They Might Be Giants pretty much formed my idea of what a concert ought to be like. I probably saw TMBG play live five or six times before I saw any concerts by anyone else. They're awesome. I wish I could see them play again and experience it the way I experienced that first concert --- Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, on their Apollo 18 tour. I stood right by the amp and let the music literally shake me. I was so inexperienced at concerts that I left before the encore, because I didn't know that bands did encores.

(in re electoral votes, knock yourself out.)

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the poetry slam last night (which is going to be a regular thing for us, I think), and they mentioned that their DJ went missing, since he was at They Might Be Giants, and I thought to myself: damn.

Still and all, you should come to one of these poetry slam things.  Goddamn fine stuff, some of it too hipster typical or too literate gangsta or too teenage girl, but some of it?  Holy crap, some of it is really amazing.
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"You bring the weasel, I'll bring the whiskey." - kellnerin

In one of my jobs as a manager of publications someplace, I once hired a very high energy guy, Navy/DOD background, whose immediately prior job had been writer at some kind of alcohol/drug rehab hospital chain. Although his background was in some ways weak, I decided to hire him based on the strength the recommendation of his former boss, and the way he handled himself in the two job interviews. The job was technical writer.

He had not much formal schooling but a lot of Navy training and OJT. I liked him. First two weeks on the job, a very quick learner, enthusiastic, sometimes almost too high energy. After the second week on the job, I noticed him falling asleep in a team meeting after lunch. Which surprised me because I had seen him only a few hours before and he had been very awake, in overdrive.

Then he missed four days of work and didn't call in sick. Vanished. Calls to his home number were not answered. On the fifth day he came in and said he had had a "relapse," and would I give him another chance. I talked to my boss, and we decided OK.

He came back to work and was doing great. Very quick learner, taking real asignments, in gear. Two weeks later, or maybe a month, I don't remember, a repeat. He disappears. For a long while. Finally calls up and says he's been in an accident, in hospital. I believed him, I think, but the story was confusing.

I called his home & got his wife? Significant other. Offered concern about his being in hospital, after car accident.

Long pause.

"He wasn't in an accident. He wasn't in the hospital. I'm not going to say anything else."

He called up two days later with the same story, and I said, "I need the name of the hospital, and the name of a doctor that I can call. They cannot call me, I need to call them."

He hung up, I notified HR that he was fired effective immediately, and I never heard from him again.

Since his problematic behaviors all showed up immediately after paychecks, I'm assuming the problem was smack. If it were booze he could have come up with the ten bucks he needed to get drunk any time.

That shit sure is heartbreaking.
Buy my books, dammit!

is one hell of an awesome concert. i always enjoyed their random drum solos, and the "lets turn on the radio, and play along with whatever we find" thing too.
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if de-virgination results in me being able to birth hammerhead sharks, SIGN ME UP!!! --misslake