Really Fun /Not so Fun

First in the "That Was Really Fun" category was last Saturday's turntable set from Kid Koala at the Cedar. He mixed everything from "Moon River" to M.I.A with stops at every station in between. Loved the jazz trumpet solos carefully picked out by dropping the needle over and over just a few grooves apart.


Nary a laptop or set of headphones in site, please note. His gear consisted of three turntables and a tableful of vinyl. It was fun to see how marked up some of the records were with bits of tape. According the KFAI turntablist nerds standing behind me, (enjoying the heck out of his set) the tape can be to simply to mark one's spot or it can be to set up a slightly random skip back loop. It was also great to watch somebody smile the whole time he was spinning. No hipster attitude at all.

Somebody pointed out to me the next day that the audience was almost totally men. Huh. Guess I was too busy watching his moves on our big screen to look around me.

A week previous, a benefit for Haiti at the Cedar raised something like $13k for Doctors Without Borders. What a fun night. Of course it's a truism, one I've repeated in past posts, that it's always fun to party with the Brazilians (and their fans.) When the Carribean island musicians are added to the mix, well, you can only imagine. My favorites were the loud punk-samba combo early in the evening and the big dance orchestra Charanga Tropical (with three fiddles!) who closed things down. A good time was had by all, and I was too busy pouring beer to even get close to the green room!

Gotta put in a plug for my local neighborhood weird and wonderful winter event, the Art Sled Rally. Rally year three was last Saturday, and while slightly better organized that last year, it was no less fun. The hill was slightly less steep, so there were fewer fantastic crack-ups. Favorite sleds just for design alone would have to go the the Packman contingent, the Alien Sled dogs( My neighbor's dog was so curious that she sniffed their...well, you know what dogs do) and the slinky. (Good thing the slinky driver was wearing a crash helmet. That was fast!)

The Packman group was led by a yellow round packman, obviously, which trailed a long string of yellow balloons. (The dots on the screen, y'know.) This was followed in quick succession by blue ghosts and all the various fruit one could capture to obtain points, each on their own sled. Loud applause by a certain age demographic followed.

Not so fun? Coming home from a long day at work only to rush out the door to treach a class only to return home around 9:30 to find the bathroom sink refusing to drain. "Why do these things happen at the worst possible times?" she whined, rooting around for a pipe wrench.

It wasn't just the trap.

I explore the plumbing behind the wall after work tonight, probably instead of finishing this post. Wish me luck.

Wed 10:37 p.m. Snaking three feet into the wall had absolutely no effect. Neither did taking apart the trap under the tub. Calling plumber in a.m. All creativity spent on plumbing; none left for blog.

Tune in next week as, following the trend of recent posts, I will reveal my mysterious childhood music history.