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Spotted Dick

On Friday I went with Marlo and Stewie to Kidsbooks in Kits for the midnight sale of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The secret of the half blood prince is that the other half is rum raisin ice cream, not blood. Anyway there were tons of kids there and hippies banging drums and twits on stilts, but also free Happy Planet juice and stick-on tattoos. It was interesting. After that we went to the Naam and I had my first truly satisfying meal there in a while.

On Saturday I went to Kate’s birthday party (which I actually didn’t know was a birthday party – I thought it was just a summer BBQ) and was entertained by stories from various people I had never seen before and old friends who I haven’t seen for a while. Marlo and I learned that there is a karaoke place near her house, and that the horse track is a fun date idea, which I always imagined but never thought I’d find anyone to go with me. Too bad my schedule is all drawing this week or I could see those rapscallions (Ranger, Demers, et al) a couple more times this week.

Speaking (or, writing) of schedules, I didn’t go into work again this week. This is the third week in a row, and I’m worried that one day I’ll go back in and they’ll say “hey, you don’t work here” and then I’ll have to go find a better job.

I have been buying pineapples left and right, which is good, because fresh pineapples make me very happy, but they ferment quickly in my garbage in my hot hot apartment. I’m eating pineapples like goddamn corn on the cob, and it’s awesome.

Marlo and I went to some garage sales on Sunday morning and at the first three I didn’t find anything, but Marlo found a $2 copy of Chinatown (the movie). Marlo usually barely tolerates my garage saling expeditions but this time she was particularly impatient. I stopped to pick blackberries and she kept on walking until she was a block ahead of me. I was so mad at her that I bought her presents at this amazing garage sale that I found just moments after we parted. I long to disclose the glory of it all but it will have to wait because I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Remind me later.

In the meantime, I’d like to say how much I enjoy the cartoon Home Movies. It’s on weeknights at 1am (two episodes in a row) on Teletoon. It took me a bit of warming up to the series (I saw the Hallowe’en episode 3 times by chance before I decided it was good) but now I love it. It’s true that I only really guffaw a few times during the show. It’s not like the old 5th season Simpsons or anything, but then – what is? There really isn’t anything else entertaining on TV these days. My schedule at drawing is this:

noon: People’s Court
1pm: Star Trek original
2pm: People’s Court or ST:TNG
3pm: ST Voyager
4pm: Judge Judy

People’s Court is by far the best reality show on TV. Judge Millian is a fantastic judge. Judge Judy is my second favourite but even for a judge, she’s really judgmental. I mean I appreciate she’s been doing it for something like 50 years but a lot of the time she doesn’t give everyone their fair chance to speak and give their evidence. I can’t watch Judge Joe Brown or Divorce Court – those two are so trashy. They just let the parties bark at each other and it’s like watching Jerry Springer. Quack.

I got distracted from my Home Movies spiel: it’s good. Stewie says I need to watch Dr Katz, from the same creative team. Does anyone remember Science Court? Same deal. It was on Saturday mornings for a very short time and there were only a handful of episodes, but it was fun-tastic.

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Hope for the future

On Wednesday I borrowed Stephane’s car and drove to Chilliwack. On the way, I stopped at the Yellow Barn and bought some Chilliwack corn. I bought 6 cobs because they were six for whatever instead of whatever each, and Marlo is mad at me because I didn’t buy more, and apparently she told me to bring her back some, but I don’t remember that. When I brought Stephane his car back, I gave half of my corn to him and Sheri as a gesture of my thanks for the use of the vehicle. That left me with three cobs. Well Marlo, they’re all yours but you’re going to have to seduce them out of me first. Corn is after all the ultimate aphrodisiac. Isn’t it?

I also bought a pineapple but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

I drove to Chris’ house and I looked at his latest painting and then we played video games for about an hour. Then I drove to Mario’s. Warren gave me directions but Mario didn’t return my phone calls so I didn’t actually have an address, so I was driving up and down Industrial Way trying to figure out which RV lot was the correct one.

I enjoy driving but it is stressful. I had three cars in my lifetime – a Chevy Nova, a Reliant K car, and an Austen Mini. The Nova I sold for $50 scrap. The K car I left on the highway in flames, and the Mini was never actually mine. My dad had this habit of letting you use something with no stipulations and then springing a “now you owe me this much money” which is the sort of thing I see on Judge Judy and The People’s Court all the time. Anyway, instead of buying the car I gave it back to him and the rest of my life has since been car-free. Being carless was like a tremendous burden being lifted from my shoulders. Suddenly I didn’t have to pay for insurance, maintenance, gas, parking (not that that was a big deal in Chilliwack), and I didn’t have to worry about getting in an accident or getting a speeding ticket or having the engine burst into flames on the highway (see K Car) because I don’t know how to take care of a vehicle. I am not in the least bit mechanically inclined. Give me the magic crayons that allow me to draw a car and the car becomes reality. So, when I drive Stephane’s car a bunch of that come back, specifically: speeding tickets; accidents; mechanical failure. But, happily, every time I have driven it there has been no problem.

Band practice was the reason I was going to Mario’s. Merrick told me there would be a PA there, but there was not, so I didn’t actually do any singing. However, we didn’t actually do any “practicing” because we didn’t practice any of our songs – it was strictly a writing session to make up some new ones. I have this tape of melodies that I add to whenever I think up something, and I made a tape of about dozen or so good ones to give to each band member. The first thing we did when I got there was listen to the tape, and Jordan suggested we start working on one immediately. Mario liked one, Warren liked two different ones. We worked on one of each. There were also three songs that they had been working on themselves, although one of them I have my doubts about. So that leaves four proto-songs that are on their way to becoming new Thickets tunes. I’m going to try to go into the wack again on Saturday the 30th for a weekend with the Woods and another jam session.

Also, Bob cancelled at the last minute AGAIN. We need a new bass player. Anyone know of one?

Also, Garett is buying the band touring van which will get us about 1800 to spend on new costumes and merchandise. Are you excited yet? I want to think up a new t-shirt design. Why is it I often have awesome shirt ideas, but when it comes time to make a shirt, I don’t remember any of them? Maybe I should come up with some sort of pencil-meets-paper contingency.

And we’ve booked a Hallowe’en Show at UBC.

After the jam sesh (that’s short for session, in the same way that mench is short for mention and OMG is short for OMGORRHOEA) Chris and Warren and Jordan and I went to the Husky House and I had a moderately passable chicken burger. Husky has been less hit and more miss these past few visits. Although I did get a lot of fries, which is both good and bad. And I asked for vinegar and the waitress never brought it! So I sat and quietly judged her, and wanted to rip off her “Marlo” name tag and give it to someone more deserving. Airport Cafe is clearly superior in every pie way.

After that I went back to Chris’ and we played video games some more until I had to leave at about 10:37. I got back to Sherane’s at exactly midnight, which is what I told Sheri, so I totally fucking WIN!

Also, Angie gave me a big bag of video tapes complete with black plastic cases, so I doubly won. DOUBLY. And that was my trip to Chilliwack!

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It's like Fahrenheit 1984

What if I wrote a chilling cautionary tale about a twisted world in which you are forced to work in a factory that processes your favourite food until you were sick of it? BWOOO-HAHAHAHA! I think that would speak to everyone.

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I finished KOTOR.

After I finished my drawing last night at around midnight, I rode my bike to Marlo’s. “Won’t she be asleep by now?” Stewie asked. “Yes, but Knights of the Old Republic never sleeps,” was my answer. That was but one of four reasons I went. The other three, in no particular order: to snuggle with Marlo; to get some exercise on my bike; to take more books to the used book store for credit. This morning when I stopped by the store, there was a younger guy working there, instead of Ron, the owner. I had been mulling over what it would be like to work in a book store again. Kestrel seems like a nice place to work: cat, nice neighborhood, and I could probably work very part-time, which is good for an illustrator. Right now I just finished an art job, and I’ve got 5 more. Very very busy time for me.

Tomorrow I’m going in to Chilliwack to visit Sid and practice with the band. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a practice. I hope we can work on some new songs, a new album is way overdue.

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Street Cents

Don’t be fooled by the commercials for the new “dream pie” blizzards at Dairy Queen. I had the banana cream and it was crap. The “pie crust” bits were more like stale cookies.

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BOONLERT!!!

It was revealed that the aviator Charles Lindbergh had seven illegitimate German children by three German mistresses.[CNN] Seven hundred thousand chickens expired during a power blackout in Moscow that cut off their ventilation; not long afterward the dead chickens started exploding.[Pravda] Berlin police, acting on a kidnapping tip, stopped a car and pulled a man from the car’s trunk; it turned out the man, wearing only a thong and collar, was a voluntary sex slave.[Reuters] Scientists found that a single “switch gene” determined whether a fruit fly turned out gay or not.[The Independent] Ralph Nader called for the impeachment of George W. Bush based on reports of the Bush Administration “fixing” the intelligence over Iraq. John Kerry wondered why the intelligence-fixing, which came to light in a leaked British memo, has received so little attention in the United States. “Is there a way for this to break through,” he asked, “ever?”[Boston.com][Al Jazeera] Five Buddhist monks in Nong Khai, Thailand, were defrocked for brawling with other monks from a rival temple. “When an ordinary person is given a middle-finger sign he will be mad; so am I,” said monk Boonlert Boonpan. Scientists began work on a complete, molecule-level computer simulation of the human brain. The project will take at least ten years.

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Luncheons and Flagons

A very exciting session of D&D tonight! After finally resurrecting an NPC (non-player character) whose stinky corpse they’d been carrying around for four days, the group fought in a battle with a lich who killed two player characters (Michelle’s anthropomorphic bear barbarian and Geisel’s four-armed batrachian monk)! Marlo thought that it might be a TPK (total party kill) but they managed to defeat the bad guy. They resurrected Michelle’s character and went into the next room, which is the climax for this chapter (7) and now one of the other NPC “allies” is turning on them. What will happen next Thursday? Who will sacrifice an ally, take the Crown of Secrets and rule this layer of the abyss? Tune in to this station.

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Sad

I find it interesting that when 40 people are killed in Britain there is a much larger media reaction than when 40 people are killed in Iraq.

Of course Bush will use this to justify his fear-mongering, which may be the worst news of all for most of us.

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I'm going through D&D withdrawal

Today is the 10 month anniversary for Marlo ‘n’ me! That makes me want to use Kodos like a bongo drum. He loves/hates it.

I’ve got a lot of drawing to do this month so happily I’ll be taking lots of time off of the mind-numbing soul-killing body-tiring day job. Taylor thinks we get our free copies of Harry Potter and the Sixth Story on Friday the 15th so maybe I’ll bring Marlo in to work that day.

We, the Thickets, had a show scheduled for the 16th but I had to cancel it because of silly old Bob, our bassist. What a crazy guy! But I hope to go into Chilliwack next Wednesday to practice and write new songs anyway. Jordan says we should have a weekend practice where we hang out and socialize too, and I think that’s a good idea. Hear that Woodsy? Get the GODZILLA warmed up.

The good news is that I’m no longer commited on the 16th to the rock show so I can go to see Kate & Theo, for it has been too long.

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Oooooooooh!

I watched some movie trailers online this evening, including King Kong, The Corpse Bride, and my personal favourite – Deep Blue. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a documentary from the makers of the “Blue Planet” series which was great. The episode on the deepest parts of the ocean totally blew me away. I can only hope David Attenborough does the voiceover, and I hope it comes to Tinseltown. Aw yeah. http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/deep_blue/lg_vid.html