What A Difference A Day Makes!

I took today off -- my first 2-day weekend for at least a month now -- and it ended up being really groovy!!!

First, I get up slowly, eat some breakfast burritos while watching the first part of BIGGER THAN THE SKY -- a really cool little indy flick about a guy who joins a community theatre troupe to sort of find himself -- and then after breakfast I play TR: LOST ARTIFACT for a few hours.

Check my email.

We were Net-less yesterday! For some unknown reason, none of the computers in the casa had web access! Luckily, though, Brian and I are fairly skilled at amusing ourselves, so we didn't really notice. We got to spend some time with Mom, then had a night of Alamo Drafthouse At Home: We made jalapeno poppers, popped some cold ones and watched THE OBLONG BOX and SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, both staring Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

It was really fun!!!

So anyway, we got the Net back today, so after some Tomb Raider I checked my email to discover that my friend, for whom I had made a little birthday ani (that's sort for "animation" and is a term Brian and Tommy and I have adopted to short-hand our little Flash shorts), really liked it!!!

I slapped this together in, like, 3 days and it came out better than I hoped. But I was shocked to discover that Brian -- the Animation God of the Core; the cat who has taught me the most about animating with Flash animation program -- was really impressed with the finished product! He had even seen it in one of its latter stages because I needed his help to get the dialogue into the program. (This is the first time I've animated anything with sound, much less spoken dialogue.)

But the icing on the cake was my friend's email!!! She just seemed to really appreciate it, and said that it came at a fortuitous time.

So YAY, RAY JAY!

Oh, and while I was surfing the Net I stumbled across a free IQ test, and I took it.

I'm a 135, thank you very much! According to www.tickle.com/tests I'm in the top 1% of Humanity, intellectually. Yep, yep. That means that of all you mere mortals walking around on this planet with me, 99% of you will have to struggle to grasp the vastness and complexities of my intellectual constructs. Yeah, only 1% of you can handle the ASTOUNDING MENTAL POWER OF RAYJAY!!!

Heh, heh, heh.

I've always been told I'm special, but usually in the OTHER way.

Oh, and, my intellectual Type? Philosophical Visionary!

Yep.

So it turns out I'm a Smarty. Just call me Smarty MacKnowsalot. Smarty Smarterson. Smarty-san. His Royal Smartness.

Yeah, baby! I'm sexy, AND I'm SMART! The WHOLE PACKAGE! (Well, maybe not the "rich" part... And I haven't accomplished all that much, career-wise... And I've been told I have this wierd odor about me... BUT OTHERWISE...)

So, yeah. That was pretty cool. I've actively avoided taking IQ tests because I was afraid I would discover that I'm not as smart as I hope I am. So to take one be told I'm smarter than I imagined was kind of an ego boost!

And I'm SURE that the fact I had to read an add for online college courses before I could get my test results has NOTHING to do with the accuracy of those results! I'm certain of it!

And don't try to tell me otherwise, 'cause I'll pelt you with rocks and garbage! And I may cry a little.

So then Mom calls me up and asks me to come look at her computer. There's something up with her Outlook Express. So I go over and I didn't figure out what happened, but I was able to fix it so she could use her email again with ease -- Mom's not a Net Monkey, she checks her email and that's pretty much it; the last time she even attempted to explore the wilds of the Internet she would up with this quite lovely new screensaver that no one can make go away. And so one of Brian and my greatest pleasures is getting a call from Mom asking us to do something with her computer. (Makes us feel like big MANLY MEN.)

Then after that I picked up a couple of frozen pizzas -- a Tony's and a Totinos, both sausage and pepperoni, about $4 all together -- and dined in bachelor/artist bliss while watching the last episode of the first season of the original THE TWILIGHT ZONE called "A World of His Own".

The episode originally aired July 1, 1960, was one of Richard Matheson's scripts, and features this really funny tag wherein the main character in the story interacts with Rod Serling doing his Narrator thing!!! The way I discovered this flick is I was reading a book of Matheson's TZ scripts and this was one of the scripts! I couldn't believe what I was reading! I figured it was just an in-joke, something Matheson wrote to give Serling and the other producers on the show a larf, but surely never made it on the air. So I grabbed my trusty TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION -- written by Marc Scott Zicree back in 1982, currently published by Silman-James Press, and this is THE TV series companion, the one that set the standard for all that followed! -- and discovered that the episode DID air as written!!! So I tracked down the dvd collection that contained this episode, stcuk it in my Netflix queue, and it arrived today.

And I watched it while scarfing down a couple of tasy, inexpensive pizzas!!!

Good day for Ray Jay!!!

If I'd passed out from sheer contentedness right then and there, it would have been a fine day off for me!

But that wasn't the end!

My buddy Marvin Day -- special makeup effects stud and bass player for the local band Gorey Boys -- is leaving for the Northeast tomorrow. Tonight he played his last gig with the band at Room 710 (7th and Riverside). And he was inviting his friends to say goodbye over a beer and some really loud music. (Marvin-style!)

Brian was going to go with me, but his job had other thoughts about it.

Still, I don't get out nearly enough, and I love Marvin to death, so I was perfectly content to cruise solo.

And it was worth it! I headed downtown around 11:00 pm with, like, $12 in my pocket. (That's the way I roll.) I would have had $16, but I got that hankerin' for frozen pizza... You know.

I get there and Marvin spots me before I see him, waving me over. We get basic greetings in before, like, 3 other people pop up, wanting to tell him not to move and stuff. (Marvin's one of those dudes! People LOVE him! Marvin and Kelly, two cats who just don't have enemies.)

Before Marvin is pulled away, though, I get to meet his hottie girlfriend, Katy, who presses and address book and a pen in my hand and asks my to add my contact info. Which is a relief for me, because when Marvin's on a film set -- studio or indy -- he can be hard to reach. Plus he changes email addresses every 3 months, it seems. But as long as he's got MY info, I know I'll be hearing from him.

I see many friendly faces of cool people I know only through Marvin, so I get to mingle with them for a while before the show starts.

Turns out that I know all but one of the band members!!! The lead singer is this great actor that I've gotten to act with, but haven't gotten the chance to write for yet, named James Brownlee.

This is a cat with PRESENCE, so it wasn't a big stretch of the imagination to discover that he's the lead singer.

And the guitarist is Marvin's groovy roommate, John Hilbun. When you first meet see him you get that intellectual-art-geek/fan-boy vibe, but then you talk to him and discover that he's really sweet. As well as being smart, creative, and down with comic books and movies and stuff.

And then you hear what he's capable of making a guitar do!!! Stung upside-down, Hendrix style, John's guitar fuckin' SINGS!

I never could pin down just exactly what John's niche was, artistically. Looking at him, your first guesses would be writer or painter. I've seen him act.

But then you hear his guitar work and you go "Oh yeah! Of course! That's it!"

I'm not saying that's his only talent; I supect John's a master of a few different crafts. But I'd say guitarist is DEFINITELY one of them!

The drummer is the only band member I hadn't met yet. But he seemed cool, quiet and funny.

And he wailed on those drums! Arms and legs flying in all directions at breakneck speeds!

A little before midnight Gorey Boys hit the stage, and it's this rock-em-sock-em set that is over WAY too soon!

My Genius Friend Dave once told me about seeing the Ramones live. He said they got up on stage, started playing their first song at, like, twice the speed that they recorded it, and an hour or two later the show was over. They played all their songs without pausing, just blowing the audience away with this incessant wave of sonic energy.

The Gorey Boys only have 10 songs, but the way they draw you in, wind you up, and then it's over and you're left going "DO IT AGAIN!" reminded me of Dave's exeprience with the Ramones.

I'm just waiting for them to make an album!!! I can't believe they're not selling an album!!! What band with talent an panache, in 2005, DOESN'T have an album?!! They're ALL computer geeks! They're all cinema savy!!! (Maybe not the drummer, but I doubt it.) And it's not like they don't know how to utilize the Net: They have their own MySpaces, and I'm told the band has a MySpace!!! (It's supposed to be at www.myspace.com/goreyboys, but I haven't been able to find it yet... But they have recorded 4 of their songs and they're -- supposedly -- there.)

After the show many of us pile outside for a smoke -- it's not legal to smoke in bars in Austin anymore!!! -- and after Marvin tears himself away from the many people who want to talk to him, he joins us. Marvin says the set used to be tighter, John says they made a bunch of mistakes tonight, but I didn't hear any of them!

Someone catches Marvin's attention and he's pulled away...

...and then this guy comes up to me and makes my already cool night just a little bit COOLER!

The guy's holding a sketch pad and pencil and shakes my hand, introducing himself. He's Martez Randle and he does sketchs in 5 minutes or less. He's not a characaturist, and he works for love of drawing, for tips and donations. I am in no way obligated to by the portrait if I don't like it, and if I do like it any donation will be appreciated. He assures me that in 4 minutes, 5 tops, he will capture my features in a portrait that anyone who knows me will recognize as me.

I look in my pocket. I bought a beer and tipped the waiter, so I'm down to a Fiver and 2 Ones. I tell him I can only give him $5 if I like it, and ask him if it's worth his time. He enthusiastically tells me that it's all practice, and it's always worth his time. "It's a spiritual thing," he explains.

How can I turn THIS down?!!

I honestly believe that the quality of our life can be measured fairly accurately by the stories we and others can tell about that life. Today has already been, for me, a satisfying day, but Martez Randle and his 5-minute portrait added a particularly metaphysical sheen to this day!

I want to give Martez his own entry when I resolve the issue about getting pics onto my blog. So suffice it to say that I dug the portrait and he made $5, which was shamefully little compaired to what he gave me in terms of this experience. (Also, I give my last $2 to Flower Guy, but you'll read about that later.)

Re-entering the bar, I catch John on his way out and we chat for a bit and exchange cell numbers. Then I track down james and tell him he rules! Then I track down Marvin and chat with him for a bit before telling him he'll be missed and demanding a manly hug. I'm wussing out and going home -- Marvin's probably going to close the bar down. (Marvin-style!)

Back home and here I am.

I've been writing on this entry for the past 4 hours. I wrote all the stuff about Martez, but decided to pull it out until I can get the pic up. I'd just rather not talk about the man until you can see his work. I think it'll make more sense that way.

So now I guess it's time for bed. Going back to work tomorrow, so I might as well get some sleep.

Still, it's AMZING to me the difference having 2 days off IN A ROW can make!!!