skywaterblue

Leo McGarry: My generation never got the future it was promised... Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped.
Josh Lyman: The personal computer...
Leo McGarry: A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?

***

I don't think I'll ever forget where I was the day John Spencer died. I didn't forget it - I just forgot to post because I've been epically busy. Five years. It at once seems very far away and not long ago at all.

I did finals, then Friday night we went out to the Wynn Buffet and Sinatra: Dance With Me. This is a new show at the Wynn which is basically swing dancing, choreographed to Sinatra tunes by Twyla Tharpe. I wanted to like it more than I actually did. I'll put a proper review on Yelp.

I was kind of dumb and volunteered to work the Neon Boneyard Christmas open house today. I say kinda dumb because I wanted to go, but it turned out to be the same time as the DADT vote. I missed watching it, but luckily saw it go down on Twitter. Ah me. And because I was deliberately dragging my feet, I missed Noelle at it. Oh well, I did take her out to the Sinatra show.

Other stuff: I let my paid LJ time expire. So I really need to get on the ball with fixing this Dreamwidth up. My neon equipment now has air running through it. I need to get the propane line hooked up to it, which makes me nervous - but it just occurred to me that there are probably quite a few tutorials on this on tube of You.

I skipped out on Gallifrey 2010 on Saturday to go to Disneyland with Shane, Noelle, Noelle's mom and my godchild. Pictures coming some time next week in a locked post.

The reason we went to Disneyland, aside from forcing a toddler to mug for pictures: CAPTAIN MOTHERFUCKING EO. Noelle's a big MJ stan - in fact, Tomorrowland was full of them. The Captain EO tribute only reopened last weekend so there were still Michael Jackson cosplayers and people with original merchandise roaming around. It was actually pretty cute.

I remember thinking that Captain EO was goddamn awful as a kid. It doesn't help that it was next to my most favoritest ride ever: Star Tours. My parents always wanted to go see Captain EO and I was like, 'NO DAMMIT MICHAEL JACKSON TOUCHES LITTLE CHILDREN, HE'S A PERV.' So they would get in the no-line for Captain EO and I would spend dumb money on Star Wars crap until they were done.

Okay so the point I'm coming to is this: I take it back. I take it all back. Captain EO is fucking amazing and I hope it sticks around for a while.

It is pure 80s nostalgia, like someone dug up a can of 80s from a closet long after they had ceased making it, and you all sat down to enjoy one last fresh taste. Francis Ford Coppola! George Lucas! Muppets! Terrible greenscreening and the oldschool 80s version of 3D with motion chairs that force you to chair dance to 'Another Part of Me'! (Yo Disney, I don't need encouragement for that, you know what I'm sayin'?)

So Michael Jackson is the Captain of a Muppet crew in a quasi-Star Wars universe. They have to deliver something to the 'Supreme Leader', who turns out to be a Borg Queen. Naturally, after they have many misadventures with something shooting at them, a holovid bossguy screaming and the Muppets making 'whoops, aren't we adorable' gags. And the Queen is pissed so the Muppet robots turn into musical instruments, so that Michael Jackson can have a dance off, while turning a bunch of Borg Drones into backup dancers through the power of song and sparkling lights.

And at the very end? The Borg Queen is revealed to have been Angelica Huston. Angelica Huston! How could I have ever crapped on such a thing of pure magnificence?

Picard never hit Q, but Picard also never defeated the Borg Queen through the power of song. Hence I am forced to conclude this: Michael Jackson is the true secret badass of all science fiction.

You all should go see it. It's rad, especially because everyone in the audience is in their early 30s/later 20s and thus remembers going to see it the first time/loving Michael Jackson/loving shit exactly like this during their misbegotten youth. The audience participation will give you a contact high of love.

Also, if you go, hit up the Star Tours on your way out if you ever loved it. They're scrapping it to replace it with Star Tours II: Now With More Pod-Racing! I am horribly depressed.

First, I had a fight with my mom who abandoned me all day. This sucked because I had to deliver art to the Cheyenne campus of CSN by four. Luckily, I called Shane and he took me.

Shane and Noelle and I went to get birthday pastry at the Bellagio. I had Key Lime. It was delicious. Then we walked through the brand new City Center. It feels like being transported to some other city that's a little bit more real than ours. The mall has the most AMAZING public sculptures. One is a collection of, uh, ice rods, that make a mysterious humming noise as they drip and melt. The other is a set of tubes, filled with water of various heights and volumes, each with a constant spinning tornado inside of it. You could stare at it for hours.

Despite being dressed up, there were a bunch of Vogue people there (because this was opening night) and I felt fat and awkward. Especially since half the audience were real honest to God 'didn't I see you in last month's Givenchy spread in Glamour' types. One guy was so damned good looking that Noelle and I stopped in our tracks, and then asked each other: "Is he real?"

Oh, and half the stores are not open. And the mall itself (called 'Crystals') has this weird fucking layout which means you spend more time walking to an escalator to get to a level than you do past shops. Which I think can't bode well for it as a retail experience.

It is a lovely building, though.

After the mall, we split up. Noelle and I both have gallery shows to set up tomorrow. Thus ends my 25th birthday - which I had a lot of reservations about, so low key worked for me. Maybe next year I'll have a party at a bar or something.

The internet's been back for a couple of days. I lived without it long enough to develop new habits, and now I'm forced to try and find a way to reintegrate the two forms of my life.

On Friday, I went to see my new favorite local band (I never really had an old favorite, so it's new to me and them): Imagine Dragons. I also ran into Brent at the bar.

On Saturday, I took Abby to Dr. Sketchies. I promise to upload the sketches to my art blog soon. Brent and Ashanti were there, along with Joe Bergin. I had an excellent time.

Today, I went to hang out with Cooper. Along the way, we went to Trader Joe's, the Amber Unicorn used book store and the library. I made us a flatbread pizza - first attempt, tomatoes and brie, it didn't completely suck. We ended up at Brent's to ask Joe a question about comics, thanks sayunclecomics! Then we went to Luv It Custard, where there was drama about money and then the night ended early.

Tomorrow I am supposed to see Noelle and the baby at the new house. I hope it will be more zen.

I have done no art this weekend.

Barack Obama invites us to his big damn party. Too bad I have school, motherfuckit.

Today I hung out with Noelle and helped her get a library card. I feel weird about this, she didn't have a FREAKING LIBRARY CARD. I feel like I should make sure everyone I love has one - library card is the best thing ever invented, thank you so much Ben Franklin.

The Mayor Goodman Call-In Show!

Mostly because he's really patient with all the weirdos and drunks who call in to talk to him. I mean, really really patient. For all his faults (let us list them), he really does love this town and all the weird people in it. Now, if he spent a little less time trying to get us a baseball team, and a little more time trying to restore TRAIN SERVICE, that would be awesome.

(We should have a basketball team anyway, because everyone in Las Vegas fucking loves Teh Basketball and Teh Rebels. Also, basketball is inside. I am saying.)

Plus, it totally does underline that Las Vegas is the most ridiculous big town-small town ever.

In other news about the Mayor, Noelle almost smacked him in the head with his Cappriotti's sandwich tray at the latest arts district meeting. I found that completely hilarious.