I’ve got stuff I want to write about tonight, but I’m busy churning out new products for Saturday’s Shadow Art Fair. Here, in lieu of a new post, is some video shot by the guys at Concentrate a year ago this week, at the last Winter Shadow. The interview with me, incidentally, was shot just minutes before I lost all sense of equilibrium, fell toppling over, and had to be taken home… Hopefully this one goes better for me.
Just because I’m taking tonight off from the blog, though, doesn’t mean that you should. If you have a moment, leave a comment. I don’t care what the subject is. Just tell me something. It doesn’t even have to be interesting. I just like to know that people are out there.
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Speaking of passing out, I almost passed out twice during our last show in Fort Wayne. I still don’t know why. It felt like an electrical problem with the microphone. Hopefully it’s not whatever you’ve got, mark. I’d rather not look into it.
[slow dissolve into shameless plug]
Ypsilanti yokels Black Jake & the Carnies are playing Mitten Fest at the Elbow Room December 28th! Celebrate our presumed triumphant return from Chicago (and family Holiday celebrations) with us and all your friends! Drink! Sing along! Throw balls at us! Buy our merch! Wait through our set politely to see the other bands! Smell like smoke for weeks! You can’t go wrong with self-promoting local phenoms Black Jake & the Carnies, Mitten Fest, Elbow Room, December 28th.
We’ll also be at the Ark January 6th to celebrate our presumed triumphant return from the Elbow Room and New Years celebrations. Won’t be smokey.
Black Jake
Here’s something for the consumer season. I love the Angry Little Asian Girl.
http://www.algshop.com/p-163-shop-with-a-reusable-bag-b-censored.aspx
My list for Santa aka the US government bailout fund includes a fire-engine-red Tesla.
http://www.inquisitr.com/10361/why-tesla-should-get-a-400-million-bailout/
I’m somewhat melancholy this morning. Don’t know what it is. Having trouble smiling at coworkers and pretending to care.
I was outraged when I read that Tesla wanted a $400 billion bailout. Then, when I saw it was ‘just’ $400 million, I shrugged my shoulders like it was nothing and said ‘ok’. It’s not even half a billion dollars, people. That’s pocket change.
From Michael Moore:
I have a sesame seed caught between my teeth. I’m tempted to pick it out, but I think I’ll wait until I get hungry.
Do you ever get the sense that something really bad is about to happen?
What is the best Chinese restaurant in Ypsi?
We’ve tried Golden Wall, Lucky Garden, Hidden Dragon, and Dynasty Buffet, and not been really satisfied with any of them. Great Lake is good, but sometimes we want something less authentic, more Americanized. We usually end up going to San Fu or Happy Wok in Ann Arbor or China King in Belleville, but I’d like to find something a little closer. Six years ago we liked Hidden Dragon (or whatever the Chinese restaurant at that location was called at that time), but lately not so much. Golden Wall was excellent once, inedible the next week.
Where do you go for Chinese food in Ypsi? Suggestions?
Try China Chef across from Hua Xing, the Asian grocery on Washtenaw that used to be the auto dealership. It sits between Norton Flowers and Subway. This was our Christmas dinner for years — until we switched to Pita Pita just down the road. Both are open on Christmas Day.
They have good Americanized Chinese food, but they tend to have larger, fresher vegetable cuts that most other places and they are fast, fast, fast.
A guy I work with showed me this song about Ypsilanti today. Probably old news, but it’s new to me. Basically, it’s the hottest jam of the century.
http://www.ypsidixit.com/blog/archives/2007/02/lee_ostler_song.html
It’s time for the Pistons to start Stuckey. I know it’s hard not to start AI, Rip, or Prince, but one of those guys has to come off the bench. There’s no true point guard to start the game and having Prince be a makeshift point-forward just isn’t cutting it. Prince is capable, but he can’t push the ball down the floor to get AI or Rip in position to attack from the wings while the defense is on their heels or initiate a fast break. Game after game, the Pistons fall behind in the first quarter and then get right back in it when Stuckey is on the floor along with Maxy and Afflalo.
The problem is that Curry as a first year coach has to balance those delicate egos of AI, Rip, and Prince. It’s hard to not start those guys, but the only alternative is to go with a three guard lineup of Stuckey, Rip, and AI, and have Prince start the game at the four. But then you give up a lot of size. The only other alternative is to have Prince come off the bench and be the featured scorer with the reserves, something he is comfortable doing. You could also have Will Bynum, probably the best secret weapon in the league, back up Stuckey and then you’d always have a true point guard on the floor at all times.
The Pistons have been up and down this season, but I think the right pieces are there. Billups is having a monster season in Denver, and right now they’re my favorite team out west. But with the right lineups put on the floor, the Pistons still have a shot at making it back to the finals, especially now with Dice coming back next week.
So here is what I would do for my starters and reserves:
Starters:
1) Stuckey
2) AI
3) Rip
4) Brown
5) Wallace
Reserves:
1) Bynum
2) Afflalo
3) Prince
4) McDyess
5) Johnson
Then you’d still have Maxiell and the World’s Most Awesome Player Ever Walter Hermann to throw in there for certain matchups and energy, with Brown only playing the first few minutes of the first and third quarters for defense and rebounding.
I agree Stuckey should start.
Best Chinese is Great Lakes Seafood. They’ve got all the “normal” Americanized stuff, and you don’t have to order the chicken feet and squid if you don’t want to. Dim sum there is terrific.
Best Middle Eastern is Pita Pita. Great place.
Ypsi needs good Indian food desperately. Temptations is OK, but I’ve had some issues there. What we really need is a good Indian place on Michigan Avenue, and maybe an authentic Italian place. Then life would be good, gastronomically speaking.
I’ve just been thinking lately about how much you don’t know what you don’t know, you know?
This story about a teacher having to sell add space on his tests is the most recent thing to piss me off.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/03/teacher.ads.on.tests/index.html
I don’t think seasonal affective disorder is a disorder. All of nature gets bummed out in the winter — trees, grass, bugs, birds, animals. Why should people be any different? Who says we’re supposed to be Anne of Green Gables happy all the damn time? Winter’s a bummer. It’s dark.
Hey Mark, missed you on Friday. And I will miss this Saturday, but have a great successful fair!
Try the Pea Pod Inn on Ecorse, they’re my favorite Chinese in Ypsi. Americanized, but not quite so greasy and lots of veggies.
I have Desert Affective Disorder — every time I’m in a desert for a prolonged period, I get really thirsty and worried that I might die. I think it’s cause I was made fun of in school.
Hey, did you all know that VG Kids has its t-shirts on sale for $5 apiece right now? Good god! I got the impression they want to be finished with storefront t-shirt sales once and for all, more’s the pity…
Thanks, Curt, Foodie, and sister_rebekah. We’ll probably try China Chef for Christmas, but I’ll definitely keep the Pea Pod Inn in mind.
We do need a really good Indian restaurant. The other thing I wish Ypsi had is a Cuban restaurant.
I predict witch burnings in America within 20 years.
And, no, I’m not kidding.
Lucky Garden was ok at one time. Now they use mopwater in the food. Don’t believe me? Order some fried rice.
Kevin, what do you think Gitmo is? You didn’t actually think we were gonna call them “witches” this time around did you? The burning at the stake would be a little too obvious too. Besides, we have all this cool new technology and shit.
The next wave of fascism to sweep across the globe won’t be wearing swastikas on their arms either. They’ll have a way cooler set of symbols which test better in today’s focus groups.
People are generally dumb like animals. You can switch up the style of something and most won’t recognize that the substance is actually something we HAVE all seen before.
Did I mention our Dec. 28th Mittenfest show at the Elbow Room will also feature the triumphant return of the original Flava Flav of Crabgrass, the Magnificent Musical McGyver Caleb Lee Johnson?!?
Doors 5 p.m. $5. 18+
6:00-6:30 Emily Bate
6:50-7:20 Jim Roll
7:40-8:10 Joseph Patrick Scott
8:30-9:00 Halolos
9:20-9:50 Drunken Barn Dance
10:10-10:40 Black Jake & The Carnies
11:00-11:30 Misty Lyn & The Big Beautiful
11:50-12:20 Chris Bathgate
12:40-1:10 Frontier Ruckus
A benefit for 826michigan!
“People are generally dumb like animals.”
Bullshit, Robert. People are fucking brilliant. People invented everything you ever liked in your whole life. People are all the people you love and care about. People wrote all the great books and sang all the beautiful songs. People stand up for other people. People are the reason that people keep making more people. Little, precious, wonderful people. (I even heard that mark maynard is a people.)
Yeah, I know you can make a list of bunches of people that you think are so damn ignorant. Yeah, I’m sure that every person who ever voted the way you don’t like is a fucking moron to you. You are clearly the arbiter of how everything should be done. Does it make you feel like a big person or something to lord yourself over the human species that way? Bit of a god complex maybe?
Do you really need to make such ignorant statements just for dramatic effect? Surely, someone as luminously well-versed as you could find a better way. Ya think?
— Curt, standing up for People since 1966
Curt, I said “GENERALLY”
By the way, I think you are one of the smarter folks who frequents this dumb blog.
For every one of your brilliant ones, there are at least a hundred who are dumb as rocks.
Oh, and Mark, I thought your performance piece “loss of equilibrium” last year was excellent. I have no idea what kind of piece you could perform this year to top that, but I’m looking forward to whatever it is.
Some See Energy Future in Old Mill Dams
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081207/ap_on_bi_ge/small_hydro
Could the Peninsular Paper mill come back to life? Has anyone heard of anything like this happening in Michigan?
We had China Chef Friday night. Very good soups (wonton and egg-drop), decent entrees (chicken w/ broccoli was good, orange chicken was so-so), poor egg rolls, terrible fried rice. Next up: Pea Pod Inn (maybe Christmas, maybe sooner).
…and another thing; I don’t think it’s accurate to say I have a “God complex”…
…no, I’ve always kinda just thought of myself more as an “Eye in The Sky”
Why do you hate America, Robert?
And I ate at Great Lakes Seafood this weekend. The fried squid legs was crazy good.
Sometimes I feel like the town gynocologist at a swingers party.
If you aren’t going to develop that idea for television, Nick, I’d like to. I think that HBO would be all over it. I’m picturing Paul Giamatti in the lead as a 70’s-era gynecologist who moves to a small town in Northern California.
Thank you for picking up what I was getting at, mark. I didn’t want to have to say it myself.