Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Alcohol is Your Yoga, Baby

Wow! I can't believe he said that!
I got my 29 cent copy of The Haunted Fishtank today. I curled up in the black velvet quilt with cigarettes and general foods international coffee(cafe vienna, for those scoring at home) and lit a couple candles and watched the whole thing through three times.
Major impresssions:
Kevin was ethereally gorgeous in a few of the videos....Yin and Yang, All In My Mind, and The Light.(then he bleached his hair and the magic was gone)
Daniel is obsessed with being lazy, going up, and coming down.(these obsessions carry through onto all of his solo albums as well)
David plays the harmonica like he would rather be taking a baseball bat to it.

It's strange to see some of these videos, and images from videos, and realize just how iconic they have become. I know that they got played all the time on MTV, but beyond the actual playing of the videos there are so many few second clips that have been used in countless promos and montages signifying THE EIGHTIES. I think it would be fair to say that Daniel Ash's hair is one of the most identifiable images of the decade. Which is fine by me. I'd also like to say that the man knows his way around a tube of lipstick...or maybe he had a good makeup artist. And lordy, he's one hell of a dancer. OK, I'll stop.

It wasn't till the second time around that I realized that the Bubblemen vignettes are all related to the videos. I'm not really stupid, I was just distracted by the hair.

My big news is that this time next week I will be on my way BACK from Toronto! I'm going with Jilly on Monday to celebrate her big birthday. We'll be back on Thursday, at which point I will have to jump headlong into catering, book unpacking, band practicing, and figuring out what to do about christmas. I'm really, really excited for the trip, but it completely snuck up on me. This year is racing to the finishline...it boggles my mind how fast time flies by these days.

Monday, November 28, 2005

My Compliments to the Chief

That's the funniest thing that anyone said to me at Native American Brunch...and he didn't even mean it to be the vaguely inappropriate compliment that it was.
We had a fun time...it was pretty busy, but it didn't feel like it because Jilly and I are so PRO! The food was ace. Everyone was in a good mood, and I only got one mysterious burn.
Right now I am listening to Daniel Ash be all slinky and sexy and distorted with THE WINDOWS OPEN. It's like 50 some degrees out and sunny and windy. I just don't get it. Wasn't there a blizzard three days ago? It's the end of the world as we know it, as a wise man said once.
Thanks in large part to Daniel Ash and the Thanksgiving viewing viewing of Blixa, I am now all gothy again. I dyed my hair "crushed garnet", which promised to be a lot darker and less red than it turned out. I am seriously considering doing random black "hi" lights. We'll see what happens. Earlier I was listening to Crime and the City Solution and pretending it was 1986. Good times.
Tried to make some tapes yesterday but my tape recorder is busted! I guess I will have to invest in recordable CDs so I can share the Daniel Joy with the masses.....

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Blinked and Spat in a Black Feather Hat

God bless Amazon Marketplace! Thanks to the magic of the internet, I was able to get three of my new boyfriend's solo albums for under $20! When I got to work yesterday, all three were waiting for me. I tore into the packages like a wild animal and gazed adoringly at the pictures on Coming Down and Foolish Thing Desire. (I gazed less adoringly at the self titled one where he looks like an android Bono) All three are completely amazing, and made the night FLY BY in the kitchen. I was dancing around making cajun tofu and dirty rice and the most incredible hot (fakin) bacon dressing for wilted spinach salad. Seriously, I wish there was a contest for hot fakin bacon dressing because I am SURE I would win. It was so good. Simple, but delicious. I was glad I had some culinary creativity left in me after that all day long thanksgiving marathon.
So now I am having a day off and cleaning up from the past two weeks of barely being at home at all. The sink is full of dishes I do not want to face. But face them I will. I am feeling a certain amount of TCB right now and I need to make full use of it.
Might nap first, though.....

Friday, November 25, 2005

You say you hungry, I give you meat

Ha! That's a line from the oh so dirty Queen song "Get Down Make Love", which was covered to great effect by Trent Reznor and Al Jourgenssen from Ministry. I spent $6 on a ridiculous "non album tracks and remixes" CD just for this song. It's a great version, and totally worth $6 to me. The rest of it is pretty much just remixes which don't interest me all that much. But I've already gotten my $6 worth of listening to this awesome song!

Also, that line is a good way to introduce my Thanksgiving story. Jeffy and I went to the new Giant Eagle Market District Shopping Wonderland(which will have it's own post in just a minute)on Tuesday night and bought all kinds of the usual Thanksgiving stuff. Then Wednesday night I packed a bunch of crap up (all my plates! all my forks! lots of spices! all my booze! lots of videos!) and Thursday morning after a false start due to late night public drunkenness, Jeffy came to get me and we arranged everything and got to work. The turkey was freakin huge. It is traditionally his job to pull the gut bag out of the neck hole(we're going to send that in for a song idea for Trent's new album!), but although he got the neck out, he couldn't find the gut bag. So I bravely dove in to the turkey and retrieved said gut bag. I've gotten over a lot of my turkey squeamishness finally. I washed that bastard and rubbed butter and salt all over it, and Jeffy cut up a bunch of vegetables to stuff inside. I pinned back the legs and the arms and put it in the pan and stuck it in the oven. Then whilst watching the Price Is Right I kept myself busy chopping things and getting stuff ready to cook. It all seemed a little haphazard but in the end everything worked out perfectly. I drank strong coffee from the alien mug and cracked my first black and tan at 11am! I maintained a lovely buzz all day alternating beer and coffee and lots of cigarette breaks. Around 1pm I got Jeffy to make me a bloody mary. Yum! Also, I smoked a bowl! Around 2pm I was feeling pretty spacey and thanksgiving-y and just about then Jim and his lovely lady showed up and it started to be a party. They brought halibut cheeks and a gorgeous and delicious pecan pie. I cooked steadily for the whole freakin day! I took a trip to the K-2 for more cigarettes and coca cola(insurance!) and also managed to find some Screamin Cheese, which was sadly lacking at the Market District Shopping Wonderland. So then we had Screamin Cheese on Ritz crackers and we didn't have to cancel thanksgiving.
When I walked out the door I heard what I thought was the door alarm going off, but I figured Jeffy could just punch in the code. Turns out, it was the smoke alarm. Which is connected to the security system, which is not turn-offable. The smoke alarm went off one more time for about 10 minutes and I swear Jeffy was just about ready to take the axe to that thing! But it finally stopped, and I did a little turkey re-arranging and we didn't have any other problems. It was pretty awful though while it was happening.
So: the spread. I made Phil's heart attack mashed potatoes(butter, sour cream AND cream cheese), smashed yams with brown sugar, spices, and marshmallow fluff on top, the ubiquitous green bean casserole, vegan stuffing, my special gingerfuckingriffic cranberry sauce, and a hominy kale and tomato dish. Chris and his lovely wife brought a delicious salad and stewed greens with hamhocks, and Dan and his lovely wife brought a delicious pumpkin rice and sausage casserole with swiss cheese. Sam brought beer, Greg also brought beer. Other people came and brought more booze. I think by the time we actually sat down to dinner there were 13 of us? I can't quite remember!(by that time I had opened up the vampire merlot. Eegods!)
I had to remind Jeffy about the crescent rolls at least 11 times, just like every year. In the end Jeffy and Jim made all four tubes of crescent rolls into one giant crescent roll hermaphrodite baby. Of course the middle didn't quite cook, but it was tasty nonetheless.
Then there was the half hour where I tried desperately to get people to stop watching Einsturzende Neubaten and start eating all the food. I had taken everything to the table, set it all up, and someone put the DVD on and it was so completely riveting that people could not get away. It sucked me in too...at one point everyone was continuing to mill around and Jeffy was not taking my pleas to carve the damn turkey seriously so I just sat down on the couch and lit an cigarette and watched Blixa for about 10 minutes. That shit is spellbinding. I HAVE to get that DVD. For my very own. But finally I screamed at Dan to turn the fucking thing off so we could eat, and he did.
The turkey was absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen a turkey such a beautiful golden brown color in my life. I kept taking pictures of it, it was so pretty. And it was GOOD too! Totally moist and flavorful. I always have low level turkey anxiety because I never feel like I really know what I am doing, but it always seems to come out perfect. But not always as pretty as this one was....Everything else was fantastic too and people kept complimenting me and building up my already giant ego. I loved it. We enjoyed out feast to the soothing sounds of Trout Mask Replica. The perfect Thanksgiving music. We discussed what Captain Beefheat albums might be appropriate for other holidays. It was blissful.
I ate one giant plate and listened to entertaining childhood stories, and then I took a second plate and could not stuff it all in. The mouth was willing but the stomach was weak, so I scraped my plate into a take out container and put it in the fridge. Then came the point where boys spontaneously started cleaning up, so I put on my coat and tophat and fuzzy scarf and mittens and took a walk to Jilly's to check out their status.
Everyone there was rosy cheeked, stoned on whiskey and food and whathaveyou, listening to Jonathan Richman and being warm and happy. I arrived just in time to get a piece of the fanfuckintastic pumpkin roll. Holy wow. I stayed for about an hour and soaked up the mellow vibe, then headed back down the street for the Thanksgiving ritual of Urgh a Music War. Doug and Roman had arrived while I was gone, and it was fun to see them. Jeffy and I put on the Urgh and started putting all the food away. Soon people filtered back into the TV room and I got a seat on the floor with a ginger ale and my cigs and enjoyed my favorite holiday movie. Seems like every year the crowd is just a little different, and it's great to be able to experience people's first time seeing Klaus Nomi and Gary Newman in his little golf cart.
After the movie there was some quiet talk and milling around and finally Dan and Beth brought me home around midnight. Whew! I had the happiest sleepiest buzz and I cranked up the heat and went to bed. So lovely. Woke up early with a headache, but after some pepsi and motrin I went back to sleep for another couple of blissful hours. A happy happy holiday, indeed. Now I have to go back to the scene of the crime to get my dishes and my leftovers.

Monday, November 21, 2005

I Could Shine All Over You

There's a lot I could say about my whirlwind trip to Cleveland...so much that I can't even imagine trying to say it all.
So instead I'm only going to talk about the Bauhaus show. Because all I really want to talk about is my new boyfriend, Daniel Ash.
I was wholly unprepared for the sight of him, let alone the fact that he is a freakin MUSICAL GENIUS. Ya see, listening to Bauhaus back in the 80's I just assumed that they made all those sounds with synthesizers. Cuz that's what everybody did in the 80's. right? I was cool with that. But then he appeared on the stage in these incredibly hot velvet pants with buttons up the calf. He had on a black muscle shirt, and his hair was "vectoring downward"(someone used a similar description to talk about Robert Smith recently(vectoring upwards, of course) and I just thought that was the funniest thing ever) and he was wearing some Bono-esque big sunglasses and playing a mirrored guitar. Out of which he created ALL THE SOUNDS OF THE BAUHAUS RECORDS. Seriously, he hardly even used pedals. It was freakin amazing. So there I am 20 or so feet from the stage, with a tall guy mercifully blocking my view of Peter Murphy who's appearance disturbed me(he looked a little too much like a cross between John Waters and my ex roomate) just being completely overcome by the spectacle of Daniel Ash. Then what does he do? He goes off stage in a puff of smoke, and returns playing a SAXAPHONE. So now the band is drums, bass, saxaphone and singing, and it sounds full and rich and amazing. My head is exploding. AND THEN...and then my new boyfriend(I announced to Jennie that he was my new boyfriend after the saxaphone thing) proceeds to play slide guitar WITH A DRUMSTICK. And he just kept doing stuff like that, song after song making these incredible sounds happen right in front of my eyes. Almost every song I wanted to hear was played. My hilight of the regular set was "Swing the Heartache", one of the most bizarre musical moments of the show and of bauhaus and of my personal hit parade. And they also did "Slice of Life" which is the bauhaus hit that my boyfriend sings. Of course he sounded as beautiful as he looked singing it.
And then, they did Bela. They all went offstage and came back in their fancy dress. My boyfriend was wearing a leather pirate coat and a big black feathered hat. What, he doubted my love? He thought he had to clinch it with a big black feathered hat? Honey, I was yours at hello. Well, hello and the saxaphone.
They also did Telegram Sam and Ziggy just to make sure that I wept actual tears of joy. Peter pointed at Daniel when he sang the line "but boy could he play guitar" and I lost my balance. I was having a full on hysterical fit. The cute little gay goth boy who had been dancing beside me all night helped me right myself.
And then it was all over way too soon. I was seriously overcome with the kind of groupie lust I don't normally get(you may find that laughable, but it's true!) I was magnetically drawn to the tour bus, but of course I maintained control and went with Jennie to the gas station so she could get a smirnoff ice and I could get a doctor pepper and some batteries.
On the busride home, she very sweetly let me listen to "Go!" on her ipod. Living it up, it's a big kick it's good for you! All that and a positive message!
And then last night the googling began. I had forgotten all about the BUBBLEMEN.
Just when you are starting to think Daniel Ash might be the sexiest most talented upbeat dude in the world, he kicks it up a notch by dressing in a giant bee costume. (okay, the bubblemen aren't bees. They are giant wobblers from the planet girl. But you know what I mean, right?) Dude, I TOTALLY had the Bubblemen Rap! album back in college.
Now I'm listening to Earth Sun Moon and remembering that I was totally in love with Daniel Ash back then too. I just forgot!
Dance Like You're In Pain, Baby Boy

Had it not been for the half bottle of blackberry brandy and the inevitable result of wearing red fishnets and black vinyl gloves all evening, I would have gotten up early on Saturday morning to do a recap of Friday night. As it was, less than three hours of sleep, too much sickly sweet alcohol and a couple of hours in the cruel garden of dark delights(foreshadowing!) made it impossible for me to process at 6am.
So now I have to try to piece it together through the filter of a couple of days later, so that I can then get around to talking about my new boyfriend, Daniel Ash.

Anyway......
Friday evening I gussied up: new boots, red fishnets over black tights, black velvet dress, Mary Magdalene medal(I call on the protection of the patron of fallen women)red crocheted rose choker courtesy of madorange, and those freakin gloves. And the riding crop. And lots and lots of styling products. And Leather and Chains.
Watched Trent to get into the mood, then headed for the QS around 8pm. Jilly complimented my slutty look. Everybody wanted to touch the gloves. Hee.
Rebby got the projections set up and then we set about drinking blackberry brandy and waiting. People started to arrive and everybody wanted to touch the gloves. Eventually I decided to do the door, since it didn't seem like anyone else was going to. The riding crop came in handy, and more than once I was asked if a swat came with the price of admission. But of course.
The crowd expanded nicely. There was a lot of buzzing electric excitement. The Side Orders played and it was gorgeous and atmospheric. Phone calls were made and answered pertaining to the gloves.
Then it was time to start. As is always the case with Anita Fix, the details of performance are a blur. Anita Fix is a state of mind for me, a state of mind I haven't been in (on stage, at least) for what seems like a hundred years. The songs were brilliant and people enjoyed them. People also enjoyed the filthy projections and the way that the filthy projections magically matched up to the songs. (there is a video of the performance in existance which I cannot wait to see) It all seemed to go very fast. Pictures are here (thanx jules!)
We ended the set with "Dandy In the Underworld" to pay tribute to our spiritual guru. There were hugs and kisses and accolades and promises and secrets.
Gary played a beautiful set with Steve on surprise drums. He played two of my favorite songs on purpose, and it felt really nice.
Stayed for a bit of Aydin which was gorgeous. Had to step on stage about three songs into their set because I had left my riding crop and cigarettes sitting there. Bad girl. Packed it up and headed out the side door, saying goodbye to no one. It was late and Saturday morning was coming early.
It's good to see the people of Pittsburgh getting in touch with their demons and loving it. Anita opened some floodgates on Friday night.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Mission(s) Accomplished

Between yesterday and today, I managed to get the three things I needed for the weekend: a pair of boots/shoes appropriate for both walking around Cleveland and seeing bauhaus; a pair of red fishnet stockings; and the piece de resistance: the elbow length vinyl gloves. Sigh.
The boots I got yesterday at the Burlington Coat Factory...they are zip up ankle boots, sort of motorcyle-ish, but with some sexy buckles and straps across the instep and the top. The bottoms have nice tread and are flat--appropriate for walking and stomping. The fishnets I got at my old favorite wig and ho sto downtown...the cute little asian ladies get so excited when you buy anything remotely "naughty." But they didn't have gloves, so I headed to the south side.
SLACKER, also, did not have gloves. The guy said he has never sold them and never gets requests for them. I was incredulous, but I trundled down to the costume store where the adorable goth boy led me to the entire spinny rack of elbow length gloves. They had satin and velvet and fishnet and at first I thought I was going to have to buy vinyl ones with weird red fingernails sticking out the top...but upon further searching I found the gloves I needed. And let me just say this right now...as excited as I have been since watching the video for "Wish" over and over the past couple of weeks, I really had no idea of the extent of my particular vinyl glove fetish. I could not WAIT to tear them out of the package. I kept peeking at them and touching them when I was on the bus. The minute I got home I pulled them on. They're not as long as Trent's, and actually I think Trent's are PVC or maybe even leather. But they are elbow length and skintight and um...very naughty. I cannot type in them though....probably a good thing. I do not want to become one of those fetish people who wear their elbow length vinyl gloves ALL the time. I'll be happy to just have them sitting there on the desk. ;)

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Poster Idol....you're my lighter

I have always thought of myself as a person who doesn't really care so much about autographs. I think really that's true...but yesterday I got my personalized 8x10 glossy of the Eric Singer and Friends band and I was so geeked like a little schoolgirl! It's my THIRD Roxie autograph and doesn't mean as much as the one he insisted on giving me...to Lady Rock...but it's meaningful because it represents a nice thing that the guys did(give up their vacation days in Las Vegas to play a couple of Katrina benefit shows) So it's very precious. I like when people do the right thing.

I spent almost an hour this morning on the internet trying to figure out a way to search for flat bottomed black leather lace up ankle boots like I had back in the 80s. They were kinda like boxing/wrestling boots, and I found something sort of similar in a "jazz boot." But most of the ones I found that were reminiscent were more than $300. If I am going to be going dancing regularly on tuesday nights I am going to need some decent dancing shoes. I have a general lack of cool shoes right now and it is starting to get me down.

Last night's practice was inspired for me by the memory of Jhonn Balance. I was in the mood to WORK the songs into a solid form but the guys were concerned about working too hard or too late. Also, we added another new member. There is only one practice left and I hope I will not have to call a moratorium on adding additional members.....IT was chaotic last night, in some spots, but in some spots things came together clear as crystal. Wednesday we are prepared to panic.

I've been putting off vacuuming like it's some sort of ritual that needs to be done at the proper phase of the moon. My livingroom is absolutely PRESENTABLE right now for the first time since I can remember and I think it's funny that I have this mental block. I DO have people coming over tomorrow night, after all......

Monday, November 14, 2005

Ha! Blog! Oh yeah....I forgot.

Busy several days. Second band practice ruled VERY HARD because of the addition of a certain guitar boy. This show is really going to be good. Team Anita vs Team Bambam. Elbow length vinyl gloves, masks, and naughty projections. I can say no more.
Another band practice tonight, hopefully....more goodness to come.

Found this. Been reading through all the archives and laughing my ass off. Check out his "store", and see if you can find the item that I am POSITIVE was created just for me. I find myself breaking out in hysterics at random moments just thinking about it.

Saw Dear Wendy. It was really really good. Didn't dissolve me into a puddle of tears like previous vT efforts, but it did punch me right in the gut more than once. Lovely.
Also went to see the doc on Wild Man Fisher, which was both funny and sad. My girl's movie showed before it and it looked awesome on the big screen with all the colors and superimposed things. I was very glad to be going to see a film by myself and I was not psyched when a hippie I kinda know sat down right next to me reeking of pot and booze and kept trying to talk to me. Grr. Oh well.

Saturday morning I worked breakfastintolunch at the Quiz and it was really fun. It was not nearly so busy as it usually is, apparently, but it was busy enough to be exciting. Seems like it was a pretty busy weekend again....woohoo!

Yesterday I cleaned the hell out of my apartment. I put hooks into the wall to hold my hats and scarves and became inordinately pleased with myself. Bought a second bottle of Vampire wine, and enjoyed the first with a delicious honey dijon baked chicken with spiced sweet potatoes and steamed kale dinner. It was a very successful day.

This week is going to fly fast and culminate in the AFix show followed immediately by my trip to Cleveland to see Bauhaus. Good lord, how am I gonna make it?

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

"I think I used to have a porpoise...then again, that might have been a dream"

I'm SURE that what Trent is actually saying is "purpose". But I love the idea of him dreaming about having a sea mammal for a pet. That is just tooooo cute!

So today is mayor election day. I am tempted to write in Sophie Masloff. I am probably going to write in SOMEBODY. Maybe I'll do a little research and see if there is anyone I would actually like to vote for. My hunch is I will come up with a big ZERO. It's so sad....on the one hand, it's exciting that there is going to be a change in leadership in my fair city which has been going to hell in a handbasket for the past many years. On the other hand, the most likely outcome of the election fills me with trepidation and fear. Groan.

Tonight I will drown my sorrows in Zima at the Upstage for Spaz's DJ night. He has promised to play Visage for me. I am going to dance like a dervish. I need this.

Today feels like a "getting through" day. As in, I have to get through it but I don't have a tremendous amount of excitement for it. Let's see what I can come up with.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Clearly, Aquaman was not one of the possibilities....


Batman, the Dark Knight

96%

Captain Jack Sparrow

88%

Lara Croft

88%

Indiana Jones

83%

James Bond, Agent 007

79%

El Zorro

79%

William Wallace

75%

The Amazing Spider-Man

63%

Neo, the "One"

58%

The Terminator

54%

Maximus

50%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com
Covered in hope and vaseline.....

So, the Trent jag continues. I sit in my little almost clean apartment at night and light a candle and watch The Perfect Drug. It's kinda like highschool.
The leaves are swirling around with a vengeance these days and I think any attempts to recapture my tortured gothic soul are completely forgivable.
Yesterday I bought a bottle of Vampire wine. Oh yes.

The weekend is a blur....busy Friday night, catering Saturday, nyquill dreams Saturday night. Sunday was LUPEC and a very productive four hours in Wexford. I feel like we just MIGHT be getting our feet on the ground again. I have to type up the minutes now.

Desperately hoping for band practice tonight....I really want to feel confident about this stuff.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Stevie Wonder Wants More Grammys

I don't really have a comment on that...I just thought it was a funny Yahoo! headline.
He is certainly welcome to mine...they're just cluttering up the place.

Today after cranking out the goods for sound kitchen at the QS(dips! dips! dips!) I took myself on a date to the strip district. I used to do this all the time and I really miss it. I'm a fun date! I went to Reyna's for guava paste and got some mexican cocoa and hominy for future posole excursions. I went to Penzey's and stocked up on sexy spice blends for the wintertime. I went to Bradley's and found the 2002 volume of Best Food Writing. I took myself to the Park House for a food coma inducing burger. Then I got some mexican cocoa soap at Roxanne's and finished up my day'o'decadence with two salted caramels from MonAimee. I really know how to treat a date. I would so put out after a date like that.

Gotta have a little nap and then Trent is going to help me make potato pea fritters and guava and cream cheese empanadas. (no, I don't let him put his dirty little hands in the batter...all he has to do is look pretty and scream a bit to egg me on)

Band practice. You want to know.
Let's just say last night was an exercize in why I will always love that man as well as an exercize in why he drives me up the fucking wall. I think it will eventually come together into beautiful chaos, which is of course something I hold very dear. The "process", however, will no doubt continue to try my patience. After almost but not quite twenty years of this.....I have finally learned some top notch coping mechanisms. The right outfit and styling products will do wonders for one's ability to put up with random flighty artist bullshit. Trust me.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

You are the Perfect Drug

Despite Trent's new pumped up buzzcut look, I still love him. I love him even more as I sit and watch the video for "Perfect Drug" over and over and over.

Tonight I have band practice. I'm about half anxious and half excited. I think I'll have a brandy cocktail to take the edge off......

Note to self: procure elbow length black vinyl gloves. Seriously.