Winter, Christmas, Old Age and other things that creep in the night

A light drizzle settles on this side of London. Crisp droplets, not thick enough even to settle my hair, but it brings a certain mood about the place.

I have final cut finally at my disposal. So last night I mopped up the last of my project I was working on in imovie, (last things finalised tonight) and I might even try to get it on the blog. Then I can start working on Iain's wedding the movie. oh yes, buckle your seat belts for that my friends.

As Winter comes in (slouching and in a entirely disintersted manner), I think its time for some art. Dont you? enough with going out and seeing people, and more making pictures and videos. Want to join me? here are some ideas.

here and here

great news. Oh, here is a picture of something that I meant to place here ages ago. what do you think? It perplexes me, do I like it or loathe it>?

American Country Music

Three bursts of fantastic american music.

First up, now this is too long for most of you, but man its worth it and it shows what an amazing tool the old you tube is. Leadbelly )(ledbelly)( was so cool he sung himself out of prison 3 times! How cool is that?


ok, so this guy is too cool too. Prison song to a prison, but makes you wonder where all the brothers at?


and because those two posts have made me slightly depressed I thought we should go out with the two names that make country music what it is, and the best thing is its the eighties as your parents knew it, without the coke and the bullshit (sorry Freddy, you know I always love you)

sexy er, sex toys.

When art meets girl masturbation you know things might just work out in this kooky little world, Jamie Hewitt who should be best know for his 2000AD work but is ultimately famous for the gorillaz and tank girl has come up with these rather modest sized vibes.

music new to me

Thought you might like a little bit more music Today, firstly the great Panda Bear have a good summery track here. How good is London today? This place rocks when it wants to hey? But so does panda bear,


And then a little bit of NZ Music to calm us down a bit- The shocking Pinks


And now to wake you up a bit, a little bit of dance hall!

Music for Manic Mondays (not the bangles)

So you want to play guitar? This nifty little site shows when to diminish your sevenths and when not to. We all need a little helping hand! This site takes you through the pop songs you might want to busk to make a little bit of crack money, the songs might be a little passe I know, but its quite a good tool.

Hope you had a good weekend, to get us started in this week I thought I would share something old and something new. Here is the coolest commercial around at the moment, and even though I am beginning to hate commercials like never before, I will give credit where credit is due, look how he feels the music. Oh yes.



And as for something old, this little gem harks back to the days when time was so limited in television programmes that you couldn’t waste it summing up earlier story lines that were “previously on…” so the deft approach was sum the whole series up in the themesong! Take it away boys.

caribou, native fauna and you.

starting this tasty day with a fruit salad and yoghurt. was biking to work and saw M&S so just parked up and went inside. to hell with work I thought, may as well take a little time in the morning to enjoy the sunlight.

and a ham salad for lunch yum, hungry already!

The question of the Weekend looms before me, the rugby world cup starts so that should be fun, a friend from work has a party, another friend wants us to go down to their house (Tooting) and the weather is meant to be fab, so a BBQ is not out of the question. Sounds nearly like summer doesnt it?

Went to Bardens or Bar Dens if you like ;) last night. What an odd venue, though I do appreciate the unorganised nature of it, it was rammed and stinking hot. All gigs smell now, but no ventilation really didnt help. I fasioned a fan from a flier and if it wasnt quite as effective as any one elses its mainly because of the material, not my fantail design.
you can hear the New Zealand Fantail here.

The band were cool, but the vocals were (purposely?) low. But two drummers are always appreciated.

sunny days,

Sun is shining on a London frozen by its striking tube. Its not a whole strike with three lines open, but its chaos on the streets if you believe the bbc. I might bring my camera tomorrow and get a couple of shots of the hordes angrily signalling to taxis already full. It certainly gets a Londoners blood up having to wait to get to somewhere.
I biked, as did L. pretty good going really.
Anyway long time no write? not much to say unfortunately. I did go to prince twice, put the gig on youtube and goty over 10,000 hits! I was a superstar. But then it got banned for legal reasons. Wierd him giving away those cds and still stinging people on the tube. oh well.
Also went to sonic youth, and I can still leave this on the net... so here you go, click wildly please!

youre here and its now, so stretch out and wait

so long no blog! Been up to a few things, saw Dali and film, saw that Herzog doco, went to the mango room in Camden (its a great Carribean Restaurant if u are around Cden) had some friends around etc. and saw these two fantastic gigs!

The mighty datarock, do you know them? they are so good.


and the fab-u-lish Against me. these guys tore the roof off the 100 club.

Intrepid Fox

Went to the new intrepid fox yesterday. For those not from London its one of the only Metal pubs in London, (as well as the crow bar and that new one in camden) but it had closed its doors in Soho, and opened them in the odd location of St Giles.

In the olden days this was the very limit of the london city, which had banned lepers, so the St Giles church would let the lepers live within its walls, burying the deceased in mass graves just all around the area. (They also grew wine down in the present day Grape St).
Many of the condemned from Newgate Prison were led past mocking crowds to their death upon the gallows where Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street meet. As ghosts cannot find the people they would like to haunt if they are burried at the cross roads, this intersection is also a mass grave.

So between these two sepulturas (if you will), or necropolis, is the new Intrepid Fox. A pub where it is the norm to be heavily tattooed, long haired (if yr male) and scantily clad (if you are not), where it seemed almost entirely dressed in black. I think this is one of my favourite pubs at the moment, and think if you like a bit of metal or goth, you should visit.

do I have the geek pound?

Look, I couldnt bike today ok? its raining damn it! RAIN>!

So I paid for a day of travel. Its a tube and bus dimension to it. Lets try to bike tomorrow, however its raining again.

Its not however raining in Sardinia.

FINALLY have got all I want from Currys. I still have 80 pounds of vouchers to go through however, if I didnt, I would try my best never to go there again. Even today they are trying not to do any work. My tip is dont be polite, what ever you do, sure please and thank yous, but when they give you the chance to politely go away, refuse to and just silently look at them. This will prompt them to do their job. they enjoy this.

So Heroes is my new favourite programme, and series 2 has just been picked up by the bbc for what they say is 400K per episode!!! 23 of them!!! crazy figures. They say hi concept drawn out geek dramas are the legacy of Lost, however the geek pound is where tv is aimed, and that is a good thing./

Well we were the people that you wanted to know

Short week this week, and one that ends well, its all about the holiday!!

We had the week of gigs last week, highlights being the new puritans who I think are amazing!! also good were cold war kids, which turned into a bit of a sing a long. Lowlights was the sound to modest mouse! really bad, but I guess I was sitting in the rafters. Loved the RAH though.

Finally found my video camera! Wicked. Went for the longest walk around ever. Let this be official notice that the staff of Currys suck around the country! I mean please pay these guys more to give a shit, and to actually know anything. No one could help me, you ask them a question and they read out whats on the spec list, i mean "thanks a lot for that but I can read". good lord. and I watched them time and again tell customers to wait a minute while they do some terribly insignificant job.
well anyway enough about that, more to the point after going to about 6 stores I finally found the camera I wanted. I had to get up early on Saturday with L. and catch a train out of Victoria to a place called Medway, which feels a bit interzone to me! a nice area though, and I would go again, there is a dickens festival actually for the 1st-3rd of June but I will be busy!
sooooooooooooooooooo only a camera bag needed to get now! wicked.

then its a trip to Sardinia for me

oh yeah.

coming up!

Its turning out to be a lovely day in London today.

The sun is out, and I have already been on the roof of my building. Took a couple of snaps on the D40 then a couple more of my office. Which is empty bar a left over Christmas tree, and all my tapes. It wont be for long but at the moment I feel like a trespasser.

OK, things coming up that you can look forward to.

Tonight I am going to Clemmies house. Its really close to my work which is great, I can walk there! I will get a couple of bottles of wine as she has a really nice one apparently, from a wine tasting course she has attended.

Next week should have two or three more gigs on our youtube site, including Modest Mouse and Cold War Kids. As I have mentioned before C.W.K. will be at Koko who’s liquor prices have forced me to smuggle some pre purchased liquor in.

Then we are off to Sardinia. I have been once before, where we explored the north and the north east. This time we are heading to the south and south east.
Now there are two things I really have to do on this trip. 1) go on a boat trip, ideally driving the boat itself. That is one of my favourite things to do in the whole world, if not though I would also love a glass bottomed boat ride.
And 2) eat a suckling pig, live. No not really, cooked obviously you heathen.

Anyways. You also can look forward to some wine tasting, but that’s on june the 21st or something, plenty of time…

Prince myself to poverty

Harnessing the moment we bought 4 tickets to see prince in the hell hole that is the millennium dome/02 arena. I have seen public enemy there and have low, low expectations. But what the hell! I get to see Prince 2ce! Soooooo, good. But its not enough for me. I also want to see him play the secret gigs, there is one at koko tonight, but I am just going to stick to the website until it finally happens.

blogs arent just for christmas

Neglection, thats the only way to put it.

but spurred on by the massive 2 comments I got this month, I thought I would branch out. The camera obscura footage has had a massive 72 views on you tube, thats good news for them I think. posting music seems to get some viewing interest.
Unfortunately thats going to be difficult because I lost my video camera on my way home from glasgow. Someone stole it from the sleeper train! can you believe it?

But all in all its just stuff. L reminded me of that story of the parents who lost their daughter on holiday so it brings it all into perspective a little.

I do however have the entire footage of the all tomorrows parties on my hard drive so thats some great news. look forward to shaky footage of all the bands I saw that weekend. Its why I havent been posting is because I wanted to save it all for the finished product, but no. not when I hear the knock of two callers!

camera obscura footage

so, not only did I take and upload my first real you tube footage, I have also posted it here!
So this is their second to last song, we got a good position on the balcony, and the sound comes out all right here. The main bug bear for me however, is that the venue Koko;- a beautiful old theatre, with great sound and a giant mirrorball, charges £3.70 for a 440ml can of coke. so four cans of beer costs you £15.80! I am pretty sure that is disgusting. So the next gig I go to there (cold war kids 23rd May) I am going to sneak liquor in- so there you bastards!!

Springtime fluctuates in with warmth and sunshine, hides out behind some clouds for a time then pops back with heat. Blossom trees in full swing, I am really liking the white ones at the moment.
Tonight we go to Camera Obscura a Glasgow band with fun and tender sounds. L. got me tx for my bday which start off quite a gig crammed season. I am biking to work currently -oh have been offered the job as well000 havent taken it yet000

Making compliation discs is still going strong if you want one?!

Special Day -1

So I brought that video camera, so take it back if you have already got it for me, its fine. Still need a tripod. I havent taken a single frame of footage though! But its not been the right time. Tonight might be the right time, as its my (ahem) special day minus one oh yeah, OH YEAH! oh yeah.

Its going to be a good one. Poor L. is sick though, but she, like the kids in shameless, knows how to throw a parrrrrrrty.

So its the big day tomorrow, am off to the swimmers pub, its on Eburne road if you are keen, should be good!

So day off tomorrow (sharp mathmaticians among you will know that is my special day -0) I have a few things i want to do, taping the whole day is one of those things. from the moment I wake up! should be REALLY INTERESTING if you have a yearning to see everything I do. but if you cant do something self centered on yr own birthday there is no time to do it.

But on a side note, I saw a guy this morning talking about the gorrilas in the london zoo, (who this week has been placed in a new enclosure) and he is saying with the money that they used for this half acre section (£5,000,000) they could use that to support the animals on the front line (congo). But what I took from it is a sense that I have nothing I am passionate about, (music arsenal, making movies, watching movies, these things dont count? these things dont count.

So 2007, time to get involved, 32? Time to get passionate about something that has nothing to do with myself.
options- Amnesty international? save the countain lions? BADGERS!!!

not a bad option...

Wishlist

OK, so if I ran into some money all of a sudden, these are the things I might buy.

Drums
Video CameraExternal Hardrive
dvd recorder
suit
sunglasses
ps3

Not too much is it? no I dont think it is. hahahahaha.
anyway, now to look for that money!

date night

Didnt do that well or that bad in the quiz last night. As usual I can only remember the questions I got right
1)What religion does the idea of ying and yang belong?
2)What religion are hare krishnas?

It was a religion round.

Drunk too much though. Sore head now. and its the afternoon!

Looking for a venue for my birthday. its difficult, I am thinking of a meal (its on a friday) I have bought the time out book. here are the two that it might be at

Green And Black and The Charles Lamb

Both look good on the net, I might go have a look this weekend.

Didnt win on the horses today, dispite being given a definite thing.

quiztina turner.

ten minutes left of my most boring day in this new job. BAH! Ten lengthy insipid minutes.

anyhow its quiz night tonight. and we have no name as yet. how hard is it to come up with a witty, brillant, topical, relevant name? hard. thats how, its hard hard.

heres the best so far,
scooby dooby dont
we're with matt dillon.
sex golf and rock and roll.

Even asked yahoo answers, the best they came up with was norfolk & chance, which while quite funny, every quizmaster must have heard that one.

Its our second time we have gone and we were mid table mediocre at the last time, tonight? possibly worse.

will let you know tomorrow, along with the rating of the hangover.

Oh arsenal play tonight, which as luck would have it they did the night we played quiz last. its not on tv so I am not being unlucky, in fact I bet on us winning, (2-1 rosicky last goal, and 2-0 fabregas first goal)

So Lily Allen was awesome. I had seen a gig on tv of her, she seemed out of breath and uncomfortable, but she has been training at being a star and was a great act.

Early signs were bad, a huge queue was bypassed for the pub and when I got to the merchandise desks there were two chicks, they must have been 14 at the very oldest but since I am old, they looked about 9 to me. So they were buying these t shirts, and I was laughing, they evoked a lot of thoughts which I shall regail you with now.
1) is that the age of people they are aiming at with these shirts, they fitted perfectly! they are 9! (or 14!) 2) if this is the age that you are aiming to sell yr goods to, why arent they child prices? 15-18 pounds for a childs tee shirt!! 3) what are you doing leting them try on the tshirts??
I bought a bag of badges. haha, the kids have the money thats for sure.

She started with LDN, with her white sneaker dancing and reggae horn section. I got into it quite quickly, feeling out of place sitting upstairs by myself (L, T & C were downstairs but no one sitting by me did!). So there were loads of young kids with their mums, single older women (they asked me for a hit of the doobie which I was trying to be low key about). The high point was a cover of "Heart of Glass" Which was one of those musical moments when nothing else mattered. awesome.
(photos to come when I can get them off my phone)

gigs again!

Top of the day to you!
I saw a band called hush the many last week. didnt really want to go, but L talked me into it and (albeit the only gig I have been to all year) it was the best gig all year! amazing. slightly samey with a quiet begining turned riotous vaugeness at the end but a lovely tangible feeling about it. I pitied the next band whom while good at their teenage angst stuff, (a band who obviously use the mirror in band practice and see the dublin castle as a stadium) it only held me for a few minutes and they were slightly embarrased ones.


And tonight we are going to see Lily Allen, again an L's choice, so she is really showing me the town!! a great start to the week I do believe!


And looking forward to st pattys day this sat, my work is going tomake green food and I have a chance to break out my kermit top!

Mix Tapes

Mix tapes.

I think we need to get this back into action. After making a couple for xmas and parties etc, (with mixed results) I think I am going to get on top of it and make some for everyone. You want one? Just ask.

I think I shall have my own template on how to make them. It will be as if it’s a tape, and the first side should be the party side. This could be heavy if the recipient enjoys heavy, or party if they don’t really dig heavy. Then the second side is more of the Sunday feet up in front of the papers kind of way. The Sunday of your student days; a Sunday that really matters. Not just the desperate Sunday that you cling to in dread of the Monday lurking in the recesses of yr mind but a real life Sunday when nothing else matters, and its all comfy couches and cappuccinos (which you could grab a bloody mary if you so desired).

The New Year Team

This is the people who began the last night of 2006 with us.