DSCF3643.jpg
Originally uploaded by fist city

Labels: local

Kentucky Theater
Originally uploaded by east of the yadkin | west of the sound

Labels: local

DSC01593
Originally uploaded by puckotg22

Labels: local

Lexington Cemetery
Originally uploaded by east of the yadkin | west of the sound

Labels: local

DSC01588
Originally uploaded by puckotg22

Labels: local

a liquor store, by Tennessee Williams
Originally uploaded by fred babyflo

Labels: local

kentucky lexington government building
Originally uploaded by jazz trumpet

Labels: local

Apple uses big-handed models to make iPhone seem smaller.

-Matt Fraction didn't like Icky Thump. I, on the other hand (!!!!SHOCKING MUSICAL CONFESSION!!!) have only ever really found the White Stripes to be half-interesting at any given time.

-The Beastie Boys have a Flickr page!!!

Labels: random

I get more and more hopeful all the time...

Labels: nerd

New column up at the Harlan Daily. It's about nerds. They seemed to have skipped over the "gay" internet column altogether. I swear I had nothing to do with that.

Labels: column

MWKYIII has come and gone and all that's left to do is post some pictures and clean the donkey vomit off my living room rug.

Friday night saw over a dozen Men's Weekend participants flood into Shamrock's on a quest for male comradery.

We played darts:


And Charley The Intern and I played a game where everytime one of us made a point we got to drop a dart as close to the other guy's foot as possible. GREAT IDEA!


The Colonel administered a pop-culture quiz at one point. Here's Mike giving thoughtful consideration to one of the questions:


Sam Handwhich met some ladies:


And Dirty met Tony The Tiger the $1000 a night wedding DJ:


There was some collar popping. I forget why.


of course JC Samsonite didn't quite get the concept:


All in all Friday was an awesome opportunity for a bunch of guys to hang out and have a good time together:



We tried to end the night with a recreation of "hands in" picture from last year. It looked good except for whatever idiot there on the right thought he was supposed to make a fist...


Saturday our number shrank to about half our original size. First thing in the morning, Dirty made us steak and eggs for breakfast:


We played Guitar Hero and Charley played Banjo Hero:


During the day we bummed around my place, went to Penn Station, and to a comic book store. We also watched a DVD copy of 300. Don't ask me where it came from, I have no idea.

Later that night we went to the Movie Tavern for dinner and an eight o'clock showing of Knocked Up. Only about half of us got our food. Those who got their food got it for free because it came out ten minutes before the movie was over. Those of us who's food never came got JACK SQUAT. It was not a good experience. I won't say I'll never be back, but if I do go, it won't be soon. After the movie we went back to Shamrock's for about an hour then to Patchen Pub to see favored bartender Mike. We played Fooze Ball and saw a fight. No pictures of the fight:


Sunday morning we got up and headed out to St. Awesome's for the 11:15. After the service we had a cookout. Wives, girlfriends, and children were invited to join us. We were also joined by the St. Awesome's dream team: Glen and Greg. After most everybody cleared out Dirty, JC, and I bummed around the church for a while, killing time 'til JC's flight. We played Jenga on a glass table which made for a couple of weird pictures. We also talked to No Nick Name Fred and Glen while they were hanging out inside the baptistry during an open baptism event. I wish I had taken a picture of that.



Awesome weekend all in all. I ended up shaving my beard as per my contract with Dirty, but decided against rockin' the moustache. Here's a picture of me post beard and post haircut from Sara:


I don't generally lay around with sunflowers, but they were a gift for Sara, given by me in an attempt to apologize for some really jerky behavior on my part earlier in the day, so she wanted them in the picture, I guess.


Thanks everybody, see you next year.

Labels: mwky

Labels: mwky

I can't believe Men's Weekend Ky is this weekend and I haven't posted a thing about it. Thankfully, the Colonel isn't nearly so neglectful as I am. He's put up several counting-down pieces over on his blog.

Men's Weekend, for those of you not in the know, was something the now MIA Aquaman invited Dirty and me to years ago. He and a bunch of his high school/college/erotic pottery class buddies rent some cabins in the woods every year and live off the land for a weekend. And by "live off the land" I mean "live off pallets of beer and cheese puffs from Sam's Club."

We liked it so much we decided to start our own Kentucky chapter. Except we don't forsake the conveniences of modern living with the Kentucky version. There are no cabins, no pallets of food and drinks. Instead we hang out at Shamrock's (or Kitty's at one time R.I.P.), sleep at my place, play video games, steal copyrighted music from each other, and then attend the 11:15 service at St. Awesome's. It's a blast.

Friday night is kind of a closed event. It's only open to a small number of guys (though it's growing). Saturday and Sunday, however, welcomes all comers. This Sunday, in fact, after church we're setting up the ol' grill outside of St. Awesome's and everybody's cooking their own cuts of meat. We're also inviting our wives/girlfriends/parole officers to join us if they want. So if you're a dude and that sounds like something you'd be interested in - Give me a call.

Some assorted shots from MWKYI & MWKYII:

Labels: mwky

...the comedy of Mr. Demitri Martin:

Labels: found

JC Samsonite sent me this link to Newsarama's small article on the new Batman suit from the upcoming Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight. Here's a picture of the new duds. Clickum make it bigum:





From the article:

Probably the biggest change – the cowl is now separate from the neck and shoulders (which caused Batmen from Michael Keaton to George Clooney to swivel their entire head and shoulders when looking around), and is based on a motorcycle helmet.

Great idea! I wonder where they got it? Maybe from this column I wrote two years ago:

There was really only one thing that bothered me about Batman Begins. I find it incomprehensible that after over a decade of Batman films, Hollywood still can't design a costume that allows Batman to turn his freaking head. I mean, come on! We're supposed to believe that Batman can get his hands on utility belts full of gadgets and capes that allow him to glide on air currents, but he can't master something as simple as the cotton turtleneck? Batman is supposed to be intimidating. What's scary about a guy in a cape and a neck brace?

In case you're wondering, yes, I am implying that the people in charge of the Batman franchise, all the way out in Hollywood, read my column in a small Eastern Kentucky newspaper which offered up a completely unoriginal complaint that could be found on literally hundreds of nerdy blogs and message boards and decided to fix the costume accordingly. One can never underestimate their place in the world.

Labels: nerd

Every once in a while I get an email from a reader concerning my column. Usually it's someone pointing out something we have in common or telling me they appreciated something I wrote. Up until last night my favorite email was from a lady who told me maybe I shouldn't be speaking at churches since I can have a foul mouth sometimes.

That email has been usurped, though.

The Harlan website hasn't posted this week's column on their website yet, so I can't link to it - but it was all about this time my ex-wife and I were vacationing in California and we took the opportunity to meet up with an internet comic book nerd buddy of mine face to face for the first time. I thought it was a nice, heart-warming story about how people are people regardless of the situations surrounding how we meet them.

One of my Harlan readers, however, got something completely different from the column. Here's an excerpt from their email to me:

...sure you had to clean it up a bit, and you had to say that your wife was there, but it was still one of the finest pieces of gay erotica I've ever seen
printed in a mainstream paper.

Sara was with me when I opened the email. I let her read it and then we went back and read the column in question. Of course now, reading the column, it was just like when a friend points out some girl has a weird nose and after that you can't look at her without noticing. When we read the column it sounded totally gay. Sara was on the floor laughing and gasping for breath.

Once the Harlan website posts the column I'll link to it as always. Then I'll stand back and let you all take your shots and get your jokes in. Then we'll tuck it into the back of our brains and NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.

Labels: column

From Donald Miller's website:

Steve Taylor and Ben Pearson have been in Portland for the past week and we've pretty much completed the screenplay for Blue Like Jazz the movie. We've been working on the script for about a year, either with me flying to Nashville for a week at a time to sit around a table and hash out the story, or with Steve and Ben coming to Portland to stay at my house. When studios became more excited about the screenplay, we felt the need to wrap it up, and in the last few days we've pretty much done so. And I dont know if I've had more fun, or been more challenged, with any other writing project. I'm excited to see how the guys end up shooting the story.

To say we've given the book a Hollywod treatment is an understatement. The book itself would be, of course, difficult to turn into a movie, and so we took creative liberties. But in my opinion, the movie will be infinitely better than the book. Essentially we've taken the major, real life characters from the book, and gave them a story all their own. The end result is provactive and humorous and in my opinion quite moving. I can't wait for people to see the film.

We think production will be able to start next year, and the film will be shot on location in Portland. And I am as excited about showing off my town as I am about telling the story. I will keep you posted.

Seriously, how come I've never done anything this cool with my nerd-power?

Labels: playlist

Got back into town on Friday night. Chicago was awesome - a lot of work, but still awesome. The highlight was definitely getting to hear Donald Miller speak:



I told the guys I was with that I was gonna get my picture taken with him and possibly kiss him on the mouth, but ultimately the allure of getting home at a decent hour convinced me not to brave the throngs of Christian tech nerds.

Once home I spent Saturday and a big part of Sunday at St. Awesome's serving as switcher under blog regular and picker-of-her-own-internet-handle Lucy Liu. It was her first time in the video director's chair and she did awesome. Here's a picture of her being all directory:



After church Sara and I went to Lawrenceburg to spend some Father's Day time with the Connie's. Later that night we cooked dinner for Sara's family. We made Kabobs and served them over rice. Here's what it looked like layed out on the grill:



I made a pretty bad call by buying pre-cooked shrimp with the idea of just browning them on the grill. Those things dried out really quickly and as a result tasted pretty awful. Everything else was good, though. Sara made a marinade for the beef out of everything she could find in her mom's cabinets.

Also started reading Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. It's weird because for the last few months his name has been popping up all over the place in my world - including two different mentions by two different speakers in Chicago. I finally took the hint and decided to give him a read. So far so good.

While JC Samsonite has stopped updating his blog, like a sucka, The Colonel has refurbished his digs. He can now be found at www.bretfoster.com. Nice clean looking design. Now if only he would refurbish his face.

Labels: jerks

New column up at the Harlan Daily. It's sappy and stupid and implies that I peek into your windows at night. There's also a couple of mistakes. One, I couldn't remember what god-forsaken foreign country BP was in last week, and didn't have time to look it up, so I'm pretty sure I got that wrong. Also, the first draft of the column mentioned blog-semi-regular Matteo living with his family in a house in the woods only accessible by pack mule, but somehow it got dropped from the final version (I say somehow because I don't remember leaving it out - but apparently I did). Sorry guys. There's also a spot a couple of sentences in where I say "exactly" twice in one sentence. Also, one time where I was supposed to say "rare" I said "medium rare." I'm an idiot. How do I still have this job?

Labels: column

Sorry things have been a bit slow around here. This summer, so far, has been really awesome, but really busy.

Later today I'm headed out to Chicago for a few days. I'm taking my laptop in hopes that I'll be able to steal some wifi here or there. Somebody water my cat for me while I'm gone.

Random catch-up items:

My mom's birthday was on Saturday:


Here's what I made for dinner on Sunday:


Here's me sitting on a little boy in a graveyard:


Context? We don't need no stinking context!

Here's the last installment of my video series for St. Awesome's. This is pre audio-leveling, so it's got some wonky spots:



Men's Weekend KY is next weekend. NEXT WEEKEND!!

In a revelation that can only be described as the final proof of God's love for a broken world, The Dame's website is announcing that the Avett Brothers will be playing there on July 26th.

If you like banjos, brothers, occasional screams, upright bass, harmonies, songs about pretty girls, smiling, jumping, high hats, and me looking extremely contented, you should check them out.

Thanks to ET for finding this little tidbit while looking for news on Sunday Valley's next show.

New column up at the Harlan Daily. It's about cooking - and features a recipe from Patch & Sara cook. Some might accuse me of using the recipe as filler because I was in a time crunch. Those people should shut their dirty mouths.

Labels: column

Sara sang her first solo at St. Awesome's ever this weekend. She did an awesome job. She did three services throughout the weekend. I only got to hear two of them, but they were both incredible. She was asked to sing a Martina McBride song - which resulted in the only instance I can ever imagine myself enjoying a Martina McBride song. I stood backstage on Saturday night and tried to get a good picture, but the angles were working against me:



Aaaanyway, good job darlin'.

Courtesy of the Colonel.

Guitar Hero III

My Name is Jonas.

MY NAME IS FRICKIN' JONAS!!!!

Last night Sara, Sam Handwich, Nathan, Michelle, Charley The Intern and I drove up to the Southgate House in Newport to see The Avett Brothers.

It was an awesome show. Sara even said it surpassed the Damien Rice show that had previously held the title of "Favorite Concert Ever" for her. Michelle and Charley were only peripherally aware of the Avetts but I think they left the show as new devotees.

Here's some pictures.

First up, the Southgate House:


The very fancy marquee:


Charley and Sara waiting for the show to begin:


The Colonel told us to try and get the seats right above the stage on the right side. We snagged them with no problem. At first I was a little concerned that we might be staring at the back of their heads all night - and Charley was concerned about the sound. Turns out, though, we had a really nice view because they didn't stand still very much. And the sound was awesome because we were getting their monitor mix and the actual stage sound. We also got to see a lot of the stage business you miss in the crowd:







The real reason Sara loved the show was because at one point Nathan yelled out a request and the Avett's noticed us above them for the first time. Scott Avett said, "Hey y'all!" and waved at Sara:


As awesome as our seats were, I also thought it'd be nice to see them from the front, so I went to the back of the room to snap a picture:


There was some instrument abuse at the end of the encore:


Including a particularly risky move by the bassist, Bob Crawford, I thought:


There are more pictures on my flickr page. We got shots of Bob and Seth looking our way too, but I'm gonna try and lighten them up a little when I get home today because they're kinda dark. I also got a couple of videos that I'll post once I get a chance to compress them.

It was a rockin' night. Dirty and the Colonel had both planned on going, but had to bow out for various reasons. Suckers!

Labels: playlist