Night 2 (700+ songs in)

May 4th, 2007
  1. Marilyn Manson, Cyclops (Portrait of an American Family)
  2. Minor Threat, Betray (Minor Threat: Complete Discography)
  3. Pink Floyd, Julia Dream (Relics)
  4. Peter, Paul, and Mary; Puff the Magic Dragon (Moving)
  5. The Cure, Club America (Wild Mood Swings)
  6. The Who, Happy Jack (20th Century Master: The Who)
  7. The Cure, alt.end (Ultra Music Festival, May 2007)
  8. Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, Jimmy the Squid (Great Old Ones)
  9. Clearlake, Treat yourself with Kindness (Cedars)
  10. Ruth Laredo, Rachmaninov: Movement Musical in B Flat Minor, Op 16/1 (Rachmaninov: The Complete Works, Vol.1)

The first random 10.

May 3rd, 2007

I am of course waiting for it to explode in my ears or catch fire or whatnot, but I finally gave in. Stupid new music technology. Horribly cute little practical thing. I own an iPod. R. would be so displeased. So far all I can manage to hate are the default headphones. Dammit.

And, of course, this requires that I post the virginal top ten. Mind you, I haven’t got everything in there yet (not a single bit of rap or any Manson, nor have I hit hard the soundtracks rack), but here’s what showed up on the first random shuffle after the first night of dumping songs into iTunes.

  1. AFI, Fall Children (All Hallow’s EP)
  2. Depeche Mode, The Love Thieves (La Femme Nikita soundtrack)
  3. The Cure, 100 years (live from Ultra Music Festival)
  4. The Cure, Want (Wild Mood Swings) - why did I know this would be here?
  5. David Bowie, I’m Afraid of Americans (Best of Bowie)
  6. Pink Floyd, One Slip (A Momentary Lapse of Reason)
  7. AFI, The Missing Frame (Decemberunderground)
  8. Depeche Mode, Sweetest Perfection, (Violator)
  9. AFI, Totalimmortal (All Hallows EP)
  10. The Cure, The Upstairs Room (Japanese Whispers)

The next twenty:

Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd, AFI, The Cure, The Doors, The Cure, The Cure, The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Smashing Pumpkins, Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, The Cure, AFI, The Cure, AFI, AFI, The Cure, The Cure, The Cure, Afro Celt Sound System.

Hmmm, guess which bands I put in first?

I exist only in other worlds.

May 1st, 2007

My, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve made a new post. Almost a month gone by–particularly long for me. What in the hell have I been up to? Truth be told, nothing much. Work for work. Some play. Some work at the house. And an awful, awful lot of gaming.

I’ve had gaming on the brain lately. Between the game I’m GMing, a game going on, and the gaming I’ve found elsewhere… it’s all about some gaming. The cause, mostly, is that I’ve been immersed in an exhaustive study of one Second Life, a hopped-up entirely-open version of The Sims. It started as examination for work, and quickly became a fun curiousity with interesting enough people and places to hang out… and then I found the rpgs.
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I can’t believe people pay them to do this.

April 8th, 2007

What does it say, really, when Geraldo is the sane one?


Guitar repertoire and 300

April 6th, 2007

My highly-limited (and largely partial and/or off-beat, often simply grinding to a halt while tab is consulted) repertoire (and for those not interested, skip straight to a review of 300):

  • Smoke on the water
  • Boys don’t cry (cure)
  • Wish you were here (pink floyd)
  • Belief (john mayer)
  • blue skies (pink floyd)
  • trust (cure)
  • a forest (cure) ok so it’s just a bass line, but whatever, there’s a cool solo
  • also on the docket, but I wouldn’t say it’s music, yet

  • silver and cold (afi)
  • friday i’m in love (cure)
  • And some other random stuff that I’m either too embarassed or unwilling to admit, surely.

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More Cure.

March 28th, 2007
The Cure @ UMF #5

More pictures on flickr. 12 of Robert Smith in total. They were taken with no flash–even after dark. Some have been processed a bit, and some were pushing the limits of the digital zoom, but there were at least a dozen salvageable with technology. And, damn, we were /that/ close. It still floors me that that was where I was standing. I think at the time I was largely in shock.

But, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Robert’s always seemed to like playing the summer festivals in Europe. They haven’t properly toured all over the world in ages. Perhaps he’ll find a few festivals here he enjoys, and play at those, and a smattering of ones in and around the UK… indefinately. I could live with that I think. I mean, the big venue headliner shows are fantastic… but the intimate festival stage… was something else entirely.

P.S. My mom, upon seeing these photos, commented only that, “The guy needs a hair cut badly, it may need washing too!!!” The three exclamation points are totally hers. And don’t feel bad, Robert. She’s said much worse things on the subject of hair. Trust me.

The Cure for the wintertime blues.

March 25th, 2007

My beloved friend J. and I headed off to warmer climes for a few days. Neither of us is particularly fond of anything South of where we live, but there was this one thing in Florida that could have easily driven us there, regardless of the sweltering springtime heat. And that would be Robert Smith.

The Cure, in an odd turn of events, played the Ultra Music Festival. Which is a sort-of-smallish 2-day concert event associated with a electronic music conference in Miami.

How smallish? I took this video, about four or five people away from the edge of the stage. The stage where Robert Smith was standing. No huge ampitheater, no grassy knoll. Just a small concert stage in a big flat field. We stood a matter of feet from the blessed man himself.


About 30 seconds of a jazzed-up Let’s go to bed. See Robert shaking it!

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24: season 6, hour 13

March 12th, 2007

Ah, the return of some familiar faces tonight… and the appearance of some, erm, new ones. God, I hope Schroeder lasts approximately as long as Darlene did. Remember Darlene? Three episodes and blown up in a bomb? Sigh. The good old days…

  1. Aaaand, the Vice President is a crooked and evil bad guy. Man, whereever could 24 have gotten that idea?
  2. I think Little Ricky has some anger management problems.
  3. Oh, it’s so nice to see the First Lady of Crazy (v.2) Logan again. And even nicer to see her trusty sidekick, Aaron the Super Secret Service Agent Man. I love Aaron.
  4. OMG, the VP has totally lost his mind. Wait, I don’t think he ever had his mind on this matter…
  5. First Lady of Crazy Logan is totally gonna lose it and stab him in the eye. That shot of the knife was just too lingering.
  6. Oooh, not the eye. But the shoulder. Good one, Mrs. Logan!
  7. And Ricky is playing little soldier. Awww.
  8. I’m totally afraid of the guy from the Russian consulate. His nose frightens me. However, he is now officially a bad guy. So saith the Russian president–because his wife told him so? Interesting.
  9. Aaaand, Section One style onslaught.
  10. Has Jack been shot (again)? And VEex-P Logan, on the way out…

Next week on 24? Night vision model rocketry for everyone!

Lifetime vamp

March 12th, 2007

The channel generally for ladies (and fans of really terrible movies staring Delta Burke or a young Kirstin Dunst) has a new self-made series. Blood Ties comes on on Sunday nights, and is aimed squarely at the Buffy/Passions fandom. With the softcore porn of the best bodice-ripper. And the cheezy goth overtones of… I don’t know. Something goth and cheesy.

And, man, I haven’t seen schlocky writing like this since Forever Knight.

“You love it don’t you, the night–all… this?”

“It’s what I am, what I have been for a long time…”

She has a degenerative disease that will make her blind over time and is an ex-cop (with a cop ex-, both lover and partner it looks like) turned PI. With a really nerdy little goth assistant. (Girl was wearing a purple corset in the first episode, ok?)

He has sensitive high cheekbones and long curly hair that is frequently blowing in the wind. He also is a royal descendant of kings, 500 years old with an ex-lover/sire who still roams the earth like a really bitchy Cain.

He saves her, then she saves him by becoming a snack. Now they’re going to work together to solve supernatural crimes. Get it, blood ties?

Oi, but the special effects leave a LOT to be desired. I mean, really. Either get more money or go subtle and clever. There is quite a lot that can be done suggestively instead of just plain badly.

Welcome home, there, little lady.

March 8th, 2007

My first guitar. Are you supposed to name them like cars?