35 - 2/23/11 - Marshside Storytime II

Initial Impressions

35 – 2/23/11 – Marshside Storytime II

Somebody to Love c.1993-94

Time for Marshside Storytime again.  This time it is the story of the famed Prep Boys, Liam and myself.  Being young and ‘hardcore’ back in 1994-95 we would blast all sorts of grunge and alternative music to get ourselves motivated for the insanely long Maui prep lists that greeted us every morning on the prep room wall.

            These prep lists were a full sheet of yellow-lined paper with two columns of items to be done, some items contained more than one thing ie: slice and dice tomatoes.  This was also before we had the intercom, although that was short-lived as I mentioned in my first Marsh storytime.  So when we had our music loud blasting Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, and Alice In Chains, it was virtually impossible to hear any whistles or shouts from across the parking lot.  Needless to say that got us into lots of trouble at times, but that’s a story for another day.

            Anyway, during our long prep days we would have the grunge and alt rock blasting away, echoing off of the walls.  In fact I loved it louder than Liam did, still do.  He would get angry at times at how loud it was.  His favorite trick was to not speak at all but just move his lips like he was saying something to get me to turn the music down.  Once I did he would keep moving his lips silently and then laugh at me.  Thanks man, always appreciated that!

            After a long prep day it would be time to clean up.  Now from what you have read about our musical taste I’ll bet you have a pretty good idea as to what our ‘clean up theme’ was, right?  Something by Nirvana? Wrong.  Something by Pearl Jam? Wrong.  Something by RHCP? Wrong.  STP? AIC? Soundgarden?  Wrong again.  No, our song of choice for cleaning up was ‘Somebody to Love’ by Queen.

            Give me a break all right, it was 1993, 94, we were 16 or 17, and Queen had a resurgence after Wayne’s World had showcased Bohemian Rhapsody in 1992.  Still, even though the song is quite different from the grunge/alt we had played our reaction to it was much the same.  You haven’t lived until you’ve gone nuts to a softer, mellow song. 

            Our typical cleaning to this song consisted of playing air guitar on a broom while standing on one of the stainless steel prep tables.  There was also some dancing with the round Rubbermaid trash can, spinning, and spinning.  This resulted in the handle of the trash can crashing through the wall, leaving a nice hole in the wall which we quickly covered up with duct tape.  There was also a thrashing incident that ended with a steel, used for sharpening knives, being pitched like a javelin into the wall until only the black handle was visible.  This was also quickly covered up.

            Like I said in my first piece, there is a statute of limitations here, hell this building I am speaking of does not even exist anymore so I would like to think I am in the clear as far as any foolishness perpetrated by myself or anyone else.

            So there you have it, perhaps the most famous of all of the Prep Boys theme songs is a Queen song about being lonely without love.  Yet somehow it all fit in and all made sense.  Hope you enjoyed my secret/sad revelations.  Join me again next time for Marshside Storytime.  Cheers!

34 - 2/22/11 - Marshside Storytime

Initial Impressions

34 – 2/22/11 – Marshside Storytime

Snow Chance In Hell: c. 2002/03

Okay so this is a first Initial Impressions to feature Marshside Storytime.  These are pulled from the archives of my nearly 18 years at the Marsh.  They are all hilarious, although some are probably going to make me look like a real asshole.  Whatever, there is a statute of limitations on these actions.  Enjoy.

At the old Marshside we had a large barn located across the small dirt parking lot.  It was here that we had our walk-in fridge, prep area, and a large section of the barn which was filled with paper goods and a lot of random stuff.

                At one point we had a really weak intercom system put in.  It worked at first but not too long after it sounded like when you put your whole mouth over a microphone, it became just a bunch of garbled sounds.  It became more reliable to step out onto our deck and shout or whistle for somebody in the prep area if we needed something to be brought over.

                When it would snow we would take to throwing snowballs at the side of the barn.  Sometimes to get people’s attention, sometimes for fun, sometimes to throw at people.  Hey, we’re only human.

                Anyway, there was one time where this one guy Bento was in the prep room doing his thing when we needed him to bring us something.  A few snowballs and shouts brought him to the door.  I told him what we needed and he went to get it.  Of course, I had another snowball left over, it couldn’t go to waste.

                When he came back out I fired the snowball at him but missed.  He was not amused.  I enjoyed it though and decided that the game of the day would be to see how many times I could call to Bento, get him to come out, and then how many times I could hit him with snowballs.

                After a couple of times, and a couple of bad misses by me, he wised up.  I shouted to him and threw a snowball at the barn but Bento would not come out.  I was not to be denied the satisfaction of drilling him with my perfectly round ball of frozen water so I went in the prep room after him.  

                I quietly opened the screen door and the storm door and crept a few steps back to where our tiny prep area was.  There was an unsuspecting Bento chopping lettuce for salads.  Aww, maybe I shouldn’t since he has no idea?  Wrong.

                Being a sport I shouted, “Hey!”  Bento looked up and his eyes got huge behind his giant Drew Carey-like black-rimmed glasses. 

                “No!  No!”  Bento shouted as he pressed himself up against the wall knowing the end was near for him.  He acted as if I was Jason Voorhees and was about to throw an axe at him.  This scene of pure horror from him caught me off guard and I busted out laughing.  There was no way I could control myself.  Still, it was too late to turn back.  I cocked my arm back while still laughing and fired the snowball from about eight-feet away. 

                My aim was sad thanks to my laughter and the snowball sailed to the left knocking a clock off of the wall.  The snow splattered against the wall the clock spun around in the air bouncing off of the shelves on the left side of the prep room.  Bento breathed a sigh of relief and I dashed out of the prep room still laughing.  I think it took a few weeks for him to trust me enough to come outside when I whistled for him.  Ahh, good times. 

Altered to protect the innocent.

33 - 2/17/2011

Initial Impressions

Christopher Setterlund

33 – 2/17/2011 – In My Footsteps Trip

         -->   Took a trip to Canton, Sharon, and Foxboro today.  200 total driving miles, $20 in gas.

            The first stop was the 700 foot Great Blue Hill and a foot or so of snow on the entire way up.  Sure, it was in the 50’s today but that did not melt much snow.  The entire hike up the mini-mountain was like the scene in Rocky IV with Stallone running up the mountain.  The view from the observatory at the top of Great Blue Hill was sick, the Boston skyline was visible although melting snow made a bit of fog.

            There was also a small collection of wildlife at the Blue Hills Trailside Museum.  The otter was so cute he was doing laps around the tank, flipping off the walls of the tank and swimming upside down.  The only downside was the pair of deer that spent the whole time licking each other, legs, asses, it was like animal porn.

            My shoes were soaked from the snow pretty quickly, I also ended up getting pretty busted up from the piles of heavily compacted snow.  Taking a few photos of the Canton Viaduct I sunk in the snow and I tell you hitting that packed snow was like smashing my shin on the front step.  It was worth it though, that viaduct is like something out of ancient Rome.

            There was some sort of black box in front of the Canton Town Hall.  I am trying to figure out what the hell it was.  Time capsule?  Sculpture?  Pointless or useless?  Maybe, it had some cool things carved into it though.

            Driving through Sharon, a back street neighborhood, I saw some white trash looking guy in a white-t and boxer shorts walking, blowing his nose all over the snow.  Then I saw him later leaving Walgreens and wanted a photo but he was looking.  Didn’t want snot blown on my windshield by that loser.

            Thought for a moment about hiking up the 300 foot Moose Hill in Sharon, but my ruined hip, knee, and shin told me to forget about it.  I found it odd that while walking through the deep snow it was only my right leg that sunk down in over and over.  What is that?  Does my left side weigh less?

            Went back to Borderland Park in Sharon/Easton.  I was able to skip the $2 fee to get in, it’s called ignoring the toll booth.  There was way too much mud thanks to it getting up near 60 by this time.  I did get to take some crazy shots of the Ames Mansion though.  Some workers in a truck stopped to watch me since I looked drunk stumbling in the snow, only the right leg sinking in of course.  Tried to explain this to an old couple walking by but they ignored me or pretended they were deaf.

            Foxboro started out as a total bust since the historic homes I was looking for were either not where they were supposed to be, or they were being lived in, and had no place for me to park to take a shot.  Can’t just stop in the middle of the road, well, usually.

            Going to Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place more than made up for it.  Ate at Five Guys for the first time and had my mind blown.  Having lunch in the shadow of Gillette was pretty bad ass.  Then I got to get pretty close to the field, some great shots.  I almost got in but the field worker chickened out.  Just needed 2 minutes but no, he was more worried about his precious job.

            I found this old school, Paine School, in Foxboro.  Behind it was this weird stone tower with stairs leading up to it.  No sign, no plaque to tell me what it is.  All I know is the railing leading up was wobbly and the stairs were covered with ice, horray.  I ended up with soaked shoes, socks, and the bottom foot of my pants again after blasting my heat to dry them.

            I stopped on the side of the road to shoot an historic home, no harm right?  Then I went to leave and ripped a huge patch thanks to the mud, car covered, yeah, doesn’t make me look too suspicious.

            Song of the Day – Hearts On Fire by John Cafferty.  From Rocky IV, I heard it in my head as I scaled Great Blue Hill, I did not shout ‘Drago!!’ at the top though.  Buy the mp3 here and go train!

            Quote of the Day – “Great view, huh?”  Field worker at Gillette Stadium to me as I drooled clinging to the gates only a hundred feet from the football field.  He would not let me in, said he’d get in trouble.   

            Photos of the Day:

Canton Viaduct

So close to the field at Gillette.

View of Boston from the top of Great Blue Hill.

What the hell is this tower?  Behind Paine School in Foxboro.

32 - 2/16/2011

Initial Impressions

32 – 2/16/2011

I am not sure now what is worse, the swollen meatheads at the gym, or the little gym sluts.  Sure the sluts are nicer to look at than a bunch of guys walking like monkeys but the gym sluts coming in dressed like they’re going clubbing is way too distracting.  Hey, go back to what you do best, working out in the back seat of some high school guy’s car.

                In a related story, there were two hot girls from the gym walking home as I left.  Thought hard about picking one or both up.  My Skinemax fantasy quickly turned to some sort of Fatal Attraction where I get killed and they steal my car and my organs.  That would be my luck so I left them to walk.

                So first the Yankees jerk around Derek Jeter, now the Cardinals are jerking around Albert Pujols?  If Pujols is not a top-5 player in baseball I’d like to see the list so I can laugh at it.

                I am prone to say that if you dream about the same thing/person 3 nights in a row, including twice in the same night that your brain might be trying to tell you something.

                I never thought that I would actually have MORE energy by ingesting LESS caffeine.  How is that possible? 

Jessica Alba is pregnant again.  I will reiterate how damn lucky her husband is, she is so hot you need a fire retardant suit just to think about her.

A perfect time to pull something in my hip is when I am planning on hiking up Great Blue Hill in Canton tomorrow.  Mile up and back, 635 feet high, sure no problem, I’ll be hurting more tomorrow night.

I still think that the ‘chinless fat’ guy from the gym is going to find his way into a book of mine at some point.  They guy is just money when it comes to laughter.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again.  Relationships are like cars.  When your car breaks down over and over and over what do you do?  Do you keep on pouring money into something that is dying?  No, you save your time and money and you go get a new car, one that works.  Wow, is that so hard to figure out?  I guess you have to go through it to understand, I did.  Who’s next?

Really loving the raspberry-melon Gatorade.  Highly recommend everyone go and try it.

How is it that we have a thousand types of Cheerios but they can’t find room for Count Chocula anymore?  Madness people.

I have two new books up on Amazon in the Kindle store.  Go and check out the horror/suspense story Seventh Island Light and the children’s book Goot's Mission.

Need You Now by Lady Antebellum is my choice for today’s Song of the Day.  You can buy the mp3 here.

Photo of the Day:

Fort Rodman, New Bedford, Ma.