The Che’s Lounge Facebook disappeared, so I have recreated it:

http://www.myspace.com/kahoots / http://www.myspace.com/ninaviolet

I’ve taken on duties for some online promotion and poster design for Che’s Lounge, (redesign for their site is in the works) so this is my first poster. Hopefully many more to come:

Come to the show on saturday, and follow @cheslounge on twitter for up to the minute updates!

Listen here!

I changed my copyright information for this site to fall under Creative Commons, so feel free to distribute and share the art, rework it (but not for profit), print it out and poop on it, whatever. My only request is that if you are sharing the work I’ve created, please link back to the site and credit me for the original work.

Nate, my old pal who went and got married and moved to Japan, joined me the other night for Monkey on the Lam and we had a rockin time, if you missed it, listen here.

Monkey on the Lam(b) Featuring Nate Dawg June 25th 2009

I went on my first true Geocaching adventure the other day. It started on sunday night, when I got back from UMass. I had downloaded the Geocaching app for my iPhone before I returned home, my brother had told me about it months before and we went on a not-so-successful run (found one cache in edgartown and failed on 3 others). I decided to go out that evening but I neglected to bring a flashlight with me, so I found myself scouring the cache site in the dark, attempting to illuminate the location with the light of the phone and failing. I gave up on that site, but decided to reattempt a site my brother and I had failed at in the winter. After much digging behind rails and making myself look like a crazy person on the side of the road, I found it, deep in a bush by the bike path. My excitement was overwhelming, especially the feeling that I had done it myself, with no help. I was determined to do more.

The next day, I went to Vineyard Haven and found myself wandering into the middle of the Memorial Day picnic at the Waterworks, smiling and nodding while glancing down at my iPhone and looking for familiar landmarks based on the clues on the website. I found the cache excitedly, but realized I’d forgotten a pen. I wandered back to my car and found one. Another small cache, there was little room for anything but my signature. Another one was nearby, so I walked until I found it, up a hill on the overlook. A friend drove by, honking and waving as he passed, surely wondering “what the hell is he doing?” as I leaned over the guard rail to look behind it.

A huge log here, soaked but loaded with names and thanks, and a path tag, the same that my brother and I found months earlier but left in Edgartown. It was neat to see the same thing come back. I put a bugs bunny figurine inside and went on my way.

Now I was in a flow, and I decided to go back, quickly, as the sun began to set, to the location I’d attempted the night before. After much frustrated leaf kicking, I found it hidden next to a tree, further back than I’d thought it would be. An ammo box! I excitedly pulled it out and dug through it, finding all kinds of relics and a very comprehensive log book, dating back to 2003. I had no idea it had been going on so long. I filled out my piece, dropped in a bunch of goodies, and left, satisfied. I decided to give one more cache a shot, as the sun continued to set and the light was dimming, I lost myself in the woods of edgartown, down numerous dead end roads and avoiding private property signs. Finally, I found the right track, and then wandered along the beach until I found an alcove with a field, overhung by a canopy of trees. I entered and searched the area, consulting my GPS and tips all the while. Eventually, I found it buried next to a tree, another ammo box, this one filled with several tagged objects, tracker bugs, and so on. I snapped some photos and put a Metrocard inside. This little hobby was taking me to places I’d never seen on Martha’s Vineyard, and it was a very exciting prospect. The next day I purchased a Time Capsule at the thrift store to create my own in the near future. I took several photos, here are a few that highlight the experience, particularly the sunset on the beach. I only wish there were more on Martha’s Vineyard, but I’ll do my best to make that happen on my own.

[Show slideshow]

We went to dinner here last year and it was a great time, so we went again. I just wanted to share a couple photos I snapped last night while our chef was cooking our food, because they came out pretty rad:

Drew (my brother) graduated from UMass today, here is a barrage of photos. Feel free to use them on any site, just throw me a link back and a photo credit if you do please. I will update this post with more photos and a couple of moments of video shortly.

[Show slideshow]

1 2 ►

If you live in New England, and perhaps elsewhere, I haven’t tracked their proliferation, you may be aware of a franchise restaurant chain called “Friendly’s” I guess it’s pluralized because someone named Friendly owns it? Regardless, it’s your standard American fare: Burgers, Ice cream, old people, young children and middle aged rampantly obese people. As a child, I loved friendly’s, I wanted to go there every time I went “off island” and I constantly jonesed for their burgers and reese’s peanut butter cup sundaes. In my adult life I’ve tried to resist it, but occasionally the nostalgic urge comes over me and I make the stop, devouring a nice big ball of greasy food and saccharine sweetness. Yesterday on the way to Umass for my brother’s graduation, my mother and I stopped in at one to grab a bite on the road. After using the restroom, I stepped out into the hallway and was met with a horrific site, pictured below:

How would people get to work? What monstrosity is this? As a child I had fantasized about the book “cloudy with a chance of meatballs” coming true but this was a nightmare in front of my eyes. Upon looking more closely around the restaurant, several such horrors were present: churches with ice cream cones towering behind them, A town hall dwarfed by a grilled cheese sandwich. Good god, it was terrifying. Imagine your town, crushed by several pounds of meat and dairy, all cooked in lard. These poor people. I had to save them. I sprinted out the door to the nearest Walmart and gathered up supplies: Mr. Clean, a mop, and as many trash bags as I could carry. I sprinted toward the bridge waving the mop blindly in front of my face, like an amateur jouster, afraid to be hit and knocked from my horse. I swatted at the burger wildly with the wet end of the mop, trying to ignore the screams and whines of the bacon as the grease cutter sliced through it. The bun knocked me over a few times, but after an epic battle, the burger collapsed to the ground, defeated in a puddle of it’s own juices and melted cheese. I begrudgingly collected up the remains of the hideous beast, grease ruining my clothing, and dumped it into the trash bag.

Triumphant, I carried on. I stopped at a salon and borrowed 2 blow dryers that I then wielded like 6 shooters as I approached the ice cream cone. It attempted to drip into my mouth, but I resisted it’s temptations and fired upon it with impunity until it was nothing but a pink sticky mess on the pavement behind the town hall. Just then I heard a distant rumbling and a few moments later, the hill to the north was shadowed by onion rings, rolling downward toward me. I knew I was outmatched. As they crushed cars and knocked fire hydrants out of the sidewalk, sending jetstreams of water into the air. I retreated, meeting once again with my mother and shouting at her to start the car, drive, drive, before we’re all killed! We drove up the next hill and the onion rings lost momentum, collapsing upon themselves in greasy breaded messes. On the horizon I could see the french fries bursting from the pavement like fast growing trees, then crawling down the street as if they were caterpillars, eating the greenery as they went. These poor people. I did my best to save them, but I was overwhelmed, the food was too much, too prolific, too delicious and fattening. This poor town, off an exit in western Massachusetts, would have to fight this behemoth on their own. Good luck, brave souls.

And now, I’m off to watch my brother graduate.