So this has been a pretty long week; not sure why, really. It seems like I spent the whole time in meetings, which, is, you know, par for the course. I just didn’t sleep well any night this week; again, not sure why. The weather’s been trying to decide whether it’s summer or fall, which might be part of it. I got one decent bike ride in this week, which, apart from getting run into by a deer (seriously, they have it in for me – this one bounced right off my hip while I was riding the trail!) was pretty nice, though it hurt (though not really because of the deer, but because I’m getting old). All I know is that it’s felt like I’ve had ten days under my belt since about 8am Tuesday.

I am currently about seven hours out from what looks like it’s going to be a pretty quiet weekend, which I’m honestly looking forward to; the last few have had more than enough activity, and next weekend looks like it’s filling up quickly (at least that’s a long one), with the SBC dance concert, and a last minute Humdingers gig Sunday afternoon in the Triangle.

But, there’s nothing on the agenda beyond stuff like grocery shopping, cleaning the bathroom, watching my wife make little hats for the cats (totally worth the $8.70 for the enjoyment she’s getting), and trying to relax a bit this weekend. Maybe we’ll run out for a bite and a drink if a good food truck’s set up someplace? Only if we feel like it.

I guess I should talk about last night, which was pretty great – as indicated, I took the boy child out to what, apart from the Wiggles and innumerable gigs where I and/or friends happen to be playing, we figured was his first real rock concert – Dweezil Zappa’s *Choice Cuts* tour with the latest incarnation of his Zappa Plays Zappa band, this time, only fifteen minutes from home at the Beacon Theater, a nearly century-old venue in Hopewell, just outside the RVA metro. Dweezil and his band played for more than three hours, hitting a wide variety of Zappa classics and rarities, as well as peppering the show liberally with the theme from Psycho, a private joke within the band from Halloween night that kept rolling into November. The band (almost the same lineup as we saw in ’16 in Richmond, with a few changes), as expected, was on point, hitting every note exactly when it needed to be hit, with exactly the right inflection and emotion. Scheila Gomez, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, was, as she was back the last time I saw the show, a highlight, including taking lead vocals on a surprising inclusion, the novelty hit “Valley Girl”, which I wasn’t figuring on hearing, but it was, a hit with the crowd.

The crowd at this one was a little different than the last time; again, it was largely old guys and a few tolerant wives, and like Andrew and I, a couple of budding teenage musicians with their aging musician dads. that said, this was *Hopewell*, which, in spite of only being half an hour from Richmond, is decidedly not part of the Richmond cultural scene; it’s got much more of a small-town, rural Virginia vibe; as such, there were a lot of people at this show who would never even consider heading up the highway to the “big city” to see a show (this venue tends to specialize in aging country performers during the state fair circuit “off season”, over the hill classic rock bands from the 70s and 80s, and numerous “tribute” acts to Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Abba – that’s a selection of who was advertized for the next couple of months, anyway), so the atmosphere was a little different. There was a bit more whooping and hollering, a bit more drunk on cheap beer, and numerous shouts of “Yore Daddy woulda’ been proud, Sonny!” and such. There was also the two guys behind us who wouldn’t shut up during the whole thing; not that they weren’t appreciative of the performers, but were just loud and kinda distracting.

There was also this guy, right the hell in front of me:

He was just as whoopy and hollery as the rest, and wanted to dance around and “yee haw” drunkenly while being like 6’7″. Luckily, I was able to see around him most of the time and he was only moderate distraction. The important part was that the kid and I had a pretty great time, even if he was very tired afterwards. Worth it; his newly-gestating guitar playing mind was blown, as expected, and it was, if I do say so myself, a nice bonding experience.

Anyway; that’s about all there is other than to kick out the random streaming playlist. Reasonably standard; indie, vikings, a little new wave, and probably my favorite Def Leppard tune that never really got as much love as stuff like “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.

1. “Hang Me Up To Dry” – Cold War Kids
2. “Jezaig” – Eluveitie
3. “Madness” – Muse
4. “Nehalennia” – Heidevolk
5. “Powder Blue/Cascine Park” – Yumi Zouma
6. “Hysteria” – Def Leppard
7. “Pain” – The War on Drugs
8. “Pretend We’re Dead” – L7
9. “Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go” – Soft Cell
10. “How Soon Is Now?” – The Smiths
11. “Islands” – The xx
12. “Carrots” – Skating Polly
13. “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” – Eurythmics
14. “Queen Bitch” – David Bowie