Last cigarette: One week ago. A Newport while at Acentos. Last big car ride: This past June, to VA and back, getting our stuff out of storage. Last kiss: Quick one this morning, better one last night. Last good cry: Not recently enough. Last library book checked out: What's a library? Last one I bought was Prayer for America. Last movie seen: Bones, on DVD. (I feel like I'm wearing dirty underwear on the day I get hit by a car!) Last beverage drank: Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! Last food consumed: Jalapeño & Cheddar Bagel w/Cream Cheese. Last crush: My…
Most of Sunday was just me and the kids and I kept reminding myself that the two-year spread between them will be a good thing when they're a little older. Right now, though, at 3 and 1, they expend enough energy to decrease our dependence on foreign oil tenfold. Forget hydrogen cells and solar power, somebody needs to figure out a way to harness the seemingly boundless energy of toddlers. I totally get the concept behind The Matrix now! Isaac has pretty much gotten over naps and India has cut hers down to two hours tops - and late in…
Rolling Stone on Kucinich
From the "Maybe there's hope" file, there's a great Kucinich profile/interview in the latest Rolling Stone: Your candidacy seems to be built on the idea that the people are looking for another New Deal-type program. But the New Deal didn't happen until the country was mired in a depression. Do you think things have really gotten that bad now? When you consider that most Americans are maxed out on their credit cards, when you consider that most Americans are no longer guaranteed employment security, when you consider how many pension funds are going belly up, when you look at the…
In the end, Breath, Eyes, Memory turns out to be one of those disappointing books that is much less than the sum of its parts. I suspect much of the praise it received stemmed more from American fascination with youth and "exotic" cultures than from its modest artistic merits. Danticat is talented, without a doubt, but this book is a short story clumsily stretched into novel-length, barely, full of archetypes and allegories but not nearly enough character development. In the end, you don't really know or care about anybody or anything; what should be an intense and emotionally harrowing story…
The Buffalo Bills have been my second favorite NFL team ever since Jim Kelly came over from the USFL's Houston Gamblers in 1986, eventually leading them to four consecutive heartbreaking Super Bowls in the early 90's. WIth the Jets sucking for much of that time - from the latter years of the Joe Walton era through the horrible Rich Kotite fiasco - Buffalo was often my only chance to cheer for a playoff team I actually liked. In '91, when they lost the Super Bowl in the final seconds to the Giants, wide right, I was devastated, especially since for…
Charles Bukowski and I share a birthday. So does Madonna. Frank & Kathie Lee Gifford. Yes, both of them. Elvis died on my birthday. The roller coaster was patented on my birthday. Such seemingly random events occuring on August 16th explains a lot. I'm having trouble grasping the idea of being 34 years old, though. Not in some mid-life crisis kind of way; more along philosophical lines, trying to understand what being 34 means. Or should mean, at least. I'm married with two kids. I've achieved some modest success in my various pursuits. As I define it, anyway. I'm as…
Devouring Comics
Whenever I find a new passion - whether person, place or thing - I tend to throw myself into it 120%. Having cleared my plate of the administrative responsibilities (and psychological baggage) of running a little bit louder, comic books have quickly and completely rushed in to fill the void. I am so hooked! Finished reading Mark Salisbury's fascinating Writers on Comics Scriptwriting, interviews with an assortment of prominent comic book writers discussing inspiration, motivation and process, along with a healthy dose of egomania and outright weirdness. Grant Morrison, anyone? Despite only having a single woman represented and a complete…