a lovely weekend...
So that was one of the best birthdays I've ever had. Much better than being horribly ill and alone in your bed, I'm glad I was able to attend this year.
Starting Friday evening as I was waiting for Soph to come over to go to Stay Beautiful, I was in a very calm state and taking out my acoustic guitar, wrote a very beautiful piece of music. I absolutely LOVE it. It feels like something that expresses everything about my life, like the music I've always wanted to make. It's a bit like if Suede were covering "Only You".
SB was just okay. It was too hot and felt too much like trying to recapture something that wasn't there anymore. Glad I stayed a bit longer cause Jenna's set made me feel better about it, reminding me yet again how "Love Your Money" is just a pure blast of pop originality and "Search & Destroy" had Sarll and I pointing across the room at one another intensely singing "world's forgotten boy" each time, for reasons that are unclear but it seemed the thing to do.
My requests for "Hold Back The Rain" went unheeded. Which was very disappointing. Esp. as it wasn't played at the very last SB either. And it was the song, when I first started going in 2005, that made me realize how great a night SB was. It's the album track that everybody knows and loves and knows is at least as great as any of the singles, being of the best songs EVER, and it's great when DJs are aware of songs like that because it means you don't have to listen to the same old singles that you have to hear again and again and again. One of the reasons I really liked Black Plastic from the get-go was that Jo took my advice and played "Fine Time". I've never understood why every club ever isn't playing this song. IT'S ONE OF THE BEST SOUNDING SONGS IN EXISTENCE. And it MAKES YOU DANCE. As Seth Hatfield once said, "Always sounding like it was recorded 2 weeks in the future", no matter when you listen to it.
Still it was nice to catch up with Leo. And then Saturday we went to see "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec" which I really enjoyed. A bit like "Amelie" meets "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". I really like the comic and love the artist - Tardi. Then to St. Moritz, the Swiss restaurant in Soho that I've been wanting to try. We were very tired but the food was excellent. Especially the chocolate fondue pot for dessert with a big plate of fruit and biscuits to dip.
And yesterday was just lovely. Thanks everybody for coming to the picnic. My friends are all really ace. I got up, recorded a demo of that lovely piece of music I had written, sent it off to David Shah. Then I opened my box of gifts that had arrived during the week and I had the patience/good sense to save. My mom had just awesomely told me to get what I wanted from Amazon. So the haul was:
Not Going Out Series Four
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
Stewart Lee - "How I Escaped My Certain Fate"
OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies
OSS 117: Lost In Rio
Tintin and the Mystery Of The Golden Fleece
Tintin and the Blue Oranges
"The Yellow M" (first of the Blake & Mortimer comics)
Then a really nice picnic in Finsbury Park. So many people came, it was lovely. Soph made me a "ROCK STONE" cake. Afterwards it was just like the old days, wandering around that area with Duncan, Nicky and Alex, to a nice dinner at The Noble.
Starting Friday evening as I was waiting for Soph to come over to go to Stay Beautiful, I was in a very calm state and taking out my acoustic guitar, wrote a very beautiful piece of music. I absolutely LOVE it. It feels like something that expresses everything about my life, like the music I've always wanted to make. It's a bit like if Suede were covering "Only You".
SB was just okay. It was too hot and felt too much like trying to recapture something that wasn't there anymore. Glad I stayed a bit longer cause Jenna's set made me feel better about it, reminding me yet again how "Love Your Money" is just a pure blast of pop originality and "Search & Destroy" had Sarll and I pointing across the room at one another intensely singing "world's forgotten boy" each time, for reasons that are unclear but it seemed the thing to do.
My requests for "Hold Back The Rain" went unheeded. Which was very disappointing. Esp. as it wasn't played at the very last SB either. And it was the song, when I first started going in 2005, that made me realize how great a night SB was. It's the album track that everybody knows and loves and knows is at least as great as any of the singles, being of the best songs EVER, and it's great when DJs are aware of songs like that because it means you don't have to listen to the same old singles that you have to hear again and again and again. One of the reasons I really liked Black Plastic from the get-go was that Jo took my advice and played "Fine Time". I've never understood why every club ever isn't playing this song. IT'S ONE OF THE BEST SOUNDING SONGS IN EXISTENCE. And it MAKES YOU DANCE. As Seth Hatfield once said, "Always sounding like it was recorded 2 weeks in the future", no matter when you listen to it.
Still it was nice to catch up with Leo. And then Saturday we went to see "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec" which I really enjoyed. A bit like "Amelie" meets "Raiders Of The Lost Ark". I really like the comic and love the artist - Tardi. Then to St. Moritz, the Swiss restaurant in Soho that I've been wanting to try. We were very tired but the food was excellent. Especially the chocolate fondue pot for dessert with a big plate of fruit and biscuits to dip.
And yesterday was just lovely. Thanks everybody for coming to the picnic. My friends are all really ace. I got up, recorded a demo of that lovely piece of music I had written, sent it off to David Shah. Then I opened my box of gifts that had arrived during the week and I had the patience/good sense to save. My mom had just awesomely told me to get what I wanted from Amazon. So the haul was:
Not Going Out Series Four
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
Stewart Lee - "How I Escaped My Certain Fate"
OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies
OSS 117: Lost In Rio
Tintin and the Mystery Of The Golden Fleece
Tintin and the Blue Oranges
"The Yellow M" (first of the Blake & Mortimer comics)
Then a really nice picnic in Finsbury Park. So many people came, it was lovely. Soph made me a "ROCK STONE" cake. Afterwards it was just like the old days, wandering around that area with Duncan, Nicky and Alex, to a nice dinner at The Noble.