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Friday, July 27, 2007

Homebodies, Schizophrenic Music, and a Little Golden Brown Sauce to Spread Over it.

This weekend sees us at home, doin home stuff. We haven't been to Farmer's Market in a while, so we'll probably do that.
Good news: The Vikings preseasons opens August 10th!
Bad news: We'll be in Fargo August 10th. Of course, we'll be seeing Reverend Horton Heat, so that's not really bad news.
While at my dad's place, we happened to catch The Devil and Daniel Johnston. If you haven't seen the documentary, be prepared to just feel weird and exposed when you watch it. The guy can't sing well, and even in his 40's sounds like an effeminate 16-year-old. The recording of his songs are badly done (on a little boombox). And yet, you still find yourself listening to them and thinking 'Doug, on some level, this is good, haunting music.' I still think his guitar stuff isn't that great, it's his piano that gets to me. So finally I got around to getting a few songs by him. I'm only about 20 years late.
Anyway, I got a new page of Golden Brown up just a little late, so quit yer cryin and read.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

A Dam In the Stream of Consciousness...

Chrissakes this humidity, but whaddyagunnadoabotit?
We had a pretty good weekend, not too eventful. It seems to have become routine now to hang out with Tab & Derek on our wekend trips to Devils Lake, which is cool because they're always up for anything--but then who isn't whn they're around me?
I did get to see the abandoned wing of the motel Tab works at, however, and I definitely want to play there. I was hoping we could jam a little last weekend, but time wasn't really working out to our benefit. Oh well, maybe next time.
I'm getting nervous about my progress with Golden Brown. I'm worried it won't be finished by the time I start school, yet I don't want to rush things along (I already take issue with some of my transitions in the story lately). Plus it'll be a bummer not to have the comic to work on while I'm in school. Hopefully I'll hav assignments to post.
I'll leave you guys with this:
Monday morning, as I was leaving work, I got a voice-mail message from Karissa in th form of song. It went like this:
We need milk.
We need milk.
You better get some, or I'll kill you.
Love you g'bye!

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Workin For the Weekend.

Nothing much happening this week.
Dr. Leach took off to Nevada to do more work at Serendipity Shelter, and won't be back until August. Fortunately, she left me a nice pile of Chipped-Stone tools to draw up while she's gone, so my lab schedule continues as normal.
We're heading to Devils Lake tomorrow for the weekend. Derek and Tab had mentioned some rooms being available in an abandoned wing of the motel she runs, so we're going to see if there's one we can set up the band equipment in.
-Which leads me to my usual pre-weekend anouncement: New Golden Brown! Except this week, it's 2 pages. Yeah, you're welcome.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Summer Runaround, TCM Underground, and BoneDaddy has a Brand New Golden Brown!

I don't have a lot going on at the moment. I might not make it to Gwar. Schedule-wise I'd be fine, but the fair is this week, and I have to save up just a bit for the Reverend Horton Heat concert. Plus we're thinking of visiting my family a couple weekends from now (still tentative at this point). Yes, it would suck to miss it, but I honestly can't complain too much. This spring & summer has been get-up-n-go from the start, and we still have a lot to go. I'm having a lot of fun, though, being busy with stuff like that. 2 summers ago, we stayed inside almost the whole time, and only went out for Artfest and the Fargo street fair. Last year, we got out more, but still not as much as I'd have liked.
Then again, I kind of look forward to not doing a whole lot this weekend. We might hit the Farmer's Market, and I'm definitely looking forward to watching this week's TCM Underground! The movie? A double feature, actually. First up is Billy the Kid v. Dracula, followed by Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Make sure you catch it, Derek!
And, on a final note tonight, I know you guys loved the interim cartoon I posted on the BoneDaddy blog, but I'm sure you'll be pleased to see a brand new page up of Golden Brown. Go there, and take it all, biatch!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Travelogue: Alexandria

We saw a lot other than Alexandria, but that was the main destination point.
This is gonna be a fairly long post, accompanied by a bunch of pictures below, so if you make it down to the end, give yourself and "Attaboy".
Here's a rundown of the weekend:

Thursday:
We get out of town a little later than we hoped, and Isabella has developed a screaming fear of bugs, so summertime car rides for 30 miles can get interesting. We dropped her off at Karissa's mom's place and headed out close to 11am.
W spent a little bit of time on th west end of Fargo, but lately that side isn't as fun, so we headed over to the east side, where downtown Fargo sits. It was hot as hell, but we had some fun hitting the antique stores on Broadway. We ate at Bertrosa's for lunch, then headed off to Moorhead.
At Moorhead, we stopped at the antique store we found last March, the one with all their junk piled up in a warehouse. We saw a hanging light last time that was really cool, so this time Karissa haggled a bit, and we got a good price for it. You can see the pic further down. When you see the light, you will realize why I'm not coming off as the gayest straight guy ever for gushing about a light fixture.
Next stop was the antique mall in Moorhead, where Karissa found tea pots and other containers made of silver and every other kind of metal. I found a wood model of th Edmund Fitzgerald, and fought with myself not to get it. I had made the decision not too long ago that I would rather do a painting of it as a sunken wreck that have a model.
We checked into the Travelodge & Suites and had to haul the light and everything else into our room so nobody would steal it. Despite the fact that this Travelodge looks uncomfortably like a Choice Hotel (no offense April), they treated me like a fellow employee, and I had a good stay.
We checked one more little antiqu store downtown, where I found a new hat (green one with no brass badge on it below).
That night, Karissa and I skipped th Speakeasy and opted for Toscano's a fancy little place on Broadway. It turned out very nice, and the waitress served us so well, we began questioning why we still go fast food.

Friday:
After a good night's sleep, we headed out to Alexandria.
We hit the antique stores there, and came out with quite a bit of junk. I was debating getting a guitar I found at one, but it needed too much work. I also found the same Russian officer's hat I saw last March, but didn't feel comfortable with the price I'd be paying for it, so I left it. I did, however find a cool painting from 1963. At another one, I found two 8mm cameras I would have loved to own--on with a manual zoom lens, and one equipped with 3 different lenses that rotated into position like those old 16mm ones. I also found one with a "quatrolens", which apparently takes 3D pictures. I thought April would think it was cool. Karissa found a couple compacts and a ring that looked like a Roman brooch, and I found another hat (the dark blue with a badge on it).
We ate at the Traveler's Inn for lunch, and were asked before being seated if we wanted to sit by the family with kids. The family in question had a couple of kids that were bing typical kids and misbehaving a little, and I'm pretty sure they were within earshot. We replied that we didn't mind, and marveled at the host's rudeness. For the record, I have nothing against those who don't want to sit near kids, nor do I have anything against sitting near noisy kids, so long as they are touching me. But for the host to bring it up almost right in front of them, that's not professional.
Anyway, we hit another antique store, where I saw a lot of stuff we saw last October, like a 4-stringed banjo, a dirty sax, that kind of stuff. I also found what may have been a dulcimer missing a string, which I didn't get, and a top hat, which I did get.
We also stopped at a comic shop, where we wound up discussing Max Collins' "Road to Pertion" book, and finding out that one of the owners had a sister-in-law who was in the film adaption.
We drove around a bit, becoming acquainted more with Alexandria and finally stopped at Raaper's, where I tried not only fish, but also Jamaica's own "Red Stripe" beer, and "1919" root beer.
We checked into the outdoorsman's room at the L Motel, which was better than the Teddy Bear room last time we stayed.

Saturday:
After a good night's sleep, we checked out and went to the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum, which turned out to be cooler than we thought it would be. I got to learn a bit about Alexandria's older hotels.
After that, we went to the Runestone Museum, where we learned about Olof Ohman and his discovery of the famous and very controversial Runestone on his farmstead. Somehow, despite the fact the the actual Runestone, which has pretty much traveled the world , sat in the middle of the room in a big glass case, Karissa missed it.
There was actually a lot more to the museum than the Runestone. There was a lot of info about the Native American community, the ways of life back in the early days of the city's settlement, and even some war memorabilia. Outside was stationed Ft. Alexandria. Pics below.
We then took off for Fergus Falls. In Fergus Falls, we ate at the bar in Mabel Murphy's which was pretty good food, then visited the Douglas County Museum. Karissa and I were both very surprised at how cool this museum was. They had ambient sounds for different exhibits, depictions of farm life, even a little town to walk through, which was cool and creepy at the same time.
All the antique stores had closed by this time, so we just went to Swan Lake, where we had reserved a campsite. It was boiling hot by this time, and I was covered in sweat before I even had our tent out of the bag. I did get it set up, then we went back into town for some provisions. The best idea we had? Handheld fans with a spray-bottle attached. I also got a pair of shorts, but there are no pictures of me wearing them, so ladies, put it out of your mind.
It stayed in the 90's until sometime after midnight. It was not comfortable, and the batteries in our fans did NOT hold out for us.

Sunday:
Sleep at 3am was much less cumbersome. Still, after a shitty night's sleep and an unsuccessful attempt at fire-brewing coffee, we decided to pack up and leave.
It was a good decision, because we were ready to go home. We only planned a three day trip, and our minds felt that third day was enough. We missed Isabella, we were ready to get back home and get everything out of our car.
Isabella was alright, except for the bug thing. She had fun at her grandma's and told us all about it between screaming at what she thought were bugs and after her nap at home. She also sang "Happy Birthday" to us, which puzzles us.
It's good to be home. It's even better to think of getting back to my drawing. But we did have a helluva time, and it'll b fun to do it again someday. So that's it. That's our weekend in a nutshell. Karissa will point out anything I left out.

Odometer reading at the end of the trip: 567 miles.


Inside the post office, where I understand Alexander Kinkead served as postmaster and namesake of Alexandria.


Entrance & sleeping area of a cabin.


Main living area of cabin.


Washhouse.

A church.

School house. This piano is one of about 6 or 7 I saw at the Runestone museum alone.

There were lots of carriages at the Runestone museum. This is but one.

Viking ship. I believe it's a copy of the one Snori Sturlisson built.

Big furry sleigh...


Karissa the Beserker...

Doug the Red(ass)...


Sitting beside Ft. Alexandria, a slightly modern train. Let's step inside...


Inside the train...


A train toilet. I wonder if they had the same rules as motorhomes about dropping dookies?

A seat on each side and sitting higher up. I don't know anything about non-passenger cars, so I have no clue why they're there.

Desk at the far end of the car.


Here's us grilling. It's about 7:30 pm, Saturday, approximately 95 degrees. Our decision to camp may not have been the smartest...

FYI, one of those cheddarwursts became a sacrifice to the fire(pit) god.

2.5'x3.5', roughly. It's a liquor ad, but looks really cool, and was cheap as hell.

This is a hanging light that is electric, but also has an oil reservoir. Somehow the oil gets to the top and travels down along little filiments surrounding the girl, creating the illusion of rain, which also sparkles in the light. This was hanging from the ceiling of a store literally piled up with antiques and junk.

Karissa and I named her Persephone, after the Greek goddess of the Underworld. The original was often depicted robed, and not exactly caged, but the fact that she is allowed to leave Hades for about half a year suggests imprisonment, and the foliage at the bottom of this fixture would suggest harvest, so it more or less makes some sense.


We got a plastic viking helmet from the Alexandria Runestone museum. I know, it's historically inaccurate, but hey-she likes it and it's one of few hats she'll put on.

This is a cheaper top hat, not one of the top-o-the-line models, but still really cool. Derek Arnaud and I can hit the town now as gentlemen...


???

There are little anchors on the brass buttons on the side, so I'm thinking something nautical.



I'm not actually sure if this hat is military, part of some other govt. uniform, or even a band leader's cap. It's really cool, though. I did find a Russian officer's hat, but it wasn't priced right for me to buy. I saw it once before, and if I see it again, I'm buying it.


Karissa found it, but I think it's cool. Hire's is a really old root beer company--they still sell it in cans & my dad always buys it when I come up to visit.

This was probably used for creamer or something, I don't know. It's Karissa's.


Teapot that Karissa found.


One of the last little treasures we found on our trip was this big-assed gaudy ring reminisent of Roman brooches. Karissa was excited to try it on.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Substitution For Golden Brown, This Weekend We're Hittin' the Town!

Well, I'll keep this somewhat short.
First off, if you haven't toddled over to April's blog to check out the new design for Derek's metal stuff, go now! www.aprilsthoughts.blogspot.com It's very cool.

I opted to skip Golden Brown this week, because we've been preparing for a trip, and I wanted a little time to work on it over the weekend & next week. In the meantime, if you check out the BoneDaddy blog, you'll find a non-related cartoon I drew for Ernie, my boss.
I like Ernie, because he doesn't chug along the same railroad track as everyone else. He often comes off as shy or unapproachable, but is always willing to help out guests at work, even if that means driving them to the airport so they don't waste money on what he considers an outrageous cab fair. He also doesn't like the Wyndham Hotel bigwigs telling him what to do all the time, and often goes against their requests, which I think is why we still have a choice in uniforms.
Anyway, he asked me one day to do a cartoon for him (for what purpose I have no idea). He was very thorough in his request, and once I got a little ahead on Golden Brown, I was finally able to get it done for him. He thought it was really cool, and paid me $50 for it, which I wasn't even expecting.

We just got done watching the fireworks display a little bit ago. Isabella was a little scared and clung to me the whole time. She was very brave, though, and never even whimpered, even through the big mortar blasts. Right as the last booms sounded out, we felt little drops of rain hitting us, and within 5 minutes, it was coming down cats & dogs.

Tomorrow, we start our trip! We've been planning this for a loooooong time and I can't believe we're finally doing it. It's nothing new, we're going to Alexandria, MN for the weekend and camping one of those nights. For the most part, we're hitting the antique stores and museums and not giving a shit what else we do! Hopefully I'll have some interesting pictures come Sunday night!
Toksha!
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