An evening with Dr. Zibbs and the Swedish Chef

What can I say? I suppose I'm making lot of people around the world extremely jealous simply due to my fortuitous choosing of West Chester as a domicile, because of its relative proximity to one "Doctor Zibbs" of "That Blue Yak" fame. There are a lot of people who would pay any price, bear any burden, to make the pilgrimage and worship at the feat of the great Doctor, so it got me to thinking about starting a business, some sort of tour guide to West Chester, pointing out sites where Dr. Zibbs has been seen, pointing out actual bar stools where he has sat upon, or perhaps spiritual guide to West Chester, to help pilgrims cleanse themselves emotionally and physically in preparation to actually meeting him.

Let me tell you about how I met Dr. Zibbs.

The Doctor's hands are the key to life

Saigon, shit.....I lay in my hotel run, looking at my orders in disbelief. I couldn't believe they wanted him dead, West Point, Airborne, Special Forces. "Terminate with extreme prejudice" they said. I had to meet the crew of a Patrol Boat-River (PBR) at the mouth of the Brandywine river for the trip upstream so I got a ride on a Huey gunship with a troop from the 1st Cav, and lunatic surfer and battalion commander known as Lt. Col. Kilgore.

The crew of my PBR were a strange lot, the M-60 gunner looked like a very young Cowboy Curtis from the Pee Wee Herman show or maybe Morpheus from The Matrix.

After a surreal journey filled with pointless allegories and allusions, incoherent scenes with no point to the plot, (although the Playboy bunnies having to flee on the skids of a helicopter, that was a nice touch) I arrived at his den. The natives all seemed to look the same, holding glasses of thick black liquid, just staring at me otherwise silent. Then I met the Swedish Chef. He babbled excitedly, "he, he, he's a good man, a great man, he's changed my life, I'd follow him anywhere..." he went on and on, several different cameras dangling from around his neck. He seemed to go off on tangents, he was clearly insane, one minute he was talking about putting a bomb on a bus that would explode if it went less than 55 miles an hour, the next minute he was talking about the road to retirement, and having a plan, and about Ameriprise Financial. (By the way, who picks a stockbroker on the advice of Dennis Hopper?)

Then there he was, the Doctor himself. An ethereal glow seemed to emanate around his aura, the wicker chair providing the perfect framing backdrop, his white suite gleaming to the point of me having to shield my eyes. He wielded his spade shaped hand fan like a magician, effortlessly cooling himself, his bottle of 7-Up dripping sweat in his other hand. His first words to me were not exactly clear, something about being caffeine free, never had it, never will.

Ok enough, I think my memory of the evening was blurred by about 4 Guinness's, and the free swag we got from them, (T-Shirts and key chains) so I think I'm confusing my stories between Apocalypse Now, Hearts of Darkness, and a 7-Up commercial. Suffice to say, I met the man himself, and it was good. Everyone should meet Dr. Zibbs at least once in their lives, at least that's what it says in the Koran anyway. As for the Swedish Chef, as it turns out, we've probably met each other before at of all places, at John Young's Guerrilla Drive in! (It's a small world, and a really cool town West Chester is) He even grew up with and knows Nikki from Van Ryn's barbershop, she's the one that cuts my hair, of which Lana approves of. :)

I'm telling you, living in West Chester is great, spring is here, summer is coming, you got to get here!

Jealous?

Album drops April 28th, but who's got a copy now thanks to my friends at the Mad Platter CD's? Yup, THIS guy!

Wait until I tell you about my evening with Dr. Zibbs!

More from West Chester University...Khristos Voskrese, Voistinu Voskrese

This will be a short blog, in contrast to the fact that the weekend was crammed with so much stuff, Friday night was a nice long walk in the borough, Saturday was a day (and a lot of the night) trip to Washington DC, and Sunday was Russian Orthodox Easter, and thus a pretty long day, having managed to cram in a trip out to Net Cost, the Russian Grocery Store on Bustleton Pike north of Philly, then down to St Andrew's Russian Orthodox Church, for the blessing of the Easter Baskets, and then back to West Chester University for a presentation by the Russian Language and Drama Club of some classic Russian Fairy Tales, including Teremok, and The Turnip.



Thanks to Dr. Jim Jones of WCJIM fame for referencing the play at WCU on his website, and thanks to Dr. Alice Speh for keeping me informed about the play, it definately capped a fun weekend! Oh, and thanks mostly to Lana, you know, for just everything...OH, and I just noticed, look for how long (minutes and seconds) the video runs.....I'm just saying...

It's official! Congratulations to West Chester University Gracenotes!

Hi all, I get to write this blog at the intersection of where two of my interests meet, in this case, West Chester, and Ben Folds. It seems that about a year ago Ben Folds had stumbled upon some videos on You Tube of various University Acapella groups doing versions of some of his songs. This inspired him to reach out to the interweb and solicit more groups to doing his songs, the best of which he would record and put out in album which, as it happens, "drops" April 28th, "Ben Folds presents, University Acapella"

And who made the cut? Among some very amazing talents, from some very amazing Universities, was West Chester's own all girls Acapella group, the West Chester University Gracenotes.



Now in the interest of full disclosure, I've never seen them preform before, I don't know any of them personally, unless I helped them during the mock interviews the women's business club put on campus last year or they work part time as waitresses at any of the restaurants up and down Gay Street I've probably never met them before, but I can't otherwise feel happy and proud that their version of "Fred Jones Part 2" made the album. This is especially impressive for me because I never really liked the song when it came out because it is about a man getting laid off, and it came out about the time I got laid off that one time, hence the depressing nature of it all, but yet hearing them sing it is somehow more soothing, more palatable, almost made me look forward to getting laid off again. (God Forbid) Besides, they're College Girls, and who doesn't like College Girls?

So Congratulations to the Gracenotes on a job well done.

And since I'm plugging the album, (why, I have no financial stake in Ben Fold's success, other than the more popular he gets, the cooler I become) check out this group that has also made the album, the Sacramento State University Jazz Ensemble.

In order to realize how good the improvisational, scatting version the students do I've included the original song from 1997 when Ben Folds Five performed on Sessions at West 54th Street, a great little show on PBS for some great music. Watch and listen to Ben's version, and then watch the kid's version, it's like, scary good.

It's safe bet that on New Music Tuesday April 28th, I'll be at the Mad Platter in West Chester after work picking up my copy, maybe I'll see you there?

Fashion Advice from my Cousin

No comment from me, except to say that this is my cousin Lauren, and she managed to get a plug in for her new kid, which is either my nephew, or 2nd cousin, depending on how it works out and she knows all about this fashion stuff, and she can work miracles because she can make even me look good. (It usually involves me wearing all black, pinstripes and platform shoes for some reason...)

Orlando versus West Chester

I wasn't sure how I wanted to express my thoughts about my trip to Orlando, other than start off by giving a high level overview of what I managed to accomplish while down there, and then go on to discuss the specifics of what I observed, as if my two cents offers a fresh alternative look as to what's happening down there. So, since I can't think of a better way to express what I'm thinking, let's just begin exactly as I outlined, why not right?

Ok so in a nutshell, in the course of 9 days in Florida, I managed to:

• Have Dinner with my brothers Ralph and Joe and his Canadian girlfriend Sheyla and family.


• Have Lunch with my brothers and my mom.
  


• Have a few drinks with a couple of my Army buddies.
  


• Watch Ben Folds at the Hard Rock Live Venue at Universal Studios with Ralph and my Godson Brian.


• Spend time with my girlfriend.
  


• Spend time with my Ralph.
  


• Spend time with my Dad on his birthday.

So, I got a lot done. As infrequently as I get a chance to spend time with family, I have to take these opportunities when I can. For those friends of mine whom I missed, forgive me, we'll hook up next time in town, promise!

The other thing is that I get a chance to compare and contrast where I've come from, to where I live now, and see how much has changed since I left in 1999. Every time I go back to Orlando, I look around as I'm being driven to my Dad's house where I usually set up camp for my stays, and I'm overwhelmed by 3 feelings, awe, jealousy, and relief. Awe, in that I'm amazed at the shear amount of growth Orlando has had in the years since I've been gone. True, much of the growth is phony, like a giant Potemkin's Village has sprouted up over night, (think the fake Rock Ridge, next to the real Rock Ridge from Blazing Saddles) Jealousy, in so much that I'd love to be living among friends and family in a place that has grown so much. Finally Relief, in that I'm so glad I don't live there now, because in some respects I doubt I could have grown as much as I have personally, if I had stayed. In the years since I've left, I've lived in Salt Lake City, Denver, and in the Philly Burbs, and had more than my share of interesting experiences along the way.

Of all the things that changed that impressed me the most, about Orlando, was the arrival of the classic "Hipster" (Nihilistus Artsyfartsycus) (That's the Latin name for the genome and species) :)
I'm serious, I couldn't believe it. Skinny jeans, ironic t-shirts, pork pie hats, single speed bicycles, in ORLANDO, the City where cool trends go to die. The thing of it is, one of two things is about to happen, the hipster, as we know it, is about to become extinct because it has arrived in Orlando, or, the Orlando that I knew, the Puerto Rican/Redneck-Rebel Flag/Evangelical Christian/Boy Band producing town is becoming extinct.

How did the Hipster manage to make it down to Orlando, I wonder. Are they leftover implants by the Democratic party to relocate Obama voters to the south to turn Florida into a Blue State? Are they economic refugees in so much as it's just gotten to be to expensive, even in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York for them to afford to live there?

Seriously though, I imagine that the University of Central Florida, through it's Bachelors Degree in Visual Language from its Digital Media department, as well as its Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. Valencia Community College has some graphic arts programs as well as the "DAVE" School (Digital Animation and Video Education) at Universal Studios, and of course the Grand-daddy of them all, Full Sail "University" has attracted many of them down there.

Part of my loathing for them is my jealousy of them, first in that they are skinny, but also in that they get to pursue something they love, while living the bohemian lifestyle, while not exactly eschewing the need for technology, as on the one hand maybe they don't have a nice car, but they have iBook and an iPhone in their messenger bag while tooling around on a Vespa motor scooter or that ubiquitous 1 speed bike. Plus, all the coffee you can drink while writing that screenplay? Sign me up!

So in the 10 years that I left, Orlando got Hipsters, non Starbucks coffee shops, hell, Orlando actually GOT Starbucks coffee shops, independent record stores, motor scooter culture, pretty much all the cool, hip things I pursued these last 10 years between my visits to Seattle and Portland, and my stays in Salt Lake, Denver and now here in West Chester. So, should I move back to Orlando now that I have a place to hang out that wasn't there before?

There was and still is the Enzian Theater, an independent movie place (that served beer) that showed foreign films with subtitles and those Spike and Mike sick and twisted animation festivals, (are you listening West Chester? We need a cool theater!) but Orlando was about as shallow and superficial as it got. (lots of orange tanned, fake boobed bimbos, rhoid raging, spiky haired douches) Not a whole lot of places for a guy like me to gather with friends and discuss the nature of travel beyond light speed, and Roman Legion Order of Battle.

I guess the answer is no, I wouldn't move back, because with my luck, if I'm right, the trend would be over by the time I got there. Seriously, it's a matter of practicality at this point, I've got the good job happening here, this place has everything I need, PLUS, here, in West Chester, there's actually no need to run the air conditioner...in MARCH, like it is down there. Trust me I'm no big fan of the winters here, but come on, 90 degrees, in March? I grew up with that for 30 plus years, I'm kind of digging where I am, thank you very much...

Area Blogger Returns Home to West Chester, celebrates with Prime Rib at Iron Hill

I just got back from a week in Florida, more blogging to come regarding my trip, (who knew Brooklyn style hipsters and scooter culture have made it to Orlando of all places) I can tell you I'm enjoying a 14 oz Prime Rib at Iron Hill at the moment, and it's really good. Don't believe me? Here's what it looked like, along with 1/2 of an Iron Bound Ale before I tore into it.

I had a pretty good time, from spending some time with my brother Joe and his non imaginary Canadian Girlfriend before he gets sent to the desert on another Middle East Deployment, to spending time with my Godson Brian and my other brother Ralph by taking them to see Ben Folds at the Hard Rock Live venue at Universal Studios, to finally showing off my girlfriend Lana to my family and friends down there. (Initial grade for her, A+)

Anyway, more later, I'm still loading photos to Flickr from the trip, as well as getting ready for the reality of going back to work. :)