When in Cheltenham I got caught up in a bit of 80’s nostalgia. Whilst enjoying my traditional “full English” in the hotel, an article on The June Brides by American writer Dave Eggers took my eye. Now for many people the music of The Junes Brides won’t mean much. However when Orynthia and I got married (19 years ago next weekend since you ask), their album “There are eight million stories” was one of the ones that we both had copies of, there were a few others, feel free to guess.

Mr Eggers piece perfectly captured the strange hold that the work of a band can have over you. The way that years later, you can still find yourself looking for news of a performer, who moved onto a more secure way of earning a living many years ago.

Later whilst trying to finally spend some of my Xmas / birthday book tokens, I picked up the Simon Reynolds book “Rip it up and start again – post punk 1978 – 1984” it does sound more like someone’s specialist subject on an episode of Mastermind than an exciting read. But that’s exactly what a book covering the music of that time should be titled. A mixture of knowing reference and dry fact, which our bible of the time the NME would have revelled in.

Much like Simon Reynolds my real musical obsession started in 1978, previously I’d taken an interest in prog and heavy metal and strangely bits of jazz. However, the combination of spending money (having started work), and a burgeoning addiction to the John Peel show saw me throwing my money at any number of soon to be forgotten guitar bands. What a treat then to turn randomly to page 222 to find a top ten consisting of bands such as “Prefects” “The Cravats” “Notsensibles” “Spizzenergi” “Family Fodder” “Fatal Microbes” “(And The) Native Hipsters”. Should be a good read, before I get into that I’m going to spend my time with the latest book from Ian McEwan “Saturday.

We had a great couple of days, on Wednesday evening we had the chance to reacquaint ourselves with The Strokes. Very fine they were too, I’m not completely convinced by the new album but from the moment they took to the stage they were on top form. Crisp, concise and punchy they were on top form and were a treat to watch from first to last. Support band The Shout Out Louds, did their best, but found it hard to replicate the bouncy fun of their excellent album due to the awful sound which the mixing desk provided them with.

On Thursday evening we made the short journey up the M5 to Cheltenham for slightly early wedding anniversary treat. We stayed in the majestic splendour of the Hotel De La Bere, before enjoying a wander around Cheltenham on Friday.

I’ve just got in after watching one of those games, which remind me why I go to watch Bristol City play football. A full-bloodied encounter saw us beat highflying Swansea City 1-0 on a bitterly cold afternoon. Much shouting and jumping up down ensued.

More music treats in the upcoming week as we get to see Belle & Sebastian for what I think must be the 7th 9th time. It will be the first time that they have played here in Bristol, so I hope that my fellow citizens are nice to them. Then on Thursday, we are aiming to go to Bar unlimited for the latest acoustic night to be arranged by local guitar gods Aspen Woods.

Disappointingly I’ve given up reading Moby Dick, after 450 odd pages. After a sparkling start, I’ve been worn out by the minutiae of detail surrounding Whales and boats. It’s back to dry land for me.

So what’s been going on this week? Well apart from spending quite a lot of time with the lovely new debut solo album from Joe Volk “Derwent Waters Saint”, I’ve been messing around with that new fangled (well, not that new actually) fangled myspace business.

So we now have a site where we can link directly to many of our favourite people and bands. It’s a good way of hearing a few tunes from people that you may have read about, without taking too much of a gamble.

It’s turning into a bit of a mini empire, what with this blog, the Flickr site and now the Myspace site. Where will it all end?

We are in the midst of planning yet another trip to Scotland. This time we aim to venture considerably further north of our traditional stopping point of Glasgow, although of course we will spend time there as well. We are going to venture back in time with a good old-fashioned driving holiday, taking the chance to catch up with a few friends along the way. Time to find a pair of those strange string backed driving gloves that were all the rage in the 50’s and 60’s. At least we have a few months to locate a pair.

Our film week ended on a slightly unsettling note with the film “Innocence” at The Watershed. It was a French study of young girls seemingly kept against their will in strange and unsettling closed society. Featuring some wildly inappropriate scenes it left both of us feeling more than a little disconcerted, not pleasant viewing. Still we saw 8 films in a week, and apart from our last choice at least one of us enjoyed all the others.

After a night off on Friday, Saturday saw us returning to French cinema, this time with much more enjoyable results. We went to The Orpheus to see “The Beat That My Heart Skipped”. Interesting, thoughtful and occasionally funny it was a perfect antidote to the nasty feeling which “Innocence” left us with. It was directed by Jacques Audiard who previous film was the equally splendid “Read my Lips”. Of course it helped that the central figure in the film is called Tom.

Had an interesting character sitting next to me. Of course Orynthia is always interesting, but on this occasion I’m talking about the chap that was on the other side of me. I was impressed when He returned to his seat after just before the start of the film holding a mug of coffee, that’s a mug of coffee mind you, not the normal cardboard cup. So I assume that he must have taken his own mug to the cinema. Then when he sat down, he delved into a large bag of sweets and noisily unwrapped 7 or 8 of them, so that he would not disturb either himself or the rest of us whilst the film was in progress. He also took copious notes, whenever the film changed direction or mood. It all left me feeling very the amateur filmgoer.

He reminded me of those people that you see whilst you are plowing you way around an art gallery. Whilst I stand and gawp at the paintings you can’t help noticing those intellectual looking types – notebook in hand, recording, well recording what exactly? The name of the piece in question, their thoughts about work, notes on the composition? Maybe it’s just a shopping list, whatever it is, I always think that they are getting more out of the experience of me.

Managed to pick up a few CD’s on Friday whilst we out and about. Most were things that have been on my personal shopping list for a while. Such as the albums by The Cribs - “The New Fellas”, The Rakes – “Capture / Release”, the self titled album by Clor, the mini album by Au Revoir Simone – “Verses of Comfort, assurance & Salvation”, all of which I’m enjoying. Also picked up a copy of the new Strokes album and we managed to finally track down a couple of tickets for their upcoming gig at the Colston Hall, which I’m looking forward to a lot. Just a week after that Belle & Sebastian come to town, hooray!

Cinema week continues for us, we’ve seen two more films in the last couple of days. Firstly on Monday evening we took the short walk to The Orpheus in order see Just Like Heaven, which was fun in light-hearted sort of way. Last night we went to Arnolfini to see Factotum, must say that really enjoyed this take of the crazed world of Charles Bukowski. Tonight we are off to The Cube to see The Constant Gardner.

Other than that not too much to report, Grumpy Man nights are going so well that we have booked into Mr Wolfs roughly every 4-5 weeks for the rest of the year! In 3 weeks time we will be seeing Belle & Sebastian again when they play their first gig in Bristol. Also looking forward to seeing Francois and the Atlas Mountains at The Cube on Feb 24th for the launch of their album. Calexico and Iron & Wine are playing at The Academy soon as well; they are both lovely bands so that’s really something to look forward to.

Quite a weekend! After some family stuff during the day on Saturday, we took a trip down to Clevedon for the latest leg of our cinema week. We wanted to visit The Curzon, which is apparently “The oldest purpose-built, continuously operated cinema in the world”. It’s a fantastic old place, which even has an organ at the front of the screen. Well worth a visit if you are in this part of the world. The film we saw was “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” which we both enjoyed a lot, very funny post modern take of the noir films of yesteryear.

Sunday was always going to be busy and indeed it was. Started well in the morning with a 5-0 victory for myself and the rest of the Bryan Munich boys. Then back home to sort out CD’s for that nights Grumpy Man event. Of course we had to fit in another film, so it was off to The Watershed to see the 5pm showing of “Brokeback Mountain” I think I enjoyed it more than Orynthia, great performances from the two leads.

Then we had the short walk over to Mr Wolf’s for Grumpy Man. All was going well until I was about to order some food from the bar and realised that my wallet wasn’t in it’s normal place, I knew that I had it in the cinema so I hoped that I’d lost in there rather than on the street, Played a few tunes which went down well enough, then nipped over The Watershed, where the very helpful staff took my details and said that they would check the room when the showing turned out. Luckily for me I had a call at around 10:15 to say that they had found the wallet, better still everything was intact. What a lovely place Bristol is!

Played a few more tunes back at Grump Man, quite a few friends came down, indeed considering that it was the worst Sunday of the year to do anything, I’d call it a bit of a success. Lot’s of people looked like they were having a good time, it could have been the drink but I’d like to think that my fellow DJ’s and I had something to do with it. Due to an earlier finish than anticipated and 5 of us playing, I didn’t play as many songs as last time. Here is the list of tunes.

King Creosote - Not one bit ashamed
Animals that Swim – Faded glamour
Shack – Miles apart
A Girl Called Eddy – Somebody hurt you
Clearlake – Jumble sailing
Craig Armstrong & Evan Dando – Wake up in New York
The Dears – We can have it.
Stars – Your ex-lover is dead
Silver Jews – Punks in the beerlight.
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Sometimes always.

As we both had the day off, we started our week of cinema today. First up was an early afternoon visit to The Odeon for The Chronicles of Narnia. Thought that it was great fun, just the right amount of magical wonder and not too much running back forth type battle scenes. Much has been made of the Christian propaganda attachment that has been levelled at the film. I must say I think its just another good Vs bad film, like any Western, Pirate or Sci-Fi film. No more, no less.

When that finished we took the short walk over to The Watershed, giving ourselves just enough time a pot of tea and a cake (Scone for Orynthia), then it was time for the new Woody Allen film Match Point. Strange one this, thought the first 20 minutes or so was really rather awful. The acting was all over the place, particularly from Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Scarlett Johansson. Then suddenly a genuinely tense and gripping film emerged, not at all what we have come to expect from Mr Allen and all the better for it.

More to come tomorrow!

Had rather a strange weekend, starting rather abruptly at 3am on the morning of the 31st, with the first of many desperate dashes to that special room. Yes that’s right my purge of the festive excess’s started early, things were leaving my body a great speed from several exit points.

Now some people seem to be quite happy to indulge in a spell of vomiting, one chap that I work with thinks that no night is complete without something heading the wrong way past his larynx. I, on the other hand, loathe it.

Without going into too much detail, at one point I had visions of a strange variation on the classic rock star “choked to death, on his on vomit” affliction taking my very un-rock star life away from me.

I’m sure that everyone has experienced the horrible sensation of unwanted mater forcing itself through those delicate nasal passages, well on this occasion things started to become stuck, causing me to gasp desperately for air. Between bodily convulsions my mind raced, “That’s it! I’m going to die!” “what an timid way to go.” “How pathetic”

Somehow I conveyed my fears to Orynthia as should stood patiently beside me. Brilliantly and instantly she saved my life with a simple comment, “Blow your nose” -

Genius.

Any that sort of thing went on for the next few hours, meaning that virtually the whole of Saturday was spent feeling wonderfully dreadful, whilst wrapped in duvets and blanket’s. Various radios playing seemingly astonishing songs, which slipped in and out of my mind as, I drifted away.

We had made plans to go to Holy Cross Social Club for the New Years Eve night arranged by my friend Boca 45 and others. We decided to give it a go, and very fine it was too. A great little band featuring Jim Barr from Portishead and John Gardner from the Scissor Sisters live touring group worked their way through a great set 60’s instrumental soul gems, sounding like they had come straight from 1967. They went off, Boca 45 kicked off his set with the Paul Anka version of “Come as you are” then it was hip-hop, reggae, old soul and the Arctic Monkeys all the way to midnight.

After catching up with a few friends it was time to head back to the place I knew best, my bed.

By the way since I last moaned about Bristol City, it’s all changed. 8 points from the 4 games over Xmas seeing us moving up the table. What’s more the team appear to be playing with a smile on their face. I had to join in.

I'm going to be playing a few CD's at Grumpy Man again this Sunday.

As ever all those films that I intended to watch on TV over the Xmas period passed me by completely. In the old days it seamed as though we would lose hours wallowing in wonderful old black & white films, as the holiday break slowly edged past us.

2005 has also seen a marked decrease in our cinema visits, this has mainly been due to the increasing amount of time that we have been spending on hospital visits, as our families lurch from one health crisis to another. "Have you seen the new King Kong?" "No, but have you checked out ward 14 yet? I think it's their best work so far."

Anyway in an effort to change things, our Xmas gifts to each other were rather different this year. Neither of us could come up with particularly inspired options for one another, so rather than just buying things for the sake of it, we have decided to set aside a week in January when we are going to surround ourselves in cinema. For a week, we will watch as many films as we can during the evenings and weekend, we also have the bonus of both of us being at home on Fridays in January, so we may be able to sneak in couple of films then. Bristol does have a good range of cinemas, so hopefully we will be able to find enough things to amuse.

It was great to see "I know where I'm going" the other week, it's a magical film. We are really lucky to be able to see wonderful old films in the cinema. When I was younger I would spend hours looking through the revival cinema listings in the New Yorker to work out an imaginary day of viewing. It's always struck me that one of the signs that you live in a civilised place is that you don't have to have to be dependent on just recent cinema releases for your viewing pleasure. You should be able to watch a classic film from the past, rather than the latest thing that Hollywood wants to push at you.

So it’s over already. It’s the same every year – obviously. The big build up and then in flash, it’s done.

I have to say that I do enjoy Christmas, I know that with my advanced years (another one added on December 24th) I really should be cynical about the whole process, yet somehow I’m not.

The timing this year was really rather nice. Finished work at lunchtime on Friday so had time for an unhurried drink or two on Gloucester road with some colleagues before meeting up with Orynthia for a quick visit to a friend’s new house. Oh the fun we had looking at all his wonderful storage areas. No, really it was fun.

As mentioned before the 24th was my birthday. Orynthia gave the most fantastic present, the complete history of the New Yorker magazine on an 8 volume DVD set. That’s right, every page from over 4,000 issues of the magazine is not at my disposal. Piece after piece by the likes of Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, Milan Kundera, Lorrie Moore, Dorothy Parker, Philip Roth, Oliver Sacks, James Thurber……Then, there’s all the amazing artwork and cartoons. I may never leave the house again! Well actually we did manage to get out for a lovely birthday breakfast in Cotham, before making a quick visit to the Here shop in Stokes Croft and taking a lovely walk around some of the architectural delights of the Cotham area.

Some parts of Christmas day were a little chaotic, but we saw lots of family and I think that everyone had fun. We finally made it to bed at around 1in the morning after being beaten on the final letter at Scrabble by Orynthia’s mum. Can’t believe I lost after using my “Z” on a triple letter, double word spelling of Zebra. Then getting double word points for the “Z” again in Zoot. Must try harder!

So yesterday I worked a full day on a Friday for what may be the last time! In the New Year I’m going back to working 4 days a week, having Friday as my day off. Orynthia is switching back to a 5 day week in February, so for January we will both have Fridays off which will be great.

I’ve avoided a couple of work Xmas meals so far, but on Thursday we had the Bryan Munich Christmas curry, which was good fun. After leaving the restaurant at around 11:25 we wondered around the Whiteladies Road area for about 25 minutes trying to find a bar that was open. Strangely everything was either closed or closing it looks as though the much heralded 24 hours opening has yet to reach that part of town.

Tonight we are off to Gloucester Road for a meal with some friends; then tomorrow will see a get together with Orynthia’s family for the first of the Christmas birthday gatherings. The only other certain thing for Orynthia and I next week is a trip to Arnolfini on Wednesday evening to see the wonderful “I Know Where I’m Going”. It’s one of the best films from the amazing directorial duo Powell & Pressburger. We’ve seen it many times at home, but the chance to see it at the cinema can’t be missed.

Had a great night at the Gaz’s rockin’ blues’s evening down at The Tube last Friday. He plays an extraordinary mixture of reggae, ska, stompin’ R & B, just about anything to set your feet twitching. All the while he stands behind the decks, huge clouds of smoke bellowing from an enormous cigar, laughing and grinning from ear to ear as he watches the poor people try to drag their weary limbs off the dance-floor. Top man.

Had the almighty shock of watching an excellent performance by City on Saturday. A gutsy, spirited and dare I say skilful performance saw us turn the league table upside down, gaining a deserved 2-0 win over Huddersfield. I even leapt from my seat when we scored the 2nd goal...just like the old days.

Over recent days I’ve really been enjoying the iTunes only Belle & Sebastian live recording of the “If you’re Feeling Sinister” album. It brings back so many great memories of seeing them in the early days, Union Chapel, The Bowlie and more.

Other than that I’m loving the new single from The Strokes, have to say that I was horrified when I first heard it. Now I think it’s the best thing that they have done. I love the way that it really charges along; I swear that the record gets shorter each time I play it!

Another great single is “Boot Prints” by King Creosote, taken from the excellent K.C. Rules album this is a wonderfully infectious song. On first hearing it appears to a really silly little song, but the more you listen to it the more complex it becomes. Loads of supremely chirpy organs sounds and a top-notch chorus. Should be number 1 for weeks, then again maybe it is? Must admit that I’ve got very little idea about the charts these days.

Still enjoying “Set Yourself on Fire” by Stars a great pop record from Canada. An album from a few years ago, which I’ve only just picked up, is “Soft Spot” by Clem Snide, plenty of fine songs on that one.

Paid our first visit to the newly open "Tube" in Unity St this evening. Very nice relaxed place, a nice alternative to the mega bars and clubs of central Bristol.

Last night we had a very pleasant evening at Arnolfini in the company of Francois and the Atlas Mountains. They were playing as part of a book launch, so the gig was free and what’s more they provided free drink. As well as the music Francois also showed some short animated films which he had made. That boy has too much talent!

Once again the unbridled enthusiasm and wonderful melodies of this great band, made for an evening of sparkling fun. Looking forward to their album in 2006.

Before the gig I met Orynthia in Obento for some splendid Japanese food. Not only do they sell lovely food they also sell Japanese condensed milk sweets!!!! We first encountered these on the plane out of Tokyo a few years ago. That’s right, the plane out – just when it was too late to buy any. We did find some in New York a few years later, then Selfridges in London was selling them in London as part of a Japanese festival. Now we can get them in Bristol – yum yum. They are the perfect hard sweet, richly creamy and long lasting.

Some of our friends are involved in a new bar / club in Bristol called “Tube”. We missed the opening night last weekend because of our Glasgow trip. Tomorrow they are having a bit of a food promotion which we are going to go along to, then on Friday it plays host to the excellent Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues, top tunes guaranteed.

We had a wonderful time in Glasgow, thanks to all the lovely people in Camera Obscura, their partners and their manager Francis. We were made to feel really welcome at the intimate party to celebrate the end of the recording period for their new album.

On occasions it did feel more akin to a wedding party, with exception of us everyone who was there was friends or family. Party poppers, crisps and chocolates on the table and a free glass of wine when you arrived, splendid. Former football star Pat Nevin played a indie hits DJ set before the band came on, following the short but lovely gig, Victoria from The Concretes took over the DJ role. After a lovely post gathering, we finally got back to our hotel at around 4:30am, exactly 24 hours after we woke up to get our flight to Glasgow, tired but happy.

On Tuesday we are off to see Francois at Arnolfini, he’s a very popular boy with the Camera Obscura crew, should be another good night.

So today we should have spent the day in Devon catching up with my dad. However, yet again a planned visit coincided with some unusually dramatic English weather. Yesterday we had a smattering of snow, down in Devon though they had around 4 inches, resulting in some very slippery narrow roads. Dad called this morning to say that he thought that some of the roads around them were just too dodgy to try. Consequently, we had an unexpected day in Bristol – What to do?

Decided that it would be good to catch up with Orynthia’s mum, so we made our way over to her place. She jumped at the idea of visiting St Marks Road in general and Bristol Sweet Mart in particular. It’s such a great shop even more so when Orynthia’s mum is with us, as she can explain exactly what all those strange vegetables are. Following a bit of shopping we had a pleasant lunch in the Old Casbah (£18 for 3 of us!), whilst we caught up on the family news.

Whilst we were in St Marks Road, I picked up a solo CD by the Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. It’s a live recording of a gig in Tokyo (I love that you can actually hear people coughing in the gaps between songs!) It includes a fantastic version of the Radiohead tune “ Paranoid Android” which goes on for almost 20 minutes. Set me back all of £1.50!

We been doing some more holiday visiting over the last week, my sister has been in for some pretty serious work. For once she let us help her out, which was nice. She is back at home now with her books and dogs, hopefully everything will be ok for her. We really don’t want to spend any time in the B.R.I. next year.

I know I’m repeating myself but really, Moby-Dick is just fantastic. It’s so much funnier than I imagined. Herman Melville has such a brilliant way with words; I love all the little distractions and tangents in the book. Genius!

Much excitement here in Tomorysworld today. Orynthia has won us an invite to the launch party for the new album from Camera Obscura. I think that it’s going to be indie heaven for her, who from the fabulous world of Glasgow music will be in attendance? Well we will just have to wait and see, however we do know that the band themselves will be playing so it should be a great night.

Over the past few days I’ve starting to put myself into the bizarre world created by Herman Melville for his epic Moby-Dick. In the main I’m a reader of 20th& 21st century fiction, but over recent weeks Melville’s’ work has been coming at me from all angles. Eventually I just had to give in and say, “OK, I give up, I’ll read it.”

If you time and live in or around Bristol make sure that you get down to Arnolfini for the fantastic Black Mountain exhibition. Where else could you “hear” mushrooms growing?

Once again this weekend BCFC were at home and I didn’t go, consequently had a great day. A good friend was unexpectedly in town for a couple of days so thought that it would more fun to spend some time with him than watching some so-so football.

So Orynthia, Kev, Petunia and I meet at Ashton’s flat for breakfast before heading off on the Totterdown art trail. Lot’s on interesting, funny eclectic work and people saw the hours fly by. We even bought a Lino cut print (so that someone could give it to us as a Xmas present. Next weekend it’s the Bishopston art trail, should be fun

I’ve just finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and really enjoyed it. It’s very tricksy – lot’s of pictures, changes of font size and the like but I thought it would really, really well. A few times last week I work back to work after a lunch time reading session feeling pretty emotional. A very interesting book.

Went for a very chaotic Moroccan in Hotwells last night, there were about 20 of us and the food took an age to arrive, in the very cold restaurant. Still everyone had a fine time. When we realised that one poor chap was doing all the cooking, I guess we just felt sorry for him. The delay gave plenty of time for pictures to taking of us smoking on the hookah with a fez on our head, what more can you want from an evening out?

When we returned from our recent trip to Glasgow, I think we both felt a little disappointed that Bristol did not offer quite the same sort of upcoming musical talent that that fine city has to offer. Well last night proved that we were wrong.

We went along to The Folk House for a glorious night of music in one of the nicest places in Bristol. First up were Cajita, purveyors of lovely brooding music. Mainly acoustic but with an electronica influence adding a nice twist from time to time. Fine band.

The star of the evening though was the magnificent Francois playing with The Atlas Mountain Ensemble. Now, we’ve seen Francois a few times in the past and it’s been nice, we’ve got a couple of his CD’s and they have their moments of beauty – but last night!

The performance was nothing short of wonderful. The only person that I could link him with is the mercurial Sufjan Stevens. Fantastic arrangements by the huge band (10 or 11 members, I kept losing count), featuring all sorts of instrumentation, added to the sense of wonder. The band played in the middle of the room, with minimal amplification and I’m sure that they must have loved looking around to see so many faces beaming with happiness.

They are playing together again at The Arnolfini on December 6th, well worth seeing if you can.

I finished reading “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith this morning. It’s little strange when academics write books, which are set in the academic world. I know that you are supposed to write about what you know, but how many of us really care about the internal politics of university life? However I did enjoy the book, particularly the adventures of the young son who is determinedly non-academic and makes desperate efforts to hook up with some like-minded people.

Had a bit of a CD buying burst today, picked up Aidan Smith’s “Fancy Barrel (worth buying for that cover alone),”Set Yourself on Fire by the Canadian band Stars and “Tanglewood Numbers by Silver Jews. This week I shall mainly be concentrating on performers who name begins with the letter S!

Whilst I was out shopping with Orynthia, Bristol City were being beaten at home in the F.A. Cup by Notts County. Over the past few months I’ve found it harder to raise much enthusiasm for football at Ashton Gate or particularly in the wider arena. For the first time ever I had to think long and hard about buying a season ticket in the summer and unless something major changes, I don’t think that I’ll bother next season. I just think that there are so many better things that I could do with my time.

It’s not the money, though watching football is far too expensive these days. It really is true that as you get older time is more important than money. So I may well limp through to the end of the season, then watch the World Cup and then that may well be the end of it for me. It will be strange, as I’ve spent most of the last 36 years watching the game, the magic has just slipped away.