I need, like, a music blog, or something

April 20th, 2009 8:27pm by rusty-halo | 10 Comments »

An act of anti-sanity: staying up until 3am on a work night, watching The Man Who Fell to Earth. For the second time.

*feels out of it and is going to bed early tonight*

It was better on rewatch, but even more depressing. I just wanted to curl up and cry at the end. Plus jaydk and I got drunk beforehand and watched the first two Death Note movies. Kind of a dark-themed night!

Watching The Man Who Fell to Earth while drunk is extra-weird because it’s largely a movie about alcoholism. That’s not the theme that intrigues me–more just the way it captures social isolation and the inability to communicate. The way you can want so desperately to connect with another person and it still doesn’t work–that love isn’t enough.

*gets depressed again*

Meanwhile I’m trying Low. I’m kind of sad because I feel like I can’t viscerally appreciate the full impact of this music, just because it was so groundbreaking at the time. Whereas I was raised on stuff like The Downward Spiral and just take the industrial / electronic / ambient thing for granted.

Still, nothing can take away from the fact that this is really good. Although not as dark as I was led to believe–but then, see: raised on The Downward Spiral.

Maybe Bowie’s just dark in a more subtle way than Reznor. I can barely listen to NIN anymore because Reznor’s lyrics hit my embarrassment squick so badly. I like to think he just pulls them verbatim from the diary he kept at age 16; the possibility that he’s writing them fresh as an adult is almost too horrible to contemplate.

Although actually, this reminds me even more of PIG (whose lyrics thankfully are not embarrassing), particularly of the instrumentals on Sinsation.

Anyway, Low. Is nifty, and I will listen to it more.

Also I am throughly absorbed in this David Bowie encyclopedia. It’s great–it’s entirely about Bowie’s creative output and skips the trashy bio stuff unless it’s directly relevant to the art. It’s divided into different sections–an entry on every single song, album, music video, film role, etc. The guy writing it seems to have a good head on his shoulders–he explains the history of each song, describes the creative contributions of everyone involved, points out the allusions and references, peppers his commentary with direct quotes as much as possible and explains his speculations with evidence, and includes both a historical overview of each piece in addition to quotes from the major reviews of the time.

It’s really fascinating both as a look at Bowie and at one sliver of the world of the 1970s, which is this whole other intriguing thing for me–this is the first time I’ve been a major fan of someone working in a era I didn’t live through, so it’s almost a study of the time as much as it is of him. It really hits you how much artists are influenced by the time and place they work in. I suppose the closest I’ve come before is my Sergio Leone obsession, which led to this whole interest in post-war European perspectives on America (which is also an aspect of Bowie’s work… and of Raymond Watts’… I wonder why I keep being drawn to that).

Sorry, babbling.

Current Mood: tired

yet another post of random disconnected babble

December 11th, 2008 4:14pm by rusty-halo | 33 Comments »

* This just made me choke on my coffee. I think I enjoy The Meathead Perspective far more than I enjoy the actual band Nine Inch Nails.

* I’m not an Avatar fan, but I’m still upset by the blatantly racist movie casting. Just… what the hell? I’m glad to see that the fandom has already launched a letter writing campaign.

* This xkcd comic is awesome and totally nails the “nice guy” phenomenon. The wank it’s generated is severely depressing, though. “Women have nearly exclusive control over the nation’s sex supply, and that will never, ever change“???? *headdesk*

* jaydk and kalichan came over to my place on Saturday night for a very fun evening of wine and television. We watched the first episode of The Devil’s Whore, after which jaydk declared that she couldn’t stand to continue watching history be raped in such a blatant manner, so we switched to the first episode of Life on Mars (which kalichan had never seen!) to get the bad taste out of our mouths.

To be honest, I didn’t mind The Devil’s Whore–probably because I’m woefully ignorant about that period of English history, and because I was only watching for John Simm. He had his shirt off for a whole scene, so I got what I wanted out of the deal. :P

* This panel description has me dreading Gallifrey One. I think it might be best if I spend this convention drinking and chatting and avoiding most of the actual programming. >:( Still looking forward to seeing Phil Collinson, though. And hopefully to hearing interesting insights from the various new series writers who are attending.

* I’ve kind of reluctantly gotten into Spooks–I actually went out of my way to watch the season finale as soon as possible. I don’t love the show by any means. It’s pure genre, which makes it incredibly predictable; it never does anything that a spy drama wouldn’t do. But it’s quite a good example of a spy show, which makes it entertaining for what it is. Well, okay, mainly the entertaining thing is the lovely contrasts between Richard Armitage’s pale skin, black hair, and blue eyes. But occasionally he even gets to do some actual acting! And I kind of love the character of Ros–her competence and snark make her one of the more appealing female characters I’ve seen in quite a while.

* I’m re-reading Pawn in Frankincense despite myself. I forgot how funny this one is as it starts off! In fact, I think I forgot almost everything that happens except for the ending, which kind of blew the rest of it out of the water. It’s a totally different experience to read this series for a second time; everything makes so much more sense when you already know what’s going to happen. Dunnett’s style of keeping the reader completely in the dark for 90% of each book (and the series as a whole) is incredibly frustrating, but definitely rewarding if you’re able to put up with it. It also makes re-reading a whole new experience–you can actually appreciate the subtleties instead of just wondering what the hell is going on. It also helps that I’ve got a book of translations with me this time around, so I can figure out what the hell they’re saying when the characters suddenly switch to French or Latin.

* I’m resisting the urge to write a long song-by-song analysis of “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” I know that no one cares about my interpretation of a 35-year-old classic album that I’ve only been listening to for two weeks. Still. It’s all I’ve been thinking about. I haven’t even turned it off at night, because it’ll play in my head if I don’t have it actually playing from my speakers.

* 5years.com is an incredibly helpful website if you suddenly decide to get obsessed with “Ziggy Stardust” 35 years too late. Plus I’m learning all this stuff about glam rock–now I totally get that scene in Life on Mars where Sam meets Marc Bolan!

* I bought this Best of Bowie DVD. It’s all so totally totally awesome for about the first 50 minutes, and then… 1974 happens. Good god. I think maybe I’m a fan of Ziggy Stardust, not of David Bowie?

* I wish I’d gone to the Bowie Ball last weekend. I totally want to go see this all-female Ziggy Stardust cover band in January. And I want to go see this thing at MOMA even though I doubt 1) I can get tickets, 2) that it’s anything I haven’t already seen on the Best of Bowie DVD.

* I finally figured out how to connect my computer to my TV wirelessly. It’s a combination of this and this and it totally works! My TV is a second monitor and I can just drag video files over to it and play them. Now I should probably cancel my cable TV, but I’ve gotten addicted to The Rachel Maddow Show and now I kind of don’t want to give it up. I suppose I could just watch that online too. And I might actually continue catching up on more of those old Doctor/Master episodes now that I don’t have to waste CDs on burning them.

Although I might just watch lots of YouTube clips of young David Bowie instead.

Current Mood: bored

randomness, mostly veronica mars related

March 31st, 2006 12:43pm by rusty-halo | 18 Comments »

Oh my god. It’s a Colbert Report/Harry Potter crossover. Awesome.

Veronica Mars. The last few episodes haven’t sucked nearly as much as the beginning of the season, so I’ll post some thoughts, in no real order. ( spoilers for aired VM episodes )

Other stuff…

* I had a strange dream last night, in which I was back in my 12th grade history class with Ms. Moran as the mean scary teacher. I didn’t bring my books, because they were heavy and I thought we wouldn’t need them, so she snapped at me and then handed out a memo to everyone which included a note about how irresponsible I was for not bringing the books. And for some reason, ros_fod was sitting at the desk next to mine, and kita0610 was sitting behind her. And then there was a fire drill, and I was in trouble because we were supposed to stash our books somewhere, but I hadn’t brought any books to stash. And then ros_fod was feeling faint, but Ms. Moran was mean and made her go to the nurse alone, even though kita0610 offered to go with her.

Yeah, don’t ask me to explain dreamlogic.

* I randomly flipped over to NIN’s “Closer” video on VH1 Classics last night. I’d actually forgotten that Trent used to be skinny and fucked-up and leather clad and hot, instead of looking like your friend’s uncle who works as a bouncer. *sigh* Wish I’d seen them live back then.

* South Park hovers in this weird territory between unbelievably funny and just … stupid. The last two episodes were quite a contrast, as the return of Chef episode was fucking brilliant, and the San Francisco episode was just… so lame. As if those “heartland” folks proclaiming their superiority over the gays and atheists on the coasts aren’t just as smug? Way to completely miss the obvious. But, whatever, it’s South Park; if you get offended, you’re giving them exactly what they want. (I think they mostly just get off on the “subversiveness” of offending as many people as possible, especially the groups that Hollywood usually overlooks.)

I’m too busy:

* Friday night – V for Vendetta with drujan and jaydk

* Saturday night – marathon of Jonathan from Guiding Light with jaydk (and she’s agreed to let me force PIG videos on her! Whoo!!)

* Sunday night – WriterCon meeting

* Monday night – I’m going to the Daily Show! I can’t wait. :)

* Wednesday – I have jury duty. Yuck.

And somewhere in the midst of all this, I’m working on this other thing, a really cool, really complex project that is supposed to launch in a week. I have a feeling I’m not going to be getting very much sleep in the upcoming days. *deep breath* But I can do it. And it will be cool.

(And on top of it all–I’m still sick from San Francisco! Damn West Coast germs. :P)

(no subject)

March 28th, 2006 4:42pm by rusty-halo | 12 Comments »

Tonight: Rob Zombie and Lacuna Coil at the Nokia Theater Times Square.

I think dizenchanted and aea are going to be there, right? I’ll look for you guys.

*blech, Tuesday night … must motivate self to go*

In other news, I’m not buying NIN tickets for June 17 at Jones Beach, because Pig is likely to be on the East Coast around that time. (And also, I’ve already seen NIN five times in the past 12 months.) I wish they’d announce the damn Pig dates already so I could get my schedule together.

Ugh

March 13th, 2006 4:26pm by rusty-halo | 13 Comments »

I went to Atlantic City this weekend to see Nine Inch Nails. Some thoughts:

* I’m over this whole “traveling alone” thing. It’s so tedious, not having anyone to distract you from the fact that the line is long, you’re thirsty, your back hurts, etc. And not having anyone to protect you from the creeps around you.

* Greyhound busses are repulsive–dirty, smelly, and cramped. They don’t follow correct schedules, they’re completely unreliable, and their barely-there staff is beyond rude. You don’t treat adults the way they treated us; you shouldn’t even treat 5-year-olds with such rudeness and condescension.

* Atlantic City is a shithole. Do you want to know the amount of time it took from me stepping off the bus for some skeevy guy to walk over and hit on me? 15 seconds. He literally saw me walk off the bus and made a beeline for me, and followed me through the bus station.

Speaking of the bus station, it was disgustingly dirty and there were no cabs or anything around, and I just wanted to get the hell out of there, so I decided to walk the 1.3 miles to the House of Blues. Bad idea. Every single person I walked past either stared at me like I was an alien or like he wanted to rape me and do disgusting things to my corpse. One man wondered aloud to his friend what it would be like to “do that,” and they had a good cackle as I walked past.

* When I finally got to the hellhole known as the House of Blues, it was disgusting–I think it could give the Imperial Palace a run for its money. Dank and dark and sweaty and reeking of desperation–and cigarette smoke. I forgot they let people smoke inside in Jersey. I knew I shouldn’t have bothered with this trip.

And the staff was as rude and clueless as you could be. No one could tell me where the spiral (fan club) entrance was, but I eventually found it (after ignoring the advice of many staff members who told me to “just get in the line”). When I got there, they lined us up in three parallel rows, and refused to let anyone out to go to the bathroom or get a drink. (Some girl who’d been waiting for hours left to pee, and when she came back to re-join her mother in line, the guards would not let her back in, even though she’d clearly been there waiting for hours, AND her mom had the tickets.)

Then they combined the three parallel lines in reverse order, so that everyone who’d been there first were moved to the back. People who’d been waiting since noon were behind people who’d just gotten there at five thirty. When we protested, we were lectured and told that they could not be responsible for “babysitting” us.

* So we finally got inside, and I was standing in the center with about five rows in front of me. The opening band was a rapper (WTF?) and then there was a loooong wait. This was growing increasingly intolerable, as I’d been travelling since noon and standing for several hours and hadn’t eaten since breakfast and I’d been scrunched into this tiny Greyhound seat with this huge guy taking half my space and blabbing on his phone the entire 2 1/2 hour trip and I was in NO MOOD to stand for freaking hours in a tiny cramped sweltering mosh pit.

And then the fire alarms went off.

Naturally, no one moved, but they turned on the house lights and the fire alarm lights were flashing. We stood for about two more hours; NO ONE came out to make any kind of announcement about what was going on until about an hour and 45 minutes into it. The fire department showed up and went onstage (waving to the crowd, who cheered them), and finally we were told that the smoke from the smoke machines, plus all the people smoking, plus the heat from the crowd, had set off the fire alarms in the casino, and the show couldn’t start until they checked the entire casino for a fire.

Lovely.

* So finally the show started, and the pit SUCKED. All these huge guys who’d just gotten there tried to shove their way up to the front, in the process crushing the people who’d been waiting for hours and hours. I know this is normal for mosh pits, but I’ve never been in one this unpleasant. It was just a really ugly, unpleasant asshole/frat boy type crowd.

After about two and a half songs, I couldn’t breathe, I was gasping for air, my chest was being crushed, and I knew I had to get out of there or die. So I turned around, and had to push my way out/pretend I was actually fainting so that people would let me through. Meanwhile, the girl in front of me realized that I was trying to leave, and latched onto my arm, begging me to take her with me. So I had to struggle my way out of the pit carrying my purse, my coat, and this other girl attached to my arm. We finally staggered out, stood in the back, caught our breaths, drank some $3 water, and then enjoyed the rest of the show from the back.

They played “Burn,” my favorite, and “Wish,” and some good stuff, but really nothing that special. And I couldn’t sing along because I couldn’t catch enough breath to sing.

This is the first time I’ve ever had to leave a mosh pit. I’m not a wuss. This crowd *really* sucked. As we stood in the back, we saw a progression of people who’d been standing near us up front, staggering their way out or being carried by their friends, in increasingly worse states of health. I’m so glad I got out early.

* And then I had to catch yet another hideous Greyhound bus at midnight to NYC, got home at 4am, had to take a shower to rid myself of the stench of Atlantic City, and slept for a very, very long.

(no subject)

March 7th, 2006 12:50pm by rusty-halo | 4 Comments »

I saw the Sisters of Mercy last night. It took major effort to leave my apartment and walk the two blocks to Webster Hall for a band I’ve never seen and barely heard, but I’d bought the ticket months ago and it was expensive. This is part of my whole recent “if the opportunity to do something interesting arises, do it, because life is short and you’re more likely to regret the things you didn’t do” thing.

The show was okay. Bad sound, too much fog, hard to see anything. But I was standing right in front of what may well be the hottest guitar player ever–seriously, I have no clue who this guy was, but he was pure sex. Stunningly gorgeous, and an excellent musician as well. I spent the entire show watching him (I couldn’t see anyone else through the fog anyway).

I also had the great misfortune to watch the Oscars on Sunday night. What a bunch of lame, pretentious, clueless… oh, whatever, they’re not even worth the rant. I watched for Jon Stewart, and found myself cringing at the mediocrity of his monologue (though the Bjork joke was funny). I’m glad that he seemed to relax and get into the swing of things later. His cynical asides were much more entertaining that his scripted not-too-offensive Hollywood jokes, of course. And I had a total SQUEE moment hearing Stephen Colbert’s voiceover on those fake attack ads (which were very funny).

I’m going to see Nine Inch Nails in Atlantic City on Saturday. Still have to figure out how to get there. (I’m sure there’s a bus, just need to do the research.) Ironically, my mom is driving there the same day, but she and her friends will be smoking in the car the whole way, so there’s no way I’d put myself through that. I should be more excited… NIN, small venue, spiral entrance… but I guess I’m just worrying about the logistics. Traveling alone is so tedious; time flies when you have someone to talk with, but it just drags on forever when you’re by yourself. *makes note to bring a book*

And then next week, I’m going to San Francisco to see Chemlab. I can’t believe this is coming up so soon; it still feels completely theoretical. I feel somewhat insane for planning such a thing.

Oh yeah, just a note: the WriterCon site was down for a while yesterday, but it’s back today. Not our fault; the host screwed up while moving us to a different server.

NIN in Philadelphia

November 7th, 2005 2:49pm by rusty-halo | 11 Comments »

I am exhausted.

Saturday I got up at 5am, took a bunch of trains, and by noon I was standing in line outside of the Wachovia Spectrum in Philadelphia.

After lots of confusion, about 300 people were let in to the NIN soundcheck at around 4pm. They played 5 songs (not including Aaron playing “Eye of the Tiger” before it started) and Trent was surprisingly chatty. He said the soundcheck was much scarier for them than the show, because all the lights were on and they were exposed. Seeing a NIN soundcheck… pretty damn cool experience.

They kept us inside after that. I had a Luna Bar and some orange juice, as my only food since 5am breakfast, and I was starving. They had food and drinks inside but wouldn’t sell them to us. Lame. :(

Did I mention how chaotic it was? We kept getting sorted and reordered randomly, so that people who got there at 3pm were ahead of people who got there at 5am.

I was supposed to go with my friend Mike, but he didn’t show up until 7pm, so I had to leave his ticket at Will Call for him to pick up without me. I love Mike, but I was really pissed off about this. Next time I invite someone to go to a show with me and get them a premium ticket, they had better actually go to the show with me. I was really upset about having to go alone–I’d been looking forward to having company at a concert for once.

Anyway. So they kept us in a seated section until at 6:45, when they let the GA people onto the floor. Once again, this was pure chaos, and where you ended up was determined largely by how pushy you were and how fast you ran. I ran pretty damn fast, and ended up IN THE FRONT ROW, left side, directly in front of Jeordie.

Two opening bands is two much. Death from Above 1979 is all headache-inducing drums, with a singer who sounds like a dying cat. *shudders* Queens of the Stone Age are quite good, but I was tired. I was so exhausted, and thirsty, and had such a headache, that it was really hard to enjoy myself.

Then NIN came on. And the crowd sucked. Let me reiterate–I was in the front row of a Nine Inch Nails concert, directly in front of Jeordie White, and NO ONE EVEN PUSHED ME. What the fuck was this? I mean, it’s nice not to have to worry about bruised ribs, but a little shoving livens things up nicely. The crowd was practically dead. NIN fans must be getting old, or something.

I finally cracked and begged a guard for a water bottle (actually the nice lady two people over asked for me), and that was perhaps the best drink of water I’ve ever had in my life. The girl next to me was really nice, too–a fellow Jeordie fan. (For many years, Jeordie was Marilyn Manson’s ultra-hot second-in-command, Twiggy Ramirez. I still think of him as Twiggy in my head–sorry.)

Anyway, so it was pretty much the best view imaginable. No one blocking me, no one pushing me. I didn’t have much energy to move, though, and my voice was so dead that I could barely manage to mouth the lyrics, let alone sing. (Perhaps I shouldn’t have used up all my energy jumping around and screaming every lyric to every song at the MSG show.) Still, I’m making it sound bad, and it wasn’t–it was really cool to see them so close. Jeordie has such a cool stage persona, and is always doing little things that make him fun to watch (making faces at the crowd, tossing us water, etc.) I ended up with two Jeordie guitar picks.

Trent… well, “Right Where it Belongs” and “Hurt” were wonderful. As were “March of the Pigs” and “Burn.” “Something I Can Never Have” was also really emotional. There were too many “With Teeth” songs, though. The setlist was very similar to that of the MSG show, although this time they played “Dead Souls” (way cool). Trent was quite chatty and kept saying thank you, more than I’ve ever heard him do. The crowd was disappointing, though–the arena wasn’t sold out, and a lot of people were sitting. The mosh pit was at least moving somewhat, closer to the center, but not near me.

I had the horrible thought that this was like being at a Buffy convention–Reznor even resembles Marsters, now, with his bulky body and shaved head, mid-life crisis in action. And his lyrics have about the same level of emotional maturity, sadly. (Though I do not deny that Reznor is a *brilliant* songwriter when it comes to music.) And the crowd–the fan club thing, maybe, is the problem. Older women who follow him around to multiple shows, taking pictures of every angle, gossiping about who grabbed his ass at the last meet-n-greet, and a fan club that gives you custom NIN membership cards with your name on them. It’s not NIN ten years ago, raw and hungry and real. It’s NIN as an institution, the NIN sideshow. NIN is not subversive anymore, NIN is the mainstream. They start with “Pinion,” dirty and evil and awesome, but 12 year old girls and 40 year old women scream in excitement, and then they go into “All the Love in the World” or whatever that boring thing is, and it just kills it. I don’t know, I shouldn’t be so negative, the atmosphere was just depressing.

I found Mike afterward, and he was with Joe and another friend. I gave Joe a huge hug–it was so good to see him again. It’s been two years, maybe. He looks like a real adult, now. It scares me. We’re getting old. Danielle and her sister Melissa were there, too–we said a brief “hi”–but they left right away, while I was talking to Joe. Whatever.

Mike drove me, Joe, and his other friend back to NJ. (I slept over at my parents’ house, because I’d missed the last train to NY, and I was so exhausted.) We played with Joe’s GPS tracking system thingy (freaky! it talks to you and gives you directions) and stopped at a 7-11 (best Terra Chips I’ve ever eaten). The fog was crazy–it took a really long time to get back because we were driving through clouds in the middle of the night with like 10-foot visibility.

So I got to my parents’ house around 4am, slept deeper than I’ve slept in a long time, but had to get up early to take the train back to NYC for a bunch of roommate meetings.

Oh yeah–I didn’t take any photos, but someone else took one with my head in the shot. It’s here (I have the red hair and the barrette):

http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/7285/nin122nt.jpg

After the roommate showings on Sunday, I collapsed with fresh food, water, and a comfy couch. You wouldn’t believe how nice that feels after nearly 24 hours awake and traveling.

*sigh*

I’m getting old. :(

(no subject)

November 4th, 2005 1:36am by rusty-halo | 17 Comments »

Nine Inch Nails. Madison Square Garden. That was without a doubt one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen.

My seat was very cool–to the extreme left of the stage, looking down on the band, angled just enough to see their faces. And I had an amazing view of the arena–what could be cooler than hundreds of lighters glowing all through this huge space as thousands of people sing along to “Something I Can Never Have” and “Hurt”? Or 18,000 people screaming “Gotta listen to your big time hard line bad luck fist fuck” at the top of their lungs?

The band was completely “on”, the sound was perfect, the audience was amazing (and the venue was full). After “Hurt” Trent thanked us profusely and told us that a few years before he hadn’t expected ever to be on stage again. And at the end, during “Head Like a Hole,” they smashed their equipment, just like the old days. It was seriously amazing.

And I’m seeing them again on Saturday! With floor tickets! (Though I must say there’s a benefit to having a seat and your own little space to yourself.)

(no subject)

November 3rd, 2005 4:25pm by rusty-halo | 12 Comments »

Holy crap, it just really hit me that in an hour and a half I will be heading to MSG to see Nine Inch Nails.

*freaks out*

(no subject)

July 27th, 2005 12:04pm by rusty-halo | 12 Comments »

OH MY GOD FINALLY!!!!

I got two GA tickets for the NIN show in Philadelphia on Saturday November 5.

Now, which of my lucky friends gets to accompany me…? >:)

(no subject)

July 26th, 2005 7:44pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

Thinking about the new NIN.

I’ve been listening to it sporadically, interspersed with Broken, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile. (Alas, of Pretty Hate Machine all I enjoy anymore are the first three songs and “Sin”).

Anyway. With Teeth is above average, but not exceptional. Which I think is why it hasn’t grabbed me in the same way as, say, TDS, which has moments of such astounding, exceptional power that your breath is taken away.

But With Teeth is solid.

The only song that has really grabbed me is “Right Where it Belongs”–from the first moment I heard it at the listening party, I knew that song was exceptional. Of the others, “The Hand That Feeds,” “Only,” “Sunspots,” and “The Line Begins to Blur” are all very good.

Some of the other songs are actually boring or annoying, which is a first for me with NIN; for example, I skip “Awitha Teetha” every time is comes on.

But I’m realizing that I really do like the record overall. The good songs are indeed very good.

I guess I’m starting to “get” this album more, to accept it on its own terms rather than being sad that it’s missing the utterly fucked up insanity and passion of TDS. It’s an album from a person who is more “together,” a person who has grown, and one thing that’s great about NIN is that Trent doesn’t repeat himself. His work is a reflection of himself, and it grows with him, and that’s impressive and challenging–even if I haven’t grown the same way, and so don’t quite relate the way I once did.

Anyway, the point is that NIN tickets for the Philadelphia show go on sale tomorrow at noon to fan club members. Cross your fingers for me. :)

(no subject)

July 22nd, 2005 3:55pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

Most states have a loophole in their laws which allows for the taking of another person’s life if it is necessary in order to obtain a water bottle that has been touched by a member of Nine Inch Nails.

This and other fun facts at the Meathead Perspective, which has been entertaining me all day.

The review of the Starfuckers video also just about killed me dead, particularly the photo of Marilyn Manson captioned “Sarah Michelle Gellar in five years.”

Oh yeah, and Trent Reznor in the audience for The Price is Right. I love that thesickcity always digs these strange things up.

And for NIN at MSG in November, I’m in Section 59, Row M. I was trying for floor tickets, which sold out instantly. :( I had a better seat in 2000 when Manson showed up; I’ll try again for the Philadelphia show.

I’ve been listening to The Downward Spiral incessantly. I love this album so much. It’s very weird to rediscover something that you knew inside-out ten years ago, but have barely heard since. I think part of the reason I stopped listening to NIN for a while was that it was (lyrically/emotionally) too close for comfort, and almost boring because it was such a reflection of emotions I was already immersed in. I doubt that makes sense, but, whatever, rediscovery works.

(no subject)

July 8th, 2005 11:38am by rusty-halo | 7 Comments »

I’m leaving tonight for Los Angeles, where I will meet up with 10zlaine. lonners will be joining us on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we’ll head to San Diego for Comic Con, which is going to be so totally awesome. (Pssst, VM fans? Jason Dohring is on the Veronica Mars panel. >:)

I’ll be back on Monday July 18.

I know I have obligations to fulfill, but unfortunately it’s been an insanely busy week (work, packing, trip planning, etc.) and I haven’t gotten to everything. If you’re waiting for something from me (fic archiving, Q&A response, mailed videotapes, etc…), I will take care of it when I return. I apologize for the delay.

I’ll be checking my email periodically, if you need to get in touch.

NIN tickets for MSG are going on sale while I’m gone. I’ll have to figure out a way to get online for those.

Bye! :)

scanned magazine photos

June 18th, 2005 8:22pm by rusty-halo | 8 Comments »

Sharing some photos for the couple of people on my FL who might be interested.

I bought this Japanese magazine on eBay and it has nice photos of Raymond Watts (with Schwein) that I’ve never seen online before.

And then when I was filing it, I came across a couple of adorable old SPIN magazines from 1992. One is on “The Industrial Revolution” and has photos of a baby-faced Trent Reznor. (Awww!) The other is “The Year of Grunge,” kind of historically neat, with a great cover photo of Chris Cornell.

I’m posting pictures behind the cut, and you can click any of them to see a bigger version.

( Piccies! Raymond Watts, Sakurai Atsushi, Trent Reznor, Chris Cornell )

(no subject)

June 17th, 2005 2:27pm by rusty-halo | 7 Comments »

Tonight I’m going to see VNV Nation. I don’t like them that much, but my friend April is supposed to be there.

Depeche Mode is touring the U.S. this fall. I haven’t seen tour dates yet, though.

NIN is also touring the U.S. this fall, with Queens of the Stone Age. They’re playing Madison Square Garden on November 3. I am SO there. They’ll also be in Philadelphia on November 5, which is a Saturday, so I might go to that, too. No clue yet when tickets are going on sale, though.

There a really interesting guide to electronic music here. The tutorial (history lesson) is neat, and the maps (of genres over time and place) are fascinating. Click “trance” to find the good stuff (goth, industrial, synthpop, darkwave, industrial rock, etc.) They’ve got Cruxshadows, KMFDM, NIN, blah blah blah, pretty much every band I like is represented somewhere. (I’d love to read an in-depth history of the evolution of these genres….)

Bruce Campbell will be at the Angelika Film Center tomorrow, signing at 10pm and showing his movie at 11:30. If I’m lucky, I might be able to go to that.

This week has sucked–work’s been insanely stressful, and I’ve had to rush home to show my apartment every night. I’m going to try to make up for it this weekend.

I’ve been listening to NIN, With Teeth and The Fragile. Yes, I finally opened the shrink-wrapped copy of The Fragile that’s been sitting on my CD shelf for the past five years. And hey, it’s like, really good! Bunches of people have told me this over the years, but I always lacked the desire to listen to it. I’m enjoying it immensely now, though; I guess I had to wait to be in the right emotional place or something.

Concert Reviews – Velvet Revolver and NIN

May 18th, 2005 3:25pm by rusty-halo | 19 Comments »

(no subject)

March 4th, 2005 4:13pm by rusty-halo | 6 Comments »

I think that concert ticket pre-sales were invented for the sole purpose of torturing me.

Two tries, and still no NIN tickets. They must’ve sold out each time within five seconds.

Last chance: 5pm today.

*SOB OF TERROR*

(no subject)

March 3rd, 2005 1:34pm by rusty-halo | 12 Comments »

What? I missed Methos on Smallville? Goddammit, you people need to tell me these things!

I’ll have to download that. Anyone know if he is recurring or just in one episode?

brighidestone has a great post here.

Tomorrow, I try to get Nine Inch Nails tickets. They are going to sell out in 2 seconds flat. Pray for me. (I want to see both NYC shows and both Philly shows, but I suspect I will be lucky to get tickets to even one.)

Hotmail is being a complete bitch; for the last few days it has been showing me an empty inbox, and only occasionally allowing me to actually see messages. I suppose I should make the switch to gmail… *sigh* It’s just that I’ve had this hotmail account for 6 years or so, and it’s so convenient to have everything in one place…

I need a new alias. drinkthepoison has got to go. But rustyhalo is way too common, and impossible to get without some weird permutation. I’m really surprised I got a fairly simple version of it for LJ.

Myspace.com is weird. I don’t get the point of talking to strangers if it’s not about fandom. WTF do normal people talk about? I don’t even know. The weather?

I was talking to 10zlaine about this last night (for 5 1/2 hours, damn). Fandom is so nice for us socially awkward people because we can skip the excruciating smalltalk and go straight to the battle-to-the-death shipper wars and stuff like that. (Y’know, the fun parts of conversation where you actually care about what you’re discussing.)

Also, I must say I am intensely amused by the fact that several members of KMFDM have Myspace accounts.

So, my research indicates that the place to go for decent KMFDM talk is the forums at theultraheavybeat.com. There doesn’t seem to be anywhere decent for Raymond Watts talk; the choice is between thesickcity.com (nasty assholes) and raymondwatts.com (slobbering sycophants). *sigh*

Seven new messages and I can’t see any of them. *kills hotmail*

Totally random, stream-of-consciousness babble

February 28th, 2005 7:10pm by rusty-halo | 10 Comments »

Trent Reznor spoils Million Dollar Baby

Heee. It’s funny to watch celebrities being brats.

I didn’t watch the Oscars last night. Although I remembered later that I should have watched for Orlando Bloom; jaydk was all excited that he was presenting. And Johnny Depp, of course, I should’ve seen. But it’s really not worth wasting hours of your life for a couple of minor glimpses of celebrities.

I was channel surfing the other day, and came across this FOX show “Celebrities Without Makeup.” I was so stunned by the horror that I actually watched an entire segment. Afterward I wanted very badly to scrub my brain out with a very harsh scrubbing brush. It’s put me off TV for at least a month, I think. Well, except the Daily Show. (I missed one last week and there was no rerun. Goddammit, Comedy Central, you suck!)

I’m still at work, finishing a project and dreading walking home in the blizzard. *sigh*

I just got a video in the mail, ordered through eBay, of a live performance of a Japanese band called Schwein Schaft, featuring Raymond Watts, from 1994. Looking forward to going home and watching that.

My coworker stopped by my desk today and asked me what I was listening to. I saw “Uhm….. a band called Pig, which is a project from an occasional member of KMFDM, which is a fairly popular industrial rock band.”

*blank stare*

Yeah, I’m weird.

dizenchanted just called and she wants me to post pics of us with Tripp. (Oh, you screwed up girl!) I’ll try and remember to do that when I get home…

When 10zlaine was here last weekend, I showed her videos of different bands. She quite liked KMFDM (hee! my evil plan to seduce her to the dark side is coming to fruition!) I think NIN disturbed her, though. I showed her some videos from “Closure,” including “Happiness in Slavery.” I forgot how graphic that is, if you haven’t seen it a million times. (It’s this naked guy getting tortured by this machine and then killed and ground up into mush.) I mean, it’s a mainstream video compilation that you can buy in any Best Buy. I should’ve shown her the “Broken” video. (I got that off the internet when I was 12; some guy gave it to me free in exchange for me buying one of his band’s CDs, which sucked.) I don’t remember much about that video, except that it’s where I learned what “fist fuck” meant.

And yet, funnily enough, the stuff I read from all you seemingly harmless fanfic writers tends to be much more graphic and fucked up than anything I’ve seen in any industrial music video. The “Broken” video is nothing compared to some of the Angelus/William fic out there….

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December 7th, 2004 2:12pm by rusty-halo | 2 Comments »

This is funny.

This is scary.

( This is me procrastinating. )