Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A story about Boardwalk Empire turns into a story about Joel Gion and a t-shirt‏

I've watched five full episodes of HBO's new show Boardwalk Empire and I'm still not sure if I like it/dislike it/have any real interest in it. It's pleasant to gaze at Michael Pitt (so dreamy), and I love that a Brian Jonestown Massacre plays during the opening credits, but other than that I could kind of take it or leave it.

Speaking of BJM, if you think it seems like I'm obsessed with the Avett Brothers at the moment, trust me when I say that when I first saw the movie Dig! my obsession with Anton Newcombe and Joel Gion waaaaaaaay surpassed whatever I'm going through right now. Which is not to belittle my current fixation, not in the least. Just so you know, when I find something new that I love I get excited about it, sometimes rather enthusiastically excited.

When I lived in LA I had the chance to go see Joel's band, The Dilettantes. When I first walked up to the venue (Silverlake Lounge?), Joel was outside by himself smoking a cigarette. I showed him the couple dollar bills and bunch of quarters in my hands and admitted that I was using my laundry money to see him! Twenty seconds later, the girl at the door refused to take the coins so I had to walk straight back outside and explain the situation to Joel who very kindly gave me dollars for all the quarters and told me that now he had laundry money! That was a strange moment, but he was super-nice about it, plus he complimented me on my t-shirt! That was already one of my favorite shirts, but ever since then it's been my lucky shirt too. That whole night was super-fun -- I talked to Joel and Dave Deresinski after the show and ended up hanging out with people I met that night till like six in the morning.

It might be time to retire this shirt. When I wore it earlier this year when BJM were in St. Louis I still got turned away from that super-sold out show. Maybe I've worn all the luck out of it.



2 comments:

  1. Dig!, that sounds like a nice movie. Maybe I'll check it out.

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  2. Ben, you're such a good brother. You definitely bore the brunt of that particular fixation, but you never complained about it, just always saw the humor in it.

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