Monthly Archives: November 2006

Last night’s concert was freakin’ incredible.

If you ignore the opener, Neil Hamburger, who was pretty much a waste of space (and yes I realize he’s an invention and is an avant-guarde intellectual joke, but it was so bad it was boring), the beginning of the show opened up with a curtain on a mock living room, with Kyle and Jack asleep on the couch, under a Transformers comforter, a poster of Dio’s Holy Diver album displayed proudly on the wall, an old white fridge and tv with vcr complete the scene. The audience wakes up the Tenacious duo, and they rise to start rocking. The entire show proceeded much like a SNL skit, or extended music video, creating a quirky and humorous rock opera right on stage. The basic narrative charted the day of the D, complete with visitor and friend Lee, and the fatal use of an electric guitar made of a toilet seat and extension cord, clearly assembled by a crack head that sends Kyle and Jack to hell, where after they orient themselves form a rock band with the Antichrist on lead electric guitar, Charlie Chaplain on bass, and Colonel Sanders on drums. At this point the stage begins to rock in a way the D have not done up until now during their concerts. They have a series of serious metal standards, dance while high on shrooms with a giant magic mushroom, and finally have a rock duel with Satan himself.

The musical tunes were awesome, and on more than one occasion, the duo payed homage to classic rock tunes, such as Flash Gordon by Queen, Fame by Bowie, and Pinball Wizard / Tommy by The Who. There is no doubt that the concert is to be seen as a rock opera in and of itself, with echoing tones of Jesus Christ Super Star and Stairway to Heaven to be found in the music and themes. From hippy balads to death metal, the D put on a tremendous show, and for Jack Black or Tenacious D concerts, this was one not to miss.

Tonight we’re going out to the Tenacious D concert– I’ll tell you all about my evening tomorrow…

I know when I’ve been licked. And not in the good way.

It’s day 20, I’ve only got about 6000 words written, and I just don’t see myself catching up, for a number of reasons:

1) There’s a whole lot of vacation coming up where I’ll have to be spending time with family and kids and I won’t have writing time.

2) Right now I’m sick as a dog, and I’m doing the best I can just to survive all the other crazy commitments I’ve got going on.

3) Truth is — I’m just not into the story right now.

So I’ll shelve it for now, and get back to it later. I just can’t work on it right now. I’ve got another story that wants to be written, and I’ll probably take a stab at that first. But right now, I’m just gonna try to get well and survive.

Tonight we have Matt and Kelley over for dinner, to give us a chance to hang out and meet ‘the girl’, and while she seemed a little quiet, I think it went well. I know making friends is always a tough thing to do, especially when you’re the one entering into an established group, and I was doing my best to be low-key and not ask too many questions, etc., until we know each other better. Of course, part of me is sensitive and wonders if she liked us, but that will all come in time. And just because she likes Matt, doesn’t mean she’s gonna like us – so be it. Of course we all hope that we get along. Oh, it’s like being in school again, making friends. It’s funny, but I guess I’ve had my current set of friends for so long, it’s been a while since I’ve had to make a new one. Anyhow, we had a good time. I opened a few good bottles of wine, and I served my signature Anthony Bordain Chicken Calvados dish, which is way fatty but mmm-mmm so good. Matt and Kelley hung out for a while, and we tried to come up with topics of conversation that didn’t involve our kids- I always feel self-conscious about talking about my kids with friends that don’t have any, but seriously they’re the biggest thing in our lives right now, so it’s hard not to talk about them. Matt and Kelley finally took off around 10pm, and left us to the rest of our evening. I’m certain Matt will give me the full report later on how the evening went from his/her perspective. I know that I wasn’t left with much of an idea of who she is, just that she was quiet and nice. Well, there are future gatherings and future times to hang out.

Tonight we had our good friends Amy and Marc over for Shabbat dinner, and it was a fantastic time. We’ve made it somewhat of a tradition to invite certain folk over on Shabbat to share the space with us, and Amy & Marc are favorites. Every visit there is the requisite negotiations over the chicken wings and drumsticks between Marc and Eli, and the evening always entails engaging and stimulating conversation. Some friends take a fair amount of work to maintain, and some are just easy. Marc and Amy are easy friends, who we don’t see nearly enough of, but when we do get together it’s as if we’ve never spent any time apart. They are a blessing.

I went in today to the dentist for my regular cleaning, and they’ve discovered several spots in my molars that need to be filled, but on one side in the back they’re going to have to give me a crown of some sort. I’ve lived my entire life with practically no cavities, and I’ve never had to have dental work done that required numbing other than my root canal on my front tooth when I was 15, but that was while my mouth was already in trauma (someone forearmed me in the mouth in PE, causing me to bite through my lip and knocked my front tooth loose).

This is gonna suck. Now I get to experience what everyone else experiences with the dentist, with crazy shit digging into my mouth and holding it open with clamps and stretching my lips wide, etc. etc. *sigh*. Well, I guess I should count myself lucky that I’ve gone 34 years without having to deal with that sort of work, and hopefully this is all to prevent worse consequences later, right?

Sometime last year I read something about the Japanese figuring out a way to regrow teeth with ultraviolet light pulses. Sign me up for that one. Just pull the tooth and let’s make a new one. Oh yeah, that’s still experimental science, isn’t it?

A week from Tuesday the do the deed.

November 15th, and I’ve got just over 5100 words. Not sure I’m gonna make 50k words by the end of the month. I’ll have to write 3k a day. Well, let’s not give up hope yet…

…just sleep!

Tonight there was a surprise impromptu birthday celebration at my house for my good friend Mark, whom I’ve known for 24 years. Happy birthday, my brother. I hope you had a good time, because I know everyone else did.

Tonight, Allean Dathsar, a rebel alliance operative trained in the ways of the force and in deep deep cover walked the underbelly of Coruscant in the age of the Empire, did battle with foul and unclean monsters and works to save his friends during their mission to retrieve data critical to the survival of the alliance, while knowing fully that the Emperor has become aware of his presence on the planet, and can be assumed to be tracking him down with his dark-side agents.
Totally awesome.
The activity of being able to inhabit another personality for a few hours in an evening and work within an imaginary world towards goals and rewards one could not expect to see in this lifetime is truly a gift. It feeds my soul, and keeps me young. That, and it allows me to exercise parts of my psyche that normally has to hide deep beneath repression, and allows me to struggle with moral ambiguities in ways I dare not in my everyday life. I learn to be a better person by being other people in other situations. It builds empathy as well as building life skills.

Nothing exciting here — Julie is back from her art weekend, and I’m up watching my last bits of media before the new week. Did quite a bit of reading as well. Probably should get to bed now, so I’m gonna wrap up. Talk to you all tomorrow, maybe I’ll even have something to say.