Election Day Eve

Michael and JAL's candidate of choice

Hoo-Boy. It finally draws to a close in the next 72 hours somewhere (if we're lucky and don't get a repeat of the Waking Nightmare that was the 2000 election).

I was reading Mere's blog and had, what you humans call, an eeee-moh-shun. Mere's post demonstrated the spirit I think we all could consider from this moment forward regarding the election. Here's a link to the original post. You should click over.

So as we approach the election, I thought I'd discuss my rather rudimentary understanding of SCIENCE (which, Leaguers, you can never have enough of).

But... it seems to me that we are all but cosmic dust, coming from The Source, be that of the Big Bang or the Divine or both, depending upon your interpretation (your parsecs may vary). We're cosmic particles, wandering about the mass of particles that happened to congeal at just the right place beyond the sun, and with just the right mixture of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen, etc... to spawn a planet which could sustain life.

In short, we're made of the same stuff. We carry around roughly the same chemical make-up, we all depend upon oxygen and water and food. We're born, we live, we rock out, and, eventually, we return to the infinite. As important as something as pro and con evidence is regarding Supply-Side Economics, etc... at the end of the day, if we can simply agree to disagree and somehow do it without forcing one another back into the dirt in making that decision... we're one step closer to being more than well coiffed chimps with combustion engines. And, in many ways, that's the real magic of democracy.


Randy and JimD's candidate of choice

There's a lot that shuffles out from that ideal of not throwing a coup because Our Guy lost the popularity contest. There's a suggestion of being better than our nature would have us... and that means we move beyond grudgingly accepting our political fate for four years, and gracefully accept the choice of others as best we can, as equals, even as we plan for another try. And, again, there's a lot that shuffles out from the concept of equality that we're still working on, I think. And sometimes we willingly work against that ideal.

Well, maybe most of the time.


Steanso's reason for being such an ardent Obamamaniac

So on Election Eve, we can pause for that same, quiet night that pre-sages the dawn and the chaos of Election Day as, say, Christmas Eve. Perhaps its to a lesser degree, but if we play our cards right, it could be a night of waiting and Hope, in much the same way that Christians embrace the night to such a degree that the warring factions in the trenches of the Western Front in 1914 ceased hostilities, sharing carols and small gifts (and surely there's a lesson here regarding what we really want, what's truly important, and how we get into these pickles to begin with).

We're not in trenches of a battlefield, but what political pundits see as the excitement of the election trail does seem to plow its own trenches in the psyche of a nation that was probably diagnosable as paranoid schizophrenic to begin with.

So Happy Election Eve, Leaguers.

Go out there. Vote. Be at peace with the election results as best you can. I promise, neither of the Big 2 candidates will intentionally drive the country off a cliff (but I'm not promising anything about Nader).

ALSO

The Peanuts characters are running for office on iTunes (I am so downloading these videos)

Apparently Obama does not know the difference between The Green Hornet and Green Lantern. Which is but one part of a many-fold geek gaffe.

a) The Green Hornet's partner was Kato. Originally played by Bruce Lee. If he's comparing McCain to Kato, he just made McCain 10 points cooler by accident. Poorly played.

b) Conjuring up the Green Lantern's side-kick invokes the silver-age image of Tom "Pieface" Kulmaku. It's a bit of stretch to get to the nickname (Tom is Inuit, thus an Eskimo, so "Eskimo Pie", thus... "Pieface"), but I assure you, its that casual racism that used to creep into comics back in the day. Oddly, Tom was never portrayed as much of a stereotype, because I'm not sure there are any stereotypes of Inuit people.

Oh, well. While it's always weak to see a candidate botch a pop culture reference (even one 40 years old), it's not really an area in which I hope Obama has much expertise. That said... if you're going to botch a Green Hornet reference, why bother?

The wacky Obama-poster stuff came from this thing at the Village Voice. I admit, I saw it first at Randy's site.


The League reveals his Candidate of Choice

Long Weekend

Howdy Leaguers,

Football

First things first. Yes, UT lost to Tech on Saturday night, dropping them from the top of the BCS heap to a lower position. 6, I think. Yes, I am disappointed. On the other hand, UT's defense wasn't exactly phenomenal, UT's offense looked lackluster, and Tech looked amazing from beginning to end. So, yeah, you lose games that way.

If Tech doesn't get cocky, they have a real opportunity this season. Huge.

I love my Horns, but... stuff happens.

Anyhow, we're not completely out of it yet. There are a few games left for everyone, and as long as we don't wind up in the Alamo Bowl, I'm happy.

Blurgh.

Hanging with Parents

Saturday the In-Laws drove up to our place, then we all jumped in Jamie's car and drove northward to my folks' new house in N. Austin.

The Admiral and KareBear recently closed on the house they'll be retiring to in a few years. It's a great place, and I'm very happy for them. I've already said here that I look forward to having them here, but it's no less true now that the deal is sealed.

We then went out to The Oasis, Austin's own "great view, mediocre food" tourist destination. I actually think the food is fine, and it is lovely out there if you're not there in late summer.

Anyhow, it's always good to get the parents together, and I have visions of Holidays to come with Jamie and me sitting at the head of the table of family members as I carve a turkey (for some reason I am wearing a red bow-tie and blue sweater vest in this vision).

This morning we drove down to Jamie's folk's place in San Marcos for breakfast. This is the first time I'd been down there since they had moved in. They're pretty well squared away. Boxes unpacked, etc... a few pictures to hang and I think they can call it a move.

And the rest

I de-Halloweened the house this afternoon. We are now officially into the fall and winter Holiday season if the Christmas ads during the NFL pre-game shows were any indication (Jamie did not appreciate my caroling).

Our five Thanksging decorations are out and we're moving into the end-of-the-year hoo0hah.

When we got home from Jamie's parent's house, I looked down at Lucy and thought she looked really fat. I went so far as to inform her she looked fat, before Jamie noticed she'd gotten into the crate of Milkbones and eaten them all. So for the entire afternoon, I've been dealing with a bloated, gassy lab. Seriously, she stinks. Twice I've walked around thinking she left me a present somewhere downstairs. But... it's just post-Milkbone feast gas.

Halloween Costume Submissions now being accepted

Meredith's family has already posted Halloween pics. And, as should come as no surprise, I fully endorse the way she's raising those kids if the costumes are any indication (seriously... costumes are so much better these days)



And I don't know why, but something about Mere's husband's John McCain impression cracks me up. I kind of look forward to Mere running for national office so I can send this photo to the AP.

Steven and Lauren were kind enough to swing by before going out. Lauren was a St. Pauli's Girl/ Oktoberfest Fraulein, and Steven was... Ye Olde Steven of Austin Towne, I fuppose.



The light wasn't terribly great, so this was the best pic we got of the pair. I also thought I'd mention that Lauren made us some terrific popcorn balls, and I'd like to inform her, anytime of the year is a good time for popcorn balls. Feel free to bring those by any time.

I wasn't the only one who was a fan of Jamie's outfit. We had two little girls ALSO dressed as Supergirl come to the house and become very excited when they saw Jamie.


Doot-doo-doo-DOOT!

It didn't hurt that Jamie and I were paired up. We actually had folks ask us to pose for photos (one lady for her baby's scrapbook), and the kids really seemed to like the fact that we were a pair.


Anyway, please send in your Halloween pics.

We had a ton of kids come by. It seems like 85% of the kids who come by must be from other neighborhoods. (A) I see cars dropping kids off, but (B) I never see these kids any other time of the year, and I kind of know who the kids are on our street, and they're all very little, and some of them were our trick or treaters. We went through 7 bags of candy, and were out there with a pretty steady stream from 6:45 - 8:45 or so.

For some reason we don't do the whole doorbell thing on our street. We tend to get set up outside and stay there. It's kind of weird because its the only time we're all out on the street, but you can't talk to each other because you have to stick at your house to actually catch the kids. It's too bad. I've literally met my neighbors four or five times, but its so infrequent, I can never remember their names. I used to be really good at names, but... not anymore.

The costumes this year were actually slightly skewed to the "scary" category. Lots of kids in fright masks, which, in Arizona, you wouldn't get much of, or here either. We also had a lot of girls of all ages dressed as princesses. Some witches. An angel, devil, and one who was both. I don't know if we had any Power Rangers for once. A few Batmans (but none in the outfit from Dark Knight), one Joker, and one kid who was the puppet from Saw.

One kid informed me "I'm not a sheriff or a cowboy. I'm a gambler." To which I replied, "Then I guessed right. I thought you were Doc Holliday." This was met with a blank stare.

Kids. No appreciation for history.

We had a storm trooper or three. A tiny Superman. A couple Spider-Mans. A kid dressed as a tiny hustler/ pimp.

Anyway, Halloween was fun. I'm kind of thinking that if Halloween is on Saturday next year, I might go down to 6th Street or out somewhere afterward. This year I was just totally dragging by 10:00.

Tomorrow the Halloween stuff comes down. And then... yup, in like four weeks I'm going to have to put up the Christmas stuff.

It's still too warm out to even think about that.

Halloween Pt. 2

The Superman Homepage has a Halloweenish banner today!


Click the image for the full-size banner

Or check it out on the site!

EVEN MORE ELVIRA

I'm not sure you got enough Elvira in your Halloween. Here is Elvira's "Monsta Rap" cut to scenes from the film "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark".



Here's a link to Elvira's updated website.

Special Halloween Treat

I don't talk about it a lot, but one of my favorite movies is "Little Shop of Horrors". Sure, its partially because of Ellen Greene as Audrey (a DITMTLOD), but its also just a really fun movie.


Ellen Greene in "Little Shop of Horrors" made my 12 year-old heart pitter-patter

I've seen the play twice, and it has a markedly different ending than the one folks saw in theaters. In fact, it sort of changes the whole movie in a way.

A while back the original ending was supposed to make it to DVD, but there was some weirdness and the DVD was recalled. I've also heard a fire or something ate the footage. I don't really understand what happened and won't pretend to know.

But... it looks like the workprint of the original ending has found its way to YouTube.

If you have fifteen or twenty minutes to kill, here you go:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Honestly, as expensive as this footage looks (especially for the era in which it came out) I can't believe they scrapped it.

Here's Steve Martin in "Little Shop of Horrors"


and click over here for the Skid Row sequence.

Lucy in Disguise

When I was in my first semester at UT, I had big plans to hit 6th street for Halloween with JAL and Michael. Those two had some incredibly elaborate costumes planned, but we were all still thinking a bit about what we would dress (or at least how they would pull off their costumes) in early October. We all got into, I think, JAL's car and headed down to South Congress. This was before South Congress was SoCo, and was more a mishmash of Continental Club, a few thrift shops, some knick-knack shops, and wasn't... well, it wasn't SoCo.

Anyway, I don't know how they knew it was there, but Justin and Michael took me to Lucy in Disguise, the most unecessarily elaborate costume shop I would ever enter.

Lucy's is still going strong these many years later. They have the same insane collection of masks, hats, and, literally, thousands and thousands of costumes. It's fun just to go in and look around. Obviously its a bit late today for running down there and getting a costume, but maybe a hot tip for next year...?

The Statesman ran an article this morning on the shop. Check it out.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Old Ghost Photography pic of The Brownlady



You didn't think I'd let Halloween go by without mentioning Elvira: Mistress of the Dark?

War of the Worlds, 70 years ago

When I was a kid (and continuing into adulthood) I was fascinated by the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater. I don't recall the genesis of my interest, or how I learned about the broadcast and its after-effects, but I do remember that I spent my own coin to buy tapes of the broadcast when I was in 7th grade or so.

You probably know the story, but Orson Welles' team adapted "War of the Worlds", HG Wells' sci-fi blueprint classic of Martian invasion into a somewhat realistic sounding radio-broadcast, as if a night of musical programming were being interrupted by news bulletins, and finally military commandeering the radio waves to coordinate strikes.

Supposedly people switching over from the Edgar Bergen/ Charlie McCarthy show believed the program to be real, and some fled for the hills and/ or otherwise panicked. Rumor has it one farmer shot a water tower in the dark, believing he was shooting at one of the fearsome Martian tri-pods.

The broadcast itself is fairly chilling as you do, in fact, get a feeling of what this might have felt like to an audience who wasn't clear on what was going on. It's believably well-acted, and the narrative arc of curiosity to calamity sounds entirely plausible, even as the tri-pods incinerate a reporter. To this point, the technique of false news-casts hadn't been used, and caused a major stir in the days and weeks after the broadcast.

Rtaher than rehash in its entirety, its worth checking out what Wikipedia has to say.

This evening, Ball State radio will recreate the broadcast. I may listen in as its simulcast online.

I think you can hear the original broadcast recording here.

Halloween Post for The Day

So... Friday will be your day to:

1) Go out and follow your kids around the neighborhood as they collect sacks of candy
2) be one of those paranoid parents who believes their neighbors stick razor blades into a roll of Smarties, and will refuse to let their kids go from house to house*
3) Believe what you read in your Chick Tracts and stay home, cowering in fear (I'm impressed at the "Haunted House" set up Chick envisions
4) Go out, claim you're a kid and collect candy. It's embarassing that The Admiral does this, but he looks smart in his pirate costume, so nobody wants to stop him
5) Stay in and hand out candy and feel sorry for the kids who don't have any sort of costume
6) Join us as we hand out candy, talk to neighbors, play spooky sounds and then watch scary movies
7) Go to a Halloween party of some sort
8) be a total lame-o and not participate in any way. Yes, that makes you a lame-o, lame-o.

Here's a quick look at being "child-free" on Halloween.

Once the kids thin out and we turn off the lights, I have An American Werewolf in London on my DVR, a 7 hour live Ghost Hunters show to watch, and I may throw on the original Phantom on the Opera or Dracula for some good old fashioned Halloween movietime fun.


Just another night at JAL's house...




*there are almost no actual cases of any children being poisoned, etc... from Halloween candy. Just FYI. To some degree, parents are reacting to urban legends they heard as kids. Snopes covers this so I don't have to.