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For the first time ever, I'm able to watch Sopranos as it airs. I've never had HBO before so i always just watched it on DVD. (it's awesome on DVD by the way b/c you can just watch them back to back to back). But it's pretty fun to watch it on sunday nights too. Unfortunately, we'll be moving soon, and won't have HBO, but we will supposedly have high speed internet, so maybe i can find a way to download each episode.
anyway, i'm totally obsessed with the way that they're using the song The Three Bells, by the Browns. It's haunting. and i love it. and they keep playing it. and i love it. "all the chapel bells were ringing..for little jimmy brown".....i love it. i once saw Jim Ed Brown sing that at the Grand Ole Opry. that was pretty cool. It's sort of an eery song, and it's kinda spooky, but kinda cool when they play it on the show. and keep playing it. i love it.
speaking of chapel bells bringing, here's a little shout out to some friends of mine that got married this past weekend. mary went home for the wedding, but i wasn't able to do so. so cheers to the 2 crzy kids K & B. sorry i missed the festivities. i heard it was awesome. congratulations.
so my life is gonna be crzy for the next little bit.
i got out on the road thursday thru saturday.
monday morning mary should get home.
then we'll have a couple weeks to hang out and start packing.
then i have shows on the 28 and 29 i need to work.
and then we hopefully move May 1.
the RV owners emailed me yesterday and asked if they could stay until may 12.
ummm....nope.
we've been waiting FOREVER for them to move.
and now we have to.
may 1 we need to move in.
and then i have to work a show on may 3 and 5 and 6, and then i hit the road on may 9 until the 27. INTENSE.
hopefully i survive.
hopefully mary and the GUS do too.
in crzy thoughts news, i'm thinking maybe i should sell my house in cville.
have to see how that plays out.
it'd be sad to do it. i love that place. but i pretty sure i wanna be in TX for a while. and even if i leave TX, don't know if i'll be able to afford to live in Cville.
Cville: Trying it's best to be home to only rich people.
that's all i got.
i'm super psyched for mary to come back.
and excited to get to move to Austin.
the end
mercy.
i feel like crap.
i've got a cold or some sinus thing going on.
today is tuesday, and it's been going on since saturday.
and i feel like crap.
ugh.
and mary is gone.
she left on friday but it seems longer.
she's back in VA for a wedding and to hang out.
and i feel weird about all kinds of things.
and i'll write about that in a second.
but first, here's some ramblings:
so i read a book in 2 days. 2 days. pretty sure i've never read a book that fast. i'm addicted. i read this book called "gone for good" by harlan coben. it's the third coben book i've read in 3 weeks. i'm totally obessed. they're really suspenseful. and really good. i can't quit reading them. i finished one on saturday and freaked out b/c the library was closed and i couldn't get another.
i had to drive to the library in San marcos 20 miles away and get one the next day. i learned my lesson though. i got 2. good thing, since i already finished one. i'm a coben junkie. who would have thought i'd like to read?
know what else i like? slim jims. slim jims make me happy. i used to love slim jims when i was a kid. i'd take one for a snack every day. the Quest teachers used to give me a hard time about it. they said i had to have a healthy snack. i told them my mom packed it for me. God bless my mom. mm...slim jims. i hadn't had one in years. but then, before i started hating the bar, the bar got slim jims. and they taunted me. i wanted one, but they were 50 cents. so i never bought one. and then i quit going there anyway. but then the other day at HEB, the best grocery store in the world, they had a deal: buy 2 boxes of popcorn, get a can of slim jims free. ROCK! i had a slim jim on the way home from the store. instant happiness. slim jims seem a lot smaller now than they did back when i was a kid. but still yummy. i love salty things. i think i have a salt deficiency which makes me crave salt. no foolin. i crave salty things: chips, burgers, microwave dinners, etc. i like salt. one time i tried to get into a research study and i had to fast like 16 hours or something. they excluded me from the study b/c they said my sodium level was too low. i laughed.
i did finally get into a research study though.
it doesn't pay much, but i dont' have to go in overnight either.
and they are great people there.
not like the other place, the one that mary got into. that place sucks.
my place rocks.
i subbed 2 days the other week.
i'm growing tired of subbing.
but it's quick money.
and i'm broke as a joke.
i never wrote about the kid stealing my shoe one day.
that sucked.
i almost had a heart attack.
one day, some time ago, i subbed for little kids.
and i'd been hiking or something the day before and my feet hurt.
so i had my shoes off and my feet under the desk as i read.
at some point, i went to put on my shoes.
and i only had one.
i felt around w/ my foot.
no shoe.
my heart started to race.
where could it have gone?
i had to look under the desk. i figured that looked stupid, but walking around with one shoe off looked stupid too.
so i crawled around on the floor behind the desk frantically searching.
no shoe.
what the heck?
now i was sleepy.
and most likely hungover.
and i couldn't figure it out.
did a kid take my shoe?
seemed implausible, but i had no other guess.
but how do i ask that? "Did someone take my shoe?"
what if i'm wrong?
then i look like an idiot.
(note to self: maybe quit caring what 3rd graders think about you)
so i continue to look.
and finally i see a couple girls looking at me and whispering.
"ok, does someone have my shoe?" i say firmly.
a little dark haired girl with big eyes brings me my shoe.
"i crawled under the desk and took it when you weren't looking" she said.
no kidding.
brat.
kids are cute.
the end.
that's all the fun stuff.
the rest is not as fun.
you can stop reading here and still leave with a happy feeling, and you won't have missed out on much.
and that's all i know.
now i'm gonna ramble and get a little whiny. blame it on my sickness.
my cold ridden head is all in a haze.
i hung out by the river lots these past 2 days.
today i sat in the river and read a book.
i heard a noise, and there, 30 feet away, was a raccoon swimming right towards me.
i didn't know what to do if he kept coming at me.
he didn't.
he veered right.
i watched him for about 10 minutes.
i'd never really watched a raccoon close up.
pretty interesting little characters.
but i hate them.
a raccoon attacked my dog when i was a kid.
and i've never forgiven the species.
but i've been nostalgic these last couple days.
don't know if it's this sickness clouding my head or what, but it's gnawing at me.
i'm worried i'm going to really miss it out here.
i'm sure i'll like austin, and that it will just be a transition.
and i admittedly hate transitions, so that's probably all it is, but man, i love this river.
but i'm tired of everything else.
i can't even stand to talk to MK and RM anymore, and that kinda sucks.
and i can't go to my former fav. bar out here---the one i used to work at, b/c i have too many ill feelings towards.
and i miss people in VA a bit.
i have no desire to live there anytime soon.
i love it here.
i just wish VA were a little bit closer.
and here i get honest. if you don't want honesty, don't read this paragraph. seriously. i'm not kidding. okay. i warned you. i'm going to keep typing.
i miss the fun times i used to have w/ mary. i really do. i hope austin will give us a second wind. i hope we didn't wait too long to move there. mercy. we used to have a lot of fun. not so much anymore. i often do my own thing or concert thing. and she hangs out with bar people. i hate that bar. and part of me really wanted to ride home to VA with her, since i have no idea what my schedule will be like w/ my new job where i have to go on the road. but i knew we'd kill each other on the road trip there. and i knew we needed some time apart. i know she needed some alone time.
and it's all weird, and it all sucks, and i miss the old days.
but i don't miss living in VA.
and she still does.
wish us luck in Austin please.
i'd like it to somehow work.
Well, March 12 wIas 6 months of me being in TX. 6 months. mercy. in some ways that seems like a long time, and in others it seems like just yesterday.
Here's the quick 6 month update:
I love TX.
We're moving to the RV May 1.
I got a killer job in the music biz.
The end.
That's the story in a brief nutshell.
As the GUS and i were taking a walk today i reflected a bit on it.
lots of things are different.
i still like it out here in wimberley, but am ready to move on.
all the things that i thought were novel and exciting when i first moved here, i'm now kinda tired of.
it's been a long time since we hung out w/ MK or RM.
the things that made them amusing at first, now just make them annoying.
its sort of sad.
guess i'm too big for wimberley now.
or something.
after 6 months i finally had almost run out of $$.
on monday of last week i decided that i needed to try to get a part time job.
and it made me sad, but i needed some $.
and then tuesday of last week i was offered a job being road manager for one of my favorite singers.
a killer job. a killer opportunity. and it pays pretty decent.
life is exciting.
thank goodness ididn't have to get a real job!
i had held out for so long, it would have been sad to give up on the dream.
now the dream lives on.
i'm really lookin fwd to livin in austin.
it should be awesome.
it'll be an adjustment living in a mobile environment.
but fun i think.
i'll miss the river.
and i feel bad for the gus that he can't just stroll around all over the place.
hopefully he'll like it alright.
i'll have to figure out how things will work w/ the other manager that i work with.
i go to his house 3 or 4 times a week to work on stuff.
that'll be a long drive.
it'll be a long drive for mary to get to the bar too.
she still loves it there.
not me.
i hate that place.
so sad.
i was so excited to work there, and so intrigued by the place.
it drained my spirit quick.
there's just a bad vibe there.
mary loves it though.
she loves all the attention she gets from the rednecks.
and she likes that she has at least some people to socialize with.
the rednecks don't pay me that attention.
so i sort of quit a couple weeks ago.
i didn't really give notice or anything.
it's not that kind of place.
i just quit going.
stupid bar.
stupid rednecks.
and what else?
i don't know.
i still love it here as much as ever.
TX is awesome.
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.
This year was my first year ever getting to experience SXSW. I had no idea what to expect. Somehow, as much as i love music, i had never been to one before. And up until last week it didn't look like i was doing this one either. Funds are tight, you know--since i don't exactly work much, so i decided i couldn't afford to buy a wristband. i think they were $180 or something. WAY out of my price range. So, naievely, i assumed that meant i had to miss out on all the SXSW activities. I even took a job working SXSW to make some $$. But then i found out that there's some free stuff that goes on during SXSW during the day. And then i decided i might not want to work. So i told the guy i didn't want to work. And boy am i glad i did. Several days before the SXSW mayhem was about to begin i found the motherload of information on the free shows taking place. I wrote down all kinds of things. I mapped it out. I was ready. I found people to go to the shows with me. I had a blast. In short, I had 3 of the best days of my life. Here's what I did:
The very first day of free shows was Wednesday night. I had planned to go see some folks (jon dee graham, james mcmurtry, the gourds, etc), but the day was too spread out, and it didn't look like there would be free drinks or anything, so i decided to just stay home that night and rest in preparation for the 3 days. That was perhaps the best decision i ever made. That helped me survive.
So, the first day for me was Thursday, and my friend Jess agreed to hit up SXSW with me. On the schedule was The Schuba party at Yard Dog. It was supposed to have free drinks and free music. I had no idea what to expect. I thought it might be super crowded, so we got there early. We easily found a parking spot, and got to the place 30 minutes early. No one was there. It was dead. So we walked around some and visited my soon to be home on wheels. We got back to Yard Dog 40 minutes later or so. Mercy. It wasn't dead anymore. We had a little difficulty finding a parking spot, and there were a lot of people in the Yard Dog parking lot. I didn't know how the beer tent worked. So i walked up and asked that specifically that: "how does this all work?". the nice lady said that they worked for tips and that the beer was free. They had High Life on tap. High Life. I was totally psyched. One of my favorite beers, and i don't think i've ever had it on tap. I went at it. It was so exciting to have free high life at noon. We drank our first three or four really quick. On my fourth trip back a lady asked if i'd tried their whiskey drinks. I said that no, i had not. "Would you like to"? she asked. Yes i would. So i did. It was pretty good. Some new cherry flavored whiskey. A little strange, but free, so I had a couple. Then we finally slowed down our drinking a little. We saw a couple bands and i honestly have no idea who they were. Then Nickel Creek played. They were fun, but the sound was messed up so we had some problems hearing the vocals. Scott Miller was scheduled to play right after Nickel Creek, and we were totally psyched about that. We made our way to the very front before he took the stage. As he was setting up I told him something about being from VA, and how i'd never gotten a chance to see him before, so was really looking forward to seeing him. He apologized that he was only going to be playing 3 songs in that set, but said he was playing the next day at Jovitas. I asked if that required a badge, and he said it did, so he hooked us up with 2 passes for the show! Rock! 2 passes to see Nickel Creek and Scott Miller and the Commonwealth. We were totally psyched. Scott played 3 songs. they were awesome. Then we saw some of Deadboy and the Elephant Men's set. Pretty good stuff. Some other friends of mine showed up. They had the scoop. They gave us the crucial info. They had found out that the Drive By Truckers were supposedly playing a free show at Mean Eyed Cat, so we made plans to head there as soon as we saw Scott play again. He played 4 songs this time, all great, and we quickly headed over to the Mean Eyed Cat in hopes of seeing the Truckers. It took us a while to find the Mean Eyed--i don't exactly know my way around Austin yet. Mean Eyed was great too. They had free beer as well--Lonestar and Shiner and something else. I had a Lonestar. The last one they had actually, so I had a couple of Shiners after that. We saw Danny Schmidt in the crowd just hanging out. As we were walking in, i saw the DBTs on stage, and was scared we had just missed them. Luckily we hadn't. They were just setting up. We had apparently just missed seeing Perry Farrell sing one song, but i didn't care. The DBTs sang 4 songs. It was awesome. Shiner was great. We were feeling good. Not sure what to do next. And then someone said that the Beastie Boys were going to play a free show that night at Stubbs. Hold Crap. We had no idea if we'd be able to get in, but we knew we had to try. We figured since it was still 3 or so hours away from when they were supposed to start, we might have a decent chance, so we headed straight there. We didn't necessarily have a plan. Just a desire. And we did it. We totally snuck in. Second Row. And we saw the Beasties. And they were most excellent. Seriously. They were so great. They played a lot of old stuff--- Brass Monkey, No Sleep til Brooklyn, Paul Revere, Sure Shot, and more. They probably played about 75 minutes. It was so freakin cool. Every minute of it. It was totally mind blowing to see the Beasties up there. It was bizarre to think about them singing those same songs, dancing around, way back in the 80s. And now they're old and still doing it. And they totally rocked. Mike D and Adrock looked about the same. Mike D's hair was darker, and you could see a little gray on Adrocks hair creeping out from under his baseball cap. MCA though? holy crap. his hair was almost all gray. and he had a full beard, and it was all gray too. but he rocked. it was so cool to see him up there having a blast. they were all having a blast. it was classic. they jumped around, and laughed, and put on a heck of a show. the best part was the encore. Mix Master Mike started up the notes to "Intergalactic", and the Beasties came out, and Mike D started rapping, and all of a sudden there was no background music. He kept rapping, and you could see Mike D looking back at Mix Master Mike, who just shrugged and mouthed something about the power being out. So Mike D rapped freestyle, acapella, while Mix Master desperately tried to get the power back on on his turntables. Some big guy came out and fooled with. And just as it got to the chorus, the music kicked in, and they didn't miss a beat. Bad Ass. "that's why you're a fuckin professional" said Adrock.
Indeed.
It was great. We almost died though. At some point in the day we realized that we had forgotten to eat, so we did manage to eat a quick BBQ sandwich before the show. But we almost waited too long. And we didn't drink enough water. I was totally dehydrated, and fell asleep soon after i got home. It was a totally super day.
I woke up the next morning not knowing at all what to expect. It didn't seem like there was anyway that Friday could live up at all to what Thursday had provided. But I was looking forward to it nonetheless. The highlight of Friday was going to be the Bloodshot Records Party at Yard Dog. I like almost everybody on the Bloodshot label. They are awesome. And though i was disappointed that Bare Jr was not on the bill, i still knew it could be fun. Jess was my partner in crime again, and we arrived to Yard Dog right on time on Friday. I was pleased to see that Fridays party was sponsored by Pabst. In 2 days they provide me with my 2 favorite beers. That suits me just fine. It was a little cold and rainy though, and the PBR cans were a little cold in my hand. I fought through and managed to drink a couple. First thing we did when we arrived was check out the lineup that was posted on the tent. I can't tell you just how excited i was when i saw that Bare Jr AND Bobby Bare Sr were going to be playing together. I was elated. I was beyond elated. That was the ONE thing i had wanted to see that day. And it came true. I couldn't believe it. I had just said that in the car. And it happened. I should have wished for boobies or something else. I was pretty dang psyched for Bare and Bare though. Then i was nervous that they, or the Bottle Rockets--the other band i really wanted to see that day--would be playing the same time as Scott Miller and i would have to make a hard decision. No worries at all. Bare Jr and Sr played right before the Bottle Rockets, and they got done in time for us to get to Jovitas, snag the only parking space left, and see most of Nickel Creek's set and all of Scott and the Commonwealths set. 4 great back to back performances. Bare Jr was awesome as always. He played a song or 2, and then invited his dad up on stage. He said that now we would see what a slacker he was, and how he wasted his genetic talents. Bobby Bare played one of his classics--Detroit City maybe--and then, much to everyone's surprise, played 2 or 3 dirty, raunchy songs. Bare Jr was a bit perplexed. "He really does do some straight country songs sometimes" he told the audience before he played a couple more songs. I requested "Naked Albino", and just like every time before, he refused to play it. It was still awesome. Totally awesome. The Bottle Rockets were great too. I'd never seen them before. They rocked. They played a couple covers--some Neil Young--and some classics. Great stuff. Nickel Creek sounded really good over at Jovitas, and Scott Miller and the Commonwealth played a bunch off of the new album, and put on a really good show. We saw Steve Earle and Allison Moorer hangin out at the show. Fun times. AND, since the Jovitas show was sort of an industry showcase they had free food, so we actually got to eat that day. Chicken fried steak fingers and poppers and chips and queso and cheese. yum. After that, it was back to Yard Dog for some more Pabst and Bloodshot Rock. We saw a lady named Carolyn Mark, and i think Devil in a Woodpile, and a bit of the Meat Purveyors, and Matt May and El Torpedo. Matt May and El Torpedo were my favorite of the lot. Canadians who rock. They were good. The Waco Brothers closed out the Yard Dog party. I'd never seen them before. Holy Crap. They are drunken, raucous, and rockin and loud. And i loved it. All my other friends there left b/c it was too loud. I agreed to leave a bit early too as Jess was a little bored with their music too. From there, we met up with the group of folks that had left early. They were eating some Mexican food down the street. We joined them but just drank water. We had learned our lesson the day before. This day we drank water and ate food. Sometimes that's smart when you drink beer all day long. The night ended with a free Billy Joe Shaver concert at Jo's Coffeehouse. I was hoping Kris Kristofferson would show up there, but he didn't, but it was alright. The sound was pretty muddled for the BJS show unfortunately, but by the end, it was sounding pretty good. Billy pulled out a couple classics i don't here too often-- "I couldn't be me without you" and "ride me down easy", so that was pretty cool.
And then Friday was done too.
Another fun part of Friday is that i stayed at the RV that night.
And the RV is only 1.5 miles away from where we spent the entire day.
It's a cool part of town. I'll never have to leave my neighborhood. And that suits me fine.
There was one concert that day that was not in the neighborhood, and unfortunately we missed it. If we were serious troopers we would have tried it. Kinky Friedman and Roky Erickson were playing and i sort of wish we had tried to get to it, but we were exhausted, and it would have been nearly impossible to find parking, and it just seemed smarter to stay where we were and rest.
And if we had done that, we would have missed the Waco Brothers. Decisions are hard sometimes. We probably made the right decision.
Friday night i slept soundly in the RV. it'll be fun to live there. An adjustment, but fun.
Jess couldn't attend Saturday's festivities, so fortunately Brad and Gwen were up for hanging all day. They spent most of the day with us on Friday too. I knew without a doubt that there was no way that Saturday could live up to the previous 2 days. It would be impossible, but there was still a lot of fun to be had. The main thing i wanted to see that day was Two Cow Garage and The Drams (formerly Slobberbone) back to back at Jovitas. It was pouring down rain all morning, so i was glad they were playing inside. Both of them were great. And loud. I'd never seen Slobberbone before, so was glad i finally got the chance--even if they're a little different now. They were still great. Both were awesome. My ears hurt. Poor Brad. Once, many many years ago, I convinced a group of my friends to go see Bare Jr w/ me, and it was so loud that Brad actually folded up cigarettes and put them in his ears. He hated it. It was about as loud on saturday. Brad and Gwen spent most of the performance over in the corner where it wasn't as loud. But it was fun. Fortunately the rain started to let up right about the time Brent Best and crew finished up, so we decided to head back to Yard Dog for the Yep Roc party, and hope for some more free beers and good music. We hit the major jackpot at Yard Dog that day--drinking wise i mean. The had free Shiner Bock on tap, AND Southern Comfort drinks AND free tacos. I had 2 tacos and 2 Soco drinks and several Shiners. I was very very happy. The tacos were great. And then this crzy bus pulled up that said "I love Wine" on the side, and some lady on the bus started yelling from a bullhorn. I couldn't hear what she was saying, but i was intrigued. So Gwen and i went to check it out. That was a good decision. There was a guy playing guitar in the back, but i didn't really care about that. They had 3 different kinds of wine they were giving out. I drank all 3. We had crzy conversations with the ladies. The wine was good. They gave us a gift bag. It had a little bottle of Shiraz in it, and a couple cds. I love the I love Wine bus.
then we drank some more Shiner and tried to see Billy Bragg. The crowd had gotten too big though, so we only listened to a couple songs. I then remembered that Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs were rumored to be playing at the Dog and Duck so we decided to try to see them there. At the Dog and Duck I bought my only beer of the entire weekend. And we saw Susanna and Matthew Sweet. And they were great. Susanna was super hot. I love her. I loved her way back when. And i still love her. Hot hot hot, and she can sing with the best of them, and she plays guitar? yeah... i love her. I wasn't the only one though. Lots of other guys who apparently grew up in the 80s were there too snapping pics and yelling their love towards her. They played all covers. And for some reason I thought they were going to play cheesy 60s songs. Nope. Rockin songs. Cinnamon girl and Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, and It's all over now Baby Blue, and Different Drum, and something else. They were awesome. And it was cool to see Rick Menck on drums, who I last saw drumming it up for one of my favorite bands, The Pernice Brothers, back in Charlottesville. Have i said how much i love Susanna Hoffs? Mercy. She looked and sounded great. Matthew was looking a little rough, but sounded great.
And that ended the official SXSW mayhem.
We had one more show to see before we went home, so we caught the Sidehill Gougers over at Waterloo Icehouse. They played 30 or so minutes of great original music, and we drank a couple more beers, and then went to try to find my car. Fortunately we found it.
And then, it was over.
And I was sad, and exhausted.
But it was insane and fun. Every minute of it. Best time ever. 3 days of pure mayhem and goodness and music. I saw several bands that i'd always wanted to see and never had the chance to (Bottle Rockets, Scott Miller, Slobberbone/Drams, Waco Brothers), and none of them let me down. All the music was pretty great. I saw just a ton of great great music. And all of it was free. The entire weekend I purchased exactly 1 BBQ sandwich, and 1 beer, (and then two 99 cent burgers at Wendys on the way home the final day). I tipped pretty frequently for the free beers, but that doesn't count. I did all that stuff for basically free. And it blew my mind. Between you and me, wristbands are for suckers. Don't let anyone tell you different. Sure, I would have liked to have seen Kris and Lyle and a couple other things. But i had as much fun as i could have possibly squeezed into those 3 days. There was no time for anything else.
I gotta say thanks to Jess for totally being a trooper on thursday and friday. She hit up every single show w/ me, and was totally up for it. And thanks to Brad and Gwen for partying some on friday, but for partying with me and escorting me around all day on Saturday. They were troopers too. And thanks to John for the killer concert tips. It was all tremendous, and they all helped make it so.
All my years comin down to Austin, I can't believe I'd never done SXSW before.
I guess they don't really advertise all the cool free stuff. But i found it. I found more than i could handle actually.
Man, it was great. Perhaps even better than the ACL festival--ACL doesn't have free beer and food. ACL has longer setlists, and a wider variety of bands. But most bands that i like, and music that i like shows up for SXSW. And i saw it. And it was awesome.
Dang i love this town.
2 posts in 2 days.
i'm on a roll.
last night we had 2 parties to go to.
it rocked.
the first one was a "stock the bar" party for some friends of ours who are getting married. that's a good theme for a party. and they had margaritas and beer and fajitas for the guests. great party.
the fajitas were excellent. the queso there was the best i've ever had. i wish i had asked where it came from. instead i just stuffed my face.
there were 2 cool dogs at the party. a boxer and a huge doberman. the boxer rocked. i normally think of boxers as big dogs. standing next to the doberman though it looked really small. like a little person. i bent over to pet it and it jumped up and tried to kiss me on the lips. then later it snuggled up beside me on the couch. it was a sweet dog. but then at some point it apparently drank margaritas and threw up on the kitchen floor and the owners of the house were pissed and made him go outside. i say its not his fault he threw up. i was going to go console him outside, but he'd already run away.
i feel bad for the doberman. not just the one there, but all dobermans. back in the 80s they were IT. they were THE dog to have to protect your house and scare people. then all of a sudden pit bulls and rotweilers came onto the scene. you never hear about people have dobermans as guard dogs anymore. in all those 80s movies and tv shows, it was always dobermans. where did pit bulls and rotts come from? out of nowhere it seemed. i bet it was the Chinese.
anyway, i feel bad the doberman lost his status as the big mean dog.
just as well i guess though. all the dobermans i've never known (2 or 3) have all been really nice and sweet.
i like that better.
so at the 'stock the bar' party someone requested some music. so the homeowner went over to the stereo to start it up. and the music kicked in, and everyone was ready to party, and then lynyrd skynyrd starting playing. i thought it was a joke. i think i even laughed. but it wasn't a joke, even though i continued to laugh. we listened to the whole Skynyrd greatest hits. and it was hilarious. i haven't heard Skynyrd at a party since college. i didn't know people still listened to it. it seems like it's one of those things you listen to in high school and college, and then that's it, unless you still drive a camaro or trans am or have a confederate flag bandana. but these people were rich. they had a huge, nice house. w/ nice furniture and a nice tv, and nice dogs. and they played Lynyrd Skynyrd for the party music. i laughed about it the whole night.
i had several Skynyrd tapes back in the day. i can honestly say that i haven't played them since college. i'm past it.
in college one time Skynyrd made me late for class. we'd been playing darts, with Skynyrd's Platinum and Gold on in the background. well Freebird came on. the live version. 15 minutes long. and class started in 8 minutes. you can't walk out in the middle of freebird--especially the live version---especially in college. i was late. when asked why, i just said "Freebird".
in high school, one of the first concerts i went to was Lynyrd Skynyrd and Bad Company and Drivin and Cryin. it was over 2 hours away but my friend troy and i were psyched to go see them. it was at an outdoor ampitheater and i remember walking up the pathway to get there, and this huge redneck biker type guy was coming back down the trail towards us. "No fuckin chains wallets!" he yelled. "No fuckin chain wallets!".
they apparently would not let you enter the venue if you were wearing a chain wallet.
that seemed like a pretty silly rule to me, and could sympathize with the biker man.
until i got into the concert.
and then i was glad that they didn't allow chain wallets.
troy and i sat there very quietly for the whole concert.
and then we ran back to the car.
Skynyrd fans were a little scary.
i remember when i found out soon after that that most of lynyrd skynyrd had actually died long before we saw them. i had no idea. and, also unknown to us, was that Paul Rodgers had left Bad Co. some time earlier to attempt a solo career. So there's a decent chance i saw 2 huge washed up bands made up of replacement singers. oh well. Drivin n Cryin had all their original members. and they rocked hard. and i still like them to this day.
and we didn't die at the concert.
it all worked out ok i guess.
the other party we stopped by afterwards. we made friends with some hippies recently. they came over and partied with us after mary's art show last weekend. and they invited us to their party this weekend. lots of hippies. some strangeys. it wasn't that fun truthfully. and i was tired. we didn't stay long. long enough for me to be freaked out by the pet guinea pig. it was weird. and it scared me. and this kid tried to play with it, and the guinea pig apparently lunged towards his jugular. i knew it was dangerous.
and then we came home and went to sleep.
i was beat from sitting outside most of the day.
it was 90 here yesterday, so i made my triumphant return to the river.
it was great.
still a little too cold to fully immerse myself, but i just sat in the shallow part and read a book.
life is grand.
the end
so it's march madness time again.
and i dont' usually care too much.
but i do always watch the ACC tournament, even though UVA always loses.
this year though we dont' have real cable.
so i can't watch the whole tournament.
but i did manage to find a bar on friday night to watch UVA, and they actually won. it was pretty exciting.
and then yesterday i went to my neighbors to watch their second round game.
it was fun.
but it was weird.
he has a tv in his living room. it only gets half the channels.
if you need to watch a channel above 36, you have to watch the tv in the back.
the tv in the back is in the guest bedroom.
his ex father in law (who is the same age as him) now lives in the guest bedroom.
it is his tv.
but i want to watch the game so i watch it anyway.
and i drink a lot of beer.
and i pass out at 9.30, and wake up at 3am.
oops.
SXSW comes to town next week.
it's pretty exciting.
at first i was going to work the entire thing --12 days--and make $1000.
then i was going to work the entire thing and make $1600. $1600 was better, but busier.
then they wanted me to just work the music part (not film and interactive). that would only pay $500 or so.
and don't get me wrong, i can use $500.
but it all seems shady.
and like a pain in the ass.
AND, what they don't tell you if you don't live in TX is that you don't need to buy the $180 wristband for SXSW.
wristbands are for suckers.
there are HUNDREDS of free shows every day.
and all day, every day, are huge parties with free music and often free beer and food.
free beer and food and music sounds good to me.
so i told the guy i don't want to work.
seems like experiences like this is what i should be doing in Austin.
not selling tshirts from 9am until 9pm everyday.
so i was hoping i'd be living in the RV by now.
especially since it's right next to lots of SXSW activities.
but it looks like we won't be moving until may 1.
just as well i guess.
but i'm ready to be there.
we actually hung out w/ the current RV owners on friday night.
they had a cookout.
it was fun.
mary and i are trying to convince them to trade living quarters with us next weekend so we can be down there for SXSW.
i don't think they will.
i need to find some place down there.
i'm working on it.
otherwise i might not get to see mary and the gus for 4 days.
the list of free stuff from wed-saturday night is mind blowing.
i need to do lots of it.
we finally got internet at home.
it's fun.
even if it's dialup.
my whole entire life i've never had internet at home.
ever.
can you believe it?
30 years old and i've never had internet at home.
now i do.
and you'd think i would blog more or email more.
nope.
i do more work now.
and goof off more.
and i miss the library a bit.
that was a such a part of daily routine.
it's nice to not have to go there though.
but it is a lot faster.
occasionally i still have to go there if i need to have several windows open at once. that makes dialup real slow.
yesterday i was in the library typing away on my computer, and i got up to take a phone call and there were 2 llamas at the checkout counter. no kidding. 2 llamas. it totally freaked me out. big time. i just stared at them. they were gigantic. almost as scary as that was the person w/ the llamas. i couldn't tell if it was a boy or a lesbian. the person had a silly mullet, with hair really really short on the top and sides. almost shaved. and almost albino. and 2 llamas. when i returned from the front porch phone conversation i was still very confused by the llamas.
"there's llamas in the library" i told the volunteer behind the counter.
"what?" she said.
"there's llamas in the library" i said.
"i know" she said.
My second shift ever as a bartender was so intense that it almost made me quit blogging forever. The night was so crazy and so insane that I actually had to keep notes while at the bar. I figured I'd need the notes to remember when I wrote it up in a couple days. But then I could never find the energy. And I didn't want to write about anything until I wrote about the bar. But I didn't know where to begin with the bar story. So I'll just begin it with what the notes say. This is what is written on my scrap piece of paper:
-drunk rusty. Drunk girl in bar
-cecil/rusty, "f*** u Limp Dick"
-drunk girl, get out of here, 'fuckin bitch'
-I'm from east texas, we don't do things like that, 'I'll beat her ass'
-slap slap
-cops
-rusty falls. Twice
-grasshoppers and foosball
and there it is. I'll tell you what it means soon. Seriously.
Mercy. It seems like i never have time to blog anymore. I miss it a bit. If we ever get into our new home on wheels it will surely be easier with the free wireless internet that we'll have. that will be good.
i dont' know why we are, but we definitely feel busy, but it's a good busy.
i've been going in almost every morning for a couple hours doing the band management thing. it's going alright, but honestly, deep down, i'm a little discouraged that i'll never learn all the things i need to know and never make enough connections in the biz to be a full time manager on my own. that's my dream i think---to be a full time manager. keep managing the band that i'm managing now, add another young group, and then pick up a couple cool TX musicians who need management. that's what i'd love. but i get discouraged it will never happen.
but whatever. it's been great so far. i'm learning a lot and making a little money. life is grand.
mary has been working about twice a week at the bar. i haven't worked since my second sunday night shift that i still need to write about. i'll do that soon. i usually go up and hang out w/ mary while she's working. we play shuffleboard. it's awesome. but we also have to listen to lots of ignorant Texans. guess that's the problem with working at an old TX dive. there's lots of character, but lots of the characters are ignorant and racist. i've heard the 'n' word way more times than i'd like to. mostly by the owner, who we've decided is definitely a jackass, but also by other people--even people we like. such a shame.
it's fun to have a job where you can drink and play shuffleboard though.
MK closed his store and is opening a new one across the street from his old one. it should be cool. mary has been helping him with that, and i've stopped by a couple times. i can't hang out there too long though because he's totally inefficient. the one day i showed up, i showed up at about noon, and he had to have everything out of his old building by midnight. so we loaded up a load of stuff, and while unloading it, MK disappeared. mary and i talked to some cool hippies that lived above the store (and only have to pay rent of $300!), and one of friends drove by and stopped to talk to us, and then MK showed up 90 minutes later. he had gone shopping for stuff for his new store--not exactly the best use of time when the other store had to be totally cleaned by the end of the day. whatever. it's the Wimberley way. but i've got better things to do to waste my time.
seems like last week we were in Austin quite a bit.
thursday we went down for the First Thursdays. beforehand we hung out w/ the current owners of our new home. that was fun. they offered to take the Beastess out on the road with us for our first road trip when we actually get to take possession of it. that'd be awesome.
first thursdays was totally disappointing. no free booze. first fridays in cville, which mary and i made a point to hit up every single month, was awesome. free booze and free snacks. and some art. that was awesome. first fridays--not so much. but it's only about 1.2 miles from our new home so i'm sure we'll go down sometimes once we live there. it's nowhere near as fun as the Cville version though. 1 point for cville.
after that we met up with some friends and went to see a free concert by Danny Schmidt at Cafe Mundi. that was really good, and i was glad my friends were totally into it (they bought all 3 of the cds he had for sale). Danny is from Cville, and is mary's favorite musician, fyi.
friday night we went to this Short Film extravaganza hosted by my high school friend that i'd run into earlier. it was pretty fun. some of the films were really good. some were really disturbing. it was a tad mind blowing though. my friends mom was there--from cville, so i talked to her, and there were 2 other kids there from cville that knew my sister. AND while there i got a text message from a friend of mine, who was at a concert, and totally randomly was talking to the guy next to him, who was ALSO from cville, and he knew me, and is good friends with the short film host.
life is wacky sometimes.
LOTS of cville experiences in one week.
saturday night mary had to work so i just relaxed for the first time in a long long time.
at first it stressed me out to have nothing to do.
but then i just sat back and enjoyed it.
we didnt' do much on sunday either, which wasn't as cool since it was superbowl sunday.
RM was supposed to be having a huge party but it got cancelled so we had nothing to do.
i dont' much like football at all, but i love superbowl parties and was sad to not have one to go to.
the Backbone (the bar we work) was having a superbowl party. i usually work sundays, but didn't schedule myself that day b/c i thought we were going to RMs. then i was a little mad that i was missing out on some $$. but we went there for the party and it was dead as dead. i'm real glad i didn't work. the party there was lame, but we finally met the female owner of the bar--the nice one. unfortunately her husband was there too, and he's the one no one likes. i didn't really understand why until that night. totally a prick. totally obnoxious. BUT we got to eat some free chili dogs and some free brisket. it was alright, but we left at halftime.
free chili dogs are genius for bars to have.
hot dogs are super cheap and canned chili is super cheap, and they're so much fun.
i love free chili dogs.
monday i screened for a study.
i'm sure i won't get in since they have it out for me.
but maybe.
it'd be nice.
then i'd get a big chunk of money.
i need to get into one.
this is 5 times now i've gone w/ no luck.
you don't get paid for screenings and they just suck up all your blood.
and that's not cool.
and this time when they did an ECG they used big ole super sticky patches. it hurt pulling them off my arms and chest.
the ones on my legs? i just left them there.
i didn't know what to do, but i knew i couldn't pull them off there.
they stayed on overnight.
i couldn't deal with it.
the next day i used some rubbing alcohol and i finally got them off. it hurt.
since i had a screening, i couldn't drink on saturday or sunday. and i also didn't drink friday. and then i decided maybe i'd just continue to detox.
so it's now wednesday and i haven't had a drink since last thursday.
and you know what? i feel really good. really good. mary says that that's why you're supposed to NOT drink more days in a week than you're supposed to drink. makes sense i guess.
i think the beer was messing up my sleep b/c i've been having crzy vivid dreams this week. it's pretty cool.
i love beer though.
it's sad to neglect it.
but i think it's good to do it every once in a while.
it's not fun going to the backbone if you can't drink.
and that's the truth.
I don't know how everyone else in the world feels, but I for one feel very comfortable with myself these days. As humans, it undoubtedly takes us all some time to figure out exactly "who we are" and what are likes and dislikes are. On the whole, i think i've got myself figured out. And I like it.
I know what i like, and i like what i like, and i'm confident that the stuff i like is good.
But when do we first learn who we are?
When does it first start to show?
For me, I think high school is clearly when it started, but in high school i definitely still had a whole world of learning to do.
College is where the real growing up started taking place.
And in my mind, by the time I graduated, I had a pretty good grasp on some things (music, movies, etc), while admittedly still had lots to learn about other things (like women).
That's neither really here nor there though.
What I'm talking about is music.
Music is good.
I've loved it for a long long time.
This crzy lady that lives on the complex stopped by the other day, and out of nowhere just said "Music is the only thing that makes people happy....except when it's polka".
I don't know about that, but I know I like music, and it's a pretty important part of my life.
My tastes are pretty eclectic, and there's few who like everything that I do, and that's ok. I love 80s music. I love classic country music. I love Americana music. And I love Run DMC.
Over the years I have made countless mix tapes in an effort to spread the word about artists I like, or impress girls, or probably more specifically to try to persuade girls that i was interested in to like the same kind of music as me.
At the ripe old age of 30, I would consider myself to be an expert on the almost lost art of making a perfect mix tape. Burned CDs don't count. That's too easy. Mix tapes were where it was at. There's lots of rules to it, that i won't go into right now, but it's more than just putting songs onto a tape. There needs to be some sort of flow, and often some sort of theme.
Do you ever wonder if you were really as cool as you think you were at a certain age?
I do.
I'm of the personal opinion, that by my senior year in college, I had good taste in music. That's hard to judge in 2006 though, unless you were on The Real World or something, and had cameras following you around, and you could just watch the footage.
Or, you could just stumble upon the evidence and analyze it yourself.
At Christmas, when I was back home, I found a big old bag of cassette tapes that I thought had been lost. The wonder truck only has a tape player, so this was pretty exciting. It was a bag of some of my best tapes. And in the bag was a blank tape labeled "Lots and lots and lots of Rock".
Some time later, I put the tape in the truck stereo, and i was transported back in time, and it made me happy. I rememebered the tape. I made it at some point in time in 1998, for a girl that i was going out with. I was still a relatively inexperienced mix-tape-maker, but know that i had made at least one, and probably 2 or 3 tapes before this one. But this "rock" tape was definitely, at the most, the 5th mix tape of my life. For some reason, i made a copy of it for myself.
I was on a long road trip and listened to the entire thing, and it was awesome. It made me happy.
The songs on there were great. Sure, there were a couple that were totally out of place, and one or 2 that i'm a little embarrassed were on there. I definitely didn't abide by certain rules that i have for myself in making mix tapes now, but in a way, i like the innocence. I just put down whatever i wanted, and on the whole, it had a real good flow to it. I'd never make a tape these days with some Americana, some pure 80s pop, and some classic 70s songs. I'm too snobbish to do that. Americana and 80s---sure. i'd put those on tape. But my days of putting classic rock songs on mix tapes are long gone.
My favorite part about listening to the tape was trying to figure out what would come next.
About 60 minutes into the tape, I had recorded a killer block of really rockin songs. And as i was driving---i swear this is true--- i said to myself, in 2006----"shoot, I should have put My Name is Jonas on during this block of songs". and no sooner had i said it, then the next song came on, and that's exactly what it was. No lie.
Holy crap. it was a little bit mind blowing.
the 1998 version of me, and the 2006 version of me were thinking the exact same thing. 8 years apart, the same thing. Most people probably won't understand it, but for music freaks, and specifically for music freaks who are mix tape makers, you can sort of hear in your head what song should come next. It sounds strange, but it's true. Certain songs just naturally should come after other songs, and certain songs should never follow certain songs.
I know that.
And the 1998 version of me knew it.
I was glad the 22 year old me was smart.
He made me proud.
Without further ado, here it is. The songlist for the lost classic mix tape "Lots and Lots and Lots of Rock" circa 1998 by Chad Hutchinson:
Side One:
1. Eyes on the Ceiling (Pete Droge)
2. There she Goes (The La's)
3. Old Apartment (Barenaked Ladies)
4. Outta mind outta sight (Wilco)
5. Bizarre Love Triange (Frente)
6. Sample in a Jar (Phish)
7. Photograph (Camper Van Beethoven)
8. It's a Shame about Ray (The Lemonheads)
9. Lodi (CCR)
10. Do ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
11. Put the Message in the Box (World Party)
12. Emotion in Motion (Ric Ocasek)
12. Turning Japanese (The Vapors)
13. Love is all around (Joan Jett)
14. Judy is a Punk (The Ramones)
Side Two
1. You spin me Round (Dead or Alive)
2. One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
3. I love Rock and Roll (Joan Jett)
4. So much for the Afterglow (Everclear)
5. Sister Havana (Urge Overkill)
6. My Name is Jonas (Weezer)
7. Don't Look Back in Anger (Oasis)
8. Sun Maid (Soul Asylum)
9. Fall on Me (REM)
10. It's Tricky (Run DMC)
11. Fire, Water, Burn (Bloodhound Gang)
12. Am i wrong (Love Spit Love)
13. License to Kill (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
There it is. Download those songs off the internet, burn them onto 2 cds, and make yourself a great mix tape. Watch that spacing in between, because the last songs on each side barely fit.
Final thoughts on the tape:
What a blast! a total flashback to times long gone. some of those songs i hadn't heard in ages. some i had to even look up to see what the titles were. i have no idea how a phish song got onto the tape. i've never been a phishhead at all. my college pal Adrock used to listen to Phish all the time, and apparently at some point i got a used version of the cassette, and somehow thought it would go good on the tape. i feel a little embarrassed that theres 2 barenaked ladies songs on there, but i still love "Old Apartment" to this day. The only song that i wish wasn't there was "emotion in motion" by Ric Ocasek. what a silly song to put on there! i was obsessed with that song for a bit, and obviously was trying to have at least 1 song with extra "meaning" on the tape. it doesnt' fit. i'm sorry it's there. but whatever.
the rest all sometimes odd, but all okay.
and that song is still okay too.
it was great to hear them again.
I rocked in 1998
Here’s what we did last night: we saw some live music, we drank some beers, we took a 2 step lesson, we ate some dinner, we got a tv, and then we went home. And we spent a total of two dollars and 68 cents. That’s a full night, and at a price that suits me just right. I love Austin. We drove down in the afternoon to catch a free instore performance by the Gourds. It was a ton of fun. We saw some music, and drank 3 free beers each. Have I said before how much I love free beer and music? And while we were standing in line for beer I noticed that the guy in front of me looked familiar. It was a kid I went to high school with. What a crzy coincidence. So we ended up talking for a while. He gave me a new term for RV living: “mobile environment”. I like the sound of that. He’s teaching to pay the bills, and pursuing his passion of filmmaking on the side. Pretty fun. He invited us out for a screening of some short films this weekend. We’re going to try to go.
After that, we were off to learn 2 step. I was not necessarily looking fwd to it, but mary really wanted to, so I figured I’d give it a shot. We drove to a place called the Dallas Nightclub, or something like that. We were starving and had exactly 8 minutes to spare, so we ate dinner at the taco bell next to the club. That’s where we had to spend the big money. It was actually good though. The dancing was an experience. I’d never had a dance class before. Especially for country dancing. The instructor, and most of the people on the dancefloor had on Brooks and Dunn style western shirts. I did not. The instructor had on his striped western shirt, and other requisite cowboy gear, and also one of those wireless microphones attached to his ear and mouth like Garth Brooks and Christina and Britney use. This was so he could dance around while still talking. He asked if there were any first timers there. Several people raised their hands. We raised our hands. He pointed at us and said that he knew that we were first timers. Busted. Dance lessons started then. Last night we were learning the jitterbug, which is also called something else. Mary and I did ok, but I felt really nervous. Especially when he said “ladies, now rotate counter clockwise and switch partners”. WHAT? I’m not trying to dance with someone else. So we didn’t switch. Which is good, because then we had to learn how to spin. Spinning is hard. Mary’s wrist almost snapped off once, and her shoulder almost popped out of place. But we did okay. Ladies kept switching partners. We kept staying together. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, that ‘dance lessons’ are big time hookup joints for single Texans. And, more surprisingly, for single Asian Texan Women. No kidding. Of the 20 or so people dancing, at least 4 were Asian women. Asian women trying to learn to 2 step with real life wannabe cowboys. It’s a crzy sight. I gave the dance lesson a solid try, and then needed a break, so we just sat and watched. That was pretty enjoyable. Some people were so good at dancing. Some were good. Sometimes the Asian ladies looked mad when they switched dance partners. But then, a couple minutes later, they got to switch, and then they were happier. It was like speed dating on ice. And by ice, I mean a dance floor. It was slick. They put salt on it or something. I tried to do the moonwalk on it, but mary wasn’t impressed. Then we left and went to pick up a free tv. It supposedly worked fine, but when we got home the picture was a little messed up. It’s watchable though, so we put it in the bedroom, and miraculously, the cable connection up there works. So now, for the first time in my life I can watch cable in bed. And I love it. Granted, it’s only 15 channels, but it’s fun nonetheless. I’ve always wanted to be able to watch cable in bed. All my dreams are coming true. It’s the little things…
I don’t know what else has happened in the last number of days. I’m losing track. I really feel like I’ve been busy lately. It’s a good busy, but I miss having lots of free time. I won’t complain though-life is still grand. Last week was super busy. We worked at the antique store Monday and Tuesday, I subbed for a world studies class one day, and I did some management stuff. The other manager—the one that actually knows what he’s doing—was out of town, so I was the point man for the band. It was pretty fun, pretending like i knew what I was doing. I did manage to actually get the band on a radio show, so that’s cool. And I spent some time trying to find some prime opening gigs for them. None of them really seemed to line up. And that sucks. I realized that perhaps being a band manager is a bit like dating. You have to ask out 100 hot girls before you get a date with one, but that one hopefully makes it worthwhile. I once heard the same dating analogy applied to soccer, so I guess band stuff is also like soccer, because if a=b, and b=c, then a=c. (See Mr. Freeman, I was paying attention some of the time in math class).
So last weekend was the first weekend that really felt like a weekend. And I needed it.
I don’t recall doing too much fun stuff. We went to the 50cent movie night in San Marcos. Sadly, we missed the actual movie starring Curtis “50 cent” Jackson, which had been there the previous week. A 50 cent movie night watching a 50 cent movie would have surely been exciting. Instead, we saw Derailed with Jennifer Anniston and Clive Owen. It was surprisingly decent. Not great, and maybe not worth more than 50 cents, but one of the better movies that we’ve seen there. (that’s not saying much though. We’ve seen some pure crap. More crap reviews in just a bit).
One night we went to Austin for a free concert by Brandi Carlisle and drank free beer. I might have mentioned that already. Mary had to work at the Backbone on Friday night so I went out there for awhile and drank. It was pretty fun, except she had drank a ton of vodka and then coffee on the job and was a bit of a freak. It was a madhouse up there. It was pretty slow for most of the night. And then at 11.15 people started storming in. lots of people. It was insane. I tried to help out as best I could, but it was crzy. Mary carded this guy earlier in the night, and she turned him down and said his ID was fake. It had apparently been cut in half. He laughed and said he couldn’t believe he was being carded at the backbone. He tried to protest, but mary held her ground, and they went to the bar next day. Turns out, according to CL the regular, the guy was a skinhead. Good riddance. No need for skinheads in the bar. Mary turned away lots that night. At 12.05 a big group of college kids came in. We can’t serve beer after 12 though, so they had to leave.
Saturday I went over to RMs to watch UVA play Duke. Mercy. For about my entire life I’ve been obsessed with UVA basketball. Not so much anymore, but since they were playing on national tv, it’d be one of the few chances that I had to watch them play, so I set that time aside on my busy social calendar. RM has a giant TV. I was looking fwd to watching it there. What RM doesn’t have is a clear ESPN feed, since he has illegal cable that is spliced off another building over a mile away. So the game was displayed on the big screen with lots of static. It didn’t matter anyway. They got crushed. I drank some beers during the game, and then RM made some pizzas and mary made dessert and we had a little meal. After the meal someone pulled out tequila. It was that $70 dollar bottle of tequila. I wasn’t feeling the need for any tequila that night, but I missed out on the expensive shots last time, so figured I should take one. But I was scared. But I wanted to. I didn’t want to use salt since it was so expensive, but I did. And I took a baby shot. And it hurt. It hurt bad. Mary encouraged me to try again. I did. It hurt too. 2 baby shots and I hadn’t even made a dent in the big shot glass that had been filled for me. So then I took 1 more shot. And it almost killed me. I heaved. Seriously. That’s not cool. I heaved. Luckily no one saw it. I put the tequila down, and hung my head. Tequila had apparently figured out where I’d been hiding. In VA, I couldn’t ever drink tequila. It always hurt me. Then suddenly, once we got to TX and discovered 100% pure agave tequila, tequila became my friend. And it was cool. But now I couldn’t even get down a shot of gourmet tequila. Or so I thought….
Mary told me the next day that it wasn’t $70 tequila—just the $70 tequila bottle. They filled the bottle with cheap tequila. BASTARDS! Trick ass bitches. Not funny at all. It almost killed me. Mary said she didn’t want to tell me in front of everyone. Sometimes mary is the devil. I almost died. And I was so disappointed in myself. But it was all trickery. It wasn’t good tequila. There’s still a chance that good tequila is still my friend. Let’s hope so.
I don’t remember anything else that we did last week. And then it became this week. Since we had plans for Tuesday, which is 50 cent movie night, we decided to go to san marcos on Monday night for some cheap eats and spend the extra dollar on a movie. We had heard about a great deal at a place in san marcos –99 cent margaritas and half price apps. So we went to find it. And the ritas were great. No foolin. Good stuff. But they trick you on apps. Half price apps are so exciting when they are originally priced at 10 and 12 dollars. I got some boneless wings, which I was really excited about. Boneless wings always sound exciting to me, and I rarely, if ever get them. So I got them. And they were so hot I couldn’t even eat them all. They were really really hot. We also ate these things called fried japs, which sounds politically incorrect, but was some fried up crabmeat dipped in some sauce. I loved it. I think mostly because I love anything fried, but also because the dip for the japs tasted almost exactly like the dip for the chicken quesadilla rollups at St. Maartens Café in cville. And that dip is GOOD.
I thought I might die as a result of the hotness of the wings, but I survived, and after filling our bellies and gettin a little buzz on, we went to the discount cinema to see The Ice Harvest, with John Cusack and Billy Bob. I heard mixed reviews, but figured it had to be decent with those 2, and since it was directed by Harold Ramis. Mixed reviews implies that some people said it was good. I don’t know who those people would be. The movie was awful. One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Even worse than Message in a Bottle. Of all the bad movies we’ve seen at the dollar theater, perhaps only Just like Heaven was worse. I was mad. I’m having a problem lately with movies. They make me mad. I do—I get really mad that so much talent and money could be wasted, and that they are then wasting my time and money. I kept waiting for the ice harvest to get better but it never did. And next thing I knew I had wasted 50 minutes of my precious life. And I was furious. I told mary I was ready to leave. She of course, wanted to stay to see the end, because she’s still under the impression that a movie can be terrible for 85 minutes, and if the last 5 minutes are good, then it’ll be worth it. But that never happens. You just wait more time. So I left without her and went grocery shopping. I picked her up and didn’t even ask how the movie ended. I couldn’t have cared less. I hate terrible movies. The Ice Harvest is a terrible movie.
Tuesday morning was a rough morning. Let me just put it like this. When we ate those death hot wings the night before, we didn’t know if we’d be able to make it through a movie, if you know what I’m saying. But we did. I think the margaritas coated our stomachs. But the next morning….yeah….
I learned a lesson that I hopefully will never forget. Cheap margaritas and death hot boneless wings the night before should never be mixed with a bowl of Raisin Bran the next morning. It’s not fun.
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