Friday, May 03, 2002

I finished reading The Unexpected Salami a couple of days ago. It is good fun, a splendidly improbable plot is just about kept under control, as the ever more convoluted story charges along.. Although it is a funny book, very funny on occasions. I liked the way that the parents proved to be real stars and proved that often the people who you think will be most critical of your actions, can also be the most supportive. I have now started to read Number 9 Dream by David Mitchell, mainly because it is set in Tokyo and has been compared to the work of my current “must read” author Haruki Murakami. Most of the fiction that I have read over the past year or so, has been set in either New York or Tokyo. I like the little buzz of recognition that I get when an author talks about a certain building or part of town, it starts to trigger memories of time spent in those amazing places. At the moment Bristol does not feature extensively in the world of fiction, unlike TV, where Orynthia spend an increasing amount of time playing the “who can recognise that part of town first” game. Anyway, whilst reading this lunchtime, lots of memories of February 1999 came back to me. We stayed in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, where some of the opening sequences of Number 9 Dream are set. Strangely the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that all the opticians had little stands set up outside their shops, with solutions and cloths so that you could clean your glasses! I also think of the amazing record shops, it really appeared that you could buy any record that had ever been released no matter how obscure. The fantastic noodle soups that we ate for breakfast whilst standing on a very chilly pavement at about 7 am in the morning after visiting the amazing Tsukiji fish market and then realising that nowhere else was open at that time of the morning, so we had to spend about an hour over a cup of coffee in McDonalds.

Talking of local sights being on TV, this week I bought the DVD of Portishead playing at Roseland, New York. One of the extra features is a copy of the film that used to be shown at the start of Portishead gigs. It is a video of the journey from Redland in Bristol to the town of Portishead. The start of the journey features Chandos Road, in Redland, at the time the film was made we were living on Chandos Road, it brings back lots of good memories, although it is very strange to see the big red van that belonged to John our former Greengrocer featured in a screen filling close up. I’m sure he would be thrilled – if he had any idea who Portishead were. By the way if anyone reads this who is not based in Bristol, you may be interested to know that Portishead are recording again. No idea when the next record will come out, but I’m delighted to know that we have another one to look forward to.

This evening we are off to the opening night of the Spike Island show. Spike Island is a centre for 100 local artists, and this weekend we get the chance to take a look at the work they have been doing. As you can imagine with so many people involved, the material on show covers all the options. It promises to be a fascinating, amusing and curious evening.

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