Small Joys Check-In
Just checking in on some small joys this week, no theme...
Small Lizard
I got a small lizard, it's the first time I've had a pet that was totally mine, except for maybe Felix Da Housecat, who doesn't really count because for the most part he caught his own food (we lived together in a barn). The lizard is a gargoyle gecko, I decided to get this kind after watching numerous lizard videos on YouTube and weighing handleability, care, hardiness, availability, and upfront costs. People really geek out on breeding them for specific color traits-- drippy stripes, super dalmation, phantom eye, etc.. The one I got is just like "regular (cool)".It eats gecko chow, a slurry made from powdered fruit and bugs that you get in bags in bulk (no frequent trips to the insect store). I just got it a few days ago though, and it doesn't seem like its eaten anything yet, and hasn't even really come out of hiding because its too freaked out by the move (from the Craigslist guy's house to my house). They tell you not to really mess with them for the first 2 or 3 weeks so they can get used to you, and I sympathize but I extremely want to mess with it.
There's no name yet because I don't have a good read on "who are you, little guy". Sorry, no pics because it's still in hiding. I'll report back with a lizard reveal in a few weeks.
Kraftwerk
I listened to Kraftwerk while cleaning my room the other day, and it was great. Actually the timeline is: I put on Kraftwerk to make me want to clean my room, and it worked perfectly. People have this idea of Kraftwerk that they're like, cold ultraserious robotniks but they're definitely cute and fun, I think this is very very obvious if you listen to them. One time Sakiko blanked on the name and called them "the Wow Wow Brothers", I think that's pretty inspired. Great sounds, great melodies, great rhythms. "Numbers"... that song rocks ass, you can't deny it. The one that sounds like a morning stroll, that'd be "Morgenspaziergang". The record I listened to while cleaning my room was Autobahn. It made me feel like having fun and being in motion and wanting to see the sun come through my window into a clean room.
Star Trek
OK so we've been rewatching Star Trek The Next Generation, which is great. When the show is going good it's so good- people are loving, supportive, expansive of mind, and open of heart, and you finish an episode asking "why is it so good, and why is this goodness so rare?".This time around I really honed in on the episodes that creeped me out as a kid-- there's one very goofy season 7 episode where the crew "de-evolves" and Troi turns into a frog, and it's the very definition of "getting weird at home". Then there's one where the ship drifts through a comet's tail or something and it gives the whole crew crippling anxiety-- I don't know, it was really nice to see this. I felt like I was yelling at the screen saying YOUR ANXIETY ORIGINATES FROM AN EXTERNAL SOURCE! EVERYONE LOVES YOU!, and I had one of those moments where you realize that when you point the finger away there are three fingers pointed back at you.
This time we skipped seasons 1 and 2, because it really gets good at season 3, everyone knows that. But then we finished season 7 and wanted more, and boom, there was more waiting there. On one hand, watching it in this order is an easy way to let yourself get back to reality without a hard jolt-- doing it this way you feel less and less that urge to watch another one. But also, as someone who likes to make things that are good, I find it gratifying to go back to the first two seasons to see that they had to tweak the personalities a little in order to get it just right-- everyone had to discover their true character before they could really start lifting big weight. For me it's great that the early ones aren't as good, because it shows that they had to work at it, as with everything good.
At this point my favorite moment on the show is when something happens and everyone exchanges wordless reassuring glances, it's like in baseball after a strikeout when the pitcher throws the ball to third base, third to shortstop, shortstop to second, second back to third, third back to pitcher, just "throwing it around the horn" and letting people touch the ball and check in. Thank you to everyone I've been texting about Next Generation with: Flan, Shea'la, and Willy Shakes. You guys are my bridge crew on this mission.
William Softkey and the Purple Spider
CF came out with a new book a few months ago and it's so good, every page, every little bit is a gem, and it all spins and bounces and wobbles just so, light and elegant. It's an absolute delight! If you were upset that Powr Mastrs never got all the way to Transfiguration Night, you're gonna love this.
If you aren't familiar with CF and you have no idea what this could possibly be then I'll say it's a comic book by one of the best, it's sort of sci fi, and although it looks like nothing else and takes place in a strange world it's immediately readable. It's about a small nude brute hired to remove a 5 million pound spider from an impossibly valuable library, and everything resolves in twisted wonder. There's a lot of room for allegory, so if that's your thing, go nuts. If you just want a great little episode about a cute brute, that's also valid. If you require everything to make sense and for that sense to be declared, you probably won't like this. I don't require this, and I absolutely loved it.
Small Collage
I was thinking about how much I like putting stickers in my little notebook, so I started making these little collages out of some huge stickers I printed a few years ago. No idea what I'm going to do with them, for now I'm just having fun making them, and stacking them up in a pile on my desk. I'll think about what to do with them once I get a better idea of what they are. Or maybe I won't! Either way. :)
links / misc
- Arthur Katrina has a new calendar out, and just in time! You can order one here: [link]
- Oh shit, I found out last week that the contact form on this website was misconfigured and wasn't reliably sending things through to me. What a nightmare! If you wrote to me after December 4th using the contact form on the website I'm sorry but I probably didn't get it. :( It sucks because I absolutely love getting a nice message, it's the best! Still trying to fix this, in the meantime just send me a regular email I guess: jacob@fujichia.com .
- I looked into the origins and utility of "throwing it around the horn" and found this nice article from the Washinton Times with a real Apple Jacks response: it's just something we do, and we like it. [link]
- Here's a really nice live set from the Wow Wow Brothers in 1975: [youtube]
- you can order the new CF book via the publisher, Anthology, here: [link]
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