One or More Things I Did Today (Road to Austin Edition)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 22nd, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• The day started early for me on this fine Friday morning.
• As I slept a fitful sleep in the realm of semi rigs blowing through the one-lane highway 200 yards from my hammock, forces converged to wake me.
• "That's a funny smell", I thought as I awoke abruptly.
• "That's a funny sound", I thought as I gathered my bearings.
• "That's a skunk", I realized as I rolled out of the saddle and onto the my feet.
• Taking the nocturnal visitor and the air-braking of the night warriors as signs that it was time to ride, I hopped in my pants and hit the Texas night, 4 hours prior to my expected departure.
• Cruising the middle of nowhere, 2am.
  
• About an hour in, I decide to give the whole sleeping thing another go. Pulling into a remote picnic spot, I pop the seat back and crash until dawn (skunks still have yet to thwart the locks on an Audi).
• I rise again, 5 hours or so of road between Austin and I.
• As I drive, it becomes apparent that I'll be pushing it to make town by lunch. Furthermore, I was hoping to hit the Real Ale brewery in Blanco, and heading to Austin beforehand would add a 2 hour round trip onto the books.
• Alert the troops that we'd best parlay lunch into dinner, than redouble my efforts for Blanco.
• I stop in Fredericksburg for lunch, and make Blanco a few hours before the 3pm tour is slated to start.
• When I make it to the brewery, I'm greeted to a mob scene.
  
• The crowd on a Friday afternoon suggests I'm not alone in my WIDWINW endeavors - either these people have no jobs, are independently wealthy, or they're graphic designers.
• Whatever their occupation, the tasting room is packed like the last train out of Pompeii.
  
• I manage a taste of the 15th Anniversary brew - tasty, dark little number unlike any of Real Ale's other offerings to date - and reverse course. Bar tours are six of one, half dozen of the other, as far as I'm concerned, and nothing save salvation is worth waiting 90 minutes for*.
• And before I know it, I'm home.
  
• Sadly, my return home is not all roses, as the first six cyclists I'm greeted with have opted to fore-go the entirely overrated helmet fad.
  
• I'm typically one to leave diatribes to other blogs and Facebook, but I will write this: few things impress upon me such a swift and profound judgement as cruising without a helmet.
• While it's every adults decision to put their brains at risk if they're so inclined, chances are they're unlikely to part with medical care provided by insurance should that decision come to bite them, steep costs that will be passed on to the more prudent helmet bearers of the streets.
• Moral: helmets.
• That evening: Crown and Anchor with Mike, Carmen, Nick, and Hap. Beers.
• Picture of the Day:

The H., Home For Much of the '90s.

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*Foreshadowing events to come...

One or More Things I Did Today (The Hitting The Road Edition)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 19th, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• Goodbye, Zion. I will return. Until that day, please take good care of my cell phone. Let it not want for anything.
• While driving out the East exit, the locals bid me adieu:

Pick one: "Who do I think I'm kidding: these sheep couldn't care less that I'm leaving." "Hey, psst, want to buy an iPhone?"

• Time to put in some work. Destination: Albuquerque*
• Expansive. The West. A copy of Game Change** on loan from the heralded Cracker Barrel collection on the CD player.
• My gosh, thank you eyeballs, intelligent design, and whomever for teaming up to bring me sights like these:

To my left...
... and to my right.

• Somewhere more or less midway between Zion and Albuquerque, a little girl waving a sign causes me to veer off the road and backtrack a quarter mile. Whenever a little kid is hawking products in their driveway, I'm at least stopping by for a look. And, based on this experience, I'm going to reap rewards for my efforts when this happens on a reservation: pumpkin cookies, still hot from the oven, and a frybread bean and cheese taco.
• After nine hours or so or manipulating a steering wheel, I arrive in the 'Querque. And who should greet me? Oh, it's my old friends duststorm and smoke from the forest fire running amok just north of town!
  
• Deepening my burgeoning relationship with pay-phones, I give Jason - raconteur, cousin of my Mother, at no time member of the 'Querque fan club- a call.
• "Let's meet up in Old Town".
• Deal.
• After dinner, we hit up this place*** for a drink. The decent beer ship has made port in Albuquerque.
• Great catching up, great conversation, great night weather, great beer.
  
• And with that, it's time to call it a night.
• Picture of the day:

Loves me some Cowboy Poetry.

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*A gold standard example of "spellcheck enabled trial and error". What would I do without you, dotted red line?

**A gold standard example of "hm, when you right a book that carries on like it's the gospel truth, should readers be at all concerned that all of the sources are anonymous?". Seriously, while most of the stuff in this book is along the lines of the popular furrows on these characters held by the wide majority of Americans (save for Elizabeth Edwards, who was apparently a difficult woman to be around), utilizing quotes and sentiments only two people in the world may have been privy to, without attributing those quotes to anyone, can make for an icky feeling.
***Looking at the link now, I'm pleased to say the scene in the photo looks nothing like the scene that night.

Recommendation: Hype Machine

This post is provided through a joint effort of Recommendation Foundation and Song Corner*.

Ok, check it.

Sometimes, you come across a new website, the introduction of which shares all of the most salient qualities of love at first site, a sort of effervescent chemistry that sparks an immediate reaction and possessing of a ferocious and unyielding craving for your next taste.

For some, that was Facebook.

For others, it was What I Do When I'm Not Working.

For myself of 5 years ago, it was discovering Wikipedia**

For myself of one year ago and up to this keystroke, it was and is Hype Machine***.

Oh, man, is this a good recommendation. I'm stoked I'm able to share it with you****.

Assuming you haven't already clicked on the hyperlink and aren't currently knee deep in sampling the site yourself, here's the jist:

Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator. What I find most compelling about it is the simplicity of adapting it, and its purview of wonderful remixes and otherwise obscure songs, songs that I otherwise wouldn't come across without trawling music blogs for hours a day, is unparalleled.

So, check it out if you haven't already done so. Here's a link to the tunes I'm jamming on the site.

Fin.

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*The John T. and Catherine D. McArthur Foundation ain't got nothing on us.
**Credit due to Thomas Friedman, for writing about the site and foundation in "The World is Flat", and for publishing the book before I came to realize how I really felt about Thomas Friedman.
***Credit due to Marshall Ball, a guy who was on Facebook back in 1997, for the introduction to Hype Machine. I owe you a debt that can never be repaid, M-Beezy.
****Although, chances are you've already heard of it. If that's the case, give me a break - I'm trying here. Also, got any new leads on things I should know about?

One or More Things I Did Today (Catching Up on Backlogged Days Edition, from Zion National Park)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 13th, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• So long, LA. We had a good run.
  
• My god, there's a Chik-Fil-A in this town.
  
• I cannot emphasize the significance of this enough.
• 8 piece meal.
  
• To balance this day out as a draw, Las Vegas would have to leave me naked in the streets, wallet full of moths, left kidney missing*.
  
• I arrive in Las Vegas. See previous post for my sentiments. Like a commemorative souvenir book of our country's ills of the past 50 years.
  
• Dinner at Port of Subs!
  
• Turns out that my second cousin and her family live in LV, though, so the town** has that going for it.
  
• Visit to the Gallucci household.
  
• After catching up, commence to watching portions of Lawrence of Arabia.
• Things we learned while watching LoA:
  
• Camels can run
• The location*** of Aqaba
• That the movie has more false endings than a long uphill hike. Worse than A.I.
• Retrieved by Maria around 11pm to head over to the Lockstadt household.
  
• Stay up until 5am sitting on kitchen countertops, playing with a wonderfully hyperactive dog with a penchant for crotch-shots, and sharing YouTube finds and internet leads.

Picture of the Day: Previously published, click here for details.

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*Hm... that actually doesn't sound all that outlandish.
**Re: world's largest strip mall.
***And existence of...

Planking Across America: Los Angeles

From on high, the planking of Los Angeles. Make sure to jam this tune while enjoying the festivities below:

Planking Across America:

Planks for the memories, LA. Photo by Liz.

This planking of LA is dedicated to my LA connections, Kyle and Liz. Kyle and Liz are amazing. Thanks, y'all. This plankings for you.

A Thank You Paean to My Hosts in Los Angeles

Dear Kyle and Liz and Rachael and Chris,

You guys are the best.

Thank you for putting me up and for putting up with me.

One or More Things I Did Today (Saturday edition*)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 2nd, in the year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• I woke up at the Kamboj household in San Jose, enjoyed a fantastic bagel at the grace of Jitender (thanks, Jit), and made Brian drive us back to San Francisco in my car (I wanted to be able to fall asleep in the front seat if and when the mood struck me).
• Shelly was kind enough to drop me off at my cousin's place in Kensington.
• The Diegos and I visited a park that featured lots of rebar and tent cities**. Apparently the place used to be a dump, but they've since turned it into a park. Reminded me of this place a little bit.***
• Hung out with the Diegos for a great afternoon of sitting in the back yard, sipping on beer in the sun, rocking in a rocking chair. Thanks, guys.
  
• Invited to their dinner plans, I joined the family for a BBQ down the streets at a friends house.
  
• On the way back home, managed to lose the copy of "Big Sur" (see the 6/28 posting of "OOMTIDT" for more on this) Sarah had lent me, the one that had the wooden bookmark I really liked in it. Whoops. I'll be making a trip to Oakland the next Wednesday I'm in the area to collect those gems from the L&F.
• Important! Met up with a couple of friends (Okay, perhaps sister's friends is more accurate. But I like these guys, too! And yes, this is effectively a footnote in the body of the post. We're (re: the editors) pretty open-minded here at WIDWINW) at a place called "Smuggler's Cove". Not something I typically notice, much less share, but I wasn't the biggest fan of the joint. This isn't Yelp, so I'll leave it at that****
• But anyway, the friends I mentioned were Jessika and Colin. Cool, cool folks. Glad to have seen them. Thank you for the drinks, guys.
• And Jessica Worthington came to meet up with us, too! J-Wo! Now we were grooving. Now we had a crew. Beers at Toronado*****, and a good evening. Jessica, please to be sending me those pictures, 'cuz I need them to make more content for this blog******.

As they say, "It Was a Day".

And I hope yours was, as well.

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*Look, I think it makes the most sense to take the title, "One or More Things I Did Today" with a grain of salt. Most of the time, I imagine these posts will actually come after the day they're featuring has ended. Why? Well, if I don't wait until the day has ended, I might jump the gun, write about something just for the sake of writing, and then, bam, 11:45pm rolls around and Barack buzzes my cell piece to offer my the VP position. Unlikely? Impossible, really, but you get the point. Rust never sleeps.*******
** Tent subdivisions, really. These places were impressive.
***Kelly and I visited Christiana when we were in Copenhagen back in '05.
****Yep, back down here now. I'm telling you, free-form we are! But the reason I brought you down here was, assuming you're interested enough to read this, for this.
*****Which I would recommend. This might not be Yelp, but we do look to provide for our readers here at WIDWINW
******You might have heard: I'm still angling for a partnership with some Ad Network to sell inventory on my site. If you know of any huge corporation that want's to align itself with me, let me know! Too few ads on this blog as it is. Practically falling asleep over here...
*******A non-sequitor. I just like the phrase.

Sylvie Sings

Part of my Saturday with the Diegos.

Sylvie was gracious enough to teach me how to sing the song her class sung when they graduated. Before that, though, she treated me to an impromptu a cappella performance:

Sylvie Sings from john griswold on Vimeo.

Lyrics went something like this, only with less Jesus and more references to kindergarten*.

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*I would never, ever sink to putting a poll on WIDWINW, but consider this a thought starter to get your brain juices flowing: would you spell the class that typically proceeds first grade as "kindergarden" or "kindergarten". This question is void if you are a native German speaker. And if that's the case, welcome to this blog! Lord only know who you are, because, while I've met a few Germans in my day, I can't imagine a way in which they would discover this exercise in vapidity.

One or More Things I Did Today (last Friday... a bit backlogged on this front)

And Let It Be Known, that on July 1st, in then year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• Dang, y'all, this were a GOOD DAY*
• I took a day off to head out to the Point Reyes area of the Bay, just north of San Francisco. Having received a number of good leads on Bass Lake and some waterfall that apparently comes right down to the Pacific Ocean (this one). A lengthy post can only do this experience justice, so look to see that in the near future. In the immediate timeframe, though, suffice it to say that if you've got a day or so to spare, a car, and are in the Bay area, go check out this area. Bad. Ass.
• Speaking of experiences that absolutely warrant full-length posts, I was lucky enough to take a trip down to San Jose Friday evening to be a guest of my friend Shelly's family, the Kambojs. Here's where I would utilize some shorthand, contrived means of emphasizing that this was a singularly cool experience. Not being one to buck convention: Um, Dang. Until the post that I will write on that evening, please accept this Beatnik** poem to sum up how amazing that was:

Daaang, man,
That food was
So good!
I can't believe
, well, actually I can,
how much I ate!
Indian food.
Delicious.
Snap, rap
flim flap,
Do dap.
Thanks!

As they say, "It was a Day".

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*Like our subsidiary, Google, we're always rolling out new products here at WIDWINW. Feast your hungry eyes on this inaugural use of big ol' blue font to express something of unusual significance.
**More to come soon on this blog about Beatniks. The short of it: I've recently had a minor epiphany about Beatniks. I'll leave it at that for now.

One or More Things I Did Today (yesterday, in this case)

And Let It Be Known, that on June 29th, in then year of 2 thousands and 11, I was up to this:

• Went out to Oakland and hit up the Trappist. The beer was great, but the conversation was better: my company was two folks I had been friends with in elementary school and hadn't seen for years. Based on how great it was to catch up with Rachel and Ariel, I feel confident it won't be a decade between conversations this time around.
• Added bonus: spaced out on the BART ride back from Oakland, finally emerging from train two stops further than I'd planned. Taxi!
  

As they say, "It was a day".