Catching up (Part 1)
I haven't written in a while, its nothing personal. I was taking time turning 30, reflecting, celebrating, drinking till my internal organs hurt. I'm not worried though, as long as Ben Rothlisberger continues to elude common sense, my replacement liver is only a short trip from Pittsburgh away. My birthday was excellent, it kicked off with drinks the night before, having people buy you shots at midnight is a wonderful event, maybe I'll become born again so I can celebrate more birthdays and be pious and yell at people about their reproductive rights.
Thursday, my hetero-lifemate Brendan took me to see Pearl Jam. Continuing a streak of seeing acts that were popular in the 90s. The show was excellent, I really enjoyed the songs off of the new album. Eddie didn't throw around his half-assed liberal politics, not that I don't agree with his points of view, but there is a time and a place for politics, in between songs isn't one of them. I'm sure people will disagree but whatever, write political songs, take stances, just don't think that we are going to resolve the worlds problems in the 30 second break you took because you jumped off a drum riser and need to catch your breath. Anyway, they played plenty of hits, Matt Cameron continues to be the most underrated drummer in rock and roll, and I had an awesome start to my 30th. Friday was a fiasco, I had to work the day job, which is always interesting when your ears are ringing. I can't hear anything anyway, add in the tinitus dog whistle from a rock concert and I might as well be Marlee Matlin at a record store.
I managed to escape the second job for the weekend, so Friday night I planned on bar hopping but ended up at the Frog all night, yes I know what the definition of irony is (For those that don't know I work at the Famished Frog on the weekends and its 2 blocks from my house). But I had a good time regardless, the bartenders decided that I shouldn't ever have an empty glass, my equilibrium surrendered early, but I still managed to be social and not offend anyone or pass out. Apparently I hit that stage of drunkenness where I forget that I'm a big horrible monster that should be locked away from people, but didn't reach the point where the rest of my personality is dissolved in liquor and I can't be witty. So I worked on the ladies, with moderate success, so yeah no restraining orders. I at least thought I was charming that evening.
Saturday, I got up early and cleaned the house, my plan was to have a bar b q to thwart all attempts at a surprise party. Yeah I'm a pain in the ass, I'm not the hugest fan of surprise parties, but I was deceived anyway. So I returned home from running errands to a back porch full of my friends and a keg of beer. It was all down hill from there, grilling turned into a mammoth tournament of flip cup, which was later punctuated by shots in between rounds. You would think at 30 we wouldn't need to subject ourselves to such debauchery, but nuts to that it was awesome, besides I didn't want to remember how old I was. Down to the bars, back to the house, my heroic intake of alcohol caused me to go feral and explore the woods around my house at 3am, I think that's an indication of a good party if I ever heard one. A few apologetic text messages and dinner with mom on Sunday, and I officially entered the dirty 30s.
Mom got me a sweet digital camera, which I need to start using like a Japanese tourist. I'm deathly afraid of breaking it, since its tiny and expensive, and I'm large and uncoordinated. Besides I've been plagued by a rash of malfunctioning electronic equipment, first my iPod, which was like losing a friend, then my synth. I'm sure the neighbors don't miss my piano playing but damn if I can't play "Faithfully" when I get home from work. I get paid this week so hopefully music will be restored to my life. I've had to resort to listening to CDs in my car, how plebeian.
Last Tuesday I went to another good show at Starland Ballroom, Stellastarr and Nada Surf. It was a Jack Daniels show, so it was invite only, so a light crowd but real fans. I was really impressed by both bands. Stellastarr has a totally hot chick bassist, and good songs. Girls that play instruments are a soft spot of mine. A lot of them seem to be bassists, I could make jokes about coordination or finding enough time outside of the kitchen to practice with 2 more strings, but I'll leave it alone. Stellastar had a great 80s euro band vibe, I know they are from New York, but if you like Joy Division or Roxy Music or Depeche Mode or any other of those bands from that general niche, you'll love these guys. Good pop sensibility, just enough punk to rock out, great song structure. Nada Surf (what is with the 90s bands) opened with "Popular" a bold move I thought at the time, since I wasn't really familiar with the band, but they have plenty of other good songs. They make a lot of sound for a trio. Apparently the drummer makes indie rock chicks swoon, I thought he was kind of goofy looking, but he played a giant snare drum which sounded awesome so I'll give him that. The bassist is probably the most rock and roll person on the planet, white guy with dreds, smoking on stage (which was interesting in NJ these days) he obviously had a couple drinks before the show. And he's perfected the "i don't give a shit because i used to work at a gas station but now I'm in a band that had a hit and has a cult following" stance. I'm not sure what that means but if you stand cool, you are cool in my book. I aspire to have children that will not care about anything and look awesome doing it, and hopefully kick out the jams.
I have more to write, so stay tuned, and Dylan if you are reading this you owe me a certain IM conversation....
J
Thursday, my hetero-lifemate Brendan took me to see Pearl Jam. Continuing a streak of seeing acts that were popular in the 90s. The show was excellent, I really enjoyed the songs off of the new album. Eddie didn't throw around his half-assed liberal politics, not that I don't agree with his points of view, but there is a time and a place for politics, in between songs isn't one of them. I'm sure people will disagree but whatever, write political songs, take stances, just don't think that we are going to resolve the worlds problems in the 30 second break you took because you jumped off a drum riser and need to catch your breath. Anyway, they played plenty of hits, Matt Cameron continues to be the most underrated drummer in rock and roll, and I had an awesome start to my 30th. Friday was a fiasco, I had to work the day job, which is always interesting when your ears are ringing. I can't hear anything anyway, add in the tinitus dog whistle from a rock concert and I might as well be Marlee Matlin at a record store.
I managed to escape the second job for the weekend, so Friday night I planned on bar hopping but ended up at the Frog all night, yes I know what the definition of irony is (For those that don't know I work at the Famished Frog on the weekends and its 2 blocks from my house). But I had a good time regardless, the bartenders decided that I shouldn't ever have an empty glass, my equilibrium surrendered early, but I still managed to be social and not offend anyone or pass out. Apparently I hit that stage of drunkenness where I forget that I'm a big horrible monster that should be locked away from people, but didn't reach the point where the rest of my personality is dissolved in liquor and I can't be witty. So I worked on the ladies, with moderate success, so yeah no restraining orders. I at least thought I was charming that evening.
Saturday, I got up early and cleaned the house, my plan was to have a bar b q to thwart all attempts at a surprise party. Yeah I'm a pain in the ass, I'm not the hugest fan of surprise parties, but I was deceived anyway. So I returned home from running errands to a back porch full of my friends and a keg of beer. It was all down hill from there, grilling turned into a mammoth tournament of flip cup, which was later punctuated by shots in between rounds. You would think at 30 we wouldn't need to subject ourselves to such debauchery, but nuts to that it was awesome, besides I didn't want to remember how old I was. Down to the bars, back to the house, my heroic intake of alcohol caused me to go feral and explore the woods around my house at 3am, I think that's an indication of a good party if I ever heard one. A few apologetic text messages and dinner with mom on Sunday, and I officially entered the dirty 30s.
Mom got me a sweet digital camera, which I need to start using like a Japanese tourist. I'm deathly afraid of breaking it, since its tiny and expensive, and I'm large and uncoordinated. Besides I've been plagued by a rash of malfunctioning electronic equipment, first my iPod, which was like losing a friend, then my synth. I'm sure the neighbors don't miss my piano playing but damn if I can't play "Faithfully" when I get home from work. I get paid this week so hopefully music will be restored to my life. I've had to resort to listening to CDs in my car, how plebeian.
Last Tuesday I went to another good show at Starland Ballroom, Stellastarr and Nada Surf. It was a Jack Daniels show, so it was invite only, so a light crowd but real fans. I was really impressed by both bands. Stellastarr has a totally hot chick bassist, and good songs. Girls that play instruments are a soft spot of mine. A lot of them seem to be bassists, I could make jokes about coordination or finding enough time outside of the kitchen to practice with 2 more strings, but I'll leave it alone. Stellastar had a great 80s euro band vibe, I know they are from New York, but if you like Joy Division or Roxy Music or Depeche Mode or any other of those bands from that general niche, you'll love these guys. Good pop sensibility, just enough punk to rock out, great song structure. Nada Surf (what is with the 90s bands) opened with "Popular" a bold move I thought at the time, since I wasn't really familiar with the band, but they have plenty of other good songs. They make a lot of sound for a trio. Apparently the drummer makes indie rock chicks swoon, I thought he was kind of goofy looking, but he played a giant snare drum which sounded awesome so I'll give him that. The bassist is probably the most rock and roll person on the planet, white guy with dreds, smoking on stage (which was interesting in NJ these days) he obviously had a couple drinks before the show. And he's perfected the "i don't give a shit because i used to work at a gas station but now I'm in a band that had a hit and has a cult following" stance. I'm not sure what that means but if you stand cool, you are cool in my book. I aspire to have children that will not care about anything and look awesome doing it, and hopefully kick out the jams.
I have more to write, so stay tuned, and Dylan if you are reading this you owe me a certain IM conversation....
J
posted by JD at 9:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home