24 posts tagged “random”
{meme in which one takes the first line of the first post from each month and looks at it as a summary of the year. and is a little stunned at the results. NOTE: This blog didn't start until March so the first two months are from Comic Book Commentary.}
January: In the most glaring sign yet of how much my tastes have changed over the 3.5 years since I started reading comics again, compare my Best of 2004 choices to this year's stellar roundup (below).
February: I have a love-hate relationship with Black History Month, simultaneously appreciating the thought behind it while despising its continued necessity.
March: The need to express oneself in such a public manner is a peculiar trait, indeed.
April: It's somewhat fitting that the Don Imus fiasco blew up this week, but if the heightened awareness of the pervasive sexism and racism in this country is allowed to fade simply because MSNBC and CBS caved to the pressure and fired him -- not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was the fiscally prudent thing to do -- then it'd be akin to Jackie Robinson being the only black baseball player.
May: A 4BR detached house somewhere in the Bronx that my wife would be willing to live for at least another 5 years. (from an "If money were no object" wish list meme.)
June: The only thing cooler than handing out obligatory trophies to a group of kids who actually earned them, is having your son be one of those kids!
July: Keith Olbermann on Bush, Cheney: "Which is the ventriloquist and which is the dummy is now irrelevant."
August: It's somewhat ironic that on the same night I read a new poem entitled "On the 89th Day, I Quit", I end up drinking way more than usual.
September: Even though I've not been to work since Friday, August 24th, my vacation pretty much ended the minute we landed at JFK last Wednesday evening.
October: We trekked up to Lawrence Farms Orchards again on Saturday to have an apple-picking/pumpkin-picking/picnic party for India's 5th birthday and the unseasonably warm October weather was absolutely perfect for it!
November: It's Spindle's penultimate update before the official launch in January and it's the most eclectic mix of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and photography yet, including the debut of our first column, Mahogany Browne's Coffee & Brooklyn (C&B), and the latest Notable New Yorker interview, Ivan Brandon: Crime Comics Czar.
December: I refuse to become as emotionally invested in the presidential race this time around, largely because none of the candidates speak to me as strongly as Kucinich did back in 2004 when he represented an admittedly longshot at legitimate change.
Damn.
I don't typically take much note of dead celebrities but Evel Knievel was a childhood idol of mine ranking up there with Graig Nettles and Batman. Much to my mother's chagrin, I would attempt to duplicate his stunts as a kid, from jumping across my twin beds, to jumping from the dresser to the bed to, once, attempting to jump from my 3rd floor bedroom window to the roof of the garage next door. She caught me before I could pull of that last stunt.
I owned the motorcycle in the picture above, and a few other Knievel toys.
As a pre-teen, bicycles were my vehicle of choice for daredevil stunts like jumping curbs and ramps or purposefully crashing into bushes and trees, jumping off at the last second to avoid getting hurt. Usually.
More recently, I enjoyed the Ghost Rider movie as much for its goofy take on one of the more ridiculous comic book characters ever as for its homage to Knievel.
I've tried a few times over the years to write a poem about him but it never clicked.
R.I.P. Bobby.
I feel a poem coming on.
ETA: And here it is!
We trekked up to Lawrence Farms Orchards again on Saturday to have an apple-picking/pumpkin-picking/picnic party for India's 5th birthday and the unseasonably warm October weather was absolutely perfect for it! (More pictures @ Flickr.) India, who doesn't like birthday parties at all, handled things pretty well, though she had no interest in her cake and didn't warm up to the idea of opening her presents until we peeked behind the wrapping paper of one of them and she realized a Care Bear was inside! Prior to that, she had dissed a gift bag full of clothes as "boring" and was insisting that I give her the Pliplup (Pokemon) figure she knew was in another bag because she'd spied it at home a few days earlier.
The rest of the day, she carried around the smaller of the two Care Bears she received (Grumpy Bear, ironically) and the talking Chimchar (Pokemon) I wanted to claim as my own! It's kind of funny that years after Pokemon has pretty much faded into the pop culture background, my old cards buried in the back of the closet, both Isaac and India have discovered them in various forms, from the toys to the cards to the video game itself.
And no, that's not my direct influence at all, though I fully encourage it now that the interest is there! :-)
My new favorite toy, the Creative Zen 4GB, arrived last week and I've been having fun playing around with it, loading it up with 3.25GB of the most random selection of music from the 60s to today, and finally dabbling with some podcasts via Zencast. So far, the CNN Complete Update, MLB.com's Gameday Audio Rewind, and NPR's Latino USA have been keepers, but I'm still looking for the "killer app" that really sells me on the concept as a viable standalone feature. As much as I loved Pump up the Volume, most podcasts seem to be the digital equivalent of bad pirate radio, so any recommendations of particularly compelling content would be welcomed!
Skipped 13 last night and finally caught an episode of K-Ville and it was pretty good. Not great, mind you -- the plotting is very by-the-numbers and the writing isn't quite as crisp as I'd like it to be -- but as I expected, Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser work well together, and one of the sub-plots, the petition for reinstatement by cops who went AWOL during and after Katrina, is a pretty compelling one. I won't necessarily skip 13 too often to catch it but I'll finally hook up the DVR box to make sure I don't miss any future episodes. Now I just need to get on track with Private Practice and work Grey's Anatomy back into my schedule and all will be right on the TV front.
And so the baseball season ends in NYC, not with a bang, but with a gag. In stereo, at that! First the Mets pull an historic choke over the final two weeks of the season, losing a playoff berth that was all but guaranteed at the beginning of the season; then, the Yankees test the "better to have loved and lost" theory by storming into the playoffs only to pull an embarassing no-show for three out of four games, getting eliminated in the first round for the third year in a row. Not even the Teflon Don himself, Derek Jeter, was immune to the Choke, hitting a paltry 3-for-17 (.126) and a single RBI.
And what of Joe Torre, the beleaguered manager who, depending on the time of year and who you ask, gets too much or not enough credit for the Yankees' successful run during his 12-year tenure? He's been a great manager for them, this season more than ever, but he's simply not the right guy anymore because Steinbrenner demands better than Bobby Cox. If Torre had the slightest shred of the dignity he's so often credited with, he'd resign today before Steinbrenner can lower the axe. And please, no one suggest the Mets hire him as a bench coach for Willie Randolph. That would be an insult to both of them.
I have another Spindle update going up later this week, featuring a varied batch of contributors dominated by people I don't know personally who found the site via marketing efforts on Facebook, Duotrope, NewPages and the flyers I printed up and gave out at 13 over the past few weeks. In putting it together, I had to deal with my first outright rejections, which was painful but necessary.
I tried to find the right tone for the rejection note, seeking a balance between expressing sincere appreciation for the submissions and being clear that the material wasn't up to par, without going into any detailed critique which I simply don't have the time for. I showed it to Salomé after I'd sent it to a couple of people and she was appalled! We went back and forth over it and I finally saw her point, realizing that maybe I shouldn't have developed it in the context of answering one specific submitter who had clearly not read the guidlelines at all.
On the bright side, I've lined up two poetry editors and am talking to someone this week about writing a regular column; plus, I'm working on the first interview of interesting NYers that I hope to be a regular feature. and I have our first solid fiction submission, though it's a bit long and may have to be serialized. Good stuff!
Even though I've not been to work since Friday, August 24th, my vacation pretty much ended the minute we landed at JFK last Wednesday evening. Within minutes, no matter how often I supressed them, thoughts of back-to-work and back-to-school things-to-do steadily flooded my brain, and not even my new Nintendo DS and Pokemon Diamond could completely defeat them. :-(
Today was a pretty good day, though, all things considered, as Isaac and India returned to school and things seem to be slowly falling into place as far as our annual after-school-care nightmares go. (Some pictures here.)
Both of their schools require uniforms this year, making our nightly routine a bit easier, and they both looked great for their first day, Isaac in his crisp white-and-blue combo and India in an oddly adorable yellow-and-green plaid getup. India has half-days these first two days -- unexpectedly delaying my return to work -- while Isaac jumps right in to a full schedule (minus after-school, which doesn't start for another couplafew weeks) so I dropped him off first before driving India to her new school.
It didn't really hit me that Isaac was starting 2nd grade until this morning when I couldn't find where his class was lined up because I was looking at the 1st grade classes! His new teacher is an adorable youngish white girl (women are 30+ to me these days) who is "new to the school" which is probably code for "brand new teacher", but she's very friendly and proactive (she called to introduce herself last night) and Isaac says he likes her and that there's only 19 kids in his class, so all seems to be good there, so far, at least.
India's first day was predictably more dramatic as the long and busy summer layoff coupled with a brand new school made for a tough go of it as she alternated between her usual chipper self and sad pleas of "I want to stay with you, Daddy." Her new class combines general ed students and special ed students in a 15:10 split and I was a bit disappointed to see that the general ed students were lined up outside while the special ed students were sent to the lunchroom, each entering the classroom separately with their respective teachers afterwards. Made me wonder if the general ed students' parents are aware of the setup and how many might have a problem with it.
India's primary teacher is a Filipino (I think) man around my age, and it's the first time she's had a male teacher which made me the slightest bit jealous when I realized that. A former para-professional who's been teaching special ed for three years, he seemed nice, as did his para, an older Caribbean woman who immediately took to India and eventually enabled me to slip out of the room without causing a fuss. Or any more of a fuss, at least, as India wasn't happy about being in the new classroom at all, reluctantly (and randomly) cooperating while in near-hysterical tears more than half the time. At one point, I thought she was going to puke she was so upset, but she calmed down a little bit as the general ed teacher read a book to the class about the first day of kindergarten. I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or worried about her single-minded determination to get through the story over India's complaints, but as it slowly caught her attention, she calmed down enough to sit relatively still on the rug with the other kids and I eased my way out of the room.
After checking on her bussing situation and realizing I'd been misinformed about what kind of bus she'd been assigned -- all special ed kids, only from her school, with a bus matron -- I grabbed some breakfast at a diner instead of heading back home to catch up on some work in order to settle my thoughts, worried that things weren't going to work out and she'd need to take a step backwards and be put into a more restrictive setting. Halfway through my omelette, though, I reminded myself how resilient and adaptable she is and how she's generally more likely to act out in our presence than she is when she's on her own. By the time I headed back to pick her up, I was confident she was going to thrive in her new setting and that confidence was confirmed by her teacher who believes she's going to be fine. She had eventually calmed down after I left, participated with the class, and even drew a picture for me.
As we were leaving, she did her shy thing, quietly saying goodbye to "Mr. R-----", but said that she'd had a good day, liked her new school and teacher, and was ready to go back tomorrow. By the time we got to the car, the chipper India was back full-time and all was good again. Afterwards, I took her to Toys R Us and, in lieu of any interesting Pokemon figures she liked, she chose a "King" remote control car from Cars that she played with the rest of the day.
We walked over to pick up Isaac later in the afternoon, grabbed some ice cream and then headed back home to unwind and relax with the "King" and "Mummies and More". Seven hours later, they're finally down for the count while I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the million other things I have to get done, including the stuff that's steadily piling up for me at work; Spindle's soft lauch; and my imminent return to Comic Book Commentary, PopCultureShock and Monday nights @ 13.
Cancun! Take me away!
We had a GREAT time in Cancun, as memorable a vacation as I've ever had, and took a ton of pictures, the best of which are up on Flickr at the link. There's some more from the Underground River in Xcaret -- my new favorite vacation destination -- that I need to get developed the old-fashioned way, and will upload those over the weekend along with a more detailed post.
Now, even though I'm still on "vacation", I have a bunch of running around to do for India as she starts at her new school next week but was assigned to a standard school bus with 20+ kids, no bus matron, and no guarantees on the age range of the other kids on the bus! Much as I like a lot of what Bloomberg's done with the school system, his cost-cutting reform of the transportation system is a disaster on many levels and there's no way a [not yet] 5-year old with a "speech delay" belongs on an unsupervised school bus. Craziness!
Because the last thing I need is another Web 2.0 distraction, I avoided Facebook when it first opened up to everybody. I'm on MySpace and [used to] barely ever log in except to delete friends requests from newly relocated single girls who think I'm cute and want to share their nude pics with me, so I didn't see the point. Then, Facebook opened up their platform for external developers to create applications and I was intrigued. I signed up and played around with it a bit, testing a variety of applications that ranged from pointless but fun (Boozemail!) to mildly useful (Flixster and Books iRead), and was just about to settle in to a point where I'd only check in to respond to friend requests when I discovered Scrabulous!
I've always been a big fan of Scrabble -- as a kid it did way more to expand my vocabulary than Latin ever did -- so the ability to play online, for free, against people I know is, yes, absolutely fabulous! I'm now checking in on Facebook several times a day as I've currently got four games going and am taking on all challengers.
Best word so far: HERNIAs for 77 points.
Boo! Ya!
If you're a Scrabble player, sign up @ Facebook, friend me and let's get it on!
Salomé's away for the next few days so it's just me and the kids which, unfortunately means the kids and a babysitter since I'm at work every day this week. Originally, they were going to be down at my mother's place in Virginia, but schedules got twisted around and they're not going down until this coming weekend, at which point we head to Cancun!
Yesterday was a lot of fun, though, as the three of us headed to Glen Island Park for a family picnic with my cousin Joanne and her family, and a special guest appearance by our aunt Nereida. Part picnic, part group birthday party, Brandon and Cheyenne shared their birthday spotlight with me and I got my own goodie bag with a copy of Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth which has been on my Amazon wish list for two years!
We ended up with a huge spread of food and way too much beer as a few others didn't make it, but a good time was had by all who did. Despite their age differences -- from 4.5 to 12 -- Isaac and India always have a good time with their cousins Cheyenne and Brandon, especially when they're outdoors. There was a larger group next to us with a bunch more kids and they all played together while the adults hung out and relaxed. The park is right on the water and you can fish off the shore, and one little girl was walking around at one point with a six-inch fish in a plastic bag showing it to everyone. There's also a ton of geese and the grass was a minefield of goose poop. (As we were packing up the cars to leave, a gaggle (?) flew overhead and one of them let loose in flight, missing Juan and I by about 10 feet.)
It's fun to watch Isaac and India interact with other kids, especially ones they've just met. Isaac mostly played with Brandon while keeping a wandering eye on his sister, and a couple of times I saw him go over to make sure the other kids weren't bothering her. India is pretty fearless when she's in the mood to play and she was running around with the other kids screaming and hollering and having a good time. It's funny because she's definitely the tougher of the two of them and it's more likely that she'd end up defending him on the playground if a fight broke out, but I love the fact that the two of them are so close.
It was the culmination of a busy weekend that found us in Nyack on Friday night at Johnny Rockets, and the Central Park Zoo and Nintendo World on Saturday, and by the time the kids were in bed last night, I was completely worn out. The next 2+ weeks are going to be a whirlwind of travel as we'll be in Cancun for five days -- no longer to relax and take it easy but, taking some good advice, looking to make some memories -- and then it's down to Virginia for a brief visit over Labor Day weekend to pick up the kids and then return to get ready for the new school year which holds its own promise of adventures of a different sort.
Well, damn! There was a time in my early 20s when I was convinced I was going to kill myself on my 30th birthday because I knew life pretty much hit the downslope at that point.
Dumbass.
I got married one month before my 29th birhday, after a decade of attempting to make "30 with a Bullet" a self-fulfilling prophecy. Had my first kid shortly after my 31st birthday, the second after turning 33. Thanks to Salomé's inhuman patience, we're still married after nine years, and thanks to her good genes, we have two beautiful kids. (I take partial credit.)
I've yet to hit my stride as a writer though I've been fortunate enough to have a handful of publication credits under my belt, a brief but exciting performance "career", and the sheer joy of seeing the reading series I founded flourish and on the verge of celebrating its 10th anniversary next Spring.
I've got a small group of close friends I'd take a bullet for, and a somewhat larger group for whom I'd seek revenge.
I've been through more ups and downs over the past 38 years than is reasonable, thanks to at least half of the downs being of own doing, but I'm probably in as good a place overall as I've ever been. Life ain't perfect, but it is good.
More than anything, though, I am truly thankful for the many things I do have; the important things: family, friends, health, and a renewed passion for life. Suddenly, 40, 50, etc, isn't a concern at all.
Happy birthday to me!
Bad enough it's the day before I head out for Austin and work is the least interesting thing I can think of doing right now, but it took me over 3 hours -- 2 trains, some walking and McDonald's for breakfast -- to get here thanks to the flooding in lower Manhattan, so my whole day has been thrown completely out of whack.
The worst part is I'm missing a gym day for the first time and after Monday night's assault on my liver I could really use the exercise and a little time in the steam room. I think I'll [finally] take my bike out for a ride in the morning after India gets on the bus and before we head downtown for her graduation ceremony* to make up for it, but it won't really be the same. Except for the steam room feeling, perhaps. It's nasty humid out there.
Since this trip is partly for the National Poetry Slam and partly to hang out with my friend Eric, there's only a handful of Slam-related events I definitely plan to check out in Austin:
Thursday, 8/9 @ 9pm
Ego's (louderARTS vs....)Friday, 8/10 @ 12:45pm
Antone's (Nerd Slam)Friday, 8/10 @ 2:30pm
Hideout Theatre (Revenge of the Nerd Legends Showcase)Saturday, 8/12 @ 11pm
501 Studio (Finals Night Party!)
At $25 each, I doubt seriously that I'll check out the Individual Finals (if they're any good, I'll see the finalists at 13 eventually) and the Team Finals will depend on who makes it, so Friday and Saturday nights are potentially wide open for other things and there's a few other things I definitely want to do while I'm there, including eating at the Boiling Pot, visiting Austin Books & Comics, and getting a tattoo, most likely at Black Cat Tattoo. For the latter, I haven't decided whether to get something new and if so, where, or to freshen up the tribal arm band I got in Mexico on our honeymoon. If new, I'm thinking a stylized tribal lion, possibly on my right forearm, but that would mean no more rolling up my sleeves on work appointments. If refreshed, all I know is I want it bigger, but the style I most like won't work with what I already have. I'd love to get something like George Clooney's tattoo in From Dusk to Dawn but that's a bit much, I think.
Decisions, decisions...
* India's graduation was misprinted on the first calendar we got from her school a month or two ago and we thought it was next week on August 16th, my birthday, when I booked the trip to Austin. I ended up rescheduling my flights to leave tomorrow afternoon instead of tonight so I wouldn't miss it but then I'm headed straight for the airport afterwards which is kind of sucky.
I like music of all kinds but I'm a special kind of sucker for love songs, especially the sappy, "love conquers all" stuff. They totally contradict my generally practical cynical outlook on life and have on more than one occasion enabled me to have a more balanced take on a situation, with that particular song becoming permanently attached to that moment as a result.
Love songs in movies and TV shows are tricky because when not done right, or forced, they can completely ruin not just the moment but the whole story. When it works, though, it can be perfect, like The Fray's "How to Save a Life" and Grey's Anatomy. By the time I understood the lyrics and realized only the chorus had any connection to the show, and barely at that, it didn't matter. It will always be associated with Denny's death and every time I hear it, I recall that episode as clearly as if I just watched it the night before.
The Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" is another one that's permanently attached to a moment, in this case a real life one as it was our official theme song at the '98 National Poetry Slam, the group of us singing it at the top of our lungs whenever it came on the radio. Years later, it still brings back all of the memories of that week in Austin, the ups and downs, the thrill of victory, how tight we were for those few days of intense bonding before returning to NY and life pulling us in various directions.
The latest song doing it for me, unconnected to any movie or TV show -- though the video is rather affecting -- is Bon Jovi's latest, "(You Want to) Make a Memory", which is arguably the best song they've ever done. (NOTE: I love Bon Jovi, so that's not a statement made lightly.) The first couple of times I heard it, I didn't realize it was them, and then I saw the video and was hooked and ever since it's grown on me more and more. It's a simple, heartfelt song that feels intensely personal while being completely accessible and the lyrics are as precise as any bit of poetry:
I dug up this old photograph
Look at all that hair we had
It's bittersweet to hear you laugh
Your phone is ringin I don't wanna askIf you go now, I'll understand
If you stay - Hey, I got a planYou want to make a memory
You want to steal a piece of time
You can sing the melody to me
And I could write a couple linesYou want to make a memory
Jon Bon Jovi's singing is impressively self-confident, not feeling the need to oversing or drop in any of his signature tics to ensure you know it's him. It's the kind of self-confidence that comes from years of experience and the comfort of knowing you're established enough to do something a little different and not lose your audience. Its unexpected inspirational value for writing and performance is worth noting, but as love songs go, it's vaulted into my Top 10, easily, perhaps Top 5 if I ever thought to actually make such a list.
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