July 12, 2005 - Tuesday | 6:57 PM, CST

I am extremely disappointed right now. Remember a few months ago when I made that delicious soup? I even wrote an entry on it and posted pictures. Well, I made it again yesterday. Very delicious. I woke up today and couldn't hardly wait to heat up a bowl. I had a few bites, but I looked down at my next spoonful and noticed something odd. One of the shreds of chicken looked... corrugated. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a maggot (actually more like a grub!).

You know how it is, when you've got a mouthful of food and you realize that you're eating something disgusting... You kind of slowly rub your tongue along the inside of your mouth, feeling every bit of food left in between your cheek and gums, and just imagining whats there. Sure enough, I looked at it again and confirmed its identity. I then threw out the bowl, hoping maybe this was just an isolated incident. Maybe it had just fallen inside while I was reheating it earlier.

Yes, I was a fool.

I took my spoon and began to sift in the rest of the soup. The rest of the gallon of soup that was expensive to make and could have made me some nice leftovers for the rest of the week. More corrugated chicken. Fuck-ing damn-it! The soup got thrown outside, and the soup packet from Berkots came out of the trash so I could get a refund. I think Kelly is glad she had already eaten last night and thus didn't take any of the soup I offered. Want to see a picture of the little intruder? Click here.

Joestock went well. Andy (he has a new picture from the event!) asked me to do "press coverage," and I was happy to assist. I was even issued a badge, and I wore my pith helmet (as you can see). When I arrived, Andy and Gary were helping the main band, "Hello. I'm Victor." set up their equipment. You can see how well this went here. Soon the fans began to arrive, and among other things, Spinner met his twin.

The bill of play for the night consisted of Andy, playing acoustic guitar, as an opener for Hello. I'm Victor. (which consisted of Chris (vocals/guitar), Evan (vocals, guitar), John (bass), and Jeremy (drums). Andy and the Vics (nickname used from their site) met at the Whatever club. The band is from Manteno, and named after a quote from the book Choke. At 9:00 PM, we were told the show would start in five minutes. At 9:10 PM, we were given an introduction and told that technical difficulties were being experienced. After Andy opened (you can see a picture of him singing by clicking on his page) I went around and began interviewing the crowd.

I attempted to ask intelligent questions such as "Well, how do you like the show?" Or "Are you enjoying the music? What do you think?" But unfortunely asking people what they are thinking about only results in vacant, confused looks, with the occasional "Thinking? Huh?" Bryan, although, when asked how he liked Andy's singing, said "His songwriting has gotten ten times better. And his singing..." Apparantly Bryan is the only person who can think and form opinions. But no matter! Searching for material, I began doing interviews with random questions for the site. The interviews went as follows:

Alcade Dot Net (ADN): What do you think of the current drought situation plaguing Illinois' farmers?
Jason: We need a whole lot more rain.

ADN: What was your reaction to the recent bombings in London?
Spinner Well... they kind of had it coming...
ADN: Thats horrible, Spinner.

ADN: What do you think of that white van over there that the band is driving?
Jen: That van is hot.

ADN: If I were to give you a quarter, what would you spend it on?
Kelly: You. For sex.
ADN: See me after the show.

ADN: When you purchase a new felt for your pool table, what color will it be?
Bryan: Royal Purple, the same color it is now.

ADN: If you had a choice, would you have kept your Ford Taurus over your Cavalier?
Art: If I could have gotten twelve subs, I'd have been able to keep my Taurus and bump my way down the road, bypassing the broken transmission.

ADN: Has adjusting to Art's authority been difficult?
Annie: No, since I'm naturally very docile and obedient.

ADN: Would you buy Andy's CD?
Koby's Mom: Well... he has a good message in his songs.
ADN: You didn't answer my question.
Koby's Mom: ...

ADN: How is Andy's style different from your own?
John: (first time hearing Andy play) Well, its very different. For instance, he is playing acoustic guitar, whereas we use electric. Its hard to describe, but its very different.
ADN: So what do you think?
John: We all think he's really kick ass. We're all really blown away.

Andy's playlist included:

1. "Why Should I Come When You Call"
2. "Mea Culpus"
3. "The Fool" (this rated as the crowd's favorite)
4. "Drama King"
5. "Color of a Bruise"
6. "Jolene" (this was a cover)
7. "Wake Up (to go downtown)"
8. "The Goodbye Room"
9. "So Long, Bohemia"

I gave Andy an after-show interview, it is transcribed as follows:

ADN: How did you feel before the show?
Andy: A lot less nervous than in Chicago.
ADN: How do you feel now that the show's over?
Andy: Tired, and ready to drink. I feel thirsty. Now I'm going to go see "Hello. I'm Victor." again. They're a really great band.

Next up was the main event, "Hello. I'm Victor." They put on an excellent show. I enjoyed both their own songs, as well as their covers. They had demo cd's available, and I went ahead and grabbed a copy. I have yet to listen to the cd, although I did peruse their website. They have MP3's available for download, for anyone that is interested, and I enjoyed the retro layout of their web design. Here is a picture of their lead singer with the bass player, and this is their drummer. I was asked by the band to give Gary a copy of the pictures I took, which I have yet to do. Most of the pictures I took of the show were grainy and of poor quality, due to the lighting conditions.

One picture of interest was this, which is a lightning bug in mid flight. If you notice in the background, you can actually see the bug's shadow on the roof of Koby's barn. I think that if you use your imagination, you can almost see a flying angel or the Virgin Mary. This would be an interesting experiment, to see if we could convince a large group of Mexicans to build a shrine on the wall of Koby's barn and hold daily candlelight vigils. Just like they did with that ridiculous stain in Chicago that resembled... a stain.

After the show, I conducted an interview with Jeremy, the drummer.

ADN: So how did you like jamming down in the boonies?
Jeremy: It was a lot of fun, I had a good time. I'm not used to seeing all the stars at night.
ADN: How big of audiences are you used to?
Jeremy: Twenty or thirty, on average. We usually play at venues, which are basically bars with a stage at one end. One time we played at a Beer Garden.
ADN: How'd you rate tonight's performance?
Jeremy: We played kinda sloppy, because we did some covers we don't normally practice, but I had a hell of a good time.

And thus concludes my reporting of Saturday night's events. On a sidenote, I've updated Zach's picture with one I took the night of the party. Its been a long time since I updated his picture, and in the new one we are both wearing our cool hats! (Although mine is much cooler)

~Fin~

grokkings

When traveling with Suzanne during her college orientation in Macomb, I wore a nametag stating I was "Thomas Carlisle."

different crap

Ghost hunting    7/23/02

other people

Select One Amber Art Colleen Kristy Suzanne Zach