#33: Don't get sappy

Actual updates

May I begin by saying, I love my friends. Hey, that’s you, reading this! Everyone I know is wildly talented in many different ways; you do various things that are incredible and amazing and way beyond me. This past weekend, we had the opportunity to celebrate some of our awesome friends doing what they do, by which I mean we went to the Bone Up 6th anniversary party (Matt’s band played!). It was so nice. Last year’s show was different because it was the first show in a year+, and it started raining during their set, and they closed out one of the nights, and that was truly magical, so the vibe was rather different this year: they played first on the Friday, and it was daytime - although we had just come through one of the most intense rainstorms I’ve ever seen.

I personally was in a car, along with Hap and my mother-in-law, driving across town to the brewery (at rush hour). We knew the storm was coming, but it absolutely unloaded on us while we were on the Jamaicaway, which, for the Bostonially uninitiated, is a narrow and twisty road that probably shouldn’t have 2 lanes in each direction. My mother-in-law was driving; I was navigating, which means holding her phone and giving her advance notification of the directions, since she finds that the automated voice tells her the directions too late. I also had my own phone in the other hand, frantically answering other people’s questions. In between windshield wiper swipes, we literally could not see the car in front of us. There was also plenty of dramatic lightning right near us. It was memorable, is what I’m saying, and I’m glad we made it!

Anyway, eventually we got there, and it was lovely, and everyone was in a fantastic mood - that’s really something, isn’t it, to be at a party or event that literally everyone present is enjoying? I can’t even chalk it up to the presence of copious beer, because who amongst us has not been at a boozy party where someone’s crying in the bathroom. It was soothing to my heart, which is funny to say about a shindig where every band is louder and heavier than the next, but there it is: being in a space with other people who are all enjoying themselves is a balm. It didn’t hurt that the founders and staff, whom I know to varying degrees (from “what’s that guy’s name with the hat?” to “getting her art tattooed upon my human body”) were also just the most joyous people ever to walk the earth, and seeing people I like1 absolutely filled with joy has a knock-on effect of also filling me with joy.

Okay, that’s enough happiness for this newsletter! You’re probably wondering whether I’ve been bodysnatched, and the answer is no, I experienced a nice evening (and change; we went back briefly the next day to buy something from a vendor who was there on Saturday) but I’m still the same glum bitch you know and love2. It’s a tough time at work and a tough time at home; Hap is home from school for this week and next, between the end of preschool and the beginning of kindergarten, which means he might, for instance, be climbing all over me and acting goofy in the middle of a very important and depressing work meeting. Just as an example.

But speaking of work, this month we had another big in-person week (which I only went to half of, due to Hap coming down with Covid again3 and still being in the contagious period at the beginning of the week). And it was good to hang around with the work buddies and go to a … well, how do you describe Kimball Farms? An ex-farm that’s been converted into an outdoor activity park and ice cream factory? Anyway, we had a nice time and ate our body weight in ice cream and went on a weird zipline thing and so on, and then we came back to the office and hung out some more, and spending time with the people on my team was just really solid. Ah, I see I’ve done some more “being happy about stuff” again by accident, and the stuff is once again Human Companionship Outside My Own Family. I’m nothing if not in character. And lonely.

But another thing that happened during this event was that we had the chance to paint coasters, and I did a couple, and one was honestly not terrible (mainly the sky and the rocks; the ocean in between is really just being carried on their strengths), and I realized that at the moment, creatively, I’m in a “go” phase. I did an art! I’ve been writing again!4 Matt and I are taking our little band semi-seriously (insofar as we’re trying to practice regularly and will play at an upcoming porchfest at our house). Will we be ready in time? Hahaha, no. Still, it’s been missing from my life and I’m glad it’s back. Stay tuned for next month’s issue when I announce I’m in a creative slump.

What am I reading?

I’m a few anecdotes deep into True Indie, by Don Coscarelli, which is about his journey to becoming a filmmaker, starting with being a teenager making movies with his friends. So far, pretty fun! It’s giving me a strong dose of If Chins Could Kill, Bruce Campbell’s memoir5, in the way that they both really wanted to make movies so they just… started making movies, with their friends, borrowing gear here and money there, and people were willing to lend them both, even though they were teenage boys who didn’t know anything about anything. How much of this is down to the time period or down to who they were (white teenage boys from middle- or upper-middle-class families), obviously quite a bit. But it’s striking to see that the answer to “I want to do this hard and expensive thing” was simply “try doing it and ask people for help and they may, in fact, help you,” for both guys. Who knows how many people could have followed that path if they had known it was there for them. Who knows how many people couldn’t have followed that path because it wasn’t there for them.

Also, since it is a Hollywood autobiography, I feel duty-bound to report to you that there’s no dishy gossip, yet - although to be fair I’m in the part where Coscarelli is just out of high school, so maybe the dirt is yet forthcoming.

Some links

That’s a real B-movie title of a headline! Discovered in the Deep: the Worm that Eats Bones

The phrase you’re looking for is “zombie pigs.” Scientists Partially Revive Pig Organs an Hour after Death

More animal content, this time pretty neat! So Many Birds are in the Sky at Ontario’s Long Point Right Now, They’re Showing up on Radar

More animal content, this time pretty messed up and also eerie! Alaska’s Snow Crabs Have Disappeared. Where They Went is a Mystery

Okay, take it easy, Jurassic Park. De-Extinction Company Sets Its Next (First?) Target: The Thylacine

Movie reference into movie business? Not the most labored segue I’ve ever done! But speaking of labor, the people who create visual effects in movies are in dire need of a union; they’re run ragged and there’s no oversight, but the industry simply could not go on without them. This is a longer read but very worth your time. Inside Hollywood’s Visual Effects Crisis

Speaking of movies. This is a look at Dirty Dancing through the lens of both its pro-choice stance and its general horniness. This is a movie about sex! And about being free to have it if you want to! The Time of Their Lives: Dirty Dancing at 35

Speaking of abortions, which we are, this article makes the vital point that no one who “has it all” has it all without help, and one piece of that help is the ability to decide to have children at a point in your life when you have childcare options and a supportive partner, and access to abortion care is crucial to having that ability. The Secret to Having "It All”? A Society That Actually Supports Women

This month’s entry in the “article title or Mad Lib?” challenge. But also, why Janet Jackson in particular? She doesn’t hit proprietary notes or anything! Old Laptop Hard Drives Will Allegedly Crash When Exposed to Janet Jackson Music

Want to read the true and tragic story of how Skippy peanut butter got its name? And possibly never buy that brand again? Percy Crosby’s Last Masterpiece | King’s Park Psychiatric Center

And finally, the best one - shoutout to Emily for this delight. This is a website listing, as a taxonomy, all the different varieties of bread-bag closure tags. Every different shape and size have their own scientific names, and the names are great as well. They’re operating under the assumption that these are parasitic creatures that feed on whatever it is they’re attached to. I’m not even done reading them all6. HORG: The Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group

Tunes I’ve been listening to lately

I thought of this song when working on a labor-related playlist, and it isn’t on Spotify, but it is frankly way more of a flat out bop than it has any right to be!

I was surprised to find I hadn’t put this on any earlier newsletters (at least, going by the last couple of playlists! Maybe I’m battering you over the head with this sad little Sloan song!). I used to sing it ALL the time and it’s back in my head lately. And by “all the time,” I mean “even under my breath on the bus.” I realize that makes me a creepapotamus, yes, thank you.

This song has been in my head for a couple weeks due to Hap’s recent game invention, where he drives monster truck toys as if they are in a real monster truck show, and has all sorts of individual events, including a donut competition. So I’ve been singing the chorus to this song every time. I’m sure he’s very annoyed with me. Too bad, though.

This month’s top 5: Best school supplies

It is September and a nerd’s heart turns, as it must, to school supplies! This year, I get to get Hap some supplies, but he’s in Kindergarten, so it isn’t like he needs a Trapper Keeper or anything. This top 5 is not, therefore, about supplies you can buy in the store today. It’s about supplies that I bought7 or wanted to buy for myself, when I was in school. Tell me yours!

1. Finder Binders were perhaps Canada’s answer to Trapper Keepers? They were the ~*fancy*~ binders8 that the cool kids had. It is impossible to search for them online, so I’m not sure if that’s true, but no one here seems to have ever heard of them (have you?). They were Trapper-Keeper-esque, with the flap over the opening, cool colours and prints, and so on - I only ever had one. The rest of the time it was those drugstore specials in black, teal, red, and navy. You know the ones.

2. The classic 4-color Bic pen… and also an overwrought, thick-boled version of same known by me and my associates as, all-caps required, TEN-COLOUR PEN! It was absolutely too much of a muchness; at least one of the colors was totally impractical (yellow? pull yourself together). If you pushed down two of the color handles carefully at the same time, you could get them stuck, so that was fun when bored in class.

3. A box of watercolor sticks for art class. Also made great face paints, which, after volunteering at the Children’s Festival for a couple of years, I felt pretty confident doing for a buck or two in the park by my house.

4. motherfuckin DUO-TANGS

5. You’d think I’d say nice notebooks - I am writing this sitting at a desk next to a pile of nice notebooks I am committed to using up - but no. I would absolutely buy the 3-subject bad boys with plain, solid-colour covers from the London Drugs or wherever; I liked the idea of each subject having its own color, but it wasn’t reasonable to tote around a whole stack of them when I could use a 3-subject book (the 5-subject ones seemed like too much) instead. My handwriting used to be so much better when I took notes all the time. I did occasionally get a book with an interesting cover, but those were always more expensive, so it was a special treat (and then I’d have to determine which subject was worthy of that book).

Dishonorable mention to those little O-shaped stickers that were supposed to reinforce or repair your looseleaf paper if the hole-punches broke. Those things never worked right and we always had to buy them anyway. Get out of here, paper reinforcers or whatever your name is!

I can’t figure out why I sound so happy in this issue. I’m not! I’m very upset!!