scene but not herd

Oh the power of being attractive. Friday night I met up with my friend John at a bar in downtown Long Beach. Not soon after I sit down a couple sits down right next to us at the bar. The woman caught my eye because she must have been wearing one of those bullet bras from the fifties. I hadn't seen that look since Jayne Mansfield was alive and I felt like Sophia Loren in that famous picture in which she is seated next to Jayne and she's staring at her bosom. Anyway, this woman seated at the bar was rather, um....impressive. So John and I are sitting there drinking and talking to the bartenders and I've pretty much forgotten about the couple next to us. The next thing I know our friend, Jared, has gotten off his shift working there and he is now seated between us and the aforementioned woman. I'm thinking Jared must have put down a few while he was working, because he had the air of the jolly drunk as he talked to us and the bartenders. So we keep on talking and we play some game where a bunch of straws are layed out in a pattern and then you have to make something else by moving only two straws, blah, blah, blah. Suddenly Jared discreetly tells us that the woman next to him wants him. Did I forget to mention that Jared is very handsome? He details to us how all her body language has given him this sign. Mind you Jared has done absolutely nothing to get this woman to show interest in him, but as we sat there watching it was blatanly obvious that this woman was interested. She couldn't stop engaging him in any way possible. It got to the point where she totally turned her back on her boyfriend/date. Jared has a girlfriend so he wasn't trying to pick up on her, but it just became a perverse excercise in "let's see what's going to happen here." We found it pretty hilarious, but at the same time it was pretty sad. Her date was bummed out. We could overhear them a few times and comments such as 'Are you trying to test me?" and "Do you love me?" came up. Nothing happened and they left shortly after, but it was quite an impressive display of the power of beauty. You don't do anything and a beautiful woman is all over you? As a relatively unattractive guy I have to move the earth and the moon to get a woman to talk to me. I tell you it's just not fair. 8-)

Laziness almost made me not go to the Troubadour last night. Thankfully Suze called me and said she was driving so off we went to the concert. Frausdots were on first and I thought they were just ok. Think early eighties English synthesizer and guitar combos and you'll get an idea of what they sounded like. Next up were Dead Meadow and I really enjoyed them. Thursday night I saw Comets on Fire and Dead Meadow is sort of working in the same realm as that band. I would say Dead Meadow is using a sound relative to Black Sabbath and progressing from there. They were really loud and they would just lock into these great, heavy grooves. They reminded me of Loop and even "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and "You Made Me Realize"-era My Bloody Valentine. After their last song I actually wanted them to keep playing the rest of the night and that is not a sensation I feel very often. Usually I'm checking the time to see how soon I'll be able to make it home. They were my unexpected highlight of the night. The Warlocks were on right after and I was ready for a let down after Dead Meadow, but they were equally as good. References for me would be bands like Spiritualized and the Telescopes. The Warlocks would also lock into a groove, but they had a more droning sound rather than a metal sound. They were also playing really loud and the three guitars and dual drummers were very noticeable. I love it when you can even feel the music because the bass was hitting me in my sternum. These same bands are playing tonight at the Echo and I'm contemplating going again to do further damage to my hearing.