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C-ya

I think I'm done with this. I pretty much ran out of stuff to say and don't want you to have to read half-assed entries. Maybe I'll be back if Bush wins in November. C-ya!

I know subway peeves are played-out... but here's mine:

Since I think it was Bill Clinton who said that the unexamined life is not worth living, sometimes I feel it is a good idea to consider the whys and wherefores of the things that annoy me.

For example: sleeping on the subway. People who sleep sitting up, in their own space, in a controlled way don't annoy me. Even the head-bob or slightly open mouth are okay.

Yesterday though, I saw a young couple sitting next to each other and the girl was completely sacked out across her boyfriend's lap, drooling on his knees. He was sawing logs too, with his arm slung over her. There is something about such un-self-conscious napping that I find really irritating. I was thinking about what it was exactly, and I believe it's too much information (or "TMI!" as Katie Couric would say). Public displays of affection don't bother me, but this kind of sleeping makes me want to tell them to get a room. I guess it's just embarassing. I also think it's sort of pathetic. Even if you have six kids and you're tired or whatever, get it together. At least sit up.

The Iconoclast, my new favorite periodical!

Considering that Bush "won" certain states by extremely small margins (nearly uncountable, actually -- oh, wait... it's all coming back to me now ... TOTALLY uncountable) I say every little bit counts.

This is why I am feeling particularly smug that a small Crawford, TX newspaper with a circulation of less than 1,000 has endorsed Kerry.

The only thing that could make a Kerry victory better would be if after he wins, Kerry could slap Bush or punch him in the eye or something. Of course that wouldn't be very sportsmanlike and I'm sure our windsurfing friend wouldn't go for it. Oh well.

CSI: Park Slope part II

This is so awful. Apparently my morning walk could have been a lot worse because at least I didn't see any blood, or a body.

CSI: Park Slope

Someone got shot on my street last night in the middle of the night. I popped out to walk Beausoleil at 8 this morning and the whole block was roped off with yellow tape and squad cars blocking the top and bottom of the street. Luckily, there wasn't any evidence of the crime. One time when I was 14 a guy got shot outside my folks' house and not only was there still evidence of crime when I stupidly wandered outside to invesigate, but also the body. Anyhow, not this time. There were a bunch of cops and a woman who I presume was the head detective. She looked like a Brooklyn Bonnie Raitt. Huge, bright red hair and an overall spicy look. She was bossing everyone around.

I was asleep when it happened, but I did hear the shots and that is very unsettling. I know now I've never heard gunshots before becasue this was a very distinctive, metallic sound, if that makes any sense. Nothing at all like a backfiring car or any of the other sounds I would hear and get scared about when I was growing up. Anyhow, it woke me up (sort of) but not enough to figure it out. Actually, even this morning at 8 I didn't put it together, I didn't remember till hours later.

Later on, the cops came and knocked on the door to ask questions. My and Nicole's doors are opposite each other in a very narrow hallway. I opened my door wearing my long, pink granny nightgown and a short blue robe over that. Unfortunately, the outfit was a look I rejected for the bug exterminator 2 weekends previously, but I was unprepared for police visitors this morning. I had my dog on a leash and he was a wild thing, trying to jump all over the officer. Nicole was wearing Christmas-print shorts inside out and was holding her fat kitty. He asked us our names and whether we heard anything; then whether we had called 911. I felt really shitty for not having called the police. I just didn't wake up enough to figure out what was going on. Nicole heard the ambulance come only minutes later, but still. I feel ashamed.

Then he asked us our birthdates. My friend Lauren wittily suggested that possibly the NYPD plans to send me a birthday card in two weeks. Now, wouldn't that be nice!

I asked him what happened and he said there had been a dispute and the victim passed away. Shit.

Did you get tickets? Yeah, me neither.

My friend in LA saw the Pixies last night out there. She got the tix like no problem last week. I think the Pixies sold out here like 3 days before they even announced the tour. Whatever. You can live it through her superb re-cap ici.

Chick even wrote down the set list for me. Like, brought a pen with her and everything. I especially like her delineation between the slow version of "Wave of Mutilation" [from the "Pump Up the Volume Soundtrack"] and the fast version [from"Doolittle"]. I was guessing "Where is My Mind?" for the encore. Guess not. Close though!
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Ok, I know you already heard about the whole pulled muscle from too much air guitar, so I'll cut to the chase.  Here's the playlist:

Bone Machine, Crackity Jones, Something Against You, Isla de Encanta, Broken Face, No 13 Baby, Caribou, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Cactus, Ed is Dead,   Subbacultcha, Dead, Velouria, Umass, a new song they have out on the internet, I Bleed, Gouge Away, Tame, Hey, Gigantic, Wave of Mutilation(slow), Winterlong(!), Mr. Grieves, The Holiday Song, Nimrod's Son, Vamos, Where is My Mind?   Encore: Wave(fast), Debaser

As I said to Migk at the beginning of the show, it's a good thing the songs are all so short, that means we get to hear a lot!

Of course it's so funny to me they did so many songs that we talked about, I wasn't expecting Cactus or Subba, or how about No 13 Baby????  And you KNOW how much I loved that song.  That was pretty obscure.  There weren't many singin' along to that.  The funny part about that one-- Frank goes to Kim "What song are we gonna do?  Number three?"  At least that's what I heard, and I yelled out "Number 13!" and then they played it.  I thought I was gonna flip.

Ok, I'm all over the place here.  I should not have smoked a bowl before writing this!  So we saw them at the Greek Theater, which is a smaller sized outdoor venue.  It was a really pretty night, all warm and summery.  The weird thing was seeing all the people.  It was like people we went to high school were crawling out of the woodwork or something.  I didn't know so many people still dressed/looked like that!  It's probably just because I don't go to those kind of shows much anymore. 

When I was deciding what to wear myself that morning, I felt like I should wear something from high school just to be sentimental.  Of course, I don't have anything, so that idea was shot.  I thought about how maybe that's what the other folks there were doing-- pulling that one old beat up shirt from back in the day out of their closet, and that's why they all looked so high school.  The old beat up shirt I personally longed for was the Trompe white v-neck you made for me that I wore to Lolaplalooza.

The Distillers opened.  If you don't know who they are (you probably do) they're an LA punk band with a chick lead singer.  Well, she sounded exactly like Courtney Love singing and there were girl punkish teeny boppers all around screaming along.  That was definitely a weird blast from the past.  They were totally the type of band we would have loved back in the day.

The Pixies looked pretty much the same.  Frank Black is still chubby & bald, Joey Santiago looked like some LA Mexican with a goatee...this is something I would've never noticed until living out here.  Kim Deal looked cute and pretty subdued.  Her hair is a short little pixie cut (how fitting) and she's gained a little weight herself.  Hopefully because she's clean now. . .

To me the show was just awesome.  They aren't old or anything yet, they still have energy and the songs were just tight.  They are all still quality good quality songs that stand up to test of time, even with the weird random lyrics.  There were a few I had to point out to Migki, such as "You buy me a soda and you try to molest me in the parking lot."  I also pointed out "And redneckers they get us pissed" from Umass which she liked.  I of course had to let her know that "fall on your face in those bad shoes" was also an all time classic line for us. The words for Gigantic she picked up right away. . .

And maybe I'm just a Pixies snob, but I think it is safe to say that I was the only person in our vicinity that truely knew every single song they played with the exception of the new one.  They never said to title of it, they just called it the internet song, so who knows.  And of course I thought of you when they did Winterlong, that song will forever remind me of you. 

Oh, there was this really cute little boy there with his mom, he was probably about ten or eleven, that was singing along to almost everything, and doing air guitar and head banging.  He was so cute, Migki and I kept watching him and laughing.  Just goes to show the Pixies are getting passed on to the next generation!

Alright, that's the blow by blow.  I have to say, it was fuckin' awesome!