Monday 26 October 2009

Autumnsong

For the last few days I've been listening to the newest version of Tom Milsom's Indigo on repeat.

Today this arrived in my sub box.

Play it loud.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

Uni or Your Memory

(See what I did there? Ahohoho!)

So*! Much to be said!

Well firstly, I am, as you will surely notice, writing this not from a decrepit Dell with a missing 'O' key (the sudden abundance of said letter is clearly a give-a-woy), but from my brand new shiny MacBook Pro, which means I can now Dailybooth, do the occasional video (links will come once I actually get bloody around to it), and generally just enjoy e-life that little bit more.

The biggest thing to happen between my last blog and this one was that I went to go see The Mountain Goats. Followed shortly by the fact that oh god I totally moved to London and started university.

Uni's great, the course is boring at the moment, but promises to pick up and I'm making friends pretty quickly and easily. My academic advisor looks like a cross between Hagrid and Meatloaf, but acts like Dr. Cox, which is pretty legendary (can you tell I love him?), and he seems to like me, which is cool. But really, and I'm not gonna lie, it's all about having my own toilet.

The Mountain Goats on the other hand (or 'Goat' as should be as it was only John Darnielle (I say 'only' - I mean, it's fucking JOHN DARNIELLE! I was in the same room as him and everything!)) were nothing short of perfect. I was originally going to go with my friend Casey, but she unfortunately developed a pretty severe allergic reaction to some guinea pigs (it's true! Ask her!), so I went with the wonderful Jess instead. We've met before at a Patrick Wolf show earlier this
year, but by the nature of such a gig we didn't get to hang much. So it was pretty awesome to be able spend a bit of time chatting before and after the gig this time.

Being that he was touring his new album, I expected John to play a whole load of songs from it, and maybe a couple past singles. Brilliantly, though, he admitted that he doesn't come over to the UK too much, and so played a whole load of old classics, like 'Jenny' and songs from the last few albums, like 'Broom People', 'Up the Wolves', and 'Woke Up New'. He did play some new stuff; 'Matthew 25:21', and 'Deuteronomy 2:10' both got an outing, as did 'Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace' for which I love him even more.

Overall, it was by far one of the best gigs I've been to. Darnielle is an AMAZING performer, whose banter is sometimes so good you don't actually want him to play. And of course a lot of a gig's brilliance is about who you go with, and I was lucky to be with Jess, who was great fun, and didn't seem to judge my giddy excitement at each song announcement too much. So yeah! Awesome night!

And Finally** this coming November will be a busy one for me. As well as growing a moustache, doing graduation ceremonies and working on my 'Writing about Music' assignment (which I'm doing on The Decemberists), I will be doing 'Hometaping' - the NaNoWriMo of music. Basically I have 30 days to write and record an album at least 20 minutes long and upload it to share with the world. It's a nice slant on the novel writing idea that's gaining popularity each year, and I'd love it if y'all joined me! Let me know!

Also I've really been getting into the work of the HP Alliance and everything they've been doing to reduce WorldSuck and make the world a nicer place. One such thing is Wrock4Equality which had tonnes of Harry Potter fans calling people up and urging them to overturn Prop 1, the Prop 8-like legislation that threatens to overturn the equality laws passed in Maine this year. So check it out, even if you're not into Harry Potter. Love is something we can all spread, regardless of whether our inspiration be Dumbledore, Jesus, or fucking Bono.

Speak soon!

xox
gb


*I start so many of these with 'So', it's almost becoming a tradition. I'll stop now, I promise.
Also: Earliest footnote ever? Ithinkso!

**I call this 'And Finally' because, in my head, it's always full of funny 'round-up' stories, though it's generally anything but. I'll try and get a water-skiing squirrel story for you next month if you're good, though.