The Only Way to Win is Not to Play

I had a fun time today having a picnic with Sabrina and some other friends, a good way to spend the longest day of the year outside in the lovely sunshine. Everyone made lots of food, so there was way more there than anyone could eat, but everyone was happy.

Sabrina has this adorable little puppy that she's going to take home as soon as she finds an apartment where she can have a dog. Sadly by then it will probably be just grown to the point that it's no longer a little fuzzy ball of love and turns into just a dog like all the rest. But today she was crawling over everything and probably going nuts from all the people there were to say hi to and climb on and cuddle with.

After that I chatted with j.pants for a bit and then was left with nothing to do so I checked out the Officer Girl / Mars Hill show at Baba's. The music was really good, Officer Girl have been the talk of the local music mavens for the last few weeks and unfortunately the sound at Brennan's is so terrible that when I saw them there I actually had no idea if they were any good or not. Was glad to finally hear them play in a semi-decent setting.

The only thing that I wish they'd have changed about the sound setup was that the lead guitarist was turned way too low. Almost like he was hiding. I had to strain to hear him, and I can say that he really has no reason to not be in the foreground.

Their sound is sort of a rockier Jimmy Swift Band without the annoying wankery, just regular length songs with a beginning, middle and end.

Mars Hill were a bit of an unexpected treat. I'd never heard them before so I was only expecting yet-another-rock/punk-band, but they turned out to be a much funkier proposition, with bass-driven grooves and complex keyboard playing and dance-fuelling drums. A really great break from the usual around these parts.

The music was really good, but I got the overwhelming feeling that I was in everyone's way at around 1:30 so I ducked out then. That happens to me fairly often.

It's funny, every social ability I have, from the ability to speak well and have good conversation to the ability to hear vocal cues and to be subtle are completely taken away in the bar setting.

The only senses left to you in that setting are the ones that I don't have. It's too dark to see, I can't read lips so even talking becomes difficult, body language is almost meaningless to me, I can't recognize people half the time, it's like a cruel game where the deck was deliberately stacked against whatever I might have left.

Oh well, I'm just going to forget any of the social games people play and simply appreciated the good music and let myself be the best damn weirdo sitting with his glass of water nodding his head to the music in his own world there is, because I can totally kick everyone's ass at that game.