Thursday, 28
SEP
06 (back out at sea)
Ok...Bahrain
is kind of dull. But Bahrain during Ramadan is way dull. Or maybe I
just didn't give it a chance. We were in port for several days. Our
first night in port, a couple of us went out to the base and had a
couple of drinks. We artfully dodged our "supervisor" and ended up at
the Officer's Club. After downing a couple of drinks, we decided to go
to the Hard Rock Cafe - thinking that Ramadan hadn't yet started, so we
ought to go before it does (someone in our group wanted a t-shirt and
besides, the food court choices weren't all that great). So we caught a
10 dinar taxi ride (about $30) to the Hard Rock, walked in and noticed
that it was nearly empty. We sat down and tried to order cocktails, but
were told that they weren't serving alcohol during Ramadan. I guess we
were off by 1-day. The food was decent so it wasn't a total bust. The
taxi ride back to the base was a lot less money and the guy driving was
nicer, pointed out one of the King's palaces and played some old blues
on the radio (even if he thought it was Bob Marley, it was still nice).
We got back to the base and went to the Officer's Club...had a quick
drink there and dashed off to the Chief's Club where we could hear
music thumping and we knew that it was a supervisor-free zone. We shot
some pool and drank a couple more drinks before heading off to catch
the 10:30pm bus back to the ship. When we got back we hung out on the
fantail a bit and watched the fish jumping, a crab swam by a couple of
times and one sea snake (yellow with black bands) dove underwater.
The next day we worked on the ship - breaking for lunch (food court).
Becca and I decided to get a hotel room at our own expense, just to get
off the ship. We caught another cab outside the base...which again was
a mistake because we didn't argue the price beforehand. I just didn't
feel comfortable arguing with a guy who A - looked like he might wish
us dead and B - spoke minimally to us because we were women and C -
because of A & B had to be talked into giving us a cab ride in the
first place (by one of the other guys hanging outside, making those
arrangements). I'd like to chalk it up to him being grumpy about not
being able to drink all day and it being 110+ outside. But no, I think
that might just barely scratch the surface. So anyway, we caught the
taxi ride and had to fork out 20 dinar ($60)!! At least we didn't make
that mistake twice. Come to find out you should be able to get just
about anywhere for 5 dinar. Anyway...the hotel was nice and it was
great being able to take a bath. That night we ended up just eating in
the hotel - only one restaurant was opened and for limited hours. No
bar was open in the hotel, but they did serve alcohol via room service
(not that I got any). Slept in the next morning and then headed back to
the ship to get a few more items. Went to the base to ship some goodies
back home (stuff I picked up in Dubai). Then went back to the hotel.
Not like there was anything else to do - everything was closed during
the daytime for Ramadan (except for stuff on the base). That night we
went to a big mall...it was ok, but not nearly as big as the Mall of
the Emirates in Dubai. We ate some Lebanese food and then headed back
to the hotel. The taxi ride was much cheaper and a little more
friendly. It was interesting watching women in full cover shop for
scantily clad outfits. Where do they wear that stuff? Just at home?
Next day was back to the ship and then back to the hotel. We ate out at
a really good Thai restaurant for dinner. We were supposed to leave the
next day, so we checked out of our hotel and headed back to the ship.
We waited several hours for a pilot, only to discover that due to
Ramadan we couldn't get out of port until the next day. So we went back
to the base one more evening for dinner and a quick drink. Nothing too
exciting. Some people headed out to the gold souk - but I didn't feel
like it. Oh well... So that was Bahrain during Ramadan.
Now we're back on the ship and out at sea. The seas were a little rough
right after we got underway, but seem to be calming a little now. I
took some meclizine earlier just in case.
Time for me to stargaze and watch House - or something like that.
-posted by Kelly
Wednesday, 27
SEP
06
Red
House Painters - 'Revelation Big Sur' -
Songs for a Blue Guitar - (4AD)
I'm feeling somewhat
sad today. Last night our child, Josie, was diagnosed with FIV (feline AIDS). At
least it's not FeLV (feline leukemia), which is much more devastating,
but still it's tough dealing with a sick child.
Let me back up a bit. Josie had been sneezing and her eye had been wet
and a bit goopy for the past few days. I figured it was just a cold
that she sometimes gets, and if it got any worse I was going to take
her to the vet Friday. When I got home from work she was curled up in
one of the chairs in the kitchen, which wasn't that unusual. A few
hours later though she was still there and was seeming a bit more
lethargic than usual. She was squinty-eyed and seemed like she was
trying to throw up something, but nothing was coming out. I grew more
concerned and decided to take her to the Gulf
Coast Vet Emergency Hospital in Woolmarket (north Biloxi). They ran
some blood tests and discovered she had FIV, which was probably the
cause of her ear infection and upper respiratory infection (less
resiliant immune system). After a couple hours I was headed home with
the child and a variety of medications for her minor illnesses. I got
home around 1am, emailed Kelly (she had called when I was just taking
Josie to the vet), and went to bed after dosing Josie with the oral
syringe and ear drops.
I got up a little after 7am and called our local vet to get Tura in for
an FIV test. They were able to see her at 10.30am. Fortunately, her
test was negative. He doesn't carry the vaccine since it's not a common
practice, but he said he would check around and find a dosage and call
me back so I can get her vaccinated, as well as have her annual
check-up completed since she's almost due anyway. I brought Tura back
home and let her outside. That is now going to be the toughest part
with Josie's diagnosis- one child now becoming an indoor cat 'cold
turkey' after being used to going in and out as she pleased, and the
other child being able to come in with her collar, but us (me) having
to let her out since the kitty door doesn't have a setting that allows
the cat with the collar to exit when she wants.
At least Josie is a bit perkier this evening. She isn't thrilled about
having to stay in permanently, but she's tolerating it. She was
actually curled up next to me on the couch letting me pet her while I
ate dinner and watched poker. A step up from hiding in the guest room
all day. It will probably change back to the hiding once I give her the
medications in a little bit. I guess we're lucky though, because it
could be much worse if she had been diagnosed with feline leukemia. She
could still live 5+ more years after this diagnosis, so I consider us
fortunate. Any suggestions or advice is welcomed.
-posted by Chris
Sunday, 24
SEP
06
Yo La
Tengo - 'I Feel Like Going Home' - I
Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat
Your Ass - (Matador)
It was a pretty good
weekend. Friday night after work I met Lyndsay, Pete, Jason, and Ellen
at Yuki's in Biloxi for dinner. Not the best Japanese food, but okay. I
had a seaweed salad, hot tofu, and a spicy tuna roll. After eating we
went to Island Strikz down the road to go bowling. We put our names on
the list and had to wait about 45 minutes. Dwayne and Christy met up
with us and we all sat chatting in the bar until our lane was ready. We
had the lane for two hours. The first game I broke 100 (116 to be
exact), but ended up fourth. The second game I had 97 and came in
third. I think all of us did worse the second game because at 9.30pm,
it was 'neon bowling'. The black lights came on, the large tv screens
came down with the thumping music over the soundsystem, and the disco
lights were rotating all over the place. Pretty disorienting. Overall I
came in third pointswise behind Jason and Pete. It was a lot of fun and
I look forward to all of us going again when Kelly comes home. After
bowling I got coffee at Barnes and Noble and stopped by Jason and
Ellen's briefly where Jason and Pete were playing music on their
acoustic guitars. I headed home after a bit and stayed up too late
watching a couple of recorded programs and geeking on the computer.
Saturday I got up and headed over to Gary's house. I helped him put
together a frame for the shower in the new bathroom in his basement. We
took the Element up to Lowe's to exchange a shower door and pick up
some 2x4's. We got back to his place and after cutting a few of the
pieces of wood took everything downstairs for assembly. It really
wasn't that difficult (mainly since Gary did most of the work), plus he
had a nail gun which was most effective. Gary said that I could
advertise myself out as a contractor now, but I don't think so. I put a
few nails into the wood with the nail gun and it had quite a recoil.
After we finished the frame we each took a shower, changed, and went
over to Mobile to eat at Bonefish Grill. Kelly
and I had eaten at the one in Biloxi before the storm last year, and
it's probably our favorite seafood place on the coast. Very good, wide
variety, and reasonably priced fresh seafood. One of my coworkers said
they saw a sign at the mall in Biloxi that they were hiring and
re-opening their location in the mall in October. I thought that it
would be really good to eat there so I suggested to Gary we go to the
one in Mobile since he had mentioned enjoying it previously. Gary had
the scallops and I had this seared ahi tuna with artichokes and goat
cheese. It was great. After dinner we stopped by Starbucks for coffee
and went back to his house and watched the promo disc that came with
our latest NewType magazine.
We watched the trailers and the first episodes for 'Comic Party
Revolution' and 'Moon Phase', a
series we watched most of the fansubbed torrents for, but never were
able to finish, and one that I've been looking forward to being
released domestically. I then headed home and attempted to go to bed
earlier than the previous night, however that wasn't going to be.
Around 2.30am, I woke up to what I thought was either Josie or Tura
having problems with the cat door like they were banging against it but
couldn't get in. I get up and go into the kitchen where I turn on the
light and find a raccoon in our kitchen (one of the younger ones in the
family of 5 or 6 that have been raiding the bird feeder and hanging out
in the tree in the yard lately at night). I closed the doors to the the
living room and bedroom and proceeded to chase it around and finally
get both the back doors open and make it leave. At one point though it
was on the frame of both doors that I had opened and was looking up at
me in way that said, 'if you come any closer I'm going to bite you.'
Fucking bastard. I chased it off and went back to bed. About an hour
later I hear the banging again, but this time when I turned on the
outside patio light I found that there was a raccoon outside trying to
get in (not the other way around). I got a piece of wood out of the
garage and went over to the tree which they had climbed up and whacked
a couple of the monsters who scurried down the tree and off into the
woods. Don't know if I'll see them again tonight, but I'm ready to give
them another smack.
I didn't get up until 10am after waking up more than a few times during
the night. I talked with Kelly briefly, then I went out to Gulfport to
get coffee and groceries. I came home and talked with Kelly again, then
I purchased a plane ticket to Colorado. My parents had called last
night to invite me out to visit them in a couple of weeks for the
weekend when they close on their new home in Loveland (the real reason
they invited me is to help them move some things out of the storage
unit in Boulder). The plus side is that the Avs are playing that Sunday
night at home against Vancouver, so I checked out tickets on
Ticketmaster and found that there is a deal sponsored by a local radio
station that has lower level tickets available at $50 each. I called my
sister (who is coming down from Wyoming for the weekend) to see if she
could go, which she said she could, then purchased 6 tickets for my
parents, Katie, my brother Matthew, and his friend Tymbre. When I
talked with Kelly on the phone and told her I was going to visit my
family in Denver she asked if there was an Avs game, and was excited
when I told her there was. I'll have to get her something at the gift
shop. The rest of the afternoon I baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
for the office, made tofu with peanut sauce for dinner, washed laundry,
and watched Eureka7, Bleach, and Trinity Blood from last night. I'm
kind of zonked this evening, so I'll probably go to bed earlier than I
have been, which is probably a good idea.
-posted by Chris
Wednesday, 20
SEP
06
Sufjan
Stevens - 'Come On! Feel the Illinoise!... - Illinois - (Asthmatic Kitty)
Last night I went to
New Orleans with Jason and Ellen. We had dinner first at Rock -n- Sake, which was still
good even though I went there just this past Saturday night. Ellen
started with a seaweed salad while Jason and i shared grilled squid.
Yum! It was cooked almost perfectly in a tangy sauce. Jason
ordered this Dragon Roll that had eel, avocado, krab, and I think
cucumber. It was big and shaped with the krab outside to actually look
like a dragon. It was cool. I didn't eat any except some of the krab on
the outside. We ordered a bit too much sushi (actually, they ordered a
bit much and ended up taking some home, including most of a Hawaii 5-0
roll), but if Jason and I hadn't shared the grilled squid steak they
could have eaten more sushi. I only ordered a red dragon roll, eel, and
softshell crab sushi.
After eating, I walked up to the Starbucks at Harrah's Casino to get
coffee while they moved the car to the lot near Canal Place so we
wouldn't have as long of a walk after the show. I met up with them and
we went inside the sold out House of Blues. I think this was another
show that sold out on the day of the show, but we were fine because we
had purchased our tickets ahead of time. We stood near the bar on the
main floor towards the back of the room, which although was packed was
non-smoking tonight which made it SOOO much better. We didn't have to
wait long before the opening act,
My Brightest Diamond.
She and her ensemble are actually the main female vocalist and members
of
Sufjan
Stevens larger 16-piece backing orchestra (no kidding, there are
really that many in his group- strings, horns, guitars, and more). She
has a beautiful voice and the music is kind of dreamy. Glad I had
coffee! Not like it was boring, but I could have just drifted off to
sleep. She played for about 45 minutes, then there was a small amount
of set change on the stage and half an hour later the orchestra filed
out, all wearing masks and butterfly wings (like a kite) on their
backs. It was really neat to see. Kind of like Mardi Gras. There was
also a large sheet at the back of the stage that featured a variety of
kaleidescope visuals as well as 8mm band home movies which were
entertaining and fit well with the music. It was truly wonderful music
and I've been trying to come up with the exact description for it since
it ended, but haven't found the right words. They played many
tunes from both the 'Illinois' and 'Michigan' albums, as well as some
new bird-themed songs, and with all the instruments and musicians it
truly sounded brilliant. One of my favorite tunes of the night was
Jacksonville, but also the song I've included for today (all three
parts with a title way too long to type out the whole thing). It was an
hour and a half of great music that we didn't want to end. Then at
11pm, it was over. It wasn't a bad drive home and I was in the door a
little after midnight. Of all the shows upcoming in the next few weeks,
I'm really glad that I didn't miss this one, and I'm happy to have seen
someone that I hadn't seen play live before.
-posted by Chris
Monday, 18
SEP
06 (still at sea)
So it's
100+ degrees outside and 64 degrees in my room. I wake up in the middle
of the night shivering because my 2 wool blankets have strayed from my
body. Usually I bring longjohns to sea because this is a known problem
on our ships. This time I thought - it's summer and I'm in the Middle
East. I should not need longjohns! I may have to pick some up during
our next port. At least the lab is a little more reasonable. It had
gotten down to 54 degrees. Then we complained to the engineering
department and the next day the temperature shot up to 80+. They've got
it at a more reasonable 76 now. It's amazing we don't all have colds
out here.
I've been
going out at night to watch the stars. It's been pretty clear aside
from vessel lights. No shooting stars or anything cool like that, but I
can see the Milky Way clearly. Plus it cools off nicely at night.
There have
been reports of sea snakes and dolphins. I saw some dolphins last week,
but no signs of sea life since then. I go out every so often to look
for sea snakes, but nothing yet. There was a dead one on our side-scan
when we brought it up one time. I didn't even get to see that though
(the OS shoved it off w/ a pole before bringing the side-scan on deck -
can't say I blame him as those suckers are seriously poisonous). One of
the guys on the fantail told me that they were feeding the dolphins
chocolate chip cookies. Go figure. Hopefully I'll see some more soon.
All right,
it's past time for me to head up. I'm going to stargaze and then watch
House and then head to bed.
Before I
go - Happy Birthday to Ellen and my cousin, Tracy. I didn't realize
their b-days were on the same date. Don't know if either of them ever
see this blog, but thought I'd mention it just in case. Need any gold
jewelry or Persian rugs?
-posted by Kelly
Sunday, 17
SEP
06
Well, I've
had a
pretty entertaining weekend. Friday was my off day, so I got up and
went to get my haircut. Afterwards I met two of my former co-workers
from the Gulfport office, Kendra and Dana, for a lunch date. It was
nice to see them, even though it hadn't really been that long. I do
admit that there are a few people that I do miss (shocking that I'll
admit it) at the Gulfport office, these two probably the most of all. I
guess after you've worked with some people for so long it is strange
not seeing them every day. We ate at High Cotton Grill and had a good
time talking with each other. They went back to work and I went up to
Sam's Club and Barnes and Noble. Jason called me and told me they
decided not to go to the movie that evening, but were trying to get
some people together to go bowling at this new place in Gulfport called
Island Strikz (yeah,
what a name). It didn't matter to me, and I told them to call me if
plans were made. I went home after browsing at BN and watched my new
anime programs from the previous weekend on Cartoon Network. Two new
shows premiered, Bleach and
Trinity Blood.
I enjoyed both, although Bleach was much better than anything I was
expecting. It's good to see Cartoon Network license more new series to
air since reshowing the same ones over and over can get old, no matter
how good the series are (Cowboy BeBop, Trigun, Samurai Champloo,
Fullmetal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell). Jason called me later and
said they weren't able to get ahold of anyone, but maybe that we'd try
next Friday. I had a salad for dinner and watched this week's episode
of Eureka, then I decided to go see the late showing of 'Hollywoodland' by
myself. I'm glad I did. It was really good. Kind of a noir drama set in
the 50's. It didn't really resolve whether George Reeves (original
Superman, played by Ben Affleck) killed himself or was murdered, but it
was an intriguing story mixing flashbacks of his relationships and life
along with post-death detective work by Adrien Brody who was struggling
with his own demons. Definitely worth seeing.
Saturday morning I slept in late after staying up late geeking on the
computer. I got dressed and showered, then headed to New Orleans in the
afternoon after eating a bowl of rice for lunch. I was going to see 'The Illusionist' which
starst Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel. A neat,
suspense-filled romantic thriller. Very good movie. It made you wonder
how he did all of those 'tricks'. The ending was pretty wild as well.
Next was the Big Easy
Rollergirls first bout. Well, I got out of the movie and in the car
where my cellphone was Carl and Rachel had left a message saying that
the bout was sold out. There were supposed to be tickets at the door
according to the site before I left, but I guess they sold out between
this morning and the afternoon. I decided to go across the river anyway
and just wait to see if anyone didn't pick up their tickets or
something. It was about 5.30 and the doors were supposed to open at
6pm. There were some other people waiting around near the front
entrance, but these were the people who had signed up to volunteer. The
coordinator, Chloe, was assigning tasks (it was kind of disorganized,
but it was the first bout) and needed people for certain duties. I
offered to volunteer since I had driven over, unknowing that it had
sold out (boo hoo sob story). She told me to come along with the
others. My original duty was going to be sure that the men's restroom
didn't have any problems (empty toilet paper, plugged toilets), but
apparently someone had hired an attendant (kind of like the ones at
House of Blues) who was making sure things were running smooth. I ended
up kind of doing random odd jobs, mainly helping bring beer to the
'bar' from the kitchen area and stocking ice and other things. I was
one of the bar-backs for the night helping the two bartenders who had
an endless line of people. There were a couple of lulls when I wasn't
doing something and I did go in to watch some of the bout, but the area
was really small. It's a flat track and everyone is on the ground
watching (no bleachers), sitting around on the side of the taped off
'rink'. It was entertaining though, especially since it was held at
Kern's Mardi Gras World, so there were floats and float characters all
around on all sides of the room, and throughout the whole building.
Very colorful. I did see Carl and Rachel and talked with them briefly.
At the end of the night the two women doing the bar (who were working
with another guy selling pizza slices, and all worked for Slice
Pizza/Juan's Flying Burrito) were very gracious and gave me $20 from
their tip jar (which was pretty full). Then the guy who was with them
also gave me another $20 when he found out I was from MS and said it
was gas money for helping. So, instead of paying $15 at the door for a
ticket, I get in free by helping out, then I go home with $40 extra.
Not a bad deal. I'll probably volunteer again, because I actually
enjoyed helping out, and they could use the extra manpower.
I ended up leaving about 10.30pm because the bar was closed down and
most everything else was cleaned up. I went back over the bridge to
Rock n Sake and ate sushi inside (they stay open until midnight), then
took some with me and drove on home. Overall, it was a good day.
Today (Sunday) I slept in again until 10am because I didn't go to bed
until 3am. Not really doing anything, just not going to bed. I started
to clean the house, but Tura came in while I was vacuuming because it
was cloudy with a bit of rain and thunder. I didn't want to disturb her
while she slept on the footrest, so I had some ramen for lunch and
watched last night's Eureka7. After lunch I went over to Walmart in
Slidell to get groceries. When I got there I was kind of annoyed that
they didn't have any spinach, but got most everything else (except
chocolate soymilk, which they were out of as well) then headed home. I
stopped at the grocery store in Diamondhead to see if they had spinach,
but still no luck. I got a bag of mixed baby greens instead. I came
home and found out why
there wasn't any spinach at either store. I guess I missed that story
on the news last week. I finished cleaning the house, watched the
Denver Broncos come back to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 9-6 in
overtime, then watched this week's Bleach and Trinity Blood while
eating leftover sushi. In a bit I'll watch this week's Iron Chef
America, read a bit, and go to bed at a decent hour. Since I'm not
going to see Calexico tomorrow night, I'll probably update the show
list since it's been a couple of weeks. Tuesday night I'm going to see
Sufjan Stevens with Jason and Ellen, so it should be a good start to
the week.
-posted by Chris
Wednesday, 13
SEP
06 (Day 12 at sea)
De La
Soul - 'A Little Bit of Soap' -
Three Feet High and Rising (Tommy Boy)
Has it really been 12 days already. They all
merge together out here. Only a month and a half to go - or something
like that. I'm getting irritable this week. Chalking it up to PMS, but
that's not actually the case. I've gotten to the point where stupid
stuff gets on my nerves and there are people who irritate me to no end.
Oh yeah...and personal hygiene has become an issue. Two of our
compatriots out here apparently don't know how to bathe or wash their
clothes or something. I swear - one of them walked in to the lab today
and I could smell him from 15 ft away. Not only that, but my chest
started constricting and I felt semi-asthmatic. Is that in my head or
does this person reek? I'm sure it's made worse by the fact that this
particular person is annoying me too. Oh well, only a couple more
weeks, right? Hence the song for today...
Food has been ok. I haven't gotten sick since the cheeseburger
incident. But speaking of that - did I mention that when I told my
"boss" that I got sick from the cheeseburger and so did another
co-worker he said, "glad I had the frank and beans." Nice. Anyway,
tonight we had pizza. It was pretty decent - though no Mellow Mushroom
(or Papa John's for that matter).
The other night we were collecting sediment samples and there were a
bunch of fish jumping up in our light. It was very fun to watch. I also
saw Katie Couric on CBS Evening News this morning with a story about
some Redneck Rodeo fishing event where people caught the Asian carp by
net as they jumped out of the water. It was kind of funny. The fish we
saw weren't quite that big - although there was a long skinny one
eating all the little ones. Anyway, hope Katie does well in that
evening news spot. I'm still kind of partial to Brian Williams...he's
very entertaining when he shows up on the Daily Show. Evening news is
usually too annoying to actually watch, so why do I care who anchors?
One of the nice things about being out here, cut out from the daily
barrage of death and misery reports.
Ok...I guess I don't have too much more to say. Time for me to get out
of here and chill out under the starry skies. Some quiet alone time is
definitely on the menu.
-posted by Kelly
Wednesday, 13
SEP
06
Here are the
photos that I said I would post today from the Touch & Go Festival
in Chicago:
-posted by Chris
Tuesday, 12 SEP
06
Didjits
- '(Mama Had a) Skull Head' - Hey
Judester/Fizzjob (Touch
& Go)
Calexico - 'Letter to Bowie Knife' - Garden Ruin - (Touch & Go)
Black
Heart Procession - 'Tropics of Love' -
Amore del Tropico - (Touch
& Go)
I made it back home at 1am this morning after a
fun, entertaining, exhausting, painful, wet weekend in Chicago. I ran
into one person I knew from high school (Rick) who lives in Boston now
and whom I had last seen in Baton Rouge in 1996 when he was touring
with a band. I got huge blisters on my feet when they got wet and have
since split open and became bloodied, probably after running from
terminal B to terminal C in the Atlanta airport trying to make my
flight connection, which ended up being about 2 and 1/2 hours late
anyway. I saw 25+ bands on the Touch & Go roster (past and present)
and made $20 on the two extra tickets I had. I walked between 4-5 miles
each day going from the hostel to the venue. I ate some tasty vegan
curry at the festival and had some delicious chicken and artichoke
paella late after the show Saturday night at a Spanish tapas restaurant
called Cafe Babareeba with
enough leftover to eat the next day. I'm tired (still) even though I
slept in this morning a couple of hours and my feet are sore.
Here are some of the highlights for me:
Friday-
The Shipping News starting the fest off with a punch. They also gave
away a free limited edition cd single as part of the festival.
Girls Against Boys playing
their 'Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby' album from start to finish with a
couple of extras at the end.
Supersystem
playing electronica/punk rock/dance music for all the hipsters to dance
to (which was better than !!!
who were more disco influenced which I wasn't into.)
Saturday-
The New
Year which weren't exactly drone or 'shoegazer' music, but with 3
guitars, bass, and drums, it was a great opener on Saturday with
textured, explosive, drifting sounds.
The Didjits-
Rick Sims banter back and forth with the crowd telling them it's no
wonder they quit with all the bullshit they get from the 'fans' and
flipping everyone off, just like the good old days. Honestly, these
guys were probably the tightest, most well-rehearsed 'reunion' band
that played all weekend.
I had forgotten how much fun a live Man
or Astroman? show can be, but these guys quickly refreshed my
memory, plus they still looked like they were having a good time doing
it.
Honestly, I never really listened to Big Black much, but 2
guitars (one being Steve Albini), bass, and drum machine was pretty
powerful in their heydey. They only played four songs in their
'reunion' set, but I want to go pick up their albums now and give them
a listen.
Sunday-
Quasi- original band for
Janet Weiss, drummer for the now defunct Sleater Kinney, who are much
different, but way better than SK ever were. Friends of and backing
touring band for Elliott Smith many years ago.
Seam- many bands
rocked over the weekend, but these guys had it down to a 't', despite
the shitty weather, which was kind of fitting for the music on Sunday.
Black Heart
Procession- kind of gloomy yet kind of setting a trancelike spell
as you listen. No, I'm just talking shit. They were good though.
Pinback remind me of
American Analog Set, and I liked them. Shame I never went to see them
play live before.
Calexico were the
perfect closers to the whole festival. I've seen them about 4 times
now, and I'm still debating whether to go see them again in New Orleans
next Monday with Pete and Lyndsay. They were great, plus they did a
cover of the Minutemen's 'Jesus and Tequila'.
Other bands: Ted Leo & Pharmacists
- never have liked them, seeing them again didn't change my mind but
more reinforced my dislike. !!!-
glad to finally see/hear them, once was enough. Enon- not bad, just not really
exciting. The Monorchid- they
had the bad luck of poor sound quality, but they didn't do too much for
me. Killdozer- I was really
looking forward to these guys, but in the end they were slightly
disappointing. They were okay, but after not playing for 13 years it
showed. Pegboy- I saw them in
Chicago once about 6 years or so ago and they are still basic punk
fucking rock, kind of in the vein of Epitaph stuff. Frat boy punk? Arcwelder rocked, but opening in
shitty weather with bad sound didn't do them justice. Scratch Acid - I was at the other
stage waiting for Man or Astroman?, but this is what The Jesus Lizard
formed from? Not all that. Shellac-
(shrug shoulders). Uzeda-
Sicilians from Italy with a female singer rocked the shit. The Ex- rocked more shit, fucked
shit up. Loud. Negative Approach-
same era as Minor Threat hardcore. Similar style of fast, short songs.
It's time for me to go to bed, so I'll post pictures tomorrow from the
festival. I have plenty of them, some close up and some from way the
hell back from the stage with thousands of people in front of me. Crazy.
-posted by Chris
Thursday, 7 SEP
06
Didjits
- 'Plate in My Head' - Hey
Judester/Fizzjob (Touch
& Go)
Man or Astroman? - 'The Sounds of Waves Reversing' - Made from Technetium - (Touch & Go)
Brainiac
- 'Go!' -
Various Artists: Jabberjaw...Pure Sweet Hell - (Mammoth)
I know I've been talking about it for weeks, but
tomorrow is the day I fly up to Chicago for the Touch and Go Records 25th
Anniversary Celebration. Saturday (when a lot of the old school
bands play) single day as well as 3-day passes have already sold out. I
am fortunate to have two extra tickets, so I'll be auctioning them off
to the highest bidder tomorrow afternoon before the whole shindig gets
started. Maybe I'll get offers which will cover the cost of my ticket
along with the ones I'm selling. This thing is going to be HUGE! I'm
totally excited. The three songs for today are/were all Touch and Go
artists. The Didjits and Man or Astroman? are two of the bands who are
doing reunion sets specifically for this celebration. Brainiac's lead
singer was killed in a car accident back in 1997, so they of course
won't be playing, but the guitarist for Brainiac formed a new band
called Enon, and they will be playing this weekend. They're doing a
cover of the song 'Go!' by Tones on Tail (Bauhaus side project). The
Didjits song is one of Kelly's faves, so I'm posting it for her since
she isn't able to come with me to Chicago.
I talked with Kelly today, and she was pretty bummed out. First, her
cheeseburger upset her stomach at lunch, so she was having crackers and
7up at dinner, but even worse news was 'Death by The Shins'. She has her
iPod on the ship with her and had been playing it frequently until it
ran out of battery power when playing The Shins. She attempted to
recharge the battery, but the player is not accepting a charge at all,
and when she attempts to connect to iTunes on one of her coworker's
laptops, she is unable to. That means that she has to suffer with other
people's music or nothing at all, which listening to someone else's
crap would probably be far worse death than nothing at all. I mean it
tortures Kelly (or at least she acts like it does) when I have my
Creative Zen player on random and a song from an anime soundtrack comes
on. I've never been a fan of iPods and could have said, 'told you so',
but I refrained because I wouldn't want to be without music. Kelly is
going to email one of her coworkers here and see if one of the crew
would be willing to bring Kelly a replacement iPod when he comes out
for the second leg of the survey if I purchased one and loaded it with
music, then when Kelly gets home she can send hers in for repair. I
guess it wouldn't be too bad having an extra player around the house.
Maybe I could use it in the Altima for my long drives to my new job in
Pascagoula when I get tired of listening to NPR.
Speaking of new jobs, today was what I thought would be my last day at
the Gulfport office. I've been getting ready to more or less sever
ties, but then I found out today that I'll be going back to the
Gulfport office at least a few times over the next couple of months to
help sign off on cases since Kendra is going to be out some with her
stepdaughter taking radiation treatments for cancer up in Jackson. I
don't mind helping, although it would have been nice to have been
informed a bit earlier than today that I would be coming back some.
Some of my co-workers in Gulfport got me a card and a Barnes and Noble
gift certificate, which embarassed me a bit since it's not like I was
retiring or anything, but when they gave it to me in the conference
room at the end of the day, some of the workers were kind of surprised
when Myra announced that I'd be coming back to help sign off on cases
some in the next few weeks. The looks on their faces were kind of like,
'oh shit, I thought we were rid of him', although others said they were
glad that I'd still be around. Kelly said what I wrote about them in my
blog update the other day really wasn't very nice. Yeah, maybe not, but
it wasn't everyone, only a really select few that I'm glad to be away
from completely. I'm just looking forward to a change.
I guess I'll go have some ramen for dinner (I'm too lazy to fix
anything else) and finish packing, or I should say repacking. I have my
clothes in a small suitcase, but I've decided to take my travel
backpack instead since it will probably be a bit easier to tote around
when I'm taking the El in Chicago, and walking to and from the
stations. I'll have plenty of pictures and stories next week about my
weekend and starting my new job in Pascagoula on Tuesday.
-posted by Chris
Monday, 4 SEP
06 (Out at sea in a very warm region of the world)
Well
I've been on the ship now for a couple of days. I was finally able
to sleep a little last night, had problems the first night. It's always
hard getting used to the noises, the thin mattress and small sleeping
area. This morning it was more of waking up with numb body parts from
sleeping on my side (which I have to do because sleeping on my back
gives me a sore back). Damn it sucks getting older. Why the hell didn't
I do this when I was younger?
Not too much to report so far. I've been working 12 hour shifts (which
amounts to 13 hours when you add in meal times). That leaves me a
little bit of time in the morning to do some exercise. Yesterday I
broke out my yoga-pilates dvd - and my stomach is feeling it today.
This morning I had the workout room to myself, so I played the IPOD
through the fm receiver and rocked out while walking on the treadmill.
It's been a little over a year since I've been on this ship. Last time
the one treadmill had died, the rowing machine was on its last legs and
the bike was pretty ancient and uncomfortable. This time they bought 2
new treadmills, but they're kind of cheapo ones. The first one I got on
kept slipping (the tread would slip when I stepped down which is
disconcerting on its own, but worse when you're on a moving ship). They
got rid of the ol' rowing machine, but still have the same ol' bike.
C'est la vie. Food has been ok...far from great, but edible. Tonight I
had a plate that consisted of all white food - mashed potatoes,
cauliflower and Salisbury steak with white gravy. Yum. Saturday's fish
dinner was a mistake, I should've gone for the steak. Becca found a
nice caterpillar munching away on a piece of her lettuce. At least she
saw it before she ate it. Somebody walked by and said "Oh yeah, we saw
one of those earlier." What's a little extra protein, right?
I had a nice time in port. We wanted to take a couple of days in Paris
on the way in, but our office's travel people screwed that up. What
else is new? Hopefully we'll stop there on the way back. This is my
first time in the Middle East. It's really freaking hot. I'm talking
110 degrees plus 40% humidity - which doesn't sound very humid, but
really feels it with that temp. I did some shopping and bought some
Christmas presents. I won't describe them to you, in case any family is
reading this. Aside from the Gi-normous malls that they have in Dubai
(one of them has an indoor ski slope), we hit some of the souks (local
markets). I haven't gone to the gold souk...perhaps another time. But I
did go through the textile souk. Shopping is a strange experience out
here. They are very big into bartering. They will try to get you into
their store and then sit you down while they pile rugs, tapestries,
shawls in front of you to look at. You're supposed to stay for a bit,
because they keep wanting to bring you some mint tea. Maybe there's
some mind control drug in the tea that makes you want to buy lots of
Persian rugs and Kashmir shawls? I kept asking the guy how much only to
be answered with "I make special price for you!" The other amazing
thing about Dubai is all the construction going on. It's like they have
a new city being built, with all the skyscrapers coming up at the same
time. Literally hundreds of buildings going up. Plus they have the land
reclamation projects that will supply housing for the rich (someone
said that at the "World" islands project, Rod Stewart bought Great
Britain). There are also a couple of island projects that are in the
shape of palm leaves. One of
the new buildings is supposed to be the tallest in the world when it's
done - but it's design is being kept semi-secret, because they're in
competition with some other building in Taipei. Anyway, the amount of
wealth in this region is crazy. It really is something to see.
Alright, that's it for me tonight. Time to go chill out and watch an
episode of House.
-posted by Kelly
Sunday, 3 SEP
06
Ween
- 'Tick' - God Ween
Satan (Shimmy
Disc)
Quintron
and Miss Pussycat - 'Witch in the Club' - Swamp Tech (Tigerbeat 6)
Ohh. My sleeping schedule is all screwed up. I didn't get home and go
to bed until 5am this morning after the Spellcaster Lodge re-opening
party last night, then I woke up around 11am and rolled out of bed.
It's only 3.30pm now, but I'm kind of out of it today. Let me rewind
though on the rest of my weekend before going further.
Thursday was my early day at work, and let me say I was ready to leave
those whiny bitches at work. Only three days left and counting before
I'm out of the Gulfport office and starting my 'new' job at the
Pascagoula office on the 12th. I went to my final physical therapy
appointment and was discharged from treatment, at least until I have
any more problems in the future. I came home and finished watching some
of the programs I recorded earlier in the week like Eureka on the SciFi
Channel, and the final episode of '30 Days' where Morgan Spurlock
is locked up in jail for 30 days. It was a good episode, and I have to
agree with him that I wouldn't want to be locked up in jail either. I
also watched another program about Hurricane Katrina titled 'In
His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina.'. It was only
half an hour long and had broadcast on the Sundance Channel. It
was his story of his experience reporting from New Orleans and spending
time in the Superdome as the storm hit, as well as the following five
days. No coverage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but an interesting
perspective of a reporter in New Orleans when the storm hit. I like
Brian Williams and feel he was a good choice to replace Tom Brokaw on
NBC when he retired. He's been on 'The Daily Show' a few times and
always has some entertaining conversations with Jon Stewart.
Friday morning I woke up kind of early so I could take the Element to
the Honda dealership for an oil change and to do the alignment. I first
stopped by Jason and Ellen's to drop off a few items for the sushi
night we were having later that day. I brought my bicycle along so
after I dropped the Element off I could run down to Barnes and Noble
for coffee, then back up highway 49 to the credit union, and then I
ended up back at Jason and Ellen's around 10am. I was surprised that
no-one tried to run over me, but I had my messenger bag slung on my
back, so maybe I just looked like a bike messenger. Now that would be a
job I would love to have if we lived in a large city. I'd have to get
in better shape, but riding all the time would speed that up. When we
were in Portland I was in awe of all the bike messengers zipping
around. When I got to their house Jason and I sat and talked for a bit,
then he and I went to the grocery store to pick up some last few items
(Ellen was at work). We got back to the house and had a sandwich then I
got a call from the Honda place a little after 1pm to say that the
Element was ready. Perfect timing. I rode my bike back down to the
dealership, picked up the car, and drove over to the theatre just in
time to see 'Snakes on a
Plane'. I'd been waiting to see it for a couple weeks and figured a
Friday afternoon matinee was the perfect time. I was the only person in
the theatre watching. It was about what I had expected, not
spectacular, but quite entertaining in an almost hokey way. The story
was okay, and semi-believable (hey, it's a horror/suspense movie, what
do you want?). The acting was alright, although the snakes did a great
job of terrorizing the planeload of passengers. Those were some pissed
off, aggressive serpents whose attacks and bites were pretty vicious. I
think it probably would have been more entertaining to see it on
opening night/weekend with a packed house of fans screaming and
cheering the snakes and Samuel L. Jackson, especially when he said the
line everyone was waiting for about 3/4 through the film. He had a few
other choice lines that made me chuckle, but by far the best one was of
course, 'I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this
motherfucking plane!' At the end of the movie there was a video by Cobra Starship, which
is the fan theme song for the film. That in itself was worth going to
see it in the theatre, although of course as you can see it's available
all over online. After the movie I went back up to Jason and Ellen's.
Ellen wasn't home yet, but Jason had been peeling and deveining shrimp.
I got the sushi rice started along with the rice vinegar, sugar, salt
mixture while Jason was cutting the pineapple, mango, and cucumber (not
my choices). Ellen came home and was discussing work, and Lyndsay
showed up a little bit later. We had unagi (eel), tuna (we used Sriracha sauce
to make it spicy tuna), masago (fish roe), lump crabmeat, and the
fruit/vegetables for the sushi. Jason also was doing tempura shrimp,
baby softshell crabs, and bananas. Lyndsay hadn't made sushi before,
but her rolls turned out really well. I think I tried filling mine with
too much and they had some problems. Of course overall we had way too
much to eat (the usual), although we may have had fewer leftovers if
Kelly had been there. A couple of old scenester friends stopped by and
had some sushi and provided good conversation for awhile before they
had to take off (just visiting from out of town) and meet up with some
other people. We still had leftovers though and I brought a few things
home for lunch the next day.
Yesterday I woke up early and headed out to the bike trails for a time
trial. This was more for fun and a chance to get out riding on the
recently maintained trails. I got there at 8am. A few guys had taken an
early trial ride then I rode with another guy just to get warmed up. I
timed myself and did the first run (3.15 miles total) at 20 minutes 11
seconds. About what I expected, considering I haven't ridden my
mountain bike for over a month and the Briar Patch trail with some
slightly new routing since over a year ago. I rested for a bit and
pulled a tick off of my leg before he bit in and started sucking my
blood while a couple of the other guys went on their timed laps, then I
did a second run to see if I could better my time. While riding I hit
some roots in the trail and careened off the trail into a tree. I
wasn't badly injured, although I cut my ankle and ended up with some
nice bruises on the side of my leg above my knee. I took a picture of
the damage this afternoon. Not a good ride without 'battle scars' I
always say. I also cut off two minutes from my first ride, despite
crashing into a tree, plus I didn't have any ticks on me from the
second lap. So, I guess I'll just have to go out again soon and improve
my time even more.
Welcome back to the trails.
After the time trials the
group of seven of us rode on the modified Couch/Badlands re-route,
although by the time we arrived at the four-way intersection and the
rest of the group was going to do the Briar Patch backwards to finish
it was getting pretty hot out and I was feeling overheated, so I took
the shortcut path back up to the parking area. Only 12 miles total for
the morning, but a good ride. I came home and took a short nap and
geeked on the computer for a bit, then read, ate leftover sushi and
risotto, and basically relaxed around the house until the evening.
Carl, Rachel, and Alex showed up around 9pm to go to the show. Carl
works at Enterprise and had rented a car for $20 to drive us over to
New Orleans, which I was quite happy with because it saved me the
hassle of driving. We were going to have dinner at Juan's Flying
Burrito, but when we arrived at their location on Magazine Street we
found out they had closed at 10pm. We missed them by half an hour. We
ended up at a place in the French Quarter that had a semi-mediterranean
menu. I had an artichoke and spinach sandwich, which was pretty good.
We got to the Spellcaster Lodge at midnight and had missed the first
act from Metairie, but just in time for
DJ
Jubilee's set. The place was more packed than usual, and the crowd
(yuppie, frat boy/b-boy wanna be's) was obviously here to see DJ
Jubilee. It's pretty funny watching people dance sometimes. I do have
to admit the crowd was getting into his set and shaking their asses.
Many of them left after he played, although it was still pretty crowded
when
The Black Lips
started playing a little after 1am. I enjoyed this group from Atlanta-
kind of rockin' garage music of sorts. Quintron and Miss Pussycat
finished off the night starting their set around 2.20am. I stayed
inside while they played for an hour, then headed outside where I found
Carl and Rachel who were getting some air. Alex found us out front and
we headed home as Quintron and Miss Pussycat were starting an encore.
It was a strange crowd, and we all decided that it just wasn't the same
group of regular oddballs. Some of them were there, as well as some who
had moved away after the storm, but the vibe just wasn't quite right.
Maybe it'll feel different at the next show, which hopefully will be
later this fall after they tour Europe. We hopped in the car, Alex with
his shirt hanging out the window in his attempt to dry it, and headed
home. Overall I had a good evening, although I'm getting way too old to
stay out until 4am.
