And Now for Something Completely Different...

...or at least mostly different.

I've been on vacation for two weeks. It's been a home vacation, so not too much excitement, but there is so much that I want to get out in this post that I very well might have to do this incrementally.

So the first week was basically hanging around my house accomplishing very little. At any time I could be found

-Sleeping

-Writing
-Drinking

-Watching movies

-Eating (good) sushi

-Eating
-Drinking

-Sleeping

-Running (but that might end up being another entry)

The writing dried up after the first four or five days. Both the projects I'm working on right now are with other people, and both of them are neck deep in paying work. Everybody's gotta eat, so it's no big deal. I should have worked on my first script but it terrifies me. I did manage to get it printed and in a binder, ready to be knifed to ribbons. After the writing was done much more drinking happened.

It kind of stinks to be on vacation when no one else is. Fortunately I like solitude as well as company, so no big shakes.

Week number two was all about the music. See, instead of going somewhere alone I spent whatever trip money I had on concert tickets. The week began with Saturday...

Saturday the lady friend and I drove down to hartford to see Coldplay. This would be my third time seeing them and it's a show that never gets old. Has my manhood been questioned because of my fondness for them? Sure, but then I still sing along to Duran Duran so who's counting? Have I sung along at the top of my lungs while driving down the freeway, being stared at by every car I pass? You betcha. Never stops me.

Anywho, the show was amazing. They've gone from being a great band to see play to being an amazing SHOW to experience. They certainly are dialing in their shows. One thing I've never seen was an acoustic set from the middle of the audience. And I've seen a LOT of concerts. I would definitely not sit on the floor again, though. I'm too old to fight to get to the front row, and craning my neck to look over someone's head gets old fast.

My cell phone's camera is pretty craptastic but I did manage to get this:

What you're seeing is the gajillions of paper butterflies that were launched from the ceiling. It was pretty rad. Also, there's a restaurant right by the arena called Agave. They have mojito stations along the bar. God love them.

So the next night was supposed to be a calm inside night of Scrubs episodes. Instead a friend called me with free tickets to a band called Ra. Not really my thing anymore, but for a free ticket what the hey? It was your basic 'modern rock' show. There were five bands, all playing basically the same thing. Each band that played next was tighter than the one before it, but they all sound the same to me now. When I was in bands like this (this would be in the early 90's) every band was wildly different. Crazy lineups, weird instruments, different points of view. And there was always a dozen kids in the crowd that had gotten hold of a jar of Manic Panic before the show. (My favorite was Turquoise and Flamingo Pink.) Now it's the same guy with the 'disturbed' t-shirt and crew cut who's all about 'kicking ass in the pit.' Or the kid who got all gothed up over at Hot Topic.

(Side rant: If you were in high school in the late eighties/early nineties and wanted to be the 'different kid' it took WORK. Hours of scouring the Salvation Army's and Goodwills to find just the right flannel and all the good black clothes you could find. It cost almost nothing but took forever. You earned your tight to be different. Now every seventeen year old Dashboard freak can go into Hot Topic with daddy's credit card and buy pre-packaged 'different' costumes for a couple hundred bucks. THIS was what Naomi Klein was talking about in No Logo.)

Still, I managed to enjoy it. good friends and a ridiculous bar tab can fix almost anything.

The next night was also supposed to be an off night as well. Then the lady friend calls. She's going to see KT Tunstall in town with a friend. That friend had to cancel. Do I wanna go? Why the heck not?

I didn't really know a ton of her music but I was familiar with it. It was good. A lot of it sounded the same but it was all entertaining and that gorgeous little lady with that aaaaaawesome Brit rasp...mmhmm.

But it was Thursday that was to be the start of something really special. That's when I saw...

For those that don't know, that'd be Nine Inch Nails. A little too much for some, this band found me right when I needed them. Thursday would be my fourth time seeing them over the years, and I can't decide if this was my favorite show of theirs or not. They're always amazing and they bring a SHOW. It's not just musicians doing their thing, there are scrims, lights aplenty, and an energy that I still haven't seen matched by a live music act.

A lot of bands will do a stripped down mini set at some point. They all grab acoustic guitars and sit on stools at the front of the stage anbd get simple. This is their version:

I don't know why I didn't get pictures of some of the more impressive visual elements. I must have been too amazed at what I was experiencing. I brought my roommate from college, who'd never truly been sold on them. By the time it was over, he was a confirmed disciple.

The plan was to see them the next night in Worcester, but apparently Trent Reznor overdid it with his voice on Thursday, so the show is postponed to November 9th. Grrrrrr!! The only consolation is that when he makes it up, he's guaranteed to bring it. Here's some other pics of that night...

Now I went back to work, and that wasn't fun. What WAS fun was my first day off. that was the night of seeing one of my other favorite bands...

You can't tell, but that's Radiohead

If you don't know them, run out and buy every album of theirs you can find. Download every scrap of music they have out there. Because they're pretty much the most important music makers out there. The fact that they can sell out 30,000+ arenas and outdoor amphitheaters with not television or radio coverage speaks volumes. A friend of mine who's as rabid a fan but never seen them was my compatriot, and we shelled out a ridiculous amount of money for well placed seats. I have a real hard time deciding whether NIN or Radiohead was a better show.

So the whole week plus was a grand success for me and I loved every minute of it.

I have new stuff to talk about, but no time to type. Next time you'll get the next installments.