7.29.2005
Walt didn't realize the potential of black-rimmed glasses....
Damn. Adventures...I don't know where to start...
I just returned home yesterday from three and a half days of lots-o-fun...
On Monday morning, I took a bus from New Bedford out to Connecticut to get ready to roadtrip to NYC with my friend the Connecticuteer....although, I like to call her The Connecticuteer, it's a bit long AND she's asked to be referred to as Queen Pontiffa...which is also long and, possibly, confusing...but if she wants to be the fantastical head of a major religion, so be it...
SO...After I spent 3 hours or so at shady bus stations (another story, all together) I finally got to my destination...and, after my arrival, QP and I tooled around the ever-booming college town, surrounded by cows, for a bit...then we drove about an hour out to the waterfalls at the Devil's Somethingorother State Park and did some wading and hiking...and in the evening, I experienced one of the most amazing events of my young life....a double feature at a drive-in theater. Who's idea was it to get rid of these things anyway? I would see movies all the time if it didn't mean going into a dark, sensory-deprivation tank filled with strangers...
Oh...it's true. I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Bewitched from the opened trunk of an SUV while the the audio played over a low-end radio frequency...and stars...and snacks...and mandarin vodka...pure bliss.
So, while I highly recommend seeing Charlie at just about any theater, I will suggest that you save your money on Bewitched...wait til it comes on Sunday afternoon TBS in about 4 years...then it'd might be worth your time. Ok...actually, I'm being harsh...it had it's funny moments, but in the end, it left you with thinking "Who the hell came up with that plot? And what about that affair that that character had with....oh, fuck it...nevermind."
Then, in the early afternoon on Tuesday, we packed up and headed out on the 3 hour trip to NYC...I had ABBA's "Knowing Me, Knowing You" stuck in my head from the very beginning...I have no fucking idea why. It's not even my favorite ABBA song, for god's sake...It could've at least been "S.O.S."...but, the drive was good...and we ended up in Brooklyn by 5 o'clock...
QP's cousin was nice enough to put us up for a night...in a room with A/C which, as I've learned in the past month, is a commodity on the east coast that only royalty and old people get to enjoy...as for the rest of us, we have to endure the "heat wave" and live with open windows and fans...and, truly, it was hot in this city.
So, on Tuesday evening, I actually managed to get a hold of some of my friends who were visiting NYC all the way from sunny Europe...and folks, if I could only begin to explain how strangely the events of my life have conveniently fallen into place in the past 3 months...I'd be a better story-teller...but really, I never thought I'd be able to make it down to the city to see the Luxembourgers when they were passing through....then....next thing I know, I was on my way to NYC...it's like the cosmos portioned out individual servings of kismet and I was mistakenly graced with the helping meant for the karmic-fat kid...
Anyway...Tuesday....plans were made to meet up for dinner at Planet Thailand (while wandering the next day, I also saw a Planet Sushi...and I was on the look-out for a Planet Mechanically Separated Food Product...but, no such luck...). Dinner was great...we got all the surly service one could expect and I was personally blazed with an awesome glare of disgust from QP while I enjoyed a meal of raw fish...well, some of it was raw, but most was at least somewhat prepared...and it was good, damnit...
After dinner, we embarked on what proved to be an endless quest for the perfect place to hang out...while I was happy at the first bar...where the bartender didn't know how to make a fancy-smanchy Cape Cod, but was quite familiar with a common drink that mixes vodka and cranberry, my other companions thought we should move on to the hipper places in town...I was impartial...no place around has the beer that I want to drink, so I don't care.
We ended up getting into a cab embarking on our quest for the elusive club called "Bembe(i)"...I didn't know anything about Bembi...except for that one of our leaders said it was a "Reggae dance club" and...well, that pretty much sums it up.
Yay. Reggae.
You there!...Enter my world of secrets and mysteries...please...step inside...I'll fill you in on one of the details that make my personality so enigmatic...I fucking HATE reggae music! There's always exceptions....such as, if I were of Caribbean decent...then I may appreciate Reggae music...or if I still enjoyed rollin' and tokin' blunts...then I may dig the hypnotic beats, yo.
And since I don't really fit into any of these categories, I can stick with my persistence to HATE Reggae music...but, this doesn't really matter...because I wanted to hang out with my friends, and I was up for going wherever....
So, we entered the cab...and told the cabbie that we were trying to get to south 6th street...Bembi...the club...you know? No? Well...we'll call information to get an exact address then....what follows is the BEST conversation I've EVER overheard...
Friend (talking to Information): Hi. Ya...I'm looking for... a Bembi...ya...it should be in Brooklyn.
Friend: Ya...south 6th somewhere...it's a club...I just don't have an address....
Friend (as and aside to us in the cab): This is ridiculous...New York information is going to think I'm hunting Disney characters somewhere in Brooklyn....
...and just as this conversation was completed...we were there....a good time was had, Reggae and all...
The next day, I was privileged to receive the best driving tour of Manhattan and Beyond that anyone could possibly ask for....in fact, I'd consider myself a damn good city driver and I don't think I could do the job the the QP was doing...stupid amazing...
So, I'd like to re-cap...let's start with things I DIDN'T see while in New York City....
1. Muppets...in any form...especially, taking Manhattan...
2. Donald Trump
3. Sesame Street characters...this includes, people in "my neighborhood"
4. Billy Joel
5. excessive amount of homeless people
6. Liza
7. Cats. Rent. The West Side...or it's Story...
8. Tough Italians
9. TRL
10. Shysters
...and after all of this...I still have one question...why do all the hipsters from Austin move to New York? It's like the chain of moves goes California-->Austin-->New York. There's people from Austin all over New York! It's as if they didn't even move...
So, as a side note, my pledge to quit smoking after 10 years of lighting up has been brought to a not-so-sudden demise, however intoxicating it may be...the demise, that is...
I can't tell if I'm craving the poisonous chemicals of the cigarettes that I've been fed or if it's something else all together...
Oh...by the way...the sun begins to rise at 5:13 a.m. during the summertime in Buzzard's Bay...that's my cue to sleep now....
I just returned home yesterday from three and a half days of lots-o-fun...
On Monday morning, I took a bus from New Bedford out to Connecticut to get ready to roadtrip to NYC with my friend the Connecticuteer....although, I like to call her The Connecticuteer, it's a bit long AND she's asked to be referred to as Queen Pontiffa...which is also long and, possibly, confusing...but if she wants to be the fantastical head of a major religion, so be it...
SO...After I spent 3 hours or so at shady bus stations (another story, all together) I finally got to my destination...and, after my arrival, QP and I tooled around the ever-booming college town, surrounded by cows, for a bit...then we drove about an hour out to the waterfalls at the Devil's Somethingorother State Park and did some wading and hiking...and in the evening, I experienced one of the most amazing events of my young life....a double feature at a drive-in theater. Who's idea was it to get rid of these things anyway? I would see movies all the time if it didn't mean going into a dark, sensory-deprivation tank filled with strangers...
Oh...it's true. I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Bewitched from the opened trunk of an SUV while the the audio played over a low-end radio frequency...and stars...and snacks...and mandarin vodka...pure bliss.
So, while I highly recommend seeing Charlie at just about any theater, I will suggest that you save your money on Bewitched...wait til it comes on Sunday afternoon TBS in about 4 years...then it'd might be worth your time. Ok...actually, I'm being harsh...it had it's funny moments, but in the end, it left you with thinking "Who the hell came up with that plot? And what about that affair that that character had with....oh, fuck it...nevermind."
Then, in the early afternoon on Tuesday, we packed up and headed out on the 3 hour trip to NYC...I had ABBA's "Knowing Me, Knowing You" stuck in my head from the very beginning...I have no fucking idea why. It's not even my favorite ABBA song, for god's sake...It could've at least been "S.O.S."...but, the drive was good...and we ended up in Brooklyn by 5 o'clock...
QP's cousin was nice enough to put us up for a night...in a room with A/C which, as I've learned in the past month, is a commodity on the east coast that only royalty and old people get to enjoy...as for the rest of us, we have to endure the "heat wave" and live with open windows and fans...and, truly, it was hot in this city.
So, on Tuesday evening, I actually managed to get a hold of some of my friends who were visiting NYC all the way from sunny Europe...and folks, if I could only begin to explain how strangely the events of my life have conveniently fallen into place in the past 3 months...I'd be a better story-teller...but really, I never thought I'd be able to make it down to the city to see the Luxembourgers when they were passing through....then....next thing I know, I was on my way to NYC...it's like the cosmos portioned out individual servings of kismet and I was mistakenly graced with the helping meant for the karmic-fat kid...
Anyway...Tuesday....plans were made to meet up for dinner at Planet Thailand (while wandering the next day, I also saw a Planet Sushi...and I was on the look-out for a Planet Mechanically Separated Food Product...but, no such luck...). Dinner was great...we got all the surly service one could expect and I was personally blazed with an awesome glare of disgust from QP while I enjoyed a meal of raw fish...well, some of it was raw, but most was at least somewhat prepared...and it was good, damnit...
After dinner, we embarked on what proved to be an endless quest for the perfect place to hang out...while I was happy at the first bar...where the bartender didn't know how to make a fancy-smanchy Cape Cod, but was quite familiar with a common drink that mixes vodka and cranberry, my other companions thought we should move on to the hipper places in town...I was impartial...no place around has the beer that I want to drink, so I don't care.
We ended up getting into a cab embarking on our quest for the elusive club called "Bembe(i)"...I didn't know anything about Bembi...except for that one of our leaders said it was a "Reggae dance club" and...well, that pretty much sums it up.
Yay. Reggae.
You there!...Enter my world of secrets and mysteries...please...step inside...I'll fill you in on one of the details that make my personality so enigmatic...I fucking HATE reggae music! There's always exceptions....such as, if I were of Caribbean decent...then I may appreciate Reggae music...or if I still enjoyed rollin' and tokin' blunts...then I may dig the hypnotic beats, yo.
And since I don't really fit into any of these categories, I can stick with my persistence to HATE Reggae music...but, this doesn't really matter...because I wanted to hang out with my friends, and I was up for going wherever....
So, we entered the cab...and told the cabbie that we were trying to get to south 6th street...Bembi...the club...you know? No? Well...we'll call information to get an exact address then....what follows is the BEST conversation I've EVER overheard...
Friend (talking to Information): Hi. Ya...I'm looking for... a Bembi...ya...it should be in Brooklyn.
Friend: Ya...south 6th somewhere...it's a club...I just don't have an address....
Friend (as and aside to us in the cab): This is ridiculous...New York information is going to think I'm hunting Disney characters somewhere in Brooklyn....
...and just as this conversation was completed...we were there....a good time was had, Reggae and all...
The next day, I was privileged to receive the best driving tour of Manhattan and Beyond that anyone could possibly ask for....in fact, I'd consider myself a damn good city driver and I don't think I could do the job the the QP was doing...stupid amazing...
So, I'd like to re-cap...let's start with things I DIDN'T see while in New York City....
1. Muppets...in any form...especially, taking Manhattan...
2. Donald Trump
3. Sesame Street characters...this includes, people in "my neighborhood"
4. Billy Joel
5. excessive amount of homeless people
6. Liza
7. Cats. Rent. The West Side...or it's Story...
8. Tough Italians
9. TRL
10. Shysters
...and after all of this...I still have one question...why do all the hipsters from Austin move to New York? It's like the chain of moves goes California-->Austin-->New York. There's people from Austin all over New York! It's as if they didn't even move...
So, as a side note, my pledge to quit smoking after 10 years of lighting up has been brought to a not-so-sudden demise, however intoxicating it may be...the demise, that is...
I can't tell if I'm craving the poisonous chemicals of the cigarettes that I've been fed or if it's something else all together...
Oh...by the way...the sun begins to rise at 5:13 a.m. during the summertime in Buzzard's Bay...that's my cue to sleep now....
--- a likely story from --- themellenhead @ 3:01 AM 
