Heavy Metal PARTY Saturday

Dio - Holy Diver
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Annihilator - Alice in Hell
Manowar - Battle Hymns 
Dokken - Under Lock and Key
Ratt - Dancing Undercover

I am the rookie shot by Death Aid...

Neil Young - my ultimate musical hero - someone who knows how to grow older and not conform, or be boring. Whatever he does, I'm there. So many records that I could listen to a one a year until retirement age.

A Guide to Buying an Oven (for people who are a bit depressed)

By Kim Noble.

I love this. So simple, sad and funny.

FOCUS, YOU SON OF A BITCH!

..is what I have been saying to myself these past few nights. I have a lot to do, which enables the cogs to turn more than the 9 to 5 will ever allow. I relish and cherish any opportunity to 'DO SOMETHING' when friends/well wishers and creatives request my help/input.
However, I'm having trouble focusing now that things are in motion. Unlike usual, I am determined to make the blank pages have something, ANYTHING, on them. Lots of ANYTHING. I can whittle down the good stuff. The worst part of being an adult is that your creativity and imagination can sometimes be stifiled by realism.
"That doesn't work. That wouldn't happen" wasn't a voice you heard as a kid. You could make anything into anything. As an adult, you often have to explain an idea to yourself, diluting and ruining the idea before it gets written down or expressed to anyone else. Realism is the killer of ideas. I would rather be childish.

Focus, poo face.

I Can't Let You Do That, Star Fox

Ugh. The sickness. I've been cold cocked by a cocking cold. I've not been able to focus on anything despite having shed loads to do. From New Years Day, I decided to re-focus into the more creative side, not for a shot at any kind of glory but to make myself (and possibly family and friends) proud. I wanted to get back into the DIY story/film culture and it didn't take long for the wheels to start turning, hit the road and head towards destination possible.
I didn't expect it to happen so quick or for people to be on the same page so I've been writing and getting extremely self conscious that what I have so far isn't up for snuff.

 A good friend has also asked me to take part and write some bits and bobs for a monthly collection, with a style that I should be able to crank out without too much worry. Maybe it's the flu but I find it hard to write a sentence at the moment. I'm pretty sure, when my head is clear, I can write with confidence.

Tonight, we are having a small party, watching the recently shown Ye Old CITV kids shows that we recorded this morning. I imagine a lot of people are doing that because those kinds of memories are better shared by groups. With beer. I won't be partaking in any adult pop as I'm having a dry month (not literally, I'll still be drinking other liquids and not pints of air and dust) but we will be eating hot dogs and watching shows that are still either great or best forgotten. Like my Mother.

Why Star Fox? Well, because of my flu-sponsored limited attention span, I've mostly been watching short films on You Tube and other, nerdy things like, and this is a true search; "NEW ZEALAND STORY FINAL BOSS" and "KID ICARUS NES"- I have quite a few films on DVD from Christmas but I'm all dozy and I want to watch them when I feel less zombified. My most excellent brother (and Star Fox fan) Nick got me a collection of all the Batman animated films. I'm particularly looking forward to watching YEAR ONE.

So, I'm going back to writing, despite my head feeling like someone is staging a ROYAL RUMBLE inside it. Oh, I'm so brave. 

Yes.

Musical Treats 2012

The whole of Latitude - Going into it, I thought: "Wow, this is a bit steep for a fest".  It was also for a stag do so there was something different about it. We didn't get all rowdy. My friend is a gent who wanted to spend a weekend watching bands with his friends. That's my kind of stag event. Latitude had many highlights, from bands to classical geniuses. Yeah, it's a pretty posh festival but I'd rather have that than some pill-popping twats in festival hats.

Sharon Van Etten, Josh T Pierson, Battles, M83, Perfume Genius, Bon Iver.. It's hard to really put a list together. We were there for almost a week and we saw, and enjoyed, so much.

Dot to Dot - Nottingham - Stag Do #1 (that also featured Kylie and Cheryl) - Although I didn't really drink (mostly because Matt, as the groom-to-be, was quaffing some seriously strange combo drinks) it was a fuzzy affair. We didn't see as much as we normally do but TURBO WOLF were easily the best band of the day. Combined with a seriously shitty hotel, no use of the uni halls for larger band and the fest closing really early, D2D was not as good this year musically. It was great, company wise though. As a get together in Nottingham, it was splendid.

CANAL SIDE FESTIVAL - We pretty much stumbled upon this when we went to Nottingham for Kylie's birthday. It was a varied, fun little fest in a large bar with many floors. It was really nice. Lots of odd bands.

SUMMER SUNDAE - as it turns out, it is the last one. Shame as it was easily the best one that I have ever been to. Tune Yards, Japandroids, PiL, Bowerbirds...there was a lot of good stuff going on. Unlike 2011, there was no major POP headliner so the crowd was more fun and the bands were a little more left field.

OTHER GIGS:

SKAM @ The Musician/Firebug - SKAM are a local band that have had a brilliant year. I have known the drummer for a good while, sharing many a tea and pop culture gag with him so it's excellent to see him and his rocking outfit get press, more gigs and radio/TV time. Soon I won't be able to talk to him without going through his agent.

Hot Goblin Chat

This right here is a logo from my first website, one I built on Tripod. I was living in Westfield at the time, sharing a house with a bunch of crazy cats (not literally) and I was convinced that I was going to be the next Kevin Smith (or a slimmer, even less talented wannabe version)
If I recall, I was confident that me and my former college buddy were going to become a comedy powerhouse, writing sketches and taking Edinburgh by storm. That never happened for a variety of reasons. He literally got a life and I drifted mentally for about, ooh, 7-9 years.

Looking back though, these were some pretty strange times. Times that helped to shape me. I was, at least, tenacious enough to take risks. I would like to get a little bit of that back.
Interestingly (or not, I'm not sure) the script I mention that I'm writing on remains, for the most part, unfinished and unfilmed. I was actually talking about it tonight. It was a nice, simple idea from the brain of a nice (ish), simple man. It's a testament to the fact that I never finish anything. That's another resolution; to see things through to some kind of conclusion.
I suppose this is why I started blogging again because it means that I get to fin-

Slight Returns

Long time no post. This blog has been in the hands of 'top men', boxed up and shoved next to ye olde artifacts of varying significance. As it turned out, this was seized by mistake and I was 're-gifted' (the governments words) it back. I'm not sure what they thought it was but they didn't seem pleased with the mix up. Maybe they thought it was the blog of Christ, not Christopher, a chap from the Midlands with concerns about comics, hair and finding the one (by that I mean a nice, non corporate job. I have a woman. She's currently playing Sonic)
Either way, I felt that it would be nice to slap down the old thoughts and daily events again. This blog always used to help me to figure things out and write more. It gave me a nice little identity and I really need to get more out of the net than Spotify and refreshing Facebook.
I blame FB for that shift to keeping everything in one electronic garden. I remember actually going to the website of a band to find out more about them, rather than LIKE them and have their latest news sandwiched between friends, family and other folk's activity. I have recently taken off a bunch of bands to make sure I'm less lazy. The same goes for Blogger. I used to enjoy reading about peoples daily events, reviews and random thoughts. You can't really get that on Facebook and Twitter is something I have a love/hate thing with. I mean, 'micro blogging' is another step towards us returning to cave man communication, grunting and pointing at our genitals to get our points across.
It's a new year. 2013. Sounds rubbish to me, like a frumpy jumper. It doesn't feel 'new'. I think it's because the number three is pretty boring. Sure, it's used in jackpots but, overall, it's a boring number. I felt the same about 2003. Actually, that was my worst year ever. Nothing good happened in that year. I have banged on about it before in this very blog and milked that bugger for sympathy and kisses. That was then.
I've decided to actually make some pretty rigid resolutions. They are simple enough to do but these simple things have, in recent years, been hard to do. I've been pretty bad at making time for people and spending a bit too much time and money in the various bars in Leicester. Social, sure but I'm not seeing old friends enough or seeing new things and places. Kylie and I are determined to go abroad this year. I haven't been on a plane since Hamburg in 2002 so it's sink or swim for me (or fly or don't fly..not sure)
I have been striving for more 'innocent times'. I want to have a break from bars for the most part and use the energy to get things done. With work and other distractions, it's been hard to focus on the creative side and I have not done half as much as I would like to do in the writing area. I want to make sure that a good balance is struck. When I was writing a lot, and things were happening, work was more tolerable. Without the creative outlets, all I have is spreadsheets and horrible office lingo.
I would like to reconnect with some people, be they fairweather friends or foes. I would like to tie up loose ends and make sure that the past is just that. I seem to have lost friends, good ones, over the last few years and I want to at least try to bridge the gap they (or me, accidentally) have created.
I want to go to more gigs and make the most of my week, rather than tick off days towards the weekend. At the moment, with my job being pretty far away from where we live, Kylie and I's date nights have become a thing of the past. Hopefully, with some tweaking, that can be sorted out. I want to make the most of every day I have and I do want to milk the shit out of what's left of my relative youngness.

So, yeah, that's where I am at now. I hope I can keep this up because, looking back at past blogs, I can get a picture of where I was when I posted. It's good. My resolution is to be good again.