Jeez Jon

At Home Film Festival: Erasure Live: The Tank, The Swan & The Balloon

Oh my word, this DVD of Erasure on tour in 1992 represents the best concert I've been to ever. Okay, I haven't been to that many.  4 to be exact, three of which were in 1992.  The first was a WXRT free 4th of July concert with They Might Be Giants and Squeeze.  The second was The Violent Femmes and the B-52's.  This was number three. Four was Bjork in 1998.  But trust me, once you see Andy Bell cavorting in thigh-high silver boots, dark blue hot pants and a blue ABBA jacket, dancing and singing S.O.S., it's something you want to savor.

Now, Ms. Krystyn was with me for three of those above-mentioned concerts, this Erasure one included.  The night captured for all eternity was from the concert in Manchester, England and not where we saw it at the Chicago Theater (in Chicago, natch), but it was the same concert.  And Erasure put on a great show.  They did all their hits (Chains of Love, A Little Respect, Who Needs Love Like That?) and we danced up a storm, smiling the whole time, even when some a-hole above us spilled his beer. 

I'm not sure if it's how the sound has been recorded but all the songs sound just so damn good here.  The different audio productions and arrangements they do for their songs make them sound fresh and fun, even (gulp) 14 years after the fact.  I prefer this live version of Chorus to the album version, as well with Love Is A Loser and S.O.S. The twin Martinque backup singers harmonize perfectly well with Andy's lovely vocals, and it's a show, y'all.  Costume changes, set changes... he comes in riding a mechanical swan, okay? The synthesizers all live in a big tank, and there's a balloon (hence a title).  Couple that with Andy in a huge hoop dress done up as a globe, wearing ruby slippers while singing Over the Rainbow, and the above-mentioned silver boots, and you can just picture the wonderful costume orgy of it all. 

This concert also represented the only time I can all teen fanboy about a band.  I got tickets in line at a Coconuts Records. I dropped over $100 (back in 1992 when I was a college student, mind you) on merchandise at the concert.  I drove out to Michigan to pick up my friends Darryl and Evan to drive them to the concert and back. I bought a lighter to put up and sway during the ballads.  It was me, in fact, that started the lighters during Over the Rainbow. You're welcome. It was just a fantastic night, a fantastic time, and every time I've popped this DVD in, I just grin from ear to ear.

Illinois Shane Rules

I have two Shanes in my life.  One lives directly above me, is a good friend, and works in real estate.  The other lives in Chicago, is a good friend, works in theater and at the college we both went to, and I haven't seen him in ages.  His birthday was a few days ago, and even though I haven't e-mailed like I should, I wanted to stop and say Happy Belated Birthday, Shane.

Birthdaze

Friday night, Tom and I hosted a pretty cool smallish birthday gathering.  Drunk?Yes!, Katie, Jennifer, a bunch of our neighbors, and some of our new friends arrived.  There was mingling, drinks, and a lot of fingerfood.  Gifts included Joss Whedon's Serenity, The Tomorrow People, Set 1 and Alexandra Billings' cabaret CD from Tom, a great Pac-Man themed T-shirt from Chris and Stephen, a $20 gift certificate from our neighbors John and Marcella to Samuel French Bookstore, some lovely hand-woven coasters and Buddha pencil toppers from Susan and Ken, a couple trivia card games from Katie, a Spiderman toy and a Spiderman videogame from Drunk?Yes!, and an Augusten Burroughs book and Woody Allen's Love and Death from Jennifer.  Couple that with the gifts from my folks, Tom's folks, Pam & Ben, and others en route from my brothers, I'm getting quite the haul this year.

Around 10:30, half the group left, and the remaining six of us then played this:

Hmmmm.... yes, the Buffy board game.  My Buffy-mania is rather sick, I know, but it's a fun board game, and rather easy, too. If you can play Clue, you can play the Buffy board game.  It breaks down like this:  one person plays Evil, and the remaining players play the good characters: Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Oz. You have your choice of bad guys from the first 4 seasons of the show, and Evil tries to either just kill Buffy or kill Buffy and all of her friends.  OR turn Buffy into a vampire.  The Good players just try to kill the Big Bad guy.  Pretty simple.  The board is the map of Sunnydale, CA, the town where the show takes place. It's a crowd pleaser, I'm tellin' ya.  So this time around, I was Evil, Jennifer served as one of my minions, and we fought Shawn (Willow), Tom (Xander), Drunk?Yes! (Oz) and Katie (Buffy).  It went back and forth for a bit, but in the end, we killed Buffy.  Evil wins, whoooooo!

At any rate, it was a fun party, and a great birthday.  While work and money things are in the best place for me right now, a lot of other things are great.  So, I'm going to focus on the good and do what I can to fix the bad.  All in all, what more can you ask for?

9 Down, 92 To Go

92.  Ship all the Buffy episodes I have on VHS to my brother Matt, since I have all of them on DVD anyway.

Shipped out this afternoon.  Happy birthday, bro.

It's Your Birfday, and We're Going to Party Like It's Your Birfday...

In a few mere moments, people will be arriving here at the Jeez Jon Manse for a small party/gathering in honor of the 13th anniversary of my 21st birthday.  I've already received some nice presents, some nice cards, and nice well-wishes all around.  I'm pretty psyched about what tonight will hold, and also for a birthday present I got myself:  a nice massage here.

Details about the par-tay will be arriving some time tomorrow.

8 Down, 93 To Go

69. Give up tortilla chips for Lent in addition to my usual potatoes.

Done as of 4/16/06.  It was a bit of a struggle, but it paid off nicely.

Pit Stop

My work on Mysterious Network Reality Soap ended last Friday, and for the first time since October of last year, I am currently not working.  I filed for Unemployment yesterday via the interwebs, so that should be kicking in sooner than later.  Last Friday, I had an audition for a national cell phone commercial followed by an interview for Enigmatic Basic Cable Competition Show (as opposed to Urban Basic Cable Competition Show, which started airing two weeks ago -- if you freeze frame the credits, you can see my name on the right hand side of the screen). The audition went... well, I guess.  I was supposed to read for one spot in the campaign, but ended up reading for another, even though the copy for both was practically the same.  The casting director was in the waiting room with us, and gave us one set of direction.  We would then go one by one into the audition room to be put on tape for the director and ad agency, where the director's assistant gave us a completely opposite set of directions.  That was annoying.  I then drove across town to Santa Monica for the interview and ran late because I was given the wrong directions.  I ended up being almost 20 minutes late, but since everyone else was given the same crappy directions, everyone ended up being late.  The interview was with my former boss from Urban Basic Cable Competition Show and the show-runner, and it lasted over an hour.  We all clicked and had some good ideas.  I got a call from my former boss a few hours later, saying that the network put the show on hold.  It may be picked up in the future, but none of us are holding our breaths. 

So, in light of all this and my impending birthday on Friday, Tom and I are going to Disneyland for a few days.  I frankly can't wait. 

Adult Situations, Adult Content

Tuesday started like any other day.  I went to the gym, I went to work.  I IM'ed with Tom a couple times and then chatted with him on the phone while working at Mysterious Network Reality Show.  Then, Tom called back.  On his way to the car after a meal at a local restaurant, Tom's dad collapsed.  Fortunately, a bystander volunteered to help and called 911 as Tom's mom freaked out. After being zapped by the paramedics, Tom's dad heart started beating again, and he was rushed to the hospital.  The first theory was a stroke. Tom said his sister called him and gave him all the details, but we were to wait and see about what was going to happen further.  I immediately went online to start pricing tickets to fly back to Illinois that night.

See, Tom's dad has diabetes.  We're not talking about a low degree of diabetes -- we're talkin' about advanced diabetes.  Earl is legally blind due to diabetes.  Earl doesn't heal well from wounds, due to diabetes.  Earl's heart has had a lot of problems, due to the diabetes.  After a few heart attacks (you read that right -- a few) and a valve replacement, we knew in the back of our minds that this day was going to arrive and we were going to receive that phone call.

After about a half-hour of me looking up ticket info and half-heartedly working, I got another call from Tom.  He said that his dad was rushed into intensive care and he hadn't woken up yet.  We both decided we had to fly out that night, 'cause this was pretty much it.  I bought plane tickets. After explaining things to my bosses at work, they told me to go as soon as possible.  I sped home as much as the combination of LA Traffic and rain would allow.  We were flying out at 9pm Tuesday night, and it was already 4:30 in the afternoon.  I got home.  Tom was on his way from running some errands.  I arranged to have the cats fed and cared for in our absence and a lift to the airport (with a backup).  I packed in a big ole hurry.  Tom got home.  We got the apartment in some semblence of order, and Shane took us to Burbank Airport.  Due to the rain, we left around 9:30pm and flew to Las Vegas. After navigating the hellishly designed Vegas Airport, we made it to our gate and then onto our connecting flight to Chicago. We touched down at 5:30am local time, went to the car rental office, got our (brand new) rental, and made the 2 1/2 hour car ride down to Peoria on very little sleep and a couple of Starbucks coffees. 

We arrived at the hospital and found several of Tom's family members there, already waiting.  After hellos were exchanged, we all sat.  And waited.  The next three days were pretty much a blur.  We sat in the waiting room, all took turns sitting with Earl in his ICU room, went out to eat, came back to the waiting room, took turns with him, etc.  Earl very slowly recovered.  He was eventually weened off of his ventilator.   He was responding and then eventually talking.  Turns out he didn't have a stroke: it was dysrhythmia (I'll check the spelling later).  His very damaged heart went out of rhythm and stopped altogether.  Besides the fact that he's not happy about what happened and where he is, he's pretty much the same as he was.

During this time, Tom's siblings, his mom, and the brothers- and sisters-in-law (myself included) have been having long talks about hospices, living wills, rehab centers, surgeries, etc.  I'll spare you the details, 'cause frankly, I don't want to go through them again.  We all want the best for Earl and to go by his wishes. But the fact of the matter is, he isn't doing very well.  This visit ended up being a lot better than initially thought, but it brought into clear focus that Earl won't be around sooner than later, and we really need to value the time we have left.  From the very first moment I met Tom's parents, they have been nothing but loving and welcoming to me.  Not a word of judgment passed from their lips, not a harsh tone was ever uttered my way.  It took them a bit to warm up to me, as it did the rest of his family -- the last was his sister-in-law, who took 7 years to acknowledge my presence, but that's a whole 'nother story.  But Earl and Bonnie have become part of my family as I have become a part of theirs.  They are truly great people, and it has been a total blessing in my life to know them.  I will truly miss Earl when he passes.

Oh, and if you haven't yet, make sure to have your blood sugar levels checked the next time you go to the doctor.  'Cause after this week, diabetes is now number one on my enemies list.