Folking it Up at the Festival

Last weekend I attended the 2008 Bangor Folk Festival.  This was actually something I was looking forward to attending.  And believe it or not, last years Festival was quite a bit of fun.  That is why it was something of a disappointment this year.

The main reason for all of the disappointment was the heat.  The oppressing heat.  The chaotically destructive heat.  The hellish shooting flames of heat.  It was exactly that bad.  We went on a Saturday at noon, and it just so happens this particular Saturday fell right in the middle of the last big heatwave of the summer.  Walking across the bridge from my house wasn't so bad because there was a breeze coming down the Penobscot.  Once we were mingling with several hundred other people in performance tents, in vendor stalls, and just out in the open we felt the heat.  Bad.  Usually we would stop to check everything out, or take our time just leisurely strolling around.  Now we were so uncomfortable and covered in sweat that we quickly moved from attraction to attraction never really paying much attention.  It just made the whole thing unpleasant to be soaked in sweat.

While the actual festival itself seemed just okay, it did lack some of the pizazz from the previous year.  I enjoyed last year because I was surprised to see performing Tibetan monks and a crazy Japanese street performer.  It's the Asians, man, they really do it for me.  But on top of that there were better vendor stalls, I feel, last year.  Even though I walked away with nothing either time.  Still, there was a greater variety last year.

The one positive that can always be drawn is the food.  Oh, the food!  There was everything from Vietnamese, to Greek, to vegetarian wraps.  Drifting over the entire layout of the event was a pleasant, warm scent of something delicious.  It was just all of the food stalls pumping their wondrous smells into our nostrils from every corner.  While I tried more delicacies last year I was still able to content myself this year.  For a meal we opted for chicken vegetable wraps with a garlic sauce.  These suckers were exquisite!  While there could have been some more meat and less vegetables it was still quite tasty.  I also sampled a bit of rabbit at the cooking stage.  Oh yes, Bugs Bunny was food that day.  It was a lean meat, somewhat bland and also tasting a little like chicken.  And I made the woman try some too.  She usually doesn't eat furry little cute creatures.

Anyway, it was a slight disappointment overall.  Perhaps next year will be better, maybe they'll line up some acts that suit my taste.  Then again, maybe not.  I'm not the type of person targeted by the festival.  I just hope that they bring back that Asian international flair they had previously.

#1 - Become World Traveler

If I had a list the number one thing would be to become a world traveler, like I talked about in my last post. That's it. That's the top thing I want out of life. It started with me wanting to go Japan many years ago. Then I decided I wanted to go to Europe. Like all of it. "But why do you want to go anywhere else? America's the best you commie!" I have a wanderlust that is insatiable and gets only little nibbling satisfaction from day trips. I want culture shock! Being surrounded by an entirely different world and not being in my comfortable, familiar land is something I need.

I'm going to LONDON in October. After that, who knows where. I hope an opportunity presents itself that I can't resist.

Hey! Hey! Let's travel!

One of, if not the only, my goals in life is to become a world traveler.  I see travel shows on TV and stare at the screen with a goofy grin as I happily watch the exploits of the narrators. I watch as many varied shows as possible.  This lets me travel vicariously through the narrator.  Some of these places I know I'll never see.  Yet others I'm certain I will.

My interest in history, which culminated with a minor when I was in college, is also a driving factor in my desire to travel.  I read about all the historic exploits of these regions, countries and people and it excites me.  So much that I want to go and see these places.  Some of the countries I would go to just to see the sites of historic relevance.  For a lot of people the perception is that this sort of traveling is a big yawn.  For me that is so much the opposite.

I like to think of myself as rather cosmopolitan.  That's completely wrong of course, but it's what I like to think.  I want to embrace other cultures and people.  At least embrace them to a higher degree than many other people around me.  I want to become totally immersed in another land and be surrounded by another people.

I want culture shock.  And this may happen very soon, because now I have the money to travel.  And a passport.  And I intend to do both for the rest of my life.  My upcoming travels will not be one time deals.

Go! Go! New Wave!

I have to test my new blog host don't I? I need to make sure that I can post images, and do all kinds of funky stuff, don't I? My last blog was so basic. Crappy design, crappy images posted on crappy entries. Somewhat funny. And of course there was the incredibly racist Paul French Fries. But now I test IMAGES!

[caption id="attachment_6" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Spain victorious!"][/caption]

A pictures celebrating Spain's Euro 2008 victory. David Villa and Fernando Torres were happy. Coincidently, so was I.

Kid Curry becomes Busaiku

Happy Birthday to me, and a... well not so happy but at least a return to blogging.  My last blog ended in early 2007, and is now only visited by people using the image search on Google to find pictures I had uploaded.

It's time for me to return to blogging.  Why?  Because it's the perfect tool to get me writing again.  My current... situation... or shit job if you will, has taken away my passion for just about anything.  If it weren't for The Ashes, I'd be a zombie by now.  And not the good kind.  So I need to reinvigorate my passion for writing.  How?  Blogging.  It's a simple exercise, really.  I'm setting up several blogs for different topics.  This one is just my "whatever" blog.  It has no purpose except to allow me to dump my mind.

I need to just start writing every single day.  It doesn't matter what.  I need to write.  Everything and anything.  Any topic on my mind will come here.  Anything video game related will go to my other one.  Everything else comes here.  Ideas will hopefully flow from this site into other areas.  I will become a well rounded writer again.  I've slacked since graduating and that was almost 2 years ago.

"God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." - Tyler Durden

Support

I like a LOT of soccer teams. I'm not kidding, a LOT. I probably have at least one favorite team per country. It's a result of coming later in life (22...) to the game. I became a fan of the game and not a team. As an American I baaaarely have a "home team" so to speak. The closest pro team is New England Revolution and the closest amateur team is the newly formed Maine Sting.

I've developed a support for a lot of these teams through Football Manager, which served as my soccer education. So here's a list of the teams I support and why.

LIVERPOOL FC


Liverpool, the team that started it all (for me). The winners of the 2005 Champions League in a brilliant final against AC Milan. I've been a fan and supporter ever since. My favorite team and the one I have the most merchandise.






CELTIC GLASGOW


Celtic, in the Scottish Premier League, appeal to me on multiple levels. It's a combination of being a New Englander and Boston sports fan, the color green featuring prominently, and the slick jerseys. The hoops, the green hoops no less, are brilliant. Throw in Shunsuke Nakamura from Japan and it's all the more reason to love this team.





Fenerbahçe


By far my favorite Turkish team, which really doesn't say much because I don't like any other Turkish teams. I think it's the name and the uniform that drew my eye to this team. Very appealing in every asthetic sense. I always cheer them on in European competitions as underdogs with the ability to win.





GREMIO


Grêmio first caught my eye for a very peculiar reason. One of the characters from Suikoden I had the same name. I noticed them while playing Football Manager and damned if I didn't like them right away for that odd reason. The team is now my favorite Brazilian team, and probably the only thing I like about Brazilian soccer. Once again the colors and uniforms of this team are visually appealing. Doesn't hurt that they're one of Brazil's top teams.



PALERMO

This one comes entirely from Football Manager. My first long term game was as manager of Palermo. I won 5 scudettos in a row and 3 Champions League titles. In reality they are a mid-table Italian team that achieves little and will, sadly, almost certainly never win the Serie A. They're a brave team that has had some of Italy's current top players come through at some point. And they wear pink! That takes some nutsack! So I root them on even if they fall into obscurity.



SHIMIZU S-PULSE

In all honesty it's the ridiculous name. S-Pulse, what the hell does that even mean?! I don't know, I don't care. All I know is I like this team. Snazzy colors, ridiculous name, and contenders that have yet to reach glory. I'm pulling for this team in my land of dreams, Japan.

Author

Name - Busaiku
Age - 25
Occupation - Freelancer
Nationality - American
Status - At Large