Oh Cracker Where art Thou?

Fort Worth, Texas? Surprisingly yes. In the six day period that I am visiting this fair city to catch up with my pal Dwight, Cracker was playing here. Well actually it was only Dave Lowery and John Hickmann, advertised as Cracker Unplugged. So you can imagine my excitement when I found this information on their myspace webpage. It turns out this show wasnt advertised much anywhere else, it was somewhat off the radar.

The tickets were 20 dollars at the door, and the place was a shithole. It was a little venue called Aardvarks near TCU in Fort Worth. It was kindof like an old garage with a stage on one side and a bar on the other side. It was smaller then every venue I have ever seen Candid at, and the crowd was smaller then any Candid crowd I have ever seen. There were, at the most, 50 people there. This made the show even cooler.

Dwight and I arrived extremely early cause we had read the doors opened at 8 30. We got there around 8, bought our tickets and went to another bar down the street to have a beer. There we watched a cover band play some old Stones tunes and such. We actually ended up talking to the Bass player and his girlfriend at the Cracker show later on.

After we had a beer, we headed back to Aardvarks to settle in for the show. Little did we know that there were two opening bands, and Cracker didnt go on until around midnight. I suppose we should have seen that coming. Either way, we were just chilling with our beers and listening to some crappy no name openers. I could have got the crowd more into it with Wilco covers and whatnot, because it was a strictly Cracker fanatic crowd.

Eventually Hickmann took the stage and played a couple songs off of his new solo album, and then Dave come up for the rest. It was superb. They played a lot of fan favorites, and you could tell cause everyone would jump out of their seats when it was a song they recognized. "Low" got the biggest reaction, which was only because "Teen Angst" was a slowed down version. And of course who doesnt love "Eurotrash Girl". They combined these Cracker classics with Camper songs such as "All Her Favorite Fruit", "That Gum You Like is Back in Style", and even "Take the Skinheads Bowling"...It was a great show for me to have gone to, I couldnt have been more pleased with the song selection, not too mention the double encore.

I even got to "meet" David Lowery. Like I said it was a real intimate setting, small bar, and few people. So the opportunity was there. I didnt really want to be one of those annoying fans, especially because everyone in a cowboy hat was approaching him. And there were a lot of people in cowboy hats, I mean we were in Texas. And you could tell Lowery wasnt really interested in what anyone had to say, he just wanted to pack up his gear and do his next thing. But I couldnt just not do anything, so I approached him, shook his hand, and said "Im happy to finally meet someone who enjoys Pootie Tang as much as myself." He laughed and I told him he played a great set and I was on my way.

On a side note, one of the crazy cowboy hat wearing dudes was telling me how Cracker was the best band of our time. I didnt really have an argument for this, I mean he did tell me at the Urinals. I was caught off guard. Then he said "Although it would have been cool to see what Alice and Chains could have done". Which I responded with "Welp, that ends that discussion". But either way, I think Cracker would be pretty high up on my list of best bands since, say, the late eighties or early nineties. They are a great band, no arguments there.

A Long Overdue Update...

So the Dickey and Sparky connection is once again a thing of the past. And we are both left with our stories to tell and our seperate paths until they cross yet again in the future.

I have ended up in Vacaville, California where I got a job for Total Validation Services and will be contracted out to work for Genentech, a large pharmaceutical company based all over California. Now I havent officially been hired, or started working, but I have been informed that I should be hearing from them this week, and starting the first week of November. So its back to the ole Protocol writing and Validator 2000 training with me. Piece of cake...Piece of really boring cake. But its no big deal, because I should be able to save money quickly, thus making it easier for me to get back on the road and possibly meet up with Sparky. We have major plans for the next few years as far as travelling goes, but nothing is written in stone...such is life.

So in my freetime I have been reading and writing (link to my poetry on the right), creating and absorbing new music, and just kindof thinking. Its been great, but its been maddening at times. The things I want to do, and the things I have to do are clashing again but this is a problem that is easy to solve. Like Ive already said, a solution has already been found. Time is all it will take now...and we all have plenty of that.

Sparky is back in Costa Rica already, and Dwight is in Texas. I am leaving tomorrow for a week long visit with Dwight where we will tear up the city of Dallas with jokes about their beloved Emmitt Smith. Next I will return here to this hotel room in Cow-Ville and hopefully begin working. A month or so later I will be back in Syracuse for the Christmas holidays, and will hopefully be able to see everyone I want to, and maybe play a couple nights at Manhattan's again...I have missed that. Mcmahon will be joining me here the weekend of my birthday and we are going to head to the Bay area for some tomfoolery and whatnot...It will be fun, as crazy antics are always involved when Mcmahon is entered into the equation.

So thats it...I am just chillin. I havent become complacent in this room yet, and have been too full of thought to be bored, so I havent ventured much into the world Northern California has to offer yet. Although that will change soon, especially when I get some money in my pocket and start roaming the nearby cities for Open-Mic Nights...

Although I have been to the Sacramento Zoo, and they didnt even have any bears...

Jack Kerouac and the World as We Know It...

I recently finished reading "On the Road" for the first time. First of all I want to say I am glad I never read this book before now...I think I read it at the perfect time for myself. This book has sparked a huge desire for me to be back on the road, and to take full advantage of everything it has to offer, and meet every person possible on the way. Live life, I mean really experience everything. It just so happens that I am also in the perfect position for myself to make this all happen. Of course, it will take some time, at least a year or two...but I have found a pretty decent job, and being on the road two summers from now is more then feasible. The only problem is, I have to wait patiently and save some money.

Second of all, I thought this book was very interesting. It shows that even with how different America was back then, the ideals were pretty much the same. The people and experiences described in this book made me recap everyone I know, and have met, and everything I have done and compare the two. There are, suprisingly enough, a lot of similarities. There were the loud obnoxious frat boys, the artsy loners, the artsy loners that just rip old artists off, the people who settle down, the woman chaser, the mad, the happy, the poor, the sane, the insane, the judgemental, the doing, the dying, and so on. America hasnt changed muched. I mean little things have changed. Like people feel a lot less comfortable about things like hitch-hiking these days, whereas then it was a great means of company for a long trip. But the ideals and the generalities are not much different from today at all. Its like when Kerouac writes "I can go anywhere in America and get what I want because its the same in every corner..." This quote is so true. I have driven all around this fair land, and its all the same. Sure just like the 50's were slightly different then today, Seattle, WA is slightly different from Great Falls, MT but the generalities are the same. I dont know a better way to explain it, but I hope you get my point.

It made me think of everything I have thought about life, and the definition of living, and re-think the whole idea. Another quote "This is the American way...People are doing what they feel they're supposed to be doing"...can you think of a better description of the majority of America? Thats exactly what he was referring to...the majority...he certainly wasnt talking about himself and his mad group of "beat" friends...he certainly wasnt talking about Dean. We all have a time in our lives where we think, maybe im supposed to do this...or maybe im supposed to live like this...I for one, know that I have, and have learned thats not what lifes all about. There doesnt have to be supposed to's...There needs to be more going to's...

I dont know what else to say, except read this book...

We Know Funny...

Is there anyone out there as pissed off as I am at those TBS commercials where they have an office that people call and tell people whats funny?

I mean where do they get the nerve telling us what we can laugh at and what we cant. I can remember when this station was used for mainly old sitcoms and made for TV movies, and now because they show Home Improvement and Everybody Loves Raymond we are supposed to hold them as kings of comedy...Or as they say..."We know funny".

Sure they show some great shows these days, like Seinfeld, and even Futurama...and of course there are some people out there that would argue Family Guy. (To avoid any chance of being called a hypocrite, I wont tell you my opinion on how un-funny Family Guy really is.) Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and in that respect, their own sense of humors. I for one have always had a different sense of humor then most people...and TBS is robbing us of our right to think whatever we want is funny. They are starting off slow with these lame commercials, but who know whats next. The idea has been planted.

But Im telling you I wont stand for it. No man/woman behind a desk can tell me how much to laugh at situations. I dont care if they dont think its funny, if society doesnt think its funny, or what...the bottom line is, if I think its funny, I am going to laugh. Cause if Reader's Digest has taught us anything its that Laughter is the best medicine.

The Life of Sam Rockwell...

Most everyone knows him as the brilliant con-man who got the best of the obsessive compulsive Nicolas Cage in "Matchstick Men"...Or perhaps, for those of us who saw this brilliant film, you know him as the quite mentally diseased Chuck Barris from "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Most recently he played that annoying two headed guy Zaphod from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

But I bet you didnt know that before he became a more serious actor, he was scared straight by Wayne Gretzky on steroids...who is of course better known as Casey Jones. When Casey and Danny were saving Splinter from the clutches of the Shredder, Sam was there, with the rest of the thugs, backing Master Tatsu himself.

After Master Tatsu was "driven" away by Casey himself, Sam was the one who wanted to stand up to Casey and teach him a lesson for fuckin with his "Father's" right-hand man. And I quote...

"We have a loyalty to the Shredder...we're a family."

So you see, Sam Rockwell wasnt always a renowned hollywood actor. He used to be a punk kid trying to work his way up in the footclan, who was scared straight by a washed-up hockey player with a golf club. It was a matter of minutes before he pointed the cops to the footclan's hideout and began his pursuit of an acting career. And look at him now.

I dont know what to do in this situation...Thank Casey Jones, or slap Sam Rockwell in the face and tell him what a pussy he is. I mean to be scared straight by Michealangelo, Donatello, Leonardo or Raphael would be one thing...but being scared straight by the man who fell for the "Ugly April" is worse then being talked into joining the good side by the Giant Rat version of Yoda...Danny!!!

No Direction Home...

I recently finished watching this documentary about the one and only Robert Zimmerman...Who is better known as Bob Dylan. Not only was this an extremely well done documentary (Martin Scorsese Directed), but it also made me think Dylan was that much cooler.

The entire music scene was completely different back then. There was so much more freedom and people always getting together and just playing and singing. Especially in the Folk scene. It was amazing to see. Stuff like that doesnt happen anymore...And a lot of the Musicians were out there to change the world, or do there part. Which we all know isnt very common place anymore. I dont remember who said it in the Movie, but it was some painter guy who was Dylans friend...and he talked about how art wasnt financially driven back then. People were rated by whether or not they had something to say.

Which was the ironic part about Dylan. Dylan had a lot to say as a musician, and even as a writer...I mean the stuff just poured out of him. But the world saw this as him having a lot to say about the world, and politics and whatnot. He became known as this topical songwriter. But in my opinion, alls he wanted to be was an entertainer, and you could tell how much he hated being labelled as otherwise.

Its like when he recieved some sort of Freedom award...Im not exactly sure what it was Id have to go back and check the movie sometime...But anyways, upon recieving the award his speech involved him telling the crowd that he was no political thinker, he was young, he liked being young, and politicians were old. It was a huge kick in the ass to the award, and the people who gave it to him. Which I thought was great. And he was constantly fucking with interviewers and the media and everything. He refused to be their dancing bear. There was one scene where a photographer was asking Bob to "suck on his glasses" for a photo...Bob just looked confused and was like "no...here you want to suck on my glasses?". I mean the guy was great. He did whatever he wanted in the studio, in front of the media, and on stage...he was a genius.

Like when he brought out the blues band to back him at the Newport folk festival and people booed him. It was amazing to see, and to think about. And this happened to him for a while, as he toured the US and eventually Europe with the guys who would later become "The Band". People would call him "Judas" and yell at him to get off the stage, or they would ask "whos side are you on?" or "where are the protest songs?"...And Bob would just shrug it off and say something like "this isnt British Music, its American Music"...and he would turn to the band behind him and say "Play fuckin loud". He loved every second of it. And in the interviews for the documentary he said "I dont think the boos had anything to do with what the people were hearing". Which I believe is true, because the music was great. People were just so upset about the ideology behind it. They felt Bob was bastardizing his brilliance. But he was merely just showcasing it in a new way...the way he wanted to, as an entertainer. Even the fellow musicians were upset about it. Pete Seeger (I believe from Peter, Paul and Mary) had to be subdued backstage at the Newport Folk Festival because he was going to cut the electrical chords. Thats how upset he was.

Dylan wrote some of the most important songs ever written. And what makes them so important is that most of them, if not all...can still be applied today. They dont mean the same thing as they did back then, but they continue to be passed down, cause they still have powerful meanings. He is by far the greatest, and most important songwriter who ever lived, and alls he wanted to do was be a song and dance man.

The Story Behind the Name...

It was somewhere in Idaho, or maybe Utah...Sparky and I had been driving for half the day already, and we would be on the road for another 8 hours, maybe more. I was behind the wheel, while Sparky was brushing up his Spanish using his recently purchased Spanish/English dictionary. He started telling me translations as if I really cared including that of "arriba", and it turns out all this time Speedy Gonzalez was yelling "up, up" or "above, above" before he took off in his speedy way...

Moving on...During one of his translations, he managed to emit a decent amount of spit from his mouth to my face. So I asked him if he could teach me to say "Say it, don't Spray it" in spanish...so that he would understand in two languages that he was spitting on me more then that Dinosaur that killed the fat guy from Jurassic Park who remarkably resembled Newman from Seinfeld.

After investigating, Sparky found that his Spanish/English dictionary did not contain the translation for "spray". But it did have the translation for Staple Remover. "Sacagrapas". At first I was astonished and a little pissed off that it was lacking in the "Spray" department, which I thought was a more useful term then "Staple Remover", while Sparky merely just pointed out what a cool nickname "Sacagrapas" would be.

Hence, my new stage name...Sacagrapas...