Updates and Rambling
2004

The usual crowd was here: all the immediate family, complete with spouses and childer. My two-year-old niece Ashton has taken to calling me "Uncle Roo Roo," which I dig. She can actually say "Uncle Rusty," so it's an on-purpose cuteness, not an impedimental accidental cuteness. (Backstory: her mom, my sister-in-law, has always called me Roo Roo.) Also got to hang out with the Jacksonboy trio of Noby, Tommy, Jason.

But backing up a bit. The night before Christmas Eve (that's December 23, for those counting--also known as Jason' birthday) I opened up for Lately David at W.C. Don's. I played the usual stuff that no one cares for and that I don't actually understand myself. It was pretty fun. For some reason, I felt that I was being more "serious" during this show than usual (ever?). There weren't really any jokes this time.

Christmas Eve was all nice and warm and cozy. I'm beginning to like Christmas Eve better than Christmas Day, and maybe I always have. Everyone's around and eating (in a nibbly sort of way, rather than the less-preferred laziness-inducing Christmas meal) and opening presents that people are specifically picking out to be opened for various reasons. For example, Vicki getting me the 90s Time Capsule Edition of Trivial Pursuit so we could play it. Casey and I were on a team and we beat Mom and Noby / Vicki and Jason. (Note of confusion: there are two Jasons in this story: my nephew and my pal. Use context clues to figure out which is which.) And of course everyone is awake. It takes all of Christmas morning for me to wake up (especially after having slept on a couch or floor or something, which is usual), and by then it's over.

Earlier in the day, Casey's contact lens fell out next to the lobster tank.

Christmas morning for me is trying to soak up the little kids opening presents before they get old and soaky themselves, so I did some of that. Then I fixed Tommy's computer (formerly mine) with the "Magic Disc" that I'd been withholding for purposes of power--at least that's how Neola explained it to me... I just thought it was because I didn't realize how magical it really was. Then I watched the first part of It's a Wonderful Life with Mom before once again winning at 90s Trivial Pursuit, beating Noby, Teynaum, and Nick. My memory of Palm Pilots, Newt Gingrich, and Cheryl Crow singing about guns at Wal-Mart have finally paid off. Then Tommy, Noby, Dad, and I played Noby's Commodore 64 joystick and his Atari Paddle thing too. Apparently those were the popular things to get this Christmas. I already got my Atari Joystick a while back... I played Asteroids till I flipped it back to zero.

As the surreal closer for the night, Tommy and I (and eventually Jason) followed up on the rumor that Mike Mills of R.E.M. (whose family lives in Jackson) was going to play at the very same W.C. Don's that we'd played at two nights previous, and there he was. We sat there and he was casually walking through the halls and Tommy said, "Hey, look behind you. There's Mike Mills." "Oh yeah. Sure is." He eventually got on stage and played bass and sang with another surprise: Webb Wilder, the guy I vaguely remembered from those weird detective cowboy rockabilly movies or whatever they were. They basically "jammed," which in this case meant that they played old semi-standards that would have bored me if it hadn't been played by celebrities.

Anyway it was cool, seeing Mike Mills, a guy from one of my favorite bands since I was eleven, the last time I'd seen him having been in a big fancy arena concert at the Pyramid... this time, in the same bar I'd just played in with a five dollar cover charge. Tommy, being Tommy, talked to him for a little about the kind of bass he was playing, but I did even better because when I saw him go in the bathroom I walked in and took a piss in the urinal while he went in the stall and said "There it is!" referring to the bass he'd misplaced.

Okay, I didn't do better than Tommy, but I did win a five dollar bet because Tommy was under the impression that he'd get to play bass with them on stage and I bet he wouldn't. Tommy, again being Tommy, hasn't paid me the five dollars yet.

Before leaving, we talked to Neola and Karen for a while and Neola told me that I was a mythical creature, and I told her that, yes, I was. She also said nice things about Carrie, which is always appreciated.

The denoument consisted of me fixing up Tommy's computer even more: using the magic disc some more and moving the modem down a slot, then downloading some updates using dialup, which means we had time to watch the "Christmas classic" (as Jason said, or some equivalent phrase) The Rocky Horror Picture Show before only a little over half of phase one of the updates downloaded. And now I'm writing this, but it's -- as you know from my first exclamation -- Boxing Day now, not Christmas, so we're just getting ready for New Year's now. In the olden days, we got firecrackers in our stocking. These days, we watch CNN or something.

So merry happy happy and love love love.

The Return of King Rusty
(12-14-04) I'm finally kicking butt (sure, on easy mode, but still) on my Return of the King PC game I bought for myself as reward for a hard semester of work (or something like that). Tomorrow I'll watch the movie: all four plus hours of it.

Buffer Time
(12-11-04) I've been enjoying my "buffer time," the time between finishing school (which is what I still call my job, though I'm teaching it, not taking it) and going home for the holidays. Rather than doing my usual projects, I've been watching lots of movies and TVDs, playing videogames, and doing updates on my web site that I normally don't have time to do. Oh, and sleeping late. And wearing my house robe 50% of the time.

ABBA
(12-6-04) ABBA is the best band ever? I wouldn't argue with you if you said it.

Ed Wood
(11-14-04) I recently got a box set of Ed Wood movies that I'm watching as a buildup to re-watching my favorite Tim Burton movie, Ed Wood. I don't know why Ed Wood was singled out as a "bad" director. I watch something like Bride of the Monster and I don't see how it's much different from any other monster film from the 1950s. I wasn't bored at all throughout. Same for Plan 9 from Outer Space, the movie people stupidly call "the worst movie ever made."

Then you got Glen or Glenda? which is some sort of unique piece of greatness. One day someone will re-evaluate this movie not as a "so bad it's good" movie, but as "so different it's great."

Anyway, because of recent lists and things I've been doing with We Like Media, I've thought a little about the idea of "good" and "bad," and I guess I'm getting bored with it. I even think of my music and movie review site and how pointless it is. "This movie's good, this other one's not as good, this one's bad." Who cares? In my English classes, we spend maybe five minutes tops out of the hour and a half talking about whether someone liked a book or not. Not really important if you liked it or not, just what you get out of it.

Anyway, I'm not going to go back and re-review everything in a "real" way. I'm too lazy for that, which is why I write judgement reviews anyway, instead of analytical ones. (Also, my review pages are just a complicated way for me to organize myself. The reviews are secondary to something else.) And I guess it's still helpful to let someone know if they should bother or not (which is why my movies pages are more useful than my music page... since I've seen movies that aren't worth seeing, but most of the music I review is worth hearing).

Um... I got off the point there somewhere. I think I originally wanted to say that I must have some kind of connection with Ed Wood that others don't have. I originally watched the movies because everyone was saying they were really funny because they're horrible, but I never laughed once while watching an Ed Wood movie. I watch them as movies, not as jokes.

Today I watched a documentary on Plan 9 they put on the DVD, and you had jerks like some film professor listing off 50-something things "wrong" with the movie (bad acting, day-for-night, continuity, etc.), but then there were one or two guys who said stuff I always thought. Like one guy said that the flying saucers in Plan 9 that everyone made fun of were not meant to be realistic special effects, but were meant to be "symbolic" of what we know them to be. In theater, on the stage, you see things on wires all the time and no one minds (many, like me, prefer it). We know flying saucers don't exist anyway, so how can we have "realistic" ones? Then of course the guy who said what needed to be said: that Ed Wood films are always interesting, never boring, so isn't that what really counts?

Crap doesn't matter to me that seems to matter to everyone else. Like, you know, the way I record vocals (the problem almost everyone has with my music)... Okay. Bored now. Sorry. Done writing.

Sorry Everybody
(11-08-04) I saw that thing on Headline News about sorryeverybody.com, a place where folks are writing little "sorry, world" messages on behalf of the half of America that didn't vote for Bush. Two things: (1) I understand the sentiment (see post below) and think the heart of the idea is in the right place. (2) They need to get over it and quit being snobby sore losers.

Some of the pictures are good. Some are not. The ones that are not are the ones that say things like "Sorry that half of the world is stupid" or "Sorry that only half of us are literate intellectuals." I wanted to clarify here that I don't put myself in the group of people who think they're superior, who say things like "Only visit blue states." People made a decision, which was fine with me: I just was upset at some of the reasons for the decision (morality issues vs. actual issues, etc.), not the decision itself. I respect anyone's choice to honestly support Bush or anyone else if they feel like they have good reasons for it.

Kerry lost because he sucked. If he wouldn't have sucked, he might have won. Apparently not enough people, including me, could get behind the "I'm not Bush" platform. Do better, buddy.

The pictures on the site that are good are the ones that seem honestly worried and say "Please don't hate us." And the even better ones are the ones from people in other countries who say "Don't worry about it."

This recent political thing I'm writing about will go away soon. This might be the last one. Rusty talking politics is not pretty. And I am a beautiful man.

Post-Election Thoughts (see "obligatory"): the "Off My Chest," "Who Cares, Rusty?" post
(11-04-04) I tried to imagine both scenarios, how I would feel if Kerry won, then if Bush won. In both cases, I just felt like, "Bleh, I have to put up with this guy for four years." For me, the president (all of them) is a mild annoyance, someone I have to hear say stupid stuff on TV. He's Ashlee Simpson. That's about the effect he's has on me since Gerald Ford. I'm male, white, straight, middle-class, blue-eyed, tall, skinny, protestant, moderately good-looking... Presidents generally leave me the fuck alone, so I almost feel like elections are none of my business.

But there are one or two things I'm upset about. The main thing is that the re-election of George Bush seems to be our way of telling the rest of the world, yeah, we agreed with all that stuff he did: the whole stupid war, all the incredible lies, going against the UN, pulling a Senator Palpatine Attack of the Clones move and getting Jar-Jar to pull that whole emergency powers bullshit (doesn't our government watch movies?), the Patriot Act... everything that made our country look equal parts arrogant and stupid. We became a big fucking bully and the world got pissed. But maybe at least the world could have thought, "Well, it's Bush -- not Americans themselves -- who are arrogant, stupid bullies." But then Americans said, "No, it's us. We like him."

Of course, I don't include myself in that "we" and neither does a lot of the country, so it kinda feels like when you're sitting in traffic and someone in the passenger seat leans over and annoyingly honks your car horn. It makes it look like you did it, that you're the jerk and the asshole who's pissing off the people in their cars who are already angry, when in fact it was just some guy who you brought along with you that maybe you didn't want in your car in the first place.

So I'm mad about that.

I'm also upset anytime any politician upsets our precious "separation of church and state" idea. And that seems to be a big part of what won this election for Bush, the proposed further combination of church and state. During the whole campaign, I was more or less surrounded by people who absolutely hated George Bush. I'm a professor at a university, so of course the vibe there was "Bush is a dick." And all the media I expose myself to was anti-Bush. So I was hard-pressed to find Bush supporters. Then I randomly saw some video clip on the internet of Jimmy Swaggart talking about gay folks, saying that he thanks God we have a president who opposes gay marriage (he also said he'd kill any gay person that got near him--how's that for What Would Jesus Do?), which met with huge cheers from this gaudy stadium packed full of people. That's when I said, "Oh yeah. There they are. Forgot about this."

For some reason, these folks want a government that aligns with their religion, instead of one that is 100% religion-less. I love God. I love the fuck out of him. And I don't want anyone telling me the right and wrong way to go about expressing that I do. According to what these same people preach, our country was founded on freedom of religion, even escaping other countries because the mother countries had their one way of celebrating God and didn't allow you to worship in your own stupid, fucked up ways (the pilgrims come to mind). So these voters are saying, "We want you to tell us exactly how to worship God." A Church of America. Holy shit.

This does affect me. And now I hear Democrats are "wising up" and saying, "Maybe we should jump on the religious bandwagon." I mean, it's all predicted in the book of the Revelation anyway, so I don't know why I'm surprised and upset. It talks about this whole idea of people being lulled by religion and the appearance of peace and goodness and unity in the world, and that anyone who's opposed to that will get asked, stern but nice at first, "So why haven't you joined us?" Then they'll ask not so nice. The same thing happened in the fourth season of Angel too.

And religion is just such a big stupid shiny red herring anyway. People actually choose their president based on gay issues? That's like only 10% of the country, right? And those 10% are not largely in the "red" states anyway, so my home state of Mississippi and Co. are, what, voting that they won't get grossed out when they see two guys wearing wedding rings on the rare occasion that they might fly out to New York or San Francisco? And abortion? People choose who's going to have the right to destroy nations and the lives of our own people based on the right to destroy little blood clots in a woman's body?

I mean, Richard Nixon got some folks to do a tiny break-and-enter and got impeached. Bill Clinton told a harmless white lie about getting his weiner sucked (oh, I forget--with his hand on the Bible) and nearly got impeached. George Bush invades a country on false pretenses, tells at least three or four tall tales (from "Sadaam Hussein blew up the World Trade Center," to "he does have weapons and he will use them... soon," to "well, see, he's just a bad man... they hate our freedom") which should, you know, have pissed people off at least... but instead he's re-elected. Holy crapburger Moses!

And I'm absolutely certain that all of that is just the surface. I'm absolutely certain that it's much worse, because I know how naive I generally am. And John Kerry's still a giant douche. If we'd have elected him, Kim Jong Il would have probably said, "I can take this pussy" and we'd be blown to smithereens. Sure, I'll give you that. If Nader ever wins, we'll probably be forced to look at slideshows of his apperances on the Mike Douglas show. You know--they're all crap.

I guess I'm just waiting for the big American party to be over. Rome falling, etc. Bush won't do it by himself, of course. And he certainly didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. Etc. I guess I'm just really looking forward to the end of the world. Seriously. I'm talking about the actual end of the world; and that I'm really, really excited about it. Fire falling from the sky and all that. Man, I just think it'll be so pretty.

Last Minute Jab, Then I'm Done
(11-2-04) If we're lucky, in a few hours we'll know which two musical choices the American public prefers: Country music or Classic Rock. Apparently there's some other musics out there too (I hear Late 70s Adult Alternative is getting about 1%), but you don't hear about those much.

Happy Halloween
(10-31-04) So happy Devil Day to you all. Some news:

1. Carrie and I both had stories accepted to The Georgetown Review, the spring 2005 edition. 2. The fruit known as "Grapple," which advertises itself to "look like an apple, taste like a grape," actually looks like an apple, tastes like a not-to-good apple that eventually leaves the aftertaste of dog food in your mouth. 3. Those pre-roasted chickens you can buy at the grocery store look to disgusting for me to eat--if you wanna cut one up for me, I'll eat it, but looking at the whole thing makes me nauseous. Looks like I'll be throwing mine out. 4. Quagga.com, Noby's new domain site, will appear soon and signal all sorts of happy changes for the universe. 5. I like the band McLusky. 6. I'm getting ready to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. 7. My name is Rusty Spell.

Rusty's Computer '04
(10-28-04) Yeah, my computer completely rocks now. I love it so. I just got a new CPU fan that makes 19 dB of noise (the other one was, what, 36 or something... and rattled). That means I don't really hear anything. My entire computer makes a really low hum now, not what it sounded like when I first built it, which was -- as Carrie once thought -- the bathroom fan for when you take a dump.

And nothing goes wrong with the computer. Like usually people have one or two things that's buggy or that they live with, but mine's perfect, baby. And I'm doin' some hard-core shizzo to it. Aw, yeah, nerd in the house!

They also finally hooked up the new computer in my new office, and it's got a flat screen and one of those tiny keyboards and everything is black and it kicks butt too from the little I messed with it today. I'll be playing Spider Solitaire at superspeed in no time! (Note: I won't be.)

Derp!

True Rambling
(10-22-04) I just spent a long time taking about 170 pictures of myself (and other things), primarily for the new graphic for my online mix tape, but also just to screw around with my camera, which I haven't done enough of. I've taken lots and lots of pictures with it, but haven't done much screwing around. I'll be posting some of those soon, though they were really just the prelude to true screwing around. I can't help but like the pretentious blurry and smeared and double-exposed kinds of pictures, so there might be several of those.

I'm reading Tom Green's book. It's, um... okay. I'll rewrite it for him. I love Tom.

I might be close to having a perfect computer. Nothing really goes wrong with my computer right now, and in a few days, I'm going to have a virtually silent CPU fan. The loud-ish fan was the only thing bugging me about the computer, and it's not horrible. I just don't need any noise at all when I do music, ya know, so I ordered one of those superfancy jobs off the internet.

The Fun With Numbers series is completely finished now, new bonus disc and all. I'm going to take a break from making DVDs until after Christmas. I think it's kind of cool that I did the entire series (nine collections) in half a year. I could have done them in half the time if I'd been in a hurry, but I wasn't in a hurry. I like taking my time with this kind of stuff, and I can really only do one thing at a time. I'm going to have to take a break from a few fun things for a while to do real things. Also until Christmas.

I keep having dreams about M*A*S*H, that I'm interacting with characters on the show or in an episode or something. When I dream I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's usually because I've been watching the DVDs (cause when I get a hold of those, I watch a zillion in a row), but I only watch M*A*S*H from time to time. Usually it's pretty serious stuff. Last night Hawkeye, Radar, and I were running from bombs going off at the camp... Hawkeye speaking philisophically as we did so. Then the bombs stopped and we came back. I usually have dreams where Frank Burns is seen as the psycho he actually is. On the show, he's sort of shown as a baffoon, but he's actually really really really messed up in the head. He's completely looney. Like he could be a murderer looney. Frank is kind of scary to me actually.

I'm now deciding between fixing up photos for my photo site and going to bed. I'll let you know what happens.

Withdrawal in Disgust Is Not the Same as Apathy
(10-7-04) From America (The Book) by The Daily Show:

"The Republican Party is the party of nostalgia. It seeks to return America to a simpler, more innocent and moral past that never actually existed. The Democrats are utopians. They seek to create an America so fair and non-judgemental that life becomes an unbearable series of apologies. Together, the two parties function like giant down comforters, allowing the candidates to disappear into the enveloping softness, protecting them from exposure to the harsh weather of independent thought."

or: Why Rusty Doesn't Vote. I think it's a legitimate political voice to have. Voting for me would be dishonest. So I don't buy all that "you can't complain if you don't vote" crap.

There you go--me talking politics. Now I'll go back to making DVDs or something.

Why I Stopped Reading David Leaf's Liner Notes to the new Brian Wilson release of Smile...
(9-29-04) He writes, "To remind you of the cultural context of this creation... the then-current Beatles' album was Revolver. Lyndon Johnson was President of the United States, Robert Kennedy was a U.S. Senator, Rev. Martin Luther King was fighting for civil rights and Brian's boyhood hero, Mickey Mantle, was still playing baseball for the New York Yankees." Fuck off. Do better.

Pandamonium
(9-27-04) Someone needs to track down copies of these cartoons for me. Maybe just transcripts.

A Question about Song Lyrics and Short Stories
(9-21-04) Why is it always cheap wine? Does that somehow provide instant character? Watch what you're doing, you guys.

I've Got a New Musical Boyfriend
(9-18-04) Jens Lekman. He's a Swedish (of course he is) guy who sounds like an almost perfect blend of Stephin Merritt and Belle & Sebastian... only doing his own thing so he's not just an annoying rip-off guy. After hearing one song ("Black Cab"), I ordered his one album and three EPs at once. I'm in the middle of song #2 on the first EP and I haven't made a mistake in jumping in. I get the same sort of "this is me, I am now alive" feelings from Jens as from Stephin and Stuart.

One More To Go...
(9-16-04) So I watched all of Angel season four in exactly one week. It was good. There's exactly one season of it and Buffy left to watch, and then I will be sad.

Apocalypse Nowish
(9-10-04) When I dream about it, the end of the world is always beautiful. Always pretty lights in the dark sky. Usually it's some world-wide communion, people looking at the same glittery spectacle. Not just like fireworks or firebombs falling, but some sort of actual message that everyone more or less understands. People are in awe, and they're also like "Oh."

Happy Birthday, Carrie
(9-5-04) Today is Carrie Hoffman's birthday. She's my gal pal. Go visit her at carriehoffman.com.

Back To School, the Triple Lindy
(8-25-04) I start teaching again on Thursday. I'm doing three sections of composition, one of intro to lit, and one of American lit. Yes, that's a lot.

So lots happened this summer. I met Carrie's parents in Miami, she and I went to Disney World, I taught summer classes, Lori got married in Portland Oregon and I was a bridesmaid (never a bride), Carrie's brother got married in San Fransisco California and I was Carrie's date (never a bride). Um, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. Oh, and Tommy, Noby, and I did DVD commentaries for most of our Fun With Numbers series (we have two left out of seven). There were a few new videos shot in there too, including Tommy's movie called "The Boy Who Hated Music," some things Carrie and I did, and a music video of "Kiss Off" that Liza and I did. I think all that happened this summer anyway.

What else? I got a new shirt. Blue.

Fo'ge'bout it. It'sa fugayzi.

Trips
(8-15-04) I've been doing vacations within vacations within vacations, so not much time to "ramble" here. The summer home base is Hattiesburg Mississippi with trips to Jackson and Biloxi and other trips to Oregon and San Fransico and possibly all over the place before it's all said and done. School starts too soon, but till then, I'm trippin' out.

Buying Phones Shouldn't Be This Hard
(6-30-04) I've bought like five phones in the past half year. Either there's some odd little flaw with them, like that they make ticking sounds (because of some sort of odd interference?) or (mostly) because they are really uncomfortable. Maybe I have sensitive ears, but the last few phones I've bought hurt like crap after just five minutes... and I tend to talk a while on the phone.

I'm off to return and buy another one. I'm also getting South Park 4 so at least I'll get something accomplished if this phone sucks too. Whenever I have these specific things happen, I look at everyone else in the universe and think, "What's my problem? That guy on TV seems perfectly happy with his phone. Everyone on the other end is perfectly happy with their phone." Like when I had so many problems with my computer/video editing stuff, and I'd see graphics on TV and think, "Man, how'd they accomplish that?"

Oh, and... visitors from the Fluxblog... you're not welcome anymore, sorry. You're eating up my bandwidth. I doubled it and it's sitll being chewed too quickly. I'll probably have to take down my MP3 page unless everyone wants to give me money or something ("donations," mind you--wanna stay legal). I'll give it a month or so and see what happens.

Visitors from the Fluxblog, Welcome
(6-18-04) So I'm popular, for a short while anyway, because my online mix tape was mentioned on the very famous Fluxblog. I had to buy extra bandwidth and everything. Anyway, if you're a stranger looking at Rusty Spell Dot Com -- whether directed from the Fluxblog or not -- and are wondering what this is all about. Um, I'm not sure. An homage to myself, I guess. I'm still trying to decide what to do with it when I die. It seems like someone should inherit all this information. I don't even have copies of my web page on my computer. I just dump this crap straight up to the webby-roo.

Hey, boo.

Walt Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines DVDs
(6-7-04) Now I can watch "Four Methods of Flush Riveting" anytime I want...

Elton and the Decade I Was Born
(5-12-04) One of my first 45s as a kid was Elton John's "Crocodile Rock." Years later, I'm finally getting around to wanting to buy an Elton John collection. Turns out, Elton John wrote some good songs. I'm going to get the collection that Liza (and Todd) has. I'm also listening to the Breaking the Waves soundtrack and saying, "Man, the 70s were pretty cool."

Today...
(4-27-04) Today was some of my students' last day of class, the last day I had with them. This afternoon when I was in my office, one of those students came in with some old clothes on and a paint bucket and paint brush.

"I thought you might want me to paint your office. It's kind of a bland color in here."

"Um, I'm not sure if they'd dig that at the university. They probably picked this color for a reason."

Pause.

"Okay, then." Leaves.

Walden
(4-21-04) Maybe I'll go to Walden Pond. Not the actual Thoreau one, just some "my version" of it. I'll pull a Noby and disappear off the planet for a while. I don't have a cell phone, so that helps. I'm thinking a week should do it. I'll bring my computer, most likely, but just won't turn on my email machine. I can make Fun With Numbers DVDs and listen to director commentaries and, you know, swim. It's been almost five years since Space Camp, so I'm overdue.

Barb Dylan
(4-14-04) "The movie Masked and Anonymous," I said, "is a piece of shit." Offensively bad. The movie gets many of my very favorite actors into one movie and makes them look like pieces of mysogonystic turds.

But then... I watched Kill Bill Volume 1 again, so everything's fine. I keep saying to myself that we gonna have us a knife fight.

Spoonfeeding: under-rated. People think being "spoonfed" your art is a bad thing. Masked and Anonymous was a non-sequitur movie, essentially--the entire thing. One of the non-sequiturs was a lady saying, about a song, "This is so completely open to interpretation." Screw that. Why is ambiguity so charming? Kill Bill was all about being blunt, to the point... spoonfeeding. Tarantino fed us like babies, the good food we like. What's wrong with that?

So, for many of you out there (though probably not anyone actually reading this): grow up... spoonfeeding is the way to go.

Netterflickers
(4-9-04) I'm doing that Netflix thing. I figure it's worth 20 bucks a month to have three DVDs I actually want to watch at my disposal at any given point, with no obligation to return them. So even if I only watch like four a month, I'm doing fine. Something tells me I'll have more time pretty soon for movies, but who knows. Maybe I'll have less. I'm busier-than-normal at the time.

Right now I'm using it to watch movies people have been bugging me about. Show Me Love for Noby, Masked and Anonymous for Tommy, and Breaking the Waves for Carrie. And A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors for me, because for some reason I really want to see that again. I'll also use it to watch hard-to-find stuff and TV shows I don't want to buy. And of course just general stuff like School of Rock or whatever, random crap that I don't feel like going to the Blockbuster for and having to return it and spending up to five bucks on.

You all wanted to know this, right? I mean, I don't write on this thing every day, but now that I am, at least it's something profound like my decision to join Netflix. All the miracles in the world and I'm talking about a movie rental service.

On Good Friday too.

Buffyblogs
(4-6-04) First of all, everyone should know that in order to be completely literate on the Rusty's Ramblings page, you should also read these cross-pollinating folks: the GLORY!blog, Tommy's Diary, and The Lunch Journal. They should be daily clickables.

Then you'd get to read the happy news: that Tommy is addicted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I knew he would be. It's a show that surprises you: "What, I'm crazy about that?" The title and description of the show and channels it used to come on (WB and UPN) and lots about it sounds repulsive. But it ain't: it's anti-repulsive.

Three Buffy things happened today: (1) I read that Tommy's addicted to it. (2) I got my Buffy 2 DVDs in the mail today (I'm ordering them whenever found cheap on Half.com--when I watched them, I watched Liza's copies). (3) I got out of my car at my apartment, and in the back seat of someone's vehicle was the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game (one of my favorite board games of all time--and not just for the theme). I don't know of anyone else outside our circle who plays this. I think I might leave them a note under their windshield wipers that says they're cool whoever they are.

I don't understand the title of Tommy's latest post ("The race fan and her dude..."). Maybe it's an inside joke between him and himself.

The Passion: Vomit
(3-30-04) I finally watched that Jesus movie. It was the worst thing I've seen in a long time. It was winner of most pointless movie ever made.

As a regular movie -- Nothing special here. Just the usual catalog of Jesus movie shots: obsession with dirt and feet and people falling down. Directed and edited in a dumb way. Ridiculous juxtapositions of Jesus getting beat up and flashbacks.

As a "faith" movie -- If anything, this movie is anti-God/Jesus. There's nothing inspirational about this. It's just a strange man with a beard getting the ever living crap beat out of him (in a more-exaggerated-than-historically-accurate way, if you care about that kind of thing--I thought there were only 39 whippings, not 39,000), then dragging a cross for an hour, then being all bloody and dying. What is inspirational about this? That Jesus suffered? Did we not know this already?

This movie is wrong and not only anti-Semetic, but anti-human and anti-God and, hell, anti-Jesus. There's nothing redeeming here. No point. No nothing. I feel physically bad even now (about eight hours later) and it's not from the movie being "graphic." It's because I feel watching it sucked a little of my soul out. Thanks, Mel Gibson: you suck donkeys.

Seriously, though, Mel, get mental help. You are a nut bar. Has anyone seen interviews with this guy? He's got these undearm roll-on eyeballs flying around everywhere and he's talking like he's made the greatest thing since the Gospels themselves. Someone tell him he has made the baby Jesus cry.

Owning
(3-28-04) Certain uses of the word own bugs me. Like someone "doing their own stunts" or "playing their own instruments." Who else's instruments would they be playing? But even more than the phrase being redundant (or just wrong), it suggests an incorrect assumption: that doing something yourself is necessarily better or preferred.

Like doing your "own" stunts. What's wrong with a stunt guy doing them? Isn't he better at it? Does it somehow make the movie better knowing that Tom Cruise was hanging from the mountain in Mission: Impossible or whatever it was? And for Jackie Chan, shouldn't we really be saying "He does his own acting"? Seems like the stunts aren't the big news there.

Playing their own instruments? Writing their own songs? Is Christina Aguilera or whoever really less of an artist because she doesn't perform each instrument? Isn't the point that people like her voice? If she played the instruments as well, I'm sure it would sound crappy. Is that what people want? Is a band less good because each member plays one instrument apiece: Paul plays the bass, Ringo plays the drums, etc.? "Oh, I don't like The Beatles. They only play one instrument apiece. And sometimes they sing other people's songs. Did you hear John Lennon singing 'Twist and Shout'? What a joke."

According to people who think people have to do their "own" stuff to be legitimate, everyone would have to do everything themselves rather than stick with the stuff they're actually good at. Are actors only good if they write the scripts? Or direct themselves? It's the same argument. No one seems to mind that Marlon Brando didn't "do his own screenplay and direction" in The Godfather.

The First Rule of Rusty Spell Club...
(3-26-04) One of my students said to me, "You know that scene in Fight Club when Edward Norton says 'Babies don't sleep this well'? The whole feel of that reminds me of you." It was one of the sweetest things anyone's ever said to me. Don't ask me to explain it though.

Oh, and note all the crazy musicstuff over there on the left.

Further Proof That We Are The Beatles
(3-18-04) John Lennon said this thing about that musical "feud" he and Paul McCartney had on their solo records. When John wrote "How Do You Sleep?" and all that. He said that friends fight, and friends who make music might choose to fight that way, which suddenly made all those songs seemingly about hate kind of sweet. So now I'm sweetly responding to my friend Tommy's diary where he called me an "asshole" for saying his diary was becoming boring.

Dear Tommy. Listen here, asshole! Alls I meant was that I was bored with you just posting on your diary and not contributing to the daily fun of the BMT. That's all I meant, jerkwad. But you're too stupid to know that, aren't you? You're about as dumb as President Thames! So take that!

So I said something and it was wrong or it was taken wrong, so I'll play the chord or I won't play the chord or I'll do whatever pleases you.

Love you, Tommy. Glad you're back on the BMT and sorry about that whole "asshole" thing.

My New Bad Joke
(3-5-04) Q: What do Mexicans write letters with?
A: A PENata.

Technology Makes Us More Human
(2-26-04) I know technology shouldn't determine the quality of your creative output, but it always has for me. I didn't start seriously writing stories until I got my first computer in 1990. Cause, what, I'm going to keep up with sheets of notebook paper? I don't think so.

In 1998, I got my first real computer (that is to say, one that was as good as everyone else's--not just an old hand-me-down... not that I didn't appreciate those hand-me-downs) and I was able to burn CDs. I felt that being able to put our old tapes on CDs not only helped out the old stuff, but also pushed the new stuff forward. In addition to simply being able to make CDs, I also now had recording equipment that was computer-based. Cause, what, I'm going to keep recording on my two-track?

And now, with the new computer I got in 2003, I've just now made my first DVD. The first thing I chose to do was our only full-length movie America: The Way I See It--The Cooter Ray Movie (everything else we made was more or less a compilation of short movies). It was great to finally be able to edit that thing properly on the computer. Cause before, what, I'm going to hook up two VCRs and hope that I'm pressing "record" at just the right time?

I'm going to put all our old videos on DVD and they will be all clean and fancy, just like our music catalog is now. I'm really happy about this, even if it sounds dorky or like I'm making a big deal. I'm all about neatness and packaging. It's why I went into writing instead of, say, painting.

I know I sort of live a few states away from all the friends I used to make videos with, but I hope by some miracle we can start making new stuff again since we're all fancy and real now (and since there are plenty of new potential cast members floating around... we've all been friendly enough to meet new people since 1997, the last time we put out a video).

Be on the lookout for a new and improved Envision page. I'll update it as DVDs are created. Later, skaters. Rusty.

Storyville
(2-19-04) Just letting you guys know that I wrote the first story I've written in over half a year. It's not bad, I think--I'll have to read it again. It's called "Moods/Soulless" because I like the way that looks and it's a cheating way of getting two titles. That first one back in the game isn't angelcrazy yet, but I feel I'm getting there.

And, also, in case it wasn't clear (and it wasn't): plot is good. What happens next? There's that phase that all young writers go through when they feel that plot isn't important and that character study or whatever is, that the way a character moves a coffee cup is more important than what they do or what happens next, but I should certainly be out of that phase by now. I can keep all that stuff (the good parts of it, I mean) and make people want to know what happens next. It's why I watched one Angel after another. I should really start watching soap operas, I suppose.

I should read Tom Jones again maybe.

Angel Again
(2-17-04) I just finished watching the season. And... once upon a time, I wrote stories, and I'm thinking that when that starts happening again I'll take some cues from this show. I'm not going to write about vampires and demons, but I do appreciate the way the show demonstrates life by being larger than life. There's people going through real changes and transcending planes and, you know, it also shows in their haircuts. There's never an episode without fisticuffs: that sort of exaggerated violence that actually shows something, that people care enough about things to beat the crap out of other things.

What I'm talking about, in relation to short stories, is that in short stories these days it's considered a big change in a character if someone has some mild Joycean epiphany about the snow or a flower or something. Some dumb little subtle moment. Yeah, okay, that was nice for a while, but I suppose I'm bored with that. And with characters just dicking around. Things need to get gruesome because they can get gruesome because it's not real life so the only way to make it real is to make it fake and big and bloody.

So, yeah. Watch out, world. Rusty W. Spell is back in town... (but, um, don't stare at your watch or anything; I'm in town but I'm sort of going to finish this cup of coffee first, okay? okay, groovy).

Angel and Buffy
(2-16-04) I'm watching the third season of Angel on DVD. I don't watch Angel or Buffy on TV: I just wait until the DVDs come out because watching TV shows on DVD is the best way. So first let me say hats off to those who did watch these shows on TV--I'm able to (unlike the TV viewers who had to wait a week or more) sit down and watch another right now after one of the hugest "Oh my God!" exclamations that's come out of my mouth; you know, a big time... not a cliffhanger, but something else. Cliffhangers are too cheesy for these shows.

Angel and Buffy are smarter than me, and I appreciate that. It's not often that a super smart guy like myself can say that about a TV show. Often in books, TV, or movies, there will be a setup that you will either figure out or it's not that interesting or -- worse -- it doesn't pay off at all. Like maybe something will seem pretty cool when you start watching it, and you think it's building up to this big thing, and it's kind of fun watching the mystery... but then the mystery doesn't exactly unfold. I mean, even David Lynch (my favorite movie guy) doesn't unfold mysteries satisfactorily. Mulholland Drive didn't get a better payoff than the "holy wow" start it began with. Twin Peaks often did (the "Who killed Laura Palmer?" answer was better than I could have expected), but not always. So am I saying that Angel and Buffy are better or smarter than David Lynch? I dunno, maybe. I do have dreams about them.

And I've been wanting to write this somewhere, that the whole idea of Dawn in the fifth season of Buffy is like the best thing I've ever heard of. It's a perfect example of what I was talking about up there.

So I guess it's late so I'll wait until tomorrow to watch another Angel, but at least I ain't gotta wait a week.

The Last Guy Left
(2-11-04) I turns out everyone in the world has heard of who I am. That's not hyperbole, I checked it out. Some guy named Darren Watson wrote me an email yesterday, and I was pretty sure he was the only one left, and I checked and he was. He had been sick for a long time, and when he recovered, his wife told him to avoid anything strenuous. But one day he felt like he could do a little more, so he logged in, thinking it would be relaxing enough -- and it was -- and he ran across this page and now he knows who I am.

I mean, if you asked some stranger, "Do you know who Rusty Spell is?" they probably wouldn't say yes. They'd probably say no, even if you reminded them of who I am. Even if you said "That Mnemonic Devices guy" or "That English instructor" or "The skinny one," they still might not know. But they know who I am; they've heard of me. Trust me.

What about the babies being born? What about the kid that was born while I'm writing this? Jeez, don't be stupid. Gosh, I mean really. Look: everyone has heard of who I am, that's all I'm saying. No big deal. Not that hard to believe. Okay?

Now get some sleep.

The Truth
(2-5-04) I would like to do more. In general.

The Daily Show Is Beautiful
(2-2-04) I was so taken by this bit of The Daily Show that I had to type it out for people to read in case they missed it. I feel stomach aches and pity anytime someone says, "I watch the Superbowl for the commericals," and this segment of the show expresses exactly why.

----------
Jon Stewart: Who was the big winner of last night’s advertisements?

Rob Corddry: You mean which mega-corporation was most effective in establishing lifetime brand loyalties of ten to fifteen-year-olds? Well, the answer to that would have to be beer and cars. But if you ask me, last night’s real winner was repressed sexual angst masquerading as humor. From a romantic courtship scarred by horse flatulence to the agony of a marriage gone sour to the inevitable reliance of the body on pills just to get a hard-on, the Superbowl is truly the night when the advertising industry takes all of our black, empty yearning and spins it into dreams, finding that sweet spot of consumer desire that can only be accessed with the right balance of poop jokes and misogyny.

Jon: That’s a little dark, Rob.

Rob: Sorry, Jon, excuse me for not getting as giddy as a schoolgirl at a pony show over Superbowl advertising. I guess the fact that it’s so horribly corrosive to the human spirit kind of dampens my enthusiasm.

Jon: Okay, but in terms of commercial trends did you think that—

Rob: [interrupting] You know, I’ll tell you something, I worked on this so-called report until really late last night, watching and re-watching these ads, until I sort of blacked out and drifted into this heightened alpha state and my soul felt like it left my body and flew up, way up, right? And from this high above I could see everything, like my eyes were opening for the first time, and I saw this whole Superbowl ad fixation for what it is: a symptom of a sick, consumer society so in love with its own materialistic corruption that it actually celebrates the slick exploitations to buy, get, and spend evermore. We are hurting… deep, deep inside of our hearts, Jon. And then I’m thinking, "Well, that can’t be that my report," so let’s roll the tape of the dog biting the guy in the nuts.
----------

God bless you, The Daily Show. God bless you.

I Say It's My Birthday
(1-29-04) I'm 29 years old now. Send me candy or animated musical internet greeting cards. I got toys in the mail and I hear I'm getting more. I'm celebrating Birthday Week. It began on Tuesday or so and will go at least through the weekend.

I made a "hype page" for the Mnemonic Devices album Topanga. Mnemonic Devices albums are the only ones I work on long enough to have time for a hype page. I've done one for almost every album. I like them. They're temporary, they have ugly information and misinformation, but they will be deleted eventually. There's all sorts of fake album covers on there, which is the best part. But there's also a list of the songs I've recorded, and I'll keep updating that.

I'll get myself in the mood to work on it soon. The difference between this one and all the others is that I'm not giving myself the push to do it. I just work on it when I feel like it. I've even purposefully spread this one out for various reasons, and it's worked out for me so far. I'm glad I didn't try to cram it together before Christmas.

So I'm getting into holidays again. This is mostly Carrie's doing. I'm even looking forward to Groundhog's Day. Maybe even St. Patrick's day. They become so easily ignorable, but that's changing. I remember now how much I was obsessed with holidays as a child, how I'd look forward to the next one so I could draw appropriate pictures. It was the Charles Schulz in me. I especially liked my elaborate Easter Egg factories.

Speaking of Schulz, they're putting out a complete Peanuts, in chronological order. They're doing two a year all the way through 2016 or something zany like that. I plan on buying them. They're my favorites.

Okay, I'm going to bed now, I suppose. Love.

So I Got Bored...
(1-24-04) If you hate the new page, let me know. I might can change it back... or change it to something else. I sort of still love the green dot, but I just need a break from it for a while.

Joneses
(1-15-04) I got me some DSL, so I'm fast internet boy now. I'm sort of struggling to keep up with the standard of the rest of America, basically. No cell phone yet, but I still don't exactly want one of those. Not having one is causing the Higher Powers to protect me in the car. If I had a cell phone, I'd just be breaking down all the time.

New pictures up. Everyone likes pictures. Many are of you.

Happy 2004
(1-13-04) I'm back in Texas and school has started again. Taught three classes today, teach the other two tomorrow. They seem like nice folk. I won't have to kill anyone.

I think I might make a project list over there under the updates section so people can know what I'm working on. People used to dig that back in the early days of The Rusty Spell Experience (people = Tommy).

Christmas was fun. In addition to being stressed out about my messy old room, I got to be with Carrie in Lettuceburg for two weeks and the Pearl connection included Tommy, Noby, Jason, (whoah) Todd, Teynaum, and of course fellow Texan Liza. Carrie got to meet some of the Pearl peeps as well, including Ma and Pa Spell. Pictures forthcoming of above fun. Stay tuned.

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