Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Among the many historic things from Tuesday, like me making it to 37, is this: for the first (and possibly, it wouldn’t surprise me, the last) time, I voted for someone rather than against a person or ideal.  For all of Palin’s rhetoric about being an outsider, she’s as much if not more politician than anyone else; I genuinely don’t get that feeling about Obama.  Yeah, I’m possibly wrong, and you can do your irritating little happy dance in two years when he reveals his great campaigning lies, but until then, I feel like we’ve put a normal guy in to the highest office of the US.

This is one of those things that everyone has to decide for themselves, sure, but every politician on the national level has struck me as untouchable, like a celebrity.  Go back, though, and watch Obama’s last appearance on The Daily Show, and tell me he doesn’t have some sort of je ne c’est quoi that separates him from the rest.  Or how about this little bit from the latest Newsweek:

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, “I don’t consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, ‘You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.’ So when Brian Williams is asking me about what’s a personal thing that you’ve done [that’s green], and I say, you know, ‘Well, I planted a bunch of trees.’ And he says, ‘I’m talking about personal.’ What I’m thinking in my head is, ‘Well, the truth is, Brian, we can’t solve global warming because I f—ing changed light bulbs in my house. It’s because of something collective’.”

I can’t imagine having a few shots with Clinton or Palin or Kennedy.  It’s partly the politician and, I’m sure, partly the fact that I’m not an Ivy League graduate from money with blind ambitions of power and control. And while I’m sure that Barack Obama wouldn’t fit in too happily at Bailey’s, at least I can imagine it happening in a somewhat real-world way.  It’s that real-world quality that puts him in a league of (as of now and the foreseeable future) one.

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

–David Sedaris

“We will miss her dearly but she is in a much happier place now.“

Lilium Cruentus (Deus Nova)
On the Loss of Innocence
Music, lyric and arrangements by Daniel Gildenlöw

A Scene in Brown and Yellow:
At first I don’t know why your presence fills me with unease
Though I’ve missed you more than Life itself
I freeze
It’s like you’ve been lost and now you’re glad to see my face
But as you sit down my confusion turns to distress
Not knowing how to let you know that you are
Dead
(I wake up sweating)

They tell me you are better off
Where you are now
Well, I don’t care
They tell me that your pain is gone
Where you are now
Well, you left it here
See, I need to be strong
Need to be brave
I need to put faith in something
How could I live on
Not hoping we will meet
Again?

A Scene in White and Grey:
Under the icon’s weight the old thoughts lay
Under the cross so still and pale
The flowers usher the stale breath of Death away
And someone tries to sing
But the bird of song has lost its wings
Now it twitches
Rips the stitches of a chest where tears are torn
And where all loss begins

Life seems too small when Death takes its toll
I need something to blame for this pain

A Scene in Amber – Flawed:
And have you ever had that dream
Where one you love passes away?
And you wake up crying to a world
Where she’s long since gone
But you feel the pain
So close
As if she’d died today

But I need to be strong
I need to be brave
I need to put faith in something
How could I live on
Not hoping we will meet
Again
Some day?

Earth to Earth, Dust to Dust
A verse we know too well
Like a nursery rhyme
Just in reverse
‘Cause we are all the little tin man
With hearts like little tin cans
And as we line them down with tears
Over the years
They inevitably turn
To rust

Life seems too small when Death takes its toll
I need something to blame for this pain
I try, I fail, I fall, like anyone you know
I break, I bleed, like anyone you know

A Scene in Blood on White:
Where the linen’s changed just for tonight
And somehow we beat her to this sight
This ghostly room of Exit
That she enters by the flicker of candle light
And in her breast
A desert storm is taking form
An old thirst that can never be quenched or killed
Sweeps over the cold
Broken but thousandfold

I think that if I ever should go deaf, it might be the one thing that I would be incapable of recovering from. I’m realizing consciously how much I rely on music to express myself — not just other people’s words, but the music itself.  It can serve as a catalyst for physical release, a pillow when I’ve pushed myself too hard, a gateway into waking dreams.

Today, music is my blanket against the cold of the world and the best way I know to shine a light on memories of a departed friend.

Perhaps inside you
You were messed up like me
But to them you were whole and strong
A friend in their need
And what you left behind you
And what swept over me
Says that your life’s work
Rolls on and on
A piece of eternity
–Brian May, Just One Life

I understand that, as the frontrunners in the polls, the Democratic Party people are hesitant to stoop to pointing out the negatives — and that, in an ethics light, Palin doesn’t look too different from Bush (or, to be fair, 99% of politicians in the world).  BUT… really, +/- 40% of the polled public, is this sort of thing acceptable to you?  You can just look the other way — but a blowjob in the oval office is wrong?  REALLY?

(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose reformer image took a hit in a report concluding she abused her powers to settle a family score, has skirted state ethics rules before for personal benefit and used her office to help friends and supporters, according to an Associated Press review of records. (article online at Newsweek)

He thrusts his fists against the posts and yet insists he sees the ghosts…

Watching John August’s directorial debut, I was reminded that the best films are the most challenging.  I’m looking at you, Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, L.A. Story and Playing By Heart. They’re the movies that seem lost in themselves, maybe, too clever for their own good, or Frankensteined out of disparate pieces that make no sense outside of their original context.  Just when you’ve almost given up, though, something compels you to stick it out until the end, and the resultant feeling is so ethereal that it defies being put into words, like a good dream or that  weird orgasmic feeling you get when your favorite song plays on your iPod.

I’m (somewhat surprisingly, at least to me) largely unaware of movie writers. For the life of me, I can’t remember the name of the DD/ST tales creator (quick Google search says: Richard Kelly. Oops.).  But I know John August, because he was one of the two judges who gave me the right to tack “Award Winning” as a prefix to my screenwriter label. He wrote Go (which I’ve always liked), and Big Fish, and Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  And Charlie’s Angels, which I’ll hold against McG instead. And — though I can’t find them at the minute, buried as they are in a shoebox in a trunk in my shoebox apartment — he wrote me some very kind script notes which eventually were worked into the short film of Muckfuppet.

Because I recommend watching it — especially if you’re a writer — I will say as clearly as I can that his directorial debut is far better than mine.

The last five minutes of the film — when the pieces finally fall into place and you can start making sense of what’s been happening for the past ninety minutes — are, plainly, breathtaking.  It’s apparent even without the special feature documentaries that there’s a strong autobiographical connection, and it’s made all the more natural and real because of it.

Again, having a hard time putting this into words. But I recognized a lot of Muckfuppet in The Nines, and it’s not a talent or ability thing (not at all — August is, arguably, a better artist (and inarguably a far superior craftsman) than I.  It’s an intangible reality, that place where allegory and the world that we experience every day somehow become one.

All this to say: ignore whatever reviews you’ve heard about the movie, good or bad.  Give yourself two hours distraction-free, and watch the movie.  It’s not without flaws, but I’ll be damned if the big picture revelation at the end hasn’t erased specifics from my mind.  Ryan Reynolds and Melissa McCarthy both do great jobs — anyone who thinks Reynolds is only good for smartass Van Wilder characters can find proof otherwise in this — while Alex Wurman’s score is beautiful and haunting.

And then drop by http://johnaugust.com/ and tell him how great it was.

Less than a week after the federal government had to bail out American International Group Inc., the company sent executives on a $440,000 retreat to a posh California resort, lawmakers investigating the company’s meltdown said Tuesday.

Is it wrong to wish a very expensive death on all these fuckers?  Follow up: do I care if it’s wrong?

This should have been more fun, I think. You’ll just have to imagine the times — I know I did.

• McCain sounds very grandfatherly. My grandfather was always tired and more than a little cranky and repetitive, too.
• Why self-impose a time limit if neither one of you can follow it?
• This sounds a whole lot like Bush Sr.’s “No new taxes” speech, Mr. McCain.
• Any second now McCain’s gotta snap and call Obama a liar. Waiting… waiting…
• “I’ll answer the question, Tom.” Which makes McCain/Palin a truly balanced ticket.
• …and still, not answering the question at all.
• Obama sounds thoughtful and collected. McCain sounds creepy. “Want some nuclear candy, little undecided voter?”
• $10 says Brokaw will snap first…
• But, Senator Obama, is healthcare a commodity? … Never mind. Y’all are on a straight talk express. Sigh.
• “Well, maybe this healthcare candy will get you into my van…”
• @McCain – I’m math kinda guy and I can’t follow your healthcare numbers.
• I’m probably one of the few really moved by the fact that Obama just admitted that he doesn’t understand everything. I like that.
• Mmmm. A non-answer from Obama. And the McCain Doctrine? “Ah, whatever the other guy wouldn’t do.”
• Eep. McCain’s hero had Alzheimers. Probably while in office.
• Wait – is it Reagan or Roosevelt?
• The strategy in Iraq worked? The people supported us being there? Maybe McCain has Alzheimers, too. Just like my cranky granddad.
• If he knows how to get bin Laden, why hasn’t he shared that info with Bush and Petraeus? Geez, John, you gloryhog.
• Losing McCain’s Russia talk in favor of HDTV digital picture interference. Yawn.
• Ah! more “fuck the UN!” talk. And then appeal to the alpha male. And oooooh… Holocaust. Check, Senator Obama…
• Good response- encourage talking AND work in your energy platform. Diggin’ it.
• Peggy from Amhearst wins question of the night. Obama: circumvents the question. Damn. McCain: a little clumsy, but at least on topic. Damn.
• Final thoughts: … wait, whaddya mean it’s not over until November 4th? *really*?