Quite chuffed with holiday so far. I had my collywobbles but most of the work is done and now I've time to cotch. If I'm a jammy dodger I won't need more than a deep sea diver to have off. I'll give it some rice since I'm away from my ginger and all.
Love these nutters. They're legend, even if they do have a bell on every tooth. I swore I given them the habdabs but with session this afto blokes were righted and got a baldy notion. They were quite daft and acting mental, away with the mixer, but you can't get naffed when they got more heart than soft mick. Had to hang cause of some Crawley chavs but got on right quick.
Afterwards we headed over to Kim & Marks, who had all mod cons and treated us to a right brill knees-up. We got down to our Alans, widdled into the steamer and got right pissed. Played spoons, very book, and had a good laugh at blokes in Cohesion. Nights like that are rare as hen's teeth.
Tonight I got to put on my trousers and almond rocks as we got off to King's Head for roast dinner with Jon & Michelles mates. Long Shadow and hunters chicken delight. Some good bits about weeks end as well.
Came home bevvied for a pint, dragged myself up the apples & pears and off to my bedsit to cop some zeds. Still gotta scrub me gnashers. Morrow I'll up round half nine & off to London. I'm a touch racked-up. Don't wanna end up a bat on a sticky wicket but no sense mucking about the flat.
Did you know that it gets down to -40°F outside that plane? And we were going like 600 mph. No joke!
So anyway, I got here, safe & sound. Whole exit row to myself. Nicely done. Eerily empty airport. The customs lady gave me a little trouble. It went a little something like this...
Customs Lady: What's the purpose for your visit?
Me: Visiting friends.
Customs Lady: Where will you be staying?
Me: My friends house.
Customs Lady: What's his address?
Me: I dunno.
Customs Lady: What is his phone number?
Me: I dunno.
Customs Lady: How will you find him?
Me: He'll find me.
Customs Lady: What if he doesn't?
Me: I guess I'll just wander around England til Wednesday and fly home.
Customs Lady: Can I see your passport sir?
From there it gets boring. In the end I'm here. Quick ride to Jon & Michelles in Billericay. We chatted about all our friends, caught up on who's doing what and decided to stop off at an Indian place downtown. Their choice! Fantastic little downtown by the way.
Delicious meal, a 40 oz. Cobra (that's how they do it in the Essex) and back to their flat. Talked a little shop, watched some kitty parallels and headed to bed. It's late here and I need to get up soon so I need to go and try to force my eyes shut...
Here's a few shots from day 1. Or day 0.5
Jon & Michelle, sweet litle tea drinkers
This is where I am sitting right now. Amazing!
Here is Jon brushing his teeth. They use the other ends of their toothbrushes here in the UK
This is me with some jetlag, not a pretty picture.
Here I am. It's 4:20pm back in America. 9:20pm for me.
I am there somewhere in Billericay, Essex.
Looks like some nice countryside
No idea if I'll have access to blogger while I'm over here. May be the last you hear from me in a few days. At least til next Wednesday. Who knows, maybe Francis will get on here and address the masses. Let's not get our hopes up. I'm off to a greasy spoon or something. Ta.
An early morning. We gotta leave home and be down south Jersey for breakfast. We wouldn't miss the cinnamon bread. Then plan on plopping on the couch, watching the parade (Hey Jonathan! Hey Greg!) and then some football. Throw in some cheese & crackers, & I'm talking all this before 2:00.
And then... you know what...
I'm sure we'll be posting some delicious turkey photos on here sometime today. Stay tuned.
Been snowing the past few days. Pretty snow that melts by lunchtime. Snow you'd invite inside your house for a cup of chamomile tea and triscuits because you know they wouldn't outstay their welcome.
~
I looked into a woodburning fireplace insert yesterday. Pretty steep. But I think it's what we'd ultimately like to end up with. These pellets are hard to come by, and use electricity. Good thing we picked up those space heaters.
~
The small theatre in town reopened. It closed the week we moved here and it bummed us out to think our new little town was already feeling the effects of big business. But it's back. Playing some good films. Sure we'll get out there as soon as holiday buzz begins to unbuzz.
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We've been sleeping downstairs. Fran started sleeping on the pullout when I was gone. I think it was warmer, even tho last night we didn't even have the stove on and it was pretty hot. I usually end up throwing the covers off in the middle of the nite. And the bedroom is right above the stove and usually gets pretty warm. But we are still down there, I think it's just a nice change. Plus we can eat dinner and then lay right down. We're lazy.
~
Got back watching movies on Netflix. The last few films we watched have varying reviews. Out of 10.
Be Kind Rewind: 8 The Machinist: 6 Son Of Rambow: 7 Murderball: 5 Suspect Zero: 4 National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets: 6 The Happening: -3
Right now we have out Enduring Love & Get Smart. Maybe we'll watch one tonight. Maybe not.
~
Today I'm packing. Paying bills, cleaning up, trying to leave this place orderly. Tomorrow we wake up at the crack and head to my parents for Thanksgiving, hopefully a tremendously lazy day, and then hafta leave the house round 5 or 6 Friday morning to catch my flight. Excited to see Jon Bilby and his wife Michelle. They live in Billericay, which I believe is just east of London. Teaching Saturday & Sunday, Monday night and have Tuesday to myself. I'll find something to do I'm sure. Probably freezing there too. Better pack sweaters.
This is the 10th year in a row I have done this audition camp, 12th if you count when I actually had to audition, and it never disappoints. Picked up the crew at the airport and got severely lost in a village of fields trying to follow Emma's purple pin, off to a good start.
We hurried indoors from the cold, the boys from Miami thought we may get frostbite, to check out our first class digs.
I knew both the aerobeds I brouhgt to have have mechanical disfunctions. I let Michael borrow what i thought was the sketchy one & I used the one more recently purchased. However without the cap to close the nozzle off, there was no way to maintain the ample amount of air between me and my precious backside sufficient enough for a good nights sleep. So I became MacGyver.
Looks like a molotov cocktail. But the bed did deflate overnite & I woke up in a giant blue plastic taco.
Saturday is the big day. Lotsa learning. Lotsa auditioning. Lotsa everything. Greg kept us entertained with stories of his experiences with members of NYC Hippocratic community,
the kids showed off some of their new piercings,
and then general chaos ensued.
And then I got bored and wandered the grounds and snapped a few photos.
We did manage to get away for a nice sitdown dinner, which in my 10 years, has never happened.
Sunday came and went. Mostly reviewing and tweaking and cutting. I left before the stage-show-&-tell thing to make it home in time to see the Giants game. Walked in right in the middle of the 1st quarter. Would've made it were it not for an accident on 80. Good game. They won.
Been kind of a boring couple of days. We spent Frans day off reclaiming the back room upstairs. Since it had been the kitty pit for the past few months you can imagine how welcoming it was. Now it's lovely again. I'm sure that won't last long.
Let's see...
We gave the kittens baths too. That's always enjoyable. Buncha drowned rats.
I'll be gone for the weekend. Work. I'll be here.
Looks like a nice neighborhood. No trouble-makers. Should be fun.
Even tho they're half dead, the Beatles are still managing to put out new stuff. This time it's a long sought after and sort of 'holy grail' for Beatles fans, the mythical Carnival Of Light.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The story goes that at some point in 1967 while in the studio recording Penny Lane for what would become the Magical Mystery Tour album, Paul McCartney uttered the words...
"this is a bit indulgent but would you mind giving me 10 minutes? I've been asked to do this thing. All I want you to do is just wander round all of the stuff and bang it, shout, play it. It doesn't need to make any sense. Hit a drum, wander to the piano, hit a few notes..."
What resulted was nearly 15 minutes of full on Beatle chaos, and after all these years, well I guess really he just doesn't give a crap anymore and figures some fans might get a kick out of it.
Here's a few quotes heard about the track Carnival of Light by those chosen few who've had the pleasure.
"jumble of shrieks and psychedelic effects"
"avant-garde a clue"
"one of those weird things"
"a kind of uncomposed, free-for-all melange of sound that went on"
I found what I wanna get the wifeling for Christmas!
Last year I surprised her with a coat she had formerly thought to be extinct, and that went over very well sooooooo, I figured I'd follow suit [or coat (pun intended)] this year and buy her a fancy new style-awesome jacket.
And I found it. I like it. I think she will too. And the best part is it's designed by Kim Gordons new clothing line Mirror/Dash. What's that? You don't know who Kim Gordon is. Front woman and bass player for the seminal band that is responsible for underground & modern music as we know it today? For shame. You shall not be allowed to look in Frans direction while the coat is on her person.
Before you get all crazy on me about giving away the holiday surprise on here, don't worry. She don't read this. Besides, I ain't got the $415 bills it'll cost me. Thought that counts.
I was in such a good mood last night. Fran on her way home, gonna make some pizza and cuddle up on the couch, watch some TV. I was wrapping things up in the office when heard a 'slip' 'CRASH!' 'sprinkle' from downstairs. I hurried downstairs to see what was the matter and those turds had climbed atop the pantry and, probably in a fit of rage, hurled the giant container holding all our beloved wagonwheel pasta to the floor, scattering glass and pasta in every direction, and was proud enough to be standing there amongst the wreckage almost as if to say, "Oh, did you want these?". I mean there were enough broken wagon wheels to put you off the Oregon Trail for days.
And there was blood.
The culprit.
Some other things the cats have broken lately.
They seem to hate animals.
I think we got a Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer. And there's nothing at all to be done about that!
I don't watch much TV nowadays. Football game here, Letterman there, I usually flip while I have lunch on the couch and that's about it. Yesterday, while ingesting a vat of beef barley soup, I found myself smack dab in the thick of the impossible feat of ranking the top 100 songs of the 1980's on VH1. Oh VH1, you are braver than I.
I came in right around 93, which was Gary Numan's Cars. I had heard this song in the car recently and enjoyed it greatly, so I thought I'd treat myself to an encore performance. Little did I know I was in the midst of a 5 hour 80's extravaganza!
I figured I'd settle in for a few good tracks, maybe watch til 80, but when It Takes Two came on, I knew I wasn't going anywhere. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock played a big part in Miss Punks sixth grade math class. Only thing that got me thru algebra. Gotta love that "Woo! Yeah!".
The countdown trudged on, hitting chart toppers (Katrina & The Waves Walking on Sunshine, Phil Collins In The Air Tonight) & some other personal favorites (Nenas 99 Luftballoons, Rick Springfields Jessies Girl & Salt-N-Pepas Push It)
At first I was a tad disappointed by the top two in the countdown. #2 being Def Leppards Pour Some Sugar On Me. I thought about it and realized that Def Leppard was one of the first and only hair metal bands I found myself semi-obsessed with, I remember staring deep into the cover of Hysetria, partly horrifed, partly intrigued, maybe looking for Waldo, and I did do my share of one-armed air drumming...so... I'll let it slide.
I was sure that Thriller was a shoe-in for the #1 slot so it's needless to stay I was dumbfounded when I saw Jon Bon Jovi staring back at me. Livin' On A Prayer? The best song of the 80's. Part of me was proud of a fellow statesmen. I thought Springsteen at #48 was as close as we were gonna get. Then I flashed back. I distinctly remember the day I bought my very first cassette with my very own money at Crazy Eddies on Hooper Avenue in Toms River; Slippery When Wet. I think at the time my favorite track was You Give Love A Bad Name. Oh and I did. Then I thought some more. I remember sitting in the halls of a university in 1999 wearing white spandex with my fellow Emerald Marquis members belting out the chorus, "Ooohhh, We're halfway there, Ohh Oh! Livin' on a Prayer!". I guess it was our theme song. So in a schmaltzy moment of wistfulness, I let it go and watched highlights of Bon Jovis onstage antics and style sense that I'm sure make them cringe today.
Overall I was pleased with the countdown. A good myriad of styles & artist representation. I thought The Look Of Love was a little high at #43 beating out classics like Every Breath You Take & Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and I was kinda apalled that Ratt was on there at all, nonetheless at #51. I had never heard Round And Round before, and I don't intend to ever again.
So without further adieu (you knew it was coming), I will attempt my top songs of the 80's. I'll limit it to 25 so I don't put you to sleep. But c'mon! It's 80's music!
25) Human League - Don't You Want Me Baby 24) Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now 23) Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart 22) Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me) 21) Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? 20) The Styx - The Best Of Times 19) Billy Joel - Pressure 18) The Smiths - Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want 17) Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
16) Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen 15) Talk Talk - It's My Life 14) Lindsey Buckingham - Holiday Road 13) New Order - True Faith 12) Loverboy - Working For The Weekend 11) Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time 10) Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
9) Prince - Little Red Corvette 8) Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine 7) The Police - Every Breath You Take 4) R.E.M. - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) 5) Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
4) Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels 3) The Cure - Just Like Heaven 2) Queen & David Bowie - Under Pressure 1) A-ha - Take On Me
The riff, the video, the high note! All from a here and gone outfit from Norway, this song epitomizes 80's synthrock and it is the ultimate pinnacle of the decades sound. I dare you to challenge me on that.
But seriously folks, I am about to get busy. Not busy like a DJ on the turntables or a rapper on the mic who rocks the mic right. Just good ol' fashioned busy. This may be one of the busiest November/Decembers in recollection. I just got back from Miami, and I got a few days here, but then I go, and hopefully by the time Christmas rolls around I will be welcoming those tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy.
Breaking it down
Nov. 21-23 in Philadelphia
Nov. 27 Thanksgiving in NJ
Nov. 28-Dec. 3 London
Dec. 4-8 Xmas in Georgia
Dec. 11-14 in Miami
Dec. 18-21 in Alabama
Dec. 24 & 25 CHRISTMAS!!
Dec. 26-28 back to Miami
I should just set up a bed at the airport terminal.
Add to this, pretty much every Tuesday & Thursday I'm in town I'll be over at ESHS doing my thing. Hope I make it. Eggnog & yule logs can't come fast enough.
