The Kimberly Trip

I recently got my hands on the fantastic album Generation Stereotype, and, after one listening I decided it was imperative to see The Kimberly Trip live. I chose their next event, which turned out to be a CD release and benefit show.

The event was a fantastic mix of food, prize drawings, silent auctions, cupcakes, and chocolate fountains. Youngsters to oldsters (rockers and walkers?), tattooed to bow-tied, the crowd was as diverse as it gets. It was touching that so many people put enormous energy into the event -- all ticket sales and other proceeds went to help a friend who is battling cancer.

The Kimberly Tripput on an inspiring show that was a singularity of modesty and the Best Show in the Known Universe. The band’s crisp bite of Rock combined with brilliant lighting, trampolines, bubble machines, and Kimberlina’s distinct voice was tremendously fun.

The Show Must Go On is certainly the cake of The Kimberly Trip, with a rich icing of special effects, and a fine sprinkle of shoot-from-the-hip humor.

I’ll be back for another slice.

OMG

I’m visiting Randy and we decide to get some Coke squishies (what Randy calls a Slushy) -- we know I will need the sugar and caffeine to keep up with our planned late night visit – especially with Randy being Captain Graveyard-up-all-Night. Everything is going fine, the squishy machine dispenses two beautifully textured American-super-sized beverages - I suppose this is when we should have first seen-the-signs. Traditionally, if you look wrong at these machines they give you some sloppy mess instead of what you are looking for, and getting two perfect squishies from the same machine, within the same hour, on the same day, well, it is truly some sort of miracle.

We get to the counter. We ante up our drinks on the counter, and toss in some snacks to raise the bid. I think I tossed one extra thing from an impulse buy rack at the counter - I'm sure that is what started the chain-reaction. The woman behind the counter rings everything up -- I hold out my ten-spot. She just looks at me like some sort of cow with a train barreling down on her and won't reach for the ten.

"You sure you don't want something more?" she says with a chilling tone
of-something-bad-to-come.

Then it was my turn to look like soon to be burger on the grill. I'm not sure what Randy was thinking at this time; maybe he caught on sooner than me. My brain clicked a few more times, made a quick list of replies, did a quick-sort, then sent me the answer:

"Look, Bitch, just give me the squishes and the candy, I don't need a fucking lottery ticket, or what-ever your up-sales-trained-brain is thinking I need to buy".

Of course, instead I said, "Uh, no, this is fine, thanks". Smile.

Her eyes just got bigger, "Are you sure? You could just add in some jerky or something it’s only like-a-dollar", she picked a shriveled stick out of a bucket and waved it like a feable not-so-magical wand.

My brain shattered. The characters “WTF?” scrolled blinking across my cracked monitor. Something triggered my fight or flight system, my blood-pressure rose, my heart-rate elevated, the hair stood up on my neck as blood rushed to my head to feed my brain. Time compressed. My mind calculated the complex math needed to resolve freaky social conditions; it struggled mostly with different reasons why anyone would possibly be pushing jerky tonight. Is this some piss-poor signal that we are standing in the middle of a hold up? Is she making some rude sexual joke by waving around dried meat? Is this some code for buying drugs at 7-11? Is this to make figuring out taxes easier? Are they now paying commission on jerky sales at 7-11? Why is jerky only a dollar in Oregon?

It felt like a minute passed, and then I realized she was pointing at the cash register read-out.

It did read: 666

“Are you sure?” she pleaded.

I told her, as nicely as I could, that I didn’t believe in old myths or some such. She complained, but wiped her hands clean of the event and sold me my devil-treats.  I could almost feel her making some old curse gesture behind our backs as we left, tossing some salt over her shoulder, and then cleaning the register, just to make sure.

Randy and I later agreed that things might have gone differently if she had said, “I’m going to give you one of the squishies free, to avoid the wrath of the beast”. With the prospect of free a squishy, neither of us would have blinked an eye.

Ganoderma applanatum (Artists Conk)

Taken at Sly Park Recreation Area

Licensed!

Finally licensed.

Tomato seedlings!

Mushrooms!

Coprinopsis, possibly Coprinopsis atramentaria. I love how quickly the self digest.

Beyond Ken

I've just about finished the first draft of my resume. Whew!
I'm looking at a few web-based professional nameplate sites. Check out what I've done, let me know if you have a favorite:

http://zerply.com/ken-gribble

http://about.me/ken.gribble

http://re.vu/ken.gribble

The cool thing about re.vu and zerply.com is they can scoop your stuff from linked.in! You can see how that might look by checking out my linked.in

http://www.linkedin.com/in/kengribble

I find resume writing to be a bore. It’s difficult to hold it all back so one can appear to be down-to-earth, and not some half-crazed, kilt-wearing, mushroom-picking, lock-picking, beer-loving, culinary-curious, super-genius, system administrator.

But enough about me.

How do you spread the word about your goals, accomplishments and other accolades? Anyone have any interesting sites or advice?