A Higher Glyphic

It was an intimate setting Friday night at Shryock Auditorium as Art Alexakis, lead singer of Everclear sat alone onstage with a 12-string acoustic guitar and a wealth of stories from his life.

The event, put on by the Student Planning Committee, could best be described as a concert-lecture hybrid. Alexakis, with his blonde mullet, which he would later explain was being grown for a part he is playing in an upcoming movie, never lost the crowd's attention.

The first song Alexakis played was "Song from an American Movie." Alexakis said he wrote the song for his daughter.

Alexakis has been playing music for most of his life. "I started playing in bands when I was like 15," Alexakis said, "I turned 45 yesterday." Alexakis grew up in a black neighborhood. He said African music was a big deal for him.

Alexakis spent most of his time Friday night at Shryock sharing personal stories about relationships with members of his family.

"My mom pushes my buttons big time, especially when she talks about George W. Bush and how great he is," Alexakis said, "Now we have learned not to talk about things like politics, religion, my hair."

Alexakis also shared with the audience some of his experiences as a single dad. "My daughter is in love with Johnny Depp," Alexakis said, "That's cool because I'm pretty sure he's not going to come to my house and get her pregnant."

Alexakis was very open with the audience. He told the crowd that he asked his girlfriend to marry him yesterday, and that she said yes. "For me it's a good thing," Alexakis said, "For her it's questionable."

Alexakis forgot the lyrics to "Father of Mine," and said to the audience, "I've played that song like five thousand times." Later in the evening, after hearing a baby in the audience, Alexakis stopped mid sentence and said, "In fact, I haven't told anyone yet, but I'm going to be a dad." "My girlfriend is having a baby."

Alexakis read a small excerpt from his book in the works titled "My Sexual Life." He told the crowd that women have a finite number of sex cells, or eggs, but men are like "Johnny Appleseed," which he listed as part of the reason men have a hard time being faithful.

As the evening came to a close, and Alexakis's assistant told him that he needed to be going, he refused and requested more time so that he could answer questions from the audience.

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