Pop Culture Blog: Music, Movie and Humor

Leveraging low-hanging synergies outside the vertical fruit box since 1999.

The SideBar Website Needs Your Help.


in

This blog may be a bit flooded with SideBar and Halloween tidbits for the rest of the week, so please bear with me. There are lots of photos from the Big Haunt coming in gradually – but I still need more! I especially need a photo of me, Seamus and Bryan (The Trailer Park Boys) together. So help a brother out.

Also, I’ll be finishing up the SideBar‘s website this week! I’ve built a Boston Bulletin Board area that I hope will become popular… but I’d like to get a few preliminary comments in there before I release it to the general public. It’s currently hidden behind the main site and you can only get to it by clicking one of the links below. So please – have a look at some of the categories and quickly add your two cents. You can talk about Boston sports teams, Boston clubs/bars, something specific to the SideBar or even add a new topic of your own.

So please – click one of the above links and drop in for a look. You don’t need to register to post something. And It’ll only take a minute of your time. Thanks very much!

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The Big Haunt: I’m a Horrible Person And Am Going To Hell.


in Heartwarming

I work with a young Indian lad named Nakul. He’s become a great friend and I like to get him and his wife out of the house whenever possible, as they’re new to Boston. He took a bunch of photos at the Haunt Saturday, one of which I’m posting here. He just told me this was the first hard alcoholic beverage that he’d ever had in his life. I am now officially a corrupter.

When I worked with a large group of Indian programmers 4 years ago, we used to take them out all the time and had great fun together. And I know they were very thankful to have a local who tried to include them in his debauchery. But now I’m a little torn. I feel like I’ve just ridden into an Apache village circa 1682 with a pony keg of Schlitz before trading it for Manhattan.

Actually look at him. Hard hooch and big old fake angry titties. He looks as happy as a lark, and I guess I should lighten up. So welcome to the liquor, Nakul. It’s a fickle friend.

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The Big Haunt: Send Your Photos, Liver.


in Heartwarming

The Haunt went off without a hitch. Mostly. There was a loud late night ass kicking in the North End and many subsequently pissed off neighbors, but we squashed it sufficiently and everything’s cool now. And I feel much better about it knowing that the guy fully deserved to get trounced like you read about. I’m not going to get into it here. Let’s just say – don’t hit on a gay biker’s girlfriend.

Then there was Dave, the kissing bandit, mercilessly terrorizing the female population of the bar. Look, let me offer you all some advice: if you’re going to have a party, and put lots of effort into organizing it, make sure you’re actually going to be able to remember it the next day. I am forced to cut myself some slack, however, due to the fact we all started drinking beer right after the parade we missed because Venditti wanted immediate breakfast. Sox parade + Halloween Party + 8 visiting Canadian University buddies = FUCKING MAYHEM. That was, bar none, the worst hangover I have ever had, and a friendly reminder of why I stopped drinking.

So here’s where you can help me out, dear readers and party attendees. Send me your photos. I want to get a big whack of them together and post the best ones here. I am getting rave reviews for the party so far so I’d really like to get a sense of what it was like to be there. Even though I was. I also want lots of photos for the SideBar website that I’m currently building. Send me any anecdotes you have too and I’ll tie all of the material into a funny article you can enjoy with family and friends for generations to come.

Thank you all for coming, and I’m glad everyone had such a great time.

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Endangered Species Spotted In Toronto.


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My friend Peter, whom I previously thought was the only living Conservative working for the City of Toronto, sent me an interesting photo today. The backstory: Someone told Pete they saw a Bush/Cheney sign in the office window of a city councilman. Reeling from disbelief, Pete sought out the window in question and after an exhaustive search through hostile territory (Toronto City Hall) Pete located the politician in question.

I’ll let Pete name the aforementioned gentleman in a comment if he so desires. Barometrically speaking – for my American readers – the discovery of this rare breed of Canadian conservative is akin to a Nepalese sherpa stepping in Yeti doodies. Fair play to you, sir. You’ve got balls. Not to be confused with Yeti balls, which are generally covered in a shockingly white, light peach fuzz. Don’t ask me how I know that.

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Friday’s Quizzlet: Refrigerated Klingons


in Monday's Quotelet

Appetizer: Name a board game you enjoy playing. What’s fun about it?

I think that a true nerd is some who embraces it – and who truly revels in their nerdiness. The type of guy that will speak Klingon to another nerd while there are single women in the room. You get the picture. Anyway, my point is that Bryan and Art bought me a great DVD/board game for my birthday last year called Scene It. You answer questions about movie clips, etc. It’s great fun – the only problem is not only have I smoked everyone who’s ever played it with me, I do so well that the games only last 15 minutes. So I fear that may make me a nerd of some sort. But I’ll fight the classification tooth and nail.

Soup: How’s the weather been in your area lately?

All weather, wind patterns and barometric pressure has been on hold in Boston due to the World Series. Normal forces of nature will resume after the parade tomorrow, and I’ll gladly update you then. A stupid question deserves a…

Salad: Do you consider yourself an emotional person? What types of emotions do you experience most often?

Does crushing disappointment count as an emotion? If not, then put me down for ‘ennui’. Jesus, I sounded like an Allston hipster just then. Pardon me, I was due at a Kerry rally at The Model an hour ago.

Main Course: List 3 songs you’ve been listening to recently.

I listen to ‘There Goes The Fear’ by The Doves daily. It’s my absolute favorite song of all time, and has appeared on just about every mix I’ve made since early 2002. Even the rap ones. I’ve also been listening to this amazing and really hard to find song called ‘Here It Comes’ by Longwave. I’m not a big fan of the band’s other material but this song just does it for me. And finally the new U2 song, Vertigo, is superb. Loving it and looking forward to the rest of the album. Not crazy about the iPod tie-in though. Or any of their albums from 93-99.

Dessert: What’s on your refrigerator door? Magnets? Photos? Calendars?

Trailer Park Boys magnets. A photo of me, Jill and Sara taken on a Boston harbor cruise 2 years ago. A Christmas photo sent to me by Becky, Phil and Cole. A photo from PJ’s wedding with him, me, Henry and Harkins. An alarming brown smear which I’m sincerely hoping is Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup. But it gets weird in that apartment sometimes – so you never know. Until you taste it.

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