wizard of oz

in 1995 i drove from muncie, indiana to cincinnati, ohio to go see chris knox open for the sf seals at a place called sudsy malones. it was half-laundromat and half-bar and was the only place within about 3 hours of muncie that had half-way decent music shows. it's dumb, but i would drive 2.5 hours both ways to go see bands that now play about 10 minutes from my front door, and now i don't even think about going to see them. meaning i am dumb now. anyway i knew the dude was from new zealand and would likely never see him again. i was really into his solo records and really into the records he made with his band, tall dwarfs. i was really excited. and the thing about this bar was that nobody ever went. i went to so many shows there where i was one of 15 people. plus ohio liquor laws allowed you in a bar if you over 18. it was amazing. so chris knox goes onstage and strips down to some boxer/running shorts and puts on a headset mic and gets out a music stand of sheet music. he played an omnichord and casio, and maybe a guitar on three songs. i was right up front, and at one point he was dancing around feeling the fire and he reached out and touched my head. i was stoked. then he started to pull my head towards his private area and i got un-stoked. i escaped, readjusted my fragile teenage ego, and got stoked again. after the show he did a huge drawing on the back of a flier and gave me a guitar string and set-list. i got home at 5 in the morning and slept through all my classes. i've heard that bar is horrible now. so inspiring. i'm so glad i have these silly important memories that i can get reminded of by being bored on youtube, which is reason enough for the internet to exist. (try to make it to the end of the video where he gets interviewed for a little bit.) i like seeing people who have their hands in many different forms of creativity. it was reading interviews with this guy and listening to records like his that made me think that i could do that kind of stuff, and still does. don't you just want to make stuff and do things until you die?


matching outfits, headset mic, music stand, yogurt container shaker. styles.