Saturday, August 28, 2010

Musically Burned

It stands to reason that a cool bar with a nice atmosphere should have good music. The Make Out Room is a great place to have a drink. The prices are reasonable, the bartenders are fast, and there's a good-looking and diverse crowd. What would compliment that better than some horrible shitty music? It's not just one bad DJ or even on type of music that I don't like. They manage to find the worst Salsa, World Music, Funk, Hip hop and disco that one could possibly conceive of. It's actually impressive that there are so many bad songs. It has systematically offended most of my friends with it's audio poison. The fact that I keep going despite the fact that I get burned should, at this point, qualify as community service. Even if all the proceeds go to the Headless Orphans on Fire Foundation (HOOFF) I'm still not going there again. I need what's left of my soul.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

WTF Ad

Only a douchebag would make such a suggestion. Advertising is messed up. My friend JJ spotted this and sent it to me.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/26/896386/-Want-a-raise-Wash-your-vagina

Staff Retreat

You know you work with a lively bunch of people when the head of school has to ask everybody not to go into town and sneak alcohol back onto the Monastic center grounds to get ripped out of their minds drunk.

Supper Club: Bernal Sound Bites

Snippets of conversation from the dinner as best as I can remember them.

"I have a story about (type of wine) A fortune teller told me that she knew two things about me. That I would like (type of wine) and that one day I would visit a prostitute."

"At our Burning Man theme camp there are giant coffins and crosses and we have a fake Russian Roulette Gun and when the person is killed we lower them into the coffin and say some nice words about them."

"Dawg, this peach, heirloom tomato, cucumber and basil salad is fuckin' tight as a dolphin puss."

"It's easier to hook up on the first meeting if you're a girl. I invited her over to my house to play Scrabble. We never ended up playing Scrabble but we both got triple word scores!"

"I can make people more gay just by hanging around them. You could be my project."

"Exposure to you is enough to make me want cock?"

"We should do a theme Supper Club where we all make dishes that we don't like and see if others do."

"I want to do a Supper Club where we do something like sushi and we have to feed each other and you're not allowed to touch the food you eat yourself."

"You have a wiggle in your walk. Every time I see you leave a room it makes me think of the movie Secretary."

"You guys are going Burning Man shopping together? I'm not even being sarcastic when I say that's adorable."

"Yeah, we can be a bit incestuous, but that's the way it's always been."

Solo Travel

It's a bit intimidating, daunting, maybe even frightening. That probably means you should do it.

Travel by yourself!

Whenever possible it's good to push yourself to travel alone. You've heard it before but it's true you'll be 750% more open to meeting new people that way. You won't be so instantly judgmental about those you meet and you can take some time to make an informed opinion about them. Plus they're more likely to take an interest in one person because they don't feel they are interrupting anything. You'll learn how to get around on your own. It's not an alien world. Somebody probably speaks your language and if they don't you'll draw a picture or mime what you need or you'll be forced to pick up some of the language. It's empowering.

Stop and see friends, travel with cool people you meet along the way (for a few days at most) but don't ever let it be anything other that your experience. You can go where you want, visit who you want, do whatever your heart desires that day. If you solo travel you'll never loose your patience with the person you're traveling with unless you're prone to occasional self-krankiness as I am or some of your multiple personalities get into a snit. I never argued with myself about when or where or what to eat. Can I stop for a third cappuccino and skip lunch and eat gelatto then just sit and people watch and not go the museum because I suddenly changed my mind? Can I wander and look at the strange new foods in the grocery store just because? Yep. Can I spend a solid hour taking photos of weird graffitti to get the light just the way I want it? Yep. Is it okay to walk out of my way to talk to that cute Danish girl in the blue sundress waiting for the train on the other side of the platform going in the opposite direction that I just came from and pretend to be lost to strike up a conversation? Yep. As an unknown, wise and sassy, black woman with a waggly finger once said, 'I DO what I want!'