So Michael and I go to see the Marillion show at The House of Blues last night. It is my first time seeing those cats, which is strange, because I’ve been a fan since 1985 (back when Michael and I used to work at Movies Twin in Santa Fe.) In truth, I was an avid fan then. When Fish left the fold, I kinda fell away. Seems that was a mistake. The breadth of material they’ve recorded since Hogarth picked up the reins is amazing.
They play most of the tracks from Marbles, and then announce they would take a break and come back to play about ninety minutes of older stuff. Three encores later, dazed and happy Marillion fans stumble out into the night. Michael’s pretty happy. It’s been, like, a decade since he’s seen them perform, so he’s pretty blown away.
Returning to the car, we find that the battery’s dead. I had left the headlights on. I no longer have a Triple-A membership, and the last thing one should have a friend visiting from Portland do is push your car down Santa Monica, so I call Ryan. He’s watching a movie with Creighton, but they have no problem jumping into his car and pulling to a stop next to mine long enough for me to brush the corrosion off my battery terminals.
Ryan’s a good guy. I owe him one. Next time your car breaks down, let me know. I’ll give you his number.
I also owe the city of Los Angeles another $35.00. Remember this? I got another one. Again, I missed it by moments. Michael and I are in Westwood yesterday. We park the car and put two dimes in the meter. With twenty-six minutes of parking time we walk off to look for more change. Twenty-seven minutes later we return to see a nice lady writing a ticket. She tells us, “too late.” I consider arguing it, but she’d only say something like, “I’ve already transmitted the information to home base. Yeah, it goes by satellite, so there’s no way to stop it. In fact the bill is already in your parents’ mailbox. Home base is on the moon. I am a robot. Don’t touch me.”
You know how it goes.
Anyhow, forgive me for the silence preceding this post. It’s been a busy weekend.
