-The Cure – Three Imaginary Boys
– Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
– Shelia Divine – New Parade
– Pulp – Hardcore
– The Clash – Sandinista
– Radiohead – Amnesiac
– Regina Spektor – Soviet Kitsch
– Wussy – Left for Dead
– The Get Up Kids – On A Wire
– the Pixies – Doolittle
– The Real Tuesday Weld – I, Lucifer
– Spiritualized – Royal Albert Hall October 10, 1997
– Beck – The Information
-Hyperbola – Long Dub Mini Goove
– Sky Larkin – Kaliede
Author: meisaj
Living in the Cleve
King of the Castle 7
There is this guy who goes to many of the small shows out here in Cleveland. He has one of those little flip camcorders. He sets it up in the middle of the floor on a stand and records the whole show. He then grabs a set list from the bands and throws it up on Youtube for free under then name King of the Castle 7. Its a pretty sweet way to revisit shows I’ve been too.
I mention this because last night he posted up the Blood Red Shoes. Go ahead. Go catch the concert I was at. And I have become a huge Sky Larkin fan in the last few days. I bought two CD’s at the concert and another Sky Larkin CD on iTunes. Its a bad habit, that when I find a band I like I go and pick up their whole catalogue. But whatever, they are up there with the Blood Red Shoes. Check them out.
VP
I had a dream I was President Obama’s Vice President. He had just been reelected, except it was a giant inauguration like when he first got elected. While we are sitting in front of the Capitol Building the First Lady is rushed off stage and down a tunnel. A few seconds later Obama decides he should go too, and I stay to see what’s going on.
Everyone is either ducking behind a small stone wall or running away. I don’t hear any gunshots but it seems like people are hiding from a sniper. I’m looking around but can see anything. I start crawling around behind some small siderails and all sorts of politicians are screaming and hiding. I see Secret Service men running by in a large group. They see me crouched down behind a wall and I hear one say “There’s the VP. What a joke. I wonder why he was chosen to be Vice President.”
I took that moment to think about it myself. Was it for the youth vote? I didn’t know. I thought, in my dream, that like most jobs in the world, I wasn’t bad at it. I actually was stepping up to the responsibility I was going to have as Vice President. I wouldn’t be a bad Vice President, I’d be good at it. At the same time I wondered if everyone thought that, and wondered why I was really picked. Despite being ready and knowing I’d be good at it, I felt inadequate and like I was a joke.
Halloween Review
I even had a costume this year, well something I bought last weekend. But Halloween, like most holidays, is lost on me. I’m not one to feel comfortable getting dressed up and going out. I’m not a big New Year’s person, or July 4th, or Thanksgiving. It’s just lost on me. Christmas, Christmas I get. But that’s the family association I have with Christmas. (For the last 8 years or so, I see my family in July and again around Christmas)
It could be the places I like. I like dive bars. I like pubs. I like places I can relax and shoot darts. Places I can sit at the bar and make conversation with anyone around me. Even those places are usually idiotic on Halloween. I avoid places where I won’t have the opportunity to sit (unless there are games to be played, darts, foosball, pool, whatever). I avoid places that are overcrowded. Clubs… please shoot me before I go to a club.
Halloween in particular reminds me of why I hate Dave and Busters. At Dave and Busters there are little running around all over the place while I’m trying to enjoy drinking a beer with my friends. I don’t mind kids, heck I like kids. I work with kids. They make me smile. But when I’m out with friends for a drink, kids be damned. Go away. For some reason, going out to a bar on Halloween, or the night before as the case this year, brings up that same feeling.
So yeah. I didn’t go out last night. If you catch me at the right time, mood, whatever perhaps you could persuade me to go out on Halloween. Girlfriends on occasion have gotten me to dress up and go out on Halloween (I’m a sucker like that). But going out because its the one night a year you can dress up and go out, yeah…. that doesn’t do anything for me.
Holy Cow
Wow I’m beat. I went out to a concert last night. Blood Red Shoes were playing at the Grog Shop. It was one of those shows with the adequate local opening bands (adequate is giving a lot…. the only interesting thing about the second band was trying to figure out if the woman singing had her shirt on backwards or not).
Then the main acts. Well the headline band and the touring opening bands. On come Sky Larkin. Holy Bejeebus they were good. There are two things that can make me really really love a band when they play live. Energy and an obvious love for their music / playing live. Sky Larkin had both. They were energetic and smiling the whole time. It’s always nice to discover a new band. From Leeds, England no less.
Then the main act. Blood Red Shoes. Granted there were only like 60 people at the shoe, but man they played to the people that were there. A two person band that just rocks. The drummer was talking to the audience the whole time. The guitarist was just rocking out the whole time. The energy was amazing. I’ve only been a fan for a few weeks, but if I hadn’t, this show would have converted me easily. They played mostly old songs, opened with what I suspect is their most popular song (they’re bigger in the UK than here – where they are from, so I’m not positive). And the drummer had a shirt that said “Don’t Mess With Texas” that he bought in Seattle. Sweet.
And then it was one am. Crap. Got to bed by two, up at six and off to work. But worth it.
Mac n’ Cheese
Vegan Mac n’ Cheese. Such a good thing. It makes for a good Tuesday. A walk down the street under streetlights. A clear sky full of stars and big moon. Wind whipping up leaves.
I get there, order a cheap beer and a bowl of Mac n’ Cheese. It’s got peas. I never though peas would be good in Mac n’ Cheese. Totally is. Its a little spicy. The two bartenders are cute (are bartenders preternaturally cute…. maybe that’s why I dated one for so long). Good music is played. It just feels comfortable. And makes my Tuesday.
