I apologize to those who were looking forward to Throw-Back-Monday. I let you down. However, it was for a good reason! I was completely engrossed by Sharknado Week on the SyFy channel.
I don’t know what it is about SyFy lately, but they seem to be hitting their stride. They’ve given Wil Wheaton his own show. They’ve gotten creative with things like Heroes of Cosplay and Face Off. And now? Sharknado week. Classic. Continue reading
Today’s guest post has been submitted by community member Christina Cline Schneider. In case you missed her previous post, check it out here. Christina and I have known each other for years, sharing art classes and growing up down the street from one another. Christina is an amazing woman on a personal journey into uncharted waters. She shares another part of her journey today. Thank you, Christina!
I’m a wellness and soon to be parenting coach. I am also an artist and a lover of the subculture, impartially the event known as Burning Man. Burning Man is a week-long annual art event and temporary community based on radical self-expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Since attending with my husband in 2012 our lives have altered, morphed, and still continue to transform in positive and powerful ways. We sold our home, divorced toxic friends, began a new spiritual journey, attended transformational seminars, joined new programs, quit jobs, the list goes on.
2014 will be a different year for us. We have festival tickets; however we are late in registering for a camp. You want to be with the “right” camp mates. For the first time, we are camping in a space known as Kidsville – which I plan on bringing my children. If you’re interested in the reason why I believe children are a vital part to the festival, I’ll respond with another post.
I’ve been following Black Rock Scouts, an amazing community that support Kidsville at Burning Man. Black Rock Scouts is a “program for burner kids, based on the Ten Principals of Burning Man. Kids are the next generation, so we aim to teach them how to sustain life in BRC (Black Rock City). Camps and services will host playa-cational field trips, events and volunteer opportunities. Scouts will earn patches, tokens or pins for things learned, survival skills achieved, good deeds and volunteering.” “Kids attend, with their parents, where they can learn principles based on community service, generosity, and educational enhancement.” Cool – right?!
At Burning Man (Courtesy Trey Ratcliff)
Ever want to give a quick shout out to someone or something for making your day a little brighter? Thursday-Thank-Yous is your opportunity. Send them in and we will share them with the world.
Thursday-Thank-Yous
Thank you, Mark Hamill and your contractually obligated beard for being in the newest Star Wars movie. –@mj_chalmers
Thank you @ElizabethBanks for making #PitchPerfect2 happen and for being wickedly funny the first go round. — Libby G.
Thank you to the kind cashier at Kroger that was nice to my child on Tuesday. You made my day, but you may have made hers more. — Barb C.
Dear Miley Cyrus,
Thank you for being you. It has reminded me that abstinence is the best form of birth control. — Libby G.
The Elkhart County Fair in Goshen, Indiana … oh how I miss thee! This week is fair week, and yes, this is a fair you actually attend pretty much every day if you can. Elkhart County’s 4-H Fair is one of the top 100 fairs in the world. It actually has the most acreage, though it’s not all in use. And it was essentially in my backyard.
Elkhart County Fair … nothing like it anywhere.
My biggest regret about living in the South are the cockroaches. They call them Palmetto Bugs as if that title somehow makes them less offensive. These aren’t your Northern dainty little pests that can be crushed between your thumb and forefingers. These are massive, winged creatures that will flutter at your face the moment you step in their direction. They are enormous. They are disgusting. They are Southern. I hate them.
Gigantic nasty flying critters the size of a baby’s fist.
So imagine how it I felt when one fell on me in the shower.
Most horrifying experience EVER.
No really. Most horrifying experience EVER. Especially when you hear the thud on your body before you feel it.
Ever want to give a quick shout out to someone or something for making your day a little brighter? Thursday-Thank-Yous is your opportunity. Send them in and we will share them with the world.
Thursday-Thank-Yous
Thank you, Jelena Lustica, for being the best doubles partner a girl could have! Love and miss you! –Libby G.
Thank you Skymall magazine for keeping my husband busy during flights. — Jen T.
Dear Adrian Paul, Thank you for being the only one. — Mark G.
To the creator of Survival Spork: Thank you for your innovative idea and prepping tips! Cool site. –E.S.
Dear Brother Mark, Thank you for having mad ninja skills! — Savvy Sisters
I used to like clowns. I was never one of those people that claimed clowns were scary. I thought they were as funny as hell. Goofy little guys … 20 to a tiny car… fake flowers that spray water and over-sized shoes? What isn’t funny about that? Their slapstick antics would have me gasping for air. I grew up watching Chicago’s Bozo The Clown Show for crying out loud (and he was one of the shiftier looking clowns, I might add).
Bozo the clown. (WGN)
But all of those lighthearted warm fuzzy feelings for clowns eventually went by the wayside. I attribute it to my mother letting me watch It at an impressionable age…
I was around 12 when the television miniseries hit the tube, and I don’t think I’ve seen a villain even close to as creepy as Tim Curry’s Pennywise since. He played the part perfectly.
Tim Curry as Pennywise. (Horrornews.net)
While watching the movie, I wasn’t really that scared. There were definitely moments when I jumped or was shocked by the way the story turned, but all in all, this was not one of those movies that kept me up at night. However, just as Stephen King would have intended, I think its effects were much farther reaching.
We had this little half bath in our mudroom. Every time I used it for weeks after It aired, I would hear voices coming from the pipes beneath the sink.
I would see a balloon and it didn’t bring me joy.
No joy. (Fanbop.com)
I wouldn’t step within 10 feet of a city drain.
Ummm … I don’t think so. (mohagencomic.com)
I avoided origami like the plague.
Origami boat sailing to its death. (thekingofcastlerock.blogspot.com)
And then there were the gloves. I was suddenly seeing clown hands everywhere. I saw a pair of them on our washing machine and screamed. Turns out they were latex. I saw a pair sticking out of our winter glove box in the entrance closet and jumped. Turns out they were just white stretchies. But the worst experience was at my grandparents’ pool.
My grandparents had this custom made oversized swimming pool. It was amazing. My siblings and I would try and help out with cleaning it when we could. And if we were the first to swim that day, it was our responsibility to roll up the solar cover and skim the bugs that had fallen in overnight.
So there I was, all alone, rolling the cover. It was a massive cover and weighed a great deal. It could be a tough job for the sprightliest of pubescent tweens, let alone me. But there I was, slowly rolling it back, inch by inch. Slowly. Carefully.
The sun was getting hotter. Sweat began dripping down my brow. The world was stone cold quiet as I kept winding and winding the heavy reel. The birds had stopped chirping. The cars were no longer moving. It was me and the cover. Finally, there were just inches left to go when there they were, just floating in the crystal blue water: the largest clown hands I had ever seen! I screamed at the top of my lungs and ran out of the pool faster than I’d ever run before. I hopped on my bike and rode all the way home NEVER LOOKING BACK.
Turns out it was a dead mole that had gotten stuck under the pool cover and drowned. His hands looked just like this:
The mole’s GIANT clown hands. Cue the Hitchcock music.
Gave me the heebie jeebies for weeks. However, I was so distracted by the visual of a dead mole with clown hands in my grandparents’ swimming pool that I completely forgot about It. Although I will say I never found clowns funny again after that.
Laughing is never a take-back. As we get older, sometimes it takes more to amuse us, but then when we least expect it, something special comes along that entertains us in a way where we have no words …
I meant to tell you about my experience with The Spoils of Babylon a few months ago, but with this week’s announcement, now is as good of a time as any because it’s official: Eric Jonrosh will be sharing his first best-selling novel The Spoils Before Dying a la a soapy second season on IFC. THIS. IS. HUGE.
The Spoils of Babylon
For those of you sad few who missed it, The Spoils of Babylon is probably one of the funniest, most genius collaborations of writing, acting, and directing in years. I love a good laugh just as much as the next guy. And a parody? Even more so. There’s a certain skill involved in creating a truly enjoyable parody and The Spoils of Babylon nailed it on the head. I was laughing so hard, I literally cried. My husband didn’t quite get it, though.
Was it because he didn’t grow up with the same serials in South Africa? Was it because his television prowess didn’t include soppy stories wrought with wholly unbelievable histories and overplayed acting? Was it because he was a dude? For whatever reason, yes, he laughed, but he was watching me rolling on the floor gasping for air way more than he was watching the affected theatrics being performed on screen.
I don’t know why The Spoils of Babylon struck such a chord. It was definitely unexpected. Perhaps it’s because I hadn’t seen anything so well executed, nor as brilliant, from its genre – ever. The ham served by Kristen Wiig and Tobey Maguire was perfection. The top notch supporting cast had Iceman, the Invisible Woman, that creepy kid from The Sixth Sense, and Nuke Laloosh … need I say more? How about Will Ferrell as the exaggerated lush that wrote and directed the entire miniseries that never aired? Mad respect for every actor involved in this production. Again, completely unexpected.
The visual effects were just as amazing as the acting chops on display. The writers’ (Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele) and director’s (Matt Piedmont)attention to detail was incredible. From the cheesy models used to display exteriors, to the strings that were visibly towing an airplane or toy car, every single little thing that in hindsight made the miniseries of the 70’s and 80’s the beasts of melodrama that they were, were incorporated into this six episode show. Click here to see the trailer for The Spoils of Babylon.
With Reality TV consuming the airwaves like wildfire, a lack of smart well-written comedies and the era of the serial drama slowly coming to a close, The Spoils of Babylon is an inspired throwback to the stagy cliff-hanging days of yesteryear mixed with the campy quality of Batman and Dark Shadows. Those miniseries were sensational. They were overacted. They were poorly produced. BUT, they were beloved.
If The Spoils Before Dying is as much a mix of the Thornbirds meets Dallas meets Soap as its predecessor, I’m in, and you should be, too. And if you still haven’t seen The Spoils of Babylon – find it now and watch!
Thank you Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele for sharing your genius.
Ever want to give a quick shout out to someone or something for making your day a little brighter? Thursday-Thank-Yous is your opportunity. Send them in and we will share them with the world.
Thursday-Thank-Yous
Dear Chelle,
Happy Birthday! And thank you for being the most amazing best friend anyone could ever ask for for the last um … many many years! –Libby G.
Thank you, @JamesRoday, for #mastiffmondays! They make me smile every time. –Libby G.
Dear Jessica,
Thank you for helping out my wife when she’s really needed it. Thank you for playing with and entertaining our son. And thank you for smoothing things over in the middle of a Target meltdown. –Jeremy P.
Thank you @AdamfGoldberg for one of the funniest half hours I’ve seen in a while. Your Goonies episode of The Goldbergs had me peeing just a little. Made my day! –Libby G.
I think this little whoopsie might be Brazil’s most painful Take-Back ever. Well, that and their waxes.
Germany for the win.
