Why I need co-hosts! Interlude One...

In other words - get past the "my voice hurts and I need a cup of tea" intro - find out why I don't like Michael Bay's version of bad movies.

The next episode will be better.

First One!

No Editing.  Which is really a shame.  Special co-host Noah.

Let me know what you think!

Show Notes: Florence Foster Jenkins was the singer mentioned.

The Shameless Plugs:
http://www.doranphoto.com/index2.php - Dan Doran.
http://www.exlibrisrecords.co.uk/yonder-calliope.htm - Aaron McMullan
https://twitter.com/#!/realacespade - Noah's Twitter

A post about VD...

I don't like holidays.  The only two I like, when I talk about why I like them at length (of course), seem relentlessly depressing.  Hallowmas (Oct. 31-Nov. 2) allows for a closeness to those who have passed.  New Years helps you put the past failures behind you and focus on the potential to change.  Usually both involve doing things that you regret, so there you are.

But for the most part, I really dislike holidays.

And being a shy, awkward kind who feels uncomfortable around his friends, let alone girls I fancy, I've always felt dread about Valentine's Day.  Once we got into middle school and I stopped getting the bits of thin cardboard with with pop-culture telling my that so-and-so thinks I'm super, it really just became a fairly dark thing.  We ended up becoming enmeshed in the almost satirical idea that the day is important in the scheme of romance, and that if your significant other doesn't do something amazing, then the relationship is doomed and you should just dive into the the alcohol and comfort foods right now.

Which sucks, as I like love.  There's romantic, friendly, familial - love of sport, passive existence, active existence, art, nature, food, science.  There's a lot to love.  I'm rather a fan, really. 

Well, as I lack a Valentine, I'm going to take a minute and just go back to being a little kid.

My mother and father are middle aged office workers.  They've dealt with a fair bit of parental strife of behalf of my brother and I.  And we're damn lucky to have them.

My dad, the great grey god, is stooped with age, hobbled and walking with a cane - he has now for close to fourteen years, which is badass, since medically he should have been using one since I was born, and should be in a wheelchair by now.  It seems that only his spite towards his condition and his dislike of what the handicapped plate on his car means that holds him together.  From a physical standpoint.  He's beaten something like cancer twice (I still have only a vague idea as to the scope of what he's been through medically - but at somepoint the universe realized that crippling him wasn't working and started to go to town on his cells).  He's buried both of his parents, warred and made up with his brother, and has the amazing ability of getting away with saying outrageous things.

My mother...I've often been told that I'm alot like my mom.  It's been fairly recent that I've come to understand this as a compliment - we're so much alike that for a long time I had an aversion to her.  Not a lack of love, but an almost contempt due to familiarity.  When I came home from college with my tail between my legs and saw what my mom had gone through for the past four years.  This helped me get my head out of my ass, and actively try to show her how grateful I was for her, and her putting up with me. It took a lot to hold the family together, and harder still to do it all with grace, wit, and the iron will that mothers seem to possess far beyond any other family role.

I don't have a special someone, but I've been planning on dying alone for a while now (I'm also planning on winning the Mega Millions this Tuesday, 02/14/2012 - you can only say no to one, Universe).  But for right now, as they're far away and don't surf the net, and I won't have to deal with their jokes about being cute...

Thanks, mom and dad.  For everything.  I love you both dearly.  And will you be my valentines?