American Tune

Hey there.
It's been too long, hasn't it?
It certainly has.
As Elvis Costello said, "I just don't know where to begin." I'm sure other people have said that, too, but I happen to be an Elvis Costello fan, and he just happened to have opened a brilliant song that began a brilliant album with that line ("Accidents Will Happen" from Armed Forces) . Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I saw him again, at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park. It was great, because it wasn't the typical E.C. show, partially due to the song selection ("Friend of the Devil," "Love Hurts") and to the guest stars (Emmylou Harris, Burlington Welsh Men's Choir). A couple days before that, Emily and I went in to see the astounding performance by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. And this was all free. Isn't San Francisco great?

We're doing The Laramie Project at school. For those not familiar, it is about the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, and how his death affected his hometown of Laramie, WY.
There's a scene at the very beginning of the play where I play Matthew as he is being beaten. Garren, who plays his assailant, Aaron McKinney, is "hitting" me repeatedly. Several times over the past couple performances, he has actually hit me on accident, and it was quite painful. That alone made me realize what kind of pain Matthew was in. If Garren accidentally hitting me with his hand was painful, imagine what it would feel like to be repeatedly pistol-whipped while tied up, then left for dead.
I cannot say I know his pain, and I hope I never will know it, but I know some pain, and that's worse than none at all.
(That sounded poetic as I first wrote it, but as I reread it, it just sounds like bullshit. I'm still leaving in up, though.)
The play is oddly appropriate, given that Prop 8 just passed. Prop 2 also passed, but that was a good thing.
FUN FACT: In the state of California, farm animals have more rights than gays.
Isn't America just great?

Wanna hear a great song? It'll be in the video attached to the end of this blog. Don't skip straight to it, though, I want to build anticipation. Trust me, it's worth it. (It's an appropriate song, given what's going on in the country right now.)

I have now been single for two years and one week. Amanda, an old friend from middle school got back in touch with me via myspace, and mentioned the incident in sixth grade choir when she hit me with her shoe. That brought back so much, and so much made sense.
After she hit me, I told Ms. Steidel, the choir teacher. She moved a girl named Rachel between Amanda and I. Rachel and I started talking, and became fast friends. We remained close over the next two years. The day after we graduated eighth grade, I asked her out, and she said yes. November 1st of that same year, we broke up, but we remain friends to this day. Now, if Amanda had never hit me with her shoe, none of this might've happened. I could have ended up as one of those guys who's with a new girl every week, or I could've just stayed single these last 16 years. I will never know for sure, but I would like to thank Amanda profusely for hitting me with her shoe and in turn giving me the best five consecutive months ever.

FUN FACT: Until I was three, I was unaware of the fact that I have eyebrows. My haircuts were frequent enough that my eyebrows always covered my bangs without me ever having to brush them away. And for those of you might ask if I saw them after baths, no. I wasn't tall enough to see into the mirror, which makes me wonder how I knew what I looked like...

This should've been first, but here goes. Obama won. I cannot remember a time I was this happy (a close second was finding out we were going back to New Jersey after moving there seven years prior). The best part is, I know I made a difference. I got out there and campaigned my ass off. I had stickers and buttons and t-shirts and "Yes We Can"s and "HOPE"s out the wazoo. I don't think that any election has seen this amount of people under voting age campaigning. McCain got the old people vote, Obama got the kids. Kids are born everday, just as frequently as old people die. In fact, since beginning this paragraph, a McCain voter has probably died, and the child of an Obama voter has probably been born. I'm sorry for your loss and congratulations, it's a girl.
I can't wait to see how Obama makes this world better one step at a time.

This year's Jazz Band is wonderful. We're performing at the Heritage Festival in Anaheim this coming Memorial Day weekend, and that involves a trip to Disneyland with most of my friends. This is very awesome.

This is kinda old news, but I beat the system. My last post was Wednesday, September 3rd. The next day I checked my email. I got an email from KFOG (104.5FM ) saying I had won Lindsay Buckingham tickets for September 7th. Great, I thought, I love Fleetwood Mac, but it's a shame I couldn't have won Squeeze tickets. Now, on Friday, the 5th, was the Brian Wilson concert. We went, we got better seats than we had originally bought, and it was fantastic. Sunday the 7th brought forth the Lindsay Buckingham concert, and all was wonderful. Two days later, I checked my email again. I received another email from KFOG saying I had won - you guessed it - Squeeze tickets for that Friday night. Needless to say, I was extremely excited. Now, you're not supposed to be able to win concert tickets from KFOG twice in six months, but for some reason I did. The Squeeze concert was one of the most satisfyingly amazing concerts I've ever been to. I sincerely hope this reunion is more than a one-off and that they continue to tour for the foreseeable future.

OTHER EXCITING STUFF:
-I saw The Cab, Plain White T's, Dashboard Confessional, and Panic At The Disco as part of the Rock Band Live promotional tour.

Oh, I almost forgot! My band! Faux Shaux. We had our first (and hopefully not last) show on October 11th (the same day as the Rock Band Live show). We pretty much rocked successfully. Click on the link to see our page and to listen to songs.

I hope these last few minutes weren't wasted.

-Jason