Dumbek's Random Stuff

We FINALLY got a beautiful weekend. It's about friggin' time. Mid 80's and sunny all weekend. Lots of quality pool-time. I may end up with a tan this summer afterall.

We skipped the Lantern Thursday. It's been horribly crowded recently. Went right to The Eagle. Different crowd, but we ran into a couple of our regular friends. Fun time, but kind of a mellow night. Went back on Saturday. Again, nothing special. BF and I ended up in a minor argument that sort of killed the night.

Our new basement carpet is awesome. Now we have to put all of our crap back downstairs.

Spent most of today laying around the pool. Lunch at Whole Foods. mmmmm...Southwestern Turkey Wraps.

September is a busy month show-wise...The Phobes and Metropolitan are both at The Black Cat this week. Cake is at Merriweather this weekend. I wish The Black Cat would say who's playing at their 11th Anniversary Party. I need to decide if I'm going to go to that or to see Snow Patrol at 9:30.

Did I mention that I got tickets to see REM and Springsteen in Philly? That's gonna be a helluva show.

My boss gave me off on Friday, so I've got a 4-day weekend coming up. WOOHOO!

We're getting new carpet in the basement today. It's gonna look great when they finish. I'm ready for them to get the hell out though. They've been here for 9 hours already. It's 11:00pm - I'm ready for bed now. You already caused me to miss Washington Social Club at 9:30 tonight. Finish already.

We had a guy come out to fix the light in our pool today too. Estimate: ~$120. Actual price: $391 and they can't fix it until next week. hrmph.

Oh well. At least I got to take the day off of work. Couldn't at least one of these guys have been a little cute?

www.hotolympians.com

I love the internet.

Saw The Dead last night. They were ok, but that was one terrible setlist. 8 cover songs? Sheesh. Nice to hang with my friend S-- for a while. Seemed like old times. We ended up just buying our tickets at the box office. Section 102 - Dead center. $14 in service charges for buying 2 tickets at the venue an hour before showtime. Thanks a lot TicketBastard.

Drank too much and ate too little. Paying for that dearly today. That tends to happen when S-- and I get together though. We end up acting like we did in college - except we're pushing 40 now and can't recover quite the way we used to.

BF didn't end up going with us. There's an issue with one of his real estate deals and the buyers are being less than cooperative. Seems they bought a house without an inspection and in "As-Is" condition. Now they're furious that the seller doesn't want to pay about $10,000 to fix some things that they don't like. Sorry, Dude.

Not going to Elefant/Ambulance tonight. I still don't feel too hot. I was really looking forward to that one too. Can't blame anyone but myself for that though.

The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads comes out tomorrow. First time on CD. Go buy it.

There needs to be a 24/7 men's gymnastics channel. Commercial-free, except for occasional promos for the 24/7 men's swinning/diving channel. These guys are absolutely perfect. Could they be a little more adorable? Well...I guess they could be a little taller.

Just got a call from S--. Charley isn't going to hit them too hard, so he's already in the car and on his way. Should be here by 1:30 or so. WOOHOO! I haven't seen him since the disaster of our mini-Dead tour last summer (Sunrise->Tampa->Atlanta). I'll save those details for another time, but let's just say it ended with us abandoning his VW bus, missing the Atlanta show and some Georgia guy offering us a ride while drinking something out of a Mason jar.

Still hoping TicketBastard releases some good seats for tomorrow's show. I'm a little concerned about that. I haven't had very good ticket-karma lately.

Gotta go de-homoize the house a little. S-- is very cool with us being gay, but I don't think he really needs to see the gay porn laying around the house. I need to make him some CDs too. archive.org has enabled me to get copies of tons of Dead shows that we went to. Check it out, if you wanna download some great Dead shows.

Now playing: The Grateful Dead 7/12/89 RFK Set 1

Friday the 13th. oooooo - scaaary.

Very sleepy. Stayed up too late and drank too much beer. I do that every August 9 though. At least I'm not hungover.

Metropolitan was good. The BF even went with me. That was a surprise. I was very happy he went. We didn't stay for The Out Circuit. I figured we'd go home before he got bored. There's a better chance he'll come back again if he leaves with a good impression. Perfect night for an outdoor show. Fort Reno is awesome. There's only one show left. Check it out. Also check out Metropolitan at the Black Cat in September.

As predicted - we came home, drank and watched The Dead's 12/31/78 Winterland DVD. Damn they were amazing. That 3rd set was one of the very first tapes I ever had. I was lucky enough to catch the Dead on New Year's Eve 3 times (88-90). Every NYE since has paled in comparison.

Got some great R.E.M. tickets yesterday. 7th row for DC. 5th row in Pittsburgh. Mid-floor for MSG. The Georgia allotment sold-out too quick. I'll try again later. Still no word on who's opening. Still no word on when the R.E.M./Springsteen tickets go on sale. That's gonna be a tough ticket.

Dreading work today. Yeah - me and everyone else. Personnel issues. Grow up people.

Sonic Youth tomorrow.

8/9/95

I used to get similar phone calls a few times a year...

"Is it true?"

"Nah - just a rumor - don't worry about it."

So when R-- called, I didn't think too much about it. Same old rumors floating around. But then K-- called.

"How are you holding-up?"

My heart fell into my stomach.

"Sh*t. Is it true?"
"Yeah - early this morning."

I just sat there dazed. K-- worked a few blocks away. I asked her if she could come meet me outside, but she had a meeting. I asked where S-- was, but she said he was in a class all day and didn't know yet. I put on my Walkman and walked out to the park over by 13th and K. I just sat down and cried.

That's how I found out that Jerry Garcia had died.

It seems like yesterday. It seems like a lifetime ago. All the years combine...

I know it's not really cool with the indie folks to like The Grateful Dead. Who cares. That band did things to me that nobody has come remotely close to since. I can't even begin to describe the joy I used to feel going to see the Dead. Not good-time-rock-and-roll-party-joy. We're talking from the bottom of my soul, head-to-toe absolute sheer bliss.

And save your "and then the drugs wore off..." comments. It was all about the MUSIC. Music that gets into your head and swirls around. Music that takes control and makes your body DANCE. A guitar lick that makes you weep. God damn I miss those days.

I don't claim to be the world's biggest DeadHead. I certainly wasn't the first. But I managed to see The Grateful Dead 100 times in 7 years. The Jerry Garcia Band about a half-dozen times too. I traveled all over the country - Boston to Miami to Chicago to California. Even once to Canada. I remember S-- and I literally sitting on the floor counting pennies so we could go buy food, yet we managed to always have a stack of Dead tickets on-hand. I had the time of my life and learned a lot along the way. It's really not much of an overstatement to say that Jerry and the boys changed the way I look at the world. I'm a much better person because of them.

The only regret I have about the whole Dead thing was that my boyfriend and I never got to see Jerry together. We were at the same shows, but we didn't know each other yet. We could have been dancing right next to each other years before we met and never knew it. We met about 6 months after Jerry died. How did we meet? We were at The Green Lantern. He was wearing his "Air Garcia" t-shirt and I went up to talk to him. We've been together ever since. When we got our rings for our 5th anniversary, we got them inscribed with "a fine connection" - a quote from Jerry's song "They Love Each Other". Coincidentally - that's the first song I ever heard Jerry sing live.

The Dead are still playing, but it just isn't the same. I'll be there when they play Nissan next weekend, but it's more for sentimental reasons than anything else. They can still put on a good rock-and-roll show, but there's a big hole where Jerry used to be (no pun intended - haha).

I spent today listening to my first show - 9/2/88 Landover, Md. The good ol' Cap Centre. After I return from Fort Reno tonight, I'll probably go home and watch the '78 Winterland video, get real drunk and have a good cry. My boyfriend and I will swap tour stories that we've probably already told each other at least a dozen times. I'll dig through my hundreds of bootleg tapes looking for that perfect version of that perfect song I haven't heard in years.

Let there be songs to fill the air.

Go see Metropolitan at Fort Reno tonight. It's free, so you have no excuse. Great band.

After nearly 20 years, I finally managed to get my lazy ass over to Fort Reno. Of course the band I wanted to see (Beauty Pill) cancelled due to rain. Can't say I blame them. It sucked though, because that was supposed to be Rachel's final show. Hopefully, they'll do a make-up gig before she moves back to Seattle.

R.E.M. is coming to D.A.R. on 11/1. Fan Club tickets go on sale today. Keeping my fingers crossed for decent seats. Nice that they're playing such a small venue. But $75? ouch. Still, I'll readily pay it. Their live shows are far better than their records these days. 11/1 is the day before election day. Do you think Stipe will have anything to say?

Not a bad weekend. Got a lot of work done around the house. Yard work, putting the basement back together after a minor flood 2 weeks ago, shopping for new carpeting. Damn - carpet is expensive. Gonna cost about $2000. Ouch. So much for that iPod I've been eyeing. Went to the Eagle on Saturday. Different crowd than usual. Not bad. Not great. Just different.

Ugh - need more coffee.

I know it's gonna be a good day when I wake up with my boyfriend walking in to give me coffee. What a great way to start the day!

Curiosa was last night. Had a great time. Had to eat the extra ticket though. I hung around outside trying to dump the $60 ticket ($73 including service charges) for $20. No takers. I almost sold it to one guy, but some jerk ran up as the guy was pulling out his wallet and said he'd sell his for $15. Prick. It was time for Cooper Temple Clause to come one anyway, so I just pocketed the ticket and went inside. I wish I hadn't bought the second ticket, but my seat was KILLER. 4th row center. Just behind the over-crowded general admission Pit. I was probably closer to the stage that I usually am at 9:30 or the Black Cat.

CTC was pretty good. They played the second stage. It's always weird seeing bands outside on a bright sunny day. I'm so used to time smoky bars that being outside at a show seems a little off. I got my first taste of Interpol - me being the last person on the planet to hear them. Not bad. I may pick up their CD. Muse was terrific. I definitely need to learn more about them.

The there's The Cure. It was a good day seeing a bunch of good bands. But The Cure is just miles above the rest of these guys. They've still got it after 25 years. Still, I admit it was a bit weird being there. I still think of them as being this odd, reclusive, mopey band that no one really understands. But now they're bona fide rock stars. All Robert Smith has to do is look into the crowd and girls start screaming their heads off. Not just the faux-goth chicks, but the drunk, blonde, sorority-types (of which there were thousands). Ugh.

But The Cure sounded fantastic. Not the setlist I would have chosen, but I'm one of those old farts that considers everything post-Head On The Door as "the new stuff". Give me "Shake Dog Shake", "A Forest" or "Hanging Garden" over "Friday I'm In Love" or "Just Like Heaven" anyday.

They did play Love Cats though, which totally took me by surprise. Gloriously goofy. That instantly took me back to the days of dancing at Poseur's in Georgetown , and even the Back Alley Cafe a couple years later.

If you go to Merriweather, be sure to checkout 9:32. It's a bar run by Seth from the 9:30 Club. It's a great place to get away from the masses and avoid the music outside, if you're not into what's going on out there. Thank God 9:32 was there for me. It saved me from sitting through 30 minutes of Rapture hell. Thanks DJ Medusa :-)

Heading to Curiosa tonight. Looks like I'm stuck with an extra ticket though. I had the opportunity to get a GREAT seat, so I jumped on it. Now I can't get rid of my original ticket. Dammit. I hope I can dump it in the lot. I don't want to eat a ticket I paid $73 for. BF has absolutely no interest in going. I can't blame him. That's a long night if you're not really into any of the bands. I'm looking forward to it though. Hoping to run into a few friends there.

Bad accident on the beltway today. My normal 15-20 minute commute took 1.5 hours. Ugh.

Between getting to work late, sitting in on 2 worthless interviews and leaving early - today was pretty much a waste of time. That works for me though. That's what Fridays are all about.

I don't know about the rest of the country, but the folks in DC are getting tired of these damn alerts. Our reaction has changed from "Oh my God! - Something terrible is gonna happen!" to "Crap - trafffic's gonna suck and it's gonna take forever for me to get in my building today." No one believes them anymore. They're just a pain in the ass. I guess that's not really a good thing. "Be diligent" and all that. But we've had too many false alarms. The alerts are now meaningless around here. They need to come up with new scare tactics.

I've been blog-hopping a bit. I put a few more on my list on the right.

Bought the new Fiery Furnaces and Sonic Youth cd's this week. I'm a sucker for a coupon at Tower. After getting halfway through it, I was ready to list the Fiery Furnaces disc as one of the worst things I've heard all year - second only to The Rapture. The second listen softened my opinion a bit. We'll see how it holds up over time. I like "Sonic Nurse" though. I sort of missed-out on the whole Sonic Youth thing. I remember my college roommate playing "Death Valley 69 " once in a while, when it came out. I liked it, but it didn't blow me away. Bought "Bad Moon Rising" a few years back. Again, I liked it, but I probably haven't listened tomore than 5-6 times. I decided I needed to see them live though, so picked up the new disc. I like it a lot. Looking forward to the show next week.

Going to see Curiosa on Friday. I'll probably see Cooper Temple Clause and the Cure. I'll probably spend the rest of the night getting drunk, wondering how anybody can enjoy The Rapture.

Wow - that's a lot of links. I gotta control that.

Went to the Black Cat last night for the "Run For Cover" show. What a blast. Basically, a bunch of people from various DC bands get together and put on 10-minute tribute bands. They pick a band, put on costumes and perform 3-4 songs by that band. Last night we were treated to a female-led Van Halen, Sonic Youth, Black Sabbath, The B-52's, Zeppelin, The Modern Lovers, LL Cool J and a few others. Some were great. Some were terrible. The terrible ones were great too - haha. Apparently, word has gotten around about this. If it wasn't sold-out, it was very close.

Music I've bought recently:

:30 Over DC - This was one of the very first DC punk compilations, finally released on CD on a new label owned by Henry Rollins. Fantastic.
Trouble Funk - Live And Early Singles - Another release on Henry's label.

Other assorted discs from Ambulance Ltd., Snow Patrol, !!!, Xiu Xiu, The High Strung, Cooper Temple Clause and others.

Upcoming shows I'll probably be at:

Sonic Youth @ 9:30
Guided By Voices @ 9:30
Burning Brides @ Black Cat
The Dead @ Nissan
The Cure @ Merriweather

Speaking of Henry Rollins, this site is too funny.

Lots of hotties here. WOOF!

Happy Birthday Jerry!