Newscoma

Glen and Dabney showed me this last night after I showed them The Annoying Orange.  Let’s review before we get this going. The accordion player hacks something up, the singers are singing about smoking marijuana (see the pretty butterfly), and Lawrence Welk called this juicy work a spiritual.

I have no words. You go Gayle and Dale!

The one where a commercial for a zombie game makes me run to YouTube to find out what the song is.

Harmonica player is kicking it.

I kinda need this to cheer me up. And, yes, I would carry it.

I am sitting in Chez Coma sneezing as the end of Harvest has kidnapped my nose and is holding it hostage. Oh hay bales, you mysterious intertwined bundles of hell that kidnap my soul each year.

On the other hand, dear farmers of Hoots, thanks for feeding all of us because that is cool.

I have been thinking a lot about getting older this weekend. I guess it’s allowed sometimes. My late mother’s birthday was on Nov. 8th. I usually have a bit of a mortality check around this time of the year. On the way to Nashville, I noticed there is so much more gray in my hair than I even realized.

Now here’s the big secret. I love it.

I think it’s sexy and groovy. I don’t mind that I’m getting older. Yeah, I don’t heal as fast I used to but I’ve  earned everyone of those bad boys by being a complete spaz for the last 44 years.

I think it’s glorious.

Now with that said, you freakin’ kids get off my lawn, I need a nap.

Yesssss.

And then there is a roundhouse kick in a room that looks like a convention room at the Ramada Inn.

I can’t just say how this made me giggle.

And there are ninjas.

Heh.

I haven’t been in Hoots much lately and I don’t expect that’s going to change anytime soon, so I decided to go hunt down my former boss, The Businator.

Most people’s hobbies include knitting, crafts, coin-collecting and autograph seeking. Not me, dagnabbit, I want to talk about paranormal crap, Bigfoot, politics and, my favorite, economic development. I realize that I’m not that much fun.

No, I wasn’t stalking the Businator but occasionally I seek him out because he’s my Sensai to a large degree and I had some information that I wanted to talk to him about. Mabel, of course because I’m eccentric and like an old, broke, much less attractive version of Paris Hilton because my dog goes with me when I talk bidness. (I know. In many ways its fabulous. On a side note, The Businator had dog treats in his pocket for his own dog because apparently that’s the only way he can get into his house in the evenings, which of course, Mabel found fascinating. She eyed me with suspicion that I had not taken up this ritual for her as well.)

I attended Paul Von Hoeson’s session at BarCamp over the weekend and I wanted to talk about Broadband Connectivity in rural areas and how that could be a positive force of change. Paul knows The Businator so we sat down and so I updated him on what was said, what a BarCamp actually was and told him in somewhat rambling detail that, yes, these sessions were held at a bar.

You see, those of us who live in the sticks know that the upside of the Internet is that it can create opportunities for young people. (The downside, of course, is … umm … porn and LOLcats maybe?) Paul’s information is very intriguing for us here in Hoots. After his session, I thought about how to become more active in participating locally in assisting this to happen.

Key words right now in many political campaigns regards the issue of rural accessibility. The thing is, and I believe this, that those of us who live in these areas that care about this stuff need to get involved. The Businator and I know this is imperative. And if this infrastructure is in place, folks wanting to invest money and jobs in our area will be more keen to do it. Why? Because it is what it is. We are talking about communication in not only business, but in educational advancements.

I sometimes get mocked a little bit for my fascination with these things, but the Businator doesn’t do that. We talk about these things quite a bit and he feeds my econ development addiction. Why he hangs with me sometime I have no idea because I realize I’m a bit of weirdo.

One thing though, we know it’s important for development in our backyard and can create opportunities.

People didn’t think cars would be that useful back in the day and look what happened there.

Just saying.

Hey, it’s not The Tantrum but it’s still damned good.

lets do the fork in the garbage disposal dance – Watch more Funny Videos

I saw Zombieland yesterday afternoon in the first day of my birthday week celebration. I haven’t been to a movie in awhile and it was groovy.

Because of the spoiler cameo, I’m not going to post or review it other than to say, it had some really gross out deaths and a sweet soul about it.

My crush on Woody Harrelson continues into it’s second decade. The Woody crush created a conversation between Squirrel Queen and I about dudes who aren’t traditionally handsome but who have IT.

Now, I’m a huge fan of IT. The IT factor continually outweighs pretty much anything. Don’t get me wrong, pretty is nice, but if you have IT, well then I think that makes you something special.

Our list of people with IT.

1. Anderson Cooper – We agree, he’s got some Nerd It going on. Have you ever heard his heehaw snort of a laugh? A lot different than his anchor persona on CNN. He’s the guy I want to have a Cosmopolitan with. We’d have to ask Kathy Griffin to come hang out too because she would make him do the heehaw laugh.

2. Kelsey Grammar’s voice – It’s the voice, campers. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love listening to Sideshow Bob. The pipes are fabulous.

3. Eddie George – Beautiful with a bit something extra. Bald, imposing, lovely, dangerous, sweet. (Probably shouldn’t be on the list but we decided to put him here because the IT went off the chart. And we talked about him for some reason last night. I miss Eddie.) I met him once and he was at least 19 feet taller than me. Rrrowr.

4. Kevin McKidd – The first time I saw Dog Soldiers I found myself drowning in that lovely Scottish Brogue. (Christopher Eccleston also goes in this category.) They are both rugged big dudes, not traditionally handsome but have something that makes our toes curl. The IT is there and it ain’t going away. And, let’s also look at McKidd’s werewolf chronicles and Dr. FRACKING Who. I mean, come on, that’s good stuff.) I actually started watching Grey’s Anatomy just to watch McKidd. (Hulu makes life better. If only I didn’t have to watch Izzie and Meredith. McKidd needs his own show. No seriously. Journeyman died young because of the writer’s strike.)

Oh, there are more. But as we were compiling our list, we tended to roam off into other conversations. I think the thing we concluded is that IT is something we dig immensely. Woody Harrelson inspired us on our joy of the IT factor, but then we saw something bright and shiny, talked about David Letterman and cursed Johnathon Crompton.

This, of course, was the first day of birthday celebration week, in where this self-created festival began yesterday out and about in Hoots. Today is Day Two. We are doing family stuff, lying about like slugs and listening to Edith Massey’s greatest hits.

Oh and see this mashup of Divine, Edith Massey and Tyra Banks at her place.

After you’ve been on a Mucinex bender for a couple of weeks, you start to see things in a purple hue. Why purple, I have no idea.

The whooping cough is nearly whupped and I’m so grateful it wasn’t something else. I have to tell you though I’ve had some wild dreams this past week.

I have never met Freddie O’Connell, but I dreamed he was going hat shopping with me. We found for me, he picked it out, a wool dove-gray fedora and there was a man behind the counter who took small blocks of wood to shape it for me as Freddie told him how to do it where it would frame my face in the best light. As I said, I have NEVER met O’Connell before, but he seemed to know a lot about hats. I paid for it then we went our separate ways. Shouldn’t this dream have been with Mark Brown? I don’t know why the human brain works as it does when we are in the arms of REM sleep.

I also dreamed I won the lottery. I hid in my house from spider monkeys who were asking for my change to buy bananas. The spider monkeys kept talking to me and that’s why I hid out because their mouth’s did that Conan O’Brien thing where they were not their own mouths. I finally went outside, conquered my fear and gave them all a dollar. I then was instantly at the beach. There is bound to be a lesson here but I’ll be damned if I know what it is.

I also had another dream that Mabel was standing on my head, but I woke up and realized that was reality.

None of this makes any sense when one is on the hopped-up Mucinex train so enjoy Unknown Hinson.

I think some of the greatest interactions between people are the ones that are unlikely. I had brunch with some friends (and on a quick note, restaurants are getting a heck of a lot better here in Hoots over the past couple of years because we have variety finally) and they laughed at me when I said I really didn’t like being the center of attention. I laughed with them but there was truth in my words.

You may not know this, but I’m a little bit shyer than you would initially think but I guess that’s not the right word. Reserved maybe? But when you meet me, I’m not that way at all as I can talk to a stump so I guess I’m a conundrum of some kind.  So when I meet people, I never trust my first instincts as I’m not good at that. Part of adultdom is when you realize what you have insight about and what you just don’t.  What I do have some instinct about is, I think, the best thing you can do when forging new relationships with people is to listen to what they say. If you are so busy talking then you are going to miss out.

I have realized that some people talk as a protective shield but if you quieten your brain down, you can hear the story within the story. And then you can process why you you want to bring this person into your world. Once you listen, then you look at how their actions speak for them. The combination of the two really does bring it together in a delightful way.

In new relationships forged that are creating a nice dynamic are when there is laughter, which I had a huge dose of last night talking about True Blood with a few buddies. I don’t know why this is the talk but I guess it’s a reflection, for me at least, that my life began with Barnabas Collins and Dark Shadows, sitting on the floor of a small row house in Milan, Tennessee with my mom watching vampires and ghosts.

First of all, I talked to the Grad Assistant about the show and we grinned, laughing at its ridiculousness and how we watch it every Saturday night. We KNOW it’s silly, but it’s a mind-numbing, fun kind of thing and we talked about how we grinned about how the show cracks us up. She drove up in her convertible, which I really love and there was a purple flower in a vase on her dashboard. I found that to be more than charming.

It’s the little things we notice sometimes.

Later on, the conversation continued as I headed to a new location where I had recommended the show for it’s sheer goofiness to my pal, The Redhead, who was talking about catching up on it. We giggled like school girls about vampires and serial killers (she is a fan of Dexter) and how we weren’t right but we didn’t really care. We laughed about the new sushi place in town and she said she just couldn’t do it. I was sad there wasn’t any Miso but that I was working on it or I’m just going to learn how to make it myself. I’ve seen her around for years, but it’s just in the past few months that we saw that we have a lot more in common that we don’t and this new dynamic has pleased us both.

Dirk Diggler made a cameo, as he is the very famous Dirk Diggler, talking of his son turning 21 and his adventures in this coming of passage. Diggler talked about the time his son met Pres. Bill Clinton when he was in fifth grade and how the biggest thing he remembers is missing recess and having a late lunch. For some reason, this also cracked us up. I was there that day in Fruitland and my memories are of it being very hot and a Fox news cameraman bitching at the local news media to get out of the way. (I’m not ragging on Fox here, he really was from Fox news.) I wasn’t shy that day because this dude was being completely inappropriate and basically told him to knock it off or we would go all Wicker Man on him which delighted the other reporters that I had worked with for years. He showed me his press pass and asked “Do you have one of these?”

Umm, yes, dude. I had a press pass. Like the Secret Service is going to let me walk in to an event with the sitting president with a banana for identification. Sheesh. What a maroon that guy was.

Nothing heavy happened yesterday except that it was nice.  And nice is of the good. Life doesn’t have to be “in your face” all the time. Sometimes it’s the quiet times that you can hear the smiles in people’s voices.  We don’t always have to be “on”.

It’s the people we are, not our game faces, that create the world that we feel most comfortable in.