Can’t remember where I ran across this little pearl of wisdom — it was sometime last year — but I can’t argue the accuracy.
1) A glass of wine seems like a good idea. It’s not.
2) A bottle of beer doesn’t seem like a good idea. It is.
Appropos of nothing — just felt like sharing.
Hidden Things, Nov. 8 snippet that I liked:
At the security desk Vikous paused, his hands jammed in his coat pockets, the cigar leaking a thin line of smoke into the air from the corner of his mouth. The guard eyed them both suspiciously.
“Business?” he asked.
“Top floor. The party.” Vikous looked bored.
“Invitation,” the guard said, leaning forward with a hand extended. Vikous just looked at him. The guard settled back in his seat, his eyes hooded. “How do you know there’s a party if you don’t have an invitation?”
Vikous’ shiny black eyes watched the guard without moving. With slow deliberation, he pulled his right hand out of his pocket and laid it on the desk counter, leaning on it toward the guard as he said “Well, there would have to be a party, wouldn’t there?”
Calliope couldn’t see his face clearly from that angle but something in the guard’s face seemed to give way for just a moment, leaving his eyes showing white all the way around as he looked at Vikous.
“Second elevator on the right,” he said, his voice barely audible.
If you’re interested in reading it as it comes out, go here.
She has issues.
Just a happy little TGIF gift, an excerpt from the last batch of stuff for Hidden Things:
“What’s with the open window?”
“You smell like the parts of the coastline where birds have died.”
He shrugged. “Not a lot of bathing opportunities in my simple life.” He pulled out a mangled but mostly intact cigar from an inner pocket and pointed at a passing road sign. “Turn here. Mind if I smoke since we’re gonna die of pneumonia anyway?”
“Could you just shoot yourself in the chest instead?” she said without rancor, taking the exit he’d indicated. “I can tear your trachea out with my bare hands and rub asphalt on your tongue afterwards if that would help you get the buzz. Maybe I could leave your body lying on a pile of burning tires.”
He simply stared at her, then tucked the cigar away. “You have issues. You know this?”
“It’s been mentioned before,” she muttered.
Disk 7: Kenny Loggins — Linkin Park
Awhile ago, I asked for people to send me music.
Yeah. I pretty much scored on that one. I wanted to thank the people that sent me stuff:
- ***Dave wins the “First Music Donation” award, though he sorta cheated, what with not having to mail them and all.
- Stacy wins the “Person with whom I could swap musical tastes and no one would notice” award. 20+ songs of kick-assedness.
- Meera wins the “A funky surprise in every box” award for sending me a great mix of stuff I would never have expected from her :)
- Mike (whom I didn’t know was sending me stuff at all) dredged up two CD’s of stuff I used to listen to all the time but despaired of ever getting MP3’s for. When I heard Temple of the Dog leading off the first CD, I smiled and kept smiling.
- Brian wins the “My God It’s So… Big” award. (19 CD’s. Nine. Teen. Cripes.)
Huge thanks — you guys rock. Now, I do too :)
I’m think I’m just a Paranoid Girl
So, the Garbage/No Doubt concert. Where to begin?
How about the bad?
There wasn’t much bad.
But…
Well okay, the bad was pretty Bad, you’re right. Let’s see, the opening band was the Distillers. Here’s a few thoughts:
- Obviously rebelling against the poseurs who know all three chords, their style was one chord plus feedback, then scream.
- How did they get this gig? Does Shirley Manson has esteem issues?
- Forget just throwing the picks into the crowd, just give up your whole instrument — please.
- Following their ‘act’, the road crew didn’t merely move their gear – there were ritual cleansings of whatever they’d touched.
Comment from Randy: “They didn’t suck donkey because no self respecting donkey…”
Their drummer was really good. In ten years, this band might not embarass him, or they’ll be dead and he’ll be with another group. I’m good either way.
Garbage
I used ear plugs during the opening act (and went outside the auditorium, and prayed for lightning to strike the stage), but with Garbage, I occassionally felt the need to hear what Shirley was saying between songs — the woman has a lot on her mind. I gather their most recent visit to Denver was a bad experience, but the crowd last night was awsome, and Garbage responded. Everyone knows how the band started out as a haphazard group of studio artists that sort of tripped and fell into popularity; how their humble beginnings meant they didn’t know how to act when they started touring.
Ladies and gentlemen, they’re over that. I enjoyed their set immensely.
Then No Doubt came out.
Actually, they came up. Through the floor of the underlit catwalk, to be exact. (Even the drummer, with a secondary set of drums. He stayed out in front on the catwalk for the first three or four songs.)
What to say about No Doubt?
- Jesus, Gwen Stefani’s in shape: vocally, physically, mentally. The rest of the group is probably ready to run a 10k, just to keep up with her.
- The drummer wore only a kilt and a pair of sneakers. Kick ass.
- At one point, Gwen said “the best part of being me right now is that I’ve got all of you,” while making a gesture somewhere between a group hug and scooping in the adoration — she wasn’t exaggerating — I’ve been to several good concerts and at least one I would consider great. I have never seen a singer own the crowd like Gwen did last night.
- Shirley was comfortable on the stage during her set, but after seeing Stefani move around Manson seemed clumsy and unsure, and the girl from the Distillers looked like someone possessed by a spastic poltergeist (actually, it didn’t take Gwen’s performance to cast her in that light, but oh well).
Bottom line: someone told me yesterday that they’d heard that No Doubt wasn’t very good in concert.
Allow me to retort: HA hahahah hahah ahaha aha aha ah aha h ahaha ahhhaaaaaaaa HEEEEEE… *wheeze*.
Musical bits
Last night’s Buffy was hit-and-miss at best, vacillating between hilarious, uncomfortable, lame, and crapfest. Ahh well, they can’t all be gems.
But the music was fun. Here’s the ones I could identify:
[1] Theme From A Summer Place (particularly funny if you remember how Oz describes his perfect woman).
[2] The Shins – “New Slang”
[3] The Breeders – “Little Fury”
[4] The Breeders – “Son Of Three”
[5] Coldplay – “Warning Sign” (I really should get some more of their stuff.)
Substance to this post? Not at all. Just felt like displaying the geek plummage for all to see.
“Everything I need to know, I learned from Doyce’s NaNoWriMo”
Today, we learn how to deal with an assailant, with an example from the heroine of Hidden Things:
Calliope pointed at the lighted office window. Her heart hammered in her chest. “There’s an armed policeman sitting right in there,” she said. “You might want to call him for help.”
…and then the ass-kicking began. *curtsey*
As of right now I’m exactly on track for my word count but I’m sure to be behind come midnight tonight, since instead of being a good little boy and writing when I get home I’m going to the No Doubt/Garbage coliseum tour show.
What’s the opposite of Serenity?
For those of you that are curious, here’s the order that the Firefly episodes that have been filmed so far were meant to be aired in:
0) The legendary unaired pilot, “Serenity”.
1) The Train Job
2) Bushwhacked
3) Shindig
4) Safe
5) Our Mrs. Reynolds
6) Jayne’s Town
7) Out of Gas
8) Ariel
9) War Stories
10) Heart of Gold
Here’s the order they have aired:
1) The Train Job
2) Bushwhacked
5) Our Mrs. Reynolds
6) Jayne’s Town
7) Out of Gas
3) Shindig
“Safe” is next week, which means that for better or worse we’ve seen seven of the first 8 shows.
Shindig was fun. My only real annoyance is that I’ve read the script for the unaired pilot (I’ll email it to anyone who wants to check it out) and knowing that, I know how much more I would have liked Shindig if I’d seen the pilot episode: the pilot takes place on the same planet with several of the same characters involved. The ties between this episode and the pilot are pretty strong, and it’s a real shame we don’t get to share that.
Anyway. Back to the wordmill.