Flying solo at an open mike
It’s been a while since I did an open mike all by my lonesome but due to circumstances – the time the date whatever along with Insect Girl and the Enemy Below having their baby – I was sitting alone in Bar 4 in Brooklyn drinking – slowly – some kind of wheat beer while waiting for my 10 minutes in the spotlight.
Not as gripping as “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” but it will have to do.
A few side notes come to mind – the wheat beer I was drinking was something called Orange top or shock or something – this was an Budweiser (I can’t spell the company’s real name and am too pressed for time to Google the bastard so just deal) product I assume developed to counteract the surprising popularity of Coor’s Blue Moon brand – (yes I know it’s supposed to be a little hand crafted beer place but that’s more marketing than anything else).
The bud product didn’t quite have the same hash to it but it wasn’t bad. Hell even Budweiser isn’t bad – bad beers are things like the late unlamented Peal’s or Utica Club – where you start to get a headache even before you finish your first can.
Another side note is that I’ve been seeing news reports about the inertest that a huge ass Belgium consortium – maker of among other things Beck’s beer – is making noise about buying Budweiser – in the various comments on the news sites I visit this has brought out the no-nothings in force, mostly screaming about foreigners. I swear the idea that America’s Port security was going to be run by a company from Dubai wasn’t viewed with as much alarm.
But what a lot of the folks lamenting dirty foreigners getting their fingers on America’s suds (and just what is it about beer and booze companies that make they wave the flag so much? this last weekend judging by the ads you’d think getting so tanked up on Jack Daniels and Coke that you fall face first into the barbeque grill was a patriotic requirement – it’s just weird that’s all)
Anyway what the folks with their panties in a twist don’t remember is that dollar has tanked in value in comparison to the Euro indeed it’s gone down quite a bit – to the point were a company can buy an American company for a lot less than it could before the dollar went down. The dollar going down for a number of reasons – Iraq, the banking crisis, we owe china money to name a few factors – you combine that with typical Bush Administration effeminacy at Monetary Policy and you’re really surprised the dollar has any value at all.
Anyway back at the open mike –
It went pretty well as most go – no really painful performances – there were a couple of stand up comics and I always feel for them – it’s just do damn hard to do that t- you can sing a sad song and even if it’s not the saddest song in the world – it’ll still work but a joke is either funny/not funny there isn’t as much of a target to shoot at.
This comes unbidden to my head:” Q: why did chicken cross the road A: He was under the influence of Zotar the goat caster. Zotar was on his lunch and wanted to practice.”
I do worry about my head from time to tine – it doesn’t always work the way I’d like it too – sometimes I get song sometimes this gibberish.
Anyway it went well – at the mike – I was a little rusty on Rat Dog but Someone Else killed – got a cheer and the sound man shared a shot with me. This was pretty good. I’m not sure if we’ll get anyone to come Saturday but if we keep coming and keep getting a good response maybe.
There was one odd performance – I’ll steal what I wrote in an e-mail cause I’m running out of time “Strangest part of the evening was this guy from Oregon – whose looks said “I smoke an awful lot of dope” – he had one of those stoner beards – this state trouper looking fir hat (in May well okay) and he was using a tie – as in neck tie – as a guitar strap – which broke – he was accompanied on piano by a young lady who played a lot of arty sounding chords – (they have a piano so maybe in the summer S-Dog can come along) – and well he sang like Syd Barrett on Crystal Meth – the songs had no real lyric coherence (which I can tell you a little of that goes a long way) other than a kind of stoned bummers and they went on forever dashing from one direction to another to another (his last song really could have ended about 7 times by the time he ended it ) while his vocals would go from mubble to shrieking and back to mumble - -it was very very odd (which I do like) but it wasn’t very good.”
Peace, Love, Syd Barrett’s on the outside
Not as gripping as “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” but it will have to do.
A few side notes come to mind – the wheat beer I was drinking was something called Orange top or shock or something – this was an Budweiser (I can’t spell the company’s real name and am too pressed for time to Google the bastard so just deal) product I assume developed to counteract the surprising popularity of Coor’s Blue Moon brand – (yes I know it’s supposed to be a little hand crafted beer place but that’s more marketing than anything else).
The bud product didn’t quite have the same hash to it but it wasn’t bad. Hell even Budweiser isn’t bad – bad beers are things like the late unlamented Peal’s or Utica Club – where you start to get a headache even before you finish your first can.
Another side note is that I’ve been seeing news reports about the inertest that a huge ass Belgium consortium – maker of among other things Beck’s beer – is making noise about buying Budweiser – in the various comments on the news sites I visit this has brought out the no-nothings in force, mostly screaming about foreigners. I swear the idea that America’s Port security was going to be run by a company from Dubai wasn’t viewed with as much alarm.
But what a lot of the folks lamenting dirty foreigners getting their fingers on America’s suds (and just what is it about beer and booze companies that make they wave the flag so much? this last weekend judging by the ads you’d think getting so tanked up on Jack Daniels and Coke that you fall face first into the barbeque grill was a patriotic requirement – it’s just weird that’s all)
Anyway what the folks with their panties in a twist don’t remember is that dollar has tanked in value in comparison to the Euro indeed it’s gone down quite a bit – to the point were a company can buy an American company for a lot less than it could before the dollar went down. The dollar going down for a number of reasons – Iraq, the banking crisis, we owe china money to name a few factors – you combine that with typical Bush Administration effeminacy at Monetary Policy and you’re really surprised the dollar has any value at all.
Anyway back at the open mike –
It went pretty well as most go – no really painful performances – there were a couple of stand up comics and I always feel for them – it’s just do damn hard to do that t- you can sing a sad song and even if it’s not the saddest song in the world – it’ll still work but a joke is either funny/not funny there isn’t as much of a target to shoot at.
This comes unbidden to my head:” Q: why did chicken cross the road A: He was under the influence of Zotar the goat caster. Zotar was on his lunch and wanted to practice.”
I do worry about my head from time to tine – it doesn’t always work the way I’d like it too – sometimes I get song sometimes this gibberish.
Anyway it went well – at the mike – I was a little rusty on Rat Dog but Someone Else killed – got a cheer and the sound man shared a shot with me. This was pretty good. I’m not sure if we’ll get anyone to come Saturday but if we keep coming and keep getting a good response maybe.
There was one odd performance – I’ll steal what I wrote in an e-mail cause I’m running out of time “Strangest part of the evening was this guy from Oregon – whose looks said “I smoke an awful lot of dope” – he had one of those stoner beards – this state trouper looking fir hat (in May well okay) and he was using a tie – as in neck tie – as a guitar strap – which broke – he was accompanied on piano by a young lady who played a lot of arty sounding chords – (they have a piano so maybe in the summer S-Dog can come along) – and well he sang like Syd Barrett on Crystal Meth – the songs had no real lyric coherence (which I can tell you a little of that goes a long way) other than a kind of stoned bummers and they went on forever dashing from one direction to another to another (his last song really could have ended about 7 times by the time he ended it ) while his vocals would go from mubble to shrieking and back to mumble - -it was very very odd (which I do like) but it wasn’t very good.”
Peace, Love, Syd Barrett’s on the outside
posted by Unknown at 12:11 PM
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