Random Access

Saturday – 26 February 2011
I woke up this morning to find it snowing. Not a problem, as I hadn’t really planned on doing much today.

I slept in (until about 0900) and then headed downstairs to watch some TV and surf. HGTV provided a good episode of House Crashers, in which the target couple had a kitchen remodel done. It looked pretty amazing when all the dust settled. After that I remembered that I still had an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold on the DVR, “The Knights of Tomorrow!”

Something that I had completely forgotten: It was co-written by my friend, Jake Black. The story nicely blended elements of the Golden, Silver and Modern Ages, including:

• Golden Age:
  • Batman, in his Golden Age costume
  • The introduction of Robin (Dick Grayson)
• Silver Age:
  • The wedding of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Catwoman)
• Modern Age
  • The “graduation” of Robin into his Nightwing persona
  • The passing of the Batman mantle from Bruce Wayne to Dick Grayson
  • The introduction of Damian Wayne (the current Robin)

It was a well-told story and was quite fun to watch.

After SaraRules! woke up, we headed to Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks for brunch. We tried their coffee cake, which was good – it seems as though they use a spice cake base (as opposed to yellow cake). As always, the food was good.

After we got back home, SaraRules!’ parents came over for a few. Her dad is going to help us finish the last 40% of the basement. Today, we started the ball rolling on what will be the new bathroom. We went through a few ideas and came up with something that we think will be really good.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s item is Motown (1, 2, 3), a record label that was originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, on April 14, 1960.

Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music, as it was the first record label owned by an African American even if it was not the first to feature primarily African-American artists. Motown achieved a crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its soul-based subsidiaries were the most successful proponents of what came to be known as The Motown Sound, a style of soul music with a distinct pop influence.

In 1959, Billy Davis and Berry Gordy’s sisters Gwen and Anna started Anna Records. Davis and Gwen Gordy wanted Berry to be the company president, but Berry wanted to strike out on his own. On January 12, 1959, he started Tamla Records, with an $800 loan from his family. Gordy originally wanted to name the label “Tammy” Records, after the popular song by Debbie Reynolds. When he found the name was already in use, he decided on Tamla instead. Tamla’s first release was Marv Johnson’s “Come to Me” in 1959. Its first hit was Barrett Strong‘s “Money (That’s What I Want)” (1959), which made it to #2 on the Billboard R&B charts.

Gordy’s first signed act was The Matadors, a group he had written and produced songs for, who changed their name to The Miracles when Tamla signed them; their first release was “Bad Girl”. Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson became the vice president of the company.

From 1961 to 1971, Motown had 110 top 10 hits, and artists such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and The Jackson 5, were all signed to Motown labels. The company operated several labels in addition to the Tamla and Motown imprints. A third label, which Gordy named after himself (though it was originally called “Miracle”) featured The Temptations, The Contours, and Martha and the Vandellas. A fourth, V.I.P., released recordings by The Velvelettes, The Spinners and Chris Clark. A fifth label, Soul, featured Jr. Walker & the All Stars, Jimmy Ruffin, Shorty Long, and Gladys Knight & the Pips. Many more Motown-owned labels released recordings in other genres, including Workshop Jazz (jazz), Mel-o-dy (country, although it was originally an R&B label), and Rare Earth (rock). Under the slogan “The Sound of Young America”, Motown’s acts were enjoying widespread popularity among black and white audiences alike.

In 1967, Berry Gordy purchased what is now known as Motown Mansion in Detroit’s Boston-Edison Historic District as his home. In 1968, Gordy purchased the Donovan building on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Interstate 75, and moved Motown’s Detroit offices there. Motown had established branch offices in both New York City and Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, and by 1969 had begun gradually moving more of its operations to Los Angeles. The company moved all of its operations to Los Angeles in June 1972, with a number of artists, among them Martha Reeves, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Motown’s Funk Brothers studio band, either staying behind in Detroit or leaving the company for other reasons. The main objective of Motown’s relocation was to branch out into the motion picture industry, and Motown Productions got its start in film by turning out two hit vehicles for Diana Ross: the Billie Holliday biographical film Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and Mahogany (1975). Other Motown films would include Thank God It’s Friday (1978), The Wiz (1978) and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985).

By the mid-1980s, Motown was losing money, and Berry Gordy sold his ownership in Motown to MCA Records and Boston Ventures in June 1988 for $61 million. In 1989, Gordy sold the Motown Productions TV/film operations to Motown executive Suzanne de Passe, who renamed the company de Passe Entertainment and runs it to this day.

By 1998, Motown had added stars such as 702, Brian McKnight, and Erykah Badu to its roster. In December 1998, PolyGram was acquired by Seagram, and Motown was absorbed into the Universal Music Group.

Stray Toasters

• As it was today’s “Chew on This” item: Motown: A Game-Changer for Black Americans
• WETA Collectibles auction to benefit Christchurch quake victims
• How many things can you find wrong with this product listing?
• 
• Best Art Ever (This Week)
• By way of comes Inventables
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Toddler spends 4 hours locked in bank vault
• Japan Airlines Boss Sets Exec Example

Namaste.

Sunday – 20 February 2011
Today is my friend, Perry’s, birthday:

This morning, I was up before 0800. That in itself wasn’t so bad. I made my way to the living room, to see what the world outside the windows looked like. Opening the blinds, I discovered the world was grey and white: Snow was falling. (Why can’t it be Spring now…?)

Yesterday’s main excitement, so to speak, was the HeroClix tournament at Dr. Volt’s Comic Connection. I was curious as to how it would go, as the store layout had changed last week, and I didn’t know how it would affect gamers’ ability to move about. Turns out that it wasn’t bad at all. We had a decent turnout – 10 players – which provided a good litmus test. We’ve had a number of close tournaments over the past few months, many of them decided by less than five (5) points. Yesterday’s event was not of that mold: The winner came in over 300 points above his nearest competitor.

On the way home from the game, I stopped to pick up late lunch/early dinner for SaraRules! and myself. (Guess who had Chinese food.) We wound down the evening with Machete. Somehow, I never got around to seeing it last year. Pity. It was a fun flick that, in many places, tossed “suspension of disbelief” right out the window… and that was just fine.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is Dr. DeNorval Unthank.

Unthank was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His mother died when he was nine, leaving eight children. Unthank’s father, a cook unable to support him, sent him to live with his aunt and uncle in Kansas City. After completing high school, Unthank attended the University of Michigan where he received his B.A. He received his medical degree in 1926 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Unthank returned to Kansas City to complete advanced medical training before moving to Portland in 1929 to start his own practice.

Dr. Unthank was recruited to Portland in 1929 because the city needed a black doctor.  He was quickly tested as his white neighbors greeted his first attempt to move into a previously all white residential area with broken windows, threatening phone calls, and general harassment.  Unthank had to move his family four times before finding a place to settle down peacefully.

Throughout the 1930s, Dr. Unthank was Portland’s only black medical practitioner.  He was a dedicated doctor and a friend to any minority group in the city as well.  Black families could not receive treatment in hospitals – house calls were necessary, and Dr. Unthank made himself available day and night.  He served African Americans, Asians and many whites as well.

Dr. Unthank was politically active and was outspoken in his support of civil rights and equal opportunity.  In 1940, Dr. Unthank was elected head of the Advisory Council, an organization that hoped to pressure local leaders into providing equal access to economic opportunities related to WWII jobs.  The Council documented incidents of discrimination in the workplace around Portland despite raised expectations following President Franklin Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 8802.  On Dec. 5, 1941, the Council organized a mass meeting to promote an official letter of protest to federal authorities about Portland’s situation.

During and after World War II, Dr. Unthank worked tirelessly to build his medical practice and promote civil rights.  He became the first black member of Portland’s City Club in 1943.  He encouraged the club to publish a significant 1945 study called “The Negro in Portland,” which opened the eyes of many citizens to ongoing discriminatory practices.  Dr. Unthank also served as president of the local chapter of the NAACP, and was a cofounder of the Portland Urban League.  He played a strong role in the passing of Oregon’s 1953 Civil Rights Bill, which among many issues, overturned a law banning interracial marriages in the state.

Dr. Unthank died on September 20, 1977. His impact on racial integration and institutional recognition of minority groups was eulogized in many newspaper articles and obituaries by people from both the medical profession and the civic organizations he helped form and influence.

Stray Toasters

• I had weird and disturbing dreams involving a zombie apocalypse situation last night. That’s a new one for me.
• The Life of Edward Gorey, Told by an Old Friend
• I had no idea, until a few minutes ago, that Danny Trejo did the voice for Bane on Young Justice.
• “C” is for “cookie”
  
• For Kids, Self-Control Factors into Future Success
• For Tyranist: Producing a Book, the Analog Way

That’s good enough for me.

Namaste.

Saturday – 19 February 2011
It’s a grey day here… and there’s the possibility of snow in the forecast. Yay.

Last night was the beginning of the end of an era. The local Borders, where we spend the “coffee” portion of our Clitorati gathering,  is one of the nearly 300 stores that is slated to close. I’ve been going to that store for close to ten years; I started going there on Friday evenings because that was where and I would meet so that she could coach me at drawing. In fact, the entire Clitorati gathering came about from me telling people that they should come and hang out with us while we were there. And now, nearly ten years down the road, we find ourselves looking for a new home-away-from-home.

We knew that the stor was closing. What we didn’t know, until we arrived last night, was that the Seattle’s Best Coffee franchise/sublet that ran the cafe closed – for the last time – on Thursday night. This means that for the next two months (or however long it takes to liquidate their inventory), there will be no cafe service. At all. I spoke with Brandi, one of the sales associates about the closing: She said that she and the other employees found out about it on Wednesday… from The Wall Street Journal article. According to her, employees:

• …had no advance warning.
• …haven’t been offered any kind of relocation/transfer package to the Orem/Provo store.
• …will be officially unemployed when the closeout sale is over.

While Borders has been on the rocks financially for a long time, I think that it’s poor form to let your employees be blindsided by the closure news and have to find out from mass media.

Since the list of closing stores came out on Wednesday, there’s been chatter among the group as to where we should now meet. We bandied about a few places and decided that we’d test drive the new location when the time came. Funny, we weren’t quite expecting it to be so soon. We had eight people show up for coffee last night, which made for a decent litmus test. I think that our new choice fared decently; we’ll have to see how it stands up over time.

After coffee and dinner, I came home and played DCUO for a bit. I’ve decided that I don’t necessarily want to plow through the game. Instead, I’m enjoying just roaming around the city (I haven’t even left Metropolis yet) and enjoying the view. Jim Lee and his crew did an amazing job of bringing Metropolis to life. I’m looking forward to seeing the other settings the game has to offer.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s person of note is: Wallace Thurman (1, 2, 3)

Wallace Henry Thurman was an American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life, which explores discrimination among black people based on skin color.

Thurman was born in Salt Lake City, UT to Beulah and Oscar Thurman. Between his mother’s many marriages, Wallace and his mother lived with Emma Jackson, his maternal grandmother. His grandmother’s home doubled as a saloon where alcohol was served without a license.

Thurman’s early life was marked by loneliness, family instability and illness. He began grade school at age six in Boise, Idaho, but his poor health eventually led to a two-year absence from school, during which he returned to Salt Lake City. From 1910 to 1914, Thurman lived in Chicago, but he would have to finish grammar school in Omaha, Nebraska.^[2] During this time, he suffered from persistent heart attacks. While living in Pasadena, California’s lower altitude in the winter of 1918, Thurman came down with influenza during the worldwide Influenza Pandemic. Considering his history of illness, he surprisingly recovered and then returned to Salt Lake City, where he finished high school.

Thurman studied at the University of Utah and the University of Southern California, although he did not receive a degree. He moved to Harlem in 1925, and by the time he became managing editor of the black periodical Messenger in 1926, he had immersed himself in the Harlem literary scene and encouraged such writers as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston to contribute to his publication. That summer, Hughes asked Thurman to edit Fire!! , a literary magazine conceived as a forum for young black writers and artists. Despite outstanding contributors, who included Hughes, Hurston, and Gwendolyn Bennett, the publication folded after one issue. Two years later Thurman published Harlem, again with work by the younger writers of the Harlem Renaissance, but it too survived only one issue.

Thurman was lauded as a satirist and often used satire to accuse blacks of prejudice against darker-skinned member of their race. He also rejected the belief that the Harlem Renaissance was a substantial literary movement, claiming that the 1920s produced no outstanding writers and that those who were famous exploited, and allowed themselves to be patronized by, whites. He claimed, as did a number of authors of the decade, that white critics judged black works by lower standards than they judged white efforts. Thurman maintained that black writers were held back from making any great contribution to the canon of Negro literature by their race-consciousness and decadent lifestyles.

Thurman and others of the “Niggerati” (the deliberately ironic name Thurman used for the young African American artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance) wanted to show the real lives of African Americans, both the good and the bad. Thurman believed that black artists should be more objective in their writings and not so self-conscious that they failed to acknowledge and celebrate the arduous conditions of African American lives. As Singh and Scott put it, “Thurman’s Harlem Renaissance is, thus, staunch and revolutionary in its commitment to individuality and critical objectivity: the black writer need not pander to the aesthetic preferences of the black middle class, nor should he or she write for an easy and patronizing white approval.”

Thurman died at the age of 32 from tuberculosis, which many suspect was exacerbated by his long fight with alcoholism.

Stray Toasters

• What Watson Might Do After Crushing Humanity on Jeopardy!
• By way of MarknTyme: Superhero Organizations and Business Entities
• Best Art Ever (This Week)
  
• (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do – Filter and The Crystal Method
• Ever wondered what the X-Men would look like as an anime-style cartoon? Wonder no more.

And with that, it’s time to finish getting ready for today’s HeroClix tournament at Dr. Volt’s.

Namaste.

Thursday – 17 February 2011
It’s another NBN Thursday in the valley. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. And the mountains (and a fair portion of the valley) is covered in white. That’s right: It snowed last night. Of course, that also means that the air is clear and one can see the west side of the valley clearly.

Last night, after work, I ran up to Dr. Volt’s to pick up this week’s four-color goodness before dashing back home to grab a quick bite to eat. SaraRules! had a Justice Junior League meeting and I had coffee with my friend, Frankie.  While out, I had thought to kill multiple avians with a single piece of silicate and get the batteries in a couple of my watches replaced. The snow made me decide to deal with that tomorrow, on my day off.

After coffee, I headed back home – time for comfy pants and comics! – to wait for the missus to get in. I even had the presence of mind to throw in a load of laundry. When she got in, we finished watching Prince of Persia. I swear that movie had more gratuitous slow-motion scenes than The Matrix, Dhoom and Resident Evil: Afterlife combined. On the whole, it was an entertaining movie — it was kind of like a live-action Aladdin. I also found it amusing that “foreign” (or at least “non-American”) still seems to mean “just speak with an (affected) British accent” to most people. *shrug*

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today’s personality is Paul Robeson (1, 2).

Paul Leroy Robeson was an African American concert singer (bass-baritone), recording artist, athlete and actor who became noted for his political radicalism and activism in the civil rights movement. Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals and was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray Shakespeare’s Othello alongside an all white cast.

The son of a former slave turned preacher, Robeson attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., where he was an All-America football player. Upon graduating from Rutgers at the head of his class, he rejected a career as a professional athlete and instead entered Columbia University. He obtained a law degree in 1923, but, because of the lack of opportunity for blacks in the legal profession, he drifted to the stage, making a London debut in 1922.

At the height of his career, Paul Robeson chose to become primarily a political artist. Increasing political awareness impelled Robeson to visit the Soviet Union in 1934, and from that year he became increasingly identified with strong left-wing commitments, while continuing his success in concerts, recordings, and theatre.

During World War II, Robeson’s support for the Allied War effort had made him the world’s most famous African-American and his previous statements and advocacy for socialism had been ignored by both the media and the white establishment. The start of the Cold war led to a social climate in which most civil rights and anti-imperialist groups in the United States were considered “Communist affiliated.”

In 1950, Robeson’s passport was revoked under the McCarran Act over his work in the anti-imperialism movement and what the U.S. State Department called Robeson’s “frequent criticism while abroad of the treatment of blacks in the US.” Under heavy and daily surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA and publicly condemned for his beliefs, Robeson was blacklisted, his income fell dramatically and he became very nearly a non-person.

Robeson’s autobiography, Here I Stand, was published by a British publishing company in 1958. As part of his “comeback”, he gave two sold-out recitals that month in Carnegie Hall, which were released on LP and later on CD. They were his only stereo recordings.

Also that year, Robeson’s 60th birthday was celebrated in several US cities and twenty-seven countries across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, as well as in the Soviet Union. Later, in May 1958, his passport was finally restored and he was able to travel again, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Kent vs. Dulles, that the Secretary of State had no right to deny a passport or require any citizen to sign an affidavit because of his political beliefs.

By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He spent his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, unapologetic about his political views and career.

Stray Toasters

• Created Equal
• Jim Lee on the Beginning of DC Universe Online
  • Retired Superheroes (courtesy of )
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Goldfish killer “didn’t want to leave witnesses”
• 
• International Pillow Fight Day
  • Pillow Fight Flash Mob
• The Hard Luck and Beautiful Life of Liam Neeson
• U.S. Government Shuts Down 84,000 Websites, ‘By Mistake’
• Detroit Will PAY You to Take One of These 100 Abandoned Houses

Back to it.

Namaste.

Wednesday – 09 February 2011
Midweek. Which makes it not only new comics day, but also D&D (4.0) night. Now, to just make it through the work day…

Last night, SaraRules! and I helped her father (and both brothers) move an organ out of her grandfather’s apartment. I’m going to let that sink in for a moment…

::: pause :::

Got it? Okay. Moving on. It was cold last night. Sub-freezing, with a not-so-lovely wind adding to the “fun.” The move took a little longer than it could/should have. But, in the end, the organ was loaded into a U-Haul trailer. Amen. Mid-move I jokingly asked SaraRules! where she was taking me for dinner. Without missing a beat, she asked,”Where do you want to go…? Outback?” Mmm, Outback…

And, so it was, later, as the miller told his tale, that her face – at first just ghostly – turned a whiter shade of pale that we wound up at the local Outback Steakhouse.  Aussie Cheese Fries. Prime Rib. Good. On the way home from dinner, we drove past A Perfect Dress, to see what new fashion (or horrors) they had in the windows. Turns out that SaraRules! and I agreed that most of the items weren’t too bad; there were only a couple of dresses that we questioned. The rest of the evening was spent, on the couch, watching TV. And I wrapped up the night playing CoD: Black Ops with a few coworkers before calling it a night.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
I had a hard time coming up with something that began with the letter “I” for today’s entry. Eventually, an idea came to mind… and it’s one that I find apropos, as today is also the day that new comic books release:

Today’s item is Incognegro, a graphic novel by Mat Johnson.

(c) DC Comics

For a synopsis of the book’s plot, I’ll refer to an interview that Mat Johnson did with Newsarama in 2007:

NEWSARAMA: Mat, let’s start with the big picture. What’s the gist of Incognegro?

Mat Johnson: It’s the story of a mixed person of African-American descent who passed for white in the 1930s to investigate lynchings in the South. He goes down to Mississippi on a specific mission that ends up getting tangled really quickly, and it turns into a noir thriller.

NRAMA: What can you tell us about the protagonist Zane Pinchback and where he is when the book opens?

MJ: He’s a reporter in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance, and he’s kind of a minor celebrity, but he’s only famous on paper. Nobody can know what he looks like because of what he does. So he’s somewhat frustrated by that, being famous but not being famous. He’s dealing with his past, and part of what happens in the story is he’s pulled back into his personal past, his own story.
NRAMA: In addition to dealing with his own issues, he also has to go “incognegro” and go to the South to save his brother. So there’s a whole external drive going for him, in addition to his own internal awakening, right?

MJ: He has a twin brother who looks much like himself but is dark-skinned. His brother has had none of the breaks that Zane had, largely because of his difference in appearance, even though they’re of the same mother and father. When he goes back, Zane has to confront this other life that he was able to escape, but that his brother instead had to dive deeper into. And that’s really the emotional heart of the book, the two of them and their lives, the convergence of them coming together.

Johnson also notes that the story was partially inspired by Walter Francis White, a light-skinned African-American who used his skin color (or lack thereof) to investigate lynchings and race riots in the American south in the early 20th Century:

MJ: Yeah. Well, Walter White is the primary idea for the piece, when he was investigating these lynchings, but there’ve been other points in history – I’m African-American, but I look fairly white or European, so I’ve always been very fascinated by these points in history, when people like myself interacted, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. I was fascinated with the idea of taking something that is part of my life and part of past lives, and seeing if I could make that into not just a curiosity, but into something that actually could mean the difference in lives.

As I wrote in 2008, when I first read the book:

Incognegro, written by Mat Johnson (1, 2, 3) – a light-skinned Black man, himself – is adeptly written. Its characters aren’t just stereotypical caricatures; they have depth. The settings aren’t just backdrops, they add to the flavor of the scenes. The story also contains a few interesting plot twists, as well.

See also: The New York Times review of the book.

Stray Toasters

• Employee surveys. Normally, I’d be all *twirls finger in air* about it, but it seems as though our robot overlords protectors are actually invested in seeing what employees think and feel about the company and their jobs and what – within reason – can be done to make our working lives better.  We’ll see how this shakes out.
• Speaking in Defense of Science
• Ravens’ Michael Oher tells his side in memoir
• Lymph Node Study Shakes Pillar of Breast Cancer Care
• 
• Packers celebrate Super Bowl win with 56,000 fans at Lambeau Field
• Women “computers” of World War II
• Worker Trapped in Plane’s Cargo Hold Avoids Becoming Passenger
• Homeowners face “new normal” in housing bust
  • Chart: Owing more than home is worth
• 
• Iconoscope No. 1: Star Wars Episode IV
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Sofa made from a coffin

Quote of the Day
Today’s quote comes from last night’s moving extravaganza. While standing outside, watching the comedy of trying to figure out how to arrange the organ in the trailer, SaraRules! thanked me for “…helping my crazy family” with the move. We joked about it for a moment before she noted:

SaraRules!: “Oh, your family’s crazy, too.”
Me: “Yeah, but at least my family has the good sense to be crazy indoors, where it’s warm!”

We both got a good laugh out of that.

Namaste.

Friday – 04 February 2011
It’s my 9/80 day off. Amen.

Today is also World Cancer Day.

Last night, Mary and Matt came over for dinner. SaraRules! made breaded pecan chicken strips, scalloped potatoes and a zucchini/squash mix for dinner. Mary and May brought a cake for dessert. Dinner, the company and the conversation were all very good. After our company left, I finished reading this week’s four-color haul and played a little (a very little) DCUO before calling it a day.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Since it’s the weekend, and it’s going to be “a little” busy, you’re getting THREE entries:

• Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

  

  She performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. In 1954, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Carmen Jones. By 1956, still under contract to Fox, Dandridge hadn’t made any films since Carmen Jones. Fox still believed that Dorothy was a star, but just didn’t know how to promote her. One of the head chiefs at Fox once said “She’s a star, but we don’t have any films to put her in or leading men to cast her opposite.”

  In 1957 Dorothy’s luck came back when Darryl F. Zanuck cast Dandridge as Margot, a restless young Indian woman, in his controversial film version of, Island in the Sun, co-starring stars such as Joan Fontaine, James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Collins, Michael Rennie, and Stephen Boyd. This film was a success which brought Dandridge back to the public eye. Determined to reinvent her career, she decided to wait on Fox to call for her to make a film.

  In 1959, Columbia Pictures cast Dorothy in the lead role of Bess in Porgy and Bess; Dorothy was again nominated for a award, this time for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Dorothy was again eager to see if she was to win the award, but she once again lost. A few weeks later Dorothy was released from her 20th Century Fox contract.

  Dandridge was married and divorced twice, first to dancer and entertainer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to Jack Denison. Dandridge died of an accidental drug overdose, at the age of 42.

• Ralph Waldo Ellison was a novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer.

  

  Ralph Ellison, named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap.In 1933, Ellison entered the Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship to study music. Tuskegee’s music department was perhaps the most renowned department at the school, headed by the conductor William L. Dawson. While he studied music primarily in his classes, he spent increasing amounts of time in the library, reading up on modernist classics.

  During World War II, Ellison joined the Merchant Marine, and in 1946 he married his second wife, Fanny McConnell. She worked as a photographer to help sustain Ellison. From 1947 to 1951 he earned some money writing book reviews, but spent most of his time working on Invisible Man. Fanny also helped type Ellison’s longhand text and assisted her husband in editing the typescript as it progressed.

  Published in 1952, Invisible Man explores the theme of man’s search for his identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of an unnamed black man in the New York City of the 1930s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Ellison created characters that are dispassionate, educated, articulate and self-aware. Through the protagonist, Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is “invisible” in a figurative sense, in that “people refuse to see” him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The novel, with its treatment of taboo issues such as incest, won the National Book Award in 1953.

  In 1964, Ellison published Shadow and Act, a collection of essays, and began to teach at Rutgers University and Yale University, while continuing to work on his novel. The following year, a survey of 200 prominent literary figures was released that proclaimed Invisible Man the most important novel since World War II.

  Ralph Ellison died on April 16, 1994 of pancreatic cancer, and was buried at Trinity Church Cemetery in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.

• Ella Jane Fitzgerald, also known as the “First Lady of Song” and “Lady Ella,” was an American jazz and song vocalist.

  

  Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia. In her youth Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer, although she loved listening to jazz recordings by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and The Boswell Sisters. She idolized the lead singer Connee Boswell, later saying, “My mother brought home one of her records, and I fell in love with it….I tried so hard to sound just like her.”

She made her singing debut at 17 on November 21, 1934 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. She pulled in a weekly audience at the Apollo and won the opportunity to compete in one of the earliest of its famous “Amateur Nights”. She had originally intended to go on stage and dance but, intimidated by the Edwards Sisters, a local dance duo, she opted to sing instead in the style of Connee Boswell. She sang Boswell’s “Judy” and “The Object of My Affection,” a song recorded by the Boswell Sisters, and won the first prize of $25.00.

In January 1935, Fitzgerald won the chance to perform for a week with the Tiny Bradshaw band at the Harlem Opera House. She met drummer and bandleader Chick Webb here. Webb had already hired singer Charlie Linton to work with the band and was, The New York Times later wrote, “reluctant to sign her….because she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough.” Webb offered her the opportunity to test with his band when they played a dance at Yale University.

She began singing regularly with Webb’s Orchestra through 1935 at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. Fitzgerald recorded several hit songs with them, including “Love and Kisses” and “(If You Can’t Sing It) You’ll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)”. But it was her 1938 version of the nursery rhyme, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket”, a song she co-wrote, that brought her wide public acclaim.

With Decca’s Milt Gabler as her manager, she began working regularly for the jazz impresario Norman Granz, and appeared regularly in his Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concerts. Fitzgerald’s relationship with Granz was further cemented when he became her manager, although it would be nearly a decade before he could record her on one of his many record labels. Fitzgerald left Decca and Granz, now her manager, created Verve Records around her. Fitzgerald later described the period as strategically crucial, saying, “I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop. I thought be-bop was ‘it,’ and that all I had to do was go some place and sing bop. But it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized then that there was more to music than bop. Norman….felt that I should do other things, so he produced The Cole Porter Songbook with me. It was a turning point in my life.” Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, released in 1956, was the first of eight multi-album Songbook sets Fitzgerald would record for Verve at irregular intervals from 1956 to 1964. The composers and lyricists spotlighted on each set, taken together, represent the greatest part of the cultural canon known as the Great American Songbook. Fitzgerald’s song selections ranged from standards to rarities and represented an attempt by Fitzgerald to cross over into a non-jazz audience.

Plagued by health problems, Fitzgerald made her last recording in 1991 and her last public performances in 1993. Miss Fitzgerald was generous throughout her career, and in 1993, she established the Charitable Foundation that bears her name: The Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, which continues to help the disadvantaged through grants and donation of new books to at-risk children.

Stray Toasters

• MarknTyme sent me a link to an article about a “skin gun,” used as a treatment for burn victims. The accompanying video isn’t for the squeamish… but the results are rather impressive.
• 
• A Super Bowl oddity: No cheerleaders for Packers or Steelers
• No Easy Fixes as Internet Runs Out of Addresses
• Today in rock ‘n’ roll history: The day the music died
• 
  
• Gunman hijacks Greyhound bus in North Carolina
• The King of Cool’s Motorcycle Is for Sale
• Yesterday’s amazing house of tomorrow is today’s boring house of today

And, on to the day!

Namaste.

Sunday – 30 January 2011
We’re almost done with the month and my fingers still want to type “2010” half the time…

Yesterday was a long and event-filled day. I started the day by volunteering at the Salt Lake City Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I did a mix of things from some retail-prep work to organizing (yet more) doors to helping to unload donations.

Leaving the ReStore, I met SaraRules! at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center for our final movie of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Salvation Boulevard (1 , 2):

Pastor Dan is a charismatic preacher who has captivated a city with his charm. Ex-deadhead and recovering hippie Carl is one of the loyal sheep in his flock. When Dan finds himself in a compromising situation, Carl is called into service in a most unconventional way. The megachurch is cast into shadow, and a hellish storm begins brewing that could jeopardize its entire existence. The road to hell—in this case, Salvation Boulevard—is paved with good intentions—gone hysterically wrong.

This movie cast a very satirical look at mega-churches and their followers. I liked the movie; SaraRules! didn’t. I stayed after the credits for a brief Q&A with the director, George Ratliff, and his co-writer, Doug Stone. An audience member asked:

Friday – 28 January 2011
It’s finally Friday. Granted, it’s my “on” Friday, but that’s okay… I’m cutting out of here a little early and heading to Thanksgiving Point with to check out the Ophir-Tintic &Western Model Railroad Show.

Last night, SaraRules! and I – along with about 18 other people – went to The Bayou to celebrate ‘s completion of coursework for college. It was a fun evening out. I had an Epic Brewing Imperial Stout, along with dinner, a bowl of Gumbo and a bowl of Crawfish Etouffee. The food and the company were both quite good.

Back at home, I called it an early evening. To say that I slept “poorly” would be an understatement. I first woke up – screaming – from a very odd dream around 0100. After managing to get back to sleep, I woke up again, around 0415; this time, it was from a raging heartburn. I set a couple of Tums on the job and drifted off again. When the 0630 alarm went off, I was in the middle of another disturbing dream and was in no mood to get up. 0700 wasn’t much better. At 0725, I decided to drag myself out of bed and start the day.

Here’s a little something to help kick off the morning:

Stray Toasters

• HOWTO be a well-dressed office dude
• Astronaut’s Brother Recalls a Man Who Dreamed Big
  The Engineering Building at North Carolina A&T State University (I attended this school after Purdue) was renamed after Dr. McNair – who had attended A&T – following the Challenger disaster.
  • 25 years after Challenger — inspiring the future of space science
• The Geopolitics of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”
  



• Sundance Festival Thrives on More Than Just Money
• “aww…”  != “awe”
  Conversely, “awe” != “aww…”
• Predictions for 2011
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Beaten, concussed man finds video of his assault on YouTube, care of his attackers
• What’s Happening in Egypt, Explained
• 
• 8-bit Funding Helps Kick-Start Indie Games
• LEGO Haunted House

And with that…

Namaste.

Tuesday – 25 January 2011
We’re almost a full month into the new year, but my fingers still want to type “2010.”

Today is my sister-in-law, Chelsea’s, birthday:

It’s snowing again. It’s not a heavy snowfall, but it is constant.  The snow doesn’t appear to have affected drivers in this part of the valley too much… but we’ll see how it goes as the morning progresses.
UPDATE: It’s gotten a little worse:

With that in mind, the Council for Better Driving: Utah would like to remind drivers to exercise caution when traveling today.

Last night, SaraRules! was kind enough to pick up the engine, tender and boxcar that I was having repaired at The Train Shoppe:

The locomotive now goes like the proverbial “bat out of Hell” — I hitched it up to a nine car consist and opened the throttle… and off it went. With the quickness. I am happy. I am also happy because I now have three (3) fully-functional locomotives.

SaraRules! fixed a very tasty recipe of stuffed peppers for dinner. As we ate, we cleared another couple of episodes of NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles off the DVR. Then, it was time to catch up with a few coworkers for CoD: Black Ops online. It was fun; I even tacked three more levels onto my character. After the group broke up, I tried to play a little more DC Universe Online. Once again, it locked up on me. (I’m going to be Level 30 before I ever get out of the introduction, at this pace…) I have a support ticket logged with Sony. In the past 12 hours, I’ve had two responses on it – one was a request for more information; one was a possible solution to the problem. I’m going to test it out this evening.

Chew on This: Food for Thought
This morning, Marvel’s latest event, “Fantastic Four: 3,” kicked off.

In this event, a member of the Fantastic Four dies. There’s been great speculation as to which character it would/could be. Comics news sites announced, as early as last night, that some mass media sources were spoiling the news of which member died.

*sigh*

It was bound to happen, I know… but I still held out a glimmer of hope that I would be able to make it until tomorrow – when I pick up my books – without hearing who the doomed person was.

Nope.

This morning, on the drive in, an announcer on a local radio station just blurted it out. There was no “Hey, if you’re a fan of the FF, you might want to turn the volume down for a minute” warning or anything.  Just “BAM!”

Monkeys.

Ear Candy
I heard this on the way to work this morning…

…which, for some reason, made me think of this:

Stray Toasters

• I finally got to introduce Kristen to iChat’s video chat option last night. It was nice to not only talk with her, but to see her, as well. I also gave her a “walking tour” of the house.
• The Sartorialist
• Bethany Sew and Sew: Character Aprons
• Chopin ‘probably had epilepsy’
• Test find high levels of lead in reusable bags
• Updated version of yesterday’s comic:



• Documents Open a Door on Mideast Peace Talks
• Jan. 25, 1921: The Robot Cometh
  • All Hail Our Robot Overlords! Sci-Fi’s Best Bots
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Flier goes ‘berserk’ over blocked lav, punches attendant
• 2011: A security manager’s wish list
• Unusual Wave of Violence Strikes Police Officers

And with that… on to the rest of the day!

Namaste.

Monday – 24 January 2010
Well met, work week. Let us see what we can accomplish.

Yesterday, I met up with Chris and Jeremiah for a HeroClix game. We played 800 points, per player. Chris fielded his X-Force team, Jeremiah brought five White Lanterns, and I played the Teen Titans. The game lasted almost three hours and, in a rare twist, didn’t involve two of us ganging up against one player. It was probably one of the most balanced three-player games I’ve ever played. In the end, Jeremiah lost his team first, I came in second, with Chris winning.

After the game, I met SaraRules! at her parents’ place for dinner and football. Later in the evening, the two of us headed downtown for our fourth Sundance movie: Benavides Born. The movie told the story of Luz Garcia, a high school senior in a small Texas town. Her dream is to get put Benavides in her rear-view mirror. Her means for doing so is to secure a powerlifting scholarship to the University of Texas. The movie follows Luz as she competes, in hopes of winning a scholarship, and as she interacts with her family and friends. This is also a coming of age movie, as it deals with Luz learning what it takes to achieve her goal and dealing with the obstacles and setbacks that arise, making her dream seem unattainable. It was a very “human” and very good movie.

Instant Replay: Football
There were some only two games over the weekend: the AFC and NFC Championship Games. I only watched the AFC game:

New York Jets at Pittsburgh Steelers
19 – 24
The Jets flew into Heinz Field, coming off a big win against the New England Patriots. I don’t know what happened to the Jets in the first half, but they were completely shut down by the Steelers. Their run game was ineffective. There was almost no pass game. The were just… there. In the second half, the Jets remembered what they were there to do and played ball. Their game wasn’t perfect, but it was fairly solid, they posted sixteen (16) unanswered points, but their last defensive stand failed to stop the Steelers from attaining first downs, allowing them to run out the clock. And so, the Super Bowl game will see the Steelers taking on the Green Bay Packers. Guess I’m going to be a Packers’ fan.

Stray Toasters

• American Icons
• Art Exhibit Stirs Up the Ghosts of Zimbabwe’s Past
• Thanks to for pointing out the Model Railway Layouts Blog to me.
• Fitness guru Jack LaLanne dies at 96
• Why Papa Johns, Intel, others said no to Super Bowl ads
• 
• Frank Gehry’s Home for New World Symphony
• In Pursuit of Qubits, Uniting Subatomic Particles by the Billions
• Wizard and Toyfare magazines fold
  (Which really seems about 3 to 5 years overdue…)
• 
• This is a good multi-genre mash-up: The Walken Dead
• Comics Code Authority is dead

Bang. Zoom.

Namaste.

Saturday – 15 January 2011
The sun is having a go at the clouds… and seems to be winning.

SaraRules! and I just got back from breakfast with Rachel (one of the MFAs from SaraRules!’ class). We went to Millcreek Cafe and Eggworks. Both the food and the company were very good.

That was also the start of a busy day: Next up, we’re having lunch with Jana and and the lot of us are going to see Spring Awakening at Kingsbury Hall. Then, it will be back home for a bit to get ready for the opening of Utah Opera’s  Hansel and Gretel. Yeah, it’s going to be a busy and arts-filled day.

The only down side is that the AFC Division Game between the Ravens and the Steelers. Fortunately, I have a DVR and it will watch the game for me… in a manner of speaking. So, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, I’ll get to see the game tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. (NOTE: I’m going to be pretty much ignoring calls and messages this afternoon — partly because of the musical and the opera, partly because I don’t want the game spoiled for me.)

And with that… let the games begin!

Namaste.

Thursday – 13 January 2011
This NBN Thursday morning finds the sun, visible today, creeping over the mountains. There’s still a bit of inversion haze over parts of the valley, but being able to see the sun – as opposed to a “slightly brighter spot in the sky” – is nice.

Last night was D&D game night with m3lody and company. Our opponents for last night’s encounter laid a good, old-fashioned beat-down on us. It was not pretty. We prevailed, but there was a lot of near-death dealt to our group.

SaraRules! rented, and we watched, The Town last night. It was good. The story, followed Ben Affleck’s character, Doug MacRay, and his heist crew, as they engaged in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the Boston Police Department and the FBI, following a bank robbery. MacRay complicates things even further due to an attraction to one of the robbery victims. The movie also contained what SaraRules! called one of the best bits of dialogue… ever:

Doug MacRay: I need your help. I can’t tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we’re gonna hurt some people.
James Coughlin: …Whose car we takin’?

Stray Toasters

• For reasons that I have yet to discern, I woke up with the chorus from Richard Marx’ Hazard running through my head.
• Obama’s Message in Grief: Talk in a Way That Heals
  • Text of President Obama’s Speech at the Service
    

    If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate — as it should — let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost. Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point-scoring and pettiness that drifts away in the next news cycle.

    The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better. To be better in our private lives, to be better friends and neighbors and coworkers and parents.  And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their death helps usher in more civility in our public discourse, let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy — it did not — but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation in a way that would make them proud.

• Suggs Plays the Villain
• Tense time for workers, as career paths fade away
• As the Web Turns
• For Ms. :



• China, in a Shift, Takes on Its Alzheimer’s Problem
• Carnival Cruise Lines to pull out of San Diego
  • Thanks to too much time spent on Q-Link as a kid, I always want to type “San Diego” as “Sandy Eggo.”
• Harvard psychologist explains the science of zombies
• Spec Fic Parenting: This, My Son, Is a Sword

And that, as they say, is that.

Namaste.

Monday – 10 January 2011
A new work week begins. This one actually has some blue sky and sun associated with it. Of course, there is still a good bit of haze about the valley, but I’ll take what I can get.

Yesterday, and came over to watch the Ravens-Chiefs game. Nox brought Josh and Sabriel with him; both of the kids did a good job of entertaining themselves while we yelled at the television watched the game. After the Ravens-Chiefs game, we flipped over to the Packers-Eagles game, which was also a good contest.

After football was over, SaraRules! fixed dinner: Homemade beef barley soup, squash and dinner rolls. ‘Twas very good. After dinner, we played Trivial Pursuit and then I somehow convinced her to watch Smokey and the Bandit. It might not be the world’s best movie, but it’s one of my favorites — if I believed in “guilty pleasures,” it would be one of mine. (If memory serves me correctly, I believe that my father took me to see it in the theatre… three times.) I learned a couple of interesting things about the movie, thanks to IMDb:

• The second highest grossing movie released in 1977 next to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
• Was a Guilty Pleasure of Alfred Hitchcock according to his daughter Patricia Hitchcock

After the movie, I finished up Rough Weather and called it a night.

Instant Replay: Football
There were some good games over the weekend… even though I missed both of Saturday’s games.

Baltimore Ravens at Kansas City Chiefs
30 – 7
The Ravens and Chiefs met at Arrowhead Stadium for the AFC Wild Card Playoff Game. The Ravens came to play some serious ball, too. After leading 10-7 at halftime, the Ravens went on to score another 20 unanswered points and seal the deal. Next stop: Heinz Field on Saturday, for a meeting with AFC North rival Pittsburgh Steelers.

Joe…?  Derrick…? You guys just scalped the Chiefs and are going to the Division game against the Steelers!  How do you feel about that?

Yeah, I’d be passing around the high-fives, too!  Congratulations!

Green Bay Packers at Philadelphia Eagles
21 – 16
The Packers and Eagles faced off in Philly… …and the Pack came away with the win There was a lot of post-game talk about the two missed field goals by Eagles’ P David Akers… six points which would have secured a Philadelphia win. Should’a. Could’a. Would’a. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers move on to face the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday.

.

New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts
17 – 16
Last week, I was worried about the Ravens having to face the Indianapolis Professional Football Club in the playoffs. More specifically, I was worried about the teams having to meet yesterday. Fortunately, Indy lost last week’s game and the Ravens wound up taking on the Chiefs. Saturday, Mark Sanchez and the Jets eliminated Indy – and the last Manning standing – from the playoffs. I only wish that I had seen that game.

.

New Orleans Saints at Seattle Seahawks
36 – 41
Are the Seahawks this year’s Cinderella team? They upset last year’s Cinderella and have their sights on da Bears in next weekend’s matchup.

Stray Toasters

• SaraRules! tested out a very good blueberry pancake recipe for breakfast yesterday.
  I have third-party independent verification of this, as young Ms. Sabriel packed away two of them, herself.
• It wasn’t a workout, per se, but I walked up five of the six flights of stairs to get into the office this morning. I’m thinking that I might challenge myself to do it at least once a day during the work week.
• Federal Charges in Giffords Shooting Cite Assassination Plan
• TV ‘Wonder Woman’ Not Going at This Time
• Taking a trip into history with the Freedom Riders
  • The Freedom Riders movie referenced on the second page of the article is the one that SaraRules! and I saw last year at the Sundance Film Festival.  If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.
• 
• Library of Congress Gets a Mile of Music
• Theme park giant’s ups, downs lead to investor showdown
• Muslim and Christian, Egyptians stand together against violence

I don’t know when it happened, but most of the haze has burned off and you can now see across the valley.

Namaste.

Thursday – 06 January 2011
It’s Thursday.  Amen. That means that it’s an NBN day… and it’s the last day of my work week, which means that it’s “NBN Technical Friday.” If only there was less inversion-induced haze…

Last night was D&D 4.0 night with and company. There was far less death among our party than in Tuesday night’s game. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we didn’t have a good fight on our hands. We did. But we persevered.

After the game, SaraRules! and I knocked out another episode of NCIS. The DVR queue is growing shorter!

Stray Toasters

• As our game wrapped up last night, I received a call from Young Miss Grace; she (with “a little” help from Sib-1) called to thank us for her Christmas present. It was very cute.
• GWU honors Gray’s athletic legacy from time of segregated sports
• IRS tax liens jump by 60%, but how effective are they?
• 
• Training and Trust: Partners on the Flying Trapeze
  When I was 12 and 13, my summer camp had a 28′ flying trapeze. (This fact is made even more interesting when you consider the fact that I went to a computer camp.)  Campers were able to choose non-computer-related activities to complement their more geeky ones; I chose flying trap.  I didn’t do any of the catches – and regret that a little – but I still had a lot of fun on and learning about the trapeze.
• Mac App Store Launches with Thousand Apps, Big Discounts
• 
• Thanks to an ad that I didn’t need to see, I just realized that I could easily add an elevated subway to the city side of my layout…  *sigh*
• Starbucks drops its name from logo

Back to it.

Namaste.

Monday – 03 January 2011
Today is the last day of my vacation; our robot overlords gave us the day off. (Did I say “overlords?” I meant “protectors.”) Tomorrow, the new work year begins. Fortunately, this is the week with my 9/80 “off” Friday, allowing me to ease into this whole “working” thing again.

So far, 2011 has been alright. After playing ‘Clix with Chris on Saturday morning, SaraRules! and I headed up to her parents’ place for a New Years’ food and football. ‘Twas good. After that, we headed to the theatre and caught Tron: Legacy. I enjoyed it; SaraRules! didn’t. And, that’s not to say that I didn’t have a couple of issues with the movie, but it was entertaining.

Sunday started with and me hitting the local Lowe’s and Home Depot. He was kind enough to offer his time – and Jeep – to allow me to pick up and transport more sawhorses, plywood and foam for my growing railroad. I still need to set up the saw horses and paint the foam. All in due time. I also need to start thinking about more permanent railroad structures — SaraRules!’ father is going to help me frame and finish the basement in the not-too-distant future. He also gave me a couple of ideas about extending my layout… vertically. I was intrigued with his idea and haven’t ruled anything out yet.

We headed back up to the in-laws’ for New Years’ leftovers. (Every bit as good the day after as they were the day of…) We watched a little football and then headed home to watch The Godfather: Part II, which I don’t believe I’d ever seen before. It was good… quite good, but I had a little bit of a rough time following the corollaries between the flashbacks and the “present day,” until the end of the movie.

Today, I met Perry and a couple of his kids for coffee. I also worked a little on a drawing that has been stagnating in my sketchbook for the better part of 10 months. It felt good to get something – anything – done on it.

Instant Replay: Football

Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens
7 – 13
The boys from Cincy came Baltimore to wrap up the final week of regular season play. Bonnie and Clyde… I mean, Batman and Robin… I mean “T.O. and Ocho” didn’t play, though. That’s fine, because the Ravens seemed to have a tough enough time dealing with Bengals’ QB Carson Palmer, despite FS Ed Reed’s two interceptions.But, nevertheless, the Ravens wound up coming away with  “W,” and that’s always a good thing in my book. Sorry, and .

Ray! Hey, Ray!  Hey… yeah, so you guys just beat a division rival, are going to the Playoffs for the third straight year – a team record – and you don’t have to face Indy in the first round!  How does that make you feel?

Yeah, I bet it does feel pretty sweet!

Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs
31 – 10
The Raiders went to Arrowhead Stadium and scalped the Chiefs. They finished the season 8-8, their best record in seven (7) years! They also set a curious record: It marked the first time that a team has swept their division (6-0), but did NOT make it into the playoffs. Congrats, SaraRules! and 1silver_seraph.

.

Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
10 – 31
I don’t know what it is about the Panthers and teams with bird-themes, but once again, they managed to lose. There’s always next season, I guess…

.

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots
7 – 38
The ‘Fins dropped this one to the Pats. ‘Nuff said.

Stray Toasters

• This post, from made me grin this morning.
• Class Decides Whether to Donate Professor’s Kidney
• Actor Pete Postlethwaite dies
• 
• Into the Tunnels: Exploring the Underside of NYC
• Courting Disaster: Family Ties
• 
• Body of former Pentagon official found in landfill
• How to stay safe at a public Wi-Fi hotspot

Namaste.