There is nothing new.

When I heard there was going to be a second Blade Runner movie I ran the gamut of emotions that is likely familiar to sci-fi fans of my generation, a mixture of excitement, hope, and fear, all of which could be best summarised by the following statement:

Please don’t be Jar Jar.

I admit, this is a little harsh given the history and background of each of these sci-fi worlds, but given that Blade Runner was released just ahead of Return of the Jedi it’s worth nothing that we’ve waited a LONG TIME for these movies and that time has only further served to cement the ‘original’ movies deeper in our hearts.

With all of this in mind, and well aware I may be setting myself up for a fall, I re-watched Blade Runner last night, as I am planning on seeing the new movie later tonight.

I’ll happily confess that I’ve only ever seen Blade Runner 2 or 3 times – Blade Runner exists more in popular culture references than in my recent viewing history – and I’d chosen to watch (for the first time I think) the Final Cut version. Whilst I’d be hard pushed to pull out differences between that and the Directors Cut, and putting pacing issues aside, it felt much more taut and bleak than I’d previously remembered.

Equally with a more mature eye, the performances really stood out and whilst that dystopian world gets a lot of the plaudits there are some subtleties I hadn’t previously appreciated. The long tracking shots as you approach the Tyrell building, and the scene where Roy and Pris convince J.F. Sebastian to take them to see Tyrell stands out. Those lingering closeups could suggest the two replicants are communicating telepathically? Or are those little muscle twitches, half smiles and eye movements, just them processing new emotions and memories?

Of course this movie has had a LONG time for people to pour over it, and all the different versions, to pull it apart and bed in their own world views, their own dreams, their own emotions and experiences. Far longer than any of the replicants had. Watching the movie now pulls a lot of those points into the light, even if it is a dark, sodden, dirty light that is cast. Perhaps that is why this movie is so loved, precisely because it remains an emotional blank canvas and pushes us to see the world through different eyes.

Whilst watching I realised at one point that I was viewing the movie through the lens of Sicario and Arrival, both movies I rate highly and which are directed by the man at the helm of Blade Runner 2049. The jarring pace changes in Sicario, and the gorgeous slow build of Arrival would not be lost in this original movie (and may actually have improved it). Dare I suggest that the return of the genre-defining sci-fi movie could be a success?

So regardless of previous disappointments, and after hearing good things from people I know who have already seen it, I will be entering the cinema with a new hope and a sincere desire to embrace whatever this new movie offers up, and I look forward to what it will bring us 35 years from now.

How many gigs do you attend each year? Which band have you seen most often? Which venue is your most attended? What month is ‘gig month’ for you?

With quite a few gigs lined up in the coming weeks I’ve been busy scouring setlist.fm to create some sample playlists in Spotify to give me a sense of what said gigs may contain. Not all bands stick to fixed setlists though – Pearl Jam change theirs dramatically for each gig – but it gives me a sense of what to expect and has highlighted a couple of tracks I tend to skip, so it’ll be interesting to hear those particular tracks played live.

It’s always interesting seeing what a band considers setlist worthy versus my own tastes, both when they match and when they don’t. Why is THAT track a crowd favourite, when THIS track isn’t? Ahhh the joys of subjectivity.

It’s a fun bit of pre-gig prep but does leave me wondering why there isn’t a better integration between setlist.fm and Spotify? Why is that not a thing? A value add to both services and possibly even a way to monetise setlist.fm? The ability to login to setlist.fm, find a setlist, and have a Spotify playlist sitting waiting for me if I want it, well that’s something I’d definitely pay a subscription for, wouldn’t you?

I’m aware of things like Setify but I’m not massively confident in their long-term viability and that’s really my concern and having been stung by a few services falling away I find much more inclined to subscribe, contribute, or tip, to keep a service that I find useful active and maintained.

Take, for example, lanyard.fm.

The service was based on a simple premise – find a listing of a gig you’ve attended and add it to your ‘lanyard’ – and which had some nice touches; allowed crowd sourced entries, showed total counts (hi Elbow, I’ve seen you 8 times already), and included the setlisting from, you guessed it, setlist.fm.

Alas it seems lanyard.fm is no longer being developed or supported; they’ve turned off the ability to add new entries meaning if the gig you attended isn’t already in their database you are plum out of luck. Booooo to transient web services.

Undeterred I did what any self respecting geek would do and spent a couple of hours last weekend going through all my kept ticket stubs (I think I have ticket stubs for all but 3 or 4 of the gigs I’ve attended) and logged them in a shiny new spreadsheet of my own creation. Date, Band, Venue, Location, and Notes.

And with all that data logged there is the chance to do a little bit of analysis, I mean what’s the point of having a spreadsheet if you don’t throw in a pivot table or three, right? I now know that:

• I have attended 141 gigs, the first on 8th August, 1989
• My busiest gig year was 2015 with 17 gigs
• November is the most popular month by far with 30 gigs, December has 18, and April has 16
• My most attended venue in Glasgow is the Academy (formerly the Carling, now the O2)
• Elbow are my most seen band with 9 gigs*, Martin Stephenson and the Daintess I’ve seen 6 times, and Band of Skulls and The Silencers joint third on 5 gigs.
• I’ve not ventured far outside Glasgow (126 gigs) with Edinburgh (5), and Manchester (4) rounding out the top 3

What does all this tell me?

Well it tells me that I need to mix up my locations and get out of Glasgow a bit more, and that I need to try and spread things out across different months because I know I get a bit “gig fatigued” come December. It also means I have targets to beat for 2018! Ohhh yeah, competitive gig going, that’s where it’s at!!

How about you? Do you keep a track of which gigs you go to?

* I’m including the next time I’ll see them in 2018, already got the tickets!

Lived

Highlights

• LCD Soundsystem at the Barrowlands was utterly amazing
• Splurged on AirPods (still loving them)
• Gin Festival shenanigans

A good month, quieter than August even though it was my Mum’s birthday at the start of the month, and my Dads at the end. Singapore envy not withstanding (my friends were there again), I confirmed a six month extension to my contract, attended one of the best gigs ever, got a new tattoo, had a wonderful day out at a gin festival, and attended my interview for Glasgow 2018 volunteering, so fingers crossed I make the cut (9k+ people applied for around 3k positions), ohhh and I randomly caught up with some old school friends who I haven’t seen for more than 20 years.

Food wise, Babs continues to impress, had my last Buntzel (the vendor is moving to Manchester), and Book Club had brunch at Ocho which was underwhelming…

Health-wise the physio on my knee is going well, and Conditioning classes at the gym are keeping me ticking over to Bootcamp starting on the 4th October.

And I’ve seen a little more of my beautiful niece who is continuing to delight! She is learning lots of new words (not quite got Uncle G down yet…) and it’s so much fun to see her personality emerging.

Stepcount: 258,586.

Read

The Other Mrs Walker
Book club choice and I thoroughly enjoyed this. A little slow paced at times, but the author – Mary Paulson-Ellis – has a nice turn of phrase. At times wry, at times dark, the story of a middle-aged woman who finds her own life oddly twisted up in the death of an unrelated old woman.

Watched

Blade Runner. Ahead of the upcoming new Blade Runner movie (for which I have high hopes) I thought it worth revisiting the original which is still stunningly realised, dark, moving, and sets the bar pretty high for the new movie.

Also good

• The Good Place – an odd, quirky little show on Netflix. 20 min episodes about a woman who has made it to The Good Place after she dies, despite not really deserving to be there.
• The Expanse – season 2 of this sci-fi world. I think it’s now caught up to where I stopped reading the books so season 3 will be interesting

Listened

Ahead of their gig later this year, I’ve been listening to a lot of Post Modern Jukebox. They do covers of contemporary songs in older styles (swing, big band, etc). There is something delightful and full of joy brought to the songs that are re-worked, and I can’t wait for the gig!

Other than that, Nadine Shahs new album continues to see her evolve but retaining that wonderful voice, Queens of the Stone Age released another album which ticks all the QOTSA boxes, as did the Foo Fighters who released an album not short of obvious influences.

Also worth a listen is Lorde on Song Exploder podcast, breaking down the making of her song Sober.