Sound Mirrors
James and I got a taxi to the station yesterday morning (After James scooted down my stairs on his arse), an our journey progressed according to plan. Well, almost. We arrived a good 20 minutes early, and ended up waiting around Brighton station for Alex to finish his poncey £10 sandwich and 6-chip-stack (Something which amused me for the duration of our stay there). I'll admit, I was a little nervous, as I've never had any contact with him outside of Livejournal (And one email), and I'm generally not very good with new people, but his story of his pretentious, overpriced meal broke the ice nicely.
We got a taxi to the hotel, and discovered it wasn't as disabled-friendly as they made it out to be. In fact, they'd outright lied: They told James over the phone that it was, and it clearly wasn't. We left James outside while we dropped off our bags, and then walked along the seafront, with little aim but to find somewhere to eat and a way to kill the 6 hours remaining until the concert. We had a meal, surrounded by pensioners (Who broke into 'Happy Birthday' at one point). Afterwards we made our way along the seafront again, and found ourselves staring blankly at a strange game of beach volleyball.
The selection of films on at the moment is amazingly poor, so we ended up watching Ice Age 2. Which was amazingly poor. Who knew so many clichés and pop-culture references could be crammed into one animated feature? Well, I did, having seen Garfield.
After the movie we ate at Nando's, where James spent what seemed like a good 50 minutes on the phone to his brother. Skipping forward about an hour, we got a taxi to the Brighton Dome. After being refused entry at the wrong door, we found the right one, and were among the first in. We parked ourselves right next to the stage and got some drinks. At 8pm, some unshaven guy walked on with a bag of records and started playing some tracks. This turned out to be Bonobo, who played a 90-minute DJ set, which was excellent for the first hour, but it eventually felt a bit like he was just killing time until Coldcut were ready. Still, it was great to hear Pick Up at that volume, and mixed so perfectly into Flevans - Hey Mr. Bundle.
Coldcut came onstage at 9:30pm, and opened with a fantastically loud rendition of A Whistle and a Prayer from their new album. I was a little unsure how entertaining it would be watching some guys standing at a desk and fiddling with some knobs. And for the most part, there wasn't much to see. There was a large projector screen behind them, though, showing music videos and visual scratching, and they were eventually joined by two rather cool MCs and guest vocalists. Their set spanned old-school hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, RnB, and general turntablism and madness. The biggest disappointed was the absence of Roots Manuva for True Skool, especially after the MCs announced his name, which was kind of strange. They put on a fantastic finalé, which more than made up for it. By the end, two girls pushed past me and started dancing right next to James' chair, posing the risk of elbowing him in the face. And then it was over. We eventually got out, and went across the road for a drink. Sitting outside, we chatted for a while, and then spoke to juxtaposeur on the phone. I talked for a while about turnip prices in Animal Crossing, less awkwardly than I'd expected. And then we got a taxi back to the hotel, faced with the unenviable task of getting James up the stairs whilst slightly inebriated. We managed it somehow, and watched a little TV (And played a little Animal Crossing in my case), before going to sleep.
I'll try to make the account of the next day brief, considering it's already midnight. We wandered around for a while before finding a nice café with a sarcastic sense of humour, where we spent a comfortable hour and a half eating and talking about various games, movies, songs and TV shows. I really enjoyed this, as it's something I haven't really done since those few times I met up with Lydia and her boyfriend on Saturdays for lunch. I really do need more people to hang out with. If James and I get into Brighton Uni, it's something I look forward to doing more of.
Anyway, after we left the café, Alex led us in circles around Brighton's side-streets and alleys, most of which were quite pleasant, full of obscure shops and cobbled paths. We finally made it to the station, and just in time for the train. James and I ate Opel Fruits. In Guildford, he got the next train to meet his brother, and I went home. To find the water tank was leaking, and water was dripping through the light socket in the kitchen. Nice. The landlord got a plumber in, who seemed to solve the problem, and all was well. And then I sold my turnips for 461 bells each, and paid off my upstairs mortgage. Tomorrow I will have a new wing waiting for me.
And that brings us up to date. I'm going to sleep: NOW! G'night.
P.S. Hideki Naganuma's remix of his own track, Concept of Love, which is on the soundtrack to Ollie King (Which James brought with him so I could witness its greatness), is just about the best thing I've ever heard. This week, at any rate.
We got a taxi to the hotel, and discovered it wasn't as disabled-friendly as they made it out to be. In fact, they'd outright lied: They told James over the phone that it was, and it clearly wasn't. We left James outside while we dropped off our bags, and then walked along the seafront, with little aim but to find somewhere to eat and a way to kill the 6 hours remaining until the concert. We had a meal, surrounded by pensioners (Who broke into 'Happy Birthday' at one point). Afterwards we made our way along the seafront again, and found ourselves staring blankly at a strange game of beach volleyball.
The selection of films on at the moment is amazingly poor, so we ended up watching Ice Age 2. Which was amazingly poor. Who knew so many clichés and pop-culture references could be crammed into one animated feature? Well, I did, having seen Garfield.
After the movie we ate at Nando's, where James spent what seemed like a good 50 minutes on the phone to his brother. Skipping forward about an hour, we got a taxi to the Brighton Dome. After being refused entry at the wrong door, we found the right one, and were among the first in. We parked ourselves right next to the stage and got some drinks. At 8pm, some unshaven guy walked on with a bag of records and started playing some tracks. This turned out to be Bonobo, who played a 90-minute DJ set, which was excellent for the first hour, but it eventually felt a bit like he was just killing time until Coldcut were ready. Still, it was great to hear Pick Up at that volume, and mixed so perfectly into Flevans - Hey Mr. Bundle.
Coldcut came onstage at 9:30pm, and opened with a fantastically loud rendition of A Whistle and a Prayer from their new album. I was a little unsure how entertaining it would be watching some guys standing at a desk and fiddling with some knobs. And for the most part, there wasn't much to see. There was a large projector screen behind them, though, showing music videos and visual scratching, and they were eventually joined by two rather cool MCs and guest vocalists. Their set spanned old-school hip-hop, drum 'n' bass, RnB, and general turntablism and madness. The biggest disappointed was the absence of Roots Manuva for True Skool, especially after the MCs announced his name, which was kind of strange. They put on a fantastic finalé, which more than made up for it. By the end, two girls pushed past me and started dancing right next to James' chair, posing the risk of elbowing him in the face. And then it was over. We eventually got out, and went across the road for a drink. Sitting outside, we chatted for a while, and then spoke to juxtaposeur on the phone. I talked for a while about turnip prices in Animal Crossing, less awkwardly than I'd expected. And then we got a taxi back to the hotel, faced with the unenviable task of getting James up the stairs whilst slightly inebriated. We managed it somehow, and watched a little TV (And played a little Animal Crossing in my case), before going to sleep.
I'll try to make the account of the next day brief, considering it's already midnight. We wandered around for a while before finding a nice café with a sarcastic sense of humour, where we spent a comfortable hour and a half eating and talking about various games, movies, songs and TV shows. I really enjoyed this, as it's something I haven't really done since those few times I met up with Lydia and her boyfriend on Saturdays for lunch. I really do need more people to hang out with. If James and I get into Brighton Uni, it's something I look forward to doing more of.
Anyway, after we left the café, Alex led us in circles around Brighton's side-streets and alleys, most of which were quite pleasant, full of obscure shops and cobbled paths. We finally made it to the station, and just in time for the train. James and I ate Opel Fruits. In Guildford, he got the next train to meet his brother, and I went home. To find the water tank was leaking, and water was dripping through the light socket in the kitchen. Nice. The landlord got a plumber in, who seemed to solve the problem, and all was well. And then I sold my turnips for 461 bells each, and paid off my upstairs mortgage. Tomorrow I will have a new wing waiting for me.
And that brings us up to date. I'm going to sleep: NOW! G'night.
P.S. Hideki Naganuma's remix of his own track, Concept of Love, which is on the soundtrack to Ollie King (Which James brought with him so I could witness its greatness), is just about the best thing I've ever heard. This week, at any rate.