Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Oh Hell, She's Getting Up In the DJ Booth Again.

I think this is the tenth year I'm hauling out my music collection in a manner of speaking to go over songs that from this day on I'll hear and remember the past year. Every high, every low, every middle-ish sort of okay moment I was grateful to have.

Sure, Love Song by Sara Bareilles and So What by Pink made my list, because I'm a girly little girl. Nan and Mum ended up liking I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry and Out of Our Heads by Sheryl Crow, but then there were songs I liked just because they were bizarre, like We're Brothers Forever by Reynaldo Lapuz. What? You didn't see that? Don't watch Idol? Then you may not know how fantastic David Cook is.

Part of my eternal paradox is that I'm rabidly active in politics AND I watch American Idol. Crazy, I know, but Cookie David Cook made it worthwhile. His new album is great, the track Bar-Ba-Sol ended up meaning quite a bit to me not only because the lyrics are frikkin' fantastic.

There are people and cats and dogs and birds I've loved and places I've been in every one of these songs, so it's not just me spouting the names of albums that came out, no. Chinese Democracy finally arrived, for instance, and a week later the title track came on the radio and I didn't recognize it as one of the new ones. That's not how these songs end up on my list. I'm giving you the ones I'll never forget.

With the sort-of exception of We'll Go Walking by The Silver Seas, which was the first new song heard in 2008, and I can't say I've heard it since. I seem to recall liking it though.

I'd like to yammer on, but time's ticking away, so enough of that, here's some videos to songs you can use to recapture 2008 if you ever feel the need to:

Invisible Man - Joe Jackson

Conquest - White Stripes

What's On Your Mind by Madrugada

Whole Thing - Big Blue Ball featuring Peter Gabriel

Gravedigger - Willie Nelson

Liverpool 8 - Ringo Starr

This Is Not America - Ahn Trio

Supernatural Superserious - R.E.M.

Declaration (This Is It) - Kirk Franklin

Sentimental Heart - She & Him

Violet Hill - Coldplay with Brian Eno

Stamp Your Feet - Donna Summer

Salute Your Solution - The Raconteurs

Pork And Beans - Ween

Shut Up And Let Me Go - The Ting Tings

Not Now But Soon - Imogen Heap

I'm Good I'm Gone - Lykke Li

Going On - Gnarls Barkley

4 Minutes - Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake (I think we've covered my love for Madonna already.)

Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis (The link is to the routine the song was used for on So You Think You Can Dance, which is how this song got into my head. Really. Mark was neat.)

Damaged - Danity Kane

Cry For You - September

The Only One - The Cure

Thirty-One Today - Aimee Mann

Crazy - Violent Femmes

Borneo - Firewater

Next Life...Let's Just Wave to Each Other - Kevin Bartlett

Head Down - Nine Inch Nails

Human - The Killers

Circus Cosmos - Alu

Byrdgirl - Matthew Sweet

One More (Or Ten) - 7 Seconds of Love

It's Alright - Dar Williams

Carry Your Heart - Catherine A.D.

You Don't Know Me - Ben Folds and Regina Spektor

Another Way To Die - Jack White and Alicia Keys

Love Is A Stranger - Martha Wainwright

Loosen Up - The Shaky Hands)

Numba 1 (The Tide Is High) - Kardinal Offishall f/ Keri Hilson

Tickle Me Pink - Johnny Flynn

Shine On Me - Chris Dane Owens

Chasing Pavements - Adele

Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss A Beat

20 Dollar Nose Bleed - Fall Out Boy

Live Your Life - T.I. featuring Rihanna

And then...my number one all time frikkin' favorite forever and ever...Viva La Vida by Coldplay. I loved it from the teeny bit that played in the Apple ads, then Mum loved it, then it snowballed into a life of its own.

I have a lot of great music to look forward to next year...new Imogen Heap, U2, Scissor Sisters...now if everything else in the year can be as great. That's my wish, everyone. Hug your loved ones, enjoy what you do, don't sweat what you don't get to do, and be well.
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We'll have to wait for the music. I have quite a bit of it.

'Allo everyone, I'm running late but it's all for a good reason. Just want to wish you all a very happy, healthy 2009, hug your loved ones, enjoy what you do, don't sweat what you don't get to do, and be well.

*sends the love to those who have gone before*
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Monday, December 29, 2008

So This Stripper From Space Comes Skating Down Into The Path Of A Spy In The 1930s...

I cannot believe the 25th anniversary of the greatest moment in my personal music history came and went and it took a late-night intervention by last.fm to remind me. Shameful, I know.

For Christmas of 1983, I was given a radio. My very own radio. It was from Sears, and it had a broken tuner. That was sad, but the second one, the second one...oh the times we had. I also got the first shipment of my Columbia House record club crack cassettes, Private Eyes by Hall and Oates, the Flashdance soundtrack, the soundtrack to Return of the Jedi, and then two albums I didn't even realize my family knew I wanted--because even I didn't know they were the ones I'd been obsessing over for the past month or so, After Eight by Taco and Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) by Eurythmics.

Also included in the box was Lionel Richie's self-titled solo debut, the only one I used to lie and say wasn't part of the original six just so I could listen to Olivia Newton John's Greatest Hits Volume 2 instead.

To make up for missing the taking up of my main drug of choice (next to cats, which is a condition I was born with), I'm going to subject you to the videos for the main hits off each of these glorious works. Note how the only version of You Are I could find totally lacks Lionel Richie. Hmm.

I suggest you let all these load and play them at the same time. Because that's a good approximation of living in my head on a good day.















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Sunday, December 28, 2008

What Time Is It? It's Still Frikkin' Christmas Time!

Even though every FM radio station in New York ceased playing Christmas music--and The Hanukkah Song--at the stroke of midnight Thursday, it's still Christmas for like, 9 more days. And that is the story I'm sticking to in order to show you my lovely collection of musical holiday time pieces.

I've mentioned my Christmas Tree Watch that plays the Lambada before, if you know me it's legendary, even...but only now, thanks to the glory of technology, can I share the magic with you. (And yeah, I know the timekeeping part has ceased to function, that's not what I wear it for. It's right twice a day, anyway.)



Festive, yes? For actual timekeeping, however, we turn to our musical snowman clock, which was marketed as playing a different Christmas carol every hour on the hour for as long as the lights stayed on. The idea of that bothered me, as you might imagine it would if you were positioned directly underneath something that spontaneously burst into music regardless of how those beneath might feel.

I ENDED UP LOVING THIS CLOCK. Here's why:



Every hour on the hour, baby. SPROING!
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Saturday, December 27, 2008

And That Was The Week That Was

It snowed last weekend. A lot. It wasn't fluffy nice snow you can scoop up and eat, either, it was the sharp killer ice that likes to make you stick to it if you go outside nekkid. Not that I know anything about that as I have special snow pants which I totally got on sale for like $10 in Modell's back in 2001 and that was the greatest deal ever in all my life because those pants deter the coldest of cold. Shame I don't have a similar article of clothing for my face. Not that it matters, because the pain of frostbitten nostrils is insignificant next to the horror that is SHOVELER'S HERNIA. Not that I'm complaining, I actually did really good for a long time before my innards all gave up and went wherever they wanted.

It was the holiday season, and Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of not only my first obscene phone call, but the 20th anniversary of the horrendous death of the daughter of the nurse of the surgeon who happened to be removing a tumor from my boobie that very day. Lockerbie, kids, never forget it. I'm not kidding. I didn't know any of this as I was alternately unconcious and sharing my Jell-O with my Uncle Gene, but he knew, and he told my mum. It was, in my lifetime, one of those days I'll never be able to fully comprehend, possibly because of the Valium, but most likely because it goes beyond storytelling.

Nan found a movie called Subterano about a bunch of Australians trapped in a car park with a crazy killer toy, and then she found The Curse Of El Charro, which is about a bunch of girls trapped in Mexico with a crazy ghost. Lemmy from Motorhead is in the movie, so you Lemmy completeists get on this, but skip it if endings where the hero gets a crappy hand dealt to them pisses you off. One the one hand, we saw a movie with video game characters skipping out of a carpark into a sun-shiny day with mountains and oceans and happiness, and on the other hand we have one of those HERE'S YOUR REALITY endings that pisses me off. Dammit, if I ever defeat the bogeyman don't be locking me up in the nuthouse--at least don't forget my headphones.

We ate scrambled eggs, oatmeal and soup to prepare for the insanely large meal we were about to eat on Boxing Day, and this resulted in lower blood pressure for the two-thirds of us with high blood pressure and helped get rid of my totalbodyheadcramp. Not satisfied, I spent Christmas day running amok with a vacuum, traumatizing the Puppy and gathering every wayward dustbunny and also a little pink felt ear from one of the toy mice. It was like an offering to appease the vacuum god Euroreckhoover. Must have worked, because writing this last bit of this last week in review for 2008, I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. I started this month terrified of the future, spent the first weeks trying to change what I could, and now I got to introduce my cats and dog to my aunt, uncle and cousin, and my mum and Nan cooked a meal like the olden days of army dinners and the oven didn't cut off and gas us, and of course my hernia tried to complain but eff it. This week was good.

I can't believe the year's down to four days. Countdown time begins in 48-ish hours!

Next week I'm going to be doing something different on Saturdays, something I think is going to be more amusing. To me, anyway.
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Friday, December 26, 2008

'Twas The Night After Christmas....

If you're actually reading my blog on the day after Christmas, I owe you more than a video or a pissy diatribe about how cruel time can be. Unless of course you got the RSS feed going and it's February 2010 when you read this, then I have no idea how to feel. I'm happy, I hope you're happy too.

At this moment I'm probably having a grand old time catching up with family I haven't seen in ages, and if I'm lucky I'm not coming off like Nell to them. I've eaten a lot of cookies, though, you never know what the sugar will do to me.

Icey the groovy snow DJ, however, is having trouble finding a place to spin her ice platters. You know about Icey, don't you? The good little children of the village got together one weekend and smoked some mistletoe, and when one decided to hang his headphones on the snowperson he was relieving himself on, Icey sprang to life, knocking the unsuspecting hipsters to the ground with a blast of chill music.

The children laughed and followed Icey across town, mainly because the headphones were those ludicrously priced noise-cancelling headphones--but they were enchanted! Magic noise-cancelling headphones, once worn by Chris Botti himself on a flight over Ibiza! Icey made out with a traffic cop and unfortunately ended up melting on the Manhattan streets because that steam is a bitch on the icicles. As she dripped down the street her little charcoal briquette mouth called, "I'll be back again someday, donate my carrot nose to the hungry!"

No one knows if the ex-investment banker who ate Icey's carrot nose knew the adventure his food had, but the owner of the headphones vowed never to pee on snowpeople ever again.

Keep that in mind when the mistletoe is being passed around, kids.
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Thursday, December 25, 2008

My Special Holiday Message

I'll spare you my emo moping today and show you a picture I drew for everyone to have a Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Solstice, Merry Christmas, God Jul, Cool Yule, Happy Al-Hijira, Great Festivus for the rest of us, Happy Kwanzaa, and enjoy the rest of the year, have a good time doing whatever you do, and don't get burnt. ♥

Happy Whatever You Celebrate! - copyright 2008 Lynda Naclerio

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Hear The Baby Jesus Cryin' Ho Ho Ho!

I seem to be playing a lot of videos right around now. That's because I'm really only here in spirit right now and videos are easy for me and entertaining for you. I hear it's the Christmas time in the land, as well as Chanukkah, Solstice, Festivus, one of the Eids--and Kwanzaa is coming up too, and if I were to write something meaningful here it would only spiral into the realization that there are less of my loved ones living this year and I'm having Ramen noodles for dinner. But I like Ramen noodles, and I'm grateful to have my family and a house to put some of them in, and knowing my cats and dog are healthy is my Christmas present. Knowing all the people I've known that the thought of can now cause me to lock myself in the bathroom on Christmas Eve sobbing unabashedly into a handtowel is a present, too. Really. They must have been good ones to get that reaction out of the cold stone that is my heart. I'd prefer to be laughing with them, actually. I bet at this very moment you'd prefer me to be doing that as well.

I was listening to WFUV one night and heard Another Christmas Song by Stephen Colbert and it amused me, because Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart helped get me through this year, and they have my unending gratitude and occasional outbursts of actual laughter. I hear there was a holiday special involving Colbert, and hopefully by the time this post goes live I've seen it and will be so delighted by it that I come back and change that whole first paragraph.


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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Spend Christmas With The One You Want To Burn The Record Collection Of...With Or Without Fire.

I like the crazier Christmas songs, you know. So when I happened upon A Christmas Duel between The Hives and Cyndi Lauper I hit the Internet to find out what this new madness was and share it with all of you because I wuv you all. Behold!


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Monday, December 22, 2008

I'm Glad Santa Doesn't Generally Shoot People.

True story, one year a guy decides to make his nephew believe in Santa by dressing up as Santa and climbing over the fence to serenade the kid. Only he had the wrong house. Nan was very polite about it and let him out the gate but...that was odd.

Who wants Christmas music? No, who wants fun Christmas music? Who wants Don't Shoot Me Santa by The Killers? WHOO!


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Sunday, December 21, 2008

I Never Hallucinate This Good

My weekend pilgrimage to Monkeys for Helping always gives me fuel to face the world again, and one of the greatest things I've seen there recently was this Space Giants parody featuring Tim and Eric. I second Recon's wish that they'd make more of these, because this is pure greatness.


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Saturday, December 20, 2008

The Penultimate Week In Review.

Monday the weather was gorgeous. It seemed every dolt in town noticed this also and was out racing to get to the beach, but then it rained and got colder. Still, it was nice to head into winter with one last reminder that the world will keep spinning and give us a good memory once in a while if we're lucky.

I took Rite-Aid's generic knock-off of Sudafed. This, I think I've mentioned, makes me love the world for a limited amount of time, and then it makes the world very annoying and wobbly, but it also makes me not fall asleep behind the wheel and scream when air touches my skin, so that's good. Had I really done these reviews of exactly how my weeks are laid out, there would have been a lot more of this kind of boring honesty, and that gets old fast. Three or four weeks, to be exact.

As the days whizzed by getting shorter and shorter, I did a lot of snow shovelling and staggering around clutching my chest, and Last.fm and Quick Fire Pool amused me while I was doing all the stuff I do indoors, and I took a lot of pictures of the snow and my cats and dog--which I'm constantly aware of how lucky I am to have--and was grateful this week was a lot quieter for my family.

Nan found a lot of movies but I'm not sure of the titles. Two were actually the same movie (Holiday Affair), remade after 50 years. Movie film holds up way better than VHS, you know. I hope DVD holds up longer than VHS because the copies of some family videos I've been putting on DVD the past few months better not frikkin' deteriorate any further or I will really give up on the idea of chronicling anything and just go live in a cave.

I thought Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor was really good. It's a Mummy movie, you know, if you like them--as I do--you'll love it. I was terrified of this one in theory, too, because half the cast had changed, but it's a completely different story and I guess it either got me on a good day or it was just that good. I also avoid IMDB message boards like one of Imhotep's plagues, so I've found I enjoy movies a lot better that way.
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Friday, December 19, 2008

One More Game, Then I'm Done.

As autumn and this week of me reminiscing about video games I've played to the point of hurling draws to a close, I could pull out any number of games that gave me the ol' twinkly brain, caused my mother's eyelids to twitch, hurt Nan's thumb, or even caused the three of us as one to shout out obscenities at the screen as we once again sent little vikings or busty broads to their doom over and over and over again.

But I thought I'd go sappy.

Looking back at everything I did as a kid, I'm sure I'd be classified as a few things now that I just figured was the way I rolled, but back when games could be played beginning to end in a few minutes, I had a ritual. The last game I'd play before I put the Atari away had to be Superman. It relaxed me, I guess. Even if I'd never see the end of River Raid and even if I had to face the random real world afterwards, I always had Superman. Nowadays it's Quick Fire Pool, but just about every night in the '80s, no matter what, this is what I was doing:



I would like to state for the record I played the game WAY better. I used to finish the whole thing in under two minutes, get back into the Clark Kent disguise, touch Kryptonite, and wait outside The Daily Planet for Lois to come to the rescue, then just as she'd get close I'd jump in the door so she'd follow and the game would end with them together. Aww.
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Thursday, December 18, 2008

We May Never Puke Like This Again

You may be flabbergasted that I can actually come up with a week's worth of video games that have given me some of the most vivid memories of having my head in a vise, but if there's one thing I have going for me, I don't quit. Even when I'm driving and start spacing out from the sun bouncing off the dashboard into my very visual cortex, I keep coming back for more, like a...like a...hey, admitting I'm a video game addict is easy, admitting I played The Towering Inferno all the way through from beginning to end and sort of "won," although another building just went and caught fire and I didn't even get a little 8-bit ditty to recognize my hard work.

I found a hilarious review of the game and watching it I realized the migraine triggers were one thing, but I also have a thing about fire. A bad thing. I suppose that's the secret to beating the game: total batshit obsession compelling me to put out every last flame. I used to mourn the divers that didn't make it in Seaquest too.


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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Dark Side Electrifies Everything

Turns out there are a ton of videos games that I can trace my childhood migraines to. Jedi Arena (one of Parker Brothers wild Star Wars games) in particular stands out because we had to drive really far to get it on a hot day, and on the way home we were nearly involved in a collision, but when we got home...oh, when we got home...Nan and I played this until we both got sick.

Rather than subjecting you all to some strangers playing the game, I found another commercial from the past, and I don't remember this one either, but check out those dueling gamers. LOLirific.



You see where they show the game? With the lightning going back and forth? Every so often the "training droid" thingy in the center of the screen would decide it was going to unleash a Sith storm of crazy all over the place, and sometimes I wonder if there were any other kids out there who loved this game so much they'd go throw up and come right back for more.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

No Escaping The Past

I was a little video game addict in my day. Back then, pong paddles were real pong paddles and little green stick men were real little green stick men. They were real to me. *cuddles the cold plastic Atari*

Continuing the theme of games I loved so much even though they triggered migraines, I found the ad for Journey: Escape, which cracks me up, and not at all because of the weird off-tune live version of Don't Stop Believin' at the end. Really. I totally do not remember this commercial, but man did I help Journey Escape a billion times as a kid.


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Monday, December 15, 2008

Why Don't You Come With Me On A Magic Carpet Ride

Who remembers Master of the Lamps?

I do! I sucked at levels 2 and 3 so bad, but boy oh boy did I love playing this thing until I got migraines that would send me off my chair. The great thing is I finally got to see the end thanks to YouTube.

First, this is how it used to go for me, complete with horrendous wipeout near the end of the big cosmic tunnel:



Who remembers the crazy long time it used to take to load video games. You kids today don't know how...oh right, downloading's pretty slow, too, isn't it?

Who cares, this is the exciting ending! I waited 22 years to see how this went!



...wow. What a...catchy tune. WHOO-HOO!
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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Three for 3

It has been a happy third birthday for the Puppy face, the Puppy bod, and the Puppy feet. She's sleeping it off now, so here's what she looks like at her cutest all year round.


Hottie in the sun

Keeping her eye on the ball

The Puppy

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Saturday, December 13, 2008

Ho Ho Holy Is It The Weekend Already?

I taped Stephen King's Desperation off the Sci-Fi channel for us to watch, and man am I sorry. No, it was okay in a not-as-good-as-The-Mist-but-better-than-Rose-Red way, but I had forgotten King's got it in for animals and holy hell there is some imagery right off the bat that even horrified one of the characters. Then it gets worse (I'll leave it up to you to decide whether I mean the scare factor or the story, because even I'm not sure). But you know, it's King so even a not-great King TV movie is better than some other movies I can't think of right now.

One incredible bit of lost continuity that made Desperation worth watching for me had to be the first person to get shot onscreen is shot near another dead body, and throughout the rest of the movie there's only one body in that area and the character who gets shot onscreen is never seen again. O_O At first I thought it meant impending heroics, then I thought something grosser happened, but then...he was just never seen again. Things like that in movies fascinate me.

It was really windy the next day, which is why I got to write two whole paragraphs about a movie we saw. I also used the indoor time to decorate the tree, and I call it a tree because I observe more than one holiday, so it's got birds and angels and Santas and Snoopy and pictures of my cats and dogs and unicorns and I sometimes like to piss off sticklers who think it's important that one holiday wins (being nice to people wins). It's a tree. I decorated it. I had PMS at the time but the 12-minute Salsoul orchestra Christmas medley was playing on the radio as the cats chased each other around so it all balanced out and it looks quite lovely.

Then we watched School of Rock, and THAT...THAT was a fantastic movie. OMG, how did we go so long not seeing that? Fun frikkin' movie and even the kids were great, and I can be bad when confronted with a movie full of kids, but these were like, actual kids. Amazing!

The Last Mimzy also had kids, and a cute bunny, and Roger Waters singing an amazing frikkin' song. I always suspected cute little bunnies would have a hand in saving the world, and this movie ends happier than Watership Down.

I could leave much of the rest out, but I wrote it when I was really tired and that's when I get honest, so here goes. My current reason for being rather bitchy (as you may have picked up) is not merely the holidays, as it's never just the holidays, but family stuff. Health stuff. From all angles. This week The Fluffy One gave us no choice but to take him to the vet who saved The Puppy's walking parts in the hopes of saving his eating parts. My head has pretty much been on backwards for a few weeks about this and my uncle's kidney stones and Thursday will come to be known as Tauruian poking day, during which hunk men born in April have to deal with undeserved crap. I hope the day does not catch on and become any kind of tradition.

This week I also learned that butter is not the correct response to cat seizures. No, really! Who knew? I mean, I kinda knew, but it's like that line from Mr. Mom about whatever it takes. This week that ended up for me being covered in pancake-smelling hairball medicine and for The Fluffy One being full of barium to light up the sexy intestines. It was worth it, of course, because my cats are worth being a crazy cat lady for. There was a happy ending to the freakout this week. Of course everyone who ever wanted to see me get my come uppance for picking on how many treats the cats get had a good laugh, but then the diagnosis was possible food allergies SO THERE.

I honestly got little else done because I went into the same sort of fight-or-flight freakout mindset that my last blog back couldn't overcome when my little flannel-loving man widowed my left arm five years ago and I wouldn't be talking about it at all except that it's the truest part of my life and it wouldn't be fair to not be honest about it, even if it seems like I'm talking in code (I'm not). Hi, my name is Lynda and I'm a crazy cat lady.

You know what else is a pretty good movie? The Dark Knight. That was one of the movies we most wanted to see when this year began, and not to get all serious but after all this year has brought and taken away, getting to see the movie with my favorite people around me in our house was sort of fantastic. Now I get to say I talk like Batman when my hernia acts up. HAHA
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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The Great Latex Peril!

A while back my aunt saw Halloween cats and knew I'd love them, because...you know...I like cats. She they would give my guys an interesting story to tell, and in the time from when she sent them to me until the time I forgot to show her the video of their reactions, I based a comic on it and have finally uploaded the video for all the world to see.

Behold, The Great Peril, which had a much different working title.



I totally wanted to put the dramatic prairie dog sting over the bit at 2:10 where The Slinky One turns around and turns on the lasers. Alas, the bitrate of the sound file did not agree with anything.
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Saturday, December 06, 2008

It's Begining To Sound A Lot Like I Want To Stick My Head In A Bag.

Oh, hello.

For every odd beastiality movie Nan finds, Mum can find crazy '60s, '70s and porno movies. Like In The Year 2889, Suspiria, and Spider-Babe. So last weekend when she found God's Gun, a western about a priest who comes to avenge his brother. Both characters are played by Lee Van Cleef. When he shows up, voices go, "BAAAAAA!" and if that doesn't sell you, here's the trailer courtesy of YouTube:



More and more Christmassy things started popping up, like the marathon of Peter Falk as an angel movies, A Town Without Christmas, Finding John Christmas, and When Angels Come to Town.

My fifth weekly post went up at Type Your Culture, and if you think I haven't mentioned that blog before it's because I was waiting until I was able to update my blogroll to include it. However I haven't been able to update my blogroll because Blogrolling.com is still doing some sort of secret tweaking that includes not allowing access to blogrolls.

I've been posting to a blog called Type Your Culture, and I realize I'm the last person to define a culture, but there I am on Wednesdays, the girly white New Yorker who can read Spanish but obviously still can't write it (aspiro, for instance, either means I aspire to do that someday or I suck for not keeping those synapses alive). The blog is just starting out and its goal is to get views from all cultures, so spread the word.

Then I guess I got sick. Or something. I don't know. It wasn't enjoyable. Two symptoms are rambling incoherently.
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Sunday, November 30, 2008

There'll Be No Living With Me. AGAIN.

NaNoWriMo 2008 winner boatThis 30th day straight of posting to my blog ends with me saying holy crap I wrote another novel.

It's only a first draft, and I'll be tweaking that until next year, but there it is. I drew a bunch of comics and wrote a bunch of blog posts ahead of time so I could type all night long and all I got was this shiny, shiny banner.

It started as a weird idea I got from late night TV movies about Columbus and turned into the music-fueled sort of bizarre therapy that all my writing ends up being, but this one gave me a side character so great I want to just keep writing him until he runs into all my other characters and the universe implodes.

Okay, maybe not. I am tired so maybe that won't be such a great idea in the morning. But there it is. Fun time has its rewards, and it's a Viking on a coffee-colored boat telling me to go on a quest for coffee.
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Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Long Trail Of Gravy

Hancock is actually as good as it looks in the ads! I know this from my viewings. Yes. Not that I sit around watching movies all the time, mind you, no. It's just the movies are the things I enjoy that I figure everyone can relate to. I inhale my cat's armpits a lot. See? Movies!

I'm missing Dancing With The Stars already, that show's just fun. I...guess I'm old now or something. I don't care, I love it. Totally got to see Cloris Leachman tango again, yay!

The night before Thanksgiving I not only burnt out, crashed and dissembled, my hands cracked off. It's very irritating, and I'm using present tense because I don't know if I'll live through the next three days and so this may be it...I never saw the pumpkin pie coming.

This next line is to let everyone know that of course I lived. That's the part that never fails to amaze me. But I am in no place to whine about my maladies when it could be much*...much...much worse. *I was going to link to something about the first much, but it's a family thing and not my story to tell. Suffice to say I am impressed by some people's ability to handle crap and not be whiny.

I, however, am whiny and dammit I missed seeing the wayward toolbag in space! I think. Unless the NASA Flyby website is accurate and it'll still be in orbit next week. I do realize I could just toss my own toolbag into the air and create the general effect, but the most expensive things in my toolbag are my chisels and they weren't even $30 all together. Plus I have chisel karma coming to me so the least amount of chisel misuse I partake in the better.

Nan found a movie called Zoo and it's like a David Lynch story...about a man who died after an encounter with a horse.

Sunshine, the Danny Boyle movie about an amazing cast trying to re-ignite the sun, was also really good, but then I'm a sucker for the skiffy. Even if it does involve extreme sunburn.

I spent the rest of the time adding to my NaNoWriMo wordcount.
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Friday, November 28, 2008

Funny How Time Flies.

Anyone who is in on my bizarre childhood bet that Tears For Fears might still be around in 25 years, specifically that people might remember one particular song by them, and know how I obsess over that date of November 26, 2010 like I'm actually going to have done something great by then will get why I'm posting the literal version of Head Over Heels by Tears For Fears today (last Friday in November already), and if you're not in on that...this video is frikkin' genius!


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Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Streets Will Run With The Gravy Of The Non Pie-Eaters

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Having digestive disorders has taught me holidays aren't about food, they're about sappy warm fuzzy loving of your loved ones, so have a good time however you do it where you are, and as always thanks for reading my blog, it really keeps me going. Seriously.

Of course after you read my chilling tale of horror you may rethink encouraging me. *ahem*

On a chilly November morning, one shot rang out in warning
The ones who could fly took to the sky
Carrying the signal that justice was dawning.

From coast to coast many humans played host
To travellers hungry for flesh.
Restaurants and food banks all shared the same boast
That their turkeys had just arrived fresh.

From ovens and freezers, the vigilantes rose
Taking up weapons their slaughterers chose
"Pardon me!" the headless turkeys said
Pulling out muskets to shoot the chefs dead.

The sun set on houses engulfed in flames
Grinders ground down the meat-eaters' remains
A message was left in the ransacked malls
Smeared ten feet high in blood on the walls
A simple wish meant for you and I

EAT PIE OR DIE.


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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Getting Along Through Papercuts!

Hey kids, while your parents are off cooking and stuff, why not leave them alone and play with sharp instruments! YAY!



With the Papercraft Thanksgiving you can create as friendly or as bloody a festival as your heart desires!

Keep in mind that once the papercraft turkey has been beheaded and plucked, he looks awfully square and tastes really dry.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

You Can't Not Look

Oh noez, I've caught BadWinter! And it feels kinda good!

While to me there's no such thing as a bad winter, The Flowfield Unity is one of my regular favorites and now that it's back from a semi-dead state and has infected me with the desire to tell you all about it, go have a look around.
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Monday, November 24, 2008

All I Need To Install Now Is A Brain Widget.

Last.fm logoFor Christmas of 1983, I was given my first boombox, and aside from my desklamp it was the only thing that really lasted of my presents. My radio, mine all mine, I listened to my Olivia Newton-John tapes and Return of the Jedi soundtrack until...well, until this Star Wars/Xanadu slash happened. And I hadn't even seen that Bob Hope special!

Then I was given a headset radio. This...well, I am a walking experiment for whether those things cause dain brammage because this started the glorious way of life known as having a soundtrack for everything. 21 years, give or take a few weeks, ten radio station format flips and 6 headsets later, I still use it for my FM transmitting of whatever's coming out of the 20-pound MP3 player on my desk (yes, they're legal...or out of print, but don't get me started on I'll Be Around by What Is This?) and now...now I have a new drug.

Once I figured out how to use the radio player, Last.FM became a fun little land. I went so far doctoring up a desktop widget for Active Desktop and made my own widget for the Vista set up based on these instructions.

Finally my inner radio geek with an agenda can have Making Plans For Nigel go right into Duel Of The Fates and then Somebody Told Me into Xanadu and I don't have to change a tape or anything. YES, I WOULD BE DROOLING IF I COULD.
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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Something to Drive You Insane

Oddio Overplay has these playlists, like the page full of birthday music, and it's all legal to download, so...party on!
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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Long Dark Tea Time Of The Coffee Drinker

I've missed a lot of older movies, you know. I mean, somehow I've gone all these years never having see Long Day's Journey Into Night. Being Thanksgiving is right around the corner I think it was a good time for me to see this movie so I can say without a doubt thank god I'm not in that family. I felt nasty writing that, but damn. The funny part is when it started and Katherine Hepburn was going on about being fat Nan--who also wasn't familiar with the story--joked that she sounded like me...when I was like, 19 and thirty pounds overweight, I guess. Because I think that's the last time I pointed out I was fat, then I took a load of Sudafed and--no, no, that's even funny, the subjects in the story were not in any way funny and sometimes I think I need to be pretty grateful that I live in my nice warm cave.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is out on video and Nan *hearts* Abe Sapien. I've enjoyed everything I've seen from Guillermo del Toro so I was in happy land for about two hours. And OMG The Hobbit is going to be fantastic.

One night Nan found an old Christopher Lambert movie called Resurrection, and eh...if you like Se7en this is sort of like that. Except it's a bit more graphic. By a bit I mean dismemberment is part of the plot. It was really good, though.

Our dryer split its belt a full week before Thanksgiving but the Internet saved our collective sanity. See, in the old days we'd be all ZOMGDOOM! but I calmly typed "dyrer dum not tuerng" and got forty billion hits that boiled down to check the belt, which I did. Solved! It was funny when Steve the dryer repairman went to wash his hands and noticed our crappy faucet that only works when someone uses the sprayer. It's on the list. Not next on the list, because it still works, even if it works very oddly.

I'm still doing NaNoWriMo, because I'm stubborn. Heh. I'm on par for the day (note that as I'm writing this I don't have my exact wordcount but it's close) and I think I can make it to the end despite discoverng the Monty Python YouTube channel.
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Friday, November 21, 2008

When I No Longer Know What Day It Is, It Must Be Friday

I'm writing a lot lately. I had tomorrow's post scheduled to run today, which was weird as today is not Saturday, no matter how much I try to make it so.

I got it into my head to try writing a random thing here based on some further randomization I found on Flickr, like I went there and typed some words I thought would make so sense...how was I to know cupcake megatron would return 30 photos?

So I moved on.

"Drunken bastard" happened to be in my browser auto complete as part of NaNoWriMo research and that provided a ridiculous amount of rather calm-looking photos.

So I moved on.

I got stuck in my epic NaNoWriMo story after a spectacular cramp in a part of my (upper) body I was not aware possessed muscles. I think I ought to have my characters arrested for loitering, they've been hanging out in the same place so long. However the way I wrote that the main character is holding three separate things and just used both hands to do something makes me wonder just how many hands this girl possesses, and if it's a common mutation in her world as someone let her borrow their coat and there was no, "OMG my ten other arms won't fit."

So I moved on.

My wordcount features a good amount of threes.
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Thursday, November 20, 2008

An Important Warning

You see this leaf? This leaf drive the cats wild.

Nasty-tasting leaf

That leaf tastes nasty.

I got nothing from it but a weird burning on the tip of my tongue.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Nowhere Else On Earth That I Would Rather Be

Odds are that as this is being posted by the millions of little people who live in the tubes of the Internet, I'm off careening down some street swearing loudly at the maniacs who have someplace more important to be than the delightful back streets of Co-Op City. I can't blame them at all, I am most likely also looking to get as far from the road as I can, because it's like the Autobahn, but with traffic cameras.

It isn't a road I have to travel, it isn't a road I need to travel, it certainly isn't a road I want to travel. But I'm doing it because someone needs me to do it, which was the whole reason I got a driver's license in the first place.

If the lights are in my favor and give me a few seconds to think every now and then, I will lament not being home with my cats and dog, taking pictures and writing ridiculous stories. Even if the lights are not in my favor you can be sure that right now I'm wishing I was on any other road.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Is It...Jangly?

While I'm off trying to get to 50k words before the end of the month, I thought I'd share with you my failed attempt to be a music reviewer. I feel bad sometimes that I never share what really goes on day to day in my life, and once I rule out discussing my health and really deep thoughts (it gets so much worse than last week) I just seem to be someone who watches movies and chops down vines a lot. But a lot of the time I'm off trying to get my feet in various doors and this year I went completely apeshit and ended up looking like some terrible industrial Twister accident. Did you know there's an all-pink version of Twister? What is that about? And what's with the Toys 'r Us reviewers reviewing the model on the box? Wow.

Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to review music, being that's something I do in my head almost every day. Apparently my editor did not agree. (For those keeping score at home, I think the editor left the position. Like...I did it again. DJs, TV shows, and now editors? Is nothing safe around me?!) I was never contacted again after submitting what follows, and dammit, I don't like to see my words go to waste, especially being I spent three days listening to an album I normally wouldn't have by a band I'd never heard of and ended up really liking it. Keep in mind I was directed to write more words that I thought necessary, and YouTube is an amazing research tool. ^_^

I give you Lunglight by The Shaky Hands. It's part of my life, kids.

Don't let the jangly surf rock bounciness fool you, The Shaky Hands have come from looking the world straight in the face and being slightly jaded by what's to be seen. Originating in Portland, Oregon, where the space needle emits waves of rock brilliance over much of the population, The Shaky Hands' second outing Lunglight was released in September on Holocene/KRS and features many songs that have until now only been heard at their live shows. Not long after their self-titled debut album, the band became a quintet when multi-instrumentalist Nathan Delff joined his brother, vocalist and guitarist Nick Delff, guitarist Jeff Lehman and bassist Mayhaw Hoons, but is once again a quartet since the departure of percussionist Colin Anderson two months prior to this album's release.

The album opens right up with a rocking call for an end to the wicked and hope for the peaceful in A New Parade and rolls right along into the to the fun wisdom of Loosen Up, a crowd favorite at shows. The fittingly titled Air Better Come never lets up on its feverish speed and the playful-sounding reminder to live, We Are Young, has yielded the first video from the album, directed by Yoni Kiffle and E*Rock. The album has been called darker in tone and around the middle the reason becomes apparent with Neighbors and World's Gone Mad, two lyrical stories which blend into each other, starting out as Tool-tinged music to watch your disturbing neighbors by and ending with a wider view of the darkness in the world. The introspection continues with No Say, a stirring song about being painfully different. The upbeat feeling returns in the affectionate You're The Light and continues through the soundtrack to a perfect date in the life of the world-weary, Show Me Your Life. The clever lyrics of Settle On shine but after the cloudiness threatens to return on Love All Of, optimism fights for control again on Wake The Breathing Light, the longest track of the album clocking in at just under five minutes. Oh No, the final track, may mirror your thoughts as this album ends, but have no fear, the band is promising an EP of live tracks very soon.

Each track on Lunglight manages to remain infectiously unique despite being carried by similar driving beats, sometimes evoking the sound of The Strokes, other times digging into Rockpile, but always retaining the definitive sound of The Shaky Hands. If you liked their first album, you'll love this just as much if not more, and if you've never heard of The Shaky Hands give Lunglight a listen, over and over again.

(Did I sell you on it? Here's the video for We Are Young.)
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Monday, November 17, 2008

Ninja Bake Sale at Sundown

Don't Even Think About It by Runs With ScissorsIt is a little known fact that Ninja are excellent confectioners. Obviously they excel at all they do, but the traditional Ninja Bake Sale that takes place every autumn is unknown to many, even those who have attended year after year.

Perhaps you've been walking down the street, any given day after the end of Daylight Saving Time, and suddenly a cream puff begins melting in your mouth. Is it your cream puff? Odds are it's the result of many years' effort by a skilled master of pastry and death. So even if your pockets have been slashed and all the change removed, thank a ninja the next time a donut lodges in your windpipe some blustery day. They made them with love.

(This has been one of my late-night "WTH am I going to post next week?" posts. I made it with love. And throwing stars.)
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Sunday, November 16, 2008

Just The Thing A Vulgarian Like Me Requires!

All my life I've tried to be a proper lady, keeping my bra straps up and enunciating my swearing clearly. As if by magic, my Twittering was followed by the learned professorial blokes at English For Dirty Foreigners.



I feel less dirty already!
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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Quick! Fire! Pool!

It's nearly pointless to review the week when I've been posting all week. It's like me coming here saying I'm happy The Puppy didn't run off with the little flag I put near my grandfather's tree for holidays, then I flipped out because gay Californians can't marry anymore, then things got really weird.

I found a game that managed to throw me off my NaNoWriMo word goals called Quick Fire Pool, which is not about The Osterman Weekend as the title might suggest. No, it's about shooting pool...really really fast. Sort of like how I play it in real life, and judging by my 1077th place score, exactly like how I play it in real life.

When not potting virtual balls I'm supposed to be writing that story for NaNoWriMo, and apparently in my overacheiving frenzy I'm also unofficially doing NaBloPoMo, and they may cancel each other out but one of my LJ friends pointed me towards Write or Die or WOD, just to throw some more acronyms out there, and holy wow is that fascinating. It's like a game...and you know how I like games. This game has a setting that eats words, and I'm not hardcore enough to go there yet, but I got my wordcount over the daily goal for the first time by using Write or Die. Of course a lot of my characters are now running around yelling, "OMG we're gonna die!"

All my RSS feeds did this crazy thing where posts from over a year ago showed up as new. Overnight I grew 1000 unread items, and at first I was all excited because I thought there were people posting who hadn't in ages. Then I was all excited because I actually remembered reading the posts once.

A few nights last week the Chiller station played Evil Of Frankenstein starring Peter Cushing. In Frankenstein's defense, it's the hypnotist's fault the monster turns to crime. I love these, though, and the Burgomeister's screaming wife needs a fanbase if she doesn't have one already.

There was a movie on Lifetime the next night that featured such incredible acting I think I may send some bits of lumber and cotton balls to acting school and see if I can become their agent if they get starring roles in movies like this. I had no idea what the hell the name of this masterpiece was so I looked up the only actor I recognized in it, Jeff Fahey, and then I guessed it was California Firestorm aka Inferno. Surprise, I guessed right! It's right up there with City On Fire for loads of people in flaming lands freaking out and in the case of Inferno, being completely unable to cry. There was lots of cringing and wincing, but no tears...onscreen at least.

And then a huge fire broke out in California and made this entire week in review very very awkward.
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Friday, November 14, 2008

The Eight Demands Of Migraines

I Am Having A Migraine, Therefore I Am A Migraine

Thou Shalt Not Make Me Want To Kill You

Thou Shalt Not Idolize Rave Lights

Thou Shalt Put No Billy Mays Before Me

Thou Shalt Not Make Wrongful Smells

Remember The Migraine Days And Clear The Schedule

Thou Shalt Not Empty The Medicine Bottle Without Replacing It

Thou Shalt Not Claim To Understand The Triggers, For They Are Mysterious And Many, And Violaters Shall Be Cast Into Puke
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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Oh Glorious Boobie-Sparing Brain Lightning!

By now the news has been everywhere that women with migraines are 30% less likely to develop breast cancer and man oh man, I am THRILLED.

Of course it could be the painkillers some women take for the migraines, it could be the ants, it could be that those women just weren't going to get breast cancer, but no, here is a reason for doctors the world over to tell women to be glad they puke while driving, to embrace their inability to watch TV with the lights off, and holy crap, yay for periods! Because there is now only a 70% chance that their body will give a big up yours to them in two different ways! OH BOY!

Janet Jackson fans, rejoice.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The History of Made Up Rules Makes Me Shudder

Is it even a surprise that I'm embarrassed that Prop. 8 passed in California and Amendment 2 passed in Florida? Last week the abortion bans on various tickets were shot down and gave women one less thing to worry about (for a while, anyway), and a man was elected who gave an entire generation of kids something to feel good about. But some people in California who were already married, who already had the right to marry, had that taken away by a group of lobbyists and...what?

What the flipping hell, people? Did you wake up last week thinking, "Give us progress--but not too much!" Do you really think the economy is shot because only one man goes to work while the other stays home and decorates? Do you really think limiting the amount of hot lesbian action is going to stop global warming? Do you really think other countries will be so horrified if people who happen to have matching genitals want to raise a family? Did you really...think? Did you even realize that voting yes on Prop. 8 meant "No, you lot over there, you can't." Or did someone tell you how to think, because you don't really care one way or the other?

The fact that I'm following my own opinion with Keith Olbermann's may give you an out, you know, "Oh, she listens to HIM," but it's the other way around, he said what I wanted to say better (and a bit less volatile) than I just said it. Maybe it comes off like I waited for him to say something before I did, but no, I've been busy and the last few posts were set to go on the dates they were posted, but this one today...this one's live.

I'm too many miles away from the protests, and I thought after last week I could put the soapbox away for a while, but love itself is need of love today, and that's all that matters, and to go for the trifecta, it's the only thing that there's just too little of. Someday, kids, someday. Until then I suggest Connecticut, it's a lovely place to get married.



(Text for the low-bandwidth.)

Listing of protests and rallies around the country.
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Hey, Veterans!

Looking out for everyone.


Thank you.

I'll let Stan Ridgway, Billy Joel, and Tom Waits handle the music tonight with Camouflage, Goodnight Saigon, and Day After Tomorrow and leave the cartoons to those who draw way better:





...and to the veterans being made every day, get home safe.
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Monday, November 10, 2008

They Can't Take That Away From Me

Today I could show you all my sad, as those crazy LOLcats say, because eighteen years does not in fact dim the sadness of losing one of the brightest lights in my life. However, he preferred music, so I give you this Frank Sinatra & Dinah Shore medley and I expect you to leave with a smile on your face, a spring in your step, a cigarette in your hand--if that's your thing--and hope you never pass up the opportunity play with the kids and pets and always get to enjoy your favorite meal. That's the way to live, people, I learned that from one of the best.


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Sunday, November 09, 2008

One Last Throw Down

A few days ago I posted the Obama/McCain Dance-Off video, but it was at the end of a very long thing and it deserves a spot all its own because it's awesome, no matter who you rooted for.


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Saturday, November 08, 2008

Like Something Out Of A Movie

This week, I seemed to be preoccupied with politics, and yeah, yeah, everyone was already, blaaaargh, so sick of who's going to be in charge of loads of weapons and the free world and all that, OMG hush up already. Except that the guy I'd been pulling for totally won this time around so that caused me to go a little off the deep end. As the week progressed the sky did not crack open and spill tiny little Karl Marx imps of hell down all over the world, but then Circuit City closed and my mayor decided to be stingy and not refund us some property tax so I am still as conflicted as usual about the world. With any luck in a year I can not pick on piddly crap like lack of funds and focus solely on the adorableness of the first family of the country.

Speaking of which, I got a note and a photo from the current first team manager. I was confused at first when Mr. Bush thanked me for all my corresponance over the years and expected the photo to explode, but it still hasn't. I don't know how to feel about this. That, coupled with the tear shed around the world caused me to think I might have been too harsh on the man, but then my dog reminded me about the hurricane season of '05. Hmm. I can only wish him well in whatever he chooses to do in the future. And hope my neighbor gets home from his tour.

We watched some movies, of course, and one I'd been hopping to see since it was release was Get Smart, the remake of the series I watched every single day as a kid. To me the movie was great, I actually laughed, like, out loud, for real at it a few times.

Over Her Dead Body, however...okay, there was a slapstick bit of arm-on-fire-doused-in-boiling-water silliness that really made me laugh, but then I started playing spot the bits of other movies and maybe that was unfair because it was a good movie, it just...there's a fat dog gag in it. Some people flip out over how Indiana Jones can survive an atomic blast in a lead-lined refrigerator, I get picky when two vetrinary assistants together can't lift a dog that couldn't be more than 80 pounds. I have lifted overweight dogs, and I can't lift things. Plus they played the fat dog gag twice in the same movie, and it didn't seem to be like, "ONE YEAR LATER."

You may think I'm picking on the fat dog joke in the movie because of some deep-seated regret about fat dogs I have known, but no, she lost those twenty pounds and I'm just wasting time I could be adding to my NaNoWriMo story because it's easier to blather on about how adorable the Obamas are and pick on the innacuracies of pudgy dogs being owned by skinny women in movies--because that's not how it works, the saying goes if your dog is overweight you're not getting enough excercise and it's true. Then again it could also be due to lack of sheep.

Sometimes mashing lots of horror movies together is really bad for the mind, like the Alien/Leviathan/The Rock/Terminator 2/X-Files/Creature From The Black Lagoon remake called, Deep Evil, which was totally jarring. I mean...for a TV movie. I don't even mean Lorenzo Lamas being in the cast, I just mean there was some horror even I thought was gross in it and don't you know it has one of those OH NO WE'RE DOOMED AND MY EYES ARE WEIRD endings that would've freaked me out for days as a kid.

Then Nan found a Lifetime mystery called Obituary which I was giggling at because it involves serial killer spyware that makes CLICK HERE CLICK HERE sound like doom, but then it started to remind me of the thing I wrote during NaNoWriMo last year, almost, expect that it had no similarities other than a serial killer and spyware, but I had a migraine so I just giggled at the CLICK HERE CLICK HERE.

Queen Lulu hit 10060 words, despite my PMS'ing about movies and politics. I fell behind almost every single day, but then I'd catch up...I'm behind again.
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Friday, November 07, 2008

Enjoy The Coldplay

I did say the Coldplay tribute to Enjoy The Silence was another story, yes? Well hell, I'm desperate for stories, how about you?

In 1990, one of my mostest favorite bands ever, Depeche Mode, came out with an album called Violator. It's a really good album. The first video I was aware of from it was for Enjoy The Silence, which was a song I took very personally, to the point where some 18 years later when I couldn't talk, I enjoyed the hell out of that silence.



Exactly like Depeche Mode, Coldplay came along and made otherwise shite times worth living, so 18 years on when the band that has also become a favorite of mine released a song you may have heard called Viva La Vida, with a second video made as a tribute to Anton Corbijn's video for Enjoy The Silence...yeah.



That'll make you feel young again, eh?
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Thursday, November 06, 2008

Why Not National Teethbrushing Month?

Seems a bit silly to be pointing out I've joined a thing where a bunch of people write all month, when you figure I write all the time anyway. But this NaNoWriMo, it's like a competition to keep from going mad as the days get shorter and the night drag on in chilly weirdness and if you win you get a little graphic that says "winner!"

So I may be missing a lot this month, but I've got a lot of posts scheduled to go up and I'm planning updates more on my progress than I gave last year.

Being I've already written a rather long post this week, I'll just give you the word count...because that's all that matters. Pretty pretty words. *drool*

I'm at 7793 words!
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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Yes, We Really Really Did. Really!

I had this post planned in advance but then last night I came here in the middle of my frenzy of glee and basically wrote what I had planned for today, except I had a different song, the Zydeco version of Yes We Can, so...Laissez les bon temps roulez!


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Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Yes We Did.

I'm a bit verklempt at the moment, but I once said I'd dance when the next president was elected and although it took me longer than I'd hoped, I'm making good on that boast. While I'm off doing that, here's some music:


Signed Sealed Delivered by Stevie Wonder


(Thank you to everyone who voted Obama and to everyone who didn't...it'll be okay.)
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Vote.

VOTE.

(Obama!)



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Monday, November 03, 2008

If I Went Back To Tell Myself This Day Would Come, I Probably Wouldn't Believe Me.

It's a political rant, kids, I held it in as long as I could. Skip as needed.

I think today would be a good day to explain why I've had the Obama '08 banner up in the corner of my blog for the past few months, being we're into the last 24 hours of campaigning in this election most people can't wait to see end. I'm one of those zen hippies that doesn't believe anyone has the right to tell another person what to do, except, you know, in the case of things like, "Look out, that's not edible!" and then it's more of a common sense thing than shoving opinions down unsuspecting throats, and yet here I am, writing this post eight years in the making.

Once upon a time I went to a protest. I'd made an armband out of duct tape, which was connected to then head of Homeland Security Tom Ridge telling people to duct tape plastic sheeting over their windows to protect them from things like oxygen and nuclear fallout. That was one way we sure showed those guys plotting to send a bunch of kids to war. On that little piece of sidewalk outside of the recruiting station I heard stories that were way more interesting than anything I'll ever have to tell--just the mere fact that I left the house to mill around with people I'd never met before and never saw again is my big shocker. I knew the area, though, and I didn't want to turn down the chance to inhale the fumes of Fordham Road one more time. I've never been back.

In the weeks that followed I was all gung-ho thinking I could make a difference and put an end to war forever and all would be sunshine and unicorns. I had a few more posts on my old blog than you'll find there now, one was a few hours old when some random stranger spouted off a long diatribe that I was a pathetic excuse for a human and might be happier living in Iraq as I obviously didn't love my country and disrespected all the military stood for with my trying to keep them from being sent into what I called a poorly-planned mission of pure spite. Or something. It's been a while and I deleted my post to get rid of the comment. I think I was also encouraged to somehow abort myself. Those days sure were surreal. Makes the odd comment about how unfunny my comic strip is seem like friendly banter.

During this pesky election season someone bemoaned looking back and complaining about things. So I'm not going to tell anyone who to vote for based on the string of screw-ups that led to inept responses to hurricanes, terrorism, endless war, flagrant disregard for the Constitution and Geneva Conventions, deregulation to the point of a housing crisis, the collapse of banks, the rise in crime...no, I won't mention that it all happened on their watch. I won't say they were given the world, and they pissed it away. I'm a good sport, I'll look ahead. I finally have something to look forward to, so I've recently heard.

All the years I've been aware of politics, there's been a faction that feels the need to instill fear to keep people voting for them instead of assuring humanity they aren't quite so dainty and pathetic and might even be able to live with one another an entire lifetime without so much as a cross word. The words change a little but the sentiment is always the same; things will get worse if they don't stay in power, we'll be nuked, the terrorists will win, taxes will soar, we'll all become gay socialist commies looking for handouts, and anyone who thinks we would do okay without them and their fear must hate America, because they seriously believe only they are America. But that's just politics, right? Walk away from the news and the world gets better, right?

In the past eight years, I've looked the possibility of losing my home straight in the eyes more than once, I've had a job outsourced with no warning, I've watched most of the money that comes in go right out to oil bills, I've gotten too sick to be a big cog in the economic machine and yet I'm not sick enough for the government to give me one of those handouts. I am not a slacker and I respect the hell out people who work as many jobs as they need to. I'm proud of the military and I love my country. I've been told I just don't understand what the Republican party of the past eight years is trying to accomplish, and I have been told to shut up and go away when I protested the invasion of Iraq, but I still love my country because I know there's more to it than fear. For the first time in way too long I believe things may finally be about to change for the better, and I believe with the last sparks of optimism in my heart that Barack Obama can do it. So what if he talks nice? So what if he has skinny legs? So what if the world loves him? So what if he isn't half as scary as some people are making him out to be? And so the hell what if he has a funny name? I'd choose the future he's offering over fear any day, and I'm hoping more than anything that what I've seen is true and I'm in the majority this time around.

I feel much better with that off my chest. See you Wednesday.

If you made it this far, I ♥ you and here is a video to give you happy dance feelings.


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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Reach Out Touch--DRUMS! DRUMS!

Hey kids! It may shock the hell out of you to know an old bat like me not only knows who Hilary Duff is, I know the words to many of her songs. However, something has recently happened and I need to take it upon myself to point out to every one of you who may really love the beat of her new song Reach Out that it is sampled from a song that perhaps your parents made out to, or maybe you're already one of the cool kids and know your modern rock history (in that case I love you, but not in a creepy way, and I'm sorry I brought that image to mind about your parents).

Here is the video for Reach Out by Hilary Duff:



And here is the song the music was lifted from, Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode:



For what it's worth, I was awfully let down by that Depeche Mode video when it came out because I had a way better one in my head and it didn't involve slim women posing a lot. Especially after Enjoy The Silence (which you kids with the Coldplay love need to see too, but that's another story).

I know there are some Depeche Mode fans who will want to kill me for this, but I'm not at all threatened by Hilary Duff's decision to use that music. Being a fan of the mash-ups I've long felt that the beat of that song could make any other song better, and of course I'm now hoping to hear more Depeche Mode on mainstream radio as a result.

Depeche Mode. They're good.

I hear Johnny Cash was also pretty good. *ahem*
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Saturday, November 01, 2008

No? What Kind Of Negative Month Are You, Punk?

Did we watch movies this week? I can't remember. I was busy and I've got all sorts of bruises and stiff joints, so I'm sure I did something, but it's sort of a blur. Which is why I usually make notes all week, but I didn't even have time for that so I guess I was seriously into something. Hmm.

I finally saw the original Sabrina, which I got a kick out of because the remake with Harrison Ford is one of my all-time favorites (YES I ADMITTED IT SO THERE) and I love Audrey Hepburn so that was all good. Not exactly a new movie, however.

Another one that we'd somehow missed for years was Sleep Easy, Hutch Rimes with Swoozie Kurtz and Steven Weber. It's twisty.

Nan found Scary Movie 4 one night and we love that nonsense so I'd jump around and eat couch cushions to get you to watch it, but you know...it's silly fun.

Like Amazon Women On The Moon. I never saw that whole movie before, I only saw the bit with Arsenio Hall vs. the VCR and and Carrie Fisher being a reckless youth. And now I have seen everything that comes between those two sketches! That's my kinda crazy.

It got sort of freezing and these wild winds came through at one point this week, and while that was going on I worked on work-related things. The cabin fever took exactly four hours to kick in. Before that, however, I nearly removed my hand with the butt (eheheheheheh) of a rather largeish bit of gardening equipment, but I took our tree branches out of the neighbors' airspace, dammit. I feel so manly. *burp*

I added more crap to the sidebars of my blog! I figured out how the Last.fm radio player works and I actually heard some songs I'd forgotten I loved. I'm also doing NaNoWriMo again. As far as I know this story will be completely different from last year's, but then I never did talk about Coffeeman much so you wouldn't know, would you...but no, Queen Lulu has probably never had coffee in her life. I'm not ashamed of the people who live in my head anymore, or at least I've gotten over the idea that I'll be sent off to an asylum if I mention them. If only I'd known all these years that not having medical coverage has its perks.
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Friday, October 31, 2008

This is Thriller.

Perhaps you have already seen this one-take spin around a school where everyone is possessed by the Thriller. If not, see it now an

Although I was given my first radio in 1983, and one of the first pop tunes to become lodged in my head in those early days was Beat It, I admit Thriller never really did it for me. Maybe it was the frikkin' weird eyes Michael Jackson suddenly thought it would be fun to leave me screaming at. But of course I know it backwards and forwards and have the shirt and the glove and in the years since have gotten to appreciate it for the cult classic it is, and part of my brain is screaming at me to point out that yes, of course I love Thriller, don't be silly, it's got Vincent Price! I'm just dead inside. Dead like a juicy, juicy zombie.

You all are no doubt hopped up on candy and want me to cut to the good stuff, so I now bring you something so incredible, I nearly wept at the thought of so many kids getting together to do the same thing and not one stick the mud to be seen. I have no idea what that's like. It's beautiful to watch. I've had too much sugar.


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