7/31/08

coining terms



So most of my friends seem to take for granted the idea that Barack Obama will in fact be elected POTUS in November.  I hope they are right.  

I am not so sure, though.  As time passes, I become less and less sure of that outcome.  

Sure, McCain CAN'T STOP falling all over himself making gaffe after gaffe, misspeaking after misspeaking, but I am telling you people, all is not as well as you HOPE it is.  

I got home from work LATE tonight, because a table came in late and STAYED till after 11, which as it stands, can sometimes be ok, but is generally an hour later than we'd like.  Ugh.  Their staying way later than one would expect was OK enough, sort of, due to their, ahem, 18% tip, and the fact that Wednesday nights are now "open mic" nights so I woulda been hanging out waiting for no one to show for a bit after 10:30 anyway.  The open mic nights are gonna be slow to develop, which I acknowledged from the start.

The point of this off topic blurb derives from the fact that these folk, the five of whom I will not describe other than to say that they are white and much younger than they should have been, in order to maintain their anonymity (and, sorta, mine), drove me, with their discussion, to actually start writing down what they were saying for transcription here, later.  (If we're all lucky, we just won the award for longest sentence of the entry.)

So what I will do below, is outline some highlights of their conversation, by paraphrasing and ad-libbing as I see fit, around their actual quotes.  Except where humor demands, I will attempt to be as accurate as possible.

In their defense, most of the talking was done by the "mouthy broad" (note quotes) who had a LOT to say, NONE of it even remotely informed.  Individual gems include "I get all of my information from Fox News...Sean Hannity is a fox....what you call un-stability (sic) I call spontaneity and fun" (in defense, of all people, of Bill Clinton), and, the absolute worst, amidst a smattering of (what had been) mildly anti-semitic humor, "My family went to the oven!" (as a joke).  To their credit, no one laughed.  That was followed by general silence.  

All of this was only slightly more entertaining than the sex discussions that preceded the political discussion.  Sadly for me, I was not in a position to write down quotes from that one.  I coulda learned a thing or two.  We continue...

Did you see Michelle Obama on the view?  She came out and gave that "fist-punch" (sic) and oh, oh no.  Oh no..."That is so ghetto.  That is so ghetto."  Well, we'll see what happens, but if Obama wins "he WILL be assassinated."

Well, he's got the black vote, and he's got the young people interested, and he has "the elite vote.... A lot of colleges are liberal....But in the end McCain is going to blow him away."  I think the President is a man who sticks to his guns and doesn't give in.  "I love George W. Bush" (all four then say they voted for him).  "I can't stand Obama."  

One of my favorites (discussing McCain's VP choice): "Condoleeza Rice may be dull, but she is a black woman."  

Someone close to me (who will also remain anon) confessed that they "just aren't ready to vote for someone named Hussein Obama yet."

Furthermore, their are clearly two tones emerging.  The one that I hope to belong to is the tone that says "let's look at the issues and the future and the candidates answers to questions put to them, and let's make a decision based on that, be it for McCain or Obama."  

My opinion on McCain is that he had the opportunity to be one of the greatest Presidents of our time: in the year 2000.  I think the same is true of Al Gore.  Really, I think that most good political leaders, given the "opportunities" present by 9/11, would have made better use of their "political capital" than ole W.  (This reminds me of another "quote"... in a mocking tone one described her nieces and nephews, who "thought Al Gore was some kind of movie star, like, you know, b/c of that stupid documentary he did.)
Were we all to zoom back  to 1999 and pick again, from the pool of W, McCain, or Gore, I think most of us can agree that America would be in a much better position, today, had we the ability to pick either of the other two.  

Now, eight years later, McCain's time has past, and he is simply too old to hand the reins to, considering the fact that his VP will be permanently on call for his opportunity to stand up as the incumbent in chief.  Is what America really needs 10 years of Mitt Romney?

But the tone separates.  Where most would hope for (and even more would purport to hope for) a tone similar to the aforementioned tone of calm, even consideration, an increasingly large group of folk seem to be called towards a derisive, dismissive tone, in which Obama is such a joke, such an abomination, that he deserves nothing more than a passing smirk.  

This tone manifests itself straight from the McCain campaign, which truly took such attitudes to new heights with their Britney/Paris ad.  So, so mature.  

I made the point today to someone that a big complaint is Obama's skilled oration, implied therein that it is a cover for a broader lack of ability and intelligence.  However, Obama practically shines when given the opportunity to answer questions posited to him in interview form.  The same cannot quite be said of Mr. McCain, on either front.  

Another fun thing this girl actually said was that "Obama ignored the troops in Germany, so..." (and this is the kicker) "he could shoot three pointers."  She failed to acknowledge or seem to know that said video clip was of him shotting baskets WITH SOLDIERS.  Sheesh.  But I did call it.

I'm getting tired, so I will cease for now.  My apologies for all the harping on this, but I really do think this whole thing will be very, very close, and it is therefore of utmost importance that as many people as possible approach their decision with the proper TONE, no matter who their choice may be in the end.

###

I like Hoots & Hellmouth and all, a lot, even.  But how do they get higher billing than Steve Earle on that Folk Fest Commercial that's been playing ad nauseum for the past few weeks, on the tv.

Colbert does "Teach Your Children" with CSN on his show tonight, and you get a great shot of David Crosby just staring at Colbert in utter fascination b/c he is SO GOOD AT SINGING.  I love when he sings with the guests, cause he always does it with such a high degree of skill, and he is so obviously having the time of his life.  


I hope you appreciate all the linking I do.  I find the best way to look upon said links without losing your place in the very important text, is to right click and select open in new window.  Consider this your tip of the day.

I'll have to give it another listen, but on first run that newish Gnarls Barkley record is NOT as good as the first one.  Where are the JAMZ boys???



7/30/08

7/29/08

Prescience & bloodthirst


Kudos to my boy Danny Robinson, who must've called that Adam Eaton action by just hours.  And he is right too, we should NOT by any means send Pat the Bat anywhere at all.  But Danny, what would you think about putting Manny is RF? 

Our good president, hopefully coming around to the idea that he is not going to have the opportunity to initiate military action anywhere in the world, for the rest of his life (god willing) has satiated that sweet, sweet thirst by playing a round of guvner of the nation, approving the federal military execution of Ronald Gray, who at least seems to have sealed his own fate, if that is any comfort.  This is the first such approval in over fifty years.  

If you have a moment, search through the bounty of linkage on the right column there, and check out my "supra-archive" which consists of an attempt at this very type of site a few years back.  Please forgive if it is more rife with foul language, poor grammar (&/or spelling) or offensive innuendo than my current attempts here.  I can't seem to figure out how to log into the thing, which would be nice so I could change some of the more sub-par content.  My favorite entry is the one advertising JAMBOX Ring Tones.  And, yes, they are still available.

Also of note amongst the oodles of linkage info posted on the right hand side here, is a link to Waktan which is, in part, what my sister Maggie is up to.

Otherwise...

I will be hosting open (no) mic @ Pastabilities on Wednesday night @ 9pm, and LEW INDELLINI JR. graces us with his ethereal presence this FRIDAY August 1 @ 10pm.



Luigi%20Vitrone%27s%20Pastabilities
bd

7/27/08

Ironices: an index of ironies

Ironices....
(see: my last entry...)


So Saturday night, as described, was a busy one, in that I began the evening working a bar shift and finished with a trek two Newark (for the second time in two weeks) for my acoustic performance @ Homegrown.

The irony springs forth, ebulliently, from the fact that I arrived, with people in tow, to learn that the show had been cancelled, from the Homegrown side, due to their already hosting two events that night.  They had the annual Food & Brew Dinner, which involves all the restaurants in the area getting together to present a variety of unique brews, with the idea that patrons will traipse from one place to the next enjoying the beers and atmospheres.

In addition to this, HG is celebrating their "Grand Re-Opening" after having half closed for awhile to renovate and expand their bar area.  It looks real nice and good, but the aesthetic and spatial improvements did nothing to make me feel better about not being able to play.  From my end, it seems that they a.)didn't want to have music on top of their already hectic situations, and b.)probably had to pay into the Food & Brew evening, and had by doing so decimated their entertainment budget for the evening, leaving them unable to pay the musician.

By a unfortunate occasion of crossed wires, I was left uninformed of the cancellation (although maybe not... in retrospect, it is certainly possible that Melissa or someone else did inform of the cancellation a good long while ago, and I just forgot) and showed up anyway.  I woulda played for free, really, although I did not offer to do so and am not sure they would have wanted me to.  It was nice to get to hang out with the good kind folk who had come out to see me, and to meet some of their friends (let's see if I can get all the names right... "Thanks" goes to: Murph, Karen, Mike, Casey, Cassie, & Lisa, and "Nice to meet you" goes to Jess, Anthony, and Tony although in all honesty, Anthony and I weren't formally introduced, I just deduced his name from conversation and we talked like we were already friends, as boys are sometimes wont to do.  

I also ran into J Rice, who told me about his website, cooksoutlook (which you should check out) and his impending move back to Pittsburgh.  He will be missed.
I saw Matt H as well, though we only chatted for a moment or two before he disappeared down the road to go check Onita and some other band at the East End.  

I find it unparalleledly hilarious that I whine about the outcome of Friday night, only to have sorta the exact opposite thing happen to me on Saturday night.

I like to sometimes "share" one of the opinion pieces in the NYT with my facebook friends. This Sunday calls for the reading of all three of them, Dowd, Rich & Friedman, and instead of loading up my facebook page with NYT links, you can read by clicking the respective names, above.  This looks pretty good as well, although I have not read any of it yet.

Have a pleasant week.

bd




7/26/08

Getting to know the candidates
















You can look at the pictures I posted previously while listening to the sweet grooves.  DIRTY SOCKS!
(pic unrelated)

Fuck Corporate Design, Hire Ian Nadel

Great night.  (Not "professionally")

Stupid music at Pastabilities didn't go so well.  As I am well aware and experienced in: sometimes, that just happens.

You can't blame Nate Farrar for not bringing out a crowd.  On many a good evening I have not brought out a crowd.  And to that end, it is a shame that we are in a "building stage" where we do not quite have what one would call a built in crowd.  

For instance, when I play @ Homegrown tomorrow night, I will no doubt be playing to a group of 85-100% "strangers" who are by no means there to see me.  And that is OK.  

Had we such a crowd of regulars, on the just newly formed Friday Night Music Series, then tonight's lack of a crowd would have been supplanted, at least moderately, by this aforementioned imaginary built in crowd.  

As it stood, NOBODY showed.

I do what I can to promote, but from my mind, this promotion thing is a symbiotic, dualistic relationship in which all concerned parties are equally betrothed.  Yes?

Now, I've been in the game long enough to have failed on my end of the other end in my day.   I've played and promoted shows for my bands where I just never got around to doing the type of promo I should.  ie: anything at all.

In such a situation, I really wasn't surprised when the crowd measured on the paltry side. However, it works every way.  Sometimes, the shows least promoted bring out great #s of folk.  Other times, saturating waves of promotion do nothing.  

Needless to say, tonight was one of those nights. (where zero promotion=zero interest)    
I may be a magician but I can't MAKE magic.  Summertime's to blame as well. 

[Although, the first two weeks were successful, and next week, with LEW INDELLINI JR, will be a maximum event, I predict.   Lew, that magnanimous phightin son of a bitch, knows how to pack em in. But you should join us...]

So that made it easy for me to get out early and sneak down to Pan Thai to meet up with Betty, who was there for a birthday party.  

There, I met up with Mike, as planned, as well as Jimmy, Matt D., Julie, Brooke, Jen, Cameron, Maha and Tom Timms' fake bizarro cousin.  Shout out to all these people.  Matt D and I talked about Ian's Webby Speech which is wonderful.  Nice times had by all.  That Pan Thai does it well, with both Jimmy & Matt D's help.

The PBS Kids song on the TMBG site is TOIGHT, yo.  These kids comin up is gonna be SMART!


WE WANT CAKE!  WHERE'S OUR CAKE?!



 

7/25/08

Yowza!




























HOT TODDY & THE WILMINGTON WASTOIDS
 @ the 700 Club!!!!

















                                                                 JAMBOX @ Pastabilities!!!



Wii don't mind



The list of things to do gets longer, instead of shorter.  

But THIS begs attention.  My favorite part is when it says:

"Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms," said Ex-British Parliament Member Oona King.

Lovely.  


You may have read, as I did recently, possibly from the ignomous Drudge headlines, how Obama "scrapped" a visit to the troops, and elsewhere I saw a headline decrying he'd "abandoned" and "ignored" them.  To my mind, the Breitbart article linked from Drudge, to their credit, lays it out pretty clearly.  

It's a no win situation for him.  He doesn't go, he's ignoring the wounded troops. He goes, he's exploiting them.  Ironically, with the publicity this trip has generated, it would likely actually look good for him to have gone, but I sense that his motivation for not doing it was based in his respect for their plight and privacy.  Some things aren't meant to be "trotted out" during an election.  Then again, perhaps the planned visit was fabricated from the start, to create the illusion that McCain (whose camp did in fact react harshly) is being unfair, whilst Obama remains calmly above the fray.  Prolly not, though.


Drudge is full of gems tonight, such as the astronaut who claims aliens exist. 
It's so funny when the guys says "WHOOOAAA! Hang on a minute....this is BIG!"

Also, google has KNOL now, not knol.com or knol.org but www.knol.google.com which doesn't actually work, so you have to do google.com/knol

Blech.  But I'm a give it a try at some point, cause who knows, right?......


Tomorrow Night @ Pastabilities::::

five bucks.

10pm

415 N. Lincoln.  Wilmington.  DE

You know the drill.  Drink menu by ME.  Food menu by Luigi.

Hot items:

Chix Parm Sand $7
Veal Parm Sand $8
Eggplant Parm Sand $6
Sicilian Pizza $4

Cold items:
Yuengling $3.5
bd big White Russian $9
Empire of Positivity (frmly Evil Empire) $5 shot/$8 drink

Much more of both.  Come out tomorrow.  You can get a Chix Parm Sandwich & 2 Yuenglings for under twenty bucks (including cover) (and not including tip).

Take solace in the fact that the full $5 of your covered door charge goes directly to the performer, and take further solace in the fact that your generous tip goes directly to me!





  





7/15/08

7/14/08

reviews and corrections


In a previous post, I mentioned "speaking of judges and dogs" but failed to explain the 'dogs' part.  That was that the dog had eaten half the paper with the jury duty info on it, and I was hoping he hadn't ate the part with the critical information.


Luckily, I could decipher the number from the mangled paper, and even more luckily, when I called it today, I was informed that the "case" had been cancelled and my services are no longer needed.  




That WALL-E movie is something else, I'll say.  Very good.  Fun and the whole get out.  I read a review that accused the movie of be hard on fat people, but I really didn't see it.  The people didn't get fat b/c they were lazy, they got fat because they were lazy AND they lost their bone density in the low gravity environment.  


A+







Batmin next week.


Time magazine directed me to 4chan.org, but that shit is depraved /b/



\bd/

7/12/08

Absolutely, OK, Definitely, Who knew?


Nervous ticks...

So sometimes (like, all the time) I develop tics where I just use the same god damned phrase over and over and over again.

It sucks, because it makes me sound like a bullshit artist, which I try not to be.
This is bad w/: potential employers during interviews, in-laws, police officers, elected officials, business owners, judges, coaches, employers, friends, pets...ok maybe not pets.

Speaking of judges (and pets) though, I have been called upon to perform my civic duty as a Juror on Monday. I actually had to postpone starting a new p/t (writing) job because of it. A job not won, I assure you, on the strength of anything you have ever read here.

I really enjoyed the format of the show this evening. I feel really comfortable in the acoustic position of no mic or amp. It really frees you up to not have to sing into a mic. You gotta project like a motherfucker, but it's worth it, cause that's the way one should sing anyway. Mediocre, and even good microphones, can be a hinderance in projeting to one's fullest. Yes?

Mad, mad props to Ryan & Eileen for coming out tonight (all the way from West Chester), as well as to James and Todd and Ally. Was hoping to see more faces, but I would say in terms of quality of performances and crowd enjoyment it was a pretty good night.

Let me know how the drinks were! Any suggestions, critiques, or lavish praises are welcome.

Alex Valejo & Dan McCool next Friday night. And next Thursday night is the premiere of the open (no) mic nights. 10-12 or so.

So I asked for critiques on the drinks, but I assume I am correct in assuming that only the best of things will be said about the food, which looked great coming out.

As Luigi conveyed to James, "this is the kind of bread that will put lead in your pencil" and I think he is right.

The menu is really affordable and sexy. The most expensive thing on it is an $8 Veal Parm Sandwich. In fact, the drinks are mostly more expensive than the food. But you can get a Yuengling for $3.5, which in this economy, ain't bad.


Absolutely.

7/11/08

printers

Even good ones print sooo slowly, making me super late for work.


Jesse Jackson is crazy, huh?


Waiting for these pages to print, I've caught some of Steven's Untitled Rock Show, and man, do these modern pretty boy bands SUCK so, so hard.

That band Metro Station, with their song "Shake it" or whatever is subpar, and I can't even remember the name of the band that was before that, but they were TERRIBLE.

Only two more sheets to print, and then off to work and show tonight.

You really should come out, it's gonna be fun, I promise.

Also, one will get real legit tunes, as opposed to what you have no doubt been catching on the Fuse Network.

Speaking of television, hasn't that Steve Wozniak fellow just proven himself to be the best fucking dude in the universe, in his role as Kathy's bf on the D-List program? Who knew?

bd

Hi Bobby,

Thank you for all your help, as always.  
I WILL be recording the show, in some form, and will in fact post that. 

Yeah man, anything you can/wanna do to help me spruce and line things up is appreciated.  What do you think I should do in terms of location (ie name) ? 

I am down with either of those two that you suggested.  My conflict is a desire to shy away from the "frolic" monicker in print, due to the existence of that other dude billy frolick, who (though he clearly wrote his own wikipedia article) despite my grumblings, has established quite the career for himself, I suppose.

I figure if I aim that use towards the musical side of things, perhaps that is a good idea?  

Then again, there is a

"Bill Dougherty"

who writes as a thoughtful author, and is actually pretty good, in the way that he is, and yet seems like he could have been me writing at age 14 and doing it well, as opposed to however I in fact did it.  

Obviously,

bd.com
is taken by the health giant.  Though bd.biz is available.

But then there is

bd's Mongolian BBQ

which has been around for awhile, to their benefit, but MUST have stolen their logo from scribbles on my high school notebooks. (more like college notebooks)

So that leaves me where?  One thought I have, kinda separate from the blogging conversation, is the use of a pseudonym for book writing, which the best of current trends points towards "Driggs Baer"  
(alt McKinley Coltish??).

But that idea (& no doubt driggsbaer.com) could come down the lane, as a place for me to release the first book in serial form, and even take comments on suggestions, edits, etc. 

This brings me to a website idea I have, which I will edit out of the version of this email that I use as this evening's blog.  Thus, transmission for most readers cuts now.   

Continuing....

3.) Call me crazy if you will.  After all, last week at James & MC's, I had an epiphany about how great it would be if PIANO KEYBOARD TIES ACTUALLY WORKED AND PLAYED LIKE A PIANO!!??  I was quickly told that my million dollar idea was worthless, at least to me, b/c keyboard ties already make noise.  Who knew!??!  I'm an idiot.


bd



ENDNOTES: Show tomorrow! Me, Danny & Benny acoustic! You probably won't ever see this again.

7/9/08

Adventures on the internet

I have like four things I want to link to, but most of them are just up on Andrew Sullivan anyway. So that's OK.

Benny and I had a good time practicing tonight for Friday's show (which I could link to, but seriously, if you're reading this, you've probably already "come across" the promotional materials, no doubt. We recorded some of it and marveled at how out of sink we were. Neither of us were off, per se, but having not played the songs together in a few months time, we had each taken them along slightly different paths. This quickly wore off and we are now synching quite nicely, perhaps.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin doesn't know what a gerkin is.

Figures.

Timmy called me tonight around 1:30 to tell me the Sixers acquired Elton Brand. As I said to Tim, "this is exactly the kind of move that is not endemic of the Billy King era, in that they wouldn't do it, because it is smart. We then nostalgized about the would be team up of Garnett &/or Carter w/Iverson that never materialized.

We talked for about 12 minutes, which is inconsequential, except that when i get off my cell phone after that long, I swear I'm dizzy and my face (where the phone was) is like 5 degrees hotter than it normally is. I want to video this with a thermometer and send it to Current TV

I realized just now that I have yet to photograph my sweet ass SHARK GUITAR, so I suppose now might be a good time to do that.




7/7/08

I know I've posted this elsewhere, but really, you should see this.

JAMBOX Acoustic Show THIS FRIDAY 7/11


what I've been up to (corrupting Bobby's beatiful artwork again)

::::LIVE ACOUSTIC SHOWS EVERY FRIDAY:::::



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+
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill Dougherty
Tel. 302/981-9816
Email: williamadougherty@yahoo.com
www.ljv-pastabilities.com
www.myspace.com/ljvpastabilities

Luigi Vitrone’s Pastabilities announces Weekly Acoustic Music Series

Little Italy, Wilmington, DE July 7, 2008 – Luigi Vitrone’s Pastabilities Restaurant will be hosting acoustic music on Thursday and Friday nights.

This series of “intimate evenings” with local musicians will be a part of Little Italy’s “ROAM IN Little Italy” campaign, which coincides with the City of Wilmington’s successful, long running “IN This Together” campaign. The evenings will be unique events. Performances will be presented with zero amplification: no microphones, no guitar amps, no drums. We will simply present a performer or group of performers with acoustic instruments and their voices.

These events will take place twice a week, and will take two forms. Thursday nights will be an open forum, where any and all are welcome to sign up and perform. These free, open (no) mic events will occur every Thursday and will be hosted by bartender and musician Bill Dougherty.

Friday nights will highlight a featured musician, performing an extended, intimate set. For these performances, a small cover charge will be requested, which will help to compensate the musicians. Scheduled acts through the summer include Tommy Murray, Nate Farrar, Lew Indellini Jr., Terrifica, and more.

The menu for these events has been specially crafted by Chef/Owner Luigi Vitrone, and will feature homemade sandwiches and late night edibles that reflect the fine authentic food that has come to define Pastabilities.

The “intimate evening” series will commence with a free event this Friday July 11: an intimate evening with Endless Mike Jambox. Festivities will begin at 10pm.

# # #

Luigi Vitrone’s Pastabilities Restaurant has been a Delaware staple for over 20 years. We offer guests authentic, homemade Italian cuisine, and have recently been recognized by Zagat’s as one of the best 1000 Italian restaurants in the country.

The schedule for our ‘intimate evening’ series can be found @:
www.myspace.com/ljvpastabilities