Friday, March 28, 2008

Sparkling Toilet Anyone?

The one day I want to write a blog entry and have the time to do it, I have nothing important to say.

Although, I did just get this spam in my AOL inbox and it struck me as funny:

From: Clorox.ToiletWand

New! CLOROX Toilet Wand Cleaning System

Get Your Free* Starter Kit!
- Toilet Wand Handle
- 6 Disinfecting Toilet Wand Refill Heads
- Bonus Storage Caddy

CLOROX Toilet Wand Works Like Magic! No more germy toilet brush. Try the Clorox Toilet Wand System. It's the more convenient & sterile way to clean your toilet.

The disposable Toilet Wand head not only covers more surface area in your bowl, it's unique swivel action lets you reach those hard-to-clean areas like under the rim. Now with a more powerful, disinfecting formula than ever before, you can be sure to kill 99.9% of germs!

Don't store bacteria in your toilet brush; Simply toss the Toilet Wand head after each use and start a new with a fresh refill.

Get Your Free* CLOROX TOILET WAND START KIT delivered to your door. Just take our survey & complete the participation requirements where you sample & purchase products of interest. It's that easy!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

He Said He Had Some Songs To Play

I have been to wayyyy too many gigs lately. There are positive and negative things about this.

Positives:
Cool for my image
Live exposure to bands I like
See some of my gig buddies

Negatives:
Late shows = bad commute
Extremely tired at work
My bank account has depleted

This has been my show line-up from the last two weeks:
The Stills @ Bowery
The Pigeon Detectives @ Bowery
Bell X1 @ Bowery
Ash @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
The Ting Tings @ Mercury
Longwave @ Mercury

And I have coming up:
Elbow @ Webster
The Verve @ Wamu theater
Augustana @ Bowery

Tickets pending:
Eric Hutchinson @ Mercury
George Michael @ MSG - I just heard about this, I am so freakadoodlingdoo excited!!!!

I forgot my camera for The Stills and Pigeon Detectives (still can't believe how good The PD were live. When asked what they sound like prior to the show, I answered with "They are a band that in a year from now I'll have been embarrassed to say that I went to see them live.) It's good, basic British pop and they were so energetic live, I defo recommend. I only saw the final two songs by the opener, Your Vegas, and I'm pissed that i didn't see the whole thing as they sounded pretty good.


I did remember my camera for Bell X1. Before that though, we did phony St. Patrick's day at Fiddlesticks and Ulysses (my first time in a financial district bar - quite nice I have to say.) I had the most awesome dillyboppers ever - two drunk leprechauns made out of felt with surrounding shamrocks!!

Jenn, Meg, Moi, Travis, Kristine

No Irish car bombs for me, I have issues chugging under pressure.

My St. Pat's BFF Deanna is to my right. I did not get any photos of Kristine and her sister pole dancing on the 6. Unfortunate!
I paced myself throughout the day (5 beers in all) so I'd still be alive for Bell X1. The singer told a story about how their sound engineer (I think) lost his luggage courtesy of the airline, had to buy all new clothes, then the band's tour bus (formerly Tim McGraw's) caught on fire, and all of the poor guy's clothes went up in flames. You can read more about that here (explained better.)

The band were good, as they have been the few times I've seen them. I still cannot get over how the singer is like 7'4" and the rest of the band is about 4'7" (combined.) But of course height does not a good band make.

They played 'West of Her Spine' in response to a request during the encore. That filled me with glee!

It was an Irish-filled weekend for me as on real St. Pat's I saw Ash. I should have been more excited for this (as if eating at Sea wasn't enough to put me over the edge, so yum), I was just tired, and the band going on at 11 pm did not put me in the mood. Ryan and I watched part of the first opener, Levy, who were okay. Nightmare of You were next but I sat my lazy ass on the couch downstairs and kept my ears open for 'My Name Is Trouble'...which they never played!...Glad I got my spot on the sofa!!

The second Ash came on, all of my tiredness and laziness went away. With every song I got more and more excited, and they once again reinforced why they have remained in my top bands for the last 10 years. I wish I could pick a favorite of the evening, but everything was so awesome that I absolutely could not narrow it down unless if forced to by gunpoint (though I prob still would refuse to.) And, they played pretty much a greatest hits set which was totally my dream come true - everything from 'Jack Names the Planets', to 'Goldfinger', to 'Renegade Cavalcade.' (No 'Sometimes' - my favorite Ash song, well tied with Renegade, but all was forgiven.) I can even bring myself to say that I like Twilight of the Innocents now (sorry, but I just could not get into it when I bought it over the summer.) Speaking of, they initially came out to the uber pretty Twilight music which made my heart go aflutter. Ahhhhh.

Also, the venue was not crowded at all! I was probably about 5 standing rows back with tons of space around me. (I also realized that I definitely still suffer from the (fill in the blank depending on show, in this case Tim-Wheeler-is-singing-every-song-directly-to-me syndrome.)

Have some "Oh Yeah"


Look into my tired eyes

OR...Giving me the Evil Eye?

OR...Chromium Lips and Metallic Eyes

Here's to Uncle Pat

On Tuesday night, I went to see The Ting Tings with Ryan at Mercury. A show starting at 7:00 pm was something I definitely could not pass up, plus I love 'Great DJ' (I kept hearing it every 2 seconds on XFM and finally found out who it was a few weeks ago.) They opened with that, and although I didn't know any of their other material, all of it was quite catchy and the chick is mesmerizing to look at.

Hot lead singerHot drummer too

She can actually sing AND dance
I don't know what this song is called

Although there was a backing track, it only helped (how far can a sound go with just a guitar and drums anyway?)

I would see them again and I definitely recommend.

On Friday night, I went to Jen's after work and ordered sushi while she forced me to watch America's Best Dance Crew. Faith and Kristine came over to tell us about their new apartment and I took photos just because.
Faith wore her "I heart life" shirt to work. Oh the irony (poor Faith has been working 7 days a week.)
Me, Jen, Faith
Maximillian & Er
Then we went out for a bit for Jon's bday. I think I can safely say that he drank a lot.
I brought my camera to the Longwave show, but I was too embarrassed to use it. Just not the appropriate crowd ya know?

So, I only had the first cd of this band from a couple of years ago, I have no idea how I had heard of them or why I bought it, and I haven't listened to it in ages (except for 'Tidalwave' which I love), but I always remembered it being good, hence buying a ticket for the gig. Over the past week I've been listening to The Strangest Things again and it really is a great album. I copied the second cd from a friend, and it's not as good, so if you listen to 'Tidalwave' and like it (you will), then you should check out album numero uno.

I went to Tiswas afterwards and I danced to the correct DJs this time.

Current Music: The Automatic - Monster

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Spitting Games

You can learn how to act like the singer of The Pigeon Detectives by following these easy steps!

What you will need:
1) 1 stage (or just some space should do)
2) an audience
3) 1 microphone with a very long cord
4) 1 case (24 bottles) of water
5) 1 t-shirt that can be disposed of
6) 1 drunk Scot

Please note that in order for your imitation to work properly, you must be very outgoing!

Step 1:
Get your audience together. If you are shy and want to practice your moves first, gather some inanimate objects instead. Stuffed animals will work, as long as they are in a large quantity and look lifelike. Other examples of a lifelike audience include packaged food products with people on them, magazines and newspapers, or photos of your friends.

Step 2:
Enter the stage with your band (Don't have a stage? You may want to make some space in your bedroom or backyard.) If you do not have a band, just grab anyone off the street, or play with an imaginary group/imaginary instruments, but if this is the case, just be sure you have backing music.

Step 3:
The opening song may be "Romantic Type" if you are going for a straight out imitation. Be sure to swing the microphone across the stage right from the get-go. When you become more advanced with this move, you may want to throw it in the air and catch it, or do some other tricks, like twirling the cord. Be sure to do this throughout the entire set, but NEVER make it look like you got anywhere close to smacking someone with it.

Step 4:
Pull at your shirt. Pull at your shirt A LOT. Pull it by the neck. Then pull it by the bottom. The singer doesn't actually pull it over his head and cover his face, but that would be quite amusing so try that as well (don't lose your balance though!)

Step 5:
Drink water. Don't drink all of it! Be sure to spit it out - at least half of each bottle. Practice spraying it in a big circle. Then try arches. If you really want to go nuts, go for short spritzes in a sprinkler-like motion. You MUST spit water on the audience in order for your imitation to be a success. If you are in a good mood, give one or two of your germy bottles to a lucky audience member for consumption.

Step 6:
If there are fake technical problems during your fake set, you may want to throw some comedy into your routine to kill time and make things less uncomfortable. Try giving a shout out to the opening act - even going so far as to comment on what a fantastic gene pool they came from (if you are lucky enough to get an imitation band of Your Vegas to open for your imitation Pigeon Detectives, then hopefully they do have a great genetic make-up like YV, and you won't just be saying that for a time filler.) To keep the audience interested during the technical snafu, recommend someone come up and make a joke. Try grabbing a drunk Scottish guy, preferably the one who is so wasted, no one can comprehend a single word he says. Then act like the cool imitation lead singer you are, and throw him back off the stage for being so shite.

If you can master all of these steps, then you should have no problem getting yourself an imaginary Pigeon Detectives gig. Congratulations on your success and keep on spritzing!

Monday, March 10, 2008

I'm Stills In Love

On Saturday night I saw The Stills at Bowery with Alex, Emily, and Marcus. WOWEEWOWEEWOWEE they were so great! They played the first few songs pretty much in the dark (just a few vertical fluorescent bulbs in the background) which made the stage look really cool. During 'Still In Love Song' the disco ball started spinning which made the lighting even cooler. The new songs were great, esp all of the guitar parts. My fave of the night was a new one, I didn't catch the name but I know they played it after another new one titled 'Eastern Europe.' Also, they did the disco ball spinning thing during 'Lola Stars and Stripes' which sounded most fabulous (they had the audience sing part of that as well.) This was the best time I've seen them by far. Not sure what Ryan and Gareth were talking about when they said they wanted to kill themselves all sorts of ways last time they saw them. I forgot my camera, boo, but it took me only 22 minutes to get home. I heart the Williamsburg bridge!

Last Saturday in Hoboken was a bust. I got to the Path and each queue for train tickets was about 20 people long. I spotted a sign that said that the convenience shop sold tickets, so I got off to buy one there thinking I was outsmarting everyone. I didn't think of the obvious though - that the shop would be sold out of single tickets and I'd have to get back in the machine line. Two women had done the same thing and we figured why don't we grab 8 more people and then we could get an 11 ticket card and just pass it back. We did that, giving the cashier $2 each (no one realized a Path ticket is only $1.50), and the two bitches I planned this with kept all of the change! I think it was only about $7, and I couldn't be bothered to say anything though so it's partially my own fault, but still grrrr!

So I got to Hoboken, found Kat and attempted to find Erica and Jenn and the 10343 other people they were with. It was basically a game of cat and mouse (me and Kat going to meet them, we'd get to the spot and they'd left) until we gave up and decided to go into the bar with the shortest line. We waited 20 minutes, got to the front and found out it was a $20 cover. Um, yeah right, I wouldn't even pay 12 cents to get into some crappy Hoboken shithole. Turns out the girls actually paid $30 to get into the first bar at 11 am which is totally ridiculous.

Kat and I turned around (can't believe we left the state for that) and headed back to the West Village. We spent the day drinking in Fiddlesticks instead, took our drunk asses to karaoke where not one person applauded us as we laughed through all of 'Unwritten', met a supposed drug dealer at No Malice Palace who was telling me how he goes to dominatrix houses and plays "Scrabble" (whatever that means), and then we (me and Kat, not me and the drug dealer) stuffed our faces with brickoven pizza at Three of Cups. I had a great day in the end, just wish I didn't haul my ass to Jersey in the first place. Note to self - Do not go to St. Patrick's Hoboken ever again!

Um hi, they played Air Traffic on One Tree Hill AGAIN last week! This time it was 'Never Even Told Me Her Name.' Stop jocking their sweat, how many times do I have to tell you they are mine!

On Friday night I went with Celine to see her brother act in a Fordham show. I knew it was by the writer of the Vagina Monologues but it didn't make me expect anything out of the ordinary. It turned out to be 10 monologues mostly about rape, abuse, and degradation of women which is always a blast on a Friday night. It was mostly depressing, though I couldn't stop laughing to myself at the end when the final person declared 'NEW ORLEANS IS THE VAGINA OF AMERICA!' I am now going to call Ryan "The Vagina Warrior" for the rest of his existence (he totally set himself up for that.)

The final thing I have to say is that I've lost 9.6 lbs. in two months, yay! Okay bye.