whispers

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Lee — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 02:54:03 +0000

Spoilers below.

Unfortunately, like The Da Vinci Code, its plot twists were quite predictable. The moment after reading about Peter Solomon’s son, Zachary dying and of the intruder who killed Isobel Solomon, you just KNOW that they were the same person! The more of Dan Brown‘s work I read, the more disappointed I become; Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress were all good thrillers, but The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol are just quite unsatisfactory.

Muse @ Rexall Place

Lee — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:03:52 +0000

Long time no review, but I have come back with a new concert review for you all! I have never seen Muse live before in my life, but they were definitely one of my favourite bands to listen to. This show has moved them from one of my favourites to listen to, to the best show of my life! The crowd was warned by opener, Silversun Pickups that we should hold onto the back of our heads because our minds were about to be “f’in blown away”. We were not disappointed at all. The three beautiful columns on stage projected images of people moving along stairs, always going upward forever. Then people started falling off the stairs and plummeting down to their doom, the cover sheets drop to reveal Matt, Dom and Chris (l-to-r) one on each column. But these are not normal columns. They are split in between; the bottom half of the column rises from the stage while the top half is suspended from the roof and there stand (and sit in Dom’s case) Muse performing for us.

The bar for stage shows has been raised so high now, that at this point only Muse themselves could raise it further. I honestly cannot remember most of that night because I was just in a state of pure bliss and amazement. I felt as though my life had been fulfilled by seeing them while at the same time, my life had started anew from that moment. I do remember that confetti-filled eyeball balloons fell during Plug In Baby, Matt was wearing LED sunglasses, and he was holding a mirror to direct the green light effects at the crowd. He also had an amp/mirror to do the same later in the show. The only “downfall” of this show for me was a lack of Sing For Absolution or Take A Bow, but the rest of the show was so amazing that I didn’t even notice. I actually caught myself just staring out at the crowd in front of the stage and seeing the lights dance across the audience, I was awestruck.

As a final note, if you heard a female saying she would have Matthew Bellamy’s children, it might have been me or the thousands of other awestruck and enlightened fans.

image credit: wombat_714

image credit: .Muse..

Setlist

Uprising
Resistance
New Born + Headup riff
Supermassive Black Hole
Interlude + People of the Sun intro + Hysteria + Back in Black riff
Bliss (extended)
Nishe
United States of Eurasia
Ruled by Secrecy
Helsinki Jam
Undisclosed Desires
Starlight
Unnatural Selection
Burning Bridges + Time Is Running Out
Plug In Baby

Encore

Exogenesis: Symphony Part I (Overture)
Stockholm Syndrome + Township Rebellion riff + riff + riff
Man with a Harmonica intro + Knights of Cydonia

Thanks to MuseWiki for the setlist

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Lee — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:53:42 +0000

I was browsing around the internet about a week before I bought this book (May 18) and I was intrigued by the idea of a reworking of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Alice in Wonderland that claimed that the classic was actually a book full of lies and misrepresentations. I knew the history of the infamous Alice Liddell of whom Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll had come to know and wrote a book containing the stories he would tell her of Wonderland and the main character, Alice. So when Frank Beddor told the reader that Alice Liddell was none other than Princess Alyss of Wonderland I was quite happy.

I will admit that I immediately fell for Hatter Madigan (I’m a sucker for Carroll’s “Mad” Hatter and any incarnation of his character… this includes Tom Petty’s portrayal in the music video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More”), and for the love and affection shown between Princess Alyss and Dodge Anders, the son of the Captain of the Palace Guard, Sir Justice Anders.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Lee — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:34:15 +0000

I remember watching the Masterpiece Theatre version (2006) of this novel a few years back and at the time I felt a small connection with Jane and her plight. Now that I have read every word of her ‘auto-biography’ I feel even closer to her than I ever could be. It is such a sad story, but one of hope and determination and eternal devotion and love. It is my goal to go on out and find my own Mr. Rochester to be happy with and loved by and to love.

Lost by Gregory Maguire

Lee — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:22:24 +0000

I picked this book up as I had heard great things about it’s author, Gregory Maguire and his other works specifically Wicked and Son of a Witch.

Sadly to say I was a bit disappointed. It took ages for the main character and story to get going, the first 100 pages just drag on and on with nothing really important except the obligatory vague back story. Winnie Rudge is a writer who lives in her own characters’ shoes rather than in her own, she is just going through the motions in her own life, and this is how the majority of the book feels. There are very little plot twists and half of what happened I was able to predict before the next chapter started.

Join Me by Danny Wallace

Lee — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:17:41 +0000

This book was sent to me for my birthday by my lovely friend, Lorraine. She said in her card that the moment she saw this book she thought of me. I still have no clue why of course
Possible spoilers below!!

Ok so Danny Wallace really did start a cult.. oh wait sorry “a collective”. When I started this book I was kind of unsure as to what it would really be about, and in the end it was a sort of a self-help, the power of positive thinking book which I really liked. I am seriously considering becoming a Joinee

Sheryl Crow @ Rexall Place

Lee — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:23:04 +0000

Well I hate to say it, but the best thing I took away from this performance was the navy t-shirt from the merch table.

I was not impressed at all with Sheryl’s performance. First off she could barely walk in the high heels she was wearing, which made her look like she was walking around drugged or drunk. The sound was atrocious. They blasted it trying to fill the not-even-close-to-a-sellout-crowd-in-the-arena. It was just horrible! Add to that, Sheryl tried within the first two songs to get crowd interaction. Wrong! You need to build up your bond with the crowd before you can ask things of them. Plus when you have a less than stellar opening band you have to work extra hard to earn the $60-$100 ticket price.

Nine Inch Nails @ Rexall Place

Lee — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:55:55 +0000

Let’s start off with this, I want to honestly have one night with Trent Reznor, and not at all in a sexual way. Not to say that he is not attractive, but his mind and soul are so much more attractive and appealing that I would love to just sit with him for a night and chat about random crap that would pop up into our heads, and argue about religion, politics, etc. Now Alessandro Cortini on the other hand, I would definitely want a night of sex… or even just cuddling if I could get it

Now onto the review. Merchandise was awesome! I picked up a white Ghosts t-shirt (which I love and have worn out already). I sadly missed Crystal Castles due to the merch lines, but I could hear them. I seem to have a knack for that, but I love my merch and it will always win out over anything! Well except for the headliners, but that’s why I pay the big bucks to see them.

The show was just wow. I did not take photos as I had no camera, but thanks to NIN art director and all around awesome guy, Rob Sheridan, I can post three photos taken at the show.

The light show was just amazing! Truly an interactive set. I honestly got my money’s worth out of this show, and the next time NIN come near my city I will be buying up tickets to bring others and let them see the utter beauty and imagination offered on stage. I wanted to jump on stage and play with the set. The hanging lights, the mesh screens of light, the drumbeat boxes for “Echoplex”, etc. It was an amazing show and I knew every track except for maybe two and that is pretty good considering I’m not really a big fan of anything prior to “With Teeth”.

My Chemical Romance w/ The Bled @ Rexall Place

Lee — Tue, 29 May 2007 02:04:20 +0000

Well in the grand scheme of things, it always works out that I miss the opening band thanks to the lovely merchandise lines. I would like to thank the rude people in that line who decided to push their way to the front and jab myself and my boyfriend in the backs with their bony little elbows and bodies. I would also like to send my concerns out to the family to my left who had two of their young children in the line who were fans trying to get some merch for themselves. I apologize for the same rude people behind us for pushing you as well. So we got down to the floor right at the end of The Bled’s set, but all we could hear was noise on the walk down the stairs, so I cannot comment more on the set. Suprisingly we were able to get pretty close to the front of the crowd roughly about 7ft away from the bar and by the end of the night less than 5ft.

The lights went down, the crowd started to cheer, The Black Parade was about to appear…

One of the stage crew rolled out the stretcher, the opening heartbeat of The End began and then a red light began flashing on the stretcher in time with the heartbeat. Gerard started singing and sitting up, slowly getting off the stretcher and with the lines “I’d encourage your smiles, I’ll expect you won’t cry,” he threw off his gown and showed his parade outfit, as well the curtain pulled back and revealed the rest of the Black Parade!

Now for the rest of the show I was just enjoying being there (with my boyfriend first of all) and living in the fact that wow I was watching one of my favourite groups perform, so most of my review will be what little I remember technically. But let me say that all through the night, the guys performed spectacularly, they were just beautiful. Also during some of the performances the drum riser platform was spinning around with the two separate sets for each of the songs.

Dead! had the entire crowd jumping especially during the infamous “la-la-la-la” portion of the song, and ended with Gerard putting his hand together, making a gun and a gun shot right at the end instead of the usual “Dead!” line.

When the crowd heard the first notes of the piano intro for Welcome to The Black Parade, they started cheering. Near the end of the song, the crowd was shot full of black and white confetti (some of which was stuffed into my pocket ) and in the lull between the next song the confetti was still falling in a beautiful shower around us.

At Cancer the entire show was slowed down as Gerard dedicated the song to those affected in any way by cancer. I admit that even I teared up during this song, as I was one of the thousands who this song was dedicated to, and to hear Gerard perform it live for us all.

Sleep was a song I was always curious to see a music video for, and at “Just sleep” nearer to the end they started the strobe light and I could see a bit better the vision for a possible video.

Teenagers was as expected pretty crazy mostly with the energy coming off of the crowd. No one was getting hurt thankfully, and mostly everyone stayed in their spots as we all jumped to the chorus.

Disenchanted is the song that is now known as “the song that Ray Toro screwed up because the guitar was out of tune as far as we could see, and he and Gerard were laughing during the opening”. I figure that I will find a shorter title one day, but until then this will have to do.

Famous Last Words was perfect! From the pyrotechnics to the amazing fact that Gerard was on my side of the stage for my favourite line of the song, it was amazing!

So at the end of that The Black Parade left the stage and quite a few people left thinking that the show was over, when Blood began! Nearly the entire crowd was singing along to the creepy and morbid (according to my mother) hidden track.

After this we began to chant “MCR, MCR, MCR” calling out the band we once knew and they came out to meet us. Gerard back in a leather jacket and Bob in his shorts.

They ‘opened’ with I’m Not Okay (I Promise), and then (I cannot remember the order, but I remember most of the tracks) Thank You For the Venom, Helena, The Ghost of You, and You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison.

Sadly the only reason why this performance did not receive a perfect score was due to the fact that nothing from ‘I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love‘ was played and/or the b-side Heaven Help Us.

Snow Patrol w/ Ok Go and Silversun Pickups @ Shaw Conference Centre

Lee — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:15:06 +0000

Well to start off we arrived about halfway through Silversun Pickups‘ set, but we did get to hear their current/big single, Lazy Eye. Some of the banter from the lead singer, Brian to the crowd was at times what could be considered crude, it was funny nonetheless. “There are lots of girls here… I am buying a condo! (at least that is what I heard)… This *points to crowd of girls* is better than any masturbatory fantasy you have ever had”. While they were performing though, Tim Nordwind from Ok Go was doing a striptease backstage that was being broadcast to the crowd on the screen – we loved the gold underpants, they were shiny!

By the end of Ok Go‘s set I was nearly in fits of laughter just from their tribute song for the road crew that had been working with them and the other bands for this entire tour with the dance to their track A Million Ways. Absolutely beautiful the way that they all moved so fluidly to express their appreciation to the crew, so much that they even were able to salute and bow to the crew. The rest of the set was excellent, but sadly I do not know their album well enough to tell you all the songs they performed, but these are the ones that I remembered:

Do What You Want
Oh Lately It’s So Quiet
Invincible
Here it Goes Again
A Good Idea At The Time
The House Wins
Television, Television

Snow Patrol came on and started with a long intro of Spitting Games, followed by It’s Beginning to Get To Me. The lead singer, Gary Lightbody then commented on how Edmonton was the best stop on the tour so far and how Ok Go was a “tough act to follow because [they] can’t dance at all”. Then they went into Chocolate and Headlights on Dark Roads which was dedicated to we Canadians who unknowingly brave the cold and crazy weather that was currently around us (and as Gary said the only way he would go out in this would be covered in goose fat), and How to Be Dead.

During their U.S. hit single, Chasing Cars I was frantically dialing my coworker to share in the experience since this was her favourite song. Next were Shut Your Eyes, and Set the Fire to The Third Bar where Nikki Monninger from Silversun Pickups joined Gary on stage to perform the duet with him in place of Martha Wainwright who was featured on the album. Well unbeknownst to the band and the crowd, halfway through the song flame handlers came out. They rubbed the flames against their bare inner arms, and then proceeded to spit the fire and finally eating the flame to snuff it out.

Next they played my favourite track, Somewhere a Clock Is Ticking where Gary made everyone restart as he was trying to play in tune tonight for once. The rest of the set went as follows: Make This Go On Forever (if any song could make me almost want to join a choir it would be this one), Ways & Means, Run (my cousin Tessa’s favourite track), and closing out with You’re All I Have.

The crowd was wildly clapping at the end of the show, we were on our feet calling for more and after a few minutes of steady cheering, Snow Patrol came back out for an encore with The Finish Line, Open Your Eyes, and during Hands Open they were joined by all the members of Ok Go and Silversun Pickups. Once more a standing ovation from the crowd of 4500+ and they stood all together and gave the last stop on their tour a bow and applauded to us.

Spitting Games
It’s Beginning to Get To Me
Chocolate
Headlights on Dark Roads
How To Be Dead
Chasing Cars
Shut Your Eyes
Set the Fire to The Third Bar
Somewhere a Clock is Ticking
Make This Go On Forever
Ways & Means
Run
You’re All I Have

Encore
The Finish Line
Open Your Eyes
Hands Open