Wow!!  I just saw John C. Reilly on the Conan O’Brien show.  He seemed so nice!  This is the guy that I met back in April when I played in Los Angeles… he was in the movie Boogie Nights and has a new one coming out with Jennifer Aniston, that’s why he was on Conan.  I didn’t have enough time back in April to blog the whole story… but it went a little something like this.

A few weeks before the show, my producer Rian asks me if I can put a name on the guest list for L.A.  I say, no prob!  He’s says it’s this actor friend of his, blah blah blah and can I do this?  Says he can even give the band a place to stay that night if we need it.  He told me about his being in Boogie Nights, but I couldn’t remember the character (still can’t, but then I only saw it once, a long time ago).  He also mentioned a bunch of other movies, but I hadn’t seen any of ‘em.  So.  On the night of the show, I put the name on the guest list but by that time I had gotten confused about who was who on that list.  Which one was Rian’s friend?  Anyway.  Later on after we played, the whole band was in a frenzy trying to decide where to stay.  Everybody had different pals they wanted to go off with.  Me and a few of the guys ended up deciding to stay with Adam from the Pehr label.  (Who… I really owe a bunch of e-mails to.  Ugh, I suck.) So ANYway, that’s all settled.  After that I was free to tend to the merchandise table, talk to people, and do what I always do after a show, which is to run around like a chicken with its head cut off.  So.  One of the people that came up to me then, apparently, was John C. Reilly.  Only… he didn’t really say who he was.  Or if he did, I didn’t snap to it.  He sure didn’t shake me by the shoulders and say "EDITH… I am the guy that Rian told you to put on the guest list.  I am Rian’s friend John C. Reilly, REMEMBER???" Maybe then I might have realized what was going on.  What I know did happen is that he DID ask me if anyone needed a place to stay.  And my reply was… "Naw, I think we’re covered!" and I think the next thing I said was something along the lines of "Well… thanks anyhoo… I’m done with my cigarette so I’m going to stand over THERE now…" pointing to the merch table.  See, ‘cuz that’s my duty and obligation, to guard, protect and oversee that big pile of crap I bring with me.  And in Los Angeles I’m not allowed to smoke by the merch table.  SO.  The next day I get an e-mail from Rian, and got to read it while I was at Adam’s house.  He was all… "WTF?!?  You totally blew off my friend, EDITH… you FREAK!!!" LOLOLOL.  So I’m all mortified.  I tell the guys in my band what happened, and they’re pretty much the same as Rian.  "OMIGOD!!!  WE LOVE JOHN C. REILLY!!!!  We could have stayed at HIS HOUSE and you totally blew him off!!!!  Oh!!  My!!  God!!" Absolutely everybody knew exactly who he was, except me.  Ugggghhhh.  I never lived it down, either.  They were laughing about that for the whole rest of the tour.  They were stopping people on the roadside just so they could say "Hey, look what a dumbass singer we have!!"

I wrote to ICDSoft about the MP3 thing.  They would definitely let me post my own music here, no problem.  But the weird-song-of-the-week idea did not fly with them.  :-( But it’s funny, the way they phrased it.  They said if it’s a violation of copyright then I can’t upload it.  So… what does that mean REALLY?  What about stuff that’s out of print?  Or something that never was copyrighted, never been released commercially?  (I.e. a bum singing in the subway.) My intention was to put up songs that there’s no way in hell you’re ever going to find on any album or compilation.  Stuff that’s so far out of print that the LABEL is long gone, much less the release itself.  Argh.  I don’t want to piss them off but… it just seems preposterous to imagine that the RIAA could get them in trouble because I’d posted a Shooby Taylor track, or the equivalent.  So many other websites do it, why can’t I?  Like… what about Blake?  He’s been posting his stuff for years and years and years.  And the songs he posts are almost always the product of major labels, even if none of them are in print anymore.  Right now he has an old Ministry track that appeared on Wax Trax in the Eighties.  Ministry is a POPULAR band!!  Whereas I’m talking about music made by fucking ventriloquists’ dummies, WTF?

I know… just because one person jumps off a building doesn’t mean you should too.  But still, it just don’t seem fair.  I’m kinda pissed.