Everything Sticks Until It Goes Away, and the Truth Is We Don't Know Anything
It took a little while, but here we are! Zoe and Mike and I had a faaaaabulous time, even though we didn't get complete front seats since the people who paid for the dinner tickets got those. We even got into the city early enough to totally help Zoe renew her passport and mail the hell out of her application to study in Japan this summer. Anyway, I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 350-400 pictures, most of them utter crap because my hands would put a paint mixer to shame. Mike, however, was kind enough to share his many lenses with me and remind me to play with the ISO and aperture, so I did get a few. Mike took something like 1000 pics altogether, and the best examples of his photos can be seen here. (He obviously has a man-crush on Storm.) I could just link y'all to my photobucket folder for the pics I liked best, but since this is my journal and I'mma do what I wan', I am going to go ahead and post all 21 under a fancy cut with my reminiscences for your simultaneous viewing and reading pleasure. I tried to trim it down since, hey, there are only so many pictures one can look at when they're all of a man with a beard playing a guitar, but some of them provide a chuckle or two.
For the main program, he played (these are somewhat out of order):
Big Bad World One
The Presidents
I Hate California
Someone Is Crazy
My Monkey
Shop Vac
Chiron Beta Prime
A Talk With George
Tom Cruise Crazy
Mr. Fancy Pants
Code Monkey
Drinking With You
Skullcrusher Mountain
The Future Soon
Birdhouse In Your Soul
Space Doggity
Mandelbrot Set
Creepy Doll
Always The Moon
Re: Your Brains
For the inevitable encore:
You Ruined Everything
Soft Rocked By Me (which devolved into JoCo and Paul and Storm singing redonkulous bits of soft rock songs and ended in them having the entire audience sing "Hey Jude" a cappella)
Paul and Storm (not Pollen Storm, as everybody seems to be hearing) were fantastic, by the bye. I guess one would expect nothing less from a duo out of the ever-entertaining Da Vinci's Notebook, and they did a great job coming out to accompany JoCo when he messed up on "The Presidents" and had trouble getting back into gear. I would like very much to purchase their albums when I have the money.
I think this is the first picture that actually turned out, after trying for the entirety of Paul's and Storm's opening set. JoCo had just messed up "The Presidents" badly--he kept forgetting the lyrics, which is understandable--and decided, in a fit of pique, to play "I Hate California" instead. Afterwards, he sort of laughed and said, "It was about a girl...it's always about a girl," and smiled ruefully, and the Rebel XT gods decided to smile upon me.
Paul, providing half of the snap-along crew and sporting a very nifty Dean shirt.
Storm, complementing Paul's snaps nicely.
JoCo busted out this etch-a-sketch thing that played music for "My Monkey." It made fun little blips and bleeps and little pixel explosions across the screen.
Oh, this guy--I think his name was Andy. I guess he was pulled onstage as a volunteer during "Chiron Beta Prime" when they were taping the tour DVD some time ago, and he made such a good impression that they invited him back to do it again. I must admit, his vocal beep-scat stylings during the solo were quite amusing. Meanwhile, Paul slipped into the guise of The Ghost of Myspace Pictures Past to annoy Andy and amuse the crowd.
I told you!
Storm was getting the chills during "Creepy Doll," how apropos.
God, I wish I could remember what song this was that they were headbanging to. Maybe "Shop Vac"?
Another gadget-doodad-thingamabob! It was like a giant Yak Back on which he'd recorded bits of the song "Mr. Fancy Pants," and it was liberally utilized during a very odd mixup solo with lots of "Everybody's--pants--everybody's--pants."
There were actually a couple of pictures that turned out really clear, and this is one of them. If I didn't already have the best wallpaper in the world, guys, I would totally use one of them and gaze at it creepily for the better part of every day. (I think this might have been during "Space Doggity," which is so sad and pretty.)
Tiny JoCo!
All in all it was quite an enjoyable and satisfying concert in my book, although I was a little sad he didn't play "First Of May." But hey, when you write a song a week for an entire year, you've got quite a body of work to have to choose from, and he did good. Plus, the cover of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" was fly. I won't lie, if I had any musical talent whatsoever I would form a TMBG cover band called Countless Screaming Argonauts.
If pictures of a semi-obscure nerd-folk musician aren't really your cup of tea, or even if they are, how about a few pictures of my newest dye job?
Oh, yeah. A little explanation is necessary for this one. See, Tia bought this mold for a giant ice-cock, intending to give it to Jessica for Christmas (because we're always joking about Jessica's giant ice-cock, duh), and ended up taking it with her to an Amanda Palmer show in Sacramento; she of course had Amanda sign it, who I hear tell was duly impressed and amused, and Tia decided that she would instead just give it to both me and Jessica as a super-late apartmentwarming gift. So you see, it's all very simple. (Incidentally, that's me sporting the gift I got from Tia for my birthday in '08, a sexy lavender shirt referencing a very special episode of Flight of the Conchords. Steve.)
Aerial view!
I can't even really explain myself here. We had this huge giant mega-orange that I decided to balance on my head after changing into my pajamas, while taking a picture at the same time? I look pretty constipated in most of the pictures, consequentially.
Your average side/back picture, as well as a blurry shot of our The Fall poster I stole from Kresge last year. 'S right, I'm a rebel!
The hairs have already started to fade, as will happen with cool (as in not-warm) colors, but it's turning a neat sort of steel-blue in the process so I'm not complaining. Maybe I'll try purple next.
What a babble-y post. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go finish my book, take a nap, and then make a spinach quiche.
For the main program, he played (these are somewhat out of order):
Big Bad World One
The Presidents
I Hate California
Someone Is Crazy
My Monkey
Shop Vac
Chiron Beta Prime
A Talk With George
Tom Cruise Crazy
Mr. Fancy Pants
Code Monkey
Drinking With You
Skullcrusher Mountain
The Future Soon
Birdhouse In Your Soul
Space Doggity
Mandelbrot Set
Creepy Doll
Always The Moon
Re: Your Brains
For the inevitable encore:
You Ruined Everything
Soft Rocked By Me (which devolved into JoCo and Paul and Storm singing redonkulous bits of soft rock songs and ended in them having the entire audience sing "Hey Jude" a cappella)
Paul and Storm (not Pollen Storm, as everybody seems to be hearing) were fantastic, by the bye. I guess one would expect nothing less from a duo out of the ever-entertaining Da Vinci's Notebook, and they did a great job coming out to accompany JoCo when he messed up on "The Presidents" and had trouble getting back into gear. I would like very much to purchase their albums when I have the money.
I think this is the first picture that actually turned out, after trying for the entirety of Paul's and Storm's opening set. JoCo had just messed up "The Presidents" badly--he kept forgetting the lyrics, which is understandable--and decided, in a fit of pique, to play "I Hate California" instead. Afterwards, he sort of laughed and said, "It was about a girl...it's always about a girl," and smiled ruefully, and the Rebel XT gods decided to smile upon me.
Paul, providing half of the snap-along crew and sporting a very nifty Dean shirt.
Storm, complementing Paul's snaps nicely.
JoCo busted out this etch-a-sketch thing that played music for "My Monkey." It made fun little blips and bleeps and little pixel explosions across the screen.
Oh, this guy--I think his name was Andy. I guess he was pulled onstage as a volunteer during "Chiron Beta Prime" when they were taping the tour DVD some time ago, and he made such a good impression that they invited him back to do it again. I must admit, his vocal beep-scat stylings during the solo were quite amusing. Meanwhile, Paul slipped into the guise of The Ghost of Myspace Pictures Past to annoy Andy and amuse the crowd.
I told you!
Storm was getting the chills during "Creepy Doll," how apropos.
God, I wish I could remember what song this was that they were headbanging to. Maybe "Shop Vac"?
Another gadget-doodad-thingamabob! It was like a giant Yak Back on which he'd recorded bits of the song "Mr. Fancy Pants," and it was liberally utilized during a very odd mixup solo with lots of "Everybody's--pants--everybody's--pants."
There were actually a couple of pictures that turned out really clear, and this is one of them. If I didn't already have the best wallpaper in the world, guys, I would totally use one of them and gaze at it creepily for the better part of every day. (I think this might have been during "Space Doggity," which is so sad and pretty.)
Tiny JoCo!
All in all it was quite an enjoyable and satisfying concert in my book, although I was a little sad he didn't play "First Of May." But hey, when you write a song a week for an entire year, you've got quite a body of work to have to choose from, and he did good. Plus, the cover of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" was fly. I won't lie, if I had any musical talent whatsoever I would form a TMBG cover band called Countless Screaming Argonauts.
If pictures of a semi-obscure nerd-folk musician aren't really your cup of tea, or even if they are, how about a few pictures of my newest dye job?
Oh, yeah. A little explanation is necessary for this one. See, Tia bought this mold for a giant ice-cock, intending to give it to Jessica for Christmas (because we're always joking about Jessica's giant ice-cock, duh), and ended up taking it with her to an Amanda Palmer show in Sacramento; she of course had Amanda sign it, who I hear tell was duly impressed and amused, and Tia decided that she would instead just give it to both me and Jessica as a super-late apartmentwarming gift. So you see, it's all very simple. (Incidentally, that's me sporting the gift I got from Tia for my birthday in '08, a sexy lavender shirt referencing a very special episode of Flight of the Conchords. Steve.)
Aerial view!
I can't even really explain myself here. We had this huge giant mega-orange that I decided to balance on my head after changing into my pajamas, while taking a picture at the same time? I look pretty constipated in most of the pictures, consequentially.
Your average side/back picture, as well as a blurry shot of our The Fall poster I stole from Kresge last year. 'S right, I'm a rebel!
The hairs have already started to fade, as will happen with cool (as in not-warm) colors, but it's turning a neat sort of steel-blue in the process so I'm not complaining. Maybe I'll try purple next.
What a babble-y post. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go finish my book, take a nap, and then make a spinach quiche.