crazy and penny

i warn you
this will be long...
this will be rambling...
i will make no appologies beyond that.

i find pennies a lot
and i always pick them up
down in Austin
at sxsw
i would put them into my left boot every time
and wound up with 30+ in the end
now
wearing flip.flops for the summer
the pennies go into the fanny.pack

so ive been finding a lot lately
sometimes as im riding my bike
il spot one on the road
and turn back to pick it up
perhaps a bit ocd
but it amuses me

so today i found one
as i parked my bike on columbus drive
outside of la.la.
at the only unoccupied parking meter in sight
i locked up
picked up the penny
and wandered into the show

now how i ended up at la.la is also a story
starting two years ago
so sit back for a bit
its a tale to be told

i was still working at the field museum then
still thinking id be going on into forensics
it was a cold january
and id dragged myself back to chicago
after taking extra time off back home
unsure if i could stand to go back
to the cold
to the lonliness
to the job i at that point was starting to hate
to the city that still had nothing for me

id picked up a copy of the reader
perhaps for the first time
and looked through the music section
having decided to get back to my old days
of going out
and doing things
back to when i was in high school
and nearly lived at the one all ages venue/gallery
enough so they let me do their calendar for them
i looked through
and chose out of the blue Double Door to go to
put on something i thought would be rockin enough
- still in my days of pants and pink hair -
and off i went, from red line to blue
to the show

i got there late for a friday night
the first band was done
and the place was less than packed
but i got a drink
- these were my captain and coke days -
and stood and watched the band on stage
looking around to see who there was to see
an older guy slowly got closer and closer to where i was standing
kinda inching over under the pretext of ocassional dancing to the music
til he was close enough to start talking
turned out the opening band was led by his nephew
turned out there was an after party down the street
at his nephew's loft
so he invited me and headed off
i stayed for the rest of the set
and then headed out too

i didnt know right then
but it was the coldest recorded night of the year
i made it down milwaukee
teeth chattering
and somehow found the party

chatted with the guy who'd invited me
met the nephew,
and then wound up suddenly with free tickets being waved in my face
to see Colin Hay
- yes of Men at Work -
the next week
the guys in the opening band
all brothers
had freebees to hand out
and so i took on and promised to make it
i didnt notice til later it was in milwaukee

the night went on
with me playing pool
and drinking coke out of a dixie cup
going off at 4am
to hollywood grill with a guy named Tod
who seemed nice enough...
...then finding out
he was one of the DJs at Q101
the occasionally infamous Fook
treating me to breakfast
on my first night out on the scene in chicago

he had me come by the studio
some weeks later
gave me a tour there in the merchandise mart
such a dissapointment
to see how little a DJ gets to do today
computers calculating the songs to play
requests recorded and aired when they line up
with songs already scheduled to play
the DJ reduced to a personality only
he offered to play something for me while i was there
over the air waves, whatever i wanted
i think i jokingly asked for stevie wonder
which they didnt have in the computer
but that was weeks later
im getting off track

(you remember
this is a story about getting tickets to la.la right?
i promise
im getting to that...)

the day of the Colin Hay show rolled around
id realized at this point that it was not in chicago
and run back and forth over whether to go or not
finally deciding to make an adventure of it
so i left from work
driving through thursday night rush hour
and made it to milwaukee in time
i remember the section of road
where the radio stations from chicago faded out
searching through the dial
for some signal coming to me from my destination
ive no idea how i managed to find the theatre
no memory of the roads i took
but i parked
and walked in
sketchbook in hand
and watched the show

at the end of it
i made bold enough to thank Mr.Hay himself
his wandering eye more disturbing in person
than even in the videos
and further thanked the guys who had been so kind
as to give me tickets in the first place
they were heading out to a bar
and insisted i come along
being their newest friend in from chicago for the show
so again
off i went

the night wound down
with a few drinks with the brothers
their father there clapping their shoulders with pride
at last call i finally asked about somewhere to crash
having set aside in my head the possibility of sleeping in my car
no terrible trial though it was mid.winter
id brought a sleeping bag fit for the arctic
but instead
one guy, a friend of the band
offered up a place to crash

now here is finally the key to the tickets
he works for SummerFest in Milwaukee
puts me up for the night
and before i have to head back to chicago
to make it to work for a half day at the museum
he buys me breakfast and hands over his card
so when he was next in town
we could catch a show

this was two years past
i did make it to one show at HoB with him
back stage and all
though i cant for the life of me remember the name of the band
and last year
i called him from the straight blue
to ask for tickets to Lucinda Williams
. . . i never made it to the show
part of SummerFest
he was appologetic
at not having an all access pass to offer then
but i wound up with food poisoning
stopped my car at the side of the road
realizing id never make it to milwaukee
or through a festival show
and didnt hear from him again...

...until a few months ago
a random call on a new phone
so i didnt recognize the number
and then here he arrives in town
for la.la itself
and with a pass for me
even handing over another for my friend Dan
appologetic again at the fact
that he didnt have all access to offer
that he would have to be off doing business
so id have to fend along for myself

how in gods name did this all work out?

and here i skipped last night
the free tickets to gnarls barkley
at HoB
from a girl i met once
ordering Jim Beam neat from her at the bar
and her saying that was her drink as well
we swapped numbers
and hadnt managed to meet up since

then thursday im stuck waiting to go help a friend in his shop
cutting circles of wood out with a band.saw
searching for jobs online
sending emails
and listening to music on my friends computer

i was going through what i didnt have myself
The Futureheads that he's so into
that i mostly missed at Pitchfork
then gnarls barkley
and as im listening to Crazy
i decide to IM that girl.friend of mine
see if she wants to grab a drink later
and what does she say?
maybe...
...but she has these tickets she got for free
for gnarls barkley
and maybe we could go together
but shes not in the mood for a show
so maybe id just like to come grab them from her...

she wound up handing over the pair
so i went with Dan -yes the same- to the show

while i waited outside
id ridden my bike
Dan was stuck with public transit
i saw Perry Farrell as he arrived
all gaunt and bored looking
i didnt recognize him
he seemed so drained
surrounded by a crowd of blonds
only as he walked in, past security
did i realize... and wish id made a running leap
to rescue him from monotony
or get myself sent to jail
who knows. it didnt happen

so the story is done then
but to tie it all back
the first set i saw full through
at la.la today
was The Raconteurs
-i got there after 4, my hook up had to check in at the Ritz-
Jack White strummed a chord half through their set
and laughed
saying 'heres one i know you know the words to so sing along'
and i thought
though im usually terrible at this
that chord... its familiar
so they swung on into the song
a cover
of gnarls barkley... Crazy.

stretching

my days keep getting longer
this weekend was near unending
with pitchfork
and our
post pitchfork pool parties
the days slur together
the blistering sun
barely seperated by any notice of darkness
since it never seemed to get any cooler

i gunned folks down at the fest
super soaker in hand
backup to get me outta trouble
i sniped the crowd from one band to the next
made what otherwise would have been
another day trapped in a too hot park
a game
and games as perhaps you know
i like

dodge.ball tonight for instance
my skull is still rocked from two direct hits
one point blacnk jolting teeth to the roots
my molars aching with the impact
the other full on
i reached up to see if it was blood or sweat
on my upper lip
its a game though
and you give as good as you get
to quail on the sidelines
or dive into the mellee is your choice

ive been running again
trying to realign muscles long since left idle
biking sadly isnt enough
my hips still fall drop snap
out of joint
pinching nerves
to make my stomach clench
its not a pain you can point to
but one that rolls back your eyes
so im trying to regain balance
trying to reestablish some kind of norm
for my body to hold to
three days a week seems manageable
three hours each week
running to somewhere
stretching
taking my time with that
it is almost as much
almost as important
this being an act of utter selfishness
of being unreachable and out of the loop
for a certain amount of time each day
as it is the exercise itself

tonight on the ride home
i rode silently
a moment or two of singing to myself
but in my ears was only the sound of the road
no headphones
just my thoughts.

. . . . .

other things

i cut 28 circles with a band.saw today
half 110" half 90" in diameter.
i forgot to eat a proper lunch
and seem to have skipped dinner.
from a friend,
while listening to gnarles barkley
i got free tickets to the show at HoB.
i saw Perry Ferral arriving
scoped him out as an unusually gaunt and confused individual
and after wished
that id been that one crazed fan
to run and jump him from nowhere...
there need to be more watergun fights in my life.
it seems i need more nights in my week
in the mean time
il just keep up with the current plan
sleep only when absolutely necessary.