Fierce Anticipation: Oct. 10-12
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A blogumn by Ryan Dixon
FIERCELY ANTICIPATING
Honk! Festival of Street Bands
What happens to all of those awkward, yet enthusiastic high school and college-age souls who take off their shakos and leave behind the sex-crazed, drug addled lifestyle of the marching band? Well, it seems that many of them have thankfully forgotten to indulge in a quarter life crisis or middle-aged angst and instead have started “street bands.” The music of street bands defies easy categorization and blends brass infused power with the sounds of Bollywood, the Balkans, New Orleans, Samba, and Hip Hop. However, the music is, much like sex, far better to experience live and the 2008 Honk! Festival this weekend in Boston is the Woodstock for street bands. For those of you who can’t make it to New England, there’s no better way to sample the street band sound then to listen to What Cheer? Brigade, the Providence-based group that is the forefront of this musical movement.
October 10-12, Tufts University, Boston, MA
KINDA WANT TO READ
Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling Bret Hart
Since the WWE’s sleeper hold on the industry will probably prevent a truly uncensored look at the Wagnerian opera on crack that is professional wrestling, Bret “The Hitman” Hart’s autobiography Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling might end up being the best behind-the-mat saga we’ll get. Unlike nearly all of the other memoirs by professional wrestlers, Hart wrote the book without a ghostwriter and it’s being published independently of WWE Books. The tome should include plenty of juicy anecdotes thanks to Hart’s long and tortured history with the company, which stems from the controversial in-ring death of his youngest brother Owen Hart in 1999 and the infamous, you-couldn’t-make-this-shit-up “Montreal Screwjob.”
In Stores Now
[EDITOR’S NOTE: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE MAKE THE JUMP. IT’S SO WORTH IT]
WOULDN’T BE ABDUCTED IF YOU PAID ME
Blossom Goodchild
According to most analysts, Barack Obama has the election in the bag unless there is an unforeseen national security event. Would a UFO sighting count? With such notable milestones as Robert the Bruce winning Scotland’s independence by defeating King Edward II, Winnie-the-Pooh being first published and Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier, October 14th is a fairly busy date in the history of the world*. However all these previous events will pale in comparison if the Ufology community is correct and a massive extraterrestrial spacecraft piloted by cosmic beings known as The Federation of Light appears somewhere over the skies of Alabama next Tuesday and remains in place for 72 hours. But don’t fret readers, for they come in peace. At least that’s what they’ve told Blossom Goodchild, the one earthling lucky enough to be chosen by the aliens to deliver this message. While I have a tendency to put my implicit trust in anyone named Blossom Goodchild, I do find it a bit odd that, when visiting her website, this world-changing message is snugly sandwiched between “Events” and “Books” in the table of contents.
Arriving to Earth October 14th
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Hey, Ryan. Sorry about drinks on the 16th. But I assume we’ll both be in Alabama, so we can grab a beer there. Or maybe a Blue Milk.
Hey, Ryan. Sorry about drinks on the 16th. But I assume we’ll both be in Alabama, so we can grab a beer there. Or maybe a Blue Milk.
Flights are filling up fast.
Flights are filling up fast.
If I had a private jet, I would go to the honk festival and then hit up the alien revival on Tuesday. Just for kicks. I wish we knew somebody in Alabama, so that they could report on it for Fierce and Nerdy. :(