“We think the same things at the same time…”
Thom Yorke, Harrowdown Hill

Best. Hook. Ever.

I am pacing. It is fucking hot, the weekend has immense promise, and I cannot stop listening to The Eraser . There are those moments when you just want to drag your fingernails down the front of your throat, and draw blood. Is it the heat? Is it the waning moon? What the fuck is it, anyway? Those giant exhales you make when you are on drugs are normal in day to day life when it’s this hot.

Back to The Eraser. I AM DYING HERE, I AM SO OBSESSED. Picture a scary thought but sing it in a way that you can never, ever get that melody out of your mind. A lullaby for the apocalyspe. I was never one to want to have sex with the music on but damned if this isn’t the record that I could actually, uh, do something successfully to.

The whole package of last month, this day, is sort of putting me over the edge. I wish I could explain it better than this. Heat, obsession, and sex driven by a killer bass line is about all I can do. Oh. Did I say I was dying? “We think the same things at the same time.” God, I love that.

AWESOME.

You can listen to an MP3 of Harrowdown Hill here on the I Guess I’m Floating music blog.

I was really going to try to stop writing about Radiohead for a while. But today I find this impossible because today, Thom Yorke’s solo project The Eraser was released. Also, the new Muse record Black Holes and Revelations came out. So it was definitely one of those days where at exactly 4:30 P.M. I got into my car and headed to Tower Records where the sign on Sports Arena Boulevard said “New: Thom Yorke and Muse.” Holy cow, is the stuff I am listening to all of a sudden popular?

I can see why The Eraser is the sort of record many, many people want to run to the store on the day of release to buy. It’s been three years since Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief came out, and we are all hungry. Hungry for ANYTHING. Even if it turns out to be a bunch of electronic crap. But of course that did not happen; this is Thom Yorke we are talking about, after all. The Eraser is a beautiful record. It’s full of nuance, full of special moments. It’s one of those records that I will be listening to in my car for the fiftieth time and I will hear something new. There is a lot of the new Radiohead stuff I heard at the June shows here, in The Eraser. Not the actual songs, but certainly the sounds, and the feelings. Sweeping, lovely, sometimes funky, sometimes weird. Awesome.

I remember, oh how I remember, when Radiohead’s Kid A came out, how it totally blew the mind of so many people. How different it was, how groundbreaking. I think that record changed me. It changed my life, or maybe my life just happened to be changing at the same time. Whatever it was, it was earthshaking. And I remember the reviews: “where is the guitar?” The guitar was there the whole time, it was just a little more subtle.

The Eraser is like that. It’s different; it seems simple, but it’s very layered. I was almost as excited to buy the Eraser as I was to buy Kid A and Hail to the Thief, but I think in the end I willl listen to The Eraser way more than I do to Hail to the Thief. Kid A, of course, practically sleeps next to me.

Anyway. It’s an extraordinary achievement for Mr. Yorke. I love him more with each passing day, and I dreamed about him last night. He was the good guy in my dream, and Britt Daniel was the asshole. Britt Daniel was an asshole in my dream! It was awful. I want to have sex with Britt Daniel in my dreams, not hate him. Fucking dream. Dammit.

As for Muse’s new one. If Beethoven took fourteen hits of acid and decided to take up with Angus Young, it might be an indication of Muse’s sound. It’s not for everybody, but I love it. I have been listening too intently to The Eraser to give Black Holes and Revelations the time it deserves, but heck, it’s only been six hours. So I’ll start on that one tomorrow.

Yesterday, I went to a party in my hometown of Half Moon Bay, California. Going to parties where you don’t know anyone is hard. I know that I seem like an outgoing sort of person but really, I am not. I am super shy and like to hide in the shadows (near the bar) when I don’t know anyone. I did talk to people and there were lots of cool people there but it was a birthday party for a 27 year old and I just felt hella old (even though I was wearing my Radiohead shirt and my Sigur Ros hoodie and jeans and Pumas, which is sort of a younger persons outfit.) Also I have found that when you get a lot of women (or men) that have known each other forever together, it is really hard to infiltrate especially if you are a shy, in-the-shadows wallflower like me.

Yesterday’s experience just drove home the success of Saturday’s party. At Saturday’s party, I was one of the ones that has known everyone forever. Though I think it was probably easier for the newcomers to infiltrate. The party was for the 5th anniversary of slowtrav.com and it was a killer day – at a beautiful park in the Oakland hills, with redwoods and shade and a massive amount of really great food and more wine than we could drink, plus great company. I kind of miss Northern California on days like that. Those warm, sultry afternoons in redwood forests. Though I definitely DO NOT miss the fog in Half Moon Bay. It was friggen FREEZING there.

Other than that I hung out with Baby Ryan and Jay and Carrie, watched the World Cup (I am still trying to figure out that whole head-butting thing, why would someone do that? It was just weird.) And also, got a little freaked out about the Left Behind video game. I am hopelessly out of the loop, clearly, and just this weekend saw something on TV about this video game where Christians run around New York City killing non-believers. Um, that is freaky. In fact, TV is freaky, video games are freaky, I guess everything is freaky. But not slowtrav parties, those are not freaky. So maybe I had better concentrate on them.

I was very jealous of all the girls at the party yesterday who took over my duties as auntie of Ryan. I was JEALOUS! Later though, me and Jay had him run through a couple of Radiohead songs with us, specifically 2 + 2 = 5 and Morning Bell. Carrie was not amused, but me and Jay sure were.

This is a long one. Get yourself a drink. Before I get into Friday let’s go back to Monday.

OK. This ten-minute snippet of the Monday night show is kind of trippy because these dudes were standing right next to me for the first part of the show. If you watch it, when Radiohead come on and start playing There There, those two fat arms waving on the right belong to the mountainous one who sang every lyric to practically every song and sort of ruined the show for me and probably many others. If you make it to You and Who’s Army you can actually HEAR her lame-ass voice. It’s pretty bad. I love youtube just for the fact that somehow PROOF emerges from it. I mean how crazy is it that that bitch can be heard by thousands of people from coast to coast? I hope she hears it and never sings another note at another show EVER.

Heh heh. On to Friday night. CRAZY. The whole night, not just the show. I walked up to the Greek from my hotel two miles away and it was HOT. When I was walking up the hill I ran into Juan Carlos, who was looking for tickets. He and his friend Erica got in line at 11:00 A.M. to try to get some box office love, and here it was 7:00 P.M. and they still had forty people in front of them. Scalpers were asking $400 for seats in the back, and there were numerous skanky L.A. ho types trying to seduce tickets out of lonely Radiohead nerds. One of said chicklets (blond, pierced tongue, early-eighties punk-ho look) tried to get a ticket out of Juan Carlos and he didn’t even have one yet. In fact she was kind of stupid trying to look for tickets along a line of people who didn’t have any. “Why don’t you go down to the box office where people are actually PICKING UP tickets?” I asked her. I mean, DUH. Juan Carlos had already promised Mariella, a Chilean girl we met outside the box office, he would sell her one if he scored any, so he told the ho he had already promised any extras to someone else. Mariella was cool – and she is coming down for Muse at SOMA this month so we are going to get together and get spots on the wall and then protect them for each other in case we have to go to the bathroom. ANYWAY. Juan Carlos and his friend were finally first in line and then the tickets were gone. So they did not get in. Mariella FOUND a ticket on the ground. Interesting since I have been thinking about something like that happening to me all week, and have been playing with it in my head. Like, if you find a ticket on the ground, do you use it, or take it back to the box office? I mean, what if it belonged to someone who really loves Radiohead and you are like, destroying their life? But then, what if that ticket belonged to a scalper or someone who was just going to say they went to a Radiohead show? It’s a dilemma. Mariella used it. I’m not sure what I would have done. But then I had a ticket.

Once in, I got in line to buy a bottle of wine and I heard someone call my name. It was Elizabeth who has burned some shows for me. She knew me because of my Poptarticus T-Shirt. So that was kind of cool. It’s so funny how you make these random connections with people solely because of the music you love. Juan Carlos I knew from the Sigur Ros show in Austin, and Elizabeth and I both had our Sigur Ros hoodies. And now all three of us were in L.A. to see (or in Juan Carlos’s case, hear) Radiohead.

After two shows of standing on my tiptoes close to the stage, it was kind of cool to have a seat where the space around me was mine alone. It wasn’t the greatest seat, to be totally honest. I was in the farthest possible seat to the right of the stage up in the terrace. I couldn’t see Phil or Colin at all. On my right I looked down at beer stands and an ATM which ALWAYS had a line. What could people possibly need money for when Radiohead is playing? I was pretty close to the stage though, and could see, once again, Ed, Thom and Jonny well enough, and it looked like the pit was full of lame industry people. So I was happy where I was. I had a hard time taking my eyes off Jonny Greenwood this time – the guy is so enigmatic. And I absolutely love it when he spazzes out on his guitar. Thom had a ton of energy and was dancing all over the place. There was a point during Myxomatosis when he stood over the pit with his arm out over them and he was practically SPITTING the lyrics at them and it was OH SO INTENSE. That guy has POWER. Thom Yorke for PRIME MINISTER, he’ll get some shit done. Anyway.

The crowd around me was very cool and very into it. I think we all paid around $200 for our ebay-ticket-bought-from-a-record-company-employee-who-got-it-for-free so we were all there to actually see the band and not to see who was looking at us. There was one tool a couple rows down from me who talked during all the new songs and on all the others, did that white-boy hip-hop dance, you know the one, where they move one hand up and down and move their scrawny ass back and forth. He even did this during Like Spinning Plates which is not exactly a dance number. I wanted to flick a quarter at the back of his neck. But other than that the people around me were cool. And it was watching the rest of the crowd at the Greek was wonderful. All kinds of celebrities were there, but I didn’t see any, all I saw was a sea of heads and they all appeared to be loving it (key word – appeared. This WAS Los Angeles after all.)

Some highlights of the show: During Exit Music, a bunch of people start hooting (they do this every time, I don’t get it) and Thom said “SHUT UP” and they DID! They SHUT UP. Ha ha, that was classic. Being told to shut up by Thom Yorke. I wish he would have said that to the mountainous one. Then during Fake Plastic Trees, the entire audience seemed to be WHISPERING the lyrics. 7000 people whispering, “If I could be who you wanted… all the time…” that was so totally awesome. I have absolutely no problem with people whispering. There was another killer Down is the New Up, got Climbing up the Walls, Pyramid Song and Like Spinning Plates for the second time this week, My Iron Lung practically ripped my head off and you can see for yourself HERE. Then we got True Love Waits which morphed into Everything in it’s Right Place and I was sort of sad, because that meant it was all going to be over soon.

So then it was over. I waited until all the people were outside (from my vantage point I had a fine view of this) and then started my descent down the hill. Halfway down I realized that me and the same dude had been walking together for a while. This is how I met Scott, a tall, skinny 23 year old transplant from Queens who is a Radiohead freak like me. First we started talking, then we started partying, which went on pretty much all night. Well not all night but certainly very late. Once you get two Radiohead freaks going, it’s pretty hard to get them to stop. It was really, really fun and took the sting out of Radiohead week being over.

Now I can’t wait for the new record to come out so I can hear Videotape, House of Cards and Down is the New Up in their studio form. I think my neighbors are getting sick of hearing me play a gazillion different live versions on my computer.

Scott said he has a friend who will only sleep with Radiohead freaks. I think that I am going to, henceforth, make that my number one criteria as well. Or maybe, just people who LIKE Radiohead. Although the freak part is pretty awesome, let me tell you.

Back to real life. Which is: hanging out at The Vine and daydreaming about Britt Daniel. Summertime. It is hot.

There is an incredible recording of Friday night’s show here. Awesome…

First things first.

Future Rock Star of America:

Baby Ryan is eight months old. Soon we can buy him his first drum set.

In Other Than Radiohead news, My brother’s band the Mississippi Mudsharks have just released their new CD Train Rolls On and it just got reviewed in the San Diego Union Tribune here. I am having my first listen right now and this CD ROCKS. And I’m NOT just saying that because it’s my brother playing drums on there. Nobody plays the blues like Tom, Scottie and Mike do.

In celebration of this release the Mudsharks are playing at Winstons here in OB from 6 – 9 this Sunday. Hmm… could be kind of crazy. Good thing I have Monday off. All my local readers should come to the show and visit me at the CD table where I will be selling CDs for the band and drinking wine. Or you can just buy the CD from Double Barrel Records by clicking the Mudsharks link above. As you can see, coming to the show and hanging out with me is a much better option, because then you’ll see them LIVE which of course is always the best possible way.

The band will be touring Europe in late summer … and the schedule (so far) is HERE. You have to scroll down to find the dates. I just know all my European readers want to fly to Belgium to see the Mudsharks AND the Blasters at the Gevarenwinkel Blues Fest! No one parties like the Belgians do. (Joke. I think.)

A little preface to today’s entry. Readers take note: you might only want to read this if a) you never ever miss one of my entries or b) you are totally into Radiohead or at least like them somewhat. The only person I know for sure reads every entry AND loves Radiohead is my brother Jay, so JAY – THIS IS FOR YOU.

Before I get into the total and complete awesomeness of last night’s show please have a look at my new favorite song. This is not from the shows I’ve seen but it is from this tour and I am TOTALLY OBSESSED WITH DOWN IS THE NEW UP.

My god. It has it all. It is funky. Thom’s vocals are fantastic. Jonny does that crunchy thing with his guitar that I love. And that plaintive wailing sound that Ed does on his guitar… it kills me. And the DRUMMING. I have seen them play this live twice in the past two nights and it is so fantastic live. Wow.

That clip ends before the song does but you can listen (and try to watch) the whole thing here. It is worth it to hear Ed’s guitar weirdness at the end and watch Jonny on both guitar and drums.

As for Monday. In retrospect I wonder, if all those loud filler fans were bugging me so much, why didn’t I move? Ah, I tell myself, because you were on the rail and that is a pretty hard thing to give up. It’s sad though, some of those girls that got crushed in the front and had to be pulled out by security post on some of the message boards I read. There are accounts of fingernails in flesh and kicks in the legs… all to get to the front. And those girls were the ones waiting in line for twelve hours to get on the rail. I should consider myself lucky I guess.

One good thing that came out of Monday’s blah-ness was, I was too bummed to go out and party, therefore I had a great deal of energy for yesterday’s show and the aftermath, and I was gonna need it.

There were a few of us hanging out at last night’s show. Mark was there, my friend Jen, David, and a guy I met at the Sigur Ros show in Austin, Juan Carlos. I had this intense conversation with Juan Carlos at an Austin bar about Radiohead and he is pretty obsessed too so having him there last night was really cool. Like when we were sitting outside the venue drinking wine before the show and I said “I predict they will open with Airbag” I could get an answer like “definitely possible. They opened with Airbag in Berkeley and Chicago.” And then of course when they DID open with Airbag I had someone to look at with that knowing look.

I know. We are freaks.

So anyway, once again I went into the venue only fifteen minutes before Radiohead went on, but this time went over to Ed’s side. I stupidly asked Mark to go get me a drink, as of course when the band went on there was no way he was going to get close to us again. Me, Juan Carlos and Jen managed to get very, very close. Not quite this close – but almost:

Jealous much? I am like, totally jealous of MYSELF right now. I am serious. I could see Ed for every single minute, and that guy is HOT.

The crowd around me at this show was great, really cool and mellow people who were totally into it. And respectful, and didn’t sing, or scream CREEP. There were a couple of obnoxious girls who pushed their way in, created some havoc and then very quickly removed themselves, but other than that it was all good. I had no desire to try to make it to the rail even though I couldn’t see as well (the above picture was probably taken by a six foot five dude, many of which were standing in the way.) I just listened and watched what I could through the forest of necks and sometimes I just looked up at the sky and thought to myself, it is really, really great to be alive, and much of that is due to my love for this band.

Here are  more pictures from the show. Many thanks to May May and Shoestar for these.

May May got this one of Jonny playing his guitar with a violin bow during Pyramid Song.

Another of May May’s photos of Thom and Jonny.

A good shot from the front by Shoestar.

The whole show was so fantastic. Like I said yesterday, all the new songs sound so sweet live. I got my Pyramid Song, I got my Like Spinning Plates (though some dude sang it next to me pretty badly, but I was in the kind of mood where that was just kind of funny.) Bones is probably my least favorite song from The Bends but when they played it last night, it was like, MY GOD. I mean, when Ed, Thom and Jonny are all RIPPING on their guitars it is just, well, beyond thrilling. Another highlight for me was Climbing up the Walls, it sounded so intense and so lush and it was hot and humid and the sky was the color of bittersweet chocolate. I’ll say it again – WOW. THESE are the moments I live for.

After the show I bought a shirt and some Stanley Donwood notecards . I am a good letter writer, and I need to write some letters in those puppies. But first I need someone to write to. I remember after the Radiohead show at the Greek in L.A. in 2000 I wrote someone a four-page letter about it. Guess I have my blog now, where I can at least edit myself.

After the show we all went to Joe’s Crab Shack and had a drink and where Mark tried to piss everyone off by saying it wasn’t that great of a show (“go kick that guys ASS” I jokingly told him when some youngster with a bad sixties hairdo gave him shit at the bar for it) and then just me, David and Juan Carlos went to, of all places, Dick’s Last Resort, a place I would have NEVER gone to if it hadn’t been the only place serving food at midnight on a Tuesday night. Still, nachos and a bottle of cheap Merlot seemed to round off the night nicely.

And I still have one more show. Last night I was an exceptional person: someone with an L.A. ticket. Fucking A. I am still waiting for Black Star and The Tourist. We shall see.

You can listen to both shows, for now anyway, HERE.

Well. I almost held off on writing about last night’s Radiohead show to do one post about both shows. But I don’t think I can do that. I think I have to write about this one now, and then put it behind me, and move on.

I wish I could say it was the best night ever, but I can’t. I can say that Radiohead put on an insanely great show, but I just couldn’t let myself go. Not the way I wanted to. It makes me really sad that I was, well, really sad at last night’s show. It’s so funny, here I am thinking “oh please don’t let me break an ankle or crash my car before the Radiohead shows” and instead this other kind of sadness comes.

I was a little stressed too. My ticket did not arrive in my hands until fifteen minutes until the band went on, which was uber-stressful in itself. The few hours waiting outside by the venue were pretty fun. Had a couple of drinks at Joe’s Crab Shack and then some wine outside. There were lots and lots of people in line, and when they opened the gates people were RUNNING in to get a good spot. Well, I entered the venue ten minutes before the show started and weasled my way up to – I kid you not – very close to the amps on Jonny’s side of the stage. I had a pretty good view of Thom, Ed and sometimes Jonny. The rail was super close and so over the first ten songs or so I just took every opportunity to get over there and finally, I WAS ON THE FUCKING RAIL. At a RADIOHEAD show. This is the closest I have ever been to the band. It should have been, like, the best night ever. Thankfully, once I got to the rail, the other people on the rail were really cool, but sadly, there was some mountainous chick next to me who thought herself an opera star and sang the lyrics to every song she knew. So the new songs the band played last night were the best for me, because I didn’t have to listen to her off-key screaming. To make it worse she kept screaming “CREEP, CREEP” at the top of her lungs. Homegirl, I hate to break it to you but the chances of them playing Creep are extremely slim, so shutthefuckup. On our side, there wasn’t much pushing but in the middle it was pretty tight and I saw quite a few girls being pulled out and literally carried out by security. And there were some youngsters behind me who kept talking. In a perfect world I could have put all of this out of my mind but I couldn’t and this is very disappointing. It is my fault, for getting myself so in a frenzy about these shows.

As for the show itself, it was very good and people were very into it. I am enthralled with some of the new stuff. I have been listening to it on the internet, but all those new songs just sounded so awesome live. I love Down is the New Up and Videotape and the song 4 Minute Warning, played during the second encore with the band all around Thom at the piano… well that was really special. Thank god mountain woman (and most of the audience) didn’t know any of the lyrics to the new songs. It’s one thing to sing along to Karma Police but come on… every freakin’ song? Argh.

They played How to Disappear Completely, Lucky, and Just. Now I am praying they play them again on Friday… once was not enough.

So tonight I am going to take a deep breath and see the show from a different angle. I got the up close thing out of my system last night and would like to see the entire stage this time. Also, if motherfuckers be talking or singing I am going to move somewhere else.

Onward.

I’m so excited I can barely sit still. I tried to sleep in, but I couldn’t. This week is just going to be too awesome. My stomach is all crazy, I am going to try hard to take care of myself, but it is going to be really, really hard.

David called me last night from the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, so I got to hear one song from Radiohead’s show. It was really hard to hear, basically it sounded like the ocean, with a bit of Thom Yorke’s vocals here and there. And clapping. I think, but I can’t be sure, that it was the new song “15 Step.”

New songs! Holy shit, by the end of next week I am going to know them REALLY WELL.

Anyhow last night’s set list was pretty freaking awesome. “Pyramid Song” followed by “Like Spinning Plates” would be the end of me. I would basically fall down and die from happiness right there. So it’s probably good that I wasn’t at last night’s show. My brother Jay is going tonight, so I hope he is not bummed that he is not going to hear these two songs… I remember driving from San Francisco to my grandma’s house near Temecula a few years ago listening to I Might Be Wrong Live Recordings over, and over, and over. Just knowing that Jay will be there tonight, and David, makes me feel better that I will not. When Radiohead was here in 2003, Jay called me from the show at the Shoreline Ampitheater and I listened to the ENTIRE SHOW through his cell phone. But tonight, I will be at the Pink Martini show, so that ain’t gonna happen again. At least not on this tour.

So. Once again it is Ocean Beach Street Fair day. So to celebrate this fact, I am going to quote some dude’s review of The Vine on the Beer Advocate website:

“Ocean Beach is a funky part of town — sandwiched by the Pacific Ocean to the West, Mission and Pacific Beach to the North (across the San Diego river channel), and Point Loma to the South and (sorta) East. Each of those communities have their own vibes, but none can even get close to what Ocean Beach has going on. Mix three parts Haight Ashbury, three parts Surfer Bum; two parts Psycho Neo-Eco-Vegan, two parts drug-manufacturing Hells Angel, one part Int’l Backpacker, one part homeless Bum, one part Goth Chick, one part Antique Dealer, and one part Yuppie, mix `em all together, and put the mix into a 7-11 Big Gulp cup you found in the trash can, and you start to get the idea of what Ocean Beach has going on.”

That is the perfect way to put it, dude. And the OB Street Fair is: two parts A.M. drinking, one part Corn Dog, one part crappy but fun carnival ride in the parking lot where the Bank of America ATM kiosk has eighteen people waiting to use it, six hundred and fifty parts 420 (not me though, I gotta stay reasonably sober), fifteen parts happy cop, two thousand eighteen parts sunscreen applying just a little too late, six parts OK bands, two parts really good bands, sixteen parts afternoon drinking, eight thousand two hundred fifty three parts future hangover.

Thankfully (I think) I am leaving early this year. My brother works at Humprey’s, where Pink Martini is playing tonight. So I’ll get out of major harms way at about five, and hang out over there until it’s time for the show. I have not heard from Timothy, the wine bar guy I met in Portland, but he has my number and also knows where I am sitting, so you never know…

I am getting heart palpitations from all of this. It’s kind of crazy. Could there be a more perfect week ahead?

Today is the first day of Summer, though I have been feeling like it’s been Summer for a while now. Living at the beach in San Diego, it’s sort of hard to identify “Spring.” You can kind of identify Winter, and you can sort of identify Fall. But it is always easy to identify Summer here in Ocean Beach, because, basically, it is the worst time of the year to be here.

I think it is pretty obvious to anyone who reads my blog on any sort of a regular basis that I adore where I live. But, I have to say, and especially on the eve of the real and true Summer, that it can get pretty tiresome around these parts this time of year. I suppose it is the same on the Jersey shore, and I reckon that the locals on the Amalfi Coast are pretty happy when October 1st arrives. In Summer, if you are where people want to spend time in the Summer, you are going to suffer. Your city or village or town isn’t yours anymore.

I guess I am kind of cranky because last night there was a riotous party on my street. On a Tuesday night! There is a group of four ugly two-story houses that stay empty for most of the year until the owner can price gouge a bunch of youngsters who want to live by the beach for a while. Now there are twenty? thirty? fratty types milling about down there. Last night, it sounded like they were all bobbing for apples with a bunch of porn stars or something. It was LOUD. And I am laying in bed at midnight thinking, oh fuck. Here we go again. Summertime. It’s just too damned hot to close the window and shut them out. Trapped with the whoo hoo’s of the Duh Generation for at least two months.

There are, of course, lots of good things about living here in the Summer…. the warm nights sitting by the ocean with that salty spray hitting your face, that lethal but super-fun combination of wine and heat, watching the sunburnt tourists and the setting sun through the windows of The Vine. The sound of fireworks at Sea World. Really tan, practically naked young men walking down the street. Girls, too. And I guess I sometimes wonder, was I as clueless as these kids when I was their age? Was I as loud or as unconscious of my ripple effect on the world around me? I don’t think I was, but I could be wrong.

I’ll get used to it all over again, and then the cool wind of October will blow, and I will once again walk down the street in my own town again. I’ll never stop smiling, living here. But then, that first day when I know they are all gone, I’ll look like the fucking Joker.

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year, and Radiohead is coming.

I about died when I saw the lighting in this video from last night’s Chicago show. It’s AWESOME. I PRACTICALLY LEVITATE every time I see it.

The calm before the storm… fog, no hangovers, just chilling and getting ready for what is going to be an unbelievable week, starting Saturday. The OB Street fair, then Pink Martini… then RADIOHEAD. Only three of the four SoCal shows, unless something crazy happens.

I can’t wait.