You know, I started typing this thing Christmas Eve, and then I got distracted… and lazy… and then distracted. Did I mention I’m easily distracted? But I make up for it with the occasional stroke of absolute focus. I just can’t get to the middle of the bellcurve without rolling down the other side. Anyway, Christmas-flavored post, you’ll get my New Year’s resolutions by February (don’t make me threaten again with the stagecoach), I promise:

By popular demand, I ought to get back to doing this blogging thing. And, as it happens, Merry Christmas, everybody (see?). Consider it a gift – not that this is really a good gift… so, consider it socks. Actually, I got some nice wool socks for Christmas, very toasty.

And allow me now to summarize the Xmas loot, for your entertainment:
-Socks, aforementioned
-Shirts
-Undeclared on DVD: influenced perhaps by the fact that I saw all of it the week preceding Xmas, and that it is genius, and I have to show it to everybody at school, because seriously, this show is college, but funnier.
-Serenity DVD, because well, it’s necessary. My brother got one too, to prevent a power struggle when I go back to school.
- $100 headphones. My mom works for an audio equipment company, what can I say? They haven’t arrived yet, but should be snazzy. Actually, anybody want headphones at an incredibly low price? (I’m half-kidding here; My mom doesn’t know what the limit for employee discount purchases is…)
-Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1. A group with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and George Harrison? Sold! Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison don’t hurt the package either. A fun, not too serious album from some fantastic musicians.
-Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion, which seems like a pretty solid expansion to an addictive game.
-Civilization IV, which I haven’t played yet, but is nonetheless a game with fantastic pedigree.

Allow me also to express my most heartfelt exultation for the Bears. Woot! Go Rex! Go Bears!

Also, while I am expressing praise for all and sundry, I heart the Marx Brothers. Saw Duck Soup and Night at the Opera with folk Wednesday at the Music Box. Hilarious, wacky stuff. Night at the Opera has some slow bits, serious musical numbers, but Duck Soup is just non-stop zaniness. Mirror gags, random thigh-placement, musical number about war, jars, mustaches a-go-go – it has everything. Though I’ll admit that covers a lot of ground. “Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself!”

That’s one of Groucho’s many comeback one-liners, for the uninitiated.

I also saw King Kong (whee! six hours in the theater in one day!) that day with Casey and our grandmother. I’ll say this: you really feel for the big ape. Solid acting all around, and it’s interesting to see Jack Black in a (semi-) serious role. And if there are two things Peter Jackson knows, it’s creepy-crawlies and spectacular action sequences, and this movie has both in spades. Fastest three-hour movie I’ve ever seen.

So, it’s been a good break, save for that troubling total lack of productivity. I continue to make sporadic attempts to learn guitar, and simultaneously get a more thorough understanding of music. Got to make this “songwriter” business a little more legit, you know. Speaking of which: duck out now if you ain’t interested in the songs and poetry end.

There is a bit more of that, now. I had a fairly productive period around Thanksgiving, including a drinking song I wrote on the ‘L’. I don’t know why, but the CTA does wonders for my creativity. So, anyway, these are relatively new, though they've been up for a while now, less a few edits:

Hymn to St. Elmo the Sailor (drinking song, hopefully amusing even if you despise my other stuff)
Catch Me!
Keep on Dreaming

And there's some other stuff that may get up in the next week or so. Assumably, I will be back to procrastination-by-blogging once school starts again.