Monday, December 2nd 2025 • 12/2/2025
I was surprised to arrive at the Red Elm Café and find it closed. I wondered if I'd forgotten that they were scheduled to renovate this week or if I didn't get a memo. Regardless, after reading the sign on the door that the café was closed until the 30th, I immediately sent a text out to the core attendees and made a Facebook post that we were relocating to Corina's Bakery. Corina's is where the group originally started before we got too big. It felt very comfortable going back there. I ordered Monkey Bread and was on a sugar high for the rest of the day. Stan was the only other person to show up. So we had a very long conversation about sumo and all the crazy events that led up to the Ainishiki winning the Emperor's Cup on Sunday, the 23rd. Ai Ukuranian's rapid climb through the ranks has been the talk of the sport. Winning this tournament almost certainly clinches his nomination for the rank of Ozeki. And if all of those words sound strange to you, then you can understand why Stan and I refrain from talking sumo when the group is fully attended, but we had a great time by ourselves. He also brought in a book featuring artwork from a gaming company over the years. The art was spectacular, and towards the end of the book, there were three pages completely dedicated to Stan's work.
On the weekend of November 29th and 30th, I tabled at Longview's Dark Market. This is either the third or fourth year in a row I've attended. I started attending when they rebooted the show after the pandemic. The first time, it was just a one-day show. The second time, they expanded it to two days. They charge admittance on the first day, but on the second day, admittance is free. I make a modest amount there. Certainly, it's not my least paying show, but I'd do better if I didn't get a room for the night. It's not a long drive there, only 90 minutes. However, my wife thinks I'm safer from crazy drivers and would be better rested if we were all up in a hotel. I just wonder if she likes that I'm gone for a night.
I got to see Michael King at the show. We used to run into each other at a lot of shows, but this year our only overlap has been Longview Dark Market. I do follow him on Facebook. But I got to see his friend Marion. Marion turned her house into an interesting art museum specializing in European novelty objects depicting devils, satyrs, and Krampus. Or is that Krampuses or Krampusi? Anyway, it's by appointment only, which works for her as she can take some weekends off and help Michael with shows. Michael also brought his dog, Nova. She is even smaller in person. Michael mainly sells shirts, but this year he's been making these steampunk-looking Christmas decorations.
I noticed a trend in this show leaning towards sticks, stones, and leather. By that, I mean there was a lot of low-end taxidermy, butterfly dioramas under glass, poppuri satchels, handmade journals, garage-armory knives, staffs, carved stones, polished crystals, and the like. There were also more vendors who weren't creators but were selling wholesale merchandise like stickers, enamel pins, scarves, etc. Some of these were independent bookstores, and some were folks who just collect this type of stuff. I was sorely tempted to buy a hardback book titled "The Legacy," which was available for a mere six dollars. There is a collector's niche for '80s horror books, as that was a time when American Horror really burst forth from the Gothic Story scene. Horror books printed from that era are being sought out. Usually, they were only produced in paperback. But this was a hardback with an intact jacket cover. The book went on to become a movie. I'd both read and seen the movie back in the day. But I'm trying these days not to buy more stuff. And, during December, I should be concentrating on buying for folks I've drawn for gift exchanges. I might not be doing Longview Dark Mark next year, as it fell on the same weekend as Geekfest in Seattle. I spoke to my friend Eli, who did GeekFest, which is a 2.5-day-long event, and he only fared a little better than I did. Both of us are looking for events where our daily nets are $1,000. But there have been precious few of those this year.
I hear a lot of wonderful stories at these events. And I see people sharing joy and acts of kindness. It puts my faith in humanity again. Even though I wonder at the number of tattoos that I walk by, I should rephrase that. I don't wonder at the quantity; I wonder at the symbolism and ponder the personal meaning each has for the person on which it is adorned. Anyway, I heard a snippet, just something a woman said, and I wrote it down because, like the tattoos, I was struck by the deeper context that my curiosity would never be privy to. The context was an aunt walking along with someone I assume was her significant other and two mall children, who I took belonged to a sibling. One was a baby in a light pusher, and the other was an extremely fidgety little girl in charge of pushing the carriage. As the child did short inappropriate wheelies with the tram, the aunt sharply instructed, "Don't shake the baby."
On Monday, December 1st, I was again surprised to find the door to the Red Elm Café closed, and the windows dark. The same sign hung there from the week before. No new sign gave any clue as to why the premises were shut. The inside looked neat and tidy. And more questions filled my head as to when the café would open. Once again, I sent a text to everyone about relocating to Corina Bakery. This time, I was joined by Nori. Our conversation focused on how he ordered a new camera and how it arrived non-functional. He was additionally upset because he had preordered the camera to get it early. He was told he could return it and get his money back. Return it and have it repaired. Or return it and have it replaced. However, if he asked for it to be replaced, it would not be done with the preorder stock but with the scheduled release stock, and he'd have to wait. He was frustrated. He didn't want to to be on the wait list. But there was no way he was going to have something repaired that arrived broken in the first place. So, after seeking permission from the phone service center, he vented and was forgiven for venting, and opted to have a new camera sent with the release date hit. He also had to guess about a new job. I won't mention it yet because it still hasn't been confirmed. But it's something he never foresaw himself ever doing.
I called my Uncle Bill on behalf of my brother Scott and invited him to celebrate Christmas at Scott's house. I foresee a large crowd gathered. So far I know that there is going to be Uncle Bill, my father Jake, my mother Marie, my brother Randy, his wife Evi, their son Andrew, my brother Cliff, his wife Laurel, their children David and Melina, David's girlfriend Bridget, my brother Scott and his family of course, wife Debbie, Debbie's mother Joanna, and their daughter Brianna, my sister Brenda and her daughter Kat, and me and my wife Krista. And those are only the ones I know about, because they signed up for the gift exchange. Drawing the name was a bit of a challenge because we can't have nuclear family members drawing amongst themselves, so I checked the last three years and made sure no one drew a repeat. I wonder who else will be attending. Thankfully, the house is large and comfortable with plenty of parking.
Here are some of my dreams since last time:
Nov 25 #idreamt one of my dreams argued with another dream that it cut in twenty minutes early. The second dream defended its action, saying I wouldn't want to be reminded to pee if it wasn't necessary.
Nov 26 #idreamt I was back in college, and I was thankful that the dorms were still getting heat through the radiators, as it was pitch black and I assumed the electricity was down.
Nov 29 #IDreamt I became so old that a grand niece inherited me. I had a lucid moment when I knew what was going on.
Dec 2 #idreamt I was part of a large group turned into zombies and instructed to search a roadside temple for pus. People were surprised I could speak and tell them my name was Billy.
Dec 1 #IDreamt I confessed to my work partner that I had this extremely realistic ongoing dream where I was a cartoonist from a large family who was fairly active in the community.
Nov 29 #IDreamt I became so old that a grand niece inherited me. I had a lucid moment when I knew what was going on.
I enjoyed several movies:
95. Nov 22 Murder, My Sweet (1944) Rating: 8
Here's the thing. I can't recall if I've seen this movie before or not. If I did it, it was well over fifty years ago on television, and could have been edited. I wanted to see this film because it was a turning point in Richard Powell's career. Up until then, he'd done romantic leading-man roles and also used his singing voice. He correctly chose to change his image into that of a tough guy as he got older, and his face a bit more craggy. He tried to get the lead in "Double Indemnity" but landed this role instead. This film is cited as one of the first Noir films, so the timing was right to get on that as-yet-unnamed train unwittingly. The movie itself is a tight story, the lighting is characteristic of the Noir style, and the music is pretty good. I watched this movie on HBOMax.
96. Nov 24. Scene of the Crime (1945) Rating: 6
Police procedural starts in the credits and raises a periscope every now and then as a parade of cops and hoodlums go through their paces. The women have pretty faces; the men's morals can be determined by the state of their haircuts. Movies like this are where folks got their "justice" fix before Dragnet gave birth to the slew of TV cop shows. I watched this film on Kanopy.
97. Nov 25. Chan is Missing (1982) Rating: 6
This Neo-Noir is unique on several counts. It was filmed in B&W when color could have been an option, but the choice was to give it both an indie feel and as an homage to traditional Noir. It's also unique in that it has an all-Chinese cast and uses real-world settings, such as working restaurants and streets, to capture the modern-day grit. Of course, the result for the modern viewer is a time capsule of what the late seventies and early eighties looked like. The film searches not only for Chan but also for how immigrant Chinese and American Chinese deal with how their culture is shaped, from language to customs. I found the ending a surprise. I should have seen it coming. I watched this movie on Kanopy.
99. Nov 26. Freaky Tales (2024) Rating: 7
This read retro 80s blast of the past does an excellent job of capturing that era from the video stores, to the preta videographics in the titles. I always enjoy a nicely tied together anthology movie, which this was. It was a special treat to see some wonderful cameos, especially with some foreshadowing of those cameos in the dialogue. This campy take on 80s kung fu, exploitation, and Grindhouse is a lot of fun.
99. Nov 27. Frankenstein (2025) Rating: 7
I believe there have been more film adaptations of "Frankenstein" than of any other book. Through the decades, I've done my best to see as many of them as possible. I was very excited to see how Guillermo del Toro's treatment would look. Some of the sets and visuals reminded me of his film "Crimson Peak." I didn't receive a chill watching this movie as I did with del Toro's supernatural tales. His faithfulness to the source material led to a more profound message: the nature of existence in a world at once beautiful and harsh. My wife and I watched this movie on Netflix.
100. Nov 30. The Ghoul (1933) Rating: 5
In 1933, this must have been terrifying. Korlof's makeup made him look ghastly. The unibrow made him look like a character straight out of a pulp magazine cover. All of the characters play it over the top, which was probably good for laughs. I've done a lot of wandering around in the dark, which made me wonder if the director could think of anything other than having people enter from one side of the screen and exit to the other. But the dark held a lot of interesting shapes. I remember thinking when I was a kid that there was nothing wrong with having non-Judeo-Christian-based beliefs.
101. Dec 2. Benny Loves You (2019) Rating: 7
This movie gets an extra point for having a dog with a name. And I give it another name for having no shame about being what it is, a dark comedy about a teddy bear on a killing spree. A fan of the film encouraged me with the description that the director must have bought a surplus of fake blood and felt the need to use every drop liberally. The film is ludicrous, and that's part of its charm. A watchful eye can tally the kill count. I'm a gorehound, so I enjoyed the silly mayhem, but it might not be to everyone's taste.
More next week,
Mark
