Despite multiple people canceling on seeing Wussy with me (including one that turned around halfway driving there – which was just stupid when there was less than 2 miles to go, and the roads weren’t bad at all!!), it was a fucking amazing show.

It was by far the best cheap show I have ever seen.  $8 at the door, Wussy headlining.  Good Morning Valentine and The Fervor opening. Good Morning Valentine was decent, they are a local band, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again (although I kept laughing at the singer’s hair).  The Fervor are from Louieville Kentucky and they impressed the hell out of me.  So much so that I bought an album from them.

Wussy, as they usually are, were amazing.  Everyone likes going to see bands they like.  I love seeing bands I like, enjoying doing what they are doing.  Seeing a band in a small venue like this, being a few feet at most from the band, the stage separated from the crowd by a two in elevation, and just seeing all the band members smiling, laughing and having fun doing the thing is amazing.  It makes the concert going experience all that much more worth it.

I bought a new Wussy cd (well its an older cd, but new for me), a 6 inch vinyl split single (Wussy and the Fervor) and got a business card for a man who recorded the whole show to put on youtube.  It was a great fucking night.

To all who almost came, you missed a fantastic show and a good time.  And by the time I left there (it was almost 2 am) all of the roads had been cleared and it was not snowing out at all.  Nice peaceful easy drive home.

Couple links for you:

• The Fervor
• Good Morning Valentine
• Wussy
• King of the Castle 7 – This is the guy who filmed the show.  He has over 3,000 clips of local Cleveland bands and bands from all over Ohio on his youtube channel.  He said the show should be up by Friday.  If you search his stuff now though you can find a whole Wussy concert from last March up there now.

Someone told me this joke the other day:

When its snowing bad outside 98% of the people stay inside scared to drive.  The other 2% are from Buffalo and say “Give me a beer and lets get going.”

That in turn reminds me of a story one of my college history professors told me (it was Peters for those of you from NU).  He said he was driving cross country in his beat up car and came to the base of some mountains out west.  The police had set up a blockade and were turning away any cars without chains on their tires.  When he got up to the blockade they told him the roads were bad and no one would be able to handle it without chains.  When he told them he was from Buffalo they said “Oh you’ll be fine” and let him through.

I don’t know where people get their perceptions from out here.  Ohio is scared of snow.  I know its all relative, and that I did live in Buffalo for years, but come on.  The storms out here drop less than five inches most of the time, and if it is going to be more than five inches, its predicted over ridiculous amounts of time.  “10 – 12 inches of snow predicted over the next 36 hours!!!” and people freak out.

I know Cleveland has only sixteen plows, but canvassing the city they should be able to reach all streets multiple times in 36 hours.  All the main roads should be fine.  Calm down and think straight.  Drive slower.  Trust your instincts.  Give yourself space between you and the next car.  Enjoy it.

Someone used Snowmageddon.  Cleveland doesn’t know what snowmageddon is.  I don’t know if it ever has.  Its sad how stupid people are with driving out here.  How “bad” it gets here according to everyone.  I’ve never driven in white out conditions in Cleveland, but I certainly have elsewhere.  White Out conditions are bad driving conditions.

Cleveland needs to get over this immense fear of the snow.  2 – 3 inches of snow doesn’t mean “death defying driving”.  I drive a Hyundai Accent.  Its tiny.  I think it weighs less than 900 pounds.  Point being it is not a truck, not an SUV, not even a sedan.  Its a tiny car that by all rights should be worse driving in snow than just about anything else out there.  But I do fine driving it on the Cleveland streets in the “horrible snow storms” we have here.

Anyways, I put this as my Facebook away message Friday night.  I stand by it.

There was probably more to this story than I heard, but currently Cleveland is freaking out about the latest “massive snow storm” we should be getting today.  You know, by massive, five or so inches.

Anyways there was an interview an employee of the Transportation Department for Cleveland and all I heard was “all 16 trucks are ready to go.”  16 Trucks?  As in 16 snow plows I assume.  What the hell!!!  All of Cleveland will be plowed with 16 trucks!!!  Don’t worry though, that’s one snow plow for every 30,000 (approx.) people in Cleveland.

That’s one proud prepared city.

I feel like Grimass would have been way more clever than Grimace Ass, but less people would have made the connection.  Oh well.  Two days and three showers later and I still have a slightly purple spot on my ass, except now its a little red from scrubbing.  So I have a red and purple ass.  Awesomeness.  It did wash right out of my jeans (YaY!!).

Secondly, I have been on a Smashing Pumpkins revival lately.  I pulled out Machina II : The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music to listen to a few days ago.  It reigns up there with one of my favorite Pumpkins albums.  Right next to Gish.  Anyways, the reason I write this is because I feel like the get the short stick now and days, and while Corgan has had some crazy reactions of late, their music is still fantastic.  Even the new stuff; which they give away from free online (how great is that, they make songs, and just put them up on the Smashing Pumpkins website for download).  Fucking rocks.

I unintentionally sat on a purple marker yesterday.  I had put it in my back pocket to carry it back to my classroom from the room I was in and forgot about it.  Sometime throughout the day the cap came off.  That was around 10 am.  Around 5:30 I pulled the uncapped marker out of my back pocket.  I had a giant purple spot on my jeans, boxers, and ass.

My butt looks like what I assume Grimace’s does.  That’s right, I have Grimace Ass. (if you don’t know who Grimace is you obviously never ate at McDonald’s during the 80’s).

I had this dream last night, except I wasn’t in it.  Which is very rare for a dream, or at least one that I have.  Usually I am an active participant in my dream, even if I am someone else entirely.  But in this dream, I wasn’t there.  It was like watching a movie.  I had no input over what was happening, nor an active roll, nor was I even a bystander in it.  I just looked on from above, or aside, or whatever.

Anyways, in my dream there was a brand new huge courthouse.  It was epic in scale.  Really.  It was an off white color on the outside, and had curved walls that seemed to spiral upwards.  Inside the courthouse was packed.  It was the grand opening and it was a big event.  A man was on trial for some minor misdemeanor that I can’t recall.  Maybe a traffic violation.  Maybe a random altercation.

What I do remember is how packed the courtroom was.  And how there were camera men, reporters, and audience galore.  There were two lawyers.  One was Nicholas Cage.  The other was a woman.  Nicholas Cage was the defense attorney.  I recall one of the reporters mentioning how in order to make this a complete event they had found the lawyers on the street (and in my dream there was a flashback of sorts of someone walking up to Nicholas Cage on the corner of a busy street and asking if he was a lawyer.  He hesitated and said yes, and was sort of impressed into to service as a lawyer for this trial.)

The prosecutor said her opening statements.  I don’t remember what they were, but just that she pressed for a conviction and imprisonment of the man.  After her opening statement Nicholas Cage asked for a brief adjournment to complete his remarks.  He then asked to talk to the prosecutor privately and she agreed.

They went down to the basement, where he admitted that he wasn’t really a lawyer, but that he was positive his client would get off.  When she asked how he said he knew the man was guilty but….

And then shoved her backwards and started running away.  Underneath the new courthouse was a whole maze of what looked like damp and dank alleyways.  To throw her off his trail he took off his shirt (it was a red button down shirt… he had another shirt underneath it) and threw it on a bum who was pushing a shopping cart (who for some reason lived in the bowels of this giant courthouse).  I also recognized the bum from earlier in my dream but have no clue what part or what role he played earlier in the dream (if he was really there at all).

Nicholas Cage continues to run through these alleyways looking for an exit.  I never see anyone chasing him, but he seems kind of desperate.  He then finds an electrical box, and pulls the lever shutting off all the lights.

And that’s how the dream ends.  Which is weird, because I swear I remember it being dark in my dream after he pulled the lever, and it not being the end of the dream completely, but nothing else happens that I can recall.