Burger Time: Joe's Burgers in McLean

The other day, some of my cow-orkers were talking about burgers, and Joe's Burgers came up.

Since I am easily suggestible, I went there this afternoon. Taking advice from the review in the Washington Post, I called ahead for carryout (though it wasn't that crowded after 1pm on a Tuesday) and ordered the Black Angus Burger (Boursin cheese is standard, with added bacon and mushrooms):

It was pretty darn good. Messy, but that comes with the territory. The fries were shoestring-style; okay, but not my favorite. I would place it in the vicinity of Five Guys, but then I'm not really that picky.

Anyway, I'm not used to eating a half-a-pound of ground beef for lunch (nor do I plan to be), so I'm still feeling a little weighed down.

Tags: hamburgers, joe's burgers, mclean

27 Jennifers, 7 Videos, and 83 Photos of Mike Doughty on a Stool

I went to see Mike Doughty play at the Birchmere a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember the last time I saw a show there -- I want to say that it was 10 years ago, for a Bill Bruford/Tony Levin show, but I can't believe that's true.

Anyway, I got there about 6:30, and was able to get a seat at a table right up front. So I got some good photos. Too many of them, probably; the bulk of them are interchangeable pics of Sr. Doughty sitting on a stool and looking at slips of paper (I have many fewer pics of cellist Mr. Andrew "Scrap" Livingston, because I was directly in front of him and the mike stand was generally in the way.)

Here's the full set: Mike Doughty and the Question Jar Show, Birchmere, 9/9/08. Some highlights:

The eponymous Question Jar:

At first, I was unclear on the concept, but it goes like this: You put a question (no song requests, please) in the jar, and they answer it.

For example, here is Doughty answering my question, about what I should do if the activation of the Large Hadron Collider really was going to destroy the Earth:

Now, at a certain point, Mr. Doughty told us that he'd lost his green wallet, but as he did so, he thought to look under the blank Question Jar slips. And so it was found:

Here, Misters Doughty and Livingston recreate The Creation of Adam:

Some handling of questions and playing of guitar:


Mr. Andrew "Scrap" Livingston on cello:

And on guitar:

And then, the two pausing before the fake encore:

So it was a good show (even though I didn't get to hear His Truth is Marching On, which is one of my favorites.)

I have a couple of more short videos in the set.

Tags: mike doughty, question jar tour, scrap livingston

Dick's, Deer Nuts, and Deez Nutz

After work on Friday, I stopped by the mall to get my quarterly, whether-I-need-it-or-not haircut. Not much to tell there, but afterwards, I stopped by the local Dick's Sporting Goods to browse.

(I still resent Dick's a little bit, since I thought Galyan's was better -- they were absorbed a few years back.)

While passing through the hunting supplies section, something caught my eye. Specifically, the deer attractants (bait, essentially) they had out.

Now, this isn't a screed against hunting or (sober, responsible) hunting culture. As a city slicker, I don't hunt, but I don't have a problem with those who do. It's more of a marketing screed, because the packaging is a pretty ridiculous.

Take, for example, Acorn RAGE, the angriest real-acorn animal attractant allowed by law:

Closely related is Acorn Frenzy, which is Acorn Rage's wacky, nutrageous brother:

I particularly liked the nutritional information: "High in protein (22%) and fat (15%)." I expected to see an FDA daily recommended allowances label on the back.

Then, there was the Block Topper, the "Candy Coating for Deer Salt." Which makes it the kettle corn, only for deer:

The pièce de la creme, though, had to be Deer Cane, which evidently used to be spelled "Deer Cain," but I guess they decided to go for, um, subtlety:

You can't see in my crappy cameraphone pic, but the graphic bug in the upper left says "Habit Forming."

And no, you don't lay it down in lines on the ground.

So, that's the Deer Nuts.

As to the Deez Nutz, here's a pic taken on the way home:

Tags: deez nutz, animal attractant, vanity plates

Do Any People Actually Read Their Alumni Magazines?

The latest edition of my college alumni magazine (Duke Magazine) arrived this week.

I don't know about you, but up until fairly recently, I just skimmed past everything else to get to the alumni notes (a notable exception being last month's profile of Predictably Irrational author Dan Ariely [PhD '98]).

However, lately, I've noticed a dearth of alumni notes from the Class of '93. I guess there's not that much new to report: It's been 15 years, and everybody (else) is either mired in middle management, shepherding the kids through middle school, slaving away towards partner, working through the wreckage of their starter marriages, or whatever else it is that adults are supposed to do.

So I've been paying more attention to the articles.

Not the campus life stuff -- for that, I check in on the campus newspaper fairly regularly (mainly to chuckle, condescendingly, at whatever trivial campus concerns the undergrads are worked up about, or to cluck at the misfortunes of the football team -- though I note they beat Navy last week, and JMU a few weeks prior).

I knew the magazine was "award-winning," but I'd always just assumed it was in that "everyone-gets-a-trophy" self-congratulatory way. So I was surprised how some of the articles were kind of... excellent.

In this most recent issue, there was a piece on how reference librarians are adapting to support scholarship in a world of IM, Google, and Wikipedia ("Brave New World" -- note that they still haven't figured out how to make Facebook work for them in a meaningful way).

And for those of you who aren't in the navel-gazing world of social media, there was a piece on alum Bill Werber, a 100-year-old former Major League Baseball player, who got a golden shower from Babe Ruth and played bridge against Lou Gehrig ("Oldest Living Major League Ballplayer Tells All"). It was a good read. And this is coming from a guy who thinks that baseball is only marginally less boring than golf.

Anyway, good writing is good writing, whether it's a literary journal ("Boring!"), ad copy, or a trade magazine.

Tags: duke magazine, alumni magazines

Things That Are Upcoming

A few upcoming DC-ish tech and other things that I'm looking at:

* Wednesday, 9/18, 7pm, September Washington Blogger Meetup, RFD (near the Verizon Center): Last month's meetup was something of a minor fiasco, as we were dealing with the dog days of summer, plus a Web Content Mavens meetup at the same time in the back room. I'll try to set up my laptop around 7pm (towards the back of the main bar); you can also send me a direct message on Twitter, @joelogon.

(Unfortunately, I'll have to miss Trademark 101 at Network Solutions at 6pm -- maybe someone will Utterz it or something.)

* Thursday, 9/18, 6pm, TwinTech II, Avenue (by the Convention Center): Come see if you can tell the NVTC folks from the scruffy startup types.

This conflicts with a kickball game, but seeing as how I jacked my back this week, I will probably go and network/try to pick up loose startup floozies ("Hey baby, I'm a venture capitalist.")

* Wednesday, 9/24 [Multiple]: Social Media Club DC September Meetup -- Social Technologies in Associations and Non-Profits, Fleishman-Hillard, 6pm / Web Content Mavens September Meetup -- Selling Social Networks to Senior Management, RFD, 7pm.

Both seem to be interesting topics (if you're boring, like me), and they're only a few blocks apart. I might try to stop by both.

* Saturday, 9/27, noon to 7pm, Clarendon Day Festival. Oh, it'll be fun, just go.

* Sunday, 9/28, 10am to 5pm, Crafty Bastards, Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming in Adams Morgan. Come for the crafts, stay to gawk at the hipsters.

* Tuesday, 9/30, 9pm, Dressy Bessy, Black Cat.

* Thursday, 10/2, 6:30pm, TECH Cocktail DC 3, 1223. Yes, I'm a mooch. A Web 2.0 mooch.

Looking out a bit further into October, the Heartless Bastards are playing the Black Cat, The Ventures will be at Birchmere. And now that I'm wearing contacts again, I can finally wear a mask or other head-enclosure, so I should start thinking about Halloween (oh, and the DC Zombie Lurch is scheduled for November 1.)

More DC tech-ish stuff at DCTechEvents.com.

That Last Rep Was Probably a Mistake

I jacked my back a little bit at the gym this afternoon. It's okay as long as I don't need to sit on the floor. Or touch my toes.

I was doing squats -- after 6 weeks of doing 20-rep sets, I switched to 5-rep sets (I hadn't been making too much progress anyway -- still haven't conquered the "eating right" portion of things. Though I was able to fit into my suit a couple of weeks ago).

Now, the free weight racks were taken, and I didn't feel like waiting, so I went over to the Smith machine. It locks you into the vertical axis, which was okay for the warmup sets, but it was a mistake for the work set.

The right side of my back had been a little sore, so I was already favoring it a bit. I went for one last rep (I figured out last week that by widening my stance, I could get closer to parallel without making my knee feel funny), when I felt a silent little ping in the lower left part of my back.

I set the weight down in a rapid, but controlled fashion. I did finish the workout in half-assed fashion, but we'll see what Mr. Advil has to say about this tomorrow.

************************
In other news, the Adams Morgan Street Festival was Sunday, and it was middle-of-summer hot. I walked up and down the hill a few times, ran into Martin, got my usual pad thai and Jamaican beef patty (but no chicken on a stick or steak in a sac), but didn't end up taking any pictures. Not even of the "No curry, no spices" faux-thai stand, the "Pad Thai, Corn Dog" stand, the Madam's Organ festival boycott storefront, or anything else. I was uninspired. That, and thinking about my backlog of photos.

I also spent about an hour in the CD store, at first to cool off, but then looking through the discount racks. Emmet Swimming and Republica for 15 cents each, then taking a flyer on Eiffel 65's Europop, Sister Machine Gun's Burn and Liz Phair's Juvenalia for a buck each, and then two BRMC albums (B.R.M.C. and Howl) for a bit more.

Saturday, caught Chuck Brown at the Kennedy Center Open House (after some GPS- and parking-related misadventures), then went to hang out on U Street for a bit.

Anyway, I think I will take that Advil now.

My Jury Duty, or Why Black Men Shouldn't Do Burglaries in Great Falls

Back in October of last year, I whined about getting a Fairfax County jury duty questionnaire. (Up until this point, I'd managed to avoid serving -- anywhere.)

I got the summons a few weeks ago, notifying me of my upcoming two-week stint. The first week, my group number didn't come up, but this week, I ran out of luck.

The Assembly
Dutifully, I reported to the Fairfax County General District Court on Wednesday, leaving my camera-equipped phone and Macbook in the car.

The Jury Assembly room was equipped with wifi, but Mac owners are either exceedingly honest (no cameras allowed), or have figured out ways of wriggling out of jury duty, since I didn't see a single Mac laptop in the room (there were several folks with various PC laptops).

My hope that my name wouldn't get called dwindled with the number of people left in the room, and sure enough, I got called. My group was about 20 people, which suggested that it was for a criminal trial (and it was).

The Selection
I made it through voir dire -- the main question asked of us was whether we'd ever been victims of crimes. Of those who said yes, the bulk were property crimes -- a few car break-ins, some credit card theft. There was an assault; also, a few folks with child care issues, plus a youngish guy with some prominent flesh tunnel earlobe piercings. Those folks didn't make it through.

Then, the case started.

The Case
The defendant was a black guy, sporting prison-issues and some gray in his hair. He was charged with three felonies: Burglary, Grand Larceny, and Credit Card Theft, all stemming from the same incident.

I'm not going to get too deep into the details of the trial. The defendant (a DC resident) was accused of pulling off a window screen to break into a house in Great Falls, stealing a Louis Vuitton wallet out of a purse sitting on the kitchen table, and using the credit cards the next morning to buy $400 worth of big-box electronic retailer gift cards... from the supermarket at which he was currently employed.

Obviously, we were not dealing with a criminal mastermind here.

The Evidence Phase
The prosecution's case was completely circumstantial, which the Commonwealth Attorney (the DA, for those of you unenlightened enough to not live in the Commonwealth of Virginia) specifically addressed in her opening statement (she called out Hollywood expectations borne out from CSI- and Law and Order).

The evidence phase of the trial was pretty brief, taking testimony from the victim, a supermarket manager, two Fairfax County detectives, plus some photos, and security camera footage of the credit card purchase.

It turns out that, when they served the search warrant of the suspect's house, 6 Fairfax County detectives, a couple of MPD detectives, and who knows how many other MPD uniforms, were present.

I understand the need to secure a scene, though 6+ detectives (that entire team) seemed a bit much.

Anyway, the defense didn't offer any evidence, so the evidence phase wrapped up that same day.

Going home, working off of my extensive working knowledge of Law and Order, I thought that the prosecution's case had some gaps -- other witnesses who could have been called, additional evidence that could have been presented. But I thought the defense attorney's case, not presenting any alternatives or explanations, was weaker. I still hadn't made up my mind.

The Deliberation
Thursday, we heard the closing arguments. The defense attorney had a better presentation, but he was arguing small things -- whether the offense occurred at night (which is apparently important to the charge of "burglary"), how the time stamps of the security camera and the transaction report didn't match exactly (well, duh).

I was leaning towards letting the defendant slide on the most serious charge -- burglary. And as it turns out, I wasn't alone -- many of the jurors were of a similar mind. That is, until we got the jury instructions, which said that the circumstantial evidence (possession of stolen goods and use of the stolen credit card) "inadequately explained or falsely denied," could go to the burglary charge.

Seeing as how the defense offered no explanation whatsoever of the credit card use (in fact, the defense attorney pretty much fingered his client on the videotape, though the supermarket manager had also ID'ed him), after about an hour of deliberation, we unanimously found the defendant guilty on all charges.

I note that some of the jurors qualified their guilty votes with sentiments along the lines of "well, because of the wording of the instructions..."

We reconvened, and the verdict was read. Because it was around 1pm, we recessed for lunch, which I found a little perverse -- "We find the defendant guilty. Now enjoy your lunch."

The Sentencing
After lunch (the Hard Times across the street for many of us, although to my knowledge, no one drank any alcoholic beverages) was the sentencing.

Up until that day, I hadn't realized that in Virginia (along with about 6 other states), the jury -- not the judge -- determines the sentence. Being felonies, the range of sentences was 5-20 years for burglary, 0-20 years for grand larceny, and 0-20 years for credit card theft.

We'd also learned that the defendant had a few prior run-ins with the law. He'd served 6.5 years for burglary starting in 2001, and had been out for about a year and a half before this latest offense. So much for deterrence.

I went in leaning closer to the minimum -- 5 years for burglary, 1 each for the other two, or 7 years overall. It was incrementally higher than the previous sentence (I had no illusions to a deterrent effect, this was strictly punitive), but it wasn't a violent crime (though for any home entering there's the potential for violence). It wasn't a crime of opportunity: He'd gone to Great Falls looking for a score, but I was assuming he'd looked into the window, saw a purse, saw no people, broke in, grabbed the wallet, and got out.

So I was pretty shocked, during the first polling of the jurors for the total time to stick him with, that there were a few people who said "20 years."

20 fucking years. For going in through a window, stealing a fancy wallet, and using a credit card.

I kept hearing the soundtrack from Les Miserables in my head. Granted, stealing a wallet so you can buy consumer electronics is significantly worse than stealing a loaf of bread, but 20 years still seemed, I don't know, a little excessive.

After the first polling, I was (shockingly) at the low end with 7 years; there were some 10s, 15s, 20s, and some people who abstained (as if they were checking in a game of Texas Hold-'Em, instead of dealing with a man's life).

Apparently, I am a soft-on-crime, limp-wristed liberal commie pantywaist, because I was actually forced to argue that a second offender shouldn't get 2o years for a property crime.

I guess I was hung up on the fact that many people convicted of assault, people who commit violent crimes with the intent to cause bodily harm, don't get anywhere near 15 or 20 years.

Hell, Hans fucking Reiser pled down to 15 years-to-life, and he strangled his wife and buried her in a forest.

After hearing my objections, most of the 20s (almost universally, middle-aged white ladies) immediately revised their numbers downward. When I asked why they'd chose 20 in the first place, some of them said that they were just putting a number out there. Throwing a stake into the ground, as it were.

Calling back to another experience -- back when I was at AOL.com, our biz dev guys were doing a bid for some deal or another to Microsoft -- they were trying to put out a figure, also just to throw a stake into the ground.

Apparently, they were so far off, they failed so miserably, that they were trying to throw a stake into the ground.. and they missed.

That's what I felt happened with the 20s.

Anyway, after a good deal of wrangling, a dot plot chart (on the whiteboard), and significant time pressure, we finally agreed on 10 years (8-1-1). It was a number I could live with, but I wasn't going to feel good about it.

This is what I meant when I Twittered that my jury duty experience was a little upsetting. It sucked, and universally, we jurors felt that a judge would have had more context and experience to determine a sentence.

For me, the moral of the story is, don't do burglaries in Great Falls or the more affluent areas of Fairfax County, especially if you're a minority or can't otherwise afford an ace defense attorney, because you will get fucked.

Tags: jury duty, great falls, fairfax county, burglary, sentencing

Evidently, I'm Stuck on Any Pop Song With a "Hey, Mickey" Cheerleader Beat

Here are some of my recent CD purchases, paired with the cross-promotional and marketing opportunities that influenced me into buying them:

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy. Sure, I knew them from that one song on The Crow soundtrack, and was overexposed to Just Like Honey thanks to Lost in Translation. But despite prodding, I never really twigged to how much bands I like (or should like) were influenced by them.

Anyway, I finally decided to go to the source (well, I also have Stoned & Dethroned, but that doesn't really count), thinking all the while of that scene from High Fidelity:

In an older entry about Pulp, commenter Sylvia pointed me to UsedCDSearch, which worked out pretty well.

The next two were recent $7.99 loss leaders at Best Buy:

MGMT, Oracular Spectacular. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I was first exposed to this song in a Wonkette item about a supposed (and obviously fake) 'DC Prep' TV series trailer. But it's a catchy tune.

The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing. Again, already aware of them, thanks to the iPod commercial with Shut Up and Let Me Go (which I don't particularly like -- it's kind of annoying), but the Great DJ video interested me greatly when I saw it at DC9 a couple of weeks ago, so I took a flyer on the buzz.

My ears are currently bleeding because I've been listening to That's Not My Name on infinite repeat.

Apparently, all it takes for me to get irrevocably stuck on a pop song is for it to use a "Hey, Mickey" cheerleader beat. (With handclaps. Handclaps are very important.)

It's happened before with Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend (yeah, I've contributed more than a few views to the YouTube video's 100 million views. Hey. Hey. You. You.), although That's Not My Name is a lot more layered.

Though I have drawn the line at the Lil Mama Lip Gloss song, which is saddled by a concept and lyrics too stupid for words.

I guess it's a good thing that there just aren't that many pop songs that rely on the cheerleader beat.

Metal in the Microwave: Not Just Fear-Mongering

Here's part of Saturday's chicken dinner in the microwave. See the green metal wire twist-tie? I didn't:

I was heating up the chicken to shred into some mung bean salad I'd had on hand (sauce: soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, siracha sauce, random spices, and *new addition* fish sauce -- picked up a few bottles at the Fresh World).

Somehow, a wire twist-tie made it into the bowl. (I use a glass pot lid to cover dishes -- the twist-tie was probably sitting in it, and got flipped into the bowl. Thus ends the post-mortem.)

I'd set the timer for a few minutes and went into the next room to read. I thought the popping noises were normal cooking sounds, but when I went back in, I smelled something burny. Then I saw the scorch mark.

The chicken still looked fine, but when I picked up the bowl, it splintered.

Anyway, the microwave still works and the chicken was still tasty. And here's the thing about twist-ties: You never need them when you have them.

Tags: twist-ties

Random Referrers

And now, time for another edition of everyone's favorite narcissistic blog game show, Random Referrers:

[uhhh].cpe.net.cable.rogers.com (Rogers Cable Communications Inc) Canada, 0 returning visit Date Time WebPage 4th September 2008 10:26:17 www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=im having an affair how to i get out&start=10&sa=N www.joelogon.com/blog/2008/07/im-either-having-affair-or-mid-life.html

Unless there's blackmail involved, I would say, "Just say, NO!"

[hrm] (Comcast Cable Communications Holdings Inc) California, Los Angeles, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
3rd September 2008	15:07:00	www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Free Magazines for Stupid people&btnG=Google Search&aq=f&oq= www.joelogon.com/blog/2006/11/uncut-snatch-for-stupid-people.html

If the people truly are stupid, why wouldn't you charge? I sense a business model (*cough* US Weekly *cough*)


[oof].sktn.hsdb.sasknet.sk.ca (Sasktel Wide Area Network Engineering Center) Canada, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
27th August 2008	23:01:19	www.google.com/search?q=i%27m worried my straight leg jeans are too tight&btnG=Search&hl=en&safe=off&client=opera&rls=en&hs=nYs&sa=2 www.joelogon.com/blog/2006/09/fashion-is-tax-on-people-who-think.html

If you can get your jeans on without having to use pliers, you're probably still okay.

[uhh].dyn.optonline.net (Optimum Online (cablevision Systems)) New Jersey, Denville, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
21st July 2008	20:52:38	www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pepcid ac for performance anxiety www.joelogon.com/blog/2007_02_01_foo.html

If you're taking an antacid for performance anxiety... I'm going to hope you're a competitive eater.

[oops].camdenmo.org (County Of Camden)
Missouri, Camdenton, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
15th July 2008	08:31:03	www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=i ran over a possum and my brakes smell hot www.joelogon.com/blog/labels/driving.html

Mmmm, hot possum. Honestly, if you run over a possum and it gets trapped in your wheels, and gets cooked by your brakes, I think that counts as good fortune (and good eatin'...)

[ouch].nj.res.rr.com (Road Runner Holdco Llc)
New Jersey, Cliffside Park, United States, 0 returning visit

Date	Time	WebPage
3rd July 2008	01:25:02	search.live.com/results.aspx?q=what to do if needle breaks in ass cheek&go=&form=QBRE3 cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=73547862146091&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=6b4c6fcb,b52d60a5&FORM=CVRE8

I would try to ask what exactly you're shooting up into your ass cheek, but then I realized that I don't honestly want to know.

Finally, to those folks representing the many repeat visits from mx1.mtlqc.ca (Teksavvy Solutions Inc) to my writeup of Orson Scott Card's terrible Empire -- I hate to break it to you, but the book is just bad and it's not going to get any better, no matter how many times you come back.

Tags: random referrers

Making My Wallet Thinner

One of the unexpected lessons from the Virgin Festival this year was rediscovering how thin my wallet is when I take all of the shit out of it. (Related: there's a lot more room in the back of my car when I take all the shit out of that, too.)

It's regained a little bit more of its thickness since then, but one thing's that helped was consolidating my frequent buyer cards -- I'd gotten up to six (plus my gym card). Even using the smaller key tags (which I don't put on my keychain, which has enough stuff on it), they still take up a lot of room:

Wallet cruft. Like ephemera, except more annoying.

Now, a year or two ago, there was a Digg item about a card consolidation site (www.justoneclubcard.com), where you pick the stores you need from a drop-down and type in the account numbers, and it'll generate the barcodes on a printable, wallet-sized card. Pretty nifty.

At the time, it didn't support all the places I needed, though now it's pretty comprehensive. Of course, it doesn't have my gym, so I decided to make my own.

Not having an iPhone (and really, saving digital pictures of your club cards on your iPhone so you can run the on-screen image over the laser scanner seems kind of... perverse), I went lower-tech -- I threw the cards on my printer/scanner (you could also use a camera, carefully), adjusted them in Photoshop to print to twice the size of a business card, then folded the resulting paper in half to make a two-sided, wallet sized card:

Attention miscreants: The numbers are dummied up.

The sloppy lamination is just using those no-heat laminating stickers from any office supply store. And I saved the layered PSD file in case I need to make future changes.

Here's a closeup showing the difference in thickness (more or less):

I haven't had any problems with it so far.

Anyway, it's just a little silly wallet space-saver so I have more room for more fat wads of bills. And my way was kind of a pain -- if justoneclubcard.com has all the places you need, just do that, it's easier.

Then again, I suppose you can save even more space by going the functional tattoo route. But save that for the Google/SkyNet work camps.

Tags: club cards, loyalty cards, discount cards, frequent buyer cards

Labor Day Sunday Night at Galaxy Hut, in Twitter Posts

Reblogging my Twitter posts (I still refuse to call them "tweets") kind of defeats the purpose, but it's instructive at looking at my state of mind through the evening. Or something:

Getting cabin fever. Heading out to Arlington for a bit. 09:10 PM August 31, 2008 from twhirl

State of mind: Bored. (Duh.)

Random cameraphone photo #1.

At Galaxy Hut - the Labor Day Sunday crowd is a lot different, I have to say 10:02 PM August 31, 2008

I'm more of a mid-week Galaxy Hut guy, so I can't say for sure that all Sunday nights are like the Sunday night before Labor Day. But it was certainly different, especially with the Clarendon Ballroom refugees questing for three-dollar pitchers (off a mistaken listing from some happy hour Web site)

This is kinda odd - like an aging frat boy party, with best-of-metal hits playing on the jukebox 10:24 PM August 31, 2008

I'm not kidding.

The guy next to me just confused Motorhead with Radiohead (the song, incidentally, was Ace of Spades) 10:30 PM August 31, 2008

Admittedly, I only know Ace of Spades from that stupid AT&T Wireless commercial.

The tool next to me says, 'Look at the tools walking into here.' 10:52 PM August 31, 2008

I think the Dragon's Milk (9% alcohol by volume) was starting to kick in.

I'm watching the US Open and I don't particularly care, but for some reason, I'm remembering the name Mats Wilander 11:00 PM August 31, 2008

The US Open was on the TV. I remember watching the final in 1988, when Mats Wilander won a 5-hour, 5-set match.

Nick the bartender is sporting skinny jeans and a (hopefully) ironic rattail 11:06 PM August 31, 2008

I don't have a related photo. Here's an unrelated one:

Random Cameraphone Photo #2

You can't do the robot to 'Don't You Want Me Baby', dammit 11:12 PM August 31, 2008


I'm serious, someone was doing the Robot -- the part with the broken, dangly arm swing.

The ability to give an orgasm is simultaneously subservient and empowering 12:07 AM September 1, 2008

I have no idea where this came (ahem) from. Although I think I was at Clyde's for a nightcap at this point.

Anyway, that was Sunday night.

Tags: galaxy hut