Floater rocks my world. I don't know many other bands that would throw an accoustic show and cover Elton John AND Green Day in the same night.

Earlier this week, it finally became legal in Oregon for same sex couples to register as domestic partners, giving them virtually all the rights as a married couple. It's not a full victory of course, but it's a major one. There were couples lined up out the door at the courthouse on Monday when it went into effect. Basic Rights For Oregon put together a victory party that somehow ended up being hosted by The Tango Center. Rhonda, who runs the place along with Greg, was kind enough to recommend me as the DJ. I DJ at the Tango Center at least once a week these days (playing my personal brand of alternative tango) and most of the time I don't get paid. If I do, it's more of a token compensation, not an actual payment. Since this would be a paying job, the victory party felt like it would be my first real gig. I started getting a little nervous, I suppose because getting paid meant that I had much higher expectations to keep people happy.

Becky, the organizer, gave me some idea of what she was expecting. The first half of the party would be people arriving, mingling, eating and relaxing, so play something mellow, exotic and mood setting. Then we'd have some toasts, and finally crank up the music and dance. She suggested that I make sure to have some gay anthems thrown in, stuff like the 'I Will Survive', 'We Are Family', that kind of thing. She also pointed out that this group of people had been hearing those songs at every party for decades, so feel free to surprise and do something different. She also wanted to have a tango lesson toward the end of the evening, so she wanted to hear some tango music as well.

I started putting together several setlists to match the various phases of the evening. I had my 'chill out' list, 'exotic world beat', 'tango', 'alt tango' and finally my 'dance' list. Each set of music was between 2 and 3 hours long, almost enough to fill the evening by itself. I figured I'd mix them all up on the fly, depending on the mood of the party. The biggest challenge for planning was actually picking out dance music because besides Madonna and Sister Sledge, I'd never acquired much gay music. So during the few days leading to the party, I started asking around various people at work, 'I need some gay music, what should I be playing?'. The response was invariably, "uh.... they listen to the same thing you and I listen to," with an implied, "you ignorant homophobic bigot." Eventually, I just looked up some stuff on the internet, because I don't know what the internet is for if it's not for teaching people how to be gay.

Finally the party came. I started with about 2 hours worth of music, mostly from the 'chill out' and 'exotic' list, with the expectation that I would tweak the set as I went on and that I would put together the final 'dance' list as the party went on. Before I had even finished the third song, a totally butch dyke approached me, "The music you're playing is very pretty, but do you have anything more gay? Maybe some Donna Summer? There's nothing gayer than Donna Summer!" I scraped my playlist on the spot and started building up as much disco and club music as I could. It worked, people loved it. It was true, the gayer the music got, the more people actually got on the floor to dance. Finally, I even gave them YMCA. I felt guilty because it was too easy, but the payoff of seeing a crowd of a couple hundred people spontaneously burst into dance made it worth it. Even the people milling about in conversation on the sides were compelled to join in.

The party was a raging (perhaps even... flaming?) success, we had people like state rep Phil Barnhart, county commissioner Pete Sorenson and a bunch of city councilors show up. I had dancer friends come out to play. Charles and I made it a point to tango with each other as much as we could before he taught the free lesson with Liz. I even had a fantastic surprise when Krys and Mitch showed up all the way from Ashland to party. It really was a totally gay party. And by 'gay' I mean 'happy', you homophobic bigot.

This last weekend I went to Gerlinger Hall to do some ballroom dancing, which I haven't done for ages. I've been so immersed in Argentine Tango, with the occasional cameo at a West Coast Swing night, that ballroom dancing actually has become inexcusably difficult. Certain dances I was fine on, like swing and cha cha but others like waltz and foxtrot, I might as well have been making them up from the the start. There was definitely some dramatic irony in returning to Gerlinger after all these years and getting schooled by my buddy Devlin, who has always looked up to my crazy tango skills at the Tango Center.

My god, my friends and I used to be like the Goodfellas of Gerlinger. We RAN that place. We knew everyone there and we got away with whatever we wanted. Now, I could barely finish a waltz without losing the rhythm several times (losing the rhythm of something as simple as a waltz is like not being able to count to '3' without accidentally throwing in a '4').

I began to realize what the distinction was. The closer in form and feeling to tango, the worse I performed a given dance. I kept easily getting confused, dancing steps that reminded me of tango, yet not being able to improvise around them like I would in tango. However on the dances I didn't have problems with, I realized it was because they were so different from tango that I was able to keep them distinct in my brain. For instance, no one (not even a non-dancer) would ever confuse tango with swing and I was able to cut a rug like a pro anytime one came on. It made me miss those dances. Now I have fantasies of a throwing in an occasional explicit swing tune to my tango sets, despite the fact that I know many people find that idea completely offensive.

After I got my fill of Gerlinger, which only took about an hour, I got to bring my friends Casey, Devlin and Tamera to see Labyrinth playing late-night at the Bijou. It's an awfully different movie at my current age and in that context. Anytime David Bowie appeared, he was greeted with enthusiastic cheers from the entire room. The songs became audience participation scenes, with people singing along and dancing in their chairs. I think I like it much more this way.

Saturday was busy, with yet another dinner party, much Guitar Hero, 'North by Northwest' and tangoing til 4:00 am. Here's a few pictures to summarize the day:

Here is Heather and her boy, Andy, looking cute as could be. This is actually how Heather communicates barely controlled rage. The giveaway is her glowing red eyes.


Here, Aaron viscously attacks Casey, resulting in a series of unlikely chain reactions that concluded with the brief reordering of history, causing an alternate time-line to unfold in which neither had been born and thus Aaron never actually attacked Casey.


And finally here is Christina shredding guitar to Tenacious D's 'The Metal'. Rumor is that Jack Black wants her to come on their next tour, but only cause he wants a sweet piece 'o that.



Joanne and I spent Sunday entertained by the storm blowing in and watching 'Before Sunrise', which might be one of the best and most convincing romances I have ever seen. Seriously, anyone falling in love (or still in love after all these years) with someone should corner that person and sit down to watch this with them. And this is ME saying this. I hate romance movies, but I'm highly recommending looking this one up!

The moral of this story?
There isn't one today, only pure bacchanalian joy.

A buddy of mine at work has a band called 'Made of Skin'. They just recorded a 5 song demo. They're exactly the kind of passionate, hardworking local band that people should actually be giving a listen to. I've got 'Drop' added to my profile now, if you like it, go check out their page, or better yet, just go to a show.

In case you actually haven't heard:

Radiohead have a new album that they recored without the 'help' of a record label. They decided to release the album as a download from their webpage inrainbows.com. The cool thing (besides the fact that the album is a gorgeous rock and roll record) is that you can pay whatever price you want for the album. Honest to god, when you go to purchase the album, it prompts you to enter in any price you want. It's all part of a grand experiment to see what people will actually pay for music. That money goes straight to Radiohead, not some dirty record label that 'owns' their music.

I know, Thom Yorke and the rest of the band are all millionaires already, so they can get away with a stunt like this, but I'm seeing more and more bands (Nine Inch Nails also comes to mind) getting fed up with the record industry and finding ways to circumvent it. The industry is scared shitless. And they should be. If more and more artists go this route, that could do more to kill the industry than napster ever did.

A few months ago, I made the observation that 'time is not structured to my advantage'. With Joanne back in the classroom and my tango activity reaching the limits of what I can handle, that statement is really starting to get to me.

For instance, a couple Saturdays ago, Joanne and I manged to ride our bikes to go tour the UO art museum, watch the Duck football game, have friends over for a movie night ('Touching The Void') and then dance until 3:00 in the morning. And that's kinda a normal Saturday for me.

Here's a picture from a walk that we took. Joanne is pretending to be a squirrel. She'll kill me if she finds out I posted this picture.


This last weekend has been just as entertaining. As part of the 'First Friday Art Walk', the owner of Davis' restaurant teamed up with Greg, who runs the tango center, to host a tango themed afterparty. We began with a milonga at the tango center with Los Bandidos Del Tango playing and me trying to DJ while half asleep. Actually, for the last half hour, Greg was DJing because I had in fact, fallen asleep. I don't get much sleep on the weekends, so sometimes, a half hour in the back of the tango center is all I can manage.

The event was only loosely planned. Come all fancy-like and dance tango was the general idea. Of course, you don't really have to ask us to dress up, but we had fun anyway. Here's Casey and Heather getting into character:

(happy birthday Casey!)

Midway through the evening, a dozen or so of us packed up and went down the block to Davis'. They had given me a tour of their new side-room mere days earlier. It still had wet paint on the door frames, butcher paper on the floors and sawdust coating everything. Now it was filled with local art on the walls, a carpeted stage and a modest clear floor for dancing. It was also packed with people, both at the tables and outside the floor-to-ceiling windows at the street.

Once Charles had figured out their stereo system, we casually danced to our music and amused passersby like we tend to do. About an hour later, Liz announced that we would be giving a free lesson and anyone who wanted to could come join us on the dance floor. Trepidation gripped half the room and outright terror gripped the other half. Finally, after some encouragement, one excited looking young woman, dragging her boyfriend behind her, proclaimed that they would love to be our first victims. A couple more people slowly joined. We decided to start with that and began the basic lesson. After a few minutes, the floor was packed with people eager to learn.

It quickly got crowded enough that I decided to sit down for a spell and let the new dancers enjoy the floor. There's something adorable about watching people tango for the first time. It's like watching a room full of babies taking their first steps. People with otherwise perfect balance and who have no problems walking in a straight line suddenly trip over their partners and start wildly swerving into other people, chairs and totally stationary walls. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, I went through the same thing when I first learned. It really is amusing though that people forget how to walk.

While the lesson finished, Mood Area 52 had set up and were itching to start playing. Their first song, Liz and Charles gave a performance. For the second performance, the plan was that I would escort Casey to the floor and at the last moment, swap partners so that I was dancing with Charles and Casey would dance with Liz. Of course, when we tried that, the other dancers took that as a signal that it was clear for anyone to dance and the floor immediately filled up. I'm actually not annoyed by that. In fact, I'd rather see everyone dancing and having fun instead of just watching me dance and having all the fun. But it is kinda ironic that most of my 'performances' end up like this. Tom Waits night at Sam Bonds, the Eugene Celebration demos, Holiday Market with Accordions Anonymous, I get asked to perform and then end up just part of the crowd, surrounded by other dancers. Maybe I'm less of a Gene Kelley and more of a Pied Piper. I think I can enjoy that role.

Once the crowd got involved, I was pleased with how many new, beaming faces I saw dancing. I got to dance with Amy, the woman who was helping organize the whole night, then the always gorgeous Marietta (in between her songs with Mood Area 52) and the young woman who had first excitedly jumped up for the lesson. I don't think I've danced with a happier bunch of people for months. New dancers, old friends, everyone was having the time of their life, laughing and dancing.

Once Mood Area 52 finished their set, we put on a final set of more nuevo and electronic tango. Casey's mother was there with a new camcorder, filming most of the night. I hope she got a bit of Casey and I dancing to 'Exodo II'. I always give the last song of the night everything I've got, and I pounded the dance floor with this one. Skittering beats coarse through that song, it would be great to see someone pop and lock to it. As it was, I gave it a furious whirlwind of boleos and syncopations. I don't know how it looked, but it sure felt apocalyptic.

Getting close to midnight, it occurred to me that I had not eaten since lunch. Heather, Casey and I quietly slipped out to the street even though Mood Area 52 was starting another set.

Check out those earrings! Totally tango!

We ended up at Shari's, which is always a surreal experience for me. Shari's always seems to induce feverish images of my past, when it used to be a weekly destination for late night mischief. I realize it's a trashy restaurant, but I'm inexplicably drawn to it, much like a roadside attraction in Neil Gaimen's 'American Gods'. I'm not sure why I'm there and I leave confused, unsure of how I feel about it, but I'm compelled to visit anyway.

Casey wanted a hot chocolate. I don't think we remembered to get her a birthday pie.


The next day, Joanne and I went out to see the new Cronenberg/Viggo film 'Eastern Promises'. First a warning: although infrequent, this movie has strong graphic violence. If you've seen 'A History of Violence' or 'Pan's Labrynth' you have an idea what to expect. It's realistic and the camera doesn't cut away when most other filmmakers would spare you the image. But if you can manage that, it's a fantastic story. Viggo is shockingly good. He's now officially one of my favorite actors. If you see the movie, I'd love to talk with you about his character, Nikkolai, who is fascinating and far more complex than most people might even notice. One last note on the movie: the final fight scene is one of the most memorable you'll ever see. I don't want to reveal anything, but I can safely claim that no one has filmed anything like this before. You just have to see it to believe it.

After getting fish and chips from the Fisherman's Market (God, what would we do without them?), that night was more tango, cause that's what I do. I was awfully worn down by the previous night though, so I spent more time sitting and watching than I would have liked. But that meant I got to enjoy watching yet another performance from Los Bandidos Del Tango. That's two performances in two nights for them. Double the banditry. Heather couldn't be more gorgeous than when she's playing piano. Actually, no, she's even more beautiful when she's singing. I'll have to get a picture of that next time.


And here's David from that night. You'd think he was dressing up as some tacky white-boy pimp, but no, that's how David always looks.


Finally, to top the weekend off, Joanne and I squeezed in one more movie 'The Battle of Algiers'. It's horribly depressing because although it was made over forty years ago, it's completely relevant to the current war in Iraq. And that means that nothing has changed in forty years. The movie, although a fictionalized account, has terrorist bombings in cafes, civilian massacres, escalating violence, mass protests/riots, torture and scariest of all, the same rhetoric we've been hearing from the Bush administration for the last five years. It's an amazing movie, decades ahead of it's time. It looks so real that it even comes with a disclaimer saying that 'this movie does not include any newsreal or documentary footage'.



I'll conclude this with a bit of wisdom I've picked up over the years:
Good guys go to heaven. Bad guys go to hell. Guys on motorcycles go wherever
they fucking want.

I just spent over 2 hours working on a blog and myspace just fucking ate it. If I have time, I'll try to remember what I had written down and post something later.

A lot of people make summer playlists designed for having friends over, barbecues and cruising around real fast like. I enjoy those playlists and I've made more than my share (two this last summer), but I also like making playlists for other seasons as well. So here's my annotated Fall playlist. Since you, my dear friends, also speak the language of music compilations, I hope this gives some insight into my current psyche.

Myritual - The Folk Implosion (these guys are awesomeness, thanks Steen!)

Closedown - The Cure ("I'm running out of time I'm out of step and closing down" begins my favorite Robert Smith lyrics)

Wake Up - The Arcade Fire (I saw a video of them performing this with David Bowie. Seriously, go youtube.com that shit right now and watch it and be jubilant)

Strychnine - Floater (an underplayed acoustic tune)

Gold - Interference (the only song on the 'Once' soundtrack by a different band, which is ironic because it's my favorite song on that fantastic soundtrack)

Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups (this has one of the most explosively shattering vocal performances I've heard in years)

Via Chicago - The Groundhogs (I honestly like this spare, hardrocking anthemic version better than the original lush, psychedelic version by Wilco, and it's not just because I'm friends with the lead singer or that he might be reading this)

Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division (the playlist hits a melancholic high - or low - with this song)

Just Like Honey - The Jesus And Mary Chain (it's like a Beach Boys love song turned up to eleven)

Drop - Made Of Skin (another local singer/songwriter I know, I'm pretty sure I'm hearing echoes of Floater's 'Endless II' on this)

Falling Slowly - The Frames (of the most insightful love songs I've heard for a long time)

Trailer Trash - Modest Mouse (the first Modest Mouse song I heard, I was hooked and haven't stopped playing it for eight years)

Sulk - Radiohead (and ironic title, this song rouses me up unlike anything else Radiohead plays)

There's A Limit - The Mutton Birds (I still can't explain why their songwriting has such a profound and intimate effect on me)

One Tree Hill - U2 (a sublime ode to loved ones, New Zealand and crescendos of feedback)

Tear In Your Hand - Tori Amos (the only song on 'Little Earthquakes' that I've kept playing all these years)

Sometimes - My Bloody Valentine (there's nothing like five minutes of layer upon layer of guitar fuzz to gently close a mixed CD)

"Cossacks don't wear cassocks because cossaks aren't catholic."

I have cool friends, they are my greatest source of entertainment.