Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

Debbie Millman

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Early on in NaBloPoMo I picked up Debbie Millman’s fascinating blog as a read, but i didn’t realize who she was. Debbie hosts a Voice America Business show called Design Matters, where this season she plans to talk to an utterly stunning list of communicators such as journalist and personal hero Malcolm Gladwell (on her 1/5/7 debut), NYT Mag Creative Director Janet Froelich, and authors Dave Eggers and Ze Frank. And, those are just the names i recognized instantly.

In her bio, Debbie is identified as “Managing Partner and President of the Design division at Sterling Group, one of the country’s leading brand identity firms.” With tongue hardly in cheek, a few days ago she examined the brand of Kate Moss.

Debbie has my dream job, and gets to talk to some of the most forward thinking people in the world in her side job as an internet broadcaster. Essentially, she is living my ideal life. I am in somewhat of a state of shock just thinking about it.

…in bed

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Several years ago i acted in a show about morals (in both senses of the word), and at the end we handed out fortune cookies to audience members as they filed their way out of the theatre.

It was a lightly attended show, and we wound up with a huge box of uneaten cookies. The cast and crew took it upon themselves to dispose of said box at the cast party, resulting in each of us eating several dozen fortune cookies.

Of course, the most exciting part of eating fortune cookies is the fortune, which is why we were so disappointed to realize that our box of cookies had a finite amount – maybe ten or fifteen – of fortunes. Perhaps I had seen a duplicate fortune once or twice before in my life, but learning just how slim the fortune options were in a given crate of cookies was depressing.

Ever since then i have hated eating fortune cookies, but i have persevered in my hunt for unique and original fortunes. Or, at least ones that aren’t so general as to apply to anyone.

Idleness is the holiday of fools.

For a few years now that has been my favorite fortune. I got it one day when i was out to lunch with my old boss. We both appreciated it equally, so i brought it back with me to pin up at my desk.

Even after three subsequent desk (and boss) moves the fortune still sits pinned directly above my phone, where it frowns down upon me if am ever tempted to twiddle thumbs or sharpen pencils in order to put-off or altogether-avoid something i ought to be doing.

It is highly effective. I would say that approximately 30% of my productivity is the result of that tiny strip of paper. If i ever lost it I would print a new one.

The only downside of “Idleness is the holiday of fools,” is that it isn’t much of a fortune (unless, of course, it was assuming i am an idle fool). It’s really more of a proclamation.

However, last week out to lunch with co-worker Elib i received my new favorite fortune, because this one enforced something i often doubt. It read:

You will always get what you want through your charm and personality.

At first this might seem a little at odds with “Idleness” – it seems to be indicating i can be as idle as i want, so long as idle with charm.

I choose to see it more as a reminder that an absence of idleness alone does not equal success. To find true success i need to be engaged and happy, and that happiness needs to be an almost tangible force to each person i encounter.

As for “in bed,” i remain in favor of the first.

What’s the best fortune you ever received (in bed)?

Dangerous Liasons
(or, Where Everybody Knows Your Name)

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  • Mexican bar from previous post is on our way home from work
  • We get out of work around five, which lands us in the middle of happy hour
  • Happy hour includes $2 margaritas
  • The margaritas, they are good.

Having spent most of her life deprived of network television, Elise cannot understand my need to visit the bar regularly enough for them to scream “Norm!” when i enter.

Seriously, $2 margaritas that are actually good? I could drink one every work day for a mere $520 hit to my budget.

However, I do not always need to drink three.

Return of Girlfriend and Prickly Pear Mojitos

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After a week of her absence, every aspect of life involving Elise seems like an adventure. Let’s cook rice! Let’s light candles! Let’s go for a walk!

Okay!

The dizzying newness of every trip up the stairs to see the light on in her office only serves to emphasize the advice I received from my-former / Elise’s-new co-worker Dan: a couple needs to vacation together and apart.

Since I had Bonnaroo in June and we had St. Louis together in July, Elise was suffering from a one-vacation handicap. She needed time away from me to have an adventure, and I needed time to shuffle around the house and pretend to be a bachelor. With her returned from San Francisco it feels as though our balance has been reset.

Our walk this afternoon took us through the Italian Market*, and afterwards past Pat’s and Geno’s** to wander down Passyunk to find a fabled Mexican restaurant with excellent margaritas.

It had been fabled by an old professor of mine who, apparently, has only a relative sense of location. We didn’t have directions, or the name of the restaurant, but he told us that we would have arrived when we were able to see a mural, a parking lot, and the Mexican restaurant all at the same time.

We came to such a point, and were faced with a drab Mexican restaurant with multi-colored blankets in the windows. It did not look like the home of excellent margaritas.

“Do you think that’s the place he was raving about?”

“Well, consider the source.”

The source being my motorcycle-riding, monochromatic- dressing, ponytailed senior project advisor.***

“Well, i suppose…”

Elise tapped on my shoulder. I turned to regard her and noticed that we were standing in front of a giant orange slab of a building with no sign and a huge wooden door.**** It looked like it needed a moat.

“Yeah, that’s probably it.”

Indeed, it was. And, not only were the margaritas excellent, so were the mojitos. Several drinks later I learned how to use Elise’s new camera, and bit my poor drunken tongue so badly that we thought I would need stitches.

It’s nice to be having adventures together, again.


* Note to self: The Italian Market is a ghost town by two on a Sunday. Start getting out of bed before one.

** Note to the internet: No Philadelphian who enjoys cheesestakes would ever eat at Pat’s or Geno’s. They are for tourists and people in South Philly who don’t know any better. If you want a good cheesesteak go to Jim’s or Tony Luke’s. Trust me.

***Yes, essentially my father as a communications professor (except i don’t think prof owns several dozen rifles).

**** Name, undetermined. It’s just above Morris on Passyunk, and both we and Prof. Steggy highly recommend it.

Stops Just Short of Calling Tolkien “A Little Bitch”

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The fascinating Hero Workshop posts the following excerpt from a recent article:

A greedy, smaller-than-human creature finds a treasure in the depths of a river. The treasure is a ring of great power which exerts strange influences on its owners including giving them the ability to disappear but always to bring danger or death to its owners. A hero enters the fray armed with a reforged sword that had been broken. Various races of humanoid beings attempt to gain control of the ring by magic and by heroism until it is finally brought at great cost and sacrifice back to its origin where it is purified by fire. The last pursuer perishes along with the ring.

Sound familiar? Is that because you’re familiar with Wagner’s opera tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung, AKA The Ring Cycle?

Don’t worry, i’m not either. At least, I wasn’t until I read Caroline Leech’s fascinating article about Tolkien and Wagner. Did Tolkien borrow from Wagner, or are their stories both so commonly archetypal in theme that they could hardly help to intersect?

Regardless of the answer, Welsh National Opera’s dramaturge Simon Rees offers the follow summary opinion:

The more I look at the two pieces, the clearer it is to me that Wagner produced a piece of extraordinarily united and unified work that you can tap from every angle and it remains as sound as a bell. And that Lord of the Rings is the conception of a very much lesser imagination, though still a very interesting and powerful piece of writing.

“Basically Wagner is for grown-ups.”

Ouch.

For some additional background on The Ring Cycle the the First Timer’s Guide, or the Wagner Experience @ uTexas, or ever-trusty Wikipedia’s articles on each of the four parts: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Or, if you are musically inclined, examine the collected vocal scores, all available via the Indiana University Digital Library Program.