26 Apr 2009

best birthday ever!

i haven't written this for a while as we have been off having adventures. i celebrated a birthday. a big one. 30. je m'appelle claire, j'ai trente ans. in the run up lots of people had been telling me their horror stories of freaking out, retreating to the country, watching their seinfeld box sets on their own, buying skateboards... like it was a mid life crisis. i was prepared for the worst, prepared to wake up on easter sunday morning and just start crying and run with the cat to live in the forest, but this was not so. i had an interesting few days before B day.

the thursday 9th was the last PEPPERMINT PATTI gig (for the forseeable future). the ladies have lost their venue (for the moment) and the last 3 gigs have been blighted by bad luck (illness, band splitting up etc) and audiences have dwindled a little. its bloody expensive putting on gigs, especially when you're one of the good ones who pays EVERYONE not just the headliners and puts them up and gives them hot chocolate and washes their clothes. the climate has changed too, other promoters are putting on ladies and there is less of a stigma if you're in a band / lady singer. i like to think partly thanks to the good work of patti, and i think i'm right. i have been blessed in becoming friends with these ladies after working as an usher for their shows. i was already a fan, going month in month out to see what delights they had. the kimya dawson was my introduction to gigs in cardiff and chapter itself back a few years ago, a patti gig is always worth a punt, i've been introduced to all sorts of brilliant wonders through them: betty and the warewolves, wet dog, kania teifer this season of gigs alone. for a young(ish) bisexual girl finding gay clubs frighteningly day glo and aggressive they were a beacon in the fog.

this gig with VICIOUS GUNS and BETH and BEC was unfortunately subdued. HELLS BENT gay friendly indie disco was on up the road and it seemed that people had not taken the advice of coming down here first. i must admit that i was a bit angry. the patti ladies also run QUEER CYMRU, the welsh listings site and yet no-one came out to support them in their last gig. there were a few people there but not enough and it solidified the decision to make it the last. i didn't want to go to HELLS BENT after due to tiredness and wanting to shout at many in the queermunity for their ingratitute. many still don't consider me properly gay since i now have a boyfriend and never liked the pilled up vibe at the clubs (cos that's what makes you gay, folks! sometimes i get really irritated for some in the gay community for being as rigidly facist about sexuality as any copy of the daily mail... but i can feel a rant building so am going to leave it there) so i decided it wasn't best to go along to the disco, next time i'll be happier and more up for it.

despite the small audience the show was really good. HYSTERICAL INJURY were great, especially considering the fact that they'd lost half the band recently and were experimenting with their sound. BETH and BEC were lovely, its the side project of rebecca newman from HOT PUPPIES who got married and had a baby last year and is spending more time on a quieter folky sound. many songs were just achingly beautiful and it made me envious of that baby, being sung to in the crib. she did a cover of "last night i dreamt somebody loved me" that almost made me cry.

VICIOUS GUNS didn't blow me away, i must say. maybe the sound wasn't right for the funereal feel of the evening but it seemed a bit of a shallow girl / boy / blondie set, although they were enjoyable. they were a band who looked amazing but i wasn't convinced by their songs. i truly feel this is just because i wasn't in the mood though, i just couldn't get into it.

my housemate chris ran up to me at the end of the show and said "dance with me in a minute". chris and steen were djing and he had something planned. he played "decaptacon" by le tigre and made a tearful speech about how the patti ladies had helped him through the years and how grateful he was to have them. i felt a lump in my throat and gave him a hug. it was a perfectly timed moment, he said what needed to be said. chris is planning to put queer gigs on in the name of SIR and i wish him luck, i'll help him as much as i can and i hope its a success. peppermint patti lives on in LOOSE, SIR, gigs like FORECAST's recent PONYTAIL / COMENCHIE show. i think its going to be ok.

the next night we went to my friend nic finch's wedding to debbie savage. i remember talking to nic a couple of years ago about the fact that they debbie had a really cool surname. he said wistfully "yeah, when we get married we're going to be SAVAGE FINCH... i love her for that alone". i was really touched by that statement, it was such a typical nic comment and it made ma happy. i'd been worried cos they'd had to find a venue at the last minute as the point was closed so it was moved to the gate with only a couple of weeks notice but it was a brilliant wedding. we weren't there for the ceremony but arrived to find anne clearing tables away to make room for the dance floor. there was time to quickly wave to nic and see debbie's dress in amongst carring flower displays to another room. then to drinking and dancing! they had fred snow, of top shelf jazz and a tap dance artist performing for the crowd. they got us doing the charleston and we danced till we were giddy with our friends anna, chris, mattie and benny. ace. next up with carl morris with some top cheese (john rostron commented that black box recorder's "ride on time" was the new abba!) and it ended perfectly with the bugsy malone cast doing "we could've been anything that we wanted to be!". it felt like a film. perfect.

the next day began normally, with me in box office but it already felt like a holiday, lots of people were already wishing me birthday congrats. that evening we were expecting the nosworthys (rich, col and rhian) and the ponty set. their presence was enough but the presents were spectacular. a few months ago me and steen had been to jacobs market to do some window shopping and take pictures of things we liked and i had said truthfully on facebook how much i really wanted these things. but then, i really want a house and an allotment would be nice too. the nosworthys bought me all that was still in jacobs market including the blue dog i lusted after and the fish eye mirror! nos the younger also got me spillers vouchers: £30 worth! i was blushing with gratitute, amazing presents!

after the presents we went to the VEGETARIAN FOOD STUDIO for a birthday meal with the aforementioned and small steen, brother rob. what an immense treat! it is an amazing place, reasonably priced and very tasty. my favourite thing was the atom bombs, chilli potatoes that make your head explode. i also had a disco coffee. disco coffee! i think it was just coffee with spices but it is great to read it on the menu. the plan next was to go to dempseys for twisted but i wanted to drop off the cards and we got distracted by the DUCHESS (duke of clarence on clive road). this pub was our old hunting ground when we all moved in next to each other and first met and it was too tempting not to go in for a drink. unfortunately getting out was a bit more difficult and i subsequently didn't turn up for my own birthday party in twisted. steen was trying to get me to go but my stomach was so full and i was sleepy with happiness and so we just went to bed at about midnight like lightweights. before bed steen gave me his presents. naughty steen, he was taking me away in a couple of days and wasn't meant to be getting me anything. i opened a package from some foreign parts that included a HAROLD AND MAUDE MUG AND BADGES! i was so happy! harold and maude is my favourite ever film and you just don't get any merch, it is a film from the pre-merch days so i don't know how he managed it but i was pleased as punch. but there was more to come. i opened up my card. inside was a message saying "you're cordially invited to see DEVO in london". i said "yeah! that'd be great, shall we get tickets?!" only to feel confused and stupid minutes later when presented with TICKETS FOR DEVO IN LONDON PLAYING ARE WE NOT MEN? WE ARE DEVO!!!!!!!!!! steen had mentioned how he'd almost got me ATP devo tickets a couple of months back and i'd veto'd it cos we couldn't afford it but he'd noticed this gig (that, miraculously had passed me by entirely) and bought tickets before they sold out. we are both devo fans, some of our early dates were spent dancing to devo in his kitchen in penylan. very excited. too excited to sleep... if it wasn't for that veg studio food and the two pints of cider afterwards.

when i awoke it was MY BIRTHDAY! we got up fairly quick cos my parents were coming to take us for lunch. it was lovely to see them, i don't see my family enough these days with my all day sunday working. sunday was always the day of getting the train back for sunday lunch, reading sunday papers with my dad, walking the dog with my mum and nattering with my nan. i need to somehow work that back into my routine. i opened presents and cards and we played with our mental cat frankie, who my mum just adores and we went to RIVERSIDE MARKET and i got bought a lovley herb garden by my mum and we bought some bits and bobs, like some amazing artichokes from ceri's BLAENCAMEL FARM stall (for roasting: very tasty) then went to CHAPTER for sunday lunch.

my mum had bought 3 (3!!!) cakes for my birthday and we took these along to nos da for SCRABBLE SUNDAY. the lovely lisa and paul had made cupcakes spelling out claire vaughan 21! (not being certain of my birthday age, knowing it was a biggie but not sure how big. ha!) it was simply lovely. as it was lisa's joint leaving party (unfortunately for us she is moving north to live with the gogs on a farm) there were all kinds of games there and john was djing. it was a brilliant party. i had more cards, a massive one from casey and ewan brought me badges. we sat and ate cakes and played guess who and blockbusters as well as scrabble and had a bucketload of fun. after saying a sad goodbye to lisa and went home. no TOP 1o0 in GWDIHW and no LOOSE all dayer. by the time my parents had gone there had already been a few bands on and the scrabble party was too good to leave. a happy bedtime.

monday we celebrated EASTER with experimental cooking. steen had the idea to make a giant chocolate bar, from all our choc eggs and sweets from spa: a sort of greatest hits of chocolate bars. the only rule was no nestle. we had a great time. we melted up the chocolate eggs, chopped up milky bars, crunchies, snickers and bountys and put them in the pan to cool decorated with some truffles i'd got from my nan. we then chopped the pan of chocolate into hand bite sized bars and gorged. a great easter treat.

in the evening we went to buffalo for MATT ELLIOT and the much- multi- talented rhodri viney (as RATATOSK) and TREMBLING BELLS at LESSON #1. rhodri had been to see matt elliot years ago and claimed it was one of the best gigs ever in his life so i had high hopes and was not disappointed. rhodri was stunningly lump-in-throat brilliant as ever and TREMBLING BELLS gave a sweet folky feel to the night, with their slightly quaint but beautiful sea shanties and then matt elliot took the stage. he admitted he was very tired after a punishing schedule so might not be at his best but you would not notice. he looped sounds around on his guitar, tumbling into intense love songs until my jaw dropped. i was rapt. high on birthday money i dashed to the merch stand and promptly bought all his albums.

what a brilliant birthday weekend. i'd not done all i'd hoped, not gone dancing in twisted and not seen the loose all dayer but it had been perfect. i did feel older but completely comfortable with being 30. it wasn't scary, i just felt like a grown up with a wonderful man and a brilliant cat. the next morning we set off for my birthday trip but i will save that for another post.

5 Apr 2009

making beautiful music

after climbing the work mountain last week i was exhausted, too exhausted for lovely rose's birthday so just sleeped sleeped sleeeeeped. monday i had a horrible day in work but made up for it by having a great time at the HALFWAY PUB QUIZ. it was benny's last night in town and so we let him win (well, they won fairly but only by half a point). we were on a team with the very lovely patti ladies who usefully knows their sports but didn't know the top 5 vehicle users in the country. drat! we did come second...

tuesday we went to see THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. what a waste of an opportunity that film is. it was 2 and 3/4 hours long, 3 times as long as it takes to read the F SCOTT FITZGERALD short story it is based on. the funny, surreal short story is turned into an achingly dull tale about one man's journey to overcome his "disability". steen and i left saying "wastn't that just like forest gump!" and learnt the next day that it had the same screenwriter. the similarities were uncanny: he starts off "different" (born an old man ageing in reverse) and can't walk due to severe arthritis; has a on-off romance with a childhood sweetheart that gives his life meaning; develops an unlikely friendship with a ship captain turned navy man; he takes off on a long journey by himself... i could go on. rubbish. i've seen gump many many times (and written essays on it as had to study it in an american studies class at uni) and it is more entertaining and funny than this. poor brad pitt probably thought it was an oscar shoe-in and cate blanchett was quite good, it was nice to see julia ormond again but they were in a very boring, uninspired adaptation.

wednesday's film choice was far more entertaining: ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL! it is only 81 minutes long, half BEN BUTTON but many times a better story. robb reiner and his bandmate lips have been in the rock band anvil since they were at school and they are now in their 50s still hoping for the big time. they do boring ordinary day jobs in toronto, canada and once a year try and tour the current version of their band. robb reiner was hailed as an amazing influential drummer by many and guns and roses, metallica and twisted sister all said they were a huge influence on them but they fell by the wayside, wrong time wrong place. it was interesting to take in comparisons with kiss, whom they had lot in common with, who are expertly managed and have enough of a business head that they even marketed kiss coffins a couple of years ago but anvil barely have 5 people coming to watch their shows. as one person said, they should be playing to hundreds every time they get on stage. they were clearly really nice blokes and the power of their self belief has kept them together all this time. it was billed as "the real spinal tap" but it was more heartwarming than that, more hilarious than that. we watched them get lost in prague during a disasterous tour of europe and get rejected by every record company having paid out $12000 to get a decent producer to do their album but then they played japan at a terrible 11.30am slot and have a packed out stadium. it was heartwarming and made me very happy.

thursday i had a terrible choice to make: go with steen to a joy collective gig in newport or go to a LOOSE gig in buffalo. i chose loose. i wanted steen to get to know the boys he works with without me muscling in and the loose night sounded great anyway. i went with anwen and anne cakebread and we had a great pretty night. i reviewed it for the JOY COLLECTIVE and so will cut and paste my review here

a myriad of gigs to choose from tonight: i could be hot footing it to the 'port for le reno amps; clopping down to clwb for dent may; but instead i've chosen an ever-reliable LOOSE gig. of course, the trouble with so many great things to do in one night is that the supply of music lovers is spread thin, buffalo's offensive sign a little too visible for the lack of people. a rave review of midori hirano's new album from the national 'bloided broadsheets is not enough to get this room packed but the night is still young and y'all are missing out cos first up is the excellent canadian band MUARENA HELENA, relocated to london and with a local lass amy on recorder and sax. they play dreamy little lullabies about the afterlife and sausage restaurants and their songs sound like a soundtrack to running through the streets high on adventure. i'm quite stunned that they are on first, they could easily headline, bloody good start.

whilst the ed plays some records a lady in an amazing ramshackle outfit is surrounding herself with a bunch of her familiars in puppet and soft toy form, swiftly joined by a man in a nice hat. this turns out to be GNU AND THE SHREW. after the last band anticipation is high, perhaps too high as the lady's singing voice splits the crowd into lovers and haters. the haters go to the bar and continue to babble and bray whilst we try to stick with it, that's as far as our love goes. the songs are all right, twee little ditties about dead ducks wearing trousers but her affected voice sounds like "absolutely" regular morwenna bands doing an impression of joanna newsom and it does grate. her set is saved by some witty little lines about being conned by big business "the gas board is such a fraud" and the beautiful accompanying voice of gnu himself.

quietly, shyly, MIDORI HIRANO sets up her laptop and keyboard. she is japanese, having relocated to berlin only 5 months ago and unneccessarily apologises for her poor english. what she lacks in stage banter she makes up for in the glacial beauty of the music she plays. on the laptop is a list of effects that she picks at random, plays her keyboard through and loops them around whilst playing the melody in "piano" mode. the effect is like impressively delicate, intricate like a spiderweb or lace. she explains that she has no setlist, but improvises two songs. the first is like the melting of an icicle onto water and the second artfully wraps up this image by looping the sound backwards, the secrets it has revealed being sucked back up into the glacier, quietly lying in wait for its next reveal. wonderful. i think i made the right choice, what a fantastic night and another beautiful loose night.

friday night i'd booked off work to go to the arnolfini to see MOUNTAIN OF 8, a QU JUNCTIONS gig. it had 8 bands playing over 2 spaces in the arts centre, the auditorium and the dark space, which is titchy. the first lady played upstairs and was an almost shamanic ritual, singing over an indian-style drone sound that she played on the violin. i quite liked her, if a little uncharismatic. i felt like falling asleep. downstairs we caught SILVER PYRE, a great little find. they had some great visuals projected behind them and a great drummer who made a great array of percussion sounds with bells danging from drumsticks, he was accompanied by a great accordianist. we bought these beautiful little home made eps from them sealed with wax. next up was a bloke making sounds like the plate teutonics of the earth expelling a machine coming out of his guitar. sorry, again i didn't catch his name. i was quite enjoying it but we both needed a pee break and some sun so we didn't stay long. next up was the reason for our visit: WILDBIRDS AND PEACEDRUMS. having seen them at GREEN MAN last year and listening a lot to the album we bought there the anticipation was palpable. it paid off. they were feral, sexy, stomping. she had a great outfit and i really liked the way the drummer kept on looking up in a worshipful way and grinning at her whilst playing complicated and hypnotic beats. this sort of music is a religious experience. we dashed upstairs again to see a man singing quite delicately over a double bass but again, i didn't catch his name. i'll have to get them from steen and update this later. steen carried the magic paper, i was just happy that there was somewhere else to run to and that they'd put so much on. then POLAR BEAR in the auditorium! owen got me listening to them a couple of years ago and on record they sound much more relaxed than they were on stage but none the worse for that. it was great, the drummer's amazing 12 inch (at least) afro and two saxaphonists carrying a fairly standard cool jazz sound and expanding it through to some fusion. the double bassist had a "miles smiles" era miles davis t-shirt which made me happy and anticipate a bit more of a freak out than they got to but never mind because that was made up for by a modernisation in the form of a little guy with a laptop programming in some beats with a games consol joystick and making great sample noises by playing a guitar with a paintbrush and "playing" a balloon. yes, a balloon. he blew it up, drummed on it, let the air out near the mic... astoundingly inventive: whatever will they think of next?!

i fell asleep on the train and that's pretty much been the story for the rest of the weekend. saturday night instead of going out and doing anything we cooked food and i fell asleep on steen as we watched THE INCONVIENIENT TRUTH. shame, cos i was really enjoying it. i think they made more of AL GORE's lifestory to break up the lecture and lengthen the movie. i missed the last half hour when it told you what you can do to save the planet so fell asleep in despair and subsequently had a dream about the end of the world.

speaking of dreams, i did have a humdinger of a set of dreams this week. it began on monday night. my friend CASEY and i were hanging out one evening in a bar in the northwest and suddenly realised something was up. i tried to get hold of will but the phone lines were down. it was evening and people were running past, people from chapter (including dark mavis, amusingly enough) so we went back to my house. it became apparent that the world was being taken over by zombies. these zombies manifested themselves by singing advertising jingles a you, a bit like the way the aliens in INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS in the 1970s did. we were in the kitchen (of my old house in clive road) and realised my housemate had turned into a zombie because he was singing a pepsi jingle at us so we hid in the cupboard under the stairs and he was about to get in when we realised it had a secret tunnel / slide so we went down there and it led to a series of underground bunkers where a CHAPTER BOARD MEETING was going on. casey and i hid behind some boxes and tried to listen but then i woke up. i remember we weren't really scared, more amused. casey knows how to handle these situations.

my other dream was that i was visiting erin but she was in florida for some reason so i had to travel by myself for a bit, which was quite nice. i stayed somewhere that looked like oregon or north bend, a big hotel / hostel with a communal kitchen. i chatted to the other travellers and then as a touristy thing we went to a court case for something similar to the fritzl crime. i didn't really want to go and started distancing myself from the people that did. i decided to go off by myself and visit the olympic national park, that i'd not manage to get to when i lived there before. the dream became very surreal at this point. in the olympic park were these pink cloud-like things that looked like clouds in the sky but they were ground level. suddenly they would explode and all these colours would puff out and an explosion of colour coming out of the ground like a geyser. there were floating houses around this area and i remember thinking how wonderful it would be to live there. i was on a bus and it got nearer the destination and we were getting to this place that looked like mount fiji but with day-glo coloured trees and erin was waiting for me there and we were going mountain climbing. what a magical dream. it made me miss everyone terribly though. i miss my wife and i don't know when i'm going to have enough money to go visit. i'd want to take will too, show him the mountains! i don't think olympic park looks like my dream but the mountains are so jagged and majestic, it would be wonderful to see them up close. ahhh, dream dream dream.

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