Week 3, 2010.

Fuck it, nobody reads this shit so I’ll be brutally honest.

My head is screwed up. I haven’t been sleeping well, I’m constantly tired and constantly feel like I’m about to fall asleep but it never happens. I’m staying awake at work via espresso coffee from the machine and the relentless confusion that is what goes on in my job.

Why am I like this? I’ve fallen pretty damn hard for a girl that’s taken, but into me.

I always get into situations like these; all 3 years of uni (even though she didn’t speak to me for the best part of a whole year) I was crazy about a girl on my course. She most definitely liked me to, enough to wear a T-shirt that I borrowed to sleep in when I stayed over at her place for week to sleep in herself without washing. Enough to not change the sheets on her bed after I’d slept in it for a while too (she wasn’t in it whilst I slept in it, unfortunately).

That one is a story that’s all in the past, but I still sometimes think *what if* because I just can’t let things go! (that’s another god damn annoying thing about me, I never let things go!)

This time it’s more annoying because logically I’m the better choice (note I say “logically” rather than realistically. I’m a big believer in logic and this time it’s playing against me) because I’m closer, get to see her more often and appear to have more things in common (I could be wrong there though, I try and avoid conversation that involves him).

I could probably deal with it, but we have this back and forth that’s just so cheesy it’s vomit worthy from an outsiders point of view. It’s started in the exact same way as it did back in uni. Texting each other from mere meters away if we’re not at the same table or with other people – at uni it was across the lecture hall. Spending a hell of a lot of spare time together – white swan comfy sofas anyone?.

Why do I put up with it? Because I’m a fucking mug, the obvious answer. And because I’m so needy that spending great time with her and then feeling completely empty when she’s not around is better than just feeling a bit empty all of the time. Oh yeah, I generally feel empty too, no idea why – I have plenty of hobbies, plenty of friends (well, I hope they’re friends) and people often seem happy to see me or have me around, whether they are or not is up to them, as long as they keep it well hidden if they don’t I’m all good.

What else is going on…

I move house on Saturday – this should be interesting. I’ve done it before, but this time it seems bigger. A 2 bedroom flat to myself, that I plan on living in for the foreseeable future if all goes well. I say if all goes well mostly because I have no idea what my job will be in a years time. I want to progress through the company but every god that could possibly exist (if I believed) knows that there’s no chance of that!

Time to buy a new set of sofas, some new kitchen equipment and some bedroom furniture. Want this place to be nice, somewhere that when I get home from a shit days work I can sit down and have a chat with any of my friends beginning with Glen without feeling that I live in a dive and am a failure.

I wanted 2010 to be a good year, but it’s starting out pretty diabolically as far as it goes. ho hum.

Mr. Creosote.

I love being in a band! It f**king rocks, I won’t beat around the bush. Even though currently I’m the one letting the team down by knowing the least songs I have an awesome time at every practise. I don’t feel too bad though, I did join a full band and steal some of the playtime away from the other guitarist, so it’s only to be expected that I know the least.

We don’t play our own stuff, we enjoy playing other peoples stuff – it’s easier that way and more people will enjoy it. Even if you sound dreadful, which we don’t, a covers band is always a good night out.

Currently I suppose I could do a setlist with about 10-12 songs in, but that’s barely enough to do a warm up.

We practise every couple of weeks and in the next fortnight I’ve got to carry on learning a few classics

  • Peter Frampton – Show me the way
  • Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a prayer
  • Metallica – For whom the bell tolls

I can probably get Frampton nailed in an evening and then keep practising so that I can play without looking at all – you can’t look down when you’ve got a tube stuck in your gob and you’re eating a microphone!

Bon Jovi is near enough learned, just have to get the arrangement sorted and the little solo after the first chorus worked out.

The Metallica track is an annoying one – stupid little lick in it that just wont go away! I’ll probably have to work at that the most to get it in the right order as it’s all so similar it’s easy to forget which part comes next and even what part you just played!

I think it’ll probably take about 4 weeks to get those 3 tracks perfected between the 4 of us, so that’s 2 more practises. Then onto the next set of tracks to learn. No idea what we’ll collectively learn next but I have to learn the songs that they already do that everyone wants to hear at a covers night in amongst these. Answers on a postcard as to what I should learn!

If you’re still reading this you’ve got more tolerance for garbage than most, and I commend you. I can never sleep after getting back form band practise, always so wired. So tonight I’m going to watch another Sci-Fi film from the 50 that I have to watch this year and maybe have a beer, brewdog of course.

Laters.

The European Invasion

So you’ve been to one festival, Graspop in Belgium, from June 24th – 28th and you’re going to another festival, Metalcamp in Slovenia, from July 05th – 11th.

You’ve got a couple of options;

  1. You could get the Eurostar home from Belgium on Monday the 28th of June and then fly out to Slovenia on Sunday the 04th
  2. You could spend a week travelling from Belgium to Slovenia

There’s probably other options, but these are the obvious ones in my mind.

Coming home and then flying out was logical at first but boring, stressful and costly. Flights to Slovenia seem pricey and booking last minute cheap tickets isn’t a risk we were willing to take if we didn’t get any.

So travelling through Europe for a week it is!

This summer, my good friend Dan and I are invading Europe!

Our objectives:

  • Drink as much beer as possible
  • Eat as much local food as possible
  • Rock out… as much as possible!

Leg 1 starts on Wednesday 23rd of June, when we’ll be heading out to Antwerp in Belgium with several other friends for the beginning of the trip. Thursday we’ll be heading to Dessel in north Belgium for Graspop Metal Meeting until Monday morning.

Monday we head back to Antwerp for a recovery night at Den Heksenketel and for some delicious beers and veal. Maybe a short walk around Antwerp too if it’s not too hot, but considering previous years have been sweltering I’m not holding out much hope for that!

Tuesday Dan and I say goodbye to the rest of the crue and head on the first of many uncharted trips!

First we will be heading to Frankfurt for a night, then onto Prague for 2 nights, then to Munich for 2 nights, then to Salzburg for an afternoon and heading onto Ljubljana for a night before the final part of Leg 2 of the invasion, heading to Tolmin for Metalcamp!!!

Metalcamp – possibly the best festival idea of all time… 6 days of Beach, Forest, River, Beer, Music and Striptease.

After that it’ll be a night in Milan, a night in Gruyere, a night in Strasbourg and then back to Belgium for a trip to the oude market in Leuven.. over 45 bars and restaurants in one market area?! Awesome!

Time for another change..

As another year rolls in, another big change happens.

I’m getting a flat of my own again, and about time too. This year has been rather similar to my second year of university – I like the people I live with, just hate living with them. I’ve now got a 2 bedroom flat quite far into the residential area of gravesend to look forward to in a couple of weeks, I’m moving in on the 23rd if all things go to plan.

There’ll be a virtual tour of the place just after I’ve moved in – good times! I’ve got to get a 3 piece suite when I move in as my current sofa will be going into bedroom 2 to be used as a music room.

It’s going to be a rather expensive move, and expensive living again – but I knew that and can work my way around it. It’s also going to be different living on my own again but I enjoyed it last time so this time should be no different. plenty of time to just chill out and do nothing and worry about nobody but me.

Originally I had thought about having a house warming party but I’m going off of the idea as I think I’d rather just have the place quiet and not full of people. I’ll invite a couple of people round but nothing big at all. I’m a miserable git really and I’d probably just bail out of my own party and have a quiet drink at the pub.

Hopefully the house move will start a few more changes too – I’m getting into a rut which I thought I was enjoying and I do to an extent but I’ve been reminded of other things from my first and second years of uni that are repeating themselves and what that did to me. Rather cryptic I know but fuck it, if you knew me then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Something will have to give eventually and this time I’m 99% sure it’ll be me.
This year is a year for less gigs, but more festivals it seems; I can’t afford to go to roughly a gig a week this year because of the cost of living on my own so if the gig costs more than £15 I’m not going to it (with some extreme exceptions) unless it has already been booked.  However the 6 festivals (Hammerfest, Graspop, Metalcamp, Magic Circle Festival, Bloodstock, Damnation) I’m going to should more than make up for it!

What else is going on then, I’m being given more responsibility at work which is great as it might mean I can get noticed and progress somewhere within the company.

Dan and I are going on a mammoth European Invasion in June/July over 3 and a half weeks of good food, good booze, and bad living – There will be a separate post for that as it’s quite a journey.

Don’t really have too much more to say, just figured I should write something even if nobody is reading it. Probably better if nobody is reading it to be honest! It’s bollocks.

OAO.

The Fourth Kind – A terrible review of a terrible film.

If there was ever an award for a film being pointless, terribly acted, poorly pieced together and a complete waste of time and money, The Fourth Kind would win it, hands down.

When a film is “based on true events” you know it’s going to be a fun watch. Where does truth end and artistic license begin? is it just one 5 minute section of truth (did anyone see “The Strangers”?), or is it just the name of the main character?!

The title comes from the four different kinds of “alien interaction”, the fourth kind being abduction.

Opening with a speech from Milla Jovovich, attempting to be ominous, about how you should believe what you want from the film, it sets a precedent for how the rest of the film pans out.

The main character, Dr. Abigail Tyler [acted by Jovovich], is a psychiatrist that works in the small Alaskan town of Nome, using hypnosis to help patients relive old forgotten memories.

Most, if not all, of her patients talk of the same symptoms – the presence of a white owl watching them through the window, causing them to wake in the night. A large number of disappearances within Nome cause Dr. Tyler to believe there to be more to this than just a freak owl invasion and people leaving town, possibly alien abductions.

She begins to film sessions with her patients in which her hypnosis techniques show violent and vocal responses from her fear filled patients speaking in tongues, strengthening her beliefs that these people have been abducted and brought back.

As her research continues further, she herself begins to see the mysterious white owl and believes she is a new target of the alien abductors. Her daughter is the next to disappear, with the cliched “white beam of light” coming down to take her away, it couldn’t get much more cheesy without a circular UFO floating above the house with little grey men inside.

The film concludes with another speech from Jovovich as well as the director of the film, saying very similar things to the opening speech, that you should take from the film what you can, yadda yadda yadda.

Throughout the film the viewer is treated to a poorly cut blend of real interview footage and the same footage acted by the cast. If I wanted to watch a documentary of original footage I’d have done just that. This editing is distracting at best, and gets thoroughly boring after the first few instances. There is no need for it at all.

It’s “based on real life events”, WE GET IT!!

The plot is very lacking, not straying any further than re-enacting original footage and piecing together the interview responses given, as new scenes.

I’d avoid this film if you haven’t already had the misfortune of seeing it.

Since writing this review I have learned that none of the story is based on true events. The entire plot is fictional and as such this just removes all credit the film once had. If you have the option of making a plot from nothing, having complete freedom, and you come up with a film like this you don’t deserve to make films.