Fat Man Walking


Steve, at the end of his walk in 2006, after losing 100 lbs and making it NYC.

We saw a great doc called Fat Man Walking tonight. The guy that it's about, Steve Vaught, walked from San Diego to Manhattan in 13 months back in 2005 to clear out his head and lose some weight. I'm pretty sure lot of the people who showed up were expecting an oprah-style feel good hit, and that's not at all what they got. This film is so real it's almost painful at times. Vaught tells the truth unashamedly about his marriage, his anger problems, his weight and how he ended up where he did. He uses the words "fuck" and "cocksucker" quite a bit. A number of people walked out in the middle, only fat middle aged women because I'm pretty sure they were offended. Vaught was there for the Q&A, and listening to him speak was really inspiring. He totally reaffirmed my philosophy and basic opinions about the world, how it works and who we are as people. His newfound outlook on life, garnered from walking across our country, is "Fuck it, there's nothing you can do about it, so don't worry about it". On paper he's much worse off after the walk than before he started. He's divorced, broke and doesn't get to see his kids hardly ever, but he's so much happier because he feels good about himself for the first time in 20 years.

The cut we saw wasn't final, it's still a work in progress, but it was beautifully edited. There were SO MANY cuts, so much footage, and it all came together really well. When it's actually finished, I think that you MUST see it.
- posted by Mason @ 11:55 PM (0) comments

The Frozen City



My favorite documentary we saw today was called The Frozen City. It's about how Winnipeg, Manitoba, one of the coldest cities in North America, is the Slurpee Capital of the World. It featured a number of Slurpee enthusiasts, former Slurpee addicts, and even hardcore Slurpee connoisseurs. Immediately after watching it I had to go get one. By the way, Slurpees taste good.
- posted by Mason @ 11:52 PM (0) comments

The Longest Day of My Life


Trying to organize the 40 delegates from our precinct.

We spent 8 hours on the floor of Hulcy Middle School today. The 23rd Senatorial District Democratic Convention here in Dallas was a mind blowing clusterfuck. In case you don't believe me, read all these articles about it. Our experience looks very typical of what happened in most other Dallas Obama strongholds. Basically the Clinton campaign challenged as many precincts as possible, thereby disenfranchising delgates by forcing them to wait for HOURS on the floor of jr. high. We were there for a total of 12 hours. 8am to 8pm. It was horrible, but it was well worth it, because I believe in Barack Obama that much. What a way to spend a Saturday. Here are some pictures of it.


I slept on and off during most of it.

Trying to organize the 40 delagates from our precinct.

After 8 hours, they finally gave us our credentials.


Me finally out on the convention floor with the rest of the delegates, our precinct sitting behind me.


We strategize how to fuck the Clinton supporters out of a delegate or alternate. We did.


Meg shot a little video with the still camera.
- posted by Mason @ 11:59 PM (0) comments

Malos Hábitos (Bad Habits)



Tonight we were lucky enough to see first time feature director Simón Bross's film, Malos Hábitos. It's the intertwined stories of a girl, her mother, her father, his mistress and a nun, and their relationships with food, guilt, pleasure and religion. I can't wait till the DVD of this comes out so I can watch it again. Bad Habits was one of the best new films I've seen in a very, very long time. The Q&A afterward with Señor Bross was amazing and insightful, and that alone would have been worth the price of admission. The sound design in this film was phenomenal as well. Martín Hernández also who did Babel, Pan's Labyrinth, 21 Grams, and City of God, creates an ever present and totally encompassing torrent of rain in the background of every scene. Did I mention that it rains during the entire movie? It does, and it's great. I loved this movie, and if you only see one foreign film this year, make it this one. Alternatively, if you have food guilt or weight issues (and I think most of us do) if you only see one movie ever, make it this one.
- posted by Mason @ 11:51 PM (0) comments

$80 worth of movie tickets



We bought our tickets for the AFI Dallas Film Festival after I got off work today. We dropped eighty bones on eight movies, a savings of $70 because we bought them all early. I'll be posting about all the movies we see, and we're volunteering all next week at the Magnolia in Uptown. I'm pretty excited about all the documentaries we're going to see next week. I love that living in a city, while sometimes shitty, can sometimes have kick ass perks like vegan restaurants nationally recognized film festivals
- posted by Mason @ 6:23 PM (0) comments

I'm the smoothie king now bitches.



I've been busting my balls all week on smoothie recipes and they're finally done. I made all seven today and I tasted each of them several times. I sort of hadn't eaten anything before hand so by 1:00 I was totally sugar sick and nauseous. I'm very pleased with the way they've turned out. Real fruit and real fruit juice can't be beat. Tell all the smoothie peddlers that you won't buy their dairy filled corn syrup garbage, kay?
- posted by Mason @ 6:22 PM (0) comments

Belle de Jour (1967)


in the whorehouse

Almadovar is one of our favorite directors, and Luis Buñuel is his favorite director. On the basis of that we watched the Buñuel film "Belle de Jour". It's about a bored Parisian housewife who daydreams of sado-masochistic sex and perverse dalliances. She takes a job as whore in the afternoons to alleviate her deviant desires. There's not any nudity in it, but it's still the most perverse film I've ever seen. I understand why Almadovar likes Buñuel so much, because the fetishism in this film was borderline disturbing. The colors and cinematography were gorgeous, the acting was excellent and the art direction immaculate. On the downside, I thought it was a little confusing, owing either to the script or the editing, I'm not sure which. I don't know that I'd say I recommended this movie, but it was interesting none the less, and I'm going to watch the other films of his that I downloaded.



perverted fantasy
- posted by Mason @ 6:22 PM (0) comments

Brazilian Psychedelia



We all know and love Os Mutantes, but have you ever listened to Os Brasas, Umas & Outras, Os Megatons, Módulo 1000 or Os Incrívei? Well, thanks to the well compiled Brazilian Nuggets collection I downloaded, I have. If you like psych (which I do only marginally), then this is the collection for you. Five volumes of rare and out-of-print singles by 60's Brazilian psychedelic bands is more than enough. Some of it was ok, some of it was good, and some of it was fucking horrible. I love the record quality of it all. It's mostly very garage-y and obviously live to two-track. I'll burn it off for you if want.
- posted by Mason @ 6:22 PM (0) comments

More Books that I Boughted



The script, plus a diary by Soderburgh about filming the movie. One buck!




Volume two of the World of Tiers trilogy that I liked. Neat copy, eh? Fifty cents!
- posted by Mason @ 6:22 PM (0) comments

Disco Thrift Store Inferno



After dropping Cody off yesterday (but before the market) we drove by the Arlington Texas Thrift. We're us, so of course we stopped. It's the ugliest place I've ever been in my whole life. It most obviously was once a night club, but now it's a kick ass thrift store. We boughted some books and western cut pants. They haved many items with which can be purchased if you own monies to give to them for the stuff they gots to sell. Everything is mirrored. Everything.




- posted by Mason @ 6:23 PM (0) comments

Friday Night Hamburgers at Nanny's



Sometimes the best substitute for a food comes in a slightly unlikely form. The above soy porkchop sandwich on flatbread tasted EXACTLY the way that fried hamburgers at my (and Meg's) grandparents house always did. I don't mean it "kind of tasted like it". It was an exact replica. Adding to the flavor, my brother left one of our house-brand-natural-colas in my fridge last week, and I drank it. They smell just like pepsi, but taste more like RC. Friday night hamburgers are one of my favorite memories from childhood. I love that my grandmother always lays out the full trays of toppings for you to choose yourself. I really wish we'd had some cheap hamburger dill slices with this. Not to put on the sandwich, but just to eat along with it, because I always did that as a kid.



The protein (pictured above) comes via the huge freezer full of fake meat we bought at the asian market a while back. They're Black Pepper Pork Chops, and they were delicious. I tossed them in the skillet, browned them up and served them on gyros bread (with different seasonings and soy yogurt sauce, they could easily pass for gyros) with miso mayo, sweet onion and ripe tomato from Cox Farms Market in Duncanville. My friend John at work told me about and I've been meaning to go down there for weeks. While on the south side of the metro today after dropping Cody off in Arlington, we finally made it. It's a very nice, clean, small natural foods store. The prices were reasonable and the produce was beautiful. If you're in the south metro, and you need some bulk nuts, I suggest you give them a try.


- posted by Mason @ 9:04 AM (0) comments

NEWSFLASH!!!!!


Cody Jack (pictured right) has a laugh with a local vegan.

Dallas, TX 3/20/08:

Noted libertine, animal eater, and dionysian "Cody Jack" admitted to enjoying a completely vegan meal at local "hippie health food" restaurant Spiral Diner. Jack said, "I could eat this every day." He ordered the Savory Seitan Wrap, and a dish of I-Scream. He polished them both off without effort. The Spiral Diner serves organic vegan food in the Oak Cliff area, and is open six days a week to serve Dallasites.
- posted by Mason @ 5:05 PM (0) comments

Lil' Stevie King's "The Mist"



We went to see "The Mist" at the dollar movies. I'd already downloaded it, but it seemed like a fun thing to do. It really wasn't very good. The CGI was terrible, and totally unnecessary. The film would have been much more effective and frightening if you'd never seen the monsters that live in the mist. Cody has read most of the Dark Tower series, and according to his depth of knowledge on all things King, there are many connections to other SK stuff in this film. I really, really like Stephen King, and I very rarely like films made of his work. This wasn't much of an exception.


tray-lor of this movie
- posted by Mason @ 9:33 PM (0) comments

Cody Jack is Back in Town



Cody called me up this morning to inform me that he was on his way down. His mom was coming to see her sister, so he's spending a few days with us. Wackiness will surely ensue, as Cody is an incorrigible scamp if ever there was one. I had to drive to Arlington to get him, which was pretty balls, but when you love someone, you'll drive 25 miles to pick them up. If for some reason you don't know, Cody is Meg's cousin and one of my oldest and dearest friends. He's like the mentally disabled older brother I never had. Ha.
- posted by Mason @ 9:28 PM (0) comments

Daniel has a Land Camera, and he's not afraid to use it.



Daniel took this picture of me with his polaroid land camera over the weekend. I think I look really strange it in for some reason, like my arms are bent weird. I think it looks cool though.




Another picture Robert took last Friday. I love my Peavy Mystic.
- posted by Mason @ 2:54 PM (0) comments

Hiatus Catchup Part 5: Sunday



Sunday brought Veggie Garden and more Half Price. The Richardson HPB was sort of a bust, as this was the only really amazing thing I found. I did buy another set of the Amber novels (this is the fourth set i've purchased, one i kept for myself, one I gave to james and the other i gave to jake), so if you want, i've got). I made many bad smells from the massive soy and cabbage intake from the vegan chinese.
- posted by Mason @ 2:54 PM (0) comments

Hiatus Catchup Part 4: Saturday



We left Saturday morning after eating breakfast. My dad's sister Gina (who I hadn't seen in probably... seven years? maybe more... was in town so she came by and we had a big family chow down on some fluffy vegan pancakes my mom made. My grandmother sent some Vegan Apple Pie home with me for Megan. She made it with Earth Balance she got from my mom, my grandmother loves me. She might not understand why I don't eat animals, but she's willing to accomodate, which is amazing. Speaking of veganism, we ate at the new Dallas Spiral Diner again. This time I had the Savory Seitan Wrap. It was amazing. I highly reccomend it. We then took two large boxes of books to Half Price. We got $40 for them, so I splurged and got this awesome (and awesomely huge) book of Comic Strip Comics. If anyone has a hook up at Fantagraphics and wants to get me every volume of all the classic comic strips they're reprinted, let me know.
- posted by Mason @ 2:54 PM (0) comments

Hiatus Catchup Part 3: Friday


Robert took this snap with his iPhone

Daniel and I spent all day recording on the empty stage at The Conservatory (you know, that place I used to work, that Daniel still works?). I think it says a lot about our relationship as brothers and as a band (a band that's ten years old this year. scary, huh?) that I played eleven songs for Daniel that morning, and by 6:30pm we had solid takes of drum parts for all of them. This trip was a complete success in accomplishing it's expressed goals.
- posted by Mason @ 2:54 PM (0) comments

Hiatus Catchup Part 2: Thursday


they pretend like they don't like celebs drinking their shitty fake coffee goo, but i can't think of better free publicity than having some skeletal coked-out skank slurping your artificially sweetened cancer juice. it makes the worthless pieces of shit who wish they were cock-gagging celebri-whores drink your coffee-piss to emulate their scumbag idols.

I left for Oklahoma after work on Thursday, my dad picked me up. I love car trips with my dad, they're the best. I never, ever, ever go to $tarbucks, but we stopped at the one in gainsville, tx. I don't know if you've been in a more recently built one lately, but they look just like Arby's now. Gross. Also, everything comes "Skinny" by default now. See it's "healthier" to drink Nutra-Sweet than to ingest calories from sugar. It's a scientific fact.

When we got in, I stayed up late and watched my brother play video games.
- posted by Mason @ 2:53 PM (0) comments

Hiatus Catchup Part 1: Wednesday

Check it, I was off this last week so here's a five part series of what you missed while I wasn't using the internet:



Wednesday night after work Meg and I watched this amazing doc called "Brother's Keeper". It's about four brothers living in poverty in Munnsville, NY. In 1990, one of them (William) dies in his sleep. The state police and medical examiner decide there may have been foul play, and his brother Adelbert is accused of killing him. The film chronicles the trial, the small town's support of Delbert, and the way media attention changes the brothers, their relationship with each other and their status in the town. We're another big doc kick, and this was one of the best I've seen in quite a while.

The only video clip I could find (I'm too lazy to cap it and post it, sorry):


- posted by Mason @ 2:53 PM (0) comments

Mississippi? Rolled and smoked, mother fuckers.



245,958 Obama - 60%

152,476 Clinton - 37%

Ha. We're up 130 delegates.

Fuck Washington-Insider-Business-as-Usual-Party-Politics.
You're Karl Rove fear tactics won't work, Frau Klintön. You sicken me, madame.
- posted by Mason @ 11:12 PM (0) comments

Roxorloops: French Beatbox Jesus




I'm not the "HEY YOU GUYS, CHECK OUT THIS SHIT I FOUND ON THE INTERNET!" guy, but I must say I was very impressed by this french beatbox guy named roxorloops. I urge you to watch all of both of these videos. I've never heard anybody beatbox house music before, it's pretty impressive.
- posted by Mason @ 11:10 PM (0) comments

My Favorite 90210 Episode



We just watched my favorite 90210 episode ever, "Highwire" (S03E09). It's the one where David accidentally sees Kelly (remember that by season three he's her stepbrother, is dating her friend Donna and is ostensibly over his crush on her) naked. He then proceeds to obsess over it during the entire episode, creating tension between them. The secondary plot lines involve Brandon and Brenda's college plans, Steve trying to get his hands on a master key to the high school, and Andrea's attempts to balance her huge workload at school.

I haven't seen it since it aired in first run at the beginning of the sixth grade, but it really stuck with me. Most likely because, for 1992, the first 60 seconds contains a lot of skin, and I'm sure I had a total bone for Jenni Garth when I was eleven. On second watching, it's really not a very memorable, or particularly good episode.

I whipped up this little mosaic from screenshots to illustrate the first minute of this episode. Oohlala!

Thanks to epguides.com for existing, because I use it ten times a day.
- posted by Mason @ 6:53 PM (0) comments

A Moon Mission Death Squad Lyrics Archive?



So I've been thinking that it might be a worthwhile project might be developing a comprehensive MMDS lyrics archive linked from our homepage. The question is, would anyone care? So here's an online poll for you to vote either in favor for or against it. Bear in mind that I'll be incredibly hurt if you vote no, you fucking bastards.

UPDATE: The poll gotsed all fuked up, Mr. Daddy. The lyrics archive is go, by the by. I started on it tonight. -MW 3/10/08
- posted by Mason @ 7:29 PM (0) comments

Dark Days (2000) - Homelessness is Bad



We watched the EXCELLENT documentary Dark Days tonight. It's about a makeshift shantytown in a disused subway tunnel under Manhattan. It was shot by the homeless themselves (in co-operation with director Marc Singer) on grainy B&W 16mm and the look of the film is amazing and beautiful. I was just blown away by this film. I obtained it from netflix, and I suggest you do the same. If you'd like, I'd be happy to let you borrow my copy.
- posted by Mason @ 10:35 PM (0) comments

Vegan French Bxfst Puffs



As a kid, my favorite mornings were when I woke up to my dad having made French Breakfast Puffs from the "Southern Sideboards" cookbook. I spent some time this morning calling and driving around Dallas trying to find vegan muffins. FYI, good fucking luck on that. I chose to just come home and make these bad boys. This isn't a food blog, so check out my BFF Megan's post about the recipe. The point was that I made tasty muffin/biscuit things that are then dipped in Earth Balance and then dipped in cinnamon and sugar. Big ups to my dad for making these for me when I was a kid!

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The Moon Mission Death Squad dips things in vegan margarine, then tops them with vegan sugar.
We're vegans, get it?
- posted by Mason @ 6:57 PM (0) comments

Cock-Us.



We caucused last night. Our precinct split delegates 16 Barack, 12 Hillary. We volunteered to be alternate delegates for the county convention March 29th, so that should be pretty exciting. The whole process was the closest thing to democracy I've ever participated in.

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The Moon Mission Death Squad supports Barack Obama, in case you hadn't guessed.
- posted by Mason @ 6:45 PM (0) comments

Bike Troubles, Repaired



I picked up a nice sized chunk of glass in my back tire yesterday. When I came out this morning to go vote it was flat as a johnny cake [or for our far northeastern readers, "griddle cake"]. (Astute readers will point out that while that joke seems sort of funny, the lexicographic inaccuracy of comparing griddle cakes [an irish soda bread] and johnny cakes [a mid-atlantic round of fried cornmeal] really renders the comedy mute.) Sorry, I've digressed terribly here.

I pulled the back wheel off, pulled the tire and tube and patched the fucker. (See below).



I overinflated the tires to 60psi, which has really improved my ride. It's possible that this will shorten the life of my tubes, but tubes are fucking cheap, no? Info on the election process and our caucus experience tomorrow!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that today my blog is TWO YEARS OLD. That's a lot of blog posts, grandmother.

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The Moon Mission Death Squad rolls on hard tires.
- posted by Mason @ 11:58 PM (0) comments

"Check the crusty mop chillin on my melon."



Oh yeah little daddies. $1.00 american monies from Half Price. I also bought Children of the Yellow Kid, a book about the history of American comic strips. Even I find it strange that I LOVE comic strips (especially pre-modern era) but I hate comic books. I still want the Gasoline Alley collections. Get them for me.

Also, does anyone have cheap 70's paperback copies of First Blood by David Morrell or Death Wish by Brian Garfield? I want them, and I can't find them used.

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The Moon Mission Death Squad weases the juice.
- posted by Mason @ 11:24 PM (0) comments

I read a book! This morning!



I read The Long Loud Silence by Wilson Tucker this morning.

The premise is that bombs have fallen on the eastern half of the United States. Martial Law has been declared west of the Mississippi, and the two halves of the nation have been quarantined from each other. Corporal Russell Gary celebrated his 30th birthday by going on a multi-bottle whiskey bender and sleeping it off in a cheap hotel room. When he wakes up three days later, he finds himself one of the few survivors of a soviet attack on America. He's immune to the weaponized botulism that's killed most of the population in the east. He spends the next five years fighting, surviving and trying to get across the river and back into society.

I couldn't really find anything about this particular book online, but my edition is the '74 revised edition. The original is from '53, and I'm pretty sure the main difference is that Gary (our protagonist) served in Vietnam, although the references to time aren't all consistent after the revision, the novel referring to WWII as if it had just happened. Anyway, none of that matters. I really enjoyed this novel, but they shouldn't make a movie out of it, because it wouldn't make any damn sense. A mini-series or single season television program possibly, but not a movie.

You'll never find a copy of this anywhere (all the best sci-fi books you've never read are always out of print), and mine is too fragile to loan you. First printing hardback editions seem to be $100+, but there are a few places online that have the 70's paperback that I got for under $10.

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The Moon Mission Death Squad is now a Wilson Tucker fan.
- posted by Mason @ 11:07 PM (0) comments

Sci-Fi Novel Jackpot


Caribbean BBQ Jerk Sandwich

We ate at the new Spiral Diner Dallas for lunch today and ran into our friend Mick. He just started working there today. Daniel has a friend named Jared that works there and our friend Jillian works there too. If I didn't value my free time so goddamn much, I'd get a second job there as well. They're hiring if you live here and you're vegan and you need a job. By the by, it was fucking delicious.

Afterwards, Megan and I hit the thrifty. I pounced on this TREASURE TROVE of 70's paperback sci-fi. Check the bounty:











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The Moon Mission Death Squad can't stop buying novels it will never read.
- posted by Mason @ 8:45 PM (0) comments