missing willie (a throwback)

so, willie WAS scheduled to play back-to-back nights at the backyard this weekend, but i just found out tonight’s show has been postponed till tomorrow. just as well, except now i’ll probably have to work it, just like i did for last night’s show. shane and i were gonna go tonight, but after being there all last night i’d already called and bailed on him. for one reason…

WATCHING willie doesn’t do much for me.

let’s face it, willie’s not young. he doesn’t play his guitar behind his head, and there ain’t a lot of pyro to a willie show. once you establish in your head that on the center of that stage is willie fuckin’ nelson, the man who wrote the songs you grew up with (if you grew up in the south or in texas…and yes there IS a difference) there’s not a lot to see. you just kinda listen, occasionally glance at the stage, sing along with whiskey river, and get fucked up. it’s tradition. understand that a willie show across the border (i.e. ANYWHERE but texas) isn’t really a willie show. he just does that for money, and to give you the ILLUSION you’ve seen a willie show. but until you see it in his native land, it just doesn’t count. for one reason alone; the people.

if you go to a willie show in texas (which traditionally happens in the spring…he ALWAYS opens the season at the backyard in bee caves, tx, where last night and tomorrow night’s shows are happening) you go almost as much for the people as you do for willie. children. bikers. frat boys and sorority girls. trailer trash (which brings to mind today question of the day, but we’ll get to that later) lawyers. doctors. rednecks. real estate developers. hippies. burn outs. senior citizens. all hanging out together. all singing along to “pancho and lefty” (josh’s favorite – which played as we walked through to turn in the west box stuff and close out..you see josh in the comments section here from time to time). like i said, here a willie show isn’t just a show…it’s a rite of passage. when was the last time he played in YOUR neck of the woods? this is the FOURTH willie show since valentine’s day around austin (with numero cinco happening tomorrow), and all have had more than 2,000 people at them…close to 1,500 of them WEREN’T on willie’s guest list (he’s got a lot of friends around here). this is why in the entry way to my house, i don’t have the virgin mary watching over all who enter; i have the virgin willie.

oh yeah…question of the day; which is more pathetic?

a. the fact that they actually made a movie called, “poor white trash”?
b. the fact that i rented it?
c. the fact that the dvd skips past the whole first scene, so i’m about to run to blockbuster and make them give me the other copy they have so i can see this flick INSTEAD of just getting a different movie and seeing the error in my ways for renting it in the first place?