after the madness of the beer festival it was lovely to just relax and know that there was nothing too draining to do for a while. the film on the sunday was THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, the new film from terry gilliam notable for it being the film heath ledger was working on when he died. it has had mixed reviews and as with most of gilliam's films it was a heroic mess but one i truly enjoyed. it mixes in elements of old gilliam films, the ramshackle oversized baroque paper cut outs from MONTY PYTHON and the ordinary everyday "real life" contemporary scenes that marked out TIME BANDITS. we meet a group of street performers setting up shop at a city centre at night, complete with violent vomiting club goers. one of them makes a grab for pretty valentina and ends up behind the mirror in the imaginarium (a tired looking theatre dragged along in a horse drawn gypsy caravan). here he finds himself in a world of his own making where he even looks different and given a choice: a hard climb up a step to redemption or a night in a nightclub with its easy entertainments. he picks the wrong one and the devil gets him. the film centres on the mysterious, boozed up dr parnassus (christopher plummer) who runs the theatre and his band of down and outs, conjurer anton (andrew garfield), aggressive assistant percy (vern troyer) and his daughter valentina (lily cole). they are involved in a race against time to win a wager with the devil (played by tom waits who easily steals the show) when they rescue heath ledger's character tony. it is a convoluted tale that you feel he could have told a bit more economically and been a lot more straight forward with, but then this is the man whose desperate attempt to end THE HOLY GRAIL was by breaking into reality and having the set shut down by some bumbling coppers, it would be churlish to expect something straight forward. the first time we meet heath ledger he is hanging from a noose under a bridge crossing the thames. there is something truly disturbing and shockingly confrontational about this but they are quite ingenious in coming up with ways to make the film with an incomplete performance by ledger. as the imaginarium works on the enteree's own mind their appearance can change once they are inside. when heath ledger's character steps inside he finds himself first as johnny depp, then jude law and finally as colin farrell. since he becomes more obviously seedy and evil as more is revealed about his character it seems fitting that the actors who he becomes get um, less attractive and seedy. i'm not sure how colin farrell would feel about this. i really quite enjoyed this although it frustratingly left unanswered questions about the characters, about the imaginarium and dr parnassus. there are some wonderful flourishes and it could only have been made with someone as truly imaginative and brave as dr parnassus, sorry, terry gilliam.
on monday steen and jarrett were djing joy collective stylee for the lovely people of LOOSE. it was one of those gigs where you want to curse the laziness of people who don't bother coming out on a monday night. there was only a scattering of people but it was good fun. first up were MWSOG who were pleasantly unexpected. bilingual songs that seemed to exist in their own world of theatrical sparks-lite pop seemed well suited to this strange little world in clwb with only us in. steen and jarrett did some djing, one of which was a comedy metal single that blasted out and i hated but apart from that it was good fun. i sat with liz and we awaited THE BALKY MULE who turned out to be my new favourite discovery. he did charming sweet but not sentimental little love songs that reminded me of a more subtle, scruffier version of sweet baboo. the headliners seemed to take an age to come on but once they did it was warm and nice and bluesy, very american and a bit forgettable. i enjoyed it ok at the time but the support acts were a bit more memorable, it was a BALKY MULE song i sang on the way home.
on tuesday i was asked to usher last minute so steen accompanied me to see GOODBYE SOLO. it was a wonderful film about two ordinary people who get to know each other under extraordinary circumstances. solo is a senegalese immigrant who has come to make a life in the US, striving for the american dream with his dream of being an air steward but at the moment is getting by being a taxi driver. as with many film taxi drivers, begins to take an interest in one of his clients: william is his fare. william is a man old and tired and longing for death. he hires solo to drive him up to a beautiful spot in the mountains where he intends to commit suicide. solo spends the movie trying to pull him out of it with sheer cheerfulness and good will. if this was a hollywood movie they would have a big sentimental talk about the value of friendship and william would move in with solo and become surrogate grandpa to his kids. but thankfully this is a indie movie by an iranian director and whilst it still delivers hope and a belief in the idea of life it does not offer such easy solutions. this was a good film about a hard subject, completely believable and moving.
on wednesday i was ushering for a strange film, part documentary and part fiction I WANT TO SEE was an uncomfortable mix. playing herself, catherine deneuve pays a visit to beirut for a film festival and requests a tour of the city to see the effects of the long, drawn out depressing war between israel and hezbollah. her host is actor bint jbail, a lebanese actor who takes her through town past destroyed buildings, to the town he grew up in that has been entirely destroyed and to the border road that the israeli army give permission for them to walk down but the cannot film. the script, such as it was, was apparently entirely improvised by the actors. deneuve is a fish out of water, an expensive carp amongst a school of sardines. she looks a bit strange, a plastic surgery smile and a look which you are never sure whether is sadness or disgust. it is odd to make a film based on the emotions portrayed by the protagonist when the protangonist can barely move her eyes. the situation is very sad and this film does not have any answers but nor does it seem to pose any questions, she simply "wants to see" to be a witness to this scene and due to the rigidity of her face and the height of her privaleged status you are not sure of her motivation. is this some sort of cruel tourism? there seems to be a moment that passes between the two of them at the end but i am not sure whether this was a conceit on the part of the director because i felt them not to have been linked at all.
i had some great nosworthy coleslaw and a chat with the lovely rhian and then played with the cat until it was time to see the new show from CAI TOMOS: CALON. it was a moving tale of one man's life but it felt like the lives of all of us. when we enter he is suspended by red rope, reliant on his heartstrings, and as the piece moves on he moves in a gentle, graceful way. he is marking time. small events that had significance to him are turned into markers, the kiss he shared watching a movie as a teenager, the time he crashed his mum's car... these little moments are aired, reenacted in symbolic, pared down movements and made into reasons to be. it was a wonderful show that was truly joyous.
on bonfire night we eschewed the outdoor fireworks and headed down for food in the new italian that used to be dirty sues that used to be europa and found it to be very lush the headed to the POP QUIZ at y fwch goch. we teamed up with rich and rhian and did ok, coming joint second with half of cardiff! it was hard this month and it had a picture round that i excelled in (always good with faces, me) and i was very excited to get alice cooper as a young thing clutching a puppy. they had indoor fireworks to celebrate and mr ben potter lit them for everyone to gasp in amazement: it was like a big lump of snakey poo being lit with a green flame. awful. we then headed off to the CARDIFF ARTS INSTITUTE opening party. i was really happy when i heard this was being redeveloped. i went to the bar's previous incarnation INCOGNITO once and found it a dreary, souless place in that boring beige-and-burnt orange interiors way. this they had livened up with lego on the walls, girls excitedly playing ping pong in a hidden room at the top of the stairs and a black cab at the back showing the wacky races on a loop. as with any opening parties that are invite only there was a lot of wankers and we'd missed the live music as we'd been at the quiz so it felt a bit pointless being there. a shame but to be expected. keeping in mind the groucho marx line about never wanting to belong to a club that would have me as a member we spied a familar face in the shape of ed truckell and clung to it like driftwood in the ocean. as soon as we got there a lady told us to get off the bit of red carpet we were stood on. i steeled my face and uttered through gritted teeth "shall we leave, steen?!" before casey and ewan jumped on us with chants about "WILL FUCKING STEEN" and the world seems ok again. there were plenty of lovely people hiding outside. we had a good time for a while and i shrunk my eyes and tried to imagine this full of people there to see a gig rather than here to pilfer some free booze (not us, by the way) and see whom had come in with whom.
on friday it was a DRONES COMEDY CLUB special improv performace. in attendance were: the lovely ben partridge, laura and clint, dans mitchell and thomas and jenn champion, who i hadn't seen perform before. they were great. they came up with some truly brilliant moments like the check out girl played by dan thomas, the fisting of the alien's nan sketch and some great kung fu fighting from mitchell and champion. they were all really good but unfortunately the audience wasn't. an improv show is pretty dependent on how much the audience shout out but they were quite a sedate bunch. i laughed all the way through and had a brilliant time. i stopped by the bar on the way out and saw casey and caroline and had a chat about true blood (casey's a fan too) and then home to bed where i slept like a baby.
Showing posts with label fuwch goch pop quiz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fuwch goch pop quiz. Show all posts
7 Nov 2009
31 Aug 2009
autumn days and cosy nights
sunday was a cinema marathon at CHAPTER. first up i was ushering the "listening event" JEFF WAYNE'S WAR OF THE WORLDS. this is an experiment for us, we had the enhanced cd playing on 5 channels so it was surround sound in the gorgeous cinema 2 with all the lights out apart from the starry night house pinprick lights. i introduced it and we sat in the twilight listening to the dramatic score. i'd forgotten how much i enjoyed it. rob the projectionist who i was working with is an old punk and thinks its a load of codswallop but he was great and really helpful as always and answered any techie questions people had. the audience seemed to love it and a lot of them filled out feedback forms with ideas they had for albums or audiobooks if we were to do it again. i really hope so because it had a really enthusiastic and positive response. the lovely spencer and kirsten were there, grinning away, a couple of fathers and sons (doing a rights-of-passage thing) and i had a good chat with noel afterwards who echoed what a few people of said about how it put them back to feeling like teenagers again. in these modern times of downloading a track from itunes and listening to bits and bobs few people seemed to sit there and listen to a record. noel said it was like making a date with yourself to sit there and concentrate on the music and really enjoy it and that it had been a valuable experience.
after that i had a short break and then in for the surreal RUMBA. this film was more like a silent comedy, a jacques tati film than a romantic comedy. a gangly, odd looking couple spend their very happy lives teaching english and p.e. respectively, in a school in france whilst attending latin dance competitions. on the way back from a win at one of these they have a car crash and it sends them into a spiral of losing things: legs, memories, jobs and eventually each other before a new life is found. this is all played marvellously for slapstick laughs by fiona gordon and dominique abel. it was a strange little film that i think wrongfooted a few people who had come wanting to see a more traditional romantic comedy but i really enjoyed it, i thought it was joyous with its riotious primary colours. everyone in the film seemed to be having a wonderful time.
next up was SIN NOMBRE. a few of the cinema department have been wearing the brilliant t-shirts around for a few months with the big gothic gangster tattoo lettering and i was intriuged about what the movie would actually be like, whether it was all gangster hype and violence. i was pleased to discover that it was a lot more meaningful and thought provoking than that. the fuller story that involves people from south america travelling up the continent to try and make it to the US. its part tragic love story, part road movie (with beautiful and terrifying scenes atop a freight train travelling up from honduras to texas) and part gangster thriller. the two main leads were both fleeing from their home towns for different reasons but you felt that wherever they went it was not going to escape where they had come from. sayra looked out at honduras and her uncle told her how there was "nothing for you here" but what better life would there be in new jersey? casper fled his barrio but was told that the gang he had rebelled against had chapters in the US so it was likely he would never get out. the poverty trap, indeed: it felt that there was no real escape for the poor of the world and especially with the current financial climate it made you feel like there was nothing worth escaping to.
the rest of the week has been relatively quiet, no gigs to go to and i'd seen most of the films in that one day i'd wanted to see! it was quite lucky for i am very broke till payday next week so taking temptation away is always good. monday we had our veg box from the lovely tom frost at BLAENCAMEL FARM so it gave us the chance to do some good meals. the best of these was the stir fry i did with kale, spinach, shredded carrot, soya, pumpkin seeds and pine nuts, one of CHRIS FOWLER's chillis and peppers and some lovely noodles from HUNGRY PLANET. tasty!
i took tuesday off work because will had an extra day and i wanted to spend some time with him. we went to ST FAGANS to see the POP PETH exhibition. it was a lovely day for st fagans, actually quite sunny and warm and not too many children running around. after being lazy in the morning we didn't leave till quite late but i assumed will had been a million times like me, unfortunately he hadn't been for years so we didn't have time to go around everything like we should've done really. i showed him my favourite house (with the bed in the cupboard) and we bought some old fashioned sweets from the sweetie shop and got around just about everywhere apart from the future house because it was closed for an education day (is it still called the future house? its been open for years now). most importantly we had a good old root around the pop peth exhibition. we watched a video interview with the lovely nick and ashli todd from spillers talking about what the shop means to them and afterwards there was some videos of welsh bands from the 80s and 90s. the exhibition was great, there was a section where some fanzine writers had recreated their university bedroom complete with posters and flyers and a big SPILLERS section with badges and photos of the gang. it was great!
it was a week for watching movies on the sofa wrapped in a duvet. we watched THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY on tuesday night. i'd seen it in the cinema and hated it (having been a big fan of the tv series when i was a kid) but seeing sam rockwell in MOON and zooey deschanel in various romantic comedies recently made me want to re-watch it. it wasn't as bad as i'd remembered but then again a little confusing and disappointing. i'd read the book and seen the tv series and listened to the original radio version when it was re-broadcast on radio 4 a couple of years ago you could say i was well versed in what it was all about and had expectations of what the characters should look like, what scenes should be included. i was bound to be disappointed so tried to just enjoy it. it was lovely to look at but i found it a little confusing. some of the performances were great, i especially enjoyed mos def as ford prefect and bill nighy as slartibartfast. the effects were great in that home made, organic way (brilliant jim henson and that ace scene where the improbability drive turns them into knitting) but it just didn't hang together well enough for me. we watched the "making of" afterwards and i think i enjoyed that more. i felt guilty because everyone involved was so passionate and happy making it but for me it just didn't work and i found the hollywood romanticising of it with the love story almost offensive. it made me wish that they'd just had the guts to do a big new tv version where they could play around a little more leisurely and still have tonnes of fun.
on wednesday we were meant to be going to my friend rosie's birthday do but i started to feel really ill. to perk me up we made cupcakes watched the mike leigh film NAKED. when i was a teenager this was one of my favourite films but i haven't been able to bring myself to see it for years. its been one of those films that i pick up the video for, remember that its hard going and put it down again for something else. steen really wanted to see it though and rented it from the library so after ignoring it for a week i agreed. it was as difficult and depressing as i remembered, it felt like i'd been pummelled with a rock afterwards but it is a fascinating study of class in post-thatcher britain. johnny, a highly intelligent but troubled young man flees manchester in the first scene after having raped a girl in the street, he heads for london to hook up with an ex girlfriend and gets involved in her life and wonders around trying to find meaning in the streets of london talking to people who no-one else would think of talking to. by the end of the movie we feel slightly more sympathetically for johnny, knowing that he is capable of so much but spends his life bitterly contemplating humanity and waiting for the end of the world. he seems to find and spread misery wherever he goes and leigh paints a very bleak picture of life in the early 90s. i found out a few years ago that apparently this was his first film after splitting up with his wife alison steadman and he was very depressed at the time of making it. i think it is fitting that i enjoyed it as an angry teen.
thursday night was POP QUIZ time! it came around very quickly and i must admit that i was not really in the mood to go. after spending most of the week confined to the house with autumn chills forcing me into my big jumpers i was feeling very cosy. steen convinced us to go though and we were hoping the patti ladies would accompany us as team members. in the end anwen went on noel's team (he had asked last month, fair enough) and the patti ladies couldn't make it so we ended up on a team on our own. it was actually amazing fun. we got a bit drunk and tottered on our bar stools and did impressions of tina turner to each other. we didn't hope to come anywhere near the top like we did last month but we surprised ourselves by coming 3rd! it wasn't bad going seeing as we beat most people in teams of 5 or 6 so it was as good as winning for us. we had a lovely time talking to leah, iain, rylett and grace then went to dempseys for afters with noel, ed and anwen. what a great night!
friday i booked the night off work so we could go to see MARGARET ATWOOD do a reading at llandaff cathedral. we found out about it through the hay festival web post and were intrigued not only as she was coming to cardiff but that they said it was due to have choristers. wow, how odd! this week we heard her being interviewed by mark lawson on the radio 4 review show and it all became clear. her new novel THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD is set in a world already sketched out in the apocalyptic ORYX AND CRAKE, where alternative characters in the years preceding this have devised a religion, "god's gardeners" are vegetarian and hope to cultivate the land to get it back to eden. in the novel are some of the hymns she has devised for her fake religion. i've heard atwood speak before and her voice dripped with its usual sarcasm as she talked about what she thought about these characters and their religion. i was excited to see what all this would add up to when we went to llandaff cathedral. we had a really nice walk up through llandaff fields and it was pretty full by the time we got there. it was a very strange experience, being in llandaff cathedral. i felt like i had this in-built reverence that i think was there in part due to the overwhelming middle class middle aged audience. i don't know why i felt so censored, i've been to hay lots of times and nowt posher than hay festival but here in a church i felt stifled and immature. a tongue in cheek sensibility was brought back to proceedings by margaret atwood and her performers (including the amazing actress diana quick) as they walked single file up the aisle carrying hippie-looking placards with pictures of bees and flowers. she gave a quick explanation that her book tour was unusual due to her trying to keep the carbon footprint down and all proceeds were going to local charities (in this case the RSPB). despite the seemingly mocking attitude to religion you could tell that atwood had respect for the situation we were finding ourselves in with the destruction of the planet and her understanding for the hope that religion, any religion brings. the readings themselves, some performed or rather introduced by atwood were moving and punctuated by hymns that had been arranged by a musician friend of hers. we took out the pamphlet given to us on arrival and it felt like a sunday service. the woman next to me even sang along with gusto along to the reprise at the end. the excerpts felt like the novel was a mix of both oryx and crake with the character toby looking out of the bubble she has protected herself within and occasionally THE HANDMAIDS TALE where the character wren described the life inside the sex workers' section of the city. it was intriuging and certainly made me want to rush out and buy the novel. unfortunately, funds being what they are i couldn't afford it. it would have been nice to have a copy signed by margaret atwood but it is not hugely important to me. instead we made a donation to the charity and got a canvas bag, i was excited enough about the bag but will certainly buy it in future, as i have all her other novels. leaving llandaff cathedral i felt very privaleged that i had managed to attend the event, one that will stay with me for years to come. margaret atwood is my favourite living author, every time i read a new book by her its like having a luxurious hearty meal and its wonderful that i have had two chances to see her speak now, i feel very lucky indeed.
after that i had a short break and then in for the surreal RUMBA. this film was more like a silent comedy, a jacques tati film than a romantic comedy. a gangly, odd looking couple spend their very happy lives teaching english and p.e. respectively, in a school in france whilst attending latin dance competitions. on the way back from a win at one of these they have a car crash and it sends them into a spiral of losing things: legs, memories, jobs and eventually each other before a new life is found. this is all played marvellously for slapstick laughs by fiona gordon and dominique abel. it was a strange little film that i think wrongfooted a few people who had come wanting to see a more traditional romantic comedy but i really enjoyed it, i thought it was joyous with its riotious primary colours. everyone in the film seemed to be having a wonderful time.
next up was SIN NOMBRE. a few of the cinema department have been wearing the brilliant t-shirts around for a few months with the big gothic gangster tattoo lettering and i was intriuged about what the movie would actually be like, whether it was all gangster hype and violence. i was pleased to discover that it was a lot more meaningful and thought provoking than that. the fuller story that involves people from south america travelling up the continent to try and make it to the US. its part tragic love story, part road movie (with beautiful and terrifying scenes atop a freight train travelling up from honduras to texas) and part gangster thriller. the two main leads were both fleeing from their home towns for different reasons but you felt that wherever they went it was not going to escape where they had come from. sayra looked out at honduras and her uncle told her how there was "nothing for you here" but what better life would there be in new jersey? casper fled his barrio but was told that the gang he had rebelled against had chapters in the US so it was likely he would never get out. the poverty trap, indeed: it felt that there was no real escape for the poor of the world and especially with the current financial climate it made you feel like there was nothing worth escaping to.
the rest of the week has been relatively quiet, no gigs to go to and i'd seen most of the films in that one day i'd wanted to see! it was quite lucky for i am very broke till payday next week so taking temptation away is always good. monday we had our veg box from the lovely tom frost at BLAENCAMEL FARM so it gave us the chance to do some good meals. the best of these was the stir fry i did with kale, spinach, shredded carrot, soya, pumpkin seeds and pine nuts, one of CHRIS FOWLER's chillis and peppers and some lovely noodles from HUNGRY PLANET. tasty!
i took tuesday off work because will had an extra day and i wanted to spend some time with him. we went to ST FAGANS to see the POP PETH exhibition. it was a lovely day for st fagans, actually quite sunny and warm and not too many children running around. after being lazy in the morning we didn't leave till quite late but i assumed will had been a million times like me, unfortunately he hadn't been for years so we didn't have time to go around everything like we should've done really. i showed him my favourite house (with the bed in the cupboard) and we bought some old fashioned sweets from the sweetie shop and got around just about everywhere apart from the future house because it was closed for an education day (is it still called the future house? its been open for years now). most importantly we had a good old root around the pop peth exhibition. we watched a video interview with the lovely nick and ashli todd from spillers talking about what the shop means to them and afterwards there was some videos of welsh bands from the 80s and 90s. the exhibition was great, there was a section where some fanzine writers had recreated their university bedroom complete with posters and flyers and a big SPILLERS section with badges and photos of the gang. it was great!
it was a week for watching movies on the sofa wrapped in a duvet. we watched THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY on tuesday night. i'd seen it in the cinema and hated it (having been a big fan of the tv series when i was a kid) but seeing sam rockwell in MOON and zooey deschanel in various romantic comedies recently made me want to re-watch it. it wasn't as bad as i'd remembered but then again a little confusing and disappointing. i'd read the book and seen the tv series and listened to the original radio version when it was re-broadcast on radio 4 a couple of years ago you could say i was well versed in what it was all about and had expectations of what the characters should look like, what scenes should be included. i was bound to be disappointed so tried to just enjoy it. it was lovely to look at but i found it a little confusing. some of the performances were great, i especially enjoyed mos def as ford prefect and bill nighy as slartibartfast. the effects were great in that home made, organic way (brilliant jim henson and that ace scene where the improbability drive turns them into knitting) but it just didn't hang together well enough for me. we watched the "making of" afterwards and i think i enjoyed that more. i felt guilty because everyone involved was so passionate and happy making it but for me it just didn't work and i found the hollywood romanticising of it with the love story almost offensive. it made me wish that they'd just had the guts to do a big new tv version where they could play around a little more leisurely and still have tonnes of fun.
on wednesday we were meant to be going to my friend rosie's birthday do but i started to feel really ill. to perk me up we made cupcakes watched the mike leigh film NAKED. when i was a teenager this was one of my favourite films but i haven't been able to bring myself to see it for years. its been one of those films that i pick up the video for, remember that its hard going and put it down again for something else. steen really wanted to see it though and rented it from the library so after ignoring it for a week i agreed. it was as difficult and depressing as i remembered, it felt like i'd been pummelled with a rock afterwards but it is a fascinating study of class in post-thatcher britain. johnny, a highly intelligent but troubled young man flees manchester in the first scene after having raped a girl in the street, he heads for london to hook up with an ex girlfriend and gets involved in her life and wonders around trying to find meaning in the streets of london talking to people who no-one else would think of talking to. by the end of the movie we feel slightly more sympathetically for johnny, knowing that he is capable of so much but spends his life bitterly contemplating humanity and waiting for the end of the world. he seems to find and spread misery wherever he goes and leigh paints a very bleak picture of life in the early 90s. i found out a few years ago that apparently this was his first film after splitting up with his wife alison steadman and he was very depressed at the time of making it. i think it is fitting that i enjoyed it as an angry teen.
thursday night was POP QUIZ time! it came around very quickly and i must admit that i was not really in the mood to go. after spending most of the week confined to the house with autumn chills forcing me into my big jumpers i was feeling very cosy. steen convinced us to go though and we were hoping the patti ladies would accompany us as team members. in the end anwen went on noel's team (he had asked last month, fair enough) and the patti ladies couldn't make it so we ended up on a team on our own. it was actually amazing fun. we got a bit drunk and tottered on our bar stools and did impressions of tina turner to each other. we didn't hope to come anywhere near the top like we did last month but we surprised ourselves by coming 3rd! it wasn't bad going seeing as we beat most people in teams of 5 or 6 so it was as good as winning for us. we had a lovely time talking to leah, iain, rylett and grace then went to dempseys for afters with noel, ed and anwen. what a great night!
friday i booked the night off work so we could go to see MARGARET ATWOOD do a reading at llandaff cathedral. we found out about it through the hay festival web post and were intrigued not only as she was coming to cardiff but that they said it was due to have choristers. wow, how odd! this week we heard her being interviewed by mark lawson on the radio 4 review show and it all became clear. her new novel THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD is set in a world already sketched out in the apocalyptic ORYX AND CRAKE, where alternative characters in the years preceding this have devised a religion, "god's gardeners" are vegetarian and hope to cultivate the land to get it back to eden. in the novel are some of the hymns she has devised for her fake religion. i've heard atwood speak before and her voice dripped with its usual sarcasm as she talked about what she thought about these characters and their religion. i was excited to see what all this would add up to when we went to llandaff cathedral. we had a really nice walk up through llandaff fields and it was pretty full by the time we got there. it was a very strange experience, being in llandaff cathedral. i felt like i had this in-built reverence that i think was there in part due to the overwhelming middle class middle aged audience. i don't know why i felt so censored, i've been to hay lots of times and nowt posher than hay festival but here in a church i felt stifled and immature. a tongue in cheek sensibility was brought back to proceedings by margaret atwood and her performers (including the amazing actress diana quick) as they walked single file up the aisle carrying hippie-looking placards with pictures of bees and flowers. she gave a quick explanation that her book tour was unusual due to her trying to keep the carbon footprint down and all proceeds were going to local charities (in this case the RSPB). despite the seemingly mocking attitude to religion you could tell that atwood had respect for the situation we were finding ourselves in with the destruction of the planet and her understanding for the hope that religion, any religion brings. the readings themselves, some performed or rather introduced by atwood were moving and punctuated by hymns that had been arranged by a musician friend of hers. we took out the pamphlet given to us on arrival and it felt like a sunday service. the woman next to me even sang along with gusto along to the reprise at the end. the excerpts felt like the novel was a mix of both oryx and crake with the character toby looking out of the bubble she has protected herself within and occasionally THE HANDMAIDS TALE where the character wren described the life inside the sex workers' section of the city. it was intriuging and certainly made me want to rush out and buy the novel. unfortunately, funds being what they are i couldn't afford it. it would have been nice to have a copy signed by margaret atwood but it is not hugely important to me. instead we made a donation to the charity and got a canvas bag, i was excited enough about the bag but will certainly buy it in future, as i have all her other novels. leaving llandaff cathedral i felt very privaleged that i had managed to attend the event, one that will stay with me for years to come. margaret atwood is my favourite living author, every time i read a new book by her its like having a luxurious hearty meal and its wonderful that i have had two chances to see her speak now, i feel very lucky indeed.
6 Aug 2009
everything else
after ANTICHRIST i spent the whole day thinking about it and wrote a blog dedicated to that powerful, beautiful film. however, immediately after antichrist i was plunged into an entirely different kind of reality. i was in mexico for a silly football comedy called RUDO Y CURSI. it was another group project from director carlos cuaron reuniting him with diego luna and gael garcia banal. it was wonderful fun. they effortlessly played two poor brothers who fought but loved each other (like better looking gallaghers) and got a chance to get out of the slums by playing football and once there were given their nicknames rudo and cursi (meaning soft, sentimental). it was all about chasing dreams that will never come to fruition, rudo (diego luna) is a compulsive gambler and whenever he has anything for 5 minutes has pawned it or lost it in gambling debts; cursi (gael garcia banal) plays the accordian and wants to be a big singing star, but has no talent to back it up. one of the funniest moments comes when cursi pays for a music video, a spanish cover of cheap trick's "i want you to want me" complete with silly dancing, outrageously camp cowboy outfit and his trusty accordian. very engaging and watchable, i'd recommend it to everyone.
wednesday i was ushering for BURMA VJ, a documentary about the video journalists who risk their lives every day to bring pictures from the closed society in burma. it was narrated by one who had to escape to thailand and centred on the protests led by monks last year. it was very interesting and seeing the lengths these people were going to be free made me just go into sobs. it was inspiring and heartbreaking, with the foreknowledge that aung san suu kyi is on trial again at the moment.
in the evening we had a bloody lovely catch up with the canton youth (rich and rhian). shamefully we hadn't been around to their new house after countless invites so we went over there with a bottle of wine (which the four of us finished pretty sharpish) and saw their bloody gorgeous and amazing new house in the heart of leafy upper canton. i highly doubt steen or i will ever have enough money in our pockets to buy a house like this so its nice that the nosworthys have already allocated a spare room for me (with a secret room attached!) in the attic that includes a life sized luke skywalker. ace!
thursday was the day of triumph. having come third in FWCH GOCH POP QUIZ two months in a row we were determined to maybe come third again or maybe lower. as far as i was concerned we were lucky to come third twice. but in fact we won. came first. beat the whole of cardiff at pop! this was not an easy victory. we (me, steen, deans, anwen and anwen's lovely friend jenny) were tied in first place with a dream team (rylett, nay, grace, leo, iain and leah) and had to shout out the tie breaker: the year ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars album came out. we all screamed "73!" at once so mr dc gates instead asked us to write down the answer to the highest chart position instead and hand it in. the tension built, steen was biting his nails more than usual. we won! woop! very very excited and a little drunk we got a round of drinks (making us more drunk and missing mel's birthday party in gwdihw) and a whole bag of gifts. out of these i got a spillers mug and some pens (score! my biro had run out that morning) and steen got some cds. since we'd already purchased mum tickets, anwen and deans had this and jenny had the remainder of the cds. we all went home elated.
the next day i was excited and a little nervous: the steens were visiting, all of them. excited as i hadn't yet met the littlest steen, ciaran and nervous cos i hadn't seen them for ages and had the usual "what if they hate me" nerves. i'm sure they don't and as much as i was trying to reassure myself that i was being very silly i still tidied up the house like a whirlwind so they didn't make will move out of the pigsty he'd ended up in. it was a lovely visit. we went for an ice cream in the park and i played with little un (don't babies have serious faces? my friend's little boy sonny is the same, the boys especially look like little old men!) and gave laura her birthday gifts and went up to rob's house (that weirdly enough after knowing him about 2 years had not been to). it was great. they didn't come to the house but i felt better for my tidying. all good.
saturday i finished at 5.30pm so i could go to timmy and macca's french themed leaving party. i iced cakes with french themes and steen cooked a lovely tea in preparation for a night's drinking. and we fell asleep. dead away. we missed the party and now, almost a week later i still have 12 (well, not 12, i've snacked on a couple, i think more like 8 now) iced buns that were meant to be eaten by my friends. oops!
wednesday i was ushering for BURMA VJ, a documentary about the video journalists who risk their lives every day to bring pictures from the closed society in burma. it was narrated by one who had to escape to thailand and centred on the protests led by monks last year. it was very interesting and seeing the lengths these people were going to be free made me just go into sobs. it was inspiring and heartbreaking, with the foreknowledge that aung san suu kyi is on trial again at the moment.
in the evening we had a bloody lovely catch up with the canton youth (rich and rhian). shamefully we hadn't been around to their new house after countless invites so we went over there with a bottle of wine (which the four of us finished pretty sharpish) and saw their bloody gorgeous and amazing new house in the heart of leafy upper canton. i highly doubt steen or i will ever have enough money in our pockets to buy a house like this so its nice that the nosworthys have already allocated a spare room for me (with a secret room attached!) in the attic that includes a life sized luke skywalker. ace!
thursday was the day of triumph. having come third in FWCH GOCH POP QUIZ two months in a row we were determined to maybe come third again or maybe lower. as far as i was concerned we were lucky to come third twice. but in fact we won. came first. beat the whole of cardiff at pop! this was not an easy victory. we (me, steen, deans, anwen and anwen's lovely friend jenny) were tied in first place with a dream team (rylett, nay, grace, leo, iain and leah) and had to shout out the tie breaker: the year ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars album came out. we all screamed "73!" at once so mr dc gates instead asked us to write down the answer to the highest chart position instead and hand it in. the tension built, steen was biting his nails more than usual. we won! woop! very very excited and a little drunk we got a round of drinks (making us more drunk and missing mel's birthday party in gwdihw) and a whole bag of gifts. out of these i got a spillers mug and some pens (score! my biro had run out that morning) and steen got some cds. since we'd already purchased mum tickets, anwen and deans had this and jenny had the remainder of the cds. we all went home elated.
the next day i was excited and a little nervous: the steens were visiting, all of them. excited as i hadn't yet met the littlest steen, ciaran and nervous cos i hadn't seen them for ages and had the usual "what if they hate me" nerves. i'm sure they don't and as much as i was trying to reassure myself that i was being very silly i still tidied up the house like a whirlwind so they didn't make will move out of the pigsty he'd ended up in. it was a lovely visit. we went for an ice cream in the park and i played with little un (don't babies have serious faces? my friend's little boy sonny is the same, the boys especially look like little old men!) and gave laura her birthday gifts and went up to rob's house (that weirdly enough after knowing him about 2 years had not been to). it was great. they didn't come to the house but i felt better for my tidying. all good.
saturday i finished at 5.30pm so i could go to timmy and macca's french themed leaving party. i iced cakes with french themes and steen cooked a lovely tea in preparation for a night's drinking. and we fell asleep. dead away. we missed the party and now, almost a week later i still have 12 (well, not 12, i've snacked on a couple, i think more like 8 now) iced buns that were meant to be eaten by my friends. oops!
10 Jul 2009
moving in, moving up
the week started well, with another adventure to bristol. it was a dark and stormy night, the weather had broken at last and it broke with aplomb. after all this hot weather it felt almost pleasant to be in a thunder storm by the sea, it feels very appropriate looking out of the portholes in a boat on a night like this. we were in the THEKLA to see ST VINCENT on the promotional tour for her new album, "actor". the thekla is a wonderful venue for intimate gigs and it was with a bubble of excitement that we went downstairs to discover a wall of warm noise from THIS IS MY NORMAL STATE. going down the harsh metal steps of the boat was like descending into a different realm, the echoing vocals pulling you into a subterranean world. the female japanese singer on stage sang trance-like, channelling the stylings of sigur ros accompanied by a cellist and grungey guitar loops. it was a magical moment and when they finished and the lights came up i felt like i had been woken up from a blurry dream. for the first band on to have this effect is rare and precious and made me curiously excited for what was to come. a couple of cans of strongbow was to come next, folllowed by the beautiful psyche folk of BLUE ROSES. she seemed nervous as she took the stage but the nerves slipped away when she began playing, first on the piano and then acoustic guitar. these were hypnotic, meaningful songs with dreamy melodies sometimes harmonised with her violinist but often alone, speaking to a spurned lover with sorrow and hope. a little wait for ST VINCENT and we're getting anxious. bristol is a great place, with a great number of venues and ace promoters but a shit train timetable. its pushing 10pm and we're going to have to leave at 10.40pm to get the last train. people get on stage and get off stage, she is testing the mics from off stage so a disembodied annie clark voice trills over the dj. and we wait. this is not her fault but it does mean that we miss the end of her set as she doesn't come on till 10.15pm. arse. but what we do see is an amazing musician playing around with vocoders and effects pedals without detracting from the powerful melodies that have you humming her songs down the street for weeks. live she comes off as far warmer than the porcelain, chastising voice that dominates her album "marry me". i was expecting someone far more poised and cold but found her friendly and coltish on stage. she engaged with the audience to the extent that she turned her routine into a impromptu stand up routine when technical difficulties struck. standouts from the set were the powerful "now, now" the sarcastic "marry me" and the mesmerizing "the strangers". turning to run for the train with pained expressions on our faces we will definitely be catching ST VINCENT and indeed everyone on the bill, next time they come to town.
tuesday was PANEL 9 FROM OUTER SPACE day! the boys from the DRONES comedy club in CHAPTER (whom i never get to see cos i'm always downstairs in the other bar) have a panel game and it is a lot of fun. clint, dan and laura bryon are the regulars and joined by guest comics, this month being spencer mcgarry, huw evans and some bloke also called dan (who i thought was rubbish but turned out to be dan glyn who is very famous for doing a very good kids programme on s4c - maybe he's a better writer than performer...). as with most comedy its pointless telling you how good it was without telling you the jokes, which always sound awful when written down and repeated. rest assured, it was a good time and i laughed a lot. huw tended to whitter on about peados, spencer was a comedy natural (he's like this in real life, i can vouch for his comedy chops) and clint was sardonic as always. my friend anwen even got to win a book that from the front cover looked like bill bailey in a hitchhikers' guide scenario.
wednesday i ushered for FRENCH FILM, a sub-richard curtis "comedy" that wasted wonderful acting talents with its poor script. the story is of an urbane posh london journalist is doing a piece on a director of romantic french films and it makes him think about the romance in his own life. everyone in this film (whether they are employed or not) seems to have very swish apartments in the heart of london with gardens and well designed furniture. they partner swap and the urbane journalist talks a lot. remind you of someone? this whole plot could have been lifted from a woody allen but the silly "oh arn't we everso english, it'll turn out in the end" script was pure richard curtis and also reminded me of THIS YEARS LOVE and that spate of sub-FOUR WEDDINGS films that came out in the 90s. it was pretty dire. the cast were very good: hugh bonneville, anne marie duff, douglas henshall, victoria hamilton in the lead roles and it seemed to me to be such a shame that we're still making films like this. some moments in the film i could just see the script written in front of me, which is obviously a very bad sign. the saving grace was eric cantona playing the film director that the journalist is obsessed with, he seemed to be the only one having fun.
thursday was will's day off work that week so we did a blitz on the house. will moved in at the start of the month but the first week we were busy with casey's video and this was the first day we'd had to really put stuff away properly. when he temporarily lived with me last year we kept stuff here so there was just cds and a few books to put up and clothes. ah yes, the clothes. i already have too many clothes and two wardrobes (comes of filling up two wardrobes in my previous house) so we had to do some moving around of furniture to make room for more storage. we mostly just put amalgomated our badge collection and put these badges on a curtain. lazy! but it was an enjoyable job and got us talking about other things we were going to change around. very exciting! in the early evening we made a tasty italian style pasta meal with lots of red wine. then continued to drink the bottle and another. then went to the FUWCH GOCH POP QUIZ and drank another bottle each. wankered. i haven't been so drunk since, um, the last pop quiz. we came third AGAIN! and went to DEMPSEYS for afters but still had loads of fun apart from the guilt at realising that i'd given a couple of wrong answers (in the picture round mistook miles davis' bitches brew for miles smiles and said it was the doors' la woman instead of strange days. ooooh the shame). i felt awful but happy the next day. the next two days in fact. ooof. i had some great soup in CHAPTER on the friday for lunch which perked me up, a very creamy tomato. you know when you taste something and it seems like the best thing you've ever tasted? well, that was my experience and rounded the week off nicely.
tuesday was PANEL 9 FROM OUTER SPACE day! the boys from the DRONES comedy club in CHAPTER (whom i never get to see cos i'm always downstairs in the other bar) have a panel game and it is a lot of fun. clint, dan and laura bryon are the regulars and joined by guest comics, this month being spencer mcgarry, huw evans and some bloke also called dan (who i thought was rubbish but turned out to be dan glyn who is very famous for doing a very good kids programme on s4c - maybe he's a better writer than performer...). as with most comedy its pointless telling you how good it was without telling you the jokes, which always sound awful when written down and repeated. rest assured, it was a good time and i laughed a lot. huw tended to whitter on about peados, spencer was a comedy natural (he's like this in real life, i can vouch for his comedy chops) and clint was sardonic as always. my friend anwen even got to win a book that from the front cover looked like bill bailey in a hitchhikers' guide scenario.
wednesday i ushered for FRENCH FILM, a sub-richard curtis "comedy" that wasted wonderful acting talents with its poor script. the story is of an urbane posh london journalist is doing a piece on a director of romantic french films and it makes him think about the romance in his own life. everyone in this film (whether they are employed or not) seems to have very swish apartments in the heart of london with gardens and well designed furniture. they partner swap and the urbane journalist talks a lot. remind you of someone? this whole plot could have been lifted from a woody allen but the silly "oh arn't we everso english, it'll turn out in the end" script was pure richard curtis and also reminded me of THIS YEARS LOVE and that spate of sub-FOUR WEDDINGS films that came out in the 90s. it was pretty dire. the cast were very good: hugh bonneville, anne marie duff, douglas henshall, victoria hamilton in the lead roles and it seemed to me to be such a shame that we're still making films like this. some moments in the film i could just see the script written in front of me, which is obviously a very bad sign. the saving grace was eric cantona playing the film director that the journalist is obsessed with, he seemed to be the only one having fun.
thursday was will's day off work that week so we did a blitz on the house. will moved in at the start of the month but the first week we were busy with casey's video and this was the first day we'd had to really put stuff away properly. when he temporarily lived with me last year we kept stuff here so there was just cds and a few books to put up and clothes. ah yes, the clothes. i already have too many clothes and two wardrobes (comes of filling up two wardrobes in my previous house) so we had to do some moving around of furniture to make room for more storage. we mostly just put amalgomated our badge collection and put these badges on a curtain. lazy! but it was an enjoyable job and got us talking about other things we were going to change around. very exciting! in the early evening we made a tasty italian style pasta meal with lots of red wine. then continued to drink the bottle and another. then went to the FUWCH GOCH POP QUIZ and drank another bottle each. wankered. i haven't been so drunk since, um, the last pop quiz. we came third AGAIN! and went to DEMPSEYS for afters but still had loads of fun apart from the guilt at realising that i'd given a couple of wrong answers (in the picture round mistook miles davis' bitches brew for miles smiles and said it was the doors' la woman instead of strange days. ooooh the shame). i felt awful but happy the next day. the next two days in fact. ooof. i had some great soup in CHAPTER on the friday for lunch which perked me up, a very creamy tomato. you know when you taste something and it seems like the best thing you've ever tasted? well, that was my experience and rounded the week off nicely.
4 Jun 2009
dead can dance
sorry, posting this a bit late, its from the first week in june!
this week the weather has dominated the topics of conversation. it is a hot one. today is a bit cooler, the wind cycling to work was quite icy but the beginning of the week was marked by the heat and lack of air and all those things about summer i hate. i'm not really a summer person. i like temperate climates, not those that make you want to pass out after lunch. a welcome break from the weather was watching werner herzog's new film ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD. herzog is an odd man seeking out other oddities and praise be! for that. he was in antartica for 7 weeks to interview people who lived and worked there, to find out what they did and why they chose to live in such an inhospitable climate. i found it facinating and beautiful. there were amusing moments when an engineer stopped talking logically about the ins and outs of living in the continent and started talking about how everyone there was an amateur philsopher and how he was probably related to mayan royalty. to decide purposefully to pack up your old life and move to a place where human beings shouldn't be takes a bit of a leap into the unknown and i felt privaleged that herzog decided to do a study of this. moments from the film stay with me, the scenery and heartbreaking times like the penguin who decides to follow a path to certain death towards the mountains rather than going back to the nest or the feeding ground, we humans watch him, unable to stop him on his suicidal quest.
on tuesday we dashed to buffalo to see the LOOSE gig with the patti ladies, jon and raybould. we had a lovely chat with liz and john rostron first about swn. i am getting excited in that way that makes me make involuntary squeaking noises. this year will be ace! we went to get a drink and discovered that two small bottles of water costs £5.20 in buffalo. never have i been more grateful for tap water. what a cheek! first on was a bunch of posh lads singing pleasant enough songs and looking like they'd stepped off a set of brideshead revisited. next up was MEINZ HEINZ. the first time i saw them was supporting john mouse in dempseys a good couple of years ago. they have the air of a gang that you're not cool enough to join but i know that huw evans is a lovely lad and the playfulness between him and his girlfriend cate le bon and steve baboo is great to watch. the songs were messier and squelchier than i've heard before and they didn't seem quite as pissed as when i've seen them previously. bloody good fun. the band on as support was JESUS H. FOXX, a rather silly name for a band much sweeter and less fashionable than that. they were very arcade fire, all banging percussion and swinging sweet harmonies. i really enjoyed their set and made use of the money i'd taken out of the cashpoint to buy an ep, they needed it, apparently they've lost £300 on this tour already. but for the headliner. i must admit i was getting gig fatigue by this point and had to bow out and sit at the back for the last half of the gig. CRYPTACIZE were a band with proper songs. apparently she used to be in DEERHOOF but i'm afraid i've not digested deerhoof yet, missed the boat there clearly cos she was great. her voice reminded me at times of nina persson from THE CARDIGANS who i love, all pure and sweet. it was a great gig but a strange atmosphere. meinz heinz attract a weird crowd that you see about in cardiff often at these sorts of fashionable places where people will come and watch their mates' band and fuck off. in a way i wish they'd just not turned up in the first place cos they tend to talk loudly in the back if they are there and just disappoint the headline band when they come out to play to half a room. why would you go to a gig and not want to see everything? i find the whole thing really idiotic. i'm really glad i'm not cool if cool means you have to irritate the promoter by blagging a guestlist place and then talk through sets and leave. morons.
anyway, enough of the anger. wednesday is one of my favourite days of the week, my old people movie day. this week i thought they'd love it, IS ANYBODY THERE? the new film with michael caine set in an old people's home. but they didn't. a bit too close to home maybe? it dealt with senility and undignified old age and some of them were quite angry as they left. i loved it though, i'm not afraid or ashamed of old age! it had a fantastic cast with peter vaughan, elizabeth spriggs, thelma barlow, leslie phillips, rosemary harris, sylvia sims playing the old people (how amazing is that line up?!), david morrisey and anne marie duff playing the people running the home and the brilliant bill millner (from SON OF RAMBOW) playing edward, their son obsessed with death and ghosts. edward befriends micheal caine's character clarence, a grumpy retired magician and he helps him on his search for an answer to "what 'appens" after death. everyone was wonderful and it was made me cry and laugh a few times. at the end i discovered that elizabeth spriggs from SIMON AND THE WITCH and ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT and countless other things from when i was young, had died during post-production and this made me cry all the more.
that evening, after playing with the cat in the garden and crying MORE over my book group book EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE (i swear i'm not premenstrual, there were just a lot of sad things i chose to take into my heart that day) i tried to wrest myself of all the sadness by going to see HOLLY GOLIGHTLY in buffalo. there was a lot of confusion over this gig and strange circumstances bringing her here. it was originally scheduled to be in treorchy, there is a man there called john who is trying to bring music to the valleys other than boozy guitar bands, a valiant effort but he booked holly only to find that no fucker bought a ticket so had to see if anyone else wanted to put her on so she wouldn't lose out. last minute this was transferred to buffalo but circumstances being what they are there was a miscommunication about the price (advertised in listings as £10, actually a more digestible £5) and no flyers about till the night before. so this was pretty much a facebook 1 day only advertising campaign. in all about 20-odd people came, i was worried that she would be playing to me and my friends and hate it but the atmosphere was actually genuinely lovely in sort of british "getting on with the show" way. first up were OK, who were ok. don't have a name that leaves you open to predictable reviews, boys. they shyly announced that they had recently lost half the band so would be playing an acoustic set but i think this is probably the direction to go in, they harmonised and sung nice songs, it reminded me of SCOUTING FOR GIRLS or something that if i heard on the radio a few hundred times a day i would probably hate and want burnt but they did a lily allen cover and a version of "you've got a friend in me" and plodded along nicely enough. holly golightly's official support on this tour is swedish alt country lad ANDI ALMQVIST. his was a set of two halves. the first half kind of irritated me, he seemed insincere. this swedish guy singing songs in an american accent about devil women was odd, it left me with the image of a chinese elvis impersonator, i was longing him to play what he knew. the second half he played songs that sounded a bit more real with longing and heartbreak and i warmed to him more. he was playing a room of about 10 people maximum and seemed a bit more humble and grateful by the end. when HOLLY GOLIGHTLY came on stage you knew that this was the real deal. she had an excellent slide guitarist with her lawyer dave (the broke offs) and their acidic stage banter was a joy. rather than throw a starry diva fit at the lack of an audience she made us her friends, telling us stories about their cat that her mum ran over with the car and trips on the brecon steam railway with two people in the audience. the sound transported us somewhere else, a shack somewhere in the appalacians maybe. some of the songs were so old no-one knew who they were by "so let's just say i wrote it" joked sidekick dave, some were modern ditties on domestic violence "you better run you better hide... that .45". the feeling was authentic bluegrass and a lady you don't wanna mess with. a great gig.
thursday night was the pop quiz in Y FWCH GOCH. this is the first time i realised that the place is owned by clwb ifor bach. its a good idea of them to have somewhere that is more of a pub rather than just a darkened venue, it had the same easy going vibe as clwb but brighter and expensive looking tables. apparently the food is quite good but all i had that night was cider and crisps (very good crisps) so i couldn't really comment. i didn't know what to expect from the pop quiz, i tend to start pub quizzes very laid back but by the end turn into a horrid competitive shrew and especially something so close to my heart as a music quiz i was worried i would start banging my head in frustration. the questions were pleasingly difficult and made my brain hurt and kept that "its at the tip of my tongue" quality of a good quiz. lots of people were there, intimidatingly enough most of them were involved with music promotion and djs. i am sure these people have watched at least the same amount of top of the pops as me. but we did ok. in fact, out of a team called "you shouldn't bake cakes for dogs" made of me, steen, smallsteen and anwen we came 3rd, beating noel and rostron and all kinds of people, which was a total shock (i actually thought we'd been disqualified for some reason after our names weren't called for a long while). a good result. made me salivate for the next quiz.
but on! to a family holiday with steen. hmmm, this should be interesting...
this week the weather has dominated the topics of conversation. it is a hot one. today is a bit cooler, the wind cycling to work was quite icy but the beginning of the week was marked by the heat and lack of air and all those things about summer i hate. i'm not really a summer person. i like temperate climates, not those that make you want to pass out after lunch. a welcome break from the weather was watching werner herzog's new film ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD. herzog is an odd man seeking out other oddities and praise be! for that. he was in antartica for 7 weeks to interview people who lived and worked there, to find out what they did and why they chose to live in such an inhospitable climate. i found it facinating and beautiful. there were amusing moments when an engineer stopped talking logically about the ins and outs of living in the continent and started talking about how everyone there was an amateur philsopher and how he was probably related to mayan royalty. to decide purposefully to pack up your old life and move to a place where human beings shouldn't be takes a bit of a leap into the unknown and i felt privaleged that herzog decided to do a study of this. moments from the film stay with me, the scenery and heartbreaking times like the penguin who decides to follow a path to certain death towards the mountains rather than going back to the nest or the feeding ground, we humans watch him, unable to stop him on his suicidal quest.
on tuesday we dashed to buffalo to see the LOOSE gig with the patti ladies, jon and raybould. we had a lovely chat with liz and john rostron first about swn. i am getting excited in that way that makes me make involuntary squeaking noises. this year will be ace! we went to get a drink and discovered that two small bottles of water costs £5.20 in buffalo. never have i been more grateful for tap water. what a cheek! first on was a bunch of posh lads singing pleasant enough songs and looking like they'd stepped off a set of brideshead revisited. next up was MEINZ HEINZ. the first time i saw them was supporting john mouse in dempseys a good couple of years ago. they have the air of a gang that you're not cool enough to join but i know that huw evans is a lovely lad and the playfulness between him and his girlfriend cate le bon and steve baboo is great to watch. the songs were messier and squelchier than i've heard before and they didn't seem quite as pissed as when i've seen them previously. bloody good fun. the band on as support was JESUS H. FOXX, a rather silly name for a band much sweeter and less fashionable than that. they were very arcade fire, all banging percussion and swinging sweet harmonies. i really enjoyed their set and made use of the money i'd taken out of the cashpoint to buy an ep, they needed it, apparently they've lost £300 on this tour already. but for the headliner. i must admit i was getting gig fatigue by this point and had to bow out and sit at the back for the last half of the gig. CRYPTACIZE were a band with proper songs. apparently she used to be in DEERHOOF but i'm afraid i've not digested deerhoof yet, missed the boat there clearly cos she was great. her voice reminded me at times of nina persson from THE CARDIGANS who i love, all pure and sweet. it was a great gig but a strange atmosphere. meinz heinz attract a weird crowd that you see about in cardiff often at these sorts of fashionable places where people will come and watch their mates' band and fuck off. in a way i wish they'd just not turned up in the first place cos they tend to talk loudly in the back if they are there and just disappoint the headline band when they come out to play to half a room. why would you go to a gig and not want to see everything? i find the whole thing really idiotic. i'm really glad i'm not cool if cool means you have to irritate the promoter by blagging a guestlist place and then talk through sets and leave. morons.
anyway, enough of the anger. wednesday is one of my favourite days of the week, my old people movie day. this week i thought they'd love it, IS ANYBODY THERE? the new film with michael caine set in an old people's home. but they didn't. a bit too close to home maybe? it dealt with senility and undignified old age and some of them were quite angry as they left. i loved it though, i'm not afraid or ashamed of old age! it had a fantastic cast with peter vaughan, elizabeth spriggs, thelma barlow, leslie phillips, rosemary harris, sylvia sims playing the old people (how amazing is that line up?!), david morrisey and anne marie duff playing the people running the home and the brilliant bill millner (from SON OF RAMBOW) playing edward, their son obsessed with death and ghosts. edward befriends micheal caine's character clarence, a grumpy retired magician and he helps him on his search for an answer to "what 'appens" after death. everyone was wonderful and it was made me cry and laugh a few times. at the end i discovered that elizabeth spriggs from SIMON AND THE WITCH and ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT and countless other things from when i was young, had died during post-production and this made me cry all the more.
that evening, after playing with the cat in the garden and crying MORE over my book group book EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE (i swear i'm not premenstrual, there were just a lot of sad things i chose to take into my heart that day) i tried to wrest myself of all the sadness by going to see HOLLY GOLIGHTLY in buffalo. there was a lot of confusion over this gig and strange circumstances bringing her here. it was originally scheduled to be in treorchy, there is a man there called john who is trying to bring music to the valleys other than boozy guitar bands, a valiant effort but he booked holly only to find that no fucker bought a ticket so had to see if anyone else wanted to put her on so she wouldn't lose out. last minute this was transferred to buffalo but circumstances being what they are there was a miscommunication about the price (advertised in listings as £10, actually a more digestible £5) and no flyers about till the night before. so this was pretty much a facebook 1 day only advertising campaign. in all about 20-odd people came, i was worried that she would be playing to me and my friends and hate it but the atmosphere was actually genuinely lovely in sort of british "getting on with the show" way. first up were OK, who were ok. don't have a name that leaves you open to predictable reviews, boys. they shyly announced that they had recently lost half the band so would be playing an acoustic set but i think this is probably the direction to go in, they harmonised and sung nice songs, it reminded me of SCOUTING FOR GIRLS or something that if i heard on the radio a few hundred times a day i would probably hate and want burnt but they did a lily allen cover and a version of "you've got a friend in me" and plodded along nicely enough. holly golightly's official support on this tour is swedish alt country lad ANDI ALMQVIST. his was a set of two halves. the first half kind of irritated me, he seemed insincere. this swedish guy singing songs in an american accent about devil women was odd, it left me with the image of a chinese elvis impersonator, i was longing him to play what he knew. the second half he played songs that sounded a bit more real with longing and heartbreak and i warmed to him more. he was playing a room of about 10 people maximum and seemed a bit more humble and grateful by the end. when HOLLY GOLIGHTLY came on stage you knew that this was the real deal. she had an excellent slide guitarist with her lawyer dave (the broke offs) and their acidic stage banter was a joy. rather than throw a starry diva fit at the lack of an audience she made us her friends, telling us stories about their cat that her mum ran over with the car and trips on the brecon steam railway with two people in the audience. the sound transported us somewhere else, a shack somewhere in the appalacians maybe. some of the songs were so old no-one knew who they were by "so let's just say i wrote it" joked sidekick dave, some were modern ditties on domestic violence "you better run you better hide... that .45". the feeling was authentic bluegrass and a lady you don't wanna mess with. a great gig.
thursday night was the pop quiz in Y FWCH GOCH. this is the first time i realised that the place is owned by clwb ifor bach. its a good idea of them to have somewhere that is more of a pub rather than just a darkened venue, it had the same easy going vibe as clwb but brighter and expensive looking tables. apparently the food is quite good but all i had that night was cider and crisps (very good crisps) so i couldn't really comment. i didn't know what to expect from the pop quiz, i tend to start pub quizzes very laid back but by the end turn into a horrid competitive shrew and especially something so close to my heart as a music quiz i was worried i would start banging my head in frustration. the questions were pleasingly difficult and made my brain hurt and kept that "its at the tip of my tongue" quality of a good quiz. lots of people were there, intimidatingly enough most of them were involved with music promotion and djs. i am sure these people have watched at least the same amount of top of the pops as me. but we did ok. in fact, out of a team called "you shouldn't bake cakes for dogs" made of me, steen, smallsteen and anwen we came 3rd, beating noel and rostron and all kinds of people, which was a total shock (i actually thought we'd been disqualified for some reason after our names weren't called for a long while). a good result. made me salivate for the next quiz.
but on! to a family holiday with steen. hmmm, this should be interesting...
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