Five Times August Versus the Sci-fi Club

Ladies, unless you're at the Record Bar at this moment, you may end up kicking yourselves.

Brad Skistimas of Five Times August did an in-store at a Borders in Overland Park earlier tonight. Nine women and three men showed up. It was a shockingly pitiful turnout for a guy who has over 30,000 MySpace plays during the past 22 hours. The rising star looks a little bit like Owen Wilson and sounds a lot like John Mayer.

As the singer-songwriter began playing in the store's coffeeshop, members of a science fiction club- a group that outnumbered Brad's fans- fled to the literature section. He never quite recovered from the snub. There were both technical problems and intimacy issues. Teenage fans were too awed to properly interact with the artist. Conversely, he had to deal with wisecracks from the men.

It's not really speculative fiction to imagine an alternative history in which hundreds of Five Times August fans will claim to have attended.