Fashion Forward.

Lydia and Mike and I saw Jamie Lidell and his band perform at the 9:30 club earlier this week. It was a really fun show and Jamie's backing band was fantastic. (Including the creepy but talented keyboardist, Mr. Jimmy.)

The big question of the night was, what is Jamie wearing? Was it a cape? A euro-serape? Some kind of haute couture Snuggy?

Here's a slightly blurry camera phone shot of Jamie Lidell wearing what he described as a "striped, fur-lined poncho." And of course, now I really want a poncho of my own.

Opinions.

A large middle-aged woman walking out of my neighborhood Safeway: "This a cheesy motherfucking Safeway!"

And as this is my local Safeway, I kind of took her criticism personally.

It was a Different Time.

The capsule description for Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film, The Holy Mountain:

A grotesque tale rich in allegory and sacrilegious imagery as a thief is first crucified then enlisted by an alchemist to join a group of elites who seek divinity and immortality. 

A different review sums up the movie in one sentence: A surreal 1970's mind trip.

To which I can add little other than it was a totally entertaining movie in the sense that I was never sure what was going to happen.

I held something of a running dialogue with myself during the movie, which Lydia did not seem entirely pleased with.

Me: Oh, that lady's got a monkey! Now Jesus is carrying a sculpture of himself. Look, they're in the eyeball room. That man has goats. The lizards are wearing hats!

Lydia: Do you even hear what you're saying?

Time Flies

In just 48 hours:


From the Magic Kingdom to the Big Apple.

From 118 and clear to 78 and raining.

From Shwarmer to Gray's Papaya.

From Niqabs to hot-pants.

From Starbucks to Starbucks. (Although, at least in the Starbucks in the States I can order a Chai Latter and drink it in the company of women.)

I'm Out.

The Riyadh to Kuwait flight was 100% full and populated by about 80% Indonesian housemaids (presumably transferring to a Jakarta flight in Kuwait). Only one of the women had a black eye.

As the plane lumbered down the runway and finally lifted into the air, a group of the women let a cheer. I'm guessing I had a much better year than any of them, but I still cheered a little bit with the group.

Just Wondering.

On the phone:

Army Colonel: Adam, I've been looking for you. Can you come down to my office I want to give you something.

Me: Is it a hug?

Army Colonel: Um, no.

Me: Oh, okay. I'll be right there sir.

Buy Dairy! (VII)

And today we will end this series with my favorite flavor of milk (vanilla) and my favorite animated spokesman (Maher the Adventurer). His thobe is looking much more normal here and he appears to really be enjoying floating through the air, propelled only be the sheer magnetic power of a small box of flavored milk drink.

Buy Dairy! (VI)

Alright, now we've ditched the rocket powered rollerblades and we're riding a jetski on a lake of strawberry flavored milk. That probably makes way more sense, right?  Also, we have some kind of a bulky cellphone/radio in a holster on our belt.  Just because.

Buy Dairy! (V)

Right , right, I know this is not dairy. But I wanted to show that box drinks with animated characters were not limited to milk products only.

I don't know this guy's name (perhaps we should just call him Caesar Jr.) but I do really appreciate that he has a bird resting on his head. Nothing relaxes me more than just kicking back against a pile of mangoes with a bird on my head and stretching out.

Buy Dairy! (IV)

And finally we have Power Cow's friend anthropomorphic chocolate piece doing some kind of jig in front of a pasture of cows under a rainbow. Calming really.

Buy Dairy! (III)

Okay, sure, I get it. Milk comes from cows and therefore obviously kick-ass, awesome milk comes from Power Cow. Makes sense to me.

I don't quite follow why Power Cow wears both a cape and a backwards baseball cap, but I don't want to appear insolent in front of Power Cow lest he command his army of anthropomorphic chocolate pieces to attack me.

Buy Dairy! (II)

Rollerblades!? Rocket-packs!? Rollerblades with rocket-packs attached!?

The only thing better than that would be if someone chemically sweetened my box of milk with vanilla flavoring and then dumped a ton of sugar in.

Part of a complete breakfast. A complete breakfast that will give you diabetes.

Buy Dairy! (I)

Yes! Just what you've been waiting for, more animated dairy product spokespeople/things!

First up: Maher the Adventurer. If you think Maher seems a bit too much like an Arab version of Dora the Explorer, then I ask you this: Where is Maher's pink backpack? And while we're asking questions: What's up with Maher's thobe somehow truncating into a pair of pantaloons? And why does his ghutra look kinda like a mid 19th century imperial British pith helmet.

I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but I do know that I like chocolate milk. Thumbs up Maher!

Just Two More.

A couple more good finds from my desert visit a few weeks ago.

I found this one just outside what was probably a fox's den. It's hard to tell from the rust if this thing was outside for a few months or a few decades, but the trap was still primed and ready to snap shut. I dropped a rock onto the main plate and the jaws snapped closed before the stone could even bounce away.

This guy was unrelated to the fox trap, but likely got separated from his herd and died. The combination of extreme heat and sandstorms tend to do a pretty nice job of stripping these skeletons bare in a short period of time.

Cache.

It's been almost a year and I'm still amazed by just how much of this country is endless stretches of empty sand.

Well, maybe empty isn't the right word. Just hidden. I'm guessing lizard tracks?

Yep, I'm still a sucker for pictures of dried mud.