timesuck

so i have been wasting time all over the interwebs (int0rwabs? teh? the gore? i just don't know anymore), pretty much everywhere but here. this has, however, led to some maintenance (can never spell that one right; i swear i tried it that way already) of the links section. so here is your shocking update: the comic linked under 'funny' has been removed because it has not really been funny at all recently. boo to that, so i dealt the site the crushing blow of removing it from my links. it has been replaced with another one, though, of course. this other one is somewhat reminiscent of dinosaur comics (which should really be moved to funniest) but there are some differences. the artistic concepts (although this one changes every time) and humor are along the same lines. also added a link to my sister's new blog that she is writing from the land of thai chili crisps, a.k.a. england. she is a super good writer and this is a great chance for you to learn everything you wanted to know about libraries in london (and some other stuff) but were afraid to ask. check it out.
in addition to tons and tons of stuff i have learned about that no one else would care to hear about, i recently turned up one item that is probably of fairly pervasive interest: npr's website will stream the new dylan album for the week leading up to its release, starting september 30th. i'm sure plenty of people knew that already, but either way, i think it is pretty cool. this is a perfect thing to have streamed because it is something that has the opportunity to be really good or er, not, and plenty of people are going to purchase it anyway.
as i mentioned earlier, my sister has departed to a place across the ocean with confusing signage. before she left, there was a send-off soiree at her place where i had a good time. while many people show up to these sorts of things with somewhat convoluted connections, i always seem to be a little out of place despite the gene pool thing. in any event, this party was also talk like a pirate day, so i made grog. i thought grog was just rum and hot water, but there is other stuff in it like sugar, citrus juice, cinnamon and cloves. in fact that is all the other stuff that is in it. it comes out kind of like mulled wine. kept it warm with a rice cooker which did the trick splendidly. however, there were an awful lot of bevarages present and not all of it got consumed during the party. it sat around at my place for a couple days until a few of us were up late drinking and ran out of beer. this led to the invention of quite a delicious drink combining about equal parts grog and a iced tea/lemonade mix. pretty diluted at that point, but also entirely delicious. i do not know if letting things sit about for a day or two has any effect though, and we decided we should probably make it again and find out.
the next night brought a crab feast, which was pretty frigging awesome. the whole idea got started because we took on an additional roommate for a couple months, a friend of a current roommate who wanted to get out of baltimore. so this guy is coming up from maryland, and the idea is to have him bring up a bushel of live large blue crabs. we will wait here for him and drink beers and get things going in the afternoon. well he was late out of the gate, and upon attempted purchase of crabs discovered that prices had skyrocketed and the desired type of crab was not even available. fuck that, we said. what wound up happening was many phone calls resulting in a lengthy expedition into the northern part of the city and a savings of roughly eighty dollars. the girl who drove actually left before we even got the crabs cooked though! i felt bad. fortunately, we had copious amounts of boulder brewing's 'hazed and infused' which is a quality beer that is ideal for protracted good times such as a crab feast. somewhere between a pale and an ipa in terms of bitterness, with a svelte body that makes for smooth and easy drinkability, especially combined with the overall refreshing floral character. a good time was had by all.
speaking of baltimore, i found myself there again the other weekend. i was in exactly the same part of town that i had been to before for the kinetic sculpture race. at first i was surprised, but when i thought about i realized that the sorts of things that would draw me to go down there would probably be in the same general vicinity. checked out the american visionary arts museum, which was very intruiging but kind of small. it looked like there would be more from the outside. the outside is almost as good as some of the stuff in there though. to be fair, one of the floors in the main building was closed for the instillation of an upcoming exhibit, and we got discount admission. still, the permenant collection just wasn't as expansive as i assumed it might be. size aside, that stuff was really really cool. the artist bios are also a lot more interesting than the typical fare. the idea with the museum is that everything it has comes from entirely formally untrained artists. so there were some pretty crazy people who had stuff in there, and it was pretty nifty. the set-up of the museum is also a refreshing change of pace, three different buildings with different layouts and purposes. i think i would have been a lot more blown away by it had i not seen so much of the cool stuff outside when i was there before, but it was still worth exploring fully.
the real reason to go to baltimore was for a concert, though. we had a bit of a tough time finding the venue, which turned out to be a little embarrasing. it was at this place called the pier six pavillion, right, but all the stuff around had signs for what was on pier five or four or whatever. we had no problem finding those piers. but we were trying to hard to follow directions instead of common sense that says pier six is probably not too far away from pier five. oh well, we found it with time to spare.
i was unaware that the first band was even going to be on the bill. they were called [someone's name, justin something?] and the driving rain. pretty innocuous and a little bland, but very adherent to solid americana rock and roll. mid-tempo country rock with a lot of organ. the guy played whatever he had through a leslie, and that sounded pretty damn good. frontman could sing. just nothing i could get all up in arms about. kind of reminded me of the wallflowers.
i was not there to see a band of that description. rather, i was there to see the avett brothers, who i have been raving about and constantly listening to ever since i got talked into riding along to a free show of theirs in pittsburgh a few months back. they did not disappoint. i don't think they could if they wanted to; it is just not in them. it was a much different experience to be intimately familiar with the catalog this time around. spent more time being pumped about what was being played than looking around and enjoying myself but a little of unsure about how incredibly excited everyone around me was. great show, could tell the guys were a little tired but giving it every once of energy they had, and the crowd was just wild the whole time, couldn't get enough and couldn't calm down, although people were impressively respectful during quieter numbers. seems like this band is always on tour, and i cannot stress enough how worthwhile it would be to get into this band through a live show or any sort of recording. let me know if you need something, seriously.
despite the unbridled enthusiasm of the crowd for the avetts, they were not the headliner at this show. that would be the drive-by truckers. i feel like most people who should be into this band already are, but if you've enver heard them you probably should. some serious southern-fried guitar orgy balls to the wall rock. it was really good live and loud as fuck. they played their asses off too. one of the three guitar players spent a decent chunk of time on the pedal steel, and i can never get enough of that. their backdrop had some things on either side that looked like demonic swans. i am not sure what was up with that, but whatever. let there be rock, indeed. all together, it was a great show at a chill venue in a beautiful setting; an ideal combination. saw some wire-status parts of the city on the meaner out, just to keep things interesting. and then there was the ride. i like rides. that was a good day.
i know today is supposed to be friday night or whatever, but i'm totally just going to sit around and watch the debate. i don't know why; i usually don't bother. kind of curious, and it is one of those things it feels nice to have one's own interpretation and understanding of. i'm sure plenty of people i know here are going to go out and watch it. to me, going to a bar seems like the worst possible idea. no good can come of that.
in fact, as i was writing about this, one of my roommates said goodbye. i asked where she was going. to the bar to watch the debate, of course. but apparently she is watching it in a semi-private room with some organized group of obama supporters. as long as your someplace where you can avoid a fight, you're alright. i don't feel like that is real likely a lot of places i would go to. freedom, terra, etc.