The Tacoma Bell Situation


Everything was going perfectly, things were going better than expected like we use to say. I could wake up properly, take both quick trains to Paris airport in time under a beautiful sun, get checked in easily, and found my way to the best possible seat ever: nobody was behind me but the restroom, I was close to the window, and had no neighbor. How could you dream about a better 11-hour flight? I could watch three movies (Bohemian Rhapsody, John Wick 2 and Solo: A Star Wars Story), enjoy a decent meal, and even arrive right in time, at around 1:30 PM, in Seattle – yeah, Seattle, because since I had booked my flights very lately as a surprise guest, I could not find any Paris to Denver one for a good price. Seattle was OK for me though: as a total Nirvana nerd, I had always wanted to visit that town once, so even if I couldn't make it to the city itself, the symbol behind it was really nice.



So, I had to take my suitcase back and to check it in again for the 3:25 flight to Denver. This is where bad things started to happen. Oh, I won't complain that much about 3 of the 5 GTA V stickers missing from my suitcase and that would be gone forever; getting my luggage was an excellent first step, unfortunately followed by a list of cancellations for ALL flights from Seattle-Tacoma Airport to Denver International that afternoon. Getting in touch with Joe made me realize that a massive snowstorm had totally paralyzed the main airport of Colorado the day I had to go there (and I also realized that I was not alone, because Clark also had to land in Denver and couldn't either, being moved to… Las Vegas, lol). So I could do absolutely nothing but waiting until the day after for that goddamn snow to get the fuck out of Denver and let me meet my friends later than expected. We were supposed to leave Joe's place on Thursday morning around 9 AM: in the best possible case now, Clark and I would be in Denver by the very end of the morning, or more likely, the beginning of the afternoon.

I took care of being given a new flight ticket for the next morning (7:59 AM, Seattle time) and some kind of discount ticket for local hotels. Could have been worse. Well, was gonna be worse, but not before the next day. Chatting with a French workmate who knew Seattle and the Tacoma area pretty well helped me to choose a hotel that could fit with my price range, so I just had to get a Uber and meet a very friendly hotel lobby team telling me they were already full, but took care about calling every other hotel like theirs around until they found one who could welcome me – and they even drove me for free there, which was a good way to forget a bit how messy this journey had gone. I saw a Taco Bell on the road, I hadn't gone there since my trip to New York City in September, 2013, because we do not have a single one in Europe, and that was only a 20-minute walk from the hotel under a very non-Washington weather (I mean, sunny and without the shadow of any wind). I must confess Taco Bell went a bit worse than in my memories even if still OK, and when I went back to my hotel room it was probably 5 PM, so something like 1 AM in France, which meant I was awake for 20 hours. Time to go to bed, set the alarm to 5 AM, and have some fun watching the American TV channels. Bed and mattress adverts, Donald Trump, NFL, AirPod conspiracies, dubious lawyer adverts, NBA, Donald Trump again, some senator going racist, NASCAR, Donald Trump once again, and I think I fell asleep.

Oh, and the hotel corridor looked like the one in Silent Hill’s dreadful "playable teaser".



I did not dream about Donald Trump but about my ex girlfriend, which is technically not better (for the record, we were together when he was elected and I remember she woke me at 5 AM saying "Trump won, that's the end of the world"). But that bed was absolutely awesome, fortunately.

Of course, I woke up at something like fucking 1:15 AM. I remember I went on Discord to chat with Joe and Clark privately about those adventures, and on the SMK channel to see mostly Europeans in the morning. It was pretty logic for me to be on Discord at something which was probably 10 AM in France – after all, I still had to keep the secret for two big days, it would have been sad to make a stupid mistake so close to the finish line! I actually made a single one that I discovered three weeks after – I had disabled location on my tweets, but not on the FFSMK Twitter account, which I used once when in Tacoma for one single publication…  having the extremely awkward "From SeaTac, WA" attached to it. Funnily enough, that tweet was quoting Karel's bad quality PR video while having Lafungo  playing Breath of the Wild on the TV close to him. Karel even answered it and could have just seen the detail of the tweet location but it looks he did not. Well, perhaps he could also have thought that was ScouB's, work, because he seemed to think he was gonna be a surprise guest, and he also has access to the FFSMK social media logins.



I arrived at Tacoma Airport way too early, because I didn't want to take any single risk. Checked in at 5:20 AM for a 7:59 flight, whatever: Denver, here I come! Oh, there's already a 1-hour delay, departure time is now set at 8:59. Three hours and a half to wait, well that's no big deal, my MacBook's fully charged, so is my Nintendo Switch, and I even have some work to do with this (the beginning of a complete walkthrough of some video game that I'm not supposed to display and/or tell about at this moment because of embargo issues, woops). So I play, I write, flight's delayed once again to 9:59 AM, then to 10:59, still because the weather conditions around Denver are said to be terrible. I eventually realize I have no specific seat on my ticket, which happens to be a stand-by one, which I didn't really know about, being not really familiar with planes and that kind of stuff. "You're on a waiting list", the Delta staff woman says to me, explaining all flights to Denver up to Saturday (!) are sold out because of yesterday's rampage. What the hell. So I'm pretty sure I'm gonna miss that one, which was delayed to 11:59 meanwhile by the way, and this happens indeed: they never call my name (it turns out I was #8 on their list). The next one leaves Denver at 1:20 PM, and this time, I'm #3 (so I need to try harder, eh), which gives a lot of hope.

The only good thing that happened between 11:59 and 1:20 was the McDonald's meal I ate, because I discovered some food I never had the opportunity to see in France, and because, you got it right, I was never called once again. Next flight was at 3:25 PM, which was actually the one I was supposed to take the day before. I never knew what my number was on the waiting list, they couldn't even check it. At that moment I started to think about buying a ticket to New Orleans and ask Matt to go after me (Matt and Eric were the two other knowing about me attending ASMKC in hiding), but I was eventually called, and the Delta guy tried to pronounce my name so badly I had to show him my boarding to pass and say "is that me you just called, lol?" (well, I didn't say "lol" but I could have). End of Chapter 1.



Sweet Home Colorado (and everything but Texas)


Everything was going perfectly, things were going better than expected like we use to say. The airplane even arrived in Denver 25 minutes earlier than the estimated time, the (slightly fading) light of the day making me realize there still was a lot of snow and ice on the landing track. Which actually turned out to be another problem: the plane just could not drive to that safe spot where the door opens to help all the passengers walk into the airport. It took one hour and a half to make this possible, and of course, in the meanwhile, the sky had gone totally dark. I was close enough from the Denver International free wifi to try logging in and keeping Joe informed of what the hell was going on, but far enough not to be able to stay logged more than three seconds at best. I am absolutely not even joking.



I could finally meet Joe and hug strongly after all the crazy mess I had been going through on the last 30 hours. It was already 10 PM when we arrived at his place, we had to leave at something like 8 AM the day after, and if you remember well, I had waken up 19 hours ago once again, so I found much more interesting to share some beers with Joe, Clark and Vanessa (aka Nes) than to play some SMK for practice before going to bed. I would really arrive in Monroe on Saturday without having played SMK at all since last CDM, and without even being able to remember when my last NTSC session could have been. And, well, I absolutely did not give a single fuck. The upcoming road trip was everything I cared about, because my main goals were to enjoy myself with friends and visit thousands of miles of a country I could not say I really knew – NYC is not really representative of what the United States actually are!

We should actually have done this one day before, but whatever, we finally could go for a 15-hour drive from Littleton, Colorado (where the horrible events of Columbine happened 20 years ago already) to Pecan Plantation, Texas. The whole trip was gonna make us drive through Colorado and roads surrounded by beautiful mountains (including the Pikes Peak one!), then New Mexico and his desert-like landscapes, and finally Texas. I didn't know a lot about that final step, and I now understand why. There is absolutely nothing to know about this state. If that John Denver's full of shit, well let me say that John Dallas's full of nothing.

 

Prior to the trip, Joe warned both Clark and me about the emptiness we would have to face during roughly 6 or 7 hours, and I must admit he was not exaggerating. Texas, for its northern part at least, is a terrific flat land full of nothing on both sides of the road. Funnily enough, that wasn't even boring because we were frequently chatting about a lot of things, from movies to American vs. European comparaison, through music, Mario Kart meeting memories and other stuff of all kinds (*). I knew Joe and Clark were close friends but I also have been knowing the Man from Watford IRL for an entire decade know, and met Joe once at CDM, so I never felt isolated or anything wrong: I was really feeling as part of that legendary trip, which was obviously a very long and exhausting one, but always extremely nice to share together. I knew that was a good idea to go for such an endless ride with those guys.

(*) Hah, and food, too. We discussed about food and we ate, of course. Shitloads of snacks and drinks bought all trip long in gas stations (which are the only kind of human interaction you can have in TX anyway), and Taco Bell again. We stopped at a Subway first (before starting to realize there were gonna be more minutes to wait than there are Subways all road long, which means A LOT), but eventually stopped at Taco Bell. It was really not good and Clark seemed to had the worst time there, ordering a "Mexican pizza" that just looked like post-CDM leftover cold pizza Drew would not even be OK to eat. Sorry bro.

I absolutely do not remember a single thing during the two last hours, finally falling asleep and waking up very shortly around 11 PM before we arrived at Joe's parents, whose place is absolutely awesome and made me think Texas could be a good place to live for a couple seconds. Joe's Dad welcomed us with beers we could just not refuse, even if I really wanted to go to bed (we had to leave at 5 AM to make sure we'd arrive in Monroe in time!). I naively thought I would sleep during that morning trip, and of course I didn't, preferring to bully Clark all road long. He'd have been so alone on the back seats if I had not been part of it! By the way, Joe's random playlist worked very well since it brought "Africa" by Toto on the stereo a couple minutes before seeing the Welcome to Monroe sign. Singing this all along with Joe and Clark was definitely one of the hidden achievements of the list. Honorable mention to the unexpected "Careless Whisper" metal cover that instantly brought into my mind the hot and wet memories of a sexy gay dance between Karel and I in Alphen last summer.







Halfway between a cock meet and the worst DIY British haircut of all time


Discovering Monroe was pretty interesting because, from my personal point of view, that 50,000-soul town is an excellent and fast portrait of what American cities can be. It goes really quickly from poor (and dangerous) areas to a downtown with modern buildings, through old rusty areas, long roads full of auto parts shops, bars and restaurants of all kinds, and richer districts with massive landlord houses. The Kartel's house was located in a street that could hardly look much more from a typical local one, and I have to admit I found it pretty funny to see the door actually open but nobody being inside to welcome us. As I told my friends, that reminded me of the last time I virtually visited Louisiana, in Resident Evil VII. Fortunately there was nothing horrible to expect inside, and we could just make our way through a big place we already knew we would enjoy. Then, after having a look at Harvey's note on the fridge (thanks a lot for sending your console, game and pad to help the overall organization, by the way!), we could go to the venue, where Joe and Clark had been expected for almost 24 hours, and most important, where absolutely nobody knew I was gonna show up.



Entering Tower Palace, that business building entirely available to us for the whole weekend (!), obviously meant putting an end to all my awful lies to my best foreign friend of the community. When I appeared in the room where ASMKC was about to begin, Karel's eyes and reaction were something I had put high expectations into, and I wasn't disappointed (the only thing that disappointed me, anyway, was Lafungo not being there). My beloved Dutch mofo, also known as "cock", looked extremely shocked when he saw me arriving into the venue, and pronounced that very Dutch "wot da fok" I was sincerely hoping he would say. I was obviously very happy to meet him and hug once the surprise went over, but I wasn't prepared to the true sensation of that friendly meeting atmosphere: Sami had cut his hair. Himself. Which couldn't have looked worse. I must say I spent the entire weekend trolling him on this because I found it so shitty that I could not resist constantly making a fool of the most polite and classy man of this community.

Sorry, but that Sami Çetin's haircut's full of shit.

 

Those pre-competition moments also allowed me to discover people I had never met before, like Andrew K or Stinson, which is something I always like a lot about SMK championships and turned to be a bit like everything within that meeting: a SMK competition that really, really looked like an American CDM. Meeting people you already know and had not seen for a year like Martin is always a great thing, and seeing Leyla's sincere smile when realizing I was there is something really moving that warms the heart. Not knowing where Drew could be was another typical CDM thing, especially when you discover later what happened to him (he could have allegedly been locked up in some Texan jail, DAFUQ??). Getting interviewed in English for the first time, by local media from Louisiana, was one my unexpected highlights of the early ASMKC. Then I decided to play a bit, because a Time Trial official contest was about to begin, and even if I felt I had zero chance to win anything according to my to my total lack of practice, I didn't want to be ridiculous and really wanted to bring home at least one of those nice medals Matt showed me. Getting my Dutch friend pissed off being the small bonus I would more like dream about.

All roads lead to Rainbows


I fell asleep while watching the last laps of the F1 race and had my first true complete night for ages, and woke up in a very nice and sunny Sunday morning in Monroe, where Chris offered me a ride throughout the town, which was another cool souvenir for the tourist I was during the whole week. Monroe's not the most interesting place to visit in the southern states and certainly not even in Louisiana, but it was OK, especially with such a charming weather. I also visited the entire Tower Place with Eric and felt a bit puzzled about that place: what the hell is this modern business building in the middle of nowhere, full of empty rooms and desks? This sure was a perfect place to play Mario Kart for a competition like ASKMC, but whose tax dollars are paying for this strange place full of nothing? Whatever. Back in the venue we also learned about Drew's fate, this time he had his car stopped 15 miles away from Monroe because of engine failure or something like that. Pretty epic.



The Moutain Yak of SMK finally arrived before GP started, and slightly after some local journalists interviewed Sami (whose haircut was gonna be massively commented on social media, mérité) and Kyle with some Rainbow Road sign in the back. I'm not 100% sure who brought this wonderful item (Andrew?), which of course was as legal as Connor Wood watching adult movies with the regular porn fans at CDM 2012, but at first I thought that was a prize. I would have driven and played extremely seriously to win it. Unfortunately, that turned out not to be the case, and I think this one of the only few disappointments I had to face in Monroe (this, and not being able to troll Lafungo in real life all weekend long). I really, really need this artefact at my place, now that I know it actually exists (I remembered some photos, especially from the MKSC meeting, but the sign was too massive). The other piece of collection that was displayed just behind, during the same interview of Kyle, was the Fenner T-shirt. I've got another story coming.



First of all, I had brought this T-shirt only to wear it and make people having fun of it, because I hadn't worn it at a CDM for ages. This ZarkovCo. creation was introduced at the 2011 CDM and I still don't remember why I was owning it, and when I arrived in Monroe I decided it would be part of a specific challenge. But first, I also decided to get rid off another T-shirt I had brought: my legendary Fatboy Slim "I'm #1 so why try harder" brown T-shirt, which I wore during my successful 2013 quest for gold: I just realized Karel deserved to have it, so I gave it to him and perhaps, if he would prove to be good enough that day, he'd also be able to leave the place with a second T-shirt I had in my luggage the day before…



The American Gift Shop / Long live SMK Queen


I suck at GP. I dislike GP. I hate this fucking zoomstart. And I hadn't played this shit in NTSC for ages. Everything was set properly for a disaster, which would probably have happened if my beloved Denver host didn't decide to act like a complete moron the most generous player I've ever faced in my whole career. First of all, Joe nicely offered to teach me how to get the zoomstarts on that system: I must confess that his strategy kinda works, not all time, but enough to help me get more zoomstarts than in PAL (well, it's easy to do better than zero, eh?). Practicing against Joe was probably the best thing I could do for that mode anyway: this was definitely the mode where our levels could be the closest, and practicing with my eternal Dutch sparring partner would have been extremely painful. Hm? You say "what about practicing with Sami" ? Are you nuts?




GP was my worst multiplayer mode and I'm absolutely not surprised: not only I ranked 4th, being responsible forever for the first podium ever without a French player at a SMK official championship (why always me?), but I also did not good at all in the original bracket thing. I won my three first matches, including one against Joe which was a pretty tough match if I remember correctly, before losing the one that would have secured top 4 before having to play with the losers. I had to face Joe once again in a friendly deathmatch, which he just decided to lose on purpose. I do not remember all the details but the major one is absolutely unforgettable: I was leading CI2 by a small margin, probably enough to be safe from a red shell in the muddy part, but certainly not enough to escape from a feather shortcut, such an easy one that a skilled driver like Joe would even be able to perform blindfolded.

When I started lap 5, I had a look at where Joe was, and told myself "okay, you're screwed, he's too close". But for some absolutely fucking unknown reason, Joe didn't go for the feather. I thought he initially forgot he was entering lap 5, but that was not even close to reality. That crazy mofo knew what he was doing, which was deliberately refusing to win this way and to use a single goddamn item. Why the hell. Dude, you just gave this match to me. And this was not even the only gift I got from you during that whole match, come on. Of course, I was happy to save my spot and still be part of the fight for the final win in that mode, but why being abusively nice like that?



After that, I can't exactly remember what drove Leyla and me to face each other for the podium, put this eventually happened. Every single year, I feel she's getting closer to my multiplayer level in racing modes (and she's even getting better in Battle actually), and I'm telling her every year that the moment where she's gonna knock me out is getting closer and closer. I didn't know this was gonna happen in America, and she still has to do it on PAL, but she just did it, with style. My start was miserable and Leyla's safe driving, very Sami-esque even if she hates that comparison (*), helped her to lead 2 cups to zero. Then I came back, because I'm so used to those horrible starts before playing well, to make us play a final 5th cup which was gonna make her really deserve to make her own legend. Once again, I don't remember the details, but I just know she was stronger, that's it, I did not even play average or below. Leyla was just extremely good and defeated a former World Champion and multiple medalist thanks to her talent. I was extremely happy for her and even felt proud to be the one who lost against her for that first medal. Because not only she beat me, she also earned the first medal for a female player in the history of Championships. Kudos, Queen of SMK.

(*) "Sami really pisses me off often, you know…"

Ah yeah, and Sami beat Karel just after. Who gives a fuck.

… well, the SMK statisticians and data nerds do. That just ended Karel's insane NTSC gold streak, and gave Sami one last chance to hit the final top 3 of the event, perhaps even top 2 if he did something like 4 or 5 ranks better than me in Battle Mode. He also proved it was possible to win a multiplayer mode with a terrible haircut, which I had failed to do for a bit more than a decade. And finally, this was the first time two players from the same family attended the same podium – and even were part of the same final four, because the best situation so far was CDF 2004's Time Trial with the Holmière brothers finishing 3rd (Julien) and 6th (Sébastien). Pas mal !





Battle for a T-shirt


Even if Drew had made it in time for GP, he kinda sucked at it and was only expected to kick some ass in Battle Mode, playing with the big guys this time (the only time one of them managed to reach a final was in 2009, when Geo destroyed Drew's DK 11-4). Oddly enough, and perhaps because of a special contest that motivated both of us, Karel and I managed to make it to the winner's bracket final, defeating Drew and Sami (that being the first time I beat him in this mode where I really hate to play him). I remember starting pretty average against Stinson who scored the first round and played pretty well, before I really started to use my skills the way I wanted. Then, Karel and I just had to livestream that battle for the top seed, it was a matter of honor, because the legendary Fenner shirt was to win. I was OK to give to him (baby, a-ha, a-ha!) but only if he deserved the prize. What's sure is I never saw Karel playing BM this way. It just looked like his own life was at stake, and he completely destroyed me with a very agressive game, playing the way I'm supposed to do in BM (especially in NTSC), preventing me from whatever I could try. The T-shirt was his, and the joke (me being that highly ranked in BM) was over. Almost.

 

Drew and Sami had to fight to (easily) get out of a losers' bracket they clearly didn't belong to, and then came my only true competition disappointment of the whole week: I played against Drew, on stream, and led 3-1 in that first to 5 match that would have automatically earned me a medal if I could win it. I won't say this was my best BM match ever but it sure was one of my greatest, because I had really started to get well with Mario (a character I might consider using this summer in PAL!), fitting my style much better than Yoshi in this aggressive version, and forced the King of Battle to play extremely well to finally revert the situation and end my dreams of a medal in the only mode I never got one. I ranked 4th again in the end, which obviously is my better BM performance (I've reached three quarterfinals so far, the closest to semifinal being a 7-5 loss against Neo in 2011), but dammit, I was really, really close to do something better. Maybe next time, who knows.

Funnily enough, everybody there hit his best BM rank ever. Sami had reached bronze in the 2012 NTSC Open Tournament in Battle, but managed to reach silver this time, and Karel got his first BM medal ever with bronze, being the only one winning four medals and of course, the overall title. Drew did nothing more than winning his best mode again after destroying Sami's and Karel's dreams, making America proud of his legendary champion there. Perfect timing to make ASMKC championship more American than ever…






Three big medals, Donald Trump's coin, and a pot of gold


"Drew.S.A"'s win was highly acclaimed by an imminent Donald Trump speech directly broadcasted on TV. But this was far from being the most American thing that happened to conclude ASMKC. The prizes ceremony started just after, and we Europeans were given a wonderful gift from the organizers, in addition to three huge medals for the top 3 that really rock: a 24-k gold Donald Trump coin, commemorating his disgusting face as the 45th President of the United States of America, and which costs shitloads of money according to Amazon (I don't thank the person who sent me that link when I tweeted it, lol). Don't worry, I absolutely don't give a fuck about the value, the prize is absolutely fantastic and really awesome, I probably never laughed that much since the rainbow anal plug I won at CDM 2013. I will keep this forever (the Trump coin, I won't tell what happened to the plug), and it won't even be part of my junk-gifts-graveyard closet. I made it up to the US to search for gold and that's what I got.

… oh wait, I got even better (or worse?) then this. I had brought my own prizes from Europe, than were going from excellent (The Legend of Zelda 450-page artbook) to absolute shit (a CD of half French half Portuguese singer Lio "performing" Jacques Prévert poetry in a crappy acoustic jazz show), with some average stuff (3rd party SNES controller, brand new NintendoLand US Wii U game) and some decent ones (Super Smash Bros. goodies like a steelbook and a pin's from Ultimate, and a dog tag from the Wii U version). I didn't know there were actually not gonna be other ones apart from the Trump coins and… a weird purple purse absolutely full of money. As Karel had already picked the Zelda book, I could not take one of the prizes I had brought (especially since they were shit and/or I already had my own copy), so I went for the mysterious purse.

It was really heavy and full of cash, it seemed there were several hundreds of coins inside (a first look made me realize there were mostly dollar cents, some euro cents too, and even pennies and pounds, WTF?), I found it really funny so I decided I would count all of this during our road trip back to Denver, because I'd have time for this. Spoiler: I didn't even do it.



Another great moment that happened afterwards, before everyone left the place, was all of us signing the posters. First of all, congratulations to anyone who designed it, I really loved it, despite the unacceptable lack of DK (nobody's perfect). Then, it was really entertaining to write mischief on everyone's, especially some specific ones. I loved signing "Louisiana is French" on all of them, seeing Drew putting "TTF" instead of his own signature, but the best ones were Clark's and Joe's on the one we had to send back to Harvey. I hope he'll frame it in his toilet room. I also need to say I was very touched by what Leyla did write on mine. I don't know if I have to keep this private or not so I'll leave this to her. But it was very, very heartwarming. We also had an intense chat that was

INTERRUPTED BY RAMBI ATTACK

Rambi more like KVD, actually. Dat mofo pulling my chair away when I was having a SERIOUS TALK with Leyla was one of the funniest moments I ever lived within that community. And I also really enjoy the very important, useful and interesting talk we shared, that helped us to become even more friends than we used to be. I really like you a lot as a person and a friend, Leyla. Not like that Dutch ass-face. (*)

(*) I'm talking about Aron L. of course)

Thanks for all the kind words, mon ami! You are welcome here in Denver anytime.  

Superb bilan, we had to wait a bit, but it was worth it eh!    

I love all the little anecdotes, references and easter eggs you've thrown in. Also I can't believe how a store like Buc-ee's even exists...
The garage of Joe's dad looks amazing, definitely would have liked to join in on that part of the experience (would skipping the rest of Texas be optional?).  

And yes, you gotta be there in 2020 mister underscore  

I think it’s extremely fitting that the day I finally log back onto this forum, you’d just posted your bilan Guillaume. I really enjoyed reading this and it made me laugh/smile on multiple occasions, especially when you reminded me about the ‘Karel chair pulling’ incident   I actually read your comments about Sami’s hair to my mum and she found it hilarious because we all agree with you- the mullet isn’t the best!

Your kind words truly touched me and I’m also so happy that this event allowed our friendship to further flourish, as you say. I look forward to having many more conversations such as this at future CDMs   (I’m already really sad that I won’t be able to attend the next ASMKC if there is one, because it was wonderful!)

Also, I don’t think I ever got to thank you Karel, for your own fantastic bilan and kind words. It was a pleasure to see you and Martin again, as always!

Maybe now that I’ve just finished my 2nd year at uni I’ll become present on this forum. But then again, I’ve said that a hundred times and it never happens  

LeylaSMK wrote on 05/03/19 at 08:33:16:

lol, what are the odds?

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I'll be very happy to spend some good time and talk a lot again together this summer ! Ddo you know when you'll be able to confirm it's OK for you this year, BTW? And why do you look so sure about next ASMKC?

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As long as you're still part of the community and can meet us from to time, that's already great, but I also hope you'll keep this promise now.

Joe Reinreb wrote on 05/03/19 at 11:15:02:

Ohh yeah!

I went to Wal-mart on my own because the Kartel's house was in danger of running completely out of beer and I wasn't about to let that happen while we watched Fenner videos.  

Harvey Kartel wrote on 05/03/19 at 13:12:11:


Well, Nick, I would have to again disagree with you. Not every American has been to a Wal-mart (even I didn't step foot in one until I was well into my 20s), country music is not "quintessential American" (my mother was born and raised in Texas and she absolutely despises country music, as does just about everyone else from the north), and American Football is not viewed by everyone here (I play fantasy football otherwise I'd have absolutely no interest in that sport).

I dislike all of the above and I would consider myself to be an American (maybe not a very typical one). The things you describe are inherently southern American, which I am definitely not. I still thank my parents for moving to Chicago before I was born, and I'm returning the favor by moving out of Texas and into beautiful Colorado to maybe one day raise children of my own.

As for beer, we drank Shiner Bock (Texas), Sam Adams (New England), and two different kinds of Yuengling. No crappy domestic beer was drank until we got to my parents' place and we wiped them out of PBR (I don't mind crappy domestic beer at all, but if I'm going to pick a domestic beer it'd be Shiner all the way).  

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My voice has been all over SMK in various avenues:
- CDM rewind commentary with Karel/Clark
- SNES Superstars SMK commentary with dan____h
- Kart Radio in 2007 (RIP)
- Our new podcast "Karthritis" where I'm a regular fixture
- Youtube videos where I show off the house I rented in Illinois (and my outstanding Chicago accent...  )
- ASMKC background noise/main stream mishaps...

There's no shortage of hearing my terrible, nasally voice, mon ami...  

I'm pretty sure he just doesn't like country Nick.  

Harvey Kartel wrote on 05/03/19 at 16:28:04:


From what I've heard in various movies, series, video games or even in the radio, country music is OK. Not my favorite kind of music but I can listen to it for longer than Dream Theater without falling alseep.

What? No Natty Ice?

Antistar wrote on 05/03/19 at 11:33:10:


Sami, Conor and I are already confirmed for this CDM and we're guaranteed to attend unless any family issues arise at the last minute. We wouldn't want to miss it for the world!

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I'll be in the middle of my final semester at uni and I can't justify missing that, unfortunately   to be honest, the entirety of January-May 2020 will be super busy in my academic life alone so I'm completely out of the picture, no matter what the date of the event will be  well, unless the ASMKC is moved to June or something but I know that won't happen  

Harvey Kartel wrote on 05/03/19 at 12:33:38:


I didn't, but Kyle did take Sami and I to Target. It was a strange experience though and I remember telling Sami that Target felt like an amalgamation of Boots, Sainsbury's and Homebase, all of which we have in the UK