Showing posts with label Dead People. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dead People. Show all posts
12/27/09
8/20/09
CANDLEPIN
Whilst on tour in Portland, Maine I finally was able to cross off one of my life goals: play candlepin. It's a distinctly New England dialect of bowling with a small ball that fits in your palm, straight up and down candlestickesque pins, and 3 rolls for each frame. I think my affinity for it was originally tied up in my usual taste for local variants, strange traditions - etc, but after playing a game I left with much more substanial reasons for liking it.
1. Erractic indeterminacy. The ball is so tiny that it often veers even when thrown straight. Couple this with the fact that gutter balls are often violently spit out back into the lane and that fallen pins stay in the field of play ("roadblocks") and you have a recipe for unpredicatable play.
2. Abysmal futility. You would think with an extra throw each frame that Candlepin would be a breeze compared to our 10 pin, while actually it is considerably more difficult. Strikes and spares are rare events. In competition between "professionals" scores of 130 are common. The best game ever, according to the dude that worked at the bowling alley, was 245. No one, ever, has had a perfect game (300). It's an unreachable zenith, one which the dude that worked at the bowling alley said would never be surmounted.
3. Luddite central. It might have just been the alley we went to but you had to keep score yourself as well as hit the button to rerack the pins after each roll. And tons of really old New Englanders are into it as evidenced by the background crowds in these videos. And people in New England have the best accents in America. RIP DON GILLIS
1. Erractic indeterminacy. The ball is so tiny that it often veers even when thrown straight. Couple this with the fact that gutter balls are often violently spit out back into the lane and that fallen pins stay in the field of play ("roadblocks") and you have a recipe for unpredicatable play.
2. Abysmal futility. You would think with an extra throw each frame that Candlepin would be a breeze compared to our 10 pin, while actually it is considerably more difficult. Strikes and spares are rare events. In competition between "professionals" scores of 130 are common. The best game ever, according to the dude that worked at the bowling alley, was 245. No one, ever, has had a perfect game (300). It's an unreachable zenith, one which the dude that worked at the bowling alley said would never be surmounted.
3. Luddite central. It might have just been the alley we went to but you had to keep score yourself as well as hit the button to rerack the pins after each roll. And tons of really old New Englanders are into it as evidenced by the background crowds in these videos. And people in New England have the best accents in America. RIP DON GILLIS
7/21/09
IMAGES, moving and otherwise.
Some things I've been looking at. The Cult Ritual photos were taken by Jimmy Buttons of Lentil Nightmare. The mosh paintings are by Dan Witz, I like just about everything he's done - his current body of work is unsettling to say the least. I was going to make an 8 by 8 foot blow up of a picture of a mosh pit and hand color it for Marina's "Biggie Smalls" show until I saw Witz's paintings and gave up the idea. And there are some Dash Snow *(who is pretty dead now I guess) polaroids thrown in for everyone who loves VICE circa 2002-2006.
And this makes me laugh - the paper with the superheroes is actually DC Comics letterhead for rejection notices.
And this makes me laugh - the paper with the superheroes is actually DC Comics letterhead for rejection notices.
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