You sleep while I write this all down

I was given a CD the other day by a coworker, a mix he had made of mostly hip hop songs. I dig them very much. However, there was one song on there that really caught my ear, not exactly hip hop, it has more of an "indie" feel to it, but I instantly fell in love. It will be on the CD I send out for the exchange, so I won't ruin the surprise quite yet (the only hint I will give is that the title for today's post comes from the song's lyrics). But this late arrival may throw things off a bit, I thought I had my mix mostly laid out, now I'll just need to do a little adjusting. Luckily, I'm feeling like a lame-o tonight and don't really feel like going out, even though the beer will be flowing like water. It's a friend's girlfriend's birthday, and she decided to go to a bar which gives a pretty good deal on pitchers for birthdays. Unfortunately, this bar sucks. It's probably my least favorite bar in town. So if you're ever in town and want to go to the Fieldhouse, you can go, just don't count me in. I'd much rather be sitting around my place, drinking beer in my underwear. Much like tonight.

Today's been a pretty good day, I got some stuff done around my place, I did some grocery shopping (so I can finally stop eating out for every meal), played some frisbee golf with a buddy, ate a couple grilled hot dogs, hung out downtown for a little while, came home, drank some beers (it is a great night for a Tom Collins, but I'm going with something sort of similar, Leinie's Summer Shandy), and listened to some excellent music. Sounds like a pretty full day to me! I'll cap it off by doing some reading.

I finished up Timequake about a week ago. It was a great book, and became one of my favorite Vonnegut books. Now I'm reading Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and already love it, only 30 pages deep. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically about pop culture, stuff like "The Real World" and The Sims and John Cusack. I'd strongly recommend it already, even if I've barely started. I really should do more in-depth reviews of the books I've read recently, I feel like I haven't given both Timequake and An Evening of Long Goodbyes their due props. And they each deserve mad props. So that may be coming in the near future. Not tomorrow, it's going to be a busy day of avoiding anything graduation related, then moving my sister, and then probably drinking at a friend's party. A rough life, that is to be sure.

Pimping Boobs; also books and things

First, a thank you to The Boob Lady for linking to my little old blog. Not only linking, but adding an exclamation mark after my name. Flenker! I like it. Thank you, Ms. Boob. I enjoy your blog very much, you keep me entertained with your cookie/ear stories, and the always hilarious cybering posts. The Canadian thing is a big plus, too. And while I'm mentioning the exclamation mark, I will also take this opportunity to thank half the battle, who uses the mark in an arrow when pointing to the Politics of Lonely link. What does Flenker! do to deserve such good blog friends?

To continue some pimping, congratulations to Jad for your graduation! Really, I'm happy for you for a selfish reason, it means that you'll be posting more musical goodness more often!

Krazee Eyez Killa (I am your Caucasian), Lucy (a nice touch with your link here, "the flenker." Maybe I could combine them all. . . The Flenker!), and Minty (also a nice link, simply "Flenker." Understated, classy, true to the man himself. Also, Iowa City awaits), you are all my homies, and to you I say "word!"

And of course, the lovely H. Dear friend and co-conspirator. Much love.

In fact, much love, all around, to everyone! It may be the tail-end of Be Nice Wednesday, but no special day is needed! With blogger friends like you guys, it's pretty awesome all the time. Now keep writing stuff, so TheFlenker! can be entertained.

Now that all that's out of the way, I just wanted to pimp myself one last time, last chance for anyone who wants to join in the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange! I'm going to send an email out to everyone participating on Friday, to let everyone know the addresses to send their mixes. Email me at flenker@gmail.com with your address if you want to be a part of the fun.

I haven't been doing very well reporting on the books I'm reading. . . I finished An Evening of Long Goodbyes and liked it very much! There's a definite mood shift about midway through, and the ending really got me. I won't give too much away, so you'll have to read it for yourself. I think H called it next, so anyone wanting to borrow it will have to wait until she's done. (Is a blogger book exchange in the works? Probably not.) The main reason I picked it off the shelf was the title, and the cover reminded me of that Old Spice commercial with Bruce Campbell. Plus, author Paul Murray was compared to Nick Hornby on the cover, so I was intrigued. I'm glad I grabbed it.

Now I'm reading through Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. It's going by quickly, mostly because it's a hilarious book! I'll tell more about that later. I need to get some sleep now, tennis awaits me in the morning.

Happy Jackie Robinson Day!

60 years ago today, Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers for opening day, marking the first time an African-American played in the modern era of Major League Baseball. I really don't know why he and Buck O'Neil have had such a huge influence on my life; it's not like I can really relate to them that well, being some white boy from Iowa, but they're still heroes to me. Maybe it's just because they're were such big figures in the history of baseball, and therefore are big figures to me. Robinson's former team, the Dodgers, are playing in the Sunday Night game on ESPN, so I've been watching that, listening to Jackie's beautiful wife Rachel tell stories and cheer for the Dodgers in the booth. For some reason, baseball stuff can make me tear up, and tonight was no exception. It's been just a great ceremony and game.

This weekend was fun, my visitors Bill and Haley made it safely and in time for the Hawkeye's spring practice. The weather was almost perfect, only a light sweatshirt was needed when the sun was out and wind died down. The practice went about how I expected, a tense moment occurred when Dominique Douglas (Doug E Fresh or DD from now on in this blog) started limping around, but he came back a little later and made a few outstanding catches. I liked watching Arvell Nelson, as he has become my favorite quarterback, but I doubt he'll get a whole lot of playing time right away, behind Jake Christensen. We shall see what happens, though. Doug E is still my favorite Hawkeye. Todd Lickliter made an appearance and received a very nice standing ovation from the 20,000 fans that showed up to watch a practice.

After the game I introduced my guests to falafel, which was a great success. I was slightly nervous about this, since I had been building it up to them so much, but I don't think they were let down. It was a good time. Thanks Oasis! We then went to a local used bookstore, where I picked up a couple more books that I probably shouldn't have. I got Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, The Metamorphosis (and Other Stories) by Franz Kafka, and An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray. I got that last one because the blurbs on the cover compared Murray to Nick Hornby, one of my favorite writers, and because the cover reminded me of those "Old Spice" commercials with Bruce Campbell. It seems to have been well-liked by critics, so hopefully it'll be a good find. If not, I only paid half-price for it at a used place, so no big loss.

After the book store, we headed down to the Riverside Casino, because Haley really wanted to see it. And who am I to keep someone from new experiences? It turns out I should've kept her from this one, as I got my ass handed to me by a Walt Disney lookalike at the Blackjack table. With spirits and funds low, we decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for some food. I was tempted to try for the "Wall of Flame" by eating 18 of the Blazin' Hot wings in 5 minutes, but didn't really feel like spending that much money on the wings. I did sample the sauce, though, and am confident that I can do this. So sometime in the near future, a Polaroid of The Flenker will be on display. (The sauce is hot, I'll give them that. But not debilitating-ly so. And if my little brother can do it twice, that means it's not going to be a problem for me. The only problems I would have [and did last night] is going to the bathroom with the burning sauce on my hands. Not good times.)

We ended the night at BoJames, had a few drinks and a rather enjoyable time, stumbling (literally for H) home and getting to sleep. The morning brought us breakfast at the Hamburg Inn, and then a rushed goodbye as I was heading for work. More time would've been nice, but a great weekend either way.

Well, I'd love to stay and write more, but I'm dog/house sitting for some friends, and I don't want to leave Tucker by himself for too much longer. He's a sweet dog, a miniature dachshund, we've been hanging out most of the night, just laying around and watching baseball. But there's no internet there, and I needed to grab some things from home anyways, so I figured I'd drop a quick note on this here blog of mine. And I would like to welcome Haley's Dad to the scene, I hope he enjoys everything around. Anyone who is a Hawkeye fan is a friend of mine!

So it goes.

My roommate just gave me some extremely sad news: Kurt Vonnegut died today. He was one of my favorite authors, and a one-time resident of Iowa City, working at the Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa. I'm assuming there are going to be plenty of blog posts with this same title and subject matter, it just shows how influential and incredible Mr. Vonnegut was. I recommend everyone go out, buy copies of Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan, Player Piano, and Breakfast of Champions to start, then might as well just finish off his collection. Good stuff, all around.

November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”

-Kurt Vonnegut in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater