Category: English

I feel cheated!

Yes, another Porcupine Tree related post. The craze continues, excuse me while I kiss the quills. Ouch. Nevermind that.

The ‘Tree played in Thessaloniki last night. The setlist was the same as in Athens.

Except instead of The Circle of Manias and The Seance, they played the 15-minute version of Even Less, The Start of Something Beautiful and The Sound of Muzak. AND because they were playing with no Anathema, the ticket cost just a mere €20! ARGH!

OK I’ll just go listen to Buying New Soul to calm down a bit! I’ve got studying to do and only 1 hour or something to do it in!

Porcupine Tree Live in Athens at Technopolis, 09/09/2010 — Impressions!

I’ve been listening to Porcupine Tree since 2004. I wasn’t even 16 years old then. My first contact with them was by listening to The Sky Moves Sideways… It was just right for me then: I was a developing Floyd fan and I could really relate with their sound as it was when they (him? Porcupine Tree was little more than Steven Wilson’s pet band that early) did it, their prog rock side shining through… It didn’t take long for me to listen to In Absentia in all its glory as well, and a few months later their newest album, Deadwing, was released. And then I started actively following them.

It was July 2005 when they played in Lycabettus Theater together with Blackfield and Van Der Graaf Generator, under a full moon. Back then, they had played 9 songs; some of them I didn’t know. I was there with my friend George. Porcupine Tree hadn’t grown enough on me for me to truly have a great time but I liked it nonetheless. I was a fledgling rocker anyhow (I consider myself a fledgling rocker even today).

It took Porcupine Tree another 5 years to re-visit Greece and Athens. Within those years, there’s been great change inside of me. I was 16 back then, I’m 21 today, that’s obvious enough… But I feel that whatever I like about Porcupine Tree grew up with me as well, it matured. The years passed and I loved them more and more. Their music accompanied me through times happy, sad, hard and carefree. It inspired me, mystified me. Fear of a Blank Planet and The Incident came out within those years and I was there to celebrate. These guys’ music even served as my initial common ground with Maaike and anything that relationship, quotes or no, ever symbolised or tought me. To summarise: Within 6 short years, Porcupine Tree developed into my favourite band.

So of course it was a special moment when I learned that they would be coming this year and what a surprise: they’d be playing in Technopolis, one of the coolest places in central Athens. So the months passed and the night came! I left the day before yesterday from Mytilini to be here in Athens on time for the concert and I’m leaving again for my beloved little island town tonight. ~24 hours worth of hanging around ship interiors, studying and reading The Drawing of The Three. I could honestly take twice as much for what I experienced yesterday. And on my own was great. Neni, of course, in one of her usual bouts of derangement decided not to take the opportunity to even come to the concert on her own, let alone with me. Not that I cared in the end: I was able to take it all in with no distractions in my head. What can I say? Her loss. That’s the least I can say.

The ‘Tree gave a fantastic performance. I wish I could be at the railing but I was just half a meter behind! I would have managed to be at the railing if not for a few friends that I met and gave the extra ticket to, but I didn’t mind at the end, we had a good time after the concert! 😉

So! What did they play?

The Setlist:

    1. Occam’s Razor
    2. The Blind House
    3. Great Expectations
    4. Kneel and Disconnect
    5. Drawing the Line
    6. Open Car
    7. Lazarus
    8. Russia on Ice (part 1)
    9. Anesthetize (part 2)
    10. Time Flies
    11. Degree Zero of Liberty
    12. The Séance
    13. Circle of Manias
    14. Normal
    15. Way Out of Here
    16. Sleep Together

      17. Encore:

    17. Stars Die
    18. Blackest Eyes
    19. Trains

Highlights:

Right when they came out and started playing Occam’s Razor, at one of the pauses it seemed as if there was something wrong with Steven’s guitar, which might actually have been the case. But he just made it look as if it was just dramatic idling. It was suspenseful! And then of course came The Blind House.

Open Car in last night’s show had a brand new breakdown! We were all ecstatic, looking at eachother in crazy disbelief. Check it out in this video that, strangely, has not been taken down. 2:10 marks the spot.

I’m getting feelings I’m hiding too well
(Bury the horse shaped shell) [wtf man? :P]
Something broke inside my stomach
I let the pieces lie just where they fell
(Being with you is hell)

Russia on Ice together with Anesthetize? What an inspiration! Steven did a trick where he played his chords by just kind of slapping the strings there. It was impressive!

I didn’t expect to like the 2nd part of The Incident, that is, the songs after Time Flies, but the band managed to give them some kind of energy that was absent on the recording. I liked that…

After they finished their standard setlist with Way Out of Here and Sleep Together, they left the stage. I always find encores funny, how the artists just leave the stage like that. It’s as if they’re saying “Klain” to everyone! 😀 Anyway, they came back of course and Steven said: “We have some of the older songs for you tonight…” He had already mentioned it at the beginning, but it was really happening! And we were all like: “what might they have in store for us tonight?”, you could smell the anticipation in the air. We hoped their guilt for leaving us with no Porcupine Tree for 5 years would be enough for them to do something special, at least they sounded guilty when Steven said “we hope you haven’t forgot us” or something to that extent… And it begun with Stars Die.

And here’s your proof, the best quality I did find… The song took me back to when I had first listened to PT. It was one of the first songs of theirs that I had come to love. And I remember Giorgos, an old friend of mine, telling me he’d told a girl he was hitting on, drunk of course: “Stars die, stars die…” I dedicate this memory to him. 🙂 Incidentally (pun unintended), he was the one that introduced me to Porcupine Tree. Cheers mate. We need to talk more.

And then came Blackest Eyes and Trains (Fanis would have gone wild with this one). I’ll leave the following do the talking. By the way, you can listen to me cheering and making happy noises and remarks at least at 2:07 and 4:14, that ETSI REEEE!! must be me… I’m not sure! I was somewhere around there. Also notice, at the end of the concert, how Gavin does his magic trick (hard to see on the video) and Richard produces a suitable sound effect and Colin took out his video camera and recorded the whole scene, including the wild crowd (that’s us)! Yeah! I can’t imagine the guys just sitting in a couch, watching crowd videos from the tour and making funny comments. I would actually pay money for such a deep behind-the-scenes.

EDIT!: THEY DELETED IT! THESE ASSHOLES! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT… :'( YOU’RE NOT EARNING ANY RESPECT OR FANS FOR THIS, YOU KNOW…

I sung every song at the top of my voice. I headbanged and rocked with my whole body. I got lost in memories and created even better ones at this concert. I had the chance to see them live again and it was awesome. Gavin is the best drummer alive, Richard is a master of atmosphere, I’d like to have Colin’s coolness and bass guitar skills, and Steven is a bare-foot musical genius with incredible live energy and style. John Wesley, their guest guitarist and backing vocalist for the tour, melted girls’ hearts yesterday in addition to playing superbly… Thanks for a great show, at a great place, with great music.

Have a look at their older setlists in Athens, however, and tell me how awesome it must have been to see them play stuff off Lightbulb Sun, for example…

http://www.setlist.fm/search?query=porcupine+tree+athens

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

</fanboy>

Oh, Anathema also played… Meh… These are the songs they played, they really weren’t anything special in my opinion. Don’t know their old songs, of course, nor did I catch them at their hayday.

EDIT:

Maybe not all that much has changed after all… has it?

2005

2010

Drawing the Line

Listen (thanks, Grooveshark, for saving the world of music linking after Youtube turned evil!)

Camphor crossed with lace, it is the witching hour
Cinematic but crude
Teasing all my feelings out, you move away
It seems so natural to you

Still the siren climbing up her victory tower
Like there’s something left to prove
I trap the beads of sweat that run between my eyes
And free the fever to move

I’m drawing the line, I’m drawing the line
I’m drawing the line, I draw the line
And I have my pride
I’m taking control, I’m taking control
I’m taking control, I’m taking control
And I save my soul
I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out
I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out
And I have no doubt

Dreamt the sound of scissors cutting stitches out
Then discarding the used
Recording all my problems onto memory cards
Your compassion unmoved

Unto others what they always do to you
The most twisted of your rules
Distill malaise and photograph the hole it leaves
Running out a copy for you

I’m drawing the line, I’m drawing the line
I’m drawing the line, I draw the line
And I have my pride
I’m taking control, I’m taking control
I’m taking control, I’m taking control
And I save my soul
I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out
I’m shutting you out, I’m shutting you out
And I have no doubt

~~

Tonight’s the big night… *giddy giddy*

Porcupine Tree – The Rest Will Flow

I don’t know whether it’s because I like Porcupine Tree so much that I find their songs so close to my emotions or whether the reverse is happening. Maybe it’s a cyclical thing.

I hope this doesn’t get taken down (like all the otheeers…)

The first photographs ever taken

Stumbled upon (literally, not via StumbeUpon!) it while looking for a place to develop a b/w film in Athens…

1826

The picture below is reputed to be the world’s first photograph.  It was taken in 1826 and was developed by French photographer Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. He called this process “heliography” or sun drawing and the entire process took eight hours.

——————

1869

Before the Autochrome process was perfected in France, this photograph of a landscape in Southern France was taken. No, it is not hand-tinted. This is a color-photograph. (Note: It was published in a Time/Life Book entitled “Color” in 1972, “courtesey of George Eastman House, Paulus Lesser.”) You are looking at the birth of color photography seven years after the American Civil War. 130 years ago this view of Angouleme, France, was created by a “subtractive” method. This is the basis for all color photography, even today. It was taken by Louis Ducos du Hauron who proposed the method in 1869. It was not until the 1930’s that this method was perfected for commercial use.

 

——————-

1838

oldest_human_photo.jpg

This is one of the, if not the, oldest known photograph of a human being in existence. It depends on how one defines photograph, but this was taken by Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre in 1838. (The fellow the daguerreotype was named after.) This is a photo of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. This is a busy street and there was tons of traffic, but since the exposure was so long, about 15-20 minutes, none of the moving figures can be seen. The only people visible are a guy getting his boots polished and the bootblack. Who was this nameless gentleman or the bootblack? No one knows. I’m sure they never imagined that they had been immortalized, albeit anonymously, by a clever scientist testing his newly discovered method of preserving moments in time.

It was a different world then. The only motorized transportation was the railroad, and even it was in its infancy. Horses and sailing ships were still the primary means of getting around, the typical person probably never travelled more than 50 miles from where they were born. The first Atlantic steamship service started this year though, so the future was on the way. The telegraph had been invented, but the first commercial telegraph operations were a year away. There were commercial semaphore telegraphs operating, so it was possible to send a message over some distance for a price.

The first accurate measurement of the distance to a nearby star was calculated in 1838, the intellectuals were beginning to grasp just how big the universe really was. Though the discovery that there were other galaxies besides our own was still decades away. The first mass produced clocks were flooding markets in England and America, for the first time commoners could have a clock in their homes. Though it would be some decades before time zone was invented, clocks were set to local noon. They were the PCs of their day no doubt. What we would call a modern bicycle was still a year away, the bicycles of the era were propelled by pushing the ground with one’s feet. Gads.

Napoleon was still on everyone’s minds no doubt, the way Hitler is now the demon du jour, having been defeated less than three decades before. Slavery had been abolished in most of the civilized world, with the exception of the USA. In England Queen Victoria’s reign began the year before. I’m sure no one guessed she would reign until 1901, 63 years, the longest reign of any British Monarch. I doubt she or anyone guessed at the changes that would take place in her lifetime. And neither Germany nor Italy existed yet yet, both were a dozen or more smaller independent nations.

Here is a map of Europe in 1815. It would have looked the same in 1838 if I am not mistaken. America was a lot smaller then too, and Texas was an independent nation. In any event, nothing particularly profound about this post. I am just trying to share my love of history in general and old photographs in particular. (I’ve linked to this before, but here again is a lovely site about the history of photography.) Every age thinks it is at the end of history, and at the time, they were.

Puts some perspective into digital photography… Do you think people in 2180 will find anything interesting that exists today in my flickr profile? I wonder if and how today’s technology will be compatible with the mediums of the future…

Big thank you to my sources (in order) and to (CTRL+C)+(CTRL+V):

Idea

1st photo

2nd photo

3rd photo <- Doug’s Darkworld

Shesmovedon (Reprise)

An important period of my life begun with this song… Now it appears to end with his song as well. To some cultures, time is cyclical, not linear. Events repeat themselves, since time does not “go on”, more like, “goes round”.

Some even choose to delete the past…

So, time has gone round. And again, more than ever, this song catches the spirit of it perfectly.

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search/songs/?query=shesmovedon


You move in waves
You never retrace
Your newest craze
Straight out of the face by the bed unread
I’m left behind
Like all the others
Some fall for you
It doesn’t make much difference if they do
She changes every time you look
By summer it was all gone – now she’s moved on
She called you every other day
So savour it it’s all gone – now she’s moved on
So for a while
Everything seemed new
Did we connect?
Or was it all just biding time for you?

Pokemon TCG Cards for sale! (Looking Back Part 0.1)

It’s 2000. Every little kid and pre-teen (and some teens as well!) are heavily sick of Pokemon fever. The video games and TCG sell like crazy and you can see a Pikachu almost everywhere you go. Kind of like Dora the Explorer or Ben 10 of today. A little boy called Dimitris Hall is no exception and is sicker than most.

I caught the Pokemon bug (or should I say… the Bug Pokemon. Get it? ;p) early in 2000 and for a few years Pokemon was all I could think about. “I ate and breathed Pokemon”. Even today I can amaze my friends, who weren’t all that lesser of fans, by being able to recall almost the full roster of the 251 Pokemon of the first two generations. They have been etched in my long-term memory. Generations 3 and 4 were disappointments for me, so I recall being a big Poke-fan for around 3 years.  Yes, the special years of pre-puberty I was collecting virtual monsters and animals. Cool, isn’t it? I still like Pokemon but the game has not grown up or matured at all, unlike me.

Mum found my Pokemon TCG collection a few weeks ago which had been almost lost after numerous moves. She handed me my albums and boxfuls and back I went to my 11 and 12-year old self, rediscovering old prize pieces and decks. Yes, decks. I wasn’t just a collector, but also a trainer! I used to play in the Pokemon League in Holargos with my old friend Aldo. We’d go to the League every second weekend, sometimes every Saturday. And it was fun! We weren’t top players because we frequently missed meetings, but it was good fun. I still have the original 8 Gym Badges in some box here in Nea Smyrni.

It’s amazing what a money-sink this collection had been. I have hundreds of rare cards, which means that my collection had easily set my parents back (especially mum, who I now realise had dealed with my addiction quite marvelously) several thousand euros. Imagine: every booster pack cost 1.400-1.500 drachmas, the equivalent of ~€4,5. And I have so many cards, I must had bought a couple of hundreds of booster packs. OK, I will admit that I did combine my collection with a friend of mine’s back then. He suddenly lost interest so I got to keep all of his cards after claiming that it would be impossible to split our collections as they were before we had merged them (wow… what a jerk! Addictions can be very dangerous matters, hurting self and friend alike…)

They were curious, happy and care-free times. Nostalgia has been singing in my ears after I re-discovered my cards, just as if it was some siren I fell in love with long ago. But the sirens’ song is captivating… dangerous and… tranquilizing in a bad way…. 10 years later, I no longer am 11 but 21, and in a state of acceptance, reconciliation and introspection about my past life and current personality. Holding on to my collection has no point at this time. I will keep some worthless cards so that I may play with friends sometime, it is a very enjoyable game after all, but the wise decision to take is to sell the good ones; let go of this collection that brings out emotions in me not at all unlike those Gollum felt when he craved the One Ring. But better yet, I can use the money I get from the cards to buy something that suits my current needs and dreams…

So. This is my collection. I have only listed my Holos, Promos and special cards. I have not listed any of my Non-Holo Rares (I’ve got loads!) or Uncommon/Common 1st Edition ones, although some of them might be more valuable than some of the holos. If I see that selling my holos is paying off, I’ll put them up as well. Comment on this post or e-mail me at dimitrishall (duckling) hotmail (dot) com if you’re interested in any of the cards.

For a better fomatted and more readable version of the below, download this.

~~

~~

Cubilone’s Pokemon TCG Valuable Card Price List

Last Availability Update: 26/07/2010


Μy condition standards:
Mint (M): New, best condition available. No visible scratches or blemishes.
Near Mint (NM): Card has been handled very briefly. Has some extremely faint scratches, but is similar to Mint condition.
Very Good (VG): A few scratches, but generally looks good and is quite acceptable.
Good (G): Condition worse than Very Good, but still not too bad. Usually has dirt and creases, perhaps the first signs of black spots.
OK: The card has been played slightly, will have some creases, black spots and edge wear.
Played (P): The card has been fairly played and looks it. Many creases and scratches and lots of black spots.
Heavily Played (HP): This card’s condition is poor. Will have large creases, dirt, discoloration and scratches (and worse!).


Notes:

Cards with a (1st) next to their condition are 1st Edition.

Double conditions, ex. G-VG, may be deemed either, depending on the collector’s condition requirements.


BASE SET


Alakazam 1/102 P €1 OK-G €1 OK-G €1 G-VG €2

Blastoise 2/102 G-VG €3 OK €2 OK €2 G €2

Chansey 3/102 P €1 G-VG €2

Charizard 4/102 HP €4

Clefairy 5/102 G €2

Gyarados 6/102 G €2 OK €1

Hitmonchan 7/102 VG-NM €4 VG €3 G €2 OK €2

Machamp 8/102 G (1st) €1 OK (1st) €1 OK (1st) €1

Magneton 9/102 OK €1 G €2

Mewtwo 10/102 OK €1 VG €3 G €2 G €2

Nidoking 11/102 OK €2 OK €2 OK €2 G €2

Ninetales 12/102 VG €4 VG €4

Poliwrath 13/102 OK-G €2 OK €2 OK €2 G €3

Raichu 14/102 G-VG €3 VG €4 G €2 G-VG €3

Venusaur 15/102 VG-NM €4 HP €1 G-VG €3 G €2

Zapdos 16/102 G-VG €3 VG €3 HP €1


JUNGLE


Clefable 1/64 G-VG €3 VG €4

Electrode 2/64 G €3 OK-G €2

Flareon 3/64 VG €3

Jolteon 4/64 G-VG €3 OK €1

Kangaskhan 5/64 G-VG €3 VG €4 G €3 HP €1

Mr. Mime 6/64 G €2 G-VG €3

Nidoqueen 7/64 G €2

Pidgeot 8/64 VG €3 G-VG €2

Pinsir 9/64 OK-G €2 G €3

Snorlax 11/64 OK-G €2 HP €1

Vaporeon 12/64 G-VG €3 G €2

Venomoth 13/64 VG €3 G €2

Victreebel 14/64 G-VG €3

Vileplume 15/64 VG €3 G-VG €3

Wigglytuff 16/64 VG-NM €5 VG €4


FOSSIL


Aerodactyl 1/62 VG (1st) €7 VG €3 OK €1 VG €3

Articuno 2/62 G €3 VG €4 HP €1 P(1st) €3

Ditto 3/62 NM €5

Dragonite 4/62 G-VG €3 VG €3

Gengar 5/62 G-VG €2

Haunter 6/62 VG €3 OK €1

Hitmonlee 7/62 G €2

Hypno 8/62 G €2 VG €3

Kabutops 9/62 VG €3 OK-G €1

Lapras 10/62 G-VG €3 OK €1 G €2 G €2

Magneton 11/62 G-VG €3

Moltres 12/62 NM €5

Muk 13/62 OK-G €1 G-VG €2

Raichu 14/62 G-VG €3

Zapdos 15/62 NM-M €4 VG €3 G-VG €2


ΒΑSE SET 2


Blastoise 2/130 NM €8

Chansey 3/130 VG-NM €5 VG €4

Clefable 5/130 VG €3 VG-NM €4

Clefairy 6/130 G €2

Hitmonchan 8/130 G-VG €3

Poliwrath 15/130 OK €2

Scyther 17/130 VG-NM €6 VG €5

Venusaur 18/130 VG €5

Wigglytuff 19/130 VG €4 NM €5


TEAM ROCKET


Dk Alakazam 1/82 VG €7

Dk Arbok 2/82 G-VG €5 VG €6

Dk Blastoise 3/82 VG-NM €8 VG-NM €8

Dk Charizard 4/82 P-OK €5

Dk Dugtrio 6/82 G-VG €4

Dk Gyarados 8/82 G-VG €6 NM €8

Dk Machamp 10/82 NM €7

Dk Magneton 11/82 OK-G €4 VG-NM €7

Dk Slowbro 12/82 HP-P €2 P €3

Dk Vileplume 13/82 NM €7

Dk Weezing 14/82 VG-NM €5 G €3

Here Comes Team Rocket 15/82 G-VG €6

Dk Raichu 83/82 NM-M €15


GYM HEROES


Blaine’s Moltres 1/132 P €3

Erika’s Dragonair 2/132 NM €5

Erika’s Vileplume 5/132 NM-M €6 VG-NM €4

Lt. Surge’s Fearow 7/132 NM-M €6

Lt. Surge’s Magneton 8/132 OK €3

Misty’s Seadra 9/132 NM-M €7

Misty’s Tentacruel 10/132 NM-M €7

Sabrina’s Gengar 14/132 NM-M €7

Erika 16/132 VG-NM €5

Lt. Surge 17/132 M €7


GYM CHALLENGE


Blaine’s Arcanine 1/132 M 12€

Brock’s Ninetales 3/132 OK €4

Giovanni’s Gyarados 5/132 VG €5 VG €5

Giovanni’s Machamp 6/132 M €7

Giovanni’s Persian 8/132 VG-NM €5 NM €6

Misty’s Golduck 12/132 VG €6

Rocket’s Zapdos 15/132 NM-M €9 VG €7

Sabrina’s Alakazam 16/132 M €9

Sabrina 20/132 M €6


NEO GENESIS


Ampharos 1/111 NM(1st) €11

Azumarill 2/111 NM €11 VG €7 VG €7

Bellossom 3/111 VG-NM(1st) €7

Feraligatr 4/111 HP(1st) €5

Feraligatr 5/111 NM-M(1st) €14 NM(1st) €12

Heracross 6/111 NM €8 M €9

Jumpluff 7/111 NM-M(1st) €8

Kingdra 8/111 M €6

Meganium 10/111 VG-NM €6

Meganium 11/111 NM €7 VG-NM(1st) €12 NM €7

Pichu 12/111 NM-M €10

Skarmory 13/111 NM(1st) €9

Slowking 14/111 VG €7

Steelix 15/111 VG-NM €7

Togetic 16/111 M(1st) €12 M €8


NEO DISCOVERY


Espeon 1/75 NM(1st) €10

Foretress 2/75 OK €3

Hitmontop 3/75 M €7

Houndoom 4/75 M €9

Magnemite 7/75 M €7

Poliwrath 9/75 M €7

Scizor 10/75 NM-M €6

Tyranitar 12/75 M €9 M €9

Umbreon 13/75 NM €8

Unown A 14/75 M(1st) €8

Wobbuffet 16/75 M €6


NEO REVELATION


Ampharos 1/64 M €7

Blissey 2/64 M €9

Delibird 5/64 NM €6

Entei 6/64 M €7 VG-NM €5

Ho-oh 7/64 M €12

Houndoom 8/64 NM €8

Magneton 10/64 M €7 M €7

Porygon 2 12/64 M €8

Raikou 13/64 M €8

Suicune 14/64 M €9

Shining Magikarp 66/64 VG-NM €8


NEO DESTINY


Dark Donphan 3/105 NM €5

Dark Gengar 6/105 NM €6 VG-NM €5


PROMO


Pikachu 1 G-VG €5 NM €6 G €4 VG €5

Electabuzz 2 G €1 VG €2

Mewtwo 3 OK-G €2 G €3

Pikachu 4 OK €1 G €1

Dragonite 5 G €1

Arcanine 6 G €1 NM €2

Mew 8 VG €2

Mew 9 NM €4

Meowth 10 NM €3 M €4

Eevee 11 VG-NM €1 NM € VG €1

Sabrina’s Abra 19 G-VG €3 NM-M €5

Pikachu 26 NM €3 VG €2

Pikachu 27 G-VG €3


SPECIAL


Ancient Mew M €5 M €5 VG €3

Aerodactyl Pre-release 1st G €3 G €3 NM €5 NM €5

Error Nidoqueen G €5