Rain, rain ,rain. Where did summer go? It was only here for two days. Bah, I was starting to obsess about skating everywhere as well.

Do guitars have souls?
Got my '74 Tele yesterday evening, it's the most wondrous thing i've ever owned. But, the strange thing is, it's a little bit tricky to play. The action is great, the neck is a dream... it's just...sort of involved. It's as if all those people who've played it before me have imprinted their musical knowledge into its DNA: as a real novice, I get knocked back by the guitar when I try and play it. All that expereince that's buried deep in the grain of it's body...seems to resist being unlocked by a mere chancer such as I. However, it's as I would have expected, this is a guitar with some serious history: i've got to treat it with some serious reverence and i'll get back so much more.
Great night last night, off to Death Disco. Wish I could remember it all. *takes some more resolve*

Oooh, nearly forgot. Cool screensaver which will turn your monitor into a plane (Sort Of.)

A day of strange weather yesterday, when I got off the tube from work, the air had that wonderful ozone freshness to it, but things changed really quickly. By 7 o'clock, we were enduring a huge thunderstorm, hail and flash floods (one closed the M41).
Hmmmmph. I was rather loooking forward to another week of fine sunny weather so I could get skating again. IT's always round about April/May that the urge to skate appears: if I do nothing, my dreams end up full of smith grinds.

I'm currently listening to one thing. One thing only. Made to Love Magic. Tears in my eyes again.

Back in London after a wonderful sunny weekend in Brighton. It's really the most amazing place in the spring: there's a real sense of excitement about the coming months, whereas London still seems shrouded in a fug of laissez-faire bewilderment.
Looks like I may have got myself a vintage Telecaster. It's only been a month since I started to play, but the Tele seems to have it's claws in me: I became obsessed with the idea of an old guitar supplying me with knowledge via some strange form of musical osmosis. The upshot of all this is that a '74 blonde Tele should soon be mine. Hurrah!

Busy couple of days....Tuesday night was the launch for the new David Devant album over at Lock 17 (which used to be Dingwalls) Good gig, great night out, but the trouble with midweek aftershow parties is that by the time you're hitting the free bar it's nearly midnight. Felt like shit this morning. Tonight was the launch of Wall of Sounds new compilation CD "Two Cultures Clash", which is a fabulous idea: get the of UK and european dance music producers (Cassius, Roni Size, Howie B, etc) and get them over to Jamaica to record with the llikes of Ward 21, Danny English, Cecile and Bling Dawg. The finished results are amazing. A truly pan-cultural dancehall explosion.

Yes, it's real. And, I got linked; which is the coolest thing that's happened to me in ages. When I started this little blog, it was purely as some sort of pressure release valve. I write most of it when i'm away from home, in my little garret in West London. So it's a strange feeling when it's embraced by others; there's comfort in anothers embrace- mingled with a smidgeon of fear, as if the tide is pulling you away from the shore, into the unknown.
It's a sunny evening, the sun is actually so bright i'll have to draw the blinds. Will sit on the balcony, look at the sky and listen to some Lowgold. It is the golden hour, after all.

Today, it's all about these two sites: Teenage Angst Poems, and the 10 worst album covers ever.
Great gig last night, like watching the BMX Bandits playing the first Voidoids album.

Where did the sun go? And there was me thinking it was summer. Hey ho. *shrugs*
Tonight it's Tigermoth over at rouge.

It's a glorious day. Sunny, warm and still. Just about to sit on the balcony, practice my pentatonic scales and luxuriate.
I'm also having one of those weird little musical "blips" at the moment. I'm always afraid of missing out on something, leaving a hole in my tastes. So when i'm trawling the racks at the secondhand shops and I suddenly turn up something which has passed me by, I always hear that voice inside which says "why don't you own any ____ albums?" This time, it was Yes. So, i'm delving into "Close to the Edge". I went through a similar thing a little while back with Tangerine Dream, lost about a week of my life listening to "Phaedra"

Back from my Easter break: lots of food and drink, lots of friends, relations and fun. Cookery rotated around a couple of dinner parties in Brighton: one saw real comfort food in the shape of a giant Cauliflower cheese, the next night saw the return of my ultimate Tom Yam Goong. It's all about those fresh chillies. Yesterday we went down to Kent for an Easter feast and then a relaxing walk around the local countryside. For the first time this year, I was really aware of spring; wildlife and flowers were everywhere. New-born lambs stumbled in the fields, bees droned lazily in the bluebells and primulas which spilled from the hedgerows- and gorgeously-plumed cock pheasants scattered through the sprouting crops of Maize and rapeseed. We walked the lanes, making reed-whistles from fat juicy blades of grass, stuck tendrils of "sticky weed" on each others clothes, listened to the sounds of horses hooves thudding out from behind the freshly shorn holly bushes and willow trees which leant down to kiss the tarmac around our ankles.

And let's not forget the Belle De Jour blog storm. Was it real? Was it a literary fake? Who knows. All I know is that since the seeds of doubt as to its veracity was sown...Well, I haven't bothered reading it. It was supposed to be based on a personal insight into life as a call-girl: once that premise is gone, well.. The whole thing falls apart.
So is it wrong for me to seek out honesty on the net and get a buzz from that unique energy? No. In fact, I'll give you an example. This blog is purportedly about a wife being suddenly widowed by her husbands suicide. It's far too touchy a subject to fake. My instincts say it's the real thing. And if it is: then it's literally unmissable.

Bus Blogs? That's where it's at.
Music wise, can i suggest you check this out? It's great, trust me. Also, if you're in a download kind of a mood, then give Mashit a try. If crazy jump-up breakbeat nonsense is your bag.....you'll be in heaven.

Hurrah! i'm back!
Well, the cold petered out after a week, but it left me feeling weak as a kitten (as always). Thankfully, that's all in the past. I'm back! Miss me? Oh, OK. *sulks*