What's Up This Weekend?

My mom's favorite story about me is simply remembering how I came up to her at age 5 and complained "Mom, I'm not having any fun." It foreshadowed the hedonist I grew up to be. I expect Life to be positive and full of rich experiences and pleasures. When I'm greeted by a perfunctory "How are you?", I had a habit of unexpectedly responding "On top of the world." But there have been years, like this one, where the top of the world turns out to just be the North Pole. Obama's global warming hasn't resulted in melting the glaciers of ignorance and hate around me and, personally and professionally, things are a little chilly. But even in a down year, I can rattle off a whole host of things for which I'm thankful like my wonderful little house, great friends, especially my business partner, and good health for myself and my family including my parents who are in their late 80s. It helps to realize I could go on and on. This year I had reason to consider how I would convince someone who was clinically depressed that there are basic things for which to be thankful. Not having experienced that condition, I imagined they had lost their taste for Life. There is no flavor or texture or aroma to give them a purpose to consume Life other than to survive to the next day. The hunger they feel is just the pain of existence. What could I say to renew their appetite for joy and happiness, to inspire an edacity to devour all the beauty there is in the world, to make them feel the need to experience the fullness of helping others and the desire to satisfy the craving to love and to share love? I concluded there probably are no such therapeutic words. Maybe all I can do is show them. Well, I'm hungry. Pass the turkey and all the trimmings.

Thursday, tonight, a guy who always gives us a place to go on a holiday evening, Derek DiCenzo is at Dick's. This year we can also be thankful that Billy Zenn is still out there performing after his heart attack at Victorian's. Rumba has Colin Gawel and the Lonely Bones with Quinn Fallon and Micha Schnabel.

Friday, Cowboy Hillbilly Hippy Folk is at Victorian's and Paper Airplane is at Treehouse. My current budget has me down to one night out a week and this week I'm spending my allowance on the doorbuster bargain at Rumba's happy hour with The Randys' Black Friday Holiday Show (I hope there will still be the annual Christmas show to come) followed by the fabulous Aaron Tasjan and some other bands I don't know. If things get slow I might head over to Dick's to see The Spikedrivers.

Saturday, Ravari has Wing & Tusk and The Phantods, Deja Vu does a tirbute to Silvio Rodriguez at Oldfield's early, Chris McCoy, Los Cominos and Dr. Kenny Delicious are at Treehouse and Skully's has a hip-hop extravaganza featuring Grenhouse, Blueprint, Illogic, Envelope and others.

The Drexel in Bexley has the Sundance Award winner Precious with a really interesting cast of non-actor celebrities and the latest Coen Brothers production, The Serious Man. $5.00 on Mondays.

But you'll have to have them all cut out to have a Savoy Truffle. Happy Thanksgiving. mark