Report: the Zak Claxton Sicky Fun Show (03.20.10)

Sickly me.

Ask any musician, and he or she will tell you that realizing you're too ill to do an imminent performance is about as shitty a feeling as there is in the world. But that's what I had to acknowledge when I awoke today. Yesterday, I felt something coming on, and both my son and my lady had been ill this week, so it was pretty much inevitable that it would hit me eventually. And hit it did; I felt like hell last night, didn't sleep well, and got out of bed today with the distinct impression that someone had been beating my entire body with tire irons last night. Making matters decidedly worse was knowing that I had the fourth episode of my Zak Claxton Happy Fun Show at noon, live on video, and had invited a good number of people to check it out.

Singing was out of the question... my voice is just above a croak at the moment. My first inclination was to cancel the show entirely, but I just really, really, REALLY hate canceling shows under almost any circumstance. I just do. It bums me out.

Instead, with about an hour to go until the start of the show at noon, I had an idea that I wasn't sure was going to work or not: instead of a show with music, we could have a show where we talk about music. Now, I think it was Frank Zappa who said that talking about music was like dancing about architecture, but with my only other alternative being a note apologizing for my absence, I gave it a shot.

My first talk show
Not having anyone to interview or otherwise talk to except myself, I briefly entertained the idea of a call-in show, but I decided that could get really boring, really fast for those not talking. I decided to instead have a little discussion of my musical influences, and did some quickie graphics of a number of artists/bands that have been important to me. The list was what any of you who know me would expect, and included Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, the Who, Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Bowie, the Police, and others.


All about the cootie train! w00t w00t!

It actually seemed like my little audience was having fun. First and foremost, we had some serious music fans there who understood a lot of the arcane little references that I'd point out from time to time. Anyway, it took my mind off of being sick and feeling all the self-pity that goes along with the aches and pains of whatever virus decided to camp out inside of me. I'm really glad I went on the the show. And now, it's chicken noodle soup time.