Steff Metal

I haven’t done an Up the Irons! since Feb. That doesn’t mean I don’t have lots of things to be thankful for.

This week, a bit Steff Metal Up The Irons! to:

\m/ Amanda Palmer, who kicked ass yesterday and gave me a hug \m/ the cute little wooden shelf in my office that’s too tiny to serve any real purpose apart from a shelf for my drinks! \m/ My beautiful desktop iMac, propped up on old archaeology textbooks – no more hunching and bad posture \m/ Unser Baby Katze – Levi, our baby cat. She’s so cute. \m/ Breaking 800 Twitter followers – I love you guys! \m/ Getting a free breakfast for national Walk2Work day – a muffin the size of my head (no kidding), an organic blueberry yoghurt, a fresh squeezed orange juice and a banana \m/ Autumn FINALLY closing in (my favorite season of the year) \m/ Future plans with friends: a “petite” party, the Genitorturers gig, Behemoth and a day-long creative orgy (an orgy of creativity, that is, not a creative orgy) followed by a folk rock band \m/ love is in the air! A friend’s wedding this weekend! \m/ reaching my goals in my writing \m/ receiving emails from my writing idols \m/ writing long, exciting blog posts \m/ Organising friends to see the Sweeney Todd production coming to Auckland in June \m/ Apple Crumble \m/ cleaning the oven (I found the burnt chip that was making all the smoke happen :) \m/ vegetarian curry \m/ discovering a rhubarb plant in the back garden \m/

What are you thankful for this week?
Steff

If you’re new to Steff Metal, Up the Irons! is a semi-regular feature where I give a little shout out to all the awesome stuff going on in my life and in the world. It’s a way to remind ourselves that being alive, and being a metalhead, or a goth, or a satanist, christian, geek, freak, mainstream, mother, or any mixture of the human being persuasion, is completly awesome. For this reason, you should write your own lists and post them in the comments, or on your own blog.

This week, I give metal horns to:

My new boots

My parentals coming to visit for the weekend for my birthday!  \m/  My birthday in 6 days!  \m/   The fact that I’m 25 and the celebrations last all WEEK.  \m/  Our “Great Bogan Train Robbery” party next weekend – we rented a carriage on an old steam train and about 25 metalheads are riding around all day, having a tea party and dressing up in steampunk / victorian gear! (there WILL be photos)  \m/  I had my first EVER impulse buy (I normally think about these things for months, and I never buy shoes. I hate shoes) a pair of Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots, and they’re beautiful  \m/  My husband, who laughed about my new boots, whereas if it had been him and a new cymbol, I wouldv’e made a frowny face  \m/  Arch Enemy, for inspiring my novel edits  \m/  German classes, which are filled with adventurous people are are teaching us so much  \m/  My husband, for getting me the best birthday present ever – an easal to paint my artwork on  \m/  My blog readers, for filling in my 2010 reader survey with such awesome answers  \m/  nasty gal – new favorite shopping site  \m/  Chocolate self-saucing pudding – the fuel for life  \m/  jazz-inspired metal – it’s the next big thing  \m/  Life and the universe, for treating me so well :)

Steff Metal sends out a huge Up the Irons! to:

My husband, the cantankerous drummer, for continually proving that he’s pretty much the most awesome person on the planet.  \m/  Behemoth  \m/  I FINISHED EDITING MY NOVEL. Finally. Now it’s been sent off to readers for them to pull apart, and I’m taking a week’s break before delving into my next novel project (two projects, actually. I need to research and plan a sequel, and finish a YA metalhead apocalypse novel I’ve started)  \m/  my first modelling shoot in three weeks. Eee! I was excited, but now I’m all nervous :(  \m/  a sausage sizzle at work today! Grymness. I’m going to have THREE sausages. (is a sausage sizzle called a Sizzlewurst in Germany? I shall find out!  \m/ my blog readers – you guys kick ass!  \m/  finishing another painting and moving to a new series and a super seekrit gift for some awesome dudes whom we totally adore  \m/  being poor, but happy  \m/  new ebook almost finished … almost!  \m/  buying english candy to share  \m/  “renting” movies online. Soooooo many horrible b-grade horrors to choose from!  \m/  meeting cool bogan chicks at the Kodak place  \m/  sloooooowly pulling everything together for the Steff Metal shop.  \m/  preparing to have a viking live with us for a week  \m/  midweek catch-ups with wonderful friends  \m/  takeout mexican food  \m/

What gets the Up the Irons! from you this week?

Steff

Steff Metal is sending Up the Irons! to:

Homemade Chili fries  \m/  seeing Rodrigo y Gabriela live – they were super awesome  \m/  getting my Viking on  \m/  Sacrifago  \m/  dabbing on my ‘Scent of the Desert’ perfume from Egypt before I go out  \m/  planning my next corset purchase (it’s super unique and steampunky)  \m/  planning our adventures for the year – a steam-train journey and a trip to Wellington, and maybe to Austrailia  \m/  looking at boat hulls for sale on TradeMe  \m/  homemade bread, warm from the oven  \m/  working on a book about Socrates for a vision-impaired Classics student  \m/  CDH humming the Star Wars theme song while he flies the cat around the house  \m/  fantastic freelance writing projects  \m/  having only 30 pages left to edit on my novel  \m/  owning the world’s tiniest MP3 player (so tiny!)  \m/  the Genitorturers coming to NZ  \m/  planning my birthday day out  \m/  planting my basil seedlings in the garden and watching them grow  \m/

What are you grateful for this week?

Steff

The first Up the Irons! for 2010 (I’m going to be saying “the first …” for awhile, so bear with me. Also excuse any typos, as I have cut my index finger making kreig german kartoffelsalat, and it hurts like buggery and I’m struggling with the typing.

Up the Irons! to:

\m/ NO CLEAN SINGING, who wrote this absolutely kickass post about That’s Metal – but it’s not music, which features me, the all blacks, Maori war dances, Invictus and poetry. It totally made my week. \m/ walking to the farmers market, and stopping at the traffic light to be greeted by a carload of metalheads throwing the goat and headbanging to “Purple Rain”. \m/ setting up a new Etsy shop (it’s so much fun!) \m/ painting \m/ forgiveness \m/ our krieg little kitty levi who beat up the neighbour’s HUGE bully of a cat this morning \m/ seeing my awesome family and little nephew over Christmas \m/ eating crackers with my mum’s homemade pickle (which is the best pickle EVER) \m/ learning German by translating Subway to Sally lyrics (denn die Sieben ist meine Zahl!) \m/ being 2/3 of the way through my novel edits, mostly thanks to the wonder that is Ommwriter \m/ making dreamy plans with husband \m/ cuddles \m/ cadbury mint bubbly chocolate.

What are you thankful for this week, most grymm and metal readers?

Steff

Tomorrow morning CDH and I wake up bright and early and drive down to my parent’s house for a few days. I am super kreigly excited!

So this week, Up the Irons! to:

Finishing work for the year  \m/  looking back over 2009 and realizing it’s been a year of awesome  \m/  the fact that rap has even more ridiculous sub-genres than metal  \m/  mystery packages arriving in the mail  \m/  photos of my friend’s Christmas ham (named Geoffrey Birmingham) on Facebook, making me hungry  \m/  making a to-do list for the Christmas holidays  \m/  reorganizing my blog  \m/  Coilhouse 4  \m/  finding Subway to Sally albums in the bargain bin  \m/  this Japanese chocolate shop  \m/  sticky lamb ribs  \m/  kittens on the keyboard  \m/  seeing how happy everyone is to be spending time with their families and loved ones  \m/  naming our Christmas tree Freya  \m/  Auckland over the Christmas period – it’s so quiet and empty, like the zombie apocalypse has come  \m/  fun events, parties, movies, festivals and concerts in 2010, including BEHEMOTH!  \m/  Christmas cheer and merriness to all!

This will probably be my last post for a few days. When I return, I shall be fattened up on Christmas food and touting kreig and fabulous ideas for 2010: the decade to melt the face of all other decades.

Horns up for the most metal Christmas EVER \m/
Steff

Steff Metal sends Christmas good vibes and a kreig Up the Irons! to:

Writing fun guest posts for other wonderful blogs  \m/  interviewing amazing people  \m/  only five more working days of the year left  \m/  when my novel edits just come together  \m/  being excited about the future  \m/  jelly tip ice cream  \m/  discovering mistaken credit card charges which, when reversed, mean I have more moneys than I thought I did (this is why I ALWAYS check over my statements. €200 is not to be frowned upon)  \m/  singing death metal Christmas carols with my friends  \m/  CDH mocking that Killers song “When you were not as ooooooooold! When you were prepubescennnnnnnnt! When you were embrionnnnnnnnnic!”  \m/  maserated strawberries  and eggy bread  \m/  recovering from my mysterious coldy illness  \m/  talking to wonderful German friends on Skype  \m/  making plans  \m/  dreaming  \m/  snuggles with CDH and the kitten.

Life is good. 2009, you fucking rocked. 2010, you have a lot to live up to.

What are you thankful for this week?
Steff

Steff gives a big metal Up the Irons to:

I am a zombie! (phourni Minoen cemetery, Crete)

The fact that work is paying me to create a wearable arts outfit out of recycled braille paper  \m/  having a spice shop just around the corner. It smells like a Souq  \m/  my new office  \m/  the fantastic story my BFF Shane wrote for me  \m/  crossing off my to-do list  \m/  riding the train.  \m/  planning my birthday excursion  \m/  chocolate mud pudding, just the way my mum makes it  \m/  Reign in Blonde  \m/  updating my links page  \m/  drawing designs for my Steff Metal product line (launching early 2010!)  \m/  dreaming about book covers  \m/  winding down for the year  \m/  researching the German property market  \m/  my wonderful readers, who totally rock my world with their comments and emails and ideas and plots.

What are you grateful for, this week?
Steff

I’m off to “Bogan Christmas” this friday. Every year we all get together and have a Christmas party. $5 presents are brought and fought over in a deadly duel of wit and brute force. Seriously, people are injured. Food is consumed. Metal music is listened to. Singalongs are rampent. Pink “Hello Kitty” guitars are occasionally played. It’s one of the best days of the whole year. I’m excited :)

This week, I am thankful for:

Our new kitty Levi, who has settled in really well to her new home  \m/  wonderful people in the publishing industry who just want to help  \m/  my new German and Turkish cookbooks  \m/  Haute Macabre, for inspiration  \m/  passing my Braille proficiency exam with High Distinction!  \m/  Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines series – it is just awesomeness. Dark steampunk young-adult books with the coolest ideas and concepts and characters  \m/  twitter, for being annoyingly, incessantly odd  \m/  Bella Lili jewellery  \m/  honey-roasted vegetables in a salad for lunch today  \m/  stacks of books just waiting to be read  \m/  self-saucing chocolate pudding  \m/  Outrageous Fortune (if you’re in NZ and you don’t watch this, shame on you.)  \m/  pocket warm  \m/  CDH, for just being the bestest friend a gal could.

What are you thankful for this week?

Horns up! \m/
Steff

Thanksgiving is coming up for all you wacky American folks. Personally, I don’t know how you deal with another huge family holiday so close to Christmas, but there you are: baking your pumpkin-filled pie, pumpkin-filled turkey and pumpkin-filled malt whisky and musing on people and things and events which make you feel truly grateful.

A grattitude holiday – now that’s something special. We have a few new Americans on staff at the Foundation and they hosted a thanksgiving lunch for us all today. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin dip and several different pumpkin pies. I’ve never had pumpkin pie before, and I’ve been missing out!

Instead of an Up the Irons! post this week, here are 25 things you might be thankful for this Thanksgiving, or really everyday, if you are a metalhead: 

1. Gravity – the often underappreciated force that keeps us where we are today.

2. Manowar – for standing up to false metal.

3. The Ancient Greeks – for inventing everything from to democracy to cutlery to clockwork to philosophy.

4. The Ancient Romans – for kicking the ass of the Ancient Greeks so we wouldn’t all have to wander around in flimsy skirts philosophising all day. Also, for inventing toilet paper, which back then was simply a sponge on a stick, but hey, you’ve gotta start somewhere.

5. Metallica – they may have put out some lackluster albums in recent years, but without them I might never have discovered metal, and this blog might never have been written.

6. The death of Hair Metal – and may it forever remain a distant spandex-glad, permed-hair nightmare.

7. Sausage Rolls – what heavy metal gathering would be complete without them?

8. Drinking Horns - Ditto. Cheers for the tip, Vikings!

9. Wordpress blog software – for making my life easier.

10. Electricity – not only does it send vicious criminals to a smouldering death, it powers our instruments, enabling us to play tr00 kvlt kreig grymm evil black metal.

11. Tarja Turunen – for giving heavy-metal soap opera fans something to obsess over.

12. genre classifications - they give us something to debate on message boards.

13. nu-metal – making rap music ever so slightly more palatable.

14. Dr Phil – for having a shiny head.

15. Germany – for giving us Blind Guardian, Kreator, and currywurst. Danke Schön!

16. Chuck Norris jokes – for uniting metalheads the world over.

17. Those pink biscuits with the sprinkles on top – because we do so love to be ironic.

18. corsets – the universal sculpter of boobies.

19. Being in love with a metalhead – you’ll never again have to fight over music in the car.

20. knock-off metal tees – cheap, metal-themed car polish cloths!

21. Death metal on your iPod – for scaring strangers on the train.

22. Ducks – the most metal creatures on earth.

23. Long-haired metal boys – don’t stop being hot!

24. Iron Maiden Merchanise – for his birthday, my friend Ryan recieved an Iron Maiden car freshener kit. I think that’s pretty much the coolest thing, ever.

25. Metalheads – Manowar said, “If you like metal, you’re my friend,” and you all take this literally. In all the world, I’ve not met more hardworking, intelligent, fun, genuine, kind or misunderstood people. I am honoured to be counted among your ranks.

What are you thankful for this week?

Yours in Metal
Steff