Shiverpoolin'.

Last night marked the first Halloween festivities of the trip. We met our friends Jane and Bif for an extravagant party full of wizards, pirates, a green guy, burlesque girls and a gorilla. The house has a cleared out basement which was a school about 100 years ago. Probably the creepiest thing ever. The biggest lesson of the night was that however tempting it may be, do not mix ale, wine, lemonade and vodka. It does bad things. Here are some pictures, y'all.

Like a Blister in the Sun

Last Saturday was all kinds of crazy. At noon, we watched the Merseyside Derby at our favorite bar. This is a match between both football clubs in Liverpool (Everton and Liverpool F.C.). It was great game, and Liverpool pulled out a win with almost no time remaining.

That evening, England played against South Africa in the finals of the Rugby World Cup. The atmosphere was just as crazy as the earlier soccer match, though the end result was less fortunate. England lost, and I think they played pretty poorly, although rugby makes little to no sense to me.


We ducked out before any riots began, and a group of us went to one of the classier bars in Liverpool, Alma de Cuba. The club is in a gutted old church, retouched with paintings of Jesus and the rest of his crew. There's nothing like drinking obscenely overpriced whiskey while the Son of God watches down on you. After a while, some Brazilian dancers performed and the J-man made it rain flower petals on the crowd.

After that, we decided to go to a Baa Bar, where we could actually afford to drink. On the way, we witnessed a guy with an intense small-man's complex and accelerated male pattern baldness stomp on a rat. He then preceded to kick it at people for about five minutes. What a nice guy...

On the way home from Baa Bar, we called some friends we made a few nights earlier. They invited us to a party they were throwing a block or two away from our flat. Brock, Molly, Victor and I grabbed all the booze from our flats and headed out. The party was full of mid-to-late 20's hippie types and was a total blast. One of the guys had a guitar and harmonica and played some Elvis and Violent Femmes while everyone else danced. We're headed back there tomorrow for a Halloween party. Brock might be the Todd or Dr. Acula from Scrubs. I'm going to be a zombie River Phoenix.

Sunday morning, we adventured around Liverpool. The city does have some gorgeous places, especially along the Mersey. We even discovered a new sport! It's called 'Canoe Polo' and looks like the most thing since Pogs. Here are some photos from the excursion.

My New Best Friend.

Once upon a time, a magical sauce descended from the heavens to provide me with sensational spice and robust flavor. The Queen summoned the delicacy as a gift to her people, and now I am sharing in the festivities. This hot chili sauce is able to turn any dish into a masterpiece.

White rice? You know it.
Egg noodles? Best believe it.
Spaghetti sauce? Good enough to drink.

My new chili sauce friend and I are at the stage in our relationship where we begin to get adventurous. You know - busting out the kinky stuff.

Tea and biscuits? Tea and hot sauce. Biscuits are for the weak.
Pints of beer? Pints of sauce, please. You have it on tap, right?
Fish and chips? Screw the vinegar, give me the chili sauce before someone gets hurt.

The Cavern, Los Campesinos!, Jon Binder

I think I'm finally on the better side of this cold, which make me ecstatic. As soon as the medicine I ordered from an online Canadian pharmacy arrives, I'll be totally in the clear.

On Thursday night, Brock and I tagged along with our friends Victor, Molly and her roommates to the Cavern. It's a club made famous by the Beatles, which Wikipedia told me all about. It is this great little bar a couple floors underground, made completely of brick archways. Obviously, a Beatles cover band was playing to a crowd of tourists whom all ate it up. It was a whole bunch of fun, even though one of the Band members wore a wig.

After the Cavern Club we headed to punk rock night. Brock was in his most comfortable environment as Rise Against and Operation Ivy played over the stereo, but I left him there to catch some sleep. Apparently he started dancing by himself and made a bunch of friends. He even got the DJ's phone number. He must have some killer dance moves.

Friday night was awesome. We went to see Los Campesinos! with our friend Naomi at Barfly. They were so much fun to watch, and played a fairly different set than the last time I saw them. After the show we hung around for Catfight, an indie music night at the bar. An extremely intoxicated guy sat down at our table and asked me if I was his friend named Jared. I told him no, but he wouldn't believe me. He enjoyed spitting as he spoke, which made the conversation that much more wonderful. Even after we established that I was American, and Jared wasn't, he wasn't convinced. After drinking all of the half-empty glasses on our table (which had been sitting there since before we arrived), he made his way back to the dance floor.

Later in the evening, I saw the lead singer of Los Campesinos! walking through the bar, and talked with him for a little bit. He was extremely nice, and told me I was the first person he had met that saw him at Lollapalooza and in Europe. We even got to talk about how amazing Broken Social Scene is.

After Barfly, we followed tradition and stopped for some always fantastic Liverpudlian pizza, and stayed up way past our bedtimes. Definitely one of the most fun times I've had so far in England.

Allow me to go on a tangent. Jon Binder is one of my all-time favorite person and has an internship with the Chicago Tribune this semester. It looks like he's getting to do some awesome work, and I wanted to share it with all of you. I think it's so cool, and the Trib' must love Jon if they are letting him put together pieces this early in his internship. Just wait until this kid is famous.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0710cosplay-story,0,2541383.story

In the words of my legendary friend: "This is a story about the interesting culture of CosPlay. I shot and edited the video to accompany the story written by Chicago Tribune reporter Glen Jeffers. Check it out!". Well said, Jon.

To the motherland

Round-trip flight to Dublin: $32.
November 15th-18th.
Beautiful.

We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.

I decided to take a temporary retirement from alcohol in order to give my body a chance to fight off this vicious cold. A weekend without frequenting the bars meant I could focus on getting some important work done.

I want to be all better for my favorite night of the week: Emo Mondays at Baa Bar. Walking into the ground floor of Baa gives you the illusion that you're in another crappy pop, old house and overplayed dance music club in Liverpool. However, make the trek upstairs, and you're in a different world. All of a sudden, Cascada is replaced by The Used and 50 Cent is wiped out by Motion City Soundtrack. Alright... the music isn't that much better, but at least I know the words of the songs and people look like this... familiar surroundings. Plus, with one pound bottles of Brahma (a Brazilian version of Keystone Light), how can you go wrong?



In hopes of a speedy recovery, I burned through about two weeks worth of medicine in 48 hours. Unfortunately, businesses in England don't believe in being open on Sundays (big ups, J-man!), so I'll have to deal with Earl Gray tea and digestives to get me through the night. Everything else is going great - I'm having an absolute blast. I get to see one of my favorite bands this week ( Los Campesinos!), and Brock and I are going to plan out trips to Ireland and London within the next month.



I will have some more interesting, thought-provoking and life changing posts soon. This cold drained my motivation to write or think of anything which resembles wit. To appease those of you who feel sleighed by this sub par entry, I have pictures for you below. Also, the first four e-mailers or commenters who leave an address will receive one of the four postcards shown below. Supplies are limited, and just think of the hand-written hilarity that could be yours... don't miss your chance.

The aforementioned postcards... don't you want one?!


Heineken in Amsterdam.


Watching Liverpool FC in Amsterdam.


Canal in Amsterdam.


Amsterdam, again. I wanted to be like Paul and
take pictures in the bathroom.


Concrete suitcases. Brock and I stacked
them up because we're strong.


My all time favorite anchor besides Dan Rather.

Comments

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let people know that you can now leave comments on the blog without creating an account.

I didn't even know that was necessary, so I apologize to all those who had to sign up. However, thanks to everyone that did - I love hearing from everyone.

That being said, if you're reading, stop by the comments and say 'hi'!


Here's are two videos I've been digging lately. The first one is of Jack Keroauc reading an excerpt from some of his works. Primarily, it is a blend of Visions of Cody and On the Road. If you listen closely, you'll hear where I took the title of my blog (the long, long skies) from.

The second video is of David Cross, the funniest comedian alive.