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Geek Weekly #4

37
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37

COLUMBIA MISSOURI: A Scene Report

What is it that you do in a college town? In the middle of the midwest, it isn't so much what there is to do, as what you find to do. Certainly it is that way most places but it all seems more prevalent when the shows that come to town that are worth seeing are all organized by kids that I'm friends with and anything interesting that happens is either by a stroke of pure luck or the fact that someone didn't know what they were doing is cool.

What is good about this town? Well there are some good bands. Any college town has to have a few and we do, from the country rock of the Starkweathers to the garage induced mayhem of the Revelators to the obtuse acoustic stylings of the Northerns and the usual cadre of noise bands like the Carters and Product 19. We try, but it is the best we can do.

The fact that there are about 1 1/4 decent venues in town doesn't make going out very easy or worthwhile. The Blue Note holds about 800 people and uses that to their advantage, and our disadvantage. All of the shows that make it in are big and have to negotiate around the regularly scheduled dance nights every Wednesday and Saturday. Sunday and Monday find the Blue Note almost always closed.

That ends up working out okay now as the 200 person capacity blues club has taken to booking, well, "Alternative" bands on Monday nights. Deep Blues brings in decent local blues acts the rest of the week and the occasional good touring blues act. (OH and Missouri blues acts don't typically match up to those Antone's offers)

After that we really start to fake it. The Grifters had the privilege of playing in one of my friends basements until the cops came. The Fusebox used to book shows in the back of a coffee shop. Now they use various rooms around campus and the meeting room adjacent to the radio station. I've been trying to use University money to book some cool bands, but there's only so much I can do. Although I think I got the New Bomb Turks and Teengenerate to play in either an auditorium on campus or the bowling alley in the main Commons. Either way, it is an example of what we can do and how we make shit up in order to do it.

Last edit over 9 years ago by Jennifer Hecker

Geek Weekly #6

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NEW YEAR'S EVE 1997

I ran away from Austin to Memphis on New Year's Eve so that I could salvage my shitty holidays. That means I missed the last New Bomb Turks show here, which I'm sad about, but I got to hear the Oblivians and the Royal Pendletons and a new-wave band play at the Young Avenue Deli. When I arrived in town, Scott met me at the Lamplighter all dressed up, so I was compelled to wear a formal gown (all right, I wore a long, slinky thing from work) and gloves. You know what I like about Memphis? Everyone else was dressed up, too. People are such slobs in Austin.

On this particular trip, Mike McCarthy was kind enough to show me his latest project, Shine On Sweet Starlet, a series of sixties-style clips where ingenues strip for the camera in the comfort of their own homes or favorite bars. The soundtrack should be out this April on Sympathy for the Record Industry, but I'm not sure when the flick itself will be completed. It's a great piece of work — modern naked ladies shot on Super 8 to look like vintage naked ladies. Mike will be shooting his next project this summer — ladies, send GW your headshots [buttshots —ed.] and they'll be passed on.

Dan Ball took some pictures of me while I was there, which I might get to see this year. He's the guy that took all those swirly, arty pictures of the Grifters, the Oblivians and the Clears. I got to crawl around on his piano and couch in a bunch of lingerie, then sit really still for those long exposures. I hope for next year's Christmas card to be one of these photos.

So I figure 1998 will turn out all right since I started it in Memphis. I'll let you know if that helped or not.

Last edit almost 7 years ago by lerivoir
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