GinohnNews

G: This week in the boring life of John and Gina, I went to my studio on Thursday the 16th for the second Greenbelt Art Walk. Not many people came through, but I got a lot done in my studio so that was fine. The next night John and I met my studio mates Mary and Loriane for dinner at the New Deal. Mary was treating us in thanks for helping her out with her Artful Afternoon project. She ordered the vegetarian platter and it was very good. We also had some wine and a fine time. Afterwards John and I went to see Oliver Stone's "W."

The next day, Saturday, I had my own community art project (all artists in residences have to run something once a year). I'd been preparing for a while, buying supplies and getting things ready. I had large squares of foamboard with mandalas drawn on them, and I gathered colorful fall leaves. I took these and other supplies to the city's Fall Fest at Schrom Hills Park. I was met there by the Beth, the arts studio manager and 3 very helpful young ladies who hold the titles to Miss Greenbelt, Junior Miss Greenbelt, and Little Miss Greenbelt. I could tell from this and when they also helped Mary with her project that these girls were appropriate choices for their titles, as they were sweet, gregarious, and very helpful. I ran a project where one would take leaves cut out of tissue paper and tape them together into a little curtain that could be hung in front of a window, along with the other community project of tacking or taping real leaves to the mandalas. Both projects were well received, but the breeziness of the day gave us a few challenges. Nonetheless I felt if was a success.

That night John and I attended a party at Laura's to celebrate her getting married to Patrick. We didn't know that they had already gotten married, most people didn't, we thought it was a party to celebrate their engagement! And we found out that they are getting an apartment in the city and that Laura wouldn't be living in Greenbelt anymore. Sad for us, but we are very happy for the happy couple.

The next day John went to the Renn Fair with Dorian and Amethyst, but I had to forgo it because I had an important Greenbelt pottery meeting that afternoon, and knew I wouldn't want to leave that early if I went. At the meeting I officially stepped down from my 7 year run as president, and ran for vice president. My platform was one of no change. I promised to keep doing the same things I'd always been doing as president, but the role of president, filled by Mary, would be better done by her - someone organized and motivated enough to call for and actually run the meetings. We surprised an attendee by joking to make her secretary since we didn't have one, but in the end she accepted the position! It's all good.

That night John was too tired to go with me to Tim's birthday party. He'd been fighting off sickness most of the week. So I went and saw friends and family (Thom) there and had a great time. 

So last night (Thursday the 23, and Weird Al's birthday), Dave came over after work and drove us to Politics and Prose Bookstore to see a reading by John Hodgman of his brand new book, More Information Than You Require. Now, I knew quite a bit about John Hodgman, and liked him alright, but never got that much into his work. It was mostly his association with Jonathan Coulton that sparked any interest in him for the most part. I remember several years ago on a road trip with my brother he started playing what I think now was probably the audio version of The Areas of My Expertise. It was some random spot and I just could not get into it, and asked him to turn it off. Later I'd seen the book lying around the house and I just found out that Dave had loaned it to John so I thought we had it but we didn't. I did download the audio book from iTunes when it was free, but only recently listened to a little of it (because JoCo was on it!). I'd also looked up clips of him on the Daily Show and enjoyed them, but not particularly immensely. But I wanted to go and Dave was really into it and so we went.

Anyway, we got there early enough to snag 3 seats in the front row on the side. By the time it started every seat was taken and people were standing everywhere else. The reading was very fun, and funny, and since I was about 4 feet away from him he would hear me if I made a sound or said something and sometimes commented on that. For instance, right at the beginning he asked how we all were, and I said, "Yayyyy!" but not too loudly, just sort of cheering my mood instead of explicitly stating it. He said "Yay? That isn't English, well, maybe it is English, maybe olde english but it's not how humans communicate." Fortunately he did not direct this right at me but to the audience in general. Later when he told a story about being stuck on a plane on a tarmac for 2 1/2 hours I made a sympathetic noise, and he thanked me for that.

But the most interaction was when he started describing his new book, of which I had my brand new copy there with me, and as I got it out to see what he was talking about on a particular page, he leaned over to borrow mine, which I handed off to him unsuspectingly, even though he had his own annotated copy in his hand. He then told how he wanted his book to be made into a page-a-day calendar, but since that wasn't likely to happen, he'd gone ahead and put made up facts from history on each page, with a date for each day starting on the first page on the date the book was published. So, for instance, October 23rd was on the title page. He read the made up fact, then tore the page out of the book to demonstrate how to use the book as a page-a-day calendar. He handed it back to me and offered to buy it for me, but all I did was have him tape the page back in when he signed it. It's the same page he signs so he signed over the tape and wrote "You are kind and patient." I told him I'd see him at MaxFunCon, and he said, "Oh, you're going? Awesome!"

Dave got two copies signed, one for himself and one for a friend. As Dave described their last encounter in Baltimore a few years ago, Hodgman said he thought he remembered him. He asked about the beard Dave was sporting and instructed him to grow a mustache.

I think John Hodgman is also kind and patient. We had a great time. We left to go eat down the block at Comet. I got a half pint of their white beer, and it was so good I got another. I told the waiter it was really good and he said it's from Maine. I said, "It's from Maine?" and he nodded and was off. I said to John and Dave, "Why would that make a beer special? " And they were all like, "Because it's home made." Ohhhh. Home made. Not from Maine. I guess that half pint was enough to make me a bit tipsy...

Before we left I went to go to the bathroom and couldn't find it. But I saw that they had three ping pong tables in back and that people were playing on them. Then I saw someone who looked like they were gong to the bathroom and saw where they went. There was an alcove where I thought the bathrooms had to be located, but the doors were hidden in the wall make of thick log-like paneling. The doors were unlabeled. So that person beat me to the ladies room. I looked in the other room and it had a urinal so I went back to report my findings to John and Dave while I waited. They seemed unimpressed by the invisible bathrooms and ping pong and more impressed by my tipsy reporting. When I went back I saw an oldish woman playing some wicked ping pong. And the bathroom walls were covered in a mural of a woodland scene with ping pong tables and people playing on them and one of the players was an alien. So that was fun.

J: In a democracy, defined by knowledgeable persons as "government run by demons," money, power, influence, and BS (Blasphemous Sacraments) all come into play, and all work toward putting our best and brightest through Electoral College, to learn their Craft.

Meanwhile, the largest pentacle ever constructed, called the Pentagon, is prepared to hold the most terrible demon yet summoned. Fibwykat (read his name not aloud) will remain a faithful and powerful servant, as long as we can keep His Heinousness shackled in the center of the Pentagon. If he gets out, all hell breaks loose, which is why we have to get that Hadron Collider up and running, as a backup transdimensional rift weapon.

All this talk about who should be president is small potatoes to the ugly, diabolical details of Democracy.