Finally having the time to write about my trip to NoCal in October and a little about last night's show.

( First, an abridge edition of adventures in San Francisco & Monterey/Big Sur. )

( Now for my uninspiring review of the Mohegan Sun show. )

What a difference a year makes. 2 posts in 2011?

Really, I'm posting just to keep track of the few TMBG shows I've been to this year while they've been promoting Join Us. Briefly, I've seen Them at the Chameleon Club, Toad's Place, and most recently the TLA on Friday. Even though I hadn't been to a show since last year's Stone Pony show, seeing Them again was like coming home. It was like getting on a Santa Cruz bike. It was like comfort food. I'd been to a few Fountains of Wayne shows this year but it just wasn't the same, as their fans aren't as sociable or knowledgeable and the band is pretty boring live.

It's taken a few months for me to get accustomed to Join Us but most of the tracks are growing on me. As usual, the Linnell songs are the most appealing to me but I am thoroughly enjoying Cloisonné and Celebration, which are getting frequent live play. I've heard that Canajoharie was played a few times on tour, but as soon as Dan Miller returned, they stopped playing it. (Meaning, as soon as I could get to another show, I would never see it played live.)

They've incorporated the Avatars of They into the show and the avatars have been singing Spoiler Alert. I'm not enamored of this act, mostly because I find puppets creepy and I think you can only do this schtick a few times before it gets old. I much prefer Calls From The Dead because the variety of dead callers is obviously endless.

Battle of the Planet of the Apes has been a staple. At the TLA, Flans had a flashlight, which he used to divide the audience in to "People" on the left and "Apes" on the right. I, uh, happened to be in the center and taking video of this, not realizing the crowd had parted like the Red Sea behind me. Before I knew it, Flans was blinding me with his flashlight and saying in a policeman-like voice, "Lady, put the camera down. Lady, put the camera down." Hey, some attention from Flans is better than no attention from Flans, right? Although, I did want to sort of crawl underneath the stage at that point.

Speaking of attention, that same night, during Cloisonné, I was videoing the song. Unfortunately, Flans was on the other side of Linnell's keyboard so it was pointless for me to crouch down underneath the setup to get him in my video. However, Linnell, who has been sporting a bass clarinet for a few songs, was playing on my side. He seemed to be in a particularly good mood, hamming it up for all the fan photographers and videographers. Whenever he held the note at the end of the Cloisonné verse, he would lean toward me so we could all get a good shot of his posing. After the third time and at the start of the jam, Linnell must have decided he was getting tired of being my subject. All of a sudden, I see him looking at me and saying, "Hey, hey..." as he put his hand on my camera. I let him have it as he went up to Danny, who is on keyboard, and just pointed the camera at his keyboards. After a bit, he gave it back to me and continued on with the rest of the jam. I had the presence of mind to continue recording the song and got Danny totally cracking up at the exchange. When I got home and saw my husband in the morning, I related the story to him and then uploaded the video to my iMac. We both watched the recording and laughed because what Linnell captured was ridiculous. In my mind, the exchange seemed to last for a lot longer than what transpired. I'm not used to the fourth wall being broken like that.

Highlight announcement, They Might Be playing a New Year's Eve show in Philly. Huzzah! I'm hoping everyone will be conga-ing for my birthday. In between, I plan on spending Thanksgiving weekend with Them. Maybe they'll have Canajoharie worked out by then...

Hello. Anybody out there?

It's been a major while since I've updated or even read my LJ-friends. Something called Twitter has been occupying me and I'm trying to pretend hypocritically that I don't want to waste more time on the internet.

But, I return to Scrapple because:

1. I love scrapple and eat it virtually every weekend.
2. Twitter doesn't allow for rants. :)

Yesterday, I was speaking on the phone with the daughter of one of my clients. She asked me for my surname and asked if were of a certain racial persuasion, using an old, not really currently politically acceptable term. To which I replied that I am American. Her response was, "No offense, but that name is typically for ______ people." I again responded that I am American. This irked her so much, she sarcastically came out with, "Yeah, right, you guys are just like us."

If this woman didn't sound drunk, I would have filled her ear with all the the thoughts running through my mind at that time. But, I wanted her to remember some of those said gems and didn't think her alcohol-addled and already apparently academically-absent brain could.

But as one can see, I've recovered.

On a much brighter note, I will be going to San Francisco in October and staying there for about 10 days. First, for the Nike Women's Marathon and then for a conference a week later. Hoping to catch up with some folk out there? Maybe aliste if you're still reading LJ? Hopefully TMBG's plan to be in SF will coincide as well.

Not much else to report except, there is a great play on Broadway now called The Normal Heart, which I saw last Tuesday. I don't see a lot of plays because I'm sadly behind on literature. But, even I could recognize its stellar qualities, namely the cast. It's actually a revival and is about the early days of AIDS, when no one knew what the disease was, how the gay community couldn't bring itself to admit that abstinence/safe sex would control spread, how government/media tried to deny there was an epidemic (thereby trying to marginalize the gay population), and how a very few polarizing people tried to mobilize support for behavior modification and government/media recognition. The main character, Ned Weeks, is played by Joe Mantello, who returned to acting 20 years after playing Louis Ironson in 1990's production of Angels in America and has a successful career as a director. He was the main reason I wanted to see the play. But, the entire cast is fantastic. For any Big Bang Theory fans, Jim Parsons is in it. Definitely worth seeing if anyone is up in NYC area.

Next, if anyone is a Morphine fan, keep your eyes peeled for the Mark Sandman documentary Cure for Pain, which played to a sellout crowd last night in Boston. Whether or not it plays elsewhere appears to depend on funding for the project. I hope I'll get to see it.

I want to return to Chicago now for this. Listen to the interview on the BBC radio for 11/22 at 12:56 for an enlightening and geeky conversation.

Not much to report, but...

Holy winter solstices, this Sunday's NY Times crossword was freakin' awesome!! I am a total geek.


BTW, wake up Tuesday from 1:40-ish to 4 a.m. to witness the event. bec_87rb, I know you'll be watching.

Redemption of a sort at my second running of the NY marathon. Now, I will never have to run it again. Wait. That's what I said two years ago, isn't it?

I lie.

This time I really did try to rest the day before and studied the route so I wouldn't be surprised by the uphills on the approaches to the bridges. Even so, on paper, the elevations seemed harmless until I came to mile 23. Ouch. Quads cramped up so bad, I think I looked like the wooden soldier for a few steps. No worries! I just crammed a few pieces of prosciutto into my mouth and the cramps dissipated. Pork is your friend. Salt is your BFF.

Finished with a PR, although I didn't do a sub 4:30 as I was hoping. Remember, the glass is always half-empty.

I haven't changed my low opinion of the post-run experience. It's still a letdown to be herded from the finish line to out of the park with nothing to eat except an apple and a bag of pretzels. And much as I like Gatorade and Poland Spring water, a bottle of each after downing that stuff the entire race was the last thing I wanted when I finished. I think I would have been less disappointed about the available foodstuffs if there were actually a big tent under which to commune with other finishers, family, and friends. Although I understand that to do that for 45,000 runners and double the ancillary people would have been difficult. However, Chicago seemed to manage with 50,000.

On a different note, looks like TMBG have friends who don't hibernate in the basement to let their limbs atrophy. I'm just impressed that Flans was up so early to take this footage.

Just got home from Chicago (after I went to work today).

( I love Chi-town! )

Whoa! Has it really been two months since I last posted?

Um, I've mostly been kind of crabby. But, on the pollyanna front, I did my second triathlon last month. It was a lot hillier and I wanted to vomit when I started the run. But, it felt really good afterwards. Funny, that. Strangely enough, I want to keep doing it. I guess that's what it feels like to get drunk and then wanting to repeat the experience.

Last weekend, we went to Allegrippis in PA to do some mountain biking since its trails were built by MTBers. The trails were sweet and rolling. Some places were rocky so I was glad I had front-fork suspension. In the campground, we were entertained, during the day, by the images of a mother and teenage daughter with cigarettes dangling from their mouths, and after midnight, by the mother drunkenly shouting out into the quiet, "I'M YOUR FUCKING MOTHER!!!! DON'T YOU FUCKING...YOU FUCKING..." at one of her children. They had a trailer...

Yesterday, the fundraiser race I developed for my place of work went really well. The weather was great and there were more people who signed up to run than the first year. Saw a lot of my co-workers, and for a while, I forgave them their foibles in the spirit of exhaustion and dehydration.

Not much on the TMBG front. Unfortunately, some of their gigs fell on weekends when I worked. The Mohegan Sun show was when I was in the Allegheny's and the free DC show was this past weekend. The Morristown show falls on another working weekend.

NYC is becoming more of a drag to travel into, but there are so many shows I'd like to see. I missed Teenage Fanclub and decided to blow off Belle and Sebastian because I didn't want to deal with big summer show crowds. There's also many jazz gigs I'd like to attend, but those usually start later than my bed time, which I don't get. Recently, Ravi Coltrane was interviewed on the Leonard Lopate show, and the late hours that jazz musicians keep came up in conversation. However, Coltrane stated that that was the exception for him and that he's normally in bed by 8:30 p.m. So, I think he, who was accused of being an innovator, should start a movement to do matinee jazz club shows.

Well, I'm off this weekend to go to Chicago to encourage my friend in the Marathon. Really excited because it'll be the first time I'm there for pleasure. So, I'm looking forward to eating. Any suggestions? I seem to recall something about a chicken shack???

After that, I'll be mentally prepping for the NYC marathon. Hoping to redeem myself this year by not kayaking the day before. We'll see.

These days, I don't scroll through my friends page, I'll just click on certain LJ's. So, I just whizzed through the linnell_girls group and came across an article on Linnell's food preferences, which I found fascinating (okay, okay, but you're reading the LJ of someone who doesn't watch TV and therefore isn't very interesting).

Not having gone to London specifically for Indian food, I'm surprised he says that there is no good Indian food in NYC and that one has to travel to London for it. Which begs the question, if one must travel, wouldn't it be better to go to India? I enjoy Indian food but can only eat it a few times a year because of the traditionally creamy sauces that are used. However, one of my friends brownbags it to work and sometimes shares her stuff with me. She eats really healthy so I enjoy her Indian cooking the best, which is not very oily at all but still savory. Sadly, she is not a restaurant.

Heh, sea cucumber. My husband doesn't like it either, but I grew up with it so I have some fond memories of it. It's actually pretty good in a Chinese brown sauce. No sure why it turns people off because texturally, it resembles Jello that's somewhat dessicated. Granted, it's not strawberry-flavored.

I haven't really been watching any TV shows in the past several years with any regularity except for Ugly Betty. And even that started to suck in the third season. So, I started watching Rookie Blue, a Canadian police show import and Covert Affairs, another cheesy CIA series on USA. Seriously, they are both formulaic and that, on its own, wouldn't be a major contraindication to my ongoing interest. But, I guess it's become the fashion to insert sappy songs during certain climactic, emotional/self-realization moments in each episode and that bothers the crap out of me.

On the other hand, if there were a scene in a Rookie Blue episode where the cops are going for a daily egg cream and donut, I would not say nay to background "Dinnerbell". Or even "Karate!"