Weekend update a bit late: recoverd yesterday from a Saturday night which included 3 hours of sleep. Good times. We're young, damn it. It won't be long before these will all be distant memories, so let's savor them. I was treated to the vocal/piano/cello/rock stylings of Murder By Death on Saturday. If you haven't heard them, please do - they're in the vein of And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead...; moody but still loud and abrasive. Then came Rasputina; goth kids gone wild! Two semi-hot female cello players in tattered renaissance clothing, corsets and all, and a drummer who could have been a circus ringmaster. And they were great. Cello playing AND singing??? It can be done. Again, moody, but in that slightly depressing sort of way. These don't sound like compliments but they really are. They even covered Led Zepplin and Pat Benetar...on cello. It might sound wrong, but the fact of the matter is it takes major cojones for anyone to cover Led with a cello.

Later that evening/morning after many a bar, Jax, myself and the GR crew decided to take a historical journey over to the Fluoride Monument. You see, back in 1945, Grand Rapids was the first city in the world to put fluoride in their water. How did GR wisely spend 2 million dollars? THEY BUILT A FREAKIN' MARBLE TRIBUTE TO FLUORIDATION! I couldn't even stand up; laugher ensued as we read the "Fifty Years of Fluoridation 1945-1995" inscriptions. No tooth, no toothbrush, just a few clean marble tablets. The Ten Commandments of dental hygiene. Sheesh.

Later that evening, Jackie and I hankered for a Mulligan's Stew. In case you don't know, a stew is a shot of Kaluha, Baileys and vodka, lit on fire and sucked through a straw. We drove to Mulligan's, walked in the bar, ordered the shots which the bartender kindly lit for us, sucked them down, were cheered on by a local mullet, then walked out. Totally time: three minutes. The shortest bar visit in history. We did what we set out to do, so we rewarded ourselves with Yesterdog.

I seem to have underestimated Hot Hot Heat. I think the song is called "No, Not Now", but it's really good, and it's from "Make Up the Breakdown." How did I end up looking over this gem? Naughty me.

Finally, the mystery revealed! I was enlightened and confused...it's so true...

But, at the start of this rock and roll weekend, there was Electric Six. And it was GOOD. Back in Spades was a great introduction to the evening. The guitar player was astounding, looking up the heavens as he cranked out beautiful noise. Your dad was in the MC5 and your mom is Patti Smith? Enough said. But then Midwest Product brought the house down, literally, people wanted more rock, but instead we got beep-bop-boops. I think they got the order mixed up; Back in Spades should have been the lead in for Electric Six. ANYWHO, I can't explain how crazy I got. Ron and I got right up to the stage and were showered with on stage antics. Lots of improper dancing, pelvis and neck thrusting, manic waving to the crowd, two new songs that blew our dicks off, a bass player who had so much attitude you became hypnotized with desire for five second intervals, a costume change, all of my favorite songs. It was so much fun...that's only word I can use to describe it. Tons of fun that didn't take itself too seriously. Non-serious fun. And the stage divers got out of control - IF YOU ARE OVER 200 POUNDS, PLEASE DON'T STAGE DIVE. There were many unnecessary jumps made by heavy individuals and finally, security intervened. There was one rockabilly freak that tried jumping on our side of the stage, and we let him fall...hard. He fell so hard in front of us, there was no way that anyone was going to catchy this tubby punk rocker. It was hilarious!

Okay, time for chilli. Sorry, I had a lot to get out. I feel much better now.