odds, ends

Between paintings, a moment to blog. Let's do some quick hits on the major Von Trapper Keeper subject matters, shall we? In no particular order, I give you Employment, Humor, Sports, Odd Interactions, Music, Trivia, and Politics:

Employment: Well, I got an update on the Exit Strategy. The boss brought it to his boss and it looks like it's a Go. The exact date is uncertain but he said he doesn't see it going into March. Which I can deal with. ... Shark Hunter Guy shot me a dorsal fin mime today.

Humor: This from LC today, citing the blogger as my evil twin and referencing the time I puked in an outdoor hot tub full of horrified people on a New Years Eve in Michigan, exited the hot tub, threw my socks on the roof of the garage next to the hot tub (???), and walked a 1/4 mile in the 5 degree weather, in the snow, to my Dad's house. I'll never understand why I threw the socks up there. but I did. And I'll never understand why this old fat guy thought he could fit in a six year old's batman costume. but he did: Bad News Hughes. Oh, my god. I just looked at that photo montage again. I'm officially giving it my RF rating: Really Fantastic.

Sports: The NFL playoffs has been crap so far compared to the quality of games in the BCS. But the Steelers won and Jerome Bettis kept on cooking. And the Pats won, so we can listen to Brady spout more bullshit about how his dynasty is disrespected. And as long as Carolina doesn't win in Chicago, I'm still in good shape with my picks.

Odd Interactions: The Kids and I sent Max the Eco-warrior off to Cali with a goodbye dinner at Redbones (he paid) and a few pops at the Cellar (he didn't). Max could be the subject of an entire book, not just a post, so I won't try to cover it all here, but he let me in on his own fascinating Exit Strategy. He said that "like all people who live deliberately, [he's] planning on orchestrating his own end, eventually" and he's going to take out a massive life insurance policy, and then have a massive funeral, where everyone invited will receive a raffle ticket, and the winner is the beneficiary (who then gets stuck with the tab of the funeral). Brilliant.

Music: My new music obsession is Wolf Parade and their album "Apologies To The Queen Mary". It's like old Bowie filtered through early Modest Mouse, with a dash of Arcade Fire and maybe a pinch of New Pornographers. Not to pigeonhole or anything. Apparently, there are two song writers who have pretty different styles and create a nice balance, ala the Sebadoh dynamic or that Liverpool band ... forget the name.

Trivia: Well, I blew it big time this week at Trivia. With our team holding the lead going into the final questions, I insisted that the first ever PG-13 movie, which starred Matt Dillon, was "Red Dawn". I insisted. I ignored suggestions that it might be Flamingo Kid. Well, as it turns out, Red Dawn was the first movie to be released in theaters, but Flamingo Kid received the rating and then sat on the shelf for 5 months, while Red Dawn came out. Also, Matt Dillon was not actually in Red Dawn, as he was in Flamingo Kid. I must have been thinking of the five other cast members from the Outsiders that were in Red Dawn. But, that's not good enough. And I know that. I fucked up. And I'm sorry.

Politics: I was going to do the token Alito analysis, but I didn't have time to read up on the hearings. I had hoped for VTK to be a platform for political cartooning as well as all the other crap listed above, but I haven't really had the time. Hopefully, I'll do a more extensive post on Alito tomorrow, but for now, enjoy this sketch of his wavy head: