Hi all. I just joined here about 1 minute ago because of Saturday's show. I was in line next to this couple. They were talking to this very tall man. He left, and then came back a few minutes later with a guitar strap made out of duct tape.
Of course my natural social butterfly instincts came out and I had to ask. Turns out that the couple is really active on "the forums," the really tall guy was Mary Jo's husband, and the guitar strap was fashioned by Joel and used by J. Elvis.
Huh. So tonight I did a google search for "mst3k forums" and here I am!
The show was great. I loved the spit-take that Joel did when the girls started getting naked... again... Seriously a lot of that movie seemed to be "how can we get these girls into a situation where they would want to get naked?" And I also loved Frank chiding us over taking too long to get a really bad pun that Trace said.
Got my MST3K Episode Guide book signed by all of them, and got a shirt! And my girlfriend told them all to have a very Swayze Christmas, which I'm not totally positive that they got, but whatever, it's the thought that counts!
Well, hi there! I'm the female half of the couple that you were standing next to. Glad to see you could join us. Be sure to introduce yourself properly in the aptly named
Introduce Yourself/Explain Your Name.
The story of the guitar strap made of duct tape will be told in full in this thread, just as soon as I get around to doing it justice.
D'OH! Now that I went back and read the whole thread, I see RAD beat me to it. Well, my version will be much longer and full of run-on sentences.
In fact, why don't I just get on with it?
On stage during the warm-up Friday night, Josh explained that his own guitar strap had broken, so Joel had made him a new one out of duct tape. He said, as noted above, that "Joel's still got it," and that they were going to call it "Strap-bot." During the warm-up, though, Strap-bot promptly broke. Josh, being the pro he is, calmly put his leg up on a handy amp and held his bass up that way for the rest of the set.
(I don't know what he did during the 10:30 show that night. Did Joel or someone fix Strap-bot?)
Anyhow, as we drove home, my husband said that we should buy Josh a new strap. He said he knew what a nuisance it was to have to play without a strap, especially on a bass guitar. (My husband was quite musical in his youth; he was actually more of a singer, but he still has the electric guitar he bought himself back in the '70s.) I agreed with him instantly, but in my ignorance of all things musical wondered if we could just buy a strap without knowing make and model, so to speak. He said, oh yeah, they're one size fits all.
We talked about it some more the next morning and it still seemed like a good idea. You know, with Josh being busy with the show and who knows what else he had to do during the day, and not really being from around here, so maybe not knowing just where to buy a new strap.... Anyway, it seemed like something that might be actually useful. And, as fans, we'd like to do something to give back, for a change.
So my dear wonderful husband managed to run out during the day Saturday and find one that he thought would look good. (He also found a nice new one for himself.
) It had a design of black and white concentric circles. I put it in a little gift bag. That seemed a wiser course than wrapping it. The Lakeshore staff examined purses and such the night before; a gift bag is easier checked without damage.
As it turned out, there was no problem. They checked my purse to be sure I hadn't smuggled in any snacks. Although I did bring a Toblerone Dark bar for Mary Jo. (I've wanted to give her a Toblerone for a long time.) Plus a snowflake ornament I crocheted, but I'm kinda embarrassed about that.
As we waited in line, we saw RAD and Mary Jo in the lobby as we had the night before. Funny, I can't remember us actually giving them the bag. I think my husband did. Mary Jo was very gracious and kind, I know that. And this is the kind of terrific guy RAD is--he recognized me
and remembered my husband's name just from my mentioning it the night before.
Mary Jo went on into the theater, and RAD took the bag to give to Josh. After they left, I had to laugh because my knees were trembling.
After a bit, RAD came back. He had old Strap-bot in his hand. He gave it to my husband, saying that Josh was very pleased and wanted us to have the old one. Josh had even signed it with his thanks!
We were just flabbergasted. Somehow I had figured that surely he'd gotten 5 or 6 other straps already! And to give us the old strap, and sign it (whosever idea that actually was, ahem)--that was just awesomely thoughtful. And RAD made sure to ask our names. When we got into the theater, we were flabbergasted again when we saw that Josh had already put the new strap on his guitar. To top it all off, Josh gave us a shout-out by name from the stage. (He got my real name slightly wrong, but that's OK, it's a common mistake.)
Basically, that totally made my husband's night, and day, and so on. He says that he's still in "I can't believe it!" mode.
Sorry, collectors, but Strap-bot is never going on eBay.
Let me say here, thank you, Josh, and Mary Jo and all the Titans, and RAD.
You
So
Rock.