Isidore's evening excursion

Isidore took an unscheduled excursion last night. I was out on the deck feeding and paying attention to my old battered black and white stray cat when all of a sudden Max (my old cat with hyperthyroidism) came over and started checking out the old fellow. Max isn't supposed to be out, but he will often slip out if the door is open a bit. Apparently one of the cats (I think it was Isi) had pried the door open a little and he had slipped out. Oscar was peering out too, but I pushed him back in when I put Max back. I took a quick look around the kitchen and thought I had accounted for all the cats who were downstairs at the time.

So I go about my business the rest of the evening and when my brother gets home from work around 1 am he wants to chat a bit while he winds down. So we are out on the deck talking and I hear this cat meowing. At first I think it's coming from the upstairs window on my side which is fine as the cats hang out in the attic and often meow at me when I am outside. Then I realise it's coming from a cat walking along my brother's side of the house. I figure it's Little Black Cat, because he does that sometimes. So I'm fully expecting this sleek black cat to come walking up my brother's steps, but when the cat does come up I see it's Isidore and he's very happy to see us! I was shocked -- he had been outside for at least four or five hours. He must have heard us talking and recognised the voices.

I wonder where he was all that time, and I can't help but feel a bit sick because there is a fairly busy road (even at that time of the night) just one house over (and there isn't much room between houses). I would have felt terrible if he'd been lost, hurt, or killed because he got out and I didn't notice he was gone. He was obviously relieved to find us, but it was also obvious he was having a great time outside too. And once he knew we were there he started puttering around again. I soon put him back in the house -- where Oscar came right over and started to check him out thoroughly. I could practically hear Oscar asking him "Where have you been!" and Isi telling him all about his adventure. Poor Oscar seemed absolutely disgusted that damned Isi cat got to go outside and he didn't!

One of the really strange things about this is that Isi came as a stray to the old house in the country. He lived on the porch for several weeks, but soon decided he wanted to live in the house, so he came inside. Once inside he showed no inclination at all to go back outside, even though several of the other cats (including Oscar) liked to go outside for several hours every day. But now the little shit has decided the outdoors is a pretty cool place and is very interested in checking it out some more. And Oscar is even more determined to go out with him! >:(

finally

Well I finally canceled a couple of internet service providers I haven't used in two or three years. I'm good at switching to new providers if I don't like the service from the old one, but I suck at cancelling the old one. Gotta work on changing that.

Now I need to cancel my voice mail service on my landline phone since I have an answering machine and have never set up the voice mail. It's costing me something like $7.95 a month, which isn't a lot, but when you have several services you don't use costing $5 to nearly $30 per month it gets substantial -- at least to me. Just cancelling the two internet providers and voice mail will save me just over one month's rent per year. What I really should do is cancel the landline phone entirely since I very rarely use it and could easily use my cell phone instead. Cancelling the internet providers and the entire landline would cover nearly one and a half months' rent or one month's rent and eight months of cell phone bills. I never get even close to my cell phone plan minutes (many of the people I call are in my network and calls to them are free), so it's not as if that bill would get any larger.

Steve-o has a rare talent

..for pissing people off. It's one of the things I most love about him. I love that he says what he thinks, even if it isn't going to be popular. :-)

This time the brouhaha (or tempest in a teapot -- which is probably more accurate) is over what he wrote about the Saints episode on the Great Australian Albums series. Ed Kuepper was apparently a bit miffed. Here is a link to a blog which has both Steve's entry and Ed's thoughts on that (and also his thoughts on the show).

TTB commenters

Let's face it -- anyone who blogs or who posts comments on someone else's blog is looking for attention. All of us are. Not all of us are looking for huge numbers in our audience, but all of us who blog or comment do want an audience, even if it is only a few people. So all who comment on ttb are looking for attention, no doubt about that.

Many, probably most, of the commenters try to keep their posts on topic, either mentioning something SK's entry made them remember or think about, or sometimes just giving him a pat on the back (after all he's looking for attention too). Then there are the overly enthusiastic commenters -- those are generally sweet, but they get old really fast. I also have the sneaky suspicion that these commenters could very quickly turn into next group -- the "wah!-you-aren't-the-person-I-thought-you-were-and-I-hate-you-I-hate-you-I-hate-you!" commenters. These people have put Steve up on such a high pedestal that he's bound to fall off. They have made him in their minds into the perfect person -- often the father, best friend, lover -- they always wanted, and when he fails to live up to that (as he is bound to) they turn into the sniveling little attackers we see every so often.

The people who are currently involved in an obsession with SK generally leave weird (and not good weird) comments. For instance I usually skip the "me" guy's comments, because they just kind of creep me out. I made the mistake once of reading some of his blog. Oh my. No a pleasant experience. And the chicks who play at this "you're my long lost lover/soul mate" deal. I remember reading a comment from one a few months ago (which had the same structure and feel of one of the recent ones...hmmm)-- the one that supposedly had SK breaking off the whatever the hell it was supposed to be because he has a wife and five children. I'm pretty sure I'd chatted with that chick in Antenna just a couple of days before that and she said she'd never met any of them, nor even seen them in concert. But our conversation got weird at the end when she checked out the SK art site and "LOVED!!!" the Ziggy in the Sea Pool painting. She had to have it, but when I told her the price it deflated that. But then she decided she would contact him (through Myspace I believe) and have him give it to her based on the "relationship" they had. I still have the painting, so I guess that didn't quite work out the way she planned. Still, it was creepy that she really seemed to think she had the leverage to get that painting. Speaking of that painting -- I will be soooo happy when it sells. I've had several people interested in it, but they have all backed out. The people who want this one are, even by Steve fan standards, strange. I don't mean a little flaky either. It just seems that most of the people who want that painting have this sense of entitlement. Several have implied (some, like the chick above, have outright said it) that because the feel a "connection" to the painting they should get it cheaply. My feeling is if they have such a connection they would make sure to come up with the funds required to buy it.

Back to the comments and the people who make them....

Then there are the people who call Steve a hypocrite who wants to censor and control what people post on the comments. Funny thing is I've traced some of them back to the person's own blog (even though few sign in or even leave a name when they post that type of post. It's easy to sign out and post a comment anonymously, but it's not so easy to change your style of writing... ;-) ) and found not only do most of the who people bitch about what Steve says about posting comments not allow anonymous comments, some also moderate all the comments too. You know none of them are getting anything near the volume of comments SK gets, so it's all about control. And they tell people who disagree with them to fuck off too! Hmm...talk about hypocritical. I love that they want him to do something on his blog they are unwilling to do on their own blogs. I once read quite a bit of one guy's blog. He kept referring to SK as self centered and pretentious. As I read his blog I couldn't help but think "you're calling Steve self centered and pretentious??" Christ, at least Steve writes well and has a wicked sense of humour.

Then there are the silly/stupid little comments and the nasty barbed comments by various personas and anons. I'm pretty sure most of these are done just a few people. To me the comments are akin to hecklers. The people who do it like to stir up shit and get noticed, even if it's negative notice. These people also tend to be the ones who attack other commenters -- especially ones who post complimentary things. The don't give a shit about anyone else. It's all about them and their "fun". Luckily they are easier to ignore than hecklers are concerts, but I think they do know that their targets (Steve or other commenters) feel the sting, and I think they get off on that. Everyone knows one nasty comment directed at you feels worse than ten complimentary comments feels good.

And then there are the comments that are just chat back and forth between a couple or a few people. Those remind me of the people who come to a show and then won't shut the fuck up during the concert. Luckily people who do that aren't as annoying on the blog as they are in a concert, but I still wish they would "take it outside." It always has a "look at me, look at me!" feel to it. Luckily the people who have been engaging in it the most lately seem to have decided to go elsewhere for most of their convos, so this should lessen, at least for a while.

I'm sure I forgot some "types" but I'm tired and quitting for now. :-)

So much for my plan...

I kind of ground to a halt typing up the bits from last years Chicago & Milwaukee shows. I'm going to take a couple of days and bitch about other stuff, then get back to the fun stuff.... Well, the bitching is fun too. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. ;-)

Cleveland

In Cleveland I was supposed to meet up with a friend at the hotel before going over to the venue. But first I had to get there and given my navigation skills that was a challenge. I did fine until I got near Cleveland, but then my directions said I was supposed to stay on a certain interstate. So I did, staying kind of in the middle left lanes (there were a lotta lanes as I recall). It was great, and I was able to zip happily along for several miles. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, these lanes split off to form an "express" section of the road that had no exits -- once on it, you stayed on it until it rejoined the rest of the interstate. The rest of the interstate ran right beside this express part, so I was able to very clearly see my exit, which of course, I could not make because I was still on the "express" part. The two part of the interstate remereged immediately after the exit I was supposed to take.

So I missed an exit...no big deal, just go to the next exit and turn around. Yeah, that was my plan too, but then I found myself in a huge road construction traffic nightmare. Getting the mile (maybe less) to the next exit took me about 45 minutes. But I did manage to turn around and from there I found my hotel with only a couple more wrong turns. Later than I'd hoped, but not bad.

Anyway, I get to the hotel call one friend and make plans to meet up sometime at the gig (we've never seen each other although we used to chat in Antenna nearly every evening) and then call the friend who is staying at the same hotel. We decide to drive over together (Yay! I won't get lost!) and head out for the venue. We get close and then start really looking for the venue which we soon locate because Steve is hanging out in the parking lot. We wave as we drive into the little parking lot (one huge benefit of getting there really early is easy parking :-) ) and he comes over and chats with us for a while. He's a fantastic mimic -- I imagine pretty much everyone he meets can get dredged up sometime. I do get the impression talking to him that everything -- every conversation, everything he sees, reads or hears -- gets filed away to be pulled up whenever it might come in handy.

We puttered off to take some stuff (another bottle each of Jager and Unicum -- I bought three of each because I got volume discounts. Ever the bargin shopper. lol) downstairs to the lounge area. It was hot as snot down there. There were fans, but all they did was blow the hot air around. Went back upstairs to check out the main hall and run into Davida who told us when they first got there they all walked in to what they thought was the hall and thought "oh. my. god." There are two performance spaces at Beachland Ballroom -- the the Ballroom and the Tavern -- and they had walked into the Tavern which is, well a tavern, with a very tiny "stage" (it looked like a large pallet about 8-10 inches off the floor). She said they just kind of stood there for a few seconds thinking "oh no, not again" as apparently it was reminiscent of one of the Florida venues. Much to their relief they were quickly directed to the Ballroom with is a big empty room (although they had rows of chairs set up for this show) with a stage at one end.

After the 20th Century Theatre this place looked so bare and utilitarian, but in retrospect it really wasn't bad. This place seemed to be in an odd location...fairly residential (kinda run down residential at that) with some small shops around. It didn't seem like a really happening place and I kind of wondered if there were going to be many people. I also felt a weird vibe, kind of a don't expect too much feeling. I just figured I'd enjoy it for what it was and the next day in Chicago the show would be really great.

But the Cleveland show turned out to be really very good. Despite one drunken moron who kept yelling at everyone to "stand up, stand up. This is a rock show" even though Steve tried to tell him that sitting was fine -- that's why the chairs were there (I always figure trying to reason with a drunk is pointless) the audience was generally appreciative and energetic. That really helped to lift the level, and what could have been merely decent turned into a lot of fun. And they even played the new "jazzy" version of Reptile which was the first time I'd heard it (and only the third time they played it), so that was extra special. I stood at the back, just beside the mixing desk and in front of (and below) the video cameras, and had a great view of the band. Although it was the furthest away from the stage I'd ever been at one of their shows, it worked really well for me. Since most of the audience was sitting I had a clear view and it wasn't crowded back there, so I didn't have any jostling, which was great. I was able to stand there and just let the music wash over me. It was the first show this time that I was able to just relax and really enjoy, and enjoy it I did. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I stood there listening to them and thinking how much I love that band. You know it wasn't the best show they did, or the even the best one of their's I got to see, but it was special to me all the same.

I did get to meet my friend from HW and Antenna (the one I phoned at the hotel) between Rob's set and the Church's. This guy (Perry -- posts as Awful Ache on HW) and his son drove down from Barrie, Ontario for the show -- their first ever Church show. I was really happy for them that it was a good one. After the show we got him a set list (which I think my friend -- who I don't think wants to be named, so I'm not -- got signed by all the band members) and then took them downstairs to meet Steve. I'm pretty sure they also got to say hi to Tim and Peter (Marty was still doing the grunt work :-D ). They found out the next morning they had stayed at the same hotel as the band when they were taking advantage of the hotel's free breakfast and found various band members and crew doing the same thing.

One kind of interesting little tidbit was during the show a cop walked through the hall along the side. When I saw him the first thing that went through my mind was "Oh dear, I hope he isn't here to arrest Steve." I kept a watchful eye on him. lol! Back downstairs after the show, SK was working on his blog (such dedication -- he does love that thing) and a few of us were sitting around chatting quietly when that same cop came down the stairs, stopped about three steps from the bottom and scanned the room. It seemed almost mechanical and was kind of creepy to me. Steve was typing away; Tim was typing on his laptop too; Peter was talking to someone -- everyone just kept doing what they were doing and he paused and then went back upstairs. I don't recall seeing police at any of the other shows, so that really stood out for me.

Breakthrough!

It took nearly two years, but I think my brother's cat Annie has finally decided she likes me. Over the last couple of days she has started coming up and rubbing on me and letting me pat her. And she purrs! Before this she thought I was ok (mostly because I let her in her house when my brother is asleep or away), and she would sometimes let me very briefly pat her, but she didn't really like it and she made that abundantly clear.

But I think seeing me lavish attention on the two strays who come around every day got her thinking "hey! That looks nice -- I want some too!" Still I didn't really expect her to change her prickly manner towards me after this long. But it's sweet that she did.

Cincinnati

-- I got there early (I was transporting some equipment in my car for PV) and got to park in the "band" parking area. Yay!!! I hate having to find parking. So I go traipsing in -- hell the door was open (and I had talked to PV earlier in the day so I knew it was ok). I think the first person I saw was Tiare...we said hi and then she told me the hotel they stayed in the night before (Vernon Manor -- they drove right from the Indy venue to Cincinnati) was supposed to be haunted. She thought that was pretty cool. I had to laugh as the Vernon Manor was where the high school I went had it's prom during most of the years I went there. I never went though as in those days no one went stag and I couldn't see the sense of finding some random boy, spending lots of money, eating lousy food, and listening to an even worse band, just so I could go to the prom.

-- the venue -- 20th Century Theatre -- was a lovely place. It had little votive candles on the tables and the floor was sloped so every seat had a good view of the stage. Turnout was decent, but not spectacular. The crowd was pretty good (except a couple of people who kept chatting away and got told off by MWP, much to the rest of the crowd's delight), and the show was very good, but it never quite took off into that extra special zone.

-- I watched as Tiare and Tim took the photo which would become the cover art for the Easy single. It was taken in Cincy on the stage as they were tearing down after the show. That was cool to watch.

Indianapolis tidbits

-- walking along the backstage passages (following the security guard who was showing me where to take some stuff I had for the merch table) in the venue in Indy and seeing SK about 20 feet ahead of us headed to the stage for sound check. He was wearing that green shirt he has on in one of the really short video clips on his Myspace site and I remember thinking "that really is a good colour on him." lol

-- sound check. I had brought some more of Steve's art cards for the merch table, so I was giving them to Petra and checking what prints had sold. You know how they do the "one, two, check, check" bit when they are checking out their mics? Well, SK kept chanting "eek, eek, kiabgoa, Holly, eekie, eekie" and such. When he'd do that I'd kinda steal a glance and grin, but for the life of me I just couldn't force myself to turn around and wave! I wanted to, but then I got this panicked thought that maybe he wasn't talking to me at all. As if he really knows someone else with my exact first and last name and two of my nicknames...in Indiana. **sigh** Leave it to me to be wigged out about something like that. Oh, and they played Holly Holy -- that was really cool. :-)

-- As sound check was winding down I had to take the cookies I brought (choc chip -- and they were mighty good) back to the lounge so they didn't get snarfed down by the crowd. ...and guess who I should run into exiting the stage? :-D I got a hug and a kiss on the cheek. And asked "didn't you hear me saying eekie, eekie, kiabgoa, in there?" I said "yeah, I did" and he gave me this very quick "okaaay" look, but then said "c'mon" and took me to the lounge and introduced me to everyone. Everyone was really nice and liked the cookies and the Jagermeister and Unicum I also brought -- had to have something to wash down the cookies! Then he said "I have to finish this...uhhh...here, listen to this" and handed me his ipod. So I got to listen to a couple of songs from Mimesis while he finished up that day's blog. He types it with one finger. Not one finger on each hand. One finger.

-- the dvd I mentioned in the post I linked to yesterday was that short movie the band did the music for -- Shriek. Actually got to see it once PV got it working (thanks PV! good thing someone knew what he was doing! ;-) ). Steve and Tim do the voices for two of the characters at the beginning (from what I understand the characters are created by the author in the movie which is why their speech is stilted -- as if it's being typed as it's spoken), and several of Steve's paintings are used. It's about 14-15 min long and is now available to see online if you'd like. Click here. It's a companion/teaser for the book. And apparently the band is going to release (maybe via download only) the music they made for the movie. I think I remember hearing they made something like 45 or so minutes worth. The music in the movie is cool, so I look forward to eventually hearing the rest.

So. What about the actual concert, you ask? Well...that part I don't actually remember. One of the reasons I make sure to go to several of their shows is that it takes me a show or two before I can really relax and absorb the music. I know I enjoyed it -- I was amazed at how intense their "acoustic" show was and I was thrilled when they started playing Block and I was blown away by Grind and Invisible. But for the most part this show was very hazy for me. I think my wee brain was still trying to process "OMG! I'm wearing Steve Kilbey's headphones and listening to his ipod!" (even though by then I wasn't anymore.) ;-)

One year ago today

I saw the first of five Church gigs. In some ways it feels as if it's been more than a year...other ways it seems impossible it was only a year ago. I had planned to start posting cool bits that I remember from the tour starting today, but I didn't get around to it. So I'm going to link back to a couple of posts I wrote last year about the first two shows I saw. They aren't comprehensive accounts by any means -- I don't think I will ever manage that -- but it's the best I can do today, so there.

The Indy show

The Cincy show

Now over the next several days I plan to post more of the stuff I remember from those days. I have just been laughing at my memory of the wee morning hours hunt for a hotel room after the Milwaukee show. Who would have thought every freaking room would be booked in Milwaukee?

Woman with a Headache

Yesterday SK titled his blog entry "Man of Sorrows." Well, Woman with a Headache certainly fits me right now.

It's related to the video conferencing plan I briefly outlined a few days ago in a post. To do it (as easily as possible) I'm having to get certain hardware -- webcams and a laptop (and probably some more stuff I haven't thought of yet). Well the laptop just came late this afternoon so I figured I would give it a quick spin. Since I plan to mostly use it for surfing when I'm not at home and for the video conferencing, I thought I'd set it up to get online. It's not hard to do -- hell, I set up my internet connections on all the other computers I've ever had.

But this is a Mac (ibook) and not only have I never had one before, I've never used one before, not even a little. It's not hugely different in the really basic features, but it's different enough that it's been a pain in the ass to set up. And of course I'm not all that much of a wiz with this type of thing anyway. It was asking for things that I had no fucking clue what they were. I mean, I know I have a cable connection, but past that what it was asking for was alphabet soup to me. I just looked at it and wailed "how the hell am I supposed to know that?" And that's when the headache started.... But three and a half hours later (and a longish call to my ISP's help line) I'm online on this little bastard!

I do think with a little time I'll get quite comfortable using this system, and not having to mess with various drivers and installation discs for the webcams will make that part very easy. Plus by getting an ibook it mean I won't have to figure out how to make this video conferencing thing work with two different systems. Going through a bit of a learning curve over the next few months will be worth not having the almost certainly greater hassles of dealing with incompatible systems. Well...at least I hope it will be. I'm sure I'll wonder what the fuck I was thinking when I decided this was a good idea many more times before it's all over.

One cool thing is this ibook has a cd-r/dvd-r superdrive instead of the more common (in this size -- 12 in screen) cd-r/dvd combo drive. That means I can burn both cds and dvds instead of just cds. Now I doubt I'll really be doing a hell of a lot of that with it, but it's still cool to have. :-)

Hey, I'd look right at home backstage at a Church gig. :-D Ok...I wouldn't look so at home, but my laptop would! lol!

Live Church videos!

Several live Church videos on the band's Myspace page. Block, Destination, Myrrh, Ripple, and Easy.

Perhaps this bodes well for a live dvd. A girl can dream (and get a little Church fix) anyway....

Church Myspace page