Jul
28
2011

Laurie Notaro Book Signing

Laughing Through Adversity

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, July 28, 2011 - 11:52:10 pm
(Posted Under: Books)
Will we ever make it to a Laurie Notaro book signing on time? Probably not. Not tonight anyway, for a second time in a row. And this time we went to Changing Hands in Tempe, rather than Desert Ridge and were still late. We're awesome. [wink]

The place was packed. I mean packed. We had to park behind Trader Joes. And inside where Laurie was set up - well, lets not say it was conducive to those of us that like their personal space. The upside was that it was Laurie Notaro, and in her presence (or reading her books) it is impossible not to spend your time in fits of laughter, no matter how much your surroundings are mind fucking your psyche. If it weren't for Laurie, you couldn't have gotten me out of their fast enough. That probably goes double for Katie.

The big let down on showing up early was her latest book selling out by the time got there. That's pretty impressive, and I think speaks volumes as to the clusterfuck that was Changing Hands. That was unfortunate, because we had ever intention of picking it up. Last time we hadn't, because of both money - and well, at that point I hadn't actually read a Notaro book. Yeah, I know. While being well versed in her journalism, I hadn't read her novels until a few months later. It was one of those things where once I read one, I knocked out a good few of them in under a month. And once you've done that, there are no quarms about getting her new ones right when they come out. Funny as hell. So, it was unfortunate that they sold out so quickly. But we did pick up I Thought You'd Be Pretty, which may be the only one outside of Spooky Little Girl that I'm yet to read. And proceeded to hang around to have it signed, until it got til close to 10, before we both grew weary and worn down and decided to cut our loses and leave.

But it's okay, if there is anything I know, it's that she'll be back. And next time we'll get there early. Or at least that's what I like to believe.
Jul
25
2011

It Would Have Been A One Minute Walk

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, July 25, 2011 - 04:57:35 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
Right before going to lunch I Google mapped it. And then on lunch confirmed it. If Long Wongs On Mill was still standing, it'd literally be a one minute walk from my office. That's no exaggeration, it'd one minute, or 381 feet away from my office.

It didn't dawn on me until today. And when it did, it was an amazing (and sad) revelation. Y'know, 16 years ago the concept that I would work 381 feet away from Long Wongs (or the vacant lot where it once stood), the reality would have been virtual inconceivable. It still blows me my mind.

And of course, it's also incredibly sad. How great would it be to have the choice of going to Wongs for lunch on any given lunch break.

On the bright side, Zia Records still exists, and is only a 4 minute walk from my office. I think it goes without saying where I spent my lunch hour today. [wink]
Jul
24
2011

She's A Big Girl Now

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 24, 2011 - 04:36:32 pm
(Posted Under: Genevelyn)
So we've had Genevelyn for about 2 and a half month now. She may still be a baby, but her growth in the last few weeks is quite noticeable. She's no longer that tiny bearded dragon that we brought home in June. Small maybe, but no longer tiny. And along with that growth in size has come a growth in appetite. To to the extent that we'd upped our bulk cricket purchases from 5 to 10 dozen, and at this point she's going through that amount within 3 days.

So we decided this week that it was time to up the size of crickets she's eating. One of the aspects that made our bearded dragon purchase a 3 or so month experience was being unsure about the cricket factor. It seemed like it'd be a pain. But surprisingly they've more or less been a delight. Throw 'em in the cricket keeper, calcium dust them, give them some food, and you otherwise don't even notice them. No noise, no hassle. The only thing there has been to be conscious is keeping them cool enough so they don't keel over. And the will keel over. We learned that the week before last after leaving a bag of 10 dozen in the car while we ran into Fry's Marketplace. In the car, in Tempe, in summer. We weren't gone too long, but certainly long enough to return to a bag full of heat stroked crickets. On getting home, we managed to revive about half of them with some cool temperatures. Which may be liberal use of the word revived, as the survivors certainly seemed...she we say reasonably retarded and/or brain damaged. It made easy pickin' for Genevelyn at feeding time, that's for sure. But anyways, they've pretty much been a joy to host them for their short lives before they're devoured by Genevelyn.

But The honeymoon however seems to be over, now that we've stepped up this size of cricket. So long to the silence. These big ones are what you'd expect, and what I'd feared. Their chirpers. Constant chirpers. All weekend coming home has felt like we're camping. Oh, it's been fun.

Upping the size of the crickets has already had a positive effect on our hip pocket, keeping Genevelyn nourished without having to run back to the reptile store every 3 days for more. But how to house these suckers needs to be addressed. I'm yet to have devised a solution, but my sanity will ensure that I will before long!
Jul
21
2011

Birthday Fun

Happy Birthday To Me

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 11:55:24 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Photobox ImageI'm not an animated movie guy at all. You'd hardly guess it from my birthday this year though. A few weeks ago, Katie gave away that she was going to get me Rango on DVD for my birthday (despite the fact I shouldn't be getting anything after the Les Paul purchase). However a Rango birthday cake was not something I was expecting! How cool is this? Almost too cool to eat. Almost. [wink]

Photobox ImageIt's been a great day, went out to Denny's for breakfast to collect on my free Grand Slam for my birthday. And then went out to Macayos for dinner. I know there is no shortage of other Mexican restaurants in the valley we should try, but I love Macayo's and have no regrets with not branching out this year. If you find something awesome, stick with it. That's always been how I've rolled. The red chicken enchiladas this afternoon particularly rocked my world.

After dinner we caught the tail end of Mark & Emmett's gig at Coach and Willie's in Chandler. Nice to get some birthday love in the form of requests he moment we walked in. I really should think of something other than Whiteout to respond with when Emmett asks what I want to hear! And I've got to say that I loved that Zubs followed up with another song for my birthday, without any communication required. That in itself was a great birthday present, thank you Mark Zubia!

And we closed out the day watching Rango. Man, I love that movie. And it was fun watching it again now that we have our own Rango.

What a great day.
Jul
17
2011

Teakwoods Girlbert

Happy Birthday To Me

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 17, 2011 - 06:59:16 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
Photobox ImageCool lunch at Teakwoods today, making use of my free birthday meal. Today also marked us hitting up the final Teakwoods location we were yet to visit, in Gilbert. On getting seated we noticed the cool Sparky / Long Wongs neon sign./ Coolest thing I've ever seen? Msybe. Talk about something I'd love to own. And was additionally cool seeing it today, as tomorrow I'm officially a Sun Devil.

Lunch was awesome. Love you Teakwoods!
Jul
14
2011

Ralph Steadmen Strat

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, July 14, 2011 - 11:33:33 am
(Posted Under: Music Music)
This is seriously cool. Nifs Lofgren - Action to benefit Arizona Food Bank Charities.

I want this! Yeah, I know, I just got a new guitar. Oh, and there is the (currently) $30,000 bid. But man, that is really cool. If I had a million dollars...
Now Playing: Sugar High - It's All Right The Way That You Live
Jul
10
2011

When You Go Shopping

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 10, 2011 - 03:34:42 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
Y'know when you go shopping for a list of specific things, buy pretty much none of them, but spend a bunch of money on other stuff? Yeah, this afternoon was like that.

So, we don't have a table cloth for the patio set. Or new ashtray. Or plate rack.

But we do have this cool ass dish towel.
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And these awesome placemats (you had me at saguaro, kokpeli & lizard [smile]).
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We should know better than to go anywhere near the kitchenware section at Fry's Marketplace. Though, in our defense, a plate rack was on the list of things we needed...and of course, didn't actually get.
Jul
08
2011

The Black Moods @ The Marquee

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, July 8, 2011 - 09:26:59 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Man, that was fun. The Black Moods opening for AWOLnation (yeah, I know, who?) at the Marquee. It's was by far the biggest stage I've seen them play on, and the guys just rocked it. Given they were opening at it was early I didn't expected there to be many people, however the Marquee was reasonably packed for them.

Everyone was awesome, but god, watching Josh bounce around the stage highlights the fact that this was what he was born to do. It's not that I've ever had a question about that, but it still needs to be said after tonight's performance. Of course, it's the Black Moods, so all three of them are as fun as hell to watch. The crowd loved it, and it was pretty impressive seeing many people buying merch and wanting their photos taken with them after the set.

Aside from it being so cool seeing one of our favorite bands kick ass on the Marquee stage, they pulled out a whole bunch of songs that not even we knew, which was pretty cool.
Jul
08
2011

Lunch Time

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, July 8, 2011 - 12:37:59 pm
(Posted Under: Genevelyn)
Genevelyn is often interested in what we're doing and will often come up to the side of the terrarium and just watch us. What really fascinates her is when I play guitar (what a rock n' roll lizard [smile] ).

But y'know, when 12 o'clock rolls around and she's standing at the edge of her terrarium, her motivation is clear. And has nothing to do with checking out what I'm doing. [wink]

And on that note, I have to say I'd struggle being a lizard. Chasing around your lunch that jumps all over your home (and occasionally ours [wink]) seems too much like hard work to me.
Now Playing: The Replacements - I Don't Know
Jul
05
2011

Dust Mouth

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - 08:27:01 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
Photobox ImageHoly crap. I just got up from dinner to have a smoke, and from inside had absolutely no idea what was going on outside. Dust storm from hell! It only most looks like Armageddon out there! [wink]

And y'know, I'm so glad that I completely cleaned the patio yesterday! Screw you Phoenix!
Jul
04
2011

Fireworks Fall Down Around This Whole Town

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, July 4, 2011 - 10:25:19 pm
(Posted Under: Livin' In The USA Livin' In The USA, This Desert Life This Desert Life)
There was little time after our awesome Independence Day dinner to make it downtown to check out the fireworks. Well, no time actually, since we thought it started at 9, didn't get moving until 8:50 and didn't leave the apartment until 9.

The timing worked out fine, as I guess the fireworks actually started at 9:10, which was right before we reached University. We found a good place to park on 9th Street, popped the hatch and sat in the back of the car with a pretty decent view of the fireworks display from Tempe Beach Park.

While it's certainly not my first 4th of July fireworks, it's the first I've spent within the Tempe City Limits. And as such I had to plug in the iPod and turn the car on for a bit. Sitting in the back of the car, just the two of us, with Fireworks playing, it was awesome.

Katie said that the Tempe fireworks were supposed to be the biggest in the state, which isn't hard to believe, as when they finally did finish and we got back in the car it was 9:50! Wow.

Not that this is news to anyone, including me, but sitting out there for the 40 or so minutes that we did highlighted just how busy Sky Harbor is. I couldn't even say how many planes we say coming in during that time. It was interesting too that they seemed to go right through the fireworks. Perspective was probably playing somewhat of a role in it looking like that, but I do know that the flight path is right over Tempe Beach Park. Several times it looked like a plane was going to be taken out by fireworks.

Towards the end of the display it looked like there was a monsoon on the way (which didn't happen) with the winds picking up and blowing a lot of dust (much like Saturday night when we left the Sail Inn), which made for a pretty spectacular scene with the fireworks going off and painting the entire sky all different colors.
Jul
04
2011

4th Of July Dinner

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, July 4, 2011 - 08:36:36 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
I think we were planning on having more of a relaxing 4th of July, but the productiveness of today has been awesome. And all paid off tonight, having an awesome 4th of July dinner outside on the newly put together patio set. Even if it was 100°F (at 8:30!) out there.

Photobox ImageOur 4th of July dinner this year was nachos, patriotic funfetti cake, by luminaria light. And it was a great opportunity to break open the pint bottle of Corona I've had since Christmas '09. Given how late it was, I wasn't sure if I'd get through it or not. The 100° temperature, jalapenos and hot Picante sauce quickly proved that wasn't going to be a problem. [wink]

An awesome 4th of July!
Jul
04
2011

One On One Time With Genevelyn

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, July 4, 2011 - 04:31:18 pm
(Posted Under: Genevelyn)
Genevelyn finished up her medicine on Wednesday, and we went back to the vet on Saturday to check that she was better. With her mood, and certainly her appetite there was really little question that her bout with parasites was over. So it was nice, but no surprise when they phoned later in the afternoon and confirmed it, giving her a clean bill of health. Everyone is happy about, including her. She's not going to miss our 7am daily ritual of squirting medicine down her throat, which she resisted more and more the healthier she got.

Today we executed a mass cleanup, which involved doing everything we didn't get to earlier this weekend, including giving her tank a final disinfecting and clean out. Out with the paper towels (and weird music video look), in with some new reptile carpet, and she finally gets her branch back today. She's going to happy about that.

Over the weekend we'd picked up some Scotch Velcro tabs, to keep the carpet down. Crickets crawling under the last piece drove my wife nuts. These things are an absolute design fail. They're adhesive Velcro squares, packaged in such a way that the adhesive sticks firmly to the packaging backing, rather than the square. So when you pull out off, you get the square and the adhesive left of the backing. Fail. A quick Google of the situation revealed that we weren't doing anything wrong, there are many complaints about that issue. How brain dead is the quality assurance department at 3M?!? No amount of applying heat, or hot water helped any. We did eventually manage to peel off 10 with enough adhesive to mostly stick the the squares to the bottom of the terrarium. Despite the drama of these, Velcro-ing the carpet down is an awesome idea and will improve our life greatly!

Since our little girl was better, we gave the bathroom for a clean and took her in there for some bonding time. Hilariously, the one place I didn't want her to go was behind the toilet, and of course...that's the first place she wanted to head. Punk ass! We corrected that situation, and put her on my leg, where she sat for about 5 minutes while she got used to being out of her terrarium. She's so cool, and I really regretted that I hadn't brought my camera in with us. After a while she went over and chilled out on Katie's leg (and contemplated how to get behind the toilet again) for a while.

Too cool. We've been waiting to play with her out of her terrarium for weeks and were both pretty excited to get to do it today. Now that she's healthy we should be able to do it more often.
Jul
03
2011

Supporting Local Music

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 3, 2011 - 11:54:58 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
This afternoon at Fry's we picked up an outdoor patio set that we've been eying off for quite a while. We had to wait around while someone got one from out the back, and the guy that did so commented that he that it was great so see that we supported local music. Which came up as Katie was sporting her Black Moods shirt, and I my new Ghetto Cowgirl t-shirt. So that was pretty cool, and major props to that guy for knowing that both bands are local!
Jul
03
2011

You Live In Phoenix Dude

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 3, 2011 - 08:10:45 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
Y'know, whenever local bands are on the radio, I always want to listen and record. It's been true for so many years. The funny thing is that I still immediately go to the online stream to do so. Funny, because it's been almost two years that I've been living within the airwaves of Phoenix stations and don't need to do online streams any more! Old habits, y'know... [smile]

It's a busy night in that regard, with Josh from The Black Moods on Local Frequency and Lawrence Zubia on Danny Zelescko's new radio show on KDKB.

Edit: In an ironic twist, I just (re)discovered that not only did my the cassette decks on my stereo get junked up in the move across the world, but the AM/FM switch got battered in such a way that it's stuck on AM. So I guess I'll be using the online streams for a bit longer anyway.
Jul
03
2011

Marketing

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, July 3, 2011 - 06:43:47 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Photobox ImageOut at Guitar Center this afternoon I brought 3 packs of Fender guitar strings, which comes off 20 years of exclusively buying D'Addario. Why the change? Because they came with a free 4th of July Fender baseball! That is marketing in action right there!

We were actually out there to pick up a copy of Musician's Friend, as Josh is in a Fender ad in the latest copy. Though unfortunately they didn't have any.
Jul
02
2011

Sail Inn Fun

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, July 2, 2011 - 10:40:44 am
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Saturday night was going to be a relatively quiet one for us, until last night Corey let us know that Strange Young Things were playing at the Sail Inn. With Ghetto. And Andrew Brown. And Greyhound Soul. Cause for a big night in other words. And a great opportunity to use the Groupon we'd brought for the Sail Inn recently. Which really made it an inexpensive and very fun night!

Photobox ImageThe show was billed as Larson's birthday. We were fashionably late, and bummed that we probably missed Andrew, however walked in as he was setting up, which was sweet. We've missed him so many times lately, not at all due to wanting to. Although I guessed he was going to play solo, he had an instant band up there with him including Icard and Mesner. It was fun seeing him get up with Greyhound Soul later.

Photobox ImageHaving had so much fun last night, you wouldn't have thought that tonight would have matched it. I would like to say that it was because we were drinking and I had a little buzz on, but y'know it wasn't just that. Ghetto rocked again.

Photobox ImageAnd then Strange Young Things was just crazy fun. We'd been fairly busy today and I guess I hadn't thought that much about tonight, and wasn't really prepared for the ridiculous fun that is Strange Young Things. Later in the set Corey broke out the Bitch Has Got Problems circle, which we haven't seen for a while. Of course, he called out for Katie to do her microphone holding duties. And tonight the microphone was passed around for solo performances by Katie, Norm and myself (it's a shame I wasn't recording tonight). Later on both Pat and Allison commented on what a good singer Katie is, which was cool. Just a hell of a lot of fun. After Lonely Hearts the crowd insisted on more, which I always like to see.

It's been (another) fun rock n' roll weekend, that's for sure!
Now Playing: Ghetto Cowgirl - Ten Tons
Jul
01
2011

Glodie & Ghetto @ Teaks

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosFriday, July 1, 2011 - 11:53:17 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Tonight was night one of using our Teakwood's Groupons. With Glodie opening for Ghetto Cowgirl, it seemed like a good opportunity for it.

I'd decided hours before we got there that I wanted the fish and chips, and was quite happy that it was on the specials menu. Thank you Teakwoods, I love you. I have to re-iterate what an awesome idea jalapeno coleslaw is. Rocks my world. With that said, it was also almost the death of my tonight. The jalapeno in it was from the fiery depths of hell. Of course, I had no idea that it was until I'd finished the coleslaw and carelessly devoured the jalapeno. The tiny little jalapeno that set my mouth on fire for the next 20 minutes. I love them, but I often get one at Teakwoods (typically in the nachos or fajitas) that has a little bit of an extra kick to it. But more often than not it just causes my eyes to water for about a minute and prompts me to chug a little bit extra of my drink. Which is what I expected with this one. But no matter how much I drank, there was no putting out the fire on my tongue that this puppy had ignited. After 5 minutes with no relief, was I sure I wasn't going to die? Not entirely! After a decent amount of time and a ridiculous amount of both Pepsi and water, and then finally a cigarette, the flames in my mouth finally started to go out. Whoah.

Photobox ImageIt was really fun seeing Corey, especially since it's been so long between shows, both solo and with Strange Young Things. It was a quieter night at Teakwoods, which made for a set list customized for us. You can't complain with that. After about 45 minutes Corey called Katie up to the stage to ask her if he was done. Hilarious. What does she look like, Sara Cina?!? [smile] ha

Photobox ImageI'd totally forgotten about this, but last Saturday Norm announced to everyone there that if they didn't show up next week that he would kill himself. He hadn't forgotten though, bringing that up to the much smaller crowd this week. A lesser man would have taken it as blow and broken (to pieces [wink]). But not Norman. It was clear before he even took the stage that it was a challenge - to be even more rock n' roll and more ridiculous than if more people had shown up. And he proceeded to deliver on that challenge, giving a performance of ridiculous proportions and entertaining the fuck of out the 3 couches and few tables worth of people that were there. Last week was a hell of a lot of fun because so many people were there, tonight was so much fun because there weren't.

Photobox ImageHe proceeded to pull out all the stops - jumping on the couches to sing, jumping on the bar stool next to us to sing (and terrifying everyone, or at least us, that it was going to go horribly wrong), harassing Sara anytime she came close to the stage (but what's new? [wink]), doing 80's hair metal spins on the stage floor, hilarious banter and...well, just all around being all the Marc Norman he could be! Glorious. The rest of the band we're having a hell of a time also, with Thomas pulling out some absolutely ridiculous guitar solos. Even breaking out some finger tapping. Rock! On that note of Laufenberg solos, he stopped me on the way out to talk about the solo in Paralyse, which brought some exciting news.

Also walking out Norm handed me a t-shirt after bumming a smoke. Sweet. We actually wanted to pick up shirts tonight, but neglected to get cash this afternoon, so that worked out nicely. This whole unspoken and unplanned trade of cigarettes for Ghetto merch of late works out pretty nicely, I must say. [smile] ha!

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