Thurston Blogging

Guster is Great-ster

The Hamiltons and the Thurstons attended the Ray LaMontagne/Guster concert at Interlochen Band Camp.  Wonderful time, incredible company and a truly inspired performance by both groups.

Ray was very deep and introspective.  Guster, on the other hand, played to the crowd, rocked hard and loud and even pulled band nerds on-stage to rock with them.

For an encore, the band came back on stage in the traditional powder-blue polo shirts that the band dorks wear.

No word on if any flutes are shoved in bad places.

It's Always Sunny in the Upper Peninsula

Here's a picture from Paradise.  Yesterday, Sharon and I went to the Tahquamenon Falls State Park.  As far as I know, the only State Park that has a brew pub in the entrance.

More to follow.  More or less, depending on what you think of this nonsense.

I'm a firm believer in a ruling class...

...especially since I rule.

It's 7:30 AM.  Watching the First Cut of Clerks from the X  Anniversary Edition in preparation for my viewing of Clerks II.  Note my use of Roman numerals.  Must be the Italian influence.

It's not as good as Happy Scrappy Hero Pup or All Tit-Fucking Volume VIII, but the First Cut is pretty good, although the description in the intro of watching the movie underwater is pretty apt.  Notice the Roman numeral once again.

Took the day off to go to see this flick:

7 reviews

Clerks II 1hr 37min - Rated R - Comedy/Drama - IMDb 10:45  1:00  3:15  5:30  7:45  10:00

Did he say "Making Fuck?"

Stay tuned for my review of the motion picture epic, that is Clerks II.  That's beautiful, man.

Is Vodka Gay?

Well, welcome to our Friday night you dirty little monkey eaters.  The wife and I are pounding drinks, watching Pearl Jam on VH1 Storytellers.   Beer isn't getting it done, so we've switched to booze. 

While I like vodka and Squirt, my wife likes whiskey.  Straight.  On the TV show Rescue Me, this week they mentioned that vodka is a pussy drink.  I used to think that vodka is hard core, now apparently it sucks donkey nards.

Damn, its really emasculating that something I thought was cool is now relegated to sucking.

Let's get back to Pearl Jam for a minute.  People now think it's cute to make fun of the Seattle Grunge movement.  Alternative music sucks?!  Fuck you, pal.  Pearl Jam is still making great music.  The latest offering, the self-titled Pearl Jam, is one of the best albums this year.

Damn, Sharon just poured herself a glass of straight whiskey.  My grandma used to say that things you didn't like put "hair on your chest".   That shit better not throw hair on Sharon's chest.

Italian Alps

Since I'm suffering the effects of the time change  from my sixth trip to Italy this year, I was thinking of how beautiful the Italian Alps are.  Every time I fly from Frankfurt, Germany into Torino, Italy I see one or two fellow business travelers pull out their silver, shiny digital cameras and snap a few photos of the Alps.

Hard to blame them.  I've driven through the Italian Alps one weekend, and could easily see why Italy was chosen to host the 2006 Winter Olympics.  The scenery was simly amazing.  Dramatic, snow-covered moutains with small villages nestled at the base of them.

When I was having some photos developed at Costco recently, I came across this one, and it reminded me of the Sunday afternoon trek through Sestriere.

Gangsters Paradise

Most people think of Italy today, they think of pizza, organized crime, soccer and perhaps the 2006 Winter Olympics.  While organized crime does exist, see the capture of Bernardo Provenzano, Southern Italy's Don of all Dons get captured the day of election for a new prime minister take headlines from Prodi's win.  Provenzno, nicknamed "The Tractor" has been on the run longer than I've been alive.

He was hiding out, much live the Middle East shitbag Saddam Hussein, save the spider hole.  Someone decided to rat him out, and that person will probably be found out, and die over a three or four day period.

I've spend 83 days in Italy this summer, and when I come home I get asked often about the Italian Mafia.  Truth is, no one in the North talks about it.  In Naples, the hand of the Mafia is a bit more revealed.  The newspapers, in certain Southern towns, publish the list of store owners NOT paying protection money, as it's a much smaller list than those who are.  Fueling the stereotype that Italians, even journalists, are lazy.

Where's Frank?

Well, I'm sitting here in the Torino Airpot, looking for my buddy Frank.  If you remember, Frank is the bird that was chilling out in the airport with me,  banging his head into the plexiglass window every so often.  At first, I thought that Frank was just a stupid bird.

Later, I think Frank was in it for the attention.  He never smashed head-first into the window when no one  was looking.  Ever the showman, that Frank.

Off to Frankfurt, where I'll grab some sausage, pilsner, and some shut-eye before I plop my ass in seat 10B on the long flight to the Mighty D.

See you on the other side.

Call of Duty 2 Call Outs

To HD28, HAMZ, Prof. Hognutz & Saylor23 -

I'll be back in a week, so prepare for your certain and utter death by shotgun.  I've had a week to develop all-new shotgun and sniper rifle strategy.  It's not too late for you to sell your XBOX 360's and  buy a sewing machine or a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine.

Coach Jayballs will be back to train you in Shotgun Death 201, so bring your pencils, ladies.

Click here to see COD2 meets Brokeback Mountain.

Podcasting

I'm going to start podcasting once I get home.  What is podcasting, you might ask?  Watch this video to learn more: Ask a Ninja

World Cup-Date

One of the interesting things about spending half of my life for what seems like the last three years in Europe, has been the 2006 World Cup being held in Germany.  In 2004, I first started heading to Germany for work.  Not the pretty Germany, or the trendy Germany - real Germany.  East Germany.  Saxony, the state which is home to Dresden, Zwickau and Chemnitz.  Met some interesting people, and have a colleague who fascinates me with his thick gutteral accent and for his love of soccer.

Flash to 2006.  The big German and I  are now in Italy, and he took me to my first soccer match - a Champions League bout between Italy's Juventus and England's Arsenal.  The match ended in a scoreless tie, but it allowed Arsenal to advance and to eventually move on to win the tournament.

While Juve didn't look that great on that night, Italy as a whole as played well enough to win so far - including a tough match against the disappointing US Team which ended as a bloody 1-1 tie.

Last night, Germany beat Argentina 1-1, but the match was decided by penalty kicks.  Italy cam out and mauled the Ukraine in the first half, and ended up closing the door in the second half as Luca Toni scored two goals.  I watched the match with two other guys from the States at the hotel bar on a 42" plasma, while eating pizza and drinking Amstel.  I drank lots of Amstel.

So, I'm still here in Italy for another week.  With the German.  So, Tuesday night Germany will play Italy for the rights to play the winner from games to be decided today.

Speaking of which, my wife and I actually have a favorite soccer player.  He plays for England.  No, not Becks.  Peter Crouch.  Sharon came over here at the beginning of the month, and we sat in an English Pub in Torino and watched Crouch single-handedly kick the shit out of Jamaica.  Too much chronic all around, as the should-be bobsledders couldn't stop the dancing sensation that is sweeping the mother-nation - the Peter Crouch Robot Dance.  Quite a spectacle to take in - at 6'7", the guy is freakishly tall and uncoordinated from the looks of things.

ANYWAY (Chuck Klosterman reference that only Jackson would get), England plays Portugal today for the right to play Brazil.  Sure, Brazil plays today against the Frogs (as my German friend calls them).  France has a good player in Thierry Henry, but Ronaldo has three goals so far, and will probably net one more tonight.  Henry has two goals of his own on 12 shots, Brazil just shuts everyone down.

So my prediction is this:
Italy will lose to Germany to host the winner of:

England vs. Brazil, where England wins on a Beckham assist to Crouch.  Crouch does the robot.  Brazil, as an entire nation, cries.

England beats Germany 2-1.  Ballack and Klose mount a furious charge, but it's not enough to hold of the Limeys.

** Editors note - everyone who knows soccer would protest that this is fucking senseless.  Brazil is a combine and the rest of the field are just crops for them to thresh.  Since I know dick about soccer, that's my pick.