Done

Finished season 4 of Lost yesterday. Now it's time to take a break. That season was short enough and just in time too, because I was getting a wee bit burnt out on the show. Not to say that it ever lost my interest or it ever got less than intriguing. It didn't. But, the same thing happens when I do anything for two hours everyday for a month and a half. I get tired of it. So I'm going to break at the very least until I get back from the beach, maybe even until August. Time to get back into my kung fu movies, watch some episodes of The Monkees, start watching Renegade, and plug away at these stacks of VHS I've still been building up. After that I'll probably either find season 5 through a torrent or stream them, whichever turns out to work better. Doubt I'll wait until December for the DVDs.

Looks like One Tree Hill is moving to Mondays at 8. Which is House's time. After last season, guess which one wins.

Insane about Michael Jackson. In. Sane. Out of nowhere. What a shame.

Last Friday I went to see a Zeppelin tribute band called Zoso. I skipped the Rush tribute band that opened for them. Zoso was alright. Pretty much note-for-note recreations, either of the album version or if it was played in The Song Remains The Same, that version. They tried to pull off the look too. Eh. That velvet dragon costume just doesn't quite work when it doesn't billow away from you because you're all bone. Robert Plant looked a lot more like David Coverdale. John Bonham had a headband, but he couldn't quite hide his redneckness. John Paul Jones was pretty much phoning his look in. He had the pants and he had a puffy shirt, but otherwise he looked more like Jerry Cantrell than John Paul Jones. But like I say, musically it was okay. I only really got swept up in it once. They were really pretty powerful on "The Song Remains The Same," I was actually getting into it then. Unlike the rest of the crowd. Some people were all in on this band, in a way that I can't really criticize because when I was Zep-crazy in high school, I might have acted the same way. But I heard a lot of, "Man, I saw Zeppelin in '77, and this blows them away." And even heard one person say after "Ramble On" that, "I can die happy now," I assume implying that this was a suitable substitute for his one true wish in life which was to see the original Zeppelin play "Ramble On" in concert. The audience could not have been more depressing to be a part of. First of all, as always seems to happen when I go to one of these outdoor low-rent shows, I got stuck standing behind someone who was grinding around too uncomfortably close to me and paying very little attention to where she was swinging her stuff. This time it was what looked like someone's leather-skinned whorish grandmother, swilling beer and slurring speech and trying to look young like she hadn't been out of the house since she last saw Zeppelin at Live-Aid. She sure as hell wouldn't pay any attention to staying in her personal space, but was constantly looking around for approval from other attendees. And the worst part was, she was getting it! And it just got worse. By the end of the night, some dude near me was just absolutely molesting every pre-teen to woman in the vicinity, most of them going along with it, and a lot of the time doing it right in front of the guys these women were there with. But I couldn't feel bad for them, because one way or another those guys had proved themselves douches over the course of the night.

A couple things became more and more apparent to me that night. First, it's amazing, considering how much I used to smoke, what a hard time I have being around cigarettes now. It gives me a sick feeling to my stomach just to smell them around me, and oddly way more than it ever did before I started smoking. Of course, outdoor concert, it was one after another after two after eight being lit up around me at this thing, I just had to hold my breath. Weird. Second thing, I think I have absolutely zero enthusiasm for live music anymore. I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, but I'm just sapped of interest when it comes to live shows. I don't know that I ever really had it in the first place. When I would go to see someone like Dylan or B.B. King before, it was more about being in the same room with people and realizing what kind of history was on that stage. When I would go see more current/up-and-coming bands it was more like I felt like I ought to be there to say I saw it. Definitely a whole lot of feeling like I ought to go, and then once I was there hoping it would be over soon enough. But I've never really gone to shows with a worked up expectation of having my face rocked off like so many people seem to enjoy. And I certainly haven't gone for any sense of community with the crowd, like we're sharing something in liking this band. Hard to do that when you just wish that person 2 or 3 away from you would just shut the hell up and listen. That seems to be the part of the whole music fandom experience that has totally gone over my head. Anyway, what brought that on, I was sitting there last Friday night and just couldn't decide if a musical show was something I really wanted to bother with. Ultimately I decided to go because I was supposed to meet a guy from work there. He didn't show (family time? Come on!) and I doubt I would have gone by myself. Probably wouldn't again. Records, albums, CDs, those do it for me plenty.