Dragoncon 2005!
DragonCon was awesome. This was probably the best of the three years I've attended, mainly because music was so prominent this year. Rather than writing up a super-long day-by-day con report, I'll just post a list of interesting and notable things that I experienced throughout the weekend:
- I stayed with jaydk and 10zlaine at the Marriott: nice hotel, great roommates. :)
- I spent much of my time on the Goth track. Their opening panel was kind of pointless, but their second panel (exploring the reasons behind "the gothic impulse") was great. It was probably the most intellectually engaging panel I saw all weekend, largly due to Rogue from the Cruxshadows, who is exceptionally articulate and thoughtful. The other panelists were good, too; I particularly appreciated Voltaire this year (he's got a great combination of dark humor and sincerity).
- Speaking of the Goth track, the three bands I was there for all had their own panels: the Cruxshadows, Voltaire, and Bella Morte. The Cruxshadows one was interesting, sort of a philosophical/historical overview of the band and their inspirations. It was mainly Rogue and his girlfriend (and the band's dancer/tour manager/etc), Jessica Lackey, talking.
- The Voltaire panel was great, too. It was more serious than I expected; he talked about his history, how he got into music, that kind of thing. I particularly enjoyed a story he told about back when he used to do stop motion animation for commercials. He was working with a sexist, racist company (they fired a female director and wouldn't allow black baby dolls in the commercial), and he was so upset that he got revenge by sneaking hidden swastikas into the commercial. The whole audience cheered at the end of that story. He also talked about his "Deady the Evil Teddy" comic books (which feature awesome guest writers like Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman) and how delighted he was to hear through the grapevine that Clive Barker said he was hot. Oh, and at the end he performed a song for us, just him and his acoustic guitar (reminded me of a Common Rotation living room show), which was really wonderful.
- The Bella Morte panel was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I've rarely laughed so hard (well, except in the next panel, but we'll get to that). They talked about their inspirations, how they met and started the band, that kind of thing. Many of the stories were terrible (kids leaving bad homes and meeting each other on the streets), but the guys told them as if they were the funniest stories ever. Kind of disturbing, but everyone was laughing.
- The best panel of the track was probably "Gigs Gone Horribly Wrong," in which the Cruxshadows, Voltaire, Bella Morte, and this guy with green hair from some band I don't know told horror stories about touring. They had the entire room cracking up so hard we were practically falling out of our chairs. (It's hard to recreate here; most of the stories were about 100 times funnier because of the ways they were told.) Near the beginning of the panel, someone either farted or let off a stink bomb, and the entire room, including the panelists, were covering their noses with their shirts. Rogue actually got up and tried to escape the smell by moving about the room; eventually he opened up a door for ventilation.
Then they all told horror stories. Bella Morte's were almost all about poo ("there's a reason why our initials are BM"), including one about finding a crazy guy in a Wendy's bathroom covered in shit. They also told one about touring with the Cruxshadows; they were following the Cruxshadows van, and Rogue, who was driving, pulled over, completely freaked out, and insisted they stop because he was so exhausted that he had literally believed that he was driving across a kitchen table and that the other cars were salt shakers that he was dodging.
Rogue talked about their van always breaking down, and told a really hilarious story about playing the Limelight in NYC: The Cruxshadows always open with Rogue speaking (usually reciting "Annabel Lee" ultra-dramatically) in some unknown location, and then making his way through the audience and onto the stage. This time the show started when he was sitting on the toilet, and he had no choice but to start the monologue from the bathroom, finish up, and make his way onstage, with no one knowing where he had come from.
Voltaire also told a bunch of stories, usually about the horror of having his ego knocked down a little bit. He travelled to Japan and had the tragic experience of people not laughing at his jokes (and they explaining afterward that they thought he was hilarious, but didn't want to laugh in public). And the horrors of not getting any: he hooked up with two hot chicks at a DragonCon, brought them to a party where they all took turns making out with each other, and then took them back to his room... where one admitted to being a virgin and the other just wanted to snuggle. (This story was much funnier if you watched the severely disapproving looks on the Cruxshadows' faces as Voltaire told it.)
Anyway, this panel was wonderful, just unbelievably funny and engaging.
- And I also went to a panel about how to start your own Goth night, which was sparsely attended (I'm sure in part because it was so early), but very interesting. Lots of real, straight-forward, solid advice, from people with the experience to know.
- The live music was also great. I saw Voltaire three times (two half-hour sets in the hallway between panels, and his big performance in the ballroom Saturday night). I really enjoyed his music this year. And I thought I was going to die laughing during a couple of his songs, particularly the one about Luke Skywalker (I think?) losing his manhood in the Mos Eisley cantina.
Bella Morte (well, 2/5 of Bella Morte) also did a half hour set in the hallway; "Bella Morte unplugged" was quite an experience, totally different from their live show. I *really* enjoyed it; probably my favorite thing about them is when their lead singer gets melodic, because his voice is just beautiful. So the unplugged performance showcased that really well. Their main ballroom performance was much heavier, and very fun.
The Cruxshadows, for whatever reason, played a much smaller and crappier room this year. The sound was truly awful. Still, their performance was good, as it usually is, and Rogue is great at making the crowd feel like one big community. I was up front, but I think maybe next time I'll see them from farther back. (Partly because they pull people onstage at the end and I don't like that, so I have to duck people rushing forward to get up there, and band members trying to pull me up.) And also, honestly, their schreechy little fangirls were starting to drive me crazy by the end. I wonder if I'm getting too cynical for their kind of ultra-sincere, highly emotional type performance. Give me Raymond Watts' black humor and cynicism any day...
- Speaking of Raymond Watts--I was talking to Bella Morte's merch girl (I bought a t-shirt) and she mentioned that they are going to be playing a few shows with KMFDM this fall. To which I responded "Cool! But I don't know if KFMDM will really be worth seeing without Raymond Watts..." And she said that she saw them in DC last year and that Raymond showed up and that she got to hang out with him backstage. And that "he seems really tough onstage, but is really sweet inside" and "he's fascinated by Americans and loves American girls." Um, and several times throughout the con, I almost went back to her to drill her for more information about him. But I didn't, 'cause I'm mature and stuff. :P
I think that covers the music stuff. What else did I do? Let's see...
- I got autographs from the four Serenity cast members (Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Ron Glass, and Morena Baccarin), who were all nice. But I didn't see any of their panels because the lines were too long. It's insane how popular Serenity was this year, and you wouldn't believe the number of Serenity costumes.
- I saw a panel with Dean Haglund (Langly from The X-Files) and the guy who played Agent Spender. Dean Haglund was selling his new laptop cooling device. They were both really funny.
- The three of us went to "Klingon Karaoke," which was actually just Star Trek fans singing karaoke, not necessarily in Klingon costume. :( But it was kind of fun. I'm not much of a karaoke fan, though.
- We saw a very cool Star Wars fan film called Revelations, and a Q&A from the creators, who spent $20,000 on it. It's got amazing digital effects and is distributed totally free. Very cool.
- I saw glimpses of lots of neat stuff, like drum circles and robot battles. I love Dragoncon--so much creativity for its own sake, independent and not for profit.
- Ooh, there was a panel on Harry Potter slash! I left about 20 minutes early to get in line for a concert, but what I saw was decent. It was sort of an "intro to fanfiction," "intro to slash" type atmosphere, but it wasn't bad. There were plenty of Remus/Sirius shippers, which made me happy. :)
- And I went to a Harry Potter Book 7 speculation panel, which was really interesting. It addressed all the typical theories; the main point of disagreement was whether or not Harry (or his scar) is a horcrux, and whether or not he'll have to die in the end. Oh, and of course, the Snape argument. It looked like about 80% of the room believed Snape is ultimately good, while maybe 20% believed he's bad.
- I saw one panel with James and Oliver Phelps (who play the Weasley twins in the movie, and did a panel each of the four days). They're quite cute. But, uh.... maybe not so much experienced with the public speaking. Luckily, I don't think their main crowd (little girls who screamed every time they opened their mouths) minded that they didn't have anything to say.
- There were tons of awesome costumes. Serenity was huge, of course. There were some great Princess Leias. I was particularly impressed by a large Stewie from Family Guy. Oh, and by the fact that during the Star Wars part of the parade, in addition to all the characters, they had a guy dressed as George Lucas. Oh, and there was a family dressed as the Incredibles who were very good. It's so much fun to just walk through the Hyatt lobby and check out all the amazing costumes.
- It's absolutely criminal that they stop selling alcohol at 2am Saturday and midnight Sunday! We couldn't find anything to drink Saturday night, so we all went to bed. Sunday I was determined to party, but the Cruxshadows show went until after midnight (and I wanted to keep my spot up front so I couldn't drink during it), and then afterward I couldn't get any beer. Next time I'm bringing my own. Anyway, I did manage to find a source on Sunday night, got drunk, then headed back to the Hyatt, where 10zlaine and I hung out until about 6:30am with this guy Jamie that we sort of know, plus two Bella Morte fans. And I had another beer because someone was just wandering around handing them out. :) This ended up being really fun for me; my favorite thing (aside from the music) is talking to people, being social, and finally I had an opportunity to do so. (Seriously, I was thinking about this--what do I remember most from previous conventions? The good memories are always of hanging out and talking with cool people--jodyorjen at Shore Leave, elizard100 and rockgoddes at Vulkon Cleveland, kita0610 at Vulkon Tampa, anniesj, circe_tigana, harmonyfb, and others at Dragoncon 2003, witling, jolielaide, saussy, irfikos, soundingsea, and a ton of others at Writercon... well, you get the idea.) So we chatted for a long time, and eventually at 6:30 10zlaine and I staggered back to our room. :)
- For my brother's birthday, I bought an evil rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (A little stuffed rabbit with gigantic fangs and blood smeared all over it.) That dealer's room is very fun. (I also managed to find vegan hand soap in there after I realized I'd forgotten mine.)
- The food situation sucked. Avoid the Chinese place in the mall unless you want bugs in your cabbage. I ended up eating most of the food I brought (lots of soups, rice, and noodles to which you just add water); I'm so glad I brought it.
- My plane was delayed both ways, which sucked. >:( And on the flight home, AirTran had the gall to lock up our luggage 20 minutes after the plane landed, leaving about 15 people stuck with no luggage, and with no AirTran employees in sight (either at the baggage claim or at the check-in). We had to call their 800 number to get them to send someone to unlock the door and give us our luggage, and then she had the gall to yell at us for being slow (hello, it's a long walk from the gate to the baggage claim!) and to tell us that we should be grateful that they'd secured our luggage. I will definitely avoid AirTran in the future if at all possible.
But aside from the travel issues, it was an awesome con. I'm definitely going next year.
...And it sucks to come home to reality. :(
I really don't have anything new to say regarding the hurricane... it's absolutely horrifying, and I can only hope that it'll be a wake-up call that this country seriously needs to change. Jon Stewart's monologue last night was perfect (you can watch it at this link), and this rant also rang very true to me.
Stuff that's going on with me:
- I finally got rid of the roommate from hell. He paid the utilities, and I gave him back his full deposit. Even though he turned one of the walls into a hideous brown-streaked thing (long story), and left three hours after I told him he had to be gone. I figured it was best to just get him gone with the minimum amount of drama.
- My dad came up and changed the locks. That was nice of him, and saved me the huge expense of a locksmith, though it took him longer than expected (six hours) and made me late to the airport. But it worked out in the end.
- New roommate moved in--a graduate student at NYU. She's a bit high maintenance (I had to go home on my lunch hour yesterday to show her how to open the door) but hopefully she will be more conscientious. (*crosses fingers*) The safety of my cats is the most important thing.
- "Rescue Me" was amazing last night. I couldn't sleep afterward; I think the only other time fiction has gotten me that disturbed is the first half of "Pet Sematary" (the realistic parts leading up to and including when the kid dies, before the supernatural stuff kicks in). That's really an amazing show; for the second time, my heart completely broke for Tommy. And I'm impressed by the writers; I keep worrying that they'll have no where new to go, but they always find an unexpected twist that takes the show to new places while preserving the aspects that made it originally appealing. (How you can you maintain audience sympathy for Tommy while keeping him an interestingly fucked up mess of a person? So far, so good...)
- Bunches of good concerts are coming up! Bella Morte is playing here this Saturday, I'll probably go to Gothstock September 24-25 (it's got Bella Morte, the Cruxshadows, the Genitorturers, and many more), I might try to go see KMFDM (with Bella Morte) in Rochester October 10, the Cruxshadows are here October 29, and I'll probably go to Dracula's Ball for Halloween (Cruxshadows and Voltaire are playing). Oh, and of course, NIN, twice, in November. And if Depeche Mode ever announces those North American tour dates... ?
- I stayed with jaydk and 10zlaine at the Marriott: nice hotel, great roommates. :)
- I spent much of my time on the Goth track. Their opening panel was kind of pointless, but their second panel (exploring the reasons behind "the gothic impulse") was great. It was probably the most intellectually engaging panel I saw all weekend, largly due to Rogue from the Cruxshadows, who is exceptionally articulate and thoughtful. The other panelists were good, too; I particularly appreciated Voltaire this year (he's got a great combination of dark humor and sincerity).
- Speaking of the Goth track, the three bands I was there for all had their own panels: the Cruxshadows, Voltaire, and Bella Morte. The Cruxshadows one was interesting, sort of a philosophical/historical overview of the band and their inspirations. It was mainly Rogue and his girlfriend (and the band's dancer/tour manager/etc), Jessica Lackey, talking.
- The Voltaire panel was great, too. It was more serious than I expected; he talked about his history, how he got into music, that kind of thing. I particularly enjoyed a story he told about back when he used to do stop motion animation for commercials. He was working with a sexist, racist company (they fired a female director and wouldn't allow black baby dolls in the commercial), and he was so upset that he got revenge by sneaking hidden swastikas into the commercial. The whole audience cheered at the end of that story. He also talked about his "Deady the Evil Teddy" comic books (which feature awesome guest writers like Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman) and how delighted he was to hear through the grapevine that Clive Barker said he was hot. Oh, and at the end he performed a song for us, just him and his acoustic guitar (reminded me of a Common Rotation living room show), which was really wonderful.
- The Bella Morte panel was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I've rarely laughed so hard (well, except in the next panel, but we'll get to that). They talked about their inspirations, how they met and started the band, that kind of thing. Many of the stories were terrible (kids leaving bad homes and meeting each other on the streets), but the guys told them as if they were the funniest stories ever. Kind of disturbing, but everyone was laughing.
- The best panel of the track was probably "Gigs Gone Horribly Wrong," in which the Cruxshadows, Voltaire, Bella Morte, and this guy with green hair from some band I don't know told horror stories about touring. They had the entire room cracking up so hard we were practically falling out of our chairs. (It's hard to recreate here; most of the stories were about 100 times funnier because of the ways they were told.) Near the beginning of the panel, someone either farted or let off a stink bomb, and the entire room, including the panelists, were covering their noses with their shirts. Rogue actually got up and tried to escape the smell by moving about the room; eventually he opened up a door for ventilation.
Then they all told horror stories. Bella Morte's were almost all about poo ("there's a reason why our initials are BM"), including one about finding a crazy guy in a Wendy's bathroom covered in shit. They also told one about touring with the Cruxshadows; they were following the Cruxshadows van, and Rogue, who was driving, pulled over, completely freaked out, and insisted they stop because he was so exhausted that he had literally believed that he was driving across a kitchen table and that the other cars were salt shakers that he was dodging.
Rogue talked about their van always breaking down, and told a really hilarious story about playing the Limelight in NYC: The Cruxshadows always open with Rogue speaking (usually reciting "Annabel Lee" ultra-dramatically) in some unknown location, and then making his way through the audience and onto the stage. This time the show started when he was sitting on the toilet, and he had no choice but to start the monologue from the bathroom, finish up, and make his way onstage, with no one knowing where he had come from.
Voltaire also told a bunch of stories, usually about the horror of having his ego knocked down a little bit. He travelled to Japan and had the tragic experience of people not laughing at his jokes (and they explaining afterward that they thought he was hilarious, but didn't want to laugh in public). And the horrors of not getting any: he hooked up with two hot chicks at a DragonCon, brought them to a party where they all took turns making out with each other, and then took them back to his room... where one admitted to being a virgin and the other just wanted to snuggle. (This story was much funnier if you watched the severely disapproving looks on the Cruxshadows' faces as Voltaire told it.)
Anyway, this panel was wonderful, just unbelievably funny and engaging.
- And I also went to a panel about how to start your own Goth night, which was sparsely attended (I'm sure in part because it was so early), but very interesting. Lots of real, straight-forward, solid advice, from people with the experience to know.
- The live music was also great. I saw Voltaire three times (two half-hour sets in the hallway between panels, and his big performance in the ballroom Saturday night). I really enjoyed his music this year. And I thought I was going to die laughing during a couple of his songs, particularly the one about Luke Skywalker (I think?) losing his manhood in the Mos Eisley cantina.
Bella Morte (well, 2/5 of Bella Morte) also did a half hour set in the hallway; "Bella Morte unplugged" was quite an experience, totally different from their live show. I *really* enjoyed it; probably my favorite thing about them is when their lead singer gets melodic, because his voice is just beautiful. So the unplugged performance showcased that really well. Their main ballroom performance was much heavier, and very fun.
The Cruxshadows, for whatever reason, played a much smaller and crappier room this year. The sound was truly awful. Still, their performance was good, as it usually is, and Rogue is great at making the crowd feel like one big community. I was up front, but I think maybe next time I'll see them from farther back. (Partly because they pull people onstage at the end and I don't like that, so I have to duck people rushing forward to get up there, and band members trying to pull me up.) And also, honestly, their schreechy little fangirls were starting to drive me crazy by the end. I wonder if I'm getting too cynical for their kind of ultra-sincere, highly emotional type performance. Give me Raymond Watts' black humor and cynicism any day...
- Speaking of Raymond Watts--I was talking to Bella Morte's merch girl (I bought a t-shirt) and she mentioned that they are going to be playing a few shows with KMFDM this fall. To which I responded "Cool! But I don't know if KFMDM will really be worth seeing without Raymond Watts..." And she said that she saw them in DC last year and that Raymond showed up and that she got to hang out with him backstage. And that "he seems really tough onstage, but is really sweet inside" and "he's fascinated by Americans and loves American girls." Um, and several times throughout the con, I almost went back to her to drill her for more information about him. But I didn't, 'cause I'm mature and stuff. :P
I think that covers the music stuff. What else did I do? Let's see...
- I got autographs from the four Serenity cast members (Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Ron Glass, and Morena Baccarin), who were all nice. But I didn't see any of their panels because the lines were too long. It's insane how popular Serenity was this year, and you wouldn't believe the number of Serenity costumes.
- I saw a panel with Dean Haglund (Langly from The X-Files) and the guy who played Agent Spender. Dean Haglund was selling his new laptop cooling device. They were both really funny.
- The three of us went to "Klingon Karaoke," which was actually just Star Trek fans singing karaoke, not necessarily in Klingon costume. :( But it was kind of fun. I'm not much of a karaoke fan, though.
- We saw a very cool Star Wars fan film called Revelations, and a Q&A from the creators, who spent $20,000 on it. It's got amazing digital effects and is distributed totally free. Very cool.
- I saw glimpses of lots of neat stuff, like drum circles and robot battles. I love Dragoncon--so much creativity for its own sake, independent and not for profit.
- Ooh, there was a panel on Harry Potter slash! I left about 20 minutes early to get in line for a concert, but what I saw was decent. It was sort of an "intro to fanfiction," "intro to slash" type atmosphere, but it wasn't bad. There were plenty of Remus/Sirius shippers, which made me happy. :)
- And I went to a Harry Potter Book 7 speculation panel, which was really interesting. It addressed all the typical theories; the main point of disagreement was whether or not Harry (or his scar) is a horcrux, and whether or not he'll have to die in the end. Oh, and of course, the Snape argument. It looked like about 80% of the room believed Snape is ultimately good, while maybe 20% believed he's bad.
- I saw one panel with James and Oliver Phelps (who play the Weasley twins in the movie, and did a panel each of the four days). They're quite cute. But, uh.... maybe not so much experienced with the public speaking. Luckily, I don't think their main crowd (little girls who screamed every time they opened their mouths) minded that they didn't have anything to say.
- There were tons of awesome costumes. Serenity was huge, of course. There were some great Princess Leias. I was particularly impressed by a large Stewie from Family Guy. Oh, and by the fact that during the Star Wars part of the parade, in addition to all the characters, they had a guy dressed as George Lucas. Oh, and there was a family dressed as the Incredibles who were very good. It's so much fun to just walk through the Hyatt lobby and check out all the amazing costumes.
- It's absolutely criminal that they stop selling alcohol at 2am Saturday and midnight Sunday! We couldn't find anything to drink Saturday night, so we all went to bed. Sunday I was determined to party, but the Cruxshadows show went until after midnight (and I wanted to keep my spot up front so I couldn't drink during it), and then afterward I couldn't get any beer. Next time I'm bringing my own. Anyway, I did manage to find a source on Sunday night, got drunk, then headed back to the Hyatt, where 10zlaine and I hung out until about 6:30am with this guy Jamie that we sort of know, plus two Bella Morte fans. And I had another beer because someone was just wandering around handing them out. :) This ended up being really fun for me; my favorite thing (aside from the music) is talking to people, being social, and finally I had an opportunity to do so. (Seriously, I was thinking about this--what do I remember most from previous conventions? The good memories are always of hanging out and talking with cool people--jodyorjen at Shore Leave, elizard100 and rockgoddes at Vulkon Cleveland, kita0610 at Vulkon Tampa, anniesj, circe_tigana, harmonyfb, and others at Dragoncon 2003, witling, jolielaide, saussy, irfikos, soundingsea, and a ton of others at Writercon... well, you get the idea.) So we chatted for a long time, and eventually at 6:30 10zlaine and I staggered back to our room. :)
- For my brother's birthday, I bought an evil rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (A little stuffed rabbit with gigantic fangs and blood smeared all over it.) That dealer's room is very fun. (I also managed to find vegan hand soap in there after I realized I'd forgotten mine.)
- The food situation sucked. Avoid the Chinese place in the mall unless you want bugs in your cabbage. I ended up eating most of the food I brought (lots of soups, rice, and noodles to which you just add water); I'm so glad I brought it.
- My plane was delayed both ways, which sucked. >:( And on the flight home, AirTran had the gall to lock up our luggage 20 minutes after the plane landed, leaving about 15 people stuck with no luggage, and with no AirTran employees in sight (either at the baggage claim or at the check-in). We had to call their 800 number to get them to send someone to unlock the door and give us our luggage, and then she had the gall to yell at us for being slow (hello, it's a long walk from the gate to the baggage claim!) and to tell us that we should be grateful that they'd secured our luggage. I will definitely avoid AirTran in the future if at all possible.
But aside from the travel issues, it was an awesome con. I'm definitely going next year.
...And it sucks to come home to reality. :(
I really don't have anything new to say regarding the hurricane... it's absolutely horrifying, and I can only hope that it'll be a wake-up call that this country seriously needs to change. Jon Stewart's monologue last night was perfect (you can watch it at this link), and this rant also rang very true to me.
Stuff that's going on with me:
- I finally got rid of the roommate from hell. He paid the utilities, and I gave him back his full deposit. Even though he turned one of the walls into a hideous brown-streaked thing (long story), and left three hours after I told him he had to be gone. I figured it was best to just get him gone with the minimum amount of drama.
- My dad came up and changed the locks. That was nice of him, and saved me the huge expense of a locksmith, though it took him longer than expected (six hours) and made me late to the airport. But it worked out in the end.
- New roommate moved in--a graduate student at NYU. She's a bit high maintenance (I had to go home on my lunch hour yesterday to show her how to open the door) but hopefully she will be more conscientious. (*crosses fingers*) The safety of my cats is the most important thing.
- "Rescue Me" was amazing last night. I couldn't sleep afterward; I think the only other time fiction has gotten me that disturbed is the first half of "Pet Sematary" (the realistic parts leading up to and including when the kid dies, before the supernatural stuff kicks in). That's really an amazing show; for the second time, my heart completely broke for Tommy. And I'm impressed by the writers; I keep worrying that they'll have no where new to go, but they always find an unexpected twist that takes the show to new places while preserving the aspects that made it originally appealing. (How you can you maintain audience sympathy for Tommy while keeping him an interestingly fucked up mess of a person? So far, so good...)
- Bunches of good concerts are coming up! Bella Morte is playing here this Saturday, I'll probably go to Gothstock September 24-25 (it's got Bella Morte, the Cruxshadows, the Genitorturers, and many more), I might try to go see KMFDM (with Bella Morte) in Rochester October 10, the Cruxshadows are here October 29, and I'll probably go to Dracula's Ball for Halloween (Cruxshadows and Voltaire are playing). Oh, and of course, NIN, twice, in November. And if Depeche Mode ever announces those North American tour dates... ?