ONe of those days where you'll remember where you were...

It's about 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday April 17. I went to bed last night a little after one a.m. and woke up just a little bit ago to the sound of trains warning as they passed through the intersections of a sleeping Lincoln. A new friend asked the other day how I ended up in Nebraska after growing up in California. I suppose a decent answer would've been "it's nice to hear trains at night instead of sirens." It might've needed further explanation, maybe not, but the answer in large part is as simple as that.


Yesterday some 30 plus students were shot and killed by another student on the campus of Virginia Tech. I remember hopping on the Internet yesterday morning and seeing a Yahoo headline saying a student had been shot and killed on VA Tech's campus and thinking, why do people feel the need to resort to gun violence so often? Just a few hours later the situation became much more dire, and I spent the rest of the day juggling homework, class and being glued to CNN to try and figure out the same details the rest of a stunned nation wanted to know. It's frustrating to watch press conferences where media seem so eager to find a place for blame. Questions were shouted at the president of the campus as well as a local high ranking police official demanding to know why they hadn't done a better job of warning a campus of more than 25,000 students and 10,000 employees plus who knows how many visitors, that a tragedy had struck. How is anyone to fathom that a person could commit an act so heinous? Anything like that is just so random and unpredictable that officials can only do what they can to try and control the situation when in reality there is no great way to control someone with the type of mind to do such a thing. To try and place blame on a group of people who want nothing more than for innocent people to be able to go about their daily lives is a farce of monumental proportions.

Add to that a statement made by representatives for the White House in the first moments of a press conference: "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," and you have to wonder how we've gotten so far away from the actual facts of the matter. People are dead. Virginia Tech's legacy as a public institution will forever be scarred. And America has a media that's trying to figure out how to make someone else the scapegoat and an administration trying to make a political issue out of the situation. It's quite appalling.

School's almost over for the year. The weather has turned nice and lately I've felt like there is a purpose in life and I'm getting closer by the day to finding it. Some coversations lately have got me to thinking about what my purpose might be. Hopefully the next few weeks will be filled with good times and creating memories that I'll hold dear because it's nice to know that people love me. Sometimes I lose track of that. Don't forget what's important in life is all I can say.

A couple of good shows

Finally made it up to the Waiting Room this week, twice in fact. Tuesday saw my rookie excursion for some Man Man and I didn't really know what to expect except for maybe mayhem. And that's pretty much what I got. When the band hit the stage the wore all white and there were instruments absolutely everywhere! All of the band's members played several instruments throughout the night performing music that was described to me as The Decemberists on crack and I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment. At one point the singer, who goes by Honus Honus, poured some water into a small metal bowl and threw a spoon into the bowl for the desired sound. The crowd of maybe 100-150 people ate it up. Everyone was jumping around and surprisingly more than a few people knew the words to the songs. Very impressive.

Thursday was another fun night. After a rollicking good, if not at some points scary, time at the Bemis Center's annual Slide Jam I made my way down to The Waiting Room for some Eagle*Seagull action. They just got back from a pretty extensive European tour and man are they tight! They were missing some equipment prior to the set so I hope they found it, but they didn't play anything from the album that has been released, but they did play three songs I had never before heard performed live.

I grabbed a set list from Eli (vocals) after the show and what the sound of that band has become is going to take them places for sure. Tim McMahan of the Omaha Reader had this to say about the band's performance:



"Just returning from a lengthy European tour, Eagle*Seagull was road-hardened last night, and maybe a bit road weary. I think I've mentioned before that they seem to be evolving into a Franz Ferdinand-style dance band. That certainly wasn't evident during the first couple songs, which bore the same piano-driven ensemble feel that can be heard on their debut. But as the night wore on, the back-beat dance grooves kicked in. There were at least three songs that could -- and should -- be career-defining club hits (and that will likely be on their new album), including a simple dance number with the line "We came to dance" that will eventually find itself onto a lot of mix tapes (if that new record is ever released). Their other highlight was the set-closer, a love-song anthem with a killer chorus that was angelic."

I don't think I'll make it to any shows this week but Antibalas is playing Knickerbocker's Friday if anyone is interested.

I need to stop liking so much music. Or at least cheap, live music. I went to The Balance last night because I hate to miss what they might pull out of the hat. It was Jake, the guitarists b-day, so the show had a special kind of feel to it. My roommate decided it would be a good night to have a party so I had to decide between the two events.

As per usual, The Balance won the battle, at least until the show was over. Jake wooed me into staying by showing me the set list prior to the show. Little Brazil opened, they rocked, and were not too off put by my heckling from the stands. The Balance ripped it up as usual, did a great rendition of my favorite song "Hesitation" as well as a few spot on covers. First up was Bruce Springsteen's "Dancin' in the Dark" and the band's bassist Sam Larson might've found a song that fits his vocal style well. Next up was The Police's "Message in a Bottle" and I've gotta say that that was some of the best drumming I've heard by Brett to date. The night ended with a doubling up of Pink Floyd, first with Nate Green on solo keys from "Nobody Home" which segued into a great "Comfortably Numb."

This week Man Man on Tuesday at the Waiting Room (my first visit) and again on Thursday for Eagle*Seagull. I might go to another show on Friday, we'll see how my pocketbook and ears are feeling. In other news it's almost 12:30 a.m. on Sunday and I have about nine pages of a ten page paper to write before noon tomorrow. Gotta go.

The events that occurred somewhere between last week and today…

Friday, 4.30.07

Many of them are kind of blurry, through a haze of boulevard keg beer from the kegerator, Jager Bombs after each successive gambling victory and a band called Jackyl you’d think my weekend was complete. But Tuesday came and still I felt the remnants of what could be called a pretty good time.

I can’t remember Thursday night amounting to much, a lot of the same ‘ol same ‘ol. But Friday night was a little crazier, Saturday was insane and Sunday, we’ll just call Sunday overkill.

Friday night Lawrence had to work overnight and seeing as he’s my usual weekend partner in “rippin’ it up” I had to find other things to attend to. Bodega’s was pretty much status quo, but Eugene was calling me every ten minutes from Wayne, Neb. Wanting to talk about something and I told him I’d call him at one. Closing time rolls around and I call him back and he asks if I’ll be awake in two hours if he comes to Lincoln. In true party fashion I said I’d be ready to start doing some serious partying and I regrouped myself for a much longer night than I had anticipated. After a pit stop at an after hours over by 27^th and Holdredge where one of the night’s themes was throwing saltines at a ceiling fan, I made it to Gilbert’s where we were all supposed to meet up.

Eugene is all about the gambling, but he’s also about taking his damn time and he didn’t even show up until close to 4. We tried to drink until Lawrence got off work, but 6 was just too far away from 8 to make it. In hindsight it was a good idea since Saturday was where the real action was waiting.