Friday, October 29, 1999

Last night's open mic at Hurley's rocked! If I remember correctly, there were about 80 people in the club at peak head count.

I headlined, but I felt I could have done better. Some songs were just not coming together properly. One in particular, "Deconstructing Erica," did not work at all. It's a 20-minute song, but I wanted to play it last. I didn't time my set list our correctly, and ended up with only ten minutes left for my last song. So, foolish me, I tried to compress "Deconstructing Erica" into a ten-minute space. My friends commented afterwards that doing such a thing was an act of butchery on my part. Next time I'll just play it first.

For the curious, here was my set list for last night:

Welcome To The Machine (originally performed by Pink Floyd, from the album Wish You Were Here CBS 1975)
To Be Mine
The Satellite
Some Kind Of Stranger (originally performed by The Sisters Of Mercy, from the album First And Last And Always Elektra 1985)
Slave
Little Song
American Music (originally performed by The Violent Femmes, from the album Why Do Birds Sing? Slash/Reprise 1990)
Deconstructing Erica

The rest of the night was a rollercoaster of activity. The premise of last night's open mic was a Halloween costume party, so most everyone in Hurley's was dressed up. I personally had on a black trenchcoat (actually, all my clothes were black), black eyeliner and black lipstick, effectively making me a pseudo-goth. Others in the audience were dressed up as psycho clowns, babies, fairies, nurses, witches, etc. One guy was wearing a dress while another was wearing a kilt "true-Scotsman" style. It should be noted that both of those people are on the committee that helps to keep Hurley's running.

There is a phrase people shout to Hurley's open-mic regulars: "Take Off Your Shirt!" I don't know about the origin of this phrase, nor do I care much, but up until recently, nobody took it seriously. Then, suddenly, last week, my friend has the phrase yelled at him, and follows through on the command - right before playing "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Last night, "true-Scotsman" kilt guy was told not to take off his shirt, but to do a striptease at the request of several audience members. "Suck My Kiss" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was played on the sound system, and "true-Scotsman" kilt guy began dancing. Three minutes later, he was running through the club wearing nothing but a sock in front and a T-shirt across the back. No competition - this guy is now a Hurley's legend. He's also $25.00 richer. This is the kind of crazy shit that goes on around here!

My Wells woman is coming up this evening as my date for the Harvest Ball. With the help of a friend of mine, I think I've sorted through some of the confusion I expressed in my last entry. Basically, I know that I am not going to fall in love with her. It is okay to continue having sex with her, so long as we both understand that it is just sex.

Everyone has an animal inside that needs to be satisfied.

I sent in my promissory notes for my loans today. Now I'm truly it debt. Fuck...fuck! FUCK!