First and foremost, everyone please look at the post below to M&T’s latest version of the IFS game, ‘Flappy Does Adventures’. Its awesome. Be good ministers, comment on how awesome it is.
Yesterday was a sad day. Dels Saloon closed its doors for good. The landowners have opted not to renew the lease, not because the bar was losing money, but the owners of the building opted instead to open a swankier, more overpriced and likely douchier bar in its place. ([Story](http://blogs.laweekly.com/squidink/restaurant-openings-and-closur/dels-saloon-closing/)) If they put in another Busby’s, I’ll likely fire bomb it.
A few ministers may remember the days of Franklin St. It was a quaint ‘little’ apartment in Santa Monica, where a numerous ministers and friends resided. It was a great house, until it was overrun with tropical parasites I brought back from the jungles of Panama on a research trip. Whoops. Many football games were watched, beers consumed, and meals enjoyed. One time, I even threw the Minister of Athletics in the shower with his clothes on, closed the shower door, and turned on the water. Pow!
The standard operating procedure after any Franklin St. gathering was the obligatory trip to Dels Saloon a few short blocks away. It was an easy jaunt down the street, especially with the help of a few ‘road sodas’. If you never made it to Franklin St. and consequently Dels, you missed out on a lot, and you probably suck at life.
Dels Saloon saw the likes of an epic Karaoke crooning battle between the Minister of Letters and our ‘close personal friend’. There were also less epic although equally amusing karaoke attempts from others, no shame at Dels. There were chance encounters with truckers, hipsters, blue collars, students, old fashioned drunks, and even the occasional random hook ups with strangers. There was the occasional daytime cocktail, which were far outweighed by far too many instances where we were the last ones being shooed out the door, with full beers in our pockets for the walk home. Through thick and thin, Dels was the place, our place.
A classic dive bar, Dels enjoyed a brief run of popularity with the younger folks after a brief cameo in a popular movie. Occasionally you’d even spot an attractive female there, **occasionally**. That was rarely the focus, and that’s what made it great. Dels Saloon was a great place to share a drink with friends. A true staple in the IFS diet from 2006-2008.
Last Night, there was a gentleman, a regular, who stood up on top of the bar and hushed the crowd to make a toast. He started slowly and worked up to a yell, “This bar is the greatest, goddammed, fucking place….in America!” Cheers erupted from the crowd. I laughed, but didn’t disagree. Last night I had trouble thinking of a better one, Turnpike IHOP, perhaps.
The following is a mini photo essay from the last night at our beloved Dels. Single Tear.
Dels Saloon. Rest in Peace.
Let me paint you a picture…
This past Saturday night the Ministers of Health, Letters, A&D and MOM were accompanied by two lovely young ladies to the [Third Annual Christmas Sweater Festival](http://www.theelrey.com/view-details.php?id=467), a Charity Benefit for Teen Impact, a program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for teens and young adults with, or recovering from, cancer. Hosted at the [El Rey](http://www.theelrey.com/index.php) Theater in Los Angeles, CA.
The show was headlined by ‘The Deadly Syndrome’ a favorite local band of a few IFS members. The Drummer for ‘The Deadly Syndrome’, Jessie Hoy is a Gaucho alum and longtime friend. I don’t go to many shows, but will rarely miss the ‘Syndrome’ at the El Rey.
In an intermission period between bands, an ugly Christmas sweater competition was held. Various hipsters donned skinny jeans, tight sweaters, some carrying Christmas ornaments, some lit up by Christmas lights, some wearing full Christmas regalia, complete with red pants, sweater vests, and bow ties. There was even a bear who had a shirt on that read ‘Beary Christmas’. Strong showing. Then there was MOH, unshaven, non-skinny jeans, beer in hand (the only one on stage drinking), beer buzzed grin, and cloaked in the most glorious Christmas sweater Los Angeles has ever seen. While the sweater itself was lovely, complete with Christmas trees, Santa Claus embroidery, etc. The Coup de grâce were the buttons on the sweater, which were actually JINGLE BELLS. POW!!!
The judging went in two stages, the half-wits and the fashion challenged were unceremoniously herded off the stage to boos and angry fist pumps. Health easily made it to the final round of judging, where Mr. Hoy would present each competitor to the crowd and listen for applause. Then the highly accurate and highly scientific applause ‘o’ meter was used to precisely determine the strength of each Christmas Sweater, based on audience acceptance. Letters, A&D, MOM and two lovely ladies spearheaded the ‘Bells’ (As in ‘JINGLE BELLS’) cheering section. When the MC and Mr. Hoy came to Health and presented him to the crowd, and jingled his ‘Bells’ into the microphone, we erupted in applause, cheers, and drunken shouts of “THE BELLS! THE BELLS!!!!!”. The applause ‘o’ meter spiked and hipsters everywhere cowered behind their PBRs.
The running was tight between THE BELLS, the Bear, and some hipster with a crappy sweater decorated by 6 Christmas lights (whom ‘THE BELLS’ cheering section booed ruthlessly). After double checking the applause ‘o’ meter, and a seemingly endless deliberation, the judges emerged to announce ‘THE BELLS’ as the winner of the Ugly Christmas Sweater competition! Everyone was sobbing, hugging, kissing and popping bottles of the finest Champagne, we had done it!!! Victory!!!
Below is a picture of the champ and lovely lady #2, post victory.
The show was a raging success, and Health was a local celebrity for the remainder of the night. Before long ‘[The Deadly Syndrome](http://thedeadlysyndrome.com/)’ came on a rocked a strong set for all the Holiday revelers. Including the following song Eucalyptus:
I would highly suggest this band to friends, their first album ‘The Ortolan’ was great, and their new album will be out in March. Next time they play in LA, we’ll make a post about it, and while I cannot guarantee such a grand spectacle, I can promise a good rock show and fun times with friends. Good Flapjack.
Today Ol Glory and myself will be traveling back to the Indonesian archipelago to fill up on our share of tasties. It’s been a long time and we’re hungry. In fact we’re so hungry we could eat the ass out of a dead rhino, Utah! Two!
This is stimulating, but we’re out of here.
For those of you who may be unaware, our beloved Minister of Finance is living in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico playing professional soccer for one of the 4 teams in Guadalajara. Its a great ceetey. His absence has been sorely missed every time we attempt to divide the IHOP bill by the number of ministers at breakfast. He has kept in touch and sent the pictures you see below. The official name of the club is ‘Club Deportivo El Oro’. For those of you who don’t habla the espanol, ‘El Oro’ is Spanish for ‘The Oro’ Finance says, “Club Deportivo El Oro has two venues: ‘La Primavera’ and ‘El Estadio Jalisco’, the team is in the Mexican Second Division of Soccer, and I’m not sure about the mascot, but I would have to say it is GOLD. Sometimes they call us ‘los mulos; which refers to the mules that were used to carry the gold from one place to another.” Below is the link to the club homepage, which is all in Spanish, so you’ll have to find a Spanish speaker to decipher it’s code.
You should write an email to say hello or actually go down to see a game, which I may actually do very soon. If anyone is interested in sampling some authentic Mexican Meat Pancakes from Mexico in the near future, let me know.
In his free time he has been helping a mechanic bro who recently started a small
shindig of buying and selling used cars. “We do all the mechanical,
body and paint work. Here are a couple pics of him and I taking out
the fuel injectors while tuning up my malibu.”
Another one with his son
who is learning the ropes.
“Also a picture of a dood i know who lived
some time in L.A. His shirt says, ‘An akward morning beats a boring
night.’ i think the cold sore on his lip is a nice touch.”
Our beloved Financiero is living the dream, hopefully he’ll be someplace we can all watch him soon. LA Galaxia friendly?
This past July I made my way down to Barro Colorado Island, Panama to do my research on Tropical Rain forests using “Lasers”. Competition made his way down and helped me with a little field work and managed to sneak in a dance with a German graduate student. We ahre laughfing!
I meant to make this post right after my trip but I got a little sidetracked and forgot. But here’s a little photo essay of my ‘International’ experience in the rain forest.
Barro Colorado Island is in the Panama Canal Zone
MOM tracks the elusive Tree-Finance
Anteater climbing a tree and big ugly tropical spider
The native tropical vegetation was pretty impressive The tree at right is the “Walking Palm” which can sense canopy gaps where extra light is coming through
and it will literally “walk” across the forest floor by
putting down its butressed roots in one direction and pull them up on the back end. Science!
The financier of my journey, Dr. Tom Gillespie. (left) The Professor, Competition and myself managed to rack up a $60 bar tab (which is impressive at 75cents a beer) and then accidentally leave on the last day without paying, whoops!
Bananas with mini-snickers bars baked in->
The tropical biologists were a slightly rowdier group than I expected, on the last night they threw a party to celebrate Comp leaving the island even though he’d only been there one day. Assholes.
“I went to Germany once. Do you know Timo? See, i used to live in SPAIN!” -> After having a good number of libations, jumping in the crocodile infested lagoon with minimal clothing seemed like the best plan.
Trick is to make sure there’s always someone further from the pier than
you. (seriously, two biologist swimmers have been attacked here over the years.) <- nearby
And the Money Shot….
I may have looked a little dumb taking a picture of my empty plate in the field station’s cafeteria, but i look pretty smart now.
Praise be to almighty Science and Gooooood Flapjack!
Health on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing Everyone's been talking about the old man's balls.... intentionally or not
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9FPYt7na0
Health on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing It's hit the 2000 milestone.. I keep posting the link all over ESPN.com articles. This thing has to take off eventually. I just can't wait till Letters gets on Tosh.0
letters on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing most of it made its way onto the airwaves in one minute chunks... glad you guys like it. its almost at 1,400 views... if you have a facebook, share it, and we'll see what happens. in flapjack related news:
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-35558454
mandrew on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing Nice work!! Was that piece made for the SB airwaves, or just for fun?
M+T on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing Awesome. You sound really good, but now I can't shake the image of Favre's balls.
Rousing on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing You sound fucking great Baggs. Strong lyric jam and nice Big Ben reference slam. Great work!
