If you ask me what my favorite band is, I probably wouldn't be able to give you a straight answer.
It's not because I don't like popular music or anything, but simply because I can't choose which band
I like out of all of the ones I like.  But if you asked me to give a top-5 or something, They Might Be
Giants would definately end up on that list.  It may not be because they're popular or that their lyrics
are compelling and thoughtful, but it is because I have kind of grown up with their music in the background
somewhere.  I remember that I first heard "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" when I was in 5th grade, and I've liked their music ever since.
 
 

But the history of my involvement with They Might Be Giants is only one of the reasons I took the two-hour drive from Mt. Pleasant to Ann Arbor all alone and returned to my room at 3:30 in the morning the next day.  The other reason, of course, was to hang out with some of my old high school buddies.  My friend Lauren, who is a student (of course) at the University of Michigan, told me about the concert in September, and I promptly marked my calendar for the event.  A month passed and soon it was Tuesday, October 23, 3:30 PM and I was on the road south through Lansing to Ann Arbor, all on my own.
 
 

I had my share of problems navigating the streets of Ann Arbor.  The directions I printed from some popular internet map site were accurate, but my reading of the street signs were not.  I got a little lost and dialed Lauren (pictured above) to see if she could help me get my bearings.  I eventually found my way back to her dorm (with her better knowledge of the streets of Ann Arbor) and parked at the U of M medical center or hospital, about a quarter of a mile away from her dorm.  I marveled at the old-ness of the buildings and how the lounges didn't quite look comfortable to lounge in, and then headed up to her room.  It wasn't long after I met her roommate (pictured below) that Lauren took me on a brief tour of the central area of the U of M campus, which is virtually surrounded by the city.
 
 

I've got to admit: the U of M campus has some class.  Or, rather, prestige is probably the correct word.  Most of the buildings seem quite old and ivy-shirted and the architecture is much more interesting that most of the buildings at CMU.  Aside from not being able to tell where I was, I was pretty impressed.  Lauren pointed out the landmarks and the buildings and the largest lecture hall on campus, and pretty soon we were wandering through the South Quad, I think, which is one of the most confusing residence hall structures I've ever seen.

Our wanderings through this confusing South Quad (I'm sure that's the name of it) served the purpose of meeting a friend of Lauren's she hadn't seen for several years.  But along the way we bumped into another East Kentwood alumnus, Greg.  Lauren and Greg talked for a while and I was left to standing around and observing.  Not a bad thing: I'm used to that.  After an exchange of AOL Instant Messenger screen names and a brief update on the each other's lives, we departed towards Lauren's destination... wherever that was.  Lauren and her friend met and we all walked back to the dorm complex's caffeteria, Lauren and her friend went to eat and I went to find the Michigan Theatre.
 
 

With only a map and a point in the right direction to go from, I took to the streets of Ann Arbor.  It was a pretty straightforward walk to the Michigan Theatre from wherever I was, and I found it soon after asking a friendly Ann Arbor resident/college student to help me out.  The Michigan Theatre is a nice theatre.  Just like every other older theatre, it has a balcony and a lot of seats.  Tickets (cash only) were being sold at the door for $23, but instead of the anticipated general admission, the seats were reserved, in a way.  I was seated in aisle 1, row V, right on the aisle seat.  It wasn't the best seat: row V isn't too far back, but it's right near a wall of the theatre that bends in on an angle, so my view wasn't perfect.  If the seating was the "first-come, first served" type of seating I expected, chances are I could have sat right next to the stacks of speakers, because the theatre was virtually empty when I arrived, about 30 mintues before the show.  The usher took my ticket stub, though, so the only thing I have to prove that I was there are these digital photos.
 
 

The opening act was was an awesome band from Chicago called OKGO (Okay, Go... but OKGO is what it says on the sticker I was given).  They said that they were selling CDs for 3 dollars in the lobby, but after the concert I couldn't find where they were being sold.  Oh well, they've got an album with Captiol Records so I suppose that I can buy it when it costs $18 at Sam Goody.  They even played a cover of "Kiss Me, Son of God."  It was great.  OKGO had a lot of fun on the stage and I'm looking forward to hearing more from them.
 
 

After another break, They Might Be Giants finally emerged onto the stage.  Sadly, I don't remember the opening song they played.  But every song they played was terrific.  There was a section of the show where they hooked up a radio to the amps and tuned into a station.  The object was to improvise whatever was being played on the radio.  John Linnell did a wonderful job of playing the piano part for Elton John's "Candle in the Wind," by the way.  There was also another extended drum-solo section, where their drummer Dan Hickey did a kind of "dial-a-drummer" thing... John Flansburgh was the pre-recorded voice on the touch-tone system and Dan played some various different drum styles.  The concert didn't last as long as it could have (considering the band has been around for so long), but I suppose it's because they had only a day or two until their next gig.  TMBG concerts have the potential for lasting epic lenghts because of the library of music they have developed.  In any case, they plaed two encores and brought the house down when they left the stage with New York City.  All-in-all, a very good investment in money, time, energy, and lack of sleep.

The fuzzy concert photo.  The guy on the left is John Flansburgh and the guy on the keyboard is another guy named Dan (not Hickey).  The one in the back on the accordion (see him now?) is John Linnell.

After the show I looked to where they were selling the band merchandise, but I couldn't find it and the crowd of people leaving the theatre swept me along.  But one of the band members of OKGO (the bald one) gave me a free sticker (I put it on my photography folder).  I said "nice show, man" and he said "thanks!"

So, on the street outside the theatre, I now had to find my way back to Lauren's dorm to a) give her map back and b) say goodbye.  I examined the map and figured out where I was, where I needed to go, and how to get there.  I started heading in some direction back to the Mosher-Jordan dorms when I ran in to Erin and some of her friends, who just got back from studying for an exam.  I called Jasmine to try to figure out where to go and at the same time asked Erin where I was going.  It got confusing after a while.  I agreed to call Jasmine when I returned to my car and Erin told me which way to go to get back to her room.  I met Lauren in the lobby, gave her map back and talked about the concert for a little while.  I said goodbye, left for my car, and started on my adventure to Jasmine's room in the North part of campus, several miles away from the central part.

This part of the journey is a little strange.  I drove the streets of downtown Ann Arbor while talking to Jasmine on my cellular phone.  She was trying to help me get to her place, and I was trying to get there, but there were some problems.  So the trip amounted to random turns, essentially, until I saw a Wendy's restaurant.  Here's kind of how it went:
V: Okay, I'm turning on to... N. Division.
J: I don't think you want to be on Division.
V: Well, I'm on Divison.
J: Can you point out any landmarks or anything?
V: Lessee, there's a building....
J: Um... I think you're lost...
V: lesse... there's a Wendy's on the left and a Shell station on the right...
J: VIC!  You're on the right street!

It was something like that.  So, I found her dorm.  A nice student studying on the steps just inside the lobby let me in the door and I talked to Jasmine to find my way around the hallways.  We met on the staircase and she gave me one of her big-ol' hugs.
 
 

I talked with Jasmine and two of her friends, just catching up on our summers and the differences between a Big 10 school and a little MAC school.  I sat in her room until about 1:00 AM, when we all decided that we needed to get some sleep and that I should go back to Mt. Pleasant before I was forced to crash in her room.
 
 

It was great revisiting all my old high school friends in their college environment, and seeing a TMBG concert was the only excuse I needed for making the drive.  So, it was kind of like 50% of the trip was to socialize, and the other 50% was to see a band that I hadn's seen live since I was in 8th grade.  But it was 1:00 AM on Wednesday morning, and I had class in 9 hours.  So I started heading home.  On the way back, though, I got a little confused and turned around needlessly a couple of times.  I stopped at a Speedway station somewhere a few miles outside of Ann Arbor and bought some gas and some drinks to keep me awake.  The drinks didn't work exceptionally well: about 12 miles outside of Mt. Pleasant I started focusing on some drops of water on my windshield instead of the road ahead of me.  Also, I took a bathroom break about two-thirds of the way back on the side of the road.

I arrived back at my room at around 3:30, called Jasmine's room (because she said to call me) then crawled into my bed.  I don't remember dreaming at all, but I remember waking up in time to brush my teeth and head off to my 10:00 JRN 220 class.

All in all, a very worthwhile trip.  Worth the money, worth the loss of sleep, worth the 4 and a half hours in a car, worth taking a risky urination-break on the side of an off ramp, and worth not being able to take a shower until the afternoon sometime.