The white snow, the rock show.

I WROTE THE BEGINNING OF THIS BLOG ABOUT 3 WEEKS AGO, DECEMBER 15. AND THEN I FORGOT ABOUT IT.

Today was a snow day. There was very little actual snow. More or less, school was called on account of ice. Which is fine by me. I got to spend some quality time with the missus, and sleep till 1. We might have another day off tomorrow, on account of the supposed 3 inches we're going to get tomorrow morning. It'll be a little iffy though, considering the brunt of the bad weather's supposed to hit during the morning rush, a little while after principals submit their final word on whether or not the school day will take place as scheduled. I won't say anything derogatory about our administration, considering big brother's [(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Nineteen_Eighty-Four)] probably reading this right now, but we'll likely have school tomorrow.

A lot of people are upset about the off days, considering it is, in fact, finals week. But personally, I'm not opposed to pushing them back to later this week, or even after break. More time to study, says I. Not that I actually will. But, you never know, I might. Nevertheless, I'm pulling for another relaxing day at home tomorrow.

Wednesday, my mom let me go to a show out of town. Even though I asked her basically at the last minute. It was crazy. Granted, the show was only 2 hours away, in Columbia, but still. That's out of character for her. The show was at the Blue Note, a venue I had visited earlier this year for a Relient K show. This time, the line-up consisted of Scouts, Envy On The Coast, and headliners, Taking Back Sunday.

BACK TO PRESENT TIME.

Anyways, that show was fun. It was my first time seeing Envy On The Coast, and they did not disappoint. Local openers Scouts were decent. TBS was great. Their fans are seriously rabid, though. Twice I've seen them now, and both times, the pits have been more intense than a lot of hardcore shows I go to. Seriously.

Christmas was good. I got a lot of cash, some clothes, and a brand new Casio keyboard, that I've been playing almost non stop when I'm actually at home. I've gone to a lot of our school hockey games lately too, which is actually fun. For a long time, I've been really down on hockey, but going to the games has been a blast.

Ludo's annual Christmas show was on Sunday. It sold out. I wasn't prepared for that. Still, I knew I would get in somehow. Craig's list and Ebay failed me, so the day of the show, Hope and I headed to the Pageant armed with cash and a sign (made by Hope: she's the creative one) reading "We need 2 Ludo tickets." We walked the line for a couple hours in 40 degree weather, finally picking up a pair of tickets, and headed inside.

Unfortunately, the pit was already pretty full, but we pushed our way in anyways. Chicago band "Oh My God" played first. Awful, awful stuff. Local band Building Rome played next. Pretty bad. One of their guitarists actually smashed his guitar at the end, though. Which was dumb. It was a black Gibson SG that probably cost a good 500 bucks at least. Family Force 5 played next. I like those guys, but their show is always the same. And the kids in the pit were being really stupid. This one in particular thought it would be a good idea to jab me in the kidney as he flew into the action. I was already a little ticked to begin with and stupidly, I took a swing at him, aiming for the head. He dodged it, which was probably good, considering I'm not much of a fighter, and I had upset Hope quite a bit by doing this. So I backed off.

Ludo is one of my favorite live bands. Always a blast. A Very Ludo Christmas is always a spectacle, and this year was no different. The only letdowns were the omission of "Saturday Night Thunderbolt" from the set and in general, the nature of the crowd. It was quite evident that many of them had come to hear a single song, "Love Me Dead" after hearing it on local rock station 105.7 The Point. Regardless, the show was good.

Today, my mom is making me mad. That's all she seems to do lately. I don't know if it's just her temperament, the monthly visitor, or something else, but for real, I can't stand it. Luckily, I'm getting out of the house tonight to go catch House Of Heroes at some new club in St. Charles. Should be a fun time. In the ten minutes since I wrote this, things have changed. And I probably can't go. I am pissed. Bye.

Stay tuned for the list of my top albums of the year. I should have it up within the next few days or so.

Christopher Michael Tucker

Vote For Pedro.

Last night, I saw Dave Bazan at The Billiken Club, a cool little venue on the campus of St. Louis University. All their shows are free, too, so that's a plus. I'd seen Bazan, frontman of the now defunct Pedro The Lion, once before, also at SLU, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the evening. In this case, predictability was a good thing.

The folks at the Billiken Club always book great opening bands, and last night was no exception. Via Audio, a charming band from Brooklyn kicked the show off right, with their unique brand of indie pop. I was a tad skeptical when I saw they had a female frontman...er...woman, but this girl, Jessica Martins, turned out to be quite the breath of fresh air. The music was good, and the band was clearly having just as much fun as the hundred or so in the crowd. Needless to say, I enjoyed these guys a bunch. Give them a listen at myspace.com/viaaudio or just go unpause the song at the bottom of this blog.

Dave Bazan followed with the typical Dave Bazan set. That's a good thing, trust me. Bazan does an excellent job of playing tracks from all 3 of his major projects: Pedro, Headphones (his synth based project), as well as his solo work. Also, he works in Q&A sessions in between songs. These can turn into tense political discussions or they can be about things like favorite books or bands. It makes for quite the engaging show.

Midway through his set, Bazan announced that he was in the process of mixing his first full length solo record, and that it should be out soon. Songs from that record made up the majority of his set. He also worked in a song ("Shit Talker") from the Headphones album, and confirmed that there would indeed be another Headphones record. Pedro the Lions songs played include: "Priests And Paramedics", "Options", "Transcontinental", and my favorite "When They Really Get To Know You, They Will Run". Bazan also played covers from Deerhoof and Bob Dylan. A solid set, if I do say so myself.

Christopher Michael Tucker

Refreshing for a journal update.

Last night, the one and only Fall Out Boy played the Creepy Crawl. Love them or hate them, they have had an undeniable impact on the scene today. I guess I shouldn't make them poster boys for the scene. I mean, they aren't going to make an acceptance speech. Ha! Okay, but seriously. The show was fun, and it was a once in a lifetime sort of thing. Here's how things went down.

Hope got called out of school early and picked me as soon as the final bell rang. We ran by the house long enough for me to change into warm clothes, then we took off for downtown, making quick stops for food at Fazoli's and Taco Bell respectively. We got to the venue around 3:30, and met up with a couple friends, Rachel and DJ, who were near the front of the line. Doors were at 6, mind you. The family in the front of the line was rumored to have been there since 8 in the morning...the day before. Insane.

It was chilly, but I had no room to complain, given that the time I had been waiting paled in comparison to some other folks in line. Still, I asked Mike Judy to take into consideration that people were chilly, and told him maybe opening doors early would be nice. He was almost to his car as these words left my mouth. He turned around, walked briskly back over, and said with a smirk, "How long have you been here, Chris Tucker?" To which I replied, "Eh, about 10 minutes." Haha.

Another highlight was the near fight between two moms arguing about cuts in line. This lady (and I use the term loosely) in a pink scarf was unrelenting, and a total you-know-what about a couple kids (one of them being me) getting in line with their friends. It turned into a real shouting match, with her calling out the other mom, as well as Rachel. At one point, "pink scarf" very deliberately bumped into the other mom, and said something like "Well, if you wouldn't be all up on me!" That's when I couldn't take it any more. "WHOA WHOA WHOA," I said, and proceeded to use Rachel to mock pink scarf's ridiculous cowardly violence. Some more things were said ("How old are are you? 26? Well act like it!" and "Get your fat ass back in line!") and finally, old pink scarf retreated. If nothing else, that little quarrel was entertaining.

We went in at 6 as planned and secured a spot a couple rows back of stage right. The opening band was "Just Left," an awful band from Chicago. The lyrics were weak. Their efforts to encourage crowd participation were sad. The lead singer desperately needed to pull up his pants. It was ugly. Finally, they finished, and FOB's roadies started setting up.

The show was flat out fun. Granted, the clandestine clad kiddies got a tad obnoxious at times, and people continually had to be told by FOB bodyguards to "GET OFF THE STAGE!" Not like they could help it, though. At big Creepy shows, the front row always gets knocked forward from pushing. That's just the price you pay when there's no barricade. They played straight on through into the encore. The final song was "Saturday." Toward the end of the song, Pete called for everybody to get on stage. A gutsy move. I mean, little Bronx is only 10 days old now. It'd be a shame for him not to know his daddy. Luckily Pete wasn't killed, or even molested, and for the most part, no one got hurt. I did see some girl get carried off by the venue staff. But in the long run, one casualty isn't too bad.

We walked outside to find it had snowed and the temperature had dipped into the twenties. Roads and windshields were quickly icing over. Our plan was to go to the courtesy diner on Hampton. But unfortunately, Hope's car was nowhere in sight. My first thought was "It's stolen." But then my better judgment (aka Hope) told me it probably got towed. We'd parked on the Creepy's back lot a million times and nothing had ever happened. And we had no idea it was even restricted. But sure enough, upon walking over to the entrance to the lot, there was a sign, mind you, only about the size of a piece of paper: "All unauthorized vehicles will be towed." Crap.

So we hitched a ride back to Hope's from Rachel (Thanks again), and got in her mom's Mustang to head to the lot where the car was being housed...er...carred? Anyways, we got there shortly after 11, but the guy running the place didn't show till 11:30 or so. We got the car back, but were told the towing fee was $150 and the parking ticket would be 50 bucks. Needless to say, that was a pretty horrible end to the day. Regardless, it's a day I won't soon forget. Tomorrow night I'm seeing Dave Bazan of Pedro the Lion fame. Should be swell. I'm going to try to get back in the habit of doing show reviews, so another blog should be up sometime this weekend. Till then. See ya.

Christopher Michael Tucker.

P.S. For the setlist and some pics, check out
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2008/12/review_photos_setlist_fall_out_boy_creepy_crawl_st_louis_december_3_2008_folie_deux_pete_wentz.php

For a few of my pics, visit
http://flickr.com/photos/therealchristucker/

Alive, I am.

Wow. Last blog was, what, October 16? Wow. Well, to start, I'm going to run down the list of shows I've gone to since then (for posterity), and then get to other updates.
October 17 was Paul Baribeau at the bakery. About 20 people showed, if that.
October 18 was the Sassyback tour with Cobra Starship. Unfortunately, the openers were Sing It Loud, Hit The Lights, and Forever The Sickest Kids. Cobra is always a blast though.
October 19 was the Rock Band tour. Panic At The Disco, Dashboard Confessional, Plain White T's, The Cab. Panic and Dashboard are impeccable live.
October 24 was Of Montreal at the Pageant. Most ridiculous stage show ever. Kevin Barnes is so flamboyant. And straight.
October 27 was Emery, Hawthorne Heights, The Color Fred, and Tickle Me Pink. Small crowd, but still fun. We left before HH, though.
October 28 was Dance Rawr Dance 2. Family Force 5 was fun. PlayRadioPlay was cool. Danger Radio and Ultraviolet sound were pretty awful.
October 30 was the Uncle Fest Tour. House Of Heroes=awesome. This Providence=bad. Ludo=awesome. Relient K=meh. And by meh, I mean, they played one of my favorite sets in recent memory.
November 2 was Underoath, good as usual. Saosin was weak. The Devil Wears Prada seemed a little off. Person L was grrrreat.
November 14 is in the running for my favorite show all year. Steel Train, probably my favorite live band. Dear And The Headlights, the band who put out the best record all year. Forgive Durden, not really a fan, but this Razia's Shadow rock opera thing is crazy. Person L, aka Kenny from the Starting Line, aka one of my new favorites.
November 29 I saw Mike Judy's band, Machree at Cicero's. The venue was smoky, the people were drunks, the band was pretty bad. But hey, who's complaining?
I think that's all I can remember.

Life is about the same as last time. Still being all mushy and in love. Still stumbling through senior year. Still writing for school newspaper. Still going to shows. Still without job and vehicle. In other words, I'm living the dream. Here's some interesting things you might want to hear. Since August, I've been taking a piano class, and I'm starting to really pick up some skills (sort of). Basically, I go to tabnabber.com and learn bits and pieces of songs when I can. I can play some Relient K, some Jack's Mannequin, some Rocket Summer, some Death Cab For Cutie, some Sixpence None The Richer, some Ben Folds (I learned "Bitches Ain't Shit" today, Haha), and some Coldplay, to name a few. It's fun, and not too tough, and I think I might stick with it.

Wednesday, I'm going to the Creepy Crawl. Fall Out Boy is playing. Yes. Fall Out Boy. Yes, the Creepy Crawl. Yes, that hole in the wall bar that only holds 400 or so people. Yes, I know you're jealous. Okay, maybe not, but I'm excited nonetheless. My friend, the aforementioned Mike Judy booked the thing, so that's pretty sweet as well. I don't know yet if Hope and I can get in, but with our connections, determination, and arrogance, I think it's possible.

I've been seeing a lot of movies lately, whether at school, or on Hope's couch. Dead Poet's Society is brilliant. The Number 23 is weird, but interesting. Catch Me If You Can is fun. Benny and Joon and quirky and pretty darn hilarious. The Notebook is not actually a chick flick, and I think if my tear ducts weren't broken, I might have got a little weepy after that one. That seems to be our go-to activity lately. Hope and I seem to make a couple Blockbuster runs a week now. Let me know if you have any recommendations.

I'm running out of things to discuss now, so I'll leave you with my most recent column, on being politically correct. Enjoy. Till next time. Oh, and as a quick side note. I know I haven't been online to talk to some of you as much as I used to be. I still check myspace and facebook daily, but I've been using email too (therealchristucker@gmail.com), and I check it quite a bit. Plus, I check it at school when I'm way bored and need human contact. In other words, you guys should email me, if you're into that sort of thing. If not, myspace and facebook are tried and true favorites. Oh, and you can virtually stalk me on twitter now(twitter.com/ChrisTucker). Yeah!

Christopher Michael Tucker

"Politically Correct...TO THE EXTREME!"
According to dictionary.com, being politically correct “involves changing or avoiding language that might offend anyone, especially with respect to gender, race, or ethnic background.”
According to Chris Tucker, being politically correct involves “using a lot of feathery words so as to avoid offending a couple overly sensitive whiners”.
This is a feeling I hold year round, but when December rolls around, I become especially vocal on the subject.
In the last few years, our nation has become consumed by the idea that we must do everything in our power keep self-esteem at its highest possible level.
Teachers are told to write “Good job!” or some other form of pre-packaged encouragement on students’ papers, even when said teachers are well aware the work is less than superb.
And then when December comes, everything from advertisements to decorations blandly reads “Happy Holidays.”
Yes, Christmas is a traditionally Christian holiday. Yes, that means it involves Jesus. Does that offend you? I’m terribly sorry.
Well, be forewarned then. In February, I would prefer you don’t say “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Because that offends me. Because I don’t believe in love.
See how ridiculous it is now?
The concept of political correctness in its truest sense is rank with hypocrisy.
Don’t you see that by rejecting the concept of Christmas, you are being judgmental and exclusive yourself?
To quote urbandictionary.com, “Political correctness has a basic flaw. If all views are equal, why do some who embrace this view feel the need to push this agenda as the ‘correct’ one at the same time demonizing other views as ‘incorrect’?
The whole notion is just completely illogical.
I don’t know about your personal life. Maybe you celebrate Hanukkah. Maybe you celebrate Kwanzaa. Maybe you don’t celebrate any holidays in December. You obviously wouldn’t want to select one as being superior. That wouldn’t be politically correct, now, would it?
All I know, is that this December, I won’t be attending any holiday parties or holiday plays, and I certainly won’t be opening any holiday presents from under the holiday tree. I plan to have a very merry, and a very politically incorrect Christmas. Can I get an Amen?