Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged wassy
Friends and Dream Theater in Massachusetts
Jul 12th
Probably should have mentioned this around here sooner, but I’m now back from Worcester, MA where Wassy and I went to catch a Dream Theater headlining show during their tour with Iron Maiden.
The weekend was, in a word, awesome.
Earlier in the week we had started to get worried because it was looking like pretty heavy rain for saturday, the day of the show, and we were going to have to wait for about 2ish hours outdoors in line to get in and get the spot that we wanted. And right on schedule, a cold front moved slowly into the area, bringing with it a ton of rain. So we left Saturday morning with umbrellas and the expectation we were going to get soaked, an expectation that was further backed up by the fact that we drove through torrential downpours pretty much as soon as we got out of Albany. We outran the rain just as we got to Worcester and checked into the hotel.
The awesome started earlier than the show since after we checked into the hotel, we headed next door to the Starbucks where we were to meet up with a couple of friends who live on the outskirts of Boston. Kris and Marcy (Bayani and Planet Girl from City of Heroes respectively) arrived a little late (had some issues finding the starbucks we were in, but it was an unfamiliar area for both parties so it was no big deal), bearing lunch from Domenic’s (which was AWESOME) and we proceeded to spend the next 2-2.5 hours talking and hanging out. It was super fun and felt really natural, despite only having met them over the internet.
Sadly, we had to part ways eventually so we could finish prepping and head over to the venue to wait. During our meeting the cold front rumbled on through, but by the time we had finished it was mostly rained out so that worked out really nicely. We walked over to the Palladium and got in line, but as soon as we got there Wassy realized she forgot her earplugs and walked back to the hotel while I held our place. And as soon as she got back, I realized I had pulled the tickets out of my pocket when checking if I had the room key and left them on the bed (!!) So thankfully I noticed before the doors opened and I ran back to the hotel to grab them and return.
All the comings and goings sorted out, we began the 2 hour wait. We got to hear a little bit of Dream Theater’s sound check as we were standing outside, but eventually we were squished up towards the front of the line to make room for more people and lost our stage door location. Thankfully, we had a step to sit on, so we weren’t standing around for 2 hours. Eventually we got into the venue and headed to find a spot. We were aiming for standing somewhere on the tiered seating area, near the bar, but we ended up sitting much closer, on the wall at the back of the pit. Great sight line to the stage, and best of all we could rock while still sitting down.
First thing I’d like to mention is that it got HOT in there. The cooling system of The Palladium consists of opening the venue doors and hoping some of the heat escapes which is only marginally successful. I would have to guess the place was sold out or close to it. The floor was packed in front of us by the time Dream Theater came on and the heat just kept getting more and more oppressive. But it was hard not to get into it with the crowd that was there. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The opener was Charred Walls of The Damned who were very 80s metal inspired. They started out by having a comedian(?) come out and tell some jokes. He was ok… parts of his bit were really hilarious and other parts not so much. The opener was all right. 80s metal isn’t my thing really so it felt a little dated. The sound quality for them was pretty awful until they actually turned up the lead guitarist’s guitar so we could hear him. Not much more to say about them really.
The wait for Dream Theater to set up is always longer than you think it’s going to be, but eventually they came on and it was GLORIOUS. Dream Theater usually plays the theme to the movie Psycho over the PA before they come on and you could tell it was going to be a good show even during this part as the crowd revealed itself to be energetic and totally into it.
It was just the fans and the band, no massive light shows or video screens, just an old fashioned club kind of concert. It was pretty cool for me too, since this is the place where I saw my first concert ever, also Dream Theater in a similar situation (1 off headlining show during a tour where they were opening) and it was neat coming back to the same place again.
The crowd was rowdy, the band had fun and the setlist was awesome. The highlights to me were Home, The Mirror, Lie and the Warped version of Pull Me Under where they sped the middle section waaaaay up. The rest of the set was awesome too, but those were the standouts. I had been bad and looked at what they were playing before the show, so I knew they were going to do Home and The Mirror. It was a very difficult thing for me to not mention this to Wassy who had just told me that Home, The Mirror and Lie were on top of her “songs I want to hear live” list. After they finished playing Home she turned to me and said “That’s it…I can die happy now”. And I told her “Not yet you can’t.” to which she replied “Seriously???”. And a couple songs later they played The Mirror.
The band seemed to be feeding off the energy of the crowd and Mike Portnoy didn’t need to prod us into getting into it very often, if at all since we were already clapping and fist pumping. A mosh pit opened up right in front of where we were sitting which was weird(so far back from the sage) and a bit annoying (I think moshing is stupid) but we were in a spot where we didn’t really need to worry about getting injured.
After the show I was dehydrated and tired with a budding headache, but Wassy convinced me to wait for a bit by the tour busses and see if any of the members of Dream Theater came out. After a guy walked by offering to sell us crack and we heard a sound that was either a car backfiring twice or somebody firing a gun (We’re going to assume it was a car) James LaBrie (the vocalist for those unfamiliar) came out much more quickly than I had thought he would and signed a bunch of stuff. I got my ticket stub signed and Wassy got to tell him how awesome the show was.
We walked back to the hotel and chugged some of the bottles of water that I had brought with us because I knew we would need them, relaxed for a bit and then eventually went to sleep.
I woke up at 6:00ish, feeling warm and noticing that the AC had turned off during the night in the hotel room. I tried getting it to come back on but I couldn’t figure out what the problem was until I went down to the front desk and asked. They then informed me that there was a sensor above the door and one on the AC and if there was anything in the room blocking line of sight between them the AC wouldn’t work. Like the desk chair they put right in that area. Move the chair and all was well. Sigh.
We got up and moving (in some degree of pain) and decided we were well enough to make the 30 minute drive over to the edge of Boston to meet up with Kris and Marcy again at their apartment. We hung out some more and talked about all sorts of stuff, grabbing lunch at this really great mexican place. It was quite awesome. Then on the way back to their place we swung by the local comic store which was very, very good. I ended up buying the first volume of Atomic Robo (thumbs up on Atomic Robo by the way) Sadly, again, we had part ways since we wanted to get home at a decent hour. I’m looking forward to going back over there in October for the weekend to hang out some more and go to the Roger Waters concert in Boston. We definitely need to meet up again.
The drive home was long and uneventful, basically taking I-90 back all the way, stopping at a couple of rest stops for various things but a ton of I-90. We arrived home around 5pm and collapsed from there.
So, in conclusion good friends + awesome show = amazing weekend.
Merry Christmas Eve!
Dec 24th
Ahhh…finally. It’s Christmas Eve and my vacation has begun. I won’t be back to work (unless something explodes) until January 4th, so needless to say yesterday time was standing still. But it’s finally arrived. Vacation. Wooo!
The next several days are going to be consumed with family type stuff. I’m going over to my parents today for out main Christmas celebration as well as the (semi) gathering for my mom’s side of the family, then back there tomorrow more for hanging out purposes. Then I’m headed off to my aunts house for the gathering for my dad’s side of the family on Saturday.
Today’s going to feel looooong as well, because Wassy should be finishing up the Christmas-themed Frost piece at some point which I will be unable to see until this evening when I return home from my parents house. She did the inks last night and it’s turning out amazing, so I can’t wait to see colors.
But al that must wait until later, I’m off to get ready to visit my parents. To all 4 of you who read this, I hope you have a happy holiday.
Weekend Before Christmas
Dec 21st
Time to report on my doings over the weekend.
My Christmas shopping is now completed. I took Friday off from work and this ended up being a good decision since I needed to venture out to the stores to finish off my shopping stuff. But it is now completed and ready for our family gathering on Thursday (we do present stuff on Christmas Eve now since my sister is busy pretty much all day christmas)
Friday evening was quite a fun experience in City of Heroes. I joined up with Wassy and some of the folks that inhabit the Fan Art section of the City of Heroes forums for an evening of hanging out and chatting. It was really fun. Great conversation with everybody and I hope I get the chance to do that again at some point in the future. I was a bit apprehensive about fitting in since I’m more an outsider to that particular group of people but it was a really fun experience.
Speaking of art, Wassy has been working on the Christmas themed Frost piece for me over the past couple days. I’ve been trying to be good about not looking because I want to be surprised, but she gave me a peek yesterday and her current progress is extremely promising. I can’t want to see the final version. My levels of anticipation for this gift are high. I’m looking forward to it as much, if not even more than spending time with my family this week. I really, really appreciate it when she takes time out of her (now incredibly busy) schedule to do something for me.
Onwards to my other activities. I actually finished working on a web site design! After floundering around a months after finishing Wassy’s site, I was able to actually put another one through to completion, which was a website to host the City of Heroes Fan Art Forum art competition that she’s hosting next year. I need to have it done by January, so it’s a good thing I got it all set now. Eddy Swan (from the art forum, we’ve been chatting since we played the game together on friday night) helped out a bunch with a logo concept which was a big part of what the design was missing.
So now, to start working through the longest three days of work of the year before my huge vacation begins…
Lots Of Waiting
Dec 7th
There’s lots of waiting going down this month.
First, I’m waiting for next weekend because of Dexter, the second to last episode of the season having aired last night. And what a season it has been. I’m going to continue my policy of no spoilers, but lets just say that unless they totally screw this up, this is going to be my favorite season of Dexter ever. They’re handling things so well, from the twists and turns to Dexter’s character development. And John Lithgow better win SOMETHING for his performance.
The second thing I’m waiting for is this Friday I get a bonus in my paycheck (that ends up being about 1% of my pay. Long story short, we’re getting back 4% of the 10% of our hours we lost earlier this year, but they budgeted 5% and instead of giving us 5% of our hours, we get 4% and a 1 time payout for the remaining 1%. Gotta be some sort of tax reason) and I desperately need a new office chair, as I believe I have mentioned before. So I’m curious as to how much I’ll have to work with on my chair hunt.
I’ve put the desk plans on hold for a while, by the way. I’m hoping I’ll stumble across something that will work out in the meantime.
In other news, Wassy was working on a model sheet for one of her City of Heroes (well, City of Villains, but it’s really the same game) this weekend applying her new skillz from this semester to her comic book style linework. Seeing how that turned out is going to make waiting (patiently) for the christmas-inspired Frost piece she had mentioned that much harder. Quite looking forward to that.
All that’s in addition to waiting for the end of the month with Christmas and New Years, spending some time with my family and a long (and needed) vacation from work at the end of the year.
So needless to say…there’s a lot of waiting going on. And it’s making time slow to a crawl.
Latest Goings On
Dec 2nd
I figured I’d split this post out from the desk post as the desk one was more focused and this is going to be a rather random, general overview of what’s going on.
So lets see here. School…I spent some time over my vacation working on my final project for Digital Typography. I got it most of the way done, but I need to do some more tweaking and proofreading to make sure everything is all set. I also have 2 images I need to add that I somehow forgot to spec out when I was doing all the measuring stuff. I’ll probably get around to doing that tonight.
Speaking of school, I can’t remember if I mentioned registering for next semester’s courses, but I’m going to be taking a photoshop class which has the potential to be really, really boring. At least the first bit is, considering I generally know the basics of Photoshop so it’s not exactly going to be anything ground breaking to start. Could get interesting towards the end though.
After that I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing. There’s a digital photography course that tends to run when I can take it but, as I mentioned earlier all of the core graphic design courses (the one’s I’m really interested in) only run during the day, when I’m at work. And I’m not in a position where I can really reduce my hours or quit my job or whatever to go after that realistically. So I’m not really sure what to do from this point onward…
On the brighter side of things, Wassy mentioned last night about having an idea for a new piece of Frost artwork (a christmas-y themed piece, which would fit the character perfectly) once she gets some time which I’m quite excited about. She’s really improved her abilities over the course of this semester, so I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do with the character now. Added to the fact that I love getting new gift arts and it’s a definite “win” situation.
I’m also simultaneously looking forward to and saddened by the return of the TV show Dollhouse this week. Happy to see it come back because I enjoy it (and Summer Glau is joining the cast) but saddened because it’s being canceled. It’s not a great show, and not up to the standards of , say, Firefly…but it was solid and had so much potential which seemed to be tossed away. I blame the network for imposing a bunch of 1 off stand alone episodes when the series screamed for a story arc and the creators of the show for continuing that line of thinking into season 2. Hopefully it ends well, considering they were given enough notice to wrap things up nicely. And hopefully some of the actors (especially the guy that played Victor) get work elsewhere. Because there was a lot of really great talent there.
[Plinky] Memories And Music
Aug 19th
What three songs remind you of a specific time in your life?
Amazon is being fruity right now, so I’ll put the pictures in later. But here’s the answer
The New Math by OSI
This OSI album will forever remind me of Scuba Diving. That’s a little odd considering the fact that the album doesn’t have the slightest thing to do with scuba diving. But I was taking a scuba course at the local college when it came out and I remember sitting in my car listening to it, waiting for class time.
This song reminds me of a fish purchasing trip with my friend Wassy. I had just gotten Fear of a Blank Planet (the album this song is on) and was playing it in the car while we were driving around. Later she said “That music you were listening to sounded really cool. What was that?”
That sent her on a musical journey into Progressive Rock and Metal and all of my favorite bands, which was cool because finally I had somebody to talk to about this stuff and go to concerts with.
Fatal Tragedy by Dream Theater
Speaking of musical journeys…this song was my introduction to Dream Theater and Progressive Metal. I heard it as a random pick on the old internet radio station Echo. Echo was a station that learned your musical preferences and played songs you might like along those lines…one of the first ones that did that. It also randomly played a song that was outside your likes and dislikes occasionally, to potentially broaden your horizons.
Well, the random pick was Dream Theater and I really enjoyed it a lot. It took a year or two for me to really check it out further. But once I did, I got Scenes From a Memory and I was hooked. My journey into Prog Rock began.
Progressive Nation 2009
Aug 5th
Progressive Nation 2009 was VERY awesome. As I mentioned before Wassy and I went off to Albany to catch one of our most anticipated concerts of the year. The bands were Scale the Summit, Bigelf, Zappa Plays Zappa and, of course, Dream Theater.
We left for Albany around 3:30 and aside from one small hitch (some local construction had closed one of the lanes of a 2 lane road for 2 freaking miles why the paved it. Totally unnecessary…) we arrived at the parking garage on schedule. We grabbed some sandwiches and headed over to the venue a few blocks away.
Wassy grabbed a ridiculously overpriced t-shirt (seriously…$40 for very thin shirt?? Add $5 if you're XXL) and we settled in for the show.
First up was Scale The Summit which I liked well enough. They were a pretty dorky looking band, honestly. One of the guitarists wore his guitar so high it looked like a necklace. They had good music but it was a little same-y for doing a setlist like that. There's definitely instrumental bands that I like better. After they had their set, we decided to go see what beers they had on tap. They happened to have newcastle which was one of the ones we like (we're kinda picky about beer) and so off we went.
Bigelf started soon after we got back to our seats and man, they blew me away. I liked their studio CD but seeing them live really made the whole thing "click" for me. Very high energy show and their main vocalists is…scary looking. Complete with top hat and a coat with a long beard. I am definitely going to have to pick up more of their stuff.
Zappa Plays Zappa…eh. I had high hopes for this band as it's the sort of music I might enjoy. And sure enough the first couple songs were really good. But then it got…weird. Too weird for me. I need a little song structure in my songs. So instead I spent an hour and 15 minutes being bored.
However, about halfway through the ZPZ set, two obviously huge older Zappa fans came and sat in front of us in matching tshirts and one pair of binoculars. It should be noted at this point that we were sitting in the 9th row. Binoculars at this point seem a bit unnecessary. But use them they did. In fact they sometimes fought over them so they could watch the individual fingerings of the flute/sax player I guess. Anyway, despite being huge zappa fans and practically bouncing up and down through the entire set, they got up and left before ZPZ was finished. They confused the crap out of me…but it gave me something to watch.
After Zappa Plays Zappa, the main wait for DT arrived and, man was it worth it. They have a totally badass way of opening the show this year. Their stage setup is also really cool with a new upgraded video show and some neat stuff that Jordan does with a HDTV behind his setup that has a computer animation of him playing that's synced with the song as he's playing it.
The setlist was A Nightmare to Remember, A Rite Of Passage, Hollow Years, Erotomania, Voices, Prophets of War, The Count of Tuscany and with an encore of Metropolis pt 1. Pretty much the perfect setlist.
Wassy and I were praying that we were going to get Voices this time as it's one of our favorite Dream Theater songs and we thought we'd get it in Washington DC last year, but ended up not getting it. So the moment the first note of Erotomania was played, we went kinda crazy. My throat hurts this morning… But it was so worth it. Voices! It still feels a little like maybe I imagined it. Those were all the songs that I was expecting to hear and even the extended soloing bits in Metropolis pt 1 were pretty cool. Sometimes they can go on too long, but the band was interacting and having a lot of fun which kept things interesting.
James LaBrie was good last night, but I've heard him better. I've also heard him much worse. He hit all the right notes but had a little trouble in Metropolis which is a hard song to sing at the end of the night anyway. He was totally on in the showmanship department. Interacting with the crowd…lots of energy and it looks like he's in better physical shape than he has been in the past few tours too. I was particularly impressed by Jordan and John Petrucci during the introduction to Hollow Years where they had a really neat extended introduction solo that was just the right mix of technical and melodic stuff.
I'd put this as one of the best DT shows that I've gone to (this is my 8th DT show). I do enjoy going to concerts with Wassy as it seems like she has some sort of concert karma that makes the show extra awesome. And going with a friend who's as into it as you are is much more fun than going alone.
After the show got done, a quick walk back over to the parking garage and an easy drive out completed the evening. We ended up making an emergency stop at a McDonalds in Herkimer since we were both pretty hungry after the show and couldn't find anything good on the thruway.
All in all, a very enjoyable evening and well deserving of the anticipation
Long Weekend Wrapup
Feb 17th
Here in the US, Monday was president's day which means that some people have a 3 day weekend. And this year for some strange reason, I was one of those people. We usually don't get president's day off (at least I can't ever remember us getting it off) so I was a bit surprised when they came up with the holiday list this year.
So my 3 day weekend started by going out to the movies with my friends. We went off to see Coraline in 3D and it was very good. Excellent visual style, engaging story and very nice use of the 3D factor. There were no old people talking like the last couple movies which was a very, very good change of pace. And it was a nice non-thinking type movie after having the brain work overtime while watching Revolutionary Road and The Reader. Highly recommended.
I also received an omelet lesson on how to make them all fluffy and good. So that should help my breakfast for dinner aspirations.
Sunday was a half relaxing half working day where I did my chores and a little bit of C++ programming and then I did some relaxing City of Heroes playing. I also spent a good portion of the day watching episodes of Firefly on DVD. Wassy mentioned Sci-fi had Serenity on the other day which made me want to watch Firefly and Serenity again. Which I did.
Monday was intended to be a programming day but instead of working on C++ stuff like I had intended, I ended up spending a good portion of the day (while watching firefly) moving Wassy's website from one host to another. It took about 2 hours longer than I expected it to take, but it ended up all going smoothly in the end. After that I was pretty much programmed out, so I just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Hoping I can get through another chapter in my C++ book this week and maybe get started on a small little project with practical applications.
Wow…
Dec 20th
I mentioned a few days ago that Wassy was working on a piece of artwork for me. Well…it's finished.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece is a pin-up piece of my main city of heroes villainess. It is a bit risque. Tasteful, but risque. It's pretty tame as far as these things go, with nothing really showing (lots of stuff almost showing, but nothing really showing. Probably the most revealing part is she's wearing a thong to give you an idea). However, artistically done as it is, I would apply the label NOT SAFE FOR WORK to it. So if that kind of thing bugs you, I would recommend not viewing the piece.
With that said…the piece is here (EXTRA NOT SAFE FOR WORK WARNING). I really, really love it. The subject is one of my villains from City of Heroes (well, City of Villains more accurately). Wassy had come up with a really awesome idea for a pose and I agreed (after a little persuasion) to let her do the piece. A couple months later when she got to it (she was VERY busy for a while there)…it was just totally worth the wait.
I especially love her face, in particular her eyes. They're very intense. Along with the stray strands of hair And also the coloring job she did on her skin. It's absolutely perfect. Everything is so soft and sensual. She really nailed the feel that I was hoping the piece would have.
As she was doing the coloring she was making comments about how good it was turning out, and even then..this just exceeded my expectations. This week had been kinda long and dragging quite a bit towards the end, for a lot of different reasons, but seeing the finished piece made it all worthwhile.
Movies And Art
Dec 11th
I was over at my friends apartment last night for our weekly mid-week gathering. Most of the evening was taken up by the watching of The Dark Knight that just came out on DVD. I still can't believe how awesome it is, especially Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker. Every single time I watch the movie I see something new in his performance that I didn't notice before. Truly, he stole the film and I really hope that he wins an Oscar for his performance. It was a supporting character role, but I really don't think there was anyone else who has even come close to his performance.
While we were watching the movie, Wassy was working on some drawing. Specifically a piece for me that I had requested about 4-5 months (I think) ago after she had described the pose to me. It's a pin-up (of the not safe for work variety, although there's nothing really TOO naughty being shown, part of the reason why it's so awesome) piece featuring one of my villains from City of Villains. Dark Frost, specifically. She's the one waving sitting on the wall in my last piece of artwork.
I had told her I didn't want to see it until it was totally finished, but she was over there drawing it and making comments about how good it was turning out so I broke down and looked. I'm extremely excited about it now. Well…I we excited before but now I'm even more excited. She gets the whole pin-up thing very well. VERY well. I can't wait for this one to be finished. The pencils she got done last night were awesome and I've been glancing at them whenever I can. Just has to hold me over for a few more weeks…
We also attempted to play Through The Fire And Flames on Guitar Hero 3 after not having played it for months. That didn't end well. Not well at all. Such a hard song to play, and we were way out of practice. Epic fail!
Recent Comments