Post Halloween

The Horror Movie Mini-Fest was a moderate success. Booze and conversation flowed freely and much food and candy were consumed.

KickEnemyMen came up from Maine and stopped in Burlington to visit his childhood friend YogaGirl. He knew we'd want her to come (but would forget to ask her), so he brought her along. Step-Brother-in-Law came with his two puppies (well, young dogs) Kermit and Thumper. We love them, but the cat was... unimpressed. Cranky J, his wife R and little daughter Starbuck (hee!) made a surprise visit and Cranky was happy that he got to see me tipsy.

AndreZero and ScienceGirl came, too. It was going to be a bit of fun because ScienceGirl hates the portrayal of scientists in film and one of the films I got was the fabulous "I'll show them all!"-type scientist film "X- the Man with the X-Ray Eyes".

Also to be had were "THEM!" (still a pretty good film despite the effects. The girl whose family was the fist to die by THEM! was still extraordinarily creepy) and "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (not bad either. The effects are not astounding, but you can still feel that they were astounding in the day. The only bad thing was the soliloquy tacked onto the end; but the continuity of the light of the moon shining on the shrinking man was nicely done).

Cranky J, R and Starbuck left just after THEM! as did AndreZero and ScienceGirl (who had to be in the lab the next day). X went in next, but the disc started randomly pausing, so in went TISM. Overall, lots of basic enjoyment of the movie with some ROTFL MST3k moments.

SBiL introduced us all to a drink that is, in a way, like disc golf: it sounds stupid in description, but in reality is a kind of awesome. The drink is a bottle of Guinness in a glass with a shot of butterscotch schnapps. No, really! It is a kind of awesome and a truly great winter drink.

We all stayed up late sobering up. YogaGirl headed home around midnight and then we all hit the rack (SE, the cat and I in our bed, KickEnemyMen on the library futon and SBiL and the puppies on our living room futon). In the morning, all four of us walked down to the local breakfast place, The Flour Shop for the kind of breakfast that keeps you going until about two in the afternoon.

After that, SE had to do some art errands, so KEM and I met YogaGirl in Burlington and we walked around for to or three hours. KEM is a geocacher and we tried to do some finding, but we were 0 for six; who puts urban caches without hints? Sheesh! YG and KEM said goodbye, then back to our house to pack KEM up.

KEM's visits were always short, but I got to give him a cool birthday present: A big bottle of VERY good stout and a VERY tasty bleu cheese (a combo I tried at a beer and cheese pairing at our local natural food store ).

Whew! So a great weekend.

To finish off the party post, here's a shot of SBiL not quite enjoying X with Thumper. She is the cutest Lab mix ever:



Also, last night I posted an update to Death of a Friend!

Listening to while posting: "Zeno of Elea (490bc - 430bc)" by Artichoke

Been a long time since I've rocked and rolled

So, this weekend Kick Enemy Men (that's him on the right) and his wife came up north to go to see Clutch play at our local music club . They really dig Clutch, but I've never heard them before. KEM sent me a couple of MP3s, and I thought they were okay and I thought the show would be at least pretty cool.

However, it was great. Clutch is a really interesting band. They aren't a new band and not as hardcore as I'd thought they would be. They could really play. The bass player worked the hardest of all, I thought. This is because while the drummer wove the beat around and the guitar player mixed in these intricate little arpeggios, the bassist just kept thumping the downbeat. He must have carpal tunnel like mad. As an aging bassist, I can commiserate.

The crowd was fun to watch as well. While I am no Daumier, I've done some drawings of some of the more memorable (and easier to draw) fans. The show was on Sat, these were done on Mon and today:

First, there was Probably High (or at Least Drunk) Dancing Girl. This girl, short, with very red pants and her hair literally tied in a knot danced in this strange slowmotion thrash. Like she was battling her own inner mosh pit. In maple syrup. What really made me think she was high (or at least drunk) was how she talked to the merch guy of one of the opening acts. She kept pointing to different merch on the table and each time she pointed with a different finger. The finger she was pointing with also appeared to be what held her up:



This is supposed to be the merch guy for Clutch (we were near the merch tables, can you tell?). It doesn't really look like him, but I really like the picture, so there:



This guy was cool to see. Not just for him, but for what happened around him. As you can see, he has sort of a Kingpin Lite thing going on. What made it cool, was that everybody seemed happy to see him. This one girl saw him and ran over and hugged him like he was her long lost brother (maybe he was, who knows?). Later, she came running through the crowd to him with another girl in tow. This new girl seemed like she didn't know where she was being led, because when she saw this guy, her face lit up (another long lost sister?) and another hug ensued. I think I captured him pretty well:



This was one of the security people. She was about 5'3" and she carried herself with an assurance that went a long way to showing how a 5'3" girl can work security at a rock show. She was Asian with bleach-blonde hair and had one of those sneaky secret service earbuds attached to a not so sneaky walkie talkie on her belt:




So the show was cool, but it is always great to see KEM. We all drank a bit before we went to the show. I had to limit myself because I was driving and am not yet stupid enough to drive drunk. After the show we headed back and snacked on cashews and peanut M&Ms and drank margarittas (made in and consumed from our beautiful/tacky 60's bar set) and a drink KEM found in my Bartender's Bible called a Borble(which, when made with Southern Comfort, tastes exactly like the juice of fresh-squeezed Smarties).

I don't drink all that often (bar set notwithstanding), as I only do so with people I trust. KEM I trust alot. So, we were pretty lit. KEM's wife hit the sack about 1am and Sweet Enemy, KEM and I stayed up until 3. Playing Scrabble and watching DVDs. For the record, this show is terrible, even when very, very drunk. It's not even in a so-bad-it's-funny way. Trust us.

It was good to be oldish and go to a rock show, drink until three and STILL get up at 830am to make everybody a breakfast of homemade pancakes, scrambled eggs, VT maple syrup, undercooked homefries (only the second time I've made 'em) and fresh-ground, fair-trade, shade-grown coffee (from plantation owned by author Julia Alvarez). I usually make it brutally black, but I eased it up for the guests. Then we played a great game of Scrabble. It was KEM's wife's first time ever playing. She was a bit pissed about losing, but I told her (from personal experience) if you go through life expecting to win at your first time all the time, you're setting yourself for a world of disappointment.

After that they left, which is always not as good as their arrival. I felt pretty good despite it being along time in between rock and rolling. I did have a massive one hour nap attack at 230pm, but it was a Sunday after all. SE and I sat around playing Legos and listening to NPR all afternoon.

Listening to while posting: "Further I Slide" By Badly Drawn Boy