Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Just a Bunch of Stuff That Happened Today
Quite a day. First of all I get to school and they've changed my assignment. It's not really a big deal except that my whole day had turned into a half day. I would think that maybe I'd heard the assignment wrong, but since this happend twice last week as well, my guess is that I'm not the one to blame. I'm signed up for a full day tomorrow, I know I'm signed up for a full day because when I was given three options, two were half days. I said "I'll take the full day." If it somehow turns out to be a half day again, I'm walking. I'll let them find some sucker who can be there in less than half an hour. Said sucker will feel really proud of themselves, having gotten to work in less than 30 minutes, but soon they'll realized that nobody really gives a shit if they show up and will screw them at every opportunity.
As it turned out, though, it was OK to work half a day as TSA and I really needed to get together to practice for our Songwriter's Invitational performance later that evening. It's a good thing we practiced, too. TSA had to learn a new song, Treat Me Like a Dog. Also, he improved it greatly. Since we were also doing Wyle E. Coyote Blues, a song that he's played one other time, that was going to need some work as well. Beer is the Answer has also sort of fallen out of our set list and it had been quite a while since we played it. That left one tune, the popular Two Condoms as the only song in our set that didn't need work. We did get a lot of work done, and I was happy with the tunes by the time we left for Dunn Bros.
After arriving and grabbing a seat in the back room, I decided to grab a cup of tea. While standing in line, Pastor Beaverson walked into the shop. If you don't know who Pastor Beaverson is, read the previous post. He wanted to discuss my "situation." Yeah, he got the letter today and apparently is trying to put out the fire. No dice. I got pretty angry when I talked about what Pastor Beaverson had done, but was able to contain myself.
The best part of the night was while I was talking to Pastor Beaverson. Gloria, who I met at the Flatiron in Hot Springs when Mike and I played there a few weeks ago, came up and started discussing the song Two Condoms with me, actually interrupting Pastor Beaverson to tell me how she had heard the song on the internet and thought it was hilarious. What a wonderful moment. A woman is talking to me about a dirty song I wrote while a Pastor is trying to ask my forgiveness for him asking God to strike a judge dead for doing his job. You're not going to get many surreal moments like that in your life, folks, enjoy 'em when they come around!
After getting rid of the good pastor, not budging from my convictions, I grabbed the release form for the Songwriter's Invitational and TSA and I took to filling it out. I grew up in a beaurocracy, my Dad was in the Air Force and I never much cared for all of the forms involed in being in a military family. This was differnt, though. I have never imagined fillng out a form could be fun. First, we had to decide if we should use our real names. We went pseudonyms, baby, and I couldn't be prouder! Then we had to fill out some information about the band. Apparently I chose harmonica because it's the cheapest instrument I could find and Andy isn't into the BDSM scene. Hey, it's true, he's not! At least I think he's not. He is supposed to have a flogger coming in the mail.....
Oh yeah, at some point we played some music. We lead off with Beer is the Answer and followed that up with Wyle E. Coyote Blues. Then it was time to play Two Condoms. One of the things about this years Songwriter's Invitational is that some songs will be played on a local radio station. Both Mike and Steve Thorpe said that this song was the one, and we hadn't even played it yet. Hey, TSA and I knew it too. It was third in the set list so that we would be warmed up by the time we got to our crowd pleaser.
Two Condoms went well, we've played it better, but I'm happy with what we ended up with. The great thing about it was that the coffee shop was full of people who hadn't heard it before. I'll never forget the big grin on SMB's face the first time we played it at Cheers. It was the same thing tonight, the younger folks in the front, people turned around in their booth to see us, smiling faces all around. I usually play and sing with my eyes closed. I'm glad they were open long enough to see that.
But we weren't done yet, we hadn't used our alloted time up. Luckily I had the lyrics and chords to Home Sweet Home in my harp bag. TSA had never played it with me in front of people. I haven't played it in over a month even on my own. We made it work, and it seemed to go over pretty well.
We still weren't done, though. Folks wanted another song, so we gave 'em Got My Mojo Workin'. I've been a lot better on that song before, but I was good enough. Andy was rock solid as ever. He was complimented on his rhythm tonight, and he truely does have a fantastic rhythmic sense. I'm glad one of us does. Six songs, you think that'd be enough, you think we'd be allowed to tear down, but no, Cody wanted to hear Brian Wilson. Geez, Ken wasn't even there to be tormented by it, off on his honeymoon and all. Well, hell, Cody is the guy cleaning up, so what're you gonna do. Mike wanted to play with us too, so he joined in. Even with my voice trashed by Mojo it turned out pretty good.
After the show we talked to a few people. Gloria had some questions about the name of the band and then had one fantastic comment about Two Condoms. The song is from a male's point of view, wearing two condoms in his every day life so that he'll have greater sensation when he takes one off to have sex with his girlfriend. Gloria contended that we don't know if the male is wearing two condoms because his girlfriend may be diseased or because he himself is diseased. Hmmm, well, I have it on good authority that he's wearing two condems because his girlfriend is skanky, though I am admittedly intrigued by possible verses about the alternative.....
BOJ
As it turned out, though, it was OK to work half a day as TSA and I really needed to get together to practice for our Songwriter's Invitational performance later that evening. It's a good thing we practiced, too. TSA had to learn a new song, Treat Me Like a Dog. Also, he improved it greatly. Since we were also doing Wyle E. Coyote Blues, a song that he's played one other time, that was going to need some work as well. Beer is the Answer has also sort of fallen out of our set list and it had been quite a while since we played it. That left one tune, the popular Two Condoms as the only song in our set that didn't need work. We did get a lot of work done, and I was happy with the tunes by the time we left for Dunn Bros.
After arriving and grabbing a seat in the back room, I decided to grab a cup of tea. While standing in line, Pastor Beaverson walked into the shop. If you don't know who Pastor Beaverson is, read the previous post. He wanted to discuss my "situation." Yeah, he got the letter today and apparently is trying to put out the fire. No dice. I got pretty angry when I talked about what Pastor Beaverson had done, but was able to contain myself.
The best part of the night was while I was talking to Pastor Beaverson. Gloria, who I met at the Flatiron in Hot Springs when Mike and I played there a few weeks ago, came up and started discussing the song Two Condoms with me, actually interrupting Pastor Beaverson to tell me how she had heard the song on the internet and thought it was hilarious. What a wonderful moment. A woman is talking to me about a dirty song I wrote while a Pastor is trying to ask my forgiveness for him asking God to strike a judge dead for doing his job. You're not going to get many surreal moments like that in your life, folks, enjoy 'em when they come around!
After getting rid of the good pastor, not budging from my convictions, I grabbed the release form for the Songwriter's Invitational and TSA and I took to filling it out. I grew up in a beaurocracy, my Dad was in the Air Force and I never much cared for all of the forms involed in being in a military family. This was differnt, though. I have never imagined fillng out a form could be fun. First, we had to decide if we should use our real names. We went pseudonyms, baby, and I couldn't be prouder! Then we had to fill out some information about the band. Apparently I chose harmonica because it's the cheapest instrument I could find and Andy isn't into the BDSM scene. Hey, it's true, he's not! At least I think he's not. He is supposed to have a flogger coming in the mail.....
Oh yeah, at some point we played some music. We lead off with Beer is the Answer and followed that up with Wyle E. Coyote Blues. Then it was time to play Two Condoms. One of the things about this years Songwriter's Invitational is that some songs will be played on a local radio station. Both Mike and Steve Thorpe said that this song was the one, and we hadn't even played it yet. Hey, TSA and I knew it too. It was third in the set list so that we would be warmed up by the time we got to our crowd pleaser.
Two Condoms went well, we've played it better, but I'm happy with what we ended up with. The great thing about it was that the coffee shop was full of people who hadn't heard it before. I'll never forget the big grin on SMB's face the first time we played it at Cheers. It was the same thing tonight, the younger folks in the front, people turned around in their booth to see us, smiling faces all around. I usually play and sing with my eyes closed. I'm glad they were open long enough to see that.
But we weren't done yet, we hadn't used our alloted time up. Luckily I had the lyrics and chords to Home Sweet Home in my harp bag. TSA had never played it with me in front of people. I haven't played it in over a month even on my own. We made it work, and it seemed to go over pretty well.
We still weren't done, though. Folks wanted another song, so we gave 'em Got My Mojo Workin'. I've been a lot better on that song before, but I was good enough. Andy was rock solid as ever. He was complimented on his rhythm tonight, and he truely does have a fantastic rhythmic sense. I'm glad one of us does. Six songs, you think that'd be enough, you think we'd be allowed to tear down, but no, Cody wanted to hear Brian Wilson. Geez, Ken wasn't even there to be tormented by it, off on his honeymoon and all. Well, hell, Cody is the guy cleaning up, so what're you gonna do. Mike wanted to play with us too, so he joined in. Even with my voice trashed by Mojo it turned out pretty good.
After the show we talked to a few people. Gloria had some questions about the name of the band and then had one fantastic comment about Two Condoms. The song is from a male's point of view, wearing two condoms in his every day life so that he'll have greater sensation when he takes one off to have sex with his girlfriend. Gloria contended that we don't know if the male is wearing two condoms because his girlfriend may be diseased or because he himself is diseased. Hmmm, well, I have it on good authority that he's wearing two condems because his girlfriend is skanky, though I am admittedly intrigued by possible verses about the alternative.....
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 11:35 PM 
