buy clothing.

She does truly love it down there - although the novelty of having me there instead of Heidi proved to be too much of a temptation to resist. She kept on coming over every 2 minutes to talk to me which interrupted my reading and consequently, I didn't get a whole lot of reading done. Oh well - what can you do? And how can you be upset when someone is as happy as this?

And that's actually a semi-candid shot! Candid in the fact that it was unposed, semi- in the fact that she was fully aware she was having her picture taken.

This is the Zodiac speaking

I just finished reading Robert Graysmith's Zodiac - the book upon which last spring's movie of the same name (starring one of Paul's faves, Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith) was based. Anyone who knows me well knows that things like serial killers and generally gross things fascinate me, and this has certainly been no exception.

For those who don't know, the Zodiac killer was a psychotic serial killer that terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late 60s and early 70s. Officially, he killed seven people. He claimed to have killed 37. And he was never caught. Graysmith was a political cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle at the time that the Zodiac was actively killing - and then sending cryptic letters to newspapers with ciphers that claimed to contain his identity.

I remember seeing a show on HBO or something about unsolved crimes when I was a kid and the Zodiac was the last segment in the show. That part never really stuck with me - the part with Lizzie Borden freaked me out beyond words, but that didn't stop me from watching it over and over again until I was so numb it didn't bother me any longer. But I'm a sucker for late 60s/early 70s history as well as being intrigued by serial killers. So this book/movie combination was pretty much a no-lose combination for me.

I had wanted to go see the movie when it was in its initial run, but lack of time prevented me from doing so. Consequently, I didn't see it until it came to the dollar theater and honestly, that was fine with me. It's not a movie that I absolutely had to see on the big screen (as opposed to a certain robot movie that is more than meets the eye coming out this week.) It is a very well directed, well written and well acted psychological thriller. It is full of people talking - not a lot of killing, blood and gore, although three of the murders are reenacted in the film. Because of the fact that it is more of a drama rather than a slasher pic, it probably had a hard time finding an audience. There's no (obvious) special effects and not a lot of car chases or action sequences. I, however, was riveted by the story. I felt that it did a very good job of distilling down what was basically 25 years worth of history into 2 and a half hours.

Even though Jake Gyllenhaal did not age one single bit during those 25 years, he turned in a great performance as a man obsessed with the Zodiac. I have no real idea how true the film was to Graysmith's actual authoring of the book, but the Graysmith portrayed by Gyllenhaal was intriguing and someone easy to become emotionally invested in because of his clear demonstration of a man pursuing something that he feels is a calling. I don't know - but especially considering where I am in my life right now, I always seem to plug into that kind of thing and occasionally find it where it may not have been the primary aim of the filmmaker/author/storyteller.

Once I saw the movie, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I picked up the book. And thanks to an Amazon.com gift certificate, I did just that. And it was the original artwork copy of the paperback, not the movie tie-in thankyouverymuch. I'm not sure why I didn't want the movie tie-in, perhaps it seemed to be jumping on a bandwagon? In any event, I got the book about a week ago and I finished it yesterday. I really tore through it - it was a very well written book. It was similar to the movie, of course, but there were certain things that the book went into greater detail than the movie did.

Perhaps the part of the book that freaked me out the most was the section that went into all the other murders that the Zodiac might have committed. They were almost all young women whose bodies were dumped in creek beds and ravines. One that hit particularly close to home was the pair of 13 year olds that were killed on their way home from the ice skating rink one Saturday afternoon I have no idea why that affected me more than any of the other senseless murders, but it really did. Perhaps it was because that's closer to my own daughter than any of the others were.

As it turns out, although Graysmith has written what many call the definitive account of the Zodiac murders, there are many that take issue with him - especially with his conclusions as to the identity of the Zodiac. I am currently reading Graysmith's follow-up to Zodiac called Zodiac Unmasked which names Arthur Leigh Allen as the Zodiac killer, even though he maintained his innocence up until his death in 1992 and DNA evidence exonerated him. I am a bit nervous that I may Zodiac myself out and not end up enjoying this book as much as I did the last one, but I'm in the mood to take a chance.

So even if it's revisionist history, it's still fascinating. And worth a look. The DVD comes out (completely sans extras, the rat bastards) on July 24th. And the book, of course, is probably available at your local library.

(pics courtesy of Crime Library - a site that can scare the shit out of me if I read it late at night in the dark)

Restricted

Can you believe this?



Actually, I can. I never said that what I wrote here was appropriate for the kiddies.

It's been a long day - up at 5:30AM, worked all day, drove to the in-laws' house two and a half hours away after that. And now, here I sit. Exhausted. Hopefully, I'll muster up the energy for something relevant tomorrow. Until then, if you're under 17, make sure your parents are reading over your shoulder, embarrassing you because you don't want the cool kids to see you with YOUR PARENTS.

I missed out on a lot of good movies and free food because I had the required "I'm too cool for my parents" phase when I was a teenager.

Random jottings

I'm borrowing from dear Mikey (who I sincerely hope is feeling better) for my post title, and now, on with the song.

1) Wouldn't you know it, the week I tell Casey Stratton he should get on to last.fm and, oh, by the way, artists can upload their music to it and potentially get more exposure, the damn site has the worst server issues it has had in months. Scrobbling has been intermittent at best and apparently, his music won't get on line for a while. Motherf*ckers! (the non sexy ones, thankyouverymuch.) The scrobbling issue seems to have sorted itself out, but who knows when his music will be available for streaming.

2) I slept until 11AM today (well, not quite, but nearly.) I haven't done that since college or since the last time I was sick.

3) I got the CD Evil Dead: The Musical (Original Cast Recording) for my birthday. While I'm not one to get into Broadway showtunes (movie showtunes are an entirely different story), I'm finding this to be right up my alley. Of course, having zombies in it doesn't hurt it one iota. The duet between Scott and Ash entitled "What The Fuck Was That?" is a definite highlight. A real earworm, I tell ya.

4) That having been said, I've had Evil Dead out from Netflix for a week and a half now and I have yet to finish it. It's not as good as I remember it being.

All right, off to finish that movie. Or read my book. Who knows what I'll get up to.

Loose teeth and lightning bugs

Today has been a watershed day for Anna. As I got into the car after work tonight (Heidi and Anna came to pick me up), Heidi said that Anna had an announcement. That announcement was " I HAVE A LOOSE TOOTH." And she does. One of her bottom center teeth is loose - quite loose, actually - and this is a big thing for Anna. It was kind of hurting the other day and we asked her if she thought it was loose, but she said it wasn't. But today it is. She is alternately weirded out by it and excited by the prospect of money for a lost tooth.

She's growing up, that's for certain. A loose tooth is another of those inevitable rites of passage. Funny how I hardly remember any of mine.

And then tonight, we followed my dad's lead and went out hunting for lightning bugs (aka fireflies) in the front yard. They did this while Heidi and I were in Chicago last week, and she's been asking me for several days to do this. Well, tonight it just worked out that the weather was decent and I wasn't exhausted from work. They were everywhere, I tell ya - although it seems like there were more of them when I was a kid. Whether that's scientifically quanitifiable or just memories from my childhood playing tricks on me I'm not certain. Predictably, she wanted me to catch them and put them in her hand, but the bugphobe in her quickly tired of that.

Chasing fireflies with my daughter reminded me of the simpler things in life. I know it seems trite, but it's true. Watching them flash was so wondrous to her, and watching her watch them with such a fresh perspective was amazing to me. Of course, after we were done, she wanted to know what a baby firefly looked like. We did a quick Google search and found this. And in so doing, I found my new desktop wallpaper.

(picture via Wikipedia)

Waxing political

Heidi already blogged this, but seeings as we don't have *all* the same readers, I thought I would as well. First of all, watch this:



Then, follow this link and send a message to your Senator and tell them that it is imperative that they pass the federal hate crimes bill. Even though our idiotic illustrious President has threatened to veto it, those of us in the reality-based community need to demonstrate that hate of any type will simply not be tolerated.

Then do yourself a favor and go buy the version of "All Through The Night" used in the ad here.

Making the best of a bad situation

This is via Caryle, and it made me laugh out loud tonight after work. I totally love geeky humor like this.

So You're Hosting An Alien Embryo...

Of course, I take issue with several things.

1) Everyone knows that once you have the facehugger on you, you pretty much lose consciousness and aren't able to host parties or take in food. Kane in the original Alien is pretty much in the sick bay the entire time the facehugger is attached to him.

2) Even if you were conscious, the facehugger only hangs on long enough to implant the embryo - falling off and dying shortly thereafter. And then it's only a short time to sternum fracture and the appearance of the chestburster.

3) The embryo implanted in the mediastinum DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THE FACEHUGGER. I mean, why would it? The facehugger is just the means to implant the embryo. The embryo looks like this:

Of course, I'm a total geek about all things Alien, so sue me.

But still, what a great laugh it was!!

P.S. In surfing for photos for this post (and doing general research) I discovered that Alien 3 (arguably the most maligned installment in the series) can be read as an AIDS allegory. It's past time to watch that movie again - especially the extended cut on the Alien Quadrilogy.

And then, there's this craziness:

Subconscious craziness

I slept like a rock last night, but I dreamt like crazy as well. I don't frequently remember my dreams, but the ones I do remember are usually doozies. Last night was no exception.

My dreams frequently have celebrities in them - like the time I dreamt that I was at a Stevie Nicks concert (because her cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll" was playing on my iPod as I slept) only when I went up to meet Stevie, she looked like Estelle Getty from "The Golden Girls" (!) Last night I dreamt I was at a concert and Casey Stratton was there with my friend Lucas (who has a great album available on iTunes - go check it out!) and another performer who I can't remember. In any event, we were in a pretty big arena - probably like the Auditorium Theater in Chicago or CY Stephens here in Ames - not the coffeehouses that Casey will frequently play. The place was so big that I remember having to sit BEHIND the stage! Anyway, they each played a solo set, and then played a few numbers together at the end. I only remember one song.

It was Diana Ross' "Take Me Higher."

I swear to God I wasn't listening to my iPod while I slept last night. I don't even remember the last time I'd even THOUGHT of that song, let alone listened to it.

Of course, it prompted a huge Diana Ross listening party this morning as I did my morning surf and e-mail check. And "Take Me Higher" got played 3 times.

The insanity of the subconscious sometimes baffles even me. But what baffles me even more than that is that this is the only instance of the song (in a non-live format) that I could find on YouTube. Diana Ross hilariously set to the Care Bears Movie.

Clearing the jungle

There's a spot in my backyard that I swear is tapped into a natural well of Miracle-Gro. And of course, it's really nothing but weeds and thistles and junior trees - things I don't want growing. Despite all my efforts to keep it under control (mostly me saying things like "I wish it would just stop growing!" and other equally ineffective things) it almost always gets away from me. For your consideration:


So tonight I finally got out the hedgetrimmers, put on jeans and gloves and went out and cut down all the brush. It is not my choice of activities, but it really needed to be done. And here as I said to Heidi, is the fruit of my fucking labors:

Beautiful if I do say so myself. Of course, it wouldn't be me operating a power tool if I didn't get the cord caught in the hedgetrimmer (I did.) So now I have to try to figure out either a) how to fix it or b) where I can buy a new one. So we'll see. I sweat like a pig while I was out there cutting it down (mostly due to the jeans - but it was either that or get stuck by the thistles) but it feels good to have it done. For now. Give it a couple weeks and it'll be back.

My own private Dagobah. Or maybe Endor. It's hard telling.

Joan knits

Heidi found this on her page-a-day knitting calendar and I'm so in love with having a functional scanner again that I just had to post it.

I can only imagine Joan knitting!!

Logic of animals

Every now and again, I rediscover Animal Logic. They aren't a band that I think of often, although I had the cassette tape in extremely heavy rotation my last year of pharmacy school (1994-95.) I was late arriving to them, although "There's A Spy (In The House of Love)" was a mild radio hit during my senior year of high school. I remember my friend Kelly giving me the tape on a trip to Chicago - her brother or someone worked at a radio station and had one of those FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY - NOT FOR RESALE copies of the tape. She thought I would like it because it reminded her of Carly Simon, an artist whose music I was enjoying quite a lot at the time.

I liked "There's a Spy..." enough, but I never really got into the album - I'm not sure why. But by the time 1995 got here, I was totally ready for it apparently. I couldn't get enough of it - especially the jaunty little "I'm Through With Love" with its clever little lyrics describing the singer's bad experiences in relationships ("a burning torch I'm carrying against my will" is one of my favorites!) And at a concise 38 minutes, it is just the right length - a refreshing contrast to today's bloated albums that feel the need to fill up the 80 minutes of a CD just for the sake of being able to do it.

I just love Deborah Holland's voice - it's soaring yet understated but always clear and beautiful. Their music is difficult to categorize though -- is it pop? Kind of, but not quite. Is it jazz? Not really, because it's too poppy. Perhaps that's why I like it so much, it's a bit of an amalgam of a jazz and pop without being that dreadful smooth jazz that I so dislike. Her solo work is not really in the vein of Animal Logic - she has some mp3s posted on her web site, and while I like them, it's just not Animal Logic.

It's a pity that they never really broke through to mainstream success, although with the sound they have, they really had an uphill battle at the changing face of radio at the end of the 80s. Pop was on its way out and there certainly wasn't space for jazz/pop fusion as rap made more inroads and grunge was just around the bend. They recorded a second album called II which I never saw in stores and was, unfortunately, out of print by the time I was listening to the first album constantly in 1994. I managed to snap most of it up on Audiogalaxy, but alas, not all of it. I have never listened to it as closely as the first album, but perhaps I will listen to it in bed tonight.

As I mentioned, II is out of print, as is Animal Logic, but both are available used on Amazon for very reasonable prices. I'd recommend picking up the first one for sure. The second one is a bit more hit and miss, but the first is an essential component of the soundtrack of my life, even if I don't think of it all that often.

With that, I'm off to bed. It's late and I should be in bed, but what the hell? It's Father's Day, Bedelia. Now where's my cake?

Back to life, back to reality

A quick one-off before work today. I have so many items in my Google Reader to read that I'm tempted to just go through and mark them all as read - except for friends' blogs natch. That's what happens when you step away from the world for a few days. I'm feeling a bit like I'm burning up on re-entry into the atmosphere, but I'm sure it'll all be fine once I get out the door and to work. I'm working the least desirable of all shifts today so that helps nothing. Plus I was irritated to go back to my regular work clothes rather than my fun Chicago clothes!

So we'll see how I do. Like I said, I'm sure it will be fine, but it's always hard to go back to work after vacation.

True Colors shining through

Well, we're back in one piece - a lot has happened since last I blogged. I will defer to Heidi for the details on the dance recital (a total of 7 hours of recital - not exactly how I envisioned spending my 35th, but you know, you do what you have to for your kids) and Capital City Pride. However, I did have the singularly interesting experience of having Anna announce her intentions to use the bathroom, and then taking her into Blazing Saddle to use the restroom. It's not often one ushers a 5 year old girl through a gay bar to go use the restroom, but that was just what we did. As I entered, I was explaining to the guy at the door that I just had to take her to the bathroom, and he was all nice and went on to explain that he wasn't with the bar (I figured he was) but people had been bringing kids in all morning!

That night, my mom and dad came and picked up Anna and took her back to their house where she would spend the next three days. We then tried to adjust to the suddenly very quiet and very empty house. We finished up a few odds and ends and then went to bed pretty early as we were getting up the next day to head to Chicago for the True Colors Tour.

We ended up getting off to a later-than-we-liked start on Monday, but fortunately, we were only going to Naperville that night which is one of the most western or all the burbs. Once we got there, we checked into the hotel and because I had my hands full of other stuff, inadvertently left the suitcase in the hall, which prompted Heidi to ask if it was "another suitcase in another hall." Have I mentioned how much I love this woman? The fact that she would not only get a joke like that but had the idea to make that joke herself just endears her more to me every day. Of course, because we are dorks, we had to take a picture of it.

After that, we headed out to dinner and browsed the very burby downtown of Naperville. We decided that we couldn't really live there - a bit too trendy for our tastes and while the downtown is cute, it's also a bit full of itself and besides, the traffic is about 100 times what the roads are meant to handle.

The next day we spent in the Lakeview District - specifically the portion known colloquially as Boystown. It is an incredibly vibrant neighborhood with a lot of great shops and restaurants. There are also many cool residential buildings - most of the being refurbished townhouses and brownstones that just appeal so much to the part of me that despises all that is sterile and barren about suburbia. We just fell in love with the area - it's so cool because you're in Chicago, but you almost don't feel like it. Every now and again, you catch a glimpse of a skyscraper (usually the John Hancock Tower) and you're reminded that you're in a metropolis of 3,000,000 people (and that's just the city of Chicago by itself!)

I love the Lakeview District - it's a must visit every single time we go to Chicago now, if for no other reason than Borderline Music which had some ultra rare (and also very expensive) Madonna picture discs - one of which I might have considered purchasing had I had excessive money just laying around waiting to be spent. It's a very Madonna-centric store, but it's also much more than that. I always forget how much fun it is to flip through CDs and vinyl - especially when it's not at Target or Wal-Mart. The owner of the store is very nice and a huge Madonna fan who still doesn't think that Re-Invention is going to get a DVD release (I asked.)

After picking up the new Erasure and a CD-R of Madge's 12" remixes from the 80s, we walked around the neighborhood, hit Gaymart Chicago (another of the must-stops) as well as Chicago Comix (where I struck out in my search for other zombie figures) and finally a store whose name I forget but had a lot of Buddhist and Hindu jewelry and figurines etc. I picked up a pocket Ganesha - he is the remover of obstacles in Hinduism and I figured if ever anyone needed obstacles removed, it would be me. However, I found out that he is also the creator of obstacles, so who knows.

The time for the concert was drawing close so we headed downtown as the concert was at the Auditorium Theatre on Congress Parkway. We ate at the Artists' Cafe which was just around the corner from the venue which was quite good - although I was a bit worried that we wouldn't make it out of there by 6 as the service was a bit slow. But we really had no problem, so it was all for naught.

We arrived at the concert only a bit early and they started pretty much on time. Our seats were rockin - only about 26 rows back and smack dab in the center. This is the first concert that I've been to where more than one act was on the bill, and it was also in a smaller venue than I am used to being in. The lesser known bands played first - at our show, it was The Cliks and The Dresden Dolls. The Cliks were very Green Day-ish, kind of emo and I just wasn't sure what to make of them. Despite Margaret Cho's incredible enthusiasm over them, I just didn't find them all that good. The Dresden Dolls were a bit of a different story - they were relatively new to me in that I knew of them but not really any of their songs. Well, they played a couple of really good songs, one of which I ended up buying from iTunes tonight - that being "Coin Operated Boy" which I guess is one of their better known songs.

The third act in the set was one of the ones I had been waiting for - that being the one and only Deborah Harry. At 62 years old, she's easily the oldest of the performers. She's also been around the longest of any of them counting her time with Blondie. Oddly, she played nary a Blondie song and stuck to her own solo catalog which is, admittedly, a bit spotty and has not been very successful chart wise. So instead of "Call Me" and "Heart of Glass" we got "French Kissin'," "Rush Rush," and "The Jam Was Moving." She played several tracks from her upcoming album Necessary Evil ("Two Times Blue" is available from iTunes US now)which will be out in August and if the tracks she played are any indication of the sound of the album, it will be her best and most accessible solo work yet. The funniest part of her set came, however, from my wife, who leaned over to me and said "She's like Anne Murray, only hard!!" One review described her as watching Florence Henderson rock out - mostly due to a very unfortunate haircut (see picture.)

My biggest complaint about the first half of the show was the sound - it was about twice as loud as it needed to be and the instruments were so loud that you often had a hard time hearing the vocals.

After a 15 minute intermission, Rosie O'Donnell came out and spoke for about half an hour - she was very good and very funny. She introduced the next artist - the one Heidi had been waiting for - Erasure. All I can say about their roughly 45 minute set was WOW! Their performance was worth the price of admission all on its own. It was hit heavy - playing only three songs from their new record - but they had the crowd on their feet and dancing and singing along like none of the other bands had. When they played "Drama!" it was fabulous to hear a huge portion of the crowd yelling out the "Guilty!" part in the chorus. Crowd favorites "A Little Respect" and "Chains of Love" were fabulous and they ended their set with "Oh L'Amour" (just as Heidi had predicted.)

Cyndi Lauper, the tour organizer, was the last act in the line-up and she opened with a real head-scratcher - that being "Hole In My Heart (All The Way To China)" - her first flop after a string of hits. But it was a great live performance and reminded me of a song I had all but forgotten about. She played a bit of an odd set - a couple new songs as well as hits like "The Goonies Are Good Enough," "She Bop" (slowed way down in a way similar to how she performed it when she was touring with Cher,) and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (although it seemed a bit perfunctory.) In addition to the songs, she gave an impassioned speech begging for support for the Matthew Shepherd Act aka the federal hate crimes bill. The final song of the night was, of course, "True Colors" which most everyone (save Deborah!! - Heidi said she probably had to take her pills or something) came out and joined Cyndi in. Here's a great shot I got of it.


After the show, we decided to follow the energy (although I was hesitant) and go out to this bar that had had flyers at the show promoting their after-show Erasure party. The place was called Neo and is located on Clark Street south of Lakeview in the district of Lincoln Park. We initially thought it would be a gay bar considering its proximity to Boystown and the plentiful amounts of Erasure being played. As it turns out, it was not, although they are open about who goes there and pretty much anyone can dance with anyone (after getting home, I found out it was a goth bar which, in hindsight, totally makes sense.) We had to walk DOWN A DARK ALLEY to get to the entrance which pretty much made me want to turn around and go back to the car, but Heidi, ever the adventurer, pushed us forward and we went and had a couple of drinks and ended up dancing our butts off to new wave music (mostly Erasure, but some Blondie, New Order, Pet Shop Boys and others thrown into the mix.) It was a FANTASTIC time. We met a guy there named Kevin or Evan or Ewan or something like that who, of course, thought I was gay, but when he found out that Heidi and I were not only a couple but married and married for 10 years (!) he confided in her that I was a hottie. *blushes* Heidi and I were there till around 1AM but then went back to our hotel - a mere 45-50 minute drive to Naperville.

It was a great time and I'm so glad that Heidi pushed us to go to the bar because I have not danced with such reckless abandon in so long. And it felt so good. I highly recommend it. It made this 35 year old married guy feel like not such a stick in the mud.

By the time we got up today, we had nothing to look forward to other than 5+ hours on the road home. I drove the whole way, we stopped in Iowa City for some coffee and wi-fi and other such things (as well as a needed break.) We made it home around 5pm today and my parents were here with Anna waiting for us to come home. It was so good to see her - and she was very happy to see us as well. We all went out to The Cafe to belatedly celebrate my birthday and then it was back to reality. Getting Anna ready for bed, reading her books, doing the dishes. All those sexy things that still wait for you when you get back from vacation.

So tomorrow, it's back to work and it's probably all there just as I left it. But I have learned a thing or two from these last couple days. Even though (as Heidi says) it's a very trite new age phrase, I am going to try to live "in the moment" more - doing so while we were in Chicago was so refreshing and so liberating. And even though I'm sure to suffer some re-entry trauma tomorrow (I almost always do), I told myself that I would take a little of the experiences I had in Chicago and take them with me to my everyday life.

Finally - here we are - a bit fuzzy, but it's us at the concert.

In the year 3535

...and this man is still alive. 35 years old today and really, I feel fabulous. That is not to say that every day is a bed of roses, but overall, life is good. It feels weird to be 35 - I remember a pharmacist that I worked with when I was in college who had always predicted that his 35th year would be the best year of his life. I don't recall if it turned out that way, but man, that's peaking way too early if you ask me. I've said it so many times that people are probably sick of it, but I just love being in my 30s. They are so much better than my 20s - perhaps because I spent so much of my 20s in school, but more than that, I also spent most of my 20s feeling awful and depressed. Also, I feel like once I hit 30, I was really and truly an adult. It certainly helped that by the time I was 30, I had a child. Not to say that having a child legitimizes you or that you have to have a child to be a true adult (that was only true at my grandma's house - until you had a kid of your own, you sat at the kids' table), but it sure makes you grow up fast.

The party was last night - it was a small one with just Heidi and Anna and Heidi's mom who is here for Anna's dance recital this weekend. We had a cake that looked like it had been decorated by a zombie (how apropos!) but was very tasty.

There were actually 35 candles on the cake. We had 31, and since we were so close, Heidi got 4 matches and put them on. We nearly burned down the house.

I also got a homemade T-shirt that says "What would Cher do?" that I can wear to Pride tomorrow. I know, it's cheesy and stereotyped, but it wouldn't be Pride without it. I saw it on Cafepress, but 23 bucks for a shirt that will immediately become a bed shirt? I just couldn't justify it. The one I have is not nearly as colorful, but it will do.

Like I said, being 35 is kind of weird - I'm half way through my beloved 30s, inching closer to 40 (as I'm sure Jeff and I will say when that day arrives, "I hate being 40!" just like Barbra "hated being 60!") But growing older doesn't bother me all that much - it's a privilege denied to many. And rather than declare that my 35th year will be the best year of my life, I will instead declare it to be the best year so far. Each year just keeps on getting better, I tell you. Each year, I learn more about myself, open more doors, allow myself to be me in ways that I never thought I could. Each year brings an even clearer realization of who I am and what my true "purpose" is for lack of a better word. Although I have had setbacks (as anyone might), I wouldn't change a thing, as a wise person once said (Kylie, I think.)

So here's to 35 years under the old belt, but please don't spank me!

I Am Legend

While not quite a zombie story, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is definitely a piece of post-apocalyptic fiction that has zombie-ish elements to it. But this time, instead of a zombie apocalypse, it's a vampire apocalypse. I read this short story for the first time a few years back and was a bit underwhelmed. For all the hype that had surrounded it, I just didn't really feel the horror of it - perhaps it was the victim of over inflated expectations. So about a year ago, I read it again and found it completely engaging - scary in just the right way. So who knows what changed along the way.

Anyway, via Ghost in the Machine, I found a link to the teaser trailer for movie version that has been talked about for probably 10+ years now. After going through several stars and several directors, Will Smith is playing Robert Neville. The movie bears very little resemblance to the book, but this is just the teaser, Overall, I am fairly impressed. Will Smith seems to be playing it pretty much straight - if ever a movie role did not call for his wink-wink brand of humor, it would be I Am Legend. And besides, I despise it when a movie that is supposed to be scary plays it for laughs.

So we'll see. And I'll definitely see this movie.

I'm beautiful, damn it!

Last day of work today until next Thursday, so YAY for that. It was a good day overall. But really, the best part was after work, when Heidi decided that I needed to go out to Younkers and shop for some new clothes, especially with us going to Chicago next week and going to the concert, we wanted to have something special to wear - something new and fun and not necessarily cut from the same cloth that I'm used to.

I didn't think that Younkers would be the place to break out of a clothing rut - really, it kind of caters to professional men and golfers. I know that sounds bizarre, but it really is true! But honestly, I found some pretty cool stuff. Actually, scratch that, Heidi found some pretty cool stuff for me. Well, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves - sans glasses and with a little requisite hamming for the camera.



The black T-shirt is from the Claiborne for men line. And the pants - I think they're from the same line. What I love about the T-shirt is how it hugs my body - I'm so used to wearing things that are a little bit baggy because, well, I'm not as thin as I used to be. That's mostly a good thing as I was a real rail when I was in high school/college, and overall, I think I look better now, but a few too many Starbucks (and about 20 pounds of Prozac if you want to be honest about it) have left me with a bit more weight than I'd really like. But these clothes are very slimming, and I don't feel self conscious at all. It makes me want to stand up straighter, which I really need to do anyway. Tall people always want to slouch, much like in the story Memily.

I also purchased a shirt to go over the top of it for the show - and here's the results of that purchase.

Ooh, I can't stop loving myself, as Bette Midler once said (or something like that anyway)! That's probably very vain and my Midwestern humility and solid Lutheran upbringing makes me feel guilty for looking at those pictures and thinking, dang, I look good! But it's the truth. I usually hate pictures of me, which is why I hardly ever use them as avatars - not that I think I'm unattractive, but mostly because I can't stand to look at myself on all the web sites I frequent. But I think these pictures are really good.

I'm pumped for the show, to be out on the arm of MLW (in shoes that will make her taller than me.) We've got some fun things lined up, but mostly, we're just going to enjoy being together while Mom and Dad watch Anna for a few days. Oddly, I'm not worried about how Anna will do at my parents' house, I worry more about them!

I'm still here

I fear I might have lost all my faithful readers as I haven't blogged in a week. I have kind of needed a break from it - mostly because I've been busy at work and other areas of life, but fear not, I will return sooner rather than later.

I love my Amazon

...but do not cross the Amazon - especially when you hit a hot button issue with her (well, and me as well.) Since LJ was not posting last night for reasons completely unexplained, she ended up posting to her Mac page (or whatever it is) the result of opening up the paper, hoping to see the letter to the editor that we had written praising Anna's preschool. Instead, we opened up and saw not one but two letters full of homophobic vitriol and bigotry - brought on by the recent presence of Faith in America in Ames. As you might imagine this did not sit well with the missus.

You can read the post that LJ would not let her post here.

Heidi will always be the trailblazer among the two of us - but I am always more than happy to follow.

Perhaps the Faith In America ad that got me the most was the one on the back page of the Sunday paper a couple weeks ago (you can see it here) - it featured a cross full of smiling people and at the top, it asked "Do you know someone who is homosexual? - Would you give your life for them?" And at the bottom is says "Christ did." Now, I don't even categorize myself as a Christian these days - thanks mostly to the hateful zealotry and unquestionable bigotry of the religious right - but that got even to me.

As I have detailed in many posts here, I find myself in a strange position - a straight man whose tribe really is amongst gay men. And those hateful words are directed at every single one of those friends who are so dear to me - even the ones I do not know as well. Comments like "That's so gay!" - especially when uttered by straight people - even bother me - one would never find it appropriate to say "That's so black!" or "That's so Jewish!" which IS THE SAME DAMN THING. My natural tendency toward no-conflict-thankyouverymuch a lot of times keeps me from saying something of which I am particularly ashamed this morning.

For those who don't like my diatribe, too fucking bad. It's something I feel strongly about and as I've been up this morning, thinking about how Heidi came to bed at 3AM last night because she couldn't sleep and how this kind of crap is still ok to say in our society, I've just gotten more riled up.

This is why I feel passionate about working with the gay community - especially if it can involve work with HIV/AIDS. The gay community deserves our compassion and certainly doesn't deserve what I'm sure they are used to getting from a good chunk of the straight community.