So, those of you who read my blog regularly (all ten of you) may have noticed that I was MIA all last week. I wish I had a good reason for my lack of communication, but I don’t. The fact of the matter is, my wife was out of town (Way out of town. London, to be precise) last week, and if I’m being honest, it’s very difficult for me to stay on-task when she’s not around.
Tempting as it is to do the revisionist history thing and post a bunch of entries time-stamped for last week, let’s just pretend that it never happened (which is, in itself, a revisionist undertaking. Tautology! Look it up, kids. Also, what’s up with all the parentheticals today?)
Since only TWO of the aforementioned TEN readers have taken me up on my Meet the Fans Monday feature, I’ve decided to ease us back into the swing of things by interviewing myself. This exercise is two-fold: it give me a chance to mention Chuck Klosterman’s latest book Eating the Dinosaur, which examines the nature of the interview from the quasi-philosophical angle that Klosterman does so well, and it also allows me to talk about myself, which I love doing.
How did you first discover Ex-Boyfriend? I started designing some stuff. It needed a name. And “The Beatles” was taken.
5 10 desert island musical artists? Yikes! Idlewild, The Smiths, Waylon Jennings, The Who, The Beatles, The Cure, Miles Davis, Wilco, Elliott Smith, and Blur. I will rue this list on the days when I crave some Johnny Cash, Radiohead and/or Oasis.
Tell us about your pop cultural guilty pleasures. I don’t ever really feel guilty about the stuff that makes me feel good… but I suppose the stuff that is the most incongruous with my persona would be my appreciation of certain Britney Spears singles, Jane Austen novels, “good” romantic comedies (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, etc) and Gossip Girl.
What kind of tees do you hope we design next? The kind that sell a lot! Ideally, stuff with monsters and robots and critters. You know, the usual.
Favorite haunts on the web? Alright, time for some true confessions… I’m a bit of a sports nut. Not exactly the sort of thing you’d guess based on my job, wardrobe, haircut, listening habits, etc. But I LOVE baseball and football. So a lot of the places I visit deal with sports. Pretty much every one of the Yahoo! Sports blogs is choice. Fangraphs.com. CamdenChat.com. All are pretty entertaining reads. But I also love to drop in on chromewaves.net, because Frank Yang and I share a lot of the same taste in music (and I like free mp3’s), videogum.com is excellent because Gabe is one of funniest bloggers I’ve ever read. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention andiamnotlying.com, which is partially contributed to by my friend David William, who is an amazing artist “living the dream” in hipper-than-hip Brooklyn. And of course tastespotting and liquorious!
Do you have any pets? What are they, what are their names?
I think this is pretty well-documented, but I’m pwned by two cats, Oliver and Bigby. And let’s not forget the seemingly never-ending parade of foster animals.
If you had a time machine, where in history or the future would you go?
The future. To paraphrase Brian Fellows, I don’t do dinosaurs.
Beer, liquor, or wine (be specific)?
Beer and wine are more or less in a dead heat. I love a good Belgian-style wheat beer, but I also like a nice, flavorful copper, amber or red ale. As far as wines, I’ve graduated from the “I only drink whites” camp to almost exclusively reds. I tend to shy away from the drier stuff—no merlots for me, thanks. I like a nice full-bodied shiraz, cabernet savignon, malbec, or pinot noir.
What’s the first thing you notice about the ladies (or dudes if you prefer them)?
Teeth/smile. I can look past a lot of physical flaws, but bad teeth are pretty egregious.
Cake, pie or cookies (ice cream and candy are also acceptable, but be specific)?
This is tough! I love Starbursts. I like cupcakes a lot (though I’m pretty no-frills; plenty happy with vanilla-on-vanilla), and certain pies really get me going (key lime, blue berry, pumpkin, pecan). I appreciate a well-done cookie, but they’re more of a stop-gap dessert in my book—a sort of “well, if there’s nothing else around” treat. My wife’s cherry cheesecake is pretty awesome, as is her pumpkin cheesecake topped with toasted pecans and caramel-bourbon sauce.
As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, my wife and I love fostering animals for the Maryland SPCA here in Baltimore. The drag of it is, there are so many foster “parents” on the books with the MDSPCA that you only get a call about once every 4-6 months asking if you’re available. And just as our luck would have it, the last call we got was just days before we left for our tortuous fight with the Icelandic ash cloud back in May, which made it impossible to devote the two weeks the kittens needed before they were ready for adoption. I was pretty bummed, because, y’know, I love kittens, and it was very likely I wouldn’t get another call until this Fall.
Thankfully, I got another one on Wednesday, and promptly prepared our master bathroom for our fuzzy visitors. Five kittens, four boys, one girl, all named after Trueblood characters. Let the cuteness commence!
This* might be the most ingenious plan ever to drive up tithing at church; market God’s love to people that are already up early on Sundays — the poop-scooping demographic.
Initially I was surprised that this was a church in Massachusetts; proselytizing is usually the province of Southerners. But then, those unitarians episcopals are nothing if not inclusive. That said, where’s the special service for cat owners? The way my boys act, they could use a dose of religion every now and then.
*Note the irony in The Salem News using a witch on a broomstick as its logo. I’m sure those Puritan girls burned at the stake 400 years ago are chuckling about this down in Hell.
How is it this is the first time I’ve heard about this. There are cat cafes in Tokyo! OMG! I’ve always wanted to go there and this only further piques my interest. It’s the closest thing we have to modern day cat worship. (Please don’t tell my cats, they’d leave me for a kitty shrine in a heartbeat.)
For 100 Yen (about 11 US dollars) you get one hour in the kitty temple. Cat toys are provided, but you mustn’t wake up any sleeping kitties or insist kitties cuddle with you if they express a disinterest. Also no flash photography or small children. House rules for optimal kitty bliss.
Japanese kitty fans have likened cat-gazing to looking at art and say the cafes are a great way to relieve stress. Amazing!
via Christian Science Monitor
The MD SPCA’s March for the Animals was yesterday. I am pleased to report that I was able to raise $1,310.00 for them this year. A big thanks to my friends, family and Ex-Boyfriend customers who made donations, spread the word about this fundraiser and purchased bottle openers to support the cause. Below are a few pictures of some of the cute critters that came out for the event.
The party was pretty dog-centric, but I guess kitties aren’t known for getting out and about. That said, some critters just love to defy the norm. Thus, I love this story about Kitty. She’s on a 3 year hike with her humans across the Americas. She spends her days chilling under an umbrella attached to her human’s back pack. Adorable! This is one well-traveled kitty.
My favorite the most terrifying thing about the internet is that there is a blog or website about EVERYTHING! It never ceases to amaze me what people will dedicate a blog to. So today I’m sharing a few gruesome, amusing and very specific finds.
It’s exactly what it sounds like, it’s an entire blog of photos of ladies with lasers shooting from their boobs. The images are classy though, naturally, kind of retro. It’s a little NSFW but it’s more PG-13 than XXX.
I know about this because I have a friend who admitted he likes watching Youtube videos of people popping pimples. Apparently this is a thing. There’s an entire blog about it — pictures and videos. People are into this. You can take a gander and fantasize about the career you’ve missed out on in dermatology.
I was a little grossed out looking at this site, and I didn’t stay for long, but I thought you’d all like to share in my horror. (Or perhaps fascination if you’re like my friend.)
Being an independent artist I’m down with the handmade movement. I like checking out other artists’ work. To be perfectly honest, half the fun comes from discovering amazing stuff and the other half comes from mocking terrible stuff. I can be really catty, but only in private with my nearest and dearest. I don’t think I could do an entire website about how other artists’ work sucks. This doesn’t mean I’m not amused by Regretsy because I totally am. Sodomy unicorns banjo case, really people?
Exactly how it sounds, boys + cats = awesome, right? My wife tells me I’m cute and I have cats, should I send in my picture?
Got a favorite bizarre website I should see? Let me know.
Alright, enough is enough. Your dog or cat is not a baby. I get that you love them. I totally love my fuzzy companions, I pet and snuggle and adore the heck out of them. I do not, however, actually think they are baby humans. I don’t tote them around in some kinda papoose and I sure as heck do not invite them to the dinner table.
I like the product description for this totally insane item. It reads “Satisfying a mutual desire for companionship, this high chair permits your dog or cat to accompany you at the dinner table.” If you are that desperate for a companion consider making some friends. Get a roommate. Even getting a companion robot would be less ridiculous. I assure you, it’s not your companionship your pets are after during the dinner hour, it’s your food.
It goes on to say “By providing an alternative to sitting on your lap, running disruptively underfoot, or outright banishment, the chair assuages a pet (and its owner’s) frustration, and promotes more refined behavior.” Who are these people that are frustrated that Fifi and Fido can’t sit at the dinner table? Refined behavior? Seriously?
Also “Two tethers on the chair protect your dinner guests against any lapses in etiquette.” Lapses in etiquette? Like say inviting your dog to your dinner party?! WTF?!
But wait, this is my favorite “Folds for convenient storage and travel.” And travel?! Are they suggesting you should take this insane behavior out in public? Roll up to an Applebees with your pooch in tow? “Thanks, hostess, we’ll need a table for two but just one menu. I already know what Buster here will be having. Don’t worry, you don’t have to lug over a high chair for him. I brought my own.”
