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I'm watching the tail end of the DNC on CNN, and at the end of John Kerry's speech apparently they were supposed to drop a LOT of balloons. They left the stage manager's mic live and I'm sure I heard him say, "What the fuck are you guys doing up there, we need more balloons!" Which was just funny. At least it wasn't a wardrobe malfunction.
Sara asked me on the first day we were at the beach, "Do things seem smaller than you remember them from when you were a kid?" and I didn't have a proper answer for her. I think my response was something like, "yeah, kinda..." but I really didn't put too much thought into it. The pier definitely did feel shorter, and the little concrete block wall that I used to balance on definitely seemed miniature. The beach was the same, the water was the same, and the house was the same, just a bit worse for wear.
Back when I only visited the beach with my family, we kind of fell into the same activity pattern year after year. We'd fish, we dig for clams, sometimes we'd go flounder gigging, we'd go to the same crappy restaurants to eat shrimp. It was all kind of familiar and comforting. This time, however, I was completely free to explore all the options the tiny beach towns had to offer. With my grandparents and parents, I never went to any of the beach restaurants, as they were deemed to be not as good as home cooking. We never EVER went to any of the bars or nightclubs even when I was of legal age. I kind of understand that now, since a lot of those places are full of scary rednecks. We were able to find one decent place that we ended up going to every night we were there (we had to go somewhere, the air conditioning was out) called the Sea Witch.
One night we ventured out to a place called the Fat Pelican. This place was about as redneck a bar as you can find anywhere. The one awesome feature of this bar was that they did not keep beer behind the counter, only wine and liquor. They had a giant walk-in cooler (just like Dirty John's) full of beer, and you were expected to make your selections from their inventory and pay at the bar. Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea.
I don't really have a frame of reference for the size of the restaurants or bars, so I'll have to be excused from comment on that. The ocean is quite another story. I basically lived in salt water during the summers I spent at the beach, and the minute I stepped back into the water I felt completely at home. Gently being tossed about by the waves, body surfing in, finding sand fleas in the surf, all these things were the most natural things in the world and were exactly as I remember them.
My great-aunt and great-uncle also came to visit with us one morning. I always love seeing them and talking for hours. They're still with it at 77 years old. I hope I can get there one day. After hearing the stories they had to recount, Jerry said to me, "Jeff, I had no idea you were so seafaring." I had to step out of myself for a minute and I'd have to agree with him. Only my family has really been witness to my activities at the beach, and I really haven't shared that part of my life with my midwestern friends - shockingly enough it just never came up. I guess I am kind of a seafaring guy, or at least a beachy guy.
I even took a short drive down to the boat dock in the bay to see if it would stir up any fond memories. Most of the memories were of the unpleasant smell and swarms of tiny flying insects. The fiddler crabs still made me want to chase them back into their holes, though. We used to embark from this dock when we would go clam digging. It was so eerily familiar I couldn't help but enjoy being there, even though I found it terribly annoying to be stuck in the bay for the entire day.
Standing there, reliving a lot of summertime childhood memories, I thought about where I would be in two days. Back in the city, where the most petty things seem to be critical worries, where the traffic never ends, where you can't see the stars or hear the crashing of the waves. It was nice to be there, but it's not a perfect place. Is there any such thing?
Maybe it doesn't matter where you are, but who you're with. Most of my most vivid memories of my grandparents are from our time at that beach house. Similarly, the things I'll remember most about this trip aren't when I caught that really great wave, or when we ate in that nice restaurant, but of just lying on the beach and chatting with a few of the wonderful people in my life.
Yes yes, I've been away. Last Wednesday I left for DC after work and left from there Thursday morning with Diogo and headed for the North Carolina coast. After many hours in the car, we arrived at my grandfather's beach house. Quickly I realized that the air conditioning was not working, which was a bit of a bummer. At least all the windows had been cracked open last summer when the AC went out while my parents were there. After a trip to Food Lion for groceries, Jerry and Sara arrived. Actually, our reunion was in the beer aisle - like you do.
We had a really lovely time (aside from the lack of air conditioning) lying on the beach, playing cards, drinking beer, and enjoying seafood. We played a lot of Playmaker at this bar called the Sea Witch Bar and Tiki Lounge. I also had a lot of fun swimming in the ocean again. The water temperature was perfect, and we even had some good waves to body surf. I have a few thoughts that I'll get to later. For now, you can check out the photos from the trip via the link on the right.
Ok, so I said I'd put up comments on the crowd, but I didn't. Yet. And they're not coming soon. I'm heading to the beach in NC for a long weekend. It will be nice and relaxing and maybe I'll get some writing done there, but we wont have internet access, so it wont get posted until I get back. Cope. Deal. One cup rice, Two cups water: Simmer.
And if you want to join me, catch a flight into Wilmington and I'll come pick you up. Pray the weather holds.
Beach Beach Beach Beach Beach
I thought it was about time to see a concert in the NY area after all the complaining that I did in the midwest about how my favorite acts rarely came to my town. I guess the draw of Steamboat Days wasn't enough for the big names. On friday night I got to see Alanis Morissette and the Barenaked Ladies play at the Tommy Hilfiger at Jones Beach Theatre.
First of all, the ampitheatre is at the beach, the stage is over the water, and you can see water on both sides of the stage. I was expecting the sound to be less than perfect but was pleasantly surprised. Apparently they figured out how to keep it from bouncing around in odd ways due to the water.
Opening the night was a woman named Nellie McKay who was a bit bizzare. She sang three songs and got off stage, and I wasn't sad to see her go. Maybe I just didn't get it. Next, Alanis came on to mild applause (it was still daylight, so I wasn't stunned) with an unfilled ampitheatre. I like her music, but she really doesn't have much of a stage presence. Her voice was amazing, and I was really impressed that she sounded so good. No real surprises from her, and she was done in 90 minutes.
Finally, the Ladies came on. Wow! What a show they put on! I have heard people say that you really don't appreciate them as a band until you see them live, and it's true, it was an impressive, fun, rockin' show. I'll spare you a full review, I just don't have the nack to remember every song and blink and eyelash flutter (unlike some people). My favorite part of the show was the acoustic portion. All the guys came and stood around one old-fashioned microphone and sang 3 songs acoustically, and plalyed it off in a very "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" manner. The songs were "Life, In a Nutshell", "One Week", and "For You". It was worth the price of admission just to hear those songs.
They ended the main part of their show with a new song called "Shopping", which was choreographed with shopping carts at the beginning, and towards the end turned into a synchronized swimming style act. It was so hilarious that the crowd didn't know how to respond. They spilled a bunch of packing peanuts everywhere during that part, and the roadies appeared to clean it up, and people stood there waiting. Eventually the guys reappeared and made some crack about how we already had the encore bit figured out. Of course, the encore was "If I had $1,000,000" which was great. They left again, and people figured it was time to clap and demand an encore, which they gave us. Super-fun show. I'd love to see them again. If you like their music at all, I would highly recommend seeing them live, but not on this tour unless you like Alanis, too, since they both stick to 90 minute sets. I wanted more!
To come: Comments on peple in the crowd.
A paper to which I contributed a fair amount of work was recently published in online format. It was accepted a few weeks ago without revisions and will be printed in a couple of months in the proper format.
25 Bonus points to the first person who can find the only other (scientific) journal article that has my name on it. 1000 bonus points to anyone who reads the entire paper and has an interesting question or comment. -50 points for anyone who doesn't watch The Amazing Race at 10 PM EDT on Tuesday! (Check your local listings)
I totally dig hilarious commercials so here are the links to my two favorites:
Very classy.