Happy Halloween! Sorry I missed National Cat Day, but today's the day on which we celebrate the birthday of our big black bright-eyed beautiful boy baby beast! Who is now eighteen in people years! Hard to believe I've had him for about 16 of those years now (Steve and I adopted him from our receptionist from two jobs ago, whose new baby was allergic, and I was told he was about two years old at the time). Aside from his peristalsis problem requiring daily meds (and the fact that he doesn't really have teeth any more) he's pretty darn healthy for an 18-year-old kitty! I celebrated with a Flickr set (which also contains a few photos of Amy because, darn it, she can really work it in front of a camera). I think this one's my favorite, as this is the look and paw action Datsa gives me most of the time (particularly when he's angling for food):
"Hello, Mommy?"
Yes, of course that's the Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) in the background.
Also got a couple photos of both cats this weekend, which I'm uploading directy to Blogger so you can click to embiggen:
One of the reasons I don't tend to read comment sections, particularly on my favorite feminist blogs, is the mansplaining and the way it both derails substantive discussion of the topic at hand and marginalizes the reasonable people discussing that topic. (Hey, after yesterday's rally, I feel like we should be appreciating reasonable people more than ever.) Gabby Schultz sums this up brilliantly in the following comic: As Jezebel points out, "Best part? Gabby's a dude." Via Leigh Dragoon, who notes that in Jezebel's comments section "it sure didn't take long for the mansplaining to begin." (Leigh's comment section is, fortunately, reasonable throughout, and has duly warned me away from the similarly gnarled comment section at PZ's place.)
...are here. This time I combined Robin's photos with mine. It does seem as though last week was peak at Macy Park, but I'm still glad we went this morning.
Well, that was a fun rally. Like any reasonable person with other things to do on a lovely weekend (we went to Macy Park again this morning for a last foliage photo shoot, then grocery shopping and picking up of dry cleaning) I watched Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and about 150,000 of their closest friends from the comfort of my living room. I suppose it wasn't their fault that all the musical acts this side of Kid Rock sounded like they were from the '70s (I know The Roots and John Legend are both contemporary acts but I could have sworn I was listening to Sly and the Family Stone and Marvin Gaye with just a little hip-hop added), but I also have to say my favorite bit was the "medley" of Yusuf "Cat Stevens" Islam doing "Peace Train," interrupted by Ozzy Osbourne singing "Crazy Train," then ultimately the O'Jays getting it together with "Love Train." And I'm sure Jon Stewart's 15-minute closing speech already has a million YouTube hits. Some good placards as well, and you can still go to Sane or Not to state your preferences for similar signs. Here's hoping all the signs point to a positive direction now.
Well, I hadn't meant to go on a time-traveling jag, but I just find this stuff amusing. You know how seeing patterns of significance (faces, religious iconography, etc.) in ordinary patternless objects can be summed up in the single word pareidolia? Well, apparently there's a term for the current trend of anachronistic pareidolia from films and such, and near as I can tell it's coined by Joshua Glenn: the Pluperfect PDA. (Via io9 again.) It's pretty amusing since PDAs have been around such a short time and, considering the rate of technological evolution in my lifetime alone, will probably be replaced by something else ere long. But hey, people didn't see Jesus' face in toast before Jesus was born, or before toasters were invented. Seriously, guys, next you'll be talking about how Captain Kirk signed off on proto-iPads from the Enterprise bridge.
So Fox is still blacked out on our cable system due to its continual nose-thumbing at Cablevision, which has offered affected subscribers a refund if they pay to view the World Series on MLB.TV. So guess what I'm doing? On the one hand, no ads; on the other, no graphics (like, you know, the balls and strikes and outs) and you have to pick the camera angle(s) yourself. Still, it's cool to watch well-played baseball in real time, and it allows me to blog and do some ironing as well. If only I hadn't been up since 5 AM (I had to be at the office by 7:15 to set up for an early meeting). The score's currently tied in the middle of the 5th inning as I type, so I'll have to consult my local Science Tarot deck (via Arthur Hlavaty) to determine the outcome at this point...
One week to Election Day, and MoveOn.org has given us this brilliant "Back from the Future" video. Do stay until the end, the dialogue gets hilariously geeky:
Oh, and speaking of voting, you can also help assure a bright future for Nancy Goldstein, who has made the final four in the Washington Post's "America's Next Great Pundit" contest. The last round of voting is currently scheduled to begin on Thursday. Nancy is married to comic book artist and editor (and my long-time friend) Joan Hilty, whose tenure at DC Comics ends on December 27, so this shot at greatness couldn't come at a better time. Besides which, most importantly, Nancy's a hell of a talented writer. More on Nancy's Facebook page.
Just finished watching last Friday's Real Time, and all the stuff Maher mentioned made me shake my head once again at the alternate reality many people in this country seem to believe in so fervently - a reality that's objectively provable to be false. It wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't have all kinds of potential political power over me, or if their alternate reality was like that depicted in this Alternate Reality TV generator (via the Generator Blog).
One of the reasons I haven't been blogging so much, aside from the usual (errands, ironing, my office blocking all blogging capabilities from our desktops so very sparse stuff during the week) is because Robin and I have been enjoying autumn outdoors. We went to VE Macy Park again yesterday, where I took another bunch of photos including six for Robin to stitch into a panorama. Gallery here, and below is some footage of the ducks and geese:
Last Sunday at Mom's house Robin took a photo of me and her in front of some autumnal stuff:
Yesterday we visited my Aunt Kenie (Mom's sister) and Robin took this:
Something that's been bothering me for awhile is all the brouhaha throughout the US and Europe concerning so-called Muslim clothing. On more than one occasion, Sikhs have been attacked or killed because they wear turbans, and ignorant people associate turbans with Muslims. And remember all the nonsense a couple years ago about how dare Rachael Ray wear a keffiyah? Exactly like the kind I saw on a couple Italian guys walking along Sixth Avenue ahead of me the other day, which is why I'm thinking about this again? And of course there's the disgusting French burqa ban. Hey, I don't like the way Hasidic Jews dress either, even though there but for the grace of a myth go I, y'know? But I'm not advocating a ban on all pais and round hats because a few of them want to see all Arabs dead. So I was delighted to see a new Tumblr blog called Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things (via BoingBoing, and I love the photo they chose). Because, you know, in the end it's just clothes and accessories, after all.
Maybe a blogaround tomorrow, if I can get through the ironing (yes, again). Today was lovely and unexpectedly warm for the season, and we went back to Macy Park and took more photos, but after our subsequent errands I was a bit too tired (still am) to do anything else. Still going to make an effort to keep my eyes open enough tomorrow to catch up on blogs again, although I don't know if I'll ever make it through the entire .DOC File of J Alfred Prufrock (via BoingBoing). And so to bed...
Well, that's pretty much it for baseball for me this season, particularly if the Yankees continue to lose and Fox continues to extort Cablevision customers. In other years I might be perturbed, but at present I'm just too tired. Meanwhile, our office has announced its first-ever cubicle decorating contest. Think I should buy some stuff from Franken Toys (via Regretsy) to spruce up the place?
The thing that amuses me most about Atheize the Dead (via PZ Myers, of course) is all the ways they stop you from actually doing it if you don't fill out all the blanks correctly. If you don't check off that the person would want to be stripped of theism, the response comes back "You cannot atheize someone who would not have wanted to be atheized. That just isn't right!" Would that Certain Religions felt that way.
The I Can Has Cheezburger gang seems to be ever-expanding, and one of their newer sites has to do with a favorite subject of mine, pareidolia. It's called Happy Chair Is Happy, and so it is.
In keeping with the season, you may wish to get some creepy-cutesy Hallowe'en decor from Patricia Waller, profiled recently on Regretsy. Fair warning, the opening page isn't safe for work, particularly if you work with anatomically correct aliens.
It's that time of year again, when any woman (and girl!) who wants to dress up sensibly and cleverly for Hallowe'en (you know, when the weather outside can get pretty dang cold) has to navigate the minefield of "sexy" costumes that never seem to materialize for men. Jill Friedman has the pathetic rundown. Fortunately, Suzie at Echidne's place links to Take Back Halloween!, which offers some great costuming ideas for actual women.
The photos from our trip to the park this morning are now up here. About six photos are supposed to fit together in a panorama, but I'm not sure how well Robin will be able to weave them as it was rather windy today. I think he got better photos, but his aren't online yet so there. Oh, and I took a little video of the "waterfall" in the park:
I don't think this area has reached peak color saturation yet, so we'll probably go again next weekend to get more shots.
A few from last night and a couple from this morning. Now uploading all photo sets to Flickr, so click here to see them all full size.
Only one of Amy this time. She's so self-evidently cute that I decided to concentrate on Datsa this week:
Stalking the living room last night, looking for a handout.
Perched on my recliner's foot stool, still hoping for that handout. As you can imagine, the promise of food is Datsa's great motivator.
He'll even tolerate being scooped up in my arms and having a close-up photo taken.
And this morning I gave him a few Goodlife Recipe Catnip Delights, which he adores, and he walked all around and on my computer desk hoping for more. I finally laid the treats on Robin's chair, and the following ensued:
As I mentioned in my comment attached to this video, he didn't get any more treats after that, but I thought it made for a cutely amusing little movielet. Now to take the camera outside and try to get some fall foliage photos.
Well, turns out Cablevision is playing silly buggers again, this time with Newscorp. The email they sent out to subscribers mentions Fox's "corporate greed" but you know there are no good guys here. This is the third channel dispute Cablevision has had this year; we were without Food Network and other Scripps channels for about three weeks at the beginning of 2010, and we lost ABC for a few days right before the Oscars (it actually came back on air ten minutes into the Oscar telecast). I wouldn't care that much in this case - I mean, it is Fox, after all, I only really watch the Sunday night cartoons which I can view on Hulu for now, and fortunately the Fox Soccer Channel remains unaffected. But if the Yankees do take the Rangers in the current ALCS I'll be a bit miffed if I can't watch my World Series. Ah well, at least we can all still mock Murdoch's beast, and About.com wants to help with this handy list of Fox News Follies.
Is it wrong to think about sushi in the morning? Not if it's "sushi" pancakes! Via Robyn at Serious Eats, here's Jim of Jim's Pancakes making sushi pancakes for his adorable off-camera-voiced daughter:
If you want to see what Allison actually looks like, head to Jim's blog here.
Ankle seems better, wrist now hurts. What's with me and joints? Anyway, my A1C is down to 5.8 so that's something. No baseball for the next few days, so I can spend time catching up on DVR'ed stuff and reading, and skip all the stupid political ads during this silly season. Speaking of which, here's Stuff Alan Simpson Says (via Jill). There are so many wackos out there I can barely remember which one Simpson is by this point.
It's hard to know what kind of emotions going to a comic book convention will conjure up in us nowadays. On the one hand, with Robin "between jobs" for so long now, it can be a depressing and discouraging experience, made even more so by the fact that he had asked for a table in Artist Alley months ago, nobody ever got back to him and we saw lots of people who had secured spots, we surmised, a good deal later than he'd asked for his. On the other hand, as I like to half-joke, this is my social life. These are, as Robin put it, "our peeps." Seeing my comic industry friends reminds me of so many happy times in the past (which also gets me verklempt when I think, for instance, "Leah Adezio would love this"), that my heart feels fit to bursting.
Then there's also the finally-mobile thing. As mentioned before, the second my stent came out I felt like I had the proper use of my left leg again, after a month of hobbling about and generally feeling "off" during the Great Kidney Debacle of Aught-Ten. So I'd only been able to for-really walk for a little over a day, and I started out with great ambitions; since we got out of the house a bit late to catch one of the free shuttle buses from various Manhattan hotels to the Javits Center, I was determined to walk it from 34th Street and 7th Avenue.
Oh, I should mention that all the photos (and the video) below are on Flickr, so you can go there if you want to see them full-size.
Okay, what the heck happened to fall foliage? We'll be going to Macy Park next Saturday in the hopes of seeing some, but methinks it's a bit late this year; this tree was pretty much the extent of it in our neighborhood.
Sorry, I digress. Back to the con. First stop, Artist Alley!
It was great seeing my old Usenet buddy Jamie S. Rich again, and I was delighted to meet Joëlle Jones for the first time. Joëlle's art on Vertigo's Madame Xanadu really knocks me out. I bought a copy of "the last Minx title," Token, from her and am looking forward to reading it. (Having to watch our budget, I set myself a six-book limit for this con, and I believe I bought five over the course of the weekend, so not bad!)
The lovely Ramona Fradon, one of my eternal comic idols, doing some sketching. Kids, always ask the pros if they mind you taking their photos while they're sketching; the flash in particular can really muck up their eyesight if they don't know it's coming.
Of course we had to visit Big Daddy, Jamal Igle. Jamal's one of those friends I've been photographing since well before he was A-list, so I was joking that we kind of have "Jamal Through the Years" on my iPhoto. Naturally I demanded to see Catie photos, which he always has at the ready. Inexplicably, I neglected to take a photo of another perennial and long-time Rob friend Rodney Ramos, who greeted me with such an outpouring of concern over my recent kidney troubles and hospitalization that I was probably too blown away to remember to click the camera. Thanks Rod, you really made my day. This community of ours is just so amazing sometimes, I don't have the words.
That'd be Andrew Pepoy, another member of our community, and former ComicMix colleague. He was (and is) a creative, I was just another darn columnist. And heck yeah, I want to see a Monica Moon comic!
Always great catching up with Peter and Kath David. That's Ariel David making the bunny ears behind her dad. I love me some family photo action! Had a nice long (for a con) talk with Kath about her puppet-making and her blog (Go, Fig!) and Harlan Ellison and whatnot. Lots of whatnot.
Speaking of ComicMix, here's my former CM columnist colleague and long-time bud Martha Thomases, posing with Carla Speed McNeil who recognized me and everything. I guess I've been going to these things long enough that it shouldn't surprise me, but it still does; after all, ComicMix and Friends of Lulu work aside, I consider Robin the industry pro, not me. That said, I really needed the ego boost this weekend, and promise to never, ever take this sort of thing for granted.
And I love the cool coincidences that happen at comics. I was chatting with Jennifer Crute when Cheryl Lynn came along, so naturally I had to get another "cool duo" shot.
Then I turned around and there was Phyllis Novin, stylin' as always so out the camera came again.
As Rich Johnston (seen here speaking with Robin; have you seen their Rosary collaboration?) noted, however, "you're Elayne, everybody knows you," so again, maybe I shouldn't be that taken aback when I run into so many friends at once. This photo was taken at the DC booth, where I also saw Vinnie Bartilucci whom I've known for decades as well as Joan Hilty who's (alas) been let go by DC as of the end of 2010 but was in typically high spirits and looks forward to working on her art some more.
After about half of Artist Alley and a crushing walk around some of the main exhibition hall, it was well past time to go. We'd lasted three hours. Today I vowed to walk less and walk smarter. We got to Manhattan around 10 AM in plenty of time to catch the cushiony-seated bus from the Park Central Hotel (about a block away from my workplace) directly to the Javits. We decided to scope out bits of the main hall early before it got to be too much for my feet, then cover the rest of Artist Alley.
Well, that was the plan, but my insides said "bathroom, now," and after the last month I listen harder than ever to that sort of thing. Oh, a brief digression for all my contemporary friends: when I was in the bathroom queue yesterday, a 20-something girl in back of me remarked, "Why are there always lines for the bathroom at these things?" Which was all the impetus I needed to launch into my Wise Old Woman "Oh honey, you have no idea, ten years ago there were no lines at all because so few women were going to these cons, and those of us who were there then are so happy there are lines now!" bit. Yeah, I was giddy. How times have changed! And not just because half the gals in the queue were texting whilst waiting. I have got to get me one o' them smart phones!
Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, we were about to head to Artist Alley when we were waylaid by one of the industry's truly Nice Guys, Alex Simmons:
"Robin, would you like to do some sketches for the kids?" Sunday at NYCC is Kids Day (oh my goodness, Leah would have loved that), and how can you say no to Alex and those eager young faces? Well, you just can't. Plus, we got to sit! So we settled in.
Look, it's Robin the Sketcher! Sketch not by Robin.
And the kids started queuing, and there was a steady enough stream of them for the next two hours.
And Alex's peeps took photos of Robin's sketches.
And of me taking photos of them. (This is one of my favorite kinds of photos, by the way. I'm weird like that.)
So Robin sketched, in this order: Lego Luke Skywalker, a lovely rose, the Hulk, two ninjas fighting, Gir from Invader Zim (did I mention yet that the NYCC was held in conjunction with the NY Anime Con? Lots of cute costumes), Wonder Woman, Spider-Man (twice), Dr. Who (Tennant), Boba Fett, Batman (twice), Cyclops, Wolverine, Superman and Venom. I think I worry a little about that last kid. Here are some of the sketches:
The kids' stuff was set up near the stage, and a couple of tables down from us was a guy selling lots of shiny toys (one of which looked like a large Slinky attached to half a Hula Hoop, in case older folks out there don't know what to do with their discarded gimmick toys). I took a little movie of him playing with his ball while some girls performed some sort of dance aerobics on the stage:
Next to us were some very nice folks from The Art Force 5, doing great things to promote diversity "through interactive superhero construction" - they don't appear to have a website but they've been written up a lot.
By the way, Alex's project bringing his Kids Comic Con to Africa is still a go; click here for more information. They needed to restart the pledging process, so if you've already pledged you just need to do so again, it'll still count as only one pledge.
Spotted Gail Simone way too briefly, but she was so pretty in purple I couldn't resist a photo, which will not be referenced on Facebook like about a thousand others are:
My goodness, what a lovely smile. I knew her "when," you know. :) We did one last sweep of Artist Alley, and I'm glad I did because Karine and Catie Igle were there, so I was able to snap another family photo:
Then Alex took Robin up to the main exhibition hall via very circuitous but lesser-travelled routes (seriously, you ever want to get around a con, follow Alex) and Robin met with Archie head honcho Victor Gorelick:
We're hoping the fact that we actually live in Riverdale might help get Robin some Archie assignments. I'd love to see him tackle Kevin Keller, but in a platonic way, of course.
We hightailed it out of there early enough to enjoy the bright sunshine and catch a mid-afternoon express bus back to the Bronx. I was amused by this statue a few blocks away from my office building:
I just liked that it was headless and pigeons moved in to fill the gap, as it were. Also that it's on the corner of WC Handys Place and Cousin Brucie Way.
All in all, we had a lot more fun today, what with the kids and the sketches and Robin "taking meetings" and breathing room and sitting room, than we did yesterday, but I can't discount the wonderful impact of friends. Can't wait for the next one! We can has Artist Alley table next time, please? Kthxbai!
Well, the stent is out, at last. And I feel like I have the use of my left leg again. I mean, just like that. It came out, and one second later I could move properly once more. Unfortunately, because Datsa's constant meowing meant very little sleep last night, I'm way too tired to appreciate my newfound mobility. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy T-SHIRT WAR!:
Brr! Just a tad chilly around here. Heat was supposed to be on by October 1, but no sign of it yet. I mean, you can still find the Google Pac-Man logo game (via Mark Evanier) but you can't find any working radiators at the Riggs Residence. I'm going to crawl underneath the covers and read some comics now.
Since Blogger has a limit as to how many photos I can post, I've decided to post all my photo streams on Flickr from now on. Enjoy this set of photos from Cat's (and Tom & Lili's) visit to Manhattan with us yesterday.
What a lovely day yesterday, spent with my Firesign'y friends Tom & Lili from CT and Cat all the way from Vancouver, eating at a nice Manhattan bistro then recording some stuff for Cat's latest project and watching the Yankees win the first of two against the Red Sox. It took more out of me than I'd planned for, though, and I drifted for much of the evening, not able to keep my eyes open for the subsequent Yanks loss in Game 2. Today I woke up with a very sore left wrist, but at least my leg is getting better. No plans for today except the last game of the regular baseball season and Chelsea v Arsenal in the morning and maybe some reading. But no celeb bios, now that Celebrity Autobiography (via Mark Evanier, who also gave Firesign a nice plug the other day) has that covered, in spades.
Electric's back as of 4 PM yesterday, rain stopped sometime in the evening, Cat's coming over today for about two minutes as we head down to Manhattan with a group of Firesign'y friends for a nice brunch, and the sun will come out just as I'm through with the antibiotics. Life is good today. Let's celebrate with a game of Pixel Breakout (via BoingBoing).
White Rabbits, and welcome to October, and a power outage here in Bronkers! Not sure whose working internet connection I'm piggybacking at the moment, but at least I get to let everyone know we're okay, and I woke up in plenty of time to get ready for work. It's pouring outside, but we have flashlights ("torches" in Brit-speak) and candles, and I almost wish I had a Threat Alert Jesus (via Bill Wolfrum) just for the light it would give off.
