To Hell (A) And Back Again

So having made my first sojurn into Los Angeles barely over a month ago, I was given reason to return again just the other night. I'm a big fan of musical comedian Tim Minchin, so much so that I've written a couple pieces (so far) on him for Unseen Films. Seeing as how he lives in London, England, he doesn't make it over to perform in the United States on anything approaching a regular basis. While he is huge over in the UK, and in his native Australia, he is trying to broaden his fanbase. There is a small group in the US who are fans of his, but in an effort to expand that to a much larger number, he is doing a small number of gigs here this year.

Since I follow Minchin on Twitter, I was lucky enough to stumble across an announcement by him that he was going to be playing at a small theater in LA in mid-January. I thought about it for a few minutes, as it was going to be on a Tuesday night. This was apparently a second show, as the first one (which I had missed the announcement of) for the Wednesday had already sold out. My day off for the week in question was going to be on Thursday, so I hemmed and hawed as to whether I should switch my day off, possibly not go at all (quickly eliminated...), or just take Tuesday and Wednesday off and roll that into my Thursday off...which is why I'm writing this now on Thursday, the 3rd of 3 consecutive days off.

I paid for the tickets online at an insanely cheap price (with service charges, still under $50 for the pair), talked to a buddy from work about going, and was set. When Noon(ish) on Tuesday January 11 rolled around, I left for my friend's house. Picking him up, we settled in for the long drive. If you go at off-hours, it isn't really bad at all. Making our way thru the hills and valleys between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, there are some areas that are rather beautiful, especially in winter, when some of the mountains have quite a bit of snow on them. Both my buddy and I enjoy taking long driving trips; many times he's piled his wife and 2 kids into the car and driven back to his native Cleveland, Ohio, and he normally does it in a couple days. That's a one way trip of roughly 2,000 miles...even I think that's nuts. I'll stick with just a few hundred a day, thanks.

Arriving in downtown LA just in time for rush hour, because we were heading INTO LA, it really wasn't that bad. I remember one time driving home from Brooklyn back to my house in Queens (where I grew up in New York), I got to a point on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) where Brooklyn-bound traffic coming off of the Williamsburg Bridge was merging with the BQE. I had been travelling kinda slowly, but now it just became a parking lot. The Kosciuszko Bridge, a small span connecting the NYC boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, lay just over a mile and a half ahead...and I made it there a FULL HOUR LATER. And I still had quite a bit to travel to make it home from there, but that was the worst part of that journey. So I am familiar with traffic.

We were actually moving quite steadily this time, never really dipping below 25 MPH. Finally passing one junction, we were able to open back up again, made it to what I thought was our exit (was actually one early, but a couple small side street diversions later...), and we parked at some mall/parking garage combo thing. We got dinner, then walked the few blocks north to The Largo At The Coronet. Getting our seat assignments from will-call, we still had time to kill before the show, so we thought we'd at least take a look as to where our seats were. Walking thru a door to the theater itself, I practically burst out laughing...as we had walked in at the very back of the theater, and a mere dozen rows in front of us was the stage! I knew the place was going to be small (having read up on it beforehand, I saw it seated less than 300 people), but it wasn't until actually being in it did I realize just HOW intimate this little gathering was going to be. I was already looking forward to the show; now I was starting to actually get excited about it.

As it neared showtime, we took our seats...only 5 rows from the stage. Very nice. And facing the stage as we were, we were all the way off to the right...my seat was actually up against the wall. The grand piano on the stage occupied nearly 2/3 of the performing area, with the seat off to the left...meaning I would be directly in Minchin's line of sight all evening. Another huge plus. Seeing as how he spends the majority of his performance evening sitting at the piano, I wasn't relishing looking at the back or side of his head all evening, so these seats were perfect.

Then, very quitely, Minchin just walked out onstage. After the applause died down (while it was a small room, nearly everyone there was already a big fan of the man, and with his infrequency of US appearances, it's not often we get to show our appreciation for his work), he mentioned that he normally does big entrances, but since this wasn't an actual tour, he wasn't doing that this time. And then for 2 solid hours, the small group of strangers gathered before Tim Minchin and a piano were thoroughly entertained. There were some new songs performed, along with others scattered from his previous shows. It was a fantastic performance, and it was wonderful to see it in such an intimate venue. Which led to my next decision being made much simpler...

Since I was aware of how small this place might be before we went, I was hoping I might have a chance to meet Minchin after the show. Seeing just how tiny the place actually was, I'd now decided I was definitely going to wait around after the show. Since I had the next 2 days off, and my friend had the next day, it wasn't a problem for either of us. A bunch of other people must have had the same idea, as somewhere between 70-100 people were milling around in the indoor/outdoor lobby of The Largo. After maybe a half hour, out walks Minchin, pretty much right towards where I was...and suddenly everyone else descended like vultures on fresh roadkill. Since I actually wanted to talk with him, more than just be a gushing fanboy, I figured I'd just wait out the fans who wanted pictures and hugs (at one point he said something about he's used to British crowds where not nearly so much affection is displayed), so that I could get a proper chance to actually chat for a few minutes.

When there was maybe half a dozen people left (about 30 minutes after his emergence), he started to put on his jacket that he'd placed off to the side when the meet and greet had started. Realizing this was probably the best time, I swooped in, handing him my business card from Unseen Films, introducing myself, and after getting my compliments and appreciations out of the way, asked him about the documentary film about him, Rock N Roll Nerd. Seeing as how it's only available in Australia, he asked how I'd managed to get a copy. That led to about a 10 minute discussion of how I was writing it up for Unseen Films after getting it as a Christmas present, watching it almost immediately, and thinking it was a wonderful film. By the end of the conversation, I'd almost felt like I'd made a friend.

Minchin is a very calm individual, and will look you directly in the eye when making his point on whatever subject matter. The fact that this is a very personal film, made by a very close friend, and containing some very intimate moments, may have altered his demeanor somewhat while talking to me, but I still got the sense that he is a very well-meaning man, and truly does care what his audience members think and feel. So being able to chat with him about something near and dear to him was a great thrill for me.

After thanking Minchin, my friend and I wandered over to a drugstore, got some cookies and drinks, and headed back to the car...which was nearly the only one remaining on that level of the garage...and possibly one of a half-dozen or so in the entire garage at all. It was just about 11:30 as we pulled out of there, and a few twists and turns later, we were back on the now reasonably deserted LA freeways.

Lots of discussion about all sorts of subjects carried us thru the near traffic-free night, and after a fuel stop in Yermo, CA, I found myself dropping my buddy off at his house at 3:45AM, with only a last 25 minute trip back home. Stumbling into my house at 4:10AM, I realized I'd just driven 600 miles round trip, with a stop for dinner, a great show, and a good conversation with the star of said show...all in the last 16 hours. A couple of e-mails later, and I was in bed by 5AM...and awake at 8AM...and then wound up going out with a friend that late afternoon/evening...where we wound up watching some of So Live by Tim Minchin.


Blog Post Soundtrack; Nuclear Assault, ZZ Top, Clutch, Anthrax (live), Simon & Garfunkel, S.O.D., Queens Of The Stone Age (live), Slipknot, Longwave, The Doors, Pearl Jam, Monty Python, Infectious Grooves, Megadeth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dropkick Murphys, Monster Magnet, Talking Heads, Bobby Short (live), Brant Bjork, MC5, Metallica (live), Social Distortion, Santana, Corrosion Of Conformity, Fugazi, Desert Sessions, Tricky,

What Is This Thing You Call Sleep?

So on Saturday night I went to see the band Rush on their Time Machine tour at the MGM Grand Garden Arena here in Las Vegas. I don't own any of their music, but I know they are very talented, and I enjoy some of their songs. I think my biggest problem with the band is Geddy Lee's voice. It just doesn't do it for me. I like a lot of their songs right up until the point when he sings, as the music is terrific. I just have a hard time with his high pitch. Fortunately they have quite an array of instrumental tracks, and they really are accomplished musicians, so I really like those pieces. Rush is the very favorite band of a friend from work, and he wanted me to go with him, his wife and daughter, so that's why I wound up being at this show.

Tickets weren't cheap, but my friend got them thru Rush's fan club, so at least we were seated close to the stage, about 25 rows up off to the right side as you faced the stage. It was nice to be able to watch Lee playing bass & synthesizer, and I was able to get a good view of Neil Peart pounding away furiously on the drums...and the giant video screens helped too...

Now the Rush show was scheduled to begin at 8PM. This being on a Saturday, I had to work that day. I started at 7AM, which is a half-hour earlier than normal, but I had put in a change-of-schedule so that I could only work 8 hours that day. I also did a no-lunch, so I was out at 3PM. The reason for all this was not so much for the Rush show, but for the fact that I would also be attending another concert that evening AFTER the Rush show.

I've been a big fan of the band Primus since around late 1991. Where Rush is a power trio of pretty much straight forward rock music, Primus is a power trio that is quite a bit different. Frontman Les Claypool has made the bass into the dominant instrument in that band, and they have a sound all their own. When people ask me to describe what Primus sounds like, the best answer I can give is, "They sound like Primus." They are incredibly unique, and nothing else sounds like them at all. The only possible similarity I could give you is that Les Claypool has a potentially off-turning vocal style as well...not that he sounds like Lee in any way, it's just that the biggest reason many people find not to like Primus is Claypool's singing. I think it's quirky in a good way, so it doesn't bother me.

Now Primus are huge fans of Rush, and with both bands touring, and both being in Las Vegas the same night, Primus decided they wanted to go see the Rush show. Consequently, they pushed the start time of their own show back to midnight. This being a Saturday, that's fine for most folks, but with me working for the Post Office, Saturday isn't a day off, so this was gonna be a LONG day.

I got home from work, showered, and a friend who I'd be meeting later at the Primus show later stopped by and dropped off my tickets for Primus. I then made the half-hour journey to my Rush friend's house, and we all headed out to eat. Leaving Pizzeria Enzo at a little after 7PM, we headed over to park near the MGM, and managed to get to our seats at just about 8PM. Part of my daily routine has me exercising for a bit in the morning, so I'd already been awake since 4AM. What with working and now having had a very filling (and good) meal, I took an Excedrin simply for the caffeine. Since I don't drink coffee or soda, a little bit of caffeine goes a long way for me...

At about 8:10PM a short film came on, and Rush hit the stage about 8:20PM. They played for about an hour, took a 15 minute or so intermission, then another short film played, then they played their 1981 album Moving Pictures in it's entirety. Following this up with a few more songs, they then left, returned for a few more encore songs, and left the stage for good...followed by another short film. It was about 11:25PM when we were able to finally start filing out of the Grand Garden Arena, having to head a short distance northeast to get to the Hard Rock Hotel, site of the venue for the Primus show.

Knowing we had a whole nother concert to get thru, we made a quick stop at the bathroom on the way out of the MGM. Once we made it to our vehicles, my friend's wife and daughter parted ways with us, as the older of the two wasn't a Primus fan, and the younger had to work at 8AM the next morning, so she wasn't going to be able to go. My friend (who didn't have to work on Saturday...bastard...) and I made the short drive to the Hard Rock, parked, traipsed thru the casino, and literally set foot inside The Joint just as Primus were about to hit the stage. We made it with all of 15 seconds to spare, and as this is a general admission, standing only venue, spent most of the first song looking for a good space to make our vantage point for the evening. We wound up about halfway back, situated just to the left of the soundboard, with a good sightline. Neither of this evening's concerts had an opening act, they were both "An Evening With..." shows, so there were no boring bands to sit thru...but it also meant a tight schedule, which actually worked out really well.

My Rush friend had never seen, or I believe even heard, Primus before, but since the tickets were VERY reasonably priced (t-shirts at the Rush show cost more than the tickets for Primus), and he used to play bass years ago, he was interested enough to want to go to this too. He came out of the evening very impressed, having really enjoyed the show, which I was very happy about. And it was a terrific show, what with Primus playing a nice healty mix from probably all of their albums. They even played a few songs I didn't know, which must have been from their more recent efforts. They were still excellent offerings, and I may have to go search them out. They only took maybe a 2 minute break a little over an hour into the set, and finally left the stage for good just before 2AM. In case you're wondering, I had taken another Excedrin on the short drive over to see Primus...

I met up with my friend who had dropped off the Primus tickets many hours earlier (we had been texting each other prior to and during the Primus show), so we got to talk for a bit while we checked out the merchandise table, and each of us wound up buying a shirt. I haven't bought a shirt at a show for years, simply because they just charge too damn much money, but since these were reasonably (enough) priced, I figured what the hell. There was a nice blue one with a couple astronauts floating in space on it, and what with 2 giant (maybe 12 feet high each) inflatable astronauts having been on stage thru the set, having moving images flashed on their helmet visors all evening, it made for a nice choice.

By the time we finished getting shirts and walking back to our respective vehicles, it was about 2:20AM. I now drove my buddy home, and by the time I finished the trek back to my house, it was 3:15AM. I was still a little wired from the evening's events, so it wasn't until 4AM, a full 24 hours after this day had started, that I got into bed. I think I made it as far as 4:01...


Blog Post Soundtrack; Deftones, Prong, White Zombie, Pearl Jam, Parannoyd, White Stripes (live), Doors (live), Refused, The Centurians, John Lee Hooker, S.O.D. (live), Eagles Of Death Metal, Clutch, Anthrax, Corrosion Of Conformity

Walter, Walter Everywhere

I've talked about this before, but there is a large Filipino contingent in my office. One gentleman in particular has a rather thick accent. A really funny guy, everyone in the office likes him, but it can take a few seconds sometimes to understand exactly what he is saying. For instance...

One morning, while casing mail in the office, a rare lull came over our aisle. This is apparently not such a rare occurence when I'm not there; not really sure what to make of that (insert knowing grin here). Regardless, in the midst of all this quiet, suddenly this man starts screaming quite loudly, "Water! Water!" We all stop dead in our tracks. There doesn't appear to be any panic in his behavior, other than the repeatedly loud screaming of "Water!"

In my mind, and I'm sure in the minds of my fellow carriers, (judging by the confused and perplexed looks on their faces) ran the following choices; 1) he ate something really hot and badly needs a drink of water, 2) he spilled some water and needs it cleaned up, 3) he spilled some coffee (which he's done before) and needs water to clean it up, 4) he has somehow injured or burned himself and needs water to soothe or cool the injury, or 5) he's finally reached the breaking point of working too damn long for the Post Office and repeatedly shouting "Water!" is the outward manifestation of it. There may have been other scenarios envisioned by my co-workers, but I didn't have enough time to come up with more than those.

As those options ran thru my mind, we all froze in our tracks wide-eyed and ignorant of what was actually going on, fearful that the slightest movement may detonate something somewhere (logic tends to be abandoned in situations like these). I happened to notice that he was staring past me as he was having his onset of Tourette's syndrome, so I slowly turned to follow his gaze, and instantly let out a "you've got to be kidding" sigh of relief, followed immediately by laughter, as I figured out what the hell all the shouting was about.

Turns out the Filipino gentleman had been preparing a route that was going to be split and carried by a number of different people. One of the people who was going to be carrying a piece of that route was at the other end of the aisle, and this man was desperatley trying to get the attention of WALTER.

I do seem to recall asking at one point, "Does he come with subtitles?"

Smiley Sam, Ross Noble, And Twitter

I find myself taking full advantage of Twitter as a place to put down all those wacky random thoughts I have as the day goes on. Some of them have had many occasions to be repeated over the years, and I'm finally having a place to put them. Having an iPhone with me at all times makes it easier to save these little "gems", and I use that word wrongly, for posterity. No longer will these nuggets of insanity be blurted out and instantly lost in the ether, now they can be saved so historians can analyze them to see just how insane I really was. Por ejemplo, one of my favorites over the years has been, "Why do they call it common sense when it's so UNcommon?" Working for the Post Office, I usually have several occasions on a daily basis to utter this, either aloud or internally. Now, thru the magic of the iPhone and Twitter, I just posted it the other day. Wasn't long after that an artist whose work I've enjoyed over the years, Jill Thompson, retweeted my post, as she must have found it amusing. Always nice to have that sort of validation from someone whose talents you admire. Seeing as how she has illustrated works from the likes of Neil Gaiman (Sandman) and Grant Morrison (The Invisibles), as well as dozens of others over the years, yeah, it made my New Year's Eve pretty nice. Thanks Jill!

Fast not-too-far-forward to New Year's Day, and comedian Ross Noble, who I had mostly known for years from Just A Minute until recently, was encouraging people to make interesting pictures with his Smiley Sam The Smiling Ham (the explanation would take too long...read about it on his Twitter page http://twitter.com/realrossnoble --I'd give you an actual link, but for some reason I can't seem to do that on Blogger, and I've been trying for the last 10 minutes to figure it out; it just won't let me do it, despite following their instructions). So I printed out a pic of Sam, cut out the face, and taped it to the head of a really cool hand made clown my Mom had given me for X-Mas. She makes these herself, and they get sold in the gift shop of the local hospital she volunteers at. For some reason, the orange one hadn't moved (all the others come and go pretty quick), so I had mentioned to her she should send it to me for X-Mas (she still lives in New York, while I'm coming up on 10 years out here in Las Vegas). The funny thing is, even though she makes these herself, she's a little creeped out by them. I think it's terrific, and it sits proudly on an entertainment center/bookshelf here in my home office. She knew I really liked it based on the fact that it sits next to a picture I took of deceased race car driver Greg Moore and his still alive father Ric, that both had signed for me many years ago. I even presented both with their own copies of the photo, just because I thought it was a nice shot of the close pair.

After taping Smiley Sam's ham-face to the clown's head, I snapped a picture of it (again, using the iPhone; damn thing does everything...), and sent it to Ross via Twitter. This is another thing I enjoy about Twitter. People I admire that I normally would have no other means of ever having any contact with are suddenly reasonably accessible. Ross lives in the UK, but spends a large amount of time travelling the Eastern Hemishpere, be it the rest of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and so on. He's got various travel programs available, as well as tour documentaries on his stand-up comedy DVD's (of which I have a few now, thanks to Steve!).

Maybe an hour after tweeting the picture, I see a post from Ross that says, "This Is no question the most scary thing I have ever seen." That was followed by a link, which I clicked, seeing as how I was curious as to what could have a mind as brillantly unstable as his running scared. The link caught me completely by surprise, as it led to this;





http://img129.yfrog.com/i/rxs.jpg/


Needless to say, seeing that it was my own picture that had scared him made me laugh quite hard. I was quite pleased that I'd apparently made an impression on him. Not really sure how my Mom is going to react when she reads this, though...

When Ross does shows, at the intermission, people often leave objects on the stage, so that when he comes back on, he just starts commenting on whatever interests him. His shows are filled more with off the cuff stream of consciousness than actual material, which is his true genius. The man is just funny, with nothing prepared. He HAS very funny material, it just gets relegated behind the tangents he goes off on, which are also extremely funny, and that's why he's so good on Just A Minute. So, if he ever does any shows in the United States (and I'm not sure if scaring him like this will help...), I'm bringing the clown with me to leave on stage in the interval. Not sure if I should re-tape Smiley Sam's face on or not...

Thanks Ross, and thanks/sorry Mom! (BTW, as of this writing, Ross' posting of my pic has had nearly 4,000 hits, in less than 24 hours...lotta weirdos out there...)

Update; it's now about 5:45 AM on Sun the 3rd of Jan, and it seems Ross is still enjoying Smiley Sam The Clown Ham. A comedian friend of his, Jason Manford, was apparently distressed about gaining some weight. Ross, in an effort to make him feel better, started tweeting him pics of Smiley Sam, including mine...

twitter.com/realrossnoble @Jason_Manford how about this http://yfrog.com/3gbd3cj

Twitter is so much fun...


Blog Post Soundtrack; Allman Brothers, The New York Dolls, The Doors, The Smiths, Fear Factory, Faith No More, Fu Manchu, Orange 9MM, Pantera, Black Sabbath, Son House, Corrosion Of Conformity, Prong, a track from Mel Brooks' 1968 movie The Producers, Les Claypool Frog Brigade, Clutch, Public Image Ltd.