I'd passed up seeing 'The Two Towers' first thing Wednesday morning to go with the Captain thursday evening. I missed the all-singing, all-dancing geek fest, but his company was well worth it.

We expected there to be a line the likes of 'Phantom Menace' its first few days. Nothing. The eyes of Mall folk passed over us curiously. The Captain and I retreated up to this second story loft above the main commons area. Popular as the mall is, noone ever goes up there, uniquely pleasant for the intimacy thirty empty tables and abrupt wall angles can give. We sat there for the next five hours, discussing every major religion on the planet, Euro-American Paganism, New Age whatnot and the Qabbalah, all sorts of little bits and nuggets to sate our whorish minds.

We wandered half-way down the stairs every thirty minutes to see if a line was forming yet--an attendant had told us there wouldn't be one, but we knew better, oh yes, we did. When we went down thirty minutes before the movie to get seats, we wondered what all these people were suddenly pressing into the theatre for; we weren't quite sure what to make of them. Then I realized: there didn't have to be a formal line, just a mosh pit of movie-goers. Ah silly us. As for Two Towers, I thought several additions were genius, while other changes deeply bothered me. In all, quite grand.

Since our usual eating hole was closed at 1am, we went to Denny's and came to talk about the film the way lovers bring up an argument to discuss: tenacious, brooding like a storm. It broke as comments casually slipped off like shoes, like they always do between us in an Odd Couple way. Eventually the bill came. I figured out I needed to pay 9.20 American for my share. He owed me, so I slid a few bills less and a quarter into his hand. As I looked up he brandished a nickel with a glint in his eye, pressing it into my hand. I never know when he's pissed off at me or just being cheeky.

It was raining heavily outside that morning, like the Euphrates giving birth to floods of senselessly useful water. Something in me gave; I didn't want to sit at home the rest of the night after dinner and a movie. So I threw on my coat and decided to photograph the rain underneath a small umbrella. It didn't matter that I couldn't photograph actual rain, the flooding or how tired my arm got from holding the digital camera up near the neck to (unsuccessfully) keep it from getting moist. Mostly I sloshed through the middle of side streets, foot to ankle deep in water, looking over my shoulder occasionally for a car. I dimly wondered what I'd do if one came by; I didn't much care at the time. My mind was more focused on shot angles.

Again, those and many other photographs here. The thumbnails don't look like much (literally), but most of the pictures are well worth the wait. Here a few of my favorites as examples...

"Brushstrokes"

"Wisp"

"Court of the faeries (#2)"

"Rose of Mars"

If I feel up to writing tomorrow, I'll get to, ah, today (technically yesterday). I'm still trying to deal with that monstrous creeping hand thing that smokes apathy like clove cigarettes. It keeps coming back.

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