For some reason, I had the Chad Mitchell Trio's "John Birch Society" going through my head ("Join the John Birch Society, holding off the Reds/We'll use our hands and hearts and, if we must, we'll use our heads").

There's a break at the end where 2/3 of the trio sings "America the Beautiful" while the third member talks about the fears of the era (ending with a unison, "If mommy is a commie, then you gotta turn her in....")

So my mind decided to go through all of "America the Beautiful" and, for the first time, I discovered I have a bit of a problem with it. Specifically, with the line, "God shed his grace on thee." As the food and shelter provider for four cats, I don't know that I particularly want my deity of choice to show favor by shedding all over me. I mean, I go through vacuum bags like crazy as it is.

I wish I could blame this entry on medication or some other known mind-altering substance but, alas, the closest I can honestly claim is an overindulgence in salmon and strawberries.

I haven't been quite my compulsively bloggy/journally self lately, but I promise you, I will always provide the Rush-related links.

Here's an 11-year-old girl supremely rocking "YYZ" on organ:



And here's some behind-the-scenes Colbert Report footage in which Rush fails Rock Band:

A few interesting upcoming shows.

For the film auteurs among you:
Saturday August 9 2008, 7:30PM
CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: A PRESENTATION OF OUTTAKES FROM THE FILM
(1955)

Two hours of the eight surviving hours of rushes from the film.


And they're doing a whole series of Busby Berkeley musicals.


Whole schedule here.

A little while ago, I mentioned a project that Jonathan Coulton is taking part in called Masters of Song Fu. For this final round, the challenge was to write an original homage to David Bowie's "Space Oddity." His entry is based on the first animal in space, Russian space-dog Laika. It seems like a goofy premise, but the song is just beautiful. Jeff MacDougall's rival entry, which more closely follows the orginal story, is also lovely. Both songs, along with a fuller explanation of the contest and challenges, can be found here. The songs are near the bottom of the page. (Quick Stop seems to have mostly worked out the bugs on their site.)

I think that fans of "Space Oddity" won't be disappointed.

I went in wanting to love it, and was underwhelmed. I can't say it was bad. I can't say I didn't enjoy it. But I honestly expected a lot more. It wasn't as good as everyone's saying, and it wasn't as good as it was trying to be, or as good as it thought it was.

Heath Ledger as the Joker was terrific, and was probably the best thing in the film. Christian Bale was great as Bruce Wayne, but his vocals as Batman were pretty laughable. Yes, there was moral complexity, but it was really pretty facile and heavy-handed --- I frequently found myself giggling during the heavy dramatic speeches and voiceovers. The plotting was pretty nonsensical, considering how much of it there was. I honestly still can't figure out the wheels within wheels. It was also way too long for what it was; it was 2 1/2 hours that felt like 3.

Did you love it? Help me understand what I missed.

Shows I am going to in the next few months around here.
Very excited to photograph them. Anyone want to go with me for any of them?

October 8th most pleases me. Obvs.


Calvin

THU AUG 7th 8pm The New Pornographers, Grizzly Bear
THU SEP 18th 8pm Built To Spill, Meat Puppets
FRI OCT 24th 8pm They Might Be Giants - Ages 14 and up only.


Pearl Street

SUN AUG 10th 8:30pm The Melvins, Big Business
FRI SEP 12th 9pm Bang Camaro
WED SEP 17th 8:30pm Stars, Bell X1
FRI OCT 3rd 9pm Pinback
WED OCT 8th 8:30pm Okkervil River, Crooked Fingers, What Cheer? Brigade

Iron Horse

FRI SEP 5th 10pm The Felice Brothers



....

In other news.

- So I can repeat this again, ad nauseum... work is fantastic. Almost all of it. Had a great review today.

- ProjRun is back on. I think I have a few favorites for this season brewin' in my head. Why was Natalie Portman a judge, though? Question mark?

- September 21st is the official day of my first 5K. I have much training to do to get to my goal: not to walk at all. I am on week 4 of the C25K.com program. It's about to get a lot tougher but I love the stepped training.

- Martha's Vineyard is truly one of the loveliest places I've ever been to. I will be back soon, I know it. It's just cracklin' with this magical pull that hooked the 9 of us that stayed the week. Had many an adventure that week: sharing a moment that was incredibly special, a strange pub crawl filled with tequila and 90s rap music, a gingerbread house community and a wild 4th of July parade, people leaping off the bridge seen in the movie Jaws, the most gorgeous outdoor porch attached to the huge house we stayed in, seeing Luke Wilson, purchasing Black Dog merch that I got suckered into, great food eaten out and amazing food eaten in, cooking pizza on the grill, sea kayaking on the open water (and my resulting messed up wrist tendon that required medical care... tho I'd kayak again in a second)... it was all wonderous.

- Been bustin' it on freelance design work. Almost have more than I can handle.

- My beloved camera broke about 3 days into vacation. It's a long story. Good news is that my new camera is on its way. Stoked.

Photos soon. But I'm lazy right now. I'm in a strange place in life right now. I am pretty ok with most things, really.

Yesterday, in a fit of frighteningly stereotypical Angeleno-dom, I had brunch at a cafe on Montana, followed by gelato, with DJA, who I hadn't seen in months.  This lack of contact is mainly due to the fact that he's been chained to his desk at the law firm he works at, trying to make partner.  I called him over the weekend to share my own good news, and it turned out there was cause for a dual celebration.  No, he didn't make partner at his (now former) firm.  Indeed, the sequence of our mutual disappointments-at-work-followed-by-surprise-opportunities-for-something-even-better followed an eerily similar path.  You know my story, dear reader.  DJA got whipsawed by some ugly office politics, missed out on the big promotion (which he -justifiably - thought he deserved), but then got an offer for an even better position with another firm.  So we toasted our mutual good fortune over excellent Eggs Benedict.

I've also been working out with a partner this week - dorklepork (who is strong like bull!) has been joining me in the weight room to run through some powerlifting sets.  She's really an awesome workout partner - knows what she's doing, has a good sense for when to toss in an encouraging word, and, unlike me, isn't prone to turn short breaks into long ones by talking instead of working.  We keep each other focused, but still have fun.  If you work out, you know how rare that balance can be!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/344107344/im-off-to-nerd.html

It's so weird to have this great week working on Criminal Minds that I can't talk about in any detail until October. I have no mouth, and I must scream, you could say. How about I just give up one little non-spoilery thing, and nobody tells on me, okay?

At the end of the shoot, I was thanking a lot of the people I worked with for making it such a great experience. Every single one of them told me that they wished I worked on the show every day. I guess the feeling was mutual.

So, yeah, that made me feel pretty good. If you get a chance to work on Criminal Minds, I highly recommend it.

Now, to business:

Tomorrow, I'm heading down to San Diego for an abbreviated stay at Comic-Con. Here's my schedule:

• On Thursday, I'll be on a panel called Star Trek Without a Blueprint: How books and comics keep expanding the boundaries of the Star Trek universe. We'll be talking about the future of Star Trek publishing in room 32AB from 4:00-5:00. I'll be on the panel with Andy Mangels (moderator and Star Trek author), Margaret Clark (executive editor, Pocket Books), Andy Schmidt (senior editor, IDW) and Star Trek authors Kevin Dilmore, Dave Mack, Scott Tipton, and Dayton Ward.
• The rest of the time, I'll be with my friend Rich Stevens at the Dumbrella booth, which is number 1335. MC Frontalot is going to be there, too, so if you're looking to fill that final square on Nerd Bingo, come and see us.
  

Oh. I guess it would be useful to know what I'm taking with me to sign and sell, wouldn't it?

In addition to some 8x10s from Star Trek and Stand By Me, I'll have copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives , which I'm kind of hoping will sell out.

I'll have a few copies of Dancing Barefoot and Just A Geek. I'll also have a few copies of Volume 2 of the Star Trek Manga. I won't have any copies of Volume 3 of the Star Trek Manga, but it's just been released, so I'm sure you'll be able to pick up a copy somewhere. If you bring it to the booth, I'm happy to sign it for you.

Finally, I will have copies of this year's Chapbook, which is called Sunken Treasure. What's that, you say? You don't know what that is? You don't have time to click a link, you say? Well, my lazy friend, allow me to show you part of the author's note:

Every summer, I make one of these limited chapbooks and take them with me on the inevitable summer convention tour. In the past, I’ve pulled material from whatever I’m working on, as sort of a fall preview, but this year the book I’m working on is so top secret, I’d have to print the chapbook on self-destructing paper, and while that would make it a very limited edition, the costs associated are kind of prohibitive.

So for 2008’s limited edition chapbook extravaganza, I’ve put together the first ever Wil Wheaton Sampler. With the help of my editor Andrew, who is a former ninja warrior and recreational time traveler, I’ve pulled together things I like from all three of my books, my blog, and this groovy collaborative fiction project I play with called Ficlets. I’ve also included, for the first time anywhere, one of the scripts I wrote for a sketch comedy show at the ACME Comedy Theater.

I am really proud of Sunken Treasure, and I think Andrew (my friend and editor) and I came up with something really special. I only sold about a dozen of them at San Jose Super-Con (there really weren't that many people there this year) and since I'm not welcome at the Creation convention in Vegas, the only places you can get copies of it will be Comic-Con and PAX. I'm anxious to get these little books out into the wild, though, so I hope you'll tell everyone you know, for a grand total of 150 people (you guys can coordinate this, right?) to come by the Dumbrella booth and check it out. It's so weird to make something I'm so proud of, and only get to share it with a handful of people so far.

I don't know if I'll be particularly motivated to post while I'm away. I'll likely be posting all sorts of things to Twitter, including where I am and when I'll be signing. There will also be pithy observations about my fellow geeks, so you don't want to miss that. Erm, provided I can avoid the fail whale, that is. Ahem.

The Internet is quiet as hell lately. I feel like I'm talking into an empty tube, so thanks for reading and commenting; it makes me feel a little less like a crazy old man with no pants standing on the corner ranting about the weather.

Found via eddvick.

As I've mentioned before, conscientious parenting is really hard. Shawn and I have been a bit disappointed at the number of Disney flicks his mom has shown to Hunter, since we'd hoped to be able to introduce them to him ourselves, partially because we love introducing Hunter to new things, but partially so we can answer his inevitable questions and help frame some of the "lessons."

Monday, we watched "The Incredibles" together. On the one hand, Shawn and I love the "family working together" aspect of the film. On the other, what is the deal with the "if everyone is special/super, then no one will be" -- ?!??

I am assuming this is a backlash against the part of the "self-esteem movement" that believed that giving kids a bunch of meaningless praise, regardless of their abilities or achievements, would automatically make kids feel good about themselves. The movie also taps into an anti- "go along to get along/dumb yourself down" message which I kind of agree with, except that it seems to imply that only Special people have any value, which is a bunch of crap.

Thus the need for parental guidance. I ended up explaining to Hunter that Syndrome thought that he could be a superhero by giving himself powers and making himself famous, but that's not what being a superhero is about. Being a superhero, a hero, or even just a decent human being, is about helping people, and the only person Syndrome wanted to help was himself.

It may not seem like that big of a deal, but, day in, day out, trying to indoctrinate our little one into believing that the purpose of life is to be nice to people and help others while remaining respectful of his own feelings and experiences can be kind of exhausting.

Maybe I'm studying too hard. Over the course of the last week, all but one of the five bulbs in our chandelier (under which I'm doing my studying) have burned out. I just dropped a bunch of cash on some CFLs online.

Also, I think cost accounting may have defeated me. It has sucked up much more time than I allotted, and I still have to review finance, which I didn't understand very well when I took it either, so I'm not optimistic. And the exam is on Saturday. Oy.

Moar tiem, plz. Kthxbye.

Entry at Things I Find Important

"It is with great sadness and a very heavy heart that we make this announcement. Just a short time ago (7/22/08), Jill Wood passed on, succumbing to her struggle with cancer.

"Jerry, her husband, best friend, companion, love, partner, co-planner, and biggest supporter was present. He had to begin the process of notifying the hundreds of friends and family to all of whom this loss will be deeply felt.

"Their daughter, Susannah, is in the loving care of her grandparents in Orange County, Larry and Ethel, who have taken on the mission of letting her know and of providing her comfort until she can be reunited with her father.

"If you can find any joy within yourself, express it for Jill; she is in a better place."

~~~

I have tears for today but memories and joy from yesterdays spent with my friend, Jill.

*Sitting on the grass at faire in the sunshine.

*Jill showing me how to put my hair in a ponytail flip on the bedroom floor of the house she shared with Kathy.

*Watching Jill as she talked about things with passion, from her heart, wisps of her red hair fallen, gesturing with one hand.

*Being jealous of the wonderful costumes she made for faire and Christmas parties at Georgia's house.

*Watching her try to remain calm as the minister went on and on during her wedding ceremony about eagles mating.

*Jill and Jerry showing up with a giant salad after Shawn was in his motorcycle accident.

She was passionate and talented. I didn't see her very often after we stopped doing faire, but I will always consider her a good friend. My heart is heavy with loss and yet it dances with memories.

I said, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it" to the darling fiance, and he became the darling husband. (There were more words, but since they were sort of impromptu, we don't really remember them too well...well, except "I do." I'm pretty sure those words were used.)

I am such a very lucky woman to have found such a wonderful, thoughtful, caring, funny individual to share my life with.

I'm sure those of you not yet on Gmail have noticed the recent increase in curiously-themed spam email messages that are somehow eluding current spam filters. I recently received this particular email subject line and I thought it just took the cake. And it's really upsetting that Nazis can brainwash them so young.

Due to the massive outpouring of indifference and/or disdain, with a slight dash of detestation, I've disabled the LoudTwitter feed. If you're interested in what I had for breakfast, you can check out rsheslin on Twitter.

castle_kevorah took me out for a belated birthday outing last night - dinner at a hip burger joint attached to the Roosevelt Hotel and then a showing of WALL-E at the El Capitan.  Dinner was delish, even if the hipster waitress assured us that the fries/onion rings combo order would be enough for all three of us.  It so wasn't!  I think she was on scrawny hipster customer autopilot when she made that suggestion...  But, a second order of fries easily remedied the original bad advice.  My burger was excellent and my Hefeweitzen was cool and refreshing.  Kev's Guinness milkshake was heavy on the milkshake and light on the Guinness - more a menu novelty than a serious attempt to meld stout and ice cream (and perhaps that's a good thing...) while 'orah's wine was a delightful complement to her meal.  I don't know enough about wine to wax oenophilic - I'm just taking her word for it. 

The movie was delightful - warm, funny, witty, and masterfully executed, as I've come to expect from Pixar.  This was actually my first time at the El Cap, and the organist and stage show were a surprisingly diverting lagniappe to the show and the theater's great interior.  Speaking of great interiors, we walked through the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel on our way out of the burger joint - wow!  What a great venue.  As 'orah observed, you half expected to see Bogie and Bacall having an intense discussion in a shadowy corner.  Definitely a place to go back to for drinks sometime.  'orah said it would be a fine spot for folks to celebrate something like a new job or other professional success.  But more on that later.

After the movie, we headed back home for some whisky and conversation.  Kev took a Springbank 15, 'orah took a Knappogue and then a dash of Redbreast, and I took a Laphroaig Quarter Cask followed up by an Ardbeg (the Ray's Folly expression, for those in the know...)  All in all, a wonderful way to wind up my birthday celebrations for the summer.

But that's not the official part.  As some of you may know, I applied for a position at school a while ago, and didn't get it.  Needless to say I was disappointed.  But, quite recently and quite unexpectedly, another position, very similar to the first, opened up, and I applied.  And I got it!  I'm already transitioning to my new duties, which I'll take over fully in the fall.  I'll also stay on as interim chair of the history department until they select a new chair - that process will begin in the fall as well.  Needless to say, I'm delighted!

Here endeth the latest sickeningly happy, giddy, optimistic posting.   I think I'll go watch a couple episodes of the Sopranos to regain my equilibrium...

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/341976904/part-two-of-my.html

The second part of my interview with Comicmix is online, wherein I say things like:

I was one of the earliest Mac adopters. I had a Mac 128K in the first few months of its release. [. . .] I loved that computer. It was portable, which is funny to say now, because it only weighed like, 20-30 pounds. It had a handle on the top, so clearly, it was portable.

And:

I don't ever want to lose the experience of going to the comic shop on Wednesday and walking around -- even if I'm only there to get two books. Spending 40 minutes looking at everything and talking to the other geeks that are there and having the owner of the comic shop say, "I know you normally don't read this, but based on the years of you coming here I think you'd like it," I really like that.

And:

CMix: Do you read any of the Star Trek comics at all?

WW: No.

CMix: No desire to or you just don't care?

WW: It's not that I have no desire. It's not that I don't care. It's that I have a limited amount of time and I have to choose really carefully where I invest that time. If I'm forced to choose between a Star Trek comic or Criminal, I just enjoy Criminal more, so...

Um. In other words, I have no desire and I don't care, I guess. That sounds really harsh, but . . . well, I just don't know how to finish that without feeling like a dick. I guess that I like Star Trek a lot, but not enough to read the novels and comic books.

. . . yep, feeling like a dick right now.

Point of clarification: In the interview, I say "I've been reading Batman since Grant Morrison started working on it, because there are a few guys in the world that I'll read anything by. Grant Morrison does Teletubbies, I'm there." This makes it sound like I started reading Batman when Grant Morrison's run began, but I've actually been reading Batman since around 1987 or 1988.

You can read the entire interview (part two of three) at Comicmix. You may also want to read part one. Hell, for all I know, you may want to look at a picture of a duck*. Go nuts, I'm not the boss of you.

*I really wanted to link to a SFW picture of Jenna Jameson there, but I was pretty sure I'd get letters if I did.

Google Finance informs me that my portfolio's gain for today is $0.88.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/wwdn/~3/341850120/a-quick-one-whi.html

Hey, check it out! I found a tube that goes right into the studio, so I can ride the Internets while I'm between scenes!

Today is the day I've been waiting for since I booked this job. Today is the day that I get to really tear into this character, and mainline the good stuff that keeps actors coming back for more, chasing the dramatic dragon until we die. I was so excited to work today, I hardly slept at all last night, and woke up this morning before my alarm went off. I haven't felt like this since I was a little kid at Christmas.

God, I miss this. I didn't know how much I missed it until last week, but holy shit do I miss this. This cast, this crew, these writers, this director, this whole show is just incredible. I'm truly lucky to be here, and I'm so grateful that I can appreciate it, and not take it for granted like I would have ten years ago.

I wish I could say more about today's work. I wish I could identify and compliment the incredible actors I'm working with. I wish I could go into great detail about why I'm so excited to do what I'm doing today, but it'll have to wait until this episode airs in October.

I'll never stop writing, but I can't deny that there's a part of me who will always be an actor, and I owe it all to the people I've worked with on this show.

I thought I was out, but they pulled me back in!