i read the news today, oh boy

news, that is, of the haircut! and oh boy, indeed. great stuff. definitely dig the packaging/presentation as well, very cool. news of the haircut is a great title, but if i was gonna pull one line out of the whole package it might be sweet jesus on a lazy susan. it is not as good of a title, but damn if i don't love it. if anyone is confused, news of the haircut is peter berghoef's (witte piet under my links) latest publication. mr. berghoef is royalty of holland mi, proprietor of the berghoefer bavarian resort, and inaugural poet laureate of my country. he may or may not whup everyone's ass at scrabble tonight. stooges!?
yesterday was a beautiful day. a beautiful day to get sunburned. i observed a rather large-scale free mumia rally. it was by far the best-attended event i have observed, which is kind of cool and kind of strange. naturally, it was also the most diverse. all ages, all races, lots of different organizations represented (lgbt for freeing mumia included). also the best rhythm section i've ever seen at something like this. things went slowly, but without a serious hitch. i was kind of nervous about the rig they had set up for sound: at the front of the march was a pickup with a pa and speakers, which was too much to for the vehicle to power on its own, so they had a generator. the generator, however, was gasoline powered and in the back of a minivan behind the pickup, so there was an extension cord from the generator to the pa in the truck. it all worked out in the end. there was a small counter-demonstrating contingent, but they had as many police for as them for a line between the demonstrators and their counterparts. everyone was well-behaved for the most part; officers hauled one or two people off to the side with harsh reprimands; people who had caught the march along its route and were hassling participants. the officers were interested in keeping the peace, and they did a good job. really commendable work considering they were assigned to guard people demanding the release of a person many of them probably believed murdered one of their co-workers. it takes a lot of patience to guard people who are berating you and your work over loudspeakers. probably the most extreme freedom of speech i have witnessed: talking shit on the founding fathers over the pa in front of independence hall. anyway, we were out there a long time, and i have some hilarious sunburn. my face is ok because of the neon green baseball hats we wear, but my neck is another story. my head looks like it was poorly photoshopped onto my body. there is also a funny break in the burn down my spine where my ponytail was.
i read a fantastic graphic novel the other day called three fingers. i blew through it pretty quick, but i might read it again and spend more time looking at the artwork. it is set in a universe akin to the one in roger rabbit, where the toons are actual beings who act in pictures. but this is way darker. everything is told sort of obliquely, to avoid copyright infringement, but you can tell what the idea is supposed to be. mickey mouse = ricky rat, and so forth. the basic gist is that ricky rat was the first successful toon film actor, and he had three fingers from a birth defect. when he gets big, other toons try to get in on the act, but none are nowhere near as successful. the superstitious toon community chalks it up to ricky's having three fingers, and toons begin to get fingers amputated in an effort to bring good luck. it seems to work, as after the practice starts other toons begin to gain comperable fame, but only those with three fingers. the whole novel is set forth in sort of a documentary fashion set decades down the line, with different figures weighing in on whether the film studios invented/encouraged/condoned the practice. pretty friggin excellent overall.
i also indulged in a film the other night, which was also quite entertaining. quirky movie called fido. set in like 50s america after a massive zombie war. the idea is at some point an electronic collar was developed that quells the natural zombie appetite for human flesh and now zombies are used for manual labor and kept as servants/house pets. pretty well put together flick, only one questionable plot point, but very entertaining and intriguing stuff altogether. i don't think it was even more than 90 minutes long, but they got enough characters in to offer a few perspectives on what the movie was trying to get at. set design and makeup were top notch. given that i hadn't ever heard of it, it still must have had a pretty decent budget. i don't know if anyone famous was in it, because i am bad at knowing those sorts of things. in any event, it is a good movie to watch because it is both thought-provoking and amusing. i am a sucker for excursions into contemporary conceptions of 50s era america/americana. some seriously bangin' tunes on the soundtrack that i was unfamiliar with too, which is always a bonus.
earlier in the weekend, i experienced something for the first time in several years: being at a party the cops put the kibosh on. it really didn't seem likely for most of the party, but on the other hand i got there kind of early. i didn't really meet anyone, but there were several people who i already knew there. the party was mostly work-based, and so the vast majority of people who showed up knew each other and probably didn't plan on branching out much. in any event, it was a pretty good time. good music, good company, good amount of beer, even if the beer itself is not overwhelming on its own. nothing wrong with it either, though. we took our own carling black label, but there was a healthy amount of pabst in the fridge as well. i also ate lightly salted potato chips for the first time. i don't recall ever seeing those back home, but every brand out here definitely includes lightly-salted in its line. they're not all bad, mostly just taste more like whatever oil they are cooked in. anyway, the cops showed up at some point, and were there for so long that there were two separate occasions where i fully believed they had left but in reality they had not. the good news is that no one was ticketed for anything as far as i am aware. really, though, even after everyone got there (i think a lot of people got out of work at midnight or so) it wasn't all that wild and crazy. the small back porch was completely packed, but it still couldn't have been all that loud. i guess it only takes one noise complaint sometimes. this party featured a boston terrier, for which i was thankful. damn was she excited. much to my surprise while attempting to locate the restroom, two more boston terriers had also shown up. i like to think that they were friends of the dog and the dog invited them; none of the humans brought the other two along. because hey, if dogs can pull that off, my cats should be more than capable of the same.