9-17-2011

Wow, yeahh...we're definitely back in the Midwestern United States when there's chubby girls unironically dressed up as cowboys at the gas station. I can't save plane ticket money fast enough.

While we're here though, we might as well have fun right? So today, Nicole thought it would be fun to finally go try Flip Side for cheeseburgers. 'Cause she likes meat and stuff. After all the Cheeseburger Touring that we've done, I'm pretty picky, and have a lot of experience to compare places to. So at first, I wasn't too impressed and felt like we've already been to (a little too) similar places...then quickly changed my mind. Flip Side might not be the most original place that I've ever been too, but they have a cheeseburger with wild and fried mushrooms with a truffle mayonnaise. We already know my opinion of truffle anything.

I will say though, I probably post about mushrooms a little too often. It's hard not to when I keep having strange experiences involving mushrooms. For example, we came across these today. At first, I optimistically hoped that we came across a free chanterelle garden, but upon closer inspection recognized these as jack-o-lantern mushrooms. They aren't kill-you-poisonous, but they'll definitely make you sick if you eat them. Supposedly they're bioluminescent too, but they didn't glow when we tried to see it. On top of that, Nicole found this little giant puffball mushroom growing in our yard today. Unfortunately it was too old to eat. See, strange experiences involving mushrooms.

I don't think I've posted about Ingenuity Festival on here before because I've been out of town/avoided it the past few years because it tends to be really hyped up and actually pretty lame. Well, we decided to go at least for a little bit this year. It's supposed to be about technology and art doing exciting stuff...but yeah...it's pretty much as artistic and technological as girls with Christmas lights and sparklers. The best part of the whole thing is that they have it at an abandoned subway line inside of a bridge that you can't access the rest of the year. See, bridge. The first time I went, I was super excited about looking down while standing on grates out over the river. This time for some reason even that wasn't quite as exciting. On top of that, we went to see a band that I like. Typical of this festival, the space was awesome (other than the horrible acoustics), but the setup was horrible. They put chairs (full of tired old people who just wanted to sit down apparently) in the front, and left standing room for people who don't even like music to watch from the back. This was literally the singular only lone individual girl that was dancing and looked like she was having any fun at all. In any case, since I went and shot it, here are some pictures from the set.

Spinning keyboard
Lights
More lights
This is the stage
Throwing stuff
Yelling face
Another angle

To save the day, we found a bunch of fair food stands to save the day. It's pretty sad when the best part of an art and technology festival is eating junk food, but to be fair eating junk food is more fun than most activities. This reminded me of Europe. The most interesting parts are the parts that you can't get to. I know I've posted this tripped out punk rock dude on here before because I see him various places dancing by himself for hours at a time. He likes to party. Party!