An Explanation -or- You Probably Think This Post Is About You

FOREWARD: If you want the full experience you have to click links and listen to music and pay attention to lyrics and read and shit like that.

If you don't wanna do any of that...byeeeeeeeeeeeee

If you do, HI!. Welcome to me.
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Intro theme song for this:

One of my facebook posts from last weekend:

I have so many things to say and it hurts to not really be able to

The replies and comments:

• Are you ok? *
• Here, try this [insert self-care advice and/or creative outlets]
• Start blogging again!
• We're here for you.
• Call me if you need to talk.

....and then the family gossip that my mom told me about. 

Because they check in with her instead of talking with me about it directly, but that’s another story for another time. **

Let’s be real - do you think that I’m the type of person to put out a call for serious help on fucking facebook? I know how to use a goddamn phone AND how to reach you in case of any sort of real emergency.

I’ve vented there, yes.

I’ve looked for attention there, yes. 
Isn't that what it's there for? The giving and receiving of attention.

I’ve somewhat opened up about certain feels there once or twice, sure. Who hasn't? There are a lot of us going through the same stuff and when we find each other relatable in low times it really is so comforting.

We’re all a bit hypersensitive and moody AF in these years, and I do appreciate you reaching out, those of you who did. You are the wind beneath my wings.

But SO MANY times, I’ve bottled up super hilarious quips and insanely ridiculous comments, too. Usually because having to explain it sucks the funny out and by then they’ve probably missed their moments, or it would take 20mins to explain and would only make sense to me anyway.

It’s called a filter. Some of you have them, too.

Others don’t…you cheeky bastards.

Let me put it to you another way.

I read this article years ago about popcorn brain. Google it.

Go ahead – I’ll give you a minute…don't be lazy. Just do it.

So, after the last 20+years living the majority of my life online, when I’m in conversations with people out in the “meat world”, and especially after a few drinks, and with you all on my phone and so accessible due to the loveliest of all inventions: Social Media…I tend to pop off at the mouth occasionally when I can’t contain ALL the bottlenecked thoughts that are rattling around the old noggin.

When I popped off last Saturday, I was in a fiiiiiiiine place which was almost entirely full of face hurting laughter and running into interesting characters. I have witnesses.

I’ll end this with 3 things:

•        Because my ramblings tend to take more than anyone really wants to read on facebook***
•        Because some of you have been poking me about this for a while 
•        Because I know it’ll help me to have this outlet which, who fuckin’ knows, might also help some of you.

I’m rebooting/reigniting my blog.

*dammit, I really wish my name were Annie now

**except you Deb. Thank you. Was nice chatting with you. and I don't blame them, cuz Janet kinda really fuckin' rules.

***it makes for good toilet reading in the morning

Outro theme song for this:


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2013 Highlighting the Ups

Matthew and I were at dinner the other night talking & getting excited about what we want to do in 2014 and discussing how we thought 2013 went.
Apparently, I had my cranky pants on because I said it was an "OK" year and he said it was "pretty fuckin' awesome".
I've realized since then that unfortunately, and for some stupid reason, my noggin was choosing to highlight some of the more awkward 2013 moments instead of all the seriously amazing things that happened.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to write out the rundown of awesome (and skipping over all the not-so-awesome), not to be a douche braggart, but to further reinforce those in my head instead of those less than optimal and maybe it'll help you do the same. I've seen your facebook posts about how crappy the year was and/or how you're ready for 2013 to be over and it's ok if sometimes we need reminders to clear our perspectives.

January was again full of drunken shenanigans at the Scottish Highland Games.  I dove head first into renovating the Dollhouse of Horrors and started building out stage pieces for the Bloody Jug Band...some by request, others not so much. We also saw Charlie Murphy down at the Improv.

February was more Dollhouse of Horrors work and a trip to Helen, GA.  We also went to see Muse at Amway Center and I cried a little bit at how amazing their show was.

In March, we saw the Dropkick Murphys again, I puppeteered for the Bloody Jug Band's video for "Roadkill Boys".  This was also the month we did Whole30 for the first time and I submitted my last photo for the 12month long Inspired class I'd signed up for in January.
Yep...I totally fell out of it for the rest of the year because of shiny new things and being inspired elsewhere.  But I'm glad I went out with a bang.

April started with a trip to see The Marvelous Mehegans up in Corning, NY.  I took a banjo lesson, we finally ate at Cask & Larder and Ravenous Pig, saw Tony Bourdain at Hard Rock, and visited Disney. This is also when I started thinking about a miniatures.com contest entry.

May was, of course, insane with a Mother's Day pool party that got way more rowdy than what was intended, a concert poster design class on Skillshare, a couple of BJB shows, and was capped off by a trip to New Orleans, LA for my & Pannacakes' birthdays.

June included a Glassman show at Peacock that was pretty killer, a visit with Vaughn & Jen to pick up one of my favorite purchases of the year (Betty & Veronica pictured below), jury duty selections for George Zimmerman, and was also when I received my walking papers from the company I'd worked for over the previous 12 years.

July started off with new hair to celebrate my corporate departure, a crazy 3rd of July party at Pannacakes', followed by a rained out pool party at the Merriam's for the 4th, a Khal Drogo costume for Matthew, the 8th Annual Summer Bomb, a couple of visits to DRIP, and Marilyn Manson at Hard Rock.

August had a The Cult show at HOB, another couple of BJB shows, a trip to Busch Gardens followed by a viewing of Blackfish, a Danny Leggett show, Cedric's surprise birthday party, a drunk monologues shoot (shut up, I'll get to that later), and a trip to Ocala to see April and her fam.  Made a fake movie poster for a friend's birthday and finished up a painting for Cedric & Michelle's anniversary.

September we rocked our own logo for a Labor Day weekend pub crawl, went and saw Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes at Hard Rock and then went to see them again during the Gentlemen of the Road festival weekend where we also saw Mumford & Sons and stayed at a dumpy St. Aug beach hotel.  And we attended a lovely DIY wedding.

In October we went to see Terribly Odd's Haunted Mansion inspired show, Ghost at Amway Center where they shook my pants and hair, I made a mermaid costume, had the best weekend at Spooky Empire where I finally met Tom Savini, hugged Bill Moseley & Ve Neill, told Glenn Hetrick that I'd be his huckleberry, fingered Kane Hodder's left gloved hand during a photobomb, and sang "Goodbye Horses" to Jason Mewes. We finished off October in Austin, TX to celebrate my & Matthew's wedding anniversary and dress up like the 11th Doctor and a Reptilian Shapeshifter for Halloween, and met up with The Krutikovs for some kick ass high-end mexican food with the first best mescal drink I've ever put down my neck followed by the best burlesesque show I've ever seen.

November I made a sideshow freak light-up sign out of an old guitar case & built out two rickety crate shelves for the Jugly Art show at Peacock and then Matthew & I left to spend a week in Amsterdam for his birthday where I lost my passport.  If you ever lose your passport in another country...hope you're in Amsterdam.  They were so nice and the whole process was a lot smoother than expected. We also met some great & crazy party people and Matthew gave up a Heisenberg shirt to a loud Scotsman. We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with Matt's family during which we had a lovely evening strolling through the botanical gardens looking at giant lit up Chihuly glass sculptures in awe.

And so here we are at the tail end of December and I've submitted my Evil Dead Cabin to the miniatures.com contest before deadline and am making a Gatsby-style dress for New Year's Eve. We had a crazy drunken Pannacakes party, and a silly family presents exchange day that included Cards Against Humanity and boxing robots. We spent Christmas in San Francisco where we saw Brian Setzer Orchestra on Christmas Eve, Matthew got his first proper straight razor shave, dim sum in Chinatown, lobster bisque & crab salad at Pier 39, and we ate some pretty awesome food at some pretty awesome hotel restaurants and had The Best gin & tonic either one of us had ever had and the second best mescal drink I've ever put down my neck.

And peppered in throughout the year we were bombarded with Harlem Shakes, BatDad Vines, Breaking Bad, Red Weddings, Doctor Who, A Fox That Says Things, Goat remixes, Miley Cyrus' tongue, Blurred Lines, Twerking, Grumpy Cat & Li'l Bub, and an Astronaut Singing Space Oddity on the freakin' Space Station.

This year, like all other's before it, has included lots of ups and downs and were it not for the downs...how would you know just how up the ups are?
Plus, you'd probably be an insufferable asshole.

Even if you're a generally positive person like me, and incredibly lucky with a shit ton of ups, there are times that the Veil of Crap can fall down over your eyes to muddy your vision.
I am SO grateful for how up my ups were this year and I appreciate having those downs when they came along....but there's No. Possible. Reason. a down should ever overshadow an up....so remember to not let them, ok?

Thank you, Matthew for reminding me of that & helping to remove my Crap Veil.
You're absolutely right....2013 was pretty fuckin' awesome.

Cheers, everyone, to 2014!!  May your ups be fuckin' killer and your downs be valuable lessons to overcome.

Monkey Farter

Happy Youtubesday!
Here are some recent favorites if you missed when I posted them recently.

The Chola Shoooooot

So, we were up visiting Martha for her birthday this past weekend.  You remember her, right?

Jessica, Casey, & Matthew were in attendance & we had an awesome time hangin' out with the family, chillin' and catchin' up and stuff.
On our last night in town and after a few glasses of wine (water for Martha), we combined forces to create a somewhat impromptu chola makeover and photo shoot.
Here's what you get when you mix a youtube addict with a make-up hoarder and hot moms.

Casey will cut you.

 Karen will cut you.

 Jessica will cut you.

 Martha will cut you.

And then 3 out of 4 of us will stick our tongues out.

Here are the vids that inspired us:

New Ink for Xmas!!

"Why?", you ask?
Both animals represent creativity and magic.  They're reminders for me to get my creative shit out.
The spider spins beautiful webs despite them being easily destroyed.  The eye in it that I can't hide from and is always keeping watch.
Crows have an incredible sense of ingenuity and remind me to get back into the things that make sense to me.
They're there to kick my own ass into gear.
If you're curious, you can check out one of my favorite nifty books here that goes into animal symbolism/meanings in more detail.

While we're being honest, out of the (lucky number) 13 tattoos I have....these were probably the most painful.  Feels like road rash or a horrible sunburn.  I bit my lip, gritted my teeth, and made the pinched up "ow" face a few times.
And my feet are cold with it being chilly out.
I can't wear socks for a couple days.
But I absolutely love them and what they represent.  They make me smile.
And the guy who did them for me is pretty rad, too.  :)
Check him out here.

And see how cute they look with these shoes!!

My Effin' Chicken Recipe

A few of you have been asking for this recipe.  You should know, I don't cook with recipes really.  I "loosely base" my own shit on recipes I watch or read about.  Mostly from memory after I read it once or twice.  And I don't measure things and my cast iron skillet is King.  Love that thing. (heh, that rhymed)

Watch this video to see where I learned the basics.
Thanks to Willie for sharing that bit.

So, on this one, I seared it on 3 sides (back, side, and side - each for a few minutes) and put it back on it's back and then I threw in a half an onion, a carrot, and some celery all cut up into bits.  Oh, and a couple cloves of garlic.  Throw your veggies into the pan around the sides and salt and pepper it all before you throw it all in the oven.  And when you throw it in the oven...it'll be at 350ish, for about an hour.
Afterwards, I like to take a spoon and lean the pan onto one side and spoon the drippings & seasonings back up on the bird before serving.

For a side to go with, I made a badass mashed cauliflower.  Here's how you do that nonsense:
1 head of cauliflower, 1 thing of crumbled goat cheese (I get publix), 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, some salt, 2 or 3 tblsp (or maybe a 1/4c) of chicken broth, some butter.
Boil or steam your head of cauliflower, when its soft, drain it and throw it in the food processor with the garlic, butter, goat cheese, salt, and chicken broth.  Turn that shit on and/or pulse when needed to get the cauliflower lumps out.
Ta-muthafuckin'-da.  Mashed cauliflower.  An awesome alternative to mashed potatoes.

I LOVE cooking this.  And the leftovers are great, too.
So there.

From Neil deGrasse Tyson's Tweets Today

Absolutely love these.

New Ink!!

I'd originally wanted an ouroboros as a bracelet around my wrist but I really dug this knotted up one and ended up putting it above my firedancer.
I could go into the whys, but you turds are smart and if you know me well enough, you can figure out the whys without me having to be long winded about it. ;)

Also, check out Trinity.  Awesome shop, nice guys, great art.
YAY FOR SUPPORTING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY!

The Neverending Birthday Week -or- Karenpalooza 2012 Part III

Saturday Day 6 - DAY OF!! - The morning greeted us with a maid cop knock, Matthew sleepily saying, "come back later" and then me freaking out that my camera bag wasn't in my room.  We went looking back at the band stage and I told Matt that I kinda remember Willie saying that he had my camera bag but I didn't trust my drunken head at that point.  We did the quick stage search (did not see the washtub bass in the bushes) and talked to the towel boy, to end up back in the room with my phone finally plugged in to recharge and a reply from Willie saying, "Yes, I still have your camera bag." with relief washing over.  This made us hungry and we headed over to the restaurant for breakfast buffet where Matthew told me to check my email on my phone.  I looked and smiled seeing the Two Door Cinema Club tickets for the Beacham Theater on June 4th.  YAY!!!
We went and wandered around the vendor room and picked up some prints by this dude, Willie gave us some badass prints from this dude and this set as a bday present that I'm effin' excited about.
This next bit, I feel the need to preface with the following:
About a month ago, I told Front Man John of The Bloody Jug Band that, with my bday coming up, Matt would probably be hitting him up for a merch/souvenir size washboard that the band sells during shows.  I'd made a little noise about how great it would be to have one on our "gallery" wall at home.
And this bit is the actual turn of events:
After running through the vendor room and pickin' up cards and prints and shakin' hands and playin' games, we went back by the Band booth to say "see ya" and Seth, John, & Stormy were there.  We chatted a minute and then John said something about my birthday and picked up the washboard he plays during shows and recent practices and took the straps & eye-hooks off and handed it to me with a "Happy Birthday" or something or other.
I say "something or other" because at some point while he was handing it to me, my brain shut down in disbelief.
I say "disbelief" because 1) that was the one he uses in shows and I knew they had a show the following night and 2) I asked for A washboard, not THE washboard.
There were 2 thimbles included even.

Completely overwhelmed and in a slight state of shock, I said my thank you's and "see ya" laters and we headed out.

Once home, Matthew said, "Close your eyes and put your hands out flat...." which was shortly followed by, "OK, open'em."  This is what I saw in my hands:

I totally know what you're saying....I was saying the same thing.
"HOLY CRAP, HOW COULD ANY ONE DAY GET ANY MORE AWESOME?!?"
I'll tell ya....
A 2.5 hour nap surely helps.
And dinner at Hawkers might've had something to do with it.
And then a trip with crazy friends to Lil 500 to ride go-karts might contribute, too.

The bumpy track was....
There was NO POSSIBLE WAY to NOT laugh or smile while driving.  The boobahs were bouncing, the track was ridiculous, everyone was doing something different and clownin'.
The fast track was....
Fast...and slippery and awesome.
Perma-grins for the night and sore faces later on from smiling/laughing so much.
We also sang "We Are Young" by Fun at the top of our lungs while we were driving.

This bit of awesome was followed by dive bar karaoke at Cheers and singin' "Man In A Box", "Road To Nowhere", "Bobby McGee", "Roadhouse Blues" and trainwreck shots with an improv LMFAO "I'm Sexy & I Know It" group dance.

Seriously, even just thinking about it now is bringing a giant effing smile to my face.

We finished off the night with sign stealing and 7/11 sammiches.

The Never-Ending Birthday Week -or- Karenpalooza 2012 Part II

Wednesday Day 3 - This was productive day.  And unintentionally so.  After rifling through the house looking for our marriage certificate in the myriad of unorganized boxes of shit, I went to the DMV to renew my driver's license.  I think that because I'd lost my license (and then found it later) and ordered a new one, it flagged me and that was why I couldn't do the renewal online.  I'd much rather have been able to keep the ID photo from 8yrs ago.
After that mess, I came home to a cable company bill that was charging us for not returning their boxes after we dumped the cable service.  So, having lunch at Willow Tree seemed appropriate since the cable company office was over that way.  Followed by the cable company drop off and another forgotten check card incident and a quick other couple of errands and then a run back home to freshen up before meeting Chrystal's birthday party people at Flats.  Then it was rehearsal night which was followed by an Oblivion stop and the night ended up in stomach cramps and uncomfortableness until 4:30a.m.  I think my body was over-awesomed.

Thursday Day 4 - Because my body was so over-awesomed, Pannacakes and I decided to take it easy with a water filled lazy day over at New Smyrna.  Lunch at Off The Hook and a beach nap in my beach tent and sunburnt tops of legs were included.  Peeing in the ocean and lots of chatting were also thrown in there.  There were 2 accidents on I-4 on the way home.  That was pretty crazy...there were shoes in the road and a flipped truck.  Got home and got cleaned up and went to our rescheduled dance class and wore my new "angry tango" shoes.  That's what Instructor Brian called them cuz they're red and black.  We killed the hustle and did some tango.  Our next lesson, Instructor Brian said, we'd be split up and doing a focus lesson.  Matt will be with Lindsay and I'll be with Brian and then we're back together towards the end of the lesson to go over what we learned apart.

Friday Day 5 - I had a date with Mom for lunch.  We met up in downtown Mt. Dora and ate at the Palm and went over to the Aveda spa for a pre-birthday massage from Mom that left me all noodley & soft-skinned.  We ran through The Drawer to visit Bootie and pick up a few treasures.  Mom ran back to Aveda for a hair appt and I ran home to pack up for Mayhem.  Willie stopped by and Matt came home and gave me some crap for not having seen my first birthday present hanging in the upstairs hall (that I promptly moved to the red dining room wall):

After some squealing and celebrating, we all loaded up and caravanned down to the Wyndham to get situated for the evening's Pool Party with The Bloody Jug Band.  The night was insane...as anticipated with fire breathing clowns, the band, mermaids in the pool, conversations with Brazilians, and Kraken releasing.
It would end with a room party that included beatboxing and a shy amateur gangsta rapper with an awesome gold grill.  His name was Tunk.

The Never-Ending Birthday Week -or- Karenpalooza 2012 Part 1

Monday Day 1 - Nice leisurely trip to the gym to burn off some of the weekend after being hungover and sleeping almost all day Sunday.  While I was there, Trainer Brian was there and we caught up on things.  He looks like a Beatle now.  Hadn't seen him in months...hair's all grown out and he's rockin' an interesting mustache configuration.  Got home and cleaned up and Willie stopped by to give me some shit about something and brought up Dave & Buster's.  So we went.  And proceeded to get a bit of lunch and a little drunk and a lot excited over some pretty silly games....  Like, video lawn darts (my shit) and a Pirates game we fuckin' pwned through all 3 acts, and a Spaceballs game that was a big ticketer that was basically just a rubber ball version of Plinko from Price Is Right (also my shit).  We had some >3,000 tickets and went crazy snatching up cheap toys & candy from the winner's shop.
The next morning I would realize that I'd left my check card at the bar.

Tuesday Day 2 - The night before there were talks of waterpark action.  Aquatica or Typhoon Lagoon?  Typhoon won out because I used to work there and hadn't been since.  13yrs?  So we stopped by Dave & Buster's to grab my check card and cruised out to Typhoon.  After a quick stop by the bar, The Crush'n'Gusher made me dirty giggle and we grabbed a dual tube to jump on the Bananas slide first.  Got a workout up those stairs and jumped in to immediately start screaming down the slippery slopes and yell "SHIT" on turns when I thought we'd flip over.  Zippy bags full of cards were lost & found more than once.  Mayday Falls flipped me backwards.  Gangplank was shorter than I remember and still pretty lame.  Keelhaul was fun and I scraped my foot on the bottom of the Creek in the same spot Pannacakes pool attacked me from the weekend.  The water seemed low.  Terry made green crazy shots. They were tasty.
When I got home, Matthew and I were supposed to dance.  After another couple of jager shots, I ended up passing out in the car on the way to dance.
Being the Awesome he is, he went in to check out the situation (explaining that I was "not feeling well") for a solo dance with Instructor Brian's instructor lady friend, Lindsay but she was busy, so he rescheduled us and had a cider at the bar we frequent next to our dance studio.

Current Obsession

"Seeing we call it painting.
Hearing we call it music.
Reading we call it poetry.
And living we call it life.
So art is an attempt to capture life."
                  -Eyvind Earle

2012 KM Photo Project #2 (heh...number 2)

Happy Leap Year Day!!
Nothin' like putting things off til the very last day of the month.
Because you can and because it just so happens there is, actually, one more day.
How fucking awesome is THAT?!

Remember last month?
Yeah, me neither.

This month we decided to grab some inspiration from the movies.
Without further ado, here are our Cult Classic photo pix.

Dr. Marth-n-Furter

Klockwork Karen

Martha's Comments:  A black wig and an adams apple would've made this photo. It's not easy pretending to be a guy pretending to be a girl.

Karen's Comments: Why did I keep putting this off? And I didn't sweat as much!  I am still envious of Martha's eyebrows.

The Kills @ HOB

These 2 were at House of Blues Sunday night.
Allison changed her hair color - now its a bleached out pinkish.  She looked like Animal when she danced/played.
I love how spastic their movements are when the music's got'em.
Their percussionists had glow in the dark drumsticks and looked like robots.  I didn't get any pictures of them cuz they were around the corner from where we were standing by the bar.  Plus, my phone pics usually suck.
Everyone had skinny jeans on.  Out of the 500ish people that were there - I'd say a good 3/4 were in skinny jeans.
Matthew was wearing his kilt.  I didn't see anyone else wearing one.
The merch stand was fantastic!  They rolled up our shirts with the poster we bought into a triangular tube so nothin' got messed up.
Fans blew up and started tossin' around black balloons for when they played "Black Balloon".  That was fun.
They saved my jam for the encore.  Made me happy.
They also did "Fuck The People" towards the end, cuz everyone who comes through HOB at Disney has to throw a finger up at the machine at some point during the show.  Its a requirement now.

TT - American Horror Story

We dvr'd it and are just sittin' down to watch it.

I like how many times they say "shit".
And strong opening.
BEST opening credits since True Blood.



Apparently, the "mongoloid" tends to spit in the cooking.

Evil is always in the attic.

Bobby's a douchebag psychiatrist who got busted "pile driving" one of his students.
So the family moves into some big old house with a past & weird wall paintings.
Y'know....as a "new start" or "2nd chance".

6ft Under mom is a creepy maid.

Bobby sees her as a hot young poa.

Bobby's client is a skull faced kid who imagines he's some great serial killer who puts the moves on Bobby's high school daughter who cuts herself so she can feel.

Bobby also gets naked.
I ain't mad at that.
He also hatebates in the window.
HAHA...he's cryin' again.*

I LOVE THIS SHOW!!

The piano string noises are effective, the Weasley twins are creepy, Jessica Lange is awesome & bitchy, Adelaide is adorable....

Bobby's wife gets banged by some rubberdude while Bobby is playin' with the stove.
Bobby's kid client and daughter scheme to bring justice to the school bitch bully....that was some fun crazy shit.  Lots of screaming, flashes of bloody teeth, and the bitch bully gets scratched up in her FACE.
Now there's some burn dude and the make up is amazing and he's tellin' his arson story.

Holy crap that was fun.
I'm in it for the season, fo'sho.
------------------------------------------------
*Matt used to watch The Practice and McDermott's character, Bobby, cried in almost every episode.  I didn't like that show.

Movie Monday - Red State

WOOHOO!!!  A MOVIE!!
Its only been, what, like 6 weeks or some shit since the last one of these?
Got a good one for ya today.  You turds ready?

We went to see this badboy last night.  One night only engagement followed by Q&A with Kevin Smith via UStream.

First, the movie.
What happens when homophobic jesus freaks are well armed and kidnapping kids they lure with the devil's business?
The FBI shows up at their compound and shoot things up.
Also, the sheriff is gay, which doesn't really help the town with dealing with the religious cult.
Michael Parks as Abin Cooper - the cult "father"....was absolutely captivating on screen.
John Goodman, the same, and looks great after the weight loss.  Its nice to still have him around & lookin' good.  Years ago, I would've thought he'd go the way of John Candy.
Pretty damn good cast all around, really.

Its being claimed as a "horror" movie.  I wouldn't call it that.
I'd say its more of an action thriller - and even using the term "thriller" seems a bit off.

I won't give you any spoilers here but towards the end John Goodman makes an amazing speech about how, when he was a kid, his grandmother had a couple of dogs as family pets.  One day, he was finishing dinner and threw the dogs a turkey leg and they went at each other over this turkey leg like they'd never known one another.
Then he says, "People just do the strangest things when they believe they're entitled.  But they do even stranger things when they just plain believe."

Ruminate on that shit for a minute or two.

Second - the Q&A on Ustream.
While they were streaming and setting things up, they had the twitter feed going and folks were crackin' me up with things like, "WTF, I paid $20 to see Kevin Smith on the computer?" and "I missed Breaking Bad for this?"
Kevin Smith was wearing a hockey jersey that made him look 10x bigger & started answering questions about how they took care of all the investors first, didn't take huge salaries in an effort to get the flick out there, and then the stream glitched out so we left.

There's some fun trivia here and an original ending summarized here with more about how they made it on a small budget and crap.

I loved it and give it 5 out of 5 Gabriel's horn blasts.

Sunday Confession - Progress

"May" after Day 2 & in shitty lighting:

I'm comfy with her face now but her left foot is pissing me off.  There's been at least 3 revisions of it today.

The scissors almost look real on this photo.  That's pretty badass.

The scalpel will get some detail work to change it from a butter knife to a scalpel.

I gave her a cigarette this a.m.  She deserved it.  Going all night with a receded hair line and no face.

There's a lot of Disney & Archer influence coming through, I think.

Or I could just be full of shit.

I confess: this is the first time I've drawn/painted a full human figure and its cool to see it come through the way I see it in my head.  That's always been kind of a frustration point.

Also learned today, hands are difficult.  There were probably about 2 or 3 attempts at a sketch for that where the smudges are on the "floor" under the cooler.  Will be practicing over the next couple of days.

YouTubesday - nicepeter

This guy gets lots of views and is pretty damn funny.  Here are two (sort of) recent faves:

Suckit Saturday - Boston Highlights Pt. 2

Saturday marnin' we slept in cuz those damn Marriott beds are so friggin' comfy.
Then headed to the Pour House for breakfast beers.

I ate a cheesesteak omelette with sweet potato tots and dark rye toast.
Beer was Pumpkin UFO and pretty damn tasty.  Highlighted more of the spice part of pumpkin spice.
Was quite tasty.
We left a sticker here too.

Afterwards, we wandered over to Newbury Comics.
On the way over, we saw a guy on the street playing a hurdy gurdy.  His dog was chillin' with him.  We gave him a buck.
Sitting next to him was an older guy just sitting there with a paper bag on his head and his change cup out.
Look, if you want me to give you a dollar, you better be doin' some cool shit to earn it.  I'm not going to give it to you just for looking pitiful and needy.
If a dude is playin' some wicked badass instrument, or is telling funny jokes, or is busting some sweetass moves.....he'll get my dollar.
If you're just sitting in a chair (regardless of if it has wheels or not) & you just expect me to throw something in your cup because you have a paperbag hat.....
Sorry, man.

Once we got to Newbury Comics, I tried on stupid glasses:

Matthew bought some accessories (hat & glasses) to help him blend in with the locals.

I bought a bowler and nerd glasses.

Then we wandered over to Fenway to see if the sticker we put there the night before had lasted 24hrs.

Which was quickly followed by a trip to Lansdowne to drown our sorrows with some brews and pub chips with this badass blue cheese sauce/dip stuff.  It was pretty fuckin' good.
Bova met us down there & we headed over to The Bodega.
The front room looks like a shitty bodega with interesting knick-knacks, drinks, & snacks available for late night drunken purchases.  But then you step on a tile in front of that drink machine and a door opens into this pretty ass showroom for designer sneakers, watches, and a selection of outerwear.
After poking around in there, we wandered into a nearby halloween store where we tried on masks, I fondled a giant glittery stuffed penis, & Bova was asked if he was a member of the aryan race because of the t-shirt he was wearing.

We left and headed towards Solas for clubs, cubans, beers, & people watching.

Wrapped up there and stopped into a cigar bar for some dranks and smokes.  Had some nice chats and our waitress showed us her shoes that she bought at Marshalls.
We hung out there for a bit and then wandered back down to McGreevy's for a beer before calling it a night, said our goodbyes, and going back to the hotel room.

When we got back to the hotel room, the Michigan/Notre Dame game was still on and was still close enough to be pretty damn exciting, so we decided to grab a night cap (shot of jager) down at the sports bar before really calling it a night.

The next marnin', we enjoyed a breakfast buffet where Matthew caught a ciabatta roll on fire, we spied on a guy who looked like a mightymightybosstone, and remembered that it was September 11th.
At the airport, we grabbed a spot at the skyclub for an hour or so, left the skyclub, grabbed a beer & a lobster roll at the Harpoon joint by the gate, boarded the plane......

Sat on the plane for an hour without it moving.

Got off the plane and went back to the Harpoon joint to grab another brew and got to chatting with some nice folks from Michigan who were also delayed.  We talked about beer and rugby.
Then it was finally time to get back on the plane and were able to leave without any more delays.

The End.