Swervedriven

This clip cracks me up...

Frankie Likes Swervedriver

Baby dancing is always cute. He's rockin' out, baby-style.

Morning Glory

Rainy morning. It stormed a lot last night -- big, gusty lightning and thunder. Love it! I would've slept through it, but the bronchitis woke me up, and then the cat woke me up a few hours later. And then B2 wanted chocolate milk. Kinda sleep-deprived today!

So, last night was the ANTM finale; I only caught an hour of it, but it was the final hour. Dead-eyed Krista was the winner, with heavily-eyebrowed Raina (too much eyebrows, even for me!) was runner-up. I think Raina will likely do better than Krista in the business, just because she seemed actually to be a better model -- Krista's dead eyes were leaden in every shot she took. I have to see what her sign is -- December 19 -- Sagittarius. Huh. Well, her eyes almost guarantee her doom in a modeling career. They're distractingly empty (left). See? All of her shots were like that, just this emaciated face and razorblade clavicles and then those dead eyes staring out at you. Clearly Tyra et al. just wanted Krista to win, and they ran with that. I'm always suspicious of the results on ANTM, whether they just fix their gaze on particular contestants and settle on them early on and wend the way through the show. It hardly matters, as I don't think any of the contestants who've won ANTM have ever gone on to be successful models, or certainly not supermodels of any stripe. I mean, have any of them done so? I don't think so. They just disappear.

Raina should have won, but almost invariably the one I think should've won never does.


I think being runner-up is likely a better prize, anyway, as it'll give one exposure without the onus of being the actual ANTM winner -- sort of like how being runner-up on American Idol can often be better than winning outright. So, good luck, Raina. Don't pluck those Peter Gallagheresque eyebrows! Weirdly, she actually kind of resembles Peter Gallagher, upon reflection. Like he could be her dad.

Speaking of contests and what-not, "So You Think You Can Dance?" should be on again at some point, shouldn't it? That's my favorite of those shows, since dancers never properly get their due.

*KOFF KOFF*

I've got some kind of bronchitis thing going right now -- it's been creeping up to me, day by day, until last night, around 2:48 a.m., I woke up coughing a great deal, trying to clear my lungs. Stupid lungs. No fever, nothing else -- just bronchitis. I had that hit me for about six months in college -- I used to call it my "death rattle" back then. Anyway, *KOFF* Hopefully it'll abate sooner than later.

So, the deadline for the screenplay is coming up. I need to get that done. Not stressing about it, yet -- I have 23 days left to get it done. Plenty of time, right? Hahah! I'll make it count.

I sent out one of my short stories to a magazine. I have another one to sling out soon enough. As ever, the markets for short fiction are tight. It's terribly hard to find new (decent) niches. Also, I'm thinking of targeting European publishers for my book(s) -- I think European readers like my work more than American ones, judging from the reception I've gotten. That's fine by me, if it means more exposure. I joke that I can pull a literary Clint Eastwood (or Jimi Hendrix), basically -- get my bona fides in Europe before taking the States.

Once I get the screenplay done, I'm working on the "real-world" story, will dedicate about six weeks to getting that done, so I should have that done before the trip to North Carolina with the boys and me. That'll be good -- I can bring the manuscript and read through it on that vacation.

I will say that, despite the tooth-gnashingly frustrating money situation that keeps Exene in near-orbit right now, being liberated from having to entertain her has given me a lot of time to create more, and I've been very productive the past year or so. When I get my own place, that'll be even more the case, since I won't be always minding the boys.

Last night, I set up in the living room (sofabed), and Exene went into the boys' room (as is our usual routine), and the boys were like "Where are YOU gonna be, Daddy?" and they both ran to join me in the sofabed. I'm sure that drove Exene bananas, but maybe she preferred the peace and quiet. Who knows? They love their Daddy time. B1's excited about the road trip to North Carolina. He loves road trips. We're gonna be driving over mountains, so that'll be exciting for the boys. We're going to see my family there (my oldest stepsister's summer place). It's been years since our whole family's been together, so everybody'll be excited to see the kids.

Guess I should get back to work. BORING!

Prince

I didn't know Prince was 5'2"!

While I'm typing this, B2 is playing "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell on a kazoo. A perfect rendition!

Video: Roxy Music, "Mother of Pearl"

This is a great clip of one of my favorite tunes by Roxy Music, "Mother of Pearl."

I get chills when I listen to it. It just flows beautifully. The inertness of the crowd is annoying, but maybe they were all too stoned to respond or something. But Roxy brought it on this performance, and Bryan Ferry's doing his whole supersuave frontman thing masterfully.

Narcissistah Souljah

I was thinking about this a lot (below), in terms of the brick wall I had bashed my head against for so long...

Diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV):

The essential feature of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (either in fantasy or actual behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of situations and environments.

In order for a person to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) they must meet five or more of the following symptoms:

• Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
• Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
• Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
• Requires excessive admiration
• Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
• Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
• Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
• Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
• Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

I think all of these apply with Exene, scarily enough.

And this freaks me out, too.

Hornyscope

I had to laugh at my horoscope today (in the Chicago Redeye)...

Mars is heightening your sex drive. You'll jump on anything that moves. If you're single, you'll be tempted to look up that psychotic-yet-sexy ex for a hop in the sack. If you're with someone, you'll want to stay in bed all day.

Who says horoscopes aren't accurate?! Bahah! It's like they've known me all my life!

Reviews

I decided to migrate my reviews to another blog, just for shits-n-giggles. All the navelgazery, snarking, pettifogging, and whinging you know and love will remain HERE, Gentle Readers. But the reviews will be moved to Pirouettiquette.

I might even be super-industrious and shovel my Amazon reviews of yore onto that blog, too. Haven't decided, yet. Maybe, if I'm really slick, I'll take up that deal Blogger has with Amazon and review stuff that ties into Amazon, and maybe make a nickel or two for my troubles. How about that? We'll see how canny I am on that score. If there's a way NOT to make money from my work, by God, I'll find it!

In other news, the bus was crowded, and I stood for the whole ride, and it HURT (the hairline-fractured left foot). I just gamely did what I could, but it really hurt. Need more ice cream, obviously, to help mend my bones! ; )

Lena Horne, RIP

Aww, I saw that Lena Horne died (92 years old). I always thought she was kinda cool.

It Had Better Be Tonight

Henry Mancini composed that tune (he and I have the same birthday!)

All Better

B2 appears to have licked his fever of yesterday (he slept most of the day). He's his usual bouncy, angelic/impish self. That makes me glad -- when he gets sick, he's like me -- he just shuts down.

Great T-shirt Slogans

Saw this on the ONION store, and laughed so hard...


This one also made me laugh hard...

Sicko

Poor B2 -- he's got a fever, is under the weather. I can always tell, because he just wilts when he's sick -- he conked this morning, and I checked and could tell he was getting a fever. So, I'm staying with him today while Exene has B1 and is downtown at Celticfest. I'd wanted to go to Celticfest, but when B2 got sick, I decided it was better to hang back with him. At least the weather is good today -- cool and sunny and clear.

But it breaks my heart to see B2 looking all sick.

Happy Mother's Day

The Kinks, "Mindless Child of Motherhood"

Happy Mother's Day, mothers!

I'm personally conflicted about Mother's Day in my own household, because I typically play Good Cop vis-a-vis Exene, even though I think, stacking her up to all the moms that I know, she's not in the Hall of Fame by any means. I console myself by noting that, if not for her, I'd not have my wonderful boys, that she's 50% of their genetic makeup. By my standards, that's a pretty harshly pragmatic assessment, but it's what gets me through this day.

I'm always better about Mother's Day than she has ever been about Father's Day, but that's how our dynamic has always been -- I'm the one who pays attention to making folks feel appreciated (which is probably a stereotypically motherly duty, isn't it? Hah.) Even when we are (fucking FINALLY -- damn you Great Recession!!!) separated, I'll still want the boys to honor their mom on Mother's Day, because it's the right thing to do.

So, anyway, to the moms out there who actually rise to the manifold challenges of motherhood, I hope today's good to you, and people are nice and appreciative of you and the hard work that goes into it. Because I know how hard it is, how hard you work (and believe me, I actually DO know how hard you work -- of any dads out there, I most definitely do know), and how often it's taken for granted, so I hope your loved ones cut you a break today!

Enjoy today, whatever comes your way.