|
Sunday, August 31 Anyway it looks like the 'freelance landscaping' career isn't going to take off as the person who was meant to hook me up with the gig is no longer going out with my friend. Ha. Yes it was one of those flimsy arrangements based entirely on the success of the relationship. Someone else is suggesting bar work at the Camden Barfly, which would give me enough indie cred points to last me for the next two decades but I'm not sure if I have the relevant experience. Oh well, I did make an enquiry to find out a little more about the nature of the work so hopefully it's something that'll keep me interested. The other (quick fix) option at the moment is to follow what thousands of Then again I could keep myself busy by writing for the next TSTGU full-length; and Mika Bomb could do with some new material in the setlist as well. Ah yes... there's always the possibility of striking gold with a top ten hit. Then I'll be set...
Friday, August 29 Speaking of which I've begun to delete a substantial chunk of my 'friends' as they're keeping things rather boring by not inviting anyone, nor have they made the minimum effort of uploading a pic (any pic!) and sharing a little about themselves. Really defeats the purpose of generating this massive web of 5th degree seperations and I'm rather tired of seeing myself listed as their only friend. Besides, some haven't even attempted to log on in well over a week. Ok so maybe not everyone has as easy and frequent access as I do... heh. I've also decided to be a real nazi about my list as it is apparent that things can get a little out of hand once you get over 70 or so friends. So apart from the original policy of not adding anyone I haven't met in real life, I've also had to introduce a new one restricting myself to approving only people whom I would really bother to have a so-called 'real life' relationship with. I joined mainly to keep in touch with my friends from back home anyway. Whilst on the subject of being a jerk, some of you may have noticed that a few guestbook entries have been deleted. Yes it was intentional, the idea being that I didn't wish to see it become an online community of its own. If I did I'd have implemented a far more flexible medium such as BlogBack or TagBoard. Also, I hold a conservative and narrow view of guestbooks as being what the name implies, so no attempt on my part will be made to reply to any questions or remarks that get posted there. Email suits that purpose much better. Of course that's not to say that I won't reply to people who do sign it, provided they also leave a valid email address. Thank you.
Thursday, August 28 Without giving too much away, the film offers a harrowic glimpse into the life of Lilya, a Russian teenage girl abandonned by her mother and horribly neglected by her aunt. With no money to buy any food apart from some cigarettes and packets of potatoe chips, she resorts to selling herself to rich businessmen in a seedy downtown disco. After being dealt numerous tragedies and bitter disappointments, with dark ambient euro-techno playing every now and again to great effect, salvation arrives in the form of a handsome young man Andrei, whose kindness and affection to Lilya seems just too good to be true. The two spend a great deal of happy moments together until one day when Andrei suggests that she should move back to Sweden with him, promising a good job and a big apartment together. Finally, an escape from her desolate existence. The day she departs he gives her a new passport, including a new identity, but comes up with the excuse that he has family affairs to attend, and therefore it'd be best if she heads on over by herself. By now most viewers would've correctly guessed that something was up, that he's probably nothing more than a pimp. As one reviewer wrote: "Full of trust and anticipation she boards the plane, unaware that whilst she dreams of angels, she is destined to lie with devils... ". We walked out of the cinema ready to pump bullets into our heads. Life sucks. Men are scum. Don't mean to make it sound like a horribly negative and bleak film but it does really force you to face the ugly reality of life that is out there, to react strongly to the Lilya in the story, whose bitter experience and loss of optimism is just one of thousands upon thousands of similar young lives. We didn't really discuss it at great length. It really is one of those films where you just walk out in silence, where you can spend plenty of time afterwards in private reflection. I'm glad I got to share the experience with Ben though, instead of say a first date. It must've been an all-time high record to have seen him two times in the span of a week. It certainly doesn't happen often in a place like London where everyone's just running around doing their own thing and rarely do paths cross unless people really make an effort to find the time. With plenty to think about after the film, we walked over to Soho Square and just hung around there for a bit, enjoying what was left of the warm afternoon sun. Our casual conversations drifted effortlessly between topics such as the alarmingly high rate of failed marriages that we've witnessed amongst our Christian friends, the 'cheapening' of relationships thanks to the advent of the Internet - where people who'd fail horribly as penpals all and whom you'd probably never bother sending snailmail to of a sudden become your daily online chat buddy, as well as daydreaming about having enough money some day to where we could just fly friends into town from different parts of the world because we simply want to see them, or alternatively to be able to travel to all corners of the world to visit them. Holland on monday, Norway on tuesday, Hong Kong on thursday. *sigh* By the way, Once you're done reading this long post you should check out the images that Ben has just uploaded onto this site - a new collection of pics that he recently rescued from mewdewy cardboard boxes in Denmark. This is stuff that would inspire you to quit your job and step onto the next plane/train/boat/bus out of town in search of exotic distant lands. Check it out.
Tuesday, August 26 And in totally unrelated news, here's a brand new way for me to waste my time: The Mirror Project.
Monday, August 25 This was followed by a tube ride over to Liverpool Street station with the purpose of joining up with more people for some fine Indian cuisine over in Brick Lane. With everyone sharing a different opinion on which restaurant boasts the most authentic (and cheap) dishes, it was rather surprising to see how willingly we all settled upon Michael's suggestion: Aladdin. A really fine choice because all the curry dishes hovered around £3.50 and they actually tasted like curry. I got a kick out of the options that we had... chicken, MEAT, fish, vegetables. Er... so the other items weren't?! But my knowledgeable friend Ben quickly pointed out that since it was a Hindi restaurant, it could not possibly be beef, and therefore must be lamb. Recognizing my personal weakness in handling spicy food, I settled for korma. Michael, being the typically British bloke with his steady diet of beer and curry, must've felt he had something to prove by ordering the jackass of curry dishes - vindaloo. It wasn't even on the menu and boy was he in pain throughout the entire meal. I'm sure he's having a great time visiting the bathroom as well...
Saturday, August 23 These days it's not often that I come across a photographer who's work really leaps out and grabs my attention, but I believe I can say that I've found a brand new inspiration in Phil Borges. His personal site appears to be down due to bandwidth excess but you can check out his indigenous people exhibition right here. Head on over and be inspired! Dangit... this friendster nosense sure is addicting. After catching up on a solid 12 hours of rest, I woke up bright and early this morning, only to make the big mistake of signing up and finding out what all the fuss is about. Sad to say, I've probably spent just as many hours of the day navigating around the many functions, improving my profile, and of course... building up my list of friends. Hehe, 33 friends + 150771 connections in a day is a pretty good effort I think. Soon enough I'll be able to compete with my friend Derek who has something like 150 friends. I'm still not completely sold on the testimonials feature though. A bit too yearbook-ish in my opinion. Of course, my overdose of web access today has not been exclusively taken up by friendster. I also waded through and responded to about 30 personal emails and basically made up for lost time whilst on the road by hitting various friends' sites and message boards to catch up on the latest gossip. And speaking of hot juicy gossip, I also went ahead and booked a flight for HK this December so it looks like I'll be spending Christmas and New Year's in the Far East. Woohoo!
Friday, August 22 Immediately upon my return to the house I tossed down my guitar and bags, and headed back out into central London to drop off the three rolls I took on tour with the LC-A, as well as to exchange my reimbursement for the plane ticket back into British pounds. Due to the current weak value of the US dollar, any extra money that I managed to save from the tour amounted to hardly anything when exchanged. But at least the money was enough for the ticket and I can finally clear off my credit card debts once and for all. The rolls will be ready by tomorrow morning but as I want to keep my trips into the city to a bare minimum, I probably won't be able to pick them up until Sat or Sun. Apart from that I've just spent the better part of the day attending to the mundane: emails, catching up wth parents, more emails, letting friends know I'm back in town, finding out what new films are showing... then getting irritated over the new films that I've missed, sorting through the pile of (mostly worthless) snail mail, etc etc. Basically getting my life back into shape.
Tuesday, August 19 Obviously I don't really have time to go into the details of the last days but this tour can be summed up in one thing. Bad directions. We've received it from so many random pedestrians that it just became absurd after a while. Memphis is the perfect example as we had the hardest time getting both in and out of the city, although our temporary loss of direction did land us by the very spot in the river that Jeff Buckley supposedly went for a swim and drowned in six years ago. Brooks made the comment that we were 'walking the streets that Buckley once walked'. And on our way out at 3 in the morning a bad set of directions took us on a 'scenic route' through a rather bad part of town, with this guy trying to pimp us a crack whore at the BP station as we pulled in to ask for directions. To say the least Matt spun around and got us out of there as quickly as he could. So we play in Fayetteville, Arkansas tonight. Then I'll drive back to Tulsa after the show and fly out tomorrow afternoon. This tour has been especially painful financially, amongst other things, so I'm definitely ready to be back in London and resume my steady diet of art house screenings, street markets, galleries and of course... my mother's cooking. There's still the possibility of some support dates with the Donnas in Sept/Oct so Mika Bombwill be quite busy gearing up for that. I'm also hoping we'll be able to start rehearsing on a regular basis, and hopefully manage come up with some more new material soon. Then there's the next spirit that guides us full-length that we'll begin laying down tracks to in December so I'll really have to dive into the songwriting process over the next couple of months. Plenty to look forward to...
Thursday, August 14 Standing out to me like a sore thumb within the liner notes of legendary 80s producer Daniel Lanois' record shine - his first in ten years - is the quote from above; and by sore thumb I am using it in a rather liberal way to paint a positive picture. Poor guarantees from a number of shows on this tour thus far has left us all feeling a little jaded and weary... but I know that money alone is not the reason why I'm doing this. There are a number of proven quick steps out there to enjoying a lucrative career as a touring band but the compromises that come along with the package aren't really what any of us are willing to make... just yet. Ha. No, but seriously though, on the days where I manage to find my balance on the joyful declaration of Lanois' quote and put what I'm doing in perspective with the bigger picture, then I do have everything to be thankful for. If anything I do feel privileged that I have the chance to create beautiful music with people I care about and to be able to share it with anyone who bothers to pay attention and listen, across varied landscapes and borders. But even outside the domain of music, within the conext of the world at large, my prayer is that I too may touch a heart somewhere, sometime... no matter what I'm doing. Playlist: Rufus Wainwright, Def Leppard, Third Eye Blind (er... Matt's pick), Enya, Tarwater, REM, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper, The Church, Europe, Ours, Mew, Kings of Convenience...
Tuesday, August 12 Welcome to the glamourous world of life on the road. I still have friends who are convinced I lead an existence similar to that which was portrayed in Almost Famous. If only it was that easy. Frequent jams on the interstate, poor turnouts, and horrible stage sound can all go a long way to crush one's spirit. And for the longest time a bad performance would rob me dry of any self-esteem. But perhaps repetition has made me numb or immune to much of this; if anything what troubles me most is the time warp that you get trapped in, the complete loss of any sense of day or location. The week goes by so quickly, and a show that I might think we played two nights ago would in fact have taken place four or five days earlier. I wonder how bands who stay on the road at 4-6 months at a stretch manage to stay in sync with the globe's gentle and steady spin. London is only a week away and I'm already looking forward to the flight home. I guess it's also because after a while the excitement wears off and I feel like I'm merely going through the motion of driving up to a club, load in, set up, sound check, play, sell merch, pack, load out, drive away... That's of course not to say that I'm not enjoying myself at all. I'm taking none of this for granted. We played in NYC last night to a surprisingly decent crowd at the Knitting Factory and I've been spending the better part of the day kicking back with my cousin in her Forest Hill apartment and maintaining my online existence. With a couple of hours to kill before I need to make my way down to the Southpaw in Brookly, I'll probably just take it easy and watch one of the HK films that I've missed, although it is rather tempting to head out to Chinatown early to photograph that part of the city.
Friday, August 8 "... you banged him last week..." said the apparently jealous boyfriend but in a manner that sounded like he was joking around. "... i guess it's over between us then...", to which she bluntly replied "were we ever?". Sounds kinda sad in retrospect but at the time we were just cracking up in tears. This wasn't the only boy/girl argument incident we saw that night though. I guess there must be something particularly tense about college towns and late night drinks... not really my idea of a date. Our show in Bloomington went pretty well. At least we played pretty well. Probably the best so far. Once again there was a projector handy so we played along to the Pinnochio Disney animation, which according to a handful of people I talked to afterwards "added a nice touch". But in terms of attendance and merch sales it was rather disappointing. Maybe there were too many shows going on on the same night. As is turned out, my friend Tim Miser was in town and he came by to hang out afterwards. I hadn't seen the guy since Cornerstone last year, after which I left my black hat in his car and never managed to get it back until a month ago. Chicago the night before was kind of the same. Poor attendance, poor sales but that had more to do with it being a 21 and over show. We always get screwed when playing those which makes me a little nervous about our show tonight in Louisville, Kentucky. To make matters worse, the guy who put on our show at the Subterranean slipped off into the night after handing us a measly $40 to split between the three bands. That's almost the equivalent of selling a CD each. We were ready to knock on his door at 1:30 in the morning and pay him a little visit. But we ended up being too tired to bother and decided to hunt him down the following morning instead. I guess our booking agent must've threatened him quite badly for he walked over to us the moment he saw us again and handed over the original guarantee, and without a word retreated back to the club with his tail between his legs. Oh yeah I've been rather horrible with emails so I do apologize to anyone whom I owe an email to. I always make an effort to reply to every single email but internet access is generally scarce and sporadic on tour so much of that piling mass will have to wait until I get back to London later this month. Sorry. Playlist: Propagandhi, the Descendents, Cat Power, Jeff Buckley, Skid Row, Daniel Lanois, Peter Gabriel, Yes, Cave-In...
Tuesday, August 5 Playlist: Nena, Daniel Lanois, The Postal Service, U2, White Lion, Journey, Supercar, Guns N' Roses, Willie Nelson, Yann Tiersen, The Mars Volta, Rooney, The Stone Roses, Aqualung, Radiohead, Mew...
Monday, August 4 Today is our day off and we'll make our way to Chicago as soon as the other boys are awake. Perhaps it has to do with a postponed jet lag but I've been surviving on an average of 5 hours sleep a night - going to bed at around 4 and waking up by 9 - so I'm usually the first one up with nothing better to do but read or pop online if there happens to be a computer. I was hoping we'd leave earlier so we could at least have the evening in Chicago but one thing you learn pretty quickly when you're in a band is that it's almost impossible to ever just think for yourself. Getting away from tour news for a change, I received an email last night promoting some pretty cheap Virgin Atlantic flights to Hong Kong in the month of December, which is where I'm hoping to spend Christmas this year. Further research into the special offer however revealed that the ticket is only valid for a month which means I'll have to fly back to London the morning after New Year's Day... a bit too early if you ask me. So the search continues and hopefully I'll manage to come across something before all the students start booking for their flights back to HK in the school holiday season.
Saturday, August 2 Our newly revised set list (which involves resurrecting an old live favorite 'copper islands') is shaping up quite nicely and we're excited about having Brooks along with us to help run reason and play some keys. Yesterday morning we were privileged with the pleasure of attending a private impropmptu performance of a local ballet school's personal rendition of the Marionette and the Music Box. It was a really beautiful way to the start the day by seeing a small group of keen and wide-eyed 6 to 12 year olds move around to our songs and to see how their interpretated each of the scenes. Of course it was far from complete and things got pretty messy and uncoordinated at times, but it gave a glimpse of the huge potential that could be there on opening night. We also discussed about the possibility of making this into a full scale production that would involve us providing the live score. What a delight that would be and definitely a refreshing change from playing to the 18-25 year old, skinny pale male crowd. |