The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Leading the group in a rousing chorus of the Engineering Hymn.
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This weekend, I returned to Crazy Go Nuts University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada for the 25th reunion of what should have been my graduating class — the Applied Science (the university’s term for engineering) class of 1991, a.k.a. Science ’91. I took a little longer than I’d intended to, graduating with a computer science degree in 1994, but with a string of accomplishments, skills, and experiences that would’ve made heroic perma-students like Van Wilder or Animal House’s John “Bluto” Blutarsky green with envy.

Chief among the many skills that Crazy Go Nuts University engineering students have is the ability to get things done. While many other graduating classes were content to simply show up for homecoming, Science ’91 organized their own events, fired up the Facebook group to keep everyone up-to-date, made our own banner for the parade, and had caps and t-shirts made. The parade banner and t-shirt featured Spot, the Science ’91 mascot that I designed when the upper-year students gave us freshmen the onerous duty of repainting the engineering pub one hungover Sunday morning (we repainted the pub, and improved the paint job with a huge mural featuring Spot).

Here’s the artwork that I made for the t-shirt and parade banner, prior to my erasing the penciling:

Spot, the Science ’91 mascot.
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We got the crowd going at the Saturday morning pep rally, and with our fantastic banner, exuberant spirit, and the assistance of the accordion, got a feature interview on local news:

Getting interviewed by CKWS.
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Here’s the video of the interview. You can see Anitra in it, too, which makes this her first Canadian television appearance!

With the pep rally done, we made our march to the game and had a grand old time:

Photo by Anitra Pavka.
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I had a grand old time at homecoming, and as I’ve said before: it’s not the buildings and campus that make a school (although we’ve got nice ones), but the people, relationships, and experiences. The class of Science ’91 is a collection of amazing, wonderful folks, and I’m proud and pleased to know them and to have the count me among their number. My thanks to my classmates, and especially the organizers, for putting together a fantastic homecoming weekend!

When Hurricane Matthew rolled through and over Jacksonville, Florida, rocker Lane Pittman didn’t evacuate like a lightweight or cower in a boarded-up house. He did the most American rock and roll thing you can do — put on some swim trunks and Slayer, break out Old Glory, headbang defiantly against the wind, and dedicate the whole thing to Emma Watson on Facebook:

For those of you who don’t know the background song, it’s Raining Blood by Slayer:

Pittman made Florida news last summer when he was arrested for shredding the Star-Bangled Banner too well:

Lane Pittman is the embodiment of Florida rock and roll. Sir, I salute you with a gator steak on a flaming sword!

You’re asking for a lot there, sign.

Found via @HouseOfSpam. Click to see the source.

“Looks like I picked the wrong election to quit sniffing glue!”

And on the off chance you don’t get the reference…

Last Week Tonight host John Oliver and Brett Lamb’s illustration.

The two reasons are:

1. It does a very good job of pointing out the differences between the scandals of Hilary Clinton (some of what she’s done should concern you) and Donald Trump (a lot of what’s he’s done should have you deeply worried that he’s this close to the presidency, and that’s just the stuff we know about right now), and
2. It features a pukey illustration describing the 2016 election that was illustrated by my friend, Toronto-based artist Brett Lamb. Nicely done, Brett!

Enjoy the video:

Last week, the first day of fall took place, which means the start of both cooler weather and the annual migration to Accordion State, especially by the older folks. I’ll see you guys at the pool!

I came back home to my our air conditioner had broken down while we were away. For this to happen in Toronto on the first day of fall isn’t a problem. In Tampa, it’s a whole ‘nother matter…

Thanks to Andy Walker for the find!