Tuesday Has No Phones

Okay, who was watching the Packers/Eagles tonight? 'cause Dude! DUDE!!

Also, for my New York tri-state area peeps, what the Hell happened to 92.7? Did the radio waves freeze and now we're getting Spanish music until it warms up again or something?

Off to write Part 11 of Trust Me. Later!

GIP thanks to the lovely katemonkey. Now here's hoping I actually remembered the phrase right. This is what I get for going through the Museum of Sex and saying to myself "Self, that would make a great Wes icon. Should I write the phrase down, though, so I remember it correctly? Nah, I have near photographic memory, I certainly don't need to totally geek out and scribble this into my PDA." And then a few hours later I turn to cin1607 and go "What was that phrase again?"

So, you know, that. Wes, gives great French Treatment. Or he very possibly doesn't. Hard for me to say, but I'm happy to have the icon.

I'm finding myself absolutely exhausted at the moment. This is either two weeks of constantly being on the run catching up to me now that I have a day off, or it's me coming down with the same plague that felled my boss today. And boy does the word "felled" look funny when you write it out.

I caught the end of Rosemary's Baby just now. I'd seen the whole movie before years ago and was bored silly by it then, but now I found myself actually liking it. It almost makes me wish I could have caught it from the beginning just to see if I could enjoy it on all new levels. From just the half hour that I saw, I found myself appreciating the normalcy of it. The random tiny details that they threw in that highlight the horror of it all for Rosemary, like the woman who picks the knife up out of the foor and rubs the spot that it made, and the people who are actually tiptoeing, almost cartoon style, behind Rosemary when she thinks she's alone in the house, because of course in real life people don't have super stealthy skills and would be tiptoeing like that.

Plus there's the artlessness of it all, at least compared to today's movies. Even films that work on the same kind of suspense and horror as this are still very stylized. Signs may give me the serious wig, but comparatively speaking it's still very composed and explicitly planned compared to this. Movies like Signs work off of a language of film, I think, that's been established over the years whereas I suspect Rosemary's Baby was still in a time when that language was being invented. The not knowing how to plan every detail down to the last second creates a level of reality that even an improv film like Blair Witch didn't have since the actors in that were also working off of the same language.

I also found myself thinking of how some of the horror of this film is because of the time. Rosemary is certainly acting crazy, but I couldn't help but notice how trapped she was because her husband was still considered the last word in terms of taking care of her. Could they attempt to redo Rosemary's Baby in today's world, which though by no means perfect, is certainly light years ahead of Rosemary's time in terms of women being able to speak for themselves.

Now I'm off to ask myself if I really am going to go to bed before it even hits nine o'clock. Man this is sad.

Long, fun day involving a trip to Brooklyn to visit with Older Brother & family, then back to the folks' house to watch Buffy. I now present random tidbits of my day.

***

TBQ: So have you been watching I Love the 80s?
Older Brother: Strikes Back? Oh yeah!
TBQ: My friends and I have been doing the nostalgia thing because of it. There's one thing that's driving us nuts though. We cannot remember the name of it. Do you remember that computer game? That you played on the IIe? The one where you go back in time and try to get the dino eggs and -
OB: You mean Dino Eggs?
TBQ: Oh shut up.

***

For the record the Indiana Jones ripoff game was called Aztec.

***

Mom and Dad, who went with me to Brooklyn, did the grandparent thing and brought presents for the kiddes. One for Mouse, another for Annika. Mom attempts to trick Mouse into a reading exercise with this by handing over her present with her name clearly written in big letters on the side.

Mom: Do you see the name? Whose name is it? Who is this present for?
Mouse: [looks at the name, notices that this is the much smaller present, proudly announces] Annika!

***

One of the eps the folks and I watched tonight was Beauty and the Beasts. So that's pretty much the first ever known instance of the Martiphor, huh? Sheesh, subtle much? Not that I don't like the ep and all but man does it leave something of a bad taste in your mouth after the failed therapy session that Marti attempted to make s6. It's kind of like Claudia in IWTV. On her own she was a cool character, then you read more of Anne Rice's books and realize no, Anne just isn't capable of writing any form of underage character who isn't way older than their years while at the same time trying to encourage all the adults around them to engage in pedophilia. Say what you will about Spike being on Angel now, but at least we can rest confident that the poor boy won't be bastardized to Hell and back because Marti can't let go of a grudge.

***

Told Mom and Dad about Alyson getting married in real life, though their firm anti-spoiler policy (clearly I am adopted) means I couldn't tell them to who, other than it was an actor she met on the show. Dad then guessed it was Seth Green, to which my Mom rolled her eyes and said "I think he's a little too busy with his boyfriend to be marrying her."

TBQ: Who in the what now?
Mom: His boyfriend.
TBQ: You know something I don't?
Mom: Remember when we saw him on Punk'd? After they were done there was that guy he was hugging. You didn't get a boyfriend vibe off of that?
TBQ: Wow. You... apparently have better gaydar than I do. That's a little scary.

So not only is my mom a secret slash fan, she's apparently down with RPS.

***

Also had a nice conversation with Mom. She's been reading this book on how to be a good grandparent and apparently one of the things they talk about in there is how to handle it when it turns out one of your grandkids is gay. One of the things they discuss is how difficult it can be for the kids when they become teenagers and their awakening hormones start to clue them in on the possiblity that they may not be batting for the hetero team. The book talks about how this can make them feel depressed and alienated. Mom, not having thought of that before, then asked me in the car ride to Brooklyn if I had gone through anything like that (specifically the feeling depressed and alienated part, but also for the whole), which I thought was cool. I told her no, because even though I did have an idea of my sexuality back then there wasn't really a time when I could point to not knowing, so I hadn't gone through the weirdness of thinking I was one thing and then finding out I was another. Plus being bisexual meant I could still be down with any girlfriends (er, that's girl space friends, not females I was dating) who wanted to talk about cute boys.

Also most of my high school friends were in The Gay Outreach Program Drama Club, so you can imagine how comfortable they were with alt. sexualities.

Still, neat that she would at least try to retroactively give me support for that.

***

Beyond that I got nothin'. I'm still feeling the aftereffects of that flu-y thing that got to me this week so I may just call it an early night.

Oh - and it was decided today that we're doing Thanksgiving at my place this year. Woohoo! I love holiday cooking =)

Just heard from Mom. Older Brother & co are fine. They just got power back but otherwise did not have any problems. Turns out they didn't know their phone wasn't working because they were able to call out this morning. But at some point after that, unbeknownst to them, their line went dead, hence why we kept getting busy signals.

He also said that someone on the sixth floor of his building brought a BBQ all the way downstairs, put it in the courtyard and left a sign saying people should feel free to bring their food out and cook it on that if their stoves weren't working. No clue if it was a gas or chargoal grill, but either way a cool gesture. OB said it then turned into an impromptu gathering of sorts for everyone.

I've got to say that it's neat how well we as a community (and here I'm obviously talking about a very large community that encompasses several states) handled all this. Yes, there was a little looting but apparently only a few stores were hurt and nothing like the damage they had up in Canada (which was enough to make the news as an item in and of itself, whereas the looting news down here was mostly a footnote). Otherwise people spontaneously generated traffic, helped out with donations of supplies to their neighbors - the works. Quite a sea change from the last big blackout to hit this country.

Personally my guess is that we've got some 9/11 left in us. We may fight like hell amongst ourselves when things are okay, but when the chips are down we put it aside and work together. A sappy obvservation, I'll grant you, but still. It's neat.

0.5 seconds

For those of you playing at home, that's the amount of time it takes between me throwing a toy at Mac and him bapping it under the couch, where he can't reach. I'm so glad he's having fun.

In other news, yesterday miss_edith and I watched the best documentary EVER. No, not The World's 10 Best Truck Stops (highlights include The Best Truck Stop With A Limo and... um, there is no "and"). But a show on Trio, a channel I am seriously jealous that I don't get, where a comedian named Scott Capurro (sp?) researched whether or not there were gay animals. Of the bits of information I gleaned from this documentary, I would say the most important are: A) Yes, there are gay animals B) Homophobes the world over will refuse to believe this, even if the same-sex animals are fucking right in front of them C) Whatever Scott is paid, it is not nearly enough because the boy brings the funny and D) "Lesbian Seagulls" would be a really good name for a band.

We also watched that classic film, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, and of all the movies I've seen that involve invisible bikinis and men wearing striped minidresses, this was easily the 2nd or 3rd best.

Got off work early. Decided to swing by the store to buy some new tops, as I do need some. Was assaulted by BRIGHT colors. The likes of which I could A) see with my eyes closed and B) hear as well. Something tells me I'm going to be skipping spring fashions and waiting for summer.

Still, the plus side is that I didn't spend any money. So now I have it to spend on other things ;)

Okay, heading into the city for buffybot's party. Fun will be had, I'm sure. Not necessarily by us but out there somewhere fun will be had ;)

Busy weekend, in which fun was had in the city. This included watching X-Men 2 for the first time. 'twas most enjoyable, although it's entirely possible that I overgeeked myself by grabbing buffybot's arm too much during the previews to point out all the sets that sis-in-law designed for Hulk, and then later when I nearly screamed after confirming for myself that yes, the guy who looked surprisingly like Peter Wingfield while wearing camoflague makeup was, in fact, exactly PW when the makeup was off. TBQ = NYERD.

Sleeeeeeeeeeepy tonight. This was not helped by killer headache of doom this morning, nor by Mouse who was over Mom & Dad's with OB and sis (she who does not design sets) for mother's day. After the 50th time Mouse ran a lap around one of the living room chairs let's just say it's the little things that clue you in to the fact that somebody gave her a cookie. She's still agressively adorable now that she's out of the terrible 2s though. Being a responsible aunt, I made sure that on this visit she was introduced so such classics as Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and thank you buffybot for the copy of the mix CD ;)

No clue what tonight shall bring. I suspect a lazy evening of QAF then an early bedtime. TBQ = wimp as well.

Winning WTC plan is taller than Twin Towers.

On the whole I'm pleased about this. I'm glad they picked someone who understands that the skyline had to be fixed and weeny little buildings weren't going to do it.

I'm sad that it's not two towers again, and only a spire and not a real building but still this is far closer to filling that empty space (in sky and heart) than any of the other plans did.

GIP. And various updates.

( How I spent my NYE )

( Then we have NYE aftermath )

( NYE resolutions )

That is all =)