Dodging The Apocalypse!

good kitty

2009-12-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hollywood Christmas Parade 2009 invades my neighborhood

2009-11-29T20:03:00.001-08:00

easily amused cat

2009-11-27T21:36:00.000-08:00

yesterday territory silver lake

2009-11-23T20:52:00.001-08:00

planes of fame air museum, chino

2009-11-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

girls going into club, early saturday eve near hollywood blvd.

2009-07-25T15:46:00.001-07:00

los angeles friday july 3

2009-07-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

decemberists in may

2009-05-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

thanks to Gary L who got me a pass to see the decemberists at the palladium last tuesday night

GOOD GOD WHAT A GREAT SHOW

and thanks Gary for letting me steal your mobile uploads from your facebook. i'll send you a coconut tree for your farm

shara worden was a revelation to me- bought my brightest diamond's "bring me the workhorse" the next day

i haven't had a rock crush in a long time, but this girl's special

go see this tour if you can, is all i'm saying...

2009-05-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

weloveyouso

2009-05-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

came across Spike Jonze's little blog weloveyouso

I like the links here

and this pic, which includes some FEET from a little project spike and I worked on

ok, he did most of the work, BUT I HELPED

on a mac (well, this mac) I can't create a link? jeez

ok- cut and paste this: http://weloveyouso.com/about/

last saturday

2009-04-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Love After Love

2009-04-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

-Derek Walcott

2009-01-27T17:52:00.000-08:00

for no good reason, other then to prove, at one time, i was a horseman

christmased 2008

2008-12-29T00:04:00.000-08:00

rilke quote

2008-12-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

"O Lord, give each person his own personal death.
A dying that moves out of the same life he lived,
In which he had love, and intelligence, and trouble."
-R.M. Rilke

future

2008-11-06T14:10:00.000-08:00

Joy.

2008-11-04T22:08:00.000-08:00

Electing...

2008-11-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

walking to my glamorous Hollywood polling place (Selma Elementary!) I dared to hope.

like many of us, I will believe it when I see it- but it lloks very, very good right now

8 years ago i was the office online returns watcher ... there were @ 30 of us then

After 8 years of Bush, there are 3 of us here today...

surely we have hit bottom and are beginning the long hard crawl, right?

And one more parting shot:

Boo.

2008-10-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

Sense

2008-10-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

(author unknown)

Fall

2008-10-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

Coming out of these dark woods I have lingered in before
Circuitous paths betray me, I betray me
Sweet, sweet complication
Innocent vampire
Lost other
Armless wanting

I forgot how good and bad and bad again you feel
Never forget
Never remember
Back in your box you go
Into the sack slung over my shoulder
Wearying steps and lifted eyes and daylight up ahead
It is Fall, that is all

saturday l.a.

2008-10-19T01:24:00.000-07:00

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2008-10-14T18:36:00.001-07:00

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero,
Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
(They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?

* * * *

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

* * * *

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all."

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the
floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
"That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all."

* * * *

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

a card-sharper's trick

2008-10-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

"Oh absurdity of absurdities! How much better it is to understand it all, to recognize it all, all the impossibilities and the stone wall; not to be reconciled to one of those impossibilities and stone walls if it disgusts you to be reconciled to it; by the way of the most inevitable, logical combinations, to reach the most revolting conclusions on the everlasting theme, that even for the stone wall you are yourself somehow to blame, though again it is as clear as day you are not to blame in the least, and therefore grinding your teeth in silent impotence to sink into luxurious inertia, brooding on the fact that there is no one even for you to feel vindicitive against, that you have not, and perhaps never will have, an object for your spite, that is a sleight-of-hand, a bit of juggling, a card-sharper's trick, that it is simply a mess, no knowing what and no knowing who, but in spite of all these uncertainties and jugglings, still there is an ache in you, and the more you do not know, the worse the ache."

-Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

Bernini and The Getty

2008-10-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

today I ditched work and went to the Getty for the first time. I have lived in Los Angeles for 10 years now and this was my first visit. Cripes.

I went with a sculptor friend- very handy for answering questions...

No photos allowed in the Bernini room... the bust above is The Vexed Man by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.

a clean desk means...

2008-10-07T17:11:00.001-07:00

it's no accident that my desk calendar was buried and stuck at July. I had a bit of a psychic shock in July (ooo- mysterious and dramatic!) and it has taken some time to work through it

one side effect is i just haven't given a flying f at work, but I'm still one of the most dependable people around here, even when I'm phoning it in...

but the fog is clearing, the integration of the shadow had begun (!) and life goes on regardless

a messy desk means...

2008-10-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

hi kids

can you find, on my work desk, the following :

Fraggle Rock DVDs
Letter opener
FedEx bill
What I am supposed to be doing
my vocatus (hint: it may not be there at all)

2 coldplay songs have the lyric:

"if you never try then you'll never know"

UPDATE: If you look closely, you will see under the pile o' crap, that my desk calendar is still on July 2008. And of course, this is October.

Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit

sunday i went to probation camp

2008-10-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

cassandra had me come to work with her to film the play she helped these young men write

they are in a probation camp in san dimas

i am very proud of cassandra

children need help in our world, children that are born to children, being raised by children

and when they get older and screw up they still need help...

you'd be surprised how wide a mind can be opened in a moment

this is saturday october 4 2008 in north hollywood

2008-10-04T21:40:00.001-07:00

finally, a day that felt Fall-like here Los Angeles... foggy, slightly chilly

(may I take a moment to curse blogger for the ridiculous difficulty it seems to have uploading simple photos? this is taking forever!)

we went to EAT and then bucks and then vinvoks, and stayed in the valley until dinner at zankou

i had a low-grade persistent headache all day

i dreamt of a badger last night. it was in the backyard of the house I grew up in. i squirted it with a hose to encourage it to move along, but it LOVED it. it closed its eyes and relished the water flowing over its badgery face. it moved closer. soon it had broken through the screen onto the porch, then it was in the kitchen. i nudged it with my foot and it rolled on its back like a dog. i expected it to go all feral and bite me any second, but it was a pretty gentle, rolly-polly (sp?) badger.

i tried to warn my parents and enlist their help in getting the badger out of the house, but ultimately I just nudged him out with my foot all by myself.

what the hell does that mean?

this site tells me:

A badger is a fierce little animal and to see this fellow in a dream will show that you have put up quite a fight and won out over your opponents. An injured Badger tells you to fight another day.

shocking

2008-10-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

cassandra shared this with me just now- it's a year old.

watching klein on colbert, she caused a little a chill when she pointed out that the last act of the bush robber-baron era is the bailing out of their friends

they didn't do all of their dirty work right under our noses- they did it right before our eyes

monkey boy

2008-10-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

my sister sent this picture of me when i got my cool planet of the apes mask and gun for christmas back in 197whatever. i wore it in the car up to our cousin's in bear mountain and stared at all the people in the passing cars. I remember that it collected lots of saliva in the mouth area, or maybe i was just having trouble breathing...

I like this picture- didn't know it existed... i was a pretty skinny little kid- i only remember being a fat little kid...

I'm in a transitional phase these days, so I see meaning in everything- here is my inner child, masked as a monkey (brewing a stew of monkey-mind only to be unraveled 30 years or so later - i hope) armed and poised for battle

monkey boy warrior

delaware joe and the snowbilly

2008-10-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

i'm about to watch sarah palin write tina fey's material for this weekend's SNL

"nice to meetcha, hey can I call you Joe?"

here we go...

lame birthday video

2008-09-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

this may be my lamest youtube yet

consider it a video version of my birthday post

imagine you were with me as i grew older in hollywood, way back on september 28th, 2008

how i spent my birthday

2008-09-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

i already commented on turning 41 and how it's a rather dull number. i won't go into how i am trying to define my "crisis" as a "transition" and other navel-gazing mumbo jumbo

but i do think a blogger i recently discovered said it too, and better:

heading east on turning 41 check out his interesting blog and photos- his turning 40 post is good too...

went to the west hollywood book fair, oh- had a puppet show last night where i made up a cheer about jeffrey dahmer- i felt dirty afterwards. i also made a hot dug puppet, as mr. belvedere, hit on a minor at the craft services table... improv+booze+pupppets=depravity
bought these
this guy is the king of these women

later we went to jimmy kimmel's san gennaro italian festival in our neighborhood
what is this thing?

it reminded me of the st. anthony's italian festival i used to attend in wilmington when i was a lad... it was like being back on the east coast in the middle of hollywood... south philly with palm trees...

tom tells us tales of burning man

2008-09-24T21:25:00.001-07:00

still becoming

2008-09-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

Words cannot express, explain
My relationship with time and things done and undone
And how they feel in my gut in my chest behind my eyes
Children never to be born
Aging- trying to learn to outsmart existence itself, as I have always tried to do…
Still becoming, still

i will not be 40 for very much longer

2008-09-22T17:37:00.001-07:00

every night I tell myself I am the cosmos...

this is my last week as a 40 year old.

the first 3/4 of my 40th year was easy-breezy

then I got hit with a lot of THINKING that I have tried to deal with mindfully

people tell me being sensitive and suffering (which I try to remind my self is optional) makes me who I am and all that, but man I could really use a break from this head of mine that I seem to have crammed up my ass

5 was a special birthday

16 was pretty good, with the driving...

21 I must have thought was going to be awesome but I was already drinking, so what's the big deal?

25 blew my little mind... that was my mid-life crisis, right there... just thought I'd get a head start

41... what's so special about 41? 40 is the top of the hill. 41 is what? the pregnant pause before the roller coaster starts the mad rush?

I hope to enjoy it all much more that I have been capable of as of yet.

Jung, man. It's all about the Jung.

she's gone all right- do you really wonder why?

2008-09-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

maybe it's your sleeveless tux shirt, or your pissy glam buddy who can't be bothered to lip synch?

seriously- what is the story behind this?

if spike jonze shot something like this for kanye west today, they'd be buried in VMAs

my three buddhas

2008-09-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

that's the grieving one, the meditating one, and the happy one

how can I be all three at once?

san francisco, san francisco

2008-08-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

san francisco, san francisco, you're a muttering bum in a brown beat suit -jack kerouac

we have left los angeles for a trip to the home i left home for back in the 90s (after college in philadelphia)

I left a tiny, tiny piece of my heart here- maybe I didn't, maybe that kind of love is not love but is something else that feeds the bad stuff that you shuffle off when you get to a certain age

but what I do know, other than that everybody knows everything, is that the panhandle smells of eucalyptus and even on a hot day in the Haight the fog will come in a like a chilly comforting blanket

I don't think I left my heart here- I think I found it.

get out of the house, go to the beach, nobody is stopping you

2008-08-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

today I tried something new and frightening and undoubtedly good for me and i probably should have done it when I was 18 instead of... ahem... 40... but at least i did it, and I'll do it again next week and that's all I'm going to say

then cassandra and I went to venice to escape our cosy village of hollywood. as of now there is sand in my hair and an unbearable lightness of being in my heart

here are some los angeles pictures from sunday august 24th, 2008

high art meets my inner geek

2008-08-09T20:12:00.001-07:00

kanye west has a nice gallery of the Vader Project at Celebration Japan.

HERE IT IS

lost angeles pictures

2008-08-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

this will cheer you up

2008-07-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

rewatching Extras- friggin' brilliant

troubled

2008-07-16T08:41:00.001-07:00

recent times have been inexplicably sad, but I'm working on it.

this song sums how i've felt and how i feel

Trouble- Cat Stevens

Trouble
Oh trouble set me free
I have seen your face
And it's too much too much for me

Trouble
Oh trouble can't you see
You're eating my heart away
And there's nothing much left of me

I've drunk your wine
You have made your world mine
So won't you be fair
So won't you be fair

I don't want no more of you
So won't you be kind to me
Just let me go where
I'll have to go there

Trouble
Oh trouble move away
I have seen your face
and it's too much for me today

Trouble
Oh trouble can't you see
You have made me a wreck
Now won't you leave me in my misery

I've seen your eyes
and I can see death's disguise
Hangin' on me
Hangin' on me

I'm beat, I'm torn
Shattered and tossed and worn
Too shocking to see
Too shocking to see

Trouble
Oh trouble move from me
I have paid my debt
Now won't you leave me in my misery

Trouble
Oh trouble please be kind
I don't want no fight
And I haven't got a lot of time

But this will cheer you up- see, there are ups and downs, yins and yangs, and life goes on regardless...

Happy Fourth

2008-07-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Yep, aint been bloggin.

been puppeting- as my new doctor called me, i'm a puppetier...

i've puppetooted the following of late:

this cool movie

this cool live show

and I'm going to appear on-camera on this cool new show, which I puppetooted on before...

lots of fun, and a little tendinitis!

AND i've been gardening. cassandra and I are beginning to grow our own food- gettin' ready for the apocalypse (bush has 199 days left as of today-ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, PEOPLE!)

Carl's Jr. spec ad- rejected

2008-04-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

Shot this over the weekend with cassandra... hope you like

not much to report

2008-04-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

but i will beat the hell out of this dirty dirty rug

sunday i finally organized my records, my lps, my vinyl, my wax

2008-03-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

see any of your favorites?

kids today don't know what's like lugging all these heavy records around from home to dorm to apartment

but i won't part with them... no sir

This girl knows her Star Wars...

2008-02-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

las vegas

2008-02-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

Sitting in Vegas airport after a great getaway to ... um... Las Vegas

(All was great, except US Airways can suck it... and they know why)

hellooooooo ikea hacker

2008-02-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

this here blog was was on the ikea hacker site
the cat feeding cage is working quite well- vernon continues to lose weight, he's 18 lbs. now...

that's my boy

Hellooooooooooo Jesus!

2008-01-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

yesterday's los angeles weather

2008-01-22T13:37:00.000-08:00

Liam Lynch wonderment

2008-01-22T10:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Santastime! From Hollywood CA

2007-12-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

Everything you are about to see is TRUE:

S.U.D.S.! More puppety goodness to come in '08

2007-12-20T09:49:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody- look at the preview above...

(i'm the goat!)

recent picture

2007-12-09T22:52:00.001-08:00

Delaware Day Eve, 2007

2007-12-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

Stopping by the liquor store after work tonight to pick up Caesar Rodney's booze.

I think there's some hay left out on the street out front from the Hollywood Santa Parade- I'll scoop some up for his horse.

My nephews back east are getting too old to believe that the Ghost of the Former President of Delaware will be visiting them tonight (heck, two of the little rugrats actually live just over the border in Pennsylvania... eek!)

Way out here in LA we'll be looking at google earth maps of the pluckiest little state, dreaming of Democracy, I-95, and a certain cancerous, stoic patriot riding through the rain to make our great country greater... and to ensure glory to the Diamond State, the Small Wonder...

From New Castle to Laurel, Rehoboth to Dewey, Bear to Mt. Cuba... tomorrow is Delaware Day!

Revisit Delaware Days past with Dodging the Apocalypse:

Delaware Day 2006
Delaware Day 2005
Delaware Day 2004

Sing along, if you can:

tuesday twofer videos

2007-12-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

bear with me, you want to watch these two cats:

so you can enjoy the translation:

pretty good, right?

ok- you'll want to watch the original high five:

so you'll get high five hollywood- and I may have had something to do with the puppet... ahem

cassandra's pics from the HOLLYWOOD SANTA PARADE (last week)

2007-12-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

so here are some more shots of what our neighborhood looked like last week for the hollywood santa parade... cassandra took these

our street is the horse staging area

one of the o.c. horse-people called it "horses in the hood"

like hollywood is the hood

you could smell the fear on him

the women on these horses were gleefully disparaging PETA ... go figure

i want one

2007-12-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

look at that x-wing. 21 feet long... really flies...

let's watch: 21-foot X-Wing Rocket Video

(story link)

vancouver pics

2007-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

i'm working with this guy:

the view from my room:

mmmm oysters:

that's right, canada

2007-11-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

i've been trying to blog from my hotel and egad my internet connection does not like the uploading... especially photos

that's why my previous canada entry only had one photo of the bloody mary i started my journey with a LAX

anyway...

i'm in vancouver for the first time working on a pilot

i haven't been to the great white since i day tripped to Gananoque way back in the early 90's

i like canada

so far the production has been great to us, the weather wet and bone-chilling but not all that bad

and what's with all the attractive young canadians?

they were strong-arming an angry drunk homeless guy out of the hotel last night when we came back from Rodney's Oyster House- dude looked me right in the eye and I think he was about to take a swing at me- but hey, that's city life, eh?

last night my colleague looked at me and said "you're thinking of moving here, aren't you?"

i thought, jeepers, yeah- nice people, nice looking city, no annoying fascist swing and burden of imperialistic hegemony... hollywood north is looking pretty awesome

and i feel like i'm walking around frakking Caprica all the time...

if the republicans steal the next presidential election too, then i just may be heading north for good...

and now i am in canada

2007-11-27T21:38:00.000-08:00

i woke up today surrounded by horses...

2007-11-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

this is what's going on just outside the hollywood compound:

Thanksgiven

2007-11-24T21:22:00.001-08:00

I am thankful- this past year has been unique and rewarding...

Here's how things went down at the new place this year:

and there was a show last night

watching Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman on KDOC... cuz i'm a playa

tomorrow the hollywood santa parade surrounds us... we hope for some quality surreality but so far there are only portable toilets delivered dangerously close to our front door...

Recent Puppet Stuff- FARMLAB show

2007-11-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

I'm in there somewhere...

FAT CAT feeding system.

2007-10-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

THE PROBLEM:

Overweight cat in a multi-cat household.

This is Vernon:

He is a slightly husky boy living with our two other cats. We'd like to keep dishes of dry food out so they can all eat when they want to, but as Vernon was a rescue straight from the street, he is conditioned to eat CONSTANTLY. As such, he became a very heavy boy soon after moving in with us.

THE SOLUTION:

Our vet suggested we create a feeder cage (in this case, a birdcage) so the other two can get in and eat when they want to, but our big-boned boy could not.

Here it is:

See how that works? Vernon gets fed regularly, don't worry- and he's lost three pounds, putting him back into the heavy but healthy range.

As you know we moved recently, and the new place is a bit smaller, so we need to conserve kitchen space. Thus, this past weekend I built a new feeder cage into an old rolling kitchen cart. It went a little something like this:

1/2" hardware cloth...

Hinged panel for access to the food dishes... held in place by velcro...

The little "door" is actually two cheap ikea picture frames. We tested it by putting it around Vernon's head. There's no way he's getting in there.

And there's one of the svelter cats gettin' her food on...

So there it is. Probably added years to his life.

more puppetry and a BIG milestone

2007-09-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

today i am forty

and i'm having a great time- let's see, tonight I go back to work on this, then tomorrow night i'm in this and then this...

When I turned 38 I figured "38, 40, what's the difference." no mid-life crisis here, folks.

things are looking up

weekend update... puppets, mysteries, art...

2007-09-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

another weekend in los angeles- there was puppetry under a freeway at farmlab

and if you go to alcove in los feliz and sit at the chess table in the back, there are mystery notes in the drawers!

all of my love, to you, ween

2007-09-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

craig and his cat

2007-08-31T20:23:00.000-07:00

recently got a video ipod from a dude who was upgrading to an iphone.

(was in a production meeting the other day at warner brothers (thass rite i werk in hollywooooood) and every grumpy sumbitch at the table had an iphone. out. on the table. so everybody could see it. alright already)

looking for quality content to load up ... found cutewithchris which is not cuteoverload but is similar and fun-knee

and as per chris, here is craig and his prom/cat photo

both rock

augustus shmaugustus

2007-08-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

strangely, one of my favorite vacation pictures

came home to discover that the 92 yr.old land lady HAD sold our building (we figured it out cuz we know how to use the internet and friggin' zillow- we asked her if it had sold and she lied to our faces)

the new owners have raised the rent by $515.00 a month

I think it's time for some costly repairs that we had been sparing the miserly demented old witch (she hires itinerant meth addicts to make the repairs anyway)

so we're moving...

9 years in this place- change is good, right?

flying my kite

2007-07-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

cassandra thought it was an extravagance, but it was just something i wanted to do...
she's the one letting us know the status of the batteries...

vacation pics

2007-07-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

this little dude, Tom Tate, was just walking by with his fish when those Wright Brothers strapped him into their wicked glider and flew him like a kite... or something like that...

this crab is not as happy as he seems

2007-07-22T22:01:00.000-07:00

and neither am i

i had a hand in this

2007-07-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

while you're there check out the one called "4 Letter Words" - I'm partially responsible as well...

2007-07-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm no crooksandliars with their late-night music videos, but I can steal the idea.

Here's The Jam doing "That's Entertainment" acoustic.

Dig that bass. Nice, init?

July Fourthed

2007-07-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

july first pictures los angeles

2007-07-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

It's time to play "What the Hell?" with Mike Gravel.

2007-06-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

he may be right about almost everything, but there's no denying he's an odd guy...

Make sense of this, from the Mike Gravel campaign:

But wait, let the good Senator explain:

picture blogging is better than no blogging at all, i guess

2007-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

Have You Seen Boba Fett Lately?

2007-05-27T00:58:00.000-07:00

He's a mess:

Spent the day at Star Wars Celebration IV here in LA.

I don't know who Drunk Boba Fett is. He cracks me up.

Click on any pic for larger view:

R2-Q5 is on the web!

2007-05-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here's my little Star Wars Fan Film entry. Hope you like it:

R2-Q5

Please vote FUNNY when it's done, if you don't mind. Oh, and look who found a friend at the Rite-Aid:

Pangea!

2007-04-20T09:49:00.001-07:00

I am a patriot...

2007-04-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

and here is the proof:

dutchman and boon circa 1976, the Bicentennial...

It's Easter time...

2007-04-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

Been too busy to blog, what with the PUPPETEERING and all... including the little gem above. Jesuspuppet is creeping his way onto the internets... and he can see everything you're doing... but he don't mind... he loves you anyway...

Here he is dressed like a hippie and sounding like the great Jesse Dyen:

puppet show

2007-03-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

some recent pics from la

2007-02-26T23:07:00.000-08:00

audio of the senate judiciary committee hearing

2007-02-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

We've been under the weather since returning from DC and not blogging anywhere near as much as we would like- one of the highlights was our attendance of the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on Congress's authority to end a war- Feingold & Durbin demonstrated much class when Tina Richards rose to plead for her son... Orrin Hatch on the other hand was a a patronizing asshole. NPR has the audio here

Original post with our pics here (scroll down for pics from the hearing, plus links to text of opening remarks)

demonstration supporting lt. watada, yesterday in little tokyo, la

2007-02-04T15:10:00.000-08:00

more dc pics

2007-01-31T16:42:00.000-08:00

yes there was graffitti on the capitol- thanks "anarchists" for giving rush and hannity a distracting talking point, but also- boo friggin' hoo there was graffitti on the capitol-the people are angry

boxer's staffer meeting with activists

meet grim and grimmer, feinstein's aides

Rep. Maxine Waters hosted an "Out of Iraq" "book fair" in the Ways and Means committee room, with noted authors- we had to leave to make our meeting with Rep. Jane Harman...

IVAW in The House

On Tuesday we attended a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, chaired by Russ Feingold, on Congress's Constitutional Authority to End a War.

Opening Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold at a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Exercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War

"I would respectfully suggest to the president that he is not the sole 'decider' "- Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)

When in DC, stay at the Harrington!

(can you find our room?)

photos and video from saturday's anti-war march

2007-01-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

We head back to la tomorrow- been very busy- here are some pictures for the march last saturday (click photos to enlarge):

(www.tri-be.org)

Later that night we met at the Viet Nam War Memorial to pay our respects. I remember visiting as a child and thinking that at least our country learned a lesson in that war... alas, alas... this "award" was leaning against the wall:

And we walked up to the Lincoln and this inscription of the Gettysburg Address reminded me why I came 3,000 miles- yes, Lincoln was talking about the sacrifices of the Union dead, but as a citizen, and in these times of our Signing Statement Dictator, I felt that I came to stand and march and witness so that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth... the biggest thing I'm taking from this trip, from the march to the lobbying (more on that in another post) is that the people and only the people will end this war

Candlelight vigil against torture tonight at the White House

2007-01-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

We spent today in DC getting ready for tomorrow's march sponsored by United for Peace and Justice. We went down to the Mall to check out the stage, then heard that UFPJ needed help assembling signs, so we went and manned some staple guns.

Tonight Ann Wright invited us to an anti-torture vigil at the White House, sponsored by Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (www.tassc.org) See the video above.

We wound up back at the hotel at a Camp Casey alumni coordination meeting.

Tomorrow's route is very screwy- it somehow doubles back on itself? What kind of shenanigans is The Man up to?

Whatever- this promises to be a very large event.

friday before the march

2007-01-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

The Dodging the Apocalypse staff is in D.C.

2007-01-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

We're here for the march this Saturday- it is cooooold here.

Keep an eye on the blog and we'll try to keep it up to date with pics and maybe some video.

Our Hollywood Rep Waxman apparently isn't in town this weekend , or next Monday on lobby day. And we came all this way to see him.

This Saturday...

2007-01-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

who does richard perle think he's fooling?

2007-01-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

There ought to be an 8 foot rope and a trap door in Baghdad for this murderous bloated snob.

Unless you ate recently, watch this clip of Richard Perle speaking with a member of Military Families Speak Out

Ok, now whatever bile you have left in your mouth, spit it out and listen to this clip of a Republican who finally GETS IT.

a true story about a christian i once knew

2007-01-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

click the image for a closer look

Over the holidays some tweeker rummaged through the landlady's trash cans and left a huge mess behind. My neighbor and I took it upon ourselves to clean it up.

The trash cans were filled with what was left of Reverend Mike's stuff.

Reverend Mike was a guy who rented one of the storage units from our landlady. He was an evangelical Christian, so every conversation you had with him eventually went that way.

One day there were some people cleaning out Reverend Mike's storage area- turns out they were his family and he had suffered a stroke and was in a long-term care facility.

His storage unit was filled with Christian stuff- books, videos, tapes, posters. They filled most of the trash cans with it. Cassandra and I found this poster of "The Ressurrection" (above) leaning against the trash can and took it home for ourselves (I mean LOOK AT IT it's AWESOME)

It was pretty depressing, seeing his family not knowing what to do with his stuff (there was a LOT of it)

Soon after that our landlady told us the Reverend Mike had passed on.

Flash forward to tweaker day- I was pretty surprised to see a bunch of Rev. Mike's stuff lying about- the landlady kept these cans behind a derelict van on her proerty so they never got emptied. The neighbor and I used a shovel to load it all back into the cans.

So here they were again- old reel-to-reel tapes, Christian seminar cassettes, a water-logged Bible, and photographs of all sorts of people.

As I was shoveling the remains of this man's Mission on Earth into the cans, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him- he had a message he wanted to share, the Glorious Good News and all that, and here I was, someone who's not so much of a, a-hem, "churchgoer", shoving it all into the trash, throwing away his life's work ... again.

And then a handwritten note caught my eye. It read:

"If you worry, you're going to die.

If you don't worry, you're going to die.

You're going to die anyway, so why worry?"

I don't think that's a direct quote from JC. Maybe it came from some inspirational poster.

Maybe it was a Reverned Mike original.

But it sure is true, isn't it? Nice work , Reverend.

Nobody really knows where we go when the time comes. I hope for Reverend Mike that the skies opened up and all those smiling people were there so happy to see him.