Crazy-quiet

The baseball season is over. Most of the good TV shows are reruns this week. Aside from the whole washer and dryer thing, it’s been a pretty crazy-quiet week. … What’s a blogger to do?

Yes, the washer and dryer. … See, we bought the house a year and a half ago with a washer and dryer set that were virtually antique. Well, late ‘80s models. They worked well … at the time.

But Kates started getting on me last spring about getting a new set. Being the man, I was in denial. ‘They’re fine,’ I said. …

That was until a couple weeks ago, while doing a couple loads of laundry, I took note of the waterfall of water gushing from the bottom of the washer. …on top of that, it usually took about two 70-minute cycles in the dryer just to get our clothes dry.

So after talking it over with the elders, we declared the ol’ washer and dryer defunct. On Friday night, we purchased a new set. And it was good.

Today, they arrived …

I think they might be the most beautiful appliances I’ve ever seen …

* * *

I’ve never really been able to put my finger on why -- but very few things make me more overjoyed or give me a rush of excitement like Ben Folds. A new album. A well-written magazine article. News of a concert date. ANYthing about the piano-pounding prodigy from Chapel Hill, N.C.

All of that has made this week doubly fun …

… I learned several months ago of BF’s appearance on ‘Austin City Limits.’ I marked it on my calendar and when the date drew close enough, began checking the TV listings. I discovered I had four chances to catch it, set my VCR tape and got it right on the first try -- 1 a.m. Monday.

I, of course, reviewed the tape the first chance I got during my lunch break on Monday afternoon …

Yes. Overjoyed.

It’s a short 15-20 minute set, but it’s worth every minute -- if you can get past some bad acoustics and off-key harmonies in a couple of the songs (Ben’s music in general, some great camera shots of his plucky fingers and the antics of drummer Lindsay Jamieson all make up for it). As he has with a lot of his recent shows, Ben and his boys start out with their thumping ‘In Between Days.’ From there, the band plows through ‘Jesusland,’ ‘Still Fighting It,’ ‘Gracie,’ ‘Zak and Sara’ and eventually ending with the always crowd-pleasing ‘Not the Same,’ which features Ben standing on his piano and directing the crowd like a choir. … the second half of the show features Ray LaMontagne, a songwriting guitarist who Rolling Stone apparently called ‘the backwoods Van Morrison.’ I haven’t watched his entire set yet, but the first couple songs sure show a lot of promise …

But back to Ben.

Crushed when I couldn’t see Ben last week at the historic Chicago Theatre, I got word last night that I have a shot at redemption -- The Mix has scheduled him to appear on Dec. 16 with Alanis Morissette and The Fray at the annual Miracle on State Street bash at (... cue angel chorus) the Chicago Theatre …

Yes. Overjoyed again.

So when tickets go on sale Saturday morning, I will sever all -- ok, most -- ties with the rest of the world. There will be no phone calls answered. No e-mails to write. No TV to watch. No yard work or chores to do. Just me and my cell phone and the Ticketmaster rep on the other side, doing anything to get a pair of tickets to see that show …

Wish me luck.