Thursday, April 27, 2006

Pretending to be in a Professional Rock & Roll Band.

I would like to start off this blog by saying that, it is generally not my forte to dedicate my blogging to our drunken adventures. I like leave the art of inebriated story-telling to Walker, who is far better at it than myself. It’s not that I don’t believe in physically writing down our adventures, so that one day, maybe even the next day, we can actually remember them. It’s just that it’s not my thing, I think maybe that’s where Photographis Blogicus gets its inspiration from. I’m much better at seeing pictures I don’t remember having taken, and then piecing together the night of ricockulousness from the clues. Maybe it’s all the criminal investigation classes I’ve taken in school–-I don’t know.

Regardless, the string of events that occurred last Friday definitely warrants writing down. The whiskey imbibed journey I embarked upon included its fair share of characters, as usual. However tonight’s experiences all lead up to a moral, which is what inspired me to write this down... That and the massive hangover I suffered the next day. We all call booze the poison, but the next day I felt as if I had actually drank poison. I don’t know if it was from a spider, or a scorpion, or a white snake; but poison nonetheless. Actually, I just wrote that last sentence so I could say I once wrote a paragraph that included five buttrock band names, but had nothing to do with music–-kind of like buttrock itself.

Anyways, I give you: “The Night I Wish I had my Camera,” aka, “Pretending to be in a Professional Rock & Roll Band.”

* * *

It always seems that the more I have it on my mind to not go out and get trashed, the more trashed I get. It’s like some parabola of nature, a Murphy’s Law if you will, a motherfuckin ball of irony... call it what you will, but it is one factor that dominates my life. And on this particular Friday, I wanted to keep it low-key. I wanted a night where nothing major happened, a night where I could wake up the next morning and goto work with a smile on my face. So I, of course, ended up getting completely fucking obliterated.

The night started off innocently enough. I had just gotten off of work, and in a gesture of good faith, I headed off to Casa del Kuz to help my dear friend Chelsey download and convert some files from her digital video camera. No sooner had I taken a seat at the kitchen table and started ripping files then D-Kuz said, “Hey, I have a surprise for you!” Now, it’s a good rule of thumb to note that when D-Kuz plays the, “Surprise Card,” it’s probably going to involve something ridiculous--and we’ll touch on this more later in the story--but as for now, this particular surprise involved him slamming an unopened bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey on the table in front of me. And this is how my night started...

One-half a bottle of Jameson later, we’re flying down the I-215 at ninety-seven miles an hour to the Red Stone, a seemingly innocent drinking locale that would somehow contain one of the most belligerently uneducated people I have ever met. The plan was to meet up Matt Bitchell, have a few on-the-house cocktails, and peace the fuck out. Now, I know that this might make it seem like Matt Bitchell, himself, is belligerently uneducated, but that could not be farther from the truth--he has a UNLV college degree; but for some reason, ridiculous fucking people somehow surround Mr. Matt Bitchell. And this brings us to the first confrontational moment that makes me wish I had brought my camera.

For those of you that don’t know our friend Matt, he likes to laugh--especially at jackassary--and especially at his friends doing jackassary towards mentally challenged people. Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but I’ll go ahead and lay out the scenario for you and you can decide for yourself.

Within, no exaggeration, eleven seconds of me walking into the Red Stone, Matt Bitchell was like, “Wah-ha-ha-ha, check out that old black lady across the bar, she’s so out of control drunk, you should go hit on her. Wah-ha-ha-ha, No, dude, do it... Seriously. I think she may be a crackhead. It'll be hilarious.” Now, I like to entertain my friends, especially when we’re not partying on my side of town, but man... it was just entirely too fucking early for that particular brand of hi-jinx, so I passed. Or so I thought...

We’re all laughing, “Yeah man, it’d be so funny to go and talk to that girl.” “Man, she’s totally gone, ha ha ha.” “Yeah dude, and by gone, you of course mean, old?” “Ha ha ha ha ha,” and so on, just laughing it up to ourselves, but then things escalated. The bartender walks over to us with a triple shot of Jack Daniels, and slams it on the bar in front of me. “That lady over there wanted me to send this over to you,” she snickered as she pointed at our Harriet Tubmanesque figure of jest. Now, despite the fact that I had nearly completed shaking hands with Mr. Jameson at this point, I was still coherent enough to know that she was fucking with me. She does bartend at the same restaurant as Matt Bitchell after all. But, on that same note, I was also hammered enough to have this thought, “You know what dude? If my friends want to buy me this booze, I’ll throw them some entertainment.” With that thought taunting my frontal lobe, I march over to talk to Rosa Parks--and by Rosa Parks, I, of course mean; Rosa Parks, if instead of refusing to ride in the back of the bus, she smoked a fifteen pound rock of crack-cocaine, crashed the bus into a daycare center, and then proceeded to take a dump in the back of the bus.

As I came sauntering up, I hoisted my shot glass far into the air and shouted, “Hey, thanks for the drink, you son of a bitch!” Of course, she had no idea what I was talking about, but, being a belligerent alcoholic, she readily clanged glasses with me and sipped down her Patrone Silver. After draining our respective beverages, we exchanged a few drunken words, my friends exchanged a few drunken laughs, and I returned to my seat across the bar. But this was not that last we’d see of Drunkey McTubman.

Something like thirteen minutes later, long after we’d forgotten about her, she came storming over to us demanding that she not pay for our drinks. However she’d gotten it into her afro’d skull that she was our alcoholic benefactor, I’ll never know, but she was definitely less than happy about it. After about five minutes of verbal sparring about bar tabs and the like, we came to an agreement (we’d each pay for our own booze) and our lives moved on... However, her life did not move on. In fact, she made the horrible mistake of staying and trying to talk to me, which could only result in me insulting her without the knowledge of her being mocked. And at this point, I shall break narrative to give you an exact--to my best recollection--transcript of our conversation.

Her: I know you don wanna fuck wit me, I’m from the WATTS PROJECTS!
Me: The Watts Projects? Scary.
Her: Yeah, son, the WATTS PROJECTS, we crazy, you know what we’re about?
Me: I dunno, I kind of make it a point not to trust any city named after a unit of electrical measurement. Like Voltage, Detriot, that place is fuuuuucked up!
Her: Naw, WATTS nigga, that’s where the riots were at! You kno, the 96 riots, ya, word.
Me: Yeah? Well Voltage Detriot is HARDCORE... that’s where 8 Mile is... you know, you’ve heard of Eminem, that’s where he’s from. Yep, 8-Mile, yo; Voltage, Detriot.
Her: Word?
Me: Word!
Her: Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn
[At this point she sniffs the air several times]
Her: Damn, that shit smells good, what you eatin boy?
D-Kuz: Ummm, it’s, uh, Lobster Ceviche.
Her: Mmmm, Ceviche? What the fuck is that?
Me: Ceviche? You don’t know what Ceviche is? And you think you’re hardcore? Ceviche is Italian, haven’t you seen Scarface?
Her: Yeah I’ve seen Scarface, I know what Slabitchy is bitch!
Me: Oh yeah, what?
Her: You tell me!
Me: Yeah, Ceviche is Italian for, “Fish Salsa.”
Her: Nigga actin like I don’t know what Ceviche means, like I don’t klnow Italian, pffft! OF COURSE I know Ceviche means fish salsa.


For the record, yes I know that Scarface was Cuban, not Italian... but it's still a mafia movie. And also, I think I forgot to mention that she, at one point, called me a, "Sean Penn looking motherfucker." And to be honest, I was pretty surprised she even knows who Sean Penn is... maybe she's only seen Carlito's Way, who knows?

Anyways, I digress, at about this point we all started laughing our asses off, for I have no idea what Ceviche means, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fucking mean, “Fish Salsa.” As we laughed for about the next fifteen minutes, her interest sort of trailed off, and she wandered away to her next adventure. Now, I only tell you this story to tell you this: This lady would not be the most ridiculous person I encountered on this particular night...

* * *

I’m going to fast forward this blog about five hours, because: A) I’m trying to keep my blogs a bit shorter, B) I’m trying to keep my readers a littler bit more interested, and C) I can’t really remember what the fuck happened during those five hours. But, never-mind-that-fact, Karim and I come stumbling out of the Drop Bar at about six in the AM, fully expecting to limp to our cars and go home; a pair of defeated human beings. Yet, as we stumble out of the bar, we see a lost soul in more dire condition than ourselves. That’s right, there’s D-Kuz, at six-eh-emme, at the craps’ table, with an undeterminable amount of chips in front of him. To a layman, it would appear that Kuz was kicking the Green Valley Ranch’s ass; a mountain of chips in front of him. However, to Karim and myself, who know better, it is clear that the Kuz is actually down a hundred and fifty dollars. He was apparently playing his, “Surprise Card,” but only on himself, because the rest of us know that it’s no surprise that he’s going to lose his ass.

However, I deter from the story, Karim and I decide to go stop Kuz from being silly, so we stumble up to the craps’ table in a vain attempt to sever Gamblor’s asphyxiating grasp from our Canadian friend’s throat, when there, I meet the most ridiculous girl--ever--and also the inspiration for this story.

My friends would probably call her "scene" or an "emo-chick," but she wasn't, not really at least... She was dressed more like how a stripper dresses when she's trying to be "rock and roll," and she probably listens to like Disturbed or System of a Down, you know, that kind of bullshit. Anyways, she was there with her friend who was trying to be all "alternative" by piercing her lip and wearing art-school glasses. And at first, we thought they were hookers, because they were just like hanging out, being all ridiculous, at six in the morning. But, they weren't hookers. At least, not very good ones, because there were about seven old, dirty, and very soused men at the craps table, with plenty of casino chips to blow on a couple of GVR floozies. So, we ruled out hookers, maybe strippers who called it an early Friday night on the pole? Nope, strippers who just got off work wouldn't be dressed in club clothes, they don't care enough. So I guess that just leaves plain old drunk annoyingly loud whores--awesome!

The scientific method held true, as she soon prooved our hypothesis by turning to me from two spots down at the craps table and yelling, “Hey, you’re in a band!” Now, in all honestly, this is not that random of a mistake, I have a shagadoo, it happens... but instead of playing my free-drink-VIP-card (see Photographis Blogicus, Issue #3: Coachella Run-Off Week), I, being too hammered to keep up the in-a-band-charade just answered with an ambiguous, “Haha, I am?”

To which she replies, “Yeah! What band are you in?”
So, I, once again, not really wanting to lie--for some fucking reason--answer, “What band am I in? What band are you in?”

And here, my friends, is where the story gets ridiculous...

“Valentine,” she replies. And after I inquire as to what role in the band she plays, she answers, “Lead Singer.” Now, I’m trying so hard not to just laugh in her face, or say something really jackass, as the true comedy is in letting it play out, so I manage to get out, “Reeeeeally? So, you’re Emily Ellis?” Moments later she reassures me that she indeed is Emily Ellis.

Now, let me take this moment to explain that I know Emily Ellis, I’ve seen a Valentine show, I’ve drank some booze with her band while she argued on the phone with her boyfriend (angry that he wasn’t in attendance), I mean, my best friend even made their music video, but that’s besides the point. This girl was no Emily Ellis. However, I normally don’t care enough-–despite what my friends might say--to be so fucking scene that I have to ruin this girl’s fantasy. If she wants to be a lead singer of a Professional Rock and Rock Band, who am I to burst her bubble? I’ll tell you who: I’m a drunk motherfucker of an asshole.

At this point, I decide to rain all over her rock and roll parade and exclaim, “No you aren’t!” And then start pointing and laughing... After what seems about, like, seven hours of me laughing in her face, she finally musters up the will to say, with a certain bit of pride and braggart I must add, “Yeah, well I know some of the people in the band, and *I* had sex with Snake.” Wow, that’s a fucking amazing... I don’t know whether to jump onto this craps' table and start applauding you for being such a whore or to give you the gold medal for the one-hundred-meter-who-gives-a-shit. But, she seemed to be very proud of herself, at least she did at the moment. I guess to a ridiculous drunk whore, letting some guy in a local band blow you out is kind of an achievement... her mother probably has a dusty, leather bound scrapbook in a closet somewhere chronicling all of her crowning blow-out moments.

So, in lieu of making a spectacle, I decide to give this girl the biggest “What the Fuck” look in the history of the world. A “What the Fuck” look that was truly for ages; but one that would be shortly lived.... For, in about seven seconds, I would give her a look of previously unrecorded levels of “What the Fuck.” A truly .40 caliber, “What the Fuck is Wrong with You.” Because, I think, sensing the umcomfort in my stare, she quickly blurted out, “Yeah, he has a really small penis.” And there it is, I think if you take the combined power of the “What the Fuck” look on all of your faces right now, and multiply it by seven, you’ll get somewhere in the ball park of the look I gave her right there.

Like, seriously, this girl doesn’t make sense. Because, although it took me two paragraphs and three-hundred and six words to relay those two statements to you. In real-time, they happened over the span of about five seconds. Her emotions seriously just ranged from pride and accomplishment, to disgust and mockery, in about the time it took me to sip my Jack and Diet. This is a good sign that this girl is a little crazy... and by a little crazy, I mean in-fucking-sane. And for the record, if you are a musician craving, dirty-ass trick, it’s usually not a good idea to tell someone in a band that you had sex with another scenester and then insult his genitalia. It’s sort of an eerie and slanderous glance into what our own immediate future holds if we continue talking to you.

Now, I know that many of you reading this are going to call me “gay” for not saying I was in some obscure band, and then “blowing that chick out.” But, I feel I made the right decision... Flash forward; four days later... I’m at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, for some reason, (insert Rainbow themed gay-joke here) and her “alternative” friend was there, who let me on a healthy little tidbit of knowledge. As it turns out, her crazy whore of an Emily-Ellis-impersonating friend had herpes of genital nature!!! Yeah buddy, dodged a viral bullet on that one.

So, let’s recap what we’ve learned today:

  • Darren Kuzyk is a crazy fucking Canuck.

  • Matt Bitchell will somehow find the most ridiculously retarded person in the zip code, and mock them.

  • To drunk black chicks, all white people look like Sean Penn.

  • Slandering other dude’s penis size, is actually not a sure fire way to get a guy to take you home.

  • If a chick is crazy, and also a whore, chances are she has a venereal disease.

  • Pretending to be in a Professional Rock & Roll Band is an effective pick-up line, unless the target has actually heard of the band you’re pretending to be in.

  • And finally...

  • Always remember to bring your digital camera, because you never know when ridiculousity will rear its ugly head.



Welp, that's it kids... I hope we all learned something. I know I did.

Oh, and on a final note to that Snake dude, it really sucks that that drunk chick is out there slandering your name, but if I can offer you any consolation, it’s that I made up the part about the herpes... I’m sorry, I just wanted to make my story sound more intense and interesting--I deserve to have ice cream smashed into my face.



Image by Dong Wang

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

I Scream, You Scream...

Camp town lady, sing that song; Doo-da–doo-da.
Camp town lady, sing that song; all of the live long day.

Or at least until your head explodes. Fucking-A Christ, are you SERIOUS?!?!?! You can only sit inside, impotently fencing with the brink of insanity for so long, and then you must take action. You must make a stand. You must fight for what you believe is right in this world. Now, I say, “you,” in the ubiquitous second person, but what I really mean is, “me.” And as I stand here, leering through the Venetian blinds at my current adversary, I now know it is time to escalate our feud to the next level.

But I’m getting ahead of myself... this calls for some exposition.
Rewind–one week ago.

* * *

This must be what it feels like to be a zombie... I know that I can move my arm, I just don’t want to. I know that the television’s on, I just don’t know what’s on. Without focus, I stare; like a zombie. Wait, scratch that... I bet zombies don’t get headaches. Yeah, in fact I’m certain they don’t. I’ve seen way too many zombies catch a chainsaw, shotgun blast, or random sporting-goods-related-object to the dome for them to have the ability to feel pain in their headular region. And I must admit, “Fuck! My head hurts.” Damn it, I must be hung over again... and it is fucking hot in here. It must be Spring.

Ahhh Spring, springtime always brings up a slew of heartfelt memories: the beach, baseball at Wrigley Field, the smell of freshly cut grass, the ice cream man, spring break in–wait, the ice cream man? What the fuck? Like a message from the Emergency Broadcast System interrupting the last twenty minutes of Fight Club, the Ice Cream Man and his delightful little jingle hijacked their way into my hang-over-induced daydream.

It seems like every ice cream truck spins a different tune out of their PA system. Today’s choice was the classic racetrack ditty, Camp Town Lady. An annoying song on it’s own right, once it is cut down to an eight note loop, it heralds the unique ability to cure deafness, and then compel the now-no-longer-hearing-impaired person to ram a q-tip into their eardrum until they are once again deaf. I groaned and decided it was time to take about seven more IB Profins, catch a quick shower, and head to work.

When I got out of the shower, what did I hear? The sweet release of silence? A phone call telling me I didn’t have to come to work today? No! Wrong! I heard, Camp Town Fuckin’ Lady. Surely I must be imagining this, it had been fifteen minutes, there’s NO WAY the ice cream truck is still in front of my house. I would be wrong, but I still didn’t believe it yet.

Standing outside, I was flabbergasted--my mind blown. Sure enough, there’s the ice cream truck, right in front of my house, a line of kids eager to blow their lunch monies on frozen treats, and, of course, Camp Town Fuckin’ Lady. Apparently the Ice Cream Man in my neighborhood never went to Ice Cream College, or at least failed his Ice Cream Ethics class, because he was breaking the cardinal rule of ice cream men. YOU SHUT OFF YOUR FUCKING SONG WHEN YOU PARK TO SELL ICE CREAM!!! Playing Camp Town Fucking Lady at eighty decibels isn’t going to whip the kids up into some sort of ice cream feeding frenzy. They’re already at your truck indulging themselves with ice cream baseball mitts (with the bubble gum baseballs), and the only thing that’s going to stop them from eating ice cream until they have a diabetic seizure is the fact that they only have a dollar and twelve cents. It’s not like Camp Town Fuckin Lady is going to persuade them to ride their huffies down to the ATM machine and go buck wild on your frozen goods; they’re kids jackass.

Now, I’m not really what you call a confrontational person. I would be hard pressed to think of a situation I could get into where the only resolution lies with fisticuffs. Given this fact, you might think that this is the end of the story–you, sir, would be wrong. It is now the next day, and my head is fucking pounding. Damn it, I must be hung over again... and it is fucking hot in here. It must still be Spring.

I sigh and pop a couple of IB Profins; no shower today, woke up too late, gotta leave for work in twenty minutes. I throw on some fresh deodorant, wash my face, and start getting dressed when it hits me. Hard too, like a zombie slaying croquette mallet to the face: Camp Town FUCKIN’ Lady. Okay, it’s kind of early, maybe it won’t be so bad... I would be wrong. I decided to time the Ice Cream Man today, really put his ass on the clock, and after ten minutes and thirty-five seconds of non-interrupted, unadulterated Camp Town FUCKIN’ Lady, I decided it was time to go and meet the Ice Cream Man.

Business was light today, only two kids eating their popsicles with no regard for manners or preservation of the experience. And yet, despite the light crowd, still the ice cream truck was parked and spinning Camp Town FUCKIN’ Lady. As I approached the truck, I realized–in respect for the kindergarten audience–I should probably keep things PG-13.

The Ice Cream Man was a sweaty sort. Hispanic in origin, his hair was greased back and tucked under his filthy ice cream hat, which has long since turned a shade of yellowish grey. In a vain attempt to compensate for his dirty uniform, he wore a freshly polished platinum Mexican flag around his neck... which only made his appearance more ridiculous. As I approached, he flashed me, from beneath his unevenly trimmed mustache, the type of crooked smile that would make any orthodontist lease a new Porsche and book a family vacation to the Caribbean. “How’s it goin’ today, dude?” I inquired as I leaned against his window. He just sort of nodded and smiled the nod and smile of a somebody entrusted to take your order without necessarily understanding a word of what you say.

“Yeah, I’ll have a baseball mitt (with the bubble gum baseball),” I ordered.
To which he replied, “No, only,” and proceeded to point at the outside of his truck where the menu is.
“Uhhh, okay... I’ll have a Ninja Turtle then.”
“No, only,” and then that point again. Clearly, the ice cream industry has really declined since we were all kids... but that’s another rant entirely. So, I take a step back, examine the menu, and have made my selection.
“Okay, how about a, TURN OFF THE FUCKING MUSIC!!!!”

He looked at me with some shock, but also some confusion, and answered, “Que?” DAMNIT! Defeated. A perfectly good random outburst, with enough out-of-place jackassary to totally ruin a minimum wager’s day, wasted on somebody who didn’t understand it. Well, I guess it wasn’t totally unnoticed; the two kindergartners in attendance were staring at me slack jawed, their frozen treats dripping all over their hands. Embarrassed at myself, I muttered an apology, and fled inside and out of sight where I would plot a better way to get my point across to Señior Tastyfreeze, as he will now be known for forever and all time.

Sitting on the couch, I wait. It is now Day 3, my hangover is gone, and I’m prepared. I vowed that today, today would be the day that Señior Tastyfreeze and the Camp Town Lady Orchestra would learn their lesson. You just don’t submit people to that sort of Camp Town Torture--it isn’t humane--and soon he would know this. Finally, off in the distance, like a fife leading a revolutionary army, I heard a faint rendition of Camp Town FUCKIN’ Lady and knew it was time.

On cue, Señior Tastyfreeze parked his rig right in front of my house and started selling his goods, all the while blaring Camp Town FUCKIN’ Lady with reckless abandon. After about five minutes, I decided I’d had enough of his gibberish and sauntered outside. Walking up to his truck I smiled and greeted him a hearty, “Hola, mi amigo,” pronounced, of course, in the perfect white boy vernacular of, “ Hoe-La, Me, Ameego.” I then proceeded to order an “All American Popsicle,” (which, at the time, was really more of a statement than a dessert) and paid with a dollar bill stapled to a note.

On this note, written in black ink, was inscribed:
“Excúseme sir.
Dé vuelta por favor apagado a su música.
Está conduciendo la vecindad loca.
Seriamente.
Tipo débil.”

Loosely translated, by babblefish as I don’t speak spanish, this reads:
“Excuse me sir.
Please turn off your music.
It is driving the neighborhood crazy.
Seriously.
Weak dude.”

For the past two days, I have not seen hide nor hair of Señior Tastyfreeze, nor have a heard staff one nor two of Camp Town FUCKIN’ Lady. As I sit here writing this blog, I feel a swell of pride and historical significance. I do believe this is the first blog ever written which describes a successful endeavor by the author. Usually a blog is a work of complaining and bitching and defeat. Well, not today, not for...

Oh... my... God... What’s this I hear? Yeah, it’s definitely CAMP TOWN FUCKIN’ LADY. AHHRRRGG!!!!! That bastard’s parked in front of my house, up to his old Camp Town Antics again. Well played Señior Tastyfreeze, well played indeed...

Well, I have the feeling as soon as I hit “Publish,” the police are going to be receiving an anonymous tip about the local Ice Cream Man molesting children in the back of his ice cream truck. The ball’s in your court Señior Tastyfreeze...



Image by Dong Wang