Nightlight News

Recently, a group of Nightlight employees and volunteers ventured to the far-away land of Wake County, NC to a Budweiser distribution facility. Not for funneling beer, but for funneling information about the State of North Carolina's Alcohol Law Enforcement laws and restrictions. See, we at the Nightlight are one of the few remaining all-ages venues in the Triangle. As such, we, from time-to-time, get visited by members of the state's ALE. They want to be sure that we are supporting responsible drinking - and responsible serving does not include serving drinks to individuals who have not yet busted the 21 bubble.
It is a tricky thing because of you, the thirsty under-age show attendee. ALE is leading us to believe that there is a cadre of underage conspirators, hiding at home in dimly lit rooms with scotch tape, exacto knives, baby powder, and other tools of the trade attempting to doctor their IDs in a quest for a plastic card that falsely identifies them as 21 and over. Worse, there is an army of underage lushes impersonating over-age co-conspirators. For shame!! Don't you know you place our club into the risky position of being closed down for serving to you clever kids who seek nothing more than to get drunk, or at least feel slightly loose and slishy in order to ease social interaction and heighten your apparent excitement as you explore new or familiar music forms, as the case may be? We must reach an understanding! While we would love to serve you beer in defiance of this age-based discrimination, we must not place our own operation at risk of losing our license and being shut down.
Hmmmmmmmmmm. This is a razor's edge we tread between our sincere but unlawful wish to serve you a beer as you enjoy your bands AND your sincere desire to be civilly disobedient as you exercise your own auto-legislated right to drink at the age of 9, 12 or perhaps 16. See, if we were to be caught serving you clever minors alcohol, we would most likely lose the right to sell the "adults" beer as well. If we didn't lose the right, we would face hefty fines which might restrict our very fiscal powers to purchase said fizzy/fuzzy beverages or "pay da rent". I am not a fan of "the man" and do not seek to defend what I feel are silly laws. However, short of arming ourselves and creating a Waco-style encampment where we attempt to defend our own self-created rule of law (defined through community standards divorced from those of the dominant political structure) from the end of a barrel (which would suck mightily and probably be "bad for business") there must be some way to come to a compromise. This subject will be examined further in this on-going series I call "Nightlight All-Ages Law Dis-Forcement Chronicles". Stay Tuned.

CHECK OUT I-Ball's SOCK
<------------------------|||||
BALANCED
BREAKFAST?

There is no earthly way of knowing

Have you quit smoking Yet?

I'm Trying. Really, I am

"Care Bears always care for drinkin and cuttin loose"

With this morsel I reference a personal favorite from the beloved, outdated, and perhaps partially forgotten Bloom County strip. For the novice, the orange text indicates a link to another web page, in this case, a web page that contains the strip from where I pulled that little quote.

News-
RODENTS ARE TASTY - I went to the North Carolina State Fair several years ago. Whereas some folks like the rides, or some folks like the food, some folks go hog wild and do everything, I like the attractions. Like Dirt Bike Racing or the Pig Race or the Freaks. The creature with a woman's head and snake's body was a little disappointing - BUT NOT THE GIANT RAT. The giant rat was not actually a giant rat but a capybara - purported to be the world's largest rodent. In a storyline from the comik The Tick (cartoon version from TV), Tick is hurled through the air in a South American jungle and crashes into a giant log. In a state of delirium, he happens upon a capybara, which speaks to him, leading him to believe the animal is actually a talking dog. This was my first entry into the wondrous world of the world's largest rodent.
Well, apparently, and I had no idea, in rural Venezuela people eat capybaras with more zest than they eat beef. They roam the countryside in search of the mammal, which looks a little like a cross between a beaver, a groundhog, and a labrador. Upon spotting they BAM whack it over the head with a club-like spear. Fascinating.
Well, the giant rat at the state fair was doing surprisingly well for itself. It had plenty of hay, a warm light to keep it comfy on that chilly evening, appeared to be healthy and well fed. Not so for the woman who let us in to see the giant rat. She was missing quite a few teeth and had not been well groomed in a long time. However, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the giant rat. The giant alligator sucked, btw. Big ole thing trapped in a tiny pool with barely room to move. Sigh. The fried pickles were not very good either - they used little circular pickle slices rather than whole dill pickles, which I am more used to eating. Too greasy for my taste. I recommend the ham biscuits from the United Methodist Church in Cary, although the wait in line to get one is interminable.
OTHER NEWS>
CHIQUITA EMPLOYS TERRORISTS TO PROTECT BANANAS - you may need a username/password for this one - Try the link E. DeM. provided surreptitiously.
WAL-MART GREENWASHES ITSELF - despite the fact that Wal-Mart's business model and basic message of "tons of cheap goods from China" is contrary to the idea of sustainable local economies, they are doing their best to become "sustainable" - in this case pledging to convert their big-rig fleet to hybrids by 2009. Wins the blablabla award of the week.
STAMP PRICES TO BE RAISED - good news is the new "forever" stamp - buy one thousand now and save two cents, four cents, more cents as they raise the price for the rest of your life, unless they actually lower the price of first class mail, which would be curious to say the least.

That is all for now.

This show will be really, really, really hot.
I keep saying it and saying it, but don't sleep on JJAK HOGAN!!!!
OK?

I already knew this but now I have reporters backing me up - We would all be more productive if our boss let us take a nap after lunch. I know for one that as I slave away at the computer, the screen makes my eyes hurt. I go outside for a walk and dodge money hungry bums greedy for my change, cars driving on the sidewalk and grocery bags flying at lightspeed with in-between-skyscraper drafts and eddies. I get some fucking lunch, maybe asian food, of which I am a fan. Then I go back to the office, sip a little coffee, and get back to looking at that screen. Then the screen befuddles me, I yawn, and sleep sitting upright in my chair, my back to the office door. There has to be a better way. I want my nap time a cot and a little blankie with some soft music and dim lights. A back rub would be nice too but this is work not the damn Love Boat.

It is now proofen that Northern Europeans and their descendents are special for their ability to digest milk. All that "milk does a body good" shit maybe actually referred to the ability of milk to fuel a total global empire made up of the ancestors from the N. Europeans who developed the ability to produce lactase, which breaks down milk's insanely complex sugars. Yes, I am suggesting that, among other things, cow milk drinking is really what sets us apart from the oppressed African population, not moral or intellectual superiority. Perhaps Guns, Germs, and Milk is what really set apart those titanic empire builders of yore and now. Of course, even most people with lactose intolerance can still eat hard cheese and yogurt, so its really only chugging glasses of milk into adulthood that sets apart the 90% or so of folks descended from N. European stock that have the gene that allows them to imbibe white cow juice without turning into a bloated, gassy, toilet hog. There has to be some connection milk and empire - does Wilson have anything to say?

I'm looking for more chattynewsy-type folk to recombine letters and words into Nightlight slug. Simple qualifications - if you already read this page alot, that's good. Spend a lot of time on the 'pute - that's good. Got something to share with the Nightlight community? Also good. It would help If I know who you are, if we have met and hung out and seen naked birds on the roof together. So just email me and say I wanna help you writ the blorg and we can go from they're.

And have fun wit the shit today is a beautifulmous day.

All of our shows this weekend got Indy write-ups. Woo-Hoo!
In other news, now both of our ensembles for Sunday (March 11) night have names.
We will have
The Quivering Chariots with
Todd Emmert, Clarque and Caroline Blomquist, and Chris Girard
PLUS
Three-Way Weekend with
Roxanne and Rachal Spikula + Ryan Martin
Come if you dare - Magik Markers will seriously damage your concept of "good band". Read the Pete Nolan interview I link to at the schedule page for extra juice.

Other news - you can still pretend that donuts are good for you.
This is all for now.

I authored a post at the XYC blog that has relevance. It was originally to appear here. You will also find that the XYC blog is fun, frank, and like a pancake.