I love monsoons!

Last night, a major storm ripped through my neighborhood. Lightning flashed right outside; the power flickered like a strobe. Rain blew in sideways onto our porch. We pulled the plugs on all our delicate electronics, closed up all the windows, and took everything breakable off the porch, and pretty much ignored it after that.

This was the scene out our kitchen window this morning. The carport in the foreground (you can almost see the tops of cars) used to have a roof on it. The carport roof is that crumpled bit of wood in the background.

Yay wind! Extreme weather is fun! I am SO GLAD that I don't live in that property, and even more glad that our car was parked UPWIND from that disaster.

This is the obligatory "Drunk Blog"

Because Everclear is a most wonderful substance, consisting of grain alcohol and...well...don't really know what else. 190 proof. Woot. And I thought the Bacardi 151 was fun. This stuff, I took a little tiny taste, and it just evaporates out of your mouth, leaving a tingling behind. If I weren't feeling quite so tipsy, i might be able to make a cool story or poem about that shift in POV back there. Clearly, I have not drunk enough, that I am still able to think of things like that. Anyway, the tingling is far superior to anything gleaned from Cuban cigars, PopRocks, 151, or Altoids. I must try it in conjunction with any one of the above; unfortunately, I have none of the above in my house and I am now far to inebriated to contemplate leaving.
This is how I spend my 4th of July - getting drunk, watching subversive movies. Except Volcanopele, who has joined in our revels, is a staunch, patriotic Republican type, and he is uncomfortable with subversive movies, so we're causing virtual mayhem & lawlessness through the medium of GTA IV instead. Which, if you think about it, is probably more damaging to the psyche & sense of justice & freedom & so forth than "Dr. Strangelove" ever could be. (Not that "Dr. Strangelove" is particularly subversive. It's just funny. But it's far from the usual Independence Day fare.)
Fun fact about me: Despite loving the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and everything this country stands for, I am far from patriotic & never have been. Back about, oh, 7 years ago, when the entire country went into this bizarre frenzied spout of patriotism just because a few misguided, renegade terrorists decided to stop bitching & actually do something, I managed to incite a riot by being my usual, not-especially-patriotic, tactless self. Silly me. I think that's when my former BFF & roommate started really questioning how much effort she wanted to put into salvaging our already-frayed relationship. If I was going to start trailing home angry mobs, she didn't want any part of it. This was probably a wise move on her part - though I have managed not to start any mobs since that time.
Of course, that is mostly due to Roni stifling me any time I start ranting publicly about anything, rather than any newfound display of good sense on my part. I am grateful to my wife for keeping me safe from lynch mobs.

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Celebrate freedom - subvert the dominant paradigm!
Oh, and drink Everclear!!!

Because the apocalypse *should* be funny...

A Boy and His Dog is my favorite movie. Not for the special effects (which are nonexistant); not for the random sex (though that is a nifty part); certainly not for the soundtrack (which desperately needs to be remastered). But because it is hilarious, campy, and everything a movie should be.

They played it at the Loft Theater tonight as part of their "Cult Classics" series. I tell you, seeing this movie on the big screen was one of the most wonderful cinematic experiences of my life. I was afraid that it would lose some of its punch - after all, I've watched it enough times that I know the jokes, including the big one at the end, backwards and forwards. There's something about experiencing these jokes with an audience, much of which has clearly never seen the flick, that made me relive the first time I ever saw the movie - only this time, I'm not 12 and I get it even better. The moment at the end when everything just comes together so perfectly, so twisted...when the audience falls silent for half a second then breaks into hysterical laughter...

But I won't spoil it for you.

I think part of the reason I love this movie so much is that it was one of the defining moments of my childhood. It was one of my dad's favorites, and he was overjoyed to find an old VHS copy for sale at our local drugstore/video rental place. But he wouldn't let me watch it. I was too young; I wouldn't get it; I'd have to have it explained and that would ruin it for me later. (I was probably 8 or 9. It probably says something about the way I was raised that my parents were not remotely concerned that I might see graphic violence and serious full nudity, but rather that I wouldn't get a joke.) So I waited. And one day, I asked if I was old enough to watch it...and my parents said yes. This was a milestone more profound than middle school graduation, more important than learning to drive. It meant I was finally my parents' intellectual equal (or close enough), able to comprehend on an adult level. It seems like such a small thing now, with 15 years' distance and a life that rivals this movie in sheer oddness (though, thankfully, not in plotline). But it was a big deal at the time, and a feeling that I have carried with me since that day.

Watch the film (if you can find it). It's a good one.

AUDGEY DOES A HAPPY DANCE!!!!

YAY CALIFORNIA!

See this as well: The Official Opinion from the California Supreme Court.
For all those legally-minded individuals out there.

Random humor

This is about the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Even if they did steal the joke from Nukees.

Young people are AWESOME.

http://www.dayofsilence.org/

Yay to all the students & so forth being active & taking part in nifty events & peaceful protests! Tell your friends! (Or don't. Tolerance works both ways, yo. But my own position within a larger Community insists that I think such things are rockin' cool and spread the love. LGBT-etc-folk take waaaay to much shit in this great nation of ours, sez I.)

Yay future!

I would like to make an announcement:
I will be attending University of Arizona Rogers College of Law in the fall. Go me!
That is all.