I managed to get six out of 10 which is pretty good for a movie I haven’t seen in a few years. A co-worker I know who loves the original nailed nine.
See what you get here.
I slept in for a couple reasons, it was Saturday and it was damned cold. When I woke up around 9 AM-ish, these four little fur balls were present. Normally Isis doesn’t sleep on the bed because she’s a bit of a loner.
All but Nemo hopped off the bed when I got started with my day, probably thinking I will put out another round of food. Within 10 minutes, Miette and Kuroneko returned to bed. I think they were really just being petty since Isis is the new girl.
On the upside, I had a good time and I was able to say farewell to a nice person who used to work in the Apple Cafe…he’s moving to Boston. The pasta station won’t be the same without Daniel.
Sadly, our nemesis won. I don’t mind getting defeated, winning all the time is boring. My annoyance with them is their playing five nights a week. They suck the joy out of this.
Next up is the Geek Bowl in January. Maybe there will be a Rumble around the Spring so we can avenge ourselves, get the golden shaker weight back!
The first friend I made in Austin celebrates! I think it’ll be in Basel where Sonia lives with her lovely family and then a belated time when she comes back to Houston for the annual get-together.
I didn’t get to see Sonia last year due to the window of opportunity being rather small with both our schedules. The kids (Julia and Lucas) are older now so maybe they can sit tight for the car ride to visit me.
I also sent a really bitchin’ card, hope it got there in time.
This can then be reused on Halloween for a mummy hand!
Can’t you imagine the latter idea? Patrolling the streets of New Orleans, out to take down Mr. Big, it’s the most unlikely duo…Short Rib & Bitter Greens.
Today I hit another running milestone! Sure I have over 200 to go with getting to Apple HQ but the significance of this achievement means I am averaging over 500 miles/year.
The next accomplishment I’m trying to pull off would be exceeding last year’s distance by 10 percent. How’s it coming? With 28 days remaining, I am a fifth of the way there.
Last night we coasted to a relatively easy first-place victory at Strange Brew, a venue that won’t be holding any more Sunday evening gatherings of Geeks Who Drink. It’s not really a big loss in my opinion, the place is really a live-music venue for Austin’s old fart crowd. However, we earned enough points to compete again. No wait, Pablo said we were automatically entered due to being the defending champs from August.
It’s this Saturday at Opal Divine’s Marina…which is near my house, awesome, so I won’t have to drive too far. How do I like our chances? Well, if it’s a standard quiz like it was the first time, I think all teams have a good shot. My brain is getting too focused on preparing for next year’s Bowl and picking a solid, clever team name. I do like Abacus Finch despite my bias toward Scientia Timoritis Introducit.
Pictured for this month’s header is my maternal grandmother’s house circa 2012 according to Google Maps’s street view. It looks practically the same with a few exceptions.
I chose to go with this because December 1993 was the last month I actually lived there. I put “lived” in italics since I was in the process of planning my escape from Bloomington-Normal. Plan A was getting the offer from Austin through my MIA friend Doc. Plan B…there really wasn’t a solid Plan B as I look back. Maybe I would’ve just gone to temp work around the area (fat chance) until I saved up enough money to go with the original idea, moving back to Milwaukee. Forget Plan C, this was probably committing suicide; staying in the area was out of the question.
January 1994 entailed mostly wrapping up my affairs which I’ll cover another day as a part of a 20th anniversary blatherfest celebrating the move to Austin.
December 1993 otherwise was a cold, miserable time. Grandma was set in her sedentary, housebound lifestyle and hadn’t really modernized the house in numerous ways: the place was drafty in Winter, uncomfortable in Summer, no shower (I should’ve scraped up for a gym membership instead of scheming how install one), the electrical system was one surge away from destroying my Mac, the list goes on. Yet I had little choice after July, my roommate Greg secretly went in another place with two other mutual acquaintances. He didn’t have the decency to tell me ahead of time. I don’t complete blame him then, my reaction was likely to be nasty but it worked out, he got stuck with a pair of deadbeats while I left to live in a nicer climate. I do hope he’s doing alright 20 years later though. Of all the people we knew around Bloomington-Normal, Greg was a rarity in that he didn’t want to settle for a getting-by existence. Last I did hear, he went back to ISU, earned another degree and landed a gig with State Farm or as the locals say, “Greg became a ‘Farmer.'”
Back to the house.
I holed up in the spare bedroom on the main floor much to Grandma’s irritation. Beats me why, she had her own room down the hall. Grandpa was content with the “upstairs,” really a modified attic. Many belongings I didn’t need immediately were stored in the basement. What I felt was vital I had in the room and it was a tight fit, the elderly love to hoard useless crap, especially if they lived through the Depression.
The situation sucked immensely. I was only present to sleep, take a bath (a minor ordeal), do laundry or make a mix tape. Eating was a rarity due the lack of space in the fridge. After Helen’s birthday in October, my temporary stay transformed from finding a new, affordable apartment (on Midwestern crap wages? HA!) to the staging point I would leave for Austin from…now if the offer would just arrive!
My parents harangued me too. They said my presence was stressful on Grandma. I thought, “How exactly?” I do my best to avoid her routine of naps, eating ham sandwiches, watching cycles of CNN and bitching about how the world is falling apart. Had she lived to see President Obama, Grandma would’ve become a Republican Faux News drone. Grandpa was a different situation. His driver’s license was finally revoked over the previous Summer; how I loved the phone call in the middle of Gen Con. Without his mobility, Grandpa was the bigger source of stress than I could ever be. At least I would do the laundry I was allowed to do, paid for all my long-distance calls and often handled my own food. These were the least I could do, given my crap pay. Besides, the ‘rents were being hypocrites because they conveniently forgot whenever they crashed there instead of checking into a hotel.
Not all memories with this house were awful. Many rocked! It was often the destination with the holidays and Summers after we moved downstate. Grandma always had better cable TV compared to what was offered in Champaign-Urbana or Springfield. My brother Brian and I always found ways to entertain ourselves until we evolved into surly teenagers. The house used to be a bastion of familiarity and comfort during the early Eighties while we lived in Houston, Indianapolis, North Dakota and my years in Milwaukee attending Marquette. Brian’s experiences are certainly different, it was his primary residence for 75 percent of his high school days. The strongest events revolve around food and Christmas. It was the secondary Chez Maggi throughout the first half of my life.
I will need to ask my brother what’s the status on the house. Namely if our mother is having it remodeled or did she sell it which was my advice. I’m a strong advocate of holding on to a legacy but the neighborhood had been sinking into oblivion after the Seventies. All the houses were getting squeezed by all the commercial interests at to get the land.
Click on it to see a larger version.
This print is way more than just a convention souvenir, especially if you live in Austin. Obviously, King of the Hill was set around Central Texas; you can encounter people with Hank’s accent and speech patterns all along the I-35 corridor from San Antonio to Dallas; but last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the show plus the big special involving multiple doctors teaming up.
I couldn’t resist the piece because the gentleman who made it (Joel Adams) used to be the lead character designer during the show’s first three seasons. So I obviously had questions for him about working with the program’s first series director Wes Archer. Joel said it was a job but other artists thought he would get fired for cleaning up Mike Judge’s characters. Then one day Mike came in to thank Joel for making his creations look even better. It helps that Joel is the son of Neal Adams yet I feel he doesn’t live under the shadow of a legendary father.
Either way, I love the piece. It’s the marriage of how my adopted home is perceived encountering a well-loved Science Fantasy franchise. The dialog is spot on.
…so we may be under attack by the Skrillex, Basement Jaxx, possibly Moby. I suggest we defend ourselves with some phat beats.
The awesomeness of our last weekend was capped off by a quick meeting with the person who is behind some major popular culture for the last 50 years. It wasn’t always this way but in the last 15-20 years, comic book characters have joined the mainstream thanks to the hit movies Stan had a hand in.
When I was a little boy, I devoured the Marvel Universe because the cartoons from the late Sixties were in syndication. Stan was a big part of my childhood. I also knew the catchphrases from the school supplies Marvel marketed through Mead in the mid Seventies.
You’ll have to ask Somara about the autograph time. I only spoke to him quickly during the photo op, I said, “Excelsior Mr. Lee!” I’m sure he never gets tired of it since he’s the only person I know who coined it back into the American lexicon. Oh I’ve heard it afterwards, usually as the butt of a joke or as the Enterprise‘s rival in Star Trek III.
Austin was also his last convention before he turns 91 this year. So everybody in the Austin Convention Center sang “Happy Birthday” to him.
You can call me a hypocrite for the photo due to me being a bigger DC fan. However, I’ve often respected his contribution to the medium. Through Stan, Jack “the King” Kirby, Roy Thomas, and numerous other members of the Marvel Bullpen, I think they got DC to finally start bringing its A game to their titles.
Venture Brothers’ fans know it and love it. For the uninitiated, the easiest explanation would be say the Guild is a villain union that makes sure its members follow the rules plus they have a great dental plan. If you follow the show, season by season, you’ll learn who the original members were (hint, they were real, historical figure, especially the one responsible for the name). Who’s in charge, named Sovereign, with the council of 13 is just as funny.
I hunted down Austin Rogers again at the convention for another commission since his Regular Show mashup from last year rocked! I asked him and he willingly complied. This year all I requested was something involving Pops and Skips, the rest was up to Austin…he’s the artist, I trust him. I let him know, I sympathize from what I learned through my friend Steve Bryant. There are customers who go on and on, as if they’re Alan Moore. By the time they’re done, it isn’t a drawing, it’s a five-minute scene from a film. He chuckled, said I was a favorite kind of patron, I let him do what he thinks works.
When I received the piece, I broke out laughing for about a minute. It’s too funny if you’re familiar with Regular Show. Pops is so friendly, upbeat and a pacifist (except for his Greco-Roman wrestling skills) and Skips is a Zen, mellow type. In many ways this is a tribute to the famous giant Bender v. giant Zoidberg battle from “Anthology of Interest I: Terror at 500 Feet.”
There’s a silver lining to this as well. The Boom Comics people saw Austin’s work and he may be getting some cover work for their Regular Show book! Can’t wait. I’ve given the heads up to Rogues Gallery how I want Austin to be a guest next year for Awesome Fest Weekend.
