The Good Minus

That's Opposite-speak for "The Bad Plus." Meeker and I went and saw them play at the Bowery Ballroom last night. We got there kind of early because Mike didn't read the ticket right, but that was okay because the $8 plastic cups of Jack & Coke were quite tasty.

Meeker County, holding back the Superfans

The show itself was pretty wild. Mike had told me that the drummer was nuts, but I didn't really know what he meant until I saw him. I mean, he didn't look nutty, but when he played the drums he was like an animal. Like, Animal from Dr. Teeth. You remember Animal? Yah. That's what I'm talking about.

Comfortably Numb

They did some really sweet covers of Barracuda, Heart of Gold, Comfortably Numb, and New Year's Day. Couple of other's whose names I can't remember at the moment. The drummer also liked to use, um, toys on the drums....like, a little plastic drum that he set on a real drum and then banged on, and then this little plastic egg-shaped peep that jingled when he shook it. It reminded me of this christmas mouse thing I used to have that had little bells embedded in his butt somehow. He made a little jingling sound when you shook him too.

Dave the drummer

Animal

On a much sadder note - and forgive me because this is totally off the topic of the Bad Plus - but this morning I found out that a colleague of mine was on the plane that crashed in Buffalo last Thursday night. Ron was a delightful fellow, kind and caring. He ran a youth program for at-risk kids and teens in New Jersey. My heart goes out to his family, friends, and co-workers. He will be missed.

My days are numbered!

And today is day number 10,949. 

Yesterday, day 10,948, fell on a Saturday and given its proximity to day 10,950 - we decided to have a party. And not just any party.  A fried chicken and 40's party.

That's a load of fried chicken.

It was a ton of fun.  We made a mix tape of hip-hop and rap from the late 80's through the early turn of the century (think Tribe, Biggie, Tupac and Wu-tang) and filled a trash can with ice and 40's, made a pitcher of gin and juice, and bought out the local Popeye's.  That, my friends, is how you make a PARTY.

Fran, playing with fire.

And, there was cake too.  Tiff made a delish lemon cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.  I still have some in the fridge.  Gonna eat some after dinner.

Me, blinded by the fire. (And rage).

Yay party!

Fran and Stephen, looking oddly evil.

So, before the guests arrived Mike and I decided to indulge in a game of Wii golf.  When people started arriving, I tried to turn off the telly (since everybody knows that a turned on tv can easily spoil a party).  Well, so much protesting ensued that we ended up keeping the tv on and the subsequent Wii flowed all night long.

Stephen and his pearly whites.

Me, Wii-ing.

Meeks, overcome by the Wii spirit.

Meeks coaching Tiff on the Art of Wii.

Bowling!

Needless to say, it was a jolly good time.  AND at the end of the night there was only 3 pieces of chicken left (which made for a fine breakfast) and one unfortunate half-eaten piece found resting on the back of the toilet.  Actually, there was a surprising amount of half-eaten food found in the bathroom.  Cupcakes and such.  Very curious....

In like a lamb, out like a minotaur

At least, that's what I'm expecting, given the meteorological fluctuations we have experienced as of late. A little preliminary, perhaps, given Punxatawney Phil's latest vision of the future (6 more weeks of winter). Then again, Staten Island Chuck, Phil's little known counterpart from the suburbs, foresaw an early Spring.

A tasty, plump little lamb

A life-like rendering of a modern-day minotaur

Honestly, with so many woodland creatures working vehemently against each other to give me wardrobe advice, I no longer know who I can trust.

A corpulent American groundhog

That being said, let's talk pictures, shall we?

Moving pictures, that is. My February pick for flicks comes from - everybody's favorite - the Sci Fi channel. Meeks and I had the pleasure of viewing the Sci Fi original film "Yeti" this weekend (not to be confused with "Yentl"). I tell ya, it was something else!

A Yeti of said picture

Starring an older, slightly weathered yet not entirely un-handsome Peter DeLuise (you may or may not remember him from his 21 Jump Street days....remember, he was the troll that always lurked just under Johnny Depp's glorious shadow) it follows the harrowing story of an unlikely, yet probably true, aviation disaster.

Brief Plot Synopsis

Sooo...basically its your run of the mill plane crash. A DC-10, flying over the Himalayas in the dead of winter runs into an electrical storm and crashes into a snowy peak. You know the story. The survivers, which all happen to be students from the generic "State College" are left with a pile of dead bodies, a nicely intact and oddly homey severed fusilage, and that age-old dillema: Should we let those human-shaped tasty morsels we've got lying around just go to waste?

Of course, nobody wants to be the first to take a spork to the ol' math team so the teens take to hunting fat grey rabbits with spears and practicing lame state college-type sexual innuendos.

The real trouble begins, when the bodies start disappearing! Suddenly the teens find they have to compete for their dinners with a huge, Middle Earth-esque orc-like Yeti capable of slow trudging steps and computer-generated kangaroo leaps through the snow. Terror!

Enter the mountain rescue team of Peter DeLuise and some spent Croatian eye-candy. On foot, of course, because the altitude is too high for helicopters to fly (but oddly low enough for fluffy pines and rabbits in their summer coat). The rescuers find the plane and its survivors, but decide to watch for a while through binnoculars before attempting the 10 yard ascent to recue them.

Long story short - the token Asian burns the bodies to keep them from being desecrated, the Yeti comes back and finding no frozen meat, opts for the fresh meat instead and attacks the teens. Mountain rescue intervenes, and fells the Yetis (there's two by this time) with a single bullet through the chest, a series of wooden stakes through the back, and an avalanche of snow to cover them.

Of course, the original Yeti miraculously survives to chomp off DeLuise's leg and beat him over the head with it, only to be lost forever down the side of a cliff.

Its cinematic genius, really. I have to say, the best part of the film was not from the main crew, but rather a minor character who was expelled from the plane crash early on and suffered a severed arm and two broken legs. This fellow was resourceful enough to use his severed arm as a splint for his broken legs, thus enabling him to climb down the Himalayan peaks to rejoin his group, only to be mistaken for a Yeti and shot in the face with a flare gun. I tell ya, when it rains, it pours.