Sunday, January 31, 2010

Peter Gabirel Now on Twitter


Although there are about 1500 people claiming to be Peter Gabriel on Twitter, one is from the real guy, or at least, from Real World Studios. Granted, it may not be PG himself that does the typing, but his pubicists are the next best thing. The funny thing is that Peter Gabriel could not use that as his user name on Twitter, becasue it had already been taken. So, now Itspetergabriel.

As a freelance writer, I've been urged several times by my clients and from other freelance writers to get a Twitter account. I've held off (holy cow -- isn't a blog enough in this word anymore?) but now that Peter's gone and gotten one, I have, too at Renasherwood. (All of the good user names, like Peter Gabriel, had already been taken.) Unlike MySpace of Facebook, Twitter doesn't crash my 10 year old computer.

The avatar I've chosen is "Killer Chihuahua" taken by David Shankbone and is up at Wikimedia Commons. Trust me - this dog is much better looking than myself. Off to discover the joy of micro-blogging.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Peter Gabriel North American New Blood Tour 2010


Just my luck. In the last post, I talked abut spluriging for a trip to Berlin in order to see Peter Gabriel perform with semi-full chamber orchestra. A day after buy my non-refundable airplane tickets, Peter announces a tour of North America. Boy, is my family laughing. So far, there are only four dates, but note the big date gaps. PG tours have added shows less than a month before the show date in the past, so I wouldn't put it past him to do it again.

The tour so far:

* April 28 Montreal Bell Centre
* May 2 New York Radio City Music Hall
* May 3 New York Radio City Music Hall
* May 7 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl

As far as I know, tickets are not officially on sale yet. Hmmm... I've never been to New York City ... Anyway, here's a taste -- Peter's cover of David Bowie's "Heroes". I'd never been able to understand the lyrics before Peter sang it.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Peter Gabriel "New Blood" 24 March Berlin O2


I know I previously mentioned Peter's mini-European "New Blood" tour, but I'm repeating myself here for a reason.

I'm going.

I saw that a second show for the Berlin O2 Arena had been added. Peter's studio, Real World, was offering bundle tickets which included:

! A ticket to the show
! A ticket to the soundcheck (two concerts in one day)
! An "event access laminate" (which I think is a fancy way of saying "backstage pass")
! A T-shirt
! A copy of Peter's new CD, "Scratch My Back"

I thought, "Hmmm, wouldn't it be great if I could go?" Then I smacked myself in the head when I realized:

1) I'm 40 years old and don't need anyone's permission to go to Berlin
2) I'm self-employed
3) I have the money
4) I have an up to date passport
5) I need a new T-shirt

Now, there still could be problems that prevent me from going. Germany could invade Poland. I could drop dead. The tickets could spontaneously combust. But I have to blog about this or my head will explode. There. Now I can get back to work writing about Toshiba laptops, treatments for clinical depression and chronic kidney failure in dogs.

The really fun thing is that after years of taking German classes in High School and college, all my knowledge of this language has boiled down to one sentence:

"Der Bleistift ist gelb."

(The pencil is yellow.)

Oh, that will come in handy.