In the end, I decided to play trivia tonight. Sadly, no one else did as it was the smallest crowd of people I’ve seen at the game since the snowstorm game. I’m not sure if that made things more or less depressing. Still, my two man team (which suffered defections of our own) came in second, which meant that the payout was the same as it usually is. Amazingly, this was on a night when the categories were things that we were not expecting much out of. Flags, Geography and 2006 song lyrics were all bad news. Luckily, there was a NASA category and that allowed me to pay my bar tab. Oh well, still an interesting way to spend an evening.
Hey, I’ve been meaning to mention this and now is as good of time as any. If anyone is interested in being a guest blogger sometime over the next month and a half please let me know. Starting March 1 and going through April 15 I am going to be working on, well, I’m not sure what I’m going to call it other than “Quo Vadimus”. Consider it a memoir/essay collection for simplicity’s sake. Basically, I am going to go through the 27 months of blog postings, take the best pieces, and rewrite them so that they are a much better read. I’m also going to be adding new material (hopefully around 20,000 words worth including stories on being the guy at the end of the bar, an ultrasound picture that changed my view of the world, and my journal of watching every Star Wars film back to back to back to back to back to back.) Since this means that I’m going to be spending time every evening writing and rewriting I wouldn’t mind taking a night off from my blog duties once in a while. So, if you ever wanted to post your innermost thoughts to the world, or at least to the dozens of people who read this site, here is your chance. Just drop me a line and we will work something out.
(Oh, and what amazes me is how I am preparing for this project. I have built a spreadsheet and I am going through all of my old posts and cataloging them. I have to be the only writer who, when he decides to write a book, makes sure that the first thing he does is build a spreadsheet. Probably explains my writing style. The good thing about this though is that it is identifying some old stories that will show up again in my novel or television series. One of my earliest posts is my jury duty story and that would probably be the second script I would write (which I might be doing this summer.) I know some people will say that I am reusing old material, I consider it to be taking all of these random thoughts I’ve had over the years and placing them in a cohesive package.)
Some quick thoughts on The Shins show, since I promised to write about it last night. Viva Voce opened and they were a pretty good act. I’ll give the woman who played guitar credit as she was the first woman I have ever seen not named Bonnie Raitt play a guitar solo that didn’t suck. Before anyone calls me a sexist pig for that statement, this is based on Juliana Hatfield’s great comment that it is physically impossible for a woman to play a guitar solo. You can call me a sexist pig for a lot of other reasons, this just isn’t one of them.
The Shins are a great band and they played a good mix of their old and new material. It is a slightly strange show to watch though as I’m not quite sure what the crowd’s reaction should be. It’s not music you dance to or sing along with. You kind of just stand there, nod your head, and go, “Man, that is so awesome.” It’s also cool that the band looks like a bunch of regular guys. The lead singer is a tan Kevin Spacey, one guy looks like SNLs Chris Parnell, another looks like he’s a mechanic in his spare time, and the drummer looks like he might possibly spontaneously combust on stage. Plus, I love the fact that the band doesn’t have a regular bass player. Two of the guys hand off the bass on every song. Like they’re going “Crap, I don’t want to play bass. Here, you do it.” It’s so random that I love it.
The other interesting thing is that even though these guys are being called the next big thing by every music magazine they are still playing small venues in college towns. A few years ago they were just some guys from Albuquerque. Then they were the guys from Garden State (or The O.C. or The Gilmore Girls). Now, they might become the next band that can actually play music to break into the mainstream and I really hope they are. It would be nice to see videos from real bands once more.
No comments:
Post a Comment