I can't really remember much about my day at work prior to going out but from the looks of my Lead Form I sent a lady named Snaigoule through. I'll tell you what, that doesn't happen every day.
There was a show at The Dial with Indian Taker, Throne, Missive, Black Panther, and Ocean Man. I lagged in really putting in the effort to find a ride and then when I did get picked up by friends Kate and Sara it was even later than my initial lag. Ocean Man and Throne had already played when we arrived; I saw Ocean Man (and reviewed them) not too long before this and Throne wasnt really my thing upon my initial listen to them online so I wasn't totally tripping. I would have LIKED to see them both but Missive was actually the band I liked most from this lineup. I wanted to see them.
Black Panther was the band setting up as we got there and although I thought I had already seen them before I think I was mixing them up with a different band. They were solid as fuck, I really enjoyed their set and was like, impressed...But I'm not even going to lie to you I can't remember a goddamn thing about that set. I think the singer guy had like a beanie on. They play indie-pop-punk type stuff. I had intentions of listening to their EP again (which I've heard before and is on my iTunes but it never comes up on shuffle = I never hear it) just so I could describe their sound a bit better but I just said fuckit. That wouldn't be genuine that would be me trying.
Before the show, when I had been calling around for a ride, I learned that Mark and Sarah were gonna be going to Pechanga after she got off work. I haven't been seeing alot of my friends from that crew too often lately so I told them to come pick me up at the warehouse when they were on their way out; I didn't expect they would be so quick though, they were calling me from the parking lot like right as Missive was starting. When I had talked to Sarah she was still working but she arrived alone because Mark was still pounding whiskey and was gonna come with the homeboys. I think she just came straight from work.
It was odd leaving a show after only seeing one band, and missing out on the main one I had come to see, but it seems like I am CONSTANTLY at shows and rarely with my outside-show friends and sometimes I can just hear their disappointment when I'm like, "Well, there's a show at The Dial tonight...." when I haven't seen them in weeks/months but I act like there's something better going on...So I just fuck it, Imma go to Pechanga with the homies.
I'm not a gambler, not in the least, but I am a drinker and its fun to stumble around that bright, smoky campus of a place with the buddies. Maybe its because I don't have inclinations towards randomly losing every single dollar that I have, I usually have a good time at Pechanga. I'm mainly there to watch the misery of others unfold.
Sarah & I went to the food court so I could get the biggest slice of cheese pizza I've ever eaten and wait for the homeboys. This weird dreadlocked tweaker-looking guy walked past while I was eating and I guess he had been seated at the table behind me just staring her down with MAX creepitude. I had been blathering on about the advertisement in front of me for 70's-prog band Yes's upcoming performance so I didn't even notice her dismay until the subsequent relief when he left made it apparent.
The brothers still hadn't arrived when I was done eating so just went to the Round Bar. I got a beer and we went to some couch on the second level; almost immediately as we sat down we saw everybody mobbing up to the bar. It was cool cuz I hadn't seen Chris Hellraiser in a good minute, we caught up a little.
Mike Hunt(er) was still talking shit on my exaggerated assertion from a few nights back that "I don't like movies"; as evidenced by pretty much everything I've ever posted on this very blog, clearly I SAY ALOT OF THINGS. MAINLY TALKING SHIT FOR GIGGLES. Take it with a grain of salt, maybe a pound of rice. But he just can't get that particular gem, and the last couple times we've kicked it he spends half our time together spewing out infuriated rhetoricals like "Who doesn't like movies??"/"How could you not like movies?"
You would think, there are only so many variations on that general theme; but he sure seems to keep'em coming.
Adam was, of course, nervously talking about hitting on all the most inaccessibly attractive women there, but I don't think he ever actually did because we were all making fun of his various recent mishaps and failings. As much as we clown on Adam's propensity for awkward, obvious rejection, at least the homeboy is trying. That's more than I can say for my goddamn self. Maybe if I foolishly went and made a jackass of myself and actually TALKED to a random girl I would learn how to not be such a C-grade Scooby.
Maybe.
After shooting the shit over a couple of beers we decided to actually hit the slots and lose some money. As we went down the stairs we saw some old Asian dude, just passed THE FUCK out on the couch behind ours. Glory. It's stuff like that that make casino trips worthwhile.
People-watching in the dregs. Miserable, self-eluding "adults," wallowing in loss and waste. Being surrounded by non-stop, almost abrasive sound and light. Drunken seniors who don't speak the same language as me so we communicate spatial discrepancies through physical language.
Prince and Collective Soul on the building-wide radio, CONSTANTLY.
It's just fucking dopeness all around.
My grandfather George, who my entire extended family says I am exactly like, right down to our weird-ass sense of humor and the way we walk with our feet pointed outwards, he was a gambling addict and that was his major malfunction. He gambled the house my dad grew up in away, back in Ohio, thats why my family moved to California.
Suffice it to say, despite my various other vices I have never found gambling to be attractive in the least. I'll follow my buddies around as they lose dozens of dollars in moments and I just don't get it at all. What is the allure? Ive heard stories, but in all my years as a general accomplice to minor debauchery I have never seen ANYONE win anything justifiable of the losses. Moral losses sometimes. I just don't get it at all.
Sometimes when KP was still in town he would give me like $2 to lose at the penny slots; so I don't feel like I am COMPLETELY out of place and needlessly here. He's still in Arizona right now though so I swallowed $2 of my own.
I played my first dollar at some game that was like, frog-based or something. All the games are exactly the same but they have different cartoons on them to attract you. It's like fucking Chuck E Cheese. Usually, with KP's money, my games would go by in like 30 seconds and totally justify all the shit I had been talking to my asshole friends. This time, however, I sat at this fucking frog game for like half an hour, just pushing "2 lines 5 credits"/"1 line 1 credit"/"5 lines 1 credit" etc in random, un-strategized procession. I don't know what any of that shit means. My score just continued going up in down in random variables that I totally didn't understand but I never did go over the $2 mark. Eventually the inevitable happened and all my credits were gone.
I moved on to a different, non-frog-themed game, but I was very underwhelmed and I lost my dollar way more quickly. I don't understand how these games work and it's like, not even fun. It like weed vs cigarettes. That shit doesn't even get me high. If I'm gonna spend $1 on some goddamn video game I would rather play "Tekken" and have some fun.
Pretty much as soon as that second game was ending Mark was calling me to find out where I was. I had just kinda wandered off on my own but I don't know my way around Pechanga without a seeing-eye friend so I just described the stuff around me and they came to get me.
Me and Mark stumbled back to the car, with Sarah as patient and silently annoyed as ever, and we talked shit on everyone we know while remarking how dope we ourselves are on the ride home.
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