28 January 2008

Not the greatest

I’ve made a compromise on the cheese sandwich, by also bringing in hummus?

Well, I’ve transformed the sandwich into fussy fingerfood, with the hummus, is what I’ve done. Though why we can’t just officially ban lunch in this country is sort of beyond me! People have enough to do in their day as it is. Specifically this person.

I’m trying to see the silver lining on this massive storm cloud that is the helpful redefinition of my job role, but right now all I can see is the insurmountable, time-sensitive, highly-flammable (why not) work that lies ahead of me. Take ‘excite’ out of ‘exciting’ and replace it with ‘frighten,’ and you get my job! Want it?

This past weekend, though, was totally worth whatever terrors are soon to emerge on the workfront (please let me off just this once, little jinx fairy!), because although none of it was planned, we still somehow managed to hit critical mass in terms of both activity and enjoyment.

We finished off Sunday by seeing a live performance of Cat Power in Shepherd’s Bush. I was expecting a bit of strangeness, having seen her at ATP last spring (if I squinted really hard and jumped high enough to see over the crowd), but nothing could have prepared me for the constant pacing, partial ranting and obsessive backwards stalking that was Chan Marshall on stage last night.

You have to be able to look past her irrational outbursts and intense fidgeting, her awkward gestures and moments of utter panic about what is going on around her in order to properly enjoy the husky heartbreak of her vocals. I think she told off about three different people and even dropped her mic at one point, but it was still an unforgettable event. It’s only too bad she focused mainly on her new covers album, and butchered the old favourites by changing up everything except the lyrics.

The opening band was a novelty for about 10 minutes: a DJ, a lanky blonde French woman with a bad voice and the tallest brunette in bunny ears with no skill for roller skating - though that’s mainly what she did when not sitting cross-legged blowing soap bubbles from a wand - that you have ever seen. Yes, I’d say 10 minutes.

Tomorrow, we’re going to see Stars at Koko. Bruce is concerned they’re not big enough here to fill the venue, but I guess we’ll see about that. I don’t know who is popular where or why anymore, I only know what I like! And the world revolves around me mainly, so.

Oh didn’t you get the memo?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You were at ATP? Weird, I stood at the back of the Cat Power gig, too. How did we miss each other? Did we miss each other? Shit.

Anonymous said...

You should go to Poland. Apparently they don't have lunchbreaks there, just work 7 till 3. But since I eat lunch about 1.5 - 2 hours after starting work, I scoff at that.

Hmm, the Guardian gave Cat Power a super-negative review (one out of five).

http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2248378,00.html

Although I'm not entirely sure why they hated it so much.

(Incidentally did you notice anything odd about Alan Rickman's crotch during Sweeney Todd? I've not seen it yet, but my friend is saying scary things.)

Anonymous said...

(or review)

Anonymous said...

Oh poo to you, blogger. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

Emmms, we must indeed've missed each other. Are you going to see Stars tonight? If so, I got a haircut but I'll be the one in the see-thru Monsoon blouse from last season looking testy!

Let me know if you're gonig to be at ATP this year (Explosions) and we can arrange to sway together for a spell.

Stuart - I know nothing of Alan Rickman's crotch and that's the way I'd like to keep it. I will go and read the review now, but I'm not surprised. She's put on much better gigs, in the past, when I wasn't here. Sob!

Anonymous said...

why didn't my comment show up?
do you even get these comments all the way down here?

Anonymous said...

Yes! What comment was that now?