Crowd Control

So I went to see Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville rewind the other night. What a great concert - always loved Liz Phair, her attitude, her stripped down and right on rhythms. The show was at the TLA in Philadelphia and it was packed. Must have been sold out. (I actually won the tickets from yrockonxpn.org - I get pretty lucky there in the afternoons.)

Anyway, I took a friend of mine, and it was a standing room only kind of gig, and we were standing there - about 8 rows of people back from the stage, which was cool. Then this really tall guy stepped between me and Liz. So me and the 3 other people between me and the tall guy shifted to the left so we could still see. (I would digress here about why do the tall people go in front, but my SO is 6'4" and we always went up front, so I guess that's karma or whatever.)

Well, it quickly became apparent to me that I was totally hemmed in. There was a fuzzy head right in front of me, and someone poking me in the back every time either one of us moved. Fuzzy head had no where to go, I could see that. And the back person turned out to be a couple. A young guy who was "protecting" his wife, by shoving her into my back. Nice.

So I have two systems, that kind of overlap, for dealing with this kind of thing. There's glance, comment, argue and polite, nasty, manager. Both of them are about starting with the assumption that you're dealing with reasonable people and that they will be smart enough to pick up on your more subtle hints. So I started just glancing over my shoulder like - hey! Do you see me here? Nothing.

Then mr. chivalry tells me that I'm bumping into his wife (who he is holding stationary). And I explain to him about tall guy, and how everybody shifted, and how that's what you do in a crowd - you adjust. And he says, that's what needs to happen here (obviously meaning that I should move) and I say, exactly (meaning get the fuck off me, asshole!). And his poor wife makes a "let's not fight" noise and I decide to let it go - as much as I can. Because I am still squished between this guy's wife and fuzzy head, with nowhere to go in either direction.

So I take a deep breath, dig in my heels, and take up as much goddamn space as I can. And I focus on the show, and I try to feel sorry for mr. & mrs. chivalry. And I think about how crowds move, and how life moves, and how trying to stay stationary often leaves you fighting battles and making yourself and other people miserable for no good reason.

'm out.

I can never choose (letting go)

Ok, now I'm repurposing content. But I think it's OK. I posted this on the message board at WXPN, my all-time favorite radio station in the world. Actually, I listen to their sister station, yrock, nearly all the time.

Anyway, they are having an XPN Essentials contest. They do this 885 (their frequency, natch) countdown every fall, and that's the theme this year. I have been listening to this public, alternative music, station since 19ahem. That's 20 years! (Damn I'm old.) Of course what we love about them is the variety, being introduced to new music and reminded of old favorites (so-called "heritage" artists").

So coming up with this list was kicking my ass. Everytime I heard a promo, it would set me off again. What artist? What song? The universe was too broad...it was driving me nutz!

So here's what I did (this is what I posted on their message board):

I thought long and hard about this - and long and hard again. Like another poster said, it was a little like Calculus. In the end, I ended up doing a tribute to the Women's Music Hour, the fact that when I started listening the morning show featured two women (what ever happened to Flash Rosenberg?) and the station's great female djs like Michaela Majoun and commitment to finding & supporting woman artists.

So I put 10 female artists' names in the 10 spots: kd lang, Erykah Badu, Angelique Kidjo, Happy Rhodes, Beth Orton, Jonatha Brooke, Aimee Mann, Toni Childs, Lucinda Williams & Joni Mitchell, and then picked songs for each one - Big Bone Gal, On & On, Voodoo Child, Feed the Fire, Central Reservation, Secrets & Lies, You Could Make a Killing, Why, Get Right with God and Twisted (oops - shoulda picked Coyote).

That was pretty random. I could have included Ani DiFranco (Joyful Girl) and Suzanne Vega (99.9 F), and PJ Harvey and damn, I forgot Emmylou Harris and Alison Krouse and Loreena McKennitt and Sam Phillips and Patti Smith (crap!) oh well. What can you do.

I could have done four more lists: a singer/songwriter list, a Land of the Lost (new wave) list, a Blues Show list, a Sleepy Hollow (quiet Sunday morning) list (Jevetta Steel!). I would have included Richard Thompson (anything from Rumor & Sigh), Leonard Cohen (Hallelujah - even considered a Hallelujah list - Leonard and Jeff Buckley and kd and Rufus Wainright - but could only come up with those 4), the B-52s, Bongwater (Talent is a Vampire), Wilco, Ruth Brown, Johnny Lang, Keb' Mo, The Violent Femmes (You'll Dance to Anything - so true!) oh for heaven's sake!

But thank god - I've submitted my list and now I can relax and wait for the big reveal. I swear, I'm done thinking about this!

Well, I hope I'm done thinking about this! I have to admit that obsession is the character defect that keeps me up at night. So for god's sake, I've hit the big submit button - it's over, there's no turning back! So now I can move on...to whatever my next obsession turns out to be!

'm out!