Shedding Skin
Current mood: okay

faded thursday seeps through to friday and time feels like shifting sands.  i've just got back from an evening with dr.matt and chief plus a couple of other guys in town.  had a beverage or three at various hosteleries around the downtown 'diff.  started at Q Bar (which i still remmeber as the Goth club Neros from the Eighties...); had some supper at the pen and wig where there was slayer's "reign in blood" playing on the juke box while we were chewing and chatting; moved on to dempseys irish pub; and then back over by the Q bar but this time we drifted in to lloyds bar.  there was a lively buzz across town tonight with lots of young people celebrating exam results.  chief and dr.matt went on for another pint but i had to crash so i left them be in town.

Currently listening : Aenima By Tool Release date: 1996-10-01

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summertime rolls
Current mood: fine

there's a road that takes me to the back of the housing estate where i live.  it leaves the main road to caerphilly and stirkes east for about a mile until you get to pass back over the M4 motorway and pull a few small turnings into the cul de sac where my accomodation is.  the thing about the road is that it has an amazing scenic view of the severn.  in the daytime it stretches over to and past newport; then it goes across the water to england.  i like the view at night as well, i can see all the lights over in england shining out from villages and towns from over  the other side of the bristol channel.

anyway, here i sit and it is feeling lethargically late.  i have one cigarette left which will undoubtedly be gone by the time this is writ.  so, this will be brief as can be.  i've been a bit under the weather and the pc has been broken most of the last week.  it's fixed after some effort over the weekend.  this has been the first opportunity to pop down a note and attempt much in the way of written communication to anyone or anything in that time.  i have a big bundle of mails to write over next few days...

tonight was spent in the company of a few friends taking in an entertaining evening at an henry rollins spoken word show.  it was a good social night with friends old and not so. rollins was on ok form and had some pretty cool story stuff to chat about.  he's a well travelled dude with some well read and insightful thoughts.  there were amusing anecdotes about previous visit to wales; travelling to strange climbs; experiencing history;  generally getting as much out of the world we live in a possible.  not a bad couple of hours or so all in.

we hung out at a bar after the gig and i just dropped a few people off in my car before getting got back to the accomodation a few minutes ago.  time to retire really.  just thought i'd get some words down before crash time comes.  if a clear head presents itself in the next day or two, then maybe some more words can follow...

fin.

Currently listening : Nothing's Shocking By Jane's Addiction Release date: 1990-10-17

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Rollin’ down the avenue, I got my fist in the air
Current mood: okay

a fair few days and nights ago, a friend suggested that i check out the new sebastian bach album.  i'm doing this tonight and it sounds ok. called "angel down" and for fanatics of 80's stylee metal, this is sounding something a bit like the skid row "slave to the grind" album.  there are several songs featuring vocals from axl rose which will be a big selling point for a fair few purchasers of this album.  however, sebastian bach has always had a vocal signature of his own and that is apparent right through the album.  the big question is - does it rock?  hmmm, a fair bit.  there are super crunchy metal guitar sounds and yes, it's kind of like grunge never happenned but it has a kind of retro rocking yet current metal appeal to it.  at the end of the day, hey, i like all styles of metal.  i like to eat both savoury things and sweet things, sometimes in the same sitting.  this satisfies both urges adequately. so i guess i'll spin this disc a bit...

postscript:

Sebastian Bach Youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/DAMNOCRACY

Sebastian Bach myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sebastianbach

General info on Sebastian Bach: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_BachSolo

General info on the "angel down" album: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Down

Official Sebastian Bach website: http://www.sebastianbach.com/updates.html

Currently listening : Angel Down By Sebastian Bach Release date: 2007-11-20

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you’d better watch out or the insects will get you
Current mood: accomplished

it's been an ok sunday all told.  a late wake up furiously followed by my usual sunday sip of coffee down in the 'diff.  an afternoon of browsing a bundle of newpapers.  also got to ride a motorcycle scooter for the first time ever today.  mattiotic popped by for 5 mins to see where i lived and brought his honda zoomer along for the journey.  it's a cool little bike and i precariously wheeled it around and about the close where i live.  if i had somewhere to garage one, i think i'd get one.

as afternoon gently spilt into evening, the mirthmobile and i headed over to cwmcarn where i rode the bouncy bike up and down a mountain.  it was all going gloriously good until the final descent.  two small flying ants decided to scoop themselves over the top of my shades and take up residence in my right eye.  thus followed much blinking accompanied by very offensive swearing.  i couldn't stop at the time as i was speedily shifting through a rambling rock garden at about 20mph.  when i had opportunity and stopped, i pulled off the shades and scraped out the two ants from the corner of my eye.  my eyelid had pushed them off the eyeball where they had stung/bitten me.  i have to admit that my right eye was a bit teary and bloodshot for the following hour or so.  i tried washing them out with water but it made little difference.  it's still sensitively airy even now that several hours have passed.  might be a bit puffy in the morning but with the way i usually look on monday mornings i doubt anyone will be the wiser ;-).

fin.

Currently listening : Osaka Popstar & the American Legends of Punk (Bonus DVD) By Osaka Popstar Release date: 2006-05-23

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cum on feel the noize
Current mood: okay

the warm evening was enhanced by an amazing barbeque dinner over at château sains last night.  a close gathering of mattiotic, mr. parle and myself hung over at our friend chef sains place over in the deepest darkest lightly wooded depths of cefn mably.  chef sains cooked up some excellent foods for us all to eat on up as we talked the talk.  initial snacks were led by olives stuffed with anchovies.  this was closely followed an appetizer of warm baked camembert scored with garlic and seasoned nicely with white wine accompanied by crispy cut fresh french bread.  main was a whole marinated butterflied leg of lamb barbequed over rosemary topped charcoal.  this got served on up with some grilled pitta bread and appropriately accompanied by seasoned salad and seriously scintillating sauces.  seconds of the main were obtained by all.  after a bit more of talking the talk and smoking some, we all retired away from the château sains slab patio and hit the lounge for some metal video watching.  sains has an excellent old school (circa 1983) vhs video of THE DIO playing live in holland.  it was great to see the DIO rocking it in his prime.  his voice was and from our experience of seeing him front black sabbath a few months back still is incredible.  then of course came the ritual late night watching of the movie "twin town".  such a classic film, "twin town" pretty much shows some fairly genuine south west wales characters in a dark comedy based in and around swansea.  all told, i got back from the excellent evening spent at château sains around 0415 this morning...

as for this day that was saturday.  ha ha.  i slept on/off until just after midday.  just about managed to drive myself to the local shop for supplies of cigarettes and saturday papers, closely followed by another drive up caerphilly mountain to grab a breakfast burger at my mate chunks burger shack.  i know it's not the best breakfast someone can have but sometimes you just have to have stodge to start the day.  the remains of the afternoon were taken up with a casual couch chilling session which seemed to stretch nicely through a few hours.

as the evening came upon me, i headed on over to the my bike riding buddy's place in pantmawr.  we headed on out for a 2hr bike ride over to lesser garth and pentyrch village; climbing then to the top of the garth mountain for fantastic views of the diff and beyond.  the garth mountain was the basis of the story for a movie called "the englishman who went up a hill but came down a mountain".  descent was a long narrow roller coaster single-track, then a scruffy rooted up path, then a fast final fire road descent down towards nantgarw.  the way back from there is a light leisurely coast through a country lane to gwaelod y garth, a quick bump over a bridge to taffs well, a short couple of mile pavement ride through tongwynlais and back to where we started from.

by the time evening supplies for tonights 2nd meal of the day that is supper were acquired and heated up, it was 11pm.

now it's midnight and i think it's time to chill with something on the dvd telly.

this has been a pretty good start to the weekend.

night.

Currently listening : Cum On Feel the Noize By Quiet Riot

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Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away...
Current mood: chipper

0306hrs and i just got back from a party.

the drink flowed for those who drink. i don't drink alcohol so that doesn't really apply for me.  some recorded music got played for those who like to just dance.  later on, when the clock struck close to midnight, chief, surfer john and myself played our first semi-organised acoustic jam ever.  we started with some jane's addiction to warm ourselves up.  got down with a eddie vedder cover.  slipped into a bit of pearl jam.  went sideways into a little guns n roses.  finally checking back into a couple of pearl jam numbers and a slightly chopped mother love bone.  there were a couple of tiny excerpts of red hot chili peppers inbetween.  we had a good time.  another guy joined us and for a fair part of the time we had 3 acoustic guitars playing.  i think at least some of the people there dug it.  all in, it went much better than i had initially feared and people came up to said they liked my voice a couple of times afterwards which was flattering.

it's late, time to crash.

Currently listening : Vs. By Pearl Jam Release date: 1993-10-12

7:24 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I ask silently that all my destinations will accept the one that’s me so I can breath

there's no light in this room where the computer lives.  i guess you could call it a study.  the lightbulb went a couple of nights back and i haven't got around to getting a replacement.  work days are full. recuperative rest has not been forthcoming the past couple of weeks.  i hung out over at chief's place tuesday night.  we worked through some songs.  last night was spent over at the home of a couple of friends.  we just chatted a bit and i tried to help fix an internet access problem on their family computer.  the pc problem didn't get fixed but it was good to talk and catch up with people. it was a late night which meant business at the office this morning required large portions of coffee to get going.  i've been trying to practice singing some songs on the daily commute to and from the office.  things had been going OK until monday night when i thought i'd pretty much nailed the songs and i wasn't getting as many weird looks and comments while driving through the downtown 'diff with the car windows open as i had the previous week.  of course, it could have been that people are now used to me singing songs on the way to work and just accept me as a community care candidate.  anyway, since tuesday morning, i haven't been able to get the notes properly so i guess it could be a short set of song singing for me.  i'll push my body up a mountain sometime in the morrow and get some air, that might help.

Currently listening : Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild By Eddie Vedder Release date: 2007-09-18

5:19 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

in the still of the night...
Current mood: sleepy

back in the mid-1980's when me and my friends were still exploring the earlier stages of our musical tastes, we would pretty much go and see every band that played our town. we saw 80's hair metal bands, 80's pop rock bands, 70's hippy bands and straight ahead metal bands.

i have pretty pleasant memories of the whole of that part of my life. i loved going to shows at st. david's hall or cardiff students union and seeing all these people dancing or rocking out to whatever band was playing.

there were 2 bands from between the mid-eighties that i never saw. whitesnake was one. def leppard was the other. they were big bands back then, they never really played around here and were probably slightly too commercial for us to grace with our refined tastes. hmmm. anyways, mattiotic sorted that out for several of us tonight as we headed on down to the 'diff international arena for a bit of a monsters of classic rock session.

being civilised metal heads these days, our posse kicked back some tapas at mill lane las iguanas. the food was ok and the smiley service fine. but thats besides the point, we ended up at the venue about 1930ish hrs.

whitesnake was playing as we tumbled into the arena. they were playing some big 80's hit single crowd pleasers - i recognised a few of the songs - "here i go again" and "still of the night". the musicianship was fine, the songs well performed by the current line-up of musicians. i'd seen the main whitesnake guitarist with another band before and he was spot on then as he is indeed now. at that time he was playing songs orignally written and performed by def leppards guitarist vivian campbell but that's another nerdy music story for another day. the only thing that was a slight downer was that the giant video screens were just being used to show pics of the band travel around the stage. i had high hopes they might use the giant stageside screens to perhaps show some classic images of the model tawny kitaen, she of the cavorting over a jaguar in whitesnake music videos fame. lost opportunity there i feel.

def leppard played a little while later and again pretty much hit it with late 80's and some 90's hit single crowd pleasers. i recognisd a few of the songs - some really big international hits from the early to mid-eighties - fairly sure one was called "bringing on the heartbreak" which was reworked acoustically from how i remember it sounding and the other was called "photograph". there was a song called "pour some sugar on me", which mattiotic went off on, and strangely sion, gareth and myself found ourselves affected and found ourselves rocking out a bit to mattiotics lead.

after the gig, refreshments were acquired at the great western pub and caroline street in the downtown 'diff before we headed off in my mirthmobile of a car away from the big city lights to the deepest darkest mean streets of that city suburb known as rhiwbina.

overall, an alright and full night of entertainment.

ok, i'm toast and it's stupid late again but i only got in about 30mins ago and just felt the need to scrible down a few words.

fin.

Currently watching : Seasons - The Collective Release date: 2008-05-19

6:29 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

sonne
Current mood: okay

sleep is not abundant during on-call week, and by sunday night i get a bit manic so apologies in advance...

the streets were dry at last as i tumbled down to the coffee shop this morning.  a newspaper and smokes were obtained en route and an easy hour or so was had in the company of me, myself and i.

after some considerable pottering around the accomodation and a couple of other places, a bike ride up to rudry; across the ridgeway; and finally through the wenallt got done.  it was good to have the sun out and about for the occasion.

hung out with ade, chief, les and surfer john at several venues around the 'diff tonight.  the george was briefly visited (but there was a bunch of powder obsessed people hanging out who were not too comfortable to be around).  the buffalo bar was graced with our presence for a little while too.  there was an acoustic music jam night where a lady sang songs about recipes in portuguese.  i guess that's a niche - actually, "the pursuit of happiness" did a song called "food".  it was about someone's love being like greasy fried noddles, being instantly gratifying and wanting to come back for more straight afterwards.  but, i guess that's not really about recipes.  finally, we excused ourselves from the jam evening and took last orders at the salubrious pen and wig.  a tame night really, but it did for smooth finish for the weekend. 

we all managed to talk a bit more about how/what we'll be playing next weekend.  man, i've only learned 2 songs so far and my voice is unreliable and on/off.  i hope it works out.

i guess that brings me to now.  i got back here about 30mins ago after driving everyone home and the remains of the day will be dedicated to getting some sleep afore the morrow.

done.

postscript:
"sonne" - a song by "rammstein".  awesome german power metal band with fantastic live shows.  here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfHlA3fmJG0

Currently listening : Mutter By Rammstein Release date: 2002-06-11

5:11 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

i know, i know, i’ve been there before
Current mood: gallant

hung out over at chief's along with gigs for an hour or so this evening just to talk the talk and pass the time.

it was good to to take some time out from some long work days that have been absorbed by planning, building and fixing a few little bits of internet.

i think the guys i hung out with tonight were the first people outside of work i've spoken with in several days!

i'll have to get a life sometime...man, i always get like this when it's on-call week...i'm looking forward to when that ends next monday morning and i get to chill plus get out and about without having business in the back of the mind.

time to crash soon.  a cool thing about the place i rent at the moment is that if i leave my bedroom window open at night, i can hear a nearby stream passing through the little bit of woodland at the end of the street.  after it rains hard, the stream roars and that's a cool sound to sleep by.

i have a song by the band called "live" playing in the headphones at the moment.  it's a song called "lightning crashes".  it's got that okay slicked out mid-90's rock sound with hooked up choruses that like mean something when you're in your 20s...  i guess i was 20-something when i first got the album that this song is from.  as a band, they are big over there but not over here.  i actually saw "live" play "live" once as they supported "jane's addiction" at the pavilion in virginia in sept or oct 2001.  "live" were ok until they started singing on and on about dolphins crying, etc.  as for "jane's addiction", they were fucking awesome.

ciao

Currently listening : Throwing Copper By Live Release date: 1994-04-26

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