Fuck fuck fuck.

I’m still not feeling any better and so last night I missed seeing Hope of the States at the Astoria. I had thought I could dose myself up and go off and see them but I really wasn’t feeling up to it. Of course NME has a glowing review for a 15 track set including a load of new songs.

Fucking cold.

🙁

That’s really gone and made my week even worse. Easily my favourite band from last year and a fantastic live group. Especially at a massive (sold out) headline show at the Astoria of all places. I had been looking forward to this gig for a good while. It was a highlight of all the upcoming.

Fuck.

I slept for most of today. I had pretty much figured last night that I wouldn’t be in work today but set my alarm anyway to see how I felt. I was right and that was that really. Surprisingly I had slept really well last night and by around 10 I was out of bed, wide awake and reading (Evan Dorkin’s Bill & Ted) comics. By midday I felt even worse and I thought I would try and sleep for a little more to see if that helped. Next thing I know it’s going on 5pm.

I now associate colds with hot chocolate. I don’t like Lemsip, I never have. So whenever I have a cold I tend to just take some drugs and drink lots of hot chocolate. Preferably mint hot chocolate but Tesco didn’t have any today. The Cadburys one I ended up with was very nice. I found out too that you could melt Vaporub in hot water and inhale the vapors and that was meant to help. So I gave it a try but it failed to do anything, include melt and I gave up on that.

Toast is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Toast with butter and raspberry jam is almost enough to prove to me there is a god. It’s good at any time of day.

So that really set the tone for the day. I missed today’s drinks, really not feeling up to it despite it being less than 2 minutes away from my flat. So apologies to all on that front. Instead I’ve been watching some Alias which is allright and playing some CoH.

I dinged 34 this evening and yesterday I caught up on some badges including my Atlas Medallion I’m pleased to report. So that was fun. I have no idea how I’m going to grind my way through the next 16 levels, I really need an active SG at my level to keep it going and there isn’t such a beast. Ah well, all fun and games.

Budgie kindly lent me the new Peter David novel last week. I got to it on Sunday afternoon. First I had to finish and pass on the new Brookmyre book. It was fun, a little daft but well written and entertaining in general so I enjoyed it. Anyway the PD I read in a single sitting. He’s a fun writer, I have a whole lot of time for him although he is an annoying bastard too. It would be nice every once in a while to NOT HAVE A CLIFFHANGER! It just leaves me wanting the next one alot and that’s months if not a year away. It’s left me wanting to go back and read all the others so I’ll get to them at some stage. I don’t remember the last book I sat down and read in one sitting, I like doing it every now and again.

Valentines day then. Well I haven’t got much to say, in fact, I don’t have anything to say. However everyone else is commenting in some way and I didn’t want to feel left out.

Chatting with a friend on IM has reminded me of comics, so here are some I have read recently.

– Books of Magic : Life During Wartime. Fun, with some very nice art. I’ve read some of them on and off over the years but never got around to collecting them all. I had heard good things about this new version and cheap trades of the start of series are always good.
– It’s a Bird. I’ve been waiting for this in softcover for a while now. It’s an excellent read with some lovely painted artwork. I now want to go out and read his Superman run.
– Hellblazer : All His Engines. Yawn, Ennis did this so much better at least 100 if not 150 issues ago. Not an OGN, just a 4 issue arc stuck together. The first 35 issues of Lucifer were excellent but Mike Carey barely interested me with anything since then. Nice art in places but overall yawn.

For I while now, I’ve been meaning to do this again. So here’s Feb 14th through the years.

1994 – I watched Dances With Wolves Part 2. I can only assume ITV had split it up for over two nights. The highlight of my day was finding a cheat to warp through some Mario levels.
1995 – Well, school apparently bored me that day. I watched X-Files and The World at War that evening and I sent away for some info on an Irish sci-fi con.
1996 – School was “ok” I seem to have rented Raising Cain that evening and thought it was allright. Also the X-Men cartoon was the 5th part of The Phoenix Saga.
1997 – School was ok, there weren’t any “real classes”. Middle of mock exams it would appear and English was to be the next Thursday. That evening I babysat while my parents were out.
1998 – I slept in till 1 (having worked till 1 the night before). I was late for work because I had my shifts mixed up. I worked until 1 again. We had just gotten a new PC and I spent the afternoon before work playing around online. You know I can’t remember what I was working as at the time and do I mention anywhere what I do? Not a chance. I’m cringing and actually gone red at some of the other things I wrote around this time.
2002 – Doesn’t appear to have been much at all. The prior night had been pool after work with the lads so I imagine it was one of those mornings.
2003 – I went to see Daredevil in Streatham with two friends. Wow that was really two years ago
2004 – Out with the V in the bar until 2am when we were thrown out. The next morning was noted as hungover

And that’s all I got.

I’m now really really passed being fed up of feeling unwell. I have the start of a cold and I feel miserable, I have all day.

Enough already. There was a time, in fact only recently that I went two years without being sick and now I don’t seem to be able to go past a month.

It’s not funny 🙁

indie rock n’ roll for me

A couple of years ago I realised that I should be taking advantage of living in London, and getting paid enough to be able to afford, to make a point of going to gigs and the theatre. So since then it’s been rare that I haven’t been booked to go and see something at some stage in the next few months.

So far, booked for this year:

Hope of the States – Astoria – Feb 15th
R.E.M. – Hammersmith Apollo – Feb 19th
Donna’s – Astoria – March 9th
The Camden Crawl – various – March 10th
The Mars Volta – Brixton – March 13th
Mull Historical Society – Shep Bush Empire – March 18th
The Subways – Mean Fiddler – April 6th.
British Sea Power – Forum – April 13th
The Frames – Shep Bush Empire – April 22nd
U2 – Somewhere Glasgow – June 21st
U2 – Croke Park – June 24th
R.E.M. – Hyde Park – July 9th

With Download 10- 12 June to be added as soon as tickets go on sale and no doubt Reading to follow. I’m also tempted by Oxegen back in Dublin and the Give it a Name day up in the Ally Pally. Both of those are a wait and see.

Hoping for shows from Killers and Outkast around Glasto in Brixton or the like and I’ll go along to them

Theatre wise, I’m off to see Festen at the start of March and A Life In The Theatre next week. Death of a Salesman opens in Hammersmith later in the year and I want to try and catch that too. I have never seen The Mouse Trap so I’d like to catch that at some stage but I don’t think it’s going to finish it’s run anytime soon…

Also, I’m planning on catching Turner Whistler Monet at the Tate sometime in the next couple of weeks. A Saturday or Sunday afternoon in and around the Tate with my camera sounds like lots of fun.

I really should be doing work but this afternoon it’s just not happening. And yes I have some very eclectic music taste

It is early Friday morning and I’m shattered and hungover but for some reason I feel good. Yesterday was a good day. I got some stuff sorted out with the Dublin lads and at least have something small to work with.

I like airports generally and I don’t mind travelling. It’s a good chance to read and to spend a while chilling out, in theory. In reality I never managed to get organised. It doesn’t matter if I have lots of luggage or none at all, as soon as I have to go through the metal detectors I just loose it. Scrabbling with keys and coins and everything else and it never manages to work out. Carrying the passport and the ticket and everything else just gets to me. It’s minor I know but it always bothers me and I never manage to be ready for it.

Anyway back in the evening last night and off to a leaving do for one of the guys here. It was a late one, sometime after 2am when I got home quite drunk. A long long day without any dinner, never a good idea. It was fun tho and some good new people around aswell as some old friends making a rare night out.

This morning, U2 sold out Dublin. 160k tickets in under 50 minutes. Only two nights, the extra two nights appear to be off. This isn’t good news. It means that I’m not going to Glastonbury which to be honest does not bother me so much as the lineup is looking shit. So it’ll be a week off where I go to Glasgow and Dublin. See some friends, catch up with family and catch the lads. Yay. U2.com are doing full refunds for anyone who signed up for presale and wasn’t able to get some. All driven by Larry with a rather nice letter from him too. So that’s cool. I still have hope that extra tickets and indeed extra dates will go on sale and I’m keeping my eyes out. 2 nights in Dublin running would be awesome.

I’ve been talking to some support in the US at my share broker (la de da) and they are so scarily polite it’s not funny. Americans are funny.

It’s been a long weekend, actually it’s been a long week. Thursday and Friday I wasn’t feeling too well at all and stayed at home. Played some CoH and generally did nothing. It was good. By Friday evening I was feeling much better which was good. Two people were staying over from Dublin for the weekend. So once they were collected off the bus it was out to dinner and a fairly quiet night.

Saturday started off with tourist stuff and that wasn’t so bad. Actually went up London Bridge and that was quite cool. The photos of it being built are very impressive and the machinery involved is quite astounding especially for something well over 100 years old. A walk down the river to Westminster and back up to Trafalgar square before into The Texas Embassy for lunch which was quite nice. A little more walking and some small shopping before heading to Clapham for a friend’s birthday party. Drinks till late.

Sunday was more tourist stuff starting and spending most of the afternoon in the British museum followed by more walking around and lots of book shopping. All fun and games.

Sunday evening I left the two of them to have dinner and continue to wander around doing tourist stuff while I went to see Planxty at the Barbican. Our seats were excellent, I hadn’t even been in there before and I was very impressed with the whole thing. Support was Luka Bloom whom I’m sure I have seen somewhere in recent times but I can’t think when, it could well have been the Fleadh actually. Anyway a small but excellent set from him including City of Chicago written by himself but made famous by Christy Moore. Straight after that with maybe a two minute break. Planxty and wow was it excellent. 2 hours of stories and music. Amazing gig, I’ve never seen an audience like that at the end. The entire place on their feet and staying right there until they came back on stage. Great set, great gig, great night.

So U2 tickets went on sale on Friday and I forgot as I was still in bed not feeling the best. Not too impressed with that. From what I hear the whole thing was a disaster and of course the ticket websites went down straight away. So I didn’t get any tickets.

Oh no, wait I did 🙂

I do have to travel to fucking Glasgow, but I’ve never been and it’s on a Tuesday so I’ll make a weekend out of it if I can’t trade em for London. And then this morning, I got Croke Park tickets.

IF anyone has London tickets and one to spare, I’d be very grateful I suspect that there will be quite a lot more going on sale and I’m hopeful for them.

Download seems to have been extended to 3 days and will include an indie day on the Friday with Feeder rumoured to headline and Ozzfest on the Saturday. I’m not sure I like either of these. An indie day isn’t going to fit in, and Ozzfest lineup has not been the best of late. It also means more time off work and a longer camp and stuff like that. Full details to come next week but it has dampened my enthusiasm a little bit. However some rumours suggest Garbage, Manson and Maiden will be there alongside Crue and VR which will be an excellent excellent lineup.

I’m really tired today. Tonight should be fairly quiet. Get home and play some CoH and then to bed early.

I don’t like The Delays. They played a work party a few months ago as an up and coming new band and I wasn’t impressed at all. Nothing I’ve heard since then really impressed me either. However the last couple of times I’ve been in HMV, they have been playing a track which I really like. Turns out it’s Long Time Coming by the aforementioned Delays. It’s not half bad at all. Not worth an album, but it’s worth a track later today.

It’s been a bad day. I had almost no sleep last night and I’ve not been able to keep any food down since late last night. I have no idea why. It seems to be limited to just an upset stomach but man was it nasty when I woke up from what little sleep I had this morning. So I wasn’t in work. I was hoping that the improvements in work and a couple of other things this year would generally make me feel better. I felt quite run down for a while at the end of last year and I was off work on a much more regular basis than I should have been. Not majorly and not a problem as far as I know anyway but annoying.

Hence the lack of me in the pub this evening. Apologies, Neil I shall bring that DVD for you next Thursday.

So I’ve done fuck all today. Some reading and some City of Heroes. The latter has inflicted me with another illness, alt-itis. The big winter event has made it a piece of piss to get a decent character. 20 levels which took me well over a week with my main probably closer to a month can be done in well minutes if you really put your mind to it. I had my main at 33 and a solid second character at 16. Level 14 is the big one, that’s when you get your travel power. My main is unchanged, but my solid second is now a 21 and another character which I created for fun and messed around with to about level 6 is also a 21. A brand new character is 15 and I’ve got two old 10’s that I want to push up to at least 14. It’s not that much fun getting them there but it knocks a big part of the level grind off and gets me to the fun stage with them all which is good. So some of that today was fun.

In other games news, I cancelled both Eve and EQ2 today. Just CoH for me for the time being.

I’d really like to get some sleep tonight, it’s a big weekend but so far it’s not looking so good. Yay 🙁

Man I was in a foul mood on Tuesday evening. I’m not sure why but I just suddenly felt off form and wanting to be elsewhere. It was strange and unlike me, especially considering the good company out.

The Killers. Yet another small semi-indie semi-rock band that NME champion. Yawn, right? Fuck no. It’s a fantastic little album. It’s not just good fun music but in places it’s straight from the heart and it goes straight to the heart. Mr Brightside has grown on me so much and once I actually listen to it…wow. It just speaks to me in a whole lot of places. It’s a great great album and you should own it.

Fuck it. I’m goingback to bed. Writig isn’t helpnig and I’m getting distracted surfing.