stanhope show

Last night I saw Doug Stanhope perform live. And once again I sat near one of the most annoying hecklers.

Well, most of his heckling happened during the second opening act, some music act from Tennessee where one of them was from Finland. The rest of the time, he was just screaming.

And he was also on the phone the whole time. He might have been trying to bootleg the show, but whether his friend was recording it or not, I don't see why he would have the phone up to his ear the whole time, and saying "listen to this!" a lot, and continuing to scream. Some people around me thought he had Tourette's.

When I could concentrate, the show was pretty good. The first opening act was funny, the second opening act was OK, and Doug's set was long and dynamic. While he's prone to tangents and occasional trip-ups, his control over the audience never waned.

This morning, I'm having trouble getting out of bed. Too much to do this weekend.

Sweeney Todd?

Johnny Depp AND Helena Bonham-Carter?

Some movies you don't have to see because you know they'll be horrible. This one I don't have to see because I know it'll be awesome. To see it would be to accuse the trailer of lying.

It's a good thing I've been talking the skeptic talk for so long, because I'll have to see this movie in order to walk the skeptic walk.

Anyone else want to see it?

My first ticket

I was unpacking a box in the closet, and in a late 1990s paperback edition of "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", I found as a bookmark, the first concert ticket I'd ever purchased. I bought it at Dillard's, and got it for $20 with my KUPD Red Card.



It was for Ozzy Osbourne, and it was actually postponed at the last minute because Ozzy had gotten ill, so my best friend Donnie and I had to wait in the parking lot for his gigantic Ford Galaxie to cool down. He wore a T-shirt from the "Filthy Smelly Puking Habit" anti-smoking campaign of the time, which he proudly described to other concert-goers while smoking. I ended up getting a cheap (though possibly bootleg) T-shirt in the parking lot, and we met up with some other pissed off concert-goers while we waited for Donnie's car to cool down. Some of them had driven in from Tucson. But since I hadn't, I had fun anyway. It's also the first time I peed outside within the Phoenix city limits.

And a few months later, we got our concert, though the opening act had changed. It was just Sepultura then, which I didn't really care for.

The reason for the poor condition of the ticket could be the ravages of time, but it could also be because I dropped it in a puddle of beer. I actually left it at my seat while I went out to get refreshments, and had to sneak past a security gate as a result.

And just as Ozzy was about to come on stage, the lights to the seats went out, and I still hadn't found my seat yet, and as a result I crashed into some guy and made him drop his beer. He got angry enough to raise the attention of security, but before he got there, I'd diffused the situation by covering the cost of the beer, with a $20 bill. I didn't care about making change, I just wanted to not get in a fight, not get kicked out, and not miss the beginning of the show.

I don't really remember much else about the concert, except it being my first concert I didn't really know how to emote properly.

Funny, now that I'm working for Ticketmaster, I don't see many concerts anymore.