taking part on BBC Radio 2 Popmaster competition earlier today - listen again : 58.30 in

I never wrote down the conversation I had with Ray from Car Talk a week ago, did I? Just because I thought it was kinda awesome...



Every year about this time there's a fundraiser for hunger at an MIT ballroom, nice space, and the main attraction is that some of the Car Talk guys always show up, say hi to everyone, and speak. Usually Ray and Bugsy Lawler. Second year in a row we've gone. I am a fanboy, so this is a big deal to me, to be in the same room as Ray (or Tommy but with his health issues he's never there these days). I get so excited.

I finally saw him kinda standing alone and not being bothered (I'm pretty sure I'm the biggest fan in the room, people give him space), so I went up with my daughter on my arm, shook his hand, and started talking to him. The bits I remember:

- Ray I pretty much come here every year just to be able to shake your hand. I hate to bug you, but I feel like that's sorta why you're here... to get your hand shaken and such.
- "Totally true" (laugh etc)
- I have to tell you that you are the only common link between guys like me and guys like my dad.
- "What do you mean?"
- Between commie elitist Cambridge liberals like me, and guys like my dad who suddenly at 60-something decided he's religious and a big fan of the Tea Party. Never went to church a day in his life, never voted, and suddenly he's all over facebook making fun of Obama.
- "Oh is that right?" (Big laugh)
- Something just happens to white men when they hit 62 I think. Suddenly they need new things to freak out about.
- "I'm going the opposite way. The older I get, the more radical I get."
- (I'm laughing)
- "We gotta work on your father." (pronounced "FWAH-thah" of course)
- I hate to ask but how's Tommy's health?
- "He needs a new knee. And he doesn't want to get one."
- No?
- "He already got one replaced and it didn't go well, so he's holding out, but now the pain's getting bad enough that it's worse than his fear."

There was more but I've forgotten it. Already looking forward to next year.

So, we were invited to one of those 'bad sweater' parties in the next few weeks...

I found this, and I'd probably wear this throughout the year anyways.... #winning

#fashionboner

That's awesome, Kyle! Need to get after whoever took that pic for having their finger over the lens, though.

Some random dude I gave my phone to.

He took 4.

All of them look just like this.

To celebrate the passage of the gay marriage bill in Illinios, I present you with the gayest video ever made:

(Congratulations to my gay friends in IL!)

Saw them a couple of weeks before this aired.
Pretty great performance of "Graveyard Shift."

is that rj mitte on the right?

Whoa that 80's production.

And they look like children, but then they step up to mics and those voices come out. Crazy.

It's like 16 year old Alex Chilton, rasping out 'The Letter'

typical month at this club.

do i miss the club so much or just my youth?
probably both.

Ha ha, Melt Banana.

great band.

Pretty crazy calendar. I wouldn't have known about a lot of those bands at the time, but looking at it this now, there are about 9 shows I would like to have seen just in that one month.

Todd, did you hang out there often? I seem to recall you posting another calendar, with Elliott Smith listed.

Yeah.
Saw many a show there. Played there a few times, too.
Amazing place. Tiny room.
And the folks who owned and ran the place actually treated the musicians who played there well. Like real people.
That's why folks kept playing there even when they could have sold out much bigger rooms. Miss it.

David Lowery wants to go after lyric websites now.

David Lowery needs a new job.

I first read that as David Mowery.

my girls made the papers twice this month...

Fascinating and slightly morbid: What rock stars would look like today if they hadn't died young.

http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/don ... SiteType=1

Keith Moon


Jimi Hendrix

No fucking way Jimi would rock a purple v-neck sweater under a blue blazer.