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Archive for October, 2004

Happy Birthday Chris Carter, happy birthday to yooouuu…

Wednesday, October 13th, 2004

Today Chris Carter is 48. Whoo hoo! I think I will ahve to celebrate.
Or I could celebrate because today I have been married for three long years.
And no, our choice of date had nothing to do with Chris Carter and The X-Files…nothing at all. What do you take us for, geeks??

OH yeah, I almost forgot…

Monday, October 11th, 2004

that I HATE THE QUEST!
The layout sucks. The sightlines are terrible, and unless you are in the front layer of people, you can gorget actually seeing anything.
Apparently whoever bought the sound system forgot what size the space was. I don’t mind loud. Heck, I like loud. But, I dislike the sound sytem working against the acoustics of the building to provide a distorted mess.
The incompetent staff. Every time we have been there, you ask them a simple question, and no one seems to know anything that is going on. Someone beats on a “security guard” or “bouncer” and why would they kick them out? After all everyone loves a good drunken menace.
I could go on and on. However, when I heard that Ministry was going to be there with Thrill Kill Kult I apparently went temporarily insane. I had never seen Ministry. I figured, how bad could The Quest be? It would be worth it to see MINISTRY. Just thinking about Ministry got me pumped. However, the moment we walked in to the club, I remembered. The bands were fine. The sound system sucked. There were several belligerent drunks causing problems. One was beating on the security guard as he was being pulled out. As his girlfriend was trying to help calm him down, he punched her in the chest. She moved away from his sorry ass. We thought he was gone. But, lucky for everyone, he was let back in. I felt so safe. The skanky bathroom was delightful as well. Some of the stalls were out of order, many didn’t close/lock, one of the sinks didn’t work, the hand dryer was less effective than shaking my hands out. If they could get a decent sound system, staff, and DJ, it would be a decent dance club. However, as a concert venue, it bites the big one.
Aside from that, Misitry was good. I got to hear NWO live, which was cool. However, the venue sucked to the point, that I will never go back. The possible exceptions being Trent Reznor or Billy Corgan. Again, I said possible exceptions. Skinny Puppy is coming, and I would love to see them, all newly reunited and all, but it is not worth dealing with the Quest. In fact on the way out, I was proclaiming my disgust, and some guy asked me why I hated the quest so much. I started rattling of a list of reasons, and he asked me if I was from the cities. I said that I live here now. He asked me to give him the name of a better venue. I said First Ave. He immediately agreed.
seriously, every show I have seen there has been awesome. Patti Smith, Blur, Garbage…I could go on. The space provides plenty of viewing options. Coat check is cheap, which is necessary with the winter in these parts, the drinks are strong, the sound system actually makes the music intelligible, if not enjoyable. While the bathrooms are not pristine, at least they function. It has a generally rocking’ vibe. Not to mention the staff. They stop the shit before it starts. I have seen people taken right down, and their asses out the minute they think of starting some shit. In short, the ave rocks.
Oh, and to add insult to injury, the Ministry show was produced by Clear Channel. What was delightful about this was the way that this wasn’t mentioned, until we got our tix, and it was printed on the front. Nice. At least half of our ticket fee was Twix money. So, CC got a little less from us directly. And, since we waited until the show was over to go elsewhere for food and drink, the Quest got as little from us as possible as well.
Gah.

it’s the end of the world as we know it

Monday, October 11th, 2004

and i feel fine….
On October 5th we had the pleasure of seeing REM and Bruce Springsteen. Live.
In short, it rocked.
First was Bright Eyes. We had never heard of them, but we were pleasantly surprised.
Then, REM.
Michael Stipe is in-fricking-credible. From the get go, he was singing and grooving and shimmying. And if you’ve never seen REM, yes, they sound that amazing live. He was sporting a white tuxedo (yes, I said white) and looked incredibly (in a Michael Stipe sort of way) hot. They opened with “the one I love.” I wanted to groove my little heart out, but since we were in the relaxed section, I didn’t want to block the people behind me…so, I grooved from my seat. The show continued. Neil Young made an appearance. “Man On the Moon” was performed with Bruce Springsteen. It was amazing. The politics was pretty low key. More about every person making a difference than anything else. Unfortunately, the set was only about 75 minutes long.
Now, as for Bruce Springsteen. I really only know the early/mid eighties stuff. Every time I think of him, I think of the episode of Kate and Allie where Kate gets Emma a gift, and it’s a bandana. A used bandana. Emma is totally grossed out, until she finds out that it belonged to Bruce Springsteen, and that the sweat on it is his. (so I remember weird stuff) And of course, who could forget Courtney Cox and Dancing in the Dark? After seeing him live, I feel like I should catch up on his more recent work. He opened with a guitar version of the National Anthem, leading into “Born in the Usa.” It was a pretty incredible performance, only made stronger by his band. I can now also say that I have seen Max Weinberg. Anyway, It was pretty amazing. Even more amazing was the addition of Neil Young and John Fogerty. Michael Stipe joined Bruce for a rendition of “Because the Night.” Incredible. I have now seen both of the original artists perform the song. Both were amazing. The best part of the show was the end, at which point, the entire line up rocked out together. It was really powerful.
The show was over five hours long in total. I really can’t do it justice by writing it out. It was one of those things you really had to be there for. Definitely one of the top concerts I have ever seen. I am hoping that ACT puts out a cd or dvd of the tour. There are some performances I would love to own. There was so much passion and talent there.
Again, it was in-freaking-credible. Worth every penny…and then some.

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP

Monday, October 11th, 2004

Let me back this this up. Seriously, I have stuff to write, and not enough time to do it. So, here I am, catching up on the highlights of the last week.
enjoy.

Damn you, Chuck Palahniuk…

Tuesday, October 5th, 2004

So, backtracking a mere five days….
Chances are you have seen Fight Club.
If you have not, shame on you.
Stop reading.
Watch Fight Club.
I will wait for you.
If you have seen it.
Stop reading this.
Read the book.
Now that you’ve seen, read…you know the curse that is Chuck Palahniuk. He is just gifted. Gifted like crack. You read one of his books, and you want a little more. Just another taste. You start reading his next novel, and you are trying to figure out how to roll over a bookstore to get it all. All of his work. Every free moment…every not free moment, you spend reading more. Trying to figure out how he does it. Where it comes from.
Where he gets his inspiration.
G found out that Mr. Palahniuk was doing a book signing last Thursday.
Most people who know me, know I am also addicted to book signings. If I love an author, I get them to sign my copy.
So, G gets a copy of Diary in anticipation. The day of the signing, I head home from work. My head feels as though there is something living inside of it and trying to crawl out. I wonder if G might have to go alone. However, after changing, and taking my hair out of its scroungy ponytail, I feel better. We go to the theater, we pay our admission, and head into the auditorium, where Mr. Palahniuk is reading from his newest novel. We find seats. We sit. We listen. He is reading about masturbations methods involving carrots, and letter openers, and candle wax. Some of these…well, the latter two, are a bit uncomfortable. We listen, and I look over at G. I wasn’t sure what was happening. My first thought was that he was so enthralled by the reading, that he didn’t realize he was in public.
Then I realized something was wrong. His eyes shouldn’t be rolled back. He shouldn’t be convulsing. He should answer me as I frantically shout his name in a whisper. This was nothing I recognized as the usual diabetic issues. It didn’t look like either high or low blood sugar. I tried asking him what he needed, but nothing. The young man in front of us offered to go get help. After what seemed like an eternity, he came to. I ran (litereally) to the car and got his bag o’ diabetic tricks, and came back to find the theatre management and security around him. we checked his blood sugar. A tidge high, but not high enough to cause a problem. Then manager told us the paramedics were in the lobby. We told her they weren’t necessary. Suddenly, there they were. The reading came to a halt. Hundreds of heads turned. The only thing that came to me was a thumbs up. we’re okay. The paramedics took G to the lobby. They said it was a seizure. Since he has no history of seizures, we needed to find the cause. I noticed the driver of the ambulance has perfectly groomed eyebrows. For a moment, my mind is somewhere ekse.
They recommended a trip to the ER.
I agreed.
G, not so much.
He didn’t want to miss more of the reading.
He wanted to meet Chuck Palahniuk.
After a bit of talking, he was convinced to go to the hospital. G wants me to leave our things to be signed. It seems awfully trivial to me. It is important to him, so I leave them at the counter.
the paramedics try to give me instructions to the hospital. I have no idea where I am. Driving under these conditions could cause a panic attack. They say I can follow them.
While this is going on, another young person in the audience needs medical attention, so it is a bit before the ambulance pulls out to lead me. I am carefully driving behind, trying to choke back tears. I wonder what all of this means. I wonder how this will affect our plans for the weekend, the year, our lifetimes.
The ambulance pulls over.
This can’t be good.
The driver with the perfect eyebrows comes to my car. The hospital we were going to is not accepting patients to the ER. He assures me I can follow him to another hospital.
We get to the hospital, and I park in the on call lot until I know what is happening. I go to the counter to give the necessary check in information. G doesn’t have his insurance card on him. I move the car, then search it to see if it somehow got in the cupholder, the fold of the seat, the glove compartment.
Nope. We will have to call the billing department with the information.
We waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Then waited some more.
Then he got a room.
Where we waited.
And waited.
When we finally got him checked out, it wasn’t a seizure. It was a vasovagal episode. He should be fine. We leave, get him some McD’s, and get home to rest. Finally.
I worked Friday, totally delerious from lack of sleep. I started reading Diary. I was sucked in. Every moment spent reading…trying to solve what the fuck was going on. The story pulling me in. The rhythm, hypnotic.
Now, I’m done, but I need more. I need Lullaby,Choke, Stranger than Fiction. I need to read them. I need more. More.
He had better get writing.