Anthems, Ballgames & meditation in jail.
Tuesday, August 28 2001
Posted by brockp

Back in the northwest again - its raining and getting late since I'm half on east coast time.

I finally got to a big league ball game yesterday after a couple of trips to see the single A Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium. Obviously, Oriole Park at Camden Yard is a good deal less low key, but not overly, mainly because the O's this year are not exactly tearing the cover off the ball.

I also got to experience Canadians visiting the US from the Yankee perspective first hand as I had a few Blue Jays groupies sitting behind me and cheering every pitch, swing, out, hit, error, or what have you that went their way.

Myself, I'm a Mariners fan, so I didn't really care who won, but I did find myself secretly rooting for the hapless O's a few times. The narrow mouth Toronto accent also made me a wee bit uncomfortable. OK. I admit it though. I sang O Canada. Don't know if the Torontonians noticed that or not but I did get a few puzzled looks from other fans around me. I think that was mainly because most of them don't even sing the Star Spangled Banner. Not that I blame them. One question though: Who the hell decided the official version of O Canada had to have a line about God in it ? I like it better the old way.

OK enough of that. The reason I started writing tonight was that I got an email with the following link to the online transcript of a recent Seattle P-I newspaper article reporting on the Vipassana courses that have been going on at King County Jail's North Rehabilitation Center over the last few years. Though the article does have a bit of the details wrong, it is a pretty good thing to see in a widely read paper like the PI. For those of you who are interested in Vipassana and are not in jail, there are courses held twice a month at Dhamma Kunja near Seattle, and there are other sites here and there throughout the world which you can find out about here.

Bionic and Tricky Woo Rock the Kids
Friday, August 17 2001
Posted by brockp

In truth, there weren't too many "kids" at the Starfish tonight for the rock show, but I did see at least one young looking face with an expression as if to say, "hmmm, i haven't seen anything like this before, what is this ?"

It was good to see Jonathan in fine form - sporting a beard and looking awfully like Billy or Dusty from ZZ Top. I went down around sound check time today and Jonathan walks me over to the board as if to say, "look who's here" and I totally didn't get it because Ian (who was mixing Tricky Woo at the board) has such long hair and beard I didn't recognise him. Jonathan told me when they were in Europe people in the audience would start laughing when they came out onstage to start setting up pedals and stuff. I guess they thought they were the roadies or something... or homeless on the street.

I've gotta say though, that the boys sure did bring on the rock tonight. I kept looking at Ian's fingers on the right hand and the fresh blood on his scabs was increasing as the set progressed. It moved to his shirtfront and continued to appear a spot here, a spot there. Near the end, when a little pit erupted in the front, I looked up and saw a little drip on his nose.

The highlight for me could have been the choreographed-in-a-traffic-jam triple on the knees and lean back to lie on the stage rock pose by Jonathan, Ian and Paul. Tim just continued to motor his way through on the drums like a champion.

My energy was pretty spent by Tricky's set but I have to admit that I enjoyed it well. Those guys sound like they could be Santana at one moment and then Deep Purple the next, before veering into a familiar verse again. Andrew's amp blew a fuse before the set so he was making do with the Blurton amp, and I think I missed the tone of his Fenders. Nevertheless, by the time the encore rolled around, I really didn't mind at all. Jonathan leapt up to sing during a version of She Comes Around. Ian, who was not to be outdone, came running from behind the board at the front of house to take the tambourine and join Phil on his mic at the right of the stage. It was the extra Push Over The Cliff that Nigel Tufnell would have loved.

I should also mention that the openers, who dubbed themselves "Fantasy" for tonight's show, also turned in a fine performance. They definitely have the guitar sound down - I was reminded of I think John Staab - and if they can play a few more gigs I hope they might start to find something that is their own about what they are doing.

I am of to pack my bags and head to the airport so that's all for now. Those of you who are going to the big outdoor show in those crazy dinosaur badlands are in for a treat if tonight was any indication.