OK - I have GOT to figure out how to put photos up.. Because I'm going to Japan on business in February and I've decided that I should take at least one interesting digital picture a day and post it here. If only so that my nearest and dearest can see something that I'm seeing while I'm on the opposite side of the planet.
So, I promise.. I am going to figure out how to do this.. Soon. Very soon.
Saturday, January 08, 2005
When "Rocking" is More "Rocking Chair" than "Rock n' Roll"
About, oh, 14 or 15 years ago now I was dating a guy who had the good fortune to be a Tour Manager for bands like Nine Inch Nails and then later Smashing Pumpkins.
So, I have some very excellent memories of dancing on the edge of a giant stage to "Rhinocerous" as the Smashing Pumpkins were the headliner of a three band good size stadium show tour that also included the Red Hot Chili Peppers and opening act Pearl Jam.
I have memories of wonderful meals out with the Pumpkins where I (a poor college student) would chow down and D'Arcy would just have one bite of a dessert we "shared". I remember sitting in shitty little bars at noon time on a week day (when I should have been in college lectures) eating grilled cheese sandwiches with Jimmy the drummer while the band did laundry.
I have memories of the itty bitty dressing room the size of a closet that Eddie Vedder was parked in strumming on a guitar while I was eating snacks with Chad the drummer from the Chilis.
This was the stage in life that I was 'the shit'. Or so I thought. This was the stage in life when I worked for a summer as a radio station intern and wrote for some local magazines reviewing bands that came to town..so I had press passes and backstage passes to just about every act that came through central Ohio.
It was a great time. A wild time. A time that is now totally incongruous with what my life is like as a mommy and a corporate software geek.
I sometimes wonder what the Doc Marten, leather jacket clad version of my 19 year old self would think of me now - my Jones of New York business suits, my minivan strewn with kids books and baby toys dangling from the hand holds..my admission that I own a CD with a Britney Spears song on it.
The last live show I went to was a Christian music artist, Sarah Groves. Hubby's parents bought the tickets for us - and while I wouldn't have ever thought to go see the show on my own - I loved it! She is one talented chick. I promptly went out and bought all her CDs.
The last live show I saw before that was the Lion King on Broadway, during a family trip to Chicago. We paid tons of money for literally the WORST seats in the house, in the last row in the nose bleed section - but I cried tears of joy so hard snot ran down my face as I held one of my daughters on my lap so she could see better and see pointed to the stage with a big grin on her face.
Recently, my dear sweet husband, knowing I love Modest Mouse, actually shamed me into getting tickets to their upcoming show in our town. To be honest, it's the first time (other than Lion King, which doesn't totally fit the same category..) I've paid for tickets to a show..since like high school. This means I was spoiled. For a very long time. And, it's an adjustment for me to see a live show without VIP back stage passes or people that I know sitting at the sound board, or being friends with the band. I think I held off going back to a live show for so long..well, because I knew it wouldn't be the same anymore. It wouldn't be like it used to be. I'd just be a member of the audience - a face in the crowd.. It would make painfully clear to me that I'm really not "cool" anymore - I'm just a nobody.
Though truthfully.. I was never that cool. I was just young, single and fortunate to make the acquaintance of very cool people.
Yep - I am really uncool now. I'm think I was more excited to see my pre-schooler's Christmas singing program than I am to be going to see Modest Mouse.
And, to be honest, I'm much more excited about the front row tickets I lucked into getting (as in paying for - because now that I've broken that taboo by purchasing the Modest Mouse ticks, the floodgates have opened! Live entertainment events here we come!!!) so that my best girl friend from college and I can see a live taping of a Prairie Home Companion.
And, as I explained to my husband when I initially balked at getting the Modest Mouse show tickets -- I'm more happy sitting at home snuggling with the kids or in my rocking chair quilting a bit.
So.. This is what it's like to get old.
I'm not longer hip - I just have hips.
I'm less "rocking out" and more "rocking chair".
It's not so bad I s'pose. So, our live show events might be more "Raffi" than Red Hot Chili Peppers. And, I think that's all good and well.. because I think it would be sad (not to mention highly traumatic to my children) if I was dragging my newborn, clad in baby Doc Martens, the pre-schooler with a mohawk and the 7 year old with dreads and multiple piercings to a Ministry show. That's supposing Ministry was even touring, of course. And supposing that I wasn't already in jail for child abuse for inflicting body piercings on a 2nd grader.
So, I have some very excellent memories of dancing on the edge of a giant stage to "Rhinocerous" as the Smashing Pumpkins were the headliner of a three band good size stadium show tour that also included the Red Hot Chili Peppers and opening act Pearl Jam.
I have memories of wonderful meals out with the Pumpkins where I (a poor college student) would chow down and D'Arcy would just have one bite of a dessert we "shared". I remember sitting in shitty little bars at noon time on a week day (when I should have been in college lectures) eating grilled cheese sandwiches with Jimmy the drummer while the band did laundry.
I have memories of the itty bitty dressing room the size of a closet that Eddie Vedder was parked in strumming on a guitar while I was eating snacks with Chad the drummer from the Chilis.
This was the stage in life that I was 'the shit'. Or so I thought. This was the stage in life when I worked for a summer as a radio station intern and wrote for some local magazines reviewing bands that came to town..so I had press passes and backstage passes to just about every act that came through central Ohio.
It was a great time. A wild time. A time that is now totally incongruous with what my life is like as a mommy and a corporate software geek.
I sometimes wonder what the Doc Marten, leather jacket clad version of my 19 year old self would think of me now - my Jones of New York business suits, my minivan strewn with kids books and baby toys dangling from the hand holds..my admission that I own a CD with a Britney Spears song on it.
The last live show I went to was a Christian music artist, Sarah Groves. Hubby's parents bought the tickets for us - and while I wouldn't have ever thought to go see the show on my own - I loved it! She is one talented chick. I promptly went out and bought all her CDs.
The last live show I saw before that was the Lion King on Broadway, during a family trip to Chicago. We paid tons of money for literally the WORST seats in the house, in the last row in the nose bleed section - but I cried tears of joy so hard snot ran down my face as I held one of my daughters on my lap so she could see better and see pointed to the stage with a big grin on her face.
Recently, my dear sweet husband, knowing I love Modest Mouse, actually shamed me into getting tickets to their upcoming show in our town. To be honest, it's the first time (other than Lion King, which doesn't totally fit the same category..) I've paid for tickets to a show..since like high school. This means I was spoiled. For a very long time. And, it's an adjustment for me to see a live show without VIP back stage passes or people that I know sitting at the sound board, or being friends with the band. I think I held off going back to a live show for so long..well, because I knew it wouldn't be the same anymore. It wouldn't be like it used to be. I'd just be a member of the audience - a face in the crowd.. It would make painfully clear to me that I'm really not "cool" anymore - I'm just a nobody.
Though truthfully.. I was never that cool. I was just young, single and fortunate to make the acquaintance of very cool people.
Yep - I am really uncool now. I'm think I was more excited to see my pre-schooler's Christmas singing program than I am to be going to see Modest Mouse.
And, to be honest, I'm much more excited about the front row tickets I lucked into getting (as in paying for - because now that I've broken that taboo by purchasing the Modest Mouse ticks, the floodgates have opened! Live entertainment events here we come!!!) so that my best girl friend from college and I can see a live taping of a Prairie Home Companion.
And, as I explained to my husband when I initially balked at getting the Modest Mouse show tickets -- I'm more happy sitting at home snuggling with the kids or in my rocking chair quilting a bit.
So.. This is what it's like to get old.
I'm not longer hip - I just have hips.
I'm less "rocking out" and more "rocking chair".
It's not so bad I s'pose. So, our live show events might be more "Raffi" than Red Hot Chili Peppers. And, I think that's all good and well.. because I think it would be sad (not to mention highly traumatic to my children) if I was dragging my newborn, clad in baby Doc Martens, the pre-schooler with a mohawk and the 7 year old with dreads and multiple piercings to a Ministry show. That's supposing Ministry was even touring, of course. And supposing that I wasn't already in jail for child abuse for inflicting body piercings on a 2nd grader.
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