T00L
The concert was awesome! After picking up brokenbryan at the Ponticrack Transpo Center (Yes, Transpo Center. I swear that's what it's called.) we got ready and waited for mrimp and non-LJer Ken to arrive. We piled in the Cruiser and made it to the Palace pretty quick.
Just in time to wait in line outside the doors for a good 40 minutes.
In a high wind.
In which I'm wearing my kilt.
Luckily there were no Marilyn Monroe scenes re-enacted and they finally let us in. When I get to the security frisker he proceeds to tell me that there are no large metal belt buckles allowed inside. The word given to us OUTside was no spiked buckles. No one said anything about large flat buckles. He gave the old "I'm just following orders" speech and said I could either surrender it or take it back to the car.
"Do I have to fight my way back through the crowd coming in?"
"Uh...there's the side door over there, you can go out there."
"Alright, fine."
"Sorry!"
I headed for the side door and, as I got a few feet away from him, glanced back to see he was busy with his legally sanctioned frottage, and no one was paying attention. I casually arced to the right and back into the arena, rejoining the boys about 40' inside the doors and walked VERY quickly toward our section. Luckily no alarm was raised behind me.
Some euro-metal band called Isis opened for Tool. They had some good music but the vocals were mere growling and roaring, and the lyrics were unintelligible. Finally Tool hit the stage and opened with 'Stinkfist'. In the 2001 concert, which was a mere week after 9/11, they barely said a word to the audience, played all of Lateralis, and left. This time they mixed in some older stuff, and talked a bit more to the crowd. The stage and lighting was amazing: There were white panels laid across the entire stage floor, and up behind the drum kit to form a back wall. Throughout the concert, multiple overhead projectors turned the entire stage and back wall into a video screen, which was repeated on the stadium display hanging from the ceiling.
They played almost everything from the new album except a couple of the slow boring ones, and added in 'Forty-six & Two', 'Schism', and 'Hooker with a Penis'. After a very long version of 'Wings for Marie/10,000 Days', the guys had a quick huddle, then sat down on the riser where Maynard and Danny had been playing. Two of them held up their lighters, and almost the entire stadium followed suit. The crowd started roaring. A minute passes.
Maynard: "Ohio was louder."
The volume rose.
"Fucking Kansas was louder."
The screaming reached a fever pitch.
"I thought I was in Detroit."
The crowd gave it their all.
They launched back into the music and after a few more, Maynard announced: "Anyway...we need to wrap this up. I've got a bunch of internet porn I need to go look at." They closed with 'Enema', and that was that. We spent the next 45 minutes sitting in the car before we could actually start to leave the lot. Then the next half hour going to four different Coneys before finding one that was still open.
----------------------------
Saturday we trekked out to the cider mill in Franklin and picked up a gallon of cider and some donuts, while fighting our way in and out of the parking lot. That place needs some serious redesign of it's lot, cuz it's feng shui is all fucked up. The rest of the afternoon we just kinda lounged around the house, until _kosh_ showed up on the way home from work with a tray of goodies and some experimental dessert cakes. After hanging out for awhile and catching up on things, he was off again, and Aaron made an incredible dinner.
At about zero dark thirty Sunday morning we packed Bryan back onto the train west. It was great having him this weekend and we hated to see him go. Aaron managed to go back to bed afterward, but I could only lay there for about an hour before getting back up. I was supposed to go set up a wireless network in my buddy Jim's new office for $50 and lunch, but by the time he got around to returning my call at 1:30pm he'd decided he was too busy with stuff at home. By then it was too late to go to IKEA, cuz Aaron had a paper to write for work. I was having a serious case of Sunday Malaise, so hit the comic store and headed to the Coney Island near us to read and get some food.
The coneys sat in my stomach and only slowly, grudgingly, digested, so some exercise was in order. Three sets of crunches and 45 minutes on the stepmill later, I was feeling much better. Just in time to meet up with jamie95 and head to Sila in Berkely for some Italian food. Jamie's friend Michael met us there and we had some decent lasagna and gnocchi. It was ok, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. The service was spotty and the food merely ok. At least the portions were large enough to take the rest to work for lunch.
Monday I discovered I was coming down with something. Both Eric and I had scratchy throats, stuffed heads, and were feeling kinda run down. It was bad enough that I called off yesterday, and only got through half the day today before giving up and coming home. The cold meds had me spaced out. I felt good enough by 3:30 to go to the gym, which I'd skipped the last two days, and actually had a very good workout. My calf raises are now up to 275 lbs. *FLEX*
----------------------------
Tonight at 9 in EVE I'm meeting the HR officer from the Phoenix Propulsion Labs corporation to see about joining up with them. I've left and rejoined the damn game three times since beta, because I always got bored and never really did more than scratch the surface of the game. Maybe by joining a large established guild I can see a lot of what I've been missing out on.
----------------------------
The last RenFest weekend is coming up, should be a good time!
Just in time to wait in line outside the doors for a good 40 minutes.
In a high wind.
In which I'm wearing my kilt.
Luckily there were no Marilyn Monroe scenes re-enacted and they finally let us in. When I get to the security frisker he proceeds to tell me that there are no large metal belt buckles allowed inside. The word given to us OUTside was no spiked buckles. No one said anything about large flat buckles. He gave the old "I'm just following orders" speech and said I could either surrender it or take it back to the car.
"Do I have to fight my way back through the crowd coming in?"
"Uh...there's the side door over there, you can go out there."
"Alright, fine."
"Sorry!"
I headed for the side door and, as I got a few feet away from him, glanced back to see he was busy with his legally sanctioned frottage, and no one was paying attention. I casually arced to the right and back into the arena, rejoining the boys about 40' inside the doors and walked VERY quickly toward our section. Luckily no alarm was raised behind me.
Some euro-metal band called Isis opened for Tool. They had some good music but the vocals were mere growling and roaring, and the lyrics were unintelligible. Finally Tool hit the stage and opened with 'Stinkfist'. In the 2001 concert, which was a mere week after 9/11, they barely said a word to the audience, played all of Lateralis, and left. This time they mixed in some older stuff, and talked a bit more to the crowd. The stage and lighting was amazing: There were white panels laid across the entire stage floor, and up behind the drum kit to form a back wall. Throughout the concert, multiple overhead projectors turned the entire stage and back wall into a video screen, which was repeated on the stadium display hanging from the ceiling.
They played almost everything from the new album except a couple of the slow boring ones, and added in 'Forty-six & Two', 'Schism', and 'Hooker with a Penis'. After a very long version of 'Wings for Marie/10,000 Days', the guys had a quick huddle, then sat down on the riser where Maynard and Danny had been playing. Two of them held up their lighters, and almost the entire stadium followed suit. The crowd started roaring. A minute passes.
Maynard: "Ohio was louder."
The volume rose.
"Fucking Kansas was louder."
The screaming reached a fever pitch.
"I thought I was in Detroit."
The crowd gave it their all.
They launched back into the music and after a few more, Maynard announced: "Anyway...we need to wrap this up. I've got a bunch of internet porn I need to go look at." They closed with 'Enema', and that was that. We spent the next 45 minutes sitting in the car before we could actually start to leave the lot. Then the next half hour going to four different Coneys before finding one that was still open.
----------------------------
Saturday we trekked out to the cider mill in Franklin and picked up a gallon of cider and some donuts, while fighting our way in and out of the parking lot. That place needs some serious redesign of it's lot, cuz it's feng shui is all fucked up. The rest of the afternoon we just kinda lounged around the house, until _kosh_ showed up on the way home from work with a tray of goodies and some experimental dessert cakes. After hanging out for awhile and catching up on things, he was off again, and Aaron made an incredible dinner.
At about zero dark thirty Sunday morning we packed Bryan back onto the train west. It was great having him this weekend and we hated to see him go. Aaron managed to go back to bed afterward, but I could only lay there for about an hour before getting back up. I was supposed to go set up a wireless network in my buddy Jim's new office for $50 and lunch, but by the time he got around to returning my call at 1:30pm he'd decided he was too busy with stuff at home. By then it was too late to go to IKEA, cuz Aaron had a paper to write for work. I was having a serious case of Sunday Malaise, so hit the comic store and headed to the Coney Island near us to read and get some food.
The coneys sat in my stomach and only slowly, grudgingly, digested, so some exercise was in order. Three sets of crunches and 45 minutes on the stepmill later, I was feeling much better. Just in time to meet up with jamie95 and head to Sila in Berkely for some Italian food. Jamie's friend Michael met us there and we had some decent lasagna and gnocchi. It was ok, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. The service was spotty and the food merely ok. At least the portions were large enough to take the rest to work for lunch.
Monday I discovered I was coming down with something. Both Eric and I had scratchy throats, stuffed heads, and were feeling kinda run down. It was bad enough that I called off yesterday, and only got through half the day today before giving up and coming home. The cold meds had me spaced out. I felt good enough by 3:30 to go to the gym, which I'd skipped the last two days, and actually had a very good workout. My calf raises are now up to 275 lbs. *FLEX*
----------------------------
Tonight at 9 in EVE I'm meeting the HR officer from the Phoenix Propulsion Labs corporation to see about joining up with them. I've left and rejoined the damn game three times since beta, because I always got bored and never really did more than scratch the surface of the game. Maybe by joining a large established guild I can see a lot of what I've been missing out on.
----------------------------
The last RenFest weekend is coming up, should be a good time!