Ninjas Like Pie

Uhhhhhhhh.......
OK.
What?

Sorry. Latest things are: battling with air bubbles in the heating system, repairing water damage from said battle and re-doing poorly done house wiring discovered while battling heating system.
No house project is ever small.
Anyways, here's some stuff I'm enjoying currently:
RE: Your Brains

Skullcrusher Mountain

More at Jonathan Coulton's website and YouTube

Oh yeah, the post title is from an episode of "The Backyardigans" where they pretend they are Ninjas skulking the perfect pie. Urchin #2 and I watched this today at 5:30am while he had a bottle and I had coffee.

Happy Valentine's Day, Leonard Cohen

True Story. It's Valentine's Day, 1980 and I'm in English 11. OK, I'm at home playing pool with my friends at lunch time and Bob reminds me that we need a love poem for class right after lunch.
Now, my literal interests at the time mainly focused on Science Fiction. Poetry was something you had to do for English class ( oddly enough, little has changed ). So I wander over to the parent's scant book shelves - which mainly consisted of Reader's Digest condensed books, Dad's collection of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson and a few novels from the 70's that had the racier pages dogeared ( I still have that copy of "Coffee, Tea or Me"). OK - I'm doomed.
Suddenly, there it is. Sandwiched between "Peyton Place" and "Dr. Spock" - "Leonard Cohen - Selected Poems 1956 - 1968". Leonard, if there is a God, you WILL have written a romantic poem.
Walking back to school, I'm reading. OK - if this is romantic poetry, I'm a Dalek. This is all "burning cigarette heart...", "stale whiskey kisses...", "death of my soul..." ... not good. Not good at all.
So I picked the least despondent of them all and read it in front of the class. After Shakespearean sonnets, Gothic bodice rippers and verse ripped from Hallmark cards, here comes Leonard Cohen.
There's a silence, then the teacher says, "I just adore Leonard Cohen. I'm glad there's someone who knows what real poetry is all about".

Anyways, thanks Leonard. And for the record, "Suzanne" is a pretty cool song.

Cultural Spectrum

Last night I fully spanned the cultural spectrum. I went to a Monster Truck Show. Not just any Monster Truck Show - Monster Truck Jam. I saw "Gravedigger". I saw "Blue Thunder". I saw a jet engine powered dragster. My ears are still ringing.
Why? Why not? I've wanted an excuse to go to one of these for years and my six year old provided one. It's pretty cool watching these things go flying in the air, barely in control and crash down on a pile of dead autos ( note to self, many of the cars that were crushed were newer and in better shape than my current car ). And it was noisy and exciting and goofy and nobody there had any pretense about why they were there. It was base destruction and power and gear heading at its finest. The twenty something's sitting in front of us that brought their girlfriends sat very cooly and made little noise or commotion while my son and his friend were jumping on the seats yelling "GRAVE DIGGER/BLUE THUNDER" at the top of their lungs. I'm thinking - were it not for your ladies, you'd be doing this too... next time leave them at home - they can take care of themselves.
Last year, I went to Ashland, Oregon with the school. Ashland is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare festival. I saw "Richard the Third", "Twelfth Night", "Loves Labour Lost" and "Hamlet" in the space of three days. I loved it.
I've been to the ballet, I've seen all the Terminator movies. I've enjoyed "Carmen", I've watched "No Sex Please, We're British". I like Bach, I like the Ramones.
I think the only things I haven't been to are the things on the far edges of the spectrum. I have never been to a gallery opening or an avant garde minimalist work, and I've never been to a cock fight. Beyond those I don't want to think about what people consider as entertainment.