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Suddenly I’m seeing Bowie references everywhere. Magazine covers, movie titles, on and on. It’s like when you learn a new word and suddenly you start noticing it at every turn.

The commentary on The Man Who Fell to Earth is awesome. I think this is the only time in my life I’ve wanted to listen to a DVD commentary again. It’s all really thoughtful–art as an attempt to connect with other human beings, the imperfect nature of it, the final product as a result of the interaction of the creative piece with the person interpreting it and bringing all of their opinions and experiences. Plus Bowie manages to predict Twitter… in 1992. It’s really quite nifty!

I’ve been thinking about how the music I’ve been listening to over the past few years has led to my ability to appreciate Bowie’s work, which I doubt I’d have gotten into at any earlier point in my life*. As my initial WTF reaction to Station to Station reveals, my musical horizons still have a lot of expanding to do, but at the same time I can directly trace my ability to appreciate various Bowie elements to the bands I’ve been into most recently.

* It’s also because Bowie is dark and complex but less outright angry than most of what I’ve been into in the past. I find I have increasingly less patience with white/masculine/teenage rage as time goes by. Oh, god, I’m getting old.

( Common Rotation and Bowie's early folk music )

( sidetrack: Saviour Machine )

( PIG and generic experimentation )

( the usual weird personal babble )

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I had a busy week.

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Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.
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I had a great time seeing Common Rotation tonight.

drujan and I ate first at an Indian restaurant nearby on Bleecker, which was very good. (Their papadam--the crunchy bread stuff--kicked ass.)

We headed over to the Bitter End a bit before 8pm, and it actually wasn't that crowded--I was surprised by the small audience. We got seats easily, to the left of the stage, with a great view. And I must say, their 2-drink-minimum rule is a nice enticement to get drunk. :)

I was really impressed by the show, more so than the last one I saw there. It was just Adam and Eric, with occasional Jordan, and this guy who I didn't know. Since my favorite aspect is the lyrics and vocal harmonies, I was in heaven. The performances were great, particularly "Clear Channel" and "Belfast." They played a slowed-down version of "Gone Dyin'" which was freaky since the cool thing about that song is the irony of such depressing lyrics to such a happy tune. But overall, it was excellent.

I really recommend these guys; if they're in your area, check them out. :)

If you guys aren't reading chase820's latest, you are seriously missing out. The most recent chapter knocked me dead. In a good way. Chase writes Spike/Angel brilliantly ... and if you like fanged four, or Will/Angelus, you've got to read this.

The story is also an Angel/Queer as Folk crossover. I keep meaning to watch QaF, just so I'll understand this story better....

Catch up here.

So the weekend was interesting. 10zlaine came to visit and stayed with me. We saw Common Rotation on Friday night; they were pretty good. You know, like I enjoy seeing them, but I don't love them. Good times, though.

Then we headed over to TeaNY with jaydk and drujan. It was nice to hang out and catch up. And TeaNY is always so yummy. :)

10zlaine and I stayed up insanely late watching videos and movies and such. I forced KMFDM and NIN and Alice in Chains on her--she seemed to really like KMFDM, yay! And we watched some "Rescue Me" and "The Empire Strikes Back," which is always fun to watch with other Star Wars fans. Man, I adore that movie.

We had brunch Saturday at The Organic Grill, where the moronic waitress ignored us and got both of our orders wrong. So we gave her a miserable tip. But the food was decent. I much prefer to order takeout than to actually eat there, though, because their staff sucks beyond belief.

Then we went shopping on St. Mark's/8th street, which is always fun. I got a black dress with silver lining, and two cute t-shirts, one of Depeche Mode and the other of Thundercats (my favorite TV show when I was VERY little!). 10zlaine got an Oscar the Grouch t-shirt, which is very cool. And we bought some surprises for her sister, lonners ... I think sometimes it's more fun to shop for someone else!

So yeah, that was the weekend. 10zlaine left Sunday morning, so I've been basically cleaning/catching up on email since then. And hanging out with the cats... Lucifer and Angel loved having company!

I'm heading off to Oakland in about two hours. Will return on Monday night (right in the middle of the Republican convention, so who knows whether I'll actually get back on time).

I'm looking forward to seeing bunches of you there. If anyone wants to have my cell phone number, email me at drinkthepoison -at- hotmail.com within the next two hours.

I'm going on an outing to San Francisco tomorrow morning. And I'm also going to the Common Rotation living room show in Vacaville tomorrow night. (Don't laugh!) So perhaps I'll also see people there. :)

I just had a great time following Common Rotation around to three shows. Wednesday a living room show at psubrat's in PA; Thursday a free show in the park in Huntington, Long Island; and Saturday at this neat old cafe in Woodstock, NY.

Woodstock is a really cool town. I guess lots of hippies stayed there and made it their own; it's full of really interesting shops, and tons of vegan food.

Anyway, so we made a road trip of it and stayed overnight, since they weren't playing until 10pm. (But we couldn't find a hotel near Woodstock, so ended up staying an hour away in Poughkeepsie). We drove up Saturday afternoon, dropped our stuff off at the hotel, then headed over to Woodstock. (We inadvertently took the, uh, scenic route, though we only got really lost a bit in Saugerties).

We arrived in Woodstock just as the band was getting there--in fact, we were loudly discussing our skills as stalkers when we glanced over to realize that they were right there. Then fruitynut ran over to their car, threw something into the back, and then ran away without saying anything. (It was candy that she got for them, but still....)

We went to eat at a nice little deli; I was really impressed that almost every restaurant had vegan and vegetarian options. Then we went into a candy store, which had a ton of cool stuff. I ended up buying a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, because I am, after all, in the grip of a Harry Potter obsession.

Can I just say that these are, without a doubt, the most repulsive things I've ever tasted? (None of the ingredients were explicitly not-vegan, so I was eating them, although I wonder what the "natural and artificial flavors" might mean). First I had a spinach flavored one, which really tasted like spinach. Then spaghetti, which really tasted like spaghetti--garlic and cheese and everything. Then a vomit flavored one, that seriously tasted like vomit! It was repulsive! Then dirt flavored one--again, EWW!! And then to follow up the dirt, a soap flavored one. My god! The box ended up consisting almost entirely of vomit and spaghetti, which were hard to tell apart, so I fed them to 10zlaine. I did get a couple of good ones--lemon drop, green apple, tutti-fruitti, toasted marshmallow, cherry, cinammon. But mostly it was stuff like grass, booger, and--the absolute worst--sardine.

Anyway. That grossness (and my weird compulsion to keep eating them) aside, it was a very fun night. We finally got to the cafe, where we met up with chenanceou and jerrymcl89. We sat up in the very front, because we're dorks like that. Well, and we came all the way to Woodstock, so we may as well have a good view, right? There were a few other Common Ro fans, and a lot of older people who'd seen the spoken word thing beforehand. The older people drifted away throughout the night, though, so it ended up being mostly just those of us up front. (Jordan told us afterwards that they were really glad we were there because it would have sucked without us.... awww!)

So first Eric came out alone, barefoot (they explained later that they were barefoot because their footsteps were disturbing the spoken word thing from earlier), and sang "Dancer." He really got into it, too, and was like, jumping around and stuff. It was a great performance. (I said in an entry the other day that I like music that seems to have strong, genuine emotion behind it, so those are the songs I enjoy best. The smart/witty/funny songs are interesting intellectually, but I respond to the ones that display more emotion.) Eric seemed to be putting a lot into his performance that night--"Offstage Lines," which they did later, was absolutely gorgeous, and "Everything Under the Sun" is always pretty. (My god, I'm actually learning song titles!)

So anyway, they played a pretty long set, all very good. It was really fun; they interact so well with the audience, and seemed really relaxed.

Marlaine had asked them at Leslie's on Wednesday if they would play "Fortunate" the next night in Long Island. They didn't, but they all said to her afterwards "Sorry we didn't play 'Fortunate.'" So this night, they did, indeed, close with "Fortunate," for Marlaine. She was so excited. She grabbed the set list after, upon which they had written "Pawn" as the last song, and then written "Fortunate" over it, because they'd remembered to play that for her. Awwwww. Did I mention how cool these guys are? And they all signed the set list for her.

Afterwards they just hung out for a long while--I think we probably stayed there another half hour, chatting, and they were around most of the time. Adam sat at our table and talked, mostly with Ingrid, but we were all just talking, like about high school and stuff. (The guys in the band all went to school together, apparently.) I finally caved and bought their two studio records (I have all the live ones) and got the guys to sign them. Eric gave me this weird look and asked "Why are you buying these again?" and I explained, um, actually, I never owned them before; I just like seeing the band live. Then when I was talking to Adam I told him about the vomit-flavored Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and I think I grossed him out because he left pretty quickly after that! But Joann was the worst; she asked Jordan "So, how are we doing as groupies?" I think we all nearly died of embarrassment, and had to explain to her afterwards that "groupie" has the connotation of someone who has sex with the band. Which we definitely don't!

( me and my boring social insecurity issues )

So then we drove back to the hotel, listening to Billy Idol (which was annoying because we had a great system of listening to Common Rotation because it's the only thing we all agree on, and Billy Idol is way before my time and most of his stuff is boring, but whatever). Then we hung out and chatted until 3am, although at some point I fell asleep and Ingrid had to drag me to the shower. (Sorry guys). Then we woke up, Tammy left, and the rest of us went back to NY. Very fun trip, overall. :)

Then that night I hung out with jaydk to see "The Bourne Supremacy," which I highly do not recommend to anyone who gets motion sick. We were in the front row, because we got there late, and I had to leave halfway through, go stand in the back, and sort of squint sideways at the screen in order to try to figure out what was going on without actually making myself vomit. It sucked. Don't they teach you in film school how to hold a damn camera without shaking it up and down and sideways every second? I know they're going for "realism" or whatever, but what's the point if you're making people ill? It just comes out looking like a bad home video, anyway. The worst part is that I think it was actually a good movie--I quite liked the ambiguity of the main character and the anti-essentialist idea that you can make choices and change who you are. But it would've been nice if I could've actually watched most of the movie.

Okay, so now, got to go buy luggage, and then pack for Writercon. Oh, and uh, work.

You know how sometimes you're just eating, like, the perfect food? I mean, it's not always the perfect food, but at that particular moment it's exactly what you were craving so it feels so incredibly fulfilling?

That's what I'm eating right now, from a restaurant called Souen on 13th between University and 5th that I usually don't even like. But I'm having tofu scrambled with broccoli, carrots, and onions, with brown rice and greens, and it's so basic and plain and perfect right now.

Or perhaps it could be the rush of caffeine from the energy drink I just consumed that is giving me this happy feeling....

Anyway. Aside from that, I'm rather annoyed at myself right now. See, I realized that Common Rotation was so much better when I didn't like them. Because then it was just, y'know, "if I remember, I'll walk over after work and see this band play." Hang out and have fun; no big deal.

But now that I actually like them, I start to worry. It becomes an event. "Oh, I'm seeing Common Ro, I have to enjoy this." Trying to force myself to enjoy it makes me worry that I won't and then I spend the time worrying instead of enjoying myself. And I worry about getting there on time, and what should I wear? and all that stupid crap that never bothered me before. And like, before, if a band member talked to me, I didn't care, because they're just people and so what? But now I get flustered and sound stupid, or shy and run away.

And the funny thing is, I still don't even like them that much. I mean, I respect their talent, and I believe in supporting independent music, and I'm glad that they exist, and I'm always entertained because they put on a creative and entertaining show. But it's not my kind of music--and I don't say that as some kind of elitist goth person or whatever. The kind of music that I'm drawn to, that connects with me deeply, is very passionate and powerful and concerned about the strongest emotions and the most beautiful or horrible topics. (Or preferably both together). Like, if I were to describe it in colors, I like music that's jet black, midnight blue, intense blood red, deep purple. Whereas Common Ro is more, like, earth tones. Incredibly well done earth tones that I respect, but not something that's going to make me cry because it's so beautiful. It doesn't connect wth me on that deeper level.

Can you tell I'm bored at work? What else is there to do besides spam LJ with inane babble....?