Passions just like mine....

yo ho ho and a bottle of diet coke!
For Liz anyway :)

Delighted to recieve another package from Ruben with two more rings I bought! Once again I am blown away by his jewelry!!! My fav is this pirate ring which I'm sure Jack Sparrow would be on like a magpie if he saw it =) Argh!!!

crappy pic I took last night w/o flash after the card reader refused to cooperate with the SD card and I couldn't download the better pix...

( better pix by RXV below )

Current Mood: delighted

old friend makes good :)
Amused to see a long article in today's WASHINGTON POST on my old buddy Andy who used to work at Zenith Comics in Olney - Judy & I used to go in there pretty much every Saturday afternoon & hang out & I certainly miss Andy's discounts where he'd make up whatever price he felt like charging (Andy I still really appreciate that $25 signed HR Giger print!!!) or even better, toss out the folks that annoyed him.

Andy is now a top sommelier at one of the fanciest restaurants in town :)

click here for article & video

( or just read )

Current Mood: nostalgic

check this out while it is still free!
Act I & II are up now, III goes up tomorrow and they are free to watch until Sunday night. Its the latest project from "Buffy/Angel/Firefly" creator Joss Whedon & reminds me of a cross between the Buffy musical and the mad scientists from MST3K.... also Nathan Fillion chews a lot of scenery & enjoys every moment of it!

( Read the master plan )

Good seeing The Street Dogs again as I hadn't seen them since last year when they were on tour with Tiger Army. Got a chance to pick up their newest CD "State of Grace" & get everybody to sign it for me & they put on a great show as always!

They'll be coming back soon - to the Ottobar on September 23rd & the Black Cat on September 30th!

Whole page of photos here:
http://www.psychotica.net/streetdogs

( more pix below )

Current Mood: artistic

Had to check out the Aggrolites (another Hellcat band) since former Tiger Army upright bassist Jeff Roffredo recently joined them on electric bass to replace Dave Fuentes who passed away last September. Jeff joined a couple months back shortly after leaving TA - its odd to see him on a "regular" bass but he seemed to be enjoying himself & getting into the reggae groove!

Whole page of photos here:
http://www.psychotica.net/Aggrolites

( more pix below )

Current Mood: productive

Horrorpops at Warped

Thankfully the Horrorpops (and Aggrolites) played inside the amphitheater so it was shaded and a lot cooler. It was kinda odd seeing the "stripped down" 3 piece version of just Patricia, Kim & Neidermeyer sans dancers & props but honestly worked better than the last time when I saw them opening for Danzig with the new girls copying all of Kamilla and Naomi's moves.

They did invite a couple of gals from the audience onstage though & they certainly seemed to be enjoying their 15 mins of fame & there was so much humping on Patricia's bass while Kim took his turn playing it that Patricia commented "I think its gonna have babies"

Whole page of photos here:
http://www.psychotica.net/horrorpops/Merriweather-Warped-2008.html

( more pix below )

Current Mood: artistic

Outside in the summer heat..... (Warped 2008)

Time for the annual "fry outside all day" excursion to Warped tour (how on earth did I do this SIX TIMES last year??) though truthfully it wasn't quite as hot as last year & I kept lathering on the suncreen & managed not to get burnt :)

Got stuck in traffic for over an hour between the off ramp from Rt 29 and Merriweather Post Pavillion (Columbia, MD) and missed the Briggs :( At least Mark was great enuff to text me all the times of other bands I wanted to see so I knew I had until 1:45 when the Horrorpops came on and could relax a bit.

Caught the 'pops, Aggrolites and Street Dogs & then headed out after SD as I'd promised Mark a ride to the airport - he'd hooked up with some buddies who run a small label in Atlanta & traveled to 7 Warped shows with them and joined the Street Dogs on stage at those but it was tim eto go home as the Unseen are heading to Europe soon. So since he got a good deal out of Dulles I drove him to IAD afterwards & now I'm joking that the only area airport left to show him is National :)

Tons more pix to follow in a couple of posts!
( a couple of misc pix below... )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: The Horrorpops - Walk Like a Zombie

I ended up skipping the Friday night Alkaline Trio show in Baltimore as I was just too damn tired and knew I'd be miserable Saturday if I'd gotten next-to-no sleep the night before. So I gave my ticket to & instead

kisarazumama and I went & caught an early showing of Hellboy II:The Golden Army which was just spectacular.

Got a decent nights sleep & up wall-too early to catch the 6:35 AM Amtrak to NYC - from there we took the subway straight to the Brooklyn Museum for the Murakami show. I'm REALLY happy we got to see it before it closed as it was well worth the trek up - it was a huge retrospective & the museum had gone all out to really bring you into an all-enveloping environment including several large rooms covered in very trippy wallpaper, custom carpeting, decals surrounding windows & customized floor tiles.

There were a number of parents with small children and I wondered if they really knew what they were in for since even tho Murakami's aestheics are heavily borrowed from manga and anime art, some of his pieces are rather, um, adult oriented, most notably "Hiropon" - a large fiberglass sculpture of a happy anime girl in a bikini skipping "rope" on the jets of milk shooting out of her gi-normous breasts and "My Lonesome Cowboy", another large sculpture of a masterbating anime boy creating a large swirling lasso of his emissions. (Pix on WIRED's blog here) (I am still flabergasted at finding that MLC sold for a tad over 15 million including fees at Sotheby's in May and curious as hell over who would pay that much & what would they do with it...)

NY Times review

( more pix below )

Current Mood: artistic

last but not least... the Guana Batz
(last set of photos from Hootenanney on July 5, 2008!)

The Guana Batz always put on a great show, on ereason they are so fun to watch is that singer Pip always seem sto be having a great time & really enjoying himself. And even tho it was pretty hot out at Oak Canyon Ranch he was still as energetic and bouncy as ever. And I love their crazy covers of old classics like The Boss' "I'm on Fire" and Zepp's "Rock and Roll"

( tons of pix below )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Blondie - Dreaming

Sunday in Laguna - part two - scoping out the wedding site

My friends Alex & Rachel came down and met Jennifer and I on Sunday at the museum & we had a great lunch in a little mediterranean cafe in Laguna Beach. Then they took us over to the park where their wedding will be next month - since I'm going to take the photos, Alex wanted to let me see the place and give me some guidance on what he would like. It is one of th emost beautiful places I've ever seen, a lovely little park on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It makes me want to take lots of photos so I did.

Do I'll be back August 8th to shoot away & wish them the best - they are such an adorable couple and I love 'em both!
Lots of scenic photos on flikr here

Current Mood: contemplative

Sunday in Laguna... Pt 1 - art geeking to the max

Since we were flying back Monday we had Sunday to explore & went down to Laguna Beach. Got a chance to catch the "In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor" exhibit at the Lagina Art Museum which was amazing - pretty damn near every important underground/lowbrow/pop surrealist artist out there including Mark Ryden, Alex Grey, Glenn Barr, Tim Biskup, Camille Rose Garcia, Michael Hussar, Joel Peter Witkin, Big Daddy Roth, RK Sloan, Robert Williams, Coop, SHAG, Moira Hahn, Don Ed Hardy, Rick Griffith, R. Crumb, Shepard Fairey, Murakami, Basil Wolverton, on English and a ton more.

Most mind blowing was Mark Ryden's "The Creatrix" - I used it as a Xmas card last year so I'm sure many of you have seen it but getting to see the original was amazing - it is HUGE and painted with intense fine detail like a 2 haired brush in early renaissance fashion somewhere in between Botticelli and Van Eyck. And so many amazingly tiny details I'd never noticed before, like how the garland on her shirt forms DNA strands or the tiny jewel like Japanese beetles arranged in a row along the edge or all the weird prehistoric mammals like the giant ground sloth...

And at the other end of the room was an amazing Todd Schorr homage to King Kong called "Ape Worship".

Also very cool to see the original of Michael Hussar's "Self Potrait of Hans Memling", especially as I have the limited print of it :)

Overall I was especially impressed by how many of the pieces echoed back to famous works throughout art history, especially the Italian early renaissance and northern european works of that era. It definitely helps to have a deep knowledge and appreciation of art history to "get the in-jokes" so to speak.

Great selection at the gift shop too with many books on the artists represented - I picked up copies of "Fushigi Circus" by Mark Ryden and "The Magic Bottle" by Camille Rose Garcia - glad to see the Gail Ptocki book in person as I'd eventually like to pick that up. Just wish there had been postcards and/or small (affordable) posters/prints.

Tons of pix on this blog here. There is an exhibition catalog coming out (not done yet) that I have on pre-order from Amazon.

More art geeking to come as tomorrow Paula & I are catching the way-too-early (but cheapest) Amtrak up to NYC to head to the Brooklyn museum for the Murakami show as this is th elast weekend for it. I am looking forward to the trip but not getting up at 5 AM - ack! I am still really tired from last weekend so I think I am going to skip the Alkaline Trio show in Baltimore tonight & instead see an early show of "Hellboy" (which I am DYING to see) and then crash early - I need it.

http://www.lagunaartmuseum.org/Current-Exhibit.html

Blog fulla pix here

( press release below )

Current Mood: artistic

more Hootenanney pix - Throw Rag
These guys are always hugely entertaining even if I am always confusing their singer with Duane Peters... I sure as hell wish their big tour with Viva Hate coming up (the Thrasher-sponsored "Race to Hell" tour" was hitting the east Coast (pout)

( more pix below )

Current Mood: amused

More pix from Hootenanney - Mike Ness

This was the first time I've had a chance to see his solo show as I missed the one in Baltimore a couple months ago... What can I say, the dude is always great & truly makes love to his guitar with those hips.

( more pix below )

Current Mood: contemplative

Tigers at the Hootenanney

Fun performance by Tiger Army @ Hootenanney, even worth braving the sun & heat (tho I have a NASTY sunburn on my right shoulder - even tho I doused myself in imported Canadian SPF 60 LaRoche Posey with Mexerol, the damn camera strap wore it all off in that one spot!) - fun set including two of the country style songs "Outlaw Heart" and "In the Orchard" with Donny on steel guitar & as far as I know their first US and possibly first performance of "Swift Silent Deadly"

setlist - not quite in order as I wrote it down from memory -

Prelude: Signal Return
Afterworld
Hotprowl
Rose of the Devil's Garden
Atomic
Incorporeal
Devil Girl
In the Orchard
Outlaw Heart
20 Flight Rock
Pain
American Nightmare
Ghosts of Memory
Swift Silent Deadly
Cupids Victim
Forever Fades Away
FTW
Never Die

A few important announcements were made - TA will finish up the year with 5 shows in Anaheim at the Grove in October with the last one on Halloween! They'll have 2 different bands opening each night with a REALLY impressive lineup including VNV Nation, T.S.O.L., The Guana Batz, The Quakes & 12 Step Rebels with a few yet to be announced. I've never seen either TSOL or the Quakes yet & REALLY want to so I am stoked & planning a nice trip out! And there are a few days off in between some of the shows (the first are Oct 23, 24, 25, 26 and the last on Halloween and here's the icing on the cake - the Damned are playing at the Anaheim House of Blues on Oct 30th! SWEEEEET!!!! Also means another chance to go to Disneyland when they have the Haunted Mansion decked out ala Nightmare Before Christmas!

Those will be the last shows for a long while as Nick 13 is planning on doing a solo country western album before he starts on the next Tiger Army album - I'm stoked he's gonna do a solo album (like Mike Ness vs. Social D?) and crossing my fingers that it means Geoff can hook back up with Viva Hate!

Whole page of photos here:
http://www.ghosttigers.com/gallery/concert/2008-hootenanney.html

( and some under the cut )

Current Mood: stoked

Hot Rod Heaven

many very cool vintage cars on display at Hootenanney....

( lots more pix below cut )

SHAG a licious....
Does anybody know if the artist SHAG (a/k/a joSH AGle) had anything to do with designing this restaurant in the Santa Ana/Orange County/John Wayne airport?

Or did they just rip him off big time?

( a couple more )

Current Mood: wondering

Rockin' at the Hootenanney (pt 1)

Had a short but great vacation - my friend Jennifer and I flew out to Orange County on the 4th of July for the net day's Hootenanney fest.

We got a great independence day surprize as apparently fireworks are legal there & everybody & their mother shoots them off - we were sitting in the hotel and heard "boom!" "BOOM BOOM BOOM!" and went out to investigate. The hotel has a balcony all the way around & we were on thetop floor so we had a great view and as far as the eye could see were fireworks going off all over the place - pretty big ones shot into the air - it was amazing to see a dozen or more going off at once in different directions and this went on from dusk for a good hour and a half!

Then off to the bus station to pick up Misery who'd bused it in from the Devil's trailer park out in the desert.

The next morning we headed out to Oak Canyon Ranch early after meeting up with Mary, alex & Rachel and carpooling out together - good to get there early & avoid the later traffic backups on the road in, especially as the Guana Batz were one of the first bands on. I geeked out a bit in line when I saw a little kid wearing a Zombie Ghost Train shirt since it was a shirt they never sold her in the USA and I amused his mom who overheard me & said "well I guess my accent would give it away" as they were from Australia :)

Guana Batz and Throw Rag were the 2nd & 3rd bands on & they were great, got lots pix I'll try get some up tonight. Then since Tiger Army wouldn't be on until 5:30 with Mike Ness after them, we spent the afternoon shopping, having lunch & enjoying the car show!

I splurged big time & got the purse I've been drooling over since I saw it at MusInk in February from the Trophy Queen booth as well as a matching wallet! Such glittery goodness!

More to follow in a couple of posts on the car show & pix of Tiger Army, also still gotta resize/upload the ones of Guana Batz, Throw Rag & Mike Ness. :)

( tons o' pix below! )

Current Mood: amused

Too Cute!
I found this tattoo flash inspired Betsey Johnson carry on bag on ebay & splurged - I'd seen one a few months ago & talked myself out of it & then regretted it so this time I couldn't let it get away, it helped that it was mismarked with the wrong tag & wasn't listed correctly so it went a lot cheaper than the last few did. I hope it will arrive in time for my trip out to Hootenanney next week!

( click for pix )

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: David Bowie - Queen Bitch

The Trio in Richmond

(I'm a few days behind...)

Needed a break & hadn't been to a show in a while so when

scarydavedc suggested catching Alkaline Trio in Richmond I was all for it - managed to get last Thursday afternoon off & we roadtripped on down. Met up with his friends Steveo and Re and had a great dinner at Sticky Rice, after all who can pass up the comb of sushi and tater tots? The fried mushrooms with a teriyaki dipping sauce were especially wonderful.

Then we headed over to the National Theater which is run by the folks who brought you the Norva in Norfolk and its a very nicely restored old movie palace. The Fashion opened and were so-so, then Bayside who were considerably better but the Trio stole the show. Great to hear some of the new songs of their forthcoming "Agony and Irony" plus lots of old favs.

Drove back afterwards & good conversation kept me from falling asleep at the wheel and took Friday off & had the supreme luxury of sleeping in - YAY!

Definitely will be catching the Trio again in a couple of weeks at the Rams Head show in Baltimore July 11th :)

( a couple of crappy pix below (spy cam takes lousy concert shots) )

Current Mood: reminiscing
Current Music: still listening to Fungus

update....

The day started off poorly but got better - when I got to work the air conditioning was off & the heater on and it was roasting in the office. Apparently some work had been done on the cooling unit over the weekend that wasn't finished - argh! I had a lot of trouble breathing so I sat out in the lobby for about an hour and as things hadn't improved any I went home.

At least a nice treat awaited me at the post office - my cool Frida ring arrived from Ruben Xolotol Viramontes and it is absolutely stunning and even nicer than in the photos! I'm so impressed by the craftsmanship & its way cool to have something like this custom made to order, he even carved my initials into the band! I will definitely be saving up for more of his work as he has a lot of cool designs that really appeal to me and I think his prices are very reasonable for the workmanship. Plus I'd so much rather buy directly from an artist than a store.

Additional coolness - he's got a webcam in his studio linked on his webpage so you can tune in during the day and watch him work!

Had a fairly relaxed weekend, on Saturday I went to the movies in Bethesda with

kisarazumama and

strangemuses and we caught "Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan" which was excellent - easily one of the best films I've seen this year (and in the past several).

strangemuses has a good write up of it here

( more ring pix below )

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: Hee Haw Hell on XM radio online

amazing jewelry find....

I admit, I haunt ebay a lot to see what is out there. I often search for "silver skull rings" as that way I have found quite a few by Axel, sometimes not even listed as by him and much cheaper than they would go for if they were! I've been collecting his work since 1993 and have about 40 pieces now - I'm always drawn to elaboratly sculpted jewelry and since I have rather large hands & little delicate pieces look out of place on my fingers I especially love big dramatic rings. But after having some of Axel's work most things bored me by comparison and I haven't bought a whole lot else aside from a few pieces by Pnut/Rusty Pistachio and Paul Komoda (a student of Axel's who sculpted HR Giger's jewelry line)

Then last week while searching I found this piece on ebay inspired by the painter Frida Kahlo & was totally blown away and just had to get one, I obsessed about it for a week & kept going back to look at the pix until the auction closed! The artist, Ruben Xolotol Viramontes, is even custom making mine to fit the finger I want :) I had to check out his website and photobucket pix and am incredibly impressed by his work & resume (architect & designer for Walt Disney!) He is the first jeweler to fire my imagination this much since I first discovered Axel's work. I can certainly see collecting more in the future as several others on his page & on ebay are talking to me :) (

strangemuses - he has some very cool pieces with owls that made me think of you)

( more pix below )

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Alkaline Trio - This Could be Love

living at the movies
I've always been a movie geek....back when I still lived with my parents I used to go to the movies almost daily, sometimes as much as 2-3 times a day partly to escape and get out of the house. (Plus they were a lot cheaper then & we had a number of second run dollar theaters & the wonderful rep theater the TLA downtown where I discovered the world of cult cinema like John Waters & the wonders of directors like Kurosawa, Herzog & Fellini)

This is definitely turning into a movie year, partly as escalating transportation costs mean a helluva lot less travel & more time at home than in the last few so I've been happily running off to the cinema every chance I get. In the last week its been Pulp Fiction at the AFI, Kung Fu Panda and Indiana Jones over the weekend and the anime Bleach movie last night. Tomorrow will be the new M. Knight "The Happening" & possibly the Incredible Hulk over the weekend (I'm dubious over the Hulk in general but curious what Ed Nortan can do and if it is even a quarter as good as Iron Man it might be worth seeing as I had NO expectations for Iron Man & Its been one of my favs of the year). And down the road really looking forward to WALL*E, The Dark Knight & Hellboy II.

Meanwhile I'll hoard DVDs for the future in case it gets to where I can't even afford gas to the theaters...after seeing "Death Trance" last week I need to order a copy of "Versus" as Tak Sakaguchi is yummy.

Current Mood: musing
Current Music: The Bugs - Dave Navarro's Goatee Fucking Sucks

Go Team Venture!

First new episode of the Venture Bros 3rd season aired last night & lived up to expectations, esp as it revolved entirely around my 2 fav characters, Dr Girlfriend & the Monarch! Its hard to wait so long betwen episodes but so worth it.

They've also launched a "Shirt of the Week" club (Here!) and their first offering is what I desired most - the seal of the Guild of Calamitous Intent! So I had to order one - if you want one don't delay as these will only be available this week!

"Metalocalypse" was also hysterical - Deathklok visited the Amazon rain forest and as the "Deathboat" landed I said to Paula "gee that looks just like the boat in Fitzcarraldo" & before you know it Nathan Explosion is hauling it up a mountain & I'm giggling like a fiend. First cartoon I've ever seen spoofing Werner Herzog!

Sigh.... I think the only TV shows I ever watch any more are cartoons, at least until "Heroes" is back but that is pretty much a live action comic book anyhow :)

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

totally gratuitous kehtenz pix
because there are never enough kittypix

( click for more cuteness )

Current Mood: amused

I met Tarsem!

I'm very grateful to have signed up for the mailing list for the local art house cinema as last Thursday I got an email from the Landmark in Bethesda saying that director Tarsem Singh would be doing a Q&A session following a screening of "The Fall" on Saturday. After seeing it at the DC Film Fest last month I was thrilled at the chance to see it again (glad that it has gotten an actual release and not just film fests) & extremely excited that the director would be there as I am a huge fan of his since seeing "The Cell" when it came out.

It was great getting to hear him talk - the guy is extremely friendly and chatty & goes at a mile a minute. He tells all sorts of crazy stories about how he pulled off this amazing film (shot in TWENTY EIGHT countries and he financed the whole thing himself on his earnings as a top commercial director) and how it had been a personal obsession for about twenty years and hinged entirely upon finding the right child to cast. When he saw footage of Catinca Untaru he knew she was the one & he had to move right away as within six months she would have grown up enough that it wouldn't work. Then when he realized she misunderstood and didn't realize that she was in a movie but thought she would be in a documentary about an actor like Christopher Reeves who was paralyzed that he had actor Lee Pace pretend he actually was and had everybody else in the cast & on the set believe that so their body language would not betray it to the girl so her reactions were real and genuine and not really "acting". The first time she sees him in the film was actually the first time she ever saw him and so on. No wonder he got such an amazing (non) performance and she comes off as the most "real" child in film (such a huge relief from the likes of little Dakota Fannings...)

After he spoke he hung around for a while talking to folks & was happy to autograph my copy of the Cell DVD I brought along in the hopes I'd get a chance to meet him and I told him I really hoped I wouldn't have to wait so long for his next film to which he said "me too!" - he's a friendly, chatty guy happy to talk to the film geeks & hopeful young filmmakers clustered around him. Wow, it was such a treat - I have a feeling that years from now I'll count myself truly lucky to have had this chance as he is a true visionary. I can't wait to see what else he'll do.

And kudos to David "Se7en" Fincher and Spike "Being John Malkovich" Jonze for getting the Fall released! (Amazing enough to see those two names together on the credits!!)

( Related links & photos below )

Current Mood: thrilled

I has a spycam

I was in the mood for a new toy so I picked up this teeny camera at Best Buy - its barely bigger than a credit card and yet its a Nikon and takes surprizingly nice quality photos, especially has a great macro mode I tested on the balcony with Paula's flowers. Great to keep in the purse when I don't want to lug the (heavy) dSLR!

And its purple! :)

( more pix below )

Current Mood: amused

a day at the zoo

Yesterday was just perfect weather to spend the day outside so Paula & I took the Metro downtown to the zoo & braved the huge crowds to see the giant Pandas and worked our way through pretty much the whole park in about 7 hours. Then walked up to the Cleveland Park metro & enjoyed a nice dinner at the Cleveland Park Bar & Grill - highly recommended for excellent sandwiches & a neat apple pizza dessert!

( warning - a bazillion pix below LJ cut )

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Foxboro Hot Tubs - Stop Drop and Roll

This should be interesting.....

http://blackestoftheblack.com/news.html

5/23/2008 " BLACKEST 2008 CONFIRMED LINE-UP"

When we told you the Line-Up would Blow You Away we were not joking.
This will also be the "DANZIG 20th Anniversary Tour".

Here is the Confirmed Line-Up for

"Blackest Of The Black 2008"

DANZIG
DIMMU BORGIR
MOONSPELL
WINDS OF PLAGUE
SKELETONWITCH

The Tour will Start in October 2008 More info in the next few weeks.
ALL HAIL!!

Death Note (the movie) Part 1

Went down to Tyson's Corner mall last night with

kisarazumama to catch the Japanese live action version of "Death Note" (my fav anime series) - rather than put it in general release Viz chose to do just a limited number of 2 night screenings in various cities before the US DVD release later this year.

Death Note follows Japanese college student Light Yagami who picks up a "Death Note" notebook dropped by the shinigami (death god) Ryuk and finds that any human who's name is written in the notebook will die. He uses this to exact his own justice on the world killing off scores of criminals who die instantly of heart attacks and the various police forces of the world including the FBI soon take notice and start to try and track down the mass murderer behind these killings while "Kira" as he is known in pop culture (the Japanese finding it hard to pronounce "killer") becomes an internet/underground instant mystery celebrity. The police bring in eccentric autistic genius detective "L" to track him down & it turns into a game of cat & mouse between two incredibly intelligent & devious minds while the shinigami hangs around to watch & amuse himself & enjoy earth Apples.

Enjoyed it quite a lot even tho the plot was a bit re-ordered & shortened to fit about a dozen episodes of the anime into a 2 1/2 hr movie and while I would have preferred if it had been subtitled the dubbing was decent & handled by the same voice actors who did the anime version. Decent job of CGI on Ryuk and the actor who played L (Ken'ichi Matsuyama) totalled nailed his eccentricities, also fun to see Chairman Kaga from the Iron Chef show as Light's father. And after the movie they showed a short feature on the making of it & an interview with the director which was cool (and missed by half of the audience who left immediately after the film)

Now to watch the 2nd half tonight at home courtesy of internet downloads (I'd held off for months watching the first half when I found out I'd get a chance to see it on the big screen) & hope that the 3rd movie on L will surface soon....

I have become quite the Death Note junkie/collector & the living room is getting overrun with toys but dammit they make such cool ones (especially the Medicom dolls & big Jun Planning figures)

And next month the same theater will be showing the feature length Bleach anime movie so will head back for that :)

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Tiger Army - Sea of Fire

Next night at the Troc

After the Ottobar show I crashed at Chris' in Baltimore & Saturday we drove up to Philly, checked into our hotel & got sucked into "Jackie Brown" on the television & watched that to the end (what an underrated masterpiece!) Then took in some sites & visited Edgar Allen Poe's old place at 7th & Spring Garden St and toured the house & watched a short film on his life. (Pix to follow!)

Headed up to the Trocadero next & met up with Lynette and as the Troc is smack in the middle of Chinatown where do we go - a Japanese restaurant of course! I enjoyed their chicken teriyaki & they had huge plates of sushi & mochi. Then lined up for the show - I went up front with my friend Jennifer & my other partners in mayhem headed to the balcony for a few drinks.

Got some better pix of the War Tapes & the Unseen at the Troc (again, still gotta resize - never enough hours in the day!) & way better ones of TA than the Ottobar as it had been so dark there. Happy that they added "Ghost Fire" back to the set, that song always made me miss Geoff so much when he was out of the band since you can hear him so well on backups so it was great seeing him up there doing it again! Also they added "Atomic" to the encore which I know made Chris happy as he REALLY wanted to hear that one again!

And Nick also mentioned before they played "Pain" that they would be filming a video or it in June, so glad they picked that as the next single as I love that song, can't wait to see what they'll come up with for the vid.

Got a bunch of new shirts afterwards & thanked Smith for taking care of the passes :)

Great fun show, wish I could have mad emore this tour but not feeling up to it due to various sundry health issues & trying to be a bit more conservative with funds (the price of gas is scary these days, glad I have an economy car but it still puts a damper on roadtrips!) But looking forward to seeing them again at Hootenanney where they'll be co-headlining along with Mike Ness :)

( more pix below )

Current Music: The Clash on Fungus