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29/10/2002
Fun fact - listening to Gastr Del Sol's 'Quietly Approaching'
at the moment.
I've been meaning to update my blog with details of my little adventure
at the Home Office but I'm much too stressed and depressed at the
moment (see two-word paragraph below) to recount the whole thing
again. I'll tell you this much - went last Monday, found out that
people have been queuing up since the night before, decided to do
the same and put up for the night in Croydon, searched all over
for a place to stay, eventually turned up at the local YMCA, all
wet and soaking from the hammering rain, asked for directions to
the nearest bed and breakfast, getting asked in return if I was
homeless, promptly denied, gave up, went home, had to leave home
again at 3 am, took the night bus to Croydon, started queuing up
at 4:30 am, got in at 8:30 am and finally got everything done at
11:30 am. Six hours of sleep within forty eight hours. Anyway, that's
over and done with. I got my visa extended until next April. It's
a visitors visa though which, by right, means I'm gonna be able
to do fuck all over the next few months. But who cares?
KAWS exhibition was
kinda cool. There wasn't a lot of stuff on display but there were
some nice original prints of his work. Was looking forward to seeing
the KAWS companion figure (the one shaped like Mickey Mouse) but
it wasn't there. Uber-cool fashionistas would've ogled at the limited
edition Kubrick figures but unattractive, dull-coloured plastic
figurines whose only novelty value comes from having been associated
with an artist/designer/musician/Nigo just don't do it for
me. Umm, I did get a KAWS T-shirt and a poster.
Sisters suck.
I know everyone's going on about how Donnie Darko is such
a great film. It was good yeah, but I didn't really feel the supposed
greatness of it. I was expecting the Mulholland Drive level
of greatness but I suppose that's asking for too much. After the
movie, visit the accompanying website here.
Absolutely brilliant Flash-y stuff. I say 'accompanying' because
it's not merely a site about the movie. It's an online game with
loads of extra information and facts that don't appear in the film.
Trailers for Bowling For Columbine and Morvern Callar
had my anticipation all worked up for a slew of good films within
the next few weeks. And the Raindance
Film Festival. And the Regus
London Film Festival. And the soundtrack for Morvern Callar
is on Warp
Records. New Sigur Ros is out. Possibly Xen
on Thursday. Be still my heart.
More films. Tower Records has some real good videos on bargain prices
at the moment. Picked up The Big Lebowski, Carlito's Way,
Reservoir Dogs (seen it loads of times, worth keeping) and
Buffalo 66. Yummy. Bought X but couldn't bear listening
to Japanese schoolgirls who double as temple guardians speaking
in girly, high-pitched American English. Like, oh my God, I am so
going to return it to HMV.
20/10/2002
| DJ
Shadow, Brixton Academy, 19.10.2002 |
DJ
Shadow on Friday night was mind-blowing. I went to Brixton
Academy feeling all excited and jumpy and I had every reason
to be so. Though I was a bit gutted cos I missed the first two
supporting acts, Beans of Antipop Consortium and
Fingathing. When the eight of us finally got in, we were
already halfway through the Soulwax DJ set. Nevertheless
it was enough to pump up my adrenaline and set the vibes for
the rest of the night. A breather after the end of Soulwax's
set allowed the setting up of Shadow's equipment and at midnight,
Shadow emerged onstage, holding a larger-than-life replica of
a record above his head to a reception of frenzied applause.
My head's still buzzing from last night so I can't really be
bothered with all the details of the entire show but I can tell
you the highlights. First and foremost the visuals were absolutely
stunning. The best part was being able to see all those videos
that Shadow sampled from for songs like 'Napalm Brain/Scatter
Brain' ("Well hello there lil' buddy!"), 'Mashin' On The Motorway'
("Captain Dada") and especially the video clip that Fatboy
Slim sampled for 'Gangsta Trippin' ("You gotta kick that
gangsta shit!"). The highlight of the night was when Shadow
came back for an encore and did that thing where his MPC was
synchronized with video projections of drumming lessons conducted
by cheesy 80's hair rock drummers. The show was capped off with
the compulsory 'Midnight In A Perfect World' and finally finishing
with 'High Noon'.
All in all it was probably one of the best live shows that I'll
ever see in my entire life. Headache from throbbing bass and
excessive head-bobbing notwithstanding.
Pics from the show |
18/10/2002
"23 year old male wears heart on sleeve"
I haven't stepped out of my flat for the past two days. Time was
wasted sitting alone, talking aloud, mulling over whether or not
to return home for good. All while having John Cage's In
A Landscape on repeat. Frankly, home seems like the better place
to be at the moment but I don't really want to assume anything.
I came to London thinking I was gonna have a blast but it turned
out to be nothing more than a faint sputter so I don't wanna make
the same mistake. Don't get me wrong, it's not as if I was looking
to party every night or something. My time in London just hasn't
been ... emotionally gratifying. Granted, I met loads of cool dudes
and I'm glad I did but it just isn't enough. The trouble is I don't
even know what's missing so I don't know what to look for, let alone
where to start.
Nevertheless, what used to be a matter of choice is slowly becoming
a matter of inevitability. And nothing's gonna stop this transformation
of events unless something miraculous transpires. Having said that,
I do hope it'll happen, fingers - and toes - crossed.
14/10/2002
Note to self: avoid Oxford Street on rainy Sunday afternoons. Not
because of the crazy amount of people gathered there every weekend.
Neither because of the wet ground soaking my jeans right up my calves.
But because of the danger of breaking my neck as a result of non-stop
left-to-right head-swerving in order to avoid the barrage of umbrellas.
I'm almost six feet tall which makes me extremely vulnerable to
getting poked in the eye by the edge of someone's brolly. It doesn't
help to be polite either when they raise their umbrellas because
I risk getting gashed in the forehead instead (fun fact: this has
happened before).
Anyway, picked up the Silver Apples reissue for only £6.99,
first-hand, in HMV of all places. Some serious 60's psychedelic
rock bizzness going on there. Which only serves to further fuel
my transformation from hip-hop homie to full-on rock dude.
Aside from that and visa woes (which is a pretty major headache
at the moment) , life's been pretty dull. Had a really good Italian
lunch in Chalk Farm on Friday with Jo and Yanni which included fantastic
pizza, scrumptious calamari rings and excellent lemon sorbet. However
Red Dragon later on wasn't exactly entertaining. It'll be
good for everyone if this is the last Hannibal Lecter movie. Anything
more and Anthony Hopkins will have to start gumming his victims
to death.
6/10/2002
Quick notes:
- Gemma Hayes is a babe
- Portishead are back
- Mr Lif is the shit
(meaning 'good', to all you non-homies out there)
Job hunting is depressing. The other day some dudes came over to
my flat to deliver some boxes for my sister's boyfriend (he's shipping
stuff home). Had a chat with one of them and he was telling me how
this girl he met was complaining that she had sent over a hundred
job applications with no favourable response. Darn.
On the bright side, the results for my masters project came out
earlier this week and I officially have an MA under my belt. Which
is a worrying thing in itself, because unless I apply for another
course (and I don't really want to cos it's overkill for the kind
of work I'm looking for), that would mean that I have to start putting
on my grey fur suit, sticking my pink tail on and attaching my whiskers
in preparation for the race. Oh yeah,
can't forget my Nike® paws.
Managed to catch Gummo
on Channel 5 last night. If you're a cat lover, this film is not
for you. You'll see why. Fun fact - Harmony Korine was 23
when he made Gummo. When I was 23 I made this.
I'll leave you with an interesting conversation I had with Yanni
just a moment ago:
Loser Boy (me): halo. how was college on friday?
tsitou (Yanni): rubish. how r u?
Loser Boy: i'm okay. rubbish huh? hehe. what did u guys do on friday?
tsitou: nothing ... chris and then home
Loser Boy: i see. how boring.
tsitou: indeed
Loser Boy: did u learn about making tables?
tsitou: no its too early for that! we worked in teams and we presented
our ideas ... some students learnt to click as well
Loser Boy: ooh! clicking! i'm still learning that on my own
tsitou: its difficult some times. u even have to move tha mouse
Loser Boy: wow, that is indeed difficult. well, what else do you
expect from a MASTERS course?
tsitou: thats too advanced already
Loser Boy: you should complain. they should teach people how to
turn on the computer first.
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