Louie stays open!

Full details here

A house on the hill in front of us is having a garage sale tomorrow, what a fanatically Un-English thing to do. I've always like the idea of the yard sale type thing as a way of getting rid of previously loved but now unwanted items.

The only way of doing it normally is to get up in the middle of the night and take your stuff to a car boot sale, it's just too much like hard work. Much better to just spread your stuff around in your yard or garage and see what people take a fancy to. If they don't like it just put back in the house, much better than all that lugging around.

Wouldn't it be great if whole streets would get together to have enormous garage sales, what fun we could have going from house to house.

This week we've mainly been at home, this is because we have had a house guest who has needed a little looking after. Orynthia's brother went in to hospital for some tests, two days later he was being rushed through a quadruple heart bypass operation. Having been discharged from hospital on Monday, he has spent the week with us. It’s great to see him getting stronger every day. Today was the first time which he has really enjoyed eating, and it’s been great to hear him asking for more food.

I’ve been working my way through the New Yorker Debut Fiction this week, really enjoyed The Lazer Age by Justin Tussing. It also contains a fantastically squirm inducing piece by David Sedaris called Turbulence.

On the music front, top listening awards go to the following:
Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff. album
The Coral - Invisible Invasion. album
Yeti - Sense of Wonder. single
Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco. single
Boca 45 - Down to Mexico. Ep
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers. album
M Ward - Transistor Radio. album

Keep "The Louie" open!

Some of you will have seen this already via email, if not and you live in Bristol or just love very small venues, with great bands please read this. Rather than provoke counter productive spam emails for our friends in the council, please let me know via the comments box below and I'll send you the email address, should you wish to raise any points

I expect that most of you are aware that one of the important music venues in Bristol, The Louisiana has been under threat for some time. The latest licensing decision is due to take place on June 21st, as couple of objections to the renewal of licence have lodged, it's important to let the council know how much we value this wonderful venue.

I'm sure that you don't need me to tell you what a cornerstone of the Bristol music scene this has place has become. In recent years the likes of The Strokes, White Stripes, Divine Comedy and Scissor Sisters, have played their first Bristol gigs in the intimate surroundings that this place offers. Just as importantly it's the testing ground for all those young Bristolian musicians looking to strap on a guitar and make a big old noise. It's also a friendly and trouble free place, exactly what the city needs.

So, please lend you voice to the campaign to ensure that "The Louie" stays as part of the cultural map of the city. Send an email to *********** reminding the council that any city worth the name must have places like this. The council has happily taken reflected glory from the contribution that musicians have made to this city over recent years, remind them that music needs a place where it can develop.

Get you friends to contact the council as well, we need as many people as possible to let them know just how important to Bristol this place is.

Please get your comments into ************* by 20/06/05, so they can be read before the meeting.

Wow - Politics

Pinched this from the Teenage Fanclub site, it's something that Norman Blake wrote about Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice, it's really rather lovely.

You can't hide your love forever!

Just been listening to the forthcoming domino compilation of the orange juice singles and early recordings (hats off to domino for that). It's wonderful! Amazing songs, great, funny, strange lyrics, totally original band, and "Blokes on 45" epitomises their humour. I loved orange juice when I was in my early teens, bought all of their singles and went to see them numerous times. For me, the best group that the city of Glasgow has produced. They were a total inspiration. Without them, there would have been no Teenage Fanclub, Pastels, Bmx Bandits, Vaselines, Belle and Sebastian or Franz Ferdinand (I'm sure that Stephen,Douglas, Eugene, Alex and Stuart won't mind me saying that). I got to thinking about Edwyn and what he's been going through over the last couple of months. I've been following his progress, looking in on his website when ever I can. His partner, Grace is something else, don't you think? (coincidentally, Grace's sister Hazel, was in my class at school. She was very cool too! Whatdya know!) I loved the guy then and he's still an inspiration (as is James Kirk), and am hopeful that he will make a good recovery and be back on stage at some point soon. I met him a couple of times, he is totally charming! I met him at a Joe Meek convention on Holloway road. He loved Joe Meek. He turned me on to a lot of great music. I am looking forward to seeing him on his next tour. So there you have it! Orange Juice forever!

It's been a strange few days, due to a serious family illness we have been spending quite a bit of time in the hospital again. I'm not going to go in to much detail at the moment but things are looking much better than they were at the end of last week.

In between times we have managed to see the absolutely fantastic M Ward. It was a brilliant gig, he is a fantastic guitarist and blessed with an understated, hypnotic and beguiling voice, if he comes anywhere near you make sure that you go and see him.

On Saturday evening we went to see Alabama 3, they are one of those bands whose records can be a little disappointing, but when it come to live shows, they really have it cracked. Heavy on the irony and showmanship, they are always entertaining and this gig was no change to that rule. Due to our rather late arrival we were placed well towards the back of a very busy crowd, and one nice chap took upon himself to move people around so that Orynthia could see what was going on, how nice.

So what’s be going on here then? Well, most unusually for us a lot of work around the house. We spent most of the weekend and last night painting our kitchen, It’s quite a satisfying thing to do once in a while but it’s not like real life, is it.

Talking of which, tomorrow evening we are off to see the splendid M. Ward at St Bonn’s. His latest album “Transistor Radio” has been a firm favourite round here over the past couple of months. It’s great that he is playing at St Bonn’s as it’s only a 10 minute walk from our house, how civilised!

Other than that, well not too much really. I’ve been enjoying singles by The Rakes, Yeti, Boca 45 and The Magic Numbers. Just had an unsuccessful trip to Boarders in an attempt to buy the new albums from The Coral and The Eels.

I do miss working in town, the only chance I get to go to any interesting shops is on weekends but I don’t want to spend the weekends just shopping. I miss the wandering around a record shop, seeing what other people are buying and talking about. A 30 second blast of something on iTunes just ain’t the same. Sure things are cheap to download, but I want to pour over the sleeve notes - who’s playing 3rd recorder on track 3? Oh it’s..... Where was the album recorded? Who’s doing backing vocals? Who produced it? ITunes gives you none of this, which is pretty poor.

I suppose I really miss the good old days of working 4 days a week, it gave me so much more time to do all sorts of things. Cooking for instance, I do enjoy cooking but I like to take my time. Cooking in the middle of the afternoon is a thing of joy, especially when you bought the ingredients that day.

It’s quite strange to think that at the start of next week I will have been doing my current jobs for 6 months. It has gone really quickly and we have enjoyed having the extra money, so I can’t complain. Sometimes though I do feel like a bit of an oddity there. It’s rather disappointing to be back in a world where the likes of Big Brother matter to people, indeed with a few notable exceptions, I feel like some sort of towering cultural genius. Yes I read books, go to interesting places and would rather go to see a band in a small room, than have the “30, 000 other people are here - so it must be good” mentality. I guess that’s the problem. Most of the people around me need to be told in big bold letters that something is good, so I never get the benefit of other peoples influence which Mark, RLF, Jay, Chris and Gaz gave me in Imperial. Whilst I was at Oxfam I was lucky enough to work alongside lot’s of fascinating people of all ages,so why is it not the case here?

I guess it’s just systematic of office work and office workers, as I’m lacking the creative gene, that’s where most of my working life has been spent, so what does it say about me?

Luckily Orynthia and my non work friends keep pushing things my way. Long may that continue.

After spending much of the last few months engrossed in the world of Japanese fiction, I wandered over the pacific to America, and to the world of the gentle humorist in particular.

Firstly I spent some time in the company of David Sedaris, by way of his book "Dress your family in corduroy and denim." Over recent years Sedaris has become a very popular figure in the states, though less well known over here. I'd listened to him reading a few pieces on the web and I think it helps to have the sound and tone of his voice in your head and you read in stories. The humour is gentle, and the slightly perplexed tone of his voice helps to set the mood, allowing these very personal stories to weave their magic.

Now I'm back in the company of an old friend, Wobegone Boy by Garrison Keillor is proving to be a real treat. I loved his early stuff, indeed Lake Wobegone days is still one of my favourite books. Whilst reading it, I would often stop to read passages to Orynthia. In fact when book reviews say that a certain book made them laugh out loud, I never quite trust them, mainly because I seldom laugh out loud whilst reading. To me the highest praise is to say that a book made me want to read out loud. It's got to be pretty good to that. Wobegone Boy does read as a more substantial book them some of his pieces, in fact it's reminding me of The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen at the moment, surely the best American novel of recent years.

Today we are off for a brunch meet with some friends before taking a look at the Hope Centre market.

Last night we went to The Cube to see the wonderful Wes Anderson film "The Life Aquatic", loved it. So funny, so odd, so unexpectedly touching in places. A real joy. Managed to get the seats in the middle of the back row, for the extra leg room and it was free as it was our free loyalty card visit - how great is that!

Sunday was spent walking the streets of Southville, for the southbank arts festival. We walked in and out of many houses where local artists were showing their work, It was also an interesting trip down memory lane for Orynthia as she grew up in that part of town. A very interesting way to spend the day.

Laburnam in Spring

Laburnam in Spring
Originally uploaded by tomory.

Laburnam in Winter

Laburnam in Winter
Originally uploaded by tomory.

THE CONVERSATION

“ Here we go, this is a great place.”

“Yep, can see it all from here.”

“Thank God, we got away from all those tall people, we never would have seen anything, stuck behind that lot.”

“You’d think that they would move aside, they must know that that people behind them can’t see.”

“ I love this one! It’s so gentle.”

“Yeah, I listen to it late at night, it’s almost like having a friend in the room with you”

“Spooky!”

“I know, but it is, it really is. It’s great when something really connects with you like that, not many bands can do it.”

“And have you listened to the words? I love the way the meaning can change depending on the mood that you are in. The other day I had a really bad row with Tony, and when I heard this again it said everything I wished I’d said.”

“But you didn’t?”

“No, you never do, do you. It’s only later that everything falls into place. I sometimes think that’s the reason people become writers.”

“What to make sure that they can win every argument?”

“In a way, wouldn’t it be strange if you had to argue like that. Right. stop! This is heading into a row - grab you pen and paper, go to separate rooms.”


“Could you do it via e-mail?’

“Oh no, that’s far too quick! The whole point of it, is that it gives you time to come up with brilliant, seemingly spontaneous, one-liners”

“Of course”

“Arguments could go on for days or weeks, but you wouldn’t be able to refer to them during normal daily life.”

“Brilliant”

“Yeah, so you don’t get any of that red faced, door slamming stuff”

“ I’m rubbish at that. One time the door just sort of went phhhwm. Useless! I wanted to rush back into the room and try again, loosing my big dramatic exit.”

“Sounds like you lost it anyway”

“I always do!”

“So under my new system, you could at least loose after a fair debate, not just because the other person throws more words at you.”

“That’s my other problem. I always end up using the same dumb words again and again. I know that each time I use them, they carry a little less weight, but I can’t think of anything new to say. I’m stuck in this ridiculous loop. In the end the other person doesn’t even have to say anything back, I whittle away at my own self confidence, seeing my reason and logic collapse around me.”

“Thesaurus!”

“What?”

“Thesaurus. You’ll be able to use all those words, you’d never dream of using in a normal row.”

“Of course.”

“Wow, I’ll sound so clever, no-one will dare to challenge me again”

“Shh - I’d like to hear the band, not you two nattering about rubbish”

(Quietly) “If only he knew. We could cut him down to size”

(Quietly) “As long as he gave us enough time to compose a suitable reply. I guess we would have to get his address, we’re posting our response to him - right?”

(Less quietly) “Someone would take care of that for us, a central database would take care of everything.”

(Not quiet at all) “ Genius, not only do we solve all arguments we create thousands of jobs as well. It’s...

“SHUT UP!!”

(Loudly) “Go and stand by the tall guys, they’ll give you all the peace and quiet you want! We’re coming up with a new way for the world to solve it’s problems.”

“Hey, not bad!”

“I’d still like to put it in writing!”

Must mention the splendid 2-3-2 cafe on Gloucester Road, Bristol. We spent last friday evening in this lovely relaxed cafe / restaurant. It’s one of those places where you can have cake and coffee or lovely 3 course meal, well worth a visit in you are in this part of Bristol.

During the course of the evening, we had a very interesting chat about planning for old age with our friends Pete & Maggie. After seeing the struggles which have afflicted our respective parents over recent years, we decided that we need to get together with all our friends and move into some sort of sheltered housing.

That’s right - get rid of the houses which as you get older become more of a curse than a blessing and use the money to get a nice flat. we could use the common room for punk rock disco’s, arrange outings to the cinema and have a fine old time. Not long to go!

At the other end of the spectrum, we went to a very wedding reception of Sunday evening as old BT friends Ceri and Simon celebrated their wedding in the idyllic setting of Priston Mill. It was a chance to catch up with a few old friends, some of whom I’d not seen since leaving BT in that previous life of mine.

Ceri and Simon are now taking a month long break firstly in Kong Kong before moving onto Australia. Back in 1990 we went to Australia for a month and had a brilliant time but...Coming back to work after a 4 week break was a nightmare.

I’m the sort of chap who needs to be retrained after a lunch break, so after a month I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, the trouble is that everyone else thinks that you still know what you knew before you went away. This resulted in lots of very painful conversations, featuring me desperately trying to bluff my way through situations. I could just about manage my name and shoe size, anything was like being asked to explain nuclear fusion, somehow my colleges put up with and coaxed me back into some sort human state. I guess that it was a test run for those confused days of old age which await us all.

When Orynthia nipped along to Replay to pick up the new Teenage Fanclub album, she also grabbed the latest album by another band who threatened to move into the mainstream without ever quite managing it - The Go-Betweens.

Back in the late 80's I remember seeing them appear on kids TV (not that I was a kid then, although it would be lovely to think that I was), it was one of those strange moments when you initially have a little burst of excitement because one of "your" bands is on TV. Remember that this was before the all pervasive spread of MTV and wall to wall music video coverage, so any glimpse of favoured band was a treat. I then started to wonder how the band would be feeling, playing these meticulously crafted songs, to group of excited 8 year olds. I'm sure that Robert Forster enjoyed the delicious irony of the moment. Of course, it made no difference in the end, the band never got beyond cult status, much loved as they were.

We had an interesting evening yesterday, one of Orynthia's colleges has started to do some sort of cranial therapy, which involves her picking up on the movements of your cranial fluids and from that getting a feeling of areas of your body which could be in need of attention. I don't fully understand what was going on, but I did have a very relaxing time.

In fact it was a little strange, as I drifted away my mind started to play tricks on me. The passing traffic on the road outside started to sound like rolling waves washing up on a beach. In my mind, I was lying on a beach in Malaysia whilst the waves of the South China sea lapped at the shore, very nice indeed. Orynthia went after me and found herself walking around the streets of Prague! It could be a cheap alternative holiday service for the future!

Last night was spent in the company of Teenage Fanclub, and what better way of spending an evening could there be.

When we first arrived there were worries about the gig going ahead, it was thought that the glare from the vast number of shiny headed middle aged males, could prove too distracting for the band. Luckily some younger people came in later, bringing the average hair follicle content up to EU approved gig levels.

As ever with the Fanclub, we got the normal mixture of classic songs and amiable bonhomie. I sometimes wonder what would have happened to the the band if the Grand Prix album had been as huge as it should have been. I sort of think that they would not be around to entertain us these days if they had been forced to go on the non stop touring treadmill. So although their bank managers may be upset, I think the rest of us should be pleased that the Fannies are still able to lighten up the darkest room.

A new short story by Haruki Murakami - "Where I'm Likely to Find It" was in the May 2nd issue of the New Yorker. You can find it here

Arcade Fire were wonderful last night. A rousing, exuberant, crash, bang, wallop of a gig. Boy was it good!!

It was just the album plus a couple of other songs, but that was fine. The packed house cheered and clapped along, to a band which many of us were seeing for the first time. They really seem to have captured the imagination of a lot of people, I’m not sure if they are playing the big festivals this year, but if they are they will go down a storm. Can’t wait to see them again.

Bryan Munich

Bryan Munich
Originally uploaded by tomory.

Well we managed a 5-0 win, so we ended the season in 2nd place in our division. We think that this means promotion!!

A busy day in prospect, this morning we have the final match of the season for Bryan Munich. A win or a draw (as long as it’s not 0-0, when things would get very complex!) should see us promoted. It’s our furthest trip of the season as we have to travel down to Weston-Super-Mare, it’s almost like playing for a proper team.

This evening Orynthia and I are off to see Arcade Fire. It’s a gig I am really looking forward to, I’ve read and heard so many great reports of their live shows. I love the slightly manic intensity of the album, from what I’ve heard this becomes a euphoric noise on stage - let’s hope so. Another gig coming up on Wednesday, when we see a long overdue return to Bristol of Teenage Fanclub!! One of our favourite bands, seeing them is just like having old friends round for a drink.

Yesterday we went to see the V.E. day 60th anniversary celebration in Bristol. Most striking was was watching film of the devastation of central Bristol following German bombing raids. Also heard several people telling their wartime memories on Radio Bristol in the morning, some of which hd me on the verge of tears.

Small people or big sofa

Small people or big sofa
Originally uploaded by tomory.

Are Orynthia & her mum small, or is this sofa which are looking after for some friends rather large?

Orynthia at Redland Fair

Orynthia at Redland Fair
Originally uploaded by tomory.