Pictures at an Inhibition

So I saw my poor blog sitting there neglected and I took pity on the poor thing. Poor lonely code, sitting unbrowsed on some nameless server somewhere in the echoing halls of the Googleplex. So here, blog; here are some new words for you to share with no one. A week ago last Friday (I think. All the Fridays look very much the same to me.), my wife and I had an adventure. We actually left our house after dark and went to see some live music. We went to the Bearsville theater and saw Bustle in Your Hedgerow, a Led Zeppelin cover band. Don't bother googling them. They don't actually exist. Well, they do exist, in that they're real, but apparently they only really came into (ephemeral) being at the behest of Paul Green, a producer and promoter and the man behind School of Rock (the actual music school, not the film which apparently stole the name). Bustle in Your Hedgerow is comprised (or was last Friday, anyway) of guitarist Scott Metzger, bassist Dave Dreiwitz (of Ween), Joe Russo (from Furthur) on drums, and Marco Benevento on keys. I honestly did not know what to expect. I was a little thrown when I realized that there was no singer; I actually thought to myself, "Shit, I can sing Plant's parts. I should sing for these guys." It wasn't long before I realized my folly. Never mind the fact that they played all the best Zeppelin songs, and brilliantly at that. Never mind the fact that Marco Benevento was able to replace Robert Plant's voice with perfectly suited organ sounds and manic, surging keyboard solos that broke over the audience like storm waves on a beach. Never mind the fact that they played "Nobody's Fault But Mine" flawlessly. Never mind the fact that they are four of the finest musicians I've ever seen, who play together as if they'd been doing it their whole lives-- These guys had more fun rocking the living bejeezus out of the house than you could ever possibly imagine. And it was totally infectious. Marco is clearly the leader of the group, and practically the whole time he plays he is grinning from ear to ear, so incredibly joyful that you would be hard pressed not to laugh yourself just to witness it. It honestly was one of the best concert experiences of my life, and for a music geek like myself, that's saying something. I don't know if they'll ever play together again, but I really do hope so. I will certainly go to see them again, tinnitus be damned. And if you ever hear an ad on your local radio station for Bustle in your Hedgerow, do not walk, RUN to buy tickets. As far as I'm concerned, they are What Is and What Should Always Be.

About.me

Just got my about.me page up. Check it out here.

Top 10 Books

Audible.com has asked me for my list of Top 10 Books, so in the interest of filling my nascent web site I thought I'd give you a preview:

1. A Game of Thrones (and all its sequels) by George R. R. Martin
2. Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
3. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
4. An Alien Heat by Michael Moorcock
5. Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Tim Ferris
6. Ubik by Philip K. Dick
7. The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison
8. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. The List of Seven by Mark Frost

10. Shibumi by Trevanian

Without thinking about it for too long, these are the books that have had the greatest impact on my life. Not included are many graphic novels (Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns and Preacher to name a few), books I have recorded (the works of Tim Dorsey and Christopher Moore particularly), and the glorious heroic fiction of writers like Sapper, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and the late David Gemmell. Oh, and just about everything by Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Philip Jose Farmer, Frederik Pohl... Can I do a list of top 1,000 books?

Well it's about time...

It's been a long time coming, but Ollie Wyman is no longer homeless on the Internet. Be sure to check back for postings, pictures and podcasts!