St. Patrick's Day

After I dropped the kids off @ school, we walked down to Sidetrack only to find out they aren't opening this morning until 11:00 (5 minutes from when I type this) so we turner around & went to The Corner for their 4$ all you can eat breakfast buffet (bagels & Lucky Charms). We also tried the Corned Beef Hash. I hadn't eaten any meat since the bite of Haggis on Burns' Night, & it turns out I could have left it that way. It seemed like a towel that had been sitting in a damp tub... I could have rung out the fat w/ my hands. Needless to say, we didn't finish it. Their stout, on the other hand, was great. They've made 3 new ones for today, The Lucky Charms Stout, The Western Imperial Stout & the Roasted Marshmallow Stout.

* The LCS came equipped w/ a few LC marshmallows on top. Stephanie liked it a lot, claiming it was very "stouty," but after I had the WIS, the LCS seemed to lack body & depth. I enjoyed it though once I could taste it.
* The WIS is fantastic!!! Get there today & have a few. It doesn't seem as though they'll keep it long term, but maybe w/ enough begging, we can change their minds. Do yourself a favor & drink 1 or 6.
* The RMS was interesting & a nice novelty, but I wouldn't drink it all the time. It was made by suspending roasted marshmallows over the mash as it was fermenting which then oozed down into the goop. It has a sweet nose & a nice roasted marshmallow finish just as he claimed it would.

The whole time we were there, Isaiah sat in his stroller & ate bagels. He had a good time & even sparked the interest of the younger kids, 1 of which went so far as to snap a few pics of him. He was decked out in his St. Patrick's day attire & I'm sure Stephanie will post a pic of him today... super awesome!

In other St. Patrick's Day news, Arsenal faces Hull City this afternoon @ The Emirates in the FA Cup Quarter Finals. A win will put them through to the Semis against Chelsea @ Wembley. It's been a great week for them, making it through to the Quarter Finals in Europe & hammering Blackburn 4-0, here's to hoping they can keep it up.

Here are some fun Holiday links:

St. Patrick's Day Home Page

The History of St. Patrick's Day from The History Channel

The Guinness Home Page

Murphy's Home Page

The Jameson Homepage

A chick w/ Shamrocks on her titties

A good article about green beer... I like point 2

Shoe Polish

I'm not sure where to start this post, so I guess I'll just begin @ the beginning. Wendy's Harry Potter folks hosted a Harry Potter themed Ball on Friday which featured costumes & a couple of Wizard Rock bands whose names I don't recall. I wouldn't necessarily recommend them, though the "headliner" did seem to possess a little talent. I couldn't believe how many songs about those books people could write. It was like Rocky Horror for sober virgins. The 1st band sounded like The Who, every song was like "Pinball Wizard" (except the Pete Townshend cover which we had a hard time placing). The main thing to come from it was that I decided that if I were to read the books, which I can't see ever happening, I'd be a Slytherin kid... whatever that means. Rather than dressing like a character I'd never heard of, & apropos of nothing what-so-ever, I just wore the tartan kilt & all the effects... skean dhu, dirk, flashers, sporran, etc. This finally brings us to the point of the story. I had to polish my black shoes beforehand which hadn't been done in quite a while (& now I think I'll have to polish my soccer shoes soon too). Although I spent the next couple hours smelling like I'd just made a sign reading, "I assure you, we're open," they look fantastic. However, I'm afraid I've become a different person over the last few years. I was walking out of my office this morning & tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. My 1st concern wasn't "oh, no... who saw that?" or "Ouch!," but rather, "Shit, did I scuff my shoe?" As it turns out, my shoe came through it all unscathed so I guess I'll be able to make it a few more days before I have to break out the polish again. If only my soul came through it all unscathed too.

MC Joaquin

According to the Daily Mail (& a million other sources) Joaquin Phoenix has vowed to quit acting & follow his new dream... being a hip-hop artist. He performed a set in Miami the other night & according to the gossip pages looked rather "disheveled." Apparently, that term is synonymous "bearded." Why is it that men w/ beards are always accused of being wasted... or suicidal. Al Gore grew one for a bit a few years ago & people went ape-shit... "He must have something to hide." As soon as people grow beards, they are put in the same category as Osama bin Laden & Ted Kaczynski (oddly enough, the Unibomber didn't even have a beard). Like Joaquin Phoenix, I too once dreamt of becoming a hip-hop star; my rap name was "A Plu$," & my friend & I used to write lyrics all the time. Another kid even got a small mixing board thing w/ the plans of being our DJ. I don't recall the name he went by, but Marques was Question Mark. Since high school, I've only seen him 3 times, & 2 of those times involved seeing Chuck D: once w/ Public Enemy @ the Palace & once @ Pease Auditorium when he spoke on campus a few years ago. With this in mind, Joaquin's burly hip-hop persona is inspiring me. Maybe it's time to pursue that long lost goal. I want everyone to call me "A Plu$" from now on... Word up!Speaking of Osama bin Laden, his favorite team, Arsenal, got through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League yesterday after beating Roma 7-6 in penalties. They won the home leg 1-0 a couple weeks ago, but then lost 1-0 yesterday so the aggregate was 1-1. After nothing happened in the extra time, I thought I was going to lose my shit sitting through the PKs. Eduardo's 1st shot was saved but then Almunia stopped a weak shot in the 2nd round. It went into sudden death after the rest of the shooters hit their target. Then, in the 8th round, Tonetto missed the goal completely & ended Roma's hopes of progressing... keeping the Gunners alive for the next round. While I wouldn't bet against Man U winning everything this year, Arsenal seem to be on a bit of an up-swing. Don't count them out just yet. You can read the entire match report here.

A Weird Noise for You to (Maybe) Enjoy

Created by Train Horns

The Big Phish Comeback Show or The Brahphecy Fulfilled

Phish played their 1st show since 1995 last night at Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA. Holly's son (our nephew) Andy went, & will be @ the shows tonight & tomorrow too. They're a funny band; I rarely think about them or listen to them, but when I do, I'm always reminded that they are stellar musicians. Not to mention that I was able to start downloading the 1st set before the 2nd set was even over. (For all of you who are dying to hear it, you can download it hereThose kids today w/ their new-fangled technology... up-loading the show from the floor of the Coliseum. We used to have to wait & wait & hunt down bootlegs over thee course of months & sometimes years. The show last night clocked in @ 3 hours & 45 minutes & the setlist is spectacular.
Set I
Fluffhead
Divided Sky
Chalkdust Torture
Sample in a Jar
Stash
I Didn't Know
Oh Kee Pah>
Suzy Greenberg
Farmhouse
NICU
Horn
Train Song
Water in the Sky
Squirming Coil
David Bowie

Set II
Backwards Down the Number Line
Tweezer
Taste
Possum
Theme From the Bottom
First Tube
Harry Hood
Waste
YEM

Encore:
Grind
Bouncing Around The Room
Loving Cup

Infinity Blues

A 2nd Ryan Adams post in less than a month seems a bit much, but his new book came out yesterday, & since I was @ Nicolas anyway, I grabbed it solely because I thought it might be bloggable. I was right. It's actually not bad, or rather some of the poems are really good... others are shit. Interesting post-modern ideas back to back w/ whiny teen-angst. from what I've read so far, I'd say a good 2/3 of the poems are worthwhile. I don't know that they'll ever find their way into my classroom, but w/ a little more editing he could really have something. It's no Tarantula (the Dylan influence is pretty obvious throughout), but it's not Jewel either.
Here's a little excerpt from the poem "Cinderella" ll 26-46:
I am too weak for you
between my legs where the balls are
my battleships are pirated
my seas triggered with anger
and the wrath
of the day of the dogs
so cast your wicked eyes from mine
and be a child
but not to me
because I am further now than gone
and your feet give you away
with your dark heart path
and those shoes
so wrong
you are weaker than those drinks
with those girlyboys
fruit, seafoam, glass, and umbrella
chase it to the bottom of the pile
it's trash
and I am glorious in my natural bottomless rage
and far too clean

The DIA, a Deerstalker, &, come to think of it, a Heineken

We scored free DIA tickets from the library this week & decided to cap off my spring break w/ a trip into town. We met up w/ Elizabeth & Dan & had a great time showing the kids all the stuff. They'd never been there before but seemed to have a really good time. It was hard to gage because they claimed to be bored a lot, but they seemed really into it. They just didn't have the ability to contextualize it. We could never have done something like this when Sosltic eor Aiden were little, but Isaiah was sooo good the whole time... he loved shilling out & looking @ stuff. Aiden loved the medieval armour & Solstice was into the medieval religious stuff, the Van Goghs, & she seemed to enjoy the post-modern stuff too... it cracked her up. It cracks me up too which is partly why I love it. I must admit, I've never been too impressed by Warhol though. There are certainly much more interesting post-modernists than him. Speaking of being cracked up, I also cracked myself up by ordering a deerstalker last week for 8 pounds 7. It arrived & I wore it all day which was cool but also a bit attention whorey. I love it though, so after I've broken it in a bit, I'm sure it will be fine... kind of like my kilts I guess. I didn't used to be very comfortable wearing them either but now it's 2nd nature. I assumed Elizabeth would be less than pleased when she saw me walk into the museum in my kilt & deerstalker so I had to go ahead w/ it... it was pretty great. It was also pretty great when we got a snack The Kresge Court & saw they sell Heineken. I've never been a fan of it before, but along w/ watching Solstice in the contemporary gallery & wearing my deerstalker, I thought a Heineken would crack me up... I was right. It's nasty, but it was funny. While we "enjoyed" our Dutch import, Dan explained that the US will be playing Honduras @ soldier Field on June 6. Apparently a road trip is in order. For those of you who have forgotten, you can read about our last trip to Chicago for a US match here. Gauguin's self-portrait Solstice and a sculpture Dan and a creepy, creepy baby Solstice fascinated by a Lichtenstein Stephanie nurses beautifully as the kids look ridiculous

The Root Beer Post

Last summer I was on about Orange Crush, & while I'm certainly not off of the Crush, I haven' been quite as soda-oriented lately. That said, I just had a fantastic root beer (a Frostop w/ dinner & thought I'd mention it. Jason will tell you A&W is the best, & as for frosted mugs w/ on-tap root beer he's absolutely right. I'm gonna focus on the bottled stuff though. Obviously, claiming to have had ever brand would be ridiculous, but I have tried a lot over the years. Here they are, rated on a scale of 1-5, in reverse alphabetical order (if you can think of others that I've tried, or others you've tried & would like to rate, be sure to leave the old comments):

Wild Bill's *****
A nice creamy body w/ a sweat, full finish. It's really good.

Virgil's ***
A bit pretentious, but better than their ginger ale

Stewart's ***
A basic, rootbeer w/o many bells or whistle, but it's fine

Sioux City ****
To quote The Stranger, "That's a good one." It is the grand daddy, after all.

Natural Brew **
A decent body, but the finish is a bit thin and uninteresting

Mug *
Fine in a pinch, but certainly nothing to write home about

Jones***
Considering how popular this is, I would have thought it'd be better, but it's tolerable

IBC ****
The 1st micro-brewed root beer I ever had. You've all had it and it's pretty damn good.

Hires **
Better than most of the major label brews.

Hansen's **
Similar to Natural Brew. It opens well, but the finish is thin and tinny. Hints of marzipan and dried cherries.

Goose Island ***
Like their beer, it's good, but not great. It's certainly better than some though

Frostop *****
Creamy and full bodied. This is a quality brew. They sell it @ Washtenaw Liqueur... try it! Nothing tops it, but the foam... or so they say.. & i think they might be right.

Frostie ***
I imagine it was a lot better before they changed the recpe adding the high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweetners & dropping the cane sugar. It's nothing special now.

Faygo ***
Much better than one would expect. A nice full flavor & the finish has a little bite

Dad's ****
I remember liking this a lot, but it's been a long time. I don't recall much about it

Boylan ***
Another tolerable brew.

Blue Sky ***
There's something about the labels sold in the natural Foods Stores that misses the mark. It's like Natural brew and Hansen's... decent, but thin and forgettable

Barq's *
Stay away from this stuff... it's BAD!

A&W ***
Probably the best of the main stream brews. The plastic bottes doon't do it justice though. Do like Jason & get a frosty mug.

Finnegan's Wake Post #2

I'm still slowing making progress through the book. It's even starting to make a little sense. I read a glos of the first 2 chapters & what I basically thought was happening is actually what's happening. HCE has been accused of molesting/having sex w//some sort of sexual transgression w/ a young woman/teenage girl, but it doesn't seem likely that he is guilty or was even in the park @ that time. It sounds like his rumored guilt will spread around Dublin/Dooblym/Dabbyland & briefly/completely/until he dies tarnish his reputation. We'll see. Here's a nice little passage for you:
"Hay, hay, hay! Hoq, hoq, hoq! Faun and Flora on the lea love that little old joq. To anyone who knew and loved the christlikeness of the big cleanminded giant H. C. Earwicker thoughout his excellency long vicefreegal existence the mere suggestion of him as a lustsleuth nosing for trouble in a booby traprings particularly preposterous."

In other reading news, we did Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" in class yesterday. It's a fun little story about a guy who rewrites Don Quixote in 1902... word-for-word. It seemed as though people's heads were going to explode as they tried to wrap their minds around the idea of rewriting a book... but Borges is soooo fucking cool. Be sure to check him out if you haven't, or give him another look if you have.

Solstice

We're sitting in the living room and Spongebob is about to start. I go to change the channel and Aiden freaks out.
Aiden: "I'm sick. I get to watch what I want!"
Me: "Since when?"
Aiden: :I'll go to bed right after it."
Solstice: "I'M NOT GOING TO WATCH THAT CURSIVE SHOW!"
Me: "Cursive? Do you mean curséd?"
Solstice: "Yeah! That's the word! curséd!"

Not Even Omar Sharif Could Save This Film

He only had a couple scenes, & what he did was fantastic, but it was simply too little too late. We watched The Last Templar this week (it is a 2 part mini series... we finished it last night). It has the production value of a decent Skinemax softcore & the acting inabilities of Mira Sorvino, which come together in an awful blend of awesomeness. I could definitely see this being 1 of those crap-ass films that I'll get sucked into every time it's on like Waterworld or a Roger Moore James Bond film. In fact, Waterworld is a good comparison, but Waterworld had a bigger budget w/ better effect. It's certainly no Flash Gordon or Clash of the Titans though.I haven't seen many of her films, but I'm beginning to wonder if the Oscar for her role as a hooker in Mighty Aphrodite was a bit generous... playing a trashy whore seems to be her 1 true talent.The Last Templar has gotten me thinking about other Archaeological Action/Adventures of the last 30 years & how it compares to them. Obviously, Indiana Jones tops the list, but here is a list of the ten that stand out & how The Last Templar fits in.
1) Romancing the Stone
2) The Man who Would Be King... not an Indy rip-off... 5 years prior to Indy based on the Kipling novella
3) King Solomon's Mines (the Richard Chamberlain Version... based on the Haggard novel from 100 years earlier, but only made o cash in on Indy fun)
4) Firewalker
5) Jewel of the Nile
6) National Treasure
7) The Mummy
8) The Librarian
9) Pit Fall (the Atari 2600 game... I'd rather watch someone play this than watch Tomb Raider)
10) Tomb Raider
11) The Last Templar

Aiding and Abetting the Celebrity Gossip Sites

I just learned via a friend's facebook update that Ryan Adams & Mandy Moore are engaged. Of course, Visions of Ypsi is known around the globe for its dedication to a skeptical approach to celeb gossip & rumor mongering, so we need to look closer @ this rumor. I'm really not that concerned w/ celebrity marriage, & I highly doubt any relationship involving Ryan Adams has a chance @ longevity, but the fact that Mandy Moore is involved is intruiging... I know absolutely nothing about her, but I hear her name a lot so she must be extremely talented. Anywaya, here's the situation.
1. I read the Facebook status
2. I Googled "Ryan Adams Mandy Moore
3. I clicked on the 1st link that mentioned their engagement, E-Online, who cited no one so I had to go back to Google.
4. I found the New York Magazine page which also discussed their engagement, & this strangely anti-Ryan Adams site even included a citation... Life & Style Magazine.
5. Follown their link to Life & Style, I was actually directed to Perez Hilton, which also cited Life & Style; however, the link they posted doesn't work.
6. I returned to Google & searched for Life & Style, a site that seems to have neither a reference to this rumored engagement, nor a search function.

It was this 6-step process that has dented my faith in the internet. I'm beginning to wonder if it's all just a bunch of baseless links w/ nothing but porn & hearsay... shocking!

James Joyce makes for a fun winter

I started reading Finnegan's Wake again this week & can proudly announce that @ 10 pages I've made it twice as far as ever before. It's like Dr. Seuss & Lewis Carroll got together & ate some mushrooms. But rather than an extensive... ie: boring... post about it, I think I'm going to occasionally just give you all a couple quotes this winter while I slowly make my way through it. Here are the 1st few quotes:

* Hootch is for husbandman handling his hoe. Hohohoho, Mister Finn, you're going to be Mister Finnagain! Comeday morm, & O, you're vine! Sendday's eve & oh you're vinegar! Hahahaha, Mister Funn, you're going to be fined again!

* Arrah, sure, we all love little Anny Ruiny, or, wee mean to say, lovelittle Anna Rayiny, when unda her brella, mid piddle, med puddle, she ninnygoes, nannygoes, nancing by. Yoh!

Stay tuned to Visions of Ypsi... there's sure to be more to come! And you can read it along w/ me & maybe even get you Joseph Campbell on.

A Wiki Week

In my comp classes, I have my students writing Wikipedia pages as part of their multi-genre project. They have to find something that isn't on there already and learn all of the conventions & formatting rules. As it turns out, this has also been a fun little learning project for me. To teach it, I obviously had to learn it & be able to demonstrate it... something I didn't really think about in December when I came up w/ the assignment. In trying to figure all of it out, I've come to a 2-fold realization:
1) It's a pretty fun site
2) I'm loving tweaking stuff & I've made a bunch of changes
* I cleaned up & expanded the Depot Town page .
* I added "The Mexican Slayride" to the Boilermaker page .
* I placed a picture of Isaiah in the Yawn page... mainly because I needed to learn how to add a picture & that's the 1 I had on my office desk-top .
* I created a page for the Michigan Elvisfest... it's still pretty brief, but it's a start & I've got about a week to double its size since I want my class to create pages about twice as long for their assignment.

Along w/ writing the page, they've been discussing the problems w/ the site & it seems that if more students looked into it like this, there'd be far fewer of them who see it as a legitimate source for research projects. The other new project I've got them doing this semester is blogging... if you're interested, there are links to all of their blogs on my class blog.

This is for the Steelers... & Demir

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is
Still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be. yeah
There will be an answer, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me,
Shine on until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be.
There will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be,
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.