On the way home Sunday night, Rufus sat on Andrea’s lap. He even fell alseep in her arms for a little while. He was obviously just storing up energy because that little guy hasn’t stopped moving ever since. Seriously, I don’t think Rufus sleeps. I don’t think he even stops long enough to go to the bathroom. He is constantly running, jumping, climbing, and batting something around, usually all at the same time. Lately he’s taken to attacking our hands and feet, even if we aren’t using them as bait for him to play. But his favorite game is chasing around that darn, elusive red dot that appears on the floor whenever Andrea and I get out the laser pointer. It’s pretty cute to watch him get down on his belly as flat as he can, wiggle that little butt, get that tale flicking, and then pounce at the dot. Maybe one day he’ll catch it.

Last night we had what could be a breakthrough in introducing Rufus and Peekaboo. She came to the door while I was in the spare room with him and she batted at his shadow under the door. He stopped and batted back at her. I decided to open the door just a little so the two of them could see one another and the batting continued. There was no hissing, no growling, just paws reaching. Peek might have batted at him a little harder, but she’s a big cat who isn’t used to having a little two pound kitten around. I really don’t think she intended to hurt him or else I would think there would have been more aggressive behavior in general. Either way, the two are not quite ready for playtime just yet. Besides, I wouldn’t mind Rufus getting a little bigger before they started playing anyway, even if they had hit it off immediately. I think Peek might be a little rough with him simply because she hasn’t had a small playmate in so long. But things are looking up, I think.

However, we have definitely noticed a change in Peek’s personality since Sunday night. She’s not nearly as social with us as she once was. She slept on our bed Sunday night, but hasn’t for the last two now. She also seems to spend most of her time down in the basement, isolating herself from Rufus’ scent whenever she can. Of course we’re trying to pet her and play with her and give her treats, but she knows something is rotten in the state of Denmark. I really hope she comes back around, because we were really happy with her progress since a few years ago. I’m sure it will all work out over time, but this period of adjustment is going to be hard on us all.

In other news, Andrea and I went to see The Dave Matthews Band last night at UMB Pavilion. This is my third DMB concert in as many years; I think it was Andrea’s 18th DMB concert in something like 10 years. She’s what you might call “A Dave Head”. I like to call her “Obsessed”.

While driving to the concert, Andrea said, “Thank you for supporting my interests, even if they aren’t necessarily yours.” I smiled and said, “It’s my pleasure, honey.” And she’s right, I’m not a big DMB fan. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely believe that these guys are very talented and put on a great show, but I’ve never been much of a jam band fan. I’m more of a visual person in almost all ways and sound is too easy for me to lose track of. While I love music, because it is all audible, my mind wanders during the 20-minute improv sets that are so common with this genre. And it has nothing to do with the style of music as I’ll zone out on Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” or John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, too. But give me the 3-minute rampage that is the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” or the 6-minute tunes on Davis’ “Birth of the Cool” and I’m right there with it the whole time. It’s around the 10-minute mark that my mind begins to wander, especially when there are long stretches without lyrics. I’m musically ADD, I guess. Yet I can sit there and watch Omar Sharif ride his camel towards the camera in “Lawrence of Arabia” for what seems like an eternity.

Even though I’m not a DMB fan, I think it’s really important that Andrea know I’m willing to go to these concerts with her. I want to make her happy and going to a concert is what makes her happy. You should have seen the look on her face the entire evening. She sat down maybe twice in three hours to give her legs and back a rest, but otherwise she was standing the whole time. She danced at her seat, she sang along at the top of her lungs, and she was generally elated to be there. How could I deny her that? How could I not want to be there to see her so happy?

And it’s not like I was miserable. I wasn’t being poked with hot irons or beaten about the head and neck by ruffians. I was standing among a crowd of people who were as elated as Andrea was; there wasn’t an angry soul in the jam-packed house. I was hearing good music, getting in plenty of people watching, and getting out and doing something different for a Tuesday night (or, hell, even a Saturday night for that matter).

So even though I’m not a big Dave Head, I’ll continue to go with Andrea to these concerts as long as the interest is still there for her. As long as she can continue to find something in life that makes her so happy, I’ll always support it. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t?

This weekend we were up in Champaign doing family stuff, wedding stuff, and kitten stuff. Yes, a few weeks ago when we were in Champaign, we visited a cat foster home that is affiliated with CATsNAP, an organization that rescues cats and finds them homes. We had decided to pick up a little gray and white guy, but had to wait until he was 2lbs. so they could fix him. Well, he reached 2lbs. (or close enough) and they got him ready for us this weekend. We’ve named him Rufus after a lot of going back and forth with other names. He’s quite a cutie, as you can see. We tried introducing him to our Peekaboo tonight, but neither one of them were thrilled with the other as of yet. Rufus has never seen a cat as large as Peek and, well, we know Peek didn’t have a great experience last time with Binx, so she might be a little gunshy. Regardless, Rufus is ours and we’re just going to have to work on getting the two acquainted. For now, Ru will be hanging out in the sanctuary of our spare bedroom where we will be socializing him to within an inch of his life.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress adding him to the family. I know a lot of you have mentioned how sorry you were to hear Binx didn’t work out (as were we), but, fear not, Rufus and Peekaboo will be playing together before you know it. He’s our new little guy no matter what.

As some of you know, I love pulp fiction art – those lurid, eye-catching, usually-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-story-inside cover art that sold so many magazines in the pulp heyday.

Back when pulp art was king, some publishing houses would produce pulp-like covers for classic books – it’s all about the marketing, right? Well, the folks over at Slate.com asked a few artists to make pulp-inspired covers for classic books such as The Iliad, Little Women, and Animal Farm. Some are…interesting…while some fit perfectly. Very cool.

As a bonus, there are a few online galleries of pulp art linked from the article, so check out the amazing work of these oft forgotten artists while you’re at it.

What an odd little film. It’s the late-1840′s and a soldier is sent to be third in command at a remote fort on the California trail. Shortly after his arrival a man comes stumbling out of the wilderness, starving, cold, and near-death. They revive him, nurse him back to heatlth and then hear his tale. He was part of a wagon trail heading west when they got lost and stuck in the mountains. After some time of being unable to find food, one of the party died of starvation. The others decided that the only smart move was to revert to cannibalism to survive. Soon there were only three people left – the fort’s guest, a woman, and another man who was said to have been driven mad by “the hunger”. Feeling it their duty to try to rescue the woman, the soldiers go in search of the cave where these events took place. The rest of the film is a psuedo-philosophical look at cannibalism, mixed in with some good ol’ horror movie gore and violence.

Watching Ravenous I was really struck by the way editing and score can completely change a film. With a less-dynamic, more conservative style of editing, this would have been a fairly slow-burn horror/drama. Instead, the filmmakers opted to use the infamous “MTV-style” editing from time to time, giving the film short bursts of energy, then calming down once again to that slow-burn feel. Perhaps this was intentional to give the film a sense of madness, of sudden acts of violence. Whatever the reason, it definitely gives the film a different feel than I was expecting. And the score – wow. I would have assumed the score would be very brooding and boiling, but instead it’s often a sort of happy, somewhat twangy hillbilly sound. During a major scene of violence, one of the darkest parts of the film, the score is bouncing right along like rednecks going to a square dance. But, again, I have to wonder if this choice was made to convey a madness-induced chaos. Whatever the reason, it was a bizarre choice, though not entirely unsuccessful.

In the end, I can’t say I loved Ravenous, but I feel like I respect what it did. On one hand it’s a typical serial killer slasher film. But is is a bizarre experiment in making a typical serial killer slasher film, so for that I have to at least give it some credit.

2.5 / 5 bananas

So tonight I decided to check my website’s viewing stats, something I haven’t done in months. Thanks to all of those out there reading. My highest percentage of readers only stick around for 1 – 30 seconds, but we all know those are bots and spiders looking for spam opportunities or indexing for search engines. However, there are quite a few who are on the site for 5-15 minutes and then, inexplicably, the percentage takes its next biggest jump at the 1 hour mark. So, apparently there are those people out there who happen upon my site and give it a good hard gander for a while. Again, thanks.

The thing that always surprises me is where people are coming from to view this site. Obviously the U.S. is #1, but there are also quite a few folks from Europe and Spain who happen by. This month, for whatever reason, Saudi Arabia has a big number of hits. Should I be worried? I’m just joking my Saudi Arabian friends! Please send oil…

And now for the biggest mystery of all – Annette Bening. For whatever reason, Annette Bening (though it’s misspelled “Benning”) is the #1 search keyword that leads people to SMX every month for about the last year running. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this talented woman before, either in an “American Beauty” review/commentary or, perhaps, when I said that a friend of ours in New Orleans looked like a young Annette Bening. But for whatever reason, more people come to SMX because they were looking for the latest info on Mrs. Warren Beatty. Sadly, another big search word for SMX is “buttcrack”, which I guess pretty much says it all.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks once again for checking out the site. Wherever you’re from, however long you stay, and whatever search words you typed to get here, please feel welcome and come back again anytime…especially if you’re going to send me oil.