October 22th, 2002. Tuesday
Listening to the Pavement song "Greenlander" right now. It's on the re-released "Slanted and Enchanted." I won't be buying this, which came out today, but I sort of want it, even if I have most of the added stuff. Anyway, i'm listening to the mp3 from the Matador page. I never really liked this song that much. I forget where it was originally from. I haven't heard it in a while, and I must say, as mediocre as the song is, I'm really digging it right now. It pretty much encapsulates the mid-to-late 90's for me. Or at least, the sound of the music of the time. Though I suppose, more than any other point in my life, the music I was listening to then really captures the feeling of the time. I don't have that kind of connection with music anymore. I guess I care about it less. Maybe because back then, I thought music would play a bigger role in my future than it has.Anyway... the Wilco show on Friday was kind of a bust. We got there and found my brother Geoff and his friend right before Wilco went on, which meant we were hopelessly far from the stage. Miss Charming Melodee, being rather small in stature, couldn't see shit, and I myself could barely see the upper half of the band. So we headed toward the back and got a beer and tried to get a better view. Which we did. But then it sounded like shit. So we moseyed back up the side and found a space for her to sit on top of the long padded bench seats. After about 4 songs though, I really just wanted to leave. It just wasn't very enjoyable, especially since I'd seen them 3 or 4 times already and the last time we were 10 feet from the stage instead of a hundred, and in a much smaller venue. So it's safe to say I won't be going back to the Roseland any time soon. The most notable part of the evening, really, was when we were sitting near the door, waiting for the show to end so we could find Geoff, and Carrie from Sleater Kinney walked by us. I was again reminded of my plan to follow minor celebrities around New York and write little stories about it. the "Stalking..." series. As in "This Week: 'Stalking...Carrie Brownstein of Sleater Kinney.'" Few people think this is a good idea though.
After the show, went with a bunch of Miss Charming Melodee's friend to a bar. We had intended on going to the new Siberia bar, but there was a 5 dollar cover and there were bands playing so we said fuck it. Actually, there was a lot of "I dunno, I'll do whatever," from all parties present. And in that situation, you have to be careful, because you run the danger of actually being acquiesced into staying. So we walked down the street to another bar, Bellevue Bar. A pretty rock and roll kind of bar. Faith No More was playing when we got in, and it pretty much stuck to that general theme for most of the evening, with a few detours into lighter fare like Weezer, which didn't seem out of place, and random songs by Blondie. It seemed weird that someone would walk into a bar and play that. We were also treated to someone playing "Stairway to Heaven." What I want to know is, who's that guy who walks into a bar, looks all the records in the jukebox, and says "Yeah, Stairway...great song. I really need to hear that right now. That'd be awesome." Though I must admit, i did enjoy listening to it. Hadn't actually head it in quite some time. But most of the night, it was really loud System of a Down or early Soundgarden or Metallica. Got kind of drunk.Didn't do much with the rest of the weekend. Watched the movie "Con Air" one and half times. I forgot how wretchedly awful Nicolas Cage was in the movie. So, so bad. I also forgot how many good actors were also in that movie. What the hell are John Cusack and John Malkovich doing in that turd? Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, even Dave Chapelle- all better than that. Anyway, that's what I spent Saturday afternoon doing while trying to clean up the place. Watched SNL with Miss Charming Melodee. She did a good amount of the drawing for the Amiguously Gay Duo episode that aired that night. That was kind of cool. On a related note, her working in animation is, to me, completely and unassailably cool.
Spent most of Sunday in the city. Sat with Jed and Mark in Bar None watching football, then walked around Union Square with Geoff for a while. Bought a few comic books, and a the latest Scientific American. I thought that sort of balanced out the comic books. Apparently, the universe is expanding. This is old news, but the latest development is the discovery that it's expanding at an increasing rate, which is completely mysterious and mind boggling. I bought the magazine because it had a big article detailing this. Naturally, I haven't opened it yet.
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