Chimeracon (sp?)

Received an invite over the weekend to attend an event in town called Chimeracon. A comic-con of sorts but with a focus put on board games. Well... I should limit it to board games. There's a number of games at the event... video games, card games, board games and the games that require statues, little tanks, tables that have terrain like environments.

My friend Robert is really into board games and he told me about Indie games that are made available at these events. He picked one up that goes by the name of "Smugglers of the Galaxy"... a game we got to actually break out at the event and play with a few people who also attended the event.

The con was sorta small in comparison to the Comic Con's I've been to in Detroit - but it was fun nonetheless. I'd go to another one if it were guaranteed to be bigger.

back in texas.

Don't know what it is about not having time to post to the blog when
I'm at home. You'd think that I'd post with more frequency, with
being able to post from the comfort of home.

The past 3 days have been a bit of a blur. After touching down in
Texas on Friday night, my plans to attend SXSW were changed due to my
parents electing to stick around for a few extra days in San Antonio.

A decision I was more than welcome to accommodate. It gave me a
chance to stay in town and catch a show by the Aggrolites that I
wanted to attend with a friend here in San Antonio.

The show was nothing short of awesome. The turnout was great. The
mixture of people : skins, punks, indie kids really surprised me.
The bill sorta had something for everyone tho'. I showed up when
Channel One (SKA band from San Antonio) hopped on stage to start
their set. Their musicianship was quite high and they had a number
of songs I really enjoyed drinking brews to.

The second band was a Punk band that goes by Flatfoot 56. They
played with an insane amount of energy and a throng of supporters
danced throughout their entire set.

The Aggrolites delivered the goods at the end of the night. My
favorite moment came towards the end of the set where they teased the
crowd with some Motown songs by the Temptations.

I can't recall the last time I attended a show where almost everyone
in attendance danced their ass off. I think it may have been a
Dismemberment Plan show in Detroit.

Anyhoo... good times.

.alamo city rollie.

Twin Cities - Closing Thoughts

Entering my final day in the Twin Cities.... typing this entry at the Minni/St. Paul Int. Airport.

I opted to get here extra early so that I could enjoy a sit down lunch and wrap up some work on the laptop before I zone out for the weekend.

I can't believe how much fun I had in the Twin Cities. I really haven't had a chance to sit down and pen my thoughts on the city... so now seems like a good time as any.

My observations... The city of St. Paul and the city of Minneapolis are freakishly green, hip and healthy for the Midwest. The cities feel close knit in that the roads are narrow and a person can get around by foot or bike with ease. The city (in my opinion) would benefit from a mass-transit system like a railway/subway. I took a number of major/minor streets to go form one town to another with ease... a first time visitor needs to pay very close attention to St. Names tho'. Roads change names when you cross the Mississippi and streets have N/S/W/E identifications on them that will baffle the shit out of you.

Both cities subscribe to having their blocks ascend in numbers from the Mississippi -- out. Which is fine... you can sorta figure out where the hell your at by determining if you're ascending or descending by street numbers.

I found myself wanting to pull over a number of times but found it hard to find parking. A number of the streets still had large blocks of ice thawing so the narrow road ways were narrower and parking slots don't make it easy for those driving SUV's that aren't accustomed to driving SUV's.

Things to Do in the Twin Cities when you're not up for Looking for Records

So it may seem like I only took in record stores on my visit... I have a few more record store reviews to log in so quit your bitching.

I also had a chance to take in a number of the local sights. I have some friends who moved here by way of Detroit and they took me out one night to become more aquatinted with a part of town affectionately known as "uptown". I spent some time in this area on Thursday afternoon/evening... I didn't bust out my camera to take photos of everything I found interesting. I can tell you however that I would totally have a cab drop me off on Henniepin (sp?) and I'd walk up and down the fucking blvd. until I get shin splints.

I walked by countless bars, shops, book stores, green grocery stores, restaurants, design studios, coffee shops, pizza parlors, record stores and theaters I could spend hours at.

If you're into Coffee. Minneapolis is going to be a treat for you. There's indie/commercial coffee shops everywhere and its rare to every walk/drive by a shop at anytime and not see the place filled to the gills.

If you're into theater - Minneapolis has an obscene amount of theaters. I took two major roads and I drove by 8 visible marquees/performance spaces. I can only imagine how many are in both cities combined. If time permitted I would have really liked to have seen a performance.

If you're into music - this is a big passion of mine so I've been doing reviews of shops I've been to this week. I've really only scraped the surface... I saw a few record stores I didn't get to stop in because of my limited time in the "city". While I didn't go into a store that completely made me swoon I found myself content with having an obscene amount of store options. Anyone living in the Twin Cities should be really happy about having the amount of stores that dedicate themselves to music. Especially when record stores are closing everywhere throughout the states.

If you're into Art - I didn't get a chance to really visit the Walker museum, but its one of the most important contemporary art museums of the country. The building structure is amazing and I would have gone in but time never really permitted after I discovered where and what it was.

If you're in Bars and Eats - I didn't frequent that many bars but the ones I stopped into were really cool. I drove by a number of bars that have amazing praises. One of which is the Nye's Polonaise Room. My friend Harlo told me that the bar was voted by Esquire as the coolest bar in the US. I tried my best to squeeze in a visit Thursday evening - but I forgot quarters to pay for parking and the place was fucking crawling with cops. The twin cities (specifically the downtown) go out of their way to remind you that there is no free parking -ever or anywhere. A person could make a fortune if they installed coin machines next to ATM's.

I walked by a number of people offering to give them a dollar for one fucking quarter and people sorta shrugged and walked away without really helping me.

In their defense - I'm as big as Grape Ape so picture a shaved yeti asking to break a dollar in a parking lot.

If there's one thing I really regret... its not going into the Nye's Polonaise Room.... the place had free parking behind it but I couldn't fit the Murano into the tight spot.

Anyhoo... the twin cities rocks vicious wang. I look very forward to coming back one day.

for the last time this week,
.twin city rollie.

Day 3 : Meeting Friends in Minnesota

Day 3 is about to come to a close for me... I don't have any time right now to post on the days events. I'll have to play catch up tomorrow.

In short : Day 2 of training went well, I went to a very cool Vintage Vinyl Record store, I had dinner with some good friends who moved from Detroit to the Twin Cities a little over a year ago and I was taken on a very cool trip about Minneapolis.

I really wish I could into chapter and verse about how awesome tonight was... but I really need to get some sleep.

.tCr.

Walk on the Wild Side

As many of you know... my body is a temple.

I start most of my days skipping out on lunch, in favor of sleeping in. I've been getting a lot more sleep in recent nights on account of not having to take Elliot on walks - so I've been getting up early and dorking around the hotel lobby in the morning - reading free papers.

One of the perks from staying at the Marriott (sp?) is getting your hands on some free breaky.

I've been hitting up cereals with some consistency, but ran across these Jimmy Dean's things today. They sorta work like popcorn bags. You throw em in the microwave for 45 seconds - then boom. They're done.

Mine popped in the microwave and I got a cheezy money shot all over the unit downstairs. My stomach has been upset all day and I'm blaming it squarely on this biscuit.

.tCr.

Day 2 : Trek to Minneapolis

My second day in the twin cities is coming to a close... not a whole lot to report on.
Today was my first day of training and that went exceptionally well. I'm getting to teach two very sharp people so we managed to move through the training very quickly.

After the work day completed - I made it back to the hotel to decompress and got some work related action items done.

Managed to squeeze in a solid nap... then headed into Minneapolis for a little visit.

The Twin City - isn't all that different from St. Paul... I drove over the Mississippi and walked around for a little bit.

Wish I kept better track of how many times I've "crossed the Mississippi" in my life time. I've crossed over it in a number of locations... this is the northernmost crossing and I've been to New Orleans so I've crossed it at its Southern most crossing also.

There's something very calming about that.

.twin city rollie.

Twin Cities

With photo uploads working again... I can finally post a proper entry on my first day in St. Paul MN.

The Cold

Ok... lets just get this out of the way. Yes. Its Cold here in Minnesota. It's not unbearably cold tho'. I think the highs are going to be in the 30's for a good part of the week so I may get a chance to see a lot of the snow around me melt away.



The Crave

I have a short list of things I want to take in on my personal time... one of things I got to cross off today : White Castle

I can't remember the last time I got White Castle... I didn't go out of my way to get some before I left Detroit. I occasionally get the crave however in Texas. It recently intensified when I caught Harold and Kumar on TBS the other day.

Did up a proper sack of sliders and fries with a big time coke. It was epic.



.tCr.

The Current

Blogger appears to be handling images a little better this evening... here comes the first of a number of posts I've been meaning to post all afternoon.

The Current

Ok... I need to seriously plug the fuck out of a local radio station here in the Twin Cities called : the Current. I stumbled onto it when I climbed into my rental car... and I haven't stopped listening since.

I seriously can't recall the last time I was this riveted to a radio station.

check out this playlist. this is what I've listened to since 10:00pm


10:16 Generation X - Your Generation
10:12 The Olivia Tremor Control - Define a Transparent Dream
10:07 Spoon - The Underdog
10:05 The Rumble Strips - My Oh My

.twin city rollie.

St. Paul / Minneapolis

Day 1

Arrived safely in St. Paul, Minnesota (work related trip) this morning...
As imagined - the weather is a little cooler than expected. I've taken a few photos already but I'm having some difficulties loading images up to blogger this afternoon.

gah.

because of it, I've already lost interest in posting a proper post.

more to come...

.twin city rollie.

9:00am but 7:00am in my heart and mind

Firstly... daylight savings, "spring forward" time sucks vicious wang. While the clock insists that its 9:00AM, its truly 7:00 in my heart and mind.

I can't believe its Sunday already.

The week has been a blur for the most part. We had the election here last Tuesday and I've been meaning to write up my experience for the local caucus but haven't had time to. In short - the experience wasn't exactly a pleasant one. I'm of the opinion that everyone around me, including the organizers were a little confused about how the fucking process works. Adding to the confusion was an extraordinary turnout by first time voters. Most of whom tried to make the most of having to wait 2 hours in line to caucus. Not vote... that was a separate process all together and I haven't the foggiest idea how long it took for them to get through that shit.

The most upsetting part, at least for me, was filling out an freakish questionnaire as I submitted my public vote. Here's a short list of things I was asked.• Name (understandable)
• Addy (understandable)
• Phone # (no thank you)
• email (fuck off)
• endorsement (Obama thank you)
• Are you mentally/physically handicapped (wtf? this was the first question of 5 that made no sense what so ever)
• Are you gay, lesbian or transgender....

At this point - i scratch out my entry and inform the volunteers that these were questions I was not willing to answer. Why the fuck do they have to upset you after waiting 3 hours to fucking do your part? Who the fuck approves this shit?


... Wednesday

So Wednesday turned out to be a blast. I recently made a new friend here in the Alamo City. His name is Robert and he's a fellow hardcore scooterist. We have a number of shared interests outside of scooting so we got together on Wednesday for eats and a ride around the city. I took him to a number of local hangs - including a killer record store called "Music Town" and we made it over to Madhatters, a tea house located in the historic King Williams district.

• photo credit : photo of scoots was taken by my friend Robert Kelley


... Thursday

Got around to catching up on some TV, watched LOST and recorded a podcast. A Ekobase podcast you can pick up here by the way. We're up to episode 36. This is possibly the best one we've done this season.



.... Friday

Friday turned out a little differently than planned. I planned on having dinner at home and making preparations for my parents to visit on Saturday. Those plans went out the window when i discovered that they were coming up a day early. Managed to make it out to First Friday and met up with some friends at Beethoven's. While the turnout was good - I didn't see many scooterists make the trek out to King Williams. Good times tho'.


... Saturday

Caught an interesting show last night. I got around to seeing a popular local act called Girl in a Coma (my second time) and a very promising SKA act by the name of "Kevin Goes 2 College". They played at a terrible venue on the NorthEast side of town - but made the trip out to meet up with Robert and his wife. I didn't stick around for the entire set. The show was plagued with sound issues and I was more interested in watching the Vampire Weekend performance on Saturday Nite live.

I was uber enthused to see them play M79. :)

Weekend Wrap-up

Thanks to Jury Duty on Friday... my weekend sorta kicked off Thursday night.

A local scooter shop put together a scooter run Thursday evening that consisted of 3 ice cream shops and a bar. Attended that and made quick friends with a guy who just moved to town from Alabama.
He's really into scootering and he reminded me a lot of some friends I had back in Detroit.

When he asked if I was thinking about going up to Austin over the weekend (by way of scoot) - I justified the trip almost instantly.

I had some scooter friends in Austin that I hadn't had a chance to meet yet, so I had to chalk it up to being a win/win.

Friday : Jury Duty

I few weeks ago I made mention of being tapped for "Grand Jury" selection. A duty that I was a little fearful to take part of because of the required time of participation.

I got word that 14 people (12 for Jury, 2 for Alternate) would be selected from those who were in attendance.
10 people instantly volunteered, which left 4 slots and 8 people who possibly shared the same sentiment I had.
Happy to report that I lucked out and was not selected. Got my walking papers and made sure to vote early while down at the courthouse.

The morning was a real joy.... but that came to a screeching halt when I got word of a parking violation. As much as I would like to rant and rail about how I got totally fucked by the parking structure... I'm just going to say that construction crews should advise visitors into parking slots when they have tarps up over important signs that READ : DON'T PARK HERE.

Austin :
So the Trip to Austin was amazing. The scooter ride out there took a little over 2 hours... A Vespa Shop recently re-opened their doors so I headed out with some fellow San Antonio scooterists to attend the party.

While there I had an opportunity to meet up with a Rover who moved to Texas 4 years ago. I also had a chance to run into friends who moved to Austin from Boston Mass.

Good times. Goooood Times.

Jury Duty?

Recently got tapped to show up for "Grand Jury Duty" selection...   The letter made mention that if selected it could take up to 2 months.

 know dick about the judicial system but 2 months sealed from the outside world sounds like a pain in the ass.

I so need to get a hold of Ted so that he can explain to me what I may be possibly getting myself into.

In short ladies and gents - don't renew your Drivers License.   I really does improve your chances to get selected for this type of shit.

Radio Ga GA

Received a rather nice present over the weekend... I'm a little unsure where my mom picked this up, but it's a shower curtain with a radio in it.

It has some simple controls along one side and it works surprisingly well despite only being equipped with a small radio.

I set it up so that I could listen to NPR in the morning... it occurred to me that I've never really listened to any local radio in my 2 years here.

I found a station the other morning that had some Rick James on but I didn't catch the call letters.

Anyhoo... if you see one of these pick it up.

Final Day : Atlanta International Airport

As I sit inside Terminal "T" of the Atlanta International Airport.... I can't help but pen a little blurb about the busiest Airport in the world.

While it doesn't feel like the largest airport I've ever set foot in... the foot traffic in there is insane.

I lucked out by checking into a terminal that was on the side of the airport. I spent a few minutes in the Airport Atrium and I got to see the Security checkpoint for center point of the airport.

I've never seen so many people file info for a line in my life.

If you ever have to fly out of here... show up wicked early.

Souther Charm - Day 4 of Hotlanta

Day 4 of the Atlanta trip is over... while the day was uneventful, I wanted to put up a post about the genuine Southern Hospitality I've encountered on my trip to Atlanta.

Having spent 10 years in Detroit... its a little off putting to hear some ask how you're doing and not think that they're taking the piss out of you.

I think that I'll miss the southern accent the most. I've had the opportunity to spend some afternoons listening to some older southern gents talk about Georgia. You can sorta shut your eye and imagine "the Warden" from any prison talk along.

.aCr.

Day 2 and 3 of Hotlanta

So i'm three day's into my Hotlanta trip and I'm bereft of really posting anything of interest to the blog. I've been working well into the early evening every day and haven't had a chance to go out and check out the city.

Today's highlight... a severe thunder storm that really pelted the shit out of the local area. Tennessee I believe got it a lot worse tho'.

Anyhoo... things are quiet here in the hotel room. I'm sorta leaching a signal from the neighboring Hotel. For some reason the wireless signal here is very weak.

In other (Georgia Related) news... I just read in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution that the latest R.E.M. album (Accelerate) harks back to the sound of the I.R.S. days.

I listened to one of the tracks off of their website and I'm pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds. go to www.remhq.com to check it out.

Bloggin from Hotlanta

Thanks to a scheduled business trip... yours truly is blogging this week from the City of Atlanta Georgia.

I'm currently staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the city. So I don't have any great photos to share just yet. If all goes well - I'll get to post some stories about the Atlanta Thrashers, local record stores and a local comedy club.

I have a buddy who lives in town so if all goes well I may even have a small Bettawreckonize meet up.

.rollie.in.hotlanta.

The 2008 Dodege Charger (a.k.a. the car rental I'm stuck with)

Shortly after taking my car into a local collision shop for repairs... I had my sister pick me up and drive me over to an Enterprise Rental Car office she's working at.

One of the perks of having a family member work at Enterprise is getting a decent rate on a car rental which works out really well for me seeing how I only get a 25 dollar per diem.

Knowing that I would have to saddle into a car rental of some kind until I get Margot back - I hoped to slip into an interesting vehicle that I would consider for a future acquisition.

That bubble of interest came to a screeching halt after I was presented with my options.

• Dodge Charger
• Jeep Patriot
• Chevy Avero (i think it was called the Avero)

I asked my sister to set me up with something that had an Auxiliary input jack so that I could listen to my iPod.


The Charger met that criteria and whose kidding who... The Charger is totally the Green Hornet car.

Below are my thoughts on the Charger : I'll split it up into two parts - the Good and the Bad.

The Good

I'm not sure what the design team had in mind when they got around to molding the Charger but the car has an obvious "muscle car" - regressive - look to it.

If I didn't know better... I bet they surveyed 500 police officers and asked them what would their ideal patrol car would look like.

So without beating this topic to death... the car feels freakishly familiar when you get near it. It feels like I'm slipping into a hotweel car I owned as a kid. And that just about wraps up all the good parts.

Well... the car came equipped with an axillary input jack... but it's not very uncommon these days - given the popularity of the iPod and other MP3 players

The Bad

Despite having an aggressive exterior... the car feels freakishly underpowered. The car has far more pep than my Honda Civic, but you can't shake the feeling that there isn't enough ponies under the hood for the over stretched frame.


The car interior is uninspiring and cold to the touch. I haven't fired it up at night so perhaps the instrumentation panel looks better in the dark... I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it going to suck wang in the dark too.

*Noises* - If there's one thing thats going to force me to return this car rental this weekend for something else - its going to be the freakish noises that emit from the steering column.


It sounds like a cassette is getting eating up at all times.

The car has a little under 8000 miles on it so I'm at a total loss as to why any noises are already coming out of it.



In summation... the Dodge Charger isn't for me.

600 Red Strokes

Ok... so a freaky quirk of mine is that I shake my leg a lot. I'm told that it stems from a "iron" deficiency... but I listen to plenty of Maiden so I don't know what they're talking about.

anyhoo, i managed to get a red pen marks all over my leg yesterday. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, but I must have had the pen stuck between my stomach and the desk, while I shook my leg. whats alarming is that I didn't feel 600 pen strokes on my thigh.


I went to the rest room and noticed in the mirror that something looked weird. upon closer inspection it looked like a kid drew an elaborate red cloud near my groin.



totally. whack.

even more whack - people at work saw it and didn't say anything till I freaked out. i apparently had it all morning.
Update:

I've been asked by some friends if I thought about the "blood brother" connection... and yes, I did but opted to not compare the two occurrences.

I have a menstrual story to share of my own but this isn't the time or the setting for it. I'm up for telling it however in person over a pint of beer.


PS - big ups on the inclusion of "House of Jealous Lovers" by the Rapture, in the movie Superbad.

Margot has her nose swiped

Long story short : I was involved in a small car accident this afternoon. Had the front of my car swiped by an oncoming driver...

Happy to report that no one was injured.

Below are some shots of Margot (mi carro)