You deserve this post like children deserve cereal shaped like monkeys.

Last night I went to see McSweeney's vs. They Might Be Giants at UCLA with my dad. Originally, it was going to be a family outing, since I, Father and Mother were all interested in the show (although it may be more accurate to say that I was "enthused" and my parents were "curious"). However, since Mother is currently in Switzerland smuggling watches tending to family business, it was just me and my dad. wjukknibs was called upon to be a last-minute replacement, but went AWOL before the show. Still no word as to what happened to him.

Although we had thought the show was going to have a more literary slant, the McSweeney's portion of the show seemed to be more of an opening act for They Might Be Giants. Inspired by a recent collaboration between the band and the literary journal, the spoken word act featured readings by Sarah Vowell and Zadie Smith, liberally interspersed with apropos songs and instrumentation provided by TMBG. The high point, though, was Dave Eggers reading a hilarious one-and-one-half person short story called "Mrs. Gunderson" while the Johns did their best imitations of the Allan Parsons Project ("I am Allan Parsons! Come join me on my project!"), the Steve Miller Band and the Smiths on dying batteries. But each author read only one piece, and they all quickly ceded the stage to the Johns, who returned after intermission, just as I will return after I've driven home.

Don't let this turn into a Smothers Brothers show!

During intermission, I realized that the show was going to run later than I had anticipated, and I walked out of the theater to get some fresh air and find a phone. In the lobby, I saw Aimee Mann, looking . . . well, Mannish, I suppose. I also happened to get spotted by wintercolours who was not attending the show, but was passing out flyers for a Common Rotation concert. I called work, let them know I'd be tardy (I was to be thirty minutes late), and headed back for the second act.

( Act II: Wherein, John & John pretend that they've written a new song called  )

I enjoyed the show, and I'm glad Father did as well. I drove to work with visions of fingertips dancing in my head (which made it look like the poster for M*A*S*H was doing a can-can line, really). I am a little worried about wjukknibs not showing up, though. I hope he's all right.

[Editor's note: Apparently, LJ spellcheck recognizes "deja" as a word, but not "vu." That's so vury helpful.]