Running Hot and Cold

It hasn't been the busiest week, but I have managed to do some things in K.'s absence. We had some plumbing work done on the bathroom, so that "HOT" now means hot, not scalding, and "COLD" actually means cold, not non-existent. And the shower? It has a new knob that's actually threaded so that when you turn it, it turns on the shower. Nifty, huh? What will they come up with next, in this miraculous 21st Century? It's all done with copper tubing, too! Then we had the shower-head raised a foot and a half so that it's above my head, as opposed to spraying my chest. Well, this is what I suppose, anyway. I've now fixed the hole in the dry-wall, sealed and painted it, and it has yet to dry. All this to say, I haven't had a shower since Friday. But I'm sure it will be marvelous.*

The next step is to replace the sink and faucets, even though the steady drip-drip-drip has done wonders for my problems with rhythm. I'll just have to invest in that metronome, I guess.

What else? Well, the splinters in my hands that make me wince when I type remind me that I've been moving various parts of our fallen tree (Reference here) into our handy-dandy wood-crib that we put together Easter weekend. A work in progress, I've moved a bunch of wood-hunks from the lawn into it, for the purpose of, in the near-future, taking each hunk and hatcheting it into smaller hunks for the burning of in our wood stove. But I've filled it, and there's so much more tree to go. I will have to make another wood-pile, and tarp it for the large hunks that won't fit the crib. It's a process. But it's all wood. It's all good.

I have some free-lance this week. Job applications to send in. Some speculative sound-design to do. Might take in a movie, although there's nothing out there that floats my boat. In the mean-time, I'll be taking long walks with my short peers--they being the dog and cat-units. They've been entertaining in K's absence. Smokey had an extended frisbee session at low-tide yesterday. And he's been modeling his new anti-bark collar, getting used to it. No, it's not one of those shock-collars. It emits a distracting chirp when he barks.

Okay, "chirp" might not be the word.

"Irritating squeal" would be more accurate.

Yeah, that's more like it. "Irritating squeal."

We should see a drop in cardiac arrests in UPS delivery-men in the near-term. Watch for it.
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And there's something else that that I'm happy about--I had dinner with my former wife Alesandra. She's started reading this blog--and, in fact, holds the record for the most amount of time spent on the site at one time (02:05:00). We talked about this. We talked about that. It was really good seeing her again. She looks great. She's doing well, and she's actually planning to take some time off and vacation. It was a nice, long enjoyable meal with delightful company. I see her too seldom. We've promised to do better in the future.
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I wrote earlier this week about my association with Dan "The Man." I also wrote about him here (it has a nifty link to the short film he wrote and directed). Well, I've gotten a couple of nice e-notes from him. One in regards to this ad (http://www.cryocarepca.org/). When we worked on that before-mentioned comedy album one of the bits Dan wrote was for "Cryo-Care"--a cryonic day-care where busy adults could freezer their child to accomodate their schedules and not miss those all-important child development highlights. And now, here's "Cryo-Care," for real.

Well, this week, Dan sent me another link (http://blog.wired.com/defense/files/DESM-ProgramOri.pdf). You'll probably need Acrobat or some other program that can open PDF's, but its worth a look. It inspired me to write these new lyrics for an old song:

They call him Flipper, Flipper

Wired with Lazers

No one, you see

Is Com-bus-tion-free

And we know Flipper

Fights e-ne-mies of our na-tion

With Im-mo-la-tion

'til they're crispeeeey!

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I did rent a couple of really good movies this week:

"United 93" is Paul Greengrass' recreation (with non-actors) of the first counter-attack on the War on Terror (and, need I point out, one of the most successful?) You know the story. You know how it turns out. So its the considerable accomplishment of the director to still keep you on the edge of your seat, and do it in a way that feels real, and decidedly "un-Hollywood." There's no grand-standing. No commentary. No jingo-ism. No speeches. It's the story of desperate people in a desperate circumstance. And doing the right thing. It's an amazing piece of work and can't recommend it highly enough.

"Stranger Than Fiction" is the latest film by Marc Forster, or one of the Marc Forsters as he seems to be a different director with every film. This is the same guy who did "Monsters' Ball," and "Finding Neverland." And this, a sunny little black comedy, is nothing like either of those films. It's very nice to find a comedy that isn't an echo of something you've heard before, and although it carries the whiff of a Charlie Kaufman conceit, it has its own unique voice courtesy of writer Zach Helm. And it's performed to the hilt by Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, an almost unrecognizable Tom Hulce, and a wonderfully muted Will Farrell. Yeah, we all like the extrovert Will Farrell (well, maybe we don't), but there's something extraordinarily comic about this performance, where he's forever looking askance at the world and wondering why. It's very enjoyable. Highly recommended.

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Today's Seen Bumper Sticker: There's a Village in Texas Missing its Idiot

Song in me Head: "You Made Me So Very Happy" Blood, Sweat and Tears

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* And it was. You know something? I've gone a solid year without a decent experience taking a shower in this place. That can take a lot out of a person--not knowing if you were going to have hot water and how long it would last. Well, now the shower is high enough and I can regulate the temperature. I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to do that. Life's simple pleasures...