Adelaide

Some people I know from a message board are getting ready to go to the Church show at the Gov in Adelaide. They are really excited. I hope it's a great show and they have a wonderful time! And I wanna hear all about it too.

I was also remembering this evening one of the early blogs Steve did was from Adelaide last year. He didn't have his laptop then and so was writing them from various cafes. His comments on the Naughty Nurse were priceless!

I finally ordered Steve's birthday gift and it is being shipped to me. I just checked the tracking today and it's supposed to be delivered Monday. Damn. I knew I should have gone for the one day shipping. It wasn't that much more and would have gotten it here today, so I could turn around and ship it to him. I have a meeting in Yellow Springs Monday evening (besides I'm going to be picking up a print order and a batch of SK originals I have there for photographing), which may make it tricky to get the package back out on Monday. Even shipped on Monday it isn't scheduled to get to him until Thursday, which is later than I'd hoped. That's what I get for being a slacker.

I hope he likes it. I think it's mighty pretty. :-)

I also have to finish tallying up the totals from the SK birthday sale. On his birthday 52 prints sold. I thought that was hilarious!

Also have to change the site back to showing the regular prices. And do the drawing for the painting we are giving away.

Cincy aka My Own Marty Mini Solo Show

I got there early while they (sans SK and PK who I think were doing a radio interview or maybe just slacking ;-) ) were still setting up. At one point Marty was teaching Davida a song (I think it was "Spark" but I'm not absolutely sure) that they were going to do at the Rickenbacker celebration thingie a couple weeks later. I really enjoyed that not only for being able to really watch right up close what they were doing (I know squat about guitars so it was all new to me), but also for the obvious joy they both got from it.

After that Marty ran through several of his songs. Just Marty and his guitar, like he does on his solo shows. It was great! His audience was pretty much me. There were a few people working on various things, but I was pretty much the only one just enjoying the show. Gave me a little taste of one of his solo shows -- sure I'd love to get to see a full fledged one someday, but this will certainly tide me over and was very special in it's own right. I got a real sense of how much he loves music during that time and I'll never forget that. I got to tell him in Chicago how much I enjoyed that little mini show and he just beamed. Very cute.

I only talked to him a handful of times. The most memorable conversation was about how I managed to buy Jagermeister and Unicum online -- he was astonished and the look on his face was absolutely priceless. He's a very expressive guy and can be so much fun to watch. He was having problems with the sound out of his monitor the whole set up and soundcheck -- it was apparently very very loud. I don't think they ever got that worked out and there was quite a bit of gesturing, etc. during the show, but overall he did fine.

I had a table right up front between SK and MWP and videoed from there. When Marty was clearly most unhappy with the sound he was getting I made sure not to point the camera at him. I just figured I sure as hell wouldn't like someone filming me when I was pissed off, so I wasn't going to film him. I got a lot of footage of Steve and Tim in Cincy. ;-)

Overall I thought Cincinnati was the most mellow of the shows I went to. It was decent crowd although one or two people were talking loudly enough to be a bother and MWP told him/them off, much to the delight of most of the crowd. Steve was laughing through most of it and I heard him say "You better watch out, he's gonna go out and get his gun and shoot you!" to which Marty said "It would be worth it!" I don't think very many people heard what SK said because I haven't heard any comments on it, and judging by the comments on his blog when he mentions guns I think there would be. But it made me laugh.

It wasn't the best show I saw, yet it was good and I enjoyed it. What I noticed in the shows I saw this time around is that they were consistently good, and some were really excellent. I had a friend and her boyfriend come to the show. He'd heard a couple of their songs before (UTMW and Reptile), she hadn't heard any. They really enjoyed it and I must say I was very proud of my favourite band.

I've always thought of MWP as pretty flaky and a bit of a prima donna -- and I still think he is -- yet he worked his ass off on this tour. Everyone -- the musicians and crew -- did their part and they were all important to the tour's success, however I really don't think there even would have been a US tour without Marty. He (and I think Tiare) booked the tour and essentially managed all details of the tour. Not only that but he was out there every night getting everything loaded. I must say I was very impressed with the work he put in.

"You're just not very technical, are you?"

I'll have you know Mr K that I managed to download and successfully use a program to record an online stream the other day. I'm very proud of myself. :-) ...ok, so it took me two hours to figure out how to use "one-touch.... software...designed for fast setup, ease of use" but I managed it dammit! So there!

Of course I was at home on equipment I am familiar with instead of in a room being watched by all of you and there was no drummer sleeping right in front of the pc here. Hell, it was the first show I went to and I was so stressed about the whole thing I barely managed to get out of my car and into the venue. Is there any wonder I gave you that "you must be out of your fucking mind! Please don't do this to me" look when you wanted me to set up that dvd? Dear god, people...not just any people either, but but but...well, you know which people, were looking at me! And I must empahsise yet again -- there was a drummer sleeping on the floor in front of the tv (and not just any drummer either, you know!). Christ! I could just see me kicking or stepping on him -- THAT would have been just lovely. Gah. I honestly thought I was going to cry, throw up, or pass out -- maybe all three.

I'm not really completely technically inept, just pretty damned close, especially when I'm freaking out because there are people around. I actually might have been able to do the dvd thing (or at least attempt it) a couple of days later as I got a bit more comfortable as I went. Maybe. Although Tim sleeping on the floor in front of the tv would have probably put the kibosh on it then too. Just too much danger of kicking or stepping on him. And that would just be really rude.

Other than that bit though I had a really great that evening -- even if I was so nervous I felt as if I had a bit of tunnel vision. It was as if I was concentrating so hard just trying to keep it together I could only see directly in front of me most of the night. But everyone was very nice, just thoroughly decent people, and I had a great time. And I was a hell of a lot more comfortable at the end of the night than at the beginning.

And luckily for both of us I don't need to be very technical to sell and pack artwork. ;-)

SK Birthday Celebration & Gerbil Car Saga

The SK Birthday Celebration art sale went really well. Technically it's still on until the 27th, but no one's buying because the discounts aren't as great now. There might be one or two stragglers before the end, but I'm not really expecting any.

But on Steve's birthday emails were dropping into my inboxes like crazy with orders and inquiries. It was great! I still can't quite believe how many pieces sold. I'm still working on getting the last orders out. As it is I'm slowing down traffic at the post office. Today when I went in there was no line. But then as I was getting all 15 packages (some international and one insured) processed the line grew until it nearly reached the door. I had all the forms filled out and everything packaged too. Good thing I didn't take all 45 or so packages there at the same time!


On Steve's birthday itself I worked at the art coop gallery, which was great as I had been able to place a quick order with the woman who does the printing for us and pick it up after I got off for the evening. I was due to work again that Friday and would be able to pick up any more print I needed for the sale. I was also able to package up several of the first orders as it was a very very slow day at the shop. Anyway everything was falling into place beautifully and I was feeling mighty pleased.

Yeah. I know. I should always be worried when everything seems to be working out great because something is bound to fuck up. And fuck up something did. This time it was my ratty little gerbil car. I was on the interstate headed for home when it just died. 45 miles away from home and I had my downs syndrome aunt with me. Well fuckity. Strangely I didn't yell "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!" with as much urgency as I did when I got boxed in and lost contact with the vans in Chicago. My car dying on the interstate in Ohio is less stressful than not knowing where the hell I'm going in Chicago.

That took some of the shine off the day, and yet it really didn't turn out so badly after all. I gave my brother a call and he called a garage he always uses and explained the situation -- the guy sent a truck right out for us. But it was still a fair drive before he got to us, so we were sitting there for about an hour and a half (lovely weather though which was great -- on the drive in it rained so hard at times that no one could see and everyone nearly stopped right on the interstate. That was pretty hairy!).

Anyway, while we were waiting for the tow truck I couldn't help but think of those accidents where someone drifts off the road and slams into a disabled car on the highway. I think "Well that better not happen now, because it would just fucking suck to get splattered all over I70 on SK's birthday! Besides, who would send out all the paintings and prints?" I did think that I would probably get a good eulogy though. But that would suck too because I wouldn't be here to read the damned thing!

Back to the car -- for a few moments I thought happily that if the car was really and truly dead that I could get something else. I was really tempted to just see if I could get a ride home and ditch the damned thing. But noooooo, I have to see if it can be fixed and yep...turns out it could be (and now is) and wouldn't even cost that much. Ah well, I'd rather drive a ratty car and do more what I want than drive a pretty car and have to have a real job. I'm trying to hold off working a real job as long as possible.

Remembering....

I mentioned in my last entry I got the new GB3 cd a couple of days ago. One of the songs on it is "Actress On A Mattress" -- I believe the last song Grant McLennan ever recorded. Tonight that triggered me to do a little musical memorial listening jag. For the past three and a half hours I have been listening to the Go-Betweens, solo Grant, and Jack Frost. He made a lot of great music and listening to it now makes me both happy and intensely sad at the same time.

It's odd perhaps but sometimes I just compelled to remember -- relatives, friends, people such as Grant I never knew but who's work touched me, horrific events and the people caught in them, even pets -- even though it often hurts like hell. It's as if I don't think about them periodically that they will be forgotten, and for me that hurts even worse. There is something tragic about gone AND forgotten.

Some things are etched in my brain because it was either really close to me -- such as the deaths of family members or friends -- or because it was massive and happened when I was old enough for it to stick -- such as 9/11, OK City bombing, etc. But other things I had to learn about as I wasn't around when they happened (or was too young to know).

I remember being obsessed with the Holocaust when I was a freshman in high school. I had been vaguely aware of it before, but in my freshman year I was 12 and a lot of things began clicking in my mind. I read and watched everything I could find about it -- I couldn't quite believe people were capable of something so vicious. That was a shocker for me. A few years later when I was a senior, we studied it in class and as part of that there were a couple of documentaries with footage from the camps shown. We were given the choice to watch or not. I watched. I realise it might sound weird, but I felt I would be betraying all those who went through those camps if I didn't watch. Even though it was over 30 years later, it felt a bit as if I was bearing witness and by doing so all those people would be just a tiny bit less forgotten.

Ramble

Got GB3 Emptiness Is Our Business cd in the mail yesterday. Gave it a quick spin and now can't get past "Famished." Very cool song.

The newest Gersey cd No Satellites is also on it's way to me. I've been looking forward to it for a while...hope I like it as much as their others. Their last ep had to grow on me a bit, but I have ended up liking it quite a bit.

Was discussing Mum and Mom with someone the other night. I've used both. When I was young I would always call my mother Mom and thought of her as such. But then when she (and I, of course) got older we moved away from that early mother daughter relationship and Mom just didn't seem so appropriate any more. So I started calling her Mum.

To me the word Mum always conjures up the image of an elderly, slightly batty, but happy little woman, and that really fit my mother. I was born when she was 37 (nearly 38), so by the time I was 30 she was nearing 70. So she seemed more Mum than Mom then. :-)

Goddesses are supposed to have powers, aren't they? I'm the KIABGOA -- I want some powers, dammit! I was thinking about that today. Now admittedly I'm not one of the major goddesses so I suspect my powers are going to be fairly modest. So I want to be able to smite twits -- both in person and online even though what I'm the goddess of is an online entity. Now I know I'm supposed to be nice to the dumb fucks, but I'm a goddess dammit! I wanna smite people. Especially anonymous twit people. >:(

I hope you're happy Heatherspace(d)

Because I am now thoroughly hooked on Catherine Wheel!

And it's ALL your fault. Well I guess some of the blame has to go to Rob D too, but I wouldn't have a nice selection of CW songs waiting for me when I got home if it wasn't for you. And of course after listening to those songs I had to make sure to get all the albums (a couple I'm still waiting on).

Hell, I'm even using Rob's Live and Alone cd as my sleeping cd. That's quite an honour as as my sleep cd has to be stuff I like and will like listening to if I can't fall asleep.

And speaking of that sleep cd, I'm off to bed. :-)