Month: December 2016

One More Time

Dreams beat me up last night. Intense, involved and convoluted, I awoke and thought them over for a while somewhere around two AM. Returning to sleep isn’t usually difficult and I was headed that way when Quinn the Black Paws went cat-crazy. He raced around the house, scratching at doors. When I went to talk to him about it, he rushed to the front door and issued pitiful mews. They sounded like, “I need out now,” to my ears. I tried soothing him but he insisted. It was thirty-three degrees out, a welcomed warmer night than that the last six days, so I released him. I knew he would demand to be let back in by beating on the windows when required and we, of course, would obey.

His antics had awakened the other three feline emperors. Each now demanded either released to the outside, food, attention, or all three. By the rules established by some crazy god, I was required to do their bidding. An hour later, returning to bed, my energy was too high to dismiss. Besides that, all that activity had summoned the writer.

He’d been thinking about where we are in ‘Long Summer’ and had some ideas to pitch. So he started pitching. Pram does this, and this happens on the ‘River Styx’  while Handley does this and this happens to her on the CSC Narwhal and that happens, and Forus Ker does this and Richard does that, and this is what’s happening to Brett and here is a part that I can’t work out, that I need to work out but this happens.

Sounds good, I told him. Keep it in mind and talk to me about it tomorrow.

But no, he wanted to write it and place it now. He mentioned a few more reveals that hadn’t occurred to me.

But really, it was dark-cold-time-to-sleep AM. Much as I enjoy writing like crazy, now was not the time.

I retreated to the recliner in the snug with a blanket. Finding a sitcom on Netflix, I set the TV timer to turn it off after thirty minutes and settled back. This pleased Tucker the Black and White Enigma, who happily landed on my abdomen. After studying me a few moments and conducting an abbreviated sniffing session for clues about what’s been going on, he gave me a nose lick and positioned himself to groom. I was probably asleep ten minutes later.

Now it’s almost touching on eleven thirty. I’m way behind. The writer appears to be asleep, but I have my quad-shot mocha.

Time to wake that rat-bastard up and write like crazy, at least one more time.

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Today’s Theme Music

No particular reason for this song today. It’s a classic R&B tune, flows through the head like an unraveling thread, easy words to remember and sing, with an appropriate key and subject matter. It helps you have a legendary singer and group performing it.

Here is ‘Shop Around’ by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, 1960.

 

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The Boom: the Sequel

To recap part one of The Boom, my wife was making smoothies when the beverage somehow became animated, escaped all containers and spread its raspberry-pomegranate hues over appliances, hardwood floors and walls. Clean-up wasn’t difficult. We thought the incident was over.

But now…here is ‘the rest of the story’….

I left the master suite’s hallway late Christmas day and headed for the kitchen. The weak winter sun had already abandoned us. Lights were required. I went to the switch plate. Four lighting systems were controlled from that location. I clicked two and glanced up to assess, was this enough light?

The sight that I saw left me gawking. “Oh, my, God.”

Our kitchen has a vaulted ceiling. It rises from about seven feet up past fourteen. A pattern of dried smoothie resembling Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and other Pacific island chains was spread across the ivory ceiling at about the twelve foot altitude.

I regarded it for a number of minutes, considering what we’d initially seen, trying to reconcile the two scenes. The distances…the quantity….

Something like this needed company. I  hunted down my wife. She was in the snug. “Hey,” I said in Mister Casual’s voice. “We missed some of the smoothie spill.”

“Where?”

“You need to come see this.”

She went into the kitchen. I lagged behind her. She searched the floor and appliances. “I don’t see anything.”

“Look up.”

My wife did. She gasped. “Oh. My. God.”

“Yep. What the hell happened in here?”

Staring at the mess, my wife shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t explain.” Bewilderment glistened in her eyes. “We might need to paint that.”

“We’ll see. Let’s try cleaning it first.”

It would need to be me cleaning it, or painting it, should it be required. My wife would never be able to reach it. She’s too short. With cats warily inspecting my activities, I got out the ten foot step ladder to begin the cleaning process and set it up in the kitchen. Climbing up to the third rung from the top, I surveyed the mess.

It was worse than we thought. From here, I could see that another wall – ten feet away and fifteen feet up – displayed the Aleutians. Smoothie was on the walls above the cabinets and above the small artwork over the window. Smoothie speckled the dining room ceiling another eight feet away in the opposite direction.

Unbelievable. Studying it all, I wished again for Dexter to come in and analyze this mess. Turning on the Denver and KC football game for companionship, I began cleaning. Soap and water was tried.

The mess chortled at my puny efforts.

I doused a section with Windex and scrubbed.

The mess sniffed. “Is that the best you got?”

I conducted an Internet search. Magic Erasers were tried.

Magic Erasers failed.

I returned to the Internet. Another cleaner was recommended.

I tried it. “No,” the smoothie mess cried. “I’m disappearing…oh, what a world, what a world.”

By the third quarter, I had it all cleaned. A slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream was consumed to celebrate.

If you ever need to clean a berry stain from paint, I highly recommend OxiClean.

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The Internet of Relationships

Dad was playing a computer game on his smart phone when his son walked in.

“Google, turn on the television,” the son said, sliding onto the sofa.

Dad called out, “The Internet is down, son.”

The boy said, “Google, turn on the television.”

Flinching with exasperation, his father called out, “Danny, the Internet is down. You need to use the remote.”

“Google, turn on the television,” Danny said.

Irritating growing, Danny’s father said, “Didn’t you hear me? The Internet is down. You need to use the remote.”

Danny looked at his father and frowned. “Google, what does the Internet is down mean?”

“Jesus,” his father shouted. “Are you serious? You really don’t know what I’m talking about?”

Studying his father, Danny said, “Google, what does he mean?”

“He?” his father asked. “He? Seriously? I’m your father, Danny. Get it? Now if you want to watch television, you need to use the remote to turn it on because the Internet is down.”

Danny’s frown danced in and out of existence as his father continued playing his game. Finally Danny looked up and said, “Google, what’s a remote?”

Gritting his teeth against a scream, his father finally said, “Google, how do I get through to my son?”

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Today’s Theme Music

I’m feline the mood: nap, nibble, nap, repeat. Guess it’s the Christmas hangover, the letdown after the holiday, with catalysts provided by the nippy air and frozen landscape.

So here we go, from 1981, ‘Stray Cat Strut’, by who else? The Stray Cats.

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Ahhh….

sniffing

grinding

measuring

boiling

heating

pouring

eyeing

smelling

holding

sipping

tasting

drinking

enjoying

coffee

 

let’s have another

 

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I can’t even begin to tell you how important this TED talk is…I believe in this completely..for every teacher and person who has kids, knows kids or was a kid…watch it

I came to the part about the blocks and thought, this is what so many people struggle with when writing a novel: there isn’t a right answer. There are many answers and it’s a challenge to decide what is the right answer. You’re putting a great deal in this belief, that you can find the right answer in the fiction that you’ve created, an answer that will make others read and think, and perhaps enjoy. Or they can hate it, criticize it, and shun you. It’s a dangerous place to be and takes some balls to be out there.

Beyond that, the ideas in this video about education, economics, factories and the Internet are fascinating and truly thought-provoking.

hitandrun1964's avatarRethinking Life

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I’ve Seen Things

I went to the theaters three times this week. Saw three different movies and ate half of a box of Hot Tamales.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 

Academy darling Eddie Redmayne stars in this movie adapted from J.K. Rowlings’ work. A fantastic idea with lots of extrapolation of earlier ideas presented, this is a popcorn movie. The Harry Potter world expands into America and adulthood. There is light love, light comedy, light suspense and expected resolution. It’s a visual movie, and in my experience, movies dependent on visuals play longer.

Which it did.

Rotten Tomatoes rates it at 74. I put the assessment a little higher: 79.

Arrival

Amy Adams is the star of ‘Arrival’. Again, we experience many ideas previously presented but with a few interesting twists of quantum mechanics and human biology. Like ‘Somewhere In Time‘ (Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour, 1980) this movie delivers more questions than answers. It’s a fun exercise and experience. I do feel that Jeremy Renner, an actor whose work I enjoy, is under-utilized, and the ads stating that Amy Adams is a linguist leading a team seems a little misleading, as she does most of the solving. There is rarely a sense of teamwork. It’s more about her hunt for the solution and how it fits into her personal grief.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it at 94 but I assess it at 90.

Moonlight

Barry Jenkins is the writer and director behind this movie. Brutal and human, depicting humanities’ complexities, fragility and strength, this is more like a play in three acts. I enjoyed the acting, directing and writing. There are gaps; nothing is cleanly explained, and pain and love is endured, much like most of our messy lives. I prefer fiction where full explanations aren’t given.

The RT rating is  98, and I agree.

Coming Attractions offers many interesting choices.

  • ‘La La Land’ has a slightly different look but my exposure limits impressions. With its cast of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and its release date, there are Oscar nomination expectations. My wife wants to see it. I’m not overly drawn to it but I’ll give it a go.
  • ‘Passengers’, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, has already been heavily panned. I can see why. It seems like a neat idea that was rendered shallow and specious. That’s my impression. That’s a bummer.
  • ‘Fences’ looks quite powerful and employs several favorite actors. It’s getting some excellent reviews. The trailers (or are they previews) had me grimacing with pain and sympathy. I’ll probably seek it out when it hits town.
  • ‘Manchester by the Sea’ has already arrived in theaters. It has received good reviews, there’s some Oscar talk, and friends like it. We plan to see it tomorrow.
  • Of others offered, ‘A Monster Calls’ calls to me. The novel on which it’s based and its back story offer their own compelling reasons for seeking this movie. Featuring a child who doesn’t fit, experiences grief and depends upon his imagination for assistance in coping with life, I’ll be on the look out for it.

One movie that wasn’t presented but I know is coming is another ‘Blade Runner’ movie. You know I’m getting ready for it.

 

 

 

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Today’s Theme Music

First, the disclaimers, the buts, ands, and the so, and the lists of ‘I know’.

I know it’s a holiday, and actually the day of one of the jewels of the holiday crown.

I know many hold this holiday sacred.

But I like this song.

And it’s been stuck in my head since I heard it on the radio yesterday.

I like this group a lot; their albums were part of my teen-age year go-to rotation. I may have posted this song before. I don’t know; I don’t track what I’ve listed.  And theme music can be repeated.

And I like the blues. So, really, I’m just spreading some joy.

So — here it is, the Allman Brothers with ‘One Way Out’.  For all we know, the man down there could be Santa Claus.

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