The Roderick Effect

I will admit it. I only started following John Roderick on Twitter once he joined the lineup for the Joco cruise. I had thought about it before, particularly during a Paul and Storm "Following John Roderick is like" running joke-a-thon, but never actually committed.

Turns out, John Roderick is a cracker-jack tweeter. Within a few days he posted one of my all-time favorite tweets:

"I think America's problems really started with the advent of Personal Wipes. Now everybody thinks they're owed a personal wipe."

I read with delight everything he posted in his column in the Seattle Weekly. Then he posted a link to this video. Great, right? I bought Putting the Days to Bed, picked my favorite song, and decided I was ready to meet John Roderick.

So, there he was on the cruise--tall and fuzzy and clever and friendly. He helped me down as I left the hatch to take the group photo. I knew he knew about Stumptown from the video above, so we talked about Portland a bit. I liked him. A lot.

On the third night we decided to watch John Hodgman face off with Famous Tracy in Scrabble. Suddenly there was John Roderick, right behind me, talking about how sore a loser Hodgman is, so Tracy better not win.

(This photo originally posted on Flickr here by our friend Jeff, aka Theanderblast. He also posts one of my favorite photos from the cruise here.)

We chatted. I told Roderick I appreciated that he was a tall musician, particularly when everyone now seems to be going for that malnourished, 8-year-old man-child look. (We saw Spoon in the airport once, and this impression of them has always stuck with me. It didn't help that they were picked up by a soccer-mom minivan.) He talked with the couple behind me about his collection of vintage eye wear (180 pairs, good grief!). Then he and Kevin Murphy broke out the ukuleles and started singing. Paul Sabourin joined in for an all-out jam session.

(Photo originally posted here by Mirka23.)

I know I've alluded to this before, but what an experience! They started with White Christmas, because that was the only song John Roderick knew. Then they played it again, for the same reason. After that they opened up the floor for suggestions, and I made a few. A Horse with No Name, came to mind immediately because it has two cords (easy to learn, right?). Taylor trumped me by suggesting any Andrew WK song, because those seem to only have one note. They played neither, but Roderick did ask who suggested the America song. I'm not sure if this was to scold or praise me.

All this was happening while I stood between Kevin Murphy and his wife, Jane (that's her holding the wine glass in the pic above). Jane kept passing on my suggestions, because I tend to mumble. When I told her I was having a great time, she stopped them both and pointed me out. "This woman says she's having a wonderful time." Both players gave me warm smiles, which I return as long as I could without happily fainting.

(This great photo of me, Taylor, and the stars, lives here in konomike's photostream.)

By the time Roderick played his concert on Thursday night I had nothing but warm, fuzzy feelings about him. Then he started singing and damn near blew the speakers off the walls. I was thunderstruck. I have never heard anyone who could sing so clearly, powerfully and seemingly effortlessly. He also ad libs in the space between songs like a vaudevillian. You can see it in some of the videos below or in any of the youtube videos from the cruise (I recommend Cernoise's, of course).

My immediate favorite song when I bought Putting the Days to Bed was "Honest," not because of the song's plot, a simple cautionary tale about being a groupie, but because of the vocal note progression on the chorus.

Honest, it's alright to be a singer,
but don't you love a singer
whatever you do
whatever you do.

When Roderick played "Honest." I shouted out it was my favorite, and he made a joke appropriate for the song's subject matter ("the roadies came and picked me out from on the barricade"). I swooned, I won't deny it.



I was teased mercilessly the next day. "Oh, Maria, there's John Roderick. You going to be able to concentrate on the game?" "I noticed you and John Roderick went to the bathroom at the same time. What were you up to?"

But then the final concert came, and John Roderick sang "The Commander Thinks Aloud."



After that powerful performance, the teasing didn't stop, but it mellowed.

Friend and fellow jococruisecrazy-fan poster Famous Tracy wrote a poem about the experience of watching the song on Geektastic Pentameter. It's as touching as the song itself. Go read it here.

Want a print inspired by "The Commander Thinks Aloud"? Check out this sublime piece by jadegordon. You can buy it here.



Commander by ~JadeGordon on deviantART