When the film finished, I turned to the blokeface and said, quietly so that the 7yo boy behind us didn't hear, "That's another of your shit films, mate!"
I didn't really mean it.
When Gareth Edwards' debut, Monsters, came out at the cinema, we went to see it. The trailers had made it look like a classic alien-invasion action flick, but what we got was a beautifully made road-trip romance with monsters as the backdrop and circumstance, so at the end, someone behind the man turned to his friend and said "That was another of your shit films, mate!" Not what he was expecting, at all. It's become something of a running joke in our household, though, so thanks to said mate from us all, it goes along with "that was rubbish, I'm not making/eating/buying that again" when we've cleared our plates. Edwards deserved the upgrade to fully-fledged studio-funded directing, and boy has he made good on the trust handed to him.
Godzilla has all the right ingredients: action, family melodrama, fabulously realised monsters, stunning reveals, brilliantly atmospheric cinematography and set design and a great, not-cheesy script. Throw in a great cast of not-too-big stars and you have a winner, an absolute belter of a film, as I said earlier on twitter. Familiar faces do pop up throughout, including that one guy you've seen somewhere before but now you can't place where in the film he was so you can't even look him up on the film's IMDB page. Alexander Desplat's soundtrack is suitably bombastic and scene-setting, borrowing in places from Jaws, but not in a bad way.
Two thumbs way, way up for this one, and it's definitely a big-screen experience, if you can get to see it, do! Mate.
Sunday 25 May 2014
Friday 23 May 2014
May 17th to 23rd
This week's catch-up reminders were:
Much Ado
Karaoke
Rugby
headphones
festivals
Ticket buying
I guess the order of that lot's a bit disjointed, and I think I might just leave festivals for another post now that I've seen this year's Glasto line-up (I'm glad I'm not going, I'd have to clone myself about 4 times I think) but anyway, I'll start at the beginning.
We watched the Joss Whedon adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing last weekend as part of the secondborn's English Lit exam prep. Bit late, given that the exam in question was on Tuesday, but anyway. It's quite a dark one, as Shakespearean comedies go, less fantastical than Midsummer Night's Dream, less whimsical than Twelfth Night. The plot revolves around deception, some benign and humorous, some very cynical and not funny at all. The adaptation was done so well, though it was distracting spotting all the Whedon alumnae. The strong cast work their roles well, from sharp-tongued Beatrice to dim-witted detective Dogberry, and the switch of casting a woman as the bad-guy's confidante Conrade doesn't harm things at all. There are some moments of brilliant physical comedy to add to the wordplay, and the setting of stylish, understated luxury suits the plot and sets the mood. I think I'll watch it again with the subtitles on though, just to keep up with the language and learn some more Shakespearean insults.
Karaoke! OK! I'm just saying that I need to use the Living Social deal I bought for a night at a karaoke bar. The last one I bought went unused as it wasn't organised in time, must not let that happen! The place has been done up since I last went, really looking forward to it. I was prolly going to say something about songs...
The problem with doing placemarkers for a weekly round-up is not always remembering what I was going to say about the thing. So earlier on when I started typing this, at the beginning of tonight's Amlin Challenge Cup final at Cardiff Arms Park (and before watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Castle, both excellent tv series that no doubt will get a more in-depth mention at some point), I had to wrack my brain a bit and then oh! Yes. Last weekend's semi-finals were A Bit Nuts. And Nigel Davies getting sacked, unsurprising but still... But the thing I really wanted to say was something the eldest said the other day about football's centrality to 'lad culture' and the contrast with rugby's fanbase, it's much more varied in sex and age. The blokeface remembers hearing someone in the legendary Shed at Kingsholm (I'm a Gloucester fan, he supports Harlequins. I don't even know why but that's the way of it...) telling someone else off for swearing. In the same way as roller derby leaves all the violence on the track, and then parties hard afterwards, rugby is the same way, there's no segregation of fans, there's no culture of violence between fans. Rugby league has the same kind of reputation and atmosphere. I'm writing this while catching up on the second half of the match, and as Stephen Myler lines up a kick at goal, a shout from the crowd was shooshed by the rest of the fans. Can we all just appreciate for a moment the camaraderie and respect and actual fun here? Yes? Good.
So on to headphones! *rant alert* Dear Samsung, what possessed you to make your phone headphones with symmetrical leads? And why can't I use the Nokia ones that I've been using with my Sony? Oh and why was I using Nokia headphones with a Sony phone? Because when I bought Sony headphones they only worked with an iphone so I gave them to one of the kids. If anyone can recommend some decent in-ear headphones that work with the Galaxy S4 with phone controls and asymmetric leads so that I can take them out but still keep them handy, that come in at less than £30, I'd be really, really interested. Really.
(and while I'm on the subject I will lament the demise of Breo's headphones, my Neptunes are on their last elbows, sadly. Something with the same size ear-cups and similar sound quality for around £30 would go down well...)
Festivals, yes a separate post I think! And then I can justify a Live at Leeds recap, maybe tomorrow while the secondborn is at Slam Dunk North.
Which leads me on to ticket buying! I bought 1 ticket for said Slam Dunk, and 2 tickets to see The Maine at The Cockpit at the same time. Because one of the tickets was e-ticket only, the others had to be too. What? So now if I want actual tickets, which I do, because they're nicer, and handy to have something for band members to sign if you happen to chat with them afterwards, I have to cancel that purchase and lose the booking fee, and then rebook. Oh and I had to ring and get a letter from the ticket company so that the e-ticket for the thing tomorrow can be used by the secondborn, who I was buying it for. What a flaming faff! I know there are issues with touts and I know that it's my fault for not reading the small print, so the lost booking fee's going to be an idiot tax, but the fact that I can't buy a ticket, rock up myself with my ID and say 'I've bought this for this person' without getting a letter in advance is just a bit OTT I reck!
Right. Time for bed. And I will post more about music next week, I promise! I still haven't listened to that Fort Hope album, for a start...
Unboxing and review: Incongruence by Hank Green
So this arrived today (yesterday by now, obviously):
And so I opened it, eagerly:
check out the Hanklerfish!
and the nerdy spreadsheet!
and the hipster-y posing... and the Hubble telescope malfunction background image and disc label, courtesy of NASA!
and finally the lyrics booklet.
I do love these fold-out cardboard CD cases, they are as much a thing of beauty as LP sleeves when the details are done well. My favourite is Frank Turner's England Keep My Bones special edition with its leather-bound-y green goodness.
Anyway, I said I'd let you know what I thought of the music once I'd been able to listen, and while I've been stuck with it playing out of order due to weirdness in the download and my phone's interpretation of it and only having the chance to listen in short-ish bursts in the car, I've really enjoyed the songs. Catchy tunes, some are familiar to me from the trip up to Glasgow (I feel so sorry for the final year students at Glasgow School of Art, by the way, poor sods!) some not. Some are quite sweary in this explicit version and some are remarkably clean (Mother Pheasant Plucker. I'm looking at you.) I Fucking Love Science does what it says on the tin, for example, but in the workplace-safe version the lyrics have been rewritten, not just bleeped or muted.
So what style is it? It's punk-ish. Pop-punk without the polish, bits of reggae, space-y effects and optimistic big-hair rock thrown in, loads of nerdy pop-culture referencing and puns and Shakespeare. If you're aware of Nerdfighteria you'll already know the songs but you might not have heard them done like this! I'd love for Hank and The Perfect Strangers to tour the heck out of this, it would be a whole mess of fun, but Hank's work is so diverse that it would be a big commitment to take time away from, so I will content myself with listening to this wee gem of a collection of anthems to geekdom and saying 'Dude, no edge!' at every possible opportunity, and remembering to be awesome.
Saturday 17 May 2014
May 10th to 16th, part 2 (the Eurovision edition!)
Before I fell asleep face first onto my phone last night I made a few placeholders for this post so I'd remember what the heck I'd intended to blog about. Here they are:
And then, of course, the winner. Conchita Wurst's Rise Like a Phoenix. Not the best song, I think, or even the best performance, but I voted for her, all the same, because of the context, and it was good enough to be a worthy winner, . What a massive yah-boo-sucks to Putin's regime and Russia! (I did feel very sorry for the Russian girls getting booed, but the monstrous irony of their lyrics does temper that quite a lot...) We were there! We were part of it! We saw that happen, a gay man's full drag persona, complete with beard, won a Europe-wide competition at a time when there is a lot of homophobia, and bigotry in general, in certain areas of the continent. (I will choose to file the information that the general public actually voted mostly for Poland, it was the countries' panels of judges that voted for Conchita, and bless them all! And then, because the secondborn is studying History IGCSE*, it occured to me that in 30 years, maybe less, given that Bosnia's mentioned in her textbook and that was around 20 years ago, there might be questions in History exams: 'Explain the impact on international relations of Conchita Wurst's victory at the Eurovision music competition in 2014' and how amazing would that be? I really think it could be seen as an Archduke Franz Ferdinand moment, depending how events unfold over the next few months between Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world.
So the boyfriend's first experience of Eurovision was an exceptional one. I doubt that it will ever be the same again. It's probably as well for him, specially as a musician, if he doesn't watch it ever again, lol.
* We have home-educated offspring, the I stands for International, it's a form of GCSE equivalent without coursework components so it's easier for non-schooled people to sit the exams.
Right, on to Roller Derby. For those not familiar with this sport, it's featured in the film Whip It, I recommend it as a cool coming-of-age film with a fantastic comedy supporting performance from director Drew Barrymore, go watch it, then come back and finish reading this blog. We started going to bouts a few years ago when we discovered that Leeds Roller Dolls' home bouts were at our local sports centre in Huddersfield, our first event was the Great Yorkshire Showdown tournament, so it was pretty much a full day of derby, a brilliant introduction to the culture and the sport. The culture deserves a mention, roller derby has been regarded as the sport for the kind of people who don't do sport, the alt scene types, so there's a certain grunge-y, punk-y feel to proceedings. As the sport has gradually become more professional over the past few years, this has faded a little but the roots are still there, the slogans on the backsides of the players' spanky-pant shorts, the funky leggings under the actual uniform that used to just be logo-printed t-shirts, the pun-laden names like Fuzzin' Boots for the member of the squad who is a police officer in real life... The sport involves skaters, on quad skates rather than inline, slamming into each other in an attempt to score points or stop the other side from scoring, as they skate round an oval track marked on a sports hall floor. If you want to know more, head to your local league, you should be able to find it on the WFTDA website
Since Leeds moved back to Leeds, we haven't been to as many bouts, and last week was the first this year that we could get to. As the bestie and boyfriend hadn't been to see roller derby before either, we took them with us for their first taste. I made them sit in the suicide seats (this is sitting on the floor at the side of the track, with a fairly high risk of being landed on by skaters or referees, lol) as we saw Leeds' first team, the Rebel Roses, take on Hot Wheel's A team. It was really, really close in the first half, but Hot Wheel eked out a decent gap in the second half to win 196-164. The second meet involved the French team Nothing Toulouse (did I mention the puns?) who were really, really good, a class above the Rebel Roses who couldn't match them in any way, one of their jammers was far more slippery and speedy than any other present that day and their tactics in helping their jammers through Leeds' blocking far more effective than the current trend in UK leagues of hanging back and leaving the jammer to try to bust through on their own. Leeds did suffer from having their bouts back to back, they were exhausted by the middle of the second half, but still they were just thoroughly outplayed and lost 111-194. At this point we had to leave to shop for noms and get home in time for Eurovision, so we didn't get to see Hot Wheel lose to Toulouse. Looking forward to the next bout we can get to, but we'd be looking forward to it more if the tactics were more like Toulouse' pack, it's far more entertaining to watch the pack get into it with each other to help their jammer through than seeing a jammer beat fruitlessly against a well-formed wall and waste power-jam after power-jam.
So, on to Patience! From alt culture to Gilbert and Sullivan with a simple entering of text... the wonders of the internet. That would have taken a lot more effort to segue into in real life! Someone I know from G&S stuff posted a photo of the Huddersfield G&S Society's production of Patience, which was my first full-length production when I joined Meltham Parish Church G&S, and funnily enough, the women in the photo had the same costumes on, everyone seems to use the same costume company, lol. Patience isn't one of the better-known light operas but it's a good 'un, I'm looking forward to it coming round again. I'm sitting out the next production at Meltham, The Mikado, I've done 4 now, and 4 Spring Shows with a gap last year, and I just need a break from it to commit more time to business and home, and not be completely mentally exhausted when it comes to my and the youngest's birthdays in November! I will be keeping up with events though... Meltham has something of a lack of male singers, particularly tenors, so if anyone local fancies joining a really friendly group and performing on stage, do get in touch with them.
And lastly for last week, Hank Green! (If you don't know who Hank Green is, and you're on the internet, are you on the same internet as the rest of us?! He's one half of the Vlogbrothers, the other half being John Green, the author of various novels including The Fault in our Stars which has been adapted for screen, the film comes out in June. They're founders of the Nerdfighter movement, producers of great videos on science, and run the Don't Forget to be Awesome network of artists. They never forget to be awesome.) We pre-ordered his album Incongruent a few weeks ago, and I got the email for the download last week, while up to my eyeballs in helping the secondborn with her exams. So I downloaded it, unzipped it, stuck it in the right place on the server... and then I haven't had chance to listen to it yet. Need to upload it to the phone then I can play it in the car because Bluetooth! Streaming! OMG technologeee!!! but seriously, it's probably the only time I'm going to get to listen to it. In the meantime I'm going to reminisce with this from the Glasgow leg of the TFIOS tour:
And that's it, I'm done for tonight! See you next Friday, if not before. Don't forget to be brilliant.
Eurovision!
Roller Derby!
Patience :-)
Hank Green's new album
So let's start with Eurovision! Wow! Little bit of history: the past few years, the first- and second-born, the blokeface and myself have watched Eurovision together. It started when dh astounded the two offspring by predicting the votes with scary accuracy between the Eastern European countries, and developed from there. The eldest's bestie from college is also a fan, but her boyfriend had never seen it before, so they were both invited to join us, via the roller derby, more on that in a bit. It's a week later now and there are few stand-out acts, Iceland with their colours, Netherlands being in Copenhagen via Nashville, Britain's entry was actually a good one for once, what on Earth were France thinking?! And Poland, oh lol, wonder what the bet was, 'how close can we get to soft porn on live international tv?'And then, of course, the winner. Conchita Wurst's Rise Like a Phoenix. Not the best song, I think, or even the best performance, but I voted for her, all the same, because of the context, and it was good enough to be a worthy winner, . What a massive yah-boo-sucks to Putin's regime and Russia! (I did feel very sorry for the Russian girls getting booed, but the monstrous irony of their lyrics does temper that quite a lot...) We were there! We were part of it! We saw that happen, a gay man's full drag persona, complete with beard, won a Europe-wide competition at a time when there is a lot of homophobia, and bigotry in general, in certain areas of the continent. (I will choose to file the information that the general public actually voted mostly for Poland, it was the countries' panels of judges that voted for Conchita, and bless them all! And then, because the secondborn is studying History IGCSE*, it occured to me that in 30 years, maybe less, given that Bosnia's mentioned in her textbook and that was around 20 years ago, there might be questions in History exams: 'Explain the impact on international relations of Conchita Wurst's victory at the Eurovision music competition in 2014' and how amazing would that be? I really think it could be seen as an Archduke Franz Ferdinand moment, depending how events unfold over the next few months between Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world.
So the boyfriend's first experience of Eurovision was an exceptional one. I doubt that it will ever be the same again. It's probably as well for him, specially as a musician, if he doesn't watch it ever again, lol.
* We have home-educated offspring, the I stands for International, it's a form of GCSE equivalent without coursework components so it's easier for non-schooled people to sit the exams.
Right, on to Roller Derby. For those not familiar with this sport, it's featured in the film Whip It, I recommend it as a cool coming-of-age film with a fantastic comedy supporting performance from director Drew Barrymore, go watch it, then come back and finish reading this blog. We started going to bouts a few years ago when we discovered that Leeds Roller Dolls' home bouts were at our local sports centre in Huddersfield, our first event was the Great Yorkshire Showdown tournament, so it was pretty much a full day of derby, a brilliant introduction to the culture and the sport. The culture deserves a mention, roller derby has been regarded as the sport for the kind of people who don't do sport, the alt scene types, so there's a certain grunge-y, punk-y feel to proceedings. As the sport has gradually become more professional over the past few years, this has faded a little but the roots are still there, the slogans on the backsides of the players' spanky-pant shorts, the funky leggings under the actual uniform that used to just be logo-printed t-shirts, the pun-laden names like Fuzzin' Boots for the member of the squad who is a police officer in real life... The sport involves skaters, on quad skates rather than inline, slamming into each other in an attempt to score points or stop the other side from scoring, as they skate round an oval track marked on a sports hall floor. If you want to know more, head to your local league, you should be able to find it on the WFTDA website
Since Leeds moved back to Leeds, we haven't been to as many bouts, and last week was the first this year that we could get to. As the bestie and boyfriend hadn't been to see roller derby before either, we took them with us for their first taste. I made them sit in the suicide seats (this is sitting on the floor at the side of the track, with a fairly high risk of being landed on by skaters or referees, lol) as we saw Leeds' first team, the Rebel Roses, take on Hot Wheel's A team. It was really, really close in the first half, but Hot Wheel eked out a decent gap in the second half to win 196-164. The second meet involved the French team Nothing Toulouse (did I mention the puns?) who were really, really good, a class above the Rebel Roses who couldn't match them in any way, one of their jammers was far more slippery and speedy than any other present that day and their tactics in helping their jammers through Leeds' blocking far more effective than the current trend in UK leagues of hanging back and leaving the jammer to try to bust through on their own. Leeds did suffer from having their bouts back to back, they were exhausted by the middle of the second half, but still they were just thoroughly outplayed and lost 111-194. At this point we had to leave to shop for noms and get home in time for Eurovision, so we didn't get to see Hot Wheel lose to Toulouse. Looking forward to the next bout we can get to, but we'd be looking forward to it more if the tactics were more like Toulouse' pack, it's far more entertaining to watch the pack get into it with each other to help their jammer through than seeing a jammer beat fruitlessly against a well-formed wall and waste power-jam after power-jam.
So, on to Patience! From alt culture to Gilbert and Sullivan with a simple entering of text... the wonders of the internet. That would have taken a lot more effort to segue into in real life! Someone I know from G&S stuff posted a photo of the Huddersfield G&S Society's production of Patience, which was my first full-length production when I joined Meltham Parish Church G&S, and funnily enough, the women in the photo had the same costumes on, everyone seems to use the same costume company, lol. Patience isn't one of the better-known light operas but it's a good 'un, I'm looking forward to it coming round again. I'm sitting out the next production at Meltham, The Mikado, I've done 4 now, and 4 Spring Shows with a gap last year, and I just need a break from it to commit more time to business and home, and not be completely mentally exhausted when it comes to my and the youngest's birthdays in November! I will be keeping up with events though... Meltham has something of a lack of male singers, particularly tenors, so if anyone local fancies joining a really friendly group and performing on stage, do get in touch with them.
And lastly for last week, Hank Green! (If you don't know who Hank Green is, and you're on the internet, are you on the same internet as the rest of us?! He's one half of the Vlogbrothers, the other half being John Green, the author of various novels including The Fault in our Stars which has been adapted for screen, the film comes out in June. They're founders of the Nerdfighter movement, producers of great videos on science, and run the Don't Forget to be Awesome network of artists. They never forget to be awesome.) We pre-ordered his album Incongruent a few weeks ago, and I got the email for the download last week, while up to my eyeballs in helping the secondborn with her exams. So I downloaded it, unzipped it, stuck it in the right place on the server... and then I haven't had chance to listen to it yet. Need to upload it to the phone then I can play it in the car because Bluetooth! Streaming! OMG technologeee!!! but seriously, it's probably the only time I'm going to get to listen to it. In the meantime I'm going to reminisce with this from the Glasgow leg of the TFIOS tour:
And that's it, I'm done for tonight! See you next Friday, if not before. Don't forget to be brilliant.
Friday 16 May 2014
May 10th to 16th 2014, part 1
One thing I'm going to do with this blog is do a weekly round-up post. It might be the only thing I do on this blog, but I'm definitely going to do this one thing. This week has been hard, really hard, because of kids and cats, so there hasn't been much music (or other cultural delights, which I will definitely throw in here and there, because, after all, this blog is mostly about what I do for fun, which is mostly but not entirely music-related) other than what I've listened to while I've been driving or working. My favourite new band at the moment are Young Kato who I saw at the You Me At Six gig in Nottingham, along with Don Broco, so there's been a lot of that going on, but as they only have a few tracks on Spotify and don't have a CD out at all (when I find a scrobbling gadget I'll add one...) I made a playlist of their stuff on YouTube. Playing it in the car (New car! Bluetooth radio! New phone! Streaming music! OMG!) is going to be making a right mess of my mobile data allowance, lol.
(I should add that Muse will always be my favourite band, I hope! But there will always be new stuff that I find as I'm going along, obviously.)
Don Broco are also really good, fun live, interesting lyrics, I particularly like Yeah Man
(It was a little while ago so it's out of place in a weekly catch-up post but I should add a big-up for CapitalFM Arena's queue management, having toilets that queue-ers can use through the day is great, along with being able to collect will-call tickets all day, collecting blankets and jumpers to recycle/pass on to charities is brilliant, and a generally cheerful attitude is always welcome. The area has shops very nearby, there are various parking options and overall it was a good gig-going experience beyond the actual gig.)
^ That will probably happen quite a lot seeing as I'm doing this when I've already been to a bunch of stuff...
Along with the brackets. I do that a lot. Sorry not sorry.
I won't go on about Live at Leeds just now, this post is too long already, and it wasn't this week anyway, but that was the last live event I went to so there will be a blog about that at some point... Anyway, music, recorded. I'm looking forward to listening to Fort Hope's new album, they're another support band that my regular gig-companion, the secondborn, and I enjoyed. It's out now on iTunes etc and I've saved it on Spotify. We bought their cds when we saw them, I do like doing that (Young Kato are you listening?!)
Right, it's late, I'm struggling to brain, I'm going to post this now and carry on later, because OMG Eurovision! And anyone who's been to my flickr will have spotted roller derby. So even though they're both from the 9th, I'm going to deal with them in part 2. I might mention some G&S too. Ta ta for now!
(I should add that Muse will always be my favourite band, I hope! But there will always be new stuff that I find as I'm going along, obviously.)
Don Broco are also really good, fun live, interesting lyrics, I particularly like Yeah Man
(It was a little while ago so it's out of place in a weekly catch-up post but I should add a big-up for CapitalFM Arena's queue management, having toilets that queue-ers can use through the day is great, along with being able to collect will-call tickets all day, collecting blankets and jumpers to recycle/pass on to charities is brilliant, and a generally cheerful attitude is always welcome. The area has shops very nearby, there are various parking options and overall it was a good gig-going experience beyond the actual gig.)
^ That will probably happen quite a lot seeing as I'm doing this when I've already been to a bunch of stuff...
Along with the brackets. I do that a lot. Sorry not sorry.
I won't go on about Live at Leeds just now, this post is too long already, and it wasn't this week anyway, but that was the last live event I went to so there will be a blog about that at some point... Anyway, music, recorded. I'm looking forward to listening to Fort Hope's new album, they're another support band that my regular gig-companion, the secondborn, and I enjoyed. It's out now on iTunes etc and I've saved it on Spotify. We bought their cds when we saw them, I do like doing that (Young Kato are you listening?!)
Right, it's late, I'm struggling to brain, I'm going to post this now and carry on later, because OMG Eurovision! And anyone who's been to my flickr will have spotted roller derby. So even though they're both from the 9th, I'm going to deal with them in part 2. I might mention some G&S too. Ta ta for now!
First! Ha!
So this is my first post on this new blog, I should probably say a bit about what I want to do with it!
The other night, and I mean in the small hours, some time around 1.30am, I was inspired by something a friend of mine posted on Facebook. She was at a gig, with a friend, and a much-younger bloke said something really bloody patronising about how nice it was to see 'people like them' there. She ripped into him, basically told him he was out past his bed-time, nice one. So there's that, to start with, and then there's the fact that people are often surprised that I'm 40, with 4 children including 2 teens, soon to be 3, and then it will be 2 again because the eldest is currently 18. And I thought maybe I could write about what it's like going to gigs 'at my age' and the kind of music I like, which is all sorts (including some C&W, despite the title!) and maybe a bit of life as well on the side.
Really I should have started doing this ages ago, though, because I don't have any gigs coming up for ages and I'm not in the current production with the Gilbert and Sullivan society that I sing with, so I'm just going to end up reminiscing and talking about what I'm listening to and looking forward to and planning gig trips. I'll add my youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/trogette It's nothing fancy, I'm pretty old-school about these things, might do something with it as I go along. And here's my flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/32525553@N00/ You may recognise the chap in the cover photo... The 'life as well' stuff does crop up here too, mostly because it's a simple way to post to facebook, twitter and tumblr at the same time and I'm a bit of a social network ho' That'll do for an intro, welcome to the blog!
The other night, and I mean in the small hours, some time around 1.30am, I was inspired by something a friend of mine posted on Facebook. She was at a gig, with a friend, and a much-younger bloke said something really bloody patronising about how nice it was to see 'people like them' there. She ripped into him, basically told him he was out past his bed-time, nice one. So there's that, to start with, and then there's the fact that people are often surprised that I'm 40, with 4 children including 2 teens, soon to be 3, and then it will be 2 again because the eldest is currently 18. And I thought maybe I could write about what it's like going to gigs 'at my age' and the kind of music I like, which is all sorts (including some C&W, despite the title!) and maybe a bit of life as well on the side.
Really I should have started doing this ages ago, though, because I don't have any gigs coming up for ages and I'm not in the current production with the Gilbert and Sullivan society that I sing with, so I'm just going to end up reminiscing and talking about what I'm listening to and looking forward to and planning gig trips. I'll add my youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/trogette It's nothing fancy, I'm pretty old-school about these things, might do something with it as I go along. And here's my flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/32525553@N00/ You may recognise the chap in the cover photo... The 'life as well' stuff does crop up here too, mostly because it's a simple way to post to facebook, twitter and tumblr at the same time and I'm a bit of a social network ho' That'll do for an intro, welcome to the blog!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)