Two gigs since the last update – within two days of each other. First – The National. Probably the gig I’d been most looking forward to – as they are definitely in my top 5 artists just now. If you don’t know of them – definitely check out the albums Boxer & Alligator – as a start. Absolutely brilliant albums from start to finish. Anyway – the gig. Justin had bought the tickets for this one. And when we got there, we discovered he’d accidentally bought seated tickets in the Circle. Oops. But – I was fine with that – had actually considered buying a single seated ticket to one of their other gigs in order that I could sit back and enjoy. And the gig – yeah, pretty good. I think I rank it up there – but probably mostly because I just enjoy the music itself so much. And – they did do one song completely unplugged acoustic-stylez – which was pretty sweet. Oh – and they didn’t do my favourite song. Which I was absolutely gutted about. But – it highlighted the fact that they have so many excellent songs – they didn’t really need to play any filler – and still missed one of their best songs. But – apparently they did play it the next night. Bastards. And the previous night, they had special guest Sufjan Stevens. Us poor suckers on the 2nd night – nothing. Except this, and this, and this. I had actually forgotten, he did a stage-dive into the crowd.
And two nights later – it was the Arcade Fire – at the venue formerly known as the Millenium Dome. But now named after a goddamn mobile phone company. But despite the venue being pretty much a glorified shopping mall (I even got an email a week before, suggesting I turn up several hours early and do some shopping, have dinner, etc) – the gig was alright. I’d accidentally bought 7 tickets – but managed to get 4 others to tag along, so wasn’t too out of pocket. The venue was fairly large – but we managed to stake a spot fairly central, with a decent view. Which made me furious when I noticed my eyes kept drifting from the perfectly visible stage up to the giant TV screens. What is it about a shimmering screen that acts as a magnet to one’s eyes? The new opiate of the masses. Anyway – the Arcade Fire. I’d heard very very good reports about their live acts. And, although it might have been the booze, or the TV screens, or the large venue, or lethargy – but I was a little disappointed. To be fair – it was a pretty good gig. But – just not exceptional. The only thing that stepped it up from a bog-standard gig was the drummers – who occasionally went absolutely bat-shit (that video clip is rather mild compared to some of their antics – at one point one drummer was holding a drum above his head while the other one just laid into it). Anyway – here’s a clip of them doing No Cars Go, and Wake Up.
So – those were the gigs recently. Last ones for the year, I’m pretty sure – and I might draw up a list of all gigs this year, in some kind of ranking order. Because I like lists.
Other than rock’n’roll – these last 3 weeks have also consisted of watching little Malkie grow up a bit, and then moving house. It was amazing – in the three weeks I spent squatting in Caro’n’Dom’s spare room, I reckon Malachy went from just lying there and waving his hands randomly – to semi-coordinated grabbing at stuff. Did make me a fair bit wistful about all the stuff I’m missing with little Meiken back in NZ, and Shainee & Tylah.
So – I moved out. And into my own place, in the city. EC1 – central as. Central as what? Well – 5 minutes walk from St Paul’s Cathedral for starters. So – if I finally manage to reconcile my issues with religion (which I would quite like to do, being the original opiate and all that – I just need a labotomy to remove my logic bit) – I’ve got quite an impressive church on my doorstep. Also – a 15 minute walk to my current client site. A 25 minute walk to my head office. Which all adds up to… no more tube. By all that’s good – that’s good. Awesome. I still get excited when I remember that I don’t have to catch the tube home after work. I can just casually stroll through the masses of selfish pushing londoners who are trying to get underground as quickly as possible, through the hundreds of people barging their way past their fellow man to get into Liverpool Street station, and I’m home. It’s actually not that bad – once I get past Liverpool Street Station, it’s relatively sensible. And whenever I go for a wander, I still constantly see some shop or another, and think “sweet – I’ve got that just around the corner”. As they say: “Location, location, location”. I’m loving it. Nearly worth my paying exactly double the amount of rent I used to. The only problem is – I’ve got a choice of 6 gyms with squash courts to choose from. And I’m no good at choices. Which means I haven’t signed up to any of them yet. If there had only been one – I would have signed up last Saturday, and I’d already be a buff gym-monkey. But as it is, I am still an overweight wino with a hangover.
Anyway – if anybody wants or needs my new address – let me know. If it’s to send me gifts to celebrate the birth of our lord, the baby jeebers christ – then let me know that too. Because then I probably won’t give you an address. Because I haven’t bought gifts for anybody – and I don’t want any gifts turning up making me feel bad. I tried to buy some stuff yesterday – but the website went all broken, and I failed. And then I hung my head, and haven’t rebuilt the courage to retry, or come up with new ideas.
One bad thing about my new place… apparently I don’t get a phoneline, and therefore any of the internets, until mid-January. So – I’ve got that excuse for lack of communication at the moment. But I probably will risk the wrath of the finance department by making a few calls on the 25th – so if you want such a call, let me know where you’re likely to be on that day – yeah?
My own plans for doing something later this month consist of probably heading up to Edinburgh on the 22nd or 23rd – maybe spending the 25th volunteering at some kind of organisation doing dinner for folks – so I can act all self-righteous when people ask me “what did you do for Christmas?” Oh – I’m looking forward to that. I reckon being the schmarmy prick who says “Oh – not much, just worked at a soup kitchen for the needy” is probably going to be even better than the schmarmy self-satisfied “Oh – yeah, I’m a diver. I go diving.” schtick. Maybe – I guess I’ll find out soon enough. Speaking of which – just bought my first piece of diving equipment. Mostly so I can display it in a prominent place in my flat. To prove that I’m a diver. Because I’m a diver, you know? (One has to play the part when living in Central London. The part, of course, being a complete and utter douchebag.)
Oh – and by the way, I’m now ‘published’. I realise that none of you will actually want to read what I’ve written – and if you do, you’re nuts. It really is very very boring, and it turns out that the strategy that I’m proposing has actually already been done by lots of other people, and my idea isn’t particularly innovative at all. Dumb. Anyway – I’ve got a ‘whitepaper’ to my name. So hopefully now google searches of my name will no longer predominantly return pictures of me in a gorilla/chicken/long-johns/kaftan/Evil-Knievel suit. Speaking of which – does anybody have a decent photo of me which doesn’t fit into the category of costumed and/or drunk? I’m struggling to find any such photo – and the marketing people would like a photo for my bio. I’m thinking this one is the closest to appropriate. Anyway – if you’re having trouble sleeping – you can take a look here. And you can send me as much criticism as you like. Pen has already gone over it with her editor’s eye, and found it lacking. And I’ve got plenty of issues with it myself – all of which means I probably will end up writing another one, which will make the boss happy.