Another Fresh Start
Posted on | October 24, 2008 | No Comments
So while I was switching hosts I decided to switch wordpress themes, and then I decided to cut a lot of old pointless blog posts and only archive stuff I wanted to keep/remember. So this is otherwise a fresh start. I am still not entirely sure what I want the focus of this website to be, a blog, a portfolio, a personal site, or just the unfocused combination of all three that it already sort of is. Whatever the case. Here it is. Enjoy.
A Cheap Holiday… etc.
Posted on | March 7, 2008 | 1 Comment
London. Ah, what to say about London? I was going to do a day to day type of blog, but when you’re drinking 12-15 pints a day.. they all kind of blend together.. so i’m going to go with a list format. If only half of these make sense to you, that’s about right. Ryan, John and I made the best of not the best trip we could have taken. Here’s what I remember
• A hazy first day walk across the Thames.
• Giggling at every mention of “Cockfosters” or “St. John’s Wood”
• The worst fish & chips ever.
• 7 AM McDonalds Breakfast
• Lots of Museums
• Television (Tele) + Trashcan (Bin) = the Telebin
• Sad drunk after only night 2.
• Awkward night without a private room
• That’s what happens when people stop being polite and start to get frank. Frank World.
• Nowhere to watch the Arsenal game
• Q: When do places open around here? A: Breakfast Time
• Camden Town with Ryan where we saw bootleg photos of Banksy pieces printed on canvas with “no photos please” sign.
• POACHED!
• Gene = John’s new nickname
• “Here’s the Rosetta Stone. Here it is. Oh no, here’s the Rosetta Stone… Here it is”
• Touristy Abbey Road photos.
• Snowcones
• Female conversion rate for Europe +2 points
• Amstel. Not Amstel Light. Amstel
• Getting lost then finding the pub we were looking for.
• I snapped and beat up John for trying to ruin my vacation photo
• Great Hold Steady show at KoKo with Dexter.
• Ryan kissed the British girl i thought was cute so I went to the dark side.
• “That’s why you make out with chicks and I call my Grandma, drunk” - Ben Goetting
• The Tube runs every 2 min, which is awesome
• Vacation ads everywhere because nobody wants to be in London.
• Our second hostel was self proclaimed “England’s premier party hostel!” and the interior decorating looked like a low budget 90’s sci-fi shows vision of the future where nobody lives past 30. Lots of purple and sheet metal.
• Babe-rhood
• New terms for drunk - “Lashed” Sad - “Gutted” and puking - “Chundering”
• “It got messy” “I had a bit of a nap” - Dexter
• Realizing you spent 100 dollars on drinks.
• Making London kids jealous I’ve seen Jawbreaker
• Ryan and I freaking those same kids out by moshing to Andrew WK song.
• Gene gets action in Parliament = Gene Parliament
• Ryan taking a massive dump in the Floor 2 showers in revenge for an asshole hostel worker. (we were on floor 5)
• Slovenian girls surprising me by singing “Happy Birthday” Karaoke style on my birthday was absolutely amazing.
• Kissing a very cute Slovenian girl in the basement of the hostel was also amazing
• Terrible Indian food, Chinese food, burgers, etc. etc etc.
• Great burger from Haché, great breakfast from a gay restaurant that we didn’t realize was gay at first but weren’t about to leave.
• Realizing Europeans have the worst music taste, it’s all bad dance music and hits you haven’t heard in years. The whole bar freaked out for “Cotton Eye Joe” and that Chumbawumba song
• “I’m doing this for YOU. BEN. FOR YOU!”
• Ryan yelling at Brits at 4AM “Please to being quiet now” which angered them and escalated into “Suck Cromwell’s dick” which lead to threats and “Arsenal’s fags” pushing them over the edge. Hysterical laughter turned to fear pretty quick.
• Seeing how much we could pile on Gene’s face to stop him from snoring = more hysterical laughter. Thinking we might have smothered him = more fear.
• Cinemas = bagged popcorn, warm soda, and screens the size of a home entertainment center. for $30 dollars.
• Couldn’t play poker because of the dress code “No white sport trainers”
• “The One Burger” is not just a clever name
• RYMAN! The Stationer!
• Fun rooftop antics = amazing. Dropping new Arsenal scarf in someone’s puke = not amazing.
• Sick and totally over London on Ryan’s birthday.
• “I blew all over this mattress. Stick it up your Bumwaz!” written in sharpie on my mattress.
• Finding out my grandpa was in brain surgery =(
• A long long trip home.
That about sums it up.
And links to our photos:
Ryan’s Photo Set
My Photo Set
The Night Marchers - See You In Magic
Posted on | February 7, 2008 | No Comments
Final cover for The Night Marchers
The perfect night
Posted on | February 3, 2008 | No Comments
If i said “Cometbus” and you didn’t know what I was talking about immediately, you probably wouldn’t fully understand the amazing night I had last night. I’m sitting there waiting in line for the bathroom at a somewhat secret, unannounced until yesterday Pinhead Gunpowder show in Long Beach, mere blocks away from the former site of the PCH club. In a venue about the size the PCH was. So, I’m standing in line for the bathroom talking to a girl and there’s a lightbulb in the wall and i put my hand near it and it starts flickering, she tries and nothing happens, I go again and it flickers. We laugh and I turn to Aaron Cometbus who is waiting behind me in line and I say “you gotta try.” He dismisses the invitation and says “I don’t want to ruin the magic.”
I’m pretty sure the only way he could have ruined the magic for me tonight was by announcing that he was not going to play drums and Pinhead Gunpowder wasn’t going to play a show I was right up front for in a room with no more than 200 people. But they played, and hearing Mahogany, Life During Wartime, Losers Of The Year, Train Station and so many others played live with Billie Joe Armstrong a mere 6 or 7 feet away could only be described as magical. I danced, I sang along until my voice was horse, I bruised a rib, and I had the best night at a show in … I can’t even remember since when. Tonight crushed my belief that I could no longer have fun at a show. It brought back every feeling of being 15 and seeing Supernova, or the Toy Dolls, or Jawbreaker. A good punk rock show makes you feel like you can do anything. All the bands were great, the people were awesome. I chatted with all kinds of random people, I hung out, I felt a good vibe. It was the complete opposite of almost everything I feel at your average show, or even night out in Hollywood. I think I’m going to go to the Troubadour show they are playing tomorrow but there’s no way it could live up to being eye level with Billie Joe Armstrong as he sang some of my favorite songs of my youth, right up front, screaming my heart out. At the end of the night I got home and washed of the smell of sweat, smoke, and beer; but there was no way you could wipe this smile of my face not even with a bat.
Photo Restoration
Posted on | January 10, 2008 | No Comments
Here’s a little photo restoration I did for my boss, an old photo of his mom and aunts.
All Hallows Eve
Posted on | October 30, 2007 | 2 Comments
A lot of my favorite things are negative. I like books about outsiders and weirdos, comics about guys who never find love, standup comedians like Bill Hicks, and songs about broken hearts. I’ve been told I hate everything. I’ve been called a grouch, an old man, negative, pessimistic, mean, and everything in between for various things I’ve blogged, written, or talked about. I guess my problem is I enjoy talking about what I don’t like more than I enjoy talking about what I do. Wait. while i’m on the subject… You know what I hate? . . .
Read more
Legit
Posted on | August 20, 2007 | 3 Comments
I think that when something you designed gets tattooed on someone you’ve officially “made it.” Check it out, the new Dashboard Confessional album “The Shade Of Poison Trees” that I designed has been permanently marked on someone’s arm. I dig it
A History Of My Faith
Posted on | June 2, 2007 | 3 Comments
I was raised without religion. I was never told not to believe in God or anything like that. Nobody ever came out and said “God isn’t real.” It was just sorta like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, they let me figure things out on my own. When I was bad my mom wouldn’t say anything about God and “Honor thy mother and father,” she would just tell me she was calling 1-800-GYPSIES to come and take me away. I was a smart kid though so I called that number to find out if it was real or not. Come to think of it - maybe I was trying to get the Gypsies to come and take my little sister away, because you know without God in my life I was pretty evil ::wink::. My mom was raised basically the same way, although they went to church occasionally, I think it was more in a fitting in to the community sort of way. I don’t think we could have ever been considered a religious family.
Valenslime’s
Posted on | February 14, 2007 | No Comments
I’m gonna go out a limb and say that the only holiday that I think is more pointless and lame than Halloween is Valentine’s Day. I think I’ve had one good Valentine’s and that wasn’t because of the day but because of the girl I was in love with. If you buy into this holiday, you suck. I agree with These Guys, okay well not really but I like their style.
right on brother.
Two rejected print ideas (too many colors) for a Love themed print exchange I participated in a few years ago that I eventually used as headers on old LJ blog posts.
Benzine
Posted on | January 26, 2007 | 3 Comments
For those of you who knew me in high school, you knew I was the one kid at Newport Harbor High that did a zine. Starting in 1995 (perhaps late 1994) with “This Zine Sucks” and continuing in 1996-1997 with three issues of “Phazer Blast,” my zine making career was short lived. in 1996 I got AOL and in 1997 I figured out how to go to web pages and so my interest in making a print zine was overrun by new found fascination with the internet that continues to this day.
Well a few years ago I archived my zines for the web, but with re-design after re-design they eventually made their way off of the page. After going through all the old Thrasher issues in my last post I decided I should re-upload MY ZINES. Because, I think we all can agree that are of equal historical importantce. (ha!)
It’s pretty funny looking back at all this stuff again in all it’s lo-rez jpg compression glory. Sorry if it’s hard to read, but if you don’t read it that’s less embarassment for me. So enjoy Ben’s Zines 1995-1997
About
My name is Ben Goetting. I'm a 28 Year old graphic designer from Los Angeles. This site serves as my personal internet "home base." You can visit my myspace, check out the stupid things I find on the internet at my tumblr, or see the pictures I take at my flickr.
