Category: Life

I fear that my new abode will very quickly be filled with a mish-mash of antiques and general tat. Mostly the latter.

I’m basing this on a short wander around a vintage store at the weekend. Lots of big old pieces of furniture, as well as a lot of stuff I wouldn’t give house room but quite a few pieces that I would, one of which I’m still tempted to go back and get (a lamp base made from wooden letterpress blocks).

It may also be filled with books as not only did I wander around a book fair (where I succumbed and bought a compendium of Lewis Carroll works) I also made my first ever, and definitely not my last, visit to Voltaire & Rousseau. It’s a magical place, floor to ceiling books, shoogly piles of paperbacks waiting to topple over and a cat snoozing away in the corner.

I also wandered past a music store, mostly guitars, and started to ponder buying myself a piano, or at the very least a good quality keyboard. Nothing I can do with that for now until I know where I’m going to be and how much space I’ll have but it’s another thing to add to the ‘maybe’ list.

And yes, I admit, I saw this today and did stop to ponder… (not sure I’ll ever have room for a baby grand mind you).

I can see me spending more and more time hunting through vintage stores in the future. I’m beginning to find my ‘style’ is more eclectic than minimal, although I do fear I’m being influenced a little too much by blogs like Apartment Therapy (aka, furniture porn). What on EARTH have I become!

Sunday was spent largely doing nothing, much like today, as there is little that needs done around here. Having the house on the market means it is clean and tidy at all times. In fact I deliberately left all my dishes lying on Sunday just to give me something to do this morning (I’m a little OCD about that kind of thing). And now, well right now I’m going to put some music on and sit and read a book.

The rock and roll lifestyle continues.

What a lovely weekend that was, all sunshine and BBQs and ice cream and other good things which are good. Nay, wonderful.

I’d love to say there was anything else going on, and I really should be taking my chances to spend some time on this ‘ere blog given that, at any moment, some kind soul will buy our house and so will commence 2-3 weeks of madness as we pack up and head off.

On that front we have one potential buyer, but he’s waiting on confirmation from his workplace of a new contract. They like the house and I think they are first time buyers so that bodes well. I think. Maybe.

Basically I’m just trying to avoid speculating until something actually happens.

Largely to stop myself looking for flats to rent, spotting a GORGEOUS one in Kelvinbridge, backed on to the river, huge big living room, wooden floors, balcony… only to see that it’s been snapped up. Not a surprise, but it’s annoying.

Instead I’ve been keeping myself busy, and find myself sitting late into the night surfing the internet looking at all sorts of delicious pictures. I’ve even been taking notes!

“Ohhh that lamp would go well with that chair, and I could have a couple of bookcases behind it and have a wee reading area…”

“Hmmmm not sure about the cushions, but I like the sofa.”

“I MUST HAVE THAT ART!”

It’s official, interior design is the (my?) new porn.

A couple of weeks ago I went to see a band called “Band of Skulls”. Similarly as to when I went to see a band called “Eagles of Death Metal”, the very name of the band prompts raised eyebrows and questions of what type of “noise” I’m inflicting upon myself.

Interestingly, both bands are similarly positioned in the rock catalogue. Neither are “heavy” nor particularly satanic, instead they sit in the musical catalogue alongside the likes of The White Stripes and Kings of Leon.

The Band of Skulls gig was in a venue I’d never been to before, the Classic Grand in Glasgow, which is up four flights of stairs in what I presume was an old cinema. It’s a tight venue and even standing at the back of the hall, the band were no more than about 60 metres away (that’s about 200 feet in old money).

I bought their album after spotting a brief recommendation in, I think, Esquire. I initially forgot about it but soon started coming back to it time and again. It’s an oddly paced album, and I often found myself checking to see what was playing, only to find it was one of theirs. This is partly down to sharing lead vocals between the male guitarist and female bass player, and also because the songs themselves happily float from rock, to pop-laden ballad, to a drug-hazed blues drawl. Not since Gotye have I been so happily flummoxed by the change of pace the album has.

And the live experience isn’t half bad either. The sound mix was spot on, and the Grohl-esque drumming added an appropriate intensity that some of the album tracks lack.

One advantage of going to a ‘small’ gig for a relatively unknown band is that, in a few years time, I’ll be able to see them again and see how much they’ve learned. I’m not entirely sure Band of Skulls will offer me that opportunity though as they’ve already got one helluva live show, and delivered a damn good night.

I’m not one for making predictions about bands, but if this lot don’t end up on the main stage at Glastonbury some day then there is something wrong somewhere.

In the past few weeks I’ve attended 3 gigs (with a 4th happening on Thursday). I’ve not written up any thoughts about any of them, a habit I’ve fallen out of because I know I struggle sometimes to capture my thoughts about live music, and I’m guilty of always having just attended the ‘best gig ever’.

I should pause and try and recall things in the cold light of the morning rather than when I’m still bubbling from the atmosphere and emotions a gig usually instils.

So, with that in mind I won’t ‘review’ the gig I attended last night (Band of Skulls), instead I’ll go back a couple of weeks and start with Ash (the band, not the volcano).

Ash have always intrigued me. I like some of their stuff but some of it doesn’t do a whole lot for me, but having last seen them at T in the Park many moons ago I thought it would be worth a punt. And it almost was.

They are touring to support a ‘greatest hits’ style release so they played all their well known tracks, a couple of new songs (one of which was excellent and I’ll need to track down) and even threw in a cover of a Weezer track (Only In Dreams) and two verses of Teenage Kicks to cover up when the bass guitar failed.

Alas, just as when I saw them at T in the Park, and that was with a different line-up, they remain distinctly raw when playing live. Several times either bass, drums or guitar would wander away and take a few moments to come back to the beat or melody. Suffice to say they are not the tightest of bands. I’m still less than convinced by Tim Wheeler’s vocals either but that doesn’t seem to have held them back (or has it?) yet, despite those flaws, it was a fun gig and great to hear some of their tracks in the relatively cosy setting of the ABC in Glasgow.

Contrasting that to the next band I saw, at the larger O2 Academy, would be foolish as they are worlds apart despite being closely related. Doves are a band that have been in my collection for longer than I realise and upon skimming through the setlist I realised just how many tracks of theirs I know well.

What was odd, as to my ears they are can be very poetic in lyric and gentle of melody, was the “Oasis-lite” style crowd. Maybe I’m missing something, as I definitely have Doves closer aligned to Elbow than any of the yob-rock outfits the Gallagher brothers inspired.

Regardless, Doves rocked. A much bigger and more rock orientated sound than I had been expecting, they rolled out thumping track after thumping track, and balanced their set well. Was great to hear tracks like Pounding in that setting, and I can confirm it is perfectly named.

Bonus moment was an extra encore of dance beat driven jamming, a nice little homage to their days as Sub Sub. I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of Doves live but I was pleasantly surprised.

I’ll write up my thoughts on the gig last night soon.

Am packing, send boxes! and Jaffa Cakes!!

We are packing, splitting up fragments of our life into cardboard boxes. We are trying to do this whilst keeping the house looking tidy and clean for any potential viewers, so the boxes are stacked in the garage. Not ideal but it’ll do for now.

We’ve had one viewer, who will be back for another viewing soon hopefully, and two other hopefuls. So, once again, we’ll make the bed, tidy up as we go, and generally live in a house that is already starting to feel less and less like ours.

Which, given the circumstances, isn’t a bad thing. Easing our way into the future.

In other news, went to see Kick Ass at the cinema yesterday (it was something to do as we had to be out of the house anyway). What a brilliant movie! Well written, didn’t take itself too seriously and hey, what other movie has a small girl with kung fu moves, a predilection for knives and guns and who utters the line … ok, no spoilers, just drag over this gap if you wanna know what she says (contains swearies!) “Okay you cunts… Let’s see what you can do now! “.

As I said on Twitter “Just watched Kick Ass. Was it good? The clue is in the title of the movie. Irreverent fun at its best!“.

I’m a terrible shopper.

If I’m shopping for something I need I’m just the worst person, unable to make a decision because, well, what if there is a cheaper option in the next shop, or a better model for the same price, or maybe I won’t suit that colour?

Terrible.

If I’m shopping for something specific I tend to weigh up my options a million times, then a few times more just to make sure.

But when I’m shopping for anything, when I have no real need and I’m just enjoying browsing random shops, then I’m a wonderful shopper, I’m a positive spendaholic. I see all sorts of things that I like and would happily purchase them all if I had the money, and somewhere to put them.

I have no real fixed style so that could be very dangerous. I’m easily influenced by kitsch, and impractical items seem to draw me in and shout “YOU MUST HAVE ME”.

So how I managed to spend a wonderful few hours in Glasgow yesterday and only buy two things, both of which I needed (after a fashion) is beyond me.

And no, this isn’t another post analysing what goes in my head because I’m starting to let go of all that stuff. I think this will stand me in good stead when I get my own place. The art on the walls will be entirely down to me, so I will allow myself a moment or two to ponder such purchases and if I like it, even if I’m not sure where it would go, I’ll probably buy it.

This is the thing about having a quiet weekend. Shopping on Saturday morning was fab, and I got to spend all day today thinking about it all over again.

I do wish I’d bought that little pewter bird though..