Bought tickets today for Jay and I to see what is being called the farewell Ministry Tour (really?). It'll be cool to see Grandpa Al's big sendoff (in Chicago no less-that in of itself oughta make this a star studded affair) at the House of Blues, which is one of the better venues to see a show this size in our town. Meshugah and some opener I know nothing about are opening. Meh. Of course this whole affair takes place in May (seriously?) and the first show already sold out (!) so they announced the May 8th gig. Man I remember back when I could go see Ministry when they'd sell out the Aragon Ballroom and even scalpers weren't selling tickets for 52 bucks. Now I remember why I don't go to shows as much as I used to. Funny how ticketmaster charges 9 bucks for the "convenience charge" for a show like this and only like 3 bucks for the opera. Like all that industrial is way too much for Ticketmaster to put one guy on it so they had to staff it with three. Or they just subscribe to NIN's Australian label's theory that since Ministry has more of a devout following than the Phantom of the Opera did, they can charge more. Asstards...
Nevertheless, I'm quite stoked. Last time I saw Ministry was the Animositisomina tour and since then, they've put out 2 pretty good albums and 1 spectacular album (Houses of the Mole'). Tommy Victor is playing guitar (yawn) and obviously Paul Raven isn't going to be on bass so who knows will play bass. I'm pretty sure his first name isn't Paul and his last name isnt' Barker so its kind of a moot point.
I'm finding myself in the midst of trying to figure out what the fuck to do for New Years. On one hand...I'm not the sort of person who puts a lot of thought into New Years aside from going with the flow. Only the flow isn't going in one consistent direction. You see on the other hand...I have friends (and a brother) going to Vegas, and a flock of Chicagoans that want to "do something" but nobody has quite turned that into a plan. Rumor has it there's some deal at Witts that people are leaning towards, which is not unlike spending New Years in a liquor store, but whateva. I'm to the point in my life where I've played shows on new years, not played shows, gone to high rent exclusive parties downtown, and parties where people like Tara Reid are too drunk to actually make it to midnight, then of course, my Iowa days that are probably the most, I dunno? Comfortable? ...at this point in my life I really don't give a fuck as long as I'm around people. The rub of course is now the Vegas faction is telling me I gotta make a decision and yet I'm not exactly sure what the fuck is going on here in town. If this sounds like trivial bullshit to you, you and myself are in agreement. Why the fuck is this something that is even occupying my brain?
I have nothing intelligent to add here, other than SES is in town right now, but PubCon is going on in Vegas (jesus for a city I detest it's making its way into my site pretty frequently today). Of course, all the cool people I normally use SES as an excuse to meet up with are going to PubCon which basically means SES is nothing but a bunch of n00bs and hanger ons that didnt' get to go to PubCon. All the talking heads went to PubCon. I've had too many meetings and stuff during the day to pay much mind to SES, especially since there's like no fucking parties whatsoever this week. The party scene for this convention has steadily gone downhill since 2004. Perhaps its just Chicago because out in San Jose (San Fran basically) this thing is the shiznit (same with Ad Tech)
The girl from Monday departs for Hawaii in the morning for the marathon (aka Japan's now-annual re-invasion of Honolulu...it's what ya get for letting JAL sponsor the fucking thing I guess). Won't see her until the end of the month (as reported yesterday)
I got some function for Illinois Tech Association tomorrow night so I'm bailing on swimming. Then hopefully I'll make it to the CIMA holiday party. I'm told it'll be "off the hook" (thanks Brad). Off the hook is no longer something I do particularly well mid-week. Damn old age...
UPDATE: Oh shit CIMA party is so off the hook it sold out. Not that I'm particularly thwarted by that notion (seeing as how my boss is the president of that organization)...but I guess if I needed an excuse to not plunk down 100 bucks to hob nob with a bunch of people that I inadvertently make 'feel stupid' (their words not mine), that right there falls conveniently in line.