Ravenous Destruction

These pictures were taken on my many adventures in my backyard and wandering around my scenic little New England town.

Winter likes to collect rocks and bleeding hearts. She keeps her collections on the picnic table in the yard. The bleeding heart have disappeared but the rocks are still there along with a few more.

There were a couple of these plants in my yard. The one pictured here came to a tragic end when winter took it out in one fast tumble. She didn’t mean to do it. These things just have a way of happening.

Nice purple irises growing in a garden. They were really bight, beautiful and everywhere for a few weeks and then they were gone.

I remember these, but I’ve forgotten the name. I remember them from when I was I was a florist long ago in another life.

The Odd Duck
One day Winter and I went for a walk, she took me to were the ducks like to hang out. There is one odd duck. This duck stands out among the other ducks. The other ducks don’t seam very fond of him. I never really understood birds. They are strange little creatures.

These tiny white flowers were blooming everywhere. Before they open they look like little stars… or fireworks in the sky…

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I will try for the what is left of the summer to record my adventures, or maybe I won’t, but if I do I should have an interesting collection of photographs.

I took many pictures at MDF. Many of them have a warm fuzzy glow and are slightly blurry. That about captures it though…

It has been over a week since I arrived back. My memories are warm and a bit fuzzy like many of the photos. I drank many pints of Guinness at the club. I ate very little except for the yummy delicious baked goods that were in the hotel room most of the weekend. I saw lots of old friends and saw many great bands. This year was a bit different. They had two stages. One inside and one outside. There was very little overlap between bands, which was nice. I really liked the how it was set up. I hope they do it that way again.

It was nice to see old friends and make new ones. The music and the general atmosphere at MDF was absolutely fabulous. I could not have asked for a better show.

Friday

One of the first bands I saw play was Mayhem. I’m not a huge fan of them so I wasn’t too excited about their set. They did play freezing moon which made me happy.

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Saturday

Sly blows a 0.19 in the breathalyzer on the elevator.

Kelly & Sarah

Bolt Thrower was awesome. I hope they don’t wait another 14 years before returning to the states.

Wolves in the Throne Room was the last band of the night. All the lighting was all blue. I don’t know what I was expecting, but their set wasn’t as awesome as I wanted it to be. They were still pretty good though and I enjoyed watching them play.

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The Elevator Incident

After the show at the Tremont many of us crowed into a tiny elevator.

At first everyone was excited that we all manged to squeeze in to the little box. Everyone in there was so loud. It took some time for people to notice we were not moving. Finally when everyone did figure out we were not moving there was a bit of excitement in the little air we had. Someone lit joint, but it didn’t go to far. Then people were starting to want to get out of the elevator.

We were trapped there. The tall people tried to reach for the top of the car and find the trap door, but there was none. Folks started to feel claustrophobic. people were pounding on the door and pushing the alarm. We we were in there about 20 minutes before the doors finally opened. Everyone was happy and cheered. We all climbed out of the elevator. We had to step up about two feet to get out as the elevator had moved at bit before become stuck. I took the stairs for most of the night after that. I walked up and down 32 flights of steps.

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Sunday

Our daring escape from the Tremont

We were in the hotel room on Sunday afternoon. I was having a beer with Kelly Sarah and Snake. Sarah was making Snake a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The fire alarm went off. Snake and I didn’t bother moving till someone from the hotel told us we had to leave. I put on my boots and grabbed my beer and started to head down 32 flights of stairs with Snake. Sarah and Kelly were already gone. It was a long descent. I remembered it well from the night before. When we finally got to the outside. Snake’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich was waiting for him. It had arrive before he did. We sat down on the curb and finished our beer. Snake got peanut butter and jelly all over his fingers. I took the picture and then we headed back to the club.

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These were taken at the club, mostly Snakenet folks and the hot chick.

Deströyer 666 and a sea of horns…Beautiful.
One of my most favorite pictures from MDF.

The last band that Played MDF was Sigh. They were awesome. They were joined by Danny Lilker and they played a few cover songs including Countess Bathory which the audience really seamed to like.

The Sigh Fire Book

Jacqui always manages to find something cool when we go out shows. She got the Sigh fire book from a roadie or something.

I had the most wonderful time. I must return next year.
Lots more pictures here

I was on Yahoo Travel yesterday and I noticed some of my photographs on there. I forgot I even submitted them. Anyways I think it’s kinda cool. I love that site. I go there all the time just to look at pictures of places I’ve been and places I want to go.

I dug out a few more photos out of the old shoe box. These pictures are from a trip I took to Ireland in 2000. I took a three week Bradford College class there. It was a literature class. We studied Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, one of my favorite short stories about a lovely vampire lady.

I forget where or what this is but it was built a very long time ago and is held together without any mortar. Every stone was placed carefully and is ables to stays put. It’s a brilliant design.

This place looks a little spooky

Drinking Consultants

There are are few more picture from Ireland as well as more form my other past adventures here in my
Shoebox Photos Set.

I took this photograph during the last snow storm of winter

I have a shoebox full of photos, old, forgotten…beautiful. Taken ten years ago. My travels, my adventures alone in Sweden and with friends elsewhere. Snapshots and landscapes captured on slick paper is all that is left, cluttered and disorganized filling a shoebox that once belonged to pair of boots I no longer have.

I shift through them, there are so many. So far I’ve taken out some here and there, then scanned them in, fixed them up and here they are. Only a few though, I have many more to rescue.

These Picture were taken in Sweden. I went to school there for a short flicker of time. It is difficult for me to look at them. I never wanted to leave.

A few pictures of Gotland one of my most favorite places…

…And a few of Stockholm, my home away from home for six months

There more photographs here in my Shoebox Set

[EDIT July 21 2009]
Some of these photos are now on Yahoo Travel How cool is that?

It was that time of year again…

My mom’s house is always very nicely decorated for the holidays. Every year I go over there and it is like walking into an issue of better homes and gardens.

Nothing says Christmas like an aluminum vintage tree.

For a brief time these hung from the ceiling. Winter was terrified of them. We had to take them down. She thought they were bugs.

Kris and Sarah threw a holiday cocktail party.
This plant was in the kitchen.

Foley and Kelly chat for a bit at the party.

FRIDAY

After a long car ride we arrived in Baltimore at about 2PM. We waited in the lobby for about two, yes two, fuckin hours for our room. It was a nice lobby. Old looking. Painted ceilings, chandeliers, a rather nice statue in the window and fresh sunflowers atop a grand piano.

The others arrived shortly after we got the room. At which point Sarah felt the need to rearrange the room immediately. The guys left and went the club while the ladies continued to rearrange the room. Then we got ready.

…and headed to the club.

I liked the club. Three rooms. One big one with the stage, a bar and some merch tables. Another with a bar, comfy sofas and more merch tables. The other room had mostly merch tables. I spent a lot of time in that room on Friday. I got some cool things that day too, a Burzum shirt, a Nokturnal Mortum CD, a couple of Graveland CD’s and a few Hate forest tapes. [Yes, I still buy tapes.]

The only band I was really interested in seeing that night was Grave. I love this band. This is the band that made me want to go in the first place. They played last. Their set was fuckin fabulous.

After the show we had a small party in our room. I don’t remember much. Becky and I walked Snake back to his hotel and returned to a room full of sleeping people. I remember walking to the back of the room to get cookies and trying my best not to step on people with my big black boots. Becky and I are insomniacs. We were banished to the hallway. We giggled quietly and ate cookies. We tried to be quiet, but I doubt we were. I kept telling her to put her pants back on. She insisted her underwear looked like shorts. I think we ate a whole box of cookies.

SATURDAY

I woke to laughter. Sly was making us all laugh. I don’t know how he had so much energy in the morning. Must have been the electrolytes. The guys got up, got ready and were out the door before some of us ladies even could crawl out of bed. After they were gone we sat around and talked about bras for a really long time. Afterwards we took showers and a few folks made a trip to Starbucks.

I’m not gonna name any names, but there were a few among us who have a serious addiction to Starbucks. Luckily there was a Starbucks near by. Well that and the coffee maker and four pounds of coffee that we brought with us.

We eventually made it the club. I ventured into the big room just in time for Behold… The Arctopus. As I listened the their set I was not really sure what I thought of them. I know remember thinking Wow their singer couldn’t make it and they still decided to play anyways. How cool. Well as it turns out there is no singer. They are an instrumental band and one of them plays a crazy guitar called warr guitar. At some point I have to give these guys a another listen.

Some time during the late afternoon we ended up in Snake’s hotel suite, And wow, it was pretty fuckin swanky. We had a few drinks and hung out for a bit.

Then we headed back to the club. It was a good day to wear my Great Kat shirt. As I was looking around at one of the merch tables the guy whose table it was pointed out a Great Kat CD that I once had on tape and lost some time ago. It was a pretty good find. I must say and I’m quite happy to have it again.

The headliner for that night was Anaal Nathrakh. I was looking forward to seeing them. However I was quite disappointed with their set when I finally did see them. It was during their set that something quite strange happened. I was standing behind Sly watching the show. The guy standing next to him went up to him tried to tickle him and then tried to kiss him. Sly fought him off, hands flailing, in a less then valiant fashion. It was quite comical. I would have laughed if I wore not in such a state of shock. I’ve seen a lot of things in all my years of going to shows, but never anything like this. Yes this was quite an event to witness.

After the show we went to Snake’s room. Did I mention that it was a good day to were my Great Kat shirt, cause it really was. I met a guy there who played drums for her. That was cool.

At some point we ended up in Jeff’s hotel room. We hung out with Behold… The Arctopus. Jeff passed out with a beer in his hand and Sly went on for about an hour about how butt rock has boner riffs. Afterwards we went back to our hotel and I was the last one to fall asleep.

SUNDAY

Before heading to the club we hit a nice little park and had lunch. Sarah and I dined on chairs that were chained to the table.

We went to the club. I was finally able to find the MDF merch table and got a cool shirts. I also found some cool vinyl. I got a Burzum Det Som Engang Var record and a Morbid Angel Alters of Madness picture disc. [ Yes, I still buy records.]

I saw lots of bands. Some of them were really good. However, I had been drinking since Friday and was too dunk to check my MDF schedule to see who I was watching.

At some point during the night I went outside. There was an ambulance in front of the club. A few moment later they brought out this guy. He was on stretcher. In one hand he held a cigarette, with the other hand he held the horns up high. The crowd cheered for him as they put in the ambulance.

The Final band for the fest was Nuclear Assault.

And then it was over.

However, the party continued, in Snake’s luxury suite. It was a fun time. Jeff passed out again with a beer in his hand.

He wasn’t the only one though…

It was a great night.

Next thing I knew we were back in our hotel room. I wanted to stay up, drink beer and eat cookies. Everyone else was going to sleep. Like all the nights before I was the last one up. Except this time I didn’t have a fun day of metal and beer to look forward to when I awoke in the morning. It was really over and that made me sad. I could fell the post-metalfest depression setting in and I knew it was time to go to sleep.

MONDAY

We all managed to roll out of our beds and sleeping bags before checkout.

We Packed up the cars…

and hit Starbucks before leaving Baltimore.

We also managed to get a group photo with all of us, even me.

It was a great weekend. The bands were great, the club was cool and the parties were fun.

I want to do this again next year.

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[Some events may be out of order or remembered a bit differently then they actually happened.
Sorry I was drunk and it’s been about two weeks.]

I have a bunch more pictures here.