Wandering

Yesterday involved a lot of eating, driving, and waiting. I enjoyed myself, though. My first meal was a traditional, family one for Easter with stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes, mock chicken (yes, other people ate ham), and peppers. I also ate chocolate peanut butter balls, which are unhealthy, but taste amazing.

Laden with food, I went to a super secret Lotus Fucker show at WMUC, the University of Maryland radio station, that was broadcast on the air. I call it "super secret," because I don't think anyone made a single posting or flyer for it. Five bands, including a band from Pittsburgh and a band from Australia, played and, for the most part, comprised the audience. A few other friends showed up.

Bands sometimes take a while setting up for a performance, but the WMUC people took extra care in placing microphones and testing sound since the show was being recorded. Yes, they invested time. Still, the microphone for the vocals didn't work very well.

Lotus Fucker, minus the singer Dan, and I walked over to a row of restaurants in College Park, which are mostly fast food, chain restaurants, while one of the first bands was setting up. Everyone went to a different restaurant and agreed to rendezvous. Dan asked us to get strawberry or raspberry bubble tea for him. Jon picked up a tea as requested, but the restaurant, Ten Ren, only offered a few fruit flavors, so Jon ordered peach. Dan started drinking, turned toward me, and said: "I drank about half of this drink and thought it was a weird tasting strawberry. Jon just told me that it's peach. It tastes pretty good." Memories.

The band from Australia attempted to sound like The Ex with meandering, discordant notes united by a repetitive, persistent, minor-key, bass chord. The female drummer screamed along, but I couldn't hear her vocals very well. She was poorly miked. Brad kept saying their record was great, but they didn't pull it off live. Plus, in between bands, they complained about the lack of quality restaurants in DC, having only gone to the convenient store attached to the building with the radio station. Their superficial criticism of DC food annoyed me.

I agree with the Australians that the campus convenient store doesn't offer much. I ended up getting a bag of pita chips and a container of knock-off brand hummus from there. Pat got a mock chicken wrap with tahini, which is better than what I've found at a standard 7-11. Regardless, who rates or ranks convenient stores? How can you judge a city's food offerings based on a convenient store? People eat there because they are short on time, not because they are seeking a gourmet or unique meal.

FROM DECEMBER - Old Video...
Video of Lotus Fucker at their record release show at St. Stephen's Church in December 2009 before Pat joined the band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfbKihdm0Ic
Vogel, Toner, and I had just gotten back from 7-11 as it started snowing... Pat and I are in the video at one point, standing next to our friend Parsons.