Turkey Day Done

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Originally uploaded by duelin markers

Thanksgiving (in Tallahassee) is behind me, and as I sit here back at home with a full belly, watching A Christmas Story for the second time in a row, I feel I may already have had enough of this holiday season. (Who am I kidding? I could listen to Jean Shepherd's voice all night.)

The sit-and-eat-fest is about to take a break though. I've got one final week on my current project and will the next week start right in on my next project, currently slated to be a 5-day-a-week project-inception in White Plains (complete with an hour-long daily commute ... blech! -- on the other hand, it looks like I'll be sleeping in my own bed every night).

After the first week of that project, my parents will visit New York for a weekend. This will be their first visit since I moved here two-and-a-half years ago, and I expect it to be pretty fun. They're dragging me to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular, and I'll join them for as much other touristy stuff as I can stand.

Hopefully there'll be just enough work between that visit and the week of Christmas that I'll be fully ready for the trip home and more family time. (Three separate visits with the parents in about a month is unprecedented since I moved out of South Florida.)

Anyway, I have to go see if Flick's tongue will freeze to the flag pole. He's been triple-dog-dared!

Pee-Wee's Theme

I'm totally not ok with the recent co-option of Danny Elfman's main theme from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure by obnoxious corporate media. First I heard it in the Visa commercial in the toy store. All these card-good-cash-bad ads are really well made, but I hate the marketing by guilt. Essentially the message is "the comsumerist world is working in perfect harmony until some fool tries to pay with cash -- don't you be that fool!" Now it's also shown up in ads for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, which based on early reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, doesn't live up to the family film-making of Big Adventure director Tim Burton. (Admittedly, it's not his Pee-Wee work that's getting so much respect.) It's sad to hear music that's so close to my heart used for marketing. See hollywoodchicago.com for a nearly content-free article providing links to both.

Stylastic

My friend Shana has just launched Stylastic. It's fashion meets social networking. Upload photos of yourself, your friends, or whoever, and see what people think about your style-sense. Pretty cool.