A Crowded Shopping Center

So on a regular basis, I drive past this shopping center that's on a major road here in Louisville. It's not a big shopping center, and it's not in a great area of town (not a bad area, just not great either). Anyway, I often drive by this shopping center at 1-2 AM, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I've noticed that most nights after 10PM the parking lot of this shopping center begins to get very crowded. And once midnight hits, you can't find a parking spot...seriously. Between the hours of midnight and 4 AM this shopping center is pretty much a hub of activity. So what's in this shopping center that draws such a late night crowd? Is it a bar, a club...a strip club? Perhaps something a bit more shady? None of the above.

This shopping center is the home of none other than Bingo City!!

Now I had to do a bit of research on this place because I had no idea what was going on, or how a place like Bingo City can draw that kind of crowd after midnight. Well, I looked it up and discovered they have several sessions. They have weekday and weekend sessions at 2 PM, 4 PM and 7:30 PM. But they also have Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday sessions beginning at Midnight. Yes, they have midnight bingo!! Now, I don't imagine this place is unique. I'm sure there was a place like this somewhere in St. Louis, probably within a few miles of where I grew up...but I never saw it.

Now I'm not going to go into too much detail about the schedule of this place or what all they do because I don't know what all the terminology of professional Bingo. But I looked further and further into what seemed like a pretty small website, and found links to Bingo halls all around the city. I was floored by this. There were dozens of them. Again, I realized Bingo is a big time game amongst the geriatric population, but do they really get out their doors at midnight for an all-night Bingo orgy? I guess so. Anyway, here's the link to the site. If I ever have the patience and testicular fortitude perhaps I'll venture into this center of elderly bliss.

As a final note, I've mentioned the Angry Video Game Nerd on several occasions. Well, the creator of that series is seriously a comic genius, so I've attached a brief clip from his website that's fantastic.

Some More Thoughts

This is my one more update saying I'm going to do better at updating. We'll see, but I've just finished another round of schooling and that took up a lot of my free time over the past year so maybe things will be better. A couple of thoughts, and an update.

First off, even though Halloween season is over, I urge everyone who enjoys Halloween and horror movies to keep it going for a bit longer. I mean, until December, what do we really have to look forward to...Thanksgiving? It's an ok holiday, but I've never been a fan at all. It's a boring day in my family and has gotten even more boring since I moved to Louisville. I love spending time with my family, but sitting in the house all day with them and nothing else to do gets to be too much. And everyone else I know always has plans, so what's there for me to do. On the plus side, I can almost guarantee a StLouisville post that day because I'll have very little else to do. So I know I personally am going to celebrate Halloween until December. I just may watch a horror movie tonight.

In anticipation of a likely shitty winter, I've braced myself for an early start. Needless to say I've been pleasantly surprised with how things have turned out so far in November. Into the past week, I've still seen bees and mosquitos alive outside, and that's rare at this time of year. And it's still supposed to get into the 60's next week so things are looking up for the near future.

The Third Annual Krispy Kreme race has been postposed due to a scheduling conflict. I'm not sure if it will be postponed for a day or for 2 weeks, but it is guaranteed to happen very soon. I mean, it's supposed to be 61 and sunny on Saturday. The last two times this has been done, it's been like 30 degrees and windy. I hate the winter weather, but this is an event that just doesn't seem right unless the weather is horrendous.

And finally a major update. I intend to keep StLouisille online for a great long while, but I've also come up with a great idea for a new blog. It's going to be a weekly update (maybe sometime bi-weekly) with a very narrow focus. I'm actually going to go ahead and set up the site right now and put the thing in motion. The plan is to get 4-5 weeks ahead before I put it officially online around the first of the year, but I'm really looking forward to this one. I only had to wait until I was out of school because this was going to require a very small weekly investment on my part and I had no money (still don't but I should very soon). I'll post the link, as I said, right around the first of the year.

Going Too Far

I don't know how often I've mentioned them, but I know for a fact that my hatred of Nickelback has popped up several times in this blog, notably in my Pop Evil post and my stereotypical Facebook profiles. Well, I've just found a Facebook group that fits me perfectly. I have now become a "Fan" of "Not Listening to Nickelback." While I haven't explored this page on Facebook too much, I've seen some stuff I like. And the group has over 15,000 fans so I know I'm not alone. Now I have an outlet (besides this blog) to vent my anger and dislike of one of my passionate hatreds in life.

However, I did find a disturbing video on this Facebook page that I think needs to be mentioned, and it actually brings Nickelback up a level in my eyes, from incredibly shitty up to mostly shitty. The video is of the group performing at a metal festival or something (yes Nickelback performed at a metal festival that was headlined by Slipknot). They got 2 songs in and when singer Chad Kroeger tried to talk to the crowd, he got virtually no reaction. When he turned his back to get ready for the next song, someone pelted him in the head with a rock. Now I hate Nickelback, but that's just wrong. As far as I've read, they were thrown a lot of money to perform at this festival, so you really can't blame them for taking the payched and playing where they don't belong. And throwing rocks at people is going too far. No one deserves that treatment, no matter how shitty and untalented they are. Anyway, Kroeger's reaction was pretty good. He just says, "See ya," and walks off the stage. However, just before he gets out of sight, he gives the crowd the finger. Probably as good a reaction as one could have, and I found it amusing. Much better reaction than when Guns 'n Roses walked off the stage in St. Louis years ago. I think G'NR actually put something like "Screw you St. Louis" somewhere in one of their CD cases. Anyway, I've included the video because I thoroughly enjoyed Kroeger's reaction. Some fans really need to know when they are crossing the line and going too far. Idiots.

Who Doesn't Like Tacos?

I've always been a huge fan of our American version of Mexican food that can be found at fast food restaurants like Taco Bell. And while I will always enjoy Taco Bell, I can't claim that it is the best of the fast food "Tex-Mex" restaurants. Now I can't talk intelligently about all restaurants like this because my experience with them is limited. However, I do have to give mention to Taco Tico which, after several years of looking at it and driving by, I finally tried over the weekend.

I can't even begin to describe this experience, but I'll try. My order (for 2 people) consisted of an order of nachos and the #2, which consists of 2 tacos, a sancho, and a large drink (Dr. Pepper, of course). As I had never been to Taco Tico, I chose the Green Chili sauce instead of mild, medium, hot or volcano. I think this was all a good choice. The meat in the tacos, which is I'm sure of a low quality, still tasted fantastic and put Taco Bell's meat to shame. The tacos themselves were stellar, and the green chili sauce gave them a suitable kick. The sancho was also fantastic, and quite large as well. A sufficient meal would have been a sancho and 1 taco, but I finished both tacos and my sancho, and probably half the order of nachos. The nachos, most notably the queso, were beyond description. From the chips, to the meats, to the queso, these were just perfection in the form of a pile of nachos. Taco Tico, I salute you. If you have one near your house, check it out at your earliest convenience.

However, I have to give Taco Tico a silver medal, because the gold goes to Taco Tierra. I actually just found out that there are several locations throughout Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana, including those in Evansville and Princeton, IN. However my only experience is the one in Fairfield, IL. Since I can't describe this place well, all I'm going to say is this. If you're ever driving through Southern Illinois on Interstate 64, stop at exit 110, drive about 10 miles north toward Fairfield and stop in at the local Taco Tierra. I believe it's somewhere on Main Street...either way, it's easy to find. Order a sancho with mild sauce, and think of me as you enjoy the flavor overload you've just experienced.