Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Damn You, Bulky Mail Truck

The Bulky Mail Truck hasn't zapped the robot all the way yet, since smart folk like Jason realize that the "Sci-Fi Anthology" story wouldn't be as fitting there. That's what the robot is for. I haven't been riding the robot as much as I usually do, but then again I've got a week and a half left for studying for comps (a week and a half of life-on-hold: yay for it to be over).

Ghost World comes out on video Tuesday, so I'm there, dude. Hopefully Storytelling will come out in theaters at least in New Orleans soon so I can make another field trip. Why is the guy on Beat the Geeks considered a geek because he "drove two hours to see an hour and a half movie"? Nothing wrong with that.

The good thing about comp-studying is that I think I'm getting into books again. I realized, "Oh yeah, I kinda like books." I don't like cramming them in my head like this, but the cramming has told me, "When you don't cram, books are good." Like bacon. So maybe I'll be reading again, instead of watching all them damn movies and listening to damn music. Or, well, maybe I'll do all three. Maybe I'll make a Rusty Likes Books page.

If Nyleva is still reading, I had fun seeing her this past weekend. She flew from Austin, Texas just to spend an hour and a half with me, so there's your geek. Actually, she didn't come to see me, but she saw me anyway, because she's kewl. She's so cool that you have to spell it different. Queul? That's even more cool. She's queul. My Leevee.

Oh, and my new techno song can be found at MP3.com.

Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!

Monday, January 28, 2002

Sci-Fi Anthology

Had a weird dream last night. One of those dreams where I'm watching the action, but I'm not actually present in the dream. It was basically a series of short stories taking place on a giant space station/starship in the future. The ship didn't have any form that I could make out--it was so incredibly huge that whenever I saw an exterior view of it in the dream, my entire field of vision was filled with just a small portion of it. The ship was crewed by characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5 (though I don't recall which of the B5 characters actually appeared in the dream).

The first story I remember was this tale about a small derelict ship that a Babylon 5 Starfury fighter rescues and brings aboard. The only survivors of the derelict were two women who were portrayed in my dream by Susan Sarandon and Sigourney Weaver. (I had watched a few minutes of The Hunger while waiting for Fox to stop airing all the endless post-post-football game analysis shows and show the Simpsons the previous evening, and I'd watched some of Alien Resurrection a few nights earlier, so that presumably explains their presence in the dream) All I remember is that it turned out they were actually dead, and their ship was really a ghost ship that's doomed to drift through space for eternity.

Then there was this part where Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer had submitted an essay as part of her application to become student class president aboard the ship. Her best friend--who sometimes was Oz, sometimes was Angel, and sometimes was Buffy--was sticking by her, giving her moral support while they wandered around the spaceship, waiting for Captain Picard and Commander Data to finish evaluating her essay. They liked it, she got appointed to the position of class president, and everyone was happy.

Finally, Star Trek's Wesley Crusher had come back to the ship after spending some time far away, where he'd had a crippling accident that left him having to use a wheelchair. He was having some kind of scientific discussion in the engine room with Captain Picard, Data, and a fish-headed alien guy, when the alien noticed that Wesley didn't cast a reflection in a mirror in the room. It turned out that the Wesley everyone was interacting with was actually a hologram. The real Wesley was actually much more horribly disfigured by the accident than he appeared, and he felt too uncomfortable about his disfigurement to reveal to his friends what had really happened to him. Everyone was sad. Then I started to think about how a hologram, being made of light, would certainly cast a reflection in a mirror. I realized I was dreaming, and woke up.

Speaking of silly sci-fi stories and Rusty's comment about PBS in the '70s, anyone remember this thing called Tomes & Talismans? It was this show about how to use the library thinly disguised as a sci-fi adventure serial, produced by ETV way back when. It was all about this librarian awoken from suspended animation who helps a bunch of kids and freedom fighters learn how to use the resources of an old abandoned library to discover the secrets to defeating the evil Earth-conquering Wipers. I vaguely remember being forced to watch it in school sometimes. They showed a marathon of it really late the other night on PBS, and I just couldn't turn away from it. Maybe it was the childhood nostalgia factor, combined with the overall cheesiness of how it took itself so seriously, and how they attempted to make regular interior shots look "futuristic" by just putting a few blinking lights on the wall and having silver-painted cardboard boxes lying around. I tried to stay up to finally see how it ended, but fell asleep shortly after they learned how to use the readers guide to find an article that could tell them whether their horse could track down a missing resistance member by his scent.

Saturday, January 26, 2002

Jason Inspires Again

I've been meaning to do this for a while, but Jason's recent artstuff (and Lunchbot selector) reminded me to put up my characters from elementary school. Snoofy, my "homage" to Snoopy. (We were all homaging back then.)

Yes, I realize they sort of don't fit with the as-yet only other thing on the Rusty Art page, the "statements," but it'll be sure to screw up kids as nicely as PBS did in the 70s.

Friday, January 25, 2002

Art Linkletter

Gee, I wish that my try-real-hard-and-struggle art looked as good as Jason's random classroom doodles...

Choco-Drink!

Thursday, January 24, 2002

Jason's Turn to Plug Website Stuff

Like Rusty, I too have some of my beautiful art on the web, and I updated it with a few more items recently.

Ever wonder which of the LunchBots characters you are most like? No? Well, now you won't ever have to. This handy-dandy webpage right here can tell you.

Blog*Spot hates me, you know. Every time I go to post something, publishing is unavailable. Suck.

Friday, January 18, 2002

Arty Farty

I decided I'm going to show the world my beautiful art. I realized the magic of Angelfire and 20 megs of space (and 20 more if you keep making more pages), and so I'm going to put up my "I dunno, just had a whim" photo manipulations and things like that. Here it is, anyway. More to come...

Rusty.

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

I'm Smartest In My Dreams

I made up a new joke in my dream the other morning before I woke up. It was:

"What did the southerner say to his father when his father lost his teeth? Dad, gum it."

Or "dadgummit," not sure the funniest/best way to spell it. It's a joke to be told more than seen, I guess. Similar to the one I made up once (though not in my dreams):

"What's the most literary of all the chicken dishes? The pullet surprise."

The most famous thing I made up in my dreams was the game Pickle, which now exists as a computer game, though it's also a board game. One day Noby will polish off the computer version and everyone can have a nice copy.

The not-so-famous thing I made up was an idea for a gameshow in which only Shakespeare questions are asked, and it's called Outrageous Fortune.

Rusty.

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

What I learned this weekend

If you play Monopoly with Rusty Spell, he will beat your sorry ass.

If you play Monopoly with Rusty Spell, don't give in to the temptation to go for one of his "deals." It will inevitably come back to haunt you. Don't give in to his evil powers!

Attack of the Boy Bands

For those who want to watch the Saturday Night Live sketch making fun of the whole N'Sync-appearing-in-Star-Wars crisis again (or for anyone who missed it), it can be downloaded at this site.

Thursday, January 10, 2002

M*A*S*H Rules, and Other Points

M*A*S*H rules. It rules even better when you can sit down and watch it at your leisure, in order, instead of having to catch it on TV (even though FX is basically the M*A*S*H channel during the afternoons). The movie rules, and the TV show rules. The pilot rules. As I was watching it, and there was a laugh track during the opening credits, I said to myself, "What the fudge was this show?" (Only I didn't say fudge, etc. etc.)

There, just so we all know M*A*S*H rules.

Whenever I talk like Norm McDonald, Liza just tells me to quit. Hey, hey, uh, she just tells me to quit there... like a whore! (That was me doing Norm McDonald, which doesn't translate well into print.)

I agree about the X-Files and Mulder... of course, I've only been following that show for the past ten years (or however long it's been on) through promotional spots between the Fox shows I watch. That's pretty much all the keeping up I need to do, since they seem to tell you everything, kinda like reading a soap opera update. I think I've seen 75% of a complete show once.

Futurama: good show, more or less. 6:00 is just a bad time for me on Sundays, so I never see it.

I liked that drum line T-shirt as well. I remember it, even though I was in eighth grade at the time and wasn't old enough to be able to wear it. I still have all my drumline T-shirts, even the pansy screen printed one that David and Matt came up with, knowing full well that only airbrushing truly rules! Airbrushing, baby!

I don't know any people who are funny without meaning to be. I mean, I know a few who I laugh at (not with) that are funny who aren't trying to be, but none that I'm laughing with (not at). Most of the people I know who are funny really struggle to be funny. Most of my friends; I can feel the struggle. It's a struggle for me too. Liza's pretty funny without struggling too hard, but she's still trying to be funny. I don't know if Todd Townsend is struggling or not, but he's putting out a lot of energy.

Other news? Do I have other news?

I've got dates set for my D-days. Feb 4, 6, and 8 for comprehensive exams... March 1 for defending dissertation... and then partying the rest of the semester! Making 100 albums or more! Steph should cruise into Hattiesburg one day and sing on a record. Graduation day, May 10. And then onward to be a well-educated "head fry guy" at McDonald's.

Anyone got a printer for sale? Mine blew up. And, no, this isn't a cry for MORE junk mail, for those b*stards out there who keep sending me stuff for printer cartridges, loans, and porn!

Russell the Love Muscle.

Wednesday, January 09, 2002

my wish

I wish I could talk like Norm McDonald, like I was drunk all the time, but no, not really. I knew a guy in school who talked like that, just by happenstance. He was *always* funny, without meaning to be. I wish I had that kind of comedy superpower.

Tuesday, January 08, 2002

Rusty Gets Toys

In an unheard of spending spree of presents for each other and ourselves, Liza and I go to Sam's to get DVD toys. For my birthday, I get The Godfather Trilogy. For a late Christmas present, Liza gets Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season One (which wasn't supposed to be released until Tuesday, I thought, but there it was). For herself Liza gets Carrie (although I told Liza they would all laugh at her for getting it). And for myself, I get all the M*A*S*H I can handle: the movie and season one.

Now I can sit back and not buy movies again for a long, long time (until Fire Walk With Me comes out, of course).
May he Rest in Peace
Rusty's story

My favorite PHS drum line t-shirt was always the one from my freshman year, with the "skull and crossbones" design, where the skull is wearing a marching band hat, and with drumsticks in place of the crossbones.

I'm pretty sure you're using the right spelling of "fare" there.

Open letter to the FOX network about this past Sunday night's programming

Futurama:
I think this is a good, funny show. You should consider showing new episodes more often than once every three or four months.

The X-Files:
C'mon, just stop pretending there's any chance of Mulder ever coming back. This is sillier than last season when there would be commercials announcing "David Duchovny returns!" only to have him show up for five minutes in a flashback sequence. We know Duchovny's gone from the show and not coming back, so just stop pretending that Mulder's still a part of the show. The only way this could get any more ridiculous is if Mulder "came back" only to have him spend the entire episode unconscious in the next room, or having him be invisible and mute. Just stick to Dogget and Reyes investigating the monster of the week. Those episodes are still fun.

Norm McDonald

When is that guy *not* funny?

Monday, January 07, 2002

Rusty Story

One of the few online Rusty works may be found here at Eyeshot. Read and enjoy. It's not my usual fare, but neither are any of my online stories, it seems. I'll have to put some usual fare up sometime. Am I spelling "fare" right in this sense? I hope so. I don't want to look stupid.

Rusty.

Thursday, January 03, 2002

Short Bits of Posting

I imagine the Moldy Peaches are fun in concert since they dress as bunnies and stuff. I'd go see 'em. I haven't seen 'em though.

But, yeah, Tommy's right, I'm not big on live shows. I've seen three Magnetic Fields shows, and like those.

Norm rulz.

Thanks, Jason, for pointing out the archival problemations, and thanks, Steph, for telling me how to fix it. We all rule now.

Wednesday, January 02, 2002

live music

Live music is fun! But a different fun, I guess, and not a kind of fun that's always recordable (and vice versa). I think I'm gonna try to see more live shows, though, because I can finally get around and stuff. The subway is great.

disappointing points

On the bright side, the world didn't end, as some people (those apocalypsists who kept track of when the real "new millenium" started, that is) thought it would. Sure, some really really bad things happened, but hey, most of us are still alive and kicking.

old rusty posts

I think that Rusty, as the maintainer of the blog, needs to do that "repost archives" thing to get all the archives back up again.
A Very Special Blog

Well, it's my first blog of the year 2002. I want to say a big thanks to all of you who've been around when I needed some friends after some of the not-good events of 2001, and for helping create many of the good memories I have of 2001. I hope we all have a good 2002.

Where are the flying cars???

Overall, I'd have to say 2001 was a big disappointment in real life. I mean, I'm still waiting for commercial spaceflights, permanent outposts on the moon, manned interplanetary expeditions, and the discovery of ancient alien artifacts. (And that Dr. Sbaitso [sp?] is no HAL)

I'm also waiting for all that stuff Conan keeps telling us about that's supposed to happen in the year 2000.

Steph

Heya, Steph! Of course we all remember you. (Though I sometimes have trouble remembering to write to you.... D'oh!)

Bunnies

They've got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses!

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

The robot appears to be malfunctioning--links to the archives prior to December 23 seem to have disappeared (if anyone cares).
Rusty and Concerts

I think I can speak for Rusty in saying that he doesn't attend to many live shows. He has attended more than one Lately David show, and he may have seen us more than any other band. So, by default, we are his favorite live band. I, myself, love the live music. Especially if it played on guitars and singing is involved.

Why is it always funny when Norm MacDonald does his "Letterman coughing" bit?
Tommy O' Brien
Moldy Murray

Tommy: But you *don't* look like Bill Murray from The Royal Tenenbaums (though I don't know what that's supposed to mean).

Rusty: So are the Moldy Peaches good in concert? Do you know? They're playing here next Sunday, is why I ask.

Tuesday, January 01, 2002

Bulky Mail Truck

What's this thing called the Bulky Mail Truck? Is it going to usurp the throne of the robot? By no means. They are two different animals. This one's public, for one thing, so that everyone publically looking on right now can have no idea what I'm talking about. Also, the BMT was around before the robot or even before time began, really. Actually, it was on in the early-middle period of my life. Time began in 1989.

So, read both or neither or pick one. We are Devo, after all.
Must Post! New Faces!

I'm not clever or funny, Nyleva, but I post anyway. And I do look like Bill Murray from Rushmore, so that must account for something, right? Q: Are we not men? A: We are Devo.

Will Oldham. He's the man. Visionary. Songwriter. Photographer. Actor. Somebody.

David Lynch. He made the best movie of 2001.

Hope everyone had a very merry new year and a happy holiday. Next stop for Nyleva: The Srimpin' Bidness.
Your friend,
Tommy
HAPPY NEW YEAR!




HAPPY 2002! HOPE YOU ALL WATCHED 2001 WHILE YOU HAD A CHANCE, BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE!

We all remember Steph the Wonder Kid. We luv her.

The Moldy Peaches are kinda throwbacks to slacker indie music that talk about Hong Kong Fooey and Shmoo, but they're kinda fun. Chick and a dude singing and giggling. Pretty good stuff.

Signed,
Yo Mama