Go! Bid! Pay many dollars for good cause and shiny thing!
I know this is a little more blunt than my other cause-related statements have been, but: Suicide is fucking horrible. Don’t fucking do it.
There’s no shame in having the pit yawn open at your feet and please, for the love of all that’s good in the world, know too that there’s no shame in asking someone to help you step back from that edge.
Please be excellent to each other, and let those you love know you love them.
This print was given to GiveACheer.net by the totally stellar and excellently great folk at Warner Music Australia. It was autographed during My Chemical Romance’s January 2007 Australian tour and features signatures from Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Ray Toro and Bob Bryar in silver marker. Frank Iero was not on the January 2007 tour due to illness, so there isn’t a scribble from him, but he’s still present in the photograph itself.
All proceeds from this auction, less shipping costs, will be donated to the charity of the winner’s choice, unless the GiveACheer.net team feel that the organisation chosen acts in opposition to the ideas and values put forward by My Chemical Romance. I, the Writer, won’t be bidding, since I was the one who organised us getting this puppy to give away, but I’m pretty sure the Photographer is intending to sell both her elbows and one of her ankles in order to raise the money for her bids (where she found a buyer for her elbows and ankle is something I decided not to ask her) so don’t be shy about bidding big for this.
The print is oversized, about 12 inches by thirty inches, and the card its printed on is sturdy; we’ll ship it flat so it arrives as pretty as possible.
This is a really, really, really cool piece, trust me. It’s taken me over a month to get it up on this site, ready for auction, because I guess I was kind of hoping that time would stop ticking or something and it could be mine forever.
But, alas, time marches on. So, come February 3rd, be ready to bid hard and bid often — you’ll win this amazing print, and a charity will win your generosity. Hooray!
A post with a link to the auction will be put up on GiveACheer.net as soon as bidding opens, two weeks from now.
Yeah, so we kind of failed a little at keeping up the regular updates while we were away. The fatigue sets in! And the emotions are high! And then before you know it The Writer is throwing her keys at your neck!
[I know, I know it was an accident.]
Okay, so I am going to recap my part of trip for you (the stuff you don’t already know, and some you might already); my own experience of that other half of the crazy week I spent following MyChem around the country. It won’t be nearly as beautiful or poetic as Our Writer’s last entry. But I’ll try my best to give a little bit of what I promised.
Read the rest of this entry …
How do I write about the last week and a half? I don’t know how even I, who makes her living turning thoughts into words, can properly pin down all the events and feelings and moments in a way that will be interesting for somebody else to read.
I could tell you, to begin with, how it felt to look around the crowd waiting through a sweltering Brisbane day outside the entertainment centre. All those kids and adults in blacks and whites and reds and stripes and rips. Thousands of life stories that had been shaped by the band we waited to see.
We’re falling behind in the recapping, I know! The recaps and stories are coming, I promise. It just turns out following the boys around the country is a lot more exhausting and emotionally overwhelming than first advertised. Also, there’s a pesky lack of internets.
As an apology, have some footage from the Sydney show on Friday night (not actually taken by me) of Ray Toro being awesome;
Yeah, pretty much.
We’re off to Adelaide tomorrow. In a car.
Hi peeps!
We went to the Sydney show tonight, which was amazing and which The Writer is going to tell you all about. I just got back, and I, whilst waiting for my clothes to dry from all the sweat (mmn, sexy), am going to tell you about yesterday, which was meant to be our day off.
I apologise in advance; this is probably going to be self-indulgent and semi-hysterical.
Thursday the 29th of November; The Day Off. PART THE FIRST: THE AIRPORT
My Chemical Romance; Brisbane, Wednesday 28th of November, 2007.
Barrier. Ray’s side.
That’s right motherfuckers. Ray Motherfucking Toro was meters away from me.
Oh, and the show? Was fucking amazing. Apparently there were technical/musical problems? I didn’t notice. I was too busy with my GAC gals, bouncing and singing my throat hoarse. Filled with the kind of glee that obliterates the fact you are being squished and sweating your weight in fluid.
I can’t even pick my favourite moment to recount to you. It’s like trying to describe what this band, what their music means to me in human words. Not possible. But I’ll mention a couple, okay?
-Desert Song
-Gerard: “This is going to blow your mind. Put the spotlight on Ray Toro.” — The lighting guy did, and Ray proceeded to shred up a storm while Frank Iero (FRANKIE!) tried to pour fluid into his mouth. I declared that this was, in fact MORE TORO, and that the campaign had been a success.
-Desert Song.
-Mikey’s high kicks.
-Fire!!!!!! GERBS!!!!!
-Gerard’s fabulous pelvis. And him telling us that the last time he was in Brisbane it was life changing because “he realised he was never going to be cool.”
-Desert Song.
I don’t have pictures of the show (Yet). Last night I didn’t even take my camera in. But I promise to get some for you guys over the next three shows.
Meanwhile, as I’m in this internet cafe in Brisbane while I wait to get on a plane to Sydney and do it all over again tomorrow night, here are a couple of photos of me and the girls on the trip so far.
If you’re wondering what happened to The Artist and The Dreamer, the truth is, I had them … deported.
Sorry.
Anyway, the first MyChem show is in two more days, and I am heading up to Brisbane this very day! With the Dreamer! (previously deported) Holy fuck you guys, the roadtrip is begun.
I have a story for you. A true one, at that. Last night I was going through my things, looking for my birth certificate for last minute identification purposes, and I stumbled across a piece of paper I had acquired back in my wee years of high school.
It was a piece of paper that had this written on it;
“Claire, Make The Most Of Life! [from] Peter Brock. [love heart]”
It gave me a little wiggins, because while I knew I had that autograph of him somewhere, I didn’t remember that he’d written that little adage. Also, Peter Brock died last year; crashed his car in one of his races. And everyone knows that you don’t pay any attention to what people have to say until they’re dead.
I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad sign, I don’t think I‘m superstitious. Maybe it’s a metaphor. I don’t know. It’s definitely not a pun.
It doesn’t matter. I’m going to carry that piece of paper around in my wallet for the trip anyway, so when I’m panicking about my first flight ever, or about queuing up, or every other possible thing that could go wrong, I’ll think about it and remember that’s why I am here.
Thanks Mr Brock, for turning up and reminding me. This is a goddamn adventure. Hopefully one of my first, but even if it’s my last, I‘ll have done it, won’t I? I LEAPT. Because I wanted to. It’s not saving babies or curing leprosy; it could be the most self-indulgent adventure in the history of the world.
But it’s mine. Something that makes my heart happy, that I’m making happen in my life, more than words on a page given to a sixteen year old girl; thinking, hoping, waiting…
So, here goes. Here I go.
In the similarly profound words of Gerard Way;
Let’s go stupid babies.
I’m the first of the gang to head off yonder to Brisbane, our first tour stop, because my family lives there and I can scam sleeping-space in their house. I plan to walk the streets with a loud bell and a sandwich board, warning locals of the impending invasion of MCR fanpeoples. Lock up your eyeliners! Hide your black fabric! Pay no attention to the singer with his hand inside his trousers!
As you can see from the above picture, I have decided that for the duration of the tour, I will be dressed not as The Writer, but rather as The Rumor from Gerard’s comic, The Umbrella Academy.
Because I am just that cool.
It’s been a little quiet on the Give A Cheer front recently, and many
things have been happening. Bob Bryar is currently helping out with
pyrotechnics on the MCR tour! Ray is throwing his guitar
around the stage! Matt Cortez has not seen one tit since
he started his goddamn understudy job! And last night I dreamed a guy filmed me brushing my hair! As far as I know these things are unrelated!
ANYWAY. 13 MORE DAYS, PEEPS. WOO!
Even less before our roadtrip starts. Did I tell you I’m being
ridiculous and making the Cheer ladies camp out in line with me? Did I
tell you I’m trying to work out how to take some semi-decent
photographs of the band at the shows? Did I tell you about the guy
filming me brushing my hair?
Yeah. It was weird. Somewhat.
On the More Toro front, things have been moving along nicely. For
instance. This picture of Ray;
