January 30th, 2003. Thursday
The Bonnie Prince Billy show last night was pretty great. He played forever. Mostly new songs for the first hour, then a bunch of old songs for the second hour. A lot of the old songs were suped up, louder, more rockin' versions, and sounded great. Definitely the best out of all the times I've seen him play. A couple of songs off "Lost Blues" that I'd never seen him play before, a very quiet version of "New Partner" that was much better than the full band version he played last time I saw him, and a very loud take on "A King at Night." He's taken to wearing a vest and no shirt, and a funny little cap with earflaps and what looked like a skull and crossbones on the front. Definitely the best sounding show I've seen him put on too. The band was very tight and enthusiastic. But man, my legs were killing me, standing for three hours. Plus, this girl standing in front of me kept falling backwards into me for some reason. She would just be standing there, and all of a sudden, just fall. Maybe she was narcoleptic or something. And of course you had the obligatory annoying girl behind me who just had to tell all her funny stories and make all these hilarious comments really fucking loudly. She was about a foot shorter than me, and I felt obligated to stand in front of her to obstruct her view as much as possible, in order to wreck her concert-going experience as much as she was wrecking mine.
Also notable was the fact that the guitarist was playing one of them Danelectro guitars that I'm seeing more and more frequently. This one in particular was interesting, because it seemed to be the special baritone guitar. The neck looked awfully long. Though I have been known to be wrong.Lately I'm feeling a bit like I'm made of glass. I keep suffering minor neck injuries. Little tweaks or painfull little movements. What's most troubling is that these are happening within normal, every day living, through normal, every day motions. I pinched something the other day when I turned around while opening the bathroom door. Just now, something painful happened when I tried to cradle the telephone receiver on my shoulder. I'm getting a little worried. Also, I'm a little worried that I'm starting to look my age. At the gym, I look in the mirror, and it seems very clear that I'm almost 27 years old. I don't like that one bit. Though over the weekend, while at dinner with my parents and Miss Charming Melodee, the waitress asked for my I.D. when I ordered a glass of wine she said "I'll guess...22." She was an idiot though. Anyway, I'm feeling more haggard than I ever have before. And angrier. But at the same time, I'm more content than ever. Things aren't making sense on paper. But somehow it all works out. Right now, the only thing I want is a better job. Or I'd settle for a new job. Something diff'rent.
I've been obsessed with Raisin Bran and oatmeal raisin cookies lately. I've had this Raisin Bran thing going for a while now, but lately I've been craving oatmeal raisin cookies too. Awfully fatty food though. But i've gone through two boxes of raisin bran in the past 12 days or so, and put a good dent in a package of cookies, even though they've been less than satisfactory. Don't bother with the Keebler oatmeal cookies. I should've know when they billed them as just "Oatmeal cookies," and tagged on "made with real raisins" that it wasn't going to be a satisfying synthesis of oatmeal and raisin. Rather, it's just an uninspiring sum of its parts. Fucking elves.
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