Wilco and “The Guys” (updated 1.31.2008 with happy ending)

Updated 1.31.2008 with new happy ending!

 

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The other night I had an unbelievable experience concerning some stuffed animals I have gotten close to over the last few months. You see, my son Jack and I have an ongoing relationship with whichever group of characters currently pops up into our lives. This group of friends, playmates, confidantes, groupies are always referred to as “The Guys” no matter what the current iteration happens to be. And have been many changes of the guard over the last few years ranging from Looney Tune Pez dispensers to the current and formidable collection of exquisitely adorable and lifelike “Audubon Birds With Real bird Calls!

There are way too many of these guys to count, the website lists 15 collections and each collection has like 24 birds in it. That is a LOT of guys! Our introduction came through a free standing display at Wild Oats Market, but I have subsequently found them for sale at REI and of course on the ubiquitous sales megla-market, the internet.

Over the last few months we have had many adventures with “The Guys”. They are often packed into a backpack or toted in a shopping bag or even hurriedly stuffed into an available pocket for any and all trips.

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“The Guys” have been to the LA Zoo, many finer LA restaurants, parks, the beach and most recently on an ever increasingly complex ritual of treasure hunts that my son and I have been designing for them. You can see an extended review of our latest and greatest “Guys” treasure hunt here.

Now, what in the world could any of this have to do with my favorite music band that is currently bringing some of the freshest and most intriguing music to our collective ears, Wilco? Well, I will tell you what the connection is. Last weekend my girlfriend and I went to Santa Barbara for the weekend, culminating Sunday night with seeing Wilco live at the Santa Barbara Bowl. At the last minute I had decided to bring two of the guys (actually one of them is an official “Guy”, the other is a very respectable Tyco plush toy bird named “Walky Talky Hawky“). During the weekend I decided to take pictures of the guys in different places and them send those pictures via email back to my son as a way to stay connected to him. I had the guys at the Hotel, by the pool and at the seashore.

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Sunday night we go to the show and it was not more than a few songs into set when Jeff Tweedy encourages the audience to get closer and comedown to the stage front. We were lucky enough to have seats in the pit and therefore went right ahead to within fifteen feet of of the stage.

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It could not have been more than a minute that I had this unbelievable out of body experience. I looked up at one point and what I saw was “Commie” (The Common Loon) sitting atop a Marshall stack center stage. I blinked, rubbed my eyes and looked up to see “Cardy”, (The Northern Cardinal) sitting all alone on another amplifier. Then “Blue”, then “Pecky”, all of the sudden I had the distinct feeling that Wilco was playing this concert in my son Jack’s bedroom. I was in a state of complete disbelief. I mean my favorite the band in the world had “The Guys” on stage, and not one or two, but four of them distinctly and securely place around the stage.

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Now, I Have no idea what the deal is and all I know is that at one point about mid-way through the show, Jeff Tweedy went and picked up “Blue” and briefly and gave him an affectionate hug, he made nothing of it, just like “The Guys” in my life, these guys seemed to be a part of the fabric of his life.

After the show I struggled on how to make some kind of connection with Mr. Tweedy on this hard to comprehend fact. I clumsily showed the head roadie some pictures I of course had with me of the guys, hoping to elicit a “hey come on back stage and show Jeff” response, they thought it was interesting, no offer came.

So, my plan is this. Saturday August 25th was Jeff Tweedy’s birthday. I am going to see the group again this Wednesday the 29th. I will bring a gift of a “Guy” along with a note and a photo of me and my son with the guys and try to deliver it to him as a belated birthday gift.

Update:

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The Greek show was great, it did not feel as special as the show we had seen a few nights earlier in Santa Barbara, but the group was spot on and they seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit, which to be honest I was concerned about as I know that there can be a certain amount of animosity towards LA audiences, and for good reason. The guy next to me was txt’ing his pal the entire time and the girls in front of and behind us talked and smoked pot when the song was not to there liking. Not that these are uniquely “LA” behaviors, but the whole thing felt a bit less personal than the Santa Barbara show. Even though we had very good seats, I spent a much of the night trying to see if I could sneak into the pit area in order to give Jeff his Black Capped Chickadee. As time went on it became clear that it really was not going to happen and I certainly felt confident that would have some way of getting it to him at a later date (subsequently I got an email from his management saying that I could send the gift to them for assured delivery), but that I was determined to deliver it that night, especially when during the last encore Jeff Tweedy’s son came out and asked his dad something. The final image was of Jeff carrying his kid offstage in his arms. Perhaps he had come out to say that it was getting late and the “birds” needed to get to bed. In any event it was such a wonderful way to end a concert I approached the stage and waited for some opportunity to speak with and explain my situation to someone who looked liked they might get it. After a few aborted attempts with Nels Cline‘s guitar roadie who is either stone deaf or trained in the art of ignoring all advances from post show fans, I finally found a very nice looking gentleman wearing a tour badge. I gave him the bird, a brief reason of why I had such a bird and he nodded and said he would make sure it got to the right place.

Only time will tell, but the next time I see Wilco I am hoping that there will indeed be a fifth “Guy”.

1.31.2008 Update and major feeling of accomplishment!!

So last night in preparation to see Ryan Adams at UCLA I decided to finally watch the Wilco Podcast which contains a selection from there performance on Austin City Limits of Impossible Germany.

I am sitting there so enjoying a fantastic performance of the song when Jessica, my girlfriend, blurts out: “Hey, is YOUR guy there!”. OK , so we both really excitedly are watching the last few moments of the clip with Nels Cline hammerin’ out a gorgeous penultimate moment (that guy has got some massive paws) and they cut to a close up of Nels’ guitar and I see something out of the corner of the frame. I then go into Blade Runner mode and, freeze, zoom in, enhance (in my mind) and yup, bingo. There it is The Black-capped Chickadee is right there on stage with Wilco and the rest of the Guys. I was so happy. Jessica was not sure, so I went to Wild Republic to download a picture of the boid to do a side by side. There is no question. My gift made it onstage and now a little bit of me and Jess and Jack are traveling around with my favorite rick band forever. That is a good feeling!

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Now my only thought is that perhaps there is a monet at some show where Jeff acknowledges the newest member of the group and since Wilco allows distrobution of there concerts via bittorrent and thus every show is availalbe to listen to, I may have to just find that moment to include in this post.

But I am going to need some time to do that.

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I love the Guys, I love Wilco, but mostly I love my son Jack for figuring it all out.

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