2 posts tagged “music”

I need to stop drafting posts and then not actually posting them.

I haven't been posting much lately because I'm super-duper busy as heck. Both the lead bloggers at DIY Life (one is darkmatt3r) stepped down at the beginning of March, and a couple of other ladies and I replaced them (the fact that it took three people to replace two harried ones, and the fact that all three of us are still very busy, might give you an idea of how much work we're talking about).

I wrote two long things in March, too. My article about Hinamatsuri, a holiday I think is really nifty because it involves super-fancy dolls, didn't get a ton of hits (but maybe people will discover it over time). There are some craft patterns at the end... a paper diorama, little cloth dolls, etc.

I also did a free knit/crochet pattern round-up for Easter: bunnies and lambs (or, if you prefer, rabbits and baby sheep). More cuteness per column inch than I knew what to do with. I want to make just about everything I listed, but I can't justify doing so. Anyway: Bunnies and Lambs to Knit, Bunnies and Lambs to Crochet.

I'm getting back on those "best free patterns of the month" columns, but skipping a few months. I have notes for a month that I'm not going to cover, so I will post them here. Later today, probably.

W/r/t my last post, I haven't yet bought any dolls. I did find that my local Japanese market is selling a few basic Re-Ment sets, so I bought one (single, not case) box of "Kawaii Kitchen" and one box of some food-based set. I don't think these are the new Americanized versions. Most of their other candy toy sets are based on, like, Power Rangers or some kind of mecha.

I banged my finger up pretty good last week, and in doing so, learned something: if you have a choice between Hello Kitty Band-Aids and non-Hello Kitty Band-Aids, get the Hello Kitty ones. They're bigger than the WaterBlock style anyway, and they will make you smile (at least, they will if you are me). I've been covering my bandaids in porous clear tape, then wearing a rubber finger cot every time I have to wash my hands.

I have managed to get a friend totally obsessed with Death Note. Now we are having long philosophical debates about A) whether or not we would use the Death Note, and how, and B) our deep, abiding love for L. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you clearly spend your leisure time more wisely than I do. (To be fair, though, everyone I know who sees the show becomes mildly obsessed with it. This includes my previously-animation-hating mother, who has also fallen hard for Ratatouille and anything from Studio Ghibli.) 

(I'm also giggling at the moment, because Law & Order: Criminal Intent is on, and the suspect's last name is Morrissey, so they're saying things like, "I DON'T THINK MORRISSEY COULD HAVE PLANNED THIS ON HIS OWN," and I'm like, NO, HE WAS TOO MISERABLE, HE WILL BE CAUGHT WHEN JOHNNY MARR TURNS HIM IN....)

The last few days have been uneventful for me... I've just been working, and taking care of my mom, who has a viral ear infection, labyrinthitis, that causes constant vertigo. (One of my friends said, "Labyrinthitis? Is that where you wake up with 80s hair and an inexplicable urge to sing and dance?" She didn't realize it's a real illness, but she cracked me up. Though she did miss the opportunity to say, "... an inexplicable urge to sing and dance, magic, dance.") I am really hoping to not also catch the wave, as it were. I had a really difficult time parking my car a couple of times last night, due to dizziness and disorientation, and it worried me.

So, I've had to run a few errands, nothing really exciting, and I've been writing little blurbs on this and that, waiting for Thursday to come. And today was Thursday, and do you know what that meant?

Time for the Smashing Pumpkins show! (They didn't actually play "Ava Adore," or any other songs I like from the last two albums, at the show tonight. They did play "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" and a lot of the new album. I like "Tarantula" much better live than I have in video form so far.)

The thing is, right now and all evening, I'd say it was around... 45 degrees. It rained all morning and threatened to rain all day; it's probably the coldest day since late April, and it hit us suddenly (it was 95 degrees on Monday). My torso, arms, and neck were warm, because I was wearing three different long-sleeved shirts (two were hoodies, the top one was fleece) with a cotton jersey scarf. The rest of me was really not very warm at all. Apparently the band thought it was very chilly, too: Billy remarked on it several times, and said that they almost cut the encores short because of it. 

I could have stood in the pit and been warmer, but then, well, I'd have been in the pit, on concrete and unable to move more than three inches in any direction. Instead, I stood on the sloping lawn, where initially I didn't want tickets -- I'm glad I was able to stand there in spite of my technically better ticket. I had a great view for most of the show, and the ground was softer and warmer than the paved area. I was really happy that I brought a thermos of hot tea to keep in the car for after the show. 

The show itself was great; musically quite good, and Billy is much funnier and more charming on stage than I'd expected. I never got to see them the first time around... I tried in 2000, but the show sold out. I had plans to show up at the venue with ridiculous amounts of cash to buy a ticket, then came down with the flu (not a cold - THE FLU, 104 fever for days, almost had to be hospitalized) the day of the show. And they'd broken up! So it was really important to me to make it to this "second chance" show... and I did. (Alas, I didn't have any spare cash for merch. I thought I would, but The Bank Error That Keeps On Taking mostly cleaned out the account again, and obviously dog food is more important. The merch was outrageously expensive anyway, but I love the shirt and hoodie in the "antique engraving" style.)

The only thing that really sucked, aside from the chill, was that I got stuck standing next to this insane, obnoxious, totally plastered trufan girl who showed up maybe a half-hour after we did. Constant loud nasal chatter between acts, screaming along with the songs while facing me and not the stage (I think she saw I was annoyed and decided to "show me"), dancing (badly) in enough space for six people. Now, before I sound like a crochety old man: I don't mind ppl singing and dancing at shows, as long as they don't sing loudly and right at me, and as long as they don't constantly flail their arms into me and everyone around them when they're dancing. I mind rude people, and this girl was so into her fandom (and, I think, her beer) as to not be considerate of anyone around her. The next person to turn to me and scream song lyrics into my face during a show is getting the fist of righteousness, I'm telling you.

(The other funny thing was that, any time she saw a shaved head during the set-up, she started squealing that it was Billy. After the seventh or eighth time, I turned to T. and said, "Do you think the roadies are contractually forbidden to shave their heads, too?")  

T. only agreed to come with me because Explosions in the Sky (indie-approved!) was the opening act. I liked them, but they're a little too much guitar noodling and not enough structure. They sound just like certain SP songs without the vocals, and also a lot like the time when Cranes opened for The Cure, and Alison was sick, so Robert Smith stepped in and played her vocal line on his guitar. And they sound a lot like a slightly-less-dreamy Sigur Ros. In all, I don't find it that interesting, but I do find it pleasant. (However, they've never had a major hit and you can't groove to their music, so it's "cooler" to like them than to like SP. The show was really too expensive for people to come just to see them, though, unless they had a Pumpkins fan dragging them along like T. did. I bought his ticket for his birthday.) 

T. thought Explosions in the Sky were from Japan (they're from Texas). I chirruped, "Yeah, they have that sound that says, Konnichi-wa! We're from Osaka and we love kabuki!" I think I meant Noh, actually, rather than kabuki.... Either way, anyone who gets that joke (which is based on vague sonic similarities) has too much time on their hands.

Now I am: done with my fun, back in a warm house, and back down to work (I'm designing a pattern! You'll see in a week, maybe!). Strongly considering a hot shower, because my nose and feet are still frrrrrozen.

Um, did I mention that I FINALLY GOT HIGH-SPEED INTERNET LAST WEEKEND?  I finally got high speed internet last weekend! It's a whole new world! (I can watch Bleach episodes the week they air in Japan! My priorities are in order, yeah!) This weekend is likely going to be the one where I tear the computer apart and give it new innards... the hard disk problems seem to have faded into the background for the time being, but I'm still going to replace the disk with the new one we got, as a failsafe measure. We'll see if I have time, though.