bweh.

Okay, so I’m sneaking a break on the laptop to make a posting, and after this God only knows when I’ll be on again, because our broadband is not scheduled to be turned on until July 30th (augh!), and while I will therefore probably only have access when I hie myself to an internet cafe. Odds are good I’ll do that at least every couple days, but waugh no net. On the other hand, I have revisions to do and a proposal to write (two proposals, if I really have my act together) in the next week, and then a book to finish As Soon As Bloody Possible. A month without net access will probably be very very good for me.

However, in terms of a public service announcement, anybody needing to get ahold of me for anything in the next 30 days, if you do not have my phone number, please use the cemurphyauthor at gmail dot com account to contact me, as that’s the only address I’ll unquestionably have access to.

The weekend has been spent in an exhaustive frenzy of moving. A third, or perhaps half, of the new house is unpacked, and the old house is down to a handful of crap in the living room that needs to be thrown into boxes and carted over. And the bicycles. Mustn’t forget the bicycles. Anyway, my parents came down from Dublin to help us, and were invaluable in doing so. Mom and I got as much of the house in town unpacked as we could, and Dad and Ted did all the heavy lifting, and this morning Mom and I cleaned the house in Cobh. The upstairs is pristine and the downstairs…well, they’ve gone into town to drop off a last load of stuff, and I’ve stayed behind to clean the kitchen, which will then leave only the living room and downstairs carpets to be dealt with. It has been a very long weekend.

But. Last night we went to see The Who in concert, and

I’ll try to write an intelligent posting about it later (maybe after I’ve cleaned the kitchen, sigh), but oh. my. God. That was probably the best concert we’ve been to so far. Not for the effects, not for the showy presentation, but just for forty years of rock music condensed into two hours by two insanely talented men (and a bunch of backup musicians who were perfectly content to not be in the limelight). It was just an absolutely fantastic show. There could not have been a better way to finish an exhausting day yesterday than with that concert.

And both Daltrey and Townshend look far less dissipated than Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, which I thought was amusing, since they’re a few years older and could pass for a decade or two younger. :) Sadly, with all the moving that was going on, we didn’t remember the concert camera, so no photos this time. Maybe we’ll be insanely lucky and they’ll do one more tour someday soon.

They played for two solid hours, the only time in which Townshend left the stage was between the end of the set and the encore. Daltrey jumped around, if not quite like a twenty year old, then still with enormous enthusiasm and delight, and sang his face pink, and Jesus they’re good. I mean, they’re as good as you could hope they’d be, and given that it’s The Who, that’s asking a hell of a lot. And for somebody who doesn’t actively know their music, well, I knew a hell of a lot of their music. *grin* Pete Townshend really is just a guitar god, and *laugh* he said after their first few songs that he was kind of surprised to see so many people there (I’d guess it’s a 5000 seat venue, and it was pretty damned close to full), given that Justin Timberlake was playing in Dublin. “You made the wrong choice,” he said, to hoots of derision and disbelief. :) I’m sure Justin’s very nice and all, but he’s not exactly a rock legend. Ted and I were laughing about that after the show, and he said, “*Fuck* Justin Timberlake,” and I was like, “…I think I’d rather do Daltrey, if I get a choice in the matter….” :) We also said, on the way out, “Okay, now if we could manage to see David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, then basically, yeah, that would be the Holy Trinity of Rock. Let’s do that.” :)

They stayed off stage so long after the end of the set I actually didn’t think they were going to *do* an encore. But you know how generally when the audience is calling for an encore, it starts off really loud and fades away as people run out of energy for hooting and hollering? In the three to five minutes they were off stage, the audience did not drop one *decibel* in volume. I’d never heard anything like it. And then they did a six song encore, including “The Kids Are All Right”, which is one of my favorite Who songs, so I was extra happy. :)

It was, in fact, generally a really awesome and high-octane audience. On the way off stage at the end of the set but before the encore, Townshend said something like, “I can’t believe this, listen to us,” and then, “Listen to *us*? Listen to *yourselves*!” and gestured toward the audience. I guess we made enough noise to impress them. :) It was a great audience and a great show.

Ok, I’ve now spent almost an hour on this and skimming my flist, so I need to go to work so I can catch a train home before the middle of the night. Maybe I’ll post more later, but probably not. Everybody be good while I’m gone!