Geek Weekly #6

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Lookout was and hearing all those tunes live only reinforced my opinion. Of course, they also played "She Blows Blasts of Static," which got me more excited than a roomful of nearsighted Jewish boys. The set was short but sweet, with plentiful traces of that old Grifters feeling present. You know, the way that their good shows feel like watching late afternoon sun coming in through the blinds, illuminating dust and making everything look warm and liquid. Speaking of warm liquids, we got to take Tripp out to the Show Palace Halloween night since it was his thirty-first birthday. Margaret and I dressed as an angel and a devil and once we had a buzz on, we went around giving candy to strangers and asking them which one of us they would pick if forced to choose between good and evil. Before the show, the guys came over to dog in my clothes for some Halloween outfits, and somehow got into the wigs. Oh, man, did they look "rock." The show was a good one, of course, being in Austin it wasn't as great as the Houston shows, but they were in good form and overcame the embarrassment of sharing the bill with a Kiss cover band with aplomb. Margaret and I had a catfight on stage during "Last Chance Re-Entry," as we acted out the battle between busty good and lusty evil for the audience. You know, if you think about it, that's really what the Grifters are all about, you know, good and evil, like, in the context of two large-breasted sisters pulling each other's hair and rolling around on the effects pedals.

? and the Mysterians 2.8.98 Electric Lounge

The coolest thing about this show is that there was a good three months of anticipation before it finally went off. The band was accidentally booked to play earlier, but were reconfirmed later, and ended up playing after most people had totally given up and assumed that their original listing in the paper was all a hoax. In the months before the show I had all manner of daydreams about what the live show of this legendary late-sixties garage band might be like. When I got to the Electric Lounge that night I immediately got this nagging feeling that something a lot weirder than what I had imagined was going to happen. I was right -- too right. First the middle-aged-tie-dyed-t-shirt-wearing guys started comin' in. Not many of 'em, mind you, but man, it was cool to see 'em starin' around, taking in the modern rock scene and crowd. Then came the middle-aged Latino men and women. They were definitely there to rock. Next I saw the merch table. They

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were offering ? and the Mysterians t-shirts, bandannas, glossies, and "sunglass". The sunglasses were random design -- all black, all different, by no means a signature style. I saw both the Shakewells and the Sir Finks for the first time and they were both excellent. And when they were done a ? and the Mysterians pitch man took the stage and told the crowd about the most recent rave reviews found in various organs of the mass media. He also pitched the items for sale at the merch table, and finally, he introduced the band. The various middle-aged Latino men, all dressed in orange-and-black ? and the Mysterians shirts and bandannas swung into a snappy sixties garage-psych-rock ditty. It was really good. I was trying to guess which one was Mr. ?, when he came bounding on stage. OH MY GOD! I DID NOT EXPECT THIS. This guy was a spandex-panted-flamenco-shirt-wearin'-cowboy-hat-bandanna-(wig?)-headed animatronic cross between Prince and a Latino Richard Simmons. [see photo] So, long story short, they were fucking great, played "96 Tears" last, did a six-song encore including two new songs (to be released on their upcoming Norton album) and"96 Tears" again, and, as I was finally leaving, some of the band had left the stage to be replaced by Joe King Carrasco who was dueting with Mr. ? on the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction". It was all I could take. But they are coming back this summer, so you gotta go. I'll definitely be there.

Those Bastard Souls 1.17.98 Emo's

Missed the openers, but I had come expressly to see how this band could pull of what the Grifters' Dave Shouse had created in the studio ot come up with the only release under the name Those Bastard Souls: the fantastic Twentieth Century Chemical. The lineup at this show consisted of Dave Shouse on guitar and the late Jeff Buckley's girlfriend on violin and some other guys. (Sorry about the lineup vagaries -- I can't seem to find the letter that Dave sent me, which is where that info resides.) Anyway, the show was incredible. I am really tempted to give up hope for the rest of the year and proclaim it the best show of '98.

George Jones 1.24.98 Billy Bob's Texas

This was not so much a show as it was a weekend-long Texas experience. My friend, the bluegrass superstar Miss Emily, my boyfriend Cooper, and I left Austin on Saturday morning. Miss Emily is from Nashville and is the biggest country

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Pic #1 Those Bastard Souls at Emo's.

Pic #2 ? at the Mysterians.

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music gossip buff I have ever met, and she insisted that we listen to George all the way up there. She even regaled us with numerous funny stories from the George Jones shame file. When we got to Fort Worth we went to the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art and checked out their collection of Remingtons and Russells, an excellent photographic exhibit, and other assorted works of Western art. A great collection, for sure. Then we checked into the hotel and freshened up for the show. The best part of the whole weekend was just going to Billy Bob's Texas. Talk about a lesson in culture! The place is fucking huge! There is no mechanical bull, just LIVE INDOOR PROFESSIONAL BULLRIDING EVERY WEEKEND NIGHT!

Instead of a disco ball over the dancefloor, there is a huge mirror-encrusted saddle. There were even chicks in leather Rockies! Anyway, our seats were far away from the stage, but luckily there were TV monitors close by. George is kinda sick of playin' live, I guess. He did a couple of medleys, the chorus of "White Lightnin'," and let his backup band do a few instrumentals without him. It was cool just to see him and be there and all, and the glow emanating from Miss Emily's person (she is also a member of the George Jones fan club and kept flashing her membership card around all night) lit up the room.

[Photo: "Cooper and Miss Emily at the only bar information desk I've ever seen."]

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Man Swallows Liquid Nitrogen

Editor's Note: The following is another piece of email forwarded to me from the wierd world of upper-level science. I cannot attest to the veracity of this tale, as I am as yet unaquainted with its author, but it does seem likely enough. I have formatted the original message somewhat for the sake of readability, but I have left the body of it intact.

Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1998 10:08:54 +0000 Subject: Stupid Human Trick: Liquid Nitrogen

Thought you might appreciate this

This forwarded- A potential Darwin Award winner, from the horses mouth, so to speak :-)

Dave

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------One of my friends is up for a Darwin Award. (True, he's not dead, but you just have to do something likely to kill yourself to win.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and so i get back to school, start my senior year, two research projects, grad school applications, gre preparation, and the like. the year started off good, but that all changed about two months ago.

some of you (especially those at berkeley) may have heard rumors of some bizarre accident that i was involved in. so here is the truth, unabridged, for those of you who actually want to know... around the second week of school, the society of physics students held a roughly annual welcome back party, and, as tradition dictates, we made our own ice cream with liquid nitrogen (77 K) as a refrigerant and aerator. things were going fine for a while. we spilled a little of the nitrogen onto a table, and watched tiny little drops of it dance around. then someone asked, "why does it do that?" that may have been the point of no return. i, as is traditionally my role, answered that the nitrogen evaporates at the surface of the table, which provides a cushion of air for the drop to sit on, and thermally

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