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Sleep deprivation, drumming, cheesecake, and Monk
Okay, be warned. This may be entertaining, this may be insightful, but above
all else, it will be long, random, and rambling. I'm zonked from lack of
sleep, too many hours on the road (although certainly less than others), and
OD-ing on caffeine. I don't know if that will make this more or less
interesting. :-) Also, I'll say now that I'm not going to say anything about
the actual Taft concert itself (except that I liked Erin's set a lot, OH
ESTELLE! and the second act was just way too loud. My seat was three rows in
front of the house right speakers, and I could barely set two feet in the back
door of the house. So I stayed out in the lobby, where I *still* had to shout
to be heard. If you're curious about the set list, look at my review of the
Ann Arbor show, and stick Moth in there somewhere around track six or seven.
Otherwise it was exactly the same. So, I thought it was a pretty run of the
mill OtR show, which means it was wonderful, but not more wonderful than any
other OtR show. Certainly for me, personally, the AA show was much better
becuase I was involved, and because the band was much more relaxed and silly,
and because I had leg room, which the Taft does not have. I think my knees are
still sore.). The rest of this email will be all about the listee adventures.
I took about 45 pictures, and once I get them developed (most are B/W, so it'll
take a while), I'll scan in the good ones and put 'em up on the WWW.
I left home about one in the afternoon yesterday, after frantically running
last-minute errands and finishing the glaze for my raspberry/amaretto
cheesecake that I brought to the brunch at Drew's (was it just this morning?).
I had been up until three the night before making the cake itself, and I needed
to postpone the glaze. I didn't know if there was anything going on before the
show, so I stopped by Drew's on the way into town and dropped off the
cheesecake, met Drew's completely psychotic (in a nice way) dog, which seemed
intent to jump on my shoulder from the ground. Then headed into the show,
looking forward to meeting new people and seeing some folks again from last
year (we missed you j. marie!). It was way fun to stand in the lobby and try
to guess who would make eye contact and get that quizzical "could you be...?"
expression. A few people were, of course, no-brainers. Yz is a beacon. :-) I
gained a casual acquaintence with the Pointy Boots of No Forgiveness (luckily,
I gave no cause for a more... intimate interaction), which I admired from a
distance, but the Spatula of Devine Retribution was not in evidence. Bink was
not the only kilted individual at the show! There was an anti-bink i' th'
tartan, and he had a *dark* goatee! (we all know what that means, don't we
Mister Spock?)
I really enjoyed meeting people in the lobby, because noone ever looks like you
expect them to (well, except Yz, but then I'd had her described to me in some
detail ;-)), and it was a particular treat to meet Liesel and Kelvin. So I'm
almost glad the second act was too loud, because it gave me a chance to talk
(well, *shout*) with folks in the lobby. I heard later that Buddy Miller is a
bit of a legend, so part of me does wish it hadn't been so loud, but I don't
really regret missing it. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet Rhys or
Stephanie Riehle or Shannon Lewis, all of whom I heard rumored were there.
After the show was a bit of a mess. Linford had told me that they weren't
doing backstage passes like last year; that I should just come on down. Well,
of course they did have passes, and there was security, and it was pretty
unpleasant. The security people were really obnoxious. Yz cracked a joke
about us all being housebroken when they were trying to kick us out (i.e., we
wouldn't cause any damage if they left us alone), and the guy just looked at
her like she was from another planet (maybe it was the corset), and was
completely nonplussed. Then the backstage shindig was really downbeat,
compared with last year. No food, low energy... people seemed more tired than
celebratory. Liesel and I realized that we wanted to get some food more than
we wanted to hang around, so we ducked out and headed to Uno's.
The Uno's party was a riot! I had no idea there were going to be that many
people there. I finally got to meet Jan, and I saw Debbie again from last
year. Going around and doing introductions was such a great idea. I loved
David's "Mr Clean" impersonation. He'll have to get a picture of that on the
web for y'all to see. It's interesting that someone recently called the list
"self-absorbed" (or something like that), because there is certainly a lot of
history here, and when you combine history with quirky personalities, you get a
propensity for in-jokes that I imagine could be a little off-putting. But I
really don't think it should be interpreted as self-absorption, because new
people were welcomed with (literally) open arms, and in-jokes were explained
when people looked too baffled. It's just if you get Bruce and Drew in the
same room, they start speaking another language.
I had a great time talking to Megan and her college friend Erin (or Aaron?)
from Chicago. He's starting up a non-profit musical theater company! How cool
is that? And I didn't realize Jan & Fran had moved to the Chicago area, too.
More reasons to go visit my favorite city. Megan knows more about golf balls
than I thought was possible to know. :-)
Then those of us who were sleeping (well, perhaps that's not the best verb, as
you will soon see) at Bruce's headed out. Even though I was one of the last
people to leave Uno's, I still got to Bruce's first. Don't know how that
happened. Pretty soon, though, the place was packed. Jay Harnish had brought
about eight different drums and percussion instruments, and for a good hour,
there was a pretty cool drum circle going on. Luckily, Bruce's neighbors were
either deaf, gone, or very forgiving. Bruce arrived with libations in the
middle of all this. Then we started talking about various and sundry things,
and people drifted away a few at a time. Bruce's Jack Henderson impersonation
is a stitch. I managed to bring Yz at least twice to the very brink of
snarfing her Sierra Mist all over the carpet, but couldn't quite get her over
the edge. I do remember she got me laughing so hard I literally could not
stop, despite best efforts. I had to wait until I ran out of breath. I also
finally found out the true story behind Wooty-Woot, but I am not going to
repeat it. I'm sure I would garble it. The part about the seven apprentice
glass-blowers, the two sheep, the single stiletto-heel shoe (left foot, of
course) and the twenty pounds of milk chocolate was a bit convoluted for that
hour in the morning. Finally, we realized it was almost five am, and we headed
towards slumber.
Then the snoring began...
I won't mention any names, but for the second time that evening, I wished I had
brought earplugs. It was a symphony of snores, in different registers and
styles. From the delicate "baby chew" to the deep, rumbling "sawblade".
Somewhen, I managed to fall asleep, I think. I'm not *totally* sure.
Got to Drew's late, but still ahead of the crowd that went to Jungle Jim's. We
were afraid they had been lost in the jungle and we would have to send Stanley
off to find Livingston. But eventually all arrived safely. The brunch was
fun; we even had a couple of Mormon evangelists drop by. They didn't come in.
Perhaps it was because Drew told them we were about to start having group sex
in the basement. Somehow, I think given the diversity of belief systems and
religious training in that house, I think we could have given a couple of
Mormons a run for their money. :-)
So, the food was good, the company was better, and the music was fantastic. In
addition to looking great in a kilt, our Binkmeister is quite the songsmith.
As Rick (the other Rick) mentioned, there were three guys who played some tunes
for us, including Ashley Peacock, who, in addition to being one of the nicest
guys on the planet (and sporting some adventuresome facial hair - sort of a
mutton chop and goatee combination), has the chutzpah to actually cover (and
cover *damn* well) songs normally sung by both Martin Sexton and Karin
Bergquist. When you get your tribute CD, you will get to hear his quietly
devastating version of "Etcetera, Whatever". He's also a great songwriter in
his own right.
Then we had a big group picture session out on the lawn (some kind soul whose
name I didn't catch took photos with at least twelve different cameras), and I
hit the road. Went to visit a friend for an hour or so, and then headed home.
I have to say that although it was only a four-hour drive, it was pretty hairy,
because of the sleep deprivation. I had to pull over and take a nap somewhere
around Bowling Green, because I was zoning out while going 70 mph. That's not
fun. After I send this email, I plan to sleep for about twelve hours. At
least I managed not to cause any accidents this year.
One thing I will tell you (those two of you who actually read all the way down
to this paragraph) is that you should all get the new Monk album. It's mostly
instrumental, with a few Christmas tunes. Rather reminiscent of TDNOTY,
without Mary's Waltz or Thank You My Angel and with more percussion. A little
Peter Gabriel influence, I think. Very mellow. There's even a Bach chorale on
it. The album's called "How Like a Winter", and it just got back from the
manufacturers yesterday. Very sweet.
Good night, all, and I hope everyone else made it home safely,
--
Don Smith Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/
"I've been wondering... what does it cost you for me to be me?" - Ferron
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