Weekend Wind-Down #165

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Psy-Kahlo-delic

Messing around with my little point-and-shoot camera (Nikon Coolpix L26, if you were wondering) and a mushroom-shaped kaleidoscope/prism we got from TREEHOUSE KID & CRAFT, making an already psychedelic self-portrait of FRIDA KAHLO even more so...

If I Don't Save The Wee Turtles, Who Will?

GROUNDSKEEPER WILLIE warns MUFTAK to stop bullying the WEE TURTLES. This morning in the Superdorm, Rancho Cocoa, Athens, Georgia.

This American Live

(IRA GLASS, host of THIS AMERICAN LIFE)

This past Thursday, Missy and I headed out to the DISCOVERY MILLS MALL in Lawrenceville, Georgia to watch a live broadcast of the popular NPR radio show THIS AMERICAN LIFE. The show happened live on stage in NYC and was broadcast to certain movie theaters all over the United States, Canada, and Australia. The closest theater that was hosting the event in our area was the AMC Theater at the Discover Mills Mall, an hour away from where we live, on the periphery of Atlanta.

We thought we might have to get dinner at the food court, but ended up at this Greek restaurant inside the mall called ATHENS KOUZZINA. We got spanikopita, cheese-stuffed ravioli, and angel hair pasta...but the best thing was this appetizer that was a CHEESE FLAMBE, served with pita bread. The waitress poured some rum over the cheese and then SET IT ON FIRE, yelling "OPA!" as the flames shot up from the dish. We asked her if any of the servers ever got burned and she regaled us with stories of over-eager servers using waaaay too much alcohol for fuel (usually, the waiters who would try to show off), setting off impressive fireballs that would singe off eyebrows and catch hairdos on fire...









After dinner, we barely had enough time to check out the SANRIO STORE, to get our HELLO KITTY fix. We rushed to the theater so that we could get our picks for seats. They warmed the packed audience up with a vintage SUPERMAN cartoon reel, straight out of the 40's. Superman had to save Lois Lane, after she crawled inside of this flying bank-robbing robot...













The live VISUAL version of This American Life was a lot of fun. There was animation, several story tellers, comedians, a short film, and evan a modern interpretive dance troupe. It was pretty much a variety show. One of the highlights of the night (among many) was the band OK GO. The band created an app that show goers could download onto their smart phones, that would allow them to "interact" with the band's live performance. Essentially, the app turned your phone into a THREE-NOTE KEYBOARD, allowing the audience to play along with the band, via a scrolling prompter on the screen, kinda like the ROCKBAND video game. The colored bars corresponded to the color of the buttons you downloaded on the app - Missy ended up with yellow buttons, so she followed the cues that came up on the yellow bar. The app made BELL sounds and the band performed a couple of songs using HAND BELLS as accompaniment...













Other favorite highlights of the night included comedienne TIG NOTARO's crazy story about singer TAYLOR DAYNE and author/humorist DAVID SEDARIS, who came out with CLOWN MAKE-UP on, for the benefit of the live studio audiences. Overall, it was one of the best nights at a movie theater in a long time and we can't wait to see if they will do another special live broadcast next year...

Pixburgh Pride!

Native YINZER - Missy Kulik - models her team colors via the infamous TERRIBLE TOWEL...GO STEELERS!

Always Crashing In The Same Car

LORD FOCUS, my Ford Focus is still out of commission from last week's CAR ACCIDENT...I'm waiting on the other insurance company to cut me a check so I can take my car to get fixed. In the meantime, I got a myself a copy of my police report, just to make sure the cop got all the facts straight. He got all the details of the accident right except for one thing: my "RACE". He marked me as WHITE...WTF?



Athens folks...if you're gonna get into an accident, don't get into one on any of the roads circling the GEORGIA SQUARE MALL. Those roads are considered "private property". It's $24.00 to get a copy of your police report if a car accident happens on private property, versus $3.00 to get a copy of your report if a car accident occurs on "public property", like on a highway, or main street. Total rip off. In the schematic, Lord Focus is car #2...I love how it says "not to scale" and the little arrow that points out where BURGER KING is...

Zen And The Art Of Car Crashing

Friday mornings Missy and I have to get to work early for our weekly 6:30am CRITIQUE MEETING in the Art Department. As if critiques aren't contentious enough, the early morning roll call helps to make the whole situation even more "fun"...but I digress. We were taking our usual route, right next to the GEORGIA SQUARE MALL, when the beat-up hooptie in the right lane next to us, decided to make a U-TURN right in front of us. Missy yelled, "Look out!", but it was too late. The driver neglected to see my car sidling up into their BLIND SPOT, before we knew it, the corner of his landboat crashed right into the passenger side front tire. Luckily, it was slow speed impact, but still...the crash was enough to dent up the wheel well and bend the front axle. Gah!



I jumped out of my car and two elderly yokels exited their car and asked if we were okay. I asked the driver if I could see his insurance information and he said that he didn't think he had it...so I asked to see his license. I sensed that he didn't want to cooperate, so I quickly went into my backpack to pull out my camera and started taking photos of the accident scene. The other driver said, "we should move our cars out of the way!" and quickly jumped in his car and moved it before I could take a photo. At that same moment, a POLICE CRUISER pulled up...THANK GOD! because I really thought the other driver was going to take off. The officer rolled down his window and asked, "Do you need help?" I said, "Yes! We just had an auto accident and the guy that hit me is over there..." I pointed over to the two dudes and their sloppy jalopy, and I could see the disappointment in their faces...I though, "Ha ha, YES! You mother-effers aren't getting away with this!"

The cop asked me for my license and insurance and I complied. He asked the other driver for HIS license and insurance and - surprise, surprise - he handed it over quickly. The cop wrote up his report and gave me business card with my case number on it. My tire was so messed up I was barely able to move my car into a parking space in the mall parking lot. We locked up the car and walked the rest of our way to work...which only took us about 5 minutes. We managed being late to our meeting by only 15 minutes or so.



I guess I'm not too upset because we weren't hurt at all - the accident could have been much worse - and, I figure, the other driver's insurance is going to cover the cost of my repairs. So, there's no use in getting upset. Again, I'm just glad that neither me or Missy got hurt and I'm glad that cop had perfect timing...

Snow Days

This is the front yard looking up our street., originally uploaded by sugar-cookie.

My dad emailed me these photos he took of the snow they got in Pennsylvania this weekend. This one is looking up our street at home.


Check out our picnic table covered on snow. It looks like a Twinkie!


This is our backyard covered in snow. I think they got about 21.5 inches this weekend. It makes me wish for snow.


Look at the trash can in the back yard - looks just like a marshmallow!

Celebrity Doppelgangers

So, this week is CELEBRITY DOPPELGANGER WEEK on FACEBOOK and Missy and I have chosen our celebrity body doubles - Missy's celebrity doppelganger is teenaged-and-fabulous TAVI, from the awesome STYLE ROOKIE blog, and my celebrity double is DALE TALDE from TOP CHEF, Season 4.

Whenever I see photos of Tavi on Style Rookie, I always think about how much she looks like Missy sometimes. Like, sometimes it's uncanny. Dale - the Filipino dude with 'tude from Top Chef Season 4 - vaguely looks like me. The glasses in this photo help a bit...that, and we're both Filipino...

It's Fall, Y'all!

...and we couldn't be happier!

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

No money...know problems.

Icy Hot Mess

Sometimes after an evening of trapeze practice, Missy's shoulder muscles get super sore...so out comes the ICY HOT roll-on applicator to take care of that hot mess of muscles.

The Donger

Like many Gen-Xer's that grew up in the 80's, I was saddened to hear that director JOHN HUGHES passed away yesterday. I could go on and on about how his movies helped to shape my young impressionable mind, but I'll resist the temptation. Instead, I was reminded of a funny avatar I made for my FRIENDSTER profile many many years ago...I found a film still from John Hughes' FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, featuring actor GEDDE WATANABE as foreign exchange student LONG DUK DONG (a.k.a. "THE DONGER"), resting his head on the ample breasts of his "American-style girlfriend"...I sloppily replaced his head with a photo of MY OWN HEAD...needless to say, I still crack myself up at how terrible it looks...I regret that I can't make the images any larger, without them looking terribly grainy. Anyways, you get the idea. Pour one out for Mr. John Hughes and watch one of his classic movies this weekend...

Missy Vs. Helicopter

It's been a busy few days here at Rancho Cocoa...Missy's parents are in town and we've been busy "doin' stuff"...hopefully, tomorrow, we'll have a new and belated WEEKEND WIND-DOWN. Until then, please enjoy this footage of Missy crashing a miniature HELICOPTER into herself...

FOURTH 4934 from Raoul de la Cruz on Vimeo.

Oh, Snap

We came home from work today to find this big-ass TREE LIMB in our driveway. Today's stormy weather caused this old tree limb to snap and come crashing down in exactly the same spot my car was parked on overnight. Totally lucked out. To think that the giant branch coulda done my car in last night...phew!