The Three Hundred and Twenty Fourth...

Number Three Hundred and Twenty Four:

Home, Breakfast, Eggs

Despite my tired look (Hey! Give me a break, it's 5 in the freakin morning!) I was excited about today. Not only do I do my Friday Breakfast Blend on WRIR 97.3, but our interview on one of my favorite local radio shows Wordy Birds aired today! It sounded great too! You can listen to it here. All in preparation of the Book Launch Party at the Poe Museum this Sunday from 2-4PM! Should be wonderful time!

The Three Hundred and Twenty Third...

Number Three Hundred and Twenty Three:

Padow's, Lunch, Sandwich

Word of advice: In places where they call your name out when the order is ready, best use something unique or at least humorous; most of all least confusing. "Phil" could be mistaken for "Will", "Bill" or "Phyllis" so my "call out" name, as it were, is "Bubba" --Please don't take it. It does provide great fodder when you tell the cashier that is the name you want called. Another one beat me today, well, was way cooler: Butch.

The Three Hundred and Twenty Second...

Number Three Hundred and Twenty Two:

Chipotle, Lunch, Burrito

Yup, the Va Center Commons area was full of bodies wanting food logs. Herds of nicely dressed ladies, high schoolers on the half day blocking the line, and us. Gina noticed a high traffic of male pattern baldness going on. I just noticed how flippin crowded it was!

Three Hundred and Twenty One:

Number Three Hundred and Twenty One:

Home, Dinner, Leftovers

Leftover smorgasbord at home watching the first series of the pretty wacky funny Brit Com called The IT Crowd. Has Lisa and I in guffaws pretty frequently so far. Quite hilarious.

The Three Hundred and Twentieth...

Number Three Hundred and Twenty:

Home, Dinner, Pizza

Had an interview for the book with Liz Humes, host of the wonderful book show called Wordy Birds on WRIR 97.3. I think Beth Brown and I did a great job. Beth did well, of course, she has done this before, and while I have been interviewed for things like a t.v. segment for my job and bands, the book was a little different. I think I did all right though!

Picked up a pizza pie on the way home, in time for some Antiques Roadshow!

The Three Hundred and Nineteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Nineteen:

Home, Dinner, Beef tomato awesomeness

This was pretty much my vision after playing video pinball for at least an hour. Being a person that grew up during the golden era of arcades and video games (Pac-Man --I sucked at, Frogger -- I sucked at, Phoenix -- I was okay at that one, Gorf -- I was okay), my all time favorite then and now is Pinball. I freakin LOVE pinball. If I had a choice between whatever popular video game was in an arcade ever, I would still choose pinball. So, I think for my mid-life crisis purchase, if and when that happens, I would really LOVE to get my hands on a pinball like Funhouse, or Pinbot (not the Black Knight though, that one kind of sucked). This video game that I have actually has all of those, plus a few more Williams tables, an okay substitute for the real thing, but still would LOVE the real thing!

Also, ONE WEEK till the Richmond Macabre Book Launch!

The Three Hundred and Eighteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Eighteen:

Home, Dinner, Mac and Cheese

I went down to the WRIR 97.3 studios to mic manage for the Fund Drive. We had a goal to raise 1000 dollars in four hours. With the great sounds and help from DJ Greybeard doing the Songs from the Big Hair 80s show, and Fontaine doing the local River City Limits, complete with the intense band Druglord, we did it! Time to celebrate by getting home where Lisa made some homemade mac & cheese! Oh heck yeah!

Druglord live on WRIR!

You can and should still donate, we're trying to reach a goal of 35,000 by Sunday. We're so close! DONATE ONLINE!

The Three Hundred Seventeenth...

Number Three Hundred and Seventeen:

The Blue Goat, Dinner, Family style

Great dinner with Lisa and Gina at this new fancy restaurant in the high brow section of Grove and Libbie. Couldn't even begin to mention the foods we all shared, including a spectacular chocolate pate that reminded Lisa and I of the kind at Avalon.

After that is was off to see Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins at the University of Richmond's International Film Series where we also ran into Ceci! So, basically two out of four of us really dug the movie; Gina and I wound up really liking it, Lisa and Ceci not so much. Miike joints usually off put people by the amount of blood and violence in his pictures although Gina and I felt that it was less than some of his other, more insane works. Great picture though, makes you wonder about honor to the Man or the Code of Morals type deal.

The Three Hundred and Sixteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Sixteen:

Capital Coffee & Desserts , Meeting, Coconut Macaroon

I was first to arrive for a meeting here for a great non-profit film event in conjunction with James River Film Society and Fangoria Magazine at the Visual Arts Center. The Halloween Horror Showcase should be a great free thing for anyone in town to attend on Thursday, October 20th, 7PM....ATTEND!!! There will be giveaways, props from the feature movie, popcorn and a cash bar! We'll be showing an Italian short of H.P. Lovecraft's Pickman's Model, then the feature will be Pumpkinhead! Great meeting, great event!

The Three Hundred and Fifteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Fifteen:

El Caporal, Lunch/Dinner, Carnitas

If ever there was a Mexican food lunch portion that represented the gluttony of American food habits, this is it. But, so good! Actually too much for any one person, even big dudes like me, so I would recommend splitting it with someone or make it last another meal. Massive!

The Three Hundred and Fourteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Fourteen:

Dots Back Inn, Dinner, Nachos

After Hope's appointment, we settled on Dots. Turned out great; not too crowded, cool staff (as usual) and fast! The 1.50 Natch Lights were kind of depressing, but you gotta keep a tight budget on some things!

The Three Hundred and Thirteenth...

Number Three Hundred and Thirteen:

Home, Breakfast, Cereal

I guess you have noticed by now that I have a large head. Geez! Anyway, breakfast was coffee and cereal, not those nice tomatoes in the photo that we are still getting from our garden. Though they are quite tasty on a bagel with cream cheese!

The Three Hundred and Twelfth...

Number Three Hundred and Twelve:

Home, Dinner, Tacos

Such a great reunion show for Splork for the WRIR 97.3 LPFM CD Release party and a fantastic mix of music last night for the Fund Raiser! We raised over 500 bucks with Pedals on our Pirate Ships, Moosa, Ms. Proper, Peace Beast and us bringing it home with the dorkcore insanity!

Beach balls were flying, so much that a random ball struck a beer tap and created a waterfall of beer till one of the bartenders got to it. Also, some of the people we loved to play for best were there in full awesomeness. Wendy was bad ass, Michael and I had several layers of costume creativity and drummer Noell, well, he skinned it! Nice!

Band rocking it.

Special HIGH FIVE to Mike Rutz and Lindsey Spurrier, Events Committee chairs for WRIR, for constantly putting awesome stuff together for the station!

So today was the first time in a while I had the chance to veg out, which as much as I love to have all this great stuff going on, down time is always treasured. So I watched the Cinerama spectacle How the West was Won, as well a thoroughly great documentary on Cinerama afterward! Then yummy tacos for dinner! Good day.

The Three Hundred and Eleventh...

Number Three Hundred and Eleven:

Palini Drive, Dinner, Wrap

Splorked the hell out of it, more on that later. But before the Splork show was some 40th Birthday Fun with Jesse at Palini Drive. Wraps and Karoke! Cracking our friend Molly up here in the background!

The Three Hundred and Tenth...

Number Three Hundred and Ten:

Splork, Dinner, Pizza

Last practice before the big reunion show Saturday night at Bogart's in the Fan for the WRIR CD Release party Fund Drive! DONATE TO WRIR by the way! I picked up a pizza, we had some beers, we rolled the set out a few times, had some laughs, then chatted with the Diamond Center as they came in to practice after us. Good times!

The Three Hundred and Ninth...

Number Three Hundred and Nine:

Home, Breakfast, Eggs

It is starting to stay darker in the morning longer, and get darker earlier in the evening. Fall will be upon us soon!

The Three Hundred and Eighth...

Number Three Hundred and Eight:

Mekong, Dinner, Spicy Crispy Chicken

I was home, chilling and chatting with Lisa on the old Bookface when she suggested she meet me for an early dinner at Mekong for her dinner break at work. How could I resist eating with my wife AND spicy crispy chicken! Oh, and Saison Dupont on tap AND a nice Petrus sour. WOOT!

On a more reflective note, I guess around 300, especially with me basically just eating out or in or wherever, it might start to seem mundane? I don't know. Maybe it reaches that point where a reader goes, "Oh, he ate at Mekong again, got the same thing again, whoopty shit." I hope the blog hasn't turned into that, I think I have included some pretty interesting stuff over this past week and for the most part. Okay, I'll chalk it up to "300 Melancholy". How about that! I created a new 365 Make Something Term!

The Three Hundred and Seventh...

Number Three Hundred and Seven:

Office, Lunch, Industrial

So lunch at work today, no one to dine with, I took the opportunity to drive to the Style Weekly offices to drop of a review copy of Richmond Macabre. Also too the opportunity to pick up an Industrial to go from the downtown Coppola's Deli. Nice!

The Three Hundred and Sixth...

Number Three Hundred and Six:

Balliceaux, Dinner, Burger

After an invigorating yoga session, Lisa and I met Gina for Balliceaux burger time and one of my favorite local events these days. Secretly Ya'll... has now been in town for a year and they did a special Musician's Secret episode which was brilliant. Singer-Songwriters got a chance to come to the stage and talk about a song they wrote, then played. What was really great about it, was that they just did ONE song, then let the next person come up and tell their story and sing. Great stuff and snagged this shot right after the burger came.

Speaking of Secretly Ya'll events, Richmond Macabre is co-hosting with them to put on a Macabre Masquerade on October 30th, starting around 7PM! For 3 bucks (that will go to Books on Wheels) 3 storytellers will spin yarns, three writers from the book will do some readings, a surprise band, and a DJ to finish off the night with a dance party! Oh yes, this will be good! DO IT!

The Three Hundred and Fifth...

Number Three Hundred and Five:

Splork!, Lunch, Sandwich

Doing this reunion show has really been awesome. We met this morning for a super practice, going through the 30 minute set over and over to make it good. While we are all doing our own things a year later, getting back for this, it does remind me of the peak awesome times we had with the band. Cutting up, beering, cutting up, rocking out. Punk rock = fun.

SPLORKSTACHE!!!

The Three Hundred and Fourth...

Number Three Hundred and Four:

Home, Snack, Hummus

Home from WRIR doing the River City Limits. Decent show with band Machine Gun Mustache, followed by great conversation with some Teen Library folks visiting!

The Three Hundred and Third...At

Number Three Hundred and Three:

Athens Tavern, Dinner, Filo Chicken

Despite a pretty exhausting, exhilarating day --exhausting being up since early a.m., exhilarating locking down a Richmond Macabre event for October 30th-- Lisa and I managed a great date to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It was a lecture by 1491 (and follow up new one 1493) author Charles Mann in conjunction with the new Xu Bing : Tobacco Project exhibition. The lecture was great, Mann does a swell job of combining quirkiness with humor and a vast amount of convincing history. Our second time seeing one of his lectures and a great time.

The exhibition? Phenomenal. Stunning. Bing's study with tobacco through work and research at Duke, Shanghai and Virginia from 1999-2011 has paid off remarkably with several wonderfully effective pieces of art displayed here. The smell of each exhibit alone prove the point of their differences through various tobacco mediums; the large block of plug-like tobacco to the scroll burning detail of the scroll work "Burning Down the River" (which we as members got the sneak peak to actually SEE the long cigarette burning down the middle of the scroll) to the major stunning work; "Honor and Splendor", a "tiger skin rug" made from over half a million cigarettes. Below is the video I had to get to show how moving from one side of the room to the other, changes the works color and impact entirely.

It doesn't do it the justice it deserves. Plain and simple, go see this.

The Three Hundred and Second...

Number Three Hundred and Two:

Mekong, Lunch, Tofu with Lemongrass

Lunch at Mekong, later this evening first SPLORK!! practice in over a year for a reunion show for WRIR Fund Drive and CD release party! We didn't sound half bad! Should be a great show next week!

The Three Hundred and First...

Number Three Hundred and One:

Panera, Lunch, Soup & Sandwich

Something about all the rain and the chill and thunder and flashes of light while on the road today made me want some soup and sandwich. Kind of like the call of Fall or something.

One of the oddest, stupidest things Gina and I saw was on the way in. We dodged the rain onto the strip mall sidewalk and POP! right there around the brick column was a random grocery cart with a freaking BABY in it. The baby looked quite bewildered, probably as bewildered as we were. Then we noticed just across the lot, a woman who was either being helped by an attendant or something who laughingly and lightly walked back over to the baby, claiming it was hers. I guess she thought it OK that baby was in this wheeled cart, that MIGHT have rolled out into the street or something. Moronic woman also stole our booth seat at Panera, where she met a girlfriend with her babies, then at one point they BOTH left the kids on their own again for a moment! What the hell!

The Three Hundredth!

Number Three Hundred:

Home, Lunch, Burger

So on the way home I grabbed a Roy's Big Burger, a Lakeside tradition since I dunno, the 50s ? Anyway, managed this because I had a meeting across town and home was in between! Number 300! I know, unbelievable that I would stick a napkin on my face for nearly a year now! Holy Moly! Okay, here is a secret vid that is going to be on Noah Scalin's website soon, but readers here gets a sneak preview. Yay!

It is to earn a badge for my project, basically I sent a video about the project in and how it has helped me be creative and stuff --which is awesome. I recorded it during Hurricane Irene so it would be a little interesting anyway. Happy 300!

The Two Hundred and Ninety Ninth...

Number Two Hundred and Ninety Nine:

Home, Dinner, Pizza

Lisa and I were nearly complete slugs today, especially after yesterday's fun. I played a video pinball game, Lisa read, I did do some dishes, and I know Lisa did some other real chores. Just one of those days when you feel like being cooped up in the house and chilling. I totally goofed and at first did a video, so there it it. I like how completely nonchalant Lisa is in it. Here is the picture I meant to take:

Slugstache!

The Two Hundred and Ninety Eighth...

Number two Hundred and Ninety Eight:

Peaks of Otter, Goldfish, snack

So Lisa, Gina and I took a trip to the Peaks of Otter today and climbed Sharp Top. A great steep climb that takes about an hour and a half and boy was it crowded on the trail today. Still, a grand view from the top, despite the crazy buzzing bugs all around. A quick jaunt down was followed by a late lunch at the Lodge, then a dash over to the Peaks of Otter Winery (a totally lesson in fruit wiiiine) then drive all the way back to RVA! I feel almost too beat to attend the Sprout Restaurant closing party, but maybe a quick beer.

The Two Hundred and Ninety Seventh...

Number Two Hundred Ninety Seven:

Home, Dinner, Gyro

You know what is nice? Electricity! We got it yesterday afternoon and I really appreciate it!

Earlier today, had a great meeting with Jeff Roll from the James River Film Society and Bobby Morgan from Geeks of Doom on doing a Halloween Film Program at the Visual Arts Center. It's ON!!!

The Two Hundred and Ninety Sixth...

Number Two Hundred and Ninety Six:

Home, Breakfast, Cereal

Day 6 without power. Yup, it pretty much sucks.

Note: It might mean me being late posting staches over the weekend! I will be doing them though!

The Two Hundred and Ninety Fifth...

Number Two Hundred and Ninety Five:

Home, Breakfast, Cereal

Day 5 without power. Lisa checked the Dominion website yesterday, said they were on our street, but to me that doesn't really mean anything. It's starting to feel like the long haul of outage. I know there is really no room to complain, thinking of 3rd worlds and places that don't have it as lucky as us. While I sat at the nook eating breakfast, I wondered what people 150 years ago, before electricity was readily available, thought about while eating their breakfast. I was thinking about Harry Potter movies. What did the world think about that was entertaining at the nook before there was a culture built around being entertained? Books? Conversation? Letters they read? Just something I was thinking about.