GWAR

Friday, after freezing riding the Night Train to work and getting home merely cold, I drove downtown to see the GWAR show at La Zona Rosa. I heard about it and thought it might be fun to see, but I didn't really decide to go and see it until I saw Kingdom of Sorrow, a "supergroup" headed by Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed, was opening for them. By the time I got parked and walked to the venue, I'd missed the first act, which is probably no big loss. Kingdom came out and tore it up, encouraging the mosh pit, which was a safe distance and lower level from me. I really only know one of their songs, but that didn't really matter, I still enjoyed their ~40 minute set. It didn't make any difference that I only know one GWAR song since I couldn't understand anything Oderus Urungus was saying. Their set started with a recorded message from their "manager," Sleazy P. Martini, setting up a wrestling-related story involving prize belts. The show alternated between songs and wrestling interludes involving massive amounts of fake blood. In the first match, Oderus decapitated some guy, the second was a tag-team that ended with Obama being decapitated and Hillary Clinton's breasts being ripped off. The third match was much less one-sided, after two space aliens (similar to the band) stole the belts and Oderus and Bonesnapper fought them back and forth before ultimately prevailing. The show was as disgusting as expected, since I have seen them live before, but completely different. Everybody near the front got sprayed by red and green colored (how festive!) "blood" and "pus" or whatever. There were some people who had been to a previous show and were wearing the same (once) white t-shirts stained red and green.
Saturday I rode the Night Train to pick up a few last-minute pictures for the ABCs of Touring in the morning. I got home around noon, changed and then went for a bicycle ride. I rode over to the Wildflower Center and veloway, stopping to have a sandwich for lunch along the way. I took a stroll through the Wildflower Center's store, which was having a sale, to see if there was anything I could get as a gift for somebody. I went across the street and did two laps on the veloway. It was kind of funny that the hills didn't seem nearly as high as when I would skate on it. I rode home, pretty slowly since I was tired at that point. I took a shower and got dressed for the HOG chapter holiday party. Jimmy called me about 6 and said I should come over and ride with them over to the place. The place was pretty nice, a large rustic barn/dance hall, but new. Dinner was not great, but it was okay. The cobbler for dessert was pretty good. They had casino style games after dinner. I played craps for a little, then sat down and played blackjack for a while. You can tell there's no real money involved by the low quality of the dealers, paying out when they shouldn't and such. At the end they drew door prizes and I won a Harley tool box and $50 Craftsman gift card. We went back to their house and Jimmy and I stood in the driveway bullshitting until after 1am.
Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30, but fortunately went back to sleep until 8:30. I putzed around for a while, then at 11 I got on my bicycle and rode downtown. My butt was kind of sore from the previous day. My first stop was at REI, where I bought a climbing harness and helmet, taking advantage of a $20 off deal. I rode from there to the campus area and had lunch at a pizza place. It was pretty good, but not as good as Home Slice. From there I went and saw Charlie Kaufman's new movie, Synecdoce, New York at the Dobie theater, which I'd never been in before. There was only one other person in the theater when I got there, about 10 minutes before showtime, but more arrived for a total of about 10. I enjoyed the movie, but it was so surreal I was slightly disoriented when I walked back into the real world.