The Antisocial Socialist

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions. No more, you guys! I'm going to start asking people what their favourite shade of sea monkey is or something.

1. Would you teach a unit on goth music if you could get away with it?

I probably could get away with it. But given that discussions of music with the Sablets typically end with me shaking my cane and muttering "kids these days" while they search for Miley Cyrus videos on YouTube, I doubt I would willingly put myself through that.

Also, a public high school is not the proper environment to be introduced to goth music, even if I do teach in a lightless concrete bunker. You ought to sneak into goth clubs when you're underage and befriend the DJ, or else stay up late listening to "Beyond the Gates of Hell" on CIUT. God I'm old; neither of those are options now. But I guess there's the internet.

2. would you rather have an aerovelocipede, a zeppelin or a robot-drawn carriage?

Good question, old chap! There are several issues to be considered in the choosing of a new Vehicle, including practicality, fuel efficiency, parking, and Pure Awesome, and each Mode of Transport must be considered both for its Merits and Downfalls.

As the point of such Devices is to avoid becoming Stuck in Traffic with the Common Rabble on the Thoroughfares, the robot-drawn carriage, regardless of how Badass it might be, must be excluded from our options, unless it is a Flying Robot Carriage. As well, parking would be a right bother.

An aerovelocipede provides excellent maneuverability, and a certain panache, but provides no shelter from the harsh winters of our uncivilized North, and thus would be Most Impractical for commuting to Scarborough. Besides which, one can only transport oneself and perhaps one's Exceptionally Large feline Acquaintance, and that won't do.

This leaves us with the zeppelin as the most desirable option. Of course, there is always the possibility of Dying in a Spectacular Conflagration, but I believe, good sir, that the Awesomeness is well worth it.

3. What is the worst movie you've seen lately?

I haven't seen an entire movie in forever. The last deeply awful movie I sat through was Battle in Seattle; the most recent excerpts from a bad movie I've seen were bits of Paranormal Activity that my kids showed me. I look forward greatly to watching New Moon, however.

4. What is the best comic you've read lately?

The Pros Arch flashback scenes that snarkitysnarks made. Not that I'm biased in any way.

In terms of published comics, Lackadaisy Cats. It's brilliant and hilarious, and you should check it out if you haven't already.

5. What would you get with a sudden unlimited clothing budget?

Besides more closets and someone to do my laundry? Lots of long, flapping coats, and various period clothes in which to play dress-up. Also more boots. I'd commission Fluevog to design some tall boots without heels.

Apologies for the crappy photo quality—it was pretty much pitch-black and this was taken over the head of 6-foot-something rivetheads by a nice tall man. Because for some reason most people who listen to Puppy aren't actually 5'2 like I am.

Anyway, I have difficulty describing how great their shows are, this one especially, because the best description I can come up with is that they sound like my interior landscape when I'm in particular sort of mental place. Which happened to be the sort of mental place I was in today so, yeah, it was a good thing. Even if the mental place isn't a good place and the most amazing thing about Puppy is how you really feel like you're listening to a non-stop assault of genuine anguish. Like I sometimes wonder if Ogre is really that tortured, even now, and if not, how it feels to revisit songs that he wrote when he was.

And I got to see sphinctourist, whom I dearly miss now that he's not in Hogtown anymore. So good night.

My public entries: Music memes, interrupted by the odd political rant, and not nearly enough cat photos. I will endeavour to do better in the future.

In the meantime, have some GAWTH. The person with the most correct answers gets the You Probably Had Black Nailpolish and Smoked Clove Cigarettes in High School Award.

( half of you probably still do )

theoldanarchist: Guess what just arrived in the mail today! (Or yesterday, probably.)

New musics are currently being assimilated into the Ministry of Culture. Thank you!

I saw Milk yesterday. It was amazing, but it kind of had to be, as there's already an incredible movie about Harvey Milk and the biopic had to be at least as good as that. Anyway, the acting was dead-on, especially Penn, who was playing against type. If I have one complaint, it's that the film didn't focus enough on what made the 1970s gay rights movement, and Milk in particular, so effective. It alluded to the alliances and overlaps between the queer community, the Asian community, and the black community, as well as the role of labour, but it never really went into depth about it. I guess if it did the movie would have to be twice as long. Also, it ended with the candlelight vigil instead of the White Nights Riots, but one expects that from any sort of inspirational political movie these days.

Also, thanks to the lovely cyborg_kitty100, I have now re-read all of Sandman. I'd read them all at some point, but out of order, so it was much more fun this way. I found that the Endless-centric storylines held up or were more awesome (particularly "The Kindly Ones" and "A Game of You," despite the latter's problematic conclusion), as did the art, but some of the "famous historical figure blah blah Dream shows up" stuff didn't work as well as I remembered.

Incidentally, was there supposed to be some sort of historical/cultural commentary on the timing of Dream's abduction and Destruction's abandonment of his post? (As in the substance of human dreams changes at the turn of the century, and destruction/change takes a radically different, less ordered form after the Enlightenment.) Or am I reading too much into that? Also, did Gaiman write the poem at the end of "The Kindly Ones"? I seem to recall seeing it somewhere else.

I was going to write a long spiel about how Sandman was the first comic I ever read and actually liked, making it the Comic That Got Me Into Comics, but by coincidence I stumbled across this post just now, which expresses it better than I can.

I fear I am getting sick. I'm always tired these days, but today I feel particularly flattened. This is worrisome. My information processing abilities seem to be affected as well, which is even more annoying.

Anyway, that shouldn't stop me from reporting on our fantastic New Recipe Sunday. These things just keep getting better and better.

The Menu
Smoky soup of winRed Chileatole with Fall Vegetables (only with spinach rather than green beans)—zingerella
Smoky vegetable salad—mycrazyhair
Falafels from scratch—frandroid
Mushroom and kale risotto—neeuqdarzil
Chickpeas with garlic, tomato, green chilis, and amchoor*—sabotabby
Dolorous porridge—curgoth
Apple tart—captainmushroom

* Except kind of not.



( More photos, and hopefully more recipes, under the cut )

( bonus picture )

1. A picture:

The only thing that could make this photo more perfect is if they were flying a Jolly Roger off the back of their wee airship.

2. A song:
'O' From the Great Sea by Edward Ka-Spel. Good for seven days; tell me what you think. (Thanks to kaelynn for hooking me up with an obscure-CD supplier. They also sent me a CD called "Irritating Music for Discerning Snobs Desperate to Impress their Jaded Friends," which only encourages me to buy more music from them.)

3. A series of links:
They are all about left-wing mandolin orchestras. (Thanks to zingerella and eclecticmagpie for informing me of the links between anarchists, communists, and other labour activists and mandolin orchestras. I read all those labour history books and I had no idea.)

While I was sick, I went and downloaded a bunch of songs that I liked when I was a teenager. Listening to them was like eating a crapload of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream—you really shouldn't do it all too often, but there's nothing like it if you're depressed and need to cheer yourself up a bit. I was surprised how much I still liked. I was a goth and everything, but now that I think about it, I had pretty good taste in music, considering. I have better taste now, but that's because I have internet access.

It's unfortunate, though; I have Tanith & the Lion Tree by Edward Ka-Spel on a now severely degraded tape, and I think I'd probably still like half the songs on it. Now I can't even find a place to buy it online.

Some day, I'll post a picture of how I looked with dyed black hair, for your amusement.

I think everyone at the 06/06/06 reading was a bit disappointed about that. I, however, had a very good evening.

nihilistic_kid and lokilokust: Brian Keene says hi back. He is fantastically nice and gave me a book because I knew you guys.

I got to meet nom_de_grr, king_felix, and some other people, but only briefly, as the back of the Cameron did not even have standing room.

I'm now a card-holding member of the Royal Sarcophagus Society. It seems like a good cult to be in, as they like blowing bubbles, zombies, and making fun of Bush. The readings last night ranged from proper short stories to OMGoff poetry to a very adorable sewer-of-demented-stuffed-animals talking about how Doom was better than Lord of the Rings. Following the readings was a panel on apocalyptic theories, wherein I learned that the Number of the Beast is actually 665. The panellists also debated whether the apocalypse would come in the form of global warming or sentient giant squids from the Antarctic, or both.

Nalo Hopkinson also posited that we have always been living in an apocalyptic culture, and the problem is that we're getting better at adapting to it.

Exchange of the evening:
Someone: "Why always zombies?"
Brian Keene: "Zombies sell."
Nalo Hopkinson: "Also, zombies ROCK."

---

Toronto Terrorist Update.

Apparently, the plan was: STORM Parliament Hill; SEIZE the politicians; BEHEAD the Prime Minister.

Um.

Remind me which side I'm supposed to be rooting for again?

...and the Russia stories continue.

( Day 5, part two )