I suppose in some ways it shows a level of maturity that I haven’t been playing much World of Warcraft lately; In fact, Jim and I will need to spend some time re-familiarizing ourselves with the game before even beginning the new goodies of the Lich King – but part of me is a little ashamed too. What joy can I gain from the level cap being raised to 80 when I am a mere 62?
Still as always, Blizzard has really put a lot into the project to wows it’s wow-ers with the following awesomeness: * Level cap raised to 80 * Battle with the Lich King at the Frozen Throne * One new playable class: Death Knight * A new continent: Northrend * The creation of a new profession: Inscription * Profession level cap raised to 450 * New items, quests, dungeons, creatures, spells and weapons * Siege weapons and destructible buildings (for PvP) * New character-customization options, including new hairstyles * First completely PvP zone (regardless of what kind of server you play on) * Improved Graphics Engine (applied to shaders, flame effects, water appearance and detailed shadows) * New factions including the Tuskarr (Walrus-men), Frenzyheart (Wolverine-men), The Oracles (evolved form of murlocs) and the Taunka, a racial cousin to the Tauren
Makes one yearn to be a nerdy shut in if only it didn't keep crashing my computer!!!!!
Swarming crowds, cheap goods, fried everything, bad music: street fairs in New York, which seem to spring up constantly and often for no good reason, are becoming a pet peeve of mine. Now some fairs are fun, unique ones like Bastille Day or the BBQ Block Party come to mind, but most are bland and simply annoying.
It ends up I am not the only one harboring ill feelings, local blogger Gowanus Lounge sited a think tank study a couple years back that concludes:
"The fairs are 'bland and generic' events that 'do not reflect what’s unique about New York City.' It finds that fairs are 'dominated by a handful of the same vendors
selling items like tube socks, knockoff purses and gyros, and that a
surprisingly high percentage of vendors are based outside the city.'
The report says the city should make changes in street fairs that would
include more city-based entrepreneurs and artists."
As you know, I was very, very, very excited for the Live Tim and Eric Awesome Tour Show–I'm very, very, very happy to report that it did not disappoint. The show was held in the really odd Highline Ballroom, a theater within a Western Beef,
which I imagine was super amusing to Tim and Eric. It’s kind of like a
beat Miami club (or at least me idea of a beat Miami club), if that
club ran out of nearly every ingredient required to make the cocktails
on their menu. Like VIPs
we nabbed a booth to watch the show from, a great idea since not only
could be see everything clearly, but we could see the show in comfort…
And what a show it was!
DJ Douggpound
opened and blew our minds. His puns “spoiler alert!” “word play!”; his
remixes of NPR sound bites; his pick-up lines like, “Damn, girl you
shit with that ass?”; his knock-knock jokes: “Who’s there?”
“Yahoo.com”; and his endlessly repeated bad Fm radioy introduction IN
THE MIX–they all combined to eclipse the crowd’s anticipation of the
main show. One of the best opening acts I’ve witnessed.
As for
the main event, I won’t give too many surprises away (they even ask for
us not to take photos, so future kids seeing the live show can be
experience the magic themselves), but rest assured that lots of crowd
favorites make an appearance (like Casey and his brother and Papa John’s biggest fans).
The costumes are fantastic, not only the more elaborate ones, like a
burger costume that just allowed Erics tightie whitey goods to show–but
absolutley no one can wear a pair of pleated pants (even the butt
pockets had pleats!) at just the right totally wrong spot on the belly
like my new buddy Tim Heidecker can.
After
the show they were both hanging out on stage talking to soft spoken and
adoring fans. Tim had a smaller crowd around him, I think because he
seems like he’d be meaner, so I waved to him and he waved back. I told
people I knew him and that made it okay for me to plow my way through
the throngs of Adult Swimmers to nab this fab photo. Tim and I... this
could be the beginning of best friends forever type relationship.
If
the show comes to your town GO! They wanted to make the kind of comedy
show that they'd want to see, and they succeeded in creating a show
that any fan of their work would be crazy to miss.
In a city with so many great walking options and parks, I'd have to say that Greenwood Cemetery is one of my favorites. It's larger than you might expect, so every visit is a unique experience. Fortunately my favorite part of the now Historical National Landmark is very easy to find, as it's the main gate. A Gothic spired entrance, the gate is home to huge nests of birds, including wild parrots (!) though I've never seen one myself. On a crisp autumn day, it's great to watch the birds flying in and out and you can hear their cries from a long way off.
Oshkosh joins the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma by participating in the Light the Night walk, held this year on October 16th at the South street Seaport. I urge anyone who wants to join me, to sign up.
In addition, my team of graphics ladies hosted a bake sale to raise money. It's a tried and true charity activity that anyone can do, why not you? I made peanut butter cookies and spicy chocolate flourless cake (both from Brix pick Simply Recipes, both this week's recipe picks) and my coworkers made ginger dark chocolate cookies, Halloween sugar cookies, oatmeal chocolate squares, and more. We raised over two hundred dollars!
You can also help out by donating some money to me for walking. Here is a link.
My good friends Luke and Ashleigh, known as The Awesome Brothers, are going on a tour this month. Please make an effort to go and see their wild and inventive show if you can. You will not be disappointed:
Oct 6 2008 9:00P Empty Bottle Chicago, Illinois
Oct 7 2008 9:00P Mixtapes Moline, Illinois
Oct 8 2008 7:00P Picador Iowa City, Iowa
Oct 9 2008 9:00P Uncle Brothers Omaha, Nebraska
Oct 10 2008 9:00P Rhinoceropolis Denver, Colorado
Oct 11 2008 8:00P tba Salt Lake City, Utah
Oct 12 2008 9:00P The Beatles Revolution Lounge @ the Mirage Las Vegas, Nevada
Oct 13 2008 9:00P Luigi’s Fun Garden Sacramento, California
Oct 14 2008 9:00P 21 Grand Oakland, California
Oct 15 2008 9:00P The Smell Los Angeles, California
Oct 16 2008 9:00P The Smell Los Angeles, California
Oct 17 2008 9:00P Che Cafe La Jolla, California
Oct 18 2008 9:00P The Casbah San Diego, California
Just thought I'd remind you to buy a ticket if you're as excited as me. But sadly, even if you are as excited but not as organized, they are sold out at the official website. High priced resells always available though!
Yummy and fun, an Oktoberfest Party is a great excuse for beer and meat and getting together friends who love both. The actual dates for the festival in Germany are Sept 20 through October 5, but who's counting, any day from now through Halloween could be perfect for your own shindig.
My office hosted a charity Bingo Night and we ended up having way more fun that expected. There’s something exciting about simple games of chance, even though I have the worst luck in them.
Bingo has caught on as a bar game too, particularly in my neighborhood of Greenpoint, where both Black Rabbit and The Mark Bar host events. I’ve never made it to the Mark Bar one, and would be a bit scared considering all the jock/sleaze men my friends have had to fend off there, but we did unwittingly walk in on a rambunctious evening it play at Black Rabbit.
Hosted by Bobby Tisdale, who is now officially the kind of famous person I see the most of (use to be various members of The State). You may know him if you ever made it to the fab (but now defunct) Invite Them Up or in a bit part as a factory worker in Junebug. Drunk on power and beer, he holds court wittily with prizes like the shirt off his back or a personal massage from him.
