On the prowl for a patio

I'm just a girl, looking for a little patio to call my own...

The weather is getting nicer, and unlike the last two years in Salem, I don't have a porch to call my own. For the last two years, I had a private porch where I grew all my herbs and flowers, and at night I could sip drinks and read on while watching the sunset. (I know I know... "boo hoo I don't have a porch!")

So I think this year will be my hunt for a porch or patio to sip drinks on on warm nights and enjoy the Summer. I caught this bug a few weeks ago at Great Scott in Allston with my friend Dave. After a trying day at our respective jobs, we decided we needed to drink a beer while sitting on patio furniture. It was lovely. Newbury St dining also keeps luring me in during lunch, but I don't have the funds and time to keep that lifestyle up.

There are a few candidates for my patio. Unfortunately, my first choice in a patio (Edgewater Cafe) has closed down. Here are the candidates with pros and cons, in no particular order:

Gulu Gulu Cafe, Salem
Pros: Good food and imported beers. Can listen to the bands playing indoors. Open all day long, so I can have breakfast on a "patio". Short walk from where I live. Near Modern Millie's, for post-breakfast consignment shopping.
Cons: Service is slow. It's not really a patio, inasmuch as it's a chained off section of sidewalk.

Rockefellas, Salem
Pros: Big area for sitting. Big drink menu that's decently priced. Also close to where I live.
Cons: I feel like the scene here is more for moms who are out with their girlfriends and left their kids and husbands at home. Again, not really a patio, more of a chained off area of sidewalk.

Tavern In the Square (TITS), Salem
Pros: A burger stuffed with bacon and blue cheese. Big drinks for not that much money. Waffle fries. Also down the street from where I live. Open until 11pm. More of a formal patio than other places. Pithy nickname.
Cons: LOUD. Could be very crowded, as it's the first summer of patio-living. Kind of chain-y. A burger stuffed with bacon and blue cheese (I'm in a wedding in August, can't be tempted too much!)

Murphy's, Salem
Pros: Dirt cheap. Wing nights, burger nights. Tucked away and fenced in from the street.
Cons: I hear if you don't get there early enough, there's a cover. Every night I've been there, it's been a bit "yah dude!"


Right now, there's no clear winner. Are there any other patios in Salem I should check out? Should I just live on Newbury St after hours and go broke? Or should I go to Gloucester every night and just hit up Madfish?

Little more than a "casual bowler" now...

I've made a decision. These are the bowling shoes I will be purchasing:

They're within my price range and purple. I mean, come on. THEY'RE PURPLE. I also like how they still look like bowling shoes and not "old man sneakers" like a lot of them tend to look like. I just need to place my order, and within a week, I'll be sporting new kicks. I'll also be a lot more than a casual bowler after this point.

No, I will not be buying a ball any time soon. That's a level of commitment I'm not ready for yet. Many people in the bowling club have balls, but that's not something I'm ready for quite yet. I also still need to get my sewing machine, and that takes priority.

Tune in for me modeling my new shoes when they get here.

Grammy Flory would be proud.

I've joined a bowling club.

I'm using the phrase "club" lightly. My friend Dave invited me via FB to join a group he was starting to get local bowlers and fans/members of the local music scene together to bowl. I have to say, as I'm only an average bowler and am certainly not in any local bands or on the radio (merely a blogger of the shows I attend and the songs I hear), I was surprised. But never one to not want to bowl, you bet your ass I signed up.

Monday night was our first get together. Very spur of the moment, and only about 10 or so people could make it, but an amazing blast. We rolled three strings, and I got to meet some very nice people. Oh, and drink. Can't forget that.

I also have a new bowling name, which is "Know Bowler". I'd love for it to slowly become "Know ThyBowler" if it can happen, but we'll see.

I definitely could improve my game. Other than a terrible second string, I was bowling barely over 100, which is okay... but I could improve. So may this will serve as a way for me to improve my scores as well.

Not sure how often we'll meet. I think it'll be a low key sort of thing, and see who actually makes it each week. I'm also looking forward to meeting more people in the local music scene, since they all seem extremely nice and chill, at least from my experiences. I'm sure there are douchers out there... but they just don't seem to roll with this crowd. And yes, every pun intended.

Not as terrible as to be expected

So yesterday I had two goals initially:

1. Get tea at Gulu Gulu.
2. Hang out with Sam before he goes back to college for the rest of the semester.

Trying to get #1 accomplished was a bit difficult, due to people calling me, people flaking on plans but never telling me they flaked, talking with friends who work on weekends online about all sorts of things (I'm looking at you, DD), more people calling me, record stores, and then another person calling me. But I finally got my cup of tea, and was even able to start a new scarf that a friend requested a while back, though I'll need to restart it since it's too narrow. While there, I texted DD that I finally got my tea and knitting in, and that it tasted of wool and victory.

While at Gulu Gulu, I had a good experience. No, this does not involve a guy with a sleeve tattoo. I was sitting at the bar drinking my tea and knitting, and there was another guy next to me on a laptop, when a friend of his came by to say hi. They were chatting, and I was pretty much ignoring them, when he said "I just learned to knit... and hey, look! She's knitting, too!" So I look up and start talking to him about knitting, and we introduce ourselves. He's probably late 40's/early 50's, and just a very friendly guy being nice in my city. It made me feel more like I live here than I rent here. So when he talks to the waitress about getting tea, I look down to see...

...he's wearing parachute pants that are painted to have the galaxy on them. HOW COOL IS THAT????? They were great. And I thought that it was great that he's so confortable with himself that he's wearing galaxy parachute pants. Go him.

After that, unfortunately, I had to leave Gulu Gulu, so I trekked to my family dinner in Ipswich. My younger cousins were making dumplings for us all, as well as lo mein and cole slaw. Well, I should say the latter two menu items were made by my uncle. It was a very tasty last dinner with Sam before he heads back to college. Great to see him. I asked if he wanted to do something after dinner, but he already had stuff going on with his home friends, so he politely declined. Ah well...

So after hanging out my cousins' house for a bit, I decided to head into Salem and make the "what's going on tonight?" texts. But when I got back to my car, I had a text waiting for me from my friend Mike saying "Hooters tonight?"

Now, in order to appreciate this, understand that I have a very close group of work friends, and we love wing nights at bars. And we've been tossing around the idea of going to a wing night at Hooters for awhile, just to see what it's all about. But as we work in Ipswich and this is in Saugus, we've decided to stay more local. So I guess Mike's twin brother John decided tonight might be a good night for it (since Mike is getting married next weekend, so there's a lot going on for the next few weeks) before the spring gets a lot busier. So I said yes, always being slightly curious as to what it's deal was for months, and offered to drive.

The crew for this trip included myself, John, Mike, Foster, and Michelle. And as the title indicates... it was not as terrible as to be expected. The girls were, and not to sound judging, moderately attractive... or about as attractive as one could expect in Saugus. The look of the room is someone corporate and lacking character, but this doesn't surprise me. Decent crowd for 10pm on a Saturday. A few big groups there along with us.

The wait for wings was terrible. We had already gone through a pitcher and a half of beer before the wings came. I think the waitress realized we were getting antsy since she kept coming over to make sure we were okay and give us excuses as to why they weren't out yet.

The wings were okay. I've definitel had better, and I feel like the coating of sauce on the wings were not even or consistent, though it did had a nice kick to them. We went with battered wings, and at times I felt like I was eating more batter than meat. But alas. The price of the largest platter was a good deal, though. They were not stingy with blue cheese, which after many fights with Paul of The Bay for extra cheese, this was a nice change in pace.

So while service was not good and the wings were alright, it was pretty much what I expected, and really great to hang out with some good friends on a Saturday night. And despite the heartburn I currently have from the night before, they were tasty enough for me to eat a few. So while I don't think we'll be becoming regulars any time soon, we decided we could be convinced to check it out every few months in a crowd like this.

The Bon Savants Show I went to!

Cozy in bed, feeling a buzz from a good night out in Beverly, but a friend pointed out that the concert I went to on Tuesday is on the WFNX website. You can see me for all of about two seconds, wearing green, and bopping along not at all in rhythm with the music. But that seems par for the course.

And since I'm getting this from a website, again this is a big thanks to WFNX/New England Product/Dave for this video. Watch now, in case someone gets wise to my posting and plugging.

Bon Savants and Ho Cro randomness

So tonight I trekked into Boston to see the Bon Savants. A big ol' thanks to my friend Dave (aka The Shoegazer) for hooking me up.

During the day, I did a little research to get a background on the band from the moderately reliable source Wikipedia. Here's my favorite line:

"While playing small live shows in and around Boston (Moran was and still is a part-time rocket scientist at MIT), they rotated drummers until finally adding the drummer Andrew Dole as a permanent member."

I love this for two reasons. One, because one of the members was a PART-TIME ROCKET SCIENTIST AT MIT. That's awesome. And second, because I went to college with a guy named Andrew "The Miz" Dole. Clearly not the same person, though. My favorite memory of The Miz is that when he auditioned for Improv, he was wasted at 3pm because he was so nervous, so he instead spent the whole time telling us about Keith Richards.

But I digress.

The Bon Savants played a roughly hour-long set as part of The New Alliance Sessions. Definitely a hip crowd, minus little ol' me. A neat space, with cool artwork and Miller Highlife. And let's face it... Miller Highlife always adds to a party.

I had downloaded their CD a few weeks before, and seeing them in person definitely added to my liking of this band. Their sound is very lush. Filled the space nicely. And the intimate setting (maybe 15-20 people there?) was an added bonus. Highly recommend downloading their CD or picking it up. You not be disappointed.

The random HoCro part is that Nikki, who I share several mutual friends with, was there, as her band practices in the same building. Big hugs, and she introduced me to many people, and we caught up. Always great to run into a Crusader in an unexpected area.

I tried to find a good video of theirs on Youtube, but sadly there wasn't a lot. This was the best I could find, but I think it captures their sound and vibe well:

Podcast Roll

As some of you know, I work sandwiched between two call centers. I work in Project Management, but the area of PM I'm in works with both call centers and customers. While interesting, it also gets very loud. And it's hard to focus on work when you're hearing dudes two rows over essentially yelling over the phone to a customer about IP conflicts. It's hard to write articles or send out projects when you're trying not to listen to proxy servers.

So I've resigned myself to being tied to my iTunes all day long. It's amazing how listening to music or podcasts helps with this. I think because it's not even related to my work, it can become white noise and I can focus on the task at hand. Coworkers make fun of me sometimes, but whatevs.

And because I love bulleted lists, here are some of my favorites podcasts or bands to listen to while at work:


--Too Beautiful To Live (TBTL). Luke Burbank, formerly of NPR crush fame, moved back to Seattle in December '07 and has a talk show on 97.3 KIRO at nights with producer/longtime friend Jen Andrews, Engineer/Japan's #1 Mixer Sean de Torre, and a host interns. I will admit, it took maybe two weeks to get into it, just because it's so different, but now I'm hooked. It's hard to describe what the show is actually about, since it's kind of about nothing. Luke, Jen, and Sean all discuss their lives and their day-to-day adventures, but also go into the subjects of politics, art, culture, movies, music, news events, Diggstown, and Steve Gutenberg. This is also the show that gave me the phrases "doucher", and "aaaaand that happened". They also love getting their listeners involved and having parties. If only I didn't live in Massachusetts, I'd be partying with them all the time.


--Coverville. Roughly 30-hour podcast a few times a week that focuses on covers of well known songs. Usually one podcast a week is a request show, one is on a theme (gender-bending covers), and then another one is a show based around an artist or CD (Paul McCartney and Pet Sounds). Neat to hear new songs, and I've definitely found new songs I like to download.


--NPR Concert Series. Plenty of NPR-loving indie/alternative/hipster concerts to listen to. My favorites/frequently listened to podcasts are Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire, The National, and The Ting Tings. Good music in a live setting, and sometimes nice to not have to think about skipping around a CD, but to just listen.


--Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! Every Monday morning, I anticipate this podcast. Very funny and entertaining, and also quite knowledgeable when it comes to the news and current events. And you can tell they're all good friends and enjoy spending this time together. And now that they're a little more legit, they tend to have very good weekly guests for Not My Job. Also, B-Rock was on a few years ago, and he was hilarious and nailed it.


--The National, The Boxer. I got this CD for Christmas, and I love this band. One to love for years to come. Songs are both pretty rocking (Mistaken for Strangers) and relaxed (Start a War, Green Gloves). Soooooo good.


--Arcade Fire. This is my most favorite find for music in the last few years. I love this band, and I have a feeling they're going places in the next few years. Funeral starts beautifully and grabs you for the rest of the album, and Neon Bible has been a frequently played CD for awhile. GET THEIR STUFF.


--Songs I've heard on NEP. My friend Dave has a local music show called New England Product. If I can stay awake, I listen to his show and write down any songs I like and whenever I have an extra buck, refer to this list and download a song. This is how I've found Chester French (kick ass), Bon Savants, and Pretty & Nice (good beat, I end up bopping my head around). Always a good time.