In Which I See Ben Harper / Tuesday, July 26, 2005
What a great night!
I started with me getting that little book I guess Lindo got you all to write a little note in. Thank you guy so much. It's good to hear from you!
Then I went off to see Ben Harper. First off Tom Freund played suuport. It was just him singing and playing a double bass for a couple of songs, then he picked up a guitar an played a couple of songs with that, and then he got the Innocent Criminals' (Bens band) percussionist to come out and play jemba while he was playing double bass. Guess what they played? Revolution be The Beatles. Probably the coolest Beatles cover I've ever heard!
The it was Bens turn. He came on with the Innocent Criminals and rocked out! He's really really good at playing slide guitar. The sound of a distorted slide guitar at high volume is something to be heard to be believed. He has a Drummer and a Percussionist playing with him and they had a little duel which was kind of cool. The band went off and Ben came back on and played some acuostic stuff. Tom Freund came on and joined Ben for Plesure And Pain (a song they did together on that debut album I was talking about a while back).
You would think that would be the end of the concert, I mean lots of people did, they started to leave... But Ben and The Innocent Criminals came back on and played a couple of numbers. Just as I was about to leave to catch the last train home Ben says "Now I have a crazy crazy, super special guest - Charlie Musslethwaite!" Doh! and Yay! all at once! Trouble getting home, but one of the great blues harp players playing with Ben! I thought "Okay I'll stay 'til 10 to 12 and run for the last train..." That gave them 10 minutes to wrap up. They didn't. "Well let me see if I can get that last train" I ran for the underground, it had already left! The sign said that the last train wasn't supposed to leave until 12:21 but I get there at 11:58 and the staion is closed!
Oh crap.
Well been as I'm going to have to find another way home I might as well go back and see the end of the concert. I caught the last song (In My Own Two Hands/War) which was truely excellent, Ben layed his guitar on his chair and started dancing like a madman, he got carried out into the crowd standing on their shoulders. Excellent!
Ben and his band played from 9:00 'til 12:30. 3 and a half hours of playing! How can he do that every night. I must say despite all the people talking all the time (Blooming Americans - they should try shutting their mouths, they might learn something!) the fact their was no curfew (Like there is in England - live music has to stop at 11:00) more than made up for that!
So, onto the problem that laid ahead - Getting home. I asked a taxi how much it would cost for me to get home. $35. I check my wallet. $10. Doh! Okay, I can get him to stop at a cash machine.... Doh! I forgot to bring my cash card. So I just started walking. After standing up for five and a half hours not really what I wanted to do to be honest. I just looked on Mapquest to how far I would have to walk.... about 15 miles. I'm glad I didn't know that at the time!
The grid system is alot easier to understand when your walking and you have time to see every sign and you can laugh at the one wayed-ness. I just started walking down the letters and up the numbers. I was a bit concerned for a while. I tried to remember which streets there had been shootings on... I'm pretty sure that's mostly North East, I was in North West, so I felt alright. Especially when I got downtown where the only poeple around were drunks and homeless. I got to Georgetown, asked a taxi how far ten dollars would get me he said "Rosslyn metro." OK, thank you, and carried on walking.
I got to Rosslyn metro about ten minutes later! The most expensive taxi ever! Just as I was going through Rosslyn I kind of got a bit lost. I stopped to ask a couple of people if I was going in the right direction for Falls Church also explaining my situation. "Yesh, it's that way. You need a taxi.You won't get there until morning if you walk..." Oh well I think. No time to waste. I got about 200 foot down the road, they called me back and gave me five dollars each. I now had $20. Hurrah! My guardian angels! All I needed now was a taxi. Hundred of taxis in DC, here in Arlington - none.
I was wearing the worst shoes for walking (apart from flip flops and high heels I guess - I've never worn either by the way!) I had blisters on my blisters, it was 2:30 in the morning, I had walked about six miles, been on my feet for seven and a half hours, and all my attempts to wave down the few taxis that had gone past had just got me a wave back from the driver. Why would a taxi driver think I was waving at them for any other reason? I was getting a little frustrated.
I called Ash, my battery was starting to run out on my phone. Had I not have just seen one of the best concerts in my life I would have been on my hands a knees sobbing as hard as could by this point. Ash quickly texted me the number of a taxi firm. Ten minutes later the nightmare was over.
I got home at three. Ash was waiting up for me. She ran me a bath. I went to bed singing Ben Harper songs.
Given the chance I would do it all again. Given the knowledge I would take my cash card with me!
/Hopped!
12:17 PM
>>>
IN Which I Read Harry Potter and Pack / Saturday, July 23, 2005
Yes those are my excuses for not writing. I've been having little sleep recently, even after I finished the book! How long is it until the next one comes out? Honestly! Why do books have to take so long to be written?! I wasn't expecting that to happen in the end! Oh, I suppose I'd better tell you what I'm talking about, well at the end of the book.... Just kidding! How many of you where about to hide behind their hands and curse at me! Hahahaha!
The moving thing is happening very soon, next week. I got a hitch on the truck and all that stuff sorted. We're almost done with the packing, we've just got the kitchen to go really. The kitties are loving it, Max is in a box as we speak, and I fully expect him to jump out of it, jump back into it, and repeat several times before I'm done!
We've already rented the trailer. My main worry about moving is that it's going to be the first time I've driven with a trailer, and it's a twelve foot trailer and we're going 1800 miles with it. I don't like to do things by halves! I don't think the driving will be much of a problem (I won't change lanes quite as regularly as I usually do obviously) it's the parking and pulling up at petrol pumps that really is bothering me. If anyone has any tips I would be most grateful to hear them.
Other news: I will be coming back to England around the 17th of August, because that's when my visa runs out. I have another interview and medical in London. Well when I say another I mean exactly the same as last time. I have to fill out exactly the same form again for it. I wish they could've just recorded the first one and played it back two years later. It would be much easier!
I know, it doesn't sound like I'm that happy to be coming back. To be honest I'm not. It's nothing that you guys have done and I haven't suddenly turned American and all xenophobic and all that, it's just, well, Ash is pregnant. I'm not going to be with her. It would be bad enough if she wasn't pregnant, but at least the pros might outweigh the cons a little. At least I'll be here for the big five month sonogram, so I know what sex our baby will be. The real problem is I have no idea when the interview is, I'm just praying as hard as I can that it's less than four months away. Even if it is I'll still be missing out on feeling my baby grow inside my wife. Right now Ash can feel the baby moving about in her, but I can't feel it outside. That's just the selfish reasons as well, I want to be here to look after Ash. I know her family will try their best to look after her but I don't think they can care for her quite the same way I can.
Still on the flipside it'll be good to see all you guys again, and eat proper bacon and battered sausage and chips, and go to the pub. You know, all the things I miss so much being over here.
Well there you go. I watched a couple of movies, Hitch is rubbish. Network is pretty good, it's kind of an obvious point though, multinationals are evil and only interested in money and TV and celebrity is our new God. I don't know how much that was true in the seventies when it was made, but it's so obvious nowadays.
Oh, I have a joke. It's always good to leave on a joke right?
"Two blondes are in California. One says 'Which is closer, the moon or Florida?' The other replies 'Dur! Can you see Florida from here?'"
Badum!
Thank you and goodnight!
/Hopped!
11:25 PM
>>>
In Which Ham Sandwich / Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Boy! That was kind of unexpected wasn't it. I'm just glad that nobody I know was hurt. I know that's kind of selfish but what can you do? Thank you KT and Linda for emailing and letting me know everyone was alright, I was paniking a little in the morning. I was working with I guy from Algeria the other day and he said that they had those kind of attacks pretty much every day for ten years, and every time he left the house he would be wondering if he was going to be coming back in a box or not. So it could be alot worse. Not much of a consolation but there you go. I asked him how they got them to stop and he said "We got a new president and he talked to the terrorists." Hmmm.... Taking, now there's a thing that Mr. Bush hasn't tried... After all he doesn't really know who or where he's going after anyhow. Some guy on the radio said something good "They bomb us to get our troops out of Iraq. Well dur! Try reading the papers. The American and British troops want to be out of Iraq, it's those guys that are keeping us there!" Idiocy on both sides I feel.
Ahem.. So the rest of my week.
I went to see that new Star Wars film. I was pretty good. How come in the first one there was lots of diologue and not much happened and by the third one there was loads happenening and lots of action? I don't mean to dwell on the past but it would've been nice if all of the new Star Wars films were like this one. I guess that's a way to beat the hype though, lower peoples expectations with the first two. I mean even if this one was below average in comparison it would be great!
I also watched Bad Lieutenant on DVD. Boy, if ever there was ever a character who you could have any less sympathy for please tell me. I think that holds the record for the most drug taking by one guy in a film that I've ever seen (Fear and Lothing In Las Vegas comes a close second I guess) It was a very good movie though. Oh sorry "Film" apparently a movie you have to think about a bit is called a film, i.e anything with Jerry Bruckhiemer in the credits is a movie, anything with someone foriegn (I mean not American) in it is a film, especially if it is black and white and/or contains subtitles. I try to explain to these people that Hard Boiled has more shooting and explosions than any film made in America, but no - it's not only subtitled but it's also foriegn! I still think it's one of the best action films ever made, and mock those people for their close-mindedness. Hah! They don't know what they're missing!
Anyhow, apart form that... Not much going on really. We're getting things packed ready for the move back down south, I went all the way to Fredricksburg today, ummm.... I think that's about it really.
/Hopped!
4:48 PM
>>>
In Which I Enjoy DC While I Still Can And Gripe For A Bit / Monday, July 04, 2005
I guess some of the reason for me not writing is because I never really do anything interesting. I did something interesting this weekend! I went to DC to get a bit of culture before go back to Baton Rouge, where there ain't really much of that kind of thing.
So I went to the Hirshorn Museum which is the modern art gallery and sculpture garden. It was all very interesting, they had a exibition called Visual Music on, so I had a look around that. It was all very abstract stuff so it was all a bit beyond my simple minds understanding but it all sure looked purty! They had some of those oils light films, the stuff they used at all the acid tests and Pink Floyd concerts and stuff. I'm sure it would be a great place to trip away! Anyhow, I went and looked at some other stuff. I liked the sculpture garden.
As it happens there was also a festival on. It was the folklife festival, which highlights a few different cultures. It was right in the mall and pretty cool. I stopped off on my way to the Hirshorn and checked out some Omanian music and dancing which made no sense to me. On the way back it made more sense in comparison to what I'd just seen at the Hirshorn! It was kind of cool they play kind of Indian style drums and bagpipes and they were inviting people up on the stage to dance with them. There was also a mariachi band, they only had one guitarist (out of a 15 peice band) which kind of surprised me, I thought guitarists were mariachis and vice versa. There was also some Native American singing. I'm not going to be buying one of their albums anytime soon! Interesting for a couple of songs but they all sounded the same to me. They were Christian Cherokees and they were singing hymns that they sang in church and they were all kind of like "Huyo haya hu Jesus huh hyo Jesus!" so a bit beyond me there!
So I was eddicated this weekend, which was nice. Onto my gripe:
Here's a quote from Mayo Clinic: Complete Book Of Pregnancy & Baby's First Year:
"You want to be a good father, but unfortunatly, babies don't come with an instruction book.....
..... Fortunatly, babies are forgiving, and moms are almost universally willing, if not eager, to share parenting skills with their partners."
Ahem, excuse me, but from the title of the book what do you think it is? Wouldn't it be classed as an instruction manual? I guess maybe they mean it doesn't come out of the box (as it were) with one. The big misuderstanding from expectant fathers is "The umbilical cord is in fact attached to a concise how to guide on fatherhood."
I let that part go, it's okay they can devalue the huge 700+ page book they waste their time publishing if they want, that's up to them. It's the second part. Mothers don't need an instruction manual, they know how to look after a baby, dads just go ahead and ask them. Okay, mothers reading this put your hands up.... Keep your hand up if for your first child you knew exactly what you were doing.... Let's just do a quick count. Oh, look! No hands! (It's a bit of an assumption but I would put money on it being true) I know that I don't know much about parenting (alright I know nothing. Apart from what swaddling is...) but neither does Ash. We're both going to have to learn together. Unless there's some kind of magical thing that happens sometime during the pregnancy and one day Ash will just suddenly know exactly how to look after our baby. Great though that would be I seriously doubt it.
Anyhow, that's my gripe. Men can't look after babies, something that has been ingrained in our culture. I don't think we'll ever be able to get rid of that. Can you imagine what it would be like if it was the other way round? Women can do anything, apart from kill spiders. I have no problem with that, but the embiggening (it's a word on the Simpsons) of women causes the belittling of men. The balance has been moved against us. Us men accept it. We need to embiggen ourselves in the baby department (at least). No, I don't mean go and buy an enlargement pump! Come on men join me in burning our boxers! Hurrah! Boy Power!
/Hopped!
6:34 PM
>>>