People have been very generous to me over the years, but finding out that my site is the #4 hit on Google for “Violent J’s Beach Boys BBQ Blowout Bash Blast” may be the greatest birthday gift I have ever received.
Many thanks to @johnintheuk for bringing this to my attention.
It’s my birthday! Oh what a joyous day that was, the morn where I first drew breath! Oh, there was much rejoicing!
I can not tell you how much the whole Day Elvis Died Thing bugged me as a kid. It really bothered me that each year on my birthday, I’d see people having candlelight vigils outside Graceland. In high school, I even wrote a way-too-long play on the subject, in which a kid born on that day is declared The Trailer Park Messiah, against his will. Lay off, I was 16.
Why did this get under my skin so much? I have no idea. I don’t know why I cared about my birthday at all, since for a good chunk of my childhood my mom was a Jehovah’s Witness and we didn’t celebrate it. Or any other holidays. But that’s a tale for another time. Oh, we have stories to share!
So I thought I’d dig up some other meaningful events that happened on this date. I’ve done a very limited version of this before, looking back on how the Mets performed on my birthday throughout my lifetime. But apparently other things happen in life other than baseball, or so I’m told, and so here are some things that happened on August 16 throughout history, according to the obscure reference work Wikipedia.
Oh hi! Didn’t see you there! Welcome to a new, hopefully regular feature here on Scratchbomb called The Crooked Frame. The name comes from a quote from Chuck Jones: “When you have 10 pictures on a wall, the crooked one will get the attention.” At least that’s how I remember it goes. If I’ve misquoted you, Chuck, please do not drop an anvil upon my head from The Great Beyond.
What this is is this: I ask people I like and think are fun to share their most memorable “live” experience. By “live experience”, I mean any sort of performance-type event that one observes as an audience member or participant. That could be anything from a rock-music concert to a comedic monologue to a chicken race. I do not discriminate.
By “memorable”, I don’t mean one’s best or most favorite such experience, but the one that made the most firm impression on one’s mind. For instance, I have a few candidates for the best baseball game I’ve ever seen in person, but the most memorable one I ever attended is undoubtedly this one. What I’m looking for, really, are instances where one is overwhelmed by discomfort and overall oddness, or where things don’t quite work out as envisioned, yet the overall experience becomes indelibly imprinted on one’s psyche.
I’m very pleased and excited to kick off this feature with one of my favorite people in the world. Franz Nicolay is a musician from Brooklyn; formerly of the Hold Steady and the World/Inferno Friendship Society, currently of his own damn self. You can catch him this Tuesday 8/16 at Death by Audio, along with the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, and on Friday 8/19 at Union Hall with Fishtank Ensemble. Those who like to plan ahead can mark their calendars for 9/12, when he will participate in Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal’s Hot Tub Variety Show at Littlefield (all these venues are in Brooklyn, by the way). Without further ado, here’s Franz’s tale.