My Love Affair with Mike Rowe Continues

My love of Mike Rowe knows no bounds. First, I'm jealous of the way he writes. Second, he challenges me sometimes and makes me rethink where I stand on some stuff.

Years ago, I had made the argument that no matter what the origins of the confederate battle flag and any meaning it originally had, it has been re-appropriated by a group that is using it for no good; not unlike the swastika, which was actually a good luck symbol before the Nazis got a hold of it. My grandfather told me once that metal coins with swastikas were actually Cracker Jack prizes when he was a kid. And recently I ran a fire call in the apartment of a hindu family who had a swastika over their door like a cowboy would hang a horseshoe. But they had it on the inside of their apartment because of the obvious reaction it would cause if it were out for everyone to see.

Point being, that once a very visual and evil group takes something and makes it their own, it's hard to see it otherwise. Sound logic, at least I thought, until Mr. Rowe points out the now obvious fact that the Klan has been using the American Flag for years. So my "logic" falls apart.

The following is from Mike Rowe posted to his Facebook account (and printed here without his permission):

Hey Mike - Just wondering about your feelings on the confederate flag thing. How do you feel when you see one? Do you feel it should come down? Do you feel like it’s a symbol of hate, or a symbol of independence?

Jason Frank

Hi Jason,

The Confederate Battle Flag makes me feel angry. It reminds me of The KKK. I hate The KKK. Consequently, the sight of that flag makes me want to travel back in time, long before the Klan came together, find the original Grand Wizard, and beat him to death with a golf club. 

Swastikas also make me angry. They remind me of Nazis. I really hate Nazis. Consequently, whenever I see a swastika, I want to travel back in time, find Hitler long before he came to power, and beat him to death with a golf club too. 

I know it’s irrational to allow talismans of evil to fill me with fantasies of time-traveling violence, but I’m a human being. I have no control over my feelings, or what triggers them. Fortunately though, I also have a brain. It’s a modest brain, but it functions in a way that allows me to acknowledge my feelings without being guided by them. Thanks to my brain, I came to realize that my feelings - while endlessly important to me - are surprisingly unpersuasive to everyone else. Consequently, while I’d love to tell you more about how I feel, I’m going to try instead to tell you what I think. 

I think we need to be very careful about congratulating ourselves too enthusiastically for removing a piece of cloth from the public square - even if it’s removal is long overdue. I also think we need to stop calling people racist, just because they see the flag as something other than a symbol of hate. This is what happens when we put a premium on our feelings. We assume everyone who disagrees with us is not merely wrong, but dangerous. 

I know many good Southerners who abhor racism, but view this flag as an important connection to their ancestors - the vast majority of whom never owned slaves. This doesn’t mean the flag should be allowed to fly on public property - not for a minute. But it’s a mistake in my view, to equate the removal of a symbol, with the removal of the evil it’s come to symbolize. And that’s exactly what a lot of people are doing. We’re conflating cause and effect.

For instance, we look at that picture of Dylan Roof, and we see a bigot who appears to have fallen off the cover of American Racist Quarterly. He’s got the whole package - vapid stare, dopey haircut, fancy apartheid patches, and of course, the Confederate Battle Flag. We’re repulsed, and yet, we also feel relief, because now we understand exactly what he is - he’s a racist, plain and simple. Now, all we have to do is eliminate the hatred that drove him to murder. 

Sadly, we have no idea how to do that. Nor can we go back in time to introduce his head to a golf club, and save us all the agony of his cowardly act. So what do we do? We target his accessories. We focus on the accoutrements of bigotry, and assign them magical powers. 

By all means - lets take the flag down. It’s long past time. But let’s not fool ourselves. Racism and terrorism and all the other hate-filled "-isms" that plague the species will never be eliminated by banning flags, burning books, limiting speech, or outlawing white sheets and pointy little hats. When Dylan Roof walked into The First Emanuel Church and killed nine black Americans, he wasn’t waving his rebel flag or screaming the N-word. He didn’t look like a racist. He didn’t act like a racist. Until he started killing people.

That's the problem with people in white sheets and pointy hats. They don’t always dress the part, or carry the proper flag.

Mike included a picture of one of them pointy hatted bastards carrying the American Flag, but I didn't like how that looked on my blog.

As Good As It Gets

From the left: Battalion Chief (BC) Joe Tinsley, BC Maurice Gates, BC Melvin Carter, Assistant Chief Marty Greene, BC Shane Dobson, and yours truly.

All too often, I'm unable to see how good things are until they aren't so good anymore. This is the group of chiefs that I have been working with on C Shift.  We have been notified that Chief Carter will be transferred to a different shift on July 1st. Sunday was the last chance for us to all work together, so we took this picture.

No one is reading this blog but me, so I've got no reason to blow smoke up anyone's skirt. When I say that this is a ridiculously strong group of leaders within our department, I mean it. And when I say I'm the weakest link, I mean that too. But like the last player to get picked for the ball team, you're still on the team, and I wear that with pride.

Each of these men has my admiration. Joe Tinsley (first from the left) is an exceptionally experienced incident commander who really knows our rescue specialties. He has the love of his firefighters and the respect of the department.

Maurice Gates (second from the left) has managed two (that's right I said two) maydays in the last two years and did so with a calm and commanding presence that contributed to our firefighters getting out of a very bad situation. I hope I can get through my career without having to command a mayday, but if I can't, I hope I handle the incident as well as Maurice did...twice.

Melvin Carter (third from the left) not only has an excellent command presence on the fireground, he also carried me and my 40 lb ruck for over 400 yards up a steep hill on our first GoRuck when our cadre killed me off within sight of the finish. It was the damnedest display of physical fortitude I've ever witnessed, and I watched it while laid across his shoulders as he covered 50 feet at a time. He walked until his legs began to wobble, I would hop off, he would take three breaths, and then pick me up again. Unreal.

Marty Greene (third from the right) is one of those rare people who can make everyone feel that they are an important part of the team. He's the department's most experienced tactician and always makes the incident better when he arrives on scene. He has an ability to see through a situation to the core of what needs to be addressed. He's who I want to be when I grow up.

Shane Dobson (second from the right) is my work wife. He's incredibly humble, ridiculously knowledgable and talented, and someone I look up to. His passion and no-nonsense approach to fire scenes is something I try to remind myself of since I have a tendency to make things more complicated than they really are. Years ago, on a fire I was commanding as a very inexperienced incident commander, Shane almost lost his life. I often think about what I might have cheated our department out of if it had gone some other way. I love him like a brother.

Like I said, it's a great team. And there are great chiefs on the other shifts, but this group worked well together, laughed together, and moved C Shift forward together. And if you're not me and are reading this, I just wanted you to realize how great some of the folks protecting the citizens of DeKalb are. It's easy to see when a firefighter is holding a nozzle or climbing a ladder. But there are other skills, which are a little harder to see, but are just as important.

Gib Peak Reffin'

I can't figure this one out. Maybe this guy chose those letters randomly just to mess with folks like me. 

Photo Caption Contest

Since I've officially started this whole endeavor again, why not revisit one of my favorite blog activities?

The guy in this picture isn't making that face because of the strain of what he is about to lift. Nope, he's making that face because he just saw something. What is he screaming because of it?

And if you're needing inspiration, you can click on the "Photo Caption Contest" tag at the bottom of this post. That will pull up all the previous contests. You guys were very funny in the past. Keep it up.

Maybe I'm Amazed

We fought a fire recently in Brookhaven that had a real head start on us. Before we got there, the two-level deck on the back of the house was completely engulfed. By the homeowner's account, when her neighbor woke her up to tell her about the fire, all she could see out of the back of her house was fire. That glow you can see in between the houses? Yep, that's the massive fire on the backside. From there the fire climbed up the outside wall and got into the roof.  It then breaks through the peak of the roof before we get there (notice no trucks in this neighbor's photo.)

Because of the way newer houses are constructed, we don't have as much time for interior firefighting before we have to start worrying about the house falling down on us. I don't want to get too far into firefighting tactics, but the shorthand is you don't ever want to be above the fire. Buildings have a tendency to weaken and then drop you into the fire.

On this fire we couldn't see into the basement from the outside. The only windows and doors were on the same side as the burning deck, and it was such a large fire we couldn't tell what was deck and what might be basement burning. Because it was the middle of the night and there was a high probability that there could be sleeping people inside, I asked a crew to do a search of the house knowing full well that I didn't know if there was fire under them. Very risky, but a calculated risk. That crew didn't find anyone on the first floor after a quick search, but found conditions inside deteriorating rapidly. As they were coming out, crews outside located the homeowner who confirmed that no one was inside.

That brought my stress level down considerably. Knowing that all of the occupants were out, I and the other battalion chief on scene made the decision to fight this one from the outside because of just how much of the house was burning. And considering how close the houses are together, we did a really good job keeping it from spreading to the house on the left and right. If it had, we might still be there fighting fire.

So the news shows up, and I have to go on camera as the department's representative. I give them the details of the fire; short, sweet and to the point, because if I talk too long I'm bound to say something stupid.

What I can't figure out is how the news gets it so screwed up when they report what I told them on tape. It's not like they can't rewind it and make sure they got the facts right. But after watching the news coverage the next day, they took the more juicy elements of the fire and mixed them up a little for the sake of sensationalism. Maybe I'm amazed at that, but not really. (Incidentally, I never saw my interview although co-workers said they did.)

Which leads me to the comments on an article posted on the local news website for that city. They quoted me talking to the news about our concerns about the houses to the left and right. What followed in the comments section on their website was an exceptionally heated back and forth between readers about building codes, the supposed privilege of the wealthy, and even a inference that building inspectors were bought off.

Whatever. I just want to let anyone reading this know that our firefighters did a great job. Yes, it is a horrible tragedy for the family who lost all of their possessions. I truly felt sorry for the homeowner as I talked to her while we both looked at the smoldering husk of her home. But her kids were away on vacation, and a neighbor woke her up in time to get out. Her family lived. And it's really easy for me to say, "it's just stuff" since it isn't my cherished stuff, but really it is just stuff. She got out safely. We operated safely and stopped the fire from becoming a conflagration.

So Just How Many Times Can Something Be Resurrected?

That's right. When I slam a door on all my friends in one electronic medium, I open another. I'm resurrecting my blog.

You know, trolling back through some of my posts to this blog from the past, I remember just how much I liked writing it. And even though I enjoyed the comments from readers (I still get comments from strangers about my post concerning the poor customer service of West Elm) I really only ever wrote it for my enjoyment.

That kind of sounds self-indulgent..and it is. But it will make me happy (happier?) again, so here goes.

Apparently....

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Well, that's what this thing says anyway. I used three different blog entries and got three different answers. I also got H.P. Lovecraft and Dan Brown as possible matches.

The funny thing is that I have only read two Dan Brown books and a half of a Stephen King book.

AFI 100 Review: #98 Unforgiven

Unforgiven

1992

Directed By: Clint Eastwood

Written By: David Webb Peoples

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett

The Acting: This film has some real heavy hitters and you get just what you would expect from such a lineup. Gene Hackman won an Oscar for his performance here as a real son-of-a-bitch former outlaw gunslinger turned lawman. He's as mean as a rattler and likes to have fun with his prey, but that's not really a surprise. This isn't new ground but Hackman performs well and is enjoyable in a sadistic kind of way.

Morgan Freeman also performs well. He's the former son-of-a-bitch outlaw gunslinger turned farmer, as he states himself when we are first introduced to him. This part isn't really a stretch for him either. It actually reminds me of his character in Seven.

And, of course, there's Clint Eastwood as another former son-of-a-bitch outlaw gunslinger turned farmer. He plays the torment well, here, as he slowly slides out of his decent life as a farmer and back into his old ways of killin'.

Richard Harris makes a brief entry into the narrative. But as one review I read commented, he really doesn't do anything to move the story along. If anything he's just enjoyable as a still son-of-a-bitch outlaw gunslinger who espouses at length how much better the English do everything.

All the other players do well, including the one that plays the young gunslinger wannabe. But I can't remember seeing him in anything after this movie so his career must have floundered after this film.

Interesting: What's interesting to me about this story is the complete lack of discussion about a moral standard. Everyone's on the line here. The whores that band together to raise the bounty for the cowboys that cut up one of their own? They hire men to kill other men. Surely the woman was wronged, but is it deserving that the two should pay with their lives? The pair that did the cutting? Well, one of them seems like a decent boy caught up in something he wanted no part in. He is genuinely sorry and tries to make amends. The hired killers? Well, they hear it that the cowboys did much more horrible things to the prostitute than were actually committed. They know what they're doing isn't necessarily right, but this is all business so it's okay, right? The lawmen? Violent and cruel, but there is law and order in the town.

Now, we could debate all of these points and how I have simplified many of the elements of this story. But I think we can all agree that this film takes no position on right or wrong. In fact, Clint's character himself agrees with the following exchange:

The Schofield Kid: "Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming."

Will Munny: "We all got it coming, kid."

Cultural Impact: All of the reviews for this film speak of a eulogy for the Western film. That this movie was an excellent bookend for the genre. They also speak of the significance of the similarities between Eastwood's career and the arc of the character. I won't cover all of that here as you can read those reviews for yourself. But does any of that matter?

When I was in school, I had to present a short film that I had made. Prior to starting the film I stood in front of the class and began to explain what my intentions were when I set out to make this movie. The teacher stopped me mid-sentence and asked a very simple question: "Mr. Voorhies, do you intend to be in every theater in the country and explain what you intended before they show your films, should you become successful?" I immediately got his point. What I intended didn't amount to a hill of beans. The film had to stand on itself.

Now, that shouldn't be confused with anything that the audience projects on the film themselves. It's the difference between Eastwood intending this film as a eulogy for the Western genre and the audience getting to that conclusion on their own. Obviously the two can't be completely separated. The director does have some ability to imply and suggest. But all too often the audience comes to a completely different conclusion.

Take, for instance, The Thing From Another World and it's remake The Thing. The first was intentionally a allegory for McCarthyism. But the second became an allegory for the beginning of the AIDs epidemic when the audience noticed things about the film that the filmmakers never intended. (I wrote a blog entry on this here.)

Anyway, I don't see this film as culturally impacting. I don't consider it a eulogy for the Western since eleven years after this film was released my third favorite Western of all time was released: Open Range.

Does This Film Belong On My List: No, I don't think so. There are some really great moments here. But that doesn't make a great film.

AFI 100 Review: #99 Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

1967

Directed by: Stanley Kramer

Written by: William Rose

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Sydney Poitier, Katherine Houghton, Cecil Kellaway, Beah Richards, Roy E. Glenn

The Acting: I've never liked Katherine Hepburn. Her voice to me is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Here, she was as close to me liking her as I've ever been. Her performance was almost understated and most of what I didn't like here could be blamed on the character of the story.

But Spencer Tracy is the real revelation for me here. I've seen him in many of his older films, but none of his later films. As this was the case, I recognized his portrayal as Karl from "Up." Even so, he really is marvelous. I like that he's surly and pragmatic. His character is sincerely concerned with the physical abuse that the couple faces. (Incidentally, this was his last as he died seventeen days after filming was completed. His health was failing and he knew he was going to die soon. So his acting here, coupled with the fact that he so clearly agrees with the film's message, takes on a heightened sense of poignancy.)

Sidney Poitier does a great job as well. I must admit my only other real exposure to him in film is in Shoot To Kill. But here, he is reserved and very in control. He plays this perfectly giving the audience and the other characters of the story no reason to object to the union other than race.

Cultural Impact: Well, this movie is designed to be culturally significant. It's the whole reason for its being. All parties set out to make a point. This movie was released in 1967 and there couldn't have been a more ripened time for it to hit the population. This film ends with a speech (a good one at that) that explains why Spencer Tracy was wrong to think as he did. And it's delivered to convince the audience as well. But I don't believe anyone went to see this film that didn't agree with it before they entered the theatre. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm not giving film the power it deserves, but I've always considered film to be a medium that best nudges society in directions. There really isn't anything subtle about this film in the end.

Does It Belong On My List: I want to say "yes," based on the importance of the subject matter. But as I stated before, I don't think this movie convinced anyone that wasn't already in agreement. So how culturally significant was it? Maybe there is significance in the fact that the film was made by a major movie studio with major players. Maybe that's an accomplishment in itself. But in the end I have to say, "no."

AFI 100 Review: #100 Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy

1942

Directed by: Michael Curtiz

Written by: Robert Buckner, Edmund Joseph, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein

Starring: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf

I have to admit, I really didn't want to watch this one. I had no idea what it was about so that really doesn't make sense. It's number 100 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movies of all time so that is where I started with my Netflix. It arrived and then sat next to the television for over two months. Paula finally sent it back assuming that I wouldn't watch it, but I was duty bound. And as if the universe was Hell bent on helping me on my way, Turner Classic Movies featured it for July 4th this year.

What I liked: Honestly? Not much. This really isn't my kind of movie. Not that I don't like musicals, because I do. This is a biography but it seems like one that tries to include too much. What you get is almost a skimming of the story. There was a little bit of comedy that I found appealing. I can distinctly remember at one point saying "That's funny." The bad thing is that I don't remember what it was so it couldn't have been life changing or anything.

The Acting: Cagney won an Academy Award for this, but he always just seems like Cagney to me. No, he's not the gangster on top of the world, but he's still Cagney. Sometimes that works (see John Wayne) but it doesn't work for me with Cagney.

The Music: This is a musical and there are a few full music numbers featured. None of them really struck me. As it happens, I really don't like the title song.

Cultural Impact: I bet this is pretty neat stuff to anyone who wants to know more about the life of George M. Cohan. But I don't. Yeah, the movie was released in 1942 not long after the United States entered the war. But there isn't really anything patriotic about this movie for me. Perhaps it reinforces the American Dream and perhaps that's what some of us were fighting for. I guess I like my patriotism a little more blatant and over the top.

Does It Belong On My List: Nope.

Why Does Home Depot Hate Me?

So I've got a weed growing rampant in all of the pine straw beds. If you remember I put out 75 bales of pine straw a few weeks ago.

Well, I've got this thing about weeds where I have to know what their official name is so that I can curse them correctly. I took pictures of the weed with my phone and headed off to Hastings Nursery on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven. You see, Hastings is a very expensive nursery but one where you can count on getting quality advice and counsel.

Or so I thought. The dude that helped me ended up telling me that what I had was a "wild geranium." That was his diagnosis after he couldn't find the weed in the weed book. But seeing as how that didn't seem right I tried searching on the internet again (after a completely fruitless search earlier.)

That's when I found this. It's basically an online encyclopedia of weeds. You tell it a few things about your weed using drop down menus and it gives you pictures of the weeds that fit your description.

So what I have is not called "damn weed." That's what I've been calling it but its actual name is Galium Aparine, otherwise known as Catchweed Bedstraw. But here's the rub: IT DOESN'T GROW IN GEORGIA!

This weed is only found in the West. So that means only one thing is possible: THAT DAMN PINE STRAW THAT HOME DEPOT SOLD ME CAME FROM OUT WEST AND HAD CATCHWEED BEDGRASS SEEDS IN IT!!

Why does Home Depot hate me?

What I Learned While In Manhattan

These are a few of the things I learned while on our Eleventh Wedding Anniversary celebrating our Tenth Anniversary:

1. To be a New Yorker is to be unimpressed with everything. (For exception see #10)

2. New Yorkers don't look up, even when presented with some of the most amazing buildings man has created.

3. Taxi car horns are a language in and of themselves.

4. The subway is really easy to use, but the subway station, specifically Grand Central, is really difficult to get out of.

5. There is a Lego version of the Empire State Building for sale but not the Chrysler Building. And it doesn't matter how many different places you go to ask.

6. The island of Manhattan is much longer than I imagined.

7. A mini-fridge with ice-maker in your hotel room sounds like a good idea until you realize that everyone before you has been digging ice out with their hands as well.

8. It's against the law in New York for taxi cab drivers to wear seat belts.

9. New Yorkers are friendly and helpful.

10. To gain entry to the Museum of Modern Art you must shuffle your feet at all times and be impressed with a fluorescent light leaning against a wall or a large canvas painted red.

11. The view from the top of the Empire State Building is THAT impressive.

12. The manager and staff at the Empire State Building are very helpful.

13. Dave the tour guide on the double decker bus will gladly inject his feelings about Rudolph Giuliani and Donald Trump into your tour.

14. Bloom's Deli on the corner of Lexington and 40th makes a mean BLT.

15. Central Park is very popular on Saturday afternoons.

16. It's harder to find the Cash Cab than it looks on television.

17. The Statue of Liberty is very small when viewed from the southern tip of Manhattan.

18. Tap water in Manhattan tastes great.

19. Everyone in New York walks and consequently there really aren't many overweight people.

20. Times Square is impressive for the first five minutes you're there.

Photo Caption Contest: The Awards Show

So, our return to this format was a little disappointing. What seemed like a picture sure to inspire clever comments didn't really. But, every contest has a winner so.....

First Place

Jeremy Frye with "Little Timmy, six, wants one day to get married, but as he looks on at this bizarre ritual, even he can see the symbolism. The groom desperately clings to what little of the power hasn't been wrestled away from him by the bride, as she dutifully saws through his log."

Once again, Jeremy has managed to capture what I was aiming for but missed. He has locked onto the problems of gender roles within marriage and added a strong dose of emasculation.

Minus ten points for cutting off his hoo-hoo. Score = 90. (Give me a break here, we're working on a curve.)

Second Place

David Layman with "We'll call it 'Wonderboy!"' Simple and way off from where everyone else was. I give him points for using a quote from a movie I love. However, he didn't follow the rules of the assignment.

Minus 40 pints for violating the terms of the agreement. Score = 60.

Third Place

The White Whale with "Stop hogging the saw! It's like this every time. Honestly, you're just like your mother." Oh no you di'n't! That's right, we've invoked the "You're just like your mother" clause so early in the marriage the priest isn't even drunk on reception alcamahol yet.

Minus 90 points for giving yourself Third Place. Score = 10.

Photo Caption Contest

So, it's been a really long time since we've done one of these. Hell, it's been a really long time since I've posted anything to this blog. So maybe we'll make this one pretty easy.

Here's your assignment: Write a caption for this photo as it would appear in Lifestyle section of the newspaper. The only restriction being to play nice since I found this in a friend's Facebook photos.

Brick By Brick

I've decided to start back on my blog. I've been neglecting it for so long, no thanks to Facebook. I don't really have anything to say right now, but that will come. It's like the microphone on the headset I have to wear when I'm on the ladder. Having a microphone in front of your mouth just seems to draw stuff out.

So, making myself write on this blog again hopefully will lead to something productive.

The Arena at Gwinnett Center: It's People, Stupid.

On the heels of the third installment of our fire safety reviews comes the fourth; a trip to the Arena at Gwinnett Center. Why so soon? Because we were there the night after we were at the EARL for our third review.


The Arena at Gwinnett Center
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097
Capacity: 13,100
Visited On: October 25, 2008
Reason For Visit: Band-Weezer

What Could Burn: That's a tough question in a building this big. There really isn't much. In the seating area for concerts the seats themselves are the only real concern beside the stage. But the seats are probably required to be fire-resistive. (Note: There is no such thing as fire-proof. Everything will burn.) There are box seats in suites that probably have quite a bit of flammable furniture and other stuff. But on the whole - not much here to burn.

Egress: These kinds of buildings tend to be on the up and up. The elected officials and bureaucrats that are responsible for these things don't want 13,100 dead people on their hands so they are pretty strict. Buildings this size are expensive as hell so adding a little more cost for fire safety isn't really that much to ask.

These buildings are built to get people in an out quickly so there are plenty of exits to the lobby areas. But unlike our previous discussions about how people leave buildings in a panic this turns that argument on its ear.

In case you haven't read any of the other entries in this series, most people in a panic leave exactly the way they entered. This is exactly what happened at the Station Nightclub fire where 100 people died and 200 were injured. Fifty-eight of that 100 dead were found in the immediate vicinity of the front door even though there were other exits available. They piled up and were unable to get out ahead of a rapidly moving fire. It's truly horrible video if you see the full unedited tape.

Anyway, egress is a main concern of buildings the size of the Arena. That's what makes the complete absence of exit signs within the seating area so odd. I have to theorize that the exits aren't marked so that people will, contrary to what we think we want them to do, do what we know they will do. I think they are actually relying on people moving up the stairs the way they came in. If there were exit signs down near the floor area, for instance, it would be very possible that people would go that way. And in a building this big you risk getting lost. So going out the way you came in is actually a good idea.

Fire Protection: The building is sprinklered in the common areas and anywhere else the ceiling is a reasonable height. But in large open areas like the seating area sprinklers really aren't going to do you any good. The sprinkler head has to get up to a reasonably high temperature to activate. The area at the ceiling of an arena would have to be really hot over a large space to activate a sprinkler head. And this is only going to happen if the thing is rolling. And I mean rolling to the point that sprinklers wouldn't put the fire out at that point.

Miscellaneous: When we walked in the door we were immediately greeted by a haze in all of the lights of the lobby areas. Of course it was just the smoke effects for the band that was already playing, but it was funny nonetheless.

Overall: What can I say, it's really a pretty safe place from a fire safety standpoint. I give The Arena at Gwinnett Center an Above Average rating. The only real problem is the number of people that you're surrounded by. So as long as you keep your wits about you, you should be pretty safe. Just remain aware and vigilant.

The East Atlanta Restaurant and Lounge

Welcome to my third installment of fire safety reviews of band venues in the Atlanta area. Our first two reviews took place in the same building, but we have moved to East Atlanta for our next review. We went to the E.A.R.L. to see the amazing Ben Kweller.

E.A.R.L.
488 Flat Shoals Ave.
East Atlanta, GA 30316
Capacity: 300?
Visited On: October 24, 2008
Reason For Visit: Band - Ben Kweller

What Could Burn: Well, in a word: everything. The EARL is in an older building in East Atlanta. It wouldn't surprise me if it was more than sixty years old. It is wood frame construction with only limited fire-resistive components (I wasn't able to inspect the walls but they might be cinder block.) The roof is wood with exposed rafters throughout the venue area. More importantly, the floor of the venue is wooden. Although I couldn't check it out at the time, there is a distinct possibility that this building has a basement or at least a crawl space based on this floor construction.

The prospect of there being a basement below is somewhat troubling; fire in the basement, floor collapse, etc. The building's age is a pro and a con at the same time. It's old and could come down any minute vs. it's old and has stood for sixty years so why would it come down now?

Egress: There are two ways out of the venue. The way you come in is through a door with a long hallway on the other side. At that side of the room there are actually two doors; one marked entrance and one exit. The problem here is that the entrance door swings in. In a panic it is very possible that people will try to go out the way they came in. And here we're talking not just the direction but the actual door. Paula actually made this mistake when we were leaving. The fact that the door swings open into the venue poses the problem that people will jam up against it then be unable to open it. It would be a simple thing to remedy but I don't know if anyone has realized the danger.

There is another exit on the other side of the room with the door near the front of the stage. As I mentioned in the last review I don't like having to go close to the stage to exit since that's where a fire is most likely to start. But this exit makes up for its proximity to the stage by being an oversized door. I think this is probably that way so that bands can load equipment a little easier, but it makes for a better exit. The door doesn't lead directly to the outside but from what I could see it's only a few feet to the exterior door.

Both exits from the venue are properly marked with lit signs and both are free from obstruction.

Fire Protection: The building isn't sprinklered probably due to the fact that it was built long before they became required. It is somewhat surprising that they aren't required when an older building changes uses as this one did when it became a bar. I realize that it does represent a substantial investment but it's not without merit.

Miscellaneous: I did locate a fire extinguisher near the rear exit. It was the only one I saw and probably was the only one in the room due to the fact that the standard for most occupancies is 75 ft of travel distance. That means that you can't have to walk more than 75 ft to the extinguisher from any point in the room. As usual I located the extinguisher and made mental plans for employing it in case of an emergency.

The room is pretty dark with the only real light coming from the stage area, but there really isn't any furniture or anything else for you to bump into.

This show was a non-smoking show so that takes away some of the possibility of an accidental fire but usually the EARL allows smoking...lots of smoking.

Overall: Well, the EARL is a nice place to see a show. I've seen a few bands there and it seems a lot of the bands I like like to play there. But from a fire safety standpoint I have to give the venue an average rating based on the type of construction and lack of a sprinkler system. I give them points for their exits and the fire extinguisher in the open, but it's not enough to totally ease my mind.

Which is really the point of all of these reviews. I'm not slanting my reviews to purposefully frighten people but it's really something that you should think about. Anytime you are in a structure with a lot of other people (many of whom are not necessarily thinking with all of their abilities) you need to plan your way out.

Vinyl Will Burn

This post is the second in my series on fire safety at venues around Atlanta. I previously had reviewed The Loft after seeing Steel Train and The Hush Sound there. Well, once again the band is Steel Train but the venue has changed. But not so much. You see, Vinyl is located in the same building as The Loft.

Vinyl
1374 West Peachtree Street
Atlanta, Ga 30309
Capacity: 300
Visited On: October 22, 2008
Reason for Visit: Band - Steel Train

What Could Burn: Since Vinyl is located in the same building as The Loft we find the same type of construction. And as before we find that the danger is the contents, not the building itself. Vinyl is sparsely decorated, but there are portions that are cause for pause; specifically over the audience in front of the stage. Fabric has been attached to the ceiling in a kind of draping decoration. It's gathered in places and hangs in others. The problem with it is that it's above the sprinkler heads. If the fabric were to catch fire the heat from the fire would be above the sprinkler heads and wouldn't activate them. What's more, the smoke would probably be bad. It would choke and blind the patrons preventing them from finding the way out. Which leads us to...

Egress: There are three ways out of Vinyl. The first is the front door leading in off of the street. It's just a few steps down and not much of a worry. Except for the fact that the emergency exit sign is currently not working. So that leaves only the other two. The second exit is actually a hallway into another part of the building. It's also only a few feet from the front door, both of which are to the left of the stage. The third exit is located in a door to the right of the stage.

Now, three exits from this very small bar/venue sounds pretty generous, but the problem is that all of the exits are right around the stage. If the fire starts on the stage (a likelihood with all of that lighting) you would have to pass the fire to get out. There is no exit to the rear of the bar, which is pretty surprising. There are windows across the front of the building but these are also behind the stage which has its back to the street. So Vinyl doesn't really pass on my egress standard.

Fire Protection: Vinyl has sprinkler protection over every area that I could see which is great. But if you look closely at the front of the building you will note that the sprinkler connection is hidden behind some bushes that someone planted. That's right, the connection that the fire department hooks up to to assist the sprinkler system with putting the fire out is blocked with a bush. Now, I'm not saying the sprinkler system won't put the fire out by itself, but you're not supposed to hide the FDC (fire department connection) either.

Miscellaneous: I did see a fire extinguisher out in the audience area mounted on the wall which is somewhat out of the ordinary due to the fact that drunk people like to play with fire extinguishers. But having the extinguisher out where people like me can get to them could mean all the difference. I've often thought how different the Station fire would have been if someone had the presence of mind to grab a fire extinguisher and hit the fire on the ceiling once.

Darkness is also a factor in Vinyl although not as much as previously mentioned in my review of The Loft. Once again the only real light is the stage, but Vinyl does a better job with small lights sprinkled around areas of the ceiling.

Smoking is allowed and to some extent encouraged as someone came around and put an ashtray down in front of us. That of course is a danger.

Overall: Vinyl is very similar to The Loft in most respects. However, the lack of exits on the other side of the room is troubling. When comparing Vinyl so some of the other venues in Atlanta it comes out ahead, but I never got far away from the exits. As a matter of fact, when Steel Train took the stage I was right up front. Near the band. Near the exits.

A Legend

Supposedly, Paul Newman once speculated that his epitaph would read, "Here lies Paul Newman, who died a failure because his eyes turned brown." That's pretty funny if it's a true story. But it never would have ended that way. Paul Newman was not a failure.

I was particularly saddened when I heard that he had died. I think I used the word "devastated" at one point. The news caught me by surprise. A friend said to me something to the effect of, "it's so sad that Paul Newman died." I, of course, hadn't heard.

I tried a few times to write something that adequately expressed my admiration for his work, but it always ended up sounding pathetic. I mean, you're talking about an actor that is a star of one of my favorite movies of all time (Road To Perdition), an actor whose brilliant performance played into me naming one of my children (Cool Hand Luke), and a person who by all accounts was a nice guy.

Then I saw the article by David Ansen in Newsweek. He hits it all just right and says everything I wanted to.

The Verdict: A Legend
by David Ansen
reprinted without permission from Newsweek magazine

When Paul Newman turned 70, I asked him about the pros and cons of aging. "What's difficult about getting old," he said, with that gravelly voice that set in in his 60s, "is remembering the way things used to be. There were such things as loyalty. The community hadn't disintegrated. The individual had not been deified at the expense of everything around him. I don't think that's just an old codger, you know, wishing for the old days. Goddam, they were better. There was a lot of ugliness, but there was a lot more grace." Newman, a modest man, would have been embarrassed to be told that he exemplified that grace, both on screen, where in his prime he played heels whom everyone fell in love with, and off, where his generosity, professionalism and decency were legendary.

Newman became a star playing Rocky Graziano in the 1956 black-and-white boxing saga "Somebody Up There Likes Me." But to get the full force of his matinee-idol presence, you had to see him—and those famous blue eyes—in color. The star of "The Long, Hot Summer," "Exodus," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Cool Hand Luke" was arguably the most beautiful man in an industry that revered beauty. Newman knew his stardom was built on that classic profile, that ripped, often-exposed torso, those eyes, and it tormented him. It wasn't who he wanted to be. He was a Method-trained character actor who longed to disappear inside his roles. Instead, his roles had a habit of disappearing inside the mythical creature named Paul Newman. "Paul Newman IS 'Hud'," ran the ad line for his classic 1963 Martin Ritt movie, and it was more true than the filmmakers intended. He was playing a selfish, womanizing Texas cad, the purported villain, but his charm and innate likability were so strong they threw the movie out of whack—and turned it into a big hit. Newman's specialty was the deeply flawed, morally tarnished American hero—Fast Eddie in "The Hustler," Chance Wayne in "Sweet Bird of Youth," the washed-up lawyer in "The Verdict," Sully in "Nobody's Fool"—who carried inside his sardonic heart the hint of redemption. In his most popular movies in the '60s and '70s—"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting"—he was a scamp, a con man, a rough-edged charmer. The devastating blue eyes had acquired a roguish twinkle.

The paradox of his career was that he became a great romantic icon playing characters who were usually incapable of love. With men he was a great buddy, partner in crime, leader of the pack. But you can count the love stories he made on the fingers of one hand. Unlike his friend and frequent costar Robert Redford, whose movies pivot on romance, Newman played antiheroes who were gun-shy, like Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," who spends an entire movie rejecting Elizabeth Taylor's advances, or Fast Eddie, whose lover kills herself. In spite of that, his hustler proved so popular that he reprised the role in the 1986 "The Color of Money," and won an Oscar. It's hard to think of another star so beloved by both men and women who had such a dismal on-screen amatory track record. His most successful long-term relationship was with us.

Newman didn't just talk about the good old days; he walked the walk. In an era of cheap celebrity and promiscuous self exposure, he kept his personal demons to himself and approached whatever he took up with the tenacity of the long distance runner. His marriage to Joanne Woodward lasted 50 years. When he began racing, he became a world-class driver. An unreconstructed liberal, he marched for civil rights, steadfastly supported Democratic candidates and put his money into The Nation, the left-wing weekly, when it was threatened with extinction. His charitable efforts are well known. He started his Newman's Own food-products line as a lark with his friend A. E. Hotchner, and built it into an altruistic empire.

Everyone who knew Newman well describes him as intensely private. He was also famous for his elaborate practical jokes: he once had a Porsche crushed, beribboned and deposited on Redford's driveway. "I think my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told me in 1994. He was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history, yet there wasn't a shred of the diva in him. I suspect he never felt he deserved his fame and fortune, and he refused to throw his weight around. Melanie Griffith, who worked with him in "Nobody's Fool," described him as "the best gentleman I've ever met in 30 years of movies." Such grace will be sorely missed.

Pop-up Videos Minus The Videos R.I.P.

Well, I had originally intended my music videos on YouTube to initiate conversations about songs that I like. Instead, I received a plethora of comments using curse words that other users didn't take the time to spell correctly. A lot of the comments were mean or just plain ignorant. And the majority of the negative comments came from people who had themselves not posted a single video; their only contribution being their vitriol.

There were others who seemed to enjoy my videos and for that, I sincerely thank them.

But the problem was also the fact that services are now readily available on the internet to convert Flash video (such as YouTube) so that it may be saved. Thus, my postings of songs which I did not originally think could be used to cheat the artist out of a buck, were doing just that. The Gambler had hit around 45,000 viewings, which isn't a lot for YouTube, but it's enough when you think that half of those viewings might have been used to avoid paying to listen to the song. In other words, I cheated Kenny Rogers out of about $22,500. Sorry Kenny.

Sorry, Polyphonic Spree, The Decemberists, and Elton John. I meant no harm. My efforts were based in an honest appreciation for your art.

It's A Stereotype, Isn't It?

I mean the movie Heathers used it to paint a picture of the mental state of a character. Really, is there anything more pretentious than quoting Moby Dick?

I finally gave in and joined Facebook. Part of creating my profile was to add "favorite quotes." I started thinking about all of my favorite quotes and quickly realized just how many of them come from this book. So, I figured I'd just add them as a post.

I realize most of you won't read all of them but give a few of them a look. If you feel like investing the time, I can tell you they are even better within the context of the entire book.

"Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance."

"...even pirates and privateers, though following the sea as highwaymen the road, they but plunder other ships, other fragments of the land like themselves, without seeking to draw their living from the bottomless deep itself."

"Mark ye, be forewarned; Ahab's above the common; Ahab's been in colleges, as well as 'mong the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders than the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier stranger foes than whales. His lance! aye, the keenest and the surest that out of all our isle! Oh! he ain't Captain Bildad; no, and he ain't Captain Peleg; he's Ahab, boy; and Ahab of old, thou knowest, was a crowned king!"

"...and Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending."

"hear him, all of ye. Think of that! When every moment we thought the ship would sink! Death and the judgment then? What? With all three masts making such an everlasting thundering against the side; and every sea breaking over us, fore and aft. Think of Death and the Judgment then? No! no time to think about Death then. Life was what Captain Ahab and I was thinking of; and how to save all hands - how to rig jury-masts - how to get into the nearest port; that was what I was thinking of."

"The port would fain give succor; the port is pitiful; in the port is safety, comfort, hearthstone, supper, warm blankets, friends, all that's kind to our mortalities. But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship's direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through."

"But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God..."

"Doubtless one leading reason why the world declines honoring us whalemen, is this: they think that, at best, our vocation amounts to a butchering sort of business; and that when actively engaged therein, we are surrounded by all manner of defilements. Butchers we are, that is true. But butchers, also, and butchers of the bloodiest badge have been all Martial Commanders whom the world invariably delights to honor. And as for the matter of the alleged uncleanliness of our business, ye shall soon be initiated into certain facts hitherto pretty generally unknown, and which, upon the whole, will triumphantly plant the sperm whale-ship at least among the cleanliest things of this tidy earth. But even granting the charge in question to be true; what disordered slippery decks of a whale-ship are comparable to the unspeakable carrion of those battle-fields from which so many soldiers return to drink in all ladies' plaudits? And if the idea of peril so much enhances the popular conceit of the soldier's profession; let me assure ye that many a veteran who has freely marched up to a battery, would quickly recoil at the apparition of the sperm whale's vast tail, fanning into eddies the air over his head. For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God!

But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!"

"...for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard."

"I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale."

"Starbuck was no crusader after perils; in him courage was not a sentiment; but a thing simply useful to him, and always at hand upon all mortally practical occasions."

"Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes. That immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves, so far within us, that it remains intact though all the outer character seem gone; bleeds with keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a valor-ruined man."

"...he presided over his whale-boat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests."

"...for every one knows that this earthly air, whether ashore or afloat, is terribly infected with the nameless miseries of the numberless mortals who have died exhaling it..."

"...he seemed as unnecessary there as another mast."

"More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look, which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile."

"Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death."

"For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab."

"Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the horn, and round the norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up."

"He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it."

"Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."

"Oh, hard! that to fire others, the match itself must needs be wasting!"

>"Because a laugh's the wisest, easiest answer to all that's queer;"

"Dance on, lads, you're young; I was once."

"Now would all the waves were women, then I'd go drown..."

"For not only are whalemen as a body unexempt from that ignorance and superstitiousness hereditary to all sailors; but of all sailors, they are by all odds the most directly brought into contact with whatever is appallingly astonishing in the sea; face to face they not only eye its greatest marvels, but, hand to jaw, give battle to them."

"...it cannot be much matter of surprise that some whalemen should go still further in their superstitions; declaring Moby Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in time)..."

"...all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."

"...all my means are sane, my motive and my object mad."

"Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright."

"For God's sake, be economical with your lamps and candles! not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man's blood was spilled for it."

"There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own."

The Loft, The Loft, The Loft Is On Fire

You know, my friend Jeremy has a blog where he reviews all of the shows that he goes to. He does an excellent job and sees many more bands than his "older, married with kids" friend can (me if you needed to be told.) So I figured I might try to cover an aspect of the musical venues that he doesn't really talk about.

Becoming a firefighter years ago forever changed my thinking. I tend to want to quantify danger in any situation. A few months ago when we went to an upscale hotel bar after dinner, I couldn't help thinking what I would do if the far corner of the room caught on fire. It plays out in my head kind of like the W.O.P.R contemplated World War III, only I'm not as fast or smart.

Anyway, my career choice coupled with what happened at the Great White show at The Station Nightclub in Rhode Island in 2003 (currently the fourth most deadly nightclub fire in the US) leaves me going to shows and looking for ways out of the building. So I think I will begin to review the venues themselves from a fire safety standpoint. I'm not trying to take the place of the Fire Marshal here, I'm just theorizing on how the building itself would affect a fire. Let's start with the venue for my last show, which was covered in the previous post.

The Loft

1374 West Peachtree Street

Atlanta, GA 30309

Capacity: 800

Visited on: August 18, 2008

Reason for visit: Bands - Steel Train and The Hush Sound

What Could Burn: The Loft is located in an old office building of sorts. It's typical fire-resistive construction: concrete. This makes it really good for withstanding fires since the building won't burn readily. However, as we all learned when the "Fireproof" Winecoff Hotel burned, it's the contents, stupid! But The Loft has this covered as it is very sparsely decorated (I really can't figure out where the pictures that are on the website were taken. It doesn't look anything like that.) Almost no furniture save for the actual bar. Nothing on the walls. No drop ceiling. Except for the stage there really isn't anything that could catch on fire. So The Loft passes my construction/contents test pretty well.

Egress: A couple of years ago I met someone who was staying in the Winecoff Hotel the night of the fire (It's still the deadliest hotel fire in US history with 119 dead, most of them teenagers.) This person related the events of that night and then added that from that night on, every time he stayed in a hotel he would get to his room and then count the number of doorways to the nearest exit. He said he did this so that he could find the exit in the dark and smoke by feeling the doors. That's experience talking. How many of us blow off the lecture that the flight attendants give about the emergency exits on the plane? It's the same thing, really. I know I don't want to die in a hotel, at least not the ones I can afford to stay in.

The Loft is located on the second floor so it's not out of reach of ladders (most nightclubs aren't.) But unlike most other nightclubs The Loft has many large floor to ceiling windows that happen to overlook West Peachtree. Don't let this fool you. Most windows in mid-rise and hi-rise office buildings aren't regular glass. They're impregnated with plastics and other materials to make them strong enough to stand up to the stresses that large buildings encounter. You aren't just going to throw a chair through the window like in the movies (unless you're thinking of Die Hard when he tries in vain to break the window with the chair, in which case: EXACTLY!)

But windows aren't really how you want to leave a structure if given a choice. No, you want to go out the regular exits. There were only two marked that I could see from in front of the stage. I didn't check out the second one since it was behind a pair of double doors guarded by security, but the other one was the main entrance to the establishment. This is the way most people leave in an emergency; they go out the way they came in (precisely why so many people died in the Station fire.) The only problem with the way we came in is that it included a flight of stairs. In a panic people are likely to bottleneck in the stairwell and then trampling and crushing starts, which only makes things worse and more desperate. Me? I've got my eye on that second exit behind the double doors. I venture to say that only 5% of the people in the bar would exit that way so it's probably going to be much safer. So from an egress point of view The Loft doesn't really pass the test for Joe and Jane bar/club patron who aren't paying attention to that kind of thing.

Fire Protection: The Loft has fire sprinkler coverage everywhere that I could see. This is really good. The idea is that the sprinklers put the fire out before it gets to be a big fire. (Nobody burns up but we do still have a stampede in the stairwell like we talked about.) That's all provided that the system is maintained as it should be. But there's nothing to suggest it isn't so...

Miscellaneous: The only other real problem I have with The Loft is how dark it is. In between bands the only lights in the joint were from the stage and the dimly lit bar. It was enough to get around but I really couldn't see people's faces or my feet. I know that bars aren't supposed to be brightly lit, but in this post we're talking about safety not ambience. Take that dark and add some really nasty black smoke from a fire and you have a situation in which people won't be able to see those two exit signs marking the way out. Just another reason to familiarize yourself with their location.

There isn't any smoking allowed in the main area of the bar or near the stage. Since it's the only real thing that could catch on fire in the place that's a plus.

Overall: When you consider all of the smaller venues in Atlanta, The Loft is one of the safer places to see a band that I have been in. I still recommend checking the place out and noting the locations of the exits and anything that might block your path to them, but overall, you should relax and enjoy the show. I did.

Steel Train and The Hush Sound

That title almost sounds like a book title, but it's really the names of two of the four bands that played at the Loft in Atlanta last night. We didn't arrive in time to see the first band of the night but just in time for Steel Train (who were the reason we were there.)

Now, I briefly reviewed the Steel Train album previously but I didn't speak much about anything else. It goes like this: a fellow Cub Scout Leader from my son's pack recommended Steel Train after his nanny said that's what she was listening to. Please understand that this isn't how it worked in my musical life before. For a long, long time I walked into the record store and asked Michael and Jeremy what was out that was good. They'd pile me up some cd's (sometimes a real stack) and I'd buy them without listening. So it's a little odd to get some of my current favorite music the way I did.

I love Steel Train's live show as much as I love their album. They take the stage and own it. Even though they were the second band in a four band line-up, even though they took the stage at 7:50 they took the stage like everyone was there to see them. I said it before, they just bleed confidence. They play as though you were there to see them exclusively (which I was) and judging by crowd reaction, they may have made a few converts last night

They approach the audience as though their acceptance is a foregone conclusion, at one point moving seamlessly from one song to the next without waiting for applause, and at another encircling one mic and singing together as though they were in a bar. It could easily come off as cocky, pretentious, or self-indulgent, but instead it makes you feel like you're being let into their circle a little. It's something that a band with twice their time together might do, but, like I said, it works amazingly for them. They even went as far as to cover ABBA's Mamma Mia which was a little daring considering the average age of the audience (I have always loved ABBA.)



The next band on the stage was The Cab. I didn't really care for the songwriting or maybe it's their style. I definitely didn't care for the hair. I know I sound old but it wasn't the length of the hair that was the problem. It was the fact that it played such a large part in this band's stage presence. The keyboardist swirled his head to the right every ten seconds to reset his hair so that it was covering his face. The drummer's excessively long hair flew around his head; a most certain distraction to anyone serious about seeing his kit, quickly remedied with a rubber band. The guitarist's locks are too messed up; the kind of hair that took a long time to get to look like you don't care how it looks.

Anyway, we stayed for the Hush Sound based on some of what we had heard on their MySpace page (which is about all MySpace is useful for at this point in my opinion.) I was very impressed with their show. The singing duties are passed between a pretty blonde keyboardist and the guitarist who looks kind of like Carl Newman but sounds like Ben Folds.

I really dug their set even though I hadn't heard 95% of it more than once. They eventually called members from all of the other bands up to help out on songs, but the highlight was inviting all of Steel Train on stage to perform The Jackson 5's I Want You Back. The stage was packed and it was a load of fun.



The band also performed a very respectable cover of Back In The USSR. It struck me while they were performing that it was entirely possible that many in the audience didn't know it wasn't "one of their new songs."

If you couldn't tell I had a really great time. Thanks to Keith and Helen for coming into town and getting me the tickets (for my birthday.) Steel Train will be returning to Atlanta this fall and I hope you all can come out if you're in the area.

See, They've Got A Name For It

I've written on this very subject for some time, even comparing the feeling to the same movie that this article does. Which I suppose only bolsters my argument about my life being a television show. I mean what better plot development than for me to read an article that confirms what I've been thinking all along. Click on the "Truman" label at the bottom of the article to see my other posts on the subject.

The following is an article which appeared in the Newsweek that just arrived in my mailbox:

When LIfe Is Like a TV Show
-Jesse Ellison

As a director of psychiatrics at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center, Joel Gold has seen thousands of delusional patients. But a few years ago, he began noticing a different sort of paranoia: young white men who believed they were the subjects of their own reality-TV shows. Some, says Gold, who with his brother has written a preliminary paper and hopes to author a larger study, seemed pleased by their roles—excited by the anticipated million-dollar payout. Others were tormented. One came to New York to check whether the World Trade Center had actually fallen—believing 9/11 to be an elaborate plot twist in his personal storyline. Another came to climb the Statue of Liberty, believing that he'd be reunited with his high-school girlfriend at the top, and finally be released from the "show."

Grandiose, paranoid delusions are a staple among schizophrenics and psychopaths. Typically, they apply to one aspect of a patient's life—say, irrationally believing a spouse is cheating. But these patients, much like Jim Carrey's character in the 1998 film "The Truman Show," believe their entire lives are being broadcast, and that everyone is in on the joke. The numbers are small—Gold has observed only five firsthand and has heard from or about more than a dozen since—but he and others think "The Truman Show Delusion," as Gold now calls it, is the pathological product of our insatiable appetite for self-exposure. Delusions are often related to the larger cultural and political climate: during the cold war some people thought they were being monitored by the KGB. Today, some might think Al Qaeda is after them. When all it takes is a Webcam and the click of a mouse to be seen and heard by millions, and with hundreds of surveillance cameras capturing our movements each day, it's not necessary to go on "Big Brother" to feel like you're in the public eye. "If you have a predisposition to paranoia, going on YouTube and seeing some guy doing something can really shake you up," says Gold. You could think, "Is the world watching me?" Perhaps the key to sanity is knowing that while the whole world isn't watching, someone probably is.

Steel Train - Trampoline

Now, I could pepper this review with all kinds of phrases like "a rollicking good time" or "ear candy" but let's just suffice it to say that it's good. Really good. Never before have I heard an album this good...about real tragedy. You see, Jack Antanoff the lead singer and songwriter for the band experienced a series of personal tragedies. That coupled with the lasting emotional effects of the attacks on the World Trade Center make for some really heavy lyrics. And there are only one or two songs on this album that don't mention these directly, which should make for some really depressing music. But instead, most of the songs are upbeat and a lot of fun.

What's more, this band didn't sound anything like this before this album. Before this they were folky and considerably more mopey. They're actually signed to a label known for mopey. Don't ask me how but apparently multiple tragedies in someone's life can beget some of the best straight rock and roll I've heard in a while.

The album opens with "I Feel Weird" which hits you like the moment, after falling asleep in front of the television, when you wake up and realize just how loud the TV is. It jumps in with both feet and doesn't let up for three very solid minutes. There's something about the sound, maybe the bells, that reminds me of Bruce Springsteen. Steel Train is from New Jersey so maybe there's something there. But I don't like Springsteen, so....

From there we move right into one of the best songs on the album; "Black Eye." It proceeds like a song that knows you're already hooked on the album. I can't really explain it, but the song just bleeds confidence. I had the chance to see these guys live last month and this song is a real crowd pleaser. All I could do was stand in the crowd, pound my heel into the floor, and smile ear to ear.

"Kill Monsters In The Rain" channels Grandaddy with a heavier bass drum. That's what all of the songs on the album have in common; a driving beat that doesn't let up. It's great. The song takes on a more disco flavor but that's not an insult. It's done very well.

The best song on the album is it's slowest. "Dakota" reminds me lyrically of Crash Test Dummies' "Mmmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm." Both are songs about misfits and the trouble they find in their lives. Musically I would have thought this was a Fountains of Wayne song if I hadn't known better. It's achingly beautiful and a real treat to listen to with headphones (check it out.)

"Firecracker"...well, "Firecracker" is perfect. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

The only track on the album that I don't feel really good about is "School Is For Losers." That one feels like it's trying too hard to rock. It's got good parts to it and I don't generally skip over it.

So give it a listen. I'm on about my two hundredth. It's a good thing there's no needle to wear the CD down.