Effluvia

Todd Snider's new album came out today and it is very, very good. He's playing at the Daisy Friday night, local readers.

The American Hospital Association has designated this National Heimlich Maneuver Week.

Edward Gorey died Saturday at age 75. If anyone has any kind of sense he will be buried beneath an ornate and tilted headstone with the simple letters "RIP" engraved on it.

Hitler heads. Amazing.

Meghan was one of the reasons I started keeping a journal. She's funny. Check it out.

Suck, talking about Diana Ross setting off an airport metal detector:
"...undoubtedly the machine was simply thrown off by Ross' solid-platinum megastardom."

Bygone Days
Uncensored!

125 YEARS AGO
April 18, 1875

Last night a thief broke into Captain Lightburne's doghouse and stole his valuable pointer, "Sandy."

Hosiah Northrop's gang of notorious dogfuckers is suspected in the abduction.

Siobhanorama

Siobhan seems much happier, which is good. And the stuff about girls painting each other's legs is great.

If you're taking requests, Siobhan, make 'em wrestle next time.

Ride With The Chauffeur

Yes, I took yesterday off. I think that's a plan - I'll take Monday's off. That way, updating won't become an endless, drudging chore stretching off into the future until I die. 'Cause that would suck.

Besides, I didn't have time to update yesterday. As soon as I got home the Wife and I put on vinyl pants (she wore the black, I wore the silver) and we jumped in the car, headed for Jonesboro (Jonesboro!) to see Bush and Moby.

Jonesboro! Sonya went to school there for a semester; I had lots of friends there when I was a senior in high school. Jonesboro has an air of adolescent fun to me, now.

The show was at the convocation center, a big basketball barn. We walked in and Moby was already playing. He rocked.

At one point he walked to center stage, a guitar slung over his shoulder.

"Are you familiar with the work of the early twentieth century scientist Dr. Pavlov?" He then played the opening riff of Sweet Home Alabama. Predictably, the crowd went nuts.

"Thank you," he said, before launching into Natural Blues.

Later on he proclaimed the NRA to be a bunch of "cryptofascists." This drew many, many boos from the crowd. And a few cheers, I should add.

I had wondered how such an unabashedly electronic act as Moby would perform on stage. He had a drummer, bassist, DJ and keyboard player. He played guitars, ran samples and beat on bongos. The motherfucker was full of energy.

During the break between bands Sonya and I studied the crowd. All the boys were wearing baggy jeans, Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts and ratty baseball caps. All the girls were wearing halter tops and black hiphuggers and strappy black sandals. All of them. I realize I was in college six years ago (the paleolithic era, to there kids) and no one wants to hear "when I was in college" stories but when I was in college there was at least some variation in the looks of the students. I don't know if the non-conformist kids aren't around any more or if they just weren't allowed to go to the show last night. Regardless, Bush was really, really good. I'm not a huge Bush fan, but I like their stuff, and several times throughout the night I was like, "hey, I know this tune!"

Sonya, of course, thinks Gavin (pictured, right) is Dreamy and wanted him to fill her with his tiny babies. So she had a good time, too.

We left after a couple of encores, ahead of the crowd, and couldn't find an open gas station in Jonesboro. So I drove home desparately needing to pee the whole way. I did put the radio on 92.9 as we were driving through West Memphis and I caught a couple of older Metallica tunes - The Small Hours and Blackened. I haven't had much use for Metallica since about 1989 or so (though their cover of Whiskey in the Jar was fun) but these were some excellent hard rockin' tunes.

And before you leave be sure to Ride With The Chauffeur.