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Friday, Aug. 09, 2002 - 12:07 p.m.

Daniel is a Striped Tiger, but The Bangles are not

Casey and I went to see The Bangles live for free at Rye Playland in New York last night and it was fun. We were too far from the tiny stage to see Susanna Hoffs' hotness up close, but I could picture it just the same. It was fun, and they covered all I needed to hear: "Hazy Shade of Winter" to start, "Manic Monday" midway through the main set, and "Walk Like An Egyptian" to close the set. They came back for (at least) a two-song encore, but Casey and I started walking out after "Egyptian," and the first song was "Eternal Flame" anyway, and that would've driven us out regardless. They also did "Tear Off Your Own Head," an Elvis Costello song that's the title track of their new album, coming in January, "Doll Revolution." ("It's a Doll Revolution" is the subtitle of the song.) They mentioned a new album and that the song would be on it last night, but I found out the name of it, the album, and the Elvis connection when I watched them live on "Good Morning America" today. As one Bangle mentioned, it was a perfect summer night for an outdoor concert (and a free one at that), with a nice breeze off Long Island Sound, the colorful, family atmosphere of Playland (with free admission). We brought a blanket and found a patch of grass near the flowers (which provided a walkway when trekking to the restrooms) and wondered if any of the disgruntled teens around us understood where the "Do-d-do-do-do-dos" from "Mrs. Robinson" came from while they performed "Egyptian." But when they sang the chorus, and the disgruntled teens sang along, it answered our question. But I speculated that the disgruntled teens know it from the Lemonheads' ill-advised cover of the song, to which Casey exclaimed, "Damn you, Evan Dando!"

While we sat on the blanket awaiting The Bangles, I mentioned to Casey how I'd started to associated some diaries I read regularly with television shows. I think Bassett's is like Who's Line Is It Anyway? because it's so stream-of-consciousness and random jokes and exclamations. "random day random day random day random wheeeeeeeee." Heather's is like Seinfeld because she takes seemingly ordinary trips to the local hardware store and turns them into well-written adventures in hilarity, usually involving the title character and her able comic sidekick, Lauren. "As I slowly reversed out of my parking spot, we both kept a close eye on Craggy Old Cow?s progress toward the store. Being as she?s a chronic shuffler, and being as she is older than bread, advancing toward the locked doors of the clearly closed store took quite some time." I had something in mind for Casey's, but I couldn't remember it, so she suggested Sex and The City for hers "because I ask a lot of questions and write about clothes and shoes." I couldn't argue. I thought I had one in mind for my own, as well, but I couldn't put my finger on it, either. So we settled on something of the Ed dramedy genre because I write such detailed, long (needing an hour-long show to match up with it) entries, often with some jokes and laughs.

And while we sat there talking on our blanket beneath the trees and the roller coaster at Playland, a group of pre-disgruntled teens (as well as pre-teens) went off to buy some cotton candy with money from Mom. To do so, they needed to walk in front of us, stepping on the four-inch strip of grass between our blanket and the one in front of us, then step over a corner of our cloth. We watched each pair of feet pass, and after they'd gone, Casey said, "I wanted to trip one of those kids so badly."

"Why?" I asked, and from here Casey will likely dispute my quotes, but they're close enough and if she really has a problem with them, she knows my password and can fix them herself.

"Because it would've been so easy," she said. "Just put my hand out and -- whoops!

"I'm going to hell, I know."

I laughed, admitting it would be funny.

"We're both going," she said. "They'll have to set a table for four and we can join Heather and Lauren."

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