Shit meets the fan in rural Oregon
by Michele Christopher



First of all I just want to introduce you all to my world. And I'm not going to do it nice and easy. No, because I never do anything nice and easy, just like Ike and Tina.

My world revolves around playing music. Just about any kind of music you can throw at me, I'll take a stab at playing. I may not like it. I may hate it so much you see me leaning off the side of the stage throwing up in some woman's faux Prada purse, but I'll keep playing until I can't stand it anymore. Or I drop from exhaustion. Or someone kicks me off stage.

I'm currently involved in a blues society. Which is pretty cool. We run a public jam every week. Everyone is invited to play. As long as you can carry a tune in a dumptruck, you can even sing. These folks are all the first people I met when we moved here last year. I often re-realize that all my friends are musicians. That's fucking scary.raykoonstage.jpg That's like putting live Qassam rockets along the path to your curb and calling it garden décor. If I was smart I would run the fuck the other way. But that ain't my job, the being smart thing.

This can all be really entertaining sometimes. The people-watching factor is off the scale, and some people totally self-destruct on stage, and that's pretty damn cool to watch, too. Maybe not so fantastic to hear, but damn funny usually to watch. You know, I'm not the one who enjoys starting the shit, but I sure do like to watch it hit the fan sometimes.

A lot of what I will probably write about will be these musical adventures, the clashing of egos, grown ups who act like 2-year-olds and then expect to be taken so very seriously, the gigs we do with the blues society (we do a lot of benefits for charities. As long as SOMEONE supplies the whiskey for us). Thoughts on playing a form of music that drives me bananas but still draws me, and how schizo I can be about being involved in it and my own retardotantrums.

I offer up, here as a sort of introduction to my world, a case of shit meets fan. Someone happened to be recording at this jam. We happened to have a very, very drunk person tell us she was a good singer and wanted to get up and sing some songs. So we let her. Because we're nice that way- and hell if they let me play drums, no one should be the least bit shy about anything else. In doing so, we gave ourselves literally months of entertainment at someone else's expense.

The Singer*

*thats one of the jams. not an actual band, just blues fans doin the thursday night thing. Me on the bass, i think a dude named paul on one guitar, kirk on another guitar, and probably tom on the drums. and some crazy psycho drunk chick singing after she told us she could sing. bwahahahaha. thats an introduction to my world, that mp3. It was so bad at times i couldn't play i was laughing so hard and trying not to do it out loud.

Comments

i'm really excited about pril's column.

like a look from the underside of a blues/jam side of things instead of punk rock

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in all honesty, i *almost* feel bad about this mp3. But guilt gets shoved aside in favor of shits and giggles. And i haven't listened to it since it was recorded. Man it was just horrifying. What the hell are we playing? What the hell is she singing? Why aren't the two meshing up? I don't understand! And then she bitched at all of us afterward. MORE BEER! and i'm headin outside for a safety meeting.

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Cool, turtle. I don't know where the bus is going, but we'll get there eventually.

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no way dude

the mp3 is funny as hell

i wouldn't feel bad about it

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Can't wait to pull down the mp3... Stupid work firewall...

Good work on the column, pril!!

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Wow. Poor girl.

Yeah, good job pril, looking forward to more of this. Blues is great when it isn't shit.

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As much as I respect folks who perform in public, and enjoy watching and listening to live performances, I'm really happy I wasn't there after eating and drinking. It would have been like eating a "waffer-thin mint"...

Looking forward to more from ya pril

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I thought that was great. That thing would have been #1 on Dr. Demento for a month straight. The best part is the organ! Killer!

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"That's like putting live Qassam rockets along the path to your curb and calling it garden décor."

Hilarious--great writing pril. I'll check out the mp3 when I'm not at risk of waking up my girlfriend.

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Great post, Pril. I look forward to more of your stories.

That mp3 made my day.

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Too doggone funny. Thank you for sharing that.

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i have no idea how you held it together.

great writing pril. can't wait for more!!

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i have to give credit to Michael J. Totten for the Qassam rocket thing, except when he was explaining it, the people he knew used the spent ones that landed in their street for garden decor.

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Holy Crap! I am sooo sorry I missed that night! Who the...what the...what was that ? Wait, that wasn't human, that was your cat, Spot, right? ROFL!!! Wow, wow, I'm speechless.....I like the way you stopped playing in the middle of the song...I can just see you trying to not bust a gut..and remain totally professional! Good thing I wasn't there that night, you would have never been able to contain yourself! Good thing you recorded it too, nobody would ever believed it! Yeah, I'm sorry I missed that one!

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