Random List of Ten Things To Do in Roanoke, Virginia:

This is a complementary post to one posted on "The Daily Vampire," this is a list of things to do in and around Roanoke, Va., my hometown, alas some places didn't make the list this time around.

Here we go:

1. B and D Comics (Yeah, that's why we have comic book character Cable, pictured top)

2. No Shame Theatre: A place where anyone can show off their talent as long as it's not over five minute and does not involving nudity (we guess boxer shorts from Target are ok....yes, it's the reason for the clown/magician in the middle...we wanted to go with a chainsaw juggler, but those images were hard to come by).

3. The Grandin Theatre: A cool, vintage cinema. "Vertigo" was the first I saw there when it initially re-opened in 1984.

4. Salem Farmer's Market (Salem)

5. O. Winston Link Museum

6. Oddfellas Cantina (Floyd): This nifty place in the village of Floyd, a long 29 miles from Roanoke, is a great place for weekend brunches.

7. Salem Red Sox (the local baseball team, they are playing the Frederick Keys right now as we speak)

8. Double Apple Restaurant and Hookah: There aren't many places to find authentic Middle Eastern food in Roanoke, but this restaurant on Brambleton Avenue pleases that need. And, they have great humus!

9. Too Many Books: One of the last remaining independent bookstores in Roanoke; it's located in the Grandin Village relatively close to the Grandin Theatre.

10. Dixie Caverns (Salem): A popular tourist attraction...don't hit your head on the stalagmites!

UPDATE: The Salem Red Sox beat the visiting Frederick Keys 13-9 last night, but this evening the team from Maryland came out on top by a score of 5-3.

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.bandcomics.com

http://www.grandintheatre.org

http://www.noshame.org/roanoke

http://www.market.salemva.gov

http://www.oddfellascatina.com

http://www.toomanybooksroanoke.com

http://www.dixiecaverns.com

There is more on our sister blog site "The Daily Vampire:" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

High Schools of the Week- Ragsdale HS to Clairemont HS

Greetings to our blog readers in Estonia, Costa Rica and South Africa. Assuredly, many of you might be unfamiliar with American high schools....we hope this helps (well, at least, somewhat!).

Here are our six 'High Schools of the Week,' let's start with Ragsdale High School in the Greensboro-suburb of Jamestown, NC..........this is not the place the settlers landed, that would be Jamestown, Va:

1) Ragsdale High School (pictured top): Nickname: Tigers.  Jamestown, NC. Principal: Dr. Kathryn M. Rogers. Notable alumni: Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC). The school is also well-known for its marching band.

2) Bluefield High School. Bluefield, W.Va (there is also a Bluefield, Va., on the other side of the border). Nickname: Beavers. Principal: Michael Collins. Colors: Black and White. Enrollment: 650 students Main Rival: Graham High School.

3) Conway High School. Conway, SC. Nickname: Tigers. Principal: Steven Fitch. Colors: Green and Gold. Enrollment: 1,577.

4) Floyd County High School (pictured center). Floyd, Va. Nickname: Buffaloes. Principal: Tony Deibler.

5) Science Hill High School. Johnson City, Tenn. Nickname: Hilltoppers. Principal: Melanie Riden-Bacon. Notable alumni: Matt Czuchry (tv's "Gilmore Girls").

6) Clairemont High School (pictured bottom; the school was the inspiration for the 1982 film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High;" the late actor Ray Walston played Mister Hand): San Diego, Calif. Nickname: The Chieftains. School newspaper: "The Arrow"

SIDEBAR: If anyone is interested or cares, there are 170 calories in a pack of Milk Duds!

http://ragsdalehighband.blogspot.com/

http://www.visitfloyd.org/

http://www.chsarrow.com/

https://www.alumniclass.com/conway/

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Breakfast

We had hoped to post a breakfast-related entry on Sunday since it was Easter here in the United States, and on Easter Sunday, there is a tradition of having a large breakfast or brunch for the occasion.

If one happens to stop into the the southwest Virginia town of Floyd, we highly recommend Oddfellas Cantina, where they have great brunches year-round.

Thanks to those of you in Slovakia and Chile for checking out our blog today; we really appreciate it.

The Backpackers Are Beside BestBuy (entry 5 of 6)

Note: This is the fifth entry in this six part series. The even-numbered entries are located on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" (www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com); here is today's entry. This series discusses how I took photographs of all seen public art displays in Roanoke, Va., which is part of the city's "Art in Roanoke" campaign.

I had just finished taking a photograph of "In Flux" at Vic Thomas Park. I went inside the neighboring Black Dog Salvage, which featured antiques and novelty items as well as the black dog, which is the store's mascot.

It was Monday, Austs 15th. And, there were now just two public art displays I had not found. They were "Glory Pipes" (featured here) by two Arizona artists and "Happy Wanderers" by local artist Charlie Brouwer (well, he lives in Floyd County which is near Roanoke).

Of the two, "Glory Pipes" seemed like both the easiest one to find and the most accessible one from Black Dog Salvage, which is located on Memorial Avenue just past the Grandin Village area of the city.

So, I headed to find "Glory Pipes," which is located in downtown Roanoke on Franklin Road at the SunTrust Plaza. This makes it sound easy to find, but that proved not to be the case.

I drove by striking Verizon workers, and waved at them. I heard a few days later on NPR that a woman in Arlington, Va., was mad at the strikers because they were delaying her Internet installation. She said something to the effect of how 'these people should just be grateful to have a job.' It never ceases to amaze me how many Americans, some of whom are actually independents or even Democrats, distrust the government, but have no problem trusting big corporations and mega-churches with ministers who look like '70s teen idols from "The Partridge Family."

I parked my car at a place which turned out to be fairly distant from "Glory Pipes." As I walked towards a bicycle shop, I asked a fellow pedestrian where the SunTrust Plaza was. She pointed directly across the street. I felt like a bit of a dork, but then again, I may have walked for 20 minutes on my own before figuring that out.

Once I got to the SunTrust Plaza, which is fairly close to Arzu Restaurant, a Turkish and international fine dinning establishment managed by friend Halil, I still had difficulty finding the sculpture.

I walked around the lawn, and then there it was.

According to the Art in Roanoke web site, "Glory Pipes" is made from LEDS, electornics, aluminum pipes and a steel plate. At night, apparently, the inner portions of sculpture glow. The artists say that the piece is meant to create dynamic tension and motion.

It happens to be a tricky sculpture to photograph, and one has to take adequate time to find the right angles.

But, I was able to snap a fair number of shots, and from there I went to the Mill Moutain CoffeeShop downtown and realized though it was mid-afternoon that "The Happy Wanderers" would have to wait for another day.

SIDEBAR_ The answer to our question last week about the distance between Abingdon, Va., the town near the Tennessee border where the Barter Theatre is and the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, was d) 5 hours, 45 minutes.

Strange, but True Things We Learned This Week...

All of these things have been verified through various sources, but if you don't believe me, you can spend hours and hours on Google, and leave a post on here saying: "Ahhh, but you are wrong." Let's get started, and we will get to the African pygmy goat when we can:

1. Osama bin Laden (1957-2011) actually liked many American western tv shows as a kid, including his favorite "Bonanza!" I first read about this in "The Week" magazine some eight years ago. But, this week, I also learned that the sinister terrorist leader also like Bruce Lee kung-fu films. But, none of these things are as disturbing as a report I heard from the TRT (Turkish Radio Television) right after September 11th, when I happened to be in Istanbul. A Turkish man who was a classmate of bin Laden's at a school in Switzerland when they were both children said that this future kingpin of terror was 'a quiet unasuming kid who usually sat in the back.'

2. And speaking of Turkey, as "Mental Floss" reported in a recent issue, one never wants to confuse a Greek with a Turk or vice versa. Since the hip magazine didn't mention the man's name, I had to check the BBC's web site for additional details. As it turns out, Athanasios Varzanakos, 77, who would have definitely qualified for our long, difficult names list, a Greek villager, had been mistaken for a Turk. The Swedish yogurt company Lindahl had put the image of Varzanakos on its Turkish yogurt products. So, the Greek man sued the Swedish company for $7 million; he 'only' got $270,000 in return. This leads us to the goat because if one wants to find Greek yogurt or goat milk yogurt, they can go to the Harvest Moon in Floyd, Va. Alas, they don't sell Turkish yogurt which is very hard to find in America except in New Jersey (where there are a lot of Turks and Turkish-Americans).

3. The BBC reported last night that there is a hip hop craze spreading through Yemen, of all places. There have been similar stories in the international media about this curious pop cultural trend. In 2010, Laura Kasinoff of "The Christian Science Monitor" reported that she had seen 'turbaned men dancing with daggers and rappers donning New York Yankees caps' taking the stage in the capital city of Sana for a hip hop fest. Hagage Masead, an American of Yemeni heritage who should not/never be confused with a radical terrorist in Yemen who grew up in New York state, has been at the heart of this movement.

4. "This American Life," a popular weekly NPR show, featured a story about a "Tuscaloosa News" reporter in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who was fooled into publishing a local story that proved to be false in the wake of last week's deadly tornado rampage in the area. Apparently, the story was that a local man from Tuscaloosa, which is also home to the University of Alabama, was killed at a local tobacco store and people walked all over him to get cigarettes. But, one can hardly fault the reporter as this story was verified by local government officials in Tuscaloosa! As a former newspaper reporter myself, I can see how this can happen all too easily for reasons which are far too complicated to explain here. Besides, the militant librarian here in Mount Airy, NC, (not really where I am) has warned that the Internet goes down in 22 minutes and 35 seconds!

In Turkish, It's Called Tembellik

We could've looked up what's the Norwegian word for laziness too, but well we're too lazy!

The cat is in Japan (in the original image; this black cat might be from Mexico), well not my cat Gizmo, who is somewhere near Floyd, Va., but this cat in particular.

One knows laziness is very bad when you don't even want to post a blog entry!

But, for those of you with more stamina, we recommend "Garfield without Garfield," a satiric take on the comic strip with the World's Laziest Cat (and, the world's oldest cat as Garfield has been around for 32 years now!). The web site for that is garfieldwithoutgarfield.net

It's time to take a nap....!

Virginia High School Football Roundup

My alma mater Glenvar High School from Salem, Va., The Highlanders, pulled an upset on the road as they beat our second favorite high school from southwest Virginia_ The Floyd County HS Buffaloes 21-20 thanks to a game-winning stop from senior linebacker Phillip Tarpley. Alas, the Buffs move on to the playoffs next week and our Highlanders will have to wait 'til next fall.

Here are some other scores from the Roanoke, Va., area:

Alleghany County 14 William Byrd 7
Northside 28 Staunton River 7
Radford 34 Giles County 25
Pulaski County 21 Salem 13
Christiansburg 38 Blacksburg21
Cave Spring 34 Hidden Valley 10

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Former Guns N Roses Member Has a Beef

For those who grew up with Guns N Roses in the late 1980s, the band's anthem "Welcome to the Jungle" has a special place in our hearts.

But, Duff McKagan, a former member of the band, wrote in "Seattle Weekly" that he is not happy the song is now being played to rev up fans at Yankee Stadium.

Duff made his comments in a guest column for the journal, and he said while he is a huge sports fan, the song simply wasn't intended to be the equivalent of Queen's song "We Will Rock You."

SIDEBAR: Hooray for Duke University's hapless football team which beat Navy 34-31 for their first win of the year in Annapolis, Md., last weekend. This week, the BlueDevils host The University at noon on their home turf in Durham, NC.

My alma mater Glenvar High School in Salem, Va., goes on the road to the mountain hamlet of Floyd, Va., to face the Floyd County High School Buffalos. We wish the Highlanders luck, though personally I prefer the other school's mascot to our's!

SIDEBAR TWO: Our fellow liberal friend The Kansan, who is really from Kansas and a Kansas Jayhawks fan, tweeted today that: "One often hears the question: Do you have to politicize everything? The answer is of course yes!

On that note, we invite our readers to insert their favorite Sarah Palin joke in our comment section. I am deliberating as to which country I would move to if she becomes president in 2012. My top three choices are Norway, Costa Rica and Tunisia (we had to choose one Muslim to irk the Christian conservatives, though admitedly it would be quite hot in North Africa!).

50 Beers Around the World- Brahma (Brazil)

For today's entry devoted to 50 Beers From Around the World we go to Brazil where they serve Brahma Beer, which started in 1888. The brew is found in Moscow, London, Toronto, New York, Milan and (we should hope) in Rio de Janeiro.

SIDEBAR: For those living in the Chapel Hill area or visiting Tarheel Town, you may want to go to the next-door town of Carrboro, NC, where you will find Carrburritos. The Mexican eatery where I have yet to dine myself (though I have driven past it) is said to be a cool happening place which offers substantially better burritos than ones you would find at any given Taco Bell.

SIDEBAR TWO: The Oddfellas Cantina in Floyd, Va.,- one of the nicest little towns in southwest Virginia is hosting Irish Night next week as they do on every first Friday of the month. Reservations are highly recommended as is the establishment's Mexican dishes.

SIDEBAR THREE: My good friend Chris Knight of Reidsville, NC, always has some interesting posts on his blog www.theknightshift.blogspot.com
Recently, he has talked about why "Interview with a Vampire" author Anne Rice is leaving the church though she is not giving up her faith (cites quarrelsome nature of religion among her reasons), how 'Darth Vader' robbed a bank in Long Island at gunpoint and how some comic book fans at ComicCon in San Diego organized a counter protest to the Rev. Fred Phelps (perhaps America's most notorious homophobe) holding up signs which read: "God Hates Jedis."

Happy Fourth of July from Speedy Gonzales!

Everyone from El Paso, Tex., to Belfast, Maine, seems to be having a great Fourth of July so far, and one such person is Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir who tweeted the following about an hour ago:

"I saw the entire NYC fireworks from my patio. Stunning and so inspiring."

Sitcom star Rainn Wilson of "The Office" expressed similar sentiments on his latest tweet:

"Happy Birthday America. Have another chilli cheese dog with curly fries and a 64oz Mountain Dew on me!"

For those of you venturing near the hamlet of Floyd, Va. (about 20 miles from the college-town of Blacksburg, Va., where Virginia Tech is), we highly recommend El Charro Mexican Grill located at 320 South Locust Street (phone 540-745-5303). An internet poster who is originally from Houston, Tex., said it was the best Mexican food he or she had tasted in the Roanoke-Blacksburg area. We couldn't agree more!

Silly Photo to Fill Space-Antique Teddy Bears

Since it is a nice day outside here in North Carolina (Oh, wait a minute-I'm actually in Virginia. Living and working along the state line can play with one's mind!), it would have been nice to head far, far west to the mountain hamlet of Floyd, Va., home of the world-famous Floyd Country Store, and go trolling for top hats at Chic's Antiques on 125 West Main Street (Phone: 540-745-4627. Ok, so my mom has friends who work there, this isn't exactly "The Wall Street Journal.")


I'm not sure how much top hats go for, but I'm guessing they are around $85. And, antique teddy bears, such as the ones pictured, would probably go for slightly more. But, then again, I don't work for "Antiques Roadshow!"

Yet Another Quote of the Week?!- David Byrne

We just quoted former Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne, who also has an outstanding solo discography, just a few weeks ago. But, since his new book about bicycling in cities like Istanbul, Turkey, is out in bookstores right now and since I am absolutely addicted to his music with Talking Heads, I thought I would quip him once again.

I was able to find the remaining three cds that I needed to get in order to have the complete Talking Heads discography at my disposal (I actually have two of their albums on vinyl!) from CD Alley, a cool independent cd store in Chapel Hill, NC, over the weekend.

His book is assuredly available at my favorite independent book store in North America, but the Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, Col., is quite far from my log cabin in Floyd, Va. (not where I really live, but relatively close).

We quoted the lead singer of another punk band from the late '70s, early '80s ear, the late Joe Strummer, on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire."

A Talking Heads web site in Holland had a fan survey and those of us who absolutely love this band chose their 1980 release "Remain in Light," which features the song "Once in a Lifetime" as the band's best. "Rolling Stone" also named the same album as the fourth best record of the 1980s. Though I personally prefer their 1983 record "Speaking in Tongues," which feautres every would-be-arsonist's favorite anthem "Burnin' Down the House."

Here is the quip from Byrne:

"I couldn't talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching."