So lately I've been obsessively looking for the Smoking Popes/Groovy Love Vibes split 7" on which both bands team up to cover Leather and Lace by Fleetwood Mac. If you've never heard it you really need to and if you DO have it, well then I'd love to arrange a trade of some sort. *sniffle*. Holes in record collections are the devil.

I spent the entire day yesterday recovering on the couch from an entirely crazy night before. Blind Pig. Me. Mike W. Jason was bartending. Cheap PBR. After wackiness ensued there, Mike W. (hereby known as Wilson) and I decided it was a wise decision to split. So on our way out someone grabs my arm to stop me from walking out the door. It was Jason's girlfriend Rebecca. So I stopped and chatted without noticing Wilson had left. An hour later we were concerned about the no-phone-answering-whiskey-toting-swimming-in-Pabst-Mr. Wilson. So I confirmed the near future plans of an all-vegan BBQ with Rebecca and headed home to see what was going on. He was here, but what happened to him after he left is just incredibly funny. He walked from the Pig to the Brass Rail. Gave the bartender a beer from his back pocket. Purchased a pitcher and drank part of it. Then walked outside to a biker gang. 100% female. Wilson said,"Hey where are you guys going? Can I get a ride? They arrive here and then he says," So which one of you wants to make out with me first?" They replied,"Dude, we're lesbians!" Mike goes,"Rad!" Then they took his money and peeled out. In the midst of all that he was carrying another potted plant. I have no idea where he got it.

my god, i am so bored. i actually woke up before 7am and now i cannot figure out why. oh, right. the obnoxiously loud infomercial.
it looks like it will probably rain today. i guess that's good. yesterday i planted a bunch of flowers outside and in a few pots to keep indoors. maybe it'll give them a good jump start. the outsiders.
i was going to attempt that thing...what do they call it...running. i was going to head over to the little woods in town and hoof it around a bit, but you know. rain. i am way to good at talking myself out of things.

As I type this my shirt has a big ol' BBQ sauce stain from the craziness of last night. I see it more as a badge of honor than a hygiene issue. Goodnight, that smoker is just genius. I highly recommend one if you haven't tried one out. We smoked the ribs and the chicken with charcoal and cherry wood. Next time I think I'll try out some apple wood. I've heard good things about it.
There was plenty of PBR flowing as well. That being said, I do vaguely remember a goofy style dance party going on to the tune of Sugarloaf's Green Eyed Lady. Just try to imagine the Peanut's Gang with beer bellies trying to make the others crack up by doing the absolute dumbest dance moves you can think of. Come to think of it, I developed a new intro move last night that starts off with the highest kick you can muster into a downward hunch then you pop up with a wave technique. Oh my god. I can't believe I was doing that.
Then there's this trick that's always funny when you have had a few.
I should just get on with the photos.
Here's Jason cooking up some garlic and butter sauce. That's his little corner usually. He's also the resident boombox operator.
Here's me testing out Jason's new BBQ sauce concoction. Guess what I thought of it. Outstanding. I'd expect no less from J.
Next we have a photo of a delicious rib smoking away. Those guys were on the smoker for five hours.
This is Mike W. gearing up for the festivities.
And Mike again super stoked on the chicken. That's a good photo.
This is the night coming to fruition. It looks like a scene from Medieval Times. That's Ribs, chicken, kabobs, salmon, collard greens with garlic & butter sauce and biscuits.
I was trying to think of a way to where next time this goes down, and it will really soon, I could make this more interactive. I could mail out ribs! I'll have to figure that one out. Maybe get one of those air tight plastic sealers or something. Yes.

yay! it's the super-cue day. meaning there's no burgers and brats going on the grill tonight. we've got 3, count 'em, three huge slabs of ribs, chicken, skewers, and some huge salmon. it's is going to be on.
but before it gets to actually 'be' on, i have to:(in order)
1. kill weeds, cut the grass
2. spray off back patio
3. plant daisies
4. purchace BBQ smoker for Jason's birfday.
5. be a werewolf for the movie again.
6. work

and THEN it can be 'on'. full report mananer. i can't do the tilde thing.

Jason and I were grillin' it up a couple of weeks ago and he put on a June of 44 song that I was wigging out over. I hunted it down and here it is. Holy crap that's a good song.

ack! My Shiner Starless cd has gone missing! I've been listening to The Egg for the past few days which sneakily drew me into this Shiner-a-thon that I'm currently on. And I can't find it. ugh. I really hate when this happens. I didn't know they had a video for Kevin is Gone. This song/video totally gives me goosebumps. I love love love me some Shiner. I may have to go around town today and hunt it down on vinyl so I won't lose it again. I probably lent it out.

For some reason lately I have been obsessing over pork products. This coming up Monday has now been dubbed rib cook-off day. I've got my lovey spice rub plan in place. yeahhhh. Coincidentally, I'm snackin' on some BAKEN-ETS 0g NET CARBS HOT'N SPICY FLAVORED FRIED PORK SKINS. Technically speaking I'm snacking on deep fried footballs. Delicious.

So yesterday I had yet another job interview. This one was for a beer distribution company. Sounds like a good time, right? First off, let it be known that I just do not interview well. I don't. I always have the objective in the forefront of my thoughts.
Get job. Need duckets. I like ducks.
Anyway, I check in at the front desk and begin the wait to be seen. Finally this lady walks out and introduces herself as do I and into the office we went. All of the sudden she pushed me onto the desk and began to loosen my belt with her teeth and...wait, that's not what happened. This would have been a fantastic direction for the whole deal to go in, but it most certainly did not. When I first walked into her office, it looked like Tony Robbins puked all over the place. The walls had at least 10 of those screwed up pictures with a mountain range in the background with a caption like Success: Anticipate the power of your inner-self. The desk held an assortment of weird-o-rama yuppie Voodoo trinkets. And as I spoke with her I realized Mr. Robbins may have even wiped her natural mind clean like George Bush's head passing through a metal detector. There's a thoroughly underdeveloped joke for you. What I mean is on one side you have her, the positive mental mechanic operating under the Laws of Optimum Success or whatever and on the other, a neurotic broke drummer who would much rather be at the Blind Pig having a PBR than dealing with this monstrosity. At one point during the interview, I swear this is true, she said "Ok, now it's your turn. Go ahead and ask me something. It can be anything at all." By this time I knew I wasn't going to get the job so my first inclination was to ask her if she wanted to make out. But I didn't. Instead I reluctantly replied, "So. Do you like cheese?" I smiled and received absolutely no feedback, got up from my chair and felt like hitting the big rewind button that would send be flippity-floppitying backwards through the front door. zip zip zip. Somehow I was outside by my car literally 30 seconds post cheese comment. That's the way I roll.

This is just too damn funny.
And so is this one.

That was quite possibly the strangest job interview I've ever been on. The first half took place at Provena Covenant Medical Center, the local religion based medical facility. So I had to fake it a bit. Sounds creepy? yep. I just about walked out but decided to just ride it out. The lady who interviewed me was throwing out quite a facade herself. I could see it in her face that she wasn't the person she was portraying. Maybe there's some kind of Branch Dividian David Koresh thing going on. Whatever. So I applied the SEG (expletive eating grin) and proceeded to give the answers that she wanted to hear. And that was it. Part one completed. From here it actually gets to be cool. The second part of the interview took place at another location. As I left the hospital, I just about said screw it and went home, but once again I decided to just ride it out. I pulled up to a place called Pro Ambulance. Yeah! I know who Nicolas Cage is. I saw Bringing Out The Dead. Hell yes.
I can do this job.
I walked in and the place was just like a firehouse. No firepole though. hee hee.
this time the interview was more my speed which entailed people who weren't fake, jokes being cracked, and a fifty-cent soda machine. I'd get to be an ambulance driver and they would pay for school if I wanted to become an EMT. I assume that I have a decent shot at getting the job because post-interview I was given a detailed tour of the place. hope hope hope. If not I may be saying crap about lattes again. God, no.

up and at them. i'm about to get ready for a job interview. i don't mind dressing up a bit, but the problem lies in the undeniable fact that i've become just a tad portly. mainly in the potbelly department. vertical pinstripes.

yowsers. as in more than one, or plural, if you will and you should because it's only proper. it's nearing the two o'clock hour in the pm and i'm just getting started today. afternoons have been my mornings for the past month. i decided, as per my weekly ritual, to spend my sunday evening potbellied up to the bar, in the chair i've already proclaimed as mine, at the Blind Pig in creepily small downtown Champaign. plus, when the bartender is Jason and you can have some major influence on what gets played on the ol' stereo just spells out a good time. on a side note, bar beer seems to be more powerful than beer store beer. PBR is PBR?! i think not. after 4 or 5 i transformed into a little loopy loo. i wish i were latin. do you get that or...?
i maintain my stance on the peeber. i still feel kinda loopity. i have to get going though because i told Jason's soon-to-be brother-in-law that i'd be a werewolf in his movie today. should be fun. just imagine a little man running around campus in a hairy wolf mask with some eau de PBR going on. good times.

it's weird to be back in Champaign. i keep seeing old buildings and broken down little shops that i remember staring at while cruising shotgun in my ma's old monte carlo when I was seven. most likely listening to eddie rabbit or reo speedwagon, seriously. then there's the big W in the upper right hand side of the television screen warning of incoming stormy weather. i used to be deathly afraid of that W, but now i totally welcome it. i dig the stormy weather. what can i say.
my roommate and i got a house on, well really close to campus. even so, it's really quiet and peaceful. my room is upstairs. i like when i wake up in the morning and i can hear the squirrel clamoring around on the roof just feet above my head. actually, i just tell myself that it's a nice little squirrel, but the truth is there are 2 to 3 raccoons or possums living in my attic that have been trying to relocate to the confines of the inner house. so. i thought i'd take the usual peaceful route.
this place is also great because i've been rocking the drum kit in the basement really loud until 1am and no one has complained or mentioned anything. i love it.
crap. i just realized that i have two cigarettes going.
the local drum shop is a mere 3 blocks from here. i freak out when i drive by because they keep putting different jazz kits in the show window and each one of them turns into a puppy to me. must get high paying job to finance ever growing sweet looking drum owning urge.
Cadillac ack ack ack ack ack ack.
MGD is the Old Style of Champaign.
Miller High Life is the champagne of beers.
i am the king of peeers.