Smooth operator

Well, there hasn't been a lot to report on the band front lately, because we've mostly been doing private gigs, and now we're slowing down for the holidays, but there is one super important thing that's happened this past week: the annual Johnny Goatee Shave.

Take a second to catch your breath.

You see, every October, Johnny grows a goatee. He also lets his hair grow, and he often builds his Halloween costume around his excess hair. This year he was Thor, and I was Thor's MC Hammer (can't touch this!). I'd share a picture, but I don't like the only one I have, and since I control this blog, I get to avoid posting unflattering photos of myself. It was something like this, though:

In fact, when we first met, at a Halloween party, Johnny was sporting the goatee. He also gave me a stage name as his actual name, but that's another post for another day. That year he was Don Juanathan, and he basically just dressed as himself with a mask. It obviously worked, though, seeing as we are now married.

Once November arrives, the hair goes, and he returns to the clean-shaven Swede we all know and love the other 11 months of the year. Some people think he should grow his goatee/mustache in November, for the Movember movement (men grow their facial hair in the month of November to bring attention to  men's health issues).

But if you know Johnny at all, you know that he's not going to let the world tell him when to grow or not grow his hair. In fact, if you harass him to do something, you pretty much make it impossible for him to do that thing. So, just save your comments about Movember. Johnny grows his facial hair in OCTOBER.

That said, it is now November, which means the great shave has occurred. Here is the before:

Not bad. I'd go out with that guy. And here's the after:

What?! Who is that young man? Hey good lookin'. Want some candy?

Well, hello there.

So, there ya have it. November and a clean shave.

As I said, we will be slowing things down on the performing front through the end of the year, partly for the holidays, but also because we are working on new material that we plan to start recording in the new year. Stay tuned for more on that!

We will have one more public gig before the end of the year, though. On Saturday, December 7, we'll be playing the Galveston Pleasure Pier from 4-8pm. That's "Dickens on the Strand" weekend in Galveston, so if you're in the area, come on down to the coast and kick off your holiday season with some Victorian fun and The Staylyns on the pier. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to buy meat on a stick somewhere.