TEH KEWL PPL!!!!!111

Don't be dumb and eat a smoked salmon, cucumber and creme fraiche sandwich for dinner if you are on your way out to social activities later. I just did this and now I am off to sandblast the inside of my mouth so I don't fish-breathe all over everyone.

Hoo ha! I am an insane person who decided to take the train to the San Diego Comicon this year. (booth 1335 / 1337 by small press, as usual) Amtrak is pretty weird and very charming.

I'm about 1/3 the way across the country right now, sitting in a lounge in Chicago. I set up a Tumblr account to easily document the trip without spamming every other service I'm on.

You should check it out at joebidenfanclub.com

(named after the only man who commuted to the Senate every day for decades via Amtrak)

Last night I took six 14-16 year olds to see the midnight showing of 500 Days of Summer. We had an adventure!

First, for those of you who don't care about the adventure, let me just say that the movie was worth everything we went through to see it. It is a wonderful movie and I can't wait until it comes closer so that we can take Scott and Winter to it. It is innovative, creative, and a joy. When it was over the kids were talking about something that I missed, and I couldn't talk to them about something that I know that they all missed. It plays homage to other movies (one most of all) and the gang just hadn't seen them, so they didn't get all the references. I get the feeling that it's going to be a movie that I will like more the more I see it, and the more I catch. Very awesome. See it if you can!

Now, the adventure.

Around three-ish, I went to Simi (where Sky's school is, and where most of her friends live) and picked up two of her friends (Raven and Swarley, whose name is not Swarley, but that's what they call him). Then home again. At 8 or 9pmish, the other three girls arrived. At 10pm we decided to leave early and head for the theatre.

The seven of us piled into my van and headed out. Thank goodness we decided to do this. You see, first, since the van was at capacity, it drove sluggishly, and I didn't feel safe driving too fast, so we lost time due to that. But, the biggest problem is that the only place playing the movie, and the only one at midnight, was a theater in West Hollywood, the Arclight. It's an awesome movie theatre, and I had taken Sky and some of this same crowd, there to see Milk as a midnight show before it opened. The fact that is was playing at the Arclight wasn't the problem, the fact that I am directionally impaired, and that we only let Sky sit in the "death seat", so she has to be my navigator, and the fact that she is blind, those are the problems.

I told Sky that I had no idea where I was going (yes, I'd been there before, that means that I can tell you, "yes, this looks right" it does not mean I can get back there). So it was her job to program Carmen (our GPS), she did. It sent me to what I thought was not the right place, but, like I said, I am frequently wrong. There are two Arclights, and Sky had programed in the wrong one. We figured it out pretty quick, but with the having to go slow and all, we now had only an hour until the movie started. Not a problem. We have iPhones, we have Carmen, we're ok. So, Sky finds the address, programs it into Carmen, and we're off. I'm surprised that she has us driving 5 miles on city streets, instead of on the freeway, but, Carmen thinks we'll get there at 11:07, so even with having to stop for lights, we should be good.

Carmen tells us we're there at about 11:10 or so. Remember, I can't get places, but I know if I'm there, and we so weren't there. We were close to a whole lot of clubs that everyone knows. We were close to a store that we once went to when Neil was doing a signing there, and we were definitely in cruise central, but we were not at the Arclight. So we pulled over, and had Sky refind the address. We were on the right street, but nowhere near the right number. Don't know what happened, but it was a true case of the blind leading the blind.

So we took off again. We now had two and a half miles of city street to traverse. We made it. I recognized it. We got in, things went well. We didn't think we had time to buy anything at the concession stand, but that was ok, we were in, had great seats and we made it. I wanted to take a picture of the gang before the show, but lack of time meant that I had to wait. I Twittered the photos this morning here and here.

After the movie, the adventure continued. The gang was hungry and wanted me to stop at In-N-Out for fries for the non meat eaters, and burgers and fries for the others. Turns out, that In-N-Out, closes at 2am, and it was just past that. So we decided to do 7-11 instead, cause we knew that would be open (there was a 24hour Subway there as well, but we wound up at 7-11). 7-11 in Hollywood was a scary place. There was a sad looking homeless fellow sleeping on the sidewalk right in front of where we parked, we skirted around him to walk into the empty store. As if we had some magic attracting strange things beacon attached to us, suddenly the store filled up. Two groups of people showed up, one, was about three or so, young guys, who looked like they were up to no good, hiding in furtive corners and getting Slurpees, then there was the slightly older two guys one of whom was very worse for whatever it was he had been imbibing in. He said odd things to me about how there is always a line, then proceeded to try to chat up some of the girls in our group. His friend, who was not as bad off as he, grabbed him with the admonition that "stop that, that girl is like 13 or something" (she was 15, but still he was right, his friends behavior was inappropriate at best).

During all this, the one guy working was looking very nervous (remember, we were a gaggle ourselves and added to the melee). I bought our stuff, but then found out I missed one of the girls things and so I had to pay for that. While I was making the second purchase the Slurpee guys interjected and threw money at the cashier, and wouldn't wait, and left in a clump. I'd be willing to bet they did not pay for all that they bought, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't get all the change I was supposed to, I have no idea, we just got out of there as fast as we could. Got back to the car safely, and I started the car and put it in gear so that the door would lock. I think this is a testament that I was not in perfect mind, as locking the doors with the button on the side of the door, probably would have been quicker.

As we sat in the van, all seven us, looking at the store, I was bemused to note that it was once again empty. All the people that were harassing us and/or the clerk, were now gone, as if none of us had been there. Like I said, it was our not so nice magic beacon working.

I want to say that we got home at around 4am, but that doesn't make sense, but yet, I think it might be true. Everyone safe and sound. The whole gang spent the night, but most were gone by noon. I think we've adopted Swarley for the weekend, and some will be back tonight for Game Night. Long fun night. Everyone home safe and sound.

I call it a win win.

Game Night in a few hours! (No Game Night next week due to Con)

http://scottmccloud.com/2009/07/17/some-thoughts-on-asterios-polyp/

http://scottmccloud.com/?p=945

First of all, if you haven’t read David Mazzucchelli’s fantastic graphic novel Asterios Polyp, I strongly recommend getting yourself a copy. And stop reading this post now until after you’ve read the book.

If you’ve read Asterios Polyp once…

Read it again.

Seriously, Mazzucchelli’s book is a great re-reading experience. There are things you’re only likely to notice the second or third time around, and at least a few locked doorways in early sections that only open with keys from later chapters. And they’re much more fun if you find them on your own, so again you might want to ignore the rest of these ramblings if you haven’t plunged back in yet.

If you’ve read Asterios Polyp more than once…

Okay, NOW we can talk.

Here are a few things that caught my eye, in no particular order.

Truth-to-Material

Great use of the three “printer’s primaries”: Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. As symbols of “separation,” as time period markers, as state of mind indicators. Watching them come together late in the book had a transcendent quality for me, and I’ve heard from others that felt the same way.

Mazzucchelli also has a long-standing interest in the process of printing and likes the raw edges of printing itself to show through. His earlier self-published anthology (with painter/partner Richmond Lewis) Rubber Blanket had a similar hand-separated, process-obsessed feel (right down to the name).

There’s an undercurrent of honesty in the presentation. As if the book is saying “I’m not going to lie to you about what I am or where I came from.” This is true about a lot of aspects of the book in fact.

Isolation

The “different styles –> different character” thing is pretty loaded for a ton of reasons, but I especially liked how it reinforces the idea of how each character is in their own universe to a degree. The book is filled with mismatched objects of all kinds thrown into a box that not only have their own appearance but almost their own physics.

Mazzucchelli is a master of western perspecitve when he wants to be, and he demonstrates that during the book. But in a lot of passages, he seems less interested here in creating a sense of continuous space that binds everything and everyone together. Instead, we get flat, isometric, or even childlike views of this landscape of barely compatible things that make up this world.

White Space!

Check out the last 100 years of comics (in the West at least) and you’ll find a lot of variation in the size and shape of comics panels, but almost no variation in the space between panels. Mazzucchelli is a leader in considering that negative space for its role in the story and its role on the picture plane.

Dynamic Balance

Every time the story seems to be stacking the deck in one direction, leading us to think some “lesson” is being taught, or that we can file a character as either worthy or useless, Mazzuccelli introduces a nice counter-weight.

I especially liked how Asterios’ three possessions (the lighter, the watch, the knife) play out. They work so well as markers of maturity, of unburdening, of selflessness, of acceptance of mortality, of putting the past behind him, of learning to value what works over theory, etc.; so harmonious and right that you could almost believe that the universe was ready to reward him. And then the lighter comes back alongside a bottle smashed over his head. Because that’s not the way the universe we live in works.

Hitting Close to Home

A couple of readers have already mentioned that Asterios at his most pedantic looks like he stepped out of the pages of one of my books (right down to the “‘splainin’ hand”). Whether the similarity is intentional or not, it’s a funny deconstruction of the kind of mind that thinks he/she (usually he) can somehow put the whole universe into a series of diagrams, and I’d have to cop to being a poster boy for that mindset.

Fortunately for fools like me, Mazzucchelli is a humanist first, and I think he loves all the fools that populate his story, and has no interest in passing divine judgement. He’s just chronicling the dizzying dance of futility we all participate in, each of us to our own steps and our own tune, as we try to make sense of the unfathomable.

http://catandgirl.com/?p=2112

An essay in two Youtube clips.

http://www.dieselsweeties.com/blog/

So! It's San Diego Comicon next week, which is quite insane as always. Remember when I was debating taking the train? All aboard tomorrow!

I have no idea what to expect, but I'm bringing lots of technology and a few ways to get online. Hoping to draw a bunch of comics and read a few books. Really hoping to get those comics done so I don't miss any days.

Rather than spam my site, Twitter or Facebooks I'll be posting to a brand-spanking-new Tumblr account on joebidenfanclub.com.

If you have never been on the train and want to know what it's like from a geek/iPhone/caffeine addict perspective, please ask questions! You better believe I'll be wearing my Joe Biden Fan Club shirt on the trip.

PS: Speaking of comics, I think next week is going to be CAT WEEK. It works on TV for sharks.

Comments and questions?

http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive/2327

Sometimes you just have to go with the obvious musical reference title.

And my editor just emailed me with the Wall Street Journal review of "Love is a Four-Letter Word" and I get mentioned. Which is kind of sweet.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204423804574290254122395972.html

1. Fear of flying therapy is annoying. I want a list of tasks to complete that will take away the phobia. Therapist refuses to provide that list. Planning on making my own list. I LIKE LISTS. (And no, I'm not going to quit going.)

2. Nursing homes, once you express actual interest in placing your parent in one of them and aren't simply "taking the tour," suddenly become all, "Well... IF we accept her and IF this meets our criteria and IF blahblahmeow." Suddenly they get all team-picky and turn it into a game of geriatric dodgeball.

3. moroccomole upgraded his iPhone and sold his old one on eBay. The turdface auction winner never contacted us back or paid. I have begun "resolution" with them to make sure they get a bad mark on their eBay permanent record. THEY WILL RUE THE DAY THEY DID NOT PAY.

4. Gays, I will DJ this Sunday night at the Eagle from 9pm until 1am. I promise that there will be no smooth song transitions unless it's on accident.

5. Reviews of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and "(500) Days of Summer" are up now at Movies.com. All you need is the will to read them and the ability to go click on my face.

6. "Funny People," while I'm on the subject of movies, is really funny. Even though Adam Sandler is in it. Also it's nearly two and a half hours long. Buttocks alert.

7. Today I plan to plan my NYC museum and gallery visits. It's on my list of lists I have to make (see item # 1 above) I already have a long list of galleries and shows because I read the art magazines and go to blogs and whatnot, but does anyone in NYC have favorite galleries that show excellent stuff? I don't wanna see any chump bullshit. So think on it and report back please.

8. Are you watching the "Rotten Tomatoes" show on Current? (That's a cable channel.) You should because my husband is on it almost every week telling you about how "The Stoning of Soraya M." is dumb.

9. Oh good, I just discovered that "The Rotten Tomatoes Show" also streams on the current website. So suck it, cable providers that don't provide. And if you find yourself obsessed with my man, they even have back episodes on there, too:
http://current.com/items/90441885_br-no-cheri-i-love-you-beth-cooper-the-rotten-tomatoes-show.htm

10. Gotta make a big smoothie out of kale and chard today. A Taste-of-Lawn Shake.

One week from today I plan to be among the number at the San Diego Comic Con. I keep thinking I must be utterly mad to try Comic Con with Finn. It's not like the Sky and Winter, for whom Con was much smaller when they were much smaller, and who have so many friends of the family at the Con. Finn and I won't have a home base, like a booth or table. And Finn is such a physical guy. He's gonna need get-out-and-crawl time! He won't let me sit through any panels, and I won't be able to go out to dinner. Finn is fairly impossible at a restaurant these days unless he is dead asleep, or can crawl on the floor and I run after him every few bites.

I have to do some research on what else is in the area that is baby/toddler friendly. I can go swimming at our hotel, but he doesn't last too long in the water. Half hour at best. Ivy and I took the girls to a children's museum near the Convention Center years ago. I wonder if that is still around.

Right now the plan is thus:

Robynne comes into town Monday. We spend Monday through Wednesday prepping. Wednesday we travel down to San Diego and stay somewhere nearby that's cheap. Hopefully start driving around 8 PM so Finn will sleep. He's NOT a good car baby!

Thursday morning get up and into downtown early enough to get badges early. I will check us into the Horton Grand some time during the day.

Friday morning we check out of the HG, and transfer over to my friend Mike's place. He's leaving town that weekend, and lives near PetCo Park. That's REALLY close!

After that, I have no idea how things will go. I might abandon Con all together and do the Zoo or something.

i have no idea what the thursday green thing is supposed to be about. and none of my shirts are that color.

---

ON THE BUS
Little Johnny says, "Mom, when I was on the bus with Daddy this morning, he told me to give up my seat to a lady." "Well, you've done the right thing," says Mommy. "But Mommy, I was sitting on daddy's lap."

---

I've narrowed it down to two nursing homes. Three if you count the extravagant place that's like a fogey Fantasy Island and doesn't take MediCal and costs a bare-bones minimum of $6,000 a month, the one that will require some rich person to come along and be my mother's benefactor or cause moroccomole and me to enter into a real life "Wings of The Dove" scenario with the heir to some shipping concern. Or heiress. I'll do what it takes. I'm not kidding.

Nursing Home "A" is the first one I visited. Somewhat old, somewhat worn, but still warm and friendly. Nursing Home "B" is newly renovated, efficient-seeming and a little cold on first impression.

I went back to Nursing Home "A" this afternoon for a follow-up visit with their admissions woman. Somehow, though, she either forgot about our appointment or got called away on an emergency. Or something. I left her a note to call me (and I'd really like there to be a good explanation) and instead I spoke to a kind of flustered assistant nursing director whose English was the kind learned in adult ESL classes at night and whose personality has been shaped by nearly 30 years of employment in this one location, dealing with old not always alert people who don't ask complicated questions one after the other in expectant, no-bullshit-please tones of voice. When I do this at home to the man I love, I am frequently rebuffed with: HOLY BALLS DAVE WHITE, STOP PEPPERING ME WITH QUESTIONS. YOU'RE BEING JUST LIKE MY FATHER. But in this particular scenario I think my insistence is warranted, and I don't care how limited your English. I expect answers.

And since I'm a former ESL teacher this kind of thing doesn't really present a communication challenge to me anyway. I restate, I rephrase, I repeat. Then I wait for the response.

I got almost all my questions answered by the guy, with only a few "I don't know what you mean" answers and I will get the rest of them checked off my list by the lady I was supposed to talk to in the first place. If she doesn't call me by 4:00 pm, I plan to nag her voice mail until I get her on the line. Then it's back to Nursing Home "B" for their turn to be peppered.

---

"I was shopping for a car and asked the salesman the sticker price. He said $200.
'Not much for a car,' I said.
'The car's extra,' he said."

---

my review is here. click that face.

http://www.movies.com/