A long weekend. Many things to say.

First off, the lovely and amazing Kristine Chan sent me here and I have been stuck there clicking on one flash stepping stone linking to ten others that have taken me to characters at war and to tokyo lab among others. So thanks Kristine but seriously I have been here for hours, help me. I want the characters at war poster. The tokyo lab page was nice. If you have the patience or the foresight to sit through the intro (during which I wondered if there was a difference in the Western sense of patience and the rest of the world's) then you would get to the next part. I clicked and navigated for awhile and found a wonderful audio artist named Afra with an album called Digital Breath. Good stuff.

Friday night I went to see Interpol with my friend Jose at the Aragon. I haven't been to a show in a large venue in ages. In retrospect I had more fun hanging out with Jose than anything else. Interpol are a great band but they are hardly anything new onstage. I was more intrigued by being in a space I hadn't been to in years. I kept seeing spectres of my younger self leaning against poles or walking around the crowd. That may make me sound old but whatever. It was a good show. My birthday present from Jose, bless him. When did the Aragon invest in a light show?

Atticus was given his forty day blessing this Sunday. Since I am not the best of Hindus and Irene was raised Greek Orthodox and it is more a part of her than hindusim is a part of me it would be better that Atticus be raised Orthodox. I have talked with Orthodox priests and am slowly learning the aspects of the religion. Some of my older punk rock and maniacally intellectual friends have chided me on choosing religion for the little one. Granted, the Greek Orthodox church and, hell, God too, has got some big guns, you know what I mean? The church is big, the ideas are big, God is big (so they say). It's a tricky thing, raising your child religiously, but I like community and I think it's important for him to have a religious one. I have enough friends who are jewish, baptist, unitarian, buddhist, hindu, atheist and generally angry at the world and would gladly engage in angry, joyous and scathing indictments of organized religion that I know there will be plenty of balance. I would love to have him engage in those arguments. There is a marked difference between spirituality and God says go to war. We'll try to teach him the difference in between healthy doses of the Marx brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Miyazaki and Arthur Schopenhauer. Plus, you always need something to rebel against when you get older.

Anyway, we got all dolled up and went to St. Peter and Paul in the north suburbs and waited till the end of the service at which point, along with another family, we went up with our kids and waited at the entrance. As everyone looked on the priests walked towards us to begin the blessing at which point Atticus took a thunderous dump and I thought this kid'll do just fine.

The rest of the weekend is a blur. I haven't been feeling myself lately. This weekend I felt like I did before I had surgery, the same fatigue and listlessness. With sadness I dropped my sister off at the airport Saturday morning and our house was a little empty without her. Irene and I, enjoying the babysitting prowess of Irene's mom, Mrs. Pipilas, went to an engagement party Saturday night. Congratulations Laurie and Brian.

Yesterday, Gabrielle, Peter (Irene's future brother in law and mine) and I watched this cartoon on Nickelodeon called The Avatar, The Last Airbender. She adores it. I won't embarrass her too much by describing how, just like most of us when we were kids and I know you know what I mean, she is mesmerized by a show and secretly and with her amazing ability to create worlds in her head imagines herself with the same special powers. It was more nostalgic and heartening than seeing spectres of myself in a Naked Raygun t shirt at a concert.

I also re-read a short story collection called Drown by Junot Diaz which is positively one of the fiercest and stunning collections I have ever read. Where have you gone, Junot? I am waiting for more. I recently read The Short, Wonder Life of Oscar Wao (older) and Homecoming, With Turtle, both in the New Yorker.

Mikey told me about a movie called the Mayor the Sunset Strip. You should all go check it out. Also The Best of Youth and Head On, a six hour Italian family drama and a German-Turkish punk rock love story respectively, are coming to the music box in April.

So, for being away from this blog for a few days, how's that for an entry?