ADRIAN DOES STUFF

You know, if the lead singer of the Dresden Dolls can update her blog only about once a month, then so can I! Although, it seems I'm on about an every other week schedule here. I sorta wish it was more, but hey, when you're busy doing STUFF, it gets hard to take time out just write about it all. And who really cares anyway ... I mean, besides me? But you know ...

I blog, therefore I am!

The Dresden Dolls

Okay, back to the Dresden Dolls, who opened up for Nine Inch Nails here in San Francisco about two weeks ago. Damn, I'm in love! Of course, I'd heard about them before, and was familiar with their song "Coin-Operated Boy." (The video is great. Download it here) But I had no idea they were so ... powerful! While it might seem odd for a vaudevillan "punk cabaret" piano/drums duo to be opening up for a band like Nine Inch Nails, there's a reason Trent invited them on this tour. They were loud, intense, and captivating -- like Tori Amos with balls. Really big balls. And without all the sing-songy crap about goddesses and volcanos.

I can't stop listening to their album. Really good stuff ... and I can't believe it's been out for over a year, and I'm just now catching up with it. Sometimes, I'm so behind. I guess it makes up for when I'm ahead of the curve ... and speaking of, when is that Mylo album getting released over here? And what about Lady Sovereign?

Anyway, Nine Inch Nails were good too. I specifically didn't listen to any NIN before the show, so I could spend half the concert going, "Oh my god, I forgot how much I LOVE this song!" Which I did.

Saw Mindless Self Indulgence last night. Their songs aren't really all that great -- after a few, they all start to sound the same. It's like bizarro electro punk breaks, but all played really fast, almost like speed metal. But with MSI, it's all about the show, and they're simply one of the most amazing bands I've seen live. The first time I saw them, they were headlining for Deadsy. I had never heard of MSI, and was just going to stick around for three songs (my obligatory "let's check them out" limit) and then split. As it turned out, D and I ended up staying for the entire show. We were enthralled. Jimmy Urine is one captivating frontman -- preening, posing, sneering, screaming. You can't take your eyes off him. Great show!

I've had the same job for nearly 10 years

I've just recently done the math and figured this out. Yup, I'm still the Art Director of the Bay Area Reporter -- which will very soon be dragged kicking and screaming into the late-20th century, when we finally get a web site! What kind of newspaper these days doesn't have a web site? Apparently, the kind that has a national reputation as one of the country's best gay/lesbian newsweeklies, yet never got around to getting online. Yup, things sometimes move at a glacial pace at my workplace.

And hey, I'm guilty as well. After all, I haven't really cleaned my office since I started working here in the mid-90s. So I've been trying to do some "spring cleaning," and it's like an excavation of obsolete software and computer gear. Practically a walk down memory lane, back in the days when System 7 was the latest thing, and you couldn't do layers in Photoshop. Seriously, my office has been the B.A.R. dumping ground, where old office equipment goes to die. It's like a computer graveyard. Well, no more! We've got G5s and Mac OS X and everything connects via USB or Firewire, so I guess it's finally time to throw out all those SCSI scanners and Macs shaped like pizza boxes.

It feels good to clear out my workspace. Now if I could only do this with our living space at home! I think it might be time to either get a storage space, or sell it all on eBay. I'd rather do eBay, but you know, just moving it all to a storage area takes so much LESS time.

Made a new mashup!

Spent a few days last week creating a new mashup. D and I were really jonesing to make an M.I.A. mashup, and D came up with the idea of using the music from "An Honest Mistake" by The Bravery, which so dancey, in a Duran Duran sort-of way. It came together rather easily, which is always a good sign. The ones that just fit together seamlessly always seem to be the best. If you have to work on them too much, they sound forced -- and that was definitely the problem with our Kiss vs. Killers mashup, Somebody Told Me I Was Made For Lovin' You. But this new one kicks ass, and we're quite proud. Download it here: An Honest M.I.A.

Now if only D would let me release that Peaches vs. Styx mashup I made!

I don't think I can drink like I used to

So this past weekend was a busy one: saw Pigface at DNA on Thursday, Marcy Meow's birthday party was on Friday, we had the last night of our club Blah Blah Blah on Saturday, and Sunday was Jason's "Mother's Day BBQ Without My Mother." So of course, some drinking was involved. But damn! I was hungover all day on both Friday and Saturday. I almost always drink Hefeweizen, which has never done me wrong -- until now.

And it wasn't like I was binge drinking or anything. Thursday night I had about four beers, which is usually no big deal. Instead, I was at work on Friday, moving computer monitors with a raging headache. And then on Saturday, after Marcy Meow's party, I was WRECKED. Okay, granted, I was at her house until 7 AM. But I wasn't exactly pounding them down, and I drank no hard liquor. I probably had about six or seven beers over the course of 10 hours. And it was a horrific hangover. Am I getting old? I remember Swirly Rat Jr., the bass player in my old band Blue Period, used to complain that he couldn't drink like he used to, because he ALWAYS got hangovers. Of course, it always seemed like he would drink more than I would, but still ... I wonder if the same thing is happening to me?

Or maybe I just need to drink more water before going to bed.