We Go To A Show 24 November 1999

7:56 PM: Koff, koffkoffkoffkoff. Koff. Hello. Please excuse my self from school yesterday he had a bad cough and his nose was running and he had to catch it.

I ended up staying home for the day, after getting paged (paged! again! I remember when that damn thing was just a paperweight that told the time) at 6:45 AM to find out that the site was all fucked up. Took us 3 hours or so to figure out what was wrong and fix it. All the while, drip drip drip and hack hack hack. Fooeh. Drugs, sleep, too much Solitaire. My fingertip is numb from the nubbly thing that Thinkpads have instead of a mouse.

All done, of course, so that I could rest up to go see John Linnell and the Statesmen performing songs from State Songs, the first volume of songs about the 50 states. Featuring such favorites as "I Forget Utah" and "No One Likes New Hampshire Man"! (These are not actual titles, they are the tag lines one remembers from the songs for the respective states.) I had to go, not only because, well, come on it's John Linnell from They Might Be Giants, but because I had four will-call tickets waiting for me, on which three other people were depending besides myself. It was the only selfless thing to do, really. Like throwing yourself on a grenade to save your buddies, only without being heroic or hurting nearly as much.

One of the worst bands I've seen in a long time opened the show, Niagra. ("Is that pronounced "Nee-ah-gra"?) It was like watching the bartender's boyfriend's band play. Like if Mitch were making his stage debut with the Poodles. Bad bad bad. They liked to repeat the lines of their songs, they liked to repeat the lines of their songs, they liked to repeat the lines of their songs, they liked to repeat the lines of their songs a lot, and they didn't even know how to vary the 4th repetition a teeny bit. Maybe they thought they were writing blues songs. Not close if so. In the words of Saul, in a rare concert appearance, "They're so white."

But they went away, and the Statesmen emerged, and it was better. Except the kinda cute girl that had been standing near us turned out to be the girlfriend of the guitarist from the first band, ick, and left halfway through Linnell's first song, duh. I guess that was something of a peripheral issue, though.

The songs are funny and perfect. Of course they are. Many were danceable, I would guess, for the young people who like that boogie-shaking thing. I wouldn't call them educational exactly. He did play Maryland's state song for us, though. How creepy that is, my gosh.

The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door, Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore, Maryland! My Maryland!

The "tyrant" mentioned here is Abraham Lincoln. A fine song, really. Taught to schoolchildren.

In conclusion, fun was had by me and other people, though not the people behind us who talked and were ugly and/or foreigners. Everyone was there, Saul, Fred, Penny, Lana, even Charity showed up. We stood around outside and babbled nonsensically until I got cold and made everyone leave. Then we went to the bar and drank beer, if you can imagine. I actually get pretty good results with colds from beer & cigarettes. Well, in a very short-term sense. We talked more there, about cromulant words and duct tape, and Penny brought pictures of England (mostly grey) and her & her sister (mostly cute), of which I have one now, neat.

Tonight I don't know what exactly. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving at Lana's swank new abode. I think she's cooking two turkeys so everyone can get leftovers, the best part after all. Yum. Friday will be Movie Day, I do so swear.

And that damn pager better just shut up.

Willfully blind self-indulgent nebbish or amusingly quirky old coot? And how bout that local sports team? Discuss among yourselves.

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