Excellent quote from John Stewart's America:

"The Republican Party is the party of nostalgia. It seeks to return America to a simpler, more innocent and moral past that never actually existed. The Democrats are utopians. They seek to create an America so fair and non-judgmental that life becomes an unbearable series of apologies. Together, the two parties function like giant down comforters, allowing the canidates to disappear into the enveloping softness, protecting them from exposure to the harsh weather of independent thought."

Ohhh lordy that was poignant.

Kendra and I spent this past weekend looking at function halls for our wedding. My feelings about this whole process are mixed -- I want to be married, but spending 10 grand on one day is insane. That's a good chunk of a down payment on a house, or rent for a lot of months, or enough money to go on the vacation of a life time, or more than enough money to move to Colorado with and feel pretty good about getting by until you find yerself some employment. Anyway, the point is that it's obviously an important day, and it should be real special, and the trick is to make it a great day for a reasonable price. All I really care about is that A) It's a great party with all of our friends and family, and B) we have a really good band. Eveything else is pretty much secondary.

Other than thinking about wedding options, I've been trying to figure out if it's right to take off to Chamonix in March. It's been planned by Tripp and Co as a Man-venture, meaning that there are to be no female swashbucklers along for the ride. This sounds like a fantastic trip -- Chamonix is one of the best places in the world to ski, and it would be cool to go with people who have their shit together when it comes to skiing. Not that the people that I usually go with aren't good (Kendra has become an excellent rider....check out the wallride below this post), but it's been a while since I've had a good scare on the snowboard. It's also been a while since I've put in a true day of riding....from open to close, which I would imagine is going to be pretty much everyday of this trip. So I am stuck.....I have the money and vacation time, but it sucks to go on an amazing trip like that without Kendra. And it's also irresponsible considering that we have a honeymoon to go on / save for, and I also need a lot of vacation time for that. Oh well. There will be more opportunities, I'm sure. Also, this is a pretty sweet dilemma to have. Gotta remember how lucky we all are from time to time.

Music: Check out Old Crow Medicine Show. It's pretty awesome stuff. Old-timey, bluegrass-ragtime-blues sounding tunes, sung and played by a bunch of young dudes who actually went on the road while they were still learning their instruments and rambled around for a while. They have my respect and admiration.

On New Years Day, Kendra, John, Kata and myself went up to Sunday River for two days of snowboarding. Conditions were ok, but it was awesome to get up there and do some good riding. We stayed at the Mollyockett Motel, which came highly recommended as a cheap place to stay (a room for 4 was 80 bucks). While at the Mollyockett, we did some swimming in their indoor pool and hung out in the hot tub, which we shared with an incredibly fat man. I also went into a sauna for the first time, which was interesting and sort of gave me instant asthma. Weird. On Monday the weather was really nice, and towards the end of the day John and I found some kids that made a jump with a real soft landing. They were learning backflips, so we gave it a shot, and both fired them off pretty much first try. It was a pretty cool end to a great trip.

In other news, Republican Lobbyist scumbag Jack Obramoff has pled guilty to a plethora of federal and state charges, and as agreed to a plea bargain. This means that he will be helping the government prosecute several other scumbags in the higher elected offices. What a treat this is going to be!

Reccomended Music for this week comes by way of Mr. David Berman and his Silver Jews. Check out American Water, as well as their latest release, Tanglewood Numbers. These guys and girls are coming to Boston in March, and it will be their first tour ever. Should be a good show.

The holidays have been crazy this year. Between visiting the families and friends, buying presents and getting engaged, Kendra and I have been very busy. We had a sweater party on the 23rd, which was a spectacular event. The Beardsworth made it out for the event, and provided a healthy helping of his special brand of weirdness. Good Lord I love that kid. John and Kata (who also got engaged) ended up winning the Shittiest Sweater Award, which got them the respect and admiration of their peers, along with a $5 gift certificate to Denny's. Life is good.

Snowboarding has also been off to a pretty good start this season, with a trip to killington and several backyard shred sessions. I picked up a new board, which is more park orientated than the Canyon. It should be fun to pretty much skateboard around the mountains with it.

Music has also been taking up a bunch of time lately. Kendra got me a keyboard for Christmas, and it's been fun to mess around with that. I love how the instrument collection has grown. I've been playing a lot of blugrass guitar, and Geoff is turning into a pretty good drummer, which is good for everyone.

Happy Holidays.

Dr. Phil is a monstrosity of modern television. I've been home sick over the last two days, and the doctor seems to be the low point of daytime programming. This is not to say that he doesn't have some very strong competition (believe me, he does); he just seems to possess some terrible and unidentifiable trait that puts him a cut above all of the other garbage that is constantly being trasmitted across the airwaves. As I type this, he's in the background alerting moms all over America about a "dangerous new trend" sweeping across the country: SPACEMONKEYS!! (Choice quote: "Do you know what you need to do to stop this?? WHATEVER IT TAKES!! ". This is sensationalist bullshit, and bored house moms all over the country can't bear to look away. They are transfixed by the slow-talking bald man and his simple words. He is a sleazy oportunist, pulling in high ratings and lots of money by spreading fear to the masses. In many ways he's worse than Jerry Springer. Springer presents his content as what it is: a filth-ridden guilty pleasure for those who find themselves at home on a rainy day. Bald-Man Phil presents his content as a great public service: He's saving the world from the evils of spacemonkeys! This is not to say that spacemonekys are not dangerous, they certainty are. But the last thing the world needs is another overblown piece of "must see tv" presented as a national epidemic. Dr.Blowhard can't be cancelled soon enough.

Wow. Last post was in April, now it's August and Kendra and I have moved in together. So far living in Boxford has been awesome. I don't even really know where to begin with this post, because so much has changed in 4 months. We now have a 9 10 week old black lab mix named Elliot, and he's fantastic. Great disposition and personality. We've been calling him Stanly Steamer lately, because he's so into pooing on things.

Other things that have been happening:

I finished my amp (finally)!! It sounds amazing. Tubes are SOOO MUCH BETTER than solid state for amplifiers. There is a warmth and tone with tubes that you can't really get with solid state. Kendra put it best when she said "tubes sound like a guitar sounds, only louder, while the other one (solid state) sounds like a computer. Genius.

We've had some awesome parties. Kendra's graduation party (3rd graduation party actually) was great. Lots of people from westfield and RPI. Tons of people playing music and having a great time. I wish I had a video of the entire night.

Went to some great shows. Saw Modest Mouse in northhampton, and it was amazing. WAY bette than I thought it was going to be. I think they had something like 7 people on stage for the entire show. Really full, tight sound. Also went to Newport Folk fest, and saw Bright Eyes, Jim James and M. Ward play together, which was really good. Also saw some nasty bluegrass there.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to Fall this year. No mosquitoes, nice cool weather, and lots of fires out in the field. Hot damn. Should be a great time.

The sign at the top of the Continental Divide that warns you about the howitzer shells that are used for avalanche control.

Lovers at Vail

Kendra, Stephen, Susan, Big Fred at Red Rocks

The top of Chair 4 at 4pm on Sunday April 17th, the last day that Vail was open for the season. Lots of beers and champagne.

Stephen, standing on the Continental Divide. This is what you come to 1.5 miles before you get to A-Basin (which is at an altitude of about 10,000 feet at the summit....highest in North America)

One of the back bowls at Vail....I think there are something like 7 of these things....

Holy Colorado. Kendra and I journeyed to the wild west last Friday (the 15th, tax day) and returned yesterday (the 23rd). We were in the Denver/Boulder area, and it was an amazing time. The real reason for going was to attend Cousin Brian's wedding, which was held on Thursday. It was a nice, simple affair, at a lodge by a lake in their new home town of Evergreen. I really liked two things about the affair: For one, there was very little religion involved.... instead, it was about the two people getting married, and two, the after-party. The afterparty was held at the "Loft Suite" that Brian and his new wifer were staying at, and it was amazing. Danielle (the wifer) had a bunch of her Canadian river-raft guide friends down for the affair, and we all had a splendid time. There was a bunch of drinking, a hot tub, some Michael Jackson, and plenty of nutt-shots and fisticuffs. It was one of the best parties that I've been to in a while. Other than the wedding, Kendra and I went snowboarding (twice at A-Basin, once at Vail), did some bouldering at a rock gym, went to the world famous Red Rocks, checked out Boulder, visited Kendra's friend who live in Fort Collins, and generally had a wonderful time. We would really like to move there, and hopefully this will be happeing in a year or two. Woohaaa.

In other news, I saw M. Ward play at the Middle East two weeks ago, and he was excellent. Check that guy out.

p.s. Words cannot describe the awesomeness that is snowboarding/skiing out west. A-Basin is a stoner/hippie "for the locals" mountain, complete with it's own in-bounds bowl that puts Tuckermans to shame. In the spring time, they have something called "The Beach", which takes place at the bottom of the mountain and resembles the parking lot at an Allman Bros show......tons of people with grills, beers, dogs, lawn chairs, hot tubs, etc. Vail is simply one of the coolest places that I have ever been in my life. HUGE bowls. The place is enormous, and trying to describe it is useless. You have to go.

Dr.Beardsworth. Automation comes naturally for Greg.

The Lady with a tropical drink

John "Cocheese" Williams.....a man of sobriety and impeccable manners.

Willie......

Two big weekends to recap here: Last weekend, I saw Dave Procachini (sp?) play at Orange Street in Wastefield. They were really good, with highlights being the Chili Peppers' Airplane and a rousing rendition of Danzig's Mother. On Saturday night, Kendra and Monty had a superhero party, which was amazing. I admit that at first I was a bit skeptical of the concept, but it turned out to be one hell of a time. Kendra was Captain Sea Legs, and I was Math Man. Monty was Lobster Man, and his now-ex-girlfriend came as a giant set of testicles. It was pretty good all around.

This past weekend was Charter day, and it was also grand. Friday was a lot better than most pre-charter day Friday nights tend to be. I saw a lot of people that I haven't seen in a long time, which is always pleasant. On Saturday we started boozing quite early, and the weather was fantastic. We did the standard nice-weather roof drinking and socializing, and then went to the hotel. I brought a James Brown CD with me, and snuck some real funky tracks into the somewhat-lame playlist, and there were many "Pops for Pope" chants throughout the night. Kendra and I cut a rug. It was a good time. Didn't make it down to the Ruck either night, but that's ok. Vern didn't even make it to charter day, as he passed out from drinking too much chartreuse and missed the busses. Classic.

I recommend that you check out Perfect Sound Forever.

I also recommend that you check out Fela Kuti. The man invented afro-beat, and his music is really cool. It's a bit of an acquired taste (of which I am still acquiring), but I picked up his Expensive Shit/He Miss Road, which is pretty good and has a great story behind it. Apparently, the Nigerian police raided his commune in Lagos with the intention of planting a joint on him. He quickly snatched the joint, and ate it. He was then taken to prison, where they were going to wait for him to move his bowels and pass the spliff. He switched his shit with another inmate's poop, and the Nigerian bastards found nothing. He was released. There are lots of awesome stories about this guy.

Lost in Hartford, to the bar, drunken guitar and shitty shim sham slam. Henry is about to have a new Boston-based employer, congrats to him.

Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, booze, a guiiiiitar, bluesharpin, 10lb medecine-bal- catch and some bottle rockets off the front porch. Big blues slides and then sleeping and home again. Weekend are too godamn fast. Arrrrrhhhh.

John in the 24 inches......

The amp so far....

It's been a bust couple of weeks since the last posting. I've been all over the north east and work is really starting to pick up, so it's been pretty nutts. I also purchased a new acoustic guitar, and I think that this one is the magical keeper for life. Fantastic. Anyway, as you can see, the amp is coming along, and I have a few star-ground connections left to make and then the wiring is done. Should be pretty cool when she's ready to rock. The Boyd family had our annual trip to Jay Peak recently, and that was pretty amazing. Lots and lots of good trees and snow. This past weekend was also good. Mercaldi and I went to the Middle East on Friday night and heard some music and drank some beers (obviously). On Saturday we got a snow storm, which ended up dumping 24 inches in 24 hours on Sunday River. So on Saturday night I slept at John's and then we got up at 5:30 and made the drive. The conditions were epic, for lack of a better term, and John and Kata did real well in the trees, considering that it's their first year snowboarding. Good stuff. All this activity made me so tired on Monday that I left work early and came home and slept. And now it's almost time to do it all again. Pretty good life these days. Happy Saint Patrick's day to all.

Holler.

Rockstar Energy Drink

Bov the Pirate and Scott, several hours before the shooting.

Ah yes....monday means that it's time for the weekend update. This was a truely great couple of days. It was a very relaxing weekend, highlighted by the first joint home appliance purchase for Kendra and myself. We got ourselves a Vacuum, and it works very well. It's a bagless model, so there is no scrottum-like dust recepticle that must be frequently changed, which should provide us with years of maintenance-free operation. The only downside is that we bought it at Walmart, but it was like, totally not our fault. Damn convienence. Anyway, Friday night was fucking glorious. The kids at Orange Street had a great party. Geoff and Olivia were there, and Geoff and I addressed everyone as "Bro" for the entire night. This doesn't really sound that funny here, but at the time it was golden. I was pretty much a mess, and kept accusing Olivia of being HIV positive. I think Geoff really appreciated this. All in all it was a fabulous time.

On Saturday we bought the Vacuum, played a lot of guitar, and got ready for Kendra's party. The setup for the party was great, because she lives on the second floor of the appartment building while her friends Scott and Monty live on the first floor. Thus it was a dual appartment party, which allowed people to spread out and do whatever they wanted to do. Derek showed up with some James Brown (as usual) and got the dance party/kegstand party started down stairs, while there was more socializing and some music playing up stairs. After the party was over, Bobby Digital and Amanda went to Orange Street, where Ryan Bov allegedly got shot in the ass with a dart gun. Darts as in sharp pointed pieces of metal. Derek was also sprayed in the leg. Hilarious. I am very sorry that I missed this. Speaking of Bob Digital, the boy went to bed (wasted) at 6 am and got up at 7:30 am to work at Stop and Shop. Very impressive. Things could not have really gone much better this weekend. Perhaps I could have remembered to bring home my cell phone charger from Kendra's, but thats the breaks.

Stupid Rossi at one of Stratton's best not-so-secret secrets.

This past weekend turned out to be much better than last weekend. On Friday night Michael and myself drove to RPI and got properly wasted. We stayed at the house, drank some beers, and played some guitar downstairs with Tito, Seth and Spins. On Saturday we went to Stratton, and forgot to wake up the Beardsworth. This is partially his fault, because he actually woke up earlier than we did, found that we were still sleeping, and then went back to bed, content with his expectation that we would awake him from his long winter's nap. He could not have been more wrong. I was still wasted and confused in the morning, totally forgot about Beardsworth, and left for Stratton with Michael and the terrible Tom Fiskus. I took about 5 runs at Stratton before my ankle took me out of the game. It is now swollen and large again, and this sucks.

Saturday night was awesome, with three hours of free beer at the Ruck in celebration of Goldman living to the age of 25. At around 10 Tripp, myself, Beardo Mercaldi and Richard the Drifter went back to the house. We played some awful sounding music down stairs, with no one actually paying attention to what anyone else was playing. It also didn't help that the drums were being played by a wasted Michael, Tripp, and Beardo simultaneously. After this, Michael and Tripp went back to the Ruck while Beardo, myself and Richard had a great time at the house throwing around huge ice sickels and provoking Russ into furiously berating anyone who got close to him. Grand times indeed.

In other news, my amplifier parts came in the mail on Friday, so look for construction updates here.

This weekend kind of sucked. Lots of stuff went wrong, such as:

1. Glovebox getting inexplicablly locked shut with cell phone charger inside. Today I cut the latch with a saws-all, and my glove box is now held shut with "Extreme Velcro". Totally.
2. Spraining my ankle towards the end of the day snowboarding on Saturday, right before the "Blizzard of '05", which meant that there was no riding on Sunday in the best conditions of the year.
3. Brendan's house filling with natural gas due to a leak. As far as I know, he did not get blown up.
4. The Boyd furnace ceasing to work on Saturday. This wasn't too bad, but sort of just added to my run of bad luck.

I think that's about it. I didn't get in a car accident, which was good, and I also saw Kendra, which was very good. I suppose that things can only improve next weekend. It was also cool to play some guitar through a real amp. Kendra's friends have a giant (i'm thinking like 100 watts) amp on top of a cab with 4 12" speakers, and it sounds unbelievable. Anyway, look for more good shit in a couple of days. Hopefully the "kankle" will be back in business for Stratton and The Ruck. Holler, or maybee don't.

Well friends, it looks like popular music is about to become more homogenous than ever. This is why the "underground" is soooo important, and seems to be becoming more so as the years go by. From movies to music to software, some of the best stuff always seems to come from under the radar, and I'm convinced that the world is a much better place because of it.

Anyway, this weekend was nice, as Kendra came home and we hung out a lot and had a pretty low-key time. It was needed. I am now sick, and hoping that it's not the flu. It is time for me to sleep, and hopefully go to work tomorrow. Blymee.

It's been a long time since the last post, and I blame the Holiday season and all of it's weirdly stressful glory. All in all, things went well. I went snowboarding a couple of times, got some cool shit for Christmas, saw the family, spent time with the Lady in sweet bliss, and spent a lot of time wailing on the old axe. The Great Richard James Brown even came to Groveland for a night, which was awesome. This past weekend was also great, as it snowed a lot and Kendra and I went to Haystack, which is right next to Mount Snow. There were no lift lines, and there was a ton of powder. On Saturday night Kendra and I ate sushi while Abbie and the long lost Liza made their way out to Westfield. We had a good time at the Orange Street house that night, complete with ridiculous jam session (Kendra's friends are really good) and far too much beer. I had to retire to the porch for a while to keep from booting while Kendra got punched incredibly hard in the arm. Great times. And now for the traditional music reccomendations:

Taj Mahal: Taj Mahal: Awesome sort-of-jammy blues from the late 60's, played and sung by a Master. Taj rips at harmonica and slide guitar, and the rest of his band are very skilled as well.

The Buena Vista Social Club: This is an album, a "band" and a documentry. I heard some of the album this weekend, and was very impressed. The Buena Vista Social Club is a group of 5 or 6 elderly Cuban gentlemen (one or two of which is into his 90's) who all used to be local legends in Cuba before Castro came to power. In the late 90s, Ry Cooder went to Cuba, found them living in near-poverty, brought them together, and they recorded an album. A documentary was also made, and they went on to play some shows and win a grammy or two. The music, however, is amazing, and you should check it out.

It look like there is a ghost between the camera and Kendra.......it's probably Neil's flower power getting in the way.

Maker's Mark sure is tasty.

Geoff's shirt takes it back to 8th grade....this is the kind of shit that we used to wear back then, straight from the thrift store. It kind of sucks that thrift store clothes are the new cool thing. Geoff is happy with his shirt.

Neil, resident Long Islander and professional model train builder.

My goodness, what a fun-filled weekend. Friday night found me driving from work straight to Geoff's in Kenne, NH. I met Kendra and Olivia there, and we had some home-made dinner and then got rather drunk. Neil (Geoff's roomate) was absolutely hilarious, and I fell down laughing several times.

Some of Neil's finer quotes:

"You can't like, own property man.......you just can't"
"You can't hug your kids with nuclear arms, man..."
Me: "Neil, are you a user?"
Neil: "If you use it man, there won't be any left for later"

Neil said all of these fine things in a perfect hippie voice, and it was awesome.

On Saturday Kendra and I woke up early and drove to Mount Snow, and Kendra booted twice on the way. A great start to the day. The snowboarding was pretty good for this early in the season, and we all had fun. Their park was excellent for being before christmas, and I liked the mountain quite a bit. This is good, as I have heard many mixed reviews of the place. We met Tripp and his friend Kevin, and then hung out for a bit in the bar before heading to dinner and then back to Westfield. Saturday night was very low-key, but quite enjoyable none the less. Not much else to talk about, except that after replacing the electronics in John's guitar I'm all fired up to start building a tube amp. Should be a great project.

Wayne's World!!! Party Time!!!!!

Holy Mackeral......this is the first post in a while and a lot of good stuff has happened. The ODB ale has turned out quite nicely, and while this has been ageing, two new batches have been started. One is an Irish Stout and the other is an IPA (which, the box informs us, is part of the"Maestro Collection"......hot to deathffff). I also went to see the Pixies last Thursday, which was fucking awesome. John, Katta and Katta's sister Mary plus Mary's boyfriend came with us, and the show ruled. We were real close to the stage, right in front of a giant set of six sub woofers. They played all the classics, and they rocked the shit out of everything. On the way home I made Mary and her man listen to Ween the entire way, which, they tell me, is a band that they cannot stand. HA! Shows what happens when you neglect the Boognish. Other than that, I got sick last week and it has carried over into this week, as I failed to totally abstain from alcohol this weekend. I by no means got drunk, but the little bit I had invited the Virus right back into my body.

This weekend promises to be a good time, as I am heading up to Kenne to hang out with Geoff, Livy, and Kendra tomorrow night. On Saturday Kendra and I are heading to Mount Snow to ride, and we may or may not be staying there Saturday night. We shall see.

Reccomended Listening:

Bad Brains: Bad Brains
The Bad Brains' first album is awesome. They are kind of like early 80's punk/reggae, but are way better than that combination sounds........just listen to it I guess.

Ween: 12 Golden Country Greats
Ween's country album is a pretty amazing feat of musicianship, as well as being extremely entertaining and catchy. You will not be dissapointed.

Cheers.

Thar she blows!

So yesterday I went out and bought an electric guitar and an amp. It is shit-hot. The guitar is a used Gibson Les Paul with Seymour Duncan after-market pickups, and the amp is a Marshall DFX30 (or something like that). It uses a triode for the pre-amp stage, and then uses digital shaping for the effects. I have to say, it does an exellent job of soundling like a tube amp. Tchuss!

Some labels that we made for the ODB Tribute Ale.......there were 35 labels made, one for each year of Dirty's life. We ended up with 36 bottles of beer, and the one that didn't get a label was sipped by everyone and then poured on the ground....

It has been a busy week of not working. Busy, but enjoyable. I'm having trouble remembering some things that went on, which is most likely due to a steady diet of holliday festivities and native-american-inspired cheer. Those pilgrims and their plymouth rock sure were cool.

On the 19th, Tripp, Mercaldi, J-Rod and myself went to see the Reverend Glasseye and his Wooden Legs. They were awesome, and you should check them out. On Saturday (the 20th), I went to a small gathering at Katie's house, which was good fun. Sunday found me back at Westfield State college, where I had a relaxing and fun time with Kendra and the Westfield kids. On Tuesday we came back, and then went to Michael's Harborside on Wednesday night. I was quite apprehensive about Michael's at first, but it turned out to be a great time. I got kind of drunk, and saw more Pentucket Celebrities than I could possibly list here. Notably absent, however, were Brad Bridges and Mike Timony. This was a shame, but it was cool to see the likes of Jamie Dolanski, Dave Nizzaro, and Sam Bamford. Thanksgiving ended up being pretty relaxing, with lots of family at the Boyd house.

On Friday, Geoff, Abbie, Kendra, and myself enjoyed the beautiful weather and went to Maudsley state park and played some Frisbee and football. This was a lot of fun. Later on Friday night, we went to the Mandarin Buffet (chinese restraunt/bar) in Haverhill. This is notable for two reasons: The presence of some classic characters (Jake Tucker, David Allen, OLSEN!!, Zack, etc.), and this is the only bar that I have ever been to that buys 3o racks from the liquor store and then re-sells them at the bar. Totally illegal and totally awesome. 50 cent cans of Beast and dollar bottles of Busch. Fucking roight. On Saturday, Kendra, myself, Abbie and Geoff went to John's condo and we bottles the Ol' Dirty Bastard Tribute ale, and started brewing an Irish Stout. The anchor steam ale was also ready for consumption, and it is a delight for all of the senses. The ODB tribute ale has a taste as crazy as the man it is named after. I'll post the recipe when I get it from John. Check out some of the labels above.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, but the Native Americans get a special "happy hollidays" from me.

Cheers.

This might be the new car.....

Kendra with a fresh perm.....

Militia-man Larry has an ammo shop...

German Invasion Party.....Ausgetzeitnicht!

Glamorous Gail with Wilson the Python, circa 1986.

Once again, the weekend is good. It started out with Kendra coming home on Wednesday night, which was great. I took a half day on Friday and drove down to Hartford to pick up Henry in the middle of the season's first snow storm. We then drove to RPI and had a pretty hilarious night. My favorite part was a very wasted Tripp, dancing at the Ruck during every song and rubbing his ass on anyone (male or female) that tried to walk by. There was also some dude there with a pirate hat on, and whenever he would come by Tripp would steal his hat and then slink away. This behavior went on for what seemed like 2 hours, and it was without question the best thing that I have ever seen at the ruck. Fucking hilarious. For 2 hours. Complete magic. Friday night was also cool because I got to do some rockin' and rollin' with Seth, Bob-o and Spinelli. There are now two large amps and a drumset in the party room of the house, and we spent a good amount of time, like, uh, totally rockin' out man. I've never played with a "band" before, so it was a special treat.

On Saturday we dragged ourselves out of bed and went to Okemo. "We" being myself, Beardo, Tripper, Tito Palmer, Jorzik, Lori, Zilka, Mark Roberts, Tracksler, and probably some other people that I'm forgetting. The ice wasn't very snowy, but it was still a ton of fun. It ruled just to get out before thanksgiving......hopefully this is the start of an excellent season. It was also Tracksler's first day ever of snowboarding, and he ended up pretty sore. What can I say; the man's a trooper. On the way back from Okemo there were some thirsty people in my car, so we got some drinks and made things better. After that we hit up Ichiban for some sushi/saki. The rest of the night was kind of slow for me, with highlights including going to a "German Invasion" part and doing some more late-night guitar playing. The German Invasion party was an interesting scene. It was at a "Fraorority" on campus, and they were actually really cool to us. They gave us tasty German beers, played weird and scary industrial techno, and generally showed us a good time. However, we were asked to leave due to a "Defication issue and a theft issue" (AKA Rudy was being an asshole).

Sunday was spent driving Tripp back to Hartford and then driving home to spend time with Kendra. It was fantastic day: the drive was beautiful, I took a picture of one of the best signs EVER, and got to spend some high quality time with the Lady. None too shabby.

Now for a huge downer: Ol' Diry Bastard aka Big Baby Jesus aka Dirt McGuirt is no longer with us. Mr. McGuirt passed away in the studio on Saturday, in the middle of laying down a fresh cut for the new LP. He was, I am sure, coked out of his mind, and his heart could not take the abuse anymore. RIP ODB. In an eulogy to the deceased, I have composed an ODB-like verse:

My pussies are swollen,
Bitch, come wipe my ass,
be-fur I kill you, crack cocaine,
Ooohhhhhhh, Big Baby Jesus is filthy,
I crawl through the trees like a salamander,
My balls are fragile as eggs,
Bitch where's my money at hoe.

Anyway, Enjoy the glamour pics of Gail. It's been my dream since I was a wee lad to photograph women posing with pythons, and on Thursday night that dream was realized.

weird dudes

Sully's "buddy", Salsa........HA!

A general idea of the setup

Another fun weekend....Huray for those. On friday night I went into Boston with Kirk and Mercaldi. We met up with Marcus and Alicia early on, and pretty much went bar hopping in a futile attempt to find the Sullivan. Sully was out, parading around town with his maybee-lover, Salsa. Salsa is called Salsa because his parents own a salsa factory (according to Sully), but I think that perhaps Sully and Salsa are a wee bit on the fancy side. All in all, it was a great time. We went to an awesome bar in Davis square, then went to Porters, then to Fanuel Hall, then back to Porters and then home. Good times. Saturday started with Kirk waking up at 10:30, deciding he needed more sleep, then waking up 45 minutes later and deciding that he needed a 45 minute shower. I was hoping to get a good start on the day, but Kirk eliminated all prospects of this happening. He even had the nerve to lock the door to the bathroom, preventing me from depositing a steaming suprise while he took a shower. We then went to Johnny D's again for breakfast, which was tasty and (kind of) cheap.

On Saturday night, John, Kata, Kirk and myself went to the Ammadio's to slide a shady make-shift rail. There was a small army of 17 year olds present, and they took care of getting the snow from the Haverhill skating rink and actually doing most of the work. John and I did do a fair amount of shoveling though. Kirk managed to convince Mrs.Ammadio that beers at this event was ok, so those of us that were legal had a few beers and slid the rail a couple of times. Overall it was a lot of fun. I never actually made it to the end of the rail though, as the track was too slow for snowboards and I couldn't get enough speed. Ah, well. Sunday was also enjoyable, complete with chores around the house followed by a great couple of hours with abiGAIL at Maudsley playing some frisbee.

A quick aside: On Thursday night, John and I started a batch of "California Steam Ale", which appears to be an Anchor Steam rip off. We didn't fuck any part of the brewing process up, and the smell was amazingly good. 3.5 weeks until it's ready.......

Musical reccomendation of the week: I urge you all to check out The Go! Team's Thunder, Lightning, Strike. It brings you right back to the theme songs of shows like The A Team, Hawaii 5-0, and MacGuyver. The music is fucking awesome, and is a little bit of Jackson 5 plus a touch of old-school hip-hop merged with current semi-electronic-popish-dance rock and roll. It is pure genius.

And while we're on the topic of genius, the Ween Forum has been providing lots of entertainment for me lately. Check it out if you're looking for a few laughs.

Holler.

Cowboy Bill's a major player in the cowboy scene.......

Me and M'Lady

Pepperal is Awesome

Programmed to Party

Gail and Katie........Goddess and Crack Head 

Friday: Go to Westfield, eat Sushi with Geoff, Oliv and Kendra, use TONS of wasabi....DELICIOUS, watch Afterlame, and go to bed early. The place we usually go to for sushi in North Hampton was full, and I don't think they have ever had to turn customers away before. They pretty much told us that we could not eat at their establishment, but in the most awkward way possible.....weird.

Saturday (part one): Wake up at 11 to get ready to go to Kendra's game. Put on some clothes, brush the teeth, and drive to the field with Amanda. Fred and Susan Newell are alreay there, and we say hello and make small talk. Kendra's name is called, and she recieves a nice pillow and a bag because it is her last regular season game of her college field hockey career. The game starts, and eventually Oliv, Geoff, Gail, Katie, Uncle Gary and Aunt Laurie show up. Susan then asks me if I could drive to Applebee's to pick up the chicken wings half way through the game, and I really don't have any choice in the matter so I agree. I pick them up and get back to the field just in time to see the game go into overtime. Westfield then promptly loses. After the game, there is a pot-luck reception, and I eat a lot. I also have the pleasure of viewing a horse-faced woman, which is a rare treat. After the game we go back to Kendra's appartment and Kendra's relatives that were at the game come by and check it out. They are impressed, and leave after something like 20 minutes. The next couple of hours are spent getting ready to go to RPI to see the glorious Striepeck and go to the graveyard party.

Saturday (part two): We (Gail, Kendra, Katie and myself) pile into my car with our costumes and over-night supplies. There was initial talk of Geoff and Oliv coming as well, but they fled to the great north country of New Hampshire after some highly unnecessary drama went down. (Keepin' it REAL lame. This is not middle school anymore.) The ride to RPI is uneventful and dreary. We grab some pizza at I-LOVE while Gail continues to sleep in my car. We then go to the liquor store, and I buy some Jagermeister while Kendra and Katie get 3 bottles of Andre for 10 bucks.....what a great deal. When we get to the house, most people seem to be assembling their costumes and getting ready for the party. Beardo is busy at work on his Green Monster costume, which is giant and unwieldy. Everyone puts on their costumes while simultaneously starting to drink. There is Magic Hat #9 in abundance, and it has the distinctive sharp taste of a fresh batch. Thank you Kate!

The costume run-down is as follows:
Kendra -- Superhero
Katie -- Crack Head.......a truly amazing performance from Katie Devaney....unbelievable
abiGAIL -- Greek Goddess and object of Ioffe's ridicule
Bill Striepeck -- A cowboy, very reminiscient of a young G.W. Bush.....
Kate -- A sex ed teacher
Beardo -- The Green Monster
Peppe -- Alcoholic Rambo.....fucking awesome costume
Stephen -- The Flamingo Again
Rossi -- A robot, very similar to Mercaldi and Tripp last weekend, but Rossi installed some LEDs and implemented the 555 timer to make them blink....classic

After everyone's constumes are on, we do some Jager shots and then get down to M.C. Hammer. This is one of my favorite parts of the night. Striepeck finds a ghetto blaster with a single tapedeck. He holds it on his shoulder, and we stand around him and do some real shitty break dancing. The ghetto blaster is classic......thin, tall, and grey. You cannot buy things like this anymore, and this is a shame. I challege all of you to go to the store and try and buy a boom-box with a single cassette deck and a radio....impossible. This all happens around 8:30. After the break dancing, Billy and I go and played a bunch of Ween songs, which is great. Playing the guitar with Billy is always a lot of fun. A little while later the band arrivesd (Off White, I believe). They are cool dudes, and I am wasted for most of their set. Rossi, Billy, and myself are right up in front of the band, and I piss a lot of people off by being what amounts to a one-man mosh pit for a while. Around this point things get kind of hazy, but i do remember putting Kendra to bed in Beardo's room and then hanging out on Beverly with Katie and Blue for a while. After that, I go to bed.

Sunday: Wake up, retrieve Gail, and collect our belongings. No one can seem to find Striepeck. He went down to the Ruck, was a complete mess, got kicked out, got into a cab and then went missing. Sounds like a plot for a shitty major-network crime drama. Kate spent something like 5 hours trying to find him this morning. Apparently, he was in the cab with some girl and Blue, and when the cab stopped to let the girl off Billy got out as well. So he spent the night at the girl's house, and then woke up and got a ride back to the house. Crazy shit. We eat at Mannory's, and then go back to Westfield. Overall, a gloriously brown weekend indeed.

This Week's Music:

Holy Ghost Revival: Peacock EP
The White Stripes: Elephant
The Crack Pipes: Snakes in My Veins

Aerola Ale 

The Dinosaur and his Beer Wench