October 31, 2005

Birthday

King Arthur: Old woman.
Dennis: Man.
King Arthur: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I'm 37.
King Arthur: What?
Dennis: I'm 37. I'm not old.
King Arthur: Well I can't just call you "man".
Dennis: Well you could say "Dennis".
King Arthur: I didn't know you were called Dennis.
Dennis: Well you didn't bother to find out did you?
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the "old woman", but from behind you looked...
Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior.
King Arthur: Well I am king.
Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.

October 29, 2005

Major Healey

Me and Major Healey.

My friend Glenn and I went to the big Chiller Show in Secaucus today. It was a total zoo - more so than usual. The lines were ridiculous and once again I swear that I am never going to another one of these damn things. Why did I go this time? The I Dream of Jeannie reunion, of course. Larry Hagman, Bill Daily and Barbara Eden, all together again, signing autographs. Hell, you could even get your own commemorative collectors edition Jeannie Bottle (I'd go for the painted brass - why settle?)

Larry Hagman was characteristically aloof, wearing an ascot and perched in an elevated chair/desk combo. The wait to get a signing from Barbara Eden was almost an hour and a half. Glenn and I suffered through it and got in just under the wire before she took a "break". The only thing that made it totally worthwhile was Bill Daily - tucked in a corner to the left of Barbara Eden's pink and purple bunting covered dais - who was friendly and very talkative. Among other things, we learned that he played stand-up bass in the late 40's /early 50's and had intended to be a professional musician... who knew?

October 28, 2005

Observations

This morning I saw a woman running to catch a Manhattan bound F train holding a cup of coffee stretched out in front of her - arm fully extended. She was keeping her center of gravity low and her back straight to keep the coffee from spilling and that made her legs move out in an exaggerated way as she tried to pick up enough speed to make the closing doors. It made me think of Groucho Marx. That's sort of what it looked like. Yeah, Groucho.

Two days earlier there was a woman at the Bergen Street Station walking along the platform, glaring into the windows of the over-crowded train, and yelling:

It's filled with Donkey-Boys! Donkey Boys! Donkey! Donkey Dicks!

That was just weird. I couldn't wait to tell Mia about it because I knew that's she'd be amused. And delighted. Delighted and amused.

October 27, 2005

El Guerrero De La Carretera

I am watching "Road Warrior" in Spanish and drinking a bottle of red wine. I'm not sure how much lower I can sink.

October 16, 2005

The sun is back!

Yea. The sun is back. I didn't recognize it at first - been so long since I've seen the sun that I'd throw rocks at it as the saying goes...

Last night I met Christina and Sara at Magnetic Field to see Pio Mazzotti, Dirty Excuse and the triumphant one-night-only reunion of Slut 'Em Go!. Christina let me know that this was going to be an amazing show and, wow, she was so right. I was especially won over by Dirty Excuse's really amazing cover of "(I Know) I'm Losing You", which I have always considered one of the coolest songs to play live.

Christina and the rest of Triple Creme were driving back that day from their Friday night show in Pittsburgh, so she arrived at the tail end of Slut 'Em Go!'s set and the place had really filled up. Despite the strict policy of all bands ending by 11, Slut 'Em Go! were able to come back for one encore. They had to, really, I mean there were obviously so many friends and hard-core fans at the show...

So it was a great night, and now, after a good night's sleep, I see the sun is out again today. I may even head over to the grand opening of Mazzotti Music - Brooklyn's new guitar shop (filling the void left by the pullout of Rumbleseat music) run by members of the band. Of course, it's dangerous for me to be anywhere near a guitar shop, but I think I can stop by for a little bit without buying anything... maybe.

October 10, 2005

Weekend Continued...

I did get out once again on Saturday night after a good long nap. I headed up to Williamsburg around 9 to see Sons & Daughters play at North Six. Of course by this time it was raining quite heavily and I was completely and utterly soaked by the time I got to the show.

Fortunately for me the show was great and well worth the effort to get there. I knew what to expect from Sons & Daughters, but I was totally impressed by The Rosebuds. This North Carolina duo of Kelly and Ivan Rosebud - Keyboards and guitar respectively were joined by a local drummer and delivered an amazingly powerful set based almost entirely on their latest release Birds Make Good Neighbors. I knew absolutely nothing about them going in - apart from checking out a few songs on their myspace site (I tell you, this internet thing has really made checking out bands pretty easy) - but I was totally won over by their stage presence and performance. I would recommend checking them out live if you can.

Sons & Daughters took the stage around 11:30 with one of my favorite songs from The Repulsion Box, "Monster". Unfortunately, the momentum of the show was momentarily stalled because some problems with the bass amplifier. After a few minutes, however, they were back to full force (although bassist Ailidh Lennon spiraled into a venomous sulky mood that lasted most of the show).

Despite problems with equipment and attitude, a healthy amount of interest and energy came off the stage in the form of guitarist/singer Scott Paterson (who is certainly in contention for the most intense and unsettling stare in Rock 'n Roll), drummer David Gow and singer/guitarist/keyboardist Adele Bethel. Who cares if she dances like Elaine Benis? Her powerful vocals and smouldering dark looks entranced everyone in the front row.

This is my second time seeing them live and as often as they keep coming around I will continue to go see them. Their performances are intense and captivating and there is a scary focus in Paterson's stage presence that is both balanced and challenged by Bethel. She is alternately flirtatous and predatory - casting powerful glances across stage that carried unknowable messages.

* Some of the songs performed: "Medicine", "Blood", "Checked", "Johnny Cash", "Dance Me In", "Start to End", "Regally Used", "Gone" and "Rama Lama". Now I'm really hooked... I've been playing their cds non-stop since Sunday morning.

October 09, 2005

Rock Rock, till you, uh, drop.

Lots of music this weekend.

Friday night Christina's band Triple Creme had their cd release party at Rothko's. I arrived around 9 because I was also interested in seeing the first band, Lady Unluck. The guitarist is the captain of the Queens of Pain Roller Derby team, and a number of the Gotham Girls were there to show support. Imagine, all of my crushes in the same room. Ha. Of course I had to have a few pints while I waited.

Lady Unluck were cool as well as the other openers, Winning Looks and Katastrophe, but I was really psyched to see Triple Creme as I had only seen them once before at a benefit show back in May. I invited some friends along, and Mia and two other friends from the Block, Katy and Marshall, came by for the Triple Creme set.

The room was packed when Triple Creme got on stage around midnight and they gave a really strong set. They have been doing shows up in New England all last week and are sounding great. They played a number of songs from the new album, This Might Hurt to a very enthusiastic crowd. You should check the new album out on their site and listen to some mp3s there or at their MySpace Site.

After the show we stopped off for a few more beers at a nearby bar. I think I got home around 3... I think...

And then...

Saturday morning I woke up still drunk. It's been a long time since that's happened. Usually I just feel awful and leave it at that, but this particular morning I was still quite a bit unsteady on my feet and definitely having trouble with a few seemingly simple concepts, like breakfast, and some apparently more complex ones, like the weekend subway advisory. And what made it worse was that I had a brunch date at noon.

My first strategy was to try to sleep as late as possible - calculate the absolute minimum amount of time for showering, dressing and navigating this weekend's subway challenge and set my alarm accordingly. The logic being that maybe there was still a chance of sleeping this thing off. No luck. When I woke up and uneasy was joined by queasy and achey. The unholy triad of a long night out.

Because the F was not running from my neighborhood I walked over to the 4,5 on Court Street. When a 2 pulled into the station I boarded without question then panicked at the next station and got off. I soon found out that the 2 was replacing the 5 all the way to 145th Street, so I really should have stayed on it but because of my impulsiveness, I now had to wait at Bowling Green for the next train to show up. And it was humid. And gross. And that's when the sweating started.

Sidenote: My least favorite aspect of the subway is how you can just stand and sweat without even doing anything. I was already feeling pretty low and now, I had to assume, I was leaching alcohol from every pore.

The train finally arrived and I made it to Union Sq. without further incident. The brunch went well and I believe I was able to string together enough coherent thoughts to effectively hold up my end of the conversation. I know there were a few times that my brain failed me completely, but I was able to recover quickly ("Oh my god is that Gwyneth Paltrow over there? Guess not. I'm sorry, what did you say again?"). And if I smelled like a fraternity house basement, she had the good graces not to mention it. After that we went to the movies and parted soon after. I went home and immediately took a nap.

October 02, 2005

Habana Outpost

Went out last night with my friend Steve to the Habana Outpost in Fort Greene for a birthday party. It advertises itself as New York City's first solar-powered restaurant and market and takes it's "Green-ness" pretty seriously. It's a good place to eat, drink and shop and still feel good about yourself and your impact on the Earth if that's your bag. Outside on the patio they host designers and artists and DJ's on the weekends but that part closes for the season on Halloween. So if you're thinking of going, you only have until to the end of the month to do it. Get going.

I became a big fan of the $2.50 drafts of Brooklyn lager and demonstrated my devotion by ordering more than I should have. They seemed small, so why not get two at a time? Indeed. Anyway, I don't feel that bad today but my motivation is at a real lowpoint.

I can see that's it really nice out again today, so I am going to get outside to enjoy it. Ah, Fall.