KingLou Drops Science 2.0

Went and saw DEVO last night at the SummerStage in Central Park. A little history: I have been a huge DEVO fan since I was introduced to them my best friend at the time, David Bridge, in fourth grade. Over the years I have suffered as a DEVO fan because they have never enjoyed pop success. They have always been a "One Hit Wonder" even though to me they had about 6 albums full of hits as far as I was concerned. To top things off they never played anywhere near me. I rememeber being in 4th or 5th grade and a kid I wasn't very fond of had gone to see them on Halloween. I was incredibly jealous. That kid was diabetic and went on to have a siezure right across from me at lunch a few years later. Anyway, I never saw them. The one year I went to Sundance they were playing the night we were leaving at some shitty, uber-exclusive industry thing. Of course I didn't even try to go and a few years later I met a guy who'd had a film in the shorts program that year. He had seen them and wasn't a fan. Just thought they were weird. He enjoyed them but it was wasted on him. Fast forward to 2004. Devo is performing at Central Park. Gotta get tickets. My friend Finn gets the tickets! Awesome. Due to some confusion he sells my ticket on eBay. HORROR! But Finn's wife steps down in a gesture of mega-kindness so I can go. Awesome! Forecast is for rain. More like Sunami. I get to the line and it is raining pretty hard. I've got an umbrella and shitty raincoat and am relatively dry. I am the first one there of the posse and make small talk with a guy named Eddie. He is a concert nut. Has been to 8 concerts un July. Mostly free concerts in the park and Prince. It's his first time seeing DEVO, too. While we're talking the sky opens up with a massive amount of water. My feet are soaked. It's raining up. Everyone in the line is moaning and wailing. It lets up for a little while but never for a moment stops raining. Finn & Alex are late and their cabbie refuses to break the law and drop them off in the park so he drops them off as far from the venue as psooibleon the west side of the park. They start walking just as the line gets moving. We get inside and there is a "merch" stand as they called it. They were selling cool DEVO stuff. The line was already stupid so I passed. I thought "There'll be time later." Of course that translated into "NEVER." I didn't bring my camera or video because of my recent experiences where places don't let you bring it in but don't offer anywhere to store your banned stuff. So your option is to sneak it in or go home or throw it away. Of course this time no one cared. it's still raining. The rest of the gang showed up and the joint started getting packed. Umbrellas everywhere. The first band, Stella Star, went on. Rain still coming down in buckets. Stella Star was okay. Not the greatest. Bass player was a super cute blond. They were finished a set that was maybe 2 songs too long. More people started coming and complaining about the umbrellas. It was still raining and these shrill bitchy voices were like "I can't see!" Umbrellas to the back!" There was no show to see but they whining continued. "Your umbrella is getting me wet!" was another complaint. Again, it was raining a ton at this point. I had long put my umbrella away but others around me had not. The couple next to me was really getting a lot of heat for their umbrella. So much so that people were yelling at them to put it down. They were argueing pretty hard for it. After some assholes made some dick moves on the couple (mainly a going in front of them, opening umbrellas then slowly bringing them down on the couples umbrella, forcing it lower and lower) they brough their umbrella down to the cheers of the crowd. There was still nothing to see. Eventually the girl with the umbrella started to cry and say "I want to go home." It was quite scene. The rain had tapered of to a steady light rain. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs started. They were pretty fucking fun to watch. The lead singer lady was scantily clad. They rocked out. She does funny dance moves. I enjoyed it. I forgot to mention that the whole thing was being filmed for ABC. The lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's was cursing like a sailor. It was pretty funny. Now the Summer Stage was packed. After an idiotic wait DEVO comes on stage. They did not disappoint. FUCKING AWESOME. They rocked out for a solid set of only classics. First four albums only. They began the show with a little video of General Boi from the classic DEVO concert video from the 80's. Then it was balls out. Literally. The show show was rife with problems from the get go. Lots of not working guitars, mics and so on but they always managed to keep rocking. During one of the songs, I don't recall which, Gerry Casale started thrusting at his bass guitar. He was pumping his loins and slowly but surely he showed the audience that he wasn't wearing any underwear. His cock and balls were flapping out for all to see. The audience was screaming in horror and delight. The show ended with an encore performance of Beautiful World performed by Boogie Boi. It was amazing. As they left the stage the main announcer guy came out to say the show was over. As he was saying those words the sky opened up again. A deluge of biblical proportions. I managed to get my rain thing back on but it was too late. I was soaked. We all sloshed back in the downpour to the N/R. The crew decided to go out. I was feeling the ache of standing for 7 hours so I went home. I arrived home to the horror of the stench of cat piss. We've been having trouble with our cat ever since he got a urinary tract infection. It's been treated but now it seems that once a month he can't help himself but to pee on something. So I came home and was upset by the fact that apparently my wife was sleeping through this piss reek. I found the stench right away. It was my beloved messenger bag. It was soaked through with piss and shit. Yes, he shit on the bag, too. hooray. I was extremely angry and started to clean my bag and complain about the stench. This woke up my wife. A note to people.... Never wake up my wife. She was enraged that I was waking her up for the piss stench. She couldn't smell it. It lead to a wonderfully heated yelling match. Net result. She cleaned the floor in anger and I slept on the couch. I slept on the couch at my own insistance to ensure I wouldn't keep complaining aobut the piss odor. I don't know what we're going to do about this cat..... Long story short: DEVO is awesome. Cat piss is not.

I failed to mention in my last post my stress from work. On friday I fucked up in several ways. Is it smart to put this information on the web for people to see? No. Still I crave to share my folly. Enjoy it won't you? First. I work on the same floor as two african american gentlemen. One's name is Ralph and the others name is Gary. Not special info on it's own. However it is important because they are the only 2 black guys I have any contact with. It is limited contact but i say hello. To my knowledge the short bald guy was Gary and the old guy was Ralph. Well on Friday I was proven wrong as the guy I thought was Gary came to my window and said hello. I said "Hey, Gary." and he said "Whoa!!!! Sorry man. Wrong black guy." It had nothing to do with his being one of two black guys. It had everything to do with not having either of their names right from the first day and never really having to talk to either of them. Ralph, as I figured out his name was by a process of elimination, kept going on and on about "what if I called you this or that." I pleaded that it was an honest mistake not based on race but he wouldn't stop. So I made some kind of weird comment that only I can make that usually brings conversations to an end. Just a weird bizarre joke that makes people go... "Well i don't think there is any point continuing this conversation." Secondly I was weak, as I often am when it comes to helping people in need. A student came and needed to check out one of our cameras. Problem? We were out of them. My solution? Let her check out the high end school camera. $2500 camera. The minute it left my hands I was sweating. If she doesn't bring it in on time on Monday I will be totally up shit creek. I believe that she will bring the camera back on time. I was extremely careflul to point out that she would be on the hook for the camera if she didn't return it. Say goodbye to the Grad Architecture program! For me & for her if she fucks it up. Sheesh. I only had one freaky dream moment about it over the weekend and it was only a "where is she with the camera?" moment. Not even that bigof a freak out. Weekend was decent. Sunday we hung out with Bret & Ann. Friends in from Ithaca. It was nice. The skies threatened to pour on us but they held back until later. And when the skies did open up it was on some poor guy and his kid who were barbecuing in the community patio. They cooked out there in some of the most fucked up rain I have every seen. Really interesting sight.

Last night Gunshow performed it's first trial sketch for it's new sketch show at Variety Underground. It went pretty well. A little weird. But that was to be expected. The audience was the usual %60 performers and the rest friends or strangers. We did my Piñata sketch and there was laughing. Oddly the biggest laugh was at the "My name is Peter Inata." The rest of the show was pleasantly surprising. The improv was good, the stand up was better than one would expect and the hosting was fun and unassuming. Afterward, we hung out with Matt Stinton because it was his birthday. Went to a weird little bar called Welcome to the Johnsons. Kind of a dive with no air moving but the beers were dirt cheap so you gotta love that. Had a good time trading stories of ribaldry and embarassment. Lots of fun. Some members of the group had indulged in the green reaper, stealer of innocence, the mexican mind bender (aka herbals). It was funny to see the contrast. Came home a little drunk and passed out. Today as I was walking to lunch I purposely I went out of my way to pass the kids of The School @ Columbia to watch them frolic. Being a newish dad I am now really entertained by kids. Before I didn't really care but children really make me laugh these days. They are just funny as hell. As I was walkking by them there was a call for them to all go and eat lunch. I had a sense memory of the grossness of a soggy, celophane wrapped PB & J on a summer day. Washed down with an industrial reconstituted OJ that comes in a plastic cup covered in foil. BLECH! Somehow at the time it didn't seem so bad. But the sense memory was really kind of unpleasant. It made me smile though. It's such a universal experience growing up in the USA. Unless of course you have some kind of faggy peanut allergy. Fag. Reserved a car with Budget in the city for 3 weeks starting the 29th of July. So excited to leave the city with the family! Saw a promo for a terrible new reality show called "What I Hate About You" where couples accuse their mates of some behavior they do, that they deny, and they get filmed to catch them doing it. Jodi said "I bet you have a long list of that for me." I denied it. But after that comment everytime she is irritating me I think "That'd go on the list." Then I get pissed for thinking that... even though it's true. Weekend plans? Looks like Brooklyn Museum. Maybe Farenheit 9/11? But really... the buzz is over. It'll be like catching it at the budget cinema now. No one cares. I'll be like "I saw it, guys. Lets talk about it!" And everyone will say "Man I saw that a month ago. I can't even remembr anything except that it made me mad about stuff.If you had asked me like right after I would have had lots to talk about. Now I just want to talk about Spiderman 2 or Anchorman." Sigh.

Started putting the finishing touches on our mega-car rental-driving vacation plans today. Printed out all the maps to and reverse for all destinations. Went to the car rental sites to check prices and stuff. Dollar rent-a-car had the best deal. Killer cheap from Newark airport. I was about to pull the trigger and reserve the sweet SUV for $833 (for 3 weeks) when I noticed there was a little link that said "local renters please see restrictions." I go there an lo and behold there is a page of crap about extra charges. The very first thing says Surcharge Information: Higher rental rates for New York City (Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens)residents may apply as follows: -For Brooklyn residents the rates will be $77.00 higher per day. -For Bronx residents the rates will be $65.00 higher per day. -For Queens residents the rates will be $7.00 higher per day. WTF!? I am being penalized for being from Brooklyn? I don't get it. And worse yet. I am being penalized at a higher rate than shittier buroughs like Queens. Totally lame. So with the extra fees my car rental went from an awesome 833+taxes and fees to $2300+. I called their phone support and they said that the low prices are reserved for people who are flying in to the airport. I said that sucked and that was that. Now I am looking elsewhere for a rental. Prices are close but now I am worried that I have to call each place and be like "Is this only an airline rate or can a poor sucker form New York come to Jersey to rent a car so he doesn't have to get assraped to drive somewhere?" It really sucks. Typically renting a car for the weekend here in the city is anywhere from $200-300. This was three weeks for $833. Big diff. Went to a moveon.org fundraiser today thrown by some friends of ours. It was a decently attended event. I don't know how it works but they got a DVD of Gore talking and some t-shirts to give away. They were going to have some games and raffles, too. We had to leave before the fun started but we still gave. I got a bratwurst out of the deal. Jodi got eaten by mosquitos. Fair trade. The event took place in Williamsburg so we took advantage of the opportunity to see the area. It's still coming down from it's worldwide mega-hipness center but it still has a lot going on. We went to some cool stores and went to an interesting artist flea market. We bought some little gifts for later in the year. SO SMART! While in Williamsburg we also bought a smoothie at a little muffin shop. Not the best smoothie I ever had. Then again I only started really enjoying smoothies recently. Yesterday we each got smoothies at the store on Atlantic Avenue called Fuel. Not to confused with Fuel in Milwaukee. Anyway we got some awesome smooties at Fuel. My one complaint about that store is that everyone who works there looks like they just escaped from a mexican chain gang or latino prison. The guy who took my order totally skimmed from the register in front of me. He rang up $7 and then said it was $9. He was right, it was $9 but $2 went straight in his pocket. It was weird... but yummy. Yesterday by chance I was in Williamsburg again but this time for a video shoot for my friend Guy's porn rock opera, "Nausea 2." I play his manager in a couple of scenes. It was a weird shoot. There was actual almost sex on the set. The scene took place on the set of porno and Guy's character and I are eating lunch. All the while in the background there is a sex scene happening. There was all kinds of nasty shit happening. The actors playing the porno people were friends and kept complaining that it was like making out with a cousin or sister. By the end of the day I though that they might actually start fucking. It was intense and creepy. Still I thought we did a good job. My biggest error of the day was thinking that Guy would provide some kind of breakfast and juice or coffee. I got there and was starving and in terrible need of coffee. Guy's wife was nice enough to get me a coffee but the shoot started at 10am and I didn't eat until close to 2pm. I did get to consume some flakes of a choclate bread but I couldn't eat it because it was a prop. By the end of the shoot it was soggy from my saliva. BARF! Well tomorrow I start trying to learn as much about my job as possible. So far I have been getting marginal info and updates from the guys I work with. I have been very lax on lunches and working on other things on clock. It has to stop because I need to learn what is up before the regular fall schedule starts. Everyone seems to think it's a nightmare. All I can see is that it is just more of the same. More students and more faculty asking for more crap and fucking shit up with their stupidity. HA HA. I just came back and read that after walking away for a minute. Man I sound like I've worked there for a million years. So bitter. Speaking of bitter... on Friday I had yet another angry encounter with the Mac hating PC IT guy. I need to find out why he hates Apple so much. He just goes into a gleeful song and dance when Mac's don't work right. It's mildly infuriating. Okay... majorly. But then again my alliegance to failing or doomed things is well documented. GO RED SOX!

Ace's first birthday went off without a hitch. It was great. Jodi's preparations were perfect and everyone went home happy. Ace made out like a bandit. Even my sidewalk chalk signs did okay. Back at work I am still struggling with my new system on the video capture of lectures. Basically I am using an old mac to capture live lectures to the internal hard drive. Sounds great I know but it's not perfect. Still working out the bugs. Unfortunately Final Cut pro does some interesting things and doesn't always do them the same way. BOOO!!!!! Besides that work is okay. I am way behind on my sketch comedy learning. And way up on my time wasting. Sigh..... Back to the scripts.