Mann's World

I'm still recovering from seeing Judas Priest Sunday night at the Nissan Pavillion, which is somewhere out in the middle of nowhere in northern Virginia. It's not that Jess and I really whooped it up, but driving four hours one day and back home the next really takes a lot out of an old lady. This was the third time I've seen them: The first was at Greensboro Colliseum on the Screaming for Vengeance tour in 1983, and the second was last year at Ozzfest (before which I had the pleasure of interviewing Rob Halford for the N&O). The Nissan Pavillion was depressingly empty; the lawn and maybe a third of the seats were empty. It's the first show I've EVER attended where there was a line at the men's room but not at the ladies', which just goes to show how few women were there. But the band still put on a good show, reaffirming my opinion that Halford is one of the greatest frontmen in rock, and certainly the greatest frontman in metal. Other notable occurances during the trip: Jess and I discovered the magical kim chee diet, and we took our pictures in front of the big skate that Erik Sugg has on his Myspace page. After we got back to Raleigh, I stopped by Blue Flame to get a price estimate on a tattoo. Tattoo artist Christy Alexander said she could do it right then, so I figured what the hell. Here are two pics, one of the tat and one of Christy at work.   If you don't know what the design is, you obviously never owned any 45 rpm records. I decided on that design, which, admittedly, a million other people have, because 1. music is my life and 2. it's very similar to a triskelion, which is the symbol of my ancestral homeland, the Isle of Man. 
Manx triskelion.