I guess things have swung to centre again after that near-disaster at work this week with the nearly crashing the server/computer system thing with last night. I'm always amazed when things happen the way they do. No one can convince me that a higher power isn't stage-managing my personal production of Life.
I had planned to go to the Leather Uppers show and asked a new girl friend I know from work if she was going to go. I figured she would because we had previously talked about the fact that her husband is in the Smugglers and I know the Smugglers had played shows with the Leather Uppers. She said that the Uppers were staying at their house while they were in town, told me I was to go with them and asked if I wanted to come to a backyard party before the show. So that's what I did.
Actually, it was sort of strange walking into the backyard, aside from my obvious social retardation/anxiety I generally have in new social situations. I saw Polly and she introduced me to everyone. The weird thing was that I already knew who half of the people were. The couple of Smugglers guys I recognised and the wife of one was in Maow and I recognised her from that. The Leather Uppers guys were there as well, as was Dan Bejar (Destroyer), who convinced me to sit in the low chair after Polly's husband Dave invited me to sit down. I felt like a social retard after handing Polly a bag of Nerds candies, but everyone cheered that it fitted the crowd. Everyone was lovely and the conversations were normal and I didn't embarrass myself or say anything really awkward (surprising, I know), and hung out with the most wicked 1-year-old baby Charlie, who sported some sweet "jungle shorts" in a leopard print and kept taking my empty bottles of Strongbow. Mental note: babies love Strongbow.
I'll never understand it, but the genders eventually separated except for Charlie who kept close to his mom for foobing. There's an eagle nest a few doors down and so there were occasional breaks to check out how they were doing and to swipe some raspberries from the bushes in the backyard. A little record player provided tunes. Backyards are awesome.
Eventually we headed over to the show and it was pretty sweet. All the bands were great fun, but the Leather Uppers were really worth it. Sporting white tux pants, black shirts and white scarves, they rocked everyone's ass off who wasn't already shaking it. That there are only two of them is crazy. That they are both equally skilled at guitar and drums, and switch-off mid-set is unbelievable. In person they are moderatly quiet and subdued. Beforehand, Greg talked about this pedal-less wooden German bike he taught his kids to learn to ride bikes on. On stage they are rock gods. When they finished their encore they shook hands and waved as they were mauled by the most eager at the front. And suddenly they were back to their normal states, albeit more smiley and more sweaty. So fun.
Tonight I have to go to a scrapbooking party with The Bridesmaids. I'm supposed to have a bunch of stuff written up and pictures organised for my pages, as well as the well-written, well-though out introductory piece for the front of the scrapbook. Guess how ready I am for it. No, really, guess. If you guessed "not at all", you'd be so right. I've got less than 7 hours to prepare for it, and have to shower off the heat and get some birthday errand stuff together for my friend in the meantime. Guess I'm going in to work after all. Shit.
A shout-out to Astoria residents. Hope you get some power soon and your neighbourhood doesn't degenerate into that terrible movie where there was no power and people started murdering everyone for water. Or maybe that bank robbery one with Christian Slater. Wait, was that the same movie?
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