Socialists

This break, as much as there has been of it, has been marked with whirlwindy social activity.

Yesterday, Otis had a massage appointment in the morning with the Mother of Melvin, so I got to see Mel and Mel Jr. for a little bit in the a.m. Afterwards, I went up to meet Wheylona on Cap Hill, where she was hanging with Smilin' Silvio. Wheylona and I hung out for the day, doing bidness and pleasure and beggie burgers, since Otis had another massage in the afternoon with Phil. I dropped Wheylona off at the Ridge because I had to go do a favor for Otis's boss, so she got to see Phil but I didn't. When I came home, Otis and I took Wheylona back to Cap Hill before we had to drive up to Edmonds to meets some totally cool dudes, Otis's high school pal Angela and her husband Lyle. We had some terrific Thai food and some great conversation. Then, we had to scoot down to the airport to lurk in the lots and enighborhoods until both Soapy and his luggage were deplaned so we could take him home. Whew!

In comparison, yesterday was a slow delight, just spending time with everyone at Dingo's beauteous brunch, sharing quiche and stories, before slogging through the rainy mess that was Friday traffic to do the last-minute stuff for the ANASNYEWWSS. Whew, again!

After-images

Yesterday was a fun day. Wheylona came back to town, and after I picked her up at the airport, we went up to Piecora's on Cap Hill for frolic and festivities and food with a grand assemblage of folks. There was much talking and laughing and beta-testing of game to be had. Welcome back, Whey.

In the midst of all this fun, I got some stuff, too, and the theme seemed to be striking images. First of all, Wheylona brought me a T-shirt from some freaky Iberian art shop. Here's the image, doctored a bit to take out the multi-lingual clues:

The question is: what the heck is this?

Otis's boss gave her a holiday bonus and gift basket which included a pack of gum for me:

Grrrr!

And then Johnbai, completely un-bummerifically, brought some presents along to the pizza party, icnluding a totally cool (VV-score) t-shirt from the Kalakala Foundation that sports a version of this image:

All in all, a completely picturesque day!

New blog on the block

Dingo Donut has a blog: WWMD?

Monkey business

Since Bummerman weighed in with a comprehensive review of King Kong, and since Otis and I went to see it last night (at the Majestic Bay Theatre), I thought I'd give you my own response.

Too.

Too long: This whole movie reminded me of the last half hour of LOTR:ROTK. It just went on and on and on. "Where a normal film maker uses two or three shots to establish a setting, Jackson uses twenty." Bummerman sees this as a virtue; I saw it as overdoing it. Being able to set a scene in two or three shots is not an inconsiderable virtue.

Too many: I like the Brontosaurus. I liked a couple of Brontosauruses. A whole herd of Brontosauruses stampeding down a valley, with our heroes running between their legs like cartoon mice, just struck me as silly.

Similarly (and this is the only direct comparison to the original I will make), in the RKO version, Kong fights a T-Rex. It is a great scene, spare and powerful. Jackson has him fight not one, not two, but three. And throw them off a cliff. And fall off the cliff himself. And land on vines and fight two of them some more. And then fall to the valley floor and fight the last one some more. That seems a bit overwrought.

Too many taxis, too many rocks, too many bugs, too many everything. Just because you can CGI a bunch doesn't mean you should.

Too much: Don't just have Ann teach Kong sign language for "beautiful" and have him use it later; make sure Ann tells us that's what he's doing. Don't just use one of the best closing lines in all of cinema; make sure you clumsily foreshadow it. Don't just tell us an adventure story that is more than an adventure story; make sure two characters discuss Heart of Darkness so they can tell us that.

Jackson seems to need a little more respect for his audience.

Overall, I think this is what happens when there is no one to say "no" to self-indulgent creators, however talented they may be.

So this is not all bummer, there were a lot of things I liked: Ann's character was changed for the better (stronger and more interesting); some insight was provided to Denham's character that made him more complex; the monsters looked good; New York looked good; Andy Serkis was wonderful; most of the performances were fine. It was just a little too baroque for me.

Broken Monday

So, today is the first weekday after the final deadline for grades, so I guess this makes it my first official winter break day. Yay, me!

Appleday breakfast yesterday was a small affair, with only Otis and Mel joining me to celebrate the 363rd birthday of the second-most influential person in history. I had the traditional pancakes with applesauce.

Later in the day, Otis and I went to Tamarind Tree for dinner with the Putnam gang. The food was as great as it usually is; we got to sit on the stage in the back and had a very attentive waiter, who was either charmed by my Batmobile t-shirt or by me. Afterwards, we went up to the Metro to see The Producers, which I think everyone enjoyed more than I did; I liked it, but felt it didn't compare strongly to the original.

(Aside: does anyone besides me think that Nathan Lane needs to play Lou Costello in a biopic? But who would be Bud Abbot?)

I know you won't believe it, but I have another blog now: don't worry, you don't need to add it to your read list. It's a blog just for the comix community. If you want to take a look, there's a link on the sidebar. And if you ever get really bored and want to help me out, you can click-through to some of the other comix blogs from my blog; that might help me get established in the community a bit more quickly.

Greetings!

C'est fini!

This is how I feel.

Just a few loose ends

Tomorrow morning, I should dot the last i , cross the last t , hit "upload" and be officially done with Fall Quarter 2005. Sheesh! I promise never to mention it again. I also promise that next quarter will be different.

I guess I didn't mind so much that today featured almost continuous rain. I hope tomorrow is better, so I can get out and kick up my heels a bit.

Here's a sweet little movie, even if it s a Motorola commercial. I count at least seventeen specific movie references - can you name them?

Sockamagee!

I don't want to tell you how many portfolios I reviewed today. Just know that I set my muscular buttocks on this chair at 7:00 am and have been working pretty continually since then. And I have almost as much to do tomorrow. But then I am done, done I say!

Lots of fun stuff the past few days. Monday I did a little work, but the afternoon saw the return of Neds to the scene, an event which was met with all the flutter of Darcy's return to Hertfordshire. Mighty Mel came down from the hills to get "bloodless surgery" (aka visceral manipulation) from Otis. Shortly before we four would have eaten ALL the Spicy Thai potato chips, we were joined by Dingo Donut and Johnbai, ostensibly for a movie spectration. Instead, we would up playing an Alpha version of Jonbai's Apples 2 Apples ripoff derivative inspired game, and then a round of the Magnetic Poetry Game (and of the three words in that title, only one is actually accurate). Then after Neds and Dingo left, we just talked! We never did get around to watching the movie.

Yesterday, after I did a little work, Neds came up and we ran errands (including picking up my replacement kilt) (which I thought I had posted about and was going to link to but apparently didn't so can't) and then met Otis for dinner and more conversation.

Which brings me back to why I was at this desk all day today doing a lot of work, with only a break to take Soapy to the airport.

A splendid sunday

Ah, how nice it is to avoid work by doing really fun stuff.

Otis and I started the day by doing the laundry. While not the cheeriest of diversions, it went quickly and everything dried, so I'm putting it in the win column.

I had been feeling a bit out of touch with the gang, so we made some calls, and lo and behold, a merry band comprised of Mighty Mel, Dingo Donut, Johnbai3030, Otis, and me were having a totally delicious lunch of tofu pho, tofu-mango salad, lemongrass tofu and rice, lemongrass tofu and noodles, and grilled tofu with green beans just an hour or so later. (Among the missing was Soapy, who was so woozy when I talked to him that he couldn't tell his tamarind from his cinnamon.) The conversation was even better than the food, and we stayed at the place for nearly three hours.

We came home and got the ASANNYEWWSS invitations sent, and then took Otis's grandmother on a little drive to look at Xmas lights.

It's late now, and I guess I'll have to do those papers tomorrow - too bad!

And here's a very good example of what Scott McCloud calls the infinite canvas. Is it comics?

Spiffin' up the place

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was thinking of a new direction for this blog. I don't have a blueprint for the new, improved HKC just yet, but two elements are coming into place.

One is this remodel. I was playing with a lot of stuff over the pasy few months, and I wanted to strip away some of the frippery that had built up. I'm pretty much of a minimalist at heart, so I don't expect that it will all return or even be replaced with other frip.

The second element is the tentative launch of the Group Blog: Blogging - it's not just for moovies anymore! It is my hope that this other site will become the main venue for postings about moovie nites, game nites, get-togethers, and other social events. It is also my hope that I won't be the only one posting to it: I have set it up as a membership blog, and I have sent out invitations to those of you who comment, so that we can get even more interactive in our virtual space. I hope you will post interesting destinations that you hear of, movies or shows or concerts or new restaurants, events you are going to go to, events that you would go to if you could get someone to go with you, events that you can't go to but think are cool anyway -- any kind of stuff that might help us all connect and have fun in real life.

That's the plan, anyway. Go check it out with this link, or the link over in the sidebar, and get posting!

I think one of the effects of separating out the social calendar will be making the content of this here site become a bit wider in interest. I know that there are folks outside of the area who visit, and I don't want them to get tired of reading barbecue menus and in-jokes. I reckon there will be some amount of cross-posting; we'll see how that goes.

Oh, and one other consequence of this remodel will be the lifting of my self-imposed post-every-day rule. I imagine I will still be posting a lot; just now I won't feel guilty if I miss a day.

Entering the transition

So, yesterday I gave the final final I had to give, so actual in-class teaching is over for the year. I have stretched out the timeline on my responding; although I had initally wanted to be done this weekend, it will take a few days more. It feels better doing a chunk each day consistently than trying to get it all done in one sitting. The drop-dead date for posting is Friday 12/23, and I should be done before that. I do have a bit of prep work to do before classes start again on 1/2, so I'll never be far from teacher mode, it seems.

Meanwhile, I am starting to gear up for all the projects that I have been holding in abeyance this quarter. Some of them are professional (for example, trying to establish some connections with other schools in Seattle), some are purely personal (such as needing to get back on the bike and wanting to do some kind of long ride this upcoming season), and some are somewhere in-between (deciding what I want to do about free-lance work). And these decisions all have to be made in the larger context of which full-time positions come available and whether I want to consider a doctoral program.

And of course there's the immediate social stuff, such as finalizing the New Year's Eve bash details, and figuring out all the holiday visiting, and seeing if there is ever going to be another Moovie Nite, and so on.

But for now, here's a little present just for Johnbai:

Pow Wow
as realised by Carmine Infantino

Pow Pow
as realised my me (and heromachine)

Cookie d'oh!

So, Otis and I took a break from work tonight to head over to the home of Laila (the career counselor Otis has been working for/with) and Matt (her husband) for some cookie decorating action. Herewith are some of the results:

Otis, of course, has a bird piece:

And this one looks like she should put it in the Quiet Girl gallery:

This one's mine:

I'm Batman!

And here's my tribute to our 50th state:

We were only there for a short bit but we had a groovy time and met some cool people.


[And a big thank-you shout-out to Jonnie and the K - who know what I mean!]

Dis and dat

Yay! It feels really good to be done with classes! I am working my way through my final assessments, but I now have time for all kinds of stuff. Such as: Otis and I did a drive-by squishing of Soapy up at the garage last night. We were on our way to read papers, but stopped in while he was playing pool with his posse so that Otis could body-check him, scream in his ear, and step on his foot. Um, yeah.

So, I have been doing research for the class I will be teaching in Summer, The Rhetoric of Comics. Get this: If you do a Google search for "rhetoric of comics" there are only eleven results - and one of them is me! Try it yourself.

Speaking of Google searches, look what I tripped over recently:

How's that for a confluence of themes? (We need an updated version with a Utilikilt.)

Wheylona has clearly communicated her itinerary for her upcoming visit; I wonder if Neds will?

I aim to misbehave

Well, I hear that the whole gang loved Serenity. It was indeed way cool. So cool, that after we recover from the ANASNYEWWSS (see below), I think we should have a Serenity Saturday: we'll spectrate all 15 episodes of Firefly, in a row, on one day. Some pizza, some beer, and you've got the makings of one heck of a geek-out. I'm thinking we should be recovered enough for this by about Imbolc, no?

And what do you make of this? Our neighbor, the photographer who put up those wonderful framed prints that adorn our hallways, has added this to the gallery. Considering Otis will likely be running her massage practice from the apartment for a while after graduation, what do you think?

NYE sneek preevue

So, y'all should be getting an invitation pretty soon, but the

All-Night, All-Star
New Year's Eve
White Wall Spectration
Spectacular/Sleepover

is a go!

Here's how it will work:

We will be showing movies from 8:00 pm 12/31 through 8:00 am 1/1.

There will be published movie times, with features at
about 8 pm, 10 pm, 12:15 am, 2:15 am, 4:15 am, and 6:15 am.
(the 2:15 and 4:15 shows might be combined for the screening of one epic).

You can come for the early show(s) and head off to a party.

You can come for the late show(s) after your party.

You can come and watch all the shows.

You can come and watch some of the shows and sleep thorugh the rest.

We will provide cheap champage, pop, and popcorn all night.

We'll all go out to breakfast in the morning.

You'll be getting another email soon, after we work out all the details. Movie suggestions are welcome, though we're not promising anything. Here's to a happy new year!

Sundae

It was so foggy this morning that there could have been twenty bald eagles flying in formation over Green Lake and towing a banner with twinkling lights that spelled out 'Happy Isaac Newton's Birthday" and we wouldn't have seen them. It was that foggy. Really.

So, the happy birthdays pealed out at the Putnam place today. In addition to Grace's 90th, it was also the familial celebration of Otis's and her brother's birthdays from last week, and her other brother's boyfriend's birthday tomorrow. Otis made a pineapple-tofu curry that was mm-mm delicious.

I know that some of the gang were at Serenity tonight - since Otis and I couldn't be there, we went last night! We both thought it was pretty cool. Otis knew nothing about it and still followed it all; I knew a little bit about it and thought the movie was as good as everyone has told me the series was. Maybe I'll give the series another chance.

Here are some cool things I found while researching for a comic: do you want a pair of these or one of these?

Saturday bird

It was a beautiful frosty morning, and we walked around Green Lake before getting started on the day. Our efforts were rewarded with our sighting of a bald eagle on the highest bough of a tree, right near about Aurora and Seventieth. The bird sat there for a long while in the yellowish-gray morning light, looking around, and then spread its wings and glided out of the tree. It flew northeasterly for a bit, and then turned right over Duck Island, and headed south until we lost sight of it. Sweet.

Now, back to work.

It says Friday but it's still Thursday for me

I knocked out one great big pile of papers. All that's left is:

23 graduate communications portfolios (big files)
48 English 101 portfolios (four papers each)
24 English 100 portfolios (three papers each)
20 College Strategies portfolios (three papers each)
14 Liberal Studies assessments (two papers each)

I didn't plan very well, did I?

I so need to be responding papers...

I really do. There was brief, brief respite for a few days but now they are all coming in, end of term and all that. I should be doing them now, actually, but I am not. It's too scary. I need to gird my didactic loins, as it were, for the task.

Tomorrow. Yeah, that's it, I'll make such good use of my six-hour layover in Bothell tomorrow... And Friday, I only have the morning classes on Friday. And then the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. And Monday next. And Tuesday...

And so on, and so on.

In th meantime, since the "what's yer politics" quiz was so popular, I thought I'd pass along this worldview quiz that I found via Will Shetterly's Blog (which I have recommended before). Here's me, even though I really don't know quite what it means:

You scored as Materialist. Materialism stresses the essence of fundamental particles. Everything that exists is purely physical matter and there is no special force that holds life together. You believe that anything can be explained by breaking it up into its pieces. i.e. the big picture can be understood by its smaller elements. Postmodernist 88% Materialist 88% Modernist 81% Existentialist 81% Cultural Creative 75% Romanticist 50% Idealist 44% Fundamentalist 13% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

Quelle surprise!

Well, the Viking horde came out to play yesterday, to celebrate Otis's thirtieth birthday! I didn't get a picture of everyone, but I want to thank all the Vikings who turned out:

Rjobbj
Phjilljip
Pjam
Ioe
Krjistijn
Rjyjan
Bjethjanie
Djiane
Vjic
Ljinda
Ien
Mjary
Mjarijsa
Sjoapjy

and Viking Diva Mjel

(remember, archeological evidence shows Vikings came in all sizes)

Otis actually began her birthday celebration with a new sweatshirt and then brekkies at the Sunlight Cafe. We took a little trip to the dunes at Golden Gardens, since the weather was somewhat cooperative. Otis was exuberant in her appreciation of the natural wonder of the beach, while I was little more restrained.

After a midday break, we had dinner at Bamboo Gardens and dessert drinks at Caffe Ladro, both dangerously close to the scene of the surprise.

The Viking Horde was assembled at the Center Skating Rink as planned, and they gave Viking Princess Otis quite a fete. Otis seemed to grow into her horned hat, exhibiting both berserker power and sultry scandinavian allure. The gang had a great time ice skating as well as "ice skating," and there was only one major bodily injury (which was treated with ice).

dancing or falling?

bjethanie contemplates skating

Ien, pre-injury

After the skating, a hard-core group of seven went to the nearby mcmennies for tots!

en två tre fyra fem sex sju

Was Otis surprised? Sort of. A few kittens were let out of the sack by some non-Vikings or pre-Vikings, so she knew something was up; but she didn't fully tip until we were just about there. It was great fun any way it worked out.

So, as the journalists say, that's

-30-

Thirty and flirty

Guess who's thirty today!

Join in the celebration with

NKOTB!

One down, five (and finals) to go

I taught my Communications Design class at Antioch today and it was the last time the class met; I have nothing else to do for that class until I get final portfolios to assess. So, I'm going to call this one completed. I have my last Lib Studies class Tuesday, my last English 100 Wednesday, my last College Strategies Thursday, and my last 101 (two sections) on Friday. Then there's a week of finals and grade posting, and I swear by Loki's horns that I will be completely done by December 17. Whew!

Here's a thing that has been making its rounds on the net. I'd hate to live next door, but it's cute, and I really like the music. Here's the site for the band.

Super Happy Big Fun Saturday Activity Book

Although I am coming into the home stretch, I do have to contend with my last class (or residency, as they call it) for the Antioch grad program tomorrow. I will be teaching on Sunday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, for the the third and last time this quarter; the students actually have it tougher, since they have to do it three times in a row -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday -- during each of the residencies. Tough way to take classes, if you ask me.

Wait - that's sort of how I did some of my bachelor's, innit? I took "weekend college." The classes met over a weekend, for four hours on Friday and eight hours each on Saturday and Sunday (for two credits); there were follow-up projects that were usually due a month or so later. I actually liked it, although I would leave work at 5:00 pm on Friday feeling as if I would do nothing but be in class until I went back to work on Monday.

Anyway, I'm going to have to cram the whole weekend into today, I guess, starting with the fortnightly trek to the Super Happy Big Fun Laundromat, and including responding papers (of course) and marking other regular-life type stuff off the list.

Super Happy Big Fun Bonus Feature!

Since the Power Girl Thanksgiving was so popular, and since you can get anything on the internets, here's a special gift for Johnbai:

Snow day?

So, classes were cancelled at Cascadia last night. The administration made the decision to cancel everything that started at 5:00 pm or later, and my class was at six, so home I trundled at 4:00 pm (I generally get there way early to do work and stuff).

As I drove to meet Otis at Cafe Long on a wet and mostly rainy Lake City Way, I wondered about this snow day business. In addition to Cascadia, Bellevue CC, Shoreline CC, and North Seattle CC had all cancelled evening classes (I don't know about Central and South Seattle). I know this is supposed to be all about safety, and I know that the decision is based not just on the weather at the campus, but also on the conditions in the areas that students come from, but it still seems to me that we are often a bit hasty and premature in canceling classes.

As I drove home from campus, I realized that there were still plenty of people of people moving about, engaging in commerce and personal business; it wasn't like the city had shut down for the blizzard. There was snow, yes, but it wasn't "severe weather" as the NWS calls it. There didn't seem to a particular issue with roadways; I have driven in worse conditions on days that were just rainy. So why had classes been cancelled?

I recognize that some students in some outlying areas might have had a difficult time getting into campus, or might have been able to make it at all. There are some students for whom that is true regardless of the weather conditions at campus or even in the area generally; they live in remote or high places, and have to contend with travel issues regularly. Is the policy for them?

If the weather conditions are dicey and the campus is open, students can, of course, make a personal choice not to attend that day, and to make up the work or not as is their habit. Or are we pretending that all students show up all the time? I have had full attendance at about three class sessions this quarter from all my sections.

I have been hanging around higher ed institutions, and community colleges specifically, for eight years or so; I even used to be part of the team that decided whether to close Clark College for weather. It seems pretty clear to me that we close to soon and too frequently.

November embers

I finally do feel like I am in the home stretch for this quarter. I had a nice chat with Gweekers this afternoon and I think I have purged the system of any resentment or chafing.

So, would anyone want to see Capote this weekend? I have to teach on Sunday, but maybe Friday or an earlier show on Saturday? It's playing at the Egyptian through to next week.

Hey, where'd that day go?

Missed a Monday - how'd that happen? Maybe because I am still a bit busy? Hmmm? Could that be it?

Things are actually going great. I have been doing some fun stuff in the classes and it helps me to remember just how good I have it. Woo-woo!

It's pretty much my favorite concurrent resolution: Go here for the findings of the Idaho Legislature commending Jared and Jerusha Hess and the City of Preston for the production of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. This may be the only state legislation to ever include language stating that any "who choose to vote "Nay" on this ... resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" (Check out the Statement of Purpose/Fiscal Impact, too.) Oh, yes -- it passed.

Does anybody else out there remember this show?

Here is where my next T-shirt is coming from.

Another quick one, for Farmer Scott

Taking a walk this morning, Otis and I encountered a bunch of leaves on the sidewalk, which is not unusual, but these were particularly cool. They were bright yellow and red and really sharp-looking, and the stems were at ninety degrees to the palmate part, so there were lots of sticky-up bits, and it looked like the whole block was on fire. Question is, what kind of tree is it? Here's a sample; click for biggie goodness:

Here's a quick one for Mighty Mel

I have no idea why this is posted now instead of in 3 1/2 months, but here it is:

Doogle

The day after the day after

Wow - who knew that an Impromptu White Wall Spectration would garner such a crowd? What a fortunate man I am - a few phone calls, and I find my home filled with the cheer and good spirits of eleven people besides me and Otis: dinner guests Kris-10 and Rye-N; Forceful Jen (complete with microwavable booties and her own burrito); Dingo Donut and Johnbai with their special guest Calvin-sans-Hobbes; Sue, the Sailor (by avocation), Dean (by occupation) and b*tch (under provocation); JagGirl (with lion locks); Soapy (in fine voice but without burrito); Jimmy the K of the K-Men, fresh from the mountain; and the Late, Great Jim.

We watched - and sang along with - Star Blazers, and laughed at Xtian hijinx in Saved! and got eerie with Telly in a Twilight Zone. Then it was time for gentle, civil discourse on intellectual topics until I threw the last of the crowd out at 1:00 am. Good times.

So, of course, today the piper wanted pay: responding, responding, responding. At least misery has company: as I did my 101 and grad program papers, Otis was plowing through her own stack of HS essays. So many words!

At least it was sunny today, so we took a quick break to drive out to Golden Gardens and look at salt water, before coming back home to -- wait for it -- read more papers. We're almost done.

Seasoned greeting

When I was a kid, the last float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (after the Underdog balloon and the Rockettes and all the rest) was the Santa Claus float, and its appearance was considered the "official" start of the Xmas season. In my recollection of the way the world was then, you really didn't hear Xmas songs or see Xmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, and, of course, like just about everyone else, I have a tendency to think that most of the ways the world worked when I was eight or twelve were better than the way it works now, and this is one of them, but there you go.

Now, although I have swapped out Xmas for INB* (or Appleday), it is in the spirit of that now-forgotten tradition that I offer the following (because it is entierly too cool to go unmarked and I wanted an excuse to post it). I give you the best comix-related holiday t-shirt ever:

Once you have figured it out and laughed yourself silly, click the linky pic and go buy one.

Yesterday was a fine Thanksgiving. Otis and I went to LFP for grub and then the Putnam kith and kin came back to the Ridge for a WWS* screening of Hero.

Many of you readers are likely on the way tonight for another IWWS*. If you're not, send me your cell phone number so I can call you, too! See ya!

*Isaac Newton's Birthday, more on which later


*White Wall Spectration


*Impromptu White Wall Spectration

Thanksgiving Day

I guess in the spirit of the day and following Ned's lead, I would like to mention two things for which I am thankful today: one is that my biggest complaints these days involve having to do too much of the thing that I want to do anyway; that's not a bad place to be, really. The other is knowing that when I post these silly little messages, that there are people who read them and care, and that there are even more people who care who don't read them. Thank you all.

Now let's join Superman, Power Girl, and the gang for some tofurkey!

Otis and I will be having dinner up at Putnam Hall and then coming bak to the Ridge to introduce her family to the joys of white-wall spectration. We're thinking of doing more spectration over the weekend, or maybe getting out and about if the weather cooperates. Keep in touch over the long weekend, gang.

Ah, 's all good

I'm really not as cranky as I may have sounded.

Really.

Here's more like what I feel like today:

All I do is respond papers

This isn't even funny anymore. This is how I feel:


(Good ol' Rocky. Maybe the last time we had a "liberal Republican" in office.)

Anyway, only three more weeks.

Dark twilight

Pretty cool title, huh? I think it would work well for a science fiction novel.

Anyhow, I am waiting for Otis to return from her feng shui / house organization mission to Eatonville on behalf of her employer / associate, the career / life counselor (stop me before I slash again!). I didn't get as much responding done as I had planned to this weekend, but enough, and there's still more to do, since Otis has to grade a slug of papers when she gets home, and I will likely work more as well.

I am looking forward to the short work week and hope to see some of you for Thanksgiving weekend fun! And nothing says Thanksgiving like Mexican wrestlers!

The day after the night before

I'm about ready to dive into some responding - I think I'll head out to a coffee shop and see if I can't get through my forty-eight or so 101 papers today.

I got my LDL blood test yesterday and through the miracle of the Internets had the results by the afternoon. Briefly, since the topic is starting to bore me, I am below the "danger line" for bad cholesterol, and just a lttle low on good cholesterol; my numbers changed by about 50% of what they did the first six weeks of the experiment. So, I am right on a cusp, forcing a strategic decision: do I stay right here, cuspily, or do I take the Lipitor. There's nothing more I can do through behavior adjustments. Sigh.

After a day of work and errands yesterday, we had an Impromptu Spectration last night: Johnbai, Dingo Donut, Mighty Mel, JagGirl, and Forceful Jen joined Otis and I for pizza, salad, popcorn, and a screening of the Japanese weepie Nobody Knows. (Next IS, Mel gets to pick the flick.) It was great to catch up with the gang (except for Soapy, who didn't get the messages).

Today is another mix of work and play. Otis and I got a walk around Green Lake in this morning, and still have lots on the agenda. We put the TV out on the sidewalk with a free sign and it was gone within an hour or so; that made clearing out the alcove a lot easier. Still more to do!

I'll close with a picture of the Founding Father whose inspiration I feel we need most right about now: that radical, humanist, anti-religionist, populist pamphleteer, Tom Paine:

NPO Morning

So, today after my morning classes I am going to go Group Health and get another blood draw for LDL stuff. I haven't been able to keep up the exercise regimen over the past few weeks, but my weight is still down and my diet has been good. I am hopeful for a positive outcome.

I have been keeping up with the work this week. I tried to get ahead by doing some papers yesterday up in Bothell, but I could only get through three or four at a time before my brain started short-circuiting and I had to take a break, so it was slow going. (They are not very good papers, and I can only read so many content-free sentences at at time.) I was hoping we were getting into the home stretch, with only four weeks (including finals week) left after today, but not so much: I have about 90 papers in hand to respond by Monday; by the end of the quarter I will have gotten another 580 assignments handed in that I need to respond. So, all I need to do is work all weekend, and keep my 3 hour a day pace going for another month, and then I can relax!

Apropos of nothing, here's a picture. Click for englargement and maybe you can see Wheylona or Neds.

Lights and tunnels

I actually feel pretty good about having made some progress over the past couple of days in gaining control of the workload. I can't get complacent; there's still lots of work coming in over the next three and a half weeks. I have a feeling I am going to be busy over the Thanksgiving weekend...

In the file cabinet of my mind is a TV pilot for a detective series starring the Universal Studios Movie Monsters. The conceit was that monsters were accepted as part of the daily reality of life, if not totally accepted as full members of society. This particular group ran a detective agency and got involved in escapades and wacky hijinx, except on the 'very special episodes' that concerned major societal issues and whatnot. Anyway, the way my mind works, I figured I wouldn't use the big three (Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and Wolfman), except sparingly; the main character would be the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a fish out of water (get it?) in more ways than one. The other main character would be Bride of Frankenstein, and I expected a lot of Unresolved Sexual Tension between them. (I toyed with the idea of making her the Ex-wife of Frankenstein, too). The supporting cast would be Invisible Man, Mummy, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and other lesser lights that I could dig up.

So, imagine my surprise when I found this on the net, apropos of nothing. A publicity still?

Still running

Yesterday, I had class 9 to 11; drove to Bothell and did lesson plans/grading until 3:30; taught until 5:45 (grading while the students wrote); drove home in rush hour and graded until 10:30 pm. Boo-hoo, poor me.

I got Netflix! Yay! Now we can watch lucha libre movies like this one!

Paying the piper

[Sunday night] Well, I worked all day today and I'm still behind. This is going to be a crunch week to get caught up, so the posts will be brief, but I will add a graphic to give your eye something to light on anyway, and something to click, too.

Forb, twip, armsaye, and one I forgot

Those were the words for the bluffing / dictionary / balderdash segments of the two episodes of Says You!, whose tapings Dingo Donut, JagGirl (aka RwT), Mighty Mel, Farmer Scott, Jimbo5, and I attended at MoHaI yesterday. It wound up being a pretty long day. Da boyz started with an early brekkies on the Ridge; we all assembled at the auditorium at about 10:30 am, and the taping of two half-hour shows took until after 1:30.

In addition to the bluffing game, there was stuff like which one doesn't fit (Tunnel - Gate - Triangle - Colorado) and make a three-anagram out of (Actor James opens curtains) and tell me what novel this is the last line of and what was the longest [shortest] title of a movie that won a best picture oscar and so on.

It was generally a fun time. We could tell the panelists were getting tired by the second show - which was the fourth they had done since the night before. There were no big technical glitches, and it was a pretty good crowd.

After the show, we went to Grateful Bread and sat in the cushy couches and had coffee and soup and stuff. Good times.

I got back to the Ridge a little before 4:00, just in time to catch my breath before Otis came home from class at 5:00 and we headed out to dinner for her father's birthday. All of Clan P was there; we had a great dinner at Gaspare's right here in the neighborhood, and then went down to Leilani Lanes to roll a few lines. Fun stuff, even if I lost the pocket and bowled a crappy second game. Otis rocked the alley the first game, but then her wrist hurt.

Needless to say, I got no work done yesterday. Otis is off to squeeze school again, so here's to a rainy, quiet, and productive day for me!

No school today

No classes today for Veterans' Day. As happy as I am to have a day off (prolly as happy as my students), I did want to take a moment to mark the day appropriately. Veterans' Day -- and "support the troops" efforts in general -- can be problematic. How do I separate my misgivings about government foreign policy and our nation's military adventurism abroad from the genuine patriotism, goodheartedness, and commitment to duty that I find - and admire - in so many of the military personnel that I meet and teach?

Here are two quotations that might cover the range of my response:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America , do hereby call upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954 , as Veterans Day. On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to fight in. -- GEORGE MCGOVERN

As for the rest of today, it will be the usual combination of work and play, and as usual, mostly work. I think I can actually get 100% caught up this weekend, the Says You! excursion notwithstanding. I might even - dare I say it? - get a little ahead!

True confessions and coming attractions

Okay, so the whole walking thing - it hasn't been working out. Partly it's been the weather, and the early darkness, but mostly it's that with the schedule I have been working I am back to living in my car for most of the day. So the walking goal will not be met. Yeah, it sucks, but at some point you have to turn Mother's picture to the wall and face facts.

So, to make up for it, I intend to log another 200 miles on the bike before the end of the year. Once the quarter slacks into finals in about a month, I can get into serious riding mode again, and I'll have over three weeks solid to clock it in. It will get me back into shape for winter quarter, when my schedule will be more manageable and I can bike a lot more, including for some of my commute.

There will be some other changes come early December. Once I have the time, I will be moving forward on the remodel of HKC, and the launch of a new blog, and throwing some serious resources at Blockhead Rhetoric.

Otis has some changes to share right now; check out her brand-new artblog.

Election day catch up

I walked down to my local polling place and exercised my franchise in the old-fashioned way, casting my "Strong Democrat" paper ballot in person. Well, not entirely old-fashionedly -- we use a scantron form now. I never did like the little push-pin deal they had for so long. I can remember going into the old mechanical voting booths with my mom back in the City: all these rows and columns of little red levers were arrayed beautifully. Each row was for an elected position, and the columns were organized by political party, with a little symbol for the party at the top - I can recall there being a hammer and sickle, and another one with an arm in a rolled-up sleeve (Communists and Socialists?). Next to the symbol was another lever; if you pulled that one, it pulled all the levers in the column, voting for the candidate of that party for each office. When you had everything set, you pulled a great big lever to open the curtain, and the votes were recorded. It looked something like this. Those were the days...

Hey, I forgot to mention that N*W*C in Kirkland was a swell evening, aside from the rainy night and the bridge traffic. It was a fine show, and there were a whole bunch of folks there to enjoy it. Kudos to Sunni-V for his professional and personal efforts on the project.

I'm still chugging along on the work train. Spent a lot of time with paers over the weekend, and have been churning out lesson plans this week. I'll be glad for the holiday on Friday.

Hey, it's my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Norma Jean!

An interesting test

I usually don't do politics on this blog, but I was following some links from Alas, a Blog and came upon this little "What're your politics?" test. I reproduce the results for my quiz, not so much because I think they are accurate (although they likely are) but because I really liked the presentation.

(update: links have been fixed)

You are a Social Liberal (78% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (23% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Morning lights

That's what I was going to call this post when I was going to write it before I settled in to do school work. But Blogger has been off-line for a while, so I am just here now, on a break.

The heading refers to the winter lights that Otis and I have strung up in the apartment. Just a couple of bucks for a string of 100 mini-lights at Freddy M's and we have something to ward off the winter rain and gloom. We have one string around the living room windows and another in the bedroom, plain white on white. It does help.

Here's to a day that I hope is bright, even in the rain.

Minor miscalculation

Today is Thursday, and on Thursday I teach from 9 am to 11 pm at North and then from 6 pm to 8:30 pm at Cascadia. To make the most of this split-shift day, I usually come up to Bothell directly from North and use the five or six hours I have free to lesson plan and respond papers, rather than going home and frittering the time away.

That was my plan today. Unfortunately, even though I took the extra briefcase along, it did not have in it the papers that I wanted to respond. So, I did all the work I could, and am now floating dead in the water, since the rest of my work is back on the Ridge, and I am here on Campus.

This is a sadness, since it means I have time free that will be very difficult to turn into any sort of quality time, stuck as I am on campus, and I will have to take away from some potentially-high-quality time this weekend to do the responding I could be doing now.

So, I blog.

Here's my earliest web presence, I believe. Way back when, I had a Packard-Bell PC that had come with a TV card. You could plug an antenna or a coaxial cable into the box and watch broadcast or cable TV or a VCR on the computer, and it had some primitive video-capture software. (I actually remember watching the Miss America pageant on the desktop once, when the TV wasn't working for some reason). I had come across this site that chronicled the Tales of the Gold Monkey TV show, and I offered to help, and the gal who ran it sent me some tapes, and I made and emailed her the awful low-res captures that you can see on her pics page.

This is a crime prevention site that has an email link to me (at an ISP that no longer exists). The source code says this cobwebsite was last updated in January, 1997.

At least this blog is a little more up-to-date than that, innit?

Happy holidays

As we move from the spooky holidays through the armed services celebration and into the Great Big Family Gathering Holiday (or the Celebration of 385 Years of Cross-Cultural Conflict, depending on your perspective), Otis has requested some air time to let you know that she has adopted a turkey for this Thanksgiving Day.

If you click on this link and scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will meet Whisper. Otis chose Whisper not just for his birdly good looks but also for his approach - similar to her own - for spreading the word about vegetarian eating.

Whisper (or his photo, anyway) will be at the dinner table with us this year, as we chow down on cranberries and tofurkey.

Happy Day of the Dead!

It's Dia de los Muertos and this happy couple looks to be having a grand ol' time! I hope you all are, too!

Just a couple of quick social notes related to this post:

The projector is great!

The art show was cool!

There is a great gang of folks heading over to Kirkland Performance Center for N*W*C this Saturday. If you want in on it, get in touch with Sunni-V!

The last Says You! ticket has been taken! The final complement will be me, Farmer Scott, Jimbo-5, Dangerous Dingo, Mighty Mel, and Rhymes-with-Theresa!

Not a player, apparently

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

So, while I was looking for some stuff for class I found this website that had an applet which lets you determine the value of your blog using the same formula (based on links) that was used to value the AOL-Weblogs merger.

Looks like HKC has a ways to go to hit the big time. Click the link and find the "value" of your own blog!

A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. -- O. Wilde (var.)

Eyeballs intact

How did you use our extra bonus hour last night? I imagine some of you got another hour of twistin' the night away, you 24-hour-party-people, you. Me, I slept mine. Except for a walk to return the bat-movies, I essentially worked all day yesterday, from the time I made the last post until about nine at night, with a little bit after that as well while Otis fell asleep watching Close Encounters on the big screen (er, wall). I have to leave in a little while, to teach from nine to five down at Antioch, and still have a bit of planning to do when I get back. No rest for the wicked, eh?

Here's a little anigif for you today:



This illustrates the Golden Rectangle, which develops the idea of the Golden Ratio, which is a concept related to the Fibonacci Numbers and which I think is so cool that I keep trying how to figure out how to make it a tattoo. Learn more about it from this guy.

A bat-talion of batfans!

The Origami Batgirl and I welcomed a horde of bats for the inaugural spectration of the B-Movie Bijou last night! Joining us to watch one really fun fifties thriller (with the late, great Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead, no less) and one truly, incredibly dreadful sixties piece of trash (with no one who ever worked again) were Runny Sunny, from just down the hall; the lovely Theodora von D'arc and Mr. T (sporting matching blink-in-the-dark bat-rings); Magic Scotty and his charming pal FloraNora; Sailor Sue (who won the Most Boob References award for the evening); Mighty Melvin (with the skirling of the pipes still echoing in her head); Rye-N (who scored hella points on the mock-o-meter) and Kris-10 (at least I think that's who that was peeping out from her blanket); Dangerous Dingo (in her Dracula coat); a limping Johnbai; Soapy; RwT (on her usual schedule); and even a special guest appearance by the charming Car-ul Cair-uhl Cahr-oll Carl.

It was a spectacular night and I, at least, had a great time! Now, I have got to get to work and read papers until my eyes fall out.

But I cannot fail to mention the appearance of the man himself on this B-is-for-bat night:

(click the bat emblem for poppy goodness)

Clear skies, not on the forecast

When I was getting up this morning, the radio lady said there was a one-hundred-percent chance of rain today. Yet, it has been been clear, with blue skies and sunshine for most of the day. I took my cue from that, and instead of working (which I really ought to be doing), I got the place ready for the movies tonight and even actually took a walk. I am in an excellent mood today; several things have made me laugh loud that really weren't quite as funny as all that. I stopped in at the local comic book shop and managed to wonder where the Silver Age went without getting all distressed at the state of comix today. I just feel good.

Maybe I am on the verge of getting my second wind. Monday will be day 26 of the standard 52-instructional-day quarter (eleven weeks minus three holidays), so we are halfway though this infernal fall. I am behind, but that seems to be the state of things, and I am getting used to it.

So, like the sunshine today, I will have an unscheduled bit of summerness before working all day tomorrow, teaching all day Sunday, and hitting the ol' grind again Monday. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may...

And even as I type, the raindrops begin to fall.

Lighter and brighter

Nice to live where clouds pass quickly. I had a pretty good day yesterday; it's always good when stuff you try actually works, innit? Massaged the universe a little and smoothed some things out. Nothing has changed significantly, and I am still way busy, but I feel better about it. had a great night last night (except for the suicidal bat) and I'm ready to rock and roll.

Here's a flash site that explains one of the most-discussed movies ever.

An unfortuntate concatenation of circumstances

Whenever a number of conditions combine to create an unwanted effect these days, commentators are likely to call it a "perfect storm"; I have always preferred Wodehouse's styling (above) as more lyrical and usually more apt.

In any case, since I took on super-quarter at the end of September, here are the circumstances which have been concatenated: I apparently did not draw all the brightest bulbs in the box, and have had to work hard to generate some extra spark in class; a possibly ill-considered acceptance of an odd schedule at North in Winter knocked me out of contention for some work at Cascadia; this situation has not been successfully resolved and has reminded me of the perils of temporary teaching assignments; there is a labor action in progress at North over issues surrounding temporary teachers; I attended a session on temporary teaching assigments at the conference in Yakima and was not heartened by the information shared; I have been awfully tired by (and of) teaching six classes.

The result of all this: I have been a bit out of sorts and vaguely dissatisfied for the past few days. I am sure I'll get over it, but it has given me pause.

Hey, I got an email from one of the authors of N*W*C; he found our discssion on the blog. He's also a comix writer. Wotta world, eh?

Hey, I still need someone to pick up that last ticket for Says You!

Hey, is this cool or what?

No time to post!

...so here's a picture. It's something like what Just Jon might have had on the wall for his boys, but with a comixy twist.

(Did you figure it out?)

Just a quick post

before I go to grade papers ALL DAY! I am actually glad it's raining...

The Yakima trip got better. The conference was worthwhile and, on the culinary front, it had the best food I have ever had at a conference: authentic Mexican food with grrrrreat veggie burritos.

Hey, happy to see Just Jon back in the bloggle! I know how busy we all are, and I'm glad you're filling your free time with some idiot grinning.

Hey, let's all send hypoallergenic karma to Wheylona!

Hey, there's still one ticket left for Says You! Somebody take it and join us for breakfast and wordly fun!

Hey, let me know if you're coming over for the B is for Bat inaugural spectration on Friday!

And just for fun, here is a surprising complete version of the original Star Wars movie in an animated GIF:

I gotta get to work.

Blah-ging in Yucky-ma

So here we are in the Clarion Motel and Conference Center in Yakima. I have a conference tomorrow - not here at the center, but at Yakima Valley CC. We just came back to the room from what was quite possibly the worst dinner I have ever had.

We walked across the street to a Chinese restaurant - the Golden Something. Reading the menu was the first clue - there were almost no vegetarian items, and the word "tofu" was nowhere to be found. Otis decided to go with vegetable chow mein and flexitarian me chose fried rice. Here came the second clue: the waitress warned me about the rice. She told me that the chicken "was like the lunchmeat kind." I told her to bring me the rice without any chicken. We should have just dropped our waters and run away.

Otis's chow mein was a barely distinguishable pile of gelatinous vegetable matter (mostly celery) spread over some limp "crispy" noodles. Her steamed rice was Uncle Ben's. My fried rice - Uncle Ben's with Liquid Smoke poured on it - had little rubbery chunks of pressed chicken parts strewn through it. And nothing else - no peas, no carrots, no onions.

It was awful. We ate it. We drank the tea from Denny's coffee cups and left. There are even more details to share, but I just can't bear it.

B is for... Bat!

In the tradition started by Otis's Bee-movie Extravaganza last year, and thanks to Walaka's acquistion of The Shaft of Fire That Glows In Yonder West (aka the new projector), we are happy to announce the first of what promises to be regular monthly B-movie nights! In honor (horror?) of Halloween, please join us for

B is for Bat-Movies!

The program is a double feature:

First, the classic 1926 thriller that in all likelihood inspired Bob Kane to create Batman:

The Bat

Based on the play by Mary Roberts Rhinehart, The Bat tells the story of a master criminal who tries to scare some people out of an old, dark house. The trouble is that there are other criminals afoot, and the story becomes a mystery as to who is hiding behind the mask.

The second feature is a piece of pure sixties gold:

The Wild World of Batwoman

In this zero-budget 1966 cheapie, a busty Batwoman enlists her beauteous bevy of Batgirls (when they are not dancing the jerk) to help her regain a mad scientist's invention (an atom bomb made out of a hearing aid) before a costumed ne'er-do-well, Rat Fink, can glom onto it for his own purposes.

Um, yeah.

So, if you're batty enough to want to watch these, join us on the Ridge on Friday, October 28. Be there around 7:00; we'll start the show by 7:30. We'll have soft drinks and popcorn; bring something else if you want to.

Wear something batlike (or bat-esque) or bring a bat-thing for admission!

Let us know via email if you're coming. Here are some batlinks to check between now and then:

Bat-facts!

A Bat-legend!

Bat-boxes!

It would be the greatest thing on the internets evar...

--too bad it's a hoax. (I'll let you do your own sleuthing.)

Busy day, but a good one. Had a quiet class in the morning and a great class in the evening. A little behind on responding, but I can catch up tomorrow. I can - I must - I will!

Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows In yonder West: the fair, frail palaces, The fading Alps and archipelagoes, And great cloud-continents

The projector is here.

It works.

The counter shows low hours on the battery.

It more-or-less fits on the bookcase.


't's all good.

A New Look is coming

In 1984, 22 years after its origin, the original Justice League of America was disbanded and the comic was given a whole new look : new characters, a new setting (Detroit), and new leadership (Aquaman).

Well, this blog has been up for all of seven months now, and I am starting to think about a new look and a new direction. The social-networking aspect of the blog hasn't quite gotten the traction I thought it might. I think that I am so busy over this quarter that I won't be able to keep up anywhere near the daily posting rate that I had over the summer. I have been reading a lot of blogs lately, and I am starting think about this whole endeavor more intentionally rather than experimentally.

In any case, I will be doing some fiddling. (I have already started dismantling my website in a similar All-New! All-Different! mode.) You probably won't notice anything right away (except less consistent posting) but before Isaac Newton's Birthday there will likely be a grand re-opening.

In the meanwhile:


Soup-er Party: Mlle. V. threw Johnbai a great bash last night! We got to have terrific soup, give birthday wishes, and meet new, cool folks. I am sure that it continued to be a swell time even after Otis and I had to bail out early for yet another trip into grading-land.

Projector update: The projector has arrived from Cali! Unfortunately, the mailman tried to deliver it while I was out responding to papers, so I will have to pick it up tomorrow at the Wallingford P.O. Meh.

I got skyped!: Wheylona called me from SanSe on her laptop. She has this service from Skype and wants us all to get it! It's some kind of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) deal with really cheap rates - It only cost her about a buck for an hour. (I would link it but she wants you to go to her blog and click the link from her sidebar so she gets bonus points or something.)

Realism: I just can't do this, this year anyway. But next year, I am all over it.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Dingo!




Happy Birthday, Frankie!




Happy Birthday, Dian Dohndt!


Happy Birthday,
Diane!

and best wishes for many happy returns of the day!

(This should have gone up earlier, but I still haven't gotten complete control of my quarter!)

Please direct your attention to the center ring

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and children of all ages: here are the Upcoming Events:

1. A package purportedly containing my projector left Richmond, California today, bound for my door in the custody of uniformed representative of the federal government. Get ready for movies!

2. As mentioned previously (see prior post), Otis's brother is participating in an art show at his artists' studio building this Saturday, 10/14 from 4pm to 8 pm. Otis and I will be there sometime between 5 and 7.

3. Sunni-V passes on this promotion about N*W*C, a show at the Kirkland Performance Center on Friday, 11/4 and Saturday 11/5. We can get a discount (the price goes from $24 to $21.50) if we have 10 people going on the same night; let me know what works for you.(Student tickets are $10.)

Lock your cars...
Watch your daughters...
Study your math...

N*W*C is in the house!

Blending theater, hip-hop, stand-up comedy, slam poetry, and true-life
stories with their own original style, three tour-de-force performers take
on one of the hottest issues around...race...in the premiere production from
LA's Speak Theater Arts: N*GGER WETB*CK CH*NK.

Relax...it's a comedy.

N*W*C draws startlingly funny and sharply moving conclusions about what
separates us as cultures, and yet, must ultimately bring us together as
people.

In N*W*C's words: "This show traces the origins and evolution of three
derogatory terms that shaped our lives and took the place of a full
understanding of our distinct cultures. Creating our own brand of theater,
we've used these stories to get us to a better place. We hope they get you
somewhere too."

"Oh yeah, and we hope you laugh your a** off!"

Here's the poster.

4. We still have one ($25) ticket available for the Says You Excursion on Saturday, November 12. This wacky wordplay radio quiz show is taping in Seattle at MOHAI, and we're gonna go be in the audience.