I approve this message

I just came across this Brit-Tshirt company and it just so happens that I think they're pretty clever. The idea of printing up tshirts with movie titles, poster art, logos etc. is kind of tired to me. Of course I say this after having bought a totally sweet 16 Candles shirt which is essentially a print of the poster or as I learned the "one sheet" in industry speak. But I digress, these peeps are creating their own branded logo designs based on a movie. It's actually pretty cool and uber nerdy in most cases. I feel like these guys must be corporate graphic designers. The designs look very clean and also any of them could actually be used for corporate branding purposes.

Behold "Jack Burton. Me!":

I'll give whoever something if they can guess what movie without looking.

New toy

Today at my job they gave me a little gift because I've been there for like, ever. Anyway i got to pick out my own gift which is a pretty sweet deal beacuse it means you don't end up getting something horrible, like a gold plated watch. What did I pick? Awwwww yeahhh! I got me a Holga twin lens reflex camera. It's pretty fucking sweet! I can't wait to get down to business. Also on an up note I received my second shipment from my cheese of the month club. I'll be going into depth about that later but just so you know this time around I got a nice looking port salut, an English chedder, and a St. Andre triple creme. God dammit!


Wherever you go, there you are

Started me up another blog. Yep

So I started another blog solely for the purpose of establishing a sounding board for ideas for stories and screenplays and perhaps some kind of grand collaborative project. I figured peeps could leave me comments with notes, edits, ideas and perhaps even add their own words etc. I called it the Sea Monkey Book Club, for no good reason other than I don't think Sea Monkeys are given enough literary credit. Anyway I don't really plan to send out announments when I post something becasue that would be silly. But if peeps happen to stop by, and perhaps if they want to be added so that they can post too it as part of the above mentioned collaborative effort then by all means that's awesome. I'd really love to get a screen play, besides my A-Team homage, rolling. I have this idea for one that I started working on and now I can't find it on my laptop which means I'll have to start again. But in the meantime, I told Steph I'd start working on the "novel in a month" thing back in November. Yeah, I'm still working on that. I mostly do it when I'm on the train to and from my job where I work. Anyway. Have at it. SEA MONKEY BOOK CLUB

The Chronicles Cheese

As I promised myself, once it arrived I'd set about posting about my super awesome B-day gift from Steph. The other day was that day. The first installment included a Camembert, a Blue and a Gorgonzola. Also the kit included a guide to each cheese that highlights the history of the cheese, a bio about the maker and a pairing chart. Needless to say I love it!

As to the cheese themselves, a solid starter kit with some well known and much loved varieties. I must tell you this is Artisan cheese and not that sub par shit they pass off as cheese at the grocery store. I do wish though that the USDA would quit persecuting raw unpasteurized milk products. That's cheese the way nature intended. If it's good enough for Euro peeps then it's good enough for me. Stay the fuck up out mah enzymes and beneficial bacteria!

Welcome to cheese country, where the flavor begins.

Mini project.

Steph's besty Manda is about 4 years younger than I am and she grew up very differently and she was into very different things when she was a teenager. A bit of back story. Sometime around 7th grade I accepted the reality that I was a goofy, nerdy, awkward kid who was never going to be one of the popular kids and I was never going to be tallest or strongest kid in school. There is only one thing for kid like that to do. Latch on to a counter culture that puts at odds with all those big, strong, athletic and popular kids. My poison at the time was a keen interest in Goth-i-ness. But we didn't call it that. We called it "progressive" instead. But the idea was similar, a bunch of kids wearing predominately black, crazy non athletic shoes like Doc Martins and listening to Depeche Mode. It was a fun time for me, very liberating. My parents had other ideas, they hated this look. They always wanted a son who cultivated the Brooks Brothers look. This encouraged me even more to want to be weird. Also, we lived in a very middle class suburb and that's a recipe for some disillusionment right there. I was lucky enough to pal around with some kids who had much older siblings, High School kids, or grown ups as far as we were concerned who were able to kind of let us know what the cool older kids were into as far as fashion and music. By 8th grade I was sneaking into clubs on the weekends with my friends. We'd rock eye liner etc. My parents knew none of this. I wasn't a trouble maker so it wasn't like they were always watching me. Plus cell phones and the internets etc didn't exist so there was no tracking my whereabouts. Needless to say they would not approve. I have to say as an older person, I'm, not 100% sure I'd be cool with my 14 year old kid running around with 16 and 17 years olds at some club either. But like I said I wasn't a trouble maker so it was really harmless fun.

My point is that music was so imporant to me then. Listening to bands like The Cure, The Smiths, The Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, Depeche Mode, New Order, Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen etc. gave you an identity. I still love those classic bands to this day. In fact my first concert was The Cure in 1989. It was epic! Anyway, to paint a picture of the pop music scene of the time let's start by saying the obvious. There were no MP3s to download. You had to go very special record stores in order to look for "imports" as these bands were often filed under (To my knowledge the term Alternative wasn't used yet) if you wanted to find good music. Records you'd heard about were often sold out or they just didn't have them. Mix tpaes became very popular due to this. Also, as far as popular music was concerned. MTV still played videos, but they mostly were still playing hair metal bands at the time and Bell Biv DeVoe-ish things. We had 120 Minutes on MTV which played two hours of very cool videos late Saturday nights. I watched quite religiously. Anyway, radio was a dead medium if you liked what I considered good music. It was all "Top 40" as we called it. It wasn't until Nirvanna in 91-92 that good bands were brought into the mainstream.

Now, as I've said Manda is four years younger, so by the time she was a teenager things were a bit different but the music that she identifies with and loves from her era were the Bell Biv DeVoe's and Boyz 2 Men style bands. She knows all the songs and they mean a lot to her. Basically our experience as teenagers were very different. Recently she was asking me about that time in my life. So I've decided my mini project is to make her the ultimate Mix CD of all my favs from the time. Maybe she'll hate it, I don't know? I don't think I could ever listen to a Boyz 2 Men track in fairness. So if she likes it then cool.

Pee Wee Herman live!

This past weekend Steph and I headed down to L.A. for a little R and R and Pee Wee Herman. That's right we had tickets to see Pee Wee Herman live. We both used to really enjoy the movies as well as the show, especially the HBO version. I really didn't know what to expect considering Paul Rubens is like 50 years old now and the show could end up just being a very sad attempt to resurrect a very likable but dated character. Instead we were treated to a very nostalgic happenstance. The set looked amazing and all the original characters were on hand even the original Miss Yvonne. Best of all Pee Wee looked he did 25 years ago. I was amazed, and we both had oodles of big time fun. (SCREAMING AND RUCKUS!!!!) Oh yeah, fun was the secret word and I totally didn't plan that because it would have been pretty lame.

Also on our trip, we ate as per usual. We had Canters deli because I insist upon their Reuben sandwich every time we visit. Some other fixtures that we end up at in L.A. are places like Swingers which is a pretty cool late night diner near Beverly Hills. We also make sure to go to Milk for dessert and coffee. I can't not have their blue velvet cake. It's fucking ridiculous yo! But the piece de la resistance was Parks BBQ in Korea town. Holy Fuck Parks hit it out of the proverbial park! Seriously, it was delicious! We had Kobe beef and all the trimmings. My favorite thing at Korean restaurants are usually the little dried anchovies but I didn't get any at Parks, but I'm not complaining because like I said it was epic. And lastly we met up with a couple of our regular L.A. homies, Trume(sic) and Michelle at a place called Father's Office where they serve some tasty eats and have a totally bananas beer selection.

Another reason we headed down was to see the He Man homage at Gallery 1988 on Melrose. It was awesome, and again totally nostalgic. It took me back to like second grade when He Man truly was the Master of the Universe. At least in my world he was. I'm sure Steph would think a a pound puppy and my little pony exhibit would be equally as epic.

As to the pics. They are a mish mash and I make no apologies. But There are a couple where Steph and I are totally gorging ourselves on junk food. Yeah that was when we went to see Youth in Revolt. We just didn't realize how gluttonous we looked until we saw it on film. You know your with a good person for you when you can let your hot dog self shine through. Also in the pics is the store front for Peoples Revolution which is on Melrose. We saw it by accident and it will only mean something to you if you're really into watching The Hills, which we are.

Spice Odyssey: Exploring the Burning Tongues of Saturn.: Planetary Soul Fud

Spice Odyssey: Exploring the Burning Tongues of Saturn.: Planetary Soul Fud