On Sunday night, I was witness to true Rock Incarnate! The Darkness came to Clutch Cargo's and rocked the house down as only a band like themselves could. For some cool pictures, check out whatevs.org. Go to the bottom of the page, and you'll see a small review with a picture of Justin taken by Big Matt, my friend who was standing about two feet to my right. Awesome.
Justin, the lead singer of the Darkness, kicked ass throughout the whole show, in no less than three costume changes, two of which were jumpsuits. The picture was taken during the extended guitar solo, when Justin jumped down off the stage and began playing while riding around on the shoulders of a security guard. As Matt said first, I've never seen a show where so many people were so into the band and having a good time. It was all about group clapping, hand waving, singing along... what a great show with great energy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, find a way to get a hold of their current single, "I Believe in A Thing Called Love", and then repeat it about 20 times as the rock goodness just washes over you.
Unfortunately, a bad mushroom burger at Bo's Brewery in Pontiac forced me to the back of the place for about half of the show, but still my enjoyment was not diminished. I would have written about it sooner if the ridiculousness of Tuesday had not interfered. I'll explain tomorrow - in addition to my trip announcement.
Until then, entertain thyself with new audio. I'm actually kinda funny.
On Tuesday, I finally got around to doing what I had been planning on doing for a few weeks now, changing my oil. Well, not so much me doing it, as my car is a Nissan Altima and has a ground clearance of about 8 inches, but instead the fine folks at my local quickie oil place. I say "fine folks" in a mocking way, however, because the $25 oil change with $3 coupon ended up costing me $250. Good Times.
But first, the oil change. While working on the oil change, and fighting off the pitches for a new air filter and engine flush, they informed me that my anti-freeze was low. Being naturally suspicious, I told them I was going to fill it myself later. (For those of you who don't know, anti-freeze is available at your local auto parts store for under $5, and you just pour it into the hole marked "coolant". Their charge was around $12 for doing it.) Now, back to the rest of the story...
While in the garage, the mechanic tells me my tires are overinflated. I'm surprised, as I had just tested them a week ago and the gauge was fine. He goes and fixes the pressure on EVERY tire. I thank him. Notice that he had to look at all four tires and test their pressure. After paying, I drive the LESS THAN 2000 FEET to my apartment complex. Get that? I drove less than 2000 feet after the oil change.
Irked about the anti-freeze, I pop the hood to check the level. It is dead even between the MIN and MAX level, which in my book really isn't so much low as it is perfect. This angers me slightly, but what should I expect from these places? (I will not even begin to get on a rant about how it is aparently acceptable business practice - in many fields, like electronics, car repair, and household repair (carpentry, plumbing) - where specialized knowledge is necessary, to LIE to customers to make an extra buck! Life is too complicated and filled with too much information for me to be constantly educating myself on how not to get fucked over by some douche-bag who enjoys ripping people off. END RANT.)
As I am about to close the hood, I hear a slight hissing. I wonder if the guy who inspected my tires did something and my tire is leaking, so I bend down to check it out. And what do I find? A screw embedded in my tire, with air squeezing out underneath the head! So, while it is possible that I picked up the screw in the 2000 feet I drove, I really think that it is more likely that I picked up a screw WHEN I WAS IN A CAR GARAGE! You know, the kind where they screw and unscrew things! Damn you, oil change weasels!
Then, I quickly drive the car to Walmart, so they can repair the tire. (Thanks to Blain, who informed me, the car ingnoramus, that a "hot plug" can repair a tire as good as new with no need for replacement - saving me the $60 or so for a new tire.) However, Walmart has an hour to hour and a half wait till they can look at my car, because Jimbo - the only mechanic there - has "like three or four cars to get to, after I finish here talkin' to Bill". Realizing that I have stumbled into a time warp and that my tire is deflating as we speak, I go down the road to another tire shop, where they'll do it for only $3 more. Fine.
Amber picks me up, as they need an hour and I need a shower from raquetball. After the shower, I get a call that 3 of the tires (one was replaced a year ago) need to be replaced and the patch isn't worth it. It'll cost $226.
So, I gave up. Fine. I get it. I don't know as much about cars as people who make they're living working on cars! Clearly, this is a deficiency on my part, and I deserve to have my money taken away because of it. I don't know much of what goes on besides the right one is for faster and the left one is for stopping. Thus, you deserve all of my money.
In the end, it wasn't that bad, as I checked and my tires were 40k tires and I have 38,575 on my car. Plus, driving to California and back isn't a great time to "let it ride" on old tires. Still, I enjoyed getting riled up.
Yes, at the end of April, Amber and I are taking a two week trip to Indio, CA for Coachella, a music festival. We'll be stopping by the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and all the boring states in between. This should coincide perfectly with the arrival of my brandy-new HighDef TiVo, allowing us just enough time to miss the UPS delivery and having them ship it back to the store where I bought it. For some reason, UPS refuses to come to our apartments before the front office closes at 5PM. Therefore, we have to be home to pick up the packages, which is hard when home is in Michigan and you're in Utah.
Details and itinerary to follow. Like, after I figure out anything more than "Well, we should probably go west."
Wow, that was long. I guess I should make these shorter and more frequent, as opposed to long and tedious, but that's me.
No, no.. not for me. However, Amber's Dad spent Monday and Tuesday getting to know Crittenton Hospital after getting sidelined by a kidney stone. I'd attempt to explain it, but why bother when Amber did a much better job.
So that plus cleaning up Rock's basement is what I've been up to the past few days. Well, that and job seeking. As you can hear on my audio page I've been preparing for what likely will be a new life somewhere is the continental United States. Beyond that, the details are sketchy... which always helps me sleep well.
The worst part is that all the planning for the "Drive Across America" has taken a backseat for the past few days. I had hoped to ahve at least an outline and a few hotels picked out by this point, but at T-minus 17 days and counting all we've planned out is:
1. Get in the car on April 26th.
2. Drive to hotel in Southern California by Friday.
3. Attend Coachella.
4. Drive home, via San Francisco.
Well, I also got new tires.
Speaking of parents (see top of post), apparently mine (which live in New Jersey) are in Indiana this week. When I offered to drive down and visit them for lunch, they kind of said no, and since then have been avoiding me. Apparently all the "We miss you" stuff has been a load of crap. Good to know for when it's time to pick out a nursing home (Which they're doing for my Grandma. It's actually an assisted living home, but the threat doesn't work as well with "assisted living"). I believe your room is gonna smell like pee, Mom and Dad! Plus, I'll make sure you share a room with the "screamer". You know - the guy who's only remaining memory scares the hell out of him. Good luck getting some sleep there.
I am not a man to be fooled with, O parents! But you can fix this all with some cash. You know where I live.
Caught both The Sopranos and Deadwood tonight on the HBO. First off, it looks like The Sopranos is really starting to hit its stride this season after a lackluster effort last season. I'm starting to remember why I liked the show in the first place. After last season, I felt I was just watching out of habit and not enjoying a thing, but the entertainment has returned.
As for Deadwood, I have to admit that the show got off to a slow start, but has really turned it on in the past few weeks. Amber didn't even make it through the first episode before walking away out of boredom - and I didn't particularly blame her. However, I fell in love with the character of Seth Bullock, the ex-lawman turned hardware salesman. His bizarre thoughts on justice seemed rooted in a rock-solid moral code, however it's one that I'm completely unfamiliar with. He executed a man in the first five minutes of the series for horse-stealing - which I don't believe is exactly fair - but seems to do it mostly so the mob gathering outside his jail can't do it themselves. It's almost a spite execution, which as we get to know him seems quite out of character.
Anyway, much like The Wire, the show has taken off like a rocket, racing forward with compelling plot and characters in a way that no drama besides The Wire has. I know, I can't believe that I'm saying it, but it just might be that good.
In related news, it looks like the first season of The Wire may be coming out on DVD later this month! Rest assured, I will be purchasing it at the first possible moment and I highly recommend everyone within the sound of these ramblings to either go out and rent it, pick it up, or borrow it from me. How good is The Wire? Well, if you read the earlier Deadwood link on Bullock, you would have seen that the reason he (the actor, Timothy Olyphant) starting looking for a TV job in the first place was that he got cable for the first time and starting watching The Wire because the lead actor, Dominick West, was his friend. The first season so blew him away that he told his agent to look for something on TV that might be as good as The Wire. Thus Deadwood.
P.S. Major points to Deadwood for the repeated use of the word reconnoiter. And yes, I had to look it up. (Although you can clearly guess the meaning from context in the show)
