How We Felt For It

My Brightest Diamond / From The Top Of The World

Happy Birthday Ben & Other Things To Do On A Skate Ramp

Grave Dancers Union On Cassette

Josh called me around 5 PM (PST) to let me know that a local record store had thrown away a whole dumpster of cassette tapes. We managed to salvage these plastic masterpieces:



All this reminds me of:



• The time Josh and I dumpstered multiple Wendy's for soggy AirTran Cups after Night School
• How I gave The Only Girl I've Ever Loved my tape collection and it melted in the sun (a metaphor for our whole relationship?)
• My brother TJ's Teenage Obsession with cassettes

True Statement

And so is the mysterious person who wrote this on the wall at Redlight.

READ: Ghost Stories by Jeff Lemire

Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive.
- Stephen Leacock

Seizure Palace

Nick and Fran have trusted us (idiots) with the full use of their screen printing shop. We have been helping them out a bunch (with pro style jobs even). For all of you printing nerds out there who have ever screened posters by hand... feast your eyes on this beast!



Actually, this is the second batch of these posters because THE COLOR CLUTZ (not us!) put the colors in the wrong order on the first round.

I'll Be There Opening Night

An albino gorilla in captivity uses sign language to communicate his plight to a little girl who befriends him, setting in motion an international escape plan.

Songs That Constantly Play Inside Me

The Supremes / Baby Love



Amy Grant / Baby Baby



Bananarama / I Heard A Rumor



REM / The One I Love



Tears For Fears / Mad World

Innocent Pleasures

Green Day / When I Come Around



New Found Glory / Dressed To Kill



Jimmy Eat World / The Middle



Lifetime / Monday Morning Airport



MxPx / I'm OK, You're OK



Saves The Day / At Your Funeral

Exploiting Our Potential

I have compromised my blog by enabling COMMENTS which I have simultaneously renamed COMPROMISES. Please feel free to embarrass me, make an ass of yourself or put us both in compromising situations as often as you deem appropriate.

Behold The Glory!

A Word Or Two About The Perfect Dessert

Let's be honest here people, is there really such a thing as BAD ice cream? Sure there are flavors you aren't so keen on (actually, I can't really think of a single one). I mean I don't particularly like Chocolate ice cream, but you're fudging (pun) crazy if you think I wouldn't enjoy a whole plop of that poo if someone was offering. Even that badly freezer burned remnant of Pralines N' Cream (that your roommate refuses to finish) (but still won't throw away) (and well who can blame him, it's ICE CREAM!) is still pretty fucking tasty. I can even enjoy the occasional bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip, a flavor designed to bring pleasure solely to the taste buds of the female gender (much like the beer Blue Moon).

Growing up my family ALWAYS had ice cream in the freezer. We usually had it every night for dessert, even as far back as I can remember. When we would stay with my Nanny and Granddad, they would give us these little mugs filled with ice cream at night while we watched Looney Tunes. I clearly remember Cherry, Peppermint Stick, and Oh Fudge! Oh Nuts! (the latter flavor doubling as a curse phrase by my Nanny). To give you some perspective on how this effected me years later... just after my brief attempt at college, my roommates would make fun of me because I would fix a massive amount of food for dinner and then immediately run to the freezer to prepare a heaping bowl of Heavenly Hash or French Vanilla.

Recently I found out about this ice cream flavor called Otter Paws® (pictured above). I was turned onto it by my elder brother (unbeknownst to him) the last time we went to the grocery store together. See, my bro loves this ice cream called Chocolate Moose Tracks®, which is a chocolately concoction of fudge and peanut butter cups. Now I definitely got down on this flavor but like I mentioned before, chocolate-based frozen dairy is just not my cup of cream. However, Otter Paws is a perfectly executed variation of Moose Tracks since it features:

A. a superior vanilla flavor foundation
B. chocolate covered walnuts (in lieu of peanut butter cups) which crunch (like otter bones) and taste as delicious as one might imagine a sea otter tasting (a clam-smashing balance of sweet and salty)
C. a more appropriate name – Moose Tracks sounds like what happens in my toilet

So I've been buying gallons of this creature treat on a regular basis and here is my only critical feedback. The paw to ice cream ratio is WAY OFF... I need more otter paws per cubic square inch! I ultimately realized this after getting an apparently abnormal gallon that had 4 or 5 times the typical amount of crunchy chocolate walnuts. To the factory worker who botched that batch I'd like to commend you for your graciousness. Now let's talk about how we make it happen again.

Well that's it for now. Hopefully you are inspired as I am. So go on and treat yourself (Richard style!)

Here is my Ecclesiastes:
Life is nonsense. Death is inevitable. Ice Cream is delicious.

[Editor's Note: My sincerest apologies to those of my "lesser privileged" friends in other places of the world who may never experience even a single bite of the aforementioned icy sweet cream (not to be confused with my former bunny friend, Sweet Cream, who perished at the hands of Dr. Mario in the garage late last year). I have a funny feeling that a giant banana split ice cream mansion awaits them all in heaven.]

[Editor's Elder Brother's Note Of Clarification: It should be noted that regular Moose Tracks does have a vanilla ice cream base to it (however) the kind that we opted for that night was "Extreme Moose Tracks"... the extreme part being the substitution of chocolate ice cream for vanilla.]

You Are Best Dressed In Barbecue Sauce!

Today I discovered Derby Mustard and refuse to eat another meal without its condimental accompaniment.

READ: Two-Part Invention By Madeleine L'Engle

But Love has pitched her mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.
- Yeats

The place of excrement. That is where we are this summer. How do we walk through excrement and keep clean in the heart? How do we become whole by being rent? This summer is not the first I have walked through the place of excrement and found love's mansion there. Indeed, we are more likely to find it in the place of excrement than in the sterile places. God comes where there is pain and brokenness, waiting to heal, even if healing is not the physical one we hope for.

The State That I Am In

I've been sleeping either on a skate ramp or a school bus. Homemade Thai food shows up nearly everyday to hang out (along with Longans and Lychees for dessert). My new best friend is a German Shepherd named Honey. There is a God residing in a place called Heaven.

Side Note: Portland is one giant high school circa 1994 – experimental sex and drugs are commonplace, Nirvana is on heavy rotation (the upside!) and Manic Panic is somehow still in style.