In my Element @ 10K

I was driving home the other night in Babar (my light blue Honda Element) and looked down to see my odometer was at 9999. I've been through four cars in my life, and I never, ever saw the odometer turn any kind of significant whole number.

I have hit 10,000 miles without a hiccup. That is all.

Yes, I love Babar. Some days I want to hug him, but that would be weird.

Meatgrimage, Day 3

Jamie's childhood pal and our mutual current pal, Rebecca, returned to Austin today with her mother, Dr. Kinslow, in tow. They took us to Flemings down by the convention center where we all enjoyed a wonderfully terrific meal.

I have always been a steak guy, and while I am a fan of the backyard grilled steak, I am also a fan of the white-table cloth, let-them-work-their-magic steak. I highly recommend this joint. Especially if the Kinslows are taking you out on the town.

There are many good restaurants down by the convention center which cater to folks with an expense account. However, as Jamie and I are rarely in Austin for a convention, we tend not to make our way to those restaurants or some of Austin's other finer establishments.

Places I would like to go:

Lambert's
Hudson's on the Bend
And of the places that opened on Congress during our four year Arizona sojourn

I am scheduled to hit Mesa Ranch this evening, provided nothing goes off-kilter. Which means: even more meat.

If you want to go see The Flyin' A's with me Thursday evening, give me a shout.

UT @ Kansas

I shall be watching with a mix of exhiliration and trepidation. Tech plays Baylor this weekend. Poor Baylor.

UT Basketball

I park about a block from the Erwin Center, so I am pondering going to some UT home games this year. If you want in on that, let me know.

Ghost Hunters

I am increasingly convinced that, based upon the 100 hours or so of Ghost Hunters I've watched, Jason and I could totally do this.

Anyone want to grant us $25,000 in start up funds? We need money for:

-team shirts
-motion detectors
-flash lights
-EMF detectors
-video equipment
-a FLIR
-Ghost Juice (ie: enough beer per ghostly investigation to limber up the mind)
-uniforms for the Lonestar Paranormal Club dancers

Meatgrimage

Today I headed to Baylor for what I thought was a productive and instructive meeting. Liked the guy I met there, and I think its going to be good working with the dance-less folks of Waco.

Apparently there's an unwritten rule that lunch is involved in these trips, which is great for me. I get a little annoyed when I've traveled in the past and my boss, etc... decides we don't need to eat because they're on some crazy diet of water and carrot sticks or something. Not going to be a problem with this bunch as we headed to Waco's "Jasper's", a side-road BBQ joint that had all you can eat ribs for $9. Plus, Dublin Dr. Pepper, which I tasted for the first time. And, yes, Dublin Dr. Pepper is completely different and much, much better than regular Dr. Pepper (Dublin uses Imperial Cane Sugar rather than corn syrup). So I can confirm that legend.

Jasper's wasn't screwing around with its portions. Despite the "all you can eat" promise, I ate three ribs and was done. Maybe because I was still reeling from Monday's lunch and then winding up at Threadgill's for dinner.

It turns out that the meat at City Meat MArket in Giddings is supplied by a friend's meat company. I'm going to look into whether or not I can get a map of the place Mikey's company supplies meat to, and see if that isn't one way for this to play out.

Also, Jason and I are already talking about a short trip to Elgin for sausage.

Sadly, I am bypassing food and friends on Saturday. Juan and Letty e-mailed me to see about hitting Snow's BBQ in Lexington on Saturday. Now, here's the weird part:

Snow's was recently voted "best BBQ in Texas" by Texas Monthly, a publication that doesn't screw around when it comes to food. Especially Texas cuisine. But... supposedly they sell out of their meat by 10:00 or so on Saturdays. Which means you have to BE THERE before 9:00 to get a meal.

I love BBQ, but getting up at 7:00 to eat BBQ at 9:00 on a Saturday somehow robs the Meatgrimage of its joy.

Terminator

The Fox Terminator TV show (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) must not be doing very well in ratings. I hear its being shuttled off to Fridays.

I've been enjoying the heck out Terminator. As much as I dig sci-fi, I don't jump on too many sci-fi TV shows. Stuff like the Stargate franchise doesn't do anything for me, or the semi-popular "Highlander" series from the 90's. I think it helps that the Terminator premise is deceptively straightforward. Robots from the future are trying to kill John Connor.

Now you've inserted time travel, plus re-programmed robots, which all hangs from the central conceit of the first two terminator movies.

What really helps is that the rest of the world around our band of un-merry adventurers is very set in reality. Whenever a robot does start shooting, its not as if the populace is aware of what's going on, or would come to the logical conclusion that there are killer robots on the prowl.

Anyhow, I'm a little sad that the show is being moved to the death zone that is Friday night on Fox. But perhaps two really good seasons of a show is infinitely better than the bizarre, slow death spiral that we've seen out of "Smallville" (a show I quit watching for years, but came back to watching to revel in the badness).

Big Bang Theory

The show has taken a decidedly better turn this season, and I liked it last season. The decision not to further pursue the "it's a sitcom" romantic path of Leonard and Penny has been hugely helpful, and its given Kaley Cuoco a much wider range to play with instead of "pleasantly unaware of Leonard's affections".

Anyway, kudos to Jim and the cast of BBT.

One disturbing trend. It seems Jim is becoming a bit of an item of lust for nerd girls on the internet. See the comments on this post at Lady, That's My Skull.

Edit: The Office I should note that I have recently officially quit watching "The Office". As noted above, I do not find the "will-they-or-won't-they" romantic entanglements of sitcoms interesting or funny. They always stink of the suits forcing their way into the process. The Office has managed to drag the concept out, painfully, for several seasons. I was pleased they'd resolved the issue to some extent, and had hopes they were finally just going to @#$%ing move on with it. Last weeks episode proved that was not so.

I feel guilty, because Jamie and I really don't have that many shows we watch together, and The Office has long been one we can agree upon. That is no longer so. Worse yet, I lack the ability to just sit in the room on a laptop and quietly ignore a show. I must make comment upon it, which detracts from Jamie's enjoyment.

Anyway, we have a DVR. I guess we'll put it to use.

Snoopy: World War I Flying Ace

Here's a video game I would actually buy if it comes to Wii:

Pixar's latest: "Up"

Hey, it's like seeing The Admiral in animated form!

Many items

Football Update

Well, we can mark another win up for UT from this weekend. We're ranked #3, which is odd. Of course, we've only lost to Tech who seems headed for all kinds of glories this season.

Colt still looks great, but its clear someone or something is keeping him from running. And something has rattled him and keeps him from attempting passes further than a few yards at a time.

I am still rooting for my Horns, and I think we're set for a great bowl game this year, provided we can win our next two and do well if we're in the Big 12 Championship (if we so land). But I sincerely hope Mack brown has plans to build up our secondary for next year.

Good BBQ in Giddings

Today we met the A&M contingent of our office halfway between Bryan and Austin in Giddings where we ate meat. Leaguers, if you're on 290, I HIGHLY recommend the City Meat Market. That was some top-notch grub served in true Texas fashion.

And, hell, there were honest to god old school cowboys in there. The kind who could choke the life out of you if the notion so took them. Awesome.

It was one of those places where the smoke is cooked into the walls and you start salivating a bit just walking through the door. And the food totally matched the ambiance and first-smell guesses as to what you would get.

I need to use this winter to begin making BBQ pilgrimages around the state. Meatgrimages, if you will. I want to eat Elgin Sausage in Elgin. I want to eat ribs and beef in Lockhart. Shall I go to New Braunfels for Wurst? Or to Kerrville? What meats did our Czech forebears cook up? What about our Mexican forefathers?

So many meats. So little time.


Unfortunateness

Swedish dance bands from bygone eras.
For some reason I think I linked to an earlier version of this, like, four years ago.

Yeah, go ahead and laugh. Then ask yourself: who had better luck with swinging Swedish women, you or the dudes in "The Schytts"?

That, Leaguers, is the sound of the universe having a good laugh at you.


Beat it!
So I employ Technorati to help me track responses to blog posts. They track, somewhat imperfectly, whether or not someone has linked back to your posts.

A long time ago, I used to get linked around the net. When I don't post on comics, those links tend to dry up. But when I write for Comic Fodder, I notice that I get linked to a lot more often from sources of note (in the comics blogosphere, which is like being a big wheel on the island of misfit toys, I guess). Anyway, it gives me a little thrill to see myself linked elsewhere because (a) it lets me know others are going to come read whatever I wrote, and (b) it lets me know people I care about reading have actually read whatever I wrote. And that, Leaguers, is the blogging circle of life.

One of my fave-rave sites for YEARS has been Heidi MacDonald's "The Beat". So, I was thrilled to see in the links of Technorati that Heidi had linked back to a Comic Fodder article I'd written for last week about the economy and what comic publishers could do to save their skin in these troubled times. But at Technorati, when I clicked on the appropriate link... the article was no longer there.

I was sad. Heidi may have had good reasons for either pulling or never posting the article, but my fifteen minutes of Heidi-powered linked fame was gone, and I was left with nothing but a small reminder of what could have been.

Oh, Heidi... why hast thou removed my linky link?

Okay... yeah, the article was kind of weak.

That said, the guy who wrote the article that spawned my article DID link back (it's the line about "longish think piece"). Which is pretty huge in my world. Unfortunately, Spurge wasn't in the mood to elucidate on what he had in mind. Would have been interesting. Anyway, he's been covering comics and the economy for a few days and its good reading.


New Years Party Update

In case you missed it, here's the official flyer for the Melbotis New Years Hullabalunacy:



To see the invitation, go here.

New Year Party Invitation

Hey, everybuddy!

We're officially doing New Year here at League HQ. Consider this your warning/ invitation.

We would love to see all of you. No need to get all fancied-up, but if that's how you want to roll, then I applaud the extra-effort.

The past few years hosting the League Christmas Heckstravaganza has meant a few things:

1) We kind of peak on Christmas cheer about 1:00 AM the night of the party. Getting revved up for actual Christmas again after the party becomes a sort of work-out.
2) We miss other peoples' parties. I know, we're pretty unpopular. But we have received invites in the past.
3) We rarely have much of anything to do on New Year. This year, we will have an Alpha Plan.



Anyhow, consider yourself invited. Expect an electronic invite soon!

DITMTLOD: Ellen Greene as Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors"

I've actually mentioned I should do a post on this person/ character three times here at LoM. Here, here and here, so I figured I owed her a post.

When I was in sixth grade, my middle school experienced a bomb scare.

There was, of course, no actual bomb. But administrators were required to clear the school in the extremely unlikely occurence that we were victims of a Mad Bomber whose only real demands could have been adding a Slush Puppy machine to the cafeteria.

What I remember most is that the call came late in the day, so the principal had to send us home before we could re-enter the school and grab our bags, etc... So no homework. I learned to love a good bomb threat.

That night we were sort of left staring at one another at the Steans house as not having homework on a school night was a completely alien concept. The Admiral, looked out from behind his copy of the paper long enough to ask if anyone wanted to see a movie. Jason by-passed the chance, and so The Admiral and I headed off to Showplace 6 to catch "Little Shop of Horrors".

I grew up going to a lot of plays, and so, unlike a lot of my counterparts, I did not grow up thinking musicals were weird. And that may have been around when I figured out that musicals are not everybody's cup of tea.

To the point of a "DITMTLOD" post, "Little Shop of Horrors" didn't just feature music I liked, or a huge, talking plant (which I recall The Admiral imitating upon occasion after seeing the movie with a "Feed me, Seymour!" non-sequitor or two), it also featured Broadway star Ellen Greene as Audrey, Seymour's love interest.


Somewhere that's green

At age 12, I was not privvy to some of the jokes of the film, but I do recall getting the extended gag of "somewhere that's green" of Audrey's dream of living inside a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I also didn't really understand the coding of Audrey's slinky dress, bouffant 'do, etc... but that didn't mean I did not appreciate the slinky dresses.

It takes seeing Greene in other roles to understand that (a) Audrey is a complete cartoon manifestation Greene put on, and (b) she's actually a talented actor and doesn't just play the same role over and over a la Tom Cruise or Arnie. She popped up in the recently reviewed "Pump up the Volume", ABC's "Pushing Daisies" and a whole bucket of other stuff, including Leon (aka: The Professional).



The character of Audrey, like Seymour, believes herself to be a loser due to the circumstances which landed her on Skid Row. It's kinda non-specific, but it makes the audience pull for her as someone so down, she doesn't think she deserves any better than a nitrous-abusing sadomasochistic dentist (played awesomely by Steve Martin in the film). She, of course, is terribly sweet and doesn't think she's good enough for our film's hero, Seymour (who also thinks he's not good enough for her. Go figure).

Ellen Greene has a terrific voice, which is terribly divergent from the lilting, post-Marilyn voice with a minor speech impediment she affects as Audrey. You might remember this scene:


Suddenly Seymour!

Anyway, I still think Ellen Greene did a great job with the role, which she'd originated on Broadway and would take to LA and, I think, London. And, she may have set in motion an interest in skinny blonds that continues to this day, but who knows... I am sure, as a tuba playing comic dork, I sorta felt that if a dame like Audrey could secretly dig on Seymour, there was hope for me yet. I just was far less likely to uncover those feelings in song.

Greene (who is not blond) continues to perform in TV, films, cuts records and is generally still very busy. Because she is rarely in anything with robots or ninjas, our paths don't often intersect. However, you can hear more of her on her website (beware the automatically loading audio file). The website hasn't been updated in a long while, but I assume that's because Greene is otherwise occupied.