weapons of massdistraction

Things are looking up, in general. Specifically? I’ve been getting more positive feedback, across the board, about the school I’ve selected for the kiddo for grades 5-8. And I now have a line on some summer childcare options. Of which the least expensive is $150/week. Ouch. (Thankfully my state tax refund magically appeared in my account yesterday and the federal one should be on its way soon.) And a dear friend is randomly coming to town today from L.A. for a long weekend. And there’s someone else I’ve been getting to know, which has been both surprising and extremely pleasant. When just a few things go my way it’s easier to stop sweating the small stuff. To remind myself to get out of the disaster recovery mode mindset, relax, and just enjoy myself already.

To that end, so many excellent tidbits for this Friday…it’s double the fun! I give you TEN good things:

• The short film, Pixels, with 8-bit creatures invading NYC.
• I’ve been giddy for days, since seeing these “children’s drawings, rendered more realistically“
• Catherine Breillat’s Bluebeard will be showing at this year’s Minneapolis / St. Paul International Film Fest.
• In a very different kind of folktale/fantasy piece, I give you this amazing Lebanese pop music video. This hodge-podge montage features a mermaid, knights and naves, a princess, Cinderella, and more. Viviane Azar is so very over the top.
• Also fantastic, in a different way…a new Secret Society of Vegans t-shirt with the tagline “saving the unicorns since the 90s.” Ha!
• A well-written, comprehensive Doctor Who primer from The Onion. And yes, I have seen the new doctor. He’s no David Tennant but he does show promise.
• godspeed you black emperor will be reuniting, to curate ATP’s A Nightmare Before Christmas (with The Ex!) and do some touring. I can’t afford to head to the UK so I’m hoping they’ll play somewhere closer to home.
• An artist’s self-portrait at age 100. I too will likely live long enough to be a 100 year-old crazy cat lady. And I’m all right with that. In other cat news, my son and I adore this standing cat!
• Speaking of cats and critters…a friend mentioned that he and his girlfriend may go to the Minnesota Alpaca Expo this weekend. He chalked it up to it being like a tall cat show (his love for cats and cat shows being well known). When I said that gave me mental images of tall cats riding tall bikes he protested: “No, cats are too classy for tall bikes! No tall bikes!”
• I’m still not used to this odd trend of creating video trailers to promote books but in this instance it’s for the Neil Gaiman / Charles Hess collaboration Instructions.

In even bigger Neil Gaiman news…I feel like I’ve been asleep at the wheel. This morning a friend gave me the heads up about the Neil Gaiman House on the Rock Halloween weekend extravaganza. I’d been wanting to get to House on the Rock long before I read American Gods, but reading that book (and re-reading it, and re-reading it, and re-reading it) sealed the deal. I made my first pilgrimage there last year. But I haven’t been the only Gaiman fan to do so. And they’ve noticed. Which is why they are holding their first annual event, just for us. Turns out tickets went on sale like, last week! Eep. Hoping I can still get in. But as much as my son marveled at the strangeness of House on the Rock I don’t think he’d enjoy an entire weekend there. So now I may have to arrange for him to be seen to. But I don’t want to miss Halloween with him as that is our holiday. DILEMMA.