of ships and cats and concert wax

and cabbages and kings.  this is from yesterday.  Ok this will probably be pretty long.  I have to tell about 2 concerts, an art show, and a cat show.  The first was a few weeks ago when I went to see The Go! Team.  I got attacked by a giant leech in the line waiting to get in.  I almost told him off but he was obviously a hurricane victim so I gave him 2 bucks.  Anyway the show was at Emo’s, and this place had it’s name long before the word was used to describe music.  It seems like ever since then though it’s catered almost exclusively to emo bands and indie acts.  If you’re not scene then you don’t quite fit.  Anyway, we got inside and waited through this really bad rap group.  We amused ourselves by thinking of who they reminded us of and naming them that.  Have to ask Joey what their names were but I remember Froggy because he was all in green with a bowler hat.  After that came The Grates.  I know how to spell this because I bought their CD the other day.  They’re a band from Brisbane, Australia with three members.  When they first started playing the singer, Patience, was bouncing all over the place hopping and dancing.  She was dressed in this navy blue sailor dress with a yellow scarf that made it look like she was gonna teach you French and then sing to you.  The guitarist John looked like a roadie, kinda like me and Joe did at our last electric gig.  Standard faded black t-shirt and jeans.  Alana the Drummer was hilarious.  She was cute with a round face and a short doll haircut with a big curl on each cheek and she had this goofy grin on her face the entire show.  That’s kinda what made the band right there, because honestly they’re not very good.  They have fun songs though and they’re the kind you can learn right away because theyr’e simple like that.  Joey was even conducting the band at one point off to the side.  it was funny.  But man… that grin.  Every time she counted off a song she had the cutest australian accent.  I think she was taking happy pills or something.  They also had great stage presence.  Even if Patience was a little awkward.  So yeah then I saw Matt Simon in the crowd.  He’s a friend of mine and the drummer of the band Voxtrot.  They’ve been getting extremely famous recently.  That was funny.

Oh!  I was wearing my emo disguise.  I forgot about that!  I had on my black stocking cap, square glasses, lots of bracelets, the smallest shirt I owned, and grey slacks.  If only I had a goofier looking face, my disguise would have been complete.  Then The Go! Team came out.  Multinational band formed in England with like 7 members.  Most of the time they had 2 drummers which was a very cool effect.  The singer was a black girl with a brittish accent which was cool.  She could switch between rapping and singing seamlessly.  they had a japanese girl who was usually on guitar and who periodicly tossed in happy lines of engrish.  In fact all of the music they played was exceedingly happy or positive.  Another weird thing is that they all switched instruments on just about every song.  That was just… wow.  Eventually every single one of them went to a different instrument eventually.  They even had the second cutest drummer in the world (the first was in The Grates) come up and sing a sweet little song that reminded me of that Monty Python tune Every Sperm is Sacred.  Sure enough, the band managed to do everything they did on the CD live.  Joey was hoping they would have a live horn section but that was just a keyboard.  They even had a glockenspiel.  They were pretty good.  Definitely something to go see live.  They had so many instruments I’m suprised they managed to fit it all on the stage.  Good show.

Last night I went to see Nickel Creek.  They’re supposed to be a bluegrass band but they’re younger people who regularly depart from that… they’ve got a lot of rock influence even though they have mandolin and fiddle in most of their songs.  Me and Joey got there and brank beer while we were waiting for them to come on.   Martin Sexton was the opening act.  I think he’s related to Will and Charlie Sexton who are pretty famous around here.  We wish he came out in a bear suit.  That would have been great.  Someone had his nuts in a vice though.  He was singing too high.  Anyway Nickel Creek came on after that and busted right into When In Rome.  They were amazing yet as good as thier musicianship was, their harmonies on vocals were still thier strongest aspect.  They were dead on all night.  The fiddle player, Sara Watkins, reminded me of Kaylee from Firefly.  She’s that same body type too.  A few extra pounds of healthy.  She was cute.  Chris Thile is the mandolin player, and he was a funny guy.  He kept rocking out on his tiny little mandolin which was so funny to watch, but he was great so it made it even better.  He was homeschooled.  That made him funnier too.  Sean Watkins is Sara’s brother, and he played guitar.  He was funny too.  He said "Who’s feeling bitter tonight?"  and the crowd went wooooo! XD  and he’s like "Well, I’m not… I’m pretty excited but I was bitter when I wrote this song." and he played Somebody More Like You.  That’s my second favorite song that they do.  My favourite, Best of Luck, was a little lacking but it was still good, and the other things they played more than made up for that one being less that amazing.  Mark Schatz, the bass player was great.  the entire show he’s standing back there plunking and slapping away on his "Texas sized fiddle" and then during end of the show he sneaks off to the side of the stage and starts clogging like a madman.  it was wonderful.  He had a cool hat.  They were pretty impressed with the crowd.  The place was full all the way back to the port-a-pottys and they made lots of jokes about that.  "Hows everyone up on the balcony tonight?  How about back by the port-a-pottys?  Any one in there?"  Chris called us Austonians.  We’re Austinites but his word was funnier.  He also tried out our town motto.  He said we were all cool and he said "keep Austin cool" which is close, but the nice people in the frint corrected him.  "Keep Austin Weird"  That’s when they confessed that he was homeschooled and he was battling his whole life to be cool instead of weird, but we still love him.  Wonderful show.  2 encores.  Me and joey got hot wings after.

Today my parents and I went to the hobo art show we’ve been preparing for for the past few months.  we do this show every year and it’s always interesting.  It’s called Art From the Streets, and homeless artists all over Austin get to make art and show it and sell it, and 100% of the profit goes stright to the artists.  Most of them have never had any training and a lot of it is surprisingly good. Like so good you’re wondering how come these people dont’ have a mansion somewhere, much less be homeless.  You have to

go early if you see something you want because it *will sell fast.  Sometimes the art is incredibly bad… sometimes it’s so bad it gets famous.  Like Mr. Wild.  Mr. Wild does paintings of naked celebrities, but they’re so bad that most kids over 4 can already do a better job.  He’s quite a character though.  He’s a homeless mute transvestite drummer.  Anyway.  After that, we went to a cat show.  We saw the lady we’ve been buying all our cats from there and she was showing some of her cats.  My mom got some free samples of cat food and we talked with the guy about eating cat food.  it was fun.  then we looked around at all the cats.  I liked the abyssinian cats.  they’re a dark reddish orange color, a lot like a really dark fox.  then there are the Norwiegan forest cats that are bigger than a fox.  And spotted ocicats.  there were cats of all kinds and we ended up buying another oriental shorthair and we named her Dot Matrix and she sat in my lap the whole way home.  These are great cats but they’re kinda expensive.  Mickey was $400.  Dot was $350 and she hasn’t been spayed yet.  Chui was in that same price range.  Thank goodness they’re not annoying.  They’re the sweetest cats in existance.  and they’re even good for dog lovers, because they’re really dog-like, and sometimes they’ll play fetch.  anyway.  I need those pics form my mom so I can put them up in here.  XP  ok I’m done.  bye.