Fall Nostalgia

As the weather has been colder this week – both colder than usual for the time of year and colder in general signaling of the approach of Autumn – I’ve been in a very nostalgic state of mind.

I’m probably being aided and abetted in this trip with the start of 1st Grade for Raelyn and the movement of Owen into his new pre-school classroom, but whatever the reason, I’m enjoying the ride.

This morning while letting my mind wander over a cup of coffee and some Twitter-trolling I had a thought about the advertising agency, Jacobson Rost of Sheboygan, WI, where I interned one Summer twelve years ago.

I though about the agency’s proximity to Lake Michigan, the mild Wisconsin Summer and the cool breeze that blew in the early mornings when I went in.
I thought about my parents house with the detached garage and all the work they put in to renovating the interior (which ended up pretty stunning, if you’re reading this, Mom).
I thought about opening up a new browser tab and grabbing some Google street view pics to regale the readers of this blog.

Hence, pictures!

The Church @ Jacobson Rost
The Church @ Jacobson Rost
The main entrance to Jacobson Rost
The main entrance to Jacobson Rost
This is the back side of the main Jacobson Rost house.
This is the back side of the main Jacobson Rost house.


View Larger Map

In the above map, go West and then South to see the stills I captured.

My folks house in Sheboygan.
My folks house in Sheboygan.
Kinda skinny from the front.
Kinda skinny from the front.


View Larger Map

In the above map, go North on 4th Street to see the stills I captured.

It’s not the best quality, but something is in the air and I felt the need to share.

I don’t miss the early mornings – I got to the agency @ 7 and left at 12:30 or 1 to go to my factory job – but I miss that Summer a little bit. Sure, I was apart from Jenn and that toilet seat factory sucked hard (10-hour days, 4 times a week), but you can’t beat spending time by the Great Lakes in the Summertime. Plus, beer in Wisconsin was cheaper and more readily available than bottle water. 😉

I won’t make a cheese joke because it’s too easy, but the beer one wrote itself. Sorry.

Here’s hoping your happy thoughts are energized by the briskness of the air and the shining of the sun.

Oh, and FOOTBALL tomorrow!

Have a great weekend!

Velocity Girl

The quality of the embed video below sucks, but you’ll get the idea of the shoegaze-turned-indie-pop that jangled into my mind this morning that I had to tweet about:

Part of the nostalgia is fueled by the onset of Fall and football season and my (fading) memories of my freshman orientation – back in Summer, 1994 – and my own stint as an Orientation Leader two years later during the “Olympic Summer” of 1996.

The first concert I saw in Athens was actually on campus at UGA while I was there for my Freshman orientation. I saw Velocity Girl at Legion Field for $3.00, I think. I’m sure I have a ticket stub somewhere.

Doing a little sleuthing online, it looks to have been the end of July, since the band performed on 99x on the 29th.

I’m just swimming in nostalgia today but this band is tied to so many good memories for me: summer time, jangly (if slightly fuzzy) guitars and being on campus.

I was very much in to Matthew Sweet at the time (still am) so I’m glad I had a moment of remembrance today.

For those that want to similarly belabor a point and jump down the memory hole with me can check out SubPop’s original site for Velocity Girl.

In related news, you should really make a genius playlist with some Power Pop as the seed song. Good use of technology and your own two ears.

Enjoy!

The Sega Dreamcast Turns 9

It struck this morning – after being awoken at 3:37 AM by a crying child, and this on a night when we’d stayed up late painting a room Aubergine – that it was 9/9, September Ninth.

Stranger still, through my sleepy haze I recalled this as being the ninth anniversary of the launch of the Sega Dreamcast on 9.9.99, or so the ads said (YouTube user lostnthefuture has a great collection of the spots, like this one).

I can clearly recall renting a Dreamcast from Blockbuster and taking it to my in-laws house. Jenn and I were recently married (you’ll recall my ninth anniversary recap post) and it seemed like a fun way to spend the day – playing video games instead of looking for gainful employment. Besides, those were the days before the children and the home and the kids.

The salad days.

That day, though, was the Sonic day as we played a ton of Sonic Adventure and a good deal of NFL 2k. Randy Moss was a golden god in that game. Makes we want to play actually.

Not long after that day my in-laws purchased a Dreamcast which I believe they still own. It used to sit in their bedroom on an overturned metal bin, implemented as a makeshift heatsink. Good times.

Anyhow, since the Dreamcast was billed as “It’s Thinking” I figured I’d post briefly about my thoughts, just thinking out loud, about the ninth anniversary of 9.9.99.

Seems I’m not the only one:

RetroJunk
Kotaku

For the whole sordid history of the ill-fated but still very cool system, check out parts one and two of the G4 show Icon on the subject.

And remember: It’s Thinking!