Disappointment to the NINth degree

There are few things in life that I would do pretty much anything for. One of those things is to see NIN one more time before Trent Reznor goes on hiatus for an "undetermined" amount of time.

Last June NIN came to Camden, NJ with Jane's Addiction for the NINJA tour. It was the same weekend as NASIG.

I was responsible and went to the NASIG conference like a good little serials librarian. Using my brain and doing what I "should" do.

I was FOOLISH. Idiotic. Stupid. [feel free to continue to add appropriate synonyms]

So a few weeks ago Trent announces they will be doing a last precious few shows in the US when they get back from Europe. The Wave Goodbye tour.

It was like the universe handed me a second chance on a platter. Especially after the completely hellish June I had. I was excited and blissfully happy for the first time in months. Truly happy at that moment. I vowed to do whatever I could to make one of those shows. Tickets were going on sale Friday, 7/17, at 5pm EST for the shows in NYC.

Well, it turns out the universe was fucking with me.

I was logged in at 10 minutes to 5pm. I was ready. I kept clicking on "buy tickets". I ended up in the "waiting room" about 3 minutes to 5pm.

And I waited.

And I waited some more.

Finally I get in to buy tickets at about 5 minutes after 5pm (nearly 10 minutes in the "waiting" room). I select a show in NYC (specifically the Bowery show). I select ONE ticket. Just one. That's all I needed. I plug in the necessary CAPTCHA phrase. I click "Purchase".

I get this evil message that "there are not enough tickets available at that number. Please select a different (fewer) number of tickets and try again."

SOLD OUT.

OMFG. Panic! I try another NYC show. And another. Same response over and over.

I try for one of the Chicago shows when I get home (work was closing so I had to leave...no choice, couldn't sit there until 5pm CST) and can't even get to the NIN tour page. So no Chicago show either.

ALL the NYC and Chicago shows are sold out. And Trent has made it clear that he will not be adding any additional shows. That this is truly it. And I honestly cannot afford to go one of the shows in LA.

I am seriously so upset that I start crying. I'M NOT GOING TO GET TO SEE NIN. Possibly ever again. And it was partially my fault for being so fucking responsible and doing what I "should" do by going to a work conference instead of seeing NIN this past June.

NIN is so much more than "just a band" for me. Way more. A friend once described me seeing a show as a kind of religious experience for me, and they are right. NIN's music touches my soul, reaches all those deep down dark places you never let anyone see. The music has gotten me through so much shit in my life since Pretty Hate Machine (halo 2) came out way back in 1989 I can't even begin to tell you (I wore that tape out three times and then I bought the CD). And I'm missing the Wave Goodbye tour. I can't stand it. What the fuck did I do to deserve this? My life has been hell recently and the additional tour dates actually made me excited about something again. And I can't get tickets. It's like the world just crashed in. I needed to get a ticket to one of these shows on so many levels. And unless some miracle occurs, it's not going to happen.

Universe, GO TO HELL. I HATE YOU RIGHT NOW WITH EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING FOR FUCKING WITH ME LIKE THIS. You already ripped my heart out once this summer, why did you have to do it again?

Coming back to life

I'm still alive. Really. I know I haven't posted for two months. I was in "keep my head down and maybe I won't lose it" mode. Things have been a bit insane and until the personal earthquakes finally stopped I just focused on making it through each day.

Here's a nice summary list of the major events since July, in rough chronological order, handily organized by month.

July
*My cousin gives birth to a baby boy! Welcome to the family! My grandmother can now stop putting pressure on me about having her great-grandbabies before she dies (for some reason she was fixated on me being the one to have the babies). So thank you to my cousin. :)
*I take a long weekend and drive up to Boston, MA for a friend's wedding reception (YAY for LHK and WK!!) and to visit a good friend from grad school. Flickr pictures of the reception and my friend's garden (BF is an amazing gardener!).
*I move mid-month.
One week after moving the following events occurred:
*Visitors! My good friends LC and SB!
*Ozomatli concert! (the reason for my visitors)
*A leak appears in the ceiling in my bedroom closet, forcing me to take all the clothes I had recently unpacked and put away back out of the closet again.

August
*The leak in my closet ceiling is due to a leak in upstairs bathroom tub faucet. During repairs, the leak spreads to middle of my bedroom and rains all over the clothes I had removed from the closet to protect them. Dammit.
*Bike tires meet trolley rails. Ouch!
*Mid-month my mother arrives for a visit! YAY!!!
*One day prior to my mother's arrival, my landlord has a disagreement with the gas company and they turn off the gas service to the property. The gas powers the heat, hot water, and my stove. So now I can't shower or cook. Fortunately it's August so I don't have to worry about the heat just yet.
*My landlord replaces the gas hot water heater and my gas stove with electric appliances (note the furnace is NOT replaced at this time). I spend FIVE DAYS while they do this without hot water or the ability to cook anything. My mother suffers with me. Great visit, no?
*My mother fortunately is able to extend her visit by a few days so we can enjoy each others company once we've showered. :) She helps me finish unpacking and settling into my new apartment.
*My sister comes for a visit to attend the Nine Inch Nails concert with me!! w00t!! A truly incredible concert. We had a wonderful time hanging out together the rest of the weekend too.
*In the midst of all of this, things continue to change and move forward into an uncertain (yet encouraging) future at work. My new library school intern also started work the second week of August and I spend much of the first part of the month training her. Fortunately she's a quick study.

September
*Work is crazy. The students return and the semester begins. Additional organizational changes at work are announced.
*Mid-month I take a few days vacation that don't involve a pet emergency/drama, apartment drama, or some other drama. I enjoyed several days with no internet spending time with a really good friend just hanging out and relaxing. It was wonderful. Then I returned home and opened my email. Yikes.
*Upon returning from my [far too brief] vacation I adopted a cat to bring my total of four-legged furry children to two. Yes, a cat named Capri (pics on Flickr). And she and the dog get along just fine, thankyouverymuch.

October
*Work continues to be insanely busy.
*The month starts off badly with me getting sick with a fever for two days after getting soaked by rain.
*One of my best friends from college gets married in Louisville, KY. YAY for EH and KD!! Congrats!! KD, you are a very lucky woman as EH is an awesome guy. I'm so glad I was able to attend and had a blast at the wedding (photos I took at the event are posted here on Flickr).
*It gets cold. Since my landlords have not replaced my furnace or gotten the gas turned back on, the temperature in my apartment drops to 62 degrees, sometimes dipping a bit below that during the night. I start sleeping in my long underwear (normally reserved for camping) and wool socks.
*I get sick. Again. With the cold from hell that lays me up for nearly a week when my asthma kicks in and breathing becomes work. For several days after I start recovering I continue to sound like a husky lounge singer.
*The Phillies win the World Series! The city erupts in chaotic celebrations. Mayor Nutter reminds everyone: "You can be joyous. You cannot be a jackass." Fabulous!
*A new leak appears in the ceiling of my bedroom...this time in the middle of the room. I have to move the dog bed so plaster doesn't fall on her head.
*At the end of October I still don't have heat. After 3 workmen give estimates about what it would cost to convert to electric heat, my landlord decides to make a deal with the gas company to turn the gas back on so they can fire up the furnace. Mind you, access to the furnace for the building is through MY apartment...so each new workman means another person in my space.

November
*On Monday, Nov. 3rd, after 3 more days, a visit from the gas company to replace a meter (also in my apartment) and turn the gas back on, and visits from THREE different handymen, the furnace is finally turned back on and my apartment has heat! Just in time for a warm spell...oh well.
*The handymen on Monday kill two birds with one stone with their visit and fix the leak at the same time they get the furnace fired up! Efficiency is a beautiful thing.
*History is made and we elect Barak Obama as our next president. I am ecstatic!!

And I think that brings us to the present.

OMG NIN

Just got home from the Nine Inch Nails concert tonight.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Best. Show. Ever.

Best. Seats. Ever.

OMG WOW

I think I'm high on the adrenalin rush...and hoarse from screaming and singing at the top of my lungs.

w00t!!!

Nine Inch Nails is coming to Philly!!

Friday, August 29th. At the Wachovia Center. I'm not-so-patiently waiting for the date tickets go on sale.

I AM SO THERE.

New NIN album!!

EEEEE!!!!! NEW NIN ALBUM!!!!!!!!

WANT!

Titled Ghosts I-IV, it's an entirely instrumental album of 36 tracks on 2 CDs.

It gets better. How can it get better, you ask? The first 9 tracks (disc 1) are available for download for FREE from nin.com, complete with a 40 page booklet and other fun stuff. FREE, people! [Of course, the NIN Ghosts site is so clogged tonight I can't download it at the moment...]

It even gets one step even better than free...DRM-free as well. All downloads, free or purchased, are being made available DRM-free.

And you people wonder why I would have Trent Reznor's baby in a heartbeat if he asked me to...

Other editions, including a deluxe edition with the 2 CDs, a hardback book, DVD, and Blu-ray disc with a slide show, will be available soon. The basic 2 CD set (DRM-free download included!) should be available April 8th.

OMG OMG OMG OMG...yes, I'm freaking out. Deal with it.

News about Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor at The NIN Hotline

New music month, or, a love post about Nine Inch Nails

Earlier this month (April 3rd) Ozomatli released their new album, Don't Mess with the Dragon. It rocks. It's fun and exciting and has a great (and infectious) beat. Like all their albums. I've been listening to it and dancing while I do my housework. It's so much more fun to vacuum when you're doing a salsa at the same time. Really. Try it. You'll see.

Today (TODAY!!) Nine Inch Nails released Year Zero, less than two years after With Teeth. Trent Reznor did some serious viral marketing on his latest album, to the point of catching the attention of "non-fans" like the big guys at Google (Matt Cutts) and Rolling Stone. He left USB drives for people to find at concerts, giving fans pre-releases of tracks from the new album and leading them a neat little "down the rabbit hole" chase through the web. A series of websites linked from one to the other, all leading fans through a network of ideas (and a vision of the future), while keeping them interested and guessing. Messages were hidden on t-shirts and buttons. Listening parties (hear the full album before the release!) were held where fans were given more "clues" to the website maze. All in all, quite brilliant. Fans used webpages/fanpages (examples here and here), message boards and wikis to keep each other informed. And Trent has encouraged it all. It has been fascinating to watch, and it's still going. It's not done yet. It's still evolving. There are more "clues" on the album, in the CD booklet, the cover art, and on the physical CD itself ("thermachrome" art that is only visible when the disc is warm, how cool!). Oh, and let's not forget, the entire thing is a commentary on the possible state of the future world, it's a make-believe and rather bleak future where the government has control of it's citizens via a drug they put in the water called parepin (do a Google search for it, I dare you...).

I'll be buying the album, regardless of the marketing, but that's because I'm a long term fan (think back to the beginning of NIN with Down In It and Pretty Hate Machine in 1989) and I buy ALL the albums. Trent's been doing viral stuff for awhile, one example being the lyrics to With Teeth, which were made available via a PDF file that linked one song to another using colored text (there was no booklet with the album). From what I understand via interviews, it's not about selling records for Trent, it's really about the music. So making it possible for fans to listen to the entire album (which he did) prior to release might seem insane, but I wasn't at all surprised. In one of my favorite interviews with Trent he talks about how when he gets a new album, he turns off the phone, sits down, and listens to the entire album from start to finish. He has to experience the album and the music as a whole. Because, ultimately, it's about the music. And I happen to agree wholeheartedly (as someone that really does get "lost" listening to music as much as I do when reading a book).

Overall Trent has really tapped into the web2.0 market and made the music an experience that the fans participate in and help shape. I have so much respect for that. He's reinvented himself and the band over and over, constantly growing as an artist and musician. Nine Inch Nails has blogs (yes, plural), a MySpace page, fan sites that are detailed, and an ever evolving main website complete with a "resources" page that has exterior links. Not to mention downloads galore for those that want them. You have desktop wallpaper, sound files that fans can remix and then upload back to the main site (granted, in Garageband for Macs, but still...), song lyrics, and so much more. It takes the music beyond and really engages the fans, making them active listeners, not just passive receivers. Which, in a nutshell, is what web2.0 is all about, engaging users. Year Zero as an album in particular is supposed to be more than just the album, everything, including the websites, is Year Zero. It's a whole package: image, story, future world, music, all tied together; every piece is significant (although the music is the ultimate expression). And it's not done yet. It's still evolving.

Oh, and if anyone's interested, Year Zero (the album) rocks. Different than every album that came before, and just as incredible. I'm in love with NIN all over again (happens every time I hear a new release). It's distinct in its sound from the other albums/releases, yet without betraying its roots so you can still tell it's Nine Inch Nails. Truly reflects the ever evolving nature of Nine Inch Nails as a musical entity.