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twenty ten
It's time I bit the bullet and accepted that it's over. The Pearl Jam concert has been and gone and now I have NOTHING TO LIVE FOR!! By which I mean, the Pearl Jam concert has been and gone. Next month was supposed to be Rufus Wainwright, but he cancelled. Sadface. On Tuesday I am doing a solo mission to see Camera Obscura. The month after is the Pixies. No Faith No More because those DOUCHEBAGS cancelled the Wellington show date... but... I'm not bitter.
I just... don't... know... what to do... with... myself.
So, I'm gonna put up some of the relatively decent photos here and detail the joyous event here. Now, don't say I never update!
In other news... um... yeah, I got nothing.
two thousand and nine
22 November
Holy shit son. Pearl Jam is so close I can taste it. It tastes like victory. And strawberries.
Since Sunday is technically the first day of the week I COULD say Pearl Jam is this week, but out of respect for the weirdos who insist the week begins on Monday I'll wait til tomorrow morning (or tonight at midnight since I'll probably be up watching the Sydney setlist).
I've been keeping busy doing incredibly nerdy things. For those of you reading who may not be aware - Black - by Pearl Jam, is my all time favourite song. I'm talking... since I was 14 favourite song. I'm talking... if you turn this song off before it's finished I will hunt you and kill you favourite song. The one and only time that I have seen Pearl Jam ... they didn't play Black. But they did play it the next show. Only problem there was I wasn't THERE at the next show.
I'm only going to Auckland's show because I hate flying and it's mum's birthday on Sunday when they play in Christchurch. Next time I will go to more. Next time I WILL GO TO MORE. So I really desperately want to hear Black. Infact if you look at the "ratpony" entry for this song it clearly states that it's life goal #37. It's probably life goal #1 right now. And I can prove it.
First thing I did was write a letter. A good old fashioned letter. I figured since the Ten Club website doesn't have any email addresses to write to the guys they might appreciate a letter. A letter. I'm 29 and I wrote fan mail. But it gets worse. It gets much much worse.
With the assistance of my good friend and concert going buddies Susan and Duncan, I created the "PLEASE PLAY BLACK IN AUCKLAND" project. Feast your eyes on the madness kids.
Mr Snuggleton exists and is currently staring at me from my desk. He, along with copies of all of the pictures, is going to attempt to make the courageous leap from my hands to the stage. Keep your fingers crossed.
And now the main goal is to get front row so that this monstrosity can be seen by the band.
24 October
OK! Freshly finished painting - she might look familiar, but rest assured, she has always been well loved (uh.. by me?... er... but not in THAT way...)
Buy my painting!
18 October
Hello!
I realised I haven't updated and you all must have been so worried! Or, I should justify the upcoming bill for the webhosting and domain name. And Amy from Pretty Pretty Pretty said she sometimes checks to see if I've put up new artwork and I realised that I haven't put up the... 3rd painting I've done this year (what? It's ONLY OCTOBER)...
So, on that note...
The Te Apiti Windfarm. For my cousin. Sure it was for a 30th birthday present. Sure that birthday was in January. Sure I was 9 months late on it, but you know what? Who are you to judge me? Eh? But if you want to judge me with your money I'm going to put a painting on TradeMe as soon as I finish it and if I don't make like, a million bucks off it then I'll be able to say to all the people who suggest I sell shit on TradeMe "Oh yeah? Well, no one bid when I did try". Okay, it's only a small painting. I'll settle for a cool 100K.
Pearl Jam is just around the corner. What are they doing round there? Eddie! Come inside, it's cold out there! But really, it's just over a month away and I'm dribbley with excitement. Backspacer is CHOICE. All 37 minutes of tough sexy bitchness.
Since I last updated I have seen TWO bouts of Roller Derby - and Roller Derby is my new favourite thing to get excited about, except the Wrestling, which is also very exciting.
So first up, the WRASSLIN!!!!! (click the pic for more photos)
They've filmed a show for Prime to be screened in December - we were lucky enough to hear about it via the lovely Kat'n'Kane (pictured above... well, Kane, not Kat... that's a Klown. Wait, that's not Kane, that's LAZARUS VOLT!!) and went along to one of the shows. SO MUCH FUN! I screamed myself hoarse and ended up covered in glitter.
And on the other side of the "Whacky and weird sporting events", there's the Richter City Roller Derby which is so insanely fucking awesome I can't believe you haven't come with us!!! (CLICK!)
That album is made up of 3 separate bouts, but don't worry. There's another one coming up on the 7th of November at the TSB arena, so you can come along. Look at the cool signs. They're so cool.
I've also been lucky enough to see Fur Patrol twice in the past week - an acoustic set at Matterhorn (lovely sound, bad for seeing) and a plugged in set at Mighty Mighty (you could see the band, but the sound wasn't so great). My photos were awwwwful, but you can't blame my super sexy new camera. So the problem must be... the nazis.
They wooed the crowd as per usual, and blew my friends mind with a stonkering version of "Someone You Really Want" at Mighty Mighty. My mind was blown by "Veil" being played beautifully at Matterhorn. Everybody wins.
17 August
Nothing much happening here. Nothing interesting or exciting to report on. Going to see a concert in November. Pearl Jam or something. Yeah. It'll be okay, I guess.
Yeah.
I'm only weeing in delight at the very thought of it. I was on a week's leave (not last week, the week before) when it was announced and then the fanclub tickets went on sale while I was at home and able to sit around hitting f5 obsessively. A hit f5 obsessively I did and secured 2 glorious tickets to the area of the Mt Smart stadium that didn't seem to be on sale anywhere else - aka the fucking FRONT. Jesus. So awesome.
So, I'm super crazy excited about that. You realise it's been 11.5 years since they last came to NZ - I resent all the retarded press saying "After 3 years..." NO fuckholes, it hasn't been 3 years. Unless you're writing those press things from the past and you're actually sitting around in purple armchairs in Starbucks in 2001. Tell me not to apply for those waste-of-time Uni papers eh?
My week off was magically awesome. First decent dose of nice weather in ages. Saw the Hangover (it was funny enough), went to Petone to visit Martha, eat brunch and shop at Wanda Harland where I bought my most favourite mirror ever...
Yes. That's NZ you see there. Plus a Babylicious tshirt and a Dishy teddy bear for my niece. LOOK AT THAT FRICKIN THING!!!. Want. Fun times.
On the Thursday Jo and I visited the zoo. THE ZOO! I haven't been there since my slice of Vegetarian Canadian Bacon was in Wellington and I took her to see the entirely absent kiwis. This time we got to see Tahi, the one legged Kiwi. He was ace. It was apparently too hot for the jerk ass Chimps... and no big cats, but the otters and the meerkats more than made up for them. Go on, treat yourself.
So right now I'm listening to nothing but the glorious warm crunchy tones of Pearl Jam and squeeing to anyone who will listen (and sometimes to those who won't...).
29 June
I'm so full of misguided rage right now - what with it being a cold and rainy Monday morning (rainy days and Mondays ALWAYS get me down) - that I was rage-spired to write something. Before going to work. In the rain. On a Monday.
Okay. What has boiled my crazy potatoes this morning is the remake of Footloose. What the fuck young people? Renting a DVD is too difficult? I own it, you can borrow it.
Why does Footloose need to be remade? What? Kevin Bacon isn't a good enough actor/dancer/imaginary sax player for you? Jon Lithgow isn't a good enough repressed preacher? Chris Penn isn't dashing enough in his overalls? Sarah Jessica Parker isn't good enough as the family pony? WHAT?? WHAT!? You think you can do better?? REALLY???
And what next? Is nothing sacred? So help me GOD if you little bastards try to remake 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink or the Breakfast Club! Or, heaven forbid, Say Anything... The very idea of it fills me with so much anger that I want to punch Miley Cyrus in the gums.
For a start he'd get a sexier name... not Lloyd Dobbler. His name would be something like ... Chaz... Bono. And he won't be poor and sweaty all the time. He'll be upper-middle class (like those Walsh Twins) and freshly laundered. Diane's pants won't be those sensible high waisted jeans. Diane's dad won't be the dad from Frasier. Everything will be sexier! And as for "In Your Eyes" - forget about it. For a start, he won't have a boom box. He'll have... what? An iPod? How loud can you crank those things before the headphones blow out? And it won't be Peter Gabriel's sweet sultry tones - it'll be... um... Evanescence or whatever the devil it is that the kids listen to these days. Do they still listen to them? That's about the time I stopped paying attention. Do kids still ride bikes? Eh. I don't give a shit what the kids are listening to these days. You hear that kids? Your music sucks and your opinions don't matter to me.
I gave her my heart and she gave me a... do they still use pens? Blackberry? iPhone? Seems like a pretty good deal - heart for iPhone. I gave her my heart and she gave me a text message?
What's with all these uber famous teenagers? In my day teen heart throbs were in their 30s, the way they should be. Not ACTUAL teens. That just breeds hideously precocious children. The only way a child should be famous is if they actually put in a stellar performance in something real - that Dakota Fanning kid - she can be seen stumbling out of night clubs drunk because she's EARNED it. Demi Lovato? We already have one Demi sleeping with Ashton Kutcher. ISN'T THAT ENOUGH??? Stupid Miley Cyrus. Ugh. Everything sucks.
Well kids, you can't have it both ways. You can't encourage the Jonas Brothers and still have Johnny Depp. No. He's ours. We're taking him and we're moving to the South of France!
24 June
I had a strange dream last night. First - for some reason I was dreaming about being in a supermarket carpark and all these boyracers are flitting about like the little fairies that they are. One of them crashes and it somehow has a dominoes effect on cars nowhere near him and my car ends up with it's front smashed in. I'm jumping up and down going FUCK FUCK FUCK and then the car is all of a sudden at Willowbank in Tawa and my cousin is there. She tries moving the car but Willowbank develops a steep hill and the brakes fail and the car zooms backwards towards a cliff (at Willowbank?) and she gets out by doing some super impressive gymnastics dismount. We watch the car drop off the cliff and then I'm all "Oh no! My bag and Metallica tickets!" and leap down after it (the cliff is now a gentle slope with some rocky steps). I rescue my bag and my ipod is fine (okay...) but the Metallica tickets are gone! So I say to James Hetfield, who has just arrived "Oh noes James, guess what?" and he doesn't care and I'm a little gutted. Then I have this wand and I'm whacking people on the head to turn them into angels which they all do except one who has a demon in him. So I whack harder and his hair turns white and I think, sweet, he's an angel. Then one eyebrow turns red and Satan himself has come to sort me out for messing with his people. But Satan was an emoticon that looked like this: >:(
And for some reason this woke me up and I was really scared and for about 3 minutes thought Satan was in my room. All emoticonny.
The moral of the story is, don't play Guitar Hero: Metallica before going to bed. Wands and Willowbank were both a feature in my life in the past week. Don't you love it when people talk about their boring dreams? Me too. But I just wanted to name drop James Hetfield. Is it wrong that I find him kinda hot? Oh, see, eww, that even grosses ME out and I said it.
Hlah has been postponed. Sigh.
28 May
I have a cold, so buckle in for some whining.
I'm sure you waited with baited breath for me to update you on the PC business. Well, wait no more. Dial-a-Nerd refused to refund the money. They don't seem to care that they did a shit job that someone else did in 1/14th the time it took them or that they lost a customer who had used them before. They don't care that they billed me for the diagnosis of the dead motherboard twice. They didn't even check the Ex-HDD to see if they'd recovered and HIT SAVE? I dunno. They didn't do what they were paid for so I essentially paid them $130 to keep my PC for 2 weeks and do sweet fuck all that was helpful.
Nothing I can do apparently. I could take them to the small claims tribunal but that costs me money and time so I figure I do the more effective thing and tell everyone who will listen that they're shit and shouldn't be hired. Turns out no one had heard of them or could have told me that themselves. But I like to think their name is mud in my circles and no one will bother hiring them. It's not recommended. Turns out they don't know much about computers.
That was my major grizzle. They pissed me off so bad I went into rant mode and all the poor people within a 2KM radius got an earfull. What really grinds my gears is not SO much the money (though ohhhh maaaaan... bastards) but the fact that they were entirely unapologetic about it. They didn't give a shit that they'd fucked up and essentially said I couldn't prove it with my handy dandy screen shots of the 4GB they recovered vs the 86GB that Bambi recovered in 1/14th the time. They were just like "Ok then" <--direct quote. Fuckers. Have some pride for christs sake. You suck at the thing you're supposed to be experts in. Perhaps work on that a little. And truly explains why they only have ONE testimonial on their website (which also doesn't work properly... the signs were all there... I'm a schmuck). Maybe they should put up a testimonial that I could write for them? No? They evidently don't get much positive feedback. Or a working website. Awesome.
I spent Monday evening after work in the rain and wind stacking 1/2 a cord of firewood allll byyyy myyyyyseeeee-eeee-eeelf. And let me tell you - it's not fun. And now our house looks like it's been under attack by a mud-flinging monster or sassy teen. But I'm infused with snot and don't much fancy the idea of sweeping or sponging down a house just now.
Boring isn't it?
I also have a bit of headache and can't decide between staying in bed or lighting the fire (mmm wet wood just doesn't make with the warmth) and watching TV. Someone make some decisions for me?
OH! OH! HEAD LIKE A HOLE! Did I mention how gutted I was to miss HLAH at Homegrown? Well suh, they are touring and not one hour ago I secured tickets for myself and Joanna. So... uh.... yay?
17 May
Sooooooo, that was fun. Unexplained absence in the form of horrific family woes, car crash and PC death. I'm writing to you on my brand new red shiny Dell. I named him "Red Stallion". And I'm gonna riiiide, I'm gonna riiiide... ride like the one eyed Jack of Diamonds with the devil close behind....
I'm currently listening to the 6 albums I have ripped to the Stallion. As a result I'm finally listening to White Chalk, It's Blitz! and Conor Oberst's solo effort - which I give two very enthusiastic thumbs up to. But oh my GOD I am jonesing so bad for the rest of my music which thankfully will be with me courtesy of a lovely young gent and his ability to rescue data from a hard drive where a company professing to BE IT professionals failed miserably. Depending on how they respond to this fact (i.e. will I get my 130 dollars or at least part of it back??) will determine how I will arrange their Karma Points.
Upside of all the shittiness over the past month? Well - I did get to see my cousin's gorgeous baby who I'm SO NOT SCARED OF. It's weird. On Friday a chick at work brought her new baby in and I didn't avoid eye contact and pretend to be busy. I must be growing up.
I've really got nothing to say. I just thought that since I have this glorious red beast now, I should update this thing. Um. So. Yeah. Family woes not so bad now - everything's okay. Car crash car is now fixed and back in its garage. And dead PC - eh, we'll see. I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!
21 March
Last weekend we went to Homegrown. Considering I took at least one genuinely awesome photo I thought I should mention it here.
We started the day with a trip to the supermarket and a massive pre-HG bbq. Oh it was glorious. Even if I am fairly useless when left in charge of the grill. And I had to beg Dee to cut up the melon for me out of fear of mangling it.
We had some drinks (raspberry vodka for the win!) and played some SingStar much to the horror of the hungover man sleeping at the end of the hallway. And much to our delight, because drunk SingStar? Awesome. Drunk SingStar before going to see loads of awesome bands play on the waterfront? Awesomer.
We arrived at about 3.30 just in time to see Fur Patrol setting up on the Indie stage (where I would have happily remained for the rest of the night but for Supergroove playing in the TSB Arena). The Furs drew a respectable sized crowd of happy go-getters. Mainly songs from Local Kid and an absence of Beautiful. I think that meant she didn't think we WERE beautiful. Sigh.
Next up were the Checks. The Checks are the band that REM requested be their (and Bright Eyes') opening act who we skillfully managed to miss both times despite intending to catch both sets. They drew a massive and excited crowd and really knew how to work the crowd. I didn't much care for the music, but it was entertaining enough. I was hanging out for Dimmer though so was a little pissed when the dude who was introducing each band asked if we wanted an encore. Not really. They got one. People were calling for an encore when the Furs finished but they didn't get one. Boo. Urns.
Dimmer came on next. I promised my companions that they'd be squirming from the sexual energy oozing out of his guitar. Unfortunately this wasn't the case... I think they're a band best served in their own gig, in a smaller setting, with darkness and not so much in the way of drunken teenagers hooning around outside in golf carts. I enjoyed it. And while they didn't pull a big audience, they had the side of the stage chock full of the other musicians. So kudos for pulling the crowd where it counts.
Not far behind Dimmer was the delightful reformation known as Weta.
We took a gamble on which song would be played first (I won based on the rationale that "Let It Go" had appropriate intro music). They played a lot of lesser known by the crowd songs in a chunk which kinda left me a bit restless, but that was blown away when the phenomenal Snapshot was rocked out and the sublime and gorgeous Geographica rolled out. They announced that Homegrown would be their final show together but they'd enjoyed being back together while it lasted (at least I think that's what they said) and Gabe's mum was brought up on stage to help them sing Got the Ju.
Having been told that I would need to hightail it outta there to leave plenty of time to get into the TSB Arena I briefly contemplated staying put for the HLAH set (which I desperately wanted to see as well, but Supergroove were my first love and I had been incessantly bugging Dee singing Can't Get Enough all morning). This didn't happen because A) Weta had started early and had finished early so I had 30 minutes before Supergroove were due on, B) Dee was not going to miss Supergroove and was leaving the bands she also wanted to see to go into the TSB Arena and C) A man who I thought was Booga Beazley got up on the stage after Weta with a cane and arm in a sling and a puffy face... I thought, my god, that would be too depressing and off I went where they were NO line to get into the TSB Arena. FYI, turns out that wasn't Booga and HLAH went off like a rocket. Sigh.
In the Arena was the stale smell of sweat and mullet styling gel as the utterly forgettable Blindspott finished their set. The shiny happy Supergroove fans trickled in and we found ourselves a nice close spot to the left of the stage.
We giggled and bounced up and down and shrieked in delight when they FINALLY came on stage and cranked into Next Time. The crowd were outta their heads. They played all the songs you'd expect (except If I Had My Way, which I quite like) plus a surprising and awesome Fade Away, from Che's solo catalogue. Karl Steven essentially hasn't changed since their hey day, except for his evil French Villain moustache. Che was as charming and melodic as ever. Oh. Sitting Inside My Head. Really? Could you BE a greater song? I think not. We screamed along to Can't Get Enough and You Gotta Know, before they asked us if we loved NZ music. Yes. Yes we do. They asked us to warmly welcome Elemeno P onto the stage. Ugh. Over my dead body. Alas, they came on ANYWAY and stunk up the joint but thankfully we weren't subjected to the horrors of their own awful music as they merely blended into the background. They didn't add anything but were not a spectacle enough to detract from You Freak Me (complete with the single coolest psyche up I've seen in the form of Che readying himself for his rap/scream part) and the final song Scorpio Girls. Blew off the roof pretty much. And an awesome way to end a day celebrating some of the great music our fine country has to offer.
2 February
Good afternoon. I'm updating to share with you what I worked on last night that ended up resulted in a headache, no sleep and a very cranky day at work...
Click it for the larger image.
Squeee!
25 January
Helloooooo! Happy new year and all that. I figured it was about time to update again seeing as how not only did the Green Party not get as many votes as they should have (probably due to their crude graphics), in the interim we have lost a cool leader just in time to see America gain PRETTY MUCH the coolest President ever. His wallet says BAD MOTHERFUCKER on it. For real.
And one by one, NZers scratched their heads and sighed longingly. Like orphans outside a toy shop when all those other kids with families are sitting next to the warm fire (why are they all in the toy shop? Why does the toy shop have a fire? what kind of weird ass toy shop is this? I dunno...). NZers have their little cold noses pressed up against the glass, frozen fingers squeaking down the window. Sigh. But it's ok. John Key doesn't have as much power as George Bush did so a win for Obama was a win for all of us. Really.
Yeah, I'm a fan. I watched a disgusting amount of CNN on Wednesday (that's Tuesday in America for those of you playing overseas), but thankfully missed Aretha Franklin trussed up like a dolly bird, warbling like an American Idol. Or whatever. I have no problem with Aretha. Cat Power likes her right?
I haven't done anything creative for a while. I blame my newly discovered ability to record from cassette tape to MP3. Yes! I finally learned how to do it just in time to discover I've lost the very recording I wanted to preserve (Luke Buda on Radioactive from 2006). See, I blame this because it brought my stereo into my bedroom which meant I couldn't put music on which also saw cleaning and folding laundry take a slide. But it's back now and I feel much better for it being there and accessible and iPod friendly. What the hell am I talking about?
I just realised the vaguely meaty smell in my room is the leftover chicken mum put in my bag. And I just finished re-reading Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (uh, her mum puts scotch fillet in her bag and she doesn't realise and the cops get called because the neighbours report a rotting flesh smell...)
And on that cheery note!