I couldn't find anything from the new album on Youtube so here's some classic Mr. T-Bone. He played this one last night.
Monday, October 10, 2011
He looks taller on my records - The Mr. T-Bone report
The evening was off to a rocky start. Greg moved since the last time we went to a show so I had to find his new place. I would have been fine if I hadn't looked at the map and just went with my instincts. I had to turn around once but I still got there in time for two episodes of The Monkees.
Once Greg got ready, two of the fastest eaters on the planet hit the South City Diner. I saw something called the meatloaf omelet on the menu and my mind was made up. It was delicious. A very short time later, we finished eating and headed for Off Broadway. We may have been the first people there who weren't with the bands.
As show time grew nearer, I started to feel bad for the bands. Not a lot of people had showed up. And by not a lot, I mean around 20. It was around this time I noticed an older gentleman about my size or possible a little shorter. I could tell by the way he was watching Murder City Players set up that he was a musician. I couldn't remember what any of Eastern Standard Time's members looked like other than the singer, who shaved off his waist-length dreadlocks since the last time they came to town, so I assumed he was with them.
Greg and I hit the Jump Up Records table and I filled some holes in my ska collection. The selection they brought was a little crappy, mostly 90's stuff, but I still found a couple King Django records I didn't have.
Murder City Players went on first. They've never been one of my favorite bands but they're local and are good for getting the crowd into it. They played some good classic ska and reggae tunes but I was really waiting for Eastern Standard Time.
Eastern Standard Time hit the stage and I saw the older man playing trombone for them. It was then I first suspected I'd been standing next to Mr. T-Bone for twenty minutes without realizing it earlier. Did I miss my chance to talk to him?
EST blew the tiny crowd away. They played like there were 500 people in the bar instead of less than 50. My only gripe was that they didn't play Get Ready. That Girl was easily their best song of the night.
After a short break, EST took the stage a second time and it was then I was sure the trombone player was Mr. T-Bone. Mr. T-Bone sang and belted out the tunes with his trombone for another set. It was great. He played songs off of all his albums, a lot of them from the album that came out the day before. If I hadn't bought it earlier in the evening, I would have rushed to the merch table to buy it.
The set ended and Mr. T-Bone was immediately surrounded as he walked to the back. Again, I kicked myself for not talking to him when I had him to myself before the Murder City Players.
As the band broke down their equipment, Greg said he wanted to go out back and have a smoke before we left. We went outside. Guess who showed up to have a cigarette a minute or two later?
Mr. T-Bone got a light from Greg and proceeded to talk with us for at least half an hour. I always like finding out my favorite artists aren't assholes and T-Bone was great. His English was very good and he told us about playing with the Slackers and the Skatalites and other bands I have great love for. You could tell by the way he talked about them that even though he'd been playing for years and years, he was still a big fan of ska. He told us about touring in Europe and trying to book bands over there.
We mentioned Dr. Ring-Ding and Mr. T-Bone asked us if we knew the story? We said no and he told us how he was playing with a two-tone band and the DJ played a tune between sets and T-Bone was awestruck and knew he wanted his band to sound like that. The record was Dandimite and the artist was Dr. Ring-Ding.
I told Mr. T-Bone I loved his record of instrumentals and he said he loved it too and it was the only one of his own records he could listen to. He said that he normally can't listen to any of his own recordings until years later, once he forgets how much work went into it. That resonated with me since I'm the same way about my writing.
As things wound down, Mr. T-Bone told us he was going to Brazil in a few weeks to do some shows and record a dub record. He finished up his cigarettes and we shook hands and headed out.
Greg and I walked out even bigger Mr. T-Bone fans than we were going in. It was a great show.
Once Greg got ready, two of the fastest eaters on the planet hit the South City Diner. I saw something called the meatloaf omelet on the menu and my mind was made up. It was delicious. A very short time later, we finished eating and headed for Off Broadway. We may have been the first people there who weren't with the bands.
As show time grew nearer, I started to feel bad for the bands. Not a lot of people had showed up. And by not a lot, I mean around 20. It was around this time I noticed an older gentleman about my size or possible a little shorter. I could tell by the way he was watching Murder City Players set up that he was a musician. I couldn't remember what any of Eastern Standard Time's members looked like other than the singer, who shaved off his waist-length dreadlocks since the last time they came to town, so I assumed he was with them.
Greg and I hit the Jump Up Records table and I filled some holes in my ska collection. The selection they brought was a little crappy, mostly 90's stuff, but I still found a couple King Django records I didn't have.
Murder City Players went on first. They've never been one of my favorite bands but they're local and are good for getting the crowd into it. They played some good classic ska and reggae tunes but I was really waiting for Eastern Standard Time.
Eastern Standard Time hit the stage and I saw the older man playing trombone for them. It was then I first suspected I'd been standing next to Mr. T-Bone for twenty minutes without realizing it earlier. Did I miss my chance to talk to him?
EST blew the tiny crowd away. They played like there were 500 people in the bar instead of less than 50. My only gripe was that they didn't play Get Ready. That Girl was easily their best song of the night.
After a short break, EST took the stage a second time and it was then I was sure the trombone player was Mr. T-Bone. Mr. T-Bone sang and belted out the tunes with his trombone for another set. It was great. He played songs off of all his albums, a lot of them from the album that came out the day before. If I hadn't bought it earlier in the evening, I would have rushed to the merch table to buy it.
The set ended and Mr. T-Bone was immediately surrounded as he walked to the back. Again, I kicked myself for not talking to him when I had him to myself before the Murder City Players.
As the band broke down their equipment, Greg said he wanted to go out back and have a smoke before we left. We went outside. Guess who showed up to have a cigarette a minute or two later?
Mr. T-Bone got a light from Greg and proceeded to talk with us for at least half an hour. I always like finding out my favorite artists aren't assholes and T-Bone was great. His English was very good and he told us about playing with the Slackers and the Skatalites and other bands I have great love for. You could tell by the way he talked about them that even though he'd been playing for years and years, he was still a big fan of ska. He told us about touring in Europe and trying to book bands over there.
We mentioned Dr. Ring-Ding and Mr. T-Bone asked us if we knew the story? We said no and he told us how he was playing with a two-tone band and the DJ played a tune between sets and T-Bone was awestruck and knew he wanted his band to sound like that. The record was Dandimite and the artist was Dr. Ring-Ding.
I told Mr. T-Bone I loved his record of instrumentals and he said he loved it too and it was the only one of his own records he could listen to. He said that he normally can't listen to any of his own recordings until years later, once he forgets how much work went into it. That resonated with me since I'm the same way about my writing.
As things wound down, Mr. T-Bone told us he was going to Brazil in a few weeks to do some shows and record a dub record. He finished up his cigarettes and we shook hands and headed out.
Greg and I walked out even bigger Mr. T-Bone fans than we were going in. It was a great show.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Woden's Day
I'm actually surprised people haven't lobbied to have the names of the days of the week changed so they are no longer named after the Norse gods.
Last night, I'd planned to stock up on groceries and get back on the work out train since missing Monday. It did not come to pass. Instead, Belle and I went fishing with my parents and dined on summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. I got some good pictures that I'll post when I get home. I'm hoping for another trip to the lake once the leaves change a bit more.
Interesting (to me) search terms:
Does anyone know what Gothise is and how I'm getting so many hits from it?
Last night, I'd planned to stock up on groceries and get back on the work out train since missing Monday. It did not come to pass. Instead, Belle and I went fishing with my parents and dined on summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. I got some good pictures that I'll post when I get home. I'm hoping for another trip to the lake once the leaves change a bit more.
Interesting (to me) search terms:
- barry yourgrau
- cliff erickson
- millard mithell
- barb wire testicle
- curry in fridge now stinks
Does anyone know what Gothise is and how I'm getting so many hits from it?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Another Tuesday
So this goatee experiment I've been conducting may be coming to a close soon. I noticed this morning that I'm dangerously close to exceeding the acceptable number of white hairs per square centimeter. Some parts of getting older suck.
The Big Red Ragnarok continues to occupy a lot of my leisure time. Too bad I hate doing research. I'd really like to find a kid's book about Norse Mythology. I just need the essense, not the full experience since I'll be cherry-picking what I want from it anyway. Since Loki has been imprisioned underground for centuries, I'm giving myself free reign to tinker with the technological progression of the Nine Homeworlds (other than Earth) that hang from the World Ash. I'll probably focus on some of the lesser known Norse Gods so I have a bit more wiggle room.
I keep seeing a hawk down by the cemetery during Belle's daily survey of her vast territory. I got a picture the other day but the hawk was facing the wrong way and a little too far away to get a good picture. I'll get him one of these evenings.
One of the books I got at Bouchercon was The Deputy by Victor Gischler. It is flipping awesome! The main character is a part-time deputy and kind of a clueless loser at the beginning of the book. Then carnage rains down upon him and he's slowly becoming a character I can get behind. I'm only forty pages from the end and can't figure out how things are going to go down.
The Big Red Ragnarok continues to occupy a lot of my leisure time. Too bad I hate doing research. I'd really like to find a kid's book about Norse Mythology. I just need the essense, not the full experience since I'll be cherry-picking what I want from it anyway. Since Loki has been imprisioned underground for centuries, I'm giving myself free reign to tinker with the technological progression of the Nine Homeworlds (other than Earth) that hang from the World Ash. I'll probably focus on some of the lesser known Norse Gods so I have a bit more wiggle room.
I keep seeing a hawk down by the cemetery during Belle's daily survey of her vast territory. I got a picture the other day but the hawk was facing the wrong way and a little too far away to get a good picture. I'll get him one of these evenings.
One of the books I got at Bouchercon was The Deputy by Victor Gischler. It is flipping awesome! The main character is a part-time deputy and kind of a clueless loser at the beginning of the book. Then carnage rains down upon him and he's slowly becoming a character I can get behind. I'm only forty pages from the end and can't figure out how things are going to go down.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sunday - Steppenwolf and the Dark Tower (and also regular bloggy stuff)
I finished Steppenwolf Thursday night and my reading energies have been somewhat depleted ever since. This has given me time to notice similarities between Hermann Hesse's signature work and my all time favorite series, the Dark Tower. From here on out, there will be SPOILERS so consider yourself warned.
- Roland and Harry Haller: The leads of both works are men at war with their core natures. Roland's obsession with the Dark Tower mirrors Haller's conflict between his humanity and the Steppenwolf he believes lives inside him.
- Stephen King and the Treatise of the Steppenwolf: Just as Roland finds out that Stephen King has been chronicling his adventures, Harry Haller receives a book entitled The Treatise of the Steppenwolf that mentions him by name.
- The Doors: In the Drawing of the Three and The Dark Tower, Roland encounters doorways to other worlds, much like those Haller encounters in the Magic Theater. Specifically, the doors Roland finds in the Dark Tower function very much like those in the Magic Theater.
- The Dark but Hopeful Ending: Just as Roland reaches the top of the Dark Tower and finds that he has reached the top countless times before and must continue in his time loop until he reaches the Tower with his humanity and the Horn of Eld before he is released from the cycle, Harry Haller kills Hermine in the Magic Theater and finds that he's going to have to live more lifetimes if he's ever to break from his cycle and become one of the Immortals.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Why I write
A few days ago, The Orange-Obsessed Hildred Billings wrote a touching blog entry about why she writes. My story isn't nearly so touching.
I come from a long line of liars, bullshitters, and raconteurs, so I've always been interested in story-telling. There's an episode of The Simpsons where Bleeding Gums Murphy tells Lisa that music is like a fire in your belly that spews out your mouth and you'd best put an instrument in front of it. That's kind of how story-telling is with me.
It wasn't always writing, however. For most of my life up until the end of my first marginally successful stint in college, drawing was my preferred method. I drew a lot of comics and things of that nature. Then I worked as a graphic designer for six months or so and haven't drawn very much since. I came to realize that while I was good, I wasn't good enough to make a living with it.
I don't remember when I decided to take up writing as the way to get my stories out of my head but it took a little while to take hold. I don't think I finished much of anything until I was 25 and the first novel-length work I wrote took about a year and a half to write, finishing when I was 29. I wrote a few 30,000 word novellas and fragments after that. Then came NaNoWriMo and my three year win streak, and here we are.
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