Monday, October 6, 2008
New Readers?
Much has happened in our first two days here, including an incredible Rugby League Grand Final from the Theatre of Dreams, but nothing measures quite to the excitement of the first three hours, which were spent in an asylum detainment room in the Manchester airport, with nothing to look at but white walls and reflective glass.
It's a rather entertaining story, and we were about to retell it here, but now that we think of it, since this here blog was among the things inspected by UK immigration police during the interrogation, it's probably in our best interest to refrain.
Officers, if you're out there, thanks again for eventually relenting, and granting us passage...we hope you become regular readers.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Bon Voyage
If you've been accustomed to reading new posts each weekday (well you're probably used to not having much to read thanks to the last two weeks, we know we're sorry, our mojo just hasn't been right) we'd like to thank you for your support and we hope that even though the consistency of postings will probably not be here, we hope you'll check-in from time-to-time and see what's up with the NLNC BRITISH ADVENTURE!!!
With this being our last day (for awhile) on United States soil, we are enjoying a day chalk-full of Americana -- three playoff baseball games (Go Cubbies) and a disgusting amount of our favorite BBQ in the world (brisket, ribs and chopped beef).
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tales From the Crypt
Is there another owner in professional sports who personifies everything about their franchise? The Oakland Raiders play in the worst stadium in the league, they play in easily the most dangerous neighborhood of any team, their players are usually old as the hills, those players seem to always lead the league in penalties (especially of the unsportsmanlike nature), their mascot and logo is a pirate, we're pretty sure they're the only team who's kicker has a criminal record, and don't even get us started on their fans.
However come to think of it, Jerry Jones is a face-lifted pretentious fuck, and those sentiments pretty much sum up everything about the Cowboys.
The Monday Ogle - Nostalgia
Where once was a platform for many a talented scribe, the world of sports writing, like most of the world today, has been "dummied down" so that focus groups are appeased and the masses are drawn in. This in turn leaves the intelligent reader marginalized, and left searching.
Tonight we stumbled upon an ESPN.com article about growing-up and growing-old that touched us. It made us envious of the authors stories and memories, got us thinking about some of our own, and left us nostalgic for good sports writing.
Even if you're not a sports fan, it is a beautiful article that's about much more than sport. Here is the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=moehringer/080929&sportCat=mlb&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1
And our favorite paragraph:
All love is indefensible, especially stadium love, which has nothing to do with aesthetics. The first stadium you see is the one you love, end of story. Maybe not see, but enter, since every baseball stadium is a complex delivery mechanism for that first view of its inner pastoral utopia. You leave the hot gritty streets, you walk through the long dark tunnel, you burst forth into that vista of sunlight and cool grass -- that's the moment you become a fan. It's as irrevocable, as seminal, as when you come through that other long dark tunnel, into the arms of a doctor who grabs your ankles and slaps your ass. And you have just as much choice in the matter.
Monday, September 29, 2008
National Stay at Home Week
Saturday's however, are a different matter, because of college football. This weekend was different because of the music festival, but usually we start in the morning with the early Big Ten game and remained parked in front of the box until about midnight with the conclusion of the late Pac 10 game. It's over twelve hours of college football, and it's glorious!
On Saturday, while watching the first half of the Arkansas vs. Texas game on ABC, we were informed by the network that this week is National Stay at Home Week. Hooray!!! National Stay at Home Week!!! Who knew?
So the TV networks have not only created a holiday, but a holiweek, and the only tradition is to watch TV. How novel, errr sitcom of them. Yes, gas is too expensive to go anywhere, and everyone's 401K has vanished, so lets all listen to the TV and watch more of it. Excercise, pish-posh -- read a book, what are we Amish? (If we were Amish, we'd be a crunk Amish like Harrison Ford in Witness.) So we decided to take TV's advice, and we stayed at home to watch some TV tonight.
To get into the spirit of the holiweek, we decided to start things off by watching "America's most watched comedy," Two and a Half Men. We had never seen the show, but with the acting tour de force that is Topper Harley and Duckie, how could the show not be awesome.
Well, surprise surprise, it wasn't awesome. That's thirty minutes of our lives we'll never get back (to wander the Internet looking for things like this). Watching "America's most watched comedy," mostly just reinforced that most people really suck.
ACL Part 2
7c.) Band of Horses - This is the group we had highlighted before the festival as the show-to-see for Sunday, and they didn't disappoint. They've got this great mix of Southern rock and eerie crooning. You may know them from Funeral, which if we're not mistaken, was on a car commercial not long ago. Bonus points for how happy they were to be performing, it's a quality that always resonates with the audience. Deduction because their show was at 7:30 on Sunday and our backs were screaming and mounting a mutiny.
7b.) Jamie Lidell - This dude looks like a hobo, but damn!!! He is funky. We had never heard of the scrawny Brit prior to Friday afternoon, but as we were driving to the festival, one of the local radio stations profiled him, played a few of his tunes, and we were sold. He sounds a lot like Jay Kay of Jamiroquai (which is never a bad thing), but the music differs. Many of his songs had the strange feeling of 1980's sitcom themes, that had been funked-up a bit. Bonus points for band members wearing jump suits and robes. Huge bonus points for giving us the opportunity to drop some Perfect Strangers jokes to those standing in our vicinity.
7a.) The Kills - They were the definition of "Too Cool for School." It was 1:30 Sunday, the heat was blazing, the sun was high in the sky, and this minimalist lo-fi du0 was none-to-pleased. They cursed the sun, cursed their hangovers, and cursed their agent for booking them in such a "suicidal" time slot. For most bands this type of behavior would've been just that, suicide, and the crowd would've turned, but for The Kills, it worked. They play loud, dark, stripped-down, in-your-face rock, and their "Fuck You" attitude just amplified the performance. It's hard not to compare them (favorably) to The White Stripes, what with the girl/guy combo and on-stage sexual tension, but while they're clearly not the Stripes, they do bring it. Bonus points for Alison Mosshart being so damn fine.
To be continued...
ACL Part 1
It's now Sunday night(actually Monday morning), and we feel like we do each year after the festival. We're exhausted and sun burned, our lower backs are screaming, our collective feet throbbing, we stink to high heavens, our ears are ringing, we've got that prevailing uughhh feeling thanks to copious amounts of mind altering substances, and yet we feel fantastic...it's the best weekend of the year, no doubt.
Yes the music is wonderful; there's a terrific combination of established stars, niche performers with cult followings, and up-and-comers, but it's the entire music festival vibe that gets us going. First off, there's an inordinate amount of good-looking women dressed in very little (the silver-lining to the dark cloud that is the blistering Texas heat), and how can anything with this many hotties be anything short of awesome. But eye candy aside, we love the culture. Soft-sided coolers full of trail mix and bottled water, flags collected from vacations of yore waving high in the sky so parties remain in-tact, middle-aged accountants and school librarians dancing like maniacs, too-cool-for-school teenagers making certain their bandannas look just so, and of course the ironic t-shirts.
In a bohemian city such as Austin, interesting/funny/trying-too-hard t-shirts are pretty much the norm, but during ACL Fest it's like convention week. In the three days, it's not uncommon to hear, well over 800 times, "Dude, that's an awesome shirt...where'd you get it?" We spotted this year's best around 3:00pm today -- a lanky man on the wrong side of 50 with a lot more salt on his dome than pepper, was sporting a black shirt with the, now immortal, phrase "Sluts Love Me" printed in simple block white. Honorable mention to the guy with the white t-shirt with a naked Abe Vigoda screened on the front. Thankfully the man parts were blurred.
Musically we witnessed some incredible performances this weekend and we'll give a quick review of our favorites sometime tomorrow. Perhaps you haven't heard of a few of the acts, and next time they're in your area you'll check em out, and have as much fun doing so as we did.
Side note: Maybe another reason for our overwhelming feeling of goodwill towards men this weekend was because we saw hundreds of Obama shirts, buttons, stickers, etc. and not one single sight of the name McCain. We'll give the handful of Ron Paul Revolution folks a pass...they're so cute.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Arrested Development
So our reader, for the sake of anonymity, we'll call him Mapma, was helping his aunt and uncle move from one (legendary) house into another. However the size of the house, and the amount of stuff within it, called for more than just the back of Mapma, so he got two of his friends to come help.
With the first day of hauling and unloading done, the Aunt and Uncle retired to their new digs, agreeing with the three young(ish) men to reconvene the following morning. The three young(ish) men decided to stay behind and clean up a bit before calling it a night.
After a quick clean, Mampa and his two buddies go upstairs to one of the back bedrooms, they shut the door behind them, and proceed to crank up the Zeppelin and fire up the bong. After awhile, with Robert Plant crooning and the herb beginning to seize the senses, Mapma decides to play a little show-and-tell with a recent purchase of his.
On a trip to the Pacific Northwest, our man had stumbled upon a quaint little boutique that specialized in vintage Playboys. What a novel, we mean "porno-rag" idea (pinky out, Dahling). Well Mapma had an equally "porno-rag" idea, and decided to buy the issue from the year and month of his birth. It might be a good conversation piece someday.
That day had arrived, so Mapma pulls out the old Playboy and begins showing of the goods, so to speak. With all the furniture suitable for sitting on, having already been removed from the room, the three young(ish) men sat in a circle around the literature, happily inspecting the retro-bush. Down stairs the front door opens...the uncle had forgotten to leave Mapma with one last bit of important information.
The uncle, following the sultry sounds of I Can't Quit You Baby, made his way to the back bedroom and opened the door. The aroma of ganja smacked him in the shnoz and his eyes were hit with the sight of three grown(ish) men sitting Indian style on some empty carpet, around a porno magazine, equipped with a smoking bong, wide eyes and sheepish grins.
(And now the reason why uncles will always be cooler than dads.)
The uncle, with arms raised over his head and fists clinched, grinned widely and released a stentorian, "Party!!!"
A Fine Line
Sup Biotch,
Dis is me e-male. Everlast! Check it, check it out. Playboy, see
what's de hump. Neva know til see yo. Ounce piece de maily due. Pence
fa a pence. Know wha I mean. Shit biotch. Chooka Chooka. Bunny n a
makin. Nevermind da time. peace.
Slap it. Curleee be.
We've had the pleasure of knowing (not well at all, but still knowing) this cousin for many years, and we knew he was strange, strange in that artsy-eccentric kinda way, but we had know idea that he was, fine line genius/mad. Spell check almost exploded.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Monday Ogle - Get a Brazilian
We bring out truly one of the heavy-hitters this week. This is Brazilian stunner Izabel Goulart. She is of the newer crop of Victoria's Secret ladies and we've gotta say, our favorite of all-time, sorry Heidi (sweet lord, maybe not). Bus as seriously fine as she is, it's not just her crazy good looks that do it for us. No, we've seen Miss Goulart on Conan twice, and both times she couldn't have been sexier. She's quite an enchanting flirt.
Work Update
We gave our standard, "These fish have manners!!! We're taking the fish!!!"
Test Anxiety
A. They're unable to finish the question after the keyboard malfunctions following their vomiting fit.
B. They're unable to finish the question after their hearts beat through their chests and they die.
C. They're unable to finish the question after they say, "Fuck it!!" Then proceed to run roughshod through the ETS Testing facility leaving computers dismantled and tiny Asian kids screaming with fear.
D. They take a deep breath, remember that rate=distance * time, but forget to convert minutes to hours, and get the question wrong.
We talk a lot on this here blog about our arch enemy being Team Hair Gel, but really for much longer our worst enemy has been math. We were bad ass at arithmetic and were consistently one of the top mathematicians in elementary school but that day in middle school, when algebra was introduced...well the hamsters in our domes done checked out. When we were first taught about variables it went a lot like when The Simpsons went into the witness protection program and became The Thompsons.
Math Teacher: Now when I say 2+x=5, you say x=3, OK?
NLNC: Check
Mather Teacher: So if 2+x=5, what does x equal?
NLNC: Dude, that's a letter.
(Math teacher gives up.)
We took the GRE (it's an entrance exam for graduate school) this morning and we're a bit disappointed. We scored in the 85% of all GRE takers on the verbal section (this despite running out of time and automatically losing three question), but being the wordsmiths that we are, we kind of expected a strong verbal score. The problem was on the quantitative section.
We know we suck at math, we've always sucked at math, so for the last three months we've been studying. We bought books, went to a class, got help from our friends, dads and even our sisters boyfriends, ughhh, and were feeling pretty confident. Our confidence jumped out the window as soon as the first question popped onto the screen...it was a disaster.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Apologies
Obsequious...Asian women
Specious...everything out of our mouths at work
Soporific...everything out of our last date's mouth
Pearl Necklace...a badge of honor
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We Know What's Going on Our Business Cards
We've never been big fans of titles. They don't impress anyone except for the titleholder themselves, and if by chance you run into someone who is impressed, they are either your mom or they probably suck. For this reason, we've always promised ourselves that no matter how high we climb in the world, someday when we have business cards made, in place of a title they will just read, "Human." This was until now.
Earlier today we heard an interesting NPR story that included polling conducted by the Pew Research Center. Interested in learning more, and not knowing the proper spelling, we just now performed an Internet search for the Pugh Center on Wikipedia. Having quite a few Pugh related entries, Wikipedia provides searchers with an initial Pugh list.
If you clicked on the Pugh list, near the middle of the entries is Mr. Pepe Le Pew, of Looney Tunes fame. His title, you can read next to his name, is the greatest title of all time...LOVER EXTRAORDINAIRE.
We think it would look great on our cards in raised black ink right above the watermark.
We had forgotten how hilarious Pepe is:
You are ze corned beef to me, I am ze cabbage to you...
Wagner at Vork
When faced with a mindless remedial task that seems to have broken the office clocks, and sent them spinning in reverse, it's time to add a little music to the equation. Now this is nothing revolutionary. Thanks to Marry Poppins (mmmmm) and Snow White, everyone knows that music is the key, but today we rocked some Wagner in the old iPod and it was different, it was incredible.
As we moved files from one cabinet to another, the beautiful and haunting sounds from the master of the German opera, transported our minds to another place. Time became irrelevant and before we knew it, it was time to leave. However, the downside to over two hours of Wagner, is that you'll be exhausted. Since his music is the backdrop to so many cinematic classics (or at least they sound like they should) it makes you feel as if you've fallen in love, had your heart broken, defeated an invading army, won a prestigious award, and been involved in some form of montage where hard work over a long period of time was needed to accomplish a dream.
If you want, no matter what your doing, to feel like the most important and bad ass task of all-time, then listen to this one:
If you'd rather have your soul touched:
Deadspin Featured Comment of the Day
According to this story that ran a few days ago, two regular dudes (pictured below) showed up at a public golf course and one of the two other guys assigned to their playing foursome was Denver Nuggets shooting guard JR Smith who was rolling solo. One of the regular-guy duo, nailed a hole-in-one, and in the recount of the day, said that Smith, who has a bit of a bad reputation, is more than pleasant.
From: Weed Against Speed @ 4:40 PM on 9/15/2008
And who was the fourth golfer, you ask?
You guessed it. Frank Stallone.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Problem Solved
In a chiba-induced Internet hunt for new music, we searched high-and-low through myspace and iTunes for something to cure our 12-bit music need -- the one that longed to be reminded simultaneously of both Tecmo Bowl and getting our laps danced upon by a Texas A&M psychology student named Cinnamon.
We've found just the band for our ales with Toronto's Crystal Castle. Now if you'd like to see (and hear) the actual video of this song, it's here. If you'd like to watch this curious young man cut a mad rug in what looks to be a dorm room:
We can't hate too much, what with all the robot-envy we're experiencing right now, but C'MON SONNN!!! The Reverse Flying Dove (at 1:35)??? That's the most ridiculous thing we've ever seen a human do. Liberace thinks you're a flaming queer.
The Monday Ogle - A Poem
Oh Mudflap Girl.
You temptress of the American highway.
We love thee for thy disproportionate bombs and tiny waist,
We loathe thee for that family road trip to Disney World when we were 15.
What color are thine eyes?
What color are thine lips...No you slut, not those lips!
(We probably should have married that marginally hot, granola girl who liked all the same bands as us...)
Monday, September 15, 2008
The downside of celebrity
However, Friday night while waiting for Tokyo Police Club to take the stage at Emo's, one of our staff members was meekly approached by R.E.M. who too was anxiously awaiting the start of the concert. Being that they too are celebrities, our staffer decided to talk with them, and grant this picture.
They were very inquisitive about StErica, wanted to know the status of the black girl quest, and agreed with our assessments of Sara Palin's duties to her children. We are impressed that they drink Lone Star, are fans of Tokyo Police Club, and rocked sport jackets despite it being a 100 degree night.
From our staff member's account of the encounter, it was a pleasant conversation for about 10 minutes, but then turned terribly awkward when during a time of dead air, our man having run out of questions, asked the ragingly homosexual Mr. Michael Stipe, "How's that gay thing working out?" His response was an unpredictable mentioning of one of our first ever postings...our staff member then hastily bid the band a pleasant evening, and side-stepped away.
Friday, September 12, 2008
CCCP ?
Have a good weekend everyone, and we'll see you Monday morning.
NLNC
Thursday, September 11, 2008
No One is Safe!!!
SalesSlapDick 1 and SalesSlapDick 2 have discovered a new energy drink, and with it's aid are wreaking havoc on the office and destroying everything in their wake. THE HORROR!!!
Their standard power source of choice, Monster, has released a new line called Java Monster, and from a distance it appears to be an amalgam of the chaos-in-a-can that is regular Monster and coffee. Empty cans, showing signs of key holes, have been laid-to-waste all across the intricate patterned office carpet, and it appears that SSD1 and SSD2 have been shot-gunning them .
With the pure excitement of their two favorite things being combined, mixed with the massive amounts of caffeine and crack-cocaine in each over-sized can, there's a good chance that at any moment their hearts will explode from their chests, but until then everyone is being forced to take cover. Thank heavens we have a laptop and can write this from underneath our desks.
Five minutes ago, SSD1, (the one who anytime he says anything to us, we yell, "Tough-actin-Tenactin!" because his voice sounds just like John Madden…he doesn't seem to like this) smashed a picture of his poor children and then slammed his head through his office wall. On the other side, poor Juanita was vacuuming the neighboring office and dropped dead when SSD1's head came crashing through and he screamed something at her. It ironically sounded something like, "Boom, Tough-actin-Tenactin!!!" (It's clinically proven...Use only as directed.)
Two minutes ago, SSD2, (the one with the ridiculous fourth grader haircut) finished of his latest can…and then ate the can!!!
Now they're on a tag team sales call, pacing furiously and screaming into the air at what looks like no one in particular (gotta love those Blue Tooth headsets). It appears they've both pissed their pleated pants but have yet to realize it thanks to the sensory overload brought on by all the Monster Java. One of them just mentioned Newark. Lord help those poor bastards up in Jersey…if they don't buy, the SalesSlapDicks are liable to refuel and sprint all the way to the Garden State to beat the shit out of them.
Who's gonna drive you home tonight?
From butchers, to stock boys, to produce fondling MILFs, everyone in the store slowed their pace (of whatever they were doing), put on their best "sexy face" and started singing along. Despite the rather depressing lyrics, each time we passed a new person there was a knowing glance exchanged that seemed to say, "Everything is gonna be alright."
If prior to battle, world leaders would gather and listen to Drive by the Cars, this world would be a better place.
Side note: Paulina Porizkova is top five all-time...YOWZAHHHHH!!!
Doomsday
One of our cousins, and hopefully the only family member who knows of this here blog, sent us this:
For our younger readers, the African American smiling at you from the eye of the hurricane is Ike Turner. The musical savant, Ike Turner, who used to "Slap the Shit" out of Tina Turner. That's why it's funny.
Rolling on the River...
We Thought This Was Very Funny...
On the left is longtime Sports Center talking head, Linda Cohn (it's absolutely appalling that she's been employed this long--she's always been annoying at best), and the gentleman on the right is new Deadspin editor, AJ Daulerio. This picture was posted on Deadspin yesterday evening, and the following comment was so good we almost cried:
From: Matt Sussman @5:50pm on 9/10/08
There goes the 154 day no wanking streak.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Insert Foot Into Mouth
So with this being the eleventh-hour and everything, we've begun to get desperate. In the office next to us at work is a young African American woman named Smichelle, and the other day we decided to ask her if she had a sister, cousin, friend, etc., who was African American, and who would be up for going out with us. It didn't go well.
We had never really talked to Smichelle before. She always has headphones on blaring late 90's R&B, wethinks we heard The Thong Song once, and is generally unapproachable, so when we entered and asked her if she had a minute, she was quite surprised. We're never ones to beat around the bush so we just dove right in:
NLNC: Do you have any sisters or single black girl friends?
Smichelle: How come?
NLNC: Ummm, well, ummm, we'd like to go out with them.
Smichelle: On a date?
NLNC: Ummm, well actually kind of as a, umm science experiment.
Immediately, before we even got the "t" out in experiment, we were slammed with finger snapping, some mmm-hmmm's and at least one "No you di-int!!" With wide eyes and a quick pace to our backward walk, we went back to our desks and put on our own headphones.
Looking back now, to quote Ricky Gervais, "It's funny...because it's racist."
Public Enemy No. 1
He thinks he's Team Hair Gel's best friend, and they love to hit the town together, but really Team Hair Gel doesn't give a shit about him. He has given himself the job of helping his buddy "score chicks" because thanks to his physical limitations and annoying personality, he won't be "scoring" any for himself. For some reason he takes pride in being the sidekick who's main purpose is to be worse than the guy next to him, and who's ultimate goal is to go home alone -- without his friend or a girl.
We faced a classic Wingman last weekend and were crushed. He was a short, fast-talking, five-headed, Son-of-Abraham who left us angered and confused. We just do not get the culture of predatory calculated conversations; Be them to "score chicks" or to help friends "score chicks" by building him up and heading-off the competition. Now we are no saints in regards to our dealings with the fairer sex, but we have never wanted and Wingman, needed a Wingman or been a Wingman. (exhale)
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Family Name
The Monday Ogle - Part 2
But seriously, sweet Odin's Raven! this thing is out of control!!! Being the lame white guys that we are, it's frightening.
The Monday Ogle - Part 1
Tonight's first ogle goes out to the sexiest VP candidate since our main man, The Great Nullifier, John C. Calhoun. We're 99% sure that this picture is Photo Shopped, because of course, who has a backyard pool in Alaska, but if by chance it is real it wouldn't really surprise us. That right to bear arms, Second Amendment shit, totally had pool parties in mind. The foresight on Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams...wow!!!
Monday, September 8, 2008
What you call a sausage attack we call Friday night...
To say that about this headline from CNN would be the understatement of our lives.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/07/sausage.attack.ap/index.html
We were in California this past weekend too, and in sharing a hotel room with three other guys, we strangely went to sleep Friday night with fears similar to what actually happened to those poor bastards up in Fresno.
There are so many potential jokes here involving the rubbing of spices, scantily clad assailants, and of course the "whacking" and "smacking" of eight inch sausages, that our heads are spinning.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Cum Shot?
For fun, we decided to do a little research and as we dug, we uncovered a few gems we feel compelled to share.
From Mr. North's Wikipedia page, which is chalk full of good stuff, we were especially drawn to this nugget of information:
North is most noted for his ability to produce very large amounts of semen and for his powerful cum shots; he has averaged 8-10 ejaculations per climax since the start of his career in the porn industry three decades ago.
There's a lot going on in that sentence. First off, good for him, well done sir. But more importantly, who is in charge of keeping the porn stats, and how do they do it? Does Peter keep track of his ejac averages and we're just all supposed to take his word for it? This is not the look of a guy who can be trusted with the honor system. Or is there a statistician who some how measures and takes count? We must know this!!!
Also, as Odysseus had his Sirens, we have our "Cum Shots." When we read those two words, and saw that they were blue and underlined, we were drawn in like a moth to a flame, and had to click.
Too much!!! How good is that picture?!?!?! We haven't seen an artist's representation that good since this. The poor young lady is so sad, and rightfully so. She is obviously not only distraught about not listening to mom and dad's advice about Tyrone, but also is regretting her bad haircut.
Side note: When looking for a good picture of Peter North we found this, and at first thought it was him with Wade Boggs. It's a good thing it wasn't -- we would not have been able to handle such a thing, and would've spontaneously combusted right here at our computer.
Legitimacy
With this new-found sense of worth, here are a few changes:
1) We now have a blog specific email address, thenolooknocatch@gmail.com , you know for the fan mail and shit. Also if you have a funny link or tip please use the new address.
2) We've received a number of requests for us to fill-out our blogger profiles, and so we broke down and "Kite" now has some statistical info.
3) We're going to sign-up for Google Ad Sense and start generating a little revenue around here. We decided to allow the not-for-profit ads to run a long time ago (you may have noticed the solicitations for Hurricane Relief and Chinese Earthquake Aid) but we noticed tonight, above our "Blog Archive," that where once our statement of goodwill resided was now a How Well do you Know 2Pac Quiz. If Google is going to sell-out their charity ads, we might as well too. So as soon as we figure out how to place the little monstrosities of e-capitalism on the blog, please feel free to click on them as much as you'd like. We will definitely appreciate the 36 cents at the end of the month.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Landmark
We apologize for the recent inactivity, last weekend's holiday coupled with this weekend's travel has thrown off our writing schedule a bit, but fear not, we've been doing a lot of living lately and have few tricks up our sleeves once we return to The NLNC headquarters in a few days.
For now, as we gaze out our 11th story hotel window onto the fuzzy LA night, we'll leave you with our favorite joke...
A man called Old Man McGregor has taken his grandson outside to look over his Irish country estate.
Old Man McGregor: Ehh boy, you see that fence over there?
Grandson: Yes, grandfather, I see the fence.
Old Man McGregor: I built that fence with me own two hands...but they don't call me McGregor the Fence Builder, now do they, boy?
Grandson: No grandfather, they don't call you McGregor the Fence Builder.
Old Man McGregor: Ehh boy, you see that barn over there?
Grandson: Yes, grandfather, I see the barn.
Old Man Mcregor: I built that barn with me own two hands...but they don't call me McGregor the Barn Builder, now do they, boy?
Grandson: No grandfather, they don't call you McGregor the Barn Builder.
Old Man McGregor: But you fuck one goat...
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Drinking Alone -- 40's
Tonighlahga;akw nfKWJEF;IUHFkj dhfeyugjfg UEYGJLFASDJFF alsdflhafghka dsalkjfhgggliaw laiuhfalgrwirkidsafdewih flaihflaiughl.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Oh Man...
And since the story comes from the Romanian hinterlands, of course one must wonder what type of meat it was.
(On a side note, as you can see above, we just accidentally learned how to use words that we typed as links to other articles. WATCH OUT!!!)
Maybe We'll Give Her a Cashmere Sweater
These Pretzels are Making Us Thirsty!!!
You know that guy who thinks he's ridiculously funny because he's clever enough to drop famous movie and TV lines at somewhat opportune times? Well around the office, we're those guys...kind of. We've taken Thinks He's Funny Quote Guy's lead, and regularly whip movie and TV lines into business conversation, however we've added a new twist -- we like to throw out obscure quotes that really have very little to do with the context. For instance:
If someone walks into a meeting late, we'll blurt out in our best Gob Booth voice, "THE AZTEC TOMB!!!"
When we're in a Lebowski mood and someone asks us a simple question, we'll reply with a simple, "He fixes the cable." Or sometimes a subtle, "You mean coitus?"
As the FEDEX guy leaves each day, we'll bring it oldschool with a little Clerks action and shout, "TRY NOT TO SUCK ANY DICK ON YOUR WAY THROUGH THE PARKING LOT!!!"
Well as you can probably imagine no one else really gets it. As we're hunched over in the corner, clutching our sides, and laughing uncontrollably, the rest of the office usually just looks confused and mumble things such as, "What are they even doing in here?"
So today was a watershed moment, because someone finally got one of our quotes!!! We were in a meeting full of clients, and said clients were wearing name tags with not just their names but also their companies and titles. This one dude, was from a defense company or some shit, and his title was "Scientist." Just "Scientist!!!" What luck!!! As we picked ourselves off the floor and tried to stop laughing, Half Baked quotes began to rush into our minds. Which would we choose?
We could walk up to him, introduce ourselves, and then when his name was given, yell out, "AbbaZabba your our Only Friend!!" A part of us just wanted to start rattling off, "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, You're cool...we're out." In the end, we were so excited we just asked loudly (in accent of course)to no one in particular, "WHAT PAAAAART OF JAMAICA?"
You could've heard a pin drop...until off in the distance this homely youngish Indian woman gave a resounding (well kind of, she came over a mumbled to us), "Right near the beach...Boyeeeee!" We pointed to "Scientist's" name tag, and she asked if we were "Janitor."
We think we're in love...B!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Put a Skip in Your Step Video
Have a great weekend Readers!
Your Friday Afternoon Rap Lyrics
Going back to Cali, strictly for the weather,
Women, and the weed -- sticky green
No seeds bitch please, Poppa ain't soft
Dead up in the Hood, ain't no love lost
Got me mixed up, you drunk them licks up
Mad cause I got my dick sucked...
If I got to choose a coast I got to choose the East
I live out there, so don't go there
But that don't mean a nigga can't rest in the West
See some nice breasts in the West
Smoke some nice sess in the West,
y'all niggaz is a mess
To Catch a Predator...in your office
After an exhaustive search, we settled on this guy. He works waaaaay down the hall from us, and we didn't even know his name was SDoug until today. He definitely has the classic look, doesn't he? We asked around and apparently, along with looking like a child molester, he steals pens from the supply closet, and regularly talks about a scheme to move the decimal place over one column to fuck with accounting and collect the change into his offshore bank account.
Get this, we doug (rim shot) deeper and found his band's MySpace page. Oh, man!!! We love The Series of Tubes so much.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=408165940
Please click on this link and listen to the song...it's too good...our ribs hurt...
We're On Board
The No-Look, No-Catch is officially endorsing Obama for president...we're probably going to have to be interviewed by CSPAN now...fucking CSPAN!!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Four Wheels of Fury
At least two of our faithful readers knew us in high school and will therefore no doubt remember the above car, or at least one that looked just like it. One of them in fact should have quite vivid memories of at least the miniature backseat design of this little Japanese beauty (damn we were limber back then). The above car is of course the vaunted 1989 Toyota Celica, and it is the same make, model and color as our very first car. We had just wrecked our dad's 1984 Renault Alliance, better known as Napoleon, after a motorcycle decided to play with fire and get in our way, and what do our parents do to reward our safe driving? They buy us the only car on the road smaller than Napoleon. We think it was $2,000.
It looked just like the one above only it was waaaaay cooler. Ours was much sportier. It had a rusty sunroof, some subtle racing strips over the rear wheels, and of course a foam spoiler we had attached after painting it with $2 black spray paint. It kicked serious ass!!!
Well today, when driving at lunch we saw the old bastard driving on a local highway. 19 years after rolling off some assembly line near Osaka, the Blue Bolt was still ripping up the streets of Central Texas. Spoiler still intact.
It was kind of like seeing that hot student teacher from third grade at the supermarket 15 years later. You remember the teacher, the one who caught you looking down her shirt in the produce section last year and then got all hot and bothered when you told her it hadn't been the first time you'd sneaked a peak. It was great to see it/her and you remember all the good times, but with all the body damage, discoloration, and a trunk that was much much bigger than you remember, you just couldn't help but feel a little sad.
Another NLNC Dramatic Production
Man #1: Profits were down in Q2, way down. What are we going to do?
Man #2: It's the economy. Every one's hurting these days.
Man #1: You're right! Damn you Bin Laden!!!
Man #3: No, the problem isn't the terrorists. We've all got our American Flag lapel pins on. We're immune.
Man #1: You're right, and we support the troops too, so that can't be it.
Man #2: If it's not the economy, what can it be?
Man #3: It's production, the proles are just not putting out the product like they were earlier in the year.
Man #1: How can we fix it? Can we just fire them all and hire some Mexicans?
Man #2: Yeah Mexicans!!!
Man #3: No you fools!!! We already have that temp that sleeps at his desk, we can't afford any more siestas.
Man #1: We have to think...think out...what's that fresh new term that they're using at all the MBA schools?
Man #2: Ooh, I know! THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!!!
Man #1: Yes, think outside the box...I love it.
Man #3: Perhaps what the proles are lacking is proper motivation...
Man #1: Yes, we need to light a fire under them. Let's threaten their jobs.
Man #3: No, I mean we need to inspire them.
Man #2: We already have Hawaiian shirt day.
Man #3: What if we ordered a shit load of those motivational posters?
Man #1: You mean like the kind that have some fucking mountain on it...and the label AMBITION?
Man #3: Yes exactly. The proles love that kind of shit.
Man #2: I like where your head's at.
Man #1: This is going to be great!!! Number three, you get a raise.
Seriously, the company I'm working for got a huge-ass shipment of those ridiculous things today. Everywhere I looked minions were hanging up the black-bordered atrocities. So to honor their efforts, we're going to start putting some of our favorites up here on The NLNC. You know, to keep ya'll motivated to keep reading.
StErica is Back in the News
Apparently all the ganj is making StErica testy, because she's been killing us this week. Today she actually got upset with us for watching TV shows from our laptop instead of building some spreadsheet. Does she know who we are?!?! Maybe we should have had her speak with DRC to keep expectations down. But anyway, she got upset, we popped-off (that was a first), and she (kind of between the lines) told us to straighten-up or else. As much as we need this job for the next five weeks (before we take-off on our first NLNC field trip), if we were to get iced, this could potentially be a legendary exit. We've had some good ones, but we've never had an ace-in-the-hole like we do now, and by ace-in-the-whole, of course we mean -- our manager has never bought narcotics from us from their desk before. Just a hunch but there's probably something in the Employee Handbook about that...We might not wear pants for the rest of the week.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The Monday Ogle - Random Hottie in the Park
Farewell
With the vast majority of American athletes carrying themselves with pride and class, we found ourselves cheering on the good ol US of A more than we have in years, and it felt good.
Probably with little surprise, we again found ourselves drawn to the obscure sports--our favorites being team handball, kayaking, and weightlifting--but with Phelps, our two little gymnasts, and "The Redeem Team," we even got caught up in the big name sports too.
So thanks Olympics, you purveyor of thrilling competition, goodwill, artistic beauty, amazing feats of strength and speed, tears of joy, tears of disappointment, cultural enlightenment, and smoking fine Paraguayan javelin throwers.
To bid the games adieu, below is the long version of the spectacular Nike commercial for Team USA hoops. Thanks to the wonderful performances of our nations competitors, we find it fitting to play the best ever version of our National Anthem.
(When we first saw this commercial we went nuts. It combines perhaps our two favorite things -- basketball and African American soul singers. We've had Mr. Gaye's version of The Star Spangled Banner on our iTunes for years now, and it is one of our most played songs. We know it's the National Anthem and all, but we often just groove to it. DAMN!!! If anyone could claim more conquests than Chamberlain, it had to be Marvin Gaye. If we had been slutty white chicks back in the late 70's/early 80's we would have totally...)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Your Friday Afternoon Rap Lyrics
And your bullets can't touch me, your words can't reach me.
I'm mista know-it-all, you niggas can't teach me.
I asked her if she fuckin or not, as soon as she read me.
She thought it was apple juice, but now she drinkin pee-pee.
Better watch your ass Thoreau.
Employees of the Month
This is from the job we were working when the NLNC was born, and we can't really believe that someone took the time to write us a personalized letter that states each offense. Didn't they have a HR form letter somewhere. We apologize for it being so small but we've had a hell of a time trying to make it bigger, have given up, and will just write it out for you. It reads:
Dear No-Look,
Upon close review of your reader evaluations from your recent employment with DRC, we are unable to offer you future work. Your reading rate was below average, in addition to your unwillingness to adhere to the rubric and the fact that on more than one occasion you were sleeping on the job.
I wish you the best of luck in your search for future employment.
Sincerely,
Vicky Sherman
Human Resources Representative
Data Recognition Corporation
We're going to have it framed.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Hey Winning Isn't Everything
The Fletch
Public Enemy Number Four
Saturday night, after teaching SpArielle to tuck-n-roll and then kicking her to the curb, following the date from hell. We decided to go to a bar because it was still two hours till closing...she of-course had a curfew. Now the Canary Roost is a bar across the main thoroughfare from Mom's house, but we had never taken the plunge and gone in. It always seemed like the kind of neighborhood bar populated with mostly peroxide divorcees and sad insurance salesman types desperately trying to cheat on their obese, teased banged wives. But with nothing to do and the gas tank running on E, we, acting as Julius Caesar, crossed the Rubicon into the world of Karaoke.
We didn't know it was a Karaoke bar, but it didn't take long when we were greeted by a monotoned rendition of Free Bird sang by Hawaiian-shirt Larry. "Shit!!!"
After ordering a $2.75 gin and tonic, always the sign of quality, and surveying the patrons, we quickly learned that Mexicans love Karaoke. Eight out of ten people in there had a surname ending in z. Being a Karaoke virgin, and with the name and all, we figured Asians pretty much had a corner on the market but no.
We stayed for five songs, and if you'd have asked us to pick five songs that would be sung at a trash Karaoke bar prior to our adventure we probably would have gotten all five:
Freebird - Skynyrd
Some Nickleback thing
The Joker - Steve Miller
Simple Man - Skynyrd
Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-lot
Each was sung by a dude, or dudes, and what struck us the most was how prepared they were. Not only did they not need the words projected on the big screen, because they knew them all, but most of these gentleman had worked in some choreography. The two clowns that tag-teamed The Joker, worked in spins and (actually a pretty incredible) microphone toss. More than the showmanship, what drew the most ire from us however was the witty banter they through in to keep their adoring fans entertained. Because really, during guitar solos there's not a lot to do when there isn't an actual guitar. So these fucks were actually dropping lines like, "How ya'll doin tonight, don;t forget to tip your waitress...(eye wink)" and of course the eyes closed, fist clinched, "Oh yeah..." With his Blue Tooth ear piece blinking(because of course this fuck needs to be able to take all his Saturday night calls hands free), when Baby Got Back Guy got upset after the "white boys" failed to "shout" loud enough for his liking, we lost it and had to go.
If you've sung Karaoke before, and it wasn't while being held at gun point by the Khmer Rouge, then please stop reading this blog.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The OM Plan
Monday, August 18, 2008
The Monday Ogle - Citius Altius Fortius
HOLY SHIT!!!! She is the hottest woman in the world, hands down (into our pants). We shouldn't have skipped Paraguay when we were in South America...Fuck!!!
Red Flags
We understand that no one is perfect, look at us, try as we might, we can't quite turn our six-pack into an eight, so we've developed a bit of a red flag sliding scale. Here are some examples.
Bad taste in music => you better dress well and have cute hair
History of mental illness in the family => no problem if you've got nice legs
Smoke cigarettes => you better brush your teeth often and give mad head
Been married before => you better be SUPER fine and not totally crazy
It's give-and take, and all about evening out. If you fall short in one place but you've got extra credit in another, then what the hell let's give it a shot.
This past weekend we had date number two with our co worker's daughter, you remember, the smoking hot teen-aged Halle Berry look-a-like. Well our first date didn't go well, yes seeing The Dark Knight on IMAX was completely badass, but prior to that, dinner conversation was painful at best. As there wasn't much to talk about other than, "So what's your favorite ______?" Here are some of her rather peculiar answers.
Favorite Restaurant - Applebees
Favorite Musical Act - The Pussycat Dolls
Favorite Class - "Oh I'm not in school, I'm a checker at HEB (grocery store)."
Favorite Movie - Scar Face (If you could see this girl this would baffle you.)
Favorite Hobby - watching TV
Some other kickers: she shares a room (and bed) with her mom, she found our undying love for Harry Potter disturbing, she had never heard of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and when she complemented us on our looks and we responded by saying we were going for a bit of a Bohemian thing, she asked if Bohemian meant something like a Viking.
But despite all this, thanks to her stunning features and figure, and that whole white whale thing of ours, we were planning on suppressing our laughter and frustrations until we could...well we think you know. But alas, she planted a red flag in our dating mind that left us with wide eyes, white knuckles, and desperately seeking the nearest exit.
Through her mother, we had learned that her father had died about a year ago. We felt that this, while tragic, was probably none of our concern and might actually work in our favor -- daddy issues tend to bring certain benefits. So we're sitting there and for some reason she brought up her dead dad, we nodded respectfully and she asked, "Oh did my mom tell you guys about my dad?" Thinking this meant, we had been told simply of his passing, we gave her a sorrowful "yes."
She then broke down and started talking to us about all kinds of details she thought we knew. Stuff like -- she witnessed her cop dad attack her mom with a stranglehold and punch that broke her dome and put her in intensive care for a month. Then the dude made a run for it, was a fugitive, and when the law was closing in, iced himself.
Umm...Check please!
Influences
To kick things off, here is a link to one of our favorite pieces of literature. It's an older article from The Phat Phree that if you've never read, you're in for a treat. As you read it, when you get to the paragraph (towards the end) that starts, "Something in here stinks." Think of us, it leaves us rolling each time we've read it.
http://www.thephatphree.com/features.asp?StoryID=534&SectionID=11
New Word
We remember one thing from our freshman Poly-Sci 190 class -- The most important thing in competition is not whether you win or lose, but rather if you surpass expectations. In an age of hype, ridiculous hype, where thanks to 24 hour niche programming and instant Internet access, everything seems to get overexposed, over analyzed and over hyped, Michael Phelps has done the impossible -- he surpassed impossible expectations. The gold medals and records are immense, but the fact that according to the media he was supposed to do it, and then did makes it even better. Then you add the intense drama from two or three of the races and you get something that even NBC Sports, the biggest hype machine of them all, has been flabbergasted. Every one's running stories about Phelps and his Olympics, all the superlatives look to be taken, so we offer up, Phelpsian. We think it'll catch on.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Sales Tales
So, the other day, caught up in Olympic fervor, two salesslapdicks were right outside our janitor clo-errrr office, and they were discussing synchronized diving. While not exactly word-for-word, this dialogue is not fabricated.
Emerging from their international sales call with new client, Soluciones Bolivar, two Planview Software salesman begin talking as they reach the hallway. In a nearby office The NLNC is furiously typing--their monitors look to be showing some sort of blog.
Salesdick 1: Dude, did you catch that diving shit last night? The wife made me watch it.
Salesdick 2: You talking about the one with all the Chinese dudes?
Salesdick 1: Yeah, the Chinese dudes won but there were some Koreans and Japanese too.
Salesdick 2: Whatever, they're all Chinese to me. (laughter)
Salesdick 1: (laughter)
Salesdick 2: Is it me or did those little bastards kinda look like chicks?
Salesdick 1: Yeah, 13-year-old topless chicks. (laughter)
Salesdick 2: (laughter)
Salesdick 2: Yeah, so does it make me queer that I thought they were hot. (laughter)
Salesdick 1: (laughter, then an extended pause to recover from the comic genius)
Salesdick 2: Did you see that email that the Soluciones Bolivar guys sent over during the meeting?
Salesdick 1: Yeah it's cool that they play sports at their company picnic.
Salesdick 2: Do you think they were joking, or do they really not know how to spell football?
What really sucks, is these asshats rake in six figures.