Mother?

Hmmm.

Rock Star

B2 has taken to lately wanting a star put over his right eye (like applied with lipstick or a washable marker), which he calls his "Rock Star." It's a bargaining chip lately, like I get him to eat for the promise of him getting to sport his Rock Star. B2's gone glam on me! He also makes the devil sign and says "Rock-n-rollllllll!"

B2, Rock Star.

St. Andy of Warhol

"Art is whatever you can get away with."

-- Andy Warhol

The icy audacity of Andy Warhol has fascinated me since I was first aware of the wider world. Maybe that he came from Pittsburgh was part of it, that Rust Belt sense of parochialism, but his overall approach to art intrigued me. His cold and clinical persona ("Drella") and position as a true innovator in the twilight of America's cultural golden age holds great interest to me. He always seemed profoundly a master of the game, with that mystique around him and even in areas where he wasn't particularly skillful (film making, hello?) his aura ensured that it would at least generate interest.

I think a lot of cold souls are drawn to Warhol, for that sense of coolness and scenesterism, whereas what always drew me was that seditious approach to art that he had, to find the extraordinary in the mundane, or the mundane in the exceptional, and his ability to square the circle and seemingly mass-produce innovative and striking techniques. Acutely self-aware, he seemed to have created a sphinxlike aura about himself, too. He'd just turn up in odd places, following his fancy, and I liked that.

The kind of cult of personality Warhol seemed able to do so easily is something far beyond me -- I'm far too open a person, far too prone to being burned by that openness, so I'm more feast-or-famine where people are concerned, whereas Warhol just glided through his life aware of it as a performance, and he was a master performer, with the whole world as his audience. I paid attention to him as a study of someone altogether alien from me, but inspiring, too.

Pesticide

This is an interesting study, linking ADHD to pesticide use. I'm sure the agriculture and pesticide industries will quickly mount counterstudies showing the health effects of pesticides or something. But it's curious, just the same.

What a Croc!

I get kind of horrified by the latest Crocs ad campaign, where they try to show the Crocs as these little gremlins who are busy being kind to your feet. But I see them and recoil, like "AAAUGH! Gremlins! Homonculi!! Get away from my FEEEET!"

Back

B1's team won their soccer match, something like 4-2. He had some good defensive plays and a chance at a goal shot, has definitely made progress. There were team photos today, which ate up some of the time I'd allotted with the Zipcar.

We picked up B2 a new bike at Toys-R-Us. It's very cute. This nice 16-inch green bike. I also got the boys some giant Crayola chalks (they're HUGE!)

Then a grocery run (taking advantage of having some wheels to get it done).

It's all overcast today, cool and mild.

Black Hole Son

B1 loves anything with black holes. He's fascinated by them, so we have a few videos about'em, and he loves watching them over and over again.

Of course, any time I watch one of them, I can't help but think that I know what companion stars to black holes feel like...

Exene (l), and me (r).

T-shirt

I ordered a Swervedriver tee from their web site last night. I've wanted a Swervedriver t-shirt for years and years, but Exene would never get me one. In fact, on our last date outing together as a quasi-couple, where I took her to see Swervedriver (this was in 2008), I actually bought her a ladies' Swervedriver tee (this one), the last one they had, saying "Well, I'd rather somebody get a Swervedriver tee than nobody get one." And she would habitually rub it in my face like how she had that tee, and how some guys would approvingly note whenever she'd wear it.

And I'd say "I don't care. You only heard about them because of me, and you only got the t-shirt because I bought it for you -- you can't lord it over me that you have one of their shirts, because you made no effort. I mean, you can't even name a member of the band, or name any of their songs, or even any of the pedals pictured on that tee, and what they do to the sound of their guitars." (which is precisely the point of Swervedriver -- THE GUITARS) And she couldn't, just said "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that I have a Swervedriver t-shirt, and you don't." And I said "If you're going to pretend to like them, you should at least know that stuff, because the kind of person who actually likes that band is going to be a person who actually knows something about that band, and they'll know you're a complete poser in like two seconds." (among other things, I thought, sotto voce).

Anyway, the tee that I got isn't the one I really wanted, but it's fun enough. I like anything that plays with that whole NBA league motif. There was a great one that had Leatherface in silhouette wielding a chainsaw against red, white, and blue, but I can't find it anymore, unfortunately. This one is okay...

This-n-that

Still bronchial. Bleah. *KOFF*

B1 has an EARLY soccer game tomorrow (8 a.m.). Hate those early games, but thankfully they're only once per season. I'm going to get a Zipcar for tomorrow, and take'em there, and then do a grocery run afterward.

I had a lot of weird dreams last night, although I forgot'em upon waking, naturally. It was cold last night! B2 was in the sofabed with me, curled up at my feet! I put some blankies on him so he could stay warm. He kept my feet warm!

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!