Category: Uncategorized

This morning, I decided at the last minute not to bring my laptop along on this trip to Louisiana, so don’t expect any posts for the rest of this week! Have a great Christmas, my Christian readers!

Reading over the signs and kits at a nearby Lab Corp. location (routine blood draw for my physical), it occured to me that there really should be a death metal band named Fecal Occult.

Sorry for the lack of updates, dear readers! I have a pretty heavy workload this week, as I have to lay out my annual Contract Services Directory (part of our 400-page year-end issue). I oughtta be wrapped up with it today, so I hope to get you some good Unrequired Reading links right on time tomorrow!

What I’m reading: Judenhass, a comic book meditation on the Holocaust by Dave Sim. “Flies on the Ceiling,” the featured story in the first issue of Love & Rockets I ever bought. More Montaigne. Also, finished Plutarch’s first two Lives (Theseus & Romulus).

What I’m listening to: A mix I’m trying to put together.

What I’m watching: Weirdly enough, I’ve now seen all 3 Bourne movies, even though I’m uninterested in the franchise. They have an unerring tendency to show up in HD on the rare occasions that I’m home alone and clicking around the channels. I’m happy that Matt Damon is one of the world’s biggest action heroes, for the sheer humor value. I liked all the location shoots, which made it feel like the movies were made to get overseas tax breaks. And we finished the first season of Arrested Development, which was a hoot.

What I’m drinking: Not much of anything. No reason.

What Rufus is up to: Hiking in Wawayanda State Park after an ice storm.

Where I’m going: No plans, but one of our neighbors is having a holiday party next weekend, so we’ll meander over to that. Oh, and our office holiday party is this Friday. Gotta write some jokes for that.

What I’m happy about: I’ll be done with the big year-end issue by the end of the week.

What I’m sad about: Not getting too much holiday shopping done yet.

What I’m pondering: Whether it was daring of me to upgrade my blog to WordPress 2.7.

What I’m reading: Dear American Airlines, the Comics Journal‘s interview with Jason, a little Plutarch, a little Montaigne.

What I’m listening to: After reading this Te-Nahisi Coates post — and its slew of comments — on Michael Jackson and his influence on a generation-plus of performers, I listened to a bunch of MJ’s stuff this weekend. Sure, it’s easy to goof on him for losing his mind and engaging in all sorts of bad craziness, but holy crap did he make great pop music. I’ll argue that Phil Collins had more hits spread out over the course of the 1980s, solo and with Genesis — and that MJ has never released a single remotely as offensive as Illegal Alien — but Michael Jackson & Quincy Jones had a run where they made the best pop music in the past 30 years, hands down. Plus, no one exactly made appointment TV to see the debut of a new Phil Collins video.

What I’m watching: Arrested Development. Oh, and Michael Clayton, which was dull, although I was happy to see the bad guy from Bachelor Party return and try to blow up George Clooney. But let me ask: WHY ARE YOU USING FLASHBACK? There was no reason whatsoever for the movie to have a flashback structure, except to show a car exploding in the first few minutes. It was an idiotic decision, making the car explosion tension-free when the flashback caught up to that moment. Why are filmmakers such cretins? Why can’t they tell a story without using a structural cheat? This isn’t Memento!

What I’m drinking: One day it’s Junipero & Q Tonic, the next it’s NyQuil.

What Rufus is up to: Stylishly trotting around the neighborhood in his purple & black coat/snood.

Where I’m going: NYC next Saturday for a birthday BBQ lunch at Blue Smoke.

What I’m happy about: Nick Saban and William Jefferson both lost. And my wife’s still alive in her NFL Loser pool! Thanks, Steelers!

What I’m sad about: I can’t expand my DirecTV DVR’s storage capacity with an eSata drive. (Well, I can, but only by shutting off the internal drive.)

What I’m pondering: My spreadsheet of holiday gift recipients.

What I’m reading: The new issue of Monocle, and Plutarch’s life of Theseus.

What I’m listening to: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, by David Byrne & Brian Eno.

What I’m watching: Arrested Development, season 1. Like, two hours at a time. We bought all 3 seasons on Amazon a few months ago, for $20.

What I’m drinking: Plymouth gin, Q Tonic and lime.

What Rufus is up to: Having a nice Thanksgiving slumber-party with an Australian shepherd, going to a greyhound meet & greet the next day. No Wawayanda hike on Sunday for us, due to icy roads. But he did get his head scratched plenty.

Where I’m going: Martini Madness party next Saturday, at a friend’s place in town.

What I’m happy about: Finding another first edition of the hardcover of Richard Flanagan’s Gould’s Book of Fish down in Princeton (thanks, eagle-eyed wife!). I really oughtta re-read that, since I last read it in 2003.

What I’m sad about: That I didn’t get too many of my “To Do” items done during my week off. But I did put up that new curtain rod and the coat rack, so hey.

What I’m pondering: How far I’ve come since I bungee-jumped off The Ledge in Queenstown, NZ, which was five years ago today.

Photo by my pal Tina Bramley, without whom I’d have had a much more solipsistic and boring trip to the other side of the world.