I found this video on Jessica Hopper's blog, one of my all time favorite blogs which I've read regularly for a few years now. I don't know this Candy Lawrence, but in less than two minutes she's summed up a great deal of how I feel about music, dancing, and happiness.
Thank you, Candy Lawrence.
It's been a crazy week. I was out sick, work's been wild, and then last night I found myself at the Ted Nugent show at the Fillmore.
As I mentioned yesterday, my friend Chris was playing with the opening artist Alex Winston. He smuggled me into the venue before the doors opened with this impressive custom VIP pass and we caught up over a pre-show meal in the Fillmore's dining room. We killed time before their set in the backstage area, which is really on the side of the stage on two levels. Since Ted doesn't really spend time backstage (he probably lingers in his plush tour bus or nice hotel room and then shows up minutes before his set starts), Alex and her band had access to the main backstage room on the upper balcony. I was able to watch Alex's set from this vantage point.
After her set concluded, the guys had to load out their gear. I knew I had at least half an hour to kill so I left the backstage area to wander around and people watch a bit. I'd estimate Nugent's audience to be around 85% male, and I was definitely the only female wandering around by herself. The people watching was interesting for a little while, until I started to feel a little creeped out by the leers of drunk dudes. I walked back up to the side balcony and attempted to re-enter the safety of the backstage area and was promptly stopped by the bouncer at the entrance. Apparently even with my fancy VIP badge, I still needed to be escorted by a band member. Nugent's security is pretty tight.
I sent Chris a text telling him to come save me, then took a seat on the public side of the balcony where about 40 or so fans were waiting to watch the show. A few moments later, two burly dudes came in and ordered a few people to clear a walkway. Then the 'Nuge himself strode in, all hat and flowing hair, long legs and smug smile. He was surrounded by about five men, all making a quick walk of the 20 or so yards to the backstage entrance. It happened so quickly that most people just had enough time to turn their heads and smile and maybe let out a "Hey, man!" Except for one woman:
"Teeeeed! THAT'S TED!!!"
She wobbled to her feet and teetered after the entourage, sloppily grasping over the shoulders of the rear bodyguard. Though her desire to touch her idol was indisputably fervent, the fact that she was at least a few drinks into her evening softened the effects of her pursuit. She almost seemed to be grasping for him in slow motion, yelling out his name at full volume while forty other fans stood by and watched. It didn't take Ted long to disappear behind the backstage curtains and it was over as quickly as it started, but the woman's night was made. "That was TED F*$^IN' NUGENT!" she yelled as she tottered back to her friends, elated. I can only imagine how many times and to how many people she'll tell this story for years to come.
I finally made my way backstage again and before reuniting with Chris I watched a few songs of Ted's set. In addition to a fully painted backdrop, his stage set included:
I've been sick this week but managed to rally today, just in time to see my friend Chris who is in town tonight playing at The Fillmore in Alex Winston's band. He says he hates when I mention my "friends" on my blog, so this should really annoy him. Here's a video of Alex's band on this tour (Chris is the guitar player wearing glasses):
I don't know Alex's stuff very well, but I do know the headliner: Mr. Ted Nugent. Come on, come on up!
There are oh, so many reasons to declare this a summer of vinyl:
The summer of vinyl has begun. Who's with me?
Related post: Why I love my Vestax Handy Trax.
I've just added two new entries in the Don't Forget Cassettes photo album! Check out the photos that djchall and Eve sent me. Eve submitted her photo along with a two paragraph story that kicked me in the gut.
Please send me your photos! You can email them to kteeger AT yahoo, or leave a link in the comments.
The offer for a handwritten thank-you note still stands.
I'm taking a break from art and music for a moment to tell you about a sitcom I really like. It's not going to change your life or go down in history as giving you one of the best half hours you've ever spent, but it's unpredictable, fairly well-written and has some genuinely interesting characters. The show I'm talking about is "My Boys" and Season 2 premieres Thursday night on TBS.
I first heard about the show last year when I used to watch "Sex and the City" reruns on TBS. The network was running a ton of ads for the premiere of "My Boys", and I started to get annoyed at this new show about a tight group of friends (five males and one female who works as a sports writer) who do a lot of drinking and talking about dating. I kept imagining a group of TV execs sitting around a table saying "let's market this as a 'Sex and the City' that men will actually watch!"
I was annoyed to the point of obsessive curiosity, so I tuned in on premiere night with the masochistic expectation of writhing and eye-rolling my way through the first episode of a series that would no doubt get canceled quickly due to being derivative and uninteresting.
Of course, I ended up really enjoying it and faithfully tuning in to every episode of the first season.
The plot centers around PJ, the cute, female, blond sports reporter with a group of five close male friends and one close female friend. The dudes are like her brothers, especially since one of them is her brother, except for the one or two with whom she has sexual tension (of course). They drink a lot and have a weekly poker night and talk about all their dating exploits. What makes them interesting is that they never spend too much time fitting the stereotypes you'd expect them to, they have a genuine rapport together, and they all do a great job of portraying the humor and familiarity that's written in their scripts. The actress who plays PJ does an especially good job of being beautiful, nice, funny and likeable. She's a girl's girl who is also believable as 'just one of the guys'.
This series also has one of the most hilarious peripheral characters I've seen in a long time. Johnny Galecki, perhaps best known as Darlene's boyfriend from "Roseanne", plays Trouty, a deliciously obnoxious and clueless hanger-on who lights up the small screen during each of his rare appearances. He plays his part perfectly, keeping you wondering how they could possibly keep him around, yet being just endearing enough to charm you. Here's a bit of Trouty in action:
Check out some other clips from the show:
Tune in tomorrow night for the season premiere!
A few weeks ago, I devoted a week of posts to the art that I'll be hanging on the walls of my new apartment. In my post titled tree stump phonographs, I told you about meeting Annie, a.k.a. Wexford Girl, at an art festival in my neighborhood and commissioning two pieces of art from her. Last week, she came by my office to drop off the pieces, much to my delight since they were exactly what I wanted! (Annie also uses TypePad for her blog, so I think she didn't mind the quick tour I was able to give her of TP HQ.)
Here are the finished paintings. They're displayed next to the mirror in my bathroom, where I can look at them often:
** I took these photos with my cameraphone, which did not do justice to the colors and quality of work.
Part of what captured me about these paintings is the quote. Annie couldn't remember exactly where it was from, so a quick Google search revealed the source. I love poetry. To me, a good poem can be as touching and transformative as a good song. Just from the two lines in these paintings, I could have guessed I would love where they came from:
"Poem About Morning"
by William Meredith
Whether it's sunny or not, it's sure
To be enormously complex—
Trees or streets outdoors, indoors whoever you share,
And yourself, thirsty, hungry, washing,
An attitude towards sex.
No wonder half of you wants to stay
With your head dark and wishing
Rather than take it all on again:
Weren't you duped yesterday?
Things are not orderly here, no matter what they say.
But the clock goes off, if you have a dog
It wags, if you get up now you'll be less
Late. Life is some kind of loathsome hag
Who is forever threatening to turn beautiful.
Now she gives you a quick toothpaste kiss
And puts a glass of cold cranberry juice,
Like a big fake garnet, in your hand.
Cranberry juice! You're lucky, on the whole,
But there is a great deal about it you don't understand.
Last week a few of my coworkers inspired me with this blog post: Alex took a quick snapshot of Mark holding up one of the cassette tapes in his car, saying he hadn't seen a tape in ages.
Who still has cassette tapes anymore? I have a shoebox full of them but no way to play them. But as you can see from the design of this blog (courtesy of the brilliant Marc Johns), cassettes still hold a place in my heart.
So, I'm putting together a gallery of people holding one (or more) of their cassette tapes. Send me a recent photo of you holding one of your own cassette tapes and I'll add it to the Don't Forget Cassettes photo gallery. Look, over there to the right, in the sidebar of my blog and you'll see the link to the gallery. So far I've got photos from Ginevra and Mark, but I want more!
Limited time offer: If you send me your photo AND your mailing address, I will mail you a nice thank you note via the USPS.
I have another plucked-from-the-online-masses rock n' roll success story to share with you. Borrowing some inspiration from the way Journey found their current lead singer, the rock group Boston found their new singer - a fan from Charlotte, North Carolina - when they ran across his MySpace page.
Tommy DeCarlo, a manager at Home Depot, is a 43 year old father of two and a Boston superfan who memorized all their songs. After Boston's lead singer Brad Delp committed suicide in 2007, DeCarlo's daughter Talia uploaded some tracks of him singing along to Boston songs to share with other grieving fans. According to DeCarlo's bio, he "had to sing with the karaoke track because he had sold his keyboard in 2006, using the extra cash to buy Christmas presents for his children."
Boston founder and guitarist Tom Scholz was sitting at home one day while his wife was on the computer. He heard a track coming from the speakers and asked which live Boston performance it was. She explained that it wasn't an old live recording of Boston, it was a karaoke track from an unknown fan in North Carolina. Due to the amazing similarities, Scholz took a bit of convincing that it wasn't original singer Brad Delp's voice.
The band reached out to DeCarlo, flying him and his family out for an audition. Since DeCarlo had never been in a band before, his first live performance ever was singing with his favorite band Boston at a tribute to the late Brad Delp. He's now taken leave from his job at Home Depot (couldn't he have just quit?) to tour with Boston as their lead singer this summer. Remember, kids, share what you love with the internets and your wishes just might come true!
Here's a clip of DeCarlo performing with Boston at the tribute:
Let's wrap up this post with a truly live version of Boston's epic folk/prog/rock masterpiece "More Than A Feelin'" from 1979:
Sources:
Steve (my scooter mentor): Have you named your scooter yet?
Me: No. All I know is that she's a she.
Steve: How are things going?
Me: Great! There's been an evolution over the past few weeks. I'm finally feeling more comfortable with speed, it's actually taking me less time to get to work now. I'm really zipping around!
Steve: It's great that you're feeling comfortable, but now that you're feeling more confident it can almost be more dangerous because you're paying less attention. You gotta stay frosty.
Me: Stay frosty? I've never heard that before. It's good advice!
Steve: Maybe you should name your scooter Frosty.
Me: Ooh, I like it!
~
Bonus: Listen to this NPR interview with Barry Gwin from the SF Scooter Centre, where I bought Frosty, about the rising popularity of scooters. In my experience, the 100 mpg selling point is a myth; I've been getting around 75 miles per gallon. It is pretty amazing filling up at the gas station for less than five bucks, and riding around for a few weeks before I need to top off the tank again.
