both daily panel and the HBML blog are loaded up with new content for the next few months, so put them back on your browsing schedule, or get the feeds, or do neither of these things.

randa has a vegan baked-good company called “barely legal” and her products have (mostly) radical political names. i think she finally ran out of steam in the naming department, now she calls me every other week and describes the goods, and i tell her what they are called. as it turn out, it’s something i’m quite good at it. the last time there was an almond cookie and a lemony cupcake, i went with “against almond authority” and “armed rezestance”. today there was a kiwi coconut cupcake, a chocolate-covered “avacado-cardamom surprise” cupcake, and something with orange pudding; i went with “anarkiwi cupcake” (somewhat obvious), “green scare”, and “Al Gorange”, which is gross but whatever. i get paid in food.

tonight pars called me up and a group of us watched 1967’s “dr doolittle” and drank some RBFs (my man willy shakes knows what i’m talking about here). i hadn’t seen dr doolittle since i was but a lad, and only three days ago in the car i heard a radio program about what a flop this movie was, but when pars says movie, jacob berendes grabs a blanket. when pars says keno, jacob berendes sharpens a #2 pencil. when pars says human growth hormone, jacob berendes rolls up a sleeve. in any event, the movie was no swiss family robinson, but it was not without merit. my understanding is that rex harrison was drunk for the duration of the filming, which was probably a good move on his part. regarding the famous ape who costarred:

In retirement Cheeta lives at a primate sanctuary called Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes (or CHEETA) in Palm Springs, California. He watches television and makes paintings which are sold to benefit primate-related charities. He often watches his old films with his grandson, Jeeter. He also likes to leaf through books and “play” the piano.

Cheeta became the longest-lived chimpanzee known when he reached 64 in 1996. He is cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest non-human primate.

The October 4, 2006, edition of the Palm Springs newspaper, The Desert Sun, reported that Cheeta received his first-ever visit from famed primatologist Jane Goodall the previous day.

Cheeta is still alive at the age of 75 as of 2008. His 75th birthday was celebrated on 9 April 2007, at his “Casa de Cheeta” in Palm Springs at an event hosted by Dan Westfall and Diane Weissmuller, (Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.’s widow). The press and many Palm Spring celebrities attended.

He has taken on a literary agent ahead of the publication of his autobiography, Me Cheeta, expected in October 2008.
cheeta: retirement

yessssssssssssss.

work on the store is going good, thanks everyone for putting in t-shirt orders, keep them coming! more mail-order shit on the way. also in two weeks we’re doing a fashion shoot to draw attention to all the weird clothes we have, featuring a stylist available to help pick you pick out a bumpinin outfit, electric fan to blow your hair all up, lights, backdrops, and a REAL LIVE FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER (little andrew) telling you to work it and be poutier and to give it and so on. keep giving me your ideas for events…

this year for lent i gave up apologizing for things. maybe it sounds like this sucks, but i got in the habit of apologizing for things so fast it was really a bummer. it was a strain on me taking the hit a million times a day, but more importantly i was just overusing it and not meaning it and it was putting me in a weird power spot. i’ve slipped up a few times so far and i really don’t advocate this for everyone but for me it rules, almost apologizing and then saying “yup, i said it, and not for no reason”. totally positive responsibility-taking. yesterday i was trying to compliment a nice lady on having ass-long hair (actually post-ass, almost to her knees). i forget what i said but it was a sentiment near to “i like it because it’s totally fucked”. uhh… then “straight up”.

i guess i don’t know of other people that are really into lent (NB: i am not christian any more than i am anything else). i see lent as a real good worcester holiday– it has both self-denial and pancakes, and at the end there’s candy and zombies. this year ML is giving up what he always gives up- every beverage except water. GOD BLESS.

I dedicate this post to the cheese-cube crushers. I dedicate this post to the makers of soap carving. I dediate it to the makers of “The Secret of Williams Well.” I dedicate it to the book demolishers. I dedicate it to the bloggers extaordinare. I dedicate it to Art Stars.

Art Stars, you have taught your students well. Before you I couldn’t draw for my life. Now… I still can’t draw for my life, but I know words like tetrahedron, and the firetruck red has blue in it.

from fort rochambeau (andrew oesch’s after school class’ blog)

had to jump this out of the links sidebar, for those that get the feed but not the del.feed: mega mix of bomb squad instrumentals – 3 hours worth of epic material. been looking for this for a while now. bomb squad is ENORMOUS.

last night i made a big “hustle mode” to-do list and set my alarm. this morning woke up two hours early with a call from my mom- my sister dropped one, i’m an uncle. i’m in maine right now (it’s night), hanging out with the baby today. i have not much new to add to the idea “newborn baby”, and i’m not one for fawning, but here’s some notes.

at first i thought the baby had weird blue feet, then i remembered about the footprinting thing. but then someone told me they use some inkless technology. so: weird blue feet.

a baby is pretty small, with a head the size and occasional color of a large tomato, though the skin hangs looser.

the baby was born during the lunar eclipse. or, actually, the lunar eclipse happened during the event. i looked at the moon at its apex, or whatever, it looked like it was covered in blood, or at least rust. possibly maple syrup or motor oil.

i held the baby, it made a lot of funny faces and squirmed, then it got used to my smell. i kept thinking about how impressionable it was and how if i blew on it’s face maybe it would become a sailor or something in 20 years. maybe it sounds stupid, but if a baby’s 18 hours old, and i’m 28 years old, i’m 6,813 times older, so if i blew in her face for 2 seconds, that’s like… oh, that’s like 3.5 hours, i could deal with that no problem. wait, is my math right on this one?

angie informed me that there are, in fact, ugly babies. but this baby is not an ugly baby. but also she doesn’t seem to have any spectacular attributes like a tail or gills or webbed feet or polydactylity.

my sister said she didn’t think i’d like hanging out with a really little baby, but i do. it’s really interesting to be around someone so close to the void, trying to navigate a miasma of dementia.

selling some awesome t-shirts at the HBML site, in an effort to make enough money to get by this month. also if you were thinking about making a monetary donation, now is really the perfect time to do so, we’re really up the creek.

another huge weekend… tonight is the forbes st anniversary party (at which they are allegedly finally releasing the official house name). the party’s theme is as convoluted as last years “above the sea”, it’s “space disco (sucks)”. i wasn’t before but now i am, into convoluted party themes. i think the more convoluted, the more people are apt to dress outlandish, but not in a particular costume. i was trying to put an outfit together but just ended up with a couple good, inventive, everyday ideas for getting dressed. we’ll see what happens, i still have an hour or so before i should leave to go.

like last year, i have to leave the party early to go home and get a good night’s sleep in preparation for the annual 24 hour sci fi movie marathon. me, dan wars, dan shea, snackin and goofin in a confined area for a solid 24 hours with a large number of other classic “por la vida” nerds. last year i snacked healthy but still the next few days i was really bummed out, and i think it was from being near so many people and not interacting hardly with anyone. this year, more hyjinx, more neighborly attitudes. this year the theme is “the future is passé”. amongst other things, they are showing 2001, i’ll be in the front row going mentalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

oh, and my sister’s due date (as in preggers) is/was today, so at any moment i could get the call from my mom and get whisked away to maine to wait in a hospital and pace. it could be five minutes from now, it could be five days. in the rare event that it happens so fast that it’s over before i get the call, i am bringing four cigars to the movies– for me, dans shea and wars, and a stranger (for added luck). remember the rule about babies and cigars- you have to smoke the cigar all the way down to make the baby lucky.

one of my longtime favorite video artists (pippilotti rist) put a bunch of her stuff on youtube. i’ve been searching for access to this for a long time. here’s her profile page, but this is the epic epic NSFW barn-burner. i guess this is still on the valentine’s day tip, what with the blood and the womanhood and all. anyway this one’s a baaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrnnnn buuuuuuuuurrrrnnnnnnnnnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and with the shangri-las too!

KMP, this one’s for you!

well, today was valentine’s day and it was actually pretty nice. i tried to replicate the “hanging out with ML” formula that worked so good last year (two years ago?) but everyone at his house has been sick at five sick dogs, so i stayed the hell away from him and his, as i have a big weekend and can’t afford to be, well, weakened. so instead of lunch-eating i stopped by the shop to deliver the records i got on tuesday and found two really nice letters waiting for me! one of the letters was anonymous and the only “message” it contained was “D J, H V D!”. there wasn’t even a postmark on the envelope (due to a non-standard arrangement of stamps). anyway if you’re out there, “T Y!”.