What I did last night

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/07/04 03:56 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/07/04/655821.aspx

(Warning -- a barren desert of non-technical information in this post. You have been warned!)

So it all started about a month ago. I found out Fiona Apple was playing at the Chateau Saint Michelle Winery in Woodinville on July 3rd.

This post is not so much about the show as it is about everything leading up to it and lots of random stuff that happened during it....

Kristin (who was feeling bad about the previous shows she missed (Kathleen Edwards in San Francisco, Beth Orton in Seattle), she was psyched about going. And so was Cathy. I figured Kevin would also probably want to go (though he had reportedly fell asleep at a Fiona Apple show once before?), and some other people also seemed interested.

I had a few comp. tickets, but it looked like there were more people interested then I had tickets for, so I picked up a few tickets too.

Anyway, over the course of the month, it turned out that Cathy and Kevin were going to be in San Francisco, Kristen in was going to be doing two shows and a party around that time so she couldn't make it, her friend Tana was going to be out of town, and all of the other people I could think of who were interested were also going to be away.

Turned out the only person who was around was Julie, who met me at the Winery. I told her to meet me at the North gate but apparently she was at the South gate so someone escorted her over, which let her sneak up on me while I waited for her....

Just before that I ran across one person who asked if I had a blog about localization. I promise that I will never get used to that and I am sure I blushed as I said yes. She was much more amused than her boyfriend was -- apparently he was not a fan. I decided not to correct her about the topic given his impatience, perhaps she'll see this post and understand why. :-)

Did I mention what I had on? I was wearing my Schrödinger's Cat is Dead T-shirt from ThinkGeek (the one which says Schrödinger's Cat is Not Dead on the back). It is great to wear at performances since every time I have one or more women have stopped to ask me what it means (guys never ask at shows, I wonder what is behind that split?). And this time was no exception -- four different women asked, and I swear my explanation of it gets better and better every time (see the Wikipedia article for a longer version of it than the one I tell before a performance starts!). The shirt allows for the perfect balance between hopless geek and mildly cute/funny guy, and with all my disequilibrium I need all the balance I can get!

Anyway, we looked for a place to sit on the lawn for a moment before we gave up and I asked about a seat in the handicapped area. They helped us out quickly and we got seats right up near the front -- on the way there I ran into someone I had met the other day when I last saw Kristin perform -- small world!

The show started out with about an hour performance by 'special guest' Damien Rice, who actually appeared with a whole band, including a lady playing the Cello named Vivian? And I swear they had the biggest and most vocal following of just about any opening band I have ever seen, including a small group of folks to our left who I'll talk more about in a minute, and two ladies sitting behind us who stayed for Damien's whole set, asked us how we liked him during the break, and then left about two songs into Fiona's set....

Ok, back to that group on the left. Between the one gentleman and the three ladies, they had managed to drink about seven bottles of wine (minus what they spilled on each other). There was also a distinct marijuana scent in the air as well. The effects on the four of them were interesting:

• One of the ladies became quite mellow, pretty much keeping her eyes closed most of the time, yet being able to perfectly sing along with just about every Damien Rice and Fiona Apple song played (I was really impressed by this, and in a past life would have tried to strike up a conversation to find out more about her!). She did her best to avoid the antics of the other three, which in the end probably was a good idea -- you'll see why, soon.
• The gentleman was asked by the security guards (on various occasions) to sit down, to stop fondling the ladies, and to stop making out with them periodically. It was also quite amusing to watch him try to put a low chair together -- clearly something to not try while one is under the influence of whatever he had been doing....
• The second lady, the one with the dark hair, was wearing a skirt that was short and kept unintentionally flashing people as she wriggled around, and who was also making out a bit with the third lady (she was forcibly removed from the show about halfway through when she tried to change from the skirt into jeans by actually stripping and standing up -- small wonder?).
• The third lady, the blonde, was wearing a T-shirt that said Fuck Forever on it, and I was actually baffled almost to the point of asking whether the T-shirt was using the phrase (a) as an emphatic, (b) as a dismissal, (c) as a rock band, or (d) all of the above. It was probably a variation of (c), the song of that title by Babyshambles?

In the end it seemed best not to get involved with this group, just as one sees a car swerving and wants to avoid being caught up in the eventual accident that seems likely. Though it was fascinating to watch the security folks come by and do periodic threat assessments, up to the point where they actually evicted one of them.

We should bring that security guard to Microsoft to talk about the philosophy behind vulnerability and threat assessment -- there are many similarities between how she assessed the potential threat raised by this other group of people and the potential security threats in software!

Anyway, the show itself was awesome, from first song to second song in the encore. It was a good variety of songs across her albums, and I remain amazed at the power of the voice of this small person who, until she does start singing, you are afraid she might not be able to be heard at all....

Though Fiona did have one unfortunate incident of a "wardrobe malfunction" of the purple dress/robe thing she was wearing, which mortified her enough that she was away from the microphone for over half of the next few songs. I felt bad since I had earlier suggested that the outfit looked comfortable and that maybe Julie should wear something like that to work? Somehow I doubt that will ever happen; I doubt Fiona will wear it out in public again, truth be told.

At least she was not trying to change clothes in front of everybody. :-)

After the show Julie and I parted ways, but not before remarking that everyone had missed not only a great show, but a helluva meta-show as well....

So what did I learn? Well, of course there is semper ubie sububie. Or at least wear some if not clean ones.

And also that Jebin Bruni (who played keyboards for Aimee Mann for several years) is now playing with Fiona!

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