So, here’s my set-list from last night:

• Even Flow – Pearl Jam
• The Pretender – Foo Fighters
• Shot in the Dark – Ozzy Osbourne
• Bent – Matchbox 20
• Space Lord – Monster Magnet
• Fell on Black Days – Soundgarden

Not a big crowd, but a fair number of singers. I’ve had longer rotations, but I found myself getting bored a lot waiting for my turn, and not much audience was kind of a bummer. The Pretender went better this time, as I actually finished, but I wouldn’t say it went well. Must practice more, I suppose. Pretty unremarkable overall, except the part that I wasn’t sure it was going to happen at all right up until 8:30 or so. It’s nice to be able to plan…

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”

Pick your Artist:
Bad Religion

Are you a male or female:
21st Century (Digital Boy)

Describe yourself:
Stranger Than Fiction

How do you feel:
Incomplete

Describe where you currently live:
Atomic Garden

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
The New America

Your favorite form of transportation:
A Walk

Your best friend is:
American Jesus

You and your best friends are:
The Defense

What’s the weather like:
Heaven Is Falling

Favorite time of day:
The Quickening

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
To Another Abyss

What is life to you:
All There Is

Your last relationship:
Social Suicide

Your fear:?
Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever

What is the best advice you have to give:
Kyoto Now!

Thought for the Day:
I Love My Computer

How you would like to die:
Murder

Your soul’s present condition:
Submission Complete

Your motto:
Prove It

Friday Night’s Karaoke setlist was as follows:

• Stacy’s Mom — Fountains of Wayne
• Fuel — Metallica
• Hero — Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott*
• Adrenaline — Gavin Rosedale
• Grapefruit Diet — Weird Al Yankovic
• Walking in Memphis — Cher?
• The Pretender — Foo Fighters

*since some people don’t know this, that’s the Spiderman theme song from the 2002 film. Despite popular didn’t-do-their-research belief it wasn’t actually done by Nickelback, but by a great collection of guys apparently thrown together just for that one piece, featuring two members of Nickelback and members of four or five other bands, one of whom (that would be Josey Scott) co-wrote the song..

I should explain about Stacy’s Mom. It’s not so much that I love the song as that the show’s hostess, Melissa, loves me singing it, so it ends up here a lot more often than other songs I like more. Audience reactions are usually pretty amusing if it’s the first time they’ve heard it tho. I’m also pretty confident about it, so it makes a good warm-up.

This was a first time for Adrenaline, and the first time in a long time for Hero (which was too hard for me the last time I tried it, probably four or five years ago.) Both went well. I did Hero with a guy who goes by the moniker Juice. Seems like a nice enough guy, decent singer, drinks too much. He was pretty sober at this point and we actually worked fairly well together, a rarity (IME, YMMV) for a Karaoke show.

Walking in Memphis was a rescue attempt and went better than you’d think. Juice was a lot more drunk by this point and apparently inadvertently picked a reworked cover by a female artist, which I noticed only after he invited me up to save him from floundering on stage, so to speak. Fortunately, I know the song well enough and was able to work around it. Juice wasn’t cooperating so well by this point, though, so it wasn’t better than an average run.

The Pretender was also a first time for me, and proved too much for me at the end of the night. I can usually do Foo Fighters, but that one’s pretty intense and would probably push me a bit if my voice was fresh. As it was, my voice gave out somewhere around the first chorus. I actually had to walk off stage without finishing. I think that’s only the second time I’ve done that in more than eight years.

Grapefruit Diet was a Weird Al Rule, which my Dad invokes just to screw with me. It’s not a good version, actually dropping a whole bit from the original song, so I don’t really enjoy doing that. Also, I somewhat resemble that remark.

At this point, I can probably go ahead and elaborate that the big news in EVE was that Ethereal Dawn has left the Reach. We have few if any remaining assets there after a shockingly orderly evacuation and we’re beginnning a new adventure up in Curse.

After over two years (and, for BLHI, dropping two outposts) in the Reach, I was very sad to see it go. We’ve also lost some more corps, and each of those is some friends who are now going to be uncolored (or maybe even red) when I see them in local. It’s a crappy situation, the kind you expect to happen when you lose a big war. Still, I think I have few regrets. I wish I’d been more active with alliance from the beginning, but we got to do real endgame play in the Reach and when we went down, it took half the game, four grueling months, and some of the big boys to put us down. Even then, we didn’t break. We didn’t dissolve. We almost won, and I’m proud enough to say we put up a [i]hell[/i] of a fight. I’m actually closer to a lot of my alliance-mates than I was when this whole thing started. It’s been — educational, if not exactly fun and not in any way useful from an AFK perspective.

First, the setlist, while it’s still relatively fresh in my mind:

1. Runaway Train — Soul Asylum
2. Midnight Special — Creedence Clearwater Revival
3. Selling the Drama — LIVE
4. A Boy Named Sue — Johnny Cash

The first two were at Richland’s 3 Margaritas, which closed shortly thereafter since their restrooms had ceased functioning and they were therefore in violation of the health code. Hopefully they’ll get that fixed up soon. We’d heard that Kennewick’s Cavanaugh’s might be a little less crowded than in its glory days a few years back, so we hit the freeway for a few miles to check it out. Not a bad show, though a little more populous than I would have hoped. I had to sing Selling the Drama almost entirely from memory (I remembered it remarkably well, getting all the musical queues right, but forgetting some critical words. I got quite a bit of applause for sticking it out) since their disc was apparently broken/dirty/something, and I’ve made better attempts at A Boy Named Sue, but it was a fairly enjoyable night anyway. I hadn’t seen Selling the Drama anywhere else, so I was pretty happy to find it, and didn’t mind too much trying to sing it from memory.

You might have noticed a lack of EVE news. Something big’s happening and I’m trying not to give away too much blue intel. I’ll fill ya’all in later. The lack of other news has something to do with that.

Since Rocio pointed this out, and I found it amusing: United Breaks Guitars
The man deserves some justice I think, so give him some hits.

It’s hardly worth noting (since noone actually cares) that the actual birth date of the United States of America (as such) is September 17, 1787. The anniversary of this date is called “Constitution Day” and noone actually seems to care.

The Declaration of Independence was voted out by a body called the Continental Congress, an ad-hoc alliance of thirteeen British colonies in the Americas that had just entered into open rebellion against parliament and the crown. It is this monumental act of defiance that we celebrate with fireworks, family picnics, and a day off of work.

These American colonies would not gain their independence in fact until September 3, 1783 when the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War.

I can’t seem to find my notebook, and didn’t manage to grab the napkin I actually wrote it down on, so here’s an attempt to reconstruct it from memory. Fortunately, I don’t drink. Unfortunately, it was yesterday, and these days that’s a damned long time ago.

• Slide — Goo Goo Dolls


• Istanbul (not Constantinople) — They Might Be Giants
• Fiction (Dreams in Digital) — Orgy
• Metal Health — Quiet Riot
• Steve McQueen — Sheryl Crow

That’s all I can remember for right now. Not entirely certain I didn’t do anything else, but I did all of those.
:P