Elephants broken & screaming

It's going to be fucking hard for me to write about this, because I don't think I know enough adjectives for "fucking amazing" to keep this interesting. I have been a fan of Led Zeppelin ever since I was young, they were my gateway band into rock music and over the last few years I have been getting  into Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters. So when I found out that Dave, Josh and John were forming a new band, it blew my fucking mind. I had no idea what to expect from the band, but I bought tickets to their show in New Zealand even though the album wouldn't come out for another few months. I just had immense faith that whatever they did, it would be fucking amazing. And I was right, the album was released in December of '09 and my obsession exploded exactly 2 minutes and 44 seconds into the first song. Now my life had focused like a laser towards January 30th, when they would play at Vector Arena. It was the first (of many) concerts where I lined up all day and I managed to get front row. Cairo Knife Fight were a fucking awesome opening band and they really destroyed their set (literally), then it was time for TCV. Its safe to say that night changed my life forever and whatever I type about it just couldn't possible do it justice, so I'll just leave you with some photos from that night.

Them Crooked Vultures. 30/01/2010. Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand 

Josh Homme & Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl

John Paul Jones

Josh Homme

Dave Grohl

Josh Homme, Dave Grohl & John Paul Jones

Them Crooked Vultures

Signed and vandalised by Josh Homme

Prepare to have your brain wrinkled

This freaked me out a bit when I read it. It really makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. It is a total paradigm shift of the reality that I was once familiar with. It reminds me of s06e17 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, this episode was called Normal Again where the Trio summon a demon whose hallucinogenic venom makes Buffy believe that her implausible and nightmarish life as vampire slayer has actually been her own elaborate hallucination as a mental patient, catatonic in a hospital for the past six years. That episode totally fucked with my head. Read on with extreme caution for your childhood memories...

Image sourced from http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/56660775.html?page=3&cut_expand=1#cutid1

Regret won't waste my life again

Lately, I have been increasingly worried about The Rule of Three, where things tend to disappear in threes. This is not to be confused with The Three Days Rule, explained best by Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) in s04e21 of How I Met Your Mother. It all began on February 2nd of this year when it was tragically announced that The White Stripes were breaking up and my world collapsed on top of me as I spiraled into months of mourning. It was a really devastating shock and a huge loss to the music industry, but just as I was starting to recover, I found out that Adam Copeland aka Edge is being forced to retire due to injury. Edge was my childhood hero and has been an inspiration to me throughout my life, so it was a pretty big surprise to hear he was never going to be able to compete again. At least I can remember them at their best, because both went out on the top of their games. The White Stripes had 6 hugely successful albums and Edge was the reigning World Heavyweight Champion, they were truly giants in their industries. So now I am left with the frightening concept of who will be the 3rd? I can only hope that the rule is simple a superstition, but there will always be that fear sitting in the back of my mind. For a while, I was worried that Jared Payne was the third, because during his best season ever for the Auckland Blues, he announced that he will be going overseas next season to play his rugby but I decided that the [former] Northland Taniwhas Captain and fullback/centre is simply relocating away from NZ and does not qualify to be the 3rd. Now I simply must wait and hope.

My sister brought me back this patch from Interlaken, Switzerland. It appears to be a goat of some kind but I have no idea what it is doing. So I am posting it here and hoping that everyone will comment and express their opinion about what the hell is going on there.

The options are:

a) Spitting Blood

b) Poking it's tongue out

c) Breathing fire

d) Being shot with a tranquilizer dart in the mouth

e) Exhaling a demon in spirit form

f) Other.....

All the white girls trip when I sing at Sunday service

My musical world has been dominated lately by the release of The Kills 4th studio album, 'Blood Pressures'. It is a much darker and more emotional album than its predecessor 'Midnight Boom'. This new expression of dread and frustration is reminiscent of her time with The Dead Weather, it really shows an impressive level of maturity. Right from the outset, the record is filled with a unique and dark, bluesy/grunge feel. I'm counting down the days until Hotel and VV announce a New Zealand date of their tour, it will easily be the highlight of my 2011. I last saw Alison Mosshart in 2010 with The Dead Weather, it was a lethal performance from the seductive front woman with her unkempt black hair flailing everywhere and her striking yet ghoulish poses. She was beautifully dangerous and now i'm hooked.

The Dead Weather. 17/03/2010. The Powerstation, Auckland, New Zealand

Alison Mosshart & Jack White

Dean Fertita & Jack White

Jack White

Alison Mosshart & Jack White

Alison Mosshart

The Dead Weather - Cut Like A Buffalo

I think my lack of photography skills really adds to the mood and atmosphere of the pictures.

The stickiest boy in the world

The thing responsible for these doodles is called Izak (as seen by the Invader Zim-like skull design). He is the reason I am blogging in the first place and his drawings have caused me such joy in the past that it made me want to vomit. This particular drawing of a little anthropomorphic dog who is celebrating his own body is just one of the many examples I have on my walls. If only I still had the original of that 2 panel comic where an octopus tries to escape from this guys mouth, that comic was like getting tasered (because my happiness manifested itself in a way that cause involuntary peeing). 

It's so funny, I'm Lizzing (Look it up, kids).

Just to continue with the theme of other peoples work, I give you...the planet Namek, by Justin

Wear a tall hat like a druid in the old days

You watched the background being painted, now you get to see the final product. I give you...a painting for Newgirl! Those 2 people in the middle are totally awesome and they are surrounded by their pets. The tyrannosaurus represents the best band in the world, T. Rex, along with the swan from the hit single 'Ride a white swan'. The vulture represents the love affair with modern super group Them Crooked Vultures and the elephant is one of their best songs. I even slipped a subtle Arch Enemy reference in there, can you find it?

Plucked from the garden of wretched beliefs

I got pretty carried away last post writing about The West Wing amazingness, so today I will keep it much more simple...I'm sure both the people reading this blog will appreciate that.

Let there be vultures!!!

None of this would've been possible without these vultures making it totally impossible