Meow House Theatre

I feel like shit today.  I felt awful this morning and I took a 3-hour nap and now it’s 2 hours after that and I still feel like shit.  I think I’m gonna go back to bed.

A couple of nights ago I had this craving for sangria, which I love and rarely get unless I’m at a Spanish restaurant, which isn’t very often, so I decided to make some and it came out GREAT.  About a bottle of merlot, lemon simple syrup, brandy, 7-up, and merlot simple syrup (merlot:sugar in a 1:1 ratio, reduced by about 1/3 until it’s nice and syrupy, with a little vanilla tossed in–this goes great over fruit and ice cream all by itself too), which really made the whole thing fantastic.  All steeped over two kinds of oranges (Mineola and Valencia), nectarines, and both black and red plums.

God it’s good.  Unfortunately, when I was getting the pitcher out of the cabinet, I cracked it.  So I just made this in several food-storage containers I had in the cupboard but I didn’t realize just how much they held, so now I have half a gallon of sangria to drink.  I can really only drink about two glasses at a time–if even that much–before I feel that I’d like to go lie down.  So now I’m going to have to be drinking sangria for weeks.

I assure you that the sangria has nothing to do with why I feel like shit today.  It DOESN’T.

I’m so glad her daughter was able to make the choice to have her baby and keep it.  Because everyone should have that choice.  It’s so great that Sarah Palin’s daughter was free to be able to make a private decision, on her own, without anyone butting in or telling her what she had to do or was supposed to do.   It’s so nice that we live in America, where the State doesn’t force life-long life-changing decisions on its citizens.  You know, like China does.  China –wait, you’re not gonna believe this–China actually FORCES people sometimes to not have their children.  Even if they want to have them!  But that doesn’t matter to the State:  the government of China feels it can make the decision for a private citizen as to what kind of reproductive rights that citizen can exercise.  It’s completely insane.  I’m so, so glad that Sarah Palin’s family did not have the State telling  them what choice they’d have to make about that baby.  And it’s not just China.  My gosh, if they lived in South Dakota, even if her daughter wanted an abortion, which by federal law she is entitled to do, she would have a really hard time getting one.  Thank GOD the Palins live in Alaska, where there are no laws telling people that they don’t have the right to make personal medical decisions that were granted by the United States Constitution.  Thank god they don’t live in a country where the State feels it knows better than the individual in this matter.

It’s also so incredibly generous and kind of all the Republicans with the same political agenda as Sarah Palin to be so supportive and compassionate once the baby is born . They are  right there, ready to help raise that baby, ready to help the mother (who is probably single, young, and uneducated) to get monetary assistance, childcare, schooling, psychological support, job training, and so many other valuable benefits that a young, uneducated, unsupported single mother would need.  It’s a lot of work raising a child, especially if it was an unexpected or unplanned child, and the Political Right is right there to help for 18 long years.  I really admire how they all pull together to help in that critical time right after the baby is born and then for its whole life until it’s ready to become a productive member of the State.

Um … what?

I am not a vegetarian but sometimes I go for long periods of not eating red meat.  No real reason–although if I think about the meat industry too much it completely grosses me out–it’s just that I don’t feel like eating it.  Plus I have in the past had trouble getting a steak to cook correctly although I recently figured out how to do it right.  (Helpful cooking tip below!)
But anyway, I probably haven’t had any red meat in about 3 months or more.  On Friday, which was the start of 12 glorious days off work, I suddenly got filled with the desire for a steak and so off to the store I went.   I got a couple of rib eyes.  They’re among my favorite steaks:  a good mixture of lean and fat.  When I buy ground meat I get chuck too.  Bleah on this 97% lean sawdust.  I’d rather have nothing than something so unsatisfying.

So I broiled my steaks (first you broil, then you sear in a screaming-hot cast-iron pan, and use plenty of kosher salt:  try it, trust me on this) and ate one of them and now I reek of meat.  It’s coming out of my pores.   It is not pleasant.  There is a constant underlying broiled-meat smell and every so often I get a wave of meat up my nose.  I feel like everyone else must be able to smell it because I sure can.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and see my robe hanging on the door, or some piece of clothing I took off and threw over the mirror, except I don’t remember leaving those things where I did, and I’m half asleep and somewhat disoriented in that half-awake way that makes you feel like you’re half drunk except you know you’re not and I always have to take a minute to figure out, “Is that really an axe murderer waiting to get me, or am I just imagining it?  Am I even really awake???”  I am pretty sure I’m not imagining this meat smell though.   Oh it’s there, all right.  It IS.

How do you people who are practically carnivores put up with this?  Do you just get used to it?  Because honestly you might want to ask a good friend (a non-meat-eating friend, of course) to tell you the truth.  You probably smell.  Just sayin’.

I’ve got another half of a steak to eat and then a few days to de-smellify and then I’ll be back to normal.  Phew.

I would like to know who the person is who first thought it would be fine for motorcycles to be able to zip in between lanes of car traffic, and then who the person was who proposed a bill to make this into a law, and then all the people who voted “yes” to pass this law.

And then I would like to run all those people over.

I got into an elevator today (not in my office building).  In it were me, a single man, and a man + woman couple who happened to be Chinese.  So we’re all riding the elevator and the couple happened to exchange a couple of sentences in Chinese.  When they exited, this man–thinking, I guess, that we must be compatriots since we were both white–said under his breath, “They oughta speak English.”

Me: “Pardon?”

Racist Nationalistic Guy:  “They come over here from their brown country [N.B.  Brown?  They’re Chinese; if you wanna be correctly racist, it would “their yellow country” or maybe if you’ve got a political grudge “their red country”] and don’t learn to speak the language.  Makes me mad.”

(Curiously, they had asked me upon entering which floor I wanted, which RNG should have heard although maybe his brain was too full of himself to take notice.)

Me:  “… [stunned silence] … Um … I don’t feel that way about it.  LOTS of people don’t feel that way.”  Then the doors opened and I walked fast to get away from him.

He just stared, as though I had suddenly spouted off the theory of relativity out of a clear blue sky, or asked him to say hello to my tall rabbit friend, Harvey.

Goodness it’s been a while.  I imagine this is what will happen if I should get hit by a truck.  I’d just stop posting and you’d all wonder what happened but you’d never really know, would you.  Was I kidnapped?  Did I lose interest?  Had I fallen and couldn’t get up?  Did I forget to pay my hosting bill?  Or am I down in some dry well somewhere trying to claw my way to the top, like that chick in Silence of the Lambs?

Well I’ve been extremely busy lately and have not had much time to post although I keep thinking of all this scintillating topics.    But then I forget them, sort of how when you wake up from a really fascinating dream and you think goddamn that was GREAT I’ll never forget that one!  but then a little while later it’s kind of gone.

I have two feral kittens at my house.  They’re not really feral anymore though.  I had a friend who had them show up in her driveway and so being the resident cat whisperer I went over to help get them trapped and then over to my animal shelter where I volunteer.  One was really friendly already and we just picked him up and brought him in.  The other two were more difficult.  I caught one with my bare hands while he was distracted (he did NOT like it!) and the other one had to be trapped in a humane trap, which is a cage with a weight-sensitive plate.  You put the food beyond the plate, the cat goes in to eat, steps on the plate, and WHAM the door slams shut.  So the friendly one is at my friend’s house and the other two are at mine for a week of socialization.  Then we have a tentative commitment from one of her neighbors to adopt that pair together and the friendly guy will go to my shelter.  I will put some pictures up tomorrow.

I have been working a lot on the back end of my photography site (meowhousemedia.com), trying to  get all the coding right.  I have two or three sets of pictures I have to put up there still.  Got some decent ones of Sheryl Crow last week.  I was using a Canon G9 since it was too late to get a photo pass and it did okay, considering I was about 50 rows back.   They’re going to be a bit more “artsy” pictures simply because that far back + low light + having to crop everything results in a fair amount of noise.  So it’s not a set of regular concert photo-pit pictures, but more creatively interpreted ones.  I like using Photoshop sometimes anyway so I think they’ll be fine for what they are.

I am taking 11 days off work in a few weeks and can’t bloody wait.  Not really doing anything or going anywhere but looking forward to doing things here, going to see my mum for a couple of days, doing some home repairs, staying up late, getting up late, lounging on the patio, and just generally being a lazy bum.   I have tentative plans to go to Ireland in October or November as long as my friend who lives there part time is there.  I have to start checking on flights for that.

This week I’ll be going to see Nine Inch Nails on Friday, staying overnight in Worcester, coming back to Boston on Saturday morning, then going to New York City in the afternoon and staying overnight.  I expect I will be completely exhausted by Sunday.

I worked on the coding for my other new site all weekend and I think it’s good enough to go see:

meowhousemedia.com

YAY whoopie fireworks sparks!!! (note to my sister: where have you heard that before? XD)

I’ll be putting all my photography/concert/events work over there instead of here. There might be some overlap but it’s really two different target audiences so I thought it better to have two separate sites.

Still have to figure out a few things. I’d like a little more blank space overall, and more space between the content area and the sidebar. Also want to reduce the opacity on the background image, or change it. The header (the image at the top) is still not to my liking. I don’t like the hard defined edges and don’t know what that faint orange line is on the bottom. Then I need to figure out how to generate a thumbnail page in html so that people who don’t have or can’t access Flash for some reason (some employers disable it) can still view the pictures. Then I think I can store those pages on my server but not have them show on the site unless someone clicks on the open-this link.

I have narrowed down some choices on a new theme for this hideous page and hope to have it up soon. I probably won’t customize it as much as I did the other site.

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Today I am wearing brown pants in a kind of fake Ultrasuede fabric and a black velvet tank top with a brown velvet shirt over it. This did not strike me as strange until I got a glimpse of myself in the mirrored elevator … and discovered I look like a giant cocoa-dusted truffle. Not quite as round, but definitely a truffle. Well it could be worse, I could be wearing that salmon-colored très Miami Vice jacket I bought in 1987 and be looking exactly like a circus peanut. Make that still be looking like a giant circus peanut, since I wore that jacket many times and I am sure I was truly as ridiculous in it as I think I was, now that I have the benefit of years of fashion experience to realize this, and a buffer of many years of black clothes, since the days when people dressed in multiple shades of hideous pastels. Bleah.

To resemble a truffle is not so bad by comparison.

I have finally figured out how to get rid of this hideous template and get a new one straight from Wordpress.  This one is a WP template but it’s part of my hosting package’s “free” offerings and it’s not customizable.  They offer other templates in the package, all of which are equally hideous.  If I want to use a regular WP template, it is necessary to stop using the package version and FTP all the regular WP files to the server and then install another theme.  It takes longer than it sounds like it might.  Wordpress claims they have a “famous 5-minute install”; well sorry but I am very, very comfortable with computers and software and can learn practically any program in a few hours, and this “easy” install can only take 5 minutes for someone who already knows coding and server-side configuration extremely well.

I’ve been working on another domain (to which I’m going to be migrating all my business-related photography and portfolio) and once that’s finished I’ll move this one to a new format.  I just have to make sure I don’t lose any content that’s already here.

Might take another year for that.  Check back in mid-2009!

Yes I hate this layout too and I hate that the thumbnails are so big and I hate that you can’t forward from one to the next. I have to redesign this site and I will get around to it!  Stop pestering me!!!

Dropkick Murphys played at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, MA, on July 10, supported by Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Civet.

All three bands were smashing and playing to a very appreciative audience, being “hometown” of sorts (Boston area if not Boston itself) for DKM and MMB. It was really hot that day and they must have been roasting up under the lights and from running around. Aside from not being able to stay in the pit for the first three DKM songs (more on that below), it went very well. I brought two cameras (Nikon, D300 and backup D40) and I think all my lenses, which was overkill. The two bodies were very helpful but I didn’t need the 70-300 lens at all, and probably could have skipped the 55-200. Neither was long enough to be able to shoot from my seat (which I never even went to; I stood by the pit the whole time) and they weren’t really needed in the pit because my other lenses were better suited. Actually this has made me realize I really need a 24-70 f2.8 or 28-70 f2.8. Although I really love both the 55mm f1.8 and the 85mm f1.8, but if I didn’t have time to change lenses a 24-70 would come in handy. Metering before DKM was pretty easy because it was daylight, and even the DKM lighting setup was not bad at all. Only one “red” picture! That’s highly unusual when shooting a band.

DKM thumbnails here, will have those for MMB and Civet up tonight. More event description below for people who actually read this stuff.

All pictures are copyrighted to me; please contact me for permission before using. I’ll probably let you but you should ask, it’s only polite. Don’t steal or you will die slowly. Prints available, email me at meowhousemedia (at) gmail.com. And for god’s sake, DO NOT HOTLINK to any of them.

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The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are doing this tour with most (all?) of their original ineup. After months of speculation and four years of members working on other projects, frontman Dicky Barrett announced in late 2007 that they would be playing together and this short tour in support of DKM followed. If I recall correctly, they played my employer’s Christmas party in 1997 or so and they haven’t changed much since then.

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Civet is a four-women band out of L.A., “femme fatale punk rock,” and I am sure glad I got there early enough to take pictures of them. Pity there was only me and maybe one or two of the other pass-holders. I think they missed out on something. Besides the music being quite good, those were four smokin’ hot chicks. I am Certified Straight and I don’t mind saying I was staring the whole time. Mucho caliente. Go look at their myspace for more eye candy (and music).

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I was able to get a photo pass through DKM and their publicist, thanks very much to both. What a photo pass means is that instead of being limited to shooting from the audience, holders of such passes are allowed to bring professional-quality DSLR cameras (versus small point-and-shoot cameras) and best of all are allowed to go into the “pit”–the area directly in front of the stage, in front of the front row or the barrier. This was a general-admission show, which means there are no seats for the floor area and everyone just stands. And they crowd in–WAY in–all the way up to the barrier. Anyone standing there better have a strong constitution against being crushed, or be into that sort of thing. So a non-pass-holding photographer would either be hopelessly smooshed against the barrier while holding a very expensive camera if he wanted to take pictures head on, not to mention his head being a temporary resting spot for people crowd-surfing into the mosh pit (the photo bit doubles as the mosh pit). (So it’s slightly dangerous even if you have a pass.) If you have a pass, you can go in front of the barrier and are allowed to shoot (generally) the first three songs. Sometimes it’s not quite the first there, as what happened with DKM, but usually that’s the setup. Then you have to leave the pit and usually cannot keep taking pictures from the audience. Not with your pro camera anyway. So you can see it’s very helpful to have a pass if you want good-quality, close-up pictures.

When I got there, my pass was not waiting at Will Call and the guy there said to go around to the VIP entrance and see if they had it, which they did. They actually gave me an All Access pass at first and then, thinking better of it, took it back and gave me one designated “photo.” I don’t know where the other pass people went, but since I had to go into the VIP area backstage from where I picked up the pass I ended up hanging there in between sets as it was fairly cool under the bleachers and there were tables where I could get my equipment set up. And they had free water. (Also catered food but I did not take any being that I was probably not technically supposed to be back there in the first place, even though Staff did tell me to enter through there.)

Many thanks to security for all the help too. They were all big and scary-looking but just big softies really. (Probably would hate to hear me say that.) When I asked one, upon seeing the crush of people already at the barrier 2 hours earlier than show time, “Um we do get to go up front, right?” he looked at me (non-burly female) doubtfully and said, “Oh yeah … but watch out, it gets pretty crazy …” He wasn’t kidding; they were catching surfers non-stop. I had wondered why so many security staff were needed when they had such a sturdy barrier but it was obvious later on. I had also forgotten my earplugs–you DEFINITELY need earplugs, do not make the mistake of thinking it will be all right “just this one time.” All the musicians and all the staff up front wear them–I asked security if they had any extra but nobody did so I said “Who wants to make ten bucks? $10 for a pair of earplugs, you could buy 10 pairs with the money.” Otherwise I was going to have to leave the site and find a CVS. After several people saying there weren’t any left, one guy came running up and said “You said ten bucks, right?” I laughed and said I knew there must be a true capitalist in the group somewhere. “Supply and demand,” he answered. Well it was worth the ten to me to not have to haul ass back to my car, drive out, and pay again for parking. (They were a fresh pack, if you’re wondering, and I confirmed that my buying them would not leave him without any–he had a pair in his ears already.)

Oh and congratulations to the couple who got engaged on the DKM stage in front of thousands of people. That’s a story for your grandchildren!

Foreigner with Bryan Adams next week, check here for show report.

Oh I’ve been meaning to post this to show I am not as bitter and cynical as you think:

Even though they’re all probably gonna end up as coats.

Kidding! I don’t know what they’re for but I’m sure they are going to have long happy lives with wonderful people who love them.

I’ve just returned from lunch, where, as usual, I was the person amongst many persons who gets stopped by another person looking for money. I must have SUCKER written on my face. And I had my headphones in. WTF??? LEAVE ME ALONE, what is the matter with you? Don’t you observe social signals that say someone is occupied? It’s like when someone’s intently reading a book on the plane, head down, and who sits next to you (and by “you” I mean “me”) but some goddamn chatterbox. You know how on TV there’s always some story on some channel about some woman who got on a plane and who should sit next to her but the most fabulous, intelligent, drop-dead-gorgeous, funny, witty, wonderful man in the history of the world and they just happen to be going to the same place and they are completely suited to each other and they fly off to Paris (it’s always Paris, never some dump like Lagos, Nigeria) and get off the plane and head straight for the Hôtel de Crillion (it’s always the Crillion, never some $20/night hellhole in the 19th Arrondissement) and they have mad passionate sex which is PERFECT and then they wander down to the Eiffel Tower (at night, never during the day when the lights are off) and then have an espresso at some perfectly charming little place (and it’s always some picturesque family place, never the McDonald’s in the run-down section of the Arab neighborhood) and they each wonder where the other has been all their lives and it’s a magical fairytale of light and love? Well that’s all a bunch of bullshit. It don’t happen. It just doesn’t. Those guys don’t sit next to anyone. They are somewhere, they do exist, but they don’t sit next to people on planes. Only chatterboxes who won’t shut up when I want to read do.

Anyhoo, this guy said he was a former homicide detective who needed to get a hotel room to take a shower. (Well props for a new story at least; that old “I just need $2.00 more for a bus ticket to New Hampshire is so 2006.) Then he said he would make a deal with me: he’d bet me $5.00 that he could tell me where I got my shoes.

Well I worked in a bar for more than 10 years and I have heard every scam/joke “bet” on the planet. Nobody’s getting free drinks out of me unless I want to give them to them.

So I just looked at him and said very matter-of-factly, “I can tell you where I got them too. I got them ON MY FEET.”

A look of surprise at being beaten washed over his face. It was really visible, like a theatre curtain dropping down embroidered with the silky letters of BUSTED in curlicued script. He knew the game was over right then. I should have asked why he didn’t just pop by the precinct headquarters about a half mile away if he was a police. Surely they would help one of their own.

Not that I’m heartless, if he really needs money for whatever reason, I feel bad for him, not that it’s going to make me give him any, but a *hotel room*??? He needs a hotel room to take a shower? The ocean is down the street! Or if he really wanted fresh water for washing, $1.70 buys a train ride to a beach with indoor plumbing.

If you have a bar bet that you think I can’t answer, let me know and if I can’t figure it out I’ll possibly buy you a shower in a hotel room. There’s probably a few of these tricks somewhere that are new to me.

Or maybe not.

1. I love my new camera. I LOVE IT. I want to marry it. Well only almost.

2. Some guy on craigslist is selling the same camera for an outrageous price. Somewhere between $800 and $1,000 over-priced depending on the lens, which he neglected to even mention. The lens is in many ways more important than the body. Anyway, come on, for a used camera you’re charging a grand more than BRAND NEW??? Who is this stupid to pay such a thing?

3. I spend far too much time reading craigslist. (See post title.)

4. Why do people persist in finding the most hideous pictures possible of someone and using it as “proof” that that person is unattractive? Everyone comes out badly sometimes. It really drives me bats. And in this case it is almost always men, about another man. I think they are either a) jealous; or b) suffering secret sexual attraction to this person and thus must shout out yea verily that they are NOT GAY by proclaiming how ugly this person is.

5. Why do people get on message boards and get all argumentative with someone who has a different experience than they do? And god forbid if it’s a man who gets told this by a woman. Because, since she’s a woman, she’s obviously stupid to begin with; and now the fact that she’s voicing disagreement means she’s obviously a frigid cunt.

6. People who aren’t lawyers and/or who don’t know the law shouldn’t attempt to tell other people who are, or who do, what is actionable. Have I ever mentioned I hate stupid people? I believe this is a recurring theme here, in my life, I mean.

7. A few days ago it was bacon; today I smelled Lemon Pledge furniture polish while walking through the park. I suppose it was someone’s perfume but honey that ain’t doing you any favors. Trust me on this.

8. Overcooked pork chops are not very tasty.

9. My cat has done very well after her surgery and spent all night sleeping on my tummy. I was afraid to move, for fear of disturbing her, and because I thought she might claw my eyes out.

The End.

bleah