Grecco's Pizza of Bedford, IN

Grecco’s is the jam. They don’t have a public restroom but that’s okay. The soda flows. I’ve only had their hand tossed pizza but they also have thin, deep dish, and “chicago style”. I do consider chicago style and deep dish to be the same thing. So I would like to know what Grecco’s thinks of the difference. They’ve likely had the same menu for decades. The picture on their website shows a square pizza, so their version of deep dish might be more like a Sicilian or a Detroit-style pan.

Let’s talk ratios. Grecco’s hand tossed pizza is a 2.5cr/3ce/3ch.  I’ll rate their crust 3.5/5. It’s very airy for a midwest style hand tossed, giving it a new yorky quality. It’s not exceptionally chewy but the flavor is great. Yeasty and somewhat sweet. 

Their sauce gets a 3/5. I could eat a bucket of it but it’s not super memorable. For overall quality, they get a 3.5/5. They’re in Bedford so I have to use standard standards.

For style, they get a 4/5. Their pizza is really satisfying. The walls are wood paneled. Their halloween decorations are old. They even have stained glass panels attached to their windows.

Grecco’s get a score of 70%. I love it!

Pajama Sam in No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside

I started playing this game hoping to get relaxed enough to do a number of creative things that all require a little extra patience.  It took me about an hour to get through to the end, but that's okay.  I didn't want to spend all day on it.  Still, an hour seemed pretty short so I read the walk through and found out the adventure puzzles are actually different every time you start a new game.  Pretty cool, huh?  

I know it's not always cool to play a kids' game when I could be jamming some Call of Duty and shelling out some serious cash for an Xbox.  Sometimes it's nice to play an easy adventure game and see if the realm of things you enjoyed in the 90s can still hold up to today's standards.  Truly, Humongous Entertainment never left us hanging in their long stream of timeless hits.  They spared no effort in making Sam's closet into a truly magical place.  The world within is full of interesting characters and almost everything can be interacted with.  I'd like to see the singing carrot front a punk band.  He's a vegan anarcho-socialist with the voice for punk.  I was inspired.  

Skittles' Water Enhancer

From day one, I’ve been a fan of water enhancers. They are often cheap and can be delicious, energizing, fortifying, and hydrating. So of course I had to try Skittles’ take on water enhancement. I love how they give us four different flavors in one box. At $1.99, it’s an easier commitment than $1 for one flavor of Crush, which might not even be good. Skittles’ water enhancer is also a good deal because for $1.99 I got a total of 20 pouches, more than enough to flavor 320 ounces of water. Enough to fill over five two liters.

I never knew red skittles were supposed to be strawberry flavored. Somehow I figured it was punch or cherry. The strawberry might be my favorite of the bunch. While I usually don’t go for strawberry flavor, I think it’s improved by the drink’s skittly sweet finish. While orange is almost always my fave, followed by grape, these two flavors just weren’t as tart as I prefer them.

The green apple looks really good but it’s just not my bag. To me, it’s better than most green apple flavors because it’s less tart than usual. I do think lime would have been a better choice for green. 

Growing up I drank a lot of mixtures of Aldi’s powdered fruit drink. Gremonaide was a good one, as was Grorange. You know sometimes it pays to experiment, so I made a skittlicide,which turned out to be more delicious than any of the regular four. It would be really great if they made tropical and very berry version of the skittles’ water enhancer. Tropical skittles are awesome.

Stay out of the Bathroom by R.U. Slime

 

Back when I wasn't allowed to read Goosebumps, I bought this book.  I was in fourth grade.  FYI, for this blog, I'm only writing about books I've read since I entered the zone.  So I did read this book just yesterday and I did have to order it from Amazon.  

They call it a parody but it's not really.  Stay out of the Bathroom doesn't have much to do at all with Stay out of the Basement.  Stay out of the Bathroom is written from the perspective of an extra rambunctious 12-year-old named Joe.  Instead of trying to be actually funny, R.U. Slime just talked a lot about bathrooms and barf.  Edgy for the demographic.  I guess it did tickle the giggling mischief maker within.  

It's funny what kind of memories turn-up when you're rereading something 25 years later.  Joe's bathroom was, in my head, my own bathroom at the time.  My sister and I shared the upstairs bathroom, between our bedrooms.  One time I left an empty handi-snacks container in the waste basket and my dad yelled at me for attracting ants.  He would have caught it sooner but you know how it is.  He was more into the big bathroom downstairs.  

If any of you all want to borrow this book, feel free to let me know.  I know it's a rare one!

"The Clownward Spiral" by Terry the Horror Clown

Terry the Horror Clown is a character created by Boo Dudes of Nashville, TN. Most of Boo Dudes’ releases are intelligently crafted, halloween-themed parodies of popular styles. If you dig into their other material I think you will be pleased at their mastery of dracula style vocals and gothy, chorused guitars.

This release is quite different from all of that. I was expecting horrorcore of some kind but I don’t think that’s what Terry’s doing. His beats are often more industrial than hip hop and his vocals are always auto-tuned. Actually, I think KLOWNSH1T feat Beppo! would make a great radio song for all seasons. I really liked Beppo. It would be cool to hear some of his solo material.

Dracula’s DUI is super catchy. I really dig how the auto tune fuels a constant stream of melody. I feel inspired to listen to a lot more industrial music but I know it won’t be as entertaining as this. Have you ever wondered how a clown sounds when they’re being stabbed to death? Me neither but I really enjoyed hearing it in Oops! Another Stabbing feat. Beppo and Dem Funnel Cake Boiz.

I like songs about stabbings and candy and stuff but I’d really like to hear more lyrics about Terry’s personal life. Where is his hood? What made him decide to become a clown? I like how most rappers are often rapping about their cred. It makes them seem human, as if they need validation. Terry isn’t like that. He doesn’t need to impress you. He’s a true psychopath.

About Reviews

One of my best readers asked me the other day about my review of Kurt Vonnegut’s Man without a Country. I didn’t talk about the book much at all. My other readers were probably also perplexed. Sorry.

I will try to do better though I don’t remember what Man without a Country was really about. It was more like a collection of essays. He talked about what people were meant to do. He talked about walking to the post office to mail his drafts instead of emailing with his editor. He talked about how the 1970s were a good decade for music.

About my reviews though. Let’s not call them reviews.  I don’t think my opinions are as valuable as my experiences.   At one time I decided to make a list of every book I read and figured it might be a good idea to record my take-aways and figured it would be a good thing to put in my blog.

There are going to be a lot more book reports, after all.   I have posts written and scheduled for the next few months.  Thanks for coming to the zone.

I read this book (Stay Out of the Basement by R.L. Stine)

 

Thriller number two for this spooky season, this is actually my first Goosebumps book.  As a child I wasn't allowed to read them.  I don't know why, maybe my parents thought Goosebumps was evil.  Anyway, my folks got me an e-reader for my 26th birthday and I downloaded the whole goosebumps collection so maybe I'll read another this year.  

Stay Out of the Basement was pretty good, actually.  I think sometimes kids have much better taste in books than adults do, since they are more regularly expected to read literature.  R.L. Stine did not disappoint and I'm really glad he got so many (other) kids reading.  Still I wasn't scared.  Let's get scary!

Look at these non-scary alternative covers!

I'm not scared!

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

 

This one was also a loaner from my pal, Zach. In a way, I resent Kurt Vonnegut... the whimsical existentialist, living the aspirations of every twenty something with a pen and a pack of pall malls. Still none of them will ever get to be the next Kurt Vonnegut. The world only needed (maybe) one and I do resent the crud out of him; always bragging about smoking pall malls. So arrogant. Hating semicolons. Are fragmented sentences really so much more bad ass? Let's remember. He was from the old world, before it was decided that cigarettes should be super expensive and only consumed at certain places at certain times, designated by those who intend to keep us under control and dead when we are no longer exploitable.  

What is with Vonnegut's arrogance? Is that just how the greatest generation were?  I guess they didn't grow up to see everything they've ever done become a subject of mockery on the internet. In a way, maybe I just resent my own lack of confidence. Part of why I read a lot is to get a better grasp on what makes writing good, in hopes of writing better things myself. Regardless I have a hard time bringing myself to create something I know is going to be somewhat humiliating.  

And so it goes. Thanks Kurt. I know probably had the best intentions. I know you were actually a real special guy. You probably never meant to discourage me and remind me what a self-loathing, wretched, shitty writer I am. Let's blame social media.  

"Stay the Same" by TRAGWAG

Nice:

1. Pleasing; agreeable; delightful

3. characterized by showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy

5. minute, fine, or subtle

6. having or showing delicate, accurate perception

8. virtuous; respectable; decorous

Sometimes I say nice punk, referencing a type of exceptionally good punk rocker.  They're good in the sense that they’ve done their homework and they dress just how they are supposed to.  They are vegan and drive hybrid cars, careful to never offend or entice disapproval of any kind.  In fact, they are probably too talented and well-to-do for a scene of alleged rejects who want to be heard but don’t intend to become good at their instruments.  They are try-hards and have chosen punk rock because they need to recognized as the best in their field.  

Other times a nice punk can be artfully sincere with a talent for kindness. They don't blame their problems on society.  They practice love for everyone and genuinely care about the things they do and the things they create.  In a better sense of nice punk, the name TRAGWAG (that really awesome guy with a guitar) seems to indicate a call for self love.  However Tragwag isn’t just a group of slackers on the fence about quitting their band and moving to Austin or Philly.  Instead, all of Tragwag's instrumentation is written and played by Tyler Bisson.  

Every track demonstrates a clear respect for the work put into its conception.  In fact, Tyler’s attention to detail is baffling.  In riffs, beats, and feedback loops I know he is speaking my language in ways I cannot articulate.  Stay the Same affirms my belief that sometimes if you are the one to start writing a song, then you should be the one to finish it.  

I love the breakdown in Outlook and savored the clear rack tom and slick acoustic guitar while pondering nostalgia-injected verses.  The quiet, anthemic vocals remind me of the first time I heard Rainer maria.  Stay the Same is emo, but it’s not just emo.  It’s a lot of things.  It is the pacing and deep, dragging snare drum on Far.  It is the singing that is pretty without trying to be sexy.  It is that part in That Was Me that makes you remember the first scene you were part of and then that other part that makes you want to bob your head like you did at your first show and then the fade out to that gasp of fresh air as everyone piles out of the basement.  

Everything sounds nice, natural, and practiced.   For our enjoyment.  

Please note that I would like to claim permanent credit for coining the term Nice Punk.  

The Croods

 

The bar for animated family movies has gotten pretty high; the most high it's ever been.  Naturally, I snoozed on the Croods.  In fact, I'd never heard of it until I saw it a couple months ago.  Pretty much everything about it sucked.  It might be Nicolas Cage's worst film.  If it's not, I'm going to find his worst film and tell you about it.  

I don't know if I can ever trust Dreamworks again, after such a weak offering.  The characters are cave people, which gives them an excuse to be the cliches that that every future character will vaguely embody.  Still being cave people doesn't give every one of them an excuse to be ugly.  Why do they shave their arm pits?  

a time for gravy

 

Since I gave up on french fries and had that dream about gravy, I decided to go ahead and eat a lot of mashed potatoes; never without gravy.  

For some reason, my homemade gravy never feels official.  It's not exactly what you would get in a can or from a chain restaurant.  It's not like mom's.  

My own bastard gravy often fails to fulfill the purpose of true gravy.  

You have to make sure your gravy is never more dense than your mashed potatoes.  Don't be afraid to over-microwave your instant mash.  

I thought maybe if I ate a lot more stuffing, I could satiate its need enough to hold back a little at thanksgiving.  I don't want to immediately pass out after dinner again.  

Canned sausage gravy is an exception.  It's not as good as homemade but homemade is once less fulfilling than from a Hardee's or gas station in Kentucky.  

I got leftover gravy from the restaurant I work at.  

I also got my four wisdom teeth pulled, encouraging me to eat more mashed potatoes and gravy.  

Mash with real potatoes is not always as good as instant.  You have to boil your potatoes super well or else they'll be too starchy.  

I think grocery store delis charge way too much for mashed potatoes, considering how cheap their chicken is.  

I don't know if I'll ever get sick of stuffing.  I think stove top is better than what my mom makes.  

I could have had more mashed potatoes and gravy but at times, fixing it can be inconvenient.  I can't really abide an inconvenient meal.  Otherwise I'd eat more fast food.  

My favorite plate is the Corelle with green flowers.  Every time I see a Corelle plate, I compliment it and try to eat off of it.  

Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly

 

A cool, fairly recent thing is that my mom works for a tiny bible college and cleans the dorms.  That means she gets very first dibs on everything the students leave behind.  And I ended up with a big pile of unread fantasy novels.  

Initially Dragonsbane checked a lot of boxes for me.  It was written in the 80s by a woman and the protagonist is a sorceress.  Incidentally, Dragonsbane also represents a lot of what most people don't like about fantasy novels.  Even toward the end when everything is getting resolved, Hambly persistently trudges on about the scenery and what everyone is wearing.  Also.  Dragons are very tired.  I guess things were different in the 80s.  

Still I would recommend this book to anyone who already loves fantasy.  Some of the scenes are truly terrifying.  Others will likely bring a tear to your eye.  And I have a few more of Barbara Hambly's books, so I will probably be reading another one and writing of it eventually.  

The Crib by Paul Kent

Since October was coming and I've been reading a lot of books, I figured some thrillers were in order.  This one was at The Salvation Army, which makes me assume it's more popular than if I'd seen it at Half-Priced Books.  Also I could tell its been read, which is also a testimony.  

In The Crib, Stuart Rice is an epidemiologist whose neighbor's crib is a family heirloom that kills babies.  Later we find out when the babies are killed and later we find out why.  Is Stuart going to save a baby from dying?  Does it even matter?  No.  

Was I scared?  No.  In fact, I had a hard time finishing this one even though the chapters are all exactly 5 pages long.  Perhaps I could have read a little chunk and found myself too scared to sleep so I'd pick it up again and get even more scared.  Is that how it's supposed to work?  

Bear in mind, this is my first adult thriller.  The world itself, I think, is also a lot more scary than it was in 1987 when this book was published.  Sudden Infant Death Syndrome doesn't scare me.  

"ᏬᏙᏩᏌ" by Vuduwasa

Vuduwasa is a four piece from my town, Bloomington.   They play heavy music and call it Swamp Metal.  It is slow, moody, and heavy.  Unique in the sense that it is sometimes simultaneously so grungy and so sterile.  I get the impression that everything is EQ’d to correct presets so that no instrument (or drum) oversteps their determined frequency range.  I was troubled at the lack of buzz in their amps until I heard the intro to Return to Detritus and felt comfort in knowing I hadn’t transcended to a new dimension of magical demon guitar amps. Really though. It sounds super pro.  Not in a bad sense.  Just a sense.  Don’t be fooled by the kvlt album title.  

Not every riff will hit you hard and stick but every song has at least one moment that will make you remember to play it again. Even as I type this, I can’t help but clench my fist. Skunk Ape is not one to take sitting down. The grim poeticism in Rite of Reclamation will make you feel the world’s weight in a paper bag, trudging home from the Big Red, slower than you notice.  Crushed.  Interlude conjured feelings of younger days, with so much time to jam the old acoustic while my friends skated.  Having a place to smoke usually made it worthwhile.  Smoking set the riffs free.

As the album progressed, I kept thinking, “Wow. That sounds so metal. Why don’t I ever do that?”

Each track on ᏬᏙᏩᏌ is expertly arranged.  As lengthy as some are, I haven’t once wanted the band to move onto something else.  Each tune turns out more epic than expected. 

Note for note, the vocals never sag but the loose doubling doesn't always do it for me.  Still, they serve as a reminder that heavy music isn't really so serious.  You might wear the face of a tragedy, but inside you are filled with the joy at the rumble of speakers.  

Taylor Wood can hold a scream for a long time.  Something we should all aspire to!  At moments I think he sounds like Phil Anselmo but at other times I hear something so expressive, unique, and KVLT. Or is it cvlt?   I’ve been saying it since 2009 and I don’t even know.

For a band’s first release, I was half-hoping for something more raw.   Where will Vuduwasa even go from here?  I would like to see them succeed in every intended sense but selfishly, I’d like to hear them make an album so wrong but so right, like Celtic Frost’s Cold Lake.  I guess nobody makes an album like that on purpose.  

I told the social media I’d like to review their new and unpopular albums.  It seems like I should blog about things other than books and pizza.  However I don't want anyone to care extra about me or think I'm an authority because I do this.  I just want to practice writing.  

I might not review more stuff from local Bloomington bands.  We'll see.  The zone likely won't be as fun if it enhances my decidedly minimal social life.  I don’t want to be distracted by thoughts of other people more than I already am.  So maybe I’ll just do this one Bloomington release.  It’s hard to see things properly when they are so close up.  I know this but wonder.  Is there even such thing as an unbiased album review?

We do live in a weird town with a lot of bands.  There are often famous bands here that I don't even know about.  Why should I spend my time trying to plug them?  On the other hand, I do know Vuduwasa.   They’re probably the local band I’m most likely to just hang with.  I’m stoked Evan sent me their tracks in advance so that I could do this review!  Great work.  I wouldn't change a thing.  

Tenth of December by George Saunders

 

It was loaned to me by Amy of the cool witch house.  If you ever find yourself lacking in an emotional connection with the world around you or lacking in general empathy, then I would strongly recommend this book.  Often, fictional circumstances encourage us to look for opportunities to make a difference among the indifferent. 

At just over two hundred pages, you can read this book in a day and in each of these short stories, put yourself in someone else's shoes and feel inspiration to do good in seeing the causality in subtle heroism.  And maybe that inspiration can give us the courage to accept and remember that integrity comes at a price and that is a fact of life.  

"Songs of the Steer’n Wheel Gripper" by Serial Mouse

On their bandcamp page, Serial Mouse claims to transcend genre. Still, I’m going to try to categorize them.   From northern Indiana, Serial Mouse plays occasionally extreme progressive rock, likely recorded in a garage (onto a digital 8 track), to be blasted over the deafening engine of your antique hesher van.  You and the gang might pull over and cash a steel reserve.  By the time you remember to turn the stereo down, you're already blasting off toward the deepest dimensions of bumfuck.  

The scenery is bleak but still you must race forward. To where? Who gives a RAT’s ASS?

I met Serial Mouse’s drummer/lead vocalist/auto harpist/sampler/visual artist back in December 2017 when Atkinson played drums in a metal fusion band (think rototoms and fretless bass) called Angel Grave.  Their show made me want to buy my own conversion van and pair of paisley slacks.

Serial Mouse seems to have formed at Angel Grave’s funeral.  Actually, it’s a little more up my alley than the old band.  At times I'm reminded of King Crimson, if they'd only been raised in the early 90s.  My favorite track is Nest Decaying, mostly because of its pronounced bass line.  My 2^nd favorite is probably Emerald Visions of an Unborn Czar.  The last two tracks give us more of a definite black metal vibe, which I especially appreciate when mixed with the rest of their sound.   I was surprised, since the northern darkness hadn't showed its face much in the earlier tracks.  Perhaps if that had been so, I'd have obeyed the temptation to pause and work on my drum chops for a bit.  These guys get fast.  

I love homemade albums.  They are the only pieces of music I want to review here in the zone.  I love how every amateur recording engineer has their own host of interesting quirks, giving a rare shine to every release.  Love it.  Still, we are forced to take the good quirks with those less desirable.  On this release I love the close-up, uncompressed sound of the drums.  I can articulate most of the guitar work but, I get that reverb is often used, the amps themselves sound too far away for me.  It does, however, add to the played in a garage vibe.  The amp sound doesn’t bother me as much as the lack of bass guitar.   The few times I can hear a bass, it is too far off for me to discern.

Even if you don’t buy the digital album, I recommend DEFINITELY checking it out. To me, Songs of the Steer’n Wheel Gripper is nothing short of sick. I give it an A+.