If I faked a seizure right now, could I leave work?

I wanna Hoot!

AWESOMELY LAZY FOUR DAYS!!

I took some time off work for a long weekend and I'm just sitting here and listening to all kinds of sweet tunes, writing my Leslie and the Lys review, reading blogs, e-mailing and just screwing around. All while semi-impatiently waiting for Jeopardy! to come on. It's awesome. Anyone in their right mind would be outside right now. Seeing as I'm steps away from Calhoun and Isles all the time, this is what I should be doing, but I'm a lazy bum. I'm an indoor kid. I was that kid who sat in her room all summer and read and listened to the radio while all the other neighborhood kids ran around outside and got into all sorts of trouble. My mom used to actually have to force me to go outside. Wow, that was a fight... it would usually end up with me sneaking the book out of the house. We moved around a lot, so I was always forced to find a new place to read without being bothered. My favorite being when we lived in the smallish town of Goodhue, MN - I had forged a nice understanding with the owner of the local Hardware Hank and he'd let me read in the back room. (p.s. my reading room was NOT the Agnew Hardware Hank)

I haven't read a book in it's entirety in about eight months, so looking back on my days of a book in two days makes me a little sad. I have bought like, ten books since then and haven't managed to get through any of them all the way. Sounds like a good way to pass my remaining days off with.

Happy Friday!!

I'm going to the Leslie and the Lys show tonight at the Entry. I have been looking forward to this since I saw her last time last January. This is some Electropop awesomeness, I'm just saying. It's an overwhelmingly ass-shaking experience. And I'm covering it for good ol' HowWasTheShow. I haven't wrote up a show in awhile so I'm really excited to transcribe this for the collective enjoyment of all. I also can't wait to see what she's going to wear.... There will be waaaaay better pictures this time around as the fabulous Alexa Jones will be snapping up the spectacle in all it's glory. Well, onto some prepping and preeming and I will be on my way.

Oh Dear!

The Spins with HowWasTheShow went REALLY well last night. With the exception of my disc causing trouble and making Pat O'Brien's laptop freeze up - and then my subsequent heart attack. There was waaaay more people this time around, and it was a grand old time. I apologize to all the people that I forced into hugging me. And I double apologize to the people that I hugged more than once. If there is a combination for my joy, it is great music, combined with great people, and of course, alcohol. All those things were there. There was even dancing.

So any of you who are silly enough to have missed it this week - we're doing it bi-weekly. The next Tuesday being the 24th of April. And I apologize in advance if I get all drunk, happy and huggy.

This is what I played...

Trouble - Elvis
Kicks - Paul Revere and the Raiders
My Head in Front of Your Head - Best Friends Forever
Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
Shake Your Baby - Junior Senior
Chick Habit - April March
Talk Too Much - God Damn Doo Wop Band
Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse
Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell
One Piece At a Time - Johnny Cash
Sound System - Operation Ivy
Roadrunner - The Modern Lovers
Police On My Back - The Clash
New York Groove - Ace Frehley
Today Was A Good Day - Ice Cube
Sweet Talking Woman - ELO

And frankly there are a couple more, but of course I can't remember about three of them.

I WANT A JUKEBOX:

Ah, this is what typically happens when I watch a Quentin Tarantino movie. All I want to do is sit around and listen to music all day and then switch over to watching movies and smoking for hours upon hours. Among other things.

I saw Grindhouse over the weekend, and I haven't been able to get that April March cover "Chick Habit" (a cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Laisse tomber les Filles") out of my head. I have listened to it no less than ten times in the past 36 hours. There's a procedure for me to listen to this that involves me swinging my head back and forth so that my ponytail hits me in the face and I get a little dizzy. Highly enjoyable.

I liked the movie itself, not as much as any of Rodriguez and Tarantino's other movies, but more than say, Destiny Turns on the Radio and/or Spy Kids. Planet Terror was full on, pulsating, blubbling gore and lots of guns, violence, etc. (just what i like) And... nothing is sexier than Rose McGowan with a machine gun leg. Ok, so I want a jukebox and a machine gun leg. That's all I want. Death Proof was good - all tension and covering my eyes with my jacket while Kurt Douglas stalks and terrifies with a sadistic charm. Add in an awesomely bloody car crash and a sky raining body parts, mix in the happy turning point, hot chicks in hot pants, and a couple of my favorite TXRD Rollergirls, great music, and you've got something to work with.

I know this should probably be on the movie blog, but that thing is like a ghost town. I have to work three days this week, and the rest will be non-stop awesomeness.

Tomorrow, HWTS is having their second Spins at the Nomad from 9 - 12 - where you will probably hear a Death Proof selection, among my 45ish minute set.

Wednesday I'll be working Merch at Voltage, while probably being the shabbiest dressed person there...

Thursday I get to see Leslie and the Lys for the second time... an event I have been waiting for at least a year to see again... I think I'll drop some Gem Sweater at the Spins on Tuesday too.

Friday - The Hoot and whatever trouble I get into afterwards...

And the rest of the weekend is open for discussion. <3

A half-written review that I never sent in.... to cover up my last post

Here at How Was The Show, Jeremy Messersmith has made multiple appearances in our reviews for about a year now. I could have just commited his performance at the Uptown Bar Saturday to my memory only, but I feel the overwhelming urge to share. His album, The Alcatraz Kid has been out since September of last year, but I have become acquainted with it in the past couple months, and since then I've continued to listen to it constantly - obsessively almost. This is my album of right now. A few weeks back, in the week of snowstorms, I found myself leaving work early, the roads terrible, but I was excited - filled with that old grade school feeling you get when you get sent home in inclement weather. A Current DJ, reading my mind from afar played Jeremy's song "Snow Day," and I sat in the car at the Lake/Excelsior stoplight, singing my best cover version. It almost freed me from the shackles of winter, and well, helped me decide that an actual snow day was in order the following day.

Jeremy Messersmith can make a choir appear within moments, using great musical ingenuity. He can also mesmerize a 9:30 Uptown crowd. I made it a point to arrive early, having missed him open at the Current's Listener Appreciation party by mere moments. And even arriving early, all the tables and booths were taken and people had already started peppering the area in front of the stage. I made sure to get up front right away, something I don't typically do. It was just him and his guitarist. A two man band-slash-orchestra. Messersmith was recording his beats by tapping his guitar a few times, and then he would loop it and go right into a song. It made me grin from ear to ear, to see it all coming together like that. My fellow patrons and I stood spellbound before him, his delicate yet strong voice making itself known.

I admire his songwriting. The Alcatraz Kid has eleven songs on it. Every single one of them has a polish and a shine on them. The lyrics lead me to think of lost innocence, dealing with being a grown up, mixed in with a haunting feeling of loneliness. It's a winter album in all kinds of ways, not just because it's got that "Snow Day" track. Not just because it was my winter album obsession. Because it's delicate and complements the heavy-hearted, and at the same time it has these hopeful undertones, in preparation for spring.

Old News

I can't stop thinking about Brad Delp lately. I've been listening to a lot of Boston. I think about rock and rollers such as he, growing old. The fleeting nature of fame and notoreity and how it has passed them by. But mostly I think about how he killed himself - carbon monoxide poisoning from the two charcoal grills he had placed in the bathtub.
When I heard this it made me inexplicably sad. Just the sound of his voice transports me back to my childhood. It's so epic and large, it's almost otherworldly. I suppose I say it like this because I was reared on classic rock. By the time I had learned to spin records, I had no choice but to listen to my mother's laughably small record collection, mostly consisting of Boston, Styx, Ted Nugent, Heart, Van Halen and so on. My favorite being The Nuge. (Yes, I still enjoy the music of said Republican Fuck, but after seeing my childhood rock hero play a couple summers ago, I wouldn't be as upset if he gassed himself.)

I don't know what this blog post is all about. I think I have been meaning to write the "Sad About Brad Delp Dying" post for a week now, I've just been a little embarassed to put it out there. My regular, non-embarassing blogging will commence very soon...