HIPPIES!!

I joined Wheatsville Co-op, a cooperative grocery here in Austin. Members get 7% discount and every now and then (I'm not sure how often) they have a Member Appreciation Day, when we get 10% off. It's like a small Whole Foods and much closer to my house. They have all kinds of great stuff and the prices are pretty good. I can't afford to get everything there, but I can get some stuff and their organic produce is great. They buy from local farmers, so everything is spectacularly fresh, and it supporting local business, which I'm all for. Of course, Whole Foods started here in Austin, so it's a local business too, but it's too far away to shop there regularly.

the Cutting Edge (57% dark, 42% spontaneous, 21% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | DARK Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or are seriously over-the-top. Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi The 3-Variable Funny Test! - it rules - If you're interested, try my best friend's best test: The Genghis Khan Genetic Fitness Masterpiece

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on darkness You scored higher than 99% on spontaneity You scored higher than 99% on vulgarity

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

This is so true. Whenever I make a joking comment at work, I'm usually met with silence, except from a couple of the loan officers and our underwriter, who all share my vulgar sense of humor. We're also the most educated people in the area. Coincidence? I think not.

Dinsy in the snow

it's Ween-ter!

Had to go to work this morning. I left Adrian sleeping in a nice, warm bed and made my way through the cold and wet streets to my office. I only worked until 10:15 then left for my appointment with the pain specialist. The doctor thought that I may have problems with a couple of vertebrae in my neck and lower back and my body trying to compensate for it is what's causing the pain. She also told me that I still had the scoliosis I had in junior high, which sent me to a chiropractor 3 to 4 days a week for several years then. I thought he had gotten rid of it, but no.....She gave me a new prescription for Lyrica, which I've been on for some time now, but at a much larger dose. My regular doctor hadn't been giving me a therapeutic dose, apparently. I also have to see a "pain counselor" and get an MRI on my back and neck.

Now for the shit news: The one psychiatrist who called me back and agreed to see me this Wednesday left a message on our answering machine last Friday night, saying that after talking to my doctor, she "doesn't think she can help me, so let's cancel the appointment, OK?" She recommended a couple of shrinks who might help me, but upon further research, I found that they only do research studies and don't see patients. WTF??? Can't help me? She didn't even speak to me, except to get my contact information. What is my doc telling people about me? That phone message prompted a hearty round of profanity from me. I had spent 2 weeks calling 25-30 different shrinks and she was the ONLY one who agreed to see me before March or even returned my calls. Now I can't be helped? Fuck this shit.....

Chris Rea

Chris Rea is one of those musical artists who are terrifically popular everywhere around the world except here. Seems like the rest of the world has better taste than we do, imagine THAT.
I've been a fan of his since his 1st LP "Whatever Happened To Benny Santini?" came out in 1978. His one big American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" was on that LP and it has been one of my favorite records since then.


Rea is known for his gravelly, smoky voice and blues guitar playing, and he had a world-wide Number One hit (except here, of course) with "The Road To Hell".


He had to stop touring after a bad bout with cancer that left him without a pancreas, gallbladder and duodenum. He still makes music though and paints too. He has a new "musical book" out called Blue Guitars: a 11 cd set, with a live DVD and a book of his paintings included.

Why isn't he more famous here in the US? Chris Rea is amazing....

Misery Goat

My doctor made an appointment for me to see a pain management specialist on Monday. Perhaps, he'll tell me to go home and get some rest after I see him and I'll get Martin Luther King Day off, like everyone else. Or maybe I'll have to go to work.
Then, one of the 25 psychiatrists I called finally called me back and agreed to see me next Wednesday. I get to leave work early that day. Maybe my misery goat is on its way out the door......

Projects

We have a composting bin that came with the house. I have no idea how to use it. We recently put out about 12 thirty gallon bags of leaves for the garbage men to take away, so maybe I should do some reading up on how to compost. It would probably benefit the bare patches in the back yard......
Also, we need to get a bat house. Bats eat huge amounts of flying insects, so we'd be able to sit outside without being plagued by mosquitoes. We bought a little plastic birdhouse today to provide entertainment for the cat. I'd also like to get a nice birdbath for the flower patch right outside the back door. We've already got some nice strings of lights to put up in the trees. We also want to get some rolls of reed fencing to give us some privacy from the house directly behind us. It's empty now, but it probably won't be for much longer.....
My primary care doctor wants me to see a psychiatrist in order to get back on meds for depression. I've called all the one on my insurance company list and they're either not accepting new patients, can't see me until March or just won't return my calls. I've got to do something about it soon, because the pain is depressing me further, as is just not sleeping well. I've been almost panicky about it at times. I feel like I want to crawl into bed and sleep for a week, but I can't do that. I have to work. I can't put my job at risk.

Bad Day

The pain is really bad today. I felt so bad at work that I snuck off twice to the ladies room to cry. It's hard to describe. It feels like I've been beaten with a baseball bat; very, very sore and throbbing, all over my body, almost like I'm radiating with pain. My face was numb from hyperventilating all day.....
When we got home, I took one of Adrian's oxycodone that he had left over after his gum surgery, and it just took the edge off the pain. Now I'll have another night of waking up every time I shift position in bed, because the pain will shoot through me and startle me awake.
And it's raining again......

I wish everyone would....just...FUCK OFF. NOW.

Ex-Mas

We had a nice, pleasant xmas this year. This was the first time Adrian and I have been able to spend a holiday together. Usually, he went to his family and I went to mine, but this year we decided to stay home and be together for the first time in 17 years. His brothers and sisters and a brother-in-law came from Dallas to spend the time with us, and our pal Stainze came over too. Adrian cooked a huge batch of his mom's dressing recipe, which turned out wonderful, and there were many desserts.
Adrian and I usually wait until January to get gifts for each other because we almost always never have any extra $$ in December, for various reasons. We just did stocking stuffers. He got me a beautiful pair of earrings that I saw at BookPeople and an Origins gift card. I got him some DVDs of old classroom sex and hygiene education films from the 40s and 50s, a book of weird photos and some malted milk balls.
Adrian has the whole week off, but I'm back at work today. Not much to do, but I'm gettin' paid to do it.....
Happy New Year to all of y'all!

The American Way

Here we see Curly of the Three Stooges dealing with a terroristic bowl of oyster soup the good old American way......

Callllllllll for Super Chicken

I miss Super Chicken. It was one of my fave cartoons when I was a kid. I watched it everyday after school, along with Tom Slick, the Mighty Heroes, Wacky Racers (with Penelope Pitstop) and the Banana Splits.
On Saturday mornings, the lineup was Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo (when they had guest stars like Mama Cass and Sandy Duncan), Fat Albert and the Children's International Film Festival with Kukla, Fran and Ollie.
Sunday mornings was the Childrens Hour with Bill Kelly, which had Davey and Goliath, old Merrie Melodies cartoons and Bill would read the funny papers, then the Osmonds and the Jackson 5 both had cartoons as well.
On weekdays before school, it was Slam Bang Theatre with Icky Twerp, and his ape pals Ajax and Delphinium playing cartoons and Three Stooges shorts.
Back then, nobody was trying to sell us stuff to go with the cartoons, we just watched them because they were funny.

drugs are not fun

My doc switched me to Cymbalta and is taking me off Lyrica and imipramine. The Cymbalta is supposed to be better for sleeping and chronic pain, but I'm having a rough time with it after being on it only 3 days. My jaw hurts terribly, almost like it's out of the socket, and that also makes my ear and my entire head hurt. I looked up the side effects and "jaw pain" wasn't one of them, so I don't know if it's from going on the new drug or going off the old one. It's really bad. At least I'm sleeping better.
I need to get food for all the people who are coming next weekend. I hope I feel better by then.

Rap is short for Crap

Adrian and I found out (thanks to the Austin Chronicle) that we now live in the epicenter of Austin's rap culture:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A421144
Perhaps I should get some bling and a grill? Or a gun maybe?

Cheap Date

That's me. A new liquor/fine foods store opened up in the hood yesterday, so I went by to check it out. They had sampling stations all over the store and by the time I got to check out, i was seriously wondering if I would be able to drive home. The store is called Spec's and they have loads of them all over Houston, apparently. You get a small discount when you pay with cash or debit card. The booze is so cheap, I actually bought a bottle of Tito's Handmade Vodka, thinking I'd like to come home from a hard day at work to a nice, chilled vodka tonic. I also spent over $40 on cheeses, coffee and crackers and such. Spec's is now my favorite store.
When I got home I tried out the vodka tonic. It promptly gave me a rather pleasant case of the bedspins and then put me to sleep, like booze always does. I didn't inherit the alcoholic gene that runs in part of my family, because one drink makes me fall asleep and two drinks make me puke. So just call me a CHEAP DATE.

more migraine fun

Stayed home today nursing a migraine. I took Adrian to the bus stop, then came home and fell asleep on the couch until afternoon. I found the crockpot I had been wanting at HEB for less than $20 Monday night, so I tried out my Moroccan Chick Pea Soup recipe in it and it came out great. We had that for dinner tonight, and I have plenty leftover for lunch tomorrow. I'll be utilizing the crockpot quite a bit in the future.
My cousin Tracey is curious about silent film. Film history has always been interesting to me. I've always preferred older movies to the more current ones, mostly for the same reasons I prefer old furniture and old houses: they made them better back then. The characters were more developed, as were the stories. Silent movies I find particularly fascinating because you can see how people lived and dressed up to more than 100 years ago (film history starts in the 1870s). Kino Video has put out a series of DVDs called The Movies Begin. It contains the earliest motion studies from Eadweard Muybridge to the 1903 version of The Great Train Robbery that included footage of an oncoming train that made panicked audiences bolt from their seats; to early comedians like Frenchman Max Linder, who influenced Charlie Chaplin, early animation from Winsor McCay (an adorable dinosaur that surely influenced Walt Disney) to the early experiments of the Lumiere Brothers and Georges Melies' A Trip To The Moon (1902).
My own list of fave silents would include far more European films than American ones, purely for the reason that, in other than comedies, American films were made for the lowest common denominator, much like today. European directors tended to give their audiences more intelligence. And yes, I prefer German Expressionism, but American comedies cannot be beat.
1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany) -R. Wiene - 1919
2. Die Buchse Der Pandora (Germany) - GW Pabst 1928
3. Faust (Germany) - FW Murnau - 1926
4. Steamboat Bill, Jr. - (USA) Buster Keaton 1928
5. Speedy - (USA) - Harold Lloyd 1928
6. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans - (USA) - FW Murnau 1927
7. Nosferatu - (Germany) - FW Murnau 1922
8. The Gold Rush - (USA) - Charlie Chaplin 1925
9. Flesh and the Devil - (USA) - Clarence Brown 1926
10. The Student of Prague - (Germany) - Henrik Galeen 1926

I included an American film that wasn't a comedy, Flesh and the Devil. This film starred Greta Garbo (in one of her very first American films) and her real-life lover John Gilbert, the George Clooney of the 1920s. Their lust for each other is so apparent, it's a wonder this film got past the censors. If it had been made just 8 years later when the Hays Code was passed in 1934, it wouldn't have been released at all! Hot stuff....
The Student of Prague and Faust are both morality tales: what happens when you sell your soul to the Devil? There's an earlier version of Student, but it stars Paul Wegener, who is most unfortunate looking. I prefer the better acting (and better looking) Conrad Veidt in the later version. Faust's cinematography is spellbinding, especially for such an early film. The whole film is very stylish.
What can one say about Nosferatu? Max Schreck was the most creepy looking SOB in Germany and this role was made for him. This film is a must for Halloween viewing. It really is extremely creepy...
Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd I find much more entertaining than Chaplin. Bear in mind that these guys didn't use stunt men, which makes their movies all the more amazing to watch. Harold Lloyd had only part of his right hand, due to an explosion during a photo shoot in 1918, but that's him you see hanging from the clock in Safety Last. The bit in Steamboat Bill, Jr. when the house falls down around Keaton is spellbinding.....
So, if you're looking to get into silent movies, I'd recommend starting with the above.....

I....I....I......

Adrian and I went to IKEA in Round Rock today. It was....overwhelming, to say the least. We spent over 2 hours walking around, "wallowing in pine and Norsemen", as my pal Shelly says. Adrian said he wasn't going to spend any money, but he ended up spending twice as much as I did. LOL
I got 3 wooden magazine holders, a toilet brush and holder, some wooden hangers and a computer wire tube thingy. He bought some magazine holders, a plastic chair mat, a wastebasket for his bathroom and something else I can't remember.
I'm exhausted now. IKEA is a wonderplace and will probably get far too much of my money in the near future....

Cold

Ahhhh, winter in Central Texas: bright sunshine, 30 degrees in the morning, 55 degrees in the afternoon. No snow, no ice, no high winds, just bee-yootiful weather. Makes me want to fire up the chiminea and eat Mexican food.....
We rented Die Buchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box), the 1928 German silent version starring Louise Brooks, directed by G.W. Pabst. I'd been wanting to see it for some time and Criterion Films has just released a 2DVD set of the remastered film:
"This classic silent German film tells of Lulu, a sensual chorus girl whose uncontainable sexual power literally destroys every man with whom she has an affair, until she encounters one of history's most notorious killers - Jack the Ripper. Considered particularly shocking at the time of its release because of the suggestion of a lesbian attraction between Lulu and a Countess. Brooks is at her sultry finest."
The remastering is amazing. The images are sharp and memorable, and Louise Brooks is, of course, staggering in her role as Lulu. If you've never seen a silent film, this is an excellent first choice. This was her first film in Germany after fleeing Hollywood and it made her an international star and an icon.

Ahhhhhh, Tuesday.....how boring.

Holidaze

Back home now.....a relatively pain-free trip. Pleasant (mostly) visits with the family, lots of great food, not a whole lot of traffic (on the way back anyway). Nobody died by my hand, so I can honestly say it was a huge success.
We put up the Yule tree Sunday and so far, Dinsy hasn't paid much attention to it. I had envisioned broken ornaments and garland strewn everywhere within mere minutes, but a firm "NO DINSY GET AWAYYYYYYYY!!!!" whenever she wandered too near did the trick, I guess. She does like to climb, as you can see by the pic.....