Leave a Light On (for Thee)

Playradioplay! - I'm Afraid There's a Hole in My Brain

     We were standing on an overpass, the two of us, leaning against the steel railing as traffic, both oncoming and outgoing, sped beneath our feet in flashes of red, yellow, and halogen white on the hottest of hot nights when she said the strangest of strange things to me. The ultimate weakness of violence, she began, gazing upon the cars, trucks and motorcycles as they passed us by, is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. You may murder the liar, she continued, dismissively waving her hand toward the stars above, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. You may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate, nor establish love. She lit a cigarette at this point, as she's apt to do when something's on her mind; something, as I've come to learn, she can't refrain from sharing. Returning violence for violence multiplies the violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out the darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. An awkward moment ensued, for I knew not what to say, let alone think. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that, she informed me. Great man, she opined, and a flummoxed "Huh" was all I could manage in the time it took her to toss a cinder block into oncoming traffic.




And that, as we say, was that.

Same Title, Different Song XI

Though it may come as a surprise to longtime readers of this hallowed blog, the topic of this post is not Helen Slater, for while Ms. Slater is many things (awesome, for starters*) invincible isn't one of them - which is a shame, really, but box office receipts are the bread and butter of actors and actresses. Nevertheless, invincibility is the matter at hand, and Helen Slater has a role to play, one I'll get back to in a moment or five.

In a classic case of metropolitan rivalry, we have Chicago's very own OK Go going head-to-head with New York City's Pat Benatar for control of the term itself. Now, I won't divulge which of the two songs I prefer but the appearance of Helen Slater** should give you a big, almost legendary hint.

OK Go - Invincible
Pat Benatar - Invincible


* See also, perfect.
** When they finally come to destroy the Earth, they'll have to go through Slater first.

Dancing (with Yourself)

Let's get this party started already.

The Shoes - Time to Dance
Niki & The Dove - The Fox
Chairlift - Met Before

...And You're Lazy, Too!

Have I ever told you that I'm extraordinarily lazy?* If not, the picture above should dispel any notions to the contrary. As an adorable little girl's sixth birthday rapidly approached, I decided against a traditional card, opting for something digital instead. To achieve this goal, I taped six sheets of paper to a wall, and as you can clearly see, composed a rather colorful birthday message, though there was much more to the process than that. Actually, what I did was paint each letter, take a shot with my camera, paint another letter, take a picture, repeat, repeat, repeat (repeat) until I had enough material to create an animated gif, which can be seen below.

Everything written thus far may not suggest laziness but here's the catch: her birthday was on May 28th and the picture at the top of this post was taken yesterday.* Seriously. When it comes to stuff one can put off till tomorrow, call me sensei.


* In college, I'd eat ravioli straight from the can just to avoid the arduous tasks of a) having to microwave that shit and b) cleaning the dish afterward.
** I guess it should be mentioned that I've never been huge into posters or, for that matter, wall fixtures of any kind. The last time I had something on a wall, Duran Duran was hip and The Monster Squad was new. In other words, if something goes up these days, rest assured it's going to stay up.