That's Not Really Jesse Behind Me
Those of you who read
last Friday's post might recall that I was all
excited about the possibility of seeing the Gin Blossoms at the Go
Daddy Holiday Party on Saturday night.
Well, unfortunately, it didn't happen. As it worked out, the local musical artist
was actually
Alice Cooper, who was scheduled to show up and bite the head
off of
GoDaddy Girl Danica Patrick. But
that didn't work out either - something
about her contract didn't include mutilation by aging rock stars.
But it wasn't a total loss, as it turns out that Ethel is quite the Photoshop pro.
Above, she made it look just like I'm standing in front of Gin Blossom guitarist
and backup vocalist
Jesse Valenzuela. If you didn't know better, you'd think
that that was Jesse playing guitar, right there on stage behind me.
And Ethel didn't stop there - she just went crazy with Photoshop, coming up
with pictures like
this one, where it looks like Robin is handing me his tambourine,
or
this one, where it looks like I'm playing the tambourine while Robin sings and
Bill and Scottie churn away on bass and lead, respectively, or
even
this one, in
which it looks like Ethel and I are standing in front of the guys.
Ethel is one photoshop-crazy woman, lemme tell ya. Can you believe that she
was able to overlay
this pic that looks like me and Robin gesturing to each other
over what was actually Alice Cooper eating a Hostess Twinkie? And she actually
refactored a photograph of me on the day that I ran the Marine Corps Marathon,
took the grin from that and an old Gin Blossoms photo off of their web site, and
made it look like I'm grinning in front of Jesse while he's turned around - it all
seems very lifelike, indeed!
Oh, well. I suppose that manufactured memories are better than no memories
at all. I sure do wish that I could have really, truly, seen the Gin Blossoms -
and even done all of the things in these pictures. Wouldn't that be great?
(okay, okay. I'll fess up. No, Ethel didn't doctor these pictures, and it most
definitely was really, truly the Blossoms themselves who showed up at nine
o'clock on Saturday night and rocked me into a state of advanced exhaustion.
I haven't been right since they turned off the amps and walked away - my
throat is sore, my voice is hoarse, and my left palm is bruised from hitting
it with the tambourine!
..we were right there, right at the stage, having a great time. Jesse showed
me how he did the fingering during Alison Road, I got to stare at Bill while he
hammered out that fantastic bass line to Lost Horizons, and we really saw
Scottie playing that oh, so wonderful solo lick from Hey, Jealousy - oh, wow!
But in some ways it might as well have been Photoshopped, because I still
can't really believe that it all happened like that - that we were really
right
there,
up close and personal with the Blossoms. After the show, we went
backstage, and - darn it! - Ethel's camera gave out when it came time to
get a shot of me and Robin, together, you know - hanging out :)
[NOTE: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone
and do not necessarily reflect the views of Go Daddy Software, Inc.]
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