The Raven's Ecritoire

Art Show!

2011-10-24T11:39:00.002-04:00

http://ravenseyrie.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/art-show/

R.I.P. Aloha Alcohula, 2002-2011

2011-03-26T11:27:00.003-04:00

The Aloha Alcohula* was finally laid to rest this month. It is survived by its two hosts, and a bevy of wonderful, funderful regulars who made it the Best Damn Tiki Bar in CT!!

Volcano Bern & I would like to thank all of our friends, and family, who came and played in our little Polynesian Pop romper room. As most of you know (especially YOU, jZ!), we spent tons of time scouring flea markets, junk shops and rescuing severed heads bobbing in tropical waters for our collection.

(And worry not, Gentle Readers, the Velvis went to a good home....)

Some photos of the AA before its sudden passing may be seen here:

And even, better, a lovely little film by Kate (who was the brilliant brain behind the name) from the very last party at the AA (NSFW, due to some salty language.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJsyfuAcQEo

-The Queen & Volcano Bern

*Best damn tiki bar in CT.....

Hygienic Art 32 - salon des independents

2011-01-06T11:27:00.008-05:00

My submissions for the annual Hygienic Art 32 Salon des Independents promo materials -the French Vegas Dancing Lawbstahs piece is currently on the Hygienic Gallery and Wailing City websites.

The Journal of the Women's League of Ale Drinkers is now available!

2010-10-31T11:48:00.000-04:00

Get a copy and enjoy some wonderful poetry, music, writing and art from these creative women. And you may even know some of them.....

http://wloaded.blogspot.com/2010/10/wload-1-is-here.html

Smoking Ant Records!

2010-08-02T09:12:00.003-04:00

The Smoking Ant records website is now live!

http://www.smokingantrecords.com/

This was my first foray into designing the look of web pages: many thanks to Paul Hamilton (Smoking Ant Records Grand Poobah) and Rob Sedgebeer (webmaster - http://www.notbbc.co.uk/ ) for making this happen!

Happy Birthday to me...in NYC

2010-06-14T15:27:00.040-04:00

This year we decided some time in the Big Apple was needed! I tend to forget how wonderful and revitalizing spending time in NYC can be.

I found a reasonable hotel in midtown (Radio City Apartments) on W49th. It was an older building, but the rooms were immaculate and we were mere steps away from the subway and 10 blocks in either direction yielded plenty of restaurants, bars and theaters. However, next to the large signs for absolutely everything else, we didn't see the hotel sign right away, so we walked around for about an hour with our luggage looking for the hotel, only to find it was right where we had been dropped off....the hallways had some wonderfully sculpted plaster rosettes on the walls, and the building also had some really nice stained glass windows.

So, all checked in, we sauntered a few feet past the entrance and had lunch at a small Japanese place - we had rice bowls and Sapporo beer ($3 for 16 oz!) - which were really good. After wandering around for a bit, and finding ourselves in the sheer hell that is Times Square, we headed off to the Japan Society for the Kuniyoshi exhibit - beautiful mid-19th century woodblock prints that were just stunning to behold. The gallery itself is also incredibly beautiful, in the style of a Japanese garden.

After walking around some more (the common theme throughout this trip), we put on our glad rags and headed off to dinner at the Redeye Grill. This restaurant was recommended by a colleague of mine, and it was absolutely wonderful - great staff and service. The strawberry-shrimp roll was outstanding as was the lump crabcake and Dover sole. Drinks consisted of vodka on the rocks for me, Manhattan for J10X. I understand the banana cream pie is amazing, but we skipped dessert and ended up with a big dish of cotton candy with our coffee.....

The it was off to find a quiet bar (not in Times Square- have I mentioned the sheer hellishness of that place? Tourists underfoot everywhere!)) and we were lucky enough to find Nios, a nicely appointed bar that had a decent jazz quartet (trumpet, bass, drum, guitar) playing and a really good bartender with personality. He was rather liberal with the rum samples, much to Bernie's delight. J10X also had a cocktail made with Lagavulin (The Heroin of Alcohol - tm) floated on top - bizarre, but good - I had the Bruichladdich, which was as fabulous as expected.

We were up bright & early on Friday, and made our way downtown to Union Square, with a quick stop at Sephora and a kick-ass costume shop before hitting the Strand bookstore. We had never been to the Strand before, but we made quick work of liberating some Taschen volumes (Surfing, Eric Stanton, Japanese graphic design.) I could easily havespent $5K in there just on the graphic design books alone- I did manage to attain Maximum Visual Overload while looking through them. I found a cheap copy of 'Too Tough to Die' - a DVD of tributes to Johnny Ramone- and two *ahem* passionate patrons in the back of the store....who kindly redressed themselves after I stumbled upon their intense love for, um, books.

On our way to St. Mark's Place, we stopped at a fab little bistro called Jack and had an excellent lunch at the bar- our drinks were free due to some special thingy, so that was nice. We had the chicken quesadilla and the crabcake sandwich (which had avocado instead of tomato) -both were wonderful. I have to say that the city has a lot of really good restaurants, which is great for foodies like us, but you do spend more than you think you will on food....
We hit up Trash & Vaudeville at St. Mark's - it sure has gone downhill, almost seeming more like tourist destination than the cool shop it used to be. The lower level had tons of cool shoes and some cool t-shirts, but that's about it. Across the street was Search & Destroy, which was awesome and more like what TnV used to be - lots of vintage clothes (J10X snagged a nice shirt there), and all sorts of stuff crammed into every corner - sex toys, shoes, studded gear designed and made by one of the adorable Japanese guys working in there, accessories (I snagged a sequined scarf and studded leather ring) and probably more stuff I couldn't even see. We did end up checking out some other used shops, too, but S&D was my fave by far. Plus, their plastic bags had 'fuck you' written on them instead of 'thank you', which delighted me to no end.

Our journey through the East Village continued with a pilgrimage to three tiki bars - Waikiki Wally, Lei and Otto's Shrunken Head. We walked FOREVER to find Waikiki Wally's, which doesn't exist any longer, except for the tikified door handle - good thing, too, judging by the reviews online. Ditto for Lei. So, off to Otto's we went- and that place is pretty much a dump, and tiny. The bartender was very nice, as was her friend, and they were playing some great music - Buzzcocks, Ian Dury and the like. We were there mid-afternoon, and no bands were scheduled to play over the

weekend, so we sipped some frosty ones at the bar. J10X got a tiki mug, natch, with his drink. The decor wasn't great, mostly laser prints of velvet paintings, the occasional gold-painted fish, some puffer fish with differently-colored bulbs in them and some antique postcards glued to a wall. The photos make it look a lot nicer than it is, but it's all very faded and tired and definitely not a hardcore tiki joint. From online reviews, I gather it's a hang out for rockabilly/punk/hipster types at night, so we'll definitely go back to check that out.

After walking for hours, we were delighted to find the subway was a mere 10 minute ride back to the hotel- we got spruced up, then headed to the west side of the Village for the evening. We popped into Bleecker Bob's, which was a total disappointment except for the sweet Johnny Thunders posters. Overpriced vinyl and little to choose from. There were quite a few 'rare live recordings' to be had, but very poorly packaged, so it doesn't give much faith as to the quality of the recordings. We wandered down the streets and found a shop called Generation Records which was cool - the basement had used CDs ($7-8 range), 45s and cool t-shirts. This place was well-lit, well-organized, well-stocked and the goods were in decent shape. And the staff were super nice, but then everyone in the city is reasonably pleasant.

We stopped for dinner at Indian Raj, and that was a bit weird. The staff were really formal and kinds of tense/uptight. The food was decent, not great, but my vindaloo was beyond edible as it was so freakin' spicy and hot. Ridiculously hot, and I like spicy food.

We left there, with a bag of ice strapped to my tongue, and stumbled across to the Lost World : this place was everything Big Lebowski, down to the store owner kitted out as The Dude, bathrobe and all - totally fun. And his cat was on a leash, lounging on the sidewalk outside, very mellow as one would expect. BL bobbleheads, t-shirts, other BL merch and some comics. The owner has also written/illustrated children's books so I bought one for my niece and he was kind enough to sign it.

We did notice a lot of 20-somethings standing in long lines to get in all the clubs - I guess between NYU expanding and kids from NJ coming into the city to party, this is pretty standard. So, we headed back to Nios for a nightcap, but in 24 hours that place made a sea-change - no cool band, just crap club music, bitchy waitress and not so hot bartender. So, we sucked down our nightcaps and called it a night/morning. Fun fact: you can buy beer at the markets at 1:30 am, much to our delight....

Ok, so Saturday we were feeling the effects of walking everywhere, and merely dragged ourselves to a coffee shop breakfast two blocks away and then to the fabulous King Tut exhibit. I have a life-long love for the style of art represented in Egypt at that time (18th Dynasty, Amarna style art), so I was absolutely gobsmacked to see items I had only viewed as photos in the past. The exhibit was really well displayed, with some very dramatic lighting, and a fair amount of info was represented. I highly recommend this to anyone even slightly interested in seeing the exhibit. It's also far cheaper than admission to Madame Tussaud's wax museum...

Since it was super warm and humid out, we decided to continue by visiting the American Museum of Natural History - a first for both of us.

On our way, though, we stopped at Columbus Circle to have lunch at Cafe Bouchon, which was also recommended my colleague. It's located in a fancy-pants mall at Columbus Circle, but the cafe itself had the best coffee I had ever tried and breath-taking view of Columbus Circle. Then, it was off to the museum!

Of course, there was no way we could see everything, but we tried anyway: the Hall of Biodiversity had amazing displays, the most impressive of which was the Spectrum of Life, which showed the evolution of different species laid out on the walls and soaring to about 12 ft high. The hall of Ocean Life was also amazing, despite the fact there was science exhibit going on that kind of cramped our viewing of the dioramas. We also hit up the Bird Hall, the Mammal Hall, the Northwest Coast Indian Hall and the Pacific Peoples Hall. The NW Coast Indian Hall had some beautiful and impressive pieces, but was really run-down and dimly lit, with many displays missing lights. The Pacific Peoples Hall was very fresh and new-looking, so there's hope that they'll restore the dingier areas of the museum in time. I think it may take 3-4 more visits to get in the rest of the museum and I don't suggest going on a Saturday.

After several hours, we had visual overload, so it was off to clean up and find some dinner. We ended up at the Oldcastle Pub, which was largely unoccupied except for the large staff of spanish-speaking waiters and bar staff.

[I will take some time to mention that NYC, at least within 15 blocks of Times Square in any direction, has more Irish pubs than Boston does, which is saying something.]

After dinner we ended up at some random fairly quiet bar with a pleasant, good bartender and a band in the back, so we hung out there until the wee hours.

The next day, Sunday, was our day to bid farewell to the fair city, so we checked out early (and the the hotel hung on to our luggage for us- sweet!) and headed to one of the Brooklyn Diners for breakfast - good food, nice staff and the incomparably entertaining conversation provided by the Noo Yawk cop sitting on the other side of the row of tables divider. This guy did not take a breath the entire 45 minutes he was talking at his companion, who may have actually been able to get a word in edgewise, at one point. The stream of conversation went from.... I dint wanna work there, so I tole 'em to go screw in so many words and just packed up my desk...she's a model so I tole her she could shoot me anytime, honey, heh heh heh.......I got divorced about 15 years ago, still tawk to da kids......so we were talking with that film guy, uh, he's a director, Steven, Steven...yeah, Spielberg.....so this broad's a photographer but a real hot tamale, so I just lugged her equipment around for a while........yeah, you know, Jim, he's a real gennulmen, his kid, Tom got his ahm blown off in Fahloozhah.......

It was all I could do to not bust out laughing.

We beat feet for the Hell's Kitchen flea market (in the failed attempt to avoid the Puerto Rico Day parade - oy.) We found some small treasures, but the highlight was J10X and I both getting the best massages we had ever had in our lives by some lovely Chinese people who set up an area. So, totally pain-free and relaxed, we attempted to find several other flea markets that unfortunately no longer existed. It's always a crap shoot when your info is a month old!

Then, several coffees and many blocks later, we decided to grab our stuff and head out for home, pleasantly tired.

So, who's buying my house so's I can move to NYC?

Meet the new cat...almost the same as the old cat.....

2010-03-31T10:56:00.001-04:00

New family member Ace is on the left, Fang on the right. We think they may have been litter mates as they're the same age and look very similar. We took in Fang about 3 years ago, and Ace just this past week after feeding him for about 6 months....

Prints, Pinheads and Poppadums

2010-03-21T11:08:00.009-04:00

J10X & I checked out two gallery openings last night in New London: 'Blotter' at the MUSE Gallery & 'Mondo Carnie" at the Hygienic.

The 'Blotter' show is comprised of fabulous etchings, collaborative monotypes and woodcuts by Christian Dyer & Elisa Schauer. The etchings feature whimsical robots, very simple images that feel like soft-lead pencil drawings: one striking etching is a multi-plate print with the images split between subsequent plates, other etchings had light color washes. The gorgeous monotypes are collaborative pieces created by Christian and Elisha, all in black & white, and the woodcuts were simply spectacular. This is definitely one of the better shows I've seen at Muse - I just don't understand why they take up wall space with display boxes, as it forces them to display many works in odd locations on the walls, too close to the floor, or in too tight spaces.

After seeing these beautiful prints, we skipped down the road to Hygienic Art opening of the fantastical 'Mondo Carnie' show. Gorgeous, fun pieces, with 3 of the artists being 'Volonte Morceaux', of Ideat Village painting under 3 different personas. (Oh, and 'Ideat' IS pronounced as 'idiot', as you may have guessed...)

Some pieces were very carnie/sideshow/freaks -based, others, by artists such as Lipgloss Crisis and Looketha (my fave) were sumptuous and entrancing. The pieces had plenty of macabre humor and were just jaw-droppingly fantastic. There was an accordion player on Saturday lending some fantastic ambience to the show, as well as a couple of funhouse mirrors to amuse.

J10X & I then had some Indian food, and went off to see Alice in Wonderland. Yup- I saw that movie twice this weekend, once in 3-D & once just plain 'ol regular. Not much of a difference, I'm afraid.

[Filmmakers: please, oh please, stop making films 'based on' anything that is sci-fi or imaginary written in the 19th century. You always fuck it up. And someone please shoot Helena B-C - she's unbearable.]

Alice in Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass is one of my favorite books, so I really tried to be as open-mnded as possible knowing this move was to take place years after Alice visited Wonderland. I was doing OK up to the point that she enters 'Underland'- it just went awry after that. Being a Disney movie, I was pleasantly surprised Alice had any strength of character, but there were definitely some revoltingly twee moments. The movie looked fabulous, but anyone familiar with the original text may feel cheated.

Rating: 2.5 crowns out of 5, but the crown should be mine, dammit, as I am the best Queen of them all.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-02-09T10:56:00.002-05:00

Has it been really 9 years? You're a good man, Johnny 10X....

XOXOX QoE

'Seasons & Metaphors' - Peter J. Crowley

2010-01-19T22:47:00.006-05:00

Peter is having an exhibit at the Emporium in Mystic - fabulous photography and good deals on bin prints! What more could you ask for?

Happy Anniversary, Boojums!

2010-01-19T16:18:00.002-05:00

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Doh!

Hygienic Submission for 2010....

2010-01-02T11:11:00.003-05:00

The Hygienic's XXXIst 'Salon des Independants' will be running from Jan. 30 - Feb. 13 this year...

I submitted this piece for their consideration- no firm word whether or not they will be using it...

Movie review: Sherlock Holmes (2009)

2009-12-28T10:38:00.003-05:00

It may surprise some of my dear readers that I, as an avid Sherlockian, would deign to see this movie. At first glance (i.e, the trailers), it appeared to be an abomination of the Canon.

Note: there may be some spoilers!

As much as I love Robert Downey, Jr as an actor, in no way does he physically fit any description of Holmes anywhere. Much like Hugh Jackman being a full foot taller than his character, Wolverine, RDJ does not possess the height, physiognomy nor even the eye color of Doyle's detective. Nor did Jude Law's Watson ring entirely true: he had the limp, the moustache and the good looks of Watson, but was taller than Holmes and more slender than out to have been.

As for character, the only ones that could be considered true to the original were Watson, the soon-to-be- Mrs. Watson, Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade and Professor Moriarty. Holmes' character was nothing more than the sum of all the known and surmised eccentricities and slovenly about his person; Irene Adler started off strong, but descended into damsel-in-distess/at-the-mercy-of-powerful-men type of rubbishy character. The villain, Lord Blackwood, was not as venal as he could have been, but his wardrobe was fantastic.

London is portrayed in all its unglamorous, crowded, filthy, horse-dropping-bedecked street beauty, all in murky browns and greys; 221B is far larger and jam-packed with objets, dark, smoky and somewhat repugnant.

There was a feeling that the director did not know what to do with the female characters- while Watson's fiancee had the strength of character her Canonical counterpart had, she was filmed oddly and mysteriously, for no apparent reason. Irene Adler was filmed mostly in headshots, her cheekbones and pouty, mauve-hued lips first and foremost.

This movie was incredibly fun as an action/comedy- if viewed as a non-Holmesian piece, it is thoroughly enjoyable. The only impediment to that is having substantial knowledge of the original material- lines are sprinkled here and there from the Canon only serve to highlight the considerable departure from it.

There is plenty of action, as can be expected in a Ritchie film. The relationship between Holmes and Watson is well drawn out, but not overburdened; the Holmes/Adler relationship is dutifully sketched - kindred souls with an unfulfilled potential, and some unnecessarily sexy bits tossed in for....well, for no reason at all. The story, filled with the occult and political machinations, moves along and all is revealed, in true Doyle style, at the end.

Rating: 4 crowns out of 5

Happy Birthday, Kate!

2009-12-17T08:23:00.002-05:00

Restaurant review: Eastern Standard

2009-12-12T17:52:00.002-05:00

This past Thursday J10X and I decided to get the fuck outta Dodge and go to Boston and take in some new sights.

We rode the train from the Riverside Station all the way over the river into Cambridge to check out an antiques market near a restaurant that was rumored to have a tiki bar.....we ended up spending hours in the antiques place as it was 4 stories high. Lots of item were insanely overpriced (according to the pricing by some vendors, I have a Vanderbilt's fortune in costume jewelry) but we escaped with two tiki mugs and a couple of small Japanese woodblock prints from the early 1900s, all of which were good deals.

We then staggered out into the cold and walked a bunch of blocks over to the East Coast Grill in Inman Square - well, we finally found it, but it wasn't going to be open until 5:30pm, which was 3 hours away. So, that went on the list as a place to go back to in the near future.

We hopped on the T, back over the river, back to Kenmore Square and landed at the Eastern Standard: gorgeous room and bar, lots of dark wood, and red and brown leather upholstered chairs. Comfy and inviting. We were there in time for the mid-day menu, which was a lot like lunch and reasonably priced. We had a look at the drinks menu, and (score!), they had tropical drinks and are known for creating their own in-house syrups and infusions. The drinks menu is changed from what you see online, but they offer everything. J10X opted for the Zombie, and I, the Metamorphosis.

The Zombie was made according to the 1934 recipe and obviously had many hand-made elements in it, not to mention a ton of rum. It was easily as good as any Zombie I sampled at the Mai Kai in Florida, and it was well worth the price as it was served a pint glass. The Metamorphosis was constructed of some sort of Czechoslovakian bitters (Becherovka?), honey and fresh lemon juice - it was both warm and refreshing and really delicious (and after doing a little research, it's also called 'The Millenium' in other places.) It was served up in a martini glass, but also had quite a kick to it. Our lovely waiter, Dave, told J0X that the bartender had 'something special' for him when he finished the Zombie. Well, J10X was still sitting up after the Zombie, and was rewarded with a Cinnamon Planter's Punch: I am not a rum lover by any means, but this was one delicious cocktail. It goes on the list of only 3 drinks that have rum that I would ever consider drinking (the other two being a Derby Daiquiri and a Stormy Weather.) We were definitely pleased to find this place!!

We each had a sandwich, and if you get one with roast beast on it, it's piled high. Both were served with delicious fresh pommes frites and were really good.

Two drinks packed quite a wallop, so we decided to go and brave the wintry wind outside as the fine folk at the ES wouldn't adopt us and let us move in. The restaurant & bar are attached to a hotel, so some of you may want to keep that in mind.

So, we ducked into a book store right next door, don;t remember the name of it, but they had a fine assortment of art books, graphic novels and literature, all very reasonably priced.

We then decided to hit up Harvard Square (back on the train, over the dang river again...) and actually did some holiday shopping until we called it quits and headed home.

Rating: The Eastern Standard gets 4.5 stars out of 5, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone.

Fobbing more visuals onto an unsuspecting public....

2009-11-06T12:44:00.005-05:00

Feast your eyes on my latest endeavors:

Hallowe'en Roundup and let the Fall/Winter festivities begin!

2009-11-02T10:25:00.010-05:00

This year's Hallowe'en weekend started with a pre-Hallowe'en gathering at friend Nat's palatial home in New London for a scary movie viewing, drinks, chat, etc. Our host met us at the door in glorious costume, and several other guests were in costume, too.

Nat's place was aglow with blacklights and fun horror movie/Hallowe'en ephemera - a Bruce Campbell doll was spotted in one corner, posters from the Exorcist and Army of Darkness...lovely atmosphere!

The movies that were chillingly served up quickly became MTS3K-esque fodder for us- 'Black Sunday' (aka 'The Devils' Mask'.) The bat alone was worth the price of admission......one viewer exclaimed 'What is that? Half an umbrella?' I'm not so sure what this movie was about- Witches? Vampires? Bad lighting?

So, when that was done, we took a break, ate some delightful vittles, drank (I was imbibing Burnett's Sweet Tea vodka- not bad for a flavored vodka, but tasted better when mixed with Honest Tea's Black Assam Iced Tea.)

The second movie was most frightening of all: 'Never Too Young to Die', starring John Stamos, Vanity and Gene Simmons as an evil hermaphrodite.....in drag......

The exquisite pain and suffering caused by this move has forced us all to file a class action lawsuit against our host. Where do I start? Stamos finally had a showcase for all his acting range of that one emotion, Vanity....well, she keeps guns in interesting places, has lovely underwear and sure knows how to do yardwork. As for Gene Simmons, he was just cringingly over-the-top. And not a sexy man in drag, either - my eyes actually burned during his song and dance routine. I think he wore Cher's wardrobe discards - the ones she wore when she was feeling 'fat'. This movie was made in 1986, and it incorporated bad imitations of 'Mad Max' "punks", big hair, made-for-TV-movie plot, and one very long, sharp fingernail. I don't want to share too many details as I know all of you, Dear Readers, will want to see it.

This movie is a glorious train wreck, and yes, if you find a copy, send it my way.

So all of this really set the stage for Hallowe'en excitement. On Hallowe'en, J10X & I scrambled around to finish our costumes in anticipation of the Creepshow at the Hygienic Art Park. J10X went as a scarecrow, I a crow.

With plans to meet up with Miss Wendy, Kate, Marko, the Boojums & others at the park, we eagerly set off. It was a fabulously blustery night and J10X was in danger of losing all his stalks to the wind.

When we arrived at the Park, it was scantily populated. Then we found out one of the bands (one of the good ones) couldn't play! Horrors! Fortunately, the Art Park started filling up with people and their fabulous costumes- although I find it weird that anyone would dress in "80's" costumes, such as Molly Ringwald or preppies. All I think is 'Crap ! High school!' The Boojums were dressed in their finery as was Kate and once the park was full, it looked fantastic!

Then the really scary part started- one of the bands played.....a looooong set. Too long. Lots of people left. Then it very briefly rained. The third band, Get Haunted, decided to go play at the Oasis, a place that is too small when I'm not in costume from head to toe! So, we skipped that. which I'm sorry to say, as I heard it was great show. Miss Wendy, Kate, J10x & I went to the Dutch Tavern, where we were the only costumed folk in a room full of sports fans watching the World Series. Until Batman came in for a frosty one. The four of us scored a table and had drinks & chatted- a theme for this Hallowe'en! Then we said our goodbyes and wrote obscenities on Marko's car.

Trick or treat...............?

Good Music

2009-08-30T11:57:00.007-04:00

Last night J10X and I cruised to Rosie's Cantina in Groton to see an awesome show featuring Brokedown Serenade, Get Haunted & The Paul Brockett Roadshow Band.

Rosie's is a decent joint, but I have issues with the sound system. I did discover the 'sweet spot' to stand is about 10 ft from the stage. A foot further forward or back results in a mind meltingly loud experience.....

I had seen Brokedown Serenade open for the Cobra-Matics, and I felt they were much improved. They were definitely more relaxed on stage, and I think they'll grow even further from this point on. They served up competent, steady rockabilly/blues/rock 'n' roll. Fun fact: BS's bass player used to play in the Lucky Diamonds, a band fronted by The Colonel, who fronts the Cobra-Matics.

Next up was Get Haunted, a band I was just champing at the bit to see. Fronted by the ever-magical Joey Royale, his lovely wife Sarah and a Nice Young Man called Kevin. Really basic drums, twangy banjo and intense (dare I say 'punkily hammered out') acoustic guitar and Joey's.....voice, which I have a really hard time describing. It's warm, hoarse, intense, old, shades of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and Lux Interior. How about 'compelling'? I'll stick with compelling. The songs are dark, haunted, and in their own words 'sticks and stones, Indian bones and a box buried in a mound.' And sartorially, very entertaining: black-rimmed glasses, Mr. Royale's pencil moustache, shirts buttoned up and sporting plantation ties.....Sarah was wearing (from what I could spot) a black bodysuit and some shiny leather-looking stockings. Well, they knocked my socks off, so I will see every damn show they play if I can.

And if that wasn't enough, we also were fortunate to see the always- fantastic Paul Brockett Roadshow Band. I cannot say enough great things about this band- they always deliver great songs, always with heart, soul and humor. Paul flung his guitar at the young man from Brokedown Serenade, who whipped out some nice bluesy notes. And a special treat for us in attendance were the spectacular songs done with Joey Royale - it's always awesome to see the PBRB bring people onstage, but this was truly transcedent. 'Magic' is the only word to describe it.

So, hats off to all you fabulous musicians for a great night of music!

'In Like Flint'- Move Over, James Bond!

2009-08-29T11:35:00.006-04:00

Beg, borrow or steal this movie!

This lavish prequel to the Austin Powers series features:

James Coburn and his Super Secret Spy Moves!
Yvonne Craig as 'Natasha'!
Herb Edelman as the Russian Prime Minister!
1967 Push Button Technology!
A plot so weak that the 'GI Joe' movie had to use it!!
Battle of the Sexes!
Free Love!
Fembots!
Seriously Fabulous Clothing!
Underwhelming Fight Scenes!
Outer Space Effects inspired by Ed Wood!

Oh, just look for yourselves.....The Trailer

RIP, Slimjim, c1998-2009

2009-08-22T14:23:00.003-04:00

It's always hard to lose a beloved pet. Slimjim had been with us for almost twelve years.

He was good, sweet, loving member of our family and we had to make the incredibly difficult decision to let him go on to the Great Mouse Hunting Ground in the Sky.

Unfortunately, last year he started having seizures that were becoming more and more frequent and with no apparent physiological cause. He was also losing mobility and we had to take him to the vet today because he couldn't breathe. He was in such distress he was actually meowing - a rare thing for Slimjim. The vet found a huge lump in his throat that showed some damage to the fine bones there and his passageway was so swollen that it was impeding his breathing. After much deliberation, and many, many tears, we felt it would be kinder to let him go rather than traumatize him further with aggressive care.

We love you Slimjim - and we miss you terribly.

The 4th, Public Enemies, and Ephemera...

2009-07-08T17:34:00.015-04:00

(If I wait long enough, I accumulate enough to blog about.....)

Last Friday, braving the torrential downpours, J10X & I went to see Public Enemies. For those who don't know, it's a movie about John Dillinger's 14-month crime spree. I love gangster movies; I love gangster movies with stylish stars; this had both. And I'm pretty sure I can now predict the men's fall fashion line for 2009.
This movie was beautifully shot, some scenes evoking the feel of 1930's newspaper photos and it was a welcome respite from the usual direction of movies of late. The pacing was a little slower than I thought it would be, but it was a relief to see the action, not have it shoved in your face with nearly-undecipherable CGI magic.
It's really hard to describe the movie as a whole, and I'm hard put to explain any of the plot devices. There were no decent female roles, not even Dillinger's moll, played by Marie Cotillard, who had more of a 'character' than the other women. Johnny Depp was cool as Dillinger, Christian Bale [The Most Tensest Actor Since Clint Eastwood (tm)] was serviceable as Melvin Purvis, the very intense G-man who was chasing Dillinger, but again, the characters & story were very broad strokes. There was a good deal of sub-plot involving J. Edgar Hoover and the beginnings of the FBI, and Baby-Face Nelson's psychotic self was skin-crawlingly represented as well. Plenty of familiar faces in this movie, most of whom I couldn't name if I had to. This was a really enjoyable movie and beautiful to watch: I recommend it as an afternoon's diversion.
Rating: 3.5 crowns out of 5, 5 crowns for Johnny Depp 'cuz I'm sweet on him.

On the 4th, J10X and I were fortunate enough to party down with the Boojums and their Big L'il Bash for the Fourth. It was so glorious outside (finally), good food was to be had, good people to talk to, just a nice, relaxed vibe. Later that night, J10X & I went to Norwich to see the fireworks - it was insane. There wasn't a single place to park, the town was just packed full of people. We managed to get to a spot behind a bank, under some trees, through a culvert and on a grassy knoll and joined an older couple to watch the fabulous fireworks.

Sunday was another glorious day, so off we went to the beach! It was a bit chilly on the beach itself, but really nice walking around. Oh, yeah, we scored some more tiki goodness at the flea market as well, this time in the form of ephemera. One piece, which is marginally Polynesian Pop, is a brochure from 1931 on the SS Mauritania and its cruises to South America and islands. That has a big fold out section of the schematic of the ship, too. We also scored a travel booklet from Hawaii and several pamphlets from Silver Springs, ca. 1940s-1950s.

So, all-in-all, it was a rare relaxed holiday weekend- yay!

Uh, How Do Ya Call your Luva Boy....?

2009-06-26T12:21:00.003-04:00

Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!Rock 'n' Roll!Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!

Marko and I witnessed a fantastic, kick-ass, REAL rock and roll show last night at Pearl St. in Northampton - the NY Dolls came, rocked our world, and left us all in a sweaty, steamy, spent and satisfied pile on the ballroom floor.

The Dolls only have two original members left, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, but the newer members of the band were, in every sense of the word, NY Dolls. This band was classy, stylish, rockin' and the perfect mix of great musicians who are tight, but can let it get loose and not sloppy.

I wasn't overly familiar with the newer material, but it was GREAT live - and there was a nice mix of original Dolls' tunes and the newer songs. Sylvain and Johansen both looked really pleased that the audience really went nuts over the original tunes. That said, most of the audience were obviously long-time fans of the band. They also covered Johnny Thunders' 'Can't Put your Arms Around a Memory' and gave Thunders and Michael Jackson a shout-out, which was cool. Other songs included 'Stranded in the Jungle', 'Pills', 'Jet Boy', 'Trash', 'Mystery Girls', 'Personality Crisis' - they opened with 'Looking for a Kiss', which is arguably my favorite Dolls tune, and it just went uphill after that. And they played for almost 2 solid hours. Johansen's voice was amazingly unchanged, Sylvain's guitar-playing and audience interaction was great and I highly recommend you go NOW and see this band if you can.

"Trash, wont pick it up
Take them lights away
Trash, wont pick it up
Dont take your life away
Trash, dont try to take my life away...."

Cape Cod- the World's Repository of Fudge, Taffy, Jams & Jellies!

2009-06-15T11:44:00.013-04:00

For my Birthday Time this year, Jv10X and I decide we'd stay at the Cape for a week- do some biking, kayaking, Provincetown-ing, catch some rays at the beach. We were so psyched because it was pre-tourist-season, so it would be peaceful.

Well, things didn't quite turn out as planned: we were disappointed by the place we stayed in (I felt their website was rather misleading), lots of places were not open because it was pre-season, and it was cold and rainy. So that definitely put the kibosh on whale-watching, kayaking and anything ocean-y at all. If the rental places weren't closed, it was just too damn cold (think 55 degrees and windy and cold rain.)

So, as they say, we were given lemons, so we made vodka tonics. The first night, we went to P-town to scope out the scene. As it was late evening, there were very few stores open, but it was really peaceful without too many people around, so we walked all over, making note of the places we wanted to visit over the next week. Provincetown has nice shops, lots of cool galleries, theater....a lot of stuff in a fairly small space. We checked out the Marine Specialties shop, and that was quite the diversion! Tons of army/navy surplus from around the world, and just....stuff. Clothes, toys, home goods, pith helmets- you name it! We also stopped at Wa, which has a Zen garden and some completely stunningly beautiful objets.

The next day, we did manage to get in a fabulous bike ride at the dunes. It was pleasantly cool out and we had gone early enough to avoid the visitors that came later. The landscape was really bizarre- all the scrub pines and sand looked like an alien landscape and you could smell the salt mist roses everywhere. The bike path was really nice, paved, and boy, there were some huge hills to navigate. After the ride, thighs aflame, we checked out the visitor's center and found out that a whale (dead) had been washed ashore several weeks earlier - they had pictures of a crane picking up the enormous tongue off of the beach! It was the Gene Simmons of whales, I believe....

After dolling ourselves up to have a nice dinner in honor of my birthday, we went back to P-town earlier than the night before and stopped in at id. So many gorgeous things here, too! I picked up a beautiful, simple vase there and I wish I could have afforded, oh, ALL the jewelry. Not everything they have is online, so keep checking that site as they add to it. We grilled the owner about things to do around town, why wasn't everything open, and where shall we eat? We had decide to go to The Mews, but we wanted some local input. A place called Victor's was recommended to us, they have tapas, so we thought we'd give that a shot and then go to The Mews afterwards to sample as many of their 256 vodkas as we could. Well, after walking the length of P-town twice, we couldn't find it: the next day we realized we were about 10 damn feet from it. (We did the exact same thing the night before trying to locate The Mews- we stopped about 50 ft from it and turned around thinking we had missed it. )

So, we went to The Mews, and we're SO glad we did! The setting was great (nice, dark, relaxed, ocean view), the staff were fabulous, the food was divine as was the vodka. Hands down, the Tuna Sushi Tempura was the winner out of everything we tried - I could eat that every day of my life. We also tried the crabcakes, which were delicious and the mushroom strudel, which was great, and Jv10X had the skirt steak and scallops, which he really liked. I really recommend this place if you're looking for an elegant, but relaxed, restaurant in P-town. And, look who's also eaten here: Bob Mackie, Bozo the Clown and John Waters!

We were fortunate enough to be sitting next to a table of three women, and one of them was also celebrating her birthday- they were out on the town, and very fun. One of the women created all the stained glass pieces in the restaurant, and she took me to the lower level dining room to show me some really spectacular pieces.

We tried four vodkas: the Snow Queen from Kazakhstan, which was best chilled, had a nice, mildly sweet taste and light on the tongue; Youri Dolgoruki from Russia, which was also best chilled, and that had a more astringent, citrusy flavor, also light on the tongue; the always incredible Zubrowka bison grass-flavored vodka (one of my top 3 favorites) and is nice not chilled; and my new favorite, a lovely Ukrainian by the name of Nemiroff Honey- Pepper: I had this 'neat', and I think that's how it should to be served. It smelled strongly of honey, but the honey taste was delicate, not cloying, and it had a little zip to it from the pepper. It was a beautiful gold color and very warming.

I was hoping that we could have smaller 'tastes' of more vodkas, but they don't have that option. The servings were a good size, so after two, I was feeling no pain.

We left and window-shopped all the galleries, which were closed by the time we left the restaurant. One of the exhibits that we kept missing was 'A Dozen Divas' by Robert de Michiell whose caricatures were quite reminiscent of Robert Risko. We could at least see these pieces really well through the windows, and they looked glorious. We did manage to see several galleries' shows, but I thought the Simie Maryles gallery had the most interesting works- I'm not huge fan of paintings, but I loved Roxie Munro's pieces as well as the glass art of Ian Sylvia, which was far more stunning than in any other pictures in that link. There's a long history of art and artists in P-town, but we tended to skip the galleries of the paintings of boats, ocean, bad figurative drawings and the like.

The next morning, we woke up to a torrential downpour and when it stopped, we decided to take a walk along the main rails-to-trails bike trail that ran behind our motel. It was paved, really clean and after we had walked for half an hour, the heavens opened back up and drenched us is cold, fat drops of rain. With thunder. So, after getting back to our room and peeling off our soaked garb, we checked the forecast and realized it wasn't the best day for a hours-long bike ride. So, we headed back to P-town, this time during the day, so we could just go to all the place we wanted to visit that were closed the two days before. This was definitely turning into a shopping & eating trip. We checked out Utilities, The Shell Shop, Womencrafts, Stax of Wax (I snagged some comics here and the adorable owner was selling his punk record collection- so much punk! So much vinyl!), Yesterday's Treasures (where Jv10X liberated a funky-ass Coco Joe's ashtray/lighter combo set), got a hair cut by the fabulous Carl Thomas at Salon 54, ate at Wabi Dumpling (delicious! and we tried Sake2Me's Green Tea Sake that was lightly carbonated- amazingly delicious!), purchased dessert from The Purple Feather (sold to us by one of the many, gorgeous, flirty, flirty, flirty Bulgarian boys and girls who were working on the Cape for the summer), ate some awesome pizza at George's (with large drinky-poos, nice bartender, and the hilarious realization of how porn-y the closed captioning is for Andrew Zimmern's show)....um, then we tried to get into the Whydah Pirate Museum, but it wasn't open, of course - arrrrrgh. So went back to our room.

Surprise! The next morning it was pouring rain! We figured it wasn't going to be a good day as we noticed the household across the street was loading its camper up with two of each animal...we had completely 'done' P-town, so we decided to cut our losses and head home. We will definitely go back to Cape Cod, and we understand from the locals that September is the best time to go. We met a lot of really nice people and had a great time wherever we went.

And we did not succumb to the pressures of purchasing fudge, taffy, jams, jellies or $2

t-shirts....but we have plenty of random pictures here.....

Movie Reviews: Star Trek & the Matrix Sequels

2009-06-05T18:43:00.006-04:00

A current theme in my movie theater-going these days is the switcheroo: I show up to watch a movie only to find it's gone and I have to substitute another.
Miss Wendy and I went to see 'Wolverine' (yes, that would be the 4th time in a month for me...), but it had gone away and we decided to see Star Trek, which was cool as we both wanted to see it.
This movie covers the very beginnings of the careers of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Checkov, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty.....and the Enterprise. Lots of fun effects, but the plot was......disappointing. As in 'We'll fix all the holes in the plot by using time travel to change the future!'-ok, I see this on Dr. Who and it works- came across as lame in this setting. I did like that the characters physically were a nod to the originals and there was some slap-stick type humor that was silly enough to be fun. (Oh, and if 'Bones' looks really familiar, it's because he was in LOTR and Xena....and, believe it or not, Winona Ryder is Spock's mom......)
Oddly, the one really distracting element was the bad skin on everyone except Uhura- I mean, c'mon, it's Stardate 2388- don't they have nuclear-strength Clearasil by now and razor blades that give a clean, close shave??
For the record, you'll only really like this if you've watched the original TV show fairly regularly. There were plenty of inside jokes and I was able to demonstrate my carefully hidden full-on geekiness to Wendy during the movie. I don't see that it would create many new fans, but it was a treat for old ones.

Rating: 3 crowns out of 5, because I only saw it once - I doubt it'll hold up to repeated viewings.
Matrix: Reloaded & Matrix: Revolutions- wow, the incredible suckiness of these two movies is almost beyond words. I know I will be lying on my deathbed at some point regretting the 4 hours I wasted watching these movies.
Where do I start? First of all, it was basically one big movie that could have been edited down to 2 hours instead of 4. The plot was flogged like a dead horse. And the story went from good vs. evil to a ridiculously heavily christianized version of the same. Both movies were boring, so much so that the fight scenes barely revived one's interest, and it seemed that each scene was shot several times and two takes were kept and inserted...wherever....so you see the same thing over and over and over.....zzzzzzzz.........and any decent acting accomplished by Fishburne and Weaving was completely overran by the ponderous plot and editing.
Rating: 0.5 crowns out of 5, the half a point awarded to Trinity's awesome costumes.

Restaurant Review: The Black Sheep

2009-05-10T16:30:00.003-04:00

Jv10X & I popped into the new Black Sheep Irish Pub in Niantic after an extensive tour of the Book Barn: sold some books, bought some books, had the Jim Miller Experience at Book Barn Downtown. (Note: Jim always plays better music than the main Book Barn does.)

The Black Sheep is very....pub-y....with nice white walls, brick wall, molded ceiling, burgundy and gold textiles and dark wood with an adult atmosphere. It's roomy and cozy at the same time.

I was please to see that they carry some nice beers (and Newcastle, hands down my fave) but I was a little distressed that the menu was largely meat and bivalves - but after all, it is a pub, so what the hell was I thinking? And the staff seemed to be very....nervous...so that was a little strange. But they were nice.

I ended up ordering the field greens salad with grilled shrimp, and Jv10X gave a stab at the burger. The salad was huge and really tasty, and Bernie declared his burger to be really good. (I kind of wonder if my salad was so big because they probably don't get a lot of salad-eatin' folk in there, but I'm not complaining!) I definitely would like to stop there again to try an actual dish on their menu- the wild mushroom ravioli look fab as do the crabcakes.

Wolverine. Indian Food. Paul Brockett Roadshow Band.

2009-05-10T16:28:00.001-04:00

....that's what my very deserving mom was treated to for Mother's Day.

Oh, is it exams week already?

2009-05-07T15:27:00.013-04:00

(Me, addressing the students):

“Sorry to interrupt, but did anyone park outside the Library? Campus Safety just popped in to ask everyone to move-“

(Student interrupts, screaming):

“Just gimme a sec! I’m gonna move it! They already told me four times! God, they need to CHILL!”

(Me, not saying any of the 4 gazillion sarcastic rejoinders that have leapt to mind):

“Well, alright then….just so you know, when they actually come in to tell us, it means you’re about to be ticketed or towed….”

(Student, still screaming):

“Fine! Whatever!”

Wolverine- The Movie

2009-05-02T11:21:00.003-04:00

My sister and I had a rare date to see a movie - we were going to see Crank 2, but when we arrived at the theater, pretty much only Wolverine (or "X-Men 4") was playing- so of course we just had to go see it. I think it was really well done, fairly faithful to the comics, but they added some other hoohah that included origins of other mutants as well- even, so, it worked.

Liev Schreiber was amazingly evil and creepy, and Hugh Jackman was terrific and....gosh, yummy and nekkid. This is a pretty violent movie- definitely not for the kids and we were kind of amazed it didn't get an R rating. (I bet a full-frontal of Mr. Jackman would have done that, though, because we all know sex is bad, but violence is ok...)

The actions scenes were fantastic and intense! The theater we were in was super loud, and really enhanced those scenes! The photography was a bit odd, but not distractingly so- the beginning sequence with the credits was gorgeous, but there were some odd shots that made everyone look a little too bronze and shiny and then some shots that looked like they were made-for-TV-movie planned. But it was still great. There was a lot of potential-spin-off/sequel-to-come bits that happened at the end of the movie, which makes it not really stand on its own.

Warning- potential spoiler alert!

I do have a few beefs though: Logan's wife is Emma Frost's sister? That was a little desperate, but I like that Logan's wife did get a juicier role than in the comics.

Admittedly, Gambit is one of my least favorite characters, but the kid who played him (Taylor Kitsch) sucked in that bland, Vanilla-Pudding/Ben Affleck kind of suckiness. There was nothing interesting or compelling about him, he was outclassed (even by Will. I. Am.) and didn't Gambit have a French accent? Well, not this one, apparently.

I also felt the immense amount of info we're given as part of the origins of other mutants was too much too near to the end of the movie. All in all, I will most likely go see it again (actually, I kind of have to as I promised to see it with two other people) and I think I may have a different take on it the second time around- I did have to explain things to my sister, plus I thought this would flow with the previous three X-Men movies, but it didn't.

3.5 crowns out of 5, with Mr. Jackman's buns earning 5 crowns out of 5.

Happy 40th, Bernie! Viva Von 10X, indeed - hot damn!

2009-04-27T17:27:00.011-04:00

Well, what can I say? We had a fab cocktail party at the Aloha Alcohula (TM)* in honor of Bernie's 40th birthday!
Our wonderful guests - hot rodders, artists, musicians, the Usual Suspects and newbies - donned their swanky attire and joined us for martinis, much too much food, and mayhem. I cannot thank everyone enough for being fabulous guests and making this a very memorable event for Bernie, who so deserved it! Happy Birthday, Pootie-pie!

(a Johnny von 10x tribute by the joey Zone - With NO apologies to Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman!)

A shot o’ HOT DAMN gonna set my throat
Gonna set my throat on fire
Got a whole lot of shots down in front o’me--
Who set those stakes up higher?!?
There’s a thousand pretty women in THE tiki bar
But I wanna sit and talk about a CAR
For a gearhead like me that’s just about par
Viva VON 10X, viva VON 10X

How I wish that there were more
Than the twenty-four hours in the day
cause even if there were forty more
I wouldn’t sleep a minute away
Oh, there’s chrome and lacquer and a kustom wheel
A swapmeet somewhere with sech-a-deal
Ya jes’ needs a strong liver and some balls o’ steel
Viva VON 10X, viva VON 10X

ALOHA ALCOHULA with its barlight flashin
And some drink glass smashin
All that good hooch down the drain
Another shot o’ HOT DAMN turnin day into nighttime
Turnin night into daytime
If you’ve been to THE bar
Youll never be the same again

I’m gonna keep on the run
I’m gonna have me some fun
If it costs me my very last dime
If I wind up broke up well
I’ll always remember that I had a swingin time
I’m gonna give it ev’rything I’ve got
So bartender please let those shots stay hot
And let me shout “HOT DAMN!” with ev’ry shot
Viva VON 10X, viva VON 10X,
Viva, viva VON 10X!!! :D

* Best DAMN tiki bar in CT

Dreamings, 5-Course Love and the Perception of Women

2009-04-15T19:10:00.014-04:00

I haven't blogged in a while, so this one's all over the map.

I was absolutely blessed to see two theatrical productions within one month- I didn't realize how much I missed going to theater since I had left the Bushnell.

Elena & I saw 'Dreamings', performed by both the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble and members of the York Correctional Institute for Women in the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford. The cultural center is housed in CT's oldest synagogue building - there were glorious architectural gems to spotted in the building: stained glass windows, gorgeous chandeliers that would make great earrings, beautiful woodwork. (I brilliantly deduced we were in a synagogue by observing the Hebraic script right smack in front of me on a beautiful window....)

The performance included projections (brilliantly...projected...by a reacquainted Old Friend) on sail-shaped screens that enhanced the portions of the performance in which the dancers created a ship on the sea, traveling back and forth through the stories. (That particular portion of the performance strongly reminded me of the scene in 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead' that shows the Shakespearean actors silently recreating the well-known scenes from various plays. ) There was beautiful a cappella singing by a trio of women; modern dance sequences that were entertaining and thoughtful; and some spoken word pieces that, frankly, were.....not great. I do think the entire production was enjoyable, considering it could have been really heavy-handed.

Afterwards, I said hello to my Old Friend (now elevated to Friend category) and Elena and I hied off to a bar (shocking, I know) for a nightcap. Elena is one fun date.

Next: 5 Course Lov e-
Marko and I went the fabulous Spirit of Broadway theater in Norwich to see this musical comedy after dining at Paul's Pasta (Home of the Suitcase Full of Pasta) in Groton. The SoB is a tiny theater that maybe seats 100 people, so there's never a bad seat in the house and the productions are wonderfully minimal. Another added attraction was the ability to bring a bottle of one's own wine that they would uncork for a small fee.

Three actors played the three parts in the 5 vignettes of this performance. They were all fantastic, funny, talented, sometimes interacting with the audience, and the costumes and set were very stripped down, which only enhanced the script.

The book, music & lyrics were written by Gregg Coffin and it was fun, clever (in a good way) and the music did not sound like Rogers & Hammerstein, for which I am eternally grateful.

There was a little RHPS action during the German S&M/sexpot vignette: whenever the character's name of Heimlich was spoken, everyone was to turn their head & cough - very funny.

After the show, we trudged uphill to Billy Wilson's (Pub? Tavern? Ageing Still?) to have a nightcap and see every single person we know in Norwich. The bar actually had some decent wine! Marko is one fun date.

Ok, The Perception of Women. I'm prompted to write this because it just seems lately that world-wide culture is just dumping on women more than ever. I was listening to a story on the radio today about an American Idol-type contestant (who I'm sure is now world-famous by this point) who is modest, not botoxed, bleached and boob-jobbed out of proportion, and even more shockingly, is TALENTED: Susan Boyle. I watched the clips of her beautiful performance and was horrified at the smirks and disrespect directed towards her by the audience and 'judges.' Are you people really that shallow and unappreciative of others? The follow-up interviews of this 'miraculous' performance are even more idiotic as Ms. Boyle's looks and manners are still the major topic and not her beautiful singing- whoever the git was on NPR going on about how she's 'too far along' to be famous at this point in her life should be shot. If this was a man, his looks would never come into play to this insane level. One of the many reasons I loved watching 5-Course Love is that NONE of the actors were conventionally beautiful- what a nice change of pace.
And do I even need to spit about the new Afghan marriage law that essentially legalizes marital rape? Or some idiotic movie that has a 'well, it's not humor for everyone, so you women should just get over it' date rape scene? And I won't even go into the 'Powderpuff Girl's Football' email I received from the Athletics Department at work....we have Women's Basketball here, not sure why it can't be called Women's Football....

Thanks for tolerating my anger- come on over to the Aloha Alcohula* and I'll serve you a drink in my new Bearded Clam mug....

*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT (TM)

Sharing the Wealth

2009-04-05T19:23:00.001-04:00

The April 1st issue of Library Journal has two interesting articles:

one on the Redroom.com site (oh, authors, you need to see this....!)

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6645881.html

AND

The 'Music for the Masses' column highlights hardcore music: 'Hardcore: Wild in the Streets' by Matthew Moyer, pg. 57....

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6646653.html

(Was I just a total geek and blogged about Library stuff? Ssssshhh...don't tell anyone!)

St. Urho's Fire - Better than Bison Power?

2009-03-13T23:08:00.003-04:00

Yes, folks, Raven & Wombat Tea Party has another product! It's in honor of the Most Revered St. Urho.

You can see and buy it here!

Books, Booze & Broads...

2009-03-13T15:20:00.008-04:00

This past Wednesday I played hooky from work to see the fabulous 'Book of Secrets' exhibit at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library with pals Elena & Kate.

Did I say fabulous? How about Amazing! Beautiful! Exquisite! I've always had a fascination with alchemy: the hard science and the integrated philosophy and religious aspects are both very simplistic yet also incredibly complex. The books were just a joy- many with the scholars' annotations including some amusing small, pointing hands in margins and some wonderful illustrations. One particular illustration has now become a new party game for the next meeting of the minds at the Aloha Alcohula*: 'Raising the Green Dragon with Bellows while Wearing a Loincloth." A conversation starter for sure!

To see the range of alchemical writings over a timeline was also very interesting- it has had a long shelf life! There were also several foreign-language versions of Rowling's "Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone." (I have a confession to make: I was very excited to see the movie when it first appeared, but it sort of soured my taste for All Things Potter- it wasn't nearly as, well, alchemical as I had hoped - Nicholas Flamel, Sorceror's Stone....I felt cheated.)

Just past this portion of the exhibit, there was another treasure- a Gutenberg Bible. I had, to my knowledge, never laid eyes on one before, and it was really exquisite. At first glance, I was still a little overloaded with the Book of Secrets exhibit, so I had to clear my head to really take in the significance of this item. Just glorious! The contrast between the hard edges of the black-letter type and the organic hand-painted illustrations was really striking.

Also present (near the gong I was so tempted to hit...) were the two Yale-owned copies of John James Audubon's "Birds of America" - in the handy-dandy double elephant folio size. This case was not well-lit, though, which was bit disappointing, but the illustrations were beautiful!

After filling our eyes & brains, it was time to fill our bodies with lunch- we stopped into the Thalitoo vegetarian Indian restaurant across from the Yale bookstore. The food was really wonderful, especially on such a damp, grey day: we had chapatis, hot masala fries, malai kofta,

paneer sabji jalfraize, and two other dishes I cannot recall. The food was tasty and the service was fast, plus the soundtrack of Bollywood music was fun. (I see that I haven't mentioned booze yet: we had beer.)

We then popped into the bookstore, I scarfed up a sale copy of Risko caricatures, which was a pleasant surprise. I find it incredibly amusing that you have to waltz past the Clinique counter to get to the sales books...

Back to Elena's for chat, vodka, and more food. The vodka was another zubrowka, but I don't remember the brand - we agreed that it was sweeter out of the bottle than the Bison Grass brand, but I think only Elena liked this other brand better. I felt it lacked the subtle changes in flavor as it warms that Bison Grass has. However, it did compliment the cheeses just fine.

Then, it was magically off to eat some more after Rod came home - not that I was hungry by any stretch of the imagination at this point, but pleasantly buzzed enough to not care so much...we ended up at the Mediterranean fusion restaurant, Mavi, in West Hartford. It was really nice inside, and we had appetizers that were really good - especially the lobster-stuffed avocado. There were lamb kebobs that were very good, vegetable pancakes that were disappointingly cold, but delicious, and seafood beignets that were ok - a bit doughy for my taste. Rod had duck that he and Kate pronounced to be very delicious.

Then it was off to....get more coffee. Good thing, or I may have succumbed then & there to the Steier Guest Food & Alcohol Coma. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you! Then, back to Elena's, where she magically produced cheesecake. WTF? Where did that come from? So, yes I ate a couple bits, had some more zubrowka....woof. The invitation to sleep over was getting to be very, very tempting, but after some more chat, I hauled myself up and out.

How much better could it be? Food for the head, food for the eyes, food for the heart, food for the body & liver. Thanks for a great day, Kate & Elena!

*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT

Snow Day and Suet-eatin' Crows

2009-03-02T17:37:00.002-05:00

I'm starting to really, really look forward to snowstorms this year- I love the snow anyway, and I've been blessed with time off from work because of the snow.

But I was a bit shocked when I went out to shovel this morning as I didn't really think we were going to get that much snow! So, I (figuratively) rolled up my sleeves and started in. About 15 minutes into this chore, a large crow sat in the tree above me and asked for some food. We've only fed this family twice this year, so I was kind of surprised - and I did notice a couple of others having a go a the suet cages hanging on the fence but they're too big to sit on them and eat.
So, I ran in and sacrificed one of Bernie's Krispy Kremes and a couple of pieces of sad dry bread to the crows. I was rewarded by some fantastic vocalizations: crk-crk-crk-crk-crk! And the "Food!food!food!HeyguysFOOD!" caws. But this crow wanted some backup before even attempting to fly down and grab some nosh. After about 20-30 minutes of yelling for backup/informing the entire neighborhood there was food, a few seagulls decided to check this out...did I say a few? How about at least 12-15 very large, aggressive scary seagulls, circling the yard, a few crows showing up ready to defend 'their' food....I was getting a little freaked and thought to myself 'Well, that's great- just trying to feed some birds, now I created some sort of aviary armageddon...'
So, I let the gulls take what was there and ran back inside for a few more pieces of bread and a new block of suet, which I hid from the gulls, but a couple of the crows saw me stash these tidbits. They hung out, telling me to hurry the hell up with the shoveling because they were hungry and I told them they were the stupidest corvids I'd ever seen - big, black dumb, chickens.
Finally I finished and laid the bread out on the ground along with the block of suet- I think they all said either 'Qwrawk, thanks!' or 'We'll let you live this time, human' and I told them to be quiet and just eat, fer cryin' out loud....in any case, about 8-10 crows were making very happy, contented noises and settled down to eat. And I still have my eyes.

Restaurant Review: Sakura Garden Japanese Steak House

2009-03-02T17:04:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, Bernie and I found ourselves at the Sakura Garden Japanese Steak House at Evergreen Walk in Manchester/South Windsor, faint with hunger.
We approached our prey, wrenched the tall doors open and....wow, the decor was really nice. Like fancy nightclub nice, but as it was lunchtime, I felt appropriate in jeans. Nice modern dark wood, a curved wall of white plaster with inset blue glass pieces, very clean lines, interesting lighting fixtures.
A pleasant hostess who seated us near a window 'close' to the bar - about ten feet. Perfect! Refreshingly, the tables, sushi bar and regular bar were spaced out nicely, so I imagine it would fairly decent in there even on a busy night, and the place is very large. There was a sake menu, with quite a few choices, but I settled for a Newcastle and Bernie had a Mai-Tai. A quite mediocre Mai-Tai. (I fail to understand WHY he orders Mai-Tais at bars that always disappoint when he makes the best ones....)
We were presented with a fairly extensive lunch menu that so many mouth-watering choices. I settled on the shrimp tempura Sakura lunch box & my pootie-pie had the Ivory Tower roll, spicy tuna and Philadelphia maki rolls. We had miso soup, which was actually delicious, and then our food quickly appeared - I could not believe how large the lunchbox was! It had some lovely sticky rice, the shrimp tempura with some veggie tempura thrown in, shrimp shumai and 4 pieces of California roll. I'm not sure why I order things tempura'd (or fried) as I don't really like fried foods....but it was really tasty. The shumai were really exquisite- firm and flavorful as were the pieces of California roll. I was amazed how good the basic California roll was! Bernie's maki rolls were really nice, and the Ivory Tower roll was exquisite- very light and you could taste all the components - the ginger, the sesame, the tuna (very fresh) - and it was all plated very beautifully, too.
We left sated and happy and vowing to return several more times in the future to try some other dishes. There are 3 of these restaurants in CT, so I'm not sure if this is a chain, and if it is, I'm amazed at the high quality of the food. The staff were also very pleasant and very competent. Give this place a shot!

Need a New Marko's Punk Rock Jukebox T-shirt for the Spring?

2009-02-25T11:10:00.001-05:00

The new Marko's Punk Rock Jukebox and WCNI t-shirts are available through the WCNI radiothon that is going on now through March 8.
A mere $35 donation will get you a t-shirt, and WCNI long-sleeved t-shirts are to be had for a $40 donation...860-439-2850/2851.
Support college radio AND look spiffy!

Restaurant review: Dev's on Bank Street

2009-02-09T18:35:00.018-05:00

This past weekend consisted of two separate trips to the Hygienic Show in New London - the first trip, I was able to introduce someone to the fabulous North Indian restaurant on State Street and, second trip, I was introduced to the amazing Dev's.

I had heard how great this place is, and boy, is everyone right! It has a nice atmosphere and great specials. During happy hour, a glass of wine is $2, well drinks are $3. And not shabby, either! The tapas menu is wonderful, reasonably priced and has lots of options. The meataterians in our group were as happy with the selections as I was. We ordered a few plates each, and not only were the dishes beautiful, they were incredibly delicious. Every dish tasted completely different from the others, and if you don't think it's enough food, it is. The portions aren't huge, but this is not a place where you just shovel the food in- you have to really take your time and appreciate it.

We tried the following: Cumin-Lime Chicken, Crab Cakes, Shrimp Espanola, Mongolian Pork Bar-B-Que Ribs, Crispy Pork Meatballs, Painted Grapes, American Mac and Cheese, Si Si Pollo, Papa San's Spring Rolls, Roma Mushrooms and for dessert, bananas foster & churillos with hot chocolate sauce.

To even try to describe how divine this all was is impossible. When one of the co-owners came to our table and asked how we liked it, I blurted out "Well, we're talking about porn, so the food must be exquisite! Only really great food is that sexy!"

So, this may be my new favorite place to eat. But be warned: during a normal happy hour, I hear it's really busy in there. But I'm sure with the presence of Bunny and the fabulous staff, it's quite bearable. If this place was located, say, in Stonington Borough, it would be snooty as hell - but the staff & owners are down-to-earth & nice, so it's a very comfortable place to have a leisurely meal.

So, who's taking me out to dinner?

Eight!

2009-02-09T18:13:00.003-05:00

That is the number of years that J10X and I have been together....Happy Anniversary, pootie-pie!

(I'm pretty sure one of these guys is J10X.....)

Hygienic XXX - Opening Night

2009-02-01T16:12:00.009-05:00

....and my day and night did end up getting better!

We started off the evening's festivities by having some delicious sushi at the Asian Bistro - J10X, being the brave one, sampled scallop and sea urchin for the first time: scallop was the winner in this taste test!

Then we flew off to New London. It didn't look as though we were going to get a parking spot anywhere near downtown and it was bloody freezing out. So, we drove along a couple of streets and magically found a spot right in front of the Dutch Tavern- booyah! So, we wetted our whistles with a pint before heading out into the cold. I was pleased to see my fave barkeep, Chris, wearing a t-shirt with my merstrippers on it....

We stopped in the Golden Street Gallery and the exhibit was a ton of photos and other ephemera from the 1988 Hygienic Arts weekend- it was really interesting and also kind of amusing to see pics of people that had participated in years past...

After a grueling block and a half walk to the Carriage House (formerly the Contemporary Design Gallery), where the Rock Fixxx was happenin', we were treated to an excellent set by Superbald. The sound was great in there, it was spacious, and some of the larger art pieces were in there too. There were singles by local bands to be purchased produced by Cosmodemonic Telegraph, as well as a drag show for some benefit we coudn't quite figure out....in any case, to my benefit, I love drag shows, of the queenly variety.

After Superbald, we popped over to the Hygienic Gallery...and had to stand in line....brrrr! I did see some old friends, which was great, and huddled right next to them while catching up. The show was better than the last few years, but it did have the numbing overuse of penises and male-friendly porn overtones, but at least it wasn't due to crappy collages. Once again, I have to go back again to see everything. I was delighted to see my poster design was a poster after all! (I will shut up about this soon, I promise.) So, I purchased a few, but I do want to go back as I liked one other poster and there was another t-shirt with just a ginormous lobster claw on it, so I hope there's a few left!

(I understand there was a large lobster pinata in the Hygienic Park that was filled with adult toys....we missed it! Actually, we would have done more, but it was ridiculously and uncomfortably cold out.)

Then we went back to the Carriage House to see Paul Brockett Roadshow Band's set- I'm digging the new songs! After that, it's a bit of a blur as I must have had a brief conversation with almost everyone in there...I knew so many people it was crazy! A gentleman who went to school with me at UConn actually recognized me - he's very nice and it was nice to reconnect. The odd thing is he works with my friend Trevor.......who is in Superbald with Ben....who is my supervisor's brother-in-law.....the six degrees thing was in full force! We watched a few songs by Fatal Film, and then we decided it was time to go- but not before having a nightcap at the Dutch. It was still nicely uncrowded (except for the jackass coughing on my beer so I would give up my seat- ok, pal, and here's your snide remark! Enjoy!), so it actually was a relaxing last pint before heading home.

So, the evening was a hit as a whole- lots of socializing, nice spaces, eye candy and good bands. The festivities go on through Feb. 14, so check 'em out!

"I Never Drink Anything Stronger than Gin for Breakfast"*

2009-01-31T11:43:00.003-05:00

(I know, hardly the words you'd expect to find on this blog....)

The day didn't start out too fabulously as J10X & I got up at the crack of dawn so we could trek down to New London and hang a print in the Hygienic 'Salon des Independants' art show. So, I girded my loins, slapped my face on and bundled up for the inevitable 10th circle of hell that is the line outside the Hygienic Art Gallery

Well, instead of the ridiculously long line we expected to see at 7:30 in the morning (like last time), we didn't see anyone. So, I thought perhaps we were too early (and me without my morning cuppa!), but we got there at exactly the right time- there were about 10 artists and various Hygienic (hygienic?) personnel about. So we skipped in, hung my print (Cranky, I think it's exactly where your piece had been hung the year you submitted that gorgeous car photo) and I looked at the posters being offered.....hmmm, my piece didn't make it as a poster...oh, well, that's a bit of a bummer. Oh, look at the t-shirts- holy crap, my poster is the t-shirt for this year! Well, that's cool!

So, J10X scarfed up a couple of t-shirts and we headed off to the State Street Diner, but on the way stopped to chat with Peter Crowley who has a gorgeous 'political porn' piece in the show. The diner was blissfuly near-empty, and we had standard diner fare for eats.

Well, so far, so good! Fed & happy, we decided to jet down to the Book Barn for their annual Big Sale - 30% of of everything! As it was just 9am when we arrived at the Book Barn Downtown, (home to books, guinea pigs, turtles and an enormous cat named Frank), we missed the crowds again. I scored a bunch of good stuff, as did J10X - those of you who are into retro cars need to ask J10X what he scored! One of the treasures I found was a lovely little book of *WC Fields' quotes....and Jim Miller, who is the real gem of the Book Barn. You just have to appreciate a person whose remark on J10X's lunatic cellphone ring was 'That sounds like the sped-up version of Torgo's theme song from "Manos, Hands of Fate"....

What a perfect morning! And it'll only get better....

Hot Pot and Hot Rock

2009-01-26T09:31:00.003-05:00

Happy (Chinese) New Year, Everyone!

J10X , Marko & I celebrated a little early by going to our friend Hsin-yi's house for her & her husband Chris' fabulously fun New Year's party. They have a lovely older house (built in 1901) in New London that was just crammed with people! Hsin created a cocktail for the evening (lychee 'martini') that I quickly & obscenely dubbed the Testini. It was all about the lychees....

The fantastic food was hot pot - I've heard Tony Bourdain touting this for years as a quintessential Asian comfort food, and I've always been dying to try it. They had seafood, meat & (thankfully) vegetarian hot pots set up. Hot Pot is basically a kind of broth fondue in which you cook the various elements. I had fried taro, watercress, rice noodles and various other veggies - so delicious, and you make your own 'sauce' with the condiments, such as a type of barbecue sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce and I scored the big bottle of hot sauce from Hsin's mom for the table. It was a bit of a juggle 'n' squeeze to get around the table, but very fun.

So, after feasting & drinking far too many Testinis, we headed over to Groton to Rosie's Cantina to see the fantastic Cobra-Matics! The opening band was Brokedown Serenade, who were a very new (as in rough around the edges) rock/rockabilly band. The Cobra-Matics were awesome, as always, playing their very snappy mix of rockabilly, swing & blues. I scored two hugs from the Colonel (awww) and we picked up their new CD - go get it! The Colonel told me he sold a bunch of equipment & things to put it out, and his heart is really into this band- he can't say enough nice things about his band mates, which is just super cool to hear. They sound great, look good, wear matching suits onstage and all have terrific posture.

The only irritating portion of this show was some total idiot who didn't get that I really didn't want to dance. And then he must have thought if he got in my face & told me we were pussies for not dancing, that maybe I'd find that charming. But before I could tell this guy I was going to kick his fucking head in, my hero, J10X stepped in and told the guy to leave us alone. This resulted in J10X getting a death threat (!!) from this guy, who didn't look like he could punch his way out of a paper bag. Well, there wasn't a fight, but it was close...

Hey-ey, neighbor,
'Gansett is good for you
Hey, Narragansett,
Rhode Island's famous brew!

A Poe-m for The Boojums....

2009-01-19T17:53:00.002-05:00

xoxox QoE, J10X & Eddie

The Queen's Random Movie Reviews

2009-01-13T13:10:00.006-05:00

Tales of Despereaux- J10X, Miss Wendy and I saw this at 10am on a Saturday with cold popcorn as breakfast - I'm not sure if this has influenced my opinion of this movie. The art & animation were glorious – but that’s about it for a positive comment on this movie. Drab, boring, rehashed story, unimaginative characters & ‘plot.’ Seriously, after the ass-kicking princesses in the ‘Shrek’ franchise, who is interested in the bland, blonde (of course), non-entity that serves in the ‘Princess’ role? Not many of the 3-10 years olds who I saw this movie with (of course, most of them also enjoyed the far, far more entertaining ‘Madagascar 2’ a lot more.) Oh, and the other ridiculous female character was not a princess, so she was not blonde, not thin, and was easily manipulated. There were also many overtones of ‘you’re must be a good person if you’re attractive/cute, and a bad one if you’re not’ – not the sort of philosophy I would want to impress on a child. If you’re an animation geek, go for it. Rating: minus 5 crowns out of 5.

Get Smart– This was far better than I thought it would be and fun. I was a big fan of the show when they used to show it on Nick at Nite and my expectations for the movie were not high, so I was pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t impressed by Anne Hathaway, but Steve Carell channeled Peter Sellers in several scenes (the dancing scene comes to mind) as well as giving his own tweak to the character of Maxwell Smart. Alan Arkin, a perennial fave of mine, was wonderful in his hysterical, screamy, I’m-in-charge-and-I’m-kicking-ass way. An enjoyable no-brainer movie. Rating: 3 crowns out of 5.

Deathrace – Gritty, incredibly violent, cars, guns, prison violence, Jason Statham shirtless with that killer bod, adrenaline-pumping goodness. Phew. A fine remake of the Roger Corman classic ‘Deathrace 2000.’ Rating: 5 gazillion crowns for Statham, 2.5 crowns for the movie out of 5.

Burn After Reading – I thoroughly enjoyed this movie right up to the end. WTF?! Rating: 5 crowns out of 5.

War, Inc. – John Cusack doing what he does best – dark political satire that is smart, sharp & funny. The story was developed from Naomi Klein’s reports from Baghdad and really skewers the Bush admin’s policies, politics and the whole military-industrial complex that runs them. For some odd reason, there was a little bit o' romance in this flick that didn't do much for it, but the rest of the movie made up for that. Rating: 4 crowns out of 5.

Giving Myself Props....

2009-01-05T19:40:00.009-05:00

...for being given and seeking the opportunities to contribute to the New London music and arts community.

I submitted two ideas for the fabulous Hygienic Arts lollapalooza that takes place every January- it's the 30th year- and they selected one of my designs! Not only am I shocked, but tickled pink!

So feast (or roll, your choice) your eyes on my brilliance here:

Have a big, fat guess which one was chosen..... No matter, the other will become a tasteful woodcut print!

A few weeks before, The Suicide Dolls asked me to create a CD cover for the CD single that will be released with other bands' CD singles during the Hygienic Rock Fix: Ruck 'n' Rule thingamabob. Part of that was pulled out of my nether regions and the other half of it was a sketch done quite some time ago:

So, there you have it....

(and stay tuned for more Raven & Wombat Tea Party goodness coming soon via Cafepress & Zazzle! Bison Power!)

Is it too late.....

2008-12-17T16:23:00.002-05:00

....to blog about the date
on which we celebrate
the birth of Kate the Great?

I didn't think so....Happy Birthday, Kate!

The birthday deities have also produced out first R&WTP customer - Julie! Yay!

Mega birthday mojo is in the air....and keep us all updated with all media!

Na Zdrowie!

2008-12-03T17:34:00.005-05:00

Kate & I have concocted a fab design - you can see (and buy) it here! Oh, and here.....

We will add more designs as time goes on!....

Raven & Wombat Tea Party (TM) - nonsense you can count on!

Election Day 2008!

2008-11-04T16:08:00.017-05:00

I realized when I went to vote today that I get a huge kick out of doing so- I not only consider voting a civic duty, but the idea that I'm participating in such a huge decision is always something that gives me an adrenaline surge. Yeah, I'm a voting geek and this is such an important election - do we really want to choose change as a nation or will we stay mired in the crap that has ruined us?

My mom is voting for the first time as she recently became a citizen (and retained dual-citizenship status) thanks to Mark Stephanou at Senator Dodd's office.
She's super-excited about the process.
(The idiots at DHS couldn't manage to get her a new green card and they even told her she 'failed her biometrics'! How a person can 'fail' their own fingerprints is beyond me....just an excuse to pocket the fees.)

Aftermath:
On my way home last night, I did a little grocery shopping as I was so pumped up from watching the incoming results of the election online and there was no way I was going to be tired for a long time. I hopped back into my car, switched on NPR, and heard....McCain's concession speech! WTF?! I thought we were going to have to wait until morning at least to find out who won! So, after getting on the road, wiping tears of joy from my eyes, all I could think was 'Wow, what a gracious (yeah it's been already overused) speech- why didn't he run his campaign that way?' quickly followed by 'Crap- it's so late! Who can I call & whoop for joy with at this hour?!?' (Answer: Marko & J10X)
Fortunately, I got home in plenty of time to see Obama's wonderful victory speech- J10X & I were sitting there, crying, Oprah was crying, Jesse Jackson was crying....what a happy day!

This one of the few times in my life I can say that I'm proud to be an American and just marvel at the willingness of so many more people to get out there and vote and see that there can be a better future.

Hallowe'en - RHPS at the Capitol Theater

2008-11-03T08:57:00.003-05:00

Hallowe'en is one of my very favorite holidays- the history, costumes and the thought that it basically kick-starts celebrations and birthdays and fun that lasts until Jan. 2.

I have to say that I was very sad that this year's Hallowe'en was not well-celebrated by me - the highlight was rescuing a little black cat that I was able to place in an excellent home, and that was a week-long drama.

So, I was really looking forward to seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Willimantic- finally, the town is doing something fun on a holiday & I don't have to travel far (in the past, we've been blessed by attending a great private Hallowe'en party within a five-minute drive.)

I did start off Hallowe'en celebrations by having a fab Hallowe'en breakfast of the Balvenie single-malt scotch & nachos with Marko after hanging out at his radio show.

So, Marko came over early, we had some festive Pumpkin ale and headed over early to the theater as we had been told it was sold out & the seats were general admission, and we wanted good seats! I had called the theater a few days before and asked if we could bring stuff to throw, but they weren't very happy with the idea and discouraged it, so I skipped the props.

So, we arrived about 45 minutes early, and there wasn't even a line - I was getting worried. It's no fun unless there's tons of people. And surprisingly, no college students - mostly high-school age. Uh-oh. However, there was hope- some were in costume - hooray!

Well, by the time things got under way, the theater was only about 1/2 full, and an odd mix it was- some people our age, some a bit older, and lots and lots of 14/15 year olds, with the girls dressed in this year's most popular costume- a variation on the whore/hooker theme. It was a pedophile's dream. None of the adults even looked happy to be there. Weird.

The lights went down, then lights on the stage went on, some actress-y type came on stage in a lab coat & asked if there were any virgins in the audience - so far, so good! I wasn't giving up yet! So, basically the entire audience raised their hands & went onstage. Oh crap. So, none of the little hooker virgins could fake an orgasm onstage, but some drunk mullet-wearing guy did- hoarsely screaming 'AUGH! AUGH! AUGH." Ew.

FINALLY, the movie started. It was totally apparent that one guy up in the mezzanine, myself and someone behind us were going to be the only people who knew what to yell & were willing to yell it. Someone else did bring a water pistol, toast & toilet paper, thank heavens.

Ok, as if this wasn't dispiriting enough, when the 'Time Warp' came on, all the hookers and an older lady (also probably an actress - killer arms, too) got up on stage- it was starting to look like the high school amateur hour as NOT ONE person up there was actually dancing the Time Warp and I wasn't going to be the only audience member up there doing it. I should have, though.

Then, the 'Sweet Transvestite' scene came up (hands down, my fave) and some young lad with the outfit but not a lick of makeup or a wig went onstage and....did nothing. He didn't know the moves or the lyrics. Snore. He grabbed a guy friend from the audience, they circled each other and then faked a kiss. Yaaaaaawwwwnnn - sorry kiddo, but a little boy in half-drag who isn't even vamping ain't interesting.

Around this time, the temperature in the theater went from barely comfortable to outright freezing. Then, as three of us were yelling some saucy things out, the sound was turned up to an excruciating level. So, we suffered the rest of the movie freezing & headachy.

You can just imagine how I was kicking myself for not getting in costume and hanging out in New London or New Haven for the night where people were actually involved & celebrating. I think the only activity besides this piss-poor showing of RHPS was the costume party at the pub, but that is always packed beyond belief. I always hope that places in my town will some day get it together, but it never happens. There's no community besides the Co-op.

So, we bolted out of the theater, went home and watched some crappy Lovecraft adapted movies - has anyone ever seen 'The Shuttered Room"? What a turkey! Can anyone tell me which Lovecraft story it may have been based on? The best part about it was Oliver Reed's tight jeans....

In retrospect, this may actually have been the scariest Hallowe'en I've ever experienced...

Restaurant Review: Jasmine Thai Restaurant

2008-10-27T18:57:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday, J10X & I popped into the new Jasmine Thai restaurant at Columbus Corner in New London for lunch. It's a nice improvement on the horrid retaurants that had recently occupied that spot!

The retaurant was fairly quiet as it was 2 PM, but the staff are very nice, the place is clean and nicely decorated, but bring your own atmosphere- it's been a bit Americanized, so you get Muzak instead of some nice SE Asian music. Oh, and a nice view of the Colombo statue.

The menu has many choices, and the prices are very fair. Appetizers & desserts are in the $4 range, lunches in the $6-$10. There are plenty of vegetarian options, as to be expected. They also have a sushi bar, so we may have to try that next time.

J10X & I tried the steamed dumplings and spring rolls to start- excellent, beautifully served but not extraordinary. I orderd the massaman curry with shrimp , and J10X had the pork Four Companies. Both dishes were delightful, and the portions not immense, which is just great. They each came with the standard bland Thai salad of iceburg lettuce & peanut sauce and a mound of rice. I orderd my curry 'hot', and it was delightfully zippy, but not blister-inducing. I'm not sure if the 'extremely hot' would be much hotter, but the food was very tasty, so there was no need to mask it with the taste of my own burnt tongue. I had also ordered an Sweet Thai Iced Coffee, which may have been a mistake- I think it contained a whole can of condensed milk, plus the curry had plenty of coconut milk in it, and the rice sort of poofed everything up.....I was nauseatingly full by the time I was 2/3 of the way done. I should have skipped the spring rolls!

It's nice that a second Thai place has opened up (Bangkok City is getting tired) and while this is a good place, I think Thai Sawasdee in Groton has food that is much more exquisite.

And as an extra added bonus, J10X actually had green tea ice cream! Anytime that the green tea ice cream order is made a reality is a good day- he has a looong history of being bilked out his ice cream in the past. Even funnier, they served it with chocolate sauce, whipped cream & a cherry....

Coupla Pix from the Previously Mentioned Show at the El 'n' Gee

2008-10-23T22:00:00.005-04:00

Credit goes to Meghan Killimade and her honey, Adam!

Wonder Woman Day!

2008-10-14T20:36:00.001-04:00

GREAT HERA! WONDER WOMAN DAY III
Is coming to Portland OR & Fleminton NJ, raising money and awareness for Domestic Violence shelters and a Women's Crisis Line!

*** Over 150 pieces of original art for auction and cool collectibles! ***

Check it out here......

Long weekend, Providence, Roadshow Bands & Auto Clubs...

2008-10-13T20:14:00.023-04:00

Even though Monday was not a day off, I scored a day off Sunday so I could enjoy the fruits of a long weekend....so, I did nothing on Friday, and merely moved my entire library on Saturday. If I ever say 'I really don't have that many books' to anyone, slap me - I couldn't believe how long it took me to move everything and how many damn books can fit on a shelf! I did manage to weed 8 more books....and would anyone out there like my card catalog? I'm getting rid of it. Man, I was pooped after that, so I had to spend some restorative time at the Aloha Alcohula*.

Sunday, J10X & I journeyed to Providence to attend a friend's 40th birthday party - it was for my friend Shawn, who I used to work with at the Pequot Museum & we hadn't seen him in ages! He also has apparently become the Director of Education at Sturbridge Village where he used to work as 'Farm Boy #3' when he was younger. It was a lovely little get-together with friends and family at his charming house.....however, I was cornered at one point by a Career Librarian who wanted to 'talk shop' - aaiiieee!

We came home and put on our glad rags to see a show at the El 'n' Gee - or whatever the hell they're calling it now - The Backstage Pass, or, even more unsavory, Jinks. That just sounds like a creepy "gentlemen's club"....the decor has been changed & the annoying wall around the bar is mercifully gone. Joan Jett is painted on one bathroom door & Johnny Cash on another- this had led to such entertaining exchanges such as 'Have you seen Meghan?' 'Um, I think she just went in the Joan Jett...' 'I gotta visit the john....ny Cash...'

The bill last night consisted of three bands: Gone for Good, Paul Brockett Roadshow Band & Slim Cessna's Auto Club. I was a little panicky that the show might be sold out, but, sadly, the place was only about half full. The nice part is, it was half full of the Good People of New London.

We went of to another place to have a quieter first drink- the El 'n' Gee's sound system is still overbearingly loud, and Gordy from the Bank St Cafe was doing the sound, so.....we only wanted to be mostly deaf by the end of the night. Funny thing, New London is D-E-A-D on a Sunday night! The Dutch Tavern was closed, several other places, too, and so we ended up at the Roadhouse.

Then back to the El 'n' Gee to see a rip-roarin' set by PBRB - with the added pleasure of seeing Mr. Joey Royale (of the former Royale Brothers) get on deck to sing a few songs.....there was a lot of love for everyone onstage happening in that place! And Joey is still freakin' magic, no matter how long it's been.

After the PBRB set, we all caught our breath in time for the Auto Club to hit the stage - anyone who knows me knows my deep, everlasting love for these guys. Even though the place wasn't packed, they still put on an amazing, energetic show. There were a few different people on the stage this time- some Tony Soprano-type playing keyboards and an incredibly hot young man on the drums.....really incredibly hot. Did I mention the drummer was hot?

So, the next hour and half was spent jumping around and gettin' religion, SCAC style. Thank goddess they had ginormous Newcastle beers to fuel my sweaty self! The show was over too quickly, as always, but it was full of fun, energy and excellent songs. I liked the new songs far better live than on the new album, which is just a little too slick for my taste.

J10X scored a couple of t-shirts for us, then we reeled out of there, happily tired & with ears ringing like crazy......

*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT

Another Round of Applause for J10X!

2008-09-24T20:30:00.004-04:00

Bernie was thrilled & delighted to see one of his cars on pg. 84 of the new Scale Auto - Contest Cars 2008 magazine - nice work, Bernie!

This magazine showcases cars from this year's NNL East show.....this was Bernie' s fabulous car!

Congrats to J10X!

2008-09-18T19:28:00.002-04:00

J10X called me at work today to tell me he won the Vice Presidency of his union - let's hope we don't have to dig him up from under some little farm in Michigan....

Who I'm Hatin' On....A Nasty Rant

2008-08-30T10:26:00.006-04:00

To no one's surprise, I'm sure: The Great Satan, aka Wal*Mart.

(Warning: this blog entry is profanity-laced & provides clear proof of some really horrific behavior on my part....)

I had a day off this week, so I decided to spend most of it running desperately-needed errands and returning things to various stores. We had purchased some sunscreen in June from The Great Satan (TGS) and I finally came to the grim conclusion I was going to have to go back & return it and once again realizing it is seriously not worth saving a few bucks to have to endure the North Windham TGS or any other for that matter.

So, I sauntered in, fresh from getting a sassy new haircut (which both my hairdresser & I agreed is 'fucking cute') and I'm in a fine mood, it's not packed in there and I head straight for the return counter in the front of the store. As I'm sauntering, I hear ''Lady! LADEE! LADee! LADY!" being shrieked and since everyone is looking at me, I turn around, stalking back to the thickly bespectacled hobbit 'greeter' who was 'greeting' me. I bent down, got in her face (as they say) and said 'Are you yelling at me? WHAT is your problem?!' She says something to me, which I could not understand as she obviously cannot speak English at all.

So, I get the impression that she wants to check my bag - I tell her I'm just returning stuff, so she takes my bag to check it (by now I'm seriously fucking furious), then decides to start chatting with a friend. Oh, I don't think so. I get right in there and say 'Hurry the fuck up- if you're going to waste my time, get a fucking move on!' So, she does whatever it was that needed to be done (scanning the stuff and giving me barcodes- WTF?) and I GRAB the bag from her and snarl 'I wouldn't be such a bitch if I wasn't fucking treated like a fucking criminal the second I walked through these doors!' So, thoroughly irate, I turn my wrath on the woman at the returns counter and asked what that was all about. She said 'we always do that', which is patently untrue as that has never happened to me before the last two times I ever returned anything. So much for consistency. Then when I ask her why this is done, she goes on, (completely freaked out at my hostility - yeah, I'm weird, don't like being treated like shit) about people who walk in and put stuff in bags to try to get money....then she stops. I say 'Oh so you just assume everyone is stealing? Don't you people even fucking know that unless you actually see something stolen it is slander to say someone is a thief? I'm surprised you haven't been sued yet!' Then she decides to tell me the items returned don't match the receipt - yeah RIGHT. She clearly does not get that I'm truly past the point where fucking with me might be a good idea. I fix her with THE STARE & quietly say 'Well why don't you get your manager over here so I can explain what fucking morons the cashiers are- either the moron at the register when I bought these items gave me the wrong receipt or the idiot in front of me can't do her job and read the receipt. So, what's it going to be?'

Yeah, I got my money. And the District Manager got an email. And the Better Business Bureau got a letter. TGS doesn't want to post its policies, then fuck 'em.

I kinda feel badly, but...they get what they deserve if they uphold these totally demeaning, accusatory practices. The people at BJs have endured my wrath for the same reasons as well.

So, Fuck the fuckity fucking fuckers at Wal*Mart!

Junque Recap

2008-08-25T16:08:00.003-04:00

Well, the flea market endeavor wasn't something I'd do every week, but it sure was interesting. The two tables I expected someone to nab immediately came home with me. However, pretty much everything else (box o' comix, costume jewelry, various foofy items, crappy books) sold at low, low prices. After about 3 hours, I was making deals left & right. I made some ching, spent some on two pieces of furniture, paid for my half of the space and went home with enough to pay for my fab new haircut & have some leftover. Not too bad, but all in all, it paid less than my day job.
It was kind of interesting to be on the other side of the tables, too- two women bought some of the jewelry and had the air that they just screwed me out of a chunk of change. Yeah- it's crap costume jewelry, ladies, really, it is. I know my cheap jewelry.
The wait in line before being allowed in was an eye-opener: vendors get out of their vehicles & start sniffing around everyone else's junque before we even got in the gates- it completely reminded me of going to a safari where all sorts of dangerous animals are wandering around your car while you're in danger of suffocating because you're not supposed to open the windows more than 1/2 an inch. That's the most dangerous part of those safaris....anyway, no one was mauled, so that was good.
I would consider doing this once a year and best with someone else so you have a diverse amount of stuph for people to look at and some company. I could have made a killing if I had brought the contents of the tiki room, but J10X only found more to add to it....

Junque...and Stuph

2008-08-23T11:56:00.003-04:00

(So, I was going to write a little blog nugget, but I made the mistake of reading everyone else's blogs first. Why do I do this to myself?)

J10X & I have spent the last two weekends Hardcore Thrifting (TM*) - I think I can safely say we now have more Hawaiian action figures than any Coco Joe's outlet in the 1950s. The modus operandi: J10X wakes up & proclaims "We need to go Hardcore Thrifting!" We prepare, hop in the car & start driving. We then stop at an interesting-looking place that is obviously emitting some sort of signal to J10X. J10X sprints into the shop, and before I can even take down that interesting objet from the shelf I just saw, he bounds over with armfuls of stuff he's managed to spot behind 70 shelving units, on the bottom shelf, obscured by broken salt & pepper sets, all concealed under a tarp. Srsly. He has the friggin' eyes of Superman and an eagle combined. He managed to nab a really gorgeous tiki mug pretty much from under the nose of a guy who was looking for one - sweet, sweet victory. One of our more interesting finds is a tin for some sort of sweet or cookie called 'Nukii' - the tin has Bahamian-style dancers on a beach with bamboo-style letters. So, after rearranging the entire AA**, I now have to get more shelving. We're almost a maximum capacity, but then I still see some yellow walls peeking out from behind all the crap, I mean tiki goodness, and that just will not do.

While on the subject of junque, I will be making a rare flea market appearance with my friend Joe Reed in the role of vendor. I will be attempting to cash in on some things I can't give to my friends and they're a little too nice to just give away to Goodwill. I didn't realize how cheap it is to rent space & a table, so hopefully I'll be able to get rid of everything I bring. I seriously weeded my books, some went to the Book Barn so I could get....credit to buy more books.....and hopefully the rest will sell on Sunday.

And on to stuph: while Hardcore Thrifting (TM) on Sunday, we ended up in Mystic, Land of Too Many Tourists in the Summer. I spotted a restaurant that was highly recommended by a coworker called 'Rice, Spice & Noodles.' So, famished, we headed in & were the only people there - the last table of people had just left. I was delighted to see it was Thai food, and some funky takes on Thai food. They also have excellent beers. An extremely young lad came over to take our order, then we experienced the other waiter coming over about 4 times in a row, asking us to repeat our beer order (Maudite for me, natch, & the lovely Innis & Guinn for J10x.) Apparently, the other waiter was too young to serve us. So, we get our bottles of beer & glasses, and the waiter didn't realize they weren't twist off beers, so we had to call him back over again. We placed our order (which I cannot remember), and our delightful appetizer came out, hot 'n' fresh. Our meals were very tasty, too.
However, two things occurred that will ensure we never, ever go back: our silverware was not overly sanitary looking (we used the hygienic chopsticks) and the table being bussed behind us had its water carafe refilled by the very young waiter from a partially consumed glass of water left by the last patrons. Lovely.

*Trademark, 2008, the joey Zone
** As we all know, the best DAMN tiki bar in CT

Olympic Fever - Let's Hear it for the Women!

2008-08-20T14:23:00.009-04:00

Whatever will I blog about when this week is over? The Team USA women are winning medals left and right! Shawn Johnson & Nastia Liukin, who won gold and silver for all-around gymnastics, won gold and silver in more gymnastics- balance beam & uneven bars. Stephanie Tranton Brown won the gold for discus throw, first American women to do that since 1932! Mariel Zagunis got the gold for Fencing, Anna Tunnicliffe for sailing, Dawn Harper for hurdles....the list goes on. Not to mention all the silver & bronze medals, too. The media seems to think it's all about the gold medals, but when you think about it, there's only 3 medals given out for any event, so even bronze is fabulous!
Women's beach volleyball finals is tonight, so I'll be keeping tabs on that!

I believe the men are getting some medals here & there, too.

And all the athletes are so very gracious, sweet and intelligent when being interviewed - as well as having whole heads full of incredibly unrealistically white teeth! Chiclet heads!

Olympic Fever!

2008-08-15T10:36:00.005-04:00

Yup, I have it! Lots of it! As in sacrificing precious sleep to see gold medals being won! And I'm actually learning some trivia, too- I had no idea that Mary Lou Retton was the first US woman ever to win a gold medal for gymnastics in 1984...and Team USA won the gold AND silver medals for this yesterday! Whoo-hoo! And Michael Phelps won a sixth gold medal for swimming - he's competing for his 7th tonight,which will tie him with Mark Spitz - who is still H-O-T, ladies!

Whatever channel I was watching last night 'deconstructed' Michael Phelps' body, and I had no idea his particular physique was an important factor of his amazing feats: he's 6'4", has a 'wingspan' of 6'7", legs proportionate to a man of 6', torso appropriate for his height, huge feet (size 14) and 'dinner plate' sized hands. And no butt. And a really, really pointy head. I'm not sure I needed to know all this, but there you go - sharing the wealth.

A woman from RI, Rebecca Soni, won a gold medal for some amazing swimming, too. I have to say I really enjoy watching the women's teams much more than the men's. Our volleyball team kicked the Belgians' substantial butts last night, too. I'm not a sports nut by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm really digging the Olympics this year.

As of this morning, we had more gold medals than any other country! China was in the lead yesterday, so it's really neck to neck....go Team USA!

(Oh, and Wendy? The US Women's Volleyball Team's coach's in-laws were attacked at the Olympics - different than the Chinese national stabbing & ingesting that dude on the bus in Canada. Thought you'd like to know...)

Olympian Feats

2008-08-12T16:57:00.006-04:00

Did anyone else see the Olympics opening ceremonies? I did! I have never really been interested in sports, much less the Olympics, but since it's a big deal that it's in China, I wanted to watch the ceremonies. They were simply amazing. All of it was overwhelming on the telly, so I can't even imagine what it must have been like in person. Watch clips if you can find 'em! However, the marching in of the athletes is really, really, really booooring. As in fell-asleep-for-two-hours-boring.

Saturday morning brought another Olympian activity into the house: the Three-Story-Rusted-Stove-Removal-And-Replacement-Relay. We won the gold, natch.

Saturday night brought a few people into the AA* - Miss Wendy fortunately showed up to save my bacon so I didn't have to endure the Extreme Macho-ism that was present all by myself. Thanks, Wendy- you were gloriously Patsyesque! We also formed yet another club: the Half-Heard, Half-Remembered News Club. This club consists of telling each other, in the vaguest terms possible, newsworthy events we sort of heard about during the week. It's almost as good as the Book Club of Never-Read, Never Discussed Literature By Members of The Book Club.

But I think the best part of the WHOLE evening was skunking Miss Wendy at cribbage. Nyah.

Stay tuned- I should have some more incredibly boring posts soon!

*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT

A Bat's Beastly Blessing...

2008-08-05T11:32:00.015-04:00

Last night, the Aloha Alcohula*, Mark II, was blessed by the presence of a wee brown bat flitting about. It landed in the netting between a coconut minkey and a large wooden mask. After I called the Boojums, my panic-stricken voice asking for some advice, Volcano Bern stepped in to solve the dilemma. As always, VB has a gentle hand with the beasties, so he corralled the kitties into the bedroom (this was not as easy as it seems because the insatiably curious Fang was dying to get a closer look), donned some attractive workgloves and gently removed the bat from the netting & set it free. We could hear it chittering away as it seemed to be pretty happy in the AA, as all good folk should be.

Is it just a coincidence that the Bacardi rum label features a bat?

*Best tiki bar in CT

Interspecies Interactions & That Big-Ass Ship in the Harbor

2008-07-29T09:11:00.032-04:00

I've noticed a family of 7-8 large, plump, glossy crows feeding every evening outside my window at work- they've recently been joined by a young squirrel who forages in the same 50 square foot area. The most entertaining aspect of this is watching the crows observe the squirrel finding something, one will walk over to investigate, and the squirrel gets very vocal and aggressive and chases the crow away. This goes on until the crows kind of give up, move away, but still keep an eye on the squirrel.

Last Friday, I was treated to the fabulous sight of a ginormous cruise ship sitting in New London Harbor as I drove in to work. I thought I was seeing buildings I hadn't noticed before, and then I realized it was a ship- amazing piece of engineering. I'm sure the equally ginornmous swan defending the public beach from the daily onslaught of children was similarly impressed.

Re: Kate the Great 'tagging' me, some little-known facts about me - some may even be true:

1. If I could stomach removing organs from corpses, I'd be a forensic toxicologist.
2. I've taken many hours of flying lessons but have not obtained my pilot's license.
3. My favorite two cities in the world are Montreal and Edinburgh.
4. I love the ocean.
5. My first job was grinding glass pieces for a stained glass artist.
6. My love of the visual arts was cemented by viewing the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the Louvre. To this day, I can recall the room, the sculpture, the temperature and the smell.

Congrats to the joey Zone for participating in the Mystic Seaport Dick-a-thon!
Moby Dickathon, that is....

Completely Opinionated Reviews- Summer Movies Thus Far....

2008-07-14T13:31:00.009-04:00

Wow, this summer has got to be the best movie summer in a long time! So many movies, so little time! Oh, some spoilers may rear their ugly heads.

So far, we've only seen three: Kung Fu Panda, Wanted and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

All three were action-packed, fun movies: KFP had some really gorgeous animation, starting with the opening credits. The message of the movie was 'be who are you are and do your best', which is not bad in my books - there were some very funny scenes & there was a lot more action than I had thought there would be. Definitely enjoyable.

Wanted had some excellent, jaw-dropping, effects, the very hot James McEvoy & Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman dropping the 'mf' bomb- that alone was pretty much worth the price of admission. The plot of the movie wasn't exactly mind-blowing, but it was enough to thread together the action and really, that's all we wanted out of this movie (Jv10X said he'd be happy to watch two hours of Angelina Jolie just standing in front of a camera for two hours....so he was happy she walked and talked.)

Ok, on to HBII - totally disappointing. I can't even believe the same director worked on both HB movies. The plot was some tired Otherworld Beings vs. Humans Fucking up the Planet that has been done over...and over...and over. Yawn. The make-up was shot poorly and very, very obvious. Disturbingly so. Any cool monsters and scenes seemed as though they were cobbled together from Lord of the Rings, Empire Strikes Back and X-Men leftovers - plus, the old 'we're freaks & people don't like us' (um, X-Men, anyone?) thing they tried to unsuccessfully insert in the movie as well as all the lovey-dovey/sacrifice yourself for a loved one/babies on the way bits were boring at best. I couldn't believe I was bored- I thought perhaps I had over-romanticized the first movie, but I was lucky enough to see it on the telly several hours later after seeing HB II in the theater. Hands down, the first movie was far, far better, both visually and story-wise. And the weak Parthian shot at the end spoken by the ectoplasma guy I believe was written by the 12 year old in the front row at the theater. The action scene near the end of the movie as well as the locker room scene (heh heh) were pretty much the best bits. And why is Selma Blair even in the movie? Who the hell knows- she's on fire twice (literally) and has a coupla mopey lines. And Jeffrey Tambor, instead of being the glorious asshole Manning that he was in HBI, was just a whiny wuss. No reason for him to be in the movie, either. All in all, I think HBI was made for the fans and HBII tried to hard to appeal to everyone. Don't try so hard next time!

Hukilau 2008 - The Last Hukilau Ever....?

2008-06-19T21:09:00.153-04:00

On Thursday, June 12, Volcano Bern, Lukelele & I jetted our jaded selves to Fort Lauderdale for Hukilau 2008 and Other Fine Activities.

We took a "late" flight and landed at 10:30 am - it was an historic event for us as NO DRINKING OCCURRED during the entire flight! We did see a fabulous, intense rainbow though, mid-flight. Lest Our Readers think we may have entered rehab or some such nonsense, we quickly found the nearest liquor store to our motel after checking in- a Walgreens liquor store. I heard an announcement for a Mrs. Needlebaum to pick up her prescription and commented how annoying it must be that the intercom was never disconnected...the proprietor informed me that the liquor store WAS part of Walgreens...so you could, say, pick up your Valium prescription AND a bottle of Night Train all in one convenient location! Also, Manischewitz in Five Festive Flavors.

Then, it was off to the Publix grocery store! Whoo-hoo- we were livin' la vida aloha! We narrowly escaped Certain Death by Grocery Cart-those old retired folk are tough - and managed to pick up food, cocktail fixin's and the like. Since Thursday's Hukilau activities for us meant just registering, we were free to drink and grill at our hotel. Whew- exciting stuff.

After dinner, we went, um, resort-crashing. What this means, Dear Reader, is that the fancy hotels across the street with the private beaches became our little playground. We swam in the rollicking ocean until dark, deftly dodging the Portuguese Man o' Wars (the lifeguards were flying purple flags for them and we all know what that means...), then availing ourselves of the pool and hot tub. It was tremendously fun and we were definitely the least expensive-looking people there. Then, back across the MacDonald's lot, behind the dumpster, through some garbage and back to the motel for more drinks! By that time, they had removed the dead hooker from the room next to ours....

Friday was a lovely day where we discovered the depths to which a 'continental breakfast' can sink - pretty damn low. Then off to the Tiki Bazaar! The Bazaar was smaller this year because there was a fabulous 'Fine Art Tiki' show put on by the Harold Golen Gallery, complete with self-important gallery owner! There was TONS of great eye candy and one of the coolest things to see was the 'artist's hand' in these pieces- for instance, Shag's paintings have visible brush strokes in them, something that is not apparent in all the tchotchke that has his artwork on it. Also, Bosko's nod to Witco creations are far smaller than I thought they'd be, with a Van Gogh-esque amount of crusty paint here and there. One of my favorite pieces by far was 'Quequeg's Big Adventure' by John Kissee. There were some fantastic paintings on velvet (really!) that were priced beyond our reach and, unfortunately, I don't remember the artist's name who created them (trying to remedy that....)

As usual, DJ Dr. Scopitone provided the music to shop by, at a deafeningly high volume. All the hungover shoppers must have really appreciated that - I know some of the vendors seemed really annoyed. The three of us managed to snag a photo with lovely Marina the Mermaid - she was very gracious and, boy, doesn't Bernie look happy? I had a nice chat with Doug Horne, who is a doll and Bernie purchased a fabulous glass mosaic piece as my birthday gift from Mark Bloom. Since we had purchased so much stuff last year, we refrained from going overboard this time. Well, we did get more postcards and necklaces. And a vintage shirt. And two mugs. And some Tiki Magazine t-shirts. But that's it! Oh, and more mugs at the Mai Kai.

We then retired to the Wreck Bar for drinks, mermaids and the Martini Kings. All were very good. The Wreck Bar was reserved exclusively for us tiki-lovin' types and had been decorated with painted panels - very cool! Also in that picture are some people that were on the Northeast Tiki Tour with us last year. They're from New Jersey.

We then staggered off to Jeff 'Beachbum' Berry's seminar, 'Potions of the Caribbean'. No pirates, just some hoohah about drinks. I was a little disappointed by this presentation as it wasn't nearly as awesome as last year's 3-hour rambling lecture. Got some free drinks, though! And they warn't in no sissy sippin' cups, neither! Plus, there was extra for the takin' on the way out. One of the drinks had pimento liqueur in it and was darn near undrinkable - one guy swigged it in one shot and practically stopped breathing! He did turn some pretty neat colors, so it was very entertaining.
IMPORTANT: we learned two fun phrases: 'Sucking the Monkey' and 'Tapping the Admiral.' Both refer to the supposed habit of long-at-sea sailors running out of rotgut rum and tapping the vessels that contained bodies of either preserved exotic animal specimens or preserved high-level seamen types to obtain the fine elixir within......

Please use those phrases often and inappropriately.

It was in the lobby of the Yankee Clipper after this seminar that I had an epiphany - apparently all these people stayed in their rooms days & night drinking, only to emerge for the occasional seminar activity, to which they could bring their drinks. When asked if we were going to some other thing, I replied, 'We're going to the beach!' This was met with a short stare of incredulity and the response 'The beach?!' (Yeah, bozo, that big blue watery thing with the beige dirt-like stuff next to it that you must have seen from your room window....) So, off to the beach we went! We saw a cool beach wagon in the parking lot...and avoided contact with the Portuguese Men o'War in the sea.

After fighting for our lives in the ocean we ate lunch at the atrocious White Trash Cabana (I don't what we were thinking, but we obviously were not using any judgment at all. In a way it was good, because we were to return there that night for the big Friday Night Main Event and we knew not to eat anything or use the bathrooms. Seriously.)

So, after lunch, we primed ourselves for the Main Event and arrived just in time for the fabulous Tikiyaki Orchestra's set - they are amazing and Marina did her Fire Dance during their set- hot! On top of all of this, we finally saw Mike & Sandy from 9th Wave- it was a little bizarre to be all the way in Florida and be with people who live 10 minutes away from us, but it was also very refreshing as they both truly have the aloha spirit....we also saw the Intoxicator's set, and they tore the palm-lined roof off the mothersucker. Unfortunately, we were also forced to endure King Kukelele's 'set' featuring 'the littlest mermaid.' Why he thought a bunch of partying adults would give a rat's patootie about small children at 11Pm during a swingin' luau is beyond me...(please feel free to imagine additional, snarky, non-flattering comments here.)

Saturday we were up and at 'em early, popped in to the Bazaar again to score an awesome necklace for the joey Zone, and went to the Bosko seminar - he spoke about his life as an artist and had a slide show and we magically were served drinks at this seminar, too (mental note: next time, sign up for ALL the seminars...) Bosko is one shy dude, but very nice.

Then it was back to resort-crashing. I was treated to the awesomely entertaining sight of one of my male companions stumbling over an article of clothing buried in the sand, only to almost instantaneously right himself as the amazing, rare, exotic sight of a woman sunbathing topless (article of clothing and topless person were unrelated.) Priceless. Almost as amusing was the fight between the desire on part of my male companions not to be crushed by the gigantic waves in the ocean, yet still whip their heads around 180 degrees attempting to get a glimpse of bare breast every thirty seconds....

After an exhausting battle with Ol' Man Neptune and imminent whiplash, we primed ourselves for the Saturday Night Main Event at the fabulous, moody, exotic Mai Kai Restaurant and Entertainment Palace. I forgot how stunning this place is, especially when entering into its inky maw after being outside in the blinding sun and seeing the fantastic decor loom up out of the darkness. Of course, we started out with happy hour, where the enormous boozy drinks are two-for-one....then we were seated for dinner and subjected to the opening act: no other than King Krapalele himself. Leilani Luke reported that almost everyone in the Mai Kai looked just as irritated & bored as we did....and the King looked like he was sweating it just a little - it was during the fruit song. I don't really know the song, he just names fruits really quickly. I do know it sucks, though. Apparently, he also plays with a band called the Friki Tikis, but we've never seen them - I think the situation is analogous to the Dee Dee King/Ramones thing.

Fortunately, our fabulously nice, professional waiter gave us menus to distract us ('special' menus for the Hukilau.) During the wait for foodstuffs, I believe every single man who had a birthday in the last 6 months asked for the Mai Kai Mystery Bowl, which is a scorpion bowl delivered by dancing girl. I didn't think she was going have enough energy to perform in the actual show after all those drinks! Someone at our table ordered one and he was completely delighted (I have to say, the dancer was a lot taller and more substantial than she looked far away - maybe he was scared...hard to tell after drinking one and half Black Magic drinks...)
Volcano Bern, appropriately enough, ordering the Bananas Bengali - which was really Bananas Foster with tons of blue flames and lots of showmanship!

Between dinner and the show, we sat through an interminable 'awards ceremony' which consisted of Hukilau people receiving awards....I think. I was losing interest really quickly. The Hukilau producer announced that, in fact, this was not going to be the last Hukilau. Surprise, surprise. Apparently, back in January the family that owns the Mai Kai decided to sell the land to a developer, then one family member sued the rest of the family to keep the Mai Kai open, so it's not closing, yada yada yada...tears of gratitude, more awards, speechifying....

Finally, we saw the fabulous Polynesian Show with dancing and fire and music and drums and sweat and guys and girls and hips and stuff....very intense and very cool. We then retired to the Molokai Bar (fully restored after damages from the past) to have...more drinks and listen to the Haole Cats!, more Tikiyaki Orchestra and Fisherman, who are marvelous (and apparently also the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus band.) Mike & Sandy gave me a fab tiki bottle opener (natch!) and better yet, sang 'Happy Birthday' to me....sweet! We also had the opportunity for much people watching and the sartorial insanity there was awe-inspiring. Please look at the pictures - they're very, very entertaining....(I believe Charles Phoenix is the gent with the full-on tapa cloth suit and the three large men with leopard-skin fezes and tapa jackets are the Moai Mafia - I couldn't stop laughing whenever I'd see them...they totally beat out Lukelele's Thurston Howell duds from last year.)

Sunday morning, we were up bright & early again so's we could check-out on time and spend some time at the fantastic Flamingo Gardens and Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a dreadfully hot, sticky, overcast day, so it was the proper setting for walking around the gardens- all the tropical plants were their proper size (instead of 1:48 scale like you see at Sears or Home Depot nurseries) and they were stunning! There were little lizards roaming everywhere & I wouldn't have been the least surprised to see a coupla velociraptors or two bounding out of the foliage and eating us. We have some lovely photos here.

We came across the Aviary, where we could go in and walk around a large area filled with all sorts of birds, many that I've never seen before: Roseate Spoonbills (they reminded me of Dodo birds and were friendly as they were hoping for handouts), Wood Cranes, Pelicans, Fisher Crows, White Ibises, Egrets and there were also a few turtles sprinkled around for that Everglades effect. There was also a Raptor and Owl section, but each type of paired birds were in their own cages. All the animals and birds at Flamingo Gardens are rescued from horrible accidents, then paired up and their offspring are released back into the wild - very cool. We attended a 'show' and were given much info about various animals, such as the Great Horned Owl, a snake, alligators and the very rare and exotic opossum. We then cruised around to the animal section, and saw many, many, many flamingos, macaws, peacocks in heat (they are loud and the boys were displaying their impressive array of beautiful feathers to entice the peahens...), Florida Bobcats, River Otters, a few immobile alligators, and best of all, two glorious Florida Panthers. This whole place was just gorgeous and fascinating.

Several hours later, Volcano Bern & I were at the airport (changing into fresh clothing so as not to stink up the airplane after sweating up a storm at the Gardens) waiting for our flight and we see....Mike & Sandy again! Not only were they on our flight, they were sitting sort of opposite us. Volcano Bern had never flown at night, so he had his face glued to the window, watching the
thunderstorms and lightning that were parallel to us the whole flight- it was really gorgeous to watch.

So, there you have it- a little less lubricated by booze, definitely fewer photos, but the trip was certainly enhanced by the trip to Flamingo Gardens. And, never fear, there will be more Hukilaus in the future....

Aloha!

Some Completely Opinionated Reviews

2008-06-01T10:54:00.007-04:00

Two Movies:

Sweeney Todd

Wow, I can't say enough in regards to my incredible disappointment with this movie - it sucked. I know the story and even I felt...unfulfilled....with the advancement of the 'plot.' The characters were cardboard cut-outs without any substance whatsoever (honestly, Helena Bonham-Carter is a terrible actress - I don't want to see the gigantic amount of mental processes happening in her face before she arranges it for the camera.) There was no sense of anyone acting with the other person in the room - it felt like a series of one-man shows that happened to be occurring at the same time. Oh, and let's just get the 'singing' portion out of the way- whoever green-lit Mssrs. Depp & Rickman & Ms. Bonham-Carter's 'singing' should be forced to listen to the soundtrack every. single. day. of their miserable lives. I seriously thought that there would be no way Depp & Rickman could ever embarrass themselves on-screen, but they did. And what was with the over-the-top graphic violence? It lent NOTHING to the movie and was merely anticlimactic.
My disappointment is overwhelming- I had seen a production of this musical at the Goodspeed Opera House about 12 years ago that was far, far more adept at achieving what this movie completely failed to do. On stage, the lighting was more medieval and effective, the set was sparse, so the actors were able to flesh out their characters without distraction, and nothing could compare with the actor who played the judge (a dead ringer for Christopher Lee) singing about his ward Joanna while shirtless & flagellating himself in a sexual/religious frenzy. That production was as meaty & juicy as that story could ever get - all without the tiresome glam-goth 'moodiness' of Burton's movie. Z-

Indiana Jones and the Thing with the Crystal...and stuff...

To paraphrase the Perilous One, it's a 'popcorn chomper' - it's got a lot of action, but kinda fizzles towards the end. The story takes place in the 1950s, with a visual nod to 'The Wild One' - there seemed to be a lot of nods-to-another-movie throughout, but I couldn't place my finger on the rest. There's greasers & hot rods, cold war intrigue, Yale, commies, nuclear testing and....sigh...aliens. The plot was not fancy or particularly interesting, the basis of it along these lines- old civilizations could NEVER had this technology without the help of aliens!’ theory, which always annoys me. But the plot didn't really matter- really. It was an action movie, plain and simple, and Cate Blanchett was magnificent (when is she not?) - John Hurt's role could have been played by anyone, sadly enough. I would have been happy if only Ford (looking good!) and Blanchett were in the movie. A few downers included the old 'revive-an-old-romance' ploy, a Disney-esque 'surprise' that a ten-year-old could have figured out.
All-in-all, it was an Indiana Jones movie, so just see it and enjoy! B-

Places to Eat & Drink:

Captain Scott's Lobster Dock 80 Hamilton St., New London

Oh, if you love seafood, this place is for you! It's located between a marina & the railroad tracks in Downtown New London. All the food is incredibly fresh, cooked well and you can eat outside at one of their tables. It's also very clean and the staff, who really hustle, are super nice. I sampled the fish & chips, and you can opt to have red potatoes (grown locally) instead of fries- both the fish & potatoes were amazingly tasty & cooked perfectly. A coworker had the lobster bisque-in-a-boule & found it to be very tasty, we sampled the onion rings (also good and as a rule, I don't really like them), another coworker has the grilled cheese & tomato sandwich, which she liked, and we also tried some really good ice cream. Non of the food was greasy, smelly, or tasted like the cooking oil had been harvested from an '88 Buick. The big draw is apparently the hot lobster roll, which everyone raves about, so I guess that means a return trip soon! The lines can be long, but they move fairly quickly. I highly recommend this place!

The Cove, Rte. 1, Mystic

This used to be a good place to get crab cakes, fish & chips, etc., but it's become horrifically bad. Bad food, bad environment and I'd like to know where all the crows that used to hang out there went to....

Opus on Main Street

This restaurant has opened on the site of the former Victorian Lady restaurant. Bernie & I decide to check out the Adult Martini Bar as it was their grand opening. Oddly, the place still has many of the original fixtures, which is a bit of a time-trip if you had frequented the Victorian Lady in the past. We popped in at 10PM last night, and there was pretty much no one in the restaurant and a couple of folks at the bar on that side (we realized that the kitchen was probably closing, hence no diners.) We made our way to the other side and...we were the only customers. Not promising, but in retrospect, it was like having our own private bartender and nice bar. The idea of that bar is attract the 30+ crowd, as the owners and bar staff know that every single spot in town is generally taken over by the college students. Very irritating that there's no place to get a nice drink at night anymore. So, I'm very enthusiastic about that idea. It has a nice atmosphere, but for some weird reason, the lights were on full blast, but they were dimmed at our request. We then turned our attention to the 'martini menu', which features many lovely types of cocktails and an actual martini. There were no prices on the menu, which was a bit disconcerting, but we gamely ordered our first round: I had a Creamsicle, Bernie had a Kaffir Lime. Oh my. HUGE glasses (I would say the drinks were doubles) and they were delicious. I'm not one for sugary, cloying drinks, and these were delightfully subtle & tasty. The Creamsicle was a frothy, light version of the ice cream, and the Kaffir lime was chilled to perfection and lightly lime-flavored. Bernie then sampled a Sapphiretini, which was Bombay Sapphire gin, orange juice and cranberry; I had an enormous glass of Belvedere, to cleanse my palate. Again, what could have been an acidic nightmare of a drink was both light and tasty. We then decided we needed to try more, so I ordered the Key Lime & Bernie had the Blueberry Pie. The Key Lime was a little sweeter than the Kaffir Lime cocktail (probably due to the Midori liqueur) and the blueberry pie tasted faintly of sweet blueberry, just not overpowering. We also looked at the menu, which looked similar to the fare the Victorian Lady used to offer: steaks, fish, mainly American cuisine with some nice finishes. The bartender, Bill, told us that Thursday, Friday & Saturday were the best days to go, he recommended we have dinner instead lunch, and he highly recommended the steaks. They had just had a private party in there that evening comprised of 65 people, so the lack of patrons was definitely understandable. Apparently, this restaurant was reviewed twice by someone who did not give it good marks - Bill told us the reviewer had come in on the 3rd day they were open, for lunch (which would hardly give anyone a chance to succeed, it would seem to me) and then returned, again for lunch, on a day they had to fire the chef. Oy. We are definitely going to try dinner there, and we hope we can entice some other 30+ peoples to enjoy the lounge.

The Gauntlet has Been Thrown....

2008-04-08T21:16:00.007-04:00

...sparing me the agony of coming up with another alliterative blog title.

Fine, Miss Wendy, you want a Tiki blog-off? You got one!

This past Saturday we were treated to fabulous extravaganza at Mike and Sandy's Beach House and Tropical Drinks Emporium.

(On a side note, J10X & I had primed ourselves for hardcore tiki-drinking action by sampling my newest concoction- Rosemary Martinis made with freshly infused rosemary vodka....)

We arrived, fashionable attired in Punktiki(TM) style, fashionably late, with some drunken bum in tow, to the lovely tropically warm beach house and were greeted by the glorious sight of Miss Wendy, Our Hosts, Boojums, Brian & Mel....um, Negative Ed & Lisa.....some people I don't think we properly met....

Drinks! Yes! A huge table of booze & mixers! Mike & Sandy were insanely generous and provided both food and beverage- I was somewhat nonplussed by the announcement that we had arrived and I would be making drinks. Wha....? But that requires...memory! Ultimately, my queenly self got its act together & made a pitcher of Mai-tais & several individual drinks.

(Another side note- Tiki is all about the drinks, don't let anyone tell you any differently....)

We had the opportunity to chat with Mike & Sandy and gawk at all their Tiki decor goodness - gorgeous masks, mini-surfboards....books! Mike also gave us an entire tour of the Aloha Compound as well. We also caught up with others we hadn't seen in a while, and Negative Ed & I bonded over the magical, medicinal qualities of Newcastle Ale....

Mike & Jess, who organize the New England Tiki Tour arrived a little later, with Tim from Waitiki and his lovely lady in tow. The fantastic 9th Wave and Waitiki will be playing the tour this year.....fun!

A little later in the evening we convened down in the basement to hear some surftastic tunes by Mike, Fred and Negative Ed, Sandy and Brian, and then some Summertime Blues with Lushy Luke sitting in on the skins....

J10X & I had much fun & stayed far too late- my car almost turned into a pineapple, but we managed to reach it in time to head home on waves of rum...and that special ohana feeling!

Many mahalos to Mike & Sandy for a fantastic time!!

Retro Video Recap

2008-03-05T09:48:00.003-05:00

This morning I flipped through the channels to check the weather, and I happened upon a Clash video - and then more videos from the 80s. Sure, they're cheesy, but oh so much more entertaining and strange than the slick, boring, predictable dreck produced these days....
The Clash video was 'Rock the Casbah': Armadillos galore! The band playing in an oil field! McDonalds! I know this song is trying to tell me something, but the images are confusing, they make no sense...oh, yeah! it's an 80s video! Nothing has to make sense!
So, I thought I was done, then I saw the unkempt tresses of:
Bananarama..... 'Cruel Summer' - boring song, ugly video, terrible fashion (from an English group, yet!), and what's with the 'Dukes of Hazzard' references? Weird.
Ok, by now I was kind of sucked in and repelled at the same time, and then the ever-bizarre,
'Obsession' by Animotion started up- had to watch, it's a really odd train wreck of a video: lots of costumes, bad 80s fashion, bad hair cuts & a sideways ponytail...bad lipsynching and, for my money, some of the creepiest lyrics I've ever heard in a pop song. (Seriously, I could probably write an entire entry on the incredible weirdness of the song & video.)
Madness' 'Our House' started & I had to see that one - silly, fun, and drab, as it was filmed in England....oh, and were Suggs and Matt Damon separated at birth? And what about the guy that looks a heck of a lot like Michael Palin?
Well, that was enough 80s nostalgia for me....I eventually had to get a move on so I could get into my legwarmers in time for aerobics class...

Need Some Punk Rock Reference Materials?

2008-02-29T14:56:00.001-05:00

Go to Amy Roberson's page! Oi Oi Oi!

Celestial Sightings, or, Lookin' at la Lune

2008-02-21T11:37:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone who was able to saw the incredibly beautiful lunar eclipse last night! When I walked out of work in New London at 10 PM, the eclipse was beginning- the moon was an orangey-red and flanked by two bright celestial bodies- the planet Saturn and the star Regulus in the constellation of Leo. I stood outside with New London Harbor to my left and an unstarred sky (except for the eclipse and its attendants), completely awestruck. The last time I was this affected by something in the sky was the appearance of a comet (was it Halley's?) and I observed it while driving home at night. It's very plain to me how events like these can impact people's worldview, past and present.

It also struck me that getting annoyed at some students for being too loud was really...insignificant.

When I got home, the moon was fully eclipsed and we looked at it though binoculars- amazing! Then I periodically checked on the 'uneclipsing' of the moon, which was less colorful but no less beautiful.

Fun fact: Since I spotted the eclipse last night, Cher's 'Dark Lady' has been running endlessly through my head....enjoy!

'Best' Reference Desk Question All Week

2008-02-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

Student: "Do you know how to make a web page?"

Librarian: "Well, yes."

Student: "Can you give me a 30 second tutorial?"

Librarian: "Well, no."

Student: "60 second?"

Happy Anniversary, Pootie-Pie!

2008-02-10T14:49:00.000-05:00

This weekend's milestone event was the 7th anniversary of the meeting of the Queen & J10X, the 7th anniversary of me grabbing Bernie by his Road Agents jacket & yelling 'Hey, Do you know Luke?!?! I know Luke!'

The rest, as they say, is history.

Little Eats in New London

2008-01-30T19:10:00.000-05:00

This is going to be just a short entry that will hopefully lead to more in the same vein.

I find it intriguing to work a position in which my schedule changes depending on the school year, especially when foraging for food. So far, I've managed to sample a few of the many eateries in New London:

The Hot Dog House on Montauk Ave.: My Favorite New Place. The food is good and simple, and I am completely addicted to the fresh sweet potato fries - an order of those & soup (Black Bean with Pork is divine) makes for a very satisfying meal. This little bistro is very clean, the decor is fun and the owners are absolute dolls- Venus & his wife are as friendly as can be - Venus himself speaks in declarative sentences: 'The same type a food we eat at home!' 'The sweet patata fries are always fresh!' 'So, whaddya know, she's gonna blog about us!' It's always a delight to go in, have a chat, and leave with some good eats.

Saeed's International Market on Ocean Ave.: I never regret getting anything to eat here. They have every permutation of spinach & feta (the kihi being my favorite) and delicious felafel wraps. They also have many fun, exotic eats & sodas, but those can be a wee bit pricey.

The Recovery Room on Ocean Ave. (across from Saeed's): Excellent thin crust pizza (the spinach & gorgonzola is my favorite) and humongous salads that are really meals for two people. The atmosphere is cozy, unless it's extremely busy, and the prices are fair. More of a place to go when you have time to sit and eat, but calling in an order works, too.

The Bean & Leaf Cafe: Another contender for Favorite New Place- they have excellent fair trade coffees & teas and great food - the paninis are really satidfying, served with homemade pita chips, hummus and a small salad. There is plenty of seating & local talents are given a chance to shine. I first visited when they hosted our college's Digital Photography class show.

The Montauk Cafe & Market on Montauk Ave.: This is a little sandwich-and-coffee joint that's within a short walking distance from work - I've had really great sandwiches here (the Cowboy Sandwich is really great- kind of a messy reuben) and they have Green Mountain coffee, which is always fresh, hot & strong. The only downside is that they shut at 2:30 PM....

Well, that's it for now....hopefully some of you readers (all 4 or 5 of you) will visit these places & report your experiences!

Wet, Wild & Woolly Weekend

2008-01-29T17:50:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was certainly a whirlwind, starting with a quick nip after work on Thursday at the Cedarwood Lounge attached to the Willi Bowling Alley - not exactly the most glamorous place, but the drinks are strong, big & cheap....like some men I know...

Friday night, Bernie & accompanied Lushy Luke to the incredibly hideous Sneakers Sports Bar in Ashford (I would like to point out it was LL's idea and we are such loyal friends that we agreed to go). The pictures in the link make the place look good; I'm pretty sure we were the only three in there with a full set of teeth and not wearing plaid. The two video games they have are Bowling & Extreme Hunting and some scary looking guy was using the air hockey table as a coat rack. I'll bet the air hockey table is the cause of most of those people losing their teeth - extreme puck action! I think I drank all the Stoli they had in the two hours we were there....and then it was.....

Saturday.

I started off the day hungover because I apparently over-consumed during the two hours I was tortured at the above-mentioned redneck hell-hole. Fortunately, instead of feeling sorry for myself all day, I knew we had plans for the evening: hanging out with Miss Wendy in New London to celebrate her birthday at the Hygienic Art 29 festivities!

We had a restorative dinner at the Asian Bistro, then headed out to the Whaling City after switching outerwear and clothing around. We stopped first at the Golden Street Gallery and saw some great pieces by the artists featured there - it was also sanely populated, which was nice. On our way there, we popped in to see the work being done on the old El 'n' Gee club - they have completely redone the bathrooms (hooray- it had gotten CBGB-esque in those loos!) with Joan Jett & Johnny Cash painted on the doors, a new bar shaped like a guitar, new floors, and they've removed the separator between the bar & stage. The guys working told us the plan was to have a variety of acts, from theater to comedy to music. However, one of the local artists said she had heard it was being turned into a "gentlemen's club" - let's hope not.

We then popped over to Sarge's Comics (the Popular Place for Anniversaries & Birthdays!) and touched everything, but had to leave because they were closing. Miss Wendy did try to convince me to bargain for the Promethea action figure that's been sitting there forever....but I wasn't up to it.

So then, off to the events! It was icy cold out, which meant that once people were in a building, it was tough to get them out. We were not able to get into any of the rock shows at any time as the two clubs were seriously packed. We did give the Hygienic Gallery a try, but I got halfway through before having a major attack of claustrophobia & sprinting out the back door. There was very little to be seen well because there was no room to back up and look at any of the work- a return trip is necessary! Bernie & I managed to find & extricate Miss Wendy, then we all decided we needed drink, because after all, it was a birthday celebration.

We ended up at the Bank Street Roadhouse (which is generally rednecky on non-festival nights, but quite tolerable on this Saturday) and the Rivergods were playing- a very nice, upbeat set for sure (Fun Fact: Nancy from the Rivergods is the sister of my immediate supervisor). Drinks du nuit were vodka tonics and gin & tonics for Bernie. It started getting a little crowded in there so we moved on.

We left and looked at the other clubs, noticing the clientele at this point were spilling onto the sidewalk- no way we were going to shove our way into that! We ended up at a restaurant bar for the rest of the evening having a nice chat & more drinks before heading home.

Thanks, Wendy, for letting us celebrate with you!

Vittles, Video Games & a Venue Change

2008-01-08T12:01:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, Bernie & I, along with some friends, made our first foray into the wild world of Dave & Buster's. At first I wasn't so sure about this place: it's located in Providence Place Mall, so I thought it would be loaded with small children. But joy of joys: ostensibly children are not allowed in there after 5:30 PM! Hooray!

The first obstacle was the parking garage, obviously designed by some sadistic non-driver. On every level there were a billion ways for other cars to zoom in & create near-hits as I awkwardly negotiated the same level 3 times.....we finally found our way out of the labyrinth and soared upwards to....the first level. I'm pretty sure some form of higher mathematics went into the numbering/naming of the levels, but I didn't have the Royal Slide Rule with me to figure it out.

After luckily finding a newly-vacated parking spot, we went right into the mall- I've never been to Providence Place Mall before - it's hellishly huge and seems to have all the same shops as every other mall, but I was told The Secret: as you go up each level, the stores escalate in price.....

We quickly found Dave & Busters and it was BUSY! We had been told it would be a two-hour wait for a table, so we planned on playing games, then eating. Luckily, we ended up with a table within 10 minutes, so we changed our plans. The food was fine, nothing special, but we did get some sort of deal where we received a $10 game card with our meal and our waiter was not only very entertaining, but very hot. Always makes the food just a little better.....So, fed & with a nice buzz going on (Belvedere was the drinkable vodka served there), it was off to the games!

The games were a bit overwhelming, what with all the flashing lights & the number of people around. Surprising to me, everyone was very fair about letting those waiting take a turn. There were driving games, flight simulators, AIR HOCKEY, shooting games, some strange roulette-type games, a crane machine with cheeeezy bling, boxing games- a lot of choices to be sure!

We hopped right on driving games to start- don't ask me the names, all I know is they tossed me around while I maniacally drove & was laughing hysterically...Miss Wendy, I have no idea how you could drive any of those games with a martini in hand! You are truly a Patsy Stone....
We played more games of that ilk, and of course I had to play with the flight simulator- graphics-wise, far more sophisticated than the one I trained on at Windham Airport, but far less accurate. For instance, I didn't crash nearly as many times....
Bernie & I accidentally hogged the ginormous, flourescent air hockey table for several games, Mikey played Donkey Kong for a really long time, and I tried my hand at Space Invaders- 'tried' as in 'tried to figure out how it worked' (it's been a loooong time) and then the message 'Game Over' appeared....

After a couple of hours, and using the Jaws of Life to pry Bernie way from the games, we were DONE. We noticed that around 8:30 or so, it started getting very meat-markety in there for the 18-21 year old set. Eeew.

My suggestion is not to go on a Saturday night- it was fun, but packed. And be prepared to spend some money! All in all, it was a really fun time and everyone was having fun on the same level- pretty cool!

********************************
So, what's all this about a venue change? Well, Bernie just landed his bad self a new job with the New London Housing Authority! Less hours, more money - whoo hoo! Congrats, pootie-pie!

....and now, Reality.

2008-01-02T14:47:00.000-05:00

Sadly, this is the first day back to work since Dec. 21. It was so difficult to have to get ready & be out of the door within 2 hours of waking.....but, I have memories of a fabulously festive holiday season to soften the blow!

Bernie & I were fortunate enough to host some of our closest friends - the Wombats from Albany, Miss Wendy, Alex, Marko and the Boojums- for an impromptu cocktail party. I'm really beginning to appreciate the merits of smaller gatherings, especially the ability to be able to talk to all of our guests! It was especially nice to be able to make Wombat small-talk as we don't see them nearly as often as we'd like!

The next night, my parents threw a fantastic wine & cheese party for their neighbors - it was lovely, with really nice people and more cheese than even I could eat. (I'm pretty sure at this point I'll never have to worry about brittle bones with the amount of cheese I've consumed in the past week and a half....)

On New Year's Eve, we scrapped our original idea of going to Boston, but we didn't want to ring in the new year at home. So, we dolled up and headed over to the Mohegan Sun casino, of all places. But I'm glad we did- we 'discovered' a Mexican restaurant in there & made a ton of noise at midnight along with the other patrons- it was such fun! Then we cruised around, looked at the fab decorations and people-watched for a bit & then headed home.

Then we started the new year in the best way- we didn't do a damn thing all day. Hooray!

Air Hockey- Best. Game. EVER.

2007-12-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

For my immediate family, Dec. 25th is a secular holiday of presents, food & family fun. As in years past, J10X & I arrive at my mom's house, fashionably late, with santa hats on our heads & my incredibly warm, long, heavy forest-green cloak about my shoulders. (It is of no surprise to me that people no longer wear substantial cloaks to drive- the shoehorning of myself & that garment into my car alone is a Herculean effort, never mind clearing enough room around me in a sea of wool to locate the car's gearshift.)

I have finally come to the realization that all along it is only my sister, mother & myself who get completely hysterical during the present opening. My 5 year old nephew (Jack) doesn't even get that excited, tho' he claimed to be way more excited than me. But there's just no way- he doesn't even get to drink mimosas before gifts.

But the most fun to be had was when my dad brought up an air hockey table he had purchased for my nephew - or so he thought. J10X & Jack tried it out (Jack employing the Nowyckyj Goal-Blocking Ploy- placing his forearm in front of his goal) but things really heated up when J10X & myself went head-to head. My dad was pretty sure we were destroying the table & my mom was laughing as hard as we were- air hockey can get very intense, very fast & very fun. Half the time you end up knocking the puck into your own goal by mistake, or in my case, sailing it onto the floor, into my sister's back, the walls, etc. Considering the advent of so many great computer games, Xboxes and the like, I was amazed at how intense a simple game like this could get- we were sweaty & totally crazy.

So, we finally peeled ourselves out of there & to home- we recuperated by watching 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' which was a tad disappointing- good effort made to create a story, but I expected way more silly stuff. This past weekend we also watched 'Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix' which I was only compelled to watch because I had seen all the other movies. I think with the exception of the 'Prisoner of Azkaban', they've all been disappointing. I've not read any of the books, but the movies tend to make me feel that a LOT has been left out.

So, now I have a week to create & read!

Happy Boxing Day!

Local heroes, libations, lashings of music and the lengthening of days...

2007-12-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

Saturday night was a celebratory night for music in New London- Paul Brockett Roadshow Band's 2nd Anniversary show was opened & closed by The Reducers!

PBRB had goodies to give out- a CD of rollicking fun with music, skits and some bizarre yodelling barnyard shenanigans, a poster photo montage on the inside of the CD (with some pictures of people you know) and a fabulous pin.
PBRB wore their dress blacks onstage, looking very sharp. Their set had somethings old, something new, nothing borrowed and 'Can't Mix Gin with You' featuring the vocal stylings of Ms. Daphne Glover. It was fun, fast and fantastic!

[Note: if Paul is the Gentleman of New London, Meghan is certainly the Glamorous Spirit and both rest on the Solid Foundation that is Dave. And if that isn't enough for you, they're really terrific people, too....]

The Reducers were, as usual, their efficient, rocking selves- this band consistently over the past 20-odd years I've seen their shows just deliver the goods every time, with no fuss and exquisite form. They rock, plain and simple.

Seeing both bands in the same venue is always a treat as we always see our friends, too- everyone was filled with holiday joy and the joy of a great night of music. I was so happy to actually find that one spot in the place where I could actually hear someone talk, so I did spend that last set of the show chitchatting with, it seemed, half of the music-loving population of New London. A great night all around...

Happy Anniversary, Paul Brockett Roadshow Band!

Vodka & Me

2007-12-19T12:55:00.000-05:00

We had a very good year.

I discovered in Women's Health magazine that my fave summertime vodka garnish, blackberries, are even better for you after being soaked in ethanol.

I have just now read that my very favorite potable, Reyka, is processed 'green' via geothermal heat. And they have no plans to ever flavor the vodka - skál !

Adrenaline

2007-12-17T19:19:00.000-05:00

Adrenaline rushes come in two great flavors-the fun-I can't-believe-I didn't-hurt-myself-kind and the not fun-I can't-believe-I'm-not-dead-kind.

I experienced both tonight within 10 minutes of each other -two coworkers hit me up to sled down the considerably steep hill next to Mitchell Hall on a car sun reflector....scary, but so worth it! Whee!

A few minutes later, I hopped in my car to get something delicious from Saeed's International Market and turned up the wrong street - uphill into a completely iced-over parking lot with a steep slope. My car miraculously made it up there, and as I realized my error and turned my car around, it decided to do a double basic spin and slide sideways down the hill, while stalling. It recovered beautifully and I gave my car a 9.9 for a complicated routine....

Winter Zombie Night at the Aloha Alcohula (TM)

2007-12-17T18:48:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, the Aloha Alcohula (TM)* had a little impromptu tiki drink gathering - featuring nothing less than Zombies made from the original c1938 recipe by Don the Beachcomber. And featuring nothing less than your intrepid hostess' homemade cinnamon syrup & falernum (#8) to boot.

Winter Zombie Night was dedicated to two people: the joey Zone and the lovely Adrienne at Stop & Shop who risked life & limb to retrieve the last 4 existing bottles of lime juice from the very back of the tallest shelf in the store. Your hostess wasn't able to milk enough limes for the Zombie-making without further damaging her delicate little wrists.

The joey Zone did a fine, fine job of giving an extensive tour to Mike & Sandy of 9th Wave fame, all the while explaining the provenance of every single piece of tchotchka - some of which I didn't even know, such as the fine lockers I purchased to house CDs & DVDs that apparently had belonged to a strip club in the past.....(we suspect it was probably the Log 'n' Lantern. )

So, thanks to those who came & drank and didn't throw up little fruity bits!

*Best tiki bar in Willimantic

Of Oil Tanks, Royale Footwork and a Hula Dancer.

2007-12-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

This past weekend started with having my house's oil tank ripped from the soil - the entire process was completed by the time I returned from a far-too-early appointment. I was a little disappointed, because it would have been fun to see the process, but when I walked down my driveway at 9:30 AM, my oil tank was dangling from a backhoe & the hole was completely filled! Hooray!

Friday night, Johnny von 10X and I were invited by Miss Wendy to attend the service she was presenting at her synagogue. This was really interesting, as there was quite a lot of interaction with the congregation (including a question-and-answer period at the end) and the text provided had the songs printed in Hebrew, English, and a transliteration of the Hebrew text; there were also annotations. Miss Wendy did a fabulous job and also contributed a very beautiful poem - I may actually start liking poetry...

Saturday night, we watched poetry in motion - we saw the Royale Brothers (yes, again, jZ) play at the Backstage Pass at Rosie's Cantina in Groton - it's a nice space, totally separated from the strip club portion of the building. There were a decent amount of people there and the bar had Laphroaig - so lovely on a chilly night. Even better, friends I hadn't seen in far too long were in attendance and we had time to catch up.

Eventually, the Royale Brothers hit the stage - two band members were dressed all in black, (perhaps in recognition of the passing of the Great American Hero, Evel Knievel), two in various shades of plaid. The addition of the fog machine & some fancy flashing lights ramped up the visuals, including much fancy footwork (a la James Brown) by Joey Royale, and the adrenaline-inducing sight of Sebastian Royale coming THIS CLOSE several times to nailing Joey in the head with his guitar (or perhaps just poking an eye out with a guitar string) and Joey coming THIS CLOSE to taking out some lights & electricals when he brandished his microphone stand in the air and howled. There's just something exhilarating about the combination of rock'n'roll, near electrocution and near ocular impalement...

As usual they did not disappoint - as Marko observed after they had finished, 'I pity the next band following THAT!' Indeed!

But the very best line of the evening was: "I've been making Feejee Mermaids...when I'm not working or making out with my girlfriend, I'm making these...things...!" Hmmm...I wonder how much it would cost the Aloha Alcohula* to obtain one for display? As for the person who uttered those fine words, please do yourself a favor and visit the NE Anomaly site!

As for All Things Tiki, there is rumored to be a tiki bar opening in Vernon very soon- of course, this will entail making an exploration into unknown territory. Hopefully the Sacred Text of The Bum will be utilized in its proper form.

And what about the Hula Dancer? Oh, that would be the tattoo that Nimble-Fingered Phil Royale sports on his forearm, merrily dancing away....

*the best tiki bar in Willimantic.

My Wonderful New Job

2007-11-27T21:04:00.000-05:00

[How many times must I tell the same 5 people to shut the hell up in here?!?!]

Sample conversation between 2 guys (spoken loudly across 2 computer carrels):

Do you eat at restaurants?
Yeah
What kind you like?
Yeah
Italian?
Yeah
Pizza?
Yeah
Fish?
Nooooo...
Wanna eat dinner with me sometime?
Yeah
Do you think (name of girl here) will eat dinner with me?
....yeah....
Do you like Italian food?
Yeah
Hi, Steph! So, are there cameras even in the parking garage at the casino (11 millionth time he's asked me this...)
Yes, they're everywhere- if you want to chitchat, you have to go downstairs.
Ok! SORRY!
Ssshh!
Do you like Italian food?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhh!

(I had multigrain pancakes with cheese & scallions today. La Wombat seemed to think this was blog-worthy....)

Licking Stick

2007-11-18T17:58:00.000-05:00

...that's the song that was echoing around my head this morning. Odd, because I saw two shows last night, not one of which had a single James Brown cover....

J10X, Lushy Luke & I went to see our friends Anne Castellano & Dorian James play at the Annex right in town- for once, didn't have to travel to hear good music! The Annex is a large brick-lined room above the art gallery of Main Street - and a convenient 45 second hike to the Main Street Pub. The sound is actually quite good there and we've seen bands ranging from acoustic solo performances, like Anne, to full-on noisy (the Chuck Hestons come to mind...)

Unfortunately we had to leave halfway through Dorian James' set in order to get Luke to New London for the Gamma Rays gig. The Rays recently acquired the fantastic Johnny Customs on bass, and that man can play! His presence has really charged up the rest of the band and they were fast & loose! Opening for the Gamma Rays was a duo from Maine called Meantone - they were loud, punkabilly & very rock'n'roll (a double bill of Meantone & The Royale Brothers in the future would be just divine). The singer/guitar player 'Meantone' was a fantastic player & during their set wore a gas mask with a mike inside. The drummer, Little Brett was terrific and part way through the set, Johnny Customs played with them for a few songs- too bad so many people missed such great shows last night - both places were pathetically short on audiences.

Levez-vous et dansez!

Who I'm Hatin' On: Bank of America- Incompetent Jerks or Evil Empire?

2007-11-06T20:21:00.001-05:00

It's both! BoA is loaded with terrible, horrible attributes.

Sit 'round the fire, children, and let me tell you a story:

I was rewarded with a letter from BoA after paying off my unsecured cauldron loan that not only was the loan was paid in full, they were canceling a lien on my mortgage......?!!?!

Boys & girls...unsecured means I had the loan with no collateral and I had only held my castle's mortgage for two weeks at that point- pretty fast work on their part, considering they only have pig's feet with which to write!

So, I decided I would merely place a friendly call to the customer service village to find out what was going on. Two days and no less than FOURTEEN customer service trolls later, I still did not have an answer. Not surprising, as the completely unhelpful a**holes (a.k.a CUAs) spent a great deal of time transferring me around to the auto loan department, the 'we-only-take-applications-for mortgages-department', various flying monkey 'supervisors' (who were thinly disguised CUAs), the broken broom department, etc.

Now thoroughly irritated, as any Queen would be, I decide to send a message via magical email to BoA. Wow, if telephoning wasn't bad enough, the four CUAs I've contacted can only respond to my request for information via cut-an-paste scripts - the poor people working at BoA aren't even allowed to think for themselves! The final email I receive informs me I need to go to one of their branch offices in the deep, dark woods. As if I don't hate them enough already, I will have to get my slippers-of-silver-cloth dirty!

At this point, I have now reported them to the CT Banking Commission office. I want my grievance on record, recorded by our ogre-scribes.

So, I head to my local BoA branch, in the deep, dark woods. And you know what? It only took the very pleasant young fairy princess I spoke with for 5 whole minutes to inform me that it was all 'just a mistake'....

And if you're all very, very good, I will tell you the end of the story another day....

Authors Day!

2007-11-01T18:25:00.000-04:00

A happy, inspiring Author's Day to my brilliant friends who write about everything from Tombstones to The Mangrove Legacy to Terry & the Pirates to Totoro Bento lunches to The Goth Scouts!

Boojumhaus Hallowe'en Extravaganza Pics!

2007-10-30T19:31:00.001-04:00

...but you gotta work for 'em - see previous BHE post....

Update

2007-10-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

And for those of you who don't think I update my blog enough, I had eggs & toast for breakfast today.

Boojumhaus Hallowe'en Extravaganza 2007!

2007-10-28T19:23:00.000-04:00

What better way to celebrate Hallowe'en than at the Boojums? Good friends, good food, great costumes, friendly rivalry with costumes! This year's Supreme Costume Master was Raggedy Andy Warhol. 'Twas a frightfully weird ensemble....

Among the fab get-ups were Baron Samedi, Wolf, Candy Corn, Donner Party-of-One, Shriners, Man in a Shower (3rd place winner), Tippi Hedren from 'The Birds' (2nd place winner) and more! Our host and hostess looked superb as always, respectively dressed as a clown and a belly dancer.

Both the host and myself were congratulated for landing new jobs by the Shriners bringing cake & champagne!

Cranky Yankee's photos here!

Royale Brothers Royally Rock & Slim Cessna Lands in CT!

2007-10-21T20:26:00.000-04:00

This past week we were blessed with two fantastic shows: Slim Cessna's Auto Club at the B&G Lounge in South Windsor & The Royale Brothers at Bank Street Cafe in New London.

Bernie, Marko, friend Matt & I went to South Windsor on Wednesday (a school night!) and found ourselves in a real hick dive tucked away in a strip mall. We walked in and I was kind of relieved to see quite a few people there listening to the local opening band, who were kinda punk/rock & roll. I was even happier getting a hug from Slim Cessna on the way in....
We girded our loins with drinks and I was desperately hoping we'd see a really great show because the place was so cruddy. Apparently the band decided to play there because they had a 'day off' between gigs and we were happy because it meant we didn't have to drive to Providence a couple of days later to see them. When I mentioned to Slim we had never been to the B&G Lounge, he looked around and said 'Yeah, I'd never go here, too..'' Hee!
We were certainly not disappointed by the show! This is a great band, great musicians & really entertaining- and there were only about 30 people at MOST and we were right at the 'stage'. It was a really fast, energetic show and many of the shaved-headed weird guys (did I mention S. Windsor is infested with KKK?) were virtually worshipping the band- a big ole redneck homoerotic experience. It was a sweaty time.

(Oddly, we saw Cortlandt from The Witch's Dungeon there and he had been filming the opening band & stuck around for the headliner.)

I thought that show was all the stress-relief I needed in this horrifically stressful month, but I had forgotten about The Royale Bros. CD Release Show!
The Bank Street Cafe was PACKED! We arrived to see the last bit of the opening band's set and then The Royale Brothers hopped on stage and kicked out the jams.....this was also a sweaty time!
The Royale Brothers are one band that gets rock & roll RIGHT. There's a lot of musical history in their sound- country, metal, punk, blues, 60s, you name it. They have a fantastic bass player and you can actually hear him- the kind of sinful, sexy, sinister, thumping bass that is supposed to exist in rock 'n' roll! The drummer is magic. The guitarists are amazing. The lean, mean, New London's Man in Black singer is the perfect frontman, for many reasons. The new CD is righteous- it actually reflects their sound well, which is not always the case with smaller pressings for local bands- nice production, very full sound.

And Joey Royale, how can you be so young and yet sound like a 65-year-old-man? It's a little freaky.
All I can picture listening to the CD is a group of weather-beaten, crag-faced, leather-wearing, long-haired older men playing atop a mesa, baking in the sun & getting beaten by the wind....

My ears are still ringing.

Update - New England Tiki Tour Photos

2007-09-17T11:41:00.000-04:00

New England Tiki Tour 2007

Most of the photos were taken at the first few stops of the Tour.....

Thanks to my pootie-pie, Johnny von 10X for the pics!

Is Bernie...

2007-09-12T20:27:00.000-04:00

....really Bruce Wayne?

Kathy Lay, 19?? - 2007

2007-09-12T15:32:00.000-04:00

I am absolutely stunned to learn that a friend of mine has passed away from ovarian cancer. Rest in Peace, Kat, or create as much havoc and fun as you can where you are!

(Obituary from the New London Day: http://www.legacy.com/TheDay/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=94084407)

Northeast Tiki Tour 2007

2007-08-28T14:42:00.001-04:00

Aloha!

This past weekend saw the big send-off of the very first and hopefully, annual, Northeast Tiki Tour!

Friday night was dinner & a show at the Hukelau in lovely Chicopee, MA, where Johnny von 10X & I met about 25 of our future busmates on the tour. We met a lovely couple, Paige & Jill, who live a scant mile or so from the Aloha Alcohula and sort of waved down the table at everyone else.

I've been to the Hukelau before, but much to my dismay, they're dismantling the majority of the Tiki decor. As for the show, it was both bizarre and cheesy. The band was very good (and the keyboard player looked an awful lot like Slim Jim Phantom of Stray Cats fame, but with Leif Garrett's hair...no, THIS Leif Garrett hair!) but the drinks were pretty much alcohol-free...

The band was playing when the dancers came out, and instead of some really great drumming, the instruments were guitar, keyboard, regular drums and bass.....so the show had a 'Hair'-like, 60's musical sound to it. And the female dancers were wearing skin-colored bodysuits at some points. Welcome to the Puritan Polynesian Experience!

After dinner, the group pretty much broke up, kinda chit-chatted a bit, and then the majority of them went to the hotel for a room crawl- by the looks of the pictures on Tikicentral, it was very successful....

Saturday found us at the Super 8 Motel in N. Attleboro for the commencement of the tour. We already had fabulous swag donated/created/generously provided by several folks on the tour: nametags with the official logo on a tropical lanyard, personalized drinking mugs, burlap bags to hold said swag that were stenciled with the logo, stickers, bracelets, cards, etc. There were also raffle tickets for many fabulous items and our first cocktail of the day- something delicious that won second place on the Tikicentral website - the Tiki Torch. It was an opportunity to finally meet those we waved to the night before! There were people from CT, RI, MA, NJ, NY and PA. Most knew each other from the Tikicentral forums, so this was a chance for many to meet face-to-face.

So, we boarded the (thankfully air-conditioned) bus and it was off to our first stop: the Mon Kou!

The Mon Kou has fabulous tiki/tropical decor and good, strong Mai Tais - with a hint of cherry juice- possibly the maraschino kind. So we all scrambled for seats, had drinks, feasted from the pu-pu platters & other delectable, delightful dishes. This was to be the m.o. for the entire tour: bus-stagger-restaurant-stagger-drinks & food-stagger-bus.....

I think about 45 minutes later, we were herded back on the bus, given more swag & as we sped down the road, the raffling ensued! And someone (I believe Hula Cat) made a couple o' kegs of very delicious Mai Tais - your royal guide did not heed Pappy the Sailor's words: 'This isn't punch- this is really strong!' Oh, yes they were strong. So strong, I was pretty 'faced by the time we reached the South Pacific in Newton...this was in a dingy strip mall, but the inside had one dining section that had murals & a peaked roof....Mr. Ho from Waitiki gleefully pointed out to us that one of the Polynesian fishermen was wearing a not-so-Polynesian swimmer's face mask.....

Next stop, the New Tiki in Westford! The manager, Brian, was beaming the whole time we were there, making sure his staff were very good to us (and they were!) I should mention here that each place we stopped at was presented with a tiki mask by Sully, our Grand Master of Planning and Ceremonies. Waitiki played in the lounge area, so it was more socializing, eating & drinking- by this point I was all done with rum & switched to the kinder, gentler vodka.

(The tour and Waitiki were mentioned in the Boston Herald on Aug. 24! )

So, back on the bus (and everytime we got back on, we got more swag!) and off to the Bali Hai - absolutely no tiki decor, but very strong drinks. There was also an insane amount of mug-and-menu purchasing being done- I ended up with 3 mugs and a menu (a reproduction of a 1974 menu with a fabulous tropical drink centerfold.) I think they made about a gazillion dollars just from that!
Our final stop was at the fabulous Kowloon - I believe we were in the Volcano Bay Room which feels like you're eating outside at night on a boat. The food is really good here (I had some very delicious sushi) and there's quite a variety.

So, full of delicious food and many, many cocktails, we all hopped back on the bus to go back to the motel. I know I fell asleep, and when I peeled my eyes open, I noticed the entire bus was as quiet as could be - a far cry from the rowdiness all day long! The video screens were playing some black and white Hollywood/Hawaiian shorts, and all the little tiki angels were asleep.

This tiki tour was a blast and it was a great bunch of people, all there for the same reason, to have fun and share their love of all things tiki.

Mahalo nui loa to Sully and all the others who were so generous and to all the tourmates who made this a worthwhile experience!

Queen of Exotica

Shriners!!!

2007-07-25T20:15:00.000-04:00

This post is a little after-the-fact, but on July 4th we went to the Columbia parade and were rewarded with not only my nephew handing out candy in the parade, but Shriners galore! Shriner Klowns dressed like Keystone Kops, Shriners on little cars doing some finely choreographed, intricate patterns and more Shriner Klowns with a paddy wagon.....

Looky here:
Shriners!

Hukilau 2007!

2007-06-19T12:13:00.001-04:00

I had originally written this in the week following my return: not only did this site lose my draft, the powers that be claimed they couldn't restore it. Better late than never....

**New addition! See more pics here.....

Hukilau 2007 was the 6th annual installment of one of several Tikiphile conventions in the US that celebrate MidCentury Polynesian Pop culture. This phenomenon started in the 1930s and was intended to evoke a feeling of faraway, exotic locales and was a creation of Mainland USA. Obviously, some of the imagery is appropriated from Polynesian & Oceanic artifacts, but the “Isle of Tiki” lifestyle is its own entity. I could write a long essay about this distinction, but better writers than I have already done so: Sven Kirsten (author of The Book of Tiki) and James Teitelbaum (author of The Tiki Road Trip.)

Bernie & I arose at the unexotic hour of 3 AM to make an early flight to Fort Lauderdale. We picked up our guide and headed off to Bradley International Airport, had a nice, short flight and were in Ft. Lauderdale by mid-morning. This was the first time Bernie had flown, and the excitement in his eyes (fueled by a few nips of Bacardi in his Coke) was a beautiful thing to behold. ( Almost as beautiful was the flight attendant who looked EXACTLY like Patsy from AbFab....same hair, smile, height, age....it was hard not to giggle every time she passed by...)

There is nothing that firmly places the idea ‘I’m on vacation!’ in your mind than to arrive at a destination that has a landscape completely different from what you just left: we arrived in a land of sun, palm trees, beach, turquoise colored ocean….very tropical indeed….

We scored a hotel right next to the Yankee Clipper Hotel, which is where most of the events were to take place. Not only that, it was mere steps to the beach! We checked in and popped next door to the Wreck Bar in the Yankee Clipper – nautically themed with tables that had sand, shells, keys and doubloons imbedded in them & then coated within an inch of their lives with resin…arrr, mateys. There were worked copper tableaux everywhere in the hotel. One wall of the bar had ‘port windows’ that made it seem as though you were submerged in the hotel pool so we could watch the nether limbs of swimmers in the hotel and the famous Mermaid Show later on.

We went for a dip at the beach and we saw pelicans flying above us- they look a lot like pterodactyls when flying in the distance. Throughout our stay, the beach was a great place to spend an hour or two in between events. During one visit, we saw a school of fish swimming within a few feet of us, being chased by seagulls – some of the fish shot out of the water right next to us! Very cool, but not nearly as interesting as the severed head bobbing around in the surf.Thursday was also our first visit to the Mai Kai. Tiki heaven. Mere words cannot fully describe this place – it really needs to be experienced to be appreciated. The outside is chock full of waterfalls, torches, tropical plants, and tiki statuary. Once inside, we were greeted by the mâitre d’ who directed us to the very dark and moody Molokai Bar – actually, all of the Mai Kai is dark and moody, which only enhances the decor. We had pre-prandial drinks here – I had the amazingly delicious Mai Tai while looking around at all the nautical and Polynesian decor and enjoying the ambience. The drinks menu has ‘Light’, Medium’ & ‘Strong’ sections- of course, we went right to “Strong’…. Bernie captured a buzz on the ‘Shrunken Skull’, which was a whole bunch of rum in a tiki mug, natch.

After drinks, we were shepherded by another wonderful mâitre d’ (I later found out he was from Hartford, CT!) and seated in yet another amazing room with a view out to the tiki gardens. The staff at the Mai Kai were so fabulously warm and professional – even during a far busier night the following Saturday, the same wonderful service was accorded. The food was excellent, the menu ranging from sushi to pan-Asian to ‘Polynesian’ fare.

After dinner we skipped the “Hukilau Kickoff Party” and the Bahia Cabana and hit the sack- we were beat and full of rum….

Friday morning we were up and off to the Tiki Treasures Bazaar- shopping time! This was not open to the public until Saturday, so those of us not hungover or still sleeping from the previous night’s festivities had first dibs! DJ Dr. Scopitone provided exotica music to enhance the atmosphere. All the merch was only Tiki, Oceanic, Hawaiiana & Floridiana items with some vintage clothing thrown in- no crossover into hot rod/zombie/B-movie kulture. We never saw the same Hawaiian shirt twice and no one had the same shirt as anyone else - I had no idea of the range of colors & designs of the textiles. Quite a few of the women had vintage –styled dresses with bold flower patterns, wedge sandals and a flower tucked behind their ear.

The eye candy at the merch tables was overwhelming at first – I could feel my wallet getting lighter with each glance. It was nice to see that the Artists and Authors were present and were happy to sign prints and books. Here’s a short list of vendors: Dr. Cardoo, Fraternal Order of the Moai, Adrift Clothing, Doug Horne (we liberated a few cards, prints and mugs from his table), Monkey Man Design, Jared Davis (purchased a print and a t-shirt from the artist and his lovely lady), Thor (all the way from Hawaii!), Tiki Magazine, Tiki Squad, Jorubo, Bodhi Glass, some vintage clothiers, and others.

Done with the Bazaar, it was back to the Wreck Bar for the Mermaid Show – the Wreck Bar was the first place to have mermaid shows back in the day, and they recently started booking them again now that mermaids are no longer over-fished. Marina and her, um, mermaidettes coquettishly swam back and forth in front of the windows, blowing kisses, doing back flips and generally riling up the menfolk who were already sufficiently riled up by their drinks…it was kitschy and fun. Dr. Cardoo kindly posed for pictures with us after the show - ooga
booga!

We hopped the elevator to the first seminar of the weekend- “The Wonderful World of Exotica” presented by Jeff Chenault, who has been researching this subject for about 20 years. We saw a slide show of many fantastic album covers, heard some great music, (which we took great pains to emulate all weekend long, everywhere we went) and learned a more about the history of this music and Korla Pandit..... The only downside to this seminar was the impression that some of the attendees were trying to ‘one-up’ Mr. Chenault with their comments…but all in all, it was very interesting.

We didn’t attend all the seminars during Hukilau because that would have entailed being inside all day - when you can see the beautiful seascape beckoning, you go!

That evening, we attended the “Friday Night Main Event” at the swanky Bahia Mar hotel (and Yachting Center.) This was a big party with great entertainment- we saw great sets by The Crazed Mugs, The Intoxicators (from Tennessee), Waitiki (from Boston) and a bit o’burlesque by Trixie Little and Her Evil Hate Monkey. The event was emceed by King Kukulele, who some people find entertaining. There were some other vendors there, too, and I bought cookbooks by the Rum Reviews guys who were very charming and had delicious samples. I also picked up Tiki Road Trip 2 - Mr. Teitelbaum was somewhat dismayed when we told him the Tiki Room in Boston had just closed this year, and he made a verbal note on his voice recorder.

The highlight of the evening was a performance by the legendary Robert Drasnin conducting an exotica orchestra playing his own compositions, old and new. Mr. Drasnin released Voodoo about 48 years ago, and the Tiki Kiliki Productions people raised funds to afford him the opportunity to record a new album, Voodoo II – much love there! We purchased a copy and Mr. Drasnin graciously signed it and let us take photos with him.

After all that fun and excitement and lack of food, we were famished and headed to the White Trash Cabana hoping we could find a bite to eat. This place was excruciating– our waitress, who was ‘English’, was also incredibly rude and proceeded to fling an ashtray, utensils and condiments onto our table. But there’s more! The food was disgusting – I ordered grilled fish that was so greasy and smelly I thought the fish might have been sponges used in the clean up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Bernie’s mozzarella sticks could have been used as support beams in a mansion, and our intrepid guide, Leilani Luke, had ordered the conch fritters, which were inedible. (A note about procuring a Hukilau guide- be sure your guide can secret about a gallon's worth of rum on his/her person while wearing nothing more than a hawaiian shirt and shorts....)

The ‘entertainment’ consisted of a saxophone player, who played and sang, accompanied by pre-recorded backing vocals and other aural detritus. The other customers (very drunk other customers) loved this guy- he wisely refrained from straying over to our table, possibly because we were entertaining ourselves by menacingly stabbing the conch fritters and making them into mini-sputniks. We left halfway through “Sweet Home Alabama”...

Saturday entailed another seminar and another trip to the Mai Kai! The seminar we attended was “Sippin’ Safari” presented by Jeff ‘Beachbum’ Berry. This seminar was to be an hour long with a book signing afterwards, but unfortunately, the books hadn’t arrived. Instead, we enjoyed a two-and-a-half hour seminar, which consisted of Mr. Berry speaking and yummy samples of freshly-made cocktails: Pearl Diver’s Punch and the famous Zombie – the real one, which was tasty, as opposed to the undrinkable mixes usually foisted upon the public. Mr. Berry knows the entire history of the inception and subsequent bastardization of tropical drinks and is a true connoisseur. We learned that using the proper ingredients makes all the difference in the world and that spiced rum is the devil’s own putrid spittle (my words, not Mr. Berry’s.) Note to New England bars: grenadine and sugary premixes are not the secret ingredients for decent tropical drinks….

Mr. Berry was kind enough to sign our programs and then we made our way to the hotel restaurant for some much-needed food, which was some relief from the fresh pineapple juice and rum that was burning a hole in my stomach. Big surprise, we went back to the beach to rest up and then it was time to go back to the Mai Kai for the “Magical Evening at the Historic Mai Kai”!

When we arrived at the Mai Kai, we took plenty of pictures before going inside- and it was packed! But as I mentioned before, the staff were pleasant, efficient and made sure everyone was happily seated in the Molokai Bar while waiting for their tables. It was Happy Hour, which was one of the reasons it was packed, I’m sure- buy one drink and the second is free. I sampled one of the original Mai Kai drinks, the Derby Daiquiri, which was really refreshing – it was pretty toasty in there with all the people, but we sat back and enjoyed The Haole Kats!

We sat down to dinner and while waiting for our food, we played our own exotica compositions with chopsticks on glassware, lamps and tabletop. Some other Hukilau attendees were mightily impressed and invited us to their room for an encore presentation later on….

The after dinner show- traditional Polynesian dances mixed with a little kitsch – was fantastic even if the fire dancers were a little scary, what with all the thatching in abundance around them. The emcee had some interesting historical background regarding the dances, but he was speaking with auctioneer-like intensity to keep up with the pace.

After the show, we wandered around, inside and out, to take more pictures - I thought we had a lot of mermaid pictures, but nothing compared to what we shot in the gardens! We chatted with other attendees and it was a nice relaxed ending to our last big hurrah for the trip.

Mahalo nui to the Tiki Kiliki Productions people- this event was amazing and really well planned. One of the things I realized over the course of events was that there are a core group of about 100 people (mostly from CA & FL, it seems) that grew up with the ‘Isle of Tiki’ around them and when the Great Tiki Decline began in the 1970s, these people really wanted to preserve this pop culture aesthetic and are successfully doing so. If you are interested in learning more, there are many websites and links to check out: Tiki Central is a great place to start.

Aloha,

QoE

To quote The Dictators....

2007-05-29T10:53:00.001-04:00

...'what's up with that?'

Did the last generation feel the same way when their cool songs were appropriated for TV ads? It was a crime to use 'Blitzkrieg Bop' for Budweiser....and there are more!

'Lust for Life' used for a cruise line...I don't know about all of you, but when I hear that song, I picture Ewan McGregor's head falling towards the floor in the opening scene from 'Trainspotting' after shooting up....not shuffleboard players.
'We Want the Funk' used for a freakin' minivan ad! Shoulda included George Clinton smoking a big fattie while driving the van....
'Everybody's Happy Nowadays' used for AARP....I have nothing against the AARP, and, well, it certainly got my attention...but it's just not right!
'One Way or Another' used for the Swiffer ads....now, Picture This, Blondie fans: Ms. Debbie Harry 'swiffering' her humble abode....
Funniest use? The 'Mahna Mahna' song used for some crap Dr. Pepper product- it's not just an innocent instrumental used on the Muppet Show - it was originally written by Gert Wilden & his Orchestra who scored the erotic German films called 'Schoolgirl Report (Schulmadchen Report)' ....
'I Walk the Line' - even worse, the horrific cover of it used to hawk jeans, fer crissakes..

There are more and will be more, I'm sure...
Why are these horrid pairings so disturbing? It's not because of any romanticized notion of music from my younger days. It's that these songs were made in spite of, and never for, crass commercialization. If any current, MTV-dependent band wants to peddle their tunes to Apple for iTunes or iPod ads, it's appropriate...however, I don't recall any Blondie lyrics mentioning clean floors and sparkling bathrooms....or 'Blitzkrieg Bop' lauding the effects of crappy beer.

Music Review: Wombat Rock 2007

2007-05-23T13:45:00.000-04:00

I received my copy of 'Wombat Rock 2007' at THE party of the year, the joey Zone's 50th celebration. I really believe you CAN judge a CD by it's cover and once again, I have been proven oh so right.

Where do I start? How about the first track: The theme to the Muppet Show in HEBREW.

There are a couple of excellent mashups, namely 'We Will Rock Your Dirty Deeds' (ACDC vs. Queen) and 'Call Me Hung Up' (Madonna vs. Blondie.) The other mashup, 'You Believe Me All Night Long' (Cher vs. ACDC) is a little harder to wrap my little ol' brain around, but a hoot nonetheless!

Excellent covers abound: Shonen Knife covering the Runaways' 'Cherry Bomb' (herro, daddy, herro mom, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!); an insanely enjoyable cover of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' by Finnish death-metal band Impaled Nazarene; a spot-on cover of the Beatles' 'Drive My Car' by the Donnas and Patti Smith's great renditions of 'When Doves Cry' and 'Gimme Shelter.' The Los Futuristas cover of 'Now I Wanna Be Your Dog' is just crazy. Think Spanish lounge music. 'Layla' by 386 Dx is wonderful for a despairing drunk afternoon in the local pub.

There's a nice radio spot from 1970 advertising the Stooges to break up the musical manna filling the ears....and a killer skit called 'Spicy Pony Head' by Kasper Hauser. I almost drove off the road I was laughing so hard ('eet ees a pony head but, uh...spicy...')

That's not all- in the "So Crap it's Hysterical' category there's a cover of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' by Bill Cosby.......and that's so much more enjoyable than the excruciating cover of 'I Write the Songs' By Chuck Woolery. Really. And it's marginally better than Barry Manilow, but that's like saying a rotted fish head on your plate is better without the eye still in it....
I hesitate to include the Who's 'Girl's Eyes' in the category above, but it's still a contender - terrible song performed without any sack whatsoever.

'Super Jupiter' from 'Odyssey!Original Cast' I had never heard before- probably with good reason. Rhyming 'super jupiter' with 'super dupiter' has to be a crime somewhere.

This CD is staying in my car for the summer! Wombats Rock!

Please speak out against the REAL ID Act!

2007-05-01T21:34:00.000-04:00

http://www.privacycoalition.org/stoprealid/#action

Discover Your Sins!

2007-02-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

...as if you didn't already know them............

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	High
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Medium

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

Letterpress Things

2007-01-16T20:58:00.000-05:00

I cannot say enough great things about John Barrett's Letterpress Things in Chicopee, MA. Supplies for letterpresses. Fonts. Beautiful old letterpresses for sale. And there's John himself- patient, friendly & a font (heh heh) of knowledge.

When I contacted John before visiting his place, he told me to bring my little Kelsey press. Good thing, too- he looked at my press, showed Bernie and me what needed to be fixed and gave me more advice and tips than I had anticipated or hoped for!

Kelly McMahon, who has a studio in VT, teaches a class at Letterpress Things.

If anyone out there is interested in the world of letterpress, I recommend starting in Chicopee!

Of course, any visit to Chicopee has to include a visit to the..... Hu Ke Lau