I showed up for the Tool concert so early that there were maybe 40 people in line. I decided to go grab some dinner and cruise around the city a bit because I had two hours to show time, and the way garage fees were, I would have ended up spending half the ticket price on a few hours of peak parking. By the time I got back (and wisely settled myself into a flat fee lot a couple of blocks out.) The line had grown to over a thousand people and stretched practically as far away as I had parked. 



Damn,  I had been planning on getting next to the stage.



Once the line had snaked past the obligatory strip search, I was surprised to find that there was still plenty of room, near the front. In fact I ended up about 6 heads back from center stage. I had a command view, and I was just far enough back to still be in line of the massive overhead speakers that pointed down at us. There was nobody tall in front of me, and I had my shit-kicker boots on if things came to that. This was going to be excellent.



Opening act - Trans-Am: Really good. An edgy ambient sound, half high powered instrumental rock and half electronica and sound effects. It fit very well with the tool universe. Best of all, they were mixed just as well as tool was on the big speakers. The guys shouted and raised their hands, and the girls that had been dragged out to the front of the crowd by their boyfriends were lulled into a false sense of security of what was about to happen next.



Headliner - Tool: When they came out and walked the stage the place went completely nuts. When they blasted into their first song, the crowd up front surged like a riot at a soccer game. It became impossible to either stay on your feet or fall over. It was the worlds most crushing group hug and I saw more than a few panicking screaming girls almost dragged under by the current. I stuck it out jubilantly for the first three songs and then let myself get washed backwards past the mosh whirlpools until I was maybe 40 heads back, and still with a great view and in a much better spot for hearing the clearly mixed audio. Billy Graham isn't the most ideal acoustic hall, but they worked well with what they had. It was great to almost be able to reach out and touch the band at first, but this ended up being the sweet spot for jumping and rocking with the crowd or having enough elbow room to zen out for the melodic parts.

All of the Tool boys were dead on in perfect form, and when I left at the end of the event (flat fee lot – no traffic ; ) ) I could still feel my body vibrating from the massive subwoofers. As I write  this the  tracks are  still playing non-stop in my mind’s ear. =)

 

An excellent evening with one of my favorite bands. I hope folks get a chance to  grab a ticket with me the next time they come through.

Two submissions out today:

• "The Janitor of Unseen Things" to Quick Fiction.
• "The Lies That Tie the Bones" to The Southern Review.
  
  

    I am a writer.



    At the age of nine I pulled a dusty, black smith corona typewriter with a faded ribbon out of the back of my parent’s closet and decided I would be an author. I published my first short story at 16 and have been working on fiction and creative nonfiction ever since. I don’t talk about being a writer much in this journal because it seems self evident, a bit private, and in a way, redundant. “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture,” Miles Davis once said. I took that to mean dreamers talked and writers wrote. There’s a truth to it, but luckily, I don’t take it quite as literally as I used to.



    Meeting therinth was an electrifying moment. She is a wildly talented and kick ass writer who is well on her way to good things. We became friends, and read our stuff to each other in that hesitant way adopted only by the newbie or (in our cases) by the experienced writer afraid he or she is about to be gushed upon by a newbie.  To our mutual surprise and pleasure, we both found a peer. Suddenly I had someone to dance about architecture with, and it was fantastic. So focused with the solitary act of writing, I had never really hung out with other writers that were tapped into community, gone to the book conventions, networked with writers and editors. I hadn’t realized what community I was missing or that it could energize me so much. therinth soon departed for, conquered, and survived the famous Clarion writing workshop and returned with her sanity intact (I've dreamed off and on about attending myself for years). The first things she said to me when she got back was “You have to go, Chris. You would totally kick ass there!”





    I’m going to Clarion.





    Thank you, therinth =) Just getting to know you is what really spurred me to go. Part of me had already decided before you even said a word. 



    No I haven’t even sent my application in yet – the submission window doesn’t open until the end of the month, but I can say right now with more than a little piss and vinegar that I am ready and I am going.  There is an exciting group of instructors teaching both workshops this year. Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, and the Sandman comic series is an instructor at Clarion in San Diego this year, and Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and Invisible Monsters is an instructor at Clarion West in Seattle.  Both workshops have a fantastic array of instructors that cycle through, and I will be applying to both.  Wish me luck.



    I am going to start dancing about architecture in this journal - talking about writing, I mean.  No, you’ll still never catch me posting rough drafts of my writing  and you'll never see me gushing about how great I think I am. If you think I’m great, thank you graciously – keep the face lapping to a minimum (if you don’t think I’m great, find a way to deal with it), and if you want to read my work, I’ll still direct you to go buy whatever I last published.  I'm not here to talk about me. What I will talk about is my work,  the craft and the art, experiences and anecdotes, submissions, acceptances and rejections, happenings in the writing community, and you.



     If you are reading this, you are my writing community. Thanks for being here. =)

Good tickets are still available. Anyone interested in going with? =)









It's Tori!

Today is the day that all Americans join hands and give thanks that the turkeys don't rise up and kill us all.