hey kids! what's the best kind of night...?

A VOMIT NIGHT!!

Ah well... it was one kid, one vomit, before bedtime, well foreshadowed, and mostly trashcan-contained. This, I have decided to label a "Category One Vomit". (One step above an "Intestinal Depression".)

This is what parenting does to you. You can actually find yourself fairly pleased whilst cleaning up vomit.  (posted by Dave at 1:37 PM || )

  O, Alabama... Where Art Thou?

Hey... I have a question. Didn't there used to be a season between summer and winter that lasted more than 4 days? Because it's FORTY-ONE FUCKING DEGREES THIS MORNING!!!

Also. Can I just say how much people who SNORE on the train piss me off? I mean... dozing off a little is fine, but there is no excuse for a non-homeless person to be in such a deep sleep on public transit.  (posted by Dave at 8:22 AM || )

  white stripes concert review...

It was a good concert, all in all. I wish I hadn't seen the "Blackpool Nights" DVD... I would like to have been a little more surprised by the tone of the live shows. The mix of songs was good. The live "arrangements" (if you can call them that) were good. The "sound" was about as good as you could hope for / expect... given the fact that the band consists of essentially a really distorted guitar and a bass drum.

There were more than a few screw-ups, musically... and not just the Jimmy-Page like sloppiness, which is part of his "technique"... A few places where Jack's fingers were in the wrong place... and a missed cue by Meg which earned her a positively withering look from Jack. But the interplay between the two if them is really nice, most of the time. It seems really loose... the way he cues her on all the accents. He even chokes her cymbals for her sometimes, which I think is really... cute? I dunno... it amuses me.

I have to say I can do without the thing where he just unstraps his guitar and drops it on the floor between songs... letting it feedback for 20-30 seconds while he switches instruments. I know it's part of his bad-boy-rock-star "schtick", but really... it pretty fucking obnoxious.

There is very little between-song-banter. I think he spoke to the audience 3 times. One of the exchanges went like this...

JACK: Meg had breakfast with Dennis Hopper today.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
JACK: (pause) ...that's not true.

He was also dressed like some sort of satanic bullfighter. You really have to be a "Rock Star" to pull off wearing a hat like that.

The crowd was far more diverse than I expected. I thought it would be all black-clad greasy-haired hipsters, but no... there were both younger AND older people there than I expected. It's nice to see that they have such a broad appeal.

(I also ran into a former student from the college there, which is always good... helps to reinforce my 'cool prof' street cred!)

Anyway... it was a long night. I didn't quite realize that the drive would be THREE HOURS. Plus, lots of standing around. Fuck "general admission"... I want a CHAIR!! I'm taking many naps today in an attempt to recover.  (posted by Dave at 12:46 PM || )

  cans't thou heareth me now?

It's been a few years since I've been to a Renaissance Faire, but I'm pretty sure there weren't *quite* as many period-inauthentic tattoos and body piercings peeking out of all the costumes the last time... and I know I didn't see nearly as many people in full garb talking on the cellphone.  (posted by Dave at 8:35 PM || )

  kids these days...

It's another sign.

I try to keep up with new music. I listen to "Alt Nation" on Sirius... I try to watch all the new bands on the talk shows... I periodically steal music by new artists when I read about them. But I find myself always having the same reaction when I see one of these bands of youngsters performing...

"Uhhh... Is this a joke?"

It's not that the music is BAD... it's just that... these bands just all seem... flippant. And not just the intentionally flippant bands like Weezer... bands like "Death Cab for Cutie"?? I mean... the music is kinda nice, but... they can't be SERIOUS, can they? I just get a weird feeling like the whole band is just some kind inside joke that I'm not in on. I saw "The Arcade Fire" on Letterman the other night, and I couldn't even pay attention to the music because I spend the whole time going - "Is that a French Horn? Why is that guy banging on a marching band drum? Is that all he does? Why is the singer looking like that? Why is he pretending to play his guitar backwards? IS THIS A JOKE??"

Maybe it's because I grew up in the Pre-Irony Age, or maybe the whole point of being old is not being able to understand anyone under 20. (Or conversely, maybe the point of being under 20 is behaving in such a way that old people don't understand you.) Either way... it's kinda sad that pretty soon all new music is going to seems as stupid to me as mine did to my parents. But in the meantime, I'm a'gonna go see that-there Jack White feller with the red dungarees next weekend. I just hope it's not too loud.  (posted by Dave at 5:27 PM || )

  first day...

Well, school starts tomorrow. Katie is starting first grade at a new school... first time on a school bus and all... very exciting. Tonight she and Jennifer have been laying out outfits and sharpening pencils and stuffing backpacks and pencil boxes with the prescribed allotment of crayons and markers and glue sticks. The funny thing is... I'm doing pretty much the same thing... washing the new shirt, delinting the new blazer, packing my coffee mug, making sure the laser pointer has batteries...

That's the great thing about being a college professor... you can extend your adolescence right on into your 40's.  (posted by Dave at 8:23 PM || )