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The Grape Street Pub open mic was slower than usual because of the Eagles game, but it wasn’t too bad. John Francis, Jason Wheatley, and Adrien Reju all sounded great. It was Jason’s first time playing the Grape and they seemed to like him there. Hopefully he’ll come back on a busier night. Adrien played my favorite new song of hers, “Kaleidoscope” and you missed a great performance if you didn’t see her last Friday at 3 Beans in Haddonfield. She was awesome. Tom Gillam, the host of the GSP open mic, is a great guy but I would love it if he could get there by 9:30. I can’t give Tom too much grief because he seems to genuinely like when I show up on Monday nights. Luckily, a few people on the list never showed so I got on a little earlier than planned.

I satisfactorly played “The Genius of it All” and “Why Now Satan?” and once again asked myself the question, “When am I going to write a new song?” I could probably churn out a few pretty quickly if I wanted to, but I doubt they would be any good. I could go for the 10% strategy where you write 10 songs and at least one will be good enough to play without puking, but that takes a ton of time. Question to self: Why do I think this should be easier?

I saw Frank Black and the Catholics last night and there were way too many opening acts. The show started at 9:00 with former Pixies drummer David Lovering doing a Mr. Wizard show. He was shooting smoke rings with a bass drum and making pickles glow, so that was pretty cool. The first band of the night wasn’t too good and pushed the show late into the night. It would have been a lot better without them.

The THIRD opening act was a great band called the Bennies. The band had a drummer, a bass player and oh yeah… A MIDGET IN A WHEEL CHAIR PLAYING GUITAR AND SINGING and rocking the fuck out, too.

I was surprised to see Frank Black actually play a lot of Pixies stuff. They opened with “Gouge Away” and played a few favorites of mine including “Wave of Mutilation” and “Crackity Jones.” Of the Catholics material, “Bullet” and “Whiskey in my Shoes” came out the best.

I stopped by the Living Room last night after work and picked up the CD I left there. I am now redeemed. Adrien claims she’ll never become too snotty or snooty to hang out at the Living Room and I believe her. I wonder how often big time musicians go back to their old hang outs. I’ve heard Jewel often goes back to the places she started out at, but for the most part I doubt this happens, but not because the artists’ egos get engorged. From my experience small venues rarely stay in business longer than a few years. All the places I was playing six years ago are now closed. Every single one.

I really need to add a few more news topics. I’m overusing the micellaneous category, although I love that chicken head.

I’m such a jerk. Adrien gave me a copy of her CD and I left it at the damn Living Room. Hopefully someone picked it up and I can get it back. The Living Room was packed last night to see Jason Wheatley return to his former bi-weekly stage. Adrien, Keith Lewis, Roz King and a few others came out to perform. A guy named Chris did my favorite Stephen Wright joke, “Do you think in Europe they call Miles Davis, Kilometers Davis?” Vinnie and his left handed guitar did a few good covers. I’d talk about some of the other performers, but I don’t remember their names.

Since I forgot her CD, I’ll give Adrien a nice plug for her upcoming show. This Saturday at 9:00PM you should defintely check out Adrien Reju at 3 Beans Coffee in Haddonfield, NJ (140 Haddon Ave.). She’s incredible, so make sure you hear her now before she starts getting played on WXPN and becomes too snotty to hang out at places like the Living Room.

Justin and I went over to the Crab’s open mic for a little while and that was pretty much a waste of time. Justin sounded good though.

At the Living Room I played, “Why Now Satan?” “The Genius of it All,” and “I Hope I Die on the Moon.”

Another plug: Frank Black and the Catholics are playing tonight at the TLA on South Street at 9:00PM. It looks like the price of the show went up to $15.00, but that’s still not too bad.

Congratulations to the local girl who “won” the Bachelor. Please have your wedding far from New Jersey.

I couldn’t be happier with Comedy Central’s new self promoting commercials. They feature people from various professions saying what they do and why they like Comedy Central. In one, a Bee Keeper says, “Hi I’m a Bee Keeper. I wear this suit to keep the bees out.” My favorite one shows a guy with a straggly beard saying, “Everyone knows the civil war was awesome and that’s why I watch Comedy Central. Take it from me, I’m a Civil War Buff.” Those quotes aren’t exact, but they should convey the humor. If you don’t think they’re funny from what you read here, you probably won’t like them on TV either. Another says, “My kids look so beautiful when they’re watching Comedy Central I almost want to pay their mother child support. Take it from me, I’m a deadbeat dad.” Haha, but real deadbeat dads aren’t funny.

If you’re a fan of the Sopranos and for whatever reason you miss an episode or a particular scene, check out Television Without Pity. They recap episodes to popular shows and the guy who writes about the Sopranos and Six Feet Under is hilarious. I even read it after I’ve seen the episode.

I guess no one really likes the new Beck poll. So far my halloween costume was the most popular poll yet. I’ll have to think of more polls that include holidays and/or me dressing up.

Nowayscoob has a new CD, but I don’t know if its good or not yet because I don’t have one. It’s called “Nowayscoob’s Greatest Hits” and they turned down my suggestion of naming it “Heinous Grits.”

Adam Brodsky usually hosts an Antihoot (anti-folk) open mic on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom), but he was in Texas this week. The show went on, but with more of an normal open mic vibe (anti-anti-folk?). I must look like a guy who enjoys going first, because if there is any doubt in the ordering of performers I always seem to be picked by the host to start the night. This has happened at open mics in various cities with numerous hosts, so I know it can’t be a coincidence. I’d love to imagine they like starting out the night with a strong act, but naivety was never one of my strong points. In attendence were Butch Ross, Margaret from Anti Emz, a guy playing a song about seal who escaped from the Prague zoo, and the duo Thomas Edison (made up of brothers Tom and Ed). Anti Emz and Thomas Edison (among others) are playing a big acoustic show at the Pontiac Grill next Wednesday. Make sure you’re there.

The turnout of performers was small, so I was able to play two sets. “I’m a Lesbian Trapped in a Man’s Body,” Todd Snyder’s “I Can Drink Any Woman Pretty,” and “I Hope I Die on the Moon” all made it into my first set. “Why Now Satan,” Gomez’s “Get Miles,” and “Headstart” made up my second. I had a good time, but rumors abounded about the possibility of the anti-hoot at Fergie’s dying out. It seemed pretty likely last night.

I’m going to see Frank Black and the Catholics on Thursday, 11/21 at the TLA. Tickets are $13 ($18 if you use Shiticketmaster) and I can’t wait.

This story is too good to be true. California got the rally monkeys and Thailand got the riot monkeys.

The place looked deserted when I walked into the Living Room tonight, but ended up turning out ok. The few in attendence at 8:30 seemed to enjoy my 4 song set, which included “Why Now Satan?”, Beck’s “Asshole” (notice the proper location of those quotes), “The Genius of it All,” and the requested “I’m a Lesbian Trapped in a Man’s Body.” I was pretty surprised to hear it called out (thanks John), since I don’t think I’ve ever played that song at the Living Room. I guess some people actually are listening to the MP3s. In fact Roz listened to them enough to tell me the recordings sound “flat,” and I would agree but they also said that about the Earth.

The night picked up later on with good performances by Keith Lewis, Roz King, John Shaughnessy, Justin of Nowayscoob, and Dom from the Courier Post. Justin spent a half hour tuning his guitar before his set and broke a string three chords into his first song. He’s been playing great lately. According to him, my cover of Gomez’s “Get Miles” is better than the original, but I definitely disagree there. Their album, “Bring it On” is possibly the best album ever made that shares a title with a cheerleading movie.

On Saturday I went to see the Kelly Bell Band at Grape Street, but I was blown away by their opening act, Brother From Another. If you ever get a chance to see theses guys, do it unless you are one of the following:

• An old lady
• Young, but with the musical tastes of an old lady
• Deaf

Justin from nowayscoob emailed me on Friday and wanted to know if I could play a few songs in the middle of their set on Saturday night at the new Port City Java in Deptford, NJ. I’ve heard this coffee house has open mics on Thursday night, but I haven’t checked them out yet. I showed up at PCJ a little early, so me and my guests checked out the board games they had. It was no contest once I saw they had WWJD in board game form. The game consisted of questions like, “On the playground a boy says his dad is the strongest dad in the neighborhood. What would Jesus do?” It gives you three choices, and in this case the wrong answers were “Call the boy’s dad a weenie-arm” or “Organize a neighborhood arm wrestling tournament.” Great stuff.

Nowayscoob played great and did a bunch of originals and covers including, “Stuck in the Middle With You,” “Where is My Mind,” and the “Stray Cat Strut.” They’ve definitely come a long way since the first time I heard them in Kevin’s basement. I did two sets; one in the middle of their set and one at the end. I played “I Hope I Die on the Moon”, “Why Now Satan?”, “The Genius of it All”, Beck’s “Cut in Half Blues”, “16-18″, Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”, Gomez’s “Get Miles”, and “I’m a Lesbian Trapped in a Man’s Body.”

My halloween costume ended up being a guy struck by lightning, which required burning some of my clothes. It seemed well received.

As for my Internet connection, I finally figured out what was causing the problem. My Linksys wireless router was casuing intereference that messed up my cable modem even when my router was not connected to anything but power. Seperating the modem and the router solved the problem completley.

This is definitely one of the creepiest things I’ve seen online in a while.