Easily the GAYEST birthday I've ever had.

Certain portions of this past weekend seemed like I was trapped in a John Waters movie. (which is strange, but very interesting.) It started off when my friend Catherine came to visit this past Saturday. She is the wife of my good buddy Nick, who visited last weekend. We went out for a nice outdoor lunch, complete with beautiful moderate weather. We decided to check out Navy Pier, a Chicago amenity I had not yet experienced. The following images came from this journey. Several beers were consumed and much adventure ensued. (this was actually the least gay part of the weekend) (not that gay is bad.. hell, you'll see.)








So that was Navy Pier, pretty awesome. Catherine called it "magical" several times, which I would have to agree with. After this fun but exhausting voyage, we got something to eat and hit the hay. But the next day would hold many colorful surprises. You see, Sunday was gay pride day, and a celebratory parade ran RIGHT OUTSIDE MY FUCKING HOUSE. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. We hit the parade, cameras and tallboys in hand, and boy did some photo opportunities arrive. Here you go.










Uh, wow. Quite a sight to behold. Just when I though I was about gayed out for the day, Stacy, Zach, and Colleen called and said they wanted to take me out for the eve of my birthday to a surprise location. We got in a cab and we pulled up to a place called "The Baton". Its a female impersonation bar. But dude, it was hilarious. These dudes put on quite a show. Especially this particular character, Ginger.



After this unusual activity, Stacy headed up a pilgrimage to Trader Joe's for some Karaoke. Birthday shots were consumed, and eventually, just aftering turning 27 fucking years old, I sang Neil Diamond's immortal "Shilo". (which you may be hearing right at this moment.)

The next day, on my birthday, I relaxed my balls off. It was awesome. Woke to a call from my friend Jim telling me that Steve Malkmus was doing a live performance on KCRW on "morning becomes eclectic". Thanks for the birthday performance, Steve!!! I went and got some delicious sushi and returned to find "Imagine" starting on HBO. I received many thoughtful calls during the course of the day as well, which ruled. It was a pleasant day. As the evening crept upon Chicago, I took the train over to Stacy's and ate pizza and watched "The Fearless Freaks", a kick-ass movie about the Flaming Lips.

Now I sit typing and sipping beer. Tomorrow I leave for a six day family trip to New York. The moment I set foot in New York, I am heading to a David Byrne concert in Central Park. Not a bad string of days here!

Thanks for reading.

Shilo

Satanic Birthday Challenge!!!

Hey there readers!!! Today's my birthday, and I do have a lot I want to post, but I don't want to spend my whole day doing it. So that will come soon. In the meantime, I had a funny idea for a special challenge for you. It's a real doozy, I'm not sure if anyone will be able to solve this shit, but it would be SO AWESOME if one of you did. So here's what's up. My friend Zach and I recorded a little halloween album this past october, and I was just listening to one of the tracks entitled, "All Hallow's Eve". I had almost forgotten that I had included a subliminal message at the begining of the song. Naturally, in keeping with metal history, it is backwards. If you are able to somehow decipher this message and get back to me with it as a comment, I will send you a special package in the mail, containing several surprise items that will kick serious ass. Are you up to the challenge, mutherfucker? (if no one's getting it, I will release hints)

!!!Contest update!!! Three people have now officially attempted to crack the elusive code. I am impressed by their valiant efforts. Each found that it is in fact one four word phrase repeated, and that in one repetition, the word "fucking" is thrown in for emphasis. However, each contestant is still wrong about the actual wording. HINT: This was right before Halloween, think about what important event was about to occur in early November.

All Hallow's Eve

Strap on yer sweatbands and blast some Survivor!

Headband Aquired!!!


Hearty, early afternoon 70s breakfast to go with the headband!!!


On my way to kick Chritie's ass at tennis, Eye of the Tiger blasting in my head!!!


Kicked her ass, then went right for the jumping jacks!!!


Eye of the Tiger!

Dominick's Burnt Down

Yesterday, I decided to go on a walk. I stopped into a used bookstore, ended up buying a book on the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a book called "Feats and Wisdom of the Ancients".

My friend Christie just informed me that those are some serious "stoner choices". I don't neccessarily think so. Next I tried out Jamba Juice, cause something healthy sounded good. Got something called a "Mango Mantra", and it wasn't bad.

Anyways, then I walked to Guitar Center to daydream about this bass I want. When I stepped out of Guitar Center, the sky was literally black and it smelled like burning. I soon found that my next objective of grocery shopping would prove impossible, since the store I was headed to was burning down.







So that's that. Not sure where or how I'm gonna grocery shop anymore. The place was just two blocks from my apartment. The whole thing made for a pretty weird day. The fire raged for three hours. There were dozens of fire engines involved, so all I could hear from my apartment were sirens. People stood entranced and watched it burn. A song about it seemed right. (oh, and no one was killed)

Burning Down

When a grocery store burns down,

the whole neighborhood smells good.

It's been a long time since I "rock n' rolled"

Incidentally, its also been a long time since I wrote anything substantial up on this bitch. So that's what I aim to do right now. I feel like a tornado and a hurricane and an earthquake and a nuclear fallout all teamed up and hit me at once over these last few days. My friend Nick left town early afternoon on Saturday, but his friend Tony hung around until just moments ago. He's a frat dude, so I wasn't sure I had what it took to keep up. I don't know Tony all that well, so it was random to be hanging out with him nonstop in my tiny-ass apartment. But it turned out to be a lot of fun. The fucking beer beeramid to my left is testament to that. A lot of old Metallica involved. Fuck a wasp just flew in through the window. Activate screenage. We ended up loafing all day, with one of the most ambitious activities being the viewing of Anchorman, quite possibly the fourty-seventh time I've seen that little gem. My hair is the texture of yarn. That's apparently what you get when you drink all night and wake up on an unfamiliar couch with no legit pillow. Sometimes I think the only difference between me and a bum is that I have an apartment. I always seem to be flat broke in the summer, and in a way its kind of nice. Living simply and in the moment. (I mean, don't get me wrong, I am working, but its not exactly full time, I do it from home, and I don't get paid till its done.. but it'll be some serious $ !!!) Summer to me always has this lazy, bittersweet quality about it. (see the jazz standard, "Summertime") The weather is fucking gorgeous here, I gotta give it that. Been like 70 degrees and sunny every day for two weeks now. Yeah. Mother Nature... you nailed it! Right there, mother nature, right there. Now I'm just rambling. (see "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin) What was I even typing about?.. Oh yeah, Tony. So we successfully killed the long, lazy afternoon, polishing off a wall of beer, playing megaman, and flipping channels. Then I got a call from good ol' John Kramer about a party that Nate and him were having at Nate's brand new apartment. (which is very nice) "Oh boy", I thought, like Scott Bakula at the begining of every Quantum Leap episode, "Bet this frat dude's really gonna love the idea of going to a little soiree hosted by two gay dudes". But everything worked out wonderfully. The End. Just kidding. So we embarked on what seemed like a sixteen hour busride, complete with tranfers, in order to get to Nate's new place. Though its a wonderful apartment, its a bitch to get to through public transportation. It was a good time though, quite a few architecture folk there, so it was nice to shoot the shit with them. (for a bit at least, some of them didn't know how to talk about anything else) Got real wasted on minty mojitos and beer. Talked to some really cool girl for quite a while, which is good for me, I normally don't stick to any one person at parties for long. Then I looked over to see that Tony was passed out cold in a camping chair on the balcony. Hey, it happens. (I win!!! and I was never even in a fraternity!) Things dwindled, we were all reduced to conversations about the stars, and slowly people headed home. I didn't feel like making the fucking bus pilgrimage home, so I found a couch and said goodnight.

Thanks for reading.

Skribble Wizardz

a brief comment will enable your escape from a wicked hex!

Rock n' Roll, Scrabble, and plenty of beer.

These are the ingredients of my recipe for life lately. I appologize to you readers for the posting delay, you know I love you. I have a friend in town, so I've been havin' some fun, doing that whole "friend in town" thing. But here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. These are from the Steve Malkmus show this past Saturday, which was amazing of course.











In other news, I beat Zach and Stacy at Scrabble the other night! I am quite proud.



And here's my buddy Nick, a good college friend, at an Irish pub yesterday.



More soon dudes! Give me a shout!!!

Going to see my musical idol tonight!!!!!!!!

Steve Malkmus. Mr. Pavement himself. Seen him before a couple years ago, and reduced myself to pure awe-struck immaturity. I kept yelling that I loved him between songs. "I love you steve!!!! Steve! I love you!" And I guess sometimes the squeaky wheel really does get the grease, cause between songs he asked who kept yelling that. My friends who were there with me all pointed to me and yelled "Al! .. It's Al!" And Steve said, "Who is this Al, bring him forward". And people respectfully parted the crowd to allow me to proceed to the very front, where SM, insisting on confirming that I was in fact real, reached out and clutched my hand momentarily. "This one's for Al," he spoke into the mic before he began playing again. I seriously almost fainted like those chicks in the old beatles shows. It was amazing.

Click below for an awesome Steve Malkmus song from "Face the Truth"

Post-Paint Boy

Mr. Jim Beam meets Mr. Bubble.

Hi folks. I took a sweet bubble bath earlier. It was more than pleasant. Some seriously relaxing shit. I highly recommend it to each and every one of you.



I know. I hear what you're asking... And no, I'm not gay.

Hola, beechez!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

pHoNeToGrApHy

Hello to all of my two or three readers. How is everybody today? I'm aight. Just finished working on some drawings for Lance. Got a new phone, which I'm actually kinda dork-level excited about. My first with real-song rings and a camera! Awesome. I'm seriously gonna use the shit out of the camera. Already have. I'll give you some examples. Here's a seven-image sequence from yesterday.









Maybe I'll try to keep this up and have a little photo journal as often as possible. You know what they say about the pictures and the words or whatever. So that up there is like 7000 words? That can't be right.. Oh well. Hope you're doing well! Leave me a comment pretty please. (or I'll kill your first born.) L8er Darth V8er.