After last night, I think the spinto band has decided that what happens in London stays in London. The blowup at the metro was that scandalous! there are a couple things worth noting:
1. Jeff became the meat in a babe-dance-sandwich.
2. potential- Sam Hughes Reviews: Absinthe
3. people like to dance to The Smiths in the UK
October 23, 2005
October 22, 2005
Sam Hughes Reviews: Jones Candy Corn Soda
In celebration of my favorite holiday, the Jones Soda company has released four limited edition Halloween sodas sold exclusively through Target. The four flavors here are Candy Corn, Caramel Apple, Strawberry Slime, and Scary Berry Lemonade. Since the last two are just lame remakes of old Jones favorites and the first two are obviously super exciting, I drank the latter sodas first. Unfortunately I had time only to review the candy corn soda.
The packaging hardly differs between all of the cans as each features the classic outline of a Jack O’ Lantern with slightly altered shapes and colors. This strays from Jones’ strategy of packaging as they usually have fan taken photographs on the front of their cans. I can understand this in terms of Halloween packaging though. You don’t want pictures of somebody’s kids sacrificing a goat on a pentagram or a picture of some dude’s wife pleasuring herself with the cross. Despite the fact these are traditional Halloween activities, I’m not sure if the public is quite ready to see them on a soda can. Either way, the packaging gets a solid overall mark.
I opened up the candy corn soda, and boy oh boy is it a doozy! I was filling up my car with antifreeze the other day and I’ll be damned if that liquid isn’t a distant cousin of this soda. This shit looks so bright yellow and radioactive that you’d think you could pour it on four regular turtles and they would turn into wisecracking crime fighters. (PS: Don’t try this. It just pisses the turtles off and makes them smell like candy corn, and it will get you kicked out of the pet store.)
To do a proper taste test, I thought of nothing better than to buy actual candy corn to eat right before and after drinking to really see if we’ve got an accurate soda. So I took a bite of a candy corn, okay, feeling sick. Then I took a swig of the soda, all right, feeling sicker. Then just for kicks and sadomasochistic pleasure I threw in a few pieces of candy corn into the soda. To be honest, I felt a little naughty (and physically ill) after that, but I was sure as hell enjoying myself at the time! It’s as if I fed some bacon to a pig and then made that pig into bacon again and ate some bacon made from that pig. The soda isn’t perfect, but it does a pretty decent job of tasting like candy corn. The bonus points for this soda tasting relatively like candy corn is the vomit factor. If you can eat a bag of candy corn or drink more than eight ounces of this shit (or even, better, do both!) then you truly have an iron stomach and I’d like to see what you could do against Kobayashi at the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. However, if you don’t, there are no losers here because if you vomit it up, it would look awesome. You could puke all over someone’s room and they probably wouldn’t care because they would now have the only glow-in-the-dark room on campus. Truth be told, this soda is disgusting to drink, but I’m extremely glad that it exists. Jones could come out with Birth Fluid soda next year and I’d buy it in a second to at least know what their interpretation of birth fluid flavor was. To sum it up in a few words: taste doesn’t win here with this soda, but fun experimentation does. I can’t drink experimentation though (at least not yet), so this gets poor marks.
3.5/10.
PS: If you have a soda or beverage that you think is worthy of review, tell me about it! I’ll try almost anything!*
*no gay stuff.
The packaging hardly differs between all of the cans as each features the classic outline of a Jack O’ Lantern with slightly altered shapes and colors. This strays from Jones’ strategy of packaging as they usually have fan taken photographs on the front of their cans. I can understand this in terms of Halloween packaging though. You don’t want pictures of somebody’s kids sacrificing a goat on a pentagram or a picture of some dude’s wife pleasuring herself with the cross. Despite the fact these are traditional Halloween activities, I’m not sure if the public is quite ready to see them on a soda can. Either way, the packaging gets a solid overall mark.
I opened up the candy corn soda, and boy oh boy is it a doozy! I was filling up my car with antifreeze the other day and I’ll be damned if that liquid isn’t a distant cousin of this soda. This shit looks so bright yellow and radioactive that you’d think you could pour it on four regular turtles and they would turn into wisecracking crime fighters. (PS: Don’t try this. It just pisses the turtles off and makes them smell like candy corn, and it will get you kicked out of the pet store.)
To do a proper taste test, I thought of nothing better than to buy actual candy corn to eat right before and after drinking to really see if we’ve got an accurate soda. So I took a bite of a candy corn, okay, feeling sick. Then I took a swig of the soda, all right, feeling sicker. Then just for kicks and sadomasochistic pleasure I threw in a few pieces of candy corn into the soda. To be honest, I felt a little naughty (and physically ill) after that, but I was sure as hell enjoying myself at the time! It’s as if I fed some bacon to a pig and then made that pig into bacon again and ate some bacon made from that pig. The soda isn’t perfect, but it does a pretty decent job of tasting like candy corn. The bonus points for this soda tasting relatively like candy corn is the vomit factor. If you can eat a bag of candy corn or drink more than eight ounces of this shit (or even, better, do both!) then you truly have an iron stomach and I’d like to see what you could do against Kobayashi at the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. However, if you don’t, there are no losers here because if you vomit it up, it would look awesome. You could puke all over someone’s room and they probably wouldn’t care because they would now have the only glow-in-the-dark room on campus. Truth be told, this soda is disgusting to drink, but I’m extremely glad that it exists. Jones could come out with Birth Fluid soda next year and I’d buy it in a second to at least know what their interpretation of birth fluid flavor was. To sum it up in a few words: taste doesn’t win here with this soda, but fun experimentation does. I can’t drink experimentation though (at least not yet), so this gets poor marks.
3.5/10.
PS: If you have a soda or beverage that you think is worthy of review, tell me about it! I’ll try almost anything!*
*no gay stuff.
London is 4 Lovers
Chaps- let me see if I can keep up to date with all that’s been going on since our arrival in this fair land. We’ve been busy. Yesterday (Friday) was one of the busier days of my short life and it occurred on the back of one of the worst night’s slumbers that I’ve had in my many days.
The plane ride over was on NWA northwest airlines. Eazy-E RIP. Thankfully my dad had given me this little traveler’s pouch that he had gotten on an airline once and it had some of those sleeper masks that old ladies and that one chick on the Real World use to help them go to sleep. That and a little melatonin allowed me to sleep upright the best a man could sleep upright. Everyone else on the plane just played this trivia game that you could play on the t.v. screens. “What is the period in a polo match called?”
When we arrived there seemed to be more people around than there should be in one place. Perhaps it was drowsiness, stress, brits, or some phobia causing me to think this, but everyone wanted to get the heck out of the airport. So much so, I left my book on the plane.
We arrived at the hotel and checked in. The Columbia is bona fide. (for those of you keeping a grifting tally, we had managed to get all the way here without dipping into our wallets.) For some reason or another shaggy-haired, tight-jeaned, unshaven youts seemed to be all around. Someone told me that this is where all the rock bands stay. Even our Nashvilliane comrades-who-we’ve-never-met-but-heard-a-lot-about Be Your Own Pet were in da house.
A bunch of stuff blurred by in between this time and the show. We devised ways of not going to sleep despite being what travelers call jetlagged, whatever that’s supposed to mean. We shook hands, talked about the current state of music a few times and sat in the back of cabs a few more times. Some spintos found that these cab rides were the perfect sleep joints. No one offered us tea.
The show was exciting. One of my fears in planning this trip is that all this effort would go into coming over here only to have the shows be empty. When I arrived at the club I realized this wasn’t going to be the case. The Windmill was a sweet little spot. It’s manager, Nick, was friends with Grimey who is this fella whom you buy records from if you live in Nashville. So we talked to him a bit about Nashville and the ol’ Slow Bar. The stage was small and the club was intimate. People come right up to the stage so you are scared of kicking them and they have these really bright lights that keep you from seeing what’s going on off stage. I met someone who does photographic research about polar bears. She said that in Canada they have a polar bear prison. I think they should not only lock up garbage-rummaging polars in the prison, but also child rapists.
Alright, I just typed this all up, I hope I can find somewhere with some internet to post it online.
The plane ride over was on NWA northwest airlines. Eazy-E RIP. Thankfully my dad had given me this little traveler’s pouch that he had gotten on an airline once and it had some of those sleeper masks that old ladies and that one chick on the Real World use to help them go to sleep. That and a little melatonin allowed me to sleep upright the best a man could sleep upright. Everyone else on the plane just played this trivia game that you could play on the t.v. screens. “What is the period in a polo match called?”
When we arrived there seemed to be more people around than there should be in one place. Perhaps it was drowsiness, stress, brits, or some phobia causing me to think this, but everyone wanted to get the heck out of the airport. So much so, I left my book on the plane.
We arrived at the hotel and checked in. The Columbia is bona fide. (for those of you keeping a grifting tally, we had managed to get all the way here without dipping into our wallets.) For some reason or another shaggy-haired, tight-jeaned, unshaven youts seemed to be all around. Someone told me that this is where all the rock bands stay. Even our Nashvilliane comrades-who-we’ve-never-met-but-heard-a-lot-about Be Your Own Pet were in da house.
A bunch of stuff blurred by in between this time and the show. We devised ways of not going to sleep despite being what travelers call jetlagged, whatever that’s supposed to mean. We shook hands, talked about the current state of music a few times and sat in the back of cabs a few more times. Some spintos found that these cab rides were the perfect sleep joints. No one offered us tea.
The show was exciting. One of my fears in planning this trip is that all this effort would go into coming over here only to have the shows be empty. When I arrived at the club I realized this wasn’t going to be the case. The Windmill was a sweet little spot. It’s manager, Nick, was friends with Grimey who is this fella whom you buy records from if you live in Nashville. So we talked to him a bit about Nashville and the ol’ Slow Bar. The stage was small and the club was intimate. People come right up to the stage so you are scared of kicking them and they have these really bright lights that keep you from seeing what’s going on off stage. I met someone who does photographic research about polar bears. She said that in Canada they have a polar bear prison. I think they should not only lock up garbage-rummaging polars in the prison, but also child rapists.
Alright, I just typed this all up, I hope I can find somewhere with some internet to post it online.
October 19, 2005
Off to a foreign land
Well folks. Long time no see. I am glad to be back.
In the past weeks I have been busy mastering Bejewled and havent really had a chance to blog. I did want to get the blog rolling again to chronicle a certain adventure begining tomorrow. In case you were curious, the spinto band is going to London. After seeing Oliver Twist the other day I realized London may replace Baltimore as the best city to grift in. You heard it here first. I will give you first hand accounts of all spinto related grifts that take place in what many people call Londong.
In other news, you may know that Sears Days is going on. The fine people at Sears advertising agency tapped the spinto band's Oh Mandy for use in a Sears Days advertisement. It is quite humorous. My mother almost keeled over when she saw it. It is currently the only commercial break that we have tivoed. Anyway, the commercial is playing everywhere, and to all those people that keep calling me asking, "whats up with that?" or cant decide wether the commercial is a good thing or a bad thing, keep in mind that it helped fund our trip to the UK and Sears Days will be over in a weekend or so. Our dear friend Ryan posted a bit of the commercial here so feel free to peep it up.
Also, I am going to make sure Samuel Bradway LincolnLog Hughes drinks a British soda and writes a review of it for our dear web-journal readers. I hear they have cod-flavored ginger beer at certain pubs. Also, if your name is Shiv, Mr. LincolnLog Hughes apologizes for the delay on your Cincinatti brew review.
so folks, talk soon. Keep up the fine work. God Speed.
In the past weeks I have been busy mastering Bejewled and havent really had a chance to blog. I did want to get the blog rolling again to chronicle a certain adventure begining tomorrow. In case you were curious, the spinto band is going to London. After seeing Oliver Twist the other day I realized London may replace Baltimore as the best city to grift in. You heard it here first. I will give you first hand accounts of all spinto related grifts that take place in what many people call Londong.
In other news, you may know that Sears Days is going on. The fine people at Sears advertising agency tapped the spinto band's Oh Mandy for use in a Sears Days advertisement. It is quite humorous. My mother almost keeled over when she saw it. It is currently the only commercial break that we have tivoed. Anyway, the commercial is playing everywhere, and to all those people that keep calling me asking, "whats up with that?" or cant decide wether the commercial is a good thing or a bad thing, keep in mind that it helped fund our trip to the UK and Sears Days will be over in a weekend or so. Our dear friend Ryan posted a bit of the commercial here so feel free to peep it up.
Also, I am going to make sure Samuel Bradway LincolnLog Hughes drinks a British soda and writes a review of it for our dear web-journal readers. I hear they have cod-flavored ginger beer at certain pubs. Also, if your name is Shiv, Mr. LincolnLog Hughes apologizes for the delay on your Cincinatti brew review.
so folks, talk soon. Keep up the fine work. God Speed.
September 6, 2005
Jon thinks Joe takes great pics
So I think Joe Moore may have captured a gem with this one. The Show was in Boston, and Tom was showing his disapproval of Boston sports franchises by doing a heave-ho vomitus! At least, I think thats what it was. If only we had a better view of Joe's pearly whites, this one would be as delicious as the carrot cake we had as a delayed Sam Hughes birthday cake over Labor Day weekend. Thanks Lisa!! (and Joe for the pic)
August 29, 2005
Head of Femur Photos
Hey folks, here is a sampling of some of the Head Of Femur photos that were taken during our tenure with them. The Femur folks are a tough band to photograph and I am a crappy photographer, so disclaimers aside, check em out. I think if you click on the photo it enlarges it for you.
August 25, 2005
the king of des moines
Just found this picture in the tour photo archive. It reminded me of our journey to Des Moines to visit the fair king of Des Moines. We had heard legends that the king of this land grants wishes to worthy subjects quite often. Intrigued by such things, the band went to the magical castle he had built out of gold. We approached his gates hoping for a request of a few bagels or perhaps a place to sleep. However, we soon discovered that this "just" king is quite the opposite. No justice was served as the spinto band was turned away without even being able to enter the castle to make our request. Blasphemous!
You can see our distaste for the king of Des Moines in this picture.
August 23, 2005
holy moly
Ok so we have some pretty exciting multimedia coming up in this post. get ready.
first up, there are some photos from our
Austin show thanks to Sarah and all the fellas at Music For Listeners cant wait to get somewhere where I will be capable of webstreaming your show!
secondly, we have some spaceland photos that recently arrived in our inbox. Thank you very much Irene for sending those.
Now that you have looked at those, I have the cream of the crop. Dave at Wookified Productions hung out with us way back in July when we played The Manhattan Room in Philadelphia. He kept filming stupid stuff we were doing and we now know why. Sam says McDonalds has definitaly had soup in the past.
Thanks to all who gave us your photos. They are all lovely.
Keep in touch for a big old blog post of all the head of femur photos I have been collecting, hopefully capped of with some winners at tonites big finale in Nashville.
first up, there are some photos from our
Austin show thanks to Sarah and all the fellas at Music For Listeners cant wait to get somewhere where I will be capable of webstreaming your show!
secondly, we have some spaceland photos that recently arrived in our inbox. Thank you very much Irene for sending those.
Now that you have looked at those, I have the cream of the crop. Dave at Wookified Productions hung out with us way back in July when we played The Manhattan Room in Philadelphia. He kept filming stupid stuff we were doing and we now know why. Sam says McDonalds has definitaly had soup in the past.
Thanks to all who gave us your photos. They are all lovely.
Keep in touch for a big old blog post of all the head of femur photos I have been collecting, hopefully capped of with some winners at tonites big finale in Nashville.
chillin in Hot Springs
So the lovely Brad Anders let me use his computer here in Hot Springs to give a bit of a blog update. Everyone is playing board games including the "Worst Case Scenario" survival game which taught me to eat bark if i have a fever in the woods. good advice.
I just came to realize that we play our final show with Head of Femur tomorrow night, and then the final show of the tour two nights after that. Then the band returns to the mundane life of sleeping in beds, eating complete meals, and having conjugal visits from our G-Fs. The Femur guys have become good friends over this adventure, and we will be sad to part ways. All 9 of the homeys in the band (including Pat the sound-homey) haven't given us any wedgies or called us dorks yet. Instead, they have given us touring advice and fixed our snare drums with the tried and true experience of weathered musicians. Well done, chaps, if any of you read this, the spinto band wishes you the best in everything you attempt... even if the things you are attempting involve wedgies and name calling.
Upon return from our home, a few of the band members are going to a hole digging party given by our dear friend Albert. The Big Dig '05 will hopefully be updated on this blog as the intentions of this journal will stray from the band touring and move towards the band lollygagging. Sam has already agreed to attempt to eat 6 taco bell quesedilla things at the big dig, and i think we may crown a new beef master general there as well... i think it would be silly to leave you all in the dark about such things, so keep tight, even after the tour is over.
I just came to realize that we play our final show with Head of Femur tomorrow night, and then the final show of the tour two nights after that. Then the band returns to the mundane life of sleeping in beds, eating complete meals, and having conjugal visits from our G-Fs. The Femur guys have become good friends over this adventure, and we will be sad to part ways. All 9 of the homeys in the band (including Pat the sound-homey) haven't given us any wedgies or called us dorks yet. Instead, they have given us touring advice and fixed our snare drums with the tried and true experience of weathered musicians. Well done, chaps, if any of you read this, the spinto band wishes you the best in everything you attempt... even if the things you are attempting involve wedgies and name calling.
Upon return from our home, a few of the band members are going to a hole digging party given by our dear friend Albert. The Big Dig '05 will hopefully be updated on this blog as the intentions of this journal will stray from the band touring and move towards the band lollygagging. Sam has already agreed to attempt to eat 6 taco bell quesedilla things at the big dig, and i think we may crown a new beef master general there as well... i think it would be silly to leave you all in the dark about such things, so keep tight, even after the tour is over.
August 22, 2005
sorry charlie
hey all- I just wanted to apologize for not posting in a few days. so much has happened and there has been no time to track down internet hot spots. I think we have played 3 awesome shows since the last post. and driven a good 1000 miles. that is way too long. even now, i sit in a room with inconsistent internet signals. When I find a legit hot spot im going to post about 25 pictures and tell a story about a girl with no belly button just to make up for this lull. in the mean time, we have to thank the following people for the following reasons:
head of femur... getting us sponge dinosaurs
the DeWitt Family.... being awesome with their hospitality
Toby... for not barking
Jon Chapman.... introducing us to the term "the lergy"
Maria.... showing us where the free nachos roam
until next time, keep the hope alive..
oh ya, another important tidbit! There are some photos up on www.spintoband.com now, so clear your cache and check that shite out!
exclamation point
head of femur... getting us sponge dinosaurs
the DeWitt Family.... being awesome with their hospitality
Toby... for not barking
Jon Chapman.... introducing us to the term "the lergy"
Maria.... showing us where the free nachos roam
until next time, keep the hope alive..
oh ya, another important tidbit! There are some photos up on www.spintoband.com now, so clear your cache and check that shite out!
exclamation point
August 18, 2005
Desert here we come!
Good news, we will not be super late, only mildly late to Phoenix tonite. The spinto band is happy to discover that Arizona does not “celebrate” daylights saving time. Instead it celebrates the Arizona desert hairy scorpion. Jeff had one. They are not too poisonous, but have a bad attitude. It also celebrates the following dinosaur joke:
Q: Why was the dinosaur scratching his dino-scalp??
A: Dino-mites!!!!!!
Last night we told that joke on stage at Spaceland in Los Angeles. It was a joyous event sponsored by a local radio station KCRW. I like KCRW’s show “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” I used to listen to it on my computer at work. Camel cigarettes, in which Joe received a few complimentary packages of Turkish Gold cigarettes, also sponsored the event. When the young lady advertising Camels asked what I thought they could do to improve sales, I recommended changing the name of their Turkish Gold’s to Turkish Delights.
Head of Femur had another awesome set last night. They are climbing the rock-steady power rankings and are now in a stable top 10 position. They also told a dinosaur joke last night:
Q: What did the dinosaur say to the trilobyte
A: nothing, dinosaurs have been dead for millions of years!
That joke was not as good as this one which Head of Femur let loose in San Francisco:
Q: What do you call a Brachiosaurus who spilled a large cooking pot of Hungarian goulash?
A: The crock mess monster!!!!
Irregardless, all dinosaur jokes are hilarious, as long as confused indie-rock audiences are the recipients.
Speaking of San Francisco, our dear host Mary drove us around town after the show and was nice enough to take us down some steep hills and show us the true tourist attraction of her fine city: the Tanner family home from Full House. It was just as I remembered it from TGIF. Flashbacks of little Stephanie running around in the park while Uncle Jessie and Bob Saget are chill-axin’ on their picnic blanket overwhelmed the Scion and we all had to stretch for a second. Then we went back to her apartment and smoked legal substances and went to sleep. No Team Sorry was played. Mary, if you ever come to the east coast, the spinto band will show you the true tourist attraction of our home town: The Herrs chip factory!
On a side note, there is currently a bubbling obsession in the travels of the spinto band. This obsession takes a back seat to all things Tetris, but has a momentum to take over my consciousness. The game is TextTwist and apparently you can download it at Yahoo games. Proceed with caution. Especially if you have disorders like our friend Sarah who made a movie about it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Q: Why was the dinosaur scratching his dino-scalp??
A: Dino-mites!!!!!!
Last night we told that joke on stage at Spaceland in Los Angeles. It was a joyous event sponsored by a local radio station KCRW. I like KCRW’s show “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” I used to listen to it on my computer at work. Camel cigarettes, in which Joe received a few complimentary packages of Turkish Gold cigarettes, also sponsored the event. When the young lady advertising Camels asked what I thought they could do to improve sales, I recommended changing the name of their Turkish Gold’s to Turkish Delights.
Head of Femur had another awesome set last night. They are climbing the rock-steady power rankings and are now in a stable top 10 position. They also told a dinosaur joke last night:
Q: What did the dinosaur say to the trilobyte
A: nothing, dinosaurs have been dead for millions of years!
That joke was not as good as this one which Head of Femur let loose in San Francisco:
Q: What do you call a Brachiosaurus who spilled a large cooking pot of Hungarian goulash?
A: The crock mess monster!!!!
Irregardless, all dinosaur jokes are hilarious, as long as confused indie-rock audiences are the recipients.
Speaking of San Francisco, our dear host Mary drove us around town after the show and was nice enough to take us down some steep hills and show us the true tourist attraction of her fine city: the Tanner family home from Full House. It was just as I remembered it from TGIF. Flashbacks of little Stephanie running around in the park while Uncle Jessie and Bob Saget are chill-axin’ on their picnic blanket overwhelmed the Scion and we all had to stretch for a second. Then we went back to her apartment and smoked legal substances and went to sleep. No Team Sorry was played. Mary, if you ever come to the east coast, the spinto band will show you the true tourist attraction of our home town: The Herrs chip factory!
On a side note, there is currently a bubbling obsession in the travels of the spinto band. This obsession takes a back seat to all things Tetris, but has a momentum to take over my consciousness. The game is TextTwist and apparently you can download it at Yahoo games. Proceed with caution. Especially if you have disorders like our friend Sarah who made a movie about it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 17, 2005
Sam Hughes Reviews: Three Apples a Day Keep the Doctor Away.
Jones Green Apple Soda: We will start this apple themed tri-review with Jones Green Apple Soda (and by the way, for the people who asked, I am a fan of Jones soda. Their sodas have interesting flavors that are better than Coke or Pepsi, but I don’t like having to go to Target to buy them.) Anyway, we’ll get started with the packaging. I respect Jones approach to the labeling of their cans and bottles. They let fans of the soda take pictures of whatever, and then they pick the ones they like and put them on the bottle. I don’t remember what picture was on the last can of Green Apple Soda I had, but it was probably a kid sledding or making a funny face or some shit, again nothing too exciting, but I respect the idea. The color of the soda is important here, and this motherfucker is bright green as it should be. I had mixed reactions after my first taste. The soda is very sweet and tricks you into thinking that it is artificially sweetened way too much, but the after taste leaves you with a nice natural apple taste. Fortunately or unfortunately, this places Green Apple Soda into the “delicacy” soda genre in my mind along with grape and orange sodas. This doesn’t make it a bad drink by any stretch, but it means that I had difficulty finishing a 12-pack in timely fashion and had to resort to using it as a mixer for my 5 O’clock Vodka (which does make a cheap and easy cocktail.) Overall, this is a pretty good product if you don’t overdo it too much and get sick of it too quickly, but is this the apple soda of my eye? Read on…
Frawg by Pepsi, An Apple Flavored Refreshment: I’m not sure if there is much hype behind this 7-11 exclusive beverage, but I do know that it also comes in a Slurpee format, which unfortunately wasn’t available in this Seattle, WA 7-11 convenience store. I tend not to review sodas that are fountain exclusive (Mountain Dew Baja Blast, maybe I’ll get to that one soon) because there are many variables in terms of syrup consistency that may affect flavor, but I had to give this one a try. The packaging and advertisements for the soda are pretty stupid. The logo of the bottom of a frog’s (Frawg’s!!) foot isn’t so bad, but the poster outside of the store of an ultra-hip, in your face frog doing some sort of Tae-Bo move simply made me want to croak. And I’ve got to wonder what the deal is with naming a soda after a slimy amphibian. Just because you use a “W” doesn’t make it alright, but maybe I’ll be proven wrong when Coca-Cola responds with Toadd!, the Toadally awesome apple soda competitor within the next two months. Plus, after drinking this soda I went to the restroom and spit in the sink and the neon green pus-like that came out of my mouth reminded me of what a frog (FRAWGGG!!) might spit out after eating a dragonfly. So, I’d say that the marketing is effective, but perhaps not in a good way. The beverage itself was quite underwhelming. The sweetness was overwhelming, but that is about all there was to take out of it and it was hard to distinguish the green apple flavoring. The fact that this is a caffeinated soda will help it sell, and anybody who is impressed by Jujitsu frogs (Frawgs) might like it too. I know I’m coming back for round two for the Slurpee, but this Frawg has ribbited its last ribbit. Yet there is one more apple to be picked off the tree, and sweetened and carbonated…what could it be?!
Fanta Apple Soda: Fanta Fanta, don’t you wanta, wanta Fanta? I posed this age-old question to myself at a rest stop outside of Denver, CO and the answer that day was a definitive yes. What made this Fanta so appealing (like an apple peel, GET IT?) was that it was a flavor I hadn’t seen before and haven’t seen since. What also makes this interesting is that this wasn’t a green apple soda like those previously reviewed, but rather a red apple soda, possibly based on a Macintosh or a Fuji. I’ve always been intrigued by Coca-Cola’s marketing of their Fanta brand. The commercials feature bold colors, catchy music, and most importantly the Fanta girls who each wear a different color dress which corresponds to the four major Fanta flavors: cherry, grape, orange, and pineapple. While watching these women dance around in their go-go boots, my main concentration is trying to figure out which one is the hottest. Is it Caucasian Pineapple, African-American Orange, or Asian Grape? After thirty seconds of trying to get a good glimpse of each one of them, I inevitably wonder if any of them are all that attractive and soda is the last thing on my mind. Sadly there is no Apple Fanta girl to my knowledge, but if there was I imagine she would wear an amber dress and she would be my wife. I could see the color of soda being unappealing to some as its closest soda relative in terms of tint is probably cream soda, but then again it basically looks like carbonated apple juice, so it makes sense. The closest beverage I can compare this to is Martinelli’s sparkling cider, but with Fanta Apple you get all the flavor without the embarrassment of drinking a non-alcoholic champagne replacement. Fanta Apple has a very crisp carbonated apple juice flavor and very unique taste for any soda. My only wish is that Coke would distribute this beverage outside if that one single gas station in Colorado, but I suppose Johnny Appleseed has been dead for years.
But wait, nothing has been decided yet… Which apple cuisine reigns supreme?!
Fanta Apple!
Let’s look at the scores!
Fanta Apple: 8.5
Jones Soda: 8.0
Frawg: 4.5
Looks like Mr. Jones and (me) that stupid-ass frog have to go back to the drawing board while the Fanta Five (including the new Mrs. Hughes) will dance all night long. Shit yeah I wanta Fanta.
Frawg by Pepsi, An Apple Flavored Refreshment: I’m not sure if there is much hype behind this 7-11 exclusive beverage, but I do know that it also comes in a Slurpee format, which unfortunately wasn’t available in this Seattle, WA 7-11 convenience store. I tend not to review sodas that are fountain exclusive (Mountain Dew Baja Blast, maybe I’ll get to that one soon) because there are many variables in terms of syrup consistency that may affect flavor, but I had to give this one a try. The packaging and advertisements for the soda are pretty stupid. The logo of the bottom of a frog’s (Frawg’s!!) foot isn’t so bad, but the poster outside of the store of an ultra-hip, in your face frog doing some sort of Tae-Bo move simply made me want to croak. And I’ve got to wonder what the deal is with naming a soda after a slimy amphibian. Just because you use a “W” doesn’t make it alright, but maybe I’ll be proven wrong when Coca-Cola responds with Toadd!, the Toadally awesome apple soda competitor within the next two months. Plus, after drinking this soda I went to the restroom and spit in the sink and the neon green pus-like that came out of my mouth reminded me of what a frog (FRAWGGG!!) might spit out after eating a dragonfly. So, I’d say that the marketing is effective, but perhaps not in a good way. The beverage itself was quite underwhelming. The sweetness was overwhelming, but that is about all there was to take out of it and it was hard to distinguish the green apple flavoring. The fact that this is a caffeinated soda will help it sell, and anybody who is impressed by Jujitsu frogs (Frawgs) might like it too. I know I’m coming back for round two for the Slurpee, but this Frawg has ribbited its last ribbit. Yet there is one more apple to be picked off the tree, and sweetened and carbonated…what could it be?!
Fanta Apple Soda: Fanta Fanta, don’t you wanta, wanta Fanta? I posed this age-old question to myself at a rest stop outside of Denver, CO and the answer that day was a definitive yes. What made this Fanta so appealing (like an apple peel, GET IT?) was that it was a flavor I hadn’t seen before and haven’t seen since. What also makes this interesting is that this wasn’t a green apple soda like those previously reviewed, but rather a red apple soda, possibly based on a Macintosh or a Fuji. I’ve always been intrigued by Coca-Cola’s marketing of their Fanta brand. The commercials feature bold colors, catchy music, and most importantly the Fanta girls who each wear a different color dress which corresponds to the four major Fanta flavors: cherry, grape, orange, and pineapple. While watching these women dance around in their go-go boots, my main concentration is trying to figure out which one is the hottest. Is it Caucasian Pineapple, African-American Orange, or Asian Grape? After thirty seconds of trying to get a good glimpse of each one of them, I inevitably wonder if any of them are all that attractive and soda is the last thing on my mind. Sadly there is no Apple Fanta girl to my knowledge, but if there was I imagine she would wear an amber dress and she would be my wife. I could see the color of soda being unappealing to some as its closest soda relative in terms of tint is probably cream soda, but then again it basically looks like carbonated apple juice, so it makes sense. The closest beverage I can compare this to is Martinelli’s sparkling cider, but with Fanta Apple you get all the flavor without the embarrassment of drinking a non-alcoholic champagne replacement. Fanta Apple has a very crisp carbonated apple juice flavor and very unique taste for any soda. My only wish is that Coke would distribute this beverage outside if that one single gas station in Colorado, but I suppose Johnny Appleseed has been dead for years.
But wait, nothing has been decided yet… Which apple cuisine reigns supreme?!
Fanta Apple!
Let’s look at the scores!
Fanta Apple: 8.5
Jones Soda: 8.0
Frawg: 4.5
Looks like Mr. Jones and (me) that stupid-ass frog have to go back to the drawing board while the Fanta Five (including the new Mrs. Hughes) will dance all night long. Shit yeah I wanta Fanta.
August 15, 2005
The Great Debate
So the spinto band doesn’t really have debates about anything but beast wars topics (see message board.) However, today, the spinto band became philosophers for about a half hour. It all arose when I had a moral plague in the back of my head. I have been purchasing fountain sodas at gas stops, then refilling the empty cups at separate gas stations or restaurants. I asked the band if they thought this was stealing, and more importantly, whether or not it was wrong. I tend to place it on a different level than taking a ho-ho or a bottled soda, but realize that I am taking goods for free. I feel as though that when you buy a soda, you are mainly paying for the cup, and that those big things of syrup and carbonation make the value of the soda non-circumstantial to the business’s income. We then discussed whether or not morality is a black and white issue or if there are gray areas that work as moral loopholes. For instance, if the stolen good is of little value, is it less of an immoral act to steal it, or is theft of all scales viewed the same? Also if someone else (like a gas station attendant) allows you to steal the soda, or gives you the free refill even though you never bought the initial beverage that is being refilled, are you no longer responsible for stealing the good? The debate then went crazy. We started talking about pirated computer files and fish in the sea and attempted to figure out whether or not we were all going to hell or not. It was quite the debate.
feel free to let us know what you think
feel free to let us know what you think
Shark vs. Bear
So after we played a fun show at the Paradox on Saturday we tracked down a 24-hour bowling alley to help settle and argument. In recent months the spinto band has been trying to figure out who would win in a fight between a bear and a shark. There are arguments for both sides that have kept this beast war on the tip of our tongues since the beginning of the summer. We figured the best way to settle the argument was to split into two teams, title one team “team bear” and the other team “team shark,” and declare a winner based upon whichever team bowled the higher score. We had an initial warm up game and then the battle came forth. The bar had closed at this hour.
The teams were broken down like so: Team Bear consisted of Jeremy “Jrod Manface if your nasty”, Jeff Hobson, Kat Kat Kat Kat Pickle, Big Jon Eaton, and Sam “Crusher” Hughes. Team Shark was as follows: Thomas Foolery, Mojo, Klaus Krill, Kellen “Groo”, and Carly “I mess people up by smacking them in the butt when they are about to bowl” McSpazalot aka Lane Bowler Data. All was going well and the battle was heated. Everyone was doing the strike bumps and shark fins*. The scoring was close and it came down to the final frame. We were finally going to settle the debate that had plagued relationships since 2003. Then all of a sudden, the tenth frame went sour. Everyone started bowling and no matter how many pins they knocked, or gutters they fell into, the computer marked their roll a strike. It was disastrous. Everyone got turkeys on the tenth frame and the whole competition was for nothing. I was so bummed I threw a ball into a gentleman’s lane who was bowling next to us. I was also pretty drunk. No debates were settled, no winners were crowned, and best of all, there were no losers. We tried to talk to “Peen” Mike Dickeyhed about giving us a discount, which he agreed to since such high stake bowling shouldn’t end with such a malfunction, about getting a discount. Peen said he would give us one, but then charged us full price anyway and there were so many of us, no one knew what was going on and we just paid. We also were in a bit of a rush to get back to Seattle headquarters and listen to R. Kelly’s Trapped in a Closet.
*a shark fin is where you put one hand on your forehead, palm first, pointing towards the sky, bend down a bit, and swivel like a swimming shark.
-------------------
The teams were broken down like so: Team Bear consisted of Jeremy “Jrod Manface if your nasty”, Jeff Hobson, Kat Kat Kat Kat Pickle, Big Jon Eaton, and Sam “Crusher” Hughes. Team Shark was as follows: Thomas Foolery, Mojo, Klaus Krill, Kellen “Groo”, and Carly “I mess people up by smacking them in the butt when they are about to bowl” McSpazalot aka Lane Bowler Data. All was going well and the battle was heated. Everyone was doing the strike bumps and shark fins*. The scoring was close and it came down to the final frame. We were finally going to settle the debate that had plagued relationships since 2003. Then all of a sudden, the tenth frame went sour. Everyone started bowling and no matter how many pins they knocked, or gutters they fell into, the computer marked their roll a strike. It was disastrous. Everyone got turkeys on the tenth frame and the whole competition was for nothing. I was so bummed I threw a ball into a gentleman’s lane who was bowling next to us. I was also pretty drunk. No debates were settled, no winners were crowned, and best of all, there were no losers. We tried to talk to “Peen” Mike Dickeyhed about giving us a discount, which he agreed to since such high stake bowling shouldn’t end with such a malfunction, about getting a discount. Peen said he would give us one, but then charged us full price anyway and there were so many of us, no one knew what was going on and we just paid. We also were in a bit of a rush to get back to Seattle headquarters and listen to R. Kelly’s Trapped in a Closet.
*a shark fin is where you put one hand on your forehead, palm first, pointing towards the sky, bend down a bit, and swivel like a swimming shark.
-------------------
August 13, 2005
Soap Attack
Well I had my second encounter with the Sanis by Cintas soap dispenser toady at an Arco AM-PM gas station in Washington (state). The last time I faced this contraption was at the Jackspot Saloon in Lawrence Kansas. The odd thing about this bugger is the way it shoots out the soap. While the run of the mill dispenser spits out familiar goopy liquid soap, the Sanis by Cantas dispenses a jet stream of some water-soap hybrid. Imagine, if you will, a stream of watery soap exploding out of this thing into your hand. The best comparison I can think of is a water pistol. The Sanis by Cantas is probably the public rest room equivalent of the Super Soaker 10.
Needless to say it takes one by surprise and isn’t quite what you want to deal with during a leisurely hand wash. Maybe this is a new breed of “extreme” dispensers, but if that is the case why doesn’t the Sanis just cut out the middleman and spit out Mountain Dew for corn sake.
Malkolm in the middle…of nowhere
I had just woken up and was extra groggy from a rather bad bit of sleeping in the car. I think that perhaps the mountain driving didn’t agree with one of my sleep stages (delta wave sleep maybe? ---- on that note, do you think you can even reach the delta wave deep sleep during a car ride, or would all the car fuss mess with yer sleep stages? Maybe that was the problem all along.)
Anyhow, we pulled into a shell station somewhere in the middle of Oregon and piled out of the car to “gas up.” As I was doing my standard gas station / rest stop stretch routine I overheard someone at the next pump saying “hmm I think that is a band.” I looked up and saw a peculiar looking fellow who seemed strangely familiar. When I went in to the gas station to throw out some garbage and look for a rest room I saw the guy hanging out across from a magazine rack and sunglasses carousel. At this point I was pretty sure I knew who this was so I went up, introduced myself, and asked, “Are you Stephen Malkmus?” Sure enough it was him. He asked a little bit about our group and we had a chat about the tour, Idaho, and what to expect in Portland. Incidentally, he predicted we would hit traffic near Portland, and indeed we did.
Anyhow, we walked back to our cars, exchanging a few thoughts on Philadelphia, and I went in the trailer to get him a spinto band disc. Meanwhile he shared some thoughts with the rest of the band about the west coast and we exchanged some war stories about sleeping on strangers’ floors.
I suppose that was probably the most interesting part of the day* seeing as we played a rather sloppy set last night at Loveland.
Ok, I suppose I’m off now. Oh, before I forget, I am teaching myself how to pick locks.
*Although we did have a nice fruit and veggie tray at the club which was pretty good.
Anyhow, we pulled into a shell station somewhere in the middle of Oregon and piled out of the car to “gas up.” As I was doing my standard gas station / rest stop stretch routine I overheard someone at the next pump saying “hmm I think that is a band.” I looked up and saw a peculiar looking fellow who seemed strangely familiar. When I went in to the gas station to throw out some garbage and look for a rest room I saw the guy hanging out across from a magazine rack and sunglasses carousel. At this point I was pretty sure I knew who this was so I went up, introduced myself, and asked, “Are you Stephen Malkmus?” Sure enough it was him. He asked a little bit about our group and we had a chat about the tour, Idaho, and what to expect in Portland. Incidentally, he predicted we would hit traffic near Portland, and indeed we did.
Anyhow, we walked back to our cars, exchanging a few thoughts on Philadelphia, and I went in the trailer to get him a spinto band disc. Meanwhile he shared some thoughts with the rest of the band about the west coast and we exchanged some war stories about sleeping on strangers’ floors.
I suppose that was probably the most interesting part of the day* seeing as we played a rather sloppy set last night at Loveland.
Ok, I suppose I’m off now. Oh, before I forget, I am teaching myself how to pick locks.
*Although we did have a nice fruit and veggie tray at the club which was pretty good.
August 12, 2005
tap the rockies
So the tetris scores have been piling up on our Game boy here. We have two spintos in the 200,000 club and they both have the last name Hughes. We’ve all been burying our faces in the game boy as we drive by some of the most scenic landscapes in the country. Every couple of minutes I’ll look up from tetris and see a mountain, or even better, a plateau.
Between Boulder, Denver and Salt Lake City a lot of happenings took place. We met this band named Head of Femur. We told jokes about dinosaurs. We ate homemade bread with almond butter. We played some shows… Well I guess that isn’t too much.
Tom took note that there are a lot of S & M shops in Denver. I applaud Denver for not hiding their sexual curiosities in closets and under beds. More people should admit to buying leather bondage equipment and asking where the magic is.
We also discovered where the name Head of Femur comes from. Apparently when Elvis Presley played the Ed Sullivan Show way back when, the producers told the cameramen not to shoot Elvis below the head of his femur because (this is the best part) that’s where rock n roll ends and sex begins. I liked that story.
On the drive to the Great Salt Lake, we drove through a lot of Wyoming. Wyoming is a unique state. From what it seems, there really aren’t any cities there. Just towns and ranches and tumbleweed fences. There is something admirable about this. For a state to feel as though it can succeed without a skyscraper or public transportation system or corporate hotel discount is somehow romantic. It is as though Wyoming had a choice when Denver and Salt Lake City were forming. Should we also make a large city that will house professional sports franchises, large universities, and commercial think tanks? No, who needs it… we’re fine… I like us the way we are.
Thus Wyoming became a part of the union, and its citizens raised horses and summitted peaks, fixed tractors and collected eggs, lived under star filled skies and snowy mountain tops, raised families and earned minimal funding for terrorist protection under the Patriot Act.
Between Boulder, Denver and Salt Lake City a lot of happenings took place. We met this band named Head of Femur. We told jokes about dinosaurs. We ate homemade bread with almond butter. We played some shows… Well I guess that isn’t too much.
Tom took note that there are a lot of S & M shops in Denver. I applaud Denver for not hiding their sexual curiosities in closets and under beds. More people should admit to buying leather bondage equipment and asking where the magic is.
We also discovered where the name Head of Femur comes from. Apparently when Elvis Presley played the Ed Sullivan Show way back when, the producers told the cameramen not to shoot Elvis below the head of his femur because (this is the best part) that’s where rock n roll ends and sex begins. I liked that story.
On the drive to the Great Salt Lake, we drove through a lot of Wyoming. Wyoming is a unique state. From what it seems, there really aren’t any cities there. Just towns and ranches and tumbleweed fences. There is something admirable about this. For a state to feel as though it can succeed without a skyscraper or public transportation system or corporate hotel discount is somehow romantic. It is as though Wyoming had a choice when Denver and Salt Lake City were forming. Should we also make a large city that will house professional sports franchises, large universities, and commercial think tanks? No, who needs it… we’re fine… I like us the way we are.
Thus Wyoming became a part of the union, and its citizens raised horses and summitted peaks, fixed tractors and collected eggs, lived under star filled skies and snowy mountain tops, raised families and earned minimal funding for terrorist protection under the Patriot Act.
August 11, 2005
Kilby Court
So the Kilby Court was pretty great.
Its located in Salt Lake City.
The sound man was nice, and the door lady was attractive (nudge, nudge).
The bathrooms were clean, and the sodas were free (no alky here). The Happies were happy and put us up for the night with homemade bread and massive zucchinis that we graciously enjoyed. Tetris took over with a top score of 141676 that stunned everyone.
Back to the venue. its hidden in this little alley, which I liked. We thought we were lost and drove by it 3 times before we walked into a nice courtyard and some sodas. Jeff liked the merch building which was on the other side of the courtyard and across from the room with the stage. There was a bball net and we dusted the rust off of our jump shots.
im going to sleep now
Its located in Salt Lake City.
The sound man was nice, and the door lady was attractive (nudge, nudge).
The bathrooms were clean, and the sodas were free (no alky here). The Happies were happy and put us up for the night with homemade bread and massive zucchinis that we graciously enjoyed. Tetris took over with a top score of 141676 that stunned everyone.
Back to the venue. its hidden in this little alley, which I liked. We thought we were lost and drove by it 3 times before we walked into a nice courtyard and some sodas. Jeff liked the merch building which was on the other side of the courtyard and across from the room with the stage. There was a bball net and we dusted the rust off of our jump shots.
im going to sleep now
sunsets
when we were in Nebraska we remembered we had a camera... sure enough, there was a great sunset happening.
August 9, 2005
driving to Colorado
I like the plain states. By plain states I mean the Midwest. By Midwest I mean the territory in the Unites States west of the Mississippi River and East of the Rocky Mountains. These states hold a containment not found on the east coast. Their cities are separate from other cities and the mileage in between has some cornfields, cell phone towers, and a few dilapidated silos, not much else.
I think of a few things on these drives through the midwest; first, I wonder what it takes to start a town out here. There is a lot of unused property where I feel like if I paved a Main street and built a townhall, I could have my own town. People would come and gamble in the saloon and discuss building a water tower at town meetings. It seems feasible. We could have a low cost of living and draw people in with unique business ventures (as of yet to be determined). The founding fathers of our town could help raise the first structures, and we could paint a mosaic in the community center dedicated to them. We could be accessible by route 70 as that seems to be a big one where we are spending most of our time. Preferably tobacco sales would plummet and we could just buy up a few hundred acres of unprofitable tobacco fields and start our town on top of it. I will be in charge of the apple orchard where we ship apples to Krogers in Des Moines, Lincoln, and Kansas.
The other thing I think about sounds like this: “hmmm, I wonder how different these Americans are from the ones I spend my time with.” I like to think that since we all live in the same country, we are basically similar. Then again, if this were Europe, the spinto band would have just driven from Spain to Germany where the people change quite a bit (while they stay the same in many ways too.) When we drive by a group of row homes next to the highway I wonder if the occupants laugh at Stella, crave for Reeses, and worry about energy conservation. Sure they all probably voted for Bush, but they could still very well be the same.
This thought leads me to a thousand more thoughts: “if I grew up in the Midwest, would I be in a rock band?” “What is a larger determinant of personality, age/experience or environment?” “why is my cell phone still roaming despite all these damn cell towers in the corn fields?” So far most of the people I have met have been quite similar to myself. At shows and in gas stations, I still find people that want to find cheap breakfasts, watch Six Feet Under, and “let loose.” This was a bit disappointing. The differences I had built in my head remained right there… in my head. Note that I have not interacted with too many Midwesterners, and most of them are college students or young adults, but I still found that if they were German and I was Spanish, we would still be able to win a game of Team Sorry as teammates. Then again, I wonder if there is a spot on the globe, where this would not hold true.
Another thing I have been thinking about is that we are playing with a lot of bands with beards. The last two nights I have seen 7 beards on musicians AT LEAST. That is a whole other anthropology debate which I don’t think I’m ready for just yet. What is the correlation of percents of musicians with beards versus percents of accountants with beards and on top of that gross income of people with beards versus gross income of people without beards? I don’t think there has been a bearded president since the 1800s,. What does that tell you? Would I vote for a man with a beard? Most definitely.
Hopefully the high altitudes of Colorado will help me think these questions out. However, the sherpa-like citizens atop the Rockies may be too busy drinking hot cocoa and sharpening grappeling hooks to discuss such topics.
I think of a few things on these drives through the midwest; first, I wonder what it takes to start a town out here. There is a lot of unused property where I feel like if I paved a Main street and built a townhall, I could have my own town. People would come and gamble in the saloon and discuss building a water tower at town meetings. It seems feasible. We could have a low cost of living and draw people in with unique business ventures (as of yet to be determined). The founding fathers of our town could help raise the first structures, and we could paint a mosaic in the community center dedicated to them. We could be accessible by route 70 as that seems to be a big one where we are spending most of our time. Preferably tobacco sales would plummet and we could just buy up a few hundred acres of unprofitable tobacco fields and start our town on top of it. I will be in charge of the apple orchard where we ship apples to Krogers in Des Moines, Lincoln, and Kansas.
The other thing I think about sounds like this: “hmmm, I wonder how different these Americans are from the ones I spend my time with.” I like to think that since we all live in the same country, we are basically similar. Then again, if this were Europe, the spinto band would have just driven from Spain to Germany where the people change quite a bit (while they stay the same in many ways too.) When we drive by a group of row homes next to the highway I wonder if the occupants laugh at Stella, crave for Reeses, and worry about energy conservation. Sure they all probably voted for Bush, but they could still very well be the same.
This thought leads me to a thousand more thoughts: “if I grew up in the Midwest, would I be in a rock band?” “What is a larger determinant of personality, age/experience or environment?” “why is my cell phone still roaming despite all these damn cell towers in the corn fields?” So far most of the people I have met have been quite similar to myself. At shows and in gas stations, I still find people that want to find cheap breakfasts, watch Six Feet Under, and “let loose.” This was a bit disappointing. The differences I had built in my head remained right there… in my head. Note that I have not interacted with too many Midwesterners, and most of them are college students or young adults, but I still found that if they were German and I was Spanish, we would still be able to win a game of Team Sorry as teammates. Then again, I wonder if there is a spot on the globe, where this would not hold true.
Another thing I have been thinking about is that we are playing with a lot of bands with beards. The last two nights I have seen 7 beards on musicians AT LEAST. That is a whole other anthropology debate which I don’t think I’m ready for just yet. What is the correlation of percents of musicians with beards versus percents of accountants with beards and on top of that gross income of people with beards versus gross income of people without beards? I don’t think there has been a bearded president since the 1800s,. What does that tell you? Would I vote for a man with a beard? Most definitely.
Hopefully the high altitudes of Colorado will help me think these questions out. However, the sherpa-like citizens atop the Rockies may be too busy drinking hot cocoa and sharpening grappeling hooks to discuss such topics.
August 7, 2005
chigger bites
so lets see, yesterday we spent a good ol' time in laurance kansas. between barber shops, chigger hunts and word dojo we wound up playign a pretty fun concert at the jackpot saloon.
the day began with a stroll down mass street. this is a rather interesting street and has the most barber shops i have ever seen on a single main street. mass street is also home to the fabulous mass street music. these folks were really top drawer especially their guitar repair fellow. he ended up fixing two of our guitars for free and luckily he didn't have any sort of "technician attitude" which one often encounters with music shop employees and live sound technicians--we think these people may have all had a similar traumatic experience during childhood that makes them all wang dangles. but anyhow mass street music was great and no wang dangles in sight.
after the music shop we hung around the jackpot saloon and played "word dojo"
after word dojo we were pretty tired so we went looking for food. luckily the hippies fromt the "food not banks" club were giving out free bagels and some kind of rice dish right down the block from the club. this little get togeher was characterised by bandanas worn around necks (like this !! but on humans) and photocopies of atom bombs exploding. that got me thinking of the manhatan project and some of the interesting characters involved with it, notably Richard Feynman and tom dowd
anyhwo that filled us up pretty well.
special thanks to Becca for housing us and being a most excellent host throughout our stay in Kansas. Good luck in your final year of college.
the day began with a stroll down mass street. this is a rather interesting street and has the most barber shops i have ever seen on a single main street. mass street is also home to the fabulous mass street music. these folks were really top drawer especially their guitar repair fellow. he ended up fixing two of our guitars for free and luckily he didn't have any sort of "technician attitude" which one often encounters with music shop employees and live sound technicians--we think these people may have all had a similar traumatic experience during childhood that makes them all wang dangles. but anyhow mass street music was great and no wang dangles in sight.
after the music shop we hung around the jackpot saloon and played "word dojo"
after word dojo we were pretty tired so we went looking for food. luckily the hippies fromt the "food not banks" club were giving out free bagels and some kind of rice dish right down the block from the club. this little get togeher was characterised by bandanas worn around necks (like this !! but on humans) and photocopies of atom bombs exploding. that got me thinking of the manhatan project and some of the interesting characters involved with it, notably Richard Feynman and tom dowd
anyhwo that filled us up pretty well.
special thanks to Becca for housing us and being a most excellent host throughout our stay in Kansas. Good luck in your final year of college.
August 6, 2005
Mojos
So this tour I want to try to keep a special entry focused on the various clubs we play in. I will try to rate their bathrooms, their drink specials and hotness of the bartenders (when applicable)... we will start with Mojo's in Columbia MO....
My favorite part about Mojos was all the nice people there. The bartender bought us shots and was reading Frank Miller comics when we got there. The sound man made some good jokes about the midwest, and the waitresses answered our questions about fancy shots without looking at us funny. They also had a VJ that was real nice and jockeyed his only Cardigans video for me when I requested it. Unfortunately it was this video.
The bathrooms at Mokos were adequate. I did a #1 and a #2 there and both were undisturbed and satisfying. I rate it a good rating, not great though
The drink specials were above average. The band got all the free generic beers we wanted and the barkeep refused to let us tip him because he is the man. Tom rates their other drink specials The Bomb. We had a rootbeer bomb which the barkeep bought us. It is a shot of rootbeer schnapps in a beer that you pound. i say it was ok, tom says it was the bomb.
Mojos was a good start to the tour. While it was your basic summer college town vacancy, we still had fun. Then we went to a Ramada Inn and swam. There was a taxidermy convention at the Inn.
My favorite part about Mojos was all the nice people there. The bartender bought us shots and was reading Frank Miller comics when we got there. The sound man made some good jokes about the midwest, and the waitresses answered our questions about fancy shots without looking at us funny. They also had a VJ that was real nice and jockeyed his only Cardigans video for me when I requested it. Unfortunately it was this video.
The bathrooms at Mokos were adequate. I did a #1 and a #2 there and both were undisturbed and satisfying. I rate it a good rating, not great though
The drink specials were above average. The band got all the free generic beers we wanted and the barkeep refused to let us tip him because he is the man. Tom rates their other drink specials The Bomb. We had a rootbeer bomb which the barkeep bought us. It is a shot of rootbeer schnapps in a beer that you pound. i say it was ok, tom says it was the bomb.
Mojos was a good start to the tour. While it was your basic summer college town vacancy, we still had fun. Then we went to a Ramada Inn and swam. There was a taxidermy convention at the Inn.
Continental Grift
we managed our first continental breakfast grift on the way to St. Louis. It was great. Awesome glazed donuts, o.j., and coffee. Premiere, especially since I was getting towards the asleep at the wheel stage of the game.
The hilite of the grift was when Tom spilled coffee all over his Cryptorchid Chipmunk shirt and made a great chipmunk sound to accompany it. If I had to onamonapeasize the sound, it would go like this, "grrrrrrphhhsssss" real fast.
(there is a 3 stooges movie on right now and the guy from fantastic 4 is playing curly. note: not a real 3 stooges movie, but a movie about the stooges)
The hilite of the grift was when Tom spilled coffee all over his Cryptorchid Chipmunk shirt and made a great chipmunk sound to accompany it. If I had to onamonapeasize the sound, it would go like this, "grrrrrrphhhsssss" real fast.
(there is a 3 stooges movie on right now and the guy from fantastic 4 is playing curly. note: not a real 3 stooges movie, but a movie about the stooges)
The Witt Home
I wanted to make a special little post thanking the dear dear Witt's for their midwestern hospitality. We drove 14+ hours from Wilmington to St. Louis and were greeted with sloppy joes. Can you imagine anything more welcoming?
They also gave us fruit and fancy bagels in the morning and I shaved in their bathroom. I have now shaved in two Witt bathrooms in my lifetime. We think the Witts is better than the Ritz!
They also gave us fruit and fancy bagels in the morning and I shaved in their bathroom. I have now shaved in two Witt bathrooms in my lifetime. We think the Witts is better than the Ritz!
A new day
well well.
The spinto band finds themselves on the road again this summer. We are currently in Lawrence Kansas after playing our first show of the day. We have already grifted.
The spinto band finds themselves on the road again this summer. We are currently in Lawrence Kansas after playing our first show of the day. We have already grifted.
August 1, 2005
August begins
OK folks. I am worried that people are no longer reading this. If so, I understand. However, let it be known that the spinto band will be back on the road in a few days and more grifting will ensue. In the mean time, read a post from the teeth message board about their tour:
PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:42 am Post subject: tour
i am in seattle's public library. I will give you a quick overview of the tour thus far because the library is closing very soon.
I lost my house keys the day we left, I lost my wallet at the first show in Pittsburgh, we played a funny little bar in michigan that paid us in potato salad and boiled hamburgers, we played a show in detroit and hung out with some people we met there, went to a party then I passed out at a house, had some good breakfast, camped out in a field in michigan, played a great show in athens ohio etc. etc. Aaron and jonas and brian climbed a cliff in Utah, but i didn't cause I was too scared, made our way across the country to california played some shows, camped out in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, swam in a river, saw some snakes, went to modesto it was hot, stayed in a horrible hotel with spiders and ants in it (also moist stained towels) stayed in a house in Sacremento for two days went to a river played at a house party, went to Portland and saw Chris Watson and some "distributor guys", went to a strip club passed out.
now I'm in Seattle. And from this point on we aren't going away from Philadelphia we are coming back to philadelphia (August 20th, North Star Bar). I miss you all.
further more. The most up to date tour dates are still located on www.myspace.com/teeth so for those of you who live outside of the Philadelphia Area: look at it.
check that little boondoggle out at www.theteeth.net (then message board)
PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:42 am Post subject: tour
i am in seattle's public library. I will give you a quick overview of the tour thus far because the library is closing very soon.
I lost my house keys the day we left, I lost my wallet at the first show in Pittsburgh, we played a funny little bar in michigan that paid us in potato salad and boiled hamburgers, we played a show in detroit and hung out with some people we met there, went to a party then I passed out at a house, had some good breakfast, camped out in a field in michigan, played a great show in athens ohio etc. etc. Aaron and jonas and brian climbed a cliff in Utah, but i didn't cause I was too scared, made our way across the country to california played some shows, camped out in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, swam in a river, saw some snakes, went to modesto it was hot, stayed in a horrible hotel with spiders and ants in it (also moist stained towels) stayed in a house in Sacremento for two days went to a river played at a house party, went to Portland and saw Chris Watson and some "distributor guys", went to a strip club passed out.
now I'm in Seattle. And from this point on we aren't going away from Philadelphia we are coming back to philadelphia (August 20th, North Star Bar). I miss you all.
further more. The most up to date tour dates are still located on www.myspace.com/teeth so for those of you who live outside of the Philadelphia Area: look at it.
check that little boondoggle out at www.theteeth.net (then message board)
July 20, 2005
The First Grift- caught on camera
here are some J-Mo shots from the first spinto/bikini carwash grift of the now completed tour. Look at how ecstatic Scott is that we have a trash bag full of bagels.
July 15, 2005
I forgot
also- here is more stuff about the Rothkos Stolen Transmission show: Steal this entry
and, I wanted to mention that thanks to the hard work of Sarah Lewetinn, Albert Birney, and Rachel Bone we have Oh Mandy singles that we will now be selling at shows. There aren't many, so get them while they're hot.
and, I wanted to mention that thanks to the hard work of Sarah Lewetinn, Albert Birney, and Rachel Bone we have Oh Mandy singles that we will now be selling at shows. There aren't many, so get them while they're hot.
Photography
Here are some photos that a fella from spin magazine took at the stolen transmissions showcase the other night. I especially like that the sin city band and martha dumptruck massacre get shout outs on our t shirts as these photos are up on spin.com's photo gallery
and a great croon from 5 oclock heroes
and our dear friend and traveler Joe Moore has posted some spinto band shots taken at our PianosNYC show in June. Check 'em out!
and a great croon from 5 oclock heroes
and our dear friend and traveler Joe Moore has posted some spinto band shots taken at our PianosNYC show in June. Check 'em out!
July 14, 2005
ultragrrrrrrrrrrrr
So we played at Rothkos last night in the big NY. Thanks to all who came out and supported. Noticed a lot of new heads in the audience that I had never seen at spinto shows before, as well as a lot of old friends like my favorite Ithicanian, Dan Lane.
Sarah Lewetinn pulled out all the plugs to promote for this show, and it worked.
The Nightmare of You guys were super nice as we found out at a pre-show BBQ that Sarah vegetariacized into my belly. She made a charcoal pyramid. They also had some pretty great songs which were performed at the show. Don't think that because their hair is perfectly tattered that they are hooligans. They are not, they are talented and energetic songwriters who most definitaly smoke it true.
Nick confused his gizmodgery on stage again last night confusing the latest cellular device, the Sidekick, with Gob's favorite form of transport, the Segway. I got a real kick out of it.
We also had an Oh Mandy single that was birthed last night. It has an Oh Mandy remix on it and a Thomas Hughes classic, Misogyny is Cool. Im not sure where you can get it, but try Sarah's site or come out to a spinto show soon. Maybe saturday night at the Knitting Factory with the Bikini Carwash Company and Bullet Parade.
Finally, please tell me this isn't Beast Wars in action: 30,000 honey bees v. 30 hornets
Sarah Lewetinn pulled out all the plugs to promote for this show, and it worked.
The Nightmare of You guys were super nice as we found out at a pre-show BBQ that Sarah vegetariacized into my belly. She made a charcoal pyramid. They also had some pretty great songs which were performed at the show. Don't think that because their hair is perfectly tattered that they are hooligans. They are not, they are talented and energetic songwriters who most definitaly smoke it true.
Nick confused his gizmodgery on stage again last night confusing the latest cellular device, the Sidekick, with Gob's favorite form of transport, the Segway. I got a real kick out of it.
We also had an Oh Mandy single that was birthed last night. It has an Oh Mandy remix on it and a Thomas Hughes classic, Misogyny is Cool. Im not sure where you can get it, but try Sarah's site or come out to a spinto show soon. Maybe saturday night at the Knitting Factory with the Bikini Carwash Company and Bullet Parade.
Finally, please tell me this isn't Beast Wars in action: 30,000 honey bees v. 30 hornets
July 11, 2005
Per Request: Sam Hughes Reviews
Beverage Review: Coca-Cola Zero
I actually first bought and had this soda a day before the tour started, but since mr/mrs. anonymous wanted my opinion, then you shall have it. The diet soda craze has a lot of upward momentum and this soda fits right in line with that trend. When I orginally heard about Coke Zero I heard bold claims that it would "taste exactly like Coke, but contain no calories because that's what young adults want." While I can't argue with the sentiment, I knew this was too true to begin with and my taste buds agreed. There is no doubt that that this is a better diet soda than Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, but it really has no business identifying itself with regular Coke Classic. If Coke couldn't make C2 taste like Coke Classic, then they definitely couldn't pull off a miracle and make Coke Zero taste normal. The "diet coke" after taste isn't as offensive in this soda, but I would reccomend drinking it somewhat quickly as I found the carbonation to wear off abnormally quickly for whatever reason. I don't like the packaging all that much either as I'm missing some of the red which I look to for Coke products, but it makes sense to stick with a whiter package as to not confuse the diet soda drinkers. Over all, this is an overall average product, but it is probably the most satisfying mainstream diet beverage out right now (possibly only rivaled by Pepsi One) and I prefer it over diet Coke. Then again, I kind of hate diet sodas in general, so suck it.
4.5/10
I actually first bought and had this soda a day before the tour started, but since mr/mrs. anonymous wanted my opinion, then you shall have it. The diet soda craze has a lot of upward momentum and this soda fits right in line with that trend. When I orginally heard about Coke Zero I heard bold claims that it would "taste exactly like Coke, but contain no calories because that's what young adults want." While I can't argue with the sentiment, I knew this was too true to begin with and my taste buds agreed. There is no doubt that that this is a better diet soda than Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, but it really has no business identifying itself with regular Coke Classic. If Coke couldn't make C2 taste like Coke Classic, then they definitely couldn't pull off a miracle and make Coke Zero taste normal. The "diet coke" after taste isn't as offensive in this soda, but I would reccomend drinking it somewhat quickly as I found the carbonation to wear off abnormally quickly for whatever reason. I don't like the packaging all that much either as I'm missing some of the red which I look to for Coke products, but it makes sense to stick with a whiter package as to not confuse the diet soda drinkers. Over all, this is an overall average product, but it is probably the most satisfying mainstream diet beverage out right now (possibly only rivaled by Pepsi One) and I prefer it over diet Coke. Then again, I kind of hate diet sodas in general, so suck it.
4.5/10
Steel City
So we played this most excellent club in Pittsburgh on the eve of Saturday the 9th with astounding results! This renovated fire hall has magically turned into a kick ass martini bar called The Firehouse Lounge. If I were permitted to I would have slept on the furniture in this place as it could be the most comfortable venue the spinto band has played in yet. It seems pretty hip to as they have underground hip hop nights and urban poetry slams to mix together in thin-stemmed martini glasses with chocolate syrup on top.
To thank the spinto band and bikini carwash company for playing at their bar (an act not commonly done by club owners) the firehouse manager poured us all their specialty shot. This mystery shot was then downed by all of us only to discover that it was a drink of vodka that had been sitting in a bottle filled with habanero peppers for who know how long. I am pretty sure one of the habanero seeds was in my shot glass. This firehouse special sure lit a fire on all of our tongues. After slamming my fist on the bar for a while, we gave the managers and bartenders pound outs and went to our friend Ashley's house where some of the most pathetic team sorry matches of all time took place. Team Hughes Brother continued their win streak, and their Team Sorry over-confidence by humiliating our most gracious hostess while Jon was taken aback by Ashley's impressive mp3/record collection. In combination with the VanFoss roustabout in PSU the night before, where a certain spinto member celebrated turning the big 2-4, this was a great weekend in the tour.
To thank the spinto band and bikini carwash company for playing at their bar (an act not commonly done by club owners) the firehouse manager poured us all their specialty shot. This mystery shot was then downed by all of us only to discover that it was a drink of vodka that had been sitting in a bottle filled with habanero peppers for who know how long. I am pretty sure one of the habanero seeds was in my shot glass. This firehouse special sure lit a fire on all of our tongues. After slamming my fist on the bar for a while, we gave the managers and bartenders pound outs and went to our friend Ashley's house where some of the most pathetic team sorry matches of all time took place. Team Hughes Brother continued their win streak, and their Team Sorry over-confidence by humiliating our most gracious hostess while Jon was taken aback by Ashley's impressive mp3/record collection. In combination with the VanFoss roustabout in PSU the night before, where a certain spinto member celebrated turning the big 2-4, this was a great weekend in the tour.
America! Lets do it!
So after seeing this video sent to me by my friend Nick G I realized the spinto band needs to further expand our American tour!
so we added some shows that will soon be confirmed and hyper-beamed into your date books in cities such as Des Moines, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Portland Oregon, Seattle, San Fran, LA, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, and Nashville.
Once you watch the video, you will understand why the spinto band had to do this- we stand as one!
so we added some shows that will soon be confirmed and hyper-beamed into your date books in cities such as Des Moines, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, Portland Oregon, Seattle, San Fran, LA, Phoenix, Austin, Houston, New Orleans, and Nashville.
Once you watch the video, you will understand why the spinto band had to do this- we stand as one!
July 7, 2005
Zack Denfeld doesn't know crap about art
So our dear friend Zackery does something similar to us. He grifts, but not for survival- he grifts for art. Check out his documentation of perhaps the greatest dumpster dive in history: Trader Joe's dumpster. Does it stop there? NOPE! they had an Iron Dumpster cookoff! you must check it out. http://aaswarmart.org/ after the explenation of all his other artistic meanderings when he rented a gallery space for a month. Ann Arbor is for lovers.
A Minor Grift Worth Noting
Today we were further baffled by the upper-North-West's petrol pricing. We cruised routes 90 and 94 West, eyes peeled for gasoline under the two dollar and thirty cents gallon mark. Approximately 23 miles outside of Kallamazoo Michigan we spotted a Flying J station with a towering sign stating "unleaded:$2.17"
wowza
We pulled in and waited in line, others were bargain hunting as well. We pumped, and I bought a Dew and a double decker oatmeal creme pie. On the way out, a grift presented itself to us.
I saw one of those silly looking Red Bull trucks with the giant bottle sticking out of it. Such promotional ridiculousness set off a signal in my head. I thought, "Free samples MUST be happening!" I approached the truck from behind*. I noticed there was a gentleman and a lady within its doors. I positioned myself so I would avoid the dude and talk to the madame of the operation. She was more than willing to give us about 20 Red Bulls in exchange for a spinto-sampler (which is a cd, not a variety of spinto tastes.) Thats about it. The guy with her was a moron and it was clear she was happy to talk to someone besides him. Maybe they were siblings... or feuding lovers... either way, we made out with about 40 dollars worth of Red Bull which, as far as I'm concerned, made up for the pricey gasolina.
NOTE: I am the only spinto band member that likes red bull (I think)
Grift On!
ps- special thanks to Ken Drinkwater from Madison WI for letting us borrow the grift-heavy educational writings of Iceberg Slim titled Trick Baby
More to come of 4th of July in Madison, Chicago with Bartenders who play Sorry, and Ann Arbor with a loony grad-student/hustler.
------
*- insert perverted remark here
wowza
We pulled in and waited in line, others were bargain hunting as well. We pumped, and I bought a Dew and a double decker oatmeal creme pie. On the way out, a grift presented itself to us.
I saw one of those silly looking Red Bull trucks with the giant bottle sticking out of it. Such promotional ridiculousness set off a signal in my head. I thought, "Free samples MUST be happening!" I approached the truck from behind*. I noticed there was a gentleman and a lady within its doors. I positioned myself so I would avoid the dude and talk to the madame of the operation. She was more than willing to give us about 20 Red Bulls in exchange for a spinto-sampler (which is a cd, not a variety of spinto tastes.) Thats about it. The guy with her was a moron and it was clear she was happy to talk to someone besides him. Maybe they were siblings... or feuding lovers... either way, we made out with about 40 dollars worth of Red Bull which, as far as I'm concerned, made up for the pricey gasolina.
NOTE: I am the only spinto band member that likes red bull (I think)
Grift On!
ps- special thanks to Ken Drinkwater from Madison WI for letting us borrow the grift-heavy educational writings of Iceberg Slim titled Trick Baby
More to come of 4th of July in Madison, Chicago with Bartenders who play Sorry, and Ann Arbor with a loony grad-student/hustler.
------
*- insert perverted remark here
July 4, 2005
Sam Hughes Reviews a fresh six-pack + 1
Dr Brown's Celery Soda:
While being treated to a fine turkey submarine sandwich at Katz's deli in NYC, I stumbled upon quite the soda goldmine. Only this soda goldmine was filled with stalks upon stalks of refreshing celery, all in the form of a carbonated beverage. In many ways I knew that I would enjoy this soda as soon as I saw it on the menu, but the extent to which I enjoyed it was a surprise. In terms of packaging, Dr. Brown gets a solid rating. The can is appropriately green, and the logo is classic in that I feel that I just trust the Dr. Brown name before I even pop the cap. After the first sip it was clear; this definitely tastes like celery. But it was the further sips that made this more than just some novelty vegetable beverage. The beverage is as refreshing as biting into a fresh celery stick, but its subtle sweetness is really what puts it on top. Again, this is isn't your every day kind of soda, possibly reserved for just a can once in a blue moon, but I can safely say that I'm anxiously awaiting that next blue moon.
Dr. Brown's Celery Soda:
8.5 Grifts out of 10
Soho Natural Lemon-Lime Soda:
Considering this soda's name, I was a bit taken aback when I found this soda in Boots convenience store/deli in State College, PA. The packaging is great on this beverage. I bought a 24 oz. tall can of it (a rarity in itself), whcih featured a sprawling cityscape of what I assume to be the Soho area of NYC. Also appearing on the can are the bold claims that the soda is natural because it contains "pure cane sugar." While that may be true, poking his head through right behind Mr. Pure Cane on the ingredients label was our old friend HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup.) Not having experienced many sodas that only use, or even use some can sugar, I can't say that I was impressed with this soda at all. It still left a nasty film on the top of my mouth like most mainstream sodas do, and the taste was nothing extraordinary which was a great dissapointment. At best, this is Sierra Mist dressed up in prettier packaging.
5 Rese's varieties out of 10
Cheerwine:
This beverage is known to me as a southern staple. While I've heard that the people at Cheerwine are trying to expand their market farther up the east coast, as far as I know you can still only find it in the south and I found it in a Chapel Hill, NC pharmacy. The packaging isn't terribly impressive, and the name of the soda still confuses me, but I guess it all has something to do with cherries because that is what it kinda tastes like. I'd say that that the soda has a Dr. Pepper like feel at its base but a much stronger cherry flavoring, however artificial, it is a nice change of pace. Normally I wouldn't give this soda above a six, but I was eating a good slice of pizza and pining over a really hot asian girl at the time, so...
7 hot asians out of 10
Honest Tea with Peach:
I was pleasently surprised when I stumbled upon this tea at the Savanna health food store in Atlanta, Georgia. I had heard good things about the Honest Tea brand and I'd say that these good things were well warranted. The packaging was very nice on this product. There is good informative information about the specific formulation of the tea and this packaging happened to feature the delightfil Opus from Berkely Breathed's Outland comics. As for the drink itself, this is the tea that Joes wishes he made (boom goes the dynamite.) The subtle sweetness of the cane sugar and peach puree go merely perfectly with the natural mixture of green and black teas. Not sweet by any means, but I'm being honest here, this is good tea.
8.5/10
China Cola:
Another nice beverage to come out of the Savanna health food store was China Cola. The apparent use of "imported Chinese herbs" made this a mysterious and exciting cola. The packaging didn't contain many thrills, but its yellow label and bold red font reminded me enough of the Chinese flag for me to be satisfied. The taste was what truly won me over as this is definitely the best cola I've ever had (which isn't saying much being only exposed to Coke, Pepsi, and generic brands.) The use of canse sugar helps relieve the sticky film that rests on the roof of my mouth when drinking normal cola and the use of mystical elements like "malaysian vanilla" and "tree bark" give this cola a darker and better taste even if I couldn't distinguish those specific flavors. Me Chinese, me play joke, me make much better cola than coke.
9/10
NEHI Peach Soda:
I plucked this peach from the state line gast station bewteen Georgia and Alabama. I was intrigued by the neon red/pink looks and by the fact that U had not seen it before. It had a nice label and font which was also what attracted me to it. I was tather offended by this soda's taste, however. It certaintly tasted like a peach, but unfortunately this peach was injected with 51 grams of high fructose corn syrup sweetened sugar which made it fairly difficult to swallow down this 12 oz. bottle. My colleague Joey proabably best described it as a freezy pop melted into a bottle and then carbonated. Just not a very enjoyable beverage.
2/10
Vault:
So here it is; Coke's long awaited answert to Pepsi's very successful Mountain Dew citrus soda. I'm not sure exactly when this soda appeared on the market, but I saw it for the very first time today at the state line gas stattion between GA and AL. The packaging sticks out, but not ina good way. The font for the drink is some kind of bastardised mix of Peavy's and Vectorman's (Sega Genesis), and it comes off as rather cheesy. The package's claim that Vault "drinks like a soda and kicks like an energy drink is also rather dubious as the ingredients listed don't provide any more energy than any other highly carbonated soda. As for the taste, it isn't so bad. My colleague Jon probably best described it as "Mountain Dew mixed with Sprite. though I'd also throw the "Surge" brand name in there as a similar taste. While this is decent in its own way, this beverage doesn't distinguish itself the way that Dew does. I expect Vault to take some market share, but Dew drinkers will continue to do the Dew, and this mediocre beverage will not Vault over the competition as Coca-Cola wants.
4.5/10
While being treated to a fine turkey submarine sandwich at Katz's deli in NYC, I stumbled upon quite the soda goldmine. Only this soda goldmine was filled with stalks upon stalks of refreshing celery, all in the form of a carbonated beverage. In many ways I knew that I would enjoy this soda as soon as I saw it on the menu, but the extent to which I enjoyed it was a surprise. In terms of packaging, Dr. Brown gets a solid rating. The can is appropriately green, and the logo is classic in that I feel that I just trust the Dr. Brown name before I even pop the cap. After the first sip it was clear; this definitely tastes like celery. But it was the further sips that made this more than just some novelty vegetable beverage. The beverage is as refreshing as biting into a fresh celery stick, but its subtle sweetness is really what puts it on top. Again, this is isn't your every day kind of soda, possibly reserved for just a can once in a blue moon, but I can safely say that I'm anxiously awaiting that next blue moon.
Dr. Brown's Celery Soda:
8.5 Grifts out of 10
Soho Natural Lemon-Lime Soda:
Considering this soda's name, I was a bit taken aback when I found this soda in Boots convenience store/deli in State College, PA. The packaging is great on this beverage. I bought a 24 oz. tall can of it (a rarity in itself), whcih featured a sprawling cityscape of what I assume to be the Soho area of NYC. Also appearing on the can are the bold claims that the soda is natural because it contains "pure cane sugar." While that may be true, poking his head through right behind Mr. Pure Cane on the ingredients label was our old friend HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup.) Not having experienced many sodas that only use, or even use some can sugar, I can't say that I was impressed with this soda at all. It still left a nasty film on the top of my mouth like most mainstream sodas do, and the taste was nothing extraordinary which was a great dissapointment. At best, this is Sierra Mist dressed up in prettier packaging.
5 Rese's varieties out of 10
Cheerwine:
This beverage is known to me as a southern staple. While I've heard that the people at Cheerwine are trying to expand their market farther up the east coast, as far as I know you can still only find it in the south and I found it in a Chapel Hill, NC pharmacy. The packaging isn't terribly impressive, and the name of the soda still confuses me, but I guess it all has something to do with cherries because that is what it kinda tastes like. I'd say that that the soda has a Dr. Pepper like feel at its base but a much stronger cherry flavoring, however artificial, it is a nice change of pace. Normally I wouldn't give this soda above a six, but I was eating a good slice of pizza and pining over a really hot asian girl at the time, so...
7 hot asians out of 10
Honest Tea with Peach:
I was pleasently surprised when I stumbled upon this tea at the Savanna health food store in Atlanta, Georgia. I had heard good things about the Honest Tea brand and I'd say that these good things were well warranted. The packaging was very nice on this product. There is good informative information about the specific formulation of the tea and this packaging happened to feature the delightfil Opus from Berkely Breathed's Outland comics. As for the drink itself, this is the tea that Joes wishes he made (boom goes the dynamite.) The subtle sweetness of the cane sugar and peach puree go merely perfectly with the natural mixture of green and black teas. Not sweet by any means, but I'm being honest here, this is good tea.
8.5/10
China Cola:
Another nice beverage to come out of the Savanna health food store was China Cola. The apparent use of "imported Chinese herbs" made this a mysterious and exciting cola. The packaging didn't contain many thrills, but its yellow label and bold red font reminded me enough of the Chinese flag for me to be satisfied. The taste was what truly won me over as this is definitely the best cola I've ever had (which isn't saying much being only exposed to Coke, Pepsi, and generic brands.) The use of canse sugar helps relieve the sticky film that rests on the roof of my mouth when drinking normal cola and the use of mystical elements like "malaysian vanilla" and "tree bark" give this cola a darker and better taste even if I couldn't distinguish those specific flavors. Me Chinese, me play joke, me make much better cola than coke.
9/10
NEHI Peach Soda:
I plucked this peach from the state line gast station bewteen Georgia and Alabama. I was intrigued by the neon red/pink looks and by the fact that U had not seen it before. It had a nice label and font which was also what attracted me to it. I was tather offended by this soda's taste, however. It certaintly tasted like a peach, but unfortunately this peach was injected with 51 grams of high fructose corn syrup sweetened sugar which made it fairly difficult to swallow down this 12 oz. bottle. My colleague Joey proabably best described it as a freezy pop melted into a bottle and then carbonated. Just not a very enjoyable beverage.
2/10
Vault:
So here it is; Coke's long awaited answert to Pepsi's very successful Mountain Dew citrus soda. I'm not sure exactly when this soda appeared on the market, but I saw it for the very first time today at the state line gas stattion between GA and AL. The packaging sticks out, but not ina good way. The font for the drink is some kind of bastardised mix of Peavy's and Vectorman's (Sega Genesis), and it comes off as rather cheesy. The package's claim that Vault "drinks like a soda and kicks like an energy drink is also rather dubious as the ingredients listed don't provide any more energy than any other highly carbonated soda. As for the taste, it isn't so bad. My colleague Jon probably best described it as "Mountain Dew mixed with Sprite. though I'd also throw the "Surge" brand name in there as a similar taste. While this is decent in its own way, this beverage doesn't distinguish itself the way that Dew does. I expect Vault to take some market share, but Dew drinkers will continue to do the Dew, and this mediocre beverage will not Vault over the competition as Coca-Cola wants.
4.5/10
July 3, 2005
Beast Wars-esque (not really)
Trevor Martin J sent us this in an email that just said "73 year old man vs Leopard... holy shit!"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8317484/?GT1=6657
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8317484/?GT1=6657
July 1, 2005
WOXY
So we are hanging out at the WOXY studio and it is great. Nick is reading a rolling stone magazine, Thomas is reading the November 2004 issue of UnCut with Bono on the cover, Sam says that this is not very exciting. Sam hit Tom in hopes of more excitement. Following is the transcript between T and S at 3:41 pm July 1st 2005:
Jeff: Where's the trashcan?
Sam*: in your mouth
-end-
*after 11 beers
Nick is looking at a picture of a man jumping with an electric guitar--- "whoopdeedoo," says nick.
So we played a little radio show on this hip lil online radio station WOXY. Its pretty cool here, and they gave us a vegetable platter. You can listen to it on itunes in the alt/modern rock category. I recommend it, they play Oingo Boingo.
So Tom wrote a lil bit about Hot Springs Arkansas the other day and we had to leave it with a "to be continued." Here is the continuation:
After the show we drove overnight to Nashville, during the drive we ate 2 Subway footlong hoagies.
HOLD EVERYTHING NICK HAS SOMETHING TO SAY: Too see a Picture of David Cross that kind of looks like Isaac Hayes turn to page 77 of DIW issue #18 in which later issues are edited by Andrew "Metroid" Parks.
Before the drive we woke ourselves up by swimming in a hotel pool. It was great and the pool was both indoor and outdoor. It reminded me of the shark tank at the aquarium, which then reminded me of this: !!
interrupting our Hot Springs tales, Jeff just reminded us of this: !!!
back to hot springs: Before the swim, we had a great grift. Grifting is not to be ranked, as a primary rule of grifting is that all grifts are created equal. However, if we were to rank our favorite grifts, this one may rank up there. Could anything be better than trash bagels? Sam says, "No," Tom says "trash pastries are even better than trash bagels," but I think the Hot Springs Subway Hoagie grift 2005 was clutch. Nick and Jon entered a Hot Springs subway (on the Federal side of town) and asked what they do with their bread at the end of the night, as grifters tend to do. The young lady who was waiting to get off work told us that they don't throw away their bread. She also thought that we were on a "free spirit tour" when Nick told her we were touring. However, after not getting any bread and a seemingly failed grift, we left and faxed a fax. On the way back to the club we past the subway and waved to our friendly subway employee. She saw us, and quickly waved for us to come inside. Once inside, she said that someone never picked up their order, and then gave us 2 foot long hoags. It was glorious.
With this story in mind, we just remembered a great Mike Grimes quote: "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to grift, he will eat for the rest of his life."
The Comet tonite then more travels, grifts, and adventures.
Scott Weiner gets the final word: "bologna (salami) and cream cheese."
Jeff: Where's the trashcan?
Sam*: in your mouth
-end-
*after 11 beers
Nick is looking at a picture of a man jumping with an electric guitar--- "whoopdeedoo," says nick.
So we played a little radio show on this hip lil online radio station WOXY. Its pretty cool here, and they gave us a vegetable platter. You can listen to it on itunes in the alt/modern rock category. I recommend it, they play Oingo Boingo.
So Tom wrote a lil bit about Hot Springs Arkansas the other day and we had to leave it with a "to be continued." Here is the continuation:
After the show we drove overnight to Nashville, during the drive we ate 2 Subway footlong hoagies.
HOLD EVERYTHING NICK HAS SOMETHING TO SAY: Too see a Picture of David Cross that kind of looks like Isaac Hayes turn to page 77 of DIW issue #18 in which later issues are edited by Andrew "Metroid" Parks.
Before the drive we woke ourselves up by swimming in a hotel pool. It was great and the pool was both indoor and outdoor. It reminded me of the shark tank at the aquarium, which then reminded me of this: !!
interrupting our Hot Springs tales, Jeff just reminded us of this: !!!
back to hot springs: Before the swim, we had a great grift. Grifting is not to be ranked, as a primary rule of grifting is that all grifts are created equal. However, if we were to rank our favorite grifts, this one may rank up there. Could anything be better than trash bagels? Sam says, "No," Tom says "trash pastries are even better than trash bagels," but I think the Hot Springs Subway Hoagie grift 2005 was clutch. Nick and Jon entered a Hot Springs subway (on the Federal side of town) and asked what they do with their bread at the end of the night, as grifters tend to do. The young lady who was waiting to get off work told us that they don't throw away their bread. She also thought that we were on a "free spirit tour" when Nick told her we were touring. However, after not getting any bread and a seemingly failed grift, we left and faxed a fax. On the way back to the club we past the subway and waved to our friendly subway employee. She saw us, and quickly waved for us to come inside. Once inside, she said that someone never picked up their order, and then gave us 2 foot long hoags. It was glorious.
With this story in mind, we just remembered a great Mike Grimes quote: "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to grift, he will eat for the rest of his life."
The Comet tonite then more travels, grifts, and adventures.
Scott Weiner gets the final word: "bologna (salami) and cream cheese."
Tonite in Nashville
The Spinto Band will play 'Nicely'
Fans of the kind of nerd-pop that Weezer and Pavement perfected should head toward The Basement tonight, where the young Wilmington, Del.-based gentlemen in The Spinto Band will be playing tracks off their new Nice and Nicely Done album.
The disc, recorded here in Nashville with producers Robin Eaton and Lij Shaw, matches catchy, spazzy pop-rock hooks with the brainy, unpolished aesthetic that owned college radio in the '90s. It's fun, smart stuff, buzzing with precocious energy.
Pop act The Bikini Carwash Company opens the 9 p.m., $5 show.Early birds can catch the Spintos at Grimey's (1604 8th Ave. S., 254-4801) at 6 p.m. for free, too.
— NICOLE KEIPER, STAFF WRITER from the Tenessean Online
June 30, 2005
The Federal Line
Hot Springs, Arkansas is said to be a sacred place of healing. It is your typical holy land, replete with free spring water and "Duck" boat tours.
The Spinto Band arrived in Hot Springs after a grueling 10 hour drive*. We were hungry, dirty, and probably a little cranky. Luckily, the latter of these issues were resolved upon entering Maxines, when an employee greeted us with a handful of Jello Shots. Images of Nick were scattered about the bar (He was the "poster child" for the festival we were soon to be apart of). Bill, the organizer of the festival, treated us to an amazing beer & pasta dinner.
And then we pulled off another grift...
..But that's a whole 'nother story...
*We did, however get to meet the former wife of the former bass player of Quiet Riot.
The Spinto Band arrived in Hot Springs after a grueling 10 hour drive*. We were hungry, dirty, and probably a little cranky. Luckily, the latter of these issues were resolved upon entering Maxines, when an employee greeted us with a handful of Jello Shots. Images of Nick were scattered about the bar (He was the "poster child" for the festival we were soon to be apart of). Bill, the organizer of the festival, treated us to an amazing beer & pasta dinner.
And then we pulled off another grift...
..But that's a whole 'nother story...
*We did, however get to meet the former wife of the former bass player of Quiet Riot.
June 29, 2005
Hotlanta Part II
Ok- back from 10 High Club.
Tonite was a BLAST. Except that our sound man was a complete wang-dangler! I've never had to play quieter in a non-residential environment. Besides running a poor sound board, the guy obviously didn't want to be there. He rushed us in and rushed us out. Scott says he is "douchy." eh- Atlanta is a fun town though.
They do have bum-hammocks here. There is this park we walked by and there were 7 hammocks (1 for each of us) with a sign saying "hammocks for the homeless," or something to that effect.
Also- one of the bands called Friendly Weapon dedicated a song to the dude's "weenus."
Wish us luck on our huge drive tomorrow.
Tonite was a BLAST. Except that our sound man was a complete wang-dangler! I've never had to play quieter in a non-residential environment. Besides running a poor sound board, the guy obviously didn't want to be there. He rushed us in and rushed us out. Scott says he is "douchy." eh- Atlanta is a fun town though.
They do have bum-hammocks here. There is this park we walked by and there were 7 hammocks (1 for each of us) with a sign saying "hammocks for the homeless," or something to that effect.
Also- one of the bands called Friendly Weapon dedicated a song to the dude's "weenus."
Wish us luck on our huge drive tomorrow.
June 28, 2005
Hotlanta
So we arrived in Atlanta at 5 in the morning. Haven't updated you folks in a while so I thought I would take a minute to explain a few things.
First and foremost, The Milestone in Charlotte NC is a pretty great club. All the people there were incredibly nice and they sold moon pies behind the bar and had a bigscreen tv with a Nintendo hooked up to it. This place is pretty historic apparently and has been hosting shows as far back as 1969. We have been playing at some pretty sweet clubs along our tour, but this one had its own personality to it that made the experience quite the ho-down. Not to mention the craziest band I've seen in a while. Cryptorchid Chipmunk had a bunch of costumed West Virginians running around the venue singing songs about farting and blow-jobs. Tom uses the word "spaz" to describe these guys, Scott uses the words, "chaotic" "costume" "naughty-words" and "performance".... as well as "the bass player wore a dildo." They were crazy.
There were also these really nice guys who are on tour and were pretty cool called Elementary Thought Process They're from Jonstown PA or something and the lead singer had a tatoo that looked like his flesh had been ripped off his arm to expose the gears that made him work. Their gears were well oiled and their keyboard player was pretty good at Contra (but didnt know the Konami code!!)
Chapel Hill was hilited by the pizza shop Pepper's Pizza. Scott's face upon biting into the pizza was priceless. I'll try to convince him to post his pizza journal entry here on the journal.
Norfolk VA (have I talked about them yet?) was great too. Everyone at Relative Theory Records was super! Hopefully we will be back there. I thought about it and decided that Norfolk VA could be added to my list of places I wouldn't mind living (right behing Madison WI). It had a sweet record store, a beach, and a surplus of "slam pieces." The pizza left a bit to be desired though (I'm starting to sound like Scott- OH SCHNAPP!)...
eh, thats it for now. Im gonna go shave for the first time in a few days.
First and foremost, The Milestone in Charlotte NC is a pretty great club. All the people there were incredibly nice and they sold moon pies behind the bar and had a bigscreen tv with a Nintendo hooked up to it. This place is pretty historic apparently and has been hosting shows as far back as 1969. We have been playing at some pretty sweet clubs along our tour, but this one had its own personality to it that made the experience quite the ho-down. Not to mention the craziest band I've seen in a while. Cryptorchid Chipmunk had a bunch of costumed West Virginians running around the venue singing songs about farting and blow-jobs. Tom uses the word "spaz" to describe these guys, Scott uses the words, "chaotic" "costume" "naughty-words" and "performance".... as well as "the bass player wore a dildo." They were crazy.
There were also these really nice guys who are on tour and were pretty cool called Elementary Thought Process They're from Jonstown PA or something and the lead singer had a tatoo that looked like his flesh had been ripped off his arm to expose the gears that made him work. Their gears were well oiled and their keyboard player was pretty good at Contra (but didnt know the Konami code!!)
Chapel Hill was hilited by the pizza shop Pepper's Pizza. Scott's face upon biting into the pizza was priceless. I'll try to convince him to post his pizza journal entry here on the journal.
Norfolk VA (have I talked about them yet?) was great too. Everyone at Relative Theory Records was super! Hopefully we will be back there. I thought about it and decided that Norfolk VA could be added to my list of places I wouldn't mind living (right behing Madison WI). It had a sweet record store, a beach, and a surplus of "slam pieces." The pizza left a bit to be desired though (I'm starting to sound like Scott- OH SCHNAPP!)...
eh, thats it for now. Im gonna go shave for the first time in a few days.
June 25, 2005
Norfolk VA/More eating competitions
So, I think I should start out with perhaps the greatest eating accomplishment of our stay in Maryland. Last night we were sleeping at Lochlan and Sarah's house and before putting on Batman Returns, we decided that another eating competition needed to take place. Lochlan ran out to the super market where he purchased a box of saltines and we all tried the "eat 6 saltines in a minut" competition. We gathered in a circle and one by one we failed to even come close to swallowing down the 6 saltines. Then midway through the competition, Nick Krill stepped up to the plate. Tom, Jon, Jeff, Sam, and Joe had all failed before him. Nick built up a stock of saliva and then his minute began. 40 (yes I said FORTY) seconds later, the saltines were digesting in his stomach and the house was erupting in cheers. No one else could do it, and Nick was declared the evening's chow machine.
Continuing with the theme of food, the lovely people at Relative Theory Records were nice enough to give us all free smoothies when we arrived this afternoon. It had been a long-hot-traffic-riddled drive down here, and the smoothies really hit the spot. The people here at Relative Theory are super nice. They asked us to play Oh Mandy twice tonite, which I doubt will happen, but maybe since they are so nice.
Tom bought a Byrds record, a Bee Gees record and a Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood record.
My power source for my laptop is fucked up and I may lose use of the computer if I cant figure a way to fix it. we shall see, Let us hope for the best.
bum-shack
Continuing with the theme of food, the lovely people at Relative Theory Records were nice enough to give us all free smoothies when we arrived this afternoon. It had been a long-hot-traffic-riddled drive down here, and the smoothies really hit the spot. The people here at Relative Theory are super nice. They asked us to play Oh Mandy twice tonite, which I doubt will happen, but maybe since they are so nice.
Tom bought a Byrds record, a Bee Gees record and a Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood record.
My power source for my laptop is fucked up and I may lose use of the computer if I cant figure a way to fix it. we shall see, Let us hope for the best.
bum-shack
June 24, 2005
Photos from the eating comp
Here are some photos from today's eating competition:
Albert drinks from dixie cups
beef master general
The nugget champs
Lochlan goes for a gallon
dipping sauces anyone?
Albert drinks from dixie cups
beef master general
The nugget champs
Lochlan goes for a gallon
dipping sauces anyone?
June 23, 2005
The Results
46 minutes into the milk-off, Lochlan threw up. Albert, shivering and wrapped up in a blanket, looked on. Having decided that movement of any kind would deter his milk-drinking, Albert took on Jeffrey as his assistant. Jeffrey handed him a three or four more dixie cups which Albert drank. With nine more cups to go and eight minutes left, Albert declared that it was physically impossible for him to drink anymore. The audience agreed.
Here are the symptoms and breaking points for each contestant:
Albert: Intense cramping, brain malfunctioning, shaking, gagging, cold sweat.
Lochlan: A feeling of absolute total capacity. His body "just couldn't handle it."
In lighter(?) news, Jonathan Eaton is the newly crowned Beefmaster General. He has completed his seventh burger and...is not feeling good.
The Neapolitan club has not yet finished, but in all, it should be stated that everybody went for pro.
Here are the symptoms and breaking points for each contestant:
Albert: Intense cramping, brain malfunctioning, shaking, gagging, cold sweat.
Lochlan: A feeling of absolute total capacity. His body "just couldn't handle it."
In lighter(?) news, Jonathan Eaton is the newly crowned Beefmaster General. He has completed his seventh burger and...is not feeling good.
The Neapolitan club has not yet finished, but in all, it should be stated that everybody went for pro.
tie game
at 35 min 18 sec into the competition jon has tied david archer's previous record of six cheesburgers.
nug complete
at 25 min. scott, sam and tom have all eaten 46 and 2/3 nugs. and thus have depleated our supply of 140 nugs.
in othe news jon is on burger number six.
in the milk challenge alberts body temperature has dropped due to the ice cold milk.
in othe news jon is on burger number six.
in the milk challenge alberts body temperature has dropped due to the ice cold milk.
nug complete
at 25 min. scott, sam and tom have all eaten 46 and 2/3 nugs. and thus have depleated our supply of 140 nugs.
in othe news jon is on burger number six.
in the milk challenge alberts body temperature has dropped due to the ice cold milk.
in othe news jon is on burger number six.
in the milk challenge alberts body temperature has dropped due to the ice cold milk.
nug
at 16 min. 57 sec scott finished his 40th nug
at 17 min 15 sec tom finished his 40th nug
at 17 min 40 sec sam finished his 40th nug
at 17 min 15 sec tom finished his 40th nug
at 17 min 40 sec sam finished his 40th nug
It Begins
the first anual spinto band eating competition has just begun at exactly 8:30pm on june 22, 2005.
there are currently three competitions going on right now.
the first is the famous galon of milk challange.
albert and lochlan are tryign to drink a gallon of milk in one hour and then keep it down for another hour.
second we have the forty nug challenge.
sam, tom and scott are trying to eat AT LEAST forty chicken mcnuggets. there are twenty other nuggest on standbuy if the competition ends in a tie.
the third challange involves an attempt at the "beef master general" title belt.
jon is goign to try to eat seven mcdonads cheese burgers, thus beatign the previous champion's six cheeseburger record.
finally we have the neopolitan club.
this is nto a compitition but rather a friendly celibration of ice cream. joe, jeff and nick bought a tub of neopolitan ice cream and will split the triforce of cream like so: nick wil eat the strawberry, joe will eat chocolate, and jeff will eat vanilla.
there is also a two leter bottle of holiday spice which will be used in the victory toast.
more to come soon ...
there are currently three competitions going on right now.
the first is the famous galon of milk challange.
albert and lochlan are tryign to drink a gallon of milk in one hour and then keep it down for another hour.
second we have the forty nug challenge.
sam, tom and scott are trying to eat AT LEAST forty chicken mcnuggets. there are twenty other nuggest on standbuy if the competition ends in a tie.
the third challange involves an attempt at the "beef master general" title belt.
jon is goign to try to eat seven mcdonads cheese burgers, thus beatign the previous champion's six cheeseburger record.
finally we have the neopolitan club.
this is nto a compitition but rather a friendly celibration of ice cream. joe, jeff and nick bought a tub of neopolitan ice cream and will split the triforce of cream like so: nick wil eat the strawberry, joe will eat chocolate, and jeff will eat vanilla.
there is also a two leter bottle of holiday spice which will be used in the victory toast.
more to come soon ...
Eating Competitions
So we played the black cat last night and it was great. Thanks to all blog peeps for helping make that show rock solid. The band really digs the idea of people finding out about bands from web journals and then those fans actually going out and supporting the band. It appears to be a glorious little community.
MORE IMPORTANTLY
Tonite a serious competition will be taking place. Since we have our first day off in a while, we need to think of a way to keep the momentum up. We decided that we will try to eat a ton of food. Here is the breakdown of who is eating what tonite:
Jon Eaton- 7 McDonalds Cheeseburgers
Thomas Hughes- 60 McDonalds Nuggets
Sam Hughes- 60 McDonalds Nuggets
Scott Weiner- 60 McDonalds Nuggets
Albert Birney- 1 gallon of 1% milk
Locklin- 1 gallon of 1% milk
Eric "Badlands" Booker- pussied out
Everyone is encouraging everyone else to reach new levels of consumption tonite. I feel as though the milk drinkers have the hardest path ahead of them. Bennington College crowned a Beef-Master General to a gentleman who ate 6 cheeseburgers, so 7 may qualify as Jon Eaton becoming the new General. meanwhile we do not know of any chicken nugget eating competitions, but I know Scott's strategy is to imagine the nugget puppets used in McDonalds TV ads as he goes for 60. How many eggs did Paul Newman have to eat in Cool Hand Luke?
Anyway, that is the news of the hour, we are all trying stomach expansion techniques as I type this.
ALSO ALSO ALSO:
I can't seem to get a wire to connect my camera to my computer unless I order it off the internet, so it looks as though my dreams of posting a bunch of pictures with these posts may be threatened, at least until the tour is over. I apologize, but I hear there are a bunch of photos on www.flicker.com if you search for "spinto band."
MORE IMPORTANTLY
Tonite a serious competition will be taking place. Since we have our first day off in a while, we need to think of a way to keep the momentum up. We decided that we will try to eat a ton of food. Here is the breakdown of who is eating what tonite:
Jon Eaton- 7 McDonalds Cheeseburgers
Thomas Hughes- 60 McDonalds Nuggets
Sam Hughes- 60 McDonalds Nuggets
Scott Weiner- 60 McDonalds Nuggets
Albert Birney- 1 gallon of 1% milk
Locklin- 1 gallon of 1% milk
Eric "Badlands" Booker- pussied out
Everyone is encouraging everyone else to reach new levels of consumption tonite. I feel as though the milk drinkers have the hardest path ahead of them. Bennington College crowned a Beef-Master General to a gentleman who ate 6 cheeseburgers, so 7 may qualify as Jon Eaton becoming the new General. meanwhile we do not know of any chicken nugget eating competitions, but I know Scott's strategy is to imagine the nugget puppets used in McDonalds TV ads as he goes for 60. How many eggs did Paul Newman have to eat in Cool Hand Luke?
Anyway, that is the news of the hour, we are all trying stomach expansion techniques as I type this.
ALSO ALSO ALSO:
I can't seem to get a wire to connect my camera to my computer unless I order it off the internet, so it looks as though my dreams of posting a bunch of pictures with these posts may be threatened, at least until the tour is over. I apologize, but I hear there are a bunch of photos on www.flicker.com if you search for "spinto band."
Grift On June 21, 2005 by nick krill
It is only 8:42 PM and we have already had a full day’s worth of grifts. For those of you who aren’t aware of grifting, check out
Grifters with John Cusack. It’s the worst movie ever, but opened my eyes to a world of social obtusities that Uncle Sam doesn’t want you to know about.
Today the spinto band was three for three on grifts in Baltimore MD.
The first grift was the classic free bread grift. It was about 6:00 in the evening, and being unable to load in to the talking head until 8:30 we decided to walk around and find a place to relax. We had just turned down a small side street and began commenting about how awful it was that every store nearby was closing down at six when i looked to my left and saw a large trash bag inside an Au Bon Pain shop. It was glorious, and filled with muffins, strudels, bagels and cinnamon buns. I got the attention of a shop keeper, pointed at the bag and mouthed the words “trash bagels.” She nodded, gave the universal hand signal for “wait just a minute” and went towards the back room. A few moments later she emerged with a small plastic bag and began filling it with the goodies. Each band member now began watering at the mouth and sizing up the expanding bag like a pigeon might hone in on a discarded pizza crust. The shopkeeper then struggled trying to unlock the front door and left us in a few seconds of suspense. Finally, she handed over the bag of orphaned baked goods. Scott suggested we take a moment of silence to bask in the glory of all these day old treats. The moment was brief and we immediately dove into the bag. To celebrate our recently filled stomachs we decided to get a drink. Which leads us to the second grift of the day, the illusive shop keeps “my bad” grift.
We left the side street, some of us with apple danishes in hand, and headed toward a Walgreens pharmacy. As a miser in training I always head straight to the gallon jugs of water when I need to get a beverage on the road. The gallon jug is always cheep relative to the other convenient store beverages, and you simply can not beat its bang for the buck factor. As I stood looking at the available gallon jugs, one immediately caught my eye: a gallon jug for .59 cents. Not only was this jug just pennies, but it was a fantasticly designed jug.
Normal gallon jugs are a variation on the gallon milk jug, the familiar plastic molded container and handle combo with a pop off top. The .59 cent jug was a gem. First, instead of a pop-top it had a proper screw on top, that greatly reduces the chance of the jug top popping off during a bouncy car ride. The jug was also a bit streamlined almost like a bloated Evian bottle. Finally, instead of having a molded, built in handle it was fashioned with a plastic hand-hold secured around the bottle top. This design allows the jug to be held comfortably by ones side with the jug remaining upright. The normal milk jug copy forces the drinker to carry the jug at an angle, which is a mite uncomfortable on long journeys. The only drawback found thus far is the handle around the bottle top can become annoying while drinking from the bottle, however it more than makes up for this fault with its improvements made to the transportation of the jug.
Normally I may take up to two minutes looking at the various product options to determine which yields the maximum value, but today this choice was simple and I made my way to the cashier. Scott was also tempted by the .59 cent water and was at the casher when I arrived. To my dismay, when the clerk scanned the upc code the price for the beverage came up as $1.69. Unfortunately the .59 cent deal was for a gallon of Walgreens brand water, and we held in our hands a Pure American jug. This price was unacceptable, even considering the well designed bottle. After some talking with the cashier and the store manager it was determined that the product was marked incorrectly on the shelf. Due to a shortage of the Walgreens water they had to move the Pure American brand into the shelf space. In the end both the cashier and the manager said it was their bad and thus we go the $1.69 water for .59 cents.
Now being well fed and with our thirsts quenched we decided to find a comfortable place to play a little Phase 10 to pass the time. We began in a park, but after constant pestering from gnats (no-see-ums) we decided to move the game indoors. We began perusing the streets for a comfortable lobby, and finally spotted a local hotel. We had been tipped off by our friends in the mini band that hotel lobbies are a prime pit stop for touring bands yielding clean bathrooms and occasionally scraps of the days continental breakfast. We were all excited to test out their theory. Five of us walked in and made our way towards the hotel bar. We sat down, began dealing the phase 10 cards and told the bar tender we were waiting for a friend. We soon noticed a small buffet of free food which we began picking over. After a few games of phase 10 jon ordered a drink to keep the bar tender at bay while we all made another run at the buffet. Around this time tom decided to go to the bathroom and jon made a phone call to the hobsons (who decided to sit this grift out). Although the call was not initially part of the grift, it fit perfectly into our plan. Here is a short transcript:
Jon: hey where are you.
Caller: bla bla bla
Jon: oh. well we are here.
Caller: bla bla
Jon: hmm ok well we will see you there soon.
This conveniently gave us an exit plan and the bar tender was none the wiser. Then, just as we were finishing out latest phase 10 hand tom returned beaming and holding a hand full of cookies and a coffee. We made our way through the lobby towards the front door and each grabbed a few cookies on our way out. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening of grifting.
While returning to the talking head we saw a park bench reading, “ Baltimore: the greatest city in America” after tonight we would like to amend that phrase adding, “Baltimore: the greatest city in America, for grifting.”
Grifters with John Cusack. It’s the worst movie ever, but opened my eyes to a world of social obtusities that Uncle Sam doesn’t want you to know about.
Today the spinto band was three for three on grifts in Baltimore MD.
The first grift was the classic free bread grift. It was about 6:00 in the evening, and being unable to load in to the talking head until 8:30 we decided to walk around and find a place to relax. We had just turned down a small side street and began commenting about how awful it was that every store nearby was closing down at six when i looked to my left and saw a large trash bag inside an Au Bon Pain shop. It was glorious, and filled with muffins, strudels, bagels and cinnamon buns. I got the attention of a shop keeper, pointed at the bag and mouthed the words “trash bagels.” She nodded, gave the universal hand signal for “wait just a minute” and went towards the back room. A few moments later she emerged with a small plastic bag and began filling it with the goodies. Each band member now began watering at the mouth and sizing up the expanding bag like a pigeon might hone in on a discarded pizza crust. The shopkeeper then struggled trying to unlock the front door and left us in a few seconds of suspense. Finally, she handed over the bag of orphaned baked goods. Scott suggested we take a moment of silence to bask in the glory of all these day old treats. The moment was brief and we immediately dove into the bag. To celebrate our recently filled stomachs we decided to get a drink. Which leads us to the second grift of the day, the illusive shop keeps “my bad” grift.
We left the side street, some of us with apple danishes in hand, and headed toward a Walgreens pharmacy. As a miser in training I always head straight to the gallon jugs of water when I need to get a beverage on the road. The gallon jug is always cheep relative to the other convenient store beverages, and you simply can not beat its bang for the buck factor. As I stood looking at the available gallon jugs, one immediately caught my eye: a gallon jug for .59 cents. Not only was this jug just pennies, but it was a fantasticly designed jug.
Normal gallon jugs are a variation on the gallon milk jug, the familiar plastic molded container and handle combo with a pop off top. The .59 cent jug was a gem. First, instead of a pop-top it had a proper screw on top, that greatly reduces the chance of the jug top popping off during a bouncy car ride. The jug was also a bit streamlined almost like a bloated Evian bottle. Finally, instead of having a molded, built in handle it was fashioned with a plastic hand-hold secured around the bottle top. This design allows the jug to be held comfortably by ones side with the jug remaining upright. The normal milk jug copy forces the drinker to carry the jug at an angle, which is a mite uncomfortable on long journeys. The only drawback found thus far is the handle around the bottle top can become annoying while drinking from the bottle, however it more than makes up for this fault with its improvements made to the transportation of the jug.
Normally I may take up to two minutes looking at the various product options to determine which yields the maximum value, but today this choice was simple and I made my way to the cashier. Scott was also tempted by the .59 cent water and was at the casher when I arrived. To my dismay, when the clerk scanned the upc code the price for the beverage came up as $1.69. Unfortunately the .59 cent deal was for a gallon of Walgreens brand water, and we held in our hands a Pure American jug. This price was unacceptable, even considering the well designed bottle. After some talking with the cashier and the store manager it was determined that the product was marked incorrectly on the shelf. Due to a shortage of the Walgreens water they had to move the Pure American brand into the shelf space. In the end both the cashier and the manager said it was their bad and thus we go the $1.69 water for .59 cents.
Now being well fed and with our thirsts quenched we decided to find a comfortable place to play a little Phase 10 to pass the time. We began in a park, but after constant pestering from gnats (no-see-ums) we decided to move the game indoors. We began perusing the streets for a comfortable lobby, and finally spotted a local hotel. We had been tipped off by our friends in the mini band that hotel lobbies are a prime pit stop for touring bands yielding clean bathrooms and occasionally scraps of the days continental breakfast. We were all excited to test out their theory. Five of us walked in and made our way towards the hotel bar. We sat down, began dealing the phase 10 cards and told the bar tender we were waiting for a friend. We soon noticed a small buffet of free food which we began picking over. After a few games of phase 10 jon ordered a drink to keep the bar tender at bay while we all made another run at the buffet. Around this time tom decided to go to the bathroom and jon made a phone call to the hobsons (who decided to sit this grift out). Although the call was not initially part of the grift, it fit perfectly into our plan. Here is a short transcript:
Jon: hey where are you.
Caller: bla bla bla
Jon: oh. well we are here.
Caller: bla bla
Jon: hmm ok well we will see you there soon.
This conveniently gave us an exit plan and the bar tender was none the wiser. Then, just as we were finishing out latest phase 10 hand tom returned beaming and holding a hand full of cookies and a coffee. We made our way through the lobby towards the front door and each grabbed a few cookies on our way out. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening of grifting.
While returning to the talking head we saw a park bench reading, “ Baltimore: the greatest city in America” after tonight we would like to amend that phrase adding, “Baltimore: the greatest city in America, for grifting.”
June 21st 2005
We are pigeons.
We are outside an Au Bon Pain in Baltimore MD. They just closed and we got their bagels and muffins. The manager may be mad. This is turning into the most effective means of tour support yet-- get other people’s garbage and eat it.
Sorry for not posting in a while. We have been busy and internet opportunities have been few and far between. I don’t even remember when I gave the last update. Tonite we are playing in Baltimore at the Talking Head and it will be our 6th show in 5 nights.
Backtracking:
Last night was great. We played at The Crowbar in State College with the nice folks of the Bullet Parade. While the sound man was a bit of a herb, he did do a good job and despite Jeff’s kick-drum head breaking, it was a pretty good show. Jeff Van Fossen was as cordial as ever and we slept on futons with his dog Ghost Mutt.
I don’t want to leave the most important part of last night out. It was a post-show viewing of Batman Begins at the local theatre. All sorts of spinto fans including the oh-so-welcoming Mike “Pryzz” let us in for a 3 am viewing session. Thomas and Sam managed to drink two 40s while the movie was on while Jeff slept and I was blown away by the dark knight. All in all it was a great roustabout.
So the night before that we were in Newark. I stopped by my parents house and had a li’l father’s day BBQ as the rest of the band did the same. The East End Show was pretty cool. Albert Birney beat me up in pinball scoring 100,000 points or so to my 35,000 (if that)…. The first band punked out which upset Scott a bunch... besides that it was pretty good. Well, actually, I did feel a bit sad for the current state of the East End. It seems as though it isn’t the venue it was a few years ago, but it’s still booking shows and serving quesadillas.
The night before that we played a packed PianosNYC show. Saw everyone under the sun and made me realize NYC seems like the place to be. Ate a big ol’ sandwich and had a taste of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray celery soda. Hopefully Sam will critique it.
We are outside an Au Bon Pain in Baltimore MD. They just closed and we got their bagels and muffins. The manager may be mad. This is turning into the most effective means of tour support yet-- get other people’s garbage and eat it.
Sorry for not posting in a while. We have been busy and internet opportunities have been few and far between. I don’t even remember when I gave the last update. Tonite we are playing in Baltimore at the Talking Head and it will be our 6th show in 5 nights.
Backtracking:
Last night was great. We played at The Crowbar in State College with the nice folks of the Bullet Parade. While the sound man was a bit of a herb, he did do a good job and despite Jeff’s kick-drum head breaking, it was a pretty good show. Jeff Van Fossen was as cordial as ever and we slept on futons with his dog Ghost Mutt.
I don’t want to leave the most important part of last night out. It was a post-show viewing of Batman Begins at the local theatre. All sorts of spinto fans including the oh-so-welcoming Mike “Pryzz” let us in for a 3 am viewing session. Thomas and Sam managed to drink two 40s while the movie was on while Jeff slept and I was blown away by the dark knight. All in all it was a great roustabout.
So the night before that we were in Newark. I stopped by my parents house and had a li’l father’s day BBQ as the rest of the band did the same. The East End Show was pretty cool. Albert Birney beat me up in pinball scoring 100,000 points or so to my 35,000 (if that)…. The first band punked out which upset Scott a bunch... besides that it was pretty good. Well, actually, I did feel a bit sad for the current state of the East End. It seems as though it isn’t the venue it was a few years ago, but it’s still booking shows and serving quesadillas.
The night before that we played a packed PianosNYC show. Saw everyone under the sun and made me realize NYC seems like the place to be. Ate a big ol’ sandwich and had a taste of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray celery soda. Hopefully Sam will critique it.
UPDATES
Since we haven't been able to connect to the internet recently, we have been trying to record our blogs in Word documents. So if you are confused by dates and times given by us compared to the blog, here is your heads up. I dont think anyone really reads this anyway though.
June 19, 2005
Sam Hughes Reviews in Twos
Mr. J's Root Beer and Grape from Sloppy Joes Deli:
To continue my brief tour of Cranford, NJ area beverages, I bought a couple of flavors of soda at the local deli. There is going to be one problem with this review, and that is that I do not know who manufactures these products, so I don't know who exactly that I am judging. See, Mr J. just gets a soda manufacturer to make his sodas, then slaps a label on them to sell in the store, and this is where my problem starts with these beverages. The packaging is identical, somewhat equivalent to the generic pizza boxes that say "hot and fresh" or the clothes hangers that say "we <3 our customers." I'd say that in some ways this is what attracted me to the packaging, but to think that many other Mr. J's are selling the same product with similar packaging is a bit disheartening. As for the beverages, I will start with the root beer.
I've had a craving for root beer lately so I was excited to dip my tongue into this one. Sadly I cannot say that I left with this same excited feeling after drinking it though. There is nothing particularly offensive about this root beer, but it is rather standard affair to me as bottled root beers go. I suppose that is the root of my dissapointment for this beverage, in both packaging and taste, it doesn't offer much.
4 Yo Boys out of 10
Grape Soda has always been somewhat of a delicacy to me. It really isn't the kind of soda I would buy a 12-pack of, but is most likely reserved for a 20 oz. bottle or in this case, a 12 oz. bottle. I enjoyed this soda a lot. It was packed with sugar (49g) and made me feel very ill afterwards, but that is what I get for drinking these two sodas within 1.5 hours. Despite the load of sugar, this soda actually tasted less sweet and a bit more sophisticated than most grape sodas that I have dealt with. This is one grape that I would not escape from!
7.5 Axe Effect Girls out of 10
To continue my brief tour of Cranford, NJ area beverages, I bought a couple of flavors of soda at the local deli. There is going to be one problem with this review, and that is that I do not know who manufactures these products, so I don't know who exactly that I am judging. See, Mr J. just gets a soda manufacturer to make his sodas, then slaps a label on them to sell in the store, and this is where my problem starts with these beverages. The packaging is identical, somewhat equivalent to the generic pizza boxes that say "hot and fresh" or the clothes hangers that say "we <3 our customers." I'd say that in some ways this is what attracted me to the packaging, but to think that many other Mr. J's are selling the same product with similar packaging is a bit disheartening. As for the beverages, I will start with the root beer.
I've had a craving for root beer lately so I was excited to dip my tongue into this one. Sadly I cannot say that I left with this same excited feeling after drinking it though. There is nothing particularly offensive about this root beer, but it is rather standard affair to me as bottled root beers go. I suppose that is the root of my dissapointment for this beverage, in both packaging and taste, it doesn't offer much.
4 Yo Boys out of 10
Grape Soda has always been somewhat of a delicacy to me. It really isn't the kind of soda I would buy a 12-pack of, but is most likely reserved for a 20 oz. bottle or in this case, a 12 oz. bottle. I enjoyed this soda a lot. It was packed with sugar (49g) and made me feel very ill afterwards, but that is what I get for drinking these two sodas within 1.5 hours. Despite the load of sugar, this soda actually tasted less sweet and a bit more sophisticated than most grape sodas that I have dealt with. This is one grape that I would not escape from!
7.5 Axe Effect Girls out of 10
June 17, 2005
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