Matte Black Cat with a Rat Kings Tat

This week we went to the previously teased Gaslight Anthem and Counting Crows concert. It was a venue I'd never been to before, the YouTube Theater.

The YouTube Theater is in Inglewood, on the same property as our recently added NFL stadium (which I've also never been to before). I had seen a few shows near there at what used to be the Great Western Forum. The first show I ever drove myself to was there, Quiet Riot, with Whitesnake (before most people had heard of them). My friend Sean and I went together. Later we also saw Ratt there, with Bon Jovi opening, back when Bon Jovi had just come out with 7800° Fahrenheit album, so also before most people had heard of them. Much later, my wife and I, along with her brother in law and his wife saw The Scorpions there, around the time their Crazy World album was out. Anyway, the thing I recall from going there was that it seemed like you have to drive quite a ways from the freeway to get there.

But I digress. We got there and parked not too far from the entrance and made our way in. Security is better there in the sense that you don't have to empty your pockets, go through a metal detector, then get wanded down anyway for your belt buckle. I think it was a body scan instead, a guy just ahead of us got pulled out for a more thorough search. Since the place is fairly new, it's real nice, and it was easy to get in and find our seats, which were pretty good. We were on the front row of the first balcony, a bit off to the left. The younger was wondering if there would be an opening act or acts like last time, and I noticed that the setup had a Gaslight Anthem banner, and figured there wouldn't be.

The guys from The Gaslight Anthem start heading out, and Brian Fallon gets on the mic and says his daughter would like to say something. She gets on the mic, and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, The Gaslight Anthem!” From there they go into a song I wasn't familiar with, Have Mercy. Right after that they go into Positive Charge.

They did two cover songs in the set, and another I'd not heard before and haven't been able to positively identify. Since I'd mentioned Tom Petty in the teaser post, it was interesting that one of the covers was a Tom Petty song, Honeybee from the Full Moon Fever album. I recognized the song from the riff!!! The set list was as follows:

1. Have Mercy

2. Positive Charge

3. Handwritten

4. The Weatherman

5. Dark Places

6. Time Spent Playing By Her Side?

7. Howl

8. Honeybee (Tom Petty cover)

9. Mae

10. Here's Looking at You, Kid

11. Lovesong (The Cure cover)

12. Mulholland Drive

13. The 59 Sound

14. 45

Brian was wearing a hat for most of the show, so he wasn't especially photogenic. Once again, I wasn't able to identify who the picture on the drum was supposed to be, but I tried to get a good shot of it. She looks so familiar, I sent a picture and asked my wife, and she wasn't able to tell, either.

Also noticed that they had action figures on several of their amps!!!

Seven of the songs they did in their set they had also done at the previous show. It was cool to finally hear Howl live, and in the teaser post I'd mentioned Tom Petty, so it was cool they covered him!!!

They did the change over with the lights up, and the partition curtain behind the stage up. It goes back a ways, and they have a roll up door for a loading dock at the back, looks like a good design!!!

While we were driving there, I played Spaceman in Tulsa, and told the younger that I bet Counting Crows will play it tonight. It just seemed too perfect for them not to play it!!! They took the stage, and it was the first song they did!!!

The set list was as follows:

1. Spaceman in Tulsa

2. Hard Candy

3. Mr. Jones

4. Virginia Through the Rain

5. Omaha

6. Cover Up the Sun

7. With Love, From A to Z

8. Miami

9. Colorblind

10. God of Ocean Tides

11. Blues Run the Game

12. Round Here + Raining in Baltimore

13. Boxcars

14. A Long December

15. Rain King (intro with something with the lyric, “It would have been fine if you would have been the one”, another song I wasn't familiar with)

16. Under the Aurora

17. Hanginaround

18. Holiday in Spain

I'd never heard Colorblind live before (to be fair, not a song I'd been clamoring to hear live, anyway) but it was another I recognized from the into riff. They did a cool effect where they did a rectangle cone of light over Adam, with brighter chaser lights going around the perimeter. Also did white spots over the rest of the band.

Before he went into Cover Up the Sun, he spoke of how some songs are fables, but rooted in reality and featuring real people. He said the song features Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, and his grandson Clifton Collins, Jr.

Before he went into With Love, From A to Z he told the story of how his dad had to go into the military during the Vietnam war. They'd been in Boston, and ended up moving to Texas, and traveled in their Oldsmobile Cutlass station wagon. After he mentioned the station wagon, the crowd cheered, and Adam said that the mention of the car always gets a cheer!!! Adam said he had a stack of books, and read them and watched the scenery of the Appalachian Mountains and the open plains. And how now he travels the country and sees a lot of it. I always had thought that the storytelling of Cover Up the Sun sounded like a tale of touring the country in a tour bus. The line near the end, “Let that diesel fly”, as well as the traveling descriptions from the first verse always made me think that.

They left the stage after Rain King, and I had a feeling they'd be back for an encore. Sure enough, they did!!! I was thinking that the perfect song to end the show with would have been Bobby and the Rat Kings, but I guess they didn't want to play all night!!! Upon reflection later, I noticed that they didn't play any of the 4 songs from the original Butter Miracle Suite One, all of which I've become a fan of. They did play five of the songs off the most recently released Butter Miracle: The Complete Sweets, which I guess makes sense, since Suite One was a few years ago. They did play Boxcars, which has the mention of the matte black cat with a Rat Kings tat that this post title is from (and made me take a look at Kangol hats, to see if any of them appealed to me!!!). After the show, I was looking to see if anyone had posted clips from the show (there are a few), I came across the cinematic official video for Suite One, and it's pretty good!!! Also, it features the aforementioned Clifton Collins Jr.!!! Also where I got the image at the top of the post of the Rat Kings CD.

Oh yeah, I didn't have any trouble identifying the picture of the girl on the Counting Crows drum head, it's the Butter Face girl from the Butter Miracle cover artwork!!!

As we headed out, we swung by the merch booth, to see if there was anything that appealed. As we had headed out of the venue, I saw one guy with a shirt from the hook line from Spaceman in Tulsa, “I'm a Motherfucken' Rock and Roll Star”, that I thought was pretty amusing but probably something I wouldn't wear much. The Gaslight Anthem had one with the lyric from Positive Charge, “It's Good to be Alive” (which, IT IS!!!, and a great sentiment, I thought) with band images underneath that I picked up.

The younger liked the Butter Miracle: The Complete Sweets tour shirt, with the dates in a circular pattern on the back. On the front of his, it has Counting Crows, and the sleeve of mine has The Gaslight Anthem. A couple more overpriced shirts to add to the collection!!!

Venn Diagram

This is coming up in a couple of weeks. Two of my favorite artists are having a concert together!!! The Counting Crows and The Gaslight Anthem!!! The two most recent shows I've seen were Brian Fallon and The Gaslight Anthem, and prior to that I've seen the Counting crows nine times, so when this show was announced (and on a night that works for me) it was an easy sell!!!

I'm putting this post together as a way to chronicle the times I've seen both groups. I had to go through some of my previous posts to get it all together.

I've previously made mention that the first time I saw the Counting Crows was in November 16th, 1995 at the Hollywood Grand with my brother in law. It was before they came out with their Recovering the Satellites album, and it was a lot of their new songs, so it wasn't stuff that the small crowd that was there was familiar with, for the most part, but it was a great show, very intimate. I'd heard that there was a bootleg of the show entitled “Launching the Satellites”, and just recently found someone had published it on YouTube!!! I converted the audio, and have it saved. It's all as one track, and I want to break it up into the individual songs. This was the set list:

1. Catapult

2. Angels of the Silence

3. Daylight Fading

4. I'm Not Sleeping

5. Miller's Angels

6. Another Horsedreamer's Blues

7. Wiseblood

8. Rain King

9. Ghost Train

10. Chelsea

11. Margery

12. Have You Seen Me Lately?

13. Suffocate

14. Goodnight Elizabeth

15. Children in Bloom

16. Round Here

17. Good Luck

I have recordings of Chelsea and Good Luck that I'm pretty sure were from this show, and possibly others (I have a lot of live recordings of their stuff).

I fell off for a while after that, and didn't even pick up the This Desert Life album, but was getting back into them when the Hard Candy album came out, and I went to see them again on December 10th 2002 at The Gibson Amphitheater, right by Universal Studios, and I was reminded of what a great live band they are!!! Toad + The Wet Sprocket opened for them. The show started with all the lights down and went right into “Have You Seen Me Lately”, and on the third singing of the line “Have you seen me lately?”, they put on all the lights on the audience, it was very theatrical!!! At some point around halfway through the set, the drummer Ben Mize had an anxiety attack or some kind of breakdown, and was unable to continue. Adam pulled out his song book and they played a couple songs as acoustic versions, then the drummer for Toad + The Wet Sprocket took over for the rest of the show. I was hooked again!!!

I think the next time I saw them was July 17th, 2003, at the Staples Center with John Mayer. This may be the worst show I've seen, the acoustics there aren't great, and there were a bunch of really annoying John Mayer fans there. I don't beleive I'd made posts about either of these shows.

The next show I saw, I'm not 100% sure of the date, but it was December 2003 at The Wiltern. The Wiltern is a place that's general admission with no seating whatsoever, which I didn't much care for, but it was a great show, especially compared to the previous one!!! The Wallflowers were the opening act, and I enjoyed them. They opened the set with Adam and one of the other Crows with an acoustic guitar off on the side playing “Blues Run the Game”, which I'd not heard before. Later on in the show was another first for me, they played “August and Everything After”, and not long after the show I found a bootleg from the same tour, possibly from the show I was at, of that song.

The next time I saw them was October 25th, 2005 at the Disney Concert Hall with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (I've previously had that as Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, please update my flaky brain error). Awesome show!!! I took my firstborn to this show, and made a couple of posts about it. Great show, great sound (and different from the standard versions of their songs), and we had what could have been terrible seats, but Adam turned around to be able to watch the director for most of the show, and we ended up with awesome seats because of that!!!

The next show I saw was September 12th, 2008 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater with Augustina and Maroon 5 (I'm pretty sure it was the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at this point, but it'll always be the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater to me!!!) I think I've seen 4 or 5 other shows at this venue, and this was unique among them (besides being the last show I've seen there) for being the only one I ever had general admission tickets on the field for.

The next time I saw them was July 24th, 2009 at the Greek Theater with Augustina and Spearhead. “The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show”, this was, and it was a great show. One of the main recollections I have from it is when the treacherous starter on Janice went out again!!! Oh, and Spearhead had offers to download audio from the show if you signed up with them, and I still get emails from them!!!

Next up was October 1st, 2010 at the Ford Theater for the Freeloaders screening. Great weather for seeing a movie under the stars, the first time I've been to the venue, and it's a great theater, with good acoustics for a great listening experience!!! The Ford is across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl (another venue that I haven't been to) and Tom Petty (possibly with the Heartbreakers) was playing that night. You could hear them during some of the more quiet parts, it's the closest I ever got to seeing Tom Petty.

It almost doesn't seem possible, but the most recent time I saw them was November 24, 2012 at The Wiltern, this time with Mean Creek and Tender Mercies. Good show, I enjoyed Tender Mercies more than Mean Creek, and Counting Crows did not disappoint!!! I remember between the acts they played Black Keys' “Gold on the Ceiling”, and sure enough, I looked up, and the ceiling of the Wiltern is indeed gold!!! Another thing I remember is for both shows at The Wiltern, while we were waiting to go in, a couple of girls were going down the line and trying to drum up business for a vegetarian place down the street from there.

After that, it seemed like every time they were playing locally, it was on a day that wasn't good for me, or in one particular case, they were playing at a casino with a small theater, and the tickets were quite expensive. I would have liked to have seen them more recently, but it just didn't work out.

Not like this upcoming one, it's come together about as good as I could ask for!!!

The Latest in Fashion

Not sure, I think I've made mention, but I managed to pack on a few pounds during the stupid times. I've bought several new pairs of pants and shorts to accommodate myself, and recently I've been on a T-shirt buying spree!!!

First up is a nice Counting Crows shirt I found. I've been a longtime fan, and probably would have gotten a shirt already, but I really haven't cared much for most of their designs!!! The Love Trap one is actually the one I liked best of their official merchandise, but I wasn't prepared to pay that much for such a simple design. This one I found from a 3rd party, and I like it!!! The colors and font work good together. It has 3 east coast locations and dates, must have been a thing.

Next up is one of the two Sky shirts I picked up shortly after the Sky itself. I like the simplicity and style, and I'm lacking in yellow shirts, so, cool!!! Photos added the (rather appropriate) Sci-Fi warp speed effect, so naturally that's the picture I used!!!

The next one is another music group related shirt, this time it's The Gaslight Anthem!!! I like the design, it's for American Slang, and down in the lower black portion it has the track listing. Unfortunately, while it was readable on the 'web image, on the actual shirt it's not at all legible. Oh well, still a cool design. Other downside, the transfer is one of those where it doesn't really breathe, so it's not great in warmer weather. It actually arrived the day before we went to the show, but I didn't wear it.

Next up, speaking of having an under representation of a particular color, I did a search for purple just because I don't have any that fit very well, and found this one!!! If you didn't know, it's Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy related. Don't know if I ever even mentioned, much less posted, but years ago I got another HG2G shirt, even more subtle. It pictured the bowl of petunias and sperm whale, and had in Dr. Seuss style font, “Oh no, not again!!! By Dr. Adams” I'd have to explain to the uninitiated that the quote/title was from the bowl of petunias!!! (Also, that was another of my few yellow shirts)

This shirt was featured in my most recent birthday post.

And here's another Sky shirt!!! I'm pretty sure it was advertised as a Sky Redline shirt. This one went into hiding for the longest time!!! (I've really got to clean out my closet!!!)

Next is An Appeal to Heaven flag shirt. For a while I had a Gadsden flag sticker on the back window of Scruffy, and it got sun baked and worn, so I replaced it with An Appeal to Heaven flag sticker, and at the same time I picked up this shirt. I love the message, but I'd actually never heard of it until Samuel Alito had a made up “controversy” involving it, and a bunch of the usual yellow journalists made it a thing!!!

Another thing I don't know if I ever mentioned, but trees have been falling over in the canyon across from our house for years. Last year the one at the edge of the basketball court fell and took out a good portion of the fence around it. Just a few weeks ago, a couple more fell, and it really opened up the view!!! I find the falling trees concerning, but the city and the parks department don't seem to share my concern. I took this picture with the fallen trees as the background.

This shirt was also featured in a previous post, in fact was the one I wore to The Gaslight Anthem concert, but the one picture I used, I was mostly getting the “Greek Theater” artwork, and the shirt graphic is cropped out.

And to round things out, another Counting Crows shirt, this time for Bobby and the Rat-Kings!!! One of my favorite songs by the Counting Crows!!!

Positive Charge

It's been a long while since I had been to a concert, but I took care of that last week!!! The last time I'd been, it was Brian Fallon, the frontman for The Gaslight Anthem, who had been on hiatus for a while. Well, they got back together and put out an album at the beginning of the year, and have been touring in support of it!!!

It was at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park, probably one of the closest venues to my house. I like it, especially in the evening in the warm months. The parking, not so much for the most part. I had a few times when I've gotten tickets from my work, and they have included a parking pass, which makes it better, but otherwise they stack park you on the grass. I took the younger, it was the first concert he's been to.

I figured there would be an opening act, but I didn't look into it any. Turns out there were two!!! First up was Dirty Nil, from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, a factoid they mentioned a few times. It was a trio, and they sounded pretty good, nice rocking tunes, and they looked the part. Truth be told, both opening acts sounded better than a LOT of the stuff they play on the radio these days!!!

Second was Joyce Manor. Didn't mention, I got tickets on the side terrace, in the second row from the front, directly opposite where I was when I saw Counting Crows there. The old lady who was ushering that area said they are great seats, in her opinion better than the opposite side!!! Anyway, those seats have 4 seats in the row. We had the row to ourselves for Dirty Nil, but a couple showed up for Joyce Manor. The girl, Mary, had heard of them before and knew a lot of the songs. Mary was the kind of person you want around when you're at a concert!!! Joyce Manor sounds very punk, the singer mentioned they had gotten rid of all their CD's except The Offspring and another group in their teens (but kept a cassette of another group) but they didn't sound very Offspring, actually reminded me a bit of Rancid. One of their songs was called “Catalina Fight Song”, and you know I like Catalina!!!

Before The Gaslight Anthem came out, they brought down the lights, and started playing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” over the PA, then pulled that down and went right into “45”. When it would get to the part of the chorus where it goes “Whoah-Oh-Oh”, they brought up the lights on the audience, who would sing along and pump their fists. Good start!!!

After that they went into “Handwritten”, then “The Patient Ferris Wheel” (which, as it turns out, was the first that the boy recognized!!! Thought he knew 'em better than that!!!)

Following those, they broke out a couple from their latest album, “Little Fires” and “Weatherman”, then back to some classic stuff for the next three, then, “since we're in L.A.”, they covered the Chili Peppers' “Soul to Squeeze”, a pretty close to the album version.

I took the close up of Brian Fallon to get a picture of the bass drum head, I have no idea who that's supposed to be a picture of!!!

The complete setlist was as follows:

1. 45

2. Handwritten

3. The Patient Ferris Wheel

4. Little fires

5. Weatherman

6. Film Noir

7. Bring it On

8. Here's Looking at You, Kid

9. Soul to Squeeze (Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover)

10. Positive Charge

11. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

12. Miles Davis and the Cool

13. Keepsake

14. American Slang

15. Mulholland Drive

16. Autumn

17. Michigan 1975

18. Mae

19. Great Expectations

20. The 59 Sound 

I thought it was a great show, just about all you could hope for!!! The boy enjoyed it as well. Sure, there's always a few songs you wish they had included (for the record, both times I've seen Brian Fallon now, the cover songs he's done haven't been ones that I particularly care for!!!) but they played a lot of my highly ranked songs, and some of the good ones off the new album (could have also gone for the title track of the new album, “History Books”)!!!

An interesting post script, the time noted above where I saw Counting Crows there, I had one of Janices' famous starter issues. Nothing like that while we were there this time, but the very next evening Kutcher had a no start issue, like the battery was almost completely dead. Put it on the boost function of a large charger, and nothing. Ran said large charger for about 15 minutes, and boosted it again, and still nothing. Called for roadside assistance, and the guy came out with a portable booster, and that fired it right up... but it died the moment he took it off. Boosted it again, and it fired right up, and as long as I had it revved up some, it worked, but as soon as I let off, it died again. The guy concurred that it sounded like the battery had a sudden failure, likely a dead cell. I've still got most of a year of warranty on it, but this was also right at the time that all the AutoZones are closing for the night. I let it go, and the next afternoon after work (this was the last week of our once-a-month in office for 3 days, starting is September it'll be every week in office for 3 days... I wasn't going to be out late, then have to get up at 4 AM to go in, so I took that day off, leaving only 1 day I had to go in for the win!!!) I yanked the battery out and took it to the AutoZone. The guy checks it, and it shows 100% charged and good battery. Huh, maybe it had something to do with that crusty looking positive terminal, which didn't want to even come undone when it was on the battery, and looked like it was developing a crack near the bolt when I got it twisted off!!! Bought a couple new terminals, wire brushed the heck out of the contacts and wires, and all was good!!!

I need a spark, I need a positive charge indeed!!!

Finishing Touches

Here's a few follow-ups to previous posts, some things that have been finished off...

First up is one of my dad's paintings. The flying saucer is completed with shading and the windows. In addition, the shack is now sporting one of the passengers, the fabled Purple People Eater!!!

It's a bit on the small side, but appears to be canonical, with the one eye, and a horn in his head suited to blowing out rock and roll music!!!

Next up is my latest work board artwork, now featuring the lyrics I'd said I would likely add eventually. The only notable part is how I fancied up the ampersand, complete with a light reflection that corresponds to the ones on the chess piece.

And finally, I got the transition on Scruffy's roof striped to blend better!!!

My Name Is the Knight

There are many influences and inspirations for art. Here's a confluence of a couple.

Some of my favorite new music from last year came from Brian Fallon. In one of the songs, it features the following lyrics:

And it cost me nothing, baby

Nah, nothing more than this

Nothing more than this useless heart in my chest

Nothing that I needed, nothing I regret

Nothing that I needed, and I'd do it all again

I'd do it all again

I thought that was a great lyric, along with the later lines,

Singing, "Ooh, not just yet"

When I go, I'll be going out in flames and fiery wrecks

I decided I would have to come up with some sort of artwork to memorialize it. I didn't have to go far to find it, after all. Don't know how it came to me, but it did.

For as long as I can remember, there's been an oil painting that my dad did back in the late 60's hanging in the living room of their house. A surreal knight from a chess set with a hole broken in the side to reveal his broken heart. I did my take on it on my board at work. I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'll probably eventually add the first set of lyrics to the drawing.

It wasn't until I started adding in the coloring that I realized that the whole thing is heck of a pun.

My Name Is the Knight (Color Me Black)

My Name is the Night

Get up, go to work, come home, fall asleep, repeat. That's my life most weekdays. It's OK, I don't mind being in a routine.

Every once in a while, though, it's nice to have a little deviation. That's what happened back at the beginning of this month. While at break one day, I saw an interview with one of my favorite artists, Brian Fallon, previously of The Gaslight Anthem. A good interview, and at the end of it there was a link to check out concert dates. I'd looked earlier, and it was all East Coast or across the pond. I looked anyway, and it turns out next week he has a couple shows in town!!! The one close to me is on a Friday night, not great for right before the day I have to get up earlier than any other day of the week, and the other is on a Tuesday, down in Orange County. Huh. I might be able to do a Tuesday. On the way back from break, I happen into a friend I work with who also happens to be a fan. I make mention to him, and he looks into it himself later. I was actually thinking of trying to make the Friday show, but a couple days later he asks if I'm interested in going to the Orange County show. Turns out he lives a couple miles from the venue, and has been there a few times. Yeah, I'm in!!!

The place is called The Observatory, and it's not too big, maybe 1,000 people.

He was promoting his new album, Sleepwalkers. I'd gotten it a few weeks back, and picked up the previous one, Painkillers, once I was heading to one of his shows. He had a guy I'd never heard of, Ruston Kelly, as the opening act. Only three guys in the group, one of them an old guy who was sitting at a steel guitar. Turns out that is his dad!!! He only did four or five songs, and I was pretty impressed with him!!! One of the best opening acts I've seen!!!

While they were doing the change over, my friend asks me if there's a second act before Fallon comes on, because there's a keyboard dead middle of the stage. Turns out there was not, and for most of his set it went neglected.

Here's the setlist he played:

A Wonderful Life

Forget Me Not

Come Wander With Me

Ladykiller (Horrible Crowes song)

Crush (Horrible Crowes song)

Steve McQueen

Little Nightmares

Rosemary

My Name Is the Night (Color Me Black)

Watson

Nobody Wins

Among Other Foolish Things

Smoke

Etta James

If Your Prayers Don't Get To Heaven

Encore:

The '59 Sound (The Gaslight Anthem song, and the song he broke out the keyboard on, a quite different version)

I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together (Horrible Crowes song)

Got My Mind Set on You (George Harrison cover of a James Ray song)

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, with the possible exception of the last song, which I've never much cared for. Made for a great show!!!

American Slang - Fixed it for You!!!

One of my current favorite bands is The Gaslight Anthem. One of the many tracks that I like is the acoustic version of American Slang.

HOWEVER!!! One of the lines always seems like it should go just a bit different is in the chorus:

And they cut me to ribbons and taught me to drive

I got your name tattooed inside of my arm

See, I always feel like it should be something besides ending with "arm". In the song I could almost hear it going "heart" there. Uncontent to let it go, one afternoon at work I handwrote the lyric out with that part left blank, and circulated it among some of my co-workers to garner a consensus.

The picture I took came out a bit blurry, but I think you get the idea. I put for choices what I thought should go there, the actual lyric, or "other - put what you think goes better".

As you can see, my lyric beat out the actual lyric 2:1. The fill ins were pretty good, too. One of the first few I gave it to came up with putting the word "Thigh" in there, and from a rhyming standpoint, I think it works even better!!! Don't know if people were influenced by actually seeing that, or came up with it on their own, but it also came away with around a 2:1 vote tally. Also two for "Mind" one for "Hide" and one undecided. One that I added in was voiced but not written (I suspect because it was at the very end of the day) was the total edit of "I've got a barcode tattooed inside of my arm".

All in all, an enjoyable little diversion for myself and all involved, I like to think. A couple people asked me some days later how it came out.

Look what you started,

I seem to be coming out of my skin

Look what you've forgotten here

The bandages just don't keep me in

And when it was over, I woke up alone

And they cut me to ribbons and taught me to drive

I got your name tattooed inside of my arm

I called for my father but my father had died

While you told me fortunes, in American Slang

Look at the damage,

The fortunes came for the richer men.

While we're left with gallows,

Waiting for us liars to come down and hang.

And when it was over, I woke up alone

And they cut me to ribbons and taught me to drive

I got your name tattooed inside of my arm

I called for my father but my father had died

While you told me fortunes, in American Slang

And here's where we died that time last year,

And here's where the angels and devils meet.

And you can dance with the queen if you need,

And she will always keep your cards

Close to her heart ooh

So close to her heart before they tear you apart

When they cut me to ribbons and taught me to drive

I got your name tattooed inside of my arm

And I called for my father but my father had died

I called for my father but my father had died

While you told me fortunes, in American Slang

You told me fortunes, in American Slang

I read after I'd done the survey that Brian Fallon has a caricature of Joe Strummer of the Clash on the inside of his arm. In that context, the line makes a lot more sense!!!

If I get another tattoo, now I've got a location to get it, and it's not inside of my arm!!!

Work in Progress

So my self portrait I did a while ago is starting to get a bit worn. I had the idea to do another self portrait of me reclined on the hood of my Falcon, playing my son's guitar.

Since it sounded a bit involved, I figured I'd do a sketch of it on some paper first to see how things come out and try & get my perspectives right. It came out semi-OK, with the laying back on the windshield & the car itself being the biggest points I slated for improvement.

So I made up a new card & started in. I pretty much on all three so far have started with the guitar & the hands thereon and worked my way out. The guitar came out good enough, and as I continued on is where I screwed it up. Ended up with my neck way offset to the right, so I scrapped that one and started again.

Pictured is the third time, a charm. I got the reclining angle pretty good (better than the 2nd attempt) and the positioning of the guitar is a bit lower on my body. I've got the fender and body line roughed in, and will be continuing on from here. As you can see, it's still a work in progress!!!

Dystopian Dance

So here it is, two posts in a row of cup art!!! Like there have been no other events in my life... This was inspired by a line from The Gaslight Anthem's "We Came to Dance"

We are the last of the jukebox Romeos

We are romantics by the light of the fourway

We came to sing out a chorus, reinvent the good times

And bring it all back home again

Honey, we came to dance with the girls with the stars in their eyes

Do the jump back, jack, stop and slide to the right

Never break their hearts, never make them cry, come on

Strike up the band, play a song that everybody knows

If I'm not your kind, then don't tell a soul

I'm not the one who hates bein' alone, so come on

And in this unstable arena

Of what's left or become of my America

I'm askin' this dance so come take my hand, come on

And in this unstable arena

Of what's left or become of my America

I'm askin' this dance so come take my hand, come on

Honey, we came to dance with the girls with the stars in their eyes

Do the jump back, jack, stop and slide to the right

Never break their hearts, never make them cry, come on

Strike up the band, play a song that everybody knows

If I'm not your kind, then don't tell a soul

I'm not the one who hates bein' alone, so come on

And if they end it all

By the end of tonight

If the big bomb drops down

Over this quiet Edison sky

We'll blow one last kiss

To all the beautiful nights like this

Under this central Jersey sky

Honey, we came to dance with the girls with the stars in their eyes

Do the jump back, jack, stop and slide to the right

Never break their hearts, never make them cry, come on

Strike up the band, play a song that everybody knows

If I'm not your kind, then don't tell a soul

I'm not the one who hates bein' alone, so come on

Cause you ain't never had a night on the town

Like I can show you such a night on the town

And you ain't never had a song you could sing

Well it's a deep dark night and I hear you, I've been there

And these are the songs that we sing

Oh, these are the songs that we sing

You've never seen a two-step

Like when you've seen it from your mama's house

Where the kids flash like lightning

To the very best dancers around

We learned from the very best dancers around

We learned from the very best dancers in town

Come take my hand, cause mama, we came to dance.

I'd always pictured a scene like this from the line quoted on the cup. A tree and shrubbery lined horizon, spanned by high tension wires (which, as pictured, encircle the cup), with that big bomb dropping down behind it. Of course, I enjoy the song. Along with this line, it also has the line, "And in this unstable arena, Of what's left or become of my America" gives this song a distinctly dystopian vibe.

Everyone at work likes it. Before I'd added the text, one of the guys I was working with recognized the mushroom cloud. I was glad for that, that it wasn't mistaken for a big red tree!!!

Around the side, I added in the river from another Gaslight Anthem tune, "Meet Me By the River's Edge", to offset the dystopia.

Great Expectations

Lyrics | Great Expectations lyrics

Apropos of nothing, just really like the song...