Tain't No Sin

Flip ya, flip ya for real

Wednesday morning already. Wow. Busy weekend. Lot's of new stuff to report.

Last Thursday night Sarah and I went down to the Fox Jazz Fest, which was at the Opera square or whatever they call it. The Jazz Fest was organized by some friends of ours, so it was cool just hanging out and shooting the shit. It was pretty cool. Some good bands that night. Charlie Hunter was by far my favorite of the weekend. He played and 8 string bass/guitar hybrid, and was really phenomenal. His band was good too, just a drummer and a keyboard/sax player. You should really check him out. The after party that night was Burt Klein Jazz Vampyre and the Archestra of the Undead, or something like that. Some guys from town I know. That was pretty fun, but we were both dead tired.

Friday I had the day off so I woke up and took Sarah to work, came home, and got showered up. I went over to my (now completed) practice space and played drums for a couple of hours. After Sarah was done with work we went back down to the Jazz Fest, which was at the Leach Amphitheater, which is a really nice new ampitheather in Oshkosh. The first band was some friends of ours from town called The Vig and they did a bunch of music by this one guy who wrote a bunch of music that later appeared, in some form, in old Bugs Bunny and Disney or WB cartoons. I forget his name off hand. They were pretty good. We took off to get some dinner and came back to a band called Mrs. Fun, who were alright. The last group of the night was Dr. Eugene Chadbourne, backed by the rhythm section from the Violent Femmes. To be honest, I was expecting better, as much as he was talked up, but it was really kinda just weird/Avant garde stuff. Kooky would describe it pretty well. Kinda hippy/jammish/Phish sounding too. So that was a bit of a disappointment.

Saturday I spent the morning cleaning and going on an apartment showing with our realtor, so that I would know what to say/do when I have to start showing apartments. While I was gone, Sarah got a call from her step-mom saying that a neighbors of theirs was selling their car, and they thought of Sarah right away. It's a 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit, good condition, 79,000 miles (at least 10,000 of which is from being towed behind their motor home). I guess they go south for the winters, so it's not all rusted out or anything. It's also diesel and gets 49 miles per gallon, which is nice. So we went up by her dad and step-mom's house Saturday afternoon to look at it. Unfortunately, the guy must have had to go somewhere, so we didn't get to look at it. Spent the afternoon with her parents. Then we went to the drive-in movie. That was awesome....

We saw Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Dukes of Hazzard. First, let me explain the drive-in. The place is in Freedom, about 20 minutes from Appleton. It's actually a new drive-in theater, which you never see, but should see more of. The place is laid out really well, with rows of stones/rocks that you drive on and then little hills/bumps that you park on (grass covered). That's actually way cooler than you might think, because since your on an incline of sorts, you can sort of aim your front end up (or back end, in our case, as I have a station wagon and we opened up the back and layed in the back). No problem seeing the screen at all, no problem hearing it (you tune in your radio, which wasn't crackly or anything). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was really good, of course, although it seemed to move really quickly. The surprise of the night was Dukes of Hazzard, which was much better than I expected. Not an award winner (save MTV maybe), but a good, slightly dirty, comedy.

We also had a really good time before the movie. We got there a couple of hours before the movie started, which was smart because we were by no means the first people there. It fills up really early, especially on the weekends I'm guessing. But we brought some games with to play, and after laying out our blankets and pillows in the back of my car, we played games, ate pizza, and relaxed. I highly recommend going if you are in this area any time soon. They have movies through the end of September I believe, and will be back open next summer or late spring I'm guessing. And they might open up a second screen next summer. Oh yeah, and the best part... The double-feature is only $6 per person. Six dollars for two movies! It's out of control.

The rest of the weekend was much less eventful, ending yesterday with me near death on the couch all day. Well, back to work for now. More later...

posted by Paul @ 8:01 AM