<<Bowie and reality>>
2004-04-08 @ 10:22 a.m.


David Bowie. Yesterday. At the arena. Simply incredible.

Before going to the show, I picked up my concert buddy and headed to Kelsey's, which is across the street from the Winnipeg Arena. It was pretty busy. Instead, we ended up at Montana's restaurant next door for dinner. Steak there is very good. The tables have a sheet of paper where servers write their names on it. I picked up a few crayons (only three colours to work with: blue, orange, and fuchsia), and drew a huge tree (fuchsia bark with blue leaves) with my guinea pigs underneath it, munching on carrots and tomatoes. I also drew a happy picture of my friend there. I never got around to drawing me in the scene. My house salad had arrived by then.

We then walked over to the arena. Overhearing a couple of fans behind me, the last time Bowie was in Winnipeg was fourteen years ago. Fourteen is my favourite and lucky number. Good omen, indeed.

The show promptly started at 19:30 with the appearance of Polyphonic Spree. Think of joining this orchestra-choir when you are so elated and high that you don't know where to displace your energy or your thoughts on becoming a hippie. Dreaming of being a grooving angel on Earth? This is the group for you! They sang happy, joyous songs. You'd think that you were at a gospel festival of sorts, but they were great.

I sat, unfortunately, next to a rather huge man. I thought I was going to die at one point. He and his girlfriend kept on going in and out of the aisle. If they didn't each drink a beer every half hour and then go to the washroom all the time, it would have been nice. Oh well. It was better when we all stood up and danced.

Bowie never looked so good in black jeans and a black t-shirt. Funny that he's 57 years old, the same age as my mom, and I think he's yummy. Row 23 at the arena. Such an incredible view of the rocker and his band.

He was in a great mood, cracking jokes here and there. He started off by saying, "Good evening, Toronto," with a smile on his face. That was the only time when he got booed. "I know I'm in Winnipeg, you motherf*uckers," he said. Everything from simulating 1940's cartoon characters to hugging a woman was hilarious.

It was worth every penny going to the show. I was not disappointed. He kicked off the show with "Rebel rebel", joked that he's be playing a "new" song called "China girl", sang several songs from his Heathen and Reality CDs, and a goody from Hunky dory. The song that I couldn't get out of my head afterwards was "I'm afraid of Americans". In fact, it's still with me this fine morning.

After the show, I ended up buying a nice t-shirt (a tradition since 1990), and a laminated pass with all his tour dates. I wanted the t-shirt with all his North American dates on the back, but Winnipeg and a couple of western Canadian cities (think they're Edmonton and Kelowna) didn't make it. So, I didn't get it.

It's been a rough week or so at work, and it was nice that Bowie made everything better. I'm back and am happier than ever. Woo!

This week's Thursday Threesome is here:

  1. Onesome: Home- What's the one thing your dream home must have?
    A music room. I've dreamed of having one for the longest time. Naturally, my CD collection and stereo would be in there. I'd also have my musical instruments and all my t-shirts that I've purchased at the various concerts I've attended over the years.

  2. Twosome: improvement- What's the one thing you would change about your current home? New bed, couch? New carpet or wallpaper? Or something major like an addition?
    In my apartment, I really can't do much with the structure. I like all my furniture for the time being. I just need a bigger apartment!

  3. Threesome: shows- Do you ever watch home improvement shows? Which one(s)? Do you actually learn anything, or is it simply entertaining?
    I used to watch Canadian House and Home, or something to that effect. It's cool to learn new ways of sprucing up one's house or apartment. I'm not heavily into the whole home improvement thing, but it's nice to know a bit about it.

Documentation Nazi is slowly getting on my nerves again. He wrote a rather long e-mail yesterday, commenting on some of the documents that we're releasing. Half of them I haven't even touched. He stated that in the manuals that we have, that the date at the bottom shouldn't be the current date, but a fixed "final" date. I wrote back and indicated that it's easier to print out documents, knowing when you printed them out by looking at the current date. Second, I have a section at the beginning of each document, indicating when it was last revised. It's one place to inform readers of this so-called "final" date. It changes all the time. It would take me five to ten minutes to put a fixed date at the bottom of every section of each manual. Yeah, he commented on a number of fussy items. I commented on every point thoroughly. It only took me thirty minutes to type up, but a lot of them were comments directed back at him. I rejected half of them. My relationship with him has remained the same. He may be my boss, but he still doesn't know much about writing.

Tomorrow's Good Friday, so today's the last work day for the week. Thank goodness! I'm off to the arena tonight to see the Moose. It's my last local hockey game of the season. It's neat that I was on the cement floor last night at the concert. It'll be ice-covered tonight. I found it cool that I was on the same surface last night when Teemu Selanne of the former Winnipeg Jets scored 76 goals in his first year right there (by the way, we both share the same birth date). I was under the scoreboard-clock last night. This building will be torn down in less than a year. I'm going to miss it. I'm already getting nostalgic.

Well, I should put in a decent day's work now. I'm trying to fix my colleague's reports manual. I'm trying to figure out how to rotate one of the sections so that it prints in the same direction as the other pages. It should be fun.

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Song that's stuck in my head: David Bowie's "I'm afraid of Americans"
Yummy food eaten today: Sardines
What I crave: Still being at last night's concert

Recent thoughts:
Readings, lights, and random thoughts - 2009-03-15
Thoughts about work, school, and peeps - 2009-03-09
Working from home and a mini life update - 2008-12-19
The weekend is here! - 2008-01-06
A new year - 2008-01-01

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