But since I make it a policy of using this blog as a way to, as Du Bois put it, "Live behind the veil; in a land of blue skies and great wandering shadows," I think perhaps I better focus on the un-fucked up stuff that went down recently. My mask may not be lying, but it's definitely going to grin & withhold information (2 lit references in as many sentences... mark your calenders, we may be taking a new, intellectual course here at Visions of Ypsi).
Friday night, I went to dinner w/ Stacey for her belated b-day. We hit a new Cuban place in A2 called
Cafe Habana. The place was absolutely packed. Apparently, a few people come into town for the Michigan / Ohio State Game... who knew? Since we had to wait a while to get a table, we found our way to the bar where I sampled a Mojito. It was definitely the strongest one I've ever had, but then again, I've only had them one other time so my comparison might be a little useless. When we got a table, I ordered the Cuban Vegetarian sandwich. It was good, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Their vegetarian menu left a little something to be desired. Stacey made the better choice by getting the other vegetarian option, Arepas, cornmeal pancakes w/ goat cheese pico de gallo & spinach. Her food was fun & interesting. It was really good too. Of course, we also took it upon ourselves to get a carafe of sangria which was good, but they used coconut rum. I think if I were to go there again, I'd ask for it w/ just regular, unflavored rum. we also got a goat cheese appetizer which was awesome: hot, melty goat cheese w/ pico de gallo. The atmosphere was nice too. Much brighter & livelier than the Cuban place we went to in Detroit a few months ago.
Yesterday, after watching Euro 2008 qualifiers all day (I'd give you the low down on the games, but I'm sure you all watched them too, so it's not necessary; you can read the match-reports
here) & fixing my laptop so it will connect to my Internet at home again, I finlay got dressed around 8:00 & made my way to a party across town. Laura had been on me for a while about going, but I didn't know if I was up for it. Well, I went & had a good time. Deep Space (AKA The S.N.A.I.V Band) played a fun set, & there was a keg. Plus, hanging out w/ them is always a nice time. I'm glad Laura was able to get me to go; although, I took off before Warren & Georgina had the chance to perform their special, surprise song for the night. He wasn't going to tell anyone what song they'd worked up, but he said it won the Oscar for Best song in 1982, & oddly, I knew it right away. It's the Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warns hit,
"Up Where We Belong."The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb steps every day Beautiful! Those are some Grade A choice cut lyrics there. When I took off, I met Dawn & her roommate, Melissa, at TCs to see
The Ragbirds. I hadn't seen them in a while, & when I had, they seemed to have a pretty small following, but they're certainly drawing the crowds now. We had a good time, they played some fun covers... "Tell Me Ma," a traditional Irish tune that Gaelic Storm also covers:
She is handsome
she is pretty
She's the Belle of Belfast City "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," the Paul Simon song :
she said honey take me dancing
But they ended up by sleeping
In a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on
Upper Broadway
Wearing diamonds on the soles of their shoes& they then closed w/ a nice version of "Bird Song," a Dead tune that might need a little more experimentalism w/ the bass & drums. The guitar & fiddle stuff was cool, but the bass line didn't really go anywhere so the long jam towards the end became a bit repetitive. Maybe I'm asking too much though; they aren't Phil, Micky & Billy & they never will be:
All I know is something like a bird within her sang
All I know she sang a little while and then flew on
Tell me all that you know
I'll show you
Snow and rain The other thing about that band is that all of their originals sound like other songs so when they do play a cover once in a while, I end up assuming it's an original that just sounds like something else. One song sounded just like "Sexual Healing," which I definitely would have preferred, but it was fun none-the-less, & it was super nice to hang w/ Dawn. It'd been a while since we went out to see music together.
In other news, I arrived at work today to find a Frazz comic strip from today's newspaper taped to my office door. I don't know who put it there... @ 1st, I assumed it was from a student (there are two who could have left it), but after asking both of them, it turns out I have no idea who put it there, but I'd like to send a little thank you to my secret Santa for leaving this on my door. Ironically, it was published a day or 2 after their 1st loss since April.
We also introduced my parents to the wonders of the Wii. My mom enjoyed tennis while my father had his way w/ both tennis & golf before I smoked everyone in bowling. It may very well have been the 1st time they played a video game. He used to enjoy pinball, but that's just not the same.
He also made his less-than-famous turkey soup. He doesn't cook much, but fancies himself a sort of sous chef. His 1st attempt came back in 1989 when he attempted some sort of dirt-ass Chinese stuff. he has definitely improved since then, but it always has meat in it so I can't speak directly to the quality.
I got a call the other night from Stacey's son wondering if I had a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. He needed it for a class, which in and of itself is pretty impressive since he's only in middle school. A shout-out to the Ypsi schools is definitely in need here. I was watching Rockford when he called so I didn't grab it then, but thinking I knew exactly where my copy was I said sure. Yesterday morning, I went to grab it for him, but it wasn't there. At that point I figured it must be in my office. Wrong again. My copy of his FBI Files is there as is my copy of Malcolm X Speaks, but not the autobiography. One would think they would all be together considering my anal approach to book organization, but they aren't. My next thought was that maybe my ex-wife took it when she moved, but that just doesn't make sense. She wouldn't want it, & I've had it since before we started dating. Why would she suddenly lay claim to it? My next thought was that maybe I loaned it to someone & never got it back, which is possible, but then Stacey said she thinks that must be what happened to her copy too. It seems however, that both of us losing the same book in the same way is unlikely which brings me to my final thought: The Government. I have a feeling there is some hush-hush post-9/11 FBI program centered around secreting away copies of his autobiography. It's the only thing that makes sense. Just like COINTELPRO & the MOVE house in Philly & Pine Ridge & Kent State & JFK & MLK & Malcolm X himself & Masons & The Knights Templar & Skull and Bones & the cover-up of Paul's death on the cover of Sgt Pepper's & The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. OK, maybe those last 2 are a bit far fetched, certainly less likely than an FBI program designed to protect the status quo from the ideas of people like Malcolm X. Plus, from now on, whenever I lose something, I can blame the man. 
Saturday night, after watching the Arsenal v Man U game on Live Footy & then switching to the Fox Soccer Channel for the rest of the day, I met some friends from work at The Tap Room. We enjoyed a couple drinks (I ran into folks from the kickballers & learned we have a game this week... kinda weird after 4 weeks off). While at the bar, I also learned that there was a dance party taking place Saturday night too. I didn't feel comfortable going to a second dance party in as many days, but since the party was in Livonia & Nic whose idea it was to go, lives in Farmington, I decided to make the trek to Middlebelt & Schoolcraft so Emily (another work person) could go w/o driving drunk... I'm so fucking responsible. Well, we get out there & Nic can't find the party. We drove around the neighborhood for 45 minutes w/ no luck. I was heartbroken. Emily & I made the trek back Ypsi-way & decided since we already bought beer, we should watch a movie & drink it.
I hadn't seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in years, & since she'd never seen it, we decided on that. I forgot how much I love it. I'm now dying to see it in a theater again soon. Tim Curry in a teddy always makes me happy. Not to mention Richard O'Brien in anything. Not only did he write it & play Riff Raff, he was also in Flash Gordon! Last week, while channel surfing, I found another film featuring his under-appreciated talents, but as it turns out, Elvira's Haunted Hills kinda sucked... go figure. Casandra Peterson is no longer what she once was either. For those of you who are unaware of how this part of the post relates to dance parties, watch the clip!
I don't think I've ever had such a busy end of October before. Solstice had a party to go to a couple weeks ago, & since then it's been pretty much a non-stop Halloween extravaganza. Wendy & Pete's party last weekend was by far the pinnacle of the week... what w/ the band & the keg & the creation of yet another new drink: The Bad Lieutenant (Limoncello, black vodka, & cranberry Juice w/ ice & shake). It's called the Bad Lieutenant because one can drink a shit-load of them w/o realizing it & next thing you know, you're naked & fishing out in some dark ally. Not that any of us ended up that way, but it wasn't for lack of trying... it was for lack of vodka. I'm sure that if we'd had more booze on hand, we'd all have ended up that way. The band, whose name I've forgotten (if anyone remembers, feel free to leave it in the comments section because I'd like to find them on-line), was from Milwaukee. They happened upon the party almost by chance. Apparently, they were to play a gig in Toronto but couldn't get through customs so they called a friend in A2 to see if anything was going on. The friend recommended they play at this party, so they showed up & played for about an hour & a half. They have a cool alt-country sound & everyone felt they were like Uncle Tupelo. It turns out, however, that they'd never heard of Uncle Tupelo (or Sun Volt for that matter), but had sort of heard of Wilco. As we were sitting around the bon fire which happened to be in the middle of the grass between the barn & the house, we also learned they'd never heard of Taj Mahal. It seemed od that a band like that didn't know these other people, but I guess they're just young. I'm sure they'll find them on myspace & realize they need to listen to Taj Mahal & Uncle Tupelo a bit. They had heard of Droogle though. It's a cool database of drinks. You can also submit new one to be added to the database so I just went ahead & submit the Bad Lieutenant & the Mexican Slayride.
This week we also had the kids' school parties & then of course Trick or Treating last night. It was the cheapest, easiest Halloween we've ever had. Solstice went into the basement & came up w/ some random witch stuff she'd had. All I had to do was buy her a hat & some new shoe (which she needed anyway). Aiden wanted to be Mario which meant a red sweatshirt & denim overalls. Easy! I got him some new shoes too plus a hat which I found at a Halloween store for a couple bucks. It had white polka dots on it, but an hour w/ a red Sharpie while watching Rockford the other night took care of that. They had a great time last night cruisin' around w/ all of their neighborhood friends after some pizza at Stacey's house.
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