Well, that went nothing like I had planned

Not long after my last post James was dropped off at the house by a co-worker and informed me that my car was no more. We went out car shopping the same day. The first two cars that we were shown were sold already and were rather boring to look at. Sure, I could drive them, but I was hoping to be a little more excited about the purchase. The one I actually liked I thought would be already sold, or would be too pricey even though we were looking in the bargain bin of the car dealership. As it turned out the car was right in our price range, has rather low miles along with A/C, a killer sound system and nice rims. Now instead of a green Prism I have a blue Pontiac Sunfire. Yesterday I had a little new toy induced ADD and wanted to just drive around. I also bought the True Blood Season 2 DVD, so that was distracting as well.
Today, I will finish the previously mentioned putting my images into my concert review...I kind of want to hit my head on the desk right now because the past week or so has just been ridiculously stupid. I was worried about how the fuck I'd buy a car, or how much money I could throw at the Prism, or where will I be when the Prism decides to die and what the hell will I do with it once it dies. Still trying to figure that last one out, but we were able to come up with a substantial down payment to finance the Sunfire...

Writing and Flooring Binge

My concert pictures are online, and have been for a little while, but they're on my facebook so you have to add me to see them currently. I'm not really thrilled with PhotoBucket right now, and don't have enough space on my free Flikr account for this month.
I've been here and there, but not at all here. My novel project has been distracting me, and when that's not happening I have been helping James finish some floors. Yesterday we did some snap-together laminate planks in our office, exciting, right? We're also ripping out the nasty carpeting upstairs and finishing the original wooden floors on that level. After seeing documents in relation to the house I think we decided that the carpets are possibly 13 years old and left over from the last big remodel someone did, because the carpet tack strips are installed pretty far back and under the trim, and sometimes they're under the drywall. Craftsmanship fail.

Thanks to this pirate quiz I found out that my pirate name is Captain Jenny Cash, it made me think of this...


I'll finish up adding the pictures to Part Three of my birthday weekend post later today, hopefully the flooring-related activities will be kept to a minimum.

Epic Birthday Weekend Part Two: It was only Saturday. Lame!

Saturday was pretty boring, but we got a new used sofa and declared the living room to be decadent because we have two sofas. We’re not quite like Hedonism Bot yet. There was too much activity on this day as well--did some yard work and started the project that involves ripping out the rest of the horrible carpeting in this house and replacing it with hardwood flooring of some type. The former owners of this place must’ve known how much I enjoy pulling staples out of wooden floors with pliers because their preferred method of installing carpet was the staple gun. They stapled the carpet padding to the floor, and then sometimes stapled through the carpet and into the floor. Such a wonderful use of my time.
Sunday is the more interesting day, but I still have editing to do on the pictures.
I will tell you though that “The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of Reverend Horton Heat” CD has been replaced by Wolfgang Parker’s “Room Nineteen" as our travel music, so I suggest you go check him out again.


I’ll have some Midi Ghetto tour stuff online later today.

Epic Birthday Weekend Part One: True Blood=Win, Percussion Ensemble show featuring Chris Coleman

In general I had a good 27th birthday, despite spending a portion of the week rolling around in pain and begging my gall bladder to not require surgery (I think that is my issue, but it has chilled out for now). I got my nipple piercings done again on Thursday, an awesome friend who I briefly dated is giving me a bass guitar and an amp at some point in time, James is paying for my newest tattoo (whenever that happens).
I successfully made it to Friday, which was Percussion Ensemble night, Saturday was a rather lazy day (I called it my pre-pre-partying before Cleveland), Sunday was an adventure to Cleveland for a concert, and Monday was wandering back to the Central Ohio area kind of day.
To kick off my rather epic weekend James repaired the starter in my car. Which may not sound that great, but it had only been halfway working for several months, it was pretty obnoxious. I also found out that True Blood was running a contest on their Facebook page to win passes to some True Blood Ultimate Fan Experience event, so I registered and when Columbus rolled around on their rotating list, I clicked. And I won! Although when it said I was a winner, it also said that I had won tickets for an event in Burbank, California. When the confirmation e-mail hit my inbox it was correct for Columbus, so that was a rather entertaining way to start things out.
Friday night was my sister’s high school percussion ensemble show with guest drummer Chris Coleman who is currently the drummer for Prince. The percussion group usually plays a variety of music including George Hamilton Green Xylophone solos, classical, swing and pop music. Back when I was in High School I only did lighting for the group even though I was in the percussion section, I never auditioned for it because I guess I wanted to do something other than play percussion sometimes.
Chris Coleman’s drum solos were really quite good. He also made “Sing, Sing, Sing” interesting again, and I’ve heard that song performed a lot. His style was warm, dynamic and expressive, which impressed me because, even though I should probably be supportive of drummers in general, there are some times when I think that drum solos only sound like noise and not music. If that makes any sense.
In honor of going back to my high school to watch this performance I will share some random High School stuff.

I used to drive around listening to this at an uncomfortably loud level...and I still do that actually:


When I was 17 I went to see the Bloodhound Gang’s concert in Cincinnati:


I was going to subject you to a poem I wrote in High School, but lucky for you I have almost 1000 photos to sort through from the Chemlab and 16Volt show, and I’m too lazy to find my notebooks.

Check out Project Pitchfork and Ayria this Summer

I'll be going to the Pittsburgh show at Fate Lounge, June 21st, at least that is my current plan. There are more tour dates than listed on this flier, so check the web page for more information.

Assemblage 23 at Skully's May 7th 2010

Melanie was running late for her babysitting duties which paid off her Voltaire show debts, but we were kind of running behind as well. A quick dinner of pizza, and while we waited for Melanie I cut up and razorbladed some glittery tights that I've had since I was thirteen and turned them into crazy thigh-highs. Melanie showed up to babysit, so James and I set out. I finished a wine cooler somewhere between leaving my house and arriving at Amanda's place. James and I argued about something along the drive, but whatever we're both kind of people who don't know when to shut-up or what words to hold back, so it happens. That's when my knee was injured, inadvertently. It was a bad knee already, but it was definitely not improved by having a car door ran into it.

Amanda's party was a bit of a downer when we were there because hardly anyone had been there long enough to start drinking, plus it was being held for a guy who was losing his job for a really stupid reason. At this little party Nicolle and Amanda may have been kind of drunk at the point we arrived, but all Nicolle could do was talk about how big her beer was, so maybe she was pretty drunk already. We got to see Gary's new half sleeve tattoo, which is still in progress. Made me jealous, but I will have new tattoos soon, so that will all work out.
I helped myself to some vodka, it was a lower proof than what I'm used to, but it was free for me so I can't complain. I had two small purple glasses of vodka with a little cola added in to mask the delicious cheap vodka flavor.

James and I had to go onward though, finished our trek into the Columbus area, with the unnecessary help from the GPS, which talks in a spooky voice and makes comments about werewolves and Route 666. I think the voice is called "Dr. Nightmare." As we found a place to park there were minor signs of rain, and I hoped that it would hold off long enough so we could safely get the camera to and from the venue, and so that we could chill on the smoking patio for a while during the show. It held off long enough, we went to The Joint for our little clove cigars before walking back across the street to Skully's. We decided to wander around, have a cigarette and find some people, before starting our tab.

We had missed Encoder completely, but ended up with one of their stickers. I was listening to some of their music earlier in the day because I knew that I had heard them at some previous occasion and didn't really pay attention that time, but wanted to give them another listen.

Angel Theory was on stage when we got there, but I only heard their last couple songs. I can't give a really accurate impression from that, but will post the links to their Webpage, Myspace.

James and I sat at a table on the smoking patio, as soon as the cloves were lit the wind kicked up and it already seemed like trouble. We saw the guys from Filament 38, so went over to chat and buy our 16Volt/Chemlab tickets. While hanging out at the other side of the smoking patio the wind started up again and killed the only full beer on their table. Shouldn't the empty bottles have been the first to go?
We intermittently hung out with the guys from F38, did some drinking, tried to get some decent pictures and tried to find my friend Sarah who remained lost in the crowd because she was wearing dreadfalls, and even though she apparently waved at me I didn't recognize her.

Assemblage 23's set seemed really massive, but I'm not going to complain because it was awesome and I could listen to Tom Shear sing forever.
I took some notes on my cell phone's notepad, which I was damned impressed that I was able to read them and most of it was spelled correctly. Yeah, even when drunk I'm a spelling Nazi, I do let the grammar slide a little because that would probably end up being impossible to police. My notes describe the set as being Binary, Damaged, Naked, a couple songs from the new CD, Document, Let the Wind Erase Me, Disappoint, Spark, Sorry, Divide, Let Me Be Your Armor, Ground. One song was an exclusive mix for the tour if I remember correctly, but I did not indicate which song that was in my notes. As far as watching Assemblage 23 there was a small stage set up with the music being performed by Tom Shear and one other guy. Tom moves around the stage enough, but doesn't get into too many crazy arm movements or jumping around. I think it would be kind of uncharacteristic if he did.

We started out pretty far away from the stage and wished for the better zoom lens, but near the 2nd half of the set we decided to push forward and to the left side of the stage, which is about where we stood when we saw Apoptygma Berzerk at Skully's. For some reason the left side of the floor seems most sparsely populated. Some more people moved away from the stage, so we took the opportunity to take their prime locations.

Here are the pictures with the new camera, James took some of them and I took the rest, but I can't tell you who took which pictures. The one where there is a lot less red lighting is one that James took because he used the flash a few times, and I was not using the flash at all. We only brought the smaller zoom lens with us for this show. My editing was a lot easier because the quality was so much better with this camera, and the lighting was rather simple and not that challenging to photograph through.











Here is another one of those not that great pictures that looks kind of cool and artsy. It looked better at a larger resolution, but Flikr makes the pictures kind of small. Notice the mirror on the side of the stage? Skully's has mirrors on either side it's kind of disorienting to look at them in the dark sometimes.


We were hanging out by the bar area for a while as the set finished up and were given fliers advertising Ego Likeness and System Syn CDs. I'm not sure about System Syn because I don't remember if I have heard them or not, but I haven't gotten into listening to Ego Likeness no matter how much my Last.fm recommendations list tries to throw them at me.
I think some people were debating going to Outland, and for a while I considered it, but felt a responsibility to go back to Amanda's to possibly throw things from the balcony. James and I ended up going to The Dube instead to get a snack, by this time my alcohol mixing was catching up to me and eating a giant chili dog suddenly seemed like a bad idea. In my years of drinking I have still managed to not puke. Great success.

We returned to Amanda's as that party was winding down, chatted for a bit and then left, heading on our way back home.

I love Amazon.com's MP3 service, I was thinking about how I needed to listed to A23's "Spark" about a million times, so I went on Amazon, found the album (I could have just bought the one song if I felt like), one click purchase, and now I'm listening to the Compass album. It's like magic, and I know I could go to some torrent site and get the whole discography for free, but that's kind of a dick move. If a song or CD is really rare, or older, or I can't find it on my own I will use a torrent and do the asshole thing, but if you like a band and they have some music that you can buy, then you really should make that purchase. Or apparently there's some tiny amount of money to be made when people listen on Last.FM, but it's very little from what I've read.


Assemblage 23 is Tom Shear and is currently based in Seattle. A23 can be found online, on facebook (I couldn't get the link to behave, but Tom Shear is on there) and on myspace. And he runs a blog called Waveformless.
On a side note the first Assemblage 23 album that I actually bought was Storm. I ordered it from Metropolis and I had gone home to check the mailbox between a college final and a little party I was supposed to go to celebrating the end of finals week with some people from a US History class. I got in my car, started listening to the CD, drove to the bar and decided that I'd rather cruise around listening to Assemblage 23 than go to the party.

Voltaire with Wolfgang Parker opening, at Outland on Liberty 4/30/2010

Voltaire with Wolfgang Parker opening for him, this show took place at Outland on Liberty on April 30th, 2010. My crew for the night included Melanie and James, we met up with Brannon and later Amber at Outland, but they didn't stay around the club that long.

Sadly this post will be a little short on pictures because I'm lame...not only that, but my camera really hated the darkness at Outland (which is tragic because there certainly is a lot of darkness there), and I wasn't that close to the stage so hardly any of my pictures turned out. A new camera is on its way with big fancy lenses that I'll hopefully be able to figure out.
This post will be generally short because I've gotten over my writer's block that I had, so I've been furiously trying to get the new ideas out of my noggin for my novel project before they're gone again. Well, the story is mapped out, I'm just filling in how to get from scene to scene.

Wolfgang Parker is a punk, swing performer from Columbus, Ohio. He usually has a band with him, but at Outland it was a pared down ensemble featuring him and one other guy. I watched him a little bit and then listed from further away.
I was unfamiliar with his music, but will definitely be checking it out a bit more. I liked his bluesy vocals and the overall sound of his songs, very swing or a more mellow Rockabilly sound.
I appreciated his rather unorthodox and hilarious tribute to Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

I really wanted to get this posted today in case anyone who stops by here is interested in supporting Wolfgang Parker's Victorian Horror graphic novel titled 1888. It seems like a pretty neat project and if you contribute enough money to it you can be included in it. The contributions have to be pledged by May 24th.
Since I'm pretty sparse on material for this I'll go ahead and provide you with one example of Wolfgang Parker's music.



So later on Voltaire's set took place and this is what I remember from that. I think was a little easier to remember because he did some jokes in between songs. He started out with "Dead," which did not get enough response in his opinion.
Some other songs he played during this portion included "Death, Death, Devil, Devil, Evil, Evil Song," "Ex-Lover’s Lover" and "Zombie Prostitute" which he dedicated to undead ladies who are trying to make a quick buck, or to all the women who dress up for zombie walk...or something along those lines.
He played two country-inspired songs that still had his usual spin. The songs were both pretty good, and that fact made me forget that they were "country" songs. These videos are not from the Outland show, but I linked to the best videos that I found on YouTube, because these two songs are worth a listen. Small Town and All Women are Crazy (All Men Are Dumb). Those songs did sound a lot like Rockabilly, which is a term that appeals more readily to the alternative crowd, even though it is a form of country.
Some other songs from the evening include "Brains!", "Dia de los Muertos", "USS Make Shit Up" and "Comin' Out for Christmas." He also ordered a drink from stage,
He launched into a couple different songs, including "Freebird," to mess with people before finishing his set with "When You’re Evil" which he probably could've made it through without singing any of the words himself because everyone was singing along. His shows always seem like they could be renamed "Drunk Goth Singalong with Voltaire."

Part of Voltaire's performance from the night:


We got to talk to Voltaire a little bit after the show, got pictures, and he signed my copy of "Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking."



Sorry for the especially quick and dirty treatment of this review, as I wrote this my fancy pants camera was dropped off by the UPS guy. I have until Friday to figure this thing out.
Assemblage 23 show at Skully's (Angel Theory and Encoder are opening) on May 7th, just bought my tickets yesterday.
Onward to other projects.