Following the cancelled Opeth gig, the warm-up bands turned up at Dante’s Highlight, a downtown metal bar, for a very moderately priced fill-in gig. Five euros for two bands was too good a deal to ignore, even if I had no idea whatsoever about the first band, and had heard the second the last time in the first half of nineties.
First surprise of the evening was a sizable queue. Though the doors had been open for more than an hour, there were a couple of dozen lined up. Despite initial misgivings the line was pulled in quickly and painlessly.
The first band, Ocean (or Ocean Collective, as it appears to be) was playing when I walked in. I can’t really place the band into any single genre, as they appeared to flit between several. At least doom, death and progressive metal got namechecked during the gig. The german band was easily interesting enough to warrant buying their newest album on cd (again at a very reasonable price, which seemed to be the theme of the evening)
The second, band Cynic was vaguely familiar from the nineties. I dimly recalled them playing very complex death metal. And they were still at it, despite a fifteen year hiatus before a very recent reunion. The songs were progressive indeed, with the number of different parts reaching high in each song.
Took no pictures, the place was packed enough to prevent decent access to the front, and from the rear the shelves of the bar placed in the very center would have dominated the image.
Stephen Fry’s credentials as a technologically advanced blogger (read: alpha of the alpha geeks) were pretty much established with his first entry back in last september.
He’s now returned to discuss the subject with a lengthy analysis. And to show what kind of gadgetry he travels with (phones alone are counted in two figures, it would seem).
Too bad I will miss Ode to Joy and the rest of the Symphony on thursday, on account of a scheduling conflict. But I do bet that Beaker-like behaviour is far more commonplace in the christmas party than at the concert.
My choice for the image is this cormorant, pictured on a truly blue morning in the Bodega Bay. Thankfully the sharp-beaked birds turned out to be far friendlier than in the most famous film shot at the bay.
Following the Rich Hall incident a couple of weeks ago, my ticket-buying skills were further questioned after Opeth suddenly cancelled their concert tonight.
If this is a jinx, please tell me what to do for atonement, this is getting supremely annoying.
The two warm-up bands play a replacement gig tonight at Dante’s Highlight. At five euros, the tickets are reasonably priced indeed.
That was certain for Hakkapeliitat, when they failed to place within the top four, but became clear for Niners who lost the quarterfinal game.
Hakkapeliitat got butchered in the hands of Team Tonk Tonk. With Matt Cassell, Steve Smith and Steven Jackson having great days on the field - the game was settled long before the night game kicked off. I might blame the usually reliable duo of Frank Gore and Marion Barber, but they both had to play harder than before this season when the teams faced quarterbacking problems, so I won’t. Unless the Philly defense manages to pull in close to sixty points on MNF, this is a loss. And I call it so.
The Niners loss was a tight contest. I lost by mere 1.5 points - and by a better kicker choice would have won. But that’s 20/20 hindsight - Neil Rackers had been reliable in previous games, and it was by no means his fault that the Cardinals failed to gain enough yards to end up in field goal position. Drew Brees could have tossed one fewer pick - but that’s an even more unfair requirement, after all, the 29th draft choice ended up being the top player in the whole league. With the top two teams byed this week, the loss means fighting for the fifth position. Definitely a downgrade from the glorious victory last year, but also a perfect sign that the game is fought with both individual successes as well as team-level heroics.
Consolation it is for this season, now’s the time to start following the games in earnest.
The third thousand took a little over a year to complete (the milestone for 2000 was set on 25.9.2007). The first thousand, on the other hand, was a long time coming, clocking in at 26 months after the inception of the blog.
There’s no party (and definitely no cake), and no big plans to change the direction.
One thing seems pretty certain, though - the spinoffs have been shortlived like mayflies, and any resurrectional activities have not really been effective.
My take on the subject is a picture taken in Vyborg, on top of the tower of the castle. The metal roof had the patina of ages, and seemed to be a seriously hazardous thing to lean on.
Yes, I could easily have recycled this week’s moody monday picture as well, but felt better using a new image. It’s the same city, anyway.
For this week’s Thursday Challenge of Three of Anything, my choice for anything is an ant.
A bulldog ant, if I recall the name of the species correctly. This trio is safely sequestered in a terrarium, otherwise I’d certainly think twice before getting this close, these guys bite is supposedly quite painful.
This week’s photo thursday challenge dares participants to illustrate a chunk of text that deals with words failing to describe the concepts they mean.
My take of this rather abstract topic is the attached image, taken on the Hiroshima anniversary in August last year - the lantern floating on a piece of styrofoam is perhaps the most concrete attempt to describe peace in a long while.
Back in 1992 I was a regular cyberpunk fanboy, eager to pick up any and all by the genre heroes like Bruce Sterling and especially William Gibson.
Following the initial Sprawl-trilogy (and Difference Engine, a steampunk-y collaborative departure), William Gibson announced that his next book will be a poem. And a self-destructive poem at that. Indeed, Agrippa famously erased the diskette it was delivered on as it was read.
As a poor compsci student I obviously had no means to acquire the book produced in extremely limited numbers (and priced between 450 and 7500$, depending on the edition). Thankfully, though, the poem was quickly released on the net, available through some anonymous website advertised on usenet.
I had all but forgotten about the book, but it was today’s featured article on wikipedia, and the piece indeed tells a lot about the production.
This week’s 
Following the 
