Blondie got me “The melancholy death of oyster boy and other stories” the other day and I have been reading it non-stop. Don’t buy it for your kid though. It’s twisted, macabre, strangely funny and best of all, written by Tim Burton. This is one of my favourite stories in the book. You can see a movie of relevant aesthetic here
I got a new screen. Suddenly everything is bright and big and clear. Your blogs look different. My blog looks different. I thought it looked okay until I saw it for what it was: totally out of proportion. The old screen was not really a screen at all, more like a button hole. I went to the dvd rental place to get my weekly load of silly movies and cartoons. Only this time I also wanted to get a PS2 game for my son. One of the customers was a 15-16 year old boy who freaked out when I asked for the “Monster House” dvd. “Are YOU going to watch Monster House?” he asked me, disgusted. “Yes, but it is mainly for my son”. “How old is your son?” “Eight” “He is not allowed to watch that! It is very scary!” “I am trying to interest him in the genre so we can watch Hellraiser together.” The boy shook his head and turned to go when he saw “Cars” for PS2, in my hand. “Are YOU playing PS2?!” Clearly he has forgotten everything about my son, he looks at me as if I was a pervert, the girl at the till is fuming and I am enjoying this rare moment in my life where I get to shock the unshockable: a 16 year old boy.
October 27th, 2006 at 2:03 am
WOW that might be a once in a lifetime experience.
My boys love that cars game!!
October 27th, 2006 at 2:43 am
The voodoo girl looks like she’s been stitched up by an Igor… And schocked 16-year-olds are truly rare
Have fun playing ps2..
October 27th, 2006 at 2:58 am
i don’t know why, but that story at the beginning reminded me of the gashlycrumb tinies which is also another story you should withhold from your son for a few years yet.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:00 am
sorry, this is a much better link for it, even though the top of the page is gigantically huge…
October 27th, 2006 at 5:24 am
Beautiful poem. True, so true.
October 27th, 2006 at 7:10 am
I’ve noticed that too: how different our blogs look according to the screen we have - my screen is even tinier now, though.
You’ve got a mighty wallpaper!
Imagine the schock of children in general when my Mum tells them she plays with her Game Boy Advanced !! seriously…
October 27th, 2006 at 8:06 am
The trip to the video store is a typical event for us as well; I have had similar moments…so rare and so satisfying…:)
Love to Blondie for being such a super great friend to get you nice books!
Havea great weekend, friend.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:00 am
I would like to know how to say “Shock and Awe” in Greek. I think it has the potential to be one of your future aliases.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:05 am
He was a pretty nosey 16 year old huh?
I heard that “Monster House” is pretty scary. A five-year old child at a party I was attending described to me in detail how scared she was watching it. But she survived and would watch it again.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:13 am
that’s what i love about you.
you push everyone’s buttons -
and i love those Tim Burton
stories - especially staring girl.
She is my favorite.
October 27th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Loved the Hellraiser line. Appropriatly scandalous, in a movie rental store kind of way.
October 27th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
I love Tim Burton and Oyster boys looks awesome.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Tim Burton is the best! Have you ever seen the new (at least over here it’s new) Killers video he directed?
October 27th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
I meant to ask you Chloe. Do Greeks celebrate Haloween ?
random question it just crossed my mind, you talking about ghoulish films.
October 27th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Loved your rental story. I just brought home Monster House for my 8 year old son tonight too. I wonder why you chose that one story in particular to put on your blog. I wonder if there’s some projective elements to your choice?
October 27th, 2006 at 11:21 pm
i’m drooling over your new screen. if you use internet explorer, have you changed to internet explorer 7 yet??? it changes the way things look even more….
October 28th, 2006 at 3:06 am
I love Teenagers! But Chole, did you not know that you are so ancient that you could not possibly play PS2 games? hee hee!!
October 28th, 2006 at 4:55 am
UNPRECEDENTED CASE OF CENSORSHIP IN GREECE
ATTN: INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
An unprecedented case of censorship against http://www.blogme.gr, a search engine for Greek blogs, has provoked hue and cry in Greek blogs. The case was made known by an e-mail sent by the search engine’s administrator, Mr. Andonis Tsipropoulos, to all listed members yesterday evening. By this e-mail the administrator informed members that a Greek public figure -whose name has not been disclosed as yet by Blogme.Gr- prosecuted the search engine for what he/she regarded as slander in one of its listed blogs! The administrator was arrested without prior notice last night at his residence. He spent the night behind bars and was taken today to the Distric Attorney wearing handcuffs. His company - funded by an unemployment subsidies’ program - has been forced to suspend its operation. Mr. Tsipropoulos has in overall sustained great damage on a professional and personal level alike.
In his e-mail, Mr. Tsipropoulos wrote: “This is the first time ever that a search engine - a site collecting information on the web - has been associated with the content of a web log and sued for it. Never before has an offended individual in a democratic country resorted to a lawsuit of this kind till this very day, with the exception of repressive regimes. Most recent examples are Singapore and China. However, even in these cases the lawsuits were against the blog administator, and not a blog directory that collects information such as Blogme. [...] As a result of this selective prosecution, Blogme has become the sole website collecting information that has sustained the implications of this action, among hundreds of similar search engines in the Greek and the World Wide Web, many of which display in different ways the contentious blog in their results.” Mr. Tsipropoulos goes on saying that Blogme.Gr does not wish the prosecution of other search engines and that it does not pass an opinion on the blog in question or any other blog or web page content which it does not countersign. According to the Greek legislation, this case is directly associated with all that applies to the freedom of press and the information society in Greece.
DEAR WORLD PLEASE READ THIS
In Greece of 2006 we have the first sue against a site that (through rss) published some satirical posts (from a blog) about a famous person. You see, in my country WE ARE NOT FREE.
The owner of the site was handcuffed and driven to prison for one night and now he is free until the day he testifies in court. His computer with all his work was taken away from the police and now we are all waiting for the court to decide.The site I am referring to :
http://www.blogme.gr/blog/post/index/21/BLOGME
Excuse my bad English but this was the only way to inform all foreign bloggers that my country is not free anymore.
Please tell everyone you know.
October 28th, 2006 at 9:19 am
i visited ur blog after a loooong time…and hey wht do i see…your blog looks completely different, beautiful than earlier… i have always enjoyed reading your posts… keep blogging…
October 28th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
HAHAH hellraiser!! good one. dont you just love it when a “good one” comes to you , and you can actually use it , as opposed to 15 minutes later thinking “dang, i should have said………” does that make sense?? ROFL
cool mama chloe! i just xox you.
October 29th, 2006 at 4:24 am
I saw Hellraiser for the first time the other night.
At first, I was like, “oh, one of those crappy. b-grade 80’s horror movies”, (without realising what it was), then was like, “WHOA!”. Then saw the title.
That is such a cool movie. Seriously.
Chloe, your blog is so cool at the moment.
I saw a new contact on Flicr too, and it was a Chloe, and I wondered “…?’
Sure enough, it was you. Awesome.
Chloe = Ace.
October 29th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
When I saw the sketch and began reading this post, I thought about the Tim Burton movie which my son makes us watch at least three times a week. I love to sing along with the songs and watch Jack the Pumpkin King’s and takes to steal Christmas.
October 29th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
That should be Jack’s “attempts” to steal Christmas.
October 29th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
That should be Jack’s “attempts” to steal Christmas.
October 29th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Oooooh, I just love your new screen … to fancy !! Isn’t it strange how blogs look so different on other’s screens. On mine, my blog is a gorgeous pink colour, whilst on some others I’ve seen, it is more a darker shade … I like it on mine best !!
About watching scary movies with littlies, I sat down with my Chicky a couple of years ago, and we watched Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds together … she was freaked out by it, and was frightened of birds afterwards for quite some time. I wonder how she’d go with Nightmare on Elm Street …. (just kidding !!!).
Take care, Meow
October 30th, 2006 at 4:42 am
Tim Burton is one of my favourites and that book is so grotesque! I happened to watch “Corpse Bride” on Saturday
November 12th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Step-son hasnt discovered that games can be hired yet, and we are in no hurry to tel him.
Good job on shocking a 16 year old! LOL