Monday April 10, 2006: At 3 PM I picked up Rollie, and headed toward AHS. We arrived just as school was letting out to pick up the brothers O'Neill. We sat in the 800 Building's parking lot for about 10 minutes waiting for all the 16-year-olds in the front of the exit line to grow some balls and pull out in front of on-coming traffic like they should. It didn't take me long to remember why I parked in the Band room's parking lot during my vehicle operating years as an AHS student.

As I recall, the drive to Atlanta was fairly uneventful; save the usual sitting, sweating, and cursing involved with driving in Atlanta during the afternoon.



Once we arrived at the Tabernacle, we had a lot of time to kill, so we started walking back towards Underground Atlanta. On the way we were greeted by a tall, well-kempt, black man wearing a backpack. We mentioned that we were here to see the show, and that we were looking for a place to eat. He told us that he'd show us where all the good places were, and to follow him. Having no reason to fear him, we followed him down the road. Upon reaching "the good places", he asked for $5 to go get himself a hamburger. What a tricky bastard, although, "tricky bastard" is in the job description of being a bum. I definitely prefer that to the, not so subtle, pleas of "Bud!... Psilocybin!... Spare Bullet!" that we got from the last Atlanta ne'er-do-well we dealt with. I guess we should've known he was a panhandler, but nothing could kill my fun at that point.

Noticing that cheeseburgers were featured on the menu displayed outside, we decided to eat at a place which featured a shrimp with a chicken's legs; something along the lines of "The Metropolitan Grill" or some other such nonsense. I'll give the food a B-. Not the best burger I've ever had... not even close, actually; but the fries, or "chips" as Eoghen said in his adorable vernacular, were not bad at all.



We walked back to the venue to discover a growing line near the entrance. I suppose we got there just in time because, within 10 minutes of our arrival, the line doubled in size.



There we were, trapped inbetween two large hoards of "Ween Kids". Now, make no mistake, I fucking love Ween. However, there is a huge distinction to be made between being a big fan of Ween and loving everything they've ever done, and being a "Ween Kid". Just look at them (above).



Realizing that I had another hour to wait, I took a seat.



That's when I noticed this beautiful piece of graffiti. Having never heard their music, I've now got two reasons to hate that band. I hate their stupid fucking name, and I hate the stupid fucking kid who wrote their stupid fucking name on the side of a bona fide institution. Fuck Death Cab For Cutie and their bullshit.

Anyway, after being seated, an incident unfolded in the streets below. A cop pulled over a young lady for doing something that I obviously missed. After a few moments, the crowd began chanting "Let her go. Let her Go". This probably didn't help the poor girl, because she definitely got a ticket after that; though, the cops did receive a rather thunderous booing after they issued the citation. As the last officer was getting into his car, somebody in the crowd yelled out: "There's someone getting mugged in the ghetto right now!" The cop gave him that asshole cop smirk, (you know what I'm talking about) then got into his car and rode away. Pretty entertaining overall, but still fairly anti-climactic (I was hoping to see a beating and I didn't care who got it).



Eoghen was pretty bummed too.

Passing by, literally, hundreds of people, Trent made his way up to where we were in the line. It was right about this time that the doors opened





We got inside, and ran for the front. Trent and I ended up leaning against a metal guard rail on the front row of stage left. Rollie, Conor, and Eoghen drifted farther to the right, and directly into what would become a very large mosh pit. Soon after, a random hippie unfurled his large, hand-painted, sign that said "Gravy". He got some cheers for it. Good for him.

Well, the show started and the magic of photography began. I ended up taking about 145 pictures. Here's the best of:










(What the fuck is that light coming from the crowd?)

















































In case you missed it the first time I posted about the show, here's what they played:

"Nan"
"Take Me Away"
"Freedom of '76"
"I'm Waving My Dick in the Wind"
"Even if You Don't"
"Buckingham Green"
"Albino Sunburned Girl" (With "Tear for Eddie" Tease Intro)
"Roses Are Free"
"She's Your Baby"
"Push the Little Daisies"
"Light Me Up"
"Leave Deaner Alone"
"Doctor Rock"
"Puerto Rican Power> Jam"
"Reggaejunkiejew"
"Powder Blue"
"Zoloft"
"You Were the Fool" (At the end, Deaner played the solo from "Blue Sky" by The Allman Brothers)
"Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down)"
"The HIV Song (AIDS)"
"Frank"
"Ocean Man"
"Pumpin' 4 the Man"
"I'm in the Mood To Move"
"Gabrielle"
"You Fucked Up"
"Sketches of Winkle"
"Fat Lenny"

Encore:

"Licking the Palm for Guava"
"Mushroom Festival in Hell"
"Piss Up a Rope"
"Touch My Tooter"
"Poopship Destroyer"

They played from 9-11:45 PM.

Fucking incredible show, and now there's really good news:

You can see the entire show on You Tube. Just search for "Ween", and, a few clicks later, YOU'RE THERE! Oh, Boy!

I swear, man, between You Tube, SoulSeek, and Wikipedia, if I had a catheter and a colostomy bag, I'd never leave the house.



On the ride home, we stopped at a BP in Horse Apples, Georgia, and I got to try Coca-Cola Blak for the first time. Choosing not to believe MJ, I got it, and it was exactly as he described it. "There's a hole in the flavor where the Coke should be". Despite the taste, or lack thereof, I did feel a caffeine headrush, something I haven't felt... well, ever, truth-be-told. That was kind of scary, actually.

All-in-all, great show, great trip, had fun.

Chandler and I will be hosting this event with WEGL's lovely and talented Program Director, Nancy Nowlin.

Meet Sherome; he's a manager at Hungry Howie's. He's got a lot of things on his mind, especially when it comes to the scheduling of work times. You see, Sherome's had to work every Friday and Saturday night, from 6 PM - 4 AM, for about two months running. Though he didn't enjoy it, Sherome has put up with his schedule... UNTIL NOW!

Recently, Sherome layed the smack down in the form of a notice written on the schedule at Howie's. It read as such:

First of all, I just love my schedule for this week.
Not only am I working yet another Saturday, that I R/O'd for,
but I have 30+ hours to boot. Maybe I have
things I would like to do on the weekend like jack off, stalk
the Japanese exchange students, go party with the aforementioned students,
or, I don't know, Study! Speaking of which, that is the reason why
I asked off on Sundays in the first place. Now I have to work
the whole weekend plus my normal weekly schedule. Do not
hold it against me if I slap an old lady just because she
she pronounces the "MMM" in CinnaMMM bread.
Now my weekend is basically work, sleep, work, sleep, etc. Also to
Alex, it's been fun playing this game with you, but please
return what you stole from me. I really don't like being
punished because you literally wrote a check yo' ass couldn't
cash.

Have a nice day.

Signed,

"The black guy
who always works on
the weekends by himself"

The note has been completely scratched out, but that didn't stop several other employees from commenting on the treatise.

I think I
work at a
Daycare
sometimes

-Sanders

and, also

I DEMAND
More absorbent toilet paper!

Ween post up by Monday, I promise.

This is my first music post in a while, but it's going to rock your world.

The album is called Alligator Records 35x35: 35 Songs, 35 Years of Genuine Houserockin' Music.

It's two discs of nothing but hard rockin' old school blues. This is the perfect collection of tunes if you're like me, and you enjoy cruising around town trying to look like a smooth motherfucker; futile as the effort might be.

Disc 1

1. Hound Dog Taylor- "She's Gone"
2. Big Walter Horton- "Have a Good Time"
2. Son Seals- "Your Love is Like a Cancer"
4. Fenton Robinson- "Texas Flood"
5. Kokko Taylor- "I Got What it Takes"
6. Albert Collins- "Honey, Hush"
7. Lonnie Brooks- "Voodoo Daddy"
8. Professor Longhair- "In the Wee, Wee Hours"
9. Buddy Guy- "Are You Losing Your Mind?"
10. Johnny Winter- "Don't Take Advantage of Me"
11. James Cotton- "High Compression"
12. Lonnie Mack- "Satisfy Suzie"
13. Roy Buchanan- "When a Guitar Plays the Blues"
14. Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials- "Pride and Joy"
15. Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown- "She Winked Her Eye"
16. Little Charlie & The Nightcats- "Poor Tarzan"
17. Tinsley Ellis- "Can't You Lie"

Disc 2

1. Katie Webster- "Lord, I Wonder"
2. Elvin Bishop- "Don't Lie to Me"
3. William Clarke- "Lollipop Mama"
4. Saffire: The Uppity Blues Woman- "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues"
5. Charlie Musselwhite- "River Hip Mama"
6. Dave Hole- "Short Fuse Blues"
7. Carey Bell- "Lonesome Stranger"
8. Luther Allison- "Bad Love"
9. C.J.Chenier & The Red Hot Louisiana Band- "Bad Luck"
10. Corey Harris- "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning"
11. Shemeka Copeland- "Salt in My Wounds"
12. Coco Montoya- "I Need Your Love in My Life"
13. Michael Burks- "Mean Old Lady"
14. The Holmes Brothers- "Speaking in Tongues"
15. Marcia Ball- "Let the Tears Run Down"
16. Roomful of Blues- "That's Right"
17. Guitar Shorty- "Old School"
18. Mavis Staple- "A Dying Man's Plea"

Have fun with that. Ween pictures coming soon.

Well, our attempts at cooking once again went up in flames, or, in this case, smoke.

At around 4 AM this morning, at the Chunn/Harris residence, Richard and Rollie were making popcorn... on a frying pan. This would've been fine and good, had they not left the popcorn on the stove and stepped outside for a moment.





Before we knew it, the house was completely filled with thick, acrid smoke.





Needless to say, the popcorn kernels were reduced to cinders.



We had to wait a couple hours for the smoke to clear out. To pass the time we talked metaphysics, aesthetics, and philosophy.


*Note: The #3 Definition of "Holocaust"- A sacrificial offering that is consumed entirely by flames.

It's only a gas chamber reference if you want it to be. Good stuff to know, too, eh?

Spring Break '06 was definitely a memorable one. Certainly less so than bygone Spring Breaks, but, nonetheless, memorable. I snapped the above picture at the train crossing near Greenway Groceries out on Highway 14 while doing what I always do to cleanse my soul; driving around in the country listening to Drive-By Truckers.

Of Montreal of Athens in Athens

Friday, after class let out, I went home, and got ready to go see Of Montreal and Grand Buffet at Athens' World famous, 40 Watt Club. Having never been to the 40 Watt, or Athens, GA, for that matter, and taking one look at their roster of past shows, I was pretty excited.

Driving the cars were Emily G. and myself. Passengers included Richard, Cory, Adam, Rod V., Caroline, Rollie, and Chandler.

I had to talk Chandler into going, offering to pay for his ticket and gas, but it was worth it, for sure.

We actually had to pick up Rod from Newnan, Georgia which is competing in my final four of worst cities in America. (In case you were curious, the other finalists are Winter Park, Florida; Avon Park, Florida; and Ocala, Florida.) Unfortunately, I can draw many connections between the Newnan of today, and the Auburn of tomorrow. The subdivision where Rod was living looked a lot like Grove Hill, Moore's Mill, Hamilton Hills, et. al.; save the fact that there were four lanes. It was a nightmare.

After picking up Rod in Newnan, and sitting through a traffic jam in Gwinnett (actually, I should add Gwinnett to that list), we made good time to Athens.

Richard and Rod kicked off the arrival in Athens with a celebratory urination on the walls of Athens' city hall. After meeting us back on the street, we were all summoned by a police officer standing nearby. Apparently, they've had a bit of a problem with kids tipping over the port-a-potty at the near-by construction site. Richard and Rod promised him that they hadn't tipped over the port-a-potty, and he let us all go.



After standing outside in the cold for almost an hour and a half, the doors to the 40 Watt were opened, and we made our way inside.



In no time at all, Grand Buffet hit the stage. Though it lacked the grand scale of the Variety Playhouse show, they were every bit as entertaining.











Of Montreal came out after a pleasantly short set break.







I was sort of disappointed that Kevin did the wedding dress thing again. I guess he didn't realize that they had a big enough following to where people would see them twice in just over a month.

All of that aside, Of Montreal kicked ass once again. I thought it was a better show than the one in Atlanta, although that was probably because I was behind Chandler who was on the front row. Also, as you can tell, I got a lot more quality photographs due to my proximity.







































All-in-all a very good night. We went from Athens back to Newnan to drop off Rod. We got to his house, and said our final goodbyes. Rod moved to San Francisco a couple days later. He will be missed.

Twenty miles from the Alabama/Georgia line I got a call from Rollie, riding in Emily's car a couple miles ahead. He told me that there was a huge traffic jam and a flaming car on the road near the I-185/LaGrange exit. I told him that I-185 South went to Columbus, but that it would be well out of the way. Seeing that as the only possible option at that point, I pulled off on the same exit several minutes later. I got off at the first exit off of I-185 and followed a hunch that we could get back on I-85 further down, thereby bypassing the fire and resulting traffic jam. We drove down that long and lonely Troup County, Georgia highway for about fifteen minutes before I realized that if I kept going we were going to be lost. I did the logical thing, and turned around.

After coming back to where we'd started, I stopped at a gas station and asked for a map. Turns out, my hunch was right, I had simply gone in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, Emily, Rollie, and the rest were heading fifty miles out of their way toward Columbus. Taking some kind of sick comfort in that knowledge, I drove through God-Knows-Where, Georgia and got back on I-85.

We made it back into Auburn at around 4:30 AM, surprisingly only fifteen minutes before Emily's car.

Dr. Rock, Capt. Fantasy, and Friends





Sunday night (March 26), Emily, Richard, Matthew, and Adam came up to WEGL and helped out Chandler and me with our show. We ended up doing a three hour "double-shot zone". Click here to see the playlist from show #14 if you haven't already.

Ryder's Wall

Ryder built a wall to do spraypaintings on. Here are the shots:











Adam Under a Blacklight

Over Spring Break, we made a horrifying, but hilarious, discovery.



When put under a blacklight, Adam G. looks like Little Black Sambo.







I thought it was funny, and worthy of inclusion in this post.





These don't really fit anywhere, so I'll put them under this banner.

Magnolia Electric Co. & Destroyer

Friday, March 31, was the night of the Magnolia Electric Co., Destroyer, and Mates of State show at Atlanta's Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points.

Miles was there.



I ended up dropping fifty dollars on three LP's, but, as always, it was worth it.



Unfortunately, this was the only clear picture of Destroyer that I got; apologies are due.

I did, however get plenty of Magnolia Electric Co. pictures.





















Grainy as it is, I was still pretty happy with that last one.

The only shitty thing about the show was the crowd. You see, Magnolia Electric Co. is, pretty much, a no nonsense, straight forward rock 'n' roll band in the most classic sense of the word; on the other hand, Mates of State are, as Matthew put it, "a married couple screaming over keyboards". These two scenes didn't mesh very well.

While I was watching Magnolia Electric Co., who was fucking amazing, by the way, I noticed that all around me were these little fucking 16 and 17 year-old, shit ass, mySpace, hipster fuck kids SITTING DOWN.



While the concert was going on. These disrespectful little fuckers were sitting down on the floor with their backs to the stage for the most part; lots of them, too. To make matters worse, many of them were text messaging; an activity that I despise with every inch of my being. Those that weren't "texting" were just talking very loudly, and ignoring the rock 'n' roll greatness happening behind them. That got me good and pissed off for the rest of the night, and I had no qualms about leaving before Mates of State got going.


...and that's what I did on my spring vacation.