A Slice of Fried Gold
Showing posts with label Hey Hermano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hey Hermano. Show all posts

Tuesday is the best day of the week [Reprise]

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

As some of you may remember, way back in the day on my blog (see post here) I had claimed that Wednesday was the best day of the week. It had it all! New comics! Lost! Trivia Night! How could that be beat? Well, a number of things happened to bring down the quality a little bit. First off, Hooters closed which effectively killed trivia night. Second off, Lost moved to Thursday. Finally, it is still the standard comic day, but one in every five Wednesday's don't even bring my sweet, sweet comics into my grasp (like today).

So even though it is still very lustrous as comic days have only gotten better (seriously, combine becoming friends with Will and Jared from my comic shop with the major events that are happening right now - Secret Invasion AND Final Crisis - well, let's just say my visits are satisfiying) and Colver and I have picked up Wednesday as our official day to go play basketball and show off our mad hops and elite dunking skills. So it's still a great day.

However, last night Tuesday launched it's first salvo in what may become a very ferocious war for "best day of the week" (clearly weekends are exempted - they're weekends! they are obviously the best), as three fantastic events went down for the first time, with one being a weekly repeat for sure and the other two potentially standing up as weekly or bi-weekly events. What were they?

  • Trivia Night v 2.0
  • Foosball at Koots
  • Rock Band at Koots
As we discovered last night, the Drunken Cowboys (back from the dead!) may have found a new home at one of the least likely of places - Eddie's Sports Bar. Arguably a bit of dive, Eddie's essentially has become the spiritual descendant of Hooters, except it may in fact be somewhat less classy (as unbelievable as that sounds). However, it does have a few things going for it.

  • Fast paced
  • Reasonable questions
  • FREE!
  • Cheap Taco Bar!
  • Shuffleboard, Darts, and Pool
  • Decent service
Of course, it misses a little somethin' somethin' that Hooters had going on, it was still really fun and very packed. Strangely enough, considering Humpy's is a far "cooler" bar, it seemingly is by far the worst of the three trivia nights. I personally can't wait for next week, as we almost won and the money is carrying over to next week ($400!! Bling bling!).

In addition, they have two man team Sports trivia on Thursday's, which Colver and I will start attending next week. This is where I will likely unleash my fury, as I have a rather encyclopedic knowledge of all things sports. Besides gymnastics. I know nothing about gymnastics.

After this, we were nearing the revelation of Rock Band supergroup Bitchface (as we've so colorfully named ourselves) starring the one time Hey Hermano and current Puma Town singer, guitarist, and drummer...aka Amy, myself, and Jason, and the shredding champion of Eagle River band Five Star Whammy...aka Jon. We went a while early to hang out and have a couple drinks (don't worry kids, I know it was a school night plus I had a blood test the next day - all water for me, so the night was cheap!) and play some Foosball.

As some may know, I've always despised Foosball. I generally don't like doing things I'm bad at, and I was terrible at Foosball. However, since getting involved with the crew, their overwhelming passion for the sport has rubbed off on me a bit, and after playing A LOT I've become not bad at the game. At times good, but I make a ton of dumb mistakes still. Regardless, the teams were Jason and myself (fresh off of a 4-0 evening at the Homestead Lounge two weekends previous) and the shooting stars that are Amy and Jon. Now if I was going to do a ranking on skills of us four, it'd likely go as follows.
  1. Amy
  2. Jon
  3. Jason
  4. Me
However, in true sporting fashion the most talent does not always win. No sir it does not. This time, the best team won. That team? The Slo Mo Rollers, starring Jason and myself. We took five of six games from the absolutely shocked Amy and Jon, as they simply could not handle Jason's staunch defense, my magical dribbling up front, and our perplexing off-speed shots.

It was about as much fun as I've ever had playing Foosball, and honestly, we may have taken five of six but every possession and game were close (besides one, where we shut them out). I'd say it was Foosball on steroids, but that be a bit cliche, although there was a lot of yelling and hooting and hollering. Mostly from yours truly.

After our six games, we were totally ready to rock. Sadly, Rock Band was not in the Swing Bar at Koots like we thought, with the wide open spaces of that bar but a dream as we had to go and play in the weird bar in the entry way of Koots. It's tight, confined spaces were not ideal for Bitchface's premiere, but in typical fashion for the band, we persevered if only in the name of rock.

Of course, the situation wasn't helped by the fact the first song we played Jason had to drum on lefty mode (as we didn't know how to switch) and myself and Jon were using sub-par house guitars. We're used to having room to move, kick, and dance with my wide open living room and our two cordless guitars. This was with a Guitar Hero 2 wired controller (bleh!) and a Rock Band wired controller (even worse than the first!).

From left: Random stranger, Jason, and Amy rocking at Koots

But that's enough for excuses. We still totally rocked, starting off with old standby "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi, which I totally blew at to start (the intro always bugs me on expert) but picked it up and we manged to do OK. We followed it up with a far better run through on "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath and then an even better yet rendition of Oasis' classic ballad "Wonderwall," which we even had an audience member sing along to (thanks guy!!).

About that point a guy came over and bugged us to let him play, and I let him take my spot. He was not good, as he played on medium and forced crappy songs on the band, bringing our overall appeal down. Bad stranger!

However, after two songs he departed and Bitchface ended our inaugral performance with a rousing rendition of Weezer's classic track off the Blue Album, "Say It Ain't So." All four of us played expert, and we finished at 90% (Jason on drums, rock on!), 96% (myself on guitar), 97% (Jon on bass), and 98% for our showoff, diva of a lead singer Amy. Five stars, foooo shoooo.

All in all, it was a great experience. It won't necessarily be an every week thing, but it was definitely a lot of fun. I really hope someone puts on a Rock Band competition that we can participate in, as that was what we were really hoping for. However, we did the best with what we had and we had a great night. Even better, it was a ton of fun and I spent $1 (on Foosball) and all that I had to drink was about 10 glasses of water.

Oh Tuesdays...how I love thee.

I need more hellos

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Lacey and me at her going away party

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends. - Richard Bach


Friday night, our dear friend Lacey Landt left Alaska.

As part of the celebration of her departure, everyone (Amy, Lacey, Hannah, Jason, Jon, Julie, Nate, and Olena that is) came over to my place for a get together that included present giving, some wine and beer, and some serious rocking for old times sake.

The fearsome fivesome (Jason, Hannah, Amy, Jon, and Lacey)

It was a really amazing night, and it was a proper sendoff for Lacey. I'll call it the last date for Hey Hermano's (our Rock Band band name) World Tour, and in a fitting bit of life, Amy made Hey Hermano World Tour t-shirts as a gift for the three core members of the band. They pretty much rocked. Touring drummer Jason did not get a shirt, but we of course did not want to mess with his sleeveless AC/DC shirt, shorts, and tube sox ensemble.

That just seemed like the nice thing to do.

Serious faces only, please

Additionally, we all contributed to a photo album for Lacey. This photo album had individual pictures and messages from us, and pictures (in chronological order of course) that encompassed her time in Alaska - complete with captions. It was a pretty amazing present, and Jason, Amy, and Hannah deserve massive kudos for filling that little guy up with captions, as I was pretty much useless in that regard.

I'm not sure why we're doing this, but I love it

After the rocking and presentation of the gifts, we all piled into our respective vehicles and took Lacey down to the airport. This was very fun because I got to go out in public wearing my Hey Hermano shirt, torn shorts, and fantastic tube sox that Jason so graciously let me borrow, along with my orange shoes. I got more than one look.

It was also very fun because the entire drive there was a big catchphrase convention, with everyone in the car constantly yelling out the catchphrases that have been developed in the short amount of time Lacey was up here.

Mostly though, it was very sad and bittersweet. We all got our goodbyes (although that is only temporary, as we are planning to attend Lacey's wedding in August) and Lacey left us. The rest of the weekend was full of "what now?" and "I miss Lacey." It really is a testament to who Lacey is, as she is such an amazing person and a person that everyone will truly miss on a day-to-day basis. I mean, I saw her 9 days in a row recently, and now I won't see her until August at best.

That makes me a truly sad panda.

From me, and from everyone else, we're going to miss you Lacey. You're the glue to the group as Jason so succinctly put it. Good luck in Minnesota, and see you soon.

Hey Hermano, Last Stop of the World Tour