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Posts published in June 2012

1000 Words – Lady Boxers

“Why, Mr. Hardy, I do believe that my lady boxer shall best yours in this contest.”

“Nonsense, Percival! I would wager my pith helmet that my Gertrude will knock the fancy hat off your pugilista this very day.”

“You have my Myrtle confused with some common barroom brawler, sir. I have no doubt she shall be the victor in this contest of fisticuffs.”

“Would you like to make this a little more interesting, Percival?”

“Quite, Mr. Hardy.”

“Let us say that whoever the trainer of the lady boxer who loses this fine match is will be obliged to shear his whiskers and look like some wretched Chinaman unable to grow a fine mustache like my own. Or, in your care, Percival, a beard.”

“I accept your terms, Mr. Hardy.”

“Thank you, Percival.”

“No, thank you, Mr. Hardy.”

“I hope you are prepared, Percival. I’ve brought along this white bucket and towel for when Gertrude defeats your unkempt Myrtle.”

“Unkempt, sir! You have crossed the line!”

“Unkempt, Percival. Look at the crudeness with which she applied the detail to her skirt. No man with functioning eyes would claim that to be the work of a fine seamstress.”

“The gall, Mr. Hardy! I might also comment on the utter lack of decoration on your Gertrude’s dress! Or do you consider her black sash the finest of French fashion?”

“Simplicity is in the vogue, Percival. We are entering an age when needless decoration will be a thing of the past. You look on Myrtle’s poor embroidery and see elegance, where as I, a man of the times, see the old fashion. She resides in the past, my loyal servant.”

“Your father never would have stood for such words, Mr. Hardy. No, he was a man of great tact and kindness. You do his memory a disservice.”

“Percival, this era of Victoria as Queen, long may she reign, is nearly at an end. Why, soon it shall be the twentieth century and the British Empire has never been stronger. We must look to the future, not only in the way we clothe our lady boxers, but also in our attitudes toward change. We have great steam engines now! Miraculous balloons that float delicately upon the air! Coal for every family that can afford it and jobs for the children of the families that cannot! Percival, do you not see we are living in a gilded age? That we are living on the very precipice of the future?”

“Mr. Hardy, I must confess that you have lost me here.”

“What I am telling you, Percival, is that you and your Myrtle are woefully out of touch with the times. You are much like those giant lizards being dug from the earth by intrepid British explorers.”

“If I did not know better, Mr. Hardy, I would venture that you were trying to insult me.”

“Never, Percival. I only seek to express that you shall never win this wager of our, for your fighter has no chance of defeating mine. Surely you’ve heard of the Chinese Wu Shu?”

“No, sir, I have not.”

“Heavens, Percival!”

“My apologies for my grave misstep, Mr. Hardy.”

“Do see that you take measures to correct this, Percival. Anyhow, Wu Shu is a barbarous oriental fighting technique much too base for a good British gentleman like myself. However the study of this technique is not unlike dancing and I’ve found a great many women are quite adept at it. And when this ‘dance-fight’ is incorporated into a lady boxer’s repertoire of moves, I do find she becomes significantly more formidable. Would you like a demonstration?”

“No, sir, I consider the use of heathen knowledge to be a blight on our fair contest and tantamount to cheating. Indeed, if I did not know you to be a good Christian man, I would suspect you of indulging in the Devil’s handiwork.”

“Oh, Percival, you are so very superstitious. These are the Chinese we are discussing, not some heathen darkies from Africa. Have some sense, man. The Chinese may be no better than vermin, but heathens they are not. All right, granted, I will allow that some of them may be heathens, yet I know a good many Christian Chinese in Hong Kong who can prove to be quite white in their disposition. And those people do know their way around a duck.”

“If I believe you allow your Gertrude to execute some of your…what did you call it? ‘Woo shoe’ arts, I will consider you a scoundrel and scab, sir, and accuse you of foul play.”

“But, my man, that is the beauty of Wu Shu. You will never know. I defy you to call out Gertrude’s Wu Shu moves when she employs them on the manly countenance of your Myrtle, for she does resemble a man of poor breeding even when she is dressed in her finest.”

“Sir!”

“Where did you find her, Percival? On the docks lifting crates onto a ship bound for India?”

“Well, I never! I will have you know, Mr. Hardy, that Myrtle is the daughter of my late brother Albert. I have raised since she was a child. She was a childhood playmate of your cousin Gertrude there.”

“I do say, Percival, I never knew that such a homely little girl would grow up into such a homely man.”

“You wound me, Mr. Hardy.”

“I vow not to cut your face as I shear your beard off later, Percival. I shall treat you like the most delicate of spring lambs as I remove your whiskers. Your wife will not recognize you when I have finished.”

“My wife has been in the grave these three years past, Mr. Hardy.”

“Oh, yes, quite. I do now recall. Be that as it may, were she alive today, Percival, she would not be able to recognize you.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You would do well to continue to agree with me, Percival.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Let us get this little match on, shall we?

“Yes, sir.”

In a lady boxing match for the ages, Myrtle defeated Gertrude in 10 rounds by technical knockout. However, instead of honoring his end of the wager and allowing Percival to shave his whiskers, Mr. Hardy accused Percival and Myrtle of incest and they were both hanged by the local constabulary.

Introducing “1000 Words”

Recently I have been toying with the idea of starting a new feature here on The Black Laser called “1000 Words” wherein I take a photo I find on the internet and write at least 1000 words inspired by it. It’s that simple. The photo can be of anything at all and the writing can be anything at all, but it must be inspired by the photo. And with Tumblr and reddit and Facebook and all those things, there is no short supply in random weird photographs to inspire me to write.

If you have been keeping up (you have, haven’t you?!?!), you are aware that I am slipping behind on my 100,000 word quota for this year. Bad news. But, writing in 1000 word chunks is a great way to start making good progress on the overall quota. And who knows what will come out of these little exercises? I might be inspired to write something great well beyond the scope of that particular piece. I might just write a funny 1100 word story. I might write a steaming pile of crap. Who knows?! Only time will tell what “1000 Words” will yield.

The idea is a riff on the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words (duh). You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it. I shopped the idea around a few of friends to see what they thought about it and the response was universally and overwhelmingly positive. Always a good sign, eh?

With that, I announce the beginning of “1000 Words” here on The Black Laser. I’ve already got one written which I will post after this and two more photos lined up.

Enjoy! And if you find a particularly choice photo you think I should write about, send it to me!

The opening number from The Book of Mormon on the Tony Awards

This morning my sister Christina messaged me with this link and told me that the first guy singing in the video was the young man who sang at my brother’s funeral years ago. I don’t know him, but I remember him having a remarkable voice. Now, apparently, he is part of the cast of The Book of Mormon. I’ve not seen the show, but I hear great things about it from everyone who has seen it. I am a little hesitant to pay 200 bucks for a ticket and certainly have no intention of going alone.

But, anyways, that was pretty cool and some absolutely strange and bittersweet news. Bonus: dude’s singing on broadway. Sadness: remembering Nicky’s funeral.

Happy Monday!

What to do with the hours between 6am and 9am?

Recently I have been waking up bright and early sometime between 6 and 6:15 in the morning. “Sure,” you say, “I wake up at that time every day so I can be at work at 9. It’s called an ‘alarm’.” But no! I am waking up at that time completely unaided. My alarm is set for a more reasonable 7:15 which allows me ample time, usually, to snooze (such a weird word) for about 30 minutes, get up, shower, and leave the house to be at work a hair before 10. Totally normal.

But now I am waking up well before my alarm without any desire to snooze. There’s no need; I am rested and awake and ready for the day at 6 o’clock in the morning. Weird.

And then there is the obvious question of what to do with all this extra time. Today I woke up at 6:20, got up, took a long shower, got dressed, cleaned my house, paid some bills, and still made it to work by 9. While riding the M train into Manhattan and listening to the new Fear Factory album, I got to thinking about what else I could do with said time.

First, however, let’s talk about what has changed. Over the last month, my roll has slowed dramatically. I am not sure what caused it, but I suspect my body and sub-conscious got together and were all, “Hey, this isn’t working. Let’s shift some shit around, huh?” I started getting tired at regular human being times and am often asleep for the night by midnight, which means I wake up the next morning well-rested but much earlier than I am used to. And because I got up so early, I am then tired again early that night. The cycle repeats.

It also means that I haven’t been drinking nearly as much. Maybe it’s summertime, maybe it’s some other stuff in my life that’s cleared up, maybe it’s just fatigue, but the idea of sitting at the bar until I can’t has finally crossed that fine line between “good time” and “undesirable”. I mean, I still go to the bar and everything, but I’ll got for just a couple of drinks and then go home at 10:30/11 and be asleep within the hour, sober. And then I wake up the next morning feeling fine. So, I am not drinking as much, and then also not wanting to drink as much, and then too tired to shut the bar down. My body is sending me a clear message about what it wants and needs, and being an unrepentant drunk is not it.

We’re not just talking about days I need to get up for work either. We’re also talking about the weekend, holidays, bank holidays, and whatever other kinds of days there are. Boom! awake at 7 on a Saturday before the majority of Greenpoint is up, much less the late-rising Williamsburgers, and I have no idea what to do with myself. There are only so many errands you can run, so many coffee tables you need to get (read: 1), so many trips to the hardware store before you run out of things to do.

“But Joe, we’ve heard this before,” you say. Indeed you have, my loyal friends and readers. This time, however, it’s not something I am trying to affect but something that is happening on its own without my intervention. Hell, I’ve even tried to do the super late night thing and all that happens is that I get tired, go home, pass out, and wake up after 5 to 6 hours of sleep. Hello 6:30 on a Sunday morning! How are you doing?

My friend Charles is a regular early riser so I asked him today what he does with his extra time.

Yeah, you totally just read that I am thinking about going for runs in the morning. I hate running! But for some reason it feels like a really good idea. Isn’t that terrifying? I even bought an iPod Nano this morning with my Amazon points. I think I am going to go grocery shopping for the first time in months tonight, make dinner at home (!), and go for a run tomorrow morning. Maybe I’ll even make breakfast tomorrow morning! Man, it feels good not to feel sad.

What do you do when you wake up early? Or are you not one of those people? I guess the more important question at the base of all this is, how do you take care of yourself?