Fall/Winter Ketchup

So we know what you've practically gnawed your fingers to the very bone wondering and wondering about what's been going on in the 'nuts an' bolts' section of our portfolio. I mean we've posted posts pertaining to a number of perfectly timely events, such as the release of stop-motion animated films and...well I guess that's been about it in the last few months. What can I say? Meridth gets excited.

Oh yeah, I guess we posted about that baby thing too.

Anyway, they had Halloween last year; I don't know if you remember. We went to a super keen party with some mates of ours and were subsequently whupped in a make-shift costume contest, although I'd say we did alright, time-constraints notwithstanding. What could we do? One couple was dressed up as Popeye and Olive Oyl. Can you say pwned?I went as a nerd. (I know! Huge stretch of the imagination, that!) Note the dragon tee and Vorpal Sword +3. Not pictured are the specs I'm sporting. Guess I should have turned down the AWESOME on that cowl of mine so you could see it. Meridth went as an Edo Period Samurai. Note the historical accuracies: purple was a very very popular color in those days. And when the fashion conscious samurai was without his obi belt, a polka-dotted scarf from the Gap would have been a suitable substitute.

So pumpkins:
that's mine on the left. It wasn't a good Halloween for me I guess cos I also got whupped it the highly ritualized and traditional pumpkin carving contest. Meridth's pumpkin was brill...
...particularly at night. But then again......the other Meridth's pupmkin was almost equally wicked. Tha's right: in the time it took me to paint and carve that crappy Jack Skellington-meets-a-'97-Goth-convention train-wreck, Meridth carved two turbo-cool pumpkins. I lose.

Next: AQUARIUM DAY!

Monterey is home to Monterey Bay. (Or maybe it's the other way around, but...) And Monterey Bay is home to Monterey Bay Marine Preserve. And because of the Monterey Bay Marine Preserve they built the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Which is the location Meridth and I went on the second Saturday of November last year. Pretty rad.

How rad you ask?This rad. Oh, unconvinced? What would you say to...

...footage of cute roly-poly otters?

What?! Have you no heart? What about......still photos of a roly-poly young fish enthusiast? Meridth is really good at taking surreptitious photographs of innocent bystanders. She's like a hitman with a 6-megapixel handgun.

Anyway, that was way fun and I could post boat-loads of pictures about it. I won't. Suffice it to say that the otters were ultra-cute, the jellyfish were stunning and the sharks were really rather intimidating. The day's only down point came as a small booth were they told us about the unethical behavior displayed in the commercial tuna fishing market. Serious bummer cos I love a tuna sandwich.

What's next...uh...T.giving!
Meridth's super-cool team came up and down from sundry CA locales for a veritable bender of game-play......and...uh...other hijinks.

RADAR was pretty much in hog-heaven. Between my brother-in-law's gnarly toes and Nick slipping him random bits of bird-flesh all weekend, we turned into the biggest McKean Fan around.

Up next: musing on silent films.

So we all knew that Meridth was cool. I mean, she's been pulling-off those Tina Fey glasses since the Clinton Administration. Then along comes the Lon Chaney classic "The Unknown" in a NetFlix envelope one afternoon and I finally get it: Meridth is the coolest gal ever. There. I said it.

Now watch out what you read about this movie before you spool it up on your DVD device. A well-placed spoiler will do just that--spoil a great moment in the history of celluloid. (Since y'know, I know you guys all dash out of your houses like gang-busters to snatch up all the books, movies, comics, vacation pamphlets, candy bars and dinner rolls we suggest to you. Gosh, it's great to have minions like you!) That said, it bears mentioning that 1) the movie is about an armless knife-thrower in a freak show. 2) It ends with horses trying to dash a man to bits. And 3) the choices made in the movie are just so eerie and narratively fitted and fan-freaking-tastic that you'll just want to proselytize for the film; to get out and talk with people about it, get it out there for people. Wow!

Chistmas rolled in about two weeks after we saw The Unknown. It was a rather low-key affair this year since we just hung out here with RADAR and an XBOX 360. Meridth and I have been adapting various British Christmas traditions into our oeuvre. THis year we tracked down some classic Christmas Crackers (pictured below) so we got some schmarmy cereal-box-bottom toys, a snap of gunpowder and wrinkly paper crowns. Yeah. Go England. Way to celebrate. Ours sadly didn't state on the packaging that they were "awesome." We had to come to that conclusion on our own. Which we did, shorly before snapping this candid at about 12:07 AM Christmas morning.(Oh what?! Yeah? We were still up that late on Christmas Eve. Yeah, we opened our presents 'on' Christmas...it was after twelve anyway...who are you to judge? We had a busy day, alright? Those zombies on Dead Rising weren't going to kill themselves. Seriously!)

Seriously? Are you bored yet? Is this entry too long? Look, it's late and since we're pretty sucky at ketchup maneuvers, we'll let this one end here with a "to be continued" thingy. Maybe invoke a bit of a Zeigarnik Effect. Yeah. Look THAT one up...

End transmission.