Wah wah wah wah!

I was going to record today since I had the house all to myself, but I woke up with one of those deeply depressed moods and haven't felt like doing much other than laying face down on the floor. Tried getting some work done, but the inspiration just isn't at the moment. I think I'll try fasting or something. This will be a long one so stick with me.

Next Two Days

After having a horrible breakfast at Crystal Burger we decided to go visit the World of Coca Cola which lay somewhere in down town Atlanta. On the way there we passed by this amazing old graveyard, and I insisted we stop and check it out. It was Wednesday and this was the coldest it had been up to that point so we slipped on gloves (I bought gardening gloves since I couldn't find mittens at the last moment) and walked around. The place was amazing. Some of residents had been there since the early 1800's and there was even a tomb stone marked unknown.

Sean and Paul complained about me violating some kind of cosmic code because I was taking pictures of things. It's funny the kinds of boundaries people just make up on the spot. It was all very beautiful with marble structures and statues, but Paul yelped like a dog at one point when I got too close to the grass. It's like he thought the dead would rise and take vengeance on the spot.

Of course there was two things that seemed a bit out of place. First a woman was jogging down the rows of graves. It was large and the perfect place for it, but jogging in a graveyard does seem a little bit strange. Second there was a bar across the street called "Six Feet Under" and that's just a little crass don't you think? I believe we spent around an hour there, and then continued into downtown.

As I mentioned before down town Atlanta looks a lot like down town Miami with the two major differences being no Spanish people in sight and lots of brick buildings. We walked to where Paul thought the World of Coke had been, but it turned out it had moved to another location. A homeless person saw us looking around and gave us directions to the new location, and I gave him a couple of bucks.

We passed through an underground shopping plaza with a stand that sold bootleg kung fu movies until we got outside. Before we too far down the street bits of ice came falling from the sky. At first I was excited because I thought I was about to see snow, but it turned out to be God's vengeance in the form little balls of ice that stunf your face when they collided with it.

We walked for another 30 minutes or so, passing through a lovely park with an ice skating rink, and finally arrived at the world of Coke having only had to ask directions twice. But fate was not on our side, and it turned out that admittance was more than twice the cost that we had expected and we would have had to wait in line for over two hours. Defeated once more we went back to the hotel and got wasted until 4 a.m.

On a side note we passed the William Street building which is the offices of the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim if any one cares at all.

Thursday

Thursday was my favorite day on the trip, and the reason I fell in love with Atalanta. We got up early and ate at a small restaurant called The flying Biscuit Cafe. The place had artwork of famous jazz musicians on the wall and waitresses were all pretty attractive. I had a first rate meal of baked chicken with macaroni over collard greens. The chicken was flat that macaroni where in these strange rectangular blocks, but the food was amazing and they served it with their signature flying biscuits which were huge.

Unfortunately Sean was not feeling well after that and decided to go and lay down while me and Paul drove around to take some pictures. We stopped at a few places and snapped some quick photos then went on to visit a comic book store that me and some other friends ran across one night that last time we were in Atlanta.

The previous night we all decided we wanted to go to a local show, and I wanted to visit Little Five Points. Add that with the fact that it was New Years Eve and a lot was going on. We decided to see a show at The Star Bar mostly because they had this female punk band there that did a song about their boobs.

We called Sean, but he was going to visit a lady friend of his so me and Paul set out alone. When we got to little five points we visited two infamous spots from the last trip. First was the gas station Paul turned into after blowing his tire, and second was the former site of the echo lounge (not a restaurant) where we saw Bitch and Animal which for those who don't know (because I certainly didn't at the time) is a left-wing lesbian folk duo.

Since this post is long enough as it is I'll go into the magic of Little Five Points in the next entry and just keep it to the event details for now. First Paul took me to The Earl which was a local bar that had shows in the backroom. He bought me a local ail and we sat and talked over the eclectic selection of music in the jukebox before heading out.

Since it was a couple of hours before the show we walked around and watched some of the street performers. There was one man that looked like a statue and remained motionless wearing white make up until some one dropped money in his bucket. Then we would play a rotten song before going back to being a statue.

There was one dude who sort of sounded like he free styling while playing acoustic, but as we got closer it turned out he was just making mouth noises and ranting like an insane person. Attractive couples walked all around us as we went from shop to shop seeing what was open, and spent a little time in a record store. Did I mention that in Little Five Points hot chicks buy new albums on vinyl? What a paradise!

Eventually we settled down and had dinner at a place called the Porter. It was a sea food bar/grill with amazing ambiance. Again the waitresses were attractive and nice, the place was packed with hipsters, and they played heavy metal over the sound system. Paul was determined I remain buzzed (despite the fact that he does not drink), and insisted I try another local drink. Their beer menu was a clip board with about 20 sheets front to back filled with different drinks divided by region of the world, alcohol content, and price. By the time the waitress got back I had no idea what I wanted, but then I saw it.

Before we went on the trip me and Sean kept making jokes about drinking Mint Juleps which of course were more of a Kentucky thing, but when you live in South Florida the truth is you have to go North to really reach the South so it was all the same to us. I ordered one and me and Paul talked about music and the local scene while I sipped my Julep and ate the most delicious hush puppies I have ever thrown a lip around, and it even came with some kind of amazing Japanese apple sauce for dipping.

After that we killed a bit more time by visiting a liquor store and the drinking a 40 oz in the car. When we got to The Star Bar we kicked around for about an hour watching all the ironically dressed people with stupid hats toss balloons at each other until The Judies came on. You see the thing about the Atlanta music scene is that each band picks another famous band that they like, and they just rip that band off. It took me a while to place my finger on it, but eventually I settled on David Bowie as this bands "inspiration." Paul claimed that they were doing "Low" era David Bowie. Not my style of music, but the performance was pretty good.

After that Coathangers (the band we were there to see) came on. Their girls were all attractive, and the music... well some of it seemed to have an off beat quality to it that should have been interesting. It was kind of like the Go Go's meets Sonic Youth, but the sound mix was terrible. The bass was way too loud, you couldn't understand a word they were saying, no one was in time for more than a bar or two, and none of them could play worth a damn.

Of course no one expects virtuosity from punk music, but enough was enough. Every one who knows me knows how much I hate music, despite me being a musician, and it wasn't long before we left. I finished my Paps Blue Ribbon, listened to their song about boobs, and we drive back to the hotel just as the New Year rang in. Then we got wasted.

Pictures!!!

As before the corresponding post is below so read that before looking at the pictures.

The things I'd do To A plate Of lo Mein

I forgot about a couple of filler events that happened before the excitement of the following days and since I'm in a lazy frame of mind I think I'll just write those events instead. Sorry, but I'm in control of this literary journey and that's how things are going to be.
There are two things in Georgia that absolutely cannot be found in Florida. You see Florida is a flat stretch of land that rests with a comfortable mean elevation of about 100 feet above sea level. This means that: a) it's a lot easier to walk from place to place, but mountains are nowhere to be found and b) there are no basements. One might say that Georgia has a third bit of interest in that it snows, but parts of Northern Florida do see snow in the winter, and I believe I heard it even snowed in Orlando today.

We never did see snow or stand on top of any mountains, but we did get to visit our (my) very first basement which happened to be the living quarters of our good friend Paul. It was a bit messy, but we spent a bit of time looking through his record collection, playing with instruments, and scrounging around for more food to eat. I found that after all this time I can still play bass pretty well. Some might argue better than before.

We were like dumpy raccoons in search of reading materials and things with naked ladies in them. Before leaving Paul lent me Vince Flin's Term Limits, two Oishinbo mangas, and a third manga called Disappearance Diaries. Generally I hate manga, but the subject matter looked interesting and Paul swore they were good. Literally. He just started cursing loudly. All in all it was a successful scavenge, and Sean even managed to hurt himself using Paul's push up thingy.

The only other event of significance that I left out was when we went to dinner with Paul's sister Cheryl... I think that's how its spelled. I don't remember what every one ate, but we talked Sean into order the house special "death sauce" with his meal. One of those things that supposed to be so hot that you gotta sign a waver blah blah blah. Well our waiter was obviously new on the job and kept goofing up. He said he handed us the death sauce, but what Sean got was barely even spicy. I even had to admit it was a joke, and I can't stand spicy stuff. Maybe the waiter screwed up, but we'll never know.

Apparently Yogis can be dicks too. Till next time.

My New Favorite Thing

Yes yes yes! The vacation stuff is below. Relax and scroll down. Look at the pictures. Read the post below the other pictures. It's there. But right now lets take a look at my new favorite thing in the whole world.



Now on to the Bombcast and then off to sleep!

Days 1- 3 Pics

As before the post that accompanies these pixies is just below so check it out and read it first before taking a looking. It's called Semper Doughnut by the way.

Semper Dohnut

Don't watch 7 episodes of Green Wing in one day it will change you. I went around imitating Guy Secretan all day and it drove every one nuts. Now that you've been warned on with the show. Working on my new concept album. This one actually requires historical and biblical research. A serious undertaking.

To give you an idea of how awesome Atlanta is on the first day we arrived a place called the Plaza Theater had this on their bill: A performance by the magician Dr. Mortes, a burlesque show, followed by a screening of Destroy All Monsters. We didn't go, but it's just awesome that it happened.

Days 1 - 3

The first full three days in Atlanta were more or less a blur since we basically did one thing each day and then went back to the hotel and rested up for late night booze and food cramming. I wanted to get out a lot more, but who the heck knows where anything is not to mention that Sean is very lazy.

Day one we decided to go for a walk and see what sights could be seen. Had we gone right we would have hit a row of shopping plazas with fast food establishments, local shops (including the infamous Rack Room Shoes which Sean wrote a catchy heavy metal jingle for), and a Gamestop. Not knowing this we turned left and ended up walked straight up hill for 20 minutes until we reached a strip mall that sat in front of a bunch of Victorian looking cottage house things. I'm just throwing out the word "Victorian" by the way since I can't properly identify what era these dumb looking duplexes where designed after.

We stopped in a deli, ate a ridiculously expensive breakfast, and then moved on. I had a sandwich that went by the name of Monte Cristo, and personally I don't know how I lived as long as I have without this delectable little bastard. And Sean had a breakfast Taco the size of a horses wiener. Too many inane facts? We climbed downhill to the hotel, and Sean napped while I played computer games until Paul came over and watched us get wasted.

Day two we went to the North Point Mall so that Sean could buy some presents. It is more or less an exact copy of the Aventure Mall, but there was one difference: Asians. Living in Florida you rarely see Asian people outside of restaurants that serve Asian cuisine, but Atlanta is like kidding.. sort of.. not at all).

Anyways we walked into a Hot Topic and I felt like a pedophile so we had to leave. Besides some Asians stopping me from looking at posters that was the most exciting thing that happened. We went to Best Buy and Sean graciously purchased Session One of BSG, and we all went on our way.

That night Paul came and we talked about all the albums I gave him. I forgot to mention I handed over a copy of just about every full and unfinished recording we had done in the last two years including Master Edward Gonzalez's Crying On The Outside. Needless to say Paul was a happy happy man, and loved every second of it. Think I should release some kind of boxed set for free download?

Day three we skipped out of the hotel early and saw Avatar in 3D. Was it a good movie? Hell no! Was it terrible? No. I enjoyed it in a sort of disinterested/benign way. I've written a review for it, but haven't posted it yet. Needless to say the film would currently be bombing hardcore if it weren't for the hype of having James Cameron's name attached to it. I even started falling asleep during the big battle sequence. At one point I even leaned over to Paul and whispered "This movie is so racist" and about 5 minutes later he whispered "You called it." We then ate delicious 50 cent chicken wings and drank beer.

Paul also took us to some underground gaming store which sold Wonder Swans and all kinds of weird Japan only crap that was way too expensive. Though I have to admit the Neo Geo hand held was a steal. The place modded game systems and sold all kinds of games from Japan, but who cares? The guys behind the counter were uber dorks, and after I made the mistake of asking what game the one guy was playing on his lap top a nerd star went super nova. At one point me, Paul, and Sean all looked at each other and silently communicated our want to punch these dudes in their shit.

Aside from eating a lot that's about it. Paul brought us some ham. We bought more beer, and much getting wasted and being dorks ensued. That caps it for this installment of the trip. Stay tuned for the best bits as Paul gets done with work and therapy for the week and we hit the town. As before pics will be above.

Trip Photos Go!

The actual post for this is just below so you might want to read that first before looking at these. If you clicked the link that goes directly to this post then just go out to the blog and scan down to "The adventure begins." In case you're wondering I did take more "Artistically" valid photos, but I'll get to working my magic on them later. First up Sean vs the vending machines.



Day 1 locked and loaded!