The Dresden Dolls to do D.C.

I recently received this email from the Dresden Dolls with some excellent news:

HOLA COMRADES!

we have the best news ever.

the dresden dolls are going to be playing in washington DC on the very historic night of barack obama's inauguration - january 20th, 2009 - in washington DC.

is this amazing?
this is so amazing.
you should come.

the event is going to be held at the 9:30 club, one of our favorite places to play EVER.

we are going to be on a bill with michael franti, talib kweli, the honey brothers (with adrian grenier), and jamie burke.

doors are at 8:00 PM.

the tickets cost $50.
presale is HERE
password RTV
public sale is thursday at 10 AM at www.tickets.com

let's start this new chapter of american - and world - history in style and with rock love.

AND.....
if you aren't already plugged into this (and you should be, aren't you on the obama mailing list?), the day before the inauguration (january 19th) is NATIONAL DAY of SERVICE.
gazillions of americans who run non-profit organizations are hosting events in YOUR area....and you probably have the day off.

from the site:
Every time our nation faces crisis, our national experience has shown Americans rise to the challenge. While government has an important role to play in helping rekindle our economy and addressing the problems of a distressed nation, President-elect Obama believes each of us, as Americans, have a responsibility to do what we can for our communities and fellow citizens. We are one nation.

check out the website and go do something awesome for your country on monday:
usaservice.org

this is it.

change starts now.

love
amanda & brian !

It's great to hear that Amanda and Brian will be playing together and I highly recommend anyone who is in the area or within driving distance to brave the weather and go, Go, GO! Watching Obama's inauguration and catching the Dolls all in a 24hour period...well, I can't think of a better way to spend a day.

Want to make your own Obama-ized picture like the Dolls at the top of this post, then check out Obamicon.Me. It's kinda fun. I think you have to register for an account to get it to work. It has also been picking up quiet a bit of site traffic lately so loading your picture could take a minute or two but it's still something definitely worth checking out.

Put Some Pants on Young Lady

I'm certainly not a person anyone would describe as fashionable and I don't really keep up on the current trends so can someone clue me in as to when it became okay to wear control top pantyhose with bikini cut bottoms?

Lady Gaga, of "Christina Aguilera stole my look" fame and singer of the catchy pop song "Just Dance", seems to think this is just fine. She's donned the look once already at a New Year's Eve bash she played in New York City earlier this month. I was willing to forgive her since it was evident that she started out the night with a skirt on (although also somewhat ill advised style-wise, IMO) and it was New Year's so alcohol could partially be to blame...

...or so I thought. But then over this past weekend Miss Gaga was snapped wearing another control top ensemble. This time for a music video shoot according to Perez Hilton.

I don't mean to hate because she seems to be a lovely girl but why, why, why? She's too thin to be "doing it for the big girls" and she seems to have every other pop tart image thing going for her: young, cute, platinum blonde hair, sequined underpants, Louboutin shoes (which I do hear are stylish amongst the stars). Is this just a ploy to throw Christina off her tailored trail?

I realize our readers here at Places Parallel may not follow or care about such things but pop music is my guilty pleasure. But never Katie Perry. "I Kissed A Girl"? How very 1995.

'Almost Here' is the new 'Soon 'HERE NOW'

**MASSIVE EDIT**

So Trent has unleashed his gift upon the masses and HOLY SHIT, what a gift it is!

1.7.09: your gift!

The internet is full of surprises these days.

I was contacted by a mysterious, shadowy group of subversives who SOMEHOW managed to film a substantial amount (over 400 GB!) of raw, unedited HD footage from three separate complete shows of our Lights in the Sky tour. Security must have been lacking at these shows because the quality of the footage is excellent.

If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I'll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool.

Oh yeah, you didn't hear this from me.

posted by trent reznor at 12:56pm

400GB! 400GB!!! As badly as I would love to have all this there's no way I would be capable of downloading that much content or even know what to do with it if I did. So in the meantime I'll patiently wait for ThisOneIsOnUs.org to piece it together in a more manageable format. These are the same people that grouped together on ETS to film the last show in Las Vegas to make an unofficial DVD which will still be completed even though there's all this other "unofficial" *wink, wink* new footage coming from the NIN camp. I think I'll be picking up a copy of each of their editing efforts. Hell, I might even volunteer to help make copies.

I'm always curious and concerned with the legal side of things when Trent does stuff like this. Not that he's ever done something this massive before, but I'm talking about encouraging fans in Australia to steal his music or sneaking out "Closure" via torrents when it was caught up in corporate red tape. I mean, is playing dumb really a defense? Would the record labels have any grounds to go after him? Pardon me, I've been watching way too much "Boston Legal" lately (I've got a bit of a crush on chubby James Spader).

But let's get back to the subject at hand. You guys have heard me say it many times before but I think it bears repeating; it's good to be a NIN fan. So while the masses flood Trent's email and while I know I'll probably get my balls busted for being a fangirl, I'll still post my message here:

Thank you Trent! Thank you so much for this. You're a pretty fucking amazing guy and I'm glad that the Lights in the Sky tour will not go undocumented. It really was the most amazing stage setup I've ever seen. I don't know that this DVD will be able to capture how impressive it was but it's a start and basically all we have to work with at this point. But just because I've ineptly tried show my gratitude, doesn't mean I don't still stand by my opinion that you make for a pretty crap Santa. Christmas was two weeks ago, Mister!

Beyond that I'm at a loss for words. It's a little overwhelming. I'm sure Maise can be a bit more poetic in expressing appreciation for what Trent's doing here.

Maise, care to help me out?

/massive edit
========================================

Trent Reznor, you are a total cocktease.

1.5.09: I didn't forget

Remember that gift I mentioned?
It's almost here.

posted by trent reznor at 4:18pm

And just because you didn't forget the gift doesn't mean that you're any less of a crap Santa, Mister. Get ready to wish everyone a Merry Martin-Luther-King-Jr-mas.