These girls fall like dominoes! dominoes!

I love XFM, through the cable TV.  Awesome.

Slave to the Trade

No, no, i’m not a prostitute.

HELLO! I’m back!  What a break.  What a long long absence.  I yawn, and stretch my arms out to the sides, luxuriously like a langur monkey.

Oh yes.  A monkey.

I missed you.  I missed you all! 

I was a slave. A slave to the trade.  Hooked up to an infernal earpiece of torture – one that was accessed by four and twenty voices at once, all requesting my presence in kitchens, on bars and in restaurants.  For I have been enmeshed within the confines of hospitality.  Every day making the world a better place, for the diners on sashimi, the drinkers of Tanqueray and the nibblers of bar bites. 

  But never fear – the soul is still intact.  Alas the music has lapsed.  No time.  So little time.  But with avengence I jump back onto the bandwagon of indie, of rock, of electro and of dance.    They were not neglected.  There was always listening, always appreciating.  Just little recording and speaking and attending.

  Hello to you all, my fellow bloggers, my friends and any enemies I may have.  For today is my 2nd day of unemployment and, I have to say, it rather becomes me.

  So here, to celebrate.  Is a little of what I’ve been listening to over the past 4 months…

Thunder on ma Heed

Wowee the people above me are loud on their feet!

New Hoose

I don’t know many people who’ve not heard about my new flat.  I love it love it love it love it love it love it love it love it….

Just me and the boy – we get to watch all manner of trash TV and The Wire.  We have a garden, although already I came a cropper down the stairs and broke open my arm.  Whoopsie.   Still, it’s a talking point, eh?  Although do you really want folk to start a conversation with you that begins ‘Ugh, what happened!?!’

In this flat I everything I want and need, except perhaps a pony.  I even got cable, which Dave was dead set against – woohoo, another war won by myself. 

  No one will ever know the extent of despair that reached me in the old flat of brown, weed-smelling and dank, small kitchen, many bodies, lack of space.  Here I have an expanse of wooden floor, a garden out front AND back and a bathroom only for two. 

Pics to follow when I find my camera in the boxes that I’ve not got around to unpacking…

A totally Spam experience

The last thing you expect when you go for a temp job is a run-in with Spam. 

I’ll roll back a little…

Uni’s a distant memory once again and it’s staying that way (yes I know I’ve said that before but this time i’m swearing by it!).  I’m a qualified Broadcast Journalist with a few shifts coming my way from various quarters and a couple of interesting roads to take.  

  Just now though Im concentrating on getting some dosh to get back on track.  Oh and I need new shoes after my repair job bought me a couple of months, but no more than that.  So as well as the usual barwork I do shaking my guns on the bar of the Lily (and what guns they are now!), I went for an admin temp job.  Easy work – 4.5 hours a day for just over seven squid and not exactly rocket science.

However on my arrival I found something rather nasty lurking in the fridge…

Now, i’m of the opinion that people should be free to eat what they want but surely an unexpected Spam in the fridge is pushing the boundaries a little?

Revision blindness

Occasionally my blog’s a whingeing tool.   Today this is the case.

I’m tired of revising.  I have my exam tomorrow morning and I can’t do anything more because my brain hurts.  It’s not even full.  I quite clearly haven’t done enough yet for this exam, but I’ve got a mental block.  I just don’t care anymore.  But to not revise is to throw away an entire year’s work.

Dilemma.

The subject: Public Affairs.  The Barnett Formula, Scottish voting systems, blah blah.  It’s not even that it’s completely uninteresting.  Some of it is. 

It’s sunny outside; what I wouldn’t give to be lying on the grass drinking a Corona.  Ahhhh….

Isn’t it a little bit sad that you study so much supposedly to give yourself a better future, when you’re just missing out on life as it’s happening in the now?  Maybe i’ve been studying too long.  Well it has been seven years.  With a wee break in the middle.

I really hope this is worth the effort.

Meanwhile I feel sad and weird, like a deflated balloon.

Final countdown!

Tartare

There’s a new author on the shelf.

M. Trevelean writes ‘Tartare’, a sartorical black comedy about the hells of giving up smoking and the lengths it drives you to.

This comes highly recommended.  Please read and let me know what you think.

My tips for the recession…

In this time of recession everyone’s making do.

So here’s the step by step guide to making do by me.

1. Buy boots when you once earned a living and had money, as opposed to being a scabby student-type.

2. Wear said boots to every gig, night out and field visit for at least 2 years.

3. Put foot in boot one day during summer and rip lining.

4. Put foot in other boot a month later and rip lining.

5. Realise boots have got to disgusting tatty point and are putting people off food, so appeal to mother to buy new shoes for Christmas.

6. Wear new shoes in rain every day for 3 months on commute to Hamilton from Edinburgh (see exhibit A)

7. Find parts of new shoes lying all over flat and realise no choice but to revert to boots

8. Examine boots for possibilities of improvement

9. Break out the trusty needle and thread – thank you convent education

10. et Voila! 

This Is Music 3rd Birthday – Friday 8th May @ Sneaky Pete’s/The Bowery, Edinburgh

Anyone able to make it this Friday, head down to Sneaky Pete’s or The Bowery for This Is Music’s 3rd Birthday celebration.

Click here for the myspace page of This Is Music.  It’s run by Jim, HP and Tallah and features bands and DJ’s from the indie scene.

This Is Music turns 3 years old on Friday 8th of May, and to celebrate we are giving you the choice of two great shows.

Sneaky Pete’s Stage>>>

Live: Y’all is Fantasy Island // Tie For Jack // HOMEwork

DJ’s: Vic Galloway (Radio 1) // Bargain Harold // i-Tallah Disco

8pm – 3am

£4

The Bowery Stage>>>

Live: Broken Records (4AD) // Mike Bones (Vice) // & Rob St John (Fife Kills/Mathilde)

DJ’s: Ten Tracks // & HP

7pm – 11pm

£10

This Is Music on Ten Tracks – sign up at the birthday and get your first ten tracks free of charge! http://www.tentracks.co.uk

Tickets for both venues available in advance from The City Cafe, 19 Blair Street

I’m working on the door of Sneaky Pete’s so if you want to pop in and say hi I’ll probably be very cold!!!