The first band was Angel Theory, a guy inexplicably from Australia. Madison seems far-flung for an international venue. His set was predictable and fine in a technical sense but not altogether inspiring. Then there were the Gothsicles. This consists of law student turned lawyer girl on keyboard, and a dude on vocals. They set up a projector with video accompaniment. The songs are all based on geek culture from the 1980's. One is about inflating your enemies until they explode, which brings to mind Dig-Dug, that scene from Scanners or whatever the hell it's called, and anything else involves swelling and explosions. There's the up up, down down, left right, left right, b a, select, start Contra song about getting 30 lives in that game. And oddly one about how easy it is to die in what I think is Bad Boys, an NES game that made Karma Jolt famous apparently. I never made it very far in that game. Anyway, it's a great outfit for touching on common experiences in much of the audience. Because, oddly, somewhere in the late 1980's, Siouxsie Goths or punker Goths somehow gave way to geeks that either dress in black or just casual. Which is fine, because I am firmly between those two sub-cultures.

Assemblage 23 was one dude (Tom?) and the same Aussie guy on keyboard and tracks as had done Angel Theory. Tom was a phenomenon. His basic gist is that he has a pop ballad structure with Depeche Mode or Darkwave stylings that feature dark, typically somber, mildly self-defeatist, tortured lyrics. Here are a few good examples: "Cocoon" and "Disappoint". Ignore the anime and raise to 480 from 360 if possible--

Cocoon

Disappoint

He really got the crowd going. Got me going. Guy did an encore and an encore of an encore because he apparently likes Madison and our energy. I was so into it that there were two things that confused me:

*Somewhere during his main set, this actually pretty good looking mocha woman in some stretchy something tried what I thought was moving past me. The whole dance floor was completely packed, mind you, and most of us 2 or 3 back from the front row were dancing. So this buxom lady gets in front of me, back to my front, seems to be inching by, and then all the sudden turns around and start gyrating all up on my business for like 5 seconds, what with all of such as boob against my person.

I was completely "what the fuck" in my bodily reaction. I mean...what the fuck? I don't even know if it was that, because she scurried off mighty quick, but I'd expect at least some sort of initiating behavior, y'know? This chick next me and I had a mostly mouthed conversation as a commentary consisting of:

Her -- "What the hell?"
Me -- [shrugs]
Her -- "You don't break the circle like that."
Me -- "I know! What the hell?"
Her -- "Yeah! [puts fist to palm]"
Me -- "[Shakes head, continues dancing]"

Just weird.

*The other incident involved a dude I will refer to as Necromancer. Guy was either naturally 6'7 or had on platform shoes. He had a white wig, deadling make-up, and a plastic cast skull in his hand. He would come up right next to me or around the area, wave the skull at Assemblage 23 guy, bob and weave such that he was knackering against many of us, and then suddenly leave. This was a cause of amusement to me and others. Actually helped with a bit of social cohesion. At one point I was all:

Me: "Okay, really, just calm down, it's okay."

Necromancer: "[looks down with sorrowful, sheepish eyes]."

Me: "It's okay just, really, come down."

The trippy part was that a woman in her late 30's/early 40's and her older friend then came into the general area. Blonde younger woman was all sorts of about this gent. Later on they hugged, and she tried to get his attention, but he'd just do his swaying and bobbing thing, or he'd just randomly leave the dance floor while she was still doing that whole attention thing.

I know. There's an interesting, small corollary there and with the random grinding woman situation. Thing is this. I knew Necromancer was getting hit on. I didn't know what the fuck that 5 seconds was and I was getting my dance on.

Anyway, Assemblage 23 was lovely.

---

Let's see. I've revised my dissertation, gotten it approved by Dr. Crisco my main advisor, written an original abstract for the SfN conference, started re-re-re-revising the survey studies paper mentioned on occasion since years back, and almost got internet hook-up today. Unfortunately my apartment manager was not available, didn't come back at the time he said he would, and has the key required to get into the cable room to facilitate my not having to steal someone's internet. Ben is just useless sometimes.

---

I've been thinking more about Rachel lately. This happened periodically when I dated Emily. I guess when you've known someone a long time it just comes up. Well, I've written about this sort of thing before and won't bore the journal with it. I will say, though, that I missed talking to her. It can be tough not talking about work, but in letting myself go it can be fun.

I didn't have the financial means to visit when we first got to know each other 7 or so years ago, but it recently occurred to me that it'd be a good idea. It's one of the few things I regret out of my 20's, which I'll be shuffling off soon.

That and I need to visit The Captain/Daniel/Old Goat. There is discord in Philadelphia, what with the recent divorce between him and one of our oldest friends Selene/Ac.

So I'm slowly peeling away the claw of circumstance from my throat. It's an interesting new chapter on my life.

And what the fuck, I'm a Doctor now? Ha ha ha.

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