The Perilous Potomac!!

First entry for the new year! And a new adventure to go with it:

This weekend we had a freak change in temperature, where suddenly it was summertime and therefore a perfect day to go for a row. My dad is XTREME-ly into the whole yo-ho-ho thing, so anytime we go boating with him it means paddling, rowing, or sailing. The dory's mast is already shelved for the season so today it was time for a lively row! Yes! Since we live so close to DC, the Potomac is quite convenient, and it was there that we set out for a rowing adventure.

After stopping at our favorite breakfast place, we took a long drive to pick up my dad's old college friend Dave Kerner and headed towards the boat launch. We crossed just over into Maryland, and prepared to set off amidst the bewilderment of all the other people at the ramp (rowing is apparently not one of the nation's most common leisurely activities).



There you can see our boat attached to our unlikely car (the added trailer hitch bangs against the pavement between our driveway and the street if we don't curve a little to the left or right while backing up), accompanied by my younger brother Elliot, and then Dave Kerner next to my Dad. You can see how beautiful a day it was...Dave may have been wearing a jacket, but both he and I took off our jackets after a short time on the water. Seriously, the weather was really weird.



See, such a beautiful day. We got the boat in the water without trouble, and since we had four people with us, three got to row and one got to steer. Have you ever rowed with three people in tandem? It's quite a challenge. I took the bow-most position, farthest from the rudder, so I was pretty much constrained to row the entire time.



And if you'll look at a larger version of this picture, you can see that it's Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington! We passed by it and a few other tourist-y locales during our row in this direction, garnering plenty of looks in our direction from the touristfolk. My Dad mused that he'd like to see what we must look like from the shore.



We rowed for a long time. After passing Mt. Vernon we took a break and had some water from the scuttlebutt (silly nautical terms...) and headed back in the opposite direction. As we were moving along some uncommonly warm gusts of wind blew at our backs. I nearly lost my hat a couple of times. Eventually, after passing the manors belonging to the exquisitely rich which litter the coastline of the area, we came upon a small cove, which we pulled into and took a break. I snapped quite a few pictures of it, so here's a mini-gallery:



Click to enlarge. Here we have us pulling into the cove ("Pirate's Cove," if you will); a pile of dead trees and driftwood that the cove had accumulated; a mysterious concrete structure barred by many trees; a view of the cove; and pushing ourselves out of the cove with generous manpower. For the remainder of the trip I took the stern seat so I could steer (since I had been rowing the entire time up to that point).

We hugged the coast for a while longer and finally crossed the potomac again to reach our boat landing. The side our landing was on is notably less rich-looking than the Mt. Vernon side, but there were some odd and variously decorated houses (such as an octagonal house connected to an austere cube-building which seemed to house a large spiral staircase; the whole thing looked like a professor's house and appeared to be still under construction).

Returning to the landing we hitched the boat back up to the trailer, as a large man in overalls and a John Deere with binoculars around his neck watched us contentedly. After the boat was back on the car, my brother spotted a small abandoned building partially hidden in the foliage close to the landing. Abandoned buildings, especially those suffering from advanced necrosis, have always fascinated me, so we both went to check it out.



Left to right: the rusty chain link fence surrounding the once-house; what was left of the house; view from inside the fence; another view; standing in the doorway; a rusted metal (drainpipe?). I think two out of the four walls had already fallen in, and the surrounding forest had almost completely claimed the ruin for itself. Satisfied, we headed back to the car, but there was one more thing left to do before leaving the area. A park was nearby which had another interesting structure beckoning to us.



The road to the small park was flanked with trees, and thankfully the dirt roads were kind to our small Saturn with cargo. The park was on the grounds of a building called Marshall Hall, which had some historical significance with George Washington and blah blah blah. But this is why it was really interesting:



No roof! It wasn't in quite so far advanced a ruined state as the previous building, probably since it had more historic value, but the roof was sure gone, giving it that striking prison-camp look to it. It was also surrounded by a chain fence topped with barbed wire (garnished with signs citing "HAZARDOUS STRUCTURE"), allowing for some clever photography:



Looks like it just jumped out of a WWII story. Some more pictures of that building and surrounding area:



Left to Right: Picnic benches set upon what I felt to be a foundation of a previous building (look for my brother in this one); Marshall Hall sans barbed wire; a little grill for them frankfurters; another look at the Hall.

We were all beat at the end of the day. We were out there lollygagging, as Dave put it, for around four hours. It was fun though, and the day couldn't be more beautiful (or more disconcerting, given the month and season). So, here's to 2007! And a picture of me in the weird concrete structure in the cove:



Now to play some more Zelda.

MST3K In Magnolia

oh

OH!

This guy:

^ That guy

That guy spoke in Magnolia, Arkansas last night. My roommate told me a few weeks ago and I was like "YEAH I'LL HIT THAT" and he was like "KTHNX." So last night, Halloween night, we drove for 3 hours and 20 minutes to the small town of Magnolia, Arkansas, to hear Michael J. Nelson, the second host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, speak to a group of college students about his books and movie commentaries.

Yeah, I was there. I have to say, Mike Nelson, though he looks a bit different in person now than he did when he was making fun of bad movies in space, is a totally hilarious guy. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time, and it wasn't just because I was giddy for being there.

It's probably pretty ridiculous for me to outline all the stuff he said or whatever, so I'll just touch on some of the highlights:

-He was there.
-He read some of his movie reviews from his book (sounds like shameless plugging, but actually it was totally hysterical shameless plugging)
-He had a couple of palooks from the audience play a trivia game to win some random stuff he had with him (such as DVDs he's done commentary for, and some books he was reading; see a picture here.)
-He showed some of his own commentary on (the original) House on Haunted Hill, which is basically just like MST3k only without Robot Friends.
-He gave lots of bad rap to all kinds of movies (he pretty much hates movies for a living)
-He opened up the floor to questions;
-Someone asked what his favorite MST3k script was, to which he revealed that he had not really ever gone back to view them (they hurt too much), but to his knowledge it was Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders, which was one of the later ones and also one of the more ridiculous and inexplicable ones
-Someone asked "how are Bridget and the kids adjusting to the move out west?", to which he gave a supremely incredulous look and said "Wha...what...Dad?" Of course the guy wasn't his dad, just some random guy who for some reason knows what Mike Nelson's family is up to. Mike started to fake calling for security (it was hilarious).
-Afterwards, he went to the college bookstore to give out autographs and photos!!



Yes! It's my second photo with a famous person this year! I didn't talk about the first one on here, though. Oh, and Alex got a picture too:



He usually doesn't have that ridiculous moustache. He had to grow his beard out indefinitely for Fiddler on the Roof, and after it grew to monstrous sizes, he shaved the entire thing off and left just the monstrous moustache. Most of us think it's pretty hilarious.

And, in celebration of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I have made a new comic!!



UNfortunately, I still have to use the inferior Imageshack to host my comics, since Flickr won't upload the image at the size it needs to be. D'oh.

Ever heard of a Beanfest?

No? Well neither had I until Saturday the 29th of October, two-thousand and the six. For every state like Arkansas which makes a big deal out of its "natural wonders" and so on, there is a town which makes a point of showcasing those things. Mountainview is a town like that in Northern Arkansas, and yesterday I made a trip out there, invited by my friend Liz, and following is the CHILLING ACCOUNT of what happened.



We started this adventure by taking an hour-and-a-half drive up to Mountainview, which is an extremely good thing to do on a sunny, breezy day in autumn. Before long Liz had to stop for gas, and above you can see that when you drive this far off the edge of nowhere, you get to see stuff like really old and outdated gas stations. There was, of course, no "pay-at-the-pump" option.



Here're a few examples of how pretty parts of Arkansas can be. I don't think I've done it justice at all, actually, however. You really have to be there experience the onslaughts of color and the plays of light and shadows on the changing leaves to really understand. Plus driving in a place like this is really a lot like driving on a roller coaster (Liz is too safe a driver to make it exciting like one though).

After driving through Heber Springs (a local resort town with mountains and a lake and a dam and vultures and other neat stuff), we ascended into the long, low hills which make up Mountainview, and parked about a half-mile out of the center of the town. There were tons and tons of people, as Beanfest is a pretty big event (I'll explain what it is shortly).



Anyone who knows me or has read any previous entries on this blog knows that this is what I like to see. Places about which I can say "you never know what you're gonna find" always rank among my favorites. This was on the door of an antique store/fleamarket, which are legion in Arkansas and especially in a place like Mountainview. Here is an example of the weird stuff you find in places like this. Note that one of those cassettes is labled something to the extent of "Porno Pyros" and seems to have an image of a lecherous Count from Sesame Street riding a 1950s space rocket into the massive unknown referred to by most as the 90s. Other stuff I found in that shop included large amounts of old Tonka trucks, stacks of VHS tapes (through which I always must sift), and a gigantic old Howitzer cannon truck toy made by Marx (a defunct toy company which had its heyday when my dad was young). I have no idea what toyline it came from, but it was massive, mostly made of metal, and priced at $75. Needless to say I left it there.



Walking along the street towards the center of Beanfest, we passed many a stand or stall selling various things, anything from giant rugs with marijuana leaves on them to geothermic curiosities. This all, of course, reminded me of the fleamarket in Mobile, which is one of my favorite places on Earth.

Now I'll take a minute to explain what the heck Beanfest is. Mountainview is pretty much a seasonal town, only becoming the booming partyland that it was on Saturday on certain occasions. This particular occasion is, at its core, a bluegrass festival. At the center of town, groups of bluegrass-playing folk of all ages gathered in little circles and just let loose with the jams. All around them the people gathered, eating food and snacks from various little restaurants and diners which only are only open on days such as this. I obliterated my hunger with something I call the Great American Meal, consisting of a gigantic bacon cheeseburger coupled with a generous helping of fried 'taters. I didn't get a gigantic swimming-pool sized drink to go along with it, though. I'm not that American.



The reason it's called Beanfest is because early in the day, large helpings of beans and cornbread are served, and I assume they are cooked with the help of these gigantic things which were standing triumphantly in the town square. We left Searcy after they had already finished with the beans and cornbread, so we missed that. Instead, we drifted around the square, stopping at each group of bluegrass folks to take their pictures and take in their jams. Here's a few pictures of them:



There are a lot more pictures of various parts of Mountainview, I've posted them all on Flickr and the whole gallery can be viewed here.

Now before I finish this first entry of the school year, there's one more anecdote to be related. On the way out, Liz saw this giant tree whose leaves had all turn a particularly brilliant shade of orange. After 1-5 seconds of debating with herself she turned the car around to take pictures of it. It was in someone's yard, but the driveway was empty, so we just pulled into the drive and she got out and took some pictures.



Pretty, huh? As we pulled out of the driveway, an old man in a small car pulled up right alongside us. We both stopped our cars, and after a few minutes of awkwardness, Liz opened her window and he opened his door. Before we could say anything, he said "Oh, I was just gonna take some pictures of the tree!" After explaining to him that that was exactly what we were doing, we took off and had a good laugh.

I got back and that night watched Fiddler on the Roof, which I think was my favorite homecoming musical of the three I've seen so far. A fitting way to end a marvelous day.

And I haven't gotten back into the comic-making mood yet so there's no comic for today. Expect them to return, though.