Mega update (July and August)
Here follows a very belated update about what’s been going on in July and August. Hey, at least it’s still August. ;)
Work and life stuff:
Things have been going pretty well on the translation front, which is what I’ve mostly been doing when I’ve had my writing head on, rather than updating here. I now have just one last page to translate to finish the RPG supplement I’ve been working on, and I’m told that once that’s done they are likely to actual publish the Core Rulebook which I handed over in the early part of the year…which means I will finally be a published translator, as well as a paid one.
School-related stuff for the other two jobs starts again very soon, of course, and I have so much stuff not yet done, both in terms of prep for the new term and things I’d meant to do over the summer while there was less work, like the wretched tax return, a big clearout of clothes, books etc and (now that the freelance + part time employed experiment is sufficiently successful to think I may as well keep on with it) buying a decent desk, printer and so on.
The list of things not done is partly because there was an awful lot going on over July and August on the social and cultural front, so what follows is the whistle-stop tour of that lot…
Films and books:
In the interests of getting this posted while it’s still August, I’m going to leave reviews of films (4) and books (8) seen and read over July and August for another time. Based on past experience, that means there’s a good chance they won’t get done at all, but this update is already stupidly overdue, so that’s how it is.
Clubbing:
I managed to go clubbing four times over these two months, and with enough variety that the ‘twelve clubs in twelve months’ challenge is beginning to look possible again. :)
Reptile - A and I went to what ISTR was the first night in its new venue, the ‘Tiki Bar’ next door to the revived Intrepid Fox. The music mix was as good as it’s ever been, the performance by a sword dancer was quite impressive and I won a Jordan Reyne CD…so it ought to have been a good night. Sadly, it wasn’t, for two reasons. Firstly, the new venue is not a good size and shape and means it's impossible to find somewhere you can stand to hear yourself have a conversation unless you go outside so you can't hear the music and, secondly, there was a member of door staff who thought it was acceptable to try and attract my attention (to tell me I was standing in the wrong place) by patting my behind… and seemed completely mystified when I pointed out to him that this was inappropriate and could cause distress. So, unless and until Reptile moves venue, I doubt I shall be going again.
Slimelight - Another disappointment, sadly. The Slime has long been the default choice when scarredpariah comes to visit, what with it having enough floors to cover our rather differing tastes and some space in the middle to meet up and chat once in a while. Except that this time around the downstairs area was almost completely closed and there was no trad floor at all, the floor I picked as second best choice played almost nothing I even recognised (never mind liked) over a number of hours and the EBM/aggrotek floor didn’t come up with what my partner in crime was looking for. We left at 3am, wondering unhappily if we were just too old for the Slimelight these days…
Monochrome v Reptile - A plan with almost no drawbacks: Reptile DJs plus the lovely Sahra Sin meant I was confident that there would be music I liked, and I wasn’t wrong. The dancefloor was tiny, but this wasn’t much of an issue as the night didn’t pull in many punters (possibly the LGBT angle; possibly the fact that it was a Sunday night). The music was a lot more varied than I might have expected even from Reptile, with quite a lot of more mainstream indie and metal stuff, which was fine by me (not least the opportunity to headbang to Guns N Roses). The one downside to the night was getting chatted up by some bloke in a horrid double denim outfit, who seemed to have not got the memo about it being a gay bar or a ‘queer alternative’ night. (I subsequently discovered that I wasn’t the only person he hassled, which did at least reduce the ‘why do I always seem to attract the clueless mundanes?’ paranoia)
Some Weird Sin - Not one I’d heard of before varioussorrows invited me, but a really fun night, advertising itself as doing ‘punk, glam and rock and roll’. Lots of danceable stuff, including (from memory): The Clash, Siouxsie, The Cure (I don’t think I’ve ever heard ‘Play for Today’ played in a club before), Roxy Music, The Bangles, The Only Ones, Vapors, L7, Hole, Bowie, Blondie, Billy Idol and Motörhead. The venue - the Buffalo Bar - is very much my kind of dive bar: a basement painted red with low lighting. The only downside was the drinks, with the only available cider being bottled Strongbow at a jaw-dropping price (and this bearing in mind that I’m all too used to paying £4 a pint on draft for the stuff in most places I go), but on another day I might yet go for some of their ‘handmade’ flavoured vodkas. Definitely a club I’d be happy to do again, and one I could see A enjoying, too...
Other entertainments:
Back in July, I went to the press night for new show at A’s theatre, ‘Daytona’. (It’s actually been and gone: the get out was last weekend and they are now into production week for the new show.) It’s about an elderly Jewish couple living in New York in the 80s, and the revelations about the past which come about when the husband’s long lost brother unexpectedly shows up. It mostly sold on the participation of Maureen Lipman, and she was rather good in it.
Also in July, A and I went with alobear and a few friends to the ‘Burlesque Idol’ night at Madame JoJo’s, which was excellent fun. The winners of the monthly events get a place in the final in November, which I’d be seriously tempted to see…
August was more of a geeky month, including a one-shot Dr Who game one Sunday, as nezumi_sama wanted to test-run the one he was planning to run at GenCon. In a rare exception to my usual preference for playing female characters, I had great fun playing Strax. Nezumi and A disappeared off to the US with Simon H, for a roadtrip and GenCon, which left me to do the bulk of the Nine Worlds Geekfest (my first convention, unless you count occasionally working at Dragonmeet and GenCon UK) on my own. I’ve already wibbled on about Nine Worlds at some length on Facebook, but the short version is: talks, films, workshops, games, practical demonstrations, comedy and awesome costumes. It almost made up for AltFest being cancelled, and was some of the best fun I’ve had in ages.
Other August highlights included a family lunch where my niblings were adorable and I managed not to have any arguments with the grown-ups, a visit from Becky-WINOLJ which included food, shopping and (home-made) cocktails, and birthday drinks with anadel1976 at a cocktail bar in the West End (the Match Bar, which I have bookmarked for future reference, as its list was quite interesting).
Work and life stuff:
Things have been going pretty well on the translation front, which is what I’ve mostly been doing when I’ve had my writing head on, rather than updating here. I now have just one last page to translate to finish the RPG supplement I’ve been working on, and I’m told that once that’s done they are likely to actual publish the Core Rulebook which I handed over in the early part of the year…which means I will finally be a published translator, as well as a paid one.
School-related stuff for the other two jobs starts again very soon, of course, and I have so much stuff not yet done, both in terms of prep for the new term and things I’d meant to do over the summer while there was less work, like the wretched tax return, a big clearout of clothes, books etc and (now that the freelance + part time employed experiment is sufficiently successful to think I may as well keep on with it) buying a decent desk, printer and so on.
The list of things not done is partly because there was an awful lot going on over July and August on the social and cultural front, so what follows is the whistle-stop tour of that lot…
Films and books:
In the interests of getting this posted while it’s still August, I’m going to leave reviews of films (4) and books (8) seen and read over July and August for another time. Based on past experience, that means there’s a good chance they won’t get done at all, but this update is already stupidly overdue, so that’s how it is.
Clubbing:
I managed to go clubbing four times over these two months, and with enough variety that the ‘twelve clubs in twelve months’ challenge is beginning to look possible again. :)
Reptile - A and I went to what ISTR was the first night in its new venue, the ‘Tiki Bar’ next door to the revived Intrepid Fox. The music mix was as good as it’s ever been, the performance by a sword dancer was quite impressive and I won a Jordan Reyne CD…so it ought to have been a good night. Sadly, it wasn’t, for two reasons. Firstly, the new venue is not a good size and shape and means it's impossible to find somewhere you can stand to hear yourself have a conversation unless you go outside so you can't hear the music and, secondly, there was a member of door staff who thought it was acceptable to try and attract my attention (to tell me I was standing in the wrong place) by patting my behind… and seemed completely mystified when I pointed out to him that this was inappropriate and could cause distress. So, unless and until Reptile moves venue, I doubt I shall be going again.
Slimelight - Another disappointment, sadly. The Slime has long been the default choice when scarredpariah comes to visit, what with it having enough floors to cover our rather differing tastes and some space in the middle to meet up and chat once in a while. Except that this time around the downstairs area was almost completely closed and there was no trad floor at all, the floor I picked as second best choice played almost nothing I even recognised (never mind liked) over a number of hours and the EBM/aggrotek floor didn’t come up with what my partner in crime was looking for. We left at 3am, wondering unhappily if we were just too old for the Slimelight these days…
Monochrome v Reptile - A plan with almost no drawbacks: Reptile DJs plus the lovely Sahra Sin meant I was confident that there would be music I liked, and I wasn’t wrong. The dancefloor was tiny, but this wasn’t much of an issue as the night didn’t pull in many punters (possibly the LGBT angle; possibly the fact that it was a Sunday night). The music was a lot more varied than I might have expected even from Reptile, with quite a lot of more mainstream indie and metal stuff, which was fine by me (not least the opportunity to headbang to Guns N Roses). The one downside to the night was getting chatted up by some bloke in a horrid double denim outfit, who seemed to have not got the memo about it being a gay bar or a ‘queer alternative’ night. (I subsequently discovered that I wasn’t the only person he hassled, which did at least reduce the ‘why do I always seem to attract the clueless mundanes?’ paranoia)
Some Weird Sin - Not one I’d heard of before varioussorrows invited me, but a really fun night, advertising itself as doing ‘punk, glam and rock and roll’. Lots of danceable stuff, including (from memory): The Clash, Siouxsie, The Cure (I don’t think I’ve ever heard ‘Play for Today’ played in a club before), Roxy Music, The Bangles, The Only Ones, Vapors, L7, Hole, Bowie, Blondie, Billy Idol and Motörhead. The venue - the Buffalo Bar - is very much my kind of dive bar: a basement painted red with low lighting. The only downside was the drinks, with the only available cider being bottled Strongbow at a jaw-dropping price (and this bearing in mind that I’m all too used to paying £4 a pint on draft for the stuff in most places I go), but on another day I might yet go for some of their ‘handmade’ flavoured vodkas. Definitely a club I’d be happy to do again, and one I could see A enjoying, too...
Other entertainments:
Back in July, I went to the press night for new show at A’s theatre, ‘Daytona’. (It’s actually been and gone: the get out was last weekend and they are now into production week for the new show.) It’s about an elderly Jewish couple living in New York in the 80s, and the revelations about the past which come about when the husband’s long lost brother unexpectedly shows up. It mostly sold on the participation of Maureen Lipman, and she was rather good in it.
Also in July, A and I went with alobear and a few friends to the ‘Burlesque Idol’ night at Madame JoJo’s, which was excellent fun. The winners of the monthly events get a place in the final in November, which I’d be seriously tempted to see…
August was more of a geeky month, including a one-shot Dr Who game one Sunday, as nezumi_sama wanted to test-run the one he was planning to run at GenCon. In a rare exception to my usual preference for playing female characters, I had great fun playing Strax. Nezumi and A disappeared off to the US with Simon H, for a roadtrip and GenCon, which left me to do the bulk of the Nine Worlds Geekfest (my first convention, unless you count occasionally working at Dragonmeet and GenCon UK) on my own. I’ve already wibbled on about Nine Worlds at some length on Facebook, but the short version is: talks, films, workshops, games, practical demonstrations, comedy and awesome costumes. It almost made up for AltFest being cancelled, and was some of the best fun I’ve had in ages.
Other August highlights included a family lunch where my niblings were adorable and I managed not to have any arguments with the grown-ups, a visit from Becky-WINOLJ which included food, shopping and (home-made) cocktails, and birthday drinks with anadel1976 at a cocktail bar in the West End (the Match Bar, which I have bookmarked for future reference, as its list was quite interesting).