Pressure Boys
I'll post more (probably much more) later when I've had a chance to play around with the pictures a little bit. It was as great a show as everyone hoped and I only wish I had the energy to go back tonight for the second round. Maybe it won't be 20 years before the next one!
Labels: Music
Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!
I'm anticipating by an hour or so, but happy birthday to JennySlash - hottest, coolest, smartest chick that ever decided to marry me - seen here yet again kicking my ass on the Buzz Lightyear ride at the Magic Kingdom (she's the cute but intense-looking one on the right). She not only beats me every time we ride/play, she embarasses me. I have no idea how.
It's been a little tough for her the last couple of weeks with me and my new motorcycle and my broken tooth extraction and stuff unfairly taking the spotlight, so if you have a chance, drop over to So, Anyway.... and sing Happy Birthday!
I .love you, hon!
Labels: Family
Don't Romance the Ghosts
I heard the title of this post in a different context recently but it has resonated loudly with me as I've been thinking about the Pressure Boys shows coming up this weekend. JennySlash says at least 3 times a month that she hates nostalgia and it took me awhile to understand what she meant but I get it now. As I was riding home from work yesterday, the following descriptive thoughts struck me.
One of the things that I discovered in working in and then owning a rock club is that the morning after the show, there is a half-inch thick layer of black dirt that I realized after awhile was a combination of dead skin cells, sweat salt and dried beer. And the smell of such a place at 10am in the summer after a good show is indescribable. If you've ever walked down, say, Division in Chicago on a warm Sunday morning, you'll know exactly the smell I'm talking about - a horrid mix of stale sweat, stale beer, stale urine and probably a bit of vomit thrown in. Now, if I remember that smell and it reminds me of the time that we owned the club and I shudder a little bit thinking of sweeping that dried sweat up surrounded by that smell - well, that's a memory. If on the other hand I think about that and smile and think only about how great it was and wouldn't it be fantastic if I could do it all again starting right now! - that's nostalgia. That's romancing the ghost. It's bullshit. And it can be dangerous.
Owning the Rhythm Alley was brilliantly cool and I loved it and thinking about seeing the Boys again, who were the mainstay of our calendar while we ran the place, is giving me a huge happy, not only because I enjoyed the band but because they were and are incredible people that I got to know at least a little bit and who I like very much as human beings. But it also reminds me of those mornings sweeping sweat, the days I struggled to stay awake at work or to drive home after a show, the massive debt the whole experience left us in and the empty space in our lives where our friend Stacy used to be. Those, kids, are memories - the good and the bad. I wouldn't trade those times for any amount of money but I wouldn't want to do them over and over again.
So all of that being said, I cannot WAIT to see the Boys, but to see them and hear them as they are today - not trying to recapture something that is long gone. No ghosts, just old friends and some frickin' awesome music!
Labels: Music
Pay-ow!
While surfing the Interwebs to see who was writing about the Pressure Boys shows coming up this weekend, I found something I'd searched for a number of times before with no luck. Yes, there is finally a tribute site up for Barney's Army! In case you weren't living in the Triangle in the late 70s and early 80s, you might have missed WPTF's afternoon cartoon show, featuring the 2-dimensional cartoon host, Barney and the unforgettable call-in video game, TV Pow! Kids would call in and holler "Pow!" (which always came out in 2 syllables - always!) when they thought the target was lined up in the sights. The website has a clip of the very last TV Pow - awesome stuff!
The other truly wonderful thing about Barney's Army was watching favorite local bands like the X-Teens and Arrogance get on and make absolute fools of themselves lipsynching badly to their songs. My favorite was a very drunken Friday afternoon in the spring of 1982 right after my girlfriend and I had broken up as had my friend Chaz, so Chaz, Matt and myself got very wasted and watched the Fabulous Knobs pretending to play "Don't Stop Now" for the kiddies on Barney's Army, with Dave Adams from Glass Moon pretending to play keyboards. You can see the video on the BA site - it really must be seen to be believed!
Labels: Teh Funny
I'll post more (probably much more) later when I've had a chance to play around with the pictures a little bit. It was as great a show as everyone hoped and I only wish I had the energy to go back tonight for the second round. Maybe it won't be 20 years before the next one!
I'm anticipating by an hour or so, but happy birthday to JennySlash - hottest, coolest, smartest chick that ever decided to marry me - seen here yet again kicking my ass on the Buzz Lightyear ride at the Magic Kingdom (she's the cute but intense-looking one on the right). She not only beats me every time we ride/play, she embarasses me. I have no idea how.
