Gobb: Buddy Guy's Legends is an interesting venue. It's obviously been there a long time, and has probably had it's seedy days, but these days it looks a bit like a venue that's trying to look the part, and not quite managing it. There's nothing wrong with it, but I felt like it would've been better if there were a lot more people there, if the pool tables had been in use, and if the air had been full of smoke. Lisa mentioned the generous portion sizes and she's not kidding. We ordered an appetiser and a main (which Americans, bizarrely, call an entree), but the appetiser alone (mixed battered/deep fried... stuff) would have been enough for both of us. Probably didn't help that the brought out the main literally 5 minutes after the appetiser, but yeah, it was great food and there was plenty of it.
A couple of other things worth noting: Buddy Guy himself spent several hours sitting at the bar, presumably counting his money... or something. Also, nobody in the area appears to have their own cigarettes. Lucky I brought spares for everyone.
Lisa: LOL, good thing you were well stocked, such a shame that they were just 1mg Australian cigarettes lol. Anyway, I also neglected to mention how fascinating it was listening to Jimmy Burns reminisce about the 'old days'. He kept saying, 'shut an old man up with all this talking and tell me when you've heard enough' but I think everybody was just as happy to sit there and listen to the stories as much as the music itself.
The jam session started at about 11:30pm and boy did it start. If you get a chance to hear any music by a man named Quintus McCormick then get onto it. He was electric to watch and amazing to listen to. He pulled together a diverse band of musicians that had been waiting to jam and created a capitivating performance. He left the stage (guitar still plugged in) and walked through the tables shouting "Have we got the blues?". It was an amazing performance and I had thought about buying one of his CD's and asking him to sign it, so when he came to the table personally selling them, I had no problem forking over the cash.
After Quintus was on stage, there was a singer by the name of Holly Thee Maxwell who got up on the stage and promised some 'Lady Blues'. She also seemed to take a bit of a shine to Stu, gave him a evil stare from the stage that made him shift uncomfortably in his seat and said "You, know you're in trouble now, don't you?" Stu said "Yeah, I can see that." After renaming him 'Daddy' and singing him a song all about breakfast she had to disappear off to a birthday party. Well, she went after she sold a few CD's herself and signed one for Stu calling him Daddy yet again and asking him to google her.
All in all it was a great night and we stuck around watching a variety of musicians jam until around 1am, at which point we headed back to the hotel.
Gobb: Heh, Holly Maxwell, aka "The Black Blonde Bombshell" was a hoot. I honestly don't recall what the song was about, and spent most of the time being concerned she was about to fly off the stage and pounce on me. Lisa says it was all about breakfast, so I'll take her word for it. As with the other artists, though, Holly was a great performer, and we parted with the cash for her CD more than willingly.
Quintus McCormick blew me away. This dude rocked up on stage in a tshirt and sweat pants (I'm about 85% sure he was "going commando" too), carried his guitar up under his armpit and really didn't look like he was going to be worth it. It turns out that you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a musician by his clothes! Quintus and his band were awesome, and again we parted with the bucks for his CD.
Eventually, we wandered back to the hotel, where there was a surprise waiting for us. To cut a long story short, we'd been hoping to catch up with another Paradox player (jupider) and his wife in Chicago, but somehow we managed to miss each other. That is, until we got back to the hotel, where we discovered a ton of text messages, emails and various other messages from jupider to say they'd been hunting/waiting for us all evening, together with a package containing a couple of home-made Paradox t-shirts from them.
One t-shirt just has the game name and website address, while the other has a quote from the lovely Sallyfox which... well, I can't repeat it exactly here (or post the photo - sorry my son's reading this!) but it's something along the lines of "Paradox... gosh yes!" Use your imagination.
Anyway, by this stage it was after 1am, so I sent jupider a text message and hoped to catch them the next morning, which (eventually) we did. Thanks to jupider, and to your lovely wife, for making the effort to come to town and meet us. It's great to see a friendly face in a strange town, and that was a great start to the day.
Lisa: After having breakfast with some new friends it was time to check out of the hotel but not time to head for the train station. So we left our bags with Affinia staff and were told that we really should check out the museum of contemporary art because it was free that day. Well you can't pass up a reccommendation for free stuff now can you? (Gobb: Free candy is free candy!) Well in this case we probably should have. I can't tolerate pretentiousness of any kind and I'm sure you can imagine this museum was filled with it. I was very glad when we left and you should be glad we have no pictures to post, being a museum, we weren't allowed to take any. I told Stu I'd had my garbage quota for the day (not those words but you get the idea) so he said he'd have to shut up for the rest of the afternoon. Anyway, we headed to an Irish pub for a very pleasant lunch and then it was time to reclaim our luggage, hop into a cab, bid farewell to Chicago and jump on the Amtrak set for KC.
Gobb: Oh man, the Museum of Contemporary Masturbation! I could go on for hours about the "art" in there, and ok, sure, some of it was alright, but there were a couple of standout "Wanks of Art" I should mention. First - two blank white canvasses with black borders. Apparently this is the artist's way of drawing our attention to the fact that "art" is usually "encapsulated" and, by leaving the rest of the canvas blank, telling us to pay attention to the world outside the border. Uh, sure. Second - a blank piece of canvas, randomly chopped into an 8-sided shape, which (according to the artist) gave the museum curator "the freedom to hang the work any way he liked, without being bound by the conventions of blah blah blah shut up shut up shut up and die!"
Ben, if you're reading this, please ignore the bad words Daddy said.
Lisa: We were all set for the train trip with half a bottle of bourbon and some left-over deep dish pizza... remember the deep dish pizza, I certainly do. We had a bit of a nap on the train and then woke up and had some drinks then had some pizza, then had some drinks, then had some drinks, then had some more pizza, then had some drinks and... well you get the idea. By the time we arrived in KC (7 hours after leaving Chicago) we were very happy to be there and very happy in general. We were met at the station by Grokly, art_bohemia and Dr. Phil, hugged lots, I probably squealed a little, hugged some more and then collected our luggage and set off for Belton. It was an interesting combination of excitment to meet people we've been wanting to hang out with for over 3 years and instant relaxation... although that may have been the bourbon.
Gobb: Hahaha yeah, I'm sure they get the idea, but just in case... I should point out that I nearly got refused service. Why? Well, Elljae being, shall we say, less capable of manouvering around a moving train (due to her innate clumsiness lol) had me go to the bar and get all the drinks. As a result, the barman thought I'd been drinking it all by myself. Apparently, the fact that I wasn't "talking properly" was a dead giveaway. Once we sorted out that a) I'd been sharing the drinks and b) I wasn't "talking properly" because I was from AUSTRALIA, we were all friends again but it was a close thing.
Dr. Phil LOL... it's DrWolf... Or Philosoraptor.. Or, for some, "big cuddly teddy bear". Either way, seeing these guys was amazing. We've been talking pretty constantly online since... well, it seems like forever, but it's really about three and a half years, first with the Social Trade Channel (STC) on the game Kingdom of Loathing, then as developers of Paradox. Meeting them at last pretty much defies description, but Lisa did indeed squeal, and there were hugs and all kinds of good stuff all round.
You know, I think it's time to end this post, and start writing a new one all about the week in Kansas City. Agreed?
Lisa: Yeah I agree, we might go get some dinner etc and pick up the next entry later and talk all about the amazing time we had with good friends etc. Don't forget, still to come is Las Vegas, San Francisco and of course The City of Angels.
Did someone mention Bourbon? Mmmmm Bourbon.
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