Naughty Biceps

He may look innocent enough. But underneath that sweet exterior is a man fraught with all sorts of naughtiness. At a recent festival, Bicep’s naughtiness got the best of him.

And, Biceps got into trouble. Real trouble.

The show was at midday with all sorts of promise. The best thing about a midday show is the ability to photograph the band well lit.

Another bonus to a midday show is the ability to go to bed at a decent hour and not have slumber party stomach the entire next day.

But, I digress. I wanted to tell you about Biceps’ naughtiness. See the back of this lady’s head who is sitting side stage, far right in the picture?

All heck is about to break loose.

Biceps precariously climbed up onto these speakers for a dramatic emphasis during the set.
There’s a man in the back of the shot with wispy hair, and he is rather concerned and alerts side-stage lady .

Oblivious, Biceps rocks on.
Until the side stage lady weaves her way past the drummer-during the song-points her finger at Biceps and tells him to get down. Tisk, tisk!

Naughty Biceps…I don’t think he was very happy about being chastised by a mother figure during his cool guy rock and roll show.
But, we laugh about it now. Or at least I do.

ABOT’s, Bruder and Popcorn Balls

Bruder, Biceps’ and brother’s band, was nominated for two awards this year:
‘Best Indie Rock’ & ‘Best Newcomer of the Year’ at the ABOT’s.
(The ABOT’s are given to those considered the Absolute Best of Tulsa and are based on city folk voting for their fav thing.)

Biceps couldn’t attend, so I tagged along with brother & his wifey solo. Aren’t they the cutest couple?
Yes, that is a cage behind them for cage dancing. And yes, baby brother did get inside of it and strut his stuff for a moment. No, I won’t show you the photographic evidence that I have of said dance.

We had a limo ride that lasted .006 of a mile. But, it’s always fun to be escorted in a limo anywhere, no matter how short the ride…

This year, the ABOT’s were held in the historic Cain’s Ballroom in downtown Tulsa. I love Cain’s-it’s a venue where time has stood romantically still.
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys played here. The Sex Pistols played one of their very few American gigs here.
I held hands in public for the very first time with Biceps at Cain’s, while watching Weezer perform. I love Cain’s for oh so many reasons, but this one is the most important reason.

About halfway through the night, the announcer called out the nominees for ‘Best Indie Rock’. The winner was announced.
It wasn’t Bruder.…it was ‘Scales of Motion’.
The band is super talented and it was right that they won. We were neighbor’s with the guy on the far right-he and his wife are pretty stinkin’ cool.

While sitting somewhere in this general picture area, waiting for the second category Bruder was nominated for, I noticed that my ‘swag bag’ contained a cookie and a popcorn ball. The popcorn ball was gone in ten seconds flat. The cookie soon followed. After my gluttony subsided, they announced the nominees for the Best Newcomer of the Year. My heart stopped…

Bruder won! Baby Brother waltzed onto stage, accepting the award, sans his other band mates.

He thanked his fans and what-not, saying very cool and debonair things I am sure…I was just too excited to really listen.

He looked so much like the rock star that he is. My sweet baby brother is all grown up.
I needed chapstick after smiling from ear to ear for so long.

The only thing that could have made this evening any better was if Biceps was able to be there.
Wait…what is this?…

What in the world? I guess he was there….
Congratulations guys, I am so proud of you!

The Making of a Bear Costume

What do several yards of faux fur, margaritas and sewing machines all have in common?
They are all needed to make a bear costume.
I wasn’t surprised when Biceps had this unusual need for his band’s video. Nor was I surprised that my brother would be wearing tighty-whiteys and extracting a fish from the river with his teeth in said video.

This is all very normal in the Greiman household.
(I haven’t even delved into the numerous amount of sock puppets I made for their first video. Another day, my dears…another day.)

Baby brother made the head from chicken wire, plaster of paris and a hard hat. Yep, a hard hat.
We then covered it in a faux fur they found online. The fur really flew. Literally. It was all over my house.

Baby brother also made the nose and teeth from modeling clay, baking them in the oven.
He hand painted the nose a glossy black and yellowed the teeth to make them as realistic as possible.
Cowboy did not like this bear head one bit.

Sister-in-law and I cut up an old sheet to simulate the fur, padding Biceps’ body in the appropriate places to try and make him look more bear-like.
He was thrilled with this procedure, as you can tell. I think he was just trying to get into character.

The boys made margaritas while Sis and I began sewing. Have you ever tried shoving 2” thick fur through a sewing machine?
It’s fun.

Sis got really into being a bear, modeling the arms for all of us with many bear-type dance moves such as this one.
I believe this dance is called, ‘Showing your bear biceps to the other bears.’

Biceps is wearing one of the bear legs as a skirt. Boy, am I going to be in big trouble for this.

We used an old man onesy (jumpsuit) underneath the costume to attach the stuffing to. Biceps is inside the costume, sweating profusely, wearing the jumpsuit covered in stuffing and underneath the 2” thick fur.
No wonder bears are grouchy.

By the end of the night, no animals or humans were harmed in the making of this bear costume. We still needed to add eyes and claws…but we decided to end on a high note and go to bed.

If you would like to see the bear costume in action, here’s the final video:
Man Vs. Man Video, Bruder
Please don’t judge our weirdness….

Bowling Balls and Black Lights

The smell of lysol mixed with stale beer, the rhythmic clanking of the pins against the lane floor and the exuberant celebrations by the alley’s participants surround
you upon entering a bowling alley.
And the domestic dispute in the parking lot?
That’s just a reminder that it isn’t all fun and games at the magical place called ‘The Bowling Alley’.

I am a terrible bowler, by every sense of the word. My score has only twice broken a hundred.

However, I love to bowl.
The primary colors throughout the alley are simple and inviting. I am a sucker for anything brightly colored.

The last time that I slapped on a pair of public shoes and claimed a pink ten pound ball as mine, was over a year ago while we were on tour with David Copperfield.
He didn’t laugh when I asked him to ‘make my pins disappear’.
(I thought it was pretty funny.)

This is my beautiful sister-in-law on the left and she married that guy in the hat which is my baby brother. My brother is in the band Bruder with Biceps.

And the night took a slightly weird turn when appendages were suddenly being compared to one another.
That is Biceps’ cute ‘hammer toe’. And that’s our friend Fiawna’s dainty thumb that she insisted looked like a ‘hammer toe’.

I can’t believe they let someone like this in public.

Friend Phillip made me giggle each time he threw the ball from about six feet back.

This is our sweet friend Fiawna, who did a little dance before, during and after every single one of her turns. She’s crazy but we like that about her.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Bicep’s graceful approach. Check out his form, his concentration, the perfectly centered ball in the lane.
Too bad I still beat him.

Halfway through our game, the lights went off, the music went up and my photos were blurry remnants of the evening.

I had no idea just how much fun could be had while wearing public shoes.

After spending our life’s savings on only the one game, we left the lovely bowling alley with its black light glow, truly wishing we could have stayed a little longer.
But ice cream beckoned us, and we wouldn’t want to disappoint it….