Love this sign!

Well, how is your holiday season going? I finally got the post-surgery boot off of my foot, and got to see it without the bandages. Very ugly and all the wrong colors (I decided not to post photos and spare you that), but getting a little better every day (with a new bandage so I don't have to look at it). One of these days I will take a walk for no reason and not worry about busting stitches or swelling. I am lucky enough to work for an employer who provides a generous winter break (this year it's 7 working days plus surrounding weekends and I added a couple of vacation days for some extra downtime).

It's going to be lots of sitting-down stuff, like on Dec 24 we are going to see Die Hard at the Alamo Drafthouse, a nice little Christmas movie that will include live pyrotechnics in the theater and a free Twinkie for all in attendance. I guess I can sell that Twinkie on ebay, huh?

I've already gone through my annual Christmas doldrums (it's unavoidable) but I think I've come out on the other side of it OK. That's always the goal. It's partly because here I was feeling down in the dumps, then I heard other people's bad news (both people I know and of course the endless daily NEWS news) that I sort of snapped out of it.

Also, it won't be long until my news feeds won't have the made-up "War on Christmas" which is really a "War on non-Christians" shit like this (one of my in-the-flesh friends posted this as something she supports) (::: sigh :::)What to do about these things? Ignore, ignore, ignore, and don't get in political or religious discussions with them. We have things in common - just not those things. Screw this.

And this too. I am so sick of this kind of shit.

Christmas is a secular holiday that occurs during a time of year where nearly every religion that ever existed has celebrated or observed something. I am celebrating having 13 days off in a row, even if I don't have much planned other than not using the alarm clock.

My wish for you is to celebrate or don't celebrate whatever the hell you you would like, have fun doing it and don't get hurt. And for goodness' sake, have a happy new year.
Heathens Greetings everyone! I leave you for now with Pussy Willow playing the theremin.

Not sure why this ditty didn't catch on.

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" sung by 10 yr. old Gayla Peevey in 1953.

I got a new boot

Lovely, isn't it? I had a ganglion cyst removed from the top of my foot this morning. It's a returned problem from about 15 years ago when I had the very same thing done to the very same spot - then about a year ago it returned and has been limiting my activities (things that require a lot of walking or standing). I've got Vicodin for pain, and it's working so far. Hopefully this time the damn thing will stay gone.

This calls for a little couch time.

Winter beauty

The yard is so full of butterflies!! Mostly Monarchs Queens* but there are a few others I haven't identified by type. It has been very, very dry so there is not a lot for nourishment, so they are ganging up on the Tropical Milkweed. So beautiful.

* [correction] These butterflies pictures are Queens, which I discovered through a comment with this link.

Naughty, naughty kitty

You'll never believe what this cat gets up to.
Not your typical cammed cat... or is it?

Once upon a season dreary

The first holiday cards to arrive are from various charities, corporate organizations, political groups, or all of the above – anybody who wants to shame you into sending them some money by means of guilt – giving you a card and sometimes some address labels.* They are usually pretty unremarkable, but this one, sent from my alma mater (a lofty term to describe the place where I took a lot of night classes in order to finally obtain a BFA at the age of 40). If I were grading this design or critiquing it (perhaps as part of my art studies there) for a Holiday card for donors and alumni – something whose purpose is to get you to donate $$$ to them – it would get a solid F. Not sure what they want to do with the money. It could have gone to a graphic designer in this case...

Instead of looking warm and inviting, I want to leave the room ASAP.

It doesn’t look bad for Halloween though.

*and oh the humanity, we’ve got enough address labels to last at least 3 more lifetimes.
Just stop it.

Apparently the address label tactic still works though, so the mailbox will continue to be stuffed.
NPR: Give And Take: How The Rule Of Reciprocation Binds Us

Get on board the giggle train

Thanksgiving, then and now

Oooh! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and everybody is psyched up about the huge meal, the football, seeing family members, turkey turkey turkey pie pie, and then there are those hitting the stores for the Black Friday Shopping Stampede. I've done all the big family dinners that I ever want to do in my life, so I'm done with that. Something to be thankful for right there!! Yaay!!

Those of you participating in a big dinner prep might appreciate this absolutely classic hilarious and real letter that someone shared with the Awkward Family Photos people. I think I may have posted this before, but I always revisit it this time of year. It's traditional! My graphic is just a thumbnail - go to the site to read it and enjoy the some more real life weirdness - shit that you just can't make up. Awkward Family Photos: The Thanksgiving Letter

One of my new favorite Thanksgiving-dinner-themed things is this series of comics called "Thanksgiving as a kid VS Thanksgiving as an adult" from The Oatmeal. Again, I've provided a teeny thumbnail because you should go over and read it where it lives. Love The Oatmeal.

We do have some Thanksgiving traditions, even though none of them involve getting stuffed with food until we can't walk. We usually go to the Alamo Drafthouse and watch a movie. They have a full dinner and drink menu, always, (including a full turkey dinner and trimmings if you are so inclined - but I am going to stick with pizza), and we are going to see "Lincoln." Seems like this is going to be one of the ones to beat when the Awards are handed out, so looking forward to it. I find it to be ironic that we are going to see a movie about Lincoln on the anniversary of JFK's assassination...

Whatever you do, enjoy your day. Don't get into any fights at the dinner table if you can prevent them. Life's too short for all that bullshit and heartache.

Keep smiling.

Sad, sad people

A bad case of the "Mondays" on a Tuesday night. Have a cheery little party. Maybe the Koch Brothers will buy you a drink, even though they were not able to purchase a President.

Autumn activities here at the Oasis

Seems like I've been away from this blog for a long time. I have gone back to a lower frequency of posting, which I attribute to a burnout of sorts. By the time I've listened to radio news (NPR) for many hours, get my daily dose of Rachel Maddow, (almost daily) Stewart/Colbert, and wade through the endless stream of Facebook friends and Liked-pages news feed, commenting here and there, or not, (this election is INSANE) or issuing a status update maybe, plus scrolling through Twitter... I am too mentally wasted and worn out to put together a posting. It will be time for dinner+couch+TV with the spouse, or just getting out and being in the world in person. Anyway, here's a rundown.

Oct 20 was Tour de Fat, which we attend pretty much every year. It's a touring bike-themed, beer-themed, steampunk-flavored play day and costumed bike parade hosted by New Belgium Brewing Company in Colorado. MrB likes to ride in the parade. I sit it out but enjoy the day. I tend to have one beer too many and get too much sunshine. None of that changed this time. A few pics from the day:





On the 24th I went to the book signing of Matthew Inman, a.k.a. The Oatmeal - who creates some of the funniest comics you'll find anywhere. His new book is called "How to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you," and contains How to Pet a Kitty along with a whole book-full of other cat comedy. I absolutely love The Oatmeal.

On Oct 27 we went to see 18-yr-old guitar phenom Carson Brock. He is the son of Kyle Brock, who goes way back to the 1970s playing bass with Eric Johnson, and gets better every time I see him. Good voice too. Look for him on your geetar radar. Here he is on the Jimi Hendrix song, Red House.


Halloween came and went. We had a solid hour of very cute costumed children coming to the door. The most popular costumes still seem to be Princess and Pirate, not much changed about that since I was little. I was never a Princess though, always a Hobo.

Nov 3rd we went to the Celtic Festival, where we had an enchanting day of wonderful Celtic music, climaxing with Moya Brennan (of Clannad) and band, including Cormac De Barra, two harps, drum, fiddle and guitar. It was really quite a treat. Here's one of her videos from about a year ago. Our venue was not nearly as magical as the setting in this video, but it was really nice, a stage in an intimate setting with the lake behind. It is still very warm here, still a bit warmer than I would like it to be, but the weather is still lovely and it cools down a nicely in the evening.


And there's cat news... mostly we do not go out except on weekends, and look forward to nightly visits from some neighborhood kitties. There's one in particular who has stolen our hearts. She is owned by the people 2 doors down but she is left out what must be most of the time. On Friday night, in the exact middle of the night, we heard a meowing in a place where there should be no meowing. There she was, on the second floor roof (which was very steep) crying at a high bathroom window which isn't any taller than a cat door.

Everybody was pretty freaked out and scared. I went outside and didn't really see any path down that wouldn't be painful. MrB was finally able to pry the screen off and pull her through there. We don't know why she was up there, whether she was escaping some critter or just decided to see if that might be an alternate place to be let in. We think she must have balanced on the plank fence and jumped up. We hope that she was sufficiently terrified by it to not try again. Anyway, couldn't help but think of this song.

The election is on Tuesday, and it can't get here soon enough. I think our heads might just spin right off at the neck. Will be checking in here again soon, I hope.

Together With McGovern

I am very saddened to hear that Senator George McGovern is nearing the end of his life and may be gone by the time I write this. I have always been a great admirer of his. I had lived through the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy (two of my childhood heroes) in the 1960s, and realized the height of ugliness that politics and power spawns. I opposed the VietNam war and wondered if there was any chance that reason and sanity would ever prevail in this country.

Back in 1972, when I was a young woman/girl I still had idealism and hope when it came to politics. McGovern was intelligent, was not born privileged, and had such a big heart too. He wanted to help the poor and hungry, and wanted to end the war. He was a true liberal.

I was living in southern Illinois at the time, in the college town of Carbondale, and because of the student population there, McGovern was quite popular. I volunteered to help with his campaign, which meant all manner of things, but mostly just calling lists of people on the phone to make a pitch for him and get out the vote. The part of it that was really fun was the comraderie of the group, and the fact that he made a campaign stop in a little, tiny airport in that area. We all got to meet him and get handshakes and autographs. The part of it that was not fun was when they put us on a bus and sent us 80 miles to the west, to Belleville, so that we could call people up there. I know this is hard to imagine now, but that's the only way it could be done with our landline phones to avoid long-distance charges. What a wake-up call it was for me. Belleville was a more typical small midwestern town, very unlike Carbondale. It was actually pretty conservative, and the constant flow of telephone rejection I experienced was unbelievable.

On election night, McGovern was badly defeated by President Richard Nixon, the people chose Nixon, who resigned in disgrace and scandal a couple of years later.

I was soured on politics after that experience. I seriously doubt that a liberal can be elected to President of the United States, or even be the nominee (sorry Kucinich). The Democrats don't want another ass-whupping ala 1972. Obama is not a liberal, never was, and never claimed to be (neither was Hillary, for that matter). He is a solid moderate. I am voting for him and supporting him - not because I agree with all his views or actions, some I do and some I don't - but mainly because voting for Obama is the ONLY way to prevent President Romney (and Vice President Ryan) from becoming the new leaders of the free world. Embrace that little nightmare for a moment or two. It could happen, it really could. President Romney... soak it in...

Everybody please VOTE in November. Vote your conscience, your heart, your head, your attitude... just do it... even if the Presidential candidates don't grab you, vote for your legislators, your school board, propositions, bonds, judges, the dogcatcher. I don't call people on the phone to canvass or campaign, but I put signs in the yard, stickers on my car, and I go to the polls every time there's something to be voted on.

George McGovern wikipedia

Vincent

In the spirit of the time of year, here's a delightful little short from Tim Burton, narrated by Vincent Price, on the topic of Edgar Allen Poe. Perfect.

I've seen this one before, but it's worth another view. Or two.

They are missed.

There has been a rash of missing kitties in my neighborhood... a few dogs here and there must mostly cats. It's normal to see a flyer or two, always, but I have been shocked at the number of them. This is not even all of the various flyers, there is at least one more within these few blocks that I didn't photograph, and most have cropped up in the last 2 months.

I was afraid it might be a human killer (and there is no proof that it isn't), but MrB was riding his bike the other morning and saw a healthy coyote. This is very likely what is going on. [Coyotes and cats]

I am thinking of making a flyer of my own saying "COYOTES HAVE BEEN SEEN. PLEASE KEEP SMALL PETS INDOORS."

Raaaid!!

On Sunday, when driving home from shopping I saw some cop cars with flashing lights parked on the opposite side of the road. As I got closer I saw that they were all getting out of their cars and running towards the someone's back gate with guns drawn. Then they were all there at the gate, ready to shoot if necessary. One was pointing a rifle [UPDATE: or more likely it was a shotgun, I am told]. My head was spinning at the sight of this, thinking I don't really want to be anywhere close by there for whatever happens next, so I pushed down on the gas a little more.

Now you might be picturing a city scene here, bricks, sidewalks, the most common visual we have for police raids thanks to TV and movies, but this was a nice, quiet suburban street and the alley behind the house was more of a greenspace... and neatly mowed too. The backyard was enclosed in a typical Texas cedar plank fence. It was a stark contrast to the pointed guns and it's hard to get the image of it out of my head now.

I figured this would eventually be in the news, but so far I have seen no mention of it. False call? Maybe. Probably.

Putting on some miles

Pulled into a parking space and just happened to notice that my car was RIGHT THEN rolling past 140,000 miles! Mr B has the same year and model (2000) and his has about 155,000 on it. I've never had a car that went this far!

And speaking of going a long ways, check out this hitchhiker I picked up on Friday. I was driving home in rush hour (and it IS an hour long commute but there's not much RUSH about it or I would get home in half that time) and I see this bold grasshopper riding outside on the passenger side. He moved around quite a bit, despite being blasted with winds as high as 50mph. Look at his antennae blown back by the wind. I started worrying about him (which seems to be my main pastime - worrying about stuff), because I was afraid he was going to be dislodged to meet with a sudden splat behind me, so I started driving more carefully - like having a baby on board. ;-)

He rode the car all the way home to the driveway after riding at least 5-6 miles, then flew away after I nudged him with a leaf.

I wonder if this was a joy ride or absolute terror for this awesome little dude?

Running to help

That's our Mayor, Lee Leffingwell, as Batman. It's a fitting choice of superhero for him because this is a bat-oriented city. The reason these folks are addressing the press dressed up like this is to promote the CASA Superhero Run on Sep. 30. CASA is "Court Appointed Special Advocates" and their purpose is to help abused kids to get into a safer situation. The motto of the run is "Every child needs a hero, but abused children need superheroes." This video is just too darned cute.

2011 CASA Superhero Run from CASA of Travis County on Vimeo.

On Oct 20 there will be a differently-themed run called the Austin Thong Jog, held in honor of the memory of Leslie and benefiting the homeless. This is the first one, so there's no archived footage, only this little promo.

A bit less dressed than the first event, but probably more dressed than this annual World Naked Bike Rise that Austin participates in every June.


The Thong Jog happens at the same time that MrB likes to ride his bike (in costume) in the Tour de Fat Parade so we might miss the underwear spectacle. I can't run or jog (with this misbehaving foot of mine) and never could ride a cycle with fewer than 3 wheels - so I'm pretty much a freak and a permanent spectator, but I'm glad for the folks who do get to play along.

How do I look?

[Seen in parking lot last Friday.]

Chillin' with music in the extended dog days

Well, the "Dog Days" trudge on still hot as hell (98-101°F, ~37°C) and no relief for another month. Apparently, the Dog Days are called that because in ancient times they thought that the Dog Star, Sirius, was helping to heat things up. I'm still avoiding some outdoor activities, but on a hot night with a spectacular blue moon overhead we did make it out to see MilkDrive co-billed with Phoebe Hunt. If you've not heard of Phoebe, you might have heard of Belleville Outfit, and band she used to be part of. She has played in and toured with many bands and done plenty of session work. Now she's got her solo thing going. We were happily surprised to see that Carrie Rodriguez stopped by and played a tune with her. Check it out for wonderful fiddle goodness:

Here is MilkDrive with one of their new ones, and I promise this one will stick in your head in a good way:


This morning we are going to a kickass brunch show, hopefully indoors, featuring amazing guitar and vocals from Jeff Plankenhorn, Guy Forsyth, Malford Milligan, David Grissom and others. Wow.

For no reason at all, other than I love the idea of it, here's a squirrel playing electric banjo.

You can buy this on a t-shirt here.

How old am I? This many.

This was my favorite TV show as a kid. I also loved The Liberace Show.
There were lots of shows on where you'd get to watch people dancing. The music was great too. Late at night, there was only a test pattern on.
These were my heroes as a pre-teen. I kept scrapbooks of clippings about them. I met Alan Shepard as an adult (during his book tour) and he signed my old LIFE magazine with him on the cover.
I witnessed these events on live TV. What an emotional roller-coaster!

This guy on the right held me in his arms onstage. Toddlers are hard to resist. About 12 years later we met him again, and when my mother asked if he remembered it, he nicely lied and said that he did. I got to see the guy below, on the left, when he looked like the picture on the right.


My first concert that was unaccompanied by parents was this one. I went with my older girl cousin. I don't think she was into the British Invasion, she preferred Elvis and Frankie Avalon.
I got to see these rock icons in concert. I most regret not seeing Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, or The Beatles.


The 17-yr-old version of me had this closeup view of Plant. More about that here.

I lived in a whole bunch of places, some of them twice. Trying to settle down a bit more these days.

Yes, it's another birthday. Nothing planned except maybe a day off work. I will most likely be well-behaved and probably go to bed early.

Here is Liberace playing "Bumble Boogie" on his TV show.

Low Rent Birds

We have a whole lotta birdhouses. We have about 3 of the fiber "hive" style (all unoccupied), store-bought styles made of wood (unoccupied), cutesy store-bought metal ladybug (unoccupied), a couple of ones I made from plastic corrugated yard signs (unoccupied), a couple of multi-unit condo styles on tall poles (probably partially occupied, hard to tell), about 5 plastic "gourd" styles (maybe a couple occupied, not sure)...

...but instead of choosing one of those, some birds have made a nest in this ripped-up party balloon that is lodged in a tree.

Birds.

They do whatever they please.

:-)

Death, warmed-over

Seen today on South Congress Avenue, always a good place for people-watching, day or night... it's a real person in that getup, which isn't that strange except for the fact that it got up to 102°F today (38.8°C) with a heat index of 107° - and he/she did it voluntarily and not as part of one of those "dress up as a mascot and wave to people driving by" jobs.

This music could melt your face

Ramen Noodle Rag

The South Austin Jug Band became one of our favorite bands after we moved down here in 2000 (which is right about the time the band formed). They were amazing, and we felt lucky to be able to see them fairly often. The peak of this version of the band was when they won "Best New Band" at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2003. It was a pretty big deal. Over time they had some personnel changes, and each person who left took a few songs with him along with a playing style. The ones who joined the band in their absence were equally awesome, the overall sound was a bit different... more of this... less of that. They finally called it quits at the end of 2008, all of these guys and the later band members went on to be part of other bands, both new and old, and are all still hitting the stage on a near-daily basis. This reunion show of the original line-up (which may be just a one-off) that just happened on August 5th will be a night to remember for all of us.

Enjoy!

This lineup, left to right: Matt Slusher, Will DuPuy, James Hyland, Warren Hood, Willie Pipkin. Later band members include Dennis Ludiker, Brian Beken, and Matt Mefford. All musical monsters down to the last man.

Rental Review Time

A Face in the Crowd [imdb] [wiki]

This is an old classic, and yet, amazingly, neither of us had seen it before. Made in 1957 and directed by Elia Kazan, it was a story with a strong statement about the always unholy relationship between entertainment and politics, and the raw power that comes out of it. If you were a Keith Olbermann watcher, you know that every time he brought up Glenn Beck, he called him "Lonesome Rhodes" Beck. The Lonesome Rhodes character is the one played by Andy Griffith in this movie. He was a drifter who happened to have a folksy personality, a little musical skill and a lot of charismatic crowd appeal. He ends up on the radio almost by accident, becomes really popular, and the spiral begins. Really recommend this one that we watched on DVD via the library. The DVD also included a little documentary about the making of the film, and it includes relatively recent interviews with the now-deceased Budd Schulberg (the screenwriter), Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Tony Franciosa. Also in the movie are a young Walter Matthau and Lee Remick.

The Adventures of Tintin [imdb] [wiki]

I love Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Steven Moffat, John Williams, Andy Serkis, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Mackenzie Crook, Daniel Craig, etc., I love animation, kid movies also made for adults, adventure, and action. Despite all that, I got bored watching this and we didn't even finish it. That's very unusual. Maybe it's better if you have some background with the Belgian Tintin comics - getting to see the characters come to life - maybe it would have helped. This kind of realistic motion-capture animation sometimes gives me the creeps, and other times (other movies) I think it works fine and doesn't bother me. This one is in the former category. I was just wishing they would have either used real-life people (animals included) or go completely cartoon and give it the look of the original. In fact, that would have been awesome. The action scenes in this just didn't carry me along with them, and characters were pretty flat. I won't say "don't see this," but I will say that we got bored with it. Your results may vary.

The Grey [imdb]

This was presented as a true-to-life survival drama, but I would really say it's more surreal than real because of the way the wolves are portrayed. There are probably animals in the wild that are this big, this dangerous and possibly this mean, but not wolves. OK, so suspend disbelief and pretend they are real wolves (and I wish that they had just made up a fictional critter instead of fostering unnecessary wolf-hatred), and it's a pretty good story about survival, living vs dying, overcoming fear, the basic nature of humans, and sorting out religion. It was a teensy bit predictable here and there, but did have quite a few surprises, including the ending. Even though there are lots of philosophical discussions among this bunch of Alaska plane crash survivors, the movie doesn't resolve them for you. I liked that. One of the most striking things about this movie is the reminder that there are places on earth where humans are not meant to live, but still do.

We saw this on regular DVD which included some deleted scenes, none of which I thought should have been left in, so good call there. It was entertaining and worth a rental. Also, the snow scenes might help take the edge off these hot summer dog days.

Smoke monster

My mother always told me that she quit smoking while she was pregnant with me. I was going through some photos in a trunk, and found some very strong evidence to the contrary!

In most of the adult photos of my mother, she is holding a cigarette. Not sure what made her start, just the usual reasons probably - trying to fit in with the other 'kids' or wanting to rebel. It wasn't really known to be dangerous when she started, probably in the 1930s or 1940s, but by the 1950s (this is taken in 1953) people were becoming aware of some of the hazards.

The others in the photo are her parents, who were visiting her in Phoenix from southern Illinois, so she is openly showing rebellion in doing it. She would tell me some stories about her father, who was a strict Southern Baptist and on many occasions unleashed fiery righteous indignation and abuse upon those within his dominion, especially the females. She told about the time, and this was as an adult after she had moved out, where she spent a very long day working in their house... sanding, wallpapering, scrubbing and painting... and when she was finished she took out a cigarette and lit it. Her dad grabbed her arm, twisted it around to her back (nearly breaking it), put his foot on her behind and shoved her out the front door. He told her that she would never light another cigarette under his roof.

She didn't quit though. She smoked for the rest of her life right up until she was in her early 70s and had been bedridden with emphysema for some time - she had the oxygen tank with her, and was pretty addled from morphine (and just lack of oxygen in the brain) so that she somehow thought it was OK to continue smoking. She started a fire in her apartment (and luckily her home nurse was there to take action) but ended up being burned in the face and all the way into her poor old already-shredded lungs. She didn't die from that, but, boy was she angry. Her burned lungs wouldn't let her smoke anymore. She had been calling smoking "her only pleasure" for years. She lived for maybe another year, and we lost her just 2 weeks apart from MrB's father who had lung cancer. They were both almost militant smokers... take the cigarettes out of my cold dead hands... that sort of attitude. (I've told some of this tale before a few years back.)

I don't think the pregnant smoking stunted my growth or anything. I was a big 9 lb. baby. As a toddler I was playing with the butts in an ashtray, and she made me eat a bite of the ashes. It worked. I never, ever, wanted to smoke a cigarette in my life, so as bizarre as it sounds, she did me a favor. Don't know if all those long car trips with both parents filling the car with smoke hurt me either. Something with surely get me someday, but I don't think it will be nicotine.

My Beatle jacket

We finally watched "Living in the Material World," the Martin Scorsese documentary on George Harrison. First, it's really excellent, and not simply another entry in the huge pile of Beatle documentaries. This one has more in it, especially about the music itself. It's a 'duh." See it if you are a Beatle fan, music fan, or interested in the sixties at all.

The reason I'm posting is because it shows George Harrison wearing a jacket that made me hit the pause button and go to the closet.

It looks almost exactly like the matching jackets that my mother and I bought during the same time frame. They were wool (of the scratchy kind), stitched together with some kind of wool yarn, and lined with either silk or satin, I don't know which. They were from Greece, and we lived there at the time.

Ours were both turquoise in color, but I wish I knew what color George's was. I haven't found any color pictures of it. I am not sure what happened to my mother's jacket. I probably gave it to a cousin after she died. I was unable to transport her entire collection of things across the country.

Life is full of weird coincidences.