What the hell is going on?

I drove thru a blizzard yesterday to see Sting, but walked around in sunshine and warmth at my new house today.

Then on Nestscape's news page webpage I see this?


I'm not making this up. See?:

Skydiver jumped out of plane, hit the wing of the plane he jumped from, and severed his legs at the knees.

Joy says "The Universe giveth, and the universe taketh away."

Arby's manager cut off part of his finger, it fell into lettuce bin and made its way to some poor dude's sandwich.

***************
***************

We need some Comedy Ginger to lighten up the mood.
Like this.

***************
***************

I mentioned seeing Sting Sunday night (Grand Rapids). 4 man band. Sting on bass, 2 electric guitarist, and Josh Freese of A Perfect Cirlce on drums. A 'getting back to roots' kind of tour of college towns, pulling out some full-on electric barrage numbers. And Geez did the band rip it out.

Here was the setlist:

Message In A Bottle (balls out)
Spirits In The Material World (balls out)
Demolition Man (elephant balls out)
I Hung My Head
Synchronicity II
End Of The Game
Driven To Tears
Invisible Sun
Heavy Cloud No Rain
Why Should I Cry For You?
Fields Of Gold
A Day In The Life
The Soul Cages (tease) --into--> King of Pain
--(stopped playing KoP in 92, this is a first since he said he wouldn't play it anymore back then)
Voices Inside My Head--sung over/juxtaposed over-->When The World Is Running Down (then full-on into WTWIRD)
Roxanne (still comes up with twists on the arrangement that keeps your interest I must say)

Encore 1
Next To You (balls out)
Every Breath You Take (of course)
She's Too Good For Me

Encore 2
Lithium Sunset


Yeah there were some 'Adult Contemporary' numbers in the middle for the ladies in the room, but other than that it was awesome to hear some Police-era bravado coming of the stage. The band was world-class superb. As always with Sting.

Sir Bekkala, Master of Ticket Acquisition, had us 13th row on the floor of Van Andel, dead center, halfway between stage and soundboard. First concert ever I was close AND could hear word inunciation in an arena. We could hear Sting talking off-mic to the band cueing changes during jams.

And it was Sir Steve's first Sting show. Sting always puts on a superb show, glad Steve's first show leaned toward the heavy tunes, so if/when he goes again and the band's bigger and less rock-ish he understands both vibes. Though Sting's shows always have good rocker jams too. This tour is more of'em.

Josh did great on drums, but for this tour DAMN I missed Vinnie.

Don't worry hipsters, there were no Jaguars for Mr. Tantric to gloat in to be seen.
He didn't even take his coat off to show his physique to the ladies.

Why is it Sting is the "asshole" when from all the old footage and documentaries it was so obvious that Stewart was the brattiest most instigating and arrogant prick of the band?? Oh I remember, because "he was bringing Sting down from his high horse". Riiiight...

Good thing Sting's hit-writing high horse was a tad taller than Mr. Copeland's, or 'Stu' would be thanking you're college-age cousin for choosing Kinko's.

***************
***************

Don't you frickin' hate it when you pay your bills for the month and realize you had too much fun leading up to your 'Bill Paying Night' and now you're deadnuts broke already for the next 2 weeks?

"Hello Mr. Pepsi and Mr. Cheeto's. Busy for the next 2 weeks?"

***************
***************

"Billy George Sin Bo Rain Ox McGee! "

Crazy Ass TV Dreams Fillin' Me With Glee!"

HoRAAAAAAAAY, Lizard Shiiiiiit.. BELOG!!"


It's the first rainy spring morning here in Ann Arbor, a warm morning but with pleasant rain. Like 'sit home and watch John Hughes movies with the windows open to hear the rain' pleasant rain.

I stood at my huge window next to my work cube, looked out at the rain coming down again and said aloud "I think I need to pull up some SuperTramp".

Everyone around here today has that "Good Lord I didn't want to get out of bed today." Companies need to have the rainy day equivalent of a floating holiday/snow day. When it's such a great morning to just chill out and sleep in with a light spring rain coming down so it lulls you to sleep... companies should allow you that day to just chill at home and enjoy a gentle rainy day. It's good for the soul. Maybe call it a "Floating Seattle Day"?

Floating in caffeine maybe. Joy told me all the coffee companies started out in Seattle because the rainy depressed weather is what drove people to use caffeine as the psychological survival tool it can be.

Then she told me that she left the windows down on her car this morning.

(I think the guys in the audience know this rest of this story.)

*************
*************

How about this:

Monday morning woke up from a dream where I was in a basement waiting room for whatever. I was hunched behind a couch trying to suppress this obsessive urge to get up and do stand-up (for the first time) in front of everyone in the room. But the reason I was having this urge was because it was burning inside of me to share with everyone how Blair, Mrs. Garret and the handy token guy neighbor on 'Facts Of Life' all had this Frankenstein-ian Botox look to them. Like a cross between Max Headroom from the 80s and Mickey Rourke's character from Sin City. That smooth yet swollen jawbone/cheekbone/forehead thing. But the token neighbor guy (who was really a young George Clooney with a mullet on the real show), he wasn't Clooney but this FrankenBotox'd blend of that Red Sox player Johnny Damon who looks like a Grizzly Adams/Billy Ray Cyrus blend. But in my dream he has a dash more Hawaiian DNA to him (underneath the Botox).

Yep. And you think I make this shit up.





(Guess which one is when he told Jo he was Batman AND a Doctor.)

*************
*************

How can one not share this pic with the world? I mean, someone, at least once, probably one of the Generals, did this for him.

Hi

This quote is cool:

"A comment on the importance of poetry...
There are four dimensions of poetry: intelligence, senses, emotion, imagination. And it appeals to these things in three ways: through rhythm, through sound, and through what might best be called "correspondence," the comparison of apparently unlike things. The poem you create is an object you can carry in your hands, a smooth stone you can keep under your tongue. Poety is a place where you live part of your life, so you owe it to yourself to make it as real, as comfortable, as furnished as you can. Because the right poem at the right time can save your life. "


**************
**************

This movie seems like it would be cool weird.

**************
**************

Star Wars Mike told me he read in some new Star Wars character book that Darth Vader can't shoot blue force lightning since his arms are robotic and he has gloves on too.

**************
**************

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:
I've believed I've needed brake work for a few months now and in the past 2 days my brake pedal was going all the way to the floor, like I had no brakes. (I barely had brakes.) I postponed belated birthday dinner plans with Mom to take advantage of Mechanic Friend Brendan being home, before he split for Vegas for 5 days. Brendan diagnosed my troubles over the phone from my descriptors and organic sound effects, told me what parts to buy at Murray's and we'd do a brake job in his driveway. The A2 Murray's who had the parts - when I got there, somehow, someway, some other person in Ann Arbor with a 2000 Focus needed those rotors and brake pads and bought the last ones. Within the 3 hours I called on them and then got there. But the Ypsi store, 10 miles in other direction of Brendan's, had them. So I hop in the car, which is losing brake ability, haul ass to Ypsi to retain the sunlight, get the parts, and get back to Brendan's. Very grumpy, very frustrated, just Meh...

Upon actual inspection of my rotors, pads, and brake fluid, Brendan filled my low brake fluid back up, the brakes came back to life, and I'm getting my $125 in parts refunded tomorrow. I know that for a good while there was a grinding sound coming from my front wheels. Maybe when the fluid starting getting low there was an airpocket/hydraulic chamber noise going on when I braked. I dunno know, there was something grinding.

Anyway, I to got get some more car stuff done as I used Brendan's shopvac to vaccuum out the car, Joy and I jumped on Brendan's backyard trampoline a bunch, I did one good land-and-stay-upright-on-my-feet front somersault, had some DiGiorno and beer, and came home. I have not stopped yawning since. And Max the Rottweiller we're dogsitting got to make friends with Brendan's great dog Cosmo. They ran and chased and sniffed each other's butts all night. Kinda like guys when they get together; they run their mouths, chase girls, and smell each other's ass via farts all night. The universe is all relative via verbs, that's all. It's the nouns that separate everything.

Joy was an absolute angel tonight. The best girlfriend in the world. The grumpier I got the funnier and nuttier she got to force me to smile. I'm blessed.

**************
**************

Speaking of blessed, i got to hang out with Dad Wednesday night, have a nice dinner. I got an iPod as a birthday/get-well present (the hernia op I had in February.) How cool is that? My dad was hearing baout them, asked me about it, I showed him online how cool they were. My Dad's always a sucker for great gadgets.

He always asks me about finding old songs from the 50s he grew up with, so he asked me about 2 songs;
1.The b-side to Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk", which we figured out via the internet as 'Tear Drop.'
2. The b-side "Sometimes" from Danny & The Juniors. (They did the 'At The Hop' song)

We found both, and it was cool to sit next to my Dad and watch him smile as he literally had not heard 'Tear Drop' in 50 years. 50 Years people.

( Iswear, I wanna make links to all these songs above but I'm so damn tired right now... sorry)

Its ya Berfday

Today's my Birthday.
Some interesting facts:

- I ate Star Wars-themed cereal for the first time this morning since probably 1983.
(I bought a corn flakes and a marshmallow ceeral, both with Darth Vader on it this weekend. Normally I don't by the theme food stuff, then it hit me that this is the last time in my life I'll have a chance to eat cereal with SW pics of Vader and the crew on it. So why not have some fun.

- I was born on Easter Sunday in 71. Every 11 years my birthday hits on Easter Sunday again.
Birth, 11, 22, and last year my 33rd. I plan to make a t-shirt that says
"Birthday '99 - Go For It!!!" Or, "No really, check the numbers, because yes, I am Jesus."
(That will look good on me at the shuffleboard tournament at the Florida retirement home.)

- This is the first birthday ever with blogging in my life.

- I try to buy the Sunday paper to read the celebrity birthdays for the week to see if someone cool has my birthday. This year I learned it was Joss Stone. Well, at least Letterman's is tomorrow the 12th.
-b. My shared celebrity birthdays:
Rose Kennedy
Joel Grey (actor)
Brad kid from high school.
Amy chick I met at Cross street way back when.
Joss Stone

The coolest shared birthday thing I *used* to have was that it was Eddie Van Halen's and Valerie Bertinelli's wedding anniversary. But that was before the divorce.
Oh well...



One thing I love is how David Lee Roth once commented (during the 1996-97 'Almost Reunited But Didn't' Van Halen Wars)that Eddie was so hammered at his own wedding that Roth was in the bathroom holding Eddie's hair from falling in the toilet while Eddie puked his brains out, while wearing that awesome white tux with tails. Val was pounding on the mens room door for Eddie, screaming that Roth "better not have given him any coke."

Just picturing Roth and Eddie in that scenario probably an hour after that shot above was taken makes me laugh.

Ya see, I didn't even try, and on my birthday I brough in partying, Star Wars, and Van Halen again. It just happened.

************
************

From the The problem with knowing what you want is that you just might get it file:

Rapper Corey Miller has changed his stage name from C-Murder to C Miller "because he thinks he's been misunderstood," USA Today reports. "I am not a murderer," Miller says in a statement. He is, however, behind bars, appealing a conviction--for second-degree murder.

Also,
A judge recently reduced P.Diddy’s child support payments from $35,000/month to $28,000/month when he surmised that the ‘ex’ was not spending this money on the child but may have been using the money to enhance her lifestyle.

I hate these shitheads.



************
************

"You will go see Umphrey's McGee...."

B is for Bullsh*t and this Bullsh*t's NOT for me

First the Pope dies as an eclipse hits and now Cookie Monster's telling us to eat healthy??!!

*********
*********

So the latest issue of Rolling Stone has this feature on the 'The Immortals" with big name artists writing on 100 legendary artists. such as Elton John writing on Eminem, Dave Matthews writing on Radiohead, Trey Anastasio on Frank Zappa, Beck on Hank Williams, David Bowie on Nine Inch Nails and Mos Def on Miles Davis.

*********
*********

We're watching Max, a big loveable Rottweiler that looks like this:

I think he misses his daddy/Joy's brother who's on vacation next week. But he's a good dog. I saw a shooting star while walking him tonight. I saw a commercial years ago stating that petting a dog lowers a person's blood pressure. Knowing that and being more in tune with how you feel when you interact with a dog you love, it's neat to see how calming it is when you haven't been around a dog in years.

Well, unless Grandma's seeing this when she comes over...



*********
*********

Is it me, or does this make sense in some weird way?

Like, if Buddy/Syndrome grew older and mellowed.


*********
*********

For anyone interested, below is another 'Below Day After" blow-my-mental wad long review of a concert I saw last night.

++++++++++++

Gentlemen, meet YOUR new band: Umphreys McGee


Steve and I went to Lansing last night to see this band Umphrey's McGee, a 'jam' band from Chicago on the circuit for years now. Neither of us saw them, heard good things, jammed some tunes at work and were intrigued at their playing ability on record. At Temple Club, like a St. Andrews with a tiny stage inset in the wall, maybe 3 feet wider than the Blind Pig stage,

I've been trying to crystallize exactly what I truly feel about this, but I think I came to this:
I honestly believe I have never seen a better genre-crossing and live performance by a group of musicians/band ever in my life. An absolute Event.

Darren, you would have been reduced to jelly. I swear to you, this ain't Dave "the comedically exaggerating music fan messenger" here. You would have been sobbing on my shoulder. Take every solo and dual guitar solo ability by Randy, Eddie, Trey, Maiden, Priest, NightRanger, Skynyrd, Holdsworth, Santana, Widespread, Lynch, Alex, Yngwie, Belew, Fripp, Paul Gilbert, Howe, SRV, Hackett...take that ability, take those chops, and put it into a groove/'jam' band premise...with all the meter changes, stop on a dime dynamics, fun, hippy vibe and free-lovin' solid confidence...and that was Umphrey's. Control and mastery on their instruments to die for.

Blistering dual lead finger tapping solos at times. It was like getting brain surgery on yourself without anesthesia, but the Dr. was so good it didn't hurt anyway. You felt your neuron's being played with like Lego's while looking at the assistant nurse and exclaiming "this Doctor's great!" Trading solos and mimicking each other. Having fun with the audience. But it wasn't a wad-blow "look at us doing this!" thing, it just was great players having a ball. Complete mastery. I can't imagine what these guys' actual limits on their instruments might be. They play like they could play anything by ear.

They're Notre Dame music students who put a band together out of Chicago in the late 90s. 2 guitars, bass, keys, drummer, percussionist. They started as a Phish cover band, and evolved into their own thing. They never stopped playing in their first set. I've never witnessed two guitarist play as fast as any "guitar god" for that long in a show, effortlessly, and with taste and musicality. There was nothing for anything's 'sake'. It wasn't always guitar god pyrotechnics either, but it would/could happen at the right times. Every guy in the band was like a prodigy, but it NEVER felt like robots or mannequin Guitar Institute shred students. It was absolutely astounding. Total "who ARE these guys??" I've never seen a band with such solid time. You'd think the drummer was listening to a click, but he wasn't. He was marble solid.

So I have to say...
With all respect and sincerity to the fact that every band is and should always be true to their own natural energies, characters... and that bands and their music should be judged on the personae of themselves, that it's not a competition in the end, yadda yadda yadda...

...With all that disclaimed, Brutha's...Umphrey's wiped the effin' floor with almost any band I've ever seen. And it was done without any attitude that registered as such. I felt like I saw a musical natural wonder, a New Guard, a "this is what can be done in this genre". Steve and I were both commenting on how strange it was to feel so ecstatically proud of 6 absolute stellar musicians for having found each other. To get 6 people with absolute natural prodigy-like supremacy on their instrument, to put it together, and it actually WORKS aesthetically, and they ALL understand and 'get it'...It's soo rare. If it was lab coat sterile prog-jammy, the crowd wouldn't have been there, the word spreading. It was organic. If Trey went to Yngwie Insitute.

Brendan, Andy, Darren, Hupp...it was the '4 Disgraces' from cross street after 10 years of touring/playing together. Imagine them on the road on the Bonnaroo circuit. Like Allman's mixed with some Prog chops.

Steve put it a great way:
All those early 90s shows in small clubs that Phish played before they hit the big theater and arena phase, these shows coming out now on the live CD's where you go back and read that there was 100 people in this 700 seat club in Texas, paid $10 and they pulled a 70 minute Tweezer that went down in history among the live archives; before they started exploring the space and began letting go of the blistering unison runs, learning about less is more thru application; the absolute zenith of the band being nothing but 110% Burning in the absolute peak of hitting their threshold of chops, commitment, and loyalty to being the best player possible and tightest band possible; before marriages, before kids, before re-inventing themselves, before the natural toll of the grind sets in and it's -still- like being on vacation but you know every nook and cranny of the island now and know where to get what you need; the fountain of eternal vitality in the playing still; old enough to know the taste, young enough to still burn the musical candle at both ends.

Made me think it must have been in those early 90s when people walked out of seeing Phish completely aghast at what they just saw a band do (and how it still isn't globally acclaimed just yet). You felt like you're in on a secret. Yet Umphrey's also learned from the 'less is more' phases of their heroes too so THAT's included as well.

When you feel like you've seen every ism done and re-done by every band, and a band who can shred would most probably bore you after an hour because it's an emulation of the same arpeggio runs every shredder does...I could not believe how I was not bored ever. These dudes were playing unison Mach 3 leads with fret board finger dancing that made my hands hurt just watching. DickTight. These guys can play anything they ever could imagine. They went into Zep's "How Many More Times" and did it right, it wasn't computer correct, covered Beastie's 'Groove Holmes' and chugged it along, and closed the encore with a blistering 'Cherub Rock" by the Pumpkins that of all people, if it passed Bekkala's seal of approval, you know it was executed right. (Pumpkins is Bekkala's religion) I found myself shaking my head in smiling pride at these guys, can't count how many times Steve and looked at each other with expressions of "this can't be happening, they just did NOT do that solo/transition/run that good and clean like it was doing brain surgery blindfolded." I don't think I saw them break a sweat.

I'll let you listen to it because after the show at the souvie booth you could buy the show on disc for $20. 10 minutes after they left the stage. And it sounds great.

I felt like I was witnessing what southern Cal people in the 70s saw when they saw Weather Report in a small club, or the fusion funk bands with Tony Williams where the people on stage were truly the crème of the crop. This was the benchmark. This is the gold standard, yet no vibe of cockiness or "we're proving to you that we can outplay any band around" came off them. They simply are amazing.

The vibe of the lot and the audience is as fiercely loyal yet mellow as any Phish or WP show I been to. We frisbee'd with strangers, it was great. (Not so usual really). Steve and I remarked how there was something unique about the whole vibe. It was very 'Midwestern Hippie' to create a term, yet I never thought of any shows having a regional parameter like that. I never perceived it until last night. The girls at the souvie booth, the merchandise manager guy, soundguys, the band when they shook hands after the show from the lip of the little stage... it felt like Michigan, Ohio, Chicago. Like a really cool party in your home state/hometown. I can't really explain it, but it did feel different, more familiar in some weird way. The Umphrey's community is Chicago/Midwest born. The jokes they'd crack between songs, the slightly weird encyclopedic knowledge of so much pop culture stuff. Like Phish, but from this part of the country.

So overall its maybe like a "The Midwest Chapter of The Bonnaroo League"? :). The southern chapter, the New England Chapter, the West Coast chapter... we all know those regions have their own unique isms to their vibe and crowds, not in just music fans. Southern hospitality and the like. To be in one that felt so Midwestern was quite impressive, because, well, I've never been in one (or realized it could exist). And you don't realize you haven't until you're in and notice something feels and flows different at this show than the other shows you go to. To get real dippy about it, the values and personae of the band in question will relay and have influence on the people who are attracted to it. Like Attracts Like.Umphrey's felt like "Ours" if that make any kind of sense at all.

We Michigan kids who love our classic rock, but also the Metallica and Rush and Van Halen and Maiden; we get the groove thing, we also get the chops and metal glory thing. Every artist raves about the Detroit audience, from metal to Bonnie Raitt. We're smart music consumers on average seems to me from the feedback artists give. We 'get' alot of it, all over the map. We party to the party jams in the summer, we stay inside in winter and study and zone in on the shredding and esoteric epic stuff. VH and ACDC in the summer park, Xanadu and Floyd in the winter. Well, the guys in Umphrey's grew up doing the same thing. And by the way, they can play all of that shit. Then decided "hey, we should start a band and play like all that stuff we love."

Next time they hit close by, you guys are going. I swear to you. I will pay.

What eff's me up the most is that the merch guy said the show was "good, but not a great show."
How a show where the whole floor crowd was boogy'ing so hard that the floor of the place was bowing in time with the songs, I don't know. I mean I know that he has more perspective being on tour with them, but if that was an okay show, I'm scared at what a stellar show by his standards would be.

I guess I'll see at Bonnaroo. The moon is gonna crash in to the Earth at Bonnaroo because the Moon will want to get close to the stage to see this stuff. As much as it blew me away, it made me even love the other bands I go see more. Though Umphrey's from a technique and ability standpoint could do anything WP, Phish, String Cheese could because they simply have the hands and brains. They played so pure, honest, and happy in being themselves that it only made me appreciate those other bands more for what they uniquely bring to the stage.
WP- Southern Shade
Phish- Lumberjack Intellectual
String Cheese - the Colorado Air
Umphrey's - the Midwestern appetite
imo.

I wanted to buy every souvenir they had. I'm going thru my day rooting for them in my head, it's so fun. I've never seen a band exude almost every musical appreciation I have in one offering like this. It just kept coming; "ok, this guitarist is a 7 trick pony, NOPE, now he's a 10. Ok, that's probably all I need to expe...wait, nope, he can play that kind of stuff too?, holy carp, ok, so he's a 15 trick pony. Wait, what the hell was THAT?"

Brutha's, I have been renewed. I think you will be too.

You know it's yoooooou Baaaaabe

You know it's a gonna be a great day when it makes sense for Sammy to sing Styx to you.


(THIIIINK ABOUT IT!...)

***************

Jan lets us know:
"not the kind of car you want to see on your block..."


***************

Dad sent this classic email, and it's a always a good one:

The Death Of An Old Friend
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense. Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered for having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn't always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).


His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. - Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Mr. Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student, but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a bit in her lap, and was awarded a huge financial settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

***************

Good things happening in the world of Below. This is weekend is birthday weekend (Monday actually) and Joyous has been making me suspicious; all thru thru the week she calls me from "somewhere" where she's takin care of "stuff". I myself have been known to meet the Easter Bunny, Santa, and the Birthday Bombadeer in select parking lots across the county to make my exchanges from the trunk of said supplier's cars. But I at least would tell Joy this. (But not the parts about the Bunny taking me to the businessman's lunch at the Vu.)

Saw, discovered, and will forever now root for an amazing band Umphrey's McGee this past week with Steve in Lansing. The Midwest Phish. You'll see. And learned that a dear cherished Level 42 concert video is being released in the USA too. I been waiting for this to come to nice DVD forever and at first it looked ot be only a Euro-release. If you know me and you're a musician or been in a band, or was in my pad for more than 10 minutes and we talked about music since between 1987 and now, you know this video.
It's been my ammo to show people that L42 was mucho more the fantastic live band than the two 80s hits they had (which do not convey the killer chops of this British funk band).

This weekend/next week we get to babysit MAX, Joy's brother-in-law's Rottweiler. 120 pounds of total loveable oaf. Like Cujo playing the part of the Snuggles dryer sheet teddy bear. But man is he gonna scare the begeezus out of our friends coming over when they first see him. Serves them right for not reading the blog.


***************

Boobie Slot Machine

Jan chimes in:
"Ok I'm not a religious guy, but hey, what are the odds of an eclipse AT THE SAME TIME as the Pope's funeral?

It's enough to make you rethink the religion thing just a little…"

*************

This next thing is partly invisible:

Ya ever____________the universe is backslappin'_______________with their
___________heads up their____________like a___________________________frothy schweppervescent___________________bad_________________when Chrissy and Janet thought Jack meant__________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________Tuba City?

___too.

_______________Seekotch phoned in for tickets___________________old lady at the counter not knowing how to use the thing______________________. Reminds me of _________________and Mickey's tall boys at Ron's___________________________________________Doug Frost made us only by premium _______________________when we gave Wendy's a lawnjob while Joe___________________________________more eggs_________________________________ pissed!

Man those were the days

**************

Saw Josh Rouse at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor Monday night.
The music and show was bliss, but warmer. What's a word that means 'bliss' but with some warmth to it? Like smoking a doobie with friends sitting on a soft carpeted living room floor with candles goin' and sweet old-school Fleetwood Mac ('Warm Ways' with Christine McVie singing) on the stereo with wood speaker cabinets with black fuzz on the front? Mellow bliss.

If you said 'piss', you'll feel right at home here.

Nice guys in the band. Great players. Got them to sign my Nashville CD after the show. Talked to them in the upstairs green room afterwards. Good guys. It will be fun to see them on the awards show in a year remembering them playing to half capacity crowd in a little A2 club one Monday night.

Spidey-sense tingletells me that he'll be the next Norah Jones next year, when the baby boomers (i.e. cash cow audience) catch up and realize he's playing the good shit. He learned all the right lessons from the great bands who came before him (that the boomers grew up with.) Kind of a 70s Paul Simon/Fleetwood Mac thing. Simple yet lush arrangements, truly tasteful playing by all the band members. Josh and the boys will be at Meadowbrook next summer, you watch.

That is, unless Josh's Anakin-like low-carb descent to the dark side spells his final doom. By morphing pounds-wise from one pop star to the next to become Crispin Glover, well, we all know how Dave Lettermen would love that.

Bare Naked Lady Josh


Eddi Vedder Josh


Lindsay Buckingham Josh


Mellencamp/Jason Priestly Josh


Almost Crispin Glover Josh


A few more pounds to go...


Voila!



Yes, those are all really Josh, except the obvious two. But that's just what Jospin wants you to think

Tell this to George Zipp

This is fun.
Put in your birthdate and it tells you a bunch of stats about your age relative to famous people and what was going on when you were born.
Birthday stats generator

************

"The weird kind are always the ones left."

This was said referring to the remaining bagels in a bag someone brought into work for general coworker consumption. It struck me how profound that comment was; the last bagels in the bag, the last kids picked for teams during gym class, truly original artists after the more fashionable ones die away.

************

Airplane is on channel 50 right now as I blog. Captain Steubing's daughter is about to have her i.v. knocked out by the guitar playing stewardess.


************

Happy Berfday to good pal and drummer Steve "Puh-Leeze" Bekkala today. He has successfully logged another year of lame-free living and unabashed positivity. My Crew of Bro + Joyous missed him terribly at the Widespread Panic show Friday night, but at least he was playing his ass off drumming with both his bands, Porchsleeper and The Flouride Program.

************

On that note go see Widespread when they come back again. And don't fall for that deadhead, hippydippy jam band bullshit label you might hear someone lump them into. They're a good ol rock band. See, there was a time kinda long ago when most bands not only played great songs, but the band members could take solos and really lay it down, or take the song(s) somewhere extraordinary. (And not thru psychedelic noise trip "ooWOWooo mahn.." playing, but good ol' soulful,from the heart playin'.) Where Phish and other "jam" bands definitely did take some left turns bordering on prog-rock, exploratory improv isms, Widespread is more related to the Allman Brothers, BB King, Stevie Ray, and Southern rock tradition of blues infected rock and roll. IMO. And on top of that, it's a great wonderful positive energy scene.

You know its a different scene when the State Theater security DOESN'T start forcing themselves thru the general admission crowd as it packs every nook and cranny to let more people groove, smoke, and just move where they want. That place was rockin'. And no one pulled any bullshit. A crowd there for the right reasons emits a different energy. Even the Detroit Skinhead ushers could tell the difference.

************

From the "Good Art Survives" file.
This all reminds me of another thought I had this past week:

Seeing a poster for the Dark Star Orchestra at Wazoo Records, and then thinking of the Beatles tribute bands, "Super Diamond' the Neil Diamond tribute band, Phix-the Phish tribute band, and other groups who live to keep the repertoires of defunct bands alive. The European orchestra's playing Frank Zappa's music... and many other groups like this. The ones really taking the music out to the people, not just home-town, tri-county area "let's be a such&such tribute band for fun" and it lasts 2.4 years. I mean the groups making good livings keeping this music alive, playing the repertoire's of these prolific artists as their main purpose or agenda. Then it occured to me;

Were the orchestra's playing those classical composer's music, long after the music was "hip". regarded with the same kind of passive regard as we do these tribute bands now? Will the music in 400 years regarded as "classical" be the music *now* that's kept alive by the tribute bands who put in the effort to actually keep playing it live? Or in other words, were the orchestra's back when thought of as lame-ass "tribute-bands" when they were still jammin Mozart and Tchaikovsky stuff 50 years after he died

Rolling Stone and NME can tell us all they want who's worth our worship, but when those writers and us fans are long gone, the tribute bands keeping these repertoire's alive are gonna win out. That whole "history is written by the winners" thing. And also the "talk all you want, but what have you Done?" thing too. We can read all we want about Wilco and Radiohead being the shit in the new millenium, but in 90 years will people still get it? Will they be able to experience the repertoire's performed by humans? (and not 3-D holograms of concert vidoes of the original band [see next blog item].) Talking about being in the same room as other people experiencing the execution, exertion, and passion involved in performing and expressing those notes? Will the Yo Yo Ma of 2214 be giving cello recitals of U2's Joshua Tree album? How many millenia before Mustang Sally is NOT played in a smokey bar on open mic night at T.C.'s Speakeasy?

Humans, over many many decades, taking the time to learn the notes and put in the time to perform the stuff live will win out. Whether it's Haydn's 4th concerto or a full-on KISS production. That's what I'm thinking and wondering. And also if I spelled Haydn right.

So in summary, I guess what I'm meaning is:
"What good art (musically) from this time will survive the most?"; The stuff heralded and written as being what was great in this era? Or what organized musicians, symphonies, or bands are actually still playing because it kept being played by these tribute bands all along?

In music and nature it seems to me that strong composition always last the longest, since it was built right and solid. Even if no one (a) got it at first (b) thought it was cool at first, or (c) did like it at first, but then rallied to the next shiny colorful thing.

Write a letter about how you thought about this stuff in 2005 to your great great great grandchildren with instructions for your great great grandchildren to give it to the ggg gkid's when they're 20. Or forget about this stuf and just write a letter to the ggg gkid's. Wouldn't that have tripped you out if it happened to you?

"You're great great great gandfather wrote a letter to be handed down all the way to you, to be given to you when you were 20. This letter is 140 years old. This is the only way he could meet you."

Geezus Dave, next time just say "hey people, make a time capsule with your CD's in it and a note" and end the blog there.

[too tired to check typos, going to bed]

************

WOW.
3-D High Definition Film making coming.
"A company called In-Three located in Agoura Hills, California has perfected image-processing software it calls the Dimensionalization Process. It's apparently capable of transforming 2-D images into 3-D images. So impressive is this technology that at ShoWest last week, a panel of prominent filmmakers appeared to announce embracing the process. The panel was hosted by Business Development Manager for TI DLP Cinema Doug Darrow and composed of filmmakers George Lucas, James Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, Robert Rodriguez, and Randall Kleiser."

Lucas is going to re-release the SW films in this format and wants Spielburg to film Indian Jones IV in this 3-D format.

************

Healthy Levels of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and Point
A Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want
Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "IN."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone Has
Gotten over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your checks, Write "For Sexual Favors."

7. Finish All Your Sentences With "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. dontuseanypunctuation

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Ask People What Sex They Are. Laugh Hysterically After They
Answer.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical
Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their
Party Because You're Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, "Rock
Hard."

17. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking Lot,
Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner "Due To The Economy, We Are Going
To Have To Let One Of You Go."

Happy April, Fool.

This just in, an exclusive interview with the Emperor conducted by kids.