md deathfest

this weekend cory, mel and i roadtripped to baltimore for maryland deathfest. BRUTAL.

we left friday morning at some ungodly hour. while i was outside waiting for cory to pick me up i saw wheeldog. from the space machine we drove to brookline to get mel and peaches and were on the road by 7 or 8. we got into philly early afternoon got some food and then went to park to play bocce ball. i scored many points and everyone was oh so jealous of my athleticism. that night we went to a bar, played some wii and passed out relatively early.

saturday morning we left for baltimore and got there in record time. we got our wristbands and then checked into the hotel, and i took a much needed shower. we went to the lexington market, home of the world famous crab cake. like these crab cakes were ranked by the omnipotent GQ mag as one of the 10 best dishes in the entire world. i got the cheapo $5 crabcake and it was still bomb. from the market we went to the beer store and then had a few drinks at the hotel before heading back to deathfest. brutal truth, beer, immolation, atheist, beer, beer, napalm death, beer, pizza, beer, BOLT THROWER, beer, beer, beer, wolves in the throne room, beer, beer. after wolves in the throne room we went and partied at a hotel with some of mel's friends. it was really awesome, i encourage all of you try to go next year.

sunday morning we got food, and went to a really amazing book store. like, we all spent way too much money on books. i picked up a super sweet graphic history of the SDS, and a crimethinc book. after the store we drove back to philly. i was able to finish the book i was reading, and peruse some of the books that mel picked up in the car. we got back to philly and went a brazilian bbq. lots of meat wrapped in meat and surprise meat (in the mashed potatoes). then we went to a bar and drank lions head and played bullshit. we brought all of the candles from empty tables over to our table and mel told our fortunes (turns out that cory probably wont marry waiter who was serving us, but all is well, the cards told us the waiter eats his own poop).

cory and i went to get cheese steaks in the morning. we went to pat's, since geno's is a racist shithole. seriously, they have a sign that says "if you can read thank a teacher. if you can read in english thank a marine". uuugggghhhhh. it is really mind-boggling that tourists and locals go there. after cheese steaks we went to met up with mel and peaches at a mexican place. i got a drink that tasted like a dozen roses, it was beautiful. there was even a dead rose in my drink, which is, um, cool i guess. after our breakfast drinks we started driving back to boston. we made it pretty quickly and didnt hit any traffic. when i got home i went out in davis with logan, kallen and laura to celebrate kallen finally going away. no, it's actually sad the space machine is down to logan, kyle and myself. not quite what it was at it's prime. anyways, it is already wednesday, and that is great. my friend mike fish is in town this weekend, following phish like the dirty hacky-sacker he is. regardless, our reunion shall be glorious.

Changes!

Ok kids - I made the blog a little wider in order to accommodate videos a little better. However, I feel like it might be _too_ wide. (Scroll down to some longer posts, see if they are hard to read.) So, let me know. I can change it.

I am in California right now, at a non-profit mobile technology conference. ::makes jerk off motion:: It's okay, but it's not even half over and I'm already ready to pistol whip the next person who says "twitter". Someone asked me for my twitter feed in a workshop today. ::vomits in mouth::

Other than that, it's wicked fun. Much needed break from New Orleans, though I am missing most of Tedley Bowmantonshire's visit to NOLA. I think I will catch him for about 25 minutes on Saturday night, after a three hour layover in Vegas. (They have slots in the airport there - bad news for Drew.)

Long conspicuous absence from Sir Not Appearing On This Blog, I know - I've quit smoking, haven't been getting drunk every night, and am busily entering the ranks of developer douchebaggery in the Silicon Valley. WTF?

an ode to awesome

My favorite story growing up Where the Wild Things Are is coming out soon and I am very excited.

To begin, here is the trailer:



1. Directed by spike jonze

(one of my favorite videos ever. dinosaur jr - feel the pain)




songs written by karen o with something to do with the Arcade Fire that I dont entirely understand


co-written by david eggers who you might have heard of



...sorry i just learned how to embed videos.

But I am very excited and will be dressed as a monster at midnight the night it appears. Probably not but just saying

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE GET THIS TATTOO IMMEDIATELY

Recession recession blah blah blah

I know its real but I'm sick of it being the reason for everything lately. It seems like everything that happens whether it's the weather or bad public schools is because of the economic downturn. However, I recently read an article from the Baltimore Sun, "In Families' Tragic Deaths, a Hint of Paternalism" and it caught my attention since what does actually seem to be happening a lot lately is men going down in financial flames and subsequently brutally murdering their families.

What interests me even more is that in the past month and a half I have witnessed three instances of domestic violence. Not that this abuse doesn't happen all the time but I find it weird that all of a sudden these situations are so blatant and public. Which brings up a whole other set of issues since every time I intervene I'm so worried that I will be making it worse for the woman, in the moment or later.

Last night as I sat on my porch reading, my neighbor pushed his partner out of the front door screaming at her, twisting her wrists and shoving her nearly to the ground. She was asking him to stop and trying squirm out of his grip.
A) I really don't want to say anything that is going to make him later beat the shit out of her, blaming her for drawing attention
2) I can't just wait to watch her get punched in the face
C) But I also don't really want to get punched in the face

I just went down there and walked up slowly and said, "Umm hey, how's it going?" He let go of her and started telling me how he would never put his hands on her but she's a goddamned ho who isn't worth anything. Meanwhile she, who is a sheriff btw, is threatening to call the cops. (Knowing her job made this even more complicated to me. I have considered her strong and smart not only bc of her profession but also her personality. Also one time she helped me break into my house after I broke the front door. I had the thought of, she can handle herself, right?) When he went inside she told me they'd been together for nine years but weren't married and that he'd been drinking. That she could but wasn't going to have him arrested, then she went to the neighbor's house and stayed there. He came out a minute later, drunkenly yelling more insults till he drove off.

All this is not to say that murder/suicide by a patriarch and increased public domestic violence in my life are related, but maybe they are? Is economic stress making people flip out in their private lives to the point of assault? If so, is this going to continue to be terrifying for women whose husbands/partners see them as a responsibility and even as their property? What do you guys think? How do you men feel about this? How do you women feel about this? Seeing three women abused by their partners in the past couple weeks has made me fucking furious but also really freaked me out. Partly I'm worried whether or not I'm handling the situations correctly. Mostly it just scares me to witness these violent and belittling outbursts by men directed towards women they clearly feel like they're entitled to treat in such a way. Thoughts?

May Day Mayhem

Things got a little messy in Berlin this past weekend. May Day is generally when the most cars are burnt, stones are thrown and the police get to try out their favorite pepper-sprays.

This year the district of Kreuzberg, where things get the ugliest, hosted a "May Fest", to counter the normally violent demonstrations. The rationale: with enough live music, good food and good people, there won't be any room for violent protests - I like it. Great things from the day.

One Euro tall boys
Fem-metal band, covered in body paint and various types of tape.


Street performer who spontaneously stormed through the crowd with a bull-horn and flaming stick.
Turkish toddler who made all the girlies weak in the knees with his seamless electric-slide (look close, little guy in orange).


I took a short break at a local beer garden, and returned after sunset to what felt like a war-zone. During anti-fascist and anti-capitalist demonstrations, small groups started to throw stones and bottles at the police. As a result, the entire square (Kottbusser Tor) was sealed off.

I went one street over and found a way in. Even with the visibly heightened police presence, the festivities carried on in good spirits. But, when bands of 10-12 riot police silently walked through the crowds in a box formation, the nervous tension rose.

They would spot a 'suspect' and, without warning, storm them with an unusual degree of force. This did not go over well. The crowd would chant 'let go! let go!' while the police set up a loose barricade around the scene. At times, one or two riot police would break out of formation to chase down those that provoked them. This back-and-forth would repeat itself every 5 to 10 minutes, it was chaotic.

Fortunately, these actions were isolated and didn't affect the wider party. After a few more minutes of watching and taking photos of these shenanigans, I returned to the one euro tall boys and street parties.

On a side note, here is a website that tracks the location and number of cars that have been set ablaze in Berlin over the years. Crazy.

Joey P does not speak spanish

blurry but joey p

Joey P landed in Buenos Aires about a week ago and my precious sleep has been majorly stunted though with justifiable cause and inebriation. We went to a casino on a boat docked next to a well lit parking lot in southern Buenos Aires, about a 10 minute bike ride from my former apartment (more details to come). The boat casino was a time machine where you were immediately transported into an age of weird yellow carpeting, indoor smoking, and lots of gambling. The decision was made at around 1 am on a monday night, following a bar/ pool (as in the game, not swimming) session where we were playing a group of french dudes and then a group or argentines. My pool playing drastically improves with a drink or two, so in effort to not look complete pansies in front of the argentines, we systematically ordered more drinks until we could hold our own ground. One of the guys was about 6'2" and "could definitely kick our asses" and another covered in tattoos, who knew almost no english, but managed to communicate "Redsox!" to joey. Note: Joey P does not speak spanish though at this point had built up the vocabulary to order Pizza, beer, and bum cigarettes but beyond, conversation was difficult. Despite this fact, everyone seemed to gravitate toward and speak at him in foreign words- pretty girls, terrifying dudes, and every single homeless person in Argentina. I translate when possible.

So, we ended the pool match, walked down the street for joey to order pizza, and then made the decision to ride to the casino on the condition that joey would bankroll me 100 pesos (about $30), though I should mention that this was his idea, not mine. A good idea. We pedaled over, locked up our bikes in the Bike specific parking area, walked through metal detectors (you cannot take photos inside, unfortunately) and headed for the blackjack table until about 5:30 am. In the last half hour we both started betting in effort to lose the last of our mostly lost chip count and proceeded to win repeatedly. Joey put all of his coins on the number 17 at a roulette table and won, and then lost half on red, and then doubled up again on black. Fist pumps all around. We still ended up with a negative final balance, but not by much. Riding home, Joey fell crossing train tracks and I tried my hardest to get him home quickly so I could go to sleep on this now very early tuesday morning.

On Wednesday I moved apartments, hauling almost all of my belongings across buenos aires in a single bike trip and met my new housemates. On Friday we all played charades and ended the night relatively early (note: my new favorite charade is "child birth") but Saturday night was party time. My new argentine housemate, Augustin, was celebrating his birthday in northern buenos aires, inviting Joey, myself, and the other housemate, Sophie from france, to his cumpleanos.

Augustin

We were the only extranjeros at the party which made for a really terrifying beginning but after a few bottles of wine, just fine. Again, people gravitated towards joey and this time Sophie as well, all really excited to practice other languages. There was dancing, wine spilling, picture taking, wine drinking, and hordes of attractive people.

not my fault.

We left the party to go to a club in more central BsAs, meeting up with a friend of mine from school, Chris, who earlier sent me a message that neglected to mention the 30 peso cover and Strippers! My god. I have never seen a stripper before and these lovely ladies lived up to my every expectation. Disgusting. They looked like leather baseball mits grinding their oily body parts on poles and taking money to have their picture taken with drunk people. There were so many people in the club and it took a while to find my friend though once successful, we were taken upstairs to the stripper room filled with friends of friends of friends. Chris dove into the dance-floor with a huge warm intoxicating(ed) grin on his face and was absolutely in the party zone. Both hands in the air fist pumping to latin beats while smiling and grinding with a girl in my history class. They didn't know each other, I don't think, but seemed to be getting along pretty well.

Chris from a different occasion but the only picture i have

I danced with Sophie a bit but to call it dancing is difficult. There were so many people and I was nursing my shoulder bag/ man purse with film camera inside, definitely unintentionally attacking people with my swirly dancing. I may or may not enjoyed a kiss with my brand new housemate and joey may or may not have taken a poop in the club and then talked to the towel guy about it. I dont know- it may have been just some guy but there was post-dump conversation and it was really really late at night. I would ask him but he is still asleep and it is 3pm. Fucker.

In closing, here is my favorite picture from Joey's visit so far. Key elements include: Pretty argentines, a wine bottle opener with broken cork in hand, and the best late night facial expression ever. There are more flattering pictures of these three but I really prefer this one:

Good Riddance

Dear SNAotB,

I have met some new people that are a lot more fun than you all. We're 8 in total and well, I don't think I'll be needings your hang outs no more. Sam, I won't be here when you get home. I've joined a roving street gang. Kyle too.

Tell my mother I love her.

I never know what to title these GD things

Today is my first day back at classes and it feels so surreal. I'm still in school? I still need to study the human digestive system? Lame. Spring Break was really great. The road trip to Knoxville went smoothly except when at some point on the highway there was a couch in our lane and some swerving needed to be done to avoid the furniture and horse trailer in front of us. It was really nice to see my fam for such a short while. They gave me an adorable bicycle and I gave them Louisiana strawberries. I went with someone who grew up there and he showed me the glory that is Knoxvegas. It's definitely a city but also a suburb of itself. More chain restuarants than I thought possible to be in one place. Chains I thought only existed in airports have mulitple locations in Knoxville. The mountains were gorgeous though and the scene was good. They have a lot of sphere shaped things as well.

Being out of New Orleans I got to enjoy:

-Blueberry beer
-A little snow
-Driving
-The Mall
-Vegetarian food


On the way back we stopped in Birmingham at the Civil Rights Institute. Although I think the museum was kind of poorly done, I really liked the photographs and the in depth look they gave at Birmingham's history since I never learn about the Civil Rights movement in anything but a national perspective.

Rest of my vacay time was fabulous as well. Went to the beach, started working at a coffee shop and burned the shit out of my hand trying to learn to steam milk, did some gardening, ate crawfish, got ridiculous at my friend Samantha's 21st bday party and fell asleep in the grass outside her house.

Mere weeks are left in the semester and then it's all swimming, sweating and galavanting all the time.

Big in Japan

I've never been able to properly explain the strangeness of Japan and specifically, Tokyo. Every now and again I comb through the papers to see whats going on in my former home.

Today I discovered that a monk named Mr. Happiness has started a dial-a-monk hotline, produces a Billy Graham-esque radio program and has invited young rappers to come 'spit rhymes' in his 420 year old temple.

Also, "cat cafes" are all the rage in Tokyo

PETA - for or against the cat cafe? I can't decide.