After the Cubs lost out to the Brewers in the NLDS, I wasn't sure if I'd stick with MLB through the post-season (but I always do these days).
As a Cubs guy, I mostly follow National League, but was vaguely aware the Blue Jays, over in the American League, were having a great season. I was also aware the Dodgers had loaded themselves up with talent valued the highest in the MLB and some of the best players plucked from Japan on their roster.
You can choose to be jealous of other teams having Shohei Ohtani or enjoy watching one of the best to ever do it get to do his thing. And that's true now of Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound as well. But the team came in at a highly respectable .574 entering the playoffs in a competitive NL West.
my fracture is further toward the toe, my skin is not invisible and I have fewer radiating concentric rings
So, a while back I was walking Emmylou and noticed my foot was hurting. But, look, I am aware I have some mild arthritis - which I've had for a decade at least, so sometimes things just start hurting for a while. If I adjust this or that, it gets better. But if I do something really repetitive, like push-ups, my wrist will start yelling at me.
Anyway, I assumed this was that, and I would just get some new shoes and Dr. Scholl's inserts and all would be well. Well, not so much.
I woke up one morning and my foot was just hollering at me, which is not a great sign as I am a fellow who prefers to sleep horizontally and had barely used my feet all night.
Immediately, I got online and got an appointment with my Primary Care doctor, and that appointment was a week out. After a ten minute visit, I got an appointment for an x-ray so she could get a look and direct me to an orthopedic doctor. That x-ray was *supposed* to be two weeks out, but I fixed it and it but a mere week out.
I met Jamie in fall of 1993 during a party off-campus at Trinity University in San Antonio. We didn't start dating for about two years after that.
When we met, both Jamie and I were college freshmen, me at University of Texas, and Jamie at Trinity. My friends Denise and Madi, chums from high school and fellow Longhorns, drove us down for the evening as it was a Saturday in the dorms and we had no plans. I called my brother in San Antonio and he knew of a party and knew Denise and Madi.
No sooner had we arrived than I had enjoyed my first Goldschlager and Jagermeister. Out of the crowd, other high school pal Erica appeared and introduced me to her suite-mate, Jamie, and my memory is that Jamie stepped in front of me and I got hit by that thunderbolt you read about but think is nonsense, something I'd say was a ridiculous bit of fiction had it not been my exact experience.
It is very odd to have a moment that is going to change the entire trajectory of your life occur, but this was that.
Immediately, I became acutely aware of my state, and that whatever tools I had for navigating speaking to this girl were nowhere to be found. I was going to have to just bumble my way through.
The Chicago Cubs made it to the 2025 National League Division Series versus the Milwaukee Brewers - something that hadn't really occurred before. We lost two games, then won two games, but lost the fifth game in Milwaukee.
But I'm calling it a great season.
We started with the Tokyo Series, and then played lights out through the All-Star Game. The back half of the season was more uneven, but we pulled out of a nose dive to make the play-offs.
Our Wild Card round was against San Diego, and I wasn't sure how we'd do, but the answer was "just fine". I guess we had never played the Brewers before in the NLDS, so that's neat. And we did pretty good against a team who had a lot more rest than the Cubs did coming in.
The team this year was so much fun to watch, which, really, is all you can ask for. Pete Crow-Armstrong (PCA to fans), and my guy Seiya Suzuki, were in a weird pairing as the two outfielders wound up with dozens of home runs each, often keeping up with one another in the homerun count. Pete would get one, then Seiya would get one the same game or the next. Crow-Armstrong wound up with 31, and Suzuki ended up with 32 - not exactly Roger Maris, but pretty good!
Dansby Swanson was phenomenal as Short Stop, and we got lucky with Michael Busch at first base. Work horses Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ produced consistently all season on offense and defense. Kyle Tucker was solid as both a fielder and at bat. Carson Kelly delivered as both catcher and at bat, too. And having Justin Turner in the dugout and playing sometimes was really cool.
Pitching could be spotty. We lost Steele immediately. Imanaga suffered an injury that he didn't fully recover from. And the rest of the rotation was up and down and unpredictable. But, hey, they got us where they got us.
Anyway, great season, Cubs! Would have been fun to have made the NLCS, but I'll take a 3-2 game NLDS series against a team as good as the Brewers are this year.
I mean, the whole thing. Deciding to put down the money for the WNBA package on YouTube/ YouTubeTV, trying to pick a team, failing to do so, learning about the WNBA, figuring out the hype about A'ja Wilson was not just hype. Figuring out who the stars were. Figuring out who the villains were, Alyssa Thomas.
On October 10th, 2025, the Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury in four games to win the 2025 WNBA Finals.
Growing up, I watched mostly NBA basketball. It was the era of The Lakers and Celtics when I started. The Pistons were my team for a couple of years just to annoy Lakers fans, but I loved the Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was my favorite player), and eventually the Spurs and Suns. I also watched the NFL on and off there for a while.
But over the years, I've been more than happy to get into different sports. I came very late to baseball, and y'all know I now watch a considerable amount of Cubs. I've watched Major League Soccer and National Women's Soccer League, and very much wish Austin had a women's NWLS team.
I recall the early days on the WNBA and feeling it was generally a great idea. Austin was a town where women's collegiate basketball was more important than men's as the University of Texas women's team generally did very well, and everyone likes a winner. And I always thought it was dumb that American players had no pro league (of their own).
Flash forward to the 00's when we lived in Phoenix, and I liked going to see The Mercury. It was inexpensive, the fans were nuts, and the play was solid. I was there when Taurasi showed up to much fanfare, and then showed why Phoenix was so excited to get her.
But... TV coverage of WNBA has always been spotty at best. And when something isn't easily accessible, you kind of lose track of it. And WNBA got back-burnered by ESPN. You might be flipping channels on a weekend afternoon and see a game, but not much else. And it never got mixed in with the Sports Center level coverage. Because why talk about a whole league when you can make up stories about what's happening in football in the off-season.
Over on the media review wing of League of Melbotis, The Signal Watch, we recently discussed the HBO documentary The Yogurt Shop Murders. Before continuing here, I'd recommend jumping over to that post to get the context, if you're unfamiliar with unsolved murder of four teenage girls in Austin, Texas in 1991.
It is, and has been, a haunting tragedy that seemed to have no end to it. I expected that I'd go to my grave with the crime unsolved.
The problem is that the APD and investigators have announced their momentous discovery on the tail of the release of the HBO documentary that both embarrassed them, and called into question any motive for coming forward *now* with an answer. It seems terribly convenient that APD and Travis County prosecutors suddenly have an answer, and that the named perpetrator is not around to poke any holes in their story.
That said - follow the science on this one - as should have happened all along. A DNA lab is unlikely to just make things up that would discredit them forever. And - it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense that a monster like Brashers committed the crime than four teenage boys with no motive, and no prior or subsequent penchant for violence.
I just finished reading about another series of horrors in Austin, The Midnight Assassin, a non-fiction book covering a series of murders by a possible serial killer in Austin the 1880's. And, yes, it's a real reminder that no one knows what they're doing, and we're all making it up as we go along, complete with our personal baggage as we come to solving a complex puzzle.
Some folks are just wired to skip over the reality of what they're looking at and want to start using the crime to punish people they already don't like. In a town where not much happens, like late-20th Century Austin, that included police and prosecutors targeting four young men, mostly for being punk kids.
I tend to believe that they got it right or they wouldn't go public. If there were opportunity they got it wrong, man, would that get people fired. And the science of how they sort this out with DNA is our best chance at a definitive answer.
On Monday we'll get more details, and I hope they can also definitively place the suspect in Austin at the time.
About a month ago, SimonUK told me he had a loose ticket for The Pixies at Austin's Moody Amphitheater. I said "why, yes, I'll go." And, indeed, I did.
September 5, 2025, I found myself in Section 105, Row J, Seat 14.
I was surprised to learn that Spoon was supporting.
It's possible you've seen the news about the three people killed at a Target store yesterday in Austin. I'm well aware of that location as it was my primary Target store when I was in college 3 decades ago, and then in the years immediately following college when Jamie and I lived in an apartment just north of campus.
I haven't had much reason to be in that part of town in a few years, or in that Target in decades.
The crime is horrifying, but no longer shocking. The perpetrator had run ins with law-enforcement for years and had been placed on mental-health holds, but wasn't necessarily this kind of threat. That we need better support for these types of mental health recidivist cases is wildly evident, but no one will lift a finger to pay for what needs doing. I cannot imagine much will change despite the fatalities of good people going about their day, including a 4-year-old child, her grandfather and a 24-year-old store employee.
The shooter was caught, after assaulting others.
Expect the Texas lege to find some way that the policies they've set the past several decades in which they've had a one-party system controlling the state are the fault of the minority party.
After taking some time since we lost Andre, we decided to head to the Austin Humane Society, where we adopted Scout and Jeff the Cat, and we walked out the door with a small friend who will be with us for the next 15 years, I'd guess.
It's difficult to know what to say about what has occurred here in Central Texas over the last week.
For reasons that I cannot sort, we tend to get weather events on holidays. You'll hear about Memorial Day floods, Halloween floods, etc.. This one happened on July 4th, 2025. It is by far the most devastating flood in this area of which I am aware, and it's going to haunt this area for decades to come.
For years, the areas west of Austin have been starved for rain. The ongoing drought has been of tremendous concern both west of Austin and locally and is a regular topic during weather reports (for more on Austin weather, I recommend KXAN). This area is booming with unregulated growth by developers who will be long gone when we're out of water, so it's an issue. The climate here is essentially scrub-desert. Our native trees grow wide and knotty, and cactus and mesquite fight for space where soil is found between limestone outcrops. Much of Central Texas and the Hill Country sit atop a thin layer of soil, which - in turn- rests on top of rock, which forms the lovely rolling hills you see in West Austin and beyond (thus the name of the area). From the Balcones Escarpment, the hills extend for miles and miles before you hit the flat lands of West Texas - just prior to the mountains.
Jamie and I hadn't been outside of Texas since 2019.
When COVID hit, we went into lockdown the same day as everyone else in March of 2020, but took a lot longer to step away from safety protocols. Add in that my employment has been... a ride since COVID hit, and circumstances have made it difficult to think ahead or plan a vacation.
We took some local AirBNB trips and we went to San Antonio, but we hadn't really gone anywhere in years.
But on June 13th we flew out mid-day, and returned early in the evening of June 17th. A short trip, but travelling for us is an ordeal. Jamie has to schedule dialysis at a local clinic, and we don't tend to have long days of just moving around.
For a first trip out of town in a while, we chose something we knew, and something I was desperate to do - get back to Chicago and take in a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. And a good year for it! Cubs are several games at the top of the the National League Central right now, with Pete Crow-Armstrong a superstar in the making, and Seiya Suzuki also on a hitting streak. We have a third baseman in Matt Shaw, and our defense is sometimes better than our relatively solid offense.
Here at League of Melbotis, we want to take a moment to say we support and defend adults and children alike as they seek their path to happiness and a healthy life. And we certainly believe ideologies celebrated and laws made to keep people from enjoying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have no place in this world. There's a name for that sort of law-making.
It's not hard to respect people and love our neighbors. I cannot imagine working against my friends, co-workers and neighbors for whom this month is a celebration.
I hope this Pride Month is full of joy for all of you. And if you're headed for the comments to complain about people *making* you see their lifestyle, grow the fuck up, snowflake! You can value other people enough - especially strangers - that you can take a moment to celebrate a world that curves towards freedoms and liberties for all people. Or go sit with your hate and what it says about how sad and small you want the world to be.
I don't really think of myself as a "sports guy", but it is true that I watch *a lot* of sports. Apparently I am that guy, in my way.
Cubs Baseball
PCA bringing the Mariah Carey magic
The Chicago Cubs have had a good spring, and as we roll into summer, if injuries don't diminish the roster too much, we could be quite good this season. While acquired talent like the Astros' Kyle Tucker have been huge boons to the team, our returning roster is looking better and happier than the past two or three seasons. Pete Crow-Armstrong in Center Field is batting like crazy, Seiya Suzuki is batting a reliable .262 and has at least 13 home runs. Both of our catchers, Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly, can hit, so it doesn't matter who is in on any given game day. Seiya also looks to be the lead for .RBI's across MLB at the moment.
I know the season is a grind, but it's fun while it's fun.
It is true. On April 28th, 2000, Jamie and I exchanged vows in front of family and friends in a lovely ceremony in South Austin.
It was a whole thing.
The pics, by the way, are my scans I did real fast on my phone which is about 5 generations behind. Be kind. The pictures were shot on film. This was in ye olden daze.
I don't know what to tell you about 25 years of marriage. I recommend it if you can work it out. It helps to marry someone with whom you get along pretty darn well. There's a tip for you kids.
I was not watching yesterday, just checking the score online, and things were getting nuts. So while I worked on some things, I noted that the game was going bananas and tuned in.
But that box score couldn't tell the whole story. From @OptaSTATS
I was aware of Kylie Minogue when she covered The Locomotion (by Carol King, natch!), way back circa 1987. I figured she was one of a thousand flash-in-the-pan pop starlets, especially as, much like Tiffany covering I Think We're Alone Now, the song was already in the zeitgeist.
I can't say I thought much about Kylie again until she popped up as The Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge, at which point I began formulating the idea that Kylie is a good idea, indeed.
a stunningly good argument for absinthe
And then, of course, with the release of her album, Fever, she dropped the single Can't Get You Out Of My Head, and America was finally given a real look at Minogue - including a 2002 appearance on SNL (that is not currently on YouTube, which is a shame).
It's been a wild few years, to be honest. But that's just life as an adult, I think. I try to be zen about it all. Things are tough sometimes, but we have a great family support system, and that does a lot to keep you going. I've refocused. You keep moving.
To celebrate my birthday, I managed to pull together family that was in town (Dug and K live elsewhere, but more details on that shortly) and we all did one of my favorite things. We went to a baseball game. We watched the Round Rock Express triumph over the Oklahoma City Comets on a windy, sunny day.
I met Jamie when we were both 18 and starting college, although I was at the big university 90 minutes up the road, and she was at the smaller college in San Antonio. I'd come down to partake in a party at a house off-campus where my brother and his pals would be, and Jamie was the randomly assigned roommate of a pal from high school.
I *did* try to ask her out that fall, but she wasn't feeling well and dating was off the table. Fair enough. Fortunately, a couple years later she let me know she *was* now open to dating, and I signed up immediately. This fall, it'll have been thirty years.
Which means we've spent our adult lives together.
But that's the thing. She's still as new to me today as she was when we first went out, and I still want her company even more. Working from home has spoiled me completely - my one-day-per-week in the office is a drag. I still want to impress her and see if I can make her laugh, and make dinner for her and be there for her. Because she's the best. She is maybe not someone who is loud or incredibly demonstrative with her love, but she has a lot of it.
She's always my biggest supporter (sometimes taking me by surprise as my hype-man when I was playing it cool), and always my best counsel. I think the past decade, I've gotten really good at listening to her as the person who knows when I'm on to something and when I'm just spinning my wheels. You need a Jamie to keep you honest, team.
We're now old enough that everyone has put up with something in their lives, health-wise or in their personal history. But Jamie has dealt with her own challenges since she was 17, and she's done it with a strength and grace I envy. It is very hard to explain all the challenges, scares and bad-days she's had, and she still gets up and lives every day.
This is a milestone birthday, and it means the world to me that I get to spend it with her.
On Sunday, March 2, we headed to the University of Texas campus to catch the UT Women’s Basketball team play in the final game of the year.
I thought I was being a smart boy and bought tickets for my parents, Jamie and myself.
This week is my mom’s birthday, and my parents are both alumnae of the University of Florida, who we were playing. I called to surprise them, and they informed me they’d already purchased tickets to the same game.
This is how things work at my house.
Steanso, The Niece and Yours Truly
So, Sunday afternoon my mom and cousin met up with me and Jamie, and then Steanso's family. We had seats in separate sections, but it worked out.
late edit: supporting act was GLU out of LA. One-man act, former Queens of the Stone Age member, sorta a meld of alt-rock and hip-hop that had some tracks that were pretty dang good.
Just over three years ago, we adopted a very large dog.
We'd been going through a rescue that specializes in Golden Retrievers, and got something we thought was a mix. A 110+ pound mix of Golden Retriever and... something. Our new boi swiftly got healthier and was now a 120+ pound mix. And, as it would turn out, not a Golden at all, but a Great Pyrenees mix with a dollop of Pit Bull.
But because the rescue thought he was a gigantic Golden, they'd named him Andre the Giant. When given a chance to rename him, we figured he'd just been given a new name, and he sure seemed like an Andre.
In the end, his breed explained a lot. As a Golden, he'd had a hard time getting adopted out because he would bark at people who came to meet him, which could be intimidating. But, Pyrs are sheep guard dogs, and they bark at people entering their territory. We didn't have that problem - he came to meet us at our house - and it was kind of love at first sight, but when we thought he was a Golden, his behavior was super odd.
When he didn't want to do something badly enough, or he got scared, he would sploot - just go to ground and dare you to move him. He didn't want to be in the backyard at all, even with us, and he was very confused by things Goldens love, like toys, pleasing people, and following commands - which is not a thing Pyrs care about at all.
So, back during covid lockdown, I spent a lot of time watching YouTube. And, as some may remember, during the first days of lockdown in March of 2020, famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma offered up a song of comfort with Dvořák's "Coming Home".
At the time, this was the thing that wrecked me as I realized how we were all in this together, for a long time to come. But, I also realized I didn't really know anything about Dvořák, or this song, which we've all heard out there somewhere. But if Ma picked Dvořák, I thought it was worth looking into.
I learned it's the second movement of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From The New World", written circa 1893. You will know this symphony - it's been used in movies, television, etc... in bits and pieces.
A few years ago, my alma mater, former employer and preferred college sports program - the University of Texas - announced that they were leaving the Big 12 Conference for the SEC. I hated this decision then, and I hate it now. In fact, it's fair to say the past fifteen years have seen me come to really dislike the "business" of college football, including NIL deals and the way the tail is now wagging the dog on college campuses - even as I totally get that there are people who will genuinely believe universities only exist so we can have football.*
My beef with the move to the SEC stemmed from my belief this was shortsighted and only benefited one of the many NCAA sports in which the university competes, while also punishing the athletes, who now had to travel across the continent every time the Longhorns had a match, meet or game. Which is fine if you only play on Saturdays in the Fall semester, but sports like Volleyball, Soccer, Tennis, Swimming, etc... would have to *also* travel like this, and be in their Econ 302 class by 10:00 AM the following day. Despite whatever money Quinn Ewers made this year from Dr. Pepper, these athletes are still students.
the official White House 2024 ornament, amongst some family ornaments
Our mode the past decade or so has been to throw as much Christmas as we can at the wall so when something doesn't pan out or something bad happens, at least *something* Christmassy occurred.
This year we got up decorations inside and outside the house early.
I love Thanksgiving. It's about food and hanging out. Ideal. It's also a nice break between the shenanigans of Halloween and the all-consuming maelstrom that is Christmas.
May you find yourself with some quality plans. Watch the parade! Watch a dog show! Put on some football!
We're not hosting this year - that honor lies with KareBear and The Admiral. Mom is prepping a bird, she'll have potatoes and green beans, and I'll be a happy boy. Jamie is pitching in. She started prep a few days ago, staling bread for stuffing. And Wednesday, she both prepped the stuffing (making the house smell amazing with butter and onion). She also cooked a turkey breast to ensure we'd have turkey for sandwiches if the turkey was fully consumed at my folks' house.
No - We will not have too much turkey. I love turkey. I understand people don't, and that's fine as it means: more turkey for me. The likelihood I'll just slowly eat a couple of turkeys given the chance is greater than zero. As is the possibility I'll make like a 1930's cartoon and just inhale a turkey, leaving a pile of bones.
I wish those of you who can be with family the absolute best. It could be a colorful year. Take care of yourself. But it may go really well. Here's hoping.
Our plans currently include dinner with my folks and watching football both Friday with some Nebraska fans, and Saturday - as we see if UT can beat A&M in the their first match-up in some time.
And, of course, we'll be putting up our share of Christmas decor, inside and outside the house.
Jamie and I went to see the US Women's National Team (in soccer) play Iceland this evening at Austin's Q2 Stadium where we usually take in Austin FC.
The game started a tad early - 6:40 or so. And so we drove in rush-hour traffic all the way from Lower Austin to Howard Lane to catch the train to Q2. The drive: terrible. The train - amazing.
lightrail! It works!
I've liked to try to follow the USWNT since being completely won over by the team in the 1999 World Cup. Brandi Chastain's goal is, in my book, one of the great sports moments of my lifetime. I followed the team through the Mia Hamm era, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan... The US women tend to dominate globally for a variety of reasons. However, the World Cup in 2023 did not go our way. But! the current line-up under coach Emma Hayes won Gold in the 2024 Olympics, and is... great.
So, yeah, finally getting to see this team is 25 years in the making, for me. Also, Austin needs an NWSL expansion team. Just saying.
Jamie has watched USWNT with me since 1999, and so getting to go to this together is real partner stuff for us.
For posterity, here was our starting XI.
Not bad, right? I've wanted to see Rose Lavelle play for a long time - but this whole line-up was pretty awesome. (spoiler: Lavelle did not disappoint - nor did anyone)
To repeat some of what's the podcast and maybe elsewhere - I very much recall my excitement around Batman in 1989.
I'd really come to comics in 1986, and like a lot of readers at the time, I mostly read X-books and the Bat-titles. Bat-comics were kind of exploding at the time in the wake of Dark Knight Returns and with the arrival of the terrific talents of folks like Alan Grant on writing chores, veteran Jim Aparo and fresh talent Norm Breyfogle on pencils. I think this era is one of the many well-loved eras for the books, and with good reason.
Even in the era of Indiana Jones and Star Wars, Batman was the first movie I ever followed through development and to release date - then through box office and into home video. It was not the first movie I ever loved, but it was the first movie I felt a level of personal attachment.
I recall articles in Comics Scene, then the paper. Reading Nicholson was the Joker and feeling uncertain how that would go. Prince would be on the soundtrack, which seemed bizarre.
So excited was I - I purchased the novelization prior to the release of the film, and was half-way through reading it when I realized "this is a very dumb thing to do" and I cast the book aside. I didn't know the term "spoilers" then, but I realized I was going to maybe ruin the experience a mere 4 or 5 days prior to seeing the movie.
My memory of seeing the film itself will always be tied up with a few unrelated things.
Back in the summer of 1991, with a newly minted driver's license, I drove from Spring, Texas to Austin. We picked up a friend of my brother's, and then we pivoted, driving into Dallas just before dusk.
The next day, my brother, his buddy Mike, my buddy Scott and I attended Day 1 of the first two dates in Dallas of the first Lollapalooza tour. Back then, Lollapalooza was fairly small, and a roving event that moved the artists and associated folks from city to city. Dallas had sold better than expected, so they added a second day, which was, because of scheduling, the day before the original date.
We kind of knew about the music festivals in Europe, but at the time, music festivals here had sort of died out except for the very successful Monsters of Rock thing (the history and complexity of which I won't get into here). Bands mostly played 2-3 acts together at most. Something like Reading was way out of reach on our shores. You had to have Farm Aid to see anything like a festival that I was really aware of.
Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell somehow cooked up the idea of his caravan of 120 Minutes friendly bands (we did not have the term Alternative in 1991), pulling together a fascinating herd of musicians, hitting cities all across the US. That I could see Jane's Addiction, Ice-T, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Rollins Band in one day was mind-boggling. As promised Farrell also brought along artists and international food I wasn't familiar with (I recall looking for food from Africa every year and never regretting it).
So, April 28th, 2024 marks the 24th anniversary of Jamie and I making it official.
We'd "dated" for years prior, back to 1995, but that's if you call "dating" two people just saying "yup" to each other and now we were an item. There wasn't much in the way of trying to figure things out regarding our status. I wasn't taking her to a movie and then dropping her off and wondering what she was thinking. We were just together. And while I didn't know that we'd get married in the first months, there was just not a lot of work there - we just didn't have a trial period or casual dating phase.
When I hear about people having relationship drama, I'm just of the opinion that you aren't writing a romantic novel about overcoming all kinds of obstacles in liking each other. I'm not saying there isn't any work or misunderstandings, but, kids, it can be pretty good pretty early on. With Jamie's medical history, we wound up having plenty of drama that wasn't us arguing, so don't mistake things for being all smooth sailing. And I got cold feet a couple of times as we headed toward what looked like a lifelong relationship - what with college ending and next phases of life starting.
But into those next phases we headed, sharing an apartment for two years before nuptials. We got married on a Friday in April of the year 2000. We were 25, which was pretty young by the standards of my peers. But, also, most of my friends responded to the news with "shocker, man". Which means people probably knew we were getting married before I knew.
Beards are in. Facial hair is *in*. Cool dudes are wearing beards.
I'm not one to care much about remaining trendy or fashion (he said, wearing his Bugs Bunny t-shirt as if to put too fine a point on it), but beards and mustaches when I was a young man were for girlfriends' dads and people trying to show you they were, in fact, an iconoclast. Which, in itself, was super strange. Facial hair is a pain and it *should* be far more normal to have a beard than not have one. After all, to have a beard, all you have to do is nothing, and a beard happens, if your genetics are so inclined.
And yet... it's often been the fashion to have a smooth face. And not just recently. George Washington? Chin clean as a newly washed dinner plate. Paintings of renaissance dudes? Maybe a twirly mustache.
But going back to college, me and my Norelco have had fairly regular meet-ups. I'd shave for work pretty much every day, just as I'd done since, like, 9th grade (when my need to shave was to keep the odd patches of beard and peach-fuzz stache from creeping in).
Until a few years ago, the longest I'd ever gone without shaving was five days on vacation. But this year, around Christmas, I let it go for several weeks. And, then, from March 15th to April 17th, I didn't shave.
A long time ago now, comic artist and famed "nice guy" Jim Lee became President of DC Comics. He'd been put in a position of power during the Diane Nelson era, having had brought in the Wildstorm Universe to DC Comics, first as an imprint, and then shoehorning it into the New 52 (pretty much against logic and reason). And he was the foil to Dan Didio's blustering and general ass-hattery.
But every time an interviewer put a mic in front of Lee, he'd say things that I found confounding. Chief among those things was that comics weren't really a form of reading, they were a collectible. DC was in the collectibles business.
Which makes sense if you made a million dollars because kids were speculating wildly on comics in the early 1990's, but has made minimal sense since that fateful era that almost killed the American comics industry.
A while back someone tried to do a hit piece on Martin Short. It was weird - the legit journalist spent a day or so with Short and his take at the end was "I never thought Martin Short was funny." Which is super weird.
The article was not received well by the general public.
Multiple generations are fans of Short, and, sure maybe he's not to everyone's taste. Look, if I want to write a blog post and howl into the wind about something, whatever. But spending time and energy of a legitimate publication to work through my personal taste in comedy, that's super weird and says more about me (and my editor or lack thereof) than it does Martin Short.
But let it be known, at this blog, we dig Martin Short. From Ed Grimley where we first found out about Short, to his many movies, to Jiminy Glick, to his current work with Steve Martin, both stage shows and Only Murders in the Building - I've certainly liked him.
I mean, this is how he responded to his pal David Letterman having a massive heart attack.
If you never saw Jiminy Glick, I think Short was oddly ahead of his time on this one
And, of course, his Ed Grimley sketches
It is *hard* to remain as funny as Short has over the years, and to keep it relentlessly fresh. And to find new avenues for what he does. I mean, there are multiple levels upon which I appreciate Only Murders in the Building, but certainly I'm a fan of how Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez have created some great characters.
Anyhoo, if you've got a favorite Martin Short bit or role or clip, share in the comments!
Remember when you'd be over at your friend's house and they'd want to show you the groovy light their parents kept by the water bed in their room?
I have multiple social media accounts, but I don't really want to engage with humanity much on them.
Engage with people on a topic for a particular issue or topic? Especially responding to a post on movies or other things I want to talk to people about? Sure.
But I think we all learned a lesson leaving twitter: do not actually engage. Do not start talking to people you do not know in an uncontrolled, anonymous environment. Do not get into internet fights where you will prove someone wrong. Do not get mad when someone points out you are wrong.
But, also, you know, you don't need to live your life out loud on social media. You don't know those people.
I am currently using my accounts the following ways:
Threads: a quick scroll and mostly disappointment, but to get the basic gist of what the internet is thinking (last week I pieced together: What does Beyonce know about being Southern? is a racist dog whistle!* What a time to be alive.)
BlueSky: I see some Cubs chatter, which is nice. But mostly I follow it for FilmSky, ie: people who are true weirdos about film who don't give a shit about film twitter, and are opining, posting links and living their best movie-nerd life. Very friendly, unpretentious and lovely at the moment.
Instagram: Initially I kind of used it not at all, despite having an account for years. I am not trying to frame my life as exotic and exciting, and I don't particularly care if actors get to eat spinach salad in countries they don't live in or which fashion company gave them sunglasses. But I've now followed enough people I know, and I just use dlvr.it it to send Signal Watch blog posts. I also like to find silly stuff and repost it on Reels.
Tumblr: I use dlvr.it to repost stuff from the blog, and reblog funny pictures and some classic film stars. I also know what people in their 20's who live with their parents and don't seem to have jobs think about the world. It is wiiiiild.
Facebook (Blog-related): I use dlvr.it to send Signal Watch posts to the official League of Melbotis page. People still seem to use it. I think this page is also linked one way or another, and I'll be looking into that.
Facebook (Personal): I wouldn't even say this is a curated view of my exciting life. I do still use it because it's the only way I'm in touch with many people, or the best way for me to reach some people. A bit like why I still have a landline - because I had one in 2006, and that is where people find me, so I can't get rid of it. Plus, I do get news, weather and other things there.
I do not do politics, or anything remotely, actually "personal" on facebook. My parents, relatives, former teachers, bosses, etc... are all on there. So I used to post things that were intentionally obnoxious and silly, but now I mostly use it to be silly. Or mark "hey, it's Jamie's birthday!". That sort of thing.
LinkedIn: I actually kind of do use this at the moment as I'm between gigs. I hear from recruiters there, and talk to colleagues, plus see what those colleagues are up to. It's not all bad. But I don't read those "thought provoking" articles that get reposted. You know they aren't.
Slack: I'm on a social slack. It's all right with like four people.
But the thing I don't really do that I used to do when I was on Twitter is just put a short thread together, and I don't really have a place for things like "hey, remember the weird fluid and light things our parents had? That was weird, right?"
So, initially I thought I'd use a return to League of Melbotis to do some personal journaling, but I don't know how into that I am as a concept. Instead, I'm going to try to use it for a goofy junk-drawer for a while, which was often how it was used back in the 00's. Signal Watch can continue on as a media review site, and I'll put other stuff here.
Deal?
*our friend Bae is from Houston, and if you wanted to raise the collective dander of everyone in Texas, challenge if we know what the fuck country and cowboy culture are
