Saturday, February 20, 2010

Poem for Saturday, 'Rascals' and Old Scott's Run

Night of the Living, Night of the Dead
By Kim Addonizio


When the dead rise in movies they're hideous
and slow. They stagger uphill toward the farmhouse
like drunks headed home from the bar.
Maybe they only want to lie down inside
while some rooms spins around them, maybe that's why
they bang on the windows while the living
hammer up boards and count out shotgun shells.
The living have plans: to get to the pickup parked
in the yard, to drive like hell to the next town.
The dead with their leaky brains,
their dangling limbs and ruptured hearts,
are sick of all that. They'd rather stumble
blind through the field until they collide
with a tree, or fall through a doorway
like they're the door itself, sprung from its hinges
and slammed flat on the linoleum. That's the life
for a dead person: wham, wham, wham
until you forget your name, your own stinking
face, the reason you jolted awake
in the first place. Why are you here,
whatever were you hoping as you lay
in your casket like a dumb clarinet?
You know better now. The soundtrack's depressing
and the living hate your guts. Come closer
and they'll show you how much. Wham, wham, wham,
you're killed again. Thank God this time
they're burning your body, thank God
it can't drag you around anymore
except in nightmares, late-night reruns
where you lift up the lid, and crawl out
once more, and start up the hill toward the house.

--------

I had a quiet Friday in the house that began with my sleeping a bit late because I had multiple cats pinning me to the bed. I had to write a review of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Rascals", and I needed to watch the episode, since we were distracted Thursday night by the Olympics and never put it on. I had remembered it being mediocre and didn't think the family would miss seeing it, but it was actually more enjoyable than I'd remembered -- the science is as silly as ever but the young actors playing Ro and Keiko are really fun to watch.

My father came over for dinner since my mother was at an event at synagogue with her students. Then we watched the entertaining Smallville episode with Lois starring in an Enjoli perfume commercial and dressing up as Bridezilla, one of the funniest things they've done all season; I'm completely lost at this point about what Zod and his followers can/can't do and have/haven't done, but I've loved having Lois, Chloe and Tess having so much to do. We watched the ice dance compulsories -- the one aspect of skating whose scoring still makes sense to me -- and I had no major quarrel with any of the scores, though I preferred the Canadians to the Russians stylistically. I hate the trend of wide backless dress costumes; I thought Belbin and Virtue had by far the prettiest outfits in terms of showing off their bodies and drawing the eye to their footwork.

Fannish5: Five Olympics sports you would like to see characters from your fandom(s) participate in.
1. Ice Dancing, Denny Crane and Alan Shore
, Boston Legal
2. Rhythmic Gymnastics, Claire Bennet, Heroes
3. Swimming, Jack Aubrey, Master & Commander
4. Javelin, Legolas, The Lord of the Rings
5. Biathlon, Kira Nerys, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I am worried about the Maryland Zoo's storm damage, but happy about the donation to Mount Vernon to build a Washington library. The only thing Tiger Woods said that I really appreciated or cared about: that he's turning back to Buddhism. Here are the photos I took on Halloween at Scott's Run and never posted, having gotten distracted by trick-or-treating and fall harvest festival photos:















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