Perhaps both...on V-Day, the weather was windy, but mostly agreeable. I started around 1pm in the afternoon, on Fry Street and soon crossed into UNT campus territory. I think classes were in session because there were not too many people around, but enough people to make it worthwhile. I passed by the student union building and went up to the side of the music building...I think. I'm not all too familiar with the campus layout.

On my way back past the student union, I encountered a photojournalism major named Aaron, who wanted to photograph me. I think it was for a project, but it might have been for an article in the school paper. I'm not sure. He wrote down my name and contact, and I gave him a flyer to the Banter show next friday. Then I offered him one of my art buttons I keep on my guitar strap, and he declined saying he probably wouldn't wear it. Boo hoo..but I guess I appreciate the honesty. Then as I passed by the art building, I crossed paths with this girl talking on a cell phone, who had this alterna-Paris Hilton thing going on; she even said, "Thats hott" as I cut right in front of her. Kinda funny.

Then I went over to the shopping area, just west of I-35 on 288, where there is the Kinkos, Chilis, Schlotsky's, Albertsons, etc. I had not been over there yet since I started making appearances around town. I passed by the Little Kid's Gym, and all these little kids looked out the window and stopped what they were doing to watch as I frolicked past. Past Kinkos, Albertsons, and all those vet and med clinics and stuff and made my way back through the parking lot over to Red Peppers and Schlotsky's. I was about to pass by Schlotsky's when one of the employees came out. He had recognized me from the day before (when I was getting a sandwich as an ordinary person), and asked me if I was in the newspaper. I said, "I don't know, am I?" We went inside and sure enough, on the third page in The Denton Time, there was a little blurb about my art show/closing at Banter:



What a neat surprise! I usually send out press releases for my shows; sometimes they are effective, sometimes they are not. It's pretty much hit ot miss. If I hadn't stopped by the Schlotsky's, I probably would have not found out about this little write-up, which also mentions Stubberfoam.

Anyways, the Schlotskys' guy was Chris, and coincidentally he was a lefty, too. So I let him jam a little bit on my guitar, but then he had to go make a sandwich, and so I left. I then passed by Chili's and then a gas station, when I smelled fratulence; there was this preppy dude wearing a turquiose polo shirt pumping gas into his truck. I could tell by the look on his face (and his buddy sitting in the passenger side) that they probably were not Stubberfoam fanbase material. I heard some words, but thought it was best to ignore and carry on. When I was about 30 feet past the guy, I looked back. The guy was still pumping gas, still staring at me. He yelled (because it was really noisy next to the highway and all), "Are you tripping on acid?" So I said "Sure!". Then he leaned in close to his truck, and I assume he was telling his friend my reply. And I continued on my merry way...

After I left that shopping strip, I hit up the Golden Triangle Mall; the fourth time I have had a successful Stubberfoam stint at this location. I always anticipate mall security escorting me out of the building, but so far, so good. This one guy named CJ, who worked at one of the food places in the mall by the Barnes & Noble, gave me a high-five with $10 in his hand. He said he had been working in the mall for three years and that it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. I offered him one of my buttons, and he enthusiastically accepted a thumbnut. Before I left the mall, I hung out with some kids, possibly high school types; one of these girls asked if I had lost a bet or something. Haha. Just like that guy at Wal-Mart from a few days prior! I was giving them some flyers to my Banter show, when a car of ghettotastic dudes drove by. One guy yelled out the window, "Hey it's Kurt Cobain!". Some college-seeming girls walked by and asked me what I was on. After that, I headed over to the Best Buy shopping area.

I started outside of Sports Authority and frolicked to Kroger and back, up to Best Buy. I hopped up on one of those 4 ft tall cement pillars in front of the doors, that I guess are in place so no one tries to drive a car through the glass doors and jack a bunch of electronics. It was a balancing act on that pillar, barely enough room for both of my feet. But it was kind of fun. It was like a very tiny stage.

Things were going great until one of those archetypal middle-management assholes came out of Best Buy (with a couple of other less-intimidating coworkers) and he told me to leave the premises. I thought about doing a stage dive into his face, but I hopped on down and said "Awe you don't like it?" And he said "It's alright", but the other Best Buy guys obviously loved my act. They were smiling and giving me thumbs up behind the manager's back. The manager dude said maybe I should give TJ Maxx a try. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be insulting or not, but I said in a rather sarcastic tone, "Maybe I will...or maybe I will try Michael's. I need some bath care products anyways...not that they specialize in bath care products, but that won't stop me from checking to see if they do!" My manner of speech was deliberately awkward and nonsensical. I figure since most people are probably going to think I'm on drugs, I definitely want to exploit that misperception.

At the time of the Best Buy incident, I had been on the streets playing with vigorous enthusiasm for about three and a half hours, so I decided to call it a day. Looking back on the days antics, I thought it was funny how some people tried to rationalize my behavior in the context of Valentine's Day...surely I must have been eating Sweethearts laced with LSD...

Well, it appears as if February 9th is officially Soundhog's Day; the first day of the new year with weather favorable enough for Stubberfoam to brave the streets. Yesterday, saturday afternoon, I started off on the town square:



I circled the block a couple of times, and when I passed in front of Jupiter House, there was a group of late teens/early twenty-something kids at a table. Always mixed reactions to Stubberfoam; some smiled, some were definitely confused, but this one guy seemed quite irritated and just stared me down. So I stopped in my tracks close by, and played directly to him. Some people seem to think that acting bothered by my antics or ignoring me will make me stop playing, but I like to give those kind of people an extra-special dose of obnoxious weirdness; they need it the most.

I left the square, and hit up the shopping complex on 288 near the mall; I started out in front of the Kroger, passing by Hollywood Video, PetSmart, and Office Depot on my way to Wal-mart. Outside of Wal-mart in the outdoor/gardening area, some redneck-ish employee asked what I was doing, and also asked if had I lost a bet or something. I tried to explain, and he seemed more receptive than most of his ilk. Then he had to help a customer, and so I was free to flee.

From Wal-Mart I went behind the RaceTrac and down the drive-thru of Chic-Fil-A, perhaps bringing something a little unusual to their routine work shift. From Chic-Fil-A I crossed 288 and traveled by Best Buy, Michaels, Old Navy, etc, back to Kroger. As I was passing by Best Buy, two middle-aged women came out and were on path that would eventually intercept mine. As I got closer, one woman looked scared, and even hid her purse under her denim jacket. I said, "Are you seriously hiding your purse from me?" She asked if I was on acid. And so I explained to her and her friend what I was doing. Then she asked for my full birth date. Maybe trying to rationalize my behavior astrologically, I don't know.

Outside of Old Navy, some young redneck douche, an archetype of masculinity, drove by and yelled out something. The only word I understood was crack; his mouth was full of, not male genitals as you might assume, but chewing tobacco. I think he was asking if I was on crack. I yelled back, "What?", and he just said "Crack?". I said "Oh, no thanks, I don't do drugs." Certainly it was an encounter with someone of equal wit.....yeah right. He drove off, chuckling with the rest of his douchebag buddies, eventually parking in front of the Fuddruckers....what a surprise. After that I ended up back in front of the Kroger, and called it a day.

Today, sunday afternoon, I hit up the Kroger on University Dr, and that whole strip mall area; I went by the costume shop, Sally's Beauty Supply Ace hardware, and Denton Thrift. Parked in front of Sally's was a red pseudo-sports car with a few kids and some macho looking dude in the back seat. There was a boy in there, probably about 4 or 5, who said my guitar was cool and asked where I got it. I told him a friend of mine gave it to me and then I put some of my artwork. Then he asked if he could play it. I asked if he was left-handed, which is usually a deterrent to the very few who have asked to play my guitar before. He said he was, and I thought okay, that didn't work. Damn. So instead of saying yes or no, I continued on my adventure. A few minutes later as I passed by the front of Kroger again, that red car drove by and there was many voices coming from the car. The driver, a female who was probably getting hair dye in Sally's seemed to be saying something encouraging, but the kid who had been all about Stubberfoam previously, was now chanting, "You stink!" with one of the other kids. And I'm sure the macho douche in the back seat had nothing to do with that...

After that I crossed the street and began stubbing it up outside the Radio Shack, Quiznos, and Starbucks. Then I frolicked over to the McDonalds and played a little for some of the kids in the playscape arena. Kids in the 4-9 age group seem to love Stubberfoam, while the parents of these kids seem very apprehensive.

I went up past Pizza Patron, the Comic book store, and turned around at Roy's Laundromat. I made my way back to Kroger, passed by it and crossed University, going a bit past Compass Bank before calling it a day. As I made my return, I had another redneck encounter: some cowboy hat-wearing jerk yelled "Dumbass" as he drove by. Even though I do get the occasional negative response, most people seem amused and smile, or confused and looked incredibly concerned. And this is good because amusing the open-minded while confusing the uptight is my goal.


-photos by Haley B-

I've uploaded the recent Stubberfoam video to the Funny or Die site, so if you want to check it out there, here you go:



If you're on that site, and want to show some Stubberfoam a little love, vote on my video. It hasn't been on there for a full 24 hours, but already has 5 Die votes and only one Funny. Maybe the video isn't that great, or maybe these people are just super lame. I don't know...

I know Halloween was a couple of weeks ago, but I just now found the time to post a blog about it.
Here we go:

After making a Stubberfoam appearance on UNT campus, frolicking around the Denton square, and getting accosted by a 51-year-old homeless musician who told me to stay off of his street corner, I made a visit to the Golden Triangle Mall.



A magical event was taking place that evening, an event cleverly titled, "Mall-O-Ween". Many businesses in the mall were giving out candy to trick-or-treaters; I thought that if there was one night that I might be able to "stub it up" in the mall without being harassed by security, this might be the night.



Emma came along for support, and to take pictures. However, she accidentally left the digital camera at home, so we ended up buying a one-time use camera. Not ideal, but blogworthy nevertheless.



I wandered up and down the halls of the mall for a while, exciting kids while alarming their parents. I guess people thought Stubberfoam was some sort of costume, but it was only coincidental that I happened to be out doing this on a day when wearing a costume is expected.



I stood outside of stores like Hallmark, Victoria's Secret, Hot Topic, and Barnes & Noble. Random people were taking pictures of me, and taking pictures with me. An Asian guy with a poor grasp on English who was running a skin care kiosk, asked me to play some Korn. Now as much as I loved Korn Unplugged, I just don't think Stubberfoam is ready for that kind of artistic leap.



After much excitement, I left the mall through Barnes & Noble, with the help of my bodyguard seen below. He is kindly telling a young woman that I am unable to autograph her "inner ostrich"...still not quite sure what she meant by that.



There are a few more pics from Mall-O-Ween that didn't make it into this blog, but those are in a photo album on the Stubberfoam myspace page.

If you have yet to experience the audio/visual spectacle of Stubberfoam firsthand, I would like to mention that I am actually playing the guitar with my foam hand. How is that possible, you ask? Well, a lady never asks and gentlefoam never tells....

So I finally got around to scanning this. It's from the Neighbors section: published Thursday, August 23rd, 2007