I'm Busy Making Money for Peter Gabriel Concert

I'm starting to dread my trip to Leipzig, Germany later this year to attend a Peter Gabriel soundcheck and concert.  I'm not dreading the plane flight, the language barrier or the music -- it's paying for it all.  Earlier this year, I needed fillings in 3 front teeth.  Unknown to me, my goofy health insurance no longer covered fillings in the front teeth.  I wound up having to shell out $100 per tooth.

Coupled with the sudden increase in food prices, pet food prices and my health insurance premiums (yes -- the same damn company that would no longer cover fillings in my front teeth -- ALL HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE EVIL), my bank account is severely drained.  I've been working hard to try and afford this trip.  Unfortunately, most available work is low-paying, so I'm back to churning out large quantities of web content, including (I kid you not) how to be a financial dominatrix.  (Look it up.)

Things I do to see a Peter Gabriel concert.

Image nicked from the web somewhere.  It may have something to do with being a financial dominatrix; I don't know.  I'm kinda hoping he lives in Leipzig.

Bye Bye Meeks Genesis Cafe

Back in the late 1990s, there were shovelfuls of websites and fan pages devoted to Peter Gabriel and/or Genesis.  I had one of them but it went down after I ran away to the UK because of a mental breakdown.  Anyway, just about all of those websites are gone.

Here's another one to add to the list -- Meek's Genesis Cafe.  The site owner but this announcement up today on Facebook:

I would like to take a moment to say goodbye to the Genesis Community as I know it. It really is time for me to gracefully decline. There will no longer be Meek's Genesis Cafe on FB or anywhere else as my radio will also close soon. If ever I do come back it won't be for Genesis Only..I would like to thank those who have been so supportive of me (not always easy) through the years. I have built many relationships that I would like to keep so if you want to continue those relationships (you all know who you are) https://www.facebook.com/michael.carzo . Everything will be closing shortly...carry on.

This was a real quality site and it has no substitute.  It's a sad day for Peter Gabriel and Genesis fans.  I guess it's back to where we were in the 1980s where we just sat in our rooms and imagined stuff about our favorite man and our favorite band.

EDIT: The site may be back.

Peter Gabriel at Mission Control & TED

Peter Gabriel was recently at NASA headquarters, where he talked to three astronauts up on the International Space Station (pictured).  An 11-minute film of the exchange is up on Peter's Facebook page, where the four Gabriels play happy families why the astronauts talk a bit about zero gravity, building with water and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Peter is still on his year-long sabbatical.  According to his Facebook page, he spent his birthday in Mexico. 

He is now in California for the TED conference thingy.  I've never understood what the big deal was about TED (people go up on a stage and talk for 20 minutes in front of an audience.  Ooo.  Ahhh.)  but occasionally there's a gem of a talk, such as the one done in February 2002 by evolutionary biologist and bestselling author, Richard Dawkins.  Even Peter's talk in 2008 couldn't get better than that.

An article about Peter at this year's TED conference round table called "Interspecies Internet" appeared on TED's website.  Peter apparently is concerned for elephants and bonobos, but has no concern whatsoever for horses (since a couple of years ago (around the time of the Melbourne Cup fiasco) he admitted that he frequently bets on horse races.)

ANYWAY...

(Now comes the bit about me, so if you're only reading this for PG news, you can go now)

While Peter's off, I'm working as hard as I can.  I had a nice little nest egg saved for my trip to Germany later this year to see PG in concert, but then it was mostly wiped out from my most recent trip to the dentist.  Turns out my health insurance no longer covers fillings to front teeth and since they decided not to inform me of this change, I had work done on three of my front teeth.  Perhaps I'll just sleep on a park bench in  Leipzig instead of staying at a hotel.

As well as working for my Mom, working for my pets and working for my clients, I'm also trying to make a go of my blogs, all of which have been recently updated.  They are:

• ReasonsNotToCommitSuicide (about mental illness and mental health)
• Dreaming of Peter (about sleep and dreams)
• Why Van Gogh Matters ('cause he does, dammit!)