NATALIE & DER PUNKIN'SCHNITZEL : The Last Days

          There they sit, unaware of how much Anthony and I love roasted pumpkin seeds.
Der Punkin'Schnitzel (on floor) and Natalie (seated)
          A few weeks ago my mom & stepdad had a Halloween party, and we all gathered to decorate pumpkins.  We got all crafty with it because it was a little too early to actually carve them, hence the felt, google eyes, etc.  Anthony created Der Punkin'Schnitzel, and I birthed Natalie.  Painfully.

INSERT THE STRIPS!

          While perusing my old notebook, I came across 3 pages full of notes that really baffled me at first.
The Skelebunnies and their Woobies
          I’d made notes about a “Skelebunnies” storyline involving some sort of contest in which the adorable little Devil Woobies are all competing, and being judged by Satan, the Skelebunnies, Buttwing, and the demon Terry Piggy-Tinkle. (That’s not the weird part)

Buttwing
           I’d also noted that Henry Ford was an anti-Semite, and jotted something about babies being thrown to their deaths out of hospital windows. WTF?!

Henry Ford, anti-Semite
          This was immediately followed by something about a giggling, screechy, hyperventilating teenage girl flirting with some teenage boy, and naked Jews being marched into a gas chamber, and something mostly illegible about “starvation & insanity.”

          I gasped, horrified. I did NOT remember planning to make grim Holocaust jokes in that Skelebunnies story! The Holocaust is not funny, and I have never thought it was, I swear! What had I been thinking?! I tried really hard to figure out how I might have thought all these elements would fit into a funny little Skelebunnies story. Sometimes (okay, most of the time) my Skelebunnies material is of questionable taste, but there are LIMITS, aren’t there?

          More notes followed about Woobie-judging, and lining the Woobies up by distinguishing marks and ph balance. Bits of dialogue I scribbled in quotes read, “I like to keep things fresh!” and, “Insert the strips!”

          Reading over the notes, I wondered if maybe I’d taken Nyquil before writing all that. The penmanship is uncharacteristically messy and lurching, kind of spiky. Was I having seizures? How could I have forgotten such an incident?

          Then finally I spied a note I’d jotted at the beginning of the three perplexing pages, which says, “Museum Of Tolerance, 4/14/’08”
Hitler, party-pooper
          I heaved a sigh of relief, finally remembering that I’d been a chaperone on a field trip to the Holocaust Museum, and took my notebook along to give me something to do while on the bus ride (which explains the crazily spiky writing), and of course being a nerd I felt the need to take notes about stuff we learned at the museum.

          I never finished that Skelebunnies story, perhaps because it got all jumbled up with Holocaust crap in my head and seemed not so fun anymore.

          Hitler always ruins everything.


666 NASTY

          I needed a notebook to use at an appointment today, and ended up grabbing one that I started in 2007, and had taken to various different conferences and outings.  While flipping through it, I discovered this entry made during a writer's conference:
          I remember I was thrilled to find such fiendish vandalism in a place that's clearly supposed to be elegant.
          I think "IT'S YOUR TURN" is a threatening sort of challenge that I'm just not devilish enough to live up to.  But I appreciate the encouragement.

PLATFORMING

          We recently started receiving "Writer's Digest" magazine in the 7th - 12th-grade school library where I work.
          I eagerly started flipping through it, finding all sorts of interesting things.  An article on "Flash Fiction" (just a hip new term for short-short fiction), information about various literary markets, and some profiles of new first-time authors.
          I noticed that they used the same questions for each of the 3 or 4 new authors, asking who they are, what they've written, and what their "Platform" is.  I was puzzled by "Platform," and stopped to read each of those answers.
          Apparently "Platform" refers to your public following, or how you attain your public following.  It's all about built-in fans/readers, which is something publishers totally look for.  So these newly-published writers were all talking about their blogs mostly, and shit like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, I guess.  However they regularly connect with readers, and drum up NEW readers.
          So "Platform" in the publishing industry doesn't seem to refer to what you're trying to say and/or do, your viewpoint/convictions (as it does in politics), but rather just HOW and WHERE you say it.  As long as you're saying it a lot.
          For example: Kim Kardashian's "Platform" would be her reality show(s), Twitter, and probably Facebook, MySpace and every other form of media.  A publisher would probably look at Kim Kardashian and say, "She has a GREAT platform, a huge built-in audience, YES, let's DEFINITELY publish her book."
          (Does she already have a book?  I know that retarded bitch from the Hills does, and several other brainless celebutantes who have other people write shit for them.) 
          Sigh.  What was I saying?  Oh, yeah-- "Platforms." 
          So I guess I better work at blogging more, and trying to pay attention to what OTHER people are blogging or posting on Facebook or whatever.  Talk about a necessary evil.  We just saw a report on TV last night that something like 7 out of 10 Tweets go un...  What do you call that?  Un-Tweetbacked?  Un-responded-to?  Anyway, the point was that nobody cares about anybody ELSE'S Tweets or blog posts or Facebook posts, we tend to just care about what WE'RE saying.  And if we ARE responding to other people's chattering, it's only in the hopes that they'll respond to OURS.
          This is no surprise to anyone, but I guess we have to keep on doing it, especially us creative types who need to appease the literary and art publishers. 

SPECIAL

          I had totally forgotten to mention this to anyone, but last weekend at APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco, one my fans said a very cool thing to me. 
          I was a Special Guest, courtesy of SLG, and the other Special Guests were Lynda Barry, Dan Clowes, Tony Millionaire, and some other notable creators.  I felt honored to be amongst such good company.
          A girl came up to me while I was sitting at the SLG table signing my books, and said she was so excited to see my name in the list of Special Guests.  She had been looking through the other names and didn't recognize ANY of them, until she got to mine, and said, "Oh!  Tommy Kovac!  I know who HE is!"
          This is flattering because some of those "other names" are WAY bigger art stars than I am.  But I guess it depends on your point of view, and what you're into.  Anyway, that was very cool, and I thanked her, and told her she should check out Tony Millionaire's work, because if she likes my stuff she might like his, too.

IN THE DREAMHOUSE: Deathrock Buffalo

          Anthony and I went to see "Paranormal Activity 2" last night, and it was fun and thrilling like a rickety carnival "Scary Ride."  I had really weird dreams, but I don't know if they had anything to do with the movie.  Not obviously, at least.
          I dreamed I was in an art class and we were assigned to make wearable T-shirt designs.  Part of the direction was that it had to be something we ourselves would actually wear.  People were making all these awesome designs, but they turned into more than just drawings, they were like collages and sculptures with all sorts of mixed media.  One student was making a highly-detailed Alice In Wonderland design based on John Tenniel's illustrations.  It was a fun arty classroom, the students all chatting happily, but the desks were so close together you had to actually crawl over them to get to yours.
          I drew a highly-detailed deathrock buffalo with two sets of really wicked horns.  It made perfect sense in the dream.
          Anthony and Matt were there, and during a break we went over to this place next door that was selling refreshments.  I got a weird ticket for coffee, but somebody else grabbed my coffee.  I was really pissed, and showed the vendor my ticket.  She said she needed to see the debit card that was used for the purchase in order to give me my coffee, but Anthony had paid for it, and he was back in class.  (Which, by the way, had turned into a movie theater.)  I was ENRAGED, and demanded my coffee and caused a big scene.  There were other students in line watching, people I'd gone to high school with.  I overheard one of them say to Matt, "Boy, I don't remember him being like that back in high school..."
          Eventually I had to crawl under a chain link fence (still part of the same environment), and was in this rad field that was an obstacle course of giant furry muppet-like creatures.  All different colors and shapes, with giant google eyes and raggy yarn hair.  They were all bobbing around, and gravity seemed to be mostly absent in the field, so I ended up bouncing off of one giant creature to the next, on my way through the course.
          On the other side of the giant Muppet obstacle course was a rocky lagoon, cloaked in mist.  I was swimming for an outcropping, and dragging myself up the ledge to get out of the water when a half-man/half-seamonster rose out of the water to attack me.  He was NOT sexy or anything.  He was green and slimy, with claws and spines and scales.  Somehow in the dream I knew that if he bit me, I'd turn into a monster like him.  I groped and kicked my way up the rocky ledge, with him right at my heels, sharp teeth snapping.  I just barely made it onto a small platform of rock, like a shallow bowl of water that I could slide safely into.  As threatening as the monster was, the color of the water itself was this amazingly beautiful sparkling green-blue.
          Toward the end of my dreams I was in a slightly-off version of our condo, with another element of obstacles.  I don't remember what they were, but I had to be very careful to step OVER them.  Anthony and Esther were curled up cozily on a small divan.  When I went over to sit next to them, Anthony teased me that he and the dog had just gotten comfortable and there wasn't ROOM for me.  But he was just teasing, and scooted Esther over slightly, to make room for me.  I think my dreams ended there. 

CLEANING UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD

          I am sick and tired of seeing ladies wearing track suits "speed-walking" purposefully down the street.  I hate their track suits, I hate their visors or perky pink baseball caps, I hate the way they swing their arms high, like they're just DARING someone to get in their way.  The smug look on their faces says, "I lead a healthy lifestyle!  I am an active and energetic American!  I have a positive attitude!  I'm doing something proactive!"
          This morning on the way to work I kept glancing at myself in the rearview mirror and wondering why I look like shit, and just exactly what the fuck my hair is doing.  I'm wearing tan pants that make me feel super fat, but I have no choice because that's all that's clean right now.  I was running late, feeling haggard, and then I spotted two ladies speed-walking jauntily down the street.
          Did I mention I also hate it when they come in pairs?  Because I do.  Something about the way they chat enthusiastically, marching and twitching in stride. 
          I noticed that one of the women I saw this morning was carrying a long stick, occasionally jabbing it at something on the ground, without breaking stride.  It was one of those trash pokers, and she was collecting street debris as she bustled along, cleaning up her neighborhood.  I thought, "Well, isn't that NICE."
          I really wanted to swerve and demolish her AND her friend, which would have been MY way of cleaning up the neighborhood.

WORD OF THE DAY

"Tatterdemalion"
Definition: n. A person wearing ragged or tattered clothing; a ragamuffin.
adj. Ragged; tattered.

A NEW SAYING

Here's a phrase I woke up with, bouncing around in my head:
"Don't poop your tutu."

It would be used thusly: "Hey dude, it's just a spider. Don't poop your tutu."

WANNAMAKER

The other night at Mom's house, Dan asked Anthony the origin of the last name "See," which started a casual little conversation about name origins. My mom nonchallantly mentioned that her maiden name, "Wann," was most likely shortened from "Wannamaker."

I felt blind-sided. I'm sure no one has ever told me that before. For some reason I was left reeling from this info, and it keeps bouncing around in my head. I remember finding out when I was a teen that "Kovac" was Americanized by dropping the "h" from the end, so it was originally "Kovach." That seemed like stunning, fascinating news at the time. But the difference between "Wann," and "Wannamaker" is even BIGGER. WTF?!

The name "Wann" always seemed so unusual and interesting. "Wannamaker" is pretty cool, too, though. I know this isn't as weird as finding out you were adopted, or that your father isn't really your biological father or something, but names are IMPORTANT. I just can't believe nobody ever thought to mention this before!

So I actually come from the Slovak "Kovach" family, and the French/American Indian/etc "Wannamaker" family. Not sure how this affects my life, but I'm sure it's important.

SURGICAL

The other morning when I opened the library, one of the students walked in, looked down, and said, "Um... whose inflated surgical glove is this?"

Sure enough, there it was on the floor, like a bulging powder white udder. I said, "I KNOW that was not here last night when I left."

I don't know what the hell happened in there overnight, but I jammed the inflated glove into the small trash can under my desk. I didn't have the heart to pop it.

DONUT LADY

Oh, mysterious Donut Lady.
The way you confuse me with your broken English, but most of all
the way you insist you recognize me
from long ago...
You claim I used to come in with my mother when I was very small
But I don't remember that at all. My mother preferred bakery shop pastries.
I cringed as I walked through the door this morning with my baggie full of quarters
a poor man's donut fund
As feared, you insisted once again that you remembered my mother and me
This time, though...
This time you dropped a few details, such as
I am an only child
My mother keeps her hair short
(Both true)
Could it be, Donut Lady?
Could it really be that you are a face from my past, once forgotten
but discovered again?
Or is it just that all Gaijin look alike...?

SICK

The library was filled with sneezing, coughing, nose-blowing kids the last few days. So much so that it creeped me out, like I was in the plague ward of a hospital. Last night I woke up wheezing at 1:30 am with a seriously runny nose (it meant business), punctuated by occasional sneezing and coughing. Fuckin' sucks, man. By 3:30 am I was making a trip to CVS to get Zyrtec-D. Anthony was awake, too, with his usual insomnia. Having to put on shoes & socks and a jacket in the middle of the night and make a cold foray into the outside world is totally bogus. There were only 3 visible employees in CVS, none of them paying attention to me, or even willing to feign customer service. I thought about rewarding myself with a candy bar from the front counter, but felt too weary to eat it.
Called the automated absence line at 5:00 am. Then I dragged myself in here to the computer, figured I'd better email Marilyn to her home & work email, warn her that I'm out sick. Hope she doesn't run around like a librarian with her technician cut off.
In other news, I just found out yesterday that one of our teachers got nasty with a female student, and is at least getting fired, possibly going to jail. It's a particularly messy scandal since this teacher happens to be married to another teacher on our campus, and they have 4 or 5 kids, one of them with Downs Syndrome. Also, apparently there was some weirdly inappropriate situation going on since last year, in which the female student in question had been temporarily living with this teacher and his wife, and I'm not sure why. They were "tutoring" her or something, but obviously he ascribes to a very broad definition of "tutor."