MY BLOODY VALENTINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, this is a rant about music... not politics. Not even a rant. A recollection of the most amazing show I've ever been to.

The place was Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan. The act was My Bloody Valentine, playing their second U.S. gig in over 16 years. The long-dormant band had been long mythologized by the indie & mainstream rock press, and I honestly thought that the chances of a reunion were small for a while. Mastermind Kevin Shields did involve himself in music projects, namely working on the soundtracks to Sofia Coppola films Lost In Translation and Marie Antoinette, and a disc with Patti Smith, which brought some publicity to the reclusive Shields, and made us My Bloody Valentine fans rejoice to know that he was still alive, and messing with his tremolo pedals. Finally, this spring, it was announced that My Bloody Valentine would be going on tour. I maxed out my credit card to get tickets, so I can guarantee me and my girlfriend, fans of the band for the last 5 years, and who had been wishing they would reunite, could secure a place there in case the show sold out (which it did).

It was worth it.

The opening bands weren't that great, although the second band, Wounded Knees, did bring out J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. for a song, which was pretty good, considering due to financial problems, I had to miss out on a Dinosaur Jr. show at Toad's Place last week. Pretty much the opening bands were like third-rate, British Drop Nineteens, who, in turn, were Bostonian third-rate My Bloody Valentines (but they were good).

Then My Bloody Valentine took the stage around 10, and... wow. They opened with "I Only Said," and they were in top form, almost better sounding live, than on record. And LOUD!!!! Bilinda Butcher still looks gorgeous after all this time. Colm Ó Cíosóig's drumming was ferocious, and perfectly contrasted with the onslaught of guitar effects. Bassist Debbie Googe was very energetic. Kevin Shields stood like a statue, like some sort of sorcerer, and just intoxicated the sold-out crowd by his enigmatic presence, and his deafening, yet ethereal playing. The band just tore through their most notable songs ("Only Shallow," "When You Sleep," "Soon," "When You Wake (You're Still In A Dream)," etc.) It was like heaven. A complete aural orgasm. They hardly said a word to the audience, but they didn't have to. They just let the music speak to them, and the audience felt it. During the 15-minute feedback holocaust during "You Made Me Realise," many people (including myself), just held their hands in the air, as if it was some sort of seance or divine intervention. In many ways it was just that; many people's souls were enriched by My Bloody Valentine's music for the past 20+ years, with new converts who were born after 1991's Loveless, and somehow the band knew that those people needed them to come back and save them. I felt rejuvenated that night, and enthralled. All I want to do now is follow them for the rest of their tour, and after the show I was in such a state of bliss that I know for the fact that the comedown back to reality will be very dysphoric.

Thank God for Youtube! Here's some videos, so in case you missed it, you can kind of capture the magic for yourself.



"Soon"



By far, the most AMAZING thing ever


Sorry if this review sucks. But it's hard to find words for shows such as these.

Why Sarah Palin is a Misogynist

This will probably be my last political spiel until at least the debates. The lava that shot through my veins during convention season is simmering down to just… well, hot red water. Besides, there are other things in life. Politics only affects them.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that Sarah Palin is a misogynist. And worse, she’s disguised as a GOP MILF. Underneath lies a black dragon with Pat Robertson’s face taped on!

So how did I reach this conclusion? Well, it’s very simple; her inflexible stance on abortion. She has stated that even if a woman was raped, or a victim of incest, she would not support abortion for those reasons. If I’m not mistaken, that’s even more conservative than Rush Limbaugh’s stance. I know that people have their reasons for being pro-life, not that I agree with them. But even then, most people would bend their stance for cases of rape and incest.

Not for our potentially next VP (oh God, I hope I’m not calling her that, come January 20th!)!!! Pretty much what she’s saying is that if you get raped, and you get pregnant, tough shit sister! Your assailant’s sperm is more important than your own well-being, and if it were up to me, you would have a reminder of your horrible encounter for the rest of your life, because your trauma has taken form of a baby! And that’s much better than a bunch of congregated cells being senselessly murdered in the name of science!

As for incest, THE GREATEST PERVERSION IN HUMAN HISTORY PERHAPS SECOND ONLY TO CHILD PORN, how could Palin justify someone not having an abortion if it is an act of incest? A sexually abusive father rapes his 14 year old daughter, and she gets knocked up. She has to live with more than the trauma she already has to deal with day to day? I’ll tell you this; if Palin and McCain hire enough Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, and more “Janie’s Got a Gun” families continue to exist in America (which hopefully aren’t that many), we’re gonna see a lot of messed up family trees. So, fuck you, you Godless feminists, cried the Whackjob from Wasilla!

I think the misogyny speaks for itself here...

BTW, her church wants you butt-pirates and carpet-munchers to PRAY THE GAY AWAY!!!!! Maybe her church could have Obama pray his blackness away, too! Or maybe her church could help me pray away my dick and make a vagina appear, so I can get shanked after a night at the bar, and carry a terminally fucked up kid (wait until 2010, though, when her and McCain are ravaging D.C.), which will provide for a very bad “Mommy, where did I come from?” story.

God Help America,

Kyle.

Should I Be Optimistic? A Tale of a Young Voter Who Worries Too Much About Politics

So both conventions have come to pass. I spent the better part of the week watching the speechs from the DNC that I missed, and being totally inspired and enthusiastic about the Obama/Biden ticket. Kudos to the Clintons for putting their electoral differences and animosities aside and urging everyone who voted for Hillary to vote for Obama. Al Gore’s speech was awesome; Clinton delivered a speech that made me wish he was still eligible for another term in office (though, I’ve felt that way for the past 8 years); I even give props to John Kerry for delivering a darn good speech, as much as he is a critical disappointment to the Democratic Party. Lewis Black said it best when he said that “For the Democrats not being able to find somebody who could’ve defeated George Bush… It would be like finding a normal person who would lose in the Special Olympics!” But, all of that rubbish aside… The Dems had ideals, plans, and substance. Job well done guys! Job well done!

Now, onto the Republican National Convention. I couldn’t sit through any of the speeches, because all of them I watched seriously provoked me to throw my TV out the window! Fred Thompson…. GO BACK TO FUCKIN’ LAW & ORDER, ASSHOLE. NOT LIKE I WATCH IT ANYWAY. Joe Lieberman, clearly spitting venom in the face of anyone who voted for him to be our vice president in 2000, was no picnic either. And for the record, Al Gore’s stupidest move, besides marrying Tipper, was getting that smirking dimwit as his vice president. I really wish Joe Lieberman would just admit that he’s a closet Republican. After all, he was the asshole who called for a video game rating system after Mortal Kombat had Sub-Zero ripping someone’s head off (as well as their spine), and went after Marilyn Manson, which sounds awfully conservative to me. Yet again, Al Gore spearheaded the PMRC hearings. Still, though. Mike Fuckabee…. Er, Huckabee. Irrelevant. Not even a Chuck Norris endorsement could’ve saved his campaign. Mitt Romney, who wants to change Washington from liberal to conservative (as he said in this speech; so pretty much, Mitt, you want one party to rule? Fascist!). I never for three seconds took him seriously. He’s a Mormon, and has a demeanor of a used car salesman.

I saw Rudy Guiliani’s speech, and all he did was criticize Obama. He didn’t mention any plans that John McCain has for this country (if he even has any), and lead a bunch of jingoistic assholes to chant “Drill, baby, drill!” And, as always, the gopher-lookalike had to bring up 9/11 (I’m surprised they didn’t show video footage of him with his mouth covered, walking through the wreckage), as if he really knows what has gone on since. I think he should realize that President Bush lost sight of Osama Bin laden (you know, the guy who actually planned the 9/11 attack on us), and waged a dumb war in Iraq, and that this war is vastly unpopular with a lot of Americans, and WE ARE NOT MAKING PROGRESS! What Republicans don’t realize is that they are waging an abstract war; The War on Terror. There’s no nation called Terror. No one country is entirely a terrorist state (though, Iran is coming pretty darn close), but rather a network of many of them throughout the Middle East. Of course, this has only lead to innocent lives being lost, and as a result, less guilty ones being brought to justice (given they don’t blow themselves up first).

And so what if John McCain proposed a troop surge in Iraq when it wasn’t the popular thing to do? No offense, but popularity (and approval, I might add) is kind of influenced by these types of things. Just ask Dubya; he’ll tell ya. Do something to piss off the American people, and that a lot of them disagree with, and watch your approval numbers sink like a dog tied to a stone in a lake. The audience at the RNC ate it up though. I guess they haven’t been duped for the past eight years! Now they want four more, thinking that just because the president changes, the party will just transform into a delinquent, corrupt, unpopular mess to a progressive, fully operating unit. What tools!

Now onto the lady of the campaign, thus far, Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin. Wow, what a cuckoo this lady is! Pro-life, pro-oil, anti-gay, moose-eatin’, big talkin’…I already don’t like her. Her speech at the GOP is garnering praise from the press (I dunno why), and she is strewn across headlines all over the nation. People praise her ability to stand up to her critics, and to throw punches at the opponent, but that’s about it. All she did was bash Obama, and undermine his experiences and accomplishments. I think she’s trying to create a diversion from all the other headlines concerning her family life, and she pulled the cheapest cop-out there was; making Republicans jeer the Democratic candidate by putting him down. She may have more executive experience than any major candidate on both tickets, but let’s face it; Alaska ranks 48th in population (that’s 683,478 people), and before she became governor, she was the mayor of the town of Wasilla (population estimated anywhere from 5400-9000). I’m not saying that being the mayor of a town with less than 10,000 people, or the governor of a state where caribou outnumber people isn’t a hard job, but Barack Obama and Joe Biden have been senators in Washington D.C., the nation’s capital, and have dealt with issues that affect about… 230 million people. Compare 683,000 to 230 million. Just the way I look at it. I do not claim to be an expert on politics.

Now onto her personal life. Her 17 year-old daughter, Bristol (nice name, ay?), got knocked up, and isn’t married (yet). Normally, it’s a sore spot for the Republican Party in their agenda of family values, morals, and all that other horseshit, but the Republicans and fundies are backing her up, and the press is having a field day. Now that the press is dragging Palin through the mud, even amidst her speech at the RNC, the Republicans are now crying foul. That brings me to a point; they say that private lives are nobody’s business. And, you know what? I’m for that. I think a public figure has a right to privacy. But, you have to remember the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky fiasco ten years ago. The Republicans crucified Clinton on a cross made of cigars, cum-stained blue dressed, and 50 million dollars the U.S. never got back for a bullshit investigation. I think Clinton was dumb to have lied about it, but I didn’t care. The economy was great under his administration, and we had the largest surplus in our history when he left office (only to have the biggest deficit ever a mere administration later), not to mention a better job market, no inflation, and him being aware of Bin Laden’s threats, in which a Republican controlled House & Senate cared less about. Nonetheless, the Right exploited Clinton’s flaws, and impeached him. In fact, there are many who still groan at the mere mention of Clinotn because of that. Now that Sarah Palin’s daughter is only 17, and unmarried (nice family values), it’s ok. It’s a double standard in the worst possible way. If, say ten years from now, one of Obama’s daughters got knocked up, the right would create a firestorm over the issue, and would be calling his daughter a whore faster than a bullet from Sarah Palin’s gun into a moose’s head, and put an emphasis on how liberals have no family values.. But don’t make fun of Sarah Palin and Bristol!

Speaking of which, Sarah Palin has some pretty dumb fucking names for her kids; Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig (who has Down’s syndrome). Did she just flip through pages at random of a Webster dictionary and pick a name at random? Seems like it. What’s her grandchild’s name gonna be? Pyx? And her husband’s name is Todd. My dad and I were watching the news, and there was a story on Alaska’s “First Dude,” Todd Palin.All we could think of was that George Carlin skit where he talks about guys named Todd. “Hi, what’s your name?” “TOOOOODD!!!!” I’m sure if George Carlin stuck it out for just a little while longer, he would revise that skit and add Bristol, Willow, Piper, Track and Trig to his list of goofy names.

The Republican National Convention was just a barrage of insults to an idealistic candidate, with very little substance and very little talk about the issues on most Americans’ minds these days; jobs, the economy, health care, the government fucking them over. Instead, most of the speakers rallied over the right-to-life (yet the right to hunt animals and execute retarded people), the elimination of the writ of habeus corpus (Sarah Palin actually jabbed that Obama’s main worry about terrorism would be whether or not their rights were read; a real bummer to those few who were innocent like Murat Kurnaz). As for John McCain’s acceptance speech, he did do something noble; he stated that he admired Obama…. And then went on to attack him. Nothing good can last. He also just told the crowd his life story on how he was a POW, and now he’s not his own man, but his country’s man, and yadda yadda yadda. He states that he will bring change to Washington, but he never said exactly what. I have no fucking idea what the GOP plans to do if they do get elected in November (and if they do, God help us all!).

So, now the conventions are over. Now it’s the time, like back in 2004, where I obsessively, and daily look at poll numbers to see where the candidates stand. Right now, Obama is still in the lead, but McCain is not far behind him, probably because the RNC just ended yesterday. I remember back in 2004, John Kerry and George W. Bush were deadlocked in the polls, so this could mean that we have a decent chance of Obama winning the election. Also, recent poll numbers have Obama leading slightly in noted “red” states, such as Indiana and North Dakota, two states Bush won by over 20% of the votes back in 2004, which makes things certainly more exciting (but I’m not sold on North Dakota voting for Obama; Indiana? Maybe, since it neighbors with Obama’s home state of Illinois). It’s still early to tell, but Obama’s lead has been for quite a while. Now with Palin possibly being a detriment to the GOP ticket, voters still unsure of what McCain is exactly going to change if/when he’s elected, and rather lackluster reviews for McCain’s acceptance speech, it might be safe to say that the Democrats will be victorious in November, if only slightly. But is it safe? We still have the debates. Should I be optimistic for an Obama victory at this point, or is it just wishful thinking?

It Has Begun: The Democratic Convention in Denver

It’s convention season now. The Democratic Convention has started tonight in Denver. Denver may be an ideal city to have this convention, for Colorado is considered a swing state, since the Democrats lost it in both 2000 & 2004. I haven’t seen any clips from it yet. I made a promise to myself to try to avoid watching CNN with my eyes glued to the screen like I did in 2004, and focus on living. But sometimes I feel like conventions and pre-election coverage is a huge cut on the roof of my mouth that my tongue can’t help but wander to. Fuck promises.
I was nineteen yrs old in 2004, and I first voted that year. I knew my choices were terrible; I would have much rather been 18 in 2000, so I could cast my vote for Al Gore… not the greatest politician known to man, but a man with ideals. A man who has since made more money and gained more power as a result of his crusade on global warming, which may be more important to us in the long run than a 4-to-8-year presidential term. But in 2004, Al Gore didn’t run, nor did he want to, and having seen what George W. Bush had done to this country in his first term, I sure as hell wasn’t gonna vote for him! So my choice was left with John Kerry, the Frankenstein-esque, Vietnam veteran with a low GPA at Harvard. And the soon-to-be adulterer to his terminally ill wife-$400 haircut John Edwards.
Come election day 2004, I knew the election was going to be a close one. I knew that there were still a good chunk of ignorant warmongering homophobes, as well as a ton of people who had logic and thought that a box of Tic Tacs would make a better president than Bush (no joke: a website actually had that poll back around 2003, and the last time I checked, 85% of those who took the poll voted in favor of the box of Tic Tacs!). Unfortunately, the ignorant warmongering homophobes slightly outnumbered the people with logic by 3 million voters (and enough to tip the Electoral vote to Bush). Now I’m not saying that everyone who voted for Bush was indeed an ignorant warmongering homophobe, maybe perhaps just one of the three, or just easily gullible to think that terrorism really is a threat to our every day lives, and switching leaders during a time of war could lead to another 9/11 attack or worse. Maybe people just hadn’t been fucked up the ass enough by the Bush Administration to change that, or just enjoyed the great comedic jabs Bush took to switch presidents yet.
Come 2008, however, the jokes about Bush don’t seem funny anymore. Or at least as funny as they did back in 2006. I still remember when Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face. That made for some good comedy! Family Guy, Lewis Black... Bill Maher. Yet, political satire about Bush and his homies seem kind of beside the point, when we’re paying $4.30 a gallon for gas, and I’m sure the owner of a local deli with a wife & three kids is laughing at Bush when the foreclosure sign was being posted in front of his house, or the young and rising computer programmer whose job got outsourced to India. Now, Bush’s stupidity and his friends’ diabolic greed are just getting scary. And Barack Obama’s Republican opponent, Mr. John “Couldn’t Win the Primary in 2000 to George W. Bush” McCain, offers no solace to the mess Bush made; he only vows to add on to it, by naively thinking that we’re on the right track to victory in Iraq, and offshore drilling (and fuck-all to alternative energy) is the answer we really need.
So the race is finally on. It’s getting down to the wire here. First come the conventions. Then come the debates. Then come the pundits weighing in. Then comes the public. Then comes Election Day. Spreading pre-holiday cheer to all 50 states. From Kennebunkport to Hilo, and all points in between.

Breaking the Creative Dam; The Bob Saget Roast; Movies

The other day I went over Liz's. Liz is the drummer for my band. We've been on hiatus since June because of Liz having to sell her house and having to move (her dad died last year, left her the house, and all that shit). So finally, that ordeal is thankfully coming to an end. We ended up jamming for a while, and ended up improvising this awesome idea for a new song. Then Amelia came by, and we ended up jamming acoustically. We ended up playing Nirvana's "Polly," and a few other songs we knew, including "Love Stinks" (as a joke). Hopefully, we're reconvening sometime this week and getting the band started again. That day at Liz's kinda was a further emergence from nothing short of a creative slumber. Ever since my sister had her play (and got really fucking good reviews for it, btw!), and jamming with Liz again, I realized that maybe I am as good as people think I am. I'm not trying to come off as narcissistic, but I know I do have a way with words when I really think about it, and I listen to the right music to get inspired to tweak a good tune. I may be wrong. Nah... I'm tired of being wrong.

The Roast of Bob Saget was on Comedy Central was on last Sunday. Jesus Christ, I couldn't stop laughing. Those roasts on Comedy Central are downright hilarious. Last year, they roasted Flavor Flav, and it was 2 hours worth of comedic genius (My favorite joke was when Patton Oswalt said that "Chuck D. wanted to be here tonight, but the 'D' stands for 'dignity.'" I love that guy!). The Bob Saget Roast definitely upped the ante a little bit. The roastmaster was, of all people, John Stamos. Of course, he took some comedic jabs, particularly about how he was in that Beach Boys video wearing a pink tank top, and how his ex-wife, Rebecca Romijn, is dating Jerry O'Connell. Greg Giraldo quipped that "He lost his wife to the fat kid from Stand By me." But, he was a good sport about it, and actually shot off a few hilarious barbs as well (I'm not sure if he came up with them himself or if he hired the best insult comedy writing crew). The Olsen Twins were absent, but the girl who played Stephanie on Full House was there. Overall, it was hilarious, and worth watching TV for (can't say that about most TV programming nowadays!). Here's a clip by Gilbert Gottfried describing what happens to the Olsen Twins when they walk into a bar:



I've been watching some good movies lately. I'm weird. I go through phases where I'm a film-o-holic for like six months, and then I go through a period where I can't sit through even my favorite movies for a few months. My girlfriend and I rented this film called Flakes, with Zooey Deschanel, who win me over with her cameo in the second season of Weeds, and, from what I've heard, the She & Him record. It's an interesting story about this twentysomething hipster couple living in New Orleans. The lead character (played by Aaron Stanford) is an aspiring musician who works in a cereal bar, and his girlfriend (Deschanel). The storyline is kind of Clerks-ish (a slacker who wastes his potential working a dead-end job and a girlfriend who's trying to get him out of it), but adds something I've never seen in a film, or even in real life (could be because Southbury, CT isn't hip enough for a "cereal bar," where stoners, and old farts come in and eat a bowl of cereal; in fact, I haven't seen one or heard of one anywhere, yet again, I don't get out too much). Naturally, some young hot-shot businessman opens a corporate copy of a cereal bar adjacent to Flakes, the store the protagonist works at. His girlfriend sees it as a sign for him to quit his job and finish his CD, but he sticks with the job and his zany boss (Christopher Lloyd returning from his vacation off the face of the earth). Trying to act as a catalyst, his girlfriend (who goes by the name Miss Pussy Katz) works at the corporate competitor. A really good indie film. Not superb acting, or anything, but better than most shit in theaters.

I want this combination. Viva la Soul Power Special!:



I also rented Closer, the biopic of Joy Division's doomed lead singer, Ian Curtis. It was directed by a little-known upstart director/photographer Anton Corbijn, who directed a low-budget video for an unknown band called Nirvana in the early 1990s, with a song that got NO airplay called "Heart-Shaped Box." It was very powerful. Very sad. Great performance by Sam Riley (who strikingly looks like Ian Curtis). Great parallel between Ian's marriage and his affair with journalist Annik Honore (played by Riley's real life girlfriend, Alexandra Maria Lara; beautiful woman, hope to see more of her). Kudos to Corbijn for capturing the anguish of Ian Curtis (especially his epilepsy and the effect of his medication), and the somber mood of Joy Division's music and tragic story without being too dramatic or overbearing.

Here's perhaps the most riveting scene from the film. The band performing "Dead Souls," and Ian having a bad epilepsy attack.



More on Joy Divison: The video for Atmosphere (also directed by Corbijn):



Hey, I also read that Sam Riley was in 24 Hour Party People (the movie about Factory Records, which signed Joy Division, and also delves into Joy Division's brief history), playing Mark E. Smith of the Fall, but his scenes never made the final cut. Oh well.

"I Guess It's True It's Never Too Late"

I'm still holding on to the positive elements of Saturday, and I'm trying really hard not to let them fade into obscurity. I think I need to keep doing that, and keep drawing on what's good in my life instead of everything that has sucked in my life (a bad trait, yes I know, but... no one's perfect). I think I'm already making progress. This is my second blog this week. That's one good thing right there. I got two MUG awards in two weeks at work. That's another good thing, especially since about two or three weeks ago my head was on the chopping block for "inconsistent performance." What can I say? My boss, a nice guy most of the time, is a nitpicker, and perhaps too meticulous with everything down to the most minor detail. I, on the other hand, don't sweat the small stuff. A MUG award is an award at work (just a cheesy coffee-mug shaped pin and a little card) given to partners (as we're called, not employees) who go the extra mile for customers and/or fellow partners. One was for leaving a shining store for the openers the next morning, and the other was staying an extra hour and a half the other night to help mend a leaking ceiling (and yes I did get paid for it).

I was browsing through some old literary magazines from back in high school, and I reread some old shit I had wrote, and I was actually kind of proud on what I had written back four or five years ago. I was reminded on how much people actually kinda liked my writing, and I don't know why I ever stopped, or tried my hand submitting shit to magazines or whatever. Ever since I had a nervous breakdown 4 and a half years ago, I became ultra-guarded about everything, including my writing, and felt that it was better to build a wall around myself. I've spent the better part of this time isolating myself from old friends that actually liked me and weren't the pretentious assholes that took me for granted. I restrained my muse, and let it wither on several occasions. I procrastinate terribly to the point where I go to do something, and, to me, it doesn't matter anymore. If I could keep an annex full of aborted ideas or unrecorded thoughts, the annex would be the size of Honduras. I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm not gonna let my writing be a secondary priority anymore. Nor am I gonna isolate myself from everyone. Nor am I gonna put off things that may better me anymore. I'm also not gonna feel like I missed the boat on opportunities that will make me excel in this life. Sure, I'm 23 years old, but 23 isn't old. Some people are out of college and have decent paying jobs by that age, but there's also a lot of people who, at 23, don't even know what the fuck they want in life. They're still toughing it out at a not-so-great job, and are easing their way through school until the day they actually know what they want, and I fall into that category. And I'm not feeling like shit about it anymore.

With that said, I'm going to bed, going to the bank tomorrow morning, going to the mailbox and mailing my car tax bill. In between tat, I'll conjure up a good idea for my next blog (next apolitical blog; my girlfriend says I blog about politics too much). Peace out.

A Permanent Night, Indeed

I'm taking a break from ranting and raving about how much I hate everything, and shedding a light on something actually positive. Last night, my older sister had her original play, The Permanent Night, premiere at the Fringe Fesitval in New York. This was her first time she had a play of hers submitted into the festival, after a couple attempts. It was marvelous. I always envied my sister's ability to conjure characters and create a story that's cohesive and meaningful. As a writer, I've always struggled with that. To be fair, I haven't really made a full scale effort to do that in a couple of years. Back in April I started writing some fragments, but they got erased because my computer crashed and I was an idiot for not having them backed up. But the play itself was really good, and I recommend anyone to shell out the $15 to go see it. There are still a few more performances, including one today at 1:45.

After the performance, we went to a local Mexican restaurant/bar (to remain unnamed, tell you why later) up the block. I had a beer. My girlfriend had her usual dry martini. I met the cast, the producer, my sister's friend Jess, a few other people. Everyone was really nice. It was kind of a life-affirming experience for me, pathetically enough. Ever since high school, I've always tended to dissociate myself from a lot of people that I might relate to. Most of the aspiring actors, writers, musicians I've ever come across were pretentious snobs who had egos the size of Alaska and who could care less about authentic friendships and relationships. I'm a writer, and I hate writers. I'm a musician, and most of them I want to throw out the window. I used to act in middle/high school, but I could've done without a lot of people I worked with. But there was something different about these people... in NEW YORK CITY of all places! It could be an age factor. Most of these people are in their mid/late 20s-early 30s I'm guessing, and perhaps I'm judging from an 18 year old's point of view, an age where reality hasn't slapped a lot of people in the ass yet. It made me want to full-on pursue writing at the level I did in high school, and just do it for myself, and not worry about it going anywhere.

So at this bar, it was a bit pricey ($14 for a margarita, people). A few people got food, everyone got at least one drink. Somehow, the bill came out to $515, and the dickheads there charged us for a few things either no one ordered or no one received. My sister's friend, Kelly, a restaurant manager herself, tried arguing her case to the restaurant owner, but he was such a jackass and didn't know a damn thing about "the customer is always right," and threatened to call the cops if we didn't pay the full amount, so my poor sister and brother-in-law were stuck putting in about $100 more than they had to (and everyone had put their share in). So that bar we're never going to again, but I don't think it matters to them. It's in a touristy area, and the place was packed, so I'm sure they don't care that they lost a few customers.

So we went to this dive bar called The Slaughtered Lamb. One of the cast members bought everyone a shot of Jameson (whiskey). He also bought a round of drinks for everyone, too (I hope he has a good job). I ordered a Guinness. I got drunk. I talked with Mike (my brother-in-law) about 80s rock, Tori Amos, becoming a teacher (which is my realistic career goal), a few other things. I just had a lot of fun. Overall, I've never felt prouder that my sister's a part of my family, and (after a schism that lasted a few years due to familial bullshit) a part of my life again. I woke this morning, and The Permanent Night got a pretty decent review at nytheatre.com, which was awesome.

As always, though, after a really good day, I have to go to fuckin' work today. It should be fine. I'm still in a good mood.