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The Columbia, MD, Ithaca, NY and Sussex, England Chronicles
By: Benny Jive
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| Wednesday, 15-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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80's Prom
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These belated pictures recount a night at a local Baltimore club's 80's prom. I didn't take many, but you get the idea
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| Wednesday, 1-Jun-2005 00:00 |
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Outer Banks, NC [WARNING: Gross Dead Animal Pictures]
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Just Got Dumped?
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Crossing the Border
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Stupid, stupid drivers with stupid, stupid vanities
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The short story: Chris' condo, lots of disc, Outer Banks. The long story: dead shark carcass, hooligans and hooliguinning, waiving of constitutional rights, a drinking citation, >1000 ounces of malt liquor, lots of cooking and card games. And, of course, drinking.
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| Friday, 27-May-2005 00:00 |
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Hiking in Great Falls, MD
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Here is the start of a summer of hiking and camping. Sean, Jon, Seth, Paula, Tim and I drove to the MD-VA line (and met Paula's friend Christina in the process) for a long day of hiking and scrambling. I'm also amazed at how well these pictures came out. My camera doesn't usually do so good a job, but these are some of my favorite pictures of friends that I've taken. A lovely, lovely day.
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| Sunday, 15-May-2005 00:00 |
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Shrimp Brownie Night
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Waiting to pick up Noh-Noh and his mom.
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Mark and his neck arrive, both post-surgery
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Eating at Maxie's
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The last incident of Shrimp wildness I was to take part in this Spring, beginning with a seafood dinner (on Noah's mom) and ending with some seriously fucked up brownies and watching Seven. There was some stuff in between. I forget.
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| Saturday, 2-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Road Trip Installment 4: Louisville, KY,...and Home Again
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Kentucky: where the locals are so hardcore they sheet fire.
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Truck stop. What much of our trip looked like.
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We drove. Packed up our shit and left Tennessee. 3 hours to, oh, let's see...how about Louisville? OK, sure, so we drove to Louisville. Stopped off for what, for lack of a more awesome description, might be called lunch (see pictures), and got there midday. After a quick lession in prehistory.
Louisville.What a town. The most beautiful architecture. Soothing breezes, colorful landscapes. Sean and I had a nice long walk around downtown. We saw the baseball museum (home of the Slugger), and some other nice spots. The we headed across the bridge, nearly into Indiana to our "campsite." From the campsite we could still see the waterfront of downtown Louisville.
KOA Kampgrounds costs about $27 for a site, which is a 10x10 square of grass surrounded by apocalypse-ready RVs, dozens of them, maybe 50. Picture camping out in a gas station. Cars everywhere, highway noise, no nature to speak of. Oh but we had a time, the two of us. Collecting firewood right next to a railroad, and an interstate highway. Setting up Sean's ol' faithful tent. Rolling those ugly cigarettes and tossing disk at dusk.
It looked like rain, as the sun went down. What, Sean? No rain fly? Well, shit. The tent was 50 years old. We were in for a wet night, unless we could somehow waterproof it. We raced to the grocery store and got, well, the only thing we could think of. Trash bags. While there we got materials to cook our own dinner under the Louisville skyline. But we needed ketchup, so we pulled up at a Long John Silvers. Sean stole ketchup in little paper cups. We were off.
Back at the campsite, we waterproofed into dark. (Always, ALWAYS bring duct tape when you travel. It was the best choice I made that week.) Then we cooked perhaps the best meal I've ever had, followed by a calm night of a fire, some pot, and a cool Midwestern breeze.
We woke up early, around 7. We spent a while packing up and showering at their little stations. Then we sped off. 10 hours of driving ahead of us. All the nasty food from the past few days caught up with yours truly, and I was sick for several hours. But that couldn't damped our spirits as we crossed all of West Virginia, through the wet and winding Appalachian mountains, and emerged in...Maryland! Oh, glorious Western Maryland. Deep Creek Lake, where we lunched and watched the landscape freeze.
The bottomline from this trip: America is a wonderful home, and needs to be explored by all you who live in it. We found nothing but kindness in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Only the best people in the world, and cities alive with characters, and cars and buildings and food and music. And Sean, well, I love Sean. Sean made the whole trip an adventure--a pilgrimage "to seken straunge strondes."
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| Friday, 1-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Road Trip Installment 3: Nashville, TN
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We drive 3+ hours to Nashville, through clouds and light rain. The landscape has flattened. It no longer resembles Maryland or Virginia; there are no more mountains.
We stop at a Sonics on the way. Sonics is good. They come out to your car!
In Nashville, we try to navigate highways that were assuredly the work of a drunken Satan. They disappear and waver in intangible dimensions. I have come to the city with a single goal: to see the world's only full-scale replica of the Parthenon, also a Nashville war memorial. We search for what seems like days, pass by downtown several times...see strange landscape and architecture. All grey, like the sky. Very 1970s and all business...(nothing like the Louisville to come). Finally we reach downtown. We park...not without difficulty or humor. We climb the long staircase to the Parthenon...but it isn't. Just a magnifiscent city hall with great pillars and monuments, visible miles away, and blossoming cherry trees that make it all like D.C.
Further investigation reveals the Parthenon to be next door, hidden in a courtyard. It is under construction, but still impressive, a roofless monument looking out on skyscrapers.
Then we are off to discover downtown Nashville! I won't describe the sights--many are chronicled in pictures. But I shave off a two-week beard in an ice-cream shop...we drive 30 minutes to a world-wide-web-famous cafe to hear some songwriters perform circle-style...we eat BBQ (I have a vegetable pizza with BBQ sauce...fantastic) on the main stretch of downtown Nashville, and listen to some good old country in the restaurant...we frantically try to find a place to stay the night. No campsites are open, anywhere. Maybe some Tennessee law. It is hard to care about such matters when everywhere you go is filled with fine, fine music...but it's a problem that is quickly moving from abstraction to reality. Eventually I pin down a suspiciously cheap Motel 6, and we drive to claim it.
While there, Sean shaves and cuts himself quite badly.
Back on the street, we chase down a bar recommended by Felix, where they supposedly won't care about our age, and where we can listen to some good music. Felix was right, again, on both counts. More lovely lovely Southerners aid us, fetching beers for our underage bellies and being, well, generally generous. We listen to music far into the night and then drive back to our room.
In the motel, alone and hundreds of miles from home, with distinctively Midwestern air floating in past the electric Hooters palm trees across the street, there is something very comforting and familial in getting limb-crumpling-ly stoned with Sean, jogging to the gas station for snacks, and settling in for a night of Cartoon Network and silly, silly laughter.
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| Thursday, 31-Mar-2005 00:00 |
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Road Trip Installment 2: Knoxville
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Sean takes over. Giant guitar in background.
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Our bunks in the hostel
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Felix, post railroad tracks, in the front of the warehouse
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We drive through light rain. Sean takes over and I sleep a little. I call the Knoxville Hostel and (what luck!) secure a cheap bed for the night. A wonderful man named Al takes down our names. He is going to the Lady Vols game--their coach might become the winningest in the country, ever, tonight. Tennessee is the Volunteer State--that's what Vol stands for. Because he will be at the game, he is going to leave us the key in the mailbox.
When we arrive, though, the game hasn't started. Al isn't there. But a pleasant Scottish woman is. She invites us in, treats us to coffee. Raiders of the Lost Ark is on the old knob TV. We bring in our bags. Felix has arrived.
Ah, Felix. Scrungy looking guy in a wofe-beater, shaved head, an accent like he's talking and sipping soup at the same time. He says: come out for a cigarette. He pretty much doesn't stop talking for the rest of the night. He teaches me how to roll a cigarette (and berates my attempts). The weather has improved.
Al appears, gives us the "25 cent tour". We don't have the money to pay him until morning. That's fine, he says.
We throw our stuff on our bed and go out with Felix--he shows us the town. For 90 minutes he walks us through downtown Knoxville, tells us his life story--hitchhiking, DJing, drugs, new life, pregnant wife, moving to Knoxville--and then some. He buys us 40s at the gas station. We walk down the railroad tracks and drink them behind an abandoned train car, under the highway overpass we came in on. It is night, cool and wonderful. What kind of girls do we like? Ethnicity? What music do we listen to? He shows us again and again how to roll a cigarette, telling old hitchhiking stories. Felix never stops talking. We find a huge abandoned warehouse, filled with toys, light bulbs, ceiling fans and karate trophies. We explore it all, from basement to roof.
Walking down the street, later, we meet a 29 year old, AJ, who says "The Last Playboy Mansion party is happening tonight. I'll take you 3 strangers." Everyone is kind. We hop into his car. Felix gets into an argument about anti-racist groups. We stop at a package store (Southern speak for liquer store). What does Felix emerge with? 151 of course.
The party is incredible. Knoxville's "Playboy Mansion" is an enormous house, a 60 year old house at least. It is out back in the forest, with few neighbors. Where are we? Are we in Knoxville anymore? There's a band playing loud rock. The place is packed. Sean and I roll cigarettes and play pool, we visit the fire outside. The cops come (and even the cops here are great! "Don't drive drunk, kids. Have a good time."). The kids here are getting evicted and so are throwing one last bash. They don't give a shit, naturally. AJ gives everybody swigs of whiskey.
AJ drives us home, it feels like hours later. We find our hostel (amazing!) and it is the middle of the night. We stumble around for a bit--I eat a weird wrap. Then sleep.
In the morning we say goodbye to everyone--Felix, Al, the Scottish woman--and head on to Nashville.
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| Wednesday, 30-Mar-2005 00:00 |
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Road Trip Installment 1: D.C., Front Royal, Luray, Tenn. border
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Beautiful VA. Past Front Royal, near Luray.
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A truck full of chickens, trailing feathers.
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Lunch. Eating outside in the fresh air.
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Sean and I began with no plans except to get to Knoxville by nightfall. This was key. Where would we sleep? A camp? A hostel? The car? The weather was warm and cool, not even sweater weather. It was Tuesday. I started the driving and we were quiet for several hours. Johnny Cash on the stereo. We ate lunch at a greasy burger pit; delicious.
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| Monday, 28-Feb-2005 00:00 |
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Harvard Improv Fest 2005 - Cambridge, MA
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A trip wherein the Shrimp rocked the city of Necco and chowder hard--hard as the frozen Charles, harder than the metal shell of Snoop Dogg's infamous Weedbot, harder than a stale gumball the size of a fist...or three of them. The Whistling Shrimp went to perform at Harvard's annual improv festival, with the likes of Brown, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Brunnell (sp?), and others. We also had a wild 36 hours under various states of consciousness, had the richest $4 hot chocolate in America, ate Italian, Greek and Mexican, and, oh yeah--were really, really funny.
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| Sunday, 6-Feb-2005 00:00 |
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Green Darrells
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Andrew and Shern prepping the "absinthe spoon"
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You can't tell, but those sugar cubes are on fire.
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Trust me. They're melting.
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Well Saturday night was a night of firsts. It began with Shern breaking out his freshly-imported-from-Germany absinthe bottle. Three of us decided to take the plunge into potentially irrevocable brain damage. The ol' green fairy is quite a kick, though no hallucinations were reported. Then came the part of the evening in the works for about a week. Brian, Noah, Pete, Joel and I were to stick a Fat Darrell in our eager faces. Along with Jenny and Hannah, we smoked real good and trekked to Louie's Lunch, where we made the 12", 3/2 lbs purchases. The rest of the night is a blur of deliciousness. I'll be detoxing for the next few days.
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