Deck the Halls Lala Lala

Tonight my mom, sister, and my niece and nephew went to the Fort Thomas holiday tree lighting ceremony. All the businesses are open and hand out things like hot chocolate and cookie, and my nephew's 3rd grade class did highlights from their musical tomorrow night (Ian lip syncs). It was cold, so the hot chocolate and walking around was welcome, and then, because we were cold, we decided to take a drive around to see all the lights. There's a good selection around this time of year, especially in Newport, where one should head up the hill to Peluso's, where the entire street is taken over by their decorations and the road becomes for a time, Candy Cane Lane. And with the Cincinnati skyline providing an excellent background for the wreath, it's a perfect picture taking opportunity.

Christmas is a great time in this area; after all, today is St. Nick's, which isn't something celebrated nearly as much outside this area. Too bad, as it's an awesome holiday in which stockings are hung and then St. Nick brings candy and small trinkets. It's rather a nice prelude to Christmas. And everyone still very much believes in the Christmas spirit around these parts, decorating with lights and setting up their trees and strange and spectacular (and sometimes plain tacky) lawn ornaments. Just down Grandview Ave. from Peluso's in Newport, check out the holiday forest. It's amazing.

Now is definitely a great time to damage the environment by driving around and seeing all the lights. Hey, sometimes you just gotta indulge.

Bios and things

So excited about seeing the layout for my column in Writer's Digest. Yes, column. In Writer's Digest. I feel like a writing expert. I should be an expert, I do it enough, right? Of course, if there's an advanced degree in rewriting the first seven chapters, I should be awarded my PhD. I've earned it.

Some interesting things: I'm "retweeting" this here, as well as at my twitter account: Belong to a writing/critique group? Join our group registry for free survival guide, plus future offers: Registry for Writing and Critique Groups. It's a great deal and it reminds me of how much I miss giving and getting constructive feedback. I should start a local group, though I do have my group (of sorts) online.

The writing is actually, touch wood, coming along well, which is why I've been out and about, exploring a lot less. I should go explore more, right? I'm getting on that, I promise. I need to start including pictures, too. Maybe that's a good project for this weekend, not only going out and exploring, but getting some great photography.

So, like the title above says, and yes, strangely, I do tend to do titles first: my bio. How strange, to sum myself (career-wise, expertise-wise) in a few words. It's a handy skill to have. So what's your bio?

All's Well That Ends Well, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

Last night, R. and I ventured across the river to see Alls WEll That Ends Well. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is, incidentally, in the same theatre where I saw, many moons ago, The Rocky Horror Picture Show with live cast. (Come on, you know you love it, too.)

R. foiled my plans to dress up in impractical shoes by making me drive, but I forgive him, and my feet were grateful, even if my stress level from driving from Kenwood (work) to Cold Spring (R.) back downtown was a bit high. Whatever, I didn't want to quit smoking really, anyway, right? Practice run. We got over there early, because I wasn't sure where it was, or anything about parking, and R. insisted we park a few blocks away, so we got our tickets and then went for a walk to find an open bar. We found one, had a beer, then back (don't remember the name of it, now, but it was a fun little bar with pictures of rock stars on the wall).

Downtown at night is interesting; most of it shuts down if it's not in the immediate vicinity of Fountain Square or the Aronoff, it seems. Yet I haven't walked around downtown in years, and I'd like to go back and do some exploring during the day.

The play itself was well done. Our seats left a bit to be desired; they were on the aisle of row C and part of the stage was obscured; it didn't matter too much for the most part, but it was annoying. Since it was not sold out by any means, at the second act, we sat further back and in the middle, which was a better view.

I've read a lot of Shakespeare, and I've seen a fair bit, too, both live and on the big screen. I haven't seen or read this one before, and I found it fascinating to see just how much Shakespeare recycled plots and tropes. The similarities between A Winter's Tale, All's Well, and Much Ado About Nothing, in particular, are striking. He was really, really fond of the "wronged wife presumed dead but not really-given-new-life" thing. Shakespeare's strength as a storyteller and writer lie in his ability to turn a phrase and well...tell a story, but his weakness, and yes, I say Shakespeare did have a weakness in his writings, was plot. That's okay, he catered to what his audience wanted, and still wants.

It proves there is nothing wrong with formula. Write what works for your story and for you. In All's Well, it worked more or less, better I feel than in Winter's Tale, but not as well as in Much Ado mostly because the character of Bertram is so unsympathetic that it's hard to engage with him.

Devil's Night, Covington KY

Last night, after starting off feeling a bit melancholy, I met some friends at Molly Malone's in the 3rd floor for an acquaintance's birthday party thing. It was interesting seeing the costumes and the music was very reminiscent of my goth club days. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, it was stiflingly hot, and friends left to go to a friends' party, but that was fine, as I'd run into another friend in town for the weekend, and we and her brother in law ended up heading out to Fat Shannon's.

An aside: walking in the rain in a sweater hoodie is not fun. Wet sweaters are not fun. Just so you know. But Fat Shannon's wasn't bad, overall. It was midnight, roughly, when we got there, and not very packed, but it picked up some people as the night progressed, and about 1:30, ended up talking to a lovely Irishman dressed as Alex DeLarge from Clockwork Orange. It was an excellent costume and he was so pleasant, smart and with that gorgeous Dublin accent. Yes, I'm a sucker for an accent, I openly admit it.

In any case, Fat Shannon's is pretty much your classic bar, decent facilities, though small, and as a pet peeve, I'm not a fan of bathrooms with the twist lock, where the door is far away from the toilet, because I'm paranoid that I'll not have locked it properly, and someone will yank open the door at an untimely moment, which would be pretty much the entire time I'm in there, save for washing my hands. So I'm never thrilled about that type of bathroom, especially as the potential for waiting times increases a lot as the night goes on and ladies get beer-bladder. Molly Malone's has those types of bathrooms too, save for the ones in the basement, which have stalls.

Tonight has no shortage of opportunities for costumes and mayhem. Mad Hatter has a zombie apocalypse happening, there's the Covington Zombie Crawl, there's always a good time at the Crazy Fox saloon (why no website, Carl?) and Southgate House. There's also parties galore. I didn't get around to getting a costume, and it's almost 4 pm now, so I have a mad scramble on my hands. Ladies and gents, what should I do?

Soon I will hopefully have some new, interesting places in Newport and the surrounding areas to tell you about. I'm thinking now that Fall is here, it's a good time to hit up parks and drives to look at the pretty leaves and gorgeous colors, but also a good time to hit some indoor places.

I'm thinking art galleries, shops, etc.

In the meantime, I've done a lot of my usual haunts lately: Southgate House, which never gets old for me, though I've done something new (for me) there: Open Mic night, hosted by my friend Mike Kuntz on Mondays, is a lot of fun. The talent this past Monday (October 26) ranged in style from acoustic guitar accompanied by violin to a gentleman who sounded like the most awesome cross between Johnny Cash and Jim Carroll, a young woman who did beautiful, haunting covers of songs like Just Breathe and Dust in the Wind, and a poet who performed his works by the name of Silent Therapy. I approved of him wholeheartedly, partly because it takes some serious guts to put yourself and your words out there like that, unmitigated by any kind of music to distract people from your words and ease the pressure. He was good. He will also be performing there next Monday, and at the Cincinnatian Hotel on Nov. 6th. It's free, so if you're living around the area, you should go check it out.

Pioneer Park, Independence, KY

Leave it to my family to have our yearly picnic in the fall. Certainly, this can be an excellent time of year for a picnic, surrounded by amazing foliage and everyone invigorated by the cooler temperatures, rather than wilting in the Ohio Valley humid summer heat. Of course, we stick to this tradition, come rain (or snow) or shine, whether the temps are freezing or hitting record highs.

This Saturday was not the coldest picnic we've experienced (I wasn't exaggerating about the snow), and when the sun was shining and the wind not blowing, it was quite nice. That said, there was a reason we were all huddled together on the picnic bench under blankets. If you want family closeness, have a picnic in cold weather. I've never felt so close to my aunts and cousins, except maybe that time in the snow...

This is the first year we've had it at Pioneer Park, which is a nice little area, with tennis courts, basketball courts, the usual playgrounds and shelters, a baseball diamond, and a dog park, though there weren't many dogs around. Apparently dogs know when to stay inside.

The facilities were clean, and it was a nice setting, overall, though I think Shelter 1 would have been a bit better than #2, where we were at, just based on my personal preferences, but I'm not the one who set it up.

In any case, our family hardly needs an excuse to get together with lots of food, and the weather, though cold, was still bright and sunny, and with the trees turning colors in the hills around us, it was a beautiful day to be outside.

In the past, we've had the picnics at various other locations, primarily A.J. Jolly Park, which is still my favorite site for picnics, partly from nostalgia, since that's where we've gone since I was a kid, but also because the setting is gorgeous there on the lake. Besides, I'm a Campbell County girl at heart, but that doesn't change simple facts, which is that a lakeside picnic will always be better than one staring at a four lane highway.

Still and all, I'm not going to sneeze at a good time, no matter how cold the weather (and we all know that cold weather does not cause one to develop a cold), and I'd say that once again, the Fall picnic was a rousing success.

Bar Louis & Whip It, Levee

So Friday night Jennifer and I went to dinner and to see the Drew Barrymore/Juliette Lewis/Ellen Page Roller Derby movie, Whip It.

First was dinner at Bar Louis, and I'm not sure why we don't do this more often, as the food, while nothing spectacular, is good (Jennifer's food was humongous, too). I think it might be more to do with the people we see going in and out of there, nothing snobby or anything, it just hasn't been on our radar, and didn't look like our scene. I have been in there before, and it's never been a bad experience. It's eating, after all. I guess mostly, it just feels like there's nothing really that stands out about it, but the menu looked awesome, and were I a little more hungry and a little less broke, there were a couple things I might have tried. Not a huge selection of vegetarian offerings, but then I've yet to see many of those in Porkopolis.

The movie itself was decent, though the price had we not had coupons would have been outrageous. $13 bucks for a movie? That's highway robbery. And the movie industry and music industry want to whine about people robbing them? Whatever, assholes, bring your prices down to a reasonable price, we'll pay them.

That said, the movie was worth the $7.50 we did pay with the entertainment coupons. Very cute, if pretty predictable.

And what I find is that all of the sudden, I'm going to the movies a lot more and saying a lot of the same things. Hmm... I need to get out more. Oh well, must be fall. If you want excitement though, with Halloween coming up, the streets of Covington and Newport will probably get a lot more spooky, oooh, arghhh... well, in any case, the Covington zombie crawl could be lots of fun, and starts at Molly Malone's. Check that out, if you're looking for something to do.

Interview

I just saw the advance copy of Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market, which contains the interview I conducted with artist Eric Freitas, and I'm so excited. It's on page 42. His art is breathtaking, so if you feel the need to splurge on a great Christmas or birthday present for me, you could maybe buy me one of his clocks. What do you mean you don't have $750 lying around? Okay, maybe a poster? Or a box of cards?

But don't check his work out just for me, do it because your eyes and brain will appreciate you. And when AGDM comes out, check out his words (and mine, too).

In the meantime, Eric Freitas' gorgeous horological oddities.

Zombieland, playing at AMC at Newport on the Levee

There will be spoilers for the movie Zombieland below. Be warned.

Saw this with Ryan and Nathan, and Athena. No lie, the coolest name ever. She seems like a very cool chick, too. One has to be cool to have the name Athena.

But anyway, the movie. We saw the Midnight viewing, or rather 12:10 A.M. if you want to get specific. The movie itself is entirely predictable, which doesn't make it any less funny or good; it is what it sets out to be: a solid zombie comedy. Woodie Harrelson is Woodie Harrelson, Bill Murray is Bill Murray, and if they overshadow the rest of them, well, that's to be expected.

It has all the elements right: the adorable kid sister, the zombie gore and violence (for the most part; the zombies still move far too fast. Zombies are supposed to be shambling characters, slow but relentless, as Simon Pegg states rather astutely explains here), the neurotic, the insane sidekick, the romantic interest. It followed a formula, a few of them, in fact, to good effect.

It has a few plot holes, too, wherein characters do things which are blatantly against everything they've done to survive without real explanation and without thought, but then, I see humans doing that every day in real life, so why does it bother me within the conventions of story telling? I just expect things to be more solid, there. I want it to feel like the writers have the answer, even if it's not explicit in the movie, and here, the formula breaks down as the writers don't know those answers or take a weak stab at them with "don't get too close, you'll only get hurt in the end."

Yawn. I think we need a better explanation than that.

If you're looking for something with a twist or a surprise, this isn't going to give you what you're looking for. It's not a Romero, it's not Sean of the Dead, but if you like the slapstick side of Sean of the Dead and you like Woodie Harrelson characters, then you'll enjoy this movie.

Parking at the levee is ridiculous at $5 on weekends when ticket prices for movies are already so high, but I didn't pay it, Ryan did, because I drove. Nathan bought me a softdrink.

As for movie theatres, it's a pretty nice one, though the seats do need to be cleaned thoroughly; but the seats are comfortable and stacked high, and the facilities are clean.

Also, you can get a bit of money off the parking if you get it validated, though I think that's only for a certain period of time; I didn't see anyone working the booth there last night.

Personally, given my own druthers, I tend to seek free, or at least cheaper metered parking in the area and walk a few blocks rather than pay, but when someone else offers, well... it's their money (and feet). So, to sum up: movie exactly as good as I thought it would be, worth the money, even the parking.

Public Service Announcement: Colds and Cold Weather

A friend in another forum made a post about how the flu is a virus and stated some common misconceptions (including that it is not spelled "flue"). It reminded me of my own personal pet peeve of misconceptions about colds and flu.

You ready?

You do not get sick from bad weather. I repeat, being outside in the rain does not make you ill (unless it's acid rain, but then it's more likely cancer, not a head cold). It will not give you the flu.

Ditto with cold weather. Cold weather does not make you ill. Blame the cold for a lot of things, but it does not transmit viruses. People transmit viruses; pigs transmit viruses, birds transmit viruses, etc. and so forth.

Weather does not transmit viruses.

The reason that people tend to get more sick in bad weather conditions is because they confine themselves indoors with other people. Other people transmit viruses.

See how this goes?

So indulge me and try not to blame the weather, which may well suck, but is innocent in this case, if and when you get sick. Blame the people who didn't wash their hands or cover their mouths and noses when they cough and sneeze.

And please, teach your kids to do such things as well. They will thank you for it when they don't contract H1N1.

But don't just take my word for it, check it out.

Thank you, and now your normal programming will resume.