POLISH HORSESHOES!

I meant to post this earlier, but kept forgetting. So Kristen invites me to a BBQ at her place where her and her roommate Josh are having some folks together. I get there and they are playing this game. At first, it looks totally lame, but as the night progressed I became completely crazy about it and I want to go pro.

It's a little hard to explain, but I'll try. Ready? Write this down, it's the Summer Time All Time Fun Fun Game.

OK, materials needed:
2 poles, about 4 feet in height (in our case, we used fake bamboo poles).
2 beer bottles
1 frisbee
24 + full beers in which to imbibe
Yourself, and 3 (or more, this is a 4 player game, but it's nice to have a few more people to get a nice rotation going on) friends

Dig 2 small holes about 10 - 15 feet away from each other.
Put the poles in a hole.
Carefully place the beer bottles on top of the poles (which would have to big enough to accomodate a beer bottle).

2 player teams, everyone has to have one beer in their hands at all times.

The object of the game is to throw the frisbee and knock the bottle off the pole. The other team has the oppurtunity to catch the bottle hence awarding the throwing team no points.

Points system:
1 point if you knock the bottle onto the ground by hitting the pole
2 points if you hit the bottle and knock it to the ground.
(in either of this cases, the team whose bottle fell takes a drink)
(if the bottle is caught, the throwing team takes a drink)

If the frisbee misses either pole and bottle and is caught by opposing team, throwing team takes a drink.
If the frisbee is missed by the opposing team, they take a drink.

Play to 7 points.

It sounds complicated, but it's not. And it's a drunken good time.

So play it!

m

Oh it's been a while, hasn't it?

I start my fourth week of school tomorrow meaning I've been in Portland for, nearly 6 weeks now? That is nuts. School is great! I've been getting in the swing of things, getting all my assignments done and genuinely enjoying my classes.

Where to begin otherwise?

July 14th, 2006
Hanging out with Jesse Luscious was awesome. Another Portlander, Scott from the Anxieties came out and we just kicked back, told jokes and drank. It was a lot of fun. Jesse, his wife and the people they brought up are some of the most down to earth funny people I've ever met.

July 20th, 2006
I managed to catch the Eugene Mirman/Michael Showalter show, it was fucking great. I went with Nate Schmoe's wife Kristen. We hung out afterwards and watched Eugene get totally smashed and go home with some good looking blonde.

July 24th, 2006
Missed the Ergs and Hunchback at a house in SW Portland because of class. I was devastated, although I was shocked at how I stuck to my guns and refused to skip class for it. I'm a grown up! Nate and Kristen said it ruled. I was sad.

July 28th, 2006
Nate, Kristen and I decided to drive to Seattle to see a house show with This is My Fist! and The Trashies. I had never been to Seattle, which was part of the draw, but I also wanted to see The Trashies again since it had been a while. Those guys are fucking hilarious. I missed them. This is My Fist! were pretty good, but the only wrong move they made was allowing The Ergs! to play an impromptu 4 song set before them. The Ergs! slayed. They even played Bikeage and the place went nuts. Hunchback dudes and lady were there and I talked them up about Tom Sharpling, they were great. (The Ergs are in Seattle recording their next album with Conrad Uno at the legendary Egg Studios. Their touring partners, the band Hunchback are up there with them). The most shocking piece of the show was probably the fact that Tony Archer, ex-bandmate, ex-roommate, ex-friend was there too. I immediately saw Tony, who has been living up in Tacoma for a while now, and tried to stay away from him at all costs. My old friend beer and I got reaquainted and Tony totally took advantage of that. I was walking back to the backyard and I hear someone say "Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" thinking it was some stranger, a Trashie or another friend, I obliged. It turned out to be Tony. We talked for a second or two and I thankfully saw Nate in the distance near his car and told him I had to leave.

We go back to The Trashies Manor, or the 24/7 House to bed down for the night. Like you would expect from a band named The Trashies, this was possibly the grossest punk house I've ever experienced, and I was face down in it, literally. Regardless of their poor housekeeping tactics (or lack thereof), they were excellent hosts, even warning me that I had to take off my shoes before I pass out or I would get drawn on. Oh, those guys!

July 29th, 2006
I wake up early with Hunchback and Jeff Ergs and sit with them until they left to go to Egg and then I sat in a frigid house until Nate, Kristen, Max and Ian get up. We then left and ate at a Thai place called Thai Tom. It was probably the best Thai food I've ever experienced, although I think Thai Noon in PDX wins the challenge overall.

A long drive back to Portland, and a sick Kristen later and I'm back home (after waiting an additional hour for a bus), where I sit around the house, shower and then quickly head to another house show in NE Portland. One Reason was playing with Hot New Mexicans. I skipped out on the free Briefs show because I knew this would be more subdued and Nate kept insisting I check out Hot New Mexicans. I'm glad I did, they were excellent and One Reason was really great too. I'm not sure how they will translate on record, but the show was a lot of fun.

July 30th, 2006
I slept until 11:30 today, which I didn't want to do, but I had some major sleep debt to pay off. Luckily I got up and realized I have very little homework to do since I was a good student and got my English Composition essay written already! So I have to draw a plant (which means I have to buy a plant since I gave all of mine away before I left), which should be interesting. I actually have to draw the negative space, which will be a challenge. I'm not a super great nor a super bad drawer, but I'm enjoying this class regardless. I sit around and think about how to draw things and it's really teaching me a lot. It's the greatest feeling when I nail something.

So anyway, that's the last 15 days in a nutshell. Lots of shows, lots of homework. Nate is back, so I've seen him a bunch. Nathan comes in a week or so which will be great. I'm getting really excited for a familiar face and someone to take around and the Lichtenstein showing in Eugene!

I need some coffee.

m

Apartment + tonight.

Well, here's my apartment. Sorry about the darkness, I have a rather shitty digital camera and forgot to get one from school. Anyway, the images are clickable to display a larger image:

Entry/Desk:


Living Room:








Kitchen:





Closet/Bedroom:



Bathroom:



I think that covers it! Not much, but enough.

Well tonight I will be hanging out with my Berkeley, CA friend, the ever-adorable, Mr. Jesse Luscious (of Blatz / Gr'ups / Criminals / Frisk fame, also had a campaign for Berkeley City Council, ex-Lookout Records current Alternative Tentacle employee, and so on). Plus his wife and hopefully some other Portland peeps (possibly Ken Dirtnap? Not sure)! Should be fun!

m

Shit, love?

While walking to my bus stop I eavesdropped on this little gem near some place called "Sisters of the Road" or something close to that. It appears to be a homeless outreach type place. Could be wrong. Anyway,

Homeless guy on 5th: Hey Tammy.... can I have a hug? I haven't hugged a woman in years.
::::The two embrace::::
Tammy: Now Jerry, you know that's not why we hug. We hug for friendship, not love.
Jerry: Shit, love? I don't care I'm just horny...
::::Awkward embrace continues and then ends:::::
Jerry: Well, tell me, what's for lunch?

Maybe it's a "had to be there" moment, but I thought it was priceless.

m

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

As if you can't tell by the title of my post, today was the first day of school! That's me over there, in that ID and that's my bus pass behind it and yeah, as dorky as it makes me, I have to wear it on one of those lanyard things while I'm walking the halls and such. Security blah blah blah.

So it went well! In total Mike fashion I managed to somehow be 2 hours early for my first class. I was mega-stressed/nervous about everything, so I got there early to get my room numbers, my ID and my log-in info; a procedure that took just over 15 minutes. The rest of the time was spent drinking Whole Food's coffee on a bench (which has become an occurrence of sorts), then went into Powell's, got the new Clutch comic zine (a local comic zine done by some guy at the IPRC. It's depressing, but good), back to the bench and devoured the zine.

Drawing Class. This was all right. My professor is pretty awesome, knows her shit. She did a slide show and included Marcel Dzama! And she couldn't think of his name so it was time for Mr. Awesome (uhhh... that's me) to step in and school the room.

The drawing itself was a little shaky. I'm not much in that department and I absolutely loathe still-life, which is what we did and will continue to do (even being torturous enough to make me do it at home). Of course, a bunch of dweebs in my class.

Dinner break! Walking around, more coffee, then a slice from Rocco's where they played an Iron Maiden record. It was fucking awesome. Both the pizza and the Maiden.

Back to class you dunce! English Comp I. I really liked this. It's a class focused on writing essays, class discussion, critical thinking and critical reading. My professor is great, really challenging. I have a bunch of reading to do already (which I don't techinically have the book for... hurry up online vendor!) and discussion questions due next week. We had a small discussion today about the kinds of appeal in writing and we read a poorly written article and talked about it. Once again it was time for Dr. Mega Hunk (uhhh... me again) to school the room. Then we had to write some stuff about ourselves and it was time for home sweet home! 10 or so hours out and about and I was ready for sweet computer and sweet sweet cable (oh yeah, I got cable and wireless internet in my apartment), although not before walking home, which was a drag considering how tired I was, but it was either wait 30 minutes for the 9 or walk 15 minutes home. One look at the beer gut made the answer clear.

Well, I had planned a larger post, one that discusses the Sonic Youth show, the Peabodys show, and the Bananas show (3 shows in a week!), as well as other boring crap, but I'm pooped and I have class at 8 am tomorrow (meaning up at 6 and on a bus by 7:15). So tomorrow? Okay?

m

Ocean!

What's with that grin? In any event. That's me at the ocean. To my left is Haystack rock.

m

The Found, The Label, The Crying Cat, The Gnarls Barkley.

Well, here I am, all moved in to my new apartment. New bed, new couch (as of today). I don't think I've owned new of either of those things and I'll tell you, it's pretty sweet. In both instances my mother and I just happened upon a Sealy factory outlet and a place called City Liquidators, both offering new furniture for low low prices. My couch hindered me from attending the Farmer's Market with my friends Eric, Manda and Rebecca, but all in all, it's worth it.

So my days are filled with a lot of staying in my apartment. Slowly I've been unpacking piece by piece and I'm nearly done. I crammed my bed into my walk in closet allowing more room in the main area, which is awesome. It's like a little cave in there. I manage to steal internet from someone and I spend most of my day checking e-mails, the message board and listening to music. My books are unpacked, my kitchen set up, ladies and gentlemen, I now live in Portland.

My building is weird. I rarely see people and when I do I get little attention from them. I've shared a few hello's and hey's, but nothing past that. This isn't the Seinfeldian experience I hoped and imagined. You know, meeting people in your building, talking about records and then I get invited out for beers, a real get-to-know-you session. You're from Missouri you say? Wow! Not so. Maybe that will change. I could, you know, put myself out there more. When I see tenants, I generally, nervously, walk the other way fast as to not seem like I really want to meet people, even though I do. It's official folks: loneliness has set in. I miss my friends and the comforts therein. I miss reciting The Best Show on WFMU lines on my porch and calling my friends whatever dumbshit insult I had made up earlier in the day. I feel like I've gone a while without having a real rapport with someone. It's weird, probably healthy, but I'm definitely going through distraction withdraw. I consider myself a fairly self-sufficient person. I can eat at a restaurant, see a movie, go downtown, do whatever on my own and have no problem with it, but that's generally followed up with hanging out with a friend. This is definitely different.

For almost the entire time I've lived here, there has been a cat, somewhere, crying constantly. In boredom I imagined a cat stuck somewhere, needing my help. This cat would become mine possibly! This cat needs me. I frantically searched and found nothing. I can still hear the cat, but I'm pretty sure it's stuck in an apartment somewhere, with a lazy owner. That selfish prick. Be mine little cat. And be orange while we're at it. I miss my cats... I miss cats period. I'm a total cat fag.

For about as long as the cat has been around, I'm greeted daily with a stereo. Much like the elusive cat, I have no clue where this stereo is. But goddamn does it love "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, and it loves it loud. Like any owner of the Tag Team record that only wants to hear "Whomp There it Is" or much like that Above the Rim soundtrack's only fruitful track "Regulators" the owner of said stereo attempts to dig other tracks on the record, but always, without fail heads straight back to "Crazy".

Well, in other news, I appear to be a label owner. Some friends of mine from Baltimore play in a band, an excellent band, called Dead Mechanical. I managed to get their demo and it's a smoker. I put it out there that, if I had the money, I would release their record. Suddenly I'm in a partnership with 2 other people to get this record out. Like the zine I intend to start, I wanted to maintain my own side of the label and call it Sex Cells. If that's going to happen is still up in the air. I'm not financing much of this, the other guys are the real investors, I will be spending free moments pushing the record, handling media and working with the artwork.

I did manage to get out a little bit this week. Tuesday I rode the bus down to Holoscene and saw the Found Magazine release and reading. It was spectacular. I would probably consider Davy Rothbart a hero, I love his magazine and books, but I love his contributions to This American Life even more. So I was pretty excited to get down there. I missed probably 15 minutes of it, but caught some of Davy, then his brother Peter played some songs and then some more Davy. It was a lot of fun. Although, I missed my bus home and had to walk, half-drunk and guessing, probably 2 or 3 miles (this is a guess) home, but I made it!

I also spent part of yesterday downtown. I rode the bus in, went to Reading Frenzy (awesome little independent publications store), walked to my school and then decided to see how long of a walk it was from school to my place. About 15 minutes, not bad! Then later on I met up with Eric Peabody, his wife Manda and thier friend Rebecca (who runs mtxstarship.com) at a movie theater way East of here (I was sweating the ride up there, a max train and a bus, both filled with old people who couldn't wait to talk to me) and we saw Superman Returns. Ehh, it was okay. Fun to see the Big S back in action, the story was pretty slow moving though.

This is a pretty windy post. Sonic Youth tonight! I'm pretty stoked. I imagine I'll miss my bus again tonight, walk home only to get my throat slit and body dumped in the river. Oh big cities!

m