The Bawdy Cloister

Because you're cheaper than therapy...

I've been under the weather most of this week and the wife says it's my fault.  On Monday, after work, I drove up to Austin to pick up an old high school buddy for a Tori Amos concert.  The concert was in San Antonio and looked like this...

After the show I drove my friend back to Austin, then drove myself back to San Antonio getting to bed at about 2:30am.  That's about an hour later than I anticipated it would take.

That would normally have been okay.  Problem was, I learned earlier that day at work that I had to be in Goliad the next morning at 8 which meant I had to wake up at 5:30.  So I did.  I got to Goliad on time, with only 2 1/2 hours sleep, and took care of my business there, then headed for a meeting in Corpus Christi that afternoon.  I arrived home Tuesday around 6 pm and crashed.  By then my immune system shut down and I was running a fever and feeling cruddy the next two days.

The wife says I'm getting too old to pull stunts like this.  (I'm 33.)  I said I would have been fine had it not been for the hour delay getting out of the concert and the unexpected early wake-up the following morning... that is, gone to bed at 1:30 (just an hour later than my usual bedtime) and been able to sleep till 6:45 like normal.

"You haven't learned your lesson, have you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Given the same circumstances in the future, you'd still stay out till 2:30?"

"If I didn't know I had to be up so early the following morning at the time I made my plans, then yes."

"Stupid."

What say you?

BTW:  Yesterday at work I told a 24 year-old guy I work with that I saw Tori Amos in concert Monday.  He replied, "Should I know who that is?"  Maybe I am showing my age.

Happy New Year!!!

I know it'll take a while for Microsoft to formulate its patches and for calendar companies to catch up, but for all of you who've been living under a rock these past couple of days, let me be the first to welcome you to the new era!!!

That's right, today is January 2, 0000 A.S.S. (After Seeing Sinead.)

Sunday night around midnight my path and Sinead O'Connor's finally crossed in a quiet parking lot in Austin, Texas.  Like any cosmic moment, it caught me completely unprepared.  I didn't have a copy of my Law Review article (which was dedicated to her) to give to her and I didn't have a proper camera which meant I had to rely on my cell phone to capture the moment.  Nonetheless, it was all good.  The show she threw before our meeting was fantastic too.  The set began with The Emporor's New Clothes; she could have stopped there for all I cared.  But she went on and covered the gamut of old an new.  So for all you who've been losing sleep over my past troubles, you can rest well now.

Baby Vs. Chihuahua

One by one I keep reuniting in person with old high school friends I've tracked down on Facebook.  This afternoon I took Mrs. T and the Acolyte to Travis Park in downtown San Antonio for the Jazz'SAlive Festival.  There we met my old buddy, Wheatie, who I hadn't seen since 1992!  He brought his family with him too, including their Chihuahua, Boo Boo.  Boo Boo and the Acolyte got along famously....

25 Artists I've Seen Live

It's a meme from Slender Reed!  Oh, no, from Hyperher, she did it after Reed, so I'll use her list instead (I get an extra asterisk that way too.)

Copy this list, leave in the bands you've seen perform live and add an asterisk by it, delete the ones you haven't, and add new ones that you have seen until you reach 25. (An asterisk means the previous person had it on their list, two asterisks means the last two people who did this before you had that band on their list and so on.)

Here's my list (in no particular order). Play along if you like, and let me know if you do.

1.  Don Henley
2.  Poi Dog Pondering 
3.  The Cure
4.  Melissa Etheridge
5.  Arlo Guthrie
6.  The Cranes 
7.  Willie Nelson
8.  Gary P. Nunn
9.  "Weird Al" Yankovic
10. Michelle Shocked
11. The Doobie Brothers
12. Indigo Girls**
13. The Jesus and Mary Chain
14. Ben Harper
15. Ani DiFranco*
16. Eddie Vedder 
17. Bonnie Raitt
18. Del Castillo
19. Los Lonely Boys
20. Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
21. Bo Diddley
22. Midnight Oil
23. Crosby, Stills & Nash
24. Hothouse Flowers
25. Ziggy Marley

Theatre in the Round

All I knew about Lockhart, Texas was that it is the town in which Christopher Guest chose to shoot his film Waiting for Guffman.  So when I received an invite from an old buddy to watch her performance in the town's community theater, I was compelled to go by the sheer irony.

I know Lacey D. from high school.  We took drama together and hung with the theater crowd.  I hadn't seen her since our adventure to Enchanted Rock in 1996.  Over the past month we reunited on Facebook, along with a dozen or so other drama freaks I'd been out of touch with for 10-15 years.  When I learned that she was still performing, I emailed the theater to reserve my ticket.

I didn't know anything about the play before hand, other than its title, The Shape of Things.  I'm glad I didn't either because the plot is highly susceptible to spoilage.  So for that reason I'm not going to delve into the story.  After browsing around online I learned that there's a film adaptation of the play directed by the playwright himself, Neil LaBute.  The film also features the original cast from the play.  It's on DVD, so you can check it out; I know I will.

Lacey's performance was impressive.  I was taken aback by the strength of her stage presence.  She played the lead character, Evelyn.  Evelyn is a feisty, assertive and extremely outspoken university art student.  She contrasted so much from the bubbly and sometimes squeaky Lacey I remembered from high school.  It's difficult to describe the experience actually... not seeing somebody for over a decade, curious to see how they've changed, and your first re-encounter with them is in character!  It was quite a thrill sitting through the play wondering how much or how little of today's Lacey I was experiencing through Evelyn.

After the show, we talked briefly backstage.  I introduced her to Mrs. T, but we were in a hurray to pick the Acolyte up from the babysitter (the drive to Lockhart took nearly an hour and a half each way.)  Lacey was also in a hurry with a ride waiting for her.  But we agreed to meet up again soon when we're not so rushed.  In the meantime, I'll still be wondering.

Rowdy's Week in Review

ITEM!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got a book for my birthday.  It was I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon.  Just finished it... so here's my review:

Excellent.  In the three years following Zevon's death, his ex-wife (and life-long friend) conducted nearly 90 interviews with folks important in his life.  She then organized the anecdotes in chronological order inter-splicing them with her own narrative and entries from Warren's journal.  Extremely well done, with pictures throughout, corresponding to the time being discussed.  (I hate when biographies stick a zillion plates in the middle of the book.)  It was Warren's wish that she write his story.  She did one hell of a job.

Like a lot of folks my age, my introduction to Warren's music was in Junior High when Werewolves of London appeared in The Color of Money.  I went out and got his album Sentimental Hygiene and really dug it.  He'd always been on my short list of acts I'd love to see in concert, but it never happened.  A fact that I'm constantly reminded of by my Evil Little Brother who saw him sit in with Paul Schaffer's band at a Letterman taping.

Speaking of my ELB.  He was here this week and took me out to pick out a birthday present, so I grabbed two more CDs:

Warren Zevon-- another replacement for a worn out cassette.

Mutineer-- this one was new to me (though I had Bob Dylan covering the title track.)

ELB also got me a couple of books... which I'll review as I finish them.

ITEM!

Mrs. T got two tickets to Go, Diego, Go! from her office.  Box seats at the Majestic!

 

It was the Acolyte's first theatrical experience and he had a blast.  He sat focussed through the whole thing-- to my great shock and delight.  For being so good, he walked away with his first concert T-shirt.

ITEM!

The Acolyte is absolutely addicted to Guru Guru Dokkaan!  He dances to it daily.... I think he has a crush on Koto-chan (the girl in red.)  He'll start running and screaming toward the TV from across the house when he hears her voice.  Guru Guru is a regular sequence on the baby TV show Inai Inai Baa! (Peek-a-Boo!)