The Lassiter Coast

One last note about the Ray LaMontagne concert, I promise. He's so melancholy and easygoing and he travels through his life so languorously that I kept hoping he would segue from something slow and meaningful -- but phenomenal and poetic -- to something poppy like "Barbara Ann." He's in Chicago again in April at the Metro.

I checked into Will's blog, Ennui, yesterday and read Matt Lazzara's essay. It was a little spooky reading something written by someone who died a year ago, as if those words ceased being meaningful simply because there was no longer a voice behind them. But the message was undeniably clear and simple. I'm a fan of Thoreau's and in essence, Matt was imploring all of us to stop being caught up in material things or even capitalistic things -- those things that define just minutes of every day, but put together we are immensely distracted and essentially get nothing done, nothing substantial that enriches our base cores and souls anyway. I cannot imagine what it must be like to slowly die -- the pain, the looks in other people's eyes, the increasing infrequency of people coming around, the fucking knowledge of it all, but to imagine what that's like might just be the key. To find out truly what we are and what we need -- which may just mean a simple tweaking from our current character arcs -- is essential. I am a very self-aware person, as my mother would sit me down as a kid on a semi-regular basis and point blank tell me "You need to change," which to a seven-year-old is against the grain of childhood. I still though self-evaluate all the time and hope that I am on the right path. But I still get caught up in the nonessential things in life. Figuring out what those are and ridding them of my consciousness is a great goal, and one I hope I can achieve. I always liked Matt, though barely knew him. We had English together one year and though he was unlike me in his punk personality, he was one of the funniest persons I've ever met. Bitingly funny. If its possible to turn something horrible into something good, I imagine that Matt is right now happy that he still has an effect. That is why he wrote it in the first place.

Dynamic, Electric... Real

The Ray LaMontagne concert last night was awesome. He's great on the CD and sounds just as solid and intense and purposefully shaky in person. I really must work on perfecting my concert yelp. I've never been good at it, and trying last night was shameful. Had dinner down the street -- from the Double Door, Cafe Absinthe and yes, The Subterranean -- at Rodan, and if you get the chance, go there. It's a South American - Asian fusion restaurant. Truth be told, I couldn't really place the South American influence much, but maybe it was more subtle. We had a waitress who looked like she could pass for an East German sewer dweller -- all wanton and distracted. Cool ambience too, with LCD TVs instead of mirrors in the bathroom. There's a camera somewhere and it is hooked up so the TV shows what a mirror would show, which is good in case someone approaches with piano wire. For awhile we were the only people in the place, which was weird, never had that before, but it picked up.

Jonathan Rice opened, and he was, like Ray, smooth and solid in person. Haven't heard his CD yet, but live he was impressive. He looked really young which made it all the more surprising. But what was disappointing was the crowd during his set. Just like the Damien Rice show in April, the crowd couldn't shut the fuck up while he was playing, and he kept making comments about how we can't hear him, could we please quiet down, etc. I don't understand that. Why is Chicago such a bastard at concerts?

It's Been Three Hours and This Robot Hasn't Moved!

See, I'm bad at updating regularly. Oh well. Went to the Auto Show over the weekend; pretty underwhelming this year. No kickass concept cars and the same old same old with all the regulars. I did like the new Charger though, but not enough that I would ever buy one. The Mustangs looked great, as usual.

Also over the weekend, I met with Matt to work on the short film we're making, that Matt wrote, in mid-to-late March. I'm getting really excited and worked up. It's gonna be a really great time and I can't wait to help mold something out of clay.

The weather's been so warm, if February was like this every year, it would lose it's reputation as the worst month of the year. I remember February '03 and our lives being in danger every time we got into the car. I'll take Feb '05 every year.

The rents are going to Vegas this weekend, which is to say MASSIVE PARTY at my house, but considering so many of the people I know are out of town, it's gonna be a light crowd. Nothing is set, but if anyone's around let me know, we'll drink it up nice.

I'm going to the Ray LaMontagne concert tonight. I hope he's not studio-made. He's so good on his album, I hope he's just as good in person. Obviously.

We're getting our TiVos switched out Saturday morning to ones with built-in tuners so I have been frantically watching everything I don't mind losing in the transfer. It's mainly movies, most of which I won't be able to catch, but I also have to convert 2 Illini games to tape for Jeff, which will take a long time. Hope it works, Mr. Chips.

Smell ya later.