Marc Maron, Janeane Garafolo, and Henry Rollins Rock NYC.....

Last night Will and I went down to NYC to see Janeane Garafolo, Marc Maron, and Henry Rollins perform at the Gramercy Theater (where they will be performing till this Sunday.)
We met up with Jill and the dashing and famous (in some quarters) Mr. Brilliant, and had a lovely time, laughing and nodding and feeling validated in that someone gets it...with Jill laughing so hard at some points that she made a little high pitched squeak, and Mr B with his head in his hands...sometimes the community reaction is as good as the funny itself.
First Janeane literally rolled and crawled onto the stage after entering from the back of the theater like a mini prizefighter, looking very pale and thin and in her ever present suede-ite fake fur trimmed coat, that all the girls had in high school at one point ...and she said something about using it to hide her upper arms, which seems sorta sad to me...and coming from someone who already had her chin lipoed, well, if you're wearing a coat all the time maybe its time for that long overdue consult....or did the chin hurt too much? Her hair is in a long black mat-ish punk do, and though she goes on abotu her weight, she seems on the thin side in jeans and a T-shirt, as far as I could tell with the coat on for the whole set.
Anyway, I really like Janeane, and on alot of levels she reminds me of myself and how I think...a little too much maybe...and at an earlier age and totally different stage, like, before all these years of therapy twice a week, (and, of course with the love of a good psychopharmacologist...as Bush would say, "practicing his love....")
The thing that got me originally on her radio show, was probably the thing that pissed most people off about her; it's is her innate understanding of psychology, power, and the blindness of people to the obvious sickness all around us ...she is also angry and isolated and searching....
and brilliant, and thinks so clearly about so many things, even though she rambles quite a bit.
She reminds me of one of those tough Bohemian Brooklyn Girls...um...me....who is really sensitive and hurt but puts on a pretty good show of the toughness....
Anyway, I love her commentary and I was happy to hear her...I only got up to get a drink when she started in on the Rome thing, which I had heard already and might have gotten more into if I actually watched Rome. For some reason I can't get into it...and then I realize that maybe I can get the DVD set later or something...
Anyway, I know that feeling of always being stuck on 13th St and University ...as if the Iguana was still up there looking down towards the Forbes Museum and all the little eggs it held...and being in the place where the eye makeup is never right...except that now I smear it on in the car and text and drive, while I run around, and somewhere in there I just stopped...I dunno...maybe its getting more firmly into your 40's and feeling more like this is it, so live it....
Janeane is a much braver and stronger person than I am in so many ways, and she is one of my heros as someone who spearheaded the antiwar movement in the very beginning and had to endure threats and abuse from everyone from the disgusting sneering talking heads on TV to the likes of the South Park guys (though that was a pretty faboo movie besides the part where Janeane gets blown up.)
The really funny and touching thing is that through the angst and anger, emerges this girl who pulls out a puppy book and comes to the edge of the stage to show pictures of puppies...
I have 5 dogs and birds and 2 snakes and a hedgehog and a puffer fish and a blue lobster...and a wild basement snake who is long as me...and I also have puppy picture books...and naked baby bird pictures too....The cute and the funny collide at tragedy and dismay sometimes....Janeane gets that.

Janeane was followed by sweetie Marc Maron, and I guess its silly of me to actually act like I can give any sort of review because his commentary has been the soundtrack of my life for too long.... except for the guy stuff that I don't get, like the porno obsession. But thats OK...just natural I suppose...who knows? I've only ever seen one porno and I found it to be sort of mean. The guy kept saying that he had picked the wrong one...like, it shoulda been more romantic with less slapping and screeching or something. But really, why watch it if you could be doing it, (minus the slapping and ho/bitch talk,) and who would ever do it with those people and in those situations?...But I don't judge...I just report. What I can say is that I was worried abotu the girl and I still sometimes look back and worry about her...so why add to my worries. Im too empathetic to not wonder who they are and what the story really is with them.
Marc was hilarious and great, and hes got a bunch of new material...and some of those old chestnuts, that even William knows by heart, are always morphing a little depending on where hes been and what hes seen.
Weighed down by a huge Carnegie deli sandwich which he didn't want to go to waste in his frugal lodgings at the Y (...due to some Orbitz deal that didn't mention the lack of a private bathroom! ...and a hallmate named the "Captain," who may have been more bit than reality, but who cares?,) Marc is back on the meat diet and ...ugh, buddy, how could you eat all of that? Those sandwiches are for, like, 4 people! I always try to go for the noodle soup there...its light and its good. There is something about that meat though....
He weighed in on everything from Imus to the cats to his family. There was a little something for everyone...and even in this bigger venue, he was able to lean in and hold the place in his hand as if talking to a bunch of friends....and yeah, hes funny as shit.
The little tidbit that I have for you all is a little known trivia fact that no one would ever've known, except for my brilliant boy's strange hobbies: Maron is/was an origami folder! Of course, Will, who is 13 and acts it, had to roll his eyes at the simplicity of the models mentioned and any mention of CUTTING...but yes, Maron did origami as a young man. He made a camel with a rider once even! (Will calls that "easy!"...I call it brilliant!)
In the car Will said that he was so upset that the one time that he didn't have a pocket full of cool models, he really wanted some handy to show Marc....thus canceling out the eye rolling, because he was really impressed under that veneer of cooler than you horrible OLD people!!...almost as old as my mom...yech!!
As far as the radio goes, well, anyone who knows me, knows that as much as I miss Maron on the air, I was relieved that he moved away from those people. Show biz is a bad enough deal without keeping going back toward the same dysfunctional shit and expecting a different outcome. I have continued to worry about the rest of the crew there too, especially Sammy...and look what happened! I am happy that Marc is out of there...and I'm glad that he is happy and at home with his Mishna. How much can one guy give up for a insecure situation in which you are guaranteed to be screwed in one way or another?
There are always other irons in the fire in this business, especially when one is as talented as Marc is, and I think that we will be seeing alot more of him on TV, in movies, in print....and hopefully on the radio.
Its just that the cause of liberal talk and what was being built there, has been disassembled in favor of a business model that...and this founding group has really given alot towards spreading the truth in an atmospheres that previously was almost total lies and silence, and encouraging people to get off their asses and work, vote, run for office, blog, write, and scream their heads off. That is no small accomplishment and they can all be proud, regardless of what happens next.


Its funny that Im not really all that familiar with Henry Rollins, because it seems like everyone that I know and like, knows him and likes him. He went on last and then he went on and on....As Marc said, when I told him that I wasnt familiar with Henry, "Well, you got alot of him tonight!"
Which, I should say, was great, if a little draining, because the guy has some kinda wild energy and a great and positive outlook on the really hard and bad things that go on all the time. He reminds me of a big kid who is just so full of ideas and interest in the world...and yet he is a 47 year old ex rocker, has a TV show, and does the commentary thing with CDs and other merchandise tie-ins. He was on a phone booth billboard as I was driving out of the city, and I was marveling that even the IFC seems to actually promote their shows. I havent seen that alot lately on what might be considered to be an obscure or art channel and show.
I suppose I also was not into his band at the time, whenever that was, and I just missed a whole swath of cultural development. I'm supposeing that it was part of my country rockin, Montana years and into my Maine to CT raising this kid alone time....? Was I listening to Sesame Street Sings and watching the OJ trial?
Well, anyway, Henry has been travelling all over and most recently has been to Iran, where he stealthily snuck in undercover and met with alot of interesting people. This is the first stop on his Axis of Evil tour, as hes committed to go and meet with the real people that live in these countries. He is a good person to do this sort of thing, but he seems to fancy himself as a sorta 007-ish spy, and has managed to duck what seems to be real danger of getting picked up by the police for being an outspoken activist type of person and an American.
His telling of his experiences from his bold and loud love of New York City and his wonder at how it all works so well and fits together (tape and spit and gum, Henry...take it from one who knows...) and his bizarre rock tales ...but mainly his political views that make you want to get out of your chair and DO something...are all really moving, and sweet and funny...but also I found his bit to be very draining....sometimes I wondered where Henry was in there...but I got the feelign that in his life he is a pretty intense and passionate person.
I dont imagine him laying around doing nothing very much...tho I could be wrong.
The great thing about Henry Rollins that struck me from whne Janeane brought it up to when he started going on about the reemergence of dinosaurs, is his love of reptiles.
I so wanted to tell him abotu the basement snake and about Leon and Snow who eat the frozen mice that I have been picturing here...and about the huge abscess in basement snakes head last year and hwo the vet said that ti was brain cancer and that he would surely die...only to find out fromt he wildlife vet that ti was an abscess from a rat bite and that after surgery and a week in the hospital he could go back free in the basement!
Reptiles are very close to birds...and reptile folks often naturally move in the bird direction....as I have...and scientists have just proven a link between birds and dinosaurs via DNA (which I coulda told them just from common sense...but anyway.)
Thats what I wanted to tell Henry...
But after the show I was tired and just wanted to talk to Marc, introduce Will, and head home....
Maybe Ill get the basement snake link to him.

It was a great show and a better end to a very crazy busy week....a sad time because AAR is basically over for me unless they make a quick turnaround...I know that alot of people out there feel the same way....and a busy time with taxes, war, the news, and family drama here that just goes on and on....

Watching the nest box and more on the rest to come....
I highly recommend this show...if any of these folks come to your town, check em out....I hope to see more of them all soon...
And as Jill said, besides the obvious need for Marc to be back on the radio (Janeane wanted to stop because the whole thing was becomming too much for her,) is that someone should give Rollins a radio show. He might be too much of a live wire and too quick on the trigger...but he sure would be great!
...maybe XM/Sirius