2003-03-25

Well, obviously this week hasn't gone quite according to plan, which is probably why I don't make specific plans for any given day. As should be appearant by now, I obviously didn't update Saturday night, instead I got all busy doing something else, and then decided I should see some people, since I hadn't for a few days. That didn't go as well as I would have liked, but then I'm usually a bit awkward in social situations, because I always either want to just sit back and listen and observe, or put on some really manic performance. Either way it doesn't tend to be an endearing quality for most people, as they either find me quite uninteresting, or quite odd.

Sunday was Tori Amos in Tulsa, which was absoulutely wonderful, as I figured it would be. The only complaint I had about the venue is that they wouldn't let us go outside to smoke between the opening act and Tori. Mind you, I don't mind the idea that I can't smoke inside the building, as I don't particularly wish to inflict the results of my habit on other people, be they short-term (the smell that most non-smokers can't stand), or long-term (which in this case, one really shouldn't worry about...it takes quite a lot of long term and heavy exposure to cause ill-effects on the health of a person). If one is going to ask one not to smoke in thier building, that is perfectly ok, but there should be allowed a way for said smoker to go outside to deal with thier habit, and then be let back in without having to get another ticket (and at $40.50, that is no small task, especially in these times that just seem to get tougher everyday, although it was more then worth it to see Tori perform). I think perhaps they might be worried about people going out to thier cars to get cameras or some other sort of recording device, and I suppose that this is an understandable fear in a way, and I understand that one doesn't want someone making money off of thier hard work, but at the same time, that's exactly what a lot of record company exectutive leaches are doing anyway. In fact, there are quite a few ceo type people who are making money off of other people's music and art without actually doing much themselves. If you wonder what I mean by that, there are the people who "run" the label that you're on, most of thier duties being largely talking to artists and holding meetings in which they assign other people to make decisions and handle all the footwork, and then there's the same people "in charge" of the distributer, which tends to be several completely different companies. Now despite all this I see the argument against bootlegs as valid and acceptable, and at any rate this is not the whole point of this part of the rant. You see, there is a solution that would easily satisfy both the smoker and the people who are afraid that this is going to be used as an excuse to get some equiptment from the car. Simply rope off one area outside of each side of the building, put one guy out there to make sure that no one goes into that area, or leaves it without being fully aware that they will be charged the full price for re-entry. Sure it might be crowded out there during intermission, but no smoker will mind, really, and they will be quite appreciative of the effort made on the part of the venue to accomodate them. They did something similar during the Henry Rollins spoken word show here in OKC a while back. At any rate, it's really not as big of an issue as this little rant is making it seem, it's just a wee bit inconsiderate, in a world filled with much worse things. Despite this little annoyance I enjoyed the show quite a bit. Even more then I expected I would, which was quite a lot.

A brief couple of stories, one from earlier the same day, and one from after the concert. Lauren (also known as the Fabulous Lu-Lu), wasn't able to go to the concert for various reasons, so I left pretty early, as I often like to do. As I get to the Brady Theater, I see the people standing outside in a rough line for the meet and greet, and I'm glad I got there when I did. Mind you that I didn't actually get to meet Tori, because I got there late and was at the back of the little area, and that was cool, because those people up front had to wait a terribly long time, and I didn't have to wait terribly long before the thing got underway. But I had a lot of fun watching the crowd mainly, as human behavior often amuses me. At any rate, to get the story actually started, I hadn't bought my ticket yet due to Star Tickets not accepting American Express credit cards, so I figured to get them at the door. At any rate, there was a person there who had an extra ticket, who just wanted to give it away to someone who was by themselves, (as I was), and it was front row. She gave it to me, and wasn't even asking for ticket price on it, that was cool. So then another girl shows up, who seems to know the first, wondering if she still has an extra ticket, well, because the girl knew the first girl, I wasn't comfortable holding on to this free front row ticket, so I gave it to the new girl. Partially, because I kind of felt guilty for it just falling into my lap like that, especially as I didn't allow myself to get informed enough to get put on the mailing list to know when advance tickets went on sale like the first girl obviously had. I don't feel as if I did the right thing, or the wrong thing for that matter, it just seems like it was the proper thing to do, and if I hadn't I would have felt guilty about it, and I'm not sure why, that's the weird part. Unfortunately, the Gypsy Cafe/Coffee house is closed on Sundays, and I didn't want to lose the wonderful parking space I had, so I took a walk around downtown Tulsa to look for a convenience store. That killed a couple of hours, and then I sat on the trunk of my car, listening to Tom Waits on my mp3 player, and waiting for the doors to open.

After the concert however, things took a worse turn as I ended up getting a flat about one hour outside of Tulsa. This wouldn't have been that much of a problem if the jack that is in my car would jack up my car high enough to put on the full sized spare I kept in my trunk on...so I had to call for help, which ment I was stuck there for about two hours, mostly listening to BBC radio broadcasts on the local talk radio station. All about the war, all the time. How bloody depressing. I didn't really mind getting stuck either for the most part, except that I discovered how ineffective my jack was after getting the flat off, and getting it back on was a real pain. As far as the BBC broadcasts go, it wasn't really all that bad until they started repeating themselves a lot, which by at that point I was waiting to hear the speech that Saddam was going to deliver, to see if I could catch any inklings on how recently the speech was written, and search for any indication that this may be over with soon. It's really funny (and not in a good way) when I think about it. This little war of ours is illegal not only according to international law, which we should be heeding, but illegal according to our own Constitution, which plainly states that the President does not have the power to declare war. While he can get away with this for a while as a "police action", and because Iraq is, in thier words, "a threat to national security" (what I really want to know is, since when? They don't have missles that can reach far enough outside of thier own country to avoid getting some fallout on themselves, let alone reach the U.S.), there are time limits to such actions. Last thing I heard, it still takes an act of Congress to declare war, or did I miss something? In fact, by blatently stating that this is a war, isn't the President risking impeachment, or doesn't anyone in politics have the guts to stand up to our would-be tyrant, appointed by The Supreme Court rather then the vote of the people, puppet-President. Oh, yeah...I forgot people, something else I wanted to mention. There is no use directing your anger and hatred towards the President. He really is just what I said, a puppet in these games, he really believes that there aren't any hidden agendas to this war (like oil), he really believes that the reason were really doing this is just and good, and he beleives that he's doing the right thing, and that the rest of the world is just, misinformed...never mind the fact that the people he surrounds himself with have convinced him to VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL MANDATES, AS WELL AS THOSE OF OUR VERY CONSTITUTION. Hey Daddy's-Boy, what is the oath that you took when they shoved you into that uncomfortable little oval office, do you remember it all of a year ago, despite all that cocaine abuse from your younger days (holy crap, Clinton smokes a joint at a concert, and they tried to crucify him, W. has a history of cocaine and alcohol abuse and addiction, ADDICTION mind you, and NO ONE brings it up), let me remind you what that oath says; "I, (state your name), hereby pledge to SUPPORT and DEFEND the Consitution of these United States..." let's stop there because that's the point I'm getting at. No matter what office you take at any level of National Government, including becomeing a soldier, you take this same oath. Yet, the President's men have all but tried to shred the BILL OF RIGHTS, since they've gotten into office. Was there a point to this other then my rambling to vent my frustrations!@! If there was I lost it some time ago, so I'm going to continue. You see, the people behind our Puppet-President (hereafter referred to as PP, for all of the obvious and juvenille reasons, because that's the mood I'm in) are obviously not much smarter then he is, because they seem to be playing right into the propeganda tactics of the dictator of Iraq. What I mean by this, is other then divine intervention, which isn't going to happen for a viscious tyrant who drop chemical weapons on his own civillians to test them, what is the only way that Iraq can logistically win a war with the U.S. The answer is: with the help of other nations. Because we have rushed into combat due to the impatience of the PP administration, we have violated our laws, and more importantly international law. This way Iraq can paint America as the big bully pushing around the little nation, a view that most of the other Middle Eastern countries hold to be true, especially those that are Muslim fundementalists. It just takes a small push to turn the anger most of them already have against us into violence on a far grander scale then the little torches of terrorism we've seen so far. Unfortunately for Mr. Hussein though, he's the wrong guy to try to be playing martyr and everyone around him knows that. They still remember his wars with Iran, his attempted invasions of his neighbors, and his blood-thirsty reign of terror on his fellow countrymen. That's why more people from other countries don't want to join with his fight. They really hate the U.S. for all of the bullying around we do over there, but, they don't want to stand with someone as mad as Saddam, after all, once this war is over, he's very likely to turn on his supposed allies. The only way that he can gain support from his fellow Muslims is to get Isreal involved in the fighting, because that is the one country that the other Middle Easterners hate more then the U.S. On the surface most people think of it as a religious hatred, but if you look a little harder it's not hard to see beyond that thin veil of propoganda. After all, why should Muslims hate Jews if they worship the same God (and they do). I'll rant more on this subject later, I have to leave work now....

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