Abandon Hope Of Short Entries

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Prediction For What Percentage Of His Obituaries Will Contain The Word "Bulbous": 100%
Dang! Karl Malden, basically the oldest living movie star, is...well, no longer living. RIP Karl! Too bad you had to sorta die in the shadow of the death of basically the most famous person on earth.

Current Mood: Rushed
Current Music: Megadeth - "Reckoning Day"

Triple-B Pancakes (Quintuple-B If You Want)
Back in March, I had taped an episode of the popular web-u-net TV show Vegetarian Librarian with my good friends Jason & Kelly.

NOW the episode is complete and available for all to see! The triumphant return to the second season of V.L. Waste no time in seeing me divulge all my greatest secrets of pancakery:

Indeed it is part cooking show, part tourism video. It was the first episode they did outside of the Chicagoland area. TRAVELOGUE!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Be sure to peep this super-special supplemental video. I'd hate to find out that anyone used Aunt Jemima or Log Cabin or Mrs. Butterworth or any other (clearly inferior, as they all are) "brand" of maple syrup on my beloved pancakes recipe. Those are for the birds! This is what you gotta do (it's SUPER-easy):

Tell yer friends, make some pancakes, et cetera! Most importantly, ENJOY!

(Meat-eaters'/Booze-drinkers' note: Now I usually make QUINTUPLE-B pancakes with bacon and bourbon in addition to what is featured in the video!)

My personal favorite split-second is the face I make after the story about getting the pumpkin from Soulard Market.

(Mostly re-posted from a MySpace bulletin.)

Current Mood: Pancake'd
Current Music: T. Rex - "Left Hand Luke"

Discussion: Moe-Nay!
How much money do you think you'd have to win/inherit/come into/steal without repercussion/have in order to live the rest of your life without having to work?

I guess what I'm trying to do is establish a standard for this, which is probably impossible, given how differently different people live their lives.

Some people might win $300K and blow it in two hours, another person might be able to invest wisely and make that last for the rest of his life without having to work.

I guess my question is, given wise investment and "reasonable" spending habits (nothing EXTRAVAGANT, maybe a few trips a year or something--somewhere between "comfortable" and "extravagant" I guess), how much would you have to win (assuming you won it right now) to live the rest of your life on it?

DISCUSS!

Current Mood: Ri¢h!
Current Music: Three Days Grace - "Riot"

"Shut Up" Is The New "[This] Is The New [That]"
Man, I believe Rockin' Gators Thursday night karaoke might be the summer replacement for the Tuesday night Hideaway winter tradition.

I arrived around 7:15PM, Stephanie was there already. We ate gator. Around 8:30PM, karaoke started. By the time I left, before 11:00PM, I had sung seven songs:

"Honky Tonk Women" (Rolling Stones)
"River Deep, Mountain High" (Tina Turner)
"Hold The Line" (Toto)
"9 To 5" (Dolly Parton)
"Burnin' Love" (Elvis Presley)
"Whiskey Girl" (Toby Keith) (THAT'S RIGHT, YOU MISSED ME SINGING TOBY KEITH!)
"I Put A Spell On You" (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) (Intentionally blowing out my voice before I left)

Yes, seven songs in under 2.5 hours. That is an average of one song around every 20 minutes. Quite a far cry from the Thursday nights of yore at Blueberry Hill (like seven years ago) where you were lucky to get in two songs within a three-hour period. I mean, if Stephanie and I (and Bill, for a little while) hadn't been there, this one guy Skeet and the karaoke DJ and maybe the bartender gal woulda been the only people singing (toward the end as I was the only person remaining, another guy joined in with some Counting Crows). As it was, the DJ (Tim) had to pull the old "play a regular version of a song between karaoke tracks just to fill the time or keep someone from going twice in a row" trick here and there. I really think there was a point at which Stephanie turned in a song and before she had gotten back to her seat she was being called up there.

Anyway, the reasons to co-opt Rockin' Gators on Thursday nights are as follows:

I) Gator-meat menu items. They don't have a gator burger like I thought, and the brain sandwich is now off the menu, unfortunately. BUT they have a variety of gator offerings still (including gator pizza or just plain ol' gator-dipped-in-some-honey-mustard). It does NOT taste like chicken, but it does taste MORE like chicken than it does like, say, pork or beef. This shouldn't be surprising or even noteworthy to anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of animal biology, though. It's really good, in any case. The decor, also gator-themed, is pretty unstoppable as well.

II) Wireless microphones on karaoke. Why hasn't every karaoke place adopted this yet? I'm pretty sure the setup that Tim had was like some crappy $40 mic rig. It really wasn't that great of a wireless, but it sounded fine and allowed one to travel all over (and even outside) the joint with ease. They have a big screen TV showing the lyrics to the karaoke that essentially is viewable to the entire bar but NOT a person singing karaoke in the traditionally-designated spot. HOWEVER if you take advantage of the wirelessness, and do some walking around the bar, this much-larger monitor is fully availed to your karaoke purposes.

III) The largest catalogue of karaoke songs I've ever seen, by far. Seriously, they have a 3.5-inch-thick binder of songs, and then you realize that's just half the alphabet. There was a whole page (so, like, between 30 and 45?) of ROXETTE songs (let's have a contest, how many Roxette songs can YOU name without looking them up? I got TWO), large sections of "Jewish" and "Gospel" music, and even two Joe Tex songs for crying out loud. Del Shannon was represented by like 10 songs. The guy's setup was such that you didn't even need some fancy number, just the artist and song title names. If a song has ever appeared on commercial radio, you can pretty much guaranteed just walk in there, write it down on the slip, sign yer name, turn it in, and in (almost literally) no time you'll be singing it (if it's a Thursday). El Scorcho is a joke by comparison, I think their entire catalogue is like an inch and a half thick. I was pretty disappointed by their selection the other week, and pretty much figured Talayna's was the way to go.

IV) Like I said, we were a group of 2 and we essentially owned the joint (Fridays and Saturdays, when they also do karaoke, are a different story, but points I-III do not change on those days). Seven songs, I did! What if we got even the low-end of our average Tuesday Hideaway crowd numbers in there? It could be most righteous.

V) It's sort of a combination of III and IV, but I've sorta been making multiple points in several of the outline bullets above so I don't feel too bad about making this a separate one: It's basically a place you can go to shamelessly try out new karaoke cuts. Of the seven I did, three were ones I had never done before. It's easy to experiment and not feel too bad if you fail when you can get in a song every 20 minutes (or at a rate better than one song every two hours or whatever).

I even got a sweet (orange) koozie and (coral? Salmon?) T-Shirt from Rockin' Gators. I haven't written off the Hideaway or anything, but it's true that I stopped going 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I haven't been back since I stopped going (and I hadn't stopped going since I started back in early December). Al is a skinflint (which means a lot coming from me, I think) and Bob apparently refuses to learn any new (even if they're old) songs. I expect/intend that we may well hit the Hideaway again, perhaps multiple times, on the post-Squidgame circuit. But boy is Rockin' Gators lookin' fine on the Thursday night front. Maybe just 1-3 times a month. THINK ABOUT IT!

Current Mood: HEARTBURN
Current Music: Johnnie Taylor - "I'm Just A Shoulder To Cry On"

RobERT
I think the pinky injury I sustained the other week basically rendered my pinky too large to wear one of a very few, and certainly the most meaningful/important, of family heirlooms I possess. This gold pinky ring (also visible as userpic):

The swelling has long since gone down, and while the finger is not 100% healed, the lower (closer to the hand) knuckle is too large for the ring to fit over.

My right hand pinky is too large to fit the ring as comfortably/at all. Dang.

Current Mood: Knuckled
Current Music: Dolly Parton - "Heartbreak Express"

Album Shufflin'--That Funky Shufflin'
I did mention a few weeks ago that I'd been listening to music using the "Album Shuffle" function of the Apple iPod, which has continued to this day indeed, and will not likely let up soon. Granted it's not a completely random shuffle (by album) of my entire collection, but whenever I want to add (or remove, but I haven't done that yet) something to the mix, I just toss it on the playlist, and then it's one of the albums that gets shuffled in.

One interesting thing about "Album Shuffle" is that, if you have more than one album by the same title, the iPod sort of thinks that it's all the same album (even if it is clearly able to differentiate separate artists). Luckily, this doesn't happen so much (ever, so far) with albums where it's really important to listen to all the tracks in a row (hence the reason for Album Shuffle in the first place, ostensibly), but more with compilation-style albums that have titles like "Greatest Hits" or "The Definitive Collection" or "Gold [Disc 2]" or whatever. I'm trying to think right now, and the only non-compilations in my collection that I can immediately call to mind are Jesse Irwin's and Nazareth's Hair Of The Dog.

SO in the current playlist, I have the Greatest Hits albums of Del Shannon, Pat Benatar, Ricky Nelson, and The Band--all called, simply, "Greatest Hits"--so whenever I hear the opening strains of "Runaway" I know that I'm in for a sort of collated version of these four compilations. Each album's first track will play in succession, in what I believe is alphabetical order by artist name (The Band being categorized as a "T" rather than a "B," and all solo artists being ordered by first name rather than last), then each album's second track, and so on.

At first only Del and Pat were in the playlist, but then I tossed in Ricky Nelson and later still The Band, not realizing that they'd be thrown into the "Greatest Hits" mix (so when I first heard Ricky Nelson follow Pat Benatar, rather than it going back to Del Shannon, I was a little surprised). I wonder for what other artists in my collection I have an album entitled simply "Greatest Hits."

Current Mood: Shufflin'
Current Music: The Band - "Acadian Driftwood"

Crow Bowl
My Bowling Self, not to be outdone by my Darts Self of the previous night, felt the need to bowl his best game ever last night: a 198. My last roll hit nothing and left 4 or 5 pins standing. I had 5 strikes in a row and a few others overall. It was mighty impressive, but boy how I long to bust that 200 mark wide open!

It was also the best game played by anyone on our lanes all night (among 7 people, one of whom consistently bowls above 200). HOWEVER of course my third game was the WORST game played by anyone on our lanes all night, and indeed the only sub-100 game. Pretty WEAK! That's BOWLIN' for ya I guess. 155-198-92. Hyuck! At least it's above average. Eric Von Damage had the best average of the night with a one-sixty-somethin'. Overall we trounced that other team though (and they are cool dudes), and I played almost all of the songs from The Big Lebowski soundtrack on the jukebox.

Then as I was leaving, Jimmy (the owner) told me that some tall blonde gal of average build had been in at Saratoga the previous night claiming she was bowling with me this summer when he tried to encourage her to sign up for a league. Well this is both NEWS and A MYSTERY to me, because we only have one gal bowling with us, and it's Karen, and she doesn't have blonde hair by even the most marginal standard. So either someone was talking about another Robert, OR mistaken about bowling with me this summer, OR Jimmy is just plain CRAZY! OR PERHAPS THAT IS ME, THE CRAZY ONE

Non, non non non, pas le bifteck

This weekend is nigh upon guaranteed to wail PRETTY HARD almost no matter what happens.

Current Mood: Turkey-Dance
Current Music: The Icons - "Sunday"

Who Darted?
I played the best game of 501 of my life, and perhaps the best game of darts in general of my life, last night. I don't know how many of you even know the rules to 501 (in a quick sentence, you start with 501 points and you have to be the first to work your way to zero, but you have to hit zero by an exact count, and the last throw you make to win must be a double), but my opening throw was a 120, I also had a 98 and a 128 in there. I was at 152 points, and I threw the 128, so I had 24 left--basically I had to get a double 12 to win. First dart I threw on the next turn was the double 12, and I won the game in like a total of eight throws. Incredible! I think I have this darts thing figured out. It was the third game of a best-two-of-three singles match, for the win. We only lost one game out of 9 last night.

We will probably have four bowlers tonight, and for the rest of the season (which ends next week), which is a bit of an "it's about time." Unfortunately both Eric and I will probably miss the first two weeks of our new season of bowling that starts on the 20th. I'll probably pre-bowl for my games, but I may see if Tony or CoolHand (or any of you) wants to SquidBowl during that time to take Von Damage's place.

I am apprehensive about this Saturday night bike ride. I am going to be in a lot of pain for a few days as a result of it, of this I am pretty sure. I guess it's one of the weaker/shorter rides of the year that the FBC does, but I am no biker, nor have I been for many a year, nor do I have time to get into ship-shape before the event. YEEKS!

To answer my own question, yes there's a bike rack right in front of Blueberry Hill's main entrance. I stopped at Tar-jhay and got a U-Bar and cable lock for my future-bike (and I guess for my present-bike, too) on the way home, as well as a new bell for good measure (my old bell was stupidly-designed, my new one has a sticker on it that says "I [HEART SYMBOL] MY MOM").

Current Mood: Lay Down, Breathe In
Current Music: Puerto Muerto - "Orange Foundation"

"There Is No Next Time, Only Every Time" --Donruss
Squidball is back, baby.

Current Mood: Finger-Broken'd
Current Music: Doris Day With Les Brown And His Orchestra - "Sentimental Journey"

Q: Who Won The Kentucky Derby?
A: I don't know, some horse.

Current Mood: No TIME!
Current Music: Babe The Blue Ox - "Home"

Bob P.
Man I was doing some reading about Robert Pollard/Guided By Voices and came upon this amazing passage:

GBV’s collective athletic skills came in handy when the band played The Beastie Boys and Billy Corgan in a pickup game of basketball. “We fucking smoked them — it was unfair,” Bob said in a Magnet interview. “We were hanging around with Kim and Kelley (Deal) and The Flaming Lips — that was our group. And Kim and Kelley were like our cheerleaders, and Steve Drozd was riding his bike around the whole time. We were like a circus.”

Hah hah...tremendous.

Current Mood: Tap Tap Tap
Current Music: Guided By Voices - "I Am Produced"

Chuck Berry @ Blueberry Hill's Duck Room In University City, Missouri; 04/22/09

Roll Over Beethoven
School Days
"So Long"? I cannot find, nor do I know, any information about what this song really is.
Sweet Little Sixteen
Carol
>>Little Queenie
Around And Around
Memphis
Mean Old World
Nadine
You Never Can Tell
My Ding-A-Ling
Reelin' And Rockin'

Gosh was it ever sweet. Check the comments of the last entry for a slightly more in-depth review! I have video of the 9½-minute-long final song that included inviting lots of ladies up onstage to dance.

Current Mood: Squidded Out!
Current Music: Chuck Berry - "Dear Dad"

My Curiosity Runnin' Wild
'Twas over four years ago I last saw Chuck Berry. I reckon there is that aspect of "it is something to do before he, or you, dies"--he did invent rock 'n' roll (not singlehandedly, of course, but at least as much as anyone, and more than most), after all. I have already seen him once, though; I am just some Chuck Berry fan YA KNOW? Even if I wasn't a fan of the music, he is an interesting character--scandals and all aside (or perhaps not), he always seemed/seems to do stuff on his own terms, not-givin'-a-crap-style. It is crazy to me that the dude toured the country in the '70s and '80s just solo-style in his Cadillac or whatever, just relying on local bands to back him up at each stop.

I am going next month, too, if anyone's interested (or even if they're not). Tickets go on sale this Friday at 5PM and I'll probably go snag 'em after work.

Current Mood: Brown-Eyed, Handsome
Current Music: Chuck Berry - "Tulane"

Breed On
Oh yeah, that Breeders video (mentioned in a previous entry) whose shoot we attended on Valentines Day (who was there?

roark and

miss_sneffany and

insides and

nastyboots as well as Keith, Jennifer, Jaime, Sarah P., Sara O., Lindsay R., Tim D., Jaffa, et cetera) is done, and RollingStone.com has released it: "Fate To Fatal" - Amy Whited is the first person you see in the thing, and I actually get some recognizable face-time in it (like half of one second, combined, over the course of two non-consecutive shots in the second half...still).

There are links floating around out there on the internet, but I think the link provided above circumvents the obligatory commercial beforehand.

Current Mood: Cake'd
Current Music: Cars Can Be Blue - "Sun Blows Up"

My Aim Is True?
Man I just listened to that Elvis Costello song "Alison" and I feel pretty confident that I have never heard it before in my life, or at least never recognizably so. That is, I couldn't have even guessed at its tempo or any lyrical hooks or anything stylistic about it if asked to, but sure, maybe it was in some movie(s) I've seen or something.

I skipped darts last night in spite of my intentions. It seems like I will let any one small thing convince me to skip darts. I can talk myself into it all day, and then let something like "figuring out my taxes" (truly a 15-minute job or so) deter me from going to darts. It's not that I don't like it, cuz really I enjoy playing darts, and all the people on the league are great, but:

*It's smoky at Blueberry Hill
*It lasts all gosh-dang night (starting at 7:30PM and ending anywhere between 10:00PM and 1:00AM)
*Tuesday and Thursday are usually drinking nights so I don't feel like drinking (physically or financially) on Wednesdays
*I just have a ton of other junk to do
*Tuesday and Thursday are also "hang out in smoky joint" nights, so it's nice to have a night off of that in between, especially since 3 of my 4 regular teammates smoke
*There are enough people on my team without me
*I've gotten used to going late or not at all

I felt especially bad because Karen said she was going and I just basically flaked 100%. I am not usually such a flake as it seems like I've been for several months now. Well, darts is almost over I guess. I will have to seriously think twice about doing it again soon. Certainly I'll hold off for the duration of the Squidball season (Darts will end approximately when Wednesday bowling starts, there might even be some overlap?).

Current Mood: Schloof
Current Music: T. Rex - "Telegram Sam"

Forty-Eight Aitch Eff Pee
All righty then, I went ahead and registered a Pancake Productions 48 Hour Film Project team. I think I E-Mailed most everyone that I thought would be interested (but probably didn't); however, if anyone in LJ-world that didn't get that E-Mail is interested in helping out, it's June 5th-7th.

The last coupla weeks in short: worked a craft show, played one of the worst Mustardfish shows yet, went to the Blues game, went to a foosball tournament, saw an amazing sketch comedy show of sorts, did lots of walking, Fish Frys every Friday (now over), barbecue at work, Squidfesten MMIX, watched Leprechaun and drank vodka tonics with Switchblade, went to the Silver Leaf for the first time, got the Bluefin Tuna back, bowled crappily, tried that ice cream place at Grand & Arsenal, played one of the best Mustardfish shows yet, spread the word about jenkem, another Squidball practice, slept too much, helped Beastor-X record the Shitty Friends, got rained out on our first Squidball game of the season, got back into the workout groove, registered for the 48 Hour Film Project.

"There've been good times. There've been bad times."

Current Mood: Tuesdin'
Current Music: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - "Up Above My Head I Hear Music In The Air"

Operation!

It seems she's been on the wait-list for that Dalek operation since the 1990s!

Current Mood: Jckajckajcka
Current Music: Brenda Lee - "You Always Hurt The One You Love"

The Bush-Mallard Of Wellston
I was making my way from one side of the Wellston Metrolink station to the other this morning, walking by a row of bushes that separates the drop-off lane from the parking lot, and was startled by a DUCK jumping out of the bushes as I passed. It took me a second to comprehend what had just happened; at first glance/scare I thought it was a pigeon or something but a split second later I was befuddled to see it was a duck. It took a few steps, didn't move too much. I passed it by and kept looking back, it seemed pretty confused. Aren't ducks supposed to be hibernating, or south for the winter, or something right now? He slowly stumbled around but seemed pretty disoriented. I wonder if he lives in those bushes or something?

Current Mood: Duck'd
Current Music: Tina Turner - "I Might Have Been Queen"

Live From Culver City, California
I just need Jeopardy! to call me.

Then, I need to win big.

That's all there is to it.

(Since I never did [yet] do that 2008 recap, I should clarify in case you don't know, that I'm in the Jeopardy! contestant pool 'til this December--I'm not just idly waiting around hoping that Jeopardy! will call me without rhyme or reason. Basically sometime before December, they may or may NOT call me, but if they do, it will be for no other reason than to say "come to L.A. and let's tape a show with you.")

Current Mood: Bar-B-Q Anticipatory
Current Music: Irma Thomas - "Without Love (There Is Nothing)"

Gas On Up
I haven't bought dang ol' petroleum in over a month now! I could get used to (have already gotten used to) this takin'-the-train circuit, at very least for work.

All that said I hope my car is ready soon.

Current Mood: Soupy
Current Music: Brenda Lee - "Dynamite"

St. Ferdinand
WORST Fish Fry I've ever been to, by far, for a lot of reasons I may go into later. Had a good group, though (Karen, Keith, Ken C., Bill M., Randi B.). I knew it wouldn't meet the hype, but I figured it'd still be a sweet fish fry to hit. NOPE. Fish Fry Club (which Karen wants to call "Squids" and for which we might get team KOOZIES!) will NOT be returning next year, or ever again, at any time. In fact I am peeved because I realize, the lenten season is short, we should have saved the spot given to St. Ferdinand, which we could go to any time of year to check out, for one of the many we will not be able to hit this year just due to availability.

I went to Novak's for the first time last night. Today I'm going to try and find pieces of a Bill Haverchuck costume for an '80s-themed Trivia Night, and renew my long-overdue-for-renewal SLCL card. Megan Harper and her boyfriend Gabriel are in town and we prank-called Kyle Mayer and Coire Reilly last night, hah hah.

Current Mood: Woozlee
Current Music: Pokey LaFarge - "Where I'm Gonna Go"

Bad Schedulin'!
Crap-doodle, dudes, I'm in a real bind!

The RFT Music Showcase, which was by far one of the best days of 2008 (perhaps the best, hands down), and which I have pretty well promised myself I'd never miss again, coincides with the final day of the 48 Hour Film Project, for which Pancake Productions has perennially put together a team, and which itself always ends up being a stand-up time.

Yikes-a-roonie! What to do? Part of me remembers the past coupla 48HFP years wherein I didn't do too much on the Sunday thereof besides hang out with the editor and say how certain things should go, and then later, turn in the tape, but of course I don't want to make myself unavailable in the event I should prove more necessary than that. After all, the 48HFP is all about not knowin' what's gonna happen next!

I RECKON THAT TIME WILL TELL

Current Music: The Monads - "Man In Town"

Schma-ha-ha-hap...DOT COM
Has anyone ever heard of, or used, Schmap.com?

It appears to be a tour guide service for various cities around the world, complete with pictures (drawn largely or exclusively from Flickr, it seems), featuring attractions, restaurants, events, hotels, parks, neighborhoods, and so forth. They had contacted me potentially interested in using a Flickr image of mine for their Chicago article on Hot Doug's, and then just yesterday they contacted me saying indeed they were using it.

I think that you can go to this specific Hot Doug's link to see my picture (which makes no sense unless you enlarge it), or just visit the original at its Flickr home.

I really have no idea how much prestige comes with this, but hey, someone liked my picture well enough to use it to make a place look appealing on the internet.

Ice cream for breakfast here shortly!

Current Mood: Schmappy
Current Music: Baby Teeth - "Taste The Wine"

Dang, You Missed It
Took 2nd place in Trivia at Newstead but not second to the team that'd been beating us all along. Didn't go with my gut and say definitively that John C. Reilly was in Days Of Thunder so we didn't get the maximum number of points we needed (by that same token if we'd guessed and gotten it wrong we woulda been in 3rd so NO BIGGZ).

AFTER THAT to the Hideaway, I figured it'd be a slow night but once again I was proven wrong, Krysta and her friend Tim brought some friends and Sara(h?) P. was there with her friend whose birthday it was. Ron drove Lauren and I there and Randi came later. Anyway Piano Bob had been sent home at 9:00PM because Al didn't think anyone was coming in (Hey Al, remember how we come in at 10:30PM, and pretty much never before that?), so the jukebox was playing upon our arrival. HOWEVER Al let me play the piano and sing, HAH HAH!

So (most of) you missed it, I was the featured pianist/singer at the Hideaway for a night. Yes, I played "Motor Away" by Guided By Voices (but my dream is still to get Bob to play it and have me sing it). Yes, Ron joined me for some Mustardfish classics (Concrete Blonde's "Joey," REM's "Orange Crush," The Exciters' "Tell Him," Eskimo Village's "I'm On Vacation," Al Martino's "Spanish Eyes," Beck's "Bogusflow"). Yes, I kept playing 'til they closed the bar (so, for like an hour and a half, maybe even closer to two hours). Yes, I even figured out "Easy" by The Commodores.

Tuesday night Hideaway nights are UNSTOPPABLE. Not even getting into a car crash and otherwise nigh-unnavigable streets could stop that train, apparently. Believe that.

Current Mood: Cold Water
Current Music: Faith No More - "Easy"

Songs I Wish I Wrote #2
Charlie Rich's "Love Waits For Me" from The Fabulous Charlie Rich (1969)

I didn't know if I'd ever do one of these again, but what the heck? Here I am.

This song is tight mostly because of its lyrics. It's on the more ballad-ish side of Charlie Rich (like all Charlie Rich, I guess, pretty much, more or less) but the subject matter is pretty priceless. Unfortunately it is the ONLY SONG from The Fabulous Charlie Rich whose lyrics I could not find online. I also can't find a YouTube video or anyplace where you can hear the song, and for that I am truly sorry.

However dudes this song is about some bus driver, who looks forward every day to picking up this one lady, who waits for the bus at the corner of 7th and Broadway. Dude was a southerner through and through (Arkansas represent), even if "Broadway" and being a city bus driver in general do evoke images of New York City (and, it is just a song).

Plus, it was written by Dallas Frazier, who also wrote that song "Alley Oop" that the Argyles, AKA the Hollywood Argyles, turned into a #1 hit back in '60. More in the "Love Waits For Me" vein, he was known for writing "There Goes My Everything," a Jack Greene tune from '66 that Elvis later covered (and which I sing almost every week at the Hideaway, incidentally). Frazier is still alive, a music industry expatriate and minister of some kind, apparently.

ANYWAY the tightest part of the song is this crazy crescendo where Charlie Rich starts singing about how he was daydreaming about this regular passenger of his bus route, and HE CRASHES INTO SOME OTHER CAR (EDIT: A taxi, to be exact!). Yep, in the middle of some schmaltzy country love song, Charlie Rich gets lost in his thoughts about the oh-so-beautiful bus-riding patron and CRASHES HIS BUS. Crashes the bus! And there is a SONG ABOUT THIS!

I almost want to write a sequel to this song, from the vantage point of other riders on the bus when the crash occurs; or maybe from that of Charlie Rich's boss who finds out about the crash and wants to fire the driver but dang he's a really good driver, just somewhat of a dreamer sometimes; or maybe even from the gal that Charlie Rich has a crush on, maybe completely oblivious to his longings or maybe even repulsed by him.

I am gonna admit, I don't even think this song is that spectacular, but I am 100% in love with the idea of writing a song that includes a bus driver crashing his bus cuz he's thinkin' about some lady. And that gels a-plenty with the title of the column, such as it is.

Anyway if you can find it, listen up. If you really wanna hear it, I can loan you the CD or play it when you come over to my house. Maybe if I ever do more of these I can make a CD of all of them for distribution to anyone that cares.

I'd say "listen and discuss!" if it wasn't so danged hard to find a copy of this song on the web-u-net.

Oh yeah, and if you wanna read that other one of these I did, it is over this-a-way.

Current Mood: J
Current Music: Charlie Rich - "Love Waits For Me"

I Command You To Rise From Your Grave And Rescue My Daughter.
And while I'm at it, Zeusing around, I command you also to rise from your grave and purchase this zine that features an article I wrote about the classic arcade/Sega game, Altered Beast. It's like $3, just goph'r.

I wrote it a long time ago, and I'd do it differently nowadays, but it is still mega-tight (it is about ALTERED BEAST, after all).

There are some other tight articles, stories, imaginary interviews, and more in there. You know, awesome zine stuff.

WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM!

Current Mood: Zine-ey
Current Music: This Little Girl Wailing On "Carry On My Wayward Son" At An Organ Recital

A New Years Memory
01/01/01 - Late at night, traipsing through the streets of downtown Brussels (Belgium) with Koji and Nils and Ron and probably a bunch of (other) strangers, shouting "Bonne Année" to everyone and no one, loudly and obnoxiously. Later we went to some second-story Greek restaurant. The recent rain glistened on the cobblestone streets and walkways all over the city. Earlier I danced atop a bar full of strangers at a place called JJ's for three hours straight. I wonder if I'll ever see Nils and/or Koji again, or what circumstances would surround that, or if they'd remember who I was (probably not on all counts, but who knows?). I think Ron and I had (at least some of?) our luggage with us cuz we were supposed to go to Thomas's the next morning. We set up in the foyer of a Fortis Banque in the early morning hours to keep warm, I passed out on some table in there while our wet socks hung over the radiator coils and we waited for Thomas to wake up or come home.

Dang, here is a patented

jabberwocky-epic-length entry all about it (and more)!

Current Mood: WISTFUL!
Current Music: Dudes "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" Has Been On Repeat All Day.

I Can Play That "Happies" Game...
...And I guess I sorta have been, what with that Climax video yesterday and all. Today, there's this incredible comic that is phenomenal on a regular basis, but today's is a pretty hilarious "Night Before Christmas" parody.

See'z y'all at the Hideaway tonight, no doubt.

Current Mood: Happzy
Current Music: Darlene Love - "Marshmallow World"

Christmas Eve, Eve
In case the notice got buried on your friendspage, under all those band-related MySpace bulletins, or just in the last LJ entry I made:

Join me for cheap drinks, hot dancing, and beautiful music, courtesy of ourselves (you and me and anyone else that wants to come--the more the merrier!) tomorrow night (Tuesday 12/23/08) at the Hideaway, 5900 Arsenal (JUST east of Hampton). Bob (the feller who plays piano there Tuesday nights) likes to let us sing, and it always makes the regular patrons happy when nice younger folk populate the place as such. If I get drunk enough quickly enough, you can assume I'll probably be buying rounds of Manhattans for everyone, strangers and otherwise.

We're likely to bust out a lot of Xmas songs ('Tis the season after all), but we/you can sing whatever you want, as long as Bob knows how to play it (his repertoire of the hit songs of yesteryear is staggering, and if the song is simple enough, I bet you could give him a chord progression and he could rock it easy). Bring a lyrics sheet, we won't judge. Heck, we'll have some of our own there for the general use.

I'm thinking 9PM. Get there, bring yer friends, and usher in Xmas with me, Bob, and whomever happens to be there that night!

Current Mood: Whole Lotta Shakin'
Current Music: Quief Quota - "Love Christmas"

The Climax - "Coyotes"
Here's a small sample of what I saw on Saturday night. This is just the tip of the iceberg--it's a cover (of sorts), after all. I was sitting just to the right of the guy operating camera, so you might hear some of my guffaws and/or singing-along in there. Gosh I love basement shows:

This dude is seriously one of my favorite performers on planet earth.

Current Mood: Climax'd
Current Music: The Climax - "Coyotes"

Oh, Comfort AND Joy.
Did I post this last year? I don't know or care! It's time to enjoy some Season's Tidings from Mustardfish of YesterApril:

Duh!

Current Mood: Woozl-y
Current Music: Mustardfish - "Silent Night"

Michalskimas
Holy Toledo the Holiday Rockin', it did make it onto the Billsmas (first annual?) Holiday Mix CD!

Current Mood: GrGrrgl!
Current Music: Chuck Berry - "Merry Christmas Baby"

MARLINA On DVD
Paul Velat, also known as Lord of the Yum-Yum, wrote a mini-opera with some help from myself in August of 2007. We later performed it, twice in St. Louis, and thrice in Chicago. You might have heard of me talk about it at various points as among the most entertaining, artistically fulfilling, and otherwise awesome things of which I've ever been a part. I wrote one of the songs, I sing it and one other song, and I created the voices for four distinct characters in the opera.

We had some video taken of one of the Chicago performances, and it has been edited and enhanced for your home viewing pleasure, now. DVDs are available, and contain a bonus feature or two for your added enjoyment.

Click on this thing to order one using PayPal or a credit card (CC on the left, PayPal on the right). All efforts to get 'em to ya by Xmas will be made, hah!

"Beneath the peaceful, placid surface, the eternal struggle for survival rages violently in the murky depths."
--Bud Van Lear

Current Mood: Dyzed
Current Music: Jon Bomb & The Humanoids Feat. Gnarly McDude & The Electric Sleds - "Surf Xmas"

Today Could Last Another Million Years
Daxmas VII is pretty hot stuff dudes.

Unfortunately I probably won't make it to more than like one of the release shows; either other parties or other shows or both are occurring during many of them (and shleesh, there are like twice as many as usual this year, even though there aren't as many songs on this year's as last year's?), and for example next Thursday is apparently our bowling league holiday party.

Oh yeah, I beat my old bowling high score this past Wednesday by 10 points: I bowled a 195, dang! So close! (To a 200, I mean.) I think maybe I have this bowling thing figured out, or maybe as Switchblade suggested, the lanes weren't lubricated properly, or whatever.

Why aren't there more bowling alley venues? By that I mean, why aren't there any at all? Even Arcade Lanes was only marginally a venue (and burned to the ground under what I've heard are suspicious circumstances), and they don't really do shows at Fireside Bowl (in Chicago) anymore.

Current Mood: CLRP!
Current Music: Trip Daddys - "Santa Claus Is Back In Town"

Sweet Holiday Tunes
Yo yes hello! In case you missed-ed last night's show of glory (or even if you didn't) here are some tight studio recording MP3s of Holiday fare that made appearance in various forms:

Holiday Rockin' by Googolplexia

5eason's 5reaklings, a Bunnygrunt song in 5/4 time with an extra verse, by Mustardfish

Those Pat Sajak Assassins were most excellent! PLUS I realized I had seen them before, at the old Creepy Crawl. I'm pretty sure, anyway. Last-minute I decided to do recitatives to open and close the set which was an awesome thing I should do at every show (Matt Pace said so as well), or at least with much more frequency at shows. But gosh-dang I was tired during that PSA set. The index-card holiday carol request idea met with mixed success, I got some pretty hilarious/creative/crude "requests" that way at least.

Current Mood: Glorx-Nax
Current Music: The Blind Eyes - "Christmas AM Gold" (Daxmas VII, baby!)

Torsdag

(Click on that image if you somehow don't know what Googolplexia is!)

Current Mood: T Minus 40
Current Music: Bunnygrunt - "All I Got For Christmas Was This Lousy Boy"

SLIFF On The March!
I have now attended 13 SLIFF events this year. All but one were very awesome and well worth my while. The one that was not was due to a variety of things. In addition to just not really caring for the movie, the (DVD) print was horrible, I had the worst toothache of my life that night, driving to Plaza Frontenac was a particularly crappy experience on a variety of levels that time, and so on. Maybe under better circumstances...however, maybe NOT, as I'm told that it received one of the lowest audience-vote averages in SLIFF history, and the second screening that had been planned for it the following day was replaced by another screening of a different SLIFF selection.

That said, I have three screenings remaining, tomorrow. HOWEVER tonight I saw a movie such that, even if every other movie I'd seen or will see this year, in SLIFF and otherwise, was the worst movie I'd ever seen, it would make up for all of them and then some. Really I think Yesterday Was A Lie may well end up in my top 10 or 5 or 2 all-time favorites at some point, if it isn't there already. The director was a local guy of whom I'd never heard, and who hadn't been back to town in a long time. One of the lead actresses was a regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (the two of them were at the screening and did a Q&A afterwards). The awesome thing about this Q&A was that, unlike most Q&As, I feel like:

1) I took something meaningful away from it, and it enhanced the experience of just having seen the movie.

2) Those on the Q&A panel were reluctant to explain too much, or to let their own interpretations of the movie get in the way. Since it was a rather non-linear movie, at least chronologically, and since it dealt with somewhat complicated themes on certain levels, and since there were just so many durn levels to the thing period, there were a lot of (admittedly, eye-roll-inducing--see below) questions asked.

The soundtrack was phenomenal (most of it sung by Chase Masterson, the aforementioned actress, herself), the performances were rock-solid, the themes were obscure and universal all at once, the dialogue was snappy, Chewbacca (or rather, the actor that plays him) was in it, and of course, a duo of chesty broads as the one-two-punch of leading ladies hurt it none whatsoever. I don't really know how to explain it. It was kind of like the feel of Thomas Pynchon's novel The Crying Of Lot 49 made into a thinking-person's Fight Club as a sci-fi film noir alchemical love story. I sorta rushed the stage after the Q&A was over just to say thanks for making this movie, I loved it, and when a soundtrack is available I want it. I was asked my name, thanked for my sentiments, and told to keep an eye on that website. Oh yeah, and it was the first time it had ever screened (after about 45 festival appearances so far) as the re-edited "director's cut," awesome.

So see it if you get the chance. You won't (get the chance), probably, and even if you do, you won't (see it), probably. If Jump Tomorrow was ever any indication, "What I consider to be some of my top 10 or 5 or 2 favorites" never seemed to hold much sway with my friends, or anyone else. That's something with which I came to terms as acceptable (maybe even preferable) many years ago, though. In other words, "see if I care."

Relatedly, it seems like every Q&A I've seen this year at SLIFF has included at least one question that was previously already-answered in the course of the Q&A session. Obnoxious! If you care enough about what's being said to ask a question, the least you can do is listen to hear if it has been asked or addressed already.

Booked muh Thanxgiving week/weekend flights today, holy cow! And, I went to see this Norwegian movie called O'Horten this afternoon which Bill woulda liked, if only on account of all the TRAINage (but probably otherwise, too), and ran into my sax-playin' Norwegian Club friend Randy there. He apparently plays with the Zydeco Crawdaddys!

Current Mood: Wakerly
Current Music: Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle - "Picking Up After You"

Un Poème Franswah
Un petit d'un petit
S'étonne au hall
Un petit d'un petit
Ah! degrés de folles
Un dol de qui ne sort cesse
Un dol de qui ne se mène
Qu'importe un petit d'un petit
Tout Gai de Reguennes.

Current Music: Baskervilles - "See You Later Heartbreaker"

Half-Birthday Head-Shave
Friday night we shaved my head as part of Salon Miniscule. First one side, then the other, then the remaining mohawk-strip in the middle, with various other elements of the Salon happening between each segment. It proved pretty popular. I couldn't properly gauge responses of people because we were in the bathroom for the head-shave segments, and my glasses were off, and there are only a few portals of view for the bathroom there. Anyway, first we cut it all off, then this gal that came with Brian (Vittenson), Cara, BIC'd a portion of what remained. My head is all cold and I'm wearing lots of hats and it is awesome! Actually my neck feels the cold now more than my head does (but both do). Right in time for the cold winter, BRRRR! Some girl tried to say I should re-think my glasses now that I have the shaved head, but I thought, as Paul said, "on the contrary!"

Brian Vittenson and Sarah Truckey got some still and video evidence (not respectively) of this event and the resulting whatnot, that might surface someplace at some point.

Then next morning I took a bus to Ann Arbor, got a ride to Ypsilanti, and much fun was had at the Dreamland Theatre, the Tap Room, Biggie's, and the corner liquor store where some dudes got robbed at gunpoint. A magical weekend nonetheless, I got to do some puppetry for a Patrick Elkins puppet show and saw Yum-Yum's sock operetta, and met some people that know some people I know! And, not just Travis Bursik this time (though I did run into some Travis-Bursik-knowers). Hyuck!

Speaking of meeting people that know people I know, did I mention that I met Mic Boshans's girlfriend and she went to High School with, and knew my cousins--in Huntington Beach, California?

Just like last year, the Norwegian Society Dinner (which is $13 cheaper than it was last year) and my company holiday party are on subsequent days (not in that order). Unlike last year I have no date prospects for either!

Current Music: Hayden - "Bass Song" (Live)

Fancy Running Into You Again
Tonight I ran into Bart & Katie for the first time in perhaps as many as 4 or more years. Crazy! I love'm those dudes, they are marrying in January. I hope they took seriously my invitation to trivia tomorrow night as well. As should you: At the crazy soccer bar on Morgan Ford that opened up recently, at or before 8PM.

Squids took 2nd at Newstead--I was going it alone for the first round or two, then Autumn, then Switchblade, showed up. I have determined that Newstead Tower Pub is a wonderful, wonderful place for the following reasons:

1) $10 buckets of Stag (6 cans).
2) Tenacious Trivia Tuesday nights--the only place where Tenacious gets a little "scholastic"/"academic" as opposed to the "pop culture/entertainment" trivia they usually do. Plus Keith does it once in awhile.
3) I think a prerequisite to be on the staff there is "painful adorableness." And maybe "neck tattooed-ness" too.
4) It takes like 10 minutes more to train/bus there than it does just to drive. A mere 10 minutes!
5) All local/organic food!
6) Cheap beers outside of Stag.
7) Wood paneling.

Get there!

Current Mood: Drunken & Drowsy
Current Music: Xavier Cugat - "Perfidia" (with Cha Cha Aguilar & Carmen Castillo)

You're Wrong
I almost forgot about this video 'til Stephanie reminded me of its existence. Some of the lyrics are a little difficult to understand but it is still tight. An Election Day special:

Man, did I ever take the "Left At The Light" and "Big Wicket" days for granted.

Current Mood: Splorf'd
Current Music: Tom Waits - "Tango 'Til They're Sore"

Drive-O-Ween
Holy crap I just mapped out my Halloween 2008 itinerary using MapQuest, starting here at work and ending at Beastor-X's house, and with all the stuff in between, and apparently I'm gonna be in the car for about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

That doesn't include the 35-minute drive I took to work this morning or the 10-minute drive home from Beastor-X's.

Glulp! Well, you know that's one heck of a night. It also doesn't include some mandatory in-between, potentially-out-of-my-way stops at McDonalds (for my costume, not necessarily for consumption, but there will likely be plenty of that, too).

Current Mood: Shake Shake Shake
Current Music: Bob Dylan - "Temporary Like Achilles"

McCheese In '08: The Jack-O-Lantern
In case my new LJ userpic, that Inspirational Poster I made and posted here the other day, my Halloween costume, and my word weren't enough to convince you that I really am voting for Mayor McCheese on Tuesday, maybe this will:

It's a video rather than a still because the image and text wrap around the pumpkin (both vertically and horizontally) more than a still image could thoroughly show. Note the somewhat botched attempt to make the "M" resemble the golden arches. This whole thing took me over 3 hours and made my hand (and back) hurt like heckfire (and I still had to go to bowling once I finished, in fact I was late cuz I was finishing).

Unfortunately last year(Depress-O-Ween)'s Lurch (from The Addams Family) jack-o-lantern has been lost to the annals of unrecorded history, from what I can tell. Two years ago I made this bad boy (which crops up from time to time as an LJ userpic):

And the year before that I won first prize (a set of costume moustaches) at Autumn's pumpkin-carving party/contest for my unicorn head, but I can't find the pictures of that, either.

Sorta cross-posted to

pumpkincarving!

Current Mood: RILED
Current Music: Prune - "Aw Yeah"

Come To My Arms, My Sweet Miranda
Man my hair is getting long, too long. I want to cut it but I think that's gonna be a performance piece of sorts at the (especially appropriately-titled, in this case) Salon Miniscule of November 14th (my half-birthday coincidentally!). I need to book my bus for that weekend but I am waiting to find out if Taylor is shooting his movie (Garbage Monsters III: Creek Monsters II: Sewer Monsters) on the 16th or the 9th to figure out when I'm coming back. I might accompany Paul and Patrick to the throes of Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti, Michigan, that weekend (Saturday) if Taylor won't need/want me. I talked to Paul at some length yesterday, he appears to have much exciting stuff on the horizon, some of which may include myself.

DVDs of Paul and I's mini-opera, Marlina, will allegedly be available by December. IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS! They are of limited availability, and unlimited awesomeness, you bet.

Halloween: Dot's>>Newstead Tower Pub OR Trick-Or-Treating>>[CBGB>>]Beastor-X's. That party at Beastor-X's is gonna be phenomenal, you should all be there. I might play my third show in just over a month, there? That is scarcely the main reason it's gonna be the best party in town, though!

Day After Halloween: Maybe an emergency dentist visit (fierce toothache), Metrolink Prom.

Did I mention that I've uploaded a compressed version of my Dax-O-Ween track to the internet for your perusal? CDs including a better version of this, as well as 7 other finely-rocking tunes of local artists, can be acquired for $5 from MY OWN SELF!

Last night I started in to the first season of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and it is so awesome. The kind of show where: I laugh because I know what's going to happen, I laugh as it's happening, and I laugh again when I think of it later. I guess you can say the S-word on F/X? That's news...I've seen movies on F/X where said word was "bleeped out."

Current Mood: Jangle Jungle
Current Music: Wooden Kites - "Our Secret In The Orchard"

Metrolink Prom
Really, too good of an idea to miss:

Current Mood: Toothache'd
Current Music: Irma Thomas - "Times Have Changed"

It's Time For A Change.

Update To Add: I know this is (as Will Novak said) sorta tin-foil-hatty, but come on, the Cheeseburger Party is ready to have a candidate elected.

Current Mood: Cheese'd
Current Music: Chloé - "Le Canapé"

The Shitty Friends
Here are some videos I shot of Jaffa's new band's first (and I think still, only) show ever, at Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 09/07/08.

Current Mood: Flusters'd
Current Music: The Shitty Friends - "When The Train"

David Byrne @ The Fabulous Fox In St. Louis, Missouri; 10/18/08
1. Strange Overtones
2. I Zimbra (Talking Heads)
3. One Fine Day
4. Help Me Somebody (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts)
5. Houses in Motion (Talking Heads)
6. My Big Nurse
7. My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks) (from The Catherine Wheel)
8. Heaven (Talking Heads)
9. Never Thought
10. The River
11. Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads)
12. Life Is Long
13. Once in A Lifetime (Talking Heads)
14. Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
15. I Feel My Stuff

16. Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)
17. The Great Curve (Talking Heads)

18. Air (Talking Heads)
19. Burning Down the House (Talking Heads)
20. Everything That Happens

Admittedly (mostly) stolen from the RFT blarg. He was very careful to point out that "Burning Down The House" did not fit within the canon of the other songs played that night (as the focus was Byrne/Eno collaborations from all periods). If this show was any indication, this new Byrne/Eno album is going to be phenomenal (it has been released on the nerd-u-net already but not on CD just yet).

Unfortunately I did not make it to the Jack The Ripper art show afterwards. Erik & Olivia took me home, and only the next day did I realize that I should have had them take me to the Metrolink station, as that's where my car was (I'd taken the train to the show). I sat with Erik, Olivia, and Justin, but we did run into Bill and Brigid too.

A Very Bert Dax Halloween has been released and I got my copy yesterday. It sounds as tight as expected (very). I'm playin' that release show at Lemmons this Friday night, and so are Bad Folk, Rum Drum Ramblers, and Bunnygrunt!

Current Mood: Ballerina-Style
Current Music: Dee Dee Sharp - "Baby Cakes"

Get Back On That Bus, You'll Forget About Us
Hayden @ Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, 09/25/08

If anyone would have been surprised to hear that Hayden’s next album were to include a series of country-tinged toe-tappers, certainly such potential surprise would dissipate after attendance at tonight’s Duck Room show. No such announcement has been either made or confirmed in any of the obvious outlets for such announcements. However, the punctuation of last night’s set with a few unreleased songs bordering more on a country sound than Hayden has previously explored publicly is an exciting prospect for fans both of Hayden and the broader genre.

Backed by fellow Canadians and labelmates Cuff The Duke--one of three acts, including Hayden himself, on Hayden’s own label, Hardwood Records-—the five emerged from the backstage area to minimal fanfare and only scant acknowledgement. The stage, decorated with autumnal red and orange lights reflecting of the art direction of Hayden’s most recent release In Field & Town (whose cover also served as backdrop, in mural form), and the performers thereupon, seemed to become the crowd’s focus only once the lights and house music went down. Like a vaudeville showman of yesteryear, our leading man wore formal attire—-collared shirt and necktie underneath a grey vest.

A perhaps-slightly-slow version of “Home By Saturday” from 2004’s Elk-Lake Serenade heralded the arrival of Hayden and his more-than-able protégés. Following up with the title track from Hayden’s newest, he immediately warns for us to “take it easy;” difficult advice not to accept when in the presence of Hayden’s typically mellow and unassuming wintry compositions. Directly in line with the hushed optimism so closely associated with Hayden as well was “More Than Alive,” also from In Field & Town. Long-time observers of Mr. Desser’s career were rewarded next with the urgent and driven rocker (or at least about as close to one as Hayden typically gets) “The Hazards Of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees” from 1998’s The Closer I Get.

Where Hayden’s music and lyrics often seem depressing, his stage banter tends toward the downright hilarious—perhaps indeed because it’s the sedate songsmith engaging the crowd so fully, if maybe a tad shyly. During the course of one song, Hayden turned to organist/guitarist Wayne Petti to mouth that he was “out of tune,” realizing after a confused look (and what Hayden called some slightly more joyous ivory-ticklin’) from Petti that his message was perhaps misconstrued as “I love you.”

“Dynamite Walls,” and early track on 2001’s Skyscraper National Park delighted as usual with the contrast between its somber minor-key verses and upbeat major-key choruses, highlighted by equally contrastive lyrics: “Miles away/Just up ahead/It doesn't matter what/Any of us is looking for/We'll never find it because/It's not even there.” “Where And When,” an upbeat number from the new album for which Hayden solicited the audience’s help as a “clap, clap, clap-clap-clap” (think “Let’s Go Cardinals”) rhythm section and Paul Lowman pounded out the staccato bass beats. One of the aforementioned country-colored unreleased tracks, “Let’s Break Up!” (the exclamation point comes straight from the band’s own setlist), followed next and proved Hayden once again the master of disparity—-a somewhat humorous title with ostensibly sad subject matter to match.

No doubt partly owing to his tendency to play smaller venues, Hayden never seems to be without a variety of humorous stories from the road, as well. At this point in the show, he told of a particularly nauseating couple seen days before who shared with Hayden that they’d first made love to his music. Slightly nauseated, lacking anything better to say, and always polite to a fault, his reply was “which song?” to which the man responded “it was actually a whole album.” Annie Zaleski might be interested to hear some tales told of a recent show in her former home of Cleveland, wherein one gentleman was standing two feet away from guitarist/metallophonist Dale Murray and loudly shouting inquiries as to what kind of guitar pick was in use by Murray. A lady at the same show, apparently more sheets to the wind than were numerable, first stood with her back to Hayden and her neck craned to look up at him, and later lay down right on top of his pedal rack. Apologetically and not without regret, Hayden’s response was to leave her be and work around her, until an accidental brush by her breast provided humiliation enough for her to get up. “Only in Cleveland,” he quipped before moving on.

Hayden changed to keyboards for In Field & Town’s closing track, “Barely Friends,” a lilting requiem for a relationship gone awry at some juncture that was as telling a showcase of drummer Corey Wood’s vast talents as any song played over the course of the evening. The follow-up, and one of only a few songs on In Field & Town not directly indicative of lost love, was “Lonely Security Guard,” the kind of twist-ending song-story into which Hayden has been known to delve at least once per album. This one, the tale of an origami-folding, seemingly oblivious security guard of a store in a bad neighborhood, disappoints none on that front, and upon his announcement that he’d be playing it next, a particularly animated section of the crowd offered their approval. The forlorn confusion of “Did I Wake Up Beside You?,” also from the new album, followed.

A quick move back to guitar, and thereafter perhaps the closest Hayden has come to a radio-friendly pop tune (and another of his twist-ending song-stories, this one from Elk-Lake Serenade), complete with “La-la-la”s, “Hollywood Ending,” led into yet another “La-la-la”-oriented tune (this time, even more complete with sing-along), with Skyscraper National Park’s “Carried Away.” Between the two, Hayden lamented his having put two “La-la-la” tunes in a row on the setlist, but to end the first set with two such upbeat and engaging cuts was indeed a solid, if unintentional, decision.

After a short break, Hayden returned from backstage alone. Re-donning and re-tuning his guitar, he began with “Bad As They Seem,” whose original lyrics “Girl of my dreams/Things are as bad as they seem/She is only sixteen/That's why she's only a dream/Woman of my dreams/Lives right down my street/Has a daughter who's sixteen/That's why she's only a dream” were augmented such that “twenty-three” replaced “sixteen” because, as Hayden identified, in the 13 years since the song’s original release on Everything I Long For, the lyrics had become “creepy” (though by his own admission, they were only less creepy by a marginal amount, now). Cuff The Duke’s return to the stage was halted and reversed by Hayden, who decided last-minute to play the short but sweet “Stem,” from the same album, as requested by some of the more vocal audience members. When Cuff The Duke returned for real, another unreleased and country-influenced song, “The Place Where We Lived,” continued the night’s complementing of the high-spirited with the subdued, and “Trees Lounge,” from the soundtrack of the same name and co-written by Steve Buscemi (who also directed the film), a concert favorite, closed out the encore.

As winter descends upon us, don’t forget your Hayden, and remember that, like winter, even the most dark and depressing songs can carry with them an impending luminosity.

EDIT: It has been edited and is online now, here

Current Mood: Flashing
Current Music: Hayden - "More Than Alive"

Hayden @ Blueberry Hill's Duck Room In St. Louis, Missouri; 09/25/08
1. Home By Saturday
2. In Field & Town
3. More Than Alive
4. The Hazards Of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees
5. Dynamite Walls
6. Where And When
7. Let's Break Up!
8. Barely Friends
9. Lonely Security Guard
10. Did I Wake Up Beside You?
11. Hollywood Ending
12. Carried Away

13. Bad As They Seem
14. Stem
15. The Place Where We Lived
16. Trees Lounge

I am writing this up for the RFT blarg, so I won't go on about it here. As usual I will post that later. I saw Cara & Phil there, and Jaime L. & Sara P. (whose camera I borrowed, but I am pretty sure none of the pictures kept because there was no memory in the camera, whoops), and this gal...crap, I forgot her name again, she lives at the "Franklin House" out in St. Charles and I met her at Paul's last show in town, at Mic's house.

Current Mood: Dozer'd
Current Music: My Bloody Valentine - "Only Shallow"