umm…..

Nothing huge or earthshattering to report or discuss, but not everything has to be, I guess, right? I mean, not everything reaches the lofty heights of green poop, now does it?

Life’s been life. I’m trying not to think too hard about workplace shutdowns in December, and I don’t expect the news media, regardless of which outlet, will report on it much until then. Still, I try to keep an eye on the competition for House Speaker, as that will likely have some influence on what happens (not that any of the names inspire much confidence in a good result). Most of my news is the relatively even-keeled NPR reporting, though I occasionally wade into the weird end of the pool and listen to American Family Radio (Bryan Fischer’s American Family Radio show coincides with my commute home when Terry Gross is wrapping her amazing voice around something that doesn’t spark my interest), and while it’s probably not good for my blood pressure, I’m sort of fascinated by how that side of the world lives. The worldview is completely different from mine, and so much of the motivation behind that flavor of conservatism is so based on fear of the other; I can’t imagine living my life constantly under the impression that the entire universe is out to eliminate my entire way of life. Also, for someone who’s fond of the term “low information media”, Mr. Fischer certainly gets a lot of objective facts wrong, or simply glosses over important concepts, particularly when it comes to government.

Oh well.

When I’ve not been delving into those sorts of weird places, I’ve been looking into others. I started watching Gotham on Netflix, and I’m finding it oddly compelling. I’m most of the way through season one now, and while the straight-procedural “Spirit of the Goat” episode is the one that hooked me, I’m staying for the overt camp; the characters chew scenery like nobody’s business, the “police” work and settings are laughable, but damn if I’m not invested. Donal Logue is a national treasure. Also, I kind of love the theory that it’s actually a prequel to Batman ’66, which makes sense in a really weird sort of way.

This past weekend, I went to an Irish Dance show my kid was dancing in out in Williamsburg. This is a once or twice a year theater show with live music (featuring most of a band I used to see on the con circuit) and dancers from my girls’ school as well as some folks from the school the guy producing/starring/etc the show runs. The dancing’s really nice, the music is pretty great (other than some of the overbearing backing tracks), though many of us agreed that the flow/throughline was off, and there’s a hell of a lot of mugging from “the guy”, who’s a great dancer and an okay musician, but when he brought out the swords and then started playing matte black seven string electric guitar and vamping in a fur and leather warrior costume, all I could see was the unrestrained id of a nerdy twelve year old who listened to way too much Richie Blackmore and was really into Michael Moorcock novels; his posing with the claymore looked like it kind of belonged in that kid’s bedroom in front of the mirror, or not unlike this. It was…weird…but impressive, and well on it’s way to being a neat show if a few changes were made, but honestly, doesn’t Michael Flatley kind of have this market cornered?

If you look over toward the left, you might see mention of some books by Kevin Hearne, collectively known as The Iron Druid Chronicles – they’re a blast, you should read them, especially if you like dogs, because Oberon the Irish Wolfhound is one of modern literature’s great characters; so much so that my friend Mikey Mason wrote a song about him, “The Wisdom of Hounds”, that totally catches the flavor. If you like stuff like The Dresden Files, you’ll love these.

And, that’s about it, really…the storm this weekend was a bust, thankfully (I was bracing for power outages); got a long weekend (thanks to the federal holiday celebrating the conquest of paradise), so hopefully I’ll catch a bit of a break…who am I kidding, of course I won’t.