I am just coming back from a business trip in Phoenix, Arizona, were I was attending a standardization committee on behalf of my employer. Phoenix is a very big American city located in a desert, so it is amazing to go there in February, were it is cold (although not so cold, for the moment) almost everywhere else, and find a June weather. Surely it's Better to be there in February than in July, I think...
I was there for a week (comprising one day to go there from France, one day to return), and I searched on the excellent Metal Travel Guide website to see if there were any Metal shows or Metal bars in the (very extensive) area.
Surprise, surprise, not much for a 1.5 million pop. city : Only one venue called Metal Devastation, with some metal gigs. There was one gig that could be interesting on Tuesday with a Californian metalcore band called Stick To Your Guns. Unfortunately, there was 3 different addresses for Metal Devastation, so how was it possible to find the good one, in this widespread city that look like a gigantic grid-based never ending suburb ? So OK, no Metal here for me.
But lets speak about driving here. This city is clearly for cars only. There is no public train transportation service on the area, and frankly I would not like to use buses here, considering the distances between places. My hotel was 50 minutes away from the meeting place, and once we from the committee went to eat (as advised by one of our Phoenix-based member) in a upscale posh place called "Sassi" (an excellent Italian restaurant, in a recent property recently build in the style of old Italian mansions). The restaurant was located in Scottsdale, and it was approx. 1 hour from the meeting center, or my hotel...
Plenty of time to listen to Emperor at full volume...
And speaking about Emperor, I was there in Wacken, I should tell about it one day...
I was told by my friend Milambre that her Black Celtic Metal band Aes Dana would perform Saturday, February 17 in Montbéliard, a rather small (27000 people) city in the east of France. They were playing with two death metal bands : Pitbulls in the nursery and Datura, an almost local group coming from Saint-Dié, in the Vosges departement.
As I have some close family in Montbéliard (my aunt and uncle are living there), I thought it would be fun to go there for the gig. I asked my two cousins Fanny and Elise if they wanted to go with me (they live in Strasbourg now, not so far away...). Deal settled... yeeeessss !!!
OK, I must pay for this on Friday afternoon : there are four hours of train from Paris to Montbéliard, and you have switch trains on the way...
Fanny pick me at my arrival, and Friday evening goes in a flash, between the hearings of some crazy noise / experimental / other LPs from Slicing Grandpa (thanks John !!), and some (damn) excellent whiskey tasting...
Then, Saturday. The gig began at half past eight, and the day flowed so fast... We went together to the gig, Fanny (yes, your suit was OK for a metal gig), Elise (what's the name of the band on your T-shirt, I forgot it one more time !!)...and me I was a guest of Aes Dana, and man, it is soo cooool to be a VIP. The first band was Datura. I must admit that I had mixed impressions at the beginning with their music, but I was wrong : they play some good death metal, and they have no problem to fully exist on stage too... Second was Aes Dana. They played some parts of La Chasse Sauvage, their first album, and a great deal of Formors. They were awesome (call me a fan, but they were really THAT good, such is the general impressions about them that night !!). Je rêve du fracas de cette unique bataille que nous avons perdue Et je vois La lance et le chaudron déchiquetés par mille crocs de glace
The last band was Pitbulls in the nursery, they were good too, but not very cheerful (who said metal bands must be cheerful toward the public ?).
The end of the gig was not the end of the night. An after-party has been organized far, far away from the big (!!) city of Montbéliard (approx. 20 kms), not far from Switzerland..
This was a wild, wild metallic night !! A handful of the people there drank much much too much beer...but they were not violent. I almost never saw some violent metalheads, maybe they say let us live our own life, or fuck you all, but they have no need to be violent to exist (even if death and black metal music deals about war, death, blood and violence).
Me and Elise ended (till almost 6 in the morning) speaking, laughing, and drinking beer (OK, OK), with Aes Dana and Datura friendly folks (thanks you all, you rule !!).
This was a wild, wild metallic night !! Ending (??) with Datura's bassist (crazy that night, but also funny to death !!) trying to put himself in a drawer, or recreating this with the guitarist :
I won't tell you anything more, if you choose to watch football on T.V. instead of living metal for a while, too bad for you !!! (same for you, hardcore WOW gamers !!)
And now some pics coming from envust blog, thanks man, even if you did not like all of the gig...
Datura
Aes Dana
Pittbulls
It was a hell of fun. Folks, I wish you were there.
This is a death metal cover version of "Baby One More Time", Britney Spears debut song (thanks TrevorCore.0xh). Although basic as of a death metal song (but what can you really do with that, it was never meant to sound metal), it is much more fun than the original, which I find supremely boring.
Next time, former Mickey Mouse child Britney (OK, everybody must begin with something) will become a zombie in a Gwar video performance.
It's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most, it's the smallness of our politics.
This man could really be the next president of the United States. Why not ? At least, lets hope it will be him (it is MORE than a dream, for once), and not a clone of Bush.
According to Slahsdot, the chairwoman (for once !!) of the Wikipedia foundation said that : "At this point, Wikipedia has the financial resources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear". They say they need $5 million a year to sustain operations, and they only (!!) have for the moment 1.1$ million.
Maybe it is only a way to scare people to boost donations, maybe... But imagine one moment the now independent 1.6 million articles encyclopedia bought by some greedy global company... imagine that someone could control "the truth". Sadly this is maybe already happening, Wikilobbying is a fact.
Sometimes you read something once in a book, you feel wonder and fear, you just don't know why, but you remember it forever.
For me, one of these magic siguls is what Galadriel says to Frodo in front of the mirror :
And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
