You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2008.
No Halloween is complete without the annual playing of IT’S HALLOWEEN by the Shaggs. Who were the Shaggs, you ask? Well…you can read SUSAN ORLEAN’S article and find out. Frank Zappa loved them, and that’s good enough for me. I have a copy of their album laying around somewhere and I’m pretty sure you could find CD copies of their epic works on Amazon. Prithee go there and help the Wiggin sisters through their retirement years, won’t you? You won’t be sorry.
The Halloweens of my suburban LA youth were fabulous, all-night affairs with candy for the kids and cocktails for the adults. Our neighborhood was populated with a scattering of actors and musicians -including Ted Cassidy (Lurch on the Addams Family) who was much scarier-looking out of costume than he was in. (Lurch was funny. A 6′9″ dude with a huge head – not so much.) His kids went to my grade school and I believe my older brother was in Boy Scouts with his son. But, I digress. The absolute best house was in the posh neighborhood near ours, where a woman who was somehow connected (heiress? widow? I forget) to the Beech-Nut gum company lived. Her butler would give out handfuls of Fruit Stripe and other gum and that was the house to hit on Halloween. We always had to bring our candy home and get it checked out by our parents then the massive candy trade between my brothers and sister and I would begin.
When we moved to Chicago, Halloween became less exciting, probably because I was getting older and there was always the threat of snow or some other inclement weather that would require wearing a coat over your costume. The last year I went trick-or-treating was when I was in 7th grade and some school friends and I went as the Osmond Brothers. Yep.
Happy Halloween, internet. Don’t be scared if you hear footsteps behind you tonight. It’s just me sneaking up to steal your Twix.
Oh my, internet, what a day. Met with the interviewee and we managed to come back together on the major issues. She has some legitimate concerns about her kids’ and grandkids’ privacy but I think I reassured her that there are ways to tell her story without unduly exposing them to embarassment. Was this a test? I’m not entirely sure, but I greeted the interviewee and her daughter this morning with a somewhat bemused, “Ok, ladies, what’s going on?” which seemed to please the interviewee (for reasons some of you will understand). Anyhow, full steam ahead.
Tomorrow is Halloween and because we live on an unlit, two-lane farm road that means it’s just another night. However, I will get to spend the afternoon and early evening hours with a pirate, Spiderman and a baby peapod so it’s all good. Tomorrow afternoon is sure to be fraught with pre-trick-or-treating excitement so I made sure that my Halloween treat bags for the charges are filled with activities designed to keep them busy in that last agonizing hour or two before the candy swarm begins.
Remember the creepy HAIR MOM? I was relating that story to my own mom last week and she reminded me of the time when she was in graduate school and I was on campus with her. We were strolling across the quad when a passing stranger reached down and patted me on the head and said, “Oh, what pretty red hair!” My 2-year-old self glared up at him and said, “You’re gonna get it!”.
And after my mom related that story to me, it reminded me of one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes, in which a young and creepy BILLY MUMY wishes people he dislikes into the cornfield. If only it were that easy…I would need several cornfields. At least. By the way, did you know that Mr. Mumy is one of the freaks responsible for FISH HEADS? He is.
That’s all I have for you tonight, my beloved lovely internetses. Until tomorrow…
1. Stomach ache from eating too much bad food and having the second beer I knew I shouldn’t have.
2. Sound of tv from living room, where S. had fallen asleep on the couch.
3. Construction noise from the highway.
4. Coyotes, which were close enough that I bolted out of bed to let Stevie in, lest he become their late-night snack.
5. Nightmare in which my mom was showing me around her new apartment in some urban neighborhood.. My mom has never lived in an apartment or a city nor would she, so that part alone was making my dreaming self uneasy. It appeared to be an industrial building that had been re-purposed as living space. She was showing me around – the apartment was nice but the rest of the building seemed empty and somewhat unfinished. We were walking down a staircase and she showed me some ornate stained glass doors and said, in a chipper voice, “Look! It’s a mortuary! There are still funeral wagons in the basement!”.
6. Waking up from #5 pretty much put an end to my sleep for the night.
I will be leaving shortly for my meeting with mystery subject. I feel a lot calmer about it today – in fact, I think my brain decided, somewhere in its few moments of rest last night, that I’m writing this book no matter what. It would be an easier sell with the subject’s participation but the story is compelling enough that I think it will sell with or without her. So there.
Today’s paper has an article in which several Austinites are interviewed about the foods they will prepare for the Day of the Dead. One woman spoke of making a dessert her father liked, a man spoke of honoring his deceased business partner with a special cocktail she liked…and all of this got me thinking about what a menu honoring my dad would look like.
Menu One: Saltines, canned sardines, beer,cigarettes (he would frequently smoke WHILE he ate), pickled beets
Menu Two: Steak tartare, undercooked eggs, undercooked bacon, cigarettes, whiskey
Menu Three: Cigarettes, whiskey.
And if I should kick before October 31st, here are a few suggested menus with which you, my adoring public, can honor my memory.
Menu One: BLT, some kind of potato product, chocolate pudding.
Menu Two: Candy and beer.
Menu Three: Bruschetta, salad, bottle of Barbera D’Alba.
(Third entry today. Click back two for tales of writing woes.)
Talked to the attorney and have a plan in place, which is to meet with interview subject sans attorneys tomorrow and try to get a handle on what’s up with her. She is not a very trustworthy person (she has, in fact, has made a good living off of other people via various scams) and I am not feeling particularly secure right now. I don’t have any hard financial loss to fret over, just the potential for a good book deal to go spiraling down the drain. But I cannot let myself get too far ahead.
Right now there is a cute sparrow hopping around on my office screen, a cardinal in the yard telling me he’s pretty-pretty-pretty, the sun is shining and all things considered, life is good. Deep breaths, everyone….in….out….
What I planned to be doing right now: Driving down to meet Freida for a walk.
What I am doing instead: Waiting for an attorney to call me back. I need some guidance because my skittish interview subject called this morning and is indicating that she wants to back out of the book. We have an exclusivity contract and I don’t know for a fact that she’s trying to take the story elsewhere, but I have a bad feeling about this. If she bails, I can still write a good non-fiction book without her direct participation but if she’s trying to sell/has sold her story elsewhere, this could turn into either a huge legal battle or a huge disappointment or both, depending on what I decide to do. DAMN IT.
As I just told Freida on the phone, the next book is going to be fiction because fictional characters can’t argue with you about their participation:
“I don’t want to be in your book anymore!”
“Good, because you’re going to be stabbed to death in about sixteen pages”.
Back later with an update.
CLAUDIA sent me a most impressive and wonderful birthday package. Lookee here!
The loot included many fine monkey-themed items, a wonderful mask and magnets created by Dusty, a Moomintroll book(my first – I can’t wait to read it!), a Biblically-themed Design-A-Mug kit, a set of truly scary Moses figures (I couldn’t get a decent pic, so here’s a LINK. Moses looks especially unconcerned by the giant locusts plaguing his shubbery and by the glaring Pharaoh Gargamel , no?) But one of the best things was a set of these postcards, two of which have already been mailed to lucky recipients:
Thanks again, Claudia. It’s good to know I’ll have such great company in Hell.
Some costume ideas for those last-minute types out there:
I can’t decide between the oddly-coiffed horse and the enraged chimp.
Dr. Strangelove/Hard Day’s Night/The Graduate/Badlands/The Panic In Needle Park/8 1/2 /Magic/The In-Laws (original)/Matewan/To Kill A Mockingbird/Nashville/Blood Simple/The Piano/Smithereens/Bonnie and Clyde/Juliet of the Spirits/Days Of Heaven/Night Of The Hunter/The Double Life of Veronique/Brazil/Shampoo/One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest/Midnight Cowboy/The Rapture/Grey Gardens/The Decline of Western Civilization/El Mariachi/The Jerk/The Godfather/The World’s Greatest Sinner/Miller’s Crossing.
There. Your turn, America.
Stevie spent the night inside because we could hear coyotes close by. I got up before dawn to let him out and decided to stay up and write. At sunrise, I went out to fill the birdfeeders and as I came around the back corner of the house, I surprised a deer, which was eating out of one of the feeders. We stared at each other for a minute after which he jumped the fence into the pasture, stared back at me for another long minute, then took off toward the creek. I didn’t know deer would eat birdseed, but apparently they do. (As do coyotes, according to a quick search I did this morning. Yay! Something new to worry about!) We have so many birds out here that they usually empty the feeders over the course of the day. But the fence guys are still working out there and I think that may be causing the birds to stay away as well. Now that I know coyotes will eat birdseed, I’ll be making sure the feeders are empty in the evening. There’s so much construction going on around the farm – I’m sure the coyote problem is going to get worse this winter.
Last night, S. and I had dinner at SOMNIOS, a new, mostly vegetarian place on First St. I have to preface this by saying that they really need to get better signage and decor on the outside of their place because it is somewhat hard to find and visually unappealing. The food , however, was fantastic. Easily one of the best meals I’ve had since moving to Austin. The menu focuses primarily on vegetarian fare but they had a few meat dishes on the menu last night as well. We had shitake potstickers, pumpkin soup with fried okra, two salads and two versions of the same entree – mine had eggplant medallions topped with fried buckwheat soba noodles on a bed of bitter greens – S. had the pork version which feature beet greens and a different sauce than mine. All of it was perfectly prepared and delicious. After our healthy dinner, we had dessert at a SUGAR MAMA’S, a new cupcake emporium nearby. They have a broader menu than the cupcake trailer on Congress and I was very happy with what I got – a very tart, lemony cupcake with buttercream frosting . (Yeah, I know the cupcake thing is kind of done to death but I like cupcakes. Sue me.)
S. commented last night that S. First is rapidly becoming what South Congress used to be – an eclectic collection of smaller, local businesses. Austin has changed a lot in the few years I’ve lived here. It is still very much a small town by most standards and some areas have retained a lot of that feeling but the downtown area in particular is rapidly losing its charm. Too many condos and hotels going in. Blah.
Someone sent me a link to this t-shirt. I have quite the collection of stupid shirts that I wear when working out and this might be a nice addition. What do you think, America?
This morning I will be walking (hopefully with Ms. Bee) and then it’s off to work. The charges have been exceptionally cute this week. Younger charge is a very melllow kid in general but like most younger siblings, he has learned how to get his older brother’s ire up. To wit, this exchange while they were playing trains yesterday afternoon:
OC: Laura, W. moved that train before I did just to annoy me. He knew I was going to use it to rescue Thomas from the mudand he grabbed just to make me mad and now I am mad.
ME: W, did you do that?
YC: (brightly) Yep! I did!
ME: (trying not to laugh). W, please don’t do that again.
YC: (looking at T) I prooooobably won’t…
OC: You’re just saying that to make me mad and I’m not mad anymore.
YC: (not liking this turn in events) But you HAVE to be mad!
OC: No, I don’t. Cut it out.
YC: Okay.
Nicely handled on both sides, I would say.
