But now, I've reached my one-hundredth post. It feels weird. I have never thought highly of my writing and have been terribly embarrassed with my skill (or lack thereof). And I completely blame my high school English teacher from my senior year. She ruined me and my confidence in writing anything again was obliterated. I had to write an essay on an exam about Heart of Darkness and I did horribly. I made a D and I had never made a D ever in my life. She didn't have much faith in my abilities as an English scholar. But I placed out of English my freshman year at UNC, so bite me, Mrs. Russell.
I owe David a great deal of gratitude for forcing me to face my fear several years ago. David and I made some sort of pact that somehow ended in me writing record reviews for Salon.com. I didn't write anything fancy, but just a few sentences about a few different records. I loved it. I am still very proud of myself.
And now here I am filling up the world wide web with useful and interesting views on Gene Kelly's ass, the Muppets, mix tapes, and my obsession with music. Whee!
Anyway, my intention with this post is not to mark my 100th blog entry, but to make a plug for one of my favorite bands. The Asylum Street Spankers are playing at the Carrboro Artscenter tomorrow night. They play old-timey music using all sorts of instruments like a washboard, kazoo, horns, string bass, and ukulele (among other instruments). They play all sorts of music, but I love all the old nasty blues covers from the 1930s and 40s. And I mean nasty. Whew! The coolest thing about their live performances is that they play without any amplification. And they belt out their songs with alot of heart and gut. It is really an amazing spectacle to witness. One time many years ago, they played at 506 to a crowd of jaded scenesters who just stood there open-mouthed in shock. I've been out of the Spanker loop over the past couple years, but I've heard that they like to cover popular contemporary songs in a high-energy bluegrass style. (Kinda like the hillbilly band version of Kiki and Herb.) I cannot wait.
1 comment:
Did you like the ASS? Last time I saw them I didn't like them AT ALL. I felt like I was at an awful Frat party (full of loud drunk straightlaced guys and gals.) and they were catering to it--mostly Wammo type, 'funny', sing along songs. It was disappointing to say the least, and I think Christina was not feeling well--or it least she didn't seem very good. The best part was that Guy Massey was with them that night and he was definitely as great as he used to be.
I guess I have to remind myself that they were playing music to a full crowd that paid to see them. Maybe they didn't like their song selections that much either.
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