#joe oestreich

[chadnevett]

Books Read in 2019

As usual, this is really “prose books completed in 2019.” It doesn’t count parts of books read or comics. So, if I decided to randomly read half of the essays in a Chuck Klosterman book or haven’t made it through that history of Canadian international trade just yet... well... Dates are when I finished them. Anyway, I’ve added little blurbs where I felt like it.

1. TV (The Book) by Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz (January 6). Babylon 5 was overlooked.

2. Waiting to Derail: Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown, Alt-Country’s Brilliant Wreck by Thomas O’Keefe with Joe Oestreich (January 9). I haven’t said anything about Ryan Adams in public since the spring. I haven’t listened to any of his music since then either. Not sure if/when I will again. It has meant a lot to me over the years. I understand the difficulty in reconciling the love of his art and what came out about him. I’ve struggled with that. I can understand people who say that they’ll listen to the music anyway, because it means something to them and, in their mind, has nothing to do with the person who made it. I have that disconnect for some things. This one is still too fresh for me; too personal. But, man, the people that I don’t understand are the ones who refuse to think any of it is true. As I said to my wife, I didn’t think this was who he was, but I wasn’t particularly surprised either. Quite frankly, nothing he does would surprise me. Anyway, good book. Entertaining book. Well-timed read, I guess, unfortunately.

3. Dead Pig Collector by Warren Ellis (February 13).

4. CoDex 1962 by Sjon (March 17). I can’t imagine reading this as three separate novels and feeling satisfied with any. Still not convinced it even works as a whole.

5. The Border by Don Winslow (April 22). It ain’t Power of the Dog. It isn’t even The Cartel. And the imprisoned child illegal immigrant plot felt completely unnecessary. But, it was alright.

6. White by Bret Easton Ellis (April 28). Not nearly as extreme or out there as portrayed. I disagreed with some of this, was bored by other parts, and enjoyed others... s’okay.

7. Thanos: Death Sentence by Stuart Moore (May 11). I read this; you don’t have to.

8. Freak Kingdom: Hunter S. Thompson’s Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism by Timothy Denevi (May 15). This was good, but it just sort of... ends.

9. I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street by Matt Taibbi (June 3). If you want an unbelievable work of nonfiction that will leave you shaking with rage...

10. Basketball (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano (July 9). Really entertaining and funny.

11. The Farnsworth Invention by Aaron Sorkin (July 13). I’d like to see it performed.

12. Raised in Captivity by Chuck Klosterman (July 27). Like any short story collection, it’s a bit hit or miss. But, when it hit, it really hit. The story about the father with his son at the park really hit me for obvious personal reasons. I identified with it strongly. And I learned that Klosterman searches for his name on Twitter as he liked my tweet about that story despite it not tagging him and being a reply to my Goodreads update. No judgment, but good to know.

13. This Storm by James Ellroy (August 16). Once you get past the first two hundred pages and the idea of everyone in the past being so casually racist that the lingering racism of the present doesn’t seem so overblown, it’s a pretty good book. I was worried that he wouldn’t finish this new LA Quartet, but he’s already talking about another trilogy after this...

14. Three Years by Anton Chekhov (August 25). A novella about how love fades and learning to live with another person can be difficult. A favourite of mine.

15. Movies (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano (October 14). Didn’t like this as much as the basketball one. Our tastes don’t overlap quite enough for this to work for me.

16. Hate, Inc. by Matt Taibbi (November 21). Oh, it’s not just politics and the police that’s completely fucked? Thanks, man.

17. V. By Thomas Pynchon (December 1). Kind of all over the place.

18. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (December 6). More focused.

[logodesignclub]

Kodak Logo - Designer: Peter J. Oestreich, modified by Joe Selame (1987), Keira Alexandra (2016) and Kiffer Keegan (2016) Logo Design

[savesgu]

Joe Exotic For President 2020 Vintage shirt

Hi Everyone Joe Exotic For President 2020 Vintage shirt. My name is Dannielle Oestreich and I am currently Mrs Lincoln and will be representing our great city in April at the Kelyn is a Dear friend of mine and can vouch for my dedication to volunteerism. If you have any event or opportunities where you need help or a speaker with an empowering story of resilience. I have a long journey from being…

[daggerzine]

Waiting to Derail (by Thomas O’Keefe with Joe Oestreich/ published by Skyhorse Publishing)

Subtitled- Ryan Adams’ and Whiskeytown, Alt Country’s Brilliant Wreck. If you’ve ever wondered what the early days in the career of Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown were like, well, with this book you get a front row seat from a guy who was there. Thomas O’Keefe used to play bass in North Carolina punk band Antiseen, but wanting to still stay in the biz O’Keefe was asked by Whiskeytown’s management company to tour manage the band even though he didn’t have a whole lot of experience. He took the job beginning in 1997 and for the next 3-4 years (or thereabouts) O’Keefe had a front row seat to Adams’ antics (there were plenty) but he saw as much beauty as he did destruction. Of the side players, violinist Caitlin Cary comes off like a saint, guitarist Phil Wandscher like a ballbuster and multi-instrumentalist Mike Daly like the consummate professional. Starting out on the RV tour which wound them around the U.S, the band did several tours for their 2nd album, 1997’s Strangers Almanac hoping to break the band, but they never quite caught on, at least not like their label had hoped they would. Part of it was Adams’ devil-may-care attitude (think Paul Westerberg but with even more of an attitude). Early on, while sitting in a restaurant (I think it was a Waffle House) O’Keefe and Adams made a pact to stick with each other and O’Keefe made good on his promise (Adams did too…well, more or less) and while O’Keefe was the one rustling these folks out of hotel rooms and onto the RV (or tour bus…not as easy as it sounds) he also dealt with Adams’ flights of fancy on any given night, whether it was getting rid of bands members (a lot of folks cycled through Whiskeytown) or cancelling a show on a whim (like in Aspen, CO where Ryan stated “A fucking ski town?! Sorry, not doing it”). So in the end O’Keefe didn’t deserve simply a paycheck, but a medal of honor. Despite all of the ups and downs O’Keefe doesn’t come off like bitter or defeated, more like happy-go-lucky and,  well, grateful (and since then he’s had a long career in the music industry, first as road manager for Train and since then, the past several years, for Weezer).  Oh and the guy is a heck of a writer too as he can spin a yarn with the best of ‘em (let’s give credit to Oestreich, too) which adds up to Waiting to Derail being one of those hard-to-put-down books. If you’re a fan of Ryan or Whiskeytown at all then it’s essential and even if you’ve only had a passing interest in the music (or can’t tell the difference between alt country or the alt right) you’ll still find it wonderfully entertaining.   www.skyhorsepublishing.com

[eastridgecowgirl]

Wilco "Everyone Hides" (Official Video)

Ode to Joy – Wilco’s 11th studio album – will be released Oct. 4, 2019 via dBpm Records. The album features 11 new songs written and produced by Jeff Tweedy and recorded by Wilco at The Loft (Chicago, IL) in January 2019. "Everyone Hides" is the second single from the forthcoming release. Receive it instantly with any preorder via https://ift.tt/2Ase4eo Wilco is on tour in support of Ode to Joy for details and tickets: wilcoworld.net/shows Production Company: Picture Show Director: Jamie Fleischel Director of Photography: Corey Lillard Assistant Camera: Matt Carroll Editors: Brendan Leonard & Jamie Fleischel Producer: Josh Modell Color: Corey Lillard Production Assistants: Erika Rodriguez & Brian Gailey Creative Producers: Mark Greenberg and Crystal Myers STARRING: Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Glenn Kotche, Nels Cline, Mikael Jorgenson, and Patrick Sansone as themselves EXTRAS: Paul Suwan, Sam O’Rama, Paul Nixon, Patrick Webb, Ashwin Deepankar, Ashley “PK” Mogayzel, Crystal Myers, Brendan Leonard, Shara Deepankar, Amanda Benfield, Alex Pfister, Rebecca Young, Dan Jarvis, Brad Althouse, Silas Mishler, Alyssa Welch, Heather Welch, Rachel Bauer, Jennifer Misiurewicz, Amanda Simmons, Rev. Billy Simmons, Andrea Lapsys, John Barnacle, John Bowles, Jake Frenzel, Tim Hogan, Kyle McCarthy, Brian Novelize, David Steele SPECIAL THANKS TO: Andy Cirzan Christine Hierl Iker Gil Joe Rios and everyone at Wrigley Field / Chicago Cubs / MLB Rev. Billy's Chop Shop Buck LePard, Ryan Oestreich, Andy Berlin and everyone at The Music Box Laurie’s Planet of Sound Lyft The Major League Baseball trademarks depicted in this program were licensed by Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. and MLB Advanced Media, L.P., as applicable. All rights reserved.

[litmaglunch]

Salmon, Mash and Asparagus and Creative Nonfiction 53. 

This is leftover from a dinner party we had. I wish you could taste how delicious this salmon is. I could eat it every day. 

I was interested to read the themed pieces here and I was struck by Joe Oestreich’s “The Botch Job.”

[daveolearyauthor]

Hitless Wonder, The Next Book, The Next Band

I was mentioned in a book, not by name mind you, but it was there; it was me. And here it is: "Shortly after the ink dried on their Flip tattoos, The Generals plugged in a new bass player and…" (from Hitless Wonder by Joe Oestreich, page 103) That's me. The new bass player for The Generals, a minor occurrence in the book, but a big one in my own life. I met Joe in high school but had much more opportunity to hang out with him those first few years after graduation when we were both doing the band thing at Ohio State. His band was Watershed. In fact, it still is Watershed all these years later which is part of the reason for writing his book, the longevity of the band, what it means to play with the same guys under the same moniker for twenty-some years, to get so close to making it with the major label deal that provided access for a brief time to the world of rock stardom. It's a worthy read for musician and non-musician alike, and as a musician, I have indeed struggled myself with some of the issues in the book. When does one give up the rock and roll life? When does one turn into the archetype that Joe mentions, the Used-to-be-in-a-band-guy? And if one does turn into such, did it mean anything? Did the practices, the recordings, the drives to Milwaukee on a Sunday night for a useless important gig, the possibly career-making shows opening for national acts or at things like SXSW matter if they can be given up, if they can be relegated to the past with a shrug of the shoulders and a sigh of an expression, "Well, I tried. What more can I do?" I won't tell you Joe's answer to such questions. For that, buy the book. Read the book. It'll help a friend, but it's a good read too, even made me reconsider my own answers to those questions. A good book will do that. It will get the noodle churning. The Generals was a Detroit band. Watershed, like Joe and I, was from Columbus, Ohio, but they'd met The Generals on the road, and as things would go, Flip died. He was the bass player and one of those universally loved guys, tough looking but big of heart, do anything for a friend. The Generals didn't call it quits though so when Watershed found out they were looking for a new bass player, Joe and the rest of the guys recommended me, and I auditioned, got the gig, moved to Detroit. And I quit my Columbus band to do such. Did I betray that band by quitting, by choosing The Generals over them? Where do such loyalties go? How deep should they run? By leaving Columbus and my band to head to Michigan, I began what became a kind of process for all of my bands. We'd get together, have a couple good years at it, sometimes even three years. We'd record and play some spectacular shows, mind bending shows when music reached life-altering levels, where perceptions were heightened, fears, doubts, lives let go for a few moments of an improvised jam in E or the cover of a Traffic song. It makes me smile that The Generals, a band that never had a record deal but that, as Joe said, wrecked places (in a good, melt-your face-off kind of way) and "got even better" after Flip's death, have now been mentioned in two books, mine and Joe's, and it makes me think each of my bands has been to me much like my book, a two or three year marriage of sorts, a complete embodiment of my entire being for the period but when done, when published, or when recordings and tours have run their course, their pages are closed, touring vans sold, epilogues written. It's hard for me now to read Horse Bite, but not because I find fault with it. I've rather moved on. I'm in the next book which oddly enough is a book about music, playing music, writing music, writing about music in becoming the dreaded critic, the meaning in placing fingers just so on the neck of a Fender Jazz bass ... and that of a woman to elicit the desired response, to open a new world, but even as I have a hard time reading some of my past writing, I do take those nights now and again to listen to the old bands of mine. The Generals for sure. There was Third Stone, Mrs. Elkhead. Going South. There were others. Tonight, though, I listened to something not my own, Watershed. I'm glad Joe and the guys are still at it. Some stories end, bands too, of course. There's a death, a goodbye, a girlfriend, a job, a marriage, a trip westward into the sun. But some things go on, and rightly or wrongly, there is no end but rather belief in the self and endurance and words and truths and hard truths and 100 watt Marshall amps cranked to 11 that lead to $37 paychecks. Keep at it guys. Meanwhile, I'm in the next book writing, writing, writing, but there is the bass, and even the next band, Sightseer. Maybe this is the one, my one, my twenty-year mass of something musical.

[osuenglish-blog]

Rock and roller OSU MFA alum Joe Oestreich will be featured at our

OSU MFA Creative Writers Alumni Bookfair & Festival September 14-16, 2012

Click on Joe's, um, rock and roller photo.

And check this out, from NPR:

Barring a massive shake-up of the Billboard charts — and American tastes — "Little Mistakes" will not be the song of the summer. But that's not for lack of trying.

The song is the lead single off Brick and Mortar, the latest album by Watershed — a band from Columbus, Ohio, that most people have never heard of. But they have been playing dingy bars, tiny clubs and even the occasional arena for 27 years.

That career has inspired a new memoir called Hitless Wonder: A Life in Minor League Rock and Roll, written by one of the band's founders, Joe Oestreich.

When Watershed headlined a concert at DC9 — a bar and club in Washington, D.C. — this June, the band's six members and road team pulled up in one white Ford van.

Since Watershed operates on a shoestring, its members handle everything on their own. But after years on the road and a couple of major surgeries, not everyone can lift the heavy drums and amps.

"At this point in our band, Dave, our drummer, has [had] major back surgery. [Guitarist and keyboardist Joe] Peppercorn's had major back surgery. So it kind of limits who can carry," says Colin Gawel, the lead guitarist and other founder of the band.

"And out of a six-member band, two of us are rocking canes on the tour, just in case," adds Ricki Cacchione, one of the band's roadies who's turning 60 years old on the monthlong tour.

No one in the band is under 30; its two founding members are in their 40s. Most have kids and day jobs back home.

Prepping For The Show

Oestreich, the book's author, plays bass and sings. He also parks the van.

"Parking on the streets of D.C., we're hoping to get a meter because we would only have to pay for the meter for the next 10 minutes," Oestreich says. "If that doesn't work, we're going to have to pay $20 to park in a lot. Some of our gigs on this tour, we haven't even made $20."

Because the band runs on such tight margins, its members have to be extra careful about their equipment.

"These are the chains that we're going to use to chain all the doors together in the front seat, with the steering wheel, so that if somebody gets in, hopefully — unless they brought bolt cutters — they won't be able to get the steering wheel to move or the two front doors to open," Oestreich says.

The band got together when Gawel and Oestreich were teenagers in Columbus. Their take on power-pop had a brief run at success in the early '90s. At one point, they had a record deal with Epic, but that fell apart when their album tanked.

The band kept going, though. It kept touring and releasing albums long after it stopped being profitable.

Silver Linings

Watershed's dedication has not rewarded its members with paychecks and fame, but they do have their superfans.

"The Reverend" Todd Baker drove 2 1/2 hours from Harrisburg, Pa., to see the show — and, no, he's not really a reverend.

"Well, it's not really official," Baker says about his title. "It's for comedy purposes, you know."

Baker is an aspiring comedian. He's unemployed. But this superfan was willing to put on a Watershed concert T-shirt from 1994 and spend the gas money to see the band at least one more time.

"I've probably seen Watershed 100 times in the last 20-some years," Baker says. "They're my best friends, the greatest rock-and-roll band in all of America. And I wouldn't miss this for the world."

By 10 p.m., the show is about to start. A few fans and old high school acquaintances stand close to the bar, but the room is mostly empty. It's not silent, though. Baker calls out the band's name in hopes of bringing them to the stage a bit earlier.

Measuring Success

After the show, Gawel and Oestreich share their take on the evening. They're happy — though realistic.

"It was a success by every measure except the one that is most commonly used to measure success," Oestreich says. "I mean, there were probably 25 people there, and they really seemed to like our songs, and there were superfans singing along with every word, and the band played great, and the soundman had us sounding good and it was really fun — and we made $37."

Despite the low pay and the time spent far from his family, Oestreich says touring with Watershed is hard to give up.

"I've got a 2 1/2-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter, and my wife is at home with both of them, single parenting, right now," he says. "On the one hand, everyone says, 'Follow your dream,' and we're doing that, but is that in fact admirable? Some days it seems kind of pathetic. Maybe we should just pack it in and go home, but, at this point, I think it's just too late. This is what we do."

Besides, Gawel adds, "If you love what you're doing, and you still feel passionate about it, why would you stop?"

After D.C., the band heads to Pittsburgh, Ohio and then, finally, Chicago — that's where Watershed will play the final show of the tour Sunday night.

Then they'll leave the van, get back to their families and dream of their next tour.

[fuckyeahbuckeyes]

Now a word from Joe Oestreich

Congratulations! You’re the Ohio State Quarterback! (Now You’ve Got a Project)

An Open Letter to Braxton Miller

Dear Braxton,

This week we Buckeye fans got the news we’ve been bracing for ever since Jim Tressel stepped down: that your teammate, the phenomenally gifted Terrelle Pryor, would be following his coach out the door amid a tornado of alleged NCAA violations. Autographs-for-cash. Memorabilia-for-tats. Shady exchanges with used car salesmen and freelance photographers. If these allegations turn out to be true, Pryor is sure to unseat Reggie Bush as the reigning MVP of Improper Benefits and the NCAA Crackdown Posterboy. The guy could sniff out a revenue stream like a divining rod, but as a quarterback and a businessman, Terrelle was a shortsighted fool.

His loss is your gain, my man. As a true freshman and OSU’s most-heralded recruit since Pryor, you’re about to be handed the keys. Oh sure, I know 25 year-old senior Joe Bauserman is technically listed ahead of you on the depth chart, but all of us here in Buckeye Nation know that an interim coach is not going to trust his career to an aging, immobile tomato can. He’s going to bet his future on the QB of the future. And that’s you, son. Braxton Miller. Starting quarterback for the Buckeyes. After John Glenn, that’s about as high on the Ohio totem pole as you can get. You’re from Dayton; you know this. But you’re also a kid. Your exposure to Buckeye football probably doesn’t go back much past The Age of the Vest. It’s understandable that you wouldn’t fully grasp what you were signing up for when you filled out that letter of intent to play quarterback for Ohio State. So I’m going to tell you.

Why should you take advice from me? You probably shouldn’t. I’ve never been in your shoes. I’m no stud athlete; I’m a slow 41 year-old who can barely heave a football twenty yards. Besides, listening too closely to civilians is what got Pryor into trouble in the first place. Your best bet is to buy a pair of noise canceling headphones and only take them off once safely inside the Woody Hayes facility. And yet, in the wake of the Pryor scandal, I think you can benefit from my football experience. I’ve earned two degrees from OSU and lived in Columbus for almost all of my life. I’m such a Buckeye diehard that 1) Sports Illustrated once asked me to write an essay about what it means to be an OSU fan and 2) I formed a punk rock band whose entire catalog consists of songs about how bad Michigan sucks. So yeah, I’m a big Buckeye. But that’s not why you should listen to me. You should listen because as an outside observer, on the frontline of fandom, I can tell you things about what you’re in for as starting QB (some heartening, some sad but true) that your coaches and teammates can’t.

Here’s thing one. Lots of Ohio State fans are still uncomfortable with the idea of a black quarterback. Not most, of course, but more than you’d guess in 2011, despite the success of Doug Williams, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Michael Vick, Vince Young, our own Troy Smith and Terrelle Pryor, and so on and so on. Look, we all know the starting quarterback at OSU is going to take ridiculous heat whatever his skin color, but the brand of heat you take will be sneakily coded. You won’t hear overtly racist comments, but misread a few defenses and you can expect stuff like, “Miller’s a great athlete, but he’s not a great quarterback” and “He just doesn’t have the head for the position.” If you’re playing well and the team is winning, obviously there will be less of this nonsense, but it might never disappear completely unless you go undefeated, beat every team by 50, and win two or three national championships. Case in point: Even with a Heisman in his trophy case, Troy Smith doesn’t get the love he deserves. Maybe this is because he showed up slow and fat to the BCS Championship game against Florida. Maybe this is because he had his own Booster troubles. Even so, Smith is clearly the best quarterback to ever play for Ohio State, but most Buckeye fans would rank Kern and Schlichter (and maybe even Hoying and Germaine) above him. The second best Buckeye quarterback? That would be Terrelle Pryor. But almost sinking the program is going to leave him ranked somewhere between Bellasari and Zwick.

Yep, we love us a Great White Hope, but black or white, we want our quarterback to conduct himself on and off the field not the way we would if we were lucky and skilled enough to play for OSU, but the way we imagine we would: as the idyllic warrior-sportsman-scholar. No bar fights. No bong hits. No cheating on the Chemistry midterm. No sideline tantrums. No DUIs (especially not with a BAC of .22, especially not the week before the Michigan game). Just a steady diet of film study, seven-on-seven drills, and differential calculus—washed down with egg whites and whey powder. You can’t act like the kid you are; you have to act like the kid we want you to be. I hate to say it, but because you don’t look like Hoying or Germaine, you’ll need to be impossibly perfect. And because you’re following Pryor, you’d better be Jesus in shoulder pads.

Unfair? Of course it is. Total fucking bullshit. But so is the whole hypocritical big time college football system. You’ll trade sweat equity for a world-class education, and you’ll be showered with fame and adoration, but you won’t taste any of the fortune you and your teammates bring in at the gate, on the TV, and in licensing fees, not even the millions the school will make selling your jersey. Because of this unfair income distribution, you may be tempted, like Pryor, to go for the quick score, to palm a hundred bucks here or there. This would be a costly mistake, in both football and business terms. My advice to you is to play the long game with the big payoff. Go to class. Stay out of trouble. Say all the right things about team and tradition, even if you don’t really mean ‘em. Throw in some stuff about God and country; we eat that shit up. Pound your chest with Ohio pride. Visit the hospitals. High five the kids.

You do that and win? You’re set for life. You’ll never want for a job, an investment, an investor. We’ll throw money at you. The income will be legal, and it will be piled high as the goalposts in Ohio Stadium. You do that and lose? You’re still set. You’ll have more name recognition and social capital than almost anyone in the state (see totem pole above). Worse case scenario, you’ll make a princely living selling real estate, cars, or insurance. Buckeyes take care of our own, and unlike in other sports markets, you won’t be competing with the pros for our attention.

That’s because the Bucks are all we’ve got, Braxton. And you’re running the show now. We need you to be a better version of you, a better version of us.

That’s what you signed up for. Now go win some ballgames. And be a good Buckeye doing it .