I get CNN breaking news from my Twitter account in the form of text messages. When I got the one about Michael Jackson being brought to the hospital in cardiac arrest I was sure that was the end. Not too many people live through that if their heart stops at the hospital.
If it stops at home? Really almost no chance. I guess this is why some radio stations were announcing his death before the cable news networks were calling it.
So Kara calls all upset about what she’d just heard on the radio. Eighteen years old, and she’s a fan.
Spanky had a house full of friends here at the time, all sixteen year olds, and when I told them, they were upset. Really upset.
When Blane Jr. was a toddler and I’d take him in the stores, he’d point at the magazine covers and say, “Michael Jackson” and start dancing. He couldn’t say much else, but he could say that.
When I first heard Jackson’s Off the Wall album, I was just a kid, but absolutely mesmerized. How could one person come out with such a perfect set of tunes. One after the other?
Then there was Thriller.
And that moonwalk.
You know the rest.
Here’s an cool video I swiped from TPGoddess. I’ve never seen this before, it’s a Pepsi commercial (I think) that was edited to show Jackson singing a duet of “I’ll Be There” with a child version of himself.
I never could listen to his stuff and not dance.
Spanky’s Facebook status says: “He’s totally choreographing the angels through Thriller, right?”
Have you ever listened to the president’s weekly radio address? I wouldn’t even know how to find that on my radio. I might have heard one of them in my entire life and it was probably a wav file on some website somewhere right after Sept. 11th. I usually catch the gist of it later in a newspaper or magazine.
Now it is easier than ever to get your weekly dose of the nation’s Major Dude in Charge. Obama’s doing his on YouTube!
Here’s the first one, out today, from the president-elect.
He also has a website, http://www.change.gov so we can keep up with what’s going on in his administration.
What I like about this besides the transparency and accessibility is his ability to bypass the mainstream media. A while back, I signed up for Obama text messages. If he ever wants to get out some information, all he has to do is text his massive list of subscribers. He doesn’t have to go to ABC or CBS, call a press conference and deal with their filters, pundits, whatever.
What that tells me is he trusts the American public to be smart enough to understand the message and he wants people to be involved in government.
And that is just what we need right now for starters, whether you like him or not. Yet.
I had to borrow Sweetpea’s car yesterday because Blane had mine. I was in a state of shock as I hadn’t seen the inside of it in a while. It looked as if it had never been cleaned. Much like her room.
The floors were completely covered with empty soda cans, candy wrappers, school books, artwork… even clothes. If I had the time, I would have opened all her doors and cranked up the leaf blower on that interior. I didn’t, I was running late.
Getting out of our driveway takes great skill and patience. Precision driving.
We have these rear entry garages with a narrow alley behind the house. Here’s a photo.
If you’re lucky, your driveway lines up with the neighbor’s behind you. Not the case with us. Ours backs up to a tall wooden fence.
I start the car and the CD player is on but between songs. I usually like Sweetpea’s music so I don’t bother to change anything. I concentrate on getting out. I’m late. There is a film on the windows and the sunlight is giving me no visibility. So I roll down the window and am backing out when the music starts.
Hip hop/rap/crunk, not typical for Sweetpea, but whatever, I’m backing out.
And the lyrics start up. Loud. “Back That Ass Up…” (Repeat a few times)
Okay, I’m no prude, I can handle it. I actually think it’s a little funny because I’m backing the car out. The song gets worse, however. Seriously nasty, like worse than Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop.” I stop the car to listen to the lyrics, I mean how bad can a song get?
Bad. So bad I can’t even repeat what I heard.
I was not the only one concerned about these lyrics. The neighbor heard it all and decided to peep her head out the gate to see who was playing that. I hurried up and shut the music down, gave her a weak wave and drove off. Guess they won’t be trick-or-treating at my house this year.
My God I’m so embarrassed.
I need to wash my kid’s ears out with soap. Mine too. My ears, my ears!
Now that the conventions are done, here’s another candidate for president, Paris Hilton. She’s going to paint the White house pink if she wins. That’s hot!
I’m sitting in the movie theatre waiting for the midnight feature of the new Batman movie. I heard people waited in line for hours to get just the right seat. We got our tickets online hours ago and walked right into the theater one hour before showtime and have great seats.
Spanky is wearing her bat cape.
Edited Note: It was Heath Ledger’s show. Brilliant performance. As for Christian Bale’s Batman, his voice drove us nuts. Why the whisper?
Great audience of diehard Batman fans, they clapped at all the right times. Heath Ledger got most of the applause and laughs.
That is one day every kid has marked on the calendar. If they have one. July 11th (7/11) is free Slurpee Day. We piled in the car, all of us and headed out there. We heard earlier that Little Blane already had eight free Slurpees, the green Hulk flavor. He also claimed his pee had turned green.
The first place we went claimed their machine was broken. Yeah, right. Second place claimed they were out of the free cups. Uh huh. They offered all other cup loads of Slurpee for 25 cents. Okay.
This kid was prepared:
Little fucker drained the cherry Slurpee machine.
But that’s okay. We wanted the Monster Black Ice flavor.
Because you can’t beat having a black tongue.
Here’s something fun if you missed out on the free Slurpee Day. A pissed off Amy Winehouse beating on a fan while she sings:
As drunk/high/busy as she was, she didn’t miss a lyric. Man that’s funny.
Okay, time flies in the summer when there is so much to do. Just wanted to write a little about Van’s Warped Tour, what it is, what to expect if you are interested in going.
We went last year and while I didn’t write anything about it, maybe I should have. I guess it was the same thing. Summertime, not enough cycles.
A measly thirty two bucks gets you a ticket which give you access to about fifty bands. In some cities there have been as many as a hundred. It’s a one day thing so we’re talking about multiple stages with bands playing at the same time.
You may have to pay to park, we paid $15 in Dallas. There were some people in nearby homes offering cheaper parking in their yards, but I really wouldn’t do that since there might be no one watching the car.
We were allowed to bring our own water bottles this year for the first time. You will want one of those and keep refilling it at the water fountain so you don’t dehydrate and have to be brought out of the concert on a stretcher. That could be quite embarrassing unless you are a drama queen. They sell drinks for $5, even beer ($7), if that’s your thing.
This tour usually has shows at outdoor amphitheaters. That’s one stage, but there are two setups on that stage since it is so big. Stage left plays while stage right sets up instruments. As soon as stage left finishes, stage right starts up.
The rest of the stages (we had six, set list is here) set up on the adjoining grounds and in the parking lots. Bands play for about 30 minutes each. At any given time there are three bands playing. No problems with one band drowning out the sound of another on a nearby stage.
At ours, there was no reserved seating in the amphitheater. Since most people want to be in the pit, the front rows are clear you can almost always find a seat in there. We sat in the front row.
But you know me and my camera. I move around a lot. That’s what I like best about going to concerts, taking photos. I had no idea they allowed SLRs and wanted to kick myself when I saw a guy with one. I talked to him and he said he had no trouble getting it in there.
My Panasonic point and shoot does pretty well, though. What you think?
That is 3Oh!3, a couple of guys who sing to prerecorded music. Garage bandish. Some of it a little techno, some a little hip-hop. Don’t know how to classify them.
What? You thought this was a skater punk thing? Not entirely. There are all sorts of genres, mostly metal though. Mostly starter, unknown type bands trying to break into the big time.
Some are up and comers with recent radio hits. Like Katy Perry (pop).
Others are somewhat established, or have been in popular bands before.
That is Tom DeLonge with his band, Angels and Airwaves, a band I am not ashamed to admit I like. He used to be in Blink-182.
If you play the game Rock Band and know all the levels, he is at the tour bus stage. A little bird who got to hang out behind the scenes told me he doesn’t mix with people, just hangs out in his bus all day. I think the guy is married and has kids. I’d do the same.
But a majority of the bands are at the run-down, small rv stage. We passed a row of them in the parking lot and there were many. It must have been wash day for one band, they had all of their clothing spread out on the hot cement to dry. I thought about taking a photo of that but didn’t because it seemed a little invasive. Underwear and all, you know.
So, what sort of people will you see at a thing like this?
Mostly normal ones.
Lots of 15 to 20 year olds, but people of all ages, even a few little kids. It’s a bit loud for those little ears, so it’s not a bad idea to get some of those foam ear plugs if you are bringing one. There is nothing uncool about earplugs. I’ve seen tattooed people wearing them. Hey, you want to still be hearing music when you’re older, right?
If you want to see some punks, there’s that too.
I haven’t seen any of them cause any problems. I never was a punk, but I love taking photos of their hair. When my kids were babies I would always punk out their hair while shampooing it. See?
That was Spanky after I found a can of foam soap for kids.
What else?
Moshing. It’s not allowed.
But they do it anyway.
I’ve seen wise guys rule these mosh pits. I don’t know how they do it but they create an empty space in the middle of the tightest crowds and maintain it for an entire show. Everyone around knows not to step foot in that space. Until it is time to mosh. That is running around and slamming into each other.
If you want to see more of my photos of Warped, I have them in an album on Flickr.
We did not see as many bands as we would have liked. It was scorching hot. Miserably so. Being in the crowds made it worse. We visited a lot of the merch booths because they were in shady areas and there were a lot of other starter band barkers playing music samples. I love talking to these guys and asking them, “Why should I listen to your band?” See what they say.
Because one day these guys might be at the jet airplane level.
Always great to have one of these before a show. If you are going to Warped Tour in a city near you, keep in mind the bands and set times change with each date, so think of this as a rough guide.
Just wanted to get this up here as it is quite useful to some people. I’ll write more about this later and post some photos along with it.
Here’s a list of all the bands on the tour and the dates they will play. Note that not all bands play on all dates. Some do.
Also note that there is a Hurley Stage (that would be the bigger one) and a Hurley.com Stage (small stage). A lot of people got these two mixed up.
I’ve added more photos and a few tips about Warped Tour :::here:::
So Spanky and I are in the car listening to the radio and this song comes on:
If YouTube doesn’t work, the song is “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry.
That song has a hook if I ever heard one. Anyway, I don’t think a guy could get away with singing a song about kissing a guy.
Spanky says all the kids her age say they like this song, don’t love it, and oh, they’re not gay. Still this song plays on the radio every time I get into the car.
She thinks it’s funny that I like this song. Better than staring at the ceiling, thinking, awwwk-waaaard.
BTW, I have never kissed a girl, would never kiss a girl, would not care to see a girl kiss a girl, am married, have three kids, two dogs and a mother… And I still like this song.
P.S. If you are a girl and you want to kiss a girl, I don’t care.
P.S.S.S.T. If you leave a gay-bashing comment on here I will throw it in the trash.
Have you ever seen a blue eyed horse? I didn’t know they existed until I saw one today.
I think she’s pretty.
I was listening to Fall Out Boy’s cover of Micheal Jackson’s “Beat It” today (go see, it’s worthy) and thought about something from a long time ago. My Board of Nursing exams.
This test was either a full day or two full days, I can’t remember exactly, but it was quite stressful and took an incredible amount of concentration. We were all in this giant room, hundreds of us applicants from all over the state, seated at long tables. Anyway, not too far from me was a major distraction.
A Micheal Jackson look-alike sitting for his Board exam. He had the Gerri curl, the tight pants, the red zippers-all-over jacket, the shoes, and that one glove. It was stunning, as Jackson was quite popular at the time.
First thing to happen was this massive download of Jackson’s songs into my needed more than ever brain. Oh my. Then I kept looking over at him thinking what it might be like if that dude was my nurse. Moonwalking into my hospital room. Followed by the Thriller zombies. The floor tiles lighting up as he stepped on each one.
Along the lines of oddity, here’s another one of my all time favorite videos. It is Christopher Walken dancing to Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice. It is flat out bizarrrrrrre. He even flies at the end.
One of Sweetpea’s friends came over last week saying she had to offload two Honda Civic Tour (Dallas concert) tickets due to a scheduling conflict.
Spanky and I just looked at each other, quite surprised at our good fortune. Headlining that tour was Panic At The Disco, one of her favorite bands. I never liked them until a few weeks ago, with the release of their “Pretty. Odd.” CD.
Spank and I dropped everything and went, of course. She says she feels she must to do a review of the show so people will open their minds to this band. I don’t know if she’ll get to it though, she has a pretty bad cold right now.
I’ll give you a run down of what it was like for me.
First, the cool factor. There is nothing about being at a concert that makes me feel cool or hip, especially one such as this where most of the fans are teenaged girls and I am one of the oldest persons in the place. I keep in mind that all the teenagers at these concerts probably don’t feel cool, either (it comes with being that age), AND I don’t think a single person notices me, anyway.
Is it horrifying? Maybe for a hip music reviewer who can’t stop thinking about how out of place he/she is for being there at the age of over 25. I find it taints their work and the reviews are not usually well thought out but a hit job on the talent because of who their audience is. They should actually pay attention to these acts because they grow with their audiences and change styles as these kids get older.
Panic At The Disco (PATD) is a perfect example of this. Spanky started listening to them when she was about twelve. I wasn’t too crazy about their music then, it was a bit on the whiney side. Three years later, this band has a new CD, “Pretty. Odd.” and it is exceptional. I’d think if one likes the Beatles, they’d like some of these songs. Maybe. Beatles fans can be a bit possessive about a music style and shout, “That’s a rip-off!” I don’t feel this way since I’m not happy with a finite set of tunes.
Now, about the show.
Starter bands usually suck because they’re new and trying to make a name for themselves. We were downright shocked with the first band, Phantom Planet (here’s their MySpace page). They’re not new, but I think they’ve recently become “quite good.” I don’t even know how to categorize them, it’s like classic and new rock rolled into one package. Their live performance was spectacular and missing their set because they are the first band would be a big mistake for anyone with a Honda Civic Tour ticket. Trust me on that. It’s forty-five minutes of pure music bliss.
The second band, The Hush Sound was excellent, if you like breeezy California rock. The front-woman, Greta Salpeter’s voice is pristine, but sounds a bit too much like other popular front women vocalists such as Hayley Williams of Paramore, Avril Lavigne, and Lacey Mosley of Flyleaf. After about three songs, Spank and I were hoping they’d hush their sound as it got into Brady Bunch territory.
Third in the lineup, Motion City Soundtrack, another of Spanky’s favorite pop-rock bands. I don’t like their music, but they performed well. I was fixated on Jesse Johnson’s (synthesizer) dramatic emo bang. One of the things I like to do at these concerts is get at least one great photo of something unusual. That was my challenge of the night, to capture this thing. The guy has this chunk of hair in the front that is about a foot long while the rest of his hair is buzz cut length. The entire time he plays, he rocks his head back and forth really fast and this hair thing is an act of its own.
Come on, emo bang, cooperate.
Yes, you.
It’s hard enough fighting the lights and fog. Don’t get all smug. you haven’t won, yet.
Ha ha, Gotcha!
Now for the headliner, Panic At The Disco, which started at about 10 PM. Their lead vocalist, Brendon Urie pulled off his part with perfection. I usually find that about half the time at any given show of any given band the vocals are not en forme. All four bands on this tour did surprisingly well as far as vocals go. It could be that this is the first week of the tour and voices are still fresh.
Okay, Spanky just passed by and said to save her some space for her forthcoming review. Yay, Spank saved the day. It won’t be in this post as she hasn’t started it yet.
In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a few photos here, if you’re interested.
Here’s a YouTube I uploaded of one of my favorite songs from their current CD. What’s funny about this video is what’s happening at the beginning, left of screen. A security guard struggles to heave a kid out of the pit. Reminds me of birthing. From my perspective, a mom bringing her kid to a concert… well you get the metaphor.
Maybe it’s just me, but I can hear Spanky’s voice singing in there. Funny thing.
Oh, and about the venue. What’s odd is how the name of the venue changes with the type of music… They call it the Palladium Ballroom for rock concerts, but Gilley’s the rest of the time.
Gilley’s as in Urban Cowboy. Mechanical bulls. Country music. Small place. Small crowd.
This was a great show. Go see it if it comes to your city.
I’ve been smitten with Obama since the fall of 2005 when I first heard him speak (I wrote about it here).
I have also always liked Hillary because she was the first politician I ever heard who had the balls to talk about universal health care. That was in the early 90′s and way too close to the cold war. But she did it. And I think the real reason people hate her today is because of that.
I’ve been torn between these two amazing choices until a few weeks ago, when Michelle Obama said she would have to think about whether or not she would vote for Hillary if she were the nominee.
As a lifelong dem party supporter, this stunned me. She would consider voting for McCain? “100 years of war” McCain? This is “I didn’t vote for the war” Obama’s wife.
I could see right there, Obama’s weakness. His Achille’s heel. Michelle Obama.
I also noticed all the favorable press Obama’s been getting, like, everywhere. He is a great scoop. But I don’t trust the manipulative mainstream media. This is the same fear, fear, fear, media that drove people to vote for Bush. The same media that weeks ago made Bill Clinton out to be a racist (c’mon, the dude was the first black president, he has an office in Harlem, does humanitarian work in Africa…) 90% of this media which is owned by what, five major corporations?
Can you trust that?
So I wondered if they were harping on Obama because they think he’d be easier to beat in the general election.
And I wondered if the Obamicans (Republicans for Obama) were crossing over and voting in our primaries because they wanted an easy fight in November. This is a typical Rovian tactic. Crossover vote for the “loser” candidate so you can beat them later.
I just listened to Obama’s speech after the Potomic primaries. Then I watched McCain speak. Back to back. Then I watched the news commentator’s jaws drop. I could see it in their faces. There is no way McCain will beat Obama. Not even with the power of the media. They will have to steal it from him.
When I hear Obama, I tear up. He says things I have been wanting to hear for over twenty years. My right brain goes into overdrive. All will be good. He says college kids they will get $4000 a year to go to college. Not for free though, they will have to do community service for this cash (work in a homeless shelter or a VA hospital), learn a foreign language, or join the Peace Corps. “Yes we can” is sounding more like “yes we will.”
Then my left brain says, wait, he was whining about the Clintons ganging up on him, the republican machine will eat him alive. How’s he going to do all the things he promises? Hillary does things. She, too, wants change. She wanted it first, waaaaaay back when she burst onto the scene with universal health care. And she was around when Bill cleaned up that first Bush mess. We have a big mess to clean.
So I’m stuck back on the fence. The good news is, I don’t think McCain will be able to beat either one of our candidates.
One last word. McCain ended his speech with Obama’s line, “I’m fired up and ready to go.” Did he vote for Obama too?
Last night, Spanky and I were reading some fanfic and movie parodies on the internet.
While reading this parody of the movie 300, I accidentally highlighted the text and noticed what I called “invisible internet ink.” Spanky laughed and said something like, “That’s Whytex.”
Me: How do you do that Spank?
Spanky: It’s Whytex.
Me: It’s cool, Spank, it’s invisible. I want you to show me how to do that.
Spanky: It’s just WHITE text! This is where she rolls her condescending teenage eyes.
Me: Oh. This is where i get evil ideas.
Spanky: Haven’t you ever been to an internet forum… and looked to see the hidden messages?
Me: Yeah, but I never saw any hidden messages. Never thought to look for it, what kind of people leave hidden messages?
Spanky: That’s where all the snarky comments are. I don’t think my Whytex is going to show up in the rss feeds.
She claims she is going to have a lot of fun telling all her friends at school about this. I claim I am going to blog about it. She tells me I will look like a fool.
Last night Blane and I went to the HDNet Fights, Reckless Abandon in Dallas. I didn’t realize it would be broadcast live (stupid me). I should have dressed better. Don’t laugh, it’s true, I should have because of where I was sitting. Let me put it this way. We were at ringside, like, where Mark Cuban gets to sit. In front of the press section. If you know me, you know this is how I often find myself, in the right place, at the right time, with one little thing that is wrong.
With my camera, yeah.
This is not a report of the fights. I’m not a reporter and I don’t know jack about MMA. That’s what will make this fun.
I don’t know who the famous people are. I walk over to this area where they’re doing television interviews, snap off some pics of Shamrock and Cuban. I don’t have the nerve to take pics of Cuban while he is sitting near me. And yes, I fantasize about handing him my script and yours, but no, I do not. Could not. Would not.
So, by where they are doing interviews, I go take some photos. I can’t believe the access I have, cuss myself silly for having so little skill with my SLR…
Right next to me? Randy Couture (aka Captain America, The Natural). The most famous, most well-liked fighter in the history of MMA. I’m not star struck because I have no idea who he is. I have him all to myself and we’re talking like he is the guy next door. There is no one else around. He has a look on his face sort of like, you’re so cute when you don’t know who I am. Not cocky, no, he’s sweet and humble, shy like me, and we both know it. But I could feel these vibes, like, {{{you should be taking photos of me}}}.
Finally Blane comes around and says, “Kitty, get a picture of me with my hero, Randy Couture!” Captain America gives me a knowing look. I laugh. He laughs.
I had to crop Blane out of the photo, he does not want his pic on the blog, sorry.
I’ll tell you some more cool things tomorrow, Blane wants me to go watch a movie.
Tonight we are taking the girls to a concert at the Nokia. Last time we were there we were waiting for the Pumpkins to come onstage and the girls were arguing over who was better looking, Gerard Way or Jared Leto. I broke the tie with my vote for Way.
Then Blane chimed in and said, “Oh, Leto is much better looking than Gerard Way, that’s a no-brainer…” And then the disclaimer, “Not that I’m gay or anything.”
Guys and their gay disclaimers.
Anyway, we’re back to a tie. So who’s better looking?
So we get the game, Rock Band for XBox 360 on the very first day it comes out. We were going to get the one for the PS3 because those instruments are wireless, but Capone (my nephew) said he was getting it for his XBox 360. We go with that system so we can play him online. Blane II gets a setup at his house also.
Day one, the girls challenge Blane II to an online drum battle. They are certain he is cheating, that he has Angela working the pedal for him. He wasn’t that good and suddenly he was beating them. More battles later, Angela and Blane II accuse Blane I of cheating in a guitar battle. They are certain it is really Spanky playing.
On Thanksgiving, we all go to Blane II’s and have a “jam session” on this game. There’s lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and singing. The way it works is there are multiple levels of difficulty, easy to expert. Your band starts out with a beat up piece of shit van and if you get really good, your band gets a jet plane. The more points you score, the more fans you get, and more songs you can unlock.
That’s where we were, the band had just gotten a jet plane. We call ourselves “The Lucky Charms” and our name is in lights. We unlock this new song and swear it is the last one, we’ll call it a night after we beat this song.
Everyone’s playing on the “hard” or difficult level. Sweetpea’s on lead guitar, Spanky on bass, Blane I on drums, and Angela on vocals. The song is by Deep Purple. Now you’d think the song would be “Smoke on the Water,” right, that is THE song EVERY kid plays when they get their first electric guitar.
But it’s not. It’s “Highway Star.”
And talk about a bitch to play. To sing. To beat.
Everyone switches instruments, different people try vocals, even me, to try to beat this damn thing. Every time we fail, we lose fans. We are losing fans by the thousands. We HAVE to beat this song.
And this song, the lyrics, they are hilarious.
Nobody gonna take my car
Im gonna race it to the ground
…
I love it and I need it
I bleed it yeah its a wild hurricane
Finally after a looong night of crazy laughter and singing (I never knew my hubby could sing like that!), we beat the thing. As we’re shutting things down, we make up our own lyrics to that Deep Purple tune stuck in our head.
Nobody gonna sing my song, I’m gonna run you to the gro-hound.
Nobody gonna beat my game, gonna run you outta to-hound.
Since that day, we’ve been joking around about that nightmare jam session, singing that song to each other when we least expect it. And then I just saw the commercial for Rock Band. I almost hit the floor.
THAT SONG!
Check it out.
If you are thinking about getting a game for Christmas, for yourself or for a family member, I’d definitely recommend this one. It’s a ton of fun, especially if you have a crowd.
I’d say this counts as a post towards Pooks musical meme. It has a video, some lyrics, and it inspires me to write (blogging is writing, shullup).
So here is your assignment for today, dear readers. Find a song that inspires you to write something, whether it gives you an idea for a script or just puts you into a better frame of mind. AND/OR (don’t you love choices) peek into the lyrics and find a stanza that sums up the theme of whatever script you’re working on. It’s quite uncanny how the two circumstances go together.
If possible, post a video of the song to really get people into the mood. (Yep, I’m aware of the irony of using Internet clips during the pissing contest. I like irony as much as bitchiness.)Then, send the assignment (by e-mail or posting to one of their blog entries) to 5 other writers to do.
Spanky is my 14 year-old wonder child. Smart, witty, sarcastic. I love her concert reviews because of her unique perspective, too young to have seen it all. On the diving board from kid to adult, she takes a good long look around before jumping in. Here’s my Spanky’s review of the Smashing Pumpkins’ concert at the Nokia Theatre in Dallas.
Another concert, another review. Living the party life is terribly difficult for one such as myself, but I suffer it to bring to you, my dear readers, another fantastic account of the oddities of concert experience.
To begin from the amusing beginning, I will note that it seems that somehow, my timing is always off, from the small things to the large. This concert was no different.
I decided that I would dress up for the occasion for once, having a grand old time choosing my outfit to insane perfection.
Sadly, the concertgoers were not sporting any similar fashions.
This is to say, I stuck out like… a girl in neon blue and black striped knee socks in a crowd of “normal” people.
I did not have much of a problem with the more reserved, thus infinitely more mature mannerisms of the crowd until later in the evening.
As we’d gotten to the theatre early, we decided to listen to the opening band.
A mistake on our part.
The sole part of my musical experience on the behalf of What Made Milwaukee Famous that I enjoyed was the keyboard. I found it reminiscent of highly energetic techno, which is always good fun, no matter where or what you are.
After they played their last (agonizing) song, the lights flipped on and the excited murmurs began, even though the Smashing Pumpkins would not be out for quite some time. Instead of sitting around to hear people talk amongst one another for thirty minutes, my sister and I decided to watch the experience of another titan of the concert life.
Concert food.
I cannot claim to have tasted every food in this particular hemisphere, however, I can attest to the possibility that concert food is in the top ten worst of all of these foods.
It’s terribly unseasoned, not to mentioned often lukewarm and calling to one’s mind something to the effect of has this been cooked properly?
Needless to say, we passed on that prospect.
Seating ourselves once more, we waited with bated breath for the main act.
The Smashing Pumpkins, I must say, did not disappoint, not in the least.
They played amazingly well, and even the elongated guitar solos did not seem too embellished or unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, although I am still bewildered as to how they could see with the lights behind them that had, on several occasions, burned my eyeballs into a state of temporary blindness.
The most popular songs were the ones played off of the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” and, “Tonight, Tonight,” having enormous popularity with the crowd.
The most popular was “1979.”
With good reason.
“1979” was very likely the best-performed song of the evening.
The decision for it to be played on acoustic guitar with no accompaniment whatsoever what a highly intelligent one, simplifying the song and allowing more of the raw emotion to come out of it. The comfortable familiarity radiated off of the crowd like a contagious heat, slowly soaking in until when Corgan stopped playing the guitar entirely and was left to only singing, there was nothing that could be called silence, the voices of the crowd filling the void left by the instrument.
When the band had picked up at a faster tempo once more, I noticed something highly troubling.
Namely, the lack of crowd-surfing.
I have previously stated that crowd-surfing is one of my favorite parts of attending concerts, and although I could understand the absence of such activity from such a well-behaved crowd, I was a little disheartened by it.
Thankfully, we had a teenager most likely off of his Ritalin for the weekend right in front of us, dancing like there was no Monday to come, for my own private entertainment.
There came a time nearing the end of the concert that called for a questioning of one’s surroundings.
This time was when the beginning riff of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” began to resonate from deep within the hearts of the speakers.
It was at such a time that one could be expected to lose all posterity and demand quite plainly, “Say what?”
Indeed, it was “Iron Man,” and a very good cover at that, definitely doing the original the justice it deserves.
Go see for yourself:
But the covers did not end there, oh no.
Next came “I Love Rock and Roll,” (yes, I typed that correctly) which was, to say the least, amusing when sung by Billy Corgan.
Then they played a few more songs and walked off, making it entirely not obvious that they were going to be coming back and playing two encores.
Terribly, horribly not obvious.
After clapping in the dark for ten minutes, the elusive Smashing Pumpkins were lured back onto the stage, playing two more songs before leaving again after another bout of Corgan’s priceless crowd banter.
The lights were flipped on once again as the last reverberations from the speakers died away and with them went the last tangible vestiges of the magical evening.
My family was surprised that they hadn’t played, “Zero.”
I’m surprised I had been too caught up to notice.
I have to say, though, my most favorite part of the concert was definitely…
Eventually, I suppose, that is what’s going to happen. Bloggers drop out like flies after just a few posts, some last a year, some a little longer. Few go on for years.
I never thought mine would last this long. At first, it was an uncomfortable thing, putting up things about my personal life for anyone to find. I knew people would judge me, my family. My writing. That’s what people do.
These days, I don’t even think about that anymore.
So many people out there say, “My life is not interesting enough to blog about,” when I encourage them to start one. I don’t believe this. Everyone’s life is interesting. Not every second of it, certainly not mine. Cut to the good part and share. Or the bad part. You don’t have to write just about your life, you could write about something you saw. The lives of people you know. Teach somebody out there something.
I try to stick to my own life here because friends and relatives read to keep in touch. Most of them have never left a comment, perhaps they are afraid they, too, will be judged. I get a lot of emails from them, and that’s cool. (Keep them coming)
Now for something interesting.
Tonight, Tonight. We are taking the girls to see a Smashing Pumpkins concert. It’s a show that was supposed to take place on Nov. 3rd but was rescheduled. It’s their last concert on this tour and I’ve read the Pumpkins do some special things at their final shows. We’re excited about it, have had the tickets for months. Either Spanky or I will tell you all about it in the next few days.
If I outgrow and decide to destroy this blog one day, there will be plenty of notice. It won’t be any time soon.
Don’t get all smug. you haven’t won, yet.
Ha ha, Gotcha!
Jared Leto?
Gerard Way?
