Edgy Mama

So, last night I was working, yes, working, at the New French Bar, photographing a speed dating session for an article I’m writing. I was talking to a woman near the front plate glass window and she suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and stared out the window. Then she said, “There’s a guy out there with a mask carrying a gun.”

I look and see a guy standing across the street, in front of Mast General Store, wearing a silver metallic jumpsuit and a helmet-type mask covered in aluminum foil, pointing a large gun up the street. As my adrenaline starts pumping, I realize he has what looked like a microphone in one hand. And he was singing or rapping or saying something while doing this stylized dance that included pointing the gun, which I think was a large water gun, at people as they walked by.

Just as I was changing my lens to go take a photo of this nutcase, the cops pulled up. The idiot pointed the gun at the cop car. The cops backed up the street, and suddenly, there were cops everywhere, with big rifles, yelling at the guy. Needless to say, the cops were pissed at Raygun guy’s shenanigans. They carted him off pretty quickly.

The film, Anywhere, USA, has been chosen as a Sundance 2008 official selection in dramatic competition!

What, you might ask, is Anywhere, USA, and why should I care? This is the film formerly known as asheville the movie, which has been a three-year(?) labor of love by director Chusy Jardine and his lovely wife, Jennifer MacDonald.

And I have a cameo in the film as a waitress (unless I’ve been cut, which is possible). Many, many folks you know and will recognize appear in this film and many, many more locations around town will be evident (my scenes were shot at Table Restaurant downtown).

The Sundance Film Festival takes place in Park City, Utah, from January 17-28, 2008.

I’ll be following the festivities closely and hoping for occasional updates from Chusy and company.

Congrats! I’m thrilled for all of you!

Alert, originally uploaded by edgygrrrl.

This is a guard llama on a sheep farm in Leicester. The farmer told me to hold tight to Biscy’s leash because if the pup got away and into the sheep pen, the llama would stomp him. The llamas have been known to kick a coyote over the fence.

The OC Register (Orange County) is running this note from the editor at the end of its on-line stories:

“From the editor: Many of you have expressed concerns about some of the harsh anonymous comments from readers. To remedy that, we are introducing new features. You can create your own blog, publish your news and share your photos with the community. Once you fill out a simple form and leave a verifiable e-mail address, you can set up your profile page. It will display all of your contributions and allow you to track issues and easily connect with others.

We want our site to be a place where people discuss and debate ideas that foster stronger communities. We built this for you. Please take care of it. Tolerate broad thinking, but take action against obscene or hateful material. Make it a credible and safe place worth preserving and sharing.”

After seeing some of the anonymous comments left on the Asheville Citizen-Times and Mountain Xpress websites, I’m liking this direction.

As one blogger panelist at NC Writers’ Network con said: “You have to moderate comments. Otherwise, you’re opening your site up to spam and haters.”

I’ve often had people say things to me on-line that I doubt they’d say to me in person. I have more respect for those whom, even when they’re being nasty, give me their name in the process.

There’s been lots of discussion in the blogosphere and, even, in the Asheville blogger community about anonymity versus non-anonymity. There are some cases where, I think, bloggers have good reason to remain under the radar. As perhaps, some commenters do as well. But not if they are using the medium to spread hate in any form or vent on others.

What do y’all think?

They truly do! Read all about yoga pants in my column at Mountain Xpress this week!

Happy Monday!

Everyone has headed back to their homes. Thanksgiving dinner was a roaring success. My turkey rocked, thanks to brining and stuffing with rosemary from my garden (see below–nice comments about the bird’s bush, girls). The other two dishes that everyone loved are from my family recipe archives: cornbread/sausage dressing and cranberry-apple crisp. The crisp is easy to prepare, while the dressing is a labor of love. Both were delicious. My failure this year was the gravy: it was tasty but too thin.

The day after Thanksgiving was full with our annual Christmas tree farm visit and the decorating of said fraser fir. My boy is all about the Christmas tree and did the bulk of the decorating. Unfortunately, he’s not quite old enough to put the lights on, which continues to be my baliwick, but which I managed to take on gracefully this year (in other words, I didn’t cuss the entire time at the tangles of lights). Mom’s milk punch helped (there are a couple milk punch recipes in the comments below somewhere–sorry, I never can manage internal links).

I love having a Christmas tree in my house. I love everything about it: the smell, the lights, the kid-made decorations, the gifted decorations, even the constant pine needle sluff that gets tracked all over the place. Mostly, I love that the tree sits next to my desk in our living room and I get to look at it, and hide behind it, for over a month.

In other Edgy Mama news, if you want to be entertained and learn more about penises, go back and read some of the comments on the circumcision column I wrote last week for Mountain Xpress. Most of the comments support my stance on the issue, but two of the male commenters fell into duelling penises. It’s basically: “my circumcised penis is better,” “no, my uncircumcised penis is better,” etc., etc. Damn, men are cute.

Coming tomorrow in my Mountain Xpress column, a much less controversial subject than this week: yoga pants.

Actually, I’m relatively calm right now, although I spent most of the day running around like a marmot on crack, trying to clean the house (half clean), grocery shop (done, I think), finish my work for the week (still need to write my EM column), and ignore my kids (did okay on this chore). Except I had to take the girl to the doctor, which was a two hour adventure, because no one could see her at the downtown office, so I had to drive her out to Enka, then wait. Then she had a strep test. Then we waited. The doc said it was positive. I asked for a shot for her. We waited. She got the shot and was immensely tough and brave, because she just is all that. And more. Then we waited to make sure she didn’t have a reaction to the shot. Then we drove home.

So, I have nine folks coming to dinner at the pnav tomorrow night, half of whom I don’t know. Some family of mine (Mom), some family of E-spouse’s (cousin), cousin’s significant other, her parents, and her parents’ friends. Actually, I randomly met one of the parents’ friends at the NC Writers Network Conference last weekend. This woman came up to me after I’d asked a question during one of the panels and said, “I think I’m having Thanksgiving dinner at your house in a few days.”

Oops, the cuz and SO are here, so I’ve got to go entertain. More tomorrow. I hope.

Happy turkey day to all!

I’m writing at Mountain Xpress today about that great Thanksgiving day topic of conversation: circumcision.

While you’re there, check out my newly “repaired” EM logo. Thanks to the brilliant repair dudes at Asheville-based insidedesign! And thanks, as always, to original design visionary Eddo!

UPDATE: If you’re not in the mood for, ummmm, surgical topics, you can read my take on last weekend’s NC Writer’s con and WNC writers, in particular.