BrockLi Soup

It’s only Wednesday, and this week has already run me down. As such, I’m taking tonight and tomorrow off, because I need to be in prime condition for Friday night.

Apparently there’s some kind of RIT Alumni organization in town, because they organized a tour of the Library of Congress. They planned it around some kind of Student Affairs conference in the area, so Bove and ShaunJ were here for a few days. The tour wasn’t as interesting as I expected - the entrance to the building is incredible, and the reading room looked pretty impressive, but we couldn’t take pictures of it or go in there. They had a little reception afterward and did a little too much talking, but they gave us food and wine so it was OK.

The reception was held on the sixth floor, and had a doorway to a wrap-around balcony. The city looked incredible from up there, and since Matt and I had been talking about going to the National Mall to wander around at night (no tourists!), we decided to take a walk over to the Capitol Building (along with Patrick, Sarah, and this fella Blake [who I hadn't met]). We did a big lap around the Capitol, attracted the attention of every soldier guarding the place (we’re not quite people), and took some crappy pictures of stuff, then headed off to my favorite pub, Fado, for drinks and burgers. I didn’t get home till around 12:30, so I was pretty beat at work yesterday.

That didn’t change the fact that I had plans to see Ron White last night. I didn’t realize at the time that we bought tickets for the 10:30 show, so it was another late night. He had done another show earlier in the evening, so he was pretty drunk by the time he started his set, which really just made it better. It was better than any of his specials I’ve seen on Comedy Central - most of it wouldn’t have even made it on there. It was hilarious, and filthy, and hilariously filthy, and drunk. The venue was great, too - it’s a little, low-ceiling-ed, underground comedy club, and we were only a few rows back, but a double Jack and Coke will set you back SIXTEEN DOLLARS (sometimes I actually miss Rochester). It was a great show, and it’s always nice to hang out with the guys from work without, you know, working.

So yes. Thanks to the last two nights, I’m beat today, and I can’t possibly go into St. Paddy’s Day like this. I’m going to bed early tonight.

I just got the weekly events e-mail that RIT sends out. No one seems to read these things - everyone is always so surprised to find out when cool stuff is going on around here - but I usually glance through it and see if anything exciting is happening. Any time a big show is booked, they start including it way ahead of time, especially if tickets will be going on sale soon. This one had a note about Carlos Mencia. He’ll be here in January, and tickets go on sale in a couple weeks.

A couple months ago, I would have been thrilled to see that there. His Comedy Central Presents show was fantastic. He spits in the face of political correctness, which needs to be done now and then. It was just raunchy enough with just enough political motivation to make it interesting.

But, like I said, I would have been excited about this a couple months ago. He’s since got his own show on Comedy Central, Mind of Mencia. I’ve only seen two or three episodes, but really, that’s all you need because it’s all the same. Some of the bits are “can they do that on TV?” hilarious, but a lot of it’s just infantile and repetitive. I really don’t think he’s going to have any new material when he’s here, and even if he does, it’s going to be another take on the same issues.

Of course, I had low expectations for Dane Cook when he came and was pleasantly surprised, so maybe Carlos will pull through.

I’ve been meaning to comment on the shows I’ve been to lately, but I always seem to have something more pressing to do. Here’s a quick re-cap.

Against Me! with The Epoxies September 25 at The Icon in Buffalo

As it turns out, it was Against Me! with The Epoxies, and Smoke or Fire, and The Soviettes. First off, The Icon is a shitty little building, I won’t argue that, but it wasn’t bad for a show like this. They have a big garage door at the back, so it didn’t get too hot in there. BP really didn’t like it, though, so I’m assuming he fell off the step that’s inexplicably located in the middle of the place.

The Soviettes were fun to watch, but I didn’t like the music much. Smoke or Fire was pretty good, but I wasn’t paying much attention. The Epoxies were absolutely ridiculous. The best way I can describe them is “synth punk” - they sort of had this rivethead look going on, and the music prominently featured a synthesizer. They filled the place with fog, and the guitarist and bassist both had laser pointers attached to their guitars. They reminded me of Gogol Bordello - music isn’t great, but their show was fun to watch.

Against Me! was great, as expected. They played a few from the new album, which has been growing on me - it’s definitely better live. I would say that this one was on par with the show in Toronto, back in May. This time around, I knew all the songs, but it felt like only the people up in the pit were really into the show. In Toronto, the entire room was like the pit, but with less pushing. Either way, it was a fun show and I’m glad we went. And we got Mighty Taco before coming home.

Jon Stewart October 8 in the Gordon Field House here at RIT

Jon was a disappointment. It took him like 15 minutes to get going - he kept dicking around with the captionist and interpreter – which was only moderately funny the first 20 times I’ve seen comedians do it - and asking all the photographers where they were from. It almost felt like he was stalling because he knew he didn’t have enough material. Most of his set was pretty good, but he finished with a story about his dog getting sick. Did he really have to appeal to the lowest common denominator? No one goes to see Jon Stewart because they know he tells great poop jokes. As good as his political commentary and other jokes were, ending on that one sort of left me with a bad impression of the show overall.

The Rochester Philharmonic October 14 in Ingle Auditorium here at RIT

I really only went to this because I had to for my Haydn & Mozart class. When they finished the first piece, I started to think that it would be a much better show than expected. The first three pieces were outstanding - three of Braham’s Hungarian dances. But then they did one of Mozart’s concertos. It was like 30-second intervals of exciting and emotional music padded with five-minute stretches of boring. They finished with Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, which was better than the Mozart, but still pretty boring. After the conductor took a few bows, they did another Hungarian Dance, so at least the end didn’t suck. The musicians were fantastic, but the 18th and 19th centuries produced some real crap.

Saturday night, I wandered over to the Field House for the Dane Cook show. I wasn’t working it, but tickets were sold out so I got me a Tech Access pass. Jym and Derek got three seats in the front row and offered me the third one, so I even got to sit right up front.

The opener was Jay Davis, a friend of Dane’s. He had a lot of funny material, but his delivery kind of sucked. It just wasn’t funny the way he said it, I guess.

Dane was a lot funnier than I expected him to be. I had only seen his Comedy Central Presents show and heard one of his CDs, and they were pretty funny but it seemed like he was trying too hard to be over the top. This show was toned down significantly and I think a lot of the jokes were better-developed. He didn’t stand there going on and on about the dish he was washing when he heard the accident. He still did a lot of jumping around and yelling, but I think it contributed to his act a lot better this time around.

Of course, I may be biased towards this show because I was close enough to spit on him (thanks again, Jym).