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| Wednesday, December 26, 2007 |
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posted by korova @ 9:35 pm  |
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| Thursday, October 11, 2007 |
| No Way, It Can't Be.......It Is.........Bloody Hell |
I'm still alive.......oh iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh iiiiiiiiiii'mmmmmmmmmm ssssstiiiiiiiiilllllllllll alive!! Teehee!
Will post something soon. I have a few thoughts on several albums I have bought recently. What a great few weeks of music. Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder and now, Radiohead (quite possibly the greatest band on the earth.......yes, I did say that!!). Needless to say I bought the discbox, I just couldn't resist. As for the album....fantastic. I will post more here shortly. Oh, and apologies for the lackof comments on blogs.......I have been really bust what with work, studying etc etc. |
| posted by korova @ 8:52 pm |
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| Saturday, September 01, 2007 |
| Tales of Pot Noodles, Disappointments and a Monster |
Well, looks like I might still be able to produce children, despite the best efforts of my father-in-law (curse him). Did another 10km yesterday and around 14km today. I'm not going to be able to sit down at this rate!! Still, I have discovered that it is a necessity. We went into Seville yesterday to do a bit of shopping and I was particularly after the new Real Betis shirt (they are my in-laws team and it is their centenary and, as I'm a big footie fan, it had to be done!). Bugger was, they have a tendency to produce shirts that are a little, how shall we say, skin tight. This was all well and good a couple of years back when I was relatively slim. Now, however, years of booze and Pot Noodles have started to take their toll. When I put on the shirt when I got home, I was rather shocked to discover that I had managed to conceal a spare tire about my person. Well, I say conceal. I was greeted with a chorus of guffaws and I immediately decided that the cycling is necessary if I have any hope of turning my life around. I don't intend on looking like the Michelin man in my mid-30s. Screw that. Pot Noodles will have to take a back seat for now.
Anyway, Seville looks much better now the road works habve calmed down. However, my once vociferous support for the new tram system is starting to make me look foolish. Although the streets look much better, they poles used to support the tram lines are ridiculously large and rather too in your face. They decided that black would be a good look, leaving the city a mass of black poles and wires, rather spoiling the view of the cathedral. Dammit, Seville, your making me look silly with my 'it will be great when it's finished' routine. Sort it out pronto!!
On the plus side, a new music/technology place has opened in the centre. Hard to beleive that they didn't have a single reputable record shop these past few years. This one is called fnac and it is pretty impressive. I was certainly happy when I walked out of there with Rage Against The Machine - Live At The Olympic Auditorium, Radiohead - Meeting People Is Easy and Monster by REM (the only REM album I have ever really got into, but then it was released in 1994) - all for under ₤20. Result!! Right, I need to go for a walk before my bums stiffens up. Adios!Labels: fat man in the ring la-la-la-la-la, music, pot noodle, Seville |
| posted by korova @ 3:27 pm |
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| Tuesday, August 28, 2007 |
| Pride Comes Before a Fall |
Surely this must be some kind of mistake? A post? On 'In My Tree'? What is going on. Well, seeing as I am on holiday at the moment, I thought I would take the opportunity to say 'hi'. So, er, 'hi'. Well now that is over with, I guess I ought to fill up some space with some pointless meanderings about my life. Now, where shall I start.......
Ok, firstly, I have a new job. Well, it is not exactly a 'new' job as it is the same as the old job, but it is in a brand spanking new location. Luckily, a post came up much closer to home and, although I was quite settled in my old place of work (although there were few people I would call 'friends'), the opportunity to cut down on travelling time (good for the environment - yay!) and work closer to where I live (no more late arrivals at home - yay!) were too good to turn down. Bearing in mind I intend to start planning a family shortly, the extra cash saved as a result of this move will come in very useful. So, in short, yay to me!
At the moment I am relaxing in Spain, although I have to admit it is a little difficult to relax at the moment. Of late, I have developed what some might describe as a 'beer-belly', I prefer to think of it as an extra layer of warmth. Consequently (you can tell I have been writing too many essays recently, who uses 'consequently' in casual conversation??!!), my father-in-law suggested we go for a bike ride. I anticipated that this would be a short, yet jolly, jaunt around the neighborhood. However, it turned into an 18km ordeal that I thought would never end. The main cause of my pain was not so much the cycling, more the fact that I felt like a razor blade was taunting my genitals. The saddle was perhaps the most uncomfortable thing I have ever experienced. I felt like blood was about to surge forth from around my.........well, you get the drift. Now it hurts when I sit down for a long period of time. Hence, writing this post is a little like torture. Hey, the price we have to pay, right?
I guess I could have said enough after 6km and we could have headed back after accomplishing a respectable 12km ride. But this was my father-in-law. And his friend. I was representing England. Suddenly, this became about national pride (and proving I wasn't a wuss!!). I have never been particularly competitive (although I play football regularly, I am know for a rather languid approach - I put that down to skill, they put it down to laziness), and yet here I was feeling the urge to prove that I am a man. What a dick. The price for my pride (something that has been badly bruised over the years when not neglected entirely) is a scorching red scrotum. Lesson learnt. Next time, screw the pride. If my father-in-law thinks I am a big girl, then so be it. There's no shame in that, right? Now, where's that Vaseline? |
| posted by korova @ 2:07 pm |
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| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 |
| Pearl Jam - Wembley Arena |
Set 1
Long Road,
Severed Hand,
Grievance,
Comatose,
Given To Fly,
Low Light,
I Got Id,
Faithfull,
Green Disease,
Marker In The Sand,
Immortality,
Down,
Present Tense,
State Of Love And Trust,
Why Go,
Save You,
Porch
Encore 1
Inside Job,
Parachutes,
Crazy Mary,
Do The Evolution,
Alive
Encore 2
No More,
Bu$hleaguer,
World Wide Suicide,
Rockin' In The Free World,
Indifference
Well, what a night! And what a nightmare sequence of events leading up to it!! For a short time, on Sunday night, it looked like my wife would have to go to work and the whole thing was going to go tits up. Thank fuck it didn't as I had a superb night (much as I suspected). I guess I ought to tell you all about it.
Idlewild were the opening act on Monday night and, I have to admit, I hadn't heard much about them previous to the gig. Although they didn't blow me away, I was quite impressed with some of their stuff, enough to want to try out one of their albums. The only thing that bothered me was the vocalist. For some strange reason he seemed to prefer facing to the side when he was singing (or even with his back to the audience at one point). I couldn't get used to it, it was almost as if he was scared to face the audience. However, that aside, they were quite enjoyable and they certainly 'warmed me up' for the main event.
Then it came. The lights went down, Master/Slave began to fill the Arena with its chilled out vibe and then, the moment I had been waiting for for 15 YEARS - Pearl Jam made their way out onto the stage. The sudden, expectant surge was forthcoming and the crowd went wild. It has been 7 long years since they last played a proper Arena gig in the UK, now the end of the famine was in sight. Luckily we got pretty close to the front and, although we weren't quite within touching distance, it was quite an awesome feeling to finally see these guys up close. There's no way these guys could let me down and give a poor performance, and they proved me right with a blistering performance from start to finish.
They opened the set with Long Road which had the crowd singing along right from the start. This was followed by Severed Hand, one of the stand-out tracks on the latest album, and then some classic tunes almost perfectly designed for the moshpit. I was breathless by the time the pace slowed down during Low Light. One thing was clear as they made their way throughout the set, this was a fans set list. The well known hits were shunned in favour of well loved, yet little known, classics from the Pearl Jam back catalogue (which is vast). Of these, the stand-out songs were State of Love and Trust, Porch and Present Tense (a track that is popular amongst all 'true' Pearl Jam fans). Porch was particularly well received, with crowd surfers doing their thing while Eddie strode from one side of the stage to the other taking a moment to check out the audience, whilst Mike McCready did his thing, mesmerising the crowd with his superb guitar work (not to mention his endless generosity throughout as he threw out countless plectrums into the crowd). Breathtaking stuff. I could barely believe I was there.
Eddie was on good form that night as well. Cracking jokes and looking like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, he has become the peerless front man. And what a voice. At one point he thanked the crowd for 'putting up with [his] voice' all these years. With a voice like his, I could put up with it for a very long time and never get bored. Perhaps the finest moment came at the beginning of Indifference. Eddie had just been telling the crowd how he may have written some 'shit lyrics' but he was 'really proud' of these - cue Indifference. Unfortunately, just a couple of lines in, Eddie had forgotten the words that he was most proud of. Luckily the crowd pitched in and it all came back to him! He certainly saw the funny side as a broad smile spread out across his face (yes, that's right all you doubters, Eddie does know how to enjoy himself!!!).
Eddie also took the opportunity to share a new song that had only been played once before. 'No More' was an acoustic offering that was spawned via conversations with a man who had returned from Iraq and was paralysed from the chest down. Whilst the rest of the band were backstage, Eddie performed the song alone with his acoustic guitar and his usual passionate voice. It's difficult to know whether this will be staple of the Pearl Jam live set, but it was a fantastic moment to hear a new song debuted in the UK.
The remainder of the second encore had a distinct political theme to it, perhaps unsurprising given his comparison to Bush as a 'drunken driver' before 'No More'. Whatever, the atmosphere was electric in the Arena and, even after a 2 1/2 hour set, there was a sense that everyone would have been happy if it had gone on all night. Sadly, it wasn't to be. However, Pearl Jam had given a fantastic show that will live long in the memory. Although I had waited 15 years for this moment, I feel I have seen one of the best Pearl Jam live performances. Certainly that was the impression I got from various message boards and from the crowd on the night. It was well worth the wait. Pearl Jam were in their prime. Long may it continue.Labels: Gigs, music, Pearl Jam |
| posted by korova @ 12:52 pm |
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| Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |
| For real |
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| posted by korova @ 5:49 pm |
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