It was All So Worth It

Waiting for Waits

He started late, but we didn't mind the . . . oh forget it.
Anyway, Tom Waits was just incredible live. Great stories (like the one about the silverware-throwing 11 year-old pimps in Minneapolis in the 70's ("I know it sounds like I'm making this up, but I'm not")); great backing band; great sampling of songs from throughout his 30+ year carreer (setlist); great piano playing; great big magnifying glass over his face for Eyeball Kid (get it?); great (?) dance moves; and two encores--maybe the show's peak (and, therefore: great timing).
Awesome.


view from our seats; not great, but close enough to pick up some dance moves (ask me when next we meet reader, I dare you)

Then it was back to the suburbs to make sangria, eat, and hang with

Brax

Friday we went to the city (only took an hour to find a parking spot!) and had dinner with Chris and Carrie. A+.

That night, we caught Chris in Sandy Takes a Break. I had heard about the show, but hadn't seen it before. I would definitely say that it was excellent, and met or exceeded my expectations. Chris was great--particularly good were his Sandy the newscaster (à la Dan Rather) character and the 'creepy dad' (Mr Cooper, as I recall; see video below) character. Ben, Chris' parter, was quite good as the guy heckling Chris' lawyer in one sketch, and especially as the marine giving 'notes' to his troops (rought paraphrase: "some of you are thinking 'we had another Fallujah today'; we did not have another Fallujah today! . . . did you see how well we were working together out there? You guys really looked like you were enjoying yourselves. And why? Because we were making eye contact").

Chris was also funny as the love-lorn Keisuke (any resemblance accidental) and as one of the dads in the Video Project skits ("I'm not Hitler; I just want to make sure there's enough Shake 'N Bake for everyone at the table"). My favorite, though, would have to be Mr Cooper, who asked his daughter's boyfriend if he still kept in touch with his ex-girlfriend's dad, and if he'd sing Happy Birthday on the car ride home. . . . Splendid stuff. Here's hoping the Reader gives it the rave review it deserves.

Sandy on the marquee at the Apollo Theater Chicago

Here's a short bit of the Mr Cooper scene from Sandy Takes a Break (hard to film much when you're laughing):

Good stuff.

One last thing: back in Rock Island, the peace lily we took home from the funeral of Emily's grandmother, Norma Campbell, is blooming for the first time in five years, so that's pretty cool.

Lily