Last night was the Scissor Sisters concert at the Electric Factory here in philly. It was soooo much fun. We got there really early, and the place was dead. I was worried it wouldn’t be a good turn out, but by time they took the stage the place was packed.
We, for some reason, just climbed to the top/back of the place. The upstairs is where the adults go to drink, the downstairs for the underage and those who want to mosh. John kept commenting how everyone seemed so olllllddddd. I said you were the one who wanted to come all the way up here!
My camera/phone didn’t get really good photos when they were playing. Too many bright lights and it kept washing out. I did get some good ones during songs they had trippy light shows going.
I also got a few good vids of them playing. Here are two of them . . . .
One of my favorite groups is attempting to make a come back. That would be Ace of Base. Given the resurgence of electro-pop dance music, it’s not a shocker. The group continued to put out albums and singles in Europe, they just never made it here.
Unfortunately Linn and Jenny, the sister duo who were the singers, have left the band. Linn began to fade into the background after their third album, and by the fourth she could only be heard on a few tracks. She stopped touring with them long ago as well. Jenny ended up departing last fall/Christmas as well.
The two guys have tried to reform with two new girl singers. Unfortunately I feel they are a bit young (based on looks and voices). All we have from them is a 30 second demo of their upcoming single “All For You,” which was just released. It’s not much to go on. Right now I feel like it sounds a little too much like any generic dance song you might find on an itunes radio station geared towards dance music or your dance music channel on whatever cable system you have. The uniqueness that was the sisters’ voices as a duo aren’t here. It also sounds like they tried to find a clone for the blond sister Linn. Time will tell. I’ll have to hear the whole thing and more before I make a final decision on Ace of Base 2.0.
Meanwhile one of the original sisters Jenny has been doing her own thing. She’s recorded vocal tracks for other swedish groups and movies. Now she seems to be trying to make her own debut as a solo artist. Released in May, this is said to be her official first single from an upcoming album. Looks like there might be an Ace of Base music war going on soon!
Just posting this for your listening pleasure in case you didn’t see it in my tweets. Nena redid her classic “99 Luftbaloons” at some point last year. Now it’s apparently a mix of French and German, why I don’t know. Too bad there wasn’t an “Engrish” version!
So I woke up around 10am and headed out to shovel AGAIN. Making a patch for the dogs, doing the deck, the front walk, etc. It’s all covered again already, so I’ll have to go back out later and clean up again. While outside it was very quiet, so I had time to think. I composed this little diddy to a well known holiday classic . . .
In my backyard we can build a snow-woman,
And give her giant boobs and call her Dolly P!
She’ll say “Are you married?” and I’ll say “Gay ma’am,”
“But I’ll come to your show when you’re in town!”
Later on, at the Dolly Show,
It’s a sea, of chicks and homos.
She belts out a song,
We all sing a long.
The drinks are good in Dollywoodland.
All is right in Dollywoodland.
And now for some photos! Click through for giant versions, especially if you want to examine ornaments
Out front, look close and you might spot a Princess in the window!
Nikko finds something in an old stump and won’t leave it (them) alone.
Princess says “Fuck this shit, I’m going back inside!”
The Star Wars / Wiz of Oz / Wonder Woman / Pop Culture / Life Day Tree – Click for giant photos to see the ornaments!
The main tree (minus a tree skirt for now)
The Nativity Shelf! Our old nativities, plus the Time Life books LOL
at Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball that is. Yes John and I went to the Lady Gaga concert last night and it was great . . . . and LONG. Poor John isn’t used to being out or up that late. She had two opening acts, didn’t go on until a little after 9:30 and performed for almost 2 hours herself. Then getting out of the parking garage was a nightmare. We weren’t home till about 1am.
Musically the show was amazing. She performed songs from both her albums and played the piano a little as well. One thing that sets her apart from the Britneys of this day and age is that she writes her own music, plays instruments and sings live while dancing! No lip synching for Gaga!
Her costumes were great, but not as outlandish as her award show ones. She did have to be able to move and dance around after all. My favorite was this gold outfit that made her look like She-Ra, Princess of Power!
The fans were a riot. They came trying to dress up like Miss Gaga the best they could. I was also somewhat shocked by the mothers bringing tween girls to the concert. Lady Gaga was pretty crass and foul up on stage a couple of times. She dropped the F-bomb a lot. I don’t know if the parents were expecting that or not, but she gave Adam Lambert a run for his money for sure.
The sets for the show were pretty sparse. It was mostly a movie screen/box behind her showing videos or other stuff while she and he dancers danced in front of it. Here is where I’ve been spoiled by the likes of Madonna, who has gigantic sets and all her dancers go through costume changes with her. I forgot that Lady Gaga really is just starting out. In a few years though, I expect her shows to rival Madonna and Britney’s in their production values.
Anyway, as for other stuff, the pink nightmare tree is up, but hasn’t been decorated. John doesn’t seem to be in a rush, so I might do it myself this weekend if he doesn’t get in the mood. Photos to follow!
I guess it’s been about 3 weeks since I put Windows 7 on my laptop and the old desktop. So far so good actually. Though as with any Windows installation, it generally takes a month or two to show its true colors. Vista ran great the first month, then crapped out. I’ll see how these are still running in January before deciding if Microsoft finally got something right
Our washer is STILL broke. John wanted to see if he could fix the problem before spending money. However he took his sweet time to sit down and do so, or even look at the handyman fix I found online (I googled the error code). A week later when he finally bothered to read the paper he said “Oh this is too technical for me, I don’t think I have the tools for this.” Um, couldn’t you have realized that a week ago had you read the paper! Grrrrr! The repairman fortunately comes tomorrow. We’ll see if he can fix it though.
It looks like I’m spending Thanksgiving in Jersey. I was planning to go to Virginia, but it looks like we might have a lot of house guests that week, ones I feel the need to keep an eye on. I won’t say anymore on that . . .
If I’m staying here I guess I have to get some grub together. Personally Thanksgiving is not a holiday I ever really enjoyed. All it meant was time off of work/school, and let’s face it, the Macy’s Parade blows nowadays. For me it now just means “time to start decorating for Christmas!” An employee of John’s invited us, and John’s brother, to his house for dinner. However I always get weirded out by sitting down to dinner with a bunch of strange people. We did this one year and while the food was good, it was a house full of people I didn’t know. John’s mom is going to Texas to see their other sister and her family. I don’t know what John’s sister here and her family are doing, probably going to one of her step-kids homes. A friend from school invited me (and John) to do it up with her, which I might take the offer. John won’t get out early enough from the farm I’m sure. In the end, I’m sure I’ll end up making some stuffing and a turkey meatloaf and watching Christmas specials on TV at home though.
Something I’m way excited about is that in December we are going to see the one and only Lady Gaga in concert! I have to admit, I’m really looking forward to this as much as a Madonna or Alanis concert. Just seeing her costumes is gunna be a fun experience on its own. I hope it’s all ridiculously outrageous. Her new video for “Bad Romance” came out today. I can only hope the concert is remotely like this video! I was seriously saying to myself just the other day “Nobody makes real music videos anymore . . . ”
One of my mom’s favorite, if not her favorite, artist is Adam Ant. She has all his albums. During the 80s when MTV was coming into fashion, my parents were the ones with all the “cassette tapes” of the latest artists. My mom in particular had Journey, Cyndi Lauper, Culture Club, Thompson Twins, Adam and the Ants . . . . you name it and she probably had it. My dad, who traveled to Europe often for his job, would come back with versions you couldn’t even get in the US. Thus my parents were the “cool” ones on the block, listening to all the hip and modern music.
This week Singstar (the best videogame ever!) put out some Adam and the Ants. I quickly grabbed “Stand and Deliver.” It’s probably the one rap song I own I actually can score above 6000 in. I think I’ve gotten up to around 8000 on this song. If I’d actually try and sing the verses to the harmony on the screen I might score higher, but I like being nutty as this video shows
Okay before I get into the blog post, a lot of people have found my blog by searching “No Need to Abort . . . The Countdown Starts.” Clearly they got the song stuck in their head from the car commercial and want to know what it is. It’s Peter Schillings “Major Tom,” which was his sequel to David Bowie’s “Space Odyssey.” You can find the German version on YouTube, the English version not so much. There is a remix of the English version on iTunes though.
Alrighty then, this week I’ve been glues to my TV and G4 watching the E3 coverage. This is the Electronic Entertainment Expo where they unveil new games, peripherals and systems. Both Sony and Microsoft unveiled sweet motion sensor technologies (to compete with Wii) and everyone revealed awesome new games. I’ve pulled out older games I never finished in order to play some of the sequels coming out next year. I figured I’d get through them all by then
I still need to do an “EA Active Sports” review for you. In short though, 2 thumbs up! Way better than Wii Fit in my opinion, as this thing pushes you hard.
I lost my mind and went out and bought “Sims 3.” So far my Sims are still happy. Give them a week of working and they’ll be on the couch crying all the time though. I really like this game though as the town is connected to your house, no need to load between different places you go. Very nice. I have yet to explore the graveyard to see the ghosts.
Somehow I’ve gotten sick . . . again! I had been feeling run down these past few days. Maybe from doing too much this weekend? I also made the mistake and pushed it by going to the gym last night. I always end up sick after doing that, probably gym germs. I felt a sore throat coming on last night, took zinc and vit c, but still woke up feeling the throat hurting. Yeah, not happy. While at the gym I finally saw the Zumba class. It looks like a lot of fun, but it was all women and the dance moves were very “shake your hips like a girl.” So I don’t think I want to be the only man in there letting the rest of the club watching me shake my ass from the tread mills, bikes and elliptical trainers
Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet” tour is going to be released on DVD, but not till the fall She’s currently still touring in Europe this summer.
Anyway, some of the songs/performances from the DVD have already been leaked. Seems she’s providing them as downloads if you buy that new Blackberry Storm. When we saw her show here they were heavily promoting the thing. Well you knew someone would just YouTube them, which someone thankfully did!
Big thanks to Brand New Woo for pointing these out. I’ve been in a horrid mood today for several reasons, which I may go into in a few days. Let’s just say at least the house is clean (well the 1st floor!)
So here is “Vogue” and “Music” from the tour. These are as “classic” as you’ll get from the ones available so far. “Like A Prayer” and “Burning Up” aren’t out, and they were awesome!
She’s currently still touring in Europe this summer.