I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
August 25, 2012 - 11:26 a.m.
Thanks to an invasion of mosquitoes I got to sleep very late last night so I slept late. The thing is I have to get out of the house this afternoon, well actually right around noon so I can't afford to procrastinate any more. I better start writing.
I did my usual wasting of the entire day yesterday till I went out last evening. Music, fixed plans, and food shopping, seem to be the only things that can get me moving. Last night I went to see Paul and Storm. I had a lot of fun but also a dose of bad neuro. This is going to require some back story. No Doofenshmirtz comments! [glares at Carey]
Back in the last millennium I was a Fr�head, a fan of the Canadian band Moxy Fr�vous. That was my first experience with organized music fandom. I did not have that many friends at the time and it became a big part of my social life. Through the community I heard about the band Da Vinci's Notebook. It didn't come from one person but through osmosis. When they had the CD release party for their album The Life and Times of Mike Fanning at the Bitter End a group of us decided to go. Doing a little research I can see that must have been in January or February of 2000. Yes that's the last millennium. I am NOT going to go through that argument again. If you disagree you are simply wrong and if you insist on arguing and I'm going to feel the need to correct other fallacies you believe in. A woman can get pregnant from a rape.
It only took seeing DVN once to turn me into a fan, a DVN't. I started seeing them every time they played in the area. I joined the Yahoo group. Once I met Carey things went up a notch. She was also a fan. We pretty much took over the Yahoo group. You might have noticed that Carey and I take over any forum we get involved in. After Moxy Fr�vous went on "hiatus" we directed even more energy to DVN. The band referred to us and our friends, Lawrence, Shelly, Melissa, Gella, et al as "the stalkers." We pulled stunts at shows. We made a display of plastic army men to give them, we'd shout things out, "I wish I were a monkey," "You ARE a monkey!" We made penises out of towels, a box of Sugar Frosted Jews, a fake bottle of Ritalin to toss on the stage when they made the joke that Bernie didn't have his meds that day. Let's just say we were not passive.
Carey and I went to a show at the Ram's Head in Annapolis. After the show people including us were waiting to talk to the band. Someone we didn't know found out who we were and said, "Forget DVN, you guys are famous!"
They were one of the first bands I did merch for. We became friends with them. When they went on "A Moxy Fr�vous style hiatus" we were left without a band to stalk for a while then Paul and Storm went out on their own under the brilliantly clever name, "Paul and Storm." Carey by then had moved to Chicago but the other stalkers resumed our position. Lena who I first met during the DVN days entered my social circle. The pranks at shows continued.
Paul and Storm got more successful and started branching out. They did convention type shows with other performers called W00tstock. They started playing less often in New York. When they did I still did the merch for them but the other stalkers moved away or moved on and I started seeing them by myself.
So now on to last night. For the first time in ages I didn't do merch for them. When I got on line for the show I realized this was the first time that I had ever seen Paul and Storm where I didn't go to the show with friends or do merch. I didn't know a single person on the line and they all seemed to know each other. That felt so odd. At most concerts I go to I know lots of people. That was true at DVN and Paul and Storm shows before it was true other places. Not only did I not know these people when I listened to them talk I was not a part of their culture. Sure I'm a nerd. I'm a king nerd, but they lived in different parts of the nerdiverse than I do. I don't even know where they knew each other from as many of them hadn't seen Paul and Storm many times if at all. Instead of socializing I texted Carey. I tried to text Lena too but there is something in my phone I don�t get and it wouldn't let me text her.
When they let us in I took my usual seat front and center by the stage. There was an opening act, a comedian. I bet you all know him. Everyone on the line did even though he lives on the West coast and hadn't played New York before. I did not find him particularly funny. The audience loved him. To make things worse the lighting director at La Poisson Rouge has a strange notion how to light a show. There were spotlights BEHIND the performer shining into the crowd. I felt like I was being interrogated. It was actually painful and I could hardly see what was on stage. Overall I was feeling alienated and not very happy.
When Paul and Storm took the stage things turned around. I still couldn't see them on stage. My eyes still hurt. I still felt that the people sitting near me were from another planet. But I enjoyed the show. I was back in milieu. They did some old material gong back to when they started as a duo but mixed in some new songs and bits too.
So remember how "the stalkers" would pull pranks on DVN and we'd shout things out to heckle them. That became something of the norm for the crowds for Paul and Storm. It really isn't fun to do that kind of thing when you are alone so I didn't prepare anything. When they did Nugget Man I tried something. I had been thinking about the towel penises we made back in the day and tried to make one out of a paper napkin. It didn't work well but I had the rolled up napkins in front of me. I rolled them up very tight and sealed the ends with the wax from the candles that were on the table. During Nugget Man the audience waves their lighters or the lighter apps on the phones in the air. Paul and Storm suggested that people use their candles and then went on a tangent about imagining the candles fusing with people's hands and them becoming Batman villains.
I turned the rolled up napkin into a torch. I'm enough of a pyromaniac to know that it would work. That the napkin would have a slow controlled burn with a decent sized flame. I didn't know if it would be noticeable to anyone but it would amuse me. It was noticeable to people especially Paul and Storm. They made a comment about the pyromaniac. Then they realized it was me and said, "It really is Commissioner Gordon." At first it surprised me that they could see me from the stage. I know usually you see nothing but a wall of black. But then I realized that I had spotlights on me. The thing that prevented me from seeing them was allowing them to see me. Of course this could not go on and someone from the venue made me put my torch out. I snuffed it in the glass the candle was in. I was prepared for that. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't worked out how to do things safely.
I enjoyed the rest of the show and hung around to talk to them afterward. Then I grabbed some pizza for dinner and headed home. Now I have to rush and get out of here. I'm seeing Laura Dunn this afternoon and have to make breakfast and get moving.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile August 25, 2012
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