The End of the World

During this year's Blogging From A to Z April Challenge, I'm highlighting things more people should know about. For the most part, I'll be ignoring the most popular and widely known items (and sometimes my personal favorites) in order to promote the unfamiliar and underappreciated.

Let's delve into these, shall we?

FILM

Death at a Funeral
No, not the bland American remake with Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and Peter Dinklage. The original British version, with a bunch of blokes you've never heard of... and Peter Dinklage.¹ We're treated to an afternoon filled with sibling rivalries, blackmail, unexpected death, and what every dark comedy should have: a hallucinating Alan Tudyk. As you might expect, the funeral spirals further and further toward unmitigated disaster. (Directed by the wizard F. Oz.)

TELEVISION

Dead Like Me
After being killed by a falling toilet seat, college dropout George Lass learns she has become a grim reaper, tasked to claim the souls of those who are moments from death. Sadly, she can't get out of it, and doesn't get paid for it, so she also must take a temp job to pay the bills. Oh, and did I mention her motley crew of reapers is helmed by Mandy Patinkin? That's right: In this show, even if you haven't killed his father, when you see Inigo Montoya you'd best prepare to die.

GAME

Dominion
If I could only recommend one game, this would be it. Every single person I've introduced it to, whether novice or hardcore gamer, has enjoyed it and come back for more. Even if they lose horribly every time — I did when I first started — they always want more. The base set has 25 varieties of kingdom cards, yet each game only uses 10 chosen at random, so it plays differently every time. You start with the same cards as everyone else, then build your deck as you go, buying and acquiring cards as you strive for the best combination to gain victory cards (and/or harm your opponents). If you like strategy games, you owe it to yourself to give Dominion a try. (There are also currently 6 excellent expansions.)

MUSIC

The Dandy Warhols
I'll say it: "Bohemian Like You" is the best song ever with "bohemian" in its title.² An alternative rock group — and the first Americans on my A-to-Z list so far — the Warhols can do catchy pop tunes (such as "We Used To Be Friends") or just sit back and groove. Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia is excellent, weaving an array of song styles together into one cohesive album. And Come Down's no slouch, either.

LITERATURE

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
In this sci-fi classic from 1951, people have been cultivating triffids worldwide for their rich oils, even though the plants can shuffle around and have the ability to kill (and eat) people when not controlled. All is well until everyone who witnessed a glorious meteor shower goes blind by morning. As the few whose sight remain try to band together and restart society in this altered world, the increasingly aggressive triffids take this as their cue to rise...

Well, I'm done for the day. But if you have some suggestions for me, I'd be delighted.


¹ What's that? You haven't heard of Peter Dinklage, either? Well, I'm glad I could fix that for you.
² That is, unless you count the Muppets' version of "Rhapsody".

A Body Off the Coast

During this year's Blogging From A to Z April Challenge, I'm highlighting things more people should know about. For the most part, I'll be ignoring the most popular and widely known items (and sometimes my personal favorites) in order to promote the unfamiliar and underappreciated.

Seven C's Edition!
Why add two more than usual? Because I play by no man's rules... including my own.

FILM

Cidade de Deus (City of God)
Children in the slums of Rio struggle for survival amidst the violence of competing drug gangs, with much of the young cast recruited from the slums of Rio themselves. One of the best films I have ever seen. Period.

La Cité des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, Delicatessen, Micmacs) is one of my favorite directors. His movies are often wonderfully quirky and filled with a colorful array of characters, and this one's no different. A scientist unable to dream is kidnapping children to steal theirs. A man named One (Ron Perlman) sets out in search of his little brother, and tries to save the rest of the children. Surreally good.

TELEVISION

Community
The pilot is horrible except for its last thirty seconds, and it takes another half-dozen episodes before the show really starts to come together. But when it does, holy cow. With great interplay between the characters, and copious pop culture references, never has a community college study group been this funny.¹ "Modern Warfare" (episode 1.23), with its college-wide paintball contest, is easily one of my favorite episodes of anything ever. (And coming soon to my DVD player... the paintball double-episode from season two!)

Carnivàle
This is like no other show I've seen on television. Set in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, a young man with healing powers joins a traveling circus and soon learns there are greater forces at work, with he and others (including a local minister) pawns in a coming battle of good vs. evil. Excellent writing, a fantastic cast, and beautifully shot, but sadly, cancelled before its time. Absolutely brilliant.

GAME

Carcassonne
On your turn, randomly choose a tile and place it, perhaps adding one of your pieces ("meeples") atop it. Build onto a city, continue a road, or maybe block an opponent from completing one of theirs. With the right placement, you can even steal some of their property. This was one of the first of the recent wave of German-style board games to gain popularity worldwide, and deservedly so. (It also has a multitude of expansions and spin-off games.) Great for both kids and adults.

MUSIC

The Cat Empire
This Australian band's sound is a mix of jazz, reggae, ska, hip-hop, funk, and rock, infused with strong Latin influences. In a word, it's fun. A good bass beat, a guitar riff, a trill of brass, and my feet just start a-tappin'. My personal favorites: "Sly", "Fishes", and "Til The Ocean Takes Us All".

LITERATURE

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Ignatius J. Reilly is not your typical protagonist. He's fat, ugly, loud, lazy, rude, slovenly, self-centered, hypocritical, and entirely unlikable. Everywhere he goes, he completely fouls things up and blames the mess on everyone else. Yet, somehow, it works. It's a book that only exists because Toole's mother made it her mission to get it published after his suicide, and I admit it's not for everyone. But for me, it's genius.²

Now that I've sailed a few ideas past you... have you got anything for me?


¹ Memo to other community college study groups: Go ahead. Prove me wrong.
² Not genius like the Geniuses you'd find at an Apple store. I'm talking real genius.^3
3 Not Real Genius as in the Val Kilmer movie, either. It's a decent flick, but not as duncetastic as this.

That Buzz in Your Ear

During this year's Blogging From A to Z April Challenge, I'm highlighting things more people should know about. For the most part, I'll be ignoring the most popular and widely known items (and sometimes my personal favorites) in order to promote the unfamiliar and underappreciated.

Let us begin...

FILM

Before Sunset
I stopped watching My Dinner With Andre after 25 minutes. It's just two people talking.¹ Why do I mention this? Because Before Sunset is just two people talking. But it's so good. Nine years after their first chance meeting (in the nearly-as-good Before Sunrise), Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) walk around Paris and discuss work, politics, love, where their lives have taken them, and how perceptions change between your 20s and 30s. A truly beautiful piece.²

TELEVISION

Boomtown
One crime per episode, with the truth revealed piece by piece as we see the events from the different points of view of everyone involved (e.g. cops, detectives, paramedics, criminals, the Deputy D.A.). It veered a little away from this premise near the end of the 1st season — and was cancelled in its 2nd due to ratings — but it had an excellent cast and intriguing plot twists and story lines. Well worth a watch.

GAME

Bang!
It's a spaghetti western card game! The outlaws want to off the sheriff. The sheriff and deputies want the outlaws dead. The renegade wants to kill everybody. Yet, without a weapon you can only shoot those next to you, and only the sheriff reveals his role. A barrel may protect you, Indians could be allies or enemies, and beer heals all wounds. Oh, and forget the "I shot the sheriff" jokes; with the right gun, you can bang everyone at the table.
Plays best with 6-7 players (or 8, with the Dodge City expansion).

MUSIC

The Beta Band
Do you know that scene in High Fidelity when John Cusack's character says he's going to sell five copies of an album just by playing one song? Well, that song is "Dry the Rain" by The Beta Band. The album is The Three EPs. Take a listen. You might be sold as well.

LITERATURE

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
In Germany during World War II, a young girl finds solace in the books she steals, as she struggles through bombings with her friends, foster parents, and the Jewish refugee hiding in her basement. Personally, I find Zusak's choice of Death as the narrator to be a bit gimmicky, but it doesn't detract too much from this otherwise powerful story. (my full review)

Well, that's the buzz. Tell me what's happening.


¹ Actually, that's stretching things a bit. It's just one person talking, and Wallace Shawn occasionally saying, "How interesting. Go on." But it was not interesting, and I could not go on.
² Or, if that doesn't convince you, maybe this one's more your style: Bubba Ho-Tep. A still-alive Elvis (Bruce Campbell) teams up with a still-alive JFK (Ossie Davis) to battle a still-quite-dead mummy who's been taking the souls of fellow patrons at their retirement home. Campy? You bet. But these two guys certainly do more than talk.

Like the Fonz Always Said

During this year's Blogging From A to Z April Challenge, I'm highlighting things more people should know about. For the most part, I'll be ignoring the most popular and widely known items (and sometimes my personal favorites) in order to promote the unfamiliar and underappreciated.

So, without further ado...

FILM

Arsenic and Old Lace
One character thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. Another insists he's not Boris Karloff. Plus, it's got Cary Grant, Peter Lorre, and two cute little murderous old ladies. Sure, it's a little over the top at times, but to top it all off, the film's based on events that took place less than 2 miles from where I live.¹

TELEVISION

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pretty much the same as the M. Night Shyamalan movie of the same name, but with one small exception: This one is good.² Young Aang must master his power over the four elements to save the world from the wrath of the Fire Nation. Every character (with the possible exception of Momo) is complex and flawed, the story arcs are excellent, and best of all, they have a sky buffalo. Who could ask for anything more?³

GAME

Agricola
Sure, you and your spouse are nothing but flat wooden discs, and your cows resemble bullion bouillon cubes. But oh! the strategy! New actions are available each round as you try to improve your farm, though your opponents will undoubtedly grab exactly what you need right before your turn. Do you focus on improving your house? Do you feed your family nothing but carrots? Maybe have your sheep go at it like rabbits? They're all viable strategies, and the game plays differently every time... just one of the reasons it's consistently in the top 3 at Board Game Geek. But be warned: Agricola is not for casual gamers. (Don't fret, casual gamer: Over the next month I'll be highlighting plenty of "gateway" games to cut your teeth on first.)

MUSIC

The Arrogant Worms
If you haven't heard of these guys, clearly you don't listen to enough humorous Canadian musical trios. For the past twenty years, they've alerted us to hot-topic items ("Carrot Juice is Murder"), tackled religion ("Jesus' Brother Bob"), performed national anthems ("Canada's Really Big"), and sung perhaps the only song ever written about sponges ("Sponges"). I have it on high authority, however, that they are neither arrogant nor worms. Discuss.

LITERATURE

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Lately, there have been many books in which the young protagonist learns his/her father/mother is a god/goddess/wizard/cyborg/Australopithecus and is thrust into a whole new world he/she didn't know existed. What makes this one different? Well, for one, Fat Charlie is a grown man. For two, he's known his dad (apparently a West African trickster god) his whole life, and didn't inherit any godlike powers, since they all went to his brother — who he also didn't know existed. And for five, this book was written by Neil Gaiman. Enough said. Gaiman, set, match.

One last thing. Last year, I anagrammed all the hosts' names, so it's only fair I do the same again. Allow me to present to you the hosts of the 2012 Blogging From A to Z April Challenge (large log-rolling zombie at PF Chang):

Arlee Bird (real bride)
Damyanti Biswas (Wasabi Mints Day)
Alex J. Cavanaugh (ax jug avalanche)
Tina Downey (yeti, no wand)
Karen Jones Gowen (anger's new--no joke)
DL Hammons (hm... almonds)
Jeremy Hawkins (men jerk his way)
Shannon Lawrence (war channels: none)
Matthew MacNish (snitch met WHAM)
Elizabeth Mueller (I rule the bell maze)
Jenny Pearson (one's penny jar)
Konstanz Silverbow (now A to Z verbs slink)
Stephen Tremp (perps net them)

Well, that's all I have to offer up today. But of course, I'm always looking for more. Do you have any A recommendations for me?


¹ Okay, technically it's based on a play based on events that took place less than 2 miles from where I live, but whatever. It's not like anyone watches plays anymore. (They should, though. Plays are awesome.)
² Okay, technically they don't have the same name; the film dropped the "Avatar" part to avoid having James Cameron force his way onto the set with a bunch of 9-ft tall animated smurfs. But whatever. It's not like anyone watches M. Night Shyamalan movies anymore.
³ Okay, technically you could also ask for music and rhythm, but whatever. It's not like you didn't see this joke coming a mile away.

Zota Eht

Yep, it's that time again. The A to Z returns.

Once again, I will be participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. What this means is during April I'll be writing a themed post for each of the 26 letters in the (English) alphabet.¹

Last year I may have gone a little overboard with the creativity, incorporating everything from anagrams to science to math to love letters to Star Wars to thumbtacks to vampires vs. velociraptors. So, this time around I thought I'd reel things back a bit. And by a bit, I mean all the way. This year, my posts will exhibit no creativity whatsoever.²

You see, my lessons with The Professor (now nearly 9 months old!) take up a great deal of my time these days. Thus, rather than try to come up with 26 original ideas to entertain you, I will instead share things other people have already come up with, in the hopes I can entertain you by proxy.

Each day, I shall highlight items I feel far more people need to know about. One film, one television show, one board or card game, one musical artist, one book.

I won't necessarily be sharing my favorites for each letter; I want to focus on the lesser-known entities that deserve more attention: independent and foreign films, shows cancelled before their time, bands on the edge of mainstream, that sort of thing. Of course, as I am a product of my upbringing, the vast majority of my recommendations will be from the past twenty years, but I make no apologies for this.³

It all begins this Sunday. I'll see you then.<sup>4


1</sup> With the possible exception of G. It knows what it did.
² Okay, that's a lie. It's just something I do. I lie. In fact, though my posts will only contain the bare minimum of creativity allowed by maritime law, I promise you there will be a metric tonne of lies. Also: cake.
³ Sorry about my lack of apologies.
⁴ Not literally. I may be all-knowing, but I'm not all-seeing. (Note to the gullible: I am not all-knowing, either. Also, you owe me money.)

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

The title pretty much says it all.

Okay, it doesn't quite say everything. But it does say I'm sick of being tired and tired of being sick.

Although, technically, it doesn't say that, either. Which is just as well since the first part isn't true: I'm not sick of being tired. In fact, I'm rather used to it. I've been tired in some fashion¹ almost every day for the past 20 years, ever since 7^th grade when I started a 5:00am paper route for some insane reason. (Note: I am not a morning person.) And of course, since I now have an 8-month-old around the house,² I'd expect to be tired.

So, I guess all I'm saying is I'm sick (and tired) of being sick. I'm on my third cold in a month and a half (new record!), and I suspect another sinus infection isn't far behind. I knew sending my son to daycare a couple days a week would put both our immune systems to the test, but I never imagined mine would fail so spectacularly.³

You might think I'm telling you all this as an excuse for why I haven't been blogging much recently. Nope. I don't make excuses for not blogging. I'm too busy living.⁴

Well, that's all for me tonight. I'm going to try turning in early, and see if I can catch up on sleep. Because if I can somehow not feel tired tomorrow? Yeah, that would be sick.


¹ Sweatpants were the norm for a while.
² Technically, he's in the house, not around it. So back off, Child Services. It's an expression. (Although a more fitting one would be c = πr², seeing as how today is Pi Day. (For reference, in my version of this equation, the c stands for cake.))
³ At least the viruses are being nice about it. They let me retake the test every two weeks.
⁴ Living sinus-deep in mucus, but living nonetheless.

Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs. On the one hand, my son turned eight months old (23 new photos in his Flickr set). On the other, we learned our older cat — who has barely hit middle age, and only came home with us last January — won't be with us much longer.

In the months following her accidental 4-day excursion in October, we noticed Calypso (a.k.a. Callie) was losing weight despite eating plenty of food. Our vet found a culprit: hookworm! We gave her some de-worming pills, and all was right with the world.

Except it wasn't.

She continued losing weight at the same pace (1 lb per month), and then started having problems with her eyes. She began to drink little, and eat even less. Only yesterday, after repeated vet visits and a multitude of tests, did we discover the real culprit: the feline coronavirus. It's actually a rather common virus, but in rare instances (such as when hookworm has weakened the immune system) it can lead to FIP, which is fatal. There's no specific test for FIP, and other than her lack of appetite her behavior had been normal — in fact, she'd been looking for more attention, rather than hiding herself away like a normal sick cat — so we were holding out hope it was something else. But alas, the tide can turn quickly; she abruptly exhibited three of the other symptoms last night. Now I'm not sure she'll last the week.

I'm telling you this not to elicit sympathy, but to raise awareness of these ailments. Besides, the Irish part of me (acquired via marriage) knows I shouldn't focus on the sadness; I should be celebrating Callie's short but wonderful time with us:

When she's happy, Callie will climb up my shoulder and lick my neck.

When it sounds like she's yowling in pain, she's actually playing with a sock. I can't tell you how many times we've found socks, dish towels, washcloths, potholders, baby's onesies, and/or bras on completely different floors from where we left them.

She has little use for string or catnip or stuffed mice or any sort of cat toy... unless it's red. Red shoelace? Kill it. Red laser? Let me at it!

Callie knows all the warmest spots in the house. In the morning: the couch. Noon: front hallway. Afternoon: my office. Overnight during last year's weeklong power outage: between my wife and I, on top of the baby.

It'll be tough when she's gone, but I know I'll handle it better than when my last cat died. For one thing, it's hard to stay sad with such an adorable baby around to cheer us up. And also, unlike last time, we've seen the end coming. This time, we get to say goodbye.

Callie, we'll do everything we can to keep you comfortable in the coming days. But know this: Despite your short stay with us and this unhappy ending, we have no regrets about bringing you home that day last January. You are such a sweet cat, and we've been blessed to have had you in our lives, as part of our family. We'll miss you dearly.

We'd love for you to fight this and stay with us, but we know it's not to be. So ignore the words of Dylan Thomas, Callie, and when you're ready, go.

Go gentle into that good night.