2004.12.28 My mother and I are meeting at a movie theater to see a new film together. It's an animated film directed by one of the golden age Warner Bros. animators. The guy's name escapes me, but I think there's a "J" in it somewhere. Not Chuck Jones. I haven't told Mom that it's a cartoon because I know she won't be interested. We came to the theater separately, she in her car and me on my motorcycle. After I park the bike, I notice that the back tire is ribbon-thin and sort of warped and rippled. I don't think it's supposed to look like that. Oh well, I have no idea how to fix it.

By the time I meet up with my mom, we're running late, so we quickly proceed into the cinema and start walking the long, crowded, brightly-lit hallways, looking for the theater that's playing our movie. We walk all the way up to the second floor and back again, but we can't find it. There seems to be a comic book convention happening here, with people running booths and selling things. On one table there's a beautifully painted, two foot statue of the Thing. I overhear a fanboy in the crowd talking about the movie we're looking for, saying that it's a G-rated film. This is disappointing to me because I had thought it would be a satirical, PG-13 affair. I'm starting to want to just skip the movie and wander around the comicon booths, but I know my mom won't be down with that..

Later, in the distant future, Batman, Wonder Woman and Thor are sitting together in a chrome-heavy, 1950s-style diner. All of them appear older than they look today, but Batman is the only one who has aged like a mortal, and he looks to be 80 or 90. He's not wearing his full costume, but rather a skintight black bodyglove that covers everything except his face. He's got all sorts of gear strapped to his body-- throwing daggers, smoke grenades and such-- and he sort of looks like an elderly Navy SEAL. He has a patch over one eye, and about two weeks' worth of unkempt white whiskers on his face. Wonder Woman looks sort of like she did in the graphic novel Kingdom Come, a stately middle-aged woman with chainmail armor and a star-spangled cape and helmet. Thor is in a black studded leather outfit, and he has long, stringy, platinum blond hair. They're sharing a booth seat, Batman sitting in the middle with his back against the window. The whole scene is saturated with gloomy grey light that makes everything look fuzzy and dramatic, like an Alex Ross painting.

As we are cutting to this scene, Batman has just leapt up on his seat to hurl a batarang at a would-be assailant who had burst through the kitchen door behind Thor's right shoulder. The batarang strikes true and the attacker is knocked to the ground, unconscious. He sits back down and the three continue their conversation from where they had left off. Thor says something about mysterious recent events putting him in a bad mood. "And my bad mood is like Thor in a silly mood," says Batman. I think he's being sarcastic. Or something.

2004.12.08 I can sew! I'm stitching up a seam and it's EXHILARATING!