Saturday night stories

I’ve got a couple of interesting stories from this weekend that I feel like passing along. I’ll skip my Friday night adventure where I should have just mentioned that I knew that the average human head weighed fifteen pounds because in all honesty, it couldn’t have made things any worse. Anyway, some thoughts from the weekend…

1) Did anyone catch Lindsey Lohan on Saturday Night Live? My god, what has she done to herself? She has turned herself into the least attractive person imaginable. I mean, put this side by side with the Harry Potter sketch she was in on SNL last year and you’ll be amazed that it is the same person. First of all, going from a redhead to a blonde is a horrible move. She was intriguing as a redhead, as a blonde she is indistinguishable from all of the other nineteen year old actresses out there. Plus, she seems to be going for that heroin chic look, which didn’t work a decade ago when it was popular. Lost way too much weight. There is something to be said about having a positive body image after all.
2) Had the first sign that summer is upon us as the guy carrying the cross up and down Westport Road has made his first appearance. No kidding, every weekend over the summer there are a group of people who will carry a cross in front of all of the bars in Westport. I always contrast this with New Orleans, where I have passed people on Bourbon Street with nametags that read, “Hello, my name is Satan”
3) An old story of being confronted by evangelicals on my way to a bar. Once I had these guys come up to me as I’m walking to the bar and asking “Do you know where you’re going to go when you die?” I answered that “Heaven”, which I think really confused the guy because he then went into a spiel about how I could be so sure when I was going into places of sin. Which amazes me because all I wanted to do was have a beer. I’m pretty sure that on the list of evil sitting at a bar, having a beer and watching the game doesn’t rank so high on the list.
4) Made a real effort to clean and reorganize parts of my apartment. Which means that I discovered that not only did I pack up all of my school notebooks and folders when I moved out here, I also have all of my day planners from college. Which I still haven’t thrown out. I can’t really explain it, I’m not sure why I have such a great need to hold onto my calendar from 1994. Sure, my future biographers are going to be really happy that I’ve kept it but part of me wonders what it says about my personality that things like that never go away. That said, I also found about fifty dollars worth of Irish punts, which would be good except they’ve converted to the euro so they are actually worthless right now. Oops.
5) A music note. It is really good to see The Frames getting a ton of press recently. They were written up in Esquire as one of the best bands that you haven’t heard of and everyone has picked up on the incredible energy that they have in their live shows. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a band that has been so happy to just be onstage playing. On their album “The Roads Outgrown” they have a live version of Fitzcarraldo, this sprawling nine minute epic version of the song. After it ends the lead singer simply states “This is the best life a man could ever want.” All I know is I want to find a way to say that with regards to my own life. If there is anything to strive for it is the ability to stand in front of a crowd of people and honestly express that feeling.

The five random CDs of the week
1) R.E.M. “Green”
2) The Corn Sisters “The Other Women”
3) Robbie Fulks “The Very Best of Robbie Fulks”
4) Steve Earle “Transcendental Blues”
5) Coldplay “Live 2003”