Well it’s Tuesday morning and I am just about ready to ease into the work week. Unfortunately the work week started yesterday. My productivity was probably not near maximum after a blow-out of a weekend.
The Great American Race
The good old boys from Nascar ran the Daytona 500 on Sunday and it was a screamer. Kevin Harvick got a hell of a run and edged out Mick Martin for the win but even more impressive was Clint Bowyer managing to cross the finish line in 18th place in spite of the fact that his car was traveling on its roof instead of on the tires. After the 07 car slid over the black and white checkered line it veered off into the grass and then popped back over onto its wheels at which point Bowyer nonchalantly climbed out of the flaming wreck and removed his gloves while surveying the damage. Martin’s got to be disappointed. One of the older drivers on the circuit this was Martin’s 23rd start at the Daytona 500 and still no victory.
The King vs. Costello
I’ve heard a lot of talk about these musical figures and amazingly it seems like most of the feedback is that Costello is superior to Presley. I suppose this is to be expected from the Indie rock Chico crowd but I have two words for you. Shut up. All of you who really think that Elvis Costello is better than Elvis Presley get on a plane or climb into a van and drive your asses to Memphis, Tennessee and check out Graceland. Pay particular attention to the wall that is entirely covered with platinum and gold records. I’m not trying to maintain that commercial success is the way to judge musical talent but Elvis Presley was the man! By the time most of you reading this were born he was either dead or had become a grotesque caricature of his former self. The bloated cheesey Vegas lounge Elvis may be the image many of you associate with the boy from Tupelo but keep in mind that that was the twilight of Presley’s career. He had been making records for twenty years by then. With his smooth voice, hard playing (Sleepy LaBeef loaned Presley a guitar for a set one night and regretted it because when he got it back it was destroyed simply from the intensity with which Elvis strummed it), youthful good looks and wildly gyrating hips Elvis Presley literally helped to put rock and roll on the map. His influence is felt everywhere today. Bands that don’t even know it have been influenced by Presley.
Aside from that it was when John Waters saw Elvis Presley that he knew for sure he was gay. There is a reason Elvis Presley is called the King.
Of course this is my Nascar watching beer drinking country music listening ass talking so what the hell do I really know anyway? Indie rock has never floated my boat and Costello has always struck me as sort of a wordy dork.
Dog Killer and the Fat Stickies
Sunday was a rough one as after watching the Daytona 500 and, naturally, consuming a fair amount of beer, I somehow managed to keep the dream alive and get myself down to Duffy’s for the Dog Killer reunion show. There’s just something about classic simple, sometimes banal, punk rock music. It is very reassuring and the old-school Chico crowd turned out in force.
Rock trio the Fat Stickies opened up the show with their version of driving chord driven power. The band dawned mono-brows for the occasion. Don’t ask me, I’m just telling you what I saw. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone playing with a full Marshall stack in Duffy’s Tavern. Necessary? Probably not. Bitching? Totally.
That was Then…
So that brings us to today. It is a strange way of life we live here in Chico. My lifestyle includes basically hanging on through the working week, doing what I have to do in terms of shopping, laundering, a little painting or writing crammed in between the eight hour work days – and then once Friday rolls around I spend two days trying to make up for the monotony of the week. Usually this backfires horrifically in a pool of beer and booze and by the time Monday returns, far too soon, my synapses are fried and my I.Q. has dropped about thirty points to near idiot level. I don’t advocate this. If you can get your hands on a trust fund or an inheritance I highly recommend it. Better yet land yourself an executive job so you can party all week long and get paid like a rock star.
That’s all for now!
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