December 2003 – bengarvey.com

No Open Mic Tonight

There will be no open mic tonight, but there will be one next week. I hope you all had a good 2003 and hopefully 2004 will be awesome.

Jeanne got me a new CD rack for Christmas and it’s awesome. I think it holds around 250 CDs, which I would have been able to fill if I hadn’t gotten rid of a bunch. I like to keep my CD collection fairly well pruned, although you might not think so based on some of the ones still in there. Click on the image for a larger view (and again for an even larger view) and see if you can guess the CDs in my collection.

Awesome Cartoons

I saw this linked over at BoingBoing and became an instant fan. So far, this is my favorite one, although I can’t begin to understand it. Maybe it’s like one of those puzzles where the pictures spell out a word.

Merry Christmas

Obviously there is no open mic tonight, but I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. It’s the time of year when we have to put up with all the lame eggnog and fruitcake jokes on TV, but hopefully we can get past that and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

Terror Alert Wolfman

The big news today is that we’ve raised the Homeland Security Monster Scale to Terror Alert Wolfman. For more information, consult the official information page.

Accept no substitutes (although this is pretty funny).

The big news today is that we’ve raised the Homeland Security Monster Scale to Terror Alert Wolfman. For more information, consult the official information page.

Accept no substitutes (although this is pretty funny).

Pat Hipp on the Open Mic

I stopped by Pat Hipp’s website today and he wrote the following about the last two open mics

“I made it to the Tree House on Wednesday and played “Running Around,” a new song put together from old music and new lyrics called “Followed By Stars,” and the requisite secret weapon. I got it all recorded, although my vocals overpower the mic in a bunch of places. Not bad for a first try, anyway. I also have to find somewhere to put the microphone that won’t pick up so much of the conversation going on during songs.

I missed my friend Chris’s set, which may or may not have been a good thing, and a little bit of Ben Garvey’s set. I always hear “Genius Of It All” and can’t remember what the name of the song is until he sings it. Then I remember, obviously. He always plays a good set and then wanders the coffee house like Moses, who also ran an open mic night during the Jews’ exodus into the desert. Other highlights were Willie Taps, Jedi Farmer Roz King, and an unrelated Ciccione covering “Like A Prayer.” I downloaded the song when I got home because I like to steal from worthless, irrelevant artists. I like to kick horses when they’re down and still think they’re standing.”

“This week at the Tree House, I played an ungodly set consisting of Incubus’s “I Miss You,” one of the songs I’ve written that’s verse are under my vocal range (“I Know When I’m Wrong”), and ended by completely botching The Beatles’ “Glass Onion,” mentioning to forget how the last verse ends, and covering up by singing about John Lee Hinkley, who I’m convinced was given permission to leave hospital grounds unsupervised because what I did offended God himself.

Speaking of which, Ben brought my attention to something I had never seen before at the coffee house:

Testamints. Jesus Christ, they’re good!”

The Testamints are little individually wrapped mints given out freely at the Tree House. I picture a preist on an assembly line blessing them as mints ride down a stainless steel mat-top conveyor. I couldn’t bring myself to actually eat one, but Pat definitely looked enlightened after ingesting a Testamint.

I stopped by Pat Hipp’s website today and he wrote the following about the last two open mics

“I made it to the Tree House on Wednesday and played “Running Around,” a new song put together from old music and new lyrics called “Followed By Stars,” and the requisite secret weapon. I got it all recorded, although my vocals overpower the mic in a bunch of places. Not bad for a first try, anyway. I also have to find somewhere to put the microphone that won’t pick up so much of the conversation going on during songs.

I missed my friend Chris’s set, which may or may not have been a good thing, and a little bit of Ben Garvey’s set. I always hear “Genius Of It All” and can’t remember what the name of the song is until he sings it. Then I remember, obviously. He always plays a good set and then wanders the coffee house like Moses, who also ran an open mic night during the Jews’ exodus into the desert. Other highlights were Willie Taps, Jedi Farmer Roz King, and an unrelated Ciccione covering “Like A Prayer.” I downloaded the song when I got home because I like to steal from worthless, irrelevant artists. I like to kick horses when they’re down and still think they’re standing.”

“This week at the Tree House, I played an ungodly set consisting of Incubus’s “I Miss You,” one of the songs I’ve written that’s verse are under my vocal range (“I Know When I’m Wrong”), and ended by completely botching The Beatles’ “Glass Onion,” mentioning to forget how the last verse ends, and covering up by singing about John Lee Hinkley, who I’m convinced was given permission to leave hospital grounds unsupervised because what I did offended God himself.

Speaking of which, Ben brought my attention to something I had never seen before at the coffee house:

Testamints. Jesus Christ, they’re good!”

Open Mic Recap @ The Tree House

We had a smaller crowd this week at the open mic, but no lack of performers.

1. Ben Garvey – I played John Prine’s “That’s the Way the World Goes ‘Round,” “All My Dreams are in Cartoon,” and Nirvana’s “Serve the Servants.”

2. Cynthia Bennett – She said had some trouble this week with strings buzzing, but I couldn’t really tell while she was playing.

3. The Forest Greens – Still Erikless, but their new violin player is now officially in the band and she rocks.

4. Dom – Dom helped me out and played when no one else wanted to. I think I remember him playing “Amazing Grace.” I really should write these recaps the night of the open mic, but usually I’m tired afterwards.

5. Jadis – Phil described his music as Draculaesque and I agree.

6. Jason Vertucio – Borrowed my guitar, but was really only after my battery.

7. Phil – Phil brought his insanely cute some Straz with him to the open mic. Straz takes after his dad, except Phil is just cutely insane.

8. Matt Winn – Busted out the delay for some Christmas music.

9. Roz King – Refused to play after Sarah Allen because she’s so damn good, but played pretty well anyway.

10. Sarah Allen – Had to be forced into playing a very good original song of hers. I’m going to start an online petition for her to write more material.

11. Pat Hipp – I have to make a conscious effort not to spell “Pat” with two t’s. Pat always sounds better than I remembered and I think that’s a good thing.

12. AJ Visgil – This guy has a great voice and he did two covers: One by Belle and Sebastian and the other by Toad the Wet Sprocket.

13. John Shaughnessy – He came right from seeing Return of the King and his ass hadn’t even fallen asleep. The movie has a freaking run time of 201 minutes! John sounded good and did that “feed the world, it’s Christmas time” song he does once and a while.