Friday, April 29, 2005

Supersize Me

I was meant to go out to Mr Smiths last night to see Vext with Mooro and Gary but ended up staying in. I treated the housemates to a slap-up Chinese take away and the housemates supplied the booze so I ended up getting pretty drunk and stuffed and couldn't move. We played a game of Scrabble which, by the way, I lost AGAIN... it's not cos I'm shit, it's cos I was unlucky with the letters. I mean what can you do with X,E,D,J,K,Q and I... nothing that's what! I almost had FLANGE at one point but I needed an E. Luckily I managed to get FLAUNT out of the letters I had and on my next go I got CLIT!! We always play Rude-Word Scrabble, where you get double points if you get a naughty word. Once I got 66 points by having a WANK on a tripple word scoring! (WANK = 11 / 11 x 2 = 22 / 22 x 3 = 66) Marvelous.

After this we watched Supersize Me on Channel 4. My God, was this film ever good?!? Some of the stats that were coming out were truly amazing. I very rarely eat McDonalds anyway but one things for sure, after watching this I'm never going near that place again. This guy basically ate nothing but McDonalds for 30 days. This means he had McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If McDonalds didn't serve it, he wouldn't eat it. He had to eat every item on the menu at least once and he only went for the Supersize meal only if he was asked for it. They guy ended up completely ruining his liver. One of the consulting doctors was absolutely floored by what was happening to him. He'd only ever seen this kind of damage from someone who was an alcaholic and never expected this experiment to cause such an attack on all of his bodily function. After watching it I felt guilty about eating my Chinese!!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Skint

It's been a quiet couple of days since Friday's gig... mostly down to the fact that it's near the end of the month and March's wage has pretty much run dry. I've even resorted to counting the 1p's and 2's in my Darth Vader money box to see if I can scrape enough money together to get a packet of crisps during my 10 o'clock munch at work! Thankfully today is payday. So that mean's this morning I have a fresh packet of Digestives and a couple of crisp tenners in my back pocket.

So what HAVE I been up to since my last post about Hula Hoops and Digestives? (ok, for the record, I'm not that obsessed about Digestives.... well, maybe just a little) Well, I had a long chin-wag with Kimmy on the phone on Tuesday. She'll be coming down from Leeds on Friday for the weekend as it's her birthday on the 3rd May - which reminds me, I've got to get her something today .... or Friday... or maybe even Saturday! I have no ideas what to get her though. I'm sure I'll think of something (even if I did do you think I'd post it up here? Kim might read it, and that would ruin the element of surprise!)

Glen's left his job at the printers. I'm please for him too. They were just messing him about with his hours and pay. He was working through night shifts all the time and him and Kate are expecting a baby soon. It would've been a nightmare for them. Which reminds me, Kate's been looking/acting really tired recently, I think the baby's been uncomfortable for her. Besides, it's probably tiring carrying around all that extra weight too. Glen's got his CV with a recruitment agency and he's already lined up for a couple of interviews, so let's see what happens there.

Dave from Betika has posted a link on his blog to here for my review of last Friday, if you're here looking for that it's down below so keep scrolling down. Also Carolyn emailed me to explain the source of the 'Miss' jibes that Mooro was doing - it's cos she works in a school as the head of biology no less!! My word, I am impressed... although not jealous. I could never work as a teacher, especially if any of the kids are half as bad as what some of the kids were like when I was at school!

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Hula Hoops or Digestives?

I just bought a packet of Hula Hoops for my 11 o'clock munch attack... but what I really wanted was some Digestives. Man, Hula Hoops are no substitute for Digestives. You can't dunk Hula Hoops into your tea - it just makes the tea salty. I would run to the shop and get some but a couple of factors get in the way....
a) it's raining outside and
b) I'm skint!!
.... looks like I'll have to stick with the Hula Hoops then! hmph!

PS. Just found out that both Hula Hoops and Digestives are made by the same company, KP McVities.

currently listening to - nothing
(Although, I've had Kaiser Chiefs in my head all day!)

Monday, April 25, 2005

Friday Night at The Villa

So... it was time for another Hat gig. This time at The Villa with Cicatrix, Betika and The Equidistant Sound. All 4 acts were brilliant and vastly varied. Cicatrix reminded me of some of the old ambient/trance stuff I used to listen to back in 1994/1995 like Orbital, Autechre, Manna and Banco De Gaia so I felt a good connection in the music.

Next up was Betika. Now this is the first time I've seen them live. And this was the full band - all 7 of them - which is probably the best way to see them for the first viewing. Dave Von Betika was understandably not happy with the sound settings and board mix, what with not being able to hear the monitors correctly and the bass and vocals being a bit on the quiet side. (you can catch his take on the proceedings here.)But, to be honest, I don't think it made a difference as the tunes were all top quality anyway. I must admit to being blown away by them actually, as the only stuff I've got of theirs on CD is Heads Smashed In By The Boy/Girl Thing and the Superglider Sampler 2003 CD (available on Superglider Records here) .... oh, and I downloaded the MP3's a couple of weeks ago while I was designing the poster for The Hat (that's a point, I dunno if they were ever posted up around town at all cos I haven't been in town much recently. But Steve wants me to design some more for their next gig next month so I guess they must've!!) Anyway, got side-tracked a bit there, what I was trying to say was that the tracks on those CD's are more chilled out with a slight Pulp/Cardigans feel to them but on stage they kicked supreme asses with their "finger click, hand clap singalongs"!! Simone said to me during their set that if she ever joined a band she'd want it to be Betika. Gonna defo see them again (either at Alcatraz on the 28th or at Mr Smiths on 6th May ... oh that reminds me, I get paid on the 28th!! Yippee!!!)

And then The Hat!! Superb is all I can say. They played an outstandingly atmospheric set from start to finish oozing oodles of stage presence and confidence starting with "The Church of Speed" - the last 8 bars of which was blasted at such a volume it made my left eye twitch and stray outwards to the left!! (You know what I'm talking about, Simone!) I think somebody on the sound board must've slipped their elbow on the master volume! Other songs included "Luftwaffe", "Alphabetise" and "U.N.I.T" - a homage to Dr Who's regular military interaction and how they set out to "sort them out good and proper". The Hat's equivilant to Smells Like Teen Spirit, in that everybody knows this as THE Hat song, is "Sway". It was given a slightly accidental sneak preview introduction by Mr James Burton in that he tested his keyboard before the song started, resonating that well known electronic bassline, which kinda ruined the element of surprise. But on the contrary it actually got the audience stoked and excited and made them wanting it to be played even more.

And finally it was time for Equidistant Sound. This is the first time I've seen these boys and it reminded me of a kind of Stereo MC's meets old school intelligent jungle. Which is a good thing. I expect if I know their music a bit more I would've probably enjoyed it more.... or maybe if I stood at the front?!? Who knows! I was trying to scrape together a couple of quid at the bar for my last pint as I was soooo skint - God, I felt like a student again! Speaking of which, there were moments in Equidistant Sound's songs that went from being really solid and infectious to sounding really bland and studenty! Sorry boys, if you're reading this, but I couldn't help feeling this during some of the funk-wahwah-guitar sections. I've heard too much of that before when I was at college (back when the Chilli Peppers were starting to hit the mainstream) and now all it reminds me of is that. Although, who am I to tell you to rewrite some of your tunes?? Nobody in particular that's who. But on your next album's worth of tunes you might want to take that into consideration - it's the only thing that's keeping new listeners back. Other than that it was a fucking great performance.

Other events during the night include sticking Betika website ads to our foreheads, appending sounds to kisses of different sexes (a boy-boy kiss was followed with an oooooh! a boy-girl kiss was followed by an aaaaahh! and a girl-girl kiss was followed by an aaaayyyy!!) that Dave Von Betika was all too shy to get involved in. Must've still been seething about the sound set-up. Er... what else.... me and Simone trying to piece together cash for beer, Scott and Mooro heckling "yes, miss" at Carolyn Von Betika - must've been some kinda in-joke! And I agreed to play bass in Gary and Mooro's new band - which should be interesting! Right, here's a few pics...
















currently listening to: Betika - Boy/Girl Thing

Saturday, April 23, 2005

London cont.

...From Covent Garden we went towards the Thames to see what we could see. We ended up coming out by Embankment station opposite the London Eye. There we Fran spotted another Banksy grafitti, which we had to take a piccy of. We also stumbled across some Salvador Dali sculptures...




Time was starting to get tight so we had to try and find our way back to Victoria Station so we can catch our bus back to Bournemouth. We wanted to get a picture of us on the back of one of the lions in Trafalgar Square in true tourist style but there was no time. We basically walked past it going "Right, that's Nelson's Column" and walked onwards to the tube station! Although we were crushed in rush hour tube travellers we actually made quite a seamless journey back! When we got to Victoria Station we spotted some Dalek Toilets which had to be photoed..



We quickley orders a Subway for something to eat for the journey back and made the bus with seconds to spare! On the bus we took another travel pill and ended up acting like complete monkeys by doing Bruce Forsyth impressions and pretending to be Scouse pill-popping ravers where the term "I'm buzzin'! I'm bangin'!" was used loads.





we finally got home at about 9.30. I slept like a log! (...and woke up in the fireplace.... oooh the pun!)

Currently listening to: Air - Moon Safari

Thursday, April 21, 2005

London

I know, I know... I've been extremely lazy with the BLOG recently. I've been having trouble sleeping recently so everything has kinda been taken by the wayside. So, I'll knock out a few posts today relating to things that have happened since Monday.

Right, first off... London!!! Had a bloody good time. As you already know I crashed on one of Scott and Fran's sofas (the larger of the two.... as I'm taller than Pri!) but didn't sleep well cos I was really hot and slightly excited about going to London. Woke up at about 6, had breakfast and got ready to leave the house. The weahter looked grim but I decided to leave me jumper at the flat and go with T-shirt and Parker. We made a dash for the number 20 bus to get to Bournemouth Triangle for 7:05am, missed that but right behind it was a red bus. That'll do.

Before we left Scott and Fran's flat, Fran gave out some travel sickness pills. Now, I've never had these before and you're supposed to take them just before you start travelling. Well, after we'd got to the Triangle we had to wait a wile for the bus and I started 'coming up' on these travel pills. My God, those things are mental - it made me and Scott really hyper and dizzy. Should they be legal?!? Check out mine and Scott's eyes on these bus pics!!

Me and Pri Fran and Scott

We eventually arrived in London at about 10:30 - pretty good going if you ask me considering trains and coaches take about 4 hours and the Megabus only stops in Ringwood and Winchester. First thing we did when we got there was get ourselves a travelcard then it was a quick jump on the tube to Oxford Circus where we dissappeared doiwn Carnaby Street and did some shopping. According to Fran I merged in with London people too well cos they kept losing me and then I'd pop up from nowhere and make her jump!! At one point I lost everybody when we were in the Deisel store, I thought everyone had gone downstairs but when I looked for them I got stuck in a conversation with the guy that worked there about VW Beetles and Vans - just because I had a VW Van on my t-shirt! About an hour into shopping we were all starting to flag a bit so we popped into a pizza place and scoffed lots of yummy pizza. This gave us a bit more energy to do more shopping. We headed back to Oxford Street and went into H&M, Topman, Levi, HMV to name but a few where I bought, in total, 2 t-shirts, a shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of sunglasses. Then we headed to Soho and onwards to Covent Garden where we spotted some Banksy graffiti. Here's a few more pics...




I'll continue this banter when I get home from work!!... In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your day. (blimey... I'm in a good mood today!)

Sunday, April 17, 2005

More Art

After having quite a lazy Friday, Saturday was a more productive day. I sat in front of the PC all day (except to watch Dr Who!!) and experimented with Photoshop. Here's the results...

Ameoba Digital Clouds
Boombox Flower
Smokey HAL Urban Decay

...I eventually went to bed at 12:30. That's normally quite early for me. I HAD to go to bed cos me head was buzzing with loads of new ideas and I felt kinda sick from staring at a PC monitor all day. Just as I was shutting down Glen came back from part 2 of Mark's stag night. He brought back Lee, Andy and Martin and they asked me if Ii wanted to join them in a smoke and play some Project Gotham 2. I had to decline. They all crashed round here last night and they've gone to play golf this morning! Mad!!

Righto, I'm about to have a bath and grab some nosh and get ready to go round Scott and Fran's for the evening. Scott, Fran, Pri and me are going to London and have to catch a bus (booked on megabus.com) from Bournemouth University at 7am!! It's gonna be a good day I reckon - I'm well looking forward to it!

The Hat at The Portman

Time for an update methinks considering I haven't posted for a while. Firstly.... on Thurday night The Hat played a stonking gig at The Portman Pub on Ashley Road. The headlining act was Pronghorn, who already have quite a large fanbase (they've just recently been confirmed to play at Glastonbury this year...again!) and so The Portman was really packed. This is a good thing for The Hat because it gives a lot of people to try out The Hat for the first time. I did actually notice a few people's ears prick up and take notice when The Hat started playing. I also bumped into Carolyn and Dave von Betika and had a chat with them for a bit at the bar and also joined them at the 'balcony' to watch one of the supporting acts. Here's a few pics...






More pics are available on The Hat's official website and message board. After the gig we all chilled out with a few beers in the main bar area with Pronghorn playing in the background. Had a pretty good laugh and then went back to Scott and Fran's, watched a bit of telly then crashed out on the sofa (as I didn't have to go to work on Friday!!) All in all it was a top night!

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Design

I've been busy busy busy recently experimenting with Photoshop. I've made a few pieces of digital art, really to examine all the nooks and crannies of Phototshop CS. Here's a few of some of the things I've come up with so far...

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Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The Village

I went round to Gary and Simone's last night for a nice chilled out evening. It was cool as I hadn't had a chance to properly talk to them for a while as recently I've only met up with them in O'Neills or a party or something. We had a top quality home-made lamb curry (something that Gary had introduced me to last year for Lottie's birthday) with home-baked naan bread and then relaxed our bloated stomachs with The Village on DVD. I've wanted to see it for a while but have never got round to it. For those that haven't seen it here's a quick plot summary extracted from imdb.com....
'The Village' depicts the thrilling tale of an isolated town confronting the astonishing truth that lies just outside its borders. At first glance, this village seems picture perfect, but this close-knit community lives with the frightening knowledge that creatures reside in the surrounding woods. The evil and foreboding force is so unnerving that none dare venture beyond the borders of the village and into the woods. But when curious, headstrong Lucius Hunt plans to step beyond the boundaries of the town and into the unknown, his bold move threatens to forever change the future of the village.

I have to say I was gripped by it. I expected it to be really scary but unlike The Grudge, that I saw the night before, it was more creepy than scary. In a funny kind of way it felt like an X-Files episode but without the Mulder and Scully interaction. I think this is another film I'm gonna have to buy.

After Simone and Gary gave me a lift home I was kinda worried about what the atmosphere would be like in the house cos of recent events. I went into the lounge as Kate was putting on her coat getting ready to pick up Glen from work and Sarah was sat down rosie faced from the red wine and mildly rosie eyed from the home-grown spliffs. I was expecting a cold reception but I think everything's sorted itself out now as we were laughing and joking. Phew!!!

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

The Grudge


I saw The Grudge last night on DVD, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (or, if you prefer, Buffy). I wasn't planning on watching it but Neil borrowed it from his brother Ali and thought it would be a good idea. We'd just watched the 3rd Dr Who Episode (The Unquiet Dead) and after getting pretty creeped out by that decided to keep the scary theme running. My God was that film scary! If you want your head completely fucked I recommend it... I had a bit of trouble sleeping last night! It was so scary I thought it deserves it's own picture on my board!!

Monday, April 11, 2005

Mondane Mondays

Ahhhh it's soooo good to be back in the office and knuckling down to some good honest hard work after 2 and a half days of lazing around and doing whatever the fuck I please...... NOT!! It's not fair, the weekend's gone past too quick. It's just like Emma said earlier on the way to the pub at lunch "Life's flying past too quickly - we'll be dead soon" Boohoo!! I s'pose my only salvation is that my desk is right next to the window so I get to look out onto the car park and watch the Sales teams constantly blag off work for they're regular 10 minutely nicotine intake and chortle and guffaw about how much money they're making for selling our shoddy product. Fuckers! No it's not that I'm bitter in the slightest (may not be 100% true) but they do make shed loads more money than I do and my job's far more important!..... oh great, the sun's come out now. That makes me feel so much better that I'm stuck in the office so I can't enjoy it!

Still, it's nearly time to go home and kick back with a lovely cold beer and kickstart the Xbox to play Doom3. Woohoo!! Man that game is awsome. I can now vent my frustration by kicking ugly demons asses back to hell with the BFG (that's Big Fucking Gun to all those that have never played Doom) in a gore-splattered blood fest of darkness! *gasp*

On a lighter note, I can now add Freelance Graphic Designer to my CV as I've designed flyers and posters for The Hat. I've still to see any plastered up around town yet though. Keep 'em peeled fellow Bournemouthians.

And finally a joke sent to me by Kim to cheer me up on this nightmare of a day:
A girl walks into the doctors as says: "Doctor, everytime I pull down my panties my vagina starts singing 'Show Me The Way To Amarillo'!!" The doctor says "I shouldn't worry about it too much. Every cunt's singing it!"

arf!

Weekend

This weekend was sooo bloomin' quick it almost feels as though it never existed! There's still a strange atmosphere in the house but I think it's slowly sorting itself out. I really can't remember what I did Friday..... *thinks* .... I think I just kept myself to myself and played a bit of KOTOR2 with a beer and went to bed without hardly saying a word to anybody!!
Saturday started with the usual visit to my mum's and when I got back to Boscombe I popped into Wilkinson's to grab a new bin as the old one still had mouldy sick in it from where Collette freaked out after a little bit of weed.... and 3 bottles of wine!! I got home and kept to myself again by tidying my room and doing laundry (ooh what an exciting life I lead!) Eventually after getting ready to go out I finally showed my face and went into the lounge to watch (and video) the latest episode of Dr Who (which, by the way, totally rocked!) Then it was time to sort out going to The Gander to meet up with Emma, Rich, Helen and Becky. I managed to get there 30 mins before everybody else even though I waited around the house til 9:30pm - we were originally meant to meet up at 8:30pm but Helen said she couldn't get hold of Emma and Rich. When she finally tracked them down in The Molt And Hops she texted me at 9:40 saying they'd left the pub and they'll be at the Gander in 10 mins. So I gave it about 5 mins and left my house. When I got to our gate I noticed the bus at the bus-stop by Boscombe gardens. Remembering I still had my day-tripper buzzcard I ran like the clappers to the next bus-stop and got on a packed busfull of clubbers and townies driven by what can only be described as the bus service's answer to Damon Hill!! I think I got to Lansdowne quicker than I could find a space to sit down!! Because of that I ended up in the Gander 30 mins before everybody else got there!! D'oh! When they eventually arrived I got a big apology hug from Emma and Helen, Richie-Rich bought me a pint, and Becky (who I had fancied up until Saturday night) looked like a wet blanket! I seem to remember biting Emma's elbow and making her bleed!!



.... but that was only because she bit mine first and said that I doesn't hurt cos you've got no nerve endings in your elbow. Oops!!! After a couple of drinks we went onwards to O'Neills where I bumped into Lucy...



... Marcus and Nadia....



...and Debbie (who I didn't get a photo of!!) I hadn't seen these guys for, like, 6 years or something. Debbie is now a Doctor in Bristol (unbelievable!) and we were chatting together for ages about our last relationships and bands we've seen. She once got on The Killers tour bus with some members of Bloc Party. The Bloc Party blokey said you can pick who you want to shag! And then she thought "I'm a doctor, what the hell am I doing here?!?" and went home! After a pretty shit time at O'Neills (the band sucked, the music after the band sucked, the volume of the speakers was louder in the seating area than the dancefloor, and all the lights were kept full-on!) we decided to try and find somewhere else. We ended up in Camel for about 30 mins then got a Taxi home.

The next day I had the worst hangover ever. I woke at 1pm, felt like absolute poo, made cereal, had 3 mouthfuls and thought fuck it and went back to bed with some headache pills. Woke again at 4:30 and felt kinda better - the headache was gone but still felt dizzy and sickly! Eventually I sorted it out and went to La Bateau to see Lounge play and meet up with a few friends...



... Lounge played well, as did the guys before them, and at the end Andy gave me a lift home. When I got in Glen and Kate were up watching Celebrity Poker (including the actors that played Geordi La Forge and Wesley Crusher from Star Trek and the drummer from No Doubt.) That was pretty damn gripping, I really enjoyed it. Then I went to bed..... woke up at about 4 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep ... so I checked my email and made a cuppa and went to bed.

Friday, April 08, 2005

The Terminal and Bum Fights

After getting caught in torential rain on the way back home from work I went round to Scott and Fran's last night. I had to give Scott his new battery for his digital camera and I wanted him to check out the samples of some of the posters I've made for The Hat gig. (Poster samples are viewable here, here and here.)
When I got there I was starving cos when I got home earlier I fell asleep and didn't have a chance to eat. I said that I'm just gonna pop to the chippy for some grub and Fran was like "Oh you can have one of our pizza's if ya like!" - I had a ham and pineapple one... oooh it were grand! So after I'd commented on their nice new sofa (delivered that day!) and caught up on Scott, Fran and Pri's current events we settled down to a couple of DVD's. After a bit of uncertainty we watched Bum Fights 2!! We weren't too sure at first - we thought it was gonna be too shocking and make us want to puke but, in all honesty, it wasn't any worse than watching a couple of episodes of Jackass or Dirty Sanchez. There were bits I couldn't watch such as when this guy ate a raw frog and someother bum tried to pull one of his teeth out by tying it to a rock (after a few unsuccessful attempts he got a friend to pull it out with some plyers! Gross!) When that finished it was, like 9.30pm so we thoguht we'd watch another DVD. This time we watched The Terminal. I thought the film was great and thoroughly recommend it, although I was speaking to somebody a while back and they said it was poo!! Each to their own I guess!

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Lounge at Mr Smiths

I went to Mr Smiths last night to see Lounge play. As per usual they were on top form. The place was actually really busy - which it usually quite rare. I think it must be cos of half term because the place was packed with students. Marks girlfriend went to the loos at one point and somebody was smoking weed in the cubicle next to her - that is so ametuer and student-like. Why didn't they just stand outside so the smell can dissapate into air?? Anyhoo, all the bands that played were actually on top form, I'm glad I went. Gonna see Lounge again at La Bateau on Sunday.

When I got back I had a few drinks with the housemates. Everything was cool until at one point Sarah really upset me by trying to get inside my mind and be a psycho-analytical. I gave her signals to stop quite early but she continued and pissed me off. I ended up storming off upstairs after shouting at her - I admit I could've handled it a bit better but she was accusing me of doing stuff that I didn't and wouldn't admit to being wrong. Guess who's in the dog-house now!! I hope we can sort it out cos I love the girl to bits. Anyway, here's some pics of the bands at Mr Smiths...