Flight of the Conchsnack

Dedicated to all of my friends

The Format Snack

One of my favorite bands from high school, The Format, broke up a year ago. It was a two-man band from my hometown, and I've seen them play everywhere from the now-defunct Nita's Hideaway (which I passed on the road the other day, it's like rubble) to the tiny closet space known as Modified to bigger, New Yorky venues like Irving Plaza and Webster Hall. I stumbled upon a link to this guy's blog, this guy who was The Format's manager, and it was interesting to see how the dynamic of the band shifted, their struggle to make it in any sense, what the two of them are up to now.

I still listen to their songs. I think they captured an essence of my Southwestern coming-of-age that I needed to carry with me on my trip cross-country when I was 18. They may be on to bigger or more meaningful things, but those songs will always be Phoenix to me.

The video below is from one of their Flagstaff shows in early 2004.



fotografia from freshpeel.com

I Smell a Snack

Something around me smells like hot dogs. Hot dogs were featured in a movie I just watched. I'm going to get my hair cut like the girl in the movie. Do people ever put garlic on hot dogs?



I danced once to that song, while wearing duct tape on my mouth! O Cow. The Knack thought they would be bigger than The Beatles. They said so in an interview, which is why they are not bigger than The Beatles.

Another State Press Petrusnack

Alex Petrusek strikes again:


Is it time for a nerd army resurgence?
By: Alex Petrusek
Published On: Wednesday, February 18, 2009

All right, I give in. I’m willing to accept that “uncool” has become cool.

Big, cumbersome glasses once associated with nerd-dom are now a fashion must. Plain, frumpy clothing is “in.” Collectively, we as a nation dress like disaffected high-school sophomores.

“Indie” artistic culture is becoming increasingly popular, and being “weird” is no longer seen in such a negative light as it was, let’s say, in 1999, when boys aspired to be Fred Durst and girls dressed like hookers. “Smart” is no longer synonymous with “loser.”

It’s now socially acceptable to play video games with a significant other, to make Star Wars references in public, and to care about things like “America,” “nature” and “the future.”

But forgive me if I’m a little skeptical.

I’m a nerd. Not the “I was pretty popular in high school, but I loved those ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies” faux-geek, but the real-deal-Holyfield “I’ve seen every episode of ‘Stargate SG-1,’ and I openly dislike the taste of beer” Duke of Nerds.

I’m nearsighted, have terrible hair and get creepily good grades for comparatively little effort. Attractive girls still (kind of) make me nervous. I’m pretty sure my inner monologue is unabridged insanity.

I am, as my former kindergarten teacher put it, an “independent thinker.”

You’d think someone like me would welcome the pop-cultural shift toward accepting “weirdness” with open arms. Don’t get me wrong, I do, but almost seems too easy.

Perhaps I’m not entirely convinced of society’s acceptance of being truly original. While ostensibly it’s OK to listen to strange music, to wear strange clothing, etc., most of those who do identify with reaffirming social sub-groups.

Hipsters all have each other to reinforce their American Apparel and love of Yeasayer; hippies have each other to reinforce their deconstructed shawls and love of Phish. It’s reinforcement through numbers, no matter how small those numbers might be.

But what about the truly independent thinkers? Where are the individuals, powered by their very own little mental motor that compels them, in all seriousness, to play air-piano to the “Baywatch” theme song while driving? Where’s their social reinforcement?

They’re out there, all right, but they’re not included in the new pop-culture shift. They’re just too weird, too divergent from the norm; the ever-pervasive American social group-paradigm still doesn’t know what to do with them.

But you know what? That’s actually a great thing. While the pop-culture shift might not be big enough to include everyone, it includes more people than it used to. That’s great news for formerly-marginalized metal kids or “Rocky Horror Picture Show” fans; welcome to acceptance!

As for the independent thinkers, dread naught and keep pushing those boundaries. Hell, if everyone was suddenly absorbed by a social trend, then nobody would be truly “independent” anymore, now would they?

Or, to quote the aforementioned “Baywatch” theme song, “In us, we all have the power, but sometimes it’s so hard to see/ That instinct is stronger than reason/ It’s just human nature to me.”

Oh, I’ll be ready.

Alex is talking at birds, and can be reached at alexander.petrusek@asu.edu.

Cary Snack

"confucius say, 'man with tiny blade take long time' "

-Cary Grant shaving with tiny razor, North by Northwest

Atlanta Snack

These are some snacks I will enjoy while in Atlanta this weekend:

"I Want That" Snack

courtesy of Yung-i Changster

Goggle Snack

I started my screenplay today. Oversized aviation goggles are paramount to its success.

Trying to Google "goggles" is a funny action. Googling Goggles.

Scoville Snack

Andrew Scoville says that our blogs are at war. That's funny, Andrew Scoville. I don't remember why we're at war, but why does any war begin? No one remembers by the end of them.

The only war I can remember the beginning of was World War I, which began with The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. He was the straw that broke the camel's back.

That's So Brando Snack

Method and Madness

Jeremy McCarter reviews a new Brando biography in the NYTimes on January 4, 2009

“From the greasy Polack you will someday arrive at the gloomy Dane for you have something that makes the theater a world of great possibilities.”

-Tennessee Williams to Brandypants after the opening of Streetcar.

I like to think that I, you, we have that something, sometimes, too.

fotografia courtesy of NYTimes

Book[snack] Worm

"LOOK AT THE PRINCESS"

Before there was an American Story, before Paterson spread before Oscar and Lola like a dream, or the trumpets from the Island of our eviction had even sounded, there was their mother, Hypatía Belicia Carbal:
a girl so tall your leg bones ached just looking at her
so dark it was as if the Creatrix had, in her making, blinked
who, like her yet-to-be-born daughter, would come to exhibit a particularly Jersey malaise—the inextinguishable longing for elsewheres.

-Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Auld Lang Snack

“The following song, an old song, of the olden times, and which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript until I took it down from an old man"

-Robert Burns, on his poem "Auld Lang Syne."

"I mean, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot'? Does that mean that we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot?".

-Harry, from When Harry Met Sally

Click Below to Watch The Best Use of "Auld Lang Syne," and Probably Cry:

It's a Wonderful Life

fotografia courtesy of googz

Leaving Las VegaSnack

I used to write a lot of poetry.

Now it's two years later

and I'm stuck on a plane

with some schoolmarmy flight attendants,

a dude from Vassar on my left flank,

a chick from Bard on my right,

a hacking cough, Claritin notwithstanding,

and some Rilke.

They put us in a hangar

to dry the ice off our wings

so we left two hours late.

I have no way out of Vegas,

which some would deem no awful thing.

Maybe I'll stay at the Excalibur

and walk around and take pictures

or collect porn advertisements

for my yet-to-be-titled poen scrapbook.

Maybe I'll rent a car

and be slightly afraid as I venture,

alone,

across the Hoover dam

into the darkness and subsequent light.

The future holds so much potential.

The world is full of possibility.

-scribbled last Saturday, on a plane (eventually) headed home for the holidays.

A Snack, Covered in Fresh Ground Pepper

Fresh Ground Pepper's
Inaugural Open Mic Extravaganza!
presented by The Centrifuge
on The First Friday of 2009!
January the 2nd.

The 45th Street Theatre
354 West 45th Street
between 8th and 9th Avenues
2nd Floor

Cost: FREE!!!!

We will have drinks, new-year merriment, and a variety-show style evening of works-in-development

The night begins at 7 pm
Featured Artists: You.

Otherwise, the mic will be open for you to bring new artistic works of all shapes and sizes.
Seriously.
Bring anything and everything. If you don't have something yet, you have TEN days to CREATE. It's not every day we have an THEATRE TO OURSELVES and a roomful of artists! Even if you want to bring writing, find actors there, and have them read for us, that's perfect.

We can't wait to see you!
We can't wait to see what you bring to the table!
Let's kick in the New Year with some Fresh Ground Pepper!
for more information email:
thecentrifugeny@gmail.com

SoundBite ShoeSnack

"No, I — look, first of all, I didn't much time to reflect on anything. I was ducking and dodging. And I — first of all, it has got to be one of the most weird moments of my presidency."

President Bush, on the shoe-throwing incident.