Trying My Hand at Oil Painting

Books Read in 2010

1. 3/Jan/10--The Futurist by James P. Othmer (2006).
2. 4/Jan/10--Dick Smith's Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook by Dick Smith (1985).
3. 7/Jan/10--The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002).
4. 11/Jan/10--Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein (1964, 1992).
5. 11/Jan/10--The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (1979, 1993).
6. 16/Jan/10--Tripwire by Lee Child (1999).
7. 1/Feb/10--The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy (1988).
8. 4/Feb/10--Slow Learner: Early Stories by Thomas Pynchon (1984).
9. 7/Feb/10--In Suspect Terrain by John McPhee (1982).
10. 11/Feb/10--The Log From the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck (1951).
11. 14/Feb/10--Tales of the MADMAN Underground by John Barnes (2009).
12. 15/Feb/10--Hit and Run by Lawrence Block (2008).
13. 19/Feb/10--This Is Not A Game by Walter Jon Williams (2008).
14. 28/Feb/10--Gilligan's Wake by Tom Carson (2003).
15. 4/Mar/10--Richmond Noir ed. by Andrew Blossom, Brian Castleberry, & Tom De Haven (2010).
16, 8/Mar/10--Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack (1993).
17. 14/Mar/10--Deep Storm by Lincoln Child (2007).
18. 19/Mar/10--The Armageddon Rag by George R. R. Martin (1983).
19. 22/Mar/10--Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2008).
20. 27/Mar/10--Thunderhead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (1999).
21. 29/Mar/10--Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss (2009).
22. 19/Apr/10--The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman (1988).
23. 30/Apr/10--Homicide: A Year On the Killing Streets by David Simon (1991).
24. 10/May/10--Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier (1999).
25. 21/May/10--A Walk On the Wild Side by Nelson Algren (1956).
26. 21/Jun/10--Knee Deep In Paradise by Brett Butler (1996).
27. 8/Jul/10--The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke (1978).
28. 13/Jul/10--Pattern Recognition by William Gibson (2003).
29. 5/Aug/10--Walking the Appalachian Trail by Larry Luxenberg & Mike Warren (1994).
30. 21/Aug/10--Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by Cherie Currie & Tony O'Neill (2010).
31. 22/Aug/10-- Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader by Lester Bangs, ed. by John Morthland (2003).
32. 23/Aug/10--Turn Left At the Trojan Horse by Brad Herzog (2010).
33. 24/Aug/10--Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (2000).
34. 26/Aug/10--The Walk by Lee Goldberg (2004).
35. 28/Aug/10--Look Me In the Eye: My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robison (2007).
36. 31/Aug/10--Role Models by John Waters (2009).
37. 7/Sept/10--Barefoot Sisters: Southbound by Lucy & Susan Letcher (2009).
38. 18/Sept/10--Dishwasher by Pete Jordan (2007).
39. 26/Sept/10--The Portable Henry Rollins by Henry Rollins (1998).

On the Last Day of the Year...

...I met up with my friends Anne and Tad at Barnes & Noble, partly to catch up with what's going on in their lives (they have lives, you see; I'm envious) and partly to donate a slew of Hot Wheels®/Johnny Lightning® cars to their son's cause (and why I had a slew of Hot Wheels®/Johnny Lightning® cars is a tale for another time). Little did I suspect this would be the source of a Spooky Story.

Okay, not spooky exactly; it was simply one of those coincidences/synchronicities/small world occurrences that make my life just a little more surreal.

We were all hanging out in the Children's Section drinking coffee because (1), the Children's Section is much cooler than the café and (2), the café was too crowded anyway (oh, and {3}, no one cares if you sprawl on the floor in the Children's Section; adults are so fussy about such things, especially if you start to twiddle with their shoelaces), yakking about this, snarking about that when these two adorable kids and their mom wander in and position themselves directly in front of us (click to embiggen):

Check out the book titles to the left of the little girl.

I quickly cleaned up my language, made damn sure Anne was sitting close enough to me to be seen as part of my entourage (because big hulking solitary males sans offspring and/or significant others in the Children's Section are a legitimate cause for parental concern), lowered my (booming) voice, and continued my monologue about visiting Mom in Waynesboro Christmas Day.

Mom: "Are you from Waynesboro?"
Me: "Well, yes, originally. I was born in Richmond, grew up in Waynesboro, then went to school in Blacksburg, then New Orleans, then worked in Boston, Charlottesville, and now back here."
Mom: "My husband's from Waynesboro!"
Me: "Really?  (being polite) What's his name?"
Mom: (name)
Me: OMG! He used to live across the alley from us! (blah, blah, blah, this and that, boring reminiscing)

And then everyone went on about his/her business, Anne, Tad, and I finally leaving to transfer Hot Wheels® from my car to theirs.

Then on the way home it hit me: "Wait a minute... her husband can't be the man I'm thinking of, the up-and-coming local lawyer with the hot wife (who sunbathed in the back yard viewable from my bedroom window) and the miniature collie who lived in the old Doyle house. That man would be in his... ten, twenty thirty... O! M! G! HIS SEVENTIES! HER HUSBAND IS HIS SON! THE... GRANDFATHER... OF THOSE KIDS!"

And I felt terribly, terribly old for the rest of the day.

Welcome, 2011!

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art-- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."
--Neil Gaiman

"Happy New Year. Stand on the neck of 2010 and throatpunch the future."
--Warren Ellis