Charlie and Mike D consult the Magic Bowling Ball, PRB2002
Seven days from today, we will pack up the Momasaurus Escape-a-saurus and drive up the 15 to Lost Wages! The Show Will Go On! YEAH!
January 2004 Archives
Charlie and Mike D consult the Magic Bowling Ball, PRB2002
Ms. Jen bowls, PRB 2002
Bryan K - The Winner of the Punk Rock Gene Simmons Tongue Award! With Ms. Kitty, PRB 2003
Mike Rouse and his Nachos, PRB 2002
Punk Rock Bowling is a four day (Fri to Mon) marathon of bowling, socializing, seeing bands, drinking, gambling, more socializing, etc. Squeezing a meal in, esp. a semi-nutritious one, is difficult to do. When we find and actually sit down to a non-fast food meal, it is much relished, even at 10pm...
Princess Becca and Princess Lulu, PRB 2001
Once upon a time, I had a rhinestone tiara, then I took it to the DIY Punk Rock Bowling Tournament 2001. Then either Becca or Lulu borrowed it. I don't have a tiara anymore, but I do have a good photo.
Two weeks from tonight, I will be in Lost Wages seeing Flogging Molly, Throwrag, and Punk Rock Karaoke playing at the House of Blues.
Left to Right: Drunk Guy leaning over the bar, Timmy a bit behind the drunk, and the rest of the crowd.
I would like to take a small break from the usual proceedings to point out how a small, cute, mischievous photographer can get hounded by a drunk whilst practicing her craft. This is much the same phenomenon as trying to write or draw when a stranger comes up and demands to read/see what you have been up to and takes the pad of paper away from you, all the while you are protesting vociferiously.
So.... Last Saturday night, Jan. 17, 2004, the Guana Batz played the Doll Hut, and my pal Stacey actually had the night off and could come out and play. Miracle of God or at least a miracle of good scheduling on Stacey's part.
Stacey and her boyfriend Timmy ended up on the other side of the bar from me during the Guana Batz. Timmy came up to get some drinks and I snapped a picture of him when the trouble started.
Timmy is the strong, creative, silent type. I enjoy taking photos of him as he is mostly co-operative, well dressed, photogenic, and is willing to flip me off on a semi-regular basis when I try to take his photo.
At this particular event, Timmy was open to his photo being taken from the bar side of the Doll Hut, but the Drunk Guy sitting at the bar decided to lear at the photo. The Drunk Guy then proceeded to yell over the very loud band trying to tell me SOMETHING. I had my earplugs in. Timmy got his drinks and went back to his spot with Stacey to watch the band.
After the Guana Batz were over, the Drunk hunted me down and demanded to see his picture. I told him that it was not a picture of him but of my friend Timmy. The Drunk demanded to see his picture. When I would not show it, he wanted me to take another, of which I would not. Then the drunk wanted me to erase the photo I had taken, I would not. It devolved from there. The Drunk did not want to be ignored.
I like the photo.
Greg Martin watching the opening band, Skeeter Truck, at the Doll Hut, last Saturday night.
Trey and Vanessa, PRB 2003
ReyRey and Damian, PRB 2001
There are seventeen, yep seventeen, measly little days until we pack up the Momasaurus Ford Escape and drive north on the Interstate 15 to Lost Wages for Punk Rock Bowling!
The Barflies.net Bad News Bowlers and the One Pin Team have been diligently practicing every week for a couple of months now and we are EXCITED!
In the Countdown to Departure, I will be posting pictures from various years past as a "Best of Bowling" memories.
The SXSW Interactive website has a nice feature called "random website", of which you can click on the link and get a random website that has been entered into the 2004 Web Awards Contest.
This is very entertaining. Rather than work in the half hour before I go bowling tonight, I decided that it would be more fun to see how many of the web award entries I could view in 30 or so minutes.
In years past, there has been a "People's Choice" feature, where we the viewer/audience could vote for our favortie site of all the candidates, but I can't find People's Choice voting on the website this year. While there is a lot of very beautiful and a lot of run of the mill sites, for over all entertainment and content, I am going to vote here for "Turtle TV!"
Ok. I'll admit it. I am a sucker for anything involving turtles or tortoises...
10 Years Ago Today....
At 1:18am or thereabouts, I made a funny joke about a certain huge rock star in his presence at a small club in Hollywood. Well, he was wearing awful pants with a baseball jersey. I was young, moderately full of myself, and well, it was funny....
At 3:26am or thereabouts, the whole world started to move. I aroused all my roommates and made them get into their doorways. One ran to the bathroom thinking she had to throw up, it took her 15 seconds to realize it was the earth, not her stomach.
30 seconds later, the rolling, heaving, and profundo bass roar subsided.
For the next 15 minutes, we watched the apartment complex pool continue to loose two-thirds of its water from residual waves.
For the next 2 hours, roommates' relatives called from out of state to make sure everyone was safe. My family, 4-5 geneations of Californians, went straight back to bed and did not call anyone.
Only one thing fell in the whole apartment and it fell on thick carpet. My trick of using cushy shelf paper and turning all glasses upside down worked.
But... we lived in Fullerton, on bedrock of the Sunny Hills.
For all the folks who lived in the Valley on alluvial soils and river sand.... Here's to you, 10 years later.
Once again, I give you the bizarre results of search engine queries. It never ceases to amuse me how people are looking for p0rn and find this site...
Last 10 queries:
1. nude black honey
2. wonderbread in az
3. black men nude shower
4. orange county "photo boot
5. ms black nude
6. lice dream interpretation
7. cover "anti-flag" "terror
8. Ms. Nude world 2003
9. Black Phoebe
10. Ms. world nude 2003 pics.
Maybe it is my fault for continuing to publish the search engine queries, and then when folks are looking for Ms. ... or Mr. .... it is only reconfirmed by the text in posts like this one.
Hey folks who like p0rn: I hope you like this site, even if the only lascivious item is the rear of a Yellow-Rumped Warbler...
Finally, what is up with the wonderbread? in az? Would that be Arizona? Don't supermarkets in Arizona carry Wonderbread? What is wrong with the world?
;oD
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The bird and pony pictures are from Erika and I's circumferential walk around Irivine Regional Park this afternoon, taken with my Sony Mavica. The sky was overcast when we left the house and then the sun started to peep through, as it peeped it cast a lovely, golden filtered light.
Top Row (l to r): Black Phoebe in the distance; One white Puddle Duck, two mallards, and their speckled offspring; a Heron.
Middle Row: Butter Butt!; Wood Ducks; Ponies waiting for small children.
Bottom Row: Raven on a stick; Peacock amongst the oak trees; Woodpeckers congregating.
'Tis the Season to go screaming into the woods or the concrete jungle.... Yes, the Election Season is upon us. To keep from throwing up every meal whilst watching TV or reading the news, I encourage you to go check out PunkVoter.com. Get Active. Activate.
The Bush in 30 Seconds website and collaborative has announced the winners of the film contest.
The Overall Winner is "Child's Pay."
The winning spot in MoveOn's "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad contest didn't compare President George W. Bush to Hitler. It didn't even call him a liar, or castigate him for deceiving the nation into war. The commercial that triumphed over more than 1,000 other entries -- and that will run 30 times on CNN during the week of Bush's State of the Union address, and possibly during the Super Bowl as well -- was a subtle, elegiac and nearly wordless indictment of the burden Bush is shunting onto future generations with his deficits. It was made by Charlie Fisher, a 38-year-old advertising executive and father of two from Denver, a fiscal conservative who was a registered Republican until 1992.
My personal favorite is "In My Country."
Here are the finalists of the Bush in 30 Seconds contest.
Hector and Wanda after Daniel Lanios' opening the SXSW 2003 Music conference.
I just redeemed frequent flyer miles for a round trip ticket from Los Angeles to Austin for SXSW 2004!
Now I just need to buy a badge. Therein lies the big monetary vs. worth debate.
From 1998 - 2000, I attended the Music conference and loved it. In 2001 & 2003, I got a Platinum badge to attend the Interactive and Music conferences. The badge is quite a bit more expensive and the extra nights in the hotel plus food make it a very pricey adventure. I am currently on a cash only - no credit world, and the Platinum is too steep.
The Interactive part of the conference really is worth the badge for the panels alone. But it is lonely, as I am a music person and even though I try to be friendly I have had a hard time meeting folks (must be the lack of afternoon parties and free beer & bbq starting at 2pm). While the Music panels have sucked for the last couple of years, I have a blast with tons of friends, colleagues, and newly met folk at the conference and the showcases.
I have been considering just buying the Interactive badge and then attending afternoon parties for the Music part and a few night showcases, thus saving the dough. But as Wanda and I just discussed, last year many of the showcases we wanted to see were only letting badges in and no paying customers or wristbands. Grrr...
Debate, debate, debate.
Good news is that Manic Hispanic will be at Emo's on 3/19 for the BYO Records showcase!
I would like to recommend the following blog posts on Shrub. Please read, please vote the man and his puppeteers out of office. Please.
Do click on the links within each post:
From JD's New Media Musings : Former Cabinet member: Bush used 9/11 as pretext for war
From Electrolite : Wall of death
Gina Martinez : Woman
2004 is an even, happy number. It is a leap year. It will also be the year of the Monkey starting on January 22, 2004.
In a comment to Theresa Neilsen-Hayden's blog post, "Chrono log", Jonathan Vos Post notes the following:
About "2004" as an integer:2004 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 167
2004 is an EBAN NUMBER. Consider the number's English name: "Two Thousand Four." As Mathworld defines, The eban numbers are the sequence of numbers whose names (in English) do not contain the letter "e" (i.e., "e" is "banned"). The name was coined by N. J. A. Sloane around 1990. Note that this definition is imprecise insofar as special names are sometimes assigned to a few large numbers that do not follow the usual rules for the naming of such numbers.
The first few eban numbers are 2, 4, 6, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 44, 46, 50, 52, 54, 56, 60, 62, 64, 66, 2000, 2002, 2004, ... (Sloane's A006933); i.e., two, four, six, thirty, etc. These exclude one, three, five, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, etc.
On New Year's Day morning, I sat in bed trying to figure out why 2003 sucked so bad. A suspicion started to niggle my brain, thus I did division in my head, hopped out of bed to get my calculator, and my suspicion was correct: 2003 was a prime number.
As a lady born on the 24th day of the 4th month on a Monkey leap year, I am especially fond of even integers, and not so fond of prime numbers above 11. Thus, 2003 was a bad year. ;o)
I am looking forward to 2004 - The Year of the Wood Monkey - being a darned fine year.
For over 13 years, one of my favorite ways to take a self-portrait or group photo is to encourage folks to stand close next to me, extend my camera in front of me, and snap.
For my senior art exhibition to graduate with my bachelor's, I did a series of non-objective color paintings that explored the reaches of my physical space. I am 5 feet and 3/4 of an inch tall. With a paint brush in hand, I can comfortably reach 6 feet in diameter. All the paintings in the series were 6 by 6 feet - the edge of my reach.
All of my series of "end of my reach" photos are usually funny to unflattering, as the farthest I can reach and shoot the picture with the average point and shoot film camera is just in or just out of focus range. With my arm out and trying to get others in the picture, I usually pull my chin back and get a nose in focus and other parts out of focus.
Most of all, I love the random compositions that result from trying to get multiple people into a picture that I can't see before it is shot. With my trusty Sony Mavica digital camera, I am able to get fairly focused photos within in the range of my short arm, but I still like to make a face or two.
The above photo of Erica from Costa Mesa, myself, and Rusty Sanchez from last Saturday night is one of my favorites for the year.
Ok, after a week of holiday from blogging, I am back. A few notes before I get down to business:
1) Yeah! It is 2004, not 2003! Yeah! Already a better year. Yeah!
2) WallyMundo saved my bacon tonight. I hate their labor practices, their ugly clothes, domination and reshaping of the world shopping and buying habits, but I highly grateful that their photo dept. was able to print a large set of digital photo files on a short notice and do a great job so that I could make a deadline when all my fave photolabs are on holiday until Monday.
3) Tom Ridge needs to bug off. I promise not to use my postal box as a center of terrorism, if you promise to get out of my business and not be so snoopy. Enough said.
Happy New Year one and all.
May 2004 be a year of learning, love, laughter, and a few good tears, but not too many.