Looks like there’s hope for the goths after all.
I’ve posted my photos from CONvergence, the sci-fi convention to which I was invited to play accoridon pied piper for the Dystopia Party. You can check the slideshow, but be sure to view them in album form, because I’ve written some back story for each of the photos.
Happy Independence Day to all my American readers! Hope yours was fun.
I spent mine saying some good-byes to my friends at CONvergence/Dystopia, joining Dave Ahrens’
family for a barbecue and then getting dropped off by him at the
airport. Here’s a shot of me from earlier this afternoon, ready to
celebrate the 4th American style: lookin’ stylish with a
stars-and-stripes tie, resplendent in my Elvis sideburns and ready to
rock, and posing beside a ridiculously large automibile.
It doesn’t get more “American Badass” than this.
The tie got raves at the airport. A number of the staff at the
Northwest Airlines counter came to check it out, a young woman at the
security checkpoint winked at me, gave me a thumbs up and said “Great
tie, dude!” and the stewardesses on my flight were all over the tie.
Maybe it’s time to start a “flags of the world” tie collection.
In the process of prototyping an application for Blogware (the blogging tool used in creating this blog) that made use of its stats package, I noticed some incoming referrals from Wikipedia, of all places. It turns out that I’m listed under the “Accordionists” section of the Accordion entry. I’m listed alongside some serious bright lights: Guy Klucevsek, Weird Al, Lawrence Welk and my accordion role models John Linnell (from They Might Be Giants, for making the accordion cool) and Art van Damme and Dick “Daddy-O” Contino (hipster accordion legends, who made the accordion sexy).
It’s sort of odd that I’m listed among these people: with the glaring
exception of me, they’re all pros; I’m an amateur and a seriously
goofball one at that. I’m deeply honoured.
Wikipedia, being a wiki, is designed to accepting editing and
contributions from anybody. One of the necessities of such a design is
a history for each entry, which allows you to see what changes were
made, when they were made and who made them. Thanks to the history page for the “Accordion” entry, I know that a contributor named Bob Jonkman added me to the list on April 13, 2004. Thanks, Bob!
I’ll have to add some people to the “Accordionists” list: Jason Webley and Domenic the Accordion Beatles Guy both of whom have been doing accordion rock far longer than I, Astor Piazzolla, the undisputed king of accordion tango. And I can’t forget my accordion partner in crime, Karl Mohr, without whom I wouldn’t have become the Accordion Guy.
I’ll be wearing my American flag tie deep in the heart of America on
the 4th of July, as I have been invited to play accordion at the Dystopia Party, which takes place at the CONvergence science fiction conference in Minneapolis this weekend.
According to the Dystopia Party site:
The Dystopia Party is a recurring theme party held at CONvergence, an
annual science fiction & fantasy convention in the Twin
Cities, Minnesota over Fourth-of-July weekend. We offer music,
fun, food, and stifling oppression in a dark, dystopian-future
themed environment. 2003 was our first year hosting a con
party and we took the place by storm. We intend to go to even
greater lengths this year.
For 2004 our party will run from 7pm ’till 3am both Friday,
July 2nd and Saturday, July 3rd. We’re in Room 230 of the
Sheraton (nee Radison) on Highway 100 south of 494. Just come
on by the hotel and you’ll see us immediately upon entering the
pool/cabana/party space.
I’ll be there, as will my lovely girlfriend, The Redhead.
Dystopia is organized by some friends. Bridget, Dystopia’s promotions and staffing person, was the first and only person to ever PayPal me a beer, and she and Joe came to Accordion City in late 2002. Ry4an
(no, that’s not a typo), the party’s money guy, is a coworker from
those heady dot-com days at OpenCola. These fine people saw fit to
cover my plane ticket and hotel expenses, so you’d better believe I
will be perfoming my brains out.
It’ll be good to see Bridget, Joe and Ry4an, and I’m also hoping to see swarming network guru and Roshambo champion Justin Chapweske and his wife Natz, big fun guy Dave Polaschek and Luke Francl, the Lizard Picture King. As a special treat, I shall make Dave Ahrens a very happy man by performing Brecht and Weil’s Alabama Song (the Doors’ version) with him.
If you’re attending CONvergence, drop by the party. It’ll be fun!
(By the bye, this entry’s title is a riff on the lyrics to Soundgarden’s anthem, Outshined.)
As soon as Carson (the host) saw me walk into last night’s Kickass Karaoke, he attached something to the mic stand. It was an instrument boom. He’d bought it just to make it easier to set up a second mic for the accordion.
Holy crap.
Thanks, Carson! You’re the best!
Some of the nice people you’ll meet at Kickass Karaoke. Dorian, Carson (the host) and me.
Don’t forget that Kickass Karaoke takes place tonight at the Bovine Sex
Club (542 Queen Street West, just east of Bathurst). To catch a bit of
the flavour, check
out this video of the last Kickass Karaoke at the Bovine [1 MB QuickTime] featuring Johnny O singing The Kinks’ Apeman and the Bovine “regulars” (regular attendees, not “regular” as in “average” or “normal”).
“Nothing succeeds in this world like imagination,” says Eric Weber, narrator of the audiobook Picking Up Girls Made Easy.
“Think about it! Einstein had imagination. Casanova had imagination.
And Romeo had a great imagination. Didn’t he score Juliet, one of the
greatest pick-ups of all time?”
(A couple of notes: 1. For my British friends: what we call “picking
up”, you’d call “pulling”. 2. I’d hardly view a pick-up that lead
directly to my death as “great”.)
That’s how the audiobook chapter The Walking the Dog Pick Up
[4 MB MP3] begins. The narrator’s dated slang and “Eddie Haskell’s all
grown up” voice, the cheesy voice acting and the advice that sounds as
if it’s coming from Larry Dallas (Jack Tripper’s swinging single friend from
Three’s Company) make this an unintentionally hilarious gem.
“There’s no doubt about it: you’ve got to use your imagination,” says
the narrator at the close. “If you’ve haven’t got a dog, try an antique
car. If you can’t afford that, try an antique bicycle. And if
that’s too fancy, try antique roller skates. Remember, it’s not what
gimmick you use, but how you use it, and how you use your imagination.
Good luck!”