Deep Thoughts

I wanted to get some things out, sans the pictures. Don't get me wrong, we have pictures, we have LOTS and LOTS of pictures. But for the sake of this post, I will be foregoing them until such time as I am able to adjust them and post them online.

---

So I'm driving home yesterday from picking up a dress for LMA, (more on that later) when NPR decides to fill my commuting ears with more talk about gay marriage. There will be debate today in the Senate about this and either today or tomorrow a vote to amend the constitution to ban gay marriage.

Now, the GOP will probably not term it as a ban on gay marriage, they will say something more euphemistic, like, a strengthening of the family unit, or, a constitutional right to preserve a conservative way of life. What they should call it is the Homophobic Amendment, or the Right to Divorce Amendment, or the Alienate and Discriminate Amendment. They want families to be strong. I think they want stronger families because so far these heterosexual, monogamous relationships haven't done to well. What are Republicans and Conservative Democrats preserving? I'm serious about this. What exactly are you holding so dear. Why don't you make divorce illegal? To me that would fix about 50% of all your problems with keeping the family together.

The line that cracked me up was "securing the future of this nation against immoral behavior." Because as well all know, in the fight to separate church from state, what you want to do is legalize a Christian belief in the union of a man and a woman rather than a civil belief in the union of two people. See what I did there, I separated them, a Christian belief and a Civil belief. If I do not believe in the same thing you do religiously, how you can fairly represent my ideals in any federal law if you are trying to incorporate your belief structure? The Academy of Arts and Sciences does not award the biggest money maker with Best Picture, and I think the GOP should not amend a civil constitution just because the majority of the people have a religious beef.

Plus, I mean, come on, aren't there bigger things to worry about? We're currently at war with Terror (or as I like to say, Feudin' like the Hatfields and McCoys.) We've got poverty, an AIDS crisis in Africa and India. We've got a President whose grasp of the English language is no better than my 3 year old daughter. Why are we even discussing this wedge issue? The Senate doesn't have the votes, the House shouldn't have even seen this. It shouldn't have come out of whatever subcommittee that didn't bother to read it in the first place. It's a joke, a travesty, a perfect example of the disintegration of America's body politic.

---

Ok, this is the part when I ask for help. I'm working on something with a few people I know. I don't know them personally, but I know them well enough. The idea we're working on, or at least, I'm working on and they're waiting till I'm done, is taking a movie and turning it into a comic. Now, I can't really say what, because I want to keep the idea, but I'll use an example.

I have this idea of taking a known movie, we'll say fairly well known, and creating a larger universe in which to tell either prequels or sequels. It would something along the lines of seeing the first Star Wars movie, not thinking there will ever be more movies and saying "Yeah, that's cool. I'd like to tell a story about where Luke came from and who Vader really is." But in comic book form.

So here's my dilemma. I have zero contacts in any biz you can name. My contacts in the comic book business are tertiary at best. I have no irons in any TV, Movie or Literary fires. I have no agent and I don't have 100 million dollars to buy the rights to anything. My cohorts might be slightly better off because I know one of them has had some work published in comics as a secondary artist, we'll leave it at that.

So that leads me to this request. For all our loyal readers out there, if you have ANY ideas pertaining to pitching an idea about a comic adaptation of a film, please let me know. I will say that Sony/Columbia was the studio, but that's about it. (That should be enough really.) Once I get something written and we get something drawn, who do we pitch it to for publishing? Sony? Image? Who has the rights, who needs the rights, and who can do what with what? Who do we ask?

Think on that and either leave me a comment or email me.

---

So my brother is getting married in September. I am a Ring Bearer and LMA is a Flower Girl. Yeah, I'm not the Best Man, but to be honest, I can't really do the Best Man duties since he's in Colorado and I'm not, so I don't mind much. I'm still part of the party and that's all that counts. Plus I think walking along with LMA would be really cute.

Yesterday I have to go pick up her dress from a nationwide chain, we'll call it Mavid's Bridal to be safe. They're all over the place so it's easy for Bride to find Dress and have Party Member pick it up in Hometown. Plug in the variables and you have the equation for success, or at least a large monopoly.

Anyway I'm getting off track. I'm in the store and the lady is looking for the dress and I ask to use the bathroom. She escorts me to the back and says it's back here, just on the left. There is, of course, His and Hers variety. I go into the dedicated His room and realize, as I'm standing there in the cleanest public bathroom I've ever seen, that it's maybe been days, even weeks since a male has relieve himself here. An odd thought, make no mistake. I felt like I was at the house of a new girlfriend, meeting the parents. It was too clean, I almost didn't want to go.

Later at the counter, the musak overhead starts playing "Supermodel" by RuPaul.

No one flinched. In fact, the music seemed almost perfectly appropriate for the surroundings. There was no sniggering or gasps of "Oh my God, do you remember this song?"

I knew I had to get out of there.

(By the way, I had to get the name of the song right, which meant I had to do a Google search for RuPaul. You should read the Timeline on his website, it's actually a pretty interesting, if not tragic, read.)

---

I just read a story that Tom Delay solicited Enron for political contributions that were fed into the Texas Republican party to fund the campaign to redistrict Texas congressional map, against state laws prohibiting it.

So, to recap, Kenneth Lay allegedly took money from employees retirement funds to pay for, among other things, a greater republican presence in the White House. Add to that the fact that Ken Lay is the biggest Bush patron when it comes to money and is it any wonder that your gay cousin can't get married in Texas? They'd be lucky to get to New Orleans before the lynching starts.

These guys are dirtier than a crackwhore's cookie jar and if we don't rise up and take them out of office, you can expect more "soft money" to reduce your freedoms to nothing. Yeah, MOST Republicans are nice people, in favor of good education and smaller government. Unfortunately those Republicans aren't in power.

For more on this story, you can listen to this Market Place report, but you must have Real Player (sorry) to hear it. I can't find the text of the report anywhere, but I'm sure it's got to be public somewhere.

---

On a sad note, my childhood cat Penfold past away this last weekend. He was 19.

---

(Seriously, pictures will be up soon. Don't fret.)