Spent last night in a pleasent post-workout, whisky-slicked nirvana at Pete's Candy Store, joining the Be Somebody crew mid-way through for trivia, staying on for music and then a meeting with Julia about an upcoming art project. Motivated by the sparking half-mad Captain Capodice, Be Somebody has been dominating the quizz-off in 2003. They even have a cheer for when they win. It's all in good fun, but sometimes I wonder if they're not headed down the road of becoming the ugly americans of this Wednesday evening contest.
After that Matty Charles and the Valientines took to the stage. I met the Bass player (another Josh, though not quite as outlandish as I) via a QuickFix gig back in the fall. Turns out he's a good friend of the mind-numbingly attractive Cynthia Hopkins, who wrote all our music for that show. It's a small world. The Valentines are good, but a few songs in to the set -- just as I started to nurse my sweet sweet Knob Creek -- Josh's double bass broke. There was sadness and confusion, but then Matty did two positively transcendent solos. It was like watching the American West and Nick Drake combine. Quite great.
And perplexing. The first time I encountered Matty was at the end of another trivia night. I was retelling a story to some friends, the climax of which is "Oregon! Not much is known about Oregon!" Immediately, I was shoved from behind and this guy setting up on stage advises me, "don't talk shit about what you don't know." Matty's from Portland, it turns out, and thought I was some dumbshit hipster bagging on his home state. Once we cleared up my origins, everything was cool, but it was interesting watching this delecate and beautiful music come out of someone who I still associate with a violent and aggressive event; got me going on all sorts of half-drunk thoughts about the tenuous nature of manhood and the playground politics we seem unable to escape.
Finally, Kate (from who's relatives the afformentioned Oregon story comes) and Frank have turned me on to the latest run in Doonsbury. Start here and just keep clicking 'next comic.' Got a few guffaws from me.
