Another Fair Entry

Oh yeah, and something funny I forgot! In our afternoon at the fair, my sisters and I wandered through the merchant's building, or whatever it's called. You know what I mean, the big air conditioned plane-hangerish place where you can buy bulk candy, used hats, and those display vacuums with a ball hovering over them... all under one roof. I've not been to many different fairs, but I'm taking a leap and assuming a building of this sort is part of the standard fairground layout.

The funny part - well, beyond the mulleted masses and cat-bags and bizarre medicinal trappings - was the positioning of two booths in particular. I first noticed the Dianetics booth, and laughed and laughed. Then I realized what it was next to: the Ohio Democratic Party booth. If I'd had my camera, and I didn't fear the cult members' reaction, I would have snapped a picture. Talk about a match made in heaven!

This made me wonder... was the placement an accident? Did the Scientology kooks request to be next to the Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland folks, in hope of feeding off their warm and happy progressive energy? Did the Democratic Party rep ask if maybe their table could be next to a brainwashing fringe group, thereby snapping up zomboid voters while demonstrating a respect for "religion?" Most likely, I think, is the possibility that some wicked conservative put the two side by side - in an effort to discredit the Dianetics salesmen.

Then I bet he cackled so maniacally that his top hat and monocle fell off into his pile of gold.

A High-Pitched Flood

I spent the better part of yesterday at the grand Ohio State Fair with my little sisters. The fair itself was nothing to get worked up about - it's like a bigger, more crowded version of the county fair back home, minus the friends and family. We did get to watch dogs catch frisbees, and the butter cow is always fun to see.

We were at the fair, though, for the evening concert at the Celeste Center. The younger of my two sisters is a big Saving Jane fan, and the Columbus band was opening for Bo Bice. Our middle sister is also a Saving Jane fan, although she refers to the band as "she," as if the lead singer's name was Saving. And... I'm... not really their target demographic.

Nonetheless, I loved the show. Having two little sisters means unavoidable exposure to a lot of Gilmore Girls, Reba, and so on, but in the case of Saving Jane I'm more than happy to be included. I like groups who write their own music, and Saving Jane falls into this category - with better songs than what's written for Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. Who, yes, I've heard a lot of on account of the above-noted little sister factor. Actually, Marti's lyrics make me wish my sister hadn't told me her name; I'm sure that knowing it somehow takes me past crush and into weird celebrity obsession.

The band played energetically and, not surprisingly, very well. They did a long set - most of the hits from their current album and a new one they'd never performed before - considering that they were the opening act. Live, as on the album, their music fits the lyrics throughout both the noisy and the softer songs. And the lead singer has one heck of a voice... she sounds at least as good live as in the studio. At the end of their performance (which included a Better Than Ezra cover, which was awesome), an Expo Center employee came out to announce that the band would be signing autographs at the merchandise booth.

WEEEAAIIIEEE!!! was the immediate sound that came from every direction. By the time they had heard a few songs, even the girls who had come for Bo Bice were sold on Saving Jane. My sister wanted an autograph, and we were swept along by a deluge of shrieking 14 year olds. I almost had to fight a kid - who looked the type that should be a lineman but isn't because he's too busy sitting in the dark thinking Goth thoughts - when he practically plowed over my sisters to get in front of them in line.

As I stood there surrounded by junior high girls, thinking about what to say to strike a balance between "too cool for you" and "your words are my reason for living," I thought about the band. Here you've got six people about my age who have just spent the last hour working their various parts off... and now they get to meet a few normal fans who wanted to say "you guys are great" mixed in with a whole lot more crazies who just have to get a piece of the action. For all the work they must do writing, rewriting, practicing, traveling, and performing, there's no small amount of PR tacked on top.

Which is why I didn't feel too bad when a security guard came through the line 20 minutes later to tell us no more Herbie Hancocks would be given. All but one member of the band is from Columbus, and they get to spend a whole two days at home before racing off to who-knows-where. Godspeed, Saving Jane... and gimme a call sometime!

Compulsory

I have a website, which you've picked up on if you read my last whiney post or if you knew me during my "hey I think I'll write about that on my website" phase. The vision for the thing, originally and at most times during its lifespan, has featured reviews about music and movies in an effort to trick hapless surfers into reading my writing. There have been times I've thought it's worthwhile, and times I've thought it's not.

Lately I've been leaning more towards the latter. In part, because I know (as I've always known) there are not all that many people wandering the internet looking for music and movie recommendations from some random dude. Why bother with my crappy reviews when Rolling Stone, Yahoo!, and every local paper in the country is more than covering the crappy reviews beat? That's a serious question in terms of whether or not the site is worth my time, especially since the chances are even slimmer that someone will like my music reviews and dig further into what I've got online.

Another serious question is "What part of my brain is broken?" Because no matter what big or little change I'm making to a page, I have to change a hundred thousand other things while I'm at it. I finally got around to adding reviews for a couple of Foo Fighters CDs I've had for... sheesh, going on a year now. And then when I was finished - I started messing with one of the other reviews. Then I noticed some bad grammar in the one before that. Then I decided to change some other completely unnoticable things. And here we are! Although I might make changes to the way Blogger works, the hands-off-ness of the system is what got me writing here in the first place. If I can type something up and hit a button, it's a little easier to post without subsequently changing it over and over like a total whack-job nerd genius.

But just a little.