Wednesday, October 30, 2002

It’s been a few days

It’s been a few days since the concert, but that’s only given us more time to reflect on our gratitude, dude.  Sourdo’h and Hapless did us a huge and generous favor, and it turned my thinking thus:

Let it never be said of the act of a friend
that an object is dead or one’s works ever end.
With a sliver of paper, the air filled with sound -
a mysterious caper on sharply sloped ground.
Even sweeter for being a bolt from the blue,
we were singing and seeing, all thanks to you two.
There’s a future before us, new twistings unknown,
but it sings with your chorus - no voice is alone.

Awesome concert, guys - thanks a lot.  Meantime, in honor of DavePaige and his estimable contribution to the event, I’ll recall my only favorite thing about Shoreline, a venue with the charm and personality of an MRI chamber: over the entry gates are several large signs that describe upcoming events, sponsorships, and naturally, prohibitions - firearms televisions nutpicks icechests all the stuff they don’t want you dragging into the ampitheater.  One sign is worth a second look.  It features a young boy - like Opie from the old Andy Griffith show, cheerful and redheaded and a little goofy in the smile - with hands outstretched.  In one hand he holds a very large pint-style glass.  In the other he carries a tapped beer keg.  He wears a jaunty baseball cap and his eyes gleam with vacant euphoria.  A slashed circle covers the whole arrangement, advising us that children are not to be permitted to drink alcohol, or, I guess, to carry whole kegs of beer.  The funny thing is, after the Other Ones’ set, I saw that kid, squatting behind a beverage cart, wavering and warbling unrecognizeably, his fingers stained with dirt, his eyes more vacant than they were on the sign.  Damn that kid parties hard.