2001-07-17 - 3:29 p.m.
Here�s where things get weird. I was reading Dear Denzel last night and suddenly, without any warning at all, the picture of Denzel on that page started reminding me of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew from The Muppet Show. It must have been the glasses.
Hold me. I�m scared.
***
After Saturday night�s show at the Casbah I added Mike Doughty (formerly of Soul Coughing, now solo) to my pantheon of rock gods. Just him, an acoustic guitar and a rented Ford Taurus to tour in and it was the punkest thing I�ve seen so far this decade. Go see him if he comes to your town. That�s an order.
Normally I avoid all-acoustic shows. I put too high a value on my entertainment dollar to waste it on precious, emotionally brittle folkies (remember, this is the city that gave the world Jewel), VH-1 Storyteller wannabes, or womyn singers trying to pretend that Phranc didn�t work the same material a million times better back in 1985. There are a few exceptions, like Gregory Page, or Bruce Cockburn with his sweet and melodic tunes about sucking chest wounds, but for the most part, give me amplification and crank it up to 11, baby.
Not so Doughty. He�s got a fistful of New York attitude and he�d just as soon crack that guitar over your head as play it. I especially liked the way he verbally abused the chattering scenesters in the audience: "HEY, YOU! Yeah, you--the bald guy! SHUT THE FUCK UP WHILE I�M PERFORMING, IT�S RUDE!" "Yo, how much did you pay to get in here? Twelve bucks? �Cuz I�m sure there are a million bars in San Diego where you don�t have to pay to get in and there�s NOT SOMEBODY TRYING TO PLAY HIS MUSIC WHILE YOU�RE TALKING!"
Mike, you rule.
***
On Friday night (working through my weekend in reverse chronological order) I went to an art opening for my friend Ed. This isn�t the Ed whom some of you have met, the dude I went to junior high school with--it�s the Other Ed, the artist in La Mesa who is also friends with the first Ed. To avoid confusion, from now on I�ll be referring to them as Ed1 and Ed2, respectively.
I hope someone gets me a digital camera for my birthday next month, because I�m not an art expert and I�d much rather just post some pictures of Ed2�s work than sound like a fool trying to describe it. For now, suffice it to say that the show was great. Ed2�s got some heavy-duty religious baggage and the pieces in which it comes out aren�t my favorites (I�m no Rudy Giuliani, but lampooning the Catholic Church is just so done, you know?) but the rest of his work is plenty engaging, and even some of the religious pieces were good for a chuckle. The one with Andy Dick as Satan in a sandwich with the Pope and George W. Bush was both funny and disturbing, in a Dieteresque "Your agony is gorgeous" kind of way.
Then there�s the painting of me--along with a few other people--he did during the show itself. How the hell does he know I�m circumcised, anyway?
***
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