Ok, you're probably gonna be pissed at yoru browser slowing down due to the vid, but trust me, these lo fi rockers from Texas really kick ass. I watched them live at Teh Barfly on my birthday last year and I finally found a music video of thiers.
Being phoneless is a double edged sword.
On one hand, I like not being hounded by stupid, pointless sms's from flatmate P asking when I'll be home etc.
On the other hand, I miss my music and being able to take photos, like for today, when it's snowing beautifully! Everything is coated in white and looks like a christmas card, except that it isn't xmas.
My Apple obsessed boss asked me why I didn't own an iPod. There are many reasons, one of them being - why would I want an external mp3 player that has crappy battery life and those stupid white headphones. I liked my phone cos it was an mp3 player, camera and phone all in one. And don't bringin the iPhone cos it is irrelevant until it is released worldwide. There's also the music copyright issue that iTunes has with other mp3 players and well, an entire glossary of why I won't buy from Apple.
Vs
But that aside, I forgot how much I treasure the hour it takes me to get to and from work, as that is the only time I have to me and my head and the swirling vortex that makes up my mental process. Without the music to cocoon me, I'm subjected to the jarring, noisy reality that is the London underground, including its colourful characters. I'd rather the cocoon. Thanks. Its here that I can really concentrate on what i'm listening to and where my best musical observations materialise. SIGH.
Its also snowing today. Which is cool, cos i'm not sick so I can go build a snowman later! yay! Wait, I think I mentioned it already. I'm just so excited. Snow is still very much a novelty in my little universe.
I need a cup of strong Java and then I'll be able to tackle my list of to do today. wish me luck!!
Yesterday was on of the most bizarre days of my life.
The events of yesterday have me on a knife's edge. Do I sit and mope, repeating 'why me?' to the heavens. Or do I shake it off, think positive and make a plan?
Obviously me being me, I'm making a plan. But let me first give you a rundown of the day.
Went to work, as one does to pay rent. Left work early to go stand on Regents Street, in the freezing cold, for three hours, to go see an exclusive, free, acoustic gig of The Fratellis.
They were great! A little buggered from their trip in Germany, they played pretty well. Surprisingly, the drummer, Mince Fratelli, is actually a kick ass guitarist! The 300 strong crowd crammed into the mezzanine of the Apple store, surrounded by nervous looking Apple staff – obviously worried that someone would try to steal an Apple product (as if!?!)
I was lucky enough to get a front row standing spot, just behind the plush theatre style seats of which there were four rows. So it was pretty intimate.
I love gigs like this. It was recorded and will be available on iTunes from next week. I'm the punter singing karaoke style along with them.
Moving on.
I then met up with the Ozzie chef I met at the bus stop a few weeks ago. We headed to the Dublin Castle – a great spot for a pint or two…or three.
Then somehow ended up at another place – Bartok. I'm not a fan of it, but somehow we became embroiled in a political discussion with an ex surfer from Durban and a dreadlocked politics student.
The hours flew by.
Ended up falling into and out of a cab in the wee hours of this morning before promptly passing out in bed.
This morning brought the discovery that somewhere in my traversing last night, I lost my phone. This really put a dampner on my pretty good mood. My Fratellis photos were on there! So now I need to go and buy a new phone. Shit!
And it is going to snow tomorrow. Which means London will grind to a stand still.
I'll be under my desk if anyone asks.
Fuck it!
I am never cracking a joke again. Ever.
My sense of humour is far too obscure to secure any giggles, so i give up.
Why did no one catch my kitten joke. (Which isn't a joke actually as I really do plan to get a kitten and name it Emo.) But it was still a good joke. It even took my sister Lollipop about 5 minutes to connect the dots.
So let me break it down for you.
Emo is associated with goth/black/screamo rock. See bands like Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Lostprophets etc.
A little itty bitty white kitten is the total antonym of everything Emo.
Yet, in a way, the though of a kitten makes me feel all fuzzy and happy, pretty much what emo makes me feel too.
Moving on...
I had a bit of a Eureka moment on the train this morning. There I was, sipping my large coffee, contemplating my life and my job and the list of things i have to do before jetting off to the Apple store to go see The Fratellis. (and if you don't know who they are, then you're in trouble).
So my eureka moment happened when I was thinking about The Devil wears Prada and how in one scene, Stanley Tucci tells Anne Hathaway to stop whining and embrace her crappy job, because firstly, it is the oppurtunity of a lifetime and secondly, it won't last forever.
This made me think - I tend to bitch about my job a lot. when in fact, I'm whining. I hate whining. So no more whining from me. I'm going to embrace the property industry and hopefully, within a year, I can mmove onto bigger better things.
This is me being positive. Wish me luck.
So we had a masseuse come in yesterday for our monthly back massage. Just for the record, I’m not one for massages administered by strangers, especially when they decide the top of my ass needs massaging. I have a knot just under my left shoulder blade. Its my built in stress detector. The intensity of its burning depends on how stressed I am. So yesterday this masseuse decides that this little (ok, so it was freakin’ big at the time) knot needs to go. And she spent most of the appointment wrestling with it.
Needless to say, it’s back.
I felt like such a corporate yuppie as well. And this morning my boss announces that from now on, Fridays are wear-what-you-want days. Technically, I’ve been doing that everyday, so it makes no difference to me.
The funny thing is, the more I sink into British yuppidom, the less I like it. Ok, so the earning potential is huge, and sitting here, typing all day beats standing around in HMV earning minimum wage. But I have to sometimes question why I bother. What am I ultimately contributing to the world? I’m not making important decisions regarding global warming or chaining myself to a tree to protect a forest or waging war in the face of worldwide consumption. In fact, I’m part of the consumption cycle!
I guess what my liberal hippie is trying to say, very ineloquently, is that I think I need to rethink this whole corporate job thing.
My dream job, as unglamorous and demanding and low paying as it is, would be to manage a band and make them successful. Granted, music is a consumer product, but while you have pocket money wielding teens willing to buy tickets to watch bands play, then consume away I say.
But it’s more than that.
I love watching people enjoy themselves at an event I put together. To see kids having the time of their lives, making memories and having ‘moments’ while watching their favourite band gives me a fuzzy feeling, because in a warped way, I had an affect in a life or two. And that is what I want to do.
I’ll leave the songwriting and performing to the artists. I prefer to stay behind the scenes.
So I think that I need to find a job closer to home, so I can spend less time commuting and more time networking, meeting bands and people in the industry. Or maybe I’ll just go to art school.
On a separate subject. My colleagues. I really like them, they’re a pretty cool bunch of people, but I have nothing in common with them. It’s a bit like high school actually, just without the politics. We’ve got our accounting guys (the chess club), the rest of the girls in the office (the cheerleading squad) My boss (the principal) and then there’s me – the kid sitting alone, under a tree, sporting a rock-esque T shirt and reading a novel by Terry Pratchett while getting excited about things like World of Warcraft and Counter Strike.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re all a great bunch of people, and we get along just fine, but it would be nice to work with someone who gets as excited about the Download Fest as I do, and not be met with blank stares.
Ok, enough self pity for today. Time for a plan of action. Well, from next month. I need to finish paying my debt.
Today is a good and happy place to be. Why?
Well, for a number of reasons.
1.) As of this morning, I am the proud owner of the new Norah Jones cd and Life on the Murder Scene DVD.
2.) I don't have a shift at the pub tonight.
3.) I still have a job. Or two. I have an income.
4.) I'm not sick.
5.) My novel has taken plot shape.
6.) We have a masseuse coming this afternoon
7.) My computer hasn't crashed.
8.) My jeans are loose on me.
9.) The sun is shining.
Yep, pretty good reasons to be happy today.
Last night as I was on the bus home, I was musing about what people perceive of me. Optimistic seems to be the word that gets mentioned quite often. This reminded me of what Wicked Mike said when he pimped my blog to all and sundry. I thought that I should just put some perspective on my depression in the face of optimism.
I'm pretty normal, in general. After much introspection and mental unravelling, I have decided that the root of my depression is that I tend to set myself up to fail because my ideas and dreams are bigger than anything I am capable of. The continual failure is depressing. I'm also lonely. But this can be cured by buying a cat. Or three.
My optimism stems from the fact that I tend to cling to the brighter, lighter side of things. The sunrays in my life. I'm scared stiff of what will happen the day I lose grip of the light. How far am I capable of spiralling down into depression? Would it be a little thing that can be sorted with a few shags and some prescriptions? Or is it the kind that needs electro shock therapy and a cornucopia of pharmaceuticals?
To succumb to it would be admitting defeat, giving in to the apathy of existence and that is not the point of life.
So now you can brag to your friends that you know the most optimistic depressant in the world.
