Emilie Autumn @ O2 Academy

First of all, before I begin, let me apologise to all you Opheliacs out there, I love Emilie Autumn, I love her work but this review is not pretty.

I probably shouldn't have gone poking around for some online reviews prior to attending tonight but as the doors were changed to 18:30 at the last minute and Emilie Autumn due to hit the stage at an uncharacteristically early 19:30 I wanted to find out how long she was on stage for. What I discovered as a worrying thing as a few people had reported that there was a lot of miming going on. Anyhoo, armed with this news I met up with Toni at North Greenwich and we headed off to the O2 Academy to see what lay in store.

We got to Angel to find the queue going round the block so we shuffled along in line until we made it to the venue. Our first observation once we were inside was that the majority of the audience was made up of 12-15 year olds. This became even more apparent as Emilie Autumn hit the stage and rather than the usual shouts and cheers we were subjected to a barrage of high pitched screams and squeals!



Things started well with a very dramatic entrance and then things all went a little queer as Toni spotted straight away that Emilie was miming. I looked closer and sadly it was true, or at least partly. Bits were live and bits were mimed which made for a most confusing performance. When Emilie started playing the keyboard her hands were in the wrong place for the notes being played which brought the integrity of her "live" performance further into doubt. The violin playing was also questionable!

There were some funny skits between songs but as things went on these seemed to get longer and longer and suddenly it was more like pantomime rather than a gig. The jokes just seemed to be thrashed out far too long and you can only take so much "British Carry On" style humour for so long! The under 16 audience lapped it up but sadly we didn't and the pseudo-sexual lesbian antics become very wearing after a while.

The outfits were visually stunning and all the girls looked fabulous it was just a shame that the show did not live up to expectations. I wanted to see live performances and not miming. The skits would probably have been fine if it hadn't been for the distraction of miming during the song and musical elements. There was a joke at one point when Emilie said, "That's the trouble with these Britney mics, you never know when they are on." The trouble was that we did!

Sorry Emilie Autumn but you picked up a BIG FAIL tonight and we left one hour into the performance as we just couldn't take it anymore. I guess we were spoiled on Tuesday with a great gig courtesy of The 69 Eyes where everything was live so to see what I can only term total disrespect for the audience was just not tolerable.

On the plus side, I do still love Emilie's record work and that hasn't stopped me liking her but I would definitely be very cautious about seeing her live again unless it was as part of festival or supporting someone else.

I did get some good photos though so it wasn't all bad.







See all the EMILIE AUTUMN pics here: 120310EmilieAutumnO2Academy

Tron Legacy trailer!

Warhammer, soup and Sherlock Holmes

Had a nice relaxing evening tonight as I was absolutely shattered. Got home and once Toni had arrived Sam started preparing a chicken soup for dinner. Sam and I then started a quick round of Warhammer Fantasy before the soup was ready while Toni indulged in Failblog.

We then watched Sherlock Holmes (well I watched the start and then fell asleep for the rest) and then it was time for an early night.

WWE v TNA: Catching up with the Monday night war

Sam and I sorted ourselves out some food and then settled down to watch WWE RAW and TNA Impact to see how they both compared in the new Monday Night war.

WWE RAW was entertaining as usual with some greet Shawn Michaels v Undertaker segments and the whole build up to Wrestlemania.

What the hell has happened to TNA Imact? A show that used to be bright, exciting and full of good talent has turned into the Hulk Hogan and his washed up pals show instead. Getting rid of the six sided ring was bad enough. It was dire, totally pointless interview segments with Hogan flapping his gums and did we really have to suffer the indignity of Hogan v Flair twice in the same programme? The only real highlights were Sting's heel turn (although the cock up during the Sting v Rob Van Dam segment was unforgivable when Hogan missed his cue to come and make the save so Sting and RVD had to extend their sequence until Hogan actually showed up) and then Jeff Hardy putting in an appearance at the end. TNA will have to work real hard if they truly want to star a head to head war with the WWE on Monday night as it was a one sided battle this week with the WWE coming out as firm champions.

Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye

Read more details here:
http://marielosier.net/the-ballad-of-genesis-and-lady-jaye/

and here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marielosier/ballad-of-genesis-and-lady-jaye

The 69 Eyes @ O2 Academy

Met up with Sam after work and we headed to North Greenwich to meet Toni and Aaron and head to the O2 Academy to see The 69 Eyes. Quick stop off at Boots en route and then we joined the queue for the gig. When we got inside we had a quick chat with Darren (DJ Angel).

One of my favourite signs in the world.... No crowd surfing:


Me with a very tired Toni:


And now onto the bands..........


MANDRAGORA SCREAM
I really enjoyed these guys. They had a very goth feel about them and wouldn't be out of place at something like Gotham or even Whitby Goth Weekend. Haunting melodies with brash guitar and bass over the top and some fantastic vocals from singer Morgan Lacroix. Lacroix was bouncing around like a maniac for the whole set and was so obviously enjoying her night. It was a short set but I will definitely be watching for them doing more dates in the future.




See all the MANDRAGORA SCREAM pics here: 090310MandragoraScreamO2Academy


LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE
I can see why LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE were chosen to support The 69 Eyes as the music is very similar in many ways. Good upbeat goth rock/metal with very low range vocals. They put on a good show, had some good songs and got the crowd going which is what it is all about as a support band so job done!





See all the LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE pics here: 090310LacrimasProfundereO2Academy


THE 69 EYES
Wow! Jyrki and THE 69 EYES put on one hell of a show tonight. They were so much better than they were when we saw them supporting Buckcherry last year. Crazy thing is they were awesome then and tonight's show was just exceptional!








See all THE 69 EYES pics here: 090310The69EyesO2Academy

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

This is one of those "what the feck" moments

As Matt and I were driving back from Southend after our recording session with Hollywood Doll we ended up behind this lorry!

First day of Hollywood Doll recording

Today Matthew, I am going to be a rock star! Booked the day off as Hollywood Doll were hitting the recording studio for the first time.

Got up. Bummed about. Drank coffee. Chilled and listened to music. This is the life, why can't it be like this every day!
Got dressed, packed up my gear and waited for Matt to come and pick me up.

We then headed off to Southend College to meet the rest of Hollywood Doll and start laying down some muzak!

It was a bit of a painful process as Chris (roadie/sound tech) and his colleagues were but humble students and struggled a bit to get everything set up. They did, in the nick of time, get things going and HD managed to lay down a version of The Way To The Top. It sounded pretty good from the monitor mix although it does have my vocals on it at the moment as Marie was away in Prague. This will be fixed at a future session though when the plan is to re-track the whole song before the mix down. I will, however keep the version with my vocals just because I can!

The mixing desk of doom:


Chris supervising the set up


Through the looking glass


Steve not wanting to be photographed


Matt and Graham


My gear


Overall it was a very positive step for the band and it really feels like we are making progress now.

Scarlett pics, lazy day and sickness

Scarlett has been a complete loony today and was bouncing all over my bed like a maniac first thing. I did manage to catch some really good pics of her though:






The day was spent doing very little which was nice and relaxing. Chilled out, ate some lovely food and watched some films, played Guitar Hero Metallica. I also spent some time playing around with iTunes as it is looking more and more likely that I will end up getting myself an iPhone when phone upgrade time comes around. After dinner Toni got rally ill and swapped her time between sleeping and vomiting so she decided to stay overnight and go back tomorrow!

I finished off my evening watched an action packed Capitals v Giants game with them just pulling off a 4 - 3 win despite the best efforts of referee Dean Smith whilst Toni slept. Poor girl was really really ill and I really hope she is better by the morning.

Getting lost with Google, lugging TVs, art and chilling

Well today was VERY interesting LOL

Toni and I went to pick up a TV from Maldon for Sophie (she won it on eBay for a whopping £5.50). We set off with out Google Map in hand and all went well and we got to Maldon just fine. Unfortunately the problem was in the detail as it transpired that the place we were looking for was not where Google thought it was.

Thankfully I was assisted by a very kind gentleman who took a break from washing his three cards to help me locate the offending street. We started with his Sat Nav which came up with a blank and then he brought out his laptop and two other map engines later we thing we found the missing street. Success, we arrived just as the seller got back and so loaded the HUGE TV into the car and then headed off to Galleywood to drop it off at Sophie's flat.

Getting the TV into Sophie's flat was a real challenge! The TV weighted a ton and Toni and I struggled to get it out of the car and then onto the pavement. With a lot of effort we managed to get it up onto the front step and then got it onto a sleeping bag so we could drag it through the rest of the flat to the living room! It was HARD work!

We then went to Lidl to get some supplies and headed back to SWF for lunch!

After lunch I printed out another Google Map and Toni, Gemima and I headed off to Southend to go and see Laura at her art exhibition. Once again Google let us down and the place the venue was supposed to be was NOT where it really was. Fortunately Laura gave us good directions and we made it just in time for the end of the exhibition.

We then went back to Dan and Laura's to chill out, have coffee and so that Gemima could see the kittens. It was exhausting watching Gemima play with the kittens and none of them seemed to run out of energy!

Once we got home everyone was knackered so we had dinner and watched a bit of Red Dwarf before we all went and crashed out

Guitar Hero Metallica and Soul Music

Got in from work and had a blast with Sam on Guitar Hero Metallica. It's a really good update to the Guitar Hero franchise and sits well alongside Guitar Hero Van Halen and Aerosmith.

Lazy night as far as dinner was concerned to we opted for fish and chips when Toni and Gemima arrived and then settled down to watch Terry Pratchett's Soul Music.

An evening in Eltham

Went home in the opposite direction tonight to spend the evening with Toni in Eltham. Got picked up at North Greenwich station and then we popped to Sainsburys to get some bits for dinner and lunch tomorrow.

Was delighted to get to Toni's and find that Gemima had made Toni and I gingerbread folk:


I got on with my task for the night, setting up Parental Control on Toni's BT Home Hub and getting the Xbox connected to Xbox Live.

Leanne came over and we had dinner and then chilled out and chatted.

Modern Warfare 2

Tonight was spent catching up with WWE RAW, eating and then blowing the crap out of Sam and Sophie playing Modern Warfare 2!

Well to be honest, Sam did most of the blowing the crap out of Sophie and I but we did have some close games and it wasn't all one way, much to his annoyance. I have to say it is actually a very very good game and makes for some fantastic multi player fun. Now I'll have to get a fourth controller to really up the ante!

Facebook status of the day...

.... courtesy of Jess:

"holy fuckin shit i just set my head on fire. i was makin boiled eggz and i bent over to see if toast is done and i had hairspray on my hair and the flame travelled"

Hollywood Doll rehearsal went well

Had an awesome Hollywood Doll rehearsal tonight. Graham has slotted in well and is picking things up fast. We now have a couple of songs locked down so we are all ready to go into the studio on Monday and start laying things down.

It's really exciting at the moment and I can't wait for things to progress. By the end of March we should have at least two proper tracks that we can let people hear properly and we are planning a photo shoot too as we now have a complete line up.

Happy days!

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Gym, WWE and guitar hero

Went back to the gym tonight for the first time in a few weeks. It felt good! Had a really good workout although it was bloody hard work and I was knackered at the end. Am going to go there at least 2 times a week from now on and there are dietary adjustments coming too! SCARY!

Got home and Sam made a lovely Spanish chicken dish which we ate while catching up with last weeks WWE programming. We were quite impressed with the new NXT show and look forward to seeing how that develops.

The evening was finished off with a few tracks of Guitar Hero Van Halen!

Chilling

We got up at a reasonable hour following the fun at The Alex last night. Dan and I played a Defence Grid game on the Xbox 360 and Toni and Laura made a nommy breakfast.

The rest of the day was spent drinking tea and coffee, eating birthday muffins, watching the kittens, listening to music and then watching Weird Al and Bill Bailey videos.





Once we had returned home we chilled out some more, blogged and put the pics on Facebook and then had tea and marmite followed by yoghurt.

"Secret" 40th birthday party at The Alex

Went over to Dan and Laura's tonight as step one of going to my "secret" 40th birthday party at The Alex. Unfortunately despite Toni's best efforts I was aware of what was happening but that didn't make it any less special.

Laura had made me some wonderful gluten free birthday muffins:


We had some tea and chilled for a bit and then headed off to The Alex. Dan drove us there in the end as he was about to book us a cab when he remembered that he was on call DOH!

We got to The Alex and the party was already in full swing. Our friend Ondre was also having her 39th there and Toni had agreed with her to make it a joint venue do as we share a lot of friends and didn't want any of them to have to decide between one party or the other. It was a good plan and a fantastic night. We practically took over The Alex and it was great to catch up with so many people that we hadn't seen for a while since Evolution closed.









See all the pics of this wonderful night here: 270210My40thSecretBirthdayPartyTheAlex

Following the fun we then headed back to Dan and Laura's armed with kebabs!

Awesome birthday goodness

Hazel popped over this evening and gave me an amazing birthday present.

Phone upgrades and cracking the Blackberry

Had a most frustrating time tonight trying to crack a Blackberry 8310.

My mobile phone upgrade is due in June and I am trying to work out what my best option will be. Currently I am using an O2 branded HTC Touch Pro running Windows Mobile 6.5. I would really like to get an HTC TOuch Pro 2 as my next upgrade but it doesn't look like O2 will be doing one anytime soon.

I don't really like the other flavours of HTC device that they are currently offering so I am now looking at alternatives. At the moment it will be down to either an iPhone or a Blackberry unless some Android based phone appears that takes my fancy as it looks like I am not going to get a nice phone running Windows Mobile (or Windows Phone as it is soon to be called). My reason for wanting to stick with Windows Mobile is the support for Outlook and categories in the calendar. It transpires that none of the default calendar offerings on iPhone, Blackberry or Android actually support categories so I will need to source alternative calendar software for whatever device I may end up with if I move away from WinMo.

I really don't want to take a new phone without playing with it first so my mission over the next few months is to get hands on.
Sam has an iPhone so I will have an opportunity to play with that before the upgrade.

Step in David Steele who has lent me an old work Blackberry to try out. My first problem was that it was locked to T-Mobile and I am on O2 so I set about downloading and installing various bits of software to try and unlock the device to all networks.

I'll cut a long story short! Four tries and lots of Googling got me there in the end! It was a bit seat of your pants and a couple of times I thought I had bricked the device but all was well in the end and my O2 sim card now works quite happily in the Blackberry 8310. Synchronisation with my Outlook address book and calendar was seemless, so far so good. I've managed to install some cute pink and Hello Kitty themes as well. Might get an O2 Simplicity pay as you go sim card next to test the Blackberry and email functionality.

Tip for anyone looking to crack a device or flash a ROM, make sure you have back ups and plenty of time!

My blog is moving..........

........... but not very far.
Just wanted to give you all a bit of advance warning that my blog is moving from the current address to http://ktglitz.blogspot.com

Please update your bookmarks ASAP

Don't worry though, this page won't disappear, I will update them both in sync for a couple of weeks and then will just leave this one here with a big link to the new one once I start updating that one alone.

Thanks for all your support and comments and for reading, see you at the new address, don't forget now.............
http://ktglitz.blogspot.com

Wow, what an amazing 40th Birthday!

Had a totally amazing day today.
Went for a drink at lunchtime and returned to the office 9 Jack Daniels later a little bit tipsy!
I then got given lots of lovely goodies from my work colleagues:

Extendable camera pole (for taking shots over peoples heads)
Spare battery for my new camera
2 tickets to go and see Circus Of Horrors
A game called Chez Goth
A pocket watch with lovely celtic design
An extra PS3 controller

A wonderful set of gifts from some fabulous people. THANK YOU EVERYONE.

Went home and met dad at SWF station. He saw Scarlett for the first time and gave her a late birthday present which she loved.

I then received MORE presents YAY!

Sophie and Sam got me a pentacle necklace
Dad and Stephanie got me a lovely shiny new camera
Toni gave me some "fun things"

We had a yummy Indian for dinner and then were given our Xmas presents from dad and Stephanie (as we hadn't managed to get together before or after)

We then dropped dad off at Wickford station so he could head back and agreed to arrange a date when we could meet in London to go for a meal with Stephanie as well. Cups of tea, a little Modern Warfare 2 with Sam and then off to bed.

It's been a crazy day and a wonderful one too. I was also very humbled by the number of people who sent me birthday wishes on Facebook. Thank you to everybody that helped to make my 40th a special one!

Life begins at 40?

Apparently.
I just want to say a big thank you to Sophie and Sam for getting up and making me tea and breakfast this fine morning.............
......... oh hang on, you didn't! LMFAO

Must be a sign of things to come. Life begins at 40, it does, just get on with it. *BIG CHEESY GRIN*

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

37, 38, 39.... FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS!

I am not sure how I feel right now. It's all a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't know what to expect..........

This could almost sound like the speech of some "old" person.........

16, 18 and 21 were all "just another day" birthdays for me, nothing really special at all, just another day older and L-if-E rolled on.

I have had a very colourful life, had lots of ups, lots of downs, bumps and bruises, lessons learned and failed, lessons learned. I have pretty much done everything I guess (well not everything but I have crammed a hell of a lot in).
I've married, I've divorced.
I've been a father, I've been a grandfather.
I've had a loving family, I've watched that family fall apart
I've had a big family only to see that family slowly get reduced
I've loved, I've lost
I've loved again.
I've moved all over the bloody shop in more places than I care to count sometimes.
I've worked lots of fun and fulfilling jobs

I've made very few enemies as far as I know and I hate very few people. I've met some truly amazing people, some I have lost touch with (my bad) and I am trying to re-establish contact with and some who continue to be amazing people in my L-if-E.

But no, these aren't the words of some "old" person as such. In a couple of minutes I will no longer be 39, I will reach another one of those milestone ages, the BIG FOUR O!

So how do I feel? I really don't know.

Part of me thinks that it's going to be like 16, 18 and 21 all over again, just another day rolling by. Part of me wants to party like it's 1999 (please forgive the cheesy Prince reference). Part of me thinks, wow, you've done so much, what next, what is there left to do or achieve. Part of me wonders if I should start to slow down, mellow out and become a little more respectable and normal.

Then I think, what the hell! This is K.T.Glitz we are talking about. I'll be a trash queen lollipop rocker whether I am 16 or 60. I am soon to be 40 and I intend to completely carry on as I have been, have fun, party hard and be there for my friends and family and grow old(er) as disgracefully as possible.

People, we have a 20 year party ahead of us before it's time to celebrate the next milestone, the BIG SIX O!

Grab a bottle of Jack and hold on tight, life begins at 40 they reckon and I am just warming up!

I wanna rock n roll all nite, and party every day!

Fasten your seat belts!

Working late and late trains

Was just thinking about winding up for the day when I suddenly got involved with a client on fire incident. Started to give my assistance to two of my colleagues and then suddenly one left as it was the end of his shift (which was fair enough) and the other one left early because his wife was having a flap! Can't say I was overly impressed when an email then came round saying that we weren't to leave until it was sorted. Instead of leaving at 17:15 I ended up leaving at 18:30 only to find that all the trains were up the spout and running late so I didn't actually get home until 20:00. How impressed was I! NOT!

Not everything was fixed but we bought ourselves some time. I then ended up doing some work from home as I had to keep checking my emails in case anything else cropped up but other tasks came up that I thought I had better just deal with.

On the plus side Sam did buy me an Indian for dinner tonight!