I hate when I get drunk and start speaking with an accent thats not mine

So after a highly intoxicating first night in Montreal we woke up some what early for what we did the night before. All the asians in our room left :( so were all alone at the moment. Funny side note the city shut off the water at our place, and I found that out a little too late, good thing the asians left. We gear up and venture over to St. Denis Rue where we spent a little bit last night. We walk around checking out all the shops, which all seem to have this hippie/eastern vibe going on. We eat at this indian restaurant for lunch, it was ok but Dale's is better. After realizing my sanuk's are completely soaked, like my socks are wet, we head back to the hostel. After re-grouping we head over to St. Rue. What do you know there are sex shops every where, this should be fun. After getting our fill of dildos, flesh lights, sabian machines, celebrity genitals, and more porn than a 13 boy watches in a day we move on. One amazing thing about Montreal is there are so many places to eat, each street has about 10 really amazing places to eat of varying styles and flavors. On our way back we stumbled into a head shop and met Sebastian. Sebastian is one cool dude and he kind of looks like jesus. He gives us the low down on the cannabis scene in Quebec and answers all our burning questions about burning. Pretty much in Montreal unless you blow smoke in a officers face they could care less what you smoke, we can attest to this seeing we've walked down the street and seen people just blazing as they go about their business. Sebastian tells us that the cold stresses out people out so they are lax about smoking. Turns out that Sebastian will be in Jamaica the same time we will be for spring break so hopefully we can get up with him. Upon our friendly exchange with Sebastian we get some beer and kick it at the hostel for a while. Following some beers we go out to get some mexican food (of course!). We had seen this place on St. Denis called "3 Amigos" that was always crowded so we figure we'd give it a shot. Canadians do mexican food pretty well, the food was good and fairly affordable. We land back at our hostel and start drinking with all the people we met last night, of what I can remember. We have a group of about 15 of us kicking it in the lobby, before we all decide lets start new years a little early and go to this bar and rage. We had to explain to them what "rage" or "to rage" meant, it was pretty funny to hear their reactions and by the end of the night they were using it too. We all head over to a bar called "Yer Mad" and continue to 'rage'. One of our new friends Tim is an Australian (there seems to be a lot of them around) who has not been home in 8 months. He loads us up on all his crazy travels which have literally been all over the world. He does some writing for lonely planet and tells us he should be in Austin, TX but he flipped a coin and it landed on him being here, pretty interesting philosophy if you ask me, i hope to be like him one day. After several, several, several pitchers of beer later most of them thanks to our philly friend Lawrence. I am on my way out when I make my way over to a table where one of our Australian friends is sitting talking to two montreal girls. Well I was going over to say good night but some how that led me to taking tequila shots with these girls. And for some reason they only had lemons to bit so thats what we did, salt+lemons=not the best combination. These girls live about 40 minutes and tell me they get drunk and then wait around till one of them sobers up to drive home. They also tell me that most the french spoken in montreal is a fucked up combination of french and english and most the time they don't understand it. Several rough tequila shots later they offer to walk me back to i don't get attacked by the out of control crack head population in montreal, such nice girls. We bid adieu and i crash hard. Tomorrow is the big show! Get ready montreal loose tingles is coming at you!

What does the inside of a polar bear's ass feel like?

After our way too long of a stay in York, PA, $800 and a new alternator later, we left around 5. Oh did I mention that when they put in a new battery that Audi's have this great security feature that locks it the radio rendering it useless, yeah. So we started driving, in silence, on our way to Kelly's place in Mechanicville, NY because there was no way we were going to make it to Vermont, so we'll hit that on the way back. 5 hours later of driving through blizzard like conditions we make it to Mechanicville. A small town but never the less it gets us off the road and with good people. We spend the rest of the night enjoying the fine taste of LTD and trading stories. We wake up remotely early, enjoy a fine breakfast, and head north naturally. 3 hours laster we find ourselves eating balloons full of heroin over the boarder. We finally arrive in montreal, and let me tell you this is the coldest place I have ever been in my life, and I know what your thinking "duh its december in Canada" and to you I say shut the fuck up i know. It's really not the temperature that's the problem it's the wind that will whip up and shatter your frozen testicles. So we enjoy some Thai food (naturally) and start wondering around the city. Lesson 1 we learned was always go out with a plan of attack it's too cold just to go out wondering. Our hostel is nice, good location, and clean. Despite us manifesting the hottest porno scene ever once we enter our room it's filled with a bunch of asians. Come night, we start wondering around, noticing that we were wondering around the gay district and that for obvious reasons our chances of meeting girls is very slim here we wonder in a different direction. We make our way in to a dimly lit mellow hookah bar and have a couple of drinks. We then venture over to a bar called St. Bock which has an enormous beer selection. We get a pitcher of a brew they make in house. It's a pilsner with a light color and a sweet finish. Afterwards we occupy some beer and head back to our hostel. We meet interesting people from Norway, Australia, the Czech Republic, and of course France. We all share stories of our travels and why were hear, cultural differences and what not. They are all fascinating people, after copious amounts of alcohol we head to bed to prepare for round dos.

Montreal? Don't mind if I do

Were back! In the next installment of the Loose Tingles saga we find two thirds of the group heading to our neighbor to the north, more specifically Montreal, but not before stopping in my homeland of Vermont, also we winging the ride back. For 4 nights we will be let loose in the only providence in Canada thats stubborn and wants to speak French, but first our adventure at the Redskins game. After a hair splitting dash to the DC Metro we enjoyed a 30 minute ride with the most interesting characters the city has to offer. Upon our arrival to FedEx, with no tickets, Nate tells me of his uncle's tailgate spot that is the Mecca of all tailgating spots, being one that has to see in order to believe I doubt. The only tailgating I have ever done is at ECU games which I think is more like a circus. After arriving at FedEx field I still have to agree that ECU still takes the cake when it comes to tailgating. After tracking down Nate's uncles spot like trained hurters stalking a cheetah, we hit it the mother load of all tail gating spots. There must have been 100 people at this spot. Once we arrive we notice the friendly man handing out beer in the back of his truck. Not any beer mind you but such favorites as Sam Adams Winter Lager, Peroni, Becks, Dos Equis, Dog Fish Head, and many more lovely selections. After we grab two beers, one for each hand of course, we make our way over to the monstrous grills surrounding a buffet, and of course not any buffet mind you. We gorge ourselves on crab soup, italian sausages, wrapped sandwiches, needless to say were in tailgate heaven. Several beers later and tons of trips through the snow over the guard rail to relieve ourselves we get a call from Nate's mom, who just happened to stumble upon box seat tickets for us (can this night get any better?). Being the saint Ms. Bounds is she agrees to meet us at the metro stop we got off at. So after filling our pockets with Coronas for the road we head back. Some drunk sprints and pissing behind peoples houses later we make our way back to the station. Once we got their I noticed a problem I had beer, but no way of opening it. So I asked one of the kind metro employees if he had a bottle opener, he told me he did (and what a kind gentlemen he opened it for me too) but told me I couldnt drink it in there, this doesn't stop me. We grab the tickets and head back to the field. We get in and take our private elevator up to our suite right on the ten yard line. We are greeted with more free food, which we indulge in, and a witness the Redskins at their finest. We leave early (like everybody else) and catch the metro back to prepare for our travels to Vermont the next day. Next day we wake up at 7am and hit the road. An hour and a half in Nate's Audi completely shuts off and leaves us on the side of the road some where in Pennsylvania. After dealing with AAA's bullshit an hour and a half later a town truck shows up. The guy takes us into York, PA. After waiting for next to an eternity for the shop to look at our car, we found out we need a new alternator and battery, not to mention it won't be ready for 5 hours. So here we are now sitting in a horse race betting facility waiting, the people here are pretty seedy (I guess you have to be if your betting on horses at 2pm in the afternoon on a monday). So it can only go up from here! Next stop: we don't know yet.

Wale's "Attention Deficit" and Julian Casablancas "Phrazes for the Young"

WALE "ATTENTION DEFICIT"

7.5/10

After hearing Wale's mixtape "Back to the Feature" I was really excited to hear what this D.C. rapper had to offer on a major release. The album starts out strong with the horn heavy "Triumph" which really captures Wale's unique voice and flow. The thing I really like about this album is a can really hear it coming across great live with a full band. As much as I like rappers that rap about things other than drugs, cash, and hoes some of the tracks on Wale's debut album come across as weak. The bulimia inspired "90210" seems like we should feel sorry for a girl that has it all but still suffers, I don't buy it. It sounds like any other ring-tone rap out there and is probably my least favorite track on the album. Wale needs to keep appealing to the alternative rap crowd like he does with "TV in the Radio" which features K'Naan. Thats really where he shines, I really hope he doesn't fall prey to the over produced synth heavy tracks that are already on the radio. All in all you should for sure pick up this album, minus a couple of radio/pop friendly tracks Wale really shines and I can't wait to hear more from him.

JULIAN CASABLANCAS "PHRAZES FOR THE YOUNG"

6/10

The Strokes have always been one of my favorite bands, minus the fact they suck live, but they still write good songs. After hearing other Stroke's members side projects such as Little Joy, which I recommend checking out, I was interested to hear what front man Julian Casablancas could bring to the table. This 8 track synth heavy album sounds like a futuristic 80's version of The Strokes. Casablancas still keeps his talk-sing style like he does with the Strokes through out the album. For only being 8 tracks long you would figure they would all be solid, not so much. My favorite tracks off the album would be: "11th Dimension", "Out of the Blue", and "Tourist". Other than that you can really over look the other tracks which sound like b-sides from an 80's disco. Not saying they are all bad they just lack re-listening ability and sound almost half assed. Maybe Casablacas felt like he needed to keep up with the other Strokes members that were doing their own thing but he should have waited till he had something really solid together. I hope The Strokes put out another album before Casablancas does.

Welcome to this groove

Well since the last time i kept this blog a got a positive response from people about the adventure and about my writing. Don't worry this blog isn't going to be about what I had for breakfast and my favorite colors. Everything I post hope you will find relevant and entertaining. I will also be posting videos I'm working on, any music that gets created, ideas for future productions, anything I find relevant. I hope you all enjoy it and keep up with it. As for now I have just finished up a production called "Great Moments in Hazing History". Its part of the improv group I work with on campus. The idea sprung from a conversation we were having about fucked up things we heard frats/sororities making their pledges do. So our idea was to do an exlax mile challenge and thats all I can say for now. I hope to have it edited by the end of the week and i promise you it will not disappoint. I'm also taking suggestions for future great hazing moments so if you have any really good ones feel free to send them my way. Thanks for reading!

Tour Completed

Well folks we have come to the end of our little journey, thanks to the power of stimulants we made it back from the Grand Canyon to Greenville in 2 days. Sorry I didnt do blogs for LA and Vegas, there are plenty of stories just ask. Unfortunately we ran out of time and didn't make it to Austin but we'll be there soon. Summary of those places goes as follows LA: shitty traffic, huge, and expensive. Las Vegas: hot, big, and to have a lot of fun you have to be loaded. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, we all had a great time and our biggest thanks goes out to those that made it happen. This trip has restored more of my faith in humanity, this country is filled with a lot of great people that are eager to welcome you with open arms. We had the time of our lives and recommend everyone doing a trip like this at some point, as long as your open and positive it will happen with great success. So thanks again to everyone that read this blog and followed our trip, so until the next trip god bless america .

-mac

Bay Area

This is my favorite area of California, the weather is usually quite mild, its sunny, and there is a lot to do is a relatively small area. The one cool thing I have began to notice about the weather in California is first they is way more fog in this state than i have ever seen in my life and it affect the climate fairly drastically. Second, you can go over a hill in California and the temp. will drop 10-15 degrees, its crazy. We rolled into my Aunt Beth's house in the late afternoon got settled and then went to this organic burrito place which was amazing. We had some drinks but the night was pretty slow and we had to wake up early for surfing. I have always wanted to try surfing since I skateboard and snowboard, but I never really got around to it. We woke up at 8am to drive to an area right around Santa Cruz to meet up with our teachers. Our teachers, Taylor and Dave, were real cool guys and awesome surfers. After putting on our wet suites we carries our boards a short distance to the water. Now the air temp was probably around 70-75 and water was around 50 or so. We were all pretty nervous about getting in the freezing water but after about 10 min or so you get use to it and it doesn't bother you at all, we just kept thinking hot tub. Once we were all hot in heated in the ocean it came the moment of truth catching the first wave. Nate was first, success. I was next, continuing success(batting a thousand now). Finally CJ, sorry CJ no success (no worries he got up the second time). We probably surfed for a good 2 hours, I had no idea how much upper body strength it took and how much of a bitch it was paddling out but it all payed off once you caught a wave. After surfing we went to San Francisco, we hit up China Town, and went down to Fisherman's Wharf. One cool thing about SanFran is it's pretty mild during the day but it gets chilly in the evening so you get a good mix of all conditions. The following day we caught the train from San Jose to SanFran. When the train let out we decided to hit up the Haight Ashbury district, which was a good 2 mile walk from where the train was, and on top of all the hills in the city it was a good little hike. Haight Ashbury is a really fascinating area, if you don't know it was the epicenter of the counter culture movement in the 60's, this place is still a cool area a little touristy and filled to the brim with head shops but alright. After strolling down some streets we went to Golden Gate Park to an area in the park called 'Hippie Hill'. This place was quite the scene, there was a drum circle, people selling pipes, people smoking pipes, and people selling things to put in your pipes. Its a great place to people watch, we saw a guy playing 'asphalt gold' and then proceeded to do a song and dance with the same golf club. After the park we went back to San Jose and took it easy since we were waking up the next day to go to Monterey. Next day we headed out to Monterey which is a cool little beach town about an hour away. We stayed at my aunt's friends house which was amazing, it had beautiful hard wood floors, a hot tub, surround sound, and a good view of the ocean. We picked a good weekend to head up to Monterey since there was an Italian car show going on. So on every block there were Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos, Bentlys, and every other exotic car you can think of. We attempted to go on a sun set sail but the idiot working at the dock left us, soooo we went to a bar and drank. While at this pub we meet some interesting characters. The first was this highly inebriated bar tender from another bar talking shit about how all the exotic car owners don't tip and are pieces of shit. There is a bigger guy sitting next to her so we are kind of scared to talk to her with out bro staring us down so we stop talking to her. Then 2 girls come up to CJ and Nate with notes that have their number on it and "call me for a good time" written on it. We then began to have a discussion on whether or not they are prostitutes. Nate, my aunt, and I are convinced they are because who writes "call me for a good time" on a piece of paper. Well then Nate and CJ are determined to find out whether or not they are prostitutes or not so they go to the patio the find the call girls. Well that leaves my aunt and I with this surfer from Australia that was sitting next to us. His name is Hayden and he owns a surf company called Fiber Flex Surf Boards, he is a real cool dude. We shoot the shit about 'summer heights high', surfing, and other cultural differences, so check out his site www.fiberflexsurfboards.com. After several bathroom trips from Nate and CJ we come to find out that the girls that passed them the notes are not prostitutes they are just idiots that give out there numbers to any cute guys they see, way to go Nate and CJ your cute. So while I was inside, Nate finds a hat, asks a guy if he is a millionaire which he responds "I work very hard for my money" which Nate responds with "I work for the SEC so don't be stealing from us", then he gets his business card. Then once I come out to collect the playboys to leave I notice that Nate looks like he has been attacked by a badger and CJ is spitting game at one of the call girls. There is more to the story but you are going to have to ask CJ about that, its very good though if I say so myself. The next day we woke up early to head to Los Angeles, so until next time god bless america.

-mac



^^where the Grateful Dead lived