Happy Birthday, Sons

Hi Sons,

I know you don't actually read this blog but Happy Birthday to you!

Who am I really talking to then? I'm not sure...

Luz,

Or 2.

P.S. You probably don't even know my code name is Or 2! Wait, exactly who am I addressing again?

Currently: confused.

U2: Rockin' The Bad Juju, Part I

It may not happen often but sometimes, even though the signs are very clear, I choose to ignore warnings of ill.

From the start, I probably should have known nothing good would come of the U2 September 25th Giants Stadium gig, when purchasing those 6 tickets compromised one of my credit cards - the good one that used to give me Amazon Gift Certificates.

Being treated as a criminal and accused of being someone else is not enough of an omen for me, I suppose.

Then one month before the concert, the date of the show was changed from Friday to Wednesday.

Wha'?

So, just to keep track of it all, our friend Sons along with others all over the world flying out to this show, were SCREWED air fare, hotel fare, work hours etc etc to facilitate a changed date schedule for a religious holiday two days later, that required the NY Jets to re-schedule their game.

Wha'?

Yes. Due to the fact that a particular religious denomination cannot possibly adhere to their chosen faith AND miss a Jets game (honestly, priorities of your choosing, anyone?), U2 fans from all over had to re-book flights, lose money and curse just to go to this effin' show two days earlier.

Please note that U2's excuse was that it was infeasible for them to pull down their stage setting in the three hours less time they were allotted.

Never mind they are stinking filthy wealthy bastards who can hire the extra hands to assist in a moving; and never mind they played a show in MA on the 21st which ended at 11:10 PM or so - had to dismantle the set, pack it up, drive it to NJ only to set it up again for the 23d.

My math may be awful but I'm fairly certain that I am coming to the same conclusion to the equation set forth herein.

Result: We were assed out for no really good reason.

Things do not end there.

Finally deciding to buy tickets for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Radio City Music Hall concert on the 23RD for H1's birthday present, suddenly became a problem.

Equation: YYY + 23 / U2 + 23
Result: whYYYU2...?!?!?! (x23)

Amazing acoustics, great seats and a chance to sing "Zero" with H1 on a nice, relaxing evening just went out the window because Sons changed her flight to come see U2 on the 23rd.

Things, as they say, can ALWAYS be worse.

Here's another for you -

Equation: $170 dollars changing fee + 10 hours of work for 10 days straight just to get 2 days off to come to NYC to see U2 and then having your flight cancelled 3 hours before the concert due to equipment failure = ?
Result: Nightmare. Absolute friggin' nightmare.

We bought a cake of the chocolate double temptation kind - a cake for H1's and Sons' Birthday, and a reminder of why we should be drowing our sorrows from this horrible experience in a chocolatey overload of chocolate mousse, cheese cake, fudge and chocolate ganache:



Currenlty listening to: "Fell in Love with a Girl" - by The White Stripes.

Making Christmas (Part I): Chinatown Friday

As I write this, it's actually December 10th even though I started this post on December 6th. The HOchieS had a very full weekend past, with Day-Off'ing, Chinatown'ing, Baking, Decorating and doing Christmasie Christmas'ing.

On Friday last, Sons and the HOchieS trekked off to Chinatown for some Dim sum. I think I have to make it a tradition of making the Dim sum trip to take pictures of the Chinese Christmas display at Golden Bridge and well, to eat Dim sum of course.

The dim sum was extremely good on Friday and I saw things I never saw there before. I was rather impressed and tried to take decent pictures for once. Umm, that didn't happen. Clearly it's due to my lack of photography skills but I'm still trying and learning. I think H1's got a better eye than I but does she have a Camera Eye? Hmmm...

Cart Love -



OMG, here come the meats:



H1 and her good "Camera" Sense, for taking pictures of babies and now beef & pork:





What?! It was a first for here! Juicy pork dumplings?! Oh, how disappointing - the juicy bit leaked out...ah well. They were still stuffed with piggyh bliss:



The display was quite festive this year:



I particularly enjoyed the Santa:



After the eats, we headed to where the cool kids go. Sadly, Soul Eater Volume 2 figures were not out yet so I couldn't buy my beloved Stein, but we did do some Christmas Shopping for Momma HOchie, some kids and I got H1 a present. That reminds me that I need to take that from her so that I may wrap it up.

It was a fun but busy day that ended after we went to the grocery to buy ingredients for the two day bake fest which we'll discuss in a Part II blog post.

Memorable Conversation of the Day:

Sons: We're the only non-Chinese people here.
::later on:: Or 2: Oh, there are some white people over there. The Chinese people put them in the corner - out of sight. No one puts baby in a corner!

Currently listening to: "Heaven's Dead" by Audioslave.

Sons Is Here!

And she already managed to sully my ears by dirtying up "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" by The Offspring.

All I'll need now is for MC to create his character Sexual Chocolate again with the new and improved 'fro that has a 'fro comb in it and I'll have the entire Rock Band 2 cringe experience!

::shudder::

Effin' Eff Moments of Today

Frock.

Who uses that word anymore? H1 has declared that word shart. Sons, pay attention.

Trent Reznor.

Trent has managed to piss me off twice in a span of less than 5 months.

Today he announced the release of the new album in four available editions.

You can preview 9 of the 36 tracks for free online. Secondly, you can download a copy for $5.00. For $10.00 you can buy a cd set. For $75 dollars, you can buy a deluxe edition that has a hardcover art book dealie and finally, for $300 you get what you'd get for $75.00 plus the album on Vinyl. And a signature by the man himself, in addition to a number of this limited edition product of 2500 copies produced.

So.

If you're keeping track like I am, essentially I'd be paying about $100+ for a signature.

Trent, what the eff?! Why don't I just buy a $75.00 copy then hunt you down and have you sign it for me, making my copy 2501?

Ass.

I'm so pissed, I may even just go ahead and get that $10.00 edition. I'm going to preview the 9 to decide.

I feel like I got tons from Radiohead and for them, I paid 80 dollars.

Back in the day, just as Bughie J. pointed out, Trent could have gotten blood out of me.

Now my blood is reserved for Matt, which thinking about it now... puts him at $1845.78 from me last year alone.

...

I have an effin' problem.

Help.

Currently listening to: "I Hate Jimmy Page" by Mindless Self Indulgence. And I do too. No tour from Zeppelin and Robert Plant's to blame. Oh, I guess that'd make me hate Robert Plant, and "The Only Time" by Nine Inch Nails. I really curse this effin' Itunes Random Playlist sometimes.

"You Want Us To Play Until The Sun Comes Up?...That's Ridiculous!"

Yeah, we did actually. Ridiculous a concept? Never!

There are few bands I would go see more than once in support of the same tour/album. Well, okay, a 'few' would imply 3 but in fact, it's only 2. Need I say MUSE?

And the second, because inquiring minds would like to know, I'm certain of it:



Once again (like the tool I am re: last MUSE concert), I was debating not going to this. However, this time, it wasn't from trying to refrain from seeing a band for the 4th time of the same tour but I was wary of the venue as I'd never been to Central Park Summerstage and really didn't feel like moshing in one giant pit.

But thanks to an enthusiastic H1, we opted to go and for the second time this year, Arctic Monkeys have left me in pain of the fantastic kind.

You know the kind of pain you get the day after from jumping in the pit or moshing in the pit? That's a sign of a fun concert had and indeed this night was.

Charming, witty, playful, and downright bad-assed, the boys of AM played with such fury and created such frenzy in the crowd, that from the Ukkers who were in attendance to the New Yorkers, to the out-of-towners - it truly made the house into a circus, berserk as fuck.

We tend to see that as a perk though.

Look, excusing the poor, misguided and gross misuse of lyrics that I just had to toss in for it seemed fitting at the time (and who wants to go back and re-edit? It's 12.59 in the AM as I type this and I've work in less than 5 hours), the bottomline is that the show was goo'd times and I'm determined to go back next year if they return.

Also, Malahide Castle may not have come to fruition this year like I wanted it to but I'm determined to see them in the UK at some point.

And why not?

They are well worth it.

The Lowlamps/WTF Moments of the evening:

1. Voxtrot. That band left much to be desired. I was fairly excited to see The Coral and only found out hours before the show that they were no longer supporting AM.
The horrid vocalist coupled with equally horrid lyrics had me rolling my eyes and apologizing profusely to Beetchie and H1 for their "music". Like BYOP before them (AM really needs better support when they come to the U.S.), they perhaps had a bit of musical potential but thanks to a bad lead singer, it made for an unbearable set. Seriously, thinking back now I don't think I should have been apologizing. Voxtrot owes me one!

2. The lack of pit etiquette. H1, Sons and Beetchie were fighting off kids who were being assholes. A pit is fun but not when it's filled with peeps who don't know how to act right in there. Rude people plagued the place. And if there's one thing I do, it's avoid things like the plague. Alas, the abundance of assholery was too much to be rid of completely and I too, had my share of listening to little kids from one of the superpowers in the newly built Axis of Evil, NJ, go on about nothing because they refuse to shut the hell up.

3. WTF is up with AM and their poor lighting. I know they're very lowkey and don't care much for flashy brightness and all that, which is fine - they don't need it because their energy makes up for all else. It's not their fault I've a bit of a crap camera but their lighting does not help the situation any. So once again, I've no really fantastic pictures of the band. Another 'fuckity-fuck-fuck-fuck' moment? Present.

4. We'd rather not talk about it but not being able to meet the band makes for some sad HOchieS. One day, cuties.

5. The boys seemed to be a bit off in the beginning not that it made me have any less fun, nor did it really make them have any less fun. They seemed to be laughing and looking at each other with the "okay, let's get it together. har har har" look. Funny lads, funny. Don't fuck up my "Brianstorm" like that again! Ah, I keed.

6. *Warning: Sullied Blog Alert!

Once again, I did not hear "Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But..." and "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured". Also really disappointing was that we didn't get to hear the ultra-sexy vocals on "505". We also didn't get "Plastictramp"! I can kind of understand the lack of the latter being that it's not released here yet but come now, boys. I've resigned myself to the fact that I will never hear "505" unless I go to the UK to see them and that I will never hear "Perhaps..." and "Red Light...".

Hmmm, there's never any chicken bones around when you need a bunch... H1 will come prepared the next time though. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

7. The worst thing of the evening was the fact that everyone in our group was split up and H1 and I were separated. Separated! That trauma is never going down again.

The Highlights of the Evening:

1. Alex acknowledged me and smiled. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

2. The banter between the band and the audience including the singing that went down during most songs, most notably, "When The Sun Goes Down", as expected.

3. They began the show with a little "Matador" Intro! Great stuff that. For a moment, I had a flashback to Japan when I happily found a CD store and took a picture of "Favourite Worst Nightmare" over there. I know. I have the strangest, most random flashbacks sometimes (and an affinity for finding excuses to post pictures of my boys):





4. Matthew, once more, tore up the drums like nobody's buisness and hit them particulary hard during "The View From the Afternoon". The sound in that open space was quite fabulous. It was a great venue for them.

5. I'm always rather impressed by the voice distortion bit that Alex does on "If You Were There, Beware" and tonight it was even more spectacular. It was loud, haunting and piercing - exactly the way I think it's meant to be heard.

::sigh::

Thanks for the great times and I'll see you next year - Nick, Matthew, The Cookie and Alex.





Arctic Monkeys @ Central Park Summerstage 09/05/2007 Set List:

Matador (intro)
This House is a Circus
Brianstorm
Still Take You Home
Dancing Shoes
From the Ritz to the Rubble
Fake Tales of San Francisco
Balaclava
Old Yellow Bricks
I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor
Flourescent Adolescent
Teddy Picker (let's have a game on the Teddy Picker!)
Intro + D is for Dangerous
Mardy Bum
Do Me A Favour
If You Were There, Beware
The View From The Afternoon
Leave Before The Lights Come On
When The Sun Goes Down
A Certain Romance

Hopefully this time, TD5 will be able to come with. Maybe March in London...?

Quote(s) and Memorable Conversation(s) of the evening:

"Everytime I sing this song, the microphone tends to go to the side so I have to sing like this (with my head sideways). It's fate. But I guess there are worse things than that fate, huh?" - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"Yeah, having to listen to you, for instance..." - Or 2.

"A little more on the bass and piano, please?" - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"How about a little less, like none. Also, who do you think you are making all these demands?!" - Or 2.

"We are having technical difficulties, folks." - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"Thank goodness! Maybe they'll have to end their set NOW!" - Or 2.
::music starts playing::
"Goddamn it!" - Or 2.

"Ummm, I smell Christian." - Beetchie, on Voxtrot.

"We're a band from Texas..." - lead singer of Voxtrot.
"Ooooohhhhh, that explains EVERYTHING." - Beetchie and Or 2.

Okay, so it seems we really wailed on this band. Ah well. They can't all be greatness support like Illinois (who are deserving of their own tour!!!!).

"I guess we can't get lucky twice in one year. Illinois was a rarity." - Or 2
"::raised eyebrow:: Yeah." - Beetchie

Currently listening to: Some Kenna including "Man Fading", "Sunday After You" and "Out of Control" by Kenna. Hmmm, I'm disappointed in that new song. Hopefully the rest of the album will be amazing like the first. I still maintain that "New Sacred Cow" was the best $9.99 purchase I made, not to be confused with my best $11.00 purchase made: my now pin-ified jacket.

P.S. That was also quite clever of you, Alex. We know there's no song by that name. At least, not one of yours. So really, how DID we expect you to play 'until the sun comes up'? Thanks for making the lot of us seem ridiculous!

Quite. clever. Indeed...