Friday, December 29, 2006

Fitting in:
Standing in line at an Alabama gas station, I say "I do love me that National Public Radio!"

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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Happy Holidays

http://yulenogmusic.com/xmas06.html
Check it out!

Also this:

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Fritos® Chili Cheese Wrap & Large Tots!
No, my blog has not obtained corporate sponsorship.
I'm just extolling the virtues of the $2.99 Fritos® Chili Cheese Wrap and Tots meal at Sonic.
For some reason they have very effective advertising as well. We see the commercial. I say "Man, why aren't we eating that-- right now??"
Moments later, the car starts and we're on our way to the nearest Sonic location. We don't have Sonic where I'm from. It's this weird cross between a drive through window and a parking lot, with an order box at each station. They bring the food outside to your car. Crazy. They are also known for advertising heavily in media markets in which they have no locations. The Chili Cheese Wrap was everything it claimed to be, but just to prove I haven't sold out, if you want to stick it to the man, you can make them yourself at home!!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Send in the clown...
Well, here's my Halloween costume for 2K6. Pretty pleased for having put it together in a couple hours. (Though mentally planned is for quite awhile.) It was a decent day. Made costumes, carved pumpkins and handed out candy. One mom recognized me. One more than I expected...

Tuesday, October 31, 2006


Happy Halloween

Please enjoy images of last year's costume, which I never blogged about back then. What will this years costume be? Will there be a this years costume?? Time will tell...

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Road Trip, Day Three:
Mississippi: Flat, empty, and sometimes scary. I tell ya, those people know how to abandon a house. At one point the road we were on, an established route that was indeed on our map, became almost a dirt road, two lanes across with a permanent dotted yellow. It looked like someone's driveway and we had to turn around and confirm that we'd gotten the right road. It wasn't always spooky though. We did stop at the smallest Post Office in the world, which was very quaint. We listened to the Penny Arcade podcasts though Louisiana which are always a riot and we crossed over to Texas mid evening. I saw some genuine Bayou, signs for Plantations, and a lot of very very flat land.

We rolled in at 9 or so to a warm welcome. It's a nice place. It's a big city.

Adventure.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Texas border!!
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Louisiana:
Sure is flat out here... And rainy. :-p
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Road Trip
Day 2:
Set off bright and early (not as bright and early as we should have) and headed across the great state of Tennessee. Tennessee is quite wide and thus it took us most of the day.
Our first stop was about halfway across the state. Tomas had decided that we needed some Fireworks and we stopped at one of the many many fireworks stores you can find along the highways. I have never seen so many explosives in my life. After much deliberating and browsing, I managed to escape only 25 bucks the poorer. I could have spent a lot more...

While tooling around iTunes last night I came across Barack Obama's new book for download. As I said I'd get a hold of that as soon as I saw it in audio form, I decided to follow up on that promise. The audio is abridged but still lasts almost 7 hours.
Listening to Obama talking about our country while actually driving across it was at once interesting, uplifting, and surreal. I can't wait to vote for that guy. He seems to have a pretty perfect grasp on just about every aspect of how life and government should be in this country, endlessly wise and even-handed on matters of politics, race, family, religion and industry.
Apart from being less than thrilled with the Bush administration's policies on... pretty much everything, I have been more or less apolitical throughout my life. This guy, however, I could really get behind. I worry about him though, and hope he'll have the opportunity to fulfill his potential. He reminds me of guys like Gandhi, Lincoln, JFK, Akbar The Great, Martin Luther King, Jr. These wise, reasonable men come along who have this vision for a better way for us to live together on this Earth. They have big, unifying ideas and start to change the world, but are never allowed to finish. They're all stopped by people too selfish and or stupid and or greedy and or scared to let things evolve.

We made our way across the state, shooting for Memphis and the home of all things Elvis. While I had little time or interest in the actual Graceland tour, we did go in with every intention of grabbing ourselves some of the most ridiculous Elvis stuff possible.
This led to one of the most bazzarre and surreal experiences I've ever had. We got our merchandise just fine. However, Tomas went out to grab something from the car and managed to lock his keys inside... This led to us being stranded in the Graceland gift shop on Elvis Presley Blvd. for a couple hours with nothing to do but watch Elvis videos, listen to Elvis music and stare at Elvis stuff... It was a bit hard for Tomas to explain to the roadside assistance guy where we were. My favorite part of their conversation:

"Is there anything around you not named after Elvis??"
"I'm guessing not... We're in Graceland."
Eventually we made it out of there (a nice lady from Progressive showed up to let us into the car in a flash) and resumed our travels. Right before we crossed the Mississippi border, we passed the largest roadside gentleman's club either of us had ever seen. This thing had to have been the size of a Wal-mart. Of course we had many miles yet to travel and could not investigate further. As we sped through the darkness of Mississippi, we were accompanied by the stand-up comedy stylings of Dane Cook, Mitch Hedberg, and David Cross.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Headed to Texas

DAY 1:
Set off at 8am, loaded up on granola bars and snapple at the local grocery store. The first leg of the trip was fairly routine. We had to go to Harrisburg. But soon unfamillar territory was reached as we went through the skinny part of Maryland and into West Virginia. Our first roadside stop was none other than the Mystery Hole of Ansted, West Virginia!
"Wooo, it's exciting!"
The image “http://nakrown.com/adventure/hole1.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The image “http://nakrown.com/adventure/hole3.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Tomas is unimpressed by the hole.
It would have been the perfect roadside stop... if it hadn't turned out thet the Mystery Hole is mysteriously closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

After recovering from this blow and regaining our composure we continued through Virginia and stoped for the night in Bristol Tennesee. At this point we enjoyed some much needed time with the Internet. My laptop hadn't been online since I left New York and there was much software updating and iTunes storing to be had.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Last Night in PA

This is it, folks. It's my last night in PA for awhile. At 7am tomorrow, I and my trusty mexican guide and manservant head off across this great nation of ours towards our final destination of Houston. We ope to make 5-600 miles a day for the next three days. I leave much behind, but I take more with me than I'd like to. (It's mostly equipment though, I'm taking little else.) I got much accomplished before leaving however. My room is mine again, my worldly possessions in order, my folks visited.
The open road is my home now. Adventure awaits.
If you'd like to catch up with me, I'll be a captive audience. Gimme a call in the next three days. If you know the number, I'd love to hear from you.
Wish me luck. I probably need it.

Friday, September 22, 2006


A Flurry of Illustration

On Sunday, my friends Chris and Lisa get hitched. Wednesday night we all hung out together for a very non-traditional bachellor/ette gathering. Friends long thought missing or dead were in attendance and much of the evening consisted of copy editing at the old Triangle office. I am often called upon to create a "funny" bachelor t-shirt for these things and this time I tried to create something as Puzak appropriate as possible.

While we were copy editing, they let me draw a comic for the current issue. I'd say it was my first contribution to the paper in years except for the fact that they still run Diff'rent Spoons on occasion. (Which Grooters, Castle, and I think is awesome, but I think they should retitle it "Classic Diff'rent Spoons.")

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The last 36 hours
Here’s what I just did:
Monday
8am Got up in Manhattan, dressed, packed overnight bag
9am dropped off laundry at 28th st, grabbed breakfast
10am got Chinatown Bus from Manhattan to Philly
11:55 arrived in Philly, got on subway
12:30 packed up last of apartment into Jeep, cancelled phone, gas, power, set up mail forwarding.
3pm gave away a bunch of furniture to grateful neighborhood trashpickers. Man that stuff went quick…
4:15 Met with landlord, turned in keys.
4:55 went to hardware store
5:10 met folks for drinks at Mad 4 Mex.
Thanks to Judy, Kristen, JT, Bob, Ross, Al, Lisa, Chris, Nadia, Tab, Cat, Castle, and To-Nay for comin’ out to wish me well.
9:30 went to Quizzo at New Deck
Tuesday
12:30am arrived in Conshy with Bob, crashed on their couch for the night.
8am woke up and caught
8:50 train to 30th st. Grabbed breakfast, a CD, and a cab.
10 am Started driving from my former apartment to NYC, (Queens/Moppa’s)
11am stopped for lunch/pee break.
12:10 Had first “driving in Manhattan” experience. Made it through just fine actually. However,
1pm Got hopelessly lost in Queens. Kept my wits about me however and
3pm arrived at my destination, parked, got on the R.
3:45 picked up the laundry at 28th st that I’d dropped off 30 hours before.
4:30 remarked at how much I’ve done in the last day or so. Damn. Typed this.
Now I’m headin’ to the movies…

Thursday, August 24, 2006

New goal in life: Date a belly dancer.

(No that's not my only goal, merely one of many. Duh.)

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Sunday, August 20, 2006

Update: my apartment is extreemly empty. It freaks me out a bit. But it's a good thing. Onwards and upwards. What's good about my place being empty though is the fact that I can use it like a real studio. This parlays into this big conceptual art photography project I'm doing. 9 shoots so far. More on that later. Saw some CHAD folk last night. It was good times. New York all next week. Lots of people to visit. Feelin' good.
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Saturday, August 19, 2006

Yes, you too can compile your own copy of
"Nathan's Leavin' Town Mix Aug '06"

23 tracks, all significant in their own way. Or in a few ways.
What/who/Why?
ABC Jackson 5
It’s a happy song. A classic. And I just saw it in Clerks2.
Seeker The Who
They call me The Seeker I've been searching low and high I won't get to get what I'm after ‘Till the day I die
Hooray For Caption Spaulding Groucho Marx
He must be going.
The W.A.N.D. The Flaming Lips
ReDiscovered them at PGSA this summer.
Express Yourself N.W.A.
The title says it all.
Old School Rules Dangerdoom
It’s catchy and it’s been in my head for months now.
Work It Out (NuMix Main) Jurassic 5 and Dave Matthews Band
Catchy, happy. Optimistic.
My Parta' Town (Remix) Tuff Crew
Heard some Tuff Crew in “Out of Time” the other day. I’m a new fan.
The Prime Time of Your Life Daft Punk
Hopefully a description of my future.
Snoop Dog, Baby Reel Big Fish
Sometimes it’s not the track you include, but the track you don’t include…
Black Swan Thom Yorke
Good lyrics. And it played to the credits of A Scanner Darkly.
New Genius (Brother) Gorillaz
Just been rattling around my head recently.
What I Got (Reprise Version) Sublime
Another relatively optimistic track I’ve had stuck in my head.
Dimension Wolfmother
Maybe my new favorite modern rock band. Awesome album and this is the first track.
I Know You Know The Friendly Indians
Theme to the show “Psych” which I’ve been watching.
Rock the House Gorillaz
Just a kick ass song.
Try Try Try Again Dressy Bessy
A poetic sounding rock waltz.
Road Movie To Berlin They Might Be Giants
Can’t drive out the way we drove in. Time won’t find a loss. It’ll sweep up our skeleton bones… Depressing.
Bye Bye Johnny Chuck Berry
More songs about leaving.
Where Is My Mind? Pixies
"You met me at a very strange time in my life." You don't know the half of it, Ed. I need to be more like Tyler Durden. "I say never be complete. I say stop being perfect. I say let's evolve. Let the chips fall where they may."
Tomorrow's World Looper
See title.
Moonlight Serenade Glenn Miller
Just because. Also, Captain Jack uses it to woo the ladies.

Should have made it on but didn’t:
Dry the Rain The Beta Band
If there's something inside that you wanna say Say it out loud it'll be okay I will be your light
"I am now going to sell five copies of The Three EPs by The Beta Band." Actually this time it was 6. Thanks Marina/Jon.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Snakes On a MutherFuckin' Plane!
It delivers what it promises. Picture the top 5 places on your body you wouldn't want to get repeatedly bitten by a snake. In this film, people get bitten in all of them. And then some.
This is a signifigant film if only because it is the first film to become a cult classic months before its actual release. I would venture that it is also the first film ever to have been influenced, at least to this extent, by the fans while the film was still being made.

See also: "Snakes on a Train" and "Snakes on Claire Danes"

Monday, August 07, 2006

Please note, the piece "Virgil Confronts Malacoda" depicting that scene from Dante's Inferno has been sold to a private collection and is no longer available.
The image “http://nakrown.com/photodump/vcm.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Holy crap!
I'm now officially bloggable from my cellphone.
Check me out. :-)

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Testing... Testing..?

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Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Kind words
I stumpled upon one of my friend Geof's old colums from when a bunch of us graduated and left The Triangle. He had some really nice things to say. Good for the ol' self esteem.

Monday, July 31, 2006

This stinks
What stinks, you ask? Packing up my apartment stinks. It's 100º this week with a heat index of about 110. I don't have air conditioning. I'm running around doing maual labor. I'm toweling off every five minutes. Additionally, I have too much stuff. In order to pack my stuff in boxes, I have to empty out things like the closet, the filing cabinet etc. As a result, there's a lot less space to walk around in there. New and improved Nathan is not going to aquire as many things...

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Taking care of buisness
Today/this weekend, I am once and for all getting the photos of my students' work labled, organized and retouched. Man, there is a lot of it. It's kind of tedious but it makes me feel good about what I accompished this year. CDs of this volume will go to other teachers for use in student portfolios.
PGSA06
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

-- William Shakespeare

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Attention moviegoers:
Lady In the Water is NOT a good film.
Which is s shame, because it has a lot of good stuff in it.
But man-0-man, some weak, weak stuff too...
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

>Edit<
This article kind of sums up how I feel about M. Night:
http://www.slate.com/id/2146169/
Thanks, Castle.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

How would I look with a beard?
I'm slowly finding out...

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Me (4:03:53 PM): I'm in Philly now
beamrider9 (4:04:04 PM): ohhh
beamrider9 (4:04:07 PM): I had no idea
Me (4:04:21 PM): I was traveling for the gov schools but now I'm back
beamrider9 (4:04:26 PM): I thought you were still on the road
Me (4:04:33 PM): nah
Me (4:04:50 PM): although in a way I am since this really isn't my home anymore
beamrider9 (4:05:31 PM): where is your home?
beamrider9 (4:05:32 PM): you're a nomad
Me (4:05:44 PM): pretty much
beamrider9 (4:06:30 PM): you're like Kane from "Kung-Fu"
beamrider9 (4:06:36 PM): you're gonna walk the earth and have adventures
Me (4:06:50 PM): thats the plan
Me (4:09:04 PM): like David Banner
beamrider9 (4:09:39 PM): heh

Monday, July 24, 2006

Oh good lord...
http://www.scifi.com/superhero/

I'm horrified, yet I can't look away. This will be good.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Six Down, Two To Go
Only Health Care and Information, Society, and Technology remain. I have 20 some tapes under my belt. It's been a productive and fun few weeks. I'm finding that The Governor's Schools of Excellence are all very similar and very different at the same time, like any other group of siblings I suppose. The kids I've interviewed have all been great. Smart, interested, energetic, articulate.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

The Halfway Point
Four Gov Schools down, four to go. Folks have been very nice to far. They seem happy to have me there and excited about what I'm trying to do. I've shot about 16 tapes including about 15 interviews (actually I've lost track). The PGSs are a lot more different and a lot more similar than people realize. Each is a tight knit comunity. Each is providing an experience that the Govies claim is changing their lives. I'm also finding that a ton of students at all the Gov schools heard about it because they know somwne who went to PGSA...
Saw my nephew again yesterday. He likes to be swung around by his ankles, a service only Uncle Nathan is able to provide.
Next week will be fun I hope. Three Gov schools in one city, friends and family to visit, including one who qualifies as Long Lost. I look forward to it.

Also, the first season of Doctor Who dvds are pretty sweet...

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Week in Erie
My time here is nearly up. It's been a great week. Couldn't ask for better, really.
A few important people have said some really important things to me. Someone I respect infinately told me that he "honestly thinks I'm one of the most talented people ever to come through the program. You can do it all." I don't really believe that myself, but it was certianly a nice thing to say and he probably knows better than I do. Someone else told me that I'd grown up a lot. When she first met me I was very much a boy and now I'm very much a man. That was really nice to hear, especially given all that I've been thinking about lately. Someone else told me-- well I won't get into it much, but it made me feel backed up, supported, like there's good people in my corner. He's in my corner at least. I'm not sure I've ever felt that way. The loner mentality sort of precludes that. I'm feeling like I might belong to something-- which was reinforced when someone else revealed "actually, thay have you down as being on staff this summer."
It's a warm feeling. Next stop: PGSAS.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

When we look at modern man we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance. We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

http://www.cafepress.com/moreveggies

Get one. You'll be the coolest.
 Green T-Shirt