Erik’s Essentials: 4/06/12

This “Essentials” spans a couple of weeks, just so you know.

 1) Durham, NC

I took a “Spring Break” recently involving North Carolina and Indiana. The first leg involved staying with my buddy Cam, who goes to Duke University. Durham is an interesting place, and the first place we went was to the revitalized former Lucky Strike factory. Totally badass: The water tower and chimney with the Lucky Strike logo remain, though the “factory” is now businesses, shops and restaurants with a cool creek running through it all.

Cam. Photo by his fiancee, Bethany.

Downtown Durham is a good example of restoring “what was,” to some degree. I can’t even imagine what it was like in the hey-day of cigarette production.

Cam also took me to The Q Shack, which is a bbq joint with the most amazing hush puppies. I didn’t even like bbq until I went. Dip the pups in some honey butter, you’ll be a believer.

There was also a beer store down the road called Sam’s Quick Shop, which let you have a nice beer (and keep the glass) for $5 to drink while you decide what to buy.

 2) Country music

Being in the South, this makes sense. The full-blown fan status, however, happened somewhere around the West Virginia/Ohio border. With hits like this, “Fly Over States” (also by Jason Aldean, which mentions Indiana),  “A Woman Like You”  by Lee Brice or “Why Don’t We Just Dance” by Josh Turner not to mention my upbringing with Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw’s “Don’t Take the Girl,” country music strikes a special chord in me. Today’s music ain’t half bad either: I would love to play drums in a band like that.

Country music speaks of women, drinking, working and playing; it says that life is hard and love is work; but most importantly, it says to be true to yourself and things will turn out they way you want them to, eventually.

Oh, and beer. Lots of beer.

 3) Titus Andronicus

My love affair with this band started roughly last fall, and “The Monitor” has been playing in my truck nonstop for awhile. I finally got their first album, “The Airing of Grievances,” on vinyl from VGR recently and love it. They are the band I wanted to form and play drums in. Still are.

Watching that Civil War documentary and picking up on all of the quotes + meanings was cool. I recently attempted to get snag an interview with them, but they’re on tour at the moment.

Check out the Youtube doc on the making of The Monitor here.

They take New Jersey state pride seriously, which I dig. They are my second favorite NJ band—Saves the Day being No. 1, of course.

Take the plunge and don’t look back: Getting out of that bummer town you live in

from Primer magazine

“There” is always more alluring than “here.”

You would agree, no?

Everyone hates that feeling of being “stuck” or “in a rut.” For some people, the way to escape it is a simple cruise around the block for five minutes. For others, it is a lifelong struggle: the need to keep driving persists, even when we stop.

The latter has been the case in my life for some time now, and I’ve learned there is only one way to scratch histhe itch of getting out: Do it.

Here are a few words of advice (and of inspiration) to get you on the path you want to be: Away from “here.”

Adam’s Essentials: 3/02/12

1.)Tennessee

I’ve currently been here a week and it’s awesome. I’ve gone hiking twice, explored an abandoned house, gone to a fancy wine party, went to a few good bars, and learned that my lack of an accent totally gives away that I’m not from around here. If I ever needed to relocate I’d probably make my way south.

 

2.) McKay Books, CD’s, Movies and More

If you’re ever in the Knoxville, TN area this place should be high on your list of places to visit (chances are if you’re visiting this area your list is short enough to accompany this addition). This place is awesome. I could easily spend an entire day there looking through their huge selection of used CD’s and I could easily spend another full day looking at DVD’s. Their prices are awesome and their standards for CD’s are insane. They have “scratched” and “very scratched” CD’s that are anywhere from nineteen cents to a dollar. I’ve bought CD’s in both conditions and have yet to find an actual scratch. This last time through I found Converge’s Axe to Fall and The Walkmen’s Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone. I wish there were more places like this all over the world.

 

3.) Erik Fox

I got to see this dude for the first time in 9 months and I get to see him again tonight. We’re gonna drink some beers and watch a movie or ten. I’m glad he’ll be living here in Tennessee, not only because he’ll be closer but it gives me one more excuse to come down here often. I suggest that if you don’t have an Erik Fox that you should go find one. If you can’t find one I’m sure his parents wouldn’t mind making another one.

Erik’s Essentials: 03/02/12

Many things are going on my life right now. Here’s a few things that have helped.

1) My fiancee

seashell beach!

I moved to TN this week. This is the result of waking up on the first day of 2012 and realizing I needed a change. Bri (fortunately) encouraged me to take a leap and try something new. Moving 1,000 to a strange, new land is something I have some experience in now—but it’s a lot easier when someone you love and know is nearby.

Not sure why I waited so long to be closer to her in the first place. But oh well.

2) My dad + doofus brothers

last year, paintball + casino. this year: tattoos.

These three dudes came to MA to rescue me/help move. It was awesome. Their only request was to sample the fine craft brew in the region (which there is plenty of—this state is loaded with good beers and breweries), so we are took Boston and Cape Cod by storm and swilled a growler or two.

Also: Sam Adams party trolley . . . DOYLE’S.

And: We all got tattoos.

3) Travels with Charley, by John Steinbeck

I first read this book two years ago, on a Greyhound to and from TN. Simply put, it had a profound effect on me. I’d experienced the itch to travel before, but not like after reading this book. Making this move to TN makes me feel at ease, knowing that I’m following the path I want. Being restless and wanting to pack up and leave every eight months or so can’t be too horrible.

The first paragraph alone is a gem. Here’s a good quote:

When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find himself a good and sufficient reason for going.

Internet: What to do when you don’t have it.

College prepares its students for a lot of life’s challenges and obstacles, but one thing it currently fails miserably on is what said students would do without 24/7 access to the Internet.

The Internet, in recent years, has made us totally dependent on its vast network of readily accessible information—so much so that we forget how to actually use our brains.

The Internet is equal parts awesome and awful.

For every well designed and informative website, there are probably 100 unintelligent and poorly designed crap holes. The Internet, more than likely, holds all the information about anything we could ever dream of knowing. But, unfortunately, we’ve lost the ability to sift through all the bullshit.

No one will ever discover the cure for cancer because everyone in the developed world is too busy looking at pictures of cats.

So then there’s me. I go from 24/7 access to the Internet to maybe being able to get online once or twice every 3 days. A significant change when you consider when I wasn’t in class, napping or with my girlfriend I was on the Internet doing nothing important whatsoever. What does one do when the craziness of school, the proximity of a girlfriend and access to the internet suddenly change? That my friend, is a very good question.