I just got back from an animation film festival from the Canada. Ottowa, to be exact. I took Francis, and I don't think she quite knew what to think of it.

There was one short film in particular from Poland, you know, with the start/stop photography, like those old Tool videos, with all that weird shit going on to some old, dude with gnarly hands or a fucked up nose. The old guy in this short had blisters on his palms from rowing his boat for so long. He found himself at an island and got out of the boat, walked up the shore a bit and took out a folded piece of paper from his coat pocket. He unfolded it, turned it a few times and looked at it. It was a picture of a castle. Then he looked up and saw he had arrived at that exact same castle. He walked in and was greeted by a butler who hung up his bolo hat for him. In the interior there was a table set for one. He sat down and looked at the menu while the butler waited. He finally decided what he wanted and pointed to the particular menu item. The butler acknowledged his choice and left for the kitchen. But in the next scene, you saw the butler exiting out with back door with a fishing pole in his hand, a coat, and other fishing stuff. (Long story short - he was gone a LONG time, and in the meantime, lots of weird stuff went on at the castle with the old guy.) At first, he was just waiting patiently for his food. Then he noticed there was a murky aquarium on the other side of one of the columns with a huge, ugly fish inside. He wanted to eat it. He crept up to the aquarium with his knife and fork, ready to kill it. Then you saw the guy at his table with the dead fish on his plate. As he cut into it, blood squirted into his eye and it freaked him out! Then he woke up and realized he had fallen asleep while waiting for his food. But then he got really hungry and so he tried to take a bite out of the table, but his teeth got stuck on the table and as he stood up, he ended up pulling his face off. It finally dawned on him that his face and mouth were still attached to the table, and then he fumbled with his hands to find his face. He found it, dislodged it from the table, turned it around and viewed his faceless head from the viewpoint of his outstretched hands. It was gross - he had what almost looked like wires or metal hardware on his faceless head, popping out where his face used to be. Then he tried to pop his face back on, but he couldn't quite get it in the right position because his mouth kept staying open, and every time he'd try to put it back on, it'd make this grinding, screeching sound, kind of like the sound you make when you put your car in the wrong gear, or forget to put the clutch in all the way. Ack! So finally he puts it on correctly and you think everything's OK. But it's not. He looks over at the fish in the aquarium and it's sunk to the bottom, dead, and you realize the guy's been there for days, maybe even weeks, waiting for his food. Meanwhile you saw the butler with the fishing pole, trying to catch a fish, but nothing's biting. So basically the guy starts screaming in frustration after he put his face back on and he screamed so loud that chunks of rock started falling from the ceiling. Then his arms fell off and you saw the flesh on his arm bones had come off in some places. Ew. Well, next you saw that the butler finally made it back, and entered the dining room with the entree covered in a metal dome. As he came in, he saw the dead fish in the murky aquarium, the chunks of stone missing from the ceiling (you could see the sky above), and lastly the dinner guest - who is hunched over the table, completely covered in cobwebs, and armless. The butler stood next to him and cleared his throat. No response. He nudged the guy so his head flipped back and his jaw hinged open. The butler took off the metal dome to reveal the entree - a tiny, tiny fish. He popped the fish in the dead guy's mouth and nothing happened. Then all of a sudden his eyes snapped open and he got up out of his chair. He walked out of the castle and towards the sea, sleeves flapping in the breeze because he had no arms. Then as he's walking on the water, a huge fish came along and swallowed him. The End.

Then after the credits rolled, the butler retrieved his hat and took it to this special room with tons and tons of hats and added the guy's bolo hat to the collection.

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There were other films that also struck my fancy, yes. I love how my brain just goes away for a bit as I enter the worlds of creativity I wouldn't dream of inventing myself. But I'm there, in that world, for small moments of time, as the films roll. Some are 13 minutes long, others merely 3 or 4. Animation's cool.

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I went to bed early last night, but then ended up waking up at 4:30 a.m. The sun finally came up around 6's when I decided to go on a morning jog. I went at 7. Amor hadn't gone to sleep yet when I was getting up - he was in the living room. We had a nice conversation about his family and his job interview this coming week.

Amor got 20 minutes of sleep...

because we had to be at the pub at 9:30 to watch the England game. I felt so bad for England. Men were shedding tears, and you don't see that very often, do you?

We were having so much fun at the pub, drinking that early in the morning, we decided to just stay for the next game, the Brasil/France game. I was rooting for Brasil, but I have to say that France kicked some fucking boo-TAY. Wow.

So basically I drank from 9:30 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon. (The last time I did that was before Amor and I were married - we were just dating and were going to an all-day music festival.) Wow again.

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Oh. My. God. I have no more brain left to share with you.

Peace be with you. And you.

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