The 'Quatch
i just got back from the second of two day-long trips into eastern washington for single-day concerts this month. first was Morriseey in spokane with Stephen, and yesterday/this morning was with sims, t-sickles and stephen.
i'm still sleep deprived and a little looped, but saturday's sasquatch was amazing! it didn't have the volume of acts that last year's show had, but the quality made up for the quantity in spades. viva voce owned their slot (we even stayed through the whole thing despite neko case playing midway through), bjork was exactly what i expected... stunning, and the arcade fire set was not only one of the best musical performances i have seen (if not the best), it was close to a religious experience. and no, i'm not intending a pun with the "neon bible" theme, it was just that good.
Blazers Win?!?
So after having the worst record in the league and ending up with the 4th pick in last year's draft, Portland ended up winning the NBA Draft Lottery today. They were the 6th worst team in the NBA and now they hold the top pick in the draft!
Never mind the fact that last year's draft was arguably the best in Blazers history, having the #1 pick will put the Blazers back in the playoffs next year. I'm in total shock and wondering why the team with the worst record is stuck drafting 4th each year (this year it's the Grizzlies turn).
Now if only Portland could figure out whether to pick Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.
geek chic
it seems that i blog a lot (if blogging once a quarter can be considered a lot) about being a geek, but i am one, so it makes sense.
shouting things at your television as if it were sentient is rather unnerving in itself, but a few days ago i realized how deeply rooted my geekdom was when i started arguing with said TV during a Dow Chemical commercial. dow's new campaign is about the
human element and the commercial had a graphic of the human "element" Hm with the atomic number of eight. "Eight is oxygen!" I barked at the TV. Startling myself, I looked it up on the periodic table and sure enough oxygen's atomic number is 8. More scary than me knowing this offhand is the fact that a major chemical company approved an ad that clearly has no understanding of our planet's chemical makeup.
alas, i do not feel ostracized because on the set of boy eats drum machine's new video shoot yesterday, i realized that all of my closest friends are quite geeky. i am at home with my people.
well, off i go--it's really hard to blog while watching battlestar galactica...
longest spiderman ever!
so i went to spidey part 3 with p and was completely blown away by one thing. i could say it was the special effects, but they were good at best with a few seeming too CG or "cartoonish" for lack of a better word. or it could also be the action sequences which were, as would be expected, worth the price of admission. or i could say that i was blown away by the film's length, which was easily 30 minutes longer than necessary. i could even say that i was blown away by the predictable plot developments, and terrible writing (after such a strong spiderman 2), such as my favorite line, "Everyone needs help Peter, even Spiderman."
No, it was none of those things that amazed me. There was only one thing that truly stood out to me in this film. One thing that has made an impression on me, and that is simply how long (and slightly unnerving) Kristen Dunst's arm hair is.
Cinco de Mozzo
"Let's go huntin'!" he said in what has to be one of the most comical versions of a Brit trying to sound like a backwoods Appalachian. "Only let's hunt the
hunters!"
Morrissey's humorous song segues were in rare form last night, but none topped his final adoption of the hillbilly voice to ask the crowd if they had heard of his band adding, "We're from
Wichi-taw!"
When Stephen and I decided to go see one of the Moz shows in Washington, we both felt prompted to pick Spokane over Seattle. Thankfully, it paid off.
There were several detractors, like the 10+ hours of driving, the last minute venue change, a shirtless idiot who kept trying to crowd surf (even during everyday is like sunday), an overzealous (and sans humor) security staff (when strip searching us before the show and asking if we had any knives or drugs, they did not find it funny when I joked that I never come to a show without them, all the android could mutter was that I'd need to give them to him or throw them away), a girl who was knocked out cold on the stage railing during the final encore, and the venue's insane policy of letting the restaurant patrons enter the venue before the people who line up ahead of time (like Stephen and I).
In spite of all of that, the show was incredible. Spokane paid off in the form of a more intimate venue, a more laid back Mozzer, and a long drive to debrief on all of the evening's events. The set list was great (including 1 new song, songs from
Your Arsenal!, and 3 songs from the Smiths). Morrissey seemed playful and was very humorous. He was self-effacing about his age, his body (after stripping off his shirt), and even his inability to sell out the prior 2700 seat venue. The night was brilliant, one of the best live sets I've seen from the Mozzer, and his new band lineup is
very good. Too bad his tour promoters have skipped Portland the last 2 tours, that said, it's good knowing that Moz is still worth the drive.
*photo NOT from Spokane (due to previously mentioned strip search) courtesy of the Press Democrat Santa Clara, CA (the show before Spokane).
Labels: morrissey, spokane, tour
