FuzzyCo

How can you live with just one film on your tshirt?

For the past few years, FuzzyFest has involved some sort of public performance aspect. This year, not so much. Erica is taking me on some fun adventures tomorrow and then we're having a little thingy thing on Saturday. The details of such? You know, I get this a lot these days:

Friend: Fuzzy, you didn't come to my birthday party/baby shower/grave-robbing!
Fuzzy: So sorry, but, um, I don't think I was invited.
Friend: Of course you were! I put it on Facebook!
Fuzzy: Ah. I don't check Facebook because I am an old man who drives a horse and carriage and lives in a rock.

So my thing on Saturday? The opposite. I did not put it on Facebook. Electronic mails were sent. If you perhaps think that you should have been invited, maybe you didn't read your email because you were on Facebook, or perhaps I don't have your email. Fix that, please.

Playboy Rabbit Head Coming Down from Fuzzy Gerdes on Vimeo.

I know from emails and texts I've received over the last few weeks that it's not big news to most of you that the Chicago office of Playboy Enterprises will be closing on April 30, 2012. And yes, to answer the question a lot of you have been asking in those messages, it will definitely affect my job in some way. But that's not what I'm writing about today.

One of the great things about working at Playboy over the years has been the great art collection that the magazine had amassed over the years, and the excellent work of the curatorial staff in displaying and educating about that art in the office. For example, there were several Ed Paschke pieces within a stone's throw of my office, and that was pretty damn cool.

There's a bronze Rabbit Head sculpture by Richard Hunt that has hung in the lobby of the 680 North Lake Shore office since this office was opened in 1990. On January 30 and February 2, 2012, the sculpture was taken down. I snapped a few photos throughout those days, just in the course of going back and forth across the office. I happened to swing by the lobby right as the bunny actually descended and got this video.

It's so interesting how scoring can really make a film. Without any sound, even sped-up this video is rather boring. I thought about putting Yakety Sax or some sort of ragtime under it to give it that comedy flare, but then I found this delightfully somber piece by Kevin MacLeod that sets an appropriate melancholy tone, I think.

A big thanks to everyone who came out to FuzzyFest 2012, bringing me a bunch of fun and unusual beers to help propel me towards 500 unique checkins on Untappd. And I love that my friends are the sort who make their own party games—I awoke the next morning to find post-it notes with birthday advice scattered about the house.

And of course a double-helping of thanks are due to my wonderful wife who organized the whole thing and baked me not one but six delicious pies.

It's too late for this year (well, maybe you can still pull it off on the West Coast) but put this in your calendar for next year. And the good news is that you can pull it off with a stop at a drug store on the way into work.

Start with packs of the cheesiest kids' Valentines possible—ones with stickers are good. Depending on what you go for you can get 30 for $3. Usually I avoid pop culture and go for ones like "animals" or "skateboarders" or "Fuzzy Art", but this year Twilight was too good to pass up putting in the mix. Get a reasonable-quality individually wrapped candy. This year I went with Ferrero Rocher, but if you do something like that be sure to get a nut-free alternative. Foil-wrapped hearts or Hersey's Kisses are fine too, if you're on a budget or have a huge office.

Sign the From field. If your hand is up to it, in the To field put "an awesome coworker" or something, but you can just leave it blank. I try to avoid any hint of personalization that might make giving a valentine to a coworker awkward. The vibe I'm going for is "grade school and everyone in class gets a valentine". It helps to not be creepy. Don't be creepy. Walk around the office and everyone gets a card and a candy. Instant office hero.

Am I not scared that by giving away my secret everyone will do it? No, I am not, an office full of heroes would be fine. And besides maybe then I'll get some candy in return.

There are thousands of reasons I love Erica, and this is one. Happy Valentines Day, my sweet.

Don't you love entry 18? Don't you love his duckie?

Long story short: for someone who takes as many photos and shoots as much video as I do, it’s long past time for me to get a DSLR camera. And Erica is really supportive of this move, which is great. But I can’t decide what to get. The first big question, I guess, is Nikon or Canon. My favorite camera ever is my Nikon Nikkormat FT that my dad gave me as a teenager, but that’s not a reason to stick with Nikon. I also have a Nikon N6006 and a broken D1, so I have a couple of Nikkor AF lens, but just a 35-135mm and a Tamron 19-35mm, so neither of those would be really pricey to replace if I went Canon.

• I really like to avoid flash, so low-light performance is important, but it seems like even the mid-range cameras are all good on that these days?
• Canon was the leader in HD video on cameras, but maybe Nikon is catching up?
• The onboard mics can’t be that great on any of these bodies, so I’m probably going to have to also invest in a external recording system, like an H4 Zoom or something?
• I’m writing a lot of statements but then putting question marks at the end?

I did a whole round of endless review reading a few months ago, prepping for putting something on my Christmas list, and my mind melted and I came up with either the Nikon D3100 or the Canon Rebel T3i. But I have no idea. Anyone have a camera they love? Someone just want to give me something :-)

The Woodbooger is, I now know, a local West Virginian version of a Bigfoot. It's also the second week's challenge for Mythical Beast Wars. I'm never going to win this thing on detail (check out entry 3, for example) so I've been working on my own sort of spare cartooning style. It's nice to get out the ol' Pitt 'B' pen again and try throwing it a piece of paper.

Erica, Shaun, and I ran an interesting 5K this morning. It was the inaugural Warm Your Heart 5K, an indoor run at the McCormick Place, the big expo center in downtown Chicago. The promise of the race was that, unlike other indoor races, it was a single loop. McCormick is pretty big, so I had a picture in my head of running around through exhibit hall after hall. It turns out that while McCormick is big, it's not quite that big—the race was held in two of the halls and the route snaked back and forth in loops through the two.

The whole place is all slick concrete and I'm really surprised I didn't see anyone wipe out after the water stations, with big puddles on the concrete. And there were a lot of tight turns. I assume because of that latter, they spaced out the various pace groups with distinct starts. Shaun and I got at the end of the 9 minute/mile group with the intention of slowing down and ending up with the 10 min/mile group. But somehow we just kept running at that pace and I finished the whole thing at a 9:08/mile pace—setting a personal best in a timed 5k. How odd that I'm a faster runner at 42 than ever before in my life.

I'm sure she'll talk about it on her blog, but this was Erica's first race since her accident last year—she did a great job running and I'm really proud of her.

My official results:

Time: 28:17
Pace: 9:08
Overall place: 633 / 1778
Place in sex: 400 / 714
Place in division (M, 40-44): 59 / 99

Hopefully I’ll see you at a race, run, or ride somewhere around Chicago. Here’s what I’m planning on running this year (and I’ll try to remember to update this post as I sign up for more through the year).

• February 26 - Warm Your Heart 5K (PR)
• March 25 - Shamrock Shuffle 8K
• April 7 - Bunny Rock 5K
• April 14 - Race to Wrigley 5K
• April 22 - Home Team Charity Run 10K
• April 29 - Ravenswood Run 5K (PR)
• May 26 - Soldier Field 10 Mile
• May 27 - Bike the Drive
• July 12 - Bastille Day 8K
• August 2 - Terrapin 5K
• August 25-26 - Chicago Triathlon (I’m signed up for the Triple Challenge)
• September 1 - Hell Run
• October 21 - Get Your Rear in Gear
• October - Carrera de los Muertos

I'm sure this is not unique to my office environment: the cleaning staff will not throw anything out that isn't in a garbage can unless it has a dayglo orange sticker on it that proclaims its trashiness in three languages ("PLEASE THROW OUT, POR FAVOR TIRALO, PROSZE WYRZUCIC"). Very utilitarian, and has probably saved my bacon a few times when important, but scruffy looking, boxes have drifted a bit close to the trash can.

During the big office purging going on right now, I came across a whole pad of these 5"x7" cards. Look at the jaunty Admiral in his washtub boat. Check out the gorgeous, and slightly irregular, waves across the bottom. Are you ready to throw something out already, just to have the chance to use this guy?

Booooring

A big gap in my science fiction reading is Octavia Butler, so I was happy to find a copy of Dawn on the Maryknolls borrow-leave bookshelves. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but this wasn't it. Dawn is a somewhat old-fashioned science-fiction story—it has the feeling of those old '60s scifi stories where the idea somewhat squashes the characters. There's a lot of talk of people's emotions, but the people just felt a little flat to me. So I was surprised when I was looking it up for this post to discover that it's from 1987*.

The idea, though, is a big one. Humanity has nearly wiped itself out in a nuclear war and aliens have rescued scattered survivors. They're going to help humans repopulate the earth, but will we ever be the same? (Dun, dun, dun).

FuzzyCo grade: A

* I was also pleasantly surprised to see that it was the first of a trilogy, since it didn't have that chopped up feel of an obvious first book, one of my pet peeves.

What a journey… finishing Flashman on the March I've now read all of the Flashman books. At the beginning I was appalled but kept reading. By the end I was lamenting the adventures of our scoundrel that I'd never get to read. One of Fraser's great techniques throughout the books was to scatter references to the rest of Flashman's life. For example, Flashman frequently refers to the fact that he fought on both sides of the American Civil War, and now I'm sorry that I'll never get to find out how that came about.

I'm not sure if I've just got used to Flashman's terrible ways, or if Fraser toned down the character over the years. But by the end I actually kind of liked the old reprobate.

This final volume is set during the 1868 British Expedition to Abyssinia. As usual with the Flashman books, I learned about a section of history I'd never even known about before. I mean, as simple as the notion that Ethiopia used to be called Abyssinia. I did not not know that. Flashman does his usual stumbling through history, cheating and womanizing the whole way.

FuzzyCo grade: B+

I was so excited about Children of the Sky that I went back and re-read a previous book in the series, A Fire Upon the Deep. That may have been a mistake, as the scope of AFUtD is galaxy-spanning and I kept waiting for CotS to match that. CotS is, instead, a novel of political intrigue within a small community and I frankly got bogged down in all the machinations and wanted to get back to the grand space battle that cliff-hangered from the last book. And, spoiler-alert, it never comes.

FuzzyCo grade: B

Mike Doughty wrote a book. It's called The Book of Drugs. It's about taking drugs, and then not taking drugs. It's about being in a band, and then not being in a band. It's very, very, very honest. If you are interested in drugs or bands or honesty then you should read this book.

FuzzyCo grade: A

(I was going to leave it there, but then I made the mistake of reading some of the Amazon reviews . Even the people leaving four and five star reviews continue to chastise Mike for not being more grateful to Soul Coughing or the fans who love that music. See that part up there where I talk about honesty? Mike could have made the nicey face: "Oh, I had a bad time in the band, but I'm glad you like the music." But he's given us all the gift of telling us how he actually feels. I mean, I've made a piece of art or two in my time, and when I look back at them, I can see every single flaw and they all hurt. And when a collaborator has made the flaw, even if I like them (which I do, all of my artistic collabators! Nicey face!) it stings a little. And if I hated those collaborators and they had taken advantage of me for years and were involved in a terrible part of my life, yeah, I could see how even hearing the name of one of those pieces of art could be infuriating. Anyway, Mike doesn't need me to defend him in a parenthetical comment.)

Related:
Zulkey interviews Mike Doughty in text
Klausner interviews Mike Doughty in sound

• Horrible Bosses (2011) A-
• Star Trek (2009) A-
• Moneyball (2011) A-
• The Artist (2011) A+
• Hamlet 2 (2008) F
• Goodfellas (1990) B+ - Heresy, I know, but I gotta go with my gut.
• 50/50 (2011) A
• Charade (1963) A (except for the quality of the print Netflix has - it’s terrible and the sound is off)
• The Punisher (2004) A-
• Punisher: War Zone (2008) A+ - I was primed to enjoy the movie based on the How Did This Get Made episode featuring the movie’s director. But it’s really a great comic book movie. See also Patton Oswalt’s review.

This week's MBW is the "Buggane" which is a Celtic creature and the part of the description that stuck out to me was that it was like a giant mole. Hence my attempt to show off my poor lettering and even worse perspective.