What's What

Haven't posted anything for a while, so here's a catch-up.

Life Section:
Wednesday was, as we all know, St. Patrick's Day. For the first time in I don't know how long I had the day off from work and was actually able to celebrate the holiday. I went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dogtown with my father and brother. Dogtown is St. Louis's Irish neighbourhood (although most of North County would have qualified when I was growing up). the city of St. Louis has a parade too, celebrated the weekend before, but it's pretty lame. Lots of big floats and a long parade route, but basically what you'd expect from a big city parade. Dogtown is different.

First of all, Dogtown is a relatively small place for a parade so there's much more of a crowd and it's more of a party atmosphere. Also the people who march are basically in their family clans or with official organizations, so it just feels different. And any floats that happen to come by are pretty much flatbed trucks with kids step dancing, or SUVs with persons of local prominence inside them. That's it. But it's a lot of fun specifically because of how basic it is. These are people who have heart, celebrating their heritage and community, as opposed to the "Everybody's Irish on St. Pat's" bullshit you get from other parades and parties. It's the real McCoy, or O'coy maybe in this case.

Anyway, at the end of the parade route is St. James the Greater Catholic Church. This is the meeting place for families at the parade, as opposed to the front half which is where all the bars are and is the meeting place for drunks (not that there weren't a few to be found). This is where we spent most of our day. Beginning about an hour before the parade officially starts they begin serving corned beef and cabbage with those awesome little potatoes. You can get other stuff too I think, but why? There's also Irish coffee and whiskey shots. Now, for some reason there was no Guinness. Makes absolutely no sense under the circumstances and is completely inexcusable. Someone ought to be excommunicated for that. Well, maybe not, but it needs to be fixed.

The entertainment inside the church was a pretty decent Irish folk band called The Irish Aires. They played two fairly strong sets with a few of my favorites thrown in. Unfortunately they were playing for old ladies and kids, who applauded lightly when prompted, and were mostly uninterested. I'd like to see them in a bar or with a larger audience-or with a Guinness in hand-it'd be fun. there was also a festival of step dancing with two or three local schools represented. All in all a fun time and a good way to celebrate your Irishness-and yes I've got quite a bit, from both sides (some from Dad's side and a lot from Mom's). I tend to gravitate towards my Irish roots more so than anything else, because it's more fun and more comfortable than the German-though Strassenfest is being held closer to home this year so I'll probably visit that too.
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We're getting a minivan on Wednesday to hold our three kids. Thanks, Johnny!

Speaking of getting stuff for the kids, a shower was thrown for Valerie on Saturday afternoon. Normally one doesn't have a shower for a second child but with twins, well, an exception can be made. Got some nice clothes and some very useful stuff. thanks to Dad and Susan for getting it together, and to everybody who came!
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Music section:

This was also a big week for CDs for me too. In keeping with the Irish theme, the Dropkick Murphys released a new live disc this week, "Live On Landsdowne". Anyone familiar with DKM knows exactly what to expect. Punk rock flavored with traditional Irish arrangements and instrumentation and a lot of fun. This set focuses on their last few albums, and while I prefer the earlier stuff, this is still pretty cool. A little too heavy on the Boston thing (the band's hometown-not the 70's group), but that's a minor complaint. Worth the cash-I give it 31/2 out of 5 Daves.

Another big release was from a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with their new one, "Beat The Devil's Tattoo". It's a little difficult describing this band. Their sound mixes garage band rock with psychedelic effects, adds some Muddy Waters style blues-stomp stuff and throws in a little pop for good measure. It's an interesting mix, and it doesn't always work. When it does, however, it's really, really good. This new record is growing on me more with each listen-it might be their best yet. "Conscience Killer" "Evol" and "Bad Blood" are great songs. 4 out of 5 Daves. I'm going to see them Tuesday night so I'll post a review here.

Finally, the new CD from Drive-By Truckers called "The Big To-Do" came out on Tuesday. It's a solid effort, focused on the gritty rock side of the band. The opening emotional punch of "Daddy Learned To Fly" is worth the price alone, and songs like "After The Scene Dies", "This F**kin' Job" (which has no f-bombs in it oddly), "The Fourth Night Of My Drinking" "Get Downtown" and the guaranteed smile producing "Drag The Lake Charlie" make it worth staying. Maybe not their best release, but certainly not the worst. I just can't help but like these guys. Four out of Five Daves.
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So that's pretty much it. If everybody in the house can just get rid of these colds we've been fighting for a week plus we'll all be great. Talk to you soon.