Hello, and welcome to another episode of "Is This Thing On?" (Download and listen now) * We hope you all had a good Veteran's Day (or Remembrance Day) as well. * We started the show by playing "Coffin" by 10 Shot. * We hope you had a Happy Halloween, Sacred Samhain, y Dia de Los Muertos Feliz! Last week was VERY busy for us... * We watched the screening of the Duran Duran: Live From London concert DVD at Harkins Mills movie theater in Tempe. - John Price from MIX 96.9 was the host. He gave away a guitar signed by the members of Duran Duran. - What the hell is a "cuck"? - Michelle had her doubts about seeing a concert on the big screen, but she admitted she enjoyed it! - It was a lot of fun! No contact high! - I made this iMix on iTunes from the songs: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPublishedPlaylist?id=559441 * We saw Bauhaus when they came to Mesa Ampitheatre. - Outside under the stars! - That was very cool. They can still rock a venue. - Although Peter Murphy just sort of stood still during most of the concert. - Again, Michelle did not think an outside concert was a "real concert." Again, she admitted it was fun! - We enjoyed the wave of black pleather. - We wore TIE-DYE to the concert! People ignored us. - Black hair, one mohawk, but lots of black clothes. Some nice gothic outfits there. - We were surprised by the fact that about 2/3 of the crowd were college age and younger. We're in our thirties and remember them when they came out. But the goth scene is much younger these days and Bauhaus is obviously initiation material for the scene. * We went to Schnepf Farms on the last day of the Pumpkin and Chili Festival. - Corn Mazes were cool. We took a hay ride to get to the big corn maze. - We love kettle corn, especially when it's fresh at events like this! * We went to the Arizona State Fair on it's last day. - We were not impressed with the displays. Even the shopping was kind of sad. But we did have some fun. - We need to submit some of OUR collections! Ankhs, books, ANYTHING! - Even my library book collection. I'm the founder of Library Books Anonymous. Are you a friend of Dan S.? - We weren't too adventurous with food, but we did try a fried twinkie and fried cookie dough! You have not lived until you've had a deep fried Twinkie (and you may not live long afterwards!) * We finally saw MirrorMask! - It was different than I thought it would be, but it looked incredible and the story was great and kept us guessing. - Go see it if you have the chance. It is still only at select theaters. - In my opinion it is not a Kids' movie, but teenagers and up will definitely enjoy it. It's rated PG, so you make the call. * The Secret Life of Vampires aired on A&E on Halloween and the weekend before. - They interviewed Father Sebastiaan Tod, Michelle Belanger, and Don Henrie, and Lady CG, among other real vampires. They also inteviewed authors and experts like Katherine Ramsland, Aphrodite Jones, and Elizabeth Miller. - Personally, while I thought it was well done, I think it could have been broken up into two single-hour shows. One show about the history of vampires in myth and fiction. The second show could have been about real modern vampires. The second was the real point of the show, but they kept bouncing back to THE SAME historical points of fact and fiction. - They talked a lot about Bram Stoker, Vlad Dracula Tsepesh, and Romanian culture, which to this day is still entrenched in superstitons about vampires. They briefly mentioned The Bloody Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. If you want to know more about her, read this excellent article. - They mentioned Rod Ferell and another couple of serial killers who claimed they were vampires. But they did stress thay folks like Ferell are the exception to the rule. Some folks I've talked to seemed to think the point of the show was to paint vampires as sadistic, bloodthirsty killers, and use Ferell as their example. I'm sorry, I didn't think that. But to not mention Rod Ferell or his using Vampire: The Masquerade as a way of meeting people to follow him would be a disservice. I thought how they mentioned his story, told by Aphrodite Jones, and pointed out that no vamps force their feedings nor are violent, was very important. I think the vampire community need to be reminded of Ferell every now and then. Lest they fall down his path and bring out the worst of humanity's fears. - It takes a lot to "come out of the coffin", and I think Don Henrie is right that the time is now. Vampires are people, too. Whether it's a lifestyle, a religious course, or just a way of life. They're real, they're not crazy, and they have the same rights as us. - God, I sound like the plot of an Anita Blake novel. But it's true. Get ready kiddies. Every day is Halloween! * I finally found and bought Firefly on DVD! - Even since seeing Serenity I wanted to find the Firely TV series DVD set so I could watch the episodes I missed and share it with Michelle. But of course it had been sold out. Last week it seems like stores finally got new shipments in and I bought a copy. * We bought Batman Begins! - Quite possibly the best Batman movie ever! Even Daire liked it! * We rented Kingdom of Heaven! - An excellent movie set during the delicate peace between the Second and Third Crusades. - Plotwise, it is the story of Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem as seen through the eyes of one reluctant Knight and former blacksmith, Balian of Ibelin. - It has a great feature of popup subtitles that explains parts of the history. But it distracts you from the movie. - It's a fine, sweeping epic of a story that is loosely based on a real seige from the Crusades. Definitely check it out. * Michelle learned to not scare the trick-or-treaters. Just because she was too eager to get the kids to come by.. too many jokes about there's plenty of space in the cauldron. *sigh * We talked a bit about my history of digestive health problems, like IBD, and how it seems I might be getting better. - But though I experiment with "real food", especially cheese, I take it slow because I don't want false hope, nor a relapse. - I've basically been a reluctant vegetarian, eating only lean meats, but no dairy, no eggs, no fried foods, in essence and EXTREME low-fat to non-fat diet. This has been going on for at least five years. - Whole food stores are all the rage right now, so it has been easier to find new, ecclectic healthy foods, but they are so much more expensive! - There's one store here is Scottsdale, not far from my work, called Aspire Market. They broke down all the foods into dietary categories and assigned each a number. The two I look for are 7 - Low Fat and D - Dairy Free. - Sadly these usually also low protein, and I needed more protein. Also, while it was great that they broke it all down, most products are low sugar (for diabetics) or low-carb (for the fad dieters). Very few products are 7D, and they're all expensive. - So while the fad is great to have all of these whole food specialty stores, they are still too pricey and that means I still eat things I shouldn't BECAUSE I can't afford foods better for me. - So, needless to say, I'm glad my recent dairy adventures have been positive. I REALLY miss cheese! - I'm still troubled by my allergy to tomatoes which had become an issue as of last year. I was eating so much pasta I think I abused marinara sauce to the point that I now itch and break out after eating some. But small amounts seem OK. C'est la vie. Calendar of Events and Holidays - View Events for week of Nov. 13 - Subscribe to RSS calendar - Download/Subscribe to Interfaith iCal calendar. - Other events and information about November, from Wikipedia. - I need to get busy working on the 2006 Interfaith Calendar. * NaNoWriMo.org - November is National Novel Writing Month! Do you have what it takes? The month is almost half-way over? Is your novel half-way written too? * Also, we forgot to mention it, but there's going to be a Penn & Teller TV special on NBC this Sunday, Nov. 13. 7/6C. - They'll also be on the Saturday Night Live retrospective SNL in the '80s: Lost and Found that will air after they're special. You remember SNL in the 80's. Back when it was funny. - So, there's two good reasons to decide it's OK to watch TV again. * We didn't get to go to the SETS to see Rocky Horror, but we have a good news/bad news story to pass along. - Matt Yenkala, Mr Producer Guy for Banned on Broadway, is now a cast member of Tucson's HEAVY PETTING. - This is good news for him and folks in Tucson, but bad news for us here in the Phoenix Metro area because Tucson is too far away for most fans. It also marks the death knell really for hope of a return of BoB to a theater any time soon. - So Matt, we love you, good luck, but we still shiver with antici....pation for Rocky's return! * We also talked about the Inaugural Bikers Ball in Tempe, AZ, on Nov. 18, 2005, benefitting the Arizona Institute for Breast Health. - The Gypsy Riders of Greater Phoenix, AZ are hosting the Ball, which will feature cocktails, dinner, casino tables, fashions, motorcycles, and dancing. - Who is invited? Motorcycle riders and philanthropic-minded individuals 21 years and older. - What is the attire? The Bikers Ball theme is Pink and Black, but wear your favorite color. Recommended attire ranges from denim, leather, tuxedos and evening gowns to everything in between. - Tickets are $75.00 per person or $125.00 per couple. A good deal for a good time benefitting a good cause. * In the news... not much. Well quite a bit, but we didn't cover any of it. Spent too much time prattling. LOL * No words of wisdumb from EMILY SAYS, either. Sorry Emily. * We wrapped up the show by playing "I'm not going InSaNe" by Crash Menagerie. If you want to join us on our podcast, Skype me at IsThisThingOnPodcast. - We don't have a scheduled time yet, but watch the status on Skype of IsThisThingOnPodcast. If you have any comments about this blog, feel free to drop a note at http://shaurettenet.blogspot.com. Thanks for visiting. This Blog and PodCast are © Copyright 2005 by Dan Shaurette, under the Creative Commons "Attribution with No Derivatives" License. Some Rights Reserved. Some of the music provided tonight was from the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at http://music.podshow.com. The theme music came from the royalty-free collection at http://www.musicloops.com. Technorati Tags: , , ,