Breakfast of the Gods

Brendan Douglas Jones has created a violent, dark, and funny web comic using all of our favorite breakfast cereal characters. It starts off with Frankenberry killing Honey Bee at the order of Count Chocula.

'Nuff Said

Link to Comic
Cast of Characters
RSS Feed

Here's a sample page:

Musica!

The Melancholic Man, originally uploaded by think cink.

Ever since I became aware of a desire to be unique from other people, music above all else has separated me the most drastically.

The above quote is the opening statement from the latest Adherical Lyrical post on the Holland Project blog. It captured my attention and I had no choice but to read on.

Its great, it shows how some people that are seen as disenchanted are actually enchanted. I wish that everyone who doesnt understand why peircings, why tattoos, why eyeliner, skulls & crossbones, and dissonance, would read this.

Reno Santa Pub Crawl '06

Last night I took part in the Reno Santa Pub Crawl. If you have never done this I highly suggest it! If you went downtown last night you would have seen Santas everywhere. All of the bars on the route were packed with wall to wall Santas. Louis Basque Corner and Abbys Highway 40 in particular were packed. The streets from fourth to downtown had groups of Santas wandering all over.



There were afro Santas, pimp Santas, sexy Ms. Clauses, Toga Santa, one guy looked like a cross between a Moses, Elvis, pimp Santa, reporter Santa and lots of other varieties.



One of the really interesting stops was the Mens Club. We went in there and there were 20 Santas sitting around watching a stripper on a pole. One Santa (I suspect the real one) shook his butt at the stripper so she got down, took his belt and spanked him with it.



See all my photos from the Reno Santa Pub Crawl

Corporate Santa (photographer)


I hope to see you all out next year.

Another reason I love The Hype Machine...

Instant Mother Fucking Christmas station! (and its not the same old shit!)

My fav find, "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" - Neko Case

Found through the Hype and originally posted on Vinyl Mine

(Dynamical & BNon-linear will return to its normal kid friendly non-cussing format after christmas when those fucking kids get all their fucking presents)

I want first chair in the slot machine section of the Reno Philharmonic

Seriously, I love Reno. Earlier this month 4 slot machines from IGT were featured as intruments in a holiday concert at the Philharmonic. Click the pic to watch the vid.

From the RGJ page:
As part of its holiday concert earlier this month, the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra performed "Holiday Fantasy Concerto for Four Prepared Slot Machines, Orchestra and Chorus on Leroy Anderson." The piece was arranged and composed by music director Barry Jekowsky and was played with actual slot machines prepared by IGT for the concert.


Awesome.

RIP: Walt Disney 12/15/1966

Walt died 40 years ago today. Sadly I have no pictures of his cryogenicaly frozen corpse to post with this notification.

Inconceivable! (Re-Cut)

There is a new genre of YouTube vid, the Re-Cut no doubt started by 10 things I Hate about Commandments"

People take existing movies or TV shows and re-cut a trailer that will make you want to quote Inigo Montoya.

Here is a great Mary Poppins one called "Scary Mary"



The Forrest Gump one is hilarious too. But if you want one that is topical check out Seinfeld Recut (Not Work Safe)

Walt paid attention to every detail

Walt paid attention to every detail Hosted on Zooomr

Today is Walt Disney's Birthday (12/5/1901)

I have no clue what this has to do with Winnemucca

But its called the "Winnemucca Cal King Bedspread"

Gogol Bordello and Primus

So i had all kinds of fun this weekend but the concert was the tip-top.

We snuck down into some seats about 20 ft from the stage for the opening act (aka the main act for Morsa and I), Gogol Bordello. Not that we sat in the seats. We just danced in front of them. They were all energy. I don't know enough about punk to join in on the punk is dead debate but I can tell you it lives in the heart of Eugene Hutz the lead singer.

During the show Eugene climbed down into the audience, started climbing over seats, climbed back, and then flung himself backwards about 6-7 ft. back onto the stage from the front seat. Later he kicked his mic over and a rodie had to come out and replace it while he was running around stage. The front part of the crowd was jumping and dancing and one couple was waltzing all the way up and down the isle.


My pictures arent even worth showing so instead check out other peoples pics on Flickr. Ok seriously, even if you dont give a fuck about this band look at the pics they are hilarious.



Primus was a totally different show but equally awesome. I always kicked myself for not seeing them when I was in the bay. The crowd stood for the whole show, the music was fucking amazing. The guitarist at one point played a banjo with a distortion petal. Les played some weird instrument apparently called a"Whamola"



In an article where Les talks about his gear in it he says

“Everyone wants to know about ‘Whamola,’ which is named for the instrument I play on a tune. It was given to me a few years ago in Vermont at 3 am by two guys who had waited at my hotel after a show. It’s a weird washtub bass-type instrument with a single D string on a stick, a pickup, a peg on the bottom like an upright bass, and a big handle that you pull to change pitch. I play it by beating on it with a drumstick. For the track, I sent the Whamola through the SansAmp distortion and the Korg envelope. The Whamola sounds good on tape, but when you hear it live it’s incredible—it’s like your face is melting!”

Google Whamola, its fun and, yes inquiring minds, of course there is a Wiki entry.

When they walked off stage the crowd actually did the lighter thing



And they came back and played...

Traffic in the 21st century!

Traffic in the 21st century!, originally uploaded by mc Kodachrome.

Traffic was at a standstill for about an hour when I was coming over Donner Pass last weekend. I realized I had my laptop (with 5 speaker sound) and a Netflix movie so I poped it in and enjoyed the shit out of the traffic.

It wasn't as much fun as making snow angels and falling asleep in the middle of the road. But that's another story.

Deux Gros Nez

So as most know Deux Gros Nez is closing. I have never been a big Deux Gros Nez fan but I figured I should go there before it closes. After all there aren’t many places like it in town. The first of the pictures below was taken at 1am on Monday. There was still music blaring and people going strong.

The Experience:
When I first went to Dex Greus Nes years ago, I was uncomfortable there. It was too different and I just wasn't ready for it. Also, I went there with people who were raving about it which of course doesnt make a skeptic less skeptical. So this time I went alone, of my own volition, and it did feel more comfortable. I like places that are different and funky and I was finally enjoying it there.

I watched the other patrons laugh and have fun at the counter and then ordered from a funky fast talking girl. While I was waiting for my food I couldn't help but overhear a very gregarious guy talking to a girl at the next table about why he loved Deux Gros Nez. He talked about how there are other places kinda like it but nowhere else has the feel of Deux Gros Nez (I gotta agree with him there). One of his really interesting opinions was that Deux Gros Nez is the best place to bring a first/blind date because it is a filter. "It's intimidating and some people just can't handle it." He said that people either pass or fail and you know someone isn’t a keeper if they can't relax at Deux Gros Nez. Now I have some real problems with the pass/fail part of that statement, but for now lets focus on the intimidation that he mentioned. Later, I heard one of the waiters say that he was intimidated by the place when he first came in. After a few times he got used to the people, loved hearing all the new different music, and just came to feel at home. When he said that, I looked back at the counter and saw how great a time the people there were having. They were laughing and talking with a familiarity that you don't see other places.

The Food:
I ordered a quiche and a quesadilla. The quiche was weird because although the plate was so hot you couldn't touch it, the quiche itself was refrigerator temperature. This did seem odd to me but being a quiche newbie I ate it anyway. I have since called a friend and found out that yes, as most of you readers already knew, it should be heated. The quesadillas had a cheese that I didn't recognize and although it was pretty good it wasn't really what I expected (which I should have expected).

The old standby:
I didn’t really fill up so I got in my car and decided to do a culinary 180. I drove to McDonalds to have a Quarter Pounder and a Coke.

The experience at McDonalds was totally different. Familiar but souless. I went through the drive through. The employees had the normal "I don't really want to be here" attitude. The smell was strikingly different. Deux Gros Nez smelled crisp, tart, and fruity. Like the food itself tastes when it first hits your tongue. McDs smelled like grease and cleaning solution. Like the foods nasty sweet & meaty aftertaste on the back of your tongue.

The food was what I expected, which is what I went there for. Unfortunately, half way through the drive-thru I remembered that I had seen Fast Food Nation the night before but I still managed to eat most of the burger.

Everything at MickeyDs reminded me of death (or at least decay) and everything at Deux Gros Nez reminded me of life. Deux Gros Nez has some preppy guard. Preppy Guard is what you spray on something to keep the preppies away (Every copy of Master of Puppets was sprayed with preppy guard). Dex Greus Nes was sprayed with preppy guard which is why these people and myself felt intimidated when they first came there. It's important that some places have a little preppy guard on them. The food may be a little inconsistent and they might be a little slow. But these things that jar you out of what you expect are part of what creates the atmosphere. The need to accept a little, give a little and be willing to look through the preppy guard is what keeps the atmosphere alive in Deux Gros Nez. I probably never would have become a Deux Gros Nez regular. But it always made me happy to see that pink neon when I drove down California Ave. I will be sad when it is dark.

They are open until the 30th and I'm going one more time at least. But since I am not a full fan of the place I cant really capture the spirit here. Anyone else? Please comment and fill the holes I am missing.

(cross posted at renodiscontent.com)

Thanksgiving Holiday Challenge: Turkducken

I don't think I have what it takes. But this looks like quite the holiday challenge. Itss a turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken!

Paula Dean's Recipe
WikiHow Turducken
Wikipedia Turducken

Or if you are completly insane:

some enthusiasts have taken it a step further, and come up with the turduckencorpheail. This is a standard turducken, which is then stuffed with a cornish game hen, which is then stuffed with a pheasant, and finally stuffed with a quail. The turduckencorpheail is not for the faint of heart; it is an extremely time consuming endeavor, as birds of the proper size must first be obtained, and then prepared.

Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Natural Progression

7:20pm Dinner

8:10pm Movie (Fast Food Nation)

10:15pm Inspired to write. I Go to Shenanigans to sit at a table, drink 2 large dark beers, and write.

12:00am Run 2 miles

12:30am Feel nauseous. Consider pucking to get it over with.

Aww hell. Just shower and go to bed.

Photos from an Antarctic researcher

Craig and Aurora, originally uploaded by Snow_girl.

I am fascinated by Snow_girls photostream. She is located at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica and has amazing pictures of the station, trips around the Antarctic, beautiful sunsets and sundogs, and thousands of penguins. The ones that fascinate me the most though are the ones of everyday life at the station where you get to see what they do and how they have fun in such a lonely place. She has pics of Halloween, a Midwinter celebration that they had (formal dress of course), a dance night that they called "Club Nido", lots of dress up nights, and of course, pics of their work. The sunsets have colors I've never seen in a sky.

Here are a few of my favorite pics (I couldn't embed them sorry):
Penguin Trip - Group Silouette
Laws (one of the shelters)
Man and Sundog. Its ridiculous how awesome this shot is.

A pic of them using their melting tank as a hot tub
One of her notes reads: It did get too hot again though. We ended up having to take it in turns to lob chunks of snow in to cool it all down.

Penguins
Glasses before wine. Check them out after as well. These shots are some of my favourites. (She's British, respect to the "u". BooYaKaa!)

Penguins set

Club nido. I'm pissed that I missed this party. Our hero is a badass.

Check out the whole photostream though. Every shot will both tell you more about what they are doing and make you wonder about it at the same time.

This dude is thinking about moving to Winnemucca

I put my 2 cents in. Let him know what you think if you have an opinion on the matter. (i.e. If you lived there or have spent any time there. If you are one of those whose only opinion is that you drove through but you missed it because you blinked, then dont waste your time. You have more important things to do like find an original joke.)

~Z

8 films to die for - Horrorfest in Sparks this weekend

After Dark Films is sponsoring a film festival that will show 8 horror films in November 17-19 in only 35 cities around the country and Reno is on the list! From the official website:

Horrorfest is a weekend of horror films that are considered to graphic or too disturbing for general audiences. After Dark Films will release "8 Films to Die For" (plus one bonus film) for one weekend only in approximately 500 theaters around the United States.

Check out descriptions and trailers for individual films here. You can also see am trailer for the festival itself with a mashup of the films on the Horrorfest YouTube page

All films are playing at Century Sparks. Here are the showtimes:
Friday November 17:
Dark Ride - 4:00 10:00
Reincarnation - 12:00 6:00
Unrest - 2:00 8:00

Saturday November 18:
The Abandoned - 2:00 8:00
The Gravedancers - 12:00 6:00
Penny Dreadful - 4:00 10:00

Sunday November 19:
The Hamiltons - 4:00 8:00
Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror - 10:00
Wicked Little Things - 2:00 6:00

Sorry, Im not cool enough to make the showtimes linked like Fandango. But I also don't wear a paper bag on my head. Buy tickets here

This almost makes up for no Tenacious D movie this weekend. Ok thats a lie. nothing makes up for that.

Pahrump hates Immigrants

Pahrump went a little farther to make immigrants unwelcome this week. The Minx noted their passage of thepreviously 'English Language and Patriot Reaffirmation Ordinance.' Now they have passed a law making it illegal to fly a foreign flag in a bar unless the US flag is also flown.

Jedis in Winnemucca

I did a search for Winnemucca on YouTube and found this pretty bad ass video someone made of a lightsaber battle filmed on the mountains around Water Canyon

I promise, my next post won't be YouTube related.

Fish Eye Video Camera

I take some pictures using a door peep hole in front of the lens on my point and shoot camera.

But, my camera also takes videos