Drink For Two

First of all, Bucky Phillips surrendered yesterday after a 16 hour cat and mouse game that began at 2am on Friday. Over a hundred law enforcement folks spread out around the town of Akeley, PA. Bucky had been spotted near a golf course in that area and was soon spotted in the woods. My mom, who lives up the hill from Akeley spent most of the day in her house with a shotgun and her two dogs, listening for intruders. No one was allowed up or down the road on which she lives. Eventually, the cops figured Bucky was in a corn field and at 8p, the fugitive walked out and gave up.

In other news, the Maniacs show was nearly a sell out, which is a good thing for this little city. PGirl and I hit the bar at Forte before hand to hang out with the band and a hundred other folks, including some politicians, artists, old schoolmates and musicians. Bud, Bud-Light and Mich-Light and some wine was free to guests, but we started off with a local beer for PGirl and a martini for me. We also had some crabcakes. Good stuff. We eventually started on the free stuff. That is when the fun began.

The show started at 7pm, with opening acts, but the Maniacs weren't supposed to go on until 9:30. So we hung out at and around the bar. I spent the first part of the evening, talking with an artist who I'm working with to do a "flash" exhibition downtown. Then I reconnected with some folks I hadn't seen in a while. PGirl and I wound up talking a lot to a fellow named Walt, from MTV/Viacom. He's an old friend of the band and has a place over in Ashville. He was pretty candid, talking at length about some shake up over at MTV (Tom Freston was fired) and the future of the civic center.

We finally made it up to the balcony about two songs into the Maniacs set. What can I say? They were really good. Oskar Saville has a powerful voice and can get the crowd moving. Dennis gets into the songs, making a lot of gestures and faces. He's into the music. My next door office neighbor, Jeff, is the replacement guitarist and very true to the band's style of music. Original guitarist, Rob Buck died six years ago. The crowd was pretty into it.

And PGirl, well, I knew she loved the Maniacs and was familiar with all of their songs, but I had no idea what this concert meant to her. She was moving the whole time. Whooping and hollering. She even got acknowlegement from the band when Oskar introduced on of her own songs.

Okay, she did drink more than I did last night, but I don't think she was ripped. I believe her "good times" were courtesy of a mix of drink and sheer joy! On the way home, she was talking like Anthony Micheal Hall in "Weird Science" (Well, my nuts are halfway up my ass, but other than that, I'm perfect!") She is sleeping in a bit right now, but is in a good mood. I wish I could remember some of the jive she was talking last night. It was pretty damn funny!