A Very Fucked Up Weekend

But since I make it a policy of using this blog as a way to, as Du Bois put it, "Live behind the veil; in a land of blue skies and great wandering shadows," I think perhaps I better focus on the un-fucked up stuff that went down recently. My mask may not be lying, but it's definitely going to grin & withhold information (2 lit references in as many sentences... mark your calenders, we may be taking a new, intellectual course here at Visions of Ypsi).

Friday night, I went to dinner w/ Stacey for her belated b-day. We hit a new Cuban place in A2 called Cafe Habana. The place was absolutely packed. Apparently, a few people come into town for the Michigan / Ohio State Game... who knew? Since we had to wait a while to get a table, we found our way to the bar where I sampled a Mojito. It was definitely the strongest one I've ever had, but then again, I've only had them one other time so my comparison might be a little useless. When we got a table, I ordered the Cuban Vegetarian sandwich. It was good, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Their vegetarian menu left a little something to be desired. Stacey made the better choice by getting the other vegetarian option, Arepas, cornmeal pancakes w/ goat cheese pico de gallo & spinach. Her food was fun & interesting. It was really good too. Of course, we also took it upon ourselves to get a carafe of sangria which was good, but they used coconut rum. I think if I were to go there again, I'd ask for it w/ just regular, unflavored rum. we also got a goat cheese appetizer which was awesome: hot, melty goat cheese w/ pico de gallo. The atmosphere was nice too. Much brighter & livelier than the Cuban place we went to in Detroit a few months ago.

Yesterday, after watching Euro 2008 qualifiers all day (I'd give you the low down on the games, but I'm sure you all watched them too, so it's not necessary; you can read the match-reports here) & fixing my laptop so it will connect to my Internet at home again, I finlay got dressed around 8:00 & made my way to a party across town. Laura had been on me for a while about going, but I didn't know if I was up for it. Well, I went & had a good time. Deep Space (AKA The S.N.A.I.V Band) played a fun set, & there was a keg. Plus, hanging out w/ them is always a nice time. I'm glad Laura was able to get me to go; although, I took off before Warren & Georgina had the chance to perform their special, surprise song for the night. He wasn't going to tell anyone what song they'd worked up, but he said it won the Oscar for Best song in 1982, & oddly, I knew it right away. It's the Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warns hit, "Up Where We Belong."

The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb steps every day Beautiful! Those are some Grade A choice cut lyrics there. When I took off, I met Dawn & her roommate, Melissa, at TCs to see The Ragbirds. I hadn't seen them in a while, & when I had, they seemed to have a pretty small following, but they're certainly drawing the crowds now. We had a good time, they played some fun covers... "Tell Me Ma," a traditional Irish tune that Gaelic Storm also covers:

She is handsome
she is pretty
She's the Belle of Belfast City "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," the Paul Simon song :

she said honey take me dancing
But they ended up by sleeping
In a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on
Upper Broadway
Wearing diamonds on the soles of their shoes
& they then closed w/ a nice version of "Bird Song," a Dead tune that might need a little more experimentalism w/ the bass & drums. The guitar & fiddle stuff was cool, but the bass line didn't really go anywhere so the long jam towards the end became a bit repetitive. Maybe I'm asking too much though; they aren't Phil, Micky & Billy & they never will be:

All I know is something like a bird within her sang
All I know she sang a little while and then flew on
Tell me all that you know
I'll show you
Snow and rain The other thing about that band is that all of their originals sound like other songs so when they do play a cover once in a while, I end up assuming it's an original that just sounds like something else. One song sounded just like "Sexual Healing," which I definitely would have preferred, but it was fun none-the-less, & it was super nice to hang w/ Dawn. It'd been a while since we went out to see music together.

On First, Who Is?

who's on first with star wars

Road Trip Part II: Oprah's Va-Jay-Jay

Upon arrival at the hotel in Cleveland, we registered and then went almost immediately to a panel discussion featuring 4 of my colleagues from EMU (Marty, Christine, Craig, & Joe). They were all fantastic & impressed everyone who was in attendance. Afterwards, while looking through the program, Christine came upon a group beginning a few minutes later which featured a paper called "The Fiction and Reality of Trolls in Medieval Icelandic Sagas." We all collectively wondered, "The reality of trolls? Is this dude gonna claim trolls are real?" Marty then said they were going to the Hall of Fame and wondered if I wanted to tag along, but int he interest of saving cash & seeing some more presentations, I declined. Christine (whom I think may have been punking us) then suggested we check out the troll guy & tell her how it went. SPOILER ALERT: IT SUCKED! The panel had something to do w/ The Real and the Sur-Real in the Middle Ages. The 1st speaker summarized Hamlet, Oedipus & "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" for 15 minutes before coming to his point which was basically that they are all caught between rocks & hard places... no shit. He was wearing a tweed coat, talking like Shatner, checking his pocket watch at obviously staged moments & being an all around ass-hat. Troll dude spoke second. His concern was two-fold.
A) What are the rules trolls follow throughout the multiple sagas?
B) Does the fact that they all conform to basically the same rules suggest that people in Medieval Iceland actually believed in trolls & can we tell for sure by looking @ the texts?
This guy explained the rules they follow... a. trolls live in rocky areas, b. trolls are larger than humans, & c. trolls either help, hurt, or have sex w/ humans. He followed this up w/ an aside: "Troll sexuality... there, I said it." As if it was too shocking to discuss. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting such shit. It's the MLA for Christ's sake! It's a really prestigious literary organization. Which back door these dip-shits snuck through, I don't know, but it should have been looked. He goes on to summarize troll sagas for the next 10 minutes before coming to his conclusion: "Although they probably didn't believe in trolls, we can't tell for sure what they believed solely based on the literature." He then ended w/ what could only be described as a punch-line: "100s of Millions of people around the world base their beliefs on the writings of a single book, so it's possible that they did believe." A 15 minute set-up to make fun of religious people? Come on. During the Q&A session, another douchebag reared his ugly head. A guy behind Emily & me said, "I understand your point, but I think you're misleading people about trolls." They proceeded to argue about where trolls live like 2 D&D high-schoolers arguing about the powers of their characters. Afterwards, we were too late for the next panel, 1 that was probably really interesting about representations of Gay Culture in film, so we decided to get some food & then go to the free wine hour. Jenny & I went outside for a moment only to return to Emily freaking out over Kristen & Patrick's "Cyclopsing." This is where they put their noses together so as to appear to have only one eye, at which point they then sing "I Only Have Eye for You." It was something to behold. (I want to say, I'm not relating this syrupy, lovey-dovey stuff to make fun, but to relate the trip as I saw it. I'm happy for them & their ability to act that way. Maybe some day, in some fucked up alternate universe, I too will be able to act like that.) After a slice @ Sparro, we went for the free wine. Believe it or not, we drank a lot of it. There was a cash bar, & the bartender was surprised that people were only drinking the wine. It was FREE! Who is spending 5 bucks on a crappy class of Scotch when the crappy Merlot is free? While sitting there, a set of twin sisters, 6'8 & 350-400 pounds came in & I leaned to Jenny (I thought everyone else would be too justifiably offended) to suggest that trolls may in fact exist. This, of course, resulted in me getting punched for being an asshole. W/ a belly full of wine (Patrick drank Coke because he was driving) we set off for home, but before we even got on I 90, Jenny mentioned The Soup & the segment about "Oprah's Va-Jay-Jay." We found it possible to then talk about Oprah's pussy for the next 2 1/2 hours. So in the end, maybe the troll guy wasn't the only one to get more than his fair share of mileage out of a rather stupid idea.

Road Trip Part I: Taking Cleveland by the Balls

The M/MLA (Midwest Modern Language Association) Conference was in Cleveland the weekend, & since I hadn't been to something like this in a while, when I heard a few friends were going for the day yesterday, I decided to tag along. The friends included Emily, Jenny, Kristen, & Kristen's fiance Patrick who is currently staying at his parents' house on Lake Erie in Monroe. Since he & Kristen were there, Emily, Jenny & I met them there before continuing the drive. Of course, the spider in Emily's car only nearly got us killed twice during that 1/2 hour drive as it caused her to nearly drive into a semi & them to nearly drive off of the exit ramp at 85 mph. But the real excitement happened when we got to the house & were introduced to Patrick's Mother's pervert dog, Paddy. Apparently, the dog has a weird thing for nylons & therefor spent the first 5 minutes trying to tear Jenny's apart. While everyone else did their part to remove the dog from her leg, I did my level best to remove myself from the whole dog situation as is my M.O. The other oddity of the short visit was the fact that her dog & her son have the same name. Before I realized what the dog's name was, she was saying things like "I really feel sorry for Paddy... he really want to come out & play w/ all of you." I thought, "That's an weird thing to say, he is coming w/ us, but referring to it as playing doesn't quite make sense." It wasn't until she said, "I feel so sorry for Paddy, he has to spend so much time in his cage" that I realized some fucked up name thing was going on, at which point Jenny realized she needed to get the Hell out as soon as possible & said, "So, is there a lake around here?" Of course, the house is 4 houses from Lake Erie & we'd driven passed it on the way into the neighborhood. When Patrick's Mother explained where it was, she decided she needed to check it out... & Emily & I were right behind her. We walked down to the lake & hung out for about 10 minutes before Kristen showed up & asked if we were ready to "Take Cleveland by the balls." Emily, Kristen, & JennyBefore we were even on I-75, we were introduced to Kristen & Patrick's mushy, syrupy-sweet nausea-inspiring cuteness. They refer to each other & to the act of love-making w/ the word waffle... which as it turns out is also used in all sorts of other weird ways. Apparently, while speaking in some sort of baby language to each other once, she said "I love you," but it sounded something like "I waffle," & then it caught on for good. At this point, we knew we were in for quite a day as we were exposed to more of this stuff when we stopped for breakfast at the first Service Plaza on the Ohio Turnpike. I was able to get out of witnessing too much of that though by dumping a couple quarters into Ms Pac Man & playing the game of my life. I was to the banana before I lost my 1st life. I knew that the longer I made those quarters last, the less "waffling" I had to experience. I then grabbed an OJ & a breakfast sandwich at Hardee's where I was asked the ever-present road-trip question "You don't want no meat w/ that? I mean, you don't want no meat at all?" If I had a dime for every road trip I've taken were this question came up, we could have stayed in Cleveland last night rather than driving home to save money. I grabbed my food, & then hit the brochure stand to get some reading material for the ride before we hit the road again. Of course, more mis-adventures occured at the actual confrence, but you'll have to check back for Part II later.

The Gov't Stole my Book!

I got a call the other night from Stacey's son wondering if I had a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. He needed it for a class, which in and of itself is pretty impressive since he's only in middle school. A shout-out to the Ypsi schools is definitely in need here. I was watching Rockford when he called so I didn't grab it then, but thinking I knew exactly where my copy was I said sure. Yesterday morning, I went to grab it for him, but it wasn't there. At that point I figured it must be in my office. Wrong again. My copy of his FBI Files is there as is my copy of Malcolm X Speaks, but not the autobiography. One would think they would all be together considering my anal approach to book organization, but they aren't. My next thought was that maybe my ex-wife took it when she moved, but that just doesn't make sense. She wouldn't want it, & I've had it since before we started dating. Why would she suddenly lay claim to it? My next thought was that maybe I loaned it to someone & never got it back, which is possible, but then Stacey said she thinks that must be what happened to her copy too. It seems however, that both of us losing the same book in the same way is unlikely which brings me to my final thought: The Government. I have a feeling there is some hush-hush post-9/11 FBI program centered around secreting away copies of his autobiography. It's the only thing that makes sense. Just like COINTELPRO & the MOVE house in Philly & Pine Ridge & Kent State & JFK & MLK & Malcolm X himself & Masons & The Knights Templar & Skull and Bones & the cover-up of Paul's death on the cover of Sgt Pepper's & The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. OK, maybe those last 2 are a bit far fetched, certainly less likely than an FBI program designed to protect the status quo from the ideas of people like Malcolm X. Plus, from now on, whenever I lose something, I can blame the man.

Dance Parties

Friday night Geo hosted Stacey's b-day party. Good times, good friends, good food, good booze, & odd music were all par for the course. It was supposed to be a sort of dance party, but no one really danced... which was OK because I would always prefer to sit around drinking & talking. The music, which was mainly dancable, but not so great, featured the occassional Prince tune & "Paid in Full" by Eric B & Rakim. I freakin' love that song. A big belated Visions of Ypsi "Happy B-day" goes out to Stacey.Saturday night, after watching the Arsenal v Man U game on Live Footy & then switching to the Fox Soccer Channel for the rest of the day, I met some friends from work at The Tap Room. We enjoyed a couple drinks (I ran into folks from the kickballers & learned we have a game this week... kinda weird after 4 weeks off). While at the bar, I also learned that there was a dance party taking place Saturday night too. I didn't feel comfortable going to a second dance party in as many days, but since the party was in Livonia & Nic whose idea it was to go, lives in Farmington, I decided to make the trek to Middlebelt & Schoolcraft so Emily (another work person) could go w/o driving drunk... I'm so fucking responsible. Well, we get out there & Nic can't find the party. We drove around the neighborhood for 45 minutes w/ no luck. I was heartbroken. Emily & I made the trek back Ypsi-way & decided since we already bought beer, we should watch a movie & drink it.I hadn't seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show in years, & since she'd never seen it, we decided on that. I forgot how much I love it. I'm now dying to see it in a theater again soon. Tim Curry in a teddy always makes me happy. Not to mention Richard O'Brien in anything. Not only did he write it & play Riff Raff, he was also in Flash Gordon! Last week, while channel surfing, I found another film featuring his under-appreciated talents, but as it turns out, Elvira's Haunted Hills kinda sucked... go figure. Casandra Peterson is no longer what she once was either. For those of you who are unaware of how this part of the post relates to dance parties, watch the clip!

Of the Halloween Season

I don't think I've ever had such a busy end of October before. Solstice had a party to go to a couple weeks ago, & since then it's been pretty much a non-stop Halloween extravaganza. Wendy & Pete's party last weekend was by far the pinnacle of the week... what w/ the band & the keg & the creation of yet another new drink: The Bad Lieutenant (Limoncello, black vodka, & cranberry Juice w/ ice & shake). It's called the Bad Lieutenant because one can drink a shit-load of them w/o realizing it & next thing you know, you're naked & fishing out in some dark ally. Not that any of us ended up that way, but it wasn't for lack of trying... it was for lack of vodka. I'm sure that if we'd had more booze on hand, we'd all have ended up that way. The band, whose name I've forgotten (if anyone remembers, feel free to leave it in the comments section because I'd like to find them on-line), was from Milwaukee. They happened upon the party almost by chance. Apparently, they were to play a gig in Toronto but couldn't get through customs so they called a friend in A2 to see if anything was going on. The friend recommended they play at this party, so they showed up & played for about an hour & a half. They have a cool alt-country sound & everyone felt they were like Uncle Tupelo. It turns out, however, that they'd never heard of Uncle Tupelo (or Sun Volt for that matter), but had sort of heard of Wilco. As we were sitting around the bon fire which happened to be in the middle of the grass between the barn & the house, we also learned they'd never heard of Taj Mahal. It seemed od that a band like that didn't know these other people, but I guess they're just young. I'm sure they'll find them on myspace & realize they need to listen to Taj Mahal & Uncle Tupelo a bit. They had heard of Droogle though. It's a cool database of drinks. You can also submit new one to be added to the database so I just went ahead & submit the Bad Lieutenant & the Mexican Slayride.This week we also had the kids' school parties & then of course Trick or Treating last night. It was the cheapest, easiest Halloween we've ever had. Solstice went into the basement & came up w/ some random witch stuff she'd had. All I had to do was buy her a hat & some new shoe (which she needed anyway). Aiden wanted to be Mario which meant a red sweatshirt & denim overalls. Easy! I got him some new shoes too plus a hat which I found at a Halloween store for a couple bucks. It had white polka dots on it, but an hour w/ a red Sharpie while watching Rockford the other night took care of that. They had a great time last night cruisin' around w/ all of their neighborhood friends after some pizza at Stacey's house.

EMU Huron Pride

In a misguided attempt to reach out to the Huron Restoration Committee, EMU formed the Huron Welcoming Committee this year. Rather than explaining yet again why the name was changed 16 years ago, this committee has completely overlooked any discussions about the racial issues involved and offered all alumni and alumnae discounted football tickets this fall if they show up wearing "EMU Huron" t-shirts. Here is the "full" story from the Exemplar. While this pisses me off, I supoose it could be argued that the Hurons (or Wyandotte, considdering that "Huron" comes from the French for "ruffian") will never be able to complain since they're all dead. But that is part of the problem: they aren't all dead. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but the use of Native American names for things like sports teams freezes our image of Native People in the past as if they were all "noble savages" & brave warriors, when in fact, they still exsist today as teachers, ministers, auto-workers, @ C.E.O.s. Here is a copy of the letter I sent to Ted Coutilish (ted.coutilish@emich.edu); I suggest y'all write to him as well.

As a Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature, it was brought to my attention this week that the University is offering a discount on football tickets to those wearing "EMU Huron" T-Shirts this fall. I understand the desire to reach out to alumni and alumnae who have connections with the University dating back at least 16 years. However, when we consider the struggle the University went through to change the name and the struggle other schools around the country are still going through, it would be wise to look into other ways to honor their legacy with EMU. The overt racism inherent in the Huron name should not be forgotten. As soon as we begin to overlook the damage that has been done in the past, we open the door to its recurrence in the future.

While working with representatives of the Huron Restoration Alumni Chapter, we should focus on this simple fact. By "honoring" the legacy of the "Huron" name, we are in turn honoring the legacy of what it implies: imperialism and stereotyping. Rather than offering discounted tickets, we could offer a discount on Eagle memorabilia for those who turn in their old, racially problematic T-Shirts. We need to work with the alumnae and alumni to educate people about this problem rather than simply looking at it as an issue of heritage and school pride. When we consider that Ypsilanti High School just dealt with this very same issue last year, ignoring it at EMU shows a lack of compassion and a simple ignorance to the racial issues both in our country as a whole and in this very community. I know that was never your idea, nor would I ever accuse you of any mean-spirited motives in this discount plan, but reaching out to the Huron Restoration Alumni Chapter and the fight against racism and prejudice on campus don't need to be mutually exclusive.

The Shocker

I thought y'all might get a kick out of this. All praise due to King Features for this one... click to enlarge it.

How Duct Taping Became a Ritual

When I joined my soccer team 5 years ago, I got a new pair of soccer shoes... you may refer to them as cleats, or as those on the Continent do: boots. Call them what you will, they're pretty worn out. So worn out, in fact, that after the rainy game last week, I wore a hole through the toe of my right one. The hole 1st became apparent at the kids' practice the other day. The problem is that while I've been planning on getting new ones for some time now, I thought I could do it over the winter, between seasons. Decent boots cost a pretty penny, & I hadn't really budgeted for them at the moment. That said, the kids' practice went well, & my daughter scored a goal & got 2 assists in her subsequent game. My son is a bit pissed about the situation now though, so hopefully he can get one this weekend in their final game.Although the practice went well, I was a bit worried about my game this evening so I did what every broke soccer player has done since WWII... grabbed some Duct Tape. My running wasn't affected by the hole (how could it be? I'm slow as fuck anyway), but my kicking abilities (which have always been above average) were definitely going to be affected. After taping the toe of the old cleats up, they not only survived the game, but I got my duck as it were. (For those of you who aren't addicted to European Soccer, "getting ones duck" is the term used when someone scores her or his 1st goal of the season). And a sweet, sweet goal it was! At the end of the 3rd quarter, I mentioned that the other team's defense seemed confused when our defenders made attacking runs through the mid-field. Appropriately enough, I ended up playing center-back for the last 10 minutes. The other team scored a goal due to our goalie's lack of experience (putting us behind 2-1), & after the subsequent kick-off, they then had a goal kick. Having touched the ball all of about 5 times so far throughout the game, & having nearly missed about 10 times last week, I decided this was the time I really needed to do something good. The goal kick came right up the center & I chested it down to Roger, 1 of our strikers. I then proceeded to continue my sweet, sweet run towards the goal as Roger played it back to me. After a couple touches, I shot, but the goalie made the initial save. I stuck w/ it, however, & got around him w/ the rebound before slotting it into the net w/ an easy touch. Best of all, my kids were there to witness it. Of course, they weren't paying attention & missed it, but at least they were there. At this point, you may be wondering how this leads to the ritualization of Duct Taping. Of course, baseball players are known for their rituals, & sports fans do all sorts of fucked up shit in attempts to relive some fluke from weeks or even years before. Well, you can bet your bottom dollar that from now on, I'll never take to the field w/o a little Duct Tape on my boots.

Has it really been a week?

I just realized how long it's been since the last time I wrote something on here. I guess I've just been in a fog since the brilliance of the Dylan/Costello concert... I don't know. I do know, however, that very little has happened in my life since the last post, but I wont let that stop me from writing something. While nothing has happened lately, I have seen more than my fair share of Rockford Files episodes lately... DVR is a beautiful thing. I watched 4 episodes a few nights ago & loved every minute of them. I think my love of that show goes back to my youth when I would watch it in syndication w/ my dad on Saturday afternoons. It might be more closely connected to my youthful love of Support Your Local Sheriff though. If you haven't seen that movie, you definitely should. I got a copy a couple years ago, if anyone wants to come on by for a movie night. (Jean or Elizabeth... I'm expecting many quotes from the film in the comments section!) Speaking of movies, I watched one recently w/ Shannon called Perfume. It doesn't feature the genius of James Garner though. After the rather drawn-out voice-over narration in the 1st 20 minutes, it was pretty cool. It's about a guy in Paris in the 18th Century who has an amazing sense of smell & wants to capture the essense of woman in a perfume... in order to do this, he goes on a killing spree, becoming a serial killer and offing about 15 beautiful young women.

In other news, I took the kids over to Kate & Don's for dinner a couple weeks ago w/ Stacey & her kids. We hadn't hung out in ages. (You all may remember, Kate is the one who gave me the mohawk last summer.) Of course, before the end of the night, red wine was spilled on the old Zidane shirt, but w/ quick thinking & a ton of Stain Stick, it survived just fine. What didn't survive, however, was Kate's little secret: she'd never heard of Tub Girl before. Well, Kate, this is for you. Be sure to save it to your hard drive for future reference!

The other thing I need to mention is that my daughter has started posting on her blog again... just a little plug for her site. It's cute, but the info she posted today is a bit out-dated.

Dylan, Costello, and a few Mexican Slayrides

I'd been excited about the Bob Dyaln/Elvis Costello show at the EMU Convocation Center since I read about it last summer. The fact that they were coming to Ypsi was just so cool. Of course, half of my studens had never heard of either one of them, but that never stopped EMU from booking quality acts in the past. Over the years, I've seen Bela Fleck, P-Funk & Arlo Guthrie on campus, but Dylan is in a league of his own. Georgina met me at my house & w/ a bottle of Auchentoshan in my pocket, we biked to Jim & Rachel's where we had a few drinks before walking down the bike path to the show. As we got to the pparking lot, Annette supposedly saw a naked guy running around, but that couldn't be verified. As we entered the, Elvis Costllo was playing "The Angels Want to Wear my Red Shoes." He ethen went into "Veronica" which was fun & had everyone singing along. From there, he weent into a couple songs I didn't know and then a really cool version of "From Sulfur to Sugar Cane" into which he slipped a funny little line about Ypsi: "Here in Ypsilanti / Wear the women don't wear panties." He then played a newer song about the War in Iraq. It was really cool and definitely unafraid to tell the truth about the Bush Administration before segueing into a nice version Van Morrison tune. He then ended his set w/ "Radio Sweetheart" > "What's so Funny (About Peace, Love & Understanding)?" As he left the stage, the crowd was shouting for "Alison," "Radio, Radio' & "Watchin' the Detectives," but an encore was not to be as Dylan & the Cowboy Band were ready to hit the stage after a very short break. I really enjoyed Elvis Costello. He played a solo set w/ just an acoustic guitar, but he sound was full and complex. Many people (including many w/ whom I went to the show) were really there for him, but for me the main event was always going to be Dylan.

My first Dylan show was 11 years ago, the spring after Jerry Garcia died & Dylan played 2 Dead songs ("Friend of the Devil" & "Alabama Getaway"). My 2nd Dylan show, Valentine's Day in 1998 in Toledo saw him cover "Cocaine Blues." In July of 1999, I saw him cover "The Roving Gambler," "That'll Be the Day," & (w/ Paul Simon) "The Sound of Silence." Last night, however, he stuck to his more recent system of playing only originals like @ the shows I saw in 2000 & 2003. For complete set lists of those shows, follow these links:

16 May, 1996 (Pine Knob)
15 February, 1998 (Univ. of Toledo)
7 July, 1999 (Pine Knob)
16 July, 2000 (Pine Knob)
6 August, 2003 (Columbus, OH)
Last night, Bob opened w/ a pretty rocking version of "Rainy Day Women" which was funny because I'd just been joking about that song earlier in the day w/ the ex-wife. I'd never seen him open w/ it before, but it seemed like a good choice as it got people into the set right away... "Everybody must get stoned!!!"

Next up was "Don't Think Twice" for which the cowboy band switched to acoustic stuff & for which Rachel was happy about & about which you may remember my sweet cover version of that song w/ Brendan at 10K Lakes in MN a couple summer ago. It's always a fun song & people seemed to be digging it... "There ain't no use in turning on your light, babe, / The light I never knowed"

From there he went into "Watching the River Flow," a song I've never been able to remember. Every time I've seen him do it, it's been the end before I could figure out what it was. It was cool though as Tony Garnier switched back to the electric bass for a couple songs... "If I had wings and I could fly, / I know where I would go. / But right now I'll just sit here so contentedly / And watch the river flow."

He then played "Love Sick," a slow weird tune from his 1997 Grammy winning album Time Out of Mind. My copy has a nasty scratch & hasn't worked for a while, but after last night, I realized that I'm going to have to get another copy of it. It's a fantastic tune from a fantastic CD... "I'm sick of love / I wish I'd never met you!"

A couple of the new songs were next, "The Levee's Gonna Break" & "When the Deal Goes Down." At this point, people seemed to be getting restless as we had 3 in a row that few people knew. I was lovin' it though, as they're both great songs. Jim seemed to be digging the new stuff too, w/ such cool lyrics, how could he not? Dylan is a bad mother fucker... "We all wear the same thorny crown."

I was lovin' that he hen played "Stuck inside of Mobile," but I have a hard time w/ that song since I always think of Bob Weir's version. It's cool though, even if it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

"Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again."

From 60's LSD weirdness to a commentary on the current economic issues, he played "Workingman's Blues #2." I don't know if I can plug & push this new album any more than I already have, but it's just so damn good. "The buying power of the proletariat's gone down" Who but Dylan can get away w/ lyrics like that? Just soooo cool.

"Honest With Me" from his last album was up next. It took me a while to recognize it, but it too was well played. I don't have much to say about this song, but I was thinking the set would be over soon... wrong... 5 more songs before he left the stage.

"Spirit On The Water," a slow jazzy crooner tune from the new album was played nicely, but again, he seemed to be losing people since no one knew most of the setlist. I think this again shows his bad-assness. He plays to 5,000 people while knowing all along that only about 25 of us knew the songs 7 the other 4,975 just want to hear "Blowin' In the Wind" which, of course, he didn't play. He didn't play "Tangled Up in Blue" either. "Oh, you would like to hear 'Like a Rolling Stone?' Well, fuck off! You'll get the new stuff & like it!" Oh, & Tony was on he stand-up bass again.

OK, he did play a song from the same album as "Like a Rolling Stone," "Highway 61." It's not quite as good, but it always rocks. I was really hoping to hear it, & it made me happy, happy, happy.

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
Then another new one, "Nettie Moore." "Gonna leave a greasy trail"... one of the strangest lyrics he's ever written. Of course, I love it none-the less.

"Summer Days" from the previous album, Love and Theft, was next. Of his 3 newer albums, people seem to jock that one the most, but it's definitely not my favorite. it's still cool though, & I was happy to hear another song from it. And Tony was back on stand up bass!

He closed the set w/ "Masters Of War." This is the song that got him banned from Ed Sullivan, so it's got that going for it. Whenever I hear it, I like to think it's in honor of Dick Cheney.

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
I've never noticed this before, but before the encore, people were holding up their phones rather than holding up lighters. I suppose it's because fewer people smoke, but there were a few people there w/ pot as the Convocation Center had that nice hippie smell all night long. As upstanding members of our community, we, of course, did none of that though. Anyway, the phones yielded a nice post-modern blue glow to the atmosphere of the crowd before he came back to the stage to play "Thunder On The Mountain." It's yet another good song from the new album. "Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches / I'll recruit my army from the orphanages." What an awesome rhyme.

After introducing the Cowboy Band, he closed the night w/ "All Along The Watchtower." I remember an interview from 10 or so years ago where he claimed that even though he wrote it, he always feels he's paying tribute to Hendrix when he plays it. Last night's version didn't have a lot in common w/ Jimi Hendrix though (for my money, the Grateful Dead versions are a lot better than Hendrix's anyway), but it was really cool. He stood at his keyboard w/ his hilarious wide-brim white hat & rarely made contact w/ the audience. They just rocked for a couple hours. I can't wait for him to come around again.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went back to my place & had a few drinks, but the Slayrides may have been a bit too much as we were also doing tequila shots. It was the first time I've ever had that much tequila but not gotten naked, so all in all, I'll take it as an accomplishment. Getting up this morning to coach the kids soccer game was pretty rough though. I felt like Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears. Hung over & hanging out w/ kids. Maybe I'm an ass, but at least I made it to the game & they won 5-3. And that's the important part of youth sports... winning and making the other team cry.

Bumper Stickers (part duex)

After complaining about the stickers I've been seeing around town, I realized this is a great opportunity for me to make a little extra cash in order to maintain this blog. While watching The Rockford Files last night (a great episode featuring 2 of my favorite bald African American entertainers: Louis Gossett Jr. & Isacc Hayes), I designed a few stickers of my own. Feel free to e-mail me w/ your orders. To start, we'll have to charge 8 bucks a sticker, but if demand is as high as the Internet buzz leads one to believe, we might be able to lower the price once I can start shipping in bulk. Furthermore, the option to get these slogans on a t-shirt is always a possibility. Let me know when you decide which shirt you want. They will be on white (w/ red ribbing around the cuffs and collar) & are available in L, XL, & XXL for $20 ($24 for the XXL).

The original www.visionsofypsi.blogspot.com sticker

Don't Be a Douche, Go To www.visionsofypsi.blogspot.com

Inspired by the stupid Jane Austen sticker... I'd Rather be Reading www.visionsofypsi.blogspot.com

Help spread the word about the important January election (the URL is in small print at the bottom)

A little something for the Dead Heads

A little something for the Arsenal fans

All proceeds from this one will be donated to the 2008 Dennis Kucinich campaign

Cannibal: The Musical

A couple weeks ago, I was approached by a former student who asked me to be the Faculty Advisor for his new student group, a theater company hoping to produce a live version of Trey Parker's Cannibal: The Musical. My 1st thought was that someone from the Theater Dept. would make more sense, but it turns out that since the play would be competing w/ actual Theater Dept. productions, it is a conflict of interest so he needed someone else. Considering the fact that I'd seen this guy in a production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile in Howell w/ my ex's nephew a year & a half ago (& he was really good), I figured I'd do it. Well, we had our 1st meeting tonight & it turns out that they needed me to cover a couple roles... I haven't acted since grade school, but they're small roles w/ only 1 song, so it should be alright. You read that right... I have to sing!!! That said, the song I have to sing is "Dixie," sung by a 1 eyed veteran of the Confederate army as I shoot pus out of my eye at the other characters. If they can find a taller person to play the role of the cyclops, I won't have to do it, but I'll still play the father who doesn't want his son to leave home until after the next harvest... just like Uncle Owen! The performances will be the last weekend in Jan. & the 1st weekend in Feb. at Roosevelt Hall. Be sure to check it out! O, I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born in
Early on one frosty mornin'
Look away! Look away!
Look away! Dixie Land.

What ever happened to...

Andrew McCarthy? I don't mean, what happened to him physically. I know that he's still making films & television shows, but what happened to his career? I will always stand behind St. Elmo's Fire and Pretty in Pink, and for some ungodly reason, Jean thinks Weekend at Bernie's is fantastic, but other than a small role in The Joy Luck Club in 1993, "what's he done since?" is the question. Nothing worth while is the answer. I watched Less than Zero last night, and while Robert Downey Jr. does a fantastic job playing himself, Andrew McCarthy is pretty good too. I can't believe that over the course of the last 20 years I'd never seen it before. Not only is it based on a book by Bret Easton Ellis, it's about drugs and features a great song by L.L. Cool J. In fact, Rick Ruben was the music advisor on the set.Dida? He was the Brazilian #1 goalie for quite a long time, but after his shady showing against Celtic the other day, I can't imagine anyone will take this douchebag seriously for quite a long time. Watch as a fan runs onto the field & lightly touches his face, at which point Dida turns to chase the guy and after about steps decides to fall over as if this fan has actually hurt him. In an attempt to get Celtic, who was about to beat Milan after a piss-poor 3-0 spanking, he tried to get Celtic in trouble and even allowed himself to be taken off the field on a stretcher. Even if you're not a soccer fan or if you are only interested because your kid happens to play, you need to check this out.