Making it Tough

Last night was the last kickball game of the season (the tourney is on tap now), and the band at our post-game haunt was heating the place up. You could tell they were really enjoying themselves, but, when some girls next to me started yelling for the Pixies, I realized... huh, this band's setup would be perfect to cover the Pixies. So, I got in on the action as well, shouting for the Pixies.

One of the girls yelling for the Pixies then suggested that we write it into their setlist while the band took a break... She hooked up the pen, and I put it in, with a message that we'd go nuts if they played it. Apparently, we hit on the one band's songs that this band didn't know, as my female teammates related to me that the singer was hanging out nervously in the ladies bathroom, explaining to whoever would listen that they didn't know any Pixies songs...

Hah, now that I wrote it down, it seemed a lot more poignant last night.

Amazing Bread

I decided to buy the "seed loaf" at Whole Foods yesterday. It's amazing! Flax seeds, sesame, poppy, and who knows what else baked right into the bread. I could eat the whole loaf in one sitting.

Last Night

Whoa. Didn't expect last night to end up how it did. Highlights:

• Barbecuing a smorgasbord for ~20 people, only took 3 wardrobe changes
• First time grilling chicken hearts - marinated them in wine and soy sauce, and then rubbed in garlic and ginger and skewered them. Turned out great!
  
• Beer pong all around with nifty plastic cup holders to maintain formations
  
• Deepak being lame
• Ash taking a nap between beer pong games sitting on our driveway, leaned up against the house
  
• People being picked up from the train/bus/wherever and brought over
• Kicking out a bum poet who wandered into the party. He made a major scene when I asked him to leave
• The cops politely asking us to take the party inside because they didn't want to come back and have to give us a ticket (whoa, that never happens)
• The leftovers make a major comeback as we head inside
• Talking the bouncer into letting Thomas into a bar despite him not having ID
• Taking over the "hippie bar"
• Ravi jumping on stage
  
• Giving tips to some hippie girl about how she should go about seducing her male roommate who is across the room, which she's been trying to do for some weeks now
• Trying to kill the keg back at our place with new friends from the bar after the bar kicked us out
  

Strokes Sunday

The Strokes make the perfect background music for a Sunday morning.

Sandwich Deliciousness

Had a random burst of culinary inspiration this afternoon and created a sandwichery masterpiece:

1. Start Foreman Grill
2. Place 2 pieces of 12-Grain wheat bread to start toasting
3. Chop onions and start them sauteing on the grill
4. Flip the bread so the other side toasts and add munster cheese to melt
5. Once the onions are soft and browned, put them in the sandwich
6. At the last minute so it doesn't dry out, put in black forest ham
7. Dash of pepper
8. Close the sandwich and the grill, and sear for 3-4 minutes
9. Deliciousness

TF On the Ball

I find myself agreeing with Thomas Friedman again and again. I think he once more has his finger on the pulse of what "should happen" in terms of alternative energy investment in the US. As he highlights in today's column, the Chinese are starting to throw the kitchen sink at green energy production and at our (the US') current relative speeds, we will soon be left far behind.

With all of the debate over the impending energy capping bill vote, which some say is too weak, and others say is too restrictive and will choke off job creation (doubtful because nearly every change in the way things are done has spurred massive innovation which leads to the creation of new industrial sectors), I am reminded of the boldness that America was once known as having to do "the impossible" as is highlighted in JFK's go to the moon speech. Where is this resolve right now?

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. "
- JFK, 1962

The Fake World

Last night, I made it out to my friend Brett's birthday. Interestingly enough, an year ago at the same time, I had gone to his birthday trying hard to not smile or laugh because I might pop stitches from getting my wisdom teeth out (I actually did end up popping some stitches and it was not a pretty scene in the bathroom).

Brett had his birthday at a new establishment that had gone up in my ~10 months away from the city - the Public House - which was actually a really good find. The place is big, spacious and clean. It's trying to be upscale without being snooty which is a rarity in the DC scene.

About an hour into being at the bar, I start to see a procession of burly guys with AV gear making their way through. Then it clicked, I recalled hearing from some kickball friends that the Real World was filming in DC, and had approached the kickball league to set up some fake games to have the cast play and make it seem like they were actually in the league. The cast's outing in the bar went right along the lines of the fakeness. When you see three or four people people being followed around with an entire film crew - camera guy, mic guy, light guy, switchboard guy, and director - shouting orders and physically displacing people to get their shots, it's not hard to take a wild guess as to who is on the cast.

Of course, as soon as the camera's showed up, a circus ensued. The cast members got up on a table and started dancing, and guys and girls at the bar started trying their hardest to get up there with them. I even overheard some girls next to me negotiating with the film crew director if they could get up there. Jeez - people don't really act like this usually, and come on, with filming happening probably 18 hours a day, most of the footage is going to end up on the cutting room floor.

I may end up in the background of some shots as the camera seemed to be all over the place in the part of the bar we were at, but I found myself making it to the outskirts of the main area, along with a few other guys who were done with the madness. I went upstairs to the roof bar for a bit, and when I came back down, things had calmed down - the novelty of having the Real World there had worn off. It actually begged an interesting question - does the Real World film crew go in expecting the first hour to be craziness, and then getting in their shots afterwards? Who knows.

In other interesting randomness:

• My first friend ever, from pre-school, had made it to the party through a friend of a friend. I hadn't seen her in an year and a half.
  
• Some guy in an orange shirt in the bar was convinced that I was his long lost drinking buddy "Phil Perkins".
  
• Brett was starting some side ventures, and said that a conversation we'd had six months ago had been a factor in his taking the plunge to entrepreneuship. Sweet.