So yeah, my trip to Syracuse this past weekend…
I met up with MK and Robin in Hoboken around 4ish. The plan was to head out earlier, to beat the evening/pre-weekend traffic congestion, but each of us ended up getting held up in some form of fashion, hence why we ended up just crawling along at one mile per hour just outside of city limits for a solid hour plus. But soon we got rolling, and the sights of buildings and homes (and civilization in general) began to fade away to darkened farms and mountainsides. Car conversation ran the gamut, but I recall a good deal of it centering on pro wrasslin’.
We finally arrived around ten and the floodgates of remembrance were totally open, especially for MK. It had been about three of four years since she was last in her college haunts, and she immediately had fun pointing out various school buildings and all the different places she lived as a student. Each one of us hates where we grow up, yet we all can’t help but get a little giddy when he comes back, to see the familiar sights (as well as gasp at the things that have changed). I guess its all part of that small pat on the back we like to give ourselves (or hope to), a congrats for having moved on to better places and not sticking around dullsville.
Anyway, we rolled into Katie‘s driveway around 10 and the first stop on the tour was for food, and that meant a trip to Dorian’s, a tiny little pizza and hero shack that I had been hearing about for a very long time from MK, primarily their chicken sandwiches. And mine was indeed quite tasty. As I ate, I was able to witness MK and Robin lament how far the once grand Daily Orange (the daily student newspaper that used to have a thriving and bustling comics page that introduced the world to, among other things, Rehabilitating Mr Wiggles and the Perry Bible Fellowship) has fallen. Then we walked around the block after dinner, and at that point it was starting to get a bit cold, so I decided to put on my gloves, which lead to the following exchange…
Katie: Hey, nice gloves!
me: Thanks! They’re my rape gloves!
Everyone started to laugh, even the woman who was a total stranger who happened to be standing there as I passed by. And that moment more or less set the mood for the rest of the trip. Afterwards we all got back in the car and drove around all night to check out even more familiar sights. Around Katie’s neighborhood we noticed a huge prosession of college kids walking the streets; apparently some big party got broken up by the cops. When we came to a stop light, I decided to roll down my window and chat with one of them…
me: Hey, how’s it going?
college dude: Sup man.
me: What’s going?
college dude: Not much. Just chilling. What about you?
me: Well, I just had a really awesome chicken sandwich!
Then the light turned green.
me: Alright dude, catcha later!
Later on, as we went about the campus, I tried my best to recreate the best part about our trip to SPACE, which was just yelling at hapless college students with such zingers as “Somebody’s gettin’ laid tonight!” or “RateMyTaint.com!!!” or “PaintMyTaint.org!!!” I guess you had to be there.
Driving around town all weekend really drove one basic message really home, and that was Syracuse is kind of a wasteland, and on a whole lot of levels (something which MK, Robin, and Katie have been telling me for while now). I’ve been to college towns before, but never one that was so huge and so desolate, as well as so depressing. Its basically a modest sized college town that’s stretched the way out, with no sense of rhyme or reason. So the whole place is all deserted and quite creepy as well, but its also falling apart. I forget who said it, but Syracuse is basically pre-Berlin Wall falling down the college town, and I was there when the weather was really nice (it was only around the 50s with some slight overcast… generally its far colder, with non-stop rain and snow). There was just this pervasive malaise that slowly crept up just a few hours upon being there, which everyone who goes to school there has to come to terms with. Also not helping is the general meat-headed populous who attends the school. Hence why MK and Robin back during their day were considered the school “freaks” which in tern led to an eternal bond of friendship (which includes others, such as Katie, Matt Singer, and others), but that’s just how it always works out. You either be a freak and find others to do shit to forget the banality of it all, or you just become a raging alcoholic. Basically, the all-American college lifestyle!
But whereas I was quietly creeped out by it all, MK took the opportunity to soak it all in, via her camera. One of her main missions was to take reference shots for her new book Cross Country, hence the stroll around campus on foot (right after lunch at yet another fave eatery from back in the day, Cosmos, which was well regarded for its pizza, and my BBQ chicken pizza was indeed very good, and its creepy bathroom, which was a dungeon alright, though nothing will ever top that shitty pancake place near Chinatown for pure Silent Hill 1 level’s of insanity). And it was only when MK went bonkers about taking pictures of one school building because they had added a friggin’ hand rail for some steps that were previously very dangerous without them did I realize how lame going to that school was/is. At the college bookstore we met up with Katie’s very good friend Drew whom I had only met for the first time and for a few minutes at the end of the SPX trip (and whom I had freaked out with my impression of the last scene from the second Invasion of the Body Snatchers film). We then hit a few other places, such as the Salvation Army which is quite the big deal around there since, once again, there ain’t shit to do in those parts. I found an old Wayne?s World book that I thought about picking up, till MK asked “So do you think the previous owner read that book while on the toliet?” Point taken. I also got a good laugh at watching two awkward college dorks (there were plenty to be found, just killing time) as one tried to get a closer look at one of the bag of random toy parts hung on the wall and almost trip and break his neck on some toy horse on the ground. I also saw this, which seemed like a regular old robot till either Robin or MK noted that it looked like a Furby with all the fur ripped off….
Though for the most part it the place was packed with clothing, and for the dudes was plenty of discarded wrestling shirts cira 2000-02. Meanwhile, for the ladies, the selection was actually quite vast with some gems here and there. Here’s one prime example…
Right after the Salvo, we passed by an Aldi’s, which is this ultra poor person’s grocery store that I’ve been obsessed with checking out since forever. Aside from having nothing but generic brands, the place is so cheap that they don’t even have shelves; everything is just right there on the floor. They don’t even have paper or plastic bags, you have to figure out your own way how to carry your purchase home. Plus I heard its patron are beyond surly, hence my interest despite MK constantly saying “no fucking way” in regards to setting foot. But this time I was actually able to go inside, with Robin as my wingman. And a thrill it was… they had these brand that I had never heard of’s cupcake that looked all stale. Not the cupcakes themselves, but the pictures of them on the box actually looked stale. Everyone in the store was a total zombie… it was almost like they couldn’t see us, like we were on a different plane of existence. I think I saw some old lady bleeding from the ears. Robin and I stuck around just long enough to laugh and point, then ran the hell out of the place, where MK still had the motor running. Then we went to the Sound Garden, the local music store which had a really nice selection of new and used CDs and DVDs (and the prices were pretty awesome). This again brought MK and Robin back to their college days of just bumming around and looking for music for hours on end. I ended up getting a Matthew Herbert CD that Katie recommended which turned out to be really nice.
The next major stop was at an indie game store I wanted to check out called Game Craze. I personally love going to indie game shops, especially in small towns in the middle of nowhere since you know you’re going to find something hard to find, or just plain crazy, which in this case was the guy running the store. The place had a very decent selection of games for all the current systems (PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GC, GBA, and DS) plus plenty of older systems like PSone, Saturn, N64, SNES, Genesis, and NES. There was a Jaguar in a box and even a Wonderswan Color for sale, and just $20! Though aside from Judgement Silversword, and maybe Gunpei, I can’t think of any reason to actually have the system (plus when I tried playing one, I recall it feeling rather uncomfortable). Also worth nothing was an old SNES store demo display, the ones you used to see in stores back in the day, running Final Fight, though the controller was busted. There were also two bins of random games without their boxes and just in plain jewel cases. We all felt a little bummed out to see Animal Crossing for the Cube for just $6 since game simply deserves… more (also, earlier in the morning, MK & I watched Katie go around in her Animal Crossing town and just hit the residents in the head with a shovel… fun stuff). Katie also came up with an idea for a Fanny & Alexander game.
Among their used NES games was Faxanadu, a title I’ve long been a fan of but never technically owned, so for just $7 (and for a mint looking cartridge) I figured why not? The whole time we couldn’t stop starring at the literally slack-jawed game store clerk who looked bored to tears, and beyond oblivious to the two Asian kids who were just hanging out there the whole time, asking him questions which went totally ignored. In our gang wondered if they were his kids, so when I went to pay for my game I decided to make chit-chat, and at a comfortable point asked him if they were indeed his, and his response was “God no. Do I look like I have a recessive gene?” Yikes. And apparently, either MK, Robin, Katie, or Drew overheard the guy said, this time to the kids “I could have been somebody, like a nurse, if I had gone to college. But instead I’m here…” Just more proof that game store people are some of the saddest sacks of shit on earth.
Later that night, and after dinner, we went back to Katie’s and watched a bit of Beyond the Mat which Robin had passed along to Katie, who’s now interested in learning more about wrestling, and that documentary couldn’t be a better start. Then we went out to the local college bar called Taps and I had some the cheapest beers ever. Unfortunately, since its a college town, the place closed down at just 2, though Drew had gotten wind of a party going on in the neighborhood, and that’s where we went next. Thing was, Drew never got a response whether or not if it was indeed happening or if it was cool to stop by, but once we arrived at the scene we saw something going on and said fuck it, then just went in. The party was definitely slowing down, with most of the booze consumed, but I managed to find an open 24 pack which no one noticed by raiding because everyone was too busy playing beer pong. It was also apparently someone’s birthday since some cake was available, and I helped myself to a slice (actually two). Soon we found ourselves in the kitchen trying to find something else to drink or eat and eventually chatted it up with one of the dudes who lived there who has a Norwegian accent that totally sounded fake, but probably wasn’t. Later I tried wishing the birthday girl happy wishes and asked how old she was, and then she snapped back with a very sloppy and drunken “Don’t you patronize me!” I gotta admit… I’m glad to taste a bit of the college lifestyle, even if its so after the fact.
The next day we just went to yet another grease spoon and I had hot dogs for lunch, and they were damn good. MK’s French Toast looked ridiculously greasy and rather disgusting, but she didn’t care since she was in heaven with all the crazy looking people around. She spent the whole time just madly scribbling in her sketchbook, with a real fondness for the Garth (from Wayne’s World) looking waitress. Then we went to a local park to walk around a bit before heading out. Here’s a pic of three of them, looking stoic, almost like the cover to some music release…
And may as well pass along a few other random pics, including a bit of the remaining bits of a food fight which apparently took place in the park, perhaps the night prior…
Here’s a huge stack of sadly broken NESs from Game Craze…
And here’s the cover to some wacky DVD that was being sold at the Flying J, a truck stop that all different sorts of entertainment geared towards those with redneck tastes…
Among the many surreal things to be seen at Syracuse was the Ninja Bikes store, but I took a picture of that with MK’s camera, so I’ll have to grab that from here next chance I get (hopefully it isn’t too blurry).
As for the all that’s been happening since then, there’s been a lot. Some of it has been not too exciting, while other bits of it has been damn near thrilling, but which I can’t or won’t talk right now (though I’m just dying to pass along details in regards to one particular “thing”). And one major component of it has been damn near depressing, but again, that’s for a later time, maybe. I guess the biggest thing from Monday was that wacky email from the firm representing Nintendo. For those who are curious, there have been no further developments, but if there is, I’ll be sure to pass it along.
And as for yesterday, it was a big day for video games; Guitar Hero 2 finally came out, as did Gears of War. I also hung out with Colin and Dave (Mauro). After work I headed up to Greenpoint for dinner, but since Colin was nowhere to be found, Dave & I simply went over to his place watched his roommate play GoW on their ultra hawt 50 inch plasma screen. And holy shit did the game look good. Plus it appeared to be just as thrilling as when I first saw it demoed a few months back (sorry, but that that CNN cam is still pretty much the coolest thing ever). Eventually Colin was in town, so Dave and I met him and a lady friend of his (whose name escapes me right now I’m afraid) and we just sat around during dinner talking about… what else? Insert Credit forum drama/gossip/bullshit. Then we went back to Dave’s and were introduced to Dave’s pet bird, which is a parakeet/parrot hybrid which sorta freaked me out at first (well it did fly right at my face, all screaming, plus I was kinda drunk… like O’Connor says, one beer for me is like 1000 for you white people) but eventually everything was chill and I really enjoyed it when it just hung out on my shoulder.
So to summarize the past few days: saw “how the other side lives” this past weekend, got sorta threatened, but not really, by some internet watchdog group, checked out Gears of War, and got freaked out slightly by some tropical bird. Plus some other stuff happened that as said before I can’t get into at the moment, though I will say that one particular component has to deal with my trip to Japan next spring!
There’s also been a TON of stuff going on, video game wise. The PS3 comes out next week! And the Wii shortly afterwards, and people are totally going apeshit, plus there plenty of other things to talk about and that I just haven’t had the chance to touch upon, but it’ll have to wait till next time, maybe later tonight, after movie night, which will be my first in two months. I believe tonight is Superman 1 in HD; I had a chance to check out a screening of the new director’s cut of Superman 2, with Richard Donner in attendance, but I just couldn’t swing it schedule-wise.
