Saturday, March 25, 2023 • 03/25/23
The gathering at Freelance Fandango was a lot of fun. Nori Kimura was the first to show up. His birthday was last week, but he is still celebrating. Happy birthday, Nori. Stan Brown and Corey Macourek texted me that they were running late. Haley Waddington showed up as well. Yichao Zhang texted me the night before that she couldn’t make it. Yichao was intimidated by a crazy bus rider last week. Yichao’s wife didn’t want her to take the bus. I wonder if I can get her and Richard to take the bus together, as I know they live in the same neighborhood. But making that suggestion would break my New Year’s Resolution. For show and tell, Stan brought in a collection of Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures. This was the second collection Al Hirschfeld, and his archivist was putting together when he died. In total, two books cover his fantastic work over decades of broadway performances. He would hide his daughter’s name, “Nina,” in his works. I did not know that he would write a number by his signature indicating how many times he hid her name in his work. Stan also told us the story of why he did it. When Hirschfeld’s daughter was born, he worked her name into that day’s drawing. He did that for the next few days. When he stopped, he got a slew of letters if something was wrong. So he kept up the habit of adding her name to prevent people from worrying.
After Fandango, we took Nori out to lunch at Pho Bak Café. It was Nori’s choice. He said he wanted to go where we wanted to go. But we insisted since it was his birthday, he should pick where we ate. We also told him not to worry about the cost; it was on us. I had the brisket Pho. I went with a large, but a small would have done me fine. It was a big bowl. Stan and the chicken, and I think nearly everybody else had the combination of beef, tripe, and tendon.
Krista and I drove to Seattle to get her teeth cleaned. We didn’t have time to schedule a visit with friends for our visit as she had a meeting in the afternoon. We did have a few minutes to stop off at Uwajimaya to pick up a couple of new KitKat flavors to share at Fandango, a variety of rice crackers whose selection changes every time we visit, and some other Japanese seaweed staples that have been in short supply in our local Asian markets. We had a very late lunch with some takeout items from Uwajimaya—dumplings for Krista and Nigiri sushi for me. We split a crab roll.
Later that same day, I hosted Epic Sketch Time online. I’d mangled the gathering last week and was very happy to see the regulars, Bill and Katie, attend. I actually got some drawing done. That is after I spent fifteen minutes figuring out why my microphone wasn’t working. I checked all the cables, the settings on the computer, and the settings on the app. It was a sign of my senility that I discovered I’d forgotten the "on" switch. There was some laughter at my expense, which is an excellent way to start any gathering. The hour flew by.
Wednesday marked the third month in a room where the Grand Cinema was kind enough to host my friends and me as we drew a live model. We’re promoting this even as The Grand Drawing Room. In attendance were RR Anderson, his wife Darcy, James Stowe, Allen Gladfelter, Yichau
Zhang, her husband, three others besides myself, and model Sara Servin. Sara Cosplayed as Ayato from Genshin. I’m not familiar with either the video game or the character. But I could tell Sara spent some time putting together the highly detailed costume. She’s modeled like this for a drawing group that meets every Wednesday in Kent before the pandemic. Those drawing sessions have not started back up. Stan Brown would often be called upon to be the host. Stan could not make it on Wednesday, which was a slight bummer. Another minor bummer was my forgetting to take the Weird Cabal binders to the car. I’d set them to one side of the room to be out of the way of returning the tables and chairs to storage. I called the next day to confirm they were still there before I fetched them.
Some of the meals Krista made this week were General Tsous Chicken, Mustard Glazed Salmon, Pork Chops, and some Shrimp sandwiches. Most of these were done in batches large enough so that leftovers could be used the next day. We’ve been shopping this week. The freezer and pantry are brimming. We even have frozen leftovers and deserts waiting. When the pandemic hit, we went a full month between shopping excursions, and our supplies were barely pressed. We could quickly go for two months with the provisions we have on hand. I might have to ask Krista for us to do something like the next couple of months so that we can empty the garage freezer. It requires defrosting this summer.
I spoke to my brother Randy this week. He told me about a film festival in Seattle that I would have loved to attend. The website for it is makebelieveseattle.com. As it is, all my socializing has left me too tired to drive to Seattle and attend. Randy asked me what I thought about the trailer for “Renfield.” I told him I thought the movie would be a seven on a scale of 1 to 10. I was looking forward to seeing an over-the-top performance of Nick Cage as Dracula. I forgot to mention that my friend James Stowe just completed a poster for the Grand’s upcoming showing of “Vampire’s Kiss,” another Nick Cage vampire performance. Randy called me during a Ganzaga football game that was not going well. I told him the only sport near and dear to my heart was sumo and that tomorrow would be the last day of the Basho. Krista and I were rooting for the Rikishi, who had to win twice again the same opponent that day if he wanted to win the Emperor’s Cup. I said goodnight as I could smell the pork chops that were nearly ready in the kitchen.
I also spoke to Aunt Christine briefly. We just wanted to make sure she and her dog were doing okay. The weather in Alturas is colder than it is here. She was thinking about going grocery shopping. But, like us, she has plenty in the pantry in case she doesn’t like the look of the roads.
Alley News
The weather is still on the cool and damp side. This week my neighbor Pat and I only got rained on once during our walks. Krista joined me for a walk most days. A couple of days, I went for a walk twice, once with Krista and once with Pat. I’ve not shown enough willpower in the evenings to constrain my dinner portion. I hope a couple of extra walks will keep my weight even. Pat is improving his Pokemon Go skills. He’s learning more of the tricks of the game.
I said to him, “I think I created a monster.”
“Which one?” he asked, thinking I meant a Pokemon.
The alley has been very quiet. It has yet to start on the post-winter yard clean-up. The frequent winds have left branches scattered about. Thankfully it remains cold enough that the grass has remained dormant. There’s no need to get out the mowers. It was dry and clear enough today that I pruned English Ivy off another panel on the front fence. This time I could fit it all into one of the yard waste containers. I wanted to keep the other container free for Krista next in case she decides to go outside and clean out the raised beds.
Here are some of the dreams I remembered:
March 20
#IDreamt a colleague rented an Air BNB for a work trip. It was odd in that it had no interior walls. I was jet-lagged and wanted to sleep. But he wanted to show me videos of his dog on his phone.
March 21
IDreamt I was watching a Jonah Hill movie in which he was a drug dealing kingpin who made a deal with law enforcement in exchange for protection and medical expenses. The latter of which was increasing due to injury and chronic illness.
March 22
#IDreamt students of a rural university in England would put on the town’s fête. One of the attractions would be a fortune-telling pig called Mr. Richards. The students would go all out with prosthetic makeup.
March 23
#IDreamt one of the characters in my dream, decided to recycle a dream used by a previous character. This, in turn, saved them a lot of dream energy so they could play a more featured role in the dreamscape.
March 24
#IDreamt I was visiting a farm in Australia. There was a slight cold snap that morning. This might explain why several budgies were burrowing under my denim jacket.
March 25
#IDreamt people could learn a new language by chewing gum. A new term arose, ‘Babe,’ which referred to a new language consisting of languages available through the gum.
29. March 18
The Faculty (1998) Rating: 7
I don’t recall watching this in the theater. In rewatching it, I find it hilarious how many of the actors were at good points in their careers when they did this movie, and many of the student actors went on to become famous actors in their own right. Some of those careers were downright stellar. The premise of an alien invasion occurring on a high school campus works historically with all of the other student-cried-wolf movies. I wish I didn’t wait so long to watch it. The film is slightly dated, with bulky computer screens, a lack of cell phones, and other things. But it was fun to rewatch it again.
30. March 22
Piranha 3D (2010) Rating: 7
It’s always fun to watch a remake and see what different choices will be made to make the story more titillating. In this case, it’s boobs, fun bags, ta-tas, and hooters. And to exploit everything film can do to shove them in your face, let’s add 3D. It’s time to open a can of crass carnivorous critters from a crack in a creepy cave.
31. March 25, 23
Shivers (1975) Rating: 6
It’s been as least thirty years since I last viewed this film. Back went I first watched it, I was still a teenager, a gore-hound on a relentless quest in the video store to rent every horror movie I could find on the off chance of seeing some significant practical special effects. Shiver’s budget in that regard was low, but it compensated with sexploitation- very awkward sexploitation. The actors looked incredibly embarrassed as they pawed at each other. The social commentary on the perception of modern living is as strong as a slap to the face. You get to feel a little smug at the dated elements in the film. I couldn’t help but think that Door-Dash would now replace the lavish meal delivery in the movie. And true fright fans will quickly recognize scenes that would be homaged in future horror films.
More next week,
Mark
