Chris Garcia came to Austin from the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998, the year of his first heat stroke. As the American-Statesman's movie critic, he is both loathed and dimly tolerated. Sandra Bullock, among others, will never speak to him again. He reads more than he eats, drinks more than he sleeps and breaks too many sticks when he drums.
Frequently using his tattered passport, he hasn't time for a dog but just enough for a rat named Tammy. He bit into the head of a chicken in China and plans to drink snake blood in Vietnam. He is a fervid animal lover.
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The entry titled "Sea Monkey solo."
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2009 > June > 17 > Entry
By Chris Garcia
| Wednesday, June 17, 2009, 12:09 PM
The Sea Monkeys have thinned out, natural selection has selected. A sole surviving water simian remains in the small bowl on my desk, flapping his tendrily wings like a microscopic manta ray, whippy tail and all.
It’s a sad day at Sea Monkey manor. Algae the hue of fall limes blankets the glass walls and rests finger-deep at the bottom, a Day-Glo sediment, chalky, bloomy, thick. Salt encrusts the water line, and can be scratched off if anyone so wishes.
The last Sea Monkey is philosophical about his circumstance. He dives and arcs across the miasmic gunk, pondering the whys, working through the whats. His days are not gathering. He is losing time. He is the Omega man.
The Sea Monkey, diaphanous wisp, flutters round and round, knowing everything, without a clue.
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By Juanita (Janie) Gotts
July 3, 2009 9:11 PM | Link to this
Pondering the whys, working through the whats…you can’t help but like the sound of this, not so much the content (the meaning) but the delivery, your delivery, its good. Anyway I couldn’t find anywhere to post a comment about the headliner of your review on Public Enemy in the Austin Amer. States. etc, where you noted Mann’s violence but still being beautiful (sorry, can’t remember perfectly, but felt it absolutely, it was spot on), It was in areas beautifully conveyed. Did you notice the gentle palette change in the scene at the airport at his arrival in Indiana jail? It was a soft sepia then gradually gave way to a bit of deep blue sky in the background above the horizon line (of course), deep blue hues above this imaginary line and the soft brown hues of sepia below this horizon lin. It was striking. There were others of note as well but this is sufficient to prove my point of concurrance and appreciation to your also catching this quality of the film and promoting it. Respectfully, Juanita Gotts, Austin TX
By Shannon
June 23, 2009 3:51 AM | Link to this
With the sea monkeys goes the final, briney remains of our living friendship. I’ll say a prayer tonight for the Omega Shrimp and celebrate the birth of Tessa with the flush of the last-surviving water primate.