Closing In
Is it safe now? Will your arms be open?
I’ll just have to kiss you.
Try and stop me
I’ve always loved this song (Closing In by Imogen Heap) but ever since Thursday night when we (myself, crazy_squirtle and tayles) saw her perform it live... I almost had tears in my eyes and it was just so, so good ♥ ♥ ♥
Of course that’s a bit of a redundant statement because the entire concert was fantastic, Imogen has an incredible voice and even though she was recovering from a cold (she had to cancel the last three dates but made it to Birmingham because this was the last concert) her performance was practically perfect. Okay, so she had to break off and cough a couple of times, but she came across so naturally that it didn’t feel like a problem. She drank tea on stage (made a change to Nightwish which was beer, beer and more beer!) and got the verses in one of the songs mixed up because she was distracted by a cute guy in the audience. She looked great and relaxed and… yeah, wow! She sang every song off her ‘Speak for Yourself’ album as well as ‘Let Go’ (one of the Frou Frou tracks) and ‘Candlelight’ which was from her first album that she did years ago and I’ve never been able to find in this country (you know it’s my birthday in December folks...).
If you’ve ever heard any of Imogen Heap’s music you’ll know that it’s... not exactly quiet, but hardly the kind of music you’d think would really work at a concert. Seeing as my past experience of live concerts is limited to The Rasmus and Nightwish (oh and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra!) I wasn’t sure what to expect but she took some of her tracks and performed them in such a way you just had to bounce - Headlock, Loose Ends, Clear the Area, The Walk and Daylight Robbery really stick in my head. It helped that she had her support act back on stage with her for those and some of the others and they were good too - a urban London band called Nemo featuring four of the skinniest guys I’ve seen for a while or at least since I last watched the second generation myu-cast doing something. At first glance it probably looked like a bit of a weird combination, them and Imogen, but it really worked.
What didn’t work though, and this really, really pisses me off, was the crowd. It was ridiculous, Imogen was on stage giving it her all and clearly having a wonderful time and the audience was dead, they were polite and gave plenty of enthusiastic applause at the end of each and every song but as Becs said to me at one point, they were so British in the least polite sense of the word -_-; Frankly it was embarrassing and before I go to America I’m going to find an email address or something for Imogen so that I can apologise because she was getting nothing back from the audience and that’s just... criminal. There were some people who were reacting the way you’d expect people at a concert to react, because last time I checked you go to a concert to experience something you can’t get from an album or a television set, and of course there was me, Squirtle and Becs… but like the lead singer of Nemo said “we encourage dancing for this one” and why go to a concert if you’re just going to stand there and watch politely? Luckily Becs, myself and Squirtle were only in the third row of people and being a good head taller than the normal population (and wearing heels) meant that we were at least visible (we had our hands in the air too most of the time). When Nemo were on stage with Imogen their lead singer (who never did introduce himself) was doing his best to get the audience to clap but we were about the only ones who did, then during one of the songs the tempo changed so we stopped but he waved at us and started clapping again himself so we joined in again. But that’s what it was like, it felt like we were about the only ones really engaging with the music and it just made me think ‘what a waste’ afterwards...
Anyway, enough of my righteous outrage, maybe the bulk of the audience just wasn’t used to concerts (which is no excuse in my opinion) but... for crying out loud people, I’ve seen more life in audiences at Symphony Hall!
But the concert was brilliant, Squirtle got very excited by the stage design (typical Graphics student response!) and I got very excited when Imogen played Speeding Cars (and Closing In, as I mentioned earlier). Having Becs with us was great, I hadn’t seen her since graduation and getting to spend a couple of days to just relax and fangirl was wonderful (yay for Gackt, Cinepuri and PuriPuri D). And now I get to spend a few days writing, packing and fangirling before America *_____*
Speaking of which...
Title: Plaster
Summary: Quite why he’s being allowed, or even encouraged to play nurse when Takashi is quite capable of looking after himself is a bit confusing too. Nagayan has a little accident and requires Tuti to make it right, alternating perspectives (the bit in italics is Tuti’s train of thought) and entirely blamed on the fact that my fingers are always covered in scratches and scars from similar little accidents - alas I don’t have a handy Tuti...
One little slip of the knife and he’s only got himself to blame. The skin breaks but he barely feels it, one of those injuries that you usually only notice when you plunge your hands into water and the sudden sting makes you realise what you’ve done. For such a tiny scratch there’s a lot of blood and he stares at it for a moment in amazement before a concerned voice at his shoulder distracts him.
Somehow it always takes him by surprise when Takashi shows signs of carelessness or has accidents involving things like, for the sake of argument, kitchen knives. He doesn’t know why he’s always surprised when his boyfriend slips up like that, but he is and when Takashi doesn’t react immediately to the trickle of blood that’s spreading across and down his finger he feels a flash of concern that the cut is a sign of something more important having gone wrong.
Tuti’s face is pulled into his usual look of concern that’s familiar and yet not and that alone makes him smile. Despite all Tuti’s protests to the contrary, he does have a slightly fussy side that in the past has led him to take certain Prince of Tennis (and Bleach) musical actors under his wing. It’s possibly the same part of him that often prompts him to stick his nose into other people’s business, asking questions when they’re probably not wanted and giving his advice when it isn’t asked for. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times Daiki smacks him round the back of the head for interfering, Tuti still does it both with him and with everyone else. Watching his boyfriend take his bleeding hand in both of his own so that the blood can dirty paper towels instead of skin, he smiles again because he knows it can’t be seen, silently listening to Tuti rambling on about something that means nothing except that he cares.
That smile’s a cause for concern too because cutting yourself with a knife isn’t usually something that makes people smile, at least not in his experience. Quite why he’s being allowed, or even encouraged to play nurse when Takashi is quite capable of looking after himself is a bit confusing too. He’s seen his boyfriend pick himself back up after acrobatic moves have gone spectacularly wrong and a cut finger is nothing in comparison to the fear of broken bones, bruised limbs or pulled muscles, but it often happens like this, or so he’s noticed over the years. Takashi will sail through all the potentially serious accidents, grinning and joking and politely ignoring all offers of help no matter how obliquely given but it’s the little things like this that prompt him to hold out a hand and make the silent, and somewhat unexpected, request.
Tuti’s cleaned, washed, dried and bandaged the finger all before either of them say anything worth listening to. It doesn’t take long though for Tuti to ask, ‘You okay?’ and waggle his eyebrows and even less time for him to smack Tuti’s arm and give the normal positive answer. He can see Tuti doesn’t believe him, can see concern shining deep and clear in his boyfriend’s eyes but it stays unvoiced and his answer is accepted with a stupidly teasing joke about how he wasn’t supposed to take literally the forgotten comment Tuti had made who knew when about him looking good enough to eat in whatever unimpressive get up he’d been wearing.
And that is that. Food preparation resumes as though nothing has happened. Conversation flits back to, over and around half a dozen topics before settling down to something that offers just the right mix of seriousness and silliness for them to both relax after their respective days. Life turns back to the normal and the domestic without paying any attention to the blip caused by a slipped knife.
But to him, as he continues chopping vegetables with one bandaged finger stuck out at a funny angle with exaggerated care to avoid any more accidents, that single, wonky plaster says more than words ever could.
End
Now I'm off to perform 'Swinging Samson' in church. Bai bai!
I’ll just have to kiss you.
Try and stop me
I’ve always loved this song (Closing In by Imogen Heap) but ever since Thursday night when we (myself, crazy_squirtle and tayles) saw her perform it live... I almost had tears in my eyes and it was just so, so good ♥ ♥ ♥
Of course that’s a bit of a redundant statement because the entire concert was fantastic, Imogen has an incredible voice and even though she was recovering from a cold (she had to cancel the last three dates but made it to Birmingham because this was the last concert) her performance was practically perfect. Okay, so she had to break off and cough a couple of times, but she came across so naturally that it didn’t feel like a problem. She drank tea on stage (made a change to Nightwish which was beer, beer and more beer!) and got the verses in one of the songs mixed up because she was distracted by a cute guy in the audience. She looked great and relaxed and… yeah, wow! She sang every song off her ‘Speak for Yourself’ album as well as ‘Let Go’ (one of the Frou Frou tracks) and ‘Candlelight’ which was from her first album that she did years ago and I’ve never been able to find in this country (you know it’s my birthday in December folks...).
If you’ve ever heard any of Imogen Heap’s music you’ll know that it’s... not exactly quiet, but hardly the kind of music you’d think would really work at a concert. Seeing as my past experience of live concerts is limited to The Rasmus and Nightwish (oh and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra!) I wasn’t sure what to expect but she took some of her tracks and performed them in such a way you just had to bounce - Headlock, Loose Ends, Clear the Area, The Walk and Daylight Robbery really stick in my head. It helped that she had her support act back on stage with her for those and some of the others and they were good too - a urban London band called Nemo featuring four of the skinniest guys I’ve seen for a while or at least since I last watched the second generation myu-cast doing something. At first glance it probably looked like a bit of a weird combination, them and Imogen, but it really worked.
What didn’t work though, and this really, really pisses me off, was the crowd. It was ridiculous, Imogen was on stage giving it her all and clearly having a wonderful time and the audience was dead, they were polite and gave plenty of enthusiastic applause at the end of each and every song but as Becs said to me at one point, they were so British in the least polite sense of the word -_-; Frankly it was embarrassing and before I go to America I’m going to find an email address or something for Imogen so that I can apologise because she was getting nothing back from the audience and that’s just... criminal. There were some people who were reacting the way you’d expect people at a concert to react, because last time I checked you go to a concert to experience something you can’t get from an album or a television set, and of course there was me, Squirtle and Becs… but like the lead singer of Nemo said “we encourage dancing for this one” and why go to a concert if you’re just going to stand there and watch politely? Luckily Becs, myself and Squirtle were only in the third row of people and being a good head taller than the normal population (and wearing heels) meant that we were at least visible (we had our hands in the air too most of the time). When Nemo were on stage with Imogen their lead singer (who never did introduce himself) was doing his best to get the audience to clap but we were about the only ones who did, then during one of the songs the tempo changed so we stopped but he waved at us and started clapping again himself so we joined in again. But that’s what it was like, it felt like we were about the only ones really engaging with the music and it just made me think ‘what a waste’ afterwards...
Anyway, enough of my righteous outrage, maybe the bulk of the audience just wasn’t used to concerts (which is no excuse in my opinion) but... for crying out loud people, I’ve seen more life in audiences at Symphony Hall!
But the concert was brilliant, Squirtle got very excited by the stage design (typical Graphics student response!) and I got very excited when Imogen played Speeding Cars (and Closing In, as I mentioned earlier). Having Becs with us was great, I hadn’t seen her since graduation and getting to spend a couple of days to just relax and fangirl was wonderful (yay for Gackt, Cinepuri and PuriPuri D). And now I get to spend a few days writing, packing and fangirling before America *_____*
Speaking of which...
Title: Plaster
Summary: Quite why he’s being allowed, or even encouraged to play nurse when Takashi is quite capable of looking after himself is a bit confusing too. Nagayan has a little accident and requires Tuti to make it right, alternating perspectives (the bit in italics is Tuti’s train of thought) and entirely blamed on the fact that my fingers are always covered in scratches and scars from similar little accidents - alas I don’t have a handy Tuti...
One little slip of the knife and he’s only got himself to blame. The skin breaks but he barely feels it, one of those injuries that you usually only notice when you plunge your hands into water and the sudden sting makes you realise what you’ve done. For such a tiny scratch there’s a lot of blood and he stares at it for a moment in amazement before a concerned voice at his shoulder distracts him.
Somehow it always takes him by surprise when Takashi shows signs of carelessness or has accidents involving things like, for the sake of argument, kitchen knives. He doesn’t know why he’s always surprised when his boyfriend slips up like that, but he is and when Takashi doesn’t react immediately to the trickle of blood that’s spreading across and down his finger he feels a flash of concern that the cut is a sign of something more important having gone wrong.
Tuti’s face is pulled into his usual look of concern that’s familiar and yet not and that alone makes him smile. Despite all Tuti’s protests to the contrary, he does have a slightly fussy side that in the past has led him to take certain Prince of Tennis (and Bleach) musical actors under his wing. It’s possibly the same part of him that often prompts him to stick his nose into other people’s business, asking questions when they’re probably not wanted and giving his advice when it isn’t asked for. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times Daiki smacks him round the back of the head for interfering, Tuti still does it both with him and with everyone else. Watching his boyfriend take his bleeding hand in both of his own so that the blood can dirty paper towels instead of skin, he smiles again because he knows it can’t be seen, silently listening to Tuti rambling on about something that means nothing except that he cares.
That smile’s a cause for concern too because cutting yourself with a knife isn’t usually something that makes people smile, at least not in his experience. Quite why he’s being allowed, or even encouraged to play nurse when Takashi is quite capable of looking after himself is a bit confusing too. He’s seen his boyfriend pick himself back up after acrobatic moves have gone spectacularly wrong and a cut finger is nothing in comparison to the fear of broken bones, bruised limbs or pulled muscles, but it often happens like this, or so he’s noticed over the years. Takashi will sail through all the potentially serious accidents, grinning and joking and politely ignoring all offers of help no matter how obliquely given but it’s the little things like this that prompt him to hold out a hand and make the silent, and somewhat unexpected, request.
Tuti’s cleaned, washed, dried and bandaged the finger all before either of them say anything worth listening to. It doesn’t take long though for Tuti to ask, ‘You okay?’ and waggle his eyebrows and even less time for him to smack Tuti’s arm and give the normal positive answer. He can see Tuti doesn’t believe him, can see concern shining deep and clear in his boyfriend’s eyes but it stays unvoiced and his answer is accepted with a stupidly teasing joke about how he wasn’t supposed to take literally the forgotten comment Tuti had made who knew when about him looking good enough to eat in whatever unimpressive get up he’d been wearing.
And that is that. Food preparation resumes as though nothing has happened. Conversation flits back to, over and around half a dozen topics before settling down to something that offers just the right mix of seriousness and silliness for them to both relax after their respective days. Life turns back to the normal and the domestic without paying any attention to the blip caused by a slipped knife.
But to him, as he continues chopping vegetables with one bandaged finger stuck out at a funny angle with exaggerated care to avoid any more accidents, that single, wonky plaster says more than words ever could.
End
Now I'm off to perform 'Swinging Samson' in church. Bai bai!