The Banana Bowl Live Draft Extravaganza - Part 1

I’m starting to think that this whole blogging experience is just a way for me to get rid of some of my demons. A sort of internet confession to absolve me from my sins…and I’d like it to be more than that. I want it to be a blog that you turn to for inspiration, for ways to really get out there and live your life to the fullest. I would like it to be the first thing you turn to in the morning because you know it’s going to put you in a good mood right to start your day…in short, I’d like it to become part of your 100 Days of Happiness, or BDandLL Happy Days…

But, I haven’t done anything really inspirational lately and I’d like to take a minute here today, to tell you about the shenanigans that took place just over a week ago during what we at BDandLL refer to as: The Banana Bowl Live Draft Extravaganza!

This year’s draft weekend began the Friday night at what we are affectionately referring to as, “The Fucking Catalina Wine Mixer.” Barry and a few of his banker friends started a tradition a few years ago where they go to this soiree  at a ritzy golf course and enjoy a fine German cuisine and all you can drink beer for a measly $20 from 5:30pm – 8:30pm. This year marks their 3^rd annual attendance and it just so happened to fall on the weekend of The Banana Bowl Life Draft Extravaganza!

Ryan and I arrived at around 7pm, enjoyed a nice plate of Brats, German potatoes, and some delectable beans and then began to attempt to empty a beer truck. By 8:30 I was preparing for the next day’s draft by trading away players I didn’t even have, then making calls to try and secure those players so that the first deal could go through. The wheels were in motion, the plan was going down exactly how I had planned and by the end of the ordeal I ended up with Matt Prater (Kicker – Denver) for the first round of drinks at the draft…it seemed like a lot of work to just end up with a kicker, especially a suspended one, but Cam (the guy I got him from) was devastated and that made it completely worth it.

For some reason Cam decided he needed to purchase a bag of Brats as we left...
No one knows what happened to these brats.

Somehow we felt like the next logical move for us would be to head downtown  and keep our little party going, so we went to our old standby, “Rooters.” When we arrived we quickly realized that we were very old (relatively) and out of place. The place still smells like week old stale beer, though, and that brought back many fond memories of our time spent there while attending my pre-med school thingy at MSU-M (it must have been pre-med for how long I spent there…although I can’t find my certificate or whatever you call it anywhere…).

We exited “Rooters” and had no real idea of what a better bar may be for our current age situation and intoxication level…we were looking for something in the early 30’s Intoxicated genre but weren’t exactly sure of where to find it…that’s when I remembered a few guests that had spent a night with us at our campground who worked at a new bar downtown called, “The Wurst Beer House.” And our German night was going to continue!

We’re lucky that Cameron was familiar with the newer bar scene in downtown Fargo as I really had no idea where to find this bar, I just knew that I wanted to go to there… We arrived and immediately felt more at home because we could actually hear each other talk and people were sitting at tables rather than standing or playing pool or darts…let's face it, this had early 30’s Intoxicated (and lazy) written all over it, and was the perfect place for us to continue our night! On top of the perfect layout and décor, individuals at just about all of the tables were drinking out of giant boot glasses, just like in the cinematic adventure, “Beerfest!”

As we sauntered by a table admiring some of this fine glassware, someone at the table said: “Why don’t you join us?” I looked up from my trance to discover three lovely ladies were the ones holding the boot (I’m not totally sure on the “loveliness” of the ladies as I had spent a good portion of my night at an all you can drink event, but at that moment, in that place…they were the most beautiful, kind, and caring creatures I had ever laid eyes on).

I honestly don’t know what I was more interested in, the beautiful young ladies or the boot…that may cause me future problems…but one thing was for sure, at one point I traded them Matt Prater (Kicker – Denver) for a boot, which they in turn traded to our waiter to deliver a boot to our other table. Long story short…the waiter at The Wurst Beer House now owns the rights to Matt Prater (Kicker – Denver).

I found a much better picture of this lovely lady on my phone, but I wanted you
all to see her how I remember her..through the eyes of beer goggles.

It was draft weekend after all. We also discovered, at some point during the night, that Cordarrelle Patterson (Wide Receiver – MN) was going by the nickname, The Flash. Now for those of you who don’t know, there is only one “Flash,” and he won that title in a naked race years ago and the only way anyone else can go by the moniker is if they beat him in a naked race, which Cordarrelle Patterson (Wide Receiver – MN) had not…so we called him out on Twitter:

We take this nickname thing pretty serious.

Man, I’m really starting to love Twitter! So, we had some good food, great friends, some possibly beautiful new friends, and boots filled with beer…but, as it does, time slipped by, the girls had to leave (not with us), the bar decided that it was time to polish the boots and put them to us 30-something drunks to get us out of the bar and the remaining members of our crew decided it was now time for some Drunken Noodle (Restaurant – Fargo)…

I think I’ll take a page out of Barry’s book here and make this a two part post, but I may actually come to a conclusion with mine…whatever did come of that 3^rd part of his trilogy?! Anyway, enjoy this post and I’ll tell you all about the main event of The Banana Bowl Live Draft Extravaganza in my next post, pre-warning…it may involve more alcohol, dancing, karaoke…and maybe, just maybe…another random bar make out session…I really need to find Jesus…If you guys see him let me know, he’s about 5’ 11” and really knows his way around a garden sheers.

I am the Red Mage.

I awoke this morning, stepped out into the bright light fusion-core drive of our cosmic armada - system de sol - feet comfortably planted on the deck level of Spaceship Earth, walked to the public center of the enclave zombie-fortress residential quarters, and bought myself a Mountain Dew. Pepsi was sold out. I know once you turn 30 you should probably not drink the Dew. It is an age after all where one is gearing up to stagger through at least another 30 to 40 and every soda-pop drunk after 30 eliminates 2 years from your end game. It's the delicious 290 calories of high fructose corn syrup. I'm hyped up on Mountain Dew and operating a keyboard irresponsibly under the influence of super sugar.

Texting (cuz it's 2014, it's what we do now) with a good friend recently about writing, gaming, finding time to do either, video-game addiction, and writers talking about writers, I was reminded of an idea for a blog post that I never got around to writing entitled "I am the Red Mage." The meaning of which I will get to, but suffice to say this is my experience with writing so far: 'that's a great idea' *write it down* 'I'll get that knocked out this weekend' *procrastinate* *forget* 'I need to post, I need to write, but what about?!' *play video games*

Had I wrote this post when I thought of it, there is ample anecdotal evidence it would have been the best blog in the world. Alas, I can't remember what it all was going to entail. So this is just a tribute, to the greatest blog in the world, I am the Red Mage:

For as long as I can remember I've liked books and I've liked video games. I remember going over to a neighbor's place to play Atari (Pitfall, Joust), begging my cousins to let me play their NES (they had all the sweet games like Duck Tales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Kirby) or my uncles had P.O.W., Baoyou Billy, Tecmo Super Bowl. The day my very own NES system arrived, that was really the game changer. It came home with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt and Rad Racer II. I was pretty young at the time, and I remember bugging my mom to make the really hard jumps in Mario, and Rad Racer II was, like most NES games, borderline impossible.

I learned to swear because of these goats. Pain in the ass
Himalayan level!

I could go on name dropping NES games that I played through those first years of gaming. Castlevania I-III, Baseball Stars, CONTRA!!, etc. And I kept faithful to the 8-bit NES and was bitter when Nintendo Power started featuring mostly games from the 16-bit "Super" NES. Psh. I wasn't getting one of those any time soon, so wtf? I never did get one actually, jumped right to the Playstation from the NES with a brief interlude with Sega Genesis (Mortal Kombat?!). But I did rock out some sweet Super NES days with a couple good buddies later in life (Phalanx, Rock 'n Roll Racing, Super Mario World). Those were the days.. sigh.

However, there was one game that forever changed my perspective on gaming and established, really, my genre of choice when it comes to "wasting" time with video games. Final Fantasy. The cover of that game, the music, the storyline is forever embedded in my brain. If I lose my memory in old age, or if I ever suffer from amnesia, just mention this game and along with the plight of the Light Warriors defeating the fiends of earth, fire, water, and wind (Lich, Kary, Kraken, Tiamat, respectively), igniting the 4 elemental orbs allowing them to travel 2000 years into the past to defeat Garland/Chaos in the Temple of Fiends, closing the time loop and saving the world from non-existence, and the rest of my memory should return.

This was my first experience with a "Roleplaying" game set in a fantasy or "high" fantasy world (think Lord of the Rings), and I've played many since. Including other Final Fantasy games. But yes, yes the point of this, beyond the shameless recalling of my gaming history.

In Final Fantasy you had to select 4 characters that would be your "party" for the entirety of the game. You could select from Warrior, Thief, Black Belt, White Mage, Black Mage, and, wait for it, Red Mage. The Warrior specialized in heavy armor and weapons, the Thief in combat and the ability to get your party out of battles it couldn't handle, the Black Belt became a unarmed combat specialist, the White Mage in white magic (healing, enhancements, etc.), the Black Mage in offensive/black magic (FIRE 3 Bitches!!) and the Red Mage was a jack of all trades and master of none. He could use weapons, white magic, and black magic, just not the highest levels of any of them. 

Sweet Swashbuckling Hat Wearing, Magic and
Sword Wielding Red Mage!

So if you haven't put it together yet, here is what I mean when I say I am the Red Mage: I weave both black and white magic and practice daily with a scimitar. Still looking for that sweet hat/cape combo but I stole the feather from a bald eagle I was drinking bourbon with a few years ago as we discussed existentialism. Pretty straight forward this time. No metaphors and such. That would make today's BD&LL a non-fiction piece.

Well, actually. My point is this. I've done a lot of random things, practice quite a few hobbies, held a lot of odd-jobs, and possess a pretty good smattering of related and unrelated skills. I won't rehash them here, but take a quick look at my bio to get an idea. But because I don't feel I've mastered any of these and seem to be floating in career-limbo while my peers are locking in theirs, I am left identifying with our red light warrior acquaintance.

Here's the thing, some days I really care and am bothered by this. It gets me down. I'm 30. I should be locking in my job, getting promotions, buying a house, getting a mini-van to put my 2.1 kids through grade school while complaining about my mortgage and worrying about my 401k. You know, Living the American Dream.

Otherdays, I'm grateful I don't have some of those things. That I have experienced a slightly wider range of what life offers than a majority of folks. It's not that I believe the American Dream is completely evil ;), but there are many things about it that I just can't get behind and I get exhausted feeling guilty about it.

The great philosophizing-pop-punk mega trio Green Day once asked "if you feel like a social tool without a use?" Sometimes, yes. Other days, I feel like a Swiss Army Knife.

Fin.

Epilogue: BD&LL Happy Days

This has become a normal Friday night at Bombshelter Rehearsal
Studios. Set up to practice, write, create music. It's a great
refuge from the 'real' world.

I spent most of my Labor Day recovering from Sunday
and reading the philosophy of Paolo Soleri. I understand about an
1/8th of this most of the time. An additional 1/16th with every fifth
re-reading, but that is really enough to feel the brain explosions.

Whiskey & the Wolves' first 'gig'. Open Mic
night in Long Beach. It had been 8 years since
the last time I had performed. Felt absolutely great
to get back on the horse.

My good friend, Tyler, posted a great piece on Bill Murray that gave me some honest LOLs. The deaths of Robin Williams and Phillip Seymour Hoffman remind me of the great exposure that celebrity passings usually bring  and that we tend to celebrate them more when they are gone. With Bill Murray, we shouldn't wait until then. The stuff this guys does alive will far outshine any celebration we could put on after his death. Check out these reads, you won't be disappointed:

What it's like casting Bill Murray in a movie

Bill Murray shows up at Toronto 'Ghostbusters' screening, answers fan questions

~Until we cross paths again, BD&LL faithful.

Creativity Round Up

This has always been one of my favorite quotes. I actually have it taped to the cash register at our business and has always been something that I strongly agree with. When our business first got going, times were pretty darn tough. There was stiff competition, no water, and it was a new type of business that had never been in our area so our parents really had to sell people on the idea that tubing was a fun activity and something that people should be willing to spend their money on.

In short, if they hadn’t possessed the passion needed to truly believe in what they were doing and want to see it succeed, then we more than likely would be doing something else right now and there’s a fairly good chance that our little community couldn’t boast that we’ve had individuals visit us from every state in the United States as well as people from several different countries.  It’s a pretty cool thing when you’re trying to ask someone what they are looking for and they don’t understand you because they only speak Hungarian.

But the passion my parents put forth in starting and maintaining our business is something that I’ll always be proud of and something that I think my sisters and brother and I try to keep going, not only in maintaining our parents legacy with our business but in the many facets of our lives.

My oldest sister has always been really great with kids and consequently she has put her passion into trying to help kids through her work with Inter-County Services.

My next oldest sister is also very passionate about kids and has put her passion to work teaching and being a DECA advisor at her school in the cities. She has taken a program (DECA) that really wasn’t doing that great and has now made it a powerhouse in the State and Nation.

My brother is very passionate about a lot of things, but mostly I believe he really truly loves kids and tries to show that and better their lives through his time with them driving bus and coaching basketball (another passion of his).

I am passionate about many things but mostly I love creativity and helping people to bring that out in themselves and helping to promote others creativity as well.

That’s one of the main reasons we started Banana Daiquiris & Life Lessons. It’s a creative outlet for me, as well as a medium where other creative people can come together and work out their creativity collectively. Each person that writes for us is taking a big chance putting themselves out there to both of our followers. But we’re all somewhat passionate about the things we write about or just writing in general and what is a random blog written by a bunch of misfits if it is not a creative endeavor?

Some pretty cool things that have been happening for BDandLL lately include getting put on some random writers to watch thing which I’m pretty sure we can attribute to Mr. Dolores as it all stemmed from his suggestion to start to follow “Advice to Writers” on Twitter. Somehow along the line they pegged us as a group to watch and now all of these published writers seem to be following us on there…the problem is that I run the Twitter account and truth be told, I’m really not that interesting. But we’ll use the exposure, write our book, collect the millions of dollars…or just try and do the writing thing and get addicted to video games once again (That’s Mike’s and my prediction!).

But that was a pretty cool thing to see, whether or not we can do anything with the recognition more than likely will solely depend on how passionate we are about the endeavor and how much time and effort we’re willing to put forth. Nobody ever said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.

So that’s BDandLL’s current creative pursuits round-up, but although I think that we’ve written some pretty decent blogs over the past year, I think that one of us has the greatest potential to really explode into the creative cosmos and that’s Mike.

I don’t think a lot of you know Mike but he’s definitely a guy to watch. Not only is he a very talented (and underappreciated) writer, he also has a side gig (sorry Mike, I’m counting writing for BDandLL as your full time job) as a musician. You may have seen a video or song that I’ve posted about “Whiskey and the Wolves,” which is Mike’s band, on Facebook and he’s even written about it for BDandLL. I personally think the songs are fantastic but you’ll have to make up your own mind on that.

I spend a lot of time listening to the radio, be it on my bus, at the campground, or in my car, and I can honestly say that the stuff that Whiskey and the Wolves is doing right now is much better than most of what I’m hearing out there and someday when they’re famous…I’m making Mike bring me on tour with them so that I can sit and play video games…maybe I’ll set up a mic stand or something and they can call me a roadie…but mostly I’ll be there for the Whiskey…and women.

A lot of bands put out a great album but you catch them in concert and they suck…Whiskey and the Wolves isn’t one of those bands. Check out this very professionally shot video from an open mic night in California:  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=662588903848911

I’m sorry I couldn’t post the video right here…I still have no idea how to do so many things in the blogging world that it’s a bit disturbing.

So there’s a bit on what’s going on with our crew in the creative world right now. Hopefully you’ve seen the last post from Kurt about his final Freedom Run and hopefully some of you can attend that or at least drop him a line or two of encouragement! It’s a great thing that he’s been doing all these years and without a doubt he wouldn’t have been able to complete without being very passionate about the endeavor.

I could go on and on about Kelly’s math blog, Pat’s remodeling , Adam’s graphic designing , and Kari’s…well everything, but mostly I just needed to get a few words out there before I head to the Catalina Wine Mixer and Saturday’s Live Fantasy Football Draft for the Banana Bowl and I can’t use my mind anymore.

I feel like I’m definitely slowing down in my old age here…but this weekend we’re going to see if we can’t tap into some of the passion needed to live like we’re young once more. Have a great weekend everyone! Find something you’re passionate about and devote some time to it, if you’re a parent…spread that passion on to your children. Show them that life is full of creative endeavors and worth the search to find theirs!