Salsa, Art Crash, Gothic Fashion, and SJG.

What a freaking bizarre awesome week. We'll start with the absurd and work our way upward.

I stopped being shocked by what I found on the shelves here in Germany a long time ago. Sure, it's kind of neat that Coca-Cola has a product unknown to Americans over here called Mezzo Mix and who isn't a little weirded out by the Germans setting up "asparagus booths" like a carnival has just come to town? On my last outing I did notice one thing that was awful. So I bought it and tried it and really wish that I hadn't.

That's tea, in case you weren't sure exactly what kind of product featured both chili flavor AND cherries. Cherry salsa tea. What they don't mention is the distinct TOMATO taste they've thrown in for authenticity's sake. It's just a revolting as you'd imagine. Let's move on with random news as it's all over the place this week.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/artcrashmay2006.htm

You should have already seen this. The only thing I'd want to add is that I'm a little uneasy about posting the Kathe Koja thing I mentioned right at the end. I think it has something to do with leaving my personal life (mostly) off of the site and it sort of addresses why the heck I started this exercise in too much free time in the first place. Fun for trivia, but still fundamentally emo to the core. But I WILL post it. Soon.

This week also marked confirmation that I may officially be a fashion designer now. I'm going to hold off on more details until the company's site is launched, but they've got a show this fall that will feature (if all goes well) 11 outfits that I drew up for them. I don't know if I should really type "them" since I'm actually part of the company now, but whatever. Goth Industrial Fashion Design. The hell. In more interesting news one of the dresses I designed requires welding a lot of scrapmetal together...I'm really excited to see that this project is really looking like it's going to happen. You never know when you sign onto something like this. Will it actually go someplace or is it just someone else's pipedream looking for followers? I'm happy to say it's the former. Dresses are being made, a fashion show at a club is already scheduled...and someone's going to be wearing an evening gown subtly themed like a squid. Hopefully. Cross your fingers. Just know that you'll be the first to know when their site is up, as it'll be something involving a good number of talented people, some of which I call my friends here in Berlin.

On a final note that'll really make the geeky out there (and my personal friends) really happy, Steve Jackson responded to my query letter positively and I'm sending him a prototype of my card game this Monday for testing and examination. To friends and family (and those kids I met at that party at Binghamton) who's been playtesting the game with me over the past two years: Thank you something terrible. We'll see how it turns out.

That's about all the news I'm going to throw at you right now.

-jared

Who seems to be having a rather productive, frutiful week, except for that damn Salsa flavored Tea.