Thursday, May 24, 2007

Go West, Young Man

So, I mentioned that I might eventually share some more Scavenmixen. In that line, here's the (greatly anticipated and feared) Go West, Young Man road trip mix, one of many from this year's epic journey.

1. The Better Boyfriends - a clip from "The Power of Crisis Compels You" - And now it's time....
2. Roadside Theatre - There Was a Time/Dyin' If I'm Lyin' - There was a time when that wilderness went on forever.
3. The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist - Have I ever told you a story of cowboys and Indians and midgets and frontier psychiatrists?
4. Moxy Früvous - Get in the Car - Don't give me that, you know who you are. Get in the car.
5. Dar Williams - Traveling Again - More speed, more deeds, more sky, more weeds.
6. What the Kids Want - Broken-Down Plan - It's the pearl of the Midwest, it's the town on your trip that you loved best.
7. They Might Be Giants - The End of the Tour - The engagements are booked through the end of world, so we'll meet at the end of the tour.
8. The Long Winters - Carparts - I'm leaving under cover of darkness.
9. Soulcrate Music - Thunderstorm - A black cloud over Sioux Falls.
10. The Long Winters - (It's a) Departure - I like the old days, but not all the old days; only the good old days.
11. DragonForce - Evening Star - We will sail on, forever on.
12. Relient K - Pressing On - Out of mind, out of state.
13. Kid Koala - Alright: Music for More Morning People - Statistics show that too much caffeine is not good for you, and I know it's sooo easy because I myself used to have, oh, 63, 64 cups a day.
14. Napoleon XIV - I Owe a Lot to Iowa Pot - ...and that's NOT just Iowa corn.
15. Jonathan Coulton - Just as Long as Me - It's a sad and lonesome story and the shorter folks don't care.
16. Calibretto - Don't Go into the Woods - Don't go into unknown places.
17. Maldroid - Heck No! (I'll Never Listen to Techno) - HECK NO!
18. America - Sister Golden Hair Surprise - Well, I tried to make it Sunday....
19. A New Found Glory - Dressed to Kill - You're always on tour, and you're never home.
20. The Arrogant Worms - Horizon - Cataclysmic combustion, picturesque powered pistons, accelerating automotive alarms, stunningly stupefying stereo stunts. One man, a dream, a car.
21. The Magnetic Fields - Reno Dakota - You know you enthrall me.
22. John Reischman and the Jaybirds - Prairie Girl - (BANJO SOLO!!!)
23. Toots and the Maytals - Take Me Home, Country Roads - West [South Dakota], mountain momma, take me home.
24. Becky Stark - The Car Song - Pump all the gas that your stomach can hold.
25. Johnny Cash - I Fought the Law - Great big rocks and the hot sun.
26. Eisley - Marvelous Things - Oh what marvelous things!
27. Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer - We're halfway there.
28. Dar Williams - Iowa - You were wandering out on the hills of Iowa.
29. The Magnetic Fields - Two Characters in Search of a Country Song - You were Calamity Jane and I was Wild Bill
30. The Mountain Goats - Jenny - 900 cc's of raw, winding power, no outstanding warrants for my arrest.
31. David Byrne - A Million Miles Away - I can see your house from here.
32. Garth Brooks - Ain't Goin' Down 'Til the Sun Comes Up - Goin' round the world in a pickup truck.
33. The Arrogant Worms - The Mounted Animal Nature Trail (live) - They're never hungry anymore, their last meal left them stuffed.

And that's it. I'm sure most of the road trippers understand how these songs tie in. (#15: All the road-trippy Judges were just really tall). Except for the random songs nobody's heard of. I recommend, in that case, that you look them up. I mean, I like them all, and I'm the objective standard.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Scav-end "Rememberies"



Though Scav Hunt is now over, its legacy remains (as see above). Now that certain periods of "the urge" (in the They'll Do It Every Time sense) have passed, I feel I can comment on the various ridicu-awesome things that I had the privilege to judge in the past few days. First: The Fourth Quadriennial Scav Hunt Light Tackle Lil' Wobbler Round-Up. Up at 5 AM on Friday, at the Point by 5:30, just in time for dawn to break. Only three competitors showed up: a team of two (Bruce and Nolan) from Snell-Hitchcock, and a guy (Tom) from Max Palevsky. The former had an actual rod and tackle, while the latter brought a stick with a nail hammered into it, a circa-1960s film reel entitled "The World of the Molecule" scavenged from Searle used as the reel, and a Red Stripe bottlecap as the lure. Because this set-up lacked any real casting mechanism, Tom had to just twirl the lure around, bolas-style, toss it into the water, and then manually troll it in. He did this for hours on end, which earned my deep and serious respect, especially when he ran out of bait (which was only a dead leech from the slomming item) and tried to use a broken vodka bottle to catch tadpoles in the water. Mad respect also to Bruce and Nolan for actually catching fish, including a nice big gizzard shad, and the random guy from F.I.S.T. who showed up not to compete, but just to watch fishing occur, because apparently the dude loves fish. I can sympathize. Altogether, this was easily one of my favorite events of the fourdays, especially because it was so different in tone from most of the Scav shenanigans--just a nice, quiet start to the day, sitting around with a few guys and chatting it up for a few hours.

Another relatively low-key event that I had a great time at: ScavenFeast 2007. There was a ton of incredibly delicious food to be had there, all of which was enjoyed. My personal fave raves would have to be the algae-Provençal bread and cranberry sand dollar cake from Broadview, the bacon-date skewers from F.I.S.T., the dark matter-based whisky cake from Snell-Hitchcock, and the spiced Swedish meatballs from BJ. As for individual items, the one that consistently gave me the most joy to judge would have to be the Simpsons clown bed (again, see above). I just never got tired of seeing that horrific harlequin given physical form and properly intoning, "If you should die before you waaaaaake...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Even better was the fact that during the Saturday night HQ visits, I saw a number of these beds occupied by overtaxed Scavvies in need of a crash-spot, heedless of the menace posed by this clown, which will eat you. God, I love you guys.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Pub Crawling on the SS Quads...

Judge Christian's rage-filled and hilarious monologues not-withstanding, the Scav Party turned out aight. In the final estimation, though an underwhelming ScavParty, as a regular party, it was pretty okay. Not the Scav Party of our youth, but no one did anything exceedingly stupid on camera, and it passed relatively smoothly. What's good and what is lamentable about this should at once be obvious to the astute reader. Moreso than anything, it was a large group of hardcore scavvies getting together for a bash. Certainly it was a little less epic, but on the other hand partying with Scavvies is better than partying with frat row, and the the former group almost never decides to brawl. On the other hand... who doesn't love a little element of danger?

In many respects, the actual lack of booze was not the thing that contributed to the slightly dour mood, so much as the mere thought of administration control of any aspect of Scavhunt. We're supposed to be the renegades! Not playing to the man! Of course, this was better than no party, and I had fun, but still meh....

Yes, ORCSA is very very very very stupid. Yes, their restrictions were idiotic. Yes we fought them tooth and nail. But so much was made-up last minute that... you know what? You've heard this all before.

The booze situation may have overshadowed the fact that there were some really nice party set-ups. The Prancing Pony kept Middle Earth jumping, the BJDJ was excellent Gonk 3.0 made us give hopes for the rebellion, I got some letters of transit, saw wizards duel and Can-Canners Cann-Canning, drank my first (virgin) Flaming Moe, ate a hotdog with John Belushi, and well... am a frayed knot. Girls jumped out of cakes, we swayed to Piano Man, we beat each other with foam light sabers and unicorn-hair-filled sticks, Sam played it again, and Han always, ALWAYS shot first. Better than some former scavparties, I hear judges with more history tell.

Would this have been been if this had been less restricted? Obviously. Was it still a good time? Yes, Yes, a thousand times. What does the future of the Scav Party hold? Only time will tell.

Peace.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Rage

I was going to put up a post about all the awesome things I saw today, but I can't. I'm too sad and angry right now, because Administration is ruining Scav Hunt. ORCSA has crossed lines that simply cannot be crossed. It's like those movies where someone steals Christmas, then Ernest has to save it. Only there's no Ernest for us.

WHAT

WHAT?!!

Stick to the stuff you know

...and it's been pretty obvious so far that all you scavvies know how to do is be awesome. Don't break out of that box.

Yesterday held a lot of cool things outside of the Ha Ha Haus of Comedy, and I thought you might like to hear them. Most prominent, of course, was our first episode of "Making the Band", where we met The Four Triangle Massacre, Syphylys, The Plurals, and Morrighan. I couldn't find the myspace for those last two, but when and if I do (Edit: I did), I will correct this. I'm really looking forward to hearing some DOOM POLKA at four today, I gotta say.

Other occurances yesterday: Totally sweet version of "Stick to the Status Quo" in Bartlett, complete with slack-jawed cafeteria employees. One easter egg slipped to the judges. One class interrupted with delicious beverage.

The Masque of Youth! What can I say? The ceremony was suitably pompous, and I have trouble imagining that the original could have been much better. To do it justice might take several thousand words; fortunately, several pictures were taken.

Despite cooler temperatures and a bit of a wind, the tea parties were by and large ramped up from yesterday. I was able to find at least four "Mystery Teas", all of which we fantastic! Furthermore, we received our second egg, and also dispersed many of our own on unsuspecting scavvies. Team Judge is totally going to win this year.

Other occurances today: Borg of the Jungle, clad in a sarong, swung from a tree and got hilariously stuck, dangling by his high-tech vine. Once freed, it was able to assimilate the entire quads in a matter of minutes. Judges, other teams, passerby - all of their uniqueness was added to the collective. A shining example of one of the many ways to complete an item.

I sat in on a class where the teacher got a phone call (with an extremely appropriate ringtone) informing him that the city was in danger. He immediately sent forth his crime-fighting protegees amidst cries of "Oh no!" "Oh no!" "Oh no!" "OH YEAH!" as the Kool-Aid Man burst into the room. When the crimefighters and the giant pitcher had gone, the professor turned back to the chalkboard and started writing equations as he resumed his lecture. The class, including myself, found this hilarious. The professor turned towards the class and said over our laughter that the material was important and we had to get through it.

That's all I was witness to, unfortunately. I hear there was another cafeteria musical, another superhero, and a dorm room in the Reg as well, but I missed out. I also slept through the alarm to go fishing, but I hear it was awesome.

Now you can laugh yourself to sleep!

So I found a sandwich platter at the BaSiLiCa; it's probably still there. But that is not what this story is about.

The night began with a wonderful performance by our MC, Judge "not a professional comic" Tricky. It was extra wonderful because there were cookies. The rest of the acts: no cookies. That was their first mistake.

The night had everything, from angry comics getting boo-ed off the stage to professional comics warming things up for headlining students. There were improv monologues, well-rehearsed skits, and many humourous songs. There were absolutely no such thing as tractors.

All in all, a smashing success. I congratulate all who performed, you were all great in our eyes. Nota bene: This may include great embarrassment. In any case, you made our, and from the sound of it each other's, night.