Vacation

I guess I forgot to check it earlier this week, but there are a couple of interesting inteviews over on the Onion AV site in their Animation Issue: the creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force discuss the origins and success of the show, as well as an upcoming project called Squidbillies, and they talk with Billy West (of Ren & Stimpy fame) about working on Futurama, a possible Futurama movie and the demand for classic voice actors being replaced by big name Hollywood types. Excerpt:

The minute they mention a CGI film, they're already looking to see what Renée Zellweger is doing. They're already looking to see what Billy Crystal is doing. This doesn't make sense, to do what they do—spend zillions on visuals, and then have this totally fucking flat-lining voice track. You know, "Hey, I'm Will Smith, I'm a clam! I'm Will Smith, I'm a kangaroo!"

Anyway, I'm leaving for the other side of the country tomorrow morning for a week-long vacation. Having never been to Seattle (or any part of the Pacific Northwest for that matter), I'm really pretty excited about it. A friend recently visited and says I will love it. I think so, too. After reading through a few travel books, it seems like a very interesting town.

I still have a little packing to do, but what I'm really trying to get straight is how to handle having nearly a week to myself without any sort of agenda. I have few people to meet up with while I'm out there, and there is certainly plenty to see and do, but I don't have any real plan. On the one hand, it's ok; I can be as leisurely as I like and just roll with it. On the other, I want to make the most of my visit. In a way, it's actually kind of important that I do so. Well I'm sure it'll be fun, no matter what.

In the meantime, hold all my calls. I may try to do a few audio posts while I'm away. Forgive the mess; AudioBlogger tends to wreak havoc on my formatting. I'll fix it when I get back. I'll leave you with a few interesting music links:

Lemon-Red has a 30-minute+ mix from DJ/rupture available for download. Booty music from the likes of M.I.A. and some ragga jungle stuff. [via Pitchfork]

And speaking of M.I.A., KEXP in Seattle has an in-studio live performance and interview with her available here (WMA unfortunately).

To the West coast...

Hello Shirt

Just a quick update, before a pre-Seattle post in the near future. I added a few links to the sidebar over there. It was getting a little weak. I also updated my vital stats (i.e. what I'm listening to). I still have to do something with the music page and redo my photos (post-Flickr). Ay.

I shall now direct your attention to the first link on my list. Thas right—I've jumped on the del.icio.us bandwagon. I have just a small collection of links so far, but go ahead and check 'er out.

One neat thing I added today is this flickr photo album site. You enter a flickr username and a tag (descriptive words flickr uses for searching photos) and it generates a virtual book with turnable pages and everything. Each photo is clickable, of course, and takes you to the flickr photo page. Pretty nifty.

You could, for example, leaf through an album of photos of my friends, or take a look at my buddy Tim's Harper's Ferry photos.

Sno-Ball's Chance

I go through the same thing every year. As the weather gets warmer, and the swampy DC summer rears its ugly armpit, my thoughts turn to a favorite childhood treat I once enjoyed while staying at my grandmother's house in suburban Baltimore.

The idea is simple: a cup of finely-shaved ice coated in a flavored syrup. It's slushier than a snow cone and thicker than a Slurpee. You can't drink it through a straw; it must be eaten with a spoon. They call them sno-balls. They come in many different flavors, from the standard fruit flavors (grape, cherry, lime, etc.) to more creative/weird varieties (e.g. wedding cake, bubblegum)——all of them artificial, of course. There are also usually toppings like marshmallow cream and chocolate syrup. Are sno-balls healthy? Not very, no. Do I think they're delicious? Yessiree! In fact, they're so damn tasty some people are prepared to kill for them.

The problem with sno-balls, aside from having to choose which of the dozens of flavors to get, is that they don't seem to exist outside of certain parts of Maryland. In the suburbs of Baltimore, for example, you'll find them in roadside shacks set up for the summer. [The one I remember was in a corner of the parking lot of the A&P just outside my grandmother's neighborhood in Woodlawn.] My coworker, who lives in Annapolis, says they have sno-ball stands everywhere up there. Sadly, DC and Virginia have none. I'm not sure about Delaware.

Anytime I speak to a friend who happens to be unemployed during the Summer months, I recommend opening a sno-ball stand in downtown DC. The permits might be a bitch, and it would certainly take a little bit of cash to get started (I hear the ice machines they use go for around $2k), but the first enterprising individual to open a stand would likely make quite a bit of money once word got around. Actually, I think that person would make a killing. Unfortunately, I don't see this happening anytime soon.

There is a bit of hope. Although I haven't yet confirmed it, I hear there are true sno-balls available at a corner market at 14th and W in DC. You can bet that I will soon investigate. In the meantime, if anyone from Baltimore can point me to a good sno-ball stand (maybe somewhere in Hampden?), I would appreciate it. Even in the city of Baltimore, they're hard to find for out-of-towner. Don't bother suggesting that thing in Fells Point, either. Those aren't sno-balls.

Further Reading:
About Sno-Balls
Baltimore Area Sno-Ball stands