No Monday, Please

Another weekend draws to a close, unfortunately. As The Simpsons nears, I’m watching a symposium on Tom Wolfe’s latest book, I Am Charlotte Simmons or whatever it’s called.

It was a pretty good past couple days. The Dulcinea came over for 45 minutes yesterday before I left to grab Pete and go play D&D. I was delighted to find that Marv, our DM, is taking us on a little side venture to Hellgate Keep. Severus has wanted to go there since he heard of the place. Someone has gotta die if we end up going there. Once again, Miss Regan hung out with us in the basement. At one point, Chris had her up on his shoulder and he said, “Who runs Bartertown?” Geek humor at its best.

The Dulcinea spent some more time together today. We went to the Cottage Café for breakfast. Unfortunately, Botox Lady was not there. So we ate heartily and then zipped over to TH for a spell. I hadn’t seen Miss Vicki in a while so she and I caught up on one another’s lives. Ronaldo and Beth were there as well so I shot the fecal matter with them. From there it was off to Border’s where I bought Russian Ark and a photobook about Stanley Kubrick. Then it was back to my place for a short stint and over to The Dulcinea’s. Her kids were returning at 4 so we only had a couple hours together.

I see that Roger Dean is making an animated movie . You may know him as the guy that painted all the classic Yes album covers. I had no idea that “There is a secret story embedded in the art that Roger has painted for the Yes album covers.” Here’s what it’s all about:

The story is of a boy Loki, growing up, his imagination fired by the myths and legends his uncle had read to him as a child. One story in particular, about a tiny planet that breaks up and is rescued by a hero who builds a space ark, inspires him.

As a young man, visiting his uncle, Loki tells him that he wants look for the missing space ark and asks his uncle for help. His uncle at first refuses, telling him of the incredible difficulties, the very real dangers, the immense scale of the task. Eventually his uncle relents but will only help if Loki takes very seriously his preparations for the journey. The film is about a coming of age, a quest and a love story.

Porcupine Tree’s new single, “Shallow”, is available now online. I snagged a copy of it at Napter which is offering a week of free service right now. The song is a lot like “Futile” but a bit less dark and more poppy. It’s a good song and Steve Wilson hasn’t lost his fascination for the darker side of humanity. In other music news, I’m downloading a copy of the Jethro Tull show from here in Madison back in November – an excellent audience recording. Also downloading is a sweet Wilco show from last year. “The Late Greats” is such a blatantly catchy tune! And I’ve got part 1 of a Gentle Giant video. Now I’ve gotta figure out how to play PAL vids correctly.