Tell them the story raindrop

Hallo-

I haven't been to a TV Party in a while. My friend Carlos (of America Loves Carlos fame) recently invited me to his apartment for a True Blood/Curb Your Enthusiasm TV Party. There was plenty of dips. Plenty of chips. My water glass was refilled several times, much to my enjoyment. Thanks.

The last TV Party I went to was a LOST party, and I remember spending the whole time thinking about tropical vacations and I should be so lucky to be stuck on a tropical island without a phone. Needless to say- I wasn't really into LOST. I know tons of people reel at this, I'm not a true purveyor of television (which I'm really not) but somewhere around the early 2000's I sorta gave up on TV. I had just transferred to UNT in Denton to a new town and lived with a roommate who's life revolved around WWF/WCW so there wasn't much to discuss (not into wrestling, or even fake wrestling).

I watch internet TV and I've been watching the overly sexually charged Hard Times of R.J. Barger on Netflix streaming. I'm not proud, but I was curious. And now there's a resurgence of shows on Nickelodeon that brought back the heyday of my after schools ( The 90's Are All That) that I would like to catch. But TV just doesn't appeal to me as much as it did when I was younger, even know shows have gotten slightly geared more towards me and the comedy has gotten heaps better. I just sorta lost it there for awhile without cable, and now it feels like an influx of too too much.

This whole post is happening because I'm considering talking to my roommate about cancelling our movie channels. We have Netflix.

I met a new friend, underneath my pillow

Eugene Mirman.
Todd Barry.
Jim Gaffigan.
Kristen Schaal.
Patton Oswalt.
Jonathon Coulton.
TMBG.

FTW.

So many beards. So much plaid. So many un-ironic pairs of glasses. So many Portal t-shirts, a giant foam sword (?) and a lot of the Brooklyn Nerd Elite standing around the Williamsburg Waterfront.

+'s
- Eugene Mirman/Kristen Schaal's Flashdance routine
- Jim Gaffigan telling jokes AS Ray Romano (because since he's had a fourth child (I've seen Jim Gaffigan 2-4 children) and can't tell any other kind of joke.
- Eugene Mirman and Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson took questions from the audience, science type questions, and answered. They have a podcast: http://startalkradio.net/. Check it out
- Patton Oswalt talking about how much he hates NYC and the silence that ensued, but then people cheered anyway at all his other jokes (because he's Patton Oswalt)
- As Jonathan Coulton played, both Zack Galifianakis and Jon Benjamin taking photos behind him.
- TMBG, just being TMBG


-'s
- Torrential rains for most of the show. I got home and I was soaked. But it was worth it.


All in all a great show.

Baby, Don't Let Him Waste Your Time

Travelling

Man- finding vacation/travel destinations is exhausting. There are too many options, packages, deals, super deals, super packages, no packages, separate flights/separate hotels, too much.

It seems everyone in my life has had an easier time with it than me. I'm reaching out for help here.

Lamenting Borders

This morning on the way to work I passed a former manager of my from Borders (soon to be defunct to a location near you.) I had worked at Borders in Lewisville (amazing time) and here at Penn Station (seventh level of hell). Penn Station Borders was new and shiny and packed with people hustling and bustling to catch trains constantly. People arguing, people fighting over books.

I wanted to say something to her, like a "crazy, right?" But then I remembered she had been fired from a company that is now closing, and I felt bad for her. I quit, flat out, but she was let go. Still it would've been nice to commiserate.

Borders thoughts?

Day 5- From A High Angle

Not going bald, Never!

Day 4- Something Green

...I've pretty much mastered my Pandora, Last.fm, Spotify and Itunes libraries. Now to get the other 3,000 random music files I found on my external hardrive somewhere. I mean, I really own a limited edition Len album? Can you have a garage sale for music files? I'll give an album away for $1.

That's a great album up there, and it's "Green".

Day 3- Clouds

Day 2- What You Wore Today

30 Day Photo Challenge- Day 1- Self Portrait

Day 1- Self Portrait. Really captures my... disgruntled manga side.

Totally stole this from MindSticker. Thanks Sunny!

So this was bound to happen

I've become addicted to rage comics:

http://ragecomics.memebase.com/

I get knocked down, but I get up again

Many many many thanks to Sunny over at http://mindsticker.blogspot.com/ for delivering this gem on a beautiful Tuesday morning:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/05/they-might-be-giants-covers-tubthumping_n_890748.html

Tubthumping was such a weird hit, maybe because it was such a simple sing-along anthem about mixing a bunch of drinks and I guess Anarchy? I know that the members of Chumbawamba were proclaimed Anarchist, but from this song you'd think they were probably just a bunch of alcoholics.

I only eat meat on special occasions now (Lioni's Sandwiches being a big one) but tonight, TEBAYA.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/tebaya-new-york

I brought mine in a pail

So, pretty much everyday I bring my lunch to work.

And then the other day I got really afraid of diabetes, and the fact that I eat the same Crunchy Peanut Butter on Whole grain wheat made me think: where are all the office culture blogs surrounding lunch?

- How not to make your co-workers jealous.

- How to transport your lunch (soup in a bag, doesn't happen.)

- How to combine random items in your office's fridge to make lunch (My friend Jerry ate ketcup on crackers he found for months! Lost weight, looked great, didn't spend a dime).

So, for the rest of the day I plan on scouring the internet to search this out. Or I'll just make my own.

That's a great bird, huh?

Hey babe, it's the 4th of July

Happy Fourth of July.

$486,026- Dollar value of exports of U.S. flags in 2010. Mexico was the leading customer, purchasing $256,407 worth.

Thought that was an interesting fact.

I'm re-reading some Douglas Coupland. I read Microserfs every year, sort of a ritual now. I've been doing it for six years now, and my torn and tattered paperback has multiple bookmarks, spine is a little bent from photo-copying passages and sending them. It's like, a very war-torn book. I'm re-reading Shampoo Planet right now, which is probably the second best out of his work. I put Girlfriend in A Coma at 3rd best, but you know people loooove that book.

Fourth of July- and I plan on drinking coffee and staying in to work on some of my short stories. It's been a solid year since I've had something published ( http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/we-live-for-blood-and-glory/12089946 ) so I should get cracking.

Hey there!

So now the 30 Day song challenge is over!

Yes- please- thank you for reading and following and putting up with me weird fondness for pop 80's music and left of the dial indie rock. Thank you thank you thank you.

I'm going to thank you SO much that I'm going to blog about how I met all 4 of you people that are following me. Yes, this is a tribute blog.

Whereismyrobot- Ha! Well, I think we met once or twice in Denton (maybe through Andrew Hime, dunno) but we REALLY didn't meet until I knew that you were here in NYC at Barcade and I had to confirm that we had met. I'm still really happy that we met that time, and it fueled my love for the game Tapper. Still love that fucking Tapper game.

John- We met at the Yellow House back in Denton, you took a lot of good photos. You studied photography, and you were an awesome photographer. Now, you study law up in Boston and you always visit NYC, and of course we have too good a time. One time I on vacation in Cape Cod and you drove all the way out just to spend a few hours with me. We both love Wu-Tang and often have to use Wu-Tang lyrics in conversation. Thanks, because of your sweaty Maverick's ballcap and your southern drawl, you remind me that I can still should be a gentleman no matter where I am.

Julian- Fountain House was a special place- and we were left for 8 hours a day to deal with being social workers without degrees in Social Work, so we winged it. Thanks for all the free coffee, Vegan info and listening to Too $hort at work days.

Crashtopher- I hope you still read this. We had too good a time together back in Denton. You and your Vespa and me the friend of the guy with the Vespa. We spent a lot of good nights at Lou's and that was all we needed.


Thanks to you 4 for sticking with this blog. Much appreciated.

Day 30 – your favorite song at this time last year

uhm. hm.

Having to actually research this...

Probably this:

But more likely this:

I remember playing a lot of Billy Idol at Josie Woods Pub:

And I'm finished!

day 29 – a song from your childhood

Whoa.

I haven't listened to this song in a long long long time. But I would get up every morning to watch this show.

I don't know if a theme song from a TV show counts, but c'mon. I still love the Muppets.

http://www.hensonfoundation.org/- It's in Long Island City!

http://www.filmfestivaltoday.com/reel-fast/jim-henson-show-headed-to-queens-film-museum

Day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty

I'm not sure I understand this one.

A song that makes me feel guilty?

Hm.

Here's some shitty SoCal Ska from the late 90's:

Ok, I feel guilt for owning that album.

Day 27- A song you wish you could play

This one is going to touch upon my metal roots, well, sorta metal.

I still secretly want to learn how to play guitar like Randy Rhoads.

Day 26 – a song that you can play on an instrument

I love playing cover songs. I mean, naturally, most musicians my age started learning cover songs anyway, tabbed out in the back of Guitar Player or Guitar World (had subscription to both!)

So, I'm going to post one of my favorite songs that I always run through when I'm practicing at home.

I would force Camella and Jacob, and later Brian and Albert and Cam to learn to play this song with me, so I could have my few moments as a frontman again.

Beautiful, beautiful, SIMPLE song to play.

Molly Hatchet and my Dad

In my Father's Day post the other day (I didn't think I'd get to post today- Punk Island ended relatively early- thx punx) I thought of a funny story on the way home.

When I was in 3rd Grade I wore this t-shirt to school with this album cover above on it. My 3rd Grade teacher thought it was inappropriate and didn't send me home immediately, but made me promise to give my parents a note when I got home.

I gave the note to my Mom when I she picked me up and she shook her head and agreed the shirt was awful. When we got home I showed my Dad the note (they both had to sign it).

All I remember was that my Dad said that Molly Hatchet was his favorite band in the 70's and he loved that shirt. And I still love this shirt too.





Happy Father's Day. Again.

Day 25 – a song that makes you laugh

Gets me EVERY TIME.