Liquor and a dildo?
Dec. 28th, 2003 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistThe Stuart Davis phenomenon started at the beginning of my sophomore year. He came to Morris, and I didn't see the show. I was going to, but then something happened that I don't even remember now, all I remember is not being too unhappy, as I'd never heard of the guy before. Sure, a couple of my friends are excited, but my friends get excited about Everclear and Rent and Madonna; they obviously can't always be trusted.
The next day, Allison was particularly excited, in the way people get after a concert or some other experience that reminds them of how much they like something. She started playing his music a lot. Something I remember specifically was going to the grocery store with Al and Sarah; Sarah decided she was going to talk only in French, because she does that sometimes. And Al was singing this because it's a fun song with a catchy melody. So there I was, walking around between a girl who was speaking French and a girl singing a song about killing the President with a pipe bomb, and this was about week or two after 9/11. Now, I found this quite funny, but even then I was aware that other people now lack a sense of humor, and so I joked that we were going to get deported, or something.
Anyway, that's how I found out about my first Stuart Davis song, "Pipe Bomb Guru." It made a favorable impression on me, and soon I learned others. I laughed at "Our license plates should read / '10,000 lakes and treatment centers.' " I learned what the word "atavistic" meant. I was jealous of Sarah and Al for going to see him in Fargo. Some time last year, a friend of Matthew's insisted that he come with her to a Stuart Davis concert in Mankato, and he had fun and bought a CD. So Darren and Ali found out about him. A cult of Stuart Davis fans exists among my friends now.
But all my friends who like Stuart Davis had seen him play live. It's no big deal to them, when he's always playing somewhere in the state--and quite often in Mankato, at the coffee shop where Ali works, for crying out loud--but it was a big deal to me. Despite repeated efforts, I had never been to a Stuart Davis concert. Not for lack of trying, but something would always come up. I decided I was cursed. Until ...
In Perkins last night, I must have said something about this that made Darren ask, "That was your first time?" I said it was. "Oh. So ... no, I'm not going to say it." I smiled and told him he should say it. "It's like you were a Stuart Davis virgin!" he declared. I laughed. I'd sort of thought the same thing myself, only it was more along the lines of a classic![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
setharoo line that invovles the word "deflowered." Same idea.
Yes, I have attended a Stuart Davis concert now. Jenn and Matthew and I arrived an hour early and still couldn't sit in a chair. Some tables were moved so there was some space in front, though, and we sat there. Our feet fell asleep. Jenn and I drank cold things to keep cool. As none other than Stuart Davis point out to us later, it was hot and people were close ... but it was hot and people were close.
At one point he asked us "What's the weirdest thing you got for Christmas?" Someone said a ham. Someone else said a disposable Power Rangers camera. Then Jenn said "My mother got me a dildo." That went over well. And she added, "And some liquor!" Later when she pouted all through the encore, "Psycho Killer," she said that her prize for haivng the weirdest Christmas present should have been that she'd get to request a song. (It would have been THE SKIN CANCER SONG.)
During the little intermission, Jenn and I stood in line to buy CDs and get them signed. As Stuart Davis wrote my name and a bunch of unintelligible things on my new copy of Bell, I ended up explaining how much difficulty I've had in trying to get to his concerts. (I don't think he's ever heard of Grand Rapids, MN ... Oh well.) And I've been listening to that CD quite a bit since then.
I really like this song. He played it last night, after saying that any children in the place should be hidden behind a soundproof barrier ... But of course it had to be the one playing this morning when my mom walked into my room, and of course it had to be at the "Moan, moan mother fucker / beg, beg, you dumb bastard" part. I don't my mom noticed (I hope she didn't!) but I did, and it made me think Forget your kids; I think this is going to be one of those songs I have to be careful about playing around my parents!
The next day, Allison was particularly excited, in the way people get after a concert or some other experience that reminds them of how much they like something. She started playing his music a lot. Something I remember specifically was going to the grocery store with Al and Sarah; Sarah decided she was going to talk only in French, because she does that sometimes. And Al was singing this because it's a fun song with a catchy melody. So there I was, walking around between a girl who was speaking French and a girl singing a song about killing the President with a pipe bomb, and this was about week or two after 9/11. Now, I found this quite funny, but even then I was aware that other people now lack a sense of humor, and so I joked that we were going to get deported, or something.
Anyway, that's how I found out about my first Stuart Davis song, "Pipe Bomb Guru." It made a favorable impression on me, and soon I learned others. I laughed at "Our license plates should read / '10,000 lakes and treatment centers.' " I learned what the word "atavistic" meant. I was jealous of Sarah and Al for going to see him in Fargo. Some time last year, a friend of Matthew's insisted that he come with her to a Stuart Davis concert in Mankato, and he had fun and bought a CD. So Darren and Ali found out about him. A cult of Stuart Davis fans exists among my friends now.
But all my friends who like Stuart Davis had seen him play live. It's no big deal to them, when he's always playing somewhere in the state--and quite often in Mankato, at the coffee shop where Ali works, for crying out loud--but it was a big deal to me. Despite repeated efforts, I had never been to a Stuart Davis concert. Not for lack of trying, but something would always come up. I decided I was cursed. Until ...
In Perkins last night, I must have said something about this that made Darren ask, "That was your first time?" I said it was. "Oh. So ... no, I'm not going to say it." I smiled and told him he should say it. "It's like you were a Stuart Davis virgin!" he declared. I laughed. I'd sort of thought the same thing myself, only it was more along the lines of a classic
setharoo line that invovles the word "deflowered." Same idea.Yes, I have attended a Stuart Davis concert now. Jenn and Matthew and I arrived an hour early and still couldn't sit in a chair. Some tables were moved so there was some space in front, though, and we sat there. Our feet fell asleep. Jenn and I drank cold things to keep cool. As none other than Stuart Davis point out to us later, it was hot and people were close ... but it was hot and people were close.
At one point he asked us "What's the weirdest thing you got for Christmas?" Someone said a ham. Someone else said a disposable Power Rangers camera. Then Jenn said "My mother got me a dildo." That went over well. And she added, "And some liquor!" Later when she pouted all through the encore, "Psycho Killer," she said that her prize for haivng the weirdest Christmas present should have been that she'd get to request a song. (It would have been THE SKIN CANCER SONG.)
During the little intermission, Jenn and I stood in line to buy CDs and get them signed. As Stuart Davis wrote my name and a bunch of unintelligible things on my new copy of Bell, I ended up explaining how much difficulty I've had in trying to get to his concerts. (I don't think he's ever heard of Grand Rapids, MN ... Oh well.) And I've been listening to that CD quite a bit since then.
I really like this song. He played it last night, after saying that any children in the place should be hidden behind a soundproof barrier ... But of course it had to be the one playing this morning when my mom walked into my room, and of course it had to be at the "Moan, moan mother fucker / beg, beg, you dumb bastard" part. I don't my mom noticed (I hope she didn't!) but I did, and it made me think Forget your kids; I think this is going to be one of those songs I have to be careful about playing around my parents!
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Date: 2003-12-28 07:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-28 07:12 pm (UTC)