New Years Aught Seven

Last New Year's answered two questions for me:
One) Does mixing liquor into a chocolate fountain make it an even more enjoyable experience? Yes... yes it does but the whole chocolate fountain is a fun experience to begin with. Even though I'm not a huge fan of chocolate it's great to dunk things in it and try different things and have people look at you weird as curiosity wins out and the discovery of chocolate covered chips is made. Kind of makes me feel like the guys at carnivals much feel as they chuck another batered thing into the frier and hand it off to someone in need of artery clogging goodness.

Two) Can you get away with using a lambic as a champagne subsitute? This is a regretable no. People are so steeped in some form of tradition that to raise a glass of a fruit lambic instead of a cheap bottle of sparkling white wine just doesn't work. Who cares if you've been drinking beers and hard liquor since 8 when the moment comes suddenly everyone is a critic and will ask the question, 'Where's the champagne?' And to try and explain that I know nothing about champagne or wine that while I standing in the wine section of the Cypress BevMo I felt like a fool. A fool holding a bottle of Cooks and a bottle of Korbel. Muttering names and looking at the bottles. No indicating of which is good or bad and with my lackluster understanding of wine leaving me to feel so far out of my element. Only by rushing to the beer section and finding my salavation in a bottle of lambic did I make it out somewhat alive.

Well that's not true but I made it out without having to pause and ask an employee which should I buy. True if I had done that the whole champagne fiasco would have been allevated but then I'd be known as the champagne guy. And I had worked long and hard to be known as 'The young guy that comes in with that old guy and buys 10-30 dollars of beer and hard liquor every friday and sometimes strolls in mid week buys a beer and moxie, exchanges some banter and leaves.' or more likely, 'the guy who spends more money here than at the grocery store' and I worked long and hard to get those.
Still the lambic was good... or I thought it was good... I think.

Thought I could segue this into some of my goals for last year, perhaps some retelling my resolutions or some nonsense of that but I'm not going to fall for such shenigans. No, not today. I can't. Not on Rex Manning day.

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Now playing: Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! - The Beatles
via FoxyTunes

Meeting a Legend

Before I left Long Beach I drove across the bridge to San Pedro and visited Bukowski's grave. Didn't learn anything great or interesting from it. Hell I didn't even bring along a drink and toast him. Instead I sat there on a chilly February day and thought about my life and if I had the courage to continue with my current choices. And no answers came to me on that late winter day.

But what did I expect from a corpse?

I started working on a show that has an interesting concept but could have used 3 more tech rehearsals and a stage manager but that's not the point. It ends tomorrow and before long I'll have forgotten about ths show like most of the others except one thing:
Artis the Spoonman.

Come on don't tell me you don't remember Soundgarden? The song 'Spoonman' not ringing a bell? How could it not, after all that guy felt 'the rhythm with his hands.'

But he is performing in this show and today I had brief conversation with him and the professional kept it on the level and didn't give some kind of gushing compliments about his playing and asking questions about his life and telling him I remember hearing 'Spoonman' on KROQ in the 90s and while I'd always thinking of 'Black Hole Sun' when someone mentioned Soundgarden it'd be 'Spoonman' I prefered.
Kind of sucks to be a professional sometimes. But it does save embarrassment.

But he still told me I did a good job and thanked me for my hard work and I told he did a really good job. He seemed to smirk and I got back to setting up some run lights. Not the greatest situation but later I did go back and have a moment of shock and awe (the good kind) And maybe it meant something and maybe it didn't. Probably overall he was being nice like most performers try to be when they see techs working hard but no matter what else I take from this show I did get to meet the Spoonman.

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Now playing: Vincent Price - Ramshackle
via FoxyTunes

Cashing in my Cynic Cred:

Or Getting Sentimental with a Christmas Special

Complaining about Christmas specials is the realm of lousy comedians. And while I never considering myself a comedian to start with and while it's out of fashion I won't be debasing myself by doing some kind of monologue on the problem with beginning a holiday celebration nearly a month before the holiday. But will allow myself the closer of ' but why can't we start Carnivale a month early?'... or even celebrate Carnivale for that matter.

The worst winter holiday special ever is 'The Weekenders Holiday Special'. In typical fashion each of the early winter celebrations has to be represented and each of the prinicpal characters must celebrate one of them. And it tells how horrible those times were and even this one is bearble despite being trapped in an RV away from family it's okay because they're with friends... and then they end up eatting each other to stay alive.
Not really but it's better than the real ending. Very foreseeable but still better than the original.

It's more of a longing to do the same ice show I did last year which was based off the same source material as the ice show I did the previous 2 years. So when I ended up watching 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' I couldn't help but miss those times. Sure going from Halloween to Christmas before Thanksgiving occurs (hey I just named three holidays in 5 words) was a pain in the ass and I hated that change over each and every year. Dreading it as much as the hang over I was more than assured on Dia de los Muertos but at least that would end in less than 8 hours where as the change over would take weeks.
Oh the days of getting to wake up early, go in before dark and freeze my ass off on an ice floor. Which beside the ice floor and waking up early is like this year.

Maybe it's homesickness, or the20 degree low I get to face in the coming days, or the fern like frost on my car when I leave for work or Stockholm Syndrome but I can't help but miss the show I'd worked on for three years when watching the 'Charlie Brown Christmas'.

Either way I'm going to have to gather the booze and make me some 'Punched in the Face by Santa'. Yep whiskey, peppermint Schapps, egg nog and whatever else I want to add in. This year I think some red liquor would be good but only time and a trip to the liquor store will tell.
Now that'll add Secular Early Winter Cheer to any situation.

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Now playing: American Music - Violent Femmes
via FoxyTunes

Mistaken Fiction and Taquitos

It could have been a Wednesday. I often had those off and the chances of me actually doing some shopping would have been high if it was a Wednesday. In the cluttered room of a place called 'Planet Book' entranced by Wilson High School year books and contemplating whether or not to buy Phillip K. Dick books or the unknown scifi novels that were mixed in between. Distracted by the smell of Tommy's chili cheese fries I set most of the stack down and pay for one book. Assuming I was buying 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' I pay, cross Anahiem and get myself some taquitos.
Not as good as I remember them being when I was a kid. Then again they also painted over the Mexican caricature that someone would often channel some muse and add a large joint to his waving hand. I suppose white primer is a bit better than a large fattie on a sign welcoming people to your taco stand but there is some kind of tradition in driving down (or maybe it was up) Termino and looking to see if the joint was there or not. I use to play that game, amongst others.

Weeks, maybe months, later I would be on Hollywood, spending a bit of time and in a moment of fleeting fancy I pay the tab to go into the wax museum. Outside I don't remember seeing a space ship accross the street but I know the cover art for this book comes to mind each time I happened on that street in Southern California. Luckily I don't go there much but the few times I did I can't but wonder about Space Nazis from Hell or the potential of travel between planets in the '50s or even if having a trait that distinguishes your jobs is a good thing. I did it for a bit.
When I was a deck hand I drank cape cods, rum and cokes or well drinks, as an ASM I drank beer, SM it was whiskey and it got a little confusing after a few drinks and all. So I gave it up. But occasionally I want to get that back but I think I'd need some kind of cheat sheet to keep it all straight. At least until I learned my systems.

I'm not going to talk this book up. Call it the greatest thing since the dictionary or any of that jive but it's an interesting read. Has a lot going for it and if nothing else presents some things that could have almost happened. It seems more fun to think of a world this way especially since Sputnik has hit half a century and beside leading to the birth of a global communication and information infrastructure the space race never made good on it's promises. Except the spy satellite ones it's gave us those in spades.

Still the space race did better than the time I found 'Everything is Illuminated' in a parking lot by a movie theatre and hoped for a repeat of 'Terminal Freedom'. Sure it was a good enough read but it didn't have the same surprise as accidently buying an unknown book instead of an acclaimed work of fiction.

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Now playing: Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley
via FoxyTunes

Thrift Store Wisdom

Quit a job, start a job, realize that being homeless is the closest one can get to the bohemian lifestyle in this modern age. Then among the mounds of crap at Value Village that just begs me to recite part of an 'Austin Stories' episode I find something amazing.

Tough to guess but it's a framed copy of the Consititution. It doesn't matter what I'm going to do with it right now because it's going to become part of some elaborate joke that may take years to reach the punchline but for the moment it's going to hang on my wall and allow me to play the patriot card. After all nothing stops an argument like asking, 'Why do you hate America?'

Unless the conversation is about America.

And the other person does in fact hate it.

I also found two lamps I plan on combining into one lamp. Then eventually taking that lamp apart, using the pieces and creating some kind of bizarre hybrid lamp that doesn't really serve much of a purpose but is kind of cool in it's own right. For the moment I'm going to have to settle on one kind of strange lamp.

Why is it the only good song about quitting a job is 'Take This Job and Shove It'? It's a good song and it works well in nearly all job leaving circumstances. Even if I can hardly think about that song without reliving one experience singining it, with a group of folks, after having a bit too much to drink. Still when leaving under fairly good terms from a job that wasn't the worst around it's tough to sing that. Think it sure because right now noone controls my mind, or so I think, but it doesn't exactly work.

And does it mean you're a cheap bastard or a good shopper when the cashier compliments your purchases for saving so much money?

Oh well as the song goes, 'It was a new day yesterday but it's an old day now.'

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Now playing: Tubular Bells, Part 1 - Mike Oldfield
via FoxyTunes

Saturday Midnight in the early 90s

Back then there were horror or atleast slightly suspensful shows on. 'Twilight Zone', 'Tales from the Darkside', 'Monsters', and on really late the black and white 'Outer Limits'. Most of the independant stations in Long Beach played some of these and it often meant bouncing between 13, 9, and 5 to catch which ones were on at the right time and once in a while you'd be treated to a movie like 'Dolls', 'Return of the Living Dead'or 'Silver Bullet'.

And then there was 'Dracula: the Series'. A precusor to 'Buffy' that played more on the camp side and for a long time I wasn't sure really existed. I think it would be shown twice. Once in the morning and once at around midnight. I caught more of the midnight one than the morning trying to distance myself a bit from the cartoons of my youth or what have you. It was the first time I had a show that was basically mine. It was like a secret that was shared only between me, my siblings and a couple of friend. But all of a sudden it disappeared.

Since all of this was well before the height of the internet and back then only a select group of people would exchange information and the possibility of putting a whole episode of something into cyberspace seemed impossible I'd have to wait. And start to doubt that the show existed. Because there have been a few times I'm not a 100% sure if something happened or if I just imagined it.

But now I own it and dispite there being a few times where I wonder why I have such loyalty to this show it's not as bad as what happened when I revisited some things from that age. If I can meet the child I was that thought 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' was a good movie I'd like to kick his ass. I'm sure people would pull me off him eventually but he'll understand later.

But I've learned I can't trust what I use to think was good.

Monsters of Monologues

Have you ever stopped to think about Eric Bogosian?
After seeing him on 'Law and Order: Criminal Intent' and then buying 'Talk Radio' I have. It all harkens back to an SNL skit which had Bogosian going against Spalding Gray in a fight as the Monsters of Monologues. I recall lauging at this and having to explain it to people around me and then them still not getting it.

Kind of like the Mamet joke at the end of the Simpson's were Lisa tries to be a dancer.
But I digress.
Perhaps the reason I think about him is because of the titles of his plays, "Drinking in America" which I was almost in during High school but the school refused to let us do it and I doubt we'd have gotten the rights. "Pounding Nails in the Floor with my Forehead" I believe that was another set of monologues but I recall finding it in the New Library at NMSU (when it was the New Library) and thinking that that was how I felt. That ultimate frustration that can come from dealing with the modern university system.
But what student doesn't feel that often?
I guess that's what Bogosian's writing was to me. A mix of things I felt that I knew and things that were related but often only slightly like 'SubUrbia'. So to see him on a USA line up acting opposite Private Pyle seems so very odd. I half expect to find other meta connection with that show cropping up for no reason.
But not being the big fan of L&O CI, as the kids call it, I doubt I'll ever see it. Instead I'll stick with SVU because it's got Ice T and Richard Belzer. Even if I can't see Christopher Meloni without thinking of the police convention check in scene in 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'.

*Added Sunday December 02, 2007*

Turns out that Alia has also joined the cast of L&O CI.
The original Alia from Lynch's 'Dune' not the Sci Fi mini series.
Now that's Meta.