"So you're living under the gun
Circumstances have you on the run
A doctor frowns and you feel bad
Take this- you've just been had!

Don't you lose it, now listen to us
Everything's going to be all right
Take a break
Take some time
Everything's going to be all right
Don't you lose it, remember to take
Time out for fun!
Time out for fun!"

- Devo, "Time Out For Fun"

"Hey
My baby said to me
'I feel so de-vo,
I don't know what to do!'
Hey
It's okay because she's free-
How low can you go?
That's really up to you..."

- Devo, "Watch Us Work It"

"Hope everybody's ringing on their own bell this fine morning
Hope everyone's connected to that long-distance phone
Old man, he's a mountain
Old man, he's an island
Old man, he's a-waking, says
'I'm going to call, call all my children home'

Hope everybody's dancing to their own drum this fine morning
The beat of distant Africa or a Polish factory town
Old man, he's calling for his supper
Calling for his whiskey
Calling for his sons and daughters, yeah
Calling all his children round

Sharp ears are tuned in to the drones and chanters warming
Mist blowing round some headland, somewhere in your memory
Everyone is from somewhere, even if you've never been there
So take a minute to remember the part of you that might be the old man calling me

How many wars you're fighting out there, this winter's morning?
And maybe there's always time for another Christmas song
Old man he's asleep now
Got appointments to keep now
Dreaming of his sons and daughters, and proving,
proving that the blood is strong"

-Jethro Tull, "Another Christmas Song"

"I'm here to kick your ass!"
"You are out of luck- our species has evolved beyond the need for asses!"

- Fry and the Brain

You know winter has arrived when you find yourself thumbtacking a couple of yards of spare material to the insides of your bedroom windows to try and keep the North Wind from leaving ice on the side of the glass facing you.

Two-Sentence Movie Reviews

Motel Hell

Owlvark: They couldn't even afford champagne for the movie. Dude.

Yeah, that was pretty much my impression when I skimmed the book, too...

Stopping briefly on a random "mixed martial arts" show while channel-surfing...

Announcer: And last time, [some guy] did something that was like straight out of The Matrix!
Owlvark: What, talked a load of bollocks?

Not for me, but needed, I think...

"Love rescue me
Come forth and speak to me
Raise me up and don't let me fall
No man is my enemy
My own hands imprison me
Love rescue me

Many strangers have I met
On the road to my regret
Many lost who seek to find themselves in me
They ask me to reveal
The very thoughts they would conceal
Love rescue me

And the sun in the sky
Makes a shadow of you and I
Stretching out as the sun sinks in the sea
I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
Said, love rescue me

In the cold mirror of a glass
I see my reflection pass
See the dark shades of what I used to be
See the purple of her eyes
The scarlet of my lies
Love rescue me

Yeah, though I walk
In the valley of shadow
Yeah, I will fear no evil

I have cursed thy rod and staff
They no longer comfort me
Love rescue me

I said love, love rescue me

Climb up the mountains, said love
I said love, oh my love
On the hill of the son
I'm on the eve of a storm
And my word you must believe in
Oh, I said love, rescue me
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah...

Yeah I'm here without a name
In the palace of my shame
I said love rescue me

I've conquered my past
The future is here at last
I stand at the entrance
To a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me
Will soon have lost sight of me
Love rescue me..."

- U2, "Love Rescue Me"

I really like these. As per usual for things I like, they're incredibly bloody expensive. Oh well, maybe one of these days I'll luck into one like I did the Enfield.

more animals

I had a dream last night where I was in a courtroom where instead of benches for spectators, they had large wooden restaurant booths instead. I was sitting in one of these, snuggling with Alan Rickman, when the Owlvark came over to tell me that in the song "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith, " "Jingleheimer" actually meant "egg mender" in German. He then went on to explain how the second line of the song ("Jingleheimer Jingleheimer toast toast toast, " if the rather sketchy dream memory serves) actually referred to egg-mending, not to mention toast. I then woke up in utter confusion. #grins#

In other, completely unrelated news, we've been watching Metalocalypse, and it's freaking hysterical. It's just ridiculously silly and compulsively easy to watch. I just wish they'd put it on earlier; 1:30am is pushing it as far as bedtime goes.

I mistyped "martial arts :town name here:" as "marital arts :town name here:" ...The results were, shall we say, interesting #laughs#

Heh.

You do know why they tell you they don't want you talking to us, right? It's because we think for ourselves, and we encourage others to do also. And that, my friend, scares the shit out of people like them, because when you think for yourself, you see what they're really like, and how pitiful and powerless they really are. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - an addendum to that is, no one has power over you unless you grant it. And their power is of the weakest kind; that of emotional blackmail and physical abuse, which may cow and brainwash children but can do nothing to adults, especially those of us who grew up treated like human beings and not commodities. Those who are inured to such treatment will find it harder to break away, but once that breakage is achieved, you see them for what they are, weak, crawling little minds, twisted up inside by hatred and self-pity and unable to do anything save vomit torrents of blackmail, manipulation, and abuse. They blame others, cast stones at others, use others coldly and without regret, twist ties of family into unrecognizable shackles of bondage, smear others behind their backs while smiling to their faces, and always refuse to take responsibility for themselves or their actions. That, my friend, is cowardice and weakness, and that is all they have, and all they will ever have. It cannot be fixed and they cannot be swayed, because their ignorance is self-chosen. It is thus best to leave such as they behind you.

So it's been a Chandler week, in that I've been re-reading all the Philip Marlowe books I have in order. I picked up a decent used copy of "Lady In The Lake" as a sort of early Christmas present to myself, and from there I started reading the others in an unbroken string, for what I think is the fourth time this year. There's still a couple that I'm missing, but they'll be picked up in due time. It's easy to get lost in Marlowe's world; Chandler had a unique way with turns of phrase, and his first-person narratives are flawless. Marlowe is as three-dimensional as it comes- I've met people in real life who were less believable. Chandler makes it look easy, but what he does is anything but. Great stuff.