Saturday

Clean and Jerk: worked up to 242 for 3 singles (tweaked the absolute shit out of my neck on the last one.)

Log Press: 3x5 at 163

Single Arm Row: up to 120s x 15
w/
Blue Band Good Mornings: 2x15

TRX Inverted Row: 2x15
w/
Band Tricep Push Downs: 2x25

Tomorrow is one of my favorite days of the year.  This is the day that I get to go to a Packer game with the man, the myth, the legend, THE Craig Dequaine.  The man was half the equation in making me so you know he's bad ass.  Every year for Christmas his gift is that him and I go to a game of his choosing on me.  The first Packer game I ever went to was with him.  September 1992, Don "The Majik Man" Majkowski gets his ankle blown the fuck up and who comes in?  That's right, Brett "I'll Send You Some Dick Pics" Favre.  He throws the game winning touchdown to Kitrick Taylor, this former fat kid says, "Whoo Hoo!  Heck yes!" and the rest is history. 

Song of the Day:

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." -George Herbert

Tuesday

Squat: 455x1; 500x1; 525x1

Pause Squat: 315x5x2

Speed Sumo Deadlift: six singles @ 284

Reverse Hyper: 2x10
w/
Glute Ham Hyper: 2x10

TRX Fallouts: 3x10

I was a little disappointed in my squat today.  I was told by my spotter that I was a little high on my heavier singles.  This isn't a mobility issue, or even a strength issue.  I'm just not comfortable and I don't trust myself all the way down.  To that end I decided to cut out the reverse band squats and went with pause squats.  With the pause squats I took about 60% of my 1RM and made sure I was deeper than parallel and paused at the bottom for about 1-2 seconds on each rep.  Hopefully this will make me stronger coming out of the hole and more comfortable getting into it.

Song of the Day:

"There are no shortcuts to any places worth going." -Beverly Sills

What's the Count Boys?

What an awesome weekend.  I don't think it could have gone much better.  Riot Fest 2010 rocked.  Thursday Lance, Eric, Dave, and I went to Red Oktoberfest at the Metro.  All the bands that played were kick ass and played great sets.  Brendan Kelly, the bassist and vocalist of the Lawrence Arms, started with a solo acoustic set.  Vultures United, The Brokedowns, The Copyrights, The Cobra Skulls followed with Propagandhi headlining.  All of these bands kick ass and I would highly recommend them.  Previously to this weekend I was never really into metal or hardcore but Propagandhi has changed that forever.

Friday we went to the show at the Congress theater.  The venue was really cool.  Spacious, lots of bars, and a trough for a urinal.  The acoustics however suck.  Despite that it was still a kick ass show.  The highlight of the night was by far The Lawrence Arms set.  They are definitely one of the top five bands in punk right now.  Most of their songs are about living life, taking shit as it comes, and getting messed up with your friends.  Very fitting for this weekend.

Saturday was Lance's birthday party.  Got to see his parents, Doug and Bonnie, and I drank a butt load of Russian Death Train AKA Riot Punch AKA Black Out Juice AKA Dat Purple Stuff Dat Mess You Up.  A lot of people ended up not being able to make it, which is regrettable, but the show went on nicely without them.  My favorite part of the night was when Lance was opening his presents from his parents.  Mrs. Barilow was watching and being active in it while Mr. Barilow was in the kitchen preparing the snacks and then eating the snacks.  Awesome. 

This weekend was probably the most fun punk rock weekend I've ever had.  I was not however the most punk punk rock weekend.  That would be the time Lance, Eric, and I went to a Loved Ones show, walked to Dairy Queen, ate Blizzards, and then went swimming at Lance's house because it was a million degrees that day.  So punk.

I managed to make it to the gym today and actually had a really good session.  My focus and intensity were on point.  I think it was because it was just me and there were no distractions.  Anyways here's what I did.

Power Clean and Jerk: 2x3 @ 200

Log Press: worked up to 170x6

Single Arm Row: 120x15

Shrugs: 3x15
w/
TRX Inverted Rows: 3x15

Bam.  Awesome weekend comes to a close.

Song of the Day:

"When you pack on mass you sacrifice flexibility, Charlie.  That's a fact." -Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Riot Fest Countdown

Bench: 245x2; 255x2; 265x2; 275x1

Dead Bench: 225x1x2; 275x1

I set the bar on the pins about 3 inches off my chest.  This is where I usually fail on a bench press.  I then drove the bar up to lockout.  Doing this erases any benefit that I would get from the stretch-shortening cycle.  I'm going to keep these in for a few weeks and see how my actual bench progresses.

Neutral Grip Chins: 3x8
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DB Bench: 3x15

Reverse Grip Pull Down: 3x15
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Rope Tricep Push Down: 3x12

Cable Scarecrows: 3x12
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Fat Bar Curl: 3x8

Tonight is the first night of two that Lance, Eric, Dave, and I will be attending Riot Fest.  Tonight is Red Oktoberfest with performances by bands on the Red Scare Label.  Propagandhi will be headlining.  It is going to be fucking awesome.  Much Riot Punch will be consumed.  I'm going to be going to the local skid row liquor store and picking up four bottles of Night Train and three or so jugs of Purple Drink.  Fuck Yes.

Song of the Day:

“It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or the fourteenth." -George F. Burns

Tuesday

Squat: worked up to 475x2

Reverse Band Squat: 525x2; 585x2

Deadlift: 535x1

45` Back Extension: 3x10
w/
Glute Ham Hypers: 3x10

TRX Fallouts: 3x10

Put some butter and/or jam on me because I was toast after this one.  It felt good though.  Nothing felt overly heavy.  My back did get a little twinge in the lower left side on deadlifts.  Nothing to be concerned about, but I stayed conservative and shut it down at 535.

Tomorrow I'm going down to Illinois for the weekend.  Thursday and Friday night Lance, Eric, our friend Dave, and I are going to some concerts in the city and Saturday is Lance and Al's birthday bash in Mundelein.  Much Riot Punch is going to be consumed.  This one may get sloppy.

Song of the Day:

“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying." -The Bible 

Sure Bible, whatever you say (sarcasm).

I'm On a Night Train!

Oh, Night Train. We've a long history you and I. I was first introduced to Night Train Express back in my sophomore year of college. I believe Lance saw it in the liquor store and bought it because of the Guns 'N' Roses song of the same name. The first few bottles all had dust on them because apparently the shit doesn't fly off the shelves. Night Train Express is produced and bottled by E&J Gallo. They try to disguise this fact by saying that it is produced by Night Train Limited. Why on earth would they not want to proudly proclaim godsend of a drink? I don't know.

Anyways, Night Train is popular among bums, transients, and dumb college kids alike due to it being cheap ($3.69 per bottle) and full of booze (17.5% alcohol per volume). This is a dangerous combo. So dangerous that some community groups in cities along the west coast have tried to get it pulled from the shelves in certain "Alcohol Impact Areas".

"Community groups in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland have urged makers of fortified wines such as Wild Irish Rose and E & J Gallo's Thunderbird and Night Train brands to pull their products from the shelves of liquor retailers in skid row areas. In Nashville, Tennessee, one liquor store owner told Nashville Business Journal reporter Julie Hinds that police warned him to stop selling his biggest selling product, Wild Irish Rose, because it encouraged homeless people to linger in the area."

—Janice Jorgensen, Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands: Consumable Products (1993), p. 492.

The problem of bum wines goes back to Prohibition and the Great Depression. Since fortified wines were still easy to procure they became a staple of skid-row drunks. In fact, the term wino came into use during these times to describe people who turned to cheap fortified wines to drown their sorrows.

Poor little guy never stood a chance with a mean wine like that.


According to bumwine.com Ernest and his brothers Julio and Joe wanted to corner the young wine market by selling Night Train and Thunderbird it in the ghettos. They even had radio ads that were very clearly marketed to "those people." "What's the word? / Thunderbird / How's it sold? / Good and cold / What's the jive? / Bird's alive / What's the price? / Thirty twice." They aren't even trying to hide it. They know exactly who they want to get hooked it.

Here is a list of highlights from our Night Train binges in college:

• Eric once bonged an entire bottle and proceeded to break his arm later in the night. He had no recollection the next day.
• I once drank two bottles and played air drums for three hours at a Motley Crue concert. On the way to the concert I threatened to kill someone who said the N-word.
• One time Lance wasn't sure if he was going to drink one night due to a lack of funds. He scrounged the exact change for one bottle of Night Train. Fate my friends.
• After drinking a bottle of Night Train John Shelley laid in a bed for four hours that had been peed on by a female acquaintance because he was in no condition to deal with the situation.
• During a night of Night Train consumption Lance became extremely emotional for no reason crying, "I'm crying and I'm not even sad!"  Edit: That same night Lance tried to push Timmy down a flight of stairs.
• Everything that happened last night.

I'm not going to lie, this list is kind of hard to put together due to the fact that I rarely remember much of the previous night when I drink Night Train. A fitting way to end this post is with a quote from Lance that perfectly sums up what Night Train is all about; "That shit'll get in your veins and fuck up your life."

Sources:
http://www.bumwine.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-end_fortified_wine

http://www.cracked.com/article_16314_nectar-broke-worlds-5-worst-ways-get-drunk.html

1 Part Vodka + 1 Part Night Train + 1 Part Grape Drink = Riot Punch

Homecoming weekend 2010.  Eric, Lance, and I got to Carroll at about noon on Saturday and wasted no time setting up shop.  We had two bottles of vodka, two bottles of Night Train wine, and two gallons of Grape Drink.  I started with a vodka grape drink, which is just grape flavored sugar water, or a poor man's Kool-Aid.  It didn't take too long for us to come up with the eventual riot punch concoction.  Needless to say we were fucked up in no time.  Shit, I didn't even make an attempt to go into the game.  To give you an example of how messed up we were towards the end of the night Eric just shut down trying to climb a fence.  After he got to the other side he tried to climb a small hill.  Al describes it like a child first learning to walk.  He fell yelling, "Oops!  Hit a slick spot!"  To get to his feet he basically walked his hands to his feet and pushed his ass in the air.  There was also some karaoke I kind of remember.  And some other stuff. 

It was a great day, I got to see some people I don't see too often, I drank a shitload of booze and I'm in one piece.  That's about all I could ask for.  Upcoming is going to be an article on Night Train.  Better stay off the tracks.

Song of the Day:

"Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy." -Henry Felding