Bolt of Blue

Duran Duran Tour ’09 is sadly over for me… I attended two shows. One in Vegas on July 10 and the other in the OC on July 11.

Both shows lived up to the DD standard. Entertaining, polished, exciting, and full of fun and incredible music. Of course, I’m biased. I’ve been a Duranie since I was 7 years old. They make up the soundtrack of my life. We heard some rare songs like Election Day (!) and thankfully no Hungry Like The Wolf or The Reflex (two songs that are over played when you’ve been to as many DD shows as I’ve attended.)

One disappointment was that they didn’t perform any new material. They are currently working with Mark Ronson on their new album and I’ve very curious to hear the results of their collaboration. His influence was evident in their live show despite the lack of new material. Ronson’s mixing of old and new DD songs together was showcased on this mini-tour. Below is an example with their new take on on old classic – the only Bond theme to reach number 1. I took this video at the Pacific Amphitheatre show. While not the best quality and I missed the beginning of the song where they played a medley of various Bond themes over the years, this moment was really incredible.

I wasn’t sure I’d post anything about Michael Jackson’s passing… I was never really a fan. Of course, there’s no denying the impact he had on popular culture. I find the whole situation very sad but not surprising. Here’s an interesting blog response from John Taylor…

A Blog from John
June 26th, 2009

Oliver Hunt from Manchester asked why there was nothing on our website about MJ. You’re absolutely right Oliver, there ought to be.

But let’s see, what can one say that hasn’t already been said, over and over and over… So Madonna has been in tears? Really.. I’ve not been in tears, but it has been an extremely sad 24 hours.

I was glad we were in rehearsals today for the summer shows and were all able to process our feelings with each other. When I heard the news my first call was Nick, then Roger.

To say he was the greatest entertainer of his generation…Well yes, perhaps he was. He made one of my favourite albums, ‘Off The Wall’, and ‘Thriller’ is pretty fucking amazing and even ‘Bad’ had a renaissance with me a month or so ago.

It’s all terribly sad. The rumours, and the court appearances. It’s been sad and depressing and frustrating for years now. I’ve been so sick of the jokes for years, but this morning? Not for me thanks.

It was a surprise to get the news, but maybe less surprising than if he had turned up at the 02 and rocked the house, played all the songs we wanted to hear and left London in one piece.

His music and his legend will live on. His life is an inspiration to us all but also a caution. I’m very very sorry he’s not with us anymore, but for my Madonna tears I’ll probably have to wait until ‘Rock With You’ catches me unawares one evening, alone on a motorway somewhere.. By then I’ll be really missing him.

This news excites me for several reasons:

1. Duran Duran working with Geldof again. Always a good thing.
2. Milla Jovovich singing again. YES! Her solo work is extremely underrated.
3. Beds are Burning is a song I loved growing up and has aged well.
4. Raising awareness about climate change. Again, always a good thing.

Concert meme from parlance.

First concert?
New Kids on the Block, Magic Summer Tour, September 14, 1990 at Dodger Stadium. 60,000 sold out. 2nd row seats. INSANE.
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Duran Duran played a special show with Mark Ronson in Paris the other night. Mark picked all of the songs to play for the 90 minute set and remixed the whole show. They played an incredible slow version of A View To A Kill. And this….

Trying to kill me. My favorite band in the world playing my favorite song ever (The Chauffeur) which is then MIXED into a cover of Song 2… by my other favorite band in the world. Head. Explodes.

Just spent the past few days moving into our new home (and still crazy enough to manage two Duran Duran shows this weekend too.)

I’m sore, overwhelmed, full of emotions, thrilled, excited, tired, happy.

I love our new house. It doesn’t quite feel like our home yet because there’s boxes everywhere and we haven’t yet made it our own. But I know it will get there in time.

I love the view from our new house. Cars whizzing down below on the 10 freeway. Hollywood Hills and San Gabriel Mountains in the background. Hollywood sign visible from the roof of our garage. At night, the city lights are like glittery gems or fairies filling up the sky. Squirrels run all over the back and front yards. And the birds! It’s a haven for an amazing variety of birds. A family of hawks live in the tall redwood in our front yard. Finches use puddles in our garden for baths. Songbirds wake us up to the rising sun every morning. It’s bliss.

To top it off, I saw my favorite band in the world with new and old friends. It’s always a reunion of sorts at shows like these. Meeting up with old pals and meeting new ones (randomly met someone from my Tiger List days last night). Both shows were incredible and quite emotional (for those who couldn’t be dancing with us). The guys sounded and looked fabulous. Their music always has a way to heal, to inspire, and to whip up crowds into a dancing frenzy. I’m looking forward to the San Diego show on Thursday as a nice way to cap off this tour.

And looking even more towards the future… of making our new house into our home and planning the next adventure, wherever it may take us.

ps. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I checked my email today to find out some sad news about someone I know in Duran Duran fandom. He was sadly found dead in his apartment yesterday. I felt immediate shock and disbelief. I didn’t know him well, but he was always friendly to me and always in great spirits. My last memory of him will be at the Spice Girls concert in December, where he was dancing and enjoying himself. A moment that I was feeling carefree, weightless, and very much alive. I hope he was feeling the same.

People die, every day, every second. People are born, every day, every second. It’s the way things are. And we only have so much time. We can’t control it, but we can try our best to make the most of it, make it count, make it matter.

“You are both stars, don’t forget. And the stars exploded billions of years ago, to form everything that is this world. Everything we know, is stardust. So don’t forget, you are stardust.”

“You know, I believe if there’s any kind of God, it wouldn’t be in any of us. Not you, or me… but just this little space in between. If there’s any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it’s almost impossible to succeed, but… who cares, really? The answer must be in the attempt.” – from Before Sunrise

Update: The sad news was just posted on Duran Duran’s website and couldn’t have been said in a more beautiful way.

So much going on right now. Here are some highlights:

• I finally put up the Brilliance redesign (a Jude Law fansite)… like 5 minutes ago. I’m still working on fixing the Gallery, but it’s mostly all up. This took me way too long and was so overdue it was ridiculous. I converted the site to WordPress and put in a simple and clean design (I hope!) I’m happy with it. It’s a very different design compared to most typical actor fansites out there. But I wanted it to be different, I want it to be less busy and easy to navigate. Hopefully, I’ve succeeded. I’ve also met one rad fan who is going to contribute to the site (and already has). I’d love to meet some more like-minded Jude fans who might be interested in helping with the site.

• I went to a Duran Duran listening party held by Sony last week! Not only did I get to hear their fantastic new album, but the guys were there. I finally got my photo taken with Nick and Simon. And had some awesome conversations with Nick and Roger. I’m very tempted to figure out a way to make one of their NY shows now. Roger did tell me I should come. How I’m calm about all this and not fangirling out, I honestly have no idea. *squeeeeee* Okay… I let it out a little there.

• I’ve been bugging Remi for a while now that he should have his own website. Now he does… take a look at BugEyedMonkeys.com. I had a lot of fun designing it for him.

• Posted Day 4 photos from our road trip. Most of the photos are from our drive through Yellowstone, which was incredible and I’m so glad we didn’t go the faster route. We saw Old Faithful, bison, more deer (this time Elk), a wolf (didn’t get a photo of him though), and so many waterfalls. We made it to Edmonton very late that night… when we passed Calgary, we got stuck in the middle of a crazy lightening storm. Rain was pouring in buckets and coming down so hard we had to slow down to be safe and be able to see ahead of us… and lightening was going on all around us. I’ve never seen lightening actually hit the ground and sparks go flying into the air. But now I have and it’s pretty scary when it’s happening 20 feet from you.

• My father-in-law is flying in today for a weekend visit. It’s completely last minute. We only found out he was coming yesterday morning… and it was also a surprise to him too (we found out before he did). He really needs a break from work and Remi’s mom found a great deal on a flight. We’re looking forward to seeing him and I know he’s looking forward to using our condo’s jacuzzi.

• Next week, we head up to Seattle for NWBrickCon. So excited!