Gettin' there

There is a street in Charlotte called Queens. It's raining today and the leaves on the oaks in town are in their light green phase as they are just popping out. In the next week or so, if you live in Charlotte, cruise down Queens if it's raining out. It's the prettiest green you can see this side of the mold between Tom's toes.

Praise Jebus

"Jackson has said he is pretending the 1976 update does not exist."

I think Jack Black working with Peter Jackson on King Kong is really cool.

Just say no

I think they gots enough teams in the playoffs. We don't need the NFL going the way of the NBA or that useless hockey league.

Light blogging is for wimps

This last Wednsday William and I drove up to Greensboro after work to see a band called the Constantines play at an awesome little club called Ace's Basement.

First the club. Ace's Basement is located in the basement of a scary old hotel near the Greensboro Coliseum. The hotel is one of the L-shaped hotels that looks like it was built in the 1960's. Judging by the customers of the hotel it houses a lot of transient construction workers and just plain ole transients. Our initial reaction to the hotel didn't inspire in us much hope for the club itself. We were very surprised. Whoever owns Ace's Basement obviously put a lot of thought, work and money into it. The stage is stuck in the corner and is about one foot high. Directly across from the stage is a nice long bar with plenty of stools for us old people to sit on. To the left of the stage is the soundboard. There are also three remotely controlled digital cameras stationed to the left, right and front of the stage. They are used to broadcast the perfromance on three televisions stationed around the club. In between bands they displayed previous bands performances at the club. Pretty cool, I thought. I would very much like to attend another show at this nice little venue. Also, I was the oldest customer. This is starting to become a trend as I attend shows in small clubs.

Recently I have started to notice that when I attend the occasional performance by a newer young band at a club like Ace's or Tremont that I have started to become, if not the oldest person there, then in the top ten. It reminds me of my earlier days in Charlotte when I was in my early 20's. I used to notice an older guy at all the good shows. He was in his 40's and had a been long beard and glasses. He looked like he could have been an English professor or a pot dealer or both. He was never there trying to make the scene and was attempting to be cool. He was just there to see good music. I noticed he was always very into the band that was playing and always stood on the outer fringe of the crowd. I remember thinking that I hoped when I got to be his age that I would still be willing to take a chance and go out and hear new music and not end up stuck in a rut and just listening to my old records. I'm approaching 40 now and I am willing to be the old guy at the club. I'll stay out of the way and ejoy the tunes.

The Constantines were the second band of three. The headliner was band called Pretty Girls Make Graves. They were fronted by a punked out girl and William says their name is inspired by something by Keroauc. The Constantines were only onstage for a half hour which really disppointed me. But, man, did they throw down. I love seeing a young strong band like the Constantines. They played with such intensity that brought in most of the crowd about halfway through their set. I love when general interest evolves into enthusiasm when a great band plays their asses off. I read a review that said the Constantines were a combination of Fugazi and Bruce Springsteen. I thought they had some nice punky/Crazy Horse guitar interplay. I love shit like that. Kudos to the Constantines they are a great young band with a lot of intensity and I hope they come to Charlotte soon so I can badger a few of my friends to seeing them with me.

Update concerning the juice bar

Any remarks concerning a young lady at the juice bar at my local health food store should only be taken in the most positive manner possible. It is possible to appreciate the glowyness of a young lady without the writer being seen as a lustful old goat.

I may never go there again. I'm so embarrassed. Damn blog.

I haven’t been away, I’ve been writing with invisible ink, you bastard.

It’s strange, I’ve been in kind of a funk recently. A sort of non-blogging, not excercising fog. I know what it is, I am having a lifestyle problem. You know, tired of being tired kinda thing. Mid-life crisis? Fuck you, it isn’t. Remember I bought a 1989 Honda Civic, not some hotrod I couldn’t afford. Time to gather up all my shit and get it together.

I finally, finally got off my ass on Friday and went for a bike ride. It was only my second bike ride in March. Unacceptable. It was fun though. Sweating is good, it clears up your mind and darkens your clothing. I also saw my first bikini clad female of the spring. She was laying on the grass located on the tiered section of Freedom Park. Gracias.

Yesterday I went by Berrybrook and got me another of them fantastic veggie burgers. Damn, I love those things. They finally got some Desert Essence Lip Rescue back in stock. I was jonesing bad. Thanks also to the pretty girl in the juice bar who smiled at me. Garsh, how can you not adore those young hippy girls they get in there? They are so young and healthy that they almost glow.

About fwiggin' time

"Last season at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, driver Jerry Nadeau was seriously injured in a crash during a Nextel Cup practice session in May. In September, after the SAFER barriers were in place, Jason Keller escaped injury in a similar crash. NASCAR said crash data recorders inside those two cars showed a 75 percent reduction in G forces felt in the driver's compartment from Nadeau's crash to Keller's."

Fearless leader

"I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the preceding eight years."

Oh, internet, How much do I love thee?

Last night for a mere $10 I purchased the soundboard recording of the Primus show I saw in Charlotte on March 9th. How cool is that? I listened to a good chunk of it while downloading and it sounds fantastic. In fact I can hear the vocals better on this recording than I could at the show. Why is that, wonders I? On the Primus website you can purchase a soundboard recording of every show from their recent tour. I hope this is a trend other bands follow. First Pearl Jam released a whole tour on CD and now Primus does this. I imagine as the technology gets more affordable even smaller bands will do something similar. I can't wait. We all know you don't really experience a band until you hear/see them live.

Sneeze, cough and then blow your nose

The worse thing about being sick with a cold, to me, is that I cannot sleep when I have a cold. It's hard to sleep when you can't breathe and you have a headache. Crap. I'm sick of laying down and being awake. I'd like to lay down and, oh, I don't know, maybe...sleep. I've read my book until I'm tired of it. I played on the Xbox for a while. I caught up on tracking the goings on of a few of my favorite bands and labels. I'm very close to giving my cats a bath.