Crasymaker

Well damn. It’s been a long time since I posted anything on here. Sorry. Sort of. I hope I still remember how to do this. Let’s see, what’s been going on?

Most notably, I’ve been working like crazy on our front yard. Eventually, I’ll put up a nice before-n-after shot so you can see how far things have come since we moved in. At this point, I’d say we’re about 90% complete. Last June, we added a porch and since then, there’s been a steady amount of gravel removal and most recently, a ton of landscaping. We needed it bad. This photo isn’t quite up-to-date but it pretty much sums up what the yard looks like now.

I reorganized my Flickr page to include “Collections”. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Now I can put individual “Sets” into larger categories and it’s way more organized and easier to navigate. During the process, I added a Music Collection which includes three new sets of photos from 1) my time spent with Lucero, 2) a few shots from The Paper Hearts days and 3) Some more current photos of The Good Fear.

There are a few other fairly major things to report but not right now because I gotta get back to work. Deal with it. Or don’t.

I am seriously curious to know what the general consensus is concerning the county fair. I’m slowly discovering more and more people who don’t like fairs. To my amazement, most of the reasons why people don’t seem to like them are the exact same reasons why I love ‘em so much.

This is really bumming/freaking me out. I’ve loved the fair all my life so do me a favor and please vote in the latest poll located in the sidebar to the left of this post. I gotta know what ya’ll think. Thanks!

UPDATE: Wow. So far you guys are anti-fair. How depressing. Did ya’ll EVER like the fair? Even as kids?

NEVERMIND. Ya’ll love the fair. Phew…

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
If you missed the first half of this HBO documentary by Spike Lee about the tragedy and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last night, you can still catch the second half tonight at 8pm Central. The documentary in it’s entirety will be seen Tuesday, Aug. 29 at 7pm Central, the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Flickr: Housewarming Party
Head over to Bryan’s Flickr site to see pics from Saturday night’s housewarming party. Somehow this managed to be a party in which nobody really drank that much but everyone felt like absolute crap the next day.

Country star accused of killing a tame, caged bear
“Musician” Troy Lee Gentry allegedly bought a tame bear, put it in a cage and videotaped himself shooting it with a bow and arrow in order to make it look like he had shot it in the wild. Added Bonus! In one of his “songs” there is a lyric that states “I ain’t tradin’ in my family’s safety just to save on a little gas.” Amazing…

Bob Dylan ain’t no fan of technology
“Even these songs probably sounded 10 times better in the studio when we recorded ‘em. CDs are small. There’s no stature to it.” - Bob Dylan on how much he dislikes the sound of CDs

After reading Tim’s latest post on Heavy Metal Mouth I hurried over to the Blackpool Lights’ site to see if I could hear some music from the new album when BAMM outta nowhere comes the most hideous of all fonts. That’s right folks, Comic Sans has somehow invaded this otherwise beautiful site. Not even a children’s themed webpage can get away with such an atrocity, ya’ll. Hopefully I can put this behind me and head back over there sometime soon to listen to some tunes. Until then, I might need a while to recover.

(Yes, I am sort of joking…not much, though.)

Can someone shed some light on something for me? I’ve been trying all morning to figure out how forecasting the weather ever broke away from forecasting your future (fortune telling) and became a legitimate profession. I am sure there are plenty of scientific arguments as to why forecasting the weather is different such as “it’s based on physical evidence and experience” but for crap’s sake, at least a fortune teller will be vague enough that you can formulate your own justification for taking them seriously. I mean a weather man/woman can say, “We’re looking forward to sunny skies all weekend” and then it will rain for three days straight meaning that they were just flat out wrong.

Every time I make this argument and ask someone “Hey how come the weatherman said it wouldn’t rain but now it’s raining?” I always get the same kind of response which is usually something to the effect of “Well, things change” or “Well, they can’t really know what’s gonna happen.” If you can’t really know what’s gonna happen but you’re telling people what you think will happen, that is called GUESSING. If I could only get things right 50% of the time at my job, I would be fired. FIRED.

I know I am being pretty irrational but I am pissed because I was supposed to go camping this weekend with a bunch of friends and now it’s looking like we might not be able to go because of the rain. The rain that “wasn’t” going to be here but mysteriously showed up out of nowhere. Those sneaky clouds…

We went to the Washington County Fair last night.

There was a monkey named Leroy.

This might be the best picture I have ever had the priviledge of being in.

Lilys “Day Of The Monkey”

This past weekend was a busy one. I finished moving in to my new house, did some weed eating, went to JR’s Lightbulb Club on its last night of existence and I attended my high school reunion downtown at The Radisson.

I’ll post more about my house later when we are finished fixing it up (read: next year) and when there are some killer photos to show and brag about. Weed eating is just weed eating and nobody wants to read about how tough I felt when purchasing my first gas-powered weed eater.

The closing of JR’s is pretty depressing. I have been drinking beer and playing shows at that place for over 10 years now and it’s been a Fayetteville hotspot since 1988. Apparently, it will re-open in a couple of months as a gay dance club called “Tangerine”. Seriously. No joke. There are rumors that the owners are opening a couple of JR’s-style dive bars around town pretty soon but none of them will feature live music. Four letters: L-A-M-E.

At my reunion, I was surprised to see that nobody had changed all that much after 10 years. I’ll bet after 20, I won’t even be able to recognize myself, let alone any of the other freaks and geeks (oh yeah, and cool dudes). The reunion itself was pretty boring but I did have a great time catching up with 5 or 6 friends from back in the day. I laughed harder than I’ve laughed in a few months and I managed to sabotage a few of my classmates by constructing something I like to call “Spoon Tied To A Balloon In The Aisle So It Gets Tangled In Peoples’ Feet While They Walk Behind Me.” There were a couple of celebs there too including me, a girl we went to high school with who was on MTV’s The Real World and her (husband?) Scott Wolf from Party Of Five fame.

The sweetest part of the weekend, however, was finding out that Seth and I’s names were still in the mailbox at the townhouse we lived in together right after graduating highschool 10 years ago. Hell yeah. Check it out in the picture below.

MC5 “High School”

When we rented our house last August, we happened to noticed the sign in the yard just minutes after it was placed there. While we were insided getting a tour, a young couple walked up onto the porch and yelled, “If they aren’t sure about this house, then we’ll sign a lease right now!” I thought to myself, “Either this house is the coolest rental in Fayetteville or the landlord has paid this couple to run up here and push us into signing a lease.” So we signed a lease on the spot, partially because we were getting desperate and partially because I am a sucker.

This year was just as exciting. At 8am on Monday, I dropped off the last month’s rent with a note explaining that we wouldn’t be renewing our lease. Exactly one hour later, the landlord called and asked if she could show it at 10am the next day. WHAT?! I wanted to ask her how in the hell she found a potential renter in under an hour but instead, I said, “Sure.” Shorty after showing the house, the landlord called and said she wouldn’t be showing it anymore because the potential renter was now the definite renter. Wow.

Take a close look at that “For Lease” sign in the front yard. It’s a very rare species that only emerges once a year for about 24 hours. I was very fortunate to get as close as I did and even more so that I was able to snap this photo…

Lifter Puller “Rental”

Instead of watching this idea get copied and ruined, we should spread this link around and ensure that there is only one set of Please Park Better cards on the ole intronet. Thanks to Seth, we can now fight back against idiots. “Just print, clip and slip the card underneath a windshield wiper, and maybe next time the driver will do a better job.” It’s highly unlikely that the driver will do a better job next time but at least you’ll feel a little bit better after you’ve slapped one of these on their ride. Dad, you’re gonna love this. Get your cards here!

Modest Mouse “Convenient Parking”

I’m not a huge fan of casinos. They’re fairly depressing and overall, they kind of creep me the hell out. However, when Sarah and her mother went to Tunica last year, Sarah came home $1000 richer after only spending a couple of bucks at a slot machine. If it weren’t for that jackpot, she probably would still be saving up for her 12″ iBook that she uses to sell clothes on eBay which supplies her with at least 1/2 of her total income. So when she wanted to check out Cherokee Casino in West Siloam Springs, OK today, as reluctant as I was, I said OK and off we went.

It’s only about a 45-minute drive out there so I knew that even if it was crappy and we only stayed for a half hour or so, it wouldn’t be too much of a waste. Besides, what a fitting way to spend Easter Sunday than gambling at slot machines just minutes from “God’s Country”.
The picture on their website must be one of Cherokee’s other casinos because when we arrived, the building had more of a warehouse resemblance than that of an illustrious gaming resort. After searching all over the parking lot (and the parking lots of the neighboring grocery store and drive-though bank), we found a spot about a half mile from the casino.
Words cannot describe the churning feeling in my stomache as we entered the doorway. I haven’t been to that many casinos, but every one of them has required me to sign in, show my ID and get an official OK from a security guard before entering. Not this one. You just walk in and within a few feet of the door, you can sit right down at a slot machine and start dropping dollar bills, that is, if you can see past the fog of smoke that nearly gives you whiplash as you pass through the front door. Holy crap, this place was a total shithole. The inside solidified our suspicions that this “casino” was actually a warehouse, possibly the kind you can buy from Home Depot and put together yourself.

We noticed that nobody was drinking any alcohol, which is odd for a casino I believe, but everyone was definitely making up for the lack of an alcohol buzz by sucking down more cigarettes than the slot machines were sucking down quarters. I was instantly feeling nauseous and when I noticed the “buffet” which consisted of hot dogs, corn dogs, popcorn and chicken legs (all decorated with half-assed, decade-old, white Christmas lights), it didn’t help much at all.
The only thing that didn’t disgust me was this kick-ass guy in a bunny suit walking around giving out Easter eggs which either had nothing in them or a $100 bill. There was even an announcement over the intercom when someone chose a winning egg. Alas, this was not enough to keep us in the building longer than 15 minutes. We’d had enough.
Upon returning home, I re-visited their website only to find that there are 4 other Cherokee casinos scattered across Oklahoma. Before I give Cherokee a complete thumbs down, I figure we’ve at least gotta try one more. Next up: Tulsa. Mmmm, Tulsa…
UPDATE: Holy shit, you HAVE GOT TO CHECK OUT the Tunica song on their website! It rules! Listen to it here!

Wilco “Casino Queen”

KKEG, the local classic rock station, used to do a treasure hunt every summer where they hid a Pepsi can somewhere in Northwest Arkansas and gave hints about it’s location on the air throughout the day. It usually took people at least a week to find it. I, however, stumbled across one by accident when I was 11 years old at Devil’s Den State Park. The prize was $500 worth of gift certificates to local businesses. Instead of using it all at Dennis Appliance to get a sweet stereo or at the Honda dealership to get a moped, I divided it between 7-11, Ozark Lanes Bowling Center, IGA (grocery store) and two other places I can’t even remember. WHAT IN THE HELL WAS I THINKING?!

Wilco “Treasure”