29 June 2006

greatest advertisement ever

(this is over on Lebanon Rd. near Donelson Pike)

(and this is on Donelson Pike right before you get to the interstate (north side))

Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?

how cool is this? i had no idea that the polarizer filter on a camera worked like this. i just figured it out yesterday after wondering why it was able to spin. all i'm doing is turning the lens in my hand. (it does the same thing on anything digital: watch, clock, etc.) i mean, i knew it was supposed to cut out glare and whatnot, but i didn't realize it was "adjustable."

this is from the other day when i was messing around with the shutter speed on my camera. i had to do some reading because i didnt really understand the difference between "aperture" and "shutter speed." the shutter speed is pretty obvious by name, but the aperture is the size opening the lens has when it takes a pictures (like the iris in your eye). and the rule of thumb with those 2 is that when you bump one up, you bring the other down. makes sense. anyway, i'm gonna mess around with it this weekend with a tripod and a bunch of fireworks. i cant wait.

i just randomly thought of that "plethora" quote from ¡Three Amigos! and decided to look it up. what a hilarious movie. so many amazing lines in it.

Jefe: We have many beautiful pinatas for your birthday celebration, each one filled with little surprises!
El Guapo: How many pinatas?
Jefe: Many pinatas, many!
El Guapo: Jefe, would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A plethora.
Jefe: Oh yes, El Guapo. You have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you just told me that I had a plethora, and I would just like to know if you know what it means to have a plethora. I would not like to think that someone would tell someone else he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: El Guapo, I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education, but could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

Bartender: We don't have beer. Just tequila.
Ned Nederlander: What's tequila?
Bartender: Uh, it's like beer.

absolutely brilliant.

and here for my final thought in this plethora of randomness, are some Regina Spektor lyrics. i enjoy this verse in particular:

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took
And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood
And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

26 June 2006

Did you know that The Mountain Goats have put out about 40 albums/EPs?

Me neither.

I think one of my pet peeves lately has been: small bouts of depression. And I don't mean like real depression, just the kind that brings you down for the better part of a day. Maybe just a morning or afternoon even. There are several things that seem to get me. And they're lame. I know it, but they're there. For example, the feeling you get when no one seems to be as interested or impressed by something as you. Everybody knows this and I'm sure despise it just as much as I. The fun thing about a blog or YouTube or MySpace is that it's outlet for displaying what you like or are impressed with or just have general interest in. It's especially fun to think about the possibility of others getting that same enjoyment out of something you've publicly displayed (or rather, enjoyment from you). And when you're out of school and don't live around all your friends because you now have a real life, this outlet becomes more important (at least to me I think). Well, something recently that disappointed me (and this isn't huge, it's just been on my mind) was WOXY. And I'll be the first to make excuses for them. They had their music festival (Desdemona) going on this week and frankly, they're probably fairly busy with most real life problems and whatnot just like everyone else. Anyway, my iota of beef is this, I kind of thought at least someone from their organization would be interested in how my Bonnaroo experience was since I did win tickets from them. (I seriously feel like a whinny (whiney?) baby right now, but I'm going to continue... because that's what babies do.) so I sent them several emails saying I was back and had an awesome time and wrote about it a put up pictures and whatnot, only to have no response whatsoever. Nothing. I checked my sitemeter and there were 4(?) visits from somewhere in Ohio close to Cincinnati so I guess that was someone from the station? I mean, I'm not asking for my picture to be put up on the front page or anything, I just thought, I don't know, maybe there'd be some sort of follow-up? Even from like, a station manager or something. I mean, I was thrilled about getting to tell them about it. Like I was some ambassador or something. And like I said this isn't huge by any means. I still went, had a blast, and (similar to my stay in Hungary) no one is going to fully understand it like someone who was there. So why complain? Because that's what the internet is for. Seriously though, I'm sure WOXY gets 250,000 emails a day, but I always feel like I'm the doofus kid in school trying to be cool and get the attention of one of the cool kids whenever I email or have interaction with WOXY. I'm sure it's just me. I mean, they did essentially give me $400 (And if by some bizarre chance someone from WOXY does read this, please don't blacklist me or something. That would be extremely disappointing.)

(the art of Such n Such at Bonnaroo)

good grief. Where was I? I don't even know. It's hard to express yourself on this topic without sounding like you just want attention. I don't want attention. I just want relationships. With everyone. Does anyone else feel like that? Like all you really want are relationships with more people. Maybe even more so, DEEPER relationships with the people you know. How incredible that time from high school through college was for producing meaningful relationships; where you could just pour hours and hours of your day into growing with each other and learning everything you possibly could, then go to bed and wake up the next morning ready to start it all again. I miss that. And I'm way off topic from where I began. (And reading over this, I think maybe this whole things sounds really stupid. Oh well. I'm sure someone will let me know.)

(she's so cute)

maybe I just have a case of the "Mondays."

(perhaps i should add: i'm not mad at WOXY or even upset, i was just... i guess my feelings got hurt just a little. i'm sure there's a logical reason for it all. so... not mad, just disappointed.)

21 June 2006

Bonnaroo 2006

(Welcome to Planet Roo)

(The giant mushroom fountain. You can actually see this using Google Earth.)

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being sitting in a small beige room with nothing (not even a chair) and 10 being getting to 6 Flags with all your friends and they let you in for free and no one else is there and everything in side is free and there’s beer.) I give Bonnaroo a 7. It was a lot of fun. It was REALLY tiring, but a ton of fun (I think one of the biggest things was just being around all the people our age; it was a nice change).

(Thursday morning around 6:30am)

(This Tent)

We left here about midnight on Wednesday and got to Manchester around 2am-ish (we had to turn around and get the tickets a few miles down the road). And while getting there at that time in the morning really beat the rush (it took us 30 min TOPS to get through the lines and security) it also puts you way in the back of Bonnaroo. I mean, it makes sense to fill up the back first, but we thought we were going to have such an awesome spot; turns out we were literally 1 mile from Centeroo (the area with all the music and whatnot). I know this because I took my pedometer with me. I lost it on Sunday, but with a little estimation, we walked 20 miles this weekend. Seriously. (gotta hand it to my Chacos always taking good care of my feet.) Then, on the 2nd night I stepped on a rogue tent stake and cut the inside of my foot good. So my right calf is a bit sore from walking on the outside of foot most of the weekend.

(The ferris wheel at night)


Anywho, when we arrived, they moved us into lines like cattle, we parked, and then everyone started jumping out of their cars and throwing up tents to claim space. It was like we got off the bus to a war or something. I guess they all knew that if they didn’t claim space fast they would lose it to the next row of cars coming in (and they would’ve). By the time we finished setting up all tents and canopies, the sun was on its way up. We sat up till sunrise (6:30am) and then laid down to sleep… till 8:30am… when the heat arrived. All of the sudden it was 90° in the tent. Being 8:30 in the morning and having just had my night’s sleep cut short considerably, it seemed like a good time for beer. So we had beer. The rest of the day we just tried to stay in the shade and rest up till things got going that night. This wasn’t entirely boring because at any moment someone could walk by selling some crazy drug that we’d never heard of. I say “we” as in, me, jesse, and wes. Our other campmates were fairly well acquainted with most substances.

(The bobbleheads amidst a sea of people)

(That Tent)

In fact, and I never would have expected this beforehand, but it seemed to me that people NOT using drugs (specifically cannabis) were more the exception than the rule. I was a bit amazed actually. By the end of the weekend, I just assumed that everyone I came to encounter smoked weed. Does that seem weird to anyone? That in a crowd of 80,000 people, probably (what seemed like) 75%-80% (and possibly up) smoked? I’m not sure. Anyway, the whole concept of drugs being “illegal” was kind of thrown out the window. It was like this during this small moment in time, everything was legal. If you got it into Bonnaroo, it was legal. People walked through the tent city selling drugs, they were off the main path in the trees selling drugs, they were selling brownies on the minor streets. It was amazing. However, I’m rather proud to say that Jess and I are still drug free.

One of the craziest things to me was that the only difference between 3:00 pm and 3:00 am was that at 3:00 in the morning it was dark. it was unbelieveable the amount of people out all through the night. i imagine hundreds of people just slept in Centeroo several nights.

(2:30 am at The Other Tent)

(this was underwear guy. in his defense, it was an extremely hot day.)

The rest of weekend we spent hydrating, walking around to concerts, snacking, drinking (but not as much as I’d hoped for; it was just too freakin’ hot), wading through crowds of people, listening to sweet music, and hydrating more. I probably would’ve played tons of guitar had our neighbors not touted their reggae CD collection the ENTIRE time. Also, it was rather difficult to make it to every band you wanted to see. You just had to choose one and go for it. There were just too many people to move through and to much distance to cover to make it to everything. Plus you only have so much energy for day of walking 90° weather (on very little sleep). However, here are the bands (I think) we saw (not necessarily their entirety, but at least some of):

Matt Costa

Seu Jorge
Ben Folds
Bright Eyes
Nickel Creek
Death Cab for Cutie
(we wanted to make it to Common/Blackalicious/Lyrics Born, but we fell asleep)

(Radiohead performs at What Stage)

The Magic Numbers
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Amadou & Mariam
Damian Marley
Balkan Beat Box
Dresden Dolls

(Radiohead up close. Check out those VIP seats!)

Mike Doughty (twice) (he rocked that much)
Be Your Own PET
The Streets
Steve Earle
Bonnie Raitt

(Mike Doughty)

Like I said, there are so many more I would’ve just loved to have seen had I had the time or energy. By Sunday, I think we were both running on fumes. We just wanted to sit somewhere and listen to music and fall asleep.

Reading over this I may have made it sound like we didn’t have an incredible time, but I in no way meant that. It really was an awesome weekend. It was really exhausting, but worth every second.

Also, if you’re looking for a hardy camera that you can drop 2 stories (into the grass) (off the bleachers) (after Radiohead), I highly recommend the Olympus c-765. It took it like a champ.

(thanks again)

13 June 2006

this is off the woxy.com site

WOXY.COM: Bonnaroo Tickets WINNER!

Hearty congrats are in order to WOXY.COM Member Josh Hunter, who was a little bit in shock on the phone and said that he "never wins anything." We think it is safe to say his luck has turned around this week. He's headed to Bonnaroo courtesy of Devotchka and WOXY.COM! Don't forget your sunscreen Josh and we expect a full report next week.

Josh's $9.95 membership fee just turned into over $400 worth of free tickets! If you haven't signed up yet, follow this link to join now: http://www.woxy.com/support/

how insane is that? man. i'm flabbergasted.


i just won 2 tickets to Bonnaroo off WOXY.com, so, yeah... wow.

12 June 2006

a few more pictures from this weekend

this was sweet looking. right before (like 1 or 2 min) the show ended they turned on the lights (which seemed a bit weird to me) and you could finally see everyone. everyone was all hot and sweaty. it was gross. but i took this picture right as Deiselboy or someone was taking one of us. it looks like a light explosion on stage. pretty cool, i thought.

this is just a picture of everybody going to town Drum 'n Bass style.

then there was the break dance fighting (competition). they were actually break dance battling. like in that movie, Break Dance Fighters.

and then this is just a picture of Dieselboy (left) and AK1200 (right)

here's a video.

10 June 2006

rave-ing it up on a friday night

just got back from the Drum and Bass night at Cannery Ballroom (and then waffle house). it was awesome. 3 hrs of sweet drum n bass. serious bass too. like when you put your hand in front of a subwoofer and can feel the air coming off, well, it was like that only we were 30 ft from the speakers and i could feel the air everwhere. pretty incredible.

jesse says, "it's miller time."

also, please note the time of posting. it's been a long time since i stayed up so late the sun started coming back up.

09 June 2006

BMT at the Basement

jess and i opted out of sleep for a bit a blues and blue grass and good ole' southern rock with Blue Mother Tupelo last night.

it was great. first, we diverted from the plan of eating at Michelangelo's pizza and decided on NY cafe (cause Kori (Diamond) works there and we were trying to spot her). it was awesome pizza. i mean, really good. i highly recommend it. and good prices too! 16" pizza = $11.99!

then, we went over and ate it at the basement. then, went in and watched the show (while we sat down!). then we went up met them afterward. they seem like cool people. really nice. it was worth staying up till 1:30am.

TONIGHT: Drum 'n Bass at the Cannery Ballroom! BYOGS (bring your own glow sticks)!

07 June 2006

see john, you're not the only one who goes out into nature (sometimes)

(i had another one that was in focus but i didn't like the picture as much.)

jess and i walked down part of the greenway the other day. it was very pleasant out (except for the all the gnats). (i like the little glow around those close plants.)

a secret tree bridge

(how's that for a lens flare?)

(it just occured to me that perhaps everyone doesnt have a cable speed internet and that i should not only reduce the thumbnail picture size but also the number of entries on this main page. hope this helps. if there even was a problem.)

05 June 2006

the last 2½ days

this was outside my building this morning...

so sweet. and it wasn't alone!

this weekend was fun. not an unusually large amount or anything, but fun. friday, we hung out at the Nash's and drank sangria and played TV scene it (which my team lost at due to HG-like behavior coming from the girl's team). here's their evil cat...

my gosh it's evil. (so evil i couldn't even get a focus on it.)

saturday i help some Boy Scouts pick up trash and stuff. jess and i caught up on sleep and then quickly threw it away saturday night by staying up till 3. we watched Do The Right Thing with Scott and his pharmacy friends. that was fun and a really good movie. it comes highly recommended... by me.

jesse's new 'windows'...

sunday, we overslept, missed morning church, missed the potluck thing that we really meant to go to, went shopping, got a new camera bag and card reader, installed new speakers in jesse's civic, hung out with scott, opted out of evening church due to laziness and scott's visit, watched Matchpoint (which was good but i really dont like that kind of movie), and finally, finished watching part II of the LOST season 1 finale.

look at this stupid shirt we saw in the mall. i'm really just... stupified about it. i couldn't even begin to make fun of this, i mean, what could you possibly say? really, only the question "why?" comes to mind.

this is kind of cool. do a wikipedia search of your birthday and look at all the things that happened and the people who were born/died on that day throughout history.

things of interest on my birthday:
- i share it with: Catherine O'Hara & Steven Weber
- and John Candy died on it

well, nothing incredibly fascinating, but i always wanted to know.

02 June 2006

uh, this just in...

2 please. ah thank you.

does somebody in Madison, Wisconsin...

...know me?

do i know you?

what's going on here??

That's MR. Hunter to you, Scumbucket.

yeah, i like the way that sounds.

i got some new sunglasses! and on top of that, they're perscription, polarized, and made by bollé. not to mention, they look incredible on me. all in all, i'm rather excited about them. (jesse got some too. i'll have to get a picture of hers.)

saw X-Men III last night. ...none. too. pleased. in fact, i think "offended" might be a better description. i had heard it was bad, but i was like, "it's X-Men! come on!" well, i was wrong. it was like they took all the characters from X-Men and just made up some random story line involving Dark Phoenix and made a movie about that. i'm sure kids will love it, but ...yeah, i didn't.

...okay, so it wasn't ALL completely fabricated, but for the most part.

Jean Grey

The Dark Phoenix Saga