And before that...

So I didn't go to the IMF protests. I wish I had a good excuse. I mean, mars was in town, so maybe my excuse is "i was entertaining" but i don't know that that's valid. I understood the protests, and I certainly agreed with them, but I guess I just wasn't willing to give up my weekend for the opportunity to get my ass kicked by a cop.

Friends who did attend alternately tell me that it was intense and they saw some shit go down, or that it was like a phish concert except newsworthy-- lots of college kids who didn't know exactly what was going down but were really into the idea of telling people they'd been there for it. Thankfully the local news didn't seem to concentrate on that angle, there were plenty of impromptu interviews with articulate protestors who (as much as you can in a 10 second soundbite) were capable of explaining the need for the protests.

Anyway: I totally just had the best cheap indian food! And in the car ride back we heard Bobby Brown's "Tender Roni" and my new name is Chender Roni!

Me and mars did have a great weekend (read it here.) And sunday was this crazy all day show at kansas with like 4 bands including the Most Secret Method and Andy Cigarettes, who, as soon as I get some contact information on, you have GOT to order some tapes or something, the kid is Unbelievable.. David described it as "Karaoke Performance Art" and I can't think of a better short phrase for it.. It's a kid with a microphone and a tape player that plays his own original songs which he then sings to but... i don't think "sing" really captures what goes on. The kid goes NUTS. It's like... it's like GOOD industrial goth emo vocals over casio tunes. It's a sight to see, and a sound to hear.

Then David showed his short documentary about the youth culture in Moberly, Missouri, which was also rad.

Also, i found out i actually like avocados! WHO KNEW? It's another item for the list of things Mars has turned me onto. The very first was ketchup on french fries. And the second was probably Henry Rollins. We hung pictures of him in our lockers in high school, which, looking back, is kinda quaint.

OH YEAH! I never got to tell you the awesome April Fool's Day story that I was going to tell you on April Fool's day, so i'll tell you now.

There was this kid named Jamie Yannacone that transferred into our high school senior year. We went to a rich kid catholic school. It was cliquey but it was never like, mean... the cool kids invited us to their parties and were perfectly nice and friendly to us, and vice versa. We weren't all best friends or anything, but I mean Mars went to our junior prom with the student council president/captain of the football team guy. You know what I mean? It was nice, it was harmonious. But I guess this kid Jamie tansferred in from another world and didn't understand that you could be nice to people who were different. He started giving us all shit immediately, and kept on giving it.

Then, long story short, he called me a gook in our philosophy of lit class. If we didn't like him before, we really didn't like him after.

So here's the thing about Mars: strange (to a rich catholic 17-year old kid from delaware) or no, she's fucking hot. Really really beautiful with this totally sweet sultry voice and aqua eyes and she smelled like dewberry all the time and lawd, those hips. So it's April Fool's day in the cafeteria.

Mars walks up to Jamie, who is standing with a crowd of the cool kids, while we, her strange friends, sit at our table watching and giggling, which he doesn't notice. She taps him gently on the shoulder; he turns around and looks shocked, but revealingly nervous. He follows her lead when she pulls him ever so slightly aside and starts talking to him in this demure, heel-rocking, hands-behind-the-back stance. "Jamie," she says, "I know you really don't like my friends, but I... I don't have a date for the prom, and I was wondering... if you'd... if you'd go with me."

Jamie pops a wee catholic boner and manages to mutter an astonished, "yeah, of course..."

"APRIL FOOLS, FUCKO!" Mars yells, and my lunch table and I laugh our asses off.

Jamie tries to play it cool, like "good one." But he's still kinda shaky.

He left us alone for the rest of the year, if I remember correctly. Unless he was the one that tipped off the feds in my whole "accessory to stinkbombing" debacle.