Dumbek's Random Stuff

I wouldn't buy a used toilet if Jerry Garcia sat on it himself!

Oh....Wait a minute:

Jerry Garcia's three toilets up for grabs

TIBURON, Calif., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Southern California charitable auction is offering three toilets and a bidet from the mansion of late Grateful Dead rocker Jerry Garcia.

Poor Jerry.

Well, it's finally starting to feel like Christmas.


12/23 @ Iota: The Slickee Boys w/ Switchblade


Life Of The Party
Here To Stay
Jailbait Janet

Bob's show at The Birchmere last night was fantastic. The addition of special guests Amy Domingues (cello) and Rich Morel (keyboards) made it quite the special event. Amy's cello on the Workbook era songs gave them a rich, haunting quality that literally gave me goose-bumps at one point. Rich added lots of color and a fullness to the sound that fell somewhere between Workbook and Body of Song. The first-time-ever performance of "Days of Rain" was stellar. It certainly appeared that Bob was digging the whole gig as well. He even mentioned that even if he wasn't on stage, he would have wanted to see that show himself. Great night. Thanks Bob.

Oh yeah - Kristin was really good too. I'm not that familiar with her, but she put on a nice solo acoustic set. Must investigate further.

Mr. Mould is playing at The Birchmere tonight. Kristin Hersh is opening. As if that's not enough, there's also the promise of additional special guests.

My guess is that it won't suck. You should go.

Overtly homo post.

Hey Men's Fitness - What exactly was the purpose of putting super-hottie Ryan Reynolds on the cover of the latest issue? Other than the gun show on the cover, there's nothing of note in there at all. You'd think we'd get a glimpse of that new bod of his, but no. Just a head shot and a pic on a motorcycle, where he's pretty much dressed for winter.

"But the magazine is about fitness - not hot pics" you say?

Here's the entire content relating to his workout:

These days I go about an hour or two hours a day, usually. Mostly weights and a little bit of cardio. I do a lot of ab work because I hurt my back jumping off a bridge in Zurich about three years ago.

That's it. Wow - Thanks for the insight. Weights and cardio. Brilliant! I'll make a note of that.

The issue isn't totally useless though. A few pages later it mentions:

Men in DC masturbate more than men anywhere else in the U.S. - 30% play with themselves at least every other day.

I'm not touching that one.

Here are a few pics from the OK Go show last weekend.

Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. We had a good one - spent with family and friends.

It started Thanksgiving morning, with our usual holiday tour of Maryland. We picked the BF's mom up in Germantown, then drove down to my parents' house in southern Maryland for your basic Thanksgiving feast. My mother (the excessive baker) made 9 different desserts for a crew of about 11 people. Cakes, pies and whatever else she could think of. De-licious.

We learned several things about my 2.5 year-old niece:

1) She likes to talk on the banana like it's a telephone:












2) She likes coffee:









3) She likes to say the word "diarrhea".

(sorry - no audio clips of that)


Since I wasn't going to see my family for my birthday (that would require visiting my parents 4 times in 4 weeks. That ain't gonna happen.), we had a bit of a birthday celebration too. In addition to the plethora of other desserts, my mother tracked down my favorite ice cream cake from years ago - none other than Cookie Puss himself.


Yes - That's a "40" on the cake. Shut up.

So we had a great day. A very long day, but just one day. No significant travel involved. The rest of the weekend was ours.

Friday night we trekked out to Annapolis to catch Bob at The Ram's Head in Annapolis. Thanks to my navigational prowess, we made a wrong turn and ended up on Main Street rather than West Street. It was an uneventful mistake, readily fixed, but I should point out that about 10 minutes later some of the buildings we had just driven past on Main Street caught on fire. Like, a 5-alarm fire literally a few minutes later. Yikes.

The show was great, as expected. Our seats were ridiculously close. Uncomfortably close. It was almost like I had Bob standing on my desk at work. Not that that would be a bad thing, I guess. The BF could have easily propped his feet up on the stage. We had a great view, obviously, but I think next time we may opt for a few rows back. The music was great though - which is all that really matters. Bob seemed to have a few problems keeping his 12-string in tune, but I think that bothered him more than anyone else. Really nice, intimate show. I like The Ram's Head. My first time seeing a performance there. Nice space.

Saturday was split between the gym, napping and an AbFab marathon on BBC. We met up with a bunch of friends at Remingtons later that night. Yeehaw! We haven't been there in probably 8 years or so. We had a blast, all while managing to avoid dancing and partaking in the karaoke. I also happened to learn that the BF worked there many years ago. Who knew? Sean wrote up a nice little summary of the evening.

And that brings us to today, which has been even lazier than yesterday. Getting home at 3:30am is to blame for that. It's still fairly early though. I won't completely give up on being productive yet.

Shows this week - Bob Mould again. This time at The Birchmere on Tuesday. Kristin Hersh is opening. That promises to be a fun show. Highly recommended. Dark Star Orchestra at 9:30 on Saturday. Closer to the Gratfeul Dead experience than any of their semi-lame offshoot bands. I think our friend Bob is coming down from Philly for this. That promises to be a good time.

So...Am I the only person who actually went to work today? I guess I shouldn't really complain. My commute was half as long as usual. I got rock star parking. I've only had to respond to one significant email. My phone only rang once. I get to rock out a little louder than usual. And I get to spend a little quality time watching Butterstick. I've certainly had worse days.

Not a lot planned for the weekend. Tonight - Bob Mould at The Ram's Head. I've never been to The Ram's Head. Well...not since they started having bands, which means at least 10 years ago or so. We're having company the next couple of weekends, so we'll probably spend a little time working around the house. Definitely a trip or two to the gym. The new WSC in Silver Spring is awesome. Brand new equipment and tons of room. New gym = new boys. That always helps me work out a little harder.

I got a gift card from Borders yesterday. What should I buy?

It always makes me happy when bands from my youth return and come through with a great show. I caught Bauhaus last night at Strathmore and they were terrific. About an hour and a half of non-stop classics. The band sounded great and Peter's voice was as solid as ever.

I was a bit surprised that Peter wasn't very animated though. I've never seen them before, but all the clips I've seen generally have Peter contorting himself and running around a bit. None of that last night. Still - he had no problem belting out the songs. That's the important part. Daniel Ash was all over the place, keeping things visually, as well as sonically, interesting. The lighting was pretty simple. Mostly just stark, blinding white/strobe-lights, a couple of effects and a splash of color here and there. Not even a smoke machine, which I would have bet the farm they were gonna use at some point.

The songs were just killer. "She's In Parties" was nothing short of amazing. I was a bit concerned when they came back for the encore. They came out, played "Bela Lugosi's Dead," then immediately left again. Great tune, but there was so much left they hadn't played, I was ready to be disappointed with a one song encore. But the crowd didn't let up and they returned. The last encore of "Slice of Life", "Telegram Sam" and "Ziggy Stardust" was worth the price of admission. Wow.

The crowd wasn't nearly as goth-like as I had expected. It was an older crowd and I guess most of them are past the dress-up-like-you're-dead thing. Still - black was the dominant color of the evening. It was pretty easy to spot me in my bright yellow hoodie.

Strathmore was really nice, but almost a bit too nice. It's very sterile. I felt like I was attending a conference more than a concert. No warmth at all. Nice place to see a show though. And the fact that I was home in under 15 minutes was quite a treat. I could get used to that.

Rumor has it Bauhaus is going to put out a record of new material. I'm all over that. As it stands, I need to beef-up my Bauhaus collection. Crackle is missing too many essential tracks. There are so many songs that I had completely forgotten about until last night.

Now if they'd just release the old Bubblemen EP on something other than that damn Love and Rockets DVD.

Working late tonight. Well...not exactly working. I'm basically just sitting in the office waiting for the maintenance people to fix something. They've been "on the way" for over 2 hours now. Ugh.



Echo and The Bunnymen: Really good, but I'll stop short of saying "great". "Do It Clean", "Over The Wall" or "Happy Death Men" could have pushed it into "great" territory. At least they played "Rescue", which they refused to play the first time I saw them 20+ years ago. Ugh - I'm old. The band sounded fine. Ian too. "Walk On The Wild Side" and "Roadhouse Blues" were surprising. Surprising to me anyway, since I didn't look at any of the previous setlists. I would never recognize Ian if I saw him on the street today. My image of him is totally locked in 1984, with all that puffy hair.

I saw something I've never seen at The Black Cat before. Someone slipped one of the doormen some cash to let them in. I'm sure that happens all the time, but it's the first time I've ever seen it. And yes, they got in.

I got home kinda late from visiting the parents on Saturday, so we just stayed in. My loss. Those Bluestate pics look like it was a blast.

OK Go was last night. Damn, they were fun. Pure Pop Goodness. Why aren't these guys huge? It's perfect, happy, fun music. The world needs more of that. I was shocked that The Cat was only half-full. And despite the fact that I'm totally tired of hearing about their little dance routine for "A Million Ways", it was fun as hell to watch them do it as the encore. I think I got a decent pic or two. I'll post one when I get home.

Shortstack opened for OK Go. This sounds kind of weird, but they're sort of a cross between X and The Knitters. Much more twangy than X. Much more rockin' than The Knitters. The occasional off-kilter harmonies is what's bringing me back to comparing them to those guys. Pretty entertaining, but it went on a bit long in my opinion. At least I had a seat at the bar. They're definitely worth checking out though.

At least I had a seat at the bar for Shortstack. Although I got to watch one of the bartenders raise the price of Yeungling from $4.50 to $5. Apparently, it was only at her end of the bar. The guy on my end never changed the board and only charged me $4.50 all night. Maybe she ran out of quarters.

I walked out of The Black Cat with a handful of vinyl, including what appears to be a one-sided 7" of "A Million Ways." Vinyl rules.


And in completely unrelated news:



Paterno, Penn St. win 1st Big Ten title since ’94

Bright Eyes is doing a song for Pancake Mountain this afternoon at Constitution Hall. They're meeting at DAR at 2:30. I have no idea how it works, but you definitely need to bring a child with you, or you won't get in. School, schmool.

Happy Anniversary to the DC Eagle. Big celebrations this weekend, including the Mr. DC Eagle contest on Saturday and open bar tonight from 8-11. Leave the children home for this one.

I'm sure I'll be at The Eagle for free beer before heading over to The Cat tonight to catch Echo and the Bunnymen. I've been digging Heaven Up Here quite a bit lately. Word has it their HFStival gig sucked. I'm hoping they do better tonight. I've heard good things about their new disc.

Why is it that Bluestate always plans their gigs the same night as Cedars? Grrrr. Either way, you can't go wrong. Both are a guaranteed good time. I'm not sure which one of these I'm up for though. Maybe I'll let my other half decide.

OK Go on Sunday. I'm loving their new CD. And not just because of that stupid "A Million Ways" dance. I'm surprised this one hasn't sold out. I'll bet it does at the door though. Get there early to be sure you get in.

Don't tell my boyfriend, but I think I'm in love with someone else. (via durban bud).

I have no idea if this review is accurate (I haven't heard the disc in question), but it makes for fun reading. Personally, I happen to like The Residents. On a scale of 0-10, Big Yawn gives it a big fat ZERO.

The Residents - Animal Lover

quirt �� (kw�rt) KEY �

NOUN:

A riding whip with a short handle and a lash of braided rawhide.

That reminds me - MAL is quickly approaching.

Sony denies that their rootkit installation compromises your computer's security.

A first wave of malicious software written to piggyback on Sony BMG Music Entertainment CD copy protection tools has been spotted online, computer security companies said Thursday.

Hackers use Sony BMG to hide on PCs

That didn't take long.

There's a nice interview with Seth (the owner of the 9:30 Club) over at OnTap.

Went to an interesting art show/music thing on Saturday. Couldn't really afford any of the art and the one piece I would have considered wasn't for sale. That piece was the original art used for the cover of French Toast's In A Cave CD. Speaking of which, French Toast was one of the music acts. I like their CDs, but they're a different beast live. I wasn't expecting to see them play, so that was a nice surprise. 3/4 of The Bob Mould Band did a neat little improv set. Garland of Hours also played, but I missed them, as I was outside talking with some friends. Fun night.

Music.

No shows for me until Echo. It's nice to catch up on my sleep a bit.

OK Go tickets are on sale for their Black Cat show on 11/20.

The P-Furs and The Violent Femmes are playing in Baltimore on 12/10. The Furs used to be my all-time fave band. I may have to check that out. The Femmes get the award for being the most unlikely band I ever saw open for The Grateful Dead. That Dead show was also the day I consider my official coming out, since that's when I told my best friend that I'm queer. woohoo!

Mark Robinson (of Teenbeat and Unrest fame) has a radio show at MIT on WMBR. It's titled Mmm Pop Musik. You can download it podcast style here.

Speaking of Teenbeat, thesoundofindie recently put up an mp3 of a Tuscadero track recorded at the Black Cat in '96. I could put up a link to the track, but then you probably wouldn't check out the blog. It's new. It's cool. Go take a look.

I came home tonight, turned on the radio and was greeted by Chicago's "Color My World." I had a brief high school flashback, shuddered a little and turned off the radio.

Closing the pool this week. Should have done it weeks ago, but we always put it off. It's always a little depressing. blech.

Coke to phase out Vanilla Coke in US

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest soft drink maker, said on Friday it would phase out its Vanilla Coke, Vanilla Diet Coke and Diet Coke With Lemon beverages in the United States by end of this year.


Yet they still don't seem to grasp the fact that these drinks simply suck:

Coca-Cola added that it plans to introduce Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke and Black Cherry Vanilla Coke in the United States in January 2006.

"...it is important for Coke to move quickly to deliver on what the consumer wants."

Apparently, I missed the uproar of the general public demanding Diet Black Cherry Vanilla Coke.

Of course, the one bastardization of Coke that I did like, seems to have disappeared without much fanfare.

Tonight and tomorrow at The Black Cat

We're heading down to catch WSC's acoustic set and will probably hang out for The Routineers and Monopoli. Should be swell.

Katrina's Piano FundOn November 4 and 5, the Black Cat will be doing its part to help in the rebuilding of New Orleans. We will be hosting two benefit shows to raise money for Katrina's Piano Fund- a non-profit organization dedicated to putting instruments back into the hands of musicians displaced and impoverished by the Hurricane.

KPF was founded shortly after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina left many of New Orleans resident musicians--especially its famed brass bands--without homes and instruments. KPF President Juan LaBostrie, who was born and raised in New Orleans and who has run the soundboards for the New Orleans Jazz Festival for the past 25 years, recognized an immediate need. LaBostrie understood that the ‘soul’ of his hometown lived in its music, and that in order to rebuild, the city would need to hear its own homegrown brand of jazz, blues, and funk once again.

In order to raise money for Katrina’s Piano Fund, we have lined up two nights of amazing local bands and DJs. Standout performances will include the Washington Social Club’s first live acoustic set, Dischord’s own The Routineers, and Edie Sedgwick, an electronic act signed to local label Desoto Records. We’ve also got scene veterans Wooly Mammoth and Owls & Crows (ex-Thee Snuff Project), performing in one of their first shows. Plus, both of these nights will be anchored by popular dance DJs: Will Eastman of Bliss and DJ Lil’E of Right Round.

We are offering a special combined ticket price of $20 for the Friday and Saturday shows. Keep in mind that 100% of the proceeds from this important fundraiser (after expenses) will be going directly to Katrina’s Piano Fund and the musicians of New Orleans.

Big thanks to Atomic Music in College Park for generously donating an equipment backline and tech support for the shows.