Weekend

Weekends are meaningless when you're unemployed. We fill our days with little things to do, an endless list of tasks that, were we employed, I suspect we'd wrap up in a few hours on the weekend, then sit, looking at one another at 5:00 on Sunday, wondering where had the weekend gone?

I have three boxes of toys that will find their way to a worth charity. The illusion of re-selling your "collectibles" has been burst. I had planned to have a mixed "cartoon-themed" office, throwing in my Marvel, DC, Disney, etc... stuff all in one place. It didn't work out. I'm clearing out the Spider-Man Rogues Gallery of little 6" plastic men and women. I'm ditching a handful of Spideys. The Fantastic Four won't be blankly staring at me from my shelf any longer.

This is the first in what will, most likely, be several attempts to clear my closets, so to speak.

I found a shop in the farthest reaches of N. Austin which would buy back toys, or so their advertisement said. On Friday, I tried to go trade-in four boxes of toys, but the owner wouldn't be around until 5:00. That equated to, roughly, a 4 hour round trip with Austin traffic, so I called back on Saturday.

"What do you have in boxes?"
"Not much," I confessed. "Most of it's loose."
"Well, only bring what you have in boxes."
I hung up. And cursed loudly.

I took some items I had purchased a long time ago (but which never left the closet) all the way to Lake Creek, and traded them in. The guy was actually honest about what he was doing and gave me far more than I actually dreamt of getting. Unfortunately, it had to be in store credit. So I am now three die-cast Batmobiles richer, but far wiser.

These items, they are not an investment. And, I think, in the clear light of Austin (where it's not just crazy me living in my crazy head), I know that. And that's also what's convincing me it's a good idea to get rid of some of this stuff. But I'm also no longer trying to push out the desert and the boredom.

Saturday night we headed down to the lighting of the Christmas tree on the Capitol grounds. Thousands had turned out for the event, mostly families with small kids, but also some curiously well-dressed graying couples, and some very sweet, silver-haired folks as well.

We dropped off our canned goods, sang some tunes along with KUT's own John Ailey, then counted down the lighting of the tree. Sang some more while perched on the Capitol's wall (John Ailey seemed baffled by "Feliz Navidad"), then walked Congress.

At some point in college, the decorations on Congress became one of the things I feel obliged to tick off my list of to-do's during Christmas. There's nothing spectacular about garland and lights stretched across the street, but it's an image I have frozen in my mind of a few quiet nights, just as finals ended and the city so quiet it seemed frozen in time.

Congress was not quiet on Saturday. Ballet Folklorico from St. Ed's performed on one corner, a group of young ballerinas (dressed in odd outfits intended to make them look like ornaments) handed out flyers about the Ballet Austin performance of the Nutcracker while a jazz-band played tunes from the ballet. A perfomance artist/mime dressed as an angel and came to life to have her picture taken with children. Kids were everywhere (an oddity downtown at night). And, of course, Santa rode in the back of a convertible Yellow Cab, circling the block and waving.

I missed all of this in Arizona. There were the lights, but somehow Arizona Avenue and its "tumbleweed tree" just wasn't the same as Congress at night with all the folks out walking.

The tree lighting and caroling was fun. We will be recruiting others for this task next year.

Jamie has been at her piano almost relentlessly, preparing for the party. She is very concerned her piano-skills will not be up to snuff. She is more than ready. And she's even learned the Peanuts' "Christmas Time is Here".

Tonight we headed out to Opal Divine's to celebrate the birthday of Andy S. We're starting to merge with Jason's group of pals. Fun folks, these kids. Hope they show for our Holiday Party.

The weekend was quiet. This week we will be preparing for the party on Saturday. We hope you will come.

POLL POSITION

Turkey Day is almost upon us. This year I shall do my part to make the Holidays totally rad for all. This year, I pledge not to:


-consume an entire 23 lb. turkey by myself
6% 1-vote

-collect a $7 cover charge at the door
0% 0 -votes

-keep asking if we can watch something other than football
6% 1-vote

-mention a single, solitary time how much Katie Couric bugs me if she hosts the Thanksgiving Day Parade for CBS
6% 1-vote

-hold Doug hostage
0% 0-votes

-teach the young ones about the circle of life by killing the turkey with my bare hands before their terrified eyes
19% 3-votes

-let Mel serve dinner
19% 3-votes

-force Jamie to dress as a turkey
6% 1-votes

-insist we pray for the success and safety of the Justice League of America as they protect our shores and skies from the Legion of Doom
13% 2-votes

-stay sober through dinner
25% 4-votes

16 votes total

RANDOM COMMENTS FOR NOVEMBER

It is cold

It is cold in Austin. We were something like the 2nd to last place in the contiguous 48 to get the cold front, but there you are. I headed to the Target today to buy a hat, gloves and a scarf. In Phoenix you don't need those items (or an umbrella) so much, so I'm having to purchase cold weather gear all over again.

The dogs are nuts. They don't want to go out in the cold (although they were happy to go for a brisk afternoon walk), but they also don't want to remain inside and calmly behave. So there's been a lot of following us around the house and attacking one another. I had to hide Lucy's ball so she would quit dropping it on me. It's kind of sad.

We hung out and talked to the neighbors last night for a while. It's sort of nice knowing our neighbors, versus our recent experience in Phoenix where we sort of guessed at who everyone was. We had "The Kansas People" who moved away and were replaced by "Successful Single Mom" and her BMW. Flag Guy. Arizona-Reed. Weekend Dad. The Crazy Nemesis Nurse, and "The House with an Indeterminate Number of Residents".

Here, we actually know some people's names, and even talked to Steve (with the stroller) for a while, finding out he's a bit of a recovering comic-geek, and he wants to set up a community rental system for DVD's on our block. Neighbor-Jason feels we've one-upped his Christmas deer as our deer lights up and is quite large. And then Chris apparently bought me a deeply discounted Superman Halloween Candy pail and gave it to me last night. I was shocked.

Grand Oaks isn't as weird a place to live as you'd believe when initially driving through.

Last night I just didn't have much to mention, and I was neck deep in new and old comics, so forgive me for taking a night off to catch up on my titles a little. (I need to start pushing comic reviews again. Go read Ex Machina.)

The weather yesterday was a mild high-70's with winds from the south. When the artic air hit, we got a heck of a storm. Jamie was already in bed when we lost power for a few seconds. The short popped the GFCI outlets where we have the Christmas lights plugged in. I, of course, had just entered our tiny hall bathroom when the lights went out, and was fairly certain there was no way this was going to end well vis-a-vis me exiting the restroom succesfully, when the lights came back on. I emerged into the living room, and proceeded to scream like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween upon seeing Jamie standing on the stairs. Usually I hear her moving around, but this time, no such luck, what with the buckets of rain and howling wind rattling the windows.

Yesterday evening we went to see "For Your Consideration", the latest from Christopher Guest and his troupe of improvisors. It's okay. It's NOT in the faux-documentary format which is the basis of most of Guest's movies, but it sticks with the same sort of bitter-sweet narrative arc that you've seen in the past two or three movies. Make no mistake, Catherine O'Hara is at her best in this movie, but the movie seems too full of unnecessary elements, and the actors don't share enough screen time to decide whether they're making a wacky movie or a movie on a bit more pensive note.

My personal feelings aside, every person considering acting for a living should be given a copy of this DVD and be forced to watch it once a year for the duration of their career.

I finally saw "Rocky" on Spike TV. It was pretty good, and I can see it winning awards in the 70's. As I suspected, the movie has been copied so many times (including the five sequels) that, like many films that launch a stylistic genre, the movie no longer is appealing simply for its too-often repeated story. It's the performances and details which remind you why this movie was thought of so highly that why it's been infinitely imitated, but rarely matched.

Oh, and I watched JimD's film "Pleadings". JimD wrote and produced the film (with his friend Alistair directing). You know, it's not easy telling your friends they've made a colossal mistake. Luckily, in this case, I don't have to do that. Jim's film is a tight, taught drama with well developed characters. Ah, hell, you need to just see it. I could talk it up, but it's going to be silly as I don't want to give much away and I don't want to sit here blowing sunchine up Jim's skirt. Well, I will say the space battles were impressive and the 23-minute homage to "Willow" was totally sweet, but I still don't understand the bit with Jim dressed as a penguin walking through the desert "pleading" for a sno-cone. Anyway, well done. Professionally executed. Worth seeing at your local multi-plex.

Short bits:

4 year old Power Ranger foils crime

Someone else YouTube's their Jones Soda Holiday Soda experience

Some awesome animation

Bad Superhero Names (yes, they are all actual characters)

More on Dave Cockrum

I hope I have some Superman jammies when it's my turn to merge with the infinite...

heck, I think I'd like some now...

here

2006 LEAGUE OF MELBOTIS HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR
second announcement

Hey, Leaguers!

This here is your second announcement regarding the 2006 Holiday Spectacular.

The tree is up. The lights are bright. We're filled with Christmas Fever. It's time for me to re-announce the 2006 Holiday Spectacular. We're begging for RSVP's, so please send one by clicking on the Justice League image at the top-left of this website or posting to the comments section. (definite "no's" are also welcome)



Where: League HQ (if you need directions, send me an e-mail and RSVP by clicking on the picture of the Justice League at the top, left-hand corner of the website)

When: December 9th. We open the doors at 7:00.

What: A festive holiday gathering.

What to bring: It's not a requirement, but we're suggesting that you BYOB. Sorry. I think we have a healthy number of people coming, and I can't afford to fill all of you with the Holiday Spirit. We will have some stuff on hand, but we appreciate a little extra help.

If you want to bring a snacky thing (as some have mentioned), go nuts. It's a party. Nobody is turning down any food.

What to wear: The temptation for Holiday parties is to get a little dolled up. I am not going to stop you, but if I have to guess, I think I'll be wearing jeans, a novelty t-shirt under a button down cotton shirt, and some sneakers. If you want to look fabulous, that's your call.

What not to do: Burn my house down, do anything to draw the attention of the authorities (such as burning my house down), declare S. Austin an independent state, pick a fight, let Mel drive. We will also be happy to call cabs for anyone who needs one.

Who should come: You. You're reading this, so I'd like for you to come. Maybe. And we're kinda-sorta cool with a friend in tow, but inviting the whole accounting team from your office is generally discouraged. The whole accounting team tends to draw the cops.




Some extra incentives for showing up:

-Jamie has been practicing some carols, so we hope folks will join her in singing some Christmas ditties. If you have requests, send them in now. Keep it clean.

-Door prizes! We will hit the "Dollar General" and have a drawing at some point in the evening

-Firelogs on DVD

-my iPod will have a rockin' Holiday-themed playlist

-It will be Cousin Susan's 29th Birthday

-If we're lucky, it may be Ellie Gamble's Birthday

-There is the possibility of a pair of extra special guests from out of town

-See Mel and Lucy in their Holiday Finery

-Steven Harms performs 1-Man, 8-Act version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

-We can even conference call in RHPT

-After too many eggnogs, Jason will make an awkward pass at a yet-to-be-selected girl, but give up half-way through



So RSVP!!! Let us know if we can expect to see you joining in the merriment and festivities. It's the @#$%ing Holidays! Let's get together and have some fun.

Super Lit Up

The house is about 65-70% done for Christmas. However, we are experiencing a Christmas Light gap. It seems our house, though well covered in lights, may be a bit dull by Grand Oaks standards. In my walk this evening, I noted that the traditionally "classy" plain white lights (with which we have wrapped the mighty columns of League HQ) have been supplanted in our neighborhood with color, strobing, chaser lights, changing colors, shapes, and all manner of lit nonsense. Sure, I still have to add the "snow globe" and our newly obtained animated deer to the yard, and perhaps that will give us a bit more character. But we have a Christmas Light gap.

As I understand it, we can expect the slow-driving light-peepers in our neighborhood. I suspect the war of the Christmas lights is just beginning. I am choosing to lose the battle this year.

Well, I am betting nobody else has as many Superman decorations on THEIR tree...


Normally The League is a big supporter of giving the gift of Superman, as well as decorating your home with the bold visage of The Man of Steel. However, Nathan sends this along.

From the article: Incredibly, families are further instructed to "[un]plug the product when leaving the house, when retiring for the night, or if left unattended."

I don't like to speak for The Last Son of Krypton, but I assume he'd be upset if he knew there was a product on the shelf sporting his face which not only MIGHT burn your house down, but pretty much promises it's going to leave your home a smoking cinder.


Hey, here's a Superman fan in the news that we can all feel proud of.


A ton of Superman stuff will be released on DVD on Tuesday. This will include the Donner Cut of Superman II and Superman Returns. Be a Loyal Leaguer. Pick up a copy. Or pick up the 14-disc uber-collection. I have been given instructions NOT to pick up any Reeves or Routh Superman stuff, and, thusly, shall wait until Christmas.

I, personally, am awaiting the arrival of the Kirk Alyn Superman serials (with a young Noel Neill) and the final seasons of The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves in glorious color (and a slightly more seasoned, if no less fabulous Noel Neill). I had forgotten that a very tired League had purchased these items on Amazon long ago, and was reminded with a "your package has shipped" e-mail.


Oh, and Action Comics #845 was really good. Actually, it was very, very good. Hope you're picking up this run.