Home Means Nevada, part 4.

So, Reno is not exactly the class capital of the world, but I think there are certain aspects of this town that really exemplify the city's stranger aspects. On the surface, Bizarre Guitar seems like it should probably just be your typical if mildly seedy independent guitar/drum type of music store. You know, it's in kind of a grungy building in a kind of grungy area and the employees all seem a little sketchy and like they probably all have criminal records. But still, nothing too special. But there's more! I'm bummed that their website (www.bizarreguitar.com) doesn't reflect the more interesting aspect of their business, but this here video does. The first bit is the ad they air in Reno, and is really the main bit that's worth watching.

I don't know if I'm the only person who finds this incredibly amusing, but in addition to selling all their guitars and whatnot, they also have a large selection of guns. I guess judging by the owner's appearance, this shouldn't be all that surprising. Nonetheless, I think a store dealing in guitars and guns is a pretty distinctly 'Reno' thing. Pretty cool, huh?

Home Means Nevada, part 3.

So, my beloved state of Nevada is experiencing a pretty intense financial crisis, like pretty much everyone these days. However, some brilliant folks are thinking up some new ways to increase revenue. I'm too lazy to summarize, so just read this. Personally, I think taxing prostitution is a pretty sweet idea. Our lipless, psychotic governor disagrees. Hell, he doesn't even think prostitution should be legal. Eh. What does he know.

On a sort of unrelated note, Vince the ShamWow/SlapChop guy, has been arrested for felony battery after an altercation with a prostitute in his ritzy hotel. The Smoking Gun is more eloquent than I am. Check out his mugshot! He looks like a white, very un-sexy Benicio del Toro.

This was almost as good as the biker brawl in the Sydney airport last week.

Good news, everyone!

I accepted to the musicology program at the University of Texas! Although I am wary of moving to Texas, I don't think Austin actually qualifies as a part of Texas. I told my musicology professor yesterday and I think he was even more excited than I am. Though I still have yet to hear from Duke or the University of Michigan, Louis says that he would pick UT over either of them. He also said that UT is pretty good about giving TA positions, so hopefully I can snag me one o' them. They want my response by mid-March which seems ridiculous, but I have until mid-April if I take that long to decide. My concern is that doesn't really give me time to go check out the school (especially because I already have plans to go to Olympia for spring break) so I might end up going to a school I've never a seen in a town I've never been to in a state I've never been to.

I had not really expected to get into UT because not only was I not certain that they had received my reference letters and GRE scores, but I really threw my personal statement together and sent in my supplemental materials after the deadline. Nevertheless, they still accepted me, and I am quite delighted.

Baby skull update:
I talked to my sister who is in med school here and she tells me that the creepy baby skull and the collection of forceps are now in the anatomy lab. I'm glad they found a new home, even if I no longer get to see them every day when I come to work.

Missing: baby skull

I work in a medical library. There is a large display case outside out front doors which, in addition to displaying a few books from our collection, up until recently contained a large variety of forceps, some dating back some time. However, a noticed a few shifts ago that they had all disappeared! Furthermore, there was this creepy baby skull included as part of the display, and it is now gone as well. I really thought the baby skull did a lot for the display. It produced, for me anyway, mental images of having one of the large pairs of tongs from the display shoved up a woman's vag and yanking a baby out by its head. If that's not an entertaining mental image, I don't know what it. I'm sad and distraught that now when I come to work I am no longer greeted by a tiny yellowish-gray
skull and a collection of metal instruments that, while funny to picture having them shoved into someone else's body, can just stay the hell out of mine. I feel so alone.

Home Means Nevada, part 2.

My time in Reno is gradually drawing to a close. Presumably. As my departure draws nearer, I'm getting more and more anxious about leaving and noticing things that make Reno really special to me. Who knew that I could be scared of missing Reno?

Why is it that Nevada is the only place, that I'm aware of, where you can get all-you-can-eat sushi? What's more, in Reno we've got to have at least 10 or 15 places to get it. I don't even like sushi, but I like the idea of all-you-can-eat sushi. It's like taking a really classy food and making it fit into the Reno idiom of trash and vice and gluttony.

In Nevada, you can buy hard liquor at the supermarket. It never occurred to me that you couldn't do this in other places.

We have an intersection of streets called Colbert Drive and Patriot Boulevard.

Not only do we have brothels just outside of town, some of them have tours!

I don't want to move away from all this sin. What if I accidentally move to North Carolina or Texas? Shit guys, this is scary!

wtf

I was listening to my Black Flag station on Pandora today and it played an Ashlee Simpson song. Perhaps Pandora thinks that I listen to Black Flag for ironic purposes and therefore could appreciate Ashlee Simpson for the same reasons. Wrong! I listen to Black Flag because of my giant boner for Henry Rollins. Duh!