Hot Time, Summer In The City, etc.

It is now officially summertime in New York (well, I suppose the calendar does actually say it is still spring, but I try not to pay such things all that much mind), which means that it is hot and humid and the beach is the place to be. Well, my apartment is totally climate controlled so that is not a bad place to be either.

June 9, 2005 -- Cake Shop, Manhattan
I arrived slightly late after stopping to see Matt & Kim at a weird gallery opening, but I still caught the tail end of More Teeth's set, which was super fun and great. Whilst The Good Good were setting up I was made aware of the fact that Mike Meyers was in the audience, although I'm still not sure exactly why. I did not speak to him, but if I had, I would have informed him that he made living in South Williamsburg quite difficult as all the young Puerto Rican kids insisted that I resembled Austin Powers, mostly because I wore thick black glasses. I would often have things shouted at me from street corners to that effect, although I was eventually able to tune it out. It became just another one of the sounds of the city. I didn't think he really needed to be bothered with such things, but now that I think of it perhaps turnabout would have been fair play. Although I'm sure the exchange would not have been rewarding at all for either party, it is probably for the best that I gave it a miss. Kevin Shea arrived right on time, approximately 120 seconds after we were supposed to start. Better late than never, I suppose. By the way, have you seen him? I've been trying to telephone him but have had no luck as of late. Anyway, we had not so much as laid eyes on each other in about a month, but that did not stop us from playing a show. We still have not rehearsed in 2005, unless you count drinking bourbon as rehearsing. The jury is still out on that one, apparently. I will admit that while it was a solid performance, I would not rank it among our best. I feel like I know the songs too well now, we've played them so many times that we're starting to play them the same way every time. Perhaps I need to surprise Kevin with some new songs to keep it interesting. That might involve putting down the bottle for a moment, but it might be possible. Just before we were about to begin our last song, they cut the microphone and put on a record. Having been through this many times before, Kevin started playing and I started screaming. It seemed so normal, although it was later admitted to be a mistake on the part of the club. I wasn't upset about it, you just sort of need to move to ramming speed on occasion. I think my impersonation of Kevin on the drums is getting better, or at least I was told as much. Time will tell, as it has told. The persistence of memory is killing me, what does that mean exactly? Kevin left while I was trying to get paid; even though we didn't they were actually really nice about it. I guess we have pretty low expectations in the finance department these days. I just want to make sure Kevin eats once in a while, I really do worry about him. It was his birthday the other day, I hope you wished him a happy one if you happened to see him. I tried, but I was unable to see him as he was not returning my phone calls. I think he had bigger fish to fry and all I can say is that I hope they turned out well. The moral of the story is that no matter what you do it takes the Earth 365 days to revolve around the Sun, even during a leap year it is a constant. Leap years just balance it all out, smooth out all the wrinkles. What would you do if Athena were to spring, fully grown, from your head? I would rejoice, I would rejoice. Please give my regards to Broadway, should you happen to be in the neighborhood. In the meantime I will be sleeping it off, sleeping off the long cold winter. You know what I mean.

Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair, etc.

Perhaps you are curious as to why I have taken an extended leave of absence from posting here. Perhaps you accidentally stumbled onto this site searching for information on Taco. For the former, an explanation is to follow; for the latter, you will find little new wave trivia here. Feel free to make yourself a drink and continue reading, all are welcome. The more the merrier, etc. Anyway, you may or may not be aware of the fact that I recently returned from a fortnight in New Zealand. In doing so there were many things I did for the first time, not limited to crossing the Equator and the International Date Line. Latitude and Longitude seem much more relevant when you are speaking of such distances, but I did not have my GPS on hand so I cannot give you the degrees and minutes and seconds to any degree of precision. I apologize for the lapse, but I might have had other things on my mind. In December of my 11th year I found myself walking home from Redwood Intermediate School, excited because it was the first day of winter break. As I was approaching my home, I realized that although at that very moment I had approximately the maximum amount of time remaining in my vacation, that before I knew it, it would be over. It might have been the first time that I was truly aware of the passage of time; this much looked forward to reprieve from the various torments that are junior high was going to be much more short lived than I cared to seriously consider. The problem with being aware of such things is that it makes you tend to watch the clock a bit more than you might otherwise -- provoking a desperate stare down that there really is no hope of winning. Dunbar had some good ideas; if time passes infinitely slow then you become immortal. But what sort of immortality would that be, being bored for eternity? So the question is, how do you have an amazing time and make it last forever? It would seem that there is no answer; Einstein was right about at least one thing, apparently. This is all to say that I would have liked to stay longer, but now I am back in New York and it is summer and I will survive. Kevin and I will pass the time somehow, perhaps we will play shows or perhaps we will simply get drunk and talk about playing shows and getting played on New Zealand radio (true) and whatever else it is we talk about whilst intoxicated. It is all improvisation anyway, we couldn't remember our lines if we tried. We have no understudies, it is our way or the highway. I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but pretty much everything I have ever written has been about time or memory and this is no different. I have also discussed alcohol's effect on our perception of such things, but the point is that we are human just like you, we are not infallible but we do bleed on occasion. Our mistakes are all for you, our blood is all for you. So raise a glass to us, we are still alive and it is glorious; we take advantage of every opportunity because we know life is short and we want to be remembered as heroes and adventurers. But mostly we do it because we have to. We love you, each and every one of you. We do love some more than others, but we are allowed to play favorites because we are not your mother.