Listen to Old Ft. Wayne by Xtramedium.

I’ve been on a Bloomington kick these past couple of days…ever since Tooth Soup was sleeping on my floor a couple nights ago, really. My friend Mitch plays drums for Tooth Soup, among being in several other bands and his solo stuff.  Every year I go to Bloomington, I stay at this house called Fort Wayne.  Dave Dean used to live there but then he moved out and Mitch started living there by himself.  Slowly, the house began filling up with a rotating cast of housemates.  My friends Nowah and Madeline Ava live there now, too.  I met a kid named Giz the first time I stayed there. He was from France.  Yesterday morning, he sent me a link to his band Xtramedium’s latest album.  It’s amazing.  There’s a song about Fort Wayne on it and it made me want to be back in Bloomington even more.

The last time I went to Bloomington, I took the bus out to 10th and the Bypass because Izzy told me it was the best place to score fireworks.  I bought a some bottlerockets, Roman candles, and UFO’s.  I had never lit fireworks before because I’ve always lived in downtown Houston where fireworks were always illegal.  I couldn’t find the bus back so I ended up walking all the way back to Fort Wayne.  On the way back, I didn’t have that much money because I had blown it all on fireworks but because I had to walk such a long way, I thought a six pack of Shiner Ruby Redbird would be a fair reward for my troubles.  I stopped by Big Red Liquors on the way and picked myself up a pack.  I needed the empty beer bottles to light some fireworks, anyway.  By the time I got back to the house, only me and this young pirogi maker named Jackson were home so we lit a few bottlerockets and Roman candles.  Mitch and Giz showed up soon afterward and we lit a few more bottlerockets and Roman candles.  Then I pulled out the UFOs.  I didn’t know what they exactly did but Izzy mentioned buying them every 4th of July.  I lit one and it swirled into the sky before its empty plastic shell landed on either the roof of the house or car next door. I felt really bad and me and Jackson were kind of freaking out.  Giz told us that maybe we shouldn’t be lighting fireworks so close to the other house.

“I didn’t know what would happen!” I told him in my defense.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t be lighting fireworks if you don’t know what they do,” he responded.

I thought this was hilarious because the stereotype is French people are really rude and here was this French punk telling me proper firework etiquette. I really miss that guy.