Lunch Lady Land...

What a weekend! Sorry I was off the grid Monday. Yesterday I had to catch up after being out of the office Monday. I actually took the day off to get my driver’s license renewed and take care of a bunch of other stuff, but low and behold the lazy sons-a-bitches at the Georgia DMV don’t work Monday’s. Thanks guys. All that advelorum tax you bastards collect each year on my cars sure is being put to good use.

Anyway, I ended up spending the day, well, spending. I had received a few gift cards for my birthday, so it was out the door to blow it all wantonly. First we had to stop at my daughter’s school for lunch. They sure didn’t do this when we were in school, but at Huddleston Elementary parents can come have lunch with their kids. It was really cool! If ever you feel the need to get re-energized, poke your head into an elementary school cafeteria. Katie was surprised to see me there and we had a lot of fun together.

The shopping that followed was successful having blown two Home Depot gift cards on a radial saw. I don’t have a project that requires a radial arm saw right now, but Mrs. Alva pushed me to pick it up knowing that I’ll have a project soon that requires one and I’ll bitch about having to borrow one from some kind neighbor. She’s right of course.

Anyway, that’s my alibi for Monday.

Saturday nights Mike Doughty show was a good as I had envisioned. Yoda Jacket met me, Mrs. Alva, and Mathdude at Criminal Records for the 7:00 PM in store appearance after a ride into the city in the pouring rain. While waiting for the show to start, I found a new in wrapper copy of the first Angelwitch record that I was sure Jackson didn’t have and I would be able to proudly present him since the Christmas present I purchased for him got lost on it’s way from the UK. I decided to call and make sure he didn’t already have it and to my disappointment he did. Damn! I’ll find something for the guy in time.

So Doughty shows up out of the downpour and takes requests from the small group of us which are devided into two camps: young Soul Coughing skater dudes (very pleasant group) and us older cerebral types who dig his solo stuff:-). I called out three of my favs and he did them all except for the O’Neill Highschool Alma Mater which he correctly recalled to a laughing crowd was set to the tune “O’ Tannenbuam”. Afterwards, he said hello and I introduced him to my brother Mathdude. My brother asks him if he remembered hanging out with his girlfriends little brother when he was more than likely 10 or 11 years old. He said he did, and then my brother in his CVS old man reading glasses and receding hairline asks him if he remembered the guys sister’s thuggish boyfriend. Of course he says, “That was you? Do you still have that tattoo that spells out ‘Rock Rules’ with the blood dripping off of it? Can I see it?” A teenager getting a tattoo was such a rare thing back then that my brother is remembered for being the first of our generation to come home with one. Hell of a story.

We had some chow and wandered over to the Variety Playhouse which turned out to what I’d say was 90% capacity (about 1,500 folks). Mike and his band were great playing a perfect mix of Haughty Melodic, Golden Delicious, and Soul Coughing material to the delight of us all. He's got a great band and is quite funny and aloof. With all the success this tour seems to be generating, I’d say he'd be doing himself a favor by pulling Mankwe Ndosi out on the road with him for the back leg of the tour. Mankwe’s voice rounds out Golden Delicious well and having her there to fill in that little extra would make it a world class performance not to miss. That not withstanding, they sounded great and the Variety Playhouse is a great place to see a show. Cracker will be there in May and so will we, if not sooner.