An image! Oh, my!

      I think that somebody at Fox marketing has a twisted sense of humor, as evidenced by the banner ads on their site for The Swan.

      Anyways, Shana's bridal shower yesterday was pleasant. Probably the first bridal shower I've attended that I enjoyed. I usually just tag along with my Mom and am the youngest one there, and rarely know anybody. Leslie's was nice, but I felt a bit awkward having not really met Leslie before and having no clue about her family.
      There were about a dozen of us at Shana's party, with a good mix of family, friends, younger, older, et cetera. Everyone was cool and nice and friendly, and Michelle made an amazing dessert: hot cupcakes (fresh from the oven) with gooey middles and vanilla ice cream! Mmmmm. Shana's Mom and grandmother also brought pork and rice, and cucumber salad. Lots of good conversation, and I look forward to seeing them this Sunday at the wedding.

      My whole family saw Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend. Mom and I went to an afternoon matinee, and Dad and David attended the last showing of Saturday night. As I expected, it made me cry, repeatedly. It's a good film and I highly recommend it, but it was quite upsetting. The movie's a good antidote to corporate media.
      Inspired by F9/11, I was involved in a discussion this past weekend that began with someone disagreeing with me and insisting on sources to back up my statement. When some history books were pulled out to back-up my statement, the person who had disagreed with me said that the books supported their ideas, and then went on to re-state my original argument in different words. Both logic and debate really should be required of all high school students. That might help political discussions a bit. So that, y'know, I don't just sigh and give up and rejoice that no shouting or threats of violence were involved.

Rather funny, but still evil

      My Dad works at Boeing. He recently got a new lanyard for his security badge. It has the following printed on it: "Recommitment to Ethics Day".

Prettier than poetry
Stronger than fidelity

       The new KUCI quarter started early this morning and the whole world hasn't come crashing down on my head yet. Yay!

       I found out that I have to buy the new "Entertainment Weekly". Christian Bale's on the cover to promote the new Batman movie. I'll be so happy to finally see that when it's done!

       Over the weekend I had this dream about going to Comic Con (although it was really more like Cousin Con, but that's not the point). Along with many differences about the convention that made me happy, they also had art on display. The actual San Diego Comic Con does have an art exhibit and whatnot. It's basically fanart up for silent auction, which is all well and good.
       In my dream, though, it was more like a contemporary fine art exhibition. My favorite piece was "Generic Mini Mart". It was a full-size (albeit kind of small) mini mart with clerks and everything right in the middle of the convention center floor. What made it different from a regular mini mart was the complete lack of brands. None of the products (which were all for sale) were brand name goods. No Shrek 2 Pepsi cans or anything. It was rather calming and made the dream!me laugh. So v. unnatural, though. I just had to share.

Up Goes the Last Playlist for the Forseeable Future, sigh
Listen online at kuci.org

Artist . Song . Album . New Release?
1. Toog . Le Geant Vert . 6633
2. Stereolab . Fruition . Jenny Ondioline (Part 1)
3. Stereo Total . Miao Miao . Stereo Total
4. Takako Minekawa . Fantastic Cat . Roomic Cube

5. Miss Kitten . 3eme Sexe . I Com . NR
6. Howie B. . Ballade de Melody Nelson . I Love Serge
7. Coralie Clement . Le Jazz et le Gin . Salle de Pas Perdus

8. Kahimi Karie . Elastic Girl . Kahimi Karie
9. Momus . Good Morning World . 20 Vodka Jellies
10. Banco de Gaia . Waking Up in Waco . You Are Here . NR

11. Amadou & Mariam . Sarama . Wati
12. Teshome Meteku . Mot Adeladlogn . Ethiopiques 1

13. One Ring Zero . Introduction . As Smart as We Are . NR
14. One Ring Zero . Natty Man Blues . As Smart as We Are . NR
15. One Ring Zero . We Both Have a Feeling That You Still Love Me . As Smart as We Are . NR
16. One Ring Zero . Kiss Me, You Brat! . As Smart as We Are . NR
17. One Ring Zero . Deposition Disposition . As Smart as We Are . NR
18. One Ring Zero . The Ghost of Rita Gonzalo . As Smart as We Are . NR

19. One Ring Zero . Frankenstein Monster Song . As Smart as We Are . NR
20. One Ring Zero . Honku . As Smart as We Are . NR
21. One Ring Zero . Blessing . As Smart as We Are . NR
22. One Ring Zero . On the Wall . As Smart as We Are . NR
23. One Ring Zero . All the House Plants . As Smart as We Are . NR
24. One Ring Zero . Golem . As Smart as We Are . NR

25. One Ring Zero . Snow . As Smart as We Are . NR
26. One Ring Zero . Nothing Else is Happening Here . As Smart as We Are . NR
27. One Ring Zero . The Story of the Hairy Call . As Smart as We Are . NR
28. One Ring Zero . Water . As Smart as We Are . NR

29. Zombie Nation feat. Divine . Native Love . KeokiClash comp. . NR
30. Kid Spatula . Jackal . Meast . NR
31. Hearts of Darkness . Bleedout . Music for Drunk Driving . NR

Music is a wonderful thing.

      South Park just keeps getting better and better. I suggest you watch it whenever it's on.

      I can't get the new One Ring Zero album, "As Smart As We Are", out of my head. I really need to learn the lyrics to those songs. That'd make my life easier.

Hmmmm
Mood:  incredulous

      Yesterday, the tools to make this blog became considerably more complex than they used to be. Now I have "Emoticons" and Topics and a toolbar to help me code and add images. It's all odd and not too useful to me, as I already know html. This'll prob'ly be the last time I use an "Emoticon", so enjoy it. The spell-check is quite welcome, though, as I usually (time permitting) cut-n-paste into MS Word to check spelling and then have to c-n-p back into the blog text field to post.

      Ok, so there's this about some guy who doesn't write very well but thinks he does. He's also prone to making up credentials. He claims to have received an MFA from UC Irvine. I sure hope it wasn't from any lit-related department. Maybe he got his MFA in sculpture or something. 'Cause, while I never took masters writing courses at UCI, I took a couple of undergrad writing courses taught be grad students, and they are some of my favorite instructors from my college days. I feel insulted by this guy on their behalf. How dare he sully such wonderful people for me with his ickiness! Hell, Aimee Bender got an MFA in creative writing at UCI and she's one of my very favorite authors. How dare this creep connect himself to Aimee Bender in my mind?!? Grr!

      Also, crunchy peanut butter is yummy. Yay for peanuts! And that Carver guy! Double yay!

Oh, you know...

      So, I, uh...I watched Newsradio last night. Janeane Garofalo was the guest star. She's my favorite funny person. And...I did laundry.

      I have 35 of 60 time slots filled for the summer quarter that begins on Monday. Jill promised the hours some time today, and when I get those in I should be able to finish the schedule. It's madness, truly.

Oops! Forgot something.

      I finally finished reading The Man Who was Thursday some time last week. I cannot recommend Mr Chesterton's work highly enough. Were it not for everything else I have stacked up to read, I'd immerse myself in GKC for the next several months. I'm thankful that the American Chesterton Society has some of his work available online. Makes the work day pass more pleasantly.
      Anyways, the book itself was quite satisfying. Some of the pay-offs were a little obvious, but maybe that's just because of my historical perspective. I still enjoyed it. Figuring things out a couple of chapters before the characters do makes me feel good, 'cause I can usually only predict the plot of crappy sitcoms, which is why I don't watch them.

      Separately, I watched this TV movie on Lifetime with my Mom over the weekend called To Love, Honor and Deceive. I know, from the description so far one would expect crap. But it was actually well-written and had a plot and was v. entertaining. It wasn't perfect, but it's far better than that "Stepford Husbands" thing I couldn't even get past the first 30 minutes of. Ok, that isn't a good recommendation. If you like a good mystery with a beautiful soap star and a funny FBI agent and that guy who played Greg on "Dharma and Greg", it's definitely the TV movie for you. ; )

Now I'm sleepy--

      Um, snickers are good. They're full of sugar and caffeine and yumminess. Yay for snickers!

      I began reading Four Women by Sam Keith last night, after realizing that I'd bought it while in Hollywood the weekend of the AD TWoP Con and hadn't looked at it since. I caught the first line of the foreword by the author that said something about the book being based on events that really happened to a woman he knows. I stopped there for fear of spoiling the book for myself. I didn't get through chapter two, though. It was just getting too scary for me. I figured it'd be a good idea to not read it right before going to bed last night, and assumed I'd pick it up again some other time. Right now, I don't think I ever want to finish reading that. I just can't handle scary stories. It's a shame, cuz his work is always so good, but I'd prefer to have fewer nightmares, thanks.

      I decided to get in some less frightening reading just before nodding-off and chose one of the books Brooke gave me for my birthday, A College of Magics. The cover compares it to "Harry Potter", but it pre-dates that series, which gave me a good feeling. It's fun so far, but reminds me far more of His Dark Materials than HP. Prob'ly cuza the female protagonist and ye olde fashioned time period. Also, it isn't weighed down too much with the minutiae of "going to school".

A New Playlist for You to Love
Listen online at kuci.org

Artist . Song . Album . New Release?
1. Quantic . Mishaps Happening . Mishaps Happening . NR
2. Greyboy . Make Music w/ Bart Davenport . Soul Mosaic . NR
3. La Funkmob . Oriental Folk Song [Wayne Shorter] . Blue Note Revisited . NR

4. Glenn Branca . Dissonance . Lesson No. 1 . NR

5. Casino Versus Japan . Sheena . Freescha . NR
6. Kammerflimmer Kollektief . Eiderdaunen (Version) . Thank You . comp. . NR
7. Chib . Hon . Moco . NR
8. Noah Creshevsky . Ossi di Morte . Hyperrealism . NR

9. New Black . Hot Box . New Black . NR
9a. The Beta Band . Out-Side . Heroes to Zeroes . NR

10. Banco de Gaia . Gray Over Gray . You Are Here . NR

11. Blockhead . Intro: Hello Popartz, Scratches by Omega One . Music by Cavelight . NR
12. Not Breathing . Polaris . Carrion Sounds . NR
13. o9 . Terminal Silver . Church of the Ghetto P.C. . NR

+14. Masters at Work . La Descarga del Bobo [Willie Bobo] . Latin Verve Sounds . NR
15. Doctor Jazz's Universal Remedy . Because of You [dj Shade remix] . release 1.0 . NR
16. Numatic Soul . Dry Clean . Groove Closet comp. . NR

17. Kid Spatula . Orange Crumble . Meast . NR
18. Cottonbelly . Real Inspiration . Z Amounts of Niceness . NR

19. Funkstorung . Sleeping Beauty w/ Lou Rhodes . Disconnected . NR
20. Gys . Dim (Substance rework) . art d'eacho . NR