Resistance St

Afternoon. Here I sit with tea and toast, and I decided it was about time I updated on the events of my week. I'm contemplating small things such as why toast always lands face down - yes I did just drop my toast - but luckily it was before I buttered it, me -1 : gravity - 0. It's not very well toasted. Never mind. 

I return with more exciting images... but more about that later. 

Yesterday I went for a rather adventurous walk in the pouring rain. I could have walked only a short distance and caught the bus for no extra cost as the retarded and badly trained bus driver had given me a dayrider that morning instead of the return to Trumpington I asked for (this is the second time a bus driver has told me that they don't do returns to specific places, which simply leads me to the conclusion that they are retarded because there is a button which says ADULT RETURN in red on their little ticket machines. Get some proper training.) 

Anyway, so I decided that instead of getting wet waiting for the bus, which would inevitably take longer, I would get wet walking 2 miles. It was fun, damp but fun. I may have got some strange looks, and some guys in a van beeping and waving at me, but I was actually faster than the park and ride bus. Ha ha ha. 

So that's my "exciting" story for the week. 

I've been having some rather weird dreams, which have involved things such as: Bell XI (they're a band who I've never actually listened to), Chris Walla having head x-rays, getting fired from my job, working at HMV with a guy who came into the shop about 7 months ago, and watching a guy get beaten up in a car park, where I was driving, and listening to St Modesto on the radio... at that point I woke up and actually listened to St Modesto because I was quite freaked out having just watched a guy get beaten up. 

I went into town today, saw Cheryl. We went to KFC. I had a horrible realisation half way through my burger, that I was probably eating a evilly battery farmed chicken which had then been grinded up to make my burger. I won't be going back there for a long time. The images of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's home made battery farm are still implanted into my memory, and so I really shouldn't have had any chicken from that place, but I guess everyone has accidental lapses sometimes. Oh well, it looks like I'm having free range chicken for dinner, so the balance will be restored. 

Which brings me to the photos. I was about to get in the car this morning, when I noticed this ladybird. It has more spots than a usual ladybird so I was like :O *camera out*. Later on when my mum picked me up from the park and ride we went to the farm shop, and I sat in the car and took pictures of the geese and chickens whilst listening to Death Cab. I did a bit of purchasing today. Death Cab's Photo Album *finally the CD!* and Decemberists Crane Wife, because I've been listening to it a lot recently, and it was only £5 (my God I love Fopp). Other bargains: Big Sur - £5 (yes, more Kerouac, I know) and Science of Sleep - £3! I could not resist that. 

!!! Woaah it's been so long that I haven't written about the most exciting news of all! My stuff arrived from Barsuk (my God I love them too). Field Manual is just beautiful and lovely and I love it. Duh. My posters were also excellent (involved much loud squeaking from me as I saw each one) - 2 Death Cab - the Transatlanticism one I ordered, and a John Byrd EP one (which I now have a badge and a poster for, but not the actual CD), Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift, The Long Winters - The Worst You Can Do is Harm and Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out. So 4/5 are by bands I listen to, which is awesome, and now I'm going to start listening to Viva Voce, having listened to a couple of tracks, I can say they're quite good. And my walls are looking more colourful :) I am beginning to run out of wall space what with all the photos, posters and various things I have stuck up. They gave me Barsuk stickers as well, and a What Made Milwaukee Famous sticker. I've started listening to them also, they are awesome. I am having a bit of a new music week. It's exciting. 

In news of work: I am starting full time again in the 2nd week of June. Oh yay. I've totally failed with OU work this week, having not even managed to do a section which I'd originally planned to finish by Monday. Oh yes, I win. 

In good news of work: Fi and Julian are going to be working with me soon! Hurrah! It will be ace. 

Erm. I better do some work. I really am trying to get it done, but I keep being distracted by thoughts of recording and writing and desperation to read Kerouac. The album is progressing very very slowly. And I'm trying to persuade my parents to clear out the garage so I can convert it into a music room. They don't seem too keen. 

I've realised that every time I say I'll post again tomorrow I never do. So, until next time...

Bai

x

Your New Twin Sized Bed

"and I try not to worry, but you've got me terrified"

It's Sunday night. Currently, I'm not going to post this until tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes. 

I haven't done much today, it was raining again, so despite the Bank Holiday, it has been a crap and uneventful day. I really need to sort out my JT's Blocks addiction, it's getting to the point of ridiculous. 

Had a bit of a download-athon today. I feel bad, but I will buy the CDs, I have a list and everything, so it'll balance out in the end. Anyway, the reason for this was that I realised that I feel like I don't listen to enough "now" music anymore, and I have very little idea as to what most new bands sound like. So I got MGMT and Guillemots (I know they're not new) and some other...Death Cab....stuff. And the new Long Blondes album, which is REALLY different. At first I was like "buh? This is really them?". I guess I didn't really achieve my aim, but maybe I'll start paying more attention to stuff that's popular at the moment rather than listening to Nada Surf and Death Cab all the time. I mean, not that it's bad to not listen to chart stuff, it's just sometimes I feel like I'm missing out a bit. And if I want to work at HMV at some point in the future I guess I should really have some idea of what's going on. 

Picture is of my developing wall of lyrics etc. That includes quotes by people, cos I have a Rousseau quote on there. I'm hoping it'll eventually take up the whole of the side of my wardrobe... it's just a question of finding enough lyrics that I really like. 

Maybe I should write somewhere what song they're from, just in case I forget. I don't think I'll forget. 

I promise to take a decent photo tomorrow. I haven't been out since Friday. I think. So, yeah, I'll find something better to take a photo of tomorrow. Maybe it will be the cows in the field I walk past. It's going to be raining tomorrow I think, and I don't really want to walk, but I don't want to give myself the choice because I haven't done any exercise, or anything since Friday, so I probably need the activity. 

I got a Nectar card the other day. Oh! I lied, I went out on Saturday, to Sainsburys. So yeah, I have a Nectar card now. I don't really know why, sometimes the person in Sainsburys asks me if I have one, and I'm like "no" but now I can say "yes!" - of course, I don't really think it'll save or make me that much money, but you never know, and it's kind of like being old having a Nectar card, so I like it. Lol. 

Has anything else happened? Should I post this tonight? 

Kerouac is awesome. Unfortunately I haven't been reading too much, even though that's what I wanted to do this weekend, because of JT's Blocks. See, it's totally taking over my life, it's ridiculous. 

Kind of dreading work tomorrow, there's going to be lots of typing names and stuff, which will make me turn into a weird sort of hunchback because the stool is the wrong height for the computer or vice-versa, we actually have no seat which is the right height, so either you're too short or you're kind of the right height but hunched over a bit, and when you're typing for a long time, eventually it turns into shoulder pain. There are probably health and safety rules against it, but we don't really do health and safety. So I'll just be kind of like one arm shorter than the other due to hunchedness. I would take a picture, but it'd be kind of difficult. 

It's late. Well, not really. 10pm isn't late. But I'm going to bed soon. So I think I will post this, it's pretty substantial. My mum accidentally cooked rice instead of noodles for our dinner tonight, so I have to take rice for lunch tomorrow because then she did the noodles. The only problem being I have no idea what to  do with rice to make it lunchable, like, you can't just eat a pile of rice by itself. I looked on the internet for an easy rice recipe, and it came up with some fucking weird American site with rice recipes such as "cheeseburger rice" and "bacon cheeseburger rice" - I don't really want that. There was another one which suggested mixing a tin of Campbell's soup with rice. Again, do not want. See, I thought Jaffa cakes and ice cream was weird - clearly, I was wrong. 

Anyway, I'm going to work out what to do with the rice now, read some Kerouac and go to sleeeep. 

Bai

x

[edit] I am a GIANT retard. At the beginning of this I wrote it was Sunday night. Today is Monday, I wrote this whole thing today. I am ridiculously retarded sometimes. 

Siva

Currently this has no title. I have my iPod on shuffle at the moment, so whatever is the next song will be the title. Ooh wow. Of course what will probably happen is I will go "God no I'm not calling it that" and then press the skip button. 

Anyway, whilst I'm waiting for this song to finish, I may as well start...

I've just finished writing the first song. Well the first lyrics to the first song for this in progress album. I'm a bit scared. I'm going to wait until I've done all the lyrics before I touch the music because as I probably mentioned before, I totally fail when it comes to that part, because it will require me to be in a certain mood that I don't think I've ever experienced before. I tried to write some music yesterday and I just got angry because nothing was working. It's very frustrating, especially when you're spending so much time listening to Death Cab for Cutie, whose songs are always so good and well constructed and just sound... amazing. I still haven't

 stopped listening to Narrow Stairs. It's definitely one of the very select few albums that when I listen to I will ALWAYS listen to the whole album, no skipping tracks, nothing. And that is quite an achievement. 

On to other matters... (by the way, it's called Siva (Smashing Pumpkins if you're interested) and I didn't press the skip button, mostly cos I knew the next song would be Rhinoceros, and I didn't want that). 

Still having photo uploading issues, I have no idea why it takes so long. 

Last night I watched Les Miserables, which was actually really good, even though it was quite long. Kind of want to read the book/play (which one is it) but I think it's really really long, so I don't know if I actually would. Going to look it up on Amazon now... wowz, I could buy it for 46p... but it is 1200 pages long. Think I'll save that 46p for now, at least until I've finished all the books I just bought. 

Waiting for my stuff to arrive from Barsuk, but as it was only dispatched on Tuesday, I guess it's going to be a little while longer yet - especially as they said 1-3 weeks. But I'm impatient, so there you go. And hungry as it happens. 

So I got my assessment finished, and now I'm on to my next block of work which is about religion and science... perhaps things I would not have chosen to learn about, but so far it's been alright. I've learnt stuff about Hinduism, Judaism and Islam, which is pretty cool, because now I know that they all consider their religions not to be religions, but ways of life. I could be wrong, but I don't think Christians see Christianity as a way of life. Maybe it's just me. I think if I wasn't Catholic then I'd quite like to be Hindu, it seems interesting. Not that I'm just about to convert or whatever, but yeah. 

I haven't listened to the Pumpkins properly in ages, this is nice :). I think I only listened to Zeitgeist once. Which is probably bad, but it was all so heavy, there wasn't really the sort of balance between heavy and slow/calm that there was in the original SP records. I guess Billy Corgan probably shouldn't have bothered "reforming" the band. It's not the same. 

Been thinking about growing vegetables in the garden this summer, was going to go and buy seeds and stuff today, but it's raining so couldn't have gone out in the garden = bit pointless. Maybe we'll be able to do it tomorrow. It'll be better if we grow some of our own stuff anyway, as my mum is always complaining now about buying vegetables from Spain or the USA or Kenya or wherever else. 

I better get back to learning about Muslims now. Once again I'm a week behind, and I've got a lot to do, especially as this is technically my last week working part time. SCARY. Picture is of the amount of my notebook I've used up writing for this album. Not very interesting I know, but as I haven't been out today, there wasn't really much else to take pictures of, except maybe puddles. 

x

22:The Death of all the Romance

I think every time I have an assessment to do I always make a promise that I won't do the next one on the day it's due in. I definitely made that promise last time anyway, and I have not kept it, as it's 8:30pm on the day it's due in, and whilst I planned to finish it about a week and a half ago, I still haven't finished it, and in fact only started it this morning. I'm sort of within reach of finishing now, and have got slightly distracted. As you can see. 

I bought 'On the Road' today, as planned. I also ended up buying 2 other books - Made in America by Bill Bryson, and Mark Haddon's new book which I can't remember the title of. 

I do kind of fail when it comes to buying books, because when I only mean to buy one, I always end up buying two or three. Maybe it's like an endless quest for knowledge. What I do know is that now all my bookshelf space is now completely full, and so any future purchases will have to be stored elsewhere. 

My weakness for Paperchase also reared its ugly head today - I bought a new diary, which *technically* I don't need for another 2 months... but we'll overlook that. It's pretty anyway. And I did restrain myself from buying another notebook at the same time, which would've been completely pointless, as I already have far too many notebooks, but I did actually vow to buy it another day, so I guess one way or another I will be short of £4.75 for no good reason. 

Whilst logistical problems of travel to and from America are still, well, problems, I am even more excited. Fi says we should drive from San Francisco to LA - the Big Sur (which gives me a reason to buy yet another book... I really need Cambridge library to open again...). I'm also thinking about all the exciting CSI related things I could possibly see. *Woo*. 

I made a mini-itinerary yesterday. I think despite the fact that this trip is almost a year away, it will be the most thoroughly planned trip ever! I just have to start finding good reasons and things I actually want to see in Seattle and Portland... and maybe even Chicago. Although it's good just to be able to say I've been to Chicago, although it would be even better if I was driving in a van with my friend, rather than taking a train with my sister. Oh well, I guess I can't have my whole trip revolving around America-related lyrics, otherwise I'd be shouting things like "Colorado, can you hear me?" and saying "we're back in San Francisco" and... just singing "Why You'd Want to Live Here" when I'm in LA. There are probably plenty more... but I better not get carried away. 

I'm having real difficulty with making my photos upload at the moment. They just take aaageess. But I will continue trying, because it's a sunset picture which is pretty. It's only 1MB as well, not exactly massive. 

I better get back to writing about the stupid Death of Socrates painting now. Stupid Jacques Louis David. Oh crap, NCIS is on in 15mins. And I have to watch it cos it's the season finale. Bollocks. 

Au revoir

x

Black and White Town

Ugh. I am most disappointed. Look at this: 

The best way to explain it is this:

I don't want lastfm to change. It's fine the way it is. 

I'm so tired. I've still got to start writing about persistent minorities, I haven't even thought about the Death of Socrates painting, and it's due in tomorrow. Oh dear. I should really start putting in more effort. But I've spent all afternoon typing names of rich Eton twats, so I don't really feel like doing work now. 

I really don't have a lot to say. I want to be musicing, but I have other stuff (i.e. work) that I need to be doing, so I can't do music until I've got it out of the way. At least I have 4 days off now :)

I have to go in search of food, so hungry.

Oh, I'm going to buy 'On the Road' by Jack Kerouac either Friday or Saturday. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully it'll give me some lyrical inspiration. In the mean time I'm going to read The Unbearable Lightness of Being again, because it's super. 

x

There Goes the Fear

I have finally started my assessment. Although I don't think my current answer is quite acceptable...

On the bus someone had stuck smiley face stickers over the head of the wheelchair person. It made me laugh, silently. I would've taken a picture, but the bus was quite crowded and someone might've thought I was taking a picture of them, which isn't good. 

Work was uneventful. I really didn't want to go this morning. I won't want to go tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be interesting. I have a guy coming in to have a Dutch passport photo taken. They are the most difficult passport photos EVER. Except maybe for Greek ones. They have like width of head measurements, and "your head must be centred" and "your head must take up 50% of the photo", stuff like that, which makes US ones seem simple. I can only hope it's fairly straightforward and that the guy isn't too stressy. God knows I'll be stressed if it takes more than half an hour. 

Oh well, only 2 more days at work, and then I get 4 days off! Hurrah! 

Wooaaah. I love Barsuk. They are ace, I ordered Field Manual and a Transatlanticism poster less than an hour ago, and they've already dispatched it. That is unbelievable. Definitely my favourite record label. And did you know that Barsuk is Russian for badger and is pronounced Bar-Sook. No, neither did I until today. Well, actually I learnt the Bar-Sook bit the other day, but the badger thing is new to me. 

Now I just have to wait for it to come all the way from Seattle (I'm going to go there! ^^). I have high hopes for its speed as my Rogue Wave t-shirt was much quicker than I'd expected. Not that it came from Barsuk. But yeah. 

Erm. I guess that's it for now. Toodles.

x

California

(the Mates of State version)

Fuck, my eyes itch like hell.

I omitted something very important from my post yesterday, despite the fact it was an extra post, so should've included important extra things like this...

New invention: Jaffa Cakes and ice cream. Vanilla ice cream, in case you're wondering - not sure if it'd be as good with any other flavour ice cream, perhaps I will try it, experiment a bit. But yes, very very nice, not that it couldn't really not be, unlike peanut butter and sausages on toast, which I'm hoping to try some time this week. 

I've decided to start centring my images, because it just kind of works better.

All America plans are going ahead, I will probably go with a random stranger. I don't really care right now, I have to GET OUT. Or wait until April to go on a proper trek with my sister. I'm bored of waiting. 

Haven't done much writing these last couple of days, but I will keep going, Chrif thinks me writing an album is a good idea, and I keep thinking of stuff I can write about. But it is really difficult to write about negative effects of the media in a song without making it really obvious and literal. I'm sure I'll come up with some ambiguous ways to write about it. I guess most people write about love and hate and sadness because they're more straightforward to write about. But I guess you can love and hate and feel sad about social/political matters as well, so technically it's not actually that different. 

Anyway, I hung out with Chrif after work, and we walked around and ate cookies, and this woman gave us a REALLY dirty look when I said something to Chrif about him marrying someone for their money. It was quite funny, some people don't understand jokes (although I think Chris is actually serious about it when he talks about it, but I was joking). 

I really need to turn on the light. And perhaps de-disease my itchy eyes. Damn hayfever. 

Did anything else happen? I don't remember. Work was like work. I've got to go to work tomorrow and the next day and the next day, which is something that I haven't done in months and I find it scary because I'm going to have to go to sleep early and get up early, and do OU work in the evenings. Oh ho hum. 

I want this photo to upload because I want to go and cook burgers and watch Waking the Dead. 

Maybe I'll just go and come back later, then I might have more to say. (I actually have no idea how much I've written, so it might actually already be a substantial post). 

*previews* uhh... yeah, not really substantial. But, burger time...

I'm going to buy Field Manual very soon... the time is approaching (it's a big deal, honest, I haven't bought anything proper for 19 days) - $15 for the deluxe edition. How exciting :) 

I have to go to sleep now, cos I'm tired and I have to get up in 8 & 1/2 hours. Ugh. Hate. 

x

The Crane Wife

The moon is so beautiful tonight I couldn't help but do another post. Although technically the one I posted earlier is listed as from Saturday. 

As you can see, I have changed the look of my blog, so now it has ^ a pretty picture of a dandelion I took, and also, > another picture I took the other day, which if you click on, will take you to my last.fm page. Or maybe somewhere else, who knows?! I'm probably going to change the link every week so it goes to different and exciting places. Woo.

Still very much on board with my idea to travel across America, even if I have to do it alone. I figured I might take my guitar and then make some friends at open mic nights along the way. Americans can be friendly. 

Sometimes I wonder if my neighbours ever see my hand waving about outside my window holding a camera trying to take pictures of the moon. I do do it quite a lot. 

I'm having quite a positive day, and I've got to the point where I've decided that I'll keep my three most recent songs and develop them a bit to go on this album. I can hear other parts for them, which is really nice because I don't always get that. 

I'm giving the Decemberists a second chance today, I think it's been long enough since I was forced to listen to them over and over to the point where I wanted to strangle Colin Meloy if he sang one more note. But the good news is, I quite like it now. I guess sometimes it takes a bit of time and a different situation for you to appreciate things. 

This was just going to be a quick note, and now it's turned into more of an actual post, which I didn't really want, so I'll stop here and save all my dull thoughts for tomorrow. 

x

The Con

Good Evening.

I've been trying to get this emailing to my blog thing working, but it doesn't, I have no idea how it works even though it seems like it should be simple. 

I've been doing a lot of writing, I've written almost 12 notebook pages since... whatever day it was when I said I was writing this album. It's time for CSI:NY now, so I'll be back in an hour or so....

....

I'm probably going to post this tomorrow now, because I don't really have that much to say. I want to go to sleep. 

When I was walking to catch the bus earlier, I had a strange temptation to get on a National Express bus instead and just go to a random place in England. I'm starting to feel like doing stuff like that more now, I'm getting restless with how things are. I want a future, a plan, something, anything. A change. 

I've totally failed to do any work for the last... almost 2 weeks, and I've got an assessment due in on Friday - between now and then I have one day off, tomorrow - this is an assessment which I had originally planned to finish in my spare time between gigs last week, which didn't happen because I was tired and lazy and thinking about other things. I need to get my Google Calendar organisational skills back into use. 

(night)

.....

It's Sunday now. I just had a bit of a panic because I couldn't find this draft, and then realised it was because I'd put the page on so it only showed my published posts. Panic over. 

Time to be sort of cryptic, but only because I don't want to talk literally about it. 

Like, I actually don't care anymore, it's weird, because when the little window appeared on my screen I was like "Nada Surf, loud, now" and I was shaking. But when I really think about it, it bothers me nowhere near as much as it used to, and nothing is going to screw up Latitude for me, so it doesn't matter. That said, it did mean I couldn't get to sleep until 1:30am because I was having a conversation with myself and trying to find music to listen to which would effectively distract me from thought. 

I'm sick of making a big deal out of it, because it's just not. And I don't even think I'm making a big deal, but I feel like I am. That really doesn't make sense. It's like I've placed a restraining order, even though I haven't, you know, I wasn't even going to make it an issue, I was expecting it, I wasn't going to say anything about it because what difference does it make? But now it's like become an issue and it annoys the hell out of me. 

Rant over.

It was sunny a while ago, now it's just cloudy and windy. I'm trying to get back into healthy eating, I ate so much cake yesterday it was a bit ridiculous (although it was only because I'd had a crap day and my sandwiches were gross so I didn't have proper lunch), so, less cake, more fruit. 

Of course now I've done that, I just want to eat this >>

but as it's only a picture I think I'll be safe. 

I'm still not doing any work, I should probably hit myself in the face or something at some point soon. Awwwh the sun's come out again! I'm quite cold actually. 

....

Back again. Going through my iPod listening to music I haven't listened to in a while. Athlete - that was a serious retro moment, my memories of actually listening to them a lot are linked to the end of year 11. Lolz. 

So I'm still not doing any work, I love how I manage to distract myself by coming up with insane ideas. Well, maybe it's not that insane. Cos I'm meant to be going to the US with my sister in October, and I thought, what if I go to NY and Chicago with her, and then catch a train by myself to Seattle, then work my way down the West coast, so like, Portland, San Francisco, LA, San Diego. 

Of course, there are problems - money being the first, then, would I actually seriously do that alone without completely freaking out about being attacked. But it's not like I've got anyone else to do it with, and to be honest, when else in my life am I going to get a chance to do something like this? You know, in a few years I probably will have decided what to do with my life, and then I'll just be trapped in a job with a mortgage and shit, and I'll never be able to properly travel and be FREEEE. 

Oh I don't know what to do. I really want to do it now. Although, it is a little more drastic than catching a random National Express bus to somewhere in England. 

So I joined this travbuddy.com website, maybe I'll be able to find a nice person/rapist/murderer to travel with on there. No, I'm sure they're all lovely real people who don't contemplate killing and attacking others. See, I'm doing it already. But would I really want to travel with a complete stranger? 

Maybe I could see if there are any other people from Cambridge on there...ooh what a plan. 

Okay, that was a total fail. Ugh, oh well. 

x

Honest

So it's 3:30pm. I have achieved very little today. I'm meant to be getting work done, starting my assessment etc. Instead I have:

• Watched 2 and a half episodes of CSI
• Watched Drive Well, Sleep Carefully (about Death Cab, which was well good)
• Listened to the Long Winters
• Watched various stuff on YouTube, mostly relating to Chris Walla. 
• Decided to write an album...
  

The last one was a bit of a strange decision. Mostly because I was in a strange mood this morning when I woke up, my throat hurt, and I was listening to Field Manual for about the 10th time this week, and I thought "I'm never going to be able to produce anything as good as that", so I was thinking, yes, time I found a more realistic career path. Ugh career, I hate that word. Not that my music career has ever been anything but unrealistic. Anyway, so I was thinking, yes, I'll do something else with my life... or... I'll just start all over again and write an album. And so the decision was made. Now I'm in the process of writing and writing and writing until I've written enough to make 10 or so songs, which could take a while as I'm writing in a stream of consciousness instead of with any specific structure.

I'm leaving the music until later on, because music is always my downfall, and so I'll wait until I'm in a less stubborn than usual mood, and willing to try and fail lots, and then do it. I do

n't know when that will be. I don't know if I've ever been in a mood like that. So this could be interesting. 

Ultimately, it could be a massive failure, I'm just hoping it won't be. However, I'm going to have to stop playing Snood and Chowder and JT's Blocks, otherwise I'll never get anything done - having work and OU work is enough already. 

It's weird to think that this time last year I was about to start taking my A level exams, and was in a massive decision crisis and I was so afraid of leaving Hills, because it meant being out in the world which is big and scary. Well, not so much anymore. 

Looking at my lastfm charts for this time last year, my top 10 for around this week were:

The Shins, Michelle Branch, Snow Patrol, Feeder, Franz Ferdinand, Switchfoot, Voxtrot, Kate Walsh, Jenny Owen Youngs and Death Cab for Cutie. 

I guess my music taste hasn't changed that much, although it feels like it has, because it's grown so much. Am I weird reflecting on the fact that a year ago Nada Surf, The Long Winters, Rogue Wave or Chris Walla had never appeared in my charts? 

Holy shit!!! There was just loads of scratching noises near my window, and I just presumed it was a bird, I looked up and there was a squirrel staring back at me! O.o I tried to take a picture, but it ran away too quickly. Maybe it'll come back if I leave it food, and then it can be my pet or something. 

The weather is grey now. I'm going to post this now, but I might update more later/put a picture in when I've found something decent to take a photo of. Damn that squirrel getting away...

[edit] I found something to take a picture of, I'm sort of doodling in a constructive manner, eventually it'll end up like a better version of my GCSE French book. Heh.

x

Seasick on Land

Hai.

I wanted to show you how red the sun was this evening, but I waited too long, and now it's gone, so instead there's a picture of the plant thing that's growing outside my window, leaving me endangered by wasps. 

Today I was mistaken for a child. I mean a 15yr old. The bus driver gave me a child ticket without even asking me if I was *actually* under 16. When they ask me I normally tell the truth, but he didn't ask me = his fault. Oh well, I saved £1.05, so no complaints can be made. It put me in a good mood this morning. 

What made me even happier was the fact that I was walking whilst there were loads of loser idiots driving through Trumpington thinking they could avoid possible build up of traffic on Hills Rd now there's major roadworks going on. They were WRONG. It was busy in Trumpington, clearly because everyone had the same thought. So I walked merrily along listening to the Long Winters knowing I'd get to work 20mins early. 

And it was sunny. Apparently tomorrow it's going to start raining tomorrow, which sucks, but I guess we've had a week or so of sunshine, so again, no complaints because that's rare for this time of year in England (or in fact any time of year). 

Other happy-making events of today:

- I wasn't as busy at work today compared with Monday

- Narrow Stairs came

- I didn't get blisters doing my 4 mile walk. Woop!

- I've just noticed I have shiny shoulders (I don't know how this is happy making, but oh well)

- I watched lots of funny videos that Rogue Wave have made during their tour and looked at funny super-retro pictures of Nada Surf when Daniel had no dreads. Hehehe.

I finished Wide Sargasso Sea last night, and it made me want to read Jane Eyre again, so I've started doing that, except I started it about 100 pages in when Mr Rochester appears, because that way it feels more relevant to what I've just been reading... and besides, I need to get back to Orwell soon. 

This picture of Chris Walla has been making me laugh all day. 

And that's about it for today. I'm quite impressed with my recent frequent blogging, I'm doing much better than in April ^^

Woohoo! More happy-making - I'm being sent DCfC's DVD by LoveFilm. That will make for good watching tomorrow :) 

(I have to stop myself from becoming too obsessed with Chris Walla...)

Anyway, the Apprentice starts soon! Who will get fired this week?! So yeah, I must depart. 

x

Archer V. Light

Today's exciting post will be done in instalments. Because I feel like it. 

I am currently listening to music in a made up language. Sigur Ros. Chris gave me their ( ) album, so I thought I better listen to it, and as they're headlining at Latitude, I may as well

 familiarise myself a bit more with their music.

 

In really exciting news, it is sunny again. Soon I'm going to sit outside and be sunnified, once I finish the work I meant to finish before 11 (which is what time it is now) except then I got distracted looking for stuff about Chris Walla and Narrow Stairs. My copy still hasn't come, I'm really angry at HMV, I mean, you would've thought when you pre-order something that it would actually arrive ON the release date, but nooooo! So I'm going to complain at them if it hasn't come by tomorrow. 

* * *

So I sat outside, read Wide Sargasso Sea (which I have almost finished so I won't have to worry about reading it when I need to for my course) and did some work. Although, I think my priorities are getting screwed up again, because I haven't actually done *that* much work, I've just been randoming about on the internet except when I was outside. I might go outside again soon, I left my books out there, and the wind is picking up again, so they might've blown away or something...

I don't think my legs will ever tan, even if I sat out in the sun for like, days. It's quite frustrating. 

Listening to Field Manual again. I took some pretty pictures outside, which you can see. 

Here is a nice little interlude. I'll probably write more again later before I post this. 

"You are 'sir'. You're a senator.

And Senator, you were right

It's just a law, not the Word, not the Law.

I'm learning how to speak again.

These words are only structures

When you choose to frame them in,

And obviously, the framers would agree.

You own a chair, and you are not there, 

You noble senator.

Oh, dear sir, I'm a librarian,

And while I do not know of law

I know the things that make my stomach pitch and yaw.

If I were gavaged on hunger strike,

Wrongly fired upon or sullied blindly by dogs,

I'd hate us too, and that's why I've cornered you,

Roman Senator.

Can you still hear with all the marks on your ears?

Face me now - I want to see you break it down,

I want to feel our stars colliding

I want to see the sweat pour from your brow.

I'll let it go, you're gonna see me lose control.

We do not fight for isolation,

Have you seen the injuries?

I want to see your heart of gold again,

Your heart of gold.

We are kind, do you remember that?

I wanna see your pro-life, bear no exception,

You Grand, Old Senator.

Oh dear sir, I'm a librarian,

And I am not always right,

But ours is the story of the archer and the light.

* * *

Hello again. I think I'm just going to post this now, there isn't much more to say. I'm just hoping this picture will upload...

Done. Okay. Bai.

x

Field Manual

Good Evening. 

So, now my internet's working I can finish updating. Even though I've managed to forget most of the stuff I was going to write. 

I got cramp in my foot last night, I think I've managed to hurt my ankle somehow from excessive foot tapping this week. 

On my 5th train journey to London, I realised that there are sorting offices by every station. I don't know how I've never noticed that before. 

Today was exhausting, after my 5 hours sleep I had perhaps the busiest day since October at work, it was actually ridiculous. And I managed to get more blisters walking to Trumpington. It was hot today. 

Ho hum.

Anyway, I was going to write about Chris Walla, and his first solo album, Field Manual. I want Chris Walla gigs now, and I want many more of his so far non-existent albums. Field Manual is brilliant. It has become my favourite album of 2008, (overlooking Narrow Stairs and Lucky) well, okay, by a person I'd never listened to before, except in Death Cab form. It's happy music. Or it makes me smile at least - I should probably be more careful smiling to myself on public transport - but that's what I was doing on the train home last night. I recommend it muchly. If I didn't love Death Cab so much I would say "Chris Walla! Leave and become solo!" - but Death Cab are far too good for me to say that ever. 

The view from my window is now 50% green and 50% sky. I can see literally nothing but leaves and sky. Summer is here. 

Anyway, he's proper awesome, because even though he only has one album, he's put loads of music on his website to be downloaded for free. He wrote a funny song about Nada Surf in a couple of hours when he was producing The Weight is a Gift for them. 

So I have to go and watch TV in a minute. The picture is of Cambridge station at night. Well, the bus stops at the station anyway. 

I'm listening to it now. It's just great. Damn. My favourite lyric so far has to be "even the mobilest phone will leave you exactly alone". I'm sure I'll find more as I listen more. It would be so great if he did a solo set at Latitude. But that probably won't happen (although I've already had one dream come true with Nada Surf). 

I want shortbread. 

Day off tomorrow. So I'll try and get 10 hours sleep. Mmmm sleep.

x

Every Moment [Week of Dreams 3]

And so ends the week of dreams.
Here I sit trying to work out why my internet isn't working, drinking effervescent vitamin C orange-flavoured water, reflecting on the events of the week.

But before I come to that, and other things, first I must discuss the last installment of this week - Rogue Wave.

I have liked these lovely chaps for just about 4 months now, deciding to give them a try before I saw them supporting Nada Surf in February. I ended up buying their first two albums (I do believe) within a week. It was almost love at first listen (I had bought a SubPop compilation CD on which was their song Endless Shovel, which didn't really grab me at first. Probably cos I wasn't listening properly). Anyway, so I was more than happy after seeing them support Nada Surf to hear that they were playing now, in the Week of Dreams.

They had a lot to live up to after the week's earlier events. However, I can probably safely say that they did have the best support act. Eastern Conference Champions. A Canadian band, with a rather amusing bassist - very skinny with a giant handlebar moustache. But the music was good.

Free stuff is always good, and because of said free stuff, I will probably remember this gig more, what with my new Rogue Wave poster, sticker and badge (well, badges as I took one for my sister as well). Also I will remember it because a)it was the first (and hopefully the last) gig I have gone to by myself and b) because Rogue Wave are fucking awesome.

It's only now that I have realised why (after much complaining about it) their third album is not anywhere to be seen in England. It's because it hasn't been released yet, and won't be until June. I was surprised to say the least. Although, the good news is that it sounds like they'll be touring again in the autumn = excellent.

I should probably get on to the actual gig at some point...
Okay, so they appear. Pat Spurgeon seemed to have a cup of tea. He has a pretty cool name. Spurgeon. It kind of makes me laugh. Like a funny surgeon. YES:ANYWAY. Set list was (vaguely) as follows:
Sewn Up
Every Moment
Lullaby
Publish My Love
Christians in Black
Chicago x12
Kicking the Heart Out (to which Zach did an amusing sung introduction to - "this song is about telling someone to stay the fuck away from you")
Love's Lost Guarantee
Like I Needed
Bird on a Wire
(amazing drumming interlude)
Lake Michigan
Encore:
Eyes
Harmonium (which was absolutely ace)

So yes, a truly wonderful gig. I love small venues, when people aren't noisy at least, but Dingwalls is a nice place, and I was like feet away from the band, a guy walked up and just shook Zach's hand at the end - THAT'S how close. And it's lovely, it wasn't too crowded, so people could dance around and stuff, and the band seemed to like it as well. There's something more personal I guess about playing to a room of people where you can see almost everyone's face compared with a massive arena or whatever where people become tiny dots in the distance.

I'm feeling really distressed that my internet isn't working. I don't want to continue typing this in a different document and making it really long when I'm going to have to copy it into my blog tomorrow, so I might just leave this at that for now. I will save my reflections and comments on Chris Walla for tomorrow. And this time the comments are related to his music rather than how cute he is (he's so cute ^^)

Anyway, it's 1:20am, and I have to be up in 5 & 1/2 hours. Oh how I love this working life.

x

Picture is 3/4 of Rogue Wave: Patrick, Zach and Pat Spurgeon. Spurgeon Spurgeon. Lol.

Sing Again

My God I love this song, and the video is brilliant, Ben Gibbard, Ben Folds, John Roderick, and of course, Chris Walla :D plus all the other Chris Walla lookalikes. 

Awwwwwh :D 

I downloaded Field Manual, in the process of listening to it. When I'm feeling a bit richer I'll buy it. 

Rogue Wave tomorrow, and so will be the end of the Week of Dreams. It has been good. 

I just watched Bill Bailey hosting Have I Got News For You. Talk about comedy. Lolz. 

*dances to Sing Again*

(isn't he cute ^^)

x

Blizzard of '77 [Week of Dreams 2]

Hello. 

Last night I saw Nada Surf. Only for the third time this year...and I'm going to see them at least once more. Matthew said that they're playing at Latitude on the 20th July, me = happy! Along with Death Cab dedicating "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" to Barack Obama, it is a highlight of my week. 

So, I managed to leave work early, which meant I got the train I wanted to on time etc which was super. Got to Kings Cross, needed to buy a return ticket for the tube, and magically, this guy comes up to me and says, does anyone need a ticket? We bought day travelcards and are leaving the country now. I was like ACE! Yes please! So that saved me a couple of quid. 

Got to Koko to find a queue, albeit a fairly small one (luckily). So we stood outside for half an hour or so, and went in on time (hurrah!) after being ID'd (hmph...but it's nice not to have to

 worry about being underage anymore...). Koko is a really nice venue actually, it has lots of balconies and a giant disco ball. 

But to the actual gig...Get Well Soon appeared around 8:15, they were pretty good...better than I'd expected from the somewhat questionable noise I heard when I played a bit on lastfm. But it was a much better half hour than Clearlake. It was quite cool, they had violin and trumpets, a dude playing keyboards who looked a bit like Kris Marshall (or so I thought, much to the disagreement of Chris). The girl playing the violin and cymbals was highly amusing though, it was quite difficult not to laugh at her. When she was playing the cymbals, every time she got to hit them together her face was a kind of "yeah, I'm better than you, look at me" kind of expression, and she seemed to take her cymbal playing very seriously. It was quite funny. So yes, thumbs up for Get Well Soon. They've got a CD coming out soon and a gig at Bush Hall in June, which I might look into. 

Nada Surf. Ahh. They do quite honestly get better every single time I see them. This time I was right in front of Matthew (a conscious decision on my part when we walked into Koko and had to decide which side to stand). They seemed to have much more energy than at Scala, maybe a bigger stage commands a bigger performance, who knows, but it was great. Songs played were as follows, beginning and end are in the right order, but in the middle they're wrong, I didn't keep a record this time...

Blizzard of '77

Hi-Speed Soul

Happy Kid

Whose Authority

Do It Again

Weightless

Beautiful Beat

Killian's Red

I Like What You Say

Ice On The Wing

The Fox

See These Bones

Inside Of Love

Encore:

Blonde on Blonde

Always Love

Blankest Year

Sadly most of the set was from their new album "Lucky", although I guess as it was really a part of their Lucky tour, it shouldn't be too surprising (the last gig was only 3 days after the album came out, so they played much more old stuff, including songs from their first 2 albums).

I now know what The Fox is about, apparently it's not about the animal, but in fact, Fox News, who are "fucking assholes" as Ira so eloquently put it. It's basically a network controlled by the White House and fails to give any real sort of news, but instead focusses on bitching between presidential candidates. 

During Blankest Year (always the last song, and the one where people like to jump up on stage) a guy jumped over the barriers to try and get on the stage, was tackled by a bouncer near me, who proceeded to try and drag the guy off to the side, in the process the guy managed to hit me in the face and knock off my glasses whilst trying to stop the bouncer dragging him away. That was fun. 

Other memorable moments include, Daniel falling over, high-fiving Ira at the end and saying he'd wanted to do that for years. Lol. And of course, two-stepping and hand clapping to Inside of Love. 

Perhaps one of the coolest part was in the encore, when Ira suddenly had GLOWING DRUMSTICKS! Yes, I am talking like drumsticks with little green glowing lights on the end of them so when he was playing it was like a cool green blur. *So cool*.

It was great. They were great. And I feel glad that I only have to wait another 2 months to see them again. Yeah, maybe it's an unhealthy addiction/obsession, but I don't care. Standing in front of Matthew Caws singing along to his songs is good, so good. And maybe when I go to America I'll get to see them again. 

In other news, my laptop has been made super, so now it has a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of ram, and Mac OS X 10.5.1 (aka Leopard) which is wellllll cool. 

And, my pre-ordered copy of Narrow Stairs has been dispatched...not too long until it will be held in my hands. Exciting :)

It has been sunny, and I've sat outside a lot. I'm waiting for the rain to come, which it undoubtedly will... we'll just have rain all summer if the weather doesn't change soon. 

Picture is of the wonderful Matthew Caws.

Last gig on Sunday - Rogue Wave. I am EXCITEMENT.

x

Bixby Canyon Bridge [Week of Dreams 1]

Hello,

I have recently got back from seeing Death Cab for Cutie. I was tired an hour ago and contemplating falling asleep as soon as I got home. However, I am now more awake, and will manage to be for the next 20 minutes or so whilst I update.

Death Cab. There aren't even words. It is easily one of the best gigs I've been to, potentially in the top 3. I would see them a zillion times, if given the opportunity, I might even see them more times than Nada Surf. Now that is saying something. The set list was as follows:

Bixby Canyon Bridge

The New Year

Why You'd Want To Live Here

[edit] Photobooth!(a song I didn't recognise *gasp*...because it's on the Forbidden Love EP which I don't have)

Long Division

Talking Bird

Grapevine Fires (possibly my favourite)

Soul Meets Body

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

I Will Possess Your Heart

No Sunlight

A Movie Script Ending

We Laugh Indoors

Crooked Teeth

Sound of Settling (hurrah!)

Marching Bands of Manhattan

Encore:

Title & Registration

Cath...

405

Your Heart Is An Empty Room

Transatlanticism

Oh, it was all just great. I was like breathless, stunned, shocked, amazed, just because they were THAT GOOD. I mean, not that I wasn't expecting them to be amazing, but they were just... argh... you have to see them to know what I mean, words can not describe. As of a few hours ago I have fallen in love with them all, they are now welcome to 3rd place on my lastfm charts. It's weird how you (or I) can just randomly fall in love with strange older men purely because they are in an amazing band. Chris Walla is particularly cool. It's weird because I see his name a lot, wandering around album sleeves saying Producer: Chris Walla etc, and although I've seen photos of Death Cab, it never really clicked until tonight that that was actually him. He looks different than you'd expect. Some people sort of match their name, but when I hear Chris Walla I don't think of his face. Well, I do now, but I didn't used to.

Anyway, so I did a bit of casual Chris Walla stalking, and he has solo music, which I'm going to buy. Once I've tested the waters a bit. But how can he not be good? He also seems to like encouraging people to vote, as they seem to be the kind of links he has on his own website, and also under his name on the Death Cab links page. I thoroughly approve of this, as just earlier me and Chris were talking about making it compulsory to vote. The fact that there was a 45% turnout in London, and 70,000 people voted for the BNP is disturbing. Therefore, we must make all the apathetic left-leaning people vote to remove those evil scum from councils etc. It is beyond frightening that those fascists are starting to claim a place in our government.

Anyway, back to gig related things. The support were pretty dire. It seems that with amazing bands come along people who are reasonably okay, but would be much better if all their songs didn't sound the same. (I'm well aware all of my songs sound the same, but I would only think that mattered if I was the one opening for Death Cab *dreams*). I got told I was going to hell by a guy who was asking if anyone had spare tickets a minute after I'd sold one to a tout. He wasn't happy. I was scared and felt guilty. The tout tried to pay me £10 for the ticket, I was like, fuck off mate, I paid £17.50 for this! Eventually he gave me £20. I swear I see him at half the gigs I go to in London. But I probably shouldn't have sold it to him, especially as one of Chris's friends wanted to come but he forgot to text him :S oops.

On the other hand, the guy who bought the other spare ticket off me on ebay was really nice, and offered to buy me and Chris drinks later if he saw us (which he didn't unfortunately). Anyway, he was friendly and Canadian :)

Picture is one I'm rather proud of of the lovely Ben Gibbard.

Final thing. Me and Chris were walking out of Camden tube station earlier, and this dude comes up to us, starts talking to Chris and starts calling me Chris's WIFE. I was like "Excuse me?!?!". We were both like "wtf mate" and Chris said to him, "yeah, she's not my wife". But seriously, it would've made vague sense if he'd thought I was his girlfriend, but his WIFE?! How old do we look!?! It was pretty scary, and we got away from the guy as quick as we could, and then later laughed about it in a semi-disturbed way.

Oh, another thing I've just remembered. Today I saw an automatic door close on an old man at Kings Cross. I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was quite funny. Oh dear.

Well, more updates later in the week when I have seen Nada Surf and Rogue Wave. Chris is complaining that he's going to have to put up with my stress 3 times this week. Hahaha.

x

I Was A Kaleidoscope

Morning.

This is going to be written throughout the day, when I get bored etc. I'm really cold right now. After our heater almost caught fire the other day (there was smoke and everything, it smelt really horrible) I have no heat, so sitting in front of the computer here I am freeeezing.

Deer update: both have strangely disappeared. I don't know what happened to them, I guess soemone must've moved them. Maybe someone took them to eat? I had a friend who knew this guy who used to eat roadkill, which is kind of gross, but I guess if you've got nothing else to eat then you don't have much choice.

I worked out that I've walked about 14 miles in the last week. This I feel is impressive. And it's nice to be able to calculate how much I've walked, cos I know it's 2 miles from Trumpington to work. Hurrah! All the walking is starting to counteract the amount of time I spend sitting on my arse in front of the computer.

So, I'm back again. Now I'm putting together a wedding album - most exciting. It seems every one I do, ever since I've worked here, almost every mother of the bride/groom is dressed badly. And I mean really badly. It must be a sort of standard thing. I think if I ever get married I'm going to make sure my mum isn't wearing a horrendous hat or ugly clothes. It almost seems a shame that people make an effort to get dressed up, and then totally fail.

I'm getting hungry now, might have some pasta and read about the French Revolution. Woo yay.

The afternoon was rather uneventful. Well except for when John found out that the film processor is broken again. He wonders why me and James don't tell him stuff - and honestly, it's cos we know he'll blame us for whatever has happened. Amazingly he didn't blame me for this.

Anyway, so I'm back home now - just got back from voting for the first time ever! I would say it was exciting... but it wasn't really. Turned out there were only 2 candidates, which was a bit crap, so it was between a Tory and an Independent... of course it's obvious which one I voted for. It would've been nice to have a bit more choice though. Clearly no one actually wants to be a councillor in Sawston because it's such a shit hole. But I feel like my vote will have been well used if a) the person I voted for actually gets in and b) if that stupid eco-town is never built. Eco my arse. 

Picture is my poll card (duh). 

I'm going to watch Michael Clayton now. It won some awards so hopefully it will be good. That said I think most of them were won by Tilda Swinton, who is a bit weird. And wore the most horrendous dress to the Baftas - "I wouldn't have worn this dress if I thought I'd win cos I can't walk in it" ....uhh, you just shouldn't have worn it at all ever ever ever. 

*rant over*

Bai.

[edit: sorry I just realised  - woo! it's 1st May! *pinch punch first of the month and no returns*]