If you ever get the chance, check out a band (now defunct) by the name of that dog. Back in the heady days of the early 90's, when I used to be obsessed by girl bands, that dog was among the coolest, with Los Angeles artiness and ethereal harmonies (did I really just say ethereal?). They had great pop inspired hooks and...a violin! Pretty much any non traditional use of a violin piques my interest, and this was some cool stuff. Here's a picture of them. The two women on the left and the right are twin sisters. The one on the right plays the wicked fiddle I spoke of. You can check them out at this site, which has a few tunes. The best, or at least the most characteristic of the tunes are actually under the "videos" section. One of their great tunes is "He's Kissing Christian" from their strongest album, "Totally Crushed Out." The other videos are pretty good too. The first, "Old Timer," was directed by the auteur of music videos, Spike Jonze. I don't really watch music videos anymore, so I don't know if he's still working or what, but the video is very clever. The group is dressed in "Hotdog On a Stick" uniforms. HOS was this freaky mall based chain that served gross food delivered by depressed employees in really degrading uniforms. I rarely go to malls these days, and when I do, I generally leave in a panic, so I'm not sure if Hotdog on A Stick is still in business either.
It was most certainly anti-climactic to emerge from the woods on a cool Sunday morning and walk into a well-appointed campground bustling with car campers making breakfast over Coleman grills and disheveled children wrapped in Disney character blankets, quietly playing with IPads. In that moment of familiarity and habit I almost forgot what I had been doing for the past few days as I picked at the continental breakfast laid out by our instructor to welcome us back to civilization. I wanted a shower, a change of clothes and much more than a grocery store muffin (which I ate anyway). I wanted my foods: the nut butters and trendy high protein "superfoods" I am so used to and have come to expect. Three days before, I was skinning a garter snake, awkwardly and squeamishly removing its guts, cutting it into one bite-sized piece for each of my classmates and adding it as the main part of a stew made up of pond water, wild garlic, a handful of tadpoles, a slug, a cricket, multipl...
Comments