Pobody's Nerfect

Chainsaw Eaters/The City Kill Tour

2011-03-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

Berlin

Czech Republic

Switzerland

Paris

Belgium

TRUST 2011 Tour

2011-03-07T10:04:00.001-08:00

A few photos:

Halle, Germany

Erfurt, Germany

Prague, Czech Republic

Liberec, Czech Republic

Rožnov pod Radhoštem, Czech Republic

Zabreb, Croatia

Bologna, Italy

More Touring...

2011-03-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Left again to tour-- this time with Chainsaw Eaters and The City Kill.

Come say hi.

2 Mar: Copenhagen, Denmark
3 Mar: Berlin, Germany
4 Mar: Wroclaw, Poland
5 Mar: Rožnov pod Radhoštem, Czech Republic

6 Mar: Prague, Czech Republic
7 Mar: České Budějovice, Czech Republic
8 Mar: Leipzig, Germany
9 Mar: Bern, Switzerland
10 Mar: Lyon, France
11 Mar: Luzerne, Switzerland
12 Mar: Paris, France
13 Mar: Kortrijk, Belgium
14 Mar: TBD, Germany

Trust: 2011 European Tour

2011-02-10T23:49:00.000-08:00

We're doing it again.

8 Feb: Copenhagen, Denmark

11 Feb: Aalborg, Denmark

12 Feb: Hanover, Germany

13 Feb: Halle, Germany

14 Feb: Erfurt, Germany

15 Feb: Prague, Czech Republic

16 Feb: Brno, Czech Republic

17 Feb: Liberec, Czech Republic

18 Feb: Rožnov pod Radhoštem, Czech Republic

19 Feb: Zagreb, Croatia

20 Feb: Bologna, Italy

21 Feb: Maribor, Slovenia

22 Feb: Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

23 Feb: Dresden, Germany

24 Feb: Leipzig, Germany

25 Feb: Copenhagen, Denmark

Party of the Year

2010-08-17T13:51:00.001-07:00

Let's do it again... see ya tomorrow.

Headed to Anfield Now

2010-08-15T03:48:00.001-07:00

Let's go, Liverpool!

South Africa 2010

2010-07-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Taking advantage of working internet...

Me and Craig at the 3rd place match: Germany 3 - 2 Uruguay

On my way into the Final: Spain 1 - 0 Netherlands

Saint-Malo, France

2010-07-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

All my friends are hood.

After party in Geneva

2010-06-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Drinking Dom Pérignon From a Plastic Bag

2010-06-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

What a crazy last week in København-- I am going to miss this place.
Sune from MPA gave me a photo he took when I rode with them and Nightpass to Ålborg. Here it is.

Stuck in England

2010-03-29T22:43:00.001-07:00

My flight back to Copenhagen was just cancelled.

TRUST: European Tour

2010-03-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

Check it out.

Get in the Van

2010-02-23T02:50:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow I leave for tour with Danish band TRUST.
Come hang... or just check out a review of their newest release.

Feb 24 2010 : AZ Conni w/ Aerial (SE), Dresden
Feb 25 2010 : V Jelení, Prague
Feb 26 2010 : Club Qlturkombinat w/ CZOSNEK, Piensk
Feb 27 2010 : CRK w/ Zaklety Krag Biedoty, Wroclaw
Feb 28 2010 : Kisielice, Poznan
Mar 1 2010 : VL/Ludwigstrasse 37, Halle (Saale)
Mar 2 2010 : Woodstock Recordstore, Erfurt
Mar 3 2010 : White Trash, Berlin
Mar 4 2010 : Black Fleck, Potsdam
Mar 5 2010 : Lades w/ Hey!Tonal, Cast Spells, Copenhagen

Cambodia: Part IV

2010-02-19T01:16:00.001-08:00

These are the last photos I am posting from my trip to Cambodia.

Cambodia: Part III

2010-02-16T00:58:00.001-08:00

More from Cambodia.
As most of you heard, I got mugged in Cambodia-- arguably, one of the scariest moments of my life. I put some of the resulting photos along with some other related pictures-- like getting a vaccination in my guest house by a friend of a friend... or nursing my Khmer buddy after we wrecked his motobike.
Also, there are some pictures from some of the work we did in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia: Part II

2010-02-10T05:04:00.001-08:00

People and places.

Cambodia: August 2009

2010-02-09T01:58:00.001-08:00

So, I don't think I am going to write too much about Cambodia. It was a really crazy place, and I still don't know what to think about it-- definitely a wild place to be on your own for a month. At first, I think I was just in awe of everything-- the hedonism and grandeur of such a foreign place. Now, looking back, I think it was just startling-- not in an unimaginable or awful way; more in a really uncomfortable, eye-opening way. Here are some photos from my month there.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

The Best Week of Graham's Life

2010-01-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

So, like I said, Graham met me in Milan. He took a day to sleep off his jet lag before I dragged him to hang out with Camille. This is one of Noah's friends who hooked us up in Milan with a place to stay. We crashed for a night at his place before heading to Prague to click up with Jacline and Kevin.

They were on a European tour of their own and we managed to all be in the Czech Republic at the same time. If there was any part of my summer that was too short, it was this stint in Prague-- we barely scraped the city, only really exploring the awesome streetfood. Oh, and we got fined on the metro too-- rad. I persuaded everyone to join me on a train journey out to Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora-- this is basically a church filled with the bones of 40,000 people. Amazing. After routinely traveling alone, it was nice to be surrounded by close, old friends.

Eventually, Graham and I peeled off and headed to Pardubice (note the Lone Star in that photo- thanks, Kevin!) to check out Obscene Extreme. To say the least, this was a wild journey, filled with some crazy metal heads (this story is much better when Graham tells it) and little direction. We finally gave up on sneaking in and were heading to buy wristbands when Tony drove up. We hopped in the Waste's van and stopped by their hotel before Tony scored us some wristbands. Ace. This was a pretty relaxed night-- the Waste killed it and we hung out with Rick Aistley's sound guy.

We camped with some kids from Leeds, which gave us a pretty nice base between wandering the festival. The second night featured three bands I was stoked to see-- Disfear, Napalm Death and Wolfbrigade. Graham also tried his hand at stage diving when some journalists from Terrorizer magazine convinced him and Kevin Sharp to storm the crowd.

After a long night, we woke up the next day and headed back into Prague. We blew off the rainy day in the city, then headed back to Milan-- Camille and Ania met up with us and took us out for a night on the town. We got pretty accustomed to Italian breakfasts and awesome pizza. Tough life.

Graham and I headed out to Venice to check out the Biennial and retrace a list of spots Brooke had given me from her recent visit. Venice is a pretty city, but awful touristy-- we managed to find our own niche and check out some cutty spots. After his sunburn, Graham finally relaxed a bit once we fell in with the locals.

We headed back to Milan for a couple days filled with nice dinners, relaxation and wanders in the city. We even headed out to Lake Como for a day swimming in a lake, hanging out on a boat and drinking on a mountain. Back in Milan, we spent one of our last days in Italy hanging out with my old roommate Danielle.

I had an awesome time with Graham, and tried to prepare for the tough month ahead. Being on the go for the whole month with no real place to call home was pretty tough. To be honest, it's a feeling that has grown all too familiar the past two years, and one I'm working/hoping on seeing an end to.

July 2009

2010-01-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

Procrastination...

Excluding April, I took more photos in July than any other month this year--I was in seven different countries, and busy as hell. Because of this, there are a lot of photos that people have asked me to send to them-- I've been so overwhelmed that I haven't really gone through many of them. I'll try to get through this one bit at a time: first, France and Italy.

With my trip to Cambodia quickly approaching, I checked in with a doctor of tropical medicine and topped up some vaccinations. I had three doctors oversee the nurse giving me my injections-- all in my own home. How is that for foreign healthcare?

My colleagues and I wrapped up some work, and I snuck away for a trip to the northern coast of France-- taking a tour of Bretagne in northern France. It was nice to spend so much time with classmates.

When my academic commitments were over, I took off to spend 2 days with Brooke and her mom in Milan. It was cool to flex the little knowledge that I have of the city-- and, also learn some new spots. While in Milan, Graham came over from Texas and we spent the first 2 weeks of my summer traveling.

Bored in Copenhagen

2009-11-13T16:53:00.001-08:00

It's 2AM and I just got done bullshiting with James.

June 2009

2009-11-02T10:59:00.002-08:00

So, last December I bought a ticket to see Morrissey in Paris. Well, he fucking cancelled. Anyways, I convinced Noah to meet me in France—and we stayed at his dad’s flat above Republique. This was my first time in Paris, so Noah and I just checked out the city—Notre Dame, Renzo Piano’s Centre George Pompidou and the Louvre. I went by Piano’s workshop. Every time I go to mainland Europe, I realize how stupid it is to live in England. We spent a lot of time outside. I was back in England for another week before finally leaving for the summer—we went out in Sheffield for Ken’s birthday, down to London to see his band and even shot some hoops.

I went up to Manchester to meet up with Phil—I was catching a ride to the Netherlands with him and some other guys to see TrashFest. We spent the night out drinking, before driving to Dover early the next morning for our ferry to France. We grabbed rations in Calais before heading to Gent, Belgium. Everyone was pretty tired, so we hooked up with Steeno from A Den of Robbers for a place to crash. I had met Steeno during my first week in England when his band played Sheffield. The next day we continued to the Netherlands, stopping in Antwerp for waffles.

We were staying in Steenwijk—a small town just over an hour from Amsterdam. The fest was pretty sick—Graf Orlock, Fast Point, Damaged Goods, Reproach, and Limp Wrist.

I spent a night walking around Amsterdam on my way south to France—I had a 3 week course in Rennes with the kids from my course. Rennes is a medium sized city, but there wasn’t a lot of time to do anything besides some of the projects assigned. I got to know the city pretty well—ate oysters, checked out the markets around town and went to Mont Saint Michele. Troy and a friend were traveling Europe and they came and hung out for a couple days—including my birthday. Oh yeah—I shaved for the first time in over two years.

Snoop Bloggy Blog

2009-10-30T01:05:00.001-07:00

Can you believe Simon said his blog was boring? Well, yeah, I can too. Truth is, writing about traveling really isn't that fun. I'm basically just trying to get through all the photos I took this summer, so that I can post some of the cool stuff to do around Copenhagen.
In the meantime, I've posted a couple things on a group blog with Matt from Check Please. This is pretty rad, since he's one of the funniest people in Ontario-- especially after Si and the Heat left.
Check out the new new: CanUFlyBobby.

May 2009

2009-10-17T02:05:00.001-07:00

In May, I think it hit me that I going to be leaving England pretty soon. I had a handful of assignments to turn in, but still found some time to get out a bit. Here's a couple things I done did:
- Tom and I started heading out to the Peak district during the weekends. In early May, we checked out a couple cool areas to take advantage of the decent weather.
- I ate a lot of fish & chips-- damn, I miss it. In May, I took over Si's room-- sharing a flat with Jamie, Tom and Gus. This meant I was just around the corner from Two Steps Chippy-- this spot has been in the same location for over 100 years.
- Craig is from a town called Whitley Bay, near Newcastle. The football team reached their conference final, the Vase Cup, and Craig wanted to go down to the match at Wembley. Naturally, we took a limo. I guess Whitley Bay won; I got housed on mimosas.
- Wetherspoon's introduced a new menu, but the Ploughman's stunk.
- Tom and I went to Leeds to see the Specials reunion tour. I lost my phone at the concert, but the show was good.
- It's English tradition to have a 'football do'- or a night out with your team- at the end of the season. We went out for dinner and to a couple pubs for beers.
It was a good month; but, I realized summer was around the corner and needed to get everything sorted.

Westcoastical: the personal diary of Simon Q. Bruyn

2009-10-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

Most people who read this already read Simon's blog; it's linked on the right side of the page. However, finally, Simon has picked something interesting to write about: Me.
Check it out, ya big doy-oy!

April 2009

2009-09-27T03:13:00.000-07:00

Now that I am getting settled in Copenhagen, I think back to some of the stuff I've done over the past year. It's been intense: 16 countries in 13 months. But, when I look through all the photos from April, I remember what a particularly hectic month it was-- among the busiest of the year for me. I had most of the month off of school and spent a lot of time traveling.

I had planned a trip to Europe for most of April, but managed to do quite a few other things before leaving town. As I mentioned before, I went up to Newcastle with Craig at the start of the month. I also got to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam and catch the Sheffield Wednesday-Derby match.
Then, I left for Milan. Writing about this in hindsight is kind of difficult; partly because the next 10 days were a bit of a blur. After landing, I took the bus to Central Station to meet up with Noah and his friends, Camille and Ania. Camille agreed to put us up for the night so that we could play around in Italy for a bit before heading into Switzerland. He and Ania had a pretty wicked place and sorted us out with breakfast in the morning. Noah and I left our stuff at Central Station and checked out the city. I had my first taste of Italian pizza and did a bit of site seeing. We ended up seeing a lot of the city before catching an afternoon train out of Central Station. The ride through the Alps was beautiful and we got to Zurich pretty late. Noah made breakfast the next morning before we rushed to catch our train to Bern-- he had worked out a way for me to travel through the country for next to nothing. We went to Leah's house for dinner and out for some beers. The next morning, I checked out the city-- it was great to see Bern after hearing Noah talk about it for years. Noah's girlfriend drove us to Biel in her Porsche for a show that turned out to be pretty fun. Biel is a pretty small city, but there were a lot of kids partying at the bar.

The next day, we helped set up for a party that some of Noah's friends were having. It was one of the last parties at the club-- the owner lived upstairs and let us party on the roof into the next day.

Otherwise, Noah and I just kicked it around Switzerland for a while and hung out by the lake. We went back and forth between Zurich and Bern a couple times, and up to Basel for a night. I saw Renzo Piano's Paul Klee Museum, Corbusier's Heidi Weber museum, the Freitag building and went for a hike in the Alps.

Being in the Alps was pretty nuts-- we hiked around for a bit, wandered through some farms and ate some massive meals.
Julia flew in from London and surprised me in Zurich. She showed me some of her favorite places in town; took me to a flea market, made pizza for us and drank Bloody Marys with Noah and me as we watched the trains roll by.
While there, I ate a lot of great Swiss food-- and even went to Noah's mom's house for fondue. On my last night in Switzerland, we went to Basel to watch Mimi blow fire at some motorcross show, and snuck a bunch of champagne from the VIP room to go kick it with friends.
The next day, I flew to London. I stayed a night with Julia and Tim, before a busy day in the city: I had my first blood pudding, drank a pitcher of Pimm's with the Heat and saw Amadou & Mariam perform at the Jazz Cafe. The next day, I flew to Inverness, Scotland. By planes, trains and buses, I made it through Portree and onto Duntulm. This was a really cool trip, and just not a place I would ever think to go on my own. I did some fishing off the Isle of Skye and saw a really cool sunset before heading back to Sheffield. I spent the week seeing friends, before heading back down to London. I got to hang out with Julia & Tim, and also went to St. John restaurant for Brooke's birthday-- then, I spent the next couple days with Tom.

March 2009

2009-09-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

I'm really tired of writing about Tom and watching football-- so, these photos could be a bit monotonous. However, I want to post them, so I can move onto some of the other cool stuff I did this year.
Anyways, March was a pretty good time. The weather started to turn so I spent a lot of time outside, walking around Sheffield. They opened a new bank in Sheffield and had the Premiership trophy on display.
I made a trip up to Manchester, got to experience some more Smiths' nostalgia and spend time with Phil and his girlfirend, Xavia.
The highlight of March was definitely a quick trip I made to Liverpool-- I got to tour Anfield, which was amazing. Football stadiums, even for the biggest teams in England, are pretty bare bones; however, we had access to pretty much any part of the stadium.
Craig and I finally got around to checking out the Sheffield Steelers-- pretty B-rate hockey, but still a good night out.
For (English) Mother's Day, Tom and I went down to Nottingham for some fine dining. In fact, it's the only Hooters in all of England-- the wings are equally as bad.
I went up to Manchester with a bunch of guys because Gray was putting on an all-day show. This was a pretty rad trip-- tons of bands, lots of partying, got to hang out with the Manchester kids and Si's band played their last show. Tom and Gus were partying pretty hard. It seemed only fitting that, on this trip, I would have the best Spoony's Ultimate Chicken Burger ever made.
We got back to Sheffield just in time to spend Sunday relaxing.

Istanbul & Bangkok

2009-09-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

My plan was to go through last spring, pick out some highlights and post some pictures from England and early 2009; however, a lot of people have been asking to see some pictures from my recent trip to Asia. There is a lot to go through, but I'll post a few from my first few days traveling. I have some videos and a couple more-detailed pictures, but this should be a start:

Istanbul
On my way to Bangkok, I arranged a 7 hour layover in Istanbul; figuring this should give me just enough time to run into the city, grab dinner and come back for my late-night flight. I grabbed my visa and took the metro into town. I had read up a bit on Istanbul and had a couple spots that I wanted to check out. On my way to catch the ferry across the Bosphorus, I buzzed through a Turkish Bazaar and grabbed some street food for the ride. On my trip, I met a couple Turkish guys who didn't speak any English. We communicated by them texting Turkish to a friend, who would then reply with the English translation. I would then text English to the friend, and so on...
Anyhow, these guys were stoked on my White Sox hat and were REALLY into Kanye West. They not only took me to some sick traditional Turkish food, but ate with me, bought me mussels on the street and shared some beers.
I caught the ferry back to the other side of town just in time to see the sunset. I saw a few more sites as I figured out a way back to the airport. My flight was delayed, so I had plenty of time to hang around Ataturk Airport.
Bangkok
I arrived in Thailand and spent a day finding a guesthouse, figuring out where everything was and just, in general, realizing that I was on the other side of the world. The next morning, I pushed myself to get out to the Floating Market-- it took a few different public transport buses and then a pretty long coach journey to get out there, but I'm glad I did it. (Sometimes it's hard being an American abroad.)
I checked out a couple places around town and found a rooftop bar that had a pretty cool view of the city. On my last day in town, I checked out the National Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun-- all were pretty cool to see. I went for a walk, sent some postcards and met this little guy while checking out where the train station was located.

Then, the next morning, I headed into Cambodia.

Summer 2009

2009-09-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

Damn, it's been a crazy summer. Since my last post (~3 months ago), I have been in 10 countries-- busy as hell. I've done some really fascinating things-- simply, I just haven't had time or energy to post any pictures. I guess it's time to give up on catching up-- and, just post some highlights.
Here is a collage of photos I took in Phnom Penh, Cambodia last month.

End of February

2009-05-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

So, backtracking a ways: February ended pretty great. I did a couple really rad things that were worth mentioning:
- On the 18th, I took the train up to Manchester and met up with Phil. He's from just outside of Manchester and gave me a tour of some key spots. Like Morrissey, he grew up in the suburb of Hulme and went to the same school as Ian Curtis-- right across the street from Curtis's grave. That night, Phil took me to the Manchester United-Fulham match. Glad I got to see Ronaldo and Man U play during a season where they've now gone on to win the league. Old Trafford was pretty amazing and the fans really give it a confident, Yankee-esque atmosphere. I'm not a huge Man U fan, but they're an undeniable dynasty.
- That weekend, Tom and I hit five Wetherspoon's on our way to a Sheffield Wednesday match. The next morning, we caught up with Jamie pretty early-- he and some friends from Manchester had been out all night and were still boozing.
- I finally got to check out the inside of Sheffield's most historic building; the Lord Mayor of Sheffield hosted a dinner and reception at the Town Hall that was pretty cool.
- And, finally, on the last day of the month, Tom and I got to catch a Sheffield FC match-- known as the oldest football club in the world. They're a non-league team that play just outside of town and celebrated their 150th anniversary two years ago. On the way back into town, we stopped by the elusive Wetherspoon's in Woodseats, before meeting up with Beth and some of her friends to hit some local pubs.

3 Days of Nostalgia

2009-05-06T14:28:00.001-07:00

This figures to be a pretty revealing (read: embarrassing) post.
First, I should mention that I have loads of photos from the past month that I'd like to post soon, but I thought I'd put up something a little different while it's still fresh in my mind.
Over the past 3 days, I’ve been able to see some (a lot) of really odd blasts from the past. It all started when I was down in London after Brooke flew back to the US on Sunday. I met up with the Heat for some boozing and then caught up with Gray and Tom. NOFX was in town playing the last date of their tour. I realized that I got my first cassette tape- a dubbed copy of their Punk in Drublic- about 16 years ago. Soon after, they were on the front of my first band t-shirt. I’d seen them years ago, but decided to go see them again with Gray, Tom and Beth.
I got back to Sheffield on Monday, after what was essentially three and a half weeks of traveling. I took a day to unpack and chill out, but then headed to Manchester last night to see Jesse Michaels’ new band: Classics of Love. My first vinyl ever was Operation Ivy’s Energy, and seeing him close the set with “The Crowd” was among the most special things I’ve ever seen at a show.

Probably even more bazaar than any of the “firsts” mentioned above was that Mike Park played support. The first show that I ever went to was sometime in '95 or ’96: Mike Park’s band: Skankin’ Pickle at Fitzgerald’s in Houston, TX.

It’s a little bit of a stretch: but I should also mention that the supporting band, Virgins, covered “She,” the first Misfits song I ever remember hearing—on a DiamondHead Records compilation cassette. And, since Tom decided to stay in Sheffield, Gus and I took advantage of not having a vegetarian around and went to Wetherspoon's Grill Club for the first time in a while.

milan-zurich

2009-04-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

i just took the train through the alps; it is beautiful in zurich.
stay tuned for photos of pizza, duomo, etccccccc.

ps. keyboard here is totallty crazy.

Catching Up

2009-04-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

For most of February, I just kind of chilled out and got back into school-- but, I still managed to find a few things to keep busy. We started going to Curry Club pretty regularly; £5 for a pint of beer and a curry-- not bad. Tom's girlfriend was working in London, so he and I took the train to York for Valentine's weekend. We went for a tour of the York Brewery and took the bus out to Tadcaster again, when I finally picked up the bike frame I had been ogling for a couple weeks. We hit a couple Spoons, a Chinese buffet, the Minster and sampled some local delicacies before finally heading back to Sheffield. Craig and I went to Corportation to see Black Dahlia Murder play on the 16th, and I spent the rest of the week hanging out on some of the carnival rides in the center of town.

Before 2nd Semester

2009-04-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

So, the last time I actually wrote anything, I had just handed in all my assignments and had over a week before lectures began. The beginning of February saw the continuation of January's bad weather, but I still managed to get out and about.
Brooke's work sent her to Ghana, and conveniently, her layover in England happened right as my week-long break began. Her ancestors are from Sheffield, so in addition to the usual pubs, I also got to show her a bit of her family's history. We went up to York, which in addition to the Abbey, has a couple of really nice Wetherspoon's. Really though, besides a couple weird signs, the Abbey is one of the coolest things I've seen in Europe-- it's massive and overwhelms you in the small city streets of York.
We took a trip out to Tadcaster and checked out the Samuel Smith's brewery-- not much to see besides company offices, but I did find a bike frame that I later went back to buy. Since we were already north, I went with Brooke to visit some family friends in a tiny town called Haltwhistle-- it's pretty much the epitome of what Americans think to be the iconic English town (17th century house, horses and pretty views). We stopped back in Sheffield before heading to London for her flight to the States.
I decided to hang out in London for a bit since I still had a few days before lectures began. As hard as I try, I just can't fall in love that city-- it's just hard to understand. In the day I spent wandering, I got stopped by the police and hit by a car on Brick Lane. Thankfully, American Julia saved me after a roughhh night at Fabric with Swiss Julia and her friends.
After some good food, a couple of bike stores and the British Museum, I was happy to get back to Sheffield for classes... and a beer tasting at the DevCat.

Newcastle

2009-04-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Ah-- it's been over 2 months since I posted on here. At first, it seemed like I wasn't really doing too much once my second semester started. But, then all of the sudden, I realised I had been doing a lot of cool stuff; I just couldn't be bothered to sit down and write about it. Anyways, I just got back from a weekend in Craig's home town, Newcastle and thought I'd put some photos up. We drove up on Saturday and stopped just outside the city to check out the Angel of the North; I had seen it once from the train, but it was cool to see it up close. As I've mentioned before, I have a bit of an interest in Gormley's stuff.

Afterwards, we headed into town and saw a few of the sites. Newcastle was playing Chelsea at home, and former star player Alan Shearer was making his managing debut. Shearer has a bar named after him at the grounds-- outside actually getting a ticket, this was probably the best place to watch the match. Unfortunately, Newcastle lost. We then checked out some of the sites: the Quays, the Tyne Bridge and the Millenium Eye. All pretty cool to see.

We went up to Craig's mum's house for vegan tea before heading out to meet some of his old friends. Turned out to be a pretty good night-- we ended up at a real cool cutty spot called the Star & Shadow. This is the type of venue that every city should have; sadly, I don't think Sheffield does.

Over my 3 week break, I'm hoping to get a few more photos from the past 2 months up, but we'll see how that goes.

Back to Work

2009-02-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

So, I really haven't done too much since getting back from Berlin. I took a day or two to chill out and then spent the rest of January in the University's main library. I guess that's not entirely true: I managed to find time to enjoy a burger and some of Wetherspoon's reduced-priced pints with Tom. We also won our football match for the first time-- eighth time is a charm, I guess. I caught a show at the Casbah and went out for Janine's birthday with some friends from London. The next day, we all went to the Fat Cat for Sunday roast. Later in the week, I squeezed in 2 Chinese buffets and a meal with Craig's 2 year old son. And, last night, Sie made a bunch of food and we watched the Super Bowl with Jamie and Gus.
Anyways, my work all culminated when I handed in 140 pages of assignments this morning-- leaving me free of responsibility until lectures begin on the 11th. I was hoping to head up to Scotland and down to London, but we just got a huge snowstorm. Cross-country train service has slowed down and the London Underground quit running for several hours this morning.

Links:
Wetherspoon's * Fat Cat * Wokmania * No. 1 Oriental Buffet

Berlin

2009-01-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, I got back from spending three weeks in Berlin. I am not sure how I can sum up everything that happened in Germany—it was absolutely amazing. I’m going to do this post a little different than normal, because it will cover more than usual. I was lucky to find recommendations from a lot of diverse places:

The New York Times: 36 Hours in Berlin,
the punks at the squats,
English ex-pats,
The Guardian: Instant Weekend, etc.

City & Apartment
In general, it was pretty easy to assimilate in a city where I spoke about 5 words of the native language. Over the first couple days, I kept hearing, ‘Everyone in Berlin speaks English,’ but kept running into people who obviously did not. However, I made it over some pretty tall hurdles: got a phone card, phone charger and power cord for my computer. My apartment was in between the Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg—it’d be tough to find a better location. Once I realized I was in a fairly young area, I realized a lot of the locals actually do speak English. I rented a 1 bedroom spot, hoping visitors would pitch in on rent. It worked out fairly well. Besides Prenzlauer Burg, the other cool parts of the city I often found myself wandering were Friedrichshain & Kreuzberg. All of this is East Berlin, but I did spend a couple days checking out West Berlin too.
The apartment itself was pretty cool: the bed was a futon and the shower was shit, but it had a nice kitchen and the central location made a pretty good spot for late night hang outs. And, after 3 weeks and a total of 15 different people staying there, I got my full deposit back—breaking only a potted plant. Oh, it also had a washing machine, which quickly made it clear that even with just a messenger bag, I had overpacked. Photo 2 3
Wikipedia: Mitte; Prenzlauer Berg; Friedrichshain; Kreuzberg

Transportation
I am a sucker for good public transportation; Berlin’s was rad—dependable and always on time. The U-Bahn is primarily an underground subway system, that complements the above-ground, regional S-Bahn system. I rode both quite a bit.
I only took a taxi twice in Berlin, and didn’t really pay attention. Sorry.
Photo 2 3 4

Sites
Every time someone new showed up in town, they wanted to go see the sites—I finally got tired of going to them and just started handing people a map, marking where to go. Obviously, Berlin has a ton of history; sadly, I know little of it. Often times, I was taking pictures of buildings, only to look up what they were later. Click the name of the site to go to the website or Wikipedia entry. Here are just a few that I thought were cool:
Guggenheim Berlin--Anish Kapoor had an exhibit in Berlin. This is the same guy who did the Bean in Chicago. I liked this show far better than the Bean; very remarkable. Photo
Brandenburg Tor--the main plaza in the city. This is where I spent New Year’s. Photo
Holocaust Memorial--I was actually surprised with how cool this was; an entire city block, turned into a giant maze of pillars and icy pathways. Photo
Neue Synagogue--this was right by my house. There were always polizei outside, guarding it. Ironically, this is on the street where all the prostitutes hang out. Photo
Pottsdamer Platz--this plaza used to be the center of the city, but was bombed really hard during the war. Recently, the city put a lot of money into rebuilding it as the urban center of the city. Renzo Piano was one of the lead architects on the project and has a few buildings there. All types of things go on here: winter activities, markets, an exhibit on the wall, etc. Photo 2 3 4 5 6 Video
Olympic Stadium--I met an English guy who said to check it out, because it epitomizes Nazi architecture. Yeah, he was right. Photo 2 3 4
Berlin Wall Memorial--this was really uneventful. Or, maybe I just went to the wrong part. Snooze cruise. Photo
Le Corbusier’s Corbusierhaus/Unidad Habitacional— this may have been one of my favorite sites in Berlin. Corbu designed this housing structure to alleviate postwar housing problems. He described the apartments like ‘bottles into a wine rack.’ Photo 2
Friedrichshain market—this is a weekly market: fruits and vegetables on Saturday, flea market on Sunday. Photo

Bauhaus Archiv—Photo 2

Berliner Dom-- Photo 2
Altes Museum--Photo

People
Berlin was rad, but it wouldn’t have been as good if so many people didn’t come through. Or, if I hadn’t met so many people.
Monica--I’ve known Monica for about six years, but haven’t seen her in over three. She used to live in Austin, but moved to Colorado—she and her boyfriend lived a mile from my parents’ house, saving me during the holidays. Photo
Andrej and Caroline--Polish couple that I met on New Year’s Eve. Andrej is a bike messenger, traveling from Warsaw and had nowhere to stay—I had no problem trading my house for a couple of beers. Photo 2 3
Julia and Tim--Julia and Tim live in London, but I used to live with Julia in Chicago. I always have a ton of fun with Julia, so it was great to have them visit. Photo 2 3 4
Olaf--I met Olaf in 1997 when he was an exchange student in Texas. We used to skateboard and go to punk rock shows together. The last time I saw him was during his visit to Texas in 2001. While in Berlin, he brought me out with his friends and took me over to his cousin’s place to hang out. Photo 2 3
Craig—this is one of my best friends in England; he’s always up for a good time, but doesn’t mind going out to wander the city on his own. Photo 2 3
3 UK girls and 1 Swedish guy—their names were Lauren, LeeAnn, Louise and Sebastian. I’m not really sure which was which, but they crashed at the house one night. I think they’re studying abroad in Spain right now. Photo 2 3 4
Olga and Nathan—my friend Nick in Austin knew Olga from weed farming in California. One night, Craig, Noah and I went out with her and her boyfriend, Nathan. Photo 2
Noah—Noah was a Swiss exchange student to Austin in 2001. I forgot about a lot of the crazy shit we did together back then, but we picked up where we left off. Noah’s one of those people that no matter what you’re doing, it’s a lot more fun because he’s around. Photo 2 3 4 5 6
Amanda—Klein High School reunion. Amanda went to high school with me and is staying in Germany for a few months. Last time I saw her was when I walked into a San Francisco bar in 2004 and she happened to be bartending. Photo 2
Julia—one of the most fun people I’ve met in a long time. Imagine hanging out with a 21 year old Deborah Harry, only cooler. She’s an old friend of Noah’s—her hostel sucked, so she found a mattress and camped on the floor. Photo 2 3 4

Food
After spending the last 4 months in England, I welcomed a new variety of food. I tend to eat a lot of vegetarian stuff when I travel—don’t judge.
Sausages & Currywursts--they're everywhere, either little huts on the side of the street or currywurst street vendors. Photo 2 3 4
Applestreudel--in general, the bakeries in Berlin are wicked; even though I had no idea what I was ordering, everything always turned out awesome. Photo
Weisswurst—so, Monica and I were waiting for Olaf to get into town and decided to wait at the traditional German restaurant in the train station and ordered whatever looked "German." Olaf walked up and started laughing, saying that even he had never had what we were eating. Veal sausage, traditionally eaten for breakfast in Bavaria. Whatever—it was really good. Photo
Kauf dich glücklich--this place was amazing; it’s a waffle & ice cream shop. The Guardian recommended their waffles and mulled-wine; both were great. I went here a couple times. Photo 2 3
Sushi--I only made it to one sushi place in Berlin; equally as bad as in the UK. Photo
Tiki Heart-- I think I found this place when looking up vegetarian spots in Berlin; but, they sell a variety of things. I had a burger and went back for a four-course vegetarian meal. Oh, and an awful Bloody Mary. Photo 2 3
Café Morgonroth--probably my favorite restaurant in Berlin. It was only a few blocks from my house, served a huge, amazing veggie/vegan buffet until 3pm in the afternoon and let you decide what you wanted to pay (4-8 euros). I don’t know how many times I went here, but each time, it was awesome. Photo
Que pasa?--How do you say no to Mexican food in Germany? Pros: The pina coladas flow like water. Cons: Have you ever had California Dip? Here’s a hint: it’s sour cream. Photo
St. Oberholz Café- the food at this place was great, but they always made me feel like an asshole for not speaking German. Photo 2
Traube--by far, the nicest meal I went for in Berlin (or in the past 4 months). I made nice with the owner, who kept us around for free shots of grappa. Photo 2
Oderquelle--I met the chef of this restaurant while out on a Saturday night, and he invited us to come out for dinner the next night. Kind of a weird dude, but he was really into Black Flag. Photo
Haxe--this is a pretty traditional German dish; roasted pork knuckle, sauerkraut and potatos. This place made its own beer too. Photo
Rogaki--Alright, I heard about this place from Anthony Bordain. He said, ‘If there is a heaven, it’s catered by Rogaki.’ I’m not sure if I’d go that far, but it was a pretty epic food market. I ate the same thing Bordain ate: Blut und Leberwurst, “blood and liver sausage.” I also bought some cheese here; wicked place. Photo 2 3 4 5 6 7
Monsieur Vuong—Monica recommended this place, because it was close by and delicious. I don’t know why I keep doing it: I hate most Asian beers, but still order them at restaurants. At least the food was good. Photo 2 3
Yellow Sunshine—this place calls itself veggie fast-food. Pretty good. Photo
Yoyo Foodworld—also, veggie fast-food… but, better. Photo
Chinese buffet/Hotel—no, that’s NOT your brain playing tricks on you. And, no, that’s not some German colloquialism where they call a bar a hotel (as they do in England). This is ACTUALLY a Chinese buffet that is also a hotel. Dear God, it’s me, Ben. Thank you. Photo 2
Swiss Cheese—When Noah showed up, he brought some cheese, directly from Switzerland. What an ace. Photo
Pizza--Oh, and one night, at 5am, Noah wandered home with a bunch of beer and a huge pizza. Photo
Homemade meals—Before leaving town, Monica made a big breakfast. Then, my last night in town, Noah and Julia grocery shopped and made a huge meal for everyone. It was nice to relax and kicked off a pretty wild night. Photo 2 3

Squats
The punk scene in Berlin is probably the best in the world. ‘nuff said. There’s a monthly publication called StressFaktor that lists all the different events going on around the city. It’s in German, but some bits were in English. So, a while back, the government made squats illegal—punks can no longer take over abandoned buildings and make them into their own homes. But, the government did allow them to buy the often-beat-up buildings for a decent price, so a lot of collectives were formed.
Subversiv--luckily, I found this place on my first night in town. It is a squat in my neighborhood and one of the biggest in Berlin. I saw 2 shows here; however, they do all types of shit here: printing press, screen printing machines, rally meeting space, bar, movie screenings, venue and housing space. Photo 2 3
Kopi--this is an infamous squat that I was really stoked to see. When you walk into it, you feel like you’re seeing something that won’t exist 10 years from now. I heard Berlin described as New York in the 80’s—this place epitomizes that statement. Photo 2 3
Treptow Squat—I stumbled on this place through StressFaktor. It’s an offset squat, made up of bricolage buildings and train cars. One night, they had a Christmas tree burning, inviting people from the surrounding neighborhood—a lot of people, their kids and their dogs; hanging out, drinking mulled wine. Photo 2 3 4

Beer, Bars & Clubs
If you like to drink beer, I don’t know a better place than Berlin. 500ml bottled os 5.2% beer for 80cents. Oh, and you can buy beer whenever and drink it wherever.
Sternburg Export-- I tried a lot of different German beers, but probably drank Sternburg Export the most. It’s the PBR of Berlin—they serve it all the squats because it’s really cheap.
Berliner Weiss--this is one of those things that people say ‘Oh, you must have this when in Berlin,’ but then you realize that no one in Berlin actually drinks this. It’s beer with syrup in it. Photo
Towers of Beer—apparently, these are pretty common. I worked on a couple of them. Photo 2 Video
Recycling—you get 8cents back on every bottle. Cha-ching! Photo
Bars in Berlin are open until the customers leave; it’s not uncommon for them to stay open until 9am in the morning. I went into quite a few, but here were a couple that were worth mentioning:
Lokal--I found this place on my first night in town; mainly because it was 1 block away from my house. Ten of the guys from Subversiv organized a collective to start this bar. I got in pretty good with a couple of the bartenders, who always had suggestions of stuff to see. Also, they had a pretty great foosball table here. Photo 2 3 4
Bar 23--Olaf’s friends were really into this place. We went to this place twice in the same night—leaving for a snowball fight. Photo 2
Druide—there were a couple absinthe spots around the house; I went to two, but concluded that shit is bogus. Photo Video
Radisson—kinda lame to go to a hotel bar while on vacation… unless it has a 7 story aquarium in the middle of it. Photo
White Trash Fast Food--I have to admit, I only went to this place because their advertisements had Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry on it. I stopped in for a drink, and then came back a week later for a DJ set. I think Craig put up a high score on their pinball machine, which kept giving us free plays. Photo 2
Badeschiff—I don’t even know how to describe this place. It was recommended by a lot of people, but I had no idea what to expect. In the summer it’s a swimming pool (with a bar) that floats in the middle of the river. In the winter, it’s three covered river barges: one with a bar; one with a sauna, showers and footbaths; the last with a swimming pool where you can swim under a curtain and into the (freezing) open air with a view of the city. Places like this are not supposed to exist. Photo
Watergate—you know when you go into a place that you would normally never go, and it turns out to be really fucking cool? Well, this is one of those places. You can’t take pictures here.

New Year’s Eve
Subversiv--a lot of the punks were going for an annual demonstration at Moabit prison, and met here for dinner before the march. Big vegan plates for 2 euros.
Bradenburg Tor-- A million people, loads of fireworks, drinking champagne in the streets. Do the math. The city was destroyed. Photo 2

Graffiti
I normally wouldn’t go too much in to this, but the graffiti in Berlin is pretty overwhelming. There are a few writer shops around town and the city is absolutely crushed. I was surprised at home many North American writers I saw around the city. Photo 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Bikes

Especially compared to England, Berlin has a huge bike culture—good shops and some nice people.

Keirin Café—this is a pretty amazing shop in Friedrichstrain. It specializes in track bikes, and the mechanics were all super nice. Photo 2 3

Cicli Berliner—the guys at Keirin Café mentioned this place as another must see store. The owner is Canadian and specializes in steel road or track bikes. Photo 2

Ice Bike—the owner of Cicli Berliner invited me out to an event he was putting on. There was a figure 8 track set up in the middle of a frozen lake, a bunch of people drinking mulled wine and a bunch of modified bikes. Photo 2 3 4

Bye.

NEW YEAR'S: 200NEIN

2008-12-23T02:05:00.000-08:00

I leave for Berlin in three days. I've been trying to get ahead on some school work so I'm not stressed with it while away. I rented a flat for 3 weeks in Berlin-Mitte, but don't know anything about the city. Apparently Mitte is a cool area to be in-- and there is a real cool DIY punk spot down the street. My phone won't work, but my e-mail will. Send me your address and I'll mail you a postcard.

Oh, yeah: I impulsively booked a ticket to see Morrissey in Paris this June. I might see him in May, so I'm not sure how that's going to work-- but I tend to figure these things out.

See ya.

Lectures/Leeds/London

2008-12-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

It's been a really busy week, so I haven't had much time to take pictures.
I spent a lot of last week dealing with my final assignments-- either by worrying or working on them. But, Monday night I met Craig at the Nelson before heading to see Municipal Waste at Casbah. Tony hooked me up, and the night turned out pretty good-- people over here lose their shit for them. Ken got drunk and enjoyed the Waste's rider-- drinking free booze & sandwiches.
On Tuesday, I got up early to head to Leeds. First, I stopped at Bramley to check out the Bob Jackson factory. One or two of my friends ride their frames, and I've always wanted one. It's a tiny shop and the 10-year-plus tenured mechanics were almost naive to the company's notoriety in the States. I headed back into Leeds-- cities in England get pretty serious about Christmas. I managed to find one of the few pubs in the city centre that isn't a chain and a really bad Chinese buffet. Part of the reason I made this trip was to pay homage to the Pizza buffet connected to a Curry buffet connected to a Chinese buffet-- sadly it is closed.
Throughout the week, I went to Dan Cruickshank's really bad lecture on architecture (or perhaps, really great lecture on self-promotion), a cool lecture on A&E services, and we lost our 3rd consecutive football match. On Friday, I grabbed a drink and went to see Discharge. I went with Fry,who probably took a lot more pictures than I.
I left Saturday to spend the weekend in London-- I met Tom for beers and watched football in Shoreditch. Ken's band was playing around the corner, but the neighbor shut the show down. Julia, her sister and Tim met up with us and we headed to the Foundry and the Intrepid Fox-- this turned out to be a long night.
On Sunday, Craig, Janine, Ken and I drove back north after pizzas and football. I've spent most of this week trying to wrap up school, but found time to get cultured.
Oh, yeah-- and apparently I was not the only person excited about those avocados!

Thanksgiving in Sheffield

2008-12-07T17:15:00.001-08:00

So, I got back from Spain last Tuesday and was pretty wiped out-- I spent the next few days getting back into school and taking care of stuff around town. I started volunteering and helped Craig pick out the new Google phone. On Thursday, I celebrated Thanksgiving at the No. 1 Oriental Buffet-- typical. I organized a 5-a-side football team; we played our first game Thursday night. I didn't do too much on Friday, but one of Tom's friends was DJing at the Harley.On Saturday, I met Tom and his friend Jim for the Sheffield Wednesday-Norwich City game. Jim's from Norwich, so we sat in visitor's seating. The fog came in super thick, and Tom introduced me to my first Bovril-- traditional England. Wednesday won, but it was a real good match.
That night was Stu's birthday-- he's an old friend of Ken's that I met in London a couple weeks ago. John came up from London and we all met at the pub for dinner. We went over to the Washington and then on to Corporation.
On Sunday, I watched the Chelsea-Arsenal match and then gave this African spot another chance. It was okay, but every time I go with someone from Africa, they're not impressed.
This week, I've been studying a lot. Liaquat made Hennock and me Pakistani food. I had some bad sushi and a beer or two.
Oh, and, it is now officially cold.
Last week turned out pretty good. On Thursday, Emmanuel made Indian food and his flatmate made a Colombian dish. Unfortunately, eating well didn't last long-- I found myself at the Devonshire Chippy twice over the course of the weekend.
After our second lost football match in as many weeks, we had a team meeting-- there's always next week. On Friday, I went out to a few pubs with Tom and Jamie. Old House for cheap beers, the Frog & Parrot had good music and Tom caused a blackout at Bungalows & Bears 2nd birthday party. After a mandatory beer at Wetherspoon's, I beat them at foosball while Ken played records at Casbah.
On Saturday, Tom and I wandered the city and watched Match of the Day at a friend's house before going back to my place. On Sunday, we headed to the Peak District. We took the train to Hathersage and wandered around the village-- a lot of proper English countryside pubs, good food and cool things to see. There weren't many businesses in Hathersage, but everything was interesting.

Barcelona, Spain

2008-11-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, I met Tom at the train station and we headed to East Midlands Airport, just over an hour away from Sheffield. Tom's a bit of a nervous flyer, so we got there a couple hours early. I guess it was worth it, because we got to have some beers with (Dr.) Karl Kennedy-- apparently, he's a big deal in England. We grabbed a couple beers and I had a Pepperoni F east from Pizza Hut. Anyways, Tom did a great job of making new friends on the flight; eventually, we arrived in Girona and took a bus into Barcelona. Barcelona has a really awesome bike rental system, but you have to be a member to use them. So, instead, we grabbed a snack, took the Metro to our hotel and dropped off our stuff. We grabbed some party favors for the hotel and wandered out for falafel sandwiches, anchovy stuffed olives and sangria. Somehow we got up with a group of kids out for someone's birthday-- one girl was training to be a Spanish-English translator and showed us around. She turned out to be real cool and brought us with her to L'Ovella Negra. Some Spanish dudes crushed us at foosball, but at least we had a setup where we could pour our own beer. Shit got kinda crazy, so we wandered outside and drank beers with locals. The hotel was great and the sea was just across the street. The next morning, we set off to check out the city: grabbed breakfast, checked out a festival, walked through the Gothic Quarter and down La Rambla. Speaking Spanish was very useful in find ing our way. We grabbed a late lunch and went by La Sagrada Familia. On Sunday night, I got us some tickets to see FC Barcelona play-- probably the highlight of the trip. Camp Nou is an unbelievable stadium-- but, no beer inside, so we partied before the match. Barcelona drew 1-1, but at least I got to see Henry and Messi play. The streets were packed afterwards, so we grabbed some beers and a nice dinner before heading back towards the hotel. The next day, we walked over to the beach before returning to the Gothic Quarter and La Rambla-- there was a great market with a lot of great food. We ate at a great vegetarian place called Organic. We grabbed a couple beers with this guy (and a pitcher) on our way up to Parque Güell-- another Gaudi attraction and a cool part of the trip. The park was huge and the weather was great. We saw some nice views of the city and a lot of people relaxing. Some girl asked me to take her photo who happened to live in Sheffield. We decided to celebrate the coincidence with a pitcher of sangria. She thought that was such a good idea that she thanked us with a round of beers... and another pitcher. Before soon, it had gotten dark and we were back near La Rambla. We grabbed a late meal and had a smoke with one of the coolest restaurant owners in Spain. While stumbling home, we stepped into a neighborhood pub and spoke broken-Spanish/broken-English with some amigos. Our flight back to England was the next day, and we had to be up early to take the bus. Needless to say, I haven't had a drink since I got back from Spain.

Last Week

2008-11-19T00:27:00.001-08:00

Last Tuesday was beautiful-- Sheffield had its best weather in weeks. I know winter is just around the corner, so I was happy to have some sunshine while not in class. I went for a walk around my neighborhood, and even did a little exploring. This view of the valley north of Sheffield is a two minute walk from my house:There is a great fruits & vegetables place around the corner from my flat, but they have never had good avocados until last week-- 5 for a £. I bought a few things and made guacamole... without cilantro. (Send tortillas!) Later that night, I met up with Tom for drinks at Bia Hoi and we walked to the Pomona to meet his flatmates, Sie and Gus. England's U21 team was playing at Bramall Lane, and Gus scored us tickets for £5 each. England won 2-0; pretty cool to see the young national team play.
Wednesday was a busy day of classes and meetings. At night, I watched the England/Germany game at Tom's. England won 2-1.
On Thursday, I got up early and got coffee with Britt before meeting Craig at the train station. Russian Circles played in Manchester, so I went up to see Mike and Dave. They had been on tour for six weeks; playing anywhere from St. Petersburg to Paris. The last time I saw them was in June in Chapel Hill.I ate a lot of chip curry while in Manchester; too much, I think. We took the late-night bus back to Sheffield and I had classes all day Friday. In the evening, all the Europubhealth students met for dinner. Afterwards, I went home to pack for Saturday's trip to Barcelona.

London Dungeons

2008-11-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was good-- met up with Tom to figure out our upcoming trip to Barcelona. We found tickets for about $60 and spent another $100 on 3 nights in a hotel. I have a couple city guides, but haven't opened them yet. Later, we met Rebecca at Bungalows & Bears for Sunday Roast.
I spent the beginning of the week catching up with school, but grabbed some beers with Tom on Wednesday. I also tried my first order of buffalo wings-- or, more accurately, BBQ wings. Rather disappointing. On Thursday, I bought a new shirt and a kitchen knife made in Sheffield. The city is known for its steel, and more specifically its cutlery. All the shopping made me thirsty, so I tried my first English Bloody Mary-- again, it left much to be desired.
On Friday, Ken and Craig picked me up when I got out of school and we drove to London. I was hoping to see a different part of the country (than the train route), but the time change messed that up-- it was dark by 4:30pm. Ken set us up to stay with the bass player of his band, John, and his wife, Fiona, in Tottenham. They have a really nice place, so we hung out and drank some beers to avoid London drink prices. I should clarify, we didn't just get beers: we got the cheapest, most-potent cider in England. 69p x 7.5% = do the math. After a while, we grabbed a bus to Camden and headed to the Electric Ballroom. Ken's girlfriend, Janine, was in London for a job interview, so we had a pretty big crew. Some of us had problems getting in, but John sorted it out. This place was alright; good music and a nice foosball table. Six of us crammed into a taxi back to Tottenham, but for some reason we still had to stumble a ways to get home.
The next day was pretty relaxed; we went to Big Red to watch football, play pool and eat. I had fajitas-- in England. After a while, I split and met up with Julia and Tim in Hackney. Julia is an old roommate of mine from Chicago-- I saw her this summer in Los Angeles. Tim just got accepted to a PhD program in London, so they just moved to England. They have a really cool apartment in an rehabbed synagogue. We went out for noodles at a Vietnamese place called Loong Kee Cafe. Afterwards, we grabbed a pint at an Irish pub near their house before I caught a bus to Soho. There are a ton of pubs in the West End, and on a Saturday night, it is possibly the most populated place I have ever been. Not even the taxi or peddy-cab drivers know where any of the bars are. Somehow, I ran into Janine and Ken's friend Tom on the street while looking for Garlic & Shots--unfortunately, this place was closing, but it looked good. We met up with everyone else at the Intrepid Fox. After doing a shot of Jaegermeister, I needed to walk around the block and saw a bus driver pissing on his own bus.
On Sunday, we hung out around John's, watched In Bruges and ate pizza before heading back to Sheffield. I don't intend on doing too much this week; yesterday I followed up on some volunteer opportunities and got some school work done. I went out for a drink and checked out The York for the first time.

Belligerent Ghouls Run Manchester Schools

2008-11-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

I went to Manchester last Saturday to meet up with Troy and see Langhorne Slim. I had yet to visit Manchester, so I was excited to get to a bigger city. On the train, I sat next to a dude reading Weed World. I took the train over and hit a Chinese Buffet while I waited on Troy's bus from Birmingham-- possibly the worst Chinese Buffet I've ever eaten. When Troy arrived, we walked around Piccadilly Gardens and through the Northern Quarter. He had been to the city before, so we wandered through the City Centre, figuring our way out to the show. Unfortunately, the show was outside of the city and the tram wrecked into a bus in the middle of town. We gave up on the show, instead meeting up with Dave and embarking on a pub crawl west of town-- ending in Wigan. Dave lives pretty far outside of town, so we crashed at his mom's place. It was cool to see an English home-- and Dave made Troy and me huge plates of food. The next day, we headed back to the city, wandered around and ate food at Mod Pop before I took the train back to Sheffield. When I got back on Sunday, I went to the Fat Cat for Sunday Roast and then over to the Kelham Island Brewery-- turned out to be a long day. On Tuesday night, I stayed out for the elections with Liaquat and Hennock. One of the bars on campus showed the results until 5am. We drank Budweiser to celebrate America's success. Wednesday was Guy Fawkes Night, which I was really looking forward to: bonfires and fireworks; but, shitty weather kind of ruined the party. I ended up watching a Joy Division documentary and then meeting Ken and Craig out at the Nelson and the Casbah. On Thursday, I met up with Tom for a few pints and then went to Sheffield's Documentary Film Festival. I bought a ten doc pass and spent most of the weekend there, seeing some stuff on Mike Tyson, armored car sales in the Middle East and Kurt Cobain. On Friday, I met up with Hennock for some Ethiopian food and saw Return of the War Room.
Today, I saw some films and went over to Tom, Gus and Jaimey's to watch the Arsenal/Man United game. I need to get some school work done because Ken, Craig, Janine and I are going to London on Friday.

Panic on the Streets of Birmingham...

2008-10-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, I went to the Fat Cat with Tom, Jaimey and Rebecca for cheap curry. Tom left for The Fest last weekend, but before he left he bought me some Budweiser wing sauce as a joke. It's actually delicious and I put it on everything. The new Christian Slater TV show has started, and is now 3 episodes deep. It's about a day delay after they air before I get them over here-- what an amazing show! On Tuesday, I went to an Architecture lecture and took Alice to a Ugandan music event on campus-- I think she really enjoyed seeing some people from home. I made my 2nd trip to the Chinese buffe t near campus-- no crab rangoon, but pretty decent for the money. On Thursday, there was a globalisation lecture on campus with a professor from Princeton that was alright. On Saturday, Nonso, Hennock and I went to the Sheffield United game. The weather was shit, but United won and we got in for free. I'm going again in a couple weeks. After the game, Hennock and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant, but couldn't get seated because of an Ethiopian Orthodox Church was having an event. The city set up a festival downtown, which grew over the week into a Halloween street fest. A lot of people were out, but most of the rides and haunted houses were for kids. On Sunday, Alice had us over for Sunday lunch-- one of the better meals I've had since getting to England (save Chinese buffet, of course). On Monday, I took the train to Birmingham to meet up with Troy. We went out to Stratford upon Avon, which is the small town where Bill Shakespeare was born. It's a real classic English town that was cool to wander around for a bit; saw Shakespeare's grave, fed some ducks... you know, typical Monday. Back in Birmingham, we went to the Old Crown-- a pub that was built 640 years ago. Some of the original timbers are still there; incedible. The next day, I checked out Birmingham University and went into the city. There is an Antony Gormley statue in the City Centre-- I used to live with the sculptor's son in Chicago. It started snowing, so I dipped into the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery for a bit before catching my train back to Sheffield. I stopped off and found a cool pub in Derby. Then, Thursday, Duvel had a beer tasting at one of my favorite pubs around campus-- I got to try a few of their new beers, which were all pretty good. Tonight is Halloween, but not much seems to be going on. The HalfDead meet-up is in Austin tonight; wish I was there. Last time we were all together was in 2005. Tomorrow, I'm headed to Manchester.

This is England

2008-10-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

The more I get settled in England, the more I focus on school. However, I'm only in class on Wednesday and Friday, so I have a lot of time to check out the city. The Clash played their first gig ever in Sheffield-- opening for the Sex Pistols. It was at a place called the Boardwalk (formerly the Black Swan) that I stumbled past the other day.
The weather really hasn't been bad, but it is getting colder. Apparently, it will snow, but probably not enough to stick. It really doesn't rain as much as I expected, but I hear it will get worse.
I spend a lot of time with the people on my course-- specifically, Henock and Alice.
I voted last week and sent my ballot back to North Carolina.
I spent last Saturday with Craig and John at the Casbah. Craig met Tracy Ulman and the guy from the Cher movie, The Mask. Corporation has a metal night on Saturday, but it's packed with goth kids-- so I took off early. I found a pretty good frozen pizza here-- not as good as the one's Phil and I used to get at ALDI, but pretty good.
On Wednesday, I grabbed lunch with Hennock-- had my first plate of Bangers & Mash. I also stumbled upon a Big Buck Hunter Pro machine-- who knew they existed in England? On Thursday, I went on a pub crawl with Tom and rode in my first double-decker bus. Then, on Friday, I met John, Ken and Craig out at Trippet's Wine Bar, and took off to The Old House for a pint. We all ended up back at the Casbah, and I helped Ken with his DJ night. Craig and I lost at foosball, but I won (yet another) beer belly contest.
On Saturday, I helped Alice with a few things, before going to the Weston Park Museum with Britt, and we stopped at University Arms for a drink. My German flatmate, Uwe, was having some people over, so our house was clean. I watched part of the ManUnited game at my local pub and then met Tom, Jaimey and Gus at Bungalows & Bears. This is one of my favorite pubs so far in Sheffield. Later, we all went to Corporation.
On Sunday, I had my first Sunday Roast. Craig and I went to the Fat Cat, before heading to The Broomhill Tavern to watch the Sheffield United v. Sheffield Wednesday game-- this is a huge match where the two teams in the city play eachother. Wednesday won.

Getting settled in Sheffield

2008-10-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

That weekend, Joe had some friends in from out of town. Phil is a hardcore kid from Manchester who is really into American music. He's offered to host me for a Manchester United game and show me all the Morrissey/Joy Division sites. And, Troy is from California, studying at the University of Birmingham-- it was cool to hang out with an American for a night. We went to a show and had a pretty cool night. That weekend I just relaxed-- school started the following week and we had really nice weather. I spent Sunday in the Botanical Gardens, reading a book. I spent the next week in lectures and finalizing bank details for my grant, etc. On Friday, Ken dj'd a metal night at the Casbah-- I played a half hour's worth of songs. Hopefully, that's something we do regularly. That night, I ended up at a really bad party out by the Sheffield United stadium. And, on Monday, Maps & Atlases were in town. I spent most of the night drinking beers with Erin before they played. Ken came out and the show was great-- I think I'd only seen them once before.

Week 1: A New City

2008-10-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

To wrap up our stay at the University, the Mayoress of Sheffield hosted a formal dinner. It was a good way to end the week with a lot of new people. Afterwards, I went in to town to meet up with a couple of guys from the other night at the Casbah. Ken sings in a Guns 'n Roses cover band and sounds exactly like Axl Rose-- he even moves like him when he sings. I'm trying to get him to karaokee One in a Million. His girlfriend bartends at the big metal club in town-- it's a little too young of a crowd for my taste, but around 1am on a Friday it seems like an okay place. And, Craig is a vegetarian hesher from Newcastle-- they make up a pretty good group of people to be out with; plus, they're all around 30, which is a welcomed change from most of the undergrads around campus. On Saturday, I took the bus around town and went for a Nigerian dinner with my Ethiopian friend, Henock. On Sunday, I was around town taking some pictures and ran into two old English guys: Russ and (Fat) Steve. They were in the middle of a pub crawl and had me tag along-- paid for all my pints for the remaining 7 pubs. Real stand up dudes; both really smart and Steve works in Sheffield's famous steel industry and listens to punk. That night, Joe, Craig and I went to the Green Room to see a Belgian hardcore band and a French thrash band-- it was one of the better punk shows I've seen in a while. I split a taxi home with Joe and grabbed a pint at our local pub, the Cobden View Hotel.

Sheffield, England

2008-10-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

The train station in Sheffield is really beautiful-- some wicked fountains and a nice plaza. I met a girl from Germany on the train and we split a taxi to the University. So, for the first 5 days, the University had arranged for me to stay in a dorm while I found a place. There were a lot of international students around for the week. It was a great way to meet a lot of people from Nigeria, Germany, Mexico, Holland, Iran, Iman, Uganda, Malta, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, Denmark, China, India and Pakistan. It was a lot of fun, but the program for the week included a lot of "mandatory" lectures or tours that really just got in the way of apartment hunting, obtaining a bank account and getting a cell phone. The first few days were pretty relaxed: I played pool with 2 Nigerian guys and went out to a s culpture garden in the country. The 11 other people in my program are amazing-- all very accomplished and very intelligent. And, as for the food, it's really not all bad. By the middle of the week, I finally started breaking off at night to meet some English locals-- not too hard to do when you're seeing dudes in Blind Guardian shirts, karaokeing Warrant's Cherry Pie. There were a group of 20 year old metal kids at the Nelson; one guy, Joe, happens to live around the corner from me. Later that night, we went over to the Casbah-- a nearby punk/metal club. There's a crust kid that bar backs there-- he always gives me flyers to upcoming shows.

I'm so bored with the USA...

2008-10-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

So, on the night of 12 September, I flew to England. I had a direct flight from Chicago to London-- leaving around 9pm and arriving about 10am on Saturday morning. I took an Ambien and crashed on the flight; waking up relatively ready-to-go. A lot of people ask me what you take with you when you move to a new country-- this is what I brought with me. You really question your priorities when stuffing your life into two bags. I had never been to England, so I wasn't exactly sure what they did/did not have. Anyways, I landed at Heathrow and took the Underground to King's Cross to meet up with Adam, aka the Heat. We wandered around Islington-- through some mark ets, stopped for a drink in Angel and had lunch at a place called the Narrow Boat. We watched a football match at a pub and then met up with Adam's girlfriend and friend for drinks and tapas. I couldn't sleep and walked around St. Pancras in the early morning. The next day was the Mayor's Thames Festival, so the Heat, Nikki and I headed down there. It was a pretty wicked street fest with a lot of food. I don't really like Shakespeare, but for some reason I was really stoked on the Globe. We also were near the Tate Modern, which had a huge Os Gemeos piece on the side of it. Oh, yeah-- I saw Big Ben. Nikki made me my first English tea and then Adam and I took off for drinks in Camden. The next morning, I grabbed a taxi to St. Pancras and caught the MegaTrain to Sheffield. Welcome.

Google Map

2008-10-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a map of everywhere I went this summer:

View Larger Map

Chicago

2008-10-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

I got to Chicago on 09 September, and took a cab up to Rory and Nicole's. Maggie got in from Richmond earlier that day and we went out to Kuma's Corner-- I had never been there before; wicked burgers. I guess Ross got a new "jacket" since I last saw him-- no one tells me anything anymore. Kriggy, Jo and Annie came out. It had been almost a year since I had been in Chicago-- I didn't know they shut down the Max Gerber showroom-- it was one of the coolest stores in Logan Square. The next day I went to Hot Doug's-- Portuguese Linguica with Smoked Paprika Dijonnaise and Manchego Cheese. I visited some old spots and caught a train down to the White S ox game. I scored a cheap ticket in the t unnel, changing from the Blue to the Red line. White Sox beat the Jays-- Halladay pitched like shit. Later, Damian met up with Rory, Nicole and me at Rainbo-- Doty even showed up. The next morning Nicole and I went up to Victory's Banner for breakfast before my dentist's appointment. Apparently, my wisdom tooth needed to come out immediately-- the day before I flew to England. Bummer. I spent my last night in the States pilled out in Rory's arm chair, eating ooey-gooey gouda mac. The next day, I finished getting my teeth cleaned and walked around Logan Square. I couldn't resist grabbing one last meal before my flight: Harold's Chicken Shack.

Dallas

2008-10-01T18:15:00.000-07:00

After my dad's birthday, I decided I needed a break from Austin. I hadn't gotten to see Jay, Jason or Ben in a couple of years, so I figured I'd go to Dallas. Keely's got a wicked loft with a margarita spot right downstairs. We took Tin y Tim for a walk and grabbed some tacos while waiting on Jay. Jason and Alec came over and we headed for the hot tub on the roof-- Tim came too. Ben showed up, Tim got wasted and Jay fell asleep. Later, we all went out for sushi. The next day, Jay, Keely and I met Cody and Gina for brunch at the Meridian Room. We dropped Jay off and went to the Rangers' game; they were playing the Red Sox. After the game, we ran the bases, and I caught a ride back to Austin with John and his girlfriend. The next night, Kevin, Jacline and Todd and I went to Matt's El Rancho before playing Big Buck Hunter. Afterwards, Jacline drove us to Palazio-- typical last night in town. The next day, I finished packing, got my computer and grabbed lunch with Graham and Vi before flying to Chicago.

Back in Texas

2008-10-01T17:16:00.001-07:00

When I went back to Texas, I left my camera in North Carolina-- I got it about 2 weeks later. While in Austin, I basically just bounced back and forth between my parents' house and Graham's. My parents live out in the country now, so it's kind of tough to run back and forth. I basically realized I was totally bored, and sitting in the Texas heat didn't exactly help. I started volunteering at the ARCH, and also got to see a lot of friends and have some fun. Todd, Kevin, Laurelin, John and I went swimming and played bocce ball. My grandma and grandpa came down from St. Joseph, Missouri to visit. Kevin, John and I went to Wings 'n More, probably my favorite wing place, and then up to a Round Rock Express game.
Jacob's been living in Texas for a month and Ryan was coming in town, so Keely and Justin came down from Dallas. Jeremy, Graham and Vi showed up and we all went to a party at Joel's. Justin and I stayed up at Graham, Vi and Mark's-- ate lunch at Hutt's, took a trip to Lake Austin and played dominoes. We went out to some east side bars, saw some old friends and headed to some house parties. It turned into a long night-- Phobia played at the Broke Neck house.
On Labor Day, we swam and went up to the Grand to see Ben play records-- Nic was up there too. Later that week, Graham and I saw the VICE movie, Heavy Metal in Baghdad at the Drafthouse.

North Carolina... again

2008-10-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

Again, not a lot of pictures from North Carolina. I spent most of my time in NC riding a Nevil, swimming in apartment pools and reading the NYTimes. There was some good food and I got to see some friends. And, Matt Lee returned from the Tour Divide just in time to have a baby. I saw some minor league baseball in Greensboro and Burlington. I ran the bases in Greensboro and pissed in the same urinals as Thome, Ramirez, Colon and Sabathia once did. But, on August 8, I flew to Austin, TX.

Washington, DC

2008-10-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

By this point, I was basically just looking for somewhere to crash. Jimmy said to come meet him down in DC-- he's got a nice place, and I knew I'd have a good time. I got off the Chinatown bus and took the tra in out to his place in Arlington. We got lost on the way to Five Guys and ended up grabbing some great chili dogs at the Hard Times Cafe. We stopped at the bar for a couple beers and headed back to Jimmy's place to relax-- we had a big day ahead of us. We started off with a flapjack breakfast and washed that down with a brat and Vernor's Ginger Ale. Jeff came by and met us for an early dinner at TGIFridays-- we shared a couple starters and I had the fillet mignon, naturally. We picked up a couple more refreshments and went out for a night on the town-- and a few chicken wings. The next day, we stopped by Jeff's work and watched a Queen DVD, before having a BBQ back at the residence: brat appetizers and a rack of ribs. That night, Jimmy and I hosted an invite only cocktail mixer; James dressed up.

DC: Fun? yes. Relaxing? no.

The next day, Jimmy took me for lunch at a Chinese buffet before I got on a plane back to North Carolina.

New York City

2008-09-29T11:56:00.001-07:00

Another long bus ride, crossing across the state of New York. I woke up at 6am to the Greyhound colliding with a semi-- nothing serious. The Greyhound dropped us off at the Port Authority, in downtown Manhattan, so the first thing I saw was Renzo Piano's New York Times building. Danielle, an old roommate from Chicago, let me crash at her place on the lower east side, so I dropped my stuff off there. It was the day of the MLB All-Star game, so I went up to the Bronx to see if I could score a ticket. I was prepared to spend $200, but don't think I even heard anything less than 500. And, btw, Yankees fans are true assholes. I met up with Danielle when she got out of work, and we grabbed some NY pizza. She took me out to a couple bars around her place-- I won a 'Best Beard' competition. I met up with Brian the next day and went over to Williamsburg for some food: bagels and guacamole and beers and amazing artichoke pizza from Artichoke Basille's. I met up with Jenna for sushi and then went over to Brooklyn to meet up with Mark and Dan. I had missed seeing Mark in San Francisco, so it was cool to catch him out in New York-- plus he was with some other people I hadn't seen in years. I had an amazing falafel from O asi s before taking the train back to Manhattan with Dan and Capi. On .., I walked to the Bowery to see CBGB's-- it's now a shitty clothing store. For lunch, I ate a falafel and grape leaves at nearby Mamoun's. I wandered around the city before meeting up with Danielle for soul food at Mama's. Later, we went out for drinks with some friends of hers. The next day, I walked through Central Park, ate lunch at the Modern with Alex and toured the Met.
I checked out a few more Renzo Piano buildings: the Morgan Library and the Whitney. I ran into Jory outside the Whitney, and he taught me how to get in for free. I went in with him and his friend for the Buckminster Fuller exhibit, but left early for the Yankee's game. The trip to Yankee Stadium was pretty terrible: no jalapenos for nachos, no ice for sodas, no beer in the bleachers. 2 HRs for A-Rod, Yankees win; big whoop. I also got to see the new stadium under construction. That night, I crashed at Brian's in Williamsburg and caught the early Chinatown bus to DC. The bus wasn't as crazy as I expected, but it was cool to drive through Philly on the way down.

(Buffalo/)Toronto

2008-09-29T10:40:00.001-07:00

The ride from Pittsburgh to Toronto was never-ending; 10 hours, I think. We made stops all the way up the eastern side of Lake Erie and went through Buffalo. I've been to Buffalo several times, but didn't know where the Greyhound was going to leave us for our 2 hour layover. Luckily, it was right downtown-- the only area I know. It was 10pm, but the rain had caused a delay in the Buffalo Bisons game, and I was able to catch the second half of it for free. Turns out former Astro Morgan Ensberg plays for them. Afterwards, I took off to Washington Square, a sportsbar that Simon and I went to a couple years ago. The bartendress said they were closing, but started the fryers up when she heard I was from out of town-- definitely the best buffalo wings I've ever had. It was around 3:30am when the bus got into Toronto, and nearly everyone at Antonella's party was passed out, then Gordie showed up. He was in town from Montreal. The next morning, Antonella, her roommate and I grabbed a hot dog and went to a Blue Jays game-- AJ Burnett got a standing ovation and we saw a dude with (at least) 3 Canada tattoos. After the game, I met up with Ben Prus-- I hadn't seen him since 2004. I grabbed lunch with him and his girlfriend and took a nap. Later, Ben made gazpacho. I took a cab to the Opera House to see Municipal Waste open for At the Gates-- the Waste killed it. Tony hooked me up at the door and brought me backstage-- we watched the whole set from the side of the stage. What a wicked night; it was awesome to get to meet those dudes. The next day, I stopped by Ben's work for lunch, shopped in Kensington Market, grabbed some pizza and went to dinner at Fressen with Antonella. That night, I got on a bus and headed to New York for my first time.

Eastern Ohio

2008-09-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

So, Jimmy picked me up from Pittsburgh and we headed west into eastern Ohio. It was about an hour drive to St. Clairesville, Ohio. We went to Pick's, the bar where David Allen Coe got his start and shot a rack. Jimmy's cousin has a big ranch out there and had asked him to watch it while he was on vacation. No problem. And, Alex came up from Florida too. We rode 4wheelers, shot guns and fed the goats. I was feeling particularly sick from traveling, so it was nice to be in the same place for a few days. We also got to see the local attractions: Jill's strip club and Buffalo Wild Wings-- Spicy Garlic, please. We had breakfast, Jimmy mowed the yard and Alex did laundry-- how domestic. After a couple days of relaxation, we dropped Alex off at the airport in Pittsburgh and I took a long bus ride to Toronto.

Richmond & Pittsburgh

2008-09-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Nic arranged for me to catch a ride with the Lower Class Brats from Richmond to Pittsburgh. I met up with them all at their show in Richmond. They had an extra day off between the two shows, so we stayed in Richmond for an extra day. This worked out well, because I got to take Nic around and show him the city. We went record shopping and then out to Mojo's with Eva and Tony for dinner. The next morning, we took off for Pittsburgh-- it was a long drive, but I had done it before with Rager. So, Ryan and Dallah met up with us at the show in Pittsburgh. We hung out with some of the dudes from Wednesday Night Heroes and shot some pool, but bounced from the show pretty early. Ryan had just got back from a weekend in Detroit and was pretty wiped out, but Dallah took me to the Brillo Box. Garr ett was there-- apparently, I met him four years ago in Boston, but didn't remember it. Carnegie Mellon had its International exhibit-- it was awesome to finally see some of the Barry McGee stuff that I had seen in magazines for years. His Bic pen drawings were my favorite, and the .. cave made of cardboard and packing tape was awesome. I ate at Primanti Brothers-- apparently, it's the quintesential Pittsburgh eatery. Later, Garrett, Dallah, Ryan and I went to the Pirates' game-- the Astros were in town. I have always wanted to see that park; it's wicked. The Astros won-- we celebrated. We kicked it at Garrett and Tommy's apartment before heading out to some club. On Thursday, Garrett, Dallah and I went out to Thai Gourmet for an amazing vegan lunch, and Jimmy came to pick me up to head to eastern Ohio.

Back in North Carolina

2008-09-28T09:53:00.001-07:00

I left North Carolina for about six weeks, but found myself back there for my birthday. I really didn't take all that many pictures, mainly resting before continuing north. I skipped out on Denver and Chicago and got to Chapel Hill on 24 June. I got some wicked sleep and then went to Durham with Brian and Genardo. Later, we were out on bikes, riding around for Brian's birthday. The next day, I watched some EuroCup and Russian Circles played the Local 506. Erin and Maps & Atlases were also in town, but at a different venue. On Friday, I heped Brian run some errands and people came up to Johnny's. Saturday, I went to a Durham Bulls game. Sunday was my birthday-- I went to Wet 'n Wild in Greensboro. Other than that, I just tried to chill out: Neal's Deli with Jan, North Carolina BBQ and lunch with the King at Sandwhich. On the 3rd, I was up in Richmond, on my way to northern Virginia. I had to stop at Cafe 821 for a hurricane burger. Later, I met up with Tony, Maggie and Murty for a show. For the weekend, I was at a pretty wicked house on the Potomac River. Afterwards, I headed back to Richmond to meet up with Nic, who was in town selling merch for the Lower Class Brats.

Vancouver, BC

2008-09-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

Rafael came up from Portland and we took a bus to Vancouver. Out of all the people on the bus, he and I were the only people to get hassled at the border. Rafael was super nervous-- he had never been to Canada before. After 40 minutes of questioning, we made it through. I have two friends up in Vancouver, but Rafael lined up a place for us to stay. Jesse picked us up at 3am and took us to Aaron's house, so we crashed. I woke up to my friend Julia giving me a hug-- her and Aaron live together. Everything in Vancouver was a hassle, from finding the 'most American' cigare ttes to getting cash. We grabbed some wicked Indian food before going on some adventures. We grabbed some Tim Horton's and walked some tracks. Walked through the park, hopped some buses and grabbed a great burrito from Budgies. Jesse's girlfriend owns the place, so we kicked it there. Simon met up with us after work and he and I headed back to his place. Simon lives in Kits Beach, so the next day, I hung out there, ate breakfast and watched some EuroCup while he was at work. Afterwards, we saw a Vancouver A's baseball game and grabbed some Chinese food. The next day, I grabbed some wicked vegetarian food from The Naam. We grabbed some Tim Horton's and Simon showed me around the city. We ate dinner at Stepho's, which was probably the best fo od I ate all summer. We grabbed some Timmy's after dinner and hung out on the beach. The next day, we grabbed breakfast and watched Holland lose in the EuroCup. Later, he got one of his friends to drive us around. We were out at Stanley Park and rode bikes for a bit. We got some really good pizza and headed to Wreck Beach, supposedly it's a really crazy nude beach with pot brownies and mushrooms. But, it was a cloudy day, so it was just full of creepy old men. Later, we grabbed some cheap pitchers at the Cambie and hung out with the locals. I needed more coffee to keep me awake. Apparently, these steam clocks are a big deal-- I saw it. Cool, I guess. The next day we walked around Kits and then hit a greek festival. The next day, I decided to head back to North Carolina before my birthday. I walked around Hastings and Main. I took the bus back to Seattle, and another to Spokane and flew to Oakland to grab my connection to Raleigh-- 24 hours of traveling. I did manage to grab some sushi in Seattle, another drink with Thom and see Phil for 30 minutes in Oakland. I was exhausted when I returned to North Carolina.

Seattle, Washington and Camping

2008-09-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

I got into Seattle on the afternoon of 15 June. Thom picked me up from the Amtrak station, which is right near Safeco Field, where the Mariners play. I dropped my stuff off at his place, started some laundry, grabbed a much-needed shower and headed out for Thai food. We stopped off at a bar on Capitol Hill for a drink, but ended up crashing pretty early. Thom has been planning a weekend camping trip with some of our friends from Texas who are also Seattle transplants. We got up early to pick up Justin and his 2 long-haired dauchsands before heading to the Bainbridge Ferry. Arthur, Perry and Brad missed the ferry, so we had time to do some shopping. We grabbed lunch before driving up to Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula. After we set up our tents, Thom, Brad and I went canoeing while waiting for the beer to get cold. Later, we snacked and played cards before Thom made food. The scenery was unbelievable; this was a good break between rushing to different cities. The next day, we packed up and headed back to the city. I met up with my sister, Libby and she took me around the city. We went to a Mariners game, where she told me she was pregnant. I walked her back to her hotel, and we stopped by the SAM Olympic Sculpture Park. The next day, I walked around Seattle, grabbed lunch and saw the Pike Street Market. I had dinner with Libby and Thom before heading to the bus station. To be honest, I didn't think Seattle was going to be that cool of a city, but I actually had a really great time.

PDX: finally in the northwest

2008-09-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

I had never been to the northwest-- which is odd because I know so many people from there. Both Dylan and Phil are from there, and Jacob has lived there for most of the time I have known him-- but, I'd never gotten up there until this summer. Unfortunately, Dylan and Phil are both living in California, but I got to spend a lot of time with Jacob and some other PDX transplants.
So, on Wednesday, 11 June, I landed in Portland and Lisa picked me up from the airport. I've known Lisa since I was in 7th or 8th grade; she was actually my first girlfriend-- ha. We went out for dinner and then for a drink. Later, Tai came out and we went out to a couple different bars. I had a pretty killer streak of RockPaperScissor matches. The next morning, Tai took me to Junior's-- the best veggie breakfast in Portland. The weather was unbelievable while I was in Portland, and the plants and flowers looked beautiful. I met with Lisa and went for a dr ive around Portland. I thought this was weird. Then we walked around downtown and ran into Matt. He was working, but we made plans to meet up later. I saw the community bike shop, the Doug Fir and Lisa's new apartment. The Doug Fir is a pretty cool place, but I think a lot of locals kind of hate on it. In the afternoon, I went up north to meet up with Jacob and Sean. Matt got off work and met us at the Note, where I met a bunch of wicked dudes from Portland. Claire called and scooped us all up to head to a dance party at ... . This was a pretty wicked party, and I met a lot of people that I have heard about for years-- like Steve and Rafael. It was kind of a bummer to be out in Portland without Dylan or Phil, but Matt, Claire and everyone showed me a wicked time. After the party, we went to Raf's to hang out. I crashed here-- thanks Rafael. The next morning we went to a pretty wicked veggie place for breakfast. Everyone had to go to work, so I wandered around Portland and met up with Jacob. He took me on a tour of Portland's famous strip clubs-- well, just Union Jacks and Mary's Club. We also went by Burnside, which was really, really cool to finally see in person. Matt finished work, and we decided to have some fun downtown. We filled up some water balloons and talked with some locals. Later, I went out for crepes with Claire, Raf and some others. Raf is always a lot of fun to walk around with. The next morning, he took me to Hungry Tiger Too for breakfast. By this point, I was exhausted, so I turned off my phone and caught a train to Seattle. I needed to eat and relax and knew Thom's place would be comfortable.

San Francisco/Oakland: Best Friends

2008-09-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

Phil was a little late meeting me at the bus depot, so I wandered around the city. Luckily, I was close to Pac Bell Park was nearby, so I was able to see where the Giants play. We grabbed some tacos in the Mission district before heading back to Oakland-- Brian Moss was having a party. It was great to see some old faces. Afterwards, we headed back to Phil's place and woke up Lizzie. The next morning, Phil and I went shopping at Whole Foods so that he could cook Lizzie and me breakfast before we headed into the city. We grabbed some beers before taking the BART to Dolores Park. I hadn't been there since November 2004, but every time I go, I have a wicked time. Lizzie took a nap while Phil and I drank beers, played frisbee, drank beers, met a gay porn star, drank beers and talked about cars-- just like an old pair of gal pals. We went out for Indian food and over to a beer garden where I met Davey from Portland. Phil was pretty drunk at this point, so we headed back to Oakland. We were walking down the street when I heard someone yelling at us-- it was Jeremy. He came back to Phil's place for some beers. The next morning, we rode bikes over to Phil's shop to pick up some cash before grabbing lunch. We both got pretty hammered and had to take a nap. Later, Lizzie came with us to get some food in Oakland. That night, Phil and I went back to the Mission and hung out at the Casanova with Diane. After a night of drinking and dancing, Phil and I got a bit lost on the way home. We wandered around for a bit before finding our way. The nexy day, we did a little grocery shopping and relaxing around the house, we grabbed some sushi and ate in the park. Later, we had some beers and missed the Athletics' game-- but, we walked around Oakland for awhile. I booked a flight for Portland the next day-- I needed a break from partying so hard. I think Phil did too. Before leaving, I went back to the mission district to grab lunch.

the idle rich

2008-09-27T01:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the whole idea of keeping this updated with photos throughout the summer kind of fell apart. Simply, uploading photos from libraries or from friends' laptops just isn't practical. I'm in England now-- Sheffield to be exact. There is so much going on here that I want to post, but I'm going to do my best to upload the photos from my summer. If you'd like to see more from when I was in your city, email me and I'll mail you additional photos.
After uploading photos in LA, Julia picked Ryan and I up and we went to In-N-Out. Naturally, Ryan and I ate Animal Style. Ryan and Julia both had to work and I snuck off to wander Los Angeles. In the afternoon, Alex and I met up and went to the Dodgers game. He had never been to a MLB game before, so I was stoked to take him. I showed him typical ballpark fare, and we lucked out: it was bobble head night. I planned on leaving the next day, but Dylan convinced me to stay an extra day. He had been working most of the time I was in town-- plus, he offered to pay half my bus ticket. How could I resist? Naturally, he showed me a wicked time. In the morning, we kicked it in his garden before dropping Alex off at work, giving us a car for the day. Dylan's car broke down, so we had to take care of that before eating a wicked lunch. Damn, I wish I could remember the name of this place. He showed me some landmarks: Amoeba Records, The Standard Hotel and Chateau Marmont. We planned to do some rooftop swimming, but the pool was closed. Ryan's friend, Ben, was having a party, so we headed over there. It's kind of tradition for Dylan and I to play scratch-off tickets-- I won, he lost. Later, Alex, Dylan, Adam and I went to the Cha Cha lounge to meet up with Julia and Tim-- Tim just got into school in London. I stayed in Hollywood, but woke Alex and Dylan up early so that we could go to brunch at Ye Rustic Inn. We had bloody marys before they dropped me off at the bus station. I took the MegaBus to San Francisco.

Going back to Cali

2008-06-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

So, it was my last day in Austin. I found a yellow bike and met up with Dusten. We went to Hoa Hoa-- a Chinese place that he and I used to always eat at. They're lunch special is awesome.

Then I just kinda wasted time around town-- Austin really hasn't changed much. This dude still lives here. I ate Thundercloud before meeting up with my mom. We looked at sunglasses and I bought a new hat. Then she dropped me off for my flight.

Dylan and his guy Alex picked me up from LAX. People drive really fast in LA. We played some pool at Footsies, before getting tacos.

Then we went to Big Foot Lodge and met up with Julia, her boyfriend and some other people. Dylan was really amazed by my beard. We went to a bar called Johnny's that Dylan used to live behind, before going back to Alex's and starting to watch Traffic. I fell asleep.

The next day, I was riding Alex's bike and Julia called wanting to meet up by the river. She got a new bike recently. It's really cool. We had to sneak into her boyfriend's house. Then she drove me around LA. We went through Downtown and over to Echo Park, Silver Lake, Las Files or something-- I don't know. Oh, yeah-- we went to a coffee shop where I met Rob's wife Billie. There was some actor guy who was talking to us, but I don't know what his name is. Her, Julia and Rob are all in an art show in a week. Then, when Julia went to work, I met up with Ryan.

Ryan had a bunch of Colt 45s in his fridge, so we drank those before going to eat tacos. We went over to his friend's house, and Dylan brought over some Hpnotiq. Then we went over to another guys house where there were a few people from Chicago. Like Eric-- didn't expect to see him.

Rob was finally going to meet us at the bar, so we headed to the Cha Cha. We got a booth and kicked it there before leaving for the Short Stop. Then I guess we came home and Ryan put on that Stax Records documentary. I got up super early and put all my photos online. That is why you're reading this. Okay, I'm going to go do something. Bye.

Sunday, June 1... and so on.

2008-06-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

The formatting is terrible on this one. Whoops.

The next day was awesome. I met up with Kevin and Jacline and we ate at Mars. The food and drinks were delicious.

After brunch, we played bocce ball in their backyard. Kevin and I lived together for two years-- he's one of the coolest people I know. He and I tied. I miss playing bocce, but fuck, it is hot in Texas.

Later, I played Wii for my first time. Kevin beat me pretty bad, but I had a good time. My dad picked us up and we went to Round Rock for an Express game. The three of us had a really good time, even though the Express lost. After the game, Kevin and I ran the bases.

The next day, I got stuff together for my trip, and just hung out at my parents house. This is a picture of part of my mom's garden. Oh yeah-- there's a deer too.

In the afternoon, John and I walked the train bridge. You probably shouldn't go during the day, but we did anyways. This is one of my favorite places in the whole world. You're a block from the city, but the views are unbelievable. When I lived in Austin, we would go out here and drink beer a lot. When I was in college, I wrote a paper on this place.

At night, Nic, Todd, Jacline, Kevin, Sabine and I played mini-golf. Peter Pan's is cool, because it's BYOB. I came 2nd to last. This was a lot of fun.

Look. A dinosaur.

Kevin and I went and saw X at La Zona Rosa. They were a lot of fun. I got a t-shirt. Kevin bought my ticket-- what a nice dude. Afterwards, we went to the Ginger Man to play darts. I won! They have a wicked beer selection. Too bad they're tearing this place down to put in some condos.

Following up/Shit hits the fan

2008-06-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

So that first post seemed pretty cool, right?
I know you really want to see pictures of people dancing by the campfire at Tony's birthday party or me in my favorite plaid shirt, but too bad. You probably also want to see pictures of Hitch, John, Dave, Brooke and I drinking wine on the roof of Tulula's... or the wicked free pizza party I earned at Brixx. Sorry, dude.
On the morning of the 21st, I drove to Atlanta. I caught a wicked Braves game where Chipper Jones hit a home run and the Braves crushed the Mets. I met up with a friend for a drink before driving through the night. I slept for one hour in the middle of Alabama, before meeting my friend Ben and his girlfriend at the Waffle House in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I drove through New Orleans, and pulled into the parking lot of the Houston's Cynthia Woods Pavillion just after 7pm. I bought a ticket off some dude for the night's Iron Maiden concert. The show was pretty rad, and Bruce had on some pretty bizarre costumes.
I stayed with Mike, Miranda and their baby boy Liam, and we went to Friday night's Astros game. Saturday, I met Kelley and Dan at the game, and later we went out for drinks. I ran into a couple old friends at some bars in Houston, before passing out around 2:30am. Sunday, my dad came to town for the game, and we met up with Josh and his father. We had the best seats I've ever had. Here's the kicker: after the game, my car was broken into and my bike, digital camera, cell phone, passport, social security card, eye glasses, sun glasses, everything... was stolen. All of the supporting pictures are gone; as are some fun memories with a lot of people I rarely get to see. So anyways, I spent the next week replacing a lot of stuff-- naturally, getting my passport replaced was paramount for my visa application process. It's in the mail. I got a new camera on Thursday night; here are some photos:

After buying the camera, John and I went to Kevin's softball game.

We stopped by to see Ghazal on her going-away bike cruise. She's headed to MedSchool in Ft. Worth. It was cool to see a lot of old friends. Then we went to a back porch chiller with a lot of young kids.

The next morning, Mark took me to campus so that I could fax some stuff to France. I have officially registered for school and accepted the Erasmus Mundus grant. Justin met me, and we celebrated at Veggie Heaven. That's probably my favorite restaurant in Austin.

Later that day, Graham and Justin painted a mural. It is really hot in Texas.

Later that night, we pre-gamed at Graham's. Mark & Jeremy even hung out. COOL. Then we walked to a party. We brought our own seating. Even at night, it is really hot in Texas.

Then Graham, Vi, Allyson and I went to a bar. I got to see Edward-- he's an old friend of mine who means a lot to me. He is one of the main people I miss in Austin.

We went back to Graham's and drank a buddle of Moet. Graham's girlfriend Vi loves to party. I gave Justin the couch and passed out on the floor.

The next day, I chilled out at my parents' house before heading to SaltLick with Kevin, Jacline and Todd. It is considered one of the best BBQ spots in Texas and is out in the country, only a couple miles from my parents' place. Oh yeah-- before going to eat, we stopped at Waterloo for a couple beers and to watch some of the Astros game.

Afterwards, we drank a bottle of wine on my parents back porch. Look! My dog!

Then I met Graham and we went to the Castle Walls. This is a really rad place to drink beers. We hung out there, before going to a Skidmarxxx party at Joel's place. It was pretty fun, but we decided to leave early for some karaoke. Curt was in town from Chicago, but Ben was the real showstopper.

I normally never sing karaoke, but we did some group sing-a-longs. I was pretty wiped out, and crashed after Chicken Streeps from Whataburger. Too bad, because Graham, Vi and Allyson went to the hot tub until the sun came up. Dang.

"Blogging"

2008-06-02T08:49:00.001-07:00

I wrote this the other day:

My friend Todd had the back of his iPod engraved with 'I hope this is still cool a year from now.' I hope I have the dedication to keep this up a year from now. I'm leaving for Europe in the fall, so I decided to spend my summer traveling the States, and seeing friends and family.
Before I left NC, I had a pretty wicked time. Here are some photos of the going away festivities.

Margarita cooked me pozole; my favorite. I used to beg her to make it for me every week, so it was a fitting last meal. Sammy and Margarita run a tienda in Carrboro, NC and had Brian, Brooke, Genardo and me over to their home for dinner. (I hope everyone noticed that I correctly used me, instead of I-- kind of a problem I have.)

That night, I went to the Nightlight to see Caltrop play. They're my favorite band from Chapel Hill, so I was happy to see them before I left town. Plus, Andy hung out. See? This was on Wednesday... I don't know if this is actually going away stuff, seeing that it was nearly a week before I left, but whatever. Deal with it.

Thursday is Jan's day off, so I asked her to make me dinner. Brooke, Hitch and I (again!) went over and had drinks with her and Lynn. Jan makes the best collard greens and has a great screened in back porch... she also saves people's lives. As always, the meal was delicious. I should note that Hitch makes really great sandwiches and prefers to be called the King. Oh yeah, Ace hung out too.

Here is another picture from a place I liked to eat in North Carolina. This is at Don Ricardo's house. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he opens his apartment for people to come in and eat lunch. Just like a restaurant, you are seated at a table in his kitchen where you can see his wife cook your meal. On most days, his two daughters are also helping prepare food. ¡Que delicioso!

Friday night, Brooke and I drove to Richmond and had drinks with Tony and Eva. I met Eva in Boston in 2004. After drinks we went to a really bad party. Then we all fell asleep drinking wine at Tony and Eva's house while watching a movie. In the morning, Brooke and I went for a bike ride.

In the morning, we hung out in Eva and Tony's garden, before going to 821 Cafe for the Hurricane Burger. That's a pound of beef between two grilled cheese sandwiches. Wicked. Afterwards, I took a nap and we all went out to Pocahontas State Park for Tony's birthday party. I'm tired of writing now, but I'll put more photos up later. And, dude, I'm serious: shit got fun.