Project MERCATOR
I didn't see The Loose Ties perform this past weekend, but not for lack of trying. Going into the weekend, they to whom I am reigning Super Fan were penciled in to play three shows, two on Friday & one on Saturday. Friday afternoon, I traded text messages with my old chum Ska Army (tenor saxophone) & my newer pal Matt (drums, code name pending [possibilities: Nick Andopolis, Drummer Boy, the Human Drum Machine, et alii]) in an attempt to find out the approximate times of the various performances. I'd have liked to have shown up much later to Churchill's on the previous Friday (14 January) & wish I'd been just a wee bit earlier to Jimmy Lum's Aloha Lounge the following Saturday (15 January). Those text messages prompted them to pose similar questions to Phil, the front man (guitar & primary vocals, code name pending). The evolving discussion lead to the revelation of discord within the Mr. & Ms. U. of M.-Flint Pageant, discord that lead The Loose Ties to withdraw from their apparently quite shaky commitment to perform at the disorganized pageant. And then there were two. Within just a few minutes, both Ska Army & Matt informed me that Saturday's performance, at a frat-sponsored event called "Rock U," had been rescheduled for a date in February. And then there was one.

Having been told that The Loose Ties would be arriving at the Aloha Lounge around 9:00 P.M., I contrived to make my entrance between 9:30 & ten o'clock, confident that I'd still be there in plenty of time. I knew this would not be a typical night at the Aloha by the difficulty I had in find a spot in which to park Lumi. I ran my usual checks to make sure that she was locked & all her lights were extinguished, & cautiously picked my way across the ice sheet that was the parking lot. A voice behind me called out that Lumi's dome light was on; when I wheeled around, the chap who'd called out was relieving himself twist his vehicle, parked next to Lumi, & the motorcar on the opposite side of his vehicle. Charming. In accordance with the mantra better-safe-than-sorry, I slide my way back to Lumi, by which point Mr. Public Urination had concluded that he'd been mistaken. Indeed he was, & none of Lumi's lights were lit. He was profuse in his apologies, but I reassured him that he'd acted in good faith, that he'd been trying to do the right thing. Perhaps as a measure of my growth as a Christian, or perhaps due to some other cause, I didn't curse the man under my breath. I wished that he'd taken advantage of the water closets inside Jimmy Lum's Aloha Lounge instead of using the wider world as his toilet, but I didn't wish that he'd freeze to death in retaliation for having wasted my time & compelled me to imperil my life by crossing & recrossing the treacherous ice sheet. I exchanged a few words with Jameson (bass guitar, code name pending), whom I found standing outside amongst his fellow smokers, their collective desire for tobacco outweighing their aversion to the low single-digit temperatures.

Jameson warned me that the Lounge was crowded: despite this, I was entirely unprepared for what I saw before me. I'd never been to Jimmy Lum's Aloha Lounge prior to the Palooka-ville reunion show on St. Stephen's Day 2009 (26 Dezember), but in the year-plus since I've been there nearly half a dozen times, & never before had I seen the Aloha even half as crowded as 'twas upon my entrance. My estimate of the numbers present would run into the scores. In short order I found Matt & Ska Army at the bar, but there was nowhere to go from there. Our trio was briefly made a quartet by Phil, & I high-fived Farr Afield (alto sax. & secondary vocals), but all too soon they dropped the other shoe: The Loose Ties were to be the last act of the night, after who knew how many other bands. Phil peeled off, but soon returned with Cassie (trumpet, code name pending) to inform us that they & an indeterminate number of others were going to go kill some time at Phil's apartment; we were invited, but Ska Army & Matt both elected to stay, ostensibly to keep an eye on the band's equipment. We settled in for a long siege.

Not too much later, I was able to lead us out of where we'd been standing, the narrowest part of the Lounge, to a more open space near the pool tables, at the opposite end from the stage. Our circumstances thus improved, we soon concluded that Mister Rogers should have run for president, that once in office he should not have been subjected to the term limits enshrined in Amendment XXII, & that his vice president should have been LeVar Burton; had all this come to pass, the world would surely be a paradise. As the crowd waxed & waned some stools opened up & we pounced upon them like drowning men grasping a lifebuoy. Here we set up camp for what turned out to be the rest of the night. A very drunk & distracted Farr Afield joined us for a spell before returning to the pool tables. Phil returned after what must have been a brief sojourn at his place, & railed, in his genial manner, against the lack of professional that was the hallmark of so many of the venues in which the band has played. The core trio remained, with others coming & going, & we talked about everything in general & nothing in particular. Towards the end, Cassie & Dick (trombone & tertiary vocals, code name pending; also, engaged to Cassie) joined us, & Dick gave me the most fascinating history lesson, relating the pre-history of The Loose Ties, the order in which current members joined the band's earlier incarnation Another Misprint, & the tales of heartbreak & intra-band dating that inspired several of the songs. An example: The first Loose Ties song to which I skanked was the fun, unimaginatively-named "Becca's Song," written & sung by Farr Afield; 'tis about the dissolution of her relationship with Phil, a fact which Phil related with evident chagrin.

By 1:00 A.M., The Loose Ties still had not taken the stage. The band on stage kept playing & playing & playing, & yet another band, the Amity Effect, were scheduled to go on before The Loose Ties. A little conference was held at our station at the rear bar & the decision was taken, "Let's get the hell out of here." More than three hours after I'd arrived, having not seen my favorite local band perform, I helped load the band's unused instruments & equipment back into Ska Army's hideous Element & Matt's generic sedan, said our farewells, crossed the ice sheet of death back to Lumi, & motored home. Not the Friday night I was expecting, but not a bad Friday by any stretch of the imagination.

The Roster
I invited The Most Dangerous Game, The Impossible Ingenue, Vitamin H., The Cowgirl, the Action Hero, Frankenstein's Monster, Love/Hate, & a prospective paramour code named The Princess to accompany me to the Aloha Lounge. I received two responses: The Ingenue was working (as I expected) & The Princess was going to the pageant to support one of her sorority sisters. The others couldn't be bothered even to decline.

The Queue
Spy Line is my first large-print book. The G.D.L.'s sole copy of Spy Line was shown as having been withdrawn from circulation, & as such the automated system would not allow me to put in a "hold" request for the book. I inquired from a librarian how I might go about requesting the book from a different municipal (or whatever) library system, & was informed that Spy Line was available in the large-print section. No suitable answer was forthcoming as to why that volume didn't show up when I queried the automated system. Let's hope the large print does not prove too distracting.

Recently
Len Deighton, Winter: A Novel of a Berlin Family
C. S. Lewis, illustrated by Papas, The Screwtape Letters
Len Deighton, Spy Hook

Currently
Len Deighton, Spy Line

Presently
Len Deighton, Spy Sinker
Karen E. Olson, Driven to Ink
Len Deighton, Faith

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
22-20s, "Latest Heartbreak" via iTunes, (free) Single of the Week (T.L.A.M.)