Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Hang on! Nearly done it. Nearly. Bloody hell, it's heavy. Heave. Heave....
There you go. A new leaf turned over.
I've not been myself. Friday night was difficult. It's funny, because I thought that the weekend was just fine and dandy. I was all ready yesterday to blast through what I got up to at the weekend, but starting at the beginning was a bad idea because certain things started to play on my mind and... Well, you know the rest.
I am not going to get into that again.
I am pretty well behind in what everybody has been up to. I am sorry about that. It's not personal. Sometimes life gets in the way, you know? I will catch up over the next couple of days (some of you are real friends), but now I need to catch up on what I've been doing.
The weekend. Some of this will be detailed, some of it will not.
On Saturday I went out with Sister 3 to help her buy a computer. It's very rare I do anything with Sister 3. We kind of disaprove of each other. It has always been that way. I cannot put my finger on what it is. Perhaps it is the age difference, because I am 12 years older than her. Different generations and all that.
Anyway, Sister 3 asked for my help, albeit via my Mom. I was touched.
I asked Sister 3 to prepare the way by buying a table or a desk (the bigger the better) and clearing an area for the computer to go. I also suggested that she might like to book Telewest to come in an setup the Broadband connection, ready for the computer to be plugged into it. She said that she would. She didn't, of course. She bought the smallest computer desk I had ever seen. It was small and flimsy and shit. Also she had forgotten to book Telewest to get the Broadband connection sorted. They are due to go to her house in November. I am going to have to go over to her house then to sort that out. Oh, well... I jump ahead of myself.
Sister 3 and I had a good day. We had breakfast at Asterias (the finest baguettes in Birmingham City Centre, culinary fans), gossiped about family (Sister 2's mental state getting worse, my Brother seeing a lady called Sharon and - Jesus Christ! - thinking about moving in with her, other things), wandered the shops, eventually turning up at Comet where we purchased some kind of bargain ACER machine with 160GB of hard disk space, a nice cheap HP printer and various accessories for a tad over £650.00 quid, including insurance. Back to Sister 3's place, put the computer together, test it. Fab, and we didn't argue at all.
Saturday evening Lorraine and I watched "The X-Factor" . I know... But I like "The X-Factor" . I find it nothing but entertaining from start to end. Certainly more entertaining than "Robin Hood" over on BBC1. (Actually that is probably a bitdisingenuouss. "Robin Hood" is OK, but from what I have seen so far, I could not give a damn what happens to any of the characters. Typical teatime BBC viewing.) "The X-Factor". Does anybody have any idea how the MacDonald Brothers have managed to avoid eviction so far? They are just awful. Maybe Scotland aremobilisingg behind them. It's the Michelle McManus nightmare of "Pop Idol" all over again.
My prediction for the winner? Ben. The whole way. (Or Eton Road, or Ashley... Oh, I don't know.)
Most of Sunday I chilled at home wiv ma bitch. We ate food and we watched TV. "A Touch Of Mink" with Cary Grant and Doris Day was on one of the cable channels. Extremely dated, of course, but a great film. I was doing fantasy casting throughout and I came up with George Clooney and Julia Roberts for the remake. Lorraine thought that was fucking awful casting, but I was the Director, so I fired her citing "artistic differences".
During the evening I went to see The Lemonheads.
I have no idea what is popular and isn't popular. Back in 1995/96, when I saw The Lemonheads for the first time, I was astonished to discover that 75% of that audience were teenage girls, 24% teenage boys and 1% people like me (I was 32 in 1995). It was like a Take That concert. There were millions of people there. Lots of screaming, tears and fainting. Frankly it was fucking fantastic.
Things had changed on Sunday. Well, I thought they had.
When I turned up at the Wulfrun Hall at just after 6:30 pm (the doors opened at 7pm) there were a massive two people queued up outside. Nice couple. Couldn't have been more than 20 years old, the pair of them. The boy looked not unlike Shaggy from Scooby Doo. His lady had a lot of metal in her face, which set off her braces very nicely. I asked them how long they had been queued up.
"Since 4pm, mate!"
4pm? Good for him. I used to be enthusiastic like that.
It looked bad, though. Nobody at the gig at all. Don't doubt it. Crowds quickly started gathering. The next to arrive were a pair of twins. Very fat guys, dressed identically in combat gear, wearing small John Lennon stylee glasses and sporting goatees. I couldn't tell them apart. Next was a guy dressed all in black with a demonic air about him. He had a goattee which was very pointed. I was scared. Suddenly there were lots and lots of people, and none of them were normal.
I tell you what. How's about I tell you about the gig rather than writing for the sake of it? Good idea? Yeah.
The Lemonheads were fucking brilliant.
They kicked off with "Different Drum" (yes, the old Mike Nesmith song, covered by Linda Ronstadt amongst others), then into "Down About It" (they screwed up the intro and started it again), then something I've never heard of, "Bit Part" (which is when the pogoing started) and on and on it went. Fantastic. I sang along. I was fantastic. "My Drug Buddy", "Alison's Starting To Happen", "The Great Big No", "Ride With Me", "Confetti", "It's A Shame About Ray". Lot's of stuff from the new record, which sounded like the old stuff. Very good. Thank you the God of Pop. It was great.
Later the band left the stage and Evan Dando did some of the more folky and quiet material. "Favorite T" (I love that song), "Being Around", "Frank Mills", "Into Your Arms". The crowd swayed. I swayed. I wasn't drunk. I had one bottle of Stella Artois. I was a good boy on Sunday night.
A quick word about the support acts.
Up first was Nicholas Ainsworth from the band the Former Bullies. I'd never heard of him or them. He played solo. Just him and a guitar. Frankly his voice sounded not dissimilar to David Gray, but his songs were better. Dripping with anger with bitter and pointed lyrics. I thought he was very good. He impressed me I bought a CD from him outside (limited edition - I have number 44 of 92) and shook his hand.
Next up were a band who called 747's. I liked them as well. They were very musical. That probably sounds a really stupid thing to say, but they were very musical, especially when the bass player swapped to piano and the second guitarist swapped to bass. The two songs they played in that setup reminded me an awful lot of the Kinks. Keep an ear out for them.
I need to go. Corrections and links later. More tomorrow.
I am feeling much better. This is the way to be.
There you go. A new leaf turned over.
I've not been myself. Friday night was difficult. It's funny, because I thought that the weekend was just fine and dandy. I was all ready yesterday to blast through what I got up to at the weekend, but starting at the beginning was a bad idea because certain things started to play on my mind and... Well, you know the rest.
I am not going to get into that again.
I am pretty well behind in what everybody has been up to. I am sorry about that. It's not personal. Sometimes life gets in the way, you know? I will catch up over the next couple of days (some of you are real friends), but now I need to catch up on what I've been doing.
The weekend. Some of this will be detailed, some of it will not.
On Saturday I went out with Sister 3 to help her buy a computer. It's very rare I do anything with Sister 3. We kind of disaprove of each other. It has always been that way. I cannot put my finger on what it is. Perhaps it is the age difference, because I am 12 years older than her. Different generations and all that.
Anyway, Sister 3 asked for my help, albeit via my Mom. I was touched.
I asked Sister 3 to prepare the way by buying a table or a desk (the bigger the better) and clearing an area for the computer to go. I also suggested that she might like to book Telewest to come in an setup the Broadband connection, ready for the computer to be plugged into it. She said that she would. She didn't, of course. She bought the smallest computer desk I had ever seen. It was small and flimsy and shit. Also she had forgotten to book Telewest to get the Broadband connection sorted. They are due to go to her house in November. I am going to have to go over to her house then to sort that out. Oh, well... I jump ahead of myself.
Sister 3 and I had a good day. We had breakfast at Asterias (the finest baguettes in Birmingham City Centre, culinary fans), gossiped about family (Sister 2's mental state getting worse, my Brother seeing a lady called Sharon and - Jesus Christ! - thinking about moving in with her, other things), wandered the shops, eventually turning up at Comet where we purchased some kind of bargain ACER machine with 160GB of hard disk space, a nice cheap HP printer and various accessories for a tad over £650.00 quid, including insurance. Back to Sister 3's place, put the computer together, test it. Fab, and we didn't argue at all.
Saturday evening Lorraine and I watched "The X-Factor" . I know... But I like "The X-Factor" . I find it nothing but entertaining from start to end. Certainly more entertaining than "Robin Hood" over on BBC1. (Actually that is probably a bitdisingenuouss. "Robin Hood" is OK, but from what I have seen so far, I could not give a damn what happens to any of the characters. Typical teatime BBC viewing.) "The X-Factor". Does anybody have any idea how the MacDonald Brothers have managed to avoid eviction so far? They are just awful. Maybe Scotland aremobilisingg behind them. It's the Michelle McManus nightmare of "Pop Idol" all over again.
My prediction for the winner? Ben. The whole way. (Or Eton Road, or Ashley... Oh, I don't know.)
Most of Sunday I chilled at home wiv ma bitch. We ate food and we watched TV. "A Touch Of Mink" with Cary Grant and Doris Day was on one of the cable channels. Extremely dated, of course, but a great film. I was doing fantasy casting throughout and I came up with George Clooney and Julia Roberts for the remake. Lorraine thought that was fucking awful casting, but I was the Director, so I fired her citing "artistic differences".
During the evening I went to see The Lemonheads.
I have no idea what is popular and isn't popular. Back in 1995/96, when I saw The Lemonheads for the first time, I was astonished to discover that 75% of that audience were teenage girls, 24% teenage boys and 1% people like me (I was 32 in 1995). It was like a Take That concert. There were millions of people there. Lots of screaming, tears and fainting. Frankly it was fucking fantastic.
Things had changed on Sunday. Well, I thought they had.
When I turned up at the Wulfrun Hall at just after 6:30 pm (the doors opened at 7pm) there were a massive two people queued up outside. Nice couple. Couldn't have been more than 20 years old, the pair of them. The boy looked not unlike Shaggy from Scooby Doo. His lady had a lot of metal in her face, which set off her braces very nicely. I asked them how long they had been queued up.
"Since 4pm, mate!"
4pm? Good for him. I used to be enthusiastic like that.
It looked bad, though. Nobody at the gig at all. Don't doubt it. Crowds quickly started gathering. The next to arrive were a pair of twins. Very fat guys, dressed identically in combat gear, wearing small John Lennon stylee glasses and sporting goatees. I couldn't tell them apart. Next was a guy dressed all in black with a demonic air about him. He had a goattee which was very pointed. I was scared. Suddenly there were lots and lots of people, and none of them were normal.
I tell you what. How's about I tell you about the gig rather than writing for the sake of it? Good idea? Yeah.
The Lemonheads were fucking brilliant.
They kicked off with "Different Drum" (yes, the old Mike Nesmith song, covered by Linda Ronstadt amongst others), then into "Down About It" (they screwed up the intro and started it again), then something I've never heard of, "Bit Part" (which is when the pogoing started) and on and on it went. Fantastic. I sang along. I was fantastic. "My Drug Buddy", "Alison's Starting To Happen", "The Great Big No", "Ride With Me", "Confetti", "It's A Shame About Ray". Lot's of stuff from the new record, which sounded like the old stuff. Very good. Thank you the God of Pop. It was great.
Later the band left the stage and Evan Dando did some of the more folky and quiet material. "Favorite T" (I love that song), "Being Around", "Frank Mills", "Into Your Arms". The crowd swayed. I swayed. I wasn't drunk. I had one bottle of Stella Artois. I was a good boy on Sunday night.
A quick word about the support acts.
Up first was Nicholas Ainsworth from the band the Former Bullies. I'd never heard of him or them. He played solo. Just him and a guitar. Frankly his voice sounded not dissimilar to David Gray, but his songs were better. Dripping with anger with bitter and pointed lyrics. I thought he was very good. He impressed me I bought a CD from him outside (limited edition - I have number 44 of 92) and shook his hand.
Next up were a band who called 747's. I liked them as well. They were very musical. That probably sounds a really stupid thing to say, but they were very musical, especially when the bass player swapped to piano and the second guitarist swapped to bass. The two songs they played in that setup reminded me an awful lot of the Kinks. Keep an ear out for them.
I need to go. Corrections and links later. More tomorrow.
I am feeling much better. This is the way to be.
# posted by Pynchon @ 8:07 pm 
