Rumored Michigan date?

[natedorough]

[committed]

[superboots]

If this is true, I'm taking a gun to my head and shooting myself.

so, it better not be true.

[megxyz128]

hmm, i didn't know our lady peace shows had the effect on people?

[superboots]

[megxyz128]

oooooh, gotcha.

[superboots]

[megxyz128]

I've heard of it, but I don't know where it is. i looked it up on mapquest and from my house and it's 3 hours and 48 minutes. holy crap, i don't think i could go.

[Endymion]

[faninor]

[emily]

[Sufjan Stevens]

We're not horribly far from Big Rapids Emily. I was supposed to try out for their tennis team my junior year, and it never happened. Thanks coach for telling them to not give me a chance.

Anyways, I saw OLP 4 times this year. And only once did OLP do anything out of the ordinary with the setlist, and they added In Repair and Automatic Flowers to the customary 20 song set. Yeah it was great hearing In Repair again, but after all the driving, money, and uncomfortable settings, either I have to be guaranteed The Wonderful Future and/or Stealing Babies or else I don't think I will go to another OLP show. I don't need to hear the same 20 songs over and over again, I spent a couple hundred bucks on it already. I might go to the show if it exists, but if they don't play something rare, I don't think it's worth paying for or driving to see. Sorry, maybe next year when the new cd comes out, until then, I am on an OLP break. I just need to have a reason for excitement about OLP.

[emily]

I wish I knew about OLP earlier this year. Unfortunately, I am relatively an OLP newbie. The only show I've seen by them was the State Theatre, and I hear that wasn't the best? It being my first actual rock concert (so my mother is overprotective)? I wish tennis season was twice a year. I don't want to wait until next fall, although I do play indoor sometimes.

[Sufjan Stevens]

Where do you play at? Maybe we can get a court sometime and I can amaze you with my booming serve, topspin kick serve, and amazingly accurate backhand. If I didn't blow my elbow out my junior year, my serve would be a good 15-20MPH faster.

[emily]

I was taking lessons at Deer Lake (Clarkston, I think?) and just renting courts at Lifetime Fitness in Rochester. I just started not even a year ago, this summer, but right now I'm probably already better than the 1st doubles jv players, which I consider improvement. You would probably kick my ass and I would just be standing there dumbfounded.

[Sufjan Stevens]

I think I was born to be a tennis instructon, so I can help. I have been to Deer Lake a couple of times for tournaments, where I got my ass kicked. It's not fair, they always put me against the club hero who was top 25 in the nation. I started boycotting tournaments after that because it was bullshit to take some one as good as I was and put me against nationally ranked kids week in and week out. That year I quit playing USTA tournaments because I could never find a tournament where I wasn't placed against the top seed. I couldn't keep paying $40 to go home in an hour and a half.

[emily]

Um.. wow. How long have you been playing tennis?

[Sufjan Stevens]

Well, I started playing when I was 4. I never got into serious competition until I was a freshman in high school. I had some success in two tournaments, the first two I entered, and after that, I fell off the face of the earth somehow. I make it to the round of 16 in a Midwest tournament back in 99, then follow it up with a loss in the semifinals of the next tournament (it was just a Sattelite tournament) and then I couldn't catch a break. I started getting put up against the top seeds, then had to move up an age level to play kids that were much bigger and better coached than I was, so I was screwed. Like I said, there was like a stretch of three tournaments where I played the same kid in the first round, and I never came close to beating him. He now plays #2 singles at Michigan, and will probably be going pro sometime soon. He is one of the top singles players in the collegiate ranks, and I got raped by him three weeks in a row.

[emily]

Jesus Christ in a halfshell. I am guessing you were on Varsity as a freshman?

[Sufjan Stevens]

Hah, you would think that, right? See, my freshman year, I was unjustly put on JV, and then I wasn't allowed to play on JV. I said something about it, and my coach hated me for it. My sophomore year, I dominated the varsity team in tryouts, but was put on JV at #1 singles. My junior year I dominated the varsity team in tryouts, but was put on JV at #1 singles. My senior year I was put at #1 doubles because I have an all around good game and can serve and volley. Surprisingly, I was all-Macomb County (place where I live) all-Metro (that's the all Detroit area team) and missed out on the all state team becuase it was voted on by coaches, and I had a swearing problem. I was also the team's MVP. But I was JV for three years. Go figure, your most valuable player was held back because he spoke out about school politics.