So, it turns out I'm not dead. Go figure. The last couple weeks have been hard to balance with deviantART, thanks to concerts, a devmeet, school, homework, dating, and bouts with a headcold and a flu. But without further ado, here's my obligatory journal post.
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I'll start with the ROCK2WGTN concerts and the holiday I took around them. In a word – awesome! I got dressed in my bogan threads and had a fairly picture-perfect flight to the capital, where the concerts were being held. The first night, featuring Lordi, Alice Cooper, and KISS, was an experience to behold. Everything from waiting in line with tens of thousands of metalheads, to the sea of black that the stadium became after they entered was incredible. Seeing so many people in KISS make-up was especially interesting.
The concert began with the winners of a guitar solo competition ripping their guitars up to an amped audience. There was some real skill within these dudes, and their segment finished with the signature rock n roll finale of smashing a guitar.
The first major act, Lordi, were everything you'd expect from the monster-metal eurovision winners. Enjoyably gimmicky costumes and the pyromania of the frontman didn't detract from their rather decent hard rock at all, and culminated in a killer performance from the youngest headlining act.
Following Lordi was the first of the intermision acts, The Valves, who were completely lost amongst the jaw-dropping special effect show put on by Weta Workshop – zombie cheerleaders, firedancers... and the dragon. Three stories of lazer-eyed, growling, wing-flapping, head banging, smoke-breathing DRAGON. Let's call him Smaug...
The stand-out act for me was the jaw-dropping show put on next by mr Alice Cooper and his crew. With a commanding stage presence, the likes of which only four decades of the hardest rock could produce, there was not a single audience member not blown away completely. Everything from his voice- ripened with age like a fine wine- to his cane-twirling antics was an experience within itself. Props and performers were woven into his music with perfection, including the tossing of (I'll assume) faux pearl necklaces into the audience as he sung “Billion dollar baby”, the scattering of impaled dollar notes from a rapier sword, and a set of groupies with “Alice for president” signs as he belted out “Elected”.
During the middle of his set, he launced into an epic stage show operatic, blowing everyone all away. Somewhat reminiscent of the rock operas that Pink Floyd are famous for, Alice scorched through a performance of a non-stop operatic filled with an orgy of music and acting alike. Accompanied by an ensemble of actors, props and sets, the shock-rock story of a wife-beating, baby-killing, assylum-incarcerated madman was unleashed on a frenzied audience, ending with a mock hanging of our villan.
An extended version of “School's out for summer” worked into a stadium-shaking drum solo and the obligatory guitar show, while “No more mr nice guy” got the crowd going into a rave. His iconic anthem of “
oison” was greeted by 30,000 cheering bogans, and his final departure call of introducing his partners in crime, “And of course... ME!”, ended any doubts of the power of the preceeding performance as the westpac arena exploded in cheering.
The next set of intermission was filled by a band called “The Symphony of Screams” and the aformentioned performance feast of cheerleaders in zombie make-up, dancers swinging flaming swords, hula-hoops and ropes around, and mr Smaug. A fairly decent band, but as with the Valves, they were undermined by the orgy of performance that was going on around them, and the fact that most punters chose this opportunity to take a break from the festivities to get food, water, booze, merch, and answer the call of nature.
Finally, the major act of the night got on stage. KISS are infamous for their iconic make-up, costumes, light shows, fireworks, stunts and stadium-rock anthems. It was everything you'd expect from a KISS concert, but it felt a little lacking somehow. There were many reasons for this – the main one being the audience, I'd say. Their amusing stage antics and simple sing-along rock anthems don't carry much effect if the audience is: exhausted from four hours of world-class music and performance, hungover from the cheap wine and beer they've been drinking since 5:30, completely blown away by the previous performance, cold from the bitter wellington southerly wind (I was wearing five layers and still felt chilly) and otherwise not in the mood for rock n rolling all night.
That said, they put on a decent show apart from a few moments where they fell flat. A half-assed response to a call and respond accoustic song destroying the mood completely was remedied by “Enough of this mushy sentimental stuff!” and a launch into a more well-known and easily followed stadium rock epic. Some interesting antics include Gene Simmons being suspended by wires while fireworks went off all around him, and Paul Stanley riding a flying-fox over the audience to the technician's tower in the centre of the stadium – in order to perform closer to “the ones way at the back”. Anthems and antics - everything you'd expect from a KISS concert.
Easter Sunday with my uncle's family was interesting enough. We went for a tour around Wellington's waterfront, and, like a chump of a photographer, I left my camera in the car. Missing a great photo-op aside, it was a good afternoon.
The second of the concerts - later that evening - was another great bogan fest, this time headlining with Poison, Whitesnake, and the prince of darkness Ozzy Ozzbourne. Gone was the KISS make-up and in it's stead was a sea of band t-shirts, proclaiming musical tastes ranging from Metallica through AC/DC to any of the acts that brought this audience to the stadium.
Poison opened up with rocking set of killer music and lights. Their frontman Brett Michaels weaved his brand of southern 'states rock n roll to a highly receptive audience, bringing the arena to a stand-still with their iconic power-ballad of "Every rose has it's thorn". There's certainly something magical about a stadium full of bogans chanting song lyrics and waving flaming lighters and glowing cellphones.
The intermission acts from the night before returned in much the same fashion, although this time The Valves' lead singer made quite a point about how awesome saturday's performace by Alice Cooper was. No disagreements here. Smaug the dragon was as cool as before, as were the dancers – who now recieved an adequate amount of attention on the big-screens.
Whitesnake followed with their eclectic collection of Southern-american influenced rock, sung by an ironically english chap. The dude had quite an amusing personality, as evidenced between songs where he made statements ranging from "so where's this fucking dragon, eh?" due to the dragon going into hiding while the main acts were performing, to "my lady, may I compliment you on your bosom" - refering to a well-endowed woman in the front row. When their infamous anthem of "Here I go again" was belted into the stadium, the eruption of the crowd singing with them was insane, and swept up all but the most despondent of audience members into participation.
An intermission act by The Symphony of Screams was once again missed or ignored by a great number of punters, who took this moment to do anything you wouldn't want to miss Ozzy for. I was one of them, so I can't vouch much about their performance, but what I overheard while waiting in line for the toilets was fairly decent.
Finally, after the wait for mr Osbourne grew into a fever of anticipation, the big-screens lit up with an unexpected medley of video clips of Ozzy and his outlandish behaviour spliced into scenes from The Office, Desperate Housewives, and the treadmill-dancing clip by Ok Go, to name a short few. Infamous for his strange breed of shock-humour, Ozzy had the audience entertained before even taking stage.
Appearing at last, he put on an overbearing show of lights and sound as he joined his band in blasting out hits from both his time in Black Sabbath and as a solo artist. Midway, he introduced his band members, including "ZACK-FUCKING-WILDE! ... I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU! ZACK! FUCKING! WILDE!" and allowed them to launch into a fit of metal instrumentalism that threatened to explode the countless loudspeakers that encircled the arena.
This brings me to my main complaint about Ozzy's set – it was too loud. I know I'm throwing what little metalhead cred I might have out the tourbus window by saying this, but when music is so loud it becomes drowned out by the screeching echoes in your ears, and starts making you feel physically ill, it detracts from the performance more than it enhances the experience. Returning to the stage once more, Ozzy continued his list of hits, ending in a double encore culminating in "Mama, I'm coming home" and a volcano of fireworks from stage and stadium alike.
These concerts were an epic experience, and one I'm still buzzing from a fortnight later.
On the trip home I took the bluebride ferry with another uncle, getting a picture-postcard dawn sailing – which I meticulously captured with my camera. A beautiful sunrise upon the wellington harbour, rays bouncing off the glass sentinels that form it's business district, giving way to a clear morning view of the islands and peninsulas of our capital. Several hours in, and we were greeted by the south island's beautiful milford sound and picturesque views of sea, land and sky, before arriving at the port town of Picton.
During the drive through the summer-scorched Marlborough province, I took several "drive-by shooting" photos of the stunning golden-brown landscape, until it made way to a greener and bluer land known as the Kaikoura coast. We stopped for lunch at a beachfront cafe, then returned to the trip home, passing through my parents' house for a blink and you'd miss it visit, then returning to the road to get me home in time for a rather average dinner at the hostel.
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The next weekend saw the Christchurch city devmeet, something that's always an interesting event. As a film student (among many other things), I took my camera and served as the unofficial videographer of the meet. Murphy's law dictated that I'd miss most of the best quotes and moments, but I got a decent amount of footage, which I'm currently attempting to compile into a movie of the days happenings. In the meantime, the ten or so others who took part have their own testimonies and photos of the meeting.
To begin, we gathered at $tarbucks for a few coffees and some introductions. We discussed things including why Yvan calls his camera "Bella", and our cynical views of the conservation event known as "Earth Hour". Hyped on coffees and chocolate drinks with more callories than a big mac, we walked through the mall for a while, and ended up in the local arcade. We admired the skillz of a guy pwning a DDR game, then crammed the lot of us into a photobooth. A few games of air hockey ensued, then we continued on to our next location – pool and drinks. Some interesting conversations and pool-related epic fails were inevetable. Finishing with a group photo, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
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As for me personally, I've been WAY too busy with the school term's end looming ahead, and an unfortunate amount of homework pilling up. I need to finish the following: A set of themeatic analysis and comparisons of visual, oral, and written media, A study of still life photography and a collection of photos based on this study, planinning, producing, shooting and editing a short film, and creating and exploring themes of surrealist artwork and design...
I'm also going to try and get a job over the holidays. I'm hoping for something that could get me some experience in the multimedia or photography industries, but anything that could get me a few bucks would be welcome. Until then, RK out...
Eclectic, much? + features 
Content
) in a week or so once I've put the finishing touches on it.
Joy
. I'd like to thank the 570 or so people who faved this and gave me the five minutes of DA fame I've been hoping for since signing up.
Tired