On Wednesday, my mom discovered the text message. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Since it entered my world sometime in 2005, the text message has had its pros and cons for sure. On the one hand, it’s an easy way to locate lost comrades at crowded concerts, a surefire way to avoid longwinded phone conversations and, most importantly, a digital diary of last night’s drunken debauchery. But, at the same time, when placed in the wrong hands, the text message can be a rather dangerous device---some people will never understand that every thought that crosses their mind doesn’t need to be documented and delivered (don’t worry mom, that thought was directed at JFS not you). Plus, frankly, its kind of weird that my mom is delivering her daily parental reminders through a medium which cut its teeth advancing the booty call into the 21st century. If only Seinfeld was still around to define cell phone edict for my generation.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Jam on the River : All Sorts of Inappropriate Angles
Above: Barber as James Dean (Stellaaaaa)
Above: I think I have seen more Biscuits shows with Eric than any other friend. We once did an interview together on the Bisco Bus. Sammy drank straight from a bottle of Wild Turkey the entire time
Above: The Besack Family is Serious (I mean Sirius) about Jam on the River
Above: Local Band Does O.K.
Above: My Favorite Part of Tour
Friday, May 26, 2006
Egg and Cheese Utopia
One of the benefits of eating the exact same thing every day is that you become something of a food connoisseur, albeit one with a limited range of expertise. Before Relix moved its headquarters uptown, I ate one of Rauel's egg and cheese sandwich every single day. Having now tried almost every egg and cheese Manhattan has to offer south of 14th St., West of Avenue B and east of Hudson St. (a wider sampling than it sounds), I still think its the best New York has to offer. Even though Rauel used the same ingredients as everyone else in the city, he figured out the secret to the perfect egg/cheese combination: cooking his cheese in his egg. Genius! Most people wait until the last minute to place cheese on their egg, resulting in a poorly melted product. Imagine what we could all accomplish if we all worked 11 years without getting a day off like Rauel.…….
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Like, say, alt-rock bands in the late 1990s, it’s increasingly hard to keep track of all the jam & indie bands popping up on the underground rock scene these days. In fact, being a New Yorker with an attentive eye, I’ve found that the easiest way to document a band’s rise is by paying careful attention to the promotional posters plastered to the construction sites I pass on my way to work everyday. As the seasons change, new faces arrive, grow in size and, one Sunday night without explanation, disappear before I digest my Monday morning coffee.
Hopefully, these signs will have a bit longer staying power
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
A Visit to the BK
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Phishin' for Music
In high school, one of my favorite pastimes was wandering aimlessly around my town's record store. I made lists of CDs I hoped to purchase, studied jewel cases that caught my eye, and figured out all sorts of new ways to piece my body by conversing with the store’s cashiers. Since the rise of the mp3, however, CD shopping has become a distant memory, a fading friend I no longer visit. But, before Dark Star Orchestra, I had some time to kill so I ventured across
A Live One (a gift from mom and dad for Chanukah)
Junta (purchased two days latter when I realized A Live One didn’t contain “Fee)
Hoist (I still hope to place “If I Could” on my wedding mix)
Lawn Boy, A Picture of Nectar and Rift (I joined once of those CD club to buy these simultaneously…kind of like Damn Yankees for music-dorks)
Billy Breaths (I had no idea what happened to Phish; now it’s my favorite album)
Story of the Ghost (I ran out of school during third period to buy it and spent all sixth period obsessing over it; I don’t think its hit my player this millennium)
Farmhouse (the first time I heard Sam Goody spin Phish through its PA)
Round Room (I heard it as the MP3s leaked to the web before I purchased the album)
Undermind (We got an advance at Relix; It was dark, dangerous and the beginning of the end).
Thursday, May 18, 2006
It's A Small World After All
As a child, my parents encouraged me to ride It's a Small World whenever we visited Disney World. Its message seemed good-natured enough: despite our cultural differences, we are all just a bunch of Mattel manikins singing the same catchy song (which is conveniently
available for $12.99 at the end of the ride).
Anyways, here are some random, small world reflections from the past week:
There are two tyes of New Yokers. Those who wait patiently for the subway to come and those who impatietly pull their necks trying to see its headlights in the distance. I definately fall into the latter catagory.
As I child, Planet Hollywood and its musical cousain, the Hard Rock Cafe, were destinations, reasons to venture into the city. Now, they are reasons to avoid human congestions on the sidewalk. Perhaps oneday my original copies of Relix will make it onto the wall---in the kosher section of course.
Most companies only encourage drunken interaction among co-workers on holidays like Christmas. At Relix, we encourage drunken interaction among co-workers on holidays like Tuesday. I took this picture at our Green Apple post-party last week. Since entering the Relix world is kind of like being inducted into a fraternity, we feel the need to assign everyone little nick names upon entry. Behind her back, I've started calling Jenny, the newest member of our dysfunctional family, Heady Jenny. She's really not that heady and it says more about how far Relix has drifted from its original hippie-rock tag, but it has a nice ring to it anyway. Heady days indeed.
I've discovered that the mozerilla and tomatto sandwhich is essentially pizza for adults I bumped into Ian at Sarah's graduation party Saturday. I'm not sure how I met Ian, but he seems to be friends with everyone I know and apparently reads my blog. At
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Lunch Break
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Earplug Alert!
Once again too many shows, too little time. In an ideal world we’d meet up a lot this week
5/19: Tom Verlaine @ Bowery Ballroom
5/20: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings,
5/21: The National @ Webster Hall
5/22: Gov’t Mule @ Bowery Ballroom
It’s All in the Wording
6/13=4/20?
Widespread Panic @ Irving Plaza
Radiohead @ Theater at MSG
moe. @ Central Park
MMW @ Capitale (extra heady benefit as part of the Marijuana Policy Project's annual gala)
Since I don't smoke pot MMW is out and since I haven't recently had my heart slashed into a million pieces I can live without Radiohead. I'll try to get into Widespread Panic, but still feel kind of like a carpet bagger. So, I guess it's moe. for me, which works out just fine since the group's last Central Park show is still one of my favorite memories from 2001 (by the way, I lost my friend Tim at that show and still haven't found him...I guess he was swallowed by a moe.ron)
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Happy Mothers Day
Of all the Hallmark Holidays out there, Mothers Day is the most genuine or, at least, most justified. My mom is the best: she corrects my typos, mixes my chocolate milk and takes it as a sign or endearment---I hope---when I say I aspire to marry a neurotic Jewish woman from Westchester. When I was a baby, my mother used to lull me to bed with folk anthems by Peter, Paul and Mary and Joni Mitchell. I may not have learned how to tie my shoes or properly part my my hair, but I certainly remember those lyrics she used to sing. In fact, I think I subconsciously plagiarize them on a daily basis...
The Circle Game:
Yesterday, a child came out to wander
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
Then, the child moved ten times 'round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, "When you're older", must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came,
and go round and round and round
In the circle game
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him, "Take your time. It won't be long now.
'Til your drag your feet to slow the circles down"
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.
And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and 'round and 'round
In the circle game
And go 'round and 'round and 'round in the circle game.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Earplug Alert!
Some fine shows this week. Not sure how many I will make, between Dad's birthday tour and Sarah's graduation tour, but that shouldn't stop any of you (except maybe Dad and Sarah) from hitting up any of these show. I strongly urge each and everyone of you to see American Babies Thursday. It'’s Tom Hamilton's new band, featuring the below mentioned Russo on drums. Simply put, the best new music I've heard this year. Stop reading and go see it now (come on, you know how these blog entries end anyway, blah blah blah Phish tour, blah blah blah crazy girl tour, blah blah blah blah life lesson tour)
5/11: American Babies @ Knitting Factory
5/12-13: Dark Star Orchestra @ Nokia
5/14: Rana, Apollo Sunshine and the Brakes @ Knitting Factory
PS whose coming with me Thursday>?
The Birth of a Hangover
Even though I took them off my list of favorite bands sometime during the 1990s, the Counting Crowes still penned my favorite line in rock-and-roll history: “She Knows she is more than a little misunderstood, she has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous.” I think it captures an important element of the human condition, or at least, of my condition. A friend once told me that I fall “somewhere between the guy who gets the girl and the guy who is afraid to ask depending on my mood.” She’s right. I know I’m more than a little understood, I have trouble acting normal when I’m nervous.
And, as my head begins to beat, and tomorrow I know I will pay, today I had a happy day.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
I Feel the Feeling I Forgot
I hadn’t pressed refresh that many times since Phish announced its final tour date. In fact, I think I forgot the feeling entirely: the excitement of piecing together an entire summer simply through rumors, the anticipation of waiting for a webpage to solidify those rumors into an official announcement, the fear that other “trivial” plans would conflict with that tour.
But, then, something really odd happened. Instead of lying awake all night, plotting my summer journey, my mind began to drift and an odd emotional reality set in. I began to think about life’s other obstacles, as well as its gifts. I didn’t want to rearrange my entire summer, to skip out on my other plans. In fact, it had already been a pretty darn good day in the life of Mikey Greenhaus. I had lunch with an old friend, walked across the
Oddly enough, jam-nation is the one place my latent
I'm floating in the Blympalot
I feel the feeling I forgot
Swimming weightless in the womb
Bouncing gently round the room
In a minute I'll be free
And we'll be splashing in the sea
I feel no curiosity
I see the path ahead of me
In a minute I'll be free
And we'll be splashing in the sea
We hear a tiny cry
As the ship goes sliding by
-Phish, 1995
Monday, May 01, 2006
The Hiatus is Over
After a six-month hiatus, I finally relaunched my Greenhaus Effect Column just before a Jammys. I guess I should feel embarrassed about the six-month lag, but, then again, every good jam-scene denizen deserves a good hiatus. For those of you who stumbled upon this page post-hiatus, my column is kind of like my blog only instead of using my weekend activities as fodder for self-depreciation, I use my drunken exploits as fodder for self-examination. Enjoy
www.jambands.com/Columns/MGreenhaus