Solonor's Inkwell

Sitting around waiting until it’s time to head to the airport for the long journey home from Vegas…baby. What a week.

I headed out the door at 4:30am on Monday, and it’s been pretty much non-stop since. I played guitar in a small combo (3 keyoards and guitar) and sang for an interfaith prayer breakfast on Wednesday that had Dave Dravecky as the speaker. Then, we sang the National Anthem on the main stage in front of umpteen thousand people (guess who was in the front row with his nose hairs broadcast on two giant tv screens?). And yesterday, the closing speaker was Colin Powell, who is an absolute riot, very funny and genuine guy. Seriously, if he changed his mind and ran for President, I’d vote for him, even though I am a damned Democrat.

My flight outta here is around noon, and with the 3-hour time difference, I’ll get home around 9 or 10 tonight. Which means I don’t get to see Harry Potter until tomorrow. Wah.

But first I have to figure out how to pack all the convention goodies. One of the best things about the show is going around and getting samples from all the snack manufacturers. And by the time I went in the last half hour on Friday, they were throwing stuff at people and begging them to take it, so they wouldn’t have to pack it up and take it home (or throw it out). So, I have this huge Coca-Cola tote bag full of the latest and greatest junk food coming to a convenience store near you.

Either way, I don’t think I’ll be seeing Robert Urich (unless it’s from beyond the grave). But I will be going to Vega$$ …baby.

I have to catch a flight at 7am tomorrow, meaning that I have to leave the house at around 4… 4:30, if I want to cut it close. Ugh.

I have to work the whole week. It’s a trade show, and I doubt I’ll get much chance to run around and waste money in slot machines. And there will be no time for shows featuring Wayne Newton and/or scantilly clad dancing girls. But at least there won’t be any hurricanes!

Expect the updates here to be few and far between.

Today is the annual observance of “Clean the House Before Company Shows Up For Thanksgiving Day”. It’s a grand holiday with parades and fireworks and floats. Of course the parades are out to the trash barrel; the fireworks come after we’re overtired; and you don’t even wanna know what floats…

Of course, we could go with a completely different theme and think of it as an archaeological dig. From the fossil record, we will be able to tell what kinds of snacks our year-ago ancestors ate.

Or, if you prefer, it’s a battle. A battle with clutter and shed cat hair. Already, we have found enough material to create a fifth cat.

I hadn’t even had my coffee before Crisis Numero Uno struck. Pepperkat crashed on the couch last night and woke up without her glasses on. They are nowhere to be found. (I believe the dust bunny army took them back to their lair to use as the final component of their death ray, but that’s just me.)

And I started typing this almost 3 hours ago, but got interrupted to take the blind Pepperkat to a Girl Scout car wash. On the way out the door, I asked if there were any housecleaning supplies I should bring back. “Donuts,” came the reply. But not just any donuts… a specific brand of boxed donuts. I searched three grocery stores and a convenience store for these donuts. It is now almost 11am, and I have returned with the donuts. But who the hell wants donuts for lunch?

Gotta run. I think the dust bunny army just kidnapped my son.

Hard to believe that this kid is 19 today…

click for bigger coolness

That was cool. Well, most of it was cool. Some of it was downright hot.

I suppose I should start over, eh? Fine.

We headed out of here at 11am to catch the noon show at the Downtown Media Art Center. We were going to see Labyrinth. However, we did not count on the Fiesta in the Park blocking our well-planned route. We spent way too long trying to find our way around all the detours and road blocks and missed it.

Never fear. We hiked our way over to Anthony’s Pizza and had a yummy pie, then back through all the crafty booths and kielbasa stands and funnel cake vendors in the festival around Lake Eola to the DMAC, where I chilled with a yummy banana boba before ascending the stairs to the digital theater.

The “Handmade Puppet Dreams” show was great. After an introduction by Heather Henson, we saw “Harker” (which was incredible) and a series of shorts that included:

“Prelude #2” – a ‘don’t drink and drive’ spot that cut back-and-forth between live actors and puppets while a geisha sings;
“The Red Book” – a very artsy (and imho too long) psychological piece;
“Mother Hubbard” – an hilarious telling of the ‘Old Mother Hubbard’ story in song;
“Ola’s Box of Clovers” – a beautiful piece about a woman’s recollections of her grandmother;
“Last Rites” – a very brief, but riotous, bit that had The Devil vs. a nun in a boxing match;
“Everloving” – an odd, but beautiful, piece that was shot in reverse at double speed and completely underwater (but you’d never know it);
“Herd” – a mostly live-action film about an alien invasion;
“The Amazing, Mysterious and True Story of Mary Anning and Her Monsters” – the sad story of one of the first paleontologists (a woman) told in puppet form;
“Popsicle” – a muppet-like music video; and
“Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose” – a very muppet-like bit using an old Harry Reser novelty song.

We decided to stay for the next show, too, which was the beginning of a set of Jerry Juhl films. The first was The Cube, a 1969 TV play that Juhl and Jim Henson wrote for NBC’s “Experiment in Television”. It was trippy, man, but very, very cool. The second was an episode of Fraggle Rock!

All-in-all, a very enjoyable day. Now, it’s Pepperkat’s turn to pay for dinner…

As you know, I’m not one for blogging when there’s nothing to blog about…

Ha! See? I knew I could make you laugh.

Anywho, we had a fairly strong contingent of kidlets at the door on All Hallow’s Eve. In fact, I think we broke the record. We’ve lived in this house for 8 years (Halloween is actually the anniversary of our move-in), and we have never seen so many trick-or-treaters. There must have been 15 of the little buggers!

Of course, that number includes the gang of transvestite teenagers that showed up near the end to abscond with our pirate-clad daughter. (Damn, I gotta find that camera.)

Other than that, things are puttering along at their usual pace. I’m spending more time fretting about missing my self-imposed recording deadlines than actually recording anything to meet them. The Mrs. continues to be sick (going on a month now). The young ‘uns continue to become less young.

We went and saw Good Night, And Good Luck earlier this week. David Strathairn was perfect as Edward R. Murrow, and the atmosphere of the film and its history were excellent. I thought that it was a little lacking in punch, though. Anyone who knows the history of the blacklists in that time knows what was at stake, but I’m not sure that someone with less familiarity with the history would get it from this movie. They sort of launch right into the fight after a cursory text scroll about the Red Scare.

What scares me is how few people even know what the film is about. Memories are short, and we need to see the parallels between the overzealous attacks on freedom in the name of anti-Communism and the abuses of power today in fighting terrorism (CIA secret prisons, anyone?). I have touched on this topic before: Ann Coulter, Historian

So, brush up on your history and go see a movie that might win George Clooney an Oscar (if you can believe it).