random carnival indian on the towpath
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
aloe dying
lazy day so far, doing a little musical project for spanna, looking through the many pictures and videos i took over the bank holiday... a few will no doubt get onto this blog, a few more onto my flickr,
had another lovely day yesterday, waking up @ gucci towers then cycling over to regents park, under the carnival once more... such a perfect angle to catch the carnival @ this year, not in it, but close enough to smell it, catch a whiff of the excitement... the canals of london being so low down give this odd perspective on most things you pass, the carnival always such a phenomenom...
maybe i'll go again one year, properly, go check out the sound systems like we used to do, me & spanna when we lived up in kensal rise, the year we'd almost given up looking for drum'n'bass when we stumbled across the maddest, old school jungle from a sound system on the back of a float, followed by a motley selection of drum'n'bass heads...
we followed it for a while, in the end it stopped pretty close to our flat...
uncle filmo & me also have stumbled around the sound systems in years past, he looking for some speed garage that he'd heard about, finding ourselves trying to cross a huge crowd of carnival youth @ a garage system... the rush of a tune coming on that everyone (except us) knew, the yelling, the whistles, the mayhem... that palpable feeling of being in a crowd in a good club when a tune you love comes on...
trave also (brother mine, leamington spa, i hereby give him a blog name) has been with me @ a carnival, i don't think felinity has...
the first carnival i ever went to, the year i moved to london, although before i'd moved, me & L who was going to live with me (but pulled out) came up on the day and stooged around, particularly the radio 1 stage, then in the evening we went to the NFT and by chance caught a showing of the passion of joan of arc, the french surrealist one, with nick cave and the dirty 3 doing a live accompaniment there in the room...
i think the aloe vera plant that i'm looking after for josiah is dying...
after my canal carnival ride i got to regents park and spent an hour trying to find my friends, my phone being on the brink of running out of batteries* and bo so not the person to ask for directions, after my phone completely died and i still didn't know where they were i started asking strangers to borrow their phones in exchange for beer or money (although noone wanted either), three good samaritans later (one grumpy, one lovely and one with almost no credit) & still no real directions from bo i bumped into G (G who'd once been dressed as a fairy at the fancy party when i'd been dressed as hong kong fuey) and borrowed her phone and spoke to F, bo's housemate who i should have been texting all along...
anyway, palava aside once i'd found them it was just heaven, drinking, eating of the various dishes bo & F had prepared, good company, uncle filmo, bo & her M, F & her C, G eventually (fairy) & her M...
bo's spangly flipflops went surprisingly well with my nails...
a good few hours in that lovely afternoon with friends, uncle filmo & bo such old friends now it almost had the air of that old people's home we've spoken about before...
the sun went down, we went our separate ways...
my life is perpetual holiday anyway these days but so nice to have a bank holiday and just lounge around with people (who actually work normally).
* my new phone is suffering from exactly the smae fault that my old phone suffered from, which means it wasn't the phone, yet more communication with orange, all that transfering of phone numbers and losing of text messages for nothing... moan, moan,
still have lovely weather though,
won't last..
x
had another lovely day yesterday, waking up @ gucci towers then cycling over to regents park, under the carnival once more... such a perfect angle to catch the carnival @ this year, not in it, but close enough to smell it, catch a whiff of the excitement... the canals of london being so low down give this odd perspective on most things you pass, the carnival always such a phenomenom...
maybe i'll go again one year, properly, go check out the sound systems like we used to do, me & spanna when we lived up in kensal rise, the year we'd almost given up looking for drum'n'bass when we stumbled across the maddest, old school jungle from a sound system on the back of a float, followed by a motley selection of drum'n'bass heads...
we followed it for a while, in the end it stopped pretty close to our flat...
uncle filmo & me also have stumbled around the sound systems in years past, he looking for some speed garage that he'd heard about, finding ourselves trying to cross a huge crowd of carnival youth @ a garage system... the rush of a tune coming on that everyone (except us) knew, the yelling, the whistles, the mayhem... that palpable feeling of being in a crowd in a good club when a tune you love comes on...
trave also (brother mine, leamington spa, i hereby give him a blog name) has been with me @ a carnival, i don't think felinity has...
the first carnival i ever went to, the year i moved to london, although before i'd moved, me & L who was going to live with me (but pulled out) came up on the day and stooged around, particularly the radio 1 stage, then in the evening we went to the NFT and by chance caught a showing of the passion of joan of arc, the french surrealist one, with nick cave and the dirty 3 doing a live accompaniment there in the room...
i think the aloe vera plant that i'm looking after for josiah is dying...
after my canal carnival ride i got to regents park and spent an hour trying to find my friends, my phone being on the brink of running out of batteries* and bo so not the person to ask for directions, after my phone completely died and i still didn't know where they were i started asking strangers to borrow their phones in exchange for beer or money (although noone wanted either), three good samaritans later (one grumpy, one lovely and one with almost no credit) & still no real directions from bo i bumped into G (G who'd once been dressed as a fairy at the fancy party when i'd been dressed as hong kong fuey) and borrowed her phone and spoke to F, bo's housemate who i should have been texting all along...
anyway, palava aside once i'd found them it was just heaven, drinking, eating of the various dishes bo & F had prepared, good company, uncle filmo, bo & her M, F & her C, G eventually (fairy) & her M...
bo's spangly flipflops went surprisingly well with my nails...
a good few hours in that lovely afternoon with friends, uncle filmo & bo such old friends now it almost had the air of that old people's home we've spoken about before...
the sun went down, we went our separate ways...
my life is perpetual holiday anyway these days but so nice to have a bank holiday and just lounge around with people (who actually work normally).
* my new phone is suffering from exactly the smae fault that my old phone suffered from, which means it wasn't the phone, yet more communication with orange, all that transfering of phone numbers and losing of text messages for nothing... moan, moan,
still have lovely weather though,
won't last..
x
Monday, August 29, 2005
sore eyes after lovely day
so i came over to gucci towers as josiah calls it, the home of r9, nippy's partner, r9 & nippy invited me over for dinner and sleeve & M were here too, lovely, lovely people...
sleeve & M went off to TDK, or the cross, some mad clubbing experience, we stayed in & watched jackie brown after the truly wonderful dinner that r9 made for us...
simply lovely, particularly after cycling over to acton, along the canals, drifting underneath the nottinghill carnival, many revellers, the late sunlight behind the trellick tower that i love so much... i haven't cycled along the grand union canal before, always stopped when the regent gets to little venice, i used to live in kensal rise and it was nice skating quite close to there, just close enough to the carnival to get a whiff of that high life then on towards the dipping sun... stopping to take pictures whenever i could...
r9 & nippy such good company...
& now my bed here awaits, but the contact lens holder that i packed is nowhere to be seen, i was just going to bed with a few books of poetry that r9 has, but that thorny contact lens issue...
so i turn on this computer hoping that there will be a recipe for contact lens solution using household products but the world wide web is sadly silent on the subject...
the closest i came was a website pointing out the dangers of leaving your solution at home...
thanks...
and then i think maybe the dangers aren't that big, just another medical conspiracy to keep us buying things we don't need... i don't linger on this too much but it's in there, i guess i'll be putting them in nontap water in eggcups and then breaking out a new pair when i get home...
which won't be straight away because i'm meeting bo in regents park tomorrow afternoon, my eyes may well be red & sore by then...
i'll be cycling under the carnival again tomorrow, and it'll be more rocking, the monday always is...
not a bad life at all...
but if i could find that solution (contact lens solution that is) that would ease me a little...
x
sleeve & M went off to TDK, or the cross, some mad clubbing experience, we stayed in & watched jackie brown after the truly wonderful dinner that r9 made for us...
simply lovely, particularly after cycling over to acton, along the canals, drifting underneath the nottinghill carnival, many revellers, the late sunlight behind the trellick tower that i love so much... i haven't cycled along the grand union canal before, always stopped when the regent gets to little venice, i used to live in kensal rise and it was nice skating quite close to there, just close enough to the carnival to get a whiff of that high life then on towards the dipping sun... stopping to take pictures whenever i could...
r9 & nippy such good company...
& now my bed here awaits, but the contact lens holder that i packed is nowhere to be seen, i was just going to bed with a few books of poetry that r9 has, but that thorny contact lens issue...
so i turn on this computer hoping that there will be a recipe for contact lens solution using household products but the world wide web is sadly silent on the subject...
the closest i came was a website pointing out the dangers of leaving your solution at home...
thanks...
and then i think maybe the dangers aren't that big, just another medical conspiracy to keep us buying things we don't need... i don't linger on this too much but it's in there, i guess i'll be putting them in nontap water in eggcups and then breaking out a new pair when i get home...
which won't be straight away because i'm meeting bo in regents park tomorrow afternoon, my eyes may well be red & sore by then...
i'll be cycling under the carnival again tomorrow, and it'll be more rocking, the monday always is...
not a bad life at all...
but if i could find that solution (contact lens solution that is) that would ease me a little...
x
Sunday, August 28, 2005
anarchy delboy
today is such a beautiful day in our nations capital, and what time did i wake up?
this so-called summer has been so short on days like this and so what time did i wake up to take advantage of it?
way too late ladies & gentlemen, way too late...
and that always makes me feel a little alien, but within an hour of waking i'd spoken to all kinds of people and arranged my next couple of days, part of society again... phew,
anyway, the main issue:
last night G got in after midnight and we played some backgammon, drank wine, and she told me about this thing...
on a well known purveyor of elctrical goods website there was an item that should have been priced at about £400 but instead was down for 49p, so i guess in fact they intended it to be £499... maybe,
so the person who'd told G about it said their brother had just ordered 10 of these items and was going to sell them on ebay, he told her exactly where to find the item on the website...
so of course we looked, and lo and behold there it was, like a jewel, winking at us in amongst a desert of sand...
so we ordered 5, 1 for this house (although it will absolutely dwarf the TV room - (for it is a TV), and 4 to sell... i wanted to order one for josiah as well down in brighton but i didn't have her address to hand, and then today i looked and they've taken it down... which could well mean it won't work, they had a clause on the website saying that if they found a mistake they could cancel,
at the least it will cause this big organisation a headache, at best we are going to have 4/5 (we might not want something that big in our house) huge TV's to store and sell on...
and in the blink of an eye i have become delboy,
x
this so-called summer has been so short on days like this and so what time did i wake up to take advantage of it?
way too late ladies & gentlemen, way too late...
and that always makes me feel a little alien, but within an hour of waking i'd spoken to all kinds of people and arranged my next couple of days, part of society again... phew,
anyway, the main issue:
last night G got in after midnight and we played some backgammon, drank wine, and she told me about this thing...
on a well known purveyor of elctrical goods website there was an item that should have been priced at about £400 but instead was down for 49p, so i guess in fact they intended it to be £499... maybe,
so the person who'd told G about it said their brother had just ordered 10 of these items and was going to sell them on ebay, he told her exactly where to find the item on the website...
so of course we looked, and lo and behold there it was, like a jewel, winking at us in amongst a desert of sand...
so we ordered 5, 1 for this house (although it will absolutely dwarf the TV room - (for it is a TV), and 4 to sell... i wanted to order one for josiah as well down in brighton but i didn't have her address to hand, and then today i looked and they've taken it down... which could well mean it won't work, they had a clause on the website saying that if they found a mistake they could cancel,
at the least it will cause this big organisation a headache, at best we are going to have 4/5 (we might not want something that big in our house) huge TV's to store and sell on...
and in the blink of an eye i have become delboy,
x
Saturday, August 27, 2005
gran text memory
one of these days i'm going to start making a note of the mornings when i wake up and i can't hear anything in my right ear, it happens enough...
i was just sat playing T's piano and my mind wandered off to a situation i'm in and the possible positions people hold within it, kind of thinking about power, the power people hold by what they say or don't say... the kind of fantasy which i could do without, doesn't move me forward, often i wake from such a dream by looking at what i'm doing, why i'm putting certain words in people's mouths in my mind, what part of me is validated through it... almost always something, these dreams that come almost unbidded.
anyway, i realise that mornings when i can't hear in my right ear i'm more prone to this kind of drifting off, it almost feels like being on drugs, a certain distance from reality, from the present moment, and this made me think of my gran, my dad's mum, who was sharp as a pin most of her life but who got some kind of dementia in her last years.
i don't know how much this is true but i always thought it was because she was gradually getting more and more blind, and more and more deaf, her grip on the present moment getting less and less, accompanied i guess with something happening to her mind, one christmas she came to us and it seemed that she'd crossed over a line, she was no longer quite the same person, certain things would set her off talking as though she was living through other situations, things that had upset her maybe decades before, it was wierd for us, i thought at the time that she would probably die soon, her previous character had been so strong, this weak person she'd become (in my perception) surely couldn't survive, but she lived on for 3 or 4 years, she is the sadie of sadie's gone which i improvised back then when she died.
i suppose i'm thinking about myself, how this could happen to me, unimaginable though it is now, and then tracing the different kinds of awareness, of lived reality that we walk through, from the drifting off to the sharply present, that bit in mrs dalloway that says it so well where she looks at herself in the mirror and feels herself tightening, hardening to a diamond to greet the others... hang on... no i can't find it,
i woke up today to my new phone arriving, last night i was looking at the text messages i've accumulated and wondering whether they lived on the SIM card or the phone, when i plugged my SIM card in to the new phone would i keep them or lose them?
once i'd got the new phone i went back to bed, too late last night copying down phone numbers, i woke to a text from catalan E, a response to the tiny piece of neruda i'd sent her yesterday, and it is the only text message in my phone, i lost all those other ones,
and it's no bad thing, much as i love holding on to certain things and the memories that they link to, i'd horded all the text messages i'd recieved on the day of the bombing for example, that community that sprang up immediately making sure everyone you could think of was alright,
after me & P were no more i went through all the text messages from her i'd been keeping and deleted them, other than this lovely one today all of catalan E's texts are no more, except in my mind,
melancholy for sure, but a step towards the bright present moment, those memories will have to live without their digital helpers...
x
i was just sat playing T's piano and my mind wandered off to a situation i'm in and the possible positions people hold within it, kind of thinking about power, the power people hold by what they say or don't say... the kind of fantasy which i could do without, doesn't move me forward, often i wake from such a dream by looking at what i'm doing, why i'm putting certain words in people's mouths in my mind, what part of me is validated through it... almost always something, these dreams that come almost unbidded.
anyway, i realise that mornings when i can't hear in my right ear i'm more prone to this kind of drifting off, it almost feels like being on drugs, a certain distance from reality, from the present moment, and this made me think of my gran, my dad's mum, who was sharp as a pin most of her life but who got some kind of dementia in her last years.
i don't know how much this is true but i always thought it was because she was gradually getting more and more blind, and more and more deaf, her grip on the present moment getting less and less, accompanied i guess with something happening to her mind, one christmas she came to us and it seemed that she'd crossed over a line, she was no longer quite the same person, certain things would set her off talking as though she was living through other situations, things that had upset her maybe decades before, it was wierd for us, i thought at the time that she would probably die soon, her previous character had been so strong, this weak person she'd become (in my perception) surely couldn't survive, but she lived on for 3 or 4 years, she is the sadie of sadie's gone which i improvised back then when she died.
i suppose i'm thinking about myself, how this could happen to me, unimaginable though it is now, and then tracing the different kinds of awareness, of lived reality that we walk through, from the drifting off to the sharply present, that bit in mrs dalloway that says it so well where she looks at herself in the mirror and feels herself tightening, hardening to a diamond to greet the others... hang on... no i can't find it,
i woke up today to my new phone arriving, last night i was looking at the text messages i've accumulated and wondering whether they lived on the SIM card or the phone, when i plugged my SIM card in to the new phone would i keep them or lose them?
once i'd got the new phone i went back to bed, too late last night copying down phone numbers, i woke to a text from catalan E, a response to the tiny piece of neruda i'd sent her yesterday, and it is the only text message in my phone, i lost all those other ones,
and it's no bad thing, much as i love holding on to certain things and the memories that they link to, i'd horded all the text messages i'd recieved on the day of the bombing for example, that community that sprang up immediately making sure everyone you could think of was alright,
after me & P were no more i went through all the text messages from her i'd been keeping and deleted them, other than this lovely one today all of catalan E's texts are no more, except in my mind,
melancholy for sure, but a step towards the bright present moment, those memories will have to live without their digital helpers...
x
emotional elephant phone
this concerns friday, i know the date says saturday but i'm still awake from friday...
an emotional day for various reasons, one of which the emotionally wonderful post i read @ felinity's blog, made me almost cry...
so i cycled round abit, found myself in borders @ angel, intending to take advantage of a brief relaxing of my belt strings to buy a book of fernando pessoa's poetry, only they didn't have any...
i sat down and read some pablo neruda to myself, texting a line in spanish to catalan E...
then later on me & Ge from this house watched the gus van sant film elephant, an artistic response to the columbine massacre a few years back... a lovely film, so many long moments, so natural, yet so finely crafted, several lingering looks at the sky that i found very moving, beautiful playing with time..
then i've just spent the last 3 hours moving phone numbers from my mobile phone onto my computer as orange are replacing my handset tomorrow, a fault that i've been living with for a little while got too much this last week, and it was a really odd experience going through the numbers, whittling down 434 entries (more than one entry per person, i don't have 434 contacts... probably) to the 200 that would fit on the SIM card, there are people in my address book from back when i was in KYO, even back when i was in Andrea's band, years & years ago...
puzzling out who certain people are, for example the arabic guy i met at cork airport the christmas when KYO was touring ireland and i'd missed my original flight out there, i was wearing my palestinian rights T-shirt and we got talking, he gave me his phone number, i never rang it, it's now safely tucked away in my computer...
but it's just like me to find the light in this menial of menial tasks, too long typing numbers... i need my bed, i need a gin & tonic...
x
an emotional day for various reasons, one of which the emotionally wonderful post i read @ felinity's blog, made me almost cry...
so i cycled round abit, found myself in borders @ angel, intending to take advantage of a brief relaxing of my belt strings to buy a book of fernando pessoa's poetry, only they didn't have any...
i sat down and read some pablo neruda to myself, texting a line in spanish to catalan E...
then later on me & Ge from this house watched the gus van sant film elephant, an artistic response to the columbine massacre a few years back... a lovely film, so many long moments, so natural, yet so finely crafted, several lingering looks at the sky that i found very moving, beautiful playing with time..
then i've just spent the last 3 hours moving phone numbers from my mobile phone onto my computer as orange are replacing my handset tomorrow, a fault that i've been living with for a little while got too much this last week, and it was a really odd experience going through the numbers, whittling down 434 entries (more than one entry per person, i don't have 434 contacts... probably) to the 200 that would fit on the SIM card, there are people in my address book from back when i was in KYO, even back when i was in Andrea's band, years & years ago...
puzzling out who certain people are, for example the arabic guy i met at cork airport the christmas when KYO was touring ireland and i'd missed my original flight out there, i was wearing my palestinian rights T-shirt and we got talking, he gave me his phone number, i never rang it, it's now safely tucked away in my computer...
but it's just like me to find the light in this menial of menial tasks, too long typing numbers... i need my bed, i need a gin & tonic...
x
Thursday, August 25, 2005
scum yes light
two great films within 24 hours, scum on television last night, a young ray winstone, vegetarians, i shit 'em, bleak as anything... life in a borstal in 1979...
i'm the daddy now
a really great line said by the governor to a young trainee that i wanted to write down but couldn't find a pen, something like:
you don't need to think for yourself in here laddy, it's all laid on for you
alan clarke directed it originally for the BBC, but they wouldn't allow certain scenes (male rape for example) so he made it into a cinematic release...
and then today i cycled over to mayfair (where i'm sat right now, in the mayfair library where spanish M works), & saw Yes @ the curzon mayfair, in the end i couldn't find a partner for the two for one deal last night but i realised that if you go to a film before 5pm it is generally cheaper anyway...
K had recommended this film to me and i'm really glad i got to see it, apparently the director sally potter started working on it immediately after the 11th of september 2001 and it is very much a film of our times... told all in verse, but the phrases not sitting neatly within the lines, rhymes coming midway through sentences, just beautiful, and sad, john berger thanked at the end, and nella bielski in amongst the longer list of thanks just after...
and now i'm waiting for M to finish work and i guess we're going to wwander around a park or two in the still lovely early evening light...
last night, much later, she got home just as i was preparing to go out and cycle round in the amazing light after the rain, the sunset lighting up the clouds from below,
i set off one way and she got her camera and set off the other...
adventures in light,
x
i'm the daddy now
a really great line said by the governor to a young trainee that i wanted to write down but couldn't find a pen, something like:
you don't need to think for yourself in here laddy, it's all laid on for you
alan clarke directed it originally for the BBC, but they wouldn't allow certain scenes (male rape for example) so he made it into a cinematic release...
and then today i cycled over to mayfair (where i'm sat right now, in the mayfair library where spanish M works), & saw Yes @ the curzon mayfair, in the end i couldn't find a partner for the two for one deal last night but i realised that if you go to a film before 5pm it is generally cheaper anyway...
K had recommended this film to me and i'm really glad i got to see it, apparently the director sally potter started working on it immediately after the 11th of september 2001 and it is very much a film of our times... told all in verse, but the phrases not sitting neatly within the lines, rhymes coming midway through sentences, just beautiful, and sad, john berger thanked at the end, and nella bielski in amongst the longer list of thanks just after...
and now i'm waiting for M to finish work and i guess we're going to wwander around a park or two in the still lovely early evening light...
last night, much later, she got home just as i was preparing to go out and cycle round in the amazing light after the rain, the sunset lighting up the clouds from below,
i set off one way and she got her camera and set off the other...
adventures in light,
x
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
jumper
trying to find my favourite jumper and i can't, and it's august in this dirty old town and frankly i'm appalled, so appalled that i'm going to leave that word spelt like that even though it looks wrong, you see i'm in a small hurry to find someone to come to the cinema with me tonight... to see Yes.
also on tonight is the supposedly more interesting episode of lost, which i'll be videoing if i make it out there...
it is so cold ladies and gentlemen, i went to the amazon cafe earlier and their front door had broken, which meant they had to leave it open, all day (i was told) they were packed, but noone would sit in the front part of the cafe, by this open door, the wind and the rain people... in AUGUST...
where is that jumper?
x
also on tonight is the supposedly more interesting episode of lost, which i'll be videoing if i make it out there...
it is so cold ladies and gentlemen, i went to the amazon cafe earlier and their front door had broken, which meant they had to leave it open, all day (i was told) they were packed, but noone would sit in the front part of the cafe, by this open door, the wind and the rain people... in AUGUST...
where is that jumper?
x
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
a brush with my mum
and they don't deserve her,
in the aforementioned tv competition that my mum went for today she got through the first round, making it to the afternoon, the original hundred being whittled down to 25, (i think, i'm a little confused as to the numbers), but she got no further, sadly after the afternoon session they didn't pick her for the next round, but they fed her.. and i'm proud of her,
so i'm hoping that when it's aired on ITV they'll be a panning shot of the afternoon painters, all doing a portrait of some celebrity, and we'll be able to see V working away, maybe a half second of shared camera time, that would please me no end,
spanish M took some pictures of me in the high healed shoes with the nail varnish today, jose saramago continues to be great, and jane rogers, who's mr wroe's virgins i finished on the weekend was lovely, i'll be getting another of hers once i'm solvent again...
x
in the aforementioned tv competition that my mum went for today she got through the first round, making it to the afternoon, the original hundred being whittled down to 25, (i think, i'm a little confused as to the numbers), but she got no further, sadly after the afternoon session they didn't pick her for the next round, but they fed her.. and i'm proud of her,
so i'm hoping that when it's aired on ITV they'll be a panning shot of the afternoon painters, all doing a portrait of some celebrity, and we'll be able to see V working away, maybe a half second of shared camera time, that would please me no end,
spanish M took some pictures of me in the high healed shoes with the nail varnish today, jose saramago continues to be great, and jane rogers, who's mr wroe's virgins i finished on the weekend was lovely, i'll be getting another of hers once i'm solvent again...
x
recording portugal lemmy
i recorded the tune, currently named after catalan E, who i wrote it for, it will probably be subsumed into a larger tune, as it's ending fits really nicely into the more abstract chords i wrote @ christmas on my mum & dad's piano, (that i then wrote some lyrics to just before P left me)... gave the cd to D who is flying out to barcelona tomorrow (tuesday, today in fact)...
just did it on T's piano in this house, vocals & piano both at once into my minidisc, through the tiny sony microphone i have, a long way from the big process we went through when G recorded connie for me, nice to record it into my computer & play around with the production a little, once more a deadline forcing some good work from me...
then just as G got home from her theatre work a great program on lemmy from motorhead came on, a documentary on their 2003 tour, just perfect, lemmy repeatedly saying fuck you and being generally witty & rock'n'roll... i've always loved him ever since i saw him in the young ones when i was a kid...
and finally on to portugal, i've started reading the year of the death of ricardo reis by jose saramago, it concerns one of fernando pessoa's psuedonyms, it is very portuguese (so i'm told)... earlier today, i found catalan E's house on google earth (with local girl D's help) & just now i cruised all the way from the northern border of france/spain, around the coast, to cadiz, where E the van driver comes from, looking for lisbon...
i just missed it, when i reached cadiz i knew i'd gone back into spain, i panned out and there was lisbon, saramago gives such a sense of place in his books... google earth is just heaven...
x
just did it on T's piano in this house, vocals & piano both at once into my minidisc, through the tiny sony microphone i have, a long way from the big process we went through when G recorded connie for me, nice to record it into my computer & play around with the production a little, once more a deadline forcing some good work from me...
then just as G got home from her theatre work a great program on lemmy from motorhead came on, a documentary on their 2003 tour, just perfect, lemmy repeatedly saying fuck you and being generally witty & rock'n'roll... i've always loved him ever since i saw him in the young ones when i was a kid...
and finally on to portugal, i've started reading the year of the death of ricardo reis by jose saramago, it concerns one of fernando pessoa's psuedonyms, it is very portuguese (so i'm told)... earlier today, i found catalan E's house on google earth (with local girl D's help) & just now i cruised all the way from the northern border of france/spain, around the coast, to cadiz, where E the van driver comes from, looking for lisbon...
i just missed it, when i reached cadiz i knew i'd gone back into spain, i panned out and there was lisbon, saramago gives such a sense of place in his books... google earth is just heaven...
x
Monday, August 22, 2005
nail varnish...
...doesn't go away overnight
sat on the loo just now with the music from our young neighbours drifting in through the window, (that wierd almost prince-like song don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?) and i look at my feet...
and that dark red nail varnish is still there,
it was a continuation of the high healed shoe thing, we played on saturday night @ nippy's party & r9 (nippy's partner, who's shoes they are) gave me a brief pedicure before we played, including the colour.
and it felt a little odd, @ the party two weeks ago i was in my own basement and it was the moment, it was funny, maybe it should be left there? still in two minds about it all, but i love how my feet look in the shoes with the nail varnish...
slept through josiah & grace banging on my door yesteray afternoon after the revelry of saturday night, annoying but funny, i haven't seen grace for too long now, josiah had been out @ the party, she picked up grace near my house so they weren't too far out of their way... shame though,
tomorrow i'm heading over to H's new flat - fantastic cello playing H, way too long since we played together, and today i'm going to record a small version of the piece i'm working on, to give to D whose flying to barcelona tomorrow, who will give it to my catalan E, who i still think of as mine bizaarely, funny how having no future together doesn't seem to register sometimes...
x
sat on the loo just now with the music from our young neighbours drifting in through the window, (that wierd almost prince-like song don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?) and i look at my feet...
and that dark red nail varnish is still there,
it was a continuation of the high healed shoe thing, we played on saturday night @ nippy's party & r9 (nippy's partner, who's shoes they are) gave me a brief pedicure before we played, including the colour.
and it felt a little odd, @ the party two weeks ago i was in my own basement and it was the moment, it was funny, maybe it should be left there? still in two minds about it all, but i love how my feet look in the shoes with the nail varnish...
slept through josiah & grace banging on my door yesteray afternoon after the revelry of saturday night, annoying but funny, i haven't seen grace for too long now, josiah had been out @ the party, she picked up grace near my house so they weren't too far out of their way... shame though,
tomorrow i'm heading over to H's new flat - fantastic cello playing H, way too long since we played together, and today i'm going to record a small version of the piece i'm working on, to give to D whose flying to barcelona tomorrow, who will give it to my catalan E, who i still think of as mine bizaarely, funny how having no future together doesn't seem to register sometimes...
x
Saturday, August 20, 2005
midsummer
night's dream....
strange old day i've had today (friday), my sleep altogether diturbed last night, firstly by one of my moving around dreams, in which i lunged at my stereo, somehow bending my glasses into an odd shape in the process, not sure where that has come from... and then woken around 7am to the sound of the rain, a chill wind blowing in through the window,
rehearsing with nippy and i hadn't had enough sleep to be sure, grumpy therefore, rehearsing very much work these days, necessary and usually enjoyable, but work rather than play...
then i cycled home kind of slowly, through the dripping rain, getting to mine and feeling altogether worse for wear...
so to have a midsummer night's dream on telly tonight was just perfect, loads of great actors, lovely production...
fairly righted me, and in need of righting i was...
x
strange old day i've had today (friday), my sleep altogether diturbed last night, firstly by one of my moving around dreams, in which i lunged at my stereo, somehow bending my glasses into an odd shape in the process, not sure where that has come from... and then woken around 7am to the sound of the rain, a chill wind blowing in through the window,
rehearsing with nippy and i hadn't had enough sleep to be sure, grumpy therefore, rehearsing very much work these days, necessary and usually enjoyable, but work rather than play...
then i cycled home kind of slowly, through the dripping rain, getting to mine and feeling altogether worse for wear...
so to have a midsummer night's dream on telly tonight was just perfect, loads of great actors, lovely production...
fairly righted me, and in need of righting i was...
x
Thursday, August 18, 2005
birthday dark then light canal beauty long journey
ok, so 2nd post today, initially because i mentioned D (bro) in my last post and completely failed to mention that he turned 34 today... so happy birthday D, the day after nippy's birthday, two days after D's birthday (a different D), nippy having a party on saturday which we're playing at, the high healed shoes may come out again... (hmmm, a pedicure?)
i cycled over to clapham this evening to see felinity and dad, dad having been @ the oval watching some cricket, felinity working around there... felinity after confessed to a slight oddness about me becoming known as the high heal wearing piano player, i can understand this...
lovely to see them both, and me & felinity had a phone conversation with the birthday boy also, and now i think of it i spoke to mum as well earlier, it turns out she's got into the early rounds of a brush with fame, granada tv's fame academy for painters... first round next tuesday... fingers crossed, how much would i love to see my mum on tv?
it took me an hour & a quarter each way from finsbury park to clapham, becoming a little more familiar with those streets, thinking about how nice it is cycling with someone else, following their route, afew times on the way there tonight i shared a bit of the journey with another cyclist, once or twice i asked them where they were going, hoping to find someone going where i was going, but no luck... on the way back approaching battersea bridge i was overtaken by a guy, on an impulse i followed him rather than carefully following my map and he led me almost all the way to the bridge...
just before i set out early on wednesday morning on my south to north almost dawn ride i got D (birthday boy from the night before) to mark his route on my map north of his house...
also following maps, i realise that i have a desire to just set off, without carefully setting out my route, working it out when i need to, i relate this to playing music without notes... as i learn a tune (with a band) i make good notes, then as time goes on i grow confident enough to abandon the notes, knowing the way...
on the way home, this sensation of now being in familiar streets so no map reading necessary...
so the journey, from clapham, like i said i followed that guy for some of the way, then over the river, battersea bridge giving a lovely view of albert bridge all lit up, the reflection in the thames shimmering...
north of there up to hyde park, in the dark now, my front light out of batteries, mostly not a problem but eerie in the darkness of the park, crossing hyde park, plunging back into well-lit streets, not too far until the canal, and dark again, cycling beside the canal through regents park, eerie again but achingly beautiful, some of the bridges after regents park, towards camdem, have some kind of lighting under them, so approaching them (particularly tonight with the water still) you see an oval shape made by the bridge and it's reflection, with the ceiling of the bridge visible directly below, in amazing detail because of the light and the surrounding darkness...
that same part of the canal that me & catalan E had that romantic boat trip on, i texted her and then shortly after i got a text, thinking it was her i stopped the bike and checked it, but it was from P, thinking of a recent but now past lover and getting a response from a lover further back in time... strange but oddly fitting the romance of the journey...
over 10 miles so that great pedometer tells me... satisfying to use the bike and my body like that...
x
i cycled over to clapham this evening to see felinity and dad, dad having been @ the oval watching some cricket, felinity working around there... felinity after confessed to a slight oddness about me becoming known as the high heal wearing piano player, i can understand this...
lovely to see them both, and me & felinity had a phone conversation with the birthday boy also, and now i think of it i spoke to mum as well earlier, it turns out she's got into the early rounds of a brush with fame, granada tv's fame academy for painters... first round next tuesday... fingers crossed, how much would i love to see my mum on tv?
it took me an hour & a quarter each way from finsbury park to clapham, becoming a little more familiar with those streets, thinking about how nice it is cycling with someone else, following their route, afew times on the way there tonight i shared a bit of the journey with another cyclist, once or twice i asked them where they were going, hoping to find someone going where i was going, but no luck... on the way back approaching battersea bridge i was overtaken by a guy, on an impulse i followed him rather than carefully following my map and he led me almost all the way to the bridge...
just before i set out early on wednesday morning on my south to north almost dawn ride i got D (birthday boy from the night before) to mark his route on my map north of his house...
also following maps, i realise that i have a desire to just set off, without carefully setting out my route, working it out when i need to, i relate this to playing music without notes... as i learn a tune (with a band) i make good notes, then as time goes on i grow confident enough to abandon the notes, knowing the way...
on the way home, this sensation of now being in familiar streets so no map reading necessary...
so the journey, from clapham, like i said i followed that guy for some of the way, then over the river, battersea bridge giving a lovely view of albert bridge all lit up, the reflection in the thames shimmering...
north of there up to hyde park, in the dark now, my front light out of batteries, mostly not a problem but eerie in the darkness of the park, crossing hyde park, plunging back into well-lit streets, not too far until the canal, and dark again, cycling beside the canal through regents park, eerie again but achingly beautiful, some of the bridges after regents park, towards camdem, have some kind of lighting under them, so approaching them (particularly tonight with the water still) you see an oval shape made by the bridge and it's reflection, with the ceiling of the bridge visible directly below, in amazing detail because of the light and the surrounding darkness...
that same part of the canal that me & catalan E had that romantic boat trip on, i texted her and then shortly after i got a text, thinking it was her i stopped the bike and checked it, but it was from P, thinking of a recent but now past lover and getting a response from a lover further back in time... strange but oddly fitting the romance of the journey...
over 10 miles so that great pedometer tells me... satisfying to use the bike and my body like that...
x
gradual versus abrupt change - hello speed
so we in this house have blueyonder as our broadband supplier, every now and then they bring out a new deal for new customers which includes a bump up in our speed without a rise in what we pay... and i appreciate this...
we use a broadband router made by D-link that we bought a few years ago when i moved in, i set it up with G who used to live here, who i still play chess with online, also residing here at the time was dr K, being from melbourne, who used to titter to herself every time we talked about it, routing being a euphemism for... anyway..
one of these situations where you learn enough about it to solve whatever problems come up, then don't have to think about it for 6 months so you lose the knowledge... then have to relearn every time a glitch comes...
in a way i think of the router as being magic, in that i don't understand it, and roughly half of the problems we've had with it have been solved without me knowing what i did (if anything) to solve them...
then a few months back i discovered about it's firmware, from D, the midlands arm of my immediate family living up in leamington spa, and that the firmware we were running on it was 3 years old...
i also learnt how to do a few things to it, for example optimising it for bittorrent, a very useful thing believe me...
so i knew i could install the new firmware, but i was also afraid that it would stop working and i wouldn't know how to fix it, and then all these little things i'd done to it that i'd have to redo...
and i put it off.
until today...
i asked edge (guitar playing resident) to be on hand for the possibly messy aftermath, and i did it... and it was really easy, (although it allowed me to save my settings, but wouldn't let me load them again, so a slight pain there), and i went online to check it was running ok and i found...
more speed...
i guess the old firmware didn't know how to deal with 1 meg of broadband so it just carried on like before when the speed was upped...
and the new firmware does know how to deal with 1 meg,
and it is here amongst us ladies & gentlemen, we are so damned zippy all of a sudden...
now maybe the jump would have been this noticeable anyway, when blueyonder gave us the extra speed, but maybe we've had a few jumps from them that we haven't noticed...
i relate this to my goddaughter grace, who used to live round the corner from me but who now lives (with her mum josiah) in brighton, so i saw her all the time when they were right here, and nowadays i see them once or twice a month, or less, checking how she grows and changes these days there is always some big jump to deal with and celebrate, instead of the gradual awareness of change when i saw her every day...
grace will be 2 years old in a month, she is about 9 months younger than our broadband in this house...
she can say recognise
i miss her
x
we use a broadband router made by D-link that we bought a few years ago when i moved in, i set it up with G who used to live here, who i still play chess with online, also residing here at the time was dr K, being from melbourne, who used to titter to herself every time we talked about it, routing being a euphemism for... anyway..
one of these situations where you learn enough about it to solve whatever problems come up, then don't have to think about it for 6 months so you lose the knowledge... then have to relearn every time a glitch comes...
in a way i think of the router as being magic, in that i don't understand it, and roughly half of the problems we've had with it have been solved without me knowing what i did (if anything) to solve them...
then a few months back i discovered about it's firmware, from D, the midlands arm of my immediate family living up in leamington spa, and that the firmware we were running on it was 3 years old...
i also learnt how to do a few things to it, for example optimising it for bittorrent, a very useful thing believe me...
so i knew i could install the new firmware, but i was also afraid that it would stop working and i wouldn't know how to fix it, and then all these little things i'd done to it that i'd have to redo...
and i put it off.
until today...
i asked edge (guitar playing resident) to be on hand for the possibly messy aftermath, and i did it... and it was really easy, (although it allowed me to save my settings, but wouldn't let me load them again, so a slight pain there), and i went online to check it was running ok and i found...
more speed...
i guess the old firmware didn't know how to deal with 1 meg of broadband so it just carried on like before when the speed was upped...
and the new firmware does know how to deal with 1 meg,
and it is here amongst us ladies & gentlemen, we are so damned zippy all of a sudden...
now maybe the jump would have been this noticeable anyway, when blueyonder gave us the extra speed, but maybe we've had a few jumps from them that we haven't noticed...
i relate this to my goddaughter grace, who used to live round the corner from me but who now lives (with her mum josiah) in brighton, so i saw her all the time when they were right here, and nowadays i see them once or twice a month, or less, checking how she grows and changes these days there is always some big jump to deal with and celebrate, instead of the gradual awareness of change when i saw her every day...
grace will be 2 years old in a month, she is about 9 months younger than our broadband in this house...
she can say recognise
i miss her
x
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
noisy neighbours dead of night journey
the estate that our house backs onto has been especially noisy the last few nights, so spski tells me, (my room faces the front of the house) & i've just been watching TV - in fact an old VHS copy of V... the 80's scifi thing, and checked it out for myself, the volume of their noise...
amazing...
last night i went out to celebrate D's birthday, a surprisingly late night in the end, i had the pleasure of cycling back from brixton to finsbury park @ around 5am... really the only time to travel by bike, racing over millenium bridge - not a soul but me... i saw a fox around kennington...
from south to north in the almost dawn...
nice
now to lost... new TV... hmmm
x
amazing...
last night i went out to celebrate D's birthday, a surprisingly late night in the end, i had the pleasure of cycling back from brixton to finsbury park @ around 5am... really the only time to travel by bike, racing over millenium bridge - not a soul but me... i saw a fox around kennington...
from south to north in the almost dawn...
nice
now to lost... new TV... hmmm
x
Monday, August 15, 2005
jill scott
over the weekend, along with elliott smith i downloaded three tracks from jill scott's first album, a long walk, i think it's better, he loves me, which i used to listen to one after each other, in that order, back when i was with J (*), my first girlfriend, loving the sense of being in love that jill scott brings to the vocals...
then listening to godma G's radio broadcast (over now by the way) and for the second time i hear her play this track i'm listening to right now, common featuring jill scott, i am music...
and she sounds so heavenly...
lovely to hear G's dulcet tones too...
* but you know i'm not sure i've located that memory correctly, partly because of the year that album was released, and then the memory of wanting to be in love, but not actually being in love, must be after we broke up... this is one of the things i love about W G Sebald, the questioning of memories... also one of the great aspects to the film me & edge caught by accident that day...
then listening to godma G's radio broadcast (over now by the way) and for the second time i hear her play this track i'm listening to right now, common featuring jill scott, i am music...
and she sounds so heavenly...
lovely to hear G's dulcet tones too...
* but you know i'm not sure i've located that memory correctly, partly because of the year that album was released, and then the memory of wanting to be in love, but not actually being in love, must be after we broke up... this is one of the things i love about W G Sebald, the questioning of memories... also one of the great aspects to the film me & edge caught by accident that day...
Sunday, August 14, 2005
shuffle hospital elliott smith no jam
a couple of days ago i noticed that with my ipod suffle in my jeans pocket, when i lifted that leg the quality of the sound shifted...
uh-oh...
how much joy has this little fella given me since i bought him only five months ago? and just how rubbish that it only took 5 months..?
it seems the headphone jack is shaky, and so i'm considering my options... (did i fill in the warranty thing? how effective is it?)
one such option is to follow this non-violent disassembly method... although it scares me...
(also found this ipod family snapshots album on my travels - oh internet...)
also i've found a renewed interest in the beautiful music of elliott smith, who i saw a couple of times and who took his own life in october 2003, a posthumous album that i didn't know existed before is swimming down onto my hard drive right now... just as my shuffle goes funny... oh well, ok
and lastly, ramjac cancelled his jam session, the second of two this summer, and i missed the first because i was out with catalan E, (romance over music), so it means i could go see rediffusion in shoreditch tonight... although turning up on my own..? we'll see x
uh-oh...
how much joy has this little fella given me since i bought him only five months ago? and just how rubbish that it only took 5 months..?
it seems the headphone jack is shaky, and so i'm considering my options... (did i fill in the warranty thing? how effective is it?)
one such option is to follow this non-violent disassembly method... although it scares me...
(also found this ipod family snapshots album on my travels - oh internet...)
also i've found a renewed interest in the beautiful music of elliott smith, who i saw a couple of times and who took his own life in october 2003, a posthumous album that i didn't know existed before is swimming down onto my hard drive right now... just as my shuffle goes funny... oh well, ok
and lastly, ramjac cancelled his jam session, the second of two this summer, and i missed the first because i was out with catalan E, (romance over music), so it means i could go see rediffusion in shoreditch tonight... although turning up on my own..? we'll see x
Saturday, August 13, 2005
yellow flame
i am really digging mr wroe's virgins by jane rogers, as i am digging this not working life... nowadays i read abit when i wake up, (the last couple of days i've also done a sudoku whilst still in bed, before my cup of tea), the ice is singing was rich with humanity and real emotional landscapes and this one is proving to be thus also...
(odd language)
i saw charlie and the chocolate factory last night with spanna, she who is closer to my work situation than others, lending me a little of the green stuff and quite possibly when i'm in the money again & i give it back she'll need it... in work now, but only a 12 week contract...
lovely to see her, just right to see charlie with her (although it would have been good felinity&me fodder as well... oh the subtleties of saving films for people...), we saw it for free with some of the magic tickets that i got (hidden inside a bar of candy)... candy.... CANDY.....? the only thing i didn't like about it, which me & felinity noted when we saw the trailer... it is not candy it is chocolate... (it is not called charlie and the candy factory for example)
spanna worked with lots of the people who did corpse bride, (all with puppets she says)... oompa loompa's almost made us cry with laughing, a certain hitchhikers edge to it i felt, with the voiceover - and then the elevator...
the graze on my chest has faded to a bruise, yellow it is... reminder of my mishap... a little red in the centre where it is still a graze, before i thought it was leaf shaped, now i think it's like a flame...
x
(odd language)
i saw charlie and the chocolate factory last night with spanna, she who is closer to my work situation than others, lending me a little of the green stuff and quite possibly when i'm in the money again & i give it back she'll need it... in work now, but only a 12 week contract...
lovely to see her, just right to see charlie with her (although it would have been good felinity&me fodder as well... oh the subtleties of saving films for people...), we saw it for free with some of the magic tickets that i got (hidden inside a bar of candy)... candy.... CANDY.....? the only thing i didn't like about it, which me & felinity noted when we saw the trailer... it is not candy it is chocolate... (it is not called charlie and the candy factory for example)
spanna worked with lots of the people who did corpse bride, (all with puppets she says)... oompa loompa's almost made us cry with laughing, a certain hitchhikers edge to it i felt, with the voiceover - and then the elevator...
the graze on my chest has faded to a bruise, yellow it is... reminder of my mishap... a little red in the centre where it is still a graze, before i thought it was leaf shaped, now i think it's like a flame...
x
Thursday, August 11, 2005
the high healed shoes - books
books first,
i finished clea by lawrence durrell on tuesday, just before i left the house for the first of my bicycle mishaps...
it was beautiful, so many lovely images and situations, the joy of rereading good books (blue blanket books as ganching has them), episodes you've forgotten about that are suggested by some small thing in the book, only to come into focus once more...
hmmm
i can't rate the alexandria quartet highly enough...
so last night i started mr wroe's virgins by jane rogers... one of about 7 books that i bought recently and are waiting for me...
i bought this one in crouch end where this week i saw a book of fernando pessoa's poetry... (i want i want i want i want i want...)
so the shoes:
at the party on saturday night we played a set as nippy's band, (currently residing under the name groovechild), and before we began i was remarking on nippy's boots, big high healed affairs with a white stripe going down the sides... the drummer M also sporting some groovy studded rock'n'roll shoes and me just in my gradually wearing down-all the time shoes...
so R9, nippy's partner, was in some lovely Yves Saint Lauren high heals and somehow it was suggested i wear them for the performance...
now i've been thinking about performance for years now, particularly the energy of performance... being able to put on a good show... being a quiet, sitting down, pensive keyboard player i've pondered how i do this... and i've come to realise that my feet under the keyboard are the energetic focus for the visual side of my performance, above the keyboard i'm all mood and closed eyes, below the keyboard i'm rocking...
so anyway i took it on, just before we began the gig i divested myself of my own footwear and socks and did the high heals...
and it was strangely successful...
edge on the guitar said he looked over at one point and was shocked and slightly disturbed by the image, (something to do with his mum)... M on the drums said that when he messed up his part (noticeable only to him) he looked over at my feet and this made him feel better...
R9 in suggesting it (i think it was her suggestion) was partly under the influence of kemal (BB) who she'd loved & i guess one aspect of it is whether people seeing the shoes might jump to conclusions about my sexuality...? hmmm
R9 has lent me the shoes (they were under my pillow when i went to bed) and i'm pondering the whole thing... we're playing @ nippy's party in ten days so i'll be wearing them there, i wonder if i can afford to get a pedicure...?
x
i finished clea by lawrence durrell on tuesday, just before i left the house for the first of my bicycle mishaps...
it was beautiful, so many lovely images and situations, the joy of rereading good books (blue blanket books as ganching has them), episodes you've forgotten about that are suggested by some small thing in the book, only to come into focus once more...
hmmm
i can't rate the alexandria quartet highly enough...
so last night i started mr wroe's virgins by jane rogers... one of about 7 books that i bought recently and are waiting for me...
i bought this one in crouch end where this week i saw a book of fernando pessoa's poetry... (i want i want i want i want i want...)
so the shoes:
at the party on saturday night we played a set as nippy's band, (currently residing under the name groovechild), and before we began i was remarking on nippy's boots, big high healed affairs with a white stripe going down the sides... the drummer M also sporting some groovy studded rock'n'roll shoes and me just in my gradually wearing down-all the time shoes...
so R9, nippy's partner, was in some lovely Yves Saint Lauren high heals and somehow it was suggested i wear them for the performance...
now i've been thinking about performance for years now, particularly the energy of performance... being able to put on a good show... being a quiet, sitting down, pensive keyboard player i've pondered how i do this... and i've come to realise that my feet under the keyboard are the energetic focus for the visual side of my performance, above the keyboard i'm all mood and closed eyes, below the keyboard i'm rocking...
so anyway i took it on, just before we began the gig i divested myself of my own footwear and socks and did the high heals...
and it was strangely successful...
edge on the guitar said he looked over at one point and was shocked and slightly disturbed by the image, (something to do with his mum)... M on the drums said that when he messed up his part (noticeable only to him) he looked over at my feet and this made him feel better...
R9 in suggesting it (i think it was her suggestion) was partly under the influence of kemal (BB) who she'd loved & i guess one aspect of it is whether people seeing the shoes might jump to conclusions about my sexuality...? hmmm
R9 has lent me the shoes (they were under my pillow when i went to bed) and i'm pondering the whole thing... we're playing @ nippy's party in ten days so i'll be wearing them there, i wonder if i can afford to get a pedicure...?
x
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
the twins
it was about an hour before the party on saturday night,
i realised we didn't have enough loo roll to last us the night so i jumped on my bike and raced over to waitrose.
i had 2 strawberry & banana innocent smoothies & 2 12 packs of nouvelle recycled toilet paper...
and i bumped into 2 twins.
dressed exactly alike, two men, in the 70's maybe older, they were accompanied by a woman but i didn't see her until about 15 minutes later...
i asked them: are you twins? (obvious question)
oh yes they replied, and proceeded to bend my ear for a good long while, two of the many stories they told me i repeat below... in the telling of the stories they kept interrupting each other to get the story across...
spski says he's seen them, i think it would be hard to miss them.
two facts:
they were tweedledum and tweedledee in the 1972 film of alice's adventures in wonderland.
they've done variety performances with all kinds of famous people, for example frank sinatra.
two stories:
frank sinatra was a wonderful man, he never used a dressing room, just came in through the double doors at the back of the theatre, straight through the doors onto the stage, only ever spoke to his two bodyguards... this was the kind of man he was... he was performing one time, the stage in darkness, the spotlight (here he stops and asks me if i know what a spotlight is) trained on him as he sings a ballad. a fly is circling in the light and he stops singing for a moment, reaches out to grab the fly, kills it, and carries on as if nothing had happened...
last week we visited the queen, yes we've visited her 8 times now you know, yes more than anyone else i think... well one time we were there and prince andrew came up to us and asked us if we would dance for princess margaret, well they always have a lovely spread at these things and we said yes we would dance, and then max bygraves pipes up and says well if the twins are dancing i'll sing, so we say oh well max if you're singing we're dancing, then norman wisdom says that if we're dancing and max is singing then he'll dance between us...
all the time they were talking to me they were bursting into song and dance numbers, i finally managed to say goodbye to them, i've got their address and i intend to visit them, as i was heading off down the aisle they were waving and saying goodbye and then they were saying, come on everyone, wave to R, bye R...
has to be my wierdest trip to waitrose so far, i told bo about them and she's very keen to come with me when i visit them, i'll keep you posted...
x
i realised we didn't have enough loo roll to last us the night so i jumped on my bike and raced over to waitrose.
i had 2 strawberry & banana innocent smoothies & 2 12 packs of nouvelle recycled toilet paper...
and i bumped into 2 twins.
dressed exactly alike, two men, in the 70's maybe older, they were accompanied by a woman but i didn't see her until about 15 minutes later...
i asked them: are you twins? (obvious question)
oh yes they replied, and proceeded to bend my ear for a good long while, two of the many stories they told me i repeat below... in the telling of the stories they kept interrupting each other to get the story across...
spski says he's seen them, i think it would be hard to miss them.
two facts:
they were tweedledum and tweedledee in the 1972 film of alice's adventures in wonderland.
they've done variety performances with all kinds of famous people, for example frank sinatra.
two stories:
frank sinatra was a wonderful man, he never used a dressing room, just came in through the double doors at the back of the theatre, straight through the doors onto the stage, only ever spoke to his two bodyguards... this was the kind of man he was... he was performing one time, the stage in darkness, the spotlight (here he stops and asks me if i know what a spotlight is) trained on him as he sings a ballad. a fly is circling in the light and he stops singing for a moment, reaches out to grab the fly, kills it, and carries on as if nothing had happened...
last week we visited the queen, yes we've visited her 8 times now you know, yes more than anyone else i think... well one time we were there and prince andrew came up to us and asked us if we would dance for princess margaret, well they always have a lovely spread at these things and we said yes we would dance, and then max bygraves pipes up and says well if the twins are dancing i'll sing, so we say oh well max if you're singing we're dancing, then norman wisdom says that if we're dancing and max is singing then he'll dance between us...
all the time they were talking to me they were bursting into song and dance numbers, i finally managed to say goodbye to them, i've got their address and i intend to visit them, as i was heading off down the aisle they were waving and saying goodbye and then they were saying, come on everyone, wave to R, bye R...
has to be my wierdest trip to waitrose so far, i told bo about them and she's very keen to come with me when i visit them, i'll keep you posted...
x
adventures on bicycles - la pro
as an aside, i just took la pro to kingscross thameslink, put him on a train to gatwick... having no book with me i turned on my ipod and put it in random, exactly the same song came on as i'd heard immediately after putting fellow catalan E on a train on monday... the same station, the same song, although having had much more sleep this time my imagination was not so wayward...
so la pro... another friend of spanish M (well, catalan M), very comic man, knows catalan E, came for the party, as i was taking him today to the train he was singing me the sad catalan song that E told me about... i will miss your smile...
but first yesterdays bicycle adventures:
i went out into the world last night to go to the cinema with felinity... we saw the fantastic 4 which was absolutely rubbish, maybe the worst film we've seen... i can't even be bothered to link it like i would other films i've seen it's so bad...
on the way into town i was going a different route to normal, i turned into a cycle lane around somerstown and thinking that the cycle lane was stretching out in front of me, no cars or other bikes around, i looked at my map... whilst moving...
only the cycle lane was not stretching out in front of me, it was quite short and it ended in a raised concrete edge, that curved to the right sharply...
i was not going very fast, but i came a cropper on that concrete edge.
i have a leaf shaped graze on my chest that must have been the handle bar, a small bruise on my knee and a smaller one on my hip...
i was lying in the road and a very nice woman helped me out... an overwhelming feeling of stupidity had me in it's grip...
not too badly injured though so i soldiered on, was a little late meeting felinity whereupon i discovered that i didn't have my keys with me (they were at home, though at the time i thought they might have fallen out of my pocket when i fell off), which meant that i couldn't lock up my bike... we were going to the cinema, where would i put my bike?
we were in leicester square, we asked two policemen, they suggested that we try charing cross police station but they weren't sure they would take it... in the end we stashed it behind some railing in a back street by a church... slight risk of losing it was the only exciting thing about the film...
we ate in chi and then went to see this rubbish film, and the evening was saved because me & felinity always have a nice time, and the possible disapearance of my bike lent some intrigue...
the last film we saw together was the wedding crashers which was so good that we could even see another bad film and still come out on top i think... just as well...
so to today's bicycle adventure...
la pro, just before he leaves the city he wants to go on a bicycle ride, me & edge decide to go with him, we borrow spski's bike without asking him, which is asking for trouble, but we're not going far, what can happen?
at first i ask edge to be on spski's bike, la pro on edge's, me on mine (one gear, hard work), but we swap a few times before we get it right, the best way was la pro on mine, edge on his and me on spski's, but there is a hill at one point and la pro struggles with the one gear so i swap back, him on spski's, me on mine, & this was just before the big downhill...
i'm concerned by the big downhill, i'm holding back on the speed... trying to communicate with la pro about braking... then i see edge swooping past us digging the hill... a moment later i hear a bang and i look back...
la pro on the ground... spski's bike beside him...
his flight 4 hours away...
afew different residents came out and helped us, in particular one guy who got us a bowl of warm water and a cloth and a first aid kit... we called for an ambulance but decided against it before completing the call, edge got on his bike to get his car, i comforted la pro and patched him up as best i could, (which is not too good)...
terrible thing to happen...
the decision to go get him checked out at the hospital and change his filght, or to catch the plane..? but in the end he goes to the airport, as i said i took him to the train...
spski's bike not too badly injured but he won't be happy,
but la pro by the time he was on the train with his arm in the improvised sling we did for him was in high spirits again... like i said he sang me the sad catalan song, we joked, he returns to barcelona with his mobile phone gone (he lost it yesterday, his glasses broken (@ the party, we mended them) his arm in a sling and a huge bruise on his leg, a cut on his chin, scratches in a few places...
yesterday i was not moving fast when i fell off... today la pro was moving at quite some speed when he fell off...
ouch..
and i still haven't told you about the twins... or indeed the high heeled shoes...
x
so la pro... another friend of spanish M (well, catalan M), very comic man, knows catalan E, came for the party, as i was taking him today to the train he was singing me the sad catalan song that E told me about... i will miss your smile...
but first yesterdays bicycle adventures:
i went out into the world last night to go to the cinema with felinity... we saw the fantastic 4 which was absolutely rubbish, maybe the worst film we've seen... i can't even be bothered to link it like i would other films i've seen it's so bad...
on the way into town i was going a different route to normal, i turned into a cycle lane around somerstown and thinking that the cycle lane was stretching out in front of me, no cars or other bikes around, i looked at my map... whilst moving...
only the cycle lane was not stretching out in front of me, it was quite short and it ended in a raised concrete edge, that curved to the right sharply...
i was not going very fast, but i came a cropper on that concrete edge.
i have a leaf shaped graze on my chest that must have been the handle bar, a small bruise on my knee and a smaller one on my hip...
i was lying in the road and a very nice woman helped me out... an overwhelming feeling of stupidity had me in it's grip...
not too badly injured though so i soldiered on, was a little late meeting felinity whereupon i discovered that i didn't have my keys with me (they were at home, though at the time i thought they might have fallen out of my pocket when i fell off), which meant that i couldn't lock up my bike... we were going to the cinema, where would i put my bike?
we were in leicester square, we asked two policemen, they suggested that we try charing cross police station but they weren't sure they would take it... in the end we stashed it behind some railing in a back street by a church... slight risk of losing it was the only exciting thing about the film...
we ate in chi and then went to see this rubbish film, and the evening was saved because me & felinity always have a nice time, and the possible disapearance of my bike lent some intrigue...
the last film we saw together was the wedding crashers which was so good that we could even see another bad film and still come out on top i think... just as well...
so to today's bicycle adventure...
la pro, just before he leaves the city he wants to go on a bicycle ride, me & edge decide to go with him, we borrow spski's bike without asking him, which is asking for trouble, but we're not going far, what can happen?
at first i ask edge to be on spski's bike, la pro on edge's, me on mine (one gear, hard work), but we swap a few times before we get it right, the best way was la pro on mine, edge on his and me on spski's, but there is a hill at one point and la pro struggles with the one gear so i swap back, him on spski's, me on mine, & this was just before the big downhill...
i'm concerned by the big downhill, i'm holding back on the speed... trying to communicate with la pro about braking... then i see edge swooping past us digging the hill... a moment later i hear a bang and i look back...
la pro on the ground... spski's bike beside him...
his flight 4 hours away...
afew different residents came out and helped us, in particular one guy who got us a bowl of warm water and a cloth and a first aid kit... we called for an ambulance but decided against it before completing the call, edge got on his bike to get his car, i comforted la pro and patched him up as best i could, (which is not too good)...
terrible thing to happen...
the decision to go get him checked out at the hospital and change his filght, or to catch the plane..? but in the end he goes to the airport, as i said i took him to the train...
spski's bike not too badly injured but he won't be happy,
but la pro by the time he was on the train with his arm in the improvised sling we did for him was in high spirits again... like i said he sang me the sad catalan song, we joked, he returns to barcelona with his mobile phone gone (he lost it yesterday, his glasses broken (@ the party, we mended them) his arm in a sling and a huge bruise on his leg, a cut on his chin, scratches in a few places...
yesterday i was not moving fast when i fell off... today la pro was moving at quite some speed when he fell off...
ouch..
and i still haven't told you about the twins... or indeed the high heeled shoes...
x
Monday, August 08, 2005
the un planned for future
you know when everything you're thinking about revolves around a certain event, and then the event passes and you find yourself in the un planned for future...?
that's me.
the party on saturday night, a lovely but brief assignation with catalan E, josiah's keys going back to the council...
the house getting back to normal after the party (i have some stories to tell from that day, later),
the lovely catalan E right now waiting for her flight @ luton airport to take her back to barcelona,
josiah's keys given back this morning, closing that long, drawn out mourning period for the dead flat,
short on sleep so not much to say, i guess only this, an image from immediately after putting E on the train, no idea when i'll see her again, i put my ipod in my ears and fire it up, chico buarque's construcao which starts with guitar & voice and builds gradually throughout the tune... recorded in the 70's...
i walk away from the thameslink platform @ kingscross to the victoria line and i get on a train just as the nutty 70's horns come in, giving it a slightly private detective TV theme tune edge... somehow it's the closing credits...
i have no book with me so i just sit gazing at the empty carriage, feeling in my short on sleep state a little like sam spade, or perhaps a superhero, going back to my ordinary life after some kind of adventure...
it amused me & helped me through that vulnerable moment... it won't be my last vulnerable moment either...
i can't wait to tell you about the twins...
x
that's me.
the party on saturday night, a lovely but brief assignation with catalan E, josiah's keys going back to the council...
the house getting back to normal after the party (i have some stories to tell from that day, later),
the lovely catalan E right now waiting for her flight @ luton airport to take her back to barcelona,
josiah's keys given back this morning, closing that long, drawn out mourning period for the dead flat,
short on sleep so not much to say, i guess only this, an image from immediately after putting E on the train, no idea when i'll see her again, i put my ipod in my ears and fire it up, chico buarque's construcao which starts with guitar & voice and builds gradually throughout the tune... recorded in the 70's...
i walk away from the thameslink platform @ kingscross to the victoria line and i get on a train just as the nutty 70's horns come in, giving it a slightly private detective TV theme tune edge... somehow it's the closing credits...
i have no book with me so i just sit gazing at the empty carriage, feeling in my short on sleep state a little like sam spade, or perhaps a superhero, going back to my ordinary life after some kind of adventure...
it amused me & helped me through that vulnerable moment... it won't be my last vulnerable moment either...
i can't wait to tell you about the twins...
x
Friday, August 05, 2005
dead surrealist turns out to be uncle filmo
the fork'andles comment had me fairly sure, and he texted me just now giving the game away...
bloody cheek of the man...
i hope he's coming to the party tomorrow night so that he can bloody well explain hisself,
x
bloody cheek of the man...
i hope he's coming to the party tomorrow night so that he can bloody well explain hisself,
x
trampolining canal boat odyssey
rare that i don't blog for awhile, seems strange that i haven't left a post since monday... alot has happened, ok, in brief:
tuesday:
cycle to arnos grove because of picadilly line still not working (then), never cycled up there before & a strange/nice journey, lots of hills, but i'm better at hills these days (although could be better still)...
chiropractic session, always good,
trampolining with S & R's kids, that game where the grown-up (& that was me) gets the kids to sit cross-legged and then bounces around them making them bounce up whilst still sitting, made them laugh alot, made me laugh alot...
grown-ups get tired more quickly, this after the night before, sat with auntie E in her front room whilst friends of her kids were chatting in the garden, feeling my age a little because i'm closer to the grandparent...
wednesday:
recording, connie gets onto tape (24-bit, digital virtual tape), many gremlins to sort out, G being my producer for the recording and hopefully many good things will come in the future from this relationship... spent all day together, investigating problems, 3 hours setting up, 30 minutes playing for a 5 minute piece...
i found it hard at first to get into the performance after all the problems, i ended up mentally playing it to my gran connie, (one of the two connie
's) and it worked better that way... haven't heard it properly yet, will be afew weeks before i do...
we hung out together after, jammed a little, which is part of the deal with me & G, he wanting to get into playing more, extend his knowledge of music theory through playing, then a nice meal @ jai krishna's, then all kinds of drunken mayhem back at mine...
thursday:
hungover,
meeting with my apprentice C before heading over to camdem for my date with E, catalan E, friends with the crazy spaniards that come round here... we took the jenny wren from there to little venice and back, really nice, lovely stretch of canal...
x
tuesday:
cycle to arnos grove because of picadilly line still not working (then), never cycled up there before & a strange/nice journey, lots of hills, but i'm better at hills these days (although could be better still)...
chiropractic session, always good,
trampolining with S & R's kids, that game where the grown-up (& that was me) gets the kids to sit cross-legged and then bounces around them making them bounce up whilst still sitting, made them laugh alot, made me laugh alot...
grown-ups get tired more quickly, this after the night before, sat with auntie E in her front room whilst friends of her kids were chatting in the garden, feeling my age a little because i'm closer to the grandparent...
wednesday:
recording, connie gets onto tape (24-bit, digital virtual tape), many gremlins to sort out, G being my producer for the recording and hopefully many good things will come in the future from this relationship... spent all day together, investigating problems, 3 hours setting up, 30 minutes playing for a 5 minute piece...
i found it hard at first to get into the performance after all the problems, i ended up mentally playing it to my gran connie, (one of the two connie
's) and it worked better that way... haven't heard it properly yet, will be afew weeks before i do...
we hung out together after, jammed a little, which is part of the deal with me & G, he wanting to get into playing more, extend his knowledge of music theory through playing, then a nice meal @ jai krishna's, then all kinds of drunken mayhem back at mine...
thursday:
hungover,
meeting with my apprentice C before heading over to camdem for my date with E, catalan E, friends with the crazy spaniards that come round here... we took the jenny wren from there to little venice and back, really nice, lovely stretch of canal...
x
Monday, August 01, 2005
flat clear bore rainy moment plants
ok so i've just had a long conversation with josiah & my storytelling muscles are a bit overused... but i'll do my best.
firstly i want to own up to being a flat clear bore.
it has been a large thing in my life and i have gone on about it no end, and that long conversation with josiah was pretty dominated by her move... which included the death of her old flat which i oversaw...
i was about to say that i'm putting that behind me blogwise, but i realise that that would be untrue, for example, i may well post up the tiny video clip of the odd bottle i found, in amongst the herd of bottles that i smashed last night, this one was of brown glass and it had on it's design, a monkey, curling it's arms and legs around the bottle, almost reaching all the way round... that is something to see ladies & gentlemen... in fact... here it is, in all it's monkey bottle wierdness...
but just snapshots like that, no more dark clouds of flat clearing angst...
i left my keys & my travelcard/wallet in acton last night (sunday night), and after the nonsense with the council i got the train over there to pick them up, my last post was just before i left.
it was lovely, it was a gift from the universe to leave my keys over there, once i'd found what i needed to find within it, (such a hippy sometimes), there were a few nice surprises on this trip today, one of which was meeting E, greenlanes E, @ acton central station on the way home, the conversation that meant i went an extra stop - walking home from canonbury in the drizzling rain, the bookshop on blackstock road, bumping into JR, the well renowned improvising guitarist, doing a few gigs soon @ the redrose (just off the andover estate where i've been spending so much time this weekend), also a gig in welwyn garden city with VW, a great pianist who i really like, the gig up there in some church hall is £5 with a glass of wine... very appealing...
but in particular i want to relate a moment @ hampstead heath station, our train was delayed, i was deeply within clea, the final part blah of the alexandria blah quartet... etc.
i looked up, actually i checked this out before hampstead heath... on the outside of the window by me was a piece of graffiti:
bomb on train
i was shocked, i remarked on it to my fellow passenger, the stupidity & insensitiveness of it... but as the train wended it's way, as it does, through so many different parts of london, i started enjoying looking at london through this twisted lens, the words framing my picture, i didn't have my camera with me but i had my phone and i took afew pictures, none very successfully, more the idea of it i like, partly a love i have for that trainline, travelling in an arc through north london, except for my stint in the deep south of herne hill i've always lived fairly close, if not on this line...
anyway, we get to hampstead heath station, which is just before the train plunges into a tunnel, coming out by finchley road (finchley road & frognel station)...
we were delayed, the pictures i'd taken before through the words showed a dark patch of sky that we were heading into & @ hampstead heath the rain really had a go.
stationary train, the middle of the afternoon, noone in any hurry (seemingly), open doors, massive rain just for the 5 minutes we were wating there, the smell of it...
yes please...
just that, that moment, that's when i started to appreciate the unwanted extra journey to pick up my keys...
& before i go just to say that i've got josiah's plants, they're on my window sill where balthazara likes to hang out, (there's still space for her), i just hope they don't die over night, tomorrow i'll have more of a notion what to do with them... any house/pot plant knowledge out there in my readership?
x
firstly i want to own up to being a flat clear bore.
it has been a large thing in my life and i have gone on about it no end, and that long conversation with josiah was pretty dominated by her move... which included the death of her old flat which i oversaw...
i was about to say that i'm putting that behind me blogwise, but i realise that that would be untrue, for example, i may well post up the tiny video clip of the odd bottle i found, in amongst the herd of bottles that i smashed last night, this one was of brown glass and it had on it's design, a monkey, curling it's arms and legs around the bottle, almost reaching all the way round... that is something to see ladies & gentlemen... in fact... here it is, in all it's monkey bottle wierdness...
but just snapshots like that, no more dark clouds of flat clearing angst...
i left my keys & my travelcard/wallet in acton last night (sunday night), and after the nonsense with the council i got the train over there to pick them up, my last post was just before i left.
it was lovely, it was a gift from the universe to leave my keys over there, once i'd found what i needed to find within it, (such a hippy sometimes), there were a few nice surprises on this trip today, one of which was meeting E, greenlanes E, @ acton central station on the way home, the conversation that meant i went an extra stop - walking home from canonbury in the drizzling rain, the bookshop on blackstock road, bumping into JR, the well renowned improvising guitarist, doing a few gigs soon @ the redrose (just off the andover estate where i've been spending so much time this weekend), also a gig in welwyn garden city with VW, a great pianist who i really like, the gig up there in some church hall is £5 with a glass of wine... very appealing...
but in particular i want to relate a moment @ hampstead heath station, our train was delayed, i was deeply within clea, the final part blah of the alexandria blah quartet... etc.
i looked up, actually i checked this out before hampstead heath... on the outside of the window by me was a piece of graffiti:
bomb on train
i was shocked, i remarked on it to my fellow passenger, the stupidity & insensitiveness of it... but as the train wended it's way, as it does, through so many different parts of london, i started enjoying looking at london through this twisted lens, the words framing my picture, i didn't have my camera with me but i had my phone and i took afew pictures, none very successfully, more the idea of it i like, partly a love i have for that trainline, travelling in an arc through north london, except for my stint in the deep south of herne hill i've always lived fairly close, if not on this line...
anyway, we get to hampstead heath station, which is just before the train plunges into a tunnel, coming out by finchley road (finchley road & frognel station)...
we were delayed, the pictures i'd taken before through the words showed a dark patch of sky that we were heading into & @ hampstead heath the rain really had a go.
stationary train, the middle of the afternoon, noone in any hurry (seemingly), open doors, massive rain just for the 5 minutes we were wating there, the smell of it...
yes please...
just that, that moment, that's when i started to appreciate the unwanted extra journey to pick up my keys...
& before i go just to say that i've got josiah's plants, they're on my window sill where balthazara likes to hang out, (there's still space for her), i just hope they don't die over night, tomorrow i'll have more of a notion what to do with them... any house/pot plant knowledge out there in my readership?
x
done...
...but not done,
got it all cleared, just missed getting a nice picture of josiah's junk lined up against a wall, a guy from the estate started throwing it all in the bins... i mean it was pretty rough looking but my intention was that maybe someone might take some of it...
oh well, went over to the council office to hand in the keys and lo and behold there had to be a letter from josiah saying it's alright for me to do it...
so i've sent several things to her... she then has to send them back to me... then i go back to the council before midday next monday, i haven't had to trust the postal service like this in ages... i hope i can...
this means another week's rent for josiah on this place... really not what we want...
but at least it's kind of done...
i'm heading over to acton now to get my keys & travelcard, luckily there's a way to acton without passing through barriers so i can do it, albeit illegally,
my ipod ran out of juice when i still had 30 minutes of work to do in the flat, the very end of it all encased in a wierd silence, particularly as i said goodbye to each room for good, (or so i thought), i wonder if i'll actually go back in there this week?
anyway, things to do, people to see, keys to pick up x
got it all cleared, just missed getting a nice picture of josiah's junk lined up against a wall, a guy from the estate started throwing it all in the bins... i mean it was pretty rough looking but my intention was that maybe someone might take some of it...
oh well, went over to the council office to hand in the keys and lo and behold there had to be a letter from josiah saying it's alright for me to do it...
so i've sent several things to her... she then has to send them back to me... then i go back to the council before midday next monday, i haven't had to trust the postal service like this in ages... i hope i can...
this means another week's rent for josiah on this place... really not what we want...
but at least it's kind of done...
i'm heading over to acton now to get my keys & travelcard, luckily there's a way to acton without passing through barriers so i can do it, albeit illegally,
my ipod ran out of juice when i still had 30 minutes of work to do in the flat, the very end of it all encased in a wierd silence, particularly as i said goodbye to each room for good, (or so i thought), i wonder if i'll actually go back in there this week?
anyway, things to do, people to see, keys to pick up x
2 hours and 40 minutes
probably of not that much interest to those of you already at work by now... but i'm awake*
i'm just going over to josiah's old flat now to finish it all off, i've got that long to hand the keys back...
much as i've been digging the cathartic nature of this flat clearing i will be so happy to wash that flat right out of my hair,
(* i hadn't been able to get out of bed before 12 for several days/weeks, it was starting to worry me that the key deadline would come and i'd be just rolling over, murmering to the cat...)
x
i'm just going over to josiah's old flat now to finish it all off, i've got that long to hand the keys back...
much as i've been digging the cathartic nature of this flat clearing i will be so happy to wash that flat right out of my hair,
(* i hadn't been able to get out of bed before 12 for several days/weeks, it was starting to worry me that the key deadline would come and i'd be just rolling over, murmering to the cat...)
x
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