Wednesday, December 11, 2002 5:28 pm 
To  ngmck@mbox.com.au 
Wednesday, December 11, 2002 5:28 pm

Dr. Finbar Incites Civil Unrest 

Good day all,

I wonder if anyone has said to you yet, "Christmas is coming". If not, 
then let us be the first. Christmas is coming.

THIS WEEK

It may be that we play at the Yak this Thursday for what may also be 
our last public appearance of the year. You will receive a brief note 
from us tomorrow to clarify our plans.

LAST WEEK

Last Tuesday we oozed our way to the Ninth Ward. The previous time we 
had tried to play there, they told us that the inn was full, and turned 
us away. With that in mind, we arrived fifty minutes before the start 
of the night to ensure that we would get to put our name down on the 
list of acts for the evening. We bounced cheerfully into the place and 
asked for the list so that we could put our name down to play. The 
woman behind the bar gave us a steely glance and told us politely, but 
firmly, that there was no room in the inn.

Pete's eyes began to bulge a little, and flecks of foam appeared at the 
corners of his mouth. But on the whole, we took the news quite well. 
It transpired that the Ninth Ward has the curious policy of allowing 
people to come in and put their name down to play *hours* before the 
open mike night starts. Those people are then allowed to p*ss off 
until they are slated to play. Yet, they do not allow people to phone 
up in advance to get on the list. This means we are finished with the 
Ninth Ward.

And so we left that dark place. We dragged our feet up the stairs, 
followed by a horde of our enraged (and undead) fans. The last time 
this happened, you may recall that our enraged fans wished to sack the 
CBD, but that we were able to restrain them. On this occasion, 
bloodlust overtook us. Three cries punctuated the silence.

Sam: "Loot!"
Neil: "Burn!"
Pete: "Pillage!"

Suddenly the colour drained from the faces of our hitherto enraged 
fans, and they shuffled off home.

But we were not deterred. During the course of subsequent events, Sam 
was unfortunate enough to cut himself up rather badly as he hurled 
himself through the shopfront of one of those posh little shops that 
sells fashionable, but otherwise useless, items. At least he now has 
the consolation of owning an aquamarine waistcoat. In any case, the 
doctors did their best for him, and he made a remarkable recovery. By 
Thursday evening, the elephant-man mask was ready to come off, just in 
time for our appearance at the Yak.

We lurched through our set at the Yak, and Neil has promised never to 
play with a hangover again. Can he be trusted? We hope so. We were 
later called upon to provide the backing band for this very colourful 
Slavic-sounding guy. After we played, he asked us which other open 
mikes we'd been playing. When we told him we'd been playing mostly at 
the Yak, he looked around the room, and said "This place is no good. 
All men here. You should go to Rubys in Belgrave. All the women are 
there." I guess he'd know. He told one of us on a previous occasion 
that he used to run a strip club.

That's quite enough from us for now. Enjoy what you can while you can,

The Dr. Finbar Trio