HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY!

I've already had birthday cake for breakfast in his honor. Later today I'll be breaking out the red wine and feather boa (although I don't know how long I can stand it in this heat!) and watching the Love and Rockets and Bauhaus movies.

Also, I'm going today to get tickets for Poison and Cindarella. Hoo boy!

Had a lovely weekend featuring a surprise cookout at Rebby's, a visit to the Pre-Raphaelite exhibit at the Frick with Jennie followed by dinner at Buffalo Blues (if you have any interest in art at all, I urge you to check out this exhibit. It's tremendous!) a big pimpy omlet breakfast followed by great thriftstore scores (mostly pants for work, but also a gorgeous black velvet bellydance skirt, and the perfect lightweight black cardigan of my dreams!) and I'm Your Man at the Harris(if you have any interest in poets or songwriters or nick cave at all, I urge you to check out this movie!) and a pimpy dinner of pasta with chicken, spinach, tomato, avocado and ricotta salata, followed by viewing The Libertine (if you have any interest in Johnny Depp in frilly shirts and long curly hair saying lots of dirty words in a lispy accent, I urge you to see this movie) WOW. What a weekend!

I gotta put the laundry away and get on with my debauchery. Happy birthday Daniel!

OK, I know I still need to finish off the travelogue, and I WILL do it...maybe tomorrow afternoon when I am soaking up the wireless internet in rebby's back yard.
But for now, I want to talk about Gilby Clarke, and also about delicious food.
Gilby...sigh. I had forgotten to watch Rockstar: Supernova for a couple of weeks, but finally remembered this week. Actually, I wasn't super sure I wanted to watch it, but this week I was trying to catch up on slip tallies so mindless entertainment was in order. I wish I had been more impressed with the singers...the only ones I really could fathom singing for this band are Dilana and Storm. And I think it will be ultra super cool if they pick a rockin chick.
So, let's talk about rockin chicks...and Gilby Clarke. I have always had a sort of secret, not very well defined crush on Gilby because he has beautiful hair and really knows how to rock the 'stache, and also because he is a giant talent. He's friends with Ryan Roxie, so you know he must be a good guy. He was in Guns'n'Roses, which doesn't impress me all that much, but seems to be all anyone wants to talk about. I am much more impressed by his production work, and Candy. I love his bluesy rock stylings. Also, he toured with Nancy Sinatra, and also with Heart. So, this man knows a thing or two about rockin' chicks.
He got on stage to play guitar with contestant Jill, who was singing Brown Sugar by the Stones. She came out in a little shorts outfit and the first thought that came to mind was "Oh! She's trying to be pamela Anderson." Which she then confirmed by trying to grind all over Gilby. Gilby WALKED AWAY. She followed and got all up on him again, and he walked away again.
Then it was time for the judges comments. Gilby basically said how sad it is that a woman with a voice and talent feels she has to use her sexuality to make it in music. She tried to say that she was expressing her "emotions." Whatever. I was just thrilled that Gilby was trying to make a point about how the whole grinding thing really cheapened her performance. Dave Navarro, of course, was all over it.
I didn't plan to watch the elimination show but I am so glad I did. The "conversation" continued. She basically tried to make out like Gilby was being a prude, and said something about how he was used to being on stage with Axl so he didn't get it. Then he really laid it down....he said something about how he had toured with Heart and Ann and Nancy Wilson never felt the need to grind on him to express their emotions. Hooray for Gilby! And, he was somewhat vindicated by the audience vote...although she didn't end up in the bottom three ultimately, she was there for a while. Hopefully she has learned her lesson, and hopefully Gilby will get a little more respect. He is a really cool dude.
Tommy Lee looks too skinny, and I don't really give a damn about Jason. But I will continue to watch...I think this show is WAY more entertaining than the INXS version was.
Heads up: Poison at the Pavillion is on August 11th. that is REALLY SOON! I hope I can actually do it....it's shaping up to be a mad weekend for me. I have a wedding on the 12th, and a more or less firm trip to Krishnaland on the 13th for Krishna's birthday party. Wish me luck! I really want to get Rikki Rocket to the Storm for some scrambled tofu, too.
So, I wanted to talk about delicious food, too....right now, I am enjoying a Sky Bar. Wow! So good! And so varied! The reviewer thought it was too small, but I think it is just right. Just a little taste of each flavor. All good. I found it by accident at the Ekerd just now when I went to buy some hair dye.
Earlier, I had the most awesome breakfast ever. Two pieces of Ryvitta rye crispbread, with ricotta salata, and strawberry jalapeno preserves. Plus good coffee. I am a rockstar. Then, for lunch, a big mixed greens salad with cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella balls, with a light splash of Heinz salad vinegar, and
a super sexy seared yellowfin tuna steak with old colony sauce, garlic salt, and cracked black pepper. For dinner I will probably have a few corn chips with melted cheese on them since I'll be working and I can never manage to eat properly while working at the restaurant. Ain't it just the way. Anyway, two out of three ain't bad at all.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled travelogue.....

Friday morning we got up and packed the Highlander with stuff to take to the wedding site. Allison rode the scooter and Sissy, rebby and I followed in the Highlander. We stopped at another one of my all time favorite breakfast places, Soundbites. On a Friday morning there was no line, so we went right in and got our own coffee and juices from the coffeebar. It's tiny, but always packed with people who know a good breakfast when they eat one. I had the same thing I always get there, and I can't remember what it is called, but it has eggs and bacon and noplacelikehomefries, and a split grilled corn muffin. Ohhh. Rebby had the Moroccan eggs, which I've had before (a long time ago, before I discovered the grilled corn muffin breakfast) I can't really remember what sissy and Allison had, but it was all good. Whatever sissy had was served with a giant mountain of fresh fruit. Yum.
After the breakfast we headed to the Habitat. We put our stuff into the Saturday garage and then walked around a bit to look at the grounds and the house. It was a beautiful spot for a wedding. From there we headed back home where I got down to some cooking, rebby cleaned a bit, and the ladies went to their nail appointment. Around 4pm rebby and I took my sissy's car to get Kyle (bro!) from the airport. It was slightly terrifying to be driving in Boston rush hour traffic, but not as terrifying as when we actually arrived at the airport. They are really brutal about the arrangements for picking people up! You have to cross three lanes of fast moving traffic and whip over to the curb and shove your passenger in as fast as possible and then GET OUT OF THERE! There are traffic marshals yelling at you the whole time. Talk about stress! And then, you have to pay $3.00 for the privilege of getting out of the airport! Nice scam you got there, Boston. Hopefully they will take my $3.00 and use it toward repairing the tunnel that fell down a couple of days after we passed through it. Anyway, we got back to the place and settled in....I got back to cooking, rebby entertained Kyle, and the sisters fussed over their nails and tried on their dresses. And wrote their vows. Hee! Before too long the rest of the Johnstons arrived and we set off for our pimpy dinner at Legal Seafoods. We divided up into tall people in the Highlander and short people in the Echo. I was on the tall side for once! After both cars getting lost (thank goodness for the modern convenience of cell phones!) we finally all arrived at our destination, the original restaurant on the water. It was lovely, and my grilled "everything" tuna was fantastic. Rebby got a stuffed halibut filet that I "tasted" quite a bit of...wow, was that good. Everything was good. Kyle had his first ever clam chowder and was suitably impressed. The younger sisters had steak and chicken. Ha. We ate kind of fast because we had to get to Fenway for the Pirates! There was a lot of traffic congestion which we later found out was a result of the Sheryl Crow/Dave Matthews concert. Who knew?
We finally got to the theater and were able to go right in since sissy had pre-ordered the tickets (thank goodness for the modern convenience of internet ticket ordering!) but alas, the only seats available were in the FRONT row. So it's a huge theater, with a curved screen, and it's almost 11pm, and we are in the FRONT ROW. I still enjoyed the movie, but I definitely need to see it again under less taxing circumstances. It was nice, though, to be seeing it on opening night with the family.
Needless to say, by 1am we were all thoroughly wrecked and went pretty much directly to be when we got back.
Next up...it's the big day!

.......we interrupt this travelogue for a very important message:



The
7 Shot Screamers are returning to the 31st street Pub on September 1st. You should grab your calendar RIGHT NOW and make a note of it.

Oh, you may think you are not into "rockabilly". That's what I thought too, before I saw them. This is a different animal entirely. Don't miss it. (and, if you are not in Pittsburgh, check their site for shows in your area. Seriously, I cannot recommend them enough!)

OK, so, Dali. We were waiting by the door when they opened....I smoked a cigarette in preparation. Down the street alongside the building the gorgeous and so Spanish owners were doing the same. Finally, we were let inside, and led to a table in the copper ceiling-ed, candle lit back room. Walking into the place is like walking into a temple of EVERYTHING GOOD IN THE WORLD. We got a pitcher of the best sangria ever and Allison got a glass of Designated Driver Sangria, which was equally delicious. They brought out the incredible bread with chickpea garlic mushroom spread. I think the bread is made with semolina flour, maybe....I have never been able to really figure out the secret. It is incredibly dense, sliced thin, very flavorful. Then we set to ordering. I am just going to list everything we ate, and hope that you will go to the link in the previous post to find out what they mean. Here goes:
Tortilla Espanola, Patatas Ali Oli (good LORD so good!), Aceitunas Alinadas (in specially made olive bowls), Setas al Ajillo, Alcachofas Salteadas, Gambas al Ajillo (the smell of them made me quiver), Vieiras al Azafran (quite possibly my favorite thing I have ever put in my mouth EVER), Ravioles de Mariscos (I sopped up every bit of sauce that I could with bread, and then scraped the dish with my fingers. I was not proud), Chorizo ala Plancha (almost a disappointment--not as garlicky or spicy as what we had at Mallorca on New Years), Tigres (oh so good, got me over my fear of mussels), Gazpacho Andaluz. Pause for breath. Then the desserts: Fresones, Filloa al Licor, Tarta de Santiago. I had a little coffee with lump brown sugar and heavy cream. By the time we were into the desserts, we were all brazenly licking plates with abandon. Even designated driver Allison had caught the food intoxication. It was absolute bliss. We walked out into the DAYLIGHT(shriek!!!) and I lingered by the open kitchen door, trying desperately for a glimpse into the magical wonderland. Too much.
I imagine we did something that night...but I don't remember. Thursday morning we got up and had some local pastries for breakfast, then did some more shopping. We made stops at a bookstore for the Mr Rogers books which would provide my reading for the ceremony, a ghetto grocery store for cupcake cups (I forgot!), and then the Origins counter at a silly little mall so the gals could get lipsticks. My sister got this incredible copper shade which matched her hair, her scarf, and her tonenail polish exactly. Allison was found to be one of a select few who can get away with wearing red. It was really nice how non-plussed the young women working the counter were about the fact that A&A were there to get lipstick for their wedding. After the makeup experience we went back home and I set to cooking. Becky did some cleaning, and the sisters went out to dinner with a friend. Becky and I ate as many leftovers as we could to make room in the fridge. When the sisters came back, we got ready to go out queer dancing. I arranged to meet my sweetheart Neil there, and he brought his lovely ladyfriend. The band that played were okay, nothing too exciting, but it was very exciting to see so many queers of all stripes dancing and having fun. Downstairs at the Middle East is super weird though...there were almost as many security people as revelers. I talked to Neil a lot while Becky and my sis got their groove on. It was GREAT! We left early-ish and went home to pass out, exhausted. In fact, most nights we passed out, exhausted. It was an exhausting week.

Well, I better try to do this....it might take a few posts. I wish I had been writing while I was in Boston, as I did have a computer with cable internet in the room where I was staying, but by the time we got back to the room on any given day I was totally exhausted. I'm exhausted now too, but I'm home. And if I don't write it down now, I'll forget.
Saturday after the bauhaus/nin show, rebby had a barbecue going away party for Eric from filmmakers who is moving away for grad school. I ate some great tuna and ribs and I got really wasted on black label. Oh wait, I also drank the entire bottle of Beaujolais that we didn't get to drink in the parking lot by myself. I was a drunk lil puppy. It was fun, though.
Despite the drinking, we got ourselves on the road by noon on Sunday. The drive up was pretty uneventful. Got there in a little over 9 hours and sissy fed us and we stayed up talking for a while.
In the morning, we had toast and coffee and looked at a little VH1 classic. They were having their top 20 metal songs of all time countdown, hosted by Sebastian Bach. We had to leave to go to the beach, but we taped it. The drive to Manchester by the Sea was lovely, and we had lunch at Allison's dad's house. He is a character. He took quite a liking to Becky, as most people do. After lunch we got ourselves out to singing beach It was a nice day for the beach, a little overcast and not too hot. Lots of people were there. I did not go anywhere near the freezing cold water, but I enjoyed laying in the sand reading lesbian magazines.
We went back to Allison's dad's for dinner--he was very glad to be able to grill steaks for Becky and me. (the sisters don't eat the red meat) Then we set out for Gloucester to see the . Horribles Parade. It was fun, and featured a really awesome Morton's Fisherman float which included people dressed up as Ketchup and Tartar Sauce. The final marching band was very good with lots of drum corps stuff. It made me want to start a drum corps in Pittsburgh. But first I have to get one of those drums that you can strap on.
Next stop was the pier to watch the fireworks. We were able to meet up with Betsey and Michael and William and some members of Betsey's family, which was really cool.
Then finally back to Jamaica Plain where we watched the Top 20 Metal Songs countdown. (well, we didn't get to watch all of it, because the tape ran out. But #1 was Iron Man, and I called it)
4th of July we didn't leave the house. We ate leftovers and watched beach party movies. I had never seen any of those movies, and let me tell you, it was an eye opener! My favorite was Beach Blanket Bingo by far. In the evening sissy and allison went to get Thai food, but the Thai place was closed so we ended up having Indian and Ice Cream. Just as good. While they were gone we watched an amazing documentary called Beautiful Daughters. I highly recommend it. Laying around on the couch all day tired us out and we went to bed early.
Wednesday we ventured out to Deluxe Town Diner one of my favorite places. I deliberated with my choice but ended up getting a straight up eggs and bacon and homefries with toast AND a bagel. Delicious. We wandered around the neighborhood and got some little chocolates and some rose water at the middle eastern grocery for the special wedding cocktail. From there the shopping began in earnest....groceries for the afterparty, including my first time inside a Trader Joes. I am HOOKED! We also went to WholeFoods, and the straight up grocery, and the girls went to the paper store. It was a long and tiring day of shopping. Got home and unpacked everything and then it was time to get ready to go to Dali I'm going to stop here because...well, because I need to make sure I remember everything we ate at Dali. It's my favorite restaurant of all time, anywhere. I'll be back soon.

Oh, dear. I don't think I have really sufficiently processed last night, but I want to try to get some memories down while it's still fresh.
We had made grandiose plans to "tailgate" with red wine and feather boas, in tribute to Daniel. I had dressed up in my Bauhaus t shirt with my bat necklace and my David J hat with the silver flower. And of course, my Bauhaus boots. We got our wine and set out on the road. Somehow, I had screwed up the directions to the Pavillion. I don't know how, nor do I know why both rebby and I didn't trust our instincts when we took the fateful wrong turn. But we didn't, and ended up going about 45 minutes out of our way. Boo. We got there about halfway into Peaches set, and given that we were both hungry and the people in the parking lot seemed not like people we wanted to "party" with, we decided to just go in. Amazingly, we found Jennie and Mike on the first pass around. They had staked out a very sweet spot in the center just at the beginning of the lawn. We spread our purple blanket and then went to get Primantis.
Peaches began to sing "Fuck the Pain Away" just as we were returning to our blanket. We ate our sandwiches while she crowd surfed in her pink bikini. Daisy called and she wasn't far from us, so she and her hunny picked up their blanket and came to join our party.
I was about halfway through my sandwich when the boys took the stage. It happened so suddenly that I was completely unprepared. I think I had lit a cigarette, which hung there burning down as I was completely frozen by the sight of Daniel Ash with his hair down. I am praying that someone will post a picture, because of course we forgot to bring the spyglasses we have in the glovebox. Boo, again. Peter prowled and pranced and was very cheeky with the audience. He kept making a big deal about being British, which I thought was very cute. Daniel just stomped all over in his big boots, preening and being a marvelous rock god. They played Double Dare, In the Flat Field, A God in an Alcove, She's in Parties. I can't remember at what point Peter got his staff handed to him, but he danced around with it, used it to hurl roses into the audience and at Kevin and Daniel. He put it across his shoulders and bent over it. It was incredible. He did a lot of his old twisty dancing. Totally spellbinding. The new song Adrenaline was amazing...very plodding and sexy. And then, Peter got up on a platform in the back and bent over, and they began Severance. I can't even really describe what that was like. It was like a ritual. I kept thinking how very WRONG it was that I was not down there in the front worshipping. Next was Silent Hedges, with Daniel playing his gorgeous acoustic. Then, In Fear of Fear---the saxaphone. At one point Daniel was on his knees in front of David with the saxophone...I'll leave it to the imagination as to what that looked like. Heh.
Next up was Endless Summer of the Damned, another new song. Peter sang it from the corner of the stage near an amp stack with a single white light on him. It was like the old days!
OK, so....Rosegarden Funeral of Sores. Peter did some sexy stuff with the roses which I didn't really see....I was too busy watching Daniel, of course. Apparently he stuck the bunch of roses in his shirt and was massaging his nipples...so cheeky!
Daniel and Peter circled around each other like animals in heat. Then, Daniel dropped down to his knees. Peter came around behind him and stuck his staff in front of Daniel, pinning him there. He grabbed Daniel's hair and pulled his head into his crotch. Over and over. I swear, this really happened, it was not my fantasy imagination. I lost my mind. I think I smoked a cigarette after every song, and I know at one point I was twisting my bat necklace up into knots. I was a mess.
At one point Peter picked a guy out of the audience who was wearing all white. He made the security guys let him up front so he could give the guy his roses. He said something like "they think they have precendence because they are wearing all black, but you are beautiful." Wow.
Daniel stayed on the ground for most of Stigmata Martyr. Then, it was Dark Entries, and then.....done. I was incredulous. I was actually sort of hysterical. Shrieking and crying. It wasn't that I was so upset that they didn't play Bela. Or Ziggy. I was just so sad to think that they would have a bad opinion of Pittsburgh. That somehow we were not worthy. There was one other goth boy near us who said "the kids don't understand Bauhaus" and I could not be consoled. Daisy came over and was petting my arm....she said "you're helping me get over it." I could not get over it, though. She and her hunny were going to get drinks and asked if they could bring me anything. I said "Daniel ash, please." Unfortunately, they could not find him.
So, I tried to get myself together for nine inch nails. I could not help feeling a little resentful about it. I was thinking, "sure, I love Trent too, but I know that there would be no trent without Bauhaus and these children should at least respect that." But I relaxed a bit and when the show started, I got caught up pretty quickly.
Trent played a lot of things from The Fragile after playing almost NOTHING from it in Erie, so that was great. "Something I Can Never Have" was absolutely amazing. The whole band seemed a lot more energetic and heartfelt than Erie....I know that Trent had been just getting over being sick when we saw him there, so that might have something to do with it. But several people on the nin message board have already said that it was one of the best shows they have ever seen, so it might have been more. I jumped up during Closer and didn't sit back down again. By the time they got to Wish I was dancing with a frenzy. Hurt was beautiful as always, and Trent's voice was so full of powerful emotion. Then, something special happened. Trent said something about how they've been privleged to tour with his inspiration and said they were going to do something special tonight. Then he brought out Peter Murphy and they sang "Final Solution." Eeek! Peter ran out and jumped on Trent in a big bearhug! Then he said "Hurt is not a Johnny cash song" which I thought was pretty funny. It is especially funny in hindsight because so many people seem to think that Final Solution is a Peter Murphy song. Ha! The performance was incredible, Peter kept jumping on Trent and running around the stage.
Then, the hand that feeds, then head like a hole, and then it was all over. I feel incredibly lucky to have seen it.