Concert, BBQ, home improvement

So Saturday Gynagirl and I went to see Nine Inch Nails with Peaches and Bauhaus. We were supposed to have a third, but Mistress Kiki ended up being unable to go, and Monkeygirl is still studying like crazy, so it was just the two of us. The concert venue is just over 2 hours away and the concert was supposed to start at 7, so we left a few minutes before 5, thinking that concerts never start on time. More on that later. Anyway, we get there and had been wondering whether we'd be the oldest people there. As we caught the shuttle from the parking lot (really), we discovered that was absolutely not the case. The people-watching was good. Real good. We were in the ampitheatre itself just after 7:30 and Bauhaus was starting as we walked in. We actually couldn't see all that well from the lawn, but you could see the big monitors, so it was cool. I have to be honest here -- I like the idea of Bauhaus, but I don't know all that much of their music. So mostly we occasionally peered at Peter Murphy on the monitor (who, as he gets older, looks more and more like Neil Diamond and Taylor Negron.

PLUS

Equals

Anyway, Bauhaus was good, but we were busy watching the Skank Brigade (a bunch of girls in various combinations of mesh and underwear from Frederick's), who were busy making out with each other and taking pictures of it. We also saw the world's oldest goth, wearing pigtails in magenta shot with gray, as well as a velour cape. We saw our first Mul-hawk, a mohawk on top that cascaded down the back. I also saw a really hideous mullet that looked like Bill Gates' haircut, with just 1/4 inch worth of long right down at the nape of the neck. Does that even make sense? It was like a strange tassel that could be tucked into the collar of a shirt. Creepy. Oh, there was so much more, too. One lady in bright colors who looked like my aunt, appeared to be quite drunk or high, and kept trying to make out with her boyfriend, but they were both kind of stumbling. Speaking of drunk and high, this will probably tell you how long it's been since I've been to a concert: I walked in and thought "Gee, a skunk must have sprayed in here." Not "Gee, someone's smoking pot," which would be the obvious thought.

Close to the end of the Bauhaus set, Peter Murphy starts yelling "Do you want to see some Peaches?" Well, at least Gynagirl and I were screaming "hell yes." She comes out, sings one song with Bauhaus, then goes backstage while they do "Bela Lugosi." Then they leave the stage and some set-up stuff happens. And happens. And keeps happening. And it occurs to us that it's a pretty elaborate set-up and it's getting quite late. We've either missed Peaches entirely (because she played for 25 minutes starting right at 7) or she didn't play. I still don't know, actually, but we were disappointed.

NIN was good -- they always put on an excellent show. ("Always" -- like I've seen them in the intervening years since I last saw them in '96 or so.) Interestingly, Trent has buffed up, cut his hair, and is overall way closer to the Henry Rollins standard of rock star manliness than the effeminate Morrisey-ness of it all. It's a good thing.

Okay, so new topic. I threw a little BBQ yesterday for friends. I really like entertaining, which I know is kind of dorky. I just love cooking and feel really good when I can have some friends over, feed them, chat, maybe make a little music, and provide people with a couple hours' worth of good, relaxing fun. I also like being older. I swear, when I was 20, if I had people over, there would have been hordes I didn't know, beer cans and vomit all over the backyard, spilled stuff everywhere, and it wouldn't have broken up before 3am. Last night it was pretty much all clean before we went to bed -- at 10. It's good to be old.

I'm getting ever more stuff done. I painted some fan blades today so that they are no longer dark brown with odd 70s basket-weave inlays, but plain white. I also replaced 4 of our light switchplates. I don't want to show the house with our Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Bettie Page, and naked girl switchplates, lest someone think they stay with the house. No way! So I painted 4 plain wooden ones white and installed them. I also cleaned out the rain gutters and did a little pruning. I put potting soil in a little garden area with weedy hardpan. And finally, I'm currently taking a break from scraping all the grout out of the shower area. It's a pain -- it's hard to get it all out, my hands are tired, I've put a couple scratches into the cultured marble, and it's mildewey and gross. But I'm about 75% done. I still have to clean it up and get all the sticky traces off, then bleach the crap out of it all. I also have to do around the windows, and it seems to be harder in there. My to-do list is shrinking every day. Well, if you don't count all the crap I keep adding to it!

Take care,
Mockula