Labor Day Weekend

Bring it on.

The Eyestorm

How fitting given the state of my ocular area last week (staph infection, monstrous swelling, amused family members) that I have become enthralled with the art website, Eyestorm (British in origin, of course). The web outpost of a boutique-like gallery in London, this site features unique, modern pieces which register a little bit of the tongue-in-cheek attitude and macabre mood that I quite relish.

My favorites are the amusing, bemusing bird renderings by Vic Reeves...They remind me a bit of a colorful Edward Gorey. They are all certainly worth a browse if you're looking to spend some extraneous income.

Skip is a Clutz

Again, I'm a bit behind in my website submission emails from unsuspecting friends (thank you marvelous Mary), but I simply had to post this incredible music video from the band Ok Go (at Lollapalooza, I might add) whether it made me appear behind the times or not. Because, for someone who can barely walk a half-mile without tripping, falling down, or bumping into some animate/inanimate object, I can't tell you the admiration I have for these 4 band geeks who manage to perform an odd dance routine on treadmills...and in one take! They are my coordination idols.

At YouTube.com of course.

Skip's a Band Aid

About two weeks ago I was introduced to this brilliant website, Track 50, that allows the user to create a customized concert list just for bands that you have specified in your account. It's masterful! How did someone not think to create this sooner?!?! Forget signing up for a million mailing lists for an Indie favorite (hi, Josh Radin, please stop sending tour updates because you are never really on tour you are simply reminding me that your song was on 'Scrubs' about 3 years ago) or endlessly scrolling through the pages of Pollstar, now you simply log in to Track 50, fill in all the bands you can possibly think of and check out your My Shows section to tell you when and where your bands are playing. It even offers links to the venue websites to buy tickets. It's perfect for music junkies like myself.

I cannot tell you how fervently I wish I had invented this tool.

Skip Motivates You

My wonderously web-savvy friend Lauren, referred me to a make-your-own-motivational-poster website where you can create your own Successories (please recall that cheesy kiosk in the mall when you were 14).

For me, this was clearly an opportunity to author my very own uplifting nugget that would also highlight an AFV classic and truly inspirational scene from the now famous 'Tiny Dancer.'

Seriously, this is the paramout poster for personal provocation. Copies are available in limited release from moi.

The Bronze Medal

In the Olympic battle that wages for the best concert on earth, a clear third place finisher has emerged (I actually may even be convinced to offer him a tie-for-second positioning). I don’t know what you were doing last night, but anyone not at the Brett Dennen concert missed out on one of the best shows I have ever seen (after Teitur and Mat Kearney).

Brett is a semi-androgynous, chubby, child-like looking guy with a Beatles’ mop and knock-knees. However, in a world of sameness; acoustic, emo-guitar singer-songwriters, Brett Dennen truly differentiates himself through construction and form, voice and words. The sound that emits from his mouth is lucid, immaculate and mesmerizing; his range is unimaginable. And, I love that the music has a slightly reggae slant with some clear jazz influences as well which just makes his presence and performance fun.

If you have any chance at all, you must run to see this boy before he’s signed and disappears into a sea of adolescent musical lust.

A Candle for Skip

My, how the time flies! And I'm not just speaking of my disgraceful lack of blog posts over the past few weeks, rather I'm referencing the one-year birthday of Skips About Town!

I have decided that instead of recapping the humorous, witty, insightful and directive posts over the past 12 months (which would be glorious, I understand) I would offer up some Skips About Town fun-facts.

(1) My blog is a Leo. Leo's are extravagant and stubborn. Perfect for my blog. Though apparently, my blog and I also make a cosmic hot-burner of a pairing (I'm a Scorpio, clearly) and I can't decide if that is good or bad. Other famous Leo's are Jennifer Lopez, Iman, Martha Steward, Mick Jagger and Bill Clinton. What pleasant company for my blog!

(2) There have been 203 posts to-date not including this birthday pressie post for my fair readers. I'm slightly impressed and very much so frightened at how much time and energy I must have expended on this thing. Hmmm...

(3) My blog prefers to stay high-level and out of the realm of celebrity gossip. I don't want to touch on the pandora's box that is celeb fodder for blogs but rather I'd like to focus on superficial things like product placement (thank you, Dan, a.k.a. Splinter) and my Wish Lists with the occasional funny-ha-ha and funny-weird website thrown in for kicks. I'm not about to make my blog a diary of personal problems either because frankly readers, it's none of your business. You can look to the Young Mammy if you want to empathize with a whiny blogger.

(4) Reader requests are not allowed. If you ask to be mentioned on Skips About Town, you are on the blacklist. Get your own blog if you truly want to express yourself through the written word (and hyperlinks to stuff).

Otherwise, here's to another year of Skip! Happy Birthday to me!

Skip Loved Lolla

Three days just evaporated before our eyes in the blistering heat and humidity of Grant Park in Chicago, but Lollapalooza was well worth the trip. I could bore you with the details on the band talent (and The Frames' lack thereof) or crowd control, the Midnight Mummy van and glo-sticks, food orgies and dirty feet, but rather I will let the pictures speak 10,000 words. I'm too tired anyway. I've got to finally get some sleep.

Photos at Ofoto. More to come...including Suckapalooza and Collegepalooza details.

To Ponder...

This poem makes me wonder.

The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the...

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

G. Love

Of course it helps that G. Love has the most enigmatic eyes and fantastic Chris Isaak-ish coiffure, but it's still so easy to adore him when he releases an album that flaunts his true talent. 'Lemonade' is a mesmerizing and mellow musical tribute to summer in all its glory. 'Beautiful' and 'Breakin' Up' are simple, sonorous songs that play happily as a soundtrack to everyday life and occasionally draw you in far enough to remind you of G. Love's sense of humor and unintentional poignancy. The indie-rocker collaborations with Jack Johnson, Marc Broussard and Tristan Prettyman only augment my love for G.

Released August 1st and available at Amazon.com. Obviously.

Skip Breaks with Tradition

I'm not certain breaking the habit of an annual New Year's cocktail party that has only happened twice can be truly considered a break from tradition, but I am still going to do it.

This coming New Year's (December 31, 2006, for those of you who can't think that far ahead) I will be celebrating the first blush of 2007 in my most very favorite of cities, London. The tickets have been purchased and I have already begun my pursuit of parties abroad for that twinkling eve...though frankly, worse comes to worst, my fellow travellers and I will simply have to recreate New Year's SF in London. This will not be all that difficult since the last two New Year's in San Francisco have been blustery and rainy. London will feel exactly like home...and not just because I have a flat there.

I'm providing some propaganda links below in an effort to recruit additional party-goers.

This is London
DailyCandy London
Visit London
London Town
TimeOut London

Further event-specific details and schedules to come.

Skip Preps for Concert Heaven

This coming Wednesday evening I leave for Chicago and the most fabulous of concert jubilees, Lollapalooza, for 3 days of unmatched musical merriment. Included on my custom-made agenda; a BBQ with SF friends, college friends and high school friends at my house in the 'burbs and multiple trips downtown to see, among others; Nada Surf, Death Cab for Cutie, Stars, The Editors, My Morning Jacket, Manu Chao, The Raconteurs, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lady Sovereign, Calexico, The Frames, Matt Costa and Manishevitz, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Stay tuned for envy-inducing photos and tremendous tales from concert central.

Ask a Ninja

Really. If you have not already heard of these Ask a Ninja web-video sketches, you are missing out on something incredible. Slightly sad in a too-much-time-on-his-hands way, but insanely entertaining. No. Really.