• Renelvis Eve

    The last time that I played with Renelvis was some time ago in Raleigh, NC.  My friend, John Ray Rickey, lived there at the time and he wanted the two of us to be involved in his buddy’s wrestling tribute spectacular.  It was spectacular.  I wrote an entry song for each character. All wrestlers had a special power and would use that special power in order to defeat the opponent. Years before, back in Denton, when I was in the Dooms, we wrestled Cornhole to decide who would headline.  Our 8 piece art rock team pulverized their 5 piece giant country rock team (sorry for the lack of proper dashing).
    Renelvis had two Elvis suits that he’d made himself for the two sets-one of Elvis songs (blue suit) and one of songs inspired by Elvis (orange suit).  When I approached him after the show to congratulate him on being a great showman, I was blocked by this other fellow who told me immediately that Renelvis had cd’s for sale.  Renelvis  then introduced his “manager”, Colonel Tom Parker.  The Colonel was autistic. I don’t know what kind of autism he had.  I saw an autistic fellow do a stand-up routine once.  Renelvis’ daughter is also autistic.  I think he met the Colonel through the school his daughter frequents for her autism.  He is a kind man.
    John Ray tried to submit him to an Outsider Music Showcase but was denied because he’s an impersonator.  Bo Jackson and Ben Franklin can only play baseball and the glass harmonica, respectively, and that’s it.  If you write a song called, “Elvis on Terrorism” you should get a pass to take you out of the impersonator’s waiting room.  I’m looking forward to his show.

  • Dave Hill’s Explosion

    I saw The Dave Hill Explosion last night.  He had Fred Armisen, Malcolm Gladwell, and Walter Schreifels as guests.  Fred Armisen did his Sadaam Hussein impersonation.  It’s a good one.  He’s a funny dude.  Real nice, too.  I really like Malcolm Gladwell’s articles for the New Yorker.  I haven’t read his books, yet.  He reminds me of a cross between my old therapist and John Linnell.  He’s very articulate and much smarter than I am.  Walter Schreifels used to play with the Gorilla Biscuits.  I’d never seen them but I liked his song.  It was very well written and he sings nicely.  Dave Hill is a funny guy.  A good showman and a good guy he is.  I hope he wins.

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  • Notes From a Scuffle with Foreshadowed Macular Degeneration


    The shiner that David got was comparable to the shiner that Sean got that was comparable to the raccoon with nothing going for it except for Monday’s trash.  David bought a pair of sunglasses for $5 and wore them all day.  At night he felt foolish wearing them yet, he had no choice.  Only the day before had he pulled a chain out of his truck to “whoop up on” Steve, who had pulled out a small club from his truck to “give David what for”.  David’s chain got caught on Steve’s club and echoes from Lord of the Rings made the fight somewhat of a comfort to Sean. Steve punched David, giving him a shiner, and David sort of just sat down, holding his eye.
    Steve said, “I gave you what for.  Now you go home.”
    And David said, “Man, you punched me in the eye.”
    And Steve said, “I know.  I’m not blind.”
    And David said, “You oughta be.”
    And Sean said, “I’m going home to get my mace with the spikes on it.  Wait here.”
    And thirty minutes later, Sean showed up with his mace. But it was too late. No one was around to see what he had that would make him the go-to guy for a medieval weapons cache.  Two minutes later, Sean’s shiner would be self-inflicted from the mace and he wouldn’t have 5 dollars for sunglasses.

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  • Main Squeeze Rehearsal

    photo by Hai Zhang
    photo by Hai Zhang

    I rehearsed last night with the Main Squeeze Orchestra.  I’d never seen them before, only heard about them.  When I moved to NYC, I asked around about accordion repair shops and Walter Kuhr’s Main Squeeze came up.  I never went to his shop, opting for Alex’s accordion repair shop in Times Square.

    Then, I heard that he’d started an accordion orchestra, an all-female orchestra.  I thought that was a cool idea but still had never gone to see them.  Until last night when my directions brought me to a classroom tucked away near Chinatown to the 13 ladies with accordions led by Walter at the front.

    I felt shy for some reason.  I think it was because it was a classroom, but who knows.  So, I quietly went to the back of the room and sat as they rehearsed the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.  As I listened, I thought, this man is brilliant.  13 women playing Bach may seem too much of a novelty in theory but to see and hear it is beautiful.  Different women with different accordions. Small accordions.  Bass accordions.  The Main Squeeze accordions that Walter had built.  What heaven this man must face each week.

    The next piece was “Bohemian Rhapsody”.  I sang from the back for I was still feeling the shy.  I felt like a choir boy singing with them.  And when it was over, Walter pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped a tear.  What a lucky man.

  • Recording

    I recorded last night.  It’s been a while.  Two other bands have been recording at the same studio so I had to find holes in the studio’s schedule since those bands are better at planning ahead than I am.

    I laid down a banjo track on Thank You.  I’m terrible on banjo.  And my banjo kept going out of tune.  But it worked out.  Then, Dave put a bass track on Old Man.  I had a Reason track laid down already but wanted it to be a real bass.   We did two tracks of the bass to be panned in both speakers.  But then scrapped it.  We’ll redo the bass on Thursday. 
     

  • The Relevancy of Time to the Time Clock at Work

    Two guys walk into a showroom.  One guy has construction helmet on, the other guy has a headpiece on just like Batman’s.  The helmeted fellow is eating a twinkie and the batman has a 99c bag of Doritos.  The showroom is full of office furniture and they both want a desk. The helmeted guy takes a rubber mallet and starts hammering on one desk.  The batman guy takes a ball peen hammer and starts hammering on the other.  After 20 seconds of doing so, a salesman walks briskly towards the helmeted guy and says “Stop. Please, sir.  Stop.”  He walks to the batman and says the same exact thing.  The two guys look at each other and continue banging.  The salesman walks back into the office and comes out with two other salesman who start yelling at the two bangers to stop.  When this doesn’t work, one of the stockers holds a lighter to a fire sprinkler because he feels he has a reason to create disorder.  The showroom becomes wet and three fire trucks pull into the parking lot and the stocker man with the lighter goes into the break room and grabs three boxes of pizza because it’s Pizza Friday and disappears into the back where he is picked up by batman and the helmeted guy and they go to the house where batman has a new Xbox, set up with 3 new games and they all eat pizza and laugh and drink Coca Cola.   The end

    Epilogue:  The batman fellow’s name is Pat and the construction helmet fellow’s name is Mason.  The stocker’s name is Phil.  They all agree that the new Batman is really good but love Michael Keaton.  They also agree that Papa John’s is really good pizza but not as good as the J and J’s.  Pat can take any topping he can think of to J and J’s and they will put it on his pizza.  He once brought some necco wafers to be put on his pizza and was sure that it would be good but he was wrong.  Phil dated a girl who liked anchovies and wanted some but the grocery store didn’t have any and neither did the pizza place so he bought some sardines and marinated them in salt and oil but she didn’t like it, so he stopped trying. It might mean he didn’t really love her and it’s a good thing that they broke up.  Now, a month ago, Mason started playing Resident Evil 4 and was amazed at the amount of time that went by during play.  He felt like everyone around him aged faster than he did because of how fast time seemed to pass during the game.  He was almost right because of his own mass.  Meanwhile, the salesman who didn’t know what had happened after the incident lives alone and watches Office Space once a week.  Sometimes twice.  His name is also Phil but goes by Philip.  He doesn’t eat pizza much but enjoys cereal.  He has a Reservoir Dogs poster behind his couch and that’s all he has that isn’t functional.  He feels the monotony of his life is diverted by going to Walmart instead of Kroger for his groceries.  He also lies on the floor for hours not doing anything.  He can do 100 situps a day.  He can do 100 pushups a day.  But, what he doesn’t do is think up stupid ways to annoy other working people by dressing up like an idiot and pounding on office furniture in order to get free pizza.  He will be at the apartment complex’s fitness center at 4:00 today in hopes of hooking up.  His relation to time is relative to Mason’s.

  • Not Stormy Enough

    When the plot to overthrow the makings of a giant windstorm plan failed, Mitchell found a loophole that involved going back to the storeroom and getting the copperwire set aside for making penny yarn and weaving it in and out of the sheet metal thunder clapper.  When the art director saw him and began his mother hen line of questioning, Mitchell replied that it was a union thing.  Not being in the union, Mitchell knew that this would:  a) uphold his denial of sabotage, b) allow him to give the union more overtime in taking the copper wire out at a later date and c) a thank you beer for the overtime.

    On Sunday, the Senate gave audience to the presentation of the Windstorm Finale, designed to be a “Who? Not Us” weapon which was still in the planning stages.  Subsequently, when the time came to show the rattling of the sheet metal in order to create fake thunder, the dull bangs of the copperwire were congruous with the dull satisfaction of the Senate. Later that day, Mitchell thought, “Haha.  “Everyone is stupid but me,” as he drank his free Miller High Life alone.