Blog hopping - and finding relevant stuff from my previous post.

Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars

PASADENA, CA—After nearly three years of nonstop data collection, Spirit has begun transmitting obscene gestures and confusing rants.

The article is pretty funny.

Opportunity of a lifetime.

Where could this be? It's a *little* cold. a lot of wind. Some dust storms. No trees or rattlesnakes to bite me. I would love to stand here a bit and meditate. Nobody would bother me. I'd like to lie down here and watch the wispy clouds go by. The air here is very thin. This is no desert on Earth.

This is actually a photo taken by Opportunity Robot. The luckiest machine that ever existed who just hangs around the red sands of Mars observing, making tests and taking pictures. Courtesy of the fantastic website Astronomy Picture of The Day.

Goldfrapp at Roseland Ballroom 10/18/06

I went to Roseland Ballroom Wednesday night to see Goldfrapp. I brought my camera with me, but I guess either I didn't have the right settings or I was a bit too far from the stage, I could not get good shots. This was the best I could do, which may not do justice, but here it is.

I thought the show was great. She sounded great and looked great. Allison's voice is excellent live. The most memorable parts were of the back-up dancers that seemed to appear out of nowhere. They all wore some pretty weird outfits. Often in skin tights and weird head coverings. Ride a White Horse is where the dancers were wearing horse-heads and horse tails.

It was great to see band members actually playing the keyboards live for a change and not see them standing behind it pretending to play. One member alternated between playing electric violin and keys. He wore this flowy gown thing which appeared real interesting as he moved around the stange.

I'm not familiar with Felt Mountain, so anything she did from that album was lost to me, except that it sounded great and I'm probably going to get it along with a million other CDs that I want to get.

But all the songs you'd expect were done from Black Cherry and Supernature. By the way, the intro to the show was the classic disco song Supernature. Fitting, I thought. The show ended with off course Strict Machine. So all those that showed up because they saw a cell phone commercial were all happy to hear it.

The place was packed! So I also need to remind myself that when I go to a general admission show to stay in the back rather than in the middle. I had to deal with a lot of short girls who wanted to step in front of me and there was hardly any room at all. It got claustrophobic and uncomfortable after a while. Because I'm a little taller than average, I'm not supposed to be standing where I was (according to some audience members). Well, I don't remember reading that sign when I came in. Universal law? I don't know. Enjoy the sucky pictures.

Later Tonight

So tonight will be all about Goldfrapp at the Roseland Ballroom.

Since I've been a fan of Goldfrapp, they have come to NYC twice before and both times I've missed out. Obviously, the Universe wants to me to go since they're here for the third time this year and I haven't seen them once.

It amazes me how much of their music is being used in commercials today. Most notably the Verizon cell phone commercials. Both "Ooh La La" and "Strict Machine" have been used and I'm sure they've been generating new fans in this way. But is the radio playing their songs at all? How about the clubs? Well, I don't listen to the radio so I don't know and as far as I know, the last bar I went to was playing the same trash they always play. That horrible repetitive unchanging and offensive beat with hardly and melodic content.

They are STILL the Pet Shop Boys (Live Radio City Music Hall 10/14/06) Edited

or "There are no more lovers left alive - No one has survived"

It was a night of nostalgia, camp, gayness and lots of hats.

This was the first concert that I went to that had a 20 minute intermission.

After the intro they went right into psychological. And there was a couch on the stage. The boys entered the stage through video screens made of cubes. During the show, they would be re-assembled to many different widths and arrangements. With just a couple of dancers and back up singers, the Boys put on a pretty good show.

I always thought Neil to be the kind of performer who just stood there and sang, but he was moving and dancing around quite a bit. When he told the audience how "fabulous" we were, I thought they would break into AbFab, but no dice. That would have been nice though, with Pattsy & Edina appearing as special guests. Or even some lookalikes.

I liked seeing the audience just sitting there during the first number, then when they got into the 2nd number - that being Left To My Own Devices, everyone stood and started shaking it up a bit.

I thought Minimal sounded a bit weak and I'm With Stupid didn't quite stir the crowd up as I thought it would. Neither did Integral. I think a lot of people went to this show for the nostalgia. You knew that right away when West End Girls was being performed.

If I can remember a moment of sadness during the show, I wouldn't say that it was when they performed Numb (right after intermission) but when they did the song Dreaming of The Queen off of Very. The backdrop was changed to show a video (on a loop) of Princess Diana's funeral.

Can't add anymore other than the fact that I enjoyed the show. It was the first time ever seeing them.

Here's the setlist:

- God Willing/Psychological/Left To My Own Devices
- I'm With Stupid
- Suburbia
- Can You Forgive Her?
- Minimal/Shopping
- Rent
- Dreaming Of The Queen
- Heart
- Opportunities(Let's Make Lots Of Money)/Integral

INTERMISSION

- Numb
- Se A Vide E/Domino Dancing
- Flamboyant
- Home And Dry
- Always On My Mind
- Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You)
- West End Girls
- The Sodom And Gomorrah Show

ENCORE

- So Hard/It's A Sin
- Go West

Interesting that nothing from the album Nightlife was performed. Not even New York City Boy.

Some songs I wished that had done:

I Want a Lover, Love Comes Quickly, Paninaro, I'm Not Scared, Miracles, Fugitive, The Resurrectionist, Tonight is Forever, Yesterday When I Was Mad.

I wanted to add that Tennant's voice was top notch and sounded real good live.

Someone asked me about the show today which made me go back and re-edit some of this post. Hoping that most of you are reading this for the first time!

It made me realize and think how much fun the whole experiance was. The colors, and the whole "party" type athmosphere that they presented. It was as if the Boys were having a party and you were invited to join.

Hay una discoteca por aqui?

Sound Waves

Lisa Gerrard's new album The Silver Tree is out and looks to be promising. Ms. Gerrard is the woman behind the duo Dead Can Dance. If you like atmospheric music with old world instruments, you might want to check it out. I checked out the samples and downloaded one song (cause I just had to have it right then). The song I got was in my opinion the best sounding, titled Space Weaver. Her voice is beautiful, haunting and spiritual. Most of the Dead Can Dance albums I own are on vinyl which I still need to replace. I have a few on CD. There is one massive collection of their work out now which I might just get.

Lisa Gerrard's website.

Dead Can Dance website.




Overlooked? I have been meaning to get Chris Corner's work. He's the man behind the band Sneaker Pimps. Their last album Bloodsport was less electro than previous releases (which I still enjoyed), but Chris kind of gets back to form in his two releases The Alternative and Kiss + Swallow. Both worth getting.

Chris Corner's Website.

Sneaker Pimps' Website.

So this is my wish list and I can't get them all at once. I have to consider Junior Boys too as well as Depeche Mode's Live in Milan.

plus good - doubleplus un-good

Rotten choices. Can someone guide me?

Well, that's all I'm going to say about it.

In the meantime .... The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight.



I think I've only known two people in my life that knew this song and the video. But more people should. It's fun, sexy and the music is pure mid-80s electro pop.

If you ever watched the movie "Parting Glances" with a very young Steve Buscemi, then you've heard a little bit of it. You've also heard some Bronski Beat in that movie as well.

I knew a boy named Randy. And when we met each other and were surrounded by the boring of the Arizona people, we would discuss these songs. He was from New Orleans. So we both knew the difference between being in a fun-filled city and a boring desert. Randy and I would simultaneously laugh at the same things. Instantly. We both "got" the joke at the same time without even saying it. I miss Randy. He's not with us anymore. Seems like a lot of people who "get" me is no longer with us. What's up with that anyway?

Randy passed away from AIDS back in the early 90s. Our last time together was spent going to a Book of Love concert where we had such a great time.

Sorry to bring it down and I wasn't supposed to do that here - But this song just reminds me of him so much.

Looking forward to this Saturday's show. The Pet Shop Boys. I will finally see them live. Plusgood - doubleplus good!

Re-Issue, Re-Package, Re-Spend spend spend.

Yesterday I picked up the new Delerium but not without noticing the new Depeche Mode re-releases. So everyone is doing them now. Well, all of my favorite bands. At first we bought them on vinyl, and then we got a walkman and sometimes instead of making tapes of vinyls, we bought the tapes as well. Well, I was doing both or either. Sometimes, instead of the vinyl, I'd by the tape of new releases. Then the CDs came out and we started re-stocking most of our vinyls and tapes. The same music being bought over and over again because we love them so much. Things really got downhill though because some us had to leave our vinyl collections behind because we kept moving from place to place. So we looked and looked for that one record on CD (Secession anyone?) and could not find it. So now we are deprived of some of the music we loved listening to because of this technology to digitize music. Not everything you once had on vinyl is being released on CD.

Now music is available for download. So you don't even have to go to the store. And people are fine with listening to their digital downloads on their iPods even though it's far less quality than that of the vinyl! And even though mass producing CDS cost a hell of a lot less to do, it costs twice as much as what the vinyl records used to cost which require more machinery to make.

So now you've got all the CDs of all your favorite bands that you once had on vinyl and tape. But now, they're being re-mastered. And re-packaged with extra stuff. So the record that you bought for maybe $5.99 brand new is now $25.00.

So how much money have you invested on one release? The vinyl, the tape, the CD and the re-mastered, re-packaged CD?

I'm so tempted though. I think that "A Broken Frame" and "Some Great Reward" are one of DM's finest releases, and I would include "Construction Time Again" as well. Those three alone are the best DM stuff out there and off course I'm going to have to get the re-mastered versions. A lot of people vote for "Violator" but I have to be truthful here. I kind of lost it after "Music for the Masses." When "Violator" came out, I immediately recognized the whole "rock star" attitude that they were striving for at the time. Though I've stayed loyal, I've always wished they'd move on forwards rather than be just another rock band.