Faux-gangstas, unexpectedly woolly restaurant-goer

Another photo post. From the end of eighth grade. Graduation party (Minolta 400si)–

Me, my awkward portrait stance and I.

The house smelt like moldy potato chips but – a more-than-redeeming factor – was one block from the Obamas’.

We are now chai connoisseurs

I rode my bike to the neighborhood Walgreens to drop off some film today. One roll from Spain, one from the end of last school year and another one from sometime earlier this year. Here are a ~SELECT~ four, somewhat related by subject, taken with an Olympus OM-1–

Hallelujah! That’s three rolls down, four more to [develop]. More to come later.

It’s ironic because Goldfish dissolve in water

Danny, Kendall, Leah and Charlie left today. Booo! It was really awesome having them here. Sammy and I went to the Shedd Aquarium with them last week. (More about their whole stay latuh.) Canon T1i–

Senile delinquents

I thought it’d be a shame for the July London/Spain tour-trip posts to have to wait a whole ‘nother almost-month to get posted, so at least I could put some stuff from London (our first destination) up here now. •

“The world smells different here.” That was my first thought upon arriving in London. Whether this was due to the incredible amount of smokers in the city or its 1000+ extra years of moldy history on America, I don’t know. (Back to this smoking thing for a second, though.. It really was shocking how many smokers there were not only in London, but everywhere we went. Nowadays smoking in the U.S. has kind of almost become a scarcely seen thing WHAT WITH all the “no indoors” and now “no in public” laws. Maybe it’s the EU’s backwards-compensation for good clean energy programs.)

One of the next things I noticed – after an incredible lack of non-sparkling water – was/were the cars. And I don’t just mean that they drove on the other side of the road with the driver in the passenger seat (New Zealand made me used to that one). No, “all” the cars we were seeing looked just like one of those stupid Smart Car thingys, all futuristic-y and such. Except for the Volkswagens, and black cabs.

Speaking of VW beetles, I’m not sure I can tell you how many a’punch they caused throughout the whole trip (in London especially) in that “punchbuggy! no punch-backs!” game. I guess that’s the third thing I noticed: My little brother’s fist in my arm.

Now, I bet a lot of Londoners and Englanders get sort of offended or at least TICKED OFF when f’rn’ers say this, but I – especially in the marketplaces, and cool little alleys, and this one antique shop – could not stop thinking of Harry Potter during our stay there. I never really read the books but I’ve seen a couple of the movies, and that was just enough to make me wonder where the wizard gang was chillin’ now (Hermione especially.. can I get a “whoo 4th grade crush”?! um…..). If they weren’t at Pigmoles, er Hogwarts, or whatever, THAT IS.

For real Kardashian butt though, London is a really cool-looking city. Parts of it look like the Jetsons, and parts of it (much like Chicago, but more extreme-r) look like they were built in the 1600s. BECAUSE THEY WERE HAHA. Okeydokey, enough “snogging around” (picked up some lingo, too), how about some photographs.

Canon T1i–

In terms of the Jeff Tweedy solo tour, London was my dad’s Union Chapel stop. There were a lot of things awesome about that show; two stick in me mind the most. One was how amazing Union Chapel is. So old and church-like (probably because it is a church) and great acoustically and UGH. The dressing room had this awesome wooden peg layout of all the seats in the auditorium called the Plans of Pewing. The auditorium was – according to the Plans of Pewing, duh – all pews with stone walls and crazy stained-glass windows. A comedian opened and was purty hilarious. He made clever jokes about Americans who think they’ve been abducted by aliens when really they just had a drunken night. But my most favorite part about it was this..

Bill Fay, singer, pianist and songwriter (as according to his Wikipedia article, in which Wilco is also mentioned) stopped by for a visit. My dad and Wilco have played some of his songs before on tour, I think mostly the one “Be Not So Fearful.” I’ll sum up his person by saying that he is one of the sweetest, awesomest people ever, and makes some music to match. He came on stage with my dad to sing that song and I almost cried (listen to the song).

Time to finish packing! This is most likely my last post until camp is over. Até logo!

Slightly above par, however, not quite at such levels as–MONEY ASPECT

Yo-yippie-yo-yo-yo-yo– I’ll stop there. Hi! How’s it goin’? Did you like those D.C. pictures that have been up here for like twelve squillion years? I think they turned out pretty alrighty. I have a bunch of notes on that [the NYDC] trip but unfortunately I think I’m too backed up to fully exhaust the topic. HECK, I still have a ton leftover from that last winter break trip. Gee golly. Right now there are some more recent tidings to be shared, though; my old neighborhood had a block party the other day, and I was present and I brought my camera.

Not pictured here: cherry spitting contests, band that was purportedly on America’s Got Talent, capture the flag, dirty feet.

Ah.. So, very very busy this week. High school ‘orientation’, plus (in terms of blogging) our Europe trip, still. And, to top it off, I’m leaving for camp this Sunday, so looks like most of that will have to hold. For now – see you later, m!#@$%f$^&@#$s.