The I-35W bridge a few blocks from where I now live fell into the Mississippi river yesterday. My friend, Kathy and I were just about to leave Whitey's when another diner got a call and yelled "35W just fell into the Mississippi." This is what it looked like when we got to the river.
It was strange how quiet the neighborhood was this morning. I've never been happier about my decision to start biking to work. But, the ride over 35W this morning was especially eerie.
Or, The World's Largest Roadtrip
Having grown up under the watchful eyes of a 28 foot, 8000 pound viking named Big Ole, I've always had a bit of a thing for roadside statues. Back in 1994 I wanted to write a book about them, but found out someone had already done it. Over the years I've visited a few here and there, but I finally decided to go out hunting in earnest a few days ago. My brother came along and I think we got most of them between Alexandria and Fargo.
Goosing the World's Largest Turkey Butt
Other colossi nabbed last week--
World's Largest Coot, Ashby
World's Largest Pelican, Pelican Rapids
World's Largest Loon, Vergas
World's Largest Turkey, Frazee
Chief Wenonga, Battle Lake
World's Largest Prairie Chicken, Rothsay
Big Ole, Alexandria
Runestone Replica, Alexandria
World's Largest Dragonfly, Ottertail
Various objects in Nyberg Park, Vining
The World's Largest Otter, Fergus Falls
More photos on flickr. I'm hoping to head south towards Blue Earth and Mankato soon to get the Jolly Green Giant and the Happy Chef.
Day Four, final day
Sunday, December 17
Sunday morning we took the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked around for a while. I saw this woman talking on her cell phone in the middle of the street. A bus had to stop and honk at her to get her to move. She yelled at the driver and they both threw up their arms in a universal "what the hell is the matter with you" gesture. We looped around the World Trade Center Site. Supposedly the firemen and survivors of the 9/11 attacks were going to be signing the first beam of the Freedom Tower that morning, but we didn't see anyone. Downtown is deserted on a Sunday morning. Heading north, we crossed through Chinatown and into Little Italy. We did not witness any mob hits while we were in Little Italy, but we had ravioli for lunch at Positano. Yum.
In NoLita we saw a bunch of people waiting in line at the corner of Spring and Elizabeth. There was a graffiti / street art "exhibit" happening in the building because developers are cleaning it up and turning it into condos. We continued north and ended up at the former location of CBGBs. There wasn't much left, just the Joey Ramone Place street sign. We walked through St. Mark's Place, which really wasn't very exciting and snooped around a flea market for a while before taking a cab back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport. Cabs aren't as scary as David Letterman led me to believe. Although they are sort of like a thrill ride. I could never drive in NYC. It's crazy, and boy do people like to honk.
Our flight was late and then we were delayed further when the tow machine they use to push the plane out to the runway broke. Luckily, I had the airplane safely procedure brochure to keep me entertained. Most of the brochure made sense, ie. Don’t open the emergency door if the outside of the plane is on fire, but what about this one?
Is that Willy Wonka? What the hell?
We didn’t get home until midnight.
So, to sum up...
NYC is not as big and scary as I thought it would be. It also isn't as dirty or smelly as I imagined. At least, it isn't in Manhattan. I thought Manhattan was going to be all designer clothing stores and clubs I couldn't get into because I wasn't fabulous enough but at least a third of the city is souvenir shops. I spotted six identical quilted leather jackets by the end of the trip. I don't know where they all came from, but I guess if you are a black man and live in NYC it’s the jacket you want. I never did find a snow globe. None of them were quite what I was looking for. Maybe I'll order one. Or pick one up next trip. I'm looking forward to going back. I should have made a friend so I'd have somewhere to stay for free. Next time I will move slower.
Day Three
December 16, 2006
Thanks to the staff at the Hotel Wolcott our radiator was off and our room was cool and quiet. We started the day with an egg bagel sandwich across the street at the Brooklyn Bagel Co. and decided to hit the Empire State Building first since the skies were really clear. This was a brilliant move on our part. We walked right in, only waiting in line for a few minutes. Later in the day we noticed a sign at the entrance indicating there was a two hour plus wait to get in. The top of the Empire State Building was pretty cool, but it would have been spoiled by two hours in line. Despite having declared multiple times during the past few weeks that I planned to spit off the top of the ESB, I didn't actually do it. Sadly, I'm just not that tacky. I considered dropping a penny off, but decided that wouldn't be very nice either. Plus there were signs posted forbidding the tossing of objects off the top, so I couldn't possibly ...
After the ESB, we went to the Guggenheim. It was pretty cool. I probably enjoyed the architecture of the building more than the art. There was music being performed while we were there. A small orchestra was in the lobby and the choir was further up the spiral--men on one side and women on the other. The effect was rather impressive. From the Guggenheim we took a bus towards downtown. Our bus took a round about path to avoid the protesters on Fifth Avenue. We saw a few people with signs but ended up missing the whole thing. We watched it on the news later. Apparently they made shopping rather difficult, prompting one witness to say, "They have a right to their protest, but we have a right to do our shopping."
Our bus dropped us off right in front of the Ed Sullivan Theatre. There was no taping of the Late Show, but we were able to buy snacks from Rupert at the Hello Deli around the corner. We were pretty surprised he was there. From there we raced through the MOMA (Ooh, Starry Night. Oooh Warhol. Oooh, Mondrian.) over to Grand Central Station, and through St. Patrick's Cathedral. Next we stopped at the New York Public Library so I could unleash my inner nerd. I got to see the reading rooms, the Guttenburg Bible, Patience and Fortitude, and bought a lucky cat figurine (they were hosting a Japanese exhibit) from the gift shop. I think I'm going to name him "Employment."
We looked at the window displays at Saks, Lord and Taylor, and Macy's on the way back to the hotel. Macy's was insane, but there were all these E6 markers all over the street. At first I thought it was a freak of nature--an appartition in a dirty piece of gum. Sort of like the Virgin Mary in that grilled cheese sandwich, but then I saw them all over.
There were several cops at the square across the street from Macy's looking into the trashcans. Kathy asked a woman what they were doing and she said "they found a purse in there." Only with the woman's accent it sounded like she said "they found a person in there." Kathy's face as she exclaimed "a person!" was priceless. We had dinner at a somewhat cheesy restaurant in the basement of the Empire State Building called the Heartland Cafe. While resting our feet at the hotel we both fell asleep.
Day Two
Friday, December 15th
After a long, sleepless night trying to determine how to turn off the radiator in our hotel room (it was loud & really hot--opening the window only made it pop and hiss more) we hopped on the B train towards Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. At the museum I saw many stuffed fish that I thought would look cool mounted over my bed. We didn't learn anything but we did find where the stereotypical rude New Yorkers were hiding--in line for the planetarium show. Honestly, the show was only running about 5 minutes late. Maybe I was just extra tolerant because I had lost my ticket while wandering through the museum and the staff was nice enough to give me another one so I could get in to the planetarium.
I also found the fabled albino New York City sewer alligator. They are extinct now. Maybe the C.H.U.D.s killed them all?
After the museum we decided to walk across Central Park, see Strawberry Fields, and get some lunch. Unfortunately there was no food anywhere near Central Park, with the exception of vendor hotdogs. We walked up to Le Parker Meridian to get a burger at Burger Joint but the line was too long (even at 2pm) and we were starving. We ended up eating at Topaz Thai around the corner. It was decent. After lunch we walked up to the discount ticket booth to find that the line wrapped around the Marriot several times. We decided to go back to the hotel for a nap and try again later. When we returned we were able to walk right up to the counter, procuring tickets for the 11pm performance of Evil Dead: the Musical at the New World Stages. That's right. Evil Dead. The Musical.
We walked around Time Square for a while and looked at the window decorations. There was a man down the street with a sign warning that the end was near. Saks Fifth Avenue had lighted snowflakes on the outside of the building that were programmed to blink to "Carole of the Bells."
We ended up eating dinner at Maxie's Delicatessen which was Ok. We were looking for cheese cake and found sandwiches that were obscenely large--an entire pound of meat. Which wouldn't have been so bad but they threatened to charge us $3 if we shared it. Should I be penalized for not wanting to eat an entire pound of meat? No. We called their bluff and shared it anyway. We didn't get charged. The burger was OK. The Cheesecake was OK. Nothing special, but pretty good.
Evil Dead: The Musical was awesome. The first few rows ("Splatter Zone") are half price because you get sprayed with fake blood. We sat in the sixth row, which was the row just beyond where the blood hit. The show was hilarious. There were lots of "inside jokes" incorporated into the plot. At one point Cheryl was reading Bruce Campbell's autobiography, and later Annie joked that the movie Spiderman (also by Sam Raimi) sucked. The songs were pretty good too. I think my favorite was the doo-wop song, "All the Men In My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons." [Listen on MySpace]
New York City: Day One
Thursday, December 14
Kathy and I took an early flight out of MSP to JFK. There was hardly anyone on the plane. I guess most people are smart enough not to start their vacation by getting up at 3am. Eager to ride the subway and to avoid a $50 cab fare we jumped in the AirTrain and took the A train to Penn Station. Seven dollars! Piece of cake!
Having experienced the marvel that is New York's MTA, I can now officially start complaining about how much mass transit in the Twin Cities sucks. It only took about two stops for a guy on the train to start rapping. A few stops later an old lady asked me if I wanted to be saved by Jesus (I didn't.) I saw three people wearing identical quilted leather jackets. Taking the subway was pretty cool, not because we spent an hour underground in a dark tunnel, but because we went from the nothingness that was the airport (the surrounding area looked a bit like Lake and Hiawatha), and emerged from underground in the middle of Manhattan. The first thing we saw as we were hauling our suitcases up the stairs to 8th Avenue was the Empire State Building.
We were able to check in to the hotel early and spent the first part of the afternoon walking around. We saw the Flatiron Building and Kathy ate a hotdog from a vendor. Next we stopped in at the Chelsea Hotel. I remembered you well. It was such a nice day that we decided to take a City Line cruise that took us around the southern tip of the island, downtown, past the Statue of Liberty. It was nice until the sun went down about 45 minutes into the 2-hour trip. After the cruise we were hungry and frozen so we popped into a BBQ joint for a sandwich. By this time it was dark so we walked over to Time Square and Rockefeller Plaza. The tree was huge and giant projected snowflakes fell down the side of Rockefeller Center. We took a bus back to the hotel to ready ourselves for the Dick Valentine show. Turns out both Kathy and I independently decided that the choice sexy outfit for a night out in New York was jeans and a black turtleneck. I think this is amusing.
The Elton John tribute show before Dick was running late so we just hung out by the door and waited. I met fellow Electric Six enthusiast Nicky and her fiancé Dave. The show was pretty cool. Joe's pub was nice, but not so hip that Kathy and I were turned away at the door for not being fabulous enough. The only thing I didn't like about Joe's Pub was the woman in the ladies room who wouldn't let me wash my own hands. Restroom valets give me the creeps.
Dick was accompanied on several songs by a woman named Smith. Smith played a Nord Electro 2 and was, according to Dick, the only person in the room who had been to Detroit besides him. And Dave Kaplan.
American Troubadour set list:
She's White (part one)
Snowball (Devo cover)
She's White (part two)
She's Guatemala
She's White (part three)
Explains that he can't believe he's only getting $9000 (I'm pretty sure he was joking) for playing the show when the guy who wrote the music for Brokeback Mountain made "one billion dollars" for strumming two notes.
"Who hates the French as much as I do?"
I Don't Speak French
"Anyone here in love?" silence. "No?"
I Invented the Night
When I Win the Lottery (Camper Van Beethoven cover)
Explains that the next song is one he cowrote with Eddie Vedder and it is about a father and a son and a curse and the audience tonight is going to lift the curse... etc.
Dance Commander
Jimmy Carter
Pink Flamingos
"Who here considers themselves to be hardcore Electric Six fans?" Wild applause. "Who considers themselves to be hardcore Bongwater fans?" One lone, quiet "woo."
Living End (Bongwater cover)
Hysteria (Def Leppard cover)
Synthesizer
Vengeance and Fashion / Taxi to Nowhere
Explains that Jack White taught him how to splice his songs together. Acknowledges that he owes "all this" to Jack.
Jack White Song (sung in a rather spot on high pitched Jack White shriek)
States "I'm going to hell."
Lenny Kravitz
Night Vision (invites three girls onto stage to sing back up)
Gay Bar (invites everyone onto stage)
Tells everyone to get off the stage and not to touch him. Everyone responds by touching him as they leave the stage.
Forever in Blue Jeans (Neil Diamond cover)
Band in Hell
??? Title Unknown??? I think the lyrics contained the phrase "pressure cooker."
Tiny Little Men
After the show Tyler immediately took off like Satan was after him. But not before I jumped in front of him to say hi. He recognized me, which kind of surprised me, saying "All the way from Minnesota!" I told him I was excited to be in NYC and he said I'd have a good time. I did.
Electric Six @ First Avenue
October 27, 2006
w/ The Blue Van & Aberdeen City
Holy crap.
While I was waiting for Electric Six to take the stage I challenged Scott to a game of pool. Check out the cue ball:
The night just got better and better.
Until Scott got killed by a polar bear:
The show was awesome. I rushed the stage. There was no oxygen up there, but I totally got pummeled so it was OK. I spent a good deal of the evening with my face planted into the back of a guy wearing a white shirt. I'd like to thank Mr. White Shirt for being a soft landing. I have a nice bruise on my left shoulder. It's shaped like a lightning bolt. Ok it's not. But...
This is what an Electric Six crowd should look like. Less bores, more bears. Plus Dave's fu manchu kicks a little ass:
My photos got much, much worse. It was sort of hard to hold the camera still. And they should all be captioned "Shannon, clean the dust off your lens."
This was for me:
Percussion World is from Wisconsin Dells, Minnesota. During Dick's pre-"Rock and Roll Evacuation" BUUUUUSSSSHHHHH monolog, he said that they are going to build a new Mount Rushmore on top of the Renaissance Center in Detroit featuring Jesus and the Devil and Elvis and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum and BUUUUSSSSHHHH. I tried to video it but screwed it up.
Dick's intro to just about every song was that it just wasn't going to be good enough this year for the Detroit Tigers. It was Brad's birthday, from the Blue Van, so Dick brought him up on stage and sang Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" to him.
I drank a bit. I was feeling good. I high-fived Nash while he was walking by minding his own business. Percussion World said he really liked my video so I hugged him. Then I found Dick and suavely introduced myself like this: "Hi, I'm Shannon. I humped a giant mushroom dressed like a monkey and you put me on your guest list. Thanks." He said I should make a video for "Night Vision." I said maybe I will but it's gonna have to have a monkey head in it. Dick laughed at me. He still wants to marry me, I can tell. I said hi to Dequindre at the merch table, where I met Mike (inexperienced trailer backer) Dundon. He invited me to hang out but I was dying for pizza so I gave him my phone number instead. Tait? and The Colonel illuded me. Four out of six isn't too bad, but I really wanted to ask Tait? his opinion of Keytars. Oh well, next time.
I miss them.
Zombie Pub Crawl
September 9, 2006
Northeast Minneapolis
ZPC cheer = What do we want? Brains! When do we want them? Braaaaaiiiiiiinnnns!
Overheard = "Pardon me, I'm mean, um ... braaaaiiiins."
There were some really good costumes again this year. My favorite was Zombie Marathon Runner. He had tire tracks on his back. I went as Zombie Nancy Spungen.
This year we hit the 331, 1029, NE Yacht Club, Elsie's, Whitey's, Otter Saloon, and the Spring Street. The 331 had a doorman in a coffin and a zombie band. The 331 club is awesome. The staff at the NE Yacht Club let me use their tape to fix my trick knife. The staff of the NE Yacht Club is awesome. There was Zombowling at Elsie's and Zombie-oke at the Spring Street. I had promised myself earlier in the week that I wouldn't get so drunk that I'd forget I can't sing.
Oops.
PJ and I singing the Sex Pistol's "My Way"
I'm not really sure how that happened. I think the mix of vodka, fake blood, and irritation due to people not recognizing my costume made me temporarily insane. The giant blonde wig may have also played a role. Someone threw a bloody white rose on stage for us, so we must not have been too bad. Not that Sid Vicious had set the bar that high.
My Zombie Pub Crawl photos on flickr.com
Electric Six @ MN Zoo
July 7, 2006
Electric Six put on a really great show tonight at the MN Zoo. Dick was in top form--he was very chatty and all the pushups / dance moves were employed full force, including some new moves straight out of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Which was sort of fitting because the audience might have been dead. At least until some poor DJ introduced the Psychedelic Furs as the Electric Furs. Then they turned a little undead.
The crowd goes wild... This was during the show. I'm not kidding.
Electric Six opened with "Improper Dancing" which I really wasn't ready for. I had snuck down to the front row, but wasn't ready to dance yet, let alone dance improperly. I don't really have any moves, rather just end either jerking my hips uncomfortably or flailing around like Kermit at the beginning of the Muppet Show. I guess I could have pulled out the "Monkey Dance" seeing how I was at the zoo, but since I was completely sober I thought better of it. Still after a song or two I couldn't control myself anymore. In reality I was probably barely twitching, but to me I was dancing. At the very least I was standing up.
Valentine explained that they had been "hand-picked" by the Psychedelic Furs to open for them and how this was a "tremendous opportunity" for them. He mentioned the Replacements and Soul Asylum, then I just about died when he said it's good to be here in Minnesota, Apple Valley, off of Johnny Cake Road--after the show we're going to purify ourselves in the water of Lake Minnetonka.
A giant pot of flowers and good manners were all that separated me from the band.
After wowing the suburbanites witih "Naked Pictures (of your mother)" and a new song about changing your gender midlife, Valentine treated us to an anti-Bush (BUUUUUUSSSSSSHHHHH! ) rant before "Rock and Roll Evacuation" in which he painted a future world of Bushes for us: Jeb Bush, then some other Bush, years later spermatozoa Bush. Maybe even one of us ladies could carry a Bush someday, he suggested... then he screamed something along the lines of "Can you imagine if Gore was president right now? We'd all be speaking freaking Arabic!!!! " and keeled over. It was brilliant. This was pretty much met with the same blank stares that the entire show got. So, he said that politics weren't funny, not unless you were from Minnesota and had elected a professional wrestler governor. Touche.
After their set the band pretty much vanished. I guess I can't blame them. I was sort of hoping Valentine would come out and profess his love for me, but it was not to be. Oh well. I'll get him in October--8th time's the charm.
The Psychedelic Furs were really old. They made me wonder what I would be doing 25 years from now, in a bad way. And they wore lots of black to match their dyed hair. We stayed for four or five songs at which point I swear I had heard one twice so we took off and went Psycho Suzie's for pizza & vodka. Yum. After a few slices, PJ had a vision of my future in which I was in a delivery room about to have a baby and Dick Valentine was doing pushups next to my bed. Every once in a while he would stop and yell "PUUUUUUSSSSSHHHHH!"
Set List (not in order):
Improper Dancing
Danger High Voltage
Naked Pictures (of Your Mother)
Synthesizer
Mr. Woman?
Gay Bar
Devil Nights
Future Boys
Future is In the Future
Rock and Roll Evacuation
Dance Commander
Good clean fun on the filthy Mississippi River
La Crosse, Wisconsin
I am a highly reflective surface (don't worry, I put on the SPF 45.)
Where I was:
And because it's Independence Day, something I love about America:
I spent the weekend at my cousin's in La Crosse. We went to Riverfest and saw an oldies band called Studebaker 7 and some boring band (Caroline's Spine) who reportedly had a hit I had never heard. Riverfest wasn't that exciting, but La Crosse was fun--I got to go down a waterslide and ride around on a boat--two things I haven't done in years.
La Crosse residents seem to be fond of slogan t-shirts. I saw a ton of them at Riverfest, everthing from "Officer I swear to drunk I'm not God" to "Cunning Linguist."
I didn't make it back until late Monday night. It was kind of fun driving at night, though I almost backed into a ditch in La Crescent because I was distracted by a sea of fireflies. I saw quite a few fireworks between La Crosse and Rochester.
Bowling at Bryant Lake Bowl
Friday, May 12, 2006
Friday I got a chance to re-test my theory that you bowl better if you dedicate your frame to people or things. I did pretty well--a couple of strikes and a couple of spares for "my love for Dick Valentine."
Anthony pointed out that it really wasn't fair of me to dedicate every ball to Dick, so I tried mixing in my love for cheese, my love for my cat, and that the bastard squirrel who keeps tipping over my bird feeder should get what's coming to him. But, I didn't do nearly so well as when I bowled for Dick. I actually got a gutter ball trying to damn the squirrel. I guess the bowling spirits don't appreciate violence or hate.
I ended up bowling a 102 and a 108. Not half bad. So, I think my theory is proven.
Also worth noting is that I had to meet new people for the second time this week (the first being a few howwastheshow.com people at Dave's birthday Wednesday.) Somehow I managed to survive. Hi new people--you aren't that scary/creepy after all?
Kid Dakota @ Turf Club
May 5, 2006
Shame on whoever was giving out free maracas for Cinco de Mayo.
...who inadvertently find my blog.
I spent the weekend back in Podunk celebrating the 48th aniversary of Ma K's birth. She is not, in fact, 48 years old, but appreciated my math error. I forget how dark it gets outside of the city. I stopped in Elbow Lake to visit my friend and could barely find the freeway entrance on the way home. It's as if electricity doesn't exist out there. I got Ma the slutty shoes she had her eye on. Dad got her two more log lawn chairs. I asked her why she needed four chairs when there was only two of her and dad and she deadpanned (I don't know if I'm embarrassed or proud): "Well, when you and Dick come to visit you'll need somewhere to sit."
Yesterday I went crazy and decided to take out the canoe. I saw a really ugly giant carp. It's not often I interact with nature. The experience wasn't half bad. I guess nature is OK as long as it's not part of camping.
I managed to get myself a ride to Madison this weekend. Unfortunately there was some bad construction traffic and it took forever to get through Menomonie. We did get there Friday in time to see Low--which was great. The High Noon Saloon was cool. Saturday, David and Kate and I spent most of the day walking around campus / State Street shopping and eating. It was a beautiful day until I decided to spend way too much money on a pair of sunglasses to replace the one's I had left at home. Then the sun went down and it got a little cool. Most of the shops on State Street were pretty bad--a lot of cheap, disposable, (as David would say) "hoochie-mamma" clothes that I would never wear. They did have a gift store that sold lomographic cameras and I probably would have bought one if I hadn't got the soon-to-be unnecessary sunglasses. I did buy this little kaleidoscope-esque card to hold in front of my digital camera.
And I finally found another one of those big plastic hair pins that I like to use in my librarian bun, so in the end I have to give State Street a thumbs up. There are probably too many restaurants in the area though. It took us over an hour to decide where to eat dinner and by then it was late enough that we ended up eating at Potbelly's.
By Sunday it was pooring rain. Traffic wasn't as bad on the return trip. The rain stopped near Tomah and the sun reappeared by Eau Claire so I got to wear my sunglasses again. I really enjoyed being a passenger, though I felt a little guilty that I can't drive a manual transmission and couldn't help behind the wheel. I could make the trip again, but next time I'd probably avoid the restroom at the DQ / BP station in Osseo.
My middle name is girl who cried photoshopped wolf. But I SWEAR this one is real:
Thank you Dave, for taking the photo. [more]
And thank you Scott (aka "very powerful lobbyist" ) for stealing my imaginary boyfriend right after this photo was taken.
I told him I wanted to marry Dick Valentine, just in case he ever finds himself as Electric Six's photographer. It's all about networking.
I made it about half a mile Monday before I started thinking about turning back. Moments later the driver's side windshield wiper flew off my car and sealed the deal. I couldn't see where I was going before the wiper fell off, so the drive back home was a little tense. I decided going to work wasn't worth taking four different buses, so I stayed home and spent the morning watching really bad soap operas and cars getting stuck at the corner in front of my house.
My back yard
Another Cannibal Night has come and gone.
Menu:
sloppy JOE
CEASAR salad
GINGER ale
Gummy Soldiers on a stick
Dr. Pepper
Ladyfingers
Chip
Guacamole (made with avocados from the Avocado Jungle of Death)
and the pièce de résistance:
An anatomically correct brain made of rainbow layered Jello.
Background music was compliments of Mr. Richard Hayman and his album "Voodoo!" It really set the mood for the evening, but I think it must have triggered some latent homicidal inclinations in Dave because he went mad and started strangling the guests.
The night's feature presentation, Eating Raoul, was quite entertaining if not the cannibalistic extravaganza the Netflix synopsis made it out to be.
The good die young. I have always suspected myself to be good, but longed to be bad. Now that I am officially old, I have irrefutable proof of my badness. Youth for badness is not such a shabby trade. Plus, now that I'm old, it will be easier to date younger men.
Thirty is not half bad so far... as you can see from the following party photos, I am taking my new status as an adult very seriously:At my party, there was another Doomsday Birthday Cake of course.
My cocktail themed birthday party was totally classy until after my third martini when I picked up a guitar and cigarette even though I don't play or smoke.
My guests were ignoring me so I pulled out my signature move, the monkey dance.
I then made an unsucessful, drunken attempt at Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" on the organ.
The Bob-o-Lantern took me about 20 times longer to carve than I thought it would. The pumpkin was so hard I had to use a chisel.
My doll, Marie Antoinette
The band let me "jam" with them. Here I am performing "My favorite note is E" on bass. Actually my favorite note is E minor. I am a very versatile performer.
I also have some pretty good "moves."
This morning Elisa, Kathy, and Tim and I went to Uptown for brunch. On the drive over we saw a boy walking a llama down Hennepin. It was black and white.
What do we want?
Brains!
When do we want them?
Braaaaaains!
PJ and two zombies from the horde.
The zombie horde attacks locals. Locals save themselves by pouring liquor down zombie throats.
I managed to stay out of all photos but one, as far as I know. Luckily, that one was taken with my own camera so I get to photoshop the drunk off my face...
Ms. Yuk and the zombie she won in the meat raffle.
More pics at zombiepubcrawl.com
The third annual doomsday birthday cake.
Most of them were blurry, I guess I was laughing too hard to hold the camera steady, but I got a few ok ones. I used 35mm black and white 1600 iso film with no flash.
When I have too much time on my hands I throw little parties in my head for me and all my fabulous friends. There was a photographer at the last party:
That's right. Cream Corn. While I am, of course, way too prissy to actually wrestle, I did enthusiastically spectate. Thankfully the weather was cool and overcast, keeping the stench of the corn to a minimum. Pictures from Latch Island in lovely Winona, Minnesota are here: Cream Corn 6!
So last weekend was prom. It was a lot of fun and the decorations were perfection. Especially the mirror ball. I've got a few pictures for you...
Dick was a dream date! Here we are at Block E engaging in a little tomfoolery after our pre-prom feast at the Hard Rock Cafe.
And here is a close up of my hair, it felt a lot bigger than it looks:
The rest of the photos can be found over here at my slideshow.
