hi

[wickedflea]

Haven't posted much lately -- nothing this week, I guess. I've been so tired... Tuesday night after class, I was sitting in front of my computer just laughing my ass off at how tired I was. Delirious, I guess. I had just about recovered from my whirlwind trip to Florida when I went to the Phil & Friends show in Birmingham on Monday night. I got home from that around 2:30 a.m., then had to get up for my typical Tuesday from hell, and so on from there.

Anyway.

Phil & Friends show was enjoyable but weird. As I mentioned before, Phil Lesh is the bassist from the Grateful Dead, and he's now touring with a changing cast of bandmembers that currently includes Warren Haynes, who was the main reason I went. That whole Dead culture is very strange to me, because I was never a part of it at all. My musical background is mostly punk, metal, and indie rock, and it takes a lot for me to be able to wrap my head around a lot o' that Dead stuff. To me, a lot of the endless jamming (though I hesitate to use that word, for that implies playing together, and the Dead stuff often doesn't sound like that) seems pointless because it rarely seems to climax, but I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe I just don't "get it." I will say that there was a lot of inspired playing by some fantastic musicians the other night, even if I wasn't able to grasp it all.

I also wondered what would happen if I started slamdancing -- I'll tell you, I was really tempted to knock some of those funky bastards on their asses. :) That's the other thing about going to non-punk/metal shows -- I never know what to do with myself. I feel like a stiff just standing there, but I'm NOT going to start twirling around and flailing my arms in front of my face like some of those people.

I've also been working on putting together the student literary journal. I'm a fiction editor, though I guess I'm billed as assistant editor this time because I'm basically responsible for laying everything out and making sure it's ready to go to the printer. It's kind of time-consuming, but I really enjoy that kind of stuff -- the actual process of publication.

I have to work on seminar papers this weekend -- ugh. I have ideas, but I haven't done anything on them yet. I've never quite gotten the hang of this "preparation" notion.

Comments

[julesfacks.livejournal.com]

yeh, dude, we should go to some jam band show and start slamming... that would be fun... it would also be fun where people were country dancing, at a symphony.. wow! the possibilities are endless...

I'm with you, though, it's probably my dimished brain capacity, but alot of that type of music sails right past me...

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, reminds me of when I was in high-school (late 80s) -- we'd have these mandatory pep rallies in the gym on football-game Fridays, so my friends and I (who didn't give a rat's ass about the football team) would get together in the front row and headbang like madmen to the fight songs, the alma mater, anything. Quite surreal -- the football coaches used to yell and point as us like we were totally insane, which I guess we were. :)

[lunchboxface.livejournal.com]

No, it's not that you don't grasp it. . . there's nothing to grasp. That Grateful Dead shit is not rhythmically or melodically complex or anything! They are just noodling about! The Dead were usually fucked up on some crazy-ass drugs, and so was most of their audience. That music was created by and for somebody on LSD. The simple repetition and endless weak improv could only be enjoyed by someone completely brain-fucked.

[wickedflea.livejournal.com]

Honestly, that's always been my gut feeling about it. I'm just always wary of dismissing anything, because some of my favorite music is stuff that I didn't "get" at first listen. But, yeah, I'm inclined to agree with you.