Joe Pug @ The Firebird

Sooooo......I haSoooo. I had never been to TheFirebird. But this last Saturday night they had one of my favorites Joe Pug into town.  I have seen him at least 5 times and despite his patently commercial name the guy writes fabulous, meaningful folk/rock.  I have been loving this guy seems I heard the song “Hymn 101”:

“And I've come to roam the forest past the village

With a dozen lazy horses in my cart

I've come here to get high,

To do more than just get by.

I've come to test the timber of my heart

Oh, I've come to test the timber of my heart

And I've come to be untroubled in my seeking

And I've come to see that nothing is for naught

I've come to reach out blind

to reach forward and behind

For the more I seek the more I'm sought

Yea, the more I seek the more I'm sought.”

NPR did a little piece just on this song:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95798312

This was my first trip to The Firebird.  Not for lack of trying.  They have brought a lot of good acts there over the years but I just… never made it.  It is right off of Olive kind of behind the old A.G. Edwards (whatever that is now) and though it fronts on Olive, parking is behind it and you really don’t notice it unless you pay attention (never a strogng suit).  It has been a long time since I really felt like I was “in a good room”.  The much lamented Mississippi Nights, despite everyone’s best intentions has never been really replaced.  We had lost Ciceros Basement sometime before that and there just was a void.  Off Broadway sucked and though it has improved there was still no place that was just…. a room.  The Firebird could be anyone’s suburban basement.  Just a big, flat room with a stage and a dance floor.  We were lucky enough to get some deating in one of the half dozen booths off to the side and we… had us a time.

He does a solo act and he also comes out with a band and in any case always puts on a great show.  Chicago is the home base but he tours nationally.  His last albumis from 2012 and is called “The Great Despiser”.  He had two prior EP’s and another LP called “Nations Of Heat”.  A nice bio can be found on his site:

http://www.joepugmusic.com/bio/

Each one of the releases has some brilliant songs on it.  One of the problems on all his albums is they are all of such an even, high quality that they seem kind of interchangable.

The same can be said for his live shows.  He has a very tight little three piece band and they fricking OWN his songs.  His voice in consistent and he has learned a lot in the last 4 years of hard core touring.  He works the crowd and plays a tight set frought with with nuance and meaning.  It is music to pay attention to and the crowd at the Firebird was respectful and quiet, almost eerily so for what was close to a full house by the time he went on.  

Anyway, check out Joe Pug (Pugliese) when you have a chance.  Whether life or on one of his CD’s it is what music is all about.

Dallas Buyers Club: The Diner Movie Review

Sooooo…. The Diner Review likes to go to the movies and there has been a reasonable amount of hype for “Dallas Buyers Club” which was released Friday.  It stars Matthew McConaughey and has Jared Leto as a costar and is… not a feel good film.  I have no question that McConaughey will be nominated for Best Actor and the timing is clearly geared towards the Oscars.  He has always been kind of a pretty face, more than a powerful actor and this is his bid and it is a pretty strong one.

People are saying he plays the roll of a red neck but that is really not fair.  He plays the roll of the worst kind of piece of shit, amoral, white trash, Texas bigots and in saying all those things I have mentioned all of the characters moral strengths.  This is not a movie for the morally squeamish and it opens with what appears to be a hazy threesome at the rodeo and although I do not consider myself a prude it is uncomfortable in every aspect.  

His character is clearly sick but not worried about it as he is an alcoholic drug abusing electrician but… he passes out, goes to the hospital and the beautiful Jenifer Garner as a doctor working with another doctor and they diagnose him with HIV and AIDS and tell him that he has about 30 days to get his affairs in order and do the right thing and die.  Based on what you have seen of his character you are certainly, at that point, hoping he dies quickly.

But he responds with defiance and the story starts to get interesting as he finds the medical community is clueless, money driven, and rather then helping him to get better is actively working against him.  The story tells the shameful back story of the rushed development of the AIDS treatment AZT and how those trials, for cash, distorted the picture for many victims and indeed killed some patients early. Although the movie does not get into South African Aids denial, there is a great article explaining the issues with AZT and reading it will help you to understand part of the horror outlined by this movie.

http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/hiv/abazt.htm

At the hospital he meets Leto’s character Rayon and there is no question Leto is going to be nominated for an award as well.  He was the dark troubled boyfriend in the orgininal MTV series and Claire Danes vehicle “My So Called Life” and I had not seen or heard from him since that time.  He appears in the second hospital scene and his “Butch and Sundance” relationship with Matthew McConaughey is the heart of the movie as Leto’s character is a drug addicted transvestite.  I had no idea, until I wrote this that Leto was also in "Fight Club".

And then as Rayon:

He through research and conversations and lucking into a disreputable American doctor in Mexico develops a treatment regime (you have to suspend your disbelief a little based on what you have seen of  McConaughey’s character) starts importing legal drugs which promote wellness, and treat some of the symptoms of the disease and he lives.  For a long time anyway.  And he keeps developing and refining treatment, with some slip ups on the way as the FDA and the medical establishment battle to stop and discredit him.  The movie gets his name because he sets up a “Buyers Club” because it is of course illegal to sell drugs but he would instead sell memberships and then supply people for 400 bucks a month.

As the movie runs towards it’s inevitable (at that time) conclusions, you are left with a nice portrait of the evil influence of money on the medical establishment as well as a portrait of the beauty and strength of people and how even the most useless, despicable people can lead changed lives.

This will not win the best picture but both Leto and  McConaughey will be nominated for best  supporting actor and actor respectively.  You should go see this movie but dont go planning on feeling good about anything when you leave.

Okkervil River: Off Broadway November 4 2013

Soooo..... as discussed there is nothing like live music.  NOTHING!  With Fall mercilessly upon us and winter a bad shout out away one needs something to lift out of the gun in my mouth season... with trees turning brown and leaves....falling.  But there is even more nothing better (and I intended to say it like that) than seeing live music in a small venue... as God intended.  Follow the Diner Review Rule that if the guitarist us not close enough to spit on you, than don't bother to go.  Two weeks ago I went to see Neutral Milk Hotel down at the Blue Note in Columbia and it was an epic show... but nothing like this.

My son Jon of St. Louis Wing Review fame was finishing up a brutal Fall concert schedule and was wing man.  Jon had come fresh from a dinner with my in-laws which I ...missed.  It had been a long weekend of family with everyone in town for a wedding but they were gone now and this would be a finale to 3 nights of being slightly...over served. 

Off Broadway has morphed into one of the more pleasant places to see a show.  The new management (now several years in place) has...

*Opened a courtyard and made that the entrance which improved on the rat maze feel the old entrance had...like you were coming into a closet or something.
*Removed wagon wheel light fixture which though "classic" blocked the view from the shitty balcony and cluttered the room.
*Further uncluttered by removing all the crap off the walls replacing them with iconic (if boring) posters of musicians, many of whom are flipping the bird.
*Torn out the beautiful long bar and replaced it with a much smaller and more manageable  one.  It is not as pretty and you will wait in line but there is never any question of being ignored or when it is "your turn".
They have not fixed the bathrooms which remain abysmal though clean.  They do discriminate against the "bowel challenged" (I might adopt that as a description for my celiac) but I would suspect that is a 5 figure to 6 figure fix which is hard to justify,  A port-o-potty rental for the courtyard might be an idea though or even a bathroom out there... I don't know.  Bottom line is that they have made it into a much more friendly venue, and the shows run on time which is something former management could never seem to get done.

The other nice thing about it is that if you get there for the opener, you are likely to see the headliner, or headliners, walking around.  Like Richard Gere in "Officer and a Gentlemen", they got nowhere else to go!  Unless they want to hide in the attic like green room there are very few choices.  I was there early because I was excited about the show and needed to stake out standing space for Jon and myself and got to chat up Will Sheff in the drink line.  He is a pretty unassuming guy and has boyish looks.  I was able tot ell him how much I liked his music and he was polite and friendly.  I did not make him get in a pic with me... I was proud of myself for maintaining that tiny...TINY bit of dignity.  The last time I saw Sheff was at the Pageant where he did a standoffish set and was so drunk that he forgot a verse of "Westfall" but..... I am a fan.

Will Johnson opened.  Johnson is from Kennett Missouri (If It Makes You Happy) and now lives in Austin.  He interested me 15 years ago with his main band Centromatic but has a lot of solo stuff out as well as a tribute CD he did with Jay Farar.  Bottom line was he played solo and he was...great.  Kind of a Kenny Logins (Logins and Messina) voice but then he would get all dark and whispery and his guitar is just...haunting. He played about a 50 minute set and was impressive enough for me to buy his new CD. 

I had been off to the side of the stage but after Johnson left the weak willed or weak bladdered headed off and I moved in and camped front row (standing) slightly off center and was thrilled, once again by the tininess of people who go see live music.  Whether it is a genetic thing with music lovers or whether it is because they are more apt to abuse themselves with cigarettes and alcohol stunting growth... it is great to be over 6 foot at a live show.  Jon showed up and we had nothing but these sweet, elf size music lovers in front of us, so much so that I that I was able to move several more people in front of me (because you don't want to be a dick and block other people's view just because you can) and peer over their heads.  It is, by the way, considered poor form to place your drinks on their heads.

Okkervil came on at the crack of 9:30.  Late for a school night but it had been tweeted by venue that it was the schedule, and it was, so I could pace myself mentally and cocktail-wise. Sheff came on with a crack 5 piece band and simply killed it, tore it up, beat it up bloody, right from the start.  He lit into two tracks from the new album, "It Was My Season" and "Balcony" which really got everyone going but after that he tore into some his great, old, angry songs from Black Sheep Boy, "For Real" at which point he owned the audience and the show.

Their new album, "Down The Deep River" is a really mature work and it hearkens back to the earlier days of the band with a lot of accessible introspection.  Sheff has been all over the rock press and NPR promoting this and everyone seems to make it out as this loveable look back at growing up in a small New England town.  Can New England be pastoral?  I don't think so and I would argue that Sheff does not either.  There is joy, sadness and God bless him, teen angst.  The songs recall all types imagery from the 80s and they are sweet... with an edge.  I don't know what this was.

This show was a killer.  An artist who is re-peaking after a little thrashing around who really knows how to put on a live show.  This size venue is PERFECT for him, and for the audience.

Will Johnson Opened!

Fall!

Sooooo...Fall.  They say it was on September 22nd, the Equinox but that is clearly wrong and stupid… and wrong.  It is not fall until Day Light Savings Time sets the clock back.  You revel in sleeping in that morning adoring suddenly the cool crispness of the air. That crisp air of course intellectually advises us that winter is just about here.  The intelligent species (old people who have won the Darwinian wars with their peers) are already gone south but we, the stupid, the people with jobs, we shamble along and tell us that “Fall is not so bad!”  We exclaim!  We smile.

I got up this morning.  Cooked a large breakfast, read the paper and went to church and then got some lunch and without realizing it, the day was almost gone  Light started waning shortly after the Rams disappoint again.  Fall.  Dimming light and dimming hope that one can yet escape the bleak cold of a St. Louis Winter and forgot a cruel and beautiful baseball summer. Fall and it’s expectation makes people mad.

"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself."

— Mark Twain

Case in point, the United States Government.  Once again, I know I repetitively refer to it as a clown car, but that is because it is… a clown car.  The open up the doors of Congress and this unimaginably large number of bozos in brightly colored wigs, red noses come barreling out with their big shoes.  And these clowns talk… and talk… and talk.  Rarely has so much shit and trash talk come out of Washington in my life.  The threaten, they pose and they posture.  They assure you that they represent the American people but, don't we all know?

They represent themselves.  They represent their family.  They represent a perpetuation of their own power and the power of their friends and benefactors.  They do it by embodying the simple mindedness that can only come from being a true believer.  This is true of the right and of the left.  This is true of progressives and conservatives. They cannot see the truth because it is not in their interest to see the truth.  It is in their interest to announce loudly simple falsities that satisfy their constituents mind set.

“The Government IS the problem!”

And of course there is truth in that but government also has power to do massive good. But government cannot “fix” anything, but… it is all we got.

And these assholes that we have elected over the past twenty years (arguably my adult life) have severely damaged our democracy and our future.  Now granted they inherited a ship which at least since The New Deal has been premised on borrowing from the future or...let’s use another platitude…

“STEALING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE!”

Hypothetically we could take the country back and fix it but it would require thinking, balanced people, the reasonable American middle to fight back against the dogmatic, certain SHOUTERS of the right and the left.  Make no mistake when our government is pushed to the brink of a shutdown it serves no one more then the Tea Party.  They want a government that provides roads, national defense and a minimal police force.  

They stand their ground, they don't call 911!

Every time they make all of us question their basic ability to govern they win in further delegitimizing government.  It started when they out maneuvered Obama on the sequester.  Cuts so drastic and stupid and inelegant that no one could abide in them.  But of course, the Tea Party could abide them.  More reasonable Republicans in the middle could not but they are now irrelevant. The goal of the Tea party is to destroy government because it cannot be fixed and the goal of the liberal left is to spend it into destruction.  Both should be an anathema to reasonable people.

We still sit on the greatest piece of real estate in the world.  We still have a fabulous melting pot of people and their progeny who are capable of anything!  But we need to bring back the middle.  We have to look at other opinions with respect and then win the battle with a sensible way of us all going forward together.  It can be done.  The return to the middle is possible but damn, it is going to be hard, and it is going to take a long time and it is going to require that we insist on rationale discussion and decision making.

it might require shutting down 24 hour cable news and demagogues on talk radio.  I know freedom of speech is the holiest of our constitutional rights.  So holy that it is not in the constitution but instead in the First Amendment but holy is holy.  It might require us rethinking whether corporations are people (we all know the founders loved the big corporations like the Dutch East India Company.  We might also have to reconsider whether money is speech… or speech is speech.  But we might not have to do those things if perhaps we could discuss it.  I could be wrong and perhaps corporations are indeed people but it would seem to run against everything I have ever learned, but still, I would embrace discussing it.

But we would need to be brave.  We would need a leader who was willing to speak the truth and when he tried to lead us down a painful road, we would need the courage not to kick him out for his courage.  Here is one example:

SOCIAL SECURITY

1.    Entitlements are writing checks we cannot pay.  In a growing economy with productive baby boomers we could pretend that there would always be more money...tomorrow and we could spend it today and promise… whatever.  This will require sacrifice.  It will mean that people who have paid into Social Security will; NOT get the benefits they were promised.  But those benefits for our long living generation are MUCH more than they have paid in.  So, in short order:

    a.    raise retirement age to 70.  I know none of us wants to work and “The Greatest Generation” (the one who raised us) retired younger and had a retirement house in Florida.  We will not be able to do that, or likely to have that and you know what, it is going to suck and it is going to be great too.

    b.    Means test for the money.  I don’t know what the number is but hypothetically people with 50 Million do not need $4,000.00 extra a month to put in the bank and leave to their progeny.

I don’t know what to do after that but I know that is a start which will be hollered about and it will stink and it will not solve the problem, but it will start solving a problem in a sensitive, painful way that perhaps if we had a brave leader he could lead us to brave solutions.

So it is 5:30 and pitch black and these are the types of crazy ramblings that come out of a middle aged man when his fantasy football team is out of contention.  I look forward to thinking about other ideas for our new party.  A Jack Danforth Republican Party with a Bill Clinton Democratic Party might be a good start.

We can make the middle phat again!