Let's Put On A Show!

The Gold State is playing this weekend at 2:00 on Saturday, April 28, 2007 at the Kaleidoscope Festival at Cal State Long Beach. It's an outdoor festival thing that the university puts on every year which apparently attracts 30,000 visitors. Exactly 30,000. One year, they realized they had undercounted and they had to kick someone out. Oddly enough, except for that one screw-up, there have never been any more or less than 30,000 visitors.

Not that there haven't been deliberate attempts to thwart the official count by pranksters using false moustaches and bad espadrilles.

(I probably should have said, "And/or bad espadrilles.")

The stage will be just west of the Vivian Engineering Building on the easternmost side of the campus. Our best friend band, The Black Heartthrobs, will also be playing just after us, at 3:00.

Parking is free, and admission is free. There'll be lots of food and all kinds of things to do, maybe even things you'll enjoy.

The Gold State - 2:00
The Black Heartthrobs - 3:00
2007 Kaleidoscope Festival
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840
Free parking & free admission
(Click for Directions)

Dog & Camera Show

I really hate to anthropomorphize Stu by implying that there was any kind of human-ish motivation behind his decision to pose next to the Polaroid SX-70 Model 2, so I won't.

Thrift Store: Stuffed Eiffel Tower

...for when you've outgrown your stuffed Hoover Dam.

LONG LIVE SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY!

Today I bought a new/old Polaroid Spectra camera. It was the top-o'-th'-line back in the 80s.

My li'l sis took this one of me in mom's bathroom. I really like how the Spectra automatically does "vignetting," or darkening at the edges of the picture.

I didn't alter this photo in Photoshop or anything. Swear to "god."

New Underwear Lane Comic

There's a new one, all right.

Raisinette in the Sun

Jesus must be rolling over in his grave.

Caption, anyone?

I Now Have A Camera Phone

Tonight, I turned down two offers to go to really fun-sounding parties so I could help my ex-girlfriend move furniture and assemble a really heavy bookcase.

That's how I roll.

I know it kind of ruins the story, but afterwards she bought me dinner at my favorite Cuban restaurant, Versailles (see above camera photo).

One of Cardinal Richelieu's Most Unscrupulous Agents

I was at a party last night and some of the guests were in another room, playing with a Ouija board that someone had made a using a piece of cardboard and a shotglass. I don't believe in ghosts at all, and I've never played with a Ouija board before.

At one point in the evening, a few of us went into the bedroom to play with the board. At first, a girl and I both had our fingers on the glass and nothing happened. I think it was because whenever I felt the glass start to move a little, I knew it wasn't me, so I'd say, "You're moving it," and she'd deny it, but it would stop moving. She's a good friend, so I guess I felt comfortable openly accusing her of cheating.

A bit later, though, I tried it with a guy I 'd never met before, and a girl that I don't really know that well, and when the glass started moving, it wasn't obvious who was doing it. I know it wasn't me, though.

The girl was obviously well acquainted with spirit world etiquette, and she was asking "it" questions, but the glass just spelled out gibberish. She very sympathetically asked, "Are you confused?" At that point, "it" started spelling out, "F-U, F-U, F-U," repeatedly. Then she asked, "Do you want us to leave you alone," and the glass shot over to the "Goodbye" word.

I totally think all that stuff's bullshit, but I fully got the proverbial willies! The girl played it off so well, as if she really thought she was talking to a "ghost." I realized then that part of the reason the Ouija board "works" is because the participants unconciously cooperate, so as not to spoil the fun for everyone else.

That's my theory anyway. Pretty smart, huh?

Immediately afterward, in the next room, I was talking to a guy who had watched the "seance" thing, and he was telling me about how he's convinced his house is haunted. I very respectfully made it really clear that I don't believe in "ghosts" or whatever and I asked him to describe what kinds of stuff happened at his house. He cited instances of finding a door unlocked when he knew he had locked it.

I said, "A skeptic would say that you just forgot to lock the door."

He said, "But I always lock that door. I lock it every single day."

As an example, I said, "Well, sometimes, you'll be walking around and you'll notice that your zipper is down, right? But you'd swear you didn't leave it down. We go to the bathroom several times a day, and it seems like it'd be automatic for us to zip up every time, but sometimes we just forget."

With that, I looked down and my fly was open.

Swear to "god."