_< nov > 29 > 15:29 (monday) instincts are misleading
my bands bigger than your band
its been a busy four day weekend which included thanksgiving dinner, a second thanksgiving dinner on friday, the welsh punk band mclusky friday night, a fieldtrip to hackney: (the worst) brough of london, a long and costly saturday night in london, and work on sunday.
alan is a cowboy killer
needless to say mclusky was a kick ass concert. i left hallie standing in the crowd while i snuck off to the pit (sorry hallie!). it was worth it. in one song the band stop the song, or rather paused the song something like five times just to confuse the crowd, it was amusing. on the last pause the lead sing added, "it never gets old." so anyway, it was sweet. in my top five definitely.
a fin, a brazilian, and an american walk into a bar. no joke.
as mentioned earlier saturday was a night in london. after our fieldtrip to hackney about a dozen of us went to the pub, it was only five but hey, it was much needed. the only problem was that we were in and out of pubs from five to eleven. i left that night with something like 4 shots, 8 pints, and many pounds less ugh. "thats globalisation."
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deadcities, redseas & lost ghosts
2004
****
mezzanine
1998
***(1/2)
the last gobble
everyday brings something new, gifts that shows us how much we should appreciate life. yesterday my gifts were thanksgiving (the obvious), and a diagnois that i had mild shingles.
it seems to be the new thing all the kids are doing, not that i'm pointing fingers ( anne! : ).
i should have fucking stayed at home
tonight was a lot of running and waiting, running and waiting. i've walked around london depressed for a day, this tops that. i went out to london early before a dinner arrangement to meet up with some people and then i couldn't get a hold of them. after i walked around for half an hour they called me and then i got lost looking for the hole in the wall pub. after another half an hour i met up with them, drank a little then headed off to dinner. the tube started having problems when i got on it so i was even later getting to the place. got there only to find that there was only one person there instead of eight and that person was finishing up her dinner. she suffered through my bland and horrible social skills while i ate and then we both left. i tried contacting people to meet back up with them upon leaving and again after i got off the tube but there was no answer. then i walked around a bit before i got udderly depressd because my night hung in the balance of waiting for someone to call at which point i gave up and caught a train home. yes, it sucked. so, will i ever return to london? well, yes, this friday. the objective will be better and company more reliable. or at least i won't be walking around london for forty five minutes waiting for somebody to return my call before i hopelessly give up and feel like shit. but there will be better days. however i do think i'm getting the chicken pox. i should go and have that looked at eh?
death and the mouse
"cowboy dan!" i screamed between songs over the crowd. it turn out that i had yelled a lot louder than i thought i would or rather my voice carried better than i expected it to. two songs later cowboy dan was played (whether or not i had anything to do with it is unbeknowst to me, but unlikely). a few songs after that isaac brock mumble something negative about people in american voices yelling stuff at him. at least half the crowd was american. nonetheless it was a good concert but it couldn't touch my top five concerts list with a barge pole. i expect the mclusky concert this friday to be significantly better. especially since i ignored most of the songs from modest mouse played from their newest album.
chairman an's top five favourite concerts
1. rage against the machine @ the target center, minneapolis 1996
2. modest mouse @ the house of blues, chicago 2001
3. flogging molly @ the mean fiddler, london 2002
4. cake @ edgefest, somerset 1999
5. flogging molly @ irish fest, st.paul 2003
working at the brainwash
after three days of brainwash 'training' sessions at work i finally got to work on the floor. that day, sunday, i sold a microwave, a food processor, toaster and some other things. those three things alone total to over £270 pounds, not too shabby if i say so myself, which i do. for some reason whenever i get dressed for work i feel like i'm going to church, slacks, button up shirt, tie... but to hell with the man, i wish i still had my raver pants so i could walk through there on my day off and show them i'm not a twat.
the last gobble
when a bird flies into a jet engine
when i was flying back from los angeles ('an ocean's gargled vomit on the shore,' as the decemberists decribe it) i somehow remembered that once i heard of a plane making an emergency landing because a bird got caught in one of it's engines. after i flew in from los angeles my arms were pretty tired but i kept that in mind and liked it enough to title this site from that odd memory. i checked to see if there were any records of a bird flying into a jet engine and found that in 1975 a bird got sucked into a jet engine at 37,900 feet (article).
jones!
a few weeks ago i considered changing my phantom band name to jones!continental (see: jones, 'indie'), instead i got a job at dickens & jones in richmond which is a house of fraser store. i started training on saturday and will be working sundays as a sales advisor in the home department. its a good thing i brought some of my 'business casual' clothes. yesterday i dressed like i was going to church. damn you jones!
fat bloody fingers are sucking your soul away
as evil as they are i got a msn/hotmail account for complex reasons. i won't be using it but i will try out msn messenger and see that works out.
my user name for msn messenger is: ikeepthewolfatthedoor@hotmail.com
finding neverland
last night i saw neverland, a movie i knew nothing about before walking to the theatre. ian and mike both said it was supposed to be good and since i didn't think i was even going out that night i didn't bother to check to see what was out. however now, after having seen the movie i checked the reviews and whatnot. one thing i noticed was that the u.s. release date for this movie is on november 12th, i believe it came out here on october 17th. anyway i really liked the movie and have even considered seeing it again. i do admit i almost cried at parts but held it together. but the bottom line is i thought i was a really good movie and will encourage people to see it.
falling asleep on the train
when listening to m83 fairly loud on the train you'd think you wouldn't fall asleep but then i sur-came to exhastion and passed out. i awoke to find people getting off of the train and then i thought to myself, what stop am i at? luckily i only fell asleep for about ten minutes but i wouldn't have mattered anyway because my stop was at the end of the line. then i had to ride my bike from the train station back to my house with a flat front tyre (tyre, as the english like to write it).
3 steps to getting fawked up on guy fawkes day
1. go into london on guy fawkes day (the 5th of november)
2. purchase lager at you local grocer or convience store
3. consume the lager in a public park while government fireworks explode extreemly
4. close to you for 40 minutes giving you that almost literal 'in your face action'
. *on a side note i would like to say that that was probably the best fireworks display i've * ever seen and it was in the middle of london none the less
dressed up allegator, how the hell did we get here?
as the bombs exploded over fallujah they sat there drinking tea. as fire engulfed them on the television screen. as kerry conceded to a violent fiend. disgust and shame was all too keen. using weapons of mass destruction to put down an insurgence that resulted from a western take over of a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction, why?
her clock is set on late
on the 18th i'm going to see modest mouse play at the london astoria. when i bought the ticket i wasn't exactly keen on the idea but after reading up records' website i found out that modest mouse is still traveling around with the whole indie scene, whew. i'm not sure who is opening/playing before modest mouse because the ticket just says "modest mouse and special guests" but hopefully its somebody they picked out. another band i wanted to see was the decemberists who had a show here last month. appearently they are coming back to london to open for cake, also a band i wanted to see but like the decemberists concert it was sold out by the time i realised they were coming to town.
books i've read since i've been in england
fast food nation - pretty good 1 the pianist - one of the best books i've ever read
one hit wonderland - its pretty decent so far (but its no round ireland w/ a fridge)
pardon my french
last thursday night, or rather friday morning at 3 am, i was sleeping soundly in my bed when bam! something out of nowhere hits me on the chest in the pitch dark. upon contact and not knowing what hit me i shouted out "fucking hell!!!!" fairly loud. i paused for a second thinking to myself, what hit me... is something in my room? well there was only one way to find out, so i quickly got up out of bed and flipped on the light switch. what had hit me were two fairly heavy stuffed animals that were sitting on a wall shelf next to (slash above) my bed. after having been set up on the shelf an undetermined amount of days previous to my arrival and use of the room they finally decided to make a break for it and in doing so they decided to do so at 3 in the morning bouncing off me and landing on the floor next to my bed in the pitch dark scaring me shitless. and although i shouted out pretty loud that night when i was abruptly awoken nobody heard me which is really shocking since my landlady's room is right next to mine.
an excerpt from my thoughts on sunday morning
as i pass people on the streets of twickenham at 8 in the morning we all have an unspoken understanding that each one of us - with our sloppy hair, flattend and matted clothes, strainingly tired looks on our faces, moving our bodies against their will - had spent the night at in a place other than our own and are making our way home after having woken up with that stale and dry taste in our mouths from what we had done just the night before. nobody but church go-ers and and early birds should be up at this early on a sunday morning but here we are, filling the streets one at a time all throughout london looking and feeling like the living dead.
my usual weekly grocery list (what i picked up today)
ham 1 bread 1 round lettice 1 cheddar 1 biscuts 1 salami 1 potatoes 1 ground beef
tomatoes 1 orange squash 1 tortalini 1 spagetti sause 1 spagetti noodles
pictures from paris (taken by a jen)
when a bird flies into a jet engine > pictures > paris04
