Pirates... Again

Bring on the grog. It's Septembarrr 19th so it's Talk Like a Pirate Day. In the past we've always celebrated w/ old pirate films like The Master of Ballantrae (in 2005) & Treasure Island (in 2007). Last year, we switched it up & went w/ a different type of swashbuckler: The Three Musketeers. We've got a 3 Stooges episode, "Three Little Pirates," lined up for this evening, but 1st we're off to visit my father who just had his 2nd knee replacement in as many months. Since you'll need to review the previous Visions of Ypsi Pirate posts to celebrate fully, you can see them here. Other things we may do today include a few museum stops or a trip to the the DIY Street Fair in Ferndale. I'll keep you posted... arrr.

Groovin' all week with you, or Another piece of the puzzle falls into place

I have very few memories from my time as a wee lad in Walloon Lake, MI. We moved to Petoskey when I was 4 years old, & what I do remember is often filtered through what I've been told by my parents. I do remember watching Land of the Lost w/ Robbie Zinkle. I definitely remember my Batman beach towel that fit over my head like a cape. There were certainly a lot of bikers who hung out @ the far end of the beach leaving the pop-tops to their beers all over the place. I remember morel hunting & berry picking & the book about pirates I got from the library which was actually just a table set up in the fire station w/ a few books on it. I remember playing w/ my Weeble Wobble Cowboy Ranch set while Mable watched The Price is Right in the other room... & the moment when I saw that Weeble Wobble set under the X-mas tree a few months earlier. I also remember Ray Burdett sitting Ray Burdett style (backwards) on a chair in the kitchen drinking his 6 of Löwenbräu. (He is also the name-sake of "Uncle Ray's Dressing," a salad dressing my mom makes for spinach salad.) Of course there were also his niece & nephew from whose parents we rented our little house & w/ whom (18 years later) Stephanie, Elizabeth & I almost saw our very last Grateful Dead show). Pontoon boats & the path through the woods, behind the old high school are pretty foggy, but there was the party @ Jane & Russ's where I didn't know anyone but ate a shit-ton of orange push-ups, a party that has always remained pretty clear in my mind. And of course, the time my arm went out of socket @ the general store & I screamed bloody murder. The 2 television memories I have involve M.A.S.H. & Happy Days. M.A.S.H. my parents watched... Happy days I loved, which is why the dream I had last night about Ritchie & Potsie stood out & needed a post. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night & said to myself, "That's bloggable."

The dream went like this:
As the 1st 6 or so seasons of the show revolved around Ritchie & Potsie trying to get laid, the fact that this made it into the dream isn't so strange, but the rest is. I was watching the show (but occasionally, I floated into the show & filled the role of a slimmer, more handsome Tom Bosley). On the episode, Ritchie & Potsie announced they would only date African American women & then started to talk all "gangsta," as Ritchie said things like, "What's for dinna, by-atch?" to Mrs. C. & Potsie came correct w/, "I'mma smoke dem punks @ Jefferson High, Nigga!" There were even times in the episode where Little Ronny Howard nearly broke character because he was well aware of the ridiculousness of the lines he was expected to recite. Furthermore, while watching the episode in my dream, I marveled @ the fact that Ralph Malph wasn't involved in this plot-line because his character was more often the type to do these sorts of things. It wouldn't have contradicted his character as much. It seems like Fonzie should have stepped in & told them they were being uncool, but that didn't happen either. I just don't know what to make of it, or how it relates to my childhood in Walloon.

It's Pirate Day Again

That's right folks, it's International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Have you talked like a pirate yet? You still have a few hours left... unless you're the person from Hawaii who reads this once in a while. In that case, you've got a lot of time left. I celebrated today by working @ Plum Market from 8:00-3:00, getting Solstice from school, & then coaching her practice this evening. She is spending the night @ her friend's house now so the rest of us will finish off the grand celebration by eating the pizza (how is it Piratesque you ask? Pineapple makes it tropical). We'll be watching The Three Musketeers. I know it's not technically a pirate movie, but Porthos is referred to as a pirate & it made my list of swashbucklers a couple years ago. Here's the link to the 1st part of the list, & here's the link to the rest of it. Oh, & here's your obligatory Arrrrr.

Pirate Week Post #4: Peter Blood

"Id is fery boedigal... Captain Blood is fond of boetry." Or so claims Admiral van der Kuylen @ the close of Captain Blood. I've blogged about the film on many occasions, but only this week, the main reason for the Pirate Week festivities, did I actually read the book. I 1st heard of the book when I was working @ Borders 6 or 7years ago, but then it was out of print. However, a couple weeks ago, when I had my sweet, sweet Amazon.com gift certificate, I stumbled upon it & figured why not? Having read it, I've realized the main reason "why not" is because it kinda sucks... In fact, the author, Raphael Sabatini, may have been a bit racist. But then again, so were many of the writers fro the Modernist Period. Although the narrator in this book goes a bit far @ times... describing a slave as "all teeth & eye balls." I'd expect that from a character, or a writer 100 years earlier, but this is from 1922! The depiction of the Spanish & French is only marginally less offensive, but still not much worse than the depictions of the French during the build up to the War on Iraq. By the end of the book, the English don't get a very good go-around either, but it's not based on some inherent inferiority like the depictions of the Blacks & the Spaniards. If only Sabatini was graced w/ the poetical skills that his character attributes to Captain Blood, it'd be a little less problematic. Still, it's fun like Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan: a guilty pleasure well worth the read.Along w/ reading this book & doing the other things written about this week, Pirate Week also included a viewing of "Sabrina and the Pirates" as Solstice has recently developed a love for Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Speaking of Solstice, she has a new post on her blog so check it out. I also watch, like the Sabrina episode, completely by chance, the episode of My Name is Earl called "Buried treasure". Speaking of new posts, Aiden also has a post on his blog, so check that one out too. This brings us to the close of another fun & moderately successful Pirate Week @ Visions of Ypsi. I now return you to your regularly scheduled soccer and tit posts. Here's a soccer story courtesy of Steve. And here's some tits

Pirate Week Post #3: Plantains

I've been a fan of the plantain for 5 or 6 years now, but I prepared them for breakfast this morning for the 1st time. Usually, I like to make them tostones style & serve them w/ Killer Quesadillas. I season them w/ cayenne, onion & garlic, & I suppose this would be good for Tastes of Ypsi, but it's here for Pirate Week. At this point, I imagine you're wondering how this is related to pirates, but as you know, pirates were commonplace in the Caribbean, & plantains, though originally from SE Asia, were introduced to the Caribbean in the late 16th Century. In that regard, they're vaguely related to the whole pirate thing. Anyway, I had one sitting around & cooked it up for breakfast this morning. To make it more breakfasty, I sliced it long-ways & fried it up w/ cinnamon, nutmeg, & a little Cayenne & enjoyed on the front porch w/ a cup of tea while reading a book (a book that also fits into the pirate theme but will be discussed later this week). The real reason I'm writing this though is because I was wondering if y'all like plantains & if so how you prepare them. Note the chipped, piratesque plate & the fancy sprig of basil

Pirate Week Post #2: Parrot Heads & Plagiarism

Yesterday morning I was cleaning the house & noticed a Jimmy Buffett concert from 1985, Live by the Bay, was on VH1 Classic. I've always been baffled by the Parrot Head phenomenon so I let it play in the background as I worked took care of some stuff under the stairs. I know that a guy who followed bands all around the Mid-West @ 1 point in his life doesn't have a lot of room to talk shit, but WTF? It starts w/ Don Johnson in full Miami Vice mode coming out to introduce his "really good buddy" & then Buffett played a couple acoustic tunes before being joined by the Coral Reefer Band. The piano player was in some ridiculous white robes, Sam Clayton from Little Feat was on percussion, & the lead guitarist was sporting that awesome 80s look, the white overalls w/o a shirt. I wish he'd been splattered w/ pastel paint, but alas, it was not meant to be. after watching it for a while, I realized there must be hordes of 70s singer-songwriters who bang their heads against the wall wishing they'd been able to assemble such a loyal following for their mediocre drivel. Not only is the music painfully boring, but then he had to tell these stupid jokes in between the songs. If it wasn't Pirate Week I wouldn't have watched; this is what I do for you people.Speaking of pirates, I got an editing job a couple months ago & was editing articles about the mortgage business for some web-site out of Canton. It was pretty easy, but some of the articles were pretty poorly written. When we moved, I fell behind a little since we were sans the Internet for a bit. As I was trying to catch up, I realized I needed to Google an issue that the article was about to ensure specificity regarding a date. Coldwell Banker had released some report concerning new trends in home buying & how they are related to the price of gas. In doing so, I realized that the article I was editing had been lifted directly from USA Today! Who plagiarizes USA Today? That's almost as bad as my students lifting stuff from Wikipedia. Here's the original article, & as you can see, it isn't even that great to begin w/. Supposedly, people were submitting the articles to her, & she would then send them to me for editing, but after I explained what I'd found, I never heard from her again which obviously suggest that she is the guilty party here. Here's her web-site, but I can't find the site on which she'd been posting the articles. If it turns out that she isn't to blame, I'll let you know, but until then, we should assume she is a shady Internet pirate.

Pirate Week 2008: Post #1... A New Hope; or "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought

Arrr; faithful readers of Visions of Ypsi wait all year for this annual celebration, but they have to wait no longer. This, the 1st post of the celebration, is actually only peripherally related to pirates, but since I included A New Hope on last year's list of swashbucklers, (found here, I figured it'd be OK. We were channel surfing the other night & came upon Star Wars on Spike's Force of July celebration & decided it'd been a while since we'd seen it so we gave it a whirl. If you haven't seen it, it's about a whiny farm boy who befriends an old warrior, a couple of gay robots & some space pirates in order to defeat an evil galactic empire run but Dr. Van Helsing & he guy who played Nick Debrett in Swashbuckler ... it's pretty cool; you should check it out. Anyway, I noticed a few things that have slipped by me during all of my previous viewings.
1) C-3P0's restraining bolt.
R2-D2's is taken off so Luke can play the message, but I never noticed when 3PO's is removed, or it just never crossed my mind to pay attention to it. It turns out that the bolt is removed between the time they leave the Jawa BBQ & the time they arrive in Mos Isley. This is a nice subtle little symbol. In fact, it's more subtle than I thought Lucas capable of. Once Luke finds Owen and Berue dead, he symbolically joins the Alliance. It is @ this point that he also "frees" C-3PO because the Rebel Alliance is one of peace and liberty. Nice job Luke.
2) Han calls Luke "Buddy"
Throughout most of the film Han refers to Luke as "Kid," but as they flee the Death Star, right after Obi-Wan is killed, Han calls him "Buddy." Here wee have a nice little rite of passage as Luke is no longer the innocent farm boy. He has become Han's equal, having witnessed the death of his mentor. This is much more jarring for him than the deaths of his aunt & uncle because he is now fighting for something & the death means more to him. Their deaths represented freedom; Obi-Wan's represents the moment when Luke becomes a "man." (Not to be confused w/ the 1st time he bangs his sister which must have happened some time between Empire & Jedi.)
3) Leia bangs Chewie
While we're on the subject of Leia sex, I found a little more legitimacy to her claim that she'd "rather kiss a Wookiee" than Han. After Han & Luke finish destroying the Tie-Fighters that chase them from the Death Star, they shout we did it & hug. The film then cuts to Leia & Chewie as she says the same thing & Leia & Chewie hug. I've always placed great importance on this hug, but only this time did I realize it's true meaning as I wondered what the Hell she did. She didn't work the guns, that was Han & Luke. She didn't angle the deflector shield or pilot the Falcon, that was Chewie. What gives her the right to claim to be part of this battle... she was just a passive observer like me & everyone else who views the action. It's exciting, but I don't think I can claim to have done anything in the battle (other than not changing the channel). Is this arrogant aristocrat hitching her wagon to the glories of a scruffy looking pirate & some Hitler youth farm boy? Certainly not. Then it hit me... what did she do w/ Chewie? IT! While Han & Luke are fighting the Empire, she & Chewbacca are in the "cock-pit" quietly humping... AWESOME!

Arrrrr... 100,000 Miles

My odometer just turned over on Sunday. I was driving home from my parents' house as it happened in the middle of Canton after a quick stop at The Trading Post in Plymouth where I picked up a new soccer ball & a new pair of sweet, sweet socks. I've never had a car long enough to watch this happen before. I may have the opportunity to watch this w/ my 1st car, but the odometer didn't work. of course, w/ that car, it wouldn't have been 100,000, it would have been 300,000 because by the time I got it, it'd already been all over the continent. In fact, the guy who sold it to me claimed he'd driven it to Alaska twice. My current car has never gone that far though. Here's a re-cap of the road-trips the old Escape has experienced since I bought it in 2002 w/ about 20,000 miles on it:
* Columbus 2003
* Petoskey 2004
* Cleveland 2004
* Cleveland 2005
* Petoskey 2005
* Chicago 2007
* Traverse City/Petoskey 2007Why did this post start w/ a pirate "ARRR," you ask? Because it's important to remind you all of the grandest holiday of the season. Wednesday is "Talk Like a Pirate Day," so get your rum now and be sure to rent yourself a couple Errol Flynn films. For those of you in need of a nearly comprehensive list of pirate films you should go here and then finish up the list here. When it comes to pirates, only at Visions of Ypsi do you get such top shelf service.

Pirate Week Post #5: Arrr, The Big Wrap Up

I went to the Magic Bag last night w/ Stacey and we saw Gaelic Storm. I'd been wanting to check them out for quite a while and finally got the chance. They're a cool, up-tempo Irish group who play a bunch of fun drinking songs w/ absolutely amazing musicianship. A great Violinist, an accordionist who also played harmonica w/ some amazing Popperesque licks, a hand-drummer who had a really cool set of world drums, a great rhythm guitarist and a piper who, along w/ his traditional pipes, had an electronic bagpipe. I'd read about such things, but I didn't realize what they actually look like. While the chanter is basically the same as an acoustic bagpipe, the drone is produced in some sort of MIDI thing that also does away w/ the bag, leaving an extremely phallic instrument extending from the piper's waist. If you ever get the chance to see these guys, I would definitely recommend it. The only down side was that the inter song shtick was a bit canned. I was alright w/ it though since they are so fucking talented musically.

What does this have to do w/ pirates, you ask? Well, one song as about pirates and the singer even threw in a gratuitous "ARRR!" I assumed he'd benn reading this very blog, but I'm not certain. Anyway, I promised my little story about my Disney World experience, so here it goes. When I was about 4 1/2, we left my 6 month old sister w/ my grandparents at their house in FLA and headed to Orlando. Of course, this was before Mabel lost her leg, in fact it was way back when she could actually use her legs so watching my sister wasn't the problem it would have been later in our lives. At Disney Wold, I went on The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction and was hooked. I absolutely loved it. I even got a Disney pirate hat. A couple days later at my grandparents, I learned that my grandfather was in some sort of pirate re-enactment group. To fully understand this, you must know that the FLA Gulf coast it mad about buccaneers. Everywhere you go, there's some sort of pirate crap and I always loved every little bit of it. Well, my grandpa and his buddies were dressing up (even w/ stage make-up scars and stuff) and riding in a parade. He let me get dressed up and I went along. We were riding in the back of a pick-up truck, when my sweet new pirate ha blew off and I cried like the little boy I was. At this point, some crotchety old drunk dude in full pirate garb said, "Arrr... pirates don't cry about lost hats." here I was thinking they'd stop so I could get my hat, and he totally put me in my place. And he was right, pirates wouldn't cry about a lost hat. Lesson learned, and I was hooked for life, as is evidenced by the fact that Wendy wanted me to asterisk the films on the list below that I own. I went back and did that, and holy shit, I own a lot of this shit.

Pirate Week Post #4 (Swashbucklers part 2)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 1980*: The second of the Star Wars films and the second sci/fi film on my list
Zorro the Gay Blade 1981: A fun little spoof with a gay Zorro
The Pirate Movie 1982: A shit-ass musical about pirates
Yellowbeard 1983: A not so funny spoof w/ some Pythons
The Meaning of Life 1983*: A funny as hell movie where the Pythons portray some accountants as pirates at war w/ other accountants.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 1983*: #3
Ice Pirates 1984: Space age pirates doing space age stuff.
The Goonies 1985*: Awesome!
Summer Rental 1985: John Candy teams up w/ a pirate/ seafood restaurant owner while on vacation in FLA.
The Princess Bride 1987*: A pirate and a princess fight a 6 fingered man and a total douchebag. It reunited Christopher Guest w/ Rob Reiner after their triumph w/ This is Spinal Tap.
Treasure Island 1990: Charleton Hesten as Long John Silver... from his cold, dead wooden leg.
Hook 1991: An interesting update to the Peter Pan story.
The Three Musketeers 1993*: The best version of this story featuring Tim Curry as the Cardinal played just like he played Frank-N-Furter.
Cutthroat Island 1995: An odd but not so good feminist update of the Captain Blood story.
Muppet Treasure Island 1996*: The only puppet based film on the list.
The Man in the Iron Mask 1998: The Musketeers are great but DiCaprio's job may be his worst ever.
The Mask of Zorro 1998*: The best Zorro movie ever, and it features Catherine Zeta Jones so it's got that going for it too.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace 1999*: Important in terms of the saga, but kind of shitty.
The Count of Monte Cristo 2002: A really good remake w/ the guy who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones 2002*: One of my favorites in the saga.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl 2003*: The main reason a list like this is necessary.
Mickey and the The Three Musketeers 2004: I'm not proud of this one... Mickey, Donald and Goofy as the musketeers.
The Legend of Zorro 2005: A shitty sequel to a really good movie.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 2005*: Action, action, action with great sword fights.
Pirates 2006: The only XXX movie on the list. Janine is as hot as ever... and so are the sex scenes.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest 2006*: A nice cliffhanger to bridge the story w/ the third film.
Pirates of the Caribbean: A World’s End 2007: See my review below.

Pirate Week Post #3: Swashbucklers (part 1)

This is by no means a list of all swashbucklers, just a comprehensive list of the ones I've seen. For our purposes, we're limiting the list to films that include sword fights, but not medieval sword fights so Braveheart and the many Robin Hood films etc. aren't included. Furthermore, I'm not including sea movies that don't deal w/ pirates like Master and Commander or Moby Dick. There are a few films you, gentle reader, might find fault in, but I'll explain them as we go through.

Captain Blood 1935*: While not the first pirate film, this one set the standard for all to follow. Errol Flynn in his defining role.
The Mark of Zorro 1940*: The first, but not the last, non-pirate movie on the list. It's interesting to watch Tyrone Power try to be Errol Flynn and fail miserably.
The Sea Hawk 1940*: Interestingly, many of the action scenes from Captain Blood were spliced in here to add to the excitement
The Son of Monte Cristo 1941: Not at all a very good movie.
The Black Swan 1942: I saw it a few years ago but I don't remember much.
Captain Kidd 1945*: Charles Laughton as an over the hill Captain Kidd... interesting but not fantastic.
The Three Musketeers 1948: A fantastic Gene Kelly vehicle where he was able to use his dance choreography to orchestrate the fight scenes
The Pirates of Capri 1949 An early spaghetti swashbuckler that isn't worth seeing.
Treasure Island 1950*: Disney's first pirate film which lead to the development of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction at Disney World which in turn lead to the creation of the recent Johnny Depp films which in turn created the recent pirate buzz which in turn makes it important to construct a list like this so you, gentle reader, can get a little background in the swashbuckler genre.
The Crimson Pirate 1952: Burt Lancaster and some circus freak made this as thinly vieled leftist propaganda. It's a fun little movie too w/ some silly fight scenes. Also, the scene where Lancaster and his circus budy overturn a longboat and create an air pocket so they can move around underwater was used in The Curse of the Black Pearl when Jack and Will commandeer the Interceptor.
Against all flags 1952: Not a very good Errol Flynn film.
Peter Pan 1953*: The first animater film on the list.
The Master of Ballantrae 1954*: Errol Flynn's final pirate movie
Long John Silver’s Return 1954*: An atrocious sequal to a great film.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea 1954: Kirk Douglass gets to sing the song "A Whale of a Tale" and they fight a huge octopus... obviously influencial on Dead Man's Chest.
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates 1956*: Admittedly, a bit of a stretch, but Davy and Mike Fink team up to fight pirates on the old Mississippi.
The Swiss Family Robinson 1960: Tree forts and pirates... what else could one ask for?
Pirates of Tortuga 1961*: ehh.
A High Wind From Jamaica 1965*: ehh... again.
Blackbeard’s Ghost 1968: I saw this when I was 6 at the Disney World camp ground and my mom was preggers w/ my brother. I have no recollection at all.
The Three Musketeers 1973: A very close adaptation of the first half of the novel w/ Richard Chamberlain as Aramis, Peter York as D'Artagnan, Christopher Lee as Rochefort, and Charleton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu. It was finished w/ The Four Musketeers a year later.
Zorro 1975*: Another spaghetti swashbuckler. It's interesting, but it's pacing is really slow.
The Count of Monte Cristo 1975: Another Richard Chamberlain Dumas film
Swashbuckler 1976: A fun movie w/ Robert Shaw and James Earl Jones... he made this while also doing the voice for Darth Vader.
The Man in the Iron Mask 1977: The final Richard Chamberlain Dumas film
Star Wars: A New Hope 1977*: The first of the sci/fi films on the list and equal to Captain Blood in terms of influence and importance.

The second half of the list will come tomorrow.

Pirate Week (Post #2)

On Saturday, I picked up my brother and we met our parents at Laurel Park for lunch and a matinee. After a Three Cheese Olga, some Snackers and some Curley Fries, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Aside from the wait-staff who couldn't stop using the phrase "No problem," the lunch was Olgariffic. "Can I get a glass of water when you have a chance?" "No problem!" I know it's no problem; bringing water is probably the easiest part of the job. It was like we were trapped in an episode of ALF. Not only was our server saying it constantly, but the hostess said it and the guy who helped bring the food to the table used that line too. I'm sure this doesn't come as a huge surprise, but my brother and I then proceeded to give the wait-staff as much shit about their little catch-phrase as possible. It also probably comes as no surprise that I really liked the movie. Of course, I'm in the minority who actually like Dead Man's Chest. It picks up basically where Dead Man's Chest left off, but I spent the first 15 minutes w/out a clue as to what was happening. However, once I got that under control, it came together nicely. As they rescued Jack from Davy Jones' Locker / Purgatory, there were some fun references to Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, with the fucked up illogic of the after-life. Keith Richards is also pretty fun as Jack's dad. His part is small (in fact it was probably filmed in a day or two), but he even gets to sit in the background and play guitar a little bit. He had some sort of fake nose which made him completely unrecognisable to my brother. Or maybe it was his intelligible speech that threw him off... or the fact that he didn't look dead. I guess those make-up people really can work miracles. Other aspects of the film include the fact that Keira Knightley Finally looks old enough for her part, the fantastic cinematography, and the great fight scenes. In fact in one of the fights, Johnny Depp gets to slide down a sail with his knife stuck in it like Errol Flynn in Captain Blood (and like Sloth in The Goonies). The little reference was nice after the little nod to that film in The Curse of the Black Pearl when Orlando Bloom Stood on the side of the boat just like this. I'm a sucker for homages and intertextuality. I could have gone for a baby carriage disaster too or maybe the timpani roll from Lawrence of Arabia when Jack was in the desert in Purgatory, but, alas, it was not to be. I suppose it could have also used a shot of Keira Knightley's tits, but then again, what movie wouldn't be enhanced buy such a scene? This concludes Post #2 of Pirate Week. Be sure to check back for more pirate fun and games through Friday here at Visions of Ypsi.

Live Music, Written Words and a Bunch of Pirates

I should've know yesterday would turn out pretty well when I was volunteering @ my son's field day & his friend's mom, quite the MILF, was there too. His friend was freaking out for a minute and pulling on his mom's shirt at which point her left tit popped out. A random tit shot like that always ushers in a good day (not to mention, none of my friends got shot in South Central LA). Last night, Stacey & I went to the Ark last night to see Blanche, a really cool, indescribable Detroit group. They're lead by Dan John Miller, formerly of Goober and the Peas. He has a weird David Byrne meets Bob Wills feel to him, & he seems pretty cool, despite that fact that he was drinking Rolling Rock Light. (I didn't even know such a useless beer existed.) They play a really strange mix of country, rock, rockabilly and goth weirdness. They play vintage instruments and most of them wear cool country suits... except the bass player who wears these vintage dresses she apparently reworks to add a spookiness to them. For instance, last night she was wearing an old wedding dress to which she'd added black lace and ribbons. She had also, apparently, dropped a little too much acid because during a couple of her songs she just kept laughing and was completely unable to sing. It was cool though, & even the sound problems during the encore didn't bother me. (The band seemed to be pretty pissed off by them though.) Before they came out, two other local groups opened for them: Jawbone and Sunshine Doray. The latter featured a woman on drums & a woman on piano and they were really cool. Goofy lyrics and an oldtimey, ragtime sound. They even covered "Whiskey Bar" w/ the original Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht setting (rather than The Doors ridiculous rock version) from The Threepenny Opera. The former, Jawbone, is a one-man-band from Ferndale. He seemed to really get the crowd going, but I wasn't very impressed. I've always felt that you're not a true one-man-band until you have a horn strapped to your neck and some cymbals between your legs. He had neither. What he did have was a rather repetitive song selection & a poor vocal mix. My other issue w/ him was that he sounded like the White Stripes. Stacey liked that about him, but I've never been a fan. Part of the issue, I think, was that his drumming, as he only used his feet, was simple and boring... not unlike what's her name from the White Stripes. All-in-all we had a great time though (aside from lunch-box who was sitting next to us & had to walk passed us every few minutes and step on my toes. After the show, we hit Leggs Lounge where we had a nice long conversation w/ a pretty cute stripper who had a really cool tattoo above her who-ha. It was a Gloria Steinem quote: "Men are taught to celebrate their strengths, women to apologize for theirs." I don't know if I buy it completely, but it's cool none-the-less.
In book news, I've been reading Searching for the Sound, Phil Lesh's autobiography. It came out a few years ago, but @ the time I thought, "The last thing I need is another book about the Dead." It turns out (mark your calenders) I was wrong. I found it at Borders for 5 bucks and have been tearing through it this week. He spends a lot of time discussing his influences in jazz & classical; it's like a crash course in Western music. He also spends a lot of time relating crazy drug stories which always make me think, "It's been 15 years; maybe I should try some acid again." (Mark your calenders again... 2 wrongs in one post.)
Finally, it's PIRATE WEEK here at Visions of Ypsi. I watched Dead Man's Chest again the other day in preperation for seeing At World's End today. I'm going w/ my Dad and my Brother, but 1st we're hitting Olga's for some lunch. I smell another good day. Be sure to check back all week for more pirate info including a list of Swashbucklers you need to see & some memories about my first time on the ride at Disneyworld when I was a kid.