DragonCon 2006 (I totally forgot I’d taken these photos!)

April 2nd, 2008 1:27am by rusty-halo | No Comments »

I (just a bit belatedly!) posted my photos from DragonCon 2006.

I’m generally a terrible photographer, but I get lucky sometimes. These ended up being some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken:

The Method from Godhead and Sarah from The Cruxshadows

Current Mood: optimistic

some good stuff

March 1st, 2007 12:19pm by rusty-halo | 1 Comment »

The Swining discography is up! I’ve spent months working on the design and structure for this (all the content is stored in a database and entered through a content management system). I am also awed at the amount of data Filth (who does the actual content management) has put in. And more is coming soon. :)

My professor was on The Colbert Report last night! That was quite weird. Judith Stacey; I had her for something like “The Sociology of Gender.” To be honest, it was kind of a lame class compared to some of the other gender courses I took, but she was nice enough.

I somehow forgot to mention that jaydk and I went to see The Cruxshadows last Thursday night. I can’t believe I’ve been seeing them for seven years. I’ve kind of grown out of them; they’re a little too sincere and well-meaning, but I have a lot of nostalgic affection for them anyway.

For some reason they played the Pyramid Club, which actually made me miss Albion. Pyramid is even smaller and more tightly packed, and I think they must let in a younger crowd, because the front section was full of those little kids who whine that people are pushing them. I don’t know how many times I have to say this: if you don’t want to get pushed, don’t stand in the front of a mosh pit. Honestly. If I’m pushing into you, it’s because someone is pushing me, and someone is pushing them, going all the way to the back of the club, and you whining isn’t going to do anything but make the whole experience worse, since we’re still going to be stuck standing next to each other regardless. The only good thing is that these annoying kids tend to get fed up and leave halfway through, so jaydk and I ended up right at the front.

I’m so proud of myself for corrupting jaydk. Now she’s a bigger Cruxshadows fan than I ever was. She even knows their names, and knew the new songs better than I do. She was definitely not the type of person to go to a Goth club before she met me. ::evil grin::

I was a little disappointed with their set; too much emphasis on new songs. I would’ve swapped a couple of the newer ones for classics; I was really surprised that they didn’t play “Citadel” or “Resist/R,” at least. Not that the new ones were bad; the balance just seemed off.

It does kind of break my heart that this is the last time I’ll ever see Rachel, though. She is just so freaking cool, and is probably my favorite thing about the band. How often do you see kids in a Goth club freaking out because the violin solo is so awesome? And she just does her thing, looking so serious, and doesn’t show off, which makes her extra-cool. :( Glad I at least got to see her one last time.

And I’m really glad jaydk was there to share the experience. :)

Dragoncon 2005!

September 7th, 2005 6:59pm by rusty-halo | 4 Comments »

( DragonCon was awesome! )

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… ?

Dragoncon 2004

September 7th, 2004 1:21pm by rusty-halo | 6 Comments »

Got home from DragonCon last night. It was fun, but going to two cons in a row was exhausting. Not sure if I’ll want to do that again.

The Firefly guests (Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite, and Adam Baldwin) were the surprise hits of the con. Very popular, packed the Q&A and autograph rooms, and were very funny and entertaining.

I didn’t do any of the Buffy stuff, as I wasn’t interested. I wanted to do Harry Potter panels, but frustratingly, the few Harry Potter panels coincided with other stuff that I wanted to do more. So the only Harry Potter thing I saw was Harry Potter Jeopardy, for little kids. Well, all the HP programming was for little kids–it was the YA Track. They NEED a totally-Harry Potter track, with ADULT programming! All the HP stuff was packed, with lines, while the rest of the YA stuff was barely filled. I don’t think I’ll return next year if they don’t have separate HP programming for grown-ups.

The best surprise for me was Rogue from the Cruxshadows. He was on two of the panels for the new Goth track and he was WONDERFUL. Brilliant and articulate and interesting and funny. One panel was specifically about the history of Goth music while the other was about the Goth subculture in general. Rogue discussed the ideology/mindstate of “Goth” going back to the Romans vs. “passionate, non-logical, individualistic” outsiders. He talked about Beethoven as the first Goth musician, Byron and Goth as “modern Romanticism,” early horror films like Nosferatu, plus the development of New Wave from Punk and all the obvious stuff. He was just so interesting and thoughtful. All the discussions were really fair and open-minded–they were talking about the positives and negatives of stuff like Hot Topic and Marilyn Manson from a really balanced perspective. Lots of celebration of the diversity of the Goth movement. I wish someone had recorded those panels; they were wonderful.

The Cruxshadows themselves were awesome, of course. Unfortunately they didn’t play until 2am, and we were let in at 10:30pm, plus had to wait in line to get in. Standing for four hours SUCKED. The opening band, Faith and the Muse, was terrible. Voltaire was good, but not worth standing for. My feet still hurt. But the Cruxshadows were worth it. And I got jaydk to stand up front with me, and she loved the show (even though she’s so not goth and she doesn’t like live music). Rogue sang to her, and autographed a CD for her, and gave her a hug. :)

I saw a kid dressed as Remus Lupin (with the scars!), and shrieked, and took his photo. There were also a bunch of Harrys floating around, and a good amount of Snapes and Hagrids. Plenty of pirates, as well–several captain Jacks, at least one Captain Hook, and a bunch of generic pirates. They also did an interactive showing of PotC, but as it was at 10am, I didn’t go.

It was fun to go to the con, and good to spend time with jaydk and elizard100 and rockgoddes, plus the various other people I ran into like elfgirl and dwivian, Froggy and Jamie, April B. and Donna, poshcat and fer1213, etc….

And now, I must work, and then sleep for a very long time.

Hey

November 2nd, 2003 3:50pm by rusty-halo | 9 Comments »

The Cruxshadows were great last night, as expected. I got there around 8:45 and they didn’t go on until around 11:30, which meant I stood around bored for a long time. Also, it was really hot; what’s with this weather? The club was packed, but I did get to be in the very front, so that was cool. I always enjoy concerts much more when I can see the expressions on the lead singer’s face. I’m very verbally oriented, so the lyrics and the emotion behind them are what matters most to me.

The whole thing was centered on Greek mythology; Rogue introduced most of the songs by telling a few lines about Troy, or Hector and Achilles, or Odysseus, or whatever, tying the story to the theme of the song. It was neat. He’s got such a great voice for that kind of thing.

I love that Rogue is so interactive with the audience. He sang at least half the show offstage. He’s got a microphone attached to a headset, so his hands are free. He just comes down and walks through the crowd singing to people. Downtime has a cool layout, too, with a balcony with stairs open to the audience. So he climbed up to the top of the stairs and sang a lot from up there, and from the balcony. During Go Away, he went to the bar and got a stool, then carried it into the middle of the crowd and stood on top, singing to the people around him, rotating so he’d get everyone. Then at one point he got annoyed that the people on the balcony weren’t dancing, so he climbed up there and hung on the outside of the balcony, over the crowd, and sang directly to them. Then he turned around and hung over the main audience, singing to us.

I also love their dancers. jaydk seemed offended by them at DragonCon, but I think they’re awesome. They’re not shaking their booty, bodies sexualized kind of dancers. They’re very beautiful modern dancers, all of their movements choreographed to match the music and lyrics. There’s nothing exploitative about it, it’s just really cool and adds another artistic element to the mix.

I also love their violin player, Rachel. How cool is it to have a violin as the central musical element in a rock show? And I love that half the band is female.

They played a few songs from their new album Ethernaut, but most were older songs that I knew. They didn’t play Resist/R, though, which was disappointing. But they played almost everything else I would’ve wanted to hear-Tears, Binary, Go Away, Return (Coming Home), Deception, The Seraphs, Winter Born. The new songs all sounded good; I bought the new record and am listening to it now. They closed with Marilyn, My Bitterness, which kind of annoyed me, actually. I know it’s their biggest hit and all, but they’ve been playing it, like, forever. But it’s a good encore since everyone knows it and gets all excited. Unfortunately, since I was in the front, I got pulled up onstage at the end when Rogue was pulling people from the crowd to dance onstage. I hate that. I don’t dance. I know no one’s looking at me anyway, but I really hate being on a stage in front of hundreds of people. So I hid behind this big guy, and jumped off as soon as it was over. Afterwards I got Rogue to sign my CD; he’s so cute. *girly sigh*

Now I’m horribly depressed. I guess it’s post-concert letdown. I’ve been looking forward to this show for the past two weeks–it got me through all the paper-writing and midterms and work stress–and now it’s over. I hate being in this frame of mind … it’s like my defenses are down. Everything’s upsetting me more than I want it to. Like, I went alone to the concert, and felt so ugly and boring compared to everyone else, and so lonely looking at all the couples. (Even though I don’t want to date anyway). Now I’m trying to catch up with my friends list, and all these little things that normally wouldn’t bother me are upsetting me greatly. And also, devilpiglet left LJ, and I miss her.

I haven’t read LJ since Tuesday; I feel so behind. I’m trying to catch up. Since I haven’t posted, here’s a quick run-down of what I would have posted about if I’d had time.

( AtS 5×05, Kill Bill, Halloween, etc )

(no subject)

October 31st, 2003 2:36pm by rusty-halo | 5 Comments »

Today is so strange.

I got all Gothed out for Halloween. I couldn’t help it; it’s my favorite holiday. Everyone at work looked at me weird. It’s sort of a toned-down Goth, though, but still. Stands out. No one else even dressed up, and my boss forgot it was Halloween. How can you forget Halloween!?

Workmen are drilling outside, very, very loudly, and almost in our office. They’re redoing the front of the building, right outside our windows (and one wall of our office is all windows). I mean they’re so close that you can see the workman’s butt crack when he leans over to drill–he’s about six feet away from me. It’s so loud that it’s impossible to talk, so my boss (who’s usually really picky about this stuff) told us that we could get headphones and listen to music to drown it out. So I’m listening to the Cruxshadows’ album Wishfire at top volume to drown out the drilling.

This is an unbelievably brilliant record. Everyone should go buy it now (try amazon or isotank). This band is just so smart and thoughtful and creative and interesting. I never hear this kind of thing on the radio anymore; music that’s really innovative and lyrics that actually make you both think and feel. They’re so interesting; they incorporate lots of mythology (esp Greek and Egyptian), various literary sources (Poe, Lewis Caroll, etc), all these ideas about maintaining your individuality and how to survive in a conformist society, as well as the usual love and relationship type songs. There’s real heart and real passion and real hope in this music. I mean real, not the pre-packaged bullshit that you get from MTV and the radio.

The song I’m currently obsessed with is Resist/R, which you should be able to get from Kazaa or other file-sharing places. If you want to try some of their other music, everything on Wishfire is great. Tears is very powerful. Go Away and Return (Coming Home) are slower, if you’re into quieter music. And not from this record, but a wonderful song and probably their biggest hit, is Marilyn, My Bitterness, which is totally heart-wrenching. Some other good ones are Eurydice, Leave Me Alone, Cruelty, Heaven’s Gaze, Love/Tragedy … well, lots. Also, since these guys are not on a major record label, if you like what you hear, please do buy the actual records as well.

Their official site, where you can find out more about the band, is Cruxshadows.com, btw. (No, I wasn’t paid to write this. I really just haven’t felt this strongly about music in a very long time.) Also, they’re playing Philadelphia tonight (alas, I’m not going) and NYC tomorrow (I’m definitely going). And they’re playing the east coast all month, so check out their list of tourdates here. I first saw them in … 2000? 2001? with Uranium 235 in this tiny club in Connecticut, and since then I’ve seen them several more times (most recently at DragonCon). They put on an amazing live show, especially because they’re so interactive with the audience (their singer, Rogue, comes into the crowd and sings as he walks around, and climbs on balconys and stuff).

I’ve also realized how much I miss listening to albums. There’s just something more powerful and real about listening to the whole record, in the order intended, that you miss when you download MP3s and listen to them out of order. Most albums have a unifying concept, a theme, a progression; the songs and ideas relate to each other in different ways. You get more out of the experience by listening to the full record; if you’re just listening to MP3s, you’re missing something. I’m so dependent on MP3s now that I don’t even own a CD player, but I’m thinking I really ought to buy one.

Oh yeah, and happy Halloween, everyone. I still haven’t been able to catch up with my friends’ list; I feel so out-of-touch! But I did archive some Halloween stories today; check out the All About Spike homepage for the list. And don’t miss the list of stories that wiseacress is compiling.

(no subject)

October 26th, 2003 10:27pm by rusty-halo | 7 Comments »

Um, this is obviously directed to people who live in the same area as I do.

Is there anything going on for Halloween? As much as I’d love to spend the whole day at home reading Halloween fanfic, I also think it might be cool to actually go somewhere and do something. Perhaps in a costume.

The Cruxshadows are playing a Halloween show in Philadelphia, which might be really fun to attend. Although they’re also playing NYC the next night, so it might be really silly to travel all the way to Philly when I can see them here the next night. OTOH maybe it’d be really cool to see them two nights in a row. But the only way I have to get to Philly is via train, and no way am I doing that alone. Anyone interested in going together? dizenchanted and I went to Philly by train a few times for U235 shows and it was certainly an adventure.

Anyway, send me an email or comment here if you’re interested in this, or if you know of anything else going on for Halloween.

DragonCon Report

September 3rd, 2003 5:30am by rusty-halo | 62 Comments »

Woo Hoo!

August 4th, 2003 11:26am by rusty-halo | 5 Comments »

Godhead and The Cruxshadows will both be playing at DragonCon. Two of my favorite bands. I’m very happy. :)

(no subject)

May 30th, 2003 4:25pm by rusty-halo | No Comments »

Woohoo!

The Cruxshadows are going to be playing at DragonCon. Check them out; they kick ass.