1 May 2014: Resisting Vegas @ Dirty Dog Bar w/ FILTER

 

“I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”~ Muhammad Ali

More Dirty Dog Bar.

I’ve become the rolling version of “Norm at Cheers” at that place as staff and patrons alike both know who I am or who I come for.

Even the guy at the door said to me that he had a feeling that he would see me there last night when I came through.

Man on a Mission.

After taking advantage of the opportunity for a ticket to the show to be brought TO me, and very well discounted I might add, I was getting ready to attend the my third ever show with RESISTING VEGAS. And the second time where I was paying close attention.

In a span of less than two months time, I made friends with the band, they know who I am and they know what I do and they know that I love what they do and I spread the word like your nasty uncle’s STD.

I bumped into the one they call “HOLLYWOOD” and I settled in. It would turn out to be a night of free drinks at the Dirty Dog Bar (too bad I couldn’t get that same deal at Shiner Saloon a couple of hours before!)

At any rate, members of RESISTING VEGAS were already there and waiting and to be honest they saw me first before I saw them.

I finally got my hands on a physical copy of their newest EP that just was released. That made for Dambreaker to be one helluva happy and cheeky monkey.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been growing and learning more and more about lead singer, Maranda Vegas. She’s been quite social with me via Facebook. And I think that is cool. She understands that my favorite song of theirs is “Limbo” although the band outvoted her to change the name of the tune to “Should’ve Prayed.”

Ugh. Leave it alone, guys.

But I would learn more about her and her likes and dislikes. I never thought that I would find a woman who didn’t care for flowers. But I did. So I asked what else she liked. She had no clue that I was actually paying close attention. Or she probably just didn’t suspect that I was.

The social convention for stage performers are flowers. But since she doesn’t care for them, I had to go with the next best thing. And that would be donuts.

She’s got a sweet tooth apparently. But honestly who doesn’t? 

However I got both. Roses AND donuts. I decided white roses so that there was no misunderstanding involved.

Then very quickly it was time for them to set up their stage to perform. It was just so fast. I was trying to take a photograph with Maranda but batteries were dead and now they had to set up. I ran across the street, bought more batteries at more ridiculous downtown prices and ran back across the street to and back in.

So I set up camp. And nobody else came forth. It was strange. I was the only person within miles of the stage no matter from which angle that you measured.

It had to be upsetting for the members of the band. Maranda even just came close to me and simply said “hey thank you for coming!” because it honestly looked like I was the only one there. Anyone else was just there doing their own thing and ignoring the stage.

Of course I sat there, I figured that something had to give and soon both Maranda and Fernando was able to convince about eleven more people to approach the stage and that included lead singer to Black Heart Saints who played first before them.  

After that everything was set on cruise control and the night just rocked itself until the end of the set.

Although I was kind of proud of Maranda. The only thing that matters for her is that I think she’s got a terrific singing voice. I could listen to her sing all day long. And I wouldn’t even mind if she wanted to try a lullaby to put me to sleep. I do think she would end up being successful at it.

During “Limbo” I totally forgot about the shout during the middle of the song by Fernando. He crept up to the microphone and belted it out and I about shit my pants in terror. This is what I get for not paying attention to everything going on around me.

Later, I took the EP that I had and tossed it to guitarist Cameron Stewart. He pointed out that everyone in the band now had stage names and he was intending on autographing the EP with his stage name. The CD was then passed along to other band members with him insisting the stage names be signed. And so there you have it. My first RESISTING VEGAS CD and its signed with stage names.

The night was capped off with band shenanigans. And I got to witness every last one of them. I believe that the members of the band forgot that I have a blog. Or did they????? 

I could list their activities, but then again maybe I won’t. All I have to say about it is that if you are in the area and you don’t show up to one of their shows ….. you miss out. Period.

I laughed so hard that I totally forgot about that one time last week about that one thing that made me sad for a few hours.

I laughed so hard that I totally forgot about the disappointing results prior in the evening at Shiner Saloon.

That’s how hard I was laughing. Nevermind the lack of oxygen, the drool on the corners of the lips, the tears welling up in the eyes, and the skin turning red. I laughed so hard I started forgetting stuff.

The next band that was playing on stage while I was in the midst of ruckus laughter was called Downfall 2012. They finally got my attention when they did a heavy metal cover of the R&B classic “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Think about that one for a moment: heavy metal version of “Baby Got Back.”

Yeah, you’re welcome…

It was fun to listen to. Not a single person in the place was NOT singing along to it, even HOLLYWOOD was “Quick to retrieve it.”

I did not stay for FILTER as I made the stupid mistake of deciding to go back to the Shiner Saloon. So I said my farewells and left. Shocked all of the members of the band in the process of departing.

In a few weeks RESISTING VEGAS will return to the Dirty Dog Bar and I am hopeful that I will come back as well. The Dirty Dog knows me and I, it. Is it possible that I am turning into a regular??

Wherever RESISTING VEGAS shall go in town, I shall make quite the effort to be there. Hell or high water.

You Oughta Be In Pictures

Everyone’s life is full of joy, love, good times, bad times, heartache, agony, and everything in between. I constantly hear some body say, “Your life would make a great movie or book.” That may be, however I think that everyone’s life has moments where it would be wonderful to share with the rest of the world.

So let me share this story with you. A story of what I consider to be a bit of comedy and a bit of human ignorance.

Fact: I have calluses on my hands. They come from years and years and years of using a wheelchair for mobility. That’s just the way it is.

So I took off on an adventure this afternoon in the warm, humid weather of the day. I would guess that going back and forth, was probably about a mile and a half. When I got home (or at least on the property to where I live), I noticed and brand new callous on my right thumb.

Right now, it kinda hurts. Its new and eventually it will harden like the rest of them on my hands. But its fresh right at the moment and so … yes, I’m a bit annoyed about it because it’s a bit inconvenient.

I ran into someone on the street, asking if I needed help pushing myself to where I was going. With me having difficulty moving with this new development on my thumb, I was not moving as fast as I was when I first started out today. I suppose that this person was only being considerate and trying to be helpful.

I respectfully declined their assistance and thanked them. I told them that the only reason why I was not moving as fast as I could was because my thumb was hurting. I showed them the source of inconvenience and then they suddenly had a list of questions to try to solve the mystery of my newly developed “injury”.

They were curious as to where I was going and where I have been. I told them that I gone up the hill, down the street and back. I DO have weight lifting gloves that I wear whenever I leave the house, but the fingertips are not covered by the gloves and therefore the thumb ended up getting it.

But what I had actually SAID, was “I walked up the street, over the hill and walked back.”

They dared to correct my story. Saying that I did NOT “walk” at all.

I was therefore baffled. Who is this person trying to correct and edit a story that did not happen to them personally, but only to me? What in the world came over them to insist upon that I did not “walk”? OF COURSE I DIDN’T!!

These kinds of things just really are amazing to me. What university did this person go to, that hands out degrees to allow them to correct other people? Now if I had said something totally in error grammatically, I would have understood that.

People with disabilities who commonly have the use of a wheelchair, just commonly use the same pattern of speech as anyone else. Yes, we do say “I walked to there.” We don’t need anyone to tell us that we actually didn’t! Its something we already know!!

Moron!

I believe that this is a very good example of someone who does not have a mouth filter and doesn’t realize what they are saying could actually be offensive. To some people with disabilities- its almost insulting.

To be fair though it could be that I am a bit over-sensitive about it. And should really just blow them off. It gets exhausting though to roll my eyes at these things because it happens so frequently. My eyeballs start to hurt! If it happens enough times, I will probably have my eyes stuck in the back of my head. Then I’ll have to go get that corrected and then I will be able to post a blog about what the back of the inside of the skull really looks like to the “human eye”.

So maybe this particular event is not really “film worthy”. I would personally tend to believe that my post, “Man vs. boy” would rather be more fitting to that description for some wild laughs and humor. Drama is not my best or favorite forté.

Think before you speak!