As September rolls around, the “Agricultural Fair” season begins in New England. It’s a good inexpensive way to spend a day, that is, as long as you’re not into going on lots of carnival rides at $3 per ride.

Yesterday, we spent the day at the Woodstock Fair. It cost us $5 to park and $10 each to get in. Not exactly a cheap day, but it’s all about the quality entertainment. And did I mention the entertainment is second to none? That’s right. Second to none.

We saw Jordan Knight — of New Kids on the Block fame. Don’t laugh. I mean, in some ways it’s sad that his career has declined to the point that he’s doing county fairs and things, with the smell of cow poop and swine in the air, but I found him pretty entertaining.

He opened the performance with an upbeat song I’d never heard — probably something new — and then a couple of the slow NKOTB songs. Not exactly my favorite. I mean, being a guy, I didn’t exactly have a NKOTB sleeping bag in the late 80’s so…let’s just say it wasn’t my thing. I knew their hits though, but just because of their overexposure at the time.

The audience, well, there was a crop of late 20’s aged women singing right along and swooning through out but when he got up to the “Right Stuff” and did a snippet of the “New Kid” dance, well, he had the crowd. And only then could you tell he really was a pro and not just some crappy low budget entertainment.

The best part was that he even made fun of himself, saying things like, “This was a big hit with the honeys back in…”, then he’d pause and sheepishly say, “1988.” The women up front would scream like they would have back in 1988.

We sat a bit farther back and had some of the teenage “Paris Hilton” wannabes standing near us. You know, just kinda standing there with their mouths open in that “this is so lame, but I’m so hot” pose.

They obviously didn’t get it, understandably because of their age, but to not be able to foresee that this was just Justin Timberlake up on stage in 10 years — you know, that sort of thing just went over their heads. At that age, I would have figured that out, but then again, at that age, I wasn’t wearing blinders, err, sunglasses that covered my entire head.

And you know what? Going back to their overexposure in the late 80’s, I wasn’t really a fan, but the New Kids were bigger than the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and ‘nSync ever were, even all three combined. For a few years there, you couldn’t go to any department store without a full section dedicated to them. Towels, sheets, curtains, sleeping bags, underpants, toothbrushes, action figures. They even had their own shampoo. Everywhere you went, at all times, at least one pre-teen girl within a 10 foot radius had a NKOTB t-shirt on. Always. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a t-shirt, or a sleeping bag, with, oh, say Lance Bass on it? Have you?

He ended his show with “Hangin’ Tough”, which he called a headbanger from back in the day. Then he corrected himself and said, “Well, maybe it wasn’t a headbanger…” Either way, just listening to this version, if some band had the nards to cover a NKOTB song, I dunno, maybe a band like the Darkness, that one would work with a heavier sound I think.

During the last song, I think he did some of the old school dancing again, as some of the women in the crowd were doing it along with him. He got the crowd to do the “Hangin’ Tough” arm swing thing — my wife stopped me from doing it, almost immediately — but when it was all over, I was glad I’d sat and watched.

This past weekend we spent a few hours over at the storage unit we’re renting for around $140/month.

Earlier this month, I vowed to clear it out this month so as to stop paying for it. It’s really the only sizable monthly expense left that hasn’t been cut.

Well, it became apparent that, this late in the month, it’s not going to happen before the September rent is due. Even an amount like $140 in the wrong direction hurts when you’re trying to pay down the credit card debt like crazy. Grrrr…

We did, however, make *some* progress. Three full contractor bags worth of stuff went to the dump. The storage space is still filled to the ceiling, but that was still quite a step for me.

One of the stranger things I threw out was a box with piles and piles of Columbia House and BMG catalogs from the late eighties and early nineties. Vanilla Ice on the cover of one, Shanice on the cover of another. They were all stacked neatly — like I treasured them. Seriously, why did I hang on to stuff like that? Ridiculous.

Also thrown away were tons of computer programs on the old 5.25inch floppies. Sure, I’d like to go back and play the original Space Quest again, but in the 20 years since I last played it, it hasn’t been enough of a draw to actually do it. And so, into the garbage it went.

One suggestion my wife had, for things that should really be thrown out but still brought back memories, was to bring a camera and take pictures of the items before tossing them into the garbage bag.

I’m not quite there yet — maybe when I go through the boxes a second time to lighten the load even more before bringing it all back home.

Looks like we’ll be paying for another month. Sigh.

So, last night, my wife and I headed over to the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut for a free show by my favorite band of all time, They Might Be Giants.

They did a free show there last year and, while we had to stand in a line for 4 hours, it was good enough to have us head back again this year.

We stood in line for a good two and a half hours this time and had seats almost as good as last. In fact, the nice couple from Providence we shared a table with actually made the seats seem even better than last year.

While standing in line before the show, John Flansburgh (one of the two band members) quickly walked down the line handing out free stickers — and upon reaching me said, “Hey, nice t-shirt!” in regards to the 15 year old concert t-shirt I was wearing from their 1992 tour. I ’sort of’ had a conversation with him. By ’sort of’, I mean I just said “thank you” in response, but like I said, he was moving quickly and I wasn’t about to slow him down.

Anyway, what really stuck me was that *no one* in the line seemed to know who he was!?

Honestly, I’d think that if you’re the type that is willing to stand in line for hours on end to see a band as obscure as TMBG — chances are, you know exactly what John Linnell and John Flansburgh look like. You’d think anyway.

That experience was pretty cool. Not saying it’s one of those moments I’ll never forget in my life, or anything, but it felt pretty good.

Making the night even better, as we were seated, we were each given a signed copy of their newest album, “The Else“, which just came out earlier this month.

This worked out great as I’d not yet purchased the album (that saved me some coin), and the albums were both signed.

I’d always kind of wanted their autographs too, and checked on eBay every now and then for them, but it was never anything I’d consider paying a lot of money for. I’ve just always wanted to collect autographs of the people I liked from my youth. Silly, I know, but now John Linnell and John Flansburgh can join Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and Bill Gates (I think his was done with an auto-pen) in my tiny collection.

The concert wasn’t as good as last year, as it heavily favored the new album full of songs that few people knew. But they played the standards you’d expect like “Istanbul”, “Birdhouse in your Soul”, and “Dr. Worm”. That last one I call a standard, but being an old-timer now, I think of it as a “new” standard.

They threw in a couple of old ones that I’d never seen live before like “Put You Hand inside the Puppet Head” and “Letterbox” and one that I hadn’t heard since the 1992 tour, when I saw them twice, “Twisting in the Wind.” Those three got some of the better crowd response. Or, more accurately, I thought so anyway — it was probably just the 30+ crowd that had actually heard those songs before they were re-issued on compilation albums — or owned them before CD’s even existed.

On the way home, we listened to the new album — not sure it’s a great one, but it’s definitely better than the last few they’ve released.

When I was a teenager, they were one of those bands where I could listen to the entire album through and through over and over again. That lasted for, well, I’d say their first 5-6 albums. Essentially, 1986 through 1994.

After that, for the next 6 albums, well, let’s just say I’ve used the fast forward button from time to time. That said, each album definitely has had at least two songs that would have fit seamlessly into their first group of albums, so they keep me coming back for more.

In the end, had I not bought a $25 t-shirt, the night would have cost $5 total. Two $2 sodas and a $1 tip. Not bad for a concert where you get to sit maybe 15 feet from the band and you get two free signed CD’s which just came out in stores at around a $15 each.

Now that’s a bargain Saturday night!