Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I'm hoping to do an old-fashioned, LJ-era type con report for Minicon, which starts today.

I'm obviously not there yet. My first panel is tonight at 5:30 pm, which is an awkward time for me. I was shown my schedule several months ago, of course, but I didn't really fully consider the time slots. You maybe know how it is? I was more focused, at the time, on the subject matters and whether or not I thought I would be a good fit. I don't remember being asked if there were times and dates I couldn't do, but I also missed the first email that went out--it ended up in my spam box somehow. So, that's probably also on me.

At any rate, I could not have predicted that Shawn would be in the middle of performance review crunch time at work. She really wanted to be able to stay late and finish things up as today is her deadline for the last of them. And, since we are a one car family, I need to get her home and be on the road at LEAST by 5:00 pm and even that feels a little risky. (Highway 494 is under construction and 5:00 is rush hour.)  So, I am already anxious about everything and wondering when the heck I'm going to get a chance to even eat. Again, Shawn and I are old ladies and so we eat at 4:30-5:00 pm most days. There's just not going to be time for that.

Currently, the plan for food involves stopping at Breadsmiths on the way to pick her up and eating a sandwich in the car on the way to the con. Shawn, at least, has leftover homemade pasties in the fridge. Maybe those would be okay cold? I think there is enough for both of us to have one. Maybe I'm saved. We'll see.

Anyway, tonight will be kind of a stressful mess (at least partly of my own making) even before I actually sit down to try to moderate the panel. At least we were able to shift our date night to Thursday (last night) thanks to my writers' group Pendragons canceling. So, this was fun. We always do dinner and a movie or if you prefer, Netflix and chill (wink, wink.) Last night, Shawn and I ended up watching The Electric State. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. Did anyone else see it? It's brand new, a 2025 release, and has that annoying dude, Star Lord, in it--one of the Marvel Chris-es. (I think this is the one that's actually Minnesotan, originally from Virginia. Yes, Chris Pratt.) Shawn and I talked about it afterwards, like you do, and for us the problem was that it was absolutely 100% NOT a "feel good" movie. A lot of people that you get very invested in die. And, ( SPOILER ) So, I mean.... it's kind of hard to cheer at the end? There were a lot of other things we both liked about it, but you get to the end feeling very "..." which is not the stuff blockbuster movies are made of, you know? Not ones starring Chris Pratt and which have a lot of jocular humor in them. The tone just wasn't right at the beginning for that downer of an ending. At last not for us. I'd love to hear what you thought of it, if you've seen it.

But, back to tonight, I really can't be late to the con tonight because not only am I the moderator, but also one of the guests of honor, Wesley Chu, is going to be on the panel. I absolutely do not want to start out with my foot in it, you know? Especially since I have a panel later, on Saturday, with him as well. 

The subject matter of tonight's panel should be easy to moderate, I hope. It's "On Learning How to Write." The panel description itself gives a basic set of questions to start with and I have found that it's often not difficult to get writers to talk about their process and/or writing, in general. Of couse, now that I've said this, the panelists will all be taciturn and closed-mouthed and I'll have to break out a song and dance routine just to get through the hour or however long we have.

I think that's everything I'm pre-thinking about. I had a chance to look through the programming book, which is online as a .pdf at Minicon's main site: https://mnstf.org/minicon58/ There is a movie showing tonight in the Film Obscura room that actually interests me: "The New Mutants." I've long been a Marvel fan and I never made it to the theater to see this one, so I am vaguely tempted to hang around long enough tonight to catch it.

Oh, that's the other thing I failed to pay attention to in terms of my schedule, I am the OPPOSITE of a night owl (a morning lark!) and all my panels tomorrow go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY past my bedtime. Like, I have one that starts at 10 pm. With my CoCoRaHS volunteering, too, I am actually required to be up before 7 am every single day of the week. I'm usually up by 5:30-6:00 am so that's not a huge problem, but it is more difficult when I don't get to bed until after 11 pm. And, I will be honest with you, my friends, I am in bed, sound asleep many nights by 8:30 pm. So, even having a panel that starts at 7 pm feels really LATE to me. 

I'm also likely going to one of very few people masking the entire time so that ought to be... interesting, as we say here in Minnesota. I know this makes me a Dolly Downer. But, y'all, no offense. It's not about your health status. I'm not judging you. My wife is immunocompromised. I'm sure you're bummed not to see my smiling face, but your momentary pleasure is not worth her life. Full stop. Sorry/not sorry. I had a very telling back and forth with someone in MNstF via text not that long ago, wherein it was patently clear that if I wanted to show up to the business meeting/party with a mask on, I wasn't welcome. So... that's extra fun.

I'm not really made for conventions any more, I am realizing. I used to be? But I was also thirty years younger back then.

Oh well. Bonus, just in time for people to be pulling back on all their virtual programming, too. Alack, alas, what do you do. I'm still expecting to have a great deal of fun this weekend. Maybe I'll see some of you all there!

 On Friday's, Shawn and I have a "date night." It's really just 'us' time and not necessarily more romantic than that. We usually pick a dinner that we can eat on the porch or in our comfy chairs in the living room, depending on the season. Then. we prop up our iPad, or, if we're feeling fancy, laptop with special stereo adaptor, and settle in for some streaming something--often a movie. This last Friday, we watch a film that was so obviously filmed during the isolation part of the pandemic that I was kind of surprised they wasted the budget money, since half of the shots were of one woman, sitting in a chair, and the other half was LITERALLY WATCHING AUDACITY RECORD. The movie is called, Monolith. It's apparently an award winning show that had positive reception, but I think I would have enjoyed it as JUST a podcast. 

The story was fine? I was not surprised by most of the twists and turns, but Shawn said she was, so that might mean it was just my writerly brain superpower activating and not actually a real problem with the show. Anyone else see this one? What did you think?

I have not managed much more drawing on my slice-of-life diary in part because life has managed to be busy. Mason headed back to school in Connecticut this morning at 8 am, and a lot of the previous week was getting him packed up and ready to go. Shawn and I spent most of the rest of today digging through the house looking for things for the Midway Free Sale, which will be happening next weekend. We have put ourselves on the map as one of the stops because god knows we have stuff to unload. So, this is just a first past. If you are local, you should check it out. Apparently, there will be a map. I will try to remember to share information when the Google Map is released. 

Meanwhile, I had a consult with a nutritionist. I asked my doc for a referral because I've been struggling with GERDs. I got some... interesting advice that seems to be working. Honestly, it almost sounds like quackery. The nutritionist suggested that, because sometimes GERDs is a result of not enough acid, if you swallow a teaspoon of cider vinegar with a glass of water that will help things move along. She said that I would know immediately if it was the wrong solution and, if so, I should just stop.  My approach to a lot of this stuff is "Well, if it doesn't actively HURT me, why not try it?"  And it seems to be doing the trick! Fingers crossed. 

I've been spending my weekend revising and populating my Thirsty Sword Lesbian cyberpunk one-shot for the upcoming ConFABulous.  I should probably be working on gathering examples for the next themed episode of the podcast, but I'm giving myself a small play break. 

What about you? Been up to anything much?

 My TBR pile has not gotten measurably shorter.

I did, at least, on the recommendation of hippogriff13 read the amazing seinen manga The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumoku Ren. I only had the first volume out from the library and I loved it so much that I had to go find everything else that was available online. Then I also read literally everything else that Mokumoku-sensei has had published. I'm not sure I can recommend this manga enough, though it comes with a lot of caveats, namely that hauntingly sad. Also, I was expecting slice-of-life from the title? Nope. It's full-on supernatural/supernatural-horror. Because, as we learn on page one, Hikaru is dead, but something else comes back wearing his body.

Also, the art is amazing. Like, truly.

Otherwise, my pile remains static. It's been a strangely busy time for me. I find publicity for book releases to be as tiring as it is necessary. I am deeply excited to see these books in print, however. I made a little video of my unboxing, if you all want to see it. I probably should have combed my hair before filming, but I WAS JUST THAT EXCITED. 

Also, Shawn continues to have a number of doctor appointments--all of which are follow-ups, but it still require me to play taxi and drive all around town. 

Mason is coming home on Friday night, so Shawn and I had a "date night observed" last night. We got some hamburgers to go and sat in front of the computer and streamed The Voyagers, which was, as its Rotten Tomato scores suggest, OKAY. As I told Shawn halfway through, it's a bit like "What if Lord of the Flies, but Space... and also they work it out (possibly because there are women)?"

 
Image: Armenian food: chicken kabob wrap and frozen mint lemonade.

I'm having a late start to my writing today anyway since I had an early morning doctor's appointment (just a regular check-in). So, I thought I might as well take a few minutes and write to y'all about the Armenian festival at St. Sahag Church that Shawn and I went to on Saturday afternoon. 

By chance, Shawn and I were reminiscing about this on the way to the clinic. (Miraculously, Shawn and I had appointments at approximately the same time.) It was a lot LIKE the open house at the Watershed District in that it had a very small town, friendly vibe, with one critical difference--a difference that made us enjoy the cultural festival a little bit less. 

To set the stage first, however. St. Sahag is a very unimposing orthodox church a half of block in from Marshall Avenue on Hewitt.  This means nothing to my non-Twin Cities readers, but so you can picture this church having one end of its block abutting a decently busy throughway that connects St. Paul to Minneapolis (Marshall becomes Lake Street on the other side of the river.) The cross street just gives Twin Cities people a sense of the nearby neighborhood, which is working class--with the general mix of houses found throughout St. Paul, hidden grand Victorians and post-WWII ranches and every style in-between all sharing the same block. 

When Shawn and I first pulled up, we weren't sure if things were underway, even though we arrived a full half hour after festivities were scheduled to begin. The outside, as I said, was somewhat unassuming. So, no big signs pointing us to food, though we could see a few tents set up in the back of a permanent playground where a group of men seemed to be grilling. We decided to tour the exterior, if nothing else. On the opposite side of the church from the grillers was a big open door to a church basement, from which wafted the most mouth-watering flavors!  

In we went!

Once inside, we were greeted by two people, a man and a woman, who asked us what kind of tickets we wanted. This was another ticket = food situation, only here you paid in advance of what you thought you might spend. They had menus (with prices) posted everywhere, but it was still kind of an overwhelming decision. Since I had it in cash, I decided to just go for $20 to see what that might get us. I was handed a punch card with twenty dots on it. 

We were able to get a decent amount of food for twenty dollars. We bought the chicken kabob wrap and lemonade pictured above, as well as a couple of baked goods options from the upstairs, where the grandmas all had their cookies and cakes and such like on display. 

But here's where I think the major difference was. 

I think if Shawn and I were food tourists, we would have preferred the Armenian festival over the Watershed open house. If we'd had an unlimited budget, I'm sure we could have spent several hours (and an easy hundred bucks, if not more,) trying All The Things and having an amazing time doing it. The Armenians seemed aware of this. All of the entertainment was scheduled in the dining hall/church basement, on a little stage. So, ideally, one could find a spot at one of the tables to sit, watch the dancing or listen to the music and the other programming, while getting up every so often to refresh the lemonade or to try out some of the other foods on offer. 

As it was, we had a limited budget. So, when we filled up our punch card, we went home.  We went home happy? But it wasn't like the Watershed place where we could continue to explore all the FREE activities for as long as we wanted without feeling like we were occupying a table that should go to a paying customer, as it were. The Armenians had a bazaar, but, for us, that could only be window shopping at best, which is fine and FUN? But, again, we kind of hurried through that so that people who were going to spend money had the opportunity to do so.

And the festival was a fundraiser. Like, I do NOT begrudge them that.

Shawn and I were just trying to parse what it was about the comparably dorkier Watershed Open House that we liked so much more. I mean, obviously, we're dorks and government agency wonks, but, beyond that, this is what we could determine. One thing I learned from a year or so as a movie reviewer for the local queer newspaper is that things are automatically more enjoyable when they are FREE. I had to watch my tendency to say "it was fun!" about movies like Matthew Broderick's Godzilla (universally panned by everyone in the movie reviewing industry, EXCEPT my reivew in focusPOINT.* Oops. That's my contribution to cinematic criticism, everyone! Whee. )

At any rate, we still had a great time and I was happy to know that my guess as to what Armenian food might be like was pretty much on the money.



===
*doesn't link to my actual review, though depending on how many papers have been digitized, perhaps one could find it. (Ah, in my ancient CV, I discovered this citation: Lyda Morehouse.  “The Lizard King: ‘Godzilla,’”  focusPOINT 5 49: 206 (May 20 – May 1998): 13.)  It was even published on PAGE THIRTEEN. Yeah.... bad luck for me. I don't know how many more reviews I did for them after that, but it wasn't a whole lot.

 One of the exciting things that happened today that I totally forgot to mention in all my various updatery (Patreon and my newsletter) was that I was interviewed by Cat Rambo as part of the promotion they are doing around The Reinvented Heart Anthology. In a couple of days, Cat expects to have the interview with me up on the Cat Rambo Reinvented Anthology playlist. I will also absolutely drop a direct link when it goes live.

I always feel like I'm rambling? But, Cat says they will clean it up, so fingers cross that I come across vaguely human-ish. 

The interview came at a good time, at least, since I JUST (as in literal minutes earlier) finished writing the story that I'd promised Cat and crew for the next "Reinvented" anthology, called The Reinvented Detective. There is no detective in my story? Though it does deal with crime and punishment, per the submission guidelines. I love this story a lot because it is PRIME Lyda Morehouse weirdness, but I am uncertain that it will actually sell to this particularly market. We shall find out in May, one way or the other.

Other than that, I've been watching at lot of Satoshi Kon movies, actually. The Smithsonian's Museum of Asian Art is in the middle of a virtual film festival of Kon's work, and I've been taking advantage of the free access to finally catch up on Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, and a documentary of Kon's life called: Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist. My anime-turned-C-Drama friend had shown me his Paprika movie early on and I ADORED it. Paprika is 100% the kind of science fiction I strive to write. (I should probably read the novel is it based on, but I'm not sure if it's been translated. I should look.) I have not seen Kon's Paranoia Agent (which is a TV series,) but I have now picked up and read at least one of his manga, which I'll probably talk about tomorrow.  

Anyway, the virtual film festival has proved so popular that they opened up additional viewings of Perfect Blue (which I ran out an snagged a ticket for) and Tokyo Godfathers. It is a weird thing they are doing because it's free, but they make you get a ticket? I think because they are the Smithsonian/a museum, they're just trying to get a sense of how many people would attend a virtual showing, and since they have sold out, perhaps they are limited in terms of whatever they may have spent to be an official venue for these classic movies. Anyway, check them out, perhaps there are seats left: https://watch.eventive.org/satoshikon

So, that's been kind of fun.

The other thing I've been doing is finally going through a box of junk that I got as part of a stamp collection someone gave away on our neighborhood Buy Nothing group. I say junk, but it's basically a box full of envelopes with stamps on them. The stamps are all of one kind, so I am currently just harvesting them off the envelopes for eventual resale. But, occasionally, there are envelopes that have not been entirely stripped of their contents. The most interesting thing that I've found so far is a Japanese Government-Issued Peso, which was a fiat bill that was produced during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in WWII. This one is very specifically a 1942 issued ten centavos. 


Image: WEIRD bit of history found in a box of worthless stamps

I was a bit disappointed, after having read the Wikipedia article about these, that this one was not one of the counterfeit bills that the United State government printed in an attempt to destabilize Japan's occupying force. Apparently, those had specific letters printed on them and/or were actually overlaid with propaganda (and then dumped by the bucketful out of airplanes, holy shit)!  

Anyway, I also found a few letters home from 1889, of which only one is interesting because it is clearly in response to an accusation by this person's mother, who is convinced that son(?) talked dad out of an extra $200 loan (on top of the THOUSAND dad had already given him!!) What I found most amusing was the overuse of underlining, which of course made me imagine the whole thing as an ALL CAP email. :-)

The more things change, right?

Okay, I'm off. Hope you all are doing well!

 I got an email from my contact over at the Loft.

So far, they have exactly ONE student signed up for my SF/F class that starts at the end of this month. It's called The Final Frontier: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Modern Era. It's the same class I always teach, but the Loft does these "themes" and this year it's "Boundaries & Borders." At any rate, I'd love to teach again this year, so if you know anyone who could make it to a class in Minneapolis and would like to learn from me, please pass this on to them. I will be the first to agree that the price is steep, but the Loft does offer scholarships to at least one of the attendees, so that could be you (or your friend).  Just be sure to ask for a scholarship application. 

Otherwise, my life continues apace. 

My family spent the weekend mostly chilling out, though Mason ended up having to go to robotics on Saturday. Normally, he would have been at work, but his KAYSC team decided not to make anyone come in because of the snow storm. We were predicted to get anywhere from 6 to 12 inches, but we probably only got 6. Nothing to write home about, alas, but Mason's work cancelled the night before, so as to give people time to make other arrangements and whatnot. Mason was really looking forward to sleeping in and having a pajama day, when his robotic's folks texted with the "Are you coming in???" messages. He was VERY unhappy, but also felt like he couldn't say 'no,' since with his college class schedule and work, he doesn't make it to robotics very often.

Sunday, Mason spent most of the day with his friend Dalton.

Monday, there was more robotics. He told me this morning that he was weirdly happy to be getting back to his regular schedule because all this social stuff was wearing out my little introvert. I sympathized, because, even though I'm extroverted by nature, my introverted family has taught me the value of spending a weekend (or longer) doing absolutely nothing.

For Shawn and I, the three day weekend was pretty relaxing. We finally got around to seeing "Inception," which I am surprised to say that I feel dumb for not having seen before now. What a good film! What excellent science fiction!  We also watched the first "John Wick," which was... a lot of shooting. In fact, I got kind of tired of the violence? Also, for some weird reason, I'd gotten it into my head that the franchise involved magic? Like, I don't know why I thought that? Maybe I just thought a guy named John Wick sounded like he should be a magical boi/wizard, and, at any rate, I am here to tell you I AM VERY DISAPPOINT. All guns, no spells makes John Wick a very dull movie! 

Otherwise, I did a little "stamping" and a lot of fic writing. 

Shawn did a bunch of cutting, sewing, and looming. 

All around a good weekend, I'd say. I can't believe it's Tuesday already, however. That part's crazy. 

Things I can say above the cut: it's worth seeing, IMHO, for one singular cinematic moment. In the theater, when we saw it, people almost jumped out of their seats, but literally all yelled, "YES!"

So, they gave us something good.

Now, about the rest:

( So, so many spoilers... here there be dragons )

So, there are things I liked quite a bit. I'm going to die mad about others.

On Saturday, after taking Mason to work, Shawn and I decided to check out the ReUse Center of the University of Minnesota. That place is kind of a trip. Check out all the--I assume, abandoned--bicycles



There were all sorts of other things, too, like all the weird old science equipment that a mad scientist might want:



And, of course, books that had been culled from the University libraries:



We didn't find anything to take home, alas, but it was really fun to see all the stuff. We had much better luck at our earlier thrifting spot, GoodWill. Shawn found a few baskets, including a big wicker basket for laundry (something she always covets.) Also, she found more of a set of dishes that we'd picked up earlier. We swear that GoodWill has the whole set, but it only putting out a few pieces at a time.

So, while the rest of you fools are decluttering, Shawn and I are digging through your castaways.

Why? Because it brings us joy.

Saturday was actually a very good day all around. Mason came back from work and we had a lovely dinner. Shawn and I watched "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018) which we had on DVD from Netflix (because we still get DVDs from Netflix.) I... didn't hate it? Shawn seemed to enjoy it, but woke up this morning to inform me that she'd had epiphany: "They should stop making sequels of these." I mean, she's not wrong? But, as I pointed out, DINOSAURS. Like, how else are we going to get a dinosaur movie in the future? Pretty much anything you do is going to seem like a rip off the Jurassic franchise. So, let them keep making them? I honestly love any movie where I can root for the dinosaurs. But, I will say that "Fallen Kingdom" had some moments that made me VERY SAD. ( Spoiler )

But, at the end of the evening, Shawn turned to me and said, "This was actually a *good* day." I had to agree.

Today, Sunday, was pretty good, too. We didn't do a lot, played Smash and hung out. I've been writing a lot of fan fic, some of which I posted today.  Then, we were going to have pot stickers for dinner tonight, but Mason's GF had to cancel last minute, and so we randomly decided to have fried chicken fingers and onion strips a meal we make while literally sitting in front of the deep fat frier.  Such a terrible meal. SO GOOD.  

I still need to do my spell of the day tonight, but, otherwise, I'd say it was a lovely weekend. 

How've you been?

Robotics is coming to a close. Tonight, in fact, is the last night for building. Mason's team has until midnight Eastern Time (11 pm for us) to finish tinkering with their robot. After that, they have to shrink-wrap it and put it away until competition. I have no idea when I'll see my child tonight. I suspect the Washington team will go as late as possible (and my son will LOVE every minute of it.)

Luckily, he got to bed early last night.

And Shawn and I get a mid-week date night, so that works out pretty well. I suspect we'll catch up with "Victoria" and eat a lot of popcorn. Who says romance is dead?

Speaking of movies, I saw two this weekend. You'll never guess what the first one was.... yeah, actually, it WAS "Black Panther." My Marvel crew is always on top of things, so Mr. Murphy got tickets a week ahead, which was good because theaters were selling out. I had work at Maplewood from 10 am to 5 pm, and so I joked to Mason (who had spent from 8 am to 3 pm at "Week Zero" robotics, where they test their robot against the obstacle course for the first time) that both of us would be lucky to keep our eyes open. Hahahahahaha, yeah. No worries there. "Black Panther" was amazing. I don't have much to say about it that hasn't already been said, but I will add my voice to the chorus that recommends you to go, if you haven't already.

The other movie we watched was "The Great Wall." When Mason noticed us watching it he snarkily said, "Oh, I see, we're having the complete opposite experience from 'Black Panther' now, eh?" [If you're curious about the controversy around "The Great Wall" and somehow missed hearing about it when people were discussing it, Huffington Post pretty much sums up my argument about the movie: "No, 'The Great Wall' Isn't Racist Whitewashing (but The Question if it is a White Savior Movie is a Bit Tricker.)"]

What these two movies had in common was kind of surprising. Somehow, I missed that "The Great Wall" was a fantasy, where the Great Wall of China was kind like Wakanda in that it was fantastically science-fictionally advanced... the ancient China we want, full of amazing costumes, beautiful people, impossible heroics and acrobatics, and super-powered monsters.

Of course, in "Black Panther" the white people were superfluous to the plot (( Tineey-tiny spoiler )), and the 'monster' was actually one of the more sympathetic characters who actually brought with him a legitimate conflict with real world implications.

It was an interesting double-feature, though, given the controversy around "The Great Wall."

I am not, by the way, recommending "The Great Wall." I found it to be somewhat vacuous, if pretty. The only thing going for it is that it very much had the vibe of a SUPER big budget version of a Hong Kong film, ala "Once Upon a Time in China" or "The Bride With White Hair" but with the annoying addition of Matt Damon. I can see why people cried "whitewashing," actually, because even though 8 out of 10 actors were Chinese, Damon's role is OBVIOUSLY the sort normally occupied by someone like Jet Li. It's kind of weird to see a white guy get the slo-mo slides and off-the-wall jumps, while shooting arrows... that's clearly supposed to be Li or Chow Yun Fat or Jackie Chan or Brigitte Lin or Michelle Yeoh.

So, I mean, "The Great Wall" and "Black Panther" both had the same number of white actors (3), were directed by PoCs, but one of these movies is a giant ball of Fail (at least in the US market. I have no idea how "The Great Wall" played in China. Okay, quick check reveals that Wikipedia says, "The film went on to gross $170.9 million at the Chinese box office, which is considered a disappointment.")

It was an interesting movie weekend.  The rest was same old, same old, I suppose.  I hinted at the fact that I worked at Maplewood on Saturday. That was another full day, but, wow, it was so much nicer to be at a place that respected my work. It went so much faster, despite being the same 7 hours. I also, because it's Maplewood, came home with a new manga series, which I read the first two volumes of last night called: The Girl From the Other Side / Totsukuni no Shoujo by Nagabe.  It's very "spoopy" as the kids might say.  I'm probably going to write up a review of it later today.

I guess that's me. You?

In reverse order.

Saint Paul has a lot of panhandlers. They tend to congregate at busy intersections. They're not as aggressive here as I am led to believe they are in other cities. No one runs out and tries to wash your window or anything like that. They just hold up various signs and attempt to figure out the right amount of eye-contact/no eye-contact that will illicit sympathy from Minnesotan drivers.*

Despite living here for over 30 years, I always fail this. I'm forever looking people in the eye. I compensate for this failure by smiling a lot. I figure if I've made accidental awkward contact, I might as well be pleasant about it. So, I'm looking out my window and I catch the eye of one of these panhandlers. He smiles broadly back at me and lifts his sign, which reads: "I bet you a buck you'll read this sign."

I laugh and reach for my wallet, because, yeah, okay, that's clever.

As I'm reaching, he excitedly runs back to his backpack and pulls out a carefully plastic wrapped pile of papers. When he takes my dollar bill, he hands me a sheet. "I'm a published poet," he tells us. "I'm going to have a reading one day. That's why I'm doing this." What can I say? I mean, I know a lot of poets, many of them professional, and it is not an easy life. Even really successful poets who try to only do poetry have a hard time making ends meet. So I take the poem with another sympathetic smile and say, "Good luck to you, my friend." He waves happily and goes back to his poetry spreading panhandling.

His poem is called "Real Love." His pen name appears to be BC the Black Clown.

"Ain't it sad?
So many people go through life
Never really feeling loved
Because when they open their heart
It gets crushed by the very one
That they gave their heart to
And ain't that sad?
That the amount of life that is received
Is often measured by
The amount of money given
The quality of the stability and comfort
And the degree of physical pleasures
Ain't that sad?"

It goes on in this fashion until it turns religious.... because, of course, you know who gives the perfect love? JE-sus.

I mean, I'm sure there's actually a place for religious poets, and I don't regret the dollar I gave him. Not only was his sign clever, but I paid a poet probably a better $/per word than they'd get trying to sell to a print or e-magazine.

The other big excitement of the day was going off with my usual Marvel crew to go see THOR: RAGNAROK. Eleanor, who hasn't seen Mason in several months, noted that his voice had dropped. Puberty is a thing, for sure, and Mason is getting hit hard all of a sudden. We also all noticed that Mason is now taller than Mr. Murphy**, by at least an inch.

Murphy bought us tickets at the AMC in Inver Grove Heights (the place I was supposed to see BLADE RUNER 2049, only ended up at the wrong comfy theater.) They have the reclining seats, which is nice, and assigned seating, which I find annoying, because inevitably people end up getting bunched together. I was knee-to-knee with a stranger, despite the fact that the row beneath us was empty. But, I couldn't let Eleanor, the introvert sit next to the strangers. That would be bad extrovert-to-introvert etiquette.*** If I'd thought of it, I'd have made Eleanor and Murphy switch once it was clear no one was going to be sitting between Murphy and the aisle. I only say this, because I predict now that Eleanor will not have liked this movie as much as she might have if she didn't have to sit surrounded by people (even friends. Since I have an introvert at home, I know how to care and feed introverts. Even having to sit that close to people she LIKES wears on Eleanor.)

We got to see some interesting previews. Of the ones I saw, I was most excited to see the new BLACK PANTHER movie. I was not super enthused by Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther: Nation Under Our Feet when I read it, but I was excited to see that movie seems to be following the visual aesthetic of the comic book. The Shield Maidens, in particular, look bada$$.

As a fan of the first PACIFIC RIM, I was equally thrilled to see the sequel's preview, as well, of course, as the newest STAR WARS (I'm one of three people who actually LIKE the character of Kylo Ren, so I'm perfectly down for a movie that features more Kylo character moments.) The one preview that I think I was intrigued by that no one else in my set seemed that interested in was Matt Damon's DOWNSIZED. It looks... I mean, yeah, it totally vibes like a Stepford Wives cross with Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and I would NOT want to spend the outrageous movie ticket prices to see it first run, but I would totally Netflix it, if you know what I mean.

And then the movie.

I'm not going to spoil it at all (except a little bit under the cuts), so suffice to say that the humorous tone of the previews you've seen? It's that, all the way down. I personally did not mind the lighter tone. I'm not sure how a character like the Grandmaster would play (pardon the pun) if he was plunked into a movie that took itself even moderately seriously. HOWEVER, there are moments in THOR: Ragnarok that probably needed more there THERE.

Unless you're an Incredible Hulk fan, in which case this movie was 100% perfect for you. The Hulk gets, by far, the most poignant scenes (which given some of what transpires in Thor's life, and how complex his relationship SHOULD BE with his half-brother**** is a little... imbalanced?).

I have a friend, Rob Callahan, who had a brilliant take on the MCU franchise. He pointed out that each of the Marvel movies are kind of their own genres: you've got the war buddy film (Captain America), the melodrama (Thor), the industrial action flick (Iron Man), the heist (Ant Man), the space opera (Guardians of the Galaxy), and now, if you follow his point,... for some inexplicable reason you have fantasy comedy ala Princess Bride, (Thor: Raganrok.)

I'll be curious to know what the fan writer community thinks of this new addition to canon. ( Minor character moment spoilers, but several of them, so read at your own risk )

All and all, though, my complaints are minor.  Once you surrender to the tone, THOR: RAGNAROK is a fun film. The fight scenes always give this old Marvel fan a thrill because I can so easily picture the still framed panels they came directly out of.  

Speaking of that, I suspect one of the reasons that, of my group, I had less trouble with the tone of this particular movie is because it very much reminded me of some of the comic books I read Mason (particularly the All Ages+ of Fantastic Four) in the early-2000s, like "Fantastic Four: Doom, Where's My Car" and some of the more cheesy stuff that came out of the Chris Claremont era.*****

I used to read all that Grandmaster crap in the 1970s, and it was all like this. Only, I mostly ran across him in FF, so Reed Richards would outsmart the "games," but basically this is al that, plus a giant helping of "VERSUS" titles.  Do you remember those?  I think that's what they were called--but they'd always be these one shots Hulk vs. Wolverine! etc., etc., where the writers would contrive some scenario to make our heroes fight each other just to play the "who would win" game.  

The ways in which comic book canon is like a giant fan fiction community are, in point of fact, indistinguishable.


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*Many Minnesotans are weird about eye contact. I say this as a transplant, who has lived here for 30+ years, and who has yet to figure out what the proper ratio of direct eye contact and "glance away" to use to make my colleagues comfortable in my presence. This is especially tricky when you're trying to sell people something, like, say, a book you've written.

**Sean. I would call him this, but as my wife is also named Shawn, we have gotten in the habit over the years of calling Sean "Mr. Murphy."

***It is my solemn belief that extroverts exist to spare introverts from certain things: phone calls, in-person sales people, pizza deliverer, and to act as HUMAN SHIELDS in crowds or at the occasional party that you've managed to drag your introverted friend / partner to.

****Fight me. Loki was always HALF-brother to Thor in comic book canon and this insistence on "adoptive" is bull CRAP. Though, I understand the need given fandom, but, darlings, adoptive or not they were still raised together so y'all better be warning for incest. ( Related Thor: Ragnarok minor spoiler )

*****Double plus fight me. Before you get on your high horse, let me remind you that Claremont is responsible of the X-Babies.  'Nuff said.