AT THIS MOMENT, YOU MEAN EVERYTHING

I got my haircut today.

There is a myth about me. It’s that I have a very precious view of my hair. That I spend hours on it and agonize over it taking the perfect form. It’s not really true. After basically 16 years of the same haircut, it pretty much does what it’s supposed to, and if it goes a bit pear-shaped I don’t get too riled over it. In fact, I had a girlfriend who I always tried to get to cut it for me, because I’ve been known to be terribly cheap when it comes to getting the job done. She wouldn’t do it. She was scared of my wrath if she messed it up. The truth is I would have laughed it off. The shit grows fast and would correct itself in no time.

Actually, I think at its core, my haircut is incredibly simple. Short on the sides, longer on top, with the bangs left longest of all. You can blend the short to the long, or go for a severe line. I’ll live either way. But someone who cuts hair well can make it seem almost magical, transforming the simple into something otherworldly. Truly, any significant other of mine would be good to swallow that fear and learn to make the cut if they want to hang on to me (yeah, I know, why would they want to, but let’s suppose for the sake of this thing here), because a pretty face with clippers could easily steal me away from you. It doesn’t matter how in love with you I am, if Jennifer down at Bishop’s on NW 23rd had told me she wanted me to be her slave today, you’d be out without a second thought. If I saw you again I doubt I’d remember your name. To illustrate how far I’d go: If Jennifer said she hated Blue Monday and said Oni should stop publishing it, it would be cancelled. (Sure, I don’t have that power, and Joe Nozemack would say it would go on, but I wouldn’t have anything further to do with the comic, and since Joe and Butterbear can’t handle Chynna, you’d never see it again.) Only my cat outranks Jennifer.

And let’s not even talk about the shampoo. Lord, I love being shampooed. I used to go see this girl Kara when she was at the beauty college. When she graduated, I would have followed her wherever she went, but I ran into her once at a grocery store and she hadn’t really settled anywhere. She gave the best shampoos.

But now it’s Jennifer, and I will never forsake her. I’m not fickle when it comes to these things. She could take a big chunk out of the back of my head and I’d still adore her. I've had two other stylists at the same shop, and I moved on, but Jennifer knows how my hair is supposed to be. It's been two months since my first cut with her, and she still remembers. I got out of the shower 20 minutes ago and ran a brush through it once and it’s drying exactly as it's supposed to be. I haven’t used a blow dryer, hair spray, gel…I almost didn’t shower tonight because it had gel in it Jennifer had applied, which I could have enjoyed a while more, but I wanted to get refreshed before putting in some time on Cephiro (Rayearth reference).

If Blue Monday suddenly stops coming out, now you’ll know why.

Back after some Rayearth.

*

Man, I am such a dolt. This whole time I've been all, "Duh, why is it called Magic Knight Rayearth when there are three of them?" Big duh. Hikaru's kindred dragon or force of magic or whatever is named Rayearth. And it's not like it's ever been a big secret Hikaru is the focal Knight. Durrrrr.

CLAMP can be terribly repetitive when it comes to language. My challenge lately is finding different ways to say "fight" that work within the context of the dialogue--which is more verb oriented, meaning synonyms tend to be longer phrases like "go into battle" ("attack" isn't really right, and synonyms like "bout" are the wrong connotation). I am also encountering lots of special/sound effects that are essentially "shine." I am working my thesaurus overtime. I hate when writers use the same word over and over and over. It may be realistic, but it's bad writing. And I probably shouldn't hold it against CLAMP. Who knows how many ways there are to say "shine" in Japanese, and it could all translate the same.

By the way, when I told Jennifer that I rewrite Japanese comics from rough translations, she's the first person who didn't ask, "Oh, you speak Japanese?" See how much she understands? Jennifer rulez!!!

Current Soundtrack: Belly, Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly; The Jesus & Mary Chain, 21 Singles: 1984-1998 [thanks to Lana Berman for the last couple of soundtrack entries]