Entry 57: Black Magic Love Song

I went to see Stone Temple Pilots on Thursday here in Newcastle, and tonight I’m going to see Santana (and The Doobie Brothers) at a winery just outside town. I haven’t been to a big concert in years, and suddenly I’m going to two in three days.

STP was awesome. It’s relatively recently that I’ve come to enjoy their music. When they first became popular in the mid-90s I didn’t like them much. I liked Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains and I felt like STP was a rip-off – a band without much originality cashing in on the grunge boom. But, I don’t think that anymore (or maybe I’m just sentimental for anything of that era). Anyway, they rocked the Newcastle Entertainment Center on Thursday.



They’re a band where were I know 95% of their songs, but I couldn’t tell you the names or the albums, and I only have a vague idea of the lyrics (“where you going for tomorrow, where you going with the master plan… and I feel, and I feel that the dogs begin to get her… whoa-oa… why do you even care…”). They pretty much played all their hits, which is good. Nobody likes seeing a classic band that plays stuff off their “new album”. Give us the goods. I understand that they’ve played those songs thousands of times and are probably bored with them, but you know what? 99% of the paying audience does the same job everyday, and it’s a lot less fun than being a rock star.

Also, there are few things I find more pretentious than when a band or a musician turns against their mainstream hits. Like, I heard an interview with Buster Poindexter who called “Hot Hot Hot” “the bane of my existence” – c’mon man, really? I prefer Michael Stipes’ attitude. When an interviewer apologetically explained that she was going to play a bit of “Losing My Religion”, he said there was no need to apologize. He said that he really liked that song, was proud of it, and would love to hear it. As well he should. Sure, it got played to death on the radio in the early 90s, and people got tired of it, but it’s still a damn good song.

Anyway, in other news, I went to a potluck last night. I brought this beet road salad that S makes sometimes. It’s easy and delicious. Here are the ingredients: canned beets, apples. That’s it. You put them in a food processor and serve it with cashews. Bon appetit. There was another beet root salad there that looked more interesting (it had potato and carrot and stuff in it), but mine was way, way better, and I’m not just saying that.

I was slightly apprehensive about going, because I don’t know the host or hostess very well, and sometimes math functions can be sort of awkward, but it turned out to be fun. The host is a bit on the eccentric side. He’s super smart and quite well-known in the math world. He’s the type of guy the university brings in, gives a fancy title to, and says, “Alright, just do whatever you want.” He sorta looks like Comic Book Store Guy on “The Simpson’s” – a little thinner and no beard, but he has the balding/pony tail look, he always has on a t-shirt, sandals, and shorts (or those pajama-looking weightlifting pants). Unlike the Comic Book Store Guy he wears glasses and a lot of jewelry (earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc.). Also, occasionally, he wears a backpack with a built in water bladder and uses it just in his day-to-day activities. Like, he can’t be bothered going to the water fountain or a faucet.

Anyway, he’s a nice, if unusual, guy (his wife is nice and unusual, as well), and he has a nice house. Although I would suggest, next time they have a party to clean out the cat box. I went to use the toilet and nearly threw up from the smell. I looked down and saw a mountain of cat turds. It was disgusting. I just walked out and found a different bathroom (this one had a pair of undies hanging on the towel rack). Seriously, I’m not saying you have to make your bathroom spic-and-span, but at least take the necessary steps so that people can enter it without gagging.

There is a guy in the department who is really overweight, I mean super obese, and I always watch how he functions with a sort of macabre curiosity. He has to go about things in a different way, because he is so big. Normal movements appear to be a struggle. He can’t just sit down like a typical person. He has to position the chair in a special way and then maneuver himself in, and he doesn’t really fit in a standard chair, so he has to sorta sit on the very front and lean back, so that his legs aren’t pinched by the arm rests.

The other day, as I was going to the bathroom in the department, I saw him walking up the stairs, and he was really struggling. A few minutes later he came into the bathroom. He was pouring sweat and completely winded. He had to grasp the sink with both hands and lean over it to catch his breath. This, after walking seven steps, going up approximately three feet. It was a bit shocking and sad to watch.

The thing is, when you get that big, it’s probably extremely hard to lose weight, because what can you do? You can’t exercise properly, if you can’t even walk from the parking lot to your office with needing a break. I think you have to start thinking about some sort of surgical procedure at that point. You have to do something, because you simply can’t put that type of strain on your body and expect to see many golden years.

Anyway, I started watching “The Ricky Gervais Show”. It’s hysterical. It was originally created as a series of podcasts, but the podcasts were so successful that they made them into TV shows. Each episode is Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant (Gervais’s partner in writing “The Office”), and this guy Karl Pilkington having a conversation, which is put to animation. Most the humor comes from Pilkington who says the stupidest, most inane (yet somehow profound) things, like when told that an octopus’ testicles we’re in its head, Pilkington said something, like, “Eh… not that impressive really, because an octopuses is just a big head with legs, innit?” And then later he questions why seals exist, saying something like, “We’ve got a fish, we’ve a dog. Why do we need a combination of the two?”

There is some debate about whether Karl is being genuine and the discussions are really off the cuff or whether it’s an act and everything is scripted (both Gervais and Merchant adamantly deny that they are scripted). I tend to think it’s mostly genuine. Sure, everybody is trying to be funny, and Karl probably isn’t as dumb as comes off. Everybody is playing it up, but I don’t think you could call it “an act”. If it’s an act, then Karl Pilkington is the greatest straight man ever, and should move to LA and become a huge movie star. Anyway, I recommend the show, for anybody interested in some low-key hilarity.






OK, gotta go. Santana awaits. “You’ve got to change your evil ways… baby… before I stop loving you…” It’s raining right now, heavily, and the concert is outdoors. The tickets say explicit, the show goes on, rain or shine, I’m pulling for the latter. Hopefully it lets up.