valhalla here I come

I haven't roadtripped to another city to see a band play since I was a lowly undergrad, but tagged along with my other metalhead homie and one of his friends for a trek down to Columbus. It's starting to make sense to me why there's a lot of acts skipping Cleveland, because almost any Columbus venue that books heavier bands seems to be infinitely nicer than Peabody's.

I-71 is a terribly dull stretch of highway, but it was enlivened by the small car driving next to us covered with decals of horses and puppies and an action figure glued to the dent on the rear bumper. I did want to take a picture, but Sam was driving fast and the guy driving looked creepy as heck anyway. After an incident a few years ago with a decidedly more clean-cut posse in which some driver thought we were the Devil's spawn and waved a plastic cross at us all the way down 480 to about Twinsburg, I didn't want to incur the wrath of any crazed soul in the boonies once more.

I am so accustomed to Cleveland venues, which are usually grungy and sometimes in parts of the neighborhood where you hope your car won't get broken into, so it was weird to get off the highway and drive through some industrial by-ways only to find the venue off of a main street next to a Kroger and across from some very upscale-looking apartments.

The interior of the place reminded me of the kind of place that has glammy drag shows but I guess it's a goth club, though it was nice to see that there were couches and places to sit down and chill to get away from the noise, and the room where the bands were playing was nice and big. Soundgarden was being played over the PA between sets which was strange given the acts on the bill but not entirely unwelcome either.

Really enjoyed Junius, because I'm a sucker for angst and shimmery shoegaze guitars with an extra bit of crunch. It's nice to have openers that are actually enjoyable as opposed in fifteen minutes this will be over because it's gone on way too long.



I didn't know the first two songs Alcest played (I think they came from the EP) but I felt damn near euphoric when I heard the opening chords of Ecailles de Lune and Solar Song. Two of the dudes next to me where screaming out "FUCK YEAAHHHH!" at the most transcendentally beautiful moments, which was just weird to me, because this is the sound that washes over oceanically though I possibly don't understand the inner workings of the metal bro psyche so maybe I'm missing something. Their other friend with them who was wearing a Burzum shirt looked both surly at the lack of troo kvltness (as this kind of thing is more Faerie than Satan) and the antics of his friends, though his time to get his inner berzerker on was coming.





As came up in the conversation in the car, I'm not really much of a metalhead. I dip my toes in, but I will probably never swim out into the deep end of the Fjord of Viking Testosteronia anytime soon. Props to Enslaved though, for having actual songs and not taking themselves too seriously, and such, even if I did duck out and chill outside and people-watch.

We went looking for food, found none, drove home, and I slept in the backseat, waking up to see an incredible night sky, white clouds, Orion on his side, so beautiful.

And now it's back to the daily, but I feel alive again.

so many things used to mean so much to me...

So me and the roommate took a mini road trip down to Columbus this weekend and had a great time. I used to think that Columbus was more or less a series of giant malls and suburbs and a really big school but now that I'm doing the driving, I'm glad I've learned this isn't true, even if the 45 mile an hour speed limits through the suburb still spook me.

Perfect weather for walking around and exploring and brought home a carload of stuff: African fabric, Madlib albums, Turkish jewelry for Christmas gifts, injera from an Ethiopian bakery by request, thrift store finds, and new music. Also had amazing Ethiopian food at the Blue Nile (waaay cheaper than Empress Taytu) and got to hang out with the awesome extended family.

Spent Saturday night in zealous apartment cleaning mode, something that probably should happen more, and Sunday with various combinations of family. The last two months of the year are always crazy because everyone's birthdays including mine fall at the same time and there's the holidays as well.

Also considering taking my music to the next level and learning how to play upright bass. I love the sound and would love to learn the technique, and since my student loans are pretty much paid off, I could actually afford to do this. Would love to delve into jazz and maybe classical, even though I get the feeling that the instrument may not fit in the back seat of my car...

of travels and broken phones

So with the exception of dropping my cell phone down the storm drain in front of my house upon my arrival back in the fair city, it's been a jam-packed and wonderful week.

Went to Lakeview Cemetery and indulged my inner goth by taking pictures of various mausoleums and tombstones. Never noticed all the Egyptian motifs before... everyone wanted to be Pharoah evidently.







My road trip adventures took me to Mansfield on Wednesday night to visit Ryan and go for a walk in the rain around downtown Mansfield, ending with a climb up to the roof of an abandoned building downtown to watch the remainder of a thunderstorm in the distance. It was good to hear about his adventures traveling across the country via bicycle and catch on everything.





Drove to Columbus on Thursday morning and took my cousin on a random drive where we went all the way down Cleveland Avenue and I realized that all my previous trips to Columbus have involved the interstate, the suburbs, the malls, and the Short North and there's lots of awesome African grocery stores where you can get Nollywood movies and pop music from Ghana and gorgeous wax cloth. We got milkshakes at UDF and walked down High Street before going to see the Rifftrax live "Plan 9 From Outer Space."

I always used to say that Columbus didn't have as much of that kind of thing as Cleveland but I guess I'm wrong.

So tonight was the wedding rehearsal, tomorrow's the wedding. I dropped my phone down the storm drain in front of my apartment so I'm kind of going through withdrawal right now... I'll have to get a bunch of numbers again I guess.

And, I'm going to see De La Soul on Tuesday! The awesomeness never ceases.