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Recovery

Saw my folks off to the airport today; then Viv and I drove all over town running errands, the most important of which was getting a new power supply for her iBook. A rocking chair crushed the insertion tip in an unexpected side effect of having houseguests.

I very much enjoyed our holiday with my parents, more so than the last Christmas we spent with them, four years ago in Washington DC. I’m surprised that so much time had elapsed. We’ve seen them about twice a year over that whole period of time, often at Thanksgiving and midsummer. At any rate, in many ways, it was one of the most satisfying holidays that we’ve spent with them, although my work schedule meant we did not have as much time with them as we might have hoped for.

They arrived the Monday before Christmas and spent the night. Originally, they’d planned to drive over to Yakima, their hometown, that afternoon. We insisted that they use our car instead of renting one. As we discussed the plans, I realized that they were planning on crossing a notoriously snowy mountain pass on the winter solstice – the longest night of the year. Without telling them, I mentioned to Viv that we should plan on their spending the night that evening.

As it turned out, their plane was delayed due to snow back east and their flight didn’t come in until about 10pm, so it was good that we’d prepared.

They drove over next morning while I was at work, and returned here Thursday morning, just in time for me to take everyone out to dinner at that venerable Seattle institution, Canlis. Viv and I ate there for our first anniversary or something and it is one of our most memorable dining experiences. The holiday meal that we had this past week was certainly tasty but nowhere near as inventive or memorable as that which my wife and I shared in bibulous romance back in the day.

We asked our old dear friend Spencer to share Christmas Day with us, and happily, he was able to do so. I haven’t had a chance to post all the pictures yet, but I’ll pick a choice few.

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Shook

Most Powerful Quake in 40 Years Triggers Death and Destruction

In Thailand, the waves wiped out bungalows and washed through seaside hotels, killing tourists and slamming scuba divers against coral reefs. The government ordered evacuation from stricken coastal areas, including 600 from the tiny island of Koh Phi Phi and the resorts on the islands of Phuket and Krabi . More than 158 people died in the holiday island of Phuket and other resorts, according to the Public Health Ministry’s Narenthorn Center, with thousands injured. This was the peak of the tourist season in the area and eyewitnesses described sunbathers being washed out to sea.

My friend Karl is in east asia and scheduled to leave Saigon for Bangkok on the 29th. Although I don’t know for certain if he did this time, he often begins his trips in and near Phuket.

Wikipedia coverage, MeFi thread.

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Mas

Spence came over and shared the day with Vivian, my parents, and me. There was much eating of cheese.

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eve of eve

Well, you see.

A) My beloved Chloe cat has found that she can move the cursor by pawing the trackpad. This is more distracting than disturbing, but may prove dangerous if she recalls my passwords.

B) LAN woes continue, driving me quite batty.

C) Retail hell is concluded for the year.

D) I took my folks out to dinner at Canlis tonight, and on returning, heard from a neighbor about a moderately serious medical procedure he’s set to undergo next week.

E) We are catsitting.

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Corrections and disputations

Chris Strompolos, of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation called me today, concerned about some things in my post about interviewing him and seeing the film. I posted a comment to the post summarizing his concerns while we were talking on the phone and will mark up the post as soon as I post this entry.

While he and his partners were pleased by the Stranger piece, he was concerned about my perceptions of “economic advantages,” which he – and his partners – strongly dispute. It’s clear that Chris and his partners felt the pinch of divorce. It’s commonly noted that divorced families experience diminished economic prospects, and though I won’t make a linking citation, mothers with custody suffer that economic burden moreso than do, unsurprisingly, fathers without custody.

In my defense, I must note the economic advantages I was thinking of were more along the lines of advantages that may pertain to members of an economic class, as opposed to the specific economic pinch that Chris and his friends were experiencing.

So on this point, it’s a matter of opinion, and I do not mean to deprecate the particular economic hardships the kids experienced.

However, Chris pointed out to me that my critical eyes straight-up failed in the matter of a particular part of my viewing of the film.

I said (in part):

“The only other appearance of a person of obviously African descent comes at the end of The Adaptation. The crate apparently containing the Ark of the Covenant is wheeled into a vast warehouse. In the theatrical film, the worker who wheels the ark to its, um, current resting place, is not clearly racially identifiable, as he’s seen in longshot. In The Adaptation, the worker is clearly black, and while his warehouse is impressively huge…”

Except, you know, of course… THAT HE’S NOT.

The worker is played by none other than Chris Strompolos, which more or less deflates a fine bit of critical speculation I had going. So for my next trick, I’ll be deflating my bad self on that post.

A big “thank you” to Chris for calling me on this (both literally and figuratively)!

Now, enjoy the spectacle as I eat some crow, kinda. I mean, I’m not unhappy to be factually corrected. But alas for my tower of theory!

And finally, as I told Chris on the phone, mea culpa. My mistake, and happy to set the record straight.

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Holiday Notes

A note from an old mentor and certified musical mad genius included the following bit, which is too good not to share:

REDACTED had another very successful year developing new toys for the U.S. military using cutting-edge space-age-type technologies.  It’s all hush-hush top-secret kind of stuff; hip sci-fi style survival gear that LOOKS as cool as it sounds.  Supposedly the 5-Box Brass want our enemies to be intimidated by our soldiers’ prêt-à-porter as much as by our swift and absolute destructive power, but you didn’t hear that from me…..  Anyway, there’s truly NO ONE like REDACTED for making hella-cool shit that also actually works.  So throughout the year he received a series of promotions and raises from The Brotherhood of Bosses, and now he’s chompin’ on a fat see-gar, hob-knobbing defense contracts like a big-time baron of business.  (as if…)

Redacted, I gather, is the offspring of my correspondent.

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together

b.rox: Reunion 9

Editor B shares some family memories, his family-oriented media projects (which I bet kick deep-seated ass), and his trepidation about an upcoming reunion in a fine, fine blog entry.

Interesting to me was the implicit framing of B.’s family-oriented video projects as intended primarily for family consumption. B is unquestionably familiar with Sherman’s March. It’s a prime example of how a piece of intensely personal art can emerge from within an unexpected set of constraints.

It’s my suspicion that Editor is casting about for something to move forward with artistically; I can’t tell from his entry if he’s made this connection or not but I bet he will.