I flew back to Minneapolis to bring Sarah to California to live with me. Coincidentally, umber°studios was due to have a show upon the day of my arrival — and they had an open call for work. Sarah submitted work, Paul submitted work, Zach submitted work, and so on until the walls were bursting with fantastic art.
His skin: papery. He was immobile, paralyzed with venom, half curled so he could look nowhere but his own belly. He thanked whatever demon was responsible for deadening the wound from which the bees were crawling. They flew to unknown places and returned, their tiny feet scratching as they landed, then nothing but vague sensations of motion as they found the entrance to their hive.
A few weeks ago I answered a question from Zach J. of Minneapolis regarding sasquatch infestations. He sent me another letter thanking me and commenting that he was worried about sprinkling borax around his property as it might also dissuade beneficial manticores from visiting his property. That is an excellent line of inquiry — but I had to bring in an expert to get answers. Immediately, I called my dear mother, a long time gardener and landscapist.
“Hi JP,” she said upon answering the phone. “I was just out in the garden feeding the amphivena.” A pair of these two-headed serpent-birds have a nest in the corner of her garden. Apparently their excretions make for excellent manure — unusual for carnivorous beasts.
“Hey Mom,” I replied. “Didn’t we have manticores when we lived in Iowa?”
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Last night I drove up to The City to attend a small event put together by Scott Beale, lead tentacle of Laughing Squid. I finally got to put my calling/business cards to proper use. I snagged two hours of fantastic conversation and went home feeling elated.
My mother and her husband John came out to visit a week or so ago. Since they left, California has blended into a gray smear of endless blue skies and constant blooming of flowers with occasional bursts of color when I hang out with Don and Mary Ann, but while they were here, we had an absolute blast. My mother got to play in the ocean surf during the very tail of a Pacific sunset.
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“NO!” I hollered into the phone. “I WILL NOT RETURN TO MINNESOTA BEFORE SPRING’S VERDANCY!”
Despite my promise, I found myself aboard a flight to Minnesota in early March. I was returning to visit Sarah, my family, and all those friends who had crawled into their winter caves to tough out the endless barren wastes of the northern tundra.
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Update: The official trailer is out
I’m still processing the trip back to Minnesota, so in the meantime, please enjoy these two videos:
While we were at Tahoe, one thing led to another and we hightailed it from the mountain to the ocean. By we, I mean myself, Seth, Chris, and Chris’s main squeeze San. My car was full to the brim of all of our junk. Several hours later, I parked us in a windy wet parking lot on a kingly point: Point Reyes.
So, my team at work had a retreat at Lake Tahoe. I saw snow for the first time since leaving Minnesota last August. Ugh. As they say in Lolcats: “DO NOT WANT.”
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