Vertical Horizon, Blue October, and Polyesther rocked the house of love in no short order tonight. Though Vertical Horizon is not precisely my cup of tea, Justin from Blue October unleased a positively *unholy* performance tonight. This is not to detract from some really wicked digs by the violinist and some serious rage on behalf of the drummer, but sweet merciful Christ. I thought I was watching the man destroy himself on stage. It was simultaneously painful to watch and wicked hard. Their encore positively devastated the crowd mentally; I’m really not sure many of them knew how to deal with such raw pain. I seriously think some education majors began to go into a brain shutdown.

However, the real purpose of this post is to share something absolutely hilarious. A client who shall go unnamed gave his computer to my boss at Ye Olde Computer Shoppe for repair. So I come in to work today and Mel is quite nearly on the ground, dying of laughter. He is not the type that engages in such bellybusters, so the situation was unusual to say the least. Between chuckles he tried to spit it out, but just kept pointing to the screen. I checked out the tag and saw it was from a psychiatrist who came in with some mouse trouble a few days earlier, unaware of what was so goddamned funny I just stood and watched the screen. After a bit Mel says, “Wait for it… Wait for it…”

That instant a man walked out of the bottom right hand corner of the screen, removed his towel, and began to kneel so that he could masturbate. That’s right, a high resolution animated gay guy hopping out for the fun of it. By the time I picked myself up off the ground, another man can on, soon to be joined by another for a full on french kiss and takedown.

Words really can’t describe the singular type of fun available for a computer guy.

The full text can be found here.

Brokaw: Were you surprised by the degree of looting that occurred almost instantly?

President Bush: No, I wasn’t surprised at all.

Brokaw: You were not? Why?

President Bush: I mean, these were people that hated the regime under which they lived.

Brokaw: But they went after hospitals and museums and —

President Bush: I don’t like that part. And that was the — you know, the hospitals and museum were the absolute worst part. The good news is, is that the hospitals are now up and running, they’ve got enough medical supplies to take care of the people that need help. That museum was a terrible incident. I couldn’t agree more with people who say we’re sorry that happened. We are, by the way, helping find treasure, restore treasure and we’ll provide all the expertise and help they need to get that museum up and running again.

It seems Yale graduates fail to recognize the fundamental importance of the historical artifacts that were destroyed. And later in the interview…

President Bush: Well, the Bush doctrine is actually being defined by action, as opposed to by words. Although, I think if you compile a lot of the speeches I’ve given, you could come up with the Bush doctrine.

At least in this much the President and I agree.

Scott reminded me of a vital addendum to the recollection of the Richard Thompson show. Pete Zorn, the backup vocalist and multi-instrumentalist of the band, rocked with absolutely unbelievable hardness. The man looks to be perhaps a day younger than 70, huge thick glasses, skinny body, pure white hair… and yet he rocked harder than any two Norwegians combined (who are known for their propensity to rock). This dude totally laced into his mandolin like it was a fucking mortal enemy. We hypothesized that between songs requiring mandolin, the roadie took the mandolin behind stage to say some kind, nuturing things to give it the strength to play again.

Just in case you were were wondering if I was in fact a dork or not, I was among three Hastings College students who saw Richard Thompson last night by my own volition. Of course, the guy is just huge (REM has covered one of his songs) and the show was hyped as very, very important. The few students that did show up left quickly, leaving Scott, Colin, and I (along with former Shaftmate Drew) to watch the concert as likely the only people under 30 who were there without an assignment. A few people expressed some serious disdain about this, but to be honest, I really have a hard time blaming them.

Billed as “folk rock,” I don’t think that the act as it currently stands really has any claim to the genre. “Art rock” is a much more appropriate title, as the man as a rule stayed away from typical song construction. Sure, the rhythm was pretty straightforward, but the melodies were marked by a lot of dissonance and, honestly, if you don’t know what you are listening for, it’s just not that interesting. Though I am by no means a musical scholar, there were some subtle composition decisions that I did admire and, of course, technically they are all astounding musicians. The softest drum solo I have ever heard was given by his drummer with some masterful and mindblowing brush work.

This being said, I can’t say that I’m going to pick up his CD. The man was good and there is an intellectual quality to the music that is absolutely undeniable… but Richard Thompson has lost any claim to cool long, long ago. I consider myself a pretty versatile listener and the pursuit of the obscure is one of my passions, however, even on my most experimental pop day I don’t think I’d nod my head to a Thompson tune.

Somebody want to tell me who the hell this guy is? As if the image of American soldiers kicking back and sitting idly by while the fundamental artifacts of the early history of human civilization were destroyed was enough, our Great White Tyrant has installed a military leader for an indefinite interim term to rule Iraq.

Can anybody see me, indeed.