 |
 Skinny Puppy at C13 Main Highlights with more pictures to follow later.
I took off with Ann and Jason on Thursday for C13. Left work early and finally got out of Seattle about 4. Pulled into the hotel right around 7 and checked in. The event for that night was a small bar called Fez where some bands were playing. Went inside and looked around, got a drink and then chased down others who were eating. The pours in the bar seemed fairly nice wherever we went. Once we arrived back to The Fez, the Red King was playing, the bar was at capacity, and the line wasn't moving. We opted for Boxxers next door which was a gay bar that we discovered had $1 well drinks till midnight, trippy videos playing, and your general asortment of happy fag music. The rest of the night consisted of waiting in line, going back into the gay bar for more $1 well drinks, coming out to find the people in line at the same spot we left them and repeating the process. Eventually we got back in and drank some more and headed back to the hotel where I ran into people and ended up in drinking yet more (You can only guess how Fri is going to start out) with Annabell Evil till going back to the room.
Friday did indeed start out as I foreshadowed. Most of the day was spent drinking water and eating food while waiting to feel human again. I did hit the C13 fashion show over at another venue as the Phoenix Parade. Good times and ran into lots more people including Chuckie, Hypnox, Ethel, Anthony, and Jamie. I finally got dressed up and went to the Crystal Ballroom for the bands including Skinny Puppy. Sound was incredibly loud and my ears still hurt several days later. My untrained ears seemed to think that was because they were trying to make up for the poor sound system in the venue. Other than that the Crystal Ballroom is a nice venue although strangly laid out with all sorts of guards at various doors to keep you from going from one room to another with a drink although you can take your drinks to the same room via a different hallway. Check IDs at the front door and get stamped, then check stamps at the next door, and so forth. Maybe it's one of those quaint Oregon laws meant to spur enployment like how you can't pump your own gas. Skinny Puppy was an opportunity to test my new camera (bought just for this purpose) since I had more ability to shoot than the people with the press passes. Overall the show was ok. I finally got to see a SP show from the front row, but to be honest, they (the stage shows) seem pale shadows of their former selves. Each show seems less than the ones before it. The equipment on stage was sparce and lacking any of the trinkets and odd bits that were interesting just to look at that adorned previous shows. The screen Ogre hid beind most of the show was not even decorated and looked like a couple of sheets spread across some spare pipe. The videos seems completely uninteresting, only barely having subject matter that went with the songs every now and then. Ogre had a few masks but still spent most of his time behind the screen and had no costumes as in previous shows. It probably would have been mind boggling if on acid, but tv static is mind boggling when on acid.
Saturday was punctuated by a trip to one of Portlands most talked about attractions, a strip bar. While looking for dinner, it was decided to go to one of these strip clubs we'd heard about, particularly one called Acropolis which had $5 steaks. Jasaon, Anthony and I took off and just as Anthony said "ehh, it'll probably be nothing and we won't even get any stories out of tonight", I ran out of gas. So here I am in Victorian finery walking around Portland with a gas can that I luckily filled up two blocks away and got back on the road. The Acropolis was easy to find and it indeed looked like one expects a strip club to look like. Just as Anthony was saying he didn't think the girls in OR were allowed to take off the clothes, the one infront of us shucked everything and began to gyrate in front of this guys face. Next, she came over to Athony and introduced herself to him. Apparently they just overturned the law saying girls couldn't touch the patrons. Then came Jason. We're all dressed up. I'm in Victorian clothes, Anthony looks like a glam rockstar, and Jason is typical of Deadwoodesque Jason. Upon asking what the leather surgical mask around Jason's neck was and asking him to put it on, she promptly left and did not come near us again. Our friends from NOLA were already there and we said hi as they left. Then matt and Cissy showed up and sat next to us. Remember those $5 steaks? Well, normally the mention of a $5 steak wouldn't be too appetising, but the guy that owned the strip club also owns his own ranch where the steaks come from. The fillet mignon dinner was $10, came with steak fries, and a big piece of garlic Texas toast fried crispy on one side and god-like. I wanted another one and am surprised I didn't make it back. The meat there alone is worth the trip back to Portland. Once back in downtown Portland trying to find our hotel in the maze of one way streets with 'no turns' where I needed to turn, I remembered I had left my credit card and ID back at the strip joint. I dropped everybody off and headed back and got it which made me even more late for the shows. Once there, Frontline was Frontline I guess. I never was a fan and my ears still hurt from the night before.
Sunday's highlight was the Mad Hatter's Tea party. At first I was not planning on going and even tried to give away my ticket a couple of time, but finally I put on my AMF corset and Inverness coat and headed out. It was sort of laid back afternoon of talking to people, snacking, and drinking. Saw parts of the fashion show again and listened to Faith and the Muse acustic set. I got one picture of myself and am upset that it didn't come out better. I need a picture of me wearing the corset to send to Louis. Plus, my pants obvisouly need to be hemmed a bit higher. That night was another night at the Crystal Ballroom and more gothy stuff like Faith and the Muse again, which is just not my thing. I headed home and packed. Theoretically, we were supposed to have an absinth party in our room but Jason decided to take off and get his own room with the girlfriend, leaving us with whoever showed up. A few good friends did show up and it was wonderful to talk to them as always, but much later in the night we ended up hosting to people we didn't really know and chasing away others by telling them Jason wasn't there.
Today, we just packed up and drove back.
4:45
Optimisé par  | | Anglais | | Albanais | | Arabe | | Bulgare | | Catalan | | Chinois | | Croate | | Tchèque | | Danois | | Néerlandais | | Estonien | | Philippin | | Finnois | | Français | | Galicien | | Allemand | | Grec | | Hébreu | | Hindi | | Hongrois | | Indonésien | | Italien | | Japonais | | Coréen | | Letton | | Lituanien | | Maltais | | Norvégien | | Polonais | | Portugais | | Roumain | | Russe | | Serbe | | Slovaque | | Slovène | | Espagnol | | Suédois | | Thaï | | Turc | | Ukrainien | | Vietnamien |
|