Author: Greg

For the forseeable future I’ll be a full-time blogger/photographer as I’ve taken an extended leave of absense from my job, home and life…

I’m not going to go into details, but things have been brewing for quite a while now and it’s all reached a point where I deided that it was time to take a break, for the sake of me and everyone around me. See, I have issues with things I’m not even going to go into, but it’s compulsive behaviour that I really need to stop, otherwise I’m probably going to ruin the best thing I got going, ever. So last night, I packed my belongings into a suitcase and 4 boxes, crated Sally, loaded them up into a car and drove away, luckily my ex (and possibly my current right now, not got round to figuring that out just yet) offered to take me in, otherwise I’d be in a hotel, then the airport, then gone…

So I dunno how long this will take, a few days, a few weeks, a month, possibly longer, but it’s nice to know that even though I’m a selfish, miserable bastard at the best of times, I have this circle of friends, albeit a small circle of friends, who still support me even though I’ve hurt them more than they even care to tell.

Right now I’m just sad I had to leave two of the nicest people you could possibly find in the lurch so to speak… I really do not deserve the patience and the amount of last chances they have given me over the last 18 months.

Thanks for everything Phil & Erika, I’ll be back, I promise that…

Yesterday would be our second and last day at this years Music Midtown festival. And a busy day we had planned too…

Starting with Bloc Party, I bought their CD a month or so ago but never really got round to listening to it properly, so this set was quite an eye opener for me. Admitedly it wasn’t as good as Interpol or The White Stripes from the night before, but they rocked pretty hard, despite the start of the rainfall during their set. I definately need to listen to the CD more now…

After a pause for food was Keane, and to be brutally honest, they were pretty average at best, a lot of their songs have a similar sound, and when they played a new one, it could well have been “Somewhere Only We Know” with different words. Really, the piano, drums and vocal setup limits their options of what they can do. The rain was coming down like a tropical storm by now and showed no signs of relenting, which didn’t help matters… At least from where I was standing.

Then we moved onto the main reasons for going in the first place… And the rain let up just as The Killers came on stage, which was nice as far as timing goes…

They kicked off with “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” and immediately lifted the damp crowd, a damn huge crowd mostly here in preperation for The Pixies, and they kept it up even as the rain threatened to begin again. They played most of “Hot Fuss” as well as a few other songs, including a new one, which was pretty cool, especially as everyone was singing along with all the songs.

My one complaint, if it could be called one, is that they had the stage not lit very well, so a lot of my pictures didn’t come out as I would have liked, but that’s a completely moot point. It was an awesome show and prepared me for the awesomeness that was about to unfold before my eyes…

Now, if you’re ever lucky enough to see The Pixies play live, don’t be expecting a show in a wider sense of the word… They just come on, play the songs and then they’re gone… There is very little crowd interaction from the band, except sometimes Kim Deal says “thanks” after a song. But damn, the songs rock, I almost shouted myself hoarse during some of the them. Another great show, probably the best of the weekend (in my opinion, which counts the most on this site) and they completely lived up the the hype I’ve been building in my mind for the last, oh I dunno, 5 to 10 years, they played almost every song I wanted to hear (what, no Velouria?) and it was an extremely worthwhile experience, even the douwnpour of rain wouldn’t ruin it for me…

A great weekend, and a lot of great bands, only Keane were slightly disappointing as the rest were excellent. Shame about the weather though, but you cant have everything…

Today was the first day of Music Midtown, which is basically a three day music festival placed right in the heart of Atlanta’s Midtown area… Barry and I decided to go as there was 6 bands that we would like to see and it seemed worth paying $75 for the priveledge of standing in a car park in the rain for… So off we went, tonight’s menu was the double bill of Interpol and The White Stripes.

We arrived about 30 minutes before Interpol were scheduled to start, and surprisingly the main stage wasn’t as busy as we thought it might have been, so we shuffle our way down, grabbing a few beers along the way and wait… They only played for an hour, but I thought they were really good, I hadn’t heard much beforehand, but I did like what I heard, so I’ll be looking into obtaining a CD or two sometime soon.

Then came Jack and Meg White, it was their first show since the release of their newest CD “Get Behind Me Satan,” they were scheduled for 90 minutes and they gave for every second of it, old songs, new songs, cover songs and a whole lot more inbetween… Including Jack singing “Passive Manipulation,” which is sung by Meg on the CD and was also played by Meg earlier in the set, during one of his guitar tangents… But it’s funny what a distinctive sound the twosome have, and what noise they can make, seriously overpowering at times. Anyways, a great show and a full-on sonic assault, now it only leaves tomorrow (we’re skipping Sunday) starting with Bloc Party, then Keane, then The Killers and finally the moment I’ve been waiting for for so long… The Pixies!

Sweet line up, I think you’ll agree… Though I’ll be too busy dreaming about Kim Deal to notice much else going on…

AKA: When Good Burgers Go Bad

Following on from the 1lb. Monster Thickburger last month it was time to take the ultimate fast food challenge… The 1½lb. Monsterous Thickburger!

Weighing in with easily over 2100 calories, this bad, bad burger is for serious folks only… It’s currently just over two times the size of Hardees current 2/3lb. Monster Thickburger (comparison to the right) and is made up of THREE ½-pound slabs of Angus beef, six strips of bacon, four slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered sesame seed bun.

All you can say is “Fuck Yeah!”

Anyways, Barry consumed this unholy delicacy in a little over 30 minutes… But the burning question remains, will he take the 2lb. challenge?

The 1½lb. Monsterous Thickburger

Originally uploaded by FLC.