Thursday! Scrappy was in town with her friend Kim. It was great to hang out with them and SpaceBass and Vector. I missed out of Kells (due to bridge and bus funkiness, the Burnside bus went across Morrison, up 2nd(?) right past Kells, to Burnside, then got several blocks down Burnside before they were allowed to let people out), but Shanghai was good (strangely, I don’t think I have ever been.) Folks had to drop out throughout the night (SpaceBass to watch Office, Scrappy to get some rest for the following day), and I found out that my post about Captured By Robots had the wrong date. Vector’s plan was to meet up with some (d’oh, I completely forgot her name) at Ash Street Saloon, and I was invited to tag along.
School of Rock
The first opening act was somebody-or-other’s school of rock. It was a gaggle of teenagers, rotating on and off stage for each song, as they covered a bunch of rock classics. They were surprisingly good, and I can’t imagine how cool it would feel to be a teenager, playing in an “adult” venue with drinking and smoking and all that.
Klingons
The second opening act was a Klingon heavy metal band. I was told they were featured in Trekkies 2 (I never saw the second, and it took me two days to make my way through the pain of the first.) Yes, they were death metal. By definition, I could not understand the lyrics, so I have to take everyone’s word that they were in Klingon. The band consisted of, like, 6 guys. All had shiny tight pants and those nubbily-bald-with-dreads wigs. The main guy was missing his left hand. That’s about all I can say about that. Between acts, I told the main guy that they rocked. Later in the evening (during Captured By Robots), he happened to be walking by and slammed his pint glass into mine in what I can only assume is a Klingon-style testosterone-fuelled toast.
Captured By Robots
This was the main act. Their/his regular show consists of one human (J-Bot) and about half-dozen robots. The regular schtick is that the robots have enslaved him, and they all play music. The reality is that he built them all, and it is a bit semi-automated one-man-band. He has a microphone that he can use directly or can pipe in to any of the robots (with a voice-changer and with the robot in question lighting up its eyes and chattering its mouth.) This particular show was “the dubya tour” and consisted of him being George W and the bots being other political figures (Chaney, Condolisa Rice, Saddam, etc.)
The banter between him and the robots between songs was great. I highly encourage you to check out the following videos…
And now, we have the photos that have been collecting on my memory card for a while, that I just needed to dump into a blog post…
Ebenezer
Sunflower Sprouts
The bird feeder (a.k.a. “kitty television”) is filled exclusively with sunflower seeds. This leads to interesting sprouts below. No full sunflower has ever grown, but the sprouts have never before been quite this prolific.
Soy Nuts
The same company that makes the dehydrated tomato slices I snack upon (or more specifically, devour) also makes toasted soy nuts. I am not sure I like the hairy pod/nutsack graphic motif they use on their packaging.
