Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Revue a go go...

Mark Ronson does it live, oh he so does....what a terrific night last Friday at The Hammersmith Carling Apollo when Mark Ronson visited on the London leg of his mini tour.
The whole evening consisted of nearly 4 hours of live music. 1st support slot went to 'Dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip' who were amazing...I always describe him as an electronic and more vitriolic 'Streets'...his set featured his singles 'thou shalt always kill' 'The beat that my heart skipped' and 'Letter to God'..he was charismatic and deserved a larger audience although the keen ones(including me and lisa) who did manage to get in first were treated to a very cool set from someone who could quite possibly be a name for 2008.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped.

2nd Support slot went to the utterly fabulous 'Rumble Strips' who very much reminded me of the 'Farmers Boys' for the 00'ies. The rumbles have a very cute lead singer called Charlie who is very charismatic and holds the band together extremely well...the set consisted of material from the recently released Debut album. The horn section were terrific and the guys kept the atmosphere on top as they entertained us for about 40 minutes.

Alarm Clock

Mark Ronson then took to the stage at around 9.20 and presented his revue for the next hour and three quarters. Mark is a great producer and an adequate guitarist but his arrangements of songs are what he does best and all of his guest starts such as Daniel Merriweather, Candy Paine and Tim Burgess (from the Charlatans)laid testament to that fact on Friday night, it really took the format of Guest comes out, guest does the track or two off the album 'Version' and then guest does a song off their own album or single...it really worked...it harkened back to the days of the Motown revue etc... where a house band would play with the featured vocalists taking it in turn. This was not only something I had not seen in a long time, but it was also something that I think worked extremely well especially when hosted by the very good looking Mr personality who was Mark Ronson.
I have one gripe...the sound was quite muddled which was a shame...the vocalist were too 'in the mix' with the music which made it very hard to hear clear lyrics or the onstage repartee that went on between guests and Ronson. I thought that this might be one point that we would not have to worry about with Mark being a producer but no..the sound was dodgy...the stage was a spectacle though so what the hell!

Charlie and Mark doing 'Back to Black'

Sweet baby Jesus...it was a good night :)

ciao xx

Fucking Matt Damon - Jimmy's Revenge!



Just count the stars! and don't miss the bits towards the end!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Slipstream - A Film by Sir Anthony Hopkins

I'm breathless having just watched this amazing piece of existentialist cinema written and directed by our very own Sir Anthony.

It's obvious that the style of the film will gain comparisons with David Lynch, dreams, mystery, films within a film and like Lynch the editing, sound and cinematic process has been cared for and nurtured very carefully.

To be honest, I was really surprised with how well this film works although I did feel at one point that there were slightly too many characters to make the piece totally convincing.

If you like Lynch I really urge you to watch this film...the criminal thing is that no distributors have taken the film up for showing in this country...now I really understand why directors and actors have very little faith in the British Cinema system.

The good news is you can buy from 'Play.com USA' for 14.99 from the 26th Feb.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The blog about the night out...

Howdy! dudes and dudesses...

Saturday night was a fun evening to go out...I was treating my life partner to a dinner for Valentines so we went out to one of the local Chinese restaurants 'The China Palace', earlier in the day I had phoned up to book a table and the lovely Chinese man told me that I would not need to book but just turn up. So we did. We got to the door...'have you booked' ...no...'you need to book at the weekend'...i phoned this morning and was told i did not need to book...then lots of running, scowls, chinese shouting and a quick walk to the table which was moved away from another table next to it, thus leaving the man on the other table to nearly fall off his chair as he was using our table as an elbow leaning post.
Having settled down we aimed straight for the crispy duck section..it had just been refilled and i managed to get there just before a big queue formed (or was it me that caused the queue?) I piled my little pancakes up, cucumber, spring onions and hoi sin sauce with a pile of fresh crispy duck and headed back...Mike followed.
Next plateful was a cornucopia of tasting bits with some dim sum, prawn toasts, noodles, king prawn, seaweed (which iwas told was deep fried cabbage but i'm not sure) and satay chicken sticks...it was lovely, there was so much more to try but I can't eat that much these days...Mike was tempted with a piece of gateau and bought me back a grape (how loving)...where we were sat was just by the pudding section and at one point it looked a bit depleted...now most of us would sit down and just keep an eye out for replenishments, but not these three heffers that decided to stand right next to us waiting for top ups of caramel balls and yum yums whilst their steely pots of ice cream melted in their waiting hands...they had huge arses and you could see why!...it's a nice restaurant although a little busy, next time I might go during the week.


some j-pop for you


We then decided to top the evening off at the local gay pub 'The Barley Mow'...it was still fairly early when we got there so we sat down and looked around...in one corner were sat a few aged gentlemen, one of whom turned out to be celebrating his eightieth birthday...80 years a queen (that was more than Victoria wasn't it?). His name was Ray, I found that out by walking into a banner saying 'Happy 80th birthday Ray', it had balloons and sparkles..it was most tasteful. I must say though that they did look like the Big Gay Mafia, all in their dark suits with scarves hanging around their off the shoulder jackets. In another corner were the three stooges, three young guys who trailed around like baby ducks looking for a mother duck..they were most amusing, especially when two of them went outside without telling the third...it was like watching a meerkat on heat, his little face was a look of panic until his mates came back in.
The drunken Lesbians were in the music room...they did not give Lesbains a very good name, and were the equivalant of a mans rugby team in a pub...mind you, Lesbians these days look a lot more feminine than they used to, I remember the short haired, dungareed lesbians from my youth..but these are no more..they are still as loud though!
As time drifted by we people watched...we saw the rent boys walking through the pub one way and then the other, looking for an easy target to get an evenings supply of drinks before giving them a quick blowie on the way home to justify their spend out. We saw a very hunky guy (who I knew from somewhere but i couldn't remember...I exclaimed to Mike during the evening that I remembered 'I shagged him...' but then told him it was a lie...he didn't like that ;) ) That poor guy looked like he had been stood up though, he kept looking at his watch and seemed rather dejected and I did feel sorry for him, I've been there...I know how that feels!
The music got louder and the drinks flowed...after a while we decided to go home and left The Barley Mow to revel in it's debauchery for the rest of the night...

That was a great night...

ciao xx

cute animals now...blog later

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentines day Mascaras

happy valentines day you orrible little scrote bags...hope you had a lovely one and i hope the cherub of love pricked his arrow into some of your big fat lurve asses out there. For those of you not getting laid tonight I present a selection of light reading...refreshments can be provided from your own reserve but i reccommend a nice icy crisp sauvignon blanc to go along with todays approved readings...

First of all I have to point you in the direction of here...
http://deathboy.livejournal.com/1082404.html


This is the most random protest against scientology that i have ever seen...it was peaceful, fun and good humoured...just what protests should be like...I think the scientologists holed up in both locations were pretty embarrassed by the end of the day! An excellent bit of blog use which I would be so proud of if it was mine.

Hmmm...so Aretha Franklin got all arsey because Beyonce introduced Tina Turner at the grammys with the title 'Queen of Soul'...well Aretha Franklin better get herself off her very fat agrophobic arse and prove to the world that she still is the 'queen of soul' and not just sit there fucking moaning about it!



Oh good god I am deffo hooked on the latest series of 'Torchwood'...for those of you who did not see the second episode of the double bill last night you are in for a traumatic event next week that transcends any other traumatic event in the history of 'Torchwood' ..be prepared. This series is so well written compared to the last and each week brings a new level of emotion to the stories...I may have progressed to a whole roll of toilet paper by the end of the series.
Another series that I am now getting back into is 'Lost'..I am still half way through Series 3 of the programme but catching up rapidly...I can't believe that Claire is Jacks half sister...who the fuck saw that coming!...hang on...didn't he have boinky boinky thoughts towards her in the first few episodes...something to do with a pregnancy fetish bought on by too much womens bits surgeries? Yay Lost!

A great start to the new series of 'Skins', the whole cast has come together really well but I do feel sorry for Tony which I'm not comfortable about...in television characters with a disability of any kind are shown as helpless cases...why should this be...it was a nice touch with Maxie helping him to write his signature. We'll see how it goes but It may turn out that it would have been kinder to kill him off...thats if the writers don't get it right!



ciao xxx

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

We Crawl...

A great new single from our friends at Polyphonic Spree land...bless 'em

Trout Meat Frenzy!

Is it wrong to be stood with a straight male work colleague and look a guy up and down, make a loud "phwoar" noise and say to your colleague that you think the guy has a lovely arse?...not that I have, it's just that two were eyeing up a couple of ladeez today and I was actually quite offended at what was said..I suppose things don't work both ways in straight world after all.

Aw, I remember the days a couple of years back when I used to answer peoples comments and questions...now I have a fair amount of people reading the blog I get nothing, not one comment or question...c'mon...pleeeeze...i enjoy hearing what you all think about what I write and say...well, when I say 'all' I mean 'all apart from my sister', she can fuck right off!

The Grammys - what a really good show it was...I thought Amy was absolutely stunning and my how healthy she looked, she was positively radiant...if only someone could teach her how to speak properly!...we love her really and her 5 grammys showed up most Americans that were there!...the yanks love dragging them out don't they, Bruce Springstenn, John Fogerty, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard...even Tina Turner had a go and managed very well without her Tena senior falling out and splashing to the sparkly catwalk stage. Kanye West was damn sexy, Alicia Keys was hot...


Kanye with Daft Punk


Amy - doin' it large!

Ooh only a week away till Lisa and me go off to Londinium to see Mark Ronson and friends in concert...I wonder if a certain miss Winehouse will pay us a visit?

I'm a bit busy tonight but will be back on Thursday..would you like to hear more of the story 'September Days'...or something else....let me know!

Ciao xx

Saturday, February 09, 2008

"fucking matt damon"

an absolute classic from Sara Silverman on the Jimmy Kimmell show...watch the whole clip :)

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Blog spurt!

hello folks....after a few technological challenges I am back with you once more...so, my pretties...take a shiny cushion, sit on a comfy sofa and let your mind take in all the verbal garbage that is about to appear in front of you ;)

Interviews...why are they so fucking scary!...today I had an internal interview at work for a new position that they were setting up, so i filled in my application form and waited about a week to be told that I had an interview the week after (today). I went all prepared this morning to be grilled, first of all I had to complete a test (financial and literal) which took 30 minutes, then I had to go and be interviewed by three people that I know relatively well, one of whom would be my new line manager, for another 30 minutes...I got i8n the room and settled down with my glass of water, that was it...I had palpitations, I perspired, I rambled like a twat, I spoke 9 to the dozen and in the middle of it all I just stopped and said 'excuse me for a second but i need to calm down'...i breathed slowly, took a swig of water which seemed to last 2 minutes in slow motion but in relaity was only about 3 seconds, I placed my hands on my lap, smiled and said 'okay, we can go again now'...after that i was okay, tha panic had gone, I started to laugh with them and the rest of the interview went like a breeze. The only negative thing really was that they didn't write much down (which isn't really a good sign in competancy bades interviews) but hey, I did it...now I have to wait till Friday to see what happened...

Blameless Bosses....why is it that when bosses think that they're teams have a negative attitude, the bosses are never to blame...hmmm



'Cancer' by 'My Chemical Romance'


Well it's time for another bit of Piddy writing...here I am attempting a sort of Mills and Boon/ Danielle Steele effort....it's going to be a sad ride...



September Days (part 1)


It was a Sunday afternoon in late August when Jaqui found out that she was dying...the illness didn't matter, it was the matter of fact way that the words tumbled out the private doctor's full and pouting lips that took her by suprise. Yes, she knew she was ill, yes she knew that it was a long term illness but NO! she did not know that it was an illness that would cut her life short. She stared at the doctor for what seemed to be a whole season and then just looked away, pools of water collecting slowly on the linoleum floor of the upmarket ocean-side surgery. The doctor called after her but she stared into the distance and just walked and walked and walked, further and further along the shore. She passed Seagulls pecking at a rotting rodent corpse, she saw crabs splashing around in rock pools, she smelt the salt in the sea and shook her head as the ocean breeze tousled her hair into tight tiny knots. It was then that she cried, she howled an ungodly sound that came deep from within her tortured body, she wracked every muscle as she uncontrollably wept for things that should have been but never would be...hopes that would never become reality, dreams that would never manifest...as far as she was concerned it was over.
It was a good two hours before she hit the road home...Jaqui had inherited a 2 bedroomed weather board house in the ocean town of 'Trois Chats', literally translated as Three Cats, so she walked slowly and methodically back, wondering how many more times she would be able to do this. She retreated into the warmth of the house, curled up by the television on the huge family sofa and slept soundly through the hours of the nightfall.

The telephone woke her from a deep sleep. Disorientated she picked up the handset and said a weak and horse 'hello'...it was a guy called Sammy on the line, he introduced himself and informed Jaqui that he had been phoned by the Doctor and as instructed he had phoned her to have a chat...she didn't know what he wanted but she did know that she needed coffee..she made her excuses and told Sammy that she would phone the Doctor to confirm what he had been telling her, she took Sammy's number and said that she would ring him back later that day...the coffee percolator bubbled and boiled on the stove and the whole room filled with an aromatic bliss.

(to be continued)



ciao xx