Monday, 10 February 2003 | LA, part 3

Friday, still in LA. Catherine had the good idea to make reservations at Largo to see Jon Brion, a producer and musician who plays there every week. In addition to reservations, it took ten dollars to get in and a minimum of ten spent on food, which was not hard, since a single glass of wine was worth seven, and each entree easily surpassed ten. The five of us (Catherine, Ryan, Scott, Raphael, me) sat in a leather C booth at the edge of the stage, just under the speaker, and ate our pasta dishes in near darkness.

It didn't bother me that my food was drowned in powerful shards of garlic, that I couldn't see what I was eating, or that it was too expensive for what it was—or, I guess I mean I stopped caring about those things once Jon Brion started playing. Aside from being an amazing musician and singer, he was funny. And aside from that, he was an incredible improviser. Responding to a few yelled suggestions from the audience, he effortlessly turned Billie Jean and Somewhere Over the Rainbow into a single, coherent song. Later, the audience requested the apparently regular "sing along" segment (during which we helped him sing California Dreamin' and I'm Looking Through You).

His main specialty seemed to be this trick in which he played and recorded a riff on the drums that would loop after he stepped away. He would then calmly hurry to the piano and do the same thing—play and record, in sync with the drum riff he'd just produced. Then he'd pick up his guitar and play it like a bass, record that, follow it with the rhythm guitar, and then play lead guitar and sing while all five pieces he'd just created were playing simultaneously. Watching this process reminded me how absurd music awards shows are, how the mildly talented stage whores are awarded for being the very best in the industry, while the truly proficient are known by far less people. Though perhaps they want it that way.

The five of us played musical chairs, moving around in our anti-social C until everyone had a chance to sit by everyone else, until we finally slipped out hours later.

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Gulf War 2 projection (done in Flash). It's a game, sort of. Just keep clicking "continue."