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United States, California, San Francisco, The Mission, English, Spanish, Casey, Male, 31-35.

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Friday, August 23, 2002

Waving My Hands at Ray Charles.

It hasn't been a very long set—maybe an hour—when his tour people and handlers come onto the stage. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Ray Charles!"

The man who rises from the piano bench waving his hands and bending from side to side has white-as-snow hair and a red tuxedo shirt/purple textured velvet jacket combo that looked like what I fantasize Las Vegas looks like. His voice broke during the slow numbers, but he seemed to do just fine on the keyboard (except for some unfortunate choices in sound samples...but that may have just been me.) And "Georgia On My Mind" and "I Can't Stop Loving You" still sounded pretty good to me.

"The Legend, The Genius, Mr. Ray Charles!"

His tour people came on the mic and thanked the Raylettes and the Ray Charles Orchestra. Then Ray got on mic and thanked the Raylettes and the Ray Charles Orchestra. His stage crew readied to walk over and lead him offstage. Ray said something that I don't remember about his name. It prompted my mother to lean over and say, "He certainly likes the sound of his own name." Indeed he does.

The crowd was still cheering, and half were standing up. Then Ray motioned to the orchestra to keep going and sat back down and played the keyboard for a few more bars. His handlers didn't appreciate this. The man with the microphone waved 'wrap it up' to the orchestra.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this has been...Mr. Ray Charles!"

Ray waved at the audience again, and kicked his legs up from the piano bench, wiggling them at the front row. His personal assistant guided him up to his feet. Ray stood there and kept waving. It took a couple of gentle tugs to get him to start walking offstage. I was waiting to hear, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Ray Charles...had better get his butt into the limo!"

My mother (hope she doesn't mind me quoting her here) said it was a little sad seeing him perform with so much less vitality and sincerity than when he was younger, and I can certainly agree with that. But at the same time, I think he had more spark at that moment, kicking his legs up on stage, having to be being pulled out of the spotlight, than some people do their whole lives.

04:26 PM PST (link)

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Fluff'n.

A man plays hymns on an accordian at the 16th Street BART station. In the accordian case is a sign that says "Jesus Christ is the Answer." I'm not sure that he knows what questions I'm asking.

I've received two offers in the past two days telling me that I can save $300 on my automobile insurance. Since I don't have a car, I'm rather excited about this new potential source of income.

Boy, that new single by Soft Cell is really repetitive and derivative. (Smirk.)

"Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond." Given the pressure I'm putting myself under today, I might be able to squeeze out a couple of these before I pass on. (Link via Stuff and Stuff.)

04:38 PM PST (link)

Nutter.

Today has just gone from insane to delirious. Couldn't get out of bed this morning. Couldn't face the day. I was up far too late, face pressed into the pillow trying to stop obsessing and hating and panicking and hating myself for not being able to let go of the day before long enough to sleep.

Today I find out that I'm not going to be out of the office tomorrow. So I didn't have to try to finish five days of work in three days. The meeting we had to have today (which half the people couldn't attend) could have been tomorrow, when we'll likely have it again anyway. And now I have to replan tomorrow night's trajectory of events, though thankfully they've only been inside my head. There's plenty of good going on too, don't get me wrong. But the chaos that connects it all is very strong indeed.

So I'm feeling a little overextended at the moment. No, Strike that. I am a slave to my Visor right now and it's holding the whip tightly. I feel like I've been Spinning Plates lately. After things have calmed down, I'll have to extend my apologies to all those people who might feel spun.

04:33 PM PST (link)

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Right Now, It's Only Pork Shoulder and Ham.

Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002
To: info@ticketweb.com, bimbos@sirius.com
Subject: Unsolicited advertisement

To whom it may concern:

I recently received a marketing email from "bimbos@sirius.com" advertising an upcoming show at Bimbo's 365 Club. The email is addressed to [...], an address which I only use for purchases on the Ticketweb service.

If I have unknowingly "opted in" to receive email announcements from either organization, please tell me where I can remove my name from the list. If this is unsolicited mail, please remove me from that list immediately and do not sell, trade or exchange my information on any further. You may contact me regarding this matter and for purchase-related communications, but I do not wish to receive any further advertising from your companies.

I've had good service from Ticketweb and was looking forward to seeing other shows at Bimbos 365 in the near future, but I cannot support companies which engage in unsolicited "spam" email advertising. Thank you for your attention to this matter...I look forward to your responses.

Almost a week later and still no answer, not even an autoresponse; you don't think ticketweb would have lied on their Privacy Policy, do you? (batting eyelashes)

I guess I won't be seeing GusGus there, which is OK...we'll just go see Jim Campilongo that night instead.

01:22 AM PST (link)