Category: General

Here at Lunar Obverse, we get letters! Here’s one, from “Wecker”:

As this is your self-entitled “CREATIVE WEEK,” I speak for us all, when I state, “I need to understand a few parameters of this creative week, if you please…”

Would writing about running, using a creative way to describe your activity (such as an anology, etc), be considered creative?

Could it be considered creative if the techie-type posting you decide to write on your blog was written in long-hand (yours, whether in cursive or print), scanned, and then uploaded to the site itself?

Would FRIDAY-NIGHT CAT BLOGGING be considered creative if you made Smacky look like a dog, either using iphoto, or more thoughtfully, dressing the cat up as said dog?

Would writing a rather simple, normal, noncreative blog be creative if every word within your blog was a link to some website that fit in with the word itself (and not that it would need to fit in with your blog-post)?

Lastly, what happens if the blog-post falls short on being creative? Who decides? We’re curious. As you can see……

Well, first, let me thank you for writing in, Wecker. Always a pleasure to hear from the readers!

Rather than answer your questions one at a time, let me just say that, for me, Creative Week means “Not the same-ol’ same-ol’.” I’m aiming for the unusual, the off-the-beaten-path, as it were. I just think I’ve fallen into a rut of posting an account of my workouts and the occasional (very occasional) post about politics, but if I look back on my first year, I would have long essays about movies or philosophy or just stories about my life and times, and I even started out posting (unfinished) short stories or poems.

I’d like to recapture that “anything goes” feel and leave my viewers (both of them!) with a feeling of surprise at what they might find here.

Maybe “Creative Week” wasn’t the best name for what I’m after. Maybe I should have called it “Anything Goes” week or “Sense of Surprise” week or “Not the same-ol’, same-ol'” week. I suppose I still can. But, no, I’m not going to second-guess myself at this point. This explanation will have to do.

Again, super to hear from the viewers! Bloggers love attention, after all…

Artistic vision over material pursuits. The mark of a true artist.

I applaud what these indie bands are doing when they turn down Hummer’s 5- and 6-figure sums to license their songs.

I think it’s especially telling that the band that broke up 20 years ago turned them down.

Last night, after being out all day, I got home to discover that Smacky was out of food. He was visibly agitated about it. I decided to walk up to the grocery store to replenish his supply.

It was raining a little bit, but I didn’t mind. Was bundled up warm.

When I got to SE Milwaukie and Bybee, there were trailers parked all down Milwaukie Ave., and tents and people with walkie-talkies and headsets. As I got closer, I saw little “No Parking” signs that indicated the reason for all this activity.

They were filming… something.

Since I had to go past it all to get to the store, I poked around. For a moment I thought they were filming in the Moreland Theater. But when I looked in the Limelight Restaurant next door, I saw a whole crowd of people, in chairs and standing up, all staring at a bunch of monitors, and at the bar next door was a yellow sign saying “Bar Closed – just for today”. Looks like the bar was the set.

The parking lot of the Wells Fargo bank next door was packed with more trailers and tents, and one tent was marked “Extras”. In the street was a little sign:

Sorry for the blurry pic. Camera phone.

I walked on up to my grocery store, bought a bag of cat food (almost NINE BUCKS for a 5 lb. bag! That seems expensive, but then, I guess that bag will last me a couple of months. I wish I could eat for that cheap. Except delicious food, not cat food). I asked the checker if she knew what was going on down the street. She shrugged. “I don’t know… I heard, it was just a rumor, but I heard that Rebecca De Mornay was involved somehow.”

“Really? That’s cool!” I said.

She shrugged again. “It’s just a rumor.”

On my way out, I saw another grocery girl. “Do you know what movie is being filmed down there?”

Fumbling with a cigarrette, she shrugged. “I heard…” – she looked around as if someone might be listening in – “The Rock.”

“The rock?”

“You know…” she said. “The Rock?” She was a tiny girl, shorter than me, but she indicated a giant of a man with her hands, smoke trailing from her now-lit cigarrette.

“Right. The wrestler. I gotcha.” I headed back into the rain.

As I neared the bar set again, I spotted a guy hauling a box of stuff towards the base camp. “Hey,” I stopped him, “What’s going on?”

“It’s a movie” he said, with a smile.

“Right. I kinda got that,” I said. He was walking away. The box didn’t look heavy but it did look bulky. “What’s the movie?”

He turned around part way and spoke over his shoulder. “It’s called ‘The Music Within’. Go take a look. The set is just down there. It’s kinda cool.” He pointed down the street with his chin.

‘Kinda cool’? He didn’t sound like he worked with them… sounded like a fellow sightseer like me.

I looked around again, and made eye contact with the folks guarding the doors at the Limelight. I got nods of recognition in return, and smiles, but couldn’t bring myself to talk to them again. They seemed so… busy.

After I passed all the activity, I called Tracy. After filling her in on the movie being filmed in my neighborhood, I asked her to look it up on IMDB to see who might be in it.

She found it listed, but didn’t recognize the one star listed. A bit more googling but she couldn’t find much more info on it.

But, you know… I had a cat to feed.

Well, I did it. I went down to Apple Music Row (no relation to these guys or these guys) and, after talking to Joel-the-salesguy for a bit and thinking it over, plunked down the money for the M-Audio Keystation 61es keyboard controller.

I’m going to learn to play keyboards! It’s been on my “New Year’s Resolutions” list for years and I’m finally taking action.

Part of the reason for doing this is the teeny-tiny amount of guilt I feel for purchasing such a powerful new laptop. My MBP is, truly, the most powerful computer I’ve ever owned, and I feel I need to make more use of its capabilities than just surfing, email, blogging and writing. Seeing that one of the installed programs is GarageBand, which can make good use of a MIDI controller like my new 61es, and toss in the desire to learn to do somethin’ musical, and it’s the perfect convergence.

I’ve plinked around a bit so far, and I’ll probably post pictures of my setup later tonight, but I really want to begin a more formal lesson plan. Thanks to a friend who is also a musician, I’ve got some good books on music theory to get me started, although I might end up actually taking formal lessons at some point.

So, with all that in mind, I declare the coming week to be:

Creative Week!

for Lunar Obverse. Every blob post will showcase the theme of “creativity”. That means no boring posts about running or politics for 168 hours, starting at midnight Monday morning.

I may post some fiction, or talk about learning my musical instrument, or post pictures, or links to other sites that inspire or teach… lots of options for posts.

So, tune in starting Monday for:

Creative Week!

John Kricfalusi has a blog.

This is only cool if you know who John K. is.

He’s only got three posts right now but it’s still worth it. If you know, that is.

Man, SXSW is looking tempting this year.

But, strangely enough, not necessarily for the music. Sure, Neil Young is the musical guest of honor. That’s all cool and stuff.

And, don’t look at me like that – not for the locale! Oh, no, definitely not the locale. Sure, Austin is the only decent city in Texas, but, even so… it’s in Texas

But, first, I read that Heather Armstrong is going to be a keynote speaker (via Jason Kottke). You know: Dooce. The woman who got fired for blogging about work, and now spends her days writing about her cute daughter, crazy dog, and unemployed self-employed husband. Oh, and poop. (Not so much about boobs lately, though. She’s really jumped the shark.)

Then, I read that Markos Moulitsas Zúniga is going to be there, and using the event as the unofficial kick-off for his new book “Crashing The Gates” (second bullet point). Um, hello, DailyKos? Left Blogsylvania’s biggest site?

Holy cow – my favorite non-political and political blogger in one city with a bunch of great music and awesome food?

So… tempting…

Suddenly there appeared left-over cake in the break room this afternoon. German chocolate cake, and a lemon cake. Several of us were in there accidentally eating some.

One lady commented, “Well, we don’t want this to go to waste, do we?”

I replied, “Right. Eat up! There’s people starving in Gitmo, after all!”

I blobbed before about Bank of America’s “Keep the Change” program (full details at that link so I don’t repeat myself).

One of the benefits of KTC is that they’re going to match all my deposits made in the first 3 months. I’m past those 3 months so I sat down to see what kind of bonus I’m getting.

Turns out BofA owes me $98.03. Sweeeeeeeeet. Free money. Cha-ching!

The only downside is that it makes it much harder to balance my checkbook. But I can live with it.

This is funny funny stuff.

It’s The Daily Monkey – a new monkey-related picture and quote every day.

But then… monkeys are always funny. And everyone knows it.

via Boing Boing.

Three quick ones about the next generation (in reverse chronological order):

• My beautiful 5-year-old niece (who does not have a blog) called me this morning, out of the blue, and wanted to know if I liked strawberries. I told her that, yes, I did. My sister explained that the topic of conversation had been strawberries all morning long, and my niece was polling everyone she knew about. There had been some controversy because when I was much much younger I had not liked strawberries because someone had mentioned that they had “hearts”. Ugh. Believe me, I have come to realize that was a mistake.
• My incredible 14-year-old nephew (who has his own blog, and why not?) ran for the President’s Challenge yesterday. Readers of this space will know that Max has been interested in running for a while now and he and I run together regularly. He told me last night that he ran a 0:9:21 mile, and that it felt good because many in his class were much slower than him. I’m proud of him (although I still think he should have worn his “Run Against Bush” shirt – how could that have not been appropriate?).
• Lastly, my amazing 35-year-old nephew (who does not have a blog – and why not?) has been asking me questions about the new Intel-based MacBook Pro. He’s thinking of going back to school for an art degree and is weighing Mac OS vs. Windows for graphic design. (Hint: I’m pro-Mac) I’m proud of him for continuing his education and not being content with the status quo!

That just leaves my 29-year-old nephew (can it be true? That age doesn’t seem right – I blame my poor memory). I haven’t heard from him or about him lately. But perhaps his brother will chime in with a quick story in the comments…