ON ACCEPTING THE FRENCH IDEA OF GENIUS:

If the video doesn't imbed (seems to be having an on and off issue today) here's the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1215240/James-Dean-lives-New-Allan-Gray-advert-gives-original-rebel-cause.html
(totally worth a look)


My first reaction: offended. As an eternal fan of James Dean, I am a bit miffed to see him raised from the dead to help garner recognition for a South African Investment firm.
My second reaction: my heart is breaking.

"Given more time, imagine the possibilities."

For fuck's sake. One of the last things I needed to see/hear today, as I'm sitting in my freezing cold office (it's hot outside, so the AC is cranked through the roof here at school), within eyeshot of a stack of portfolios almost 2 feet deep...and nary a one graded. It is overcast. I am annoyed. I want to sleep. I have a billion things to complete this week. My brain is being pulled in all directions: home/school/work/obligations/fascinations. Given more time, imagine the possiblities.

In honor of my no-time-having self, my todo lists:

Today:
prep 101
teach 10am
teach 11am
create discussion board for 06/08 sections
post Stephen King essay to all sections
update and reorganize course docs on blackboard
post power point on word choice to all sections
waste time by bitching about todo lists on LJ
grade 10 portfolios
do dishes
clean kitchen
walk dog (park??)--didn't happen.
grocery store
make dinner
wash jeans/towels
fold jeans/towels-put away
submission list/database update
ready submissions for 5 contests (find checkbook?)
shower
breathe
grade blackboard postings TR
check email for student issues
I guess if I don't do them I move them forward?

Tomorrow:
submissions in mail
complete proposal(s) for App Studies Conference
10 portfolios
check email for student issues
prep 101
teach 1:40
teach 3:05
prep MWF
Ketner lecture 6 pm
watch Project Runway
ready chapbook submissons
sleep

Friday:
Proposal(s) due App Studies Conf
prep 101
teach 10
teach 11
Blackboard postings for weekend
15 portfolios??
chapbook submssions in mail
ready more mms subs for Sat mailing
Zombie conference proposal
make dinner
gather notes for monday ethos/logos/pathos workshop at 1

Sat:
submissions
portfolios
presskit for roy, upcoming writers/book fests

Sun:
submissions
portfolios

I WANT to do the following things, but believe I might be nuts:
update squeefinity (I have 5 updates, but need to work on them before I post them)
start on invites/todolists for halloween
figure out if there is a way to get away for R and I's anniversary
start narrowing down poems for SAMLA presentation
get some things out to some people
finish my draw-a-cup
record some Blood+
work on fixing that quilt
work on some poems
write a bit

Things I need: time, James Dean, a massage, and (right now) something to eat.

I always thought that Criss/Cris/Chris/whatever Angel was an annoying fuckwit. Then again I'm not very hip to the magicians (illusionists...whatever); they remind me of LARPers and they are always cheezy (with a z). So, I'm not often, um, "mindfreaked" by any of them. Criss Angel in particular, with his oh-so-subtle mix of hot topic/cinnabun worker/gothtard and what I suspect is the sharp scent of nerd-smugness (after a lifetime of doing card tricks in his stepmom's basement alone while masturbating to pictures of David Copperfield and Claudia Schiffer he's finally pullin some tail of his own), stirs up a pretty intense mockery/ridicule impulse in me (also, he looks like he doesn't wash much). So, color me shocked when Chriss Angel DID IN FACT FREAK MY MIND! How, you may ask?
This:

"Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos (born December 19, 1967), better known by his stage name Criss Angel"

WHAT THE HELL?? Criss Angel is 42 years old! 42!
And he looks like this:
Now, I know the reason for all the stage makeup and Jared Letoesque (Jared Motherfucking Leto [eyeroll]) eyeliner.

Here are some theories I'm tossing around.
1. He really is magical and has made a pact with a demon--he can remain young forever, as long as he also agrees to be the biggest cheesedick in North America (asking someone to be the biggest cheesedick in the world is a lot...I'm looking at you Norweigians).
2. He wears an obscene amount of greasepaint and pancake makeup to cover the fact that beneath it all he is actually...wait for it...mummified Ralph Macchio...duh, dun dun.
3. There are literally bizillions of Criss Angels, like in that movie the Prestige. Somewhere David Bowie invented a machine to "teleport" and but in reality it only creates clones of that person in order to make it look as if they were transported from A to B. In order to keep the world from being overrun with cheezedickery, in a eerily lit lair beneath Las Vegas there are innumerable tubes of dead Criss Angels. Also, somewhere in his secret Bowie vaults, David Bowie is at this moment admiring one of his many dead clones...I agree...gorgeous, Mr. Bowie...gorgeous!
4. This seemingly remarkable anti-aging thing is a direct result of having lived in his stepmom's basement for 20 years, without seeing the light of day. What a remarkable piece of evidence that the suns rays are damaging. Since he moved directly from basement to darkened casino and (I suspect) darkened corny magician castle; he's essentially lived a UV free life.
5. His eyeliner is actually a mixture of potent age reversing herbs and plant extracts...and he refuses to share this mixture with anyone (especially Jared Motherfucking-haggard-ass-looking Leto).
6. The undead Kristen Nöel "Kristy" Swanson was born December 19, 1969. Also born in December during the late 60s--Lucy Liu, Brendon Fraser, Sinead O'Connor, Carla Bruni and Dexter Holland. Perhaps, there was some strange cosmic debris which changed their biological structure in utero? Well, the rest of them...really, because we all know there is no way undead Kristy Swanson was born in 1969...1669 maybe. She creeps the hell out of me.

Well, those are my theories. Congratulations, Mr. Criss Angel, you have, for once impressed me with your magic. (Of course it was accidental, so congratulations withdrawn).

P.S. Don't quit your day job...at Cinnabun!