Sympathy for the Juggalos

Entertainment, Random

I can’t seem to put a finger on my fascination with this particular community. According to Laurel “They are the worst people on Earth”. But being an optimist I want to think that they are just people who have found their own weird niche in the music world, if you don’t like it, then stay out of Cave in Rock, Illinois. Xeni of BoingBoing.net keeps posting their new videos and you-tube trailers for their “gathering”.  On the surface I want to laugh at their ridiculous face paint and dumb rap lyrics. But then I remember that I’m trying to be more open minded about different communities and I think… Maybe they’re serious about all this ‘comradery’ and ‘friends’ stuff.  So they like weird stuff, so they like to drink generic sugary soft drinks and get blasted on malt liqueur and dance around and scream lyrics that they can still remember at that point. I like festivals, I like middle aged rap artists, I like legends of wrestling drunkenly fighting in the woods lit only by flashlights… whoa, did that just happen.

I think the interest the Boing Boing community has with them is that they are only a debilitating alcohol addiction away from becoming Juggalos themselves. But for now Happy Mutant > Juggalo.

BoingBoing article

Stafford Cardboard Boat Regatta 2010

Interests, Life

This Saturday was the 7th annual Stafford Cardboard Boat regatta. Run by the North Stafford/Rockhill Ruritan club and held at Aquia Landing in Stafford. As a member of the Stafford Cardboard Yacht Club I was required to build a boat for the race. In past years our semi unofficial group has built pirate ships, viking ships, battleships, aircraft carriers, and Gilligan’s Island… (the whole island). But those projects involve weeks of work, hundreds of pounds of cardboard, and gallons of expensive glue. So this year we decided that it would be better if we all made separate boats. SCYC members Bill Schlotter and his son Jason constructed a replica of the civil war ship “Monitor”. My dad, John Schumaker, along with some basic boats for kids, made a sea monster paddle wheeler and a fishing boat that could be hooked together. Wade and I, knowing that we didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the boat, spent two nights making a sleek speedboat.

I would say that for me this years race was the most fun I’ve had at the races. It could be because I hadn’t spent 4 weekends in a sweaty garage huffing contact cement.  But I’d like to think it’s because the Ruritan Club is getting really good at running the race. They had a good sound system with music and an announcer that was really good at calling the races. Especially for the kids.  The registration and judging went by quickly and they added 2nd place ribbons so everyone could be involved.  All the kids looked like they had a great time and everyone was talking about what they were going to do next year. I even recruited some friends to do the race next year, we may participate in the Lake Accotink race in Fairfax also.

North Stafford/Rock Hill Ruritans

Potomac Local article about the race

Official Stafford Cardboard Boat Race Website

Jack Johnson at Merriweather 2010

Entertainment, music

Who knew Jack Johnson was this popular? Certainly not this guy. I was kind of expecting a kind of “half full Wolftrap” like crowd. But this was a SOLD OUT crowd, it was just an astonishing amount of people.

I guess that’s because Jack is some kind of non offensive surf-rock/environmental guru type that does music for kids movies featuring cartoon monkeys. There’s no way that anyone could ever be intimidated by this guy. So women like him and guys aren’t threatened by that.  This could be number one on Stuff white people like.  If there were a ‘Stuff hot chicks and douchebags like’ it would be number one with a bullet.  This must be the music they play at Hollester or Abercrombie, because they all seemed to be there.  I’ve also learned he’s big in the “we’re in our thirties and have kids but are still trying to be cool” crowd.

It’s not like I didn’t have a good time. It’s just that this wasn’t the kind of concert crowd I’m used to. I guess it’s because I’ve only been to Hippie Jam festivals or Rock Festivals in High School.

DIY Wedding Invitations

Projects, Stuff and Things


We finally finished our wedding invitations and got almost all of them in the mail yesterday. They are a perfect metaphor for who we are as a couple. I designed them with a sophisticated look but with cool distressed fonts and fun elements. The main parts are printed on tree-free banana husk paper. The envelopes are natural vellum and the outside wrapper is fine art paper with mango leaves or banana husks embedded in them.

But what is more like Laurel and me is that we were too focused on the little things about the design and missed a few major things. Like the fact that the red card stock was about a quarter inch too short and wouldn’t properly gate fold around our card. Or that the only reason we had to use the card stock in the first place was that we couldn’t find a natural card stock that was thick enough, so we rigged something up with paper from the craft store. Or that we procrastinated until the last minute and then realized that our design was a little complicated, forcing us to glue, fold, insert, label, and stamp 76 of them in two days. In hindsight I wish that I’d made them a little bigger and spent longer looking for some kind of all natural card stock for the gate fold.

Way too many pictures and a cost breakdown after the break.

Jam Packed Summer Weekend finally over

Interests, Life


This weekend was jam packed with summer fun. Friday night we went out for the worlds longest happy hour at Dogfishhead Brew pub in Greenbriar for Laurel’s Birthday. We ate and drank in shifts with about 10 other people, but never more than 6 at once. We stayed up till 3am talking with friends at our place while I made the helmets for the next day’s activity: The Cardboard Boat Race.

Then I got up at 7am to finish painting the helmets, drove to Wades house. Loaded up the boat on top of his car, then drove 45 minutes down to Stafford for the race. The race was the funnest it has been in years. That’s probably because we didn’t burn our selves out working 4 weeks on some cardboard monstrosity. We built a solid speed boat and put more of out energy into costumes and positive attitudes. I think that made it more fun for everyone, but that will get it’s own blog post when I get all the pictures and videos.

The race ended around 230 and we fought 95 summertime traffic to get back to Oakton so I could get ready for the Jack Johnson concert at Merriweather at 7pm. Got back with just enough time for a quick shower and then threw everything in the car and got on our way. We got there just in time to claim the last good spot on the lawn. Jack Johnson is apparently very popular now. (again, I’ll elaborate later in another blog post). The concert was fun and we had decided before to get a hotel room near the venue because we had to be back in Maryland the next day anyway.

But the fun doesn’t stop there!

Easy like Sunday morning as we slept in and then ate breakfast at the friendliest Bob Evans restaurant ever. Then it was off to Laurel’s Birthday lunch at her Grandmothers apartment in Silver Spring. A casual lunch of turkey sandwiches, Salmon, and fruit salad while we discussed how a new Draft would speed opposition to the current wars and why American politicians don’t care about the millions of dead Iraqis. Later Laurel and her cousin looked on the internet for wedding dresses while we all looked on.

Then around 6 we headed back to our house. Got there just in time to leave for the 7:50 showing of Inception (awesome, but now blog post because I can’t discuss it without giving spoilers.) We got back around 11:30 with just enough time to get ready for bed before the weekend officially ended.

phew!

I can’t do every weekend like this, but it was fun!

Abandoned Teenage Wasteland – Part 1

Interests, Life


In an undisclosed location in Fairfax County there exists an abandoned land. At one point it was a home to a family and a thriving business. But because of ignorance or contempt for zoning laws the family and business were forced to move. What was left behind has become much more interesting for me. I’ve always been interested in abandoned houses and buildings. I’ve spent many hours online looking through pictures of old hotels, houses, and hospitals that were left, for one reason or another, to rot. I find it interesting when nature reclaims its’ land.  Here are some of the galleries I’ve bookmarked on delicious, I tagged them Abandonia.

On this plot of land there are 2 houses and one large office/garage area. The houses were once in pretty good shape but are now succumbing to the forces of rain, snow, and teenage aggression. The office building is another story, it’s pretty industrial so there’s not much to fall apart anyway. I went back there last week and took some pictures of graffiti left there by what I can only assume are local teenagers. It’s such a strange mix of things, Nature wearing down on the roofs and then teenagers helping it along by breaking all the windows and smashing the walls. It’s also an interesting mix of symbols on the wall. Clearly drug fueled, they have hippie flowers, mixed with rap lyrics and money signs. I find it hard to believe that these two groups run in the same circles, but they apparently shop at the same spray paint section.

There are some strange sights. The wood floor from the entry of one of the houses has been carried from the house and laid out on the floor of the garage, in a pattern that was clearly intentional. Somebody must have been really really high.

I found this dollar bill attached to the pole in the middle of the room in what is clearly some sort of trap for bourgeouis capitalists. That’ll show em!

It’s semi unsettling atmosphere. It’s not unlike coming in to a house after a party the night before and wondering what has gone on here. it’s interesting to me to imagine what it was like. I know it seems silly to read this much into a bunch of stupid drawings by some stoned teenagers. But I think we can learn from anything. When archaeologists look back at ruins they are mostly looking at the broken pottery and trash left behind. What were they thinking when they wrote, imagine… shit.

What was once clearly a thriving business has become a party zone for stoned teenagers.

Picture gallery after the break.