As a resident of Kansas City for four and a half years, I can’t count how many times people have laughed or said “I’m sorry” when I’ve told them I’m from Iowa.  Sure, Iowa doesn’t have a pro sports team and lacks some of the culture that KC provides, but people here fail to remember that, with the exception of a couple of cities, Kansas and Missouri look exactly like Iowa.  I also find it a little humorous that, when I would travel to both coasts and tell people I live in KC, people would react the same way Kansas Citians react when I tell them I’m originally from their neighboring state to the north. I guess it goes both ways.

One area in which Iowa has almost all states beat, however, is in politics.  It’s amazing how many ads there are to encourage you to vote for each candidate at every single commercial break.  It’s also pretty amazing how most politicians running for president make a point to stop by the small city (population: 3,000) where my dad lives every four years to try to gain support for their cause.  It just so happened that the Saturday after Thanksgiving (this past weekend) Hillary Clinton stopped to speak and answer questions for an hour at the local fire station. 

When she first came out, she was introduced by Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa (who also gained popularity among non-Iowans during Stephen Colbert’s “Vilsack Attack” segments), before taking the stage.  My dad captured this picture as Vilsack was speaking.  I could just tell when we made eye contact that Hillary was thinking, “Who’s that handsome devil standing in the back of the room?  He must be a blogger.  Sexy!”  I suppose you need good intuition if you’re going to be president.

It was really pretty cool how small the space was.  The whole event took place in the fire station garage that housed two fire trucks and, even though it was completely full, I was pretty darn close to her. 

She spent a large part of the session going over her talking points about the war, taxes, health care, etc. before turning it over to the audience.  Unlike previous reports, the Q&A session was completely unrehearsed.  I think she answered about five questions in total, and the questions could pretty much be summed up by the following:

Audience person: “I’m [insert comment of how horrible their life is].  How can you help me?”

Hillary: [Insert 15 minute response that doesn’t completely answer the question]

Of course, I’m exaggerating slightly, but I was somewhat surprised at how many people were concerned about issues that only affected them personally.  Maybe I’m naive, but I was surprised more people weren’t as concerned about how things can be fixed on a global level.  Regardless, Hillary did a fine job speaking.  I would still like to see several people speak both in person and in debates to really get a full grasp on who I like in the race.  I’m registered as an independent, though, so I suppose my input on who is nominated won’t matter a whole lot.  Either way, it was still a great experience to see the person whom most seem to believe will be our next president.

I just now realized that I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks.  I hate when there are gaps in between postings because there’s so much that happens in that span of time, and it’s hard to go back and write about things retroactively.  I guess between starting the new job, having family in town, and the holiday, blogging just hasn’t ranked real high on my list of priorities.  That should be changing, though, and I’m looking forward to finally having things settle down.

I went home to NW Iowa for Thanksgiving, and it was pretty darn great.  We seriously spent half the weekend playing board games and playing cards which is something I haven’t done in ages.  Thursday night, the actual night of Thanksgiving, the five of us ordered pizza and played Scattergories until bedtime.  It was awesome.  We didn’t technically celebrate Thanksgiving with family until Saturday night, and I stuffed myself to the point of being uncomfortable.  This wouldn’t be bad except for the fact that the whole break was an exercise in unhealthy gluttony.  There was a 24 hour period when, I swear, I had two different meals that consisted of pizza and one that consisted entirely of movie theater popcorn.  Yeah, super healthy. 

I also got to see Hillary Clinton speak on Saturday.  I’ll write about that tomorrow.  For now, it’s bedtime.

For the past two days, I had to attend a class so I can hopefully pass a test that I have to take soon for my new job.  Without going into much detail, I will just say that the content is more than a tad dry.  The class had and interesting cast of characters: the know-it-all guy, the woman who wouldn’t stop coughing, the pregnant lady who would make calls during every hourly break to see how her child at home was doing, the grumpy woman who would complain if we ever got off topic, and the weird ex-hippy dude who wore a vest, dangly peace sign earrings, and somehow talked like Yo Samity Sam but laughed like Foghorn Leghorn (He also laughed after everything he said, including when he exclaimed, “Oh dogs aren’t bad.  They taste real great between bread and some mayonnaise!”).

The most amazing guy, though, was a man who was 77 years old.  I have no idea why anyone at his age would still be taking classes instead of enjoying retired life, but he was there.  And he was surprisingly very sharp for his old age.  Anyway, during our first break on Monday, I decided to go to the men’s room to go to the bathroom.  Once inside the swinging door, I saw the old man standing a good 4 or 5 feet back from the urinal peeing…WITH NO HANDS!  The dude had his hands on his hips, and he was just flowin’ into that sucker.  Seriously, I think I’ve seen girls Double Dutch with shorter jump rope than that guy’s stream.  I walked up to the only other urinal that was available right next to him and seriously had to fight the temptation to look back at him to see what kind of mechanics he was working with. Either this wrinkly old man was hung like an antelope or the early stages of rigor mortis had set in around his crotch because there is no way a normal human being could do what he did without touching it. 

I shouldn’t admit this, but I kind of tried to keep tabs on him every time we took a break because I secretly hoped he’d go to the bathroom and I’d be treated to a repeat performance.  I’m not sure if he’s an organ donor, but when that guy ends up passing away I call dibs.

Last year, my friend Brad and I went to LA to visit our good college friend, Andy, and had so much fun that we decided to try to turn it into an annual trip.  After pushing this year’s date back two different times, we finally decided to make it happen this past weekend.  Luckily, my new boss was cool with letting me leave a little early on Friday, and I got into town around 7:45 or so. 

Andy picked me up from the airport, I dropped my stuff off at his house quick, and we headed to a restaurant where 15 other people were meeting up with us, as well.  It was a Mexican Restaurant, but it had multiple courses that they’d bring out to you in addition to the tasty margaritas.  A few people even wore sombreros as evidenced by Brad.

From there, we headed to Jones, a bar/restaurant that I’ve now probably been to about five times and love.  We ended up hanging out there all night even though it took a while for most us to not be stuffed from the huge meal we had just eaten.  It was great to see Andy, Brad, and Andy’s friends again.  I also got to hang out with Todd who had recently moved to Pasadena from New York.  The four of us guys hung out the majority of the night and, at one point, Brad and Todd quizzed me about what objects I thought were under each small lamps on the far side of the room.  It is from the debate that two solid band names were spawned: Cocker Spaniel Lamp Shade and Bo Peep Pirates.  The guys liked CSLS better while Andy’s girlfriend and her friend preferred BPP.

From there, we took a cab back to Andy’s place where we somehow stayed up until five in the morning.  This probably wasn’t a very wise idea considering it meant that I had been awake for 25 hours straight, but then again it’s not every day that we are all able to get together, either.  The girls apparently didn’t have our same mentality, though.

We ended up walking around the area Saturday afternoon because it was a nice day outside.  We first stopped in at a 24 hour warehouse/shopping thing that Paper Magazine kicked off the night before.  The small place (actually it was more like a large room) was full of LA hipsters and hipster clothing, but it was pretty cool to check out.  They had a lot of unique things for sale and for cheap since it was the opening of the place.  Whenever I come back from LA, everyone back in KC asks if I saw anyone famous.  It seems like more often than not I am able to tell them someone I saw, but I didn’t see anyone this time.  We were apparently pretty close to seeing Lindsay Lohan, though, because she was spotted at the warehouse the same afternoon we were there.

We spent the rest of the day walking around The Grove, and Andy introduced Brad and I to Pinkberry there.  I had never heard of Pinkberry before, but it’s apparently insanely popular out in LA.  It looks like frozen yogurt but tastes much sweeter, and you can mix in fruit, cereal, or other toppings with it.  I was a little skeptical of it at first, but I became a big fan.  My three flavors were raspberry, blueberry, and chocolate chips.  It was delicious (and apparently pretty healthy).

Before going out to eat, the guys and two girls ended up having a couple of drinks and playing Scene It.  I had never played the game before, but we got pretty hooked on the game.  In fact, we ended up going to dinner later than we were planning because we wanted to play some more.  After dinner, we went to a really cool bar called The Woods.  The place was located in a strip mall and looked completely random on the outside.  Inside, it was really dimly lit and the music from the jukebox was great.  It may not have been a German bar, but Andy demonstrated that you could still drink beer from a boot.

Overall, we kept things pretty low-key and just kicked it.  At one point, Brad found a hair clip on the floor, and we started taking really dumb pictures with it.

Lo and behold, as we were walking out of the bar, one of the girls we were with couldn’t believe we found her hair clip.  We totally saved the day.

The trip as a whole was a lot of fun, but it felt like I had to turn around and leave the second I got there.  It was just way too short, and I need to make sure to take an extra day off next year.  It was a great time, though, and I’m already looking forward to getting back.

I am a little concerned that the person who lives above me may be trying to commit suicide right now.  I just got home from a shortened day at work because I’m flying out in a couple of hours to LA to visit my buddy Andy with my other friend Brad.  I was thinking that a quick power nap would be wise since I’m sure tonight will likely be a late one.  The person above me is doing a great job ruining my plans, though.  For the past 20 minutes I’ve been forced to hear Limp Bizkit’s cover of “Behind Blue Eyes” on repeat.  Like I said, the woman must be trying to kill herself.  If I were to be sticking around any longer I think I’d probably have to do it for her.

Anyway, I’m off to Los Angeles for the weekend.  I’ve been meaning to write up a recap of the New Pornographers show last Sunday, but this week has just been too hectic to get around to it.  I will next week along with a recap of what I’m sure will be a fun-filled weekend out west.

I did something last night that I never really expected to do.  In fact, when I told friends I was doing it they reacted as if I had just told them I was a gay hermaphrodite with a smack addiction. See, I went to see Garth Brooks last night.  For those unfamiliar with the Garth Brooks situation, the guy went into “retirement” and hasn’t performed in a long time.  He decided to play a one-off show in support of the Sprint Center opening here in Kansas City.  The day that tickets went on sale, Garth added eight more shows to the schedule, bringing the total to nine concerts in ten days.  Oh yeah, and the tickets went for $28.50.  I found this to be amazing because he could have easily played one night, charged $200 a ticket, and went back to Oklahoma.  Instead, he let his fans go see him at an affordable price.  Pretty amazing.  Anyway, my sister ended up with six tickets, and I told her I would buy one of them off of her.

Yes, Garth Brooks is a pretty big deal.  In fact, he is probably one of the top musicians that will come out of my generation as a legend, come to think of it. It’s still country, though, and I was kind of nervous about it — not because of the music but because of the fans.  I think one of the main reasons I dislike country is because its fans, like rap music fans, are drawn to it in large part because they find it fun to take on a persona quite different from who they really are.  Watching people who are not at all “country” dress up in cowboy/girl outfits and say “yee-haw” all night really annoys me.  That being said, though, I was still curious as to what to expect…and I was anxious to check out the Sprint Center for the first time.

I’ll admit, my first experience with the Sprint Center was not a good one at all.  I had heard about problems getting into the building, but I had no idea it would be so packed.  There were lines a block long on either side waiting to get in and a mob of people by the doors trying to get in.  I’ve never seen such a thing at an arena before, and I’m surprised this issue wouldn’t have been thought out beforehand for such a “state of the art” facility.

Once inside, I found the concourse to be pretty cool but a little on the bland side.  Our seats were in the upper deck so we took the escalator up, and I don’t think I’ve been on such a high elevator before.  The thing just keeps going and going.  I wish I would have thought to take a picture of it, but it’s pretty amazing.  Before getting to our seats we headed over to the concession stand to see what food they had available.  While walking over, I noticed an empty vendor station.  Something tells me this one will be vacant for a while.

There was really only one major stand by where our seats were, and I was surprised at how much the food was going for.  Maybe I’m being a bit picky, but I consider a $9 hamburger to be really steep in any city, especially Kansas City (click thumbnail to enlarge).

I was originally thinking I’d have a chicken sandwich or popcorn chicken, but I saw that those were $8 so I passed.  Instead, I went with a $7 food item that is quite possibly the most disgusting thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.  It’s almost as if the people who thought up the Sprint Center wanted to make sure they could get a food item mentioned as being one of the least healthy items of food in any arena in the country.  The item I’m talking about, of course, is the 1/2 pound hot dog covered in brisket and bbq sauce.  I thought that sounded gross enough, but it was ten times worse than I envisioned.  Oh yeah, and they throw onion rings on top of it, too.  Check out mine with one bite into it:

I could only eat half of it, and I felt slightly nauseous the rest of the evening.

Trisha Yearwood opened, and I personally wasn’t all too impressed with her performance.  Her set was pretty much what I would imagine any typical country show would be.  The woman has some pretty famous songs, though, so it was good to hear a few that I recognized.  I had no idea any of those songs were sung by her. 

Garth, though, was pretty amazing.  The guy is a total showman to an extent that I don’t believe I’ve seen before.  From the get go he was running around the stage, cracking jokes, and pumping the crowd up both during and after the songs.  I couldn’t help but think how funny it is that it’s become so normal for pop stars to lip sync while dancing, meanwhile a 45 year-old country singer could do everything and still sound pretty good.

He played a ton of his hits, and the crowd sang along every step of the way.  In fact, I felt pretty out of place not knowing the words to a lot of his songs.  The only hits of his that I don’t recall him playing were “Shamless” and “Standing Outside the Fire”.  I could also tell that a very large amount of his show was scripted and rehearsed which was kind of odd, I though.  I’m used to just seeing people go up there to play and any banter is just off the cuff.  In fact, going off of what other people have said about his shows the previous two nights, he recycled a lot of his jokes.  It was almost Branson-y the way it was done, but you could tell he was still having fun and the crowd loved it.

He sang a duet with Trisha Yearwood at one point and closed his set in kind of an odd way, I thought.  He got out by himself for the encore and proceeded to play covers from when he was growing up for literally a half hour.  He played everything from a Merle Haggard song to a Randy Travis song to a George Strait song.  Then, he played “Mrs. Robinson”, “Turn the Page”, and even “Piano Man”.  It was an odd set that would have worked better either as a medley or instead placed in the middle of the set like how Ben Harper does it.  For his closer, he played “American Pie” by himself on guitar.  It was a shame, I thought, to go from an amazing, energy-packed show to one that is pretty much replicated in every piano bar in the country on any given night. 

Still, it was a great show and was definitely worth the cost of the ticket.  I’ll be interested in hearing from other people who go to his other shows to compare what they think.

I’m going to the the New Pornographers tonight in Lawrence, and I was looking around for some videos of theirs when I stumbled across some YouTube challenges they started.  I normally don’t like posting random YouTube clips because I think that it’s lazy, but they were just too good to pass up.  The first challenge was to make a dance to a New Pornographers song.  The idea is alright but not nearly as good as the second one which I’ll explain in a bit.  Here’s an example of one of the submissions for the first challenge:

The video is okay, but it’s nowhere near as awesome as their second challenge:

First off, I’ve always loved how completely normal and unpretentious the band is, and the fact that they’re asking fans to turn their songs into Michael McDonald songs is hilarious.  Of all of the ones posted, there are two clear-cut favorites of mine because they sound like Michael McDonald and also still sound very much like the original New Pornographers songs. 

So awesome!

Some people run marathons to raise money for children’s causes.  Some donate millions of dollars to help kids in need.  As for me, I like to help in my own unique way — I changed a light bulb.

This is my first year actually living in a house (aka not an apartment) as an adult which means this was also my first opportunity to actually have trick-or-treaters come knocking at my door.  The only problem was that my porch light was out.  Traditionally, you are supposed to leave your light on if you have candy to give kids.  When I was little I never cared if your light was on or off, I was ringing your doorbell repeatedly until you answered regardless.  I distinctly remember doing it on several occasions and getting a twisted feeling of satisfaction when I would catch them without any candy.  Usually they’d end up stammering around and I’d end up getting a box of mac and cheese tossed into my candy bag.  That was then, though, and this is now.  Kids are apparently more lazy and less determined than the B-Man was when he was young and spry which is why getting the bulb fixed was a priority. 

Thankfully, my landlord has a ladder because I couldn’t come close to reaching by myself.  Soon the bulb was changed, and I headed to the store to stock up on plenty of candy for the evening’s visitors.  I made sure to get plenty because I was slightly paranoid to run out halfway through the night (and I only had one box of mac and cheese to spare).  I invited my sister and a couple of her friends over, too, because they are apartment dwellers and wouldn’t get to see any kids.  We ate pizza and waited for our guests to arrive.  In the two hour span that we were expecting kids, there was a grand totally of TWO KIDS that came by.  TWO!  One was a girl dressed up as a witch with her mom, and the other was a boy in a Michael Myers mask who didn’t even say “trick or treat”.  The dude just stood there.

So now I have all this unreturnable candy at my place, and I don’t know what to do with it.  I seriously probably have more candy than half of the kids in Kansas City ended up with last night.  So if anyone would like some please let me know.  I’d be happy to give it to you.