Hangout Review

The Hangout was pretty solid, but I just don't think I'm cut out for festivals anymore.

I want to get all the negatives out of the way and then talk about the positive aspects of the fest.

1. It was hot.

2. There were almost 3 times as many people at this years festival as there was last year and they didn't expand the area enough.

3. The beach is too narrow to have a headliner play and for people to actually be able to move about. Instead of going out around when you had to go to the bathroom, you had to barrel straight back and try to get back to your spot afterwards. It was a constant battle of "lets try to get closer...okay looks like this is as close as we are gonna get, now lets guard our turf.

4. The were not enough cellphone towers to handle that amount of people, which made it really hard to meet up with people.

5. They didn't have enough headliner matchups to spread people out. At a good festival you are just going to have to miss some bands, but when it came to the later shows, there were never any solid matchups to spread the crowd out.

Positives.

1. The bus system. They had charter buses running at all times and it was only $20 to ride all weekend. We only road the buses twice, because we had rides, but I never had to drive to the festival and it was nice to not have to worry about driving.

2. The fact that you were on the beach really was awesome. Every single band I saw commented during their set on how awesome it was to play at the beach. The later shows with the cool breeze coming off the water was pretty solid.

3. The music was pretty solid. My favorites were
My Morning Jacket - Definitely want to see them again, but they are coming the same day Ben Folds is going to be in town and I already have Ben Folds Tix.

Flaming Lips - Brought their A game, like they always do.

Foo Fighters - Rocked everyones faces

Black Keys - they did their thing and it was pretty sweet but I was busy guarding my territory and I didn't know too many of their songs.

Unfortunately Paul Simon really took a digger at this festival. Not only did he fail to play "Graceland" in its entirety, but he also forgot backup singers. Simon was set up to play a finesse/singer songwriter show, but we needed him to crank it up to eleven and bring the wind pipes. Simon is old, and so is his voice. Once he was on stage he realized that he was going to have to sing louder, and he definitely cracked a good bit. On top of that he only played one song I knew in the first 7 songs and I my ride wanted to leave so I really couldn't talk him into staying longer.

I really wanted to see Pretty Lights and Girl Talk but I missed both shows because they played "The Boom Boom Room" which was basically a tent with the sides closed in so it gave you the club atmosphere once you were in there, but it did not have AC like the club does. This 100 yrd by 50 yrd tent was overflowing with smelly hippies and I just couldn't bring myself to trying to get in there.

Other positives where that I never had to wait too long on a beer.

THE MEGADROP - 130 ft straight up and then 0-65-0 in 5 seconds and it was only $5

The cops really didn't mess with too many people until the last night that I saw.

It was overall a really cool experience and it was great to see so many of my friends that I don't get to see on a usual basis.

The Cam Newton Rookie Card

Does anyone else find it hilariously ironic that he appears to be ascending  to the clouds, as if he were God's starting QB?

Helicopter Dick!

Samberg and Timberlake strike gold again with their newest music video on SNL.



And let the record show that I have been doing the Helicopter Dick since I was 6.

Free Friday.........Riddles?

ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully I got you to look here first instead of at the recent comments, where answers are already showing up. So beware of spoilers. You have been warned.


Since so much music has already been shared this week, and I'm lacking on something wonderful to share at the time I thought I would go a different route, mainly influenced by the book I am reading, The Waste Lands. This is the third entry in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, which is easily one of the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy series in the last 30 years.

But not to be distracted. In The Waste Lands the plot is heavily riddled with, well, riddles. In the world where Roland, the main character, comes from riddles are very serious business. There are riddle competitions were it was not unheard of to kill a man for cheating. Being good at riddles was very prestigious. In our world, riddles are the oldest game known to man still played to this day. I found myself very much entertained by trying to solve these riddles as they were told throughout the book, so I thought I would share the love.

In the book, Roland and his ka-tet sit around a camp fire, and Jake, a boy from NYC circa 1980 has book of riddles and begins to share them with the group. Eddie, a heroin addict from Brooklyn circa 1970 starts off with a joke:

Why did the dead baby cross the road?

Because it was stapled to the chicken!

Roland did NOT find this funny and told Eddie to shove it.

Here are some of the riddles that were shared around the camp fire. I will post the answers next week, but feel free to answer in the comments. Just know that there may be spoilers there if others get them right.
EDIT: And consequently, the guesses/answers may show up on the side w/ the recent comments.

What runs, but never walks
Has a mouth, but never talks
Has a head, but doesn't think
Has a bed, but never sleeps?

What is dressed at nightfall, and undressed at day break?
(I really didn't like this one, but just wondering if anyone could figure it out)

What lies in a bed, stands in a bed, first is white, then is red, the plumper it gets, better the old women like it?
(No its not a penis, Eddie guessed this and pissed the gunslinger off even further, so be mindful.)

A thing that is nothing, but has a name. It's sometimes tall, sometimes short, joins our talk and joins our sport, and plays at every game.

What is greater than God, More evil than the devil, The poor have it,
The rich don't need it, And if you eat it, you'll die?

These are not from the book, just thrown in for good measure.

A blue house is made of blue bricks. A yellow house is made of yellow bricks. A red house is made of red bricks. An orange house is made of orange bricks. What would a green house be made of?

I start with the letter "e" and end with the letter "e" and I usually contain 1 letter, but I am not the letter "e"!

Enjoy, good luck, and Godspeed. Just don't go crazy over them, AND DON"T USE THE INTERWEBZ! I have found that if you think about them just enough at first and can't find the answer, your brain will keep trying to solve them on its own. Out of the blue the other day, one the answers just came to me when I wasn't even thinking of it, and with it came a great sense of joy and accomplishment.

more music for your ear hole

New beastie boys album is molten lava. Stream for free cha: soundcloud.com/beastieboys right heyuh.

 Latest tracks by Beastie Boys

slap ya mamma good music

The Brothers of Chico Dusty (Big Boi vs. The Black Keys) by Wick-it the Instigator

Endeavor Launch From a Mother@#$%in' Plane!

A New Jersey woman captured these images while flying from New York to Florida. Here is the article.

NBC's Awake

Just saw a trailer for a new show airing on NBC as part of a new mid-season line up. It looks really cool, though some critics are saying it might be too dark for the NBC viewing audience. Take a look:



The only problem is I have no idea when "mid-season" is, nor does anyone else it seems. Perhaps "they" know. So check your local listings if you are interested. Judging from the trailer, I hope it works out.

Who you gonna call, ese?

There is a Mexican 1st year PhD student in the office across the hall from mine and this is the background on his computer.



He is teaching a class this summer and I am begging him to act as stereotypical as possible for the first 10 minutes or so on his first day.

Some Really Cool Communist Architecture I Lifted from Another Blog

Here is a link to some really amazing architecture from the former Yugoslavia. The structures are monuments honoring Yugoslavia's involvement in WWII. All of the monuments are in the process of decaying. I guess this is because Yugoslavia is no longer around and the countries that have come up in its place don't care to honor the old country's history. The structures were commissioned by Josip Broz Tito, the former dictator of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was a made up by many different ethnic groups and cultures, so the momuments don't honor one specific person or group. This is why many of them are difficult to interpret. My two favorites are 1 and 18. Honorable mention goes 11. It is one of the few that have a clear meaning to me (fists rising up). Check them out. Here is even more info and history on them. Hat Tip: Tyler Cowen.