Fort Wayne revisited

Fort Wayne, Indiana. For some it's a city in the middle of nowhere (I use the term quite loosely since everywhere is in the middle of somewhere), for the Hammer City Roller Girls (and this photographer) it's a city of fun, fun, FUN. This is entirely due to the Fort Wayne Derby Girls being such great hosts. The 2008 Fall Brawl was over a year ago and the the last time the HCRG had a visit.

Past events involving Fort Wayne have taken on legendary, even epic, levels of story telling. The Fort Wayne bed taco, the floating furniture, the hotel hallway tackle. Yep, a bit crazy and none of these stories involve Montreal. Montreal? what? To the non-derby readers out there, Montreal derby girls have this reputation of bringing the party with them. It's rare to see a party hit the party levels Montreal is capable of. That is unless you're travelling with Hammer City.

At the hotel we were staying at (see previous post for location) there was a free continental breakfast being served until 11:00am. Mainly comprised of cereal and toast. Not really much of a breakfast but for a mere $5.95 you could upgrade to the "hot breakfast" which offered an additional, almost unlimited supply of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and small fried potato chunks.


Stairs

I would have liked to have stayed asleep but the thought of getting that breakfast made me crawl out of bed at 10:00. I made my way downstairs with sleep still crusting around my eyes. The elevator didn't come right away so I made my way down the stairs. I found that you couldn't exit on the main floor without tripping the fire alarm. So I had to walk back up to the third floor (the second floor was a door to the kitchen and was locked) then wait for the elevator.


The 'hot' breakfast


Freshmeat 'Lisa' eats a bowl of fruit loops

Is it me? or are all the freshmeat nameless until they have been drafted onto a team. The bunch of them that travelled to Fort Wayne were usually referred to as 'fresh meat', a single unit. Other than the 'fresh meat' calling each other by name, no one else seemed to.


As Lock is absorbed into the lobby chair, Carl counts down to Scotty being late.

After a short trip to the local Walmart to get supplies we went back to our rooms where I napped. At 1:30 we were to meet back downstairs in the lobby and then as a group head towards the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

I found it a bit disconcerting that the Fort Wayne Derby Girls web page didn't have the address for the place. Even the web site of the actual coliseum didn't have the address at quick glance. I suppose everyone in the area knows where the War Memorial Coliseum is. As a visiting Canuck, I had to look it up on google. To make life easier for you the reader, if you're headed there or want to know where it is, the address is as follows and also included are the geeky GPS coordinates with a link to a Google map.

The address is 4000 Parnell Avenue, Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1414, United States of America.
(N41 06.867 W85 07.457)


Watching the Circle City Socialites practice.

HCRG time on the track wasn't until 15:00, that gave us just over an hour to look around, get ready, meet some of the other players.


Gearing up.


HCRG Practice 15:00 - 16:00


Oreo Slamher, lead Jammer... the bench goes wild.

The first game, the Circle City socialites VS Fort Wayne's SWAT team ended with SWAT leading by only seven points (52 to 45). As for the Hammer City versus Bomb Squad, it was a larger spread (119 to 44 for the Bomb Squad). Ouch.


The awesome crowd of around 2000 people.


Hot Carl, referee


The Pink Painther (30) makes her way out of the pack becoming lead jammer for the Bomb Squad.


The HCRG freshmeat


The Hammer City Roller Girls (with fresh meat)

Lock and Loaded

10:24 Journey starts
Jennifer picks me up at my place. We pack her car with my gear, leave Toronto and head toward Hamilton.

11:23 arrive in Hamilton at Vicadoom's house.
Originally we were going to park Lock's car in the driveway but Vicadoom's car is parked there and we didn't want to block her in. She'd be driving up later on in the day to Fort Wayne. Lock thinks she might be at home (her car is there after all). We try calling her cell phone. No answer. Later I would find out she was sleeping (due to shift work) which is why she didn't pick up the phone.

11:34 arrive at Leah and Craig's place
Plan B. Leave the car in Leah and Craig's driveway. I leave a note meant to tell Craig that Lock's car is in his driveway. Thanks to my broken english (trying to save space on the little piece of paper) and the chicken scratch like hand writing Craig is confused by letter stuck in his door.


Lock waits for a cab

11:45 taxi comes to transport us to the Plucker

11:50 arrive at Plucker (N43 15.116 W79 52.207)
Meet up with Hot Carl, Little Mean Mama, and Kenny. Have lunch. I order the bison burger with mushrooms and cheese, a side of fries, an order of coconut shrimp, and eat Lock's soup (cream of celery) .

Woo woo!!! I used one of the $25 gift certificates that the HCRG gave me for the Pheasant Plucker.


Coconut Shrimp - a different configuration every time

13:01 Leave the Plucker
We all get into Mama's car and drive toward Fort Wayne


Carl's up to something...
(113 km/h N43 10.261 W80 18.204)

Using the GPS data and time code the above data is calculated, the approximate coordinates where we were on the highway at the time this photo was taken. Plugging that data into Google Maps gives the location the photo was taken within 15 seconds (the interval my GPS tracker was set to).

If you click on the link you'll see exactly where this photo was taken. I've adjusted the location slightly given the GPS data. You can even see the sign on the other side of the road in the google map image that matches the one in the photo behind Carl. Kind of erie how accurate it is.

15:34 pull into the line for the border crossing
We get a call from Ivy to go to gate 11. It's where the guard couldn't pronounce Pulled Pork's real name. "Jerome" (He pronounced it ger-ome-ee). For some reason we thought it would be funny to get the same border guard just to make fun of Geromee.

16:08 entered Nexus office for cross examination
However by the time we get to the border patrol, the guard has changed, and the one that interviews us asks us to go to the Nexus building for further cross examination.

We are asked to fill in some documents and then asked what we're doing, multiple times, going to the States. "Roller Derby" we say. "Is there money collected at the door?". "Yes" we answer. "How much money are you making?". "uh...None" we answer back. We attempt to explain how roller derby works financially.

The guard asks us to sit down while other officers examine the contents of our car and look up stuff on the computer database. I look over outside and notice that one of the guards has opened my bag. He looks in for about two seconds, he seems satisfied, closes the bag then the truck of the car. At that moment I realize I had packed my underwear last.

Kenny is joking around. He's a bit drunk. Mama is getting pissed off and starts giving Kenny the "behave or I will END you look". We wonder what's taking them so long to process us. I think to myself that I'd hate doing their job on or near a holiday. The number of people that have to be searched must be brutal. I notice a family (parents and a little kid) enter the building. Their profiling seems random enough.

16:43 green lit to go across border
Eventually, one of the border guards gives us the go ahead, we've checked out and are good to go. We're stumped as to what we were there for in the first place but we're happy that we're on our way.


Listening to "Elvis is Everywhere" by Mojo Nixon
(N42 58.459 W82 37.608)


Carl and Lock think I'm taking photos of the Elvis figurine's butt.
(N42 58.341 W82 41.388)


Hot Carl's meat bag (that doesn't sound right)
(N42 58.711 W82 47.829)


Kenny caught napping
(N43 00.828 W83 29.269)

18:20 stop in Lansing to get gas

18:23 stop at McDonalds to get food (N42 46.349 W84 24.767)


The mushroom and swiss third pounder. Canada still does not have these on the menu.


The yummy advertising on the side of the third pounder box.

18:57 leave McDonalds

21:03 arrive at Clarion hotel (N41 04.660 W85 08.079)


Lock waits for the elevator that smells like tapioca of love.

On our way up to the fifth floor we notice the elevator has an odour. Lock: "The elevator smells like meat", Me: "Smells like sex. More to the point it smells like someone ejaculated all over this elevator.", Lock: "you're right... eew."


"We're under construction"

On the ninth floor the floor boards were all torn out. This didn't bother me as much as the left over residue of smoke permeating or oozing through my skin. This was definitely the smoking floor. ugh.

While the hotel might not be the greatest in smells it definitely is better than finding a door smashed in, blood stains on the ceiling or bullet holes in the wall. There was a point, actually two times with different hotel guests, where they asked me about renovations on the hotel. Maybe I have that contractor look about me as I went from one pop machine to another.

I managed to figure out by accident that if I put $1.75 of nickels into a pop machine and hit the change return button I would get back 7 quarters. While this would lighten the load of american change I'd been carrying for years in a ziplock bag, it did not allow me to get a drink I wanted. Was trying for Sierra mist (it's like Sprite) but all the machines were depleted of that flavour.


The early travellers

We ended up visiting Scotty in his 901-903 room where a bunch of them were already comfy and watching the Olympics. Wayne Gretzky was one of the torch bearers to light the giant flame in B.C.

The image kept pausing. It was like watching a bad quicktime, where the band width was too small for the footage. While the video quality was irritating, the sound was good and unaffected. I wondered if other places in the states were having the same problem.


A not so sober Kenny gets escorted to bed


A Fort Wayne salad


Watching the opening ceremonies on NBC

Mug Me

crappy computer type on candy

Another day, another art opening. At Sadie's diner there was a group show with several artists that had submissions to the theme of valentine's day. While there were some great pieces hanging on the wall, the thing that I noticed the most were these little candy hearts put out on the table for people to eat.

The thing that got me was the poor quality craftsmanship. The letters weren't centred properly, bad english short forms like "plz", some of the text was hard to read. The 'm's looked like 'h's and vice versa. Sure it's just candy, but where's the quality control?

ToRD EOS

Demolition Dawn thanks the volunteers (including me)

West of Ossington on Dundas street at the Garrison the ToRD EOS was taking place. I had gotten there right on time, running in from the art auction at Jimmy's (see previous post). The garrison is a kind of dark building on a what feels like a secluded portion of the street. Not having been there before I was wondering if I'd actually have a problem finding it. There was a giant ToRD poster in the window and a death track doll standing outside.


Triple award winning and stage hog, Dyna gets pulled off by other derby girls.

For those not in the know, parties, award ceremonies, after parties, and pretty much any event that involves roller girls always (at least in my experience) ALWAYS results in photography gold and the cool stories like "...remember the Fort Wayne bed taco?", or "When they packed the two story venue in Portland doing live karaoke?"


Brim Stone, ToRDs Roller Girl 2009

One day when I get older I can look back and say "That was a fun ride." and it would have been worth every penny.


Rockin' at the end of the awards

Open Your Art to Haiti

Katarzyna at Jimmy's Coffee

On display at Jimmy's coffee (107 Portland street) a bunch of artwork was on display. Donated by artists to be sold in silent auction style with the funds going to help the relief effort in Haiti.

Up until this event, I'd never heard of Jimmy's coffee. I don't drink coffee. But I do eat those little things that go with coffee. See in photo, there's cakes and tarts and things. As the coffee shop was packed and I didn't know many people when I got there I found myself standing in front of the cake display checking out the goods.

I broke down a couple of times and bought a twinkie like thing, a cake thing, and some other kind of baked good. Eventually people started to pour in, people I knew. The distraction from the food was easier with conversation.



At 8:30pm it was time to go.

Sadie's Diner drop In

Al Ridley owner of Sadie's Diner

On the way tot he art show at Jimmy's. I noticed the lights on at Sadie's Diner. Al was in there finishing off some meal. I thought I'd pop in to say 'Hi'.

Sadie's Diner is located at 504 Adelaide Street West.

N 43°38.746', W079°24.054'


Happy. Sad.

How's that for a plug for a fine vegetarian food place?

Oh yeah, if you're there for breakfast, I recommend the western sandwich.

Whipper Snapper

Self Explanatory

While the computer was rendering I went outside to see the world, so to speak. Sometimes you've got to put fire under your bottom to get out there and see things. It's easy to get stuck in a warm comfy environment when it's cold outside.

Down the street I had missed some large emergency. Four fire trucks, one with a ladder, a bus ambulance, a regular ambulance, two police cars. You could smell the smoke but looking at the houses whatever fire was there had been extinguished. I missed the action by a few minutes judging by all the fire personal who were making their was back to their trucks.

With all the commotion the only thing that really stuck out was the words "Whipper Snapper" painted on the side of a building. Reading those words I imagine some old guy on top of a box shaking his angry fist at kids going by on skateboards, the snotty nose brats are wearing baseball hats backwards and maybe chewing gum.

My paternal grandfather used to say "Instant stuff, that will kill you.". I'm not sure what he was talking about. This was before microwaves. It might have had something to do with those new fangled TV remote controls that were attached to a TV via a wire. There was a rocker switch that doubled the functionality of the 20 odd buttons. Wooo. For us, the future of cable had arrived. No more turning a broken TV knob with a wrench. Push of a button. Presto chango.

I remember how my uncles would say that as kids we always had it so good. We didn't have to walk X miles through snow to school. Heck, we had school. I pictured them as old geezers blabbing about their oh so distant past. "Back in my day...", add on whatever. "Pens? We had ink wells! We had to pluck chickens for our pens and Wow, they could run!". "TV? We had to entertain ourselves by playing with left over rifles and bayonets from the war". My uncle actually used to do this. At least until his friend, little Timmy started bleeding.

Oh yeah we had it so good. I remember sharpening that Popsicle stick on the sidewalk, collecting bottle caps, the odd 30 cent comic, 10 cent bag of potato chips, 20 cent hamburger at McDonalds.

Kids today? internet, planned play dates (with parents), satellite TV, cell phones, complex toys. Result. Little or no imagination, no memory retention, no patience, no social skills.

How does this affect me? Quick cutting, crappy movie sequences, bad music mash ups, that cater to the attention lacking, littering, little turds.

Wow, I'm THAT guy shaking his fist at those punks, those brats, those whipper snappers.

Off to get cheese but found Ginger

Ginger St. James shows her bandaged finger

There's not a lot to do while waiting for a computer to crunch through a bunch of numbers. I decided today I would make macaroni and cheese for dinner. Only the cheese I have is that cheap cheese that you get at the local grocery store. If you're going to use that cheese you might as well just make a box of Kraft dinner.

I've been a bit obsessed these last few weeks into making food from scratch (more or less). Common food that you can get in a frozen food section of your local grocery store or in today's case, from a box.

Living near Kensington means living near Global Cheese and Cheese Magic two really great places to get real cheese. The cheese with the real fattening flavours not that processed cheese that has plastics added to it to make it go further or last longer. It just seems wrong. Kind of like having a chocolate bar that tastes waxy. We'll save the chocolate bar blurb for another blog entry.


Ginger and Teddy

And so, with the computer on auto I ventured out in the afternoon to get some cheese. Maybe even take some photos. I was walking past Sneaky Dees at College and Bathurst and noticed, after doing a double take, that some one inside was smiling at me.

It was Ginger, who normally, I associate as someone who lives in Hamilton. She shows up at the occasional derby bout to sing the National Anthem. If you have not heard her sing you should see if you can get out and hear her. She may be petite but she's got a big voice.

I joined her and Teddy for a few minutes, chatted, then continued on my way to the cheese store.


Global Cheese in Kensington Market

I bought about $15 dollars of Hollandia and Smoked Hunter (currently my favourite cheese these days), went back home and started cooking and Macaroni and Cheese. What follows is the recipe I used.


Macaroni and Cheese in a casserole dish

Macaroni and Cheese

ingredients

• 2 cups of macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 2 cups Hollandia cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Smoked Hunter cheese, shredded
• 1 branch of broccoli, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped

directions

1. cook macaroni
2. melt butter in a separate pot.
3. stir in flour (butter and flour will begin to clump)
4. stir in milk and whipping cream
5. while stirring, melt in cheese
6. add macaroni, broccoli, onions and cheese mixture into large casserole dish
7. mix
8. put into oven at 350° F for 20 minutes

I ended up eating about half the dish and had to lie down. It's quite filling.

Carrot Muffin Day

23 1/2 carrot muffins

I had a pretty unproductive day today. I'm not sure if it's that I'm coming down with something or perhaps the lack of sunlight in the dreary winter months. Vitamin D deficient? Meh.

I wouldn't say the day was a complete waste. I've been working on a 3D logo the last few days and managed to start a render today. Unfortunately the test render didn't look the way I wanted it to so I started a new one with different logistics. I know that might sound vague but I'm not really supposed to talk about it much.

Anyways that's about all I did today. That and the sifting through photos (which I seem to do on a regular basis). Sifting through photos doesn't even seem like work anymore. I was looking for a past party I shot of Sanjay (the book publisher). He had lost the photos I gave him.

While sifting through photos, rendering a logo, I was also examining my blog, this blog, and noticed a whole lot of entries in 2006. After that the entries get fewer and far between. It's around the same time as logging onto facebook.

It's difficult to blab on facebook and on a blog at the same time. I might just have to consolidate the blabbing to one, possibly the blog, and have a permalink to my facebook account.

Random blabbing aside and getting to this blog entry...

As a result of my boredom or lack of activity I have declared this "Carrot Muffin Day". Carrots to lure the ground hog that didn't come out of the ground a few days ago? A muffin in remembrance of the Day music died? Which technically was yesterday, at least 4.5 hours ago minimum. And sure there's just so much in common with a muffin made of carrots and three distinguished musicians dying in a plane. Was the big bopper big because of eating muffins? It's amazing how random thoughts enter my head... and the answer would be "No"... at least I don't think so.

No, I'm declaring this carrot muffin day because I feel a tad lazy today and because of this I decided to make a bunch of carrot muffins from one of those instant muffin mixes. A baking item that can be enjoyed by lazy (and non-lazy) types with the smallest amount of baking effort.

1. Pour mix into bowl
2. add water
3. mix
4. pour mixture into muffin trays
5. bake
6. eat

"All the enjoyment without the effort." I should have a bumper sticker made for days like today. Maybe a T-shirt.

Speaking of T-shirts, insert the plug for Wicked Skatewear's wicked line of T-shirts here. Did I say they were cool? Well now you know. They are cool. Buy a T-shirt.

Not a creature was stirring...

Old spoon (broken) and new spoon (not broken)

While making a crockpot full of chili I broke a wooden spoon in the attempt to stir said chili. This circumstance resulted in my going out to get a new, and hopefully more sturdy, wooden spoon.


Corn bread, bowl of non-meat chili, and pink lemonade

ingredients

• 1 can of spaghetti sauce
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tbs tabasco sauce
• 4 cups of hydrated beans
• 1 cup of TVP¹ "ground beef" before hydration
• 1 cup of chopped onion
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 celery branches, chopped

directions

1. hydrate TVP¹
2. throw ingredients into crockpot
3. cook in crockpot on low for 12 hours

The cornbread was made from the recipe that can be found in the Joy of Cooking. I multiplied the recipe by two and used the Baker's Secret petite loaf pan to make eight small loaves of corn bread.

---

¹ TVP = Textured Vegetable Protein