I’m off!

July 29, 2005


When this posts to the site, I’ll be happily on route to the Black Hills for a long awaited camping trip, and then on to Idaho for a long awaited vacation. I will resume normal posting on Monday the 8th, but in the mean time I’ve put some random old writings and this months Polysyllabic Spree — to be released one by one into the blogosphere like a time-release diet pill.

Until then, have a great weekend and week.

Rushmore and Corey

Corey V.

Tags: Meta |

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Random stuff 07.26.05

July 26, 2005


First off (and I know it’s a little late) but I want to throw my hat in the ring for the “convince South Dakota Blog Watch Man to keep blogging even though his identity has been revealed” effort. SDBWM, and South Dakota Blog Watch in general, is where I go to get my daily South Dakota blog news – from there I move on to the rest.

It’s too bad that you’ll be leaving us so soon after I discovered you, SDBWM, but who knows? Maybe we can convince you to stay with us for a little while longer.

LONG LIVE SDBWM!

———————————–

Second, I’ll just inform all of you who frequent the site that I’ll be out of town for about 10 days, and so posting will be light. You will still get the Polysyllabic Spree, on the 1st, and you’ll also be treated to an old Moleskin writing from back in the day. I’ll have them pre-posted, so they’ll just pop up when it’s time.

I’ll be in Idaho visiting my grandparents. It’ll be a good time.

I’ll return on the 8th, with stories galore, I’m sure.

———————————–

Finally,

A quick side note on some Modest Mouse stuff I just discovered.

While searching half.com (trying to find the original Fever Pitch on DVD) I found that there’s a “Bluegrass Tribute to Modest Mouse” CD, by a band called Iron Horse. I don’t quite know what to think about it – it’s kind of silly. You can listen to some sound bites here.

Also, while searching around for those sound bites, I ran into the “Guitar Tribute to Modest Mouse.” It’s also pretty silly (sound bites here), but all of these no-name tribute albums to popular bands are pretty silly. Usually it’s someone who puts out about eight or nine tributes to various bands at the same time, and they all run for about $9.99 or cheaper at Best Buy, purchased only by hardcore fans and people who are trying to buy gifts.

The only good tribute CD like this I ever heard was the original Apocalyptica, the symphonic tribute to Metallica. We all thought that was a pretty good time.

Additionally, Modest Mouse is selling, in limited quantities, the posters from each of the shows on their current tour. There’s a different poster for each city, and each poster is based on one of Modest Mouse’s song lyrics.

I think they’re pretty neat, and I just discovered that the poster for the Sioux Falls show is on there. It looks like this:

Sioux Falls Poster

I’m guessing its supposed to be from “3rd Planet”: “Your heart felt good/it was drippin’ pitch and made of wood.”

Needless to say, I want it.

In fact, I want the entire set.

Tags: Music, Random Links |

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100 things about me.

July 25, 2005


It seems like, no matter where I go on this World Wide Web I run into someone’s “100 things you didn’t know about me” blog post. It’s like an epidemic – everyone’s got one, and those that don’t have one are just too lazy to do one. It’s as if in order to be a successful web-logger, you need to throw 100 useless pieces of information about your life onto the Internet for Google to cross-reference and bring back results like “Reggie Miller’s Ex-Wife.”

So what do I do? I do my own. I know it’s blogosphere cliché, but sometimes I just can’t help jumping into the mainstream and blogging like the teenyboppers do. Call this the “MTV Cribs” of the Internet: a worn out look into the life of people who think too highly of themselves.

So, without further adieu — 100 things about me, Corey Vilhauer:

1. I’m a young chap, at the wonderful age of 26.
2. I was born in Sioux Falls, I currently live in Sioux Falls, and I called myself a Minnesotan in between.
3. I went to school to be a teacher. It didn’t work.
4. I attended two colleges: Southwest State University and St. Cloud State University.
5. I transferred from the first to the latter, primarily to be with Kerrie and secondarily because SSU was in Marshall, Minnesota.
6. I can recognize the distinct smell of an ethanol plant.
7. I don’t have patience for closed-mindedness, which is actually pretty closed-minded towards those who are closed-minded. * rimshot! *
8. I never liked baseball until I moved away from Minnesota.
9. I never loved baseball until I read Moneyball by Michael Lewis.
10. I plan on going back to school to be a writer or journalist. I hope it works.
11. My favorite type of food is Thai.
12. My favorite movie is Fargo.
13. My second favorite movie is High Fidelity.
14. My third favorite movie is Becket.
15. My dog’s name is Becket.
16. I’ve visited the site where Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in 1170.
17. My favorite vacation spot, in the United States, is Seattle.
18. Second was New Orleans.
19. Our honeymoon was in New Orleans.
20. I wrote about it – it’s there on your right.
21. I had beaten every Super Mario game until Super Mario 64 came out – including Mario is Missing.
22. I was in a band once. We had five different names, none of which were very good, so I’ll save you from knowing any of them.
23. I love airports
24. I’ve never understood, and probably never will, what the big deal was about The Ramones. They’re not good.
25. I read a lot.
26. I didn’t get my drivers license until shortly before I turned 17. (I didn’t have a car, so I didn’t see the point.)
27. Frankly, I hate talking about politics.
28. I do enjoy reading about it, however.
29. I have a friend that lives in Ireland, and chances are (if you’re from the States) you don’t.
30. I was once a starting forward for the Axtell Park Middle School basketball team. The B-Team, that is.
31. Without sounding too trendy, my favorite band is Modest Mouse.
32. I’ve always thought about getting a tattoo of the Modest Mouse buffalo logo, but I’ve never had the guts to do it. Or the money.
33. I liked News Radio a lot while it was still on television.
34. I’ve witnessed at least eight of my friends (or pairs of friends) get married, yet I’ve never been a groomsman (always a groom, never a groomsman?)
35. I was originally a Chicago Bulls fan, at least until Michael Jordan retired the first time. It’s been the Pacers ever since.
36. I enjoy karaoke too much.
37. Even though I “slung” video games for the first seven years of my working career, I bought more than three games a year. In fact, I bought more games before I had any sort of employee discount.
38. At one time I fancied myself a “football” fan, in the European sense of the word. I found later that I knew nothing about it; therefore I was not a very good fan.
39. However, I still consider myself a Liverpool fan, and I have two jerseys in my closet.
40. I like Carlsberg beer for this very reason
41. I really prefer either Grain Belt or Pabst, though, to give the illusion that, in some way, I’m “keeping it real.”
42. I’m a vegetarian that eats fish.
43. I’m oblivious to the allure of Vin Diesel.
44. I took Spanish for two years in high school, but can remember none of it.
45. I almost took French in college and then stopped myself before it was too late.
46. I enjoy certain Hugh Grant movies.
47. I didn’t start playing Hold ‘em poker until it was the popular thing to do…
48. …and I’m better at it than I should be.
49. Olives make me retch.
50. I don’t like “big box” bookstores like Barnes and Noble and Borders, though I’m not afraid to shop there and buy the books elsewhere.
51. I actually like Fat Tire beer, and I don’t just drink it because it’s “cool.”
52. I’ve interviewed for teaching jobs in three states – and was never hired.
53. Aside from teaching jobs, however, I’ve never been denied a job I’ve interviewed for.
54. I had over 50 cover letters on file from teaching jobs that never bothered to even send a rejection letter.
55. If I could have dinner with five dead authors (and watch how this takes up five spots!) they would be: Geoffrey Chaucer
56. Aldous Huxley
57. Winston Churchill (which is kind of cheating, I know, but he is an author.)
58. Arthur Conan Doyle
59. Mark Twain
60. I secretly enjoy “Prairie Home Companion.”
61. I talk about sports too much.
62. I used to watch professional wrestling. A lot.
63. I actually created my own professional wrestling simulation league and included all of my friends.
64. My favorite wrestler was Chris Benoit.
65. I don’t get visual art.
66. The first real concert I ever went to was Metallica at the Sioux Falls Arena.
67. In saying this, I don’t count my first Sioux Empire Fair concert: The Monkees and Herman’s Hermits.
68. The first professional sports game I ever attended (that I remember) was a Chicago Bulls game (at the Target Center against the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves.)
69. However, I do know that I went to numerous Cincinnati Reds games when I was very young.
70. I used to tell people I was from a small Canadian city that I had made up. Many believed it.
71. This spawned one of my friends’ band name: Three Sisters, Manitoba.
72. I’ve created three websites in the past. None still exist.
73. It took me a long time, but I have finally come to the conclusion that Bill Murray is the greatest comedic mind of our generation.
74. I’ve been to England and France, but I had never stepped foot in North Dakota until two weeks ago.
75. I’ve never been in a car accident.
76. I have, though, been in two bicycling accidents.
77. One of these bike accidents left me with a scar on my chin that my beard won’t grow over.
78. I have no respect for certain types of media: tabloids…
79. …Fox News…
80. …and reality shows on cable.
81. I believe in brand loyalty.
82. For example: Sirius over XM
83. I vote Democrat, though I did vote for Nader.
84. I’ve only voted for one winning President: Bill Clinton, in 1996.
85. I was 18 when I first remember seeing Star Wars, though I’m sure I saw it as a child.
86. I used to have problems with my eye, requiring me to wear an eye patch to help ease the problems. I don’t remember what the problem was, but I remember the patch.
87. I spent every summer for many years in Jackson, Wyoming, and I don’t care how touristy it has become – I still love it.
88. I believe radio is better than cable.
89. I think Nick Hornby books make the best movies.
90. I still contend that giving college players money to play college sports is pretty stupid, so it should never be considered. Please – don’t give me the “athletes should be paid because they bring money into the school,” or the “interns are paid when they train for their jobs.” First of all, interns are paid very little – and they’re actually working, not playing a game. Second, the universities are making money on the bookworms too by hyping their school’s testing scores and alumnus – you’re no different just because you’re an athlete. If you’re good, you’ll get yours soon enough. I hardly think the life of a college athlete is that hard.
91. Sometimes I get worked up over miniscule things.
92. I buy my clothes on the clearance racks of expensive stores.
93. My first car was a Volkswagen Beetle.
94. My first CD was the Wayne’s World soundtrack.
95. I’m a cherry-cola drinker
96. I’ve only worked in the food business once, and it was a sub shop in the bar district.
97. I hated that job at the time, but I look back fondly at it now.
98. My favorite part of London was the subway.
99. I don’t understand poetry very well.
100. This post took seven days to complete (off and on).

Whew! That was a hell of a way to waste valuable web-area.

In doing this, I actually did a bit of research. I perused a variety of “100 things about me” lists in an effort to understand the purpose and validity of such lists. I’ve realized, however, that these ‘100 things about me’ pages are nothing more than a cry for attention. Hey! Look at me! Look how cool and different I am! It’s like getting an e-mail with 100 questions that you’re supposed to send to all of your friends — you try to put the most original and cool answers you can in an effort to create a mystique around your personality.

As you can see, I bought the whole idea.

Hey! Look at me!

Tags: Vilhauer |

4 Comments

Hot hot heat

July 23, 2005


Holy crap. It’s hot.

Yesterday, with too little food and too much heat, we attended a Sioux Falls Canaries game – the first one I’d attended since, well, their first game back in 1992. I remember getting a Canaries hat, and I remember thinking I was going to be a fan for life. Then I promptly forgot about them for the next 13 years.

They won that game. They didn’t win this one. Say what you want about the Canaries – they’re certainly no Skyforce. The 2005 CBA Champion Sioux Falls Skyforce, that is.

Still, we had a lot of fun, the nine of us. We drank some cheap beers, we made fun of the four people in front of us (three computer dorks and one cool looking guy who acted as if he was doing some charity work in taking the others to the “ball game,”) and we left early to go to Ken’s Corner.

It was hot, though. Too hot. It was 99 degrees yesterday (a record high) according to the Weather Channel, and it got up to 98 today with 111 degree heat index (according to National Weather Service.)

But at least it wasn’t 117 degrees, like in Las Vegas.

Ugh.

Tags: Basketball, Outdoors, Sports |

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Wrasslin’

July 22, 2005


Though it’s painful to admit sometimes, I was a huge wrestling fan. I mean, I was very into it. Ask Kerrie — she saw the rise and fall of my wrestling addiction. I was booking my own matches, I was ordering videos of Japanese puroresu wrestlers — it was uncontrollable.

Since then, however, I’ve gotten over it. I’ve realized that I’d do a lot better taking my free time and directing it towards, oh I don’t know, fantasy basketball simulation leagues.

Mark Dursin, a close friend to Bill Simmons (my favorite ESPN.com writer), has put together an article that explains a lot about why I started to become tired and burned out by professional wrestling and it’s xenophobic and lowest-common-denominator angles.

From Gorgeous George to Magnificent Muraco, from “Rowdy” Roddy Piper to “The Unpredictable” Johnny Rodz, one thing is clear: professional wrestlers love adjectives. They’re also fond of alliteration (like Ravishing Rick Rude or Marvelous Marc Mero) and hyperbole (like the Great Kamala or Ultimate Warrior). But they really love adjectives.

And so do the fans. We routinely employ their own adjectives (many of them unprintable), not only for the wrestlers but also for moves, announcers, and especially, storylines (”angles,” in wrestling parlance). For many of these angles, adjectives such as “lame” and “uninspired” work just fine; as an example, I give you Edge and Booker T’s feud over shampoo. Some angles cross the line into “absurd,” “distasteful” and even “vaguely illegal” — like when Earthquake sat on and subsequently killed Jake the Snake’s pet python, or when Brock Lesnar pushed one-legged wrestler Zach Gowen down three flights of stairs.

For a select few angles, only one descriptor fits: “appalling.”

It’s very good — go read it here: Scraping the Bottom in Wrestling.

Tags: Sports, Wrestling |

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The Blogroll

July 21, 2005


I try to keep myself aware of my surroundings here as part of the blogosphere, and one way of doing that is to frequent a handful of other blogs every day. I’d call them the “competition,” but who’s kidding who here – we’re not competing for anything most days aside from who’s gonna bash Sibby the Elephant over at Sibby Online, and really only two of the blogs I read have any claim to that.

Still, I thought it would be a nice service for both you, the faithful reader, and them, the faithful bloggers, to let you know a little more about the blogs on my “blogroll.” With the power of Mozilla guiding me I can open each of these sites at once and browse them without interruption, but you can just click on the links to the right if you’re interested in checking them on a daily basis.

In alphabetical order:

Blue Artichoke: A blog primarily about one woman’s trip through culinary school. She’s since finished and has bounced around through a few jobs, but unfortunately she hasn’t updated this as much as I would hope in the past few weeks. It’s clever and funny and it talks about food a lot. So it’s worth reading, if you like food. Duh.

The BlogSlot: Bill Walsh, big time editor at The Washington Post, presents this blog as an accompaniment to The Slot: A website for Copy Editors. Sounds boring, yes. But it’s actually quite interesting. Kerrie turned me on to this, and I’ve been reading it ever since – I’ve learned the fine art of proper place names, the spelling of “e-mail,” and his quirks about abbreviations.

Crap and Drivel: Have you ever thought of something extremely bitter and angry to say to someone after the fact? Or have you just let it sit in your head because it was too cruel to spit out. This guy does the dirty work for you, spitting contempt at everyone from the lady sitting next to him on the bus to the cigarettes he’s just quit smoking.

Driscocity: The blog run by the guy who hosts this very site. It’s strictly personal most days; Chris tends to post primarily about his life. I’ve noticed that his writing has primarily been about drinking (all of his friends seem to be turning 21 within a three-month period) or horrible computer products he has ordered off of the internet. He also posts lots of pictures from his fancy new camera.

I’ve Stared Right Into the Sun: I read this because I know him. Just like I used to read Eric’s blog because I knew him. Unfortunately, Eric’s blog is non-existent now, and so I catch up on Minnesota life though Wick, a former co-worker. Amazingly, he’s actually caught me up on Bill Murray and various top 100 lists in the meantime.

Google Sightseeing: THE blog to check out if you are as obsessed with Google Maps and maps in general as I am. Every day there’s a new landmark – why leave your house on vacation when you can see the world on Google Maps! Hooray!

Mount Sutro: I know there’s a theme to this site, but in the past month I have yet to decipher what it is. Still, it’s updated regularly, and I find myself checking it daily. I don’t want to say it’s a personal blog, because it’s not, and I don’t want to say it’s informative, because it’s not. It’s just has a nice layout and I happen to visit the site a lot.

Other Men’s Flowers: Toeing the line between a personal and language-based blog, Other Men’s Flowers uses lots of big words. It’s writer is also British, so, with my dream of being a wordy anglophile, I visit it a lot. It’s consistently witty, and I always find myself learning something about a previously unknown word or an obscure Oxford English Dictionary entry.

SD Watch: Originally “Thune Watch” during the election, this site is now home of all things politically to the left (or HBO’s Deadwood). I enjoy the SD Watch Must Reads every day, and I’d like to point out that I, myself, have been listed on the Must Reads for my short blurb on the London bombings and my annoyance with media hysteria.

South Dakota Blog Watch: South Dakota Blog Watch Man watches blogs from South Dakota and posts the interesting stuff on his site. Black Marks on Wood Pulp has been featured in the past, though the Blog Watch is primarily political. He seems to be pretty liberal, but I suspect that it’s all in an effort to piss off Steve Sibson – Right Wing Blogger.

There are others, as well, but these are the ones I frequent the most. So don’t be shy — give them a visit. I’m not pimping them out here for nothing — they want readers just as much as I do.

Visit. Or else.

Tags: Random Links |

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Motivation

July 20, 2005


I think one of the more difficult things for me to do is to start writing. I’ll do a bang up job collecting information, scanning my Moleskin, grabbing books for background information – but I’ll still find myself putting off the actual writing portion of the act of writing.

I say this because I’ve been meaning to start putting together a short memoir on my trip to the Boundary Waters last summer. Some people take pictures when they go on vacation, and we are fond of the photography as much as the next person. But pictures leave out the feelings, the random people, the smells, and the tastes. For this reason, I like to write about our vacations rather than try to remember it based solely on photographs.

In this case, however, it’s been a year. I haven’t done anything more than grab a book and page through it. What is my problem? Where is my motivation?

Starting today, I’m making a promise to myself, and to you the faithful reader, that I will write an introduction to my essay. It will be finished before I go on vacation next week, simply for the fact that I plan on throwing some words together in the car, at the campsite, and wherever I can during vacation and quite possibly could have a first draft finished by the middle of August.

I plan on doing this now because I also plan on writing about the trip I’ll be on: heading to Idaho to visit my grandparents, tooling around with friends in the Black Hills, and revisiting Jackson, Wyoming, a town where I spent practically every summer for six years.

I can’t bear to have two stories rolling around in my head, so I’ve got to act now. I’ve got to keep reminding myself that I was only in the Boundary Waters for three nights, and it can’t possibly take very long to hammer something out to remember the trip by. You’ll have to forgive me if my blog-posting is shorter, or if it thins out a bit in the upcoming weeks. I’ll just be transferring my energy to other pursuits, if only for a month or so.

If you see me, remind me. Ask me how the Boundary Waters story is coming along. Slap me in the face if I say, “I haven’t worked on it yet.”

It’s the least you could do to help me out.

Tags: On..., Writing |

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