So I need to learn

How to make it so that this isn't /index.html... Maybe fix that tomorrow. In other news!

matthewgiuffre.com

There she blows. Today I spent uploading this lady. I've slep ten hours in three days and it shows. We finally got some cat food for Puerto Rico. She's been hanging out a lot. She sort of comes in then runs outside for no reason and rolls in dirt then comes back in just to leave. I'm going to spend tomorrow cleaning the house. I'm not sure if the "We just moved in" excuse is still valid.

Dreamweaver's taking its time

I'm uploading my website to my server right now... So this blog may not exist for too long. Or at least maybe in another place. The site's not done, but the four main pages are and I've decided to stop for tonight since its 4 and we have to pick up Malicen and Ruby at the airport tomorrow at 11. Then get lunch and its back to work. This has been good though. I've spent a lot of time exploring the programs I've been slobbing through since highschool. Check out the new Soft Intelligence posters once they're up. Soft Intelligence being my band/video project with Caitlin. More on that as it develops.

Tomorrow I'm picking up tickets for Man Man and Quintron (which is a Halloween show!), total cost: $21. Some things are great here.

Last night we couldn't get in to see Interpol and more importantly Liars, since it sold out almost a month ago. So instead we packed a couple beers and sat on the top of a parking garage across the street. It was an outdoor show and even though we couldn't see them, the sound was perfect. And on top of a parking garage is the one place where nobody thinks to look. Nobody being pedestrians. We saw some fun stuff. Drunk girls walking at a 30 degree angle, shirtless guys doing laps on single speeds, pedicabs doing laps with nobody getting on then the peddler getting off their cab trying to get into the show then getting denied and sitting in his cab waiting for the show to get out.

Some guy snuck onto some adjacent buildings that had a better vantage point in that from there you could actually see bands, and a place we considered sneaking up on to. We watched him flee security as we biked home.

The good news is there seems to be a good flow of people coming through. This weekend brings Malicen and Ruby Khan. Next week the brodukes and Theresa are passing through for a few hours. A few weeks later Caitlin's sister will be here for a weekend. And supposedly a certain John Dewey Leone should be stay for a week in November. I meant to call him tonight. I guess it'll wait.

VIRTUAL TOUR!

Here's the house! Note the rags and debris we haven't taken care of yet. And the all around disarray of the place, since we don't have shelves or anything to put stuff on. Its ugly and it leans but its nice and its ours. The ugly neighborhood cat just let Caitlin pet it. I'm naming him Puerto Rico.



I got a bike! Its got a flip-flop back wheel (one side is a singlespeed freewheel, the other is fixed), good brakes, good parts and short bullhorn handlebars like I wanted. Its exactly the bike I was going to build but now don't have to. I took it for a spin earlier and its super tight. The chick who sold it to me was awesome, too. Her name was CJ and her boyfriend is aparently in an awesome stoner metal band with a complicated name that I wrote down and have since forgotten. I'm going to paint it since a teal bike really isn't my deal.



This is our show! The opening is in two hours and I hope to meet a lot of cool, motivated people. I'm especially interested meeting the people who run Collective RERT, the home-gallery people.

So that's that. More when it happens.

We're in an art show

Yes, sir. And apaprently there's a whole collective down here of people with the same goal as Caitlin and I: to have shows out of the home. So we'll be meeting them. The show is friday. I have two drawings, I might make some more and Caitlin put 6 or 7 in. Wish us luck. For no reason. Since we're already in it. I'll post a flyer later.

Good news, everyone!

The house gets free internet! The place is a charmer. Today we spent scrubbing the floors and getting all the old plaster off them, then scrubbing the tub and the toilet (out in the street, for all to see). We put the toilet in but had some troubles with the sink, Bob got a new one and its not lining up with the existing pipe, so he has to go get some flexible hose tomorrow. So we have no sink, but we do have hot water and just took showers, but the AC isn't working yet since he also got the wrong size filters for the intake duct. But the ceiling fan is new and nice and the windows open (they need to be rescreened and giant moths are swooping in)and we just got a mattress from IKEA which is really nice. Its not the one we wanted as that was obviously sold out, but its cheaper. And thinner. But still nice. We have a nice stack of pillows too. In a couple days we'll go back and get some house stuff which will be very nice.



The Departed was excellent.

Tomorrow: Finishing the kitchen and bathroom, scrubbing the gallery, and a little bit of organizing.

One more day of hotels thank god

So spent the last days sitting in the Extended Stay till the afternoon, getting Puffy Tacos then driving the twenty minutes from Round Rock to Austin, applying for jobs, looking at nice houses, and being amazed at how many mascots here have sunglasses. "Ah, dragon with sunglasses, mushroom with sunglasses, snow-cone (caitlin's favorite, picture later) with sunglasses..." None of those are jokes. Then we go back to the room and watch movies or Arrested Development or Futurama then go to bed. We did this because we thought the house would be done by today but since we are now in the Walnut Forest Motor Inn, it isn't. Our landlord, Nice Guy Bob, had to leave town for a few days for family stuff up in Oklahoma, but he said he'd have some guys go to the house to paint and sand the floors. They never showed up. So today was spent with Caitlin and I being little homeowners and painting our walls (two light brown, one white for the gallery, and the kitchen is a lovely yellow) and then I got to be a man and scrape out all the old black caulk from the tub and recaulk all the seams.

We took a break and went to an ok greek place on Guadalupe. Then we worked until about eight thirty and spent the next two hours trying to find a cheap place to stay, since by now we've both spent at least 350 on hotel rooms; many thanks to everyone who's helped me out in that respect. So the first place we tried was this Motor Lodge that as soon as we pulled in we could feel the low bass hum of warning brewing up from within the earth. We were stared down by a man at the teller window, not the teller, but some 50 year old getting a room. We walked up and notice he was with a girl I'd love to say was at least 16 but I have no idea. Your conclusions in regards to that are your own. When he said "how y'all doing?" to us we both thought "did you have to?" but said "just fine." He then through vulgar, sexual comments to the 60 year old fat lady behind the counter, while his lady laughed. It was incredibly upsetting. One of those rare occasions where you think in the past that you've met a sociopath, only to actually meet one and know that you need to get away from him as soon as possible because he doesn't care about anything. The scariest person alive. Other than that there was a guy lying down by the pool, yes pool, with his thousand pound girlfriend dripping over the fence onto him. As we pulled right the fuck out of there, we had just enough time to see a shirtless monster loom in a doorway with no lights on inside. Jesus.


No place is perfect.

So we cam to the Walnut Forest which is very cute and nice and we talked to a guy who had the misfortune of spending last night at the palce I just talked about, it is thirty bucks a night, but some things aren't worth anything. "Just nasty" is what he had to say, the business man from Lubbock. This room is a little smoky and hasn't changed ever.The curtains won't close, but these photos were shot there.



Tomorrow I install the toilet and sink, then we finally empty the car after two weeks of torture and we go to Ikea and buy a damn bed.

Good night! Tonight we watch The Departed.

By the way

My copy had German subtitles

Grindhouse was awesome. We watched the first half last night and its like that whole thing with bands now where people are realizing they can just make things awesome. The whole movie is just dudes being bad ass and heads exploding.

Same thing goes for Smokin Aces. With less heads exploding and more semblance of plot.

We have a membership to an amazing video store now that has several out of pront John Waters and Ken Russels movies.

Man Man is playing in October and Liars is playing in two weeks. At a place half the size of TT's.

Its been hot, obviously, but not too bad, if you were wondering.


Reel Missing

A few days to decompress

I don't like to admit it when I've pushed myself too far, but between the time change (lame), driving for ten to fourteen hours a day and eating at Bob Evans, by Friday I had to accept that I was completely tired. We spent the last three days applying for jobs, but mostly sitting in the hotel watching discovery channel, which luckily has been showing nothing but Blue Planet and Survivorman.

Monday found us in St Louis. We met up with Caitlin's cousin Michael and his boyfriend Jim and their two adorable puppies. They were australian shephards, like Sparky, mixed with collies and were incredibly soft. I wish I got a photo of them.


We got in a fight and I had to make it to Austin by mule.

They gave us a tour and St Louis is a pretty neat place, but I doubt I could live there. Maybe for a summer. Probably not. We went to a decent pizza place and they gave us a tour of the town. We got back around 1030 and I crawled straight into bed. The room proved to be a germ furnace and I woke up at 3 in the morning coughing with the heaviest head and cracked the windows, something I should have done before I went to bed. Bad combination of dry heat and dehydration I am just now getting over. We both woke up feeling like garbage and have been blowing our noses and couhging up garbage ever since.

We headed out and made it to Graceland by the afternoon, but Memphis depressed me so hard we didn't even go in. It was the six bucks for parking that was just too much for me. It looked like a bunch of shitty buildings with Elvis' plane and car out front. We headed to Arkansas.


The road takes its toll

Arkansas provided us with terrifying storms and little else. I don't think we even stopped before Texas. El Dorado was about two hours out of our way, so we scrapped that idea, and we drove b y Arkadelphia around 8 and weren't ready to stop, and forgot to call Marshall to tell him thanks anyways. We stopped outside Dallas.

I wished I had known Dallas was only 200 miles from Austin and if I did I would have pushed myself to make it there that night. But we got up Wednsday morning an headed south on I 35. A straight shot that continues to San Antonio.

Somehwere along the way we saw a man who probably built his motorcycle. He was roughly 350 lbs with a three-wheeled motorbike with the front and grill of a hotrod. On the back in script was written "Free Spirit."


And so do I

We got to Austin around 2 or 3 and drove around and were totally down with everyone we saw. There's no hipsters here, its too hot. Everyone's in basketball shorts and its great. Even the bike messengers. Let that sink in. So we scooted around and grabbed some free internet which is provided by the city, so if you're in the park on a bench, the internet is yours. And if the signal is weak, you just have to go to a bar, get a beer and they'll have it. Beer, by the way, is 1.50 almost everywhere. A dollar everywhere else.

After spending a minute on the internet we found a house and met with our landlord, a really nice guy from Chicago named Bob. He's letting us keep some of our stuff in an empty house of his until our house is ready, which could be as early as tomorrow or as late as Friday. We have this hotel paid for until Thursday, so either way. I've seen a bunch of fun bookstores I want to apply to since I'm realizing I really just want to do stupid work for a little while.

There's a good market here that's like Walmart but better called HEB. The proces are reasonable and they have better stuff. We've discovered the most amazing place on accident, as well, Tio Dan's "Puffy Taco." Its incredible. They take tortillas and lightly fry them then stuff them with awesome crap. We've been there every day.

In other news, there's an arts fair in Round Rock, where we're staying, today that we're going to and we're both applying to be in a show in a month or so, the deadline's in a couple days. In a few months I'll apply for a show at these two galleries while hopefully hosting shows at our house. Times are good.

More when it happens.

Time has passed

And we have a house! However, it won't be ready for a week or so. So, Caity and I are shacking up in an Extended Stay Suite. A massive step up from the incredible dive we stayed at last night. Maybe it was the giant moth on the wall when we came in, or the broken lock (still worked?), or the sheets that gave Caitlin hives, or maybe and ultimately the cockroach I accidentally crushed when i moved the nightstand. That Rodeside Inn can get stuffed.

So. Not much happened Monday. We drove though some farms in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Tried and failed to find a ghost town in Illinois and just found a crazy place I wish I hadn't seen. Saw a few crushed houses, more crosses and abortion billboards. We stopped at a Bob Evans which I guess is like a western Bic's, so imagine Bickford's but where everything sits in a pool of oil. I'll never go back.

Driving by people and seeing the country you begin to understand its problems. Not all of them, obviously, but you're able to put things together. There's nothing there. We'd drive for hours which equals hundreds of miles and there would be nothing but chain restaurants. Not good ones, but things like Bob Evans and Cracker Barrel, where everything is microwaved. I know all I saw was highways and interstates, but everynow and then we'd get off to look for something and see a town or drive down a small road and rather than have smaller restaurants where things could be nice there is either those same places or nothing at all. For hours and hundreds of miles. So there's so few places to go and everything is so grotesquely prepared that it gets less and less hard to figure out the weight problem. Or at least understand. There's a whole lot of people with nowhere else to go.

And that's why they drive giant cars. I can assume a reliable and efficient Toyota Camry would be too tight and compact and uncomfortable. SUVs are huge and can house a huge man, or huge family of which I've seen many.

More tomorrow.

Ah the Hotel...

I forgot to mention a few things from last night.

We stopped at a Starbucks by the side of the road last night watched an eight year old girl rub her butt all over the open refrigerated case.  We stopped at a Denny's, had some transparent coffee,  and watched a twelve year old boy comb a Barbie's hair with his hands, then sit her down on the chair rail.  "You're so perfect" I wished he said.  I tried to find the bathroom, couldn't find it and my appearance made a black kid say "Dayum!" which I had thought only happened in movies.

Then we stopped at the Rodeway Inn, not Rodeside Inn as previously indicated.  It came complete with:

A dead fly waiting for us on the bathroom floor.


This bath, which I'm about to step in.

We need to be out of here by ten, so good bye.  I'll start resizing these before I post, I swear.

The End of Day 2

So rather than post last night as I had planned, I just got drunk with Alan at his parents' house in Brooklyn.  We went to this place around the corner which Alan said absolutely anything could be going.  We suggested Squid Rodeo? and he said it was a possibility.  That or five year olds in a hardcore band or spoken word.  However, when we went there was nothing happening.  There were a few people hanging out outside but no one inside and it was silent.  We had beers and talked to the chick werking there then played Metal Slug on an outdoor arcade machine and couldn't beat the first level.  

When we got back to Alan's house we watched the new instalments to R Kelly's Trapped in the Closet saga while Alan cooked me a steak and we drank Porkslap, the foulest.  

Before all this Caitlin and I had a fun night in Salem on Friday in which many heads did roll through, some stars including Ryan Piaxao and Clay who owns guns.  Got to see Jack and Matt and Cassy and Tyler and JD and the Dames.  

The next day found us scrambling to finish off packing the car after a 430 am farewell to Annie.  I forgot a few things, like my four rolls of medium format film, one of which I had planned on wasting during the trip.  JD and Steve showed up at zero hour to pleasantly wish me off, then I had one last burrito at Anna's with Lawrence, Keanne, and Corey, which was perfect.

When we got to the car there was a highway, or in this case parking lot, diaper waiting for us behing the reart tire.  I guess we rolled over it and onto the Pike where we saw a car moments away from bursting into flame.  I wish that were the first time I'd seen a car on fire.

From there we made our way to Hartford and the Old State House which made me think I'd made a mistake in coming to until we found the curio room on the second floor.  Two headed cow and pig were waiting with three horned goat and petrified skate was just hanging out with some friends.  There was a six foot narwhal horn in a very tall belljar and a very eager fox's head.


Me and the two-faced cow.  Never could trust him. 

Gay City was kind of a let down.  Less of a ghost town and more of a state park there was only remains of an old mill, which was neat to look at, and I saw maybe one ruined foundation.  Caitlin caught a frog.


These things happen in Gay City.


Be seeing you


We went some places

Then we got to New York and remembered yet again why I can wait to move there.  In the morning we spent an hour trying to find this bagel place Alan told us about, gave up, and had to find gas. Paid 9 dollars to leave the city and headed to Philly.  We got there and walked around and realised that we were happy that we weren't moving there either.  Philly is like if the worst people from RISD and JP had a baby and it fell down some stairs.  All it makes me think about is Keith Haring and the early nineties and art that tries to pull the community together, like making a person out of traffic cones and milk crates.  But we got to Mutter Museum after spending another hour looking for a place to eat and not finding one.

We left and did not persue Centralia as it was getting late and there was must driving to do.  Caity did most of it, about 250 miles, while I read Factotum by Bukowski.  I like it.  There's a few memorable and filthy lines.  Went through some long horrifying tunnels and saw some strange things at pit stops.

I took over driving at eleven and continued till 130 when we found this Rodeside Inn, with an oddly friendly innkeeper.  And here we are.  We're about 20 miles away from Columbus and only have two goals for tomorrow, one ghost town in Indiana and then getting to Caitlin's cousin's house in St Louis.  Time for bed.  Smooch.