Farm Aid is this coming Sunday. My brother and I are taking our father for his birthday, which is cool. The final line up for the concert has been announced, and a lot of people are disappointed in it. Initially, the headliners announced were Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. That's a good show in and of itself. Soon added were Wilco, Jason Mraz and Jamey Johnson. Then...nothing. For like two months absolutely no-one. Finally, last week the remainder was announced. People had been waiting, spreading rumours and chomping at the bit to hear the rest of the line-up. What other top acts would be added? We just couldn't wait to find out.
Well, about as close to major acts as we get are Gretchen Wilson and Billy Joe Shaver. Everyone else are more or less unknowns, at least to the mainstream fan. At first I was one of the disappointed people but then I got to thinking about it. The reason most people are upset is because Farm Aid has such a reputation for bringing on top artists, and I think maybe people built it up too much in their minds. The extra long wait didn't help either. However, if one looks at the different shows over the last 10 years or so, lots of smaller acts have appeared who have gone on to be something. For example, the Drive-By Truckers, Tegan and Sara, The Supersuckers, Los Lonely Boys, moe., and Guster were all bands with a big question mark attached to their names for most people and now they've all gone on to decent sized followings. So in that sense it's kind of interesting to think that I might be seeing some acts that are going to get big soon, and maybe a few who have been around for quite a while who I should have been listening to all along.
The other interesting part of the booking is that it seems to be a bit short. Most Farm Aid shows have about 20 performers or so. I count 15. So does that mean that maybe there might be a special guest or two coming in that we don't know about yet? Knowing the nature of benefit shows (and the nature of Willie Nelson) it's certainly possible. It is also possible that with fewer performers we might get slightly longer sets by the headliners. Or maybe both scenarios are wishful thinking.
Anyway, the whole music discussion misses the point of what's really going on here. The bottom line is that we're all gathered together to help the small family farmer to continue providing good food to our local communities. Our ticket money is also being used to help further the organic food movement that's taking over your local grocers as we speak. Er, type. Whatever. Anyone with kids these days knows the importance of Organic milk. And the eggs are good too.
Farm Aid and its artists are also on the front lines in the battle to get Bio diesel fuel into more cars on our roadways. While I'm not 100% sold on the idea (and I still want a muscle car Mustang), I'm all for cleaner fuel. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going all hippie and environmentalist here but I do think we all have a little responsibility towards our planet and our fellow man. Now I may only be dipping a toe into all of this stuff, but it's a start and I'm more than happy to give a few bucks towards the cause.
So there are my thoughts five days out. I'm sure I'll do a wrap up on the concert next week, and I'll try to post something else in between so those of you who aren't interested in this stuff can have something else to read. Maybe Tessa will say another dirty word or something.
'Bye.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thank God For Earplugs...and Rock And Roll
Last night was the big show...Motorhead and Reverend Horton Heat at the Pageant theater, St. Louis MO. It was everything I expected and more.
The night got underway at 8:00 with opening act Nashville Pussy. I've never been what you'd call a fan, but I was big into the underground scene when they broke through. I'd seen them before and was less than impressed. However, last night's set was pretty cool. I'm not sure if it was my mood or the choice of songs or what, but I thought it was good. Not good enough to run out and buy all their CDs or anything but an enjoyable way to kick things off.
Next up was the Reverend Horton Heat. For those not in the know, the Rev. is a psychobilly artist combining the style of rockabilly with the swagger of punk rock with a little swing and country thrown in for good measure. During their set, the band hit on all these styles and managed to win over a crowd full of metalheads in the process. Onstage, the band is among the tightest and most entertaining units you'll see. From the excellent guitar work of the Rev. himself (real name Jim Heath), to the upright slap bass of Jimbo Wallace and the rock solid drumming of Paul Simmons it's always a good time at a Horton Heat show.
After their set, the Rev. announced he'd be at the "t-shirt place in a little bit". Well, that's all we needed to hear as my brother and I high-tailed it out to the annex of the theater where the merch is sold to meet the Rev. We waited patiently for him to arrive. And waited and waited. Then Motorhead started their set and he still wasn't there. About 3 songs into Motorhead's set he made good on his word and came in to meet the fans. Which was good, because I was about to give up on the guy and go back inside the venue. so while it bugged me not seeing some of my favorite Motorhead tunes, how often do you get to meet one of your favorite performers? So I got a photo snapped (not the best picture of either of us-no offense Derek, much thanks for snapping the cell phone pic), chatted for a few minutes and went back inside.
The night got underway at 8:00 with opening act Nashville Pussy. I've never been what you'd call a fan, but I was big into the underground scene when they broke through. I'd seen them before and was less than impressed. However, last night's set was pretty cool. I'm not sure if it was my mood or the choice of songs or what, but I thought it was good. Not good enough to run out and buy all their CDs or anything but an enjoyable way to kick things off.
Next up was the Reverend Horton Heat. For those not in the know, the Rev. is a psychobilly artist combining the style of rockabilly with the swagger of punk rock with a little swing and country thrown in for good measure. During their set, the band hit on all these styles and managed to win over a crowd full of metalheads in the process. Onstage, the band is among the tightest and most entertaining units you'll see. From the excellent guitar work of the Rev. himself (real name Jim Heath), to the upright slap bass of Jimbo Wallace and the rock solid drumming of Paul Simmons it's always a good time at a Horton Heat show.
After their set, the Rev. announced he'd be at the "t-shirt place in a little bit". Well, that's all we needed to hear as my brother and I high-tailed it out to the annex of the theater where the merch is sold to meet the Rev. We waited patiently for him to arrive. And waited and waited. Then Motorhead started their set and he still wasn't there. About 3 songs into Motorhead's set he made good on his word and came in to meet the fans. Which was good, because I was about to give up on the guy and go back inside the venue. so while it bugged me not seeing some of my favorite Motorhead tunes, how often do you get to meet one of your favorite performers? So I got a photo snapped (not the best picture of either of us-no offense Derek, much thanks for snapping the cell phone pic), chatted for a few minutes and went back inside.
Me and The Rev.
Motorhead. Wow, what can I say? Motorhead is one of the classic bands in heavy rock. Part metal, part punk, all attitude, and it's all for real. Bandleader Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister is the personification of the rock and roll ethos. He is a walking middle finger to the establishment, a true original amongst all the fake rebellion of your so called rock stars. He is ugly, obnoxious, funny, slightly perverted, surprisingly intelligent, and above all a man who holds honesty and honor above all else. He's exactly what all true rockers wish they could be, except for the ugly part, 'cause dude, the guys just scary looking. And this is not a man crush, thank you, just appreciation of the real deal. I don't always agree with Lemmy's world views or even conduct, but I respect him, and I love his music.
Motorhead's music has been a constant in my life since the mid 80's. Whenever I need a dose of pure, straightforward rock n' roll a Motorhead record will always do the trick, and the live show is phenomenal. The music is intense, but also a lot of fun and a great way to release any built up stress and tension in your life. No matter what line up the band is using (and there have been many over the years) it's always worth seeing. In fact, Motorhead's regular drummer isn't on this tour due to a scheduling conflict and Matt Sorum (The Cult, Velvet Revolver, Guns N'Roses) is filling in. It was still awesome.
And LOUD. Good God it was LOUD. I mean, I've seen probably upwards of 200 concerts in my lifetime and this was possibly the loudest. I have seen Motorhead before, in clubs and theaters both, and they've always been loud but this was a whole new level. I decided to put earplugs in when I could hear the band perfectly well from the annex through heavy wooden doors. Once inside I could feel it in my chest, and that was just the between song chatter. Some songs literally hurt. At one point I decided to pull out the earplugs just to see what it was like, and all I could hear was a high pitched screech. So that's what it sounds like when your eardrum shuts down. Instant tinnitus. The earplugs went back in, and the show rocked hard.
Sometimes you look forward to a show and it's a little anti climactic, or just downright disappointing. And then there are nights like this one, where the music is great, you have as much fun as possible and leave with memories that will stay embedded in your brain forever. The kind of show that makes you feel ten feet tall and makes you believe in the power of rock and roll.
So, how was your Wednesday?
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Working
Haven't blogged for a while. Not because I haven't had anything to say, but because I haven't had the energy to do so. I've been pretty wiped out lately because I've been working a lot.
A few weeks ago one of my co-workers, Jennifer, left to go do some student teaching. Good for her, bad for us. Our company does quite a bit of e-bay sales in addition to our storefront and nationwide phone orders. Here's how that system has always worked. John (the co-president) photographs the items, describes them and launches them on e-bay. Then the items come to me and I check the listings, making sure the items are correctly described and all the numbers match, and then I organize them by launch date and stock number. Once the items are sold, Jennifer processes their payment through Paypal, sets up all the shipping info and puts them on the mailing desk where Nikki ships them off.
So clearly someone needed to take over Jen's part of this equation. And clearly said person is me. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing it, and now that I've got the hang of this job (after making a few costly mistakes of course) I kind of like it. But here's the thing. Jen and I had always worked on this stuff independently, yet simultaneously. Now that she's gone I have to find time to do it all.
And that's the key to the whole thing. Time. We launch anywhere from 10-30 new auctions at a time on e-bay, often three days a week. The auctions are, of course all timed, to about a week or so, though sometimes it's a little longer. So as some are going up others are selling and need to be processed. Once an item has been sold, it's supposed to go out within 48 hours. All while double checking the new stuff that just launched. It's a lot to keep up with, and when you add in the fact that I'm also still in charge of watch batteries and repair, and inventory of all of the
.999 product in the vault, oh, and waiting on customers all day, you can see how complex my days have become. My workload has essentially doubled.
So the only way to really get a jump on this stuff is to create more time to complete the tasks. In a business such as ours the open and close times have to be pretty strictly observed for security reasons. So I am now arriving at 7:00 a.m. in order to have an hour to get things done before the doors open. I already stay until 5:00 p.m. when we lock the vault and leave. This happens about 3-4 days a week. The other problem is that I've had to rearrange the morning routine so Valerie and Tessa can leave at the right time too. Therefore, I'm getting up at 5:00 a.m., a good 45 minutes earlier than normal. Needless to say I've been pretty wiped out lately.
So that's why the blogs haven't been coming. Not that there was ever a steady stream of posts here anyway, but I've been trying to be a little more consistent recently. There's lots of events coming up that I'll want to talk about (Motorheat!) and a few opinion pieces I've been thinking of so hopefully there will be more frequent postings, and hopefully better than whatever that last one was. Seriously, I have no idea what that was. Super sorry.
'Bye for now.
A few weeks ago one of my co-workers, Jennifer, left to go do some student teaching. Good for her, bad for us. Our company does quite a bit of e-bay sales in addition to our storefront and nationwide phone orders. Here's how that system has always worked. John (the co-president) photographs the items, describes them and launches them on e-bay. Then the items come to me and I check the listings, making sure the items are correctly described and all the numbers match, and then I organize them by launch date and stock number. Once the items are sold, Jennifer processes their payment through Paypal, sets up all the shipping info and puts them on the mailing desk where Nikki ships them off.
So clearly someone needed to take over Jen's part of this equation. And clearly said person is me. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing it, and now that I've got the hang of this job (after making a few costly mistakes of course) I kind of like it. But here's the thing. Jen and I had always worked on this stuff independently, yet simultaneously. Now that she's gone I have to find time to do it all.
And that's the key to the whole thing. Time. We launch anywhere from 10-30 new auctions at a time on e-bay, often three days a week. The auctions are, of course all timed, to about a week or so, though sometimes it's a little longer. So as some are going up others are selling and need to be processed. Once an item has been sold, it's supposed to go out within 48 hours. All while double checking the new stuff that just launched. It's a lot to keep up with, and when you add in the fact that I'm also still in charge of watch batteries and repair, and inventory of all of the
.999 product in the vault, oh, and waiting on customers all day, you can see how complex my days have become. My workload has essentially doubled.
So the only way to really get a jump on this stuff is to create more time to complete the tasks. In a business such as ours the open and close times have to be pretty strictly observed for security reasons. So I am now arriving at 7:00 a.m. in order to have an hour to get things done before the doors open. I already stay until 5:00 p.m. when we lock the vault and leave. This happens about 3-4 days a week. The other problem is that I've had to rearrange the morning routine so Valerie and Tessa can leave at the right time too. Therefore, I'm getting up at 5:00 a.m., a good 45 minutes earlier than normal. Needless to say I've been pretty wiped out lately.
So that's why the blogs haven't been coming. Not that there was ever a steady stream of posts here anyway, but I've been trying to be a little more consistent recently. There's lots of events coming up that I'll want to talk about (Motorheat!) and a few opinion pieces I've been thinking of so hopefully there will be more frequent postings, and hopefully better than whatever that last one was. Seriously, I have no idea what that was. Super sorry.
'Bye for now.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
09/10/09
Okay, so I've been trying to figure out something to blog about that will top the last one. I have come to the conclusion that I probably can't. Therefore, I'm not even going to try. Here's a bunch of random crap.
*****
I am currently watching the football kick-off game. NBC just used a full three minutes and five seconds to promote Jay Leno's new show. I'm already sick of it and want it to fail-just because of the hype. Then they showed a commercial for Hardee's fried bologna biscuit which is kind of appropriate and made me hungry.
*****
Speaking of television, the MDA telethon was last week. It actually wasn't too bad this year considering. Jerry Lewis was actually in pretty good form for an old guy, and apart from an unusually high number of Beatles songs being ruined by what passes for talent on that show it went fairly smoothly. Well, at least until the last couple of hours when everything kinda slows down and people are too tired to think, much less perform.
A few things stuck out to me:
1. A few hours in, the band WAR payed, who look and sound like this: http://www.wartheband.com/. For about a second and a half I thought Jerry introduced GWAR, who look and sound like this: http://www.gwar.net/. I almost pooped. How much fun would that have been?!!
2. Ric Flair showed up which was awkward. And awesome.
3. There's a guy named Auggie who comes on every year. He suffers from ALS and we have basically been watching him deteriorate over the past several years. He's the guy who started the Club Fitness chain and now he's lost the use of not only his limbs but also his voice. It's a sad story, and each year his wife and son come out with him to help raise awareness for ALS. Used to be he'd do his best to say something to the camera, now he can't even mumble. He just cried. Sad.
Here's the thing, during the Sunday night part of the show, hours before Auggie came on stage, I was inspired to write a song about ALS. After it was written I briefly thought it should be dedicated to the Augster but decided against it. Then on Monday afternoon, they surprised him by premiering a song written for him by the guy from Five For Fighting, who I refuse to link to. I was annoyed by the whole thing. Five For Fighting suck, the song sucks, and so does the guy who wrote it. Auggie deserves better. I'm not saying mine is brilliant (and it isn't even about him actually), but come on, Five For Fighting? Really?
*****
There have been three more commercials for The Jay Leno show since I started typing this.
*****
I vote we change the expression to "Honky Dory." No real reason, it just makes me giggle.
*****
Valerie and I were given free tickets to the Cardinal's game tomorrow night, but can't find a sitter. I'm not a big baseball fan, but Valerie likes it. I like spending time with my wife, and as long as the game isn't too long and I can eat crappy stadium food (and I mean that in the nicest way possible), it can be an enjoyable evening. It doesn't look as though we will be attending unless a babysitter comes through soon. It's okay, the tickets were free, but it seems a shame to waste them. I put in a call to some friends but so far no takers either. And I got them from my uncle (hi Ron!) who also got them for free and can't use them either. Sometimes things just don't work out.
*****
Good Lord, another Leno commercial. This is driving me crazy. I'm gonna go eat bologna and see if the Steelers can't get it done and beat the crap out of the Titans here in the fourth quarter.
Bye.
*****
I am currently watching the football kick-off game. NBC just used a full three minutes and five seconds to promote Jay Leno's new show. I'm already sick of it and want it to fail-just because of the hype. Then they showed a commercial for Hardee's fried bologna biscuit which is kind of appropriate and made me hungry.
*****
Speaking of television, the MDA telethon was last week. It actually wasn't too bad this year considering. Jerry Lewis was actually in pretty good form for an old guy, and apart from an unusually high number of Beatles songs being ruined by what passes for talent on that show it went fairly smoothly. Well, at least until the last couple of hours when everything kinda slows down and people are too tired to think, much less perform.
A few things stuck out to me:
1. A few hours in, the band WAR payed, who look and sound like this: http://www.wartheband.com/. For about a second and a half I thought Jerry introduced GWAR, who look and sound like this: http://www.gwar.net/. I almost pooped. How much fun would that have been?!!
2. Ric Flair showed up which was awkward. And awesome.
3. There's a guy named Auggie who comes on every year. He suffers from ALS and we have basically been watching him deteriorate over the past several years. He's the guy who started the Club Fitness chain and now he's lost the use of not only his limbs but also his voice. It's a sad story, and each year his wife and son come out with him to help raise awareness for ALS. Used to be he'd do his best to say something to the camera, now he can't even mumble. He just cried. Sad.
Here's the thing, during the Sunday night part of the show, hours before Auggie came on stage, I was inspired to write a song about ALS. After it was written I briefly thought it should be dedicated to the Augster but decided against it. Then on Monday afternoon, they surprised him by premiering a song written for him by the guy from Five For Fighting, who I refuse to link to. I was annoyed by the whole thing. Five For Fighting suck, the song sucks, and so does the guy who wrote it. Auggie deserves better. I'm not saying mine is brilliant (and it isn't even about him actually), but come on, Five For Fighting? Really?
*****
There have been three more commercials for The Jay Leno show since I started typing this.
*****
I vote we change the expression to "Honky Dory." No real reason, it just makes me giggle.
*****
Valerie and I were given free tickets to the Cardinal's game tomorrow night, but can't find a sitter. I'm not a big baseball fan, but Valerie likes it. I like spending time with my wife, and as long as the game isn't too long and I can eat crappy stadium food (and I mean that in the nicest way possible), it can be an enjoyable evening. It doesn't look as though we will be attending unless a babysitter comes through soon. It's okay, the tickets were free, but it seems a shame to waste them. I put in a call to some friends but so far no takers either. And I got them from my uncle (hi Ron!) who also got them for free and can't use them either. Sometimes things just don't work out.
*****
Good Lord, another Leno commercial. This is driving me crazy. I'm gonna go eat bologna and see if the Steelers can't get it done and beat the crap out of the Titans here in the fourth quarter.
Bye.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Library Story
The thing about sixteen month old children is that they are just learning to talk, and they have no volume control. So when they try to say words, they sometimes come up with something that sounds vaguely like the word they were going for, usually involving the first syllable. And if they're excited, happy or proud of themselves they say it at the top of their lungs. Every parent can attest to this, and they all have a story. This is mine.
Yesterday I had the day off, and took Tessa to the library. She loves the library, she gets to look at books, explore the aisles and play with the toys in the kids section. There are some plush toys that are just about as tall as she is, mostly of PBS and Disney characters. This is, of course, her favorite part.
When we entered the kids section she made a b-line for the dolls, and since she's under 5 she thinks Elmo is the greatest thing ever. So she ran to the toys yelling "Memmo! Melmmo! Memmo!" Which was cute. And then she saw another toy, a giant plush Cookie Monster. Tessa's eyes lit up, she looked at me with the cutest little smile on her face and said, at the top of her lungs...
"COCK! COCK!"
"Um, no honey," I explained, "you mean Cookie. That's Cookie Monster. Cooookieee."
"COCK!"
Daddy's little angel.
She then proceeded to make things worse by running through the library yelling "cock" as loud as possible. And I had to chase her. Being sixteen months old, Tessa is small, and speedier than she looks, which she used to her advantage. And all I could think of was the casual observer who only saw a grown man chasing after a small girl who is screaming something about cock.
All in all, not my proudest moment.
Yesterday I had the day off, and took Tessa to the library. She loves the library, she gets to look at books, explore the aisles and play with the toys in the kids section. There are some plush toys that are just about as tall as she is, mostly of PBS and Disney characters. This is, of course, her favorite part.
When we entered the kids section she made a b-line for the dolls, and since she's under 5 she thinks Elmo is the greatest thing ever. So she ran to the toys yelling "Memmo! Melmmo! Memmo!" Which was cute. And then she saw another toy, a giant plush Cookie Monster. Tessa's eyes lit up, she looked at me with the cutest little smile on her face and said, at the top of her lungs...
"COCK! COCK!"
"Um, no honey," I explained, "you mean Cookie. That's Cookie Monster. Cooookieee."
"COCK!"
Daddy's little angel.
She then proceeded to make things worse by running through the library yelling "cock" as loud as possible. And I had to chase her. Being sixteen months old, Tessa is small, and speedier than she looks, which she used to her advantage. And all I could think of was the casual observer who only saw a grown man chasing after a small girl who is screaming something about cock.
All in all, not my proudest moment.
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