The only bad thing about going to Paris for Firewater is that I'm missing Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster live in London, and they were really good last time. Does anyone want my ticket? It's only £10. Wednesday 15th July at the 100 Club.

The first time I saw them I said "They were like half of the Ramones and a couple of Cramps with the guy from Black Crowes channelling Iggy out front." and I'd stand by that now.

I have a spare ticket for Mastodon at the Islington Academy tonight. £17.

They're apparently going to play all of their most recent album, Crack the Skye and then do another hour of stuff from their previous albums.

Simon and I are having dinner at Gallipoli at 6.15pm, so you could meet us for dinner or any time after that. I'm planning to be in the venue reasonably early to get a good position but if you're interested let me know what time you could make it and we'll sort something out.

[This should be getting posted to Simon's LJ and Facebook too. If you know anyone not on our friends lists who might be interested do let me know.]

Subject line ruthlessly nicked off naturalbornkaos. If you'd like to see a very silly music video which can be summed up thusly, go here and look up Mastodon in the Full Vote List. (And then vote for them!)

It features a prehistoric man thawed from ice by the power of metal, a scantily clad cavewoman and the Abominable Snowman, what more could you ask for from a music video?

It's best viewed full screen. If you really don't like metal you could fast forward to 2 mins in where the video really gets going.

We ate him.



Very tasty he was too.

( Pumpkin, bacon and sage risotto )

I forgot to post the latest photos!

These were taken on Sunday:



And I took this one just now. It was too bright to take photos but I'm impatient. I don't know if you can see it clearly, but that tape measure is open to 6 inches. I think the pumpkin is about 5 inches across now.



I think the growth rate is slowing down a bit now, but even if it doesn't get much bigger than it is now, I can carve that, it's about the same size as the turnips I used to carve for lanterns as a child.

My other pumpkin plant is a bit sorry for itself. It's taken much more of a drubbing from the slugs and while it produced a female flower the other day there were no male flowers at the same time, and then it got eaten anyway. There are two female flowers about to open in the next few days though, so maybe there's still time. I think the weather would have to improve a fair bit first for it to do much though.

Also, does anyone want some ox-eye daisies? They'll grow in tubs or beds and they don't require any looking after, just a sunny spot. They don't even need good soil, in fact they might even be better in poor soil.



Also up for grabs is my callistemon/bottle brush plant, which just doesn't go with the rest of my garden. It's a healthy plant and again it doesn't require any special attention, just sun and water. It needs more water than it might appear, it's Australian but it's not a desert plant. It's in a pot but you could plant it out.



I am prepared to meet people somewhere to give them the daisies but the callistemon must be collected.

Wow. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do justice to this, but I'll try.

( an attempt at a restaurant review. I should probably stick to gig reviews. )

A very good start to my birthday weekend. You should all go there and keep them in business. They deserve it and so do you.

Any real music fan will know what I mean when I talk about gigs that are so intense that you feel for a long time afterwards like there are two types of people in the world - the ones who've just shared this incredible experience with you, and everyone else. Last night was like that. I could write screeds (and I probably will) but I could never adequately express what it was like. We're well into music as religious experience and writing about it as catharsis/exorcism territory.

( long, rambling, slightly incoherent )

For my own reference:
Craig's write up.
Krys's write up.
If you're on their friends list you'd be better off reading their reviews as they're better informed and just generally better than mine.

There are very few things that will get me out of my bed at 7.50am on a Sunday when I have nothing planned. This is one of them!



( Winter wonderland in Walthamstow )

I can't keep up with all the journals on my list and haven't been for some time. This feels more honest than filtering.

Yesterday my mum and I went in search of the garden centres that my workmate had told me about. The first one we came across was Northfields Nurseries and it was so amazing that we didn't bother looking for any others. The area dedicated to outdoor pots alone took up the same area as my local B&Q. There were rows of glasshouses, lots of outdoor plants and a small warehouse full of tools, seeds and lighter pots that would blow away outside without earth in them. I came away a hundred quid poorer but I bought some beautiful plants and containers - one large metal square one and two chunky square ceramics, one green and one black. I got a sambuca nigra Black Lace, a Japanese maple/red acer, a jasmine polyanthum, a lavender, a rosemary, a tarragon, a convolvulus, a white/green euonymus, a tray of huge pansies and some small bright flowered plants that I was going to make a window box from but might end up in the back yet.

Yesterday we tore out the old lavender which wasn't flowering much any more, and my mum had already got rid of the two potted conifers for me during the week. Today Simon came over and helped us move the original yellow/green euonymus to the back corner, we moved the lilac tree to behind the gazebo and did lots of potting and repotting. It looks *gorgeous*. I just need to get rid of the gazebo and buy a nice garden bench instead and my garden will be more or less the way I want it.

( photies )

For Aleks, and anyone else who might enjoy a dark comedy drama pilot about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost flatsharing. Simon and I watched this on Monday night and it was brilliant. I hope they get a full series.

Being Human

24 Feb 2008 22:00-23:00 BBC Three
25 Feb 2008 01:45-02:40 BBC Three

Contemporary supernatural drama about George and Mitchell, a pair of perennial outsiders. Working in the anonymous drudgery of the local hospital, they live lives of quiet desperation - because Mitchell is a vampire and George is a werewolf. Deciding to turn over a new leaf, they move into a house together, only to find that it is haunted by Annie, the ghost of a woman killed in mysterious circumstances. As a threesome, they deal with the challenges of being supernatural creatures, bonded by their desire to adopt the lifestyle of their neighbours - humanity.

Last night I went to the Water Rats for the first time in February, to see godlike genius Michael Gira doing one of his acoustic sets that have reduced me to jelly twice. Fortunately I've been to the Water Rats before so I had low expectations.

(  Now some of us are weak, and some endure )

Apologies to Craig for the cut text quote (from "Blind"). Couldn't resist. ;)

This is rather special. Nick Cave (and a couple of Bad Seeds) doing Hey Joe with the guy who played the Sesame Street theme. Bear with it, it starts a bit oddly but it's a brilliant version.

Found on nixa_omfg

La Muerte.

A long time ago someone taped three of their records (Scorpio Rising, Every Soul by Sin Oppressed and Kustom Kar Kompetition) for me and I've been keeping an eye open for them ever since without any success. (I actually thought they were Spanish, turns out they're Belgian.) Getting hold of the actual vinyl/cds will still be a GEMM job, but I'm delighted to have found their myspace page and website, and it looks like a DVD is in the pipeline.

They're a bit like the Birthday Party, but even bluesier.

"Siouxsie's new album is to be called "Mantaray" and is released on September 10th 2007, it features the new single "Into A Swan" (which is released digitally on 13th August and on CD, 7" and other formats on August 27th)."

Preview

I like it!

Courtesy of naturalbornkaos, from my birthday card.

( cut for sweary words )

(I don't normally believe in using asterisks in words but I know that word is a particularly controversial one so I'll not put it on your friends list without a cut tag. I have not used asterisks under the cut.)

I liked Lords, they were a raucous, bluesy three piece who reminded me a bit of the deeply missed Penthouse/Fifty Tons of Black Terror. (They also seem to be sharing an EP with former Penthouse man Tim Cedar's new band Part Chimp.)

Shellac were great. They have a tendency to go a bit noodly, and sometimes the between songs Q&A and general banter could be cut just a little bit shorter, but the power, precision, and dark humour make it a great show. When they really get into their groove it's awesome. I can't remember everything they played but we definitely got "The Squirrel Song", "Prayer to God", "Watch Song" and "The End of Radio".

Apparently the new album is out on the 4th June.