I'm A Winner - Again

This could be the start of a trend.......

Won two free tickets from the City Paper for a sneak preview of "The Mist" at White Marsh tonight. The movie was great. Matthew and I both really liked it.

SPOILER ALERT! I love an unhappy ending.

Caledonia Watercolor (PSP Script)

They Might Be Giants - With The Dark

Watch Video at YouTube

I'm A Winner!

I entered a contest on the Rock'n'Roll Geek show podcast to win Rhino's Heavy Metal Box Set. I didn't win the main prize but I did get picked as a runner-up to get a single disk sampler from the box set. I wonder what's on it?

Camping at Caledonia

Went camping at Caledonia State Park near Gettysburg in Pennsylvania this weekend. Mike, Matthew and I left about 1:00 PM in his van. We took 83 up to York and then west on 30. It was pouring when we left and it poured all the way up there. It was a miserable ride (about two hours). It was still raining when we got there. Ken was already there, in his nice, dry pop-up. We decided not to set up the tent but to sleep in the van that night. We did set up the screen tent. A few years ago, I cut big pieces of plastic to close in most of the sides. This time I used those big metal clips you use with papers instead of clothes pins and they worked a lot better. We did manage to start a fire. Good thing Mike brought dry firewood from his garage. For dinner, we had crab cakes that Mom made. Bob and Bunny came up late that afternoon. They decided not to set up their tent too but to sleep in Ken's pop-up instead. Matthew slept all the way in the back of the van, Mike slept on the bed and I slept behind the front seats. It rained hard all night and the little windows at the top of the van leaked all over me. I ended up sleeping sitting up in the front seat. I actually slept pretty good. In fact, Bob woke us up around 10:00 AM because they thought we were dead or something.

Saturday was a nice fall day. We decided to go on a hike. Here's a hint - never let anybody who runs 50-mile marathons pick the path you're going to hike on. After that ordeal, the day was pretty much over. We went back to the campsite and made dinner - New York strip steaks and potatoes cooked on the fire with canned corn on the side. Good stuff. Saturday night we just hung around the fire, drinking beer and making smores until Matthew got hit in the eye with a hot ember. We managed to get a couple of specks of stuff out of his eye but it didn't help. He was miserable. Ken had a first aid kit and we bandaged his eye up and decided to wait till morning to see how it looked. I stayed up and drank a couple more beers after everybody went to bed. There was a full moon out and when the clouds broke up it was like day time. We slept pretty good in our old Montgomery Ward tent on the air mattresses we got from Uncle Ed (Schultz).

Matthew's eye didn't look good in the morning. It was glued shut and crusty with puss. I used Mike's cell phone to call Natalie to let her know she had to take him to the hospital as soon as we got back. We packed up and left right away. It was another nice day. I would have liked to have hung around and done something while but we had to get Matthew some help. On the way back, Mike found out from Jocelyn that a tree limb had fallen on his car back home and dented his roof and broke his rear window. What a vacation.

Saw Marathon

Matthew and I went to a Saw Movie Marathon at the Bengies Drive-In tonight. They showed "Saw I", "Saw II", "Saw III" and, at a little past midnight on it's opening day, the new one, "Saw IV". I wonder what the next one will be called?

It was fun. The promotion company was there, giving away stuff. We got Saw lollipops and Saw tattoos on the way in. Marty, the second-in-command, told us to put the tattoos where they could be seen if we wanted to win a prize - he suggested the forehead. We put ours on the backs of our hands. They had contests all night. One for Best Male and Female Screamers, and a pretty cool one for the best costume made up on the spot. That was won by the "Beer Knight" - some guy with a 12 pack box on his head for a helmet and a beer can on a stick for a sword. During the first three movies, they would occasionally send out five or six people in Jigsaw masks to walk around and stick their faces in people's cars. You had to find the real Jigsaw by asking them "Are You The Real Jigsaw?" Matthew won a contest when they asked anybody with a saw to come up to the concession stand. I had packed some of the camping stuff for the weekend in the trunk and had a wood saw in there. They made a bunch of jokes about that. The prizes were a "30 Days Of Night" mouse pad, a Saw IV tee-shirt and a little thing that said a line from the movie. We got a bunch of Saw IV posters too.

Mike's 50th Birthday Party

Watch Video At YouTube

Jocelyn and I threw Mike a surprise 50th birthday party today. Jocelyn and Mike had gone to Catonsville for a double header earlier in the day, and we were a little worried about him getting home before the guests arrived because they had moved the start time back to 11:00 AM from noon. Joc got him to stop in Hampden for a little while and he arrived right on time, about 4:50. We had told everybody to be there at 4:30. He seemed genuinely surprised.

A lot of people chipped in with the food and beer (Mom and Dad did a lot). The cake came from BJ's. We had a fire going out by the pond. The kids did some fishing and canoeing and later on they made smores and hot dogs over the fire. Jim and Matthew each caught a pretty big bass. I think everybody we invited showed up. Let me see if I can remember who all was there. The Brushes, The Sanzas (except Chris, who had a wedding to go to), The Hubers - Bob and Bunny, Steve and Kelly and all their kids, even Miss Sandy all the way from OC. Cindy, Megan and Aaron Schilling, Rita's companion/helper Judy, Mikes friend Pat and his wife Mary Carol and there two kids, Karen,Steve and Chris, Jim and Dan (there friend Russell brought them out and stayed a while), our gang, Mom and Dad, Joc and a couple of her friends, Ken Qualiano. I think that's it. Everybody seemed to have a good time. Mike even did a beer bong out by the fire. The party lasted till about 10:00. Oh, we also watched the Indians get creamed by the Red Sox, who eventually beat the Indians in seven games after being down 3 games to 1.

Vinny Testaverde Touchdown Dance Hopelessly Out-Of-Date

They Might Be Giants "The Mesopotamians"

Click on Anne & Robbie to see "The Mesopotamians" Video

Performed Live On One of Conan O'Brian's Last Shows

Road Trip To Frederick

Washington Monument

Natalie and I went out to Frederick today. Our first stop was the South Mountain Creamery. They make they're own cheese and ice cream. We got some Farmer's Cheese with Walnuts and Black Pepper, Gouda with bacon and onion and some Havarti. It was all good but I think we liked the Farmer's cheese the best. We went to Washington Monument state park our little wine and cheese picnic. Nice place but I don't think you should have to pay $3.00 to get in. Maryland's park system is horrible. It would have been free in PA. The monument itself was pretty cool. There were a lot of bird watchers at the top of the monument. Nice day to be outside, sunny and just a little cool.

From there we went to the Barley & Hops Brewpub in suburban Frederick. It could have been anywhere - a generic place in a generic area. And the beer we had wasn't very good either, red ale that had no hops taste at all. Definitely not a place to go out of your way for. After that, we headed into downtown Frederick. The whole area was packed with people and we missed Brewer's Alley on our first pass - the sign is hard to understand, but we found a place to park easily and walked back to the block it was in. The place was packed. Lots of pretty girls in fancy dresses, maybe some homecoming dance thing. We both liked the IPA's we got and they were only $3.00 apiece. The building used to be an opera house. We definitely want to go back there when we have more time and money to spend. We got back around 8:00 PM.

Photo Story from Picture It! Photo Library Program

Doesn't work to well does it? The video was uploaded directly to Blogger who "processed it" to death.

Ocean City 2006, Pt.1

I finally got this movie online. It's been split in two.

Ocean City 2006 Pt.2

Music at Hampdenfest and White Marsh

Went to see two local bands today - The Jennifers and The Pale Stars.

The Jennifers played at Hampdenfest. Natalie and Matthew went with me and we met Leslie there. They checked out the fair while I stayed at the City Paper stage and watched the band. They were really good - good enough to spring for their new CD "Colors From The Future". I wish they had played "Caroline No", a song I downloaded from somewhere. They do a good version of " Good Morning Starshine" but they didn't play that one either. The festival was pretty cool. They had three stages of bands playing all day and from what I heard, all the bands were worth hearing. And for once, they actually had good beer at a street fair - Brewers Art, and it was cheap too, $4.00 a pop. There's also a nice used record store on The Avenue that I'll have to go back and check out by myself.

The Jennifers Onstage At Hampdenfest 2007

Later that day, we went up to The Avenue in White Marsh to hear the Pale Stars. They were really good too. They have kind of an unusual sound. At first I thought they were using backing tracks because I could have sworn I heard keyboards, but it was the lead guitarist. He used a lot of effects to offset the basic sound of the rest of the band. Of the two bands I have to say I liked The Jennifers better. They had a little more edge and punch than the Pale Stars but both bands are good. The Avenue in White Marsh (an "artificial" city street) has a sterile atmosphere compared to a "real" avenue like 36th street. You see some unusual people in Hampden, totally white bread on the fake avenue.

The Pale Stars onstage at The Avenue In White Marsh

Dirty Found on SexTV

Third Orioles Game Of The Year

Went to see the Orioles last night. Natalie got four free tickets from work. Mom and Mike went with us. They were great seats, section 30 - row LL, just to the right of home plate towards the Orioles dugout, about 20 rows back. Parking was included, a big plus. The game was horrible. We should have known how it was going to be when the Angels scored 5 runs on 5 hits in the top of the first. The Orioles made 2 errors in that inning. Later in the game, the Angels had loaded the bases and the Orioles pitcher walked in a run. A new pitcher was brought in and he walked in another run. Bottom of the ninth, the Angels pitcher struck out the side. The only bright side was it was Minor League Appreciation Night and they had all the mascots from the Orioles minor league teams there, doing the stupid things they only do in the minors. If only the minor league teams had been there to play - they couldn't have done any worse. Final score Angels 18, Orioles 6. Pathetic.

He's Out?

Trembley Doesn't Think So.

He was suspended for three days because of this performance.

Scary Girls

Article Featuring Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Etc.

Simon Reynolds tracks the history of electronica's Seventies pioneers OMM The Observer

Motor City Madman Attacks Dems

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Fucking Yankees, Reports Nation

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