Ohoyo, an alpha female howling

What a fantastic week it’s been so far! The best news has to be that yesterday’s initial screening appointment with my local secondary care mental health workers went better than I could have imagined. They were empathic and real and utterly respectful of how I am feeling.

They asked me a bit of background as to how I came to be at this point in my life so I shared a potted version of my story with them. After a few questions about my where I was at with my depression right now I was able to explain that now my core sense of ‘wrongness’ is on the way to being put right and I can be happy in my bigendered male identity the depression has lifted. They listened attentively and scribbled some notes and following checking out with me that I was not a risk to myself or others, had a quick consultation themselves and came back with a psychiatric assessment appointment for 23 December!!!!

I had expected to get an appointment for late January if I was lucky so you can imagine how happy I was to get this in before Xmas. If I had a tail it would be looping great circles around my arse, wagging my whole body by now! I couldn’t stop an excited whoop of delight as I thanked these wonderful frontline mental health workers for understanding quite how much this meant to me.

So only two weeks to wait until my referral to the Gender Identity Clinic. The workers felt I’d only need the one session with the shrink as I am completely rational about my choices and have good cognitive functioning so at least those boxes can be ticked. So assuming I don’t come away from the appointment with a hitherto undiagnosed serious mental health problem (I don’t count the depression because although it is serious there’s been good reason why I’ve experienced this all my life), then I hope to be on the waiting list for the GIC by the end of this year, Xmas-post willing! I don’t yet know how long the wait will be from then but somewhere I think I’ve read that the ‘target’ time is no longer than three months which will give until the end of March 2010 to get to go to the Charing Cross hospital in London for the first time.

Today too I went to see my GP and I got signed fit to return to work. Woohoo! Tomorrow an Occy Health appointment and then the council wheels can kick into motion so I can get back to work pronto as I want to use the Xmas period to start my phased return. I went to our Xmas lunch at work yesterday too and everyone who knows so far are being wonderful. I told a couple of new people which went well. I think I’ll do an email or something when I get back so I can get round everyone without anyone feeling like they’ve been left out of the loop. The next big thing will be preparing for the reactions of the young people I work with as I begin to morph more into a visible he. I am expecting some corkers at some point I know. What I love about working with young people is their honest directness when faced with something they have not met before. I have never had problems with being an out lesbian prior to transitioning, so I expect to be able to deal with it as it comes up in a natural and respectful way. I’d be really keen to hear from others about experiences of transitioning when you work with vulnerable clients – if anyone out there has experience of this then please do let me know.

The other howls of delight come from how happy my she-wolf Rubi makes me when she talked about ‘his’ when referring to me in a conversation with a friend of her’s, and how happy my brother made me feel when he called me his brother the other night. You’re both stars, my lover and my brother and I love you dearly.

Every day there is something new and growthful….I can’t wait for the next full moon so we can have a really great group howl for trans-folk and their families and friends everywhere

Bad mood. Failing diet. Fatass getting fatter. I am in a funk AGAIN. I don’t know if it is the weather or what. I was doing so well on the diet until freaking Thanksgiving and the new onslaught of stress about money and rent and moving and the business and a the job I was supposed to start in October and the end of the semester and just all of it.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just check in somewhere and they could let you sleep for like a month. And you could just lose weight by sleeping? I am so desperate today (in this current frame of mind, anyway), I am thinking about Dexatrim and Nuphedrine and Lipovox and Slim Fast…anything to make me stop eating like a horse and looking like one, too.

Speaking of horses, we got one this weekend. Surprise! He seems to be sweet, but I think his feet hurt. And we are so horse-dumb, neither me or my boyfriend really know the first thing about horse care. Well, I know obvious stuff, but there are books and books and books about what to do and not to do. What to feed them or not. We have 30 acres and it is pretty lush right now, so you would think we could just let him go out there and have at it, right? But one of the books I got says that there could be like 20 poisonous plants out there that a horse shouldn’t eat. That makes me pretty nervous.

Plus the dogs are completely confused. They want to chase him, and of course the horse doesn’t want anything to do with them and so defends himself with his hooves…rightly so…but I really don’t want to come home to another dog dead from horses (I lost my eldest dog in September from the neighbor’s horses apparently trampling her…I find it hard to believe she was harming the horses, but she probably just got in the way when the other dog was antagonizing them).

Maybe this food thing is a personal display of how out of control I feel. I can control what I put in my mouth, but the only thing I want to eat is whatever I think will make me “feel better.” I know this “Better” is really known as stress-eating. Sweets. Salty. Savory. Creamy. The perfect combination of all of the above. I hate it. I feel so powerless over it. That’s why I’m thinking about the pills, no matter how impractical they are. Just something to make it stop.

But since I am a hippie at heart, I have turned my searching toward homeopathic remedies, at least in theory. Calms forte seems to really work for me, as well as topical applications for skin ailments, so maybe it would work for everything else, too? I don’t know…It seems pretty difficult to figure out what to take since it is all based upon disposition and remedies really seem to overlap. I should probably go to a professional homeopath, but alas…I barely have money as it is…there’s nothing to pay a practitioner of any sort. I think maybe Calcarea Cabonica could help. Or Lycopodium. Or Sulphur. I don’t know which is best or if they can be used together…oh, the confusion.

But I’m in that state, again, today where I just feel this potential energy building up and right at the surface. It is what makes me want to howl at the moon…carpe diem in a way I haven’t in years. I feel so weighed down by everything going on…wouldn’t it be nice to just run away from it all like Call of the Wild? Maybe not.

Maybe I could just travel back in time to Christmas 1980 or so…crawl under the Christmas tree and stare up at the lights…listening to Elvis Christmas songs on the radio while my parents are relatively happy with each other during the season and my baby brother already asleep in his crib…I would think about Santa Claus and Jesus and the logic behind a flying sleigh and how magical it all was…and even though I knew Santa wasn’t like God, I figured he must be like an angel and Jesus sent him to us to make us think about his birthday and be happy. And I was. Magic and peace and joy sitting in my stomach like a warm pumpkin muffin. MMMM. But that doesn’t really capture the same sort of “excitement” going on right now.

Maybe I can just tamp it all down and save it for a time when I don’t have 40 research papers to grade…save the energy and the want for a better life and the urge to “do something” until there is time to see it through. When will this be? I don’t know. But right now, I’m just…howling howling howling.

Doesn’t do you any good to talk if the person you’re talking to won’t listen.
Doesn’t do you any good to listen if the person you’re listening to won’t talk.
If you don’t share your pain, you can’t lessen it.
If you “share” your pain by inflicting pain on those who care about you, you will only multiply your own.

Knights Templar win heresy reprieve after 700 years

 By Philip PullellaFri

“The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years.

 A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, “‘Processus Contra Templarios — Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars”‘ is a massive work and much more than a book — with a 5,900 euros ($8,333) price tag.

 ”This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project,” said Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican’s Secret Archives.

“Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of the official presentation of the work on October 25.

The epic comes in a soft leather case that includes a large-format book including scholarly commentary, reproductions of original parchments in Latin, and — to tantalize Templar buffs — replicas of the wax seals used by 14th-century inquisitors.

Reuters was given an advance preview of the work, of which only 799 numbered copies have been made.

 One parchment measuring about half a meter wide by some two meters long is so detailed that it includes reproductions of stains and imperfections seen on the originals.

Pope Benedict will be given the first set of the work, published by the Vatican Secret Archives in collaboration with Italy’s Scrinium cultural foundation, which acted as curator and will have exclusive world distribution rights.

The Templars, whose full name was “Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon,” were founded in 1119 by knights sworn to protecting Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099.

 They amassed enormous wealth and helped finance wars of some European monarchs. Legends of their hidden treasures, secret rituals and power have figured over the years in films and bestsellers such as “The Da Vinci Code.”

The Knights have also been portrayed as guardians of the legendary Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper before his crucifixion.

The Vatican expects most copies of the work to be bought up by specialized libraries at top universities and by leading medieval scholars.

BURNED AT THE STAKE

The Templars went into decline after Muslims re-conquered the Holy Land at the end of the 13th century and were accused of heresy by King Philip IV of France, their foremost persecutor. Their alleged offences included denying Christ and secretly worshipping idols.

The most titillating part of the documents is the so-called Chinon Parchment, which contains phrases in which Pope Clement V absolves the Templars of charges of heresy, which had been the backbone of King Philip’s attempts to eliminate them.

Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip’s agents after they made confessions that most historians believe were given under duress.

The parchment, also known as the Chinon Chart, was “misplaced” in the Vatican archives until 2001, when Frale stumbled across it.

 ”The parchment was catalogued incorrectly at some point in history. At first I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was incredulous,” she said.

 ”This was the document that a lot of historians were looking for,” the 37-year-old scholar said.

Philip was heavily indebted to the Templars, who had helped him finance his wars, and getting rid of them was a convenient way of cancelling his debts, some historians say.

Frale said Pope Clement was convinced that while the Templars had committed some grave sins, they were not heretics.

SPITTING ON THE CROSS

Their initiation ceremony is believed to have included spitting on the cross, but Frale said they justified this as a ritual of obedience in preparation for possible capture by Muslims. They were also said to have practiced sodomy.

 ”Simply put, the pope recognized that they were not heretics but guilty of many other minor crimes — such as abuses, violence and sinful acts within the order,” she said. “But that is not the same as heresy.”

Despite his conviction that the Templars were not guilty of heresy, in 1312 Pope Clement ordered the Templars disbanded for what Frale called “the good of the Church” following his repeated clashes with the French king.

Frale depicted the trials against the Templars between 1307 and 1312 as a battle of political wills between Clement and Philip, and said the document means Clement’s position has to be reappraised by historians.

“This will allow anyone to see what is actually in documents like these and deflate legends that are in vogue these days,” she said.

Rosi Fontana, who has helped the Vatican coordinate the project, said: “The most incredible thing is that 700 years have passed and people are still fascinated by all of this.”

“The precise reproduction of the parchments will allow scholars to study them, touch them, admire them as if they were dealing with the real thing,” Fontana said.

 ”But even better, it means the originals will not deteriorate as fast as they would if they were constantly being viewed,” she said.

A remake of the 1981 film The Howling has been announced days after the werewolf-filled Twilight Saga: New Moon scored the third largest opening weekend: Coincidence? We think not, considering that a former studio marketing exec, Joe Nimziki, is behind the movie. According to Variety, the plot of The Howling: Reborn is under wraps, but Nimziki will direct from a script he penned himself, with cameras rolling in February — right around the time that The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro, hits theaters. Let us not forget that MTV is also developing a Teen Wolf series, Dimension Films has acquired the rights to John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London, with Sean and Bryan Furst (Daybreakers) set to produce, and Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader is high on a remake of Teen Wolf Too. Okay, he was just joking when he told us last April that it was the ’80s movie he’d like done over — “I liked Teen Wolf, but Teen Wolf Too was the first real letdown I had as a kid. I feel like you should remake a movie that was legitimately bad in the ’80s, instead of remaking something that was awesome” — but he has a point. If the werewolf craze is upon us, which movie would you like to see rebooted, and which film do you pray rests in peace?

EW

Time hangs heavy when one is in exile and it is the weekend. That is why, a Sunday or two ago, I found myself in a place I never dreamed I’d visit. A romantic place: a place where Camparis were first tasted, a breeding ground for gorgeous Oscar-winning stars. Benoni. Doesn’t the mere sound of those three syllables quicken the blood, fill the head with foolish fantasies and…never mind, me neither, but we’ve got to try.

My reason for being there was that I have a hobby, one that has afforded me enormous joy since boyhood. I rarely get to indulge my pleasure when I’m home because Scallywag does not, for some inexplicable reason, share my enthusiasm and I am keener on her than on watching cricket.

Willowmoore Park is a pretty ground. The spectator area is mainly grass embankments upon which people set up their deck chairs, plastic gazebos and picnic blankets. There is a small area at the North end of the ground with standard grandstand plastic seating, which is where I went because it is more or less behind the bowler’s arm in line with the pitch—the best place from which to watch, and I don’t possess a deck chair. It was a beautiful, hot summer day.

The game began. Zimbabwe had won the toss and put us in to bat. Things were going fine, especially after that gum-chewing, spitting buffoon Smith was out, predictably by waving his bat ineffectually at a ball wide of the off stump. Will he never learn? AB DeVilliers was in fine form, as was Hashim Amla. The seat beside me, which had hitherto been empty was suddenly filled by a lady in yellow. “HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OO. COME ON BOOOYES! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OO.”

I cringed. A symptom of what dread psychiatric disease could this possibly be? Could this awful howling mean that I was sitting beside a werewolf who had perhaps mistaken the Sun for a full moon? And to which boys was she referring? Her clothing gave no clue; she waved no flag. Perhaps she was unaware that there were two teams doing battle on the field and both were composed exclusively of boys.
“HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOoo” She ran out of breath, then hauled another couple of lungsful aboard. “BOOOOOYES!”

This was intolerable. What happened to the traditional cricket shouts such as “HIT THE RUBBISH!” or “HEY UMPIRE! YOUR GUIDE DOG GRAZED MY HAMBURGER!” I gathered up my esky and started to trek 180 degrees around the ground to the South side where the caterwauling might be less intrusive. As I walked I recalled that I had heard something similar in a televised American reality show. When a man whom the female members of the audience deemed sexy came onto the stage, they started howling in the same manner as the cricket lady. So could this be a sign of sexual excitement? None of the women I have known have impersonated an escapee from the island of Dr Moreau, not even when I have taken my clothes off.

Perhaps it’s just that I’m not very sexy.

Grumpy Old Man by Mark Widdicombe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.

1. Drawing with crayons all over the hallway walls. Apparently she had some plan to repaint them and decided it would be nice to let me dick around with the Crayolas until she got to painting the wall over. The “ I’ll repaint in a few days, so have at it, kid.” Turned into “Wow, it’s been 5 years and I still haven’t repainted the walls. Oh well.”

2. The day she watched “Fried Green Tomatoes” for the first time. I had never torn down a wall before. We were in luck it wasn’t a load bearer. Poppy was sure pissed when he got home to see us standing over a half ripped out wall (in his office) covered in asbestos (not known to be hazardous then) howling like wild jungle women. I was about 7 years old then.

3. That time she had her friend take us to a house we were free to wrap aka throw toilet paper around while acting like wild mongeese. We didn’t know whose house it was, and we sure as hell didn’t care. Once my sister and I were done wrapping we got the sh!t scared out of us when a 7 foot giant ran out of the front door screaming with a revving chain-saw. We were in the car as fast as lightning and back home in what felt like hours. We couldn’t  stop talking about that night for months. About 5 years later we found out that the house was in fact owned by that friend who drove us there, and her boyfriend (was the 6 foot tall giant). (Side note: The house was about 5 miles away from our own.) It was all planned by my Mom. She heard my sister and I talking about wanting to wrap a house all summer long. So finally she convinced her friend and her boyfriend to play along. That was one of the coolest things anyone has ever done for me. The best part was that we didn’t have to help in the cleanup. Score!

Thank Mom!

Let’s watch that magical scene from “Fried Green Tomatoes”:

I witnessed about the first minute and a half.

(Open link in a new window to view video)

(pictures via wrongsideoftheart)

Who would have thought Slasher/Freaky films were so GLAM?!

I’ve been feeling too constrained against blogging anything lately.   seTec astronomy.  Too many people I’m forced to not reveal certain details to.  Too many people who would be upset if I spoke certain truths.  So now I have a new name, a new blog, and… no audience.  That’s ok.  Sometimes you just got howl at the moon.  Doesn’t matter if anybody’s listening or not. It’s all about the release.

Nelson singing to me in my art room. He’s got the best howl.

Petey Playing Dead

It’s quite amazing how much they look alike, considering they are not related.

A movie that needs no introduction for anyone in the TF community. It’s impossible to do the film justice in only 3 minutes, but it’s a good look at the film and the status of werewolf movies in general.

Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness – American Werewolf in London

Also, be sure to check out his look at The Fly series from earlier this week while you’re there.

Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness – The Fly

3 wolf moon

As we approach Halloween, I like to get into the spirit by playing wonderfully weird, haunted, scary and heavy metally songs.  After watching last week’s Psych episode, “Let’s Get Hairy” I decided a list of wolf songs was extremely necessary. (Oh and the popularity of the 3 wolf moon shirt might have been another reason as well.)

I’ve been wanting to do a list of the best Wolf-related songs for a while, and I think this list I have created has some of the best of the best. You’re ranking might vary, but  below is MY LIST of the top 10 wolf-related songs.

#10 The Wolf by Rancid

Well back in 1998 Rancid burst onto the scene with their punky ska raspy voice sound and The Wolf was an excellent song that used “the wolf” terminology as a simile for possibly “the man” or “the system”. Whatever man, F society! Buy the album Life Won’t Wait from Amazon.

#9 DMX’s intro from It’s Dark and Hell is Hot

DMX has always used dogs as a metaphor for his posse in almost all of his songs, but the introduction from It’s Dark and Hell is Hot hits with an eerie vibe and mentions hunters and wolves and the famous line “Arooooo howlin’ at the moon on the roof”.  Great song from a great artist who seems to lost himself to the wolves.

Remember it here:

#8 You’re a Wolf by Sea Wolf

If you’re band name has “wolf” in it.. and you write a song entitled “You’re a wolf“, you had better bring the wolf. The video does contain a taxidermized wolf. There is also a forest background and a gypsie woman running around. “You’re a wolf, boy” is unfortunately all you will hear mentioned in the song and kinda left me cold.  The song itself is very pretty.

#7 Of Wolf and Man – Metallica

Great song of the Black Album. You get the hunting imagery, you get a chorus about shapeshifting, crunchy guitars and the whole WOLF and MAN metamorphosis. Can it get any better? This live version contains a howl too!

#6 She-wolf by Shakira

The newest addition to awesome songs about wolves, Shakira took the wolf theme to a whole ‘nother level. She even uses the word “lycanthropy”. Plus, you have a half naked woman in a cage dancing with wolf poses and her howl is beyond sexy. That’s how you get higher than Metallica on the list.

#5 Little Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

Probably one of the first songs you will hear as a child about wolves. This song by Sam the Sham introduced us to the howl of the wolf using the classic Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Check out Sam the Sham’s website. I apologize in advance for the slideshow below.

#4 Wolf Like Me -TV on the Radio

Probably one of my favorite songs of all time, “Wolf Like Me” is just an excellent song about wolves. The video is even better with stop motion animation of wolves tearing up a club! “God I Like it!”

“When the moon is full, goin to teach you tricks that will blow your mongrel mind!”

“Howlin’ forever”

These are lyrics of geniuses. You also get acapella howling in the song too. TV on the Radio made the quintessential wolf song.

Watch the video below, but you must doubleclick to go the youtube page to watch the video because the universal group does not allow embedding.

#3 Hungry like the Wolf- Duran Duran

“Hungry Like the Wolf” is part of my childhood and probably part of yours too. Hearing this in the Psych episode “Let’s get Hairy” was just a classic bit of 80’s throwback. You get the hunt metaphor, scent and sound senses in check and an intense hunger.

The closest thing you get to a wolf in the video is a lady running through what we can guess is the Amazon jungle acting all wolf-like. Simon sports some claw marks on his face at the end of the video. That’s fine by me. This Duran Duran video is still a classic part of MTV history. Love it.

#2 Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon made an instant classic with “Werewolves of London.” His howl cannot be beat and that is why his song sits at number 2 on my list. Just look at this live video from 1982. Holy crap. Half of the band LOOK like werewolves with all that hair. Purely awesome.

#1 Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf- Disney

Disney made “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” the number 1 song you will think of when you hear the tale of the three little pigs and from what I have read, Disney coined the phrase “the big bad wolf”. The flute and the violin help make this song great, but its the piggy’s voices that set this song above and beyond greatness.

And that is not it! Here is an honorable mention to the new Wolfmother CD coming out entitled Cosmic Egg. The song is “New Moon Rising”. I’m including it only because of  the like word association of Wolf and Moon.

Check out a sample below:

As I’ve said several times in my blogs, I will never understand females. They are the final frontier for this pug. I am, of course, referring to Lizzard since she is a member of that gender. Just when I am absolutely convinced that I know and understand every dull little facet of her personality and internal workings, she astonishes me.

After her arrival into our family unit, I very easily filed her under, “Dull-witted, Malleable, and Of No Interest.” How very shortsighted of me that now seems. To wit: in the course of one year this plump little partridge of a pug has become sleek, fit, and fast. Her passive meek self has emerged as a serious contender, with a bark that can raise one’s hair. I have mentioned before that she will fearlessly go after any dog foolish enough to bark at us when we are passing. She will strain at her leash, rising up on hind feet, baying like a bloodhound, and not back off. She must be dragged forcefully away, while still emitting her bloodlust filled cries.

The most recent change in Lizzie’s behavior was evidenced last week. After breakfast she likes to perch on the back of the couch, allowing her a view of the backyard, kitchen, family room, and hall leading to the front of the house. And, because she is lying on the top of the couch she has a good vantage point. On the particular day to which I refer, our little Lizzie began a frantic and wild barking, flung herself from her perch, and hurled her body at the back screen door. Grandma was so startled that she ran to open it for Lizzie, and we all watched amazed as she barreled across the lawn in mad pursuit of a squirrel. She blazed through the woods and screeched to a halt at the base of a pine tree where the terrified rodent had fled to its top. Lizzie stood at the base howling in frustration and anger, until she surmised the creature was not going to come down and meet its fate.

Who knew that such a fierce and bloodthirsty beast lay hidden in the meek and ditsy guise of “Miss Thing?” I am yet again shaking my head in wonder. In this there is a lesson for all of us, I feel certain. I hope I can refrain from making snap judgments and absolute pronouncements about pugs and humans. I still don’t understand females but I am learning that there is more to Lizzie than initially meets the eye. Please don’t, however, confuse grudging respect with love.

Respectfully submitted,

Mason

I couldn't capture Squirrel Girl in action since she was too fast...but here she is, sitting on her perch, keeping a vigilant eye on the backyard.

So mine and Becky’s dog used to bark with the Shabbat horn in Jerusalem (since we lived on a high-up sort of roof apartment in Nachlaot.) Sharon Feder was nice enough to point me to this video From shmais.com which is sooooo cute! Check it out!

So I learned my dad’s digital camera can take video too.  That is so high-tech to me, I didn’t even know what to do with myself.  Thus, I took these two today.  They are really amazingly shitty and I hope you enjoy them.

My dog, Raleigh is a frisbee catchin’ maniac.  She just figured it out on her own one day.  Typically she will make 9/10 catches, but of course when I try to film her there is just an inordinate amount of fail-time.  I asked my dad to throw the frisbee while I filmed–and he threw about five awful awful passes and then stomped away mad at himself.  So, I was doing this with my left hand, which is not my dominant hand.  BUT,  victorywasmine!

And THIS one is awesome.  Kayla is a cool pup.  But, this is not a Kayla specific trick.  Almost ALL Huskies do this.  My old dog, Alfie NEVER howled like this, but most do.  And it’s always endearing and hilarious.

The Wild Yaks are the howling folk punk and poetry of  Rob ‘Bronco’ Bryn.  Rob and I  met in 2007 when he showed me the rental space where I would later build my recording studio in Bushwick. Our childlike (childish?) enthusiasm made us fast friends and we started a band called ‘Wind and the Mountains’ which soon became, ‘The Bird Game’ which was just drums and group chanting.  2 years later, Rob and his Wild Yaks are the toast of the hippest corner of the music world, and poised to perform for Letterman and the Dalai Lama.  Yesssssssssss.

I co-produced and mixed their Live at Southpaw EP (unreleased) which includes the below track…

For this one, you don’t really need to pay close attention to the video. Just turn the sound up. Way up. And apologize to your dogs in advance.

This was going on outside our house just before 10pm.  (All our animals were safely inside the fence!)

I was singing to Baby the other day.  Although her favorite songs include “Peanut Butter Jelly Time“,  ”Ms. New Booty” by Bubba Sparx (in my defense I only sing the part that sounds like ‘Buddha Buddha Buddha’ because Baby looks like a little Buddha when she sits…please don’t judge me for the terrible lyrics in the rest of the song!) I decide to make up a new song featuring amazing lyrics of “lalala”.

Crazy decides he LOVES my song and starts to sing along.  ”This is new…”, I think to myself.  I decide to keep this song going as long as possible because Crazy seems to be really into it…like, more into it than Baby.  The howling and lalala-ing continue for several minutes.  Eventually Crazy grows tired of it and heads upstairs.  I tell Baby “That crazy Crazy…he’s so crazy! He was singing with us!” and kept right on lalala-ing, thinking the whole time what a fun family moment it was and how I hope Crazy will always sing with us.  Usually, Crazy is pretty dumb, but I’m beginning to think there’s something really there for him to know to sing along to help keep Baby happy!

After many, many verses of my amazing song, Crazy returns to the basement and sits down in front of me with a very sad looking face.  I’ve seen this look before, and it’s not good.  Baby in tow, I emerge from the basement to a smell I hadn’t smelled in a while.  There is poop and pee all over the dining room.

Ugh.  Apparently, Crazy is NOT a fan of my singing, or my awesome, made-up song.  Nor was he singing along.  Nor has he somehow gotten smarter  and knows it’s a good idea to sing to help Baby be happy.  He was only whining the generic I-need-to-potty whine.  What a stupid dog.

And the dumbest part…Crazy even came downstairs, plopped right down in front of me, and told on himself.  WHAT a stupid dog.

Yubaba kicks off.

We were all watching the Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) last night, which is a rather psychedelic Japanese animation epic much loved in the house. The main villain in the story is called Yubaba and she is a cross between the Wicked Witch of the North and a giant raven. Yubaba has a son, Boh who is a giant baby and when Boh made his appearance, Phoenix went barking bonkers. She had been paying close attention to the film anyway, and we assumed it was all the bright colours and possibly the Japanese language which (to her floppy ears at least) might sound a bit like barking.

This baby causes canine chaos.

Whatever it was about this giant baby, it did something to Phoenix which took a while to get over. We’re going to try her on some Kurosawa next, to see if it’s Japanese epics in particular that set her off, before moving on to Italian neo-realism and perhaps German expressionism…