Oh. The. Horror.

[link]

When gods fall... it can get ugly.

Since I’ve already brought up Star Wars this week, and I generally have a rant on it every year or so, it’s a good time to dredge up this post I’ve been keeping in the bin. This tattoo on one of Patton Oswalt’s fans illustrates a routine of his, it shows Patton Oswalt killing George Lucas with a shovel. No no noooo, I do not approve of the killing of critters and humans - but movies, TV and art (including body art) are exempted as long nobody actually gets whacked. With that cleared up, check out the bit in the video below:

Comedians of Comedy: Live at the Troubadour	September 29 1a/12c
Patton Oswalt - Star Wars
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

Direct link to video

A little bit of a harsher solution than Hurley in LOST. Since he’s gone back in time, he’s decided to write The Empire Strikes Back before Lucas gets to it, and do it in such a way that there’s no need for Ewoks. Hurley’s such a nice guy, but then he’s just trying to avoid Ewoks, not trying to prevent an entire trilogy.

Hugo’s SW-ESB script transcribed here.

My rant-post from 2009 includes embedding of the following 2 videos and more. The People vs. George Lucas recently premiered at SXSW, and even though I’ve been patiently waiting for it for over a year, I am now waiting for Netflix or the Library to get a copy of the DVD, (The People vs George Lucas teaser #1), and the great little animation, Lord of the Rings by George Lucas.

For those of you who are in the "Who cares?" or "Why Can't You Let it Go" camp... I refer to this post's title. I dunno... maybe you can compare it to that breakup you had so many years ago with Little Miss Perfect Bitch or Mister What Were You Thinking, and can't seem to wash that one out of your hair.

5ive years

1,885 posts, counting this one but not counting all those half-baked posts I'm still working on - some will actually see daylight and some will have to serve as therapy or something like that.

I'm all over the map here. I will blog anything that has my attention.

I devour politics everyday but only occasionally put up something political (during the Presidential election, things got very political around here, but now I usually just do a facepalm and wonder what's next). Music, movies, TV, activities, dysfunctional family rants, religion, humor, absurdity, work...

Thanks for stopping by, everybody. Thanks for the comments, the invites, the awards, the kudos, yada yada yada... the whole nine yards.

It is only by coincidence that I started this blog on my wedding anniversary. No connection there... seriously. Will spend it in front of the TV watching the unfulfilled sexual tension between Bones & Booth, then (Peter) Bishop & Dunham (and don't you miss Mulder & Scully?). Not very romantic, but it suits me fine. [update: Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST) a.k.a. Long Unresolved Sexual Tension (LUST)

I snagged the graphic from engrish.com

Next time, try 5 of them.
(who remembers where that quote came from?)

Star Wars Day

May The 4th Be With You

I will celebrate it by not watching Jar-Jar Binks.

Puss in boot

Here is Jax in his current vet-applied bandage. Looks like a little Santa Claus boot, doesn't it?

It's been a difficult time with/for Jax lately. He has this skin disorder that breaks him out in itchy lesions to the point where he needs a steroid injection every 6 weeks to control. He actually needs it more often than that, but even getting it every 6 weeks is risky for bringing on diabetes. Diabetes is a terrible risk, but so is the inevitable clawing, scratching and gnawing that tear those bleeding holes in his skin, bringing infections and prolonged misery. The hotspots also spring up on his belly and temple.

He's been in and out of leg bandages for a couple of weeks now. Routine: Take the bandage off, hopeful because it looks like it's healing, Jax rips up the leg with his teeth (the small soft e-collar kept him from belly-licking, but not leg-licking), bandage goes back on. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

On Wednesday night, it took us about an hour of struggling with him to get the old bandage off (to check for healing), and then get a new one on there after it started bleeding again. He is 19 pounds of wriggling, kicking, clawing, and hissing kitty cat. Strong, too. After about 3 failures and a half a roll of wasted gauze I finally realized that I had put it on the wrong leg! (well, with all the kicking and squirming and fur flying!!) That's the only funny thing that has happened during this month's saga. OK, neither of us are nurses.

Thursday, I ended up taking a whole day off work because the only ASAP vet appointment I could get for him was in the middle of the day. They took good care of the wound, put a proper bandage on, and also gave him some Prozac. The vet believes that at least part of the problem is OCD, so we will give it another go. Jax is one of those cats that they write the "How to Give a Cat a Pill" jokes about, so we've previously tried giving him Prozac in an ear gel, which is less effective than pills - but we can't get pills in him. They also have tried to get him wearing this larger e-collar to keep his teeth off his leg - but he truly cannot get around in it. I shot a few seconds of this very sad and pathetic cat trying to walk in it if you want to watch it and laugh at him (we did). He licks the hair off his belly. That's why it's permanently hairless.

Since we can't pill him, the vet wants me to bring him in *every day* so she can give him the Prozac pill (and work with his leg), so I've adjusted my work schedule so I can get him in there before they close.

Friday I pulled into the garage [making good time despite heavy traffic on the commute!], called the vet to say I was on my way, stuck him in his carrier, put it in the car, closed the door - and the car doors locked. AAAACCCK! Trying not to panic, I realize that MrB knows where the spare car keys are. Calling his cell. Voicemail. I begin frantically looking through the house for the spare car keys, as I really have no idea where they are. Voicemail. Voicemail. I finally leave a hollering message about how Jax is locked in the car and I need those keys. NOW. He is a minimum of a half hour away. Voicemail. Voicemail. 30 times voicemail. Now I am beginning to pace frantically. Looking through the house for keys again. I frequently pace the sidewalk hoping to catch him at the mailbox.

I am white-knuckled clutching the phone by this time and pacing frantically back and forth. I am furious because apparently he has his phone off during a time when we might need to be in touch. What if I was dying in a ditch by the side of road with no one to help me? GRRRRR. This fury is burning at the same that I am wondering if I should break the car window with a hammer. The other thing my crazy brain is considering is going through the house and dumping every drawer on the floor. The last ounce of reason I have left at this point convinces me not to do either of those things - that I have no choice but to wait until he gets home and hope that I have not killed Jax by my stupid accident. Fortunately, the car is in the garage, and not out in the sun so my only hope is the chance that he will not be damaged by this.

By the time he got home I was in panic-attack. Hyper-ventilating, weak, and not functional. Now he has to drive to the vet because I can't. He said his phone was on so neither of us know why it was just going to voicemail, and if it rang he didn't hear it. {minor grrrr}

Got there before they closed but caused her to have to stay late. The vet said that she did the same thing once (including the panic) and recommended a good locksmith who will get there in 15 minutes if someone is locked in the car. Jax is now in that handsome red bandage you see at the top of the post, and his steroid shot has eased the itching. I still have to get him in there every weekday for awhile. Hopefully without incident.

He could be his own Grandpa

Love is strange. She's 70 and he's 26. OK, who cares? Right. The other part of it is that he is her Grandson. And they are in love. And there's a baby on the way. [source link] (to which I have to ask, "Is this baby really necessary?") The article explains how the family grew up apart, so they were practically strangers. Found via Facebook, where someone pointed out that if they got married and she took his name, her name would be Pearl Bailey. Not sure if that marriage would be legal though.

This old country song explains how, in a very roundabout way, a man really can become his own Grandpa just through standard relationships. In the case above, if there was a wedding, the guy gets there in one step.


In my family we've got a few of those hyphenated relations. I had 2 blood uncles who married the same woman, so to the kids, one of them was an Uncle-Daddy. My maternal Grandpa and his brother married women who were each other's cousins, creating all kinds of brother-cousin, aunt-cousin designations. And really, who cares? Nobody got hurt by them. My major confession I will make right now is that my first romance was with my first cousin (two firsts!!!). I was 14 and he was probably 19-20 and in the Army. It was all smooching, love letters and poetry (he was the poet). It was never consummated. I suspect he was religious and wanted to wait for marriage. Then he was transferred to Germany and we both had a long time to rethink things. This affair was conducted with the full knowledge and under the eyeballs of all our parental units, and was never discouraged by any of them. In the end, I'm really glad that it didn't go any further - mainly because, knowing how I turned out, that thing would have been ill-fated. Sometimes, the right things happen - or the wrong things don't happen.

Have a Willie Nice Day

Happy Birthday to Willie Nelson: Texas, American, and International treasure. He is 77.

Austin City Limits taping (it's a big f-ing deal)

[Austin Chronicle review][Statesman review: Sarah]
Just trying to catch up here. Our second Austin City Limits TV taping was on Tuesday: Sarah Jarosz and Steve Martin. Although we casually know Sarah and her folks, so does everybody and his brother around here (almost literally) so instead of asking for confirmed entry tickets I took a chance on the lottery email drawing - and incredibly - I won one of the 70 drawn (the drawing is for 2 tickets each). The ACL TV studio only holds 320 people (I think), the artists have a limited number of people they can invite, plus KLRU (our local PBS station), high roller benefactors, and corporate sponsors of the show are allowed a certain number of tickets - so even if you get a Space Available ticket, you better get your butt in the line early or you may not get in.

Early was 1:45 pm (for an 8pm show) and I was 3rd in line. Luckily, it was a beautiful, breezy, cooler-than-normal day, and the early-in-line bunch had a good time chatting around a patio table until it was time to hand out the line numbers at 5pm.

They line up the confirmed tickets at 7pm, and it looked like there were at least 200 people in that line (edit 4/29: I just learned that all the Space-Availables DID get in). The place was pretty packed when we got in, so we stood in front of the stage, one row back, for most of it.

If you've seen the show, you know that the studio setting is incredible-looking with amazing lighting. Also, the sound, especially front and center, is unbelievable.

Sarah was on first. Her career over the past year has been like the launch of a rocket - a well-received debut CD which got her a Grammy nomination, and now Austin City Limits. Up up up. She sounded amazing, and her new songs are stunning.

We both idolized Steve Martin back in the 70s, he was one of the funniest men on earth. His early movies were classic must-see comedies. He played the banjo (and very well) mostly as a prop or break during standup routines. He's been on a music tour in 2009/2010 with a band called the Steep Canyon Rangers, and they are quite a good bluegrass band.

I don't know why, but I didn't know that Steve was still a really funny man onstage. (Why would that surprise me?) Examples:

• He started his show with the almost typical "Appearing on the Austin City Limits stage has been a dream of mine for many years... and tonight I am one step closer toward fulfilling that dream."
• "I write from personal experience. This next song is called, 'I Think My Masseuse Is Too Chatty' "
  
• On exiting the stage to let the band do a number alone, he said had to go because he hadn't googled himself for 25 minutes.
• He's got a song called "Atheists don't have no songs" which was a funny song no matter what persuasion you are.
• He played King Tut!! (I kind of prefer the old SNL version to the bluegrass one, but still... he played King Tut!!)

Our first ACL-TV taping was with The Band of Heathens last summer.

Newspapers still have value

From the magnificent clippings collections of Criggo.com

A quick update

I will get back in here soon with some updates! Have been busy either doing stuff or trying to recover. Went to Eeyore's Birthday Party on Saturday, then to see Sarah Jarosz and her wonderful band on Sunday. Here's a video below of them playing that old classic "The Way You Look Tonight." Sarah is the oldest of the three, being a month from turning 19, Alex Hargreaves on the violin just turned 18, and cellist Nathaniel Smith is only 16. Listen and enjoy!

I also won Space-Available tickets to see Sarah and Band along with Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) at their Austin City Limits taping tomorrow night! It will be our 2nd ACL taping. It's very difficult to get tickets, and we got ours purely through the luck of the draw.

More on all of this later. Things have been very hectic.

If you've seen one nuclear war, you've seen them all

Ok. Well... this might is the weirdest public service announcement about avoiding nuclear holocaust that I've ever seen. Us boomers all had to sit through the cartoon turtle and his "Duck and Cover" where they told us if we got under our desks after being nuked that we'd probably be fine. Hay Joe here (the puppet) explains how to build your bomb shelter and what pamphlets you'll need. I was wondering why I hadn't seen these before, and now I think I know. These are off the scale, and the scale goes way out there. Running time, 10:30.

[source LINK]
found via my EJlist, FB, and blog friend RG.

Here's another one from Archive. org. This is your standard gov'mint issue PSA explaining how it's no big deal so stop worrying. The specific topic is radiation. Running time 20:14.

Beginning: Nuclear radiation, it's like the sun, it's natural, and it's your friend.
16:47 your biggest worry might be... baldness!!
9:48 A nuclear blast is not going to break up that card game - and keep on smoking, you may as well...
19:40 Mutations can be a good variation, an improvement... face the facts, your principal worry ought to be that your offspring *will* look just like you. Har har har.
Nuclear war is very much like conventional warfare, but with radiation, so try to be someplace else.
[source LINK]

Craziest. Health Care Reform Idea. Ever.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This woman actually thinks that doctors, hospitals and pharmacies should except barter for services - such as giving them chickens... or you could paint their house in exchange for a heart operation...

...and she is beating harry Reid in the polls. Oh, Nevada. You are bringing the silly.

More on this here (including more video links)

24/8

Jack Bauer finally meets his perfect woman. She actually loves torture more than he does. Last time around, he shot her in the neck and buried her alive - but she forgave him because he was undercover – and she was perfectly fine after an hour or so with just a bandaid on her neck and no pain, and they were hopelessly in love (unconsummated until recently, just a minute before the sniper shot her). During the current 24-hour segment (the 8th), she was so distracted taking vengeance stabbing on her old boyfriend (pumped up after cutting off that other dude’s thumb) that when cohort Jack came in she stabbed him too – right in the stomach!! But it was totally OK with him, and an hour later he is fully recovered with just a bandage and doesn't even seem to be in pain. Click the fuzzy thumbnail (a symbolic one, thankfully) for a hilarious fakebook status entry for Renee's character. That is 24 World. More impossible than than the most outlandish daytime soap opera, or even LOST.

We watch this show like a train wreck. I swear, the plot is so silly and outrageous, I think they might be making it up as they go. Yes, I know... it's a rightwing favorite with rightwing writers, but they have had many sympathetic characters that you would not expect from the political right, even progressive Presidents and well-meaning Muslims.

If you can look at it expecting the ridiculous, then it can be enjoyable and fun. I think the most outrageous character from this season (day) is the hillbilly white trash Russian mole at CTU.

After each episode of 24, I go and read Dave Barry, where there will be live-blogging that sums up the mood fo the show perfectly. I found the Facebook Renee on this blog, where there is plenty of worthy 24 homage.