Guardian of the Non Sequitur

I’ve always enjoyed sports.  Participating and watching.  Drama can be found in every step (and yet TNT “We Know Drama” doesn’t show sports).  I, of course, grew up loving the Columbia Blue “Love ya Blue” Houston Oilers.

As I’ve aged, and the number of hours in a day seems continually less available, many of my interests have had to make way for others.  Most of the sporting teams I have followed have become more of a background interest.  On top of that, either my perception or reality has come to give me the view that many professional athletes are whiney spoiled asses.  (More so in basketball than football.)  This has tended to push my interest down to college sports over professional.

In 1994 I moved to Calgary.  At the time Bud Adams was trolling for a new stadium; the City was in an economic lull and saying “no”.  It was foregone, it seemed to me at the time and obviously in retrospect, that the Oilers would leave.  As it was, Canada didn’t have much coverage of the NFL and I just started ignoring the league entirely that year.

The next two years I spent in Washington and didn’t pay too much attention to the NFL except when I spent a sunday with friends.  I did attend one Redskins home game with my good friend Bill Cavender which was an awesome experience.

Back in Houston years later I rode my bicycle downtown for the NFL Franchise mascot announcement.  My preference of Toros was passed by for the Texans.  I went to several early year (sometimes preseason) Texans games.  I remember being deafened at one of the first games there.  I’ve enjoyed some tailgating there (something always lacking at an Oilers game).  But I’ve never scheduled my fall sundays according to the Texans’ schedule.

Now, after almost a decade, today is the Texans’ first playoff game.  To say the least: this city is excited!  I no longer have even a television I can watch live sports on.  So, I will be joining some friends at a sports bar a short 5-block bicycle ride away in the ‘hood.

Go Texans.

Despite the fact that I’ve been working across the street from the Continental Club for six months, and now own a store at the same place, I haven’t seen a lot of live music recently.

I’ve been out for Molly & the Ringwalds (work), and for Peter & James and Light Rock Express, which tend to be for socializing. I have seen a few shows, or parts of them, but it seems like it’s been since forever since I’ve gone out specifically to see live music.

Last night there was a three band CD release show at Rudyard’s: I Am Mesmer, Kelly Doyle, and Hillary Sloan.

I’ve seen Hillary many times, but not recently; I’ve been meaning to see Mesmer, and I didn’t know who Kelly Doyle was (until I read the pre-show write-up).

The large number of music related people in the audience told me I had picked the right place to be that night.

I was hanging out with TG who was testing her memory on how many names in attendance she could remember. She got several dozen.

Hillary Sloan started out and her material was very similar to the stuff I was familiar with, her band was good, she seemed perhaps a bit tired and self conscious about her performance, which seemed odd.

Kelly Doyle I recognized for his guitar playing with Clouseaux. He mentioned this was the first time he had fronted a band. Most of the songs were instrumental, with jazz, Eastern European, and pseudo-Asian influences. Odd time signatures were de riguer, but the music was fun and playful.

I Am Mesmer is an amalgamation 7-piece that smashes a lot of styles together. I have a hard time imagining a band like this forming anywhere else (maybe NYC). Two percussionists, banjo leading the band (when not playing the saw), two drastically different styled guitar players that blended well together.

I totally imagined this band filling the SXSW Continental Club Saturday morning slot after Allen Hill. It would be awesome.

Anyway it was nice to have a casual night out, see some friends I hadn’t in a while, and see some great and varied live music.

As most people know, I don’t have a cell phone.  You people don’t call me as it is; you don’t need more access to me.  When I head out the door, I do usually take me iPod Touch with me.  If you’re unfamiliar with those, they are just like the iPhone but with no phone (or, currently, camera).

So, Friday night I took my iPod with me as usual.  I was running a little late because my Motorola DSL modem purchased last year after Ike killed my last modem died an early death.  I took my bicycle out as I usually do.  I ride the bicycle for a variety of reasons: i need the exercise, it’s really not that far from the Heights to Montrose or Midtown, parking is never an issue.

My first stop, and as late as a few hours earlier my only planned stop, was at Anvil.  A relatively new bar in the Montrose area, it specializes in mixed drinks.  So, that’s what I had.  Of course riding your bike a few miles will build up a thirst, and liquor drinks aren’t necessarily ideal for that.  I should have asked for some water as well, but they were already slammed with the happy hour + birthday wishes for Romy crowd, and I didn’t.

But I did enjoy some great drinks: Scofflaw, which was quite tasty with rye wiskey; Blood & Sand, another too easy to drink this time centered around Scotch; i tried to slow myself up with a Gimlet but that didn’t quite work; then finally the Corn ‘n Oil with blackstrap rum was a sipper.  The Anvil has free wi-fi as most of Houston does.  It’s locked, but the password is free for asking.  My iPod enjoyed checking it’s email and twittering a few times.

The intersection of friends with Romy is interesting, and I got to chat with Tracey, Renee, Lindsey (whom I hadn’t seen in years), Katie, C. Matusow who had a new twitter account, and briefly said hi to Hillary G, and quite a few others.  I succeeded in exiting for under $30, which was amazing.  Just before I’d left the house I noticed that Jack Schultz commented that Sean Refer was playing at the West Alabama Ice House.  So, I extended my evening and headed there.

I ran into Ron, who poured me some of his Irish Wiskey, saying he owed me for hosting an excellent Christmas party.  I ordered a Pine Bark and ran into Tracy V, and sat and talked to her.

West Alabama Ice House doesn’t have a wi-fi of it’s own, but it’s surrounded by dense residence and businesses, so there is usually an open signal there.  Soon, my iPod chirped at me with some new email.  I scanned it and saw a message from Tricia that it was Ken Wall’s birthday at the Continental.  So, though I had not planned to head there, I couldn’t miss that.

I locked up the bike out front, and went in to say hi to Ken, Bob, Adam, and quite a few others.  The Light Rock Express was playing outside, another band inside, and apparently Ken was picking up the bar tab.  Even Becky and Steve W. road tripped from Austin.

My iPod always feels lonely at the Continental Club because they are sans wi-fi.  I was a few blocks down the road when I realized I didn’t have it in my breast pocket.  I turned around and looked a few places with no luck.  I headed off again also without one of the keys I needed, but knowing how to bypass the apartment “security” gate.

In the morning I realized I may have dropped the iPod in the bushes while leaning over to unlock the bike.  I went back to check for it, but it was not there.

However, when I got home there was a message from Tom M. who lived in midtown that he had found it on his morning walk, 6 blocks from where I dropped it.  My iPod had also sent an email to Dana about an hour before Tom found it.  A little after noon I met up with Tom and retrieved my tired iPod and took it home to recharge him, with only a few more character scratches to show for it.

Once again the Houston Press Music Awards Showcase is bringing the best live music value for your buck to a summer Sunday afternoon in downtown Houston.  $10 for 5 hours of music from a variety of ~50 bands.

What’s up with all the capital letters and spaces? I talking to you, B L A C K I E (how do you google that?), dUNETX, D.R.U.M., i N D I G I N I S, and MELOVINE.

Okay, my off-my-lawn moment is over. Time for me to complain about the Houston Press’ inability to make print a grid when they plan a festival style review. I’ve been complaining about that since I was young! (well, i only could find the post from two years ago, but i’ve had that complaint for much longer!)

So, I got off my duff and made it for them again. You can grab it from this google doc. Some special care has been take for distance between venues because I’m still hobbling on a bad ankle with a cane. (Ideas for improvements welcome.)

Random Notes:

The Blaggards have a Google Map of all their concerts.

The Paul Beebe showcase is 6 – 9 at Hard Rock Cafe. Beetle plays every Thursday happy hour at the Continental Club if you want some near-end-week Beatles covers.  Katey Stucky is a great singer.  I caught her last year at the Showcase.

RÖCBAR – (you really should pronounce it rook-bar for being over pretentious) has the curse word showcase capped with a 70s influences rock fusion band (Spain Colored Orange).

Red Cat Jazz Café – they usually have the lighter fare. It’s a nice place to catch a casual show, but very poorly laid out for people coming in and out constantly, which they will be on Sunday.  Me with a cane means I will totally avoid it.

Martell’s – A new name to me, on the north end of Main Street.  With the Tontons and the Blaggards ending things up, it’s sure to be a crowded spot.  Both are great shows.

ISIS – Located in a spot that continues to fail for restaurants and bars on Main @ Prairie.  Ryan Scroggins is an offshoot of the Skarnales clan and I enjoy their Mexi-ska-country groove.  They surprised the locals out at Big Al’s crawfish boil in Trinity and put on a great show.

Flying Saucer – Last year it was a crazy end of the evening scene in there, will see if D.R.U.M. gets the place as cranked up.  Sean Reefer is just one of THE best Country musicians writing country music (instead of Arena Pop with a Hat).  He’s usually on the German Country Charts (which are sizable – those whacky Germans).  Bonus: Texas pints are on sale on Sundays.

House of Blues – There’s been a lot of mutual stroking since this mammoth moved to town.  I have yet to make it to this venue and have heard 5 bad things for each good one.  The inability to keep hydrated without a financial backer is the main complaint I hear.  Hopefully this weekend will give me a chance to change those second hand impressions.  Nick Gaitan’s wonderful melange of music, Umbrella Man will be playing there.  They close this place with Los Skarnales and Sideshow Tramps!  This will be the place to be.  Both of these bands put on extremely high energy shows, and when they’re only given 45 minutes … beware!

Now time to go read about the bands I don’t know to see who I’ll try to introduce myself to this year.

The Houston Press does a lot of work and puts on a great show.  All my complaints are really minor (well, there have been years where some venues were unlistenable – that’s a major problem – but not recently).

Another complaint I have is: what does it cost to get a beer in this place?!

Some places have $2 Lone Star or $3 (uhg) Bud Light.  But some venues (hey, speaking of that, what happened to The Venue?) have only liquor drinks, $6.50 crap beer, and $5 8 oz. Coke.  One of the deals of “We’re gonna bring you a crowd on Sunday of new people who aren’t familiar with your place” should be you have to have one cheap beer available for the patrons, and if you sell out of $3 MGD by 5:45, you have to sell some of your precious Dos Equis, et. al for cheap.  Houston Press, force it!

The Houston Roller Derby is starting up their 2009 season this weekend at Kicks Indoor.  The doors will open at 6pm, the bout will start at 7pm this Saturday, and the after party will be at the new venue (we have to break it in right).

Here’s a note from Scarlet O’Hurtya (twitter):

I hope everyone is as excited as all the skaters are! Our season officially kicks off in 4 DAYS!

Do you have your tickets? Have you invited all of your friends, coworkers, and random people you may run in to? We sure hope so!

$12 Tickets will only be available until this Friday- after that, you’ll have to hope space is left and buy them at the door for $15. Save yourself the $3 and the anxiety by purchasing your tickets in advance and use the leftover cash to buy something at the game (merch, beverage of choice, etc.)…

Oh, and FYI, in addition to music from Beryl Grady, halftime will also feature a corndog eating contest presented by Miramax in promotion of their upcoming release, “Adventureland”.

5 lucky contestants (ideally 1 fan representing each team, 1 Machete Bettie Rec League representative and a 1st time derby attendee) will have 2 minutes to devour as many corndogs as possible. The winner will receive some cool stuff from Miramax and of course the admiration of rollergirls and fellow crowd members alike. I know you’re getting hungry just reading this…

We look forward to seeing everyone at the game! Come early! Bring friends! Bring family! Bring your coworkers! Bring anyone in favor of having a fun time!

Remember, the afterparty will be held at our venue, Kicks indoor (they have a full bar).

Saturday Saturday Saturday!!

Much Love,
-Scarlet O’Hurtya
#20

It’s been over a month since I went to BGG.Con – the BoardGameGeek.com‘s annual game-o-rama, and I need to get down in print the games I played, so here they go.

This year my procrastinating paid off. I ended up splitting a suite with four people, minimizing costs. I managed to never actually meet one of the roommates – the geeks don’t spend many waking moments not playing the games.

Unfortunately, there was no general wi-fi available, and no signal reachable from the main game room. Apparently there was a twitter contingency, but I was unreachable and unaware.

So, here a listing of all the games I played.

Yspahan – I have played this before, and own it. One of the many “Ys” named games from Ystari. It has an interesting dice mechanic. You are creating goods in a small town and trying to ship them out on the caravan.

Agricola – I finally got to play last years trendy game a little bit before the Con, but played it some more here. Certainly a good game with quite a bit of replay-ability. Nice interaction with other players in access to resources. Building your small farm-house, family, fields and livestock.

Destruct 3 – The open-area lobby always has many dexterity games set up. This one was new to us. You set up a tower, jenga-like. You roll a dice to choose one of three tools. You try to knock the tower over but not too far (off the board is minus points). This was a fun one, would be great fun for young boys.

Airships – I met my current regular game group last year at this Con, and I’ve played this game several times with them. I ended up teaching this to several different people at the Con. It’s an easy to learn, and not too long game of building zeppelins.

Hamburgum – My high school friend and college roommate Manuel came from SoCal for the Con. He was only there Thursday and Friday and was brain-fried; he was amazed I could handle two more days. He saw that I had played this game before and had me teach it. I like this game more each time I play – an interesting rondel mechanic and interconnections of actions that force you into a balanced game. And beer is one of the resources – how could that not be good? Continue reading