Chances are you have heard Weezer’s new song Pork and Beans on the radio or maybe you even got their CD. When I first heard the song i thought it was catchy and a little like Weezer’s old days. I was totally unprepared for the awesomeness of the actual video. You can watch it here:

If you’re not a geek like me and don’t pay any attention to the viral videos that sometimes take the internet by storm, this video may disappoint you, though it’s still fun to watch.

Right off the bat we have a reference to funtwo, who became a sensation by playing Canon in D extremely fast on an electric guitar, back-lit by a large window behind him. Next you get a cut of Gary Brolsama, the Numa Numa kid, and then there is the dramatic gopher, followed by afroninja. Other stars and references include the diet coke experiment guys, the GI Joe PSAs with a reference to the guy who catches glasses with his face, Matt McAllister who put on 155 t-shirts, Chris Crocker, the “leave Brittney alone” guy, CATS from the badly translated game Zero Wing which gave us the “all your base are belong to us” phenomenon. The list continues with Caitlin Upton, the Miss Teen USA chick who so tragically fumbled a simple question on geography on live TV, the whiteboys doing the Soulja Boy dance, Judson Liapply from the “Evolution of Dance” video, Tay Zonday from Chocolate Rain, the Daft Hands dude, the chicks from daft bodies, Kicesie from her youtube “sex ed” videos and several references to the infamous Star Wards kid as well as Ryan vs dorkman from their Star Wars fan clip, the dancing banana aka Peanut Butter Jelly Time, and the “will it blend” blender. The list goes on and on and on. I thought it was pretty appropriate too, given that the song’s message is to be happy about who you are.

Aside from being pure awesomeness, this video is testament to what a huge nerd i am.

As everyone knows, one of my secret (not anymore, eh) life-goals has been, and still is, to reach the end of the internet. I’ve been working very hard to reach this goal, and as a byproduct of my travels through the ether, I’ve encountered some incredible things. Some I’d like to forget, like 2girls1cup (if you don’t know what that means, be thankful).

Inspired by Stacey’s recent blog entry, and in the spirit of sharing, here are some of my favorite unconventional covers of music I have come across:

• A folk version of Outkast’s Hey Ya by Mat Weddle
  Maybe not super unconventional, but definitely a favorite.
• A Capella Nintendo
  If you were born after 1990, you may not get it
• Daft Hands
  Incredible, just incredible. Gets really good about half way through
• Halo theme
  With rock band instruments
  
• Mario Flute Beatbox
  Seriously, where would this generation be without Nintendo
• Two guys one guitar
  No, nothing like that other website

Enjoy.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I went to a club. One could say that clubs are not my kind of thing. At all, really. This Saturday, however, I got to go to Winter Warpdrive 3 at the Roberts Orpheum Theater in downtown St. Louis, the year’s biggest local rave. A co-worker of mine, who in those circles is known as DJ Ken Evil, provided me a ticket and a VIP pass. I’m not gonna lie to you, the party kicked ass. The place is cool, the DJs were all outstanding, and despite much the scantly clad crowd looking extremely jail-bait-ish (the event was 18 and up), there was energy in that place. I’ve often wondered, how a particular friend of ours could always stay up till dawn at age 39 when I’m often ready to hit the sack minutes after midnight. I’m sure for a lot of people it’s drugs. I saw more than just one person stumbling/dancing around with an eerily vacant expression on their face. Full tank of gas, but no one at the steering wheel. Drugs or not, though, there was a certain energy and even fully sober (minus a few beers) I was up and moving until the lights came on.

At one point during the night a young girl came up to me and my friend, Rae, and said something to her. Then she sort of liquid-danced her way over to me and said (verbatim) “Are you a handsome stranger with a jolly rancher?” I, having no candy in my pockets said “No, sorry.” She made an “awww” face at me and kept on dancing. Aside from really not having any candy on me, I had almost reflexively started saying “no” to almost any question or statement that night. One guy asked me if I wanted something I had never even heard of and kept talking to my shoulder and my back for about 5 minutes, after I declined. After the girl had moved on in her quest for a jolly rancher, I started thinking about what had just happened, and ultimately found myself wishing, that I had asked her to clarify what she meant (Uh, what do you mean by jolly rancher, because I only have starburst). Best I could figure and my friend Rae confirmed it, it was a euphemism (or a rather blatant offer) for oral sex. A quick fact check over at urbandictionary.com only partially confirms my assumption though. Apparently a jolly rancher means either a guy who can stay hard for a very long time, in rap music often used in direct relationship with oral sex, or a cough-suppressant that’s taken in pill form (for the DXM which causes hallucinations much the way an overdose on cough syrup will do). I guess I will never know what she was really after that night.

Jolly Rancher saga update:
I have been informed that it is quite possible that the girl was in fact asking about an actual real sugar-and-artificial-coloring kind of Jolly Rancher. It tuns out that when one is experiencing the effects of the drug Ecstasy, the texture or flavor or whatever of a Jolly Rancher is stimulating in some way.

Picture update due to popular demand:
Judging by my search hits, “Winter Warpdrive 3 pictures” is quite popular at the moment so here you go …

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pshannon/
best pictures of the stage

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unitovone/

http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p165/allrightname/Winter%20Warpdrive%2016%20FEB%202008/

http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg309/bshamalian/

It is almost embarrassing how late this post is but I suppose it is better late than never, right? Now that I’m finally writing this I’m starting to realize why. It was such an awesome party, I want to write something that does it justice.

If you live in the St. Louis area you have undoubtedly heard of this Halloween party. Ok, so it’s possible that I’m exaggerating a little bit, but it does capture the gist of it: kick ass party. Huge. Tons of fun. If you missed it, that is too bad, but the good news is there will be another one next year.

Halloween Hero
Halloween was a special time for almost all of us when we were kids. We got to dress up as our favorite hero and pretend to have superpowers for a night. Somewhere there was a princess waiting to be rescued by her knight. Superman was flying around the neighborhood faster than a bullet, swooping down on every doorstep, to fill his bag with candy. It was the night we got to go out into the world and show off the (current) hero that was hiding inside of us — or if you were unfortunate enough to have been dressed by your parents, you ultimately got to show off your parents’ other self — to family, friends, and neighbors. Not only did we get to go out and show off, we got rewarded for it. Your experiences may have been slightly different, but I would imagine most kids have very fond memories of that day (unless your parents did indeed dress you, and were particularly cruel with costumes).

Sadly, as people grow up many leave the fun of Halloween behind, and some even scoff at the idea of dressing up in a costume. Personally, I think the scoffing is just their insecurity talking and that is a damn shame because Halloween, as an event, only gets better with age. Fortunately for me there are many people out there who still enjoy Halloween thoroughly and I seem to be meeting more and more of them all the time. In the end though, my girlfriend Laura takes the (chocolate) cake as the Halloween Hero, for being so relentless at making every Halloween better than the last.

Victorian Steampunk Masquerade Ball
First, this is not your mom’s “throw a white sheet over your head and pretend to be a ghost for a night” party. Laura, Rachel, Deech (a co-host) and I started working a few months before the party on props and decorations for the party.

As you can see in the picture above we were partying like it was 1899. Quite a few people from the Saint Louis Costume Makers Guild were in attendance and most of the costumes were amazing. Of course, not all of the costumes were Victorian or steampunk — that wasn’t a requirement. Masks, however, were.

All floors were open for the party, from the basement to the upstairs bedroom, and most were decorated in some way shape or form. Some of the decorations were quite elaborate, like the pipe organ and the old school telephone (pictured on the right). Laura built the pipe organ using a really old plastic keyboard and a variety of other materials. Lots of cutting, masking and painting and gluing later the fully functional pipe organ was finished. The telephone — unfortunately not functional — was built using pieces of an old trashed rotary phone, wood, and metal ornaments. Both were a huge hit. On the kitchen counter, we had a rather unusual punch fountain built by Deech for this party. Before we move to the rest of the house, the amazing gargoyles need to be mentioned. Most people couldn’t believe that Laura had built them essentially from scratch using aluminum foil to form the shapes and papier-mâché to cover them with a skin which, when painted, looked remarkably like stone. They also had red glowing eyes through two LEDs that were inserted and wired into their heads during production. Before the party started we placed the four gargoyles on the four posts of the front staircase. I thought the effect was fantastic.

Moving on to the rest of the house. In the upstairs bedroom we placed my little masterpiece, which was a fully functional gramophone unit that was also a huge hit (people were dancing until about 4 a.m. to some records I got from the 99-cent bin at Vintage Vinyl). Laura and I built a large canopy to cover the bed with the intent to make it part of the theme and overall atmosphere. I was hoping the bed would provide more intimate space for people to sit on, similar to the way a couch in the living room would. To discourage anyone from actually getting into the bed, two lovable corpses were placed there and did the trick. There were of course other, less elaborate decorations through the house, such as old faded photographs in vintage frames, articles from 1800’s magazines on the cabinets in the kitchen and Christmas lights to provide a good level of moody lighting — yes I know, not exactly Victorian, but lanterns and candles didn’t appeal to us due to certain safety concerns. Dracula’s coffin from last year’s party — another one of Laura’s remarkable creations — served as a very stylish cooling chest for all types of beverages. The basement became a dimly lit dungeon featuring many of Deech’s props and monsters.

A lot of hard work, but ultimately it all paid off. Best estimate is that around a hundred people showed up to enjoy the festivities. We were all uncertain, though a little curious, to see how well that many people would fit into the house. To our surprise, it never really got too packed, and the entire house, including the back porch and backyard got fully utilized.

The most amazing thing about this party was the level of interaction between … well … everyone. For most of the night, everyone wore masks, which I believe created a much looser atmosphere and put the focus on communication rather than just than sex appeal, which often governs the dynamics of interaction at a party. Yes, I do realize how pretentious that previous sentence sounds, but I just can’t think of a better way of putting it.

Stephen and Stacey, pictured just above, won the contest as a couple. Previously, I incorrectly stated that Stephen won, which would only be half-true. Stephen’s flamethrower man costume was pretty sweet, and Stacey as his “smoke & mirrors” completed the effect. It’s too bad I didn’t get more pictures of them both, particularly the big rusted canister he was wearing on his back. I’m not sure where it came from, but it was a steampumk classic. Combined, the two of them most definitely deserved the first prize. The fact that his home-made flamethrower was actually working was super cool to some and a little scary to others. Since the night ended without any propane explosions, I’d say it was a success.

Here you can watch a video of Stephen and his flamethrower helping blow up some pumpkins in the back yard. I’m sorry about the quality but it’s the best my phone can do at night. Should be enjoyable nonetheless.

For a full gallery of pictures from the party, you can go here. I picked and pulled what I felt were the best pics from my set and all the ones I received from other people at the party.

Thank you all who came to have a fantastic time with us, and see you next year.

I discovered this guy ages ago, so you may have already seen these videos. If you have not, sit back and enjoy:

Johan Lippowitz doing “Torn”

“Don’t Look Back in Anger”

“That’s My Home”

Johan Lippowitz and Natalie Imbruglia doing “Torn” together

If I just killed your work productivity, I am sorry =)

I’ve often debated the meaning of irony with friends, most notably with Stephen, who dismisses pretty much every case presented to him, calling it either bad luck or coincidence. Maybe this is irony, or maybe it isn’t, but I can’t think of a better intro so you’re stuck with it.

I received an e-mail today that made me literally laugh out loud. It was a reply from a new guy who works at a sister company. He didn’t quite hit on me but did use the word “lovely” to describe my name. If you’re a guy would you say, “what a lovely name you have” to another guy? No, you wouldn’t. Cool, unique, interesting, different … but not lovely. He wouldn’t either, unless he figured I was missing the man-machinery down there. This not an assumption on my part either. A lot of people, I’d guess about 19 out of 20, who have only seen my name on paper are in for a surprise when they meet me and discover I’m a dude.

So aside from sharing this funny little bit from my daily life, I’d like to point out what I consider irony. I am named after very famous medieval Polish Knight, which in my opinion is as far opposite from feminine as you can get, second only to being a ninja or a pirate.

That my friends is irony (… I think).

I also put up sort of a wish list.

Few weeks ago, Stephen and Stacey held their second annual “Bring your own drinking container” party which was, as before, a ton of fun. If you are not familiar with the party here is the short version:

They provide the booze (two kegs this year) and all you have to do is show up with a drinking container. The word “container” is used rather loosely here because the big twist is: it has to be something you wouldn’t normally drink out of (like the mannequin Stephen butchered and than groped throughout the night).

The high point of the night is always the container contest which breaks down into four categories: biggest, smallest, grossest and most creative. The contest is judged by the audience and decided by their cheers.

Laura won in the biggest category, because size DOES matter (Stephen’s actual words). Keith won for the grossest. Nate gave him a pretty good run for his money but in the end the dirty old tighty-whities persevered. This guy beat me by the slimmest margin since the 2000 Presidential election, and got the most creative award. Now that I think about it, I have no idea who won for the smallest (someone please let me know). Update: Per Keith’s comment below, Sarah won for smallest with a 10 microliter (1.0 x 10^-5 liters or 0.003 ounces) measuring cup. Small indeed.

You can also view all of the images I took here.

As a bonus I’m posting a pic of the inside of my Deus Ex Machina drinking container, which required you to pour in water in order to be able to drink vodka and cranberry juice out of it. As you can see when poured water into the funnel, it filled the white container. The weight of the container would cause it to descend and the scooper at the other end of the see-saw lever to be pulled up. With each scoop from the main (second) container a portion of the drink would be poured into a third container not shown here. It was located right in front of the scooper. Once the top was mounted a tube ran into the third container so that drinking was possible. Two wires also ran into it and whenever liquid was present, an LED would glow as a result of the closed circuit. The container that received the water initially had holes in the bottom which let the water out slowly. Once its weight returned to normal, it would be pulled up by the now heavier scooper. Pour water. Repeat process. There were many other interesting back-ups and safety systems but I don’t feel like going into detail I’m sure you’ve already fallen asleep twice.