Saturday morning, living room, the house messy but almost pleasantly so. A few blankets rumple on the floor, the week’s newspapers sprawl over tables, and orange peels grace the edge of the couch. Shadow sleeps on a pillow. I can hear S and N playing with their legos upstairs. M and T are off at Target and Home Depot. The skies are grey and rain mists through town.
Yesterday was decent. I woke earlier than I wanted to hang out with the boys before they went to school. Two of three days saw me busy in the evening, a rare phenomenon, so I paid attention to my time with the kids before they left for school. Instead of attending what sounded like a rather boring meeting I called in a marker and skipped in favor or errands (post office, library, oil change) and a coffee shop stint. The town construction (I’d show you a webcam view but the city turned the webcam away from the construction zone, sneaky bastards) is decimating downtown businesses. I felt guilty because I hadn’t visited the coffee shop in a while so I bagged the laptop and made the counter near the door my afternoon office. F and C called from work, so I stepped outside for calls, but otherwise I answered email, drank iced tea, and dug the atmosphere. I love our coffee shop. Survive, coffee shop, survive!
Here’s the current webcam view, by the way:
http://www.ci.port-washington.wi.us/WebCam.htm
Later I picked up the boys from school (no playground incidents this time). When M returned from a doctor’s appointment I drove down to my office to meet D for the Hold Steady gig. We worked through some of his grad school data before driving through the rain to half-priced books. D is the cheapest motherfucker I know as far as books are concerned. He won’t even buy normal used books. He has to go to the “clearance” section of the bookstore and find the cheapest used books amongst the cheapest used books. Anyway, I walked the bookstore while he looked through the clearance racks. Friday night at the bookstore. Go twenty years back, move 120 miles south, add the CTA and subtract most of the money in our pockets and you’d see us in a bookstore on a Friday night. Cool. Afterwards D wanted Taco Bell so we stopped at a sauna of a Taco Bell (second time in a week, gross) before driving to the gig in downtown Milwaukee. We found parking on a side street after ten minutes of circling in the rain and walked through the mist to the venue (Turner Ballroom). The Turner is almost hidden across the street from the Bradley Center. You have to walk up two flights of narrow stairs past what appears to be a German beer hall before you arrive at the ballroom. We entered and the ticket girl told us “to your left.” The bar was on our left. Apparently we looked ready to drink. I got a bottle of water. We found table seats (yes!) and settled in for the gig. Ok, I’m going to review the concert with bullet points.
The chairs were normal hotel ballroom chairs, like at a wedding. I felt like someone should bring me pasta before the chicken dance.
The opening band were a bit sad but kept their end brief. Well done, boys!
The Hold Steady were great. I don’t know how they maintain their energy night after night. Truly inspiring.
D pointed out that the “guys wearing glasses” crowd percentage hovered near 75%.
Craig Finn is shorter and thinner than I expected.
The security guards scared no one. They looked scared. Back in Chicago we were TERRIFIED of the security guards. I don’t know how many times I saw ponytailed musclemen kick the living shit out of concertgoers. If the security back then came near you you’d best lower your eyes and get very polite.
The Turner Ballroom has promise. I hadn’t been at a gig with an open floor space since maybe Nick Cave at Metro.
After the gig Dan dropped me off at the car and I drove home while listening to the excellent new Nick Cave disc. I net-cruised for a while before reading about two pages of “Vurt” and falling asleep.
Will I get a poem posted today? Not sure. News at eleven.
Yesterday was decent. I woke earlier than I wanted to hang out with the boys before they went to school. Two of three days saw me busy in the evening, a rare phenomenon, so I paid attention to my time with the kids before they left for school. Instead of attending what sounded like a rather boring meeting I called in a marker and skipped in favor or errands (post office, library, oil change) and a coffee shop stint. The town construction (I’d show you a webcam view but the city turned the webcam away from the construction zone, sneaky bastards) is decimating downtown businesses. I felt guilty because I hadn’t visited the coffee shop in a while so I bagged the laptop and made the counter near the door my afternoon office. F and C called from work, so I stepped outside for calls, but otherwise I answered email, drank iced tea, and dug the atmosphere. I love our coffee shop. Survive, coffee shop, survive!
Here’s the current webcam view, by the way:
http://www.ci.port-washington.wi.us/WebCam.htm
Later I picked up the boys from school (no playground incidents this time). When M returned from a doctor’s appointment I drove down to my office to meet D for the Hold Steady gig. We worked through some of his grad school data before driving through the rain to half-priced books. D is the cheapest motherfucker I know as far as books are concerned. He won’t even buy normal used books. He has to go to the “clearance” section of the bookstore and find the cheapest used books amongst the cheapest used books. Anyway, I walked the bookstore while he looked through the clearance racks. Friday night at the bookstore. Go twenty years back, move 120 miles south, add the CTA and subtract most of the money in our pockets and you’d see us in a bookstore on a Friday night. Cool. Afterwards D wanted Taco Bell so we stopped at a sauna of a Taco Bell (second time in a week, gross) before driving to the gig in downtown Milwaukee. We found parking on a side street after ten minutes of circling in the rain and walked through the mist to the venue (Turner Ballroom). The Turner is almost hidden across the street from the Bradley Center. You have to walk up two flights of narrow stairs past what appears to be a German beer hall before you arrive at the ballroom. We entered and the ticket girl told us “to your left.” The bar was on our left. Apparently we looked ready to drink. I got a bottle of water. We found table seats (yes!) and settled in for the gig. Ok, I’m going to review the concert with bullet points.
The chairs were normal hotel ballroom chairs, like at a wedding. I felt like someone should bring me pasta before the chicken dance.
The opening band were a bit sad but kept their end brief. Well done, boys!
The Hold Steady were great. I don’t know how they maintain their energy night after night. Truly inspiring.
D pointed out that the “guys wearing glasses” crowd percentage hovered near 75%.
Craig Finn is shorter and thinner than I expected.
The security guards scared no one. They looked scared. Back in Chicago we were TERRIFIED of the security guards. I don’t know how many times I saw ponytailed musclemen kick the living shit out of concertgoers. If the security back then came near you you’d best lower your eyes and get very polite.
The Turner Ballroom has promise. I hadn’t been at a gig with an open floor space since maybe Nick Cave at Metro.
After the gig Dan dropped me off at the car and I drove home while listening to the excellent new Nick Cave disc. I net-cruised for a while before reading about two pages of “Vurt” and falling asleep.
Will I get a poem posted today? Not sure. News at eleven.
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