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Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 06:20 pm At Midwinter: solstice weirdness
Current Mood: tired
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Not your average garden gnome--take a look at the 80 acres blog image. Then there's the viburnum blooming now...
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[info]e_moon60
Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 01:45 pm A little more...
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A little further progress, despite work and the holidays and a bum knee which makes it hard to put a laptop on top of for hours on end :-)
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[info]dctemo_13
Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 12:10 pm In space no one can hear you scream
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[info]stacia_seaman
Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 09:05 am (no subject)
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[info]blackbyrd2
Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 09:50 am Sunday Singing, with Adventures
Current Mood: tired
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The usual adventures were all generated by my being overtired already and headachy.  I needed to take more things to the city than usual:  my concert blacks, for the afternoon Messiah, and my choir robe, for church, and two sets of music--the folder for the church anthems and the Messiah score.   This required two tote bags, not just one, and so--in the early dawn, because I needed to leave at 7 am--I stuffed the bags and left my choir robe in its usual "home" post-laundry location. However...I drove off without the choir robe, realizing that only a mile away, so the drive back to get it didn't take that long--but did take more time.   Still I made it to rehearsal before the first service on time, despite hitting every red light on the way in.   I didn't realize--and wouldn't for hours--that although I had stuffed my concert blacks (Chico's wonderful travel knits) in one tote, I had not put in the short-sleeved black turtleneck that goes under the long-sleeved, longish, jacket-y thing that is worn open over the slacks and top.  That made for an interesting discovery when I was changing for the concert.  (Why, you may wonder, not wear the concert blacks all day?  I had another plan, that's why, and it was not a smart plan, in retrospect.) So...we had a decent-sized choir for the first service, and things were going smoothly until the sermon.   Now that church does have a number of street people who come to services, as well as out of town visitors from other denominations (there's a hotel right across the street) and sometimes they're vocal at parts of the service where Episcopalians usually aren't, including during the sermon.  So the loud "Amen!" and "Hallelujah!"  and "Preach it!" were, though not common, not unknown and created no stir.   For those unfamiliar with Episcopal services, they follow a predictable order, both through the year and within a given service (it's why we're one of the "liturgical" churches.)   After the sermon comes the confession of faith, in the form of the Creed.  (From the Latin "credo," "I believe...")   The whole congregation recites it together: "We believe in one God..."  etc, and for Episcopalians, the Creed remains, as Cranmer wrote centuries ago, the Creed (and not the Bible) is the foundation of Episcopal theology.   (Either the Nicene or Apostle's Creed--very similar but not identical)--counts.)   This is why the Biblical literalists are so annoyed with us.   There's no requirement to believe that every word was divinely inspired and represents absolute truth.  So we were a few phrases into it when suddenly the same voice that had shouted out before, shouted out much louder: "Liars!  Liars!  You're all liars!"  There was a moment of stunned silence, and then (with what I consider commendable attention to what's truly important) the recitation continued, as did the accusations, which escalated from there.   The person shouting was, from my position in the choir, out of my view unless I turned around (as I did, to check if he was displaying weapons, and then turned back.)  He had climbed into one of the window niches.  Like some others I talked to, we were praying that he didn't break that window and fall to his death--that window is high over a concrete-paved courtyard and falling backward his head would've burst like a melon.  Meanwhile, a quiet but purposeful movement of personnel took place--from my position I could see only part of it without staring.  Ushers moved up, clergy not actually speaking (one of the priests was leading the recitation) took the side exit out of the choir area to go help; one of the choir members, a psychiatrist, slipped out also and alerted the downstairs staff to call for backup and told the person in charge of the children's chapel (many children leave during the hymn before the Gospel reading so they don't have to listen to the sermon) not to send the children back until an all-clear.)   The man was finally removed from the window niche and carried out, still yelling.   I caught a glimpse of that.   The service went on, with a prayer offered for his welfare. By the end of the service,  the rector had given the whole congregation what information he could--the man  calmed down after a few minutes,  drank a glass of juice, and admitted he had "episodes."   Law enforcement finally arrived with their mental health officer (they had, apparently, told one of the church people on the phone that it wasn't a priority since the man hadn't injured anyone yet) and determined that he did, indeed, have a history of mental illness and was prone to violent outbursts.  In the meantime, the choir had sung "This Is the Truth Sent from Above" and the service had gone on to completion.   A quick breakfast then, and into second-service rehearsal.  In the interval there was discussion, of course.  The habit of self-examination reacts to accusations of lack of faith, of dishonesty in matters of faith, with thoughtful internal inquiries...how much of that was true?  Might be true?    Then the second service (which I'd hoped to skip but there weren't enough altos) and then it was time to get ready for the afternoon Messiah performance (sing-along, at another church, but for me as part of the supporting choir.)   I was already tired and craving a nap, but there wasn't time.  By the time I got to that church, it was after two, and that's when I discovered the lack of a critical piece of black clothing.  Luckily, that church's choir robes are black, so I suited up in one of them.  We sang more choruses than we had in the symphony performance...the soloists were excellent, the orchestra was excellent, and the audience a) came and b) nearly all sang and c) most of them knew what they were doing.   The music took over, and gave us the energy to keep going until the end.   A feature of this particular Sing-Along Messiah tradition is that there's a raffle for a chance to conduct another Hallelujah Chorus at the very end.   The winner has to wear David's sweaty coat, and get up on the podium and direct it.   Some have done brilliantly.  Some have been entered as a lark by friends and haven't a clue.  (I found out yesterday that one who had seemed clueless, years ago, was the brother-in-law of one of my alto friends.)   In that case, the orchestra and lead choir pretty much ignore the "director" and do it at the usual tempo in the usual way.  Yesterday's pick was rigged, however--the vestry and music director of the church where it was held had determined to surprise their rector.   He did quite well, though he wasn't looking at the music to cue that big long rest right before the final "Hallelujah" so when everyone stopped he looked around.  Quiet, quiet,....we all waited.  He finally caught on that he was going to have to cue that entrance, and did so with a big grin. Then some of us stayed to help move things back as they had been in the sanctuary and finally I left with Michael and drove home.   To pretty much collapse.   Still tired today.
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[info]e_moon60
Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 01:26 am The snowing has stopped
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And the entire snow storm was greatly overestimated, I think. If not in numbers in reaction. All the "Storm of the Century!" yelling about made it sound like it should be worse than the one from a few years ago, but it doesn't touch that one. The shoveling picked up today, and the photos show how the parking lot here's been plowed and people are obviously driving about—obvious because a number of cars are cleared off and a number of spaces were obviously occupied during the storm but are now no longer parked in.
Not sure if you can see The digging goes onhow the guy in the lower-left corner's up to his waist in snow, but I'm sure everyone who parked on the left side was really happy that one guy decided that playing around with his car was so important—it's because of him that the left side is so snowy while the other side is clear. As I said yesterday, most of the folks on the left have/had about ten extra feet to dig through becauMore digging.se of him. Again, the worst enemies of the people out here during bad weather are themselves and each other. For instance, the people who misparked and how the complex put out notes telling everyone to do specific things to help out during the snow, things like not parking in any spots marked with yellow Caution tape and putting all shoveled snow on the grass, not on the pavement. The little guy on the left is clearly NOT following that rule. 
I don't know if they put out any such rules or suggestions during the last big snow, but I can tell you that I moved all my shoveled snow onto the grass anyway, even though I'd separated my shoulder a couple of weeks before that and wasn't supposed to be doing any such work yet. Some friends and I have talked about how midwesterners are usually a bit different about such things, however I remember shoveling all the snow of our entire walks and driveway when I was growing up and while some folks cleared everything that completely, others did just a one-shovel wide clearing of the front walks. Of course, only a few folks didn't do any shoveling then and there, whereas I'm sure a lot more folks out here don't do any shoveling of walks at all.


P.S. I'd wanted to take more panda pics, but they didn't want to go back out. Or so they said. A while after I'd looked up to see two slightly wet and shivering pandas on the futon. I immediately commenced with the making of the hot cocoa for pandas, so they could snuggle under the blankies and sip nice hot cocoa while insisting that no, they hadn't sneaked outside and no, they didn't want to go outside and play in the snow.

Yup. Them's my pandas.
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[info]reeseszymanski
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 09:14 pm Christmas TV
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One of the things about being home alone is that I get to watch what I want to watch on TV. There has been no sports in this house for several days. What a relief.

There has, however, been a bit of Christmas TV. Because that's what you do when you're a Billy No Mates on a Saturday night.

Last night I watched all but the first ten minutes of Elf, and I really liked it. Will Ferrell does goofy-but-endearingly-sincere-about-it extremely well. It felt like they must have shot a good deal more film than made it into the final cut, because there seemed to be a whole lot of story missing about things like Jody's financial situation ("they cut off my water"), and a bit more rounding of James Caan's character would have been good. But when Buddy the Elf (who's really human) was front and centre, it was awesome.

Less delightful was the last 45 minutes (caught tonight) of Prancer, which even the craggy awesome that is Sam Elliott could save from being just too earnest.

And the initial scenes of A Christmas Carol (1984, George C. Scott) seem unlikely to surpass the 1951 Alistair Sim version in my affections. Too many liberties taken. Plus, George C. Scott is American, and Scrooge is English. And George C. Scott can't do an English accent to save his life. Or at least doesn't bother trying in this. Also, Tiny Tim? Irritating little bugger thus far.
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[info]adventurat
Dec. 21st, 2009 @ 12:00 am Save 'em Ten
Ten Things to Save Your Screen

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

Decorate your own virtual Christmas tree then display it as your screensaver with ScreenSavers.com's free Animated Christmas Tree (OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP)

For those who like to look at something more heavenly, check out RGGWare's Astronomy Screensaver (OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP)

Set your desktop ablaze with LaconicSoftware.com's Free Fire Screensaver (OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP/2K3)

3D-Screensaver-Jam.com has Free Santa and Holiday Screensavers (OS: Win 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista)

Want a free screensaver that doubles as an acarde game? Check out GameSaver (OS: Win 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP)

Green Land is "a new free 3D animal and nature screensaver by GameFalls.com. Sunny day, the grass is green, the flowers are in bloom, the flies are buzzing, the birds are singing, the horses are grazing, the butterflies are fluttering - nothing breaks this happy harmony cozy atmosphere" (OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/XP/2K3)

Get "unlimited access to a huge selection of 1000’s of top quality 3D animated Wallpapers and Screensavers featuring a huge selection of themes, designs and illustrations" with Magentic (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7)

NewFreeScreenSavers.com has a whole page of free holiday-themed screensavers as well as some with clocks that I thought looked pretty neat (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista)

Turn your pics into PhotoToys, 3D Screensavers and Wallpaper Collages with Photojoy (OS: Windows XP/Vista)

Screensavers.com also has a free animated Yule Log screensaver with video and audio from a real fireplace (OS: Win 9x/ME/2K/NT/XP)
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[info]pbackwriterfeed
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 07:34 pm It's icky outside!
Today was a very good day to stay at home and do home things like clean and do laundry and the like, for a couple of reasons.

First, it's raining cats, dogs, horses, and sheep out there. Second, outside my house smells like the stinkiest, foulest fart your brother ever ripped in your face. I think one of the digesters at the sewage treatment plant a few blocks away might have given up the ghost. Because the cabbage farm is too far away, and anyway this is way worse than rotting cabbage.

I got stuff done today. It was great. Even the errands in the rain weren't that bad.
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[info]adventurat
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 12:01 pm To do list for Sunday
Might not get to all of this today (probably won't), but here's what needs doing between now and Thursday:

  • Clean bathroom 2
  • Do laundry
  • Clean master bath
  • Declutter and tidy master bedroom
  • Vacuum upstairs
  • Vacuum living room
  • Declutter and tidy living room
  • Dust
  • Buy hooks to mount broom and dustpan on the wall
  • Buy another wreath hanger
  • Pick up prescription refill
  • Think of something to eat for dinner
  • Clean the fridge
  • Get a Terry's chocolate orange for S
  • Get Gran Turismo for S
  • Wrap the presents
  • Pack for going to the island
  • Freecycle the printer
  • Freecycle my rollerblades*
  • Fix the hem on the glen check trousers
  • Sew the buttons back on the other trousers (2 pair)
  • Investigate to-do list options for Mac & iPhone (suggestions welcome)**
  • Eat lots of mandarin oranges, which I got for a bargain yesterday
*because they kill my feet, and if I ever take up rollerblading again, I'll get a different pair

** I am currently using ToodleDo but am not keen on the interface, so was considering not renewing when my pro subscription expires on Dec. 29. I also have Things, but am not keen on spending $50 for the desktop license. I have a Remember The Milk account, but stopped using it because you had to pay to sync to iPhone. I'm over the money thing now; I realize there's no free option but I want the best bang for the buck. [info]mongrelheart, which way did you eventually go?
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[info]adventurat
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 11:44 am from [info]semioticwarrior
This is really funny, especially for Harry Potter fans. Well, maybe not the foaming-at-the-mouth rabid fans. Just watch it. Safe for work.

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[info]adventurat
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 04:19 am Bella Books Holiday Sale Ends Soon—Save on ALL My Books at BellaBooks.com!
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You've heard it right—Bella Books has got a great holiday sale running to help you get some last-minute gifts and find yourself some holiday reading material! You can get yourself any of my books they've got there—erotica, mystery, anthologies, western, vampire, 15 titles to choose from, all at fabulous holiday savings—but only if you order by 9 a.m. EST on 12/21/2009! The deal is that you get 20% off any order of $25 or more at www.BellaBooks.com. You CAN get your books by 12/24 because expedited shipping is available. Busy hands at Bella HQ are processing orders twice daily to get all holiday gift reads to you ASAP. (Include special instructions if you need your books by a particular day.) What's more, you can gift your books and have ’em too because every order containing a Bella Books or Spinsters Ink title is entered into Bella Books Win a Year of Free Books drawing! Full details at http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1410132023. Hurry and order today! Sale ENDS 9 a.m. EST, Monday 12/21/09.
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[info]reeseszymanski
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 03:01 am From Twitter 12-19-2009

  • 22:40:50: Bed now. Tomorrow is two services plus Sing-Along Messiah. I am SO not ready for this.
  • 22:41:23: Well, bed after bragging that two chapters are fixed. Again.

Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

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[info]e_moon60
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 02:44 am The flakes around here aren't just the people now
We've had a bit of snow around here. I didn't know it was coming, then Stacia warned me about it. Alas, I was almost out of ice cream, so I had to go to the store. It was a madhouse, a MADHOUSE! There's not a roll of TP or bottle of water available in the entire tri-area. I was at the store at 2 pm yesterday (Friday) and even that early the lot was full. Of course, because a storm was supposed to come, rules for "15 items or less" express checkout lanes switched from 45 items or less to 90 items or less. People hoard here if there's been a rumor or dream of a single flake of snow. I keep a bit of food around at all times, and know that a lot of people freak out—they can have plenty of food in their homes and yet they suddenly need more when there's a storm coming? Oh well.

This snow is nothing compared to what we got a few years ago on Valentine's weekend. We were seriously snowed in—I came up from downtown via the Metro, but had to walk to my apartment from the Metro on the street with my suitcase (the sidewalks were knee deep in snow and no one was driving, so the road was clear and had a bit less snow on it. Not driveable, but better than the sidewalk.) Metro was closed from Sunday afternoon until some time late Wednesday. I was able to Metro into work on Thursday. And, without any supplemental groceries (didn't shop prior to it, couldn't pick anything up after it started), I kept two people until Thursday. The only thing we ran out of was beer.

This one started at 9 last night, kept up rather heavy and steady all night, and has kept on going, but it's a lot lighter now. Even at the heaviest, though, it wasn't that bad.

Read more... )Idiotic parking on second nightRead more... )

Read more... )
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[info]reeseszymanski
Dec. 20th, 2009 @ 12:00 am Holiday Flash

Make your own animated holiday card for your blog here



Make your own animated Christmas card for your blog here



Make your own animated Christmas chick card for your blog here
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[info]pbackwriterfeed
Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 11:53 pm so ~*~new and original~*~
Spot on io9 rant/review of James Cameron's Avatar: When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?

The review itself doesn't mention one of the absolute most ridiculous things I've ever heard about the movie (though the comments do) so I will relate it for you.

Behind here in case you don't like pain! )
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[info]rawles, posting in [info]deadbrowalking
Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 10:01 pm Two years ago today...
...Someone very special came to visit and agreed to stay. We'd already seen her in one form online If you use iGoogle, you might have seen that you can have themes for your iGoogle page, one of which is the Tea House, where a brilliant and peaceful panda lives, charting the stars, playing music for the geese, sleeping under the sky, eating simple foods while drinking soothing tea, sojourning with the PTBs and enjoying the simple pleasures with her friends. Mei-Ling stays with us as you see above. She says she had nothing to do with the snow, but I'm not so sure. All we know is that her butch panda friend, Mei-Mei, her femme meerkitty friend Malaika, her beautiful meerkitty wife Naïma and Stacia and I are so very glad she has decided to stay and live and travel with us. In case anyone hasn't picked it up yet, our beautiful girls always travel with us. We just have to keep them safe from any children we might pass. Oh, more importantly, for those who don't know, RED pandas were the original pandas. The red got added on when people decided to call the big black-and-white bears pandas as well—and that's also why the big black-and-white bears most people think of as pandas are referred to as giant pandas.  Red pandas are an endangered species. The two biggest threats against these adorable guys are habitat destruction and... this one is unbelievable: Hunting. (I hate to even type the word, especially while the girls are on my lap, but there it is.) The Red Panda Network is working to try to save them: www.redpandanetwork.org/redpanda/threats.php. Mei-Ling came to us when Stacia gave me a really wonderful birthday gift one year and Adopted a Species through the National Zoo nationalzoo.si.edu/Support/AdoptSpecies/AnimalInfo/RedPanda/, which means she made a donation to the National Zoo to help save the pandas. The red pandas. She didn't expect anything except maybe a certificate, so she and Mei-Mei and Malaika were really surprised when a box with airholes and notices that say "Do Not Feed!" showed up. I was at work when it arrived, so Malaika and Mei-Mei were on it (literally) when I got home that day. The real pandas, who too many people don't know about, which means that not as many people are working to save them as many other species. The Adopt a Species program at the National Zoo has a few components that make it a great gift for kids, too! (A few places have Adopt a Red Panda programs, btw.) Happy holidays all! Reese
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[info]reeseszymanski
Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 04:03 pm Clean floors!
Righty-o. That's a huge load off, man. I love having clean floors. Now I just have to deal with all the secondary crap that comes with cleaning the floor in the dining room, which is to say finding places for things that ended up in there because there was nowhere else for them. (To me this means GET RID, to S it means GO TO IKEA AND BUY STORAGE FURNITURE.)

We are not moving to a bigger house, because we'd just outgrow that one, too. Must pare down. I look at everything in that room with a critical eye and think "do we need to keep this?" About the solar lamps for outside, I'm thinking yes. About the champagne tub that S bought in time for our party - and then we never used - I'm thinking maybe not. Will we ever use it? Possibly. Must see if it fits inside the outdoor cooler. If not... well, I dunno where we're gonna keep it, but personally I'm tired of the "on top of a box of gifted booze that sits on a dining room chair beside the wine rack" look. It's just not doin' it for me anymore, you know? [EDIT: Oh, it fits. Yay.]

The impulses that seize me when I clean; you will marvel. I have a 3-wick candle from PartyLite. In raspberry. And I love it. But the last time I burned it, one of the wicks fell into the wax and went out, while the other two sizzled on their merry way. And then one side of the candle developed a rupture, and all the wax leaked out. (It was in an enclosed holder, so no damage was done.) And to cut a long story short I have not been able to use that 3-wick ever since. (It's six inches in diameter; they recommend burning pillar candles of any size for one hour per inch of diameter. A lot can happen in six hours if you're not paying attention.) So today I decided to 'fix' it. (I used to be a PartyLite consultant; I know how to do this.)

Tips for fixing an unevenly-burned pillar candle, especially if the wick is buried in the cooled wax.
  • DO use your oldest frying pan or pot. Best to use one whose bottom is entirely flat.
  • DO put it on low heat.
  • DON'T then get out the vacuum and get stuck in to the whole process of hoovering and washing your floors.
  • DON'T panic when you discover that you've melted the candle well beyond where you intended to.
  • DO take the candle out, lift the wicks up, and set the thing aside to cool.
  • DON'T pour the puddle of hot wax in the pot or pan down your kitchen sink, or into the garbage.
  • DON'T let the wax cool in the pan to a solid mass that you can't do anything with.
  • DO pull out a muffin tin and ladle the melted wax into the individual cups.
  • DO scrape as much hardened wax out of the pan before washing it. (Putting it in the fridge or freezer helps with this; cool contracts the wax and pulls it away from the pan, in theory anyway.)
  • DO wash your frying pan (and ladle) in the hottest water you can get out of your kitchen taps. Rinse well, also in hot water. (The hot water keeps the paraffin melted; with any luck it'll make it out to the city sewer and not clog up your pipes.)
  • DO NOT put these items in the dishwasher for this purpose.
Not sure what I'm going to do with the dozen new wax blobs I've just made. I do have an aroma melts burner (not that one, but same idea) that takes wax blocks of roughly the right shape, and now I've got something to put in it when the current puddle runs out. (I could grate them, like cheese, into the existing puddle....) Or I could put each one in a length of nylon stocking and tuck one in every clothing drawer I own. :) Or I could give them as gifts!

Oh, on the subject of nylon stockings - they are the perfect thing to polish fingerprints and scratches out of the sides of your pillar candles. You know, in case you're the kind of person who worries about that kind of thing. (I did mention that I used to be a PartyLite consultant, right? Yes.)
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[info]adventurat
Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 11:30 pm But Oh What Can You Do When She's Dressed In Black?
Current Mood: content
This is probably going to be another of those long gig entries that I refuse to put behind a cut. You love it, bitches. Just be happy I finally got as far as writing this!

So yeah. Last Sunday (as I said, I'm finally writing this) I went with [info]lyverbyrd and her husband to see Depeche Mode. Although, I'm getting ahead of myself there. These things are never that simple.

I'd been at my parents on Saturday night, and dashed off at lunchtime to get home to tidy the house before they arrived. And then, as it's starting to get late-ish, I get a text saying the traffic is a bit shit, followed by another saying that it's even worse and they'll just meet me at the venue instead of coming to me. Still, I got a tidy house of it :)

So, the other thing I had to do was cook sausages - to put in rolls and take to have as dinner before the gig. Om Nom Nom. Only, for whatever reason, the sausages were not in any hurry to be cooked. Anyway, the upshot of this was that I ended up leaving home later than intended, and was panicking that we'd not be inside in time for the gig starting (I had the tickets).

Fast forward... ::blibble::blibble::blibble:: (that's a fast forward sound effect)

I get to the NEC. I park up, then walk round to the arena. The route from the car park I was in took me past the backstage entrances, where there were 8 trucks and 4 buses. This will be vaguely important later.

Even after getting myself frantic that I was running far too late, I still got to the arena entrance first :p

So, the Northerners arrived, we went in. We found our seats (very near the back - note to self, do not book DM at last minute in future, do what you've always done before and get them the day they go on sale), sat down, I handed out food, and then the lights went down. How's the for timing, eh?

But, as it happened, the support band were shite. Well, no, not shite. But they were non-descript. So once we'd exhausted all the avenues of mockery for them, we headed back out of the hall to buy tshirts and shizz. It took me two attempts to get the tshirt I wanted, the first merchandise stall had run out of my size. Well, actuuuuuuually I wanted two tshirts, but the second one I could not for the life of me get in my size. Probably just as well given what I spent on crismus presents today.

When we got back, the support band hadn't become any more interesting. Which meant we discussed more interesting stuff. Well, more specifically, me and Mr Lyverbyrd discussed comics - well, Blackest Night. I haven't yet mentioned that I had taken with me to the gig the Orange Light of Avarice, the Blue Light of Hope, and the Violet Light of Love. Seemed appropriate for a gig of one of my favourite bands. If you don't know what I'm on about here, I might explain in some other post if you're unlucky.

Depeche Mode were late starting. Or it seemed that way. Pretty sure they tend to take longer to get ready though, and that this wasn't an isolated occasion. Whatever. Now, I haven't seen Depeche Mode quite as much as I've seen Simple Minds. It's not (quite) 20 years since I first saw them. But I've seen them enough to know that the first song is crucial for the way the gig goes. The choice of first song was predictable, but there were much better directions they coulda taken it. It didn't ignite the crowd. Which meant the atmosphere of the gig didn't spread all the way back to us.

And then they did Wrong. Now, much as the song has grown on me, it really didn't work that well as a live track.

When things first started to get going was when they'd finished the trio of new tracks and got to do Walking In My Shoes, with (as the song always seems to have) very weird backing visuals. I should explain a bit of the stage set up. There was a fucking huuuuuuge screen across the whole back of the stage, and all the way up to the lighting rigs. And near the top was this hemispherical bulge that showed different stuff to the rest of the screen. During walking in my shoes, there was black and white footage of a raven flying around. And the bulgy bit had footage that made it look like the raven's eyeball floating in space, looking around. Looked like Brother Eye to me.

It's No Good was good, and A Question Of Time got a fair portion of the crowd on their feet, as well it should.

We were all surprised that they did Precious. And I was sat there trying to ignore the poignant element of the lyrics. Not in a bad way as such, just in a 'look, do you mind if I pass' way. Hmm, yes. Then they did World In My Eyes, and then Dave walked off, which meant it was time for the Martin bit, which I was dreading.

The first Martin song was Insight, which was rather good. Just him and Peter thingie on the piano. And then... yes... the song I'd been dreading. Home. I think because I'd been dreading it so much, I had all the necessary defences in place and just went numb instead of getting upset. To people that don't know/haven't twigged why I'd be dreading it, let's just say there's a certain person who I strongly associate with that song. But [info]lyverbyrd was a total dear. She looked after me and made sure I was ok.

The next few songs were when the gig started coming together atmosphere-wise at our end of the arena. In Your Room was a bit different. They tricked us into thinking it was the proper version before seguing it into the other one. In fact, one of the things about this gig was that the band had played with the arrangements a bit for the first tour since the Singles Tour in 1998.

The main set finished with what are probably my 3 favourite DM songs, and they did indeed rocketh muchly. I could gush and gush about them, but no.

Dressed In Black was another Martin song, and for me was the only real surprise of the gig. I liked that they did Stripped, as it'd been a while since I'd seen that one.

Personal Jesus was a predictable end track, but a good one.

In the end, it was a good gig, but not their best. And yet this week I've booked to see them again in February at the Albert Hall. For charideeeeee :)

Anyway, still a little bit to tell. We said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways, and I had to walk back past the backstage bit to get to my car. Of course, there were now hoards of security, and lots of people blocking the path because they figured they might catch a glimpse of the band. Since I just wanted to get home, I was not impressed, and elbowed my way through.

I then sat in my car tweeting about the ridiculousness of revving your engine trying to get out of the car park, burning up fuckloads of fuel to get a few inches further forward. People jamming up the car park in the rush to get out always makes me cross.

AND THEN NOT ONLY BUT ALSO there were fucking roadworks on the M42 right next to the NEC, down into one lane. With half the gig traffic going that way, that didn't go well either, but hey. OK, I'm done. There's just the set list to read now and then you can get back to your lives.

Set list:

  1. In Chains
  2. Wrong
  3. Hole To Feed
  4. Walking In My Shoes
  5. It's No Good
  6. A Question Of Time
  7. Precious
  8. World In My Eyes
  9. Insight
  10. Home
  11. Miles Away / The Truth Is
  12. Policy Of Truth
  13. In Your Room
  14. I Feel You
  15. Enjoy The Silence
  16. Never Let Me Down Again

  17. encore
  18. Dressed In Black
  19. Stripped
  20. Behind The Wheel
  21. Personal Jesus
About this Entry
[info]mutster101
Dec. 19th, 2009 @ 08:57 am Dewd. Buh?
Tags:
Just found out that there will be no new episodes of Glee until April 13th. APRIL. That's more than four months away!

Quinn should be enormously preggo by then. (Heck, [info]spotzle will be nearly ready to pop, too!)

Be interesting to see if I'm still interested in nearly five months' time.
About this Entry
[info]adventurat

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