DuQuan Sighting

I was at the thrift store the other day near my house, and out of the corner of my eye I spied this tall skinny black guy that looked unbelievably like Dookie from the Wire. Being nosy, I went and browsed some coats in the general area he was browsing. As soon as I overheard him utter the words "That coat is fly" I knew that I had found the genuine article.

He was dressed better than the character he played on the show, but the coat he was commenting on was vintage Bubbles. I felt weird ogling him from a distance, and being kind of awkward I didn't feel like verifying that he was, in fact, Dookie. So, I left feeling 99% sure I had actually seen him. My brother confirms that he lives in our neck of the woods, and is in fact a really nice guy. All in all, another good find at the Hyattsville Value Village.

The Zest of Life

As you all know, it's been a weird couple of months for me. I came across this video I took over the summer, the weekend after MJ died. It shows the kind of weirdness that makes life awesome, and I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did/do.

Monster Jamz

Maryland native Carmelo Anthony getting scary on Paul Millsap. He drains the and-1 for good measure.

Great Album

DL

This is by far my favorite album released this year. Come's all the way from the Saharan nation of Niger, recorded by desert rebels who are now, as far as I know, on the run somewhere in the Sahara. The first half is awesome acoustic/bluesy guitar songs, and the second half is whirling dervish psychedelic guitar music. Enjoy!

Troy

It seems like time has sped up since I moved up here, apparently it is now June and I have been in Troy for a little more than two months. Troy has exceeded expectations, tons of cool buildings, a lot of nice people and is full of the kind of faded glory that makes Upstate New York one my favorite places. The whole Capital Region has seen better days, with parts of Troy and Schenectady as run down and filthy as anywhere in the United States



To the left here is an example of one the less desirable neighborhoods in the area, the Hamilton Hill area of Schenectady, and the first stop on Saturdays for the Veggie Mobile. If you look closely at the house on the left, you'll notice that the siding is in fact roofing shingle, a fine example of preservation ingenuity in the face of insufficient maintenance funds.




Probably the best thing about the Veggie Mobile experience so far is how nice everyone that shops on the Truck is. To the left here is Jimmy, a Hamilton Hill regular, who consistently buys 5 cucumbers, 6 vine tomatoes and 2 pounds of seedless red grapes. Jimmy usually cruises up on his bike about 10 minutes after we arrive, and in addition to being slightly crazy, is one of the nicest people I've ever met.



I discovered this little gem yesterday, a pretty dramatic waterfall with a perfect swimming area at the bottom. I'm in the process of researching whether it is in fact swimmable, which given this areas rich industrial legacy it may well not be, but it's existence less than 15 minutes from my garden plot is a bonus nonetheless, and at the very least a good spot to go hang out at.



In other news, my friend/supervisor's band, Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned is doing a June residency at Pete's Candy Store in Williamsburg every Saturday in June. They're fun to see live and since it's been a while since I've been to the big city, I'm going to drive down Saturday, June 27th to see the show then hang in Brooklyn through Monday and hopefully meet up with some of you NYC kids. Let's make plans.

You Want Fries With That?

Employed!

So I got the Americorps position in Troy New York working on the Veggie Mobile. It's almost exactly what I'm interested in, mainly, local food and local hunger and poverty issues. The truck drives around the Capital Area (Troy, Albany, Schenectady) selling fresh and local produce to under served low-income residents and assisted living seniors. Everyone I've talked to at the organization sounds really cool, and my direct boss's favorite album is The Kinks "Arthur" which I took as an excellent sign and bodes well for my time there. So, I'm moving to Troy for a year. It's a relief to know what I'm doing and to be able to get out of my house and out on my own again, especially since I'm working on stuff I'm really interested in. Check out their blog, it's kind of out of date but gives a good idea of what they do.

http://theveggiemobile.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=22

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly

I saw this a few weeks ago at the National Museum of American Art in D.C. and it totally blew my mind. The artist, James Hampton worked on this in secret in his garage for almost 15 years, and the alter is constructed primarily out of cardboard, tin foil, and various found objects. If you are ever in D.C. it's worth checking out. Here's a website with some more information: http://www.geocities.com/ctesibos/hampton/index.html

Recession Advice From ODB

Classic

My Rib Bone's Connected To The Internet

As this is my first post, I thought I'd talk about something near and dear to my heart, and leave some of the doom and gloom for later. So I'm going to talk about ribs, which are probably the primary reason I have never become a vegetarian despite the plethora of good reasons to do so, and also the most delicious meat product yet devised by man. I made ribs tonight for dinner, and because I live at home with no job, this activity didn't cost me any money and gave me something worthwhile to do. I started with a dry rub, composed mainly of brown sugar, a mesquite rub, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, paprika and some mustard for good measure. I then placed the ribs in an aluminum foil tent and placed them in a metal baking dish with a little water, and baked those suckers for a little over an hour at 325 degrees. The water was critical, as it regulated the cooking temperature and provided some much need moisture (nothing worse than dry ribs). I then undid the foil tent, and put them back in the oven for 15 minutes at 375 degrees to brown up, pulled them out and slathered them with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. Sweet Baby Rays is not my favorite BBQ sauce, but it serves in a pinch, and was the most esteemed product available at the ghetto ass Giant by my house. The ribs turned out succulent and delicious, and gave my day a direction and momentum all too infrequent in this unemployed world. I recommend them to everyone.

Boogaloo: The Gathering - Realms of the Unemployed Expansion Pack

So basically some more of our friends were interested in getting involved with the project, because obviously it is the coolest project currently being projected. Anyway here is the first round of new contributors, and each of them is special in their own way.

Melanie (On the Left) lives in New York City, and her main defining feature, personality wise, is that she is Peter's girlfriend, as evidenced by this picture, in which she is obviously totally interested in what he is saying and doing. Seriously though Mel hails from New Jersey originally, and her interests include such things as the fine artz (she can use paints and stuff), fashion, music, and pop culture. If we are lucky she will write about some of that stuff. But it's possible she'll just talk about Peter. There is a chance I will get yelled at for writing so much about Peter in Melanie's blurb. Anyway like the rest of these people I'll let her introduce herself when she sees fit, and until then you can just look at her picture and think about how much cred that flannel gives her.

Jonah lives in Brooklyn, and is less unemployed then the rest of these people, in that he is seasonally unemployed instead of full-time. When he's not busy not working, he works as a Tour Guide for his family's business, and knows more about New York City and Brooklyn than a book (Provided that book is not about New York City or Brooklyn).  He lives with family, and also Peter, I'm pretty sure. His interests include live music and happenings in general, video games, film, and travel. He's been to Hong Kong and Vietnam, and he is like best friends with Ang Lee. He's gonna write about I don't even know what. I'm tired of guessing what people are going to write about.

This is another Matt, who I'm gonna call Matt K. because the other Matt joined first. But in this blurb I'm just gonna call him Matt. He is from outside Pittsburgh, PA, but is also somehow from Japan. And he is dead set on going back there, probably through one of the "teach english in japan" programs. If for some reason that doesn't work out, he's gonna hijack a cruise ship a la Speed 2: Cruise Control and just drive it over there. His interests include Japanese Studies, Photography, Music (especially heavy stuff), and being a Vegan. Maybe he'll post some sweet Vegan recipes to compete with the other Matt's meat-filled recipes? Matt Vs. Matt Cuisine Battle? Real Life Boogaloo Iron Chef? More like needs to take an Iron Supplement chef.... I needed to give Matt a hard time about being a vegan in this small block of text. (Also he's unemployed)

Nick lives in Maryland right outside of DC with his family. He hates the internet with a fiery passion, but also loves the internet with a secret desire.  He is a man of fiery passions and secret desires, and he is also the third member of The Children & The Animals with James and I.  He spent the summer right after college up here in Vermont working on a farm, and is currently trying to get back to working on a farm. Or any job that fits in with his desires and pays money.  In the meantime he is sticking to a strict regimen of playing guitar for 23 hours a day and reading the bible for the remaining 1. (Really he's studying for the GRE's and thinking about the future.) His interests include guitar, literature (especially russian literature), sauces, and sustainable development. He may write about any of those topics, but like I don't know. Personally I'm hoping for sauces.

So now the team is filled out a bit more. I don't know why Melanie's picture is smaller, but I do know that the reason is not that she is in any way less than Matt K., Jonah, or Nick. How dare you think that, internet people? Maybe I'll make a "who is the best contributor in the expansion pack" poll. Maybe not - I never know what I'm gonna do. That basically sums up my life.

-Andrew