Pittsburgh, Old Friends, and Jim Jeffries...and Other Strange Thoughts...

Alright...it's time blog again...a double shot of extended Kronos Quartet "Floodplain" material going through my Walkman right now...eerie weirdness that just goes with every other thing that has occurred in the past I don't know how many hours.  24?  36?


Friday...a day off, bizarre.  Of course not without enterprise; my beginning had a rude start when I went to the Money God !URRRR! ATM to get some cash...


...hmmm...barely sufficient funds.  Not insufficient, mind, but barely sufficient.  This is not good.  I don't have time to think about this shit.


Not to brag, but this is why I keep my credit card paid off (plus my rent, above all else)...if there's an emergency like this, it's required.


Okay, on the road and headed into Western Pennsylvania.  My first time in my life traveling west of Harrisburg.  The Pike was a good smooth ride, no big deal...nothing much to report.


Finding my way into a city I've never been to is always weird for me.  Actually didn't have to go there first.  Stopped off in Monroeville to see my old friend Lynn.  This a woman I met in New York in 1987, and while we met that one time, it was one of those strange defining moments in a person's life.


Well, Lynn is a PITT grad., and has lived in and around the city all her life.  She looks great, is married, has kids and is loving a nice quiet life.  You can tell; it was great to see her, and we had a very good meeting.


I was to meet up with Riz somewhere in the area of the Improv, in Homestead, for the Jim Jeffries show.  Well, turns out Riz is visiting her close friend KJ's mom in Monroeville...so I go across the street to the Morebucks (read:  Monroeville Office, since nearly every Borders out there was closed).  Get to see a lot of interesting people...lot of sales girls from the adjacent shopping center coming in for coffee, a lot of college kids, a contingent of Indian ladies and gentlemen, the women all attired in colorful traditional (sari) dresses...they were loud, though...real loud.


Oh well.  One young woman was extremely loud in talking about her fucked up young life and her allegedly planned arranged marriage.  Fuck, this girl can't be more than 25, WTF.


High school girl to my left talking LOUDLY to her boyfriend about her trip to France...woop de do, but then again I suppose it's big at that age.  Don't remember...the one opportunity I had to go to Paris as a kid was taken from me before I had it...oh well.


About 25 minutes of Kronos Quartet has segued into..."Little Red Rooster," by Luther Allison.  Okay...


Riz roars in...the Buick Bomber is loaded to the gunwales with her gear.  She is ready for the road in more ways than one...she has more tech gear than the average Geek Squadder, but it's entertaining.


We hang for a long while, and then it's follow Riz (Boston driver, remember that) through Pittsburgh and over the bridge into Homestead for the Improv.


Now, the Improv is located in some kind of Riverside mini-city.  If you live around here, think of Hunt Valley, where the Wegmans, and all those stores are.  Then multiply this by about 10.  That big. Clubs, restaurants, shops, really pretty cool setup.


We are inside and in second row, just off stage right...we have dinner, and then the show gets going.


The compere is a local woman whose name I can't remember...lot of dick and lesbian jokes, not impressive.  Opening act is someone named John Evans (I think); a few good lines, but I'm sorry, not that funny.  Needs to string things together a bit better.


Then right into Jim!  Now Jim Jeffries is Riz's CELEBRICRUSH!  She traveled all the way from Boston to see him!  


Dueling Shamisens....Yoshida Brothers doing "Kodo (Hishou Version)."  Mental picture for you I'm sure is really strange right?


Okay, Jim is on fire, and I mean he is just breathing it!  Nearly all new material, excellent pacing; not quite as good as the "Alcoholocaust" show, which comes out on Showtime in September.


Warning:  the Showtime performance will be edited.  Get the DVD via Amazon.uk if you want the real deal...or look on Youtube for it. A great performance, which Showtime will fuck up.


One of the "old" bits Jim did was one that was cut off because it would offend people.  Okay, I can see Auschwitz being a potentially offensive subject in a comedy act.  But it's very dark humor that you have to understand.


Anyway...show went fast...


"Then Came Lo Mein," by Robert Earl Keen and Johnette Napolitano...strange song by Keen.


So out we went, Jim signed DVDs of his other show, "I Swear to God," very good one, too...got to shake his hand, nice guy.


My biggest worry was getting the fuck out of Pittsburgh and back to the Pike, because it was gonna be a four hour drive.  But it was almost a straight line out of the complex, across the Grays Bridge, through a 'burb, and then to the highway.


Oy...one hell of a long ass day trip, but it was fun, and I can't regret it.  Considering the work is going to get completely fucked in the head, starting next Thursday.  Need to get my head together, need to get some more work done on "Silk Road Days," which I've been doing, and then see what the fuck else I have to do.


I have not had time to really do any writings or columns on things that piss me off, but perhaps I'm getting more mature and not worrying about that shit.


Ah...and my exchanges with Alice...hee...hee...hee...I cannot but smile.


Actually, Riz and I both have reason to smile.  Riz's new guy, Al sounds like a real-deal good man.  His daughter is an anime geek, and a sweet kid from what I have heard.  All good...the ex-wife sounds like a real high maintenance problem, but that should be someone else's you'd hope.


Anyway, good for all of 'em.  And yeah...good for Alice, and me, HELL MOTHER-FUCKING YES!


OK, off to it!

Long Week, and Another Week from Hell is Coming...

Well, another week has passed.  It has been a strange one for me, where to begin?

First, I have been working hard on "Silk Road Days."  I'm warming to the return to the Japan/Anime/YA Fiction thing, and I think once the framework of the initial script is done, I can go further and figure out where it is all going.

15 chapters are down as of this evening; I do not know how long it will take to finish.  And then there's the gaps that need to be filled in, probably a lot of those.

TrafficTalk, which I've explained in the past, has announced a suspension of operations.  So, I will not need to be in front of a computer in the afternoons for the foreseeable future.  I had guessed we were headed there.  At the moment, talks are continuing about technical aspects of the service and how it can be used. 

This frees me up to go hustle about and add some additional radio work, hopefully.  I did train briefly last week at Clear Channel Harrisburg (WTKT-AM 1460 the Ticket) on the Senators baseball games.  Pretty easy; and I'm hoping for some more hours.

WITF is ready to start training me again this week on "Morning Edition."  I'll do three days of it, and possibly get on the air for a little...daggers.

This is gonna be tough, and I have to be ready to do it right and well.  Lot of timing issues as I've said in the past, but we'll see how it goes.  I'm optimistic.

The Dharma Fools have been quiet, as again we have become scattered.  I know we will return to form, and I must be patient.  Meant to happen when it does.

My friend Riz has finally convinced me to go to Pittsburgh in May and see Jim Jeffries at the Improv!  I'll go for a Friday nighter, because I have to be back the next day.  Also an ulterior motive of seeing an old friend who lives out that way.  Should be interesting if I can pull it all together.

Riz has lost her job; blessing or a curse, not sure.  It is time for her to consider the next move of her life and perhaps reinvent herself, but she knows what she's doing.  All good.

Urg.  Exhausted; must be up early again for the KYW thing...