Mischievous Prankster Tragically Stuck In 2003

As soon as I read this I was all, I can't WAIT to see what Mike Barthel will have to say about this!

Nothing useful, I'm afraid. It is pretty fun to see how E6 has metastasized through pop culture, between the Dancing With the Stars thing and this. A friend of mine who grew up gay in southern Minnesota and was generally pretty culturally sheltered nevertheless loved "Gay Bar," which he found because he was in a bar in college with one of those internet jukeboxes and typed "gay" into the search engine. Weird little culturebombs like that.

What's really funny, I've found, is that these is this crop of really conservative bros and girls who've magically fallen in love with E6 over time? Like, the Black Cat will be FULL of the pleated pants brigade when Dick Valentine does his acoustic show coming up. (And the weird cultural tourism aspects of that crowd being somewhere other than Clarendon or Adams Morgan outside of office hours is a whole other detour.) I think it has to do with them 'discovering' Gay Bar, taking it as a complete Judd Apatow-type gag, and then deciding that this band is their AC/DC after further investigation. I am not making value judgments, it's just a weird thing to me!

The idea of the Black Cat filled with pleants is just too terrifying to contemplate. Better that it be overrun with sandals and shorts, says I.

Well, the sandals and shorts are the weekend wear, so.

@Matt: Oh, for real? That's crazy. Reminds me of when a friend of mine went to some festival in Europe in the late 90s and the mosh pit for the Beastie Boys was entirely military dudes. Which like, maybe some of those dudes were ex-punk-rockers, but probably not all of them.

It's really interesting that people take E6 that way, though! That's a good thing for a column, thanks.

@deepomega Last time I was in the Black Cat was, like, 1988 or so. I went to see Jonathan Richman play a solo show, acoustic guitar, just Jonathan. When he came out on stage he said, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Jonathan Richman and I'm gonna play some music for you tonight. The only thing I ask, please don't request any Modern Lovers songs. Thank you." Fair enough. I assumed anyone who bought a solo Jonathan Richman ticket knew what they were getting themselves into. Hahaha. I was wrong.

First song, don't remember what it was, this guy right in front starts drumming on the stage with his hands. Just drumming along to the song. Jonathan stops mid-song and says, "I'm sorry, man, but could you not do that? It's really distracting." He starts the show again. About a third of the way through the song, the guy starts drumming on the stage again, like he can't help himself. "Jonathan stops. "Please. Please stop the drumming." A couple of people boo the drummer guy. "I can't play if you're drumming on the stage. See? You'll notice I don't have a drummer with me. Please stop." I'm about 15 feet from the stage-drummer guy, his back is to me, and so I can't hear what he says, but he seems to be apologetic and shakes his head like he understands so Jonathan starts playing again. Third start. He's not 15 seconds into the song and the guy starts yelling, "Play Pablo Picasso! Play Pablo Picasso!" Well, that was that.

"Show's over," he said. Some people booed. The stage-drummer guy gave Jonathan and the crowd the finger and they both stormed off, Jonathan off the stage and the guy off to the bar or wherever. People applauded as he left. There were some "Jonathan" chants and someone yelled, "C'mon, Jonathan, he's gone now!" Jonathan reappeared, but he was unmoved. "I'm sorry. this show is over. There was drumming on the stage and I asked everyone not to request any Modern Lovers but you did anyway. Show's over." And then he left. I don't think we even got refunds or anything because he "started to play," but the whole memory is kinda fuzzy. (That's the night I fell asleep on the way home on Rt. 50 in the passenger seat of the Cadillac and was awakened by a loud screeching noise and hot orange firework streaks shooting up in the sky only to realize the driver was asleep and the car was scraping against the barrier walls). But, you know what? I didn't care about the refund. In fact, I liked Jonathan more after that show. I saw him again later in the summer in Lexington, Kentucky playing to a larger crowd at the town's one "punk club." He even stayed around after that show and hung out and talked to people. Nice guy.

@Mike: May be just anecdotal or just a DC thing, but I have found it to be a thing!

I'm sorry, but that's a story about Jonathan Richman being an asshole, no matter how you spin it.

Just a DC thing you twat.

Am I expected to be the go-to hacker Monkey now?

You know what I would slam an ice into your balls just so I could combine two trends ya gits…

Ignorez uZ or ElZe…

Just fucking with you dickwads…AH HA HA HA HAAAAA

I can'
t breathe HAAAAAAAAAAA

*inhales* this has always been the problem with gawker. You can't be free to explore to see what works. He's too much of a control queen to let the comments build creativity. Meh, he did help me conquer the Scilons so as long as Brian *HOTTIE* Moylan and Ryan *dickmittens* TATE stay safe I'll leave him alone.

defending antisinophobia