Does Auda Serve?

I carry twenty-three great wounds all got in battle.


Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle.


I scatter, I burn my enemies' tents.


I take away their flocks and herds.


The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor!


Because I am a river to my people!

At The Drive In

The Drive In is where the swap meet happens on weekends, which is personally significant because it's where Gersh and I would go crate diving in search of old and/or awesome records. Recall that the mid-to-late 90's were the early years of vinyl revivalism and you could still get copies of basically any record for a dollar or less. We often bought boxes for ten bucks and divided them between ourselves sight unseen. I was really into The Who then. There was also a selection of the typical swap meet expendables including cheap leather working gloves, tools made of poor-quality steel and cholo shirts which usally had airbrushed Virgin Marys and Jesuses on the front.

Apparently the property is still owned by Metropolitan Theaters, though one has to wonder how long that will last with Goleta becoming the new Wild West of Santa Barbara County. The major buildings are still standing including the snack bar and projection house (both pictures housed in this set on my Flickr,. Apparently the airport shuttles idle their time there between shifts so the grounds are usually populated to some extent. The other drive in in Goleta is the SBA long term parking lot, so it's ALWAYS populated.

I left my car idling in the driveway of the theater to go fire off these quick pictures -- probably a bad idea positionally, considering I ran around the corner and out of view of the car. I don't know why I ran. I seemed like I had to avoid the workers there for some reason. Most likely I just didn't want to have to interact with anyone.

The First Of Three Candy Reviews

INT. MOVIE THEATER, NIGHT.

Richard and Dom wait in their SEATS for "The Darjeeling Limited" to begin. Richard reaches into his AWESOME BLACK BAG to produce THREE CANDY BARS of mysterious origin.

(dramatically)
RICH: I told you I was bringing snacks, so I have three candies to choose from. I brought them from Sweden.
(handing them one by one to Dom)
We have "Daim"...

(excited)
DOM: DAAAAAAAAAIM!

RICH: Exactly. We have "Plopp"...

(laughing)
DOM: Delicious.

RICH: Precisely. And we have "Japp"...

(slowly)
DOM: Oh. My. God.

RICH: Yeah that one's a personal favorite. Anyway, you choose which one we are to review.

(thoughtfully)
DOM: Let's go with "Daim."

RICH: Great. Looking at the wrapper now,
(gesturing to the label)
and judging by the explode-y bits coming from behind the lettering it seems like it's a toffee of some sort.

She picks up the candy bar and examines it more closely.

DOM: You're probably right. Looking at the wrapper now it also seems to be made by the good people at the KRAFT company.

(deflated)
RICH: What?

(pointing to the BOLD KRAFT LABEL on the back)
DOM: See.

RICH: So I brought a KRAFT-brand candy bar all the way from Sweden?

DOM: Apparently.

(dejectedly)
RICH: Jesus H. Christ on the cross...

DOM: Which are the candy bars with the toffee in them?

RICH: Heath Bars...

DOM: No, no, the other ones...

RICH: Skoal... no, that's the tobacco. Um... Scor!

DOM: Yeah! I bet it's like that.

She begins to rip open the wrapper and pauses.

DOM: Oh, are we saving the wrapper?

RICH: No, I shot them all already.

(continuing to open the wrapper)
DOM: Oh good.

They crack the bar into smaller segments for sharing and easy-eating. They both taste. The toffee is crisp and pleasantly caramel while the milk chocolate coating is gritty and unextraordinary. A serviceable candy bar.

RICH: So it's almost exactly like a Heath Bar.

DOM: Or a Skoal...

RICH: Skor...

DOM: Skor Bar...

RICH: They all taste the same.

DOM: Yeah. Yeah, they do.

RICH: Well this is a letdown.

DOM: It's good though!

RICH: It's pretty good. Heath Bars are my favorite.
(pausing)
Chocolate's a bit "bleh" though.

DOM: (nods)

(to himself)
RICH: The chocolate might have melted here or there because of transit though.

The LIGHTS in the theater begin to dim and the other MOVIEGOERS begin to hush each other and buckle down for viewing

DOM: Movie's starting.

END