And you've surrounded yourselves with excuses for why the next act won't begin, and it's clear that the kids aren't going to be all right again. -- Matthew Amster-Burton, Allright Again
Here’s a serving tray and coaster set I made as a Christmas present for some friends of the family. The sand was sourced from the beach outside their house.
I still struggle with the clear pours, but I’m improving.
Happy New Year. Or “New Year” at least. I guess “Happy” will take some work.
This is a scheduled post, because I got a bottle of champagne and a bottle of draino, so I’ll be ready to toast either way. Anyway, I haven’t been writing much as you can tell, but it’s because I’ve been putting a lot of time into my art. I finally built up the nerve to start working with resin. Results are mixed.
Last week, my daughter performed in a production of The Wizard of Oz. She was a member of the Lollipop Guild. Also the lead apple tree. Also a denizen of the Emerald City. Also a Winkie. I get the impression that as an actress, she is “good, for a little kid”
Anyway, for some reason, she asked me to AI-enhance a photo I took during the performance, and what came out was kinda wild, like some sort of surrealist interpretation of The Lion King, so I thought I’d share it with you.
And yeah, I am so happy that they’re leaving Calypso in the canon. Yes, we don’t know what could possibly justify them retrofitting Discovery back to its 23rd century configuration, but it was hilarious to watch them scrubbing the “-A” off the hull.
(Just off the top of my head, Craft appears to come from a time when the Federation has degenerated into an imperialistic state. Perhaps Kovitch anticipates that a symbol not of the 32nd century but of “The Long Ago” would be required)
Also, now that we know that Discovery’s state is a cover, it’s possible that Zora’s claim to have been abandoned for a thousand years is also not entirely honest – that she was ordered to claim to have been left there in the 23rd century. Better still, “Calypso” ended on the sad notion that Zora would probably remain alone forever, but now we know that she isn’t lost: they put her there deliberately, and made plans to retrieve her. Might not pay off, but it seems a lot more plausible now to imagine that she’s recovered not long after those events, given that we now know that it was Craft she was waiting for all along.
Anyway, here’s me being angry about the new Taco Bell architecture.
So I finally start writing again after the strikes, and boom, my web host goes down for like a day and a half last Wednesday, and then again for about six hours this past Tuesday. Plus, I’m currently working a modified schedule, so I only have so much time available.
And what with the holiday, I feel like maybe it would be okay for me to be a bit lackadaisical before addressing the triumphant appearance of everyone’s favorite I Can’t Believe It’s Not Twilight vampire.
I’m not sure if writing a weekly essay about Star Trek counts as crossing a picket line or promoting a work by striking union members, but I think maybe it would be best if I waited until either they sort this out or I am more confident in the answer before posting more of my long-form analysis.
So I’ll just say: Spock/Kirk good, Spock/Christine eh.
Since it’s Halloween soon, I’ll do a thematic one.
As you all know by now, the latest incarnation of Scooby-Doo is outing Velma. This has made exactly who you’d expect to be angry very angry. Apparently this is the first time in fifty years that the show about a group of itinerant hippies, one of whom is perpetually stoned, who travel the country in a psychedelic van with their dog, proving that the only true monsters in the world are old white men who are willing to screw over the little people in the pursuit of money has aligned itself with the cultural left.
Whatever. When they tried to make a female-led Ghostbusters, there was rioting in the streets and it had to be immediately “corrected” with a direct sequel to the original films that was kind of mediocre and cruised without putting in much effort on a diet of pure memberberries.
So I got a little help from Nightcafe and came up with this: