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heap 2003
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Al In Town
J: While Gina went off to Allentown this
weekend I took advantage of my independence and, uh, went to work. I
packed a couple crates with instrumentation for a bidnezz trip I'm
taking to Ames Research Center in
California next week.
Meanwhile the radiometric sphere sources (that's a mouthful) that I maintain
back here decided to go on the
fritz in various ways. Naturally since all of my equipment is on its way
to Peru the West
Coast, I have no way or time to re-calibrate the sources at home.
So several users have to wait a month or so. I'm in a fine pickle.
I started a great Friday (he said sarcastically) when I entered
our cleanrooms and found that the temperature and humidity had spiked
from a usual 68F/45% to 90F/80% or so, near tropical conditions.
Naturally this is not a proper cleanroom environment; the air condensed
onto the cooler floor in a fine sheen of water, and funked up the room
as trillions of unwanted microbes had an orgy full of mitosis. We found
that lightening had shut off all the cleanroom's air and humidity
handlers the night before. Yay. Things are back to "normal" now, but our
rooms will have to be recertified.
On Saturday, after checking out the cleanrooms and packing all my
dried-out equipment, I came back home and walked Booda. Well, first I
played Go against the computer for a few hours, which was quite
frustrating, because I really suck at Go, and for some reason after
playing against Ryan
the other day (yes Ryan kicked my ass), my game only got worse. I
nosedived from a previously steady 9 kyu (rated by the computer) to a 15
kyu. Of course, during the frustrating exercise of finding out what the
hell I was doing wrong I learned a few things, but we'll see if any of
my lessons are remembered when I play against humans.
Anyways, as I was saying, after I played Go for a few hours I walked
Booda, and then I went to a nice party. Well, OK, before I left for the
party I played another hour or two of Go, so by the time I got to the
party it was after midnight. The party was a birthday celebration by and
for our friend Susan Stern. She has a lovely Greenbelt house and had a
lot of food and beer set up outside, and a fire to sit around. Fires
have become popular at Greenbelt parties. I pigged out a bit, then moved
to the beer, and finished up with roasted marshmallows at the fire amid
pleasant conversation.
When I got home from the party I went straight to bed, after playing Go
for another hour and a half. Then Gina showed up, back from Allentown,
and I think we got to bed by 4:00 AM. We had to wake up the next day at
9:00, so King's Dominion was a little rough for me. But I managed. Al
and the band put on a great concert, despite the humid conditions.
Besides being clever and just plain funny, they had their usual tight
timing and ongoing energy that everyone should witness at least once. I
was slightly hoping Al would sing Bob (his
palindromic tribute to Dylan, and my favorite from his last album) but
no such luck. Now I'll move along and let Gina say a few words.
G: It's been
another long week filled with people and stuff. On Thursday we went to
Wunderland as usual, and it was Kristin's birthday. Not only was there a
chocolate angel food cake for her, but they had made a vegan chocolate
cake for me (thanks again!) and also had a vanilla ice cream cake for
Renee, since she doesn't eat chocolate. Look for pictures in this week's
news at wunderland.com.
I ate my share of the vegan cake, but that will be the last chocolate
I'll be having for a while at least - I went to the doctor because my
throat had been bothering me for several weeks, and she thinks I have
Reflux Esophagitis - which means stomach acid is getting into my
esophagus and making it irritated, sore, and swollen feeling. I'm going
to see a GI specialist in a few weeks to really check it out with an
endoscope, to see if I have a hiatal hernia or a weak cardiac sphincter.
I've been resisting taking the drugs they gave me and instead changing
my diet and eating habits. I'm not supposed to have chocolate, onions,
garlic, high-fat foods, spicy peppers, mint, coffee, tea, or cola. The
mint, coffee, tea, and cola aren't a problem, I don't consume them
anyway, but I might start to miss the onions. When I cook, I use onions.
For some reason I haven't been wanting chocolate for a while anyway, and
haven't had any trouble resisting it. Actually, I haven't had much of an
appetite for anything. I'm eating less, which is good, because if I did
anything to cause this condition my guess is it would be stuffing myself
at meals.
Anyway, Friday night we went to the New Deal for a singer/songwriter
circle show, featuring Izolda,Dan Hart, and Richard McMullen.
They alternated singing songs, and each had a very different style. We
had a great time there. Dan sang Santa
God, a really funny song that will appear on an upcoming
compilation album.
Saturday I went with Kevin, Sean, and Constantia up
to Allentown, PA for my first Weird Al show of the Poodle Hat Tour. It was
about a 3 1/2 hour drive, made pleasant by riding in Sean's new Saturn
Vue and plenty of music. We had a great time - Spending time with Al and
also Jim (the guitarist) before and after the show. Of course the show
itself was fabulous. Check out Constantia's and Kevin's live journals
(July 14th) for their versions of the experience.
I got home after 3:30 and was in bed at 4am, and got up at 9am for the
trip to King's Dominion to ride the rides and catch another Al show.
Since it's traditional for me, Kristin, and Renee to try to ride
coasters for our birthdays, it turned into a rather large group going -
John, Andy, Alison, Alex, Stacy, and Kevin in addition to the birthday
gals. Since it was a Sunday and the middle of summer, the lines for the
better rides were longer than desired, and we only bothered waiting for
Volcano the Blast Coaster (one of my favorites EVER!), and sticking
mostly to the older rides, of which there are plenty, with very short
lines. John, Kristin and I sat out the ride of Drop
Zone - I was too tired and have not ever really gotten into that
particular style of ride, even though I love similar things like tall,
steep coasters and giant swings of death. Everyone else loved it.
Around 7:30 we went to the amphitheater to see the Al show, and found
out there was an opening act. Typically, the local acts that tend to
open up for Al are not well received or not very good, so I wasn't
expecting much. Then these two young guys called The Gaskets got up on stage, one
with a Yamaha music synthesizer sitting on top of a trash can, the other
just with a cordless microphone. It became apparent fairly quickly that
these guys were different, and good. They reminded me a bit of They
Might Be Giants, and later mentioned TMBG as one of their favorite bands
before covering Don't Let's Start.
But they mostly did these adorable, poppy originals, and were a lot of
fun to watch, and said funny things. The singer ran all over the stage,
danced, and generally performed various antics along with the songs.
They looked like they were having a great time. We were really
impressed, especially considering they looked like they were in high
school (actually they were just out of high school). Alison seemed to
enjoy them the most. She went over and talked to them after their set
and gave them a Fluxx deck.
Then was Al's show - again spectacular, but abbreviated because the
park closes at 10 and they had to be finished by then. Afterward we all
went backstage (except for Stacy, who needed to get home and get some
rest before another long trip) and had a lot of fun with the guys from
The Gaskets and Al and the band. It was kinda like a party backstage,
since there weren't many pass holders, and I suggested Al just hang
around with everyone instead of sitting behind a table to meet &
greet like usual.
We were able to get a Gaskets pre-release cd, Big Fun, which we've been
enjoying, and even got the guys to autograph it. It turns out they had
won a talent contest to be Al's opening act that night, and they were
incredibly excited and happy to have done that and to meet Al. Go look
at their web site to see some of that.
J: I think "Weird" Al should be called "Shy" Al. Not really. But I think they (and by
"they" I mean the Bradford
family) should take the quotes off the Weird part, it would flow better.
It was good to see him; but I felt funny (actually, awkward is a better word) trying
to start up little conversations with a shy guy who's surrounded by lots
of people who know much more about him than I do, so I mostly sat off
to the side and chatted with The Gaskets. I also drank a Coke, which
tasted entirely too sweet, and I ate a strawberry ice cream bar, which
tasted just right.
The Gaskets' manager, a scruffy young lad named Igor, told me that they
might make a trip to play at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, but that
they would have to be paid a lot of money to make it worth their while.
I asked for a ballpark figure. He said, "Oh, we'd ask for a lot. Maybe a
hundred fifty bucks." I said I'd relay the message. Hell, for that much,
maybe I'll get them to play at one of our parties.
|
dognose heaven
stages of a weiner
burgers are...heroin
the gaskets
garage band dot com
are
you better off...?
white man
unburdened
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