I’m planning to do some deep cleaning this Zombie Jesus Day. Or maybe go get a pedicure. The morning ought to be pretty relaxed but things kick into high gear in the afternoon. Beginning with a family function. Then an enchilada party. And Irregular Readings at the Triple Rock. But, most importantly, Japanese garage punks Guitar Wolf will be playing in the Entry! I’ve been wanting to experience them live ever since seeing them in the campy zombie flick Wild Zero nearly a decade ago.
Five other good things for this rainy Saturday:
The weekend got off to a fine start. The lad had a pleasant sleepover with his bio-dad (with Mario Kart game time). The man-friend and I went out for sushi (his first time ever) and to a couple of shows. Tonight’s Choose-Your-Adventure smorgasbord of options is overwhelming. There was already too much on my plate but I was just offered a photo pass to shoot Caroline Smith TGNS and Retribution Gospel Choir in the First Avenue Main Room. Decisions decisions.
I’ve been learning more about binary lately, for work, but real life isn’t on or off. Sometimes it is in between or other. Tonight I am (hopefully) seeing The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye at The Walker Art Center:
In her first feature-length documentary, Marie Losier uncovers the fascinating love story between Genesis P-Orridge—the iconic figure behind pre- and post-punk groups Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV—and Lady Jaye, née Jacqueline Breyer. Partners in life and art for nearly 15 years, the couple expressed their devotion through their “Creating the Pandrogyne†project, as each underwent a series of cosmetic procedures to merge their identities, becoming figures of a third gender incorporating both of their attributes. Losier followed the pair over the course of seven years, and the resulting film—The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye—is intimate, whimsical, moving, and riveting.
Five other interesting things:
Oh my poor son. His allergies are at their peak, which only lessens his already way low pre-teen enthusiasm for playing outside. Instead he wants to play video games all of the day and all of the night. But this Spring I’ve been forcing him out after school every day to at least take some laps around the block on his razor scooter. More recently I’ve been riding my new low rider on the street while he scoots on the sidewalk. Generally he seems to enjoy himself once he’s out there. But today? I was riding along right behind him when he WIPED OUT. I saw it happening in slo-mo. This was the first time ever. Somehow he made it to age 12 without ever skinning an elbow. And he nailed them both today. I got him inside and cleaned him up with our First Aid kit. He’s resting comfortably now, with cats (that’s a link to our friends’ new cat blog) and…a video game. While insisting he’ll never ride his scooter again. Some days his obstinacy - more than his autism - really bums me out. For him life is all zeros and ones and, for the moment, he is definitely OFF the scooter.
It was an exceptionally busy and wildly varied weekend, with family and friends. Kicked Friday off by receiving a cryptic message from my Dad. He made something for me. The kid and I raced out to the burbs to see what it was. It happened to be…a fully articulated Bill the Cat. Crafted from cardboard and duct tape. Growing up we often read Bloom County together. My wonderfully weird father has always come up with the most interesting creations. I need to be better about documenting his output. There was also a spontaneous trip up to Hinckley and back, for a family dinner (and some hot tub time). And taco time with the man friend at Midtown Global Market, while being serenaded by a dude playing a bouzouki. And the regular choose-your-own-adventure challenge of which shows to attend Friday, Saturday and Sunday (it was a hodge podge of four). It all wrapped up with some biking and backyard grilling with my boy.
Five good things for yet another Monday:
The week ahead promises to be just as busy as the weekend was, at work and outside of. One of these days I’m going to force myself to take some downtime. Lock myself up in my apartment and sit still for a spell. But that day isn’t happening anytime soon.
I’m sore in strange places today. Totally worth it. I am so enamored with my new (used) bike. Why yes, it is a sweet low rider. I first laid eyes on it the weekend before last, at The Hub, and obsessed about it all week. I finally made it mine Friday afternoon. But in order to transport this thing of beauty home…I had to loosen the handlebars enough to fold those giant ape hangers down, just to get my hatchback shut. I have no fancy bike rack but I don’t care. The weather was gorgeous over the weekend and I spent much of it just tooling around the hood. One neighbor contemplated my bike for a moment before declaring it to be “very arty.” Not sure if he meant it as a compliment or a diss but I don’t care because I AM IN LOVE. My new favorite thing is to ride it on the street while my son zips along on his razor scooter on the sidewalk next to me. It is in those moments, with the wind blowing through our hair, that we can forget about all our worries (particularly how brutal our allergies have been lately). If only for a little while.
Five good things, Monday edition:
- A photo I took of a friend ages ago was just used by io9.com, in this post: The Trouble With String Theory. Amusing. But it would have been even more so if they’d used one of the crotch shots instead.
- Saturday morning we had some lovely ladies over for brunch. We ate on the sunny front porch and had our first water gun battle with the neighbor kid, in March! What? So strange.
- At our old house we had a fire pit. But it was some cheapass thing I’d picked up at Home Depot, made of clay, and it had started crumbling not long after I bought it. So I left it behind. It wouldn’t have survived the move. This time I’ve done it right (I hope). I did more research and read a lot of reviews before buying this BALL OF FIRE. It will be delivered tomorrow. Over the weekend the kid and I procured some free wood to burn in it. We’re excited.
- The amazing Smack Shack food truck is now going to have a bricks and mortar location as well. Speaking of food trucks…I am filled with regret. Friday night I should have stopped to photograph the Taco Taxi on Lake Street. A person in a panda suit was standing out in the street next to it and it would have made a wonderful shot. Hopefully it’ll happen again.
- 13 More Modern, Mobile & Modular Tiny House Designs - maybe some day I’ll buy some land and my son and I can have side by side tiny houses. I enjoy that notion.
Last night I broke down and saw the Hunger Games with the man friend. I’ve read the books and he hasn’t but we both thought that the pacing was slow and the intensity too low. The movie felt like a missed opportunity for dystopian sci fi as social criticism. Battle Royale is SO much better. And Gattaca will always be tops. I was more enthused about a preview that played before the movie, for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Mostly because Timur Bekmambetov directed and I love him above all others, for the way he uses humor while making violent yet thoughtful action films. But this is not a week for thoughtful violence. It is a week for friends and FIRE. Hoping to have the fire pit set up and ready to go in time for the arrival of our out of town house guest / Red Owl Crew reunion.
This week got off to a sluggish start. The transition - from a week of unstructured vacation to rigid routine - it wasn’t so smooth. I’ve been coping with a slightly rough week with copious amounts of Swedish pop music. Mostly Robyn (particularly her collaborations with Snoop Dogg). As much as I love my life, as it is, right this very moment, I can’t help but be distracted by the promise of future trips ahead. There’s a chance I may end up as an official Guinness World Record observer, as a friend of a friend attempts to break the standing record for marathon board game playing. In NYC. That would be cool.
Five good things:
Even more distractions abound. I have mixed feelings about the upcoming Prometheus. The latest trailer gave me a raging space boner but that was tempered somewhat, by a friend’s reasonable criticism:
Finding out the back story on the space jockey kind of flattens out so many of the coolest things about Alien (and why I think it’s head and shoulders above ALL of the other Alien movies). It’s essentially a suspense film that’s also a snapshot of life in that particular, albeit imagined future, era. Their ship is messy and leaky, nobody is ridiculously attractive in the conventional sense, the equipment is beat up, and they encounter things that they can’t explain, but the film recognizes that this would be a fact of life of people flying around in space, and it also recognizes that they are people who wouldn’t be able to explain. They don’t supply the audience with an “expert”, which is how Ripley functions in the next three. I like the next two a lot, but they don’t quite compare.
And this criticism reminded me of Patton Oswalt’s standup bit about George Lucas and how he’d like to travel back in time and prevent him from making the Star Wars prequels. He is not alone with that fantasy. Speaking of fantasy…I picked up a few new books to consume over vacation and they all suffer from this syndrome as depicted by xkcd. I am now taking suggestions for new fiction titles. Preferably above an eighth grade reading level. Thanks in advance!
Also, on a very sad note…yesterday some friends of friends lost their house - and more terribly a roommate - to a house fire. A fund has been set up at paypal. The email is 3500HarrietFund at gmail dot com. Please give anything you can.
This week of vacation is flying by. And it’s been a pretty tame one. Hosted a Daylight Saving Time Brunch on Sunday. Trekked up to Duluth Monday afternoon, after tidying up the apartment (returning from vacation to a clean home is oh so satisfying). It was foggy when we first rolled into town so we weren’t able to see Lake Superior at all. But my smart son? When checking into the hotel he suggested to the desk clerk that we be “higher up” so she moved us from the third floor to the twelfth. When the fog did clear our view was breath taking. We spent a lot of time at the hotel swimming and hot tubbing and reading and watching Cartoon Network. Walked down to Hanabi to meet friends for dinner. Walked to Ragstock to shop. Drove up to Spirit Mountain to ride the Alpine Coaster. Had dinner delivered to our room from Pizza Luce. Had lunch at the Duluth Grill, twice. Stopped at the very sad Lake Superior Zoo on the way out of town. Got home and spent the night reading and lazing with cats. And now our Thursday is half over and there is errand-running to be done.
Five good things:
Maybe it’s time to get crazy. And, oh, take a shower. And get dressed. And junk. SPRING BREAK! Whoooo!
We’re in the home stretch. Wrapping up some necessary tasks, including a benefits meeting at work and a parent-teacher conference/IEP review at school, before a weekend of excellent music and a week off from work. The lad and I will be heading up North for some of it. For much needed hotel hot tub/swimming party times. And we look forward to riding Duluth’s Alpine Coaster, open year-round because we Minnesotans are of hearty stock (the weather is going to be incredibly mild anyhow).
Five more mighty fine things for this Thursday:
You know what? Life is good. Yay 2012!
I have always been enamored of the idea of Leap Day. It’s special. An extra day once every four years? COOL. And I know two people with birthdays on February 29th. One was celebrating his “fifth” actual birthday. The other, hmmm. Maybe her eighth? Anyhow, I had really been looking forward to Leap Day 2012. AND THEN I GOT SICK. What’s the point of having a whole extra day if it’s spent entirely at home, too achey and miserable to enjoy it at all? And I was really far too busy to be sick. Feels like I’m still playing catch-up this week, and next I will be on vacation for the lad’s Spring break (after we “Spring forward“). But we are going to enjoy the hell out of our time off together.
Five good things:
I managed to snap out of my cold medicine induced haze in time for the weekend. Not at 100%, but well enough to get the lad out for some fun. A family game night at Clockwork. Free First Saturday at the Walker Art Center. A trip to the movies on Sunday. And last night we lazed in the living room, re-watching the Scott Pilgrim movie, right after P put a Scott Pilgrim poster (from the Precious Little Box Set) on his bedroom wall. My little boy is growing up!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Over the holidays I was given a brand new bigass crock pot. I haven’t taken it out of the box yet. I really need a miniature crock pot for one, as my son is so very picky and I can’t think of a single dish he would deign to eat that would be prepared in any crock pot (he prefers his foods to be served in divided dishes so they don’t touch). I happen to have all the ingredients on hand for this porridge-y looking vegan stew so that will be my inaugural attempt this week. Didn’t manage to get much cooking done over the weekend. It was jam-packed with activity. We made use of a Groupon for Thanh Do Friday night. I also attended two shows after. Saturday the lad and I enjoyed Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty and had Thanh Do leftovers for dinner. Saturday night we celebrated a friend’s birthday and I attended yet another show. Sunday I didn’t leave the house and that was as it needed to be.
Five good/bad/weird things:
Though I stayed in yesterday I did not watch the Oscars. I haven’t got the patience for award shows and all those self-congratulatory industry types. I did enjoy some snippets of snark gleaned from twitter and message boards. But this post-Oscars footnote made me sad: Los Angeles police say actress Sean Young arrested after scuffle at post-Oscars party. So much promise. So much crazy. Anyhow, I’m staying in again tonight, though a friend’s show at the Kitty Cat Klub is tempting. But I need some more quiet. Afraid I may be coming down with something. Just in time for our first big storm of the winter, if it happens the way it’s being hyped.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The other night I got pulled over by the fuzz, after cheese curd club. I was on my way to pick my son up from my ex’s and already running late but I remained calm and polite and was, thankfully, sent away without a ticket. But I did finally replace the headlight that was out, along with the ratty windshield wiper blades. And got an oil change to boot. The tediousness of car maintenance was tempered by a lovely walk after dropping the car off at the shop. 1.4 miles home and 1.4 miles back again to pick it up. I don’t recall any other winters where I have enjoyed so many strolls. Life is good.
Five wonderful things for Thursday:
I’ve been updating this blog pretty frequently but my photography blog? Not so much. Monthly posts, at best. I did make a February update today though. And I’m looking forward to the weekend ahead, where more photos will be taken. At shows, and of friends. Always too much to choose from. On the fence about which show to hit up tomorrow night. And I may be stopping by a Woody Allen movie night before celebrating the birth of one of my very best friends.
