On July 29th we went to the Brick Fest in St Louis. It was cool to see all the buildings and art that people had created with Lego™ bricks. I, like 99% of people around the world, just call them Legos. But you can’t use the trademarked word in a convention like this so everything was labeled “Brick this” or “Brick that”. Even the IP characters were verbotten. So instead of Pikachu, they advertised “Electric Cat”. Or instead of Mario it was “Italian Plumber”.

I looked around for some of the Creative sets I don’t have, like the buildings that are made for adults. I’ve decided that Legos, for me, are what puzzles were for my dad – a zen-like pastime designed to consume time and money lol. But I love Lego sets. I love and appreciate the design and artistry that goes into a preconfigured set. Elsa will build her own stuff in the basement using all the loose Lego pieces. That’s awesome too. I used to build my own stuff all the time growing up. But I have no creativity now. There’s no room for creativity when you’re the type of person that can’t be interrupted when trying to create something. Someday the kids will be grown, I’ll be retired, and then I’ll put on the blinders and delve into some creative endeavor again. Maybe I’ll build another guitar. That was my dream for the longest time, to be some type of Paul Reed Smith luthier with my own business. The problem is that I don’t have the patience or skill for woodworking. I learned that what I really wanted wasn’t so much the crafting part but the business end of it. I think I’ll just design guitars I like, farm it out to some shop in Indonesia, and then sell them myself.

The convention was in a part of St Louis I’ve never been too. There are some really ritzy neighborhoods on the west end, where we went. It’s still kind of amazing to me that there exist large cities where there are lavish multimillion dollar estates, and then five miles away there are run downed sections that look like a poverty bomb detonated. Why are there disparities like this? Obliviously a lot depends on what you’re born into. It’s very hard to escape the cycle of poverty in a sense that it’s hard to change any situation you’re in when it’s all you know. I look back at the mindset I had growing up, in my teens, in my 20’s, and in my 30’s, and cringe at some of the stuff I believed. I knew that other ways of living and other worldviews existed but I didn’t think any of it was truly attainable for myself.

But you can also look at any town of any size, even small towns that are only one race, and you’ll see the spectrum of upper class, middle class and lower class. I think in these cases you see that different people have different levels of ambition and we ultimately settle in to where we’re comfortable. I’ve had bouts of extreme ambition before and discovered that it’s hard work to think like this and follow a dream or vision. If my parents and grandparents had been highly ambitious and successful, wealthy people of vision, then it would be easier for me to be that way as well. I would have lots of role models to choose from and I wouldn’t have to put so much mental energy into it. I would just model my behavior after what I’ve seen before, what I’ve seen work. It was hard enough, mentally, to move myself out of a lower middle-class mindset into an upper middle-class one. I hope that I’m a good role model for my children so that they can be successful in life without having to go through too much mental anguish.

Last Thursday Ed, Matt, Elsa, Jack and myself went to a Cardinals game. We got the coveted Green Seats again, the best seats in the whole place, right behind home plate. I wish my wife could have went but she had to work. Elsa isn’t really into ballgames but I knew the lure of the Green Seat experience would have a lasting impression on her. For Ed and Matt, I sold them on the idea of paying more for these seats after I described the pre-game buffet and free food and drink delivery right to your seat.

We drove down to the game, waited for a bit, then entered via the special gate reserved for Green Seat occupants. Then we were seated at the restaurant inside the stadium. It was an embarrassment of riches for me last year when Jack and myself went to a green seated game. This time I knew what to expect. The buffet was great and dessert was awesome. Elsa really like the setting and food, and this is a cool thing about having kids: You get to relive memories through your children’s eyes.

Jack ate and bolted, Sharpie and ball in hand, over to the dugout to get autographs. Last year he struck gold when he got Goldschmidt’s, Knizner’s, Naughton’s and even Jim Hayes’ autographs. Players would sign the green-seat kids’ balls first, then move on to the other kids. O-la-la! But this time no players signed nothing for nobody. I don’t know if it’s just the Cardinal’s terrible season or what, but there was no fan interaction at all. Jack came back to sit down, visibly upset. I hadn’t thought about the possibility of getting no autographs; last year’s experience made it seem like getting multiple signatures was a foregone conclusion. But it’s like they say, “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

The game was pretty good. The Cardinals lost. This is the third time I’ve seen them this year and they lost every time. But sitting this close to the action is a thrill. Even Elsa payed attention to the whole game. Most other games we’re sitting up in the clouds, looking at our phones about half the time. We’ll see a batter hit the ball, then a second later you hear the sound. It’s a much cooler experience (at either a ballgame or a concert) when you sit close enough that the sights and sound sync up.

Saturday we had a yard sale. I didn’t think we had a lot of items to sale but I was amazed at just how much we had, once everything was spread out in the garage. We ended up making $153 too, which is real money.

Last night the wife and I sent to St Louis Music Center to see Ween in concert. I left the show thinking, “Perfect.” It was a perfect kind of show; they played a ton of songs, many of our favorite ones that I just assumed they weren’t going to play, due to looking at previous set lists. I mean, they played “Japanese Cowboy” and ended the show with “Buenas Tardes Amigo” for chrissake!

I love Ween because I love Ween-type bands, like Primus, Meat Puppets, Dead Milkmen, etc. They share a certain aesthetic of adding humor to their songs. Some people would call this novelty, but really? Comedy is hard. If you don’t believe me, just try to make someone genuinely laugh. It’s not easy. Being a musician for so long, I see a depth and cleverness in Ween’s songs that aren’t readily apparent. What they create looks easy but it’s hard to do. The wife really likes Ween as well which may seem odd at first glance but the band’s latter songs included some more accessible work that acts as a gateway to discover their earlier material.

This was a venue I’ve never been to before, right next to the casino. It was nice and clean, newer looking. It held about 4,500 people. There were lots of dedicated fans with out of state license plates, probably following the band everywhere they go.

It was a great date night for us. We get to do it again in two weeks when we see Billy Joel and Steve Nicks in Kansas City. After Rush, I’d say Billy Joel is my second favorite artist. His was the first concert I’ve ever been to, when my uncle took mom and myself to St Louis for the first time back in 1987 on a trip that is forever burned into my psyche. I’m going to try to see Living Colour in Bloomington here soon as well. That will make my 15 year-old self very happy lol. I missed out on seeing Steve Vai in Peoria last week. There’s too much going on but wow, it’s a good time to be alive and have some disposable income to see all these artists that there was no way of ever seeing when I was growing up. Metallica plays on a Friday night in November in St Louis. I’m going to try to get tickets for Jack and Matt if there’s no school events going on. I figure that Jack is never going to see the Beatles in concert but he could see Metallica. They are both cultural icons and have outsized influence on the world of music. I saw Metallica in Peoria back in 1991, on the first stop of their Black Album tour. Anything on that album or later, I can take it or leave it. But the first four Metallica albums left an indelible impression on my youth. A lot of the integrity I strive for (both as a musician and in my individual life) could be traced back to this band. They didn’t have music videos for their songs (“One” was their first video) because they wanted the listener to create their own visuals and meaning. They didn’t have (visible) tattoos. They didn’t (visibly) use drugs. They created music for themselves first and foremost, and if other people liked it then hey, that was cool too. But trying to please others was not their end-goal. That’s part of what made them so good.

It’s ironic then that another Bay area band, Faith No More, would be my next musical crush. Ironic, because they introduced me to a sense of dis-integrity. No one in the band looked like they belonged with anyone else in the group. Their music was crazy good and humorous. Their videos were psychedelic. It’s around this time that I took to heart the “If you can’t convince them, confuse them” mentality, that if I couldn’t be physically strong or a good conversationalist, that I could at least confuse people and have them leave me alone. Mainly, having long hair, playing guitar, and hanging out with stoners in high school while never having done any type of drugs myself. It kinds of throws people off. But, as I learned later, going through life trying to not have a coherent, integrated worldview is itself a worldview. Like the late, great Neil Peart said, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

My friends and I got to see Faith No More and Helmet at Western Illinois University back in ’92 or ’93. Thinking back to just the joy of being young, this is one of those moments. Just part of having a close group of friends that did everything together. I got to talk to FNM guitarist Jim Martin after the show when he was out signing autographs. My friend’s now-wife got a kiss on the cheek from him, for her birthday. After the tour he was out of the band lol. But not before he was in the movie Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, playing himself. Music, love it.