With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
2002-07-14 - 6:19 p.m.
Last night I saw Richard Thompson at Joe's Pub. I had been looking forward to this for months. The show started at 9 PM. I called us yesterday and asked what time the doors opened and they said 6 O'clock. I was really surprised at this and jumped right in my car, it was a bit before 5. I had my usual parking luck and got there at 5:30. I was surprised that there was no one on line. I asked what time the door opened and was told six again. I then asked if this was for Richard Thompson and was told no. There was another show at 7 O'clock. She said the doors opened for the 9 O'clock show at 8:30 and people start lining up at 7:30. Don't you think they could have asked me on the phone which show I was asking about? I wasn't too upset as this game me some time get something to eat and walk around the East Village. The great collectables store with the Buffy action figures was closed. The posted hours said it should be open. I wonder what's up? I hope it's open next week when Carey comes to visit. I ate at Bendix. It's a diner that was founded by a Jewish man and his Thai wife. The cuisine is Thai-Jewish. They also have standard diner fare. The original one closed down but the East Village one is thriving.
After dinner I went CD shopping. None of the cheap CD stores at TMBG's No. I stopped by St Mark's Comics and was told that they'd be getting new Buffy figures in, in a few days. I broke down and went to Tower Records, a retail CD store. They had No and it was on sale for $14.99. That is $5 more than Upstairs Sounds would have charged and $3 more than Downstairs Sounds but what could I do?
I got back to Joe's pub a bit before 7; I wanted to be the first one on line. I was though someone else arrived in two minutes and someone else a couple of minutes after that. This was the first time I hung out at the front of a Richard Thompson line. There were the usual hard-core types. One woman came up from Nashville, and one guy came down from Boston. The guy earned Gordonpoints when we were telling waiting on line stories. I mentioned Früvous and immediately said, "Great band." After about 15 minutes the woman I had asked about when the door opened came up to me and asked me if I wanted to sit at the sidewalk café and have a few drinks before the show. The people there get to go in first. Only people who arrive before seven are allowed to sit there and get in early. She should have told me this when I first got there and I guess she felt guilty. I'll know for next time to just sit at the café and eat there. I of course took her up on her offer. I ordered tiramisu. I find that pretty hard to resist. The people sitting there were very cool; a man at the next table was talking about Neil Innes. The RT fans have very good taste. When I was still on the line I found out that Richard Thompson does have an official site that is actually updated. I kept finding sites that were way out of date.
When they let us in I got the seat I wanted right by the stage. I shared the table with a couple from Alexandria. Like everyone else I met there they were lots of fun. We talked about the Birchmere, Iota, the Ram's head and Jammin' Java. They live less than a mile from the Birchmere. I told them to check out DVN. I'm going to look for them at the August show.
I was asked to move my chair in for a second to let somebody through, it was Phoebe Snow. She sat right at the next table. I have met her at WFUV and have seen her in the audience at a number of shows.
Then the lights went down and Richard Thompson led by a drummer walked through the crowd to the stage. This was not an ordinary RT show. He didn't' do any of his own songs. It was called 1000 years of popular music. That wasn't quite accurate but it was pretty close, the first song he did, Summer is a Cummen from the 13th century is the oldest surviving song in the English language. He gave a bit of history and context for all the songs. It was like having the world's greatest music teacher for a class on the history of popular music. As always he was charming and witty. I learned about the Hundred Years War, Medieval tennis, the Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, that the Shenandoah mentioned in the song is a tributary of the Missouri, not the river in Virginia, and European Union's sense of humor, among other things. Here is an EU joke.
What is the difference between Heaven in Hell?In Heaven you are greeted at the door by the English, the French do all the cooking, the Italians provide the entertainment, and the Germans organize everything.
In Hell you are greeted at the door by the French, the English do all the cooking, the Germans provide the entertainment and the Italians organize everything.
The music was of course fantastic; he started in the 13th century and finished in the present. Here is the complete set list:
You'll notice that "OOPS" is crossed out. That is the Britney Spears song Oops I did it Again , he performed that in other shows this week. He replaced it with Kiss by Prince.
A schlemiel is the person who spills the soup and a schlimazel is the one he spills it on. I proved that I'm a schlemiel last night. The chairs were poorly made plastic ones. All night I was worried because mine wasn't very stable. I was afraid I'd fall over backwards, I did. I wasn't hurt but I hit Phoebe Snow and hurt her ankle. I didn't see her leave but she left early. When it was over I was going to ask her if she was OK but she was gone.
Carey's adventures with fake David Morreale continued today. They had to fight off numerous attacks from the agents of Nigel Bloodbath and the Great Guidance Ro-man. It as all worth it though. Carey successfully delivered the secret of the difference between a Fribble and a Shake. I'd hate to think of the consequences if that fell into the wrong hands.
Happy Bastille Day everybody.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile 2002-07-14
