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June 20, 2007

windows open and raining in

so last nite i made my way to the chastain park amphitheater in the atl (that's buckhead to you jon weaver) with micah and kathryn asher to partake in some good old fashioned rock 'n roll courtesy of wilco. and wow - what an experience! atlanta traffic is a bitch y'all! of course it didn't help that the forces of nature decided that yesterday should be the day to make up for all of the rainfall we haven't gotten for the past several months. on the drive down from chattanooga i hit several patches of ridiculous blinding rain accompanied by standing water on the interstate. the whole time i was kicking myself for not packing my wet suit and snorkel since the show was going to be outdoors.

as i made my way through marrietta to the carver ranch the sky remained overcast but the rain subsided so i remained hopeful that the worst had passed - after loading micah into the car we headed toward malone's arbored manse (20 miles - actual travel time 1.5 hours) and still no rain - we settled into our seats (totally awesome by the way - thanks chris) about 15 minutes before showtime and sure enough as the band took the stage and started into the opening strains of either way the sky blue sky responded with a light drizzle which very quickly progressed to a downpour. i'd brought along a raincoat but i abandoned it pretty quickly as i figured 1.5 hours of mild rainwater would be preferable to 1.5 hours of sticky sweat.

after the third or fourth song jeff stepped to the mic and shook his head in admiration at the soggy masses and promised that they would play until the rain stopped - or the 11 p.m. curfew kicked in...one of the unfortunate side effects of chastain - it's in a pretty snooty neighborhood and they have a noise curfew - they must also have a restriction on how loud the rock 'n roll could be because it was pretty hard to hear the band at times. but they still put on a fantastic show playing most of the songs from the new record (sorry heidi - it's true) as well as some tried and true classics up to and including kamera which i had not seen them perform live before. for their last song of the evening they played outta mind (outta sight) from disc 2 of being there...which is my favourite wilco record so hearing one of those songs is always orgasmic.

it really turned out to be a fun show all in all - people still indulged in alcoholic beverages and the occasional cloud of cannibus wafted on the breeze. and boy i don't usually get that wet during my morning shower. i felt like keanu reeves in the final heartbreaking scene in point break only i wasn't handcuffed to patrick swayze (thank goodness) and i am not an f.b.i. agent but other than that...anyway that's the price one must pay for rock 'n roll - sort of like the coin toss i'll be making at acl in september since those bastards scheduled mmj and wilco at the same time. but i'm pretty certain that jeff promised to come back to atlanta and play an indoor show and all i have to say to that is same seats!

Posted by young_christopher at 3:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 14, 2007

blue lights all around

the common grace insights in the my morning jacket song golden are staggering - especially for someone like myself who has no qualms about wandering into a bar from time to time and having a few drinks. of course these things must be done in moderation otherwise one ends up draining one's bank account and filling out his or her formely super sexy cells with not so super sexy fat cells to the extent that it takes the better part of a year to burn it all off and get back to looking relatively amazing. which sort of follows the ebb and flow of my own particular odyssey and thank you to everyone who believed in me and sent me cards and letters and off brand fat burning medications....you know who you are.

it's only been recently that i have begun to venture out to the bar again - which don't worry there will be no relapse. i have slain that dragon and given all of my forgiving sweatpants to the goodwill. but what i hadn't counted on was that this return to peak physical form would attract the untoward attention of older men...yikes!

when i pushed open the saloon doors on sunday nite i ended up sitting at the bar - something i have never done at this particular establishment...but james - one of the old bartenders from hoppy's was there and i hadn't seen him in months so we ended up talking for awhile at the bar and that was the first time i noticed him. he was standing there near the server's station with a stupid beatific grin on his face staring directly at me. i just kind of nodded my head and forgot all about it.

after james left i sat at the bar finishing my beer and watching the intoxicating nba finals and every once in awhile krista would show up on the stool next to me and we would chat for a few minutes - and then she would vanish to tend to her tables. i don't know exactly how the subsequent sequins of events unfolded but suddenly the grinning buffoon from a couple of hours earlier was sitting on krista's stool and he was drunk. and he was chatty.

he introduced himself as johnny and we talked cordially for a few minutes - and i tried in every way possible to impose the unmistakable fact that i was not gay to this gentleman but he just wouldn't buy it - he did start offering to buy me shots. when i refused that rather bluntly he insisted on buying the beer i had ordered just before he sat down. johnny confessed to me that he had been in the bar since 5:00 that afternoon tapping the rockies courtesy of coors light. when i asked him if he had seen the infamous coors light twins anywhere he just stared back at me blankly.

and that's precisely when i decided i could no longer be civil with johnny. he knew nothing about auburn athletics even though he matriculated there several decades ago and he tried to knock my hat off in a playfully gay way. well - gay or straight if you mess with the university of miami you are bound to get cut. probably by ray lewis with that hunting knife he used to kill those guys after the super bowl a few years back....but the fact that he could not converse intelligently about the aformentioned (and) twins...well that was the straw that... instead johnny wanted to talk about his house and how he wanted to sell it so he could move downtown to be closer to the nightlife. in chattanooga? where!?

so for the next several minutes the conversation went thusly:

johnny: you're a nice guy.

me: silent.

johnny: you're shy aren't you.

me: nope.

insert akward pat on the back/equally awkward handshake.

rinse and repeat.

as i was paying my tab i looked down to the end of the bar and krista is laughing jovially at my plight. in fact - i suddenly had the sensation that everyone in the bar had put aside their entrees and their beverages to watch the events unfolding at the bar. through her laughter krista half heartedly apologized for making no attempt to rescue me - and as i walked by to my car i was dumbfounded that such a thing could happen. to me. i mean this incident could have been lifted directly from the life of timothy scott calhoun manor. only i was propositioned while fully clothed in a bar - there was no naked hot tubbing involved. scotty's not gay indeed!

Posted by young_christopher at 10:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 7, 2007

London Olympics....1986?

I know there have been a billion blogs about this catastrophe already, but seriously? The logo for the 2012 Olympics in London totally sucks.

Sure, I haven't been doing graphic design long enough to become truly jaded with an exacting, critical eye, but this feels like something a junior high school skater kid from the 80's with no artistic ability might doodle on his notebook, but not in pink 'cause - you know - that might look gay. The typeface for the "London" bit almost bothers me more than anything else. The people responsible for this logo? Wolff Olins. I don't like their website that much, but they seem to have done some pretty cool and creative stuff before. This logo is only interesting in that it is mind bogglingly lame.

I love all the outrage that's exploded over this, and that not only is the logo offensive in its ugliness, but it's given 22 people epileptic seizures due to the video which has now been removed from the official London 2012 site. It will be interesting to see how public displeasure will play out - if at all. Maybe I'll send an idea over to the Daily Mail. You never know.

Here's a great news spot about it. The beginning is taken from the removed epilepsy video. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Jon Stuart comments on the logo!

Posted by heidi at 9:37 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 1, 2007

this is just to say...

i need to take a moment to amend my list of the top five overrated artists of all time as it has recently occurred to me that bruce springsteen should certainly be on that list. in fact he should probably be 2-5 (mostly because of that awful post 9/11 album he did. come on up for the what?) but that would make kind of a boring list so...i realize he's the boss and he has written alot of really good songs over the years but the fact that he is regarded among our greatest living songwriters is beyond my comprehension. in his early years he might have had that kind of potential but when you pull back the curtain it's not hard to realize the guy is nothing more than a more suave version of mellencamp or jon bon jovi with a more robust thesaurus...so for now i'm putting him at #2 and bumping randy newman. that is all.

1. elvis costello
2. bruce springsteen
3. u2* post unforgettable fire
4. carlos santana - seriously. it's the same guitar lick over and over people
5. fiona apple

Posted by young_christopher at 9:15 PM | TrackBack