It’s Tuesday now but here’s the rundown on Monday in NYC.

I woke up to the sound of the city going to work. Across the street from me appeared to be a printer or some service bureau and I watched them move around for a while, wondering if they were complaining about it being Monday. Then I noticed it was raining, which wasn’t good news since I did not bring an umbrella with me. Then it actually started snowing for about a minute.

I checked out of the hotel (while they held my luggage) and headed down to SoHo to visit my last AS (BOH tour!) and also to check for a new wallet at Yellow Rat Bastard. Couldn’t find one that I liked.

Then I headed over to Record Runner to have a talk with John about the version options of Duran Duran’s All You Need Is Now which is actually releasing today in its full version. He’s going to look into some of the UK versions which have additional songs and get back in touch with me later this week.

Then I kinda just bummed around the Village until it was time to pick up my luggage and head up to Penn Station for my train home. Luckily there were none of the power outtages that delayed my trip up and I was home on schedule in Union Station at 10:40.

Almost forgot I was to be writing 100 words tonight. Well, not that I forgot, but that I just got distracted with a little trip to Dick & Kitty’s tonight after my 2nd shift…

Being home now, the next song that comes up on my iTunes is Andy Gibb’s “Love Is Thicker Than Water”. My first memory of this is when I would run into the yellow-muddied woods of middle Texas with junior high school girls to test our kissing abilities. Humble as I am, I can say that I was always the boy the girls wanted to make out with. I was am a good kisser.

Then, as I’m heading to Mexico City for spring break in 1988, I’m sitting in the airport reading of Andy’s death and it somehow rings true and reminds of those innocent days on a military base in the middle of Texas. RIP Andy, you made a mark.

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Here’s Duran Duran making a video of making a video. It’s footage from their publicity shoot(s) for their album All You Need Is Now, which is available now on iTunes. The deluxe expanded version drops March 22 in digital and physical formats.

I like that this video features the very new wave sounding “Blame The Machines”. It’s track 2.

Hello there.

Today is the 2nd day of the first two days in a row I have had off since August. I am doing absolutely nothing, just like I did yesterday: being lazy at home. Waking up whenever I want, making coffee and surfing, listening to music. I didn’t shower yesterday and I won’t shower today either.

This is the first post of 2011. And the first post since three months ago. I could write the delay off to 1) my last updating of WordPress software went wrong and there are errors in uploading on my mobile devices; 2) the Big Computer Crash of ’11 that kept my li’l iMac out of commish for about a month; or 3) downright laziness. I’ll let you decide which is most appropriate.

Here’s more about the BCC of ’11. My iMac is over five years old and I’ve never had one single problem with it. Last month I started having some strange reboot issues. The computer would freeze up on restarts, turning the fan on before the desktop appears and then hanging there. Sometimes another hard reboot would allow it to boot up properly, sometimes not. Then it got to the point where the freeze/fan would happen every time. Time for a doctors appointment.

It was hard drive failure. Fine. For $200 I get a new, twice as large hard drive (500M). I’m trying to restore my Time Machine backups on there and after a week or so of fidgeting/resetting the hard drive crashes AGAIN. So this is my now 3rd hard drive and everything seems to be going okay. Thank Zod for TM backups, at least I didn’t lose any information.

So that’s about it for now. Let’s talk again soon.

I know I haven’t written anything in a while, what with working 55-hours a week and all (gotta make up for all that $ I didn’t make last year). And while exciting things have been happening at The Orchard, I didn’t want to bore you with that or turn this into a fanboy-obsessed blog. So I was thinking that tonight when I got home after both work shifts that I would possibly write about

Last Saturday. I caught a whiff on Twitter that Rana Sobhany, the world’s first iPad DJ, was going to be “spinning” a set at Bluebrain, a special night at The Fridge, which is a new (to me at least) little art gallery on Capitol Hill. I was working last that night but I tweeted her and she said she wasn’t going on until 11 or so and that worked with my timetable of getting back on The Hill. The show included a downloadable iPhone app where the audience could twist the knobs and affect the sound output of the DJ, but unfortunately I missed that portion of the art show. But on the good side, I got in without paying the $5 cover. Rana was on when I got there and I listened and grooved to the rest of her set. It was pretty poppy but still fun. I talked with her afterwards and she seems like a nice person, really warm and conversational. There was some other fun art showing there too, and a live painting in process that anyone could add to. Fun.

Or I could have written about

Last Sunday. Eric H, sky mattress extraordinaire, art curator and sometimes blogger, was celebrating his 40th birthday. And what better way to do that than to get 30 friends together, start them drinking mimosas at 11:00 am and then throw them into a disco bus and take them out to the Virginia wine country for the afternoon? Some bottles of champagne made it onto the bus and there was a wide selection of yummy nibblies being passed around. We stopped at two wineries, sampled some wine, bought some wine and sat out in the hot sun. The 2nd winery had lawn bowling setup under some shady trees and that provided some recreation as well as relief from the sun. Needless to say, knowing this crowd, we all had a good wine buzz going by the time we rolled back into DC. Then topping the evening off with La Lomita? Perfect.

Or I could have written about

Today. I’ve been thinking about Mom all day, as this would have been her 73rd birthday. I miss you Mom, not only today but everyday.

And then this happened:

I’m biking down Maryland Avenue, on my way from the full-time to the part-time. Apparently I am not paying too much attention to the road as I hit a major bump and am sent flailing head-first over the bike, at 20 mph. I crash down on the pavement in a twisted heap with the bike twisting up my legs so that when I realized I’ve stopped on the street I’m not sure which way I’m facing and I cannot move. I remember at that moment being in extreme pain, yelling out “Fuck! Fuuuuuck!” and having visions of dropping florescent lighting tubes from four-story buildings, tomatoes and what it would feel like when you think you’re standing in your life and all of a sudden the walls, ceiling and floor get stripped away and you’re then standing on nothing in darkness wondering where the fuck everything went.

Luckily the kind folk who live on Maryland Ave came to my rescue. An older gentleman from across the street, who had seen the whole crash happen, came over and helped me untangle myself from the bike and get me to stand up and get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. A woman came out of her house asking if I was okay and went back in to get me a bottle of water and a wet towel. After realizing I was basically okay with only flesh wounds (no broken bones, no head injuries) and telling them I was only going one more block down the street they reluctantly left but took many thanks with them.

I hobbled on down to The School and immediately looked for a first aid kit, finding supplies and getting into the shower to rinse the blood (and hopefully the gravel too) off and clean my wounds. My left elbow and left knee took the worst of the fall, which is weird because I think I remember the wheel turning left as I fell, meaning I would have fallen on my right side. I guess it all happened so quickly those details might not be clear.

So I’m pretty beat up but at least no broken bones in this old body and thankfully there were no cars directly behind me that might have run me over. As the man from across the street said “It may hurt now but you’ll really feel it in the morning”. That’s what I’m afraid of.

styx
veruca salt
inxs
jesus jones
oasis
a flock of seagulls
eric b. & rakim
kismet
madonna
sharon redd
depeche mode
david bowie
heart
fleetwood mac
george michael
oak ridge boys
nine inch nails
blur

Last Saturday during the beginning of the SNOwhatever I kept getting emails from Matt Alber and Tom Goss concerning their show that evening. It turns out the original venue had cancelled the appearance but Matt and Tom didn’t want to call the event and found an alternative venue, St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. Since Matt’s music can get a little acoustic and atmospheric, I thought this would be a great place to see it.

When I got there it turns out the show was in their fellowship hall instead of their main sanctuary and I was a little disappointed about that, but I still got a seat in the 2nd row in the center. I was giddy!

I recognized Tom and spoke with him before the show and he thanked me for coming out. I wasn’t that familiar with Tom’s music but after seeing his performance (guitar) I’m a fan now.

Then, came the moment when Matt (!) came out to do his part of the show and it was great to be that close while Matt was performing. He was also pretty jovial with the intimate audience which is always entertaining. After the show, I had to go up and talk to Matt and simply thanked him for his songs, the perspective he wrote them from and how all us little queer boys felt that way growing up. While introducing myself I mentioned futurejunkie on Twitter and he’s like “Oh yeah, futurejunkie!” which of course made me melt right there on the spot.

Here are two clips of Matt during the show, “End of The World” and “Field Trip Buddy” (my favorite). They sang a duet of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” but at that point my iPhone battery was dying and I couldn’t record it. Dang, but it was beautiful.

Thanks for a great show, guys!

Scruffy crooner Matt Alber finally hits the East Coast, not counting one-off publicity/fundraising shows in New York. The “tour” isn’t substantial by any means but he is coming to DC (yay!).

The first show is January 18 in NYC with Celisse Henderson. He shoots down to Va Beach and then Balmer, hon, before coming to the District on his birthday, February 6. He’s teaming up with singer Tom Goss (who I’m unfamiliar with) and playing at Delaski Theater in Adams Morgan. I’ve never heard of this theater but bought a ticket anyway and I’m excited to go. After the DC gig he heads down to Florida for a few gigs sans Mr. Goss. Hopefully he’ll add some mid-Atlantic cities to this tour, check out all the latest at his website, mattalber.com.

In my excitement of learning of the tour and purchasing an immediate ticket, I tweeted my excitement and received a personal tweet back from Mr. Alber. <swoon>